THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
4 BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INDIAN PEOPLE.
MORRISON AND GinP,, KIMNHUKG1I,
PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICF.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INDIAN
PEOPLE.
BY W. W. HUNTER, C.I.E., LL.D.
THIRD EDITION.
TRUBNER & CO., LONDON.
1883.
All Rights reserved.
PREFACE.
IN this book I try to exhibit the growth of the Indian
people, 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
natives ; nor does it accord with the facts. So long as
Indian history is presented to the Indian youth as
nothing but a dreary record of disunion and subjection,
our Anglo-Indian Schools will never become the nur-
series of a self-respecting nation. I have therefore tried
to put together, from original sources, a brief narrative
of what I believe to be the true history of the Indian
people. Those sources have been carefully examined
in my larger works. This little book merely states,
without discussing, the results arrived at by the labour
of twenty years.
I have tried to show how an early gifted race, akin to
our own, welded the primitive forest tribes into settled
communities. How the nobler stock, set free from the
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 struggle
against nature, which is so necessary a discipline for
nations, unfitted them for the great conflicts which
assuredly await all races. How the domestic and con-
templative aspects of life overpowered the practical
5000981
6 PREFACE.
and the political. How Hinduism, while sufficing to
organize the Indian communities into a social and
religious confederacy, failed to knit them together into
a coherent nation.
Bengal 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 never enduring ; and although
wide-spread, were never complete. The religious and
social organization of Hinduism never succumbed. The
greatest of India's conquerors, the Mughals, were being
crushed by Hindu confederacies before their supremacy
had lasted 130 years. So far as can now be estimated,
the advance of the British power alone saved the Delhi
Empire from dismemberment by the Hindu Marhattas,
Rajputs, and Sfkhs. The British Rule has endured,
because it is wielded in the joint interest of all the
Indian races.
But while these thoughts have long been present in
my mind, I have tried not to obtrude them on my pages.
For I hope that this little book will reach the hands of
many young people who look on history merely as a
record of facts, and not as a compendium of philosophy.
The greatest service which an Indian historian can
render at present to India, is to state the actual facts 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.
W. W. HUNTER.
STIRLING CASTLE, SIMLA,
itfh'July 1882.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAC.F
THE COUNTRY, ....... 13-26
Situation and size of India, 13, 14; the three regions of which
it is composed, 14 ; first region the Himalayas, 14-17 ; Himalayan
river system Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra, Ganges and Jumna, 17,
18 ; second region river plains of India, 18, 19 ; work done by the
rivers the Bengal delta, 20-22 ; crops and scenery of the river
plains, 23 ; third region the southern tableland, its scenery,
rivers and products, 25, 26 ; British Burma, 26.
CHAPTER II.
THE PEOPLE, . . . . . . 27-32
General survey of the population, 27 ; population statistics in
British and Native India, 27-29 ; density of population, 30 ; scarcity
of large towns, 30 ; overcrowded and under-peopled Districts, 30,
31 ; nomadic system of husbandry, 31 ; rise in rents, 31 ; abolition
of serfdom, 31 ; fourfold division of the people, 32 ; the two chief
races of prehistoric India, 32.
CHAPTER III.
THE NON-ARYANS, ...... 33-42
The non-Aryans or ' Aborigines,' 33 ; described in the Veda,
33, 34 ; the non- Aryans at the present day, 34, 35 ; the Andaman
islanders, 55 ; hill tribes in Madras, 35, 36 ; in the Central Provinces,
36 ; leaf- wearing tribe in Orissa, 36 ; Himalayan tribes, 36, 37 ;
the Santals of Lower Bengal, their system of government, history,
etc., 38, 39; the Kandhs of Orissa, their customs, human sacrifices,
etc., 40, 41 ; the three great non- Aryan stocks, 41, 42; character
of the non- Aryans, 42.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ARYANS IN INDIA, ...... 43-63
Early Aryan conquests in Europe and Asia, 43, 44 ; the Aryans
in their primitive home in Central Asia, 44 ; the common origin
of European and Indian religions, 44 ; and of the Indo-European
8 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
languages, 44 ; Indo - Aryans on the march, 45 ; the Rig - Veda,
45, 46 ; Aryan civilisation in the Veda, 46-48 ; the Vedic gods,
47, 48; the Brahmanas, 49, 50; the four castes formed, 50, 51 ;
establishment of the Brahman supremacy, 51 ; four stages of a
Brahman's life, 51, 52; the modern Brahmans, 52, 53; Brahman
theology the Hindu Trinity, 53, 54 ; Brahman philosophy, litera-
ture, medicine, music, law, poetry, 54-57 ; the epics of the Maha-
bharata and the Ramayana, 57-61 ; later Sanskrit epics, 61, 62 ;
the Sanskrit drama and lyric poetry, 62, 63.
CHAPTER V.
BUDDHISM IN INDIA (543 B.C. to 1000 A.D.), " . . . 64-73
Rise of Buddhism, 64 ; life of Gautama Buddha, 64-66 ; Buddha's
doctrines, 66, 67 ; missionary aspects of Buddhism, 67, 68 ; early
Buddhist councils, 68 ; Asoka's conversion to Buddhism, and its
establishment as a State religion, 67, 68 ; his rock edicts, 68, 69 ;
Kanishka's council, 69, 70 ; rivalry of Buddhism and Brahmanism,
71 ; Siladitya's council (634 A. D.), 71, 72 ; great Buddhist monastery
of Nalanda, 72 ; victory of Brahmanism (600 to 800 A.D.), 72 ;
Buddhism an exiled religion from India (900 A.D.), 72, 73 ; the
Jains the modem successors of the ancient Buddhists, 73 ; influence
of Buddhism on modern Hinduism, 73.
CHAPTER VI.
THE GREEKS IN INDIA (327-161 B.C.), .... 74-78
Early Greek references to India, 74 ; Alexander the Great's
campaign in the Punjab and Sind, 75, 76 ; his successors, 76 ;
Chandra Gupta's kingdom in Northern India, 76, 77 ; Megas-
thenes' description of India (300 B.C.), 77, 78; later Greek inva-
sions, 78.
CHAPTER VII.
SCYTHIC INROADS (about 100 B.C. to 500 A.D.), . . . 79-82
The Scythians in Central Asia, 79 ; Scythic kingdoms in Northern
India, 79, 80 ; Scythic races still in India, 80 ; wars of Vikramaditya
against the Scythians (57 B.C.), and of Salivahana (78 A.D.), 80, 81 ;
later opponents of the Scythians, 81, Sz ; the Sah, Gupta, and
Vallabhi dynasties, 81.
CHAPTER VIII.
GROWTH OF HINDUISM (700 to 1500 A.D.), . . . 83-96
The three sources of the Indian people the Aryans, non-Aryans,
and Scythians, 83, 84 ; Aryan work of civilisation, 84; the Brahmans,
84, 85 ; twofold basis of Hinduism, caste and religion, 85-88 ;
TABLE OF CONTENTS. g
PACK
Buddhist influences on Hinduism, 88 ; non- Aryan influences on
Hinduism, 88 ; the Hindu Book of Saints, 88, 89 ; Sankara
Acharya, the Sivaite religious reformer of the ninth century, 89 ; two-
fold aspects of Siva- worship, 89-91 ; the thirteen Sivaite sects, 91 ;
Vishnu-worship, 92 ; the Vishnu Purina (1045 A.D.), 92 ; Vishnuvite
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.), 92-96 ; religious bond of Hinduism, 96.
CHAPTER IX.
EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS (636-1526 A.D.), . . 97-118
List of Muhammadan dynasties, 97, 98 ; Arab invasions in Sind
(636-828 A.D.), 98, 99 ; India on the eve of the Muhammadan con-
quest, 99, 100 ; Muhammadan conquests only partial and temporary,
loo, 101 ; first Turki invasions Subuktigin (977 A.D.), 101 ;
Mahrmid of Ghaznf (1001-1030), his seventeen invasions of India
and sack of Somnath, 101-103; house of Ghor (1152-1206), 104;
defeat of the Rajput clans, 104; conquests of Bengal (1203), 106;
the Slave kings (1206-1290) Kutab-ud-din, 107; Altamsh, 108;
Empress Raziya, 108 ; Mughal irruptions and Rajput revolts, 108 ;
Balban, 108, 109; house of Khiljf (1290-1320), 109-111; Jalal-ud-
din, 109, no; Ala-ud-din's conquests in Southern India, no;
extent of the Muhammadan power in India (1306), no, in;
Khusru, the renegade Hindu emperor, 1 1 1 ; the Tughlak dynasty
(1320-1414), 112-114; Muhammad Tughlak, his cruelties, revenue
exactions, 112-114; Firuz Shah Tughlak, his canals, 114; Timur's
invasion (1398), 114; the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties, 114-115;
Hindu kingdoms of the south Vijayanagar, 115 ; the Muhammadan
States in the Deccan, and downfall of Vijayanagar, 115-118 ; Inde-
pendence of the Muhammadan States (1500 A.D.), 118.
CHAPTER X.
THE MUGHAL DYNASTY (1526-1857), .... 119-141
Babar's invasion of India and overthrow of the Lodi dynasty at
Panipat (1526), 119; Humayun's reign (1530-1556), 119-121; his
defeat by Sher Shah, the Afghan, 120 ; he flies to Persia, but regains
India as the result of the second battle of Panipat (1556), 120;
Akbar the Great (1556-1605), the regent Bairam, 121; his work
in India, reduction of Muhammadan States and the Rajput clans,
122, 123; his policy of conciliation towards the Hindus, 122;
his conquests in Southern India, 124 ; his religious faith, 124, 125 ;
Akbar's organization of the empire his revenue survey of India,
io TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
125, 126; Jahangfr (1605-1627), his wars and conquests, 127;
the Empress Nur Jahan, 127, 128 ; Jahangir's personal character,
128, 129; Shah Jahan (1628-1658), his administration and wars,
129, 130; his great architectural works at Agra and Delhi, 130;
his revenues, 130, 131 ; deposed by his rebellious son, Aurangzeb,
131; Aurangzeb's reign (1658-1707), 131-137; he murders his
brothers, 132, 133 ; his great campaign in Southern India, 133 ;
his war with the Marhattas, and death, 133, 134; Mir Jumla's
unsuccessful expedition to Assam, 135 ; Aurangzeb's bigoted policy
and oppression of the Hindus, 135, 136 ; revenue of the empire,
1 3&> T 37 > character of Aurangzeb, 137 ; decline of the Mughal
power under the succeeding nominal emperors, 137, 138; indepen-
dence of the Deccan and of Oudh, 137 ; Marhatta. and Rajput
revolts, 137, 138 ; the invasions of Nadir Shah the Persian, and
Ahmad Shah the Afghan, and misery of the country, 139 ;
decline and downfall of the empire, 139, 140 ; India conquered by
the British, not from the Mughals, but from the Hindus, 140 ;
chronological table 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, 141.
CHAPTER XI.
THE MARHATTAS, ...... 142-148
Rise of the Marhattas, and the growth of their power in the
Deccan, 142, 143 ; Sivaji's guerilla warfare with Aurangzeb, 143,
144 ; the house of Sivajf, 144 ; the Peshwas and the Marhatta
confederacy, 144, 145 ; the five Marhatta houses, viz. the Peshwa,
Sindhia, Holkar, the Nagpur Bhonslas, and the Gaekwar of
Baroda, 145-147 ; the three Marhatta wars with the British, 147,
148.
CHAPTER XII.
EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS, .... 149-159
Europe and the East (1500 A.D.), 149; Vasco da Gama, 150;
early Portuguese governors and their oppressions, 150, 151 ; down-
fall of the Portuguese power, and extent of its present possessions
in India, 151 ', the Dutch in India, and their supremacy in the
Eastern seas, 150, 151; early English adventurers (1496-1596),
153, 154; English East India Companies, 154 ; first voyages of the
English Company, 155; massacre of Amboyna (1625), 155, 156;
early English settlements in India, 156, 157 ; other East India
Companies, 158, 159.
TABLE OF CONTENTS. n
CHAPTER XIII.
PAGE
THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA, . . 160-182
Table of Governors, Governor-Generals, and Viceroys of India,
(1758-1880), 160 ; French and English in the south, 160, 161 ;
State of Southern India after the death of Aurangzeb (1707), 161 ;
wars in the Karnatic Dupleix and Clive, 161, 163 ; Native rulers
of Bengal (1707-1756), 163; capture of Calcutta by the Nawab
Suraj-ud-daula, and the 'Black Hole' tragedy, 163, 164; Clive
recaptures Calcutta, his victory at Plassey (1757), 164, 165 ;
installation of Mfr Jafar as Nawab of Bengal, 165, 166; Clive's
jdgir, 166; Clive, first Governor of Bengal (1758), 166, 167; de-
thronement of Mfr Jafar, and substitution of Mir Kasim as Nawab
of Bengal, 167 ; Mir Kasim's revolt, and the massacre of Patnd,
168 ; Clive's second governorship, and the acquisition of the Dfwanf
or financial administration of Bengal by the Company, 1 68, 169;
Clive's reorganisation of the service (1766), 169, 170; Warren
Hastings (1772-1785), his administrative work, 171 ; policy to
Native chiefs, 171; Hastings makes Bengal pay, 171, 172; sells
Allahabad and Kora to the Wazfr of Oudh, 172 ; the Rohilla war
(1773-1774), 172 ; plunder of Chait Sinh and the Oudh Begam,
172, 173; Hastings' impeachment and trial in England, 173; his
poor excuse for his exactions, 173, 174; first Marhatta war (1778-
1781), and war with Mysore (1780-1784), 174, 175 ; Lord Cornwallis
(1786-1793), 175-177 ; Permanent Settlement of Bengal, 176 ; second
Mysore war (1790-1792), 177; Marquis of Wellesley (1798-1805),
177-182; French influence in India (1798-1800), 177, 178; India
before Lord Wellesley (1798), 178; Lord Wellesley 's policy, 178,
179; treaty with the Nizam, (1798), 179; third Mysore war (1799),
179, 180 ; second Marhatta war (1802-1804), 180-182 ; India after
Lord Wellesley (1805), 182.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA, . . . 183-203
Marquis of Cornwallis' second administration (1805), 183; Sir
George Barlow (1805), 182; Earl of Minto (1807-1813), 183, 184;
Lord Moira (Marquis of Hastings), 1814-1823, 184-187; the Gurkha
war (1814-1815), 184, 185; Pindarf war (1817), 185, 186; last
Marhatta war (1817-1818), and annexation of the Peshwa's territory,
186, 187; Lord Amherst (1823-1828), 187-189; first Burmese war,
188, 189 ; capture of Bhartpur, 189 ; Lord William Bentinck (1828-
1835), 189-191; Bentinck's financial reforms, 189, 190; abolition
of Sail and suppression of Thagt, 190 ; renewal of Company's
charter (1833), 191 ; Mysore protected and Coorg affairs, 191 ;
I2 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
Lord Metcalfe (1835-1836), 191 ; Lord Auckland (1836-1842), 191-
194 ; the first Afghan campaign and our early dealings with Kabul,
191, 192 ; installation of Shah Shuja by the British (1839), 192, 193 ;
military occupation of Afghanistan by the British (1840-1841), 193 ;
rising of the Afghans, and massacre of the British force on its winter
retreat to India, 194 ; the army of retribution (1842), 194, 195 ; Lord
Ellenborough's proclamation, the gates of Somnath, 194 ; conquest
of Sind (1843), 1 95 > Lord Hardinge (1844-1848), 195-197 ; history
of the Sikhs and of their rise into a power under Ranjit Sinh,
*95> *96 ; first Sfkh war (1845), battles of Mudki, Firozshahr,
Aliwal, and Sobraon, 196, 197 ; Lord Dalhousie (1848-1856),
197-202; his administrative reforms, the Indian railway system, 197;
second Sikh war (1848-1849), battles of Chilianwala and Gujrat,
J 97 198 > pacification of the Punjab, 198, 199 ; second Burmese
war (1852), 199; Dalhousie's policy towards the Native powers,
199, 200; lapsed Native States, 200; annexation of Oudh (1856),
20 1, 202 ; Lord Dalhousie's work in India, 202 ; Earl Canning in
India before the Mutiny (1856-1857), 202, 203.
CHAPTER XV.
THE SEPOY MUTINY OF 1857, ..... 204-210
Causes of the Mutiny, 204; the 'greased cartridges,' 204, 205;
the army drained of its talent, 205 ; the outbreak in May 1857,
205 ; spread of the rebellion, 205, 206 ; Cawnpore, 206, 207 ;
Lucknow, 207 ; Delhi, 207, 208 ; reduction of Oudh by Lord Clyde,
208 ; of Central India by Sir Hugh Rose, 208 ; summary of the
history of the Company's charters, 208, 209 ; India transferred to
the Crown (1858), 209, 210.
CHAPTER XVI.
INDIA UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN, 1858-1881, . . 211-215
The Queen's Proclamation of 1st November 1858 ; the cost of the
mutiny, 211; Mr. Wilson's financial reforms, 211, 212; legal
reforms, 212 ; Lord Elgin (1862-1863), 212; Lord Lawrence (1864-
1869), the Bhutan war, Orissa famine of 1866, 212 ; Lord Mayo
(1869-1872), the Ambala darbdr, visit of the Duke of Edinburgh,
establishment of Agricultural Department, reform of internal
customs lines, Lord Mayo assassinated at the Andamans, 212, 213 ;
Lord Northbrook (1872-1876), dethronement of the Gaekwar of
Baroda, visit of the Prince of Wales to India, 213; Lord Lytton
(1876-1880), Proclamation of the Queen as Empress of India, the
great famine of 1876-1877, 214; Afghan affairs (1878-1880), 214;
Marquis of Ripon (1880-1881) ; conclusion of the Afghan war, 215.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INDIAN
PEOPLE.
CHAPTER I.
The Country.
Situation and Size. Jndia is a great three-cornered country,
stretching southward from mid-Asia into the sea. Its northern
base rests upon the Himalaya ranges ; the chief part of its
western side is washed by the Indian Ocean, 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 sea, it has on its north-eastern
and on its north-western frontiers two opposite sets of gate-
ways which connect it with the rest of Asia. On the north-east
it is bounded by the Buddhist kingdom of Burma; on the
north-west by the Muhammadan 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. It extends from the eighth
to the thirty-sixth degree of north latitude, that is to say, from
the hottest regions of the equator to far within the temperate
zone. The capital, Calcutta, lies in 88 degrees of east
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 southern extremity. To this
compact dominion the English have added, under the name of
British Burma, the strip of country on the eastern shores of
i 4 THE COUNTRY.
the Bay of Bengal. The whole territory thus described con-
tains close on \\ millions of square miles, and 255 millions ot
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 Three Eegions. 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 three 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 com-
prises 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.
r First Eegion: The Himalayas. The first of these three
regions is composed of the Himalayas and their offshoots to
the southward. [The Himalayas (meaning, in Sanskrit, the
Halls of Snow); form two mountain walls, running parallel to
each other nearly 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 dipj>, lying about 13,000 feet above the sea.
Behind these dips rises the inner range of the Himalayas, a
second mountain-wall crowned with 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 tableland of
Tibet, 16,000 feet above the sea.) The Himalayas shut out
THE HIMALAYAS. 15
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 return into the inner mountains
laden with salt.
v v 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 off-
shoots, under the name of the^Naga and Patkoi. mountains,
form a barrier between the civilised 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
proceed southwards, they are in turn known as the Safed Koh,
the Suleman range, and the Hali mountains. This barrier
has peaks exceeding 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 Kiiram pass a
little to the south of it, the Gwalari pass near Dera Ismail
Khan, and the famous Bolan Pass, still further south, form the
gateways between India and Afghanistan.
'Himalayan Water-Supply .> The rugged Himalayas, while
thus keeping out enemies, are a source of food and wealth to
16 THE COUNTRY.
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. The
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 ; some-
times 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 it
either descends as rain on their outer slopes, or is frozen into
snow in its attempts to cross their inner heights. Very little
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 Cherra Punji, where the monsoon first
strikes the hills in Assam, 523 inches of rain fall annually;
while in one year (1861) as many as 805 inches are said 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 six, the usual rainfall at Cherra Punji is thirty feet, or
more than 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 deodara, or
THE HIMALAYAS. 17
Himalayan cedar, rises in dark stately masses. The branches
of the trees are themselves clothed with mosses, ferns, and
flowering creepers or orchids. In the autumn, crops of red
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 close,
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
steins 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 lay-
ing out the side of the mountain into terraces. In a few years
the bark and leaves drop off the branches, 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. Destitute 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
(he rainfall which passes beyond their outer or southern
heights is dashed against their inner or northern ridges, and
B
1 8 THE COUNTRY.
drains into the trough behind. Of the three great rivers of
India, the two longest namely, the Indus and the Brahma-
putra take their rise in this trough lying on the north of the
double wall of the Himalayas ; while the third, the Ganges,
receives the drainage of their southern slopes.
J~ 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
next to the south, until it 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 exact
sources of the Brahmaputra #re still unexplored. It bears the
name of the Sampu for nearly a thousand miles of its course
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 Eegion: The River Plains. The wide plains
THE RIVER PLAINS. 19
watered by the Himalayan rivers form the second of the three
regions into which I have divided India. They extend from
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 north-eastern and north-western corners, and, following
the courses of the rivers, pushed the earlier comers south
towards the sea. About 150 millions of people now live on
and around these river plains, in the provinces known as
Lower Bengal, Assam, Oudh, the North-Western Provinces,
the Punjab, Sind, Rajputana, and other Native States. The
Indus brings water from the Himalayas to their western side,
the Brahmaputra to their eastern, while the Ganges and its
feeders fertilize the central region. The Indus, however, flows
so directly southwards away from the Himalayas, that after it
unites the five rivers of the Punjab it ceases to obtain further
tributaries, and the great desert of Rajputa"na 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. Their sources in
the mountains are held sacred ; their point of junction at
Allahibad 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, Patnd,
and Benares are built on her banks ; Agra and Delhi on those
of her tributary the Jumna ; and Allaha'ba'd on the tongue of
land where the two sister streams unite.
20 THE COUNTRY.
The Work done by the Rivers. In order to understand 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 they 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 their many offshoots
enclose and intersect, forms the Delta of Bengal. The network
of streams struggles 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. They 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 their banks, and leave their
silt upon the low country on either side. Thousands of square
miles in Lower Bengal thus receive each summer 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 Elvers as Land-makers. As the rivers creep further
THE RIVER PLAINS. 21
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 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 has sometimes the
colour of pea-soup 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 a
delta, amid whose malarious solitudes the network of channels
merges into the sea. Here all the secrets of land-making
stand disclosed. The streams, finally checked by the dead
weight of the sea, deposit their remaining silt, which emerges
above water in the shape of banks or curved headlands. The
ocean-currents also find themselves impeded by the water from
the rivers, and drop the burden of sand which they sweep along
the coast. In this way, while the shore gradually grows out
into the sea, owing to the deposit of river silt, islands are
formed around the river mouths from the sand dropped by
the ocean -currents, and a double process of land -making
goes on.
The Eivers 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 on their margins, but also by forming banks and
capes and masses of land at their mouths. They slowly con-
struct 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 waters by canals to the fields. They form, moreover,
cheap highways for carrying the produce of the country to the
22 THE COUNTRY,
towns and seaports ; and what the arteries are to the human
body, the rivers are to the plains of Bengal
The Elvers as Destroyers. But the very vastness of their
energy sometimes causes terrible calamities. Scarcely a year
passes without floods, which sweep off cattle 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
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. Theii
very activity in land-making stops up their channels, and has
thus left high and dry in ruin many an ancient trading city
along their banks.
Crops and Scenery of Northern Biver 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.
Pease, pulses, 'oil-seeds, and green crops of various sorts are
reaped in spring ; the early rice crops in September ; the great
rice harvest of the year and other grains in November. 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 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
THE SOUTHERN TABLELAND. 23
their abundant fruit in summer. The spreading banian with
its colonnades of hanging roots, the stately pipal with its
masses of foliage, the leafless wild cotton-tree laden with heavy
red flowers, the tall feathery tamarind, and the quick-growing
bdbul, 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 delta is
a flat stretch of rice fields, fringed round with evergreen masses
of bamboos, cocoa-nuts, areca, and other coronetted 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 bdjrd. The two
last form the food of the masses, rice 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 fifty varieties of it are known by name 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 in Assam ; the opium poppy, about
half-way down the Ganges, around 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.
4 Third Eegion: 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 covers the southern half of the peninsula. This tract,
known in ancient times as The Deccan, or 'The South'
(dakshin), comprises the Central Provinces, Berar, Madras,
24 THE COUNTRY.
Bombay, Mysore, the native territories of the Nizam, Sindhia,
Holkar, and other feudatory princes. It slopes upwards from
the south 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, Mount Abu, famous for its exquisite Jain temples,
rises 5650 feet from the Ra"jputana plains, like an island out
of the sea. The Aravalli chain, the Vindhya mountains, the
Sdtpura and Kaimur ranges, with other highland tracts, run
across the country eastwards until they abut on the Ganges
valley, under the names of the Rajmahal hills. On the
extreme east, Mount Pa'rasnath, also sacred to Jain rites,
towers 4400 feet above the level of the Gangetic plains.
r Scenery of the Southern Tableland. These various ranges
form, as it were, the north wall and buttresses on which rests
the central tableland. 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 Gha"ts 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 Ghdts form a great sea-wall for the Bombay Presi-
dency, with only a narrow strip between them and the shore.
At one part they rise in magnificent precipices and headlands
out of the ocean, and truly look like colossal ' landing-stairs '
from the sea. The Eastern and the Western Ghdts meet at an
angle near Cape Comorin, and so complete the three sides of
the tableland. The inner plateau itself lies far below the snow
line, and its ordinary elevation seldom exceeds 2000 to 3000
feet. Its best-known hills are the Nilgiris (Blue Mountains),
which contain the summer capital of Madras, Utakamand,
7000 feet above the sea. The highest point is Doddbetta
peak, 8760 feet, at the southern extremity of Mysore.
THE SOUTHERN TABLELAND. 25
Elvers of the Southern Tableland. This wide 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
drainage due west into the Gulf of Cambay. The Ta"pti flows
almost parallel to the Narbada, a little to the southward, and
bears to the same gulf the waters from the Satpura hills. But
from this point, as we proceed southwards, the Western Gha'ts
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 Gha'ts, finally falls into the Bay of
Bengal. In this way the three great rivers of the Madras
Presidency namely, the GodaVari, the Krishna, and the
KaVeri rise in the mountains overhanging the Bombay
coast, and traverse the whole breadth of the central table-
land 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, sissu, teak, and other great trees still abound.
The Gha'ts, 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 Gha'ts and the sea rival even
Lower Bengal in their fruit-bearing palms, rice harvests, and
rich succession of crops. The tableland is, however, very
liable to droughts ; and the people have devised a varied
system of 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,
26 THE COUNTRY
and husband it for use throughout the whole year. The food
of the common people consists chiefly of small grains, such as
jodr, bdjra, and rdgi. The principal exports are cotton and
wheat
A 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 new
enterprise 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.
British Burma. British Burma, which the English have
incorporated into the Indian Empire, consists of the lower
valley of the Irawadi, together with its delta, and a strip of
coast along the east side of the Bay of Bengal. It stretches
north and south, with the Irawadi on the east, the sea on the
west, and a backbone of lofty ranges running down the middle.
These ranges, known as the Yoma mountains, 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 kingdom of Independent Burma on 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 one vast rice-field. Tobacco of an excellent quality
supplies the little cigars which all Burmese men and women
smoke. Arakan and Pegu, or the Provinces of the coast strip
and Irawadi valley, contain mineral oil springs. Tenasserim,
the narrow maritime Province to the south of the Irawadi
delta, 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.
CHAPTER II.
The People.
X 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 1881 to 255 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 55 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 199 millions, of its in-
habitants.
y The Native States. The Native princes govern their States
with the help and under the advice of a British 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 British
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
dethrones, the oppressor ; protects the weak, and imposes
peace upon all.
27
28
THE PEOPLE.
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 the Governor-General in
Council. The Governor-General also bears the title of
Viceroy. He holds his court and government at Calcutta in
the cold weather ; and during summer at Simla, 7000 feet up
the Himalayas. The Viceroy of India is appointed by the
Queen in 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, and are nominated
by the Viceroy, subject in the case of the Lieutenant-Governor-
ships to the approval of the Secretary of State.
Area and Population, The following tables show the area
and population of the twelve Provinces of British India, and
of the Feudatory States also arranged in twelve groups :
THE TWELVE PROVINCES OF BRITISH INDIA (1881).
Number
NAME OF PROVINCE.
Area
Total
of
(Exclusive of the Native States attached to it.)
in
square
Population.
1881.
Persons
per
miles.
square
mile.
i. Government of Madras,
139,698
31,170,631
223
2. Government of Bombay,
124, 122
16,454,414
132
3. Lieutenant-Governorship oi Bengal, .
163,902
66,691,456
407
4. Lieutenant-Governorship of Punjab, .
lo^QSo
18,850,437
175
S. Lieutenant-Governorsm'poftheNorth-S
Western Provinces, >
106, 104
44,107,869
416
6. Chief Commissionership of Oudh, )
7. Chief Commissionership of the Central
Provinces,
84,445
9,838,791
116
8. Chief Commissionership of British
Burma, ......
