ii ji. i ii inmnMatniiTii-iT ' ' '"" ''" THE HISTORY OF INDIA READY SHORTLY. THE AUTHORISED GUIDE TO SIR ROPER LETHBRIDGE'S HISTORY OF INDIA. MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED, LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA. Adapted to the requirements of the Entrance or Matriculation Examinations of the Universities. THE HISTOEY OF INDIA WITH CHAPTEBS ON THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY ; THE ANCIENT AND MODERN POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND PLACES OP INTEREST; AND 'INDIA IN 1900,' ITS PEOPLES, THEIR CONDITION, RESOURCES, INSTITUTIONS AND FORMS OP IMPERIAL, PROVINCIAL, AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT BY SIR ROPER LETHBRIDGE, K.C.I.E., M.A. Formerly Scholar of Exeter College, Oxford ; sometime Principal of Kishttaghw College, Bengal, and Fellow and Examiner of the Calcutta University / MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA First Edition printed for MACMILLAN & Co. 1876. Reprinted March and September 1876, February, March, and August 1877 1878, February and October 1879, 1880, January and August 1881, 1882, January and October 1888, 1887, 1889. Revised and corrected 1898 Reprinted 1894, 1895, 1896, 1899, April, July, and September 1900. URt URL 5145929 CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. THE PHYSICAL GEOGBAPHY OF INDIA ... 1 II. THE CONQUEST OF INDIA BY THE ARYAN-HINDUS 13 III. MANU, THE GREAT LAWGIVER OF THE HINDUS 18 IV. BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM 22 V. THE GREEKS IN INDIA 23 VI. THE TRIUMPH AND DECLINE OF BUDDHISM . 25 VII. THE REVIVAL OF BRAHMANISM ... 27 VIII. SULTAN MAHMUD OF GHAZNI . . . .32 IX. MUHAMMAD GHORI AND IHE CONQUEST OF HIN- DUSTAN BY THE MUHAMMADANS . . 37 X. THE PATIIAN OR AFGHAN SULTANS OF DEHLI 41 XI. THE RIVALS OF THE DEHLI EMPIRE . . 49 XII. BABAR AND HUMAYUN, THE FlRST MUGHUL EMPERORS . . .... 52 XIII. AK.BAR, THE GREATEST OF THE MUGHUL EMPERORS 56 XIV. JAHANGIR, SHAH JAHAN, AND AURANGZEB . 65 XV. THE DECLINE OF THE MUGHUL EMPIRE . . 71 XVI. SlVAJI AND THE RlSE OF THE MAHRATTAS . 77 XVII. THE PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF THE MAHRATTA POWER 82 XVIII. EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN INDIA . 93 XIX. THE WARS OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH IN THE CARNATIC 97 XX. CLIVE, AND THE BATTLE OF PLASSEY . . 102 XXI. CLIVE, AND THE GRANT OF THE DtwANf 01? BENGAL ' 108 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE XXII. WAKREN HASTINGS, THE FIRST GOVERNOR- GENERAL OF INDIA ... .112 XXIII. LORD CORNWALLIS : THE THIRD MYSORE WAR AND THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT OF BENGAL 321 XXIV. THE MARQUIS WELLESLEY : THE CONQUEST OF MYSORE AND OF THE MAHRATTAS . . 125 XXV. LORD CORNWALLIS AGAIN : SIR GEORGE BAR- LOW: LORD MINTO 129 XXVI. THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS : THE NEPAL AND PINDARI WARS . , . . . .132 XXVII. LORD AMHERST : THE FIRST BURMAH WAR AND THE STORMING OF BHARTPUR . . 134 XXVIII. LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK : PEACE AND REFORMS ....... 137 XXIX. LORD AUCKLAND : THE AFGHAN WAR . . 139 XXX. LORD ELLENBOROUGH : THE CONQUEST or KABUL AND THE ANNEXATION OF SlNDH . 142 XXXI. LORD HARDINGE : THE FIRST SIKH WAR . 345 XXXII. LORD DALHOUSIE : THE SECOND SKH WAR . 148 XXXIII. LORD CANNING : THE SEPOY MUTINY . . 152 XXXIV. CHE VICEROYS OF INDIA UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN . 161 APPENDIX : PART I. ANCIBNT AND MODERN POLITICAL DIVISIONS, AND PLACES OF INTEREST . . .170 PART II. INDIA IN 1900: ITS PEOPLES, THEIR CON- DITION, RESOURCES, INSTITUTIONS, AND FORMS OF IMPERIAL, PROVINCIAL, AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT .... 187 INDEX 199 lseiiin-nifif>'< India* TAN LAK R Al N AGE AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTOEY OF INDIA: CHAPTER I. THE LAND AND ITS PHYSICAL FEATURES. 1. Extent and Boundaries. 2. Two Great Divisions, Hin- dustan and the Deccan. 3. Physical Divisions of Northern India. 4. The Plains of Northern India. 5. The North-Eastern Valleys. 6. The Mabra Plateau. 7. Physical Divisions of Southern India. 8. The Plateau of the Deccan and Mysore. 9. The Western Mari- time Fringe. 10. The Eastern Maritime Fringe. 11. Ceylon. 12. Burma. 13. British Baluchistan. 14. Coast-line and Harbours. 1. Extent and Boundaries. India (excluding the pro- vince of Burma, or Bnrmah) may be described roughly as the country which lies between the Himalaya mountains and the sea. From Quetta in British Baluchistan, in the extreme west, to the eastern borders of Assam is a distance of about 1,800 miles. About the same distance separates Peshawar, in the north of the Panjab, from Cape Comorin at the southern extremity of the Empire. And the area included within these limits exceeds 1,587,000 square miles ; and if to this be added the territories of Burma, the total extent of the Indian Empire is about 1,800,000 square miles, or nearly one-fourth of the whole of the British Empire. Its boundary on the north is the mountain-chain of the Himalayas, the highest mountains in the world. The 2 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO river Indus bursts through the Himalaya mountains by a gorge in east longitude 72, in the northern corner of the Panjab ; the river Dihong, the chief tributary of the Brahmaputra, finds its way through the same chain in east longitude 95 30', in the north-east of Assam ; and between these points the Himalaya is an unbroken water- shed, of an average height of 19,000 feet, for a distance of 1,400 miles. The highest peak is Mount Everest, 29,000 feet above the sea-level. !Near Peshawar, west of the Indns, is the entrance to the Khaibar Pass, leading to Jalalabad and Kabul through terrible defiles to the north of the Safed Koh range of mountains ; and south of that range is the Kuram Pass, also leading , to Kabul, through a very wild, mountainous region, by the famous ascents of the Pewar Kohtal and the Shutargardan Pass. The Suleman mountains, running nearly north and Bouth to the west of the Indus, and parallel to that iver, separate the plains of the Panjab from the Kabul plateau and Sewistan. Its highest peak, the Takht-i- Suleman, or " Solomon's Throne," is under 12,000 feet. Southward the range becomes less elevated, until at length it turns westward, to bound the plain leading up to the Bolan Pass the great military and commercial road from India to Quetta, in British Baluchistan, and also to Kandahar, Herat, and Western Asia generally. From this pass, the Hal a range of mountains skirts the valley of the Indus on the west, almost to the sea. From Karachi to Cape Comorin, the Indian Ocean is the boundary on the west and south-west ; while from. Cape Comorin to the confines of Burma the boundary is the Bay of Bengal on the east and south-east. Burma is bounded 011 the south-west by the Bay of Bengal ; on the north-west and north by wild mountainous, regions, partly unexplored, that separate it from Assam and Thibet (or Tibet, or Tibbat) ; and on the north-east and past by similar regions, separating it from China and Slum. THE HISTORY OP INDIA. 3 2. Two great Divisions Hindustan and the Deccan (or Dakhin). India Proper that is, excluding the Burmese territories is divided into two parts, commonly called Hindustan and the Deccan (or Dakhin) respectively, by a chain of highlands that runs across the country, nearly from sea to sea, iu the northern part of the peninsula, and just south of the tropic of Cancer. This chain of high- lands is the most important water-parting in the country ; the waters to the north draining chiefly into the Narbada and the Ganges, those to the south into the Tapti, the Mahanadi, and some smaller streams. Its general direction is from west by south to east by north. In the west, between the basins of the Narbada and the Tapti, it is called the Satpura range ; on the eastern side it becomes merged in the plateau of Chntia Nagpur and Hazaribagh in Bengal. It will be seen hereafter that the western portion of this chain is also the boundary between two important sections of the Indian people between the Hindi-speaking and the Marathi-speaking races. For all these reasons, it is convenient to regard this chain of high- lands as the division between Northern and Southern India, which are often called Hindustan and the Deccan respectively. It should, however, be remembered that the terms 'Hindustan' and 'the Deccan,' as commonly used, are ambiguous. Hindustan is sometimes used by European geographers to indicate the whole of India ; whilst on the other hand the meaning of the term in India is sometimes restricted to those regions in the upper Gangetic valley which are occupied by Hindi-speaking races. When opposed to ' the Deccan,' it means broadly ' Northern India,' as opposed to ' Southern India ' ; but the boundary is sometimes placed at the Narbada river, sometimes as we have placed it above, and sometimes at the Vindhya range (which bounds the Narbada valley on the north). So, too, ' the Deccan ' is sometimes restricted in its mean- ing to the territory forming the northern portion of the B 2 4 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO great plateau of Southern India, and sometimes applied specially to the Feudatory State ruled by the Nizam of Haidarabad, nearly coincident with that territory. In ancient Indian writers, the boundary between Hindustan and the Deccan is uniformly placed at the Vindhya range. 3. Physical Divisions of Nortliern India. Northern India consists mainly of a vast plain, which includes (1) the basin of the Indus, and the Thar or Great Indian Desert on the west ; (2) the basin of the Ganges and its tributaries in the centre and east, comprising the modern divisions of the North- Western Provinces, Oadh, Bihar, Bengal, and parts of Bajputana and the Central India Agency (see Appendix A) ; and (3) two valleys in the far east, which form the basin of the Brahmaputra and its affluents (now Assam and Eastern Bengal). This plain is flanked on the north and west by mountain-zones, the Himalaya and the Suleman ranges. On the south of some portions of the western and central divisions of this plain is the great pleateau of Malwa and Baghalkhand, which is separated from the central mountain-axis (the Satpura and other ranges) by the valley of the Narbada. 4. The Plains of Northern India. The vast plain of Northern India consists of the Indus valley, the Thar or Great Indian Desert, and the Gangetic Valley. These divisions run into each other without visible interruption ; for though the water-parting between the two great rivers is at an elevation of from 800 to 1,000 feet above sea-level at its highest point somewhere north of Delhi, yet the slope on each side is so gradual as to be imperceptible. The western part of this plain consists of the alluvial valley of the Indus and its tributaries ; the saline swamps of Cutch (Kadi) ; the rolling sands and rocky plains of the desert, which covers much of Sind, the south of the Panjab, and Western Bajputana; and the south-easterly margin of this desert in Rajputana, which is less sterile, be- cause it receives more rain and is watered by the Luni. The whole of this region is dry, and some of it almost rainless. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 5 At Mithankot the Indus receives, as a tributary, the collected waters of the Five Rivers, from which the Panjab (Panj-db = Five waters) takes its name. These rivers all rise in the Himalaya, and flow south- west through the Panjab. These, commencing with the most southerly (which is also the greatest), are the Satlej, the Bias, the Ravi (on which is Lahore), the Chenab, and the Jhelam (which drains Kashmir). The plains of the Panjab slope insensibly from north-east to south-west, from the Hima- laya towards the sea. The strips between the rivers are called Dodbs, and consist of Bdngar land and KJiddar land. The Khddar is the fertile fringe of the river below flood- level within which the river often alters its course from year to year, sometimes deviating many miles from its old channel. The Bdngar is the higher land between the rivers, generally arid and sterile, and often bare or covered only with coarse scrub though in the northern and less dry portion of the Panjab it bears luxuriant crops of wheat. The water-system of the Ganges drains an area of 391,000 square miles (the area of the Indus valley being less by some 20,000 square miles). The Ganges leaves the Himalaya near Hardwar, and flows to the Bay of Bengal, in a direction generally south-east, its course being about 1.500 miles. The Jamund, or Jamnah, joins it at Allah- abad, and above that point has a fair claim to be con- sidered the main stream. Agra, Muttra (Mathurd), and Delhi are on its banks ; and the highly fertile tract of land between it and the Ganges is called ' the Doab,' as being the most important of all the Doabs of India. The most important of the other tributaries of the Ganges are on the south side, the Chambal from Malwa, the Betwa from Bhopal and Bundelkhand, and the Son from Central India ; on the north side, the Gumti from Oudh. the Rapti, Gandak, and Kosi from Nepal, and the Tista from Sikkim. The great Gangetic Delta commences at a point near Murshidabad, below which the courses of the yarious channels have for ages been shifting. Below 6 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO this point the present main stream is the Padma, still sometimes called Ganges ; whilst the ancient main stream is now a much smaller one called the Bhagirathi, which, joins some others to form the Hooghly, or Hngli, on which Calcutta is built. ., The Gangetic Delta with the contiguous delta of the Brahmaputra forms the marvellous network of rivers for which Eastern Bengal is famous. 5. The North- Eastern Valleys. Eastward from this network of rivers, two alluvial plains stretch up between the wild ranges of mountains that connect the Himalayan system with that of the Burmese peninsula. The more northerly one is that of the Brahmaputra, called Assam ; it is long and narrow, and is bordered on the north by the Himalaya, on the south by the lower plateau of the Garo, Khasi, and Naga hill*. The other valley is that of the river Surma, including the districts of Cachar and Silhat short and broad, and in part occupied by swamps ; it separates the Garo, Khasi, and Naga hills from those of Tiparah and the Lushai country. The Assam valley, one of the homes of the tea-plant, is almost a perfect flat, with clumps of little conical hills scattered over the plains and rising abruptly to the height of 200 to 700 feet. A large number of rivers flow through this plain to join the Brah- maputra, and the rainfall is very heavy. 