87, 220
2,7-36,771
43
9. Chief Commissionership of As=am,
46,34!
j> / o ' / /
4,881,426
105
10. Commissionership of Berar,*
T 7 , 7 II
2,672,673
151
ii. Commissionership of Ajmere,
2,710
460,722
170
12. Commissionership ->f Coorg,
1.583
178,302
"3
Total foi British India,
881,825
199,043,492
226
* Berar consists of the six 'Assigned Districts.' They were made over
to British administration by the Nizam of Haidarabad for the support of
the Haidarabad Contingent, which he was bound by treaty to maintain, and
in discharge of other obligations.
STATISTICS OP POPULATION.
29
THE TWELVE GROUPS OF NATIVE STATES FORMING
FEUDATORY INDIA (1881).
Number
Total
of
NAME OF STATE.
Area in
square
Total
Population.
1881.
Persons
per
miles.
square
mile.
"rt
129,71:0
10,268,392
70
V
JSg.-'
2. Haidarabad (Nizam's Dominions)
.7' / J
7!.77i
9,845,594
/ :?
137
-<2l
3. Central India Agency and Bun-
111
delkhand, ....
89,098
9,261,907
103
SK
4. Baroda, .....
8.570
2,185,005
255
I" >.-
o
5. Mysore,
24.723
4,186,188
170
7, e84
126,000
16
7. Native States under Bombay
Government, ....
72,450
6,941,249
96
a
8. Native States under Madras
o> S
Government, ....
9,406
3.378,196
359
s
9. Native States under Bengal
l-i 0>
u >
Government
37.988
2,845,405
75
T3 O
J?O
10. Native States under Punjab
1
Government
3S.8I7
3,861,683
107
o
ii. Native States under North-
t_)
Western Provinces, .
5. 12 5
741.750
i4S
12. Native States under the Central
Provinces
28,834
1,709,720
59
Total for Feudatory India,
521,116
55,351,089
106
If to the foregoing figures we add the French and Portu-
guese possessions, we obtain the total for all India. Thus
ALL INDIA, INCLUDING BRITISH BURMA (1881).
Area in
square
miles.
Population.
Number of
Persons per
square mile.
British India, ....
881,825
199,043,492
226
Feudatory India,
521,116
55.35L089
106
Portuguese Settlements,
French Settlements, .
Total for all India, including)
British Burma, . . . j
1, 086
178
407,712
271,460
1 Chiefly in
V Towns or
j Suburban.
1,404,205
255.073.753
182
30 THE PEOPLE,
Density of the Population. British India is very thickly
peopled ; and some parts are so overcrowded that the inhabit-
ants can with difficulty obtain land to cultivate. Each square
mile of the British Provinces has to feed, on an average, 226
persons. Each square mile of the Native States has to feed,
on an average, only 106 persons, or less than one-half. If we
exclude the outlying Provinces of Burma and Assam, the
people in British India average 254 to the square mile ; so that
British India is nearly two and a half times more thickly
inhabited than the Native States. How thick this population
is, may be realized from the fact that, in 1871, France had only
1 80 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 nearly one-half
of the population, in 1871, lived in towns with upwards of
20,000 inhabitants, while in British India only 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
enough 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
his children, even when his family has grown too numerous to
live upon the crops. If the Indian husbandmen will learn to
DENSITY OF POPULATION. 31
migrate to tracts where spare land abounds, they will do more
than the utmost efforts of Government can accomplish, to
better themselves and to prevent famines.
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 pro-
tection it dwells. As the inhabitants increase, this nomadic
system of cultivation gives place to regular tillage. Throughout
British Burma we see both methods at work side by side ;
while on the thickly-peopled plains of India the ' wandering hus-
bandmen ' have disappeared, and each peasant family remains
rooted to the same plot of ground during many generations.
Rise in Eents. Yet even a hundred years ago there was
more land in Bengal than there were cultivators to till it.
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 recognise 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 survive to our day ; but they
are now freemen.
32 THE PEOPLE.
1 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, sometimes called the
Aborigines, who number about 18 millions in the British
Provinces. Second, the descendants of the Aryan or Sanskrit-
speaking Race, now called Brahmans and Rajputs, and
numbering about 16 millions. Third, the great Mixed Popula-
tion, generally known as the Hindus, which has grown out of
the Aryan and non- Aryan elements (chiefly from the latter),
and numbers about 124 millions. Fourth, the Muhammadans,
who began to come to India about 1000 A.D., and now number
about 41 millions. These make up the 199 millions of people
under British rule. * The same fourfold division applies to the
population of the 55 millions in Feudatory India, but we do
not know the numbers of the different classes.
The Two Chief Kaces 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 an3 powerful gods. These Aryans became the Brah-
mans and Rajputs of India. The other race was of a lower
type, who had long dwelt in the land, and whom the lordly
newcomers 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 inter-
mediate castes, sprung chiefly from the ruder stock, make up
the mass of the present 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 one thousand years later.
CHAPTER III.
The non-Aryans.
X 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 in-
elegant 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 called the early tribes Dasyus, or 'enemies/
and Dasas, 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
34 THE NON-ARYANS.
least 3000 and perhaps 4000 years ago, praised their bright
gods, who, ' slaying the Dasyus, protected the Aryan colour ; '
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.' Moreover, the Aryan, with his
finely-formed features, loathed the squat Mongolian faces of
the Aborigines. One Vedic poet speaks of the non-Aryans as
' noseless ' or flat- nosed, while another praises his own ' beauti-
ful-nosed ' gods. The same unsightly feature was commented
on with regard to a non- Aryan Asiatic tribe, by the companions
of Alexander the Great on his Indian expedition, at least a
thousand years later. But indeed the Vedic hymns abound
in scornful epithets for the primitive tribes, 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
race-name, Dasyu, or ' enemy,' thus grew to signify goblin or
devil, as the old German word for enemy, or the hated one,
has become the English ' fiend. 'J
More Civilised non- Aryan Tribes. Nevertheless all the
non-Aryans 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, or 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
THE NON-ARYANS AS THEY ARE. 35
primitive peoples as they exist at the present day. Thrust
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 non-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
themselves at festivals with red earth, and mourned for their
dead friends by plastering themselves with dark mud. They
used a noise like crying 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 effort af 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 Puliars 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, or hillmen of
36 THE NON-ARYANS.
South-Western India, still keep up the old 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 end of India.
Non-Aryans of the Central Provinces. In the Central Pro-
vinces, the non-Aryan races form a large part of the population.
In certain localities they amount to one-half of the inhabitants.
Their most important race, the Gonds, have made advances in
civilisation ; but the wilder tribes still cling to the forest, and
live by the chase. Some of them are reported to have used,
within a few years back, 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 Man's fly
from their grass-built huts on the approach of a stranger. Once
a year a messenger comes to them from the local Ra"ja 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 Maris creep forth,
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, 10,000 in
number, of Juangs or Patuas, literally the ' leaf-wearers.' Until
lately their women wore no clothes, but only a few strings of
beads around the waist, with a bunch of leaves before and
behind. In 1871, 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 SANTALS. 37
the number of plugs of tobacco or pdn 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 peace
of the border, in return for a yearly 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. Many of the aboriginal
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 advances,
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.
X 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 number about a million. Although still clinging
to many customs of a hunting forest tribe, they have learned
the use of the plough, and settled down into skilful husband-
men. Each hamlet is governed by its own headman, who is sup-
posed 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 have their separate officers, and are
strictly controlled by their own head and his deputy till they
enter 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
Santa"! punishment. 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
38 THE NON-ARYANS.
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
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
Santa"ls respect their women, and do not take a second wife,
except when the first is childless. They solemnly burn their
dead, and float three fragments of the skull down the Damodar
river, the sacred stream of the race.
)( Sant&l Religion. The Santal has no knowledge of bright
and friendly gods, such as the Vedic singers worshipped.
Still less can he imagine one omnipotent and beneficent Deity,
who watches over mankind. Hunted and driven back before
the Hindus and Muhammadans, he does not understand how
a Being can be more powerful than himself without wishing to
harm him. ' What,' said a Santa"! to an eloquent missionary
who had been discoursing on 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 Santa"ls lived by plundering the adjacent plains. But
under British rule they settled down into peaceful cultivators.
To prevent disputes between them and the villagers of the
lowlands, our officers set up in 1832 a boundary of stone
pillars. But the 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 Santa"! gave over his
THE KANDHS. 39
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
sense of honour among the Santals compels a son to take upon
himself his father'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
rob. Quarrels broke out between them and the 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 very 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
Mountaineers,' a tribe about 100,000 strong, inhabit the steep
and forest-covered ranges which rise from the Orissa coast.
Their idea 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 appointed. He
enters on no undertaking without calling together the elders of
the tribe,
Kandh Wars and Punishments. Up to 1835, w ^en 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 article
must be returned, or its value paid ; but the Kandh twice con-
40 THE NON-ARYANS.
victed of theft was driven forth from his tribe, the greatest
punishment 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 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 hand 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. They 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 their settle-
ments to change their village sites once in fourteen years.
Kandh Marriages by Capture.' A Kandh wedding con-
sists 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, black-
smiths, 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
THE KANDHS. 41
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.
'^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.
Brdhmans and Kandhs were the only classes exempted from
sacrifice, and an ancient rule ordained that the offering 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, tne 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 little 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 primi-
tive 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-
42 THE NON-ARYANS.
eastern ranges of the three-sided 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 dov,Ti as Cape Comorin, the
southernmost point of India.
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
the plains can be turned into clever police. The non-
Aryan 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 lately covered
themselves with honour in Afghanistan.
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 Brdhman, the
Rajput, and the Englishman alike descend. Its earliest home
seems to have been in Central Asia. From that common
camping-ground, certain branches of the race started for the
east, others for the west. One of the western offshoots
founded the Persian kingdom; another built Athens and
Sparta, and became the Greek nation; a third 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 settlement fishing
in wattle canoes, and working the tin mines of Cornwall.
Meanwhile other branches of the Aryan stock had gone forth
from the primitive home in Central Asia 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
civilisation, merely means the civilisation 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.
c
44 THE ARYANS IN INDIA.
The Aryans in their Primitive Home. We know little
regarding these noble Aryan tribes in their early camping-
ground in Central 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 rear 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 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. When the Aryan poets
in hot India prayed in the Veda for long life, they asked for
' a hundred winters.''
European and Indian Languages merely Varieties of
Aryan Speech. The forefathers of the Greek and the Roman,
of the Englishman and the Hindu, dwelt together in 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 differen^ 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 widow 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 two Sanskrit roots
meaning ' to draw milk ; ' and preserves the memory of the
time when the daughter was the little milkmaid in the primi-
tive Aryan household.
^Common Origin of European and Indian Religions. The
ancient religions of Europe and India had a similar origin.
They were to some extent made up of the sacred stories or
myths which our common ancestors had learned while dwell-
ing together in Central Asia. Several of the Vedic gods were
also the gods of Greece and Rome ; and to this day the Deity
is adored by names derived from the same old Aryan root by
Brdhmans in Calcutta, by the Protestant clergy of England,
and by Catholic priests in Peru,
THE VEDIC HYMNS. 45
The Indo-Aryans on the March. The Vedic hymns exhibit
the Indian branch of the Aryans on their march to the 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
pastoral tribes into 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 offshoots 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.
Y The Eig-Veda. The Rig -Veda forms the great literary
memorial of the early Aryan settlements in the Punjab. The
age of this venerable hymnal is unknown. The Hindus believe,
without evidence, that it existed ' from before all time,' or at
least from 3001 years B.C., nearly 5000 years ago. European
scholars have inferred from astronomical dates that its com-
position was going on about 1400 B.C. But these dates might
have been calculated backwards. We only know that the
Vedic religion had been at work long before the rise of
Buddhism in the 6th century B.C. The Rig- Veda is a very
old collection of 1017 short poems, chiefly addressed to the
gods, and containing 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
46 THE ARYANS IN INDIA.
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, he chooses some one
specially learned in holy offerings to conduct the sacrifice in
the name of the people. The king 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
Wiez-patis in 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 Brdhmans afterwards dis-
torted 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 Civilisation 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 wander-
ing 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 money,
pecunia, from pecus, a herd. One of the Vedic words 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 stock, and driving,
before them, or reducing to bondage, the earlier 'black-
skinned' races. They marched in whole communities from
one river-valley to another; each house-father a warrior,
THE VEDIC HYMNS. 47
husbandman, 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
were altogether superior to the people of the land, and their
poor, rude objects of worship. Indeed, this noble self-confi-
dence 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-piter or
Jupiter of Rome, the Zeus of Greece ; and the Encompassing
Sky, Varuna in Sanskrit, Uranus 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 periodi-
cal 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, ignis), ranks perhaps next to
Indra in the number of hymns addressed to him as 'the
Youngest of the Gods,' ' the Lord and Giver of Wealth.' The
Maruts are the Storm Gods, ' who make the rocks to tremble,
who tear in pieces the forest.' Ushas, ' the High-born Dawn '
(Greek, Eos), ' shines upon us like a young wife, rousing every
living being to go forth to his work.' The Aswins, or 'Fleet
Outriders ' of the dawn, are the first rays of sunrise, ' Lords of
Lustre.' The Solar Orb himself (Siirjya), the Wind (Vdyu), the
Sunshine or Friendly Day (Mitra), the intoxicating fermented
juice of the Sacrificial Plant (Soma), and many others, 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. But, at the
same time, he was deeply stirred by the glory and mystery of
48 THE ARYANS IN INDIA.
the earth and the heavens. Indeed, the majesty of nature sc
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 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, although 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 estab-
lished 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 offer our
sacrifice ?
' He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm ;
he through whom 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 under rude stone monuments, the Aryan alike in
India, in Greece, and in Italy made use of the funeral-pile.
Several exquisite hymns bid farewell to the dead : ' Depart
thou, depart thou by the ancient paths to the place whither our
fathers have departed. Meet with the Ancient Ones ; meet
with the Lord of Death. Throwing off thine imperfections, go
THE VEDIC HYMNS. 49
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 medi-
tation, have obtained the victory ; who, by fixing their thoughts
on the unseen, have gone to heaven. Let him depart to the
mighty in battle, 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 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
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 Greek feido or oida t I know; and the English wisdom,
or I wit. The Bralimans 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 Sama-Veda, made up of hymns of the Rig- Veda to
be used at the Soma sacrifice. Third, the Yajur-Veda, con-
sisting not only of Rig- Vedic hymns, but also of prose sen-
tences, to be used at the great sacrifices ; and divided into two
editions, the Black and White Yajur. The fourth, or Atharva-
D
50 THE ARYANS IN INDIA.
Veda, was compiled from the least ancient hymns at the end
of the Rig- Veda, and from later poems.
The Brahmanas. To each of the four Vedas were attached
prose works, called Brdhmanas, in order to explain the sacri-
fices and the duties of the priests. Like the four Vedas, the
Brahmanas were held to be the very word of God, The Vedas
and the Brdhmanas 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 these
were afterwards 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 Purdnas, or ' Traditions from of old.'
All these ranked, however, not as divinely-inspired knowledge,
or things ' heard from God ' (sruti), like the Veda, 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 Brahmans. Second, the warriors or fighting
companions of the king, called Rajputs or Kshattriyas,
literally, ' of the royal stock.' Third, the agricultural settlers,
who kept the old name of Vaisyas, from the root vis, which
in the primitive Vedic period had included the whole 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. They could
all be present at the sacrifices, and they worshipped the same
THE BRAHMANS. 51
Bright Gods. The Sudras were 'the slave-bands of black
descent ' of the Veda. They were distinguished from their
' Twice-born ' Aryan conquerors as being only ' Once-born,'
and by many contemptuous 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 ser-
vile condition ; and to them was assigned the severest toil in the
fields, and all the hard and dirty work of the village community.
V The Brahman Supremacy established. The Brahmans or
priests claimed the highest rank. But they seem to have had a
long struggle with the Kshattriya or warrior caste, before they
won their proud position at the head of the Indian people.
They afterwards secured themselves in that position, by teach-
ing 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 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.*^ At any
rate, when the Brahmans had established their power, they made
a wise use of it. From the ancient Vedic times they recognised
that if they were to exercise spiritual supremacy, they must re-
nounce earthly pomp. In arrogating the priestly function, they
gave up all claim to the royal office. They were divinely ap-
pointed 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 Br&hman'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-
cipline. For their existence, in its full religious significance,
commenced not at birth, but on being invested at the close ot
childhood with the sacred thread of the Twice-born. Their
youth and early manhood were to be entirely spent in learning
52 THE ARYANS IN INDIA.
by heart from an older Brdhman the inspired Scriptures, tend-
ing the sacred fire, and serving their preceptor. Having com-
pleted his long studies, the Brdhman entered on the second
stage of his life, as a householder. He married, and com-
menced 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 his
life ; feeding on roots or fruits, and 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. Throughout his whole existence he 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 contemplation. ' 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 Brdhmans of
the present day are the result of 3000 years of hereditary edu-
cation 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 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
BRAHMAN THEOLOGY. 53
class becoming the ruling power in a country, not by force of
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
Brdhmans 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 law-
givers, 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.
X 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
continued to decorously conduct the sacrifices in their honour.
But among their own caste the Brdhmans 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 Brahmans recognised 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 gave place to the conception of one
God, in his three solemn manifestations as Brahma the Creator,
Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva the Destroyer and Reproducer.
Each of these had his prototype among the Vedic deities ; and
54 THE ARYANS IN INDIA.
they remain to this hour the three persons of the 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 faith, 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 gods of the Hindus.
' Brahman Philosophy. The Brahmans thus built up a re-
ligion for the Indian people. They then 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 also 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 language. In this subject the
Brahmans were far before the Greeks or Romans, or indeed
any European nation down to the last century. Their Sanskrit,
or 'perfected speech,' was used only by the learned. The
common 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 Brdhmans 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 Brdhmans
preferred to hand down their holy learning by memory, rather
than to write it out Good Brahmans 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 for more than 2000
years the Brahmans have always composed in verse; and
prose-writing has been a lost art in India.
BRAHMAN LEARNING. 55
Br&hman 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 5^ 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
Brdhmans had advanced far in astronomy before the Greeks
arrived in India in 327 B.C. They were not, however, ashamed
to learn from 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 Ra"ja Jai Sinh, 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.
In medicine the Brahmans learned nothing from the Greeks,
but taught them much. Arab medicine was founded on
56 THE ARYANS IN INDIA.
translations from Sanskrit works about 800 A.D. European
medicine, down to the lyth century, was based upon the
Arabic. The Indian physician Charaka, who is supposed to
have lived before Christ, was often 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 reimposed 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,' etc, 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 Musalmdn doctors or hakims monopolized the patronage
of the Muhammadan princes and nobles of India. The decline
of Hindu medicine went on until it has sunk into the hands of
the village kabirdj, 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 nth
century A.D. Hindu music declined under the Muhammadan
rule. Its complex divisions or modes and numerous sub-tones
prevent it from pleasing the European ear, which has been
trained on a different system ; but it is highly original and
interesting from a scientific point of view. A great revival of
Indian music has been brougnt about by patriotic native
BRA HMAN FOE TRY. 57
gentlemen in our own days, and its strains give delight to
millions of our fellow-subjects.
Br&hman Law. The Brdhmans made law a part of their
religion. Their earliest legal works were the Household Maxims
(Grihyd Sutras), about 700 B.C. The customs of the Brahmans
in Northern India were put together into the Code of Manu,
about 500 B.C. Another famous compilation, known as the
Code of Ya"jnavalkya, was drawn up later; perhaps 200 years
after Christ. These codes, and the commentaries 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 contain 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
civilisers of ancient India. But they really record only the
customs of the Brdhman kingdoms in the north, and do not
apply to all the Indian races. The greatest Hindu lawgivers
agree that the usages of 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, and
all the laws of inheritance among these peoples are regulated
accordingly.
Brahman Poetry. The Brdhmans were not merely the
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 Maha'bha'rata, or chron-
icles of the Delhi kings, and the Ramayana, or story of the
Aryan advance into Southern India.
'/ The Mahabharata. The Mahd.bha.rata is a great collection
of Indian legends in verse, some of them as old as the Vedic
58 THE ARYANS IN INDIA.
hymns. The main story deals with a period not later than
1200 B.C. But it was not written out in its present shape
till perhaps 1000 years later. / An idea of the size of the
Mahdbharata may be gained from the fact that it contains
220,000 lines; while the Iliad si Homer does not amount to
16,000 lines, and Virgil's sEneid contains less than 10,000."}
-X'lts 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 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
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 Pdndavas, 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
Maha'bha'rata.
A Its Outline. The hundred Kauravas forced their father to
send away their cousins into the forests, and there they treacher-
ously burned down the hut in which the five Pdndavas dwelt.
The latter escaped, and wandered in the disguise of Brdhmans
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. 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
THE MAHABHARATA. 59
capital, and gave them one-half of the family territory, reserving
the other half for his own sons. The Pdndava brethren hived
off to a new settlement, Indra-prastha, afterwards Delhi ; clear-
ing the jungle, and driving out the Nagas or forest-races. For
a time peace reigned. But the Kauravas tempted Yudishthira,
' 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 Yudishthira 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 Pa"ndavas
only the five brethren remained. Their uncle, Dhrita-ra'shtra,
made over to them the whole kingdom. For a long time
the Pdndavas ruled gloriously, celebrating the aswa-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,
Draupadf, 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, Yudishthira, 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 in
with him. This could not be allowed ; and Yudishthira, 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
60 THE ARYANS IN INDIA.
revealed 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 king-
dom of Hastinapur forms, however, only a fourth of the Mahd-
bharata. 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 Mahdbharata may be said
to form the cyclopaedia of the Heroic Age in Northern India.
X 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 Rdmayana could not have been put together in
its present shape many centuries before Christ. Parts of it
may be earlier than the Mahdbharata, but the compilation as
a whole apparently belongs to a later date. The Ramayana
consists of about 48,000 lines.
X Outline of the Ramayana. As the Mahdbharata celebrates
the Lunar race of Delhi, so the Ramayana forms the epic history
of the Solar race of Ajodhya or 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 Middle
Land of Bengal (Madhya-desa). The opening books of the
Ra'ma'yana recount the wondrous birth and boyhood of Ra"ma,
eldest son of Dasaratha, King of Ajodhya or Oudh ; his mar-
riage with Sfta", as victor at her ' own-choice ' of a husband
(swayam-vara\ by bending the mighty bow of Siva in the
public contest of chiefs for the princess ; and his selection as
heir-apparent (or Juva-rdjd) to his father's kingdom. A zandna
intrigue ends in the youngest wife of Dasa-ratha obtaining this
appointment for her own son, Bharata, and in the exile of
Rdma, with his bride Sfta, for fourteen years to the forest.
The banished pair wander south to Allahabad, already a place
of sanctity, and thence across the river to the hermitage of
Valmiki, among the jungles of Bundelkhand, where a- hill
is still pointed out as the scene of their abode. Meanwhile
Rdma's father dies; and the loyal youngest brother, Bharata,
THE RAMA YANA. 61
although the lawful successor, refuses to enter on the inherit-
ance, 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.X So far, the Ra'ma'yana merely
narrates the local annals of the court of Ajodhya. 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 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, and 6th) recount
the expedition of the bereaved Rama for her recovery. He
allies himself with the aboriginal tribes of Southern India,
under the names of monkeys and bears, and raises 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 Ra"ma 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 conducted her out of the
burning pile to her husband ; and, the fourteen years of banish-
ment being over, Rama and Sita return in triumph to Ajodhya.
There they reigned gloriously ; and Rama celebrated the great
horse sacrifice (aswa-medha) as a token of his imperial sway
over India. But a famine having smitten the land, doubts
arose in Rama's heart as to his wife's purity while in her
captor's power at Ceylon. He banishes the faithful Sita", who
wanders forth again to Valmiki's hermitage, where she gives
birth to Rdma'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 Maha'bha'rata and the Rama"-
yana, however overlaid with fable, form the chronicles of the
kings of the Middle Land of Bengal (Madhya-desa), their
62 THE ARYANS IN INDIA.
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 Kuma'ra-sambhava, both assigned to Kaliddsa, take the first
rank. The Raghu-vansa celebrates the Solar line of Raghu,
King of Ajodhya, and especially his descendant Rdma. 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, nataka, is
derived from ndfa, a dancer. But the Sanskrit plays of the
classical age which have come down to us, probably belong to
the period between the ist century B.C. and the 8th century
A.D. The father of the Sanskrit drama is Ka'lida'sa, 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.
7 Sakuntala. The most famous drama of Kalidasa is Sakun-
tald, or the ' Lost Ring.' Like the ancient epics, it divides its
action between the court of the king and the hermitage in the
forest. Prince Dushyanta, an ancestor of the noble Lunar race,
weds a beautiful Brdhman girl, Sakuntala, at her 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 recognised
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
MalidbMrata, Sakuntala", like Sita", is a type of the chaste
and faithful Hindu wife ; and her love and sorrow, after form-
LA TER HIND U LITER A TURE. 63
ing the favourite romance of the Indian people for perhaps
eighteen hundred years, have supplied a theme for Goethe, the
great European poet of our age.
Other Dramas. Among other Hindu dramas may be men-
tioned the Mrichchhakatf, 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 Maha'bha'rata or Rama'yana, 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 6th
century A.D. ; and thence found its way to Europe. The
animal fables of ancient India are the beloved 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 Gita 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. 92. ^
,V Brahman Influence. In order to understand the long
rule of the Brahmans, and the influence' wM<s^ih^t^till
wield, it is necessary ever to keep in min(C wfearrtsP 1 *" 1 as
the great literary caste. Their priestly suprgMJiiL^ias been
repeatedly assailed, and was during a space of nearly a
thousand years overthrown. But throughout twenty-two cen-
turies the Brahmans have been the writers and learned men of
India, the counsellors of Hindu princes and the teachers of the
Hindu people.
CHAPTER V.
Buddhism 543 B.C. to 1000 A.D.
Rise of Buddhism, 543 B.C. The Brahmans had firmly estab-
lished their power 600 years before Christ. But after that
date a new religion arose in India, called Buddhism, from
its founder, Gautama Buddha. This new religion was a rival
to Brahmanism during more than a thousand years. About
the pth century A.D. it 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.
X Early Life of Gautama Buddha. Gautama, afterwards named
BUDDHA, ' The Enlightened,' was the only son of Suddho-
dana, 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 yrince
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 LIFE OF BUDDHA. 65
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. L This giving up of princely
pomp, and of loved wife and new-born son, is the Great Re-
nunciation which forms a favourite theme of the Buddhist
Scriptures. '
\ 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 Gay a, and during six years wasted himself by
austerities in company with five disciples. The temple of
Buddh-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 a mountain
cave, 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.'
X 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 Bralimans, 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
66 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, Bra"hmans and hermits, husbandmen and
serfs, noble ladies and repentant women who had sinned,
were added to those who believed. Buddha preached through-
out 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.
/ Buddha's Death and Last Words. Buddha's Great Re-
nunciation 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 stedtast 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, in 543 B.C.
X, The Law of Karma. The secret of Buddha's success was,
that he brought spiritual deliverance to the people. He
THE TEACHING OF BUDDHA. 67
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 state 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 life 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
dike 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 sins, 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 that 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, kind-
ness to other men, and reverence for the life of all sentient
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. Buddh-
ism has from the first been a missionary religion. One of
68 BUDDHISM.
the earliest acts of Buddha's public ministry was to send
forth the Sixty. He also formed a religious order, whose
duty it was to go forth unpaid and preach to all nations.
While, therefore, the Brdhmans 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
in 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 be-
came the Three Collections of Buddha's teaching ; and the
word for a Buddhist Council means literally ' a singing to-
gether.'
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.
X 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. Asoka was grandson of Chandra Gupta, whom we shall
afterwards hear of in Alexander's camp. He 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 Emperor 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 Authoritative Revision or Canon of
the Buddhist Scriptures.
The Work of Asoka. In 244 B.C., Asoka convened at
Patna" the Third Buddhist Council, of one thousand elders.
Evil men, taking on them the yellow robe of the Buddhist
THE FOUR BUDDHIST COUNCILS. 69
order, had given forth their own opinions as the teaching
of Buddha. Such heresies were now corrected ; and the
Buddhism of Southern Asia practically dates from Asoka's
Council. In a number of edicts, both before and after that
Council, he published throughout his empire the grand prin-
ciples 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. 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 convert all mankind to Buddhism. The rock in-
scriptions record how he sent forth missionaries ' to the utmost
limits of the barbarian 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
effected 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 Buddhist 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.
Meanwhile Buddhist missionaries were preaching all over
Asia. About 244 B.C., Asoka's son carried his father's Southern
Canon of the sacred books to Ceylon, whence it spread in
later times to Burma and the Eastern Archipelago. The
70 BUDDHISM.
Northern Canon of Buddhism, as laid down at the Council of
Kanishka, became the State religion of China in 65 A.D. ;
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.
J - 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, 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,
therefore, 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. Some scholars hold that Buddhism
is merely a religion based on the 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 Ma'ya'-devi, in reference to the Ma'ya' 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 pre-
ceded 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.
THE CHINESE PILGRIMS. 71
Bra"hmanism never crushed. Buddhism never drove Brah-
manism out of India. The two religions lived together during
more than a thousand years, from 250 B.C. to about 1000 A.D.
Modern Hinduism is the joint product of both. In certain
kingdoms of India, and at certain periods, Buddhism prevailed.
But Bra"hmamsm was at no time crushed. The Chinese
Pilgrims to India in 400 and 630 A.D. found Buddhist monas-
teries and Brdhman temples side by side.'
.* Council of Siladitya, 634 A.D. In Northern India, for ex-
ample, a famous Buddhist king, Sila"ditya, ruled at the latter date.
He seems to have been an Asoka of the 7th 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 Canon of Kanishka and the Southern
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.
< Sila'ditya's Charity. Siladitya held a solemn distribution
of his royal treasures every five years. The Chinese Pilgrim
Hiouen Thsang 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. Sildditya 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 Renunciation of Buddha, and at the same time
72 BUDDHISM.
practised the highest duty laid down by the Brahmans, namely
almsgiving.
Monastery of Nalanda. The vast monastery of Nalanda
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 medicine, 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 it was three times destroyed by the enemies
of the Buddhist faith.
Victory of Brahmanism, 600 to 800 A.D. After 800 A.D.
Brahmanism gradually became the ruling religion. Legends
dimly tell of persecutions stirred up by Brahman reformers.
But the downfall of Buddhism seems to have resulted 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 Muhammadans 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 home. But it has won greater triumphs in its exile
than it could have ever achieved in the land of its birth. It has
created a literature and a religion for nearly one-half of the human
race, and has modified the beliefs 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 Turkistdn, 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 in a line,
from what are now the boundaries of the Russian empire, to
the islands of the Pacific. During twenty-four centuries,
Buddhism has encountered and outlived a series of rival faiths.
At this day it forms, with Christianity and Islam, one of the
THE JAINS. 73
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 best doctrines still live in Hinduism. It also left
behind a special sect, the Jains, who number about half a
million. Like the Buddhists, they deny the authority of the
Veda, except in so far as it agrees with their own doctrines ;
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-four Jinas, 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 exquisitely carved shrines in white marble or
dazzling stucco. The Jains 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.
* The Present Influence of Buddhism in India. The noblest
survivals of Buddhism in India are to be found, however, not
among any peculiar body, but in the religion of the 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 out-
cast ; 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.
CHAPTER VI.
The Greeks in India, 327 to 161 B.C.
External Sources of the History of India. The external
history of India commences with the Greek invasion in 327 B.C.
Some indirect trade between India and the Mediterranean
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. But India to the east of the Indus was first made
known to Europe by the historians and men of science who
accompanied Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, 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 Jhelum (Hydaspes). 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 Jhelum with a force which, substituting chariots for guns,
about equalled the army of Ranjit Sinh, 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 Jhelum, about 14 miles west of the
modern field of Chilianwa'la, the Greek king crossed under
shelter of a tempestuous night. The chariots hurried out by
Porus stuck in the muddy bank of the river. In the engage-
ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 75
ment which followed, the elephants of the Indian prince
refused to face the Greeks, and, wheeling round, trampled his
own army under foot. His son fell early in the onset ; Porus
himself fled wounded ; but, on tendering his submission, he
was confirmed in his kingdom, and became the conqueror's
trusted friend. Alexander built two memorial cities on the
site of his victory, Bukephala, on the west bank of the
Jhelum (near the modern Jaldlpur), named after his beloved
charger slain in the battle ; and Nikaia, the present Mong, 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 Sobr^on, 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 Jhelum
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 Jhelum. He
there embarked 8000 of his troops in boats, and floated them
down the river; 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
MuMn, then as now the capital of the Southern Punjab, he
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, Alexandria, the modern Uchh, and received the sub-
76 THE GREEKS IN INDIA.
mission of the neighbouring States. A Greek garrison and
satrap, which he here left behind, laid the foundation of a
lasting influence. Having constructed a new fleet, suitable for
the greater rivers on which he was now to embark, he proceeded
southwards 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 Haidarabdd, the capital of Sind. At the mouth of the
Indus, Alexander beheld for the first time the majestic pheno-
menon of the tides. One part of his army he shipped off
under the command of Nearchus to coast along the Persian
Gulf; the remainder he himself led through Southern Balu-
chistan and Persia to Susa, where, after terrible losses from
want of water and famine on the march, he arrived in
325 B.C.
X Results of Alexander's Expedition. During his two years'
campaign in the Punjab and Sind, Alexander captured no
Province ; but he made alliances, founded cities, and planted
Greek garrisons. He had given much territory to Chiefs
devoted to his cause ; every petty 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, were visible pledges of his return.
A large part of his army remained in Bactria; and in the par-
tition of the empire after Alexander's death in 323 B.C., Bactria
and India fell to Seleukos Nikator, the founder of the Syrian
monarchy.
x Chandra Gupta. Meanwhile a new power had arisen in
India. Among the Indian adventurers who thronged Alex-
ander'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 igno-
minious part. He tried to tempt the wearied Greeks on the
banks of the Beas with schemes of conquest in the rich south-
eastern Provinces ; but, having personally offended their leader,
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
MEGASTHENES. 77
Magadha, or Behar (316 B.C.). He seized their capital, Patali-
putra, the modern Patna"; established himself firmly in the
Gangetic valley, and compelled the north-western principalities,
Greeks and natives alike, to acknowledge his suzerainty. While
the Greek general Seleukos was winning his way to the 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.;
Chandra Gupta in the Gangetic valley from 316 to 292 B.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,
husbandmen, shepherds, artisans, soldiers, inspectors, and the
counsellors of the king. The philosophers were the Brahmans,
and the prescribed stages of their life are indicated. Megas-
thenes draws a distinction between the Brdhmans (Brachman.es)
and the Sramans (Sarmanai), from which some scholars infer
that the Buddhist Sramanas or monks were a recognised order
fifty years before the Council of Asoka. But the Sarmanai
also include Brahmans in the first and third stages of their
life, 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 over-
seer 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 they
excelled all other Asiatics ; they required no locks to their
78 THE GREEKS IN INDIA.
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
mentions that India was divided into 118 kingdoms; some of
which, as the Prasii under Chandra Gupta, exercised suzerain
powers. The village system is well described, each little rural
unit seeming to the Greek an independent republic. Megas-
thenes 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.
Husbandry depended on the periodical rains ; and forecasts of
the weather, with a view to ' make adequate provision against
a coming deficiency,' formed a special duty of the Brahmans.
' The philosopher,' he says, ' who errs in his predictions observes-
silence for the rest of his life.'
Later Greek Invasions. After the time of Alexander the
Greeks made no great 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 next hundred
years 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 knowledge of
astronomy and their beautiful sculptures. 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.
CHAPTER VII,
The Scythic 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 Central 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 Central Asia, swarmed
forth into India and into China. These Scythic inroads
had gone on during a great period of time. Buddha himself
is said by some to have been a Scythian. But they took
place in greatest 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 Changis Khan
and Timur, and which in the end founded the Mughal
empire.
Seythic 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 passes of these mountains, 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.
Its most famous king was Kanishka, who summoned the
8o THE SCYTHIC INROADS.
Fourth Buddhist Council about 40 A.D. King Kanishka held
his court in Kashmir ; but his territories stretched 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.,
China-pad in the Punjab was pointed out as the town 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 Bengal. 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.
Scythic Eaces 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 frontier Provinces at
the present day. For example, two old Scythian tribes, the
Getae and the Dahae, dwelt side by side in Central Asia, and
probably advanced together into India. Some scholars hold
that the Jats, who form nearly one-half of the inhabitants
of the Punjab, are descended from these ancient Getae ;
and that their great subdivision, the Dhe, in like manner
sprang from the Dahae. Other scholars try to show that
certain of the Rajput tribes are of Scythian origin. How-
ever 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 Vikramdditya,
king of Ujjain in Malwa, in honour of whose victories one of
the great eras in India, or systems of reckoning historical
dates, was founded. It is called the Samvat era, and begins
KING VIKRAMADITYA. 81
in 57 B.C. Its founder is still known as Vikramaditya Sakari,
or Vikramaditya the enemy of the Scythians. 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. Thus the beautiful drama of Sakuntald,
written perhaps about the beginning of the Christian era, is
assigned to one of ' The Nine Jewels ' of the court of Vikrama'-
ditya; while a great Sanskrit Dictionary, probably written
nine or ten centuries later, is ascribed to another. The truth
is that the name Vikrama'ditya is a title, meaning ' A very Sun
in Prowess,' which has been borne by several kings in Indian
history. But the Vikrama'ditya of the first century before Christ
was the greatest of them, great alike as a defender of his
country against the Scythian hordes, as a patron of men of
learning, 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 Saliva"hana ; and a new era, called the Sdka or
Scythian, was founded in his honour in 78 A.D. These two
eras, the Sarnvaf, 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 Sdh 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, Ma"lwa",
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, Hiouen Thsang, gives a full
82 THE SCYTHIC INROADS.
account of the court and people of Valabhi (630-640 A.D.).
Buddhism was the State religion ; but heretics (i.e. Brahmans)
abounded; and the Buddhists themselves were divided be-
tween the northern school of the Scythian dynasties, and the
southern or Indian school of Asoka. The Valabhis seem to
have been overthrown by the early Arab invaders of Sind in
the eighth century A.D.
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 had advanced beyond
the rude existence of the hunter to the settled industry of the
tiller of the soil. In their family life, a woman had only one
husband, and their domestic 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
poured into India from 126 B.C. to 400 A.D., were neither
hunters like the Indian non-Aryan tribes, nor cultivators like
83
84 GR WTH OF HIND UISM.
the Aryans. They were shepherds or herdsmen, who roamed
across the plains of Central Asia with their cattle, and whose
one talent was for war.
The Aryan Work of Civilisation, The Aryans supplied,
therefore, the civilising 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 Bralimans, created a religion and
a literature. The early Brahman religion made no account of
the lower races ; but 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. Budd-
hism 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 Br^hmans.
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, Kuma'rila not only preached
against the Buddhists, but persuaded a king of Southern India
to persecute them. This prince, it is said, ' commanded his
servants to put to death the old men and the young children
CASTE. 85
of the Buddhists, from the southernmost point of India to
the Snowy Mountain. Let him who slays not, be slain.' At
that time, however, there was no king in India whose
power to persecute reached from the Himalayas to Cape
Comorin. The story is 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.
Two-fold 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 Buddhism 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. As a social league, Hinduism arranged the
people afresh into the old division of the ' Twice-born ' Aryan
castes, namely the Brahmans, Kshattriyas, and 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 in 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 oc-
cupations assigned to them. They could be divided either
into Brahmans, Kshattriyas, Vaisyas, and Siidras ; 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 quite distinct classes, or
86 CR WTH OF HIND UISM.
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 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 Rdjputs 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, occupa-
tion, and geographical position. It is very difficult even to
guess at the number of the Indian castes. But there are not
fewer than 3000 of them which 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, each caste should also 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 their business ; and it promotes good
feeling by feasts or social gatherings. The famous manufactures
CASTE AS A TRADE-GUILD. 87
of mediaeval 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. 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 Ahmeda'ba'd could not
find work. Men of this class sometimes added to their daily
wages by rising very early in the morning, and working over-
time. But when several families complained that they could
not get employment, the bricklayer's 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 cloth-
dealers 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 Ahmedabad 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, however,
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,
83 GROWTH OF HINDUISM.
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
mixture of precious metal and dross, to be worked up into the
Hindu gods.
Buddhist Influences. Buddhism not only inspired Hinduism
with its noble spirit of charity, but also bequeathed to it many
of its institutions. The Hindu monasteries in Orissa in our
own day may vie with the Buddhist convents of SfMditya
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 an hospital for sick animals, a true
survival of the system of medical aid for man and beast which
King Asoka founded 244 B.C. The religious life of the Hindu
Vishnuvite sect is governed by the old rules laid down by
Buddha himself. The great Bengal scholar, Rajendra Lala
Mitra, himself a Vishnuvite, believes 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, rude
stones, and 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 creative energy, may perhaps be traced back to the
Scythian tribes who came to India, before the dawn of history,
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-Mala, literally ' The Garland
of the Faithful,' compiled by Nabhdji 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
SIVAITE REFORMERS. 89
greater ones rank as divine incarnations prophesied of old.
According to the Hindu stories, some were said to be born
of virgins ; others overcame lions ; raised the dead ; their
hands and feet when cut off sprouted afresh ; prisons were
opened to them ; the sea received them and returned them to
the land unhurt, while the earth opened and swallowed up
their slanderers. Their lives were marvellous, and the deaths
of some a solemn mystery.
Sankara Acharya, 9th 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 persecu-
tion of Buddhism throughout India in the 8th century A.D.
His yet more famous disciple was Sankara Acharya, with
whom we reach historical ground. Sankara was born in
Malabar, 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 Brdhmans 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 8th
or Qth 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 Brdhman 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 De-
stroyer and Reproducer, represented profound philosophical
doctrines, and was early recognised as being in a special
sense the god of the Bralimans. To them he was the symbol
of death as merely a change of life. On the other hand,
his terrible aspects, preserved in his long list of names, from
the Roarer (Rudra) of the Veda, to the Dread One (Bhima)
of the modern Hindu pantheon, 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"-deva,
or Great God of modern Hinduism ; and his wife is Devi,
90 GROWTH OF HINDUISM.
pre-eminently THE Goddess. His universal symbol is the
Hnga t or emblem of reproduction ; his sacred beast, the bull,
is connected with the same idea j a trident tops his temples.
His images partake of his double nature. The Brahmanical
conception of Siva is represented 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, in like manner, appears
in her Aryan or Brahmanical form as Uma, ' Light,' a
gentle goddess and the type of high-born loveliness ; 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 coun-
tenance, dripping with blood, crowned with snakes, and hung
round with skulls.
Two-fold 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 harm-
less offerings of rice. But the low-castes pour out the lives of
countless victims at the feet of the terrible Kali ; and until
lately, in time of pestilence and famine, tried in their despair
to appease the relentless goddess by human blood. During
the dearth of 1866, in a temple of Kdli within 100 miles of
Calcutta, 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 25 miles
from Calcutta), the head 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 purusha-
med/ia, or man - offering, whether real or symbolical, of the
SIVAITE SECTS. 91
ancient Aryan faith, but form a part of the non-Aryan religion
of terror, which demands that the greater the need, the greater
shall be the propitiation.
The Thirteen Sivaite Sects. The thirteen chief sects of
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 triad.
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.
All Dandis follow the non- Aryan custom of burying their dead,
or commit the body to some 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 existence in an unearthly union with Siva, to the impostor
who pretends 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 Aghoris, 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 worship.
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 ' descents ' on
earth, ten or twenty-two in number, Vishnu-worship, with the
unerring instinct of a popular religion, chose the two most
beautiful and most human for adoration. As Rama and
Krishna, 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 Mahdbhdrata. He afterwards grew into the central
92 GR WTH OF HIND UISM.
figure of Indian pastoral poetry ; was spiritualized into the
supreme god of the Vishnuvite Purdnas ; and now flourishes
as the most popular deity of the Hindus. Under his title of
Jagannath, 'The Lord of the World,' he is especially wor-
shipped at Puri, whence his fame has spread through the
civilised 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
always a bright and friendly god, who asks no offerings but
flowers, and to whom the shedding of blood is an offence.
The official records, and an accurate examination on the
spot, alike disprove the calumnies of some English writers on
this subject.
The Vishnu Pur&na, circ. 1045 A.D. In the nth century,
the Vishnuvite doctrines were gathered into a religious treatise.
The Vishnu Purdna dates from about 1045 A.D., and probably
represents, as indeed its name implies, ' ancient ' traditions
which had co-existed with Sivaism and Buddhism for cen-
turies. 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 Pura"nas or Sanskrit
theological works, in which the Brahman moulders of Vish-
nuvism 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 represent-
ing the one eternal God. They are said to contain i 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.
Vishnuvite Apostles Bamnuja, 1150 A.D. The first of
the line of Vishnuvite reformers was Ramdnuja, a Brahman
of Southern India. In the middle of the i2th 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 enforce Sivaite conformity throughout his
VISHNUVITE REFORMERS. 93
dominions, Rama'nuja fled to the Jain sovereign of Mysore.
This prince he converted to the Vishnuvite faith by expelling
an evil spirit from his daughter. Seven hundred monasteries,
of which four still remain, are said to have marked the spread
of his doctrine before his death.
Ramanand, 1300-1400 A.D. Ramanand stands fifth in the
apostolic succession from Rama'nuja, and spread his doctrine
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. Rama'nuja had addressed
himself chiefly to the pure Aryan castes, and wrote in the
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 de-
velopment 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, 1380-1420 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 i5th 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
Muhammadans, or as the Rama of the Hindus. ' To All 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
94 GROWTH OF HINDUISM.
God is to the east [Benares], the city of the Musalman God
is to the west [Mecca] ; but explore your own heart, for there is
the God both of the Musalma"ns 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 AH and of Rama.
He is my guide, he is my priest.'
Chaitanya, 1485-1527 A.D. In 1485 Chaitanya was born,
and spread the Vishnuvite doctrines, with the worship of
Jaganna'th, throughout the deltas of Bengal and Orissa.
Signs and wonders attended Chaitanya through life ; and
during four centuries he has been worshipped as an incarna-
tion of Vishnu. Extricating ourselves from the halo of legend
which surrounds and obscures the apostle, 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. Im-
plicit belief and incessant devotion were his watchwords.
Contemplation rather than ritual was his pathway to salva-
tion. 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 liberation does not
mean the mere annihilation of separate existence. It consists
in nothing more than an entire freedom from the stains and
the frailties of the body.
The Chaitanya Sect. The followers of Chaitanya belong
to every caste, but they acknowledge the rule of the descend-
ants of the original disciples (gosdins). 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
VISHNUVITE REFORMERS. 95
clusters of houses around a temple to Krishna ; and in this
way the adoration of Chaitanya has become a sort of family
worship throughout 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 com-
munity. 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 having spread in Calcutta.
Vallabha-Swmi, circ. 1520 A.D. The death of Chaitanya
marked the beginning of a spiritual decline in Vishnu-worship.
About 1520, Vallabha-Swdmf preached in Northern India that
the liberation of the soul did not depend upon the mortifica-
tion of the body; and that God was to be sought, not in
nakedness and hunger and solitude, 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 stimulated by the
Christian tradition of the Divine Child. Another influence
of Christianity on Hinduism may possibly be traced in the
growing function assigned by the Krishna sects to bhakti, or
faith, as an all-sufficient instrument of salvation.
Krishna - worship. Vallabha - Swami was the apostle of
Vishnuvism 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,
96 GROWTH OF HINDUISM.
exquisite viands, and everything that appeals to the luscious
sensuousness of a tropical race, are mingled in his worship.
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 Vishnuvite reformers dwelt together in
secluded monasteries, went about scantily clothed, living upon
alms. But this sect performs its devotions 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 Beligious Bond of Hinduism, The worship of Siva
and Vishnu acts as a religious bond among the Hindus, in
the same way as caste supplies the basis of their social or-
ganization. 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 significance,
with the phallic linga as his emblem. The middle classes
and the trading community adore some incarnation of Vishnu.
The low-castes propitiate Siva the Destroyer, or one of his
female manifestations, such as the dread Ka"li. But almost
every Hindu of education feels that his outward object of
homage is merely his ishta-devatd, or a chosen form under
which to adore the Deity, PARAM-ESWARA.
CHAPTER IX.
Early Muhammadan Conquerors, 714-1526 A.D.
Muhammadan Influence on Hinduism. Hinduism was for
a time submerged, but never drowned, by the tide of Muham-
madan conquest, which first set 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 native
Chiefs are still under Brdhman 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 Musalma'n
capitals ; and in the swamps of Lower Bengal, the bulk of the
aboriginal population have become converts to the Muham-
madan religion.
Early Muhammadan Dynasties, 714-1526 A.D. The
present chapter is devoted to the early Muhammadan con-
querors in the north of India before the rise of the Mughal
Empire. But it is convenient to give in this place a chrono-
logical list of all the Muhammadan dynasties, whose succession
makes up so large a part of the history of mediaeval India.
CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS
AND DYNASTIES OF INDIA, 1001-1857.
I. HOUSE OF GHAZNI (Turkf).
1001-1186. Mahmud of Ghazni
to Sultan Khusrii.
II. HOUSE OF GHOR (Afghan ?).
1186-1206. Muhammad Ghori
(Shahab-ud-din).
III. SLAVE KINGS (chiefly Turld).
1206-1290. Kutab-ud-din to Bal-
ban and Kaikubad.
IV. HOUSE OF KHILJI (Turk!?).
1290-1320. Jalal-ud-din to Nasir-
ud-din Khusru.
V. HOUSE OF TUGHLAK (Punjab
Turki).
1320. Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlak.
1325. Muhammad Tughlak.
1351. Firuz Tughlak.
1414. End of the dynasty.
9 3
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 Tugh-
lak, until the accession of
the Sayyids in 1414.]
VI. THE SAYYIDS.
1414-1450. Curtailed power of
Delhi.
VII. THE LODIS (Afghan).
1450-1526. Feeble reigns; inde-
pendent States arise.
VIII. HOUSE OF TIMUR (Mughal).
1526-1530. Babar.
1530-1556. Humayun.
[Sher Shah, the Afghan Gover-
nor of Bengal, drives Huma-
yun out of India in 1540,
and his Afghan dynasty rules
till I55S-]
1556-1605. Akbar the Great.
1605-1627. Jahangfr.
1628-1658. Shah Jahan; deposed.
1658-1707. Aurangzeb or Alam-
gir I.
1707-1712. Bahadur Shah, or
Shah Alam I.
1712. Jahandar Shah.
1713-1718. Farrukhsiyyar.
1719-1748. Muhammad Shah
(after two boy Emperors).
[Irruption of Nadir Shah the
Persian, I738-I739-]
1 748- 1 754. Death of Muhammad
Shah ; and accession of Ahmad
Shah, deposed 1754.
1754-1759. Alamgir n.
[Six invasions of India by
Ahmad Shah Durani, the
Afghan, 1748-1761.]
1759-1806. Shah Alam II., titular
Emperor.
1806 - 1834. Akbar II., titular
Emperor.
1834-1857. Muhammad Bahadur
Shah, titular Emperor ; the
seventeenth and last Mughal
Emperor ; died a State prisoner
at Rangoon in 1862.
The Bise of Isl&m. 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 nations 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 fixed eager eyes upon that wealthy
country.
Arab Invasions of Sind, 636 to 828 A.D. Fifteen years
after the death of the prophet, Usman sent a naval expedition
to Thana and Broach on the Bombay ^oast (636 A.D.). Other
raids towards Sind took place in 662 and 664, with no results.
In 712, however, the youthful Ka"sim advanced into Sind, to
THE ARABS IN SIND. 99
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 Musalma"ns
depended on the personal daring of their leader, and was
arrested by his death in 714 A.D. The despairing 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; but it was not till 828 A.D. that the Hindus regained
possession of Sind.
India on the Eve of the Muhammadan Conquest. The
armies of Islam had carried the crescent from the Hindu
Kush westwards, through Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe,
to distant Spain and Gaul, before they obtained a foot-
hold 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 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-desha) was divided
among powerful kingdoms, with their suzerain at Kanauj.
The lower Gangetic valley, from Behar downwards, was still
in part governed by Pa"! 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 Hindu kingdom of Malwa", 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 warlike princes, chiefly of non-Aryan
loo EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS.
descent, but loosely grouped under three great over-lords
represented by the Chera, Chola, and Pandya dynasties.
Hindu Power of Eesistance. Each of these groups of king-
doms, 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 brilliant attempt in
712, to found a lasting Muhammadan dynasty in Sind, failed.
Three centuries later, the utmost efforts of a series of Musalman
invaders from the north-west only succeeded in annexing a
small portion of the frontier Punjab Province, between 977
and 1176 A.D. The Hindu power in Southern India was not
completely broken till the battle of Talikot in 1565 ; and within
a hundred years, in 1650, the great Hindu revival had com-
menced, which, under the form of the Marhatta 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 (1556-1605). Up to Akbar's time, and
during the earlier years of his reign, a series of Rajput wars had
challenged the Muhammadan supremacy. In less than two
centuries, the successor of Akbar was a puppet and a prisoner
in the hands of the Hindu Marhattas at Delhi
Muhammadan Conquests only Partial and Temporary.
The popular notion that India fell an easy prey to the Musal-
mans is opposed to the historical facts. Muhammadan rule in
India consists of a series of invasions and partial conquests,
during eleven centuries, from Usman's raid in 636 to Ahmad
Shdh's tempest of devastation in 1761 A.D. They represent in
Indian history the overflow of the nomad tribes of Central
Asia to the south-east , as the Huns, Turks, and various Tartar
tribes disclose in early European annals the westward move-
ments 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 height of the
MAHMUD OF GHAZNI. 101
Muhammadan power, the Hindu princes paid tribute, and
sent agents to the imperial court But even this modified
supremacy of Delhi lasted for little over a century (1578-1707).
Before the end of that brief period, the Hindus had again
begun the work of re-conquest The native chivalry of Raj-
p,utana 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 Marhattas combined the fight-
ing powers of the low-castes with the statesmanship of the
Brahmans, and subjected the Muhammadan kingdoms through
out India to tribute. So far as can now be estimated, the
advance of the English power at the beginning of the present
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, Jdipal, the Hindu Chief
of Lahore, annoyed by Afghan raids, led his troops up the
passes against the Muhammadan kingdom of Ghazni, in
Afghanistan. Subuktigin, the Ghaznivide prince, after severe
fighting, took advantage of a hurricane to cut off the Hindu
retreat 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 ^25,000). Tradition
relates how Jaipal, having regained his capital, was counselled
by the Brahmans 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 down the hills to enforce his
ransom, defeated Jaipal, and stationed an Afghan officer with
10,000 horse to garrison PeshaVar. Subuktigin was soon after-
wards called away to fight in Central Asia, and his Indian raid
left behind it only this outpost But henceforth the Afghans
held both ends of the passes.
* Mahmud of Ghazni, 1001-1030. In 997, Subuktigin died,
and was succeeded by his son, Mahmiid of Ghaznf, aged
sixteen. This valiant monarch reigned for thirty-three years,
and extended the limits of his father's little Afghan kingdom
102 EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS.
from Persia on the west, to deep into the Punjab on the east.
Having spent four years in consolidating his power to the west
of the Khaibar Pass, he led forth in 1001 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 unsuc-
cessful incursion into Kashmir, and the remaining three were
short but furious raids against more distant cities, Kanauj,
Gwalior, and Somnath. Ja"ipa"l, the Hindu frontier Chief of
Lahore, was again defeated. According to Hindu custom,
a twice-conquered prince was deemed unworthy to reign;
and Ja"ipal, 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 Pesha'war. 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 Guzerat (1024 A.D.). After bloody repulses, he took the
town. The Hindu garrison, leaving 5000 dead, put out in
boats to sea. The famous idol of Somnath was merely one of
the twelve lingas or phallic emblems erected in various parts
of India. But Mahmud, having taken the name of the ' Idol-
Smasher,' the modern Persian historians gradually converted
the plunder of Somnath into a legend of his pious zeal. For-
getting the contemporary accounts of the idol as a rude block
of stone, Firishta tells how Mahrmid, on entering the temple,
was offered an enormous ransom by the priests if he would
soare the image. But Mahmud cried out that he would rather
be remembered as the breaker than the seller of idols, and
MAHMUD OF GHAZNI. 103
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. Mahmdd carried off the temple
gates, with fragments of the phallic emblem, to Ghazni, and on
the way nearly perished with his army in the Indus desert.
But the famous ' sandal-wood gates of Somnath,' brought back
as a trophy from Ghazni by Lord Ellenborough in 1842, and
paraded through Northern India, were as clumsy a forgery as
the story of the jewel-bellied idol himself. Mahmtfd died at
Ghaznf in 1030 A.D.
Eesults of Mahmtid's Invasions. As the result of seventeen
invasions of India, and twenty-five years' fighting, Mahmud
had reduced the western districts of the Punjab to the control
of Ghazni, and left the remembrance of his raids as far as
Kanauj on the east and Guzerat 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 had left Peshawar as an outpost garrison, so Mahmdd
left the Punjab as an outlying Province of Ghaznf.
Stories about Mahmtid. 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.
Mahrmid 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. Mahnuid 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, meaning a golden one, for
each verse on its completion. After thirty years of labour, the
poet claimed his reward. But the Sulta'n, finding that the
104 EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS.
poem had run to 60,000 verses, -offered him 60,000 silver
dirhams, instead of dirhams of gold. Ferdousi retired in
disgust from the court, and wrote a bitter satire, which tells of
the base birth of the monarch to this day. Mahmud 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, 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 Mahmiid's successors as a
Musalman Province. There had long been a bitter feud
between the Afghdn towns of Ghor and Ghazni. Mahmud
had subdued Ghor in 1010; but about 1051 the Ghorian
Chief captured Ghazni 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 out-
lying Indian territory. In 1186, this also was wrested from
him ; and the Ghorian prince Shahdb-ud-din, better known as
Muhammad 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 Hindus at Thanesar, badly wounded,
and barely escaped with his life. His scattered hosts were
chased for 40 miles. But he gathered together the wreck at
Lahore, and, aided by new hordes from Central Asia, 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 in Northern
India. A Chauhan prince, ruling over Delhi and Ajmere,
bore the proud name of Prithwi Raja" or Suzerain. The
Rihtor king of Kanauj, whose capital can still be traced across
MUHAMMAD OF GHOR. 105
eight square miles of broken bricks and rubbish, celebrated
a feast, in the spirit of the ancient horse sacrifice, to proclaim
himself the over-lord. At such a feast all menial offices had
to be filled by royal vassals ; and 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 swayamvara, or ' own-choice ' of
a husband, as in the Sanskrit epics. 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. Forth-
with, 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 army
against the runaways, and, having called in the Afghans to
attack Delhi on the other side, brought about the ruin of both
the Hindu kingdoms.
y Distribution of Eajputs, circ. 1193. The tale serves to
record the disputes among the Rajput princes, which pre-
vented a united resistance to Muhammad of Ghor. He found
Delhi occupied by the Toma'ra clan, Ajmere by the Chauhans,
and Kanauj by the Rahtors. These 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 Chauha"n over-lord, only 64
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 1194 over-
threw the rival Hindu monarch of Kanauj, whose body was
identified on the field of battle by his false teeth. The brave
Rdhtor 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
106 EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS.
bordering on the eastern desert of the Indus, and there
founded the military kingdoms which bear their name, Raj-
putdna, 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 Rdja" 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 Musalmdn
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.
y Muhammadan Conquest of Bengal, 1203. Setting aside
these patriot songs, Benares and Gwalior mark the south-
western limits of Muhammad of Ghor's own advance. But
his general, Bakhtiydr Khiljf, conquered Behar in 1199, and
Lower Bengal down to the delta in 1203. On the approach
of the Musalmans, the Brdhmans advised Lakshman Sen, the
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 without having time to put on his shoes, and fled to
Puri in Orissa, where he spent his remaining days in the service
of Jaganna"th. Meanwhile the Sultan, Muhammad of Ghor,
divided his time between campaigns in Afghanistan and Indian
invasions. Ghaznf 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 like Mahmud of Ghazni,
but a practical conqueror. The objects of his distant expe-
ditions were not temples, but Provinces. Subuktigin had left
THE SLAVE DYNASTY. 107
Peshdwar as an outpost of Ghaznf (977 A.D.) ; and Mahmtfd
had reduced the Western Punjab to an outlying Province of
the same kingdom (1030 A.D.). That was the net result of
the Tiirkf invasions of India. 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 for themselves (1206 A.D.).