6. The Mdlwa Plateau. The great plateau of Malwa and Baghalkhand occupies the space intervening between the Gangetic plain on the north, the semi-fertile fringe of the Great Indian Desert (the part watered by the Lnni) on the north-west, the valley of the Narbada on the south, and the valley of the Son (a tributary of the Ganges) on the south-east. Its slope is almost entirely northward, from the Vindhya mountains, its southern wall, to the Gangetic plain. With the exception of a small area in the south-west, which drains into the Mahi (an insignificant river falling into the Gulf of Kambay), the whole drainage of the plateau is into the Ganges. Its north-west and west wall is formed by the Aravali mountains, which cross THE HIPTOKY OF INDIA. 7 Bajputana from its south-west corner to the neighbourhood of Delhi ; the highest peak, Mount Abu, is over 5,000 feet. The surface of the plateau is an undulating plain with oc- casional hills, the highest of which does not exceed 2,500 feet. Intervening between this plateau and the central moun- tain-axis of the Satpuras, is the long narrow valley of the Narbada, which flows from east to west into the Arabian Sea, or Indian Ocean, at Baroch. 7. Physical Divisions of Southern India. India south of the Satpuras is a triangular peninsula, its base being the Satpuras mountains and their continuations, its apex at Cape Comorin, its eastern side resting on the Bay of Bengal, called the ' Coromandel Coast,' and its western side resting on the Indian Ocean, called the ' Malabar Coast.' The whole of the interior of this country is a vast plateau, the plateau of the Deccan and Mysore, somewhat in the shape of a triangle, whose base and sides are parallel to those of the triangle of Southern India. Fringing this plateau are, on the north-west, the valley of the Tapti j on the west, the narrow belt of hot, moist, and somewhat rugged country between the Western Ghats and the Indian Ocean ; on the east, a belt (generally much broader, but varying greatly in breadth) of hot, low country between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal ; whilst on the south, beyond the apex of the triangle, is a hilly region extending to Cape Comorin. 8. The Plateau of the Daccan and Mysore. The com- bined valleys of the Tapti and its affluent, the Purna, intervene, in the western and central part of the peninsula, between the Satpura mountain-axis and the Deccan pla- teau. They are occupied by the fine plains of Khandesh and Barar, having a soil famous as the black ' cotton soil.' At the head of the Purna valley, the plains of Barar pass .without perceptible interruption into those of the tributaries of the Godavari, which extend far down that i-iver, and form one slope (the lowest portion) of the Deccan plateau. Eastward, nearly as far as the Orissa coast of the Bay of 8 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO Bengal, is an immense extent of mountainous country, drained by the Mahanadi and its affluents, and comprising a large portion of the Central Provinces, the southern portion of Chutia Nagpur, and Orissa. The main stream. of the Mahanadi only emerges from these hills through a narrow gorge near Cuttack (KaiaTt), just above the head of its delta, which forms part of an alluvial plain extending to the delta of the Ganges. The Western Ghats are the western barrier of this plateau ; and the Eastern Ghats, a lower and less continu- ous chain, are the eastern barrier. As may be inferred from the fact that the great rivers of the peninsula rise near the Yfestern Ghats, and flow eastward through the line of the Eastern Ghats, the general slope of the country is from the Western Ghats eastward to the bay of Bengal, with a more or less sudden drop at the line called the Eastern Gbats. Hence a vertical section of the peninsula from west to east, from the Indian Ocean to the bay of Bengal, would be somewhat as under : ^Veslern Ghats Indian Ocean The basin of the Godavari and its tributaries (of which the chief are the Wardha and the Wainganga) coincides with a broad depression in the Deccan plateau, which slopes gently from Nagpur (1,000 feet high) to the sea. Another broad depression is caused by the basin of the Kistna (or Krishna) and its great affluents, the Bhima and the Tungabhadra, and this depression separates the southern plateaa of Mysore (with Bangalore at a height of 3,000 feet) from the northern plateau of the Deccan proper. The central part of the plateau, except where under field cultivation, is a bare grassy country, with a gently undu- lating surface, and occasional ridges of rocky hills OP clusters of bold isolated peaks ; and the general appearance of the rugged Krishna valley is of very similar character. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 9 A little to the south of Madras the Eastern Ghats trend off to the westward, bounding the plateau of Mysore ; and at their junction with the Western Ghats rises the bold triangular plateau of the Nilgiri Hills, the highest point of which, Dodabetta, is not less than 8,640 feet above the sea. South of the Nilgiris is a broad depression called the Palghat Pass, or Gap of Coimbatore. This depression, which is only 1,500 feet high at its highest point, connects the low country forming the eastern fringe of the penin- sula with that forming the western fringe, and separates the highlands of the Nilgiris from those of Travancore and the southern corner of India. The plateau of Mysore is drained by three small rivers (called the Ponnar, the Palar, and the Southern Ponnar) on the east, and on the south by the Kaveri (or Cauvery), which also drains the Nilgiris. The Kaveri flows into the Bay of Bengal by two arms, of which the northern one is called the Kalarun (or Coleroon). 9. The Western Maritime Fringe. The narrow strip of low country that fringes the peninsula below the Western Ghats is called Malabar in the south and tho Konkan in the north. It varies in width from twenty miles to fifty miles. It is well watered by short streams from the Ghats, and is somewat rugged, being much intersected by short spurs of that range. The rainfall being heavy and the climate hot, the forests are dense and the vegetation tropical. 10. The Eastern Maritime Fringe. On the east side of the peninsula the fringing plain is generally very much broader, though for a short distance near Madras it is only thirty miles across, and is still narrower near Viza- gapatam. In its southern part it is called the Carnatic. South of Madras it occupies from one-third to one-half the width of the peninsula, and runs up the valley of the Kaveri to the foot of the Nilgiri hills, where it is 2,000 feet above the level of the sea. It includes the alluvial 10 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO deltas of the Kaveri, the Krishna, the Godavari, and the Mahanacli, as well as nearly the entire basins of some smaller rivers, such as the Ponnar and Palar. Whilst it contains some of the hottest districts in India, it is gene- rally highly productive. The rich district of Tamore on the Kaveri delta owes its remarkable fertility to an elabo- rate system of irrigation. 11. Ceylon. The island of Ceylon lies south-east of Cape Comoriu, its west coast being in the same longitude as the east coast of the Indian peninsula between Negapa- tam and Pondicherry. The sea that separates Ceylon from India is called the Gulf of Manar on the south and Pa,lk's Straits on the north ; it is almost bridged by a chain of coral reefs and islands (called Rama's or Adam's bridge), which practically closes all the channels against navigation. Ceylon, though geographically an Indian island, is not connected politically with the Indian Empire being an English. Crown colony, under a Governor appointed* by the Colonial Office in London. The Indian name of Ceylon is Singhala or Lanka ; the Muhammadan writers used to call it Silau, and the name Ceylon is another spelling of Silan. 12. Burma. The great Province of Burma, forming an important part of the peninsula of 'Further India,' is geogaphically separate from India Proper ; but it is poli- tically a part of the Indian Empire, under a Chief Com- missioner appointed by the Viceroy of India. For political purposes, the province is divided into Lower Burma, acquired by the wars of 1824 and 1852, and Upper Burma, annexed in 1886. But geographically, Upper Burma consists of the upper valleys of the same rivers the Irawadi and the Salwen whose lower valleys form the most important part of Lower Burma. The area of the whole of the province but not in- cluding some of the Shan States and much of the wild and mountainous country on the frontiers, as yet hardly explored is about 171,000 square miles. Of this, about THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 11 88,000 square miles are included in Lower Burma, and about 83,000 square miles in Upper Burma. The un- settled and partly unexplored regions on the frontiers of Thibet (orTibbat), China, and Siam have been estimated to contain a further area of 100,000 square miles. The leading physical features of the province are com- paratively simple. From the upper end of the Assam valley, a series of wild mountain-ranges diverge to the southward. Of these, the westernmost is called the Patkoi Hills, and separates Assam from Upper Bi>rma. Spurs of the Patkoi Hills connect that range with the Lushai Hills ; and the Feudatory State of Manipur (politically connected with Assam) occupies a valley in this region, the drainage of which flows down into an affluent of the Irawadi. Further south, one of the continuations of the Patkoi range is called the Arakan Toma. This range separates the valley of the Irawadi from the maritime district of Arakan, which is the part of Burma adjacent to the Chitta- gong division of Bengal. The Arakan Yoma, called also the ' Coast Range,' dips into the sea at Cape Negrais ; far southward at sea it is continued in the Great and Little Coco Islands, the Andaman Islands, and the Nikobars. The delta of the Irawadi fbrms, with its fertile lower basin, the rich province of Pegu, the central district of Lower Burma, famous for rice and teak- wood. The valley of the Irawadi consists of plains intersected by low hill- ranges, which generally run north and south. It is bounded on the east by the Pegu Yoma, a range of hills separating it from the valley of the river Salwen. The Tenasserim division, the third and most southerly part of Lower Burma, consists of the delta of the Salwen, with a long narrow strip of maritime territory running out south- ward, bounded by the mountains of Siam on the east. 13. British Baluchistan. Like Burma in the extreme east, so British Baluchistan in the extreme west of the Indian Empire must be regarded as geographically outside India Proper. It consists partly of Pishin and other 12 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO Afghan mountain- valleys, ceded by the Amir of Afghanis, tan in 1879 ; and partly of Quetta and other Baluch districts within the Feudatory territories of the Khan of Kalat, which are administered by British officials on behalf of the Khan. All these districts are situated on the lofty highlands west of the Suleman mountains ; and the Bolan and Sind-Pishin Railways, which connect them with India by the difficult route of the Bolan Pass, are admired as triumphs of railway engineering. 14. Coast-line and Harbours. The coast-line of India is on the whole unbroken, affording few good harbours. Calcutta is one of the most dangerous ports in the world, being 80 miles up a winding river, with, barely 20 feet of water at low tide at many points, and the channel narrow and intricate. Madras is an open roadstead, with an artificial harbour constructed at great cost. It has a beach famous for its lines of surf ; and all the ports on the Coromandel Coast, from the Hooghly (or Hngli) to Cape Comorin, are of a similar character. In Ceylon there is the first-class harbour of Trincomalee, which is the dockyard of the Royal Navy in the East, but it is situated in an inaccessible and unhealthy part of the island. Galle, at the southern extremity of Ceylon, has a good though somewhat dangerous harbour. Colombo, on the western coast of Ceylon, is healthily situated and is the natural outlet of the important export trade of Ceylon ; it is the coaling station and port of call for all the great ocean steamers on the ' overland ' lines to Madras and Calcutta, as well as to Singapore and the Indian Archipelago, China, Japan, and Australasia. Colombo, like Madras, is an open roadstead, with a breakwater which largely increases its value as a harbour. On the Malabar coast are several valuable harbours Cochin, Calicut, Man- galore. Bombay is a very fine harbour ; the Portugese are said on this account to have altered its native name (Mombai or Mambe) into Buon-bahia, ' good harbour ' ; and being connected by rail with all parts of India, its THE HtSTOfcY OF iNfilA. 13 commercial importance is very great indeed. Surat, the natural port of the Tapti, and Baroch, that of the Narbada, cannot shelter large vessels during the summer monsoon. Next to Calcutta and Bombay, the chief commercial port of India is now Karachi. It is situated at the north-west corner of the delta of the Indus, and being the nearest port to Europe, and connected by rail with the Panjab and Upper India, it is fast rising in importance. Eastward of Calcutta is the port of Chittagong in East Bengal ; it is only available for small vessels, and only valuable as an outlet for the rice of that region. The ports of Burma are Akyab, Rangoon at the mouth of an arm of the Irawadi, and Moulmein at the mouth of the Sal wen. The coast of Malabar and Travancore is fringed with sand-spits, inclosing ' backwaters,' which are so connected as to afford a very complete system of inland navigation. CHAPTER II. THE CONQUEST OF INDIA BY THE ARYAN-HINDIS. 1. Sources from which we obtain our knowledge of the early ftistory. 2. The Vedas. 