X 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 preserved at his capital by the Kutab Mosque, with
its graceful colonnade of richly-sculptured Hindu pillars, and
by the Kutab Minar, which raises its tapering shaft, encrusted
with chapters from the Kurdn, high above the ruins of old
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 condition 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 Muhammadan sovereigns.
Kutab-ud-din died in 1210.
*The Slave Dynasty, 1206-1290. The Slave Dynasty found
itself face to face with the three perils which have beset the
Muhammadan rule in India from the outset, and beneath
which that rule eventually succumbed. First, rebellions by its
own servants, Musalmdn 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 line, had to reduce the Muhammadan governors
of Lower Bengal and Sind, both of whom set up as inde-
pendent rulers ; and he narrowly escaped destruction by a
Mughal invasion. The Mughals under Changiz Khdn pierced
through the Indian passes in pursuit of an Afghan prince ;
but their progress was stayed by the Indus, and Delhi re-
mained untouched. Before the death of Altamsh (1236 A.D.),
the Hindus had ceased for a time to struggle openly; and th2
IDS EARL Y MUHAMMADAN CONQ UER ORS.
Muhammadan Viceroys of Delhi ruled all India north of the
Vindhya* range, including the Punjab, the North - Western
Provinces, Oudh, Behar, Lower Bengal, Ajmere, Gwalior,
Ma"lwa, and Sind. The Khalif of Baghdad acknowledged
India as a separate Muhammadan kingdom during the reign
of Altamsh, and struck coins in recognition of the new
Empire of Delhi (1229 A.D.). Altamsh died in 1236.
V. The Empress Raziya, 1236-1239. His daughter Raziya" was
the only lady who ever occupied the Muhammadan throne of
Delhi. Learned in the Kura"n, industrious in public business,
firm and energetic in every crisis, she bears in history the
masculine name of the Sultdn Raziya". But the favour which
she showed 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.
X Mughal Irruptions and Rajput Revolts. Mughal irrup-
tions and Hindu revolts 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-four years they repeatedly marched down the Afghan
passes into the Punjab (1244-1288). The wild Indian tribes,
such as the Ghakkars and the hillmen of Mewat, ravaged the
Muhammadan lowlands almost up to the capital. Rajput
revolts foreshadowed that inextinguishable vitality of the Hindu
military races, which was to harass, from first to last, the
Mughal Empire, and to outlive it. Under the Slave Kings,
even the north of India was only half subdued to the Muham-
madan sway. The Hindus rose again and again in Malwa,
Rdjputana, Bundelkhand, and along the Ganges and the
Jumna, as far as Delhi itself.
x 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 Ra"jput clans, he was also compelled to watch
his own viceroys. Having in his youth entered into a com-
pact for mutual support and advancement with forty of his
Turkf 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
THE RHILJI DYNASTY. 109
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 Mewa't, south of Delhi,
putting 100,000 persons 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 in Central Asia drove a crowd of princes and poets
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 KJiilji, succeeded to the Delhi throne, and founded a
line which lasted for thirty years. The Khilji dynasty ex-
tended the Muhammadan power into Southern India. Ala"-
ud-din, the nephew and successor of the founder, when
governor of Karra, near Allahabad, pierced through the
Vindhyd 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", AM-ud-din 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 himself out as
flying from his uncle's court, to seek service with the Hindu
King of Raja"mahendri. The generous Rajput princes ab-
stained from attacking a refugee in his flight ; and Ala-ud-din
surprised the great city of Deogirf, the modern DaulataMd,
at that time the capital of the Hindu kingdom of Maharashtra.
Having suddenly galloped into its streets, he announced himself
as only the advance guard of the whole imperial 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 Sultdn Jaldl-ud-din, his uncle, to Karra, in
1 10 EARL Y MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS.
order to divide the spoil, and murdered the old man in the
act of clasping his hand (1295 A.D.).
X Reign of Ala-ud-din, 1295-1315. Ala-ud-din scattered his
spoils in gifts or charity, and proclaimed himself Sultan.
The twenty years of his reign established the Muhammadan
sway in Southern India. He reconquered Guzerat from the
Hindus in 1297; captured Rintimbur, after a difficult siege,
from the Jaipur Rajputs in 1300; took the fort of Chittor,
and partially subjected the Sesodia Rajputs (1303); and,
having thus reduced the Hindus on the north of the Vindhyas,
prepared for the conquest of the Deccan. But before start-
ing on this great expedition he had to meet five Mughal
inroads from the north. In 1295, he defeated a Mughal in-
vasion under the walls of his capital, Delhi; in 1304-5, he
encountered four others, sending all 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).
X 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 Hindu kingdom of Telingana. In 1306, Kafur marched
victoriously through Malwa and Khandesh into the Marhatta
country, where he captured Deogiri, and persuaded the Hindu
king Rdm Deo to return with him to do homage at Delhi.
While the Sultdn Ala'-ud-din was conquering the Rajputs in
MarwaV, his slave general, Kafur, made expeditions through
Maha"ra"shtra and the Karnatic, 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 Afghan
King of Delhi. Three great waves of invasion from Central
Asia had created a large Muhammadan population in Northern
India. First came the Tiirkfs, represented by the house of
Ghazni ; then the Afghans (commonly so called), represented
ALA- UD-DIN IN SOUTHERN INDIA. \ \ i
by the house of Ghor; finally, the Mughals, having failed
to conquer the Punjab, took service in great numbers
with the Sultans of Delhi. Under the Slave Kings the
Mughal mercenaries had become so powerful as to re-
quire to be massacred (1286). About 1292, three thousand
Mughals, having been converted from their old Tartar rites
to Muhammadanism, received a suburb of Delhi, still called
Mughalpur, for their residence. Other Mughals followed. After
various plots, Ala-ud-din slaughtered 15,000 of the settlers,
and sold their families as slaves (1311 A.D.). The unlimited
supply of soldiers which he could thus draw upon from the
Tiirkf, Afghan, and Mughal races in Northern India and the
countries beyond, enabled him to send armies farther south
than any of his predecessors. But in his later years the
Hindus revolted in Guzerat ; the Rajputs reconquered Chittor ;
and many of the Muhammadan garrisons were driven out of
the Deccan. On the capture of Chittor in 1303, the 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 indepen-
dence, although in abeyance during AU-ud-din's reign, was
never crushed. Having imprisoned his sons, and given him-
self up to paroxysms of rage and intemperance, Al-ud-din
died in 1315, helped to the grave, it is said, by poison given
by his favourite general, KaYur.
X A Kenegade Hindu Emperor, 1316-1320. During the four
remaining years of the house of Khiljf, the actual power
passed to Khusru Khdn, a low-caste renegade Hindu, who
imitated the military successes and vices of his patron, Kafur,
and personally superintended his murder. Khusru became
all in all to the debauched Emperor Mubarik ; then slew him,
and seized the throne. While outwardly professing Islam,
Khusru desecrated the Kuran by using it as a seat, and
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.
H2 EARLY MUHAMMAD AN CONQ UERORS.
House of Tughlak, 1320-1414. The leader of the rebellion
was Ghiyas-ud-dm Tughlak, who had started life as a Tiirki
slave, and risen to the frontier governorship of the Punjab.
He founded the Tughlak dynasty, which lingered on for
ninety-six years, although submerged by the invasion of Timiir
(Tamerlane) in 1398. Ghiyas-ud-dm (1320-24 A.D.) removed
the capital from Delhi to a spot about four miles farther east,
and called it Tughlakabdd.
* Muhammad Tughlak, 1324-1351. His son and successor,
Muhammad Tughlak, was an accomplished scholar, a skilful
captain, and a man of severe abstinence. But his ferocity of
temper, perhaps inherited from the tribes of the steppes,
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 AU-ud-
din in buying off the Mughal hordes, who again and again
swept down on the Punjab. On the other hand, in fits of
ambition, he raised an army for the invasion of Persia, and
sent out an expedition of 100,000 men against China. The
first force broke up for want of pay, and plundered his own
dominions; the second perished almost to a man in the Hima"-
layan 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.
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 migrations 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 expanded the use of paper notes,
early devised by the Chinese ; and Kai Khatu had introduced a
bad imitation of them into Persia. 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.
MUHAMMAD TUGHLAK. 113
* Revolt of the Provinces, 1338-1351. Meanwhile the Pro-
vinces began to throw off the Delhi yoke. Muhammad Tughlak
had succeeded in 1324 to the greatest empire which had, up
to that time, acknowledged a Muhammadan Sultan in India.
But his bigoted zeal for Isla"m forbade him to trust either
Hindu princes or Hindu officers ; 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 throwing off its allegiance as soon
as another had been brought back to subjection. His own
nephew rebelled in Mdlwd, and, being caught, was flayed alive
(1338). The Punjab governor revolted (1339), was crushed,
and put to death. The Musalma'n viceroys of Lower Bengal
and of the Coromandel coast set up for themselves (about
1340), and could not be subdued. The Hindu kingdoms ot
Karnata and Telingana recovered their independence (1344),
and expelled the Musalma'n garrisons. The Muhammadan
'governors in the Deccan also revolted ; while the troops in
Guzerat 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 Guzerat, Malwd, and Sind. He died in
1351, while chasing rebels in the lower valley of the Indus.
X Muhammad Tughlak's Revenue Exactions. Muhammad
Tughlak was the first Musalma'n ruler of India who can be
said to have had a 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
wickedness. He surrounded a large tract with his army,
'and then gave orders that the circle should close towards
the centre, and that all within it (mostly inoffensive peasants)
should be slaughtered like wild beasts.' This sort of hunt
was more than once repeated ; and on a subsequent occasion
H
1 14 EARL Y MUHAMMADAN CONQ UERORS.
there was a general massacre of the inhabitants of the
great city of Kanauj. These horrors led in due time to
famine ; and the miseries of the country exceeded all powers
of description.
X Firuz Shah Tughlak, 1351-1388. His son, Firuz Tughlak,
ruled mercifully, but had to recognise the independence of
the Muhammadan kingdoms of Bengal and 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 work drew its waters from the Jumna near a
point where it leaves the mountains, and connected that river
with the Ghaggar and the Sutlej by irrigation channels. Part
of it has been reconstructed by the British Government, and
spreads a margin of fertility on either side to this day. But
the dynasty of Tughlak soon sunk amid Muhammadan
mutinies and Hindu revolts, and left India an easy prey to
the great Mughal invasion of 1398.
X Timur's (Tamerlane's) Invasion, 1398. In that year,
Timiir (Tamerlane) swept through the Afghan passes at the
head of the united hordes of Tartary. He defeated the
Tughlak King Mahnnid 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 Timur 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's marble mosque on the banks of the Jumna.
He crossed the Ganges, and proceeded to Hardwar, after a
great massacre at Meerut. Then, skirting the foot of the hills,
he retired westwards into Central Asia (1399). Tirmir left no
traces of his power in India, save desolate cities. On his
departure, Mahmud Tughlak crept back from his retreat in
Guzerat, and nominally ruled till 1412.
The Sayyids and the Lodis. The Tughlak line ended in
1414. The Sayyid dynasty ruled from 1414 till 1450; and the
Afghan house of Lodi from 1450 to 1526. But some of these
THE VIJAYANAGAR EMPIRE. 115
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 Bdbar in 1526.
Hindu Kingdoms of the South. Babar founded the
Mughal 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 Vindhyd, range. The
three ancient kingdoms, Chera, Chola, and Pandya, occupied
the Dravidian country, peopled by Ta"mil - speaking races.
Pandya, the largest of them, had its capital at Madura, and
traces its foundation to the 4th 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 288 to 900 A.D. The n6th
king of the Pandya dynasty was overthrown by the Muham
madan general Malik Kafur in 1304. But the Musalmans
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 i8th century. No European king-
dom can boast a continuous succession such as that of Madura,
traced back by the piety of genealogists for more than two
thousand years. The Chera kingdom enumerates fifty kings,
and the Chola sixty-six, besides minor dynasties.
\ Kingdom of Vijayanagar. But authentic history in Southern
India begins with the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar or Nar-
sinha, from 1118 to 1565 A.D. The capital can still be traced
within the Madras District of Bellary, 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 triangle. Its Rajas waged war and made
peace on equal terms with the Muhammadan Sultans of the
Deccan.
X Muhammadan States in the Deccan. The Sultans of
Southern India derived their origin from the conquests of
1 16 EARL Y MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS.
Ala-ud-din (1303-1306). After a period of confused fighting,
the Bahmani kingdom of the Deccan emerged as the repre-
sentative of Muhammadan rule in Southern India. Zafar
Kha"n, an Afghan general during the reign of Muhammad
Tughlak (1325-1351), defeated the Delhi troops, and set up as
Musalman sovereign 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 Bahmani, and
transmitted it to his successors.
X The Bahmani Dynasty. The rise of the Bahmani dynasty
is usually assigned to the year 1347, and it lasted for 178
years, until 1525. Its capitals were successively at Gulbargah,
Warangal, and Bi'dar, all in Haidaraba"d ; and it loosely
corresponded with the Nizam's dominions of the present day.
At the height of their power, the Bahmani kings claimed
sovereignty 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
Vindhyds. 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 Afghans and Rajputs. The Hindu Rdja of
Vijayanagar recruited his armies from Afghan mercenaries,
whom he paid by assignments of land, and for whom he built
a mosque. The Bahmani troops, on the other hand, were
frequently led by converted Hindus. The Bahmani armies
were themselves made up of two hostile sects of Musalmdns.
One sect consisted of Shias, chiefly Persians, Turks, or
Tartars from Central Asia; the other, of native-born Musal-
mans of Southern India, together with Abyssinian mercenaries,
both of whom professed the Sunni faith. The rivalry between
these Musalman sects frequently imperilled the Bahmani
throne. The dynasty reached its highest power under Ala-ud-
MUHAMMAD AN KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN. 117
din ii. about 1437, and was broken up by its discordant
elements between 1489 and 1525.
* Five Muhammadan States of the Deccan, 1489-1688. Out
of its fragments, five independent Muhammadan kingdoms in
the Deccan were formed. These were (i) The Adil Shdhi
dynasty, with its capital at Bijapur, founded in 1489 by a son
of Amurath n., Sultan of the Ottomans ; annexed by the
Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1686-1688. (2) The Kutab
Shdhi dynasty, with its capital at Golconda, founded in 1512
by a Turkoman adventurer; also annexed by Aurangzeb in
1687-1688. (3) The Nizam Sha"hi dynasty, with its capital at
Ahmednagar, founded in 1490 by a Brahman renegade from
the Vijayanagar Court ; subverted by the Mughal Emperor
Shin Jahdn in 1636. (4) The Imad Shalif dynasty of Berar,
with its capital at Ellichpur, founded in 1484 also by a Hindu
from Vijayanagar ; annexed to the Ahmednagar kingdom
(No. 3) in 1572. (5) The Band Sha"hi dynasty, with its capital
at Bidar, founded 1492-1498 by a Turk or Georgian slave.
Territories small and undefined ; independent till after 1 609 ;
Bidar fort taken by Aurangzeb in 1657.
V 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 indepen-
dence until the firm establishment of the Mughal Empire in
the north, under Akbar's successors. For a time they had
to struggle against the great Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar.
But in 1565 they combined against that power, and, aided by
a rebellion within its own borders, they overthrew it at Talikot
in 1565. The battle of Talikot marks the final downfall of
Vijayanagar as a centralized Hindu kingdom. But its local
Hindu Chiefs or Ndyaks kept hold of their respective fiefs, and
the Muhammadan kings of the south were only able to annex
a part of its dominions. From the Na"yaks are descended the
well-known Pdlegars of the Madras Presidency, and the
present Maha'ra'ja' 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,
1 18 EARL Y MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS.
claiming the same high descent, lingers to the present day
near the ruins of Vijayanagar, and is known as the Rajd of
Anagundi, a feudatory of the Nizam of HaidaraMd. The
independence ol the local Hindu Rajas in Southern India
throughout the Muhammadan period is illustrated by the
Manjar^bad 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-din, 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 by Huma'yun. Bengal was finally incorporated
with that empire by Akbar in 1576. The great Province
of Guzerat in Western India had in like manner grown into
an independent Muhammadan kingdom, which lasted for
two centuries, from 1371 till conquered by Akbar in 1573.
Malwd, which had also risen to be an independent State
under its Muhammadan governors, was annexed by the King
of Guzerat in 1531- Even Jaunpur, including the territory of
Benares, in the centre of the Gangetic valley maintained its
independence as a Musalma'n State for nearly a hundred years,
from 1393 to 1478, during the disturbed rule of the Sayyids
and the first Lodi at Delhi.
CHAPTER X.
The Mughal Dynasty, 1526-1761.
Babar, 1482-1530. When, therefore, Ba"bar invaded India
in 1326, he found it divided among a number of local
Muhammadan kings and Hindu princes. An Afghan SuMn
of the house of Lodi, with his capital at Agra, ruled over what
little was left of the historical kingdom of Delhi. Ba"bar,
literally 'the Lion,' born in 1482, was the sixth in descent from
Timur 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 line, in 1497. Overpowered by a
rebellion, and driven out of the valley of the Oxus, he 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, Ibrahim Lodi, at Panipat. This was the
first of three great battles which decided the fate of India
on that same plain, viz. in 1526, 1556, and 1761. Having
entered Delhi, he received the allegiance of the Muham-
madans, but was speedily attacked by the Rajputs of Chittor.
Those clans had brought all Ajmere, Mewa"r, and Mdlwa
under their rule, and now threatened to found a Hindu
empire. In 1527, Bdbar defeated them at Fatehpur Sikri,
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 Multa'n in the Southern
Punjab, and Behar in the eastern valley of the Ganges, Bdbar
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.
Hurn&yun, Emperor, 1530-1556. His son, Huma'yu'n, sue-
120 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY.
ceeded him in India, but had to make over Kdbul and the
Western Punjab to his brother and rival, Ka'mra'n. Humayun
was thus left to govern the new conquest of India, and at the
same time was deprived of the country from which his father
had drawn his support. The descendants of the early Afghan
invaders, long settled in India, hated the new Muhammadan
hordes of Bdbar even more than they hated the Hindus. After
ten years of fighting, Humayun was driven out of India by these
Afghans under Sher Shall, the Governor of Bengal. While
flying through the desert of Sind to Persia, his famous son Akbar
was born in the petty fort of Umarkot (1542). Sher Shah set
up as emperor, but was killed while storming the rock fortress
of Kalinjar (1545). His son succeeded. But, under Sher
Shah's grandson, the third of the Afghan house, the Provinces
revolted, including Malwa, the Punjab, and Bengal. Hurnayiin
returned to India, and Akbar, then only in his thirteenth year,
defeated the Afghan army after a desperate battle at Panipat
(1556). India now passed finally from the Afghans to the
Mughals. Sher Shdh's line disappears; and Huma'yu'n, having
recovered his Kabul dominions, reigned again for a few months
at Delhi, but died in 1556.
CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE REIGN OF AKBAR,
1556-1605.
1542. Born at Umarkot in Sind.
1556. Regains the Delhi throne for his father, Humayun, by the victory
over the Afghans at Panipat (Bairam Khan in actual command).
Succeeds his father a few months after, under the regency of Bairam
Khan.
1560. Assumes the direct management of the kingdom. Revolt of Bairam,
who is defeated and pardoned.
1566. Invasion of the Punjab by Akbar's rival brother, Hakim, who is
defeated.
1561-1568. Subjugates the Rajput kingdoms to the Mughal Empire.
1572-1573. Campaign in Guzerat, and its re-annexation to the empire.
1576. Re-conquest of Bengal ; its final annexation to the Mughal Empire.
1581-1593. Insurrection in Guzerat. The Province finally subjugated in
1593-
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 Vindhyas as far as Kabul and Kandahar.
AKBAR THE GREAT. 121
1595. Unsuccessful expedition of Akbar's army into the Deccan against
Ahmednagar under his son, Prince Murad.
1599. Second expedition against Ahmednagar by Akbar in person. Cap-
tures the town, but fails to establish Mughal rule.
1601. Annexation of Khandesh, and return of Akbar to Northern India.
1605. Death at Agra.
Akbar the Great, 1556-1605. Akbar the Great, the real
founder of the Mughal Empire as it existed for two 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, Humayiin, left but a small
kingdom in India, scarcely extending beyond the Districts
around Agra and Delhi. At the time of Humdyiin's death,
Akbar was absent in the Punjab, under the guardianship of
Bairam Kha"n, fighting the revolted Afghans. Bairam, a
Turkoman by birth, had been the support of the exiled Huma-
yiin, and held the real command of the army which restored
him to his throne at Panipat. He now became the regent for
the youthful Akbar, under the honoured title 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 ad-
vantage 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 Baira"m was in the
act of starting on a pilgrimage to Mecca, when he fell beneath
the knife of an Afgha*n 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
into petty kingdoms, and seething with discordant elements ;
on his death in 1605, he bequeathed it an empire. The earlier
invasions by Turks, Afghans, and Mughals had left a powerful
Muhammadan population in India under their own Chiefs.
Akbar reduced these Musalman States to Provinces of the
Delhi Empire. Many of the Hindu kings and Ra"jput nations
122 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY.
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 against the Mughal party in Upper India,
and against the Afghan faction in Bengal.
Reduction of the Rajputs, 1561-1568. Humiyun had left
but a small kingdom, confined to the Punjab, with the Districts
round Delhi and Agra. Akbar quickly extended it, at the ex-
pense 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 heir, Salim, who afterwards reigned under the title of
Jahdngir, to the grand-daughter of the Raja, The Rajputs of
Chittor were overpowered after a long struggle, but would not
mingle their high-caste Kshattriya blood even with that of an
emperor. They found shelter among the mountains and amid
the 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 every Hindu State. 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. Ra'ja' Man Sinh, also a Hindu relative, did good
war service for Akbar from Kabul to Orissa, and ruled as his
Governor of Bengal from 1598 to 1604. His great finance
minister, Rdja' Todar Mall, was likewise a Hindu, and carried
out the first land settlement and survey of India. Out of 415
mansabddrs, or commanders of horse, 5 1 were Hindus. Akbar
abolished thejaziah, or 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
AKBAR THE GREAT. 123
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 machinery of his empire.
With their aid he reduced the independent Muhammadan
kings of Northern India. He subjugated the petty potentates
from the Punjab to Behar. After a struggle, he wrested Bengal
from its Afghan princes of the house of Sher Shah, who
had ruled it from 1539 to 1576. From the latter date,
Bengal remained during two centuries a province of the Mughal
Empire, under governors appointed from Delhi (1576-1765).
In 1765, it passed by an imperial grant to the British. Orissa,
on the Bengal seaboard, submitted to Akbar's armies, under
his Hindu general, Todar Mall, in 1574. On the opposite
coast of India, Guzerat was reconquered from its Muhammadan
king (1572-73), although not finally subjugated until 1593.
Malwa 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 had extended the Mughal Empire from the heart of
Afghanistan across all India north of the Vindhya's, eastward
to Orissa, and southward to Sind. He removed the seat of
government from Delhi to Agra, and founded Fatehpur Sfkri
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 Efforts in Southern India. His efforts to establish
the Mughal Empire in Southern India were less successful.
Those efforts began in 1586, but during the first twelve years
were frustrated by the valour and statesmanship of Cha"nd Bibi,
the Musalmdn queen of Ahmednagar. This celebrated lady
I2 4 . THE MUGHAL DYNASTY.
skilfully united the Abyssinian and the Persian factions in the
Deccan, and strengthened herself by an alliance with Bijdpur
and other Muhammadan States of the south. In 1599, Akbar
led his armies in person against the princess ; but notwith-
standing her assassination by her mutinous troops, Ahmednagar
was not reduced till the reign of Shah Jahan, in 1637. Akbar
subjugated Khdndesh, and with this somewhat precarious
annexation his conquests in the Deccan ceased. He returned
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 Jahdngir. 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, the 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 literature 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 IsUm), he
loved to collect professors of many religions around him. He
listened impartially to the arguments of the Brdhman and the
Musalman, the fire -worshipper, the Jew, the Jesuit, and the
sceptic philosopher. The history of his life, the Akbar-ndmah,
records such a conference, in which the Christian priest Redif
disputed with a body of Muhammadan mullds before an
assembly of the doctors of all religions, and is given the best
of the argument Starting from the broad ground of general
toleration, Akbar was gradually led on by the stimulus of
cosmopolitan discussion to question the truth of his inherited
beliefs. The counsels of his friend Abul Fazl, coinciding
with that sense of superhuman omnipotence which is bred of
despotic power, led him at kst to promulgate a new State
religion: 'The Divine Faith,' based upon natural theology,
AKBAR THE GREAT. , 125
and comprising the best practices of all known creeds. 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, 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
Provinces, 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 pre-
venting 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 (j'dgirs) 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 (mir-i-adl]
at the capital, aided by kdzis or law-officers in the principal
towns. The police in the cities were under a superintendent
or kotwdl, 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 force can be said to have existed for the
protection of person and property until after the establishment
of British rule. The Hindu village had its hereditary watch-
man, who in many parts of the country was taken from the
predatory castes, and as often leagued with the robbers as
126 % THE MUGHAL DYNASTY.
opposed them. The landholders and revenue officers had each
their own set of personal police, who plundered the peasantry
in their names.
Akbar's Kevenue 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 settle-
ment, were at first repeated every year. But, to save the
peasant from the extortions 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 Kdbul beyond
the Afghan frontier, and Khandesh in Southern India, he
demanded 14 millions sterling per annum; or, excluding
Kabul, Khandesh, and Sind, 12 J millions. The British land
tax from a much larger area of Northern India was only 12
millions in 1879. Allowing for the difference 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 (bumi), 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 of
miscellaneous taxes. Akbar's total revenue is estimated at
42 millions.
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,
JAHANG1R. 127
compiled 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.
Jahangir, Emperor, 1605-1627. Salim, the favourite son
of Akbar, succeeded his father in 1605, and ruled until 1627,
under the title of Jatdngir, 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 the Deccan, but
he added little to his father's territories. India south of the
Vindhya's still continued apart from the northern Empire of
Delhi. Malik Ambar, the Abyssinian minister of Ahmed-
nagar, maintained, in spite of reverses, the independence of
that kingdom. At the end of Jahangir's reign, his rebel son,
Prince Shdh Jahdn, was a refugee in the Deccan, in alliance
with Malik Ambar against the Mughal troops. The Rajputs
also began to reassert their independence. In 1614, Prince^ i(
Shah Jaha'n, on behalf of the emperor, defeated the Uddiptrr "
Rajd. But the conquest was only partial and for a time.
Meanwhile the Rdjputs formed an important contii
the imperial armies, and 5000 of their cavalry
Jahan to put down a revolt in Kabul. The Afghan Province
of Kandahar was wrested from Jaha"ngfr by the Persians in
1621. The land tax of the Mughal Empire remained at
17^ millions under Jahdngir, but his total revenues are esti-
mated at 50 millions sterling.
The Empress Nur Jaha'n. The principal figure in
Jahangir's reign is his empress, Nur Jaha'n, the 'Light of
the World,' otherwise known as Nur Maha"l, the ' Light of the
Palace.' Born in great poverty, but of a noble Persian family,
her beauty won the love of Jaha'ngfr while they were both
in 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
Bengal. Jahangir, on his accession to the throne, commanded
her divorce. The husband refused, and was killed. The wife,
128 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY.
being brought into the imperial palace, lived for some time in
chaste seclusion as a widow, but in the end emerged as Niir
Jaha"n, the Light of the World. She surrounded herself with
her relatives, and at first influenced Jahdngir 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 Kha"n, 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. Jahan gir died in the following year, 1627, in
the midst of a rebellion against him by his son, Shah Jaha"n,
and his greatest general, Mahlbat Kha"n.
Jahangir's Personal Character. Jahangir's personal cha-
racter is vividly portrayed by Sir Thomas Roe, the first British
ambassador to India (1615). Agra continued to be the
central seat of the government, but the imperial army on the
march formed in itself a splendid capital. Jahdngir thought
that Akbar had too openly severed himself from the Muham-
madan faith. The new emperor conformed more strictly to
outward observances, 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
smelled of wine to enter his presence. On one occasion,
a courtier 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, Jahangir tried to work wisely for his
empire. A chain hung down from the citadel to the ground,
and communicated 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. Many European adventurers repaired to his court,
and Jahdngfr patronized alike their arts and their religion. In
SHAH JAHAN. 129
his earlier years he had accepted the new faith of his father.
It is said that on his accession he had even permitted the
divine honours paid to Akbar to be continued to himself.
Jahangi'r'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 full approval.
Shall Jahan, Emperor, 1628-1658. On the news of his
father's death, Shdh Jaha"n 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 Niir
Jahan, by confining her to private life upon a liberal allow-
ance ; and by murdering his brother Shahriyar, with all mem-
bers 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 Shdh Jahan the Mughal Empire was
finally shorn of its Afghan Province of Kandahar; but it
extended its conquests in the Deccan, and raised the magni-
ficent buildings in Northern India which now form its most
splendid memorials. After a temporary occupation of Balkh,
and the actual reconquest of Kandahdr by the Delhi troops in
1637, Shah Jaha"n 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 Ahmednagar (to which Ellichpur 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 Marhattas now
appear on the scene, and commenced, unsuccessfully at
Ahmednagar in 1637, that series of persistent Hindu attacks
which were destined in the next century to break down
the Mughal Empire. Aurangzeb and his brothers carried
on the wars in Southern India and in Afgha'nista'n for their
father.
Sha"h Jaha"n's Braidings. Except during one or two
i
130 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY.
military expeditions, Sha*h Jahdn lived a magnificent life in
the north of India. At Agra he raised the exquisite mauso-
leum of the Taj Mahal, a dream in marble, ' designed by
Titans and finished by jewellers.' His Pearl Mosque, the
Moti Masjid, 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, he planned the re-transfer of the
seat of government to Delhi, and adorned that city with
buildings 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.
A deeply-recessed portal leads into a vaulted hall, rising two
storeys, like the nave of a gigantic Gothic cathedral, 375
feet in length ; ' the noblest entrance,' says the historian of
architecture, ' to any existing palace.' The Diwan-i-Khas, or
Court of Private Audience, overlooks the river, a master-
piece of delicate inlaid work and poetic design. Sha"h Jaha"n
spent many years of his reign at Delhi, and prepared 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 construc-
tion, has given place to a certain effeminate beauty in the
marble structures of Sha"h Jaha"n.
Shah Jahan's Eevenues. Under Shdh Jahan, the Mughal
Empire attained its highest union of strength with magni-
ficence. His successor added to its extent, but at the sanie
time sowed the seeds of its decay. Akbar's land revenue
of \i\ millions had been raised, chiefly by new conquests, to
22 millions sterling under Shall Jaha"n. But this sum included
Kashmfr, and five Provinces in Afghanistan, some of which
were lost during his reign. The land revenue of the Mughal
Empire within India was 2o| millions. The magnificence of
Shah JahaVs court was the wonder of European travellers.
His Peacock Throne, with its tail blazing in the shifting
AURANGZEB. 131
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 Jahangfr had
risen against his most loving father, Akbar, and as Shah
Jahan had mutinied against Jahangfr; so Sha"h Jahan in his
turn suffered from the intrigues and rebellions of his family.
In 1657, the old king fell ill; and Aurangzeb, after a treacher-
ous conflict with his brethren, deposed his father, and pro-
claimed himself emperor in 1658. The unhappy emperor
was kept in confinement for seven years, and died a State
prisoner in the fort of Agra in 1666.
CHRONOLO'GICAL SUMMARY OF THE REIGN OF AURANGZEB,
1658-1707.
1658. Deposition of Shah Jahan, and usurpation of Aurangzeb.
1659. Aurangzeb defeats his brothers Shuja and Dara. Dara, being be
trayed by a Chief with whom he had sought refuge, is put to death.
1660. Continued struggle of Aurangzeb with his brother Shuja, who
ultimately flies to Arakan, and there perishes miserably.
1661. Aurangzeb executes his youngest brother, Murad, in prison.
1662. Unsuccessful invasion of Assam by Aurangzeb's general, Mfr
Jumla. Disturbances in the Deccan. War between Bijapur and
the Marhattas under Sivajf. After various changes of fortune,
Sivajf, the founder of the Marhatta power, retains a considerable
territory.
1662-1665. Sivaji in rebellion against the Mughal Empire. In 1664, he
assumes the title of Raja, and asserts his independence ; but in 1665,
on a large army being sent against him, he makes submission, and
proceeds to Delhi, where he is placed under restraint, but soon after-
wards escapes.
1666. Death of the deposed emperor, Shah Jahan. War in the Deccan,
and defeat of the Mughals by the King of Bijapur.
1667. Sivaji makes peace on favourable terms with Aurangzeb, and ob-
tains an extension of territoiy. Sivaji levies tribute from Bijapur and
Golconda.
1670. Sivaji ravages Khandesh and the Deccan, and there levies for the
first time chauth, or a contribution of one-fourth of the revenue.
1672. Defeat of the Mughals by Sivaji.
1677. Aurangzeb revives tlaejaziah, 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 Marhattas.
132 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY.
1672-1680. Progress of the Marhattas in the Deccan. Sivajf crowns himself
an independent sovereign at Raigarh in 1674. His wars with Bijapur
and the Mughals. 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, and barbarously puts him to death.
1692. Guerilla war with the Marhattas under independent leaders.
1698. Aurangzeb captures Jinji from the Marhattas.
1699-1701. Capture of Satara and Marhatta forts by Aurangzeb. Apparent
ruin of the Marhattas.
1702-1705. Fresh successes of the Marhattas.
1 706. Aurangzeb retreats to Ahmednagar ; 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 Alamgir, the Conqueror of the Uni-
verse, and reigned until 1 707. 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
old painful drama of a Mughal reign. In its personal cha-
racter, it began with his rebellion against his father; con-
solidated 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 Muham-
madan kings in the south; and wars against the Hindu
powers, which, alike in Ra'jputa'na and 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
brother, the noble but impetuous Da"ra (1659). After another
twelve months' struggle, he drove out of India his second
brother, the self-indulgent Shuja (1660), who perished miser-
ably among the insolent savages of Arakan. His remaining
brother, the brave young Murad, was executed in prison the
following year (1661). Aurangzeb, having thus killed off his
rivals, set up as an orthodox sovereign of the strictest sect
of Islam, while his invalid father, Shah Jahan, lingered on in
AURANGZEB. 133
prison, mourning over his murdered sons, until his own death
in 1666.
x Aurangzeb's Campaigns in Southern India. Aurangzeb
continued, as emperor, that persistent policy of the subjuga-
tion of Southern India which he had so brilliantly commenced
as his father's lieutenant. Of the five Muhammadan kingdoms
of the Deccan, Bi'dar and Ahmednagar with Ellichpur had fallen
to his arms before his accession. The two others, Bijdpur
and Golconda, struggled longer, but Aurangzeb was deter-
mined 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 arisen in the Deccan, the Marhattas,
whose history will be traced in more detail in a subsequent
chapter. The task before Aurangzeb's armies was not only
the old one of subduing the Muhammadan kingdoms of
Bijapur and Golconda, but also the new one of crushing the
quick growth of the Marhatta nation.
Slow Conquest of Southern India. During a quarter of
a century, his utmost efforts failed. Bijapur and Golconda
were not conquered. In 1670, the Marhatta leader, Sivaji,
levied chauth, or one-fourth of the revenues, as tribute from
the Mughal Provinces in Southern India; and in 1674
crowned himself an independent sovereign at Ra"igarh. In
1680-1681, Aurangzeb's rebel son, Prince Akbar, gave the
prestige of his presence to the Marhatta 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 scheme of conquering Southern India.
He accordingly prepared 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. Golconda and Bijapur fell after another long
struggle, and were finally annexed to the Mughal Empire in
1688.
The Marhattas, 1688-1707.~But the conquests of these last
of the five Muhammadan kingdoms of the Deccan only left the
134 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY.
arena bare for the operations of the Marhattds. Indeed, the
attacks of the Marhattds 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 Maj-
hattas. Their first great leader, Sivaji, had proclaimed him-
self king in 1674, and died in 1680. Aurangzeb captured his
son and successor, Sambhaji, in 1689, and cruelly put him to
death ; seized the Marhatta 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 warfare, they again sprang up into a vast fighting
nation. In 1705, they recovered their forts; while Aurangzeb
had exhausted his health, his treasures, and his troops, in
the long and fruitless 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 Marhattas 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 expedi-
tion against the Marhattas, 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.
-kAurangzeb's Death. In 1 706, the Grand Army was so
disorganized, that Aurangzeb opened negotiations with the
Marhattas. He even thought of submitting the Mughal Pro-
vinces to their tribute or chauth. But their insolent exulta-
tion broke off the treaty; and Aurangzeb, in 1706, found
shelter in Ahmednagar, where he died in February of the
following year. Dark suspicion of his sons' loyalty, and just
fears lest they should subject him to the fate which he had
inflicted on his father, left him solitary in his last days. On
AURANGZEB. 135
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 ! '
X Mir JumM's Expedition to Assam, 1662. The conquest of
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 trans-
pired. Mfr 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 defied the
climate. Mir Jumla" succeeded in extricating the main body
of his troops, but died of exhaustion and a broken heart
before he reached Dacca.
Aurangzeb's Bigoted Policy. In the west of India,
Aurangzeb was not more fortunate. During his time the
Sikhs were growing into a power, but it was not till the suc-
ceeding 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
the jaziah, or insulting poll-tax on non-Musalma'ns (1677);
drove the Hindus out of the administration ; and oppressed
the widow and children of his father's faithful Hindu general,
Jaswant Sinh. A local sect of Hindus was forced into
rebellion in 1676; and in 1677, the Rdjput States combined
against him. The emperor waged a protracted war against
them, at one time devastating Ra"jputa"na, at another time
saving himself and his army from extermination only by a
stroke of genius and rare presence of mind. In 1680, his
rebel son, Prince Akbar, joined the Rajputs with his division
of the Mughal army. From that year the permanent aliena-
tion 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
136 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY.
successors. The emperor pillaged and slaughtered throughout
the Rajput States of Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udalpur. The
Rajputs retaliated by ravaging the Muhammadan Provinces
of Malwa, defacing the mosques, insulting the mitllds, or
priests of Islam, and burning the Kuran. In 1681, the em-
peror 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 henceforth Akbar's policy of conciliating
the Hindus, and welding them into one empire with his
Muhammadan subjects, is at an end.
*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 ;
while one or other of the Provinces was always in open war
against the emperor. The standard return of Aurangzeb's
land revenue was net ^34,505,890; and this remained the
nominal demand in the accounts of the central exchequer
during the next half-century, notwithstanding that the empire
had fallen to pieces. When the Afghan invader, Ahmad Shah
Durani, 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 38^ millions sterling; of which close on 38
millions were from Indian Provinces, and the remainder from
Kashmir and Kabul The total revenue of Aurangzeb was
DECLINE OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE. 137
estimated in 1695 at 80 millions, and in 1697 at 77^ millions
sterling. The gross taxation levied from British India, de-
ducting the opium excise, which is paid by the Chinese
consumer, averaged 35^- millions sterling during the ten years
ending 1879.
X Character of Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb tried to live the
life of a model Muhammadan 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 Kurdn ; his life would have been a blame-
less 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 Marhattas,
immediately after his reign, began to close in upon the em-
pire. 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
statesmen 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 141. For a time Mughal emperors
still ruled India from Delhi. But of the six immediate
successors of Aurangzeb, two were under the control of an
unscrupulous general, Zul-fika"r Khan, while the four others
were the creatures of a couple of Sayyid adventurers, 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 Nizdm-ul-Mulk, 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
138 THE MUGHAL DYNASTY.
merchant, who had risen to the post of wazir^ or prime
minister of the empire, practically established his own
dynasty in the Provinces which had been committed to his
care (1732-1743).
Hindu Kisings: Sikhs and Marhattas. The Hindu sub-
jects of the empire were at the same time asserting their
independence. The Sikh sect in the Punjab was driven by
oppression into revolt, and mercilessly crushed (1710-1716).
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 (1716). The Hindu princes of Rajputana
were more fortunate. Ajft Sinh of Jodhpur asserted his in-
dependence, and Ra"jputa"na practically severed its connection
with the Mughal Empire in 1715. The Marhattas having
enforced their claim to black-mail (chautfi) throughout Southern
India, burst through the Vindhya's upon the north, obtained
the cession of Malwa" (1743) and Orissa (1751), with an im-
perial grant of tribute from Bengal (1751).
Invasions from Central Asia, 1739-1761. While the
Muhammadan governors and Hindu subjects of the empire
were thus becoming independent, two new sets of external
enemies appeared. The first of these consisted of invasions
from the north-west. In 1739, Nddir Shdh, the Persian, swept
down with his destroying host, and, after a massacre in the
streets of Delhi and a fifty-eight days' sack, went off with a
booty estimated at 32 millions sterling. Six times the Afghans
burst through the passes under Ahmad Shah Dura"ni, pillaging,
slaughtering, and then scornfully retiring to their homes with
the plunder of the empire. In 1738, Kdbul, the last Afghan
Province of the Mughals, was severed from Delhi; and, in
1752, Ahmad Sha"h obtained the cession of the Punjab.
The cruelties inflicted upon Delhi and Northern India during
FALL OP THE MUGHAL EMPIRE. 139
these six invasions form an appalling tale of bloodshed and
wanton cruelty. The miserable capital opened her gates, and
was fain to receive the Afghans as guests. Yet on one occa-
sion it suffered for six weeks every enormity which a barbarian
army can inflict upon a prostrate foe. Meanwhile the Afghan
cavalry were scouring the country, slaying, burning, and muti-
lating, 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 horde of 25,000 Afghan horse-
men 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 housas,' says
the Tyrolese Jesuit Tieffenthaler, who was in India at that
time, ' together with their inmates, slaughtering others with the
sword 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 frontier, which had once been densely
inhabited, and which are now again thickly peopled, were
swept bare of inhabitants. Thus Gujra"nwa"la, the seat of the
ancient capital of the Punjab in Buddhist times, was utterly
depopulated. Its present inhabitants are immigrants of com-
paratively recent date. The District, which was stripped of its
inhabitants in the last century,, has now a new population of
over half a million souls.
^ Fall of the Empire, 1761-1765. The other set of invaders
came from the sea. In the wars between the French and
English in Southern India, the last vestiges of the Delhi
authority in the Karnatic disappeared (1748-61). Bengal,
Behar, and Orissa were handed over to the English by an
imperial grant in 1765. We technically held these fertile
Provinces as the nominee of the emperor; but the battle
of Pdnipat had already reduced the throne of Delhi to a
shadow. This battle was fought in 1761, between the Afghan
invader Ahmad Shdh and the Marhatta powers, on the memor-
140
THE MUGHAL DYNASTY.
able plain on which Babar and Akbar had twice won the
sovereignty of India. The Afghans defeated the Marhattas ;
but though the Muhammadans could still win victories, they
could no longer rule. During the anarchy which followed,
the British patiently built up a new power out of the wreck
of the Mughal Empire. Mughal pensioners and puppets
continued to reign at Delhi over a numerous seraglio, under
such lofty titles as Akbar n. or Alamgir (Aurangzeb) n. But
their power was confined to the palace, while Marhattas, Sikhs,
and Englishmen were fighting for the sovereignty of India.
The last nominal emperor emerged for a moment as a rebel
during 1857, and died a State prisoner in Rangoon, the capital
of British Burma, in 1862.
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 gover-
nors, but with the two Hindu confederacies, the Marhattas
and the Sikhs. Muhammadan princes fought with us in
Bengal, in the Karnatic, and in Mysore ; but the longest
opposition to the British conquest of India came from the
Hindus. Our last Marhattd war dates as late as 1818, and
the Sikh Confederation was overcome only in 1848. The
Sikh campaigns belong to a subsequent section of this his-
torical sketch, and a very brief notice of the Marhattas must
here suffice.
DECLINE AND FALL OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE. 141
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE, 1707-1862.
1707. Succession contest between Muazzim and Alam, two sons of
Aurangzeb ; victory of the former, and his accession under the title
of Bahadur Shah ; controlled by the General Zul-fikar Khan. Revolt
of Prince Kambaksh ; his defeat and death.
1710. Expedition against the Sikhs.
1712. Death of Bahadur Shah, and accession of his eldest son, Jahandar
Shah, who only ruled through his ivazir, Zul-fikar Khan. Revolt of
his nephew, Farrukhsiyyar ; and execution of the emperor and his
wazir.
1713. Accession of Farrukhsiyyar under the control of the two Sayyid
' king-makers, ' Husain All and Abdulla.
1716. Invasion by the Sfkhs ; their defeat, and cruel persecution.
1719. Deposition and murder of Farrukhsiyyar 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.
1720-1748. The Governor of the Deccan, or Nizam-ul-Mulk, establishes
his independence at Haidarabad.
1732-1743. The Governor of Oudh, who is also wazfr of the empire,
becomes practically independent of Delhi.
1735-1751. General decline of the empire; revolts within, and invasion of
Nadir Shah from Persia (1739). First invasion of India by Ahmad
Shah Duranf (1747). The Marhattas obtain Malwa (1743), followed
by the cession of Southern Orissa and tribute from Bengal (1751).
1748-1750. Accession of Ahmad Shah, son of Muhammad Shah; disturb-
ances by the Rohillas in Oudh, and defeat of the imperial troops.
1751. The Rohilla insurrection crushed, with the aid of the Marhattas.
1751-1752. Second invasion of Ahmad Shah Durani, and cession of the
Punjab to him.
1754. Deposition of the emperor, and accession of Alamgir II.
1756. Third invasion of Ahmad Shah Durani, and sack of Delhi.
1759. Fourth invasion of Ahmad Shah Durani, and murder of the Em-
peror Alamgir II. by his wazir, Ghazi-ud-dfn. Marhatta conquests
in Northern India, and their capture of Delhi.
1761-1805. Third battle of Panipat, and defeat of the Marhattas 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. In the latter year, the Marhattas restore him to a fragment
of his hereditary dominions. The emperor blinded and imprisoned
by rebels ; rescued by the Marhattas, but virtually a prisoner in their
hands till 1803, when the Marhatta power is overthrown by Lord Lake.
1806-1837. Akbar II. succeeds, but only to the nominal dignity.
1837-1862. Muhammad Bahadur Shah, the seventeenth Mughal emperor,
and last of the race of Timur. For his complicity in the Mutiny of
1857, he is banished to Rangoon, where he dies in 1862.
CHAPTER XL
The Marhattas, 1650-1818.
*Bise of the Marhatta"s. About the year 1634, a Marhattd
soldier of fortune, SHAHJI BHONSLA by name, began to play a
conspicuous part in Southern India. He fought on the side of
the two independent Muhammadan States, Ahmednagar and
Bijdpur, against the Mughals; and left a band of followers,
together with a military fief, to his son Sivaji, born in 1627.
Sivaji formed a national party out of the Hindu tribes of the
Deccan, opposed alike to the imperial armies from the north,
and to the independent Muhammadan 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 Muham-
madan States of Southern India, namely, Ahmednagar and
Bijdpur; third, the military organization of the local Hindu
tribes, which ultimately grew into the Marhattd Confederacy.
Their Growth as a ' Third Party ' in the Deccan. During
the eighty years' war of Shdh Jahdn and Aurangzeb, with a
view to the conquest of Southern India (1627-1707), the third
or Hindu party fought alternately on both sides, and obtained
a constantly 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 Confederacy drew its inexhaustible native levies from
the wide tract known as Mahdrdshtra, stretching from the
Berars in Central India to near the south of the Bombay
Presidency. The Marhattds were therefore courted alike by
the imperial generals and by the independent Muhammadan
sovereigns of the Deccan. With true Hindu statecraft, their
leader, Sivaji, from time to time aided the independent Musal-
141
SIVAJI THE GREAT. 143
man kingdoms of the Deccan against the Mughal avalanche
from the north. Those kingdoms, with the help of the
Marhattds, long proved a match for the imperial troops. But
no sooner were the Delhi armies driven back, than the Mar-
hattas proceeded to despoil the independent Musalman king-
doms. On the other hand, the Delhi generals, when allied
with the Marietta's, could completely overpower the indepen-
dent Muhammadan States.
\Sivaji, 1627-1680. Sivaji saw the strength of his position,
and, by a life of treachery, assassination, and hard fighting,
won for the Marhattas the practical supremacy in Southern
India. As a basis for his operations, he perched himself safe
in a number of impregnable hill forts among the Western
Gha"ts. His troops consisted of Hindu spearmen, mounted on
hardy ponies. They were the peasant proprietors of Southern
India, and could be dispersed or called together on a mo-
ment's notice, at the proper seasons of the agricultural year.
Sivaji had therefore the command of an unlimited body of
men, without the expense of a standing army. With these
he swooped dov/n 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 Bija"pur general into an
ambush, stabbed him at a friendly conference, and exterminated
his army. In 1662, Sivaji raided 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 Sivajf helping the Mughal armies against the
independent Musalman State of Bija"pur. 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 Rdigarh, weighing him-
self in a balance against gold, and distributi ;g the precious
counterpoise among his Brdhmans. After sending forth his
hosts as far as the Karnatic in 1676, he died in 1680.
Aurangzeb's Mistaken Policy, 1688-1707. The Emperor
144 THE MARHATTAS.
Aurangzeb would have done wisely to have left the indepen-
dent Musalman Kings of the Deccan alone, until he had
crushed the rising Marhatta power. Indeed, a great statesman
would have buried the old quarrel between the Muhammadans
of the north and south, and united the whole forces of Isla"m
against the Hindu Confederacy, which was rapidly organizing
itself in the Deccan. But the fixed resolve of Aurangzeb's
life was to annex to Delhi the Muhammadan 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 Marhattas.
"kThe Line of Sivaji Sambhaji succeeded his father, Sivajf,
in 1680, and reigned till 1689. His life was entirely spent in
wars with the Portuguese and the Mughals. In 1689, Aurang-
zeb 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
Marhattd. He wasted his life in his seraglio, and resigned the
government of his territories to his Brdhman minister, Balajf
Vishwana'th, with the title of Peshwa. This office became
hereditary, and the power of the Pes-hwa superseded that of
the Marhatta" kings. The family of Sivajf only retained the
little principalities of Sa'ta'ra and Kolhapur. Sata"ra lapsed to
the British, for want of a direct heir, in 1849. Kolhapur has
survived through their clemency, and is now ruled, under their
control, by the last of Sivaji's line.
-vThe Peshwas. Meanwhile the Peshwas were building up
at Poona the great Marhattd. Confederacy. In 1718, Bdlajf,
the first Peshwa, marched an army to Delhi in support of the
Sayyid 'king-makers.' In 1720, he extorted an imperial grant
of the chauth) or ' one-fourth ' of the revenues of the Deccan.
The Marhattas were also confirmed in the sovereignty of the
countries round Poona and Satara. The second Peshwa, Bajf
Rao (1721-40), converted the tribute of the Deccan granted
to his father into a practical sovereignty. In fifteen years
THE PUSH WAS. 145
he wrested the Province of Malwa from the 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.
\Third Peshwa, 1740-1761. The third Peshwa", Ba"lajf Baji
Rao, succeeded in 1740, and carried the Marietta" 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 Nizdm, after
two wars. The great centres of the Marietta" power were now
fixed at Poona in Bombay and Ndgpur in the Central Provinces.
In 1741-42, a general of the Ndgpur branch of the confederacy
known as the Bhonslas, swept down upon Bengal ; but, after
plundering to the suburbs of the Muhammadan capital of
Murshida'ba'd, he was driven back through Orissa by the
Viceroy AH Vardf Kha"n. The ' Marietta" Ditch,' or semi-
circular moat around part of Calcutta, records to this day
the panic which then spread throughout Bengal. Next year,
1743, the head of the Nagpur branch, Raghoji Bhonsla", invaded
Bengal in person. From this date, in spite of quarrels
between the Poona and Ndgpur Marietta's 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 AH Vardi of the chauth^ or ' quarter
revenue' of Bengal, together with the cession of Southern
Orissa. In Northern India, the Poona Marietta's raided as
far as the Punjab, and drew down upon them the wrath of
Ahmad Shah Durani, the Afghan, who had already wrested
that Province from Delhi. At the battle of Panipat, the
Marietta's were overthrown by the combined Muhammadan
forces of the Afghans and of the northern Provinces still
nominally remaining to the Mughal Empire (1761).
The Five Marhattd, Houses. The fourth Peshwa", Madhu
Ra"o, succeeded to the Marhatta sovereignty in this moment of
ruin. The Hindu Confederacy seemed doomed to destruction,
alike by internal treachery and by the superior force of the
Afghan arms. As early as 1 742, the Poona and Nagpur branches
146 THE MARHATTAS.
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 Marhatta" rout complete. The Peshwa was now little
more than the nominal head of the five great Marhatta powers
who fixed their respective headquarters at Poona, the seat of the
Peshwds; 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 Ga"ekwa"rs. Madhu Ra"o, the fourth Peshwa, just
managed to hold his own against the Muhammadan princes
of Haidara"ba"d and Mysore, and against the Bhonsli branch
of the Marhattds in Berar. His younger brother, Narayan
Rao, succeeded him as fifth Peshwa in 1772, but was quickly
assassinated.
S-Sindhia and Holkar. From this time the Peshwd's powr
at Poona begins to recede, as that of his nominal masters, the
lineal descendants of Sivaji, had faded out of sight in Satara
and Kolhapur. The Peshwas came of a high Brahman
lineage, while the actual fighting force of the Marhattas con
sisted of low-caste Hindus. It thus happened that each Mar
hatta general who rose to independent territorial sway was
inferior in caste, although possessed of more real power, than
the Peshwa", the titular head of the confederacy. Of the two
great northern houses, Holkar was descended from a shepherd,
and Sindhia from a slipper-bearer. These potentates lay quiet
for a time after their crushing disaster at Panipat. But within
ten years of that fatal field they had established themselves
throughout Ma"lwa\ and proceeded to invade the Rajput, Jat,
and Rohilla' Provinces, from the Punjab on the west to Outfh
in the east (1761-1771). In 1765, the titular emperor, Shah
Alam, had sunk into a British pensioner, after his defeat at
Baxar. In 1771, he made overtures to the Marhattas. Sindhia
and Holkar nominally restored him to his throne at Delhi, but
THE FIVE MARHATTA HOUSES. 147
held him a virtual prisoner till 1803-4, when they were over-
thrown by our second Marhatta war. Despite occasional
hostilities with the British, the dynasties of both Sindhia and
Holkar have preserved to the present day their rule over the
most fertile portion of Malwa".
The Bhonslas of Nagpur, 1751-1853. The third of the
northern Marhatta houses, namely, the Bhonslas of Berar and
the Central Provinces, occupied themselves with raids to the
east. Operating from their base at Ndgpur, they had extorted,
by 1751, the chauth, or 'quarter revenue' of Bengal, together
with the sovereignty of Southern Orissa. The accession of
the British in Bengal (1756-1765) put a stop to their raids in
that Province. In 1803, a division of our army drove them
out of Orissa. In 1817, their power was finally broken by our
last Marhattd war. Their headquarter territories, now forming
ihe Central Provinces, were administered under the guidance
of British Residents from 1817 to 1853. On the death of the
last Raghoji Bhonsla, without issue, in 1853, the Ndgpur or
Central Province lapsed to the British.
)(The Gaekwars of Baroda. The fourth of the northern
Marhattd houses, namely, Baroda, extended its power through-
out Guzerat, on the north-western coast of Bombay, and the
adjacent peninsula of Ka'thia'war. The scattered but wealthy
dominions known as the territories of the Gdekwar were thus
formed. Since our last Marhatta" war, in 1817, Baroda has
been ruled . by the Gdekwars, with the help of an English
Resident and a British subsidiary force. In 1874, the reign-
ing Gdekwar was tried by a High Commission, composed 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 Marhatta War, 1779-1781. While these four northern
houses of the Marhatta's were pursuing their separate careers,
the Peshwd's power was being broken to pieces by family
intrigues. The sixth Peshwa, Madhu Rdo Ndrayan, was born
after his father's death ; and during his short life of twenty-one
148 THE MARHATTAS.
years the power remained in the hands of his minister, Nana
Farnavis. Raghoba", the uncle of the late Peshwa, disputed
the birth of the posthumous child, and claimed for himself
the office of Peshwa. The infant's guardian, Nand Farnavis,
having called in the French, the British at Bombay sided with
Raghoba. These alliances brought on the first Marhatta war
(1779-1781), ending with the treaty of Salbdi (1782). That
treaty ceded the islands of Salsette and Elephanta with two
others to the British, secured to Raghoba" a handsome pension,
and confirmed the child-Peshwa in his sovereignty. But he only
reached manhood to commit suicide at the age of twenty-one.
^Second Marhatta War, 1803-1801 His cousin, Bsiji Ra"o n.,
succeeded him in 1795 as ^Q seventh and last Peshwa. The
northern Marhatta" house of Holkar now took the lead among
the Marhattds, and forced the Peshwa' into the arms of the
English. By the treaty of Bassein in 1802, Bajf Ra"o agreed
to receive and pay for a British force to maintain him in his
dominions. The northern Marhatta" houses combined to
break down this treaty. The second Marhatta" war followed
(1803-1804). General Wellesley (afterwards Duke of Welling
ton) crushed the forces of the Sindhia and Nagpur houses on
the fields of Assaye and Argaum in the south, while Lord
Lake disposed of the Marhatta" armies at Laswari and Delhi in
the north. In 1804, Holkar was completely defeated at Dig.
These campaigns led to large cessions of territory to the
British, the final overthrow of French influence in India, and
the restoration of the titular Delhi Emperor under the protecf-
tion of the English.