3. The ancient Hindus of the Patri- archal Age. 4. The ancient Hindus of the Heroic Age. 5. Le- gends of the Heroic Age. 1. Sources from which we obtain our Tcnoidedge of the early history. In very ancient times in India no one ever thought of sitting down and writing an account of the events which he saw or heard of as occurring in the country ; and in consequence of this negligence no trust- worthy history was written in India until after the Muham- madan conquest, i.e. until some period not nine hundred years ago. All we know, therefore, about the earlier his- tory of this country must be derived, not from regular his- tories or annals, but from other sources, such as legends or 14 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO ancient popular tales, hints collected from ancient religious or poetical writings, references to Indian affairs by the historians of other countries, hints derived from the writings on coins, or ancient inscriptions on stone or metal ; and other sources of which we need not speak here. 2. The Vedas. The writings that are considered most sacred by the Hindus are called the Vedas. These sacred writings are in Sanskrit a language which was spoken in ancient times throughout the north of India ; and it is be- lieved that some of these writings were composed more than 3,200 years ago. The oldest parts of the Vedas are Jlynins or invocations to God ; and from these (combined with other sources) we learn something about the circum- stances of the Hindus of that period. 3. The Ancient Hindus of the Patriarchal Age. It appears, then, that the ancestors of the people whom we now call Hindus did not live in India in very ancient times, but in the highlands of Central Asia. They were tohen called Aryans ; and were the ancestors, not only of the Hindus, who afterwards came to India, but also of the Europeans, who went to live in Europe, and of the Persians, who went to live in Persia. At last the Hindu tribe of the Aryan race migrated southward from Central Asia over the high mountains which you will see marked in the Atlas as the Hindu Kush ; and so they came first into the Panjab [see Chap. I.] Besides the five rivers which now, with the Indus, water the Panjab, there was then another tributary of the Indus, called the Saraswati, which in modern times never reaches the Indus at all, but loses itself in the sands of the desert. On the banks of the river Saraswati and of the other Panjab rivers the Hindu- Aryans remained for many centuries ; and were probably living here under a sort of patriarchal government at the time to which the hymns of the Vedas refer, the district being called by them Brahmaoartta. ' THE HISTORY OP INDIA. 15 [NOTE.' A government is called Patriarchal (from the Greek words pater, a father, and archos, chief) when the head of the family rules that family as its chief.] The head or patriarch of the tribe was not only its chief, but also its priest. When it was necessary these Aryan invaders fonght against the original inhabitants of the country (called aborigines or aboriginal tribes), who were people of a darker colour than themselves ; and as the Aryans were braver than the aborigines, and possessed better weapons and wore strong armour of mail (that is, armour made of small iron or bronze rings closely inter- laced), they were usually victorious, and drove the abori- gines away into the hills and forests where their descendants still live. But generally during this patriarchal period the Aryans contented themselves with living quietly in the fertile plains of the Panjab ; and the people, led a very simple life, being all of them engaged in feeding cattle and occasionally in a little rude agriculture. 4. The Ancient Hindus of the Heroic Age. This state of affairs probably continued, as we have said, for many centuries, during which the Aryan-Hindus gradually be- came richer and more numerous ; and at last they began to think themselves strong enough to conquer the rich plains watered by the Ganges and its tributaries, which were even more fertile than those of the Panjab. [NOTE. We have seen in Chapter I. that these plains are now called the North- West Provinces, Oudh, Bihar, Bengal, and parts of Bajputana, and the Central India, Agency. But by the Aryan-Hindus the land between the Saraswati and the Ganges was called Brahmdrshi-desa, the sacred country of Brahman Eishis; eastward was Madhya-desa, as far as Allahabad ; and finally the whole of Northern India was Aryavartta.] Eor many years, and perhaps for many centuries, the Aryan-Hindus were engaged in conquering these fine pro- vinces ; and this period is called the Heroic Age of Indian history , because the Hindus underfamous and heroic leaders 16 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO were continually engaged iu war against the aborigines, whom they gradually reduced to slavery or drove away into the hills and forests, like the Santals, Bhils, and other tribes at the present day. The heroes who conducted these wars gradually became MaMrdjds, or kings, as their power increased by making large conquests and by getting many followers. Since these chiefs were now busily engaged in war, they could no longer attend to their duties as priests, as they had been accustomed to do in the patriarchal times ; so in course of time there arose a priestly caste, called ~Bra.li- mans. Ultimately the Brahmans acquired more influence over the people than even the kings themselves ; so at last there were two high classes amongst these Aryan-Hindus, the Brahmans, who were regarded by the superstitious aa almost divine, and who were held in the highest reverence, and the Kskatriya, or soldier-caste, to which the kings and military leaders belonged. Many legends and popular stories about this Heroic Age have been preserved, of which the chief are to bo found in the two great Sanskrit poems called the Rdmdyana and the MaJidbhdrata. From these we learn that the habits of the Aryan-Hindus at this early period were at first those of simple and rude warriors. Even the Raids and princes tended cattle, and cleared land for agriculture by burning down the jungle ; they marked the calves of their herds at stated times, and regularly performed most of the duties of farmers and rustics. All the men of a tribe, rich and poor, were brought up together, and trained to defend their crops and cattle against enemies and robbers ; and thus they were all more or less proficient in pugilism, wrestling, archery, throwing stones, casting nooses, and the use of weapons. At their banquets they were in the habit of eating flesh- meat and drinking wine, just as the other Aryans, who had gone westward into Europe, were in the habit of doing ; but otherwise their meals were quite simple. They were con- tinually engaged in warfare against the black-skinned THE HISTORY OF INDIA* 17 aborigines, who were sometimes called Daityas, sometimes Asuras, and often represented as Rakshasas (monsters), or Nagas (serpents). Gradually, however, the Aryan-Hindus became more civilised and even luxurious, as they acquired greater riches by their conquests. In the latter part of the Heroic Age, when the Aryans had conquered all Northern India, or Aryavartta, as far as Bengal, and had made slaves of all those aborigipes who had not been killed or driven away, there appears to have been a great deal of wealth and luxury in the palaces of the Maharajas ; the nobles were rich and powerful ; the merchants and the industrial classes had become wealthy, and under the name of Vaisyas formed one of the three higher or ' twice-born ' castes of which we shall speak presently. 5. Legends of the Heroic Age. It was said above that most of the legends of the Heroic Age have been preserved in the great epic poems, the Rdmayana and the Mahdbharata. The former is devoted to an account of the exploits of the hero Rama, a scion of the royal solar (or sun-descended) race of Ayodhya or Oudh. The child, hood and youth of Rama, his marriage with the beautiful Sita, and his banishment to the great forest of Dandaka (the jungles of Central India), are all described in most beautiful and glowing language; but the part that is historically most important is that which describes the invasion of Southern India and Lanka, or Ceylon, by the Aiyan conqueror Rama. Rama was afterwards worship- ped as an incarnation of Vishnu. The grand poem called the Mahdbhdrata contains a vast number of legends, of which the chief is that of the great war between the Pdndus and Kurus, two branches of a royal family, said to be descended from the moon, and hence called the Lunar Dynasty. The war was to determine which branch should obtain the empire of Hastinapura, a town near the modern site of Dehli. Krishna, regarded (like Rama) as an Avatar, or incarnation of Vishnu, was an C 18 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO ally of the Pandus, and is one of the most important char- acters in the Mahdbhdrata. The decisive battle lasted for eighteen days, and was fought on the field of Kurukshetra ;* and the poem records that in this battle appeared, as allies on one side or the other, the ancestors of most of the princes of India of later times. The five Pandava princes were triumphant ; but shortly afterwards they retired to the Himalayas with their joint-wife Draupadi, and were translated to heaven by the god Indra. CHAPTER HI. MANU, THE GREAT LAWGIVER OP THE HINDUS. 1. The Brahmanic Age. 2. The Laws of Maau. 3. The Hindu Schools of Philosophy. 1. The Brahmanic Age, When the Aryan-Hindus had thoroughly conquered the whole of North India from the Indus to Bengal, and great Hindu empires had been established in various parts of the country under Maharajas descended from those conquerors, the Heroic- Age may be said to come to an end ; and it was succeeded by a period of peace and prosperity, marked chiefly by the wonderfully-increased influence of the Brdhmans, who now became by far the most powerful class amongst the Hin- dus. Hence this period of Indian history, following the Heroic Age, is sometimes called the Brahmanus Age ; it lasted from a very early time (how early we do not know) to about 300 B.C. 2. The Laws of Manu. The manners and customs of * The site of Kurukshetra is the plain south of Ambalab, on the road to Dehli, near the famous battlefield of Thaneswar [see Chap. IX.] Further south, still on the road to Dehli, is the famous battlefield of Panipat [see Chap. X.] North at Ambalah -was the ancient fortress of Sirhind [see Chap. IX.] THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 19 the Hindus during the Brahmamc Age are fully illustrated and described in one of the Smritis, or Dharmasdstras, called the Manava Dharmasastra, or Laws of Manu. NOTE. The religious writings of the Hindus are divided into Sruti, to which the Vedas belong, and Smriti, including all the other writings regarded as sacred, but not possessing that divine authority ascribed to the Vedas. Of the great lawgiver Manu himself we know nothing certain, but his laws give us a good general view of Hindu society as it existed during the Brahmanic period. The distinct and authoritative settlement of the caste system is one of the most prominent features of the laws of Manu. The four castes were: (1) the Brahman, or pi'iestly caste ; (2) the Kshatriya, or military caste ; (3) the Vaisya, or industrial caste ; (4) the Sudra, or servile caste. The first three castes were called ' twice-born, ' and all the laws tend to their elevation and to the depres- sion of the Sudras. The most striking points in the caste system as it existed at the time of these laws were : First, the extraordinary dignity and sanctity accorded to the Brahmans, for whose good all other persons and all things were thought to be made ; some of their privileges were also enjoyed, but in a far smaller degree, by the Kshatriyas and Vaisyas. Secondly, the bitter contempt and even hatred felt and displayed against the Sndras ; their only duty was to serve the other castes, and especially the Brahmans ; but if they -were unable to obtain any service, then they were allowed to earn a precarious subsistence (but never to get rich) by means of handicrafts. This degraded condi- tion of the Sudras seems to indicate that they were the remains of conquered races, the conquerors being the ' twice-born.' Thirdly, the absence of any provision for the regular performance of the mechanical arts and handicrafts, when the Sndras were able to find service as prescribed in the c ? 20 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO jaw. These functions were probably performed, as now, by the mixed castes i.e, the castes formed by iiitermar- riages between the four original castes. It may be noted that the Kshatriya and Vaisya castes are said by some to be now extinct ; though the Rajputs and a few other tribes claim to be descended from the former, and a few industrial tribes call themselves Vaisyas. The great majority of Hindus now belong to the mixed castes, which castes maintain their caste distinctions with even more care than was formerly exhibited by the original castes. The government in the various States was tinder a Raja, whose power was despotic, according to the arrangements of Manu, except that he was bound to abide by the advice of the Brahmans. It is a noteworthy fact that as the power of the Brahmans increased, the jurisdiction of the Rajas became more despotic. Under the king were the lords of 1,000 villages; under each of the latter* were lords of 100 villages, the hundred villages corresponding to what is now called a Parganah. Under these again were the headmen of the villages, the Mandals or Patels ; and all these officers were regarded as officers of the Raja. In the village communities the system of administra- tion seems to have been almost identical with that which has prevailed in India for ages. The headman settled with the Raja the sum to be paid as revenue, apportioned these payments amongst the villagers, and was answer, able for the payments and for the good conduct of the village. He held a portion of land rent-free, and he also received fees from the villagers, and was sometimes paid a salary by the Government. In all disputes he acted as umpire, assisted by arbitrators named by the disputants. The headman was assisted by various other officials, of whom the chief were the accountant and the watchman ; all these officials were paid by fees, by assignments of rent- free land, and sometimes by salaries. The Laws of M^nu regarding crimes were very rade^ THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 21 but not cruel; those regarding property were fair and good ; and in both, directions were given about the most minute matters of daily life. The worst points were the favour shown to the higher castes and the oppression of the Sndras. High regard for immemorial custom is an important feature in the Laws of Manu. The marriage laws were fair and just ; the wife was commanded strictly to obey her husband, and other women to obey their natural guardians ; but every provision was made for the welfare of the female sex. Brahmans were ordered to divide their lives into four portions ; in their youth they were to be students, and to observe celibacy ; in the second portion of their lives they were to live with their wives as house- holders, and discharge the ordinary duties of Brahmans ; in the third portion they were to live as hermits in the woods, and submit to very severe penances ; in the fourth they were to engage solely in contemplation, and were freed from all ceremonial observances. The arts of life in this period, though still in a simple state, were not rude ; and the numerous professions spoken of (goldsmiths, carvers, artists, &c.) show that the people possessed most things necessary to civilisation. 