\Last Marhatta War, 1817-1818. In 1817-1818, the Peshwji,
Holkar, and the Bhonsla' at Na"gpur, took up arms, each on his
own account, against the British, and were defeated in detail.
That war broke the Marhatta power for ever. The Peshwa,
Bdji Ro, surrendered himself to the British, and his territories
were annexed to our Bombay Presidency. The Peshwa" re-
mained a British pensioner at Bithiir, near Cawnpore, on a
magnificent allowance, till his death. His adopted son grew
up into the infamous Ndn Shib of the Mutiny of 1857, when
the last relic of the Peshwas disappeared from the eyes of men.
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. Her Chris-
tian conquerors came by the sea from the south. From
the time of Alexander the Great to that of Vasco da Gama,
Europe held little direct intercourse with the East An
occasional traveller brought back stories of powerful kingdoms
and of untold wealth. But the passage by sea was scarcely
dreamed of; and by land wide deserts and warlike tribes lay
between. Commerce, indeed, never ceased entirely, being
carried on chiefly by the Italian cities on the Mediterranean,
which traded to the ports of the Levant. To the Europeans
of the 1 6th century India was an unknown land, which power-
fully attracted the nations awakened by the religious move-
ments of that period, and ardent for fresh discoveries. In
1492, Christopher Columbus sailed westwards under the
Spanish flag to seek India beyond the Atlantic, bearing with
him a letter to the great Kha*n of Tartary. He found America
instead.
^ Vasco da Gama, 1498. An expedition under Vasco da
Gama started from Lisbon five years later, in the opposite
direction. It doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and cast
anchor off the city of Calicut on the zoth May 1498, after
a voyage of nearly eleven months. From the first, Da Gama
encountered hostility from the Moors, or rather Arabs, who
monopolized the sea-borne trade ; 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 noble-
man of your household, has visited my kingdom, and has given
148
ISO EARL V EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
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'
Early Portuguese Governors. In 1502, the King of
Portugal obtained from Pope Alexander vi. a bull constitut-
ing him ' Lord of the Navigation, Conquests, and Trade of
Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India.' In that year Vasco fla
Gama set sail a second time for India, with a fleet numbering
twenty vessels. He formed an alliance with the Ra'ja's of
Cochin and Cananore against the Zamorin of Calicut, and
bombarded the latter in his palace. In 1503, the great
Alfonso d' 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 thousand men was sent under
Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Governor and
Viceroy of India. In 1509, Albuquerque succeeded %s
governor, and widely extended the area of Portuguese influ-
ence. Having failed in an attack upon Calicut, he seized Goa
in 1510, which has since remained the capital of Portuguese
India. Then, sailing round Ceylon, he captured Malacca, the
key to the navigation of the Indian Archipelago, and opened a
trade with Siam and the Spice Islands. Lastly, he sailed back
westwards, and, after penetrating into the Persian Gulf and the
Red Sea, returned to Goa, only to die, in 1515. In 1524,
Vasco da Gama came out to the East for the third time, and
he too died at Cochin, in 1527.
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 Moors 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 live in
THE PORTUGUESE IN INDIA. 151
friendship with 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
utter their complaints, as if in the presence of his spirit, and
call upon God to deliver them from the tyranny of his suc-
cessors.
^Downfall of the Portuguese in India. In 1580, the
Portuguese crown was united with that of Spain under Philip
n. The interests of Portugal in Asia were henceforth sub-
ordinated to the European interests of Spain. In 1640,
Portugal again became a separate kingdom. But in the
meanwhile the Dutch and English had appeared in the Eastern
seas, and before their indomitable competition the Portuguese
empire of the Indies withered away as rapidly as it had sprung
up.
I The Portuguese Possessions in 1871. 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 1086
square miles, and a population of 407,712 souls. The genera.
Census of 1871 also returned 426 Portuguese in British India,
not including those of mixed descent About 30,000 of the
latter 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
successively the great emporia whence Indian produce, im-
ported 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 arctic
expeditions, in the last of which he perished. The first
152 EARL Y EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
Dutchman to double the Cape of Good Hope was Cornelius
Houtman, who reached Sumatra and Bantam in 1596. Forth-
with private companies for trade with the East were formed in
many parts of the United Provinces ; but in 1602, they were
all 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 the Dutch possessions in the East Indies, which had
previously been at Amboyna. At about the same time they
discovered the coast of Australia, and in North America
founded the city of New Amsterdam or Manhattan, now New
York.
Dutch Supremacy in the Eastern Seas. During the 17111
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
Archipelago to the continent of India, and thus led to the 7
foundation of our Indian Empire. The long naval wars and
bloody battles between the English and the Dutch within the
narrow Eastern seas, were not terminated until William of
Orange united the two countries in 1689. In the Archipelago
the Dutch ruled 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 Filar river; 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
their earlier settlements on the pepper-bearing coast of Malabar;
and in 1669, they expelled the Portuguese from St. Thom and
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 monopoly of the
trade in spices, and remained from first to last destitute of
THE DUTCH AV INDTA. 153
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 civilisation among the natives with whom
they came in contact. The knell of Dutch supremacy was
sounded by dive, when in 1758 he attacked the Dutch at
Chinsurah both by land and water, and forced them to an
ignominious capitulation. In the great French wars from 1793
to 1811, England wrested from Holland every one of her
colonies ; although Java was restored in 1816, and Sumatra
exchanged for Malacca in 1824. At the present time, the
Dutch flag flies nowhere on the mainland of India. But
quaint houses at Chinsurah, Negapatam, Jaffnapatam, and
other petty ports on the Coromandel and Malabar coast, with
the formal canals or water-channels in some of these old settle-
ments, remind the traveller of scenes in the Netherlands.
X Early English Adventurers, 1496-1596. The earliest
English attempts to reach India were made by the North-west
passage. In 1496, Henry vn. 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 route.
They failed, but discovered the island of Newfoundland, and
sailed along the coast of America from Labrador to Virginia.
In 1553, the ill-fated Sir Hugh Willoughby attempted to force
a passage along the north of Europe and Asia, the successful
accomplishment of which has been reserved for a Swedish
officer in our own day. Sir Hugh perished miserably; but his
second in command, Chancellor, reached a harbour on the
White Sea, now Archangel. Many subsequent attempts were
made to find a North-west passage from 1576 to 1616. They
have left on our modern maps the imperishable names of
Frobisher, Davis, Hudson, and Baffin. Meanwhile, in 1577,
Sir Francis Drake had circumnavigated 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
r 54 EARLY E UR OPE AN SE TTLEMENTS.
English merchants Ralph Fitch, James Newberry, and
Leedes went out to India overland as mercantile adventurers.
The jealous Portuguese threw them into prison at Ormuz,
and again at Goa. At length Newberry settled down as
a shopkeeper at Goa; Leedes entered the service of the
Great Mughal; and Fitch, after lengthened wanderings in
Ceylon, Bengal, Pegu, Siam, Malacca, and other parts of the
East Indies, returned to England. The defeat of the 'In-
vincible 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
London and Amsterdam. In 1599, the Dutch raised the
price of pepper against the English from 33. to 6s. and 8s. per
pound. The merchants of London held a meeting on the 22d
September at Founders' Hall, with the Lord Mayor in the
chair, and agreed to form an association for the purposes of
trading directly with India. Queen Elizabeth also sent Sir
John Mildenhall by Constantinople to the Great Mughal to
apply for privileges for an English company. On the 3ist
December 1600, the English East India Company was in-
corporated 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 shareholder^,
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 Mer-
chants,' from a factory subsequently founded by it in Madagas-
car, was established in 1635, but, after a period of internecine
rivalry, combined with the London Company in 1650. In 1655,
the ' Company of Merchant 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
FOUNDATION OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 155
Society trading to the East Indies,' which was incorporated
under powerful patronage in 1698, with a capital of two millions
sterling. However, a compromise was effected through the
arbitration of Lord Godolphin, and the 'London' and the
' English ' Companies were finally amalgamated in 1 709, under
the style of ' The United Company of Merchants of England
trading to the East Indies.'
The First Voyages of the English Company. The Indian
Archipelago was the goal of the first English ships that
penetrated into Eastern seas. Captain Lancaster, in the
pioneer voyage of the Company (1602), established com-
mercial 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 Priaman, Banda, Amboyna, and Puloway. The jealous
Portuguese were still supreme along the western coast of
India, and resisted English intrusion by force of arms. In
1611, Sir Henry Middleton resolutely took on board a cargo
at Cambay in the teeth of Portuguese opposition. In 1615
occurred the famous sea-fight of Swally, off the mouth of the
Tapti, in which Captain Best four times beat back an over-
whelming 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 (Jaha'ngi'r),
succeeded in obtaining favourable concessions for English
trade.
vThe Massacre of Amboyna, 1623. The Dutch in the Spice
Islands proved more dangerous rivals than the Portuguese in
India. 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
156 EARL Y EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT'S.
of indignation in England. Ultimately, commissioners were
appointed to adjust the claims of the two nations ; and the
Dutch had to pay a sum of ^3615 as satisfaction to the heirs
of those who had suffered. But from that time the Dutch
remained masters of Lantore and the neighbouring 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 was to drive the English from the Spice
Islands to the mainland of India. Their first settlements were
on the Coromandel coast. An agency had been established
at Masulipatam as early as 1610; and this was now (1632)
raised to the rank of a factory under the authority of a farmdn,
known as 'the golden farman] from the Sultan of Golconda.
A few years earlier (1626) a factory had also been founded
at Armaga"on (now a ruined place in Nellor District), which
mounted 12 guns, and employed 23 European agents. At
last, in 1638, Mr. Francis Day, the Chief of Armagaon, bought
from the Ra"ja* of Chandragiri a more favourable site lower
down the coast, called Maderaspatam or Chinipatam. 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 Bantam in
Java, but in 1653 it was created an independent Presidency.
$Early English Settlements in Bombay. On the west
coast Surat was long the headquarters of English trade. 'The
factory was established here in 1615, with subordinate agencies
at Gogra, Ahmaddbdd, 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 66 1, the island of Bombay was ceded by Portugal to the
British Crown, as part of the dowry of Catharine of Braganza ;
but it was not delivered up by the Portuguese until 1665.
In 1668, King Charles n. sold his rights over Bombay to the
East India Company for an annual payment of ;io. The
city of Bombay was then a mere fishing village, dominated by
an old Portuguese fort, and notorious even in the East for its
EARLY ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN INDIA. 157
unhealthiness. But it had the supreme advantage of being
placed on an island, secure from the raids of Marhatta horsemen.
In 1663, the city of Surat, but not the English factory, had
been pillaged by Sivaji. 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.
S^Early English Settlements in Bengal. The settlements in
Bengal were later in time, and at first more precarious, than
those in Madras or Bombay. Offshoots from Surat were
opened at Ajmir, at Agra, and as far east as Patnd, as early as
1620; but access was not gained to the seaboard until 1634.
In that year afarmdn was granted by the Mughal emperor,
allowing the Company to trade in Bengal. But their ships
were to resort only to Pipli, in Orissa, a port now left far
inland by the sea, and of which the very site has to be guessed.
The factory at HiigH was established in 1640, and that at
Balasor in 1642. Three years later, in 1645, Mr. Gabriel
Boughton, surgeon of the Hopewell, obtained from the
Emperor Shah Jahan exclusive privileges of trading for the
Company, in payment for his professional services. In 1681,
Bengal was separated from Madras ; and Mr. Hodges was
appointed agent and governor of the Company's affairs in the
Bay of Bengal, and of the subordinate factories at Kasimba'za'r,
Patnd, 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 any outburst
of hostility or caprice from the Native governors. In 1686,
the Nawb Shaistd 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 to Sutanati, 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 formally
purchased from Prince Azim, son of the Emperor Aurangzeb,
the three villages of Sutanati, Kalikata, and Govindpur.
The Company embarks on Territorial Sway. It was about
1 58 EARL Y E UROPEAN SE TTLEMENTS.
this same time (1689) that the Company determined to
consolidate its position in India on the basis of territorial
sovereignty, to enable it to resist the oppression of the Mughals
and Marhattas. With this view they passed the following
resolution for the guidance of the local governments 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 company, but kept their Eastern
trade as a royal monopoly. The first private company was the
Engljsh, established in 1600. It was quickly followed by the
Dutch, in 1602. The Dutch conquests, however, were made
in the name of the State, and rank 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 Com-
panies, under the name of ' The Company of the Indies,' in
1719. The exclusive privileges of this Company were, by the
King's decree, suspended in 1769 ; and the Company was finally
abolished by the National Assembly in 1796. The first Danish
East India Company was formed in 1612, 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 Denmark 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 mav De 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 India
proper. Of more importance, although but short-lived, was
'The Ostend Company,' incorporated by the Emneror of
OTHER EAST INDIA COMPANIES. 159
Austria in 1723, its factors being chiefly persons who had
served the Dutch and English Companies. But the opposi-
tion of the 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
nation of Europe to engage in maritime trade with India was
Sweden. When the Ostend Company was suspended, a number
of its servants were thrown out of employment. Mr. Henry
Koning, of Stockholm, took advantage of their knowledge of
the East, and obtained a charter for the ' Swedish Company,'
dated i3th June 1731
CHAPTER XIII,
The Foundation of British Rule in India, 1746-1805.
THE object of this history is to give a concise survey of the
Indian people ; and the briefest narrative of our own national
achievements must suffice. The following table shows the
chronological succession of British Governors of India, from
Clive in 1758 to Lord Ripon in 1880 :
GOVERNORS AND GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF INDIA UNDER THE
EAST INDIA COMPANY, 1758-1858.
1758. Lord Clive, first Governor.
1767. Harry Verelst.
1769. John Cartier.
1772. Waxren Hastings ; first Gover-
nor-General, 1774.
1785. Sir John Macpherson (pro
tern.).
1 786. Marquis of Cornwallis.
1793. Sir John Shore (Lord Teign-
mouth).
1798. Sir Alured Clarke (pro tern.}.
1798. Lord Mornington (Marquis
of Wellesley).
1805. Marquis of Cornwallis (second
time).
1805. Sir George Barlow (pro tern.}.
1806. EarlofMinto.
1815. Earl of Moira (Marquis of
Hastings).
1823. John Adam (pro tern.).
1823. Earl Amherst.
1828. Lord William Cavendish
Bentinck.
1835. Sir Charles Metcalfe (Lord
Metcalfe) (pro tan. ).
1836. Lord Auckland.
1842. Earl of Ellenborough.
1844. Viscount Hardinge.
1848. Earl (afterwards Marquis) of
Dalhousie.
1856. Earl Canning.
VICEROYS OF INDIA UNDER THE CROWN, 1858-1881.
1858. Earl Canning.
1862. Earl of Elgin.
1864. Sir John Lawrence (Lord
Lawrence).
1869. Earl of Mayo.
1872. Earl of Northbrook.
1876. Earl of Lytton.
1880. Marquis of Ripon.
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 Karnatic. It was at Arcot that
TOO
FRENCH WARS IN THE KARNATIC. 161
Clive's star first shone forth ; and it was on the field of Wande-
wash that the French dream of an Indian Empire was for ever
shattered. Fort St. George, or Madras, was, as we have seen,
the first territorial 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 Aurangzeb
in 1707, the whole of Southern India became, as already stated,
independent of Delhi. In the Deccan proper, the Niza"m-ul
Mulk founded a hereditary dynasty, with HaidaraMd for its
capital, which exercised a nominal authority over the entire
south. The Karnatic, or the lowland tract between the central
plateau and the eastern sea, was ruled by a deputy of 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 Sivaji.
Inland, Mysore was gradually growing into a third Hindu
State ; while everywhere local chieftains, called f alegars or
ndydks, were in semi-independent possession of citadels or hill-
forts. These represented the 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 its fall in 1565.
^ Our First War in the Karnatic, 1746-1748. Such was the
condition of affairs in Southern India when war broke out be-
tween the English and the French in Europe in 1 744. Dupleix
was at that time Governor of Pondicherri, and Clive was a
young 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 1 746, 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
L
162 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
fugitives sought shelter. The Nawab, faithful to his impartial
policy, marched with 10,000 men to drive the French out of
Madras, but was defeated. In 1 748, an English fleet arrived
under Admiral Boscawen, and attempted the siege of Pondi-
cherri, while a land force co-operated under Major Lawrence,
whose name afterwards became associated with that of Clive.
The French repulsed 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
incident 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 successions at Haidarabad and at Arcot supplied his
opportunity. On both thrones he placed nominees of his own,
and for a short time 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 destined 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 opposition to the
nominee of Dupleix. Their candidate was Muhammad Ali,
afterwards known in history as WdM-ja'h.
~MJlive. 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, English
influence predominated in the Karnatic or Madras coast, and
their candidate, Muhammad Ali, maintained his position at
Arcot But, inland, the French were supreme in the Deccan,
and they were also able to seize the maritime tract called ' the
Northern Circars.'
BATTLE OF WANDEWASH. 163
\Battle of Wandewash, 1760. The final struggle did not
take place until 1760. In that year, Colonel (afterwards Sir
Eyre) Coote won the decisive victory of Wandewash 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 Ginjee (Gingi) also surrendered.
In the words of Orme, ' that day terminated the long hostili-
ties 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 narra-
tive of British conquests shifts with Clive to Bengal. At the
time of Aurangzeb's death, in 1707, the Nawa"b or Governor of
Bengal was Murshid Kuli KMn, 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 fanaticism of a renegade. Hitherto the capital
of 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 Kuli Kha"n transferred his residence to Murshidibad,
in the immediate neighbourhood of Kdsimbazdr, which was
then the river port of the Gangetic trade. The English, the
French, and the Dutch had each factories at Kasimbazar, as
well as at Dacca, Patna", and Maldah. But Calcutta was the
headquarters of the English, Chandarnagar of the French, and
Chinsurah of the Dutch, these three towns being situated
close to one another in the lower reaches of the Hugli, where
the river was navigable for sea-going ships. Murshid Kuli
Kha"n ruled over 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 Ali Vardi Khan, a usurper,
but the last of the great Nawabs of Bengal. In his days
the Marhatta" horsemen began to ravage the country, and the
inhabitants of Calcutta obtained permission in 1742 to erect
an earthwork, known to the present day as the 'Marhatta"
Ditch.'
i 1 Black Hole' of Calcutta. Ali Vardi Kha"n died in 1756,
1 64 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
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 surrendered after some resist-
ance, 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 dis-
cipline. But although the Nawdb does not seem to have
been aware of the consequences, 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.
)sClive and Watson. The news of this disaster fortunately
found dive 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 Company all their privileges, and gave them ample
compensation for their losses.
-L Battle of Plassey, 1757. It is possible that matters might
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 Karnatic, captured the French settlement
of Chandarnagar on the Huglf. Siraj-ud-Daula', enraged by
this breach of neutrality within his dominions, sided with the
French. ' But Clive, again acting upon the policy which he had
learned from Dupleix, provided himself with a rival candidate
(Mir 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
BATTLE OF PLASSEY. 165
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 off 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 Nawdb himself,
dismayed by the unexpected confusion, fled on a camel ; his
troops dispersed in a panic ; and Clive found he had won a great
victory. Mir jafar'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 Murshida'ba'd lay open.
X Mir Jafar, 1757. The battle of Plassey was fought on June
23, 1757, an anniversary afterwards remembered when the
Mutiny 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 com-
paratively 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, Mir Jafar, upon the viceregal throne at
Murshidabad, being careful to obtain afarmdn from the Mughal
court. Enormous sums were exacted from Mir 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, z\ million rupees apiece.
The members of the Council received the following amounts :
Mr. Drake, the Governor, and Colonel Clive, 280,000
rupees each ; and Mr. Becker, Mr. Watts, and Major
Kilpatrick, 240,000 rupees each. The whole claim amounted
to .2,697,750. The English still cherished extravagant ideas
1 66 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
of Indian wealth. But no funds existed to satisfy their in-
ordinate 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 bullion left.
Grant of Twenty-Four Parganas, 1757. At the same time,
the Nawab made a grant to the Company of the zaminddri or
landholder's rights over an extensive tract of country round
Calcutta, now known as the District of the Twenty-Four
Pargana*s. The area of this tract was 882 square miles. In
1757, the Company obtained only the zaminddri rights, i.e.
the right to collect the cultivators' rents, together with the
revenue 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 land-
lord of his own masters, the Company. This military fief, or
dive's jdgir, as it was called, subsequently became a matter
of inquiry in England. Lord Clive's claims to the property
as feudal suzerain over the Company were contested in 1764 ;
and on the 23d June 1765, when he returned to Bengal, a
new deed was issued, confirming the unconditional jdgir to
Lord Clive for ten years, with reversion afterwards to the
Company in perpetuity. This deed, having received the
emperor's sanction on the i2th August 1765, gave absolute
validity to the original jdgir grant in favour of Lord Clive.
It transferred eventually to the Company the Twenty-four
Parganas as a perpetual property, based upon a. jdgir grant.
The sum of Rs. 222,958, the amount at which the land was
assessed 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.
UJlive, 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. For two powers
threatened hostilities. On the north-west, the Sha'hza'da or
imperial prince, afterwards the Emperor Shah Alam, with a
REVOLT OF MIR KASIM. 167
mixed army of Afghans and Marhattas, and supported by the
Nawdb Wazir 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
Madras. The name of Clive exercised a decisive effect in
both directions. Mfr Jafar was anxious to buy off the Sha"h-
zda, 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 Masuli-
patam from the French, and permanently established British
influence throughout the Northern Circars, and at the court
of Haidara'ba'd. 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 settle-
ment 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
name. In 1761, it was found expedient and profitable to
dethrone Mir Jafar, the English Nawa"b of Murshida'ba'd, and
to substitute his son-in-law, Mir Kdsim, in his place. On this
occasion, besides private donations, the English received a
grant of the three Districts of Bardw^n, Midnapur, and Chitta-
gong, estimated to yield a net revenue of half a million
sterling.
Revolt of Mir Kasim, 1763. But Mfr Kdsim soon
began to show a will of his own, and to cherish dreams of
independence. He retired from Murshiddbdd to Monghyr,
a strong position on the Ganges, commanding the only means
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 Nawdb 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 through-
168 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
out Bengal, free from inland dues and all imposts. The
assertion of this claim caused affrays between the customs
officers of the Nawa"b 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 com-
promise. But the controversy had become too hot. The
Nawab's officers fired upon an English boat, and forthwith all
Bengal rose in arms. Two thousand of our sepoys were cut
to pieces at Patna ; about 200 Englishmen, who there and in
other various parts of the Province 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 battles
by Major Adams, at Gheriah and at Udha-nala ; and he
himself took refuge with the Nawa"b Wazir of Oudh, who
refused to deliver him up. 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, and threatened Patna, which the English
had recovered. A more formidable danger appeared in the
English camp, in the form of the first sepoy mutiny. This
was quelled by Major (afterwards Sir Hector) Munro, who
ordered 24 of the ringleaders to be blown from guns, an
old Mughal punishment. In 1764, Major Munro won the
decisive battle of Baxar, which laid Oudh at the feet of the
conquerors, and brought the Mughal Emperor as a suppliant
to the English camp.
Olive's Second Governorship, 1765-1767. Meanwhile the
Council at Calcutta had twice found the opportunity they
loved, of selling the government of Bengal to a new Nawab.
But, in 1765, Clive (now Baron dive of Plassey in the peer-
age of Ireland) arrived at Calcutta, as Governor of Bengal
for the second time. Two landmarks stand out in his policy.
GRANT OF THE DIWAN2 OF BENGAL. 169
First, he sought the substance, although not the name, of
territorial power, under the fiction of a grant from the Mughal
Emperor. Second, he desired to purify the Company's ser-
vice, 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 the beginning
of our Indian rule dates from this second governorship of Clive,
as our military supremacy had dated from his victory at Plassey.
\ Grant of the Diwdni of Bengal, 1765. Clive advanced
rapidly up from Calcutta to Allahaba'd, and there settled in
person the fate of nearly half of India. Oudh was given back
to the Nawab Wazfr, on condition of his paying half a million
sterling towards the expenses of the war. The Provinces of
Allahabad and Kora, forming the greater part of the Doa"b,
were handed over to the Emperor Shdh Alam, who in his turn
granted to the Company the diwdni or fiscal administration
of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, and also the territorial juris-
diction of the Northern Circars. A puppet Nawab was still
maintained at Murshida'ba'd, who received an annual allow-
ance from us of ^600,000. Half that amount, or about
^"300,000, we paid to the emperor as tribute from Bengal.
Thus was constituted the dual system of government, by
which the English received all the revenues, 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 nizdm. The actual collection
of the revenues still remained for seven years in the hands
of native officials (1765-1772).
Olive's ^Reorganization of the Service, 1766. dive'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 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
170 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
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 Give
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 dive had proved a failure.
Warren Hastings, a tried servant of the Company, distinguished
alike for intelligence, for probity, and for knowledge of Oriental
manners, was nominated Governor by the Court of Directors,
with express instructions to carry out a predetermined series
of reforms. In their own words, the Court had resolved to
' stand forth as diwdn, and to take upon themselves, by the
agency of their own servants, the entire care and administra-
tion 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 territorial
foundations of the British Empire in Bengal Hastings may
be said to have created a British administration for that em-
pire. The wars forced on him by Native powers in India,
the clamours of his masters in England for money, and the
virulence of 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, prevailed. Thirteen years were now spent by
Warren Hastings in experimental efforts at rural admini-
stration by means of English officials (1772-1785). The com-
pletion 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.
WARREN HASTINGS. 171
Hastings' Work in India. Hastings rested his claims as
an Indian ruler on his administrative work. He reorganised
the Indian service, reformed every branch of the revenue
collections, created courts of justice and some semblance of
a police. But history remembers his name, not for his im-
provements in the internal administration, but for his bold
foreign policy, and for the crimes into which it led him.
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 nominated, like himself, under a
statute of Parliament known as the Regulating Act (1773).
In his domestic policy he was greatly hampered by the oppo-
sition of his colleague in council, Philip Francis. But in
his external relations with Oudh, with the Marietta's, and
with Haidar Alf, he was generally able to compel assent to
his views.
Hastings' Policy to Native Rulers. His relations with the
Native powers, like his domestic policy, formed a well-con-
sidered 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. An honest man under
such circumstances might be led into questionable measures.
Hastings in his personal dealings, and as regards his private
gains, seems to have been a high-minded English gentleman.
But as an Anglo-Indian statesman he shared the laxity which
he saw practised by the Native potentates with whom he had
to deal Parts of his policy were vehemently assailed in
Parliament, and cannot be upheld by right-thinking men.
It is my -business neither to attack nor to defend his
measures, but to give a short account of them as a connected
whole.
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 NawaVs
172 THE FOUND A TION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
allowance to one-half, and so saved about ^160,000 a year.
In defence of this act, it may be stated that the titular Nawab,
being then a minor, had ceased to render even any nominal
service for his enormous pension. 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 re-
duction in the case of the new child-Nawab had, moreover,
been expressly ordered by the Court of Directors six months
before Hastings took office.
Sells Allahabad and Kora, 1773. Hastings' next financial
stroke was the sale of Allahdbad and the adjacent Province
of Kora to the Wazir of Oudh. These Provinces had been
assigned by Clive, in his partition of the Gangetic valley, to
the Emperor Shah Alam, together with a tribute of about
^300,000 (26 lakhs of sicca rupees), in return for the grant of
Bengal to the Company. But the emperor had now been
seized by the Marhattas. Hastings held that His Majesty
was no longer independent, and that it would be a fatal
policy for the British to pay money to the Marhattas in
Northern India, when it was evident that they would soon
have to fight them in the south. He therefore withheld the
tribute of ^"300,000 from the puppet emperor, or rather from
his Marhatta custodians.
The Kohilla War, 1773-1771 Clive, at the partition of
the Gangetic valley in 1765, allotted the Provinces of Allah-
abad and Kora to the emperor. The emperor, now in the
hands of the Marietta's, had made them over to his new
masters. Warren Hastings held that by so doing His Majesty
had forfeited his title to these Provinces. Hastings accord-
ingly resold them to the Wazir of Oudh. By this measure
he freed the Company from a military charge of half a million
sterling (40 lakhs of rupees), and obtained a price of over half
a million (50 lakhs) for the Company. The terms of sale
included the loan of British troops to subdue the Rohilla
Afghans, who had held a large tract in those Provinces ever
since Ahmad Shah's desolating invasion in 1761. The
WARREN HASTINGS. 173
Rohillas were foreigners, and had cruelly lorded it over the
peasantry. They now resisted bravely, and were crushed
with the merciless severity of Asiatic warfare, by the Wazir of
Oudh, supported by his British allies. By these measures
Warren Hastings bettered the finances of Bengal to the ex-
tent of a million sterling a year on both sides of the account ;
but he did so at the cost of treaties and pensions granted by
his predecessor Clive.
Plunder of Chait Sinh and of the Oudh Begam. Hastings
further improved the financial position of the Company by
what is known as the plunder of Chait Sinh and the Begam
of Oudh. Chait Sinh, the Rajd of Benares, had grown rich
under British protection. He resisted the demand of Warren
Hastings to subsidize a military force, and an alleged cor-
respondence with the enemies of the British Government
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 the Benares
Raja in his rebellion. A heavy fine was laid upon her, which
she resisted to the utmost. But after cruel pressure on her-
self and the eunuchs of her household, over a million sterling
was extorted.
1 Hastings' Trial in England, 1788-1795. On his return
to England, Warren Hastings was impeached, in 1786, by
the House of Commons for these and other alleged acts of
oppression. He was solemnly tried by the House of Lords,
and the proceedings dragged themselves out for seven years
(1788-1795). 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
charity of the Court of Directors, a charity which never
failed.