3. The Hindu Schools of Philosophy. The Hindus have always been fond of the study of philosophy ; and it is probable that this study much influenced the na- tional mind during the Brahmanic period, and had some share in inducing them to accept Buddhism [see next chapter]. Six great sects or schools of philosophy were founded amongst the Hindus at various unknown times. These six Darsanas were : (1) the Sdnlehya system, founded by Kapila ; (2) the Yoga system of Patanjali ; (3) the Nydya system of Gautama ; (4) the Vaiseshika system of Kanada ; (5) the Purva-Mimdnsd of Jaimini ; and (6) the Uttara-Mimdnsd or Veddnta of Vyasa. 22 AN EASY INTKODUCTION TO CHAPTER IV. BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM. 1. Buddha, a great Reformer. 2. The spread of Buddhism. 1. Buddha, a great Reformer. About the middle of the Gth century B.C. (i.e. about 550 B.C.), a young prince was born to the Raja of Kapilavastu, a kingdom probably situated in Gorakhpur or Nepal, at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains, north of Oudh. This prince was named Salnjn Mvmi, or Gautama, and tie was afterwards known as BUDDHA, or the Enlightened. He belonged of course to the Kshatriya or soldier caste, but from his youth upwards he was much addicted to study and contemplation. At an early age he left his father's palace in order to become a devotee, first as a disciple of the Brahmans, and afterwards in a lonely hermitage. Finally, he devised a new religion, which, under the name of Buddhism, afterwards became the chief religion in India for about a thousand years, and which is still the religion of about one-third of the human race. He now claimed the title of Buddha, and spent the rest of his life in preaching the doctrines of this new religion, in teaching that all men are really equal, without respect to caste, and that salvation is to be attained by indifference to worldly pleasures and desires, and by the practice of the great virtues of truth, purity, honesty, and (above all) maitri, or charity and benevolence towards all created beings. The great aim of Buddhism was to obtain Nirvana or annihilation, by which alone, according to the teachings of Buddha, man can obtain salvation from human passions and sorrows, and from the eternal transmigrations of the Ronl. The pure and simple morality of Buddhism com- mended it to the people ; and before the death of Buddha it is probable that a great part of Bihar and the neigh- THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 23 bouring provinces belonged to the new religion the Bang of Magadha [see next chapter] being one of the converts 2. The Spread of Buddhism. The doctrines of Buddha rapidly spread into other parts of India ; and afterwards into Tibbat, Burmah, Siam, Ceylon, and China. A Buddhist Council, or meeting of the chief followers of the faith, was held shortly after his death. Another council followed it ; and a third was held in the seven- teenth year of the reign of King Asoka [see Chap. VI.], when Buddhism had become the state or royal religion of India. At one or other of these councils the Sacred Books or Holy Scriptures of the Buddhists were drawn up. They were called the Tripitalca, or Three Baskets. CHAPTER V. THE GREEKS IN INDIA. 1. The Invasion of the Panjab by the Persians. 2. The In- vasion of Alexander the Great. 3. The Invasion of India by Seleu Cus. 4. The Bactrian Greeks. 5. Greek Accounts of the Ancient Hindus. 1. The Invasion of the Panjab by the Persians. During the lifetime of Buddha, a great king of the Persians, named Darius Hystaspes, invaded the Panjab. He crossed the Indus by a bridge of boats, which was built for him by his Greek admiral, Skylax. He succeeded in conquering a part of the Panjab, which he formed into a Persian satrapy, that is, a province governed by a satrap, or viceroy. 2. The Invasion of Alexander the Great. Nearly two hundred years afterwards the Empire of Persia was con- quered by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, King of Macedon ; and in the year 327 B.C. Alexander proceeded to invade India. In his march through the Panjab he had to cross the river Jhelam, near a place named Gujarat, in modern timeB 24 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO famous as the scene of the final great defeat of the Sikhs by the English in 1848 [see Chapter XXXII.] Here he was met by the combined armies of the Rajas of this part of India, commanded by a prince belonging to the Paurava dy- nasty, who was called by the Greeks Fonts. In the great battle that followed the Indian army was more numerous than the Greek, and had moreover the advantage of two hundred elephants and three hundred war-chariots. The Indians fought bravely, according to the account of the Greeks ; but they were unable to withstand the discipline of Alexander's army. The two sons of Porus were killed, and his army utterly routed. Alexander, pleased with the courage of Porns, treated him kindly. He not only restored him to his kingdom, but also enlarged its extent ; and Porus was henceforth a faithful ally of the Greeks. After this Alexander wished to press on and conquer the great Empire of Magadha, of which we shall hear in the next chapter ; but he found so much difficulty in conquer* ing the Panjab, that the Greek soldiers refused to march further than the banks of the Satlej, and Alexander was compelled to return to his Persian dominions. He himself, with part of his army, marched back through the deserts of Biluchistan ; whilst the rest of the army, under the great admiral Nearchus, went home by sea from the mouth of the Indus through the Persian Gulf to the river Euphrates. 3. The Invasion of India by Seleucus. After the death of Alexander, one of the best of his generals, named Seleu- cus, seized on a part of his Asiatic conquests, and deter- mined to renew Alexander's attempt to conquer India. Chandragupta [see next chapter], called by the Greeks San- dracottus, was at this time the King of Magadha, and the richest and most powerful monarch in India ; and Seleucus actually marched as far as the Ganges in order to attack him. A treaty, however, was made by which Seleucus agreed to give Chandragnpta his daughter in marriage, and gave np to him the provinces east of the Indus in return for a tribute of fifty elephants. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 25 4, The Bactrian Greeks. Bactria was the name of that province of the Greek empire in Asia that was north of Af- ghanistan ; it is now called Balkh. Under the successors of Seleucus the Greek governors of Bactria became kings, and for some centuries the kings of Bactria maintained a power- ful empire in this part of Asia, which often included large por- tions of the west and north-west of India. Ultimately, a dynasty of Bactrian kings, who all bore the name of Soter, were driven out of their northern dominions into India ; and for many years they ruled over an empire which included Sindh, part of the North- West Provinces, the Panjab, and Afghanistan. 5. GreeJc Accounts of the Ancient Hindus. The most striking points about the Greek accounts of the stale of India at this time are : (1) Their general agreement with the accounts in Manu ; (2) the little change that has since occurred during two thousand years ; (3) the favourable impression which, thfe manners and condition of the Hindus made on the Greeks. The men are described as braver than any Asiatics whom the Greeks had yet met, and singularly truthful. They are said to be sober, temperate, and peaceable ; remarkable for simplicity and integrity ; honest, and averse to litigation. The practice of widows becoming satt had already been in- troduced, but probably only partially ; for it is spoken of by Aristobulns as one of the extraordinary local peculiari- ties which he heard of at Taxila. CHAPTER VI. THE TRIUMPH AND DECLINE OF BUDDHISM. 1. Chandragupta, King of Magadha. 2. Asoka. 3. The Decline of Buddhism. 4. The Jainas. 1. Chandragupta, King of Magadha. We have already had occasion to speak once or twice of the kings of Ma- 26 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO gadha or Bihar. Their capital was at Patna, on the Ganges, then called Patalipntra. We have mentioned a king of Magadha, who was one of the converts of the great Buddha himself; and another king of Magadha, whose power and riches attracted the envy of Alexander the Great. The name of this king was Nanda, the Rich, and he was succeeded by the famous CHANDRAGUPTA, the founder of the great Mau- ryan dynasty of kings, who was the first to bring all North India under one umbrella. Chandragupta was said to be a man of low origin, who succeeded in mastering the Panj- ab after the rotrcat of Alexander the Great, and ultimately possessed himself of Nanda's empire in Magadha. He sub- seqnently married the daughter of the Greek King of Syria, Seleucus ; and during his prosperous reign of twenty-four years (from 315 to 291 B.C.), he conquered a considerable portion of Northern India. 2. Asoka. The conquests of Chandragupta were con- tinued by his son ; but the greatest monarch of the whole dynasty, and indeed the greatest monarch of ancient times in India, was Chandragupta's grandson, ASOKA. He as- cended the throne of Magadha about the year 263 B.C., and reigned for about forty years, until 223 B.C. During his rule Buddhism became the state or royal religion of the empire, having been proclaimed as such at the third great Buddhist Council [see Chap. IV., 2], held under the pa- tronage of Asoka, in the seventeenth year of his reign. Many inscriptions made by order of Asoka have been re- cently discovered in various parts of India, containing some of his laws and proclamations. These are called the edicts of Asoka, and prove that his kingdom extended at least to Orissa and the eastern parts of the Dakhin, on the one side of India, and to the west of Gujarat and to the extreme north of the Panjab, on the other side. 3. The Decline of Buddhism. The Mauryan line of kings reigned for more than a hundred years in Bihar, and was succeeded by other powerful Buddhist dynasties in suc- cession ; and Buddhism was flourishing in Magadha aa late THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 27 as the seventh century A.D., when it was visited by the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, Hiouen Thsvng. It is probable, however, that after the fall of the great Mauryan dynasty of Buddhists the religion of the Brahmans began gradually to revive throughout India. Though Buddhism existed in India until the twelfth century A.D. that is, for more than 1,300 years longer and often was the religion of powerful kings and great states, yet on the whole it declined from this time, about 200 B.C. Whilst the great city of Kanauj had always remained devoted to Brahmanism, the other cities and kingdoms of India one by one returned to a mo- dified form of their earlier religion, the same form as that which is now professed by most Hindus. 4. The Jamas. During the decline of Buddhism another religion, called Jainism, was very powerful in India. In point of doctrines it was midway between Buddhism and Brahmanism ; it originated about 600 A.D., and declined after 1,200 A.D., though many Jainas are still to be found in various parts of India. CHAPTER VII. THE REVIVAL OF BRAHMANISM. 1. The Puranas. 2. The rise of the Rajputs. 8. Maiwar and other Rajput States. 4. The Hindu Kings of Bengal. 5. The Kings of the Dakhin. 1. Puranas. The Puranas are the later religious books of the Brahmans. They are called Puranas because they profess to teach that which is ' old ' the old faith of the Hindus. They are generally supposed to date only from 800 A.D., many of them being of much later date. But they give a view of the religion of the revival of Brah- manism, and are mainly devoted to an interpretation of the beliefs of the various sects of worshippers of Vishnu, Siva, 38 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO &c. Besides this, they are storehouses of mythological and legendary stories ; they contain not only genealogies and lives of gods, but also genealogies of kings and heroes ; and from some of the latter gleams of historical truth may be derived. The Puranas are eighteen in number. Though teach- ing a veneration for the Vedas, the religion is quite dif- ferent from the Vaidik, and also from that of the Darsanas. It represents the popular Brahmanical religion of India. Three gods, Brahma the Creator, Siva the Destroyer, and Vishnu the Preserver, are recognised ; though the wor- ship of Brahma is neglected. Deified heroes, such as Rama and Krishna, are worshipped as incarnations, or avatars, of Vishnu ; and there are also an infinite number of lesser gods. 2. The Rise of the Rajputs. Of the many centuries during which Brahmanism was gradually driving Buddhism out of India, the history is so uncertain and obscure that we shall not dwell upon it at length. The period was marked by the rise and progress of a large number of Raj- put principalities, not only in that part of India which is now called Rajputana, but also throughout the north of India. Some of these Rajput principalities still exist, such as Maiwar or Udaipur, and Jodhpur or Marwar ; and from the chronicles, which are preserved in the families of the chiefs of these states, some accounts of their early history have been preserved. Most of these early Rajput principalities were devoted to Brahmanism ; and the Rajput princes were doubtless the chief auxiliaries whom the Brahmans used in recovering their power over India. This is probably the meaning of the legend in the Puranas, which says that the ancestors of the Rajputs were miraculously created in order to drive the enemies of the Vedas out of the land. The legend, which is called the ' legend of the Agnikulas,' is as fol- lows : When the holy Rishis, or sages, who dwelt on Mount Abu, complained that the Vedas were trampled un- THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 29 der foot, and that the land was in the possession of Rak- shasas (or Buddhists), they were ordered by Brahma to re-create the race of Kshatriyas, who had been extirpated by Parasu Rama. This was effected by purifying the ' fountain of fire ' with water from the Ganges, when there sprang from the fountain four warriors, called the Agni- Tculas, or generation of fire, who, amidst many marvels, cleared the land of the Rakshasas. Many of the modern Rajputs claim descent from these Agnikulas, who thus propagated Brahmanism. For some centuries during the period of which we are speaking the most powerful family in India, and the greatest of all the Rajput dynasties, was called Andhra. Branches of this great family reighed in Magadha (whence they had expelled the Buddhist kings), in War- angal, in that part of the Dakhin called Telinganah, south of Orissa, and also in Ujjain, in Malwah,* which was the most famous city of India at that time. The greatest king of the Andhra dynasty was the heroic VIKRAMA- DITTA, King of Ujjain. He is said to have sprung from the Pramaras, the chief race of the Agnikulas ; and innumer- able legends are told of the extent of his conquests, of his bravery and virtue, of the beauty of his throne, and the magnificence of his court. Some of these legends are doubt- less true of Raja Vikramaditya himself; whilst others pro- bably belong to the lives of other great kings of ancient times, whose names had been forgotten by the old histo- rians, or had never been known to them, so that they assigned all the grandeur and all the conquests to Vik- ramaditya. These old historians say that he was un- equalled in wisdom, justice, and valour, and that he had spent a large part of his life in travelling through various countries as afaqir, in order to learn the wisdom and arts of foreign nations. It is said that he was fifty years old * Ujjain, in Malwah, on the river Sipra, is now included in a detached portion of the dominions of Maharaja Sindia [see Appendix, Part I.] in the Central India Agency. 30 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO before he attempted to make any conquests ; and that then, within a few months, he subdued the countries of Malwah and Gujarat, and soon became Maharaja Adhiraj of India [see next sec.] In the midst of all the grandeur of his court he lived a life of the strictest temperance ; he slept upon a mat, and the only furniture of his room was an earthen pot filled with pure water. The great poet Kali- ddsa, who wrote the famous drama called Sakuntald, and the beautiful lyric poem called Meghaduta, was one of the learned who adorned his court, and who were therefore called its ' gems.' The era of Vikramaditya, 57 B.C., is still widely current in Hindustan ; in the Dakhin the era of Sdlivdhana, 77 A.D., is sometimes used. Salivahana was a great protector of Brahmans, who was king of Patan, on the river Godavari. 3. Maiwar and other Rajput States. The name Mai- wdr is a contraction of Madyawar, and means the ' Central Region ; ' and its princes ruled, at a later period, before the invasion of the Muhammadans, over a large tract of country in Rajpiitana and Malwah. They belonged to the Gehlot family of Rajputs, who had ruled successively at Kanauj and at Vallabhi, in Gujarat. The Gehlot Rajputs were driven out of Vallabhi by an invasion of Persians about the year 500 B.C. ; but the Gehlot prince, who was called Golia, married the daughter of the Persian king, and established the Gehlot dynasty in Maiwar. The descend- ant of Prince Goha still reigns in Maiwar as the Maharana of Udaipur, who is one of the great feudatory chiefs of the British Indian Empire. Besides Maiwar there were many other great Rajput States both in Hindustan and in the Dahkin ; and at the time of the Muharnmadan invasions these Rajput Rajas, with the King of Bengal, commanded the allegiance of all the Hindu principalities of Northern India. Sometimes one of these kingdoms became much more powerful than any of the others, and then its king was called MAHARAJA Annf RAJ, or Lord Paramount ; sometimes the King of Mai- war was Maharaja Adhiraj ; sometimes the King of Ajmir, THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 31 who was a Tuar Rajput ; sometimes the King of Dehli, who was a Chohan Rajput ; sometimes the King of Kanauj, who was a Rahtor Rajput ; * and sometimes the King of Patan in Gujarat, who was a Salonkhya Rajput. 4. The Hindu Kings of Bengal. It is said that, from the times of the Mahdbhdrata to the period of the Muham- madan invasion in A.D. 1203, four dynasties of kings reigned in Bengal. Of these, the last but one was a series of princes whose name was Pal, who reigned from the eighth to the latter part of the tenth century. They are thought to have been Buddhists. Of one Raja of this family, Deva Pal Deva, it is stated that he reigned over the whole of India, and that he had even conquered Tibbat. This state- ment probably simply means that this Raja was acknow- ledged as Maharaja Adhiraj. The capital of the dynasty was at Gaur; it was afterwards transferrd to Nuddea (Nadiya or Navadwipa). The Pal dynasty was succeeded by another line of kings called Sena. About 964 A.D. a king belonging to this family reigned in Bengal named Adisura, who invited five Brahmans from Kanauj to settle in Bengal. The Brahmans came, each attended by a Kayastha. These are said to be the ancestors of the five high classes of Brahmans and Kayasthas in Bengal. Adisura was probably the founder of the Sena dynasty. One of the Sena kings, named Ballala Sena, settled the precedence of the descendants of the five Kanaujya Brah- mans. The last was Lakhmaniya, or Su Sena, driven out from Nadiya by Bakhtiar Khilji [see Chap. XL, 8]. 5. The Kings of the Dakhin. Far away in the south of India several powerful kingdoms existed during this period, of which the only ones we need mention are the Pdndya dynasty of Madura and the Chola dynasty, first at Kanchipuram (Conjeveram), and afterwards at Tanjor; * The present Maharana of Udaipur is descended in the direct line from the kings of Alaiwar ; the Maharaja of Jodhpur from those of Kanauj ; and the Maharajas of Jaipur, Kishangarh, Bikanir and Idar are also decended from these dynasties. 32 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO and the Chera dynasty, in the extreme south and on the Western or Malabar coast. In Orissa the Kesari or ' Lion ' kings ruled for cen- turies at Jajpnr and afterwards at Katak, and were fol- lowed by the Ganga Vansa, or ' Gangetic' dynasty. The kings of Orissa bore the title of Gajpati, or ' Lord of Elephants.' CHAPTER VIII. SULTAN MAHMUD OF GHAZNf. 1. Muhammadan Invasions of India. 2. Sultan Atahmud. 3. Decline and Fall of the Ghaznavi Dynasty. 1. Huliammadan Invasions of India. We have now arrived at the period when the Muhammadans first began to invade and conquer India ; and from this time the his- tory is full and clear, for the Muhammadans were always fond of the study of history, and there were always some Muhammadan writers who wrote down an account of events that occurred shortly after they happened. As early as the year 712 A.D., and only ninety years after the foundation of the Muhammadan religion in Arabia, a Mnsalman Arab, named Muhammad Kdsim, invaded and conquered Sindh, and held it for a short time. But it was not until the end of the tenth century, when the religion of the Prophet had spread over Afghanistan and all those regions of Central Asia to the north-west of India, that the great Mnhammadan invasions took place. SABAKTicfN, Sultan of Ghazni, in Afghanistan (called the first of the Ghaznavi dynasty), was originally a Tnrki* * The -wandering hordes of Tartars that inhabited the -whole of Central Asia from the Caspian Sea to the north of China were divided into three great races : (1) the Manchiis, -who lived furthest to the east, in the north of China ; (2) the Mongols or Mughuls, who lived in the centre, from Tibbat northward ; and (3) the Turkis, who lived west of the Mughuls. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 33 slave ; by his bravery and abilities he rose to be monarch of a vast empire, including Afghanistan, Biluchistan, and Turkistan. A pleasing legend is told by some of the old historians to illustrate the kind and merciful disposition of Sabaktigin, which so much endeared him to his followers. It happened, when he was only a poor horseman in the service of the chief of Ghazni, that he was hunting one day in the forest. He saw a deer grazing with her fawn ; on which, putting spurs to his horse, he rode up and seized the fawn, laid him across his saddle, and rode away home- wards. When he had gone a little way he looked back, and saw the mother of the fawn following with piteous cries and moans. The soul of Sabaktigin melted into pity ; he untied the feet of the fawn and let him go. The happy mother ran away with her fawn to the forest, but often looked back, as if to thank Sabaktigin for his gene- rosity. That very night Sabaktigin had a dream, in which he thought a celestial being appeared to him and said : ' The kindness and pity which you have this day shown to a distressed animal has been pleasing to God, and it is therefore recorded that you shall one day be King of Ghazni. But take care that greatness does not destroy your virtue, or make you less kind to men than you now are to dumb animals.' Sabaktigin was once attacked, in the valley of Peshawar, that leads from Afghanistan into the Panjab, by the Brahman King of Lahor, named Jaipal ; and in revenge he twice overran the whole of the Panjab, and carried back a vast amount of plunder to Ghazni having totally defeated, not only Jaipal himself, but also all his Rajput allies, who had assembled from Dehli, Ajmir, and Kanauj, to aid in repelling the fierce invader. NOTE. The Brahman dynasty that wao at this time reigning in Lahor, the chief town of the Panjab, is sometimes called the ' Bull and Horseman ' dynasty, because their coins bear the device of a bull and * horseman. D 34 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO 2. Sultan Mahmud. In these battles between the Sultan of Ghazni and the Raja of Labor, there was present the young prince MAHMUD of Ghazni, the son of Sabaktigin. He observed with keen pleasure both the great riches of the Indian Rajas, and the ease with which even the bravest of the Rajputs were slaughtered by the hardy and strong mountaineers of Ghazni ; and he determined that, on suc- ceeding his father as Sultan of Ghazni, he would devote himself to the conquest of India. In the year 996 A.D., Sabaktigin died, and Mahmud immediately proceeded to carry out his early determination. His earnest wish was both to possess himself of the wealth of India, and also to force the proud Rajputs to accept t'he Muhammadan religion ; and in honour of his zeal for Islam, the spiritual head of the Muhammadans, called the Khalif, sent him a khilat of extraordinary magnificence, together with the high-sounding titles of ' Right Hand of the State, Guardian of the Faith, and Friend of the Chief of* the Faithful.' The ' Chief of the Faithful ' was of course the Khalif himself, who doubtless hoped that Mahmud would diffuse the Muhammadan religion throughout India. Mah- mud hereupon vowed that ' every year he would undertake a holy war against Hindustan.' During the thirty- four years of his reign, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni invaded India seventeen times ; and of these seventeen expeditions, twelve are famous. His zeal in the destruction of Hindu temples and idols obtained for him the name of ' the Image-breaker ; ' and the vast plunder which he carried away from India greatly enriched his own country, and made Ghazni the most beautiful and the wealthiest city of the age. The richest spoils were those of the great Hindu shrines of Nagarkot in the Himalayas, Thaneswar between the Saraswati and .the Jamnah, and Somnath in Gujarat ; and those of the sacred city of Mathura. It may be noted that Mah mud's expeditions extended us far eastward as Kanauj in Oudh, and as far southward THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 3.5 as Somnath in Gujarat ; but lie only made a permanent settlement in the Panjab, where he established a Viceroy at Lahor. This was the commencement of Musalman dominion in India. The most famous of Mahmud's expeditions were the twelfth and the sixteenth. The twelfth expedition, in A.D. 1018-19, was against Kanauj and the sacred city of Mathura or Muttra, on the Jamnah. Mahmiid was now determined to penetrate into the heart of Hindustan. His army consisted of 100,000 horse and 20,000 foot; these were gathered from all parts of his dominions, including the recent conquests which he had made in Bukhara and Samarkhand. He marched from Peshawar along the foot of the mountains, crossing the Panjab rivers as near to their sources as possible ; and presented himself before Kananj. This was a stately city full of incredible wealth ; and its kings, who often held the title of Maharaja, Adhirdj, kept a splendid court. The Raja threw himself on the generosity of Mahmiid, who admitted him to his friendship, and after three days left his city uninjured. From thence he advanced to Mathura, sacred as the birthplace of Krisnna ; which was given up to the soldiers for twenty days. Its temples struck Mahmiid with admira- tion, and kindled in him the desire to cover the barren rocks of Ghazni with similar edifices. Hindu slaves after this were sold in the army of the conqueror at two rupees each. The sixteenth expedition (which was also the last, ex- cept a small and unimportant one a little later) was under- taken by Mahmiid in 1026-27 A.D., against the famous temple of Somnath in the Gujarat peninsula. The march was long, including 350 miles of desert; and Mahmiid made extraordinary preparations for it. He passed through Multan, and thence across the desert to Anhalwara or Nahrwala, the ancient capital of Gujarat ; whose Raja, named Bhim, fled before him. The struggle before Som- nath was terrible, and lasted three days. The Rajput D2 36 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO princes assembled from all parts to defend their holiest shrine ; but their desperate valour was unavailing against the bravery and enthusiasm of Mahmud and his veterans. The treasure obtained was immense ; some of the Muham- madan historians say that the image of Somnath (which the Brahmans had offered to ransom by the payment of many crores of gold coins), when broken by Mahmud's own hand, was found to contain a mass of rubies and other precious stones far exceeding in value the offered ransom. An interesting story is told of Mahmud to show his magnanimity and the readiness with which he accepted good advice even when it was disagreeable. It is said that some Biluchi robbers having taken possession of a strong fortress on the road by which merchants travelled from Ghazni into Persia, were in the habit of plundering all the caravans that passed that way. One day they robbed a body of merchants, and killed a young man of Khonasan, who was of their number. His old mother complained to Mahmud, who told her that such accidents occurred in that part of the country because it was too far from his capital for him to be able to prevent them. The old woman replied, ' Keep no more territory than you can manage properly.' The Sultan was so much struck by the justice of this remark, that he ordered a strong guard to be fur- nished to all caravans traversing that road ; and proceeded to extirpate the robbers that infested it. Another well-known story that is told of Mahmud shows his character in a less favourable light ; for it shows that his avarice was even stronger than his sense of justice. Ferdausi [see Appendix] was one of the greatest poets of the world, and was much encouraged by Mahmud, who was very fond of poetry. Ferdausi at length determined to write a grand heroic poem, which should make his name and that of his patron Mahmud famous throughout all ages ; and Mahmud in a fit of generosity declared he would give him a gold muhur (sixteen rupees) for every verse of tbe THE HISTORY OP INDIA. 