Hastings' Poor Excuse. The real excuse for some of
Hastings' measures in Bengal, is that he had to struggle for
his very existence; that breaches of faith by the Native
princes gave him his opportunity ; and that he used his
174 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
opportunity less mercilessly than a Mughal viceroy would have
done. It is a poor excuse for the clearest English head and
the firmest administrative hand that ever ruled India. In his
dealings with Southern India, Warren Hastings had not to
regard solely the financial results. He there appears the
great man that he really was, calm in council, cautious of
enterprise, but swift in execution, and of indomitable courage
in all that he undertook.
First Marhatta War, 1778-1781. The Bombay Govern-
ment looked with envy on the territorial conquests of Madras
and Bengal. It accordingly resolved to establish its supre-
macy at the court of Poona, by placing its own nominee upon
the throne. This ambition found scope, in 1775, by the treaty
of Surat, by which Raghuna"th Ra"o, one of the claimants to
the throne of the 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 Marhatta war. Warren Hastings, who in his capacity
of Governor - General 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 from sea to sea, and conquered the
rich Province of Guzerat almost without a blow. Another,
Captain Popham, stormed the rock-fortress of Gwalior, which
was regarded as the key of Hindustan. These brilliant suc-
cesses of the Bengal troops atoned for the disgrace of the
convention of Wargaum in 1779, when the Marhattas 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.
Raghunath Rd.o, the English claimant to the Peshwaship, was
set aside on a pension ; Guzerat was restored to the Marhattas ;
and only Salsette, with Elephanta and two other small islands,
was retained by the English.
4. War with Mysore, 1780 - 1781 Meanwhile, Warren
Hastings had to deal with a more dangerous enemy than the
LORD CORNWALLIS. 175
Marhatta Confederacy. The reckless conduct of the Madras
Government had roused the hostility of Haidar All of Mysore
and also of the Nizdm of the Deccan, the two strongest
Musalman powers in India. These attempted to draw the
Marhattas into an alliance against the English. The diplomacy
of Hastings won back the Niza"m and the Marhatta" Ra"ja of
Nagpur ; but the army of Haidar AH fell like a thunderbolt
upon the British possessions in the Karnatic. A strong de-
tachment under Colonel Baillie was cut to pieces at Pollilore,
and the Mysore cavalry ravaged the country up to the walls
of Madras. For the second time the Bengal army, stimulated
by the energy of Hastings, saved the honour of the English
name. He despatched Sir Eyre Coote, the victor of Wande-
wash, to relieve Madras by sea, with all the men and money
available, while Colonel Pearse marched south overland to
overawe the Raja of Berar 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 1782, and peace was finally concluded
with Tipu in 1784, on the basis of a mutual restitution of all
conquests.
X Lord Cornwallis, 1786 - 1793. Two years later, Warren
Hastings was succeeded by Lord Cornwallis, the first English
nobleman of rank who undertook the office of Governor-
General of India. Between these two great names an in-
terregnum of twenty months took place under Sir John
Macpherson, 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. It was he who first entrusted criminal jurisdiction
to Europeans, and established the Nizdmat Sadr Adalat, or
Supreme Court of Criminal Judicature, at Calcutta; and it
was he who separated the functions of Collector and Judge.
176 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
The system thus organized in Bengal was afterwards extended
to Madras and Bombay, when those Presidencies 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
according to the old Mughal system. The zam'mddrs, or
Government farmers, whose office always tended to become
hereditary, were recognised 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. 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 zaminddr with the landlord of the English system
of property. Accordingly, Cornwallis took out with him in
1787 instructions to introduce a Permanent Settlement.
^The Permanent Settlement, 1793. The process of assess-
ment 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 3 millions sterling
for Bengal. Lord Cornwallis carried the scheme into execu-
tion ; 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
LORD WELLESLEY. 177
X Second Mysore War, 1790-1792. The second Mysore war
of 1790-1792 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 Marhatta Confederacy, co-
operated as allies of the British. In the end, Tipii Sultan
submitted 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.
X Marquis of Wellesley, 1798-1805. The period of Sir John
Shore's rule as Governor-General, from 1793 to 1798, was un-
eventful. In 1798, Lord Mornington, better known as the
Marquis of Wellesley, arrived in India, already inspired with
imperial projects which were destined to change the map of
the country. Mornington was the friend and favourite of Pitt,
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 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 was 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 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 states-
men. Nor was the danger so remote as might now be thought.
French regiments guarded and overawed the Nizam of Hai
dara"ba"d. The soldiers of Sindhia, the military head of the
Marhatta" Confederacy, were disciplined and led by French
M
178 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
adventurers. Tipii SuMn of Mysore carried on a secret
correspondence with the French Directorate, 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 conquests of Alexander, 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 Nawdb 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 Nawib, being always in arrears,
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 Doa"b, 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 govern-
ment. The intrigues of the Native princes gave him his
opportunity for carrying out this plan without 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 Marietta's, or to the
British. Lord Wellesley determined that it should pass to the
British.
A Lord Wellesley's Policy. His work in Northern India was
LORD WELLESLEY. 179
at first easy. The treaty of Lucknow in 1801 made us terri-
torial rulers as fas as the heart of the present North-Western
Provinces, and established our political influence in Oudh.
Beyond those limits, the northern branches of the Marietta's
practically held sway, with the puppet emperor in their hands.
Lord Wellesley left them untouched for a few years, until the
second Marhatta" war (1802-1804) gave him an opportunity for
dealing effectively with their nation as a whole. In Southern
India, he saw that the Niza"m at Haidardbdd stood in need of
his protection, 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 provocation for so doing. The third power of
Southern India namely, the Marhatta" 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 Marietta's or of the British in Southern
India, he did not hesitate to decide.
Treaty with the Nizam, 1798. Lord Wellesley first
addressed himself to the weakest of the three southern powers,
the Nizam of Haidara"bad. Here he won a diplomatic suc-
cess, 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. Tipii'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 de-
clared, and Wellesley came down in viceregal state to Madras
to organize the expedition in person, and to watch over the
course of events. One English army marched into Mysore
from Madras, accompanied by a contingent from the Nizam.
i8o THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
Another advanced from the western coast. Tipii, after a feeble
resistance in the field, retired into Seringapatam, and, when his
capital was stormed, died fighting bravely in the breach (1799).
Since the battle of Plassey, no event so greatly impressed the
Native imagination as the capture of Seringapatam, which won
for General Harris a peerage, and for Wellesley an Irish
marquisate. 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 AH had dethroned ; the rest
of Tipii's dominion was partitioned between the Nizam, the
Marietta's, and the English. At about the same time, the
Karnatic, or the part of South-Eastern India ruled by the
Nawab of Arcot, and also the principality of Tanjore, were
placed under direct British administration, thus constituting
the Madras Presidency almost as it has existed to the present
day. The sons of the slain Tipii were treated by Lord
Wellesley with paternal tenderness. They received a magni-
ficent allowance, with semi-royal establishment, first at Vellore,
and afterwards in Calcutta. The last of them, Prince Ghula"m
Muhammad, who survived to 1877, was long a well-known
citizen of Calcutta, and an active justice of the peace.
The Marhattas in 1800. The Marhattas 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 now was. The
Marhatta" powers at this time were five in number. The
recognised head of the confederacy was the Peshvva of Poona,
who ruled the hill country of the Western Gha*ts, the cradle
of the Marhatta race. The fertile Province of Guzerat 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 Na"gpur reigned from Berar to
the coast of Orissa. Wellesley laboured to bring these several
Marhatta 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,
LORD WELLESLEY. 181
induced him to sign the treaty of Bassein. By this 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 Marhattd war, as neither Sindhia nor
the Raja of Na"gpur would tolerate the Peshwd's betrayal of
the Marhatta" independence.
Second Marhatta 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 Marquis of 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 Deccan, where, in a few short
months, he won the decisive victories of Assaye and Argaum,
and captured Ahmednagar. Lake's campaign in Hindustan
was equally brilliant, although it has received less notice from
historians. He won pitched battles at Aligarh and Laswari,
and took the cities of Delhi and Agra. He scattered the
French troops of Sindhia, and at the same time stood forward
as the champion of the Mughal Emperor in his hereditary
capital. Before the end of 1803, both Sindhia and the
Bhonsla Ra"ja of Na"gpur sued for peace. Sindhia ceded all
clajms 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 com-
plaisance to the British Government. The freebooter Jaswant
Rdo Holkar alone remained in the field, supporting his troops
by raids through Malwa and Rajputdna. 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 con-
vention of Wargaum, and of the destruction of Colonel
1 82 THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
Baillie's force by Haidar All. 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 Nawa"b Wazir of Oudh
into the ' Ceded and Conquered Provinces.' This partition
of Northern India remained till the Sikh wars of 1844 and
1847 S ave us tne 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 Peshwd. 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 Marha"tta war in 1818.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Consolidation of British India.
Marquis of 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 Gh&ipur,
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 policy of this interregnum proved most
disastrous. 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 the 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
183
1 84 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA.
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. 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 were all 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 Ran jit Sinh at Lahore ; Elphinstone
met the Shall of Afghanistan at Peshdwar ; 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.
Lord Moira, 1814. The successor of Lord Minto was the
Earl of Moira, better known by his later title as the Marquis
of Hastings. The Marquis 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 last Marhatta" struggle.
Nepal War, 1814-1815. The Gurkhas, the present ruling
race in Nepal, are Hindu immigrants, who claim a Ra"jput
origin. The indigenous inhabitants, called Newars, belong
to the Indo- Tibetan stock, and profess Buddhism. The
sovereignty of the Gurkhas 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
Kurna'un, 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 first campaign of 1814
was unsuccessful. After overcoming the natural difficulties of
a malarious climate and precipitous hills, our troops were on
LORD HASTINGS. 185
several occasions fairly worsted by the impetuous bravery of
the little Gurkhas, whose heavy knives or kukris dealt ter-
rible 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
darbdr 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 Guikhas 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, Massuri, and Simla.
The Pindris, 1804-1817. Meanwhile the condition of
Central India was every year becoming more unsatisfactory.
The great Marhatta 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 Pinda"ris. As opposed to the Marietta's, who were at
least a Hindu nationality bound by traditions of confederate
government, 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, Marhatta's, or Jdts. They represented
the debris of the Mughal Empire, which had not been
incorporated either by the local Muhammadan or Hindu
powers which sprang up 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.
186 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA.
Pindari War, 1817. The Pinddrf headquarters were in
Malwa", but their depredations were not confined to Central
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 Madras and of Bombay. The most power-
ful of the Pindarf captains, Amir Khan, had an organized
army of many regiments, and several batteries of cannon. Two
other leaders, known as Chitu and Karim, at one time paid a
ransom to Sindhia of ^100,000. To suppress the Pinddri
hordes, who were supported by the sympathy, more or less
open, of all the Marhatta" Chiefs, Lord Hastings (1817) col-
lected 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 Kha"n disbanded his army, on con-
dition of being guaranteed the possession of what is now the
Principality of Tank. The remaining bodies of Pindaris were
attacked in their homes, surrounded, and cut to pieces. Karim
threw himself upon the mercy of the conquerors. Chitu fled
to the jungles, and was killed by a tiger.
Last Marhatta War, 1817-1818. In the same year (1817),
and almost in the same month (November), as that in which
the Pindaris were crushed, the three great Marhatta powers
at Poona, Na"gpur, and Indore rose separately against the
English. The Peshwa" Baji Rdo 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 Ga"ekwa"r
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 Government Elphinstone, then our
Resident at his court, foresaw a storm, and withdrew to
Kirki, whither he had ordered up a European regiment. The
next day the Residency was burnt down, and Kirki was
attacked by the whole army of the Peshwa". 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 Sitabaldi against enormous odds. The
LORD AMHERST. 187
army of Holkar was defeated in the following month at the
pitched battle of Mehidpur.
Results of last Marhatta War. All open resistance was
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 Presidency, and the nucleus of the present Central
Provinces was formed out of the territory rescued from the
Pindaris. The Peshwa" himself surrendered, and was permitted
to reside at Bithur, near Cawnpore, on a pension of ^80,000
a year. His adopted son was the infamous Na'na' Sahib of
the Mutiny of 1857. To fill the Peshwa's place as the
traditional head of the Marhatta Confederacy, the lineal
descendant of Sivaji was brought forth from obscurity, and
placed upon the throne of Sa"ta"ra. An infant was recognised
as the heir of Holkar ; and a second infant was proclaimed
Raja of Nagpur under British guardianship. 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
Marhatta's and Pinddris.
Lord Amherst, 1823-1828. The Marquis 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 Marhatta 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.
Burma in Ancient Times. For some years past, our
north-eastern frontier had been disturbed by Burmese raids.
i88 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA.
Burma, or the country which fringes the western shore of the
Bay of Bengal, and runs up the valley of the Irawadi, has
a people of Tibeto-Chinese origin, and a history of its own.
Tradition asserts that its early civilisation was introduced from
the Indian coast of Coromandel, by a people who are supposed
to preserve a trace of their origin in their name of Talaing
(cf. Telingdna). However this may be, the Buddhist religion,
professed by the Burmese at the present day, certainly came
from India at a very early date. Waves of invasion from Siam
on the south, and from the wild mountains of Central Asia
in the north, have passed over the land. These conquests
were marked by that wanton and wholesale barbarity which
seems to characterize the Tibeto-Chinese race ; but the civilisa-
tion of Buddhism survived every shock, and flourished around
the ancient pagodas. European travellers in the isth century
visited Pegu and Tenasserim, which they describe as flourish-
ing marts of maritime trade. During the period of Portu-
guese 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, founded
by Alaungphaya or Alompra, with its capital at Ava. It still
rules over Independent Burma.
First Burmese War, 1824-1826. The successors of Alom-
pra, 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. Little glory
could be gained by beating the Burmese, who were formidable
chiefly from the pestilential character of their country. One
expedition with gunboats proceeded up the Brahmaputra into
Assam. 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 IrawadL The war was protracted over two years. After
a loss to us of about 20,000 lives, chiefly from disease, and an
LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK. 189
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 dread
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 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 committed to his charge.'
Bentinck's Financial Keforms. His 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 augmenting the revenue from land
igo THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA.
which had unfairly escaped assessment; 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 distasteful 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
Whig Ministry at home.
Abolition of Sati, and Suppression of Thagl His two
most memorable acts are the abolition of sati, or widow-burn-
ing, and the suppression of the thags. 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 clearly proved that the text in the
Vedas adduced to authorize the immolation of 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
prohibited 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 less 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 declared guilty of 'culpable homicide.' The honour
of suppressing thagi must be shared between Lord William
Bentinck and Captain Sleeman. Thags were hereditary assas-
sins, 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
Kali. Between 1826 and 1835, as man y as I S^> 2 thags 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-
LORD AUCKLAND. 191
tinck. In 1833, the charter of the East India Company was
renewed for twenty years, but on condition that the Company
should abandon its trade entirely, and permit Europeans to
settle in the country. At the same time, a fourth or legal
member was added to the Governor-General's Council, who
might not 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 to the present year, when Mysore
was restored to Native government (March 1881). In 1834,
the frantic misrule of the Ra"jd of Coorg brought on a short
and sharp war. The Rdja" 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 Bentinck, and it was done 'in consideration of the
unanimous wish of the people.'
Lord Metcalfe, 1835-1836. Sir Charles (afterwards Lord)
Metcalfe succeeded Lord William, as senior member of Council.
His short term of office is memorable for the measure which
his predecessor had initiated, but which he carried into execu-
tion, 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 Auckland, prompted by his evil genius, attempted to
place Shah Shuja upon the throne of Ka"bul, an attempt
conducted with gross mismanagement, and ending in the
annihilation of the British garrison placed in that city.
Afghanistan under the Duram's, 1747-1826. For the first
192 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA.
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 opportunity in
the confusion which followed the death of the Persian con-
queror, Na"dir Shall. Before his own decease in 1773, Ahmad
Shdh 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 Marhatta conquest,
and replaced a Muhammadan emperor on the throne of
Delhi. But Ahmad Shall never cared to settle down in India,
and kept state alternately at his two national capitals of Kabul
and Kandahar. The Durdnf 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
Dura"nf line were living under British protection at Ludhiana,
on the Punjab frontier.
Our Early Dealings with K&bul. The attention of the
English Government had been directed to Afghan affairs ever
since the time of Lord Wellesley, who feared that Zaman
Shall, then holding his court at Lahore (1800), might follow
in the path of Ahmad Shah, and overrun Hindustan. The
growth of the powerful Sfkh kingdom of Ranjit Sinh effectually
dispelled any such alarms for the future. Subsequently, in
1809, while a French invasion of India was still a possibility
to be guarded against, Mountstuart Elphinstone was sent by
Lord Minto on a mission to Shah Shuja, brother of Zamdn
Shall, to form a defensive alliance. Before the year expired,
Shall Shuja had been driven into exile, and a third brother,
Mahmud Shah, was on the throne.
Restoration of Shah Shuj by the British, 1839. In 1837,
when the curtain rises upon the drama of English interference
in Afghanistan, the usurper Dost Muhammad Barakzai was
firmly established at Kdbul. 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
THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR. 193
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 satisfy
the demands of Dost Muhammad in the matter of Peshawar,
and returned to India unsuccessful. Lord Auckland forth-
with resolved upon the hazardous plan of placing a more
subservient ruler upon the throne of Kabul. Shah Shuja,
one of the two exiles at Ludhiana, was selected for the pur-
pose. At this time both the Punjab and Sind were inde-
pendent kingdoms. Sind was the less powerful of the two,
and accordingly a British army escorting Shah Shujd made its
way by that route into southern Afghanistan through the Bolan
Pass. Kandahar surrendered, Ghaznf was taken by storm,
Dost Muhammad fled across the Hindu Kush, and Shah
Shuja was triumphantly 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.
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 catastrophe occurred in November 1841,
when our Political Agent, Sir Alexander Burnes, was assassi-
nated 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.
Mountstuart Elphinstone). Sir William Macnaghten was the
Political Officer. Elphinstone, an old man, proved unequal to
the responsibilities of the position. Macnaghten was treacher-
ously murdered at an interview with the Afghan chief Akbar
Khan, eldest son of Dost Muhammad. After lingering in
their cantonments for two months, the British army set off in
the depth of winter, under a fallacious guarantee from the
H
194 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA.
Afghan leaders, to find its way back to India through the
passes. When they started, they numbered 4000 fighting men,
with 12,000 camp-followers. A single survivor, Dr. Brydon,
reached the friendly walls of Jalalabad, where 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 Kha"n.
The Army of Betribution, 1842. The first Afghan enter-
prise, begun in a spirit of aggression, and conducted amid
dissensions and mismanagement, 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 Ellenborough, 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 Sale, was allowed to
penetrate to Kbul. General Nott, although ordered to
withdraw from Kandahar, resolved to take Kabul on the way.
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 retreat-
ing 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 September 1842.
The great bdzdr at Kdbul was blown up with gunpowder, to
fix a stigma upon the city ; the prisoners were recovered ; and
all marched back to India, leaving Dost Muhammad 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 Mahmiid of Ghaznf 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
THE FIRST SIKH WAR. 195
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 meers
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
1 2,000 Baluchi's, 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 Maha'-
rajpur and Punneah, at the former of which Lord Ellen-
borough was present in person.
Lord Hardinge, 1844-1848. In 1844, Lord Ellenborough
ivas 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 were not a nationality like the
Marhattas, but a religious sect, bound together by the addi-
tional tie of military discipline. They trace their origin to
Ndnak Shah, a pious Hindu reformer, born near Lahore in
1469, before the ascendency of either Mughals or Portuguese
in India. Ndnak, like other zealous preachers of his time,
preached the abolition of caste, the unity of the Godhead,
and the duty of leading a pure life. From Nanak, ten
gurus or apostles are traced down to Govind Sinh 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.
196 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA.
It was the only political organization remaining in the Punjab.
The Sikhs in the north, and the Marhatta's in Southern and
Central India, thus became two great Hindu powers who
partitioned the Mughal Empire.
Ranjit Sinh, 1780-1839. Even before the rise of Ranji't
Sinh, offshoots from the Sikh misls or confederacies, each led
by its elected sarddr, had carved out for themselves feudal
principalities along the banks of the Sutlej, some of which
endure to the present day. Ranjit Sinh, the founder of the
Sikh kingdom, 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 basing his personal
rule upon the religious fanaticism of his countrymen. He
organized the Sikhs, or 'the liberated,' into an army under
European officers, 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
Multn, 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 Sinh was ever loyal to
the engagements which he had 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 was the army
of the khdlsd, or Central Council, which, since our disaster in
Afghanistan, burned to measure its strength with the British
sepoys. The European Generals Avitable and Court were
foolishly ousted, and the supreme military command was vested
in a series Qipanchdyats, or elective committees of five.
First Sikh War, 1845. In 1845, tne 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, Firozshahr, Aliwal, and Sobraon. The British loss
on each occasion was heavy ; but by the last victory the Sikhs
were fairly driven back across the Sutlej, and Lahore sur-
LORD DALFIOUS1E. 197
rendered to the British. By the terms of peace then dictated,
the infant son of Ranjit, Dhulip Sinh, was recognised as Raja ;
the Jalandhar Doab, or tract between the Sutlej and the
RaVf, was annexed ; the Sikh army was limited to a specified
number; Major Henry Lawrence was appointed to be Resi-
dent 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 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 Clive. A high-minded statesman, of a most sensitive
conscience, 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 Na"gpur, Oudh, and several minor States also came
under British rule. 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 difficult work ever
accomplished 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 administration 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, still the largest work of the kind in
the country ; and he turned the sod of the first Indian railway.
He promoted steam communication with England vid the Red
Sea, and introduced cheap postage and the electric telegraph.
It is Lord Dalhousie's misfortune that these benefits are too
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
igS THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA.
six months in India before the second Sikh war broke out.
Two British officers were treacherously assassinated at Multan.
Unfortunately, Henry Lawrence 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 (after-
wards Sir Herbert) Edwardes, this outbreak of fanaticism led
to a general rising. The khdlsd army again came together,
and once more fought on even terms with the British. On the
fatal field of Chilianwdla, which English patriotism prefers to
call a drawn battle, the British lost 2400 officers and men,
four guns, and the colours of three regiments (i3th 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 Sfkh army. Miiltdn had pre-
viously fallen ; and the Afghan horse, under Dost Muhammad,
who had forgotten their hereditary antipathy to the Sikhs in
their greater hatred of the British name, were chased back with
ignominy to their native hills. The Punjab, annexed by pro-
clamation on the 29th March 1849, became a British Province,
a virgin field for the administrative talents of Dalhousie and
the two Lawrences. Mahaiaja' Dhulfp Sinh received an allow-
ance of ^5 8,000 a year, on which he now lives as an English
country gentleman in Norfolk.
Pacification 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 an assessment much below that to which it had been
raised by Sikh 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 influence 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.
LORD DALHOUSIE. 199
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
frigate who had been sent to remonstrate. The whole valley
of the Irawadi, from Rangoon up to Prome, was occupied in a
few months ; and as the King of Ava refused to treat, it was
annexed by proclamation, on the 2oth December 1852, under
the name of Pegu, to the Provinces of Arakan and Tenasserim,
which we had acquired in 1826.
Prosperity of British Burma. Since annexation, the in-
habitants of Rangoon have multiplied tenfold. The trade of
the port, which four years after its annexation (1857-1858)
amounted to ,2, 131,055, had increased in 1877-1878 to
^8,192,025. The towns and the rural tracts have alike pro-
spered. 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 Talaing Chief
with 10,000 followers settled in the neighbourhood of Maul-
main ; and, after a few years, a further influx of 20,000 immi-
grants took place. In 1855, the population of Amherst Dis-
trict amounted to 83,146 souls; in 1860, to 130,953; and in
1875,10275,432. Or, to take the case of a seaport. In 1826,
when we occupied the Province, Akyab was a poor fishing
village. By 1830 it had developed into a little town, with a
trade valued at ^7000. In 1879 the trade exceeded two
millions sterling ; so that the trade of Akyab has multiplied
close on three hundredfold in fifty years.
Lord Dalhousie and the Native States. Lord Dalhousie'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,
followed from this axiom. He 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 sentiment should
preserve dynasties which had forfeited our sympathies by gene-
200 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA.
rations of misrule, or prolong those that had no natural suc-
cessor. 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 recognise 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.
Lapsed Native States. The first State to escheat to the
British Government, in accordance with these principles, was
SataVa, which had been reconstituted by Lord Hastings on the
downfall of the Peshwa in 1818. The Raja of Sa'ta'ra, the last
direct representative of Sivaji, died without a male heir in
1848, and his deathbed adoption was set aside (1849). In
the same year, the Rajput State of Karauli was saved by the
Court of Directors, who drew a fine distinction between a
dependent principality and a protected ally. In 1853, Jha'nsi
suffered the same fate as Satdra. But the most conspicuous
application of the doctrine of lapse was the case of Nagpur.
The last of the Marhattd Bhonslis, 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 administra-
tion extended to the Berars, or the Assigned Districts, which
the Nizam of Haidara'bad was induced to hand over as a
territorial guarantee for the subsidies which he perpetually left
in arrear. The relics of three other dynasties also passed
away in 1853, though without any attendant accretion to
British territory. In the extreme south, the titular Nawdb of
ANNEXATION OF OUDH. 201
the Karnatic and the titular Raja of Tanjore both died without
heirs. Their rank and their pensions died with them, though
compassionate allowances were continued to their families.
In the north of India, Baji Ra"o, the ex-Peshwa", who had been
dethroned in 1818, lived on till 1853 in the enjoyment of his
annual pension of ^80,000. His adopted son, Na"na" Sa"hib,
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
Nawa"b Wazir, Shuja'-ud-Daula', received back his forfeited
territories from the hands of 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 long line of 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 sup-
port a denser population than any rural area of the same 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
1819) that they must put their house in order. What the
benevolent Bentinck and the soldierly Hardinge had only
threatened, was reserved to be performed by Lord Dalhousie,
who united honesty of purpose with stern decision of character.
He laid the whole case before the Court of Directors, who,
after long and painful hesitation, 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
202 THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA.
duty gravely and not without solicitude, but calmly and
altogether without doubt'
Grounds of Annexation. At the commencement 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
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 i3th February
1856. The King, Wajid All, bowed to irresistible force, al-
though he refused to recognise the justice of his deposition.
After a mission to England by way of protest and appeal, he
settled down in the pleasant suburb of Garden Reach, near
Calcutta, where he still lives (1881), in the enjoyment of a
pension of ;i 20,000 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 one
act of his rule that most alarmed Native public opinion.
Lord Dalhousie's Work in India. The Marquis of Dalhousie
resigned office hi 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 1860. Excepting Corn-
wallis, 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 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 Marquis 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.
Earl Canning, 1856-1862. The great Governor - General
was succeeded by his friend Lord Canning, who, at the fare-
well banquet in England given to him by the Court of Direc-
tors, uttered these prophetic words : ' I wish for a peaceful term
LORD CANNING. 203
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.
CHAPTER XV.
The Mutiny, 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
civilisation. 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 recruited
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 to 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.
They had much to gain, and little to lose, by a revolution.
The 'Greased Cartridges.' In this critical state of affairs,
of which the Government had no official knowledge, a rumour
ran through the cantonments that the cartridges of the Bengal
army had been greased with the fat of pigs, animals unclean
alike to Hindu and Muhammadan. No assurances could
OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY. 205
quiet the minds of the sepoys. 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 put the corner-stone, required a larger staff
than the civil service could supply. The practice of selecting
able military men for civil posts, which had long existed, re-
ceived a sudden and vast development. Oudh, the Punjab,
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 intel-
lects and firmest wills at the very crisis of its fate.
Outbreak of the Mutiny, May 1857. On the afternoon of
Sunday, icth May 1857, the sepoys at Meerut (Mirath) broke
into open mutiny. They burst into the jail, and rushed in a
wild torrent through the cantonments, cutting down every
European whom they met. They then streamed off to the neigh-
bouring city of Delhi, to stir up the Native garrison and the
criminal population of that great city, and to place themselves
under the authority of the discrowned Mughal emperor.
Meerut was the largest military station in Northern India, with
a strong European garrison of foot, horse, and guns, sufficient
to overwhelm the mutineers before ever they reached Delhi.
But as the sepoys acted in irrational haste, 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 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 forthwith
spread like wild-fire through the North- Western Provinces and
Oudh down into Lower Bengal. The same narrative must
206 THE MUTINY, 1857.
suffice for all the outbreaks, although each episode has its own
story of sadness and devotion. The sepoys rose on their
officers, usually without warning, sometimes after protestations
of fidelity. The Europeans, or persons of Christian faith,
were massacred ; 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 recruits came down 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 Bombay remained true to their colours. In
Central India, the contingents of many of the great Chiefs
sooner or later joined the rebels, but the Muhammadan State
of Haidarabdd was kept loyal by the authority of its able
minister, Sir Sa"lar Jang.
Cawnpore. The main interest of the Sepoy War gathers
round the three cities of Cawnpore, Lucknow, and Delhi.