37 poem. On this promise, the great poet went away, and soon returned with the Shah Nameh, a poem which will be famous as long as the Persian language exists. The poem contained no less than sixty thousand verses ; and Mahmud, repenting of his former generosity, meanly offered Ferdausi only sixty thousand rupees, or one-sixteenth of the sum promised. Ferdausi indignantly refused the offer, and retired from Court. It is said that Mahmud was afterwards anxious to atone for his meanness by paying the full amount; but that when his messengers arrived with the gold at the house of Ferdausi, they met his dead body, which was being carried out for interment. 3. Decline and Fall of the Ghaznavi Dynasty. The descendants of Mahmud reigned in the Panjab for more than a hundred and forty years after his death, though long before that time they had been driven out of their dominions in Central Asia. They were at length con- quered by the chieftains of Ghor, which was a hill terri- tory in Afghanistan between Ghazni and Persia ; and the last of the race was killed in prison, just before the conquest of Hindustan by Muhammad of Ghor. Daring this period, the Rajput Kings of Ajmir, Dehli, Kanauj, Maiwar, and Anhalwara or Gujarat, were the rulers of Northern India ; and were often fighting with one another for the supremacy. CHAPTER IX. MUHAMMAD GHORI, AND THE CONQUEST OF HINDUSTAN BY THE MUHAMMADANS. 1. Prithvi Raja. 2. Shahab-ud-din or Muhammad Ghori. 3. The decisive battle of Thaneswar. 4. Completion of the Muhammadan conquest of Hindustan. 1. Prithvi Raja. Of all the princes of Northern India who were reigning at the end of the twelfth century, by far 38 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO the greatest and most famous was the King of Ajmir and Dehli. Prithvi Raja, or Rai Pithaura, represented the flower of Rajput chivalry ; and has always been one of the favourite heroes of the Hindus. His mother was a Tuar Rajput Princess of Dehli ; his father was Someswar, an heir of the Chohans of Ajmir. Jaichand, Raja of Kanauj, was his cousin, being the son of another Tuar princess, sister of Prithvi's mother ; Prithvi, however, notwithstanding the opposition of Jaichand, had succeeded to the two thrones of Dehli and Ajmir. His praises are sung in the poems of Chand Bardai, his devoted admirer and friend. 2. Shahdb-ud-din or Muhammad Gliori. But soon the heroic Prithvi had to meet an enemy more formidable than any that the Hindus had yet encountered. The fierce and gigantic Afghans of Ghor had already conquered Mnltan and the Ghaznavi Kings of Lahor. They were under the command of a bold and determined soldier named Shahdb-iid-din, better known in history as MUHAMMAD GHOKI, who was joint Sultan of Ghor with his more peace- ful brother Ghias-ud-din, and who, though he had been once defeated in an attack on the Rajputs of Anhalwara, was bent on effecting the conquest of Hindustan. In 1191 the Ghorian Sultan advanced from Lahor across the Satlej in the direction of Dehli, and captured the fortress of Sirhind, north of the modern Ambalah [see note on page 18]. Prithvi marched out to meet him, at the head of a mighty army of Chohan Rajputs and their allies ; and a hard-fought battle took place at a village called Tirdori near Thaneswar [see note on page 18], A Muhammadan historian gives the foil owing brief account of this battle : ' The battle- array was formed ; and the Sultan Shahab-ud-din, seizing a lance, made a rush upon the elephant which carried Gobind Rai of Dehli (one of Prithvi's chief heroes). The latter advanced to meet him in front of the battle ; and then the Sultan, who was a second Rustam and the Lion of the age, drove his lance into the month of the Rai, and THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 39 knocked two of the accursed wretch's teeth down his throat. The Rai, on the other hand, returned the blow and inflicted a severe wound on the arm of his adversary. The Sultan reined back his horse and turned aside, and the pain of the wound was so insufferable that he could not support himself on horseback. The Musalman army gave way, and could not be controlled. The Sultan was just falling, when a sharp and brave young Khilji Afghan recognised him, jumped upon the horse behind him, and clasping him round the body, spurred on the horse and bore him from the midst of the fight. When the Musalmans lost sight of the Sultan, a panic fell upon them ; they fled and halted not until they were safe from the pursuit of the victors.' 3. The decisive Battle of Thdneswar. Prithvi Raja, after this glorious victory, set to work to form a great confederation of all the Rajput States, so that he might be able to renew his successes against the dreaded Afghans if they should return. He was so far successful that no less than 150 Rajput princes followed his banners, when he marched out a second time to meet Muhammad Ghori ; but the persistent jealousy of Prithvi's cousin, Raja Jaichand of Kanauj, greatly weakened the Hindu cause. In the meantime Muhammad had returned to Ghor, and had spared no pains to make his army invincible. The punishment he is said to have inflicted on those Umards or chiefs who had run away from the battle-field at Tiraori is very amusing. He forced them to walk round the city of Glior with their horses' food-bags, filled with barley, hang- ing about their necks as if they were donkeys at the same time forcing them to eat the barley or have their heads struck off; and most of the Umaras preferred to eat the barley. In the following year Muhammad Ghori again ad- vanced upon Dehli burning to avenge his disgrace ; and again the Musalman and Hindu armies met on the field of T/idneswar, 1193 A.D. One hundred and twenty thousand horsemen bearing heavy armour, and forty thousand light armed cavalry, followed the Mnhammadan leader to win 40 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO for him the land which he claimed by right of the ccmqnests of Mabmud of Ghazni, and to force the haughty Rajputs to accept the religion of the Prophet. On the other band, hundreds of thousands of brave Rajputs in the army of Prithvi felt that they were fighting for their homes, tbeir country, their religion, and all that was dear to them. They fought with the desperate valour of patriots ; but all was of no avail against the hardy and well-disciplined veterans of Muhammad Ghori. Gobind Rai, who had wounded the Sultan in the former battle, was killed in the middle of the contest ; and it is said that Muhammad recognised the head of his old foe by the two teeth which he had himself broken. When at length Prithvi saw that the day was against him, and that the Hindus were hope- Jessly routed, he alighted from his elephant ; and mount- ing a horse, he galloped away from the battle-field, in the hope of collecting his scattered forces for another attempt at resistance. He was, however, very soon captured and put to death ; and the Muhammadan Empire in India was firmly established by this one battle. 4. Completion of the Muhammadan Conquest of Hin- dustan. The Raja Jaichand of Kanauj, traitor not only to his cousin Prithvi but also to his country, paid dearly for his folly ; for in the following year (1194) he was totally defeated by Muhammad Ghori in a great battle at Chandrawar in the Doab (now Firuzabad, in the Agra division). Meanwhile Dehli and other Rajput capitals had been reduced by Kutb-ud-din. Kutb-ud-din, famous as the Muhammadan general who completed the conquest of Hindustan, had been the slave and was now the chief commander of the Sultan Muhammad ; and the latter had such confidence in Kutb's abilities and loyalty, that he left him as Viceroy in India, whilst he himself went back to Afghanistan. Thirteen years later, Muhammad returned to India ; and was assassinated in the Panjab by a band of Gakkhars, an aboriginal tribe living in that province. la the meantime, Kutb and some other Musalman generals bad THE HISTOBY OF INDIA. 41 completely conquered the Hindus of Northern India Muhammad Bakhtyar Khilji being the conqueror of Bengal and Bihar [see Chap. XL, 3] ; and now, on the death of the Sultan Muhammad, Kutb-ud-din became Sultan of Dehli and of Hindustan. He was an accomplished warrior ; but he was especially famous for his generosity, which earned for him the surname of ' Bestower of Lakhs.' Long after, even in the time of Akbar, when a man was to be praised for his generosity, they would say of him ' he is as generous as Kutb-ud-din.' CHAPTER X. THE PATUXN OB AFGHAN SULTANS OP DEHLI. 1. The Slave Kings of Dehli. 2. The Khilji Kings of Dehll. 3. The Tughlak Kings of Dehli. 4. The Sayyid and Lodi Dynasties. 1. The Slave Kings of Dehli. Sultan Kutb-ud-din, because he had been one of the slaves of Sultan Muham- mad Ghori, was called ' the Sultan, the slave of the Sul- tan of Ghor ; ' and as in like manner his successors were either slaves or the sons of slaves, the dynasty was called ' the dynasty of the slaves of the Sultans of Ghor ' or shortly, the ' Slave Kings.' They reigned for nearly a hun- dred years, until the year 1290 A.D. ; and during this period nearly every vestige of the Hindu power in Northern India was destroyed ; whilst the Muhammadan generals who had conquered Sindh, Bengal, and other remote provinces, though they often rebelled and endeavoured to make them- selves independent, were generally kept in close subjection to the imperial throne of Dehli. The most famous of the sovereigns that reigned during this period were ALTAMSH, his daughter R,Azf AH (the only Empress that ever reigned alone in Dehli), and BALBAN. 42 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO Altamsh was the greatest of all the Slave Kings. He reduced to submission both the Muhammadan king of Sindh, and also the KhUji chiefs who had succeeded Mu- hammad Bakhtyar Khilji as rulers of Bengal. He also subdued all the most important Hindu principalities in Hindustan ; and so firmly established his power, that his daughter, three of his sons, and one grandson inherited it in their turn. He ruled from 1210 to 1235 A.D. Raziah, who was always called Sultan, just as if she had been a man, was a woman of wonderful energy and ability, and seemed at first to have inherited all that capacity for government which had distinguished her father Altamsh. She, however, displeased all her nobles by showing undue favour to an Abyssinian slave in her court ; and she was at length deposed and put to death, to make room for one of her brothers. Balban was the vazir of the last of the sons of Altamsh, and had himself married one of the daughters of that monarch. He was a man of unsparing rigour, and *kept his army in a high state of discipline. The most impor- tant event of his reign was the rebellion of Tughral, whom he had made governor of Bengal ; who in 1282 A.D. as- sumed independence under the title of Sultan Mnghis-ud- din Tughral, and succeeded in defeating two several armies sent to subdue him. At length the Sultan marched against him in person ; and one of his commanders, named Muham- mad Sher, coming upon the forces of the rebel somewhat unexpectedly, dashed upon his camp with the most astonishing bravery, though at the head of only forty troopers. The rebels thought that they were attacked by the whole imperial army, and took to flight. Tughral was overtaken, and his head was struck off and brought to the Sultan, who now confided Bengal to the care of his second son, Bughra Khan. By the death of his elder brother, Bughra Khan became heir to the empire, and was begged by Balban to come back to Dehli ; but he preferred his quiet and secure rule in Bengal, and ultimately his eldest THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 43 son Kaikubad became emperor, whilst Bughra himself remained at Lakhnauti as king of Bengal. A wicked and ambitions vazir of the Emperor Kaikubad, named Nizam-ud din, endeavoured to sow discord between the father and son, because Bnghra Khan had warned his son against the machinations of the wicked vazir, and remonstrated with Kaikubad about his licentious habits. The result was that the father and son met, each at the head of an army, in the plains of Bihar. For two days the armies remained encamped near each other ; on the third day, the old King of Bengal wrote a letter to his son with his own hand, begging for an interview. At first the wicked vazir succeeded in preventing this interview ; and even when it was arranged, he persuaded the weak young Kaikubad that it was necessary for his dignity as Emperor of Hindustan, that his father the King of Bengal should first prostrate himself three times before him. At length the time for the meeting arrived. The son proceeded first to the Darbar tents with great pomp ; then the aged father approached slowly, and as soon as he came in sight of the throne, made his first prostration : as he came nearer, he made the second prostration ; and when he arrived at the foot of the throne, was about to make the third ; when the prince, deeply affected at the humiliation of his father, and stung with remorse at his own undutiful conduct, rushed into the old man's arms ; and after tenderly embracing him and imploring his forgiveness, forced him to sit on the throne, whilst he himself took a respectful place below. The designs of the wicked vazir were thus frustrated, and he shortly afterwards died by poison. Bughra Khan after this reigned peaceably in Bengal until his death, 1292 A.D. ; but his unfortunate son Kaikubad was deposed and assassinated in 1290 by Jalal- nd-din, the first emperor of the Khilji dynasty. 