The cantonments at Cawnpore contained one of the great
Native garrisons of India. At Bithiir, not far off, was the
palace of Dandhu Panth, the heir of the last Peshwa, whose
more familiar name of Ndna 1 Sahib will ever be handed down
to infamy. At first the Na"na was profuse in his professions
of loyalty ; but when the sepoys mutinied on the 6th June, he
put himself at their head, and was proclaimed Peshwa of the
Marhattas. The Europeans at Cawnpore, 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,
(rusting to a safe-conduct from the Nana as far as Allah-
CA WNPOREL UCKNO W DELHI. 207
dbad, they surrendered, and to the number of 450 embarked
in boats on the Ganges. Forthwith a murderous fire was
opened upon them from the river bank. Only a single boat
escaped ; and but four men, who swam across to the protection
of a friendly Ra"ja", ultimately 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 1 5th 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 pro-
visioned the Residency at Lucknow ; and thither he retired,
with all the European inhabitants and a weak British regiment,
on 2d July. Two days later, he was mortally wounded by a
shell. But the clear head was here in authority. Lawrence
had deliberately chosen his position ; and the little garrison
held out, under unparalleled hardships and against enormous
odds, until relieved by Havelock and Outram on 25th Sep-
tember. 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,
just one month after the original outbreak at Meerut. Siege
in the proper sense of the word it was not; for the British
army, encamped on the historic ' ridge/ 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; but his own inspiring presence
was even more valuable than the reinforcement he brought.
On 1 4th September the assault was delivered ; and, after six
days' desperate fighting in the streets, Delhi was again won.
Nicholson fell at the head of the storming party. Hodson,
the intrepid leader of a corps of irregular horse, hunted down
next day the old Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shall, and his
sons. The emperor was afterwards sent a State prisoner to
208 THE MUTINY, 1S57.
Rangoon, where he lived till 1862. As the mob pressed in or.
the guard around the emperor's sons, near Delhi, Hodson
found 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 went on in various parts of the country
for eighteen months longer. 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 Camp-
bell (afterwards Lord Clyde) conducted the campaign in Oudh,
which lasted through two cold seasons. Valuable assistance
was lent by Sir Jang Bahadur of Nepdl, 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 mean-
while, Sir Hugh Rose (afterwards Lord Strathnairn), 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 Tdntia Topf, whose military talent had previously inspired
Nana 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. Ta"ntia Topf, after doubling back-
wards 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 Company
received its charter of incorporation from Elizabeth in 1600.
Its political powers, and the constitution of the Indian Govern-
ment, were derived from the Regulating Act of 1773, passed
by the ministry of Lord North. By that statute the Governor
ABOLITION Of THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 209
of Bengal was raised to the rank of Governor-General ; and, in
conjunction with his Council of four members, he was en-
trusted 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 Calcutta, 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 1813 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, did away with its
remaining trade to China. It also introduced successive
reforms into the constitution of the Indian Government. It
added to the Council a new (legal) member, who might not be
chosen from among the Company's servants, and was entitled
to be present only at meetings for making laws and regula-
tions ; 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 com-
petition.
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
o
210 INDIA TRANSFERRED TO THE CROWN, 1858.
without bitter party discussions in Parliament. It enacted
that India shall be governed by, and in the name of, the
Queen of 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.
CHAPTER XVI.
India under the British Crown.
Qv.cen'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 pre-
served 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 Allahaba'd, 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 proclaimed throughout India on the 8th July 1859.
In the following cold weather, Lord Canning made a viceregal
progress 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 par-
liamentary financier, Mr. 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, and created a State paper currency. He died in the
hi
212 INDIA UNDER 7 HE BRITISH CROWN.
midst of his splendid task ; but his name still lives as that
of the first and greatest finance minister of India. The Penal
Code, originally drawn up by Macaulay in 1837, passed into
law in 1860 j together 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 Dharmsald, and
there he lies buried
Lord Lawrence, 1864-1869. He was succeeded by Sir
John Lawrence, the saviour of the Punjab. The chief in-
cidents of his rule were the Bhutan war, followed by the an-
nexation of the Dwars in 1864, and the terrible Orissa famine
of 1866. In a later famine in Bundelkhand and Upper
Hindustan in 1868-1869, 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 Ali, who was acknow-
ledged as Amir by Lord Lawrence. A commercial crisis took
place in 1866, which seriously threatened the young tea in-
dustry 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, an d ^ es i n
Westminster Abbey.
Lord Mayo, 1869-1872. Lord Mayo succeeded Lord
Lawrence in 1869, and urged on the material progress of
India. The Ambala" darbdr, at which Sher Alf was formally
recognised as Amir of Afghanistan, although in one sense the
completion of what Lord Lawrence had begun, owed its suc-
cess to Lord Mayo (1869). The visit of His Royal Highness
LORDS LAWRENCE, MAYO, AND NORTHBROOK. 213
the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869-1870 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 admini-
stration, 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 administrators, 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 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 ex-
tension 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
Northbrook, 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 Marhatta
Gdekwdr 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 India felt for the first time that they were incor-
porated into the Empire of an ancient and a splendid dynasty.
214 INDIA UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN.
Lord Lytton, 1876-1880. Lord Lytton followed Lord
Northbrook in 1876. On January i, 1877, Queen Victoria
was proclaimed Empress of India at a darbdr 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. Both 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 1 1 millions sterling, the loss of life from actual
starvation and its attendant train of diseases was lament-
able. The deaths from want of food, and from the diseases
incident to a famine-stricken population, were estimated at 5^
millions.
Afghan Affairs, 1878-1880. In the autumn of 1878, the
affairs of Afghanistan again forced themselves into notice.
Sher AH, 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
without much opposition occupied the inner entrances of the
passes. Sher All fled to Afghan Turkistan, and there died.
A treaty was entered into with his son, Ya"kub Khan, at
Gandamak, by which the British frontier was advanced to
the crests or farther sides of the passes, and a British officer
was admitted to reside at Kdbul. Within a few months, the
British Resident, Sir Louis Cavagnari, was treacherously
attacked and massacred, together with his escort, and a second
war became necessary. Ydkub Khan abdicated, and was
deported to India; Kabul and Kandahdr were occupied in
SECOND AFGHAN WAR. 21$
force, and a rising of the Afghans against the British garrison
at Kabul, was repulsed by Sir Frederic Roberts.
Marquis of Ripon, 1880-83. At this crisis a general
election in England resulted in the defeat of the Conservative
Ministry. Lord Lytton resigned simultaneously with the Home
Government, and the Marquis of Ripon was appointed his
successor in April 1880. Since then, a British brigade suffered
defeat at Maiwand, between Kandahar and the Helmand river,
from the Herat troops of Ayub Khan, a defeat promptly
retrieved by the brilliant march of General Sir Frederic
Roberts from Kabul to Kandahar, and by the total rout of
Ayub Khan's army on ist September 1880. Abdurrahman
Khan, the eldest male representative of the stock of Dost
Muhammad, was recognised by us as Amir. The British
forces retired from Kabul, leaving Abdurrahman in possession
of the capital (1881). Ayiib Khan again took the field. His
success, however, was short lived, and Abdurrahman is still
sovereign in Afghanistan (March 1883). Lord Ripon availed
himself of the unbroken peace which has prevailed in India
since 1881 to enter on a series of internal reforms. The year
1882 will ever be memorable for these great measures. By
repealing the Vernacular Press Act, he set free the native
journals from the last restraints on the free and fair 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. The import
duties on cotton goods, and indeed the whole Indian import
duties were, with a few exceptions, abolished (March 1882).
In 1882, also, a contingent of the Indian Native troops took
part with the British forces in Egypt, and displayed conspicuous
powers alike of endurance in the campaign, and of gallantry in
battle. 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.
INDEX.
ABORIGINES or aboriginal tribes, 33-
42. See also non-Ayrans.
Afghanistan, 15, 192-195, 214-215.
\hmad Shah Durani's invasions, 138,
139-
^kas, aboriginal hill tribe of Assam, 37.
Akbar the Great, third Mughal Emperor
of India (1556-1605), 120-127; his
work in India, reduction of the
Rajput and Muhammadan States,
conciliation of the Hindus, 122, 123 ;
annexations in Southern India, 124 ;
his religious faith, 124 ; organization
of the empire, and revenue survey,
125, 126.
Ala-ud-din, second King of the house
of Khiljf, no, III ; his conquests in
the Deccan and Southern India, 1 10.
Albuquerque, 150, 151.
(Uexander the Great's expedition to
India, his campaigns in the Punjab
and Sind, 74-76.
Almeida, Francisco de, first Portuguese
Viceroy in India, 150.
Altamsh, third King of the Slave dynasty
(1206-1290), 107, 108.
Amboyna, Massacre of, 155, 156.
Amherst, Lord (1823-1828), 187-189;
first Burmese war, 1 88 ; capture of
Bhartpur, 189.
Andaman islanders of the Bay of
Bengal, 35.
Arab invasions of Sind, 98, 99.
Aryans in India, chap. iv. 43-63. For
details see Table of Contents.
Asoka, Buddhist King of Magadha or
Behar his rock edicts, 68, 69.
Assaye and Argaum, 148.
Astronomy, Brahman system of, 55.
Auckland, Lord (1836-1842), 191-194;
Afghan affairs, and restoration of
Shah Shuja to the throne of Kabul,
191-193 ; the massacre of the British
retreating army, 193, 194.
Aurangzeb, sixth Mughal Emperor of
India (1658-1707), 131-137 ; murder
of his brothers, 132 ; his long cam-
paign in Southern India, 133, 134!
unsuccessful expedition to Assam,
135 ; his bigoted policy, 135, 136 ;
revenues, 136 ; personal character,
137-
BABAR, first Mughal Emperor of India
(1526-1530), his victory at Panipat,
119.
Bahadur Shah, the last titular King of
Delhi, his complicity in the Mutiny
of 1857, trial and banishment, 207,
208.
Bahmani dynasty, The, 116, 117.
Baji Rao, second Marhatta Peshwa,
144, 145-
Baji Rao n., seventh and last Marhatta
Peshwa, 148.
Balaji Baji Rao, third Marhatta Peshwa,
145-
Balaji Vishwanath, first Marhatta
Peshwa, 144.
Balban, king of the Slave dynasty (1265-
1287), his severities, 109.
Barlow, Sir George (1805), 183.
Baroda, 147, 213.
Beast stories and fables in Sanskrit, 63
Bentinck, Lord William (1828-1835^
189-191 ; financial reforms, 189, 190;
abolition of sail and suppression of
lhagi, 190 ; renewal of Company's
charter, 190, 191 ; Mysore and Coorg
affairs, 191.
Bhartpur, 182, 189.
Bhonslas of Nagpur, 145-147, 200.
Bhutan war, 212.
'Black Hole' of Calcutta, 163, 164.
INDEX.
217
Bolan, mountain pass over the Brahuik
hills from Baluchistan into Afghan-
istan, 15.
Brahmanas, The, sacred Sanskrit writ-
ings explanatory of the sacrifices and
duties of the priests, 50.
Brahmans, the priestly caste in the
ancient fourfold Hindu organization,
50 ; establishment of the Brahman
supremacy, 5 1 ; stages of a Brahman's
life, 5I> 5 2 > modern Brahmans, 52,
53 ; Brahman theology, philosophy,
literature, astronomy, medicine,
music, law, poetry, drama, 55-63.
Brahmaputra river, 18, 19.
British Burma, geography, etc., 26 ;
British conquests, 188, 199.
British India, the twelve Provinces,
27, 28 ; area and population, 28.
Buddhism, and life of Gautama Buddha,
64-73. See Table of Contents, chap. v.
CAMPBELL, Sir Colin (Lord Clyde),
second relief of Lucknow, 207 ; his
reduction of Oudh, 208.
Canning, Earl (1856-1862), 204-210,
211, 212.
Caste formation of the four castes, 50,
Si-
Caste system, The, its religious and
social aspects, 85-87.
Cavagnari, Sir Louis, Assassination of,
together with a British escort, in
Kabul, 214.
Cawnpore, The Mutiny and massacre at,
206.
Chaitanya, Vishnuvite religious re-
former (1485-1527 A.D.), 94, 95.
Chandra Gupta, King of Magadha
(316 B.C.), 76, 77.
Charters of the East India Company,
208, 209.
Cherra Punjf, station in the Khasi and
Jaintia hills, its enormous rainfall, 16.
Chronological table of Muhammadan
dynasties (1001-1857), 97, 9%-
Clive, Wars of, with Dupleix in the
Karnatic, 162; ' Clive's jdgir,' 166 ;
appointment as Governor of Bengal,
1758-1760, and again from 1765 to
1767, 166, 167, 168; administrative
reforms, 168, 169.
Consolidation of British India, 183-203.
For details see Table of Contents,
chap. xiv.
Coote, General, defeat of the French
under Lally at W.udewash, 163.
Cornwallis, Lord (1786-1793), 175-177;
the Permanent Settlement of Bengal,
176 ; second Mysore war, 177.
DALHOUSIE, Marquis of (1848-1856),
197-202; administrative reforms, 197;
second Sikh war, 197, 198 ; second
Burmese war, and annexation of
Pegu, 199; Dalhousie's Native policy,
199, 200 ; lapsed Native States, 200,
201 ; annexation of Oudh, 201, 202.
Decline and fall of the Mughal Empire
(1707-1765), I37-HI.
Delhi, Siege of, 207, 208.
Diwdnl, Grant of the, to the East
India Company, 169.
Drama, the Sanskrit, 62, 63.
Dravidians, the non-Aryan or ab-
original inhabitants of Southern
India, 42.
Dupleix, French general and adminis-
trator in Southern India, his wars
with Clive, 162, 163.
Dutch in India, The, their supremacy
in the Eastern Seas, 153, 154;
massacre of Amboyna (1623), 155,
156.
EARLY Muhammadan conquerors. See
Table of Contents, chap. ix. 97-118.
Early voyages of the English East
India Company, 155.
East India Companies, English, 154,
155; Dutch, French, Danish, Ostend,
Swedish, 158, 159.
Elgin, Lord (1862-1863), 212.
Ellenborough, Lord (1842-1844), 194,
195 ; conquest of Sind, 195.
English settlements in Madras, 156 ;
Bombay, 156, 157 ; Bengal, 157,
158-
European settlements, 149-159. See
Table of Contents, chap. xiii.
European and Indian languages merely
varieties of Aryan speech, 44.
Everest, Mount, the loftiest peak in the
Himalayas, 14.
FAMINES, 212, 213, 214.
Ffruz Shah Tughlak, third King of the
Tughlak dynasty (1351-1388), his
canals and great public works, 1 14.
Forests in the Himalayas, 16, 17; in
the southern tableland, 25.
Foundation of British rule in India,
160-182. See Table of Contents,
chap. xiii.
218
INDEX.
Fourfold division of Indian people, 32.
French and English wars in Southern
India, 160-163.
GAEKWAR of Baroda, 147, 213.
Ganges, River, 18, 19 ; its sanctity,
19.
Geography of India, 13-26. See Table
of Contents, chap. i.
Ghor dynasty (1152-1206), 104-107.
Gingi, Capture of the fortress of, 163.
Gonds, the principal aboriginal tribe in
the Central Provinces, 36.
Governors, Governors - General, and
Viceroys of India (1758-1880), table,
160.
Greeks, The, in India, 75-78. See
Table of Contents, chap. vi.
Growth of Hinduism (700 to 1500
A.D. ), 83-96. See Table of Contents,
chap. viii.
HALA mountains, the most southerly
offshoot of the Himalayas, 15.
Hardinge, Lord (1844-1848), the first
Sikh war, 195-197.
Hastings, Marquis of (1814-1823), 184-
187 ; Nepal war, 184, 185 ; the
Pindaris, 185, 186; last Marhatta
war, 186, 187.
Hastings, Warren. See Warren Hast-
ings.
Havelock, Sir Henry, Relief of Luck-
now by, 207
Hill tribes of Madras, 35 ; of the
Himalaas, 36, 37 ; of Bengal, 37-
39 ; of Orissa, 39-41.
Himalayas, The, main ranges of, 14,
15 ; offshoots, 15 ; Himalayan water
supply and rainfall, 15, 16 ; products
and scenery, 16, 17; forest destruc-
tion and nomadic cultivation, 17;
Himalayan river system, 18 ; hill
tribes of, 36.
Hinduism, Growth of (700 to 1500
A. D. ), 83-96. See Table of Contents,
chap. viii.
Holkar, 146-148.
Human sacrifice, 41, 90, 91.
Humayun, second Mughal Emperor of
Delhi (1530-1556 A.D.), his defeat
and expulsion by his Afghan governor
of Bengal, and subsequent restora-
tion to the throne, 119, 120.
IBRAHIM Lodi, Defeat of, by Babar at
Panipat, 119.
India on the eve of the Muhammadan
conquest, 99, 100.
India transferred to the Crown (1858),
209, 210.
India under the British Crown (1858-
1880), 210-215. See Table of Con-
tents, chap. xvi.
Indian society in 300 B.C., as described
by Megasthenes, 77, 78.
Indo-Aryans, The, on their march to
India, as described in the Vedic
hymns, 45, 46 ; Aryan civilisation as
disclosed in the Veda, 46, 47 ; the
Vedic gods, 47, 48 ; a Vedic hymn,
48.
Indo-European languages and religions,
44.
Indus, River, 18, 19.
JAHANGIR, fourth Mughal Emperor of
Delhi (1605-1627), his administra-
tion and personal character, 127-129.
Jains, The, in India, 73.
Jaipal, King of Lahore, his defeats by
Subuktigfn and Mahmud of Ghazni,
101, 102.
Jalal-ud-dln, first king of the Khilji
dynasty, 109.
Juangs, leaf-wearing aboriginal tribe in
Orissa, 36.
KABIR, Vishnuvite religious reformei
(1380-1420), 93, 94.
Kabul. See Afghanistan.
Kaders, a hunting hill tribe in Madras,
35-,
Kalidasa, Hindu poet and dramatist,
62.
Kandhs, aboriginal hill tribe in Orissa,
and Northern Madras, 39-41 ; patri-
archal government, 39 ; wars and
punishments, blood-revenge, 39, 40 ;
method of agriculture, 40 ; marriage
by 'capture,' 40; serfs attached to
Kandh village, 40, 41 ; religion,
human sacrifice, 41 ; the Kandhs
under British rule, 41.
Kanishka, Buddhist king in North-
Westera India (40 A.D.), 69, 70, 79,
80.
Karnatic, French and English wars in
the, 160-163.
Khaibar mountain pass in the Hima-
layas from Peshawar District into
Afghanistan, 15.
Khilji dynasty, The (1290-1320), 109-
ui.
INDEX.
219
Khusrii Khan, renegade Hindu king
of the Khilji dynasty (1316-1320),
in.
Kolarians, the non-Aryan or aboriginal
tribes in Bengal and Central India,
41, 42.
Krishna-worship, 95, 96.
Kshattriyas, the second or warrior
caste among the Hindus, 50.
Kutab-ud-din, the first of the Slave
kings (1206-1210), 107.
LALLY, Defeat of, by General Coote at
Wandewash (1760), 163.
Lawrence, Lord (1864-1869), 212.
Leaf- wearing tribe of Orissa, 36.
Literature of the Brahmans, 54-
Lodi dynasty (1450-1526), 114, 115.
Lucknow, Siege and relief of, in 1857,
207.
Lytton, Earl of (1876-1880), 214;
famine of 1876-1877, 217; the second
Afghan war, 215.
MADHU Rao, fourth Marhatta Peshwa,
145, 146.
Madhu Rao Narayan, sixth Marhatta
Peshwa, 147, 148.
Mahabharata, epic poem of the heroic
age in Northern India, its story, 57-
60.
Mahrmid of Ghazni (1001-1030 A.D.),
his seventeen invasions of India and
sack of Somnath, 101-104.
Mahmud Tughlak (1398 - 1412), last
king of the Tughlaks, 114; Tirmir's
invasion (1398), 114.
Marhattas, The, 142-148. See Table
of Contents, chap. xi.
Maris, aboriginal tribe of the Central
Provinces, 36.
Mayo, Earl of (1869-1872), 212, 213.
Medicine, Brahman system of, 55, 56.
Meerut, Outbreak of the Mutiny at,
205.
Megasthenes, Seleukos' ambassador to
the court of Chandra Gupta, 77, 78.
Metcalfe, Lord (1835-1836), 191.
Minto, Earl of (1807-1813), 183, 184;
expedition to Java and Mauritius,
183 ; embassies to the Punjab, Af-
ghanistan, and Persia, 184.
Mir Jafar, Nawab of Bengal, 165,
1 66.
Mir Kasim, Nawab of Bengal, his
revolt, and massacre at Patna, 167,
168.
Moira, Lord. See Hastings, Marquis
of.
Mount Everest, the loftiest peak in the
Himalayas and in the known world,
14.
Mughal dynasty, The (1526-1857),
119-141. See Table of Contents,
chap. x.
Muhammad of Ghor (1191-1206), his
conquests, 104-107.
Muhammad Tughlak (1324- 1351),
second king of the Tughlak dynasty,
112-114; his ferocity of temper,
112; change of capital, 112; forced
currency, 112; revenue exactions,
113, 114.
Muhammadan conquerors of India,
97-118. See Table of Contents,
chap. ix.
Muhammadan States in the Deccan,
115-117.
Mundavers, cave-dwelling pastoral tribe
in Madras, 35.
Music, Art of, among the Brahmans,
56, 57-
Mutiny of 1857, The, 204-210. See
Table of Contents, chap. xv.
NADIR Shah's invasion (1739), 138.
Naga and Patkoi hills, north-eastern
offshoot of Himalayas, the boundary
between British India and the wild
tribes of Upper Burma, 15.
Nairs, hill tribe of Southern India,
35, 36.
Nalanda, ancient Buddhist monastery,
72.
Nana Sahib, the adopted son of last
Marhatta Peshwa, his connection
with the Mutiny of 1857 and the
Cawnpore massacre, 206, 207.
Nanak Shah, founder of the Sikh
religion, 196.
Narayan Rao, fifth Marhatta Peshwa,
146.
Native States of India, their relation
to the British paramount power, 27 ;
area and population of the twelve
groups of States, 29.
Nicholson, Brigadier, his death at the
storming of Delhi, 207.
Nomadic tillage and destruction of
forest, 17.
Non-Aryan or aboriginal population,
33 - 42. See Table of Contents,
chap. iii.
Northbrook, Earl of (1872-1876), 213..
INDEX.
Nott, General, march from Kandahar
to Kabul by (1842), 194.
Xiir Tahan, Empress of Jahangir, 127,
128.
OCHTERLONY, General, campaign
against the Gurkhas (1814, 1815),
184, 185.
Oudh, Annexation of, 201, 202 ;
Mutiny in, 205, 207, 208 ; peasant
rights in, 212.
PAN INI, the compiler of Sanskrit
grammar (about 350 B.C.), 54.
Panipat, Defeat of Ibrahim Lodi at,
by Babar (1526), 119 ; defeat of the
Afghans by Akbar at (1556), 120;
deieat of the Marhattas by Ahmad
Shah Durani at (1761), 146.
Patna, Massacre of, by Mir Kasim, 168.
People, The, 27-32. See Table of
Contents, chap. ii.
Peshwas, Rise of the power of the,
144-148.
Plassey, Battle of, 164, 165.
Poetry, epic and lyric, among the
Brahmans the stories of the Maha-
bharata and Ramayana, 57-63.
Pollock, General, March of, from the
Punjab to Jalalabad and Kabul in
1842, 194.
Polyandry among the Nairs in Southern
India and the northern Himalayan
tribes, 35, 36, 57 ; the polyandry of
Draupadi in the Mahabharata, 59.
Population, Density of the Indian, 30 ;
town and rural population, 30 ; over-
crowded and under-peopled districts,
30, 31 ; nomadic tillage in districts
where spare land is plentiful, 31 ;
rise of rents in crowded districts, 31.
Portuguese in India, their ancient
power and present possessions, 150,
'Si-
Proclamation, The Queen's, of the 1st
November 1858.
Products and scenery of the Himalayas,
1 6, 17 ; of the northern river plains
and Bengal delta, 22, 23 ; of the
southern tableland, 24, 25, 26.
Puliars, wild jungle tribe in Madras, 35.
RACES of prehistoric India. See also
Aryans and Non- Aryans.
Rainfall in the Himalayas, 16.
Rama, the hero-god of the Ramayana,
60, 61.
Ramanand, Vishnuvite religious re-
former (1300-1400 A.D.), 93.
Ramanuja, Vishnuvite religious reformer
(II50A.D.), 92, 93.
Ramayana, Sanskrit epic relating the
Aryan advance into Southern India,
its story, 60, 6l.
Ranjit Sinh, the founder of the Sikh
kingdom, 196.
Raziya (1236-1239), an empress of the
Slave dynasty, 108.
Rents, Rise of, in overcrowded Dis-
tricts, 32.
Rig- Veda, the earliest Sanskrit hymnal,
45-48.
Ripon, Marquis of (1880-1881), 215;
conclusion of the Afghan war, 215.
River plains of India, 18-23; work
done by the rivers, 20 ; Bengal
delta and process of land-making,
20, 21 ; river estuaries, 21 ; rivers
as irrigators and highways, 21 ;
destructive floods, 22 ; crops and
scenery of the northern river plains
and of the Bengal delta, 22, 23.
River system of the Himalayas, 17, 18.
Rock edicts of Asoka, 69.
Rose, Sir Hugh's, campaign in Central
India (1858-1859), 208.
SAFED Koh mountains, offshoot of the
Himalayan range in Afghanistan, 15.
Sakuntala, famous Sanskrit drama, 62.
Salbai, Treaty of, 148, 174.
Salivahana, King (78 A.D.), his wars
with the Scythians, 81.
Sarnbhaji (1680-1689), 144.
Sankara Acharya, Sivaite religious
reformer (9th century A.D. ), 89.
Santals, aboriginal hill tribe in Bengal,
37-39 ; their location and system of
government, 37, 38 ; social and
religious ceremonies, 38 ; history,
38, 39 ; Santal rising in 1855, 39.
Sayyid dynasty, The (1440-1450), 114-
"5-
Scythian inroads into India (100 B.C.
to 500 A.D.), 79-82. See Table of
Contents, chap. vii.
Seleukos, Alexander's successor to the
Greek conquests in Bactria and
India, 76, 77.
Serfdom abolished, 31, 32.
Shah Jahan, fifth Mughal Emperor of
Delhi (1628-1658), his magnificent
public buildings, 129-131; deposition
by his son Aurangzeb, 131.
INDEX.
221
Sliahji Bhonsla, founder of the Marhatta
power, 142.
Sher Shah, Defeat of Humayiin by,
1 20.
Sikhs, the, Persecution of, by the
Muhammadans, 138; their rise into
power, 195 ; Ranjit Sinh, 196 j first
Sikh war, 196, 197 ; second Sikh
war and annexation of the Punjab,
197, 198.
Sfladitya, Buddhist king of Northern
India, 71, 72.
Sind, Conquest of, 195.
Sindhia, 146-148.
Siva and Siva -worship, 89-91 ; forms
of Siva and his wife, 90, 91 ; twofold
aspects of Siva - worship, 90 ; the
thirteen Sivaite sects, 91.
Sivaji the Great (1627-1680), his
guerilla warfare with the Muham-
madans, 133, 134, 143, 144.
Slave dynasty, The, 107-109.
Somnath, Sack of, by Mahmud of
Ghaznf.
Sources of the Indian people Aryan,
Non-Aryan, and Scythian, 83, 84.
Southern tableland, The, 23-26 ;
scenery, 24 ; rivers, 25 ; forests, 25,
26 ; minerals, 26.
Subuktigin, Turk! invader of India
(977 A.D.), 101.
Sudras or serfs, the lowest caste in the
ancient Hindu fourfold social organi-
zation, 50, 51.
Sulaiman mountains, offshoot of the
Himalayan range in Afghanistan,
IS-
Suraj-ud-daula, Nawab of Bengal,
his capture of Calcutta (1756), 164;
defeat of, at Plassey by Clive, 164,
165.
Sutlej river, 1 8.
Swally, Defeat of the Portuguese fleet
at, by the British, 135.
TiBETO-Burman, the Non- Aryan or
aboriginal tribes inhabiting the skirts
of the Himalayas, 41.
Timur's (Tamerlane's) invasion (1398),
114.
Town and rural population, 30.
Trade-guilds (caste), 86, 87.
Tughlak dynasty, The (1320-1414),
112-114.
Tiirki invasions (977 A.D.), 101.
VAISYAS, the third or cultivating caste
in the ancient Hindu organization, 50.
Vallabha-Swami, Vishnuvite religious
reformer (1520 A.D.), 95, 96.
Vasco da Gama, 149, 150.
Vedas, The four, the Hindu hymnals,
49, S-
Vellore, Mutiny of, 183.
Vijayanagar kingdom, 115, 117.
Vikramaditya, King of Ujjain (57 B.C.),
his wars with the Scythian invaders,
80, 81.
Vishnu -worship, 91-96; the incarna-
tions of Vishnu, 91, 92 ; the Vishnu
Purana, 92 ; Vishnuvite apostles,
92-96.
WANDEWASH, Battle of (1760), 163.
Wargaum, Convention of, 174.
Warren Hastings (1772-1785), 170-175 ;
administrative reforms, 171 ; policy
to Native rulers, 171 ; makes Bengal
pay, 171, 172; sells Allahabad and
Kora to the Marhattas, 172.; the
Rohilla war, 173 ; plunder of Chait
Sinh and of the Begam of Oudh,
173 ; his impeachment and seven
years' trial in England, 173; Mar-
hatta and Mysore wars, 174, 175.
Wellesley, Marquis of (1798-1805),
177-182; French influence in India,
177, 178; Lord Wellesley's policy,
178, 179; treaty with the Nizam,
179 ; third Mysore war, and fall of
Seringapatam, 180; second Marhatta.
war, 181.
Wilson, Mr. James, his financial
reforms, 212.
j YANDABU, Treaty of, 188, 189.
THE END.
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