2. The Khilji Kings of Dehli, and the Conquest of the Dalchin. The Khilji tribe were nominally Afghans or Pa- thans ; though really they were Turkis [see note on page 44 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO 32] who had long settled in Afghanistan, and who aided in the Muhammadan conquest of India. Jalal-ud-din, who was the head of this tribe, was vazir of the Sultan Kaiku- bad ; and he ultimately dethroned and killed his master. The Khilji dynasty only ruled for thirty years, from 1290 to 1320 A.D. ; but this period is an important one, for dur- ing the reigns of Jalal-ud-din and of the ferocious and bloodthirsty AiA-UD-DfN Kmuf (nephew and murderer of Jalal-ud-din), the Muhammadan armies of Dehli conquered the Dakhin. NOTE. The three chief states of the Dakhin at that time were Maharashtra, capital Deogiri (afterwards called Daulatabad) ; Telin- ganah, capital Warangal; and Dwara Samudra. Deogiri was situated in the north-west of what are now called the territories of the Nizam of Haidarabad [see Chapter I., 3, (k) ] ; and was still governed by Rajput Rajas. Warangal was in the north-eastern part of the same territories, and was under the rule of the Andhra Rajas of Rajput descent [see Chapter VII., 2]. Dwara Samudra was in North Mysore [see Chapter I., 3, (m)] ; and its Rajas were Rajputs of the I&llala Dynasty. During the reign of Jalal-nd-din Khilji, Ala-ud-din marched through the north-west of the Dakhin, and com- pelled Ramdeo, the Raja of Maharashtra, to give up to him a part of his territory, and to pay an enormous tribute. Ala-ud-din, after he had murdered his uncle and succeeded to the throne of Dehli, sent his greatest general, the famous eunuch Malik Kafur, four times into the Dakhin. In the course of these expeditions he re-conquered Ramdeo, who had revolted, and sent him to Dehli ; where his treat- ment was so generous, that he returned the attached and faithful vassal of the emperor. The Ballala Rajas of Dwara Samudra were also conquered ; Warangal was made tributary ; and the whole of the south ravaged as far as Rameswar or Cape Comorin in the extreme south, where a mosque was built as the sign of Muhammadan supremacy. Before these conquests in the Dakhin, Ala-nd-din had himself subjugated Gujarat in 1297 ; and in 1303 he sacked THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 45 the famous fortress of Chitor, the capital of the Rajput Ma- harana of Maiwar. During the campaigns in the Dakhin, a famous incident occurred, which is sufficiently interesting to be mentioned here. Dewal Devi, the daughter of the Raja of Gujarat, was renowned as the most beautiful dam* sel in India : and the honour of her hand had been so eagerly sought for by the Hindu princes, that armies had been set in motion on her account. By chance, she and all her escort were captured by the Imperial army : she was sent to Dehli, and there she found her own mother Kamala Devi established as the favourite queen in the emperor's palace. It was not long before the young heir- apparent, Khizr Khan, saw and appreciated her charms. The love was mutual ; and though the emperor was at first angry, he at length consented to the match, and the young lovers were married in due form. The story of their lovea has been made the subject of a beautiful, though rather lengthy, Persian poem by Amir Khusrau. The interest in her tale is, however, sadly shaken by her melancholy after-fate, the penalty of her extraordinary beauty. As a widow, she was forcibly married to the two succeeding Sultans, one after the other ; the one being the brother and murderer of her husband, the other the base-born usurper Khusran. This Khusrau, who was originally a slave, a Hindu of the lowest caste, was vazir of one of the sons of Ala-ud- din. He murdered his master and all the adherents of that family, and took the princess Dewal Devi into his own seraglio. Though outwardly a Muhammadan, he persecuted all who belonged to that religion, whilst the Hindus hated him as an upstart and a renegade. Consequently he was soon defeated, and put to death by a Muhammadan chief named Ghazi Beg Tughlak, who ascended the throne with thp title of Ghias-ud-din TUGHLAK SHAH. o. The TughlaJc Kings of Dehli, and the Invasion oj Timur. Eight kings of the Tughlak dynasty ruled in Dehli for nearly a hundred years, from 1320 to J412 A.P. 46 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO During this period the great Pathan empire of Dehli gra- dually fell to pieces, the fragments forming independent and sometimes powerful kingdoms. This was owing partly to the weakness and folly of some of the Tughlak kings, partly to the want of loyalty amongst the great Muhamma- dan generals, who often regarded themselves as the equals of their master at Dehli. The disintegration of the Pathan empire was hastened, too, by the short but terrible inva- sion of Timur the Tatar, sometimes called Tamerlane by European writers, who sacked Dehli in the reign of Mah- miid Tughlak, in 1398 A.D. The most important reigns of this dynasty were those of Muhammad Shah (13251351) ; Firuz Shah (1351 1388) ; and Mahmiid Shah (13921412). During the reign of Muhammad Shah, a large portion of the Dakhin became independent under the Bahmani dynasty [see Chap. XI., 1] ; and in the reign of Firuz Shah his nephew, Haji Ilyas, established the independence of the Afghan dynasty of Bengal [see Chap. XI., 3]. Jaunpur, Gujarat, and Malwah became independent Muhammadan kingdoms during the reign of Mahmiid Shah, the grandson of Firuz. But the most striking event of this period was the successful invasion of Hindustan by Timur, to which reference has already been made, and which foreshadowed the Mughul conquest more than a century afterwards. Timiir was of the Chaghtai race, the leader of the im- mense hordes of Turkis and Mughuls that had subdued all Central and Western Asia. His chief cities were Bukhara and Samarkhand. Though only a rude Tatar, he had some pretensions to learning, and left an account of his life written by himself. These pretensions appear to have in- duced in him more respect for learned men than was usual amongst the Tatars. Many learned men accompanied his army on its march ; and it is amusing to note that he ordered them in times of danger to be placed behind the women, and the women to be placed behind the army. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 47 Timur states in his autobiography that he was induced to invade India because of the civil wars that were raging there between the feeble Sultan Mahmud and his nobles, The fortress of Bhatnir capitulated to him, notwithstand- ing which the luckless inhabitants were massacred. Then he marched on towards Dehli; he met the Sultan Mahmud under the walls, and utterly defeated him, and then entered the Imperial city. Mahmud fled to Gujarat, whence he did not return to Dehli until long after Timur had left India. The latter professed a wish to spare the inhabitants of the city, but a slight disturbance having broken out amongst them, he allowed an indiscriminate slaughter. For 6ve days the conqueror continued feasting, while his troops plundered and slew the hapless citizens ; and they carried away captive as many as they were able of those whom they spared, including the wives and children of large numbers of the noblest Afghan and Hindu families. Timur almost immediately left India, as he was afraid of insurrection breaking out at home. It was said that each of his soldiers took away a hundred and fifty captives as slaves, even sol- diers' boys getting twenty slaves apiece ; and the richness of the booty was incalculable. After the departure of Timur, the Dehli empire was in a state of anarchy for a long time, the Sultan Mahmud having no real power. On the death of the latter in 1412 A.D., the most powerful of the Afghan nobles, named Daulat Khan Lodi, seized the kingdom ; but in a short time he was conquered by Sayyid Khizr Khan, whom Timur had ap- pointed governor of Multan before he left India. . [NOTE. The title Sayyid amongst Muhammadans indicates descent from Muhammad, the Prophet and Founder of their religion.] 4. The Sayyid and Lodi Dynasties. The Sayyid Khizr Khan at first professed to rule in right of the conqueror Timur ; but he soon assumed complete independence, and the dynasty founded by him extended to his son, grandson, 48 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO and great-grandson, and lasted from 1414 to 1450 I.D. The Sayyid kings, however, were never in any way empe. rors of Hindustan, for their power seldom extended far from Dehli. At last a great Afghan noble named Buhlol Lodi, who had been governor of Lahor, after several un- successful attempts, succeeded setting aside the weak Sayyids, and establishing the Lodi dynasty the last of the Afghan or Pathan dynasties of Dehli. Both Buhlol Lodi and his son Sikandar were vigorous and prosperous rulers. The long reign of Buhlol (1450 1488 A.D.) was mainly occupied with a war against the Sultans of Jaunpur, which lasted no less than twenty- six years, and resulted in the subjugation of that kingdom. Si- kandar* established his authority over Bihar and the whole of Northern India, with the exception of Bengal ; but theweak- ness and cruelty of his son, Ibrahim Lodi, again plunged the country into a state of anarchy, and brought about the fall of the Pathan empire. Babar, the great Chaghtai leader of the Mughuls and Turkis of Central Asia, sixth in descent from Timur, was invited into India by some of Ibra- him's discontented nobles ; in 1524 A.D. he obtained pos- session of Lahor ; and two years later, in 1526 A.D., fought the celebrated battle of Panipat [see note on page 18], in which Ibrahim lost his kingdom and his life. This battle, called the First Battle of Panipat, transferred the empire of Hindustan from the Pathansf to the Chaghtai (commonly called the Mughul~) Sultans. * Sikandar Lodi transferred the capital of Hindustan from Dehli to Agra ; and the latter city was the chief residence of the Sultans down to the time of Shah Jahan. t The Sultans of Dehli from Muhammad Ghori to Ibrahim Lodi are commonly called Pathdns or Afghans ; but most of them were really not Afghan but Turk! (see note on page 32) in their origin. THE HISTORY OF INDIA* 49 CHAPTER XI. THE RIVALS OF THE DEHLI EMPIEE. 1. The Eahmani Kingdom and its offshoots in the Dakhin. 2. The Hindu Kingdom of Vijayauagar. 3. Bengal. 4. Jaon- pur, Gujarat, and Malwah. 1. The Bahmani Kingdom and its offslioots in the DaJchin. We have already noticed that during the weak rule of the later Pathan Sultans of Dehli, a number of other Muham- madan States arose in various parts of India and obtained independence. Of these the greatest was the Bahmani Kingdom of the Dakhin, founded by an Afghan general named Zafar Khan during the reign of Muhammad Tngh- lak. Zafar Khan defeated the generals sent against him by the Sultan of Dehli, and established himself at Kulbargah as independent Sultan of the Dakhin. He had formerly been the slave of a Brahman named Gango, who had treated him with great kindness, and had foretold his future great- ness; and in honour of his old master, he now took the title of Sultan Ala-ud-din Hasan Gango BaJimani, whence the dynasty founded by him is called the Bahmani dynasty. It consisted of no less than eighteen kings, who in turn ruled the Dakhin for more than one hundred and fifty years, from 1347 to 1526 A.D. In the very year in which the Pa- than dynasty was expelled from Dehli by the battle of Panipat, the last of the Bahmani kings ceased to reign in the Dakhin. Even before this date, however, several inde- pendent States had sprung up on the ruins of the Bahmani power ; and ultimately five great Dakhini kingdoms were formed, which were eventually subjugated by the Mughul Emperors of Dehli. These five dynasties were : (1). The Adil Shdhi dynasty of Bijapur, founded by Adil Shah in 1489. It had many wars both with the Mah- ,*)0 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO rattas [*ee Chap. XVI.] and with the Mnghuls, and was finally subverted by Anrangzeb in 1686 A.D. (2). The Nizam SJidhi kingdom of Ahmadnagar. Chand Bibi defended this state against the armies of Akbar ; and Malik Ambar was one of its statesmen and heroes. It was destroyed by Shah Jahan in 1637 A.D. (3). The Kufb ShdM dynasty of Golkondah, on the eastern side of the Dakhin, subverted by Aurangzeb in 1687 A.D. (4). The Imad ShdM kingdom of Bai'ar at Ilichpur, annexed by Ahmadnagar in 1574. (5). The B arid Shdhi dynasty of Bidar. 2. Vijayanagar. The Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar in the Dakhin was founded like the Bahmani kingdom in the reign of Muhammad Tughlak about 1336 A.D. It was sometimes called the kingdom of Bijanagar or Narsingha, and occupied the territories now called the Madras Presi- dency ; and was finally destroyed by a combination of the Muhamraadan kings of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golkoudah, and Bidar, in the great battle of TALIKOT on the Krishna, A.D. 1565. The aged King of Vijayanagar, named Earn Rdjd, was slaughtered in cold blood by the allies, who behaved with great cruelty after the battle. The brother of Bam Raja afterwards established himself at Chan- dragiri, seventy miles north-west of Madras ; and in 1640 A.D. made a grant to the English of the site of the city of Madras. 3. Bengal. Shams-ud-din Ilyas, commonly called Haji Ilyas, successfully defended himself in the fort of Ekdalah near Panduah against Firuz Tughlak in 1353 A. D., and thus established his independence in Bengal. His dy- nasty lasted with some interruptions for more than a cen- tury. At one time a Hindu dynasty, founded by Raja Ganesa (called by Musalman writers Kans*), of Dinajpur, obtained power for a short time. At a later period, Bengal was ruled by a short-lived dynasty of Abyssinian slaves ; and the succession was THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 51 much broken in the latter part of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. Sultan AUi-ud-din, a Sayyid, succeeded the Abyssinians in 1489. He gave an asylum to the unfortunate Husain Shah of Jaunpur, when the latter was defeated by Buhlol Lodi of Dehli ; but subsequently was compelled to make an alliance with Sikandar Lodi. Two of his sons reigned after him ; the last, Mahmud Shah, was expelled by Sher Shah in 1538 ; and though restored by Humayun, he died shortly afterwards. Members of the family of Sher Shah ruled in Bengal until 1564 ; when Sulaiman Shah, of the Kararani clan of Afghans, obtained the throne. He made peace with Akbar's general, Munim Khan. The subjugation of Sulai- man's son, Daiid, by Akbar and his generals, is narrated in Chapter XII. 4. Jaunpur, G-ujardt, Malwah. The vazir of the Emperor Mahmud Tughlak [see Chapter X., 3J was appointed governor of Jaunpur in the province of Benares, with the title of MaliJc-us- Shark ; and in 1393 A.D. he asserted his independence, and founded a powerful king- dom, which lasted until its suppression by Buhlol Lodi in 1474. The Court of the Sultans of Jaunpur was famou? for its splendour, and for the encouragement given to learned men there. The Muhammadan dynasties of Malwah and Gujarat likewise owed their existence to the feebleness of the later Tughlak kings of Dehli. The territories of the Malwah kingdom were annexed by Bahadur Shah, a great and famous king of Gujarat, in 1531. Bahadur was subse- quently killed by the Portuguese; and in 1571 A.D. Gujarat was conquered by Akbar, and added to the Muhgul dominions. 52 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTER XII. BXBAR AND HUMAYtfN, THE FIRST MUGHDL EMPERORS, A.D. 152G 1556. 1. Babar. 2. Humdyun. 3. Slier Sbak and the Siir Dynasty. 1. Bdlar. It has already been noticed that Babar, as a descendant of the great Timur, belonged to the Chaghtai tribe, a tribe nearly akin to the Mughnls. Like his ancestor he \vrote an account of his own life, and these Memoirs are remarkable for their simplicity and absence of affectation. His early life in Central Asia was one of remarkably di- versified fortune. He was sometimes a captive, sometimes a victorious monarch ; and his undaunted bravery, patience in adversity, perseverance, and elasticity of mind are .truly admirable. The remarks that he used to make in his Memoirs, whenever he was successful, show that he deserved success : ' Not to me, oh God ! but to thee be the glory of the victory,' said the pious and chivalrous Babar, when he won the battle of Panipat as narrated in Chapter X. This great victory, indeed, only gave him possession of Dehli and Agra, the dominions of Ibrahim Lodi. Prince Humayun immediately marched eastward, and conquered the whole country as far as Jaunpur. In the following year, 1527, the Rajputs, under the famous Rana Sanga of Maiwar, made a determined attempt to expel the invaders from India, in the hope of once more setting up a Hindu empire. The Maharana was joined by his ally Madini Rai, to whom he had given the strong fortress of Chanderi, and by the Rajas of Marwar and Jaipur ; but he was totally routed by Babar in the decisive battle of FATHPUR SIKRI, and the storming of Chanderi early in 1528 firmly esta- blished the Mughul superiority. The brave Rajputs of Chanderi perished to a man in the desperate struggle ; and THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 53 Genealogical Table of the House of Timur. The numbers in brackets show the succession of the Mugliul Emperors. TfMtJR. Sultan Muhammad Mi'rza. Sultan Abu Said Mi'rza. Umar Shaikh Mirza. , THE FIRST MUGHUL EMPEROR. (I.) HUMAYU.V. (II.) AKBAK. (III.) Prince Sali'm, afterwards called jAHANCfR. (IV.) Prince Khurram, afterwards called SHAH JAHAN. (V.) AURAXGZEB (ALAMGIR I.) (VI.) Prince Muazzam, afterwards called BAHAUUE SHAH (SnAu ALAM I.) (VII.) JAHANDAR SHAH. Azim-us-Shan. Raff-us-Shan. Muhammad (VIII.) FARRUKHSIYAR. (IX.) Akhtar. RAFf-Un-r>AUI,AH. RAFI-Un-DARAJAT. (XI.) (X.) ALAMGIR II. RAUSIIANAKHTAR (XIV.) MUHAMMAD SHAH. I (XII.) (All Gauhar) | SHAH ALAM II. AHMAD SHAH. (XV.) (XIII.) 54 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO in the course of the same year Bihar and Bengal also sub- mitted to Babar's arms. Babar's death is remarkable. Hnmayun, his eldest son, was dangerously ill ; when Babar conceived the idea of offering his own life for his son's, according to a well-known Eastern custom. In the accomplishment of this loving resolve, he walked round the bed of the sick youth three times, praying solemnly to God that the disease might be transferred to himself. After this act, he exclaimed, in the full belief that his prayer was heard, ' I have borne it away.' And, strange to say, Humayun recovered from that hour ; while the father, whose health was already decaying, began rapidly to decline. With exhortations on his lips to his children and courtiers, that they should live in concord, he died December 26, 1530. Babar's character was disfigured by cruelty to enemies ; but he was marvellously brave, patient, and generous. His military skill was very great. Many stories are told to show his keen sense of justice and honour. On one occasion, when a rich caravan from China was lost in the snows on the mountains within his dominions, he ordered all the goods to be collected, and sent messengers to China to proclaim the accident and bring the owners to his Court to receive back their goods. They were at length found, and presented themselves before Babar after a lapse of two years, when he entertained them sumptuously, and scru- pulously gave them all the goods they had lost. '2. Humdi/un. Humayun succeeded, and reigned nominally for twenty-six years, from 1530 to 1556 A.D. ; but during nearly sixteen years of this period he was an exile in the Court of Shah Tahmasp of Persia, and the Afghan Slier Stir and his successors were Emperors of Hindustan. A war against Bahadur Shah, King of Gujarat [see Chap. XI., 4] is remarkable on account of a daring exploit per- formed by Humayun ; with only 300 followers he scaled the walls of Champanir, the strong fortress in which were deposited the treasures of Bahadur. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 55 This war was followed by a fatal attempt to drive Slier Sur [see 3] from the throne of Bengal, which he had lately seized. The emperor took Gaur, the capital of Bengal ; but was subsequently treacherously surprised by Sher in the midst of some negotiations, and only escaped capture by leaping on his horse and plunging in the river Ganges. He was nearly drowned, when a waier- carrier rescued him, and brought him safely to the other bank, whence he escaped to Agra. By the aid of his brothers (who had formerly plotted against him, but now united to oppose Sher), he was able to raise another army ; but he was again totally defeated in a battle near KANAUJ, and was now compelled to fly to Persia, enduring many hardships in his flight. The Persian king Shah Tahmasp at first treated him ungenerously, trying to force him to become a Shiah, as the Persians were, though Humayun, like most Hindustani Muhammadans, was a Sunni. NOTE. The Shiah and Sunni are the two great sects into which the Muhammadans are divided. At length, however, he gave him some troops to aid him in regaining his dominions, and in 1556 Humayun again obtained possession of Dehli and Agra. 3. Sher Shah and the Sur Dynasty. Sher Sur was a brave Afghan soldier, who had gradually by his skill and valour unhappily often disgraced by treachery acquired the sovereignty of Bengal [see Chap. XI., 3]. After the defeat of Humayun at the battle of Kanauj in 1540, he became Emperor of Hindustan, and for five years ruled wisely and benevolently. He is said to have made a road from Bengal to the banks of the Indus with a caravan- serai at every stage, and wells at intervals of a mile and a half. If his successors of the Sur dynasty had been as wise and brave as Sher, it is probable that Humayun and his Mughuls would never have been able to return to India. But the third monarch of the line, Muhammad Adil Shah, was a despicable tyrant ; and his successors, Ibrahim and Sikandar, were merely rebels against his authority, who 56 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO were temporarily successful in establishing themselves afc Agra and Dehli. So Humayiin, on his return to India in. 1556 with some Persian troops, was soon able, by the aid of his faithful general Bairam Khan [see Chap. XIII., 2] to drive Sikandar Sur away to the Himalaya Mountains, and to take possession of the two capitals. He died six months after re-entering Dehli, 1556 ; but the empire was still in a very unsettled state, for Sikandar was hovering about the slopes of the mountains with an army, whilst the brave and skilful vazir of Adil Shah, named Hemu, was on the borders of Bengal. CHAPTER XIII. AKBAB, THE GREATEST OF THE MUGHUL EMPERORS. A.D. 1556-1605. 1. The early life of Akbar. 2. Bairam Khan. 3. Heinu and the second battle of Panipat. 4. The fall of Bairam. 5. Ak- bar's Conquests. 6. Akbar's dealings with the Kajpiits. 7. The Conquest of Bengal. 8. Chand Bibi of Ahmadnagar. 9. General remarks on Akbar's character and administration. 1. The early life of Akbar. Akbar was the third Mughul Emperor, and under him the Mughuls overran and con- quered all Northern India, and a considerable portion of the Dakhin. Akbar was born at Amarkot in Sindh, whilst his father Humayiin was flying from. Sher Shah, in 1542 ; and when still an infant (in 1543) he fell into the hands of his uncle Kamran (who had obtained the government of Kandahar), and remained in his custody until 15i)5. Akbar's wet- nurse, who had the title of Ji Ji Anagah, with her husband Atgah Khan, had charge of the young child during these years ; and the affection which Akbar afterwards displayed, throughout their lives, to his foster-mother and foster- THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 57 INDIA IN THE TIME OF AKBAR THE MUGHUU EMPIRET. (divided into Subahs) Marked, Urns 58 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO father, is well known. Many years afterwards Atgah Khan was slain in the royal palace by the dagger of a noble named Adham Khan ; when Akbar himself immediately ran to the spot, struck Adham Khan a blow in the face, which sent him spinning to the ground, and then had him thrown headlong from a pinnacle of the palace. The son of Ji Ji Anagah, called Mirza Aziz, was raised to the highest rank by Akbar ; and, with the title of Khan-i-Azam, was one of the greatest generals under Akbar and his suc- cessor. Aziz, who was a very bold man, often offended Akbar ; but the latter would never punish him, always saying ' between me and Aziz there is a river of milk, which I cannot cross.' When Humayun died, Akbar was only thirteen years and four months old ; and the young prince, with his guar- dian or atdliq, the great Bairam Khan, had to encounter the Afghan armies both of Adil Shah and of Sikandar. 2. Bairam Khan. Bairam Khan was a Shiah of Turkish descent, and his name is one of the most distin- guished in Indian history. He had been the faithful com- panion of Humayun in his exile ; and whilst in Persia, had been made a Khan by Shah Tahmasp. An interesting story is told of the devotion to him of one of his folio wera named Abul Kasim, Governor of Gwaliar. Bairam was flying from Sher Shah ; and was on his way to Gujarat, when he was intercepted by one of Sher Shah's com- manders. Abul Kasim was with him ; and, being a man of imposing stature, was mistaken for Bairam. The latter immediately stepped forward, and said, ' I am Bairam.' ' No,' said Abul Kasim, ' he is my attendant, and brave and faithful as he is, he wishes to sacrifice himself for me ; so let him off.' Abul Kasim was then killed, and Bairam escaped to the protection of the King of Gujarat, and thence to Persia. Humayun's restoration to the throne of Hindustan may justly be ascribed to the military skill and general abilities of Bairam. He won the battle of M&chhiwdrah, which was THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 59 the first great blow to the Afghan power ; and just before Humayun's death, was appointed atdliq of Prince Akbar, and sent with him against Sikandar Sur. On Akbar's accession he received the title of Khan Baba, and acted as regent for the young king, and was the commander- in-chief in the operations against Hemu, and afterward^ against Sikandar. 3. Hemu, and the Second Battle of Pdnipat. In the meantime Hemu boldly marched towards Dehli, and defeated one detachment of Akbar's troops under Tardi Beg. Bairam. caused this officer to be executed for his rashness in attacking Hemu, on account of which execution he in- curred the hatred of all the Chaghtai nobles, who were generally Sunnis ; for Tardi Beg was a Chaghtai Sunni, whilst Bairam (as we have said) was a Turki Shiah. The latter immediately prepared to attack Hemu ; and at length a great battle was fought on November 5, 1556, at Panipat, between the vanguard of Bairam's army under Khan Zamdn and the army of Adil Shah under Henm. Hemii was defeated, captured, and slain ; and this Second Battle of Pdnipat completely established the Mughul power ; for Sikandar shortly afterwards submitted to Akbar, and was pardoned. 4. The fall of Bairam. The regency of Bairam, owing to his firmness in administration and his great military ability, was remarkably successful ; but he carried matters with a high hand as the atdliq of the young Emperor, and became very obnoxious to the Umards or grandees. Akbar himself was persuaded to assume the supreme power in his eighteenth year (1560 A.P.) At length Bairam, seeing his power gone, broke out into rebellion ; but was soon over- come, and threw himself on the mercy of Akbar, who treated him with the utmost generosity and affection. Bairam now set out to visit Mecca, the Muhammadan way of retiring from public life ; but was assassinated in Gujarat. 5. Akbar's Conquests, The fall of Bairam left Akbar 60 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO to govern alone. He proceeded to consolidate his power in India with the most wonderful courage, prudence, and ability; and before his death was absolute master of all Hindustan (including Kashmir and Kandahar) and part of the Dakhin, and was one of the most powerful and famous monarchs of that age. He first had to contend with a rebellion of his own nobles, Khan Zaman, the victor of Panipat, being the chief rebel. When this rebellion was put down, he subdued in succession the Rajputs of Chitor or Maiwar, Gujarat, Bihar, Bengal, Orissa, Kashmir, Sindh, Kandahar ; also Ahmad- nagar, Khandesh, and part of Barar. Akbar's invariable policy was to deal mercifully and even generously with the conquered, generally making any conquered prince a grandee (or Umara) of his court and an officer of his army ; and in this way he obtained the gratitude and affection of a large number of Indian princes, especially amongst the Rajputs of Jaipur and Jodhpur. It would be tedious if we attempted to narrate the history of all these extensive conquests ; it will be sufficient if we give a brief account of (1) Akbar's dealings with the Rajputs, (2) his conquest of Bengal, and (3) his wars with Chdnd Bibi t the famous queen of Ahmad- nagar, in the Dakhin. 6. Akbar's dealings with tJie Rajputs. The Raja of Jaipur (Amber) was Bihari Mall. Akbar eventually married his daughter ; and Salim (Jahdngir), his eldest son, was married to another princess of the same family. This Raja was the first who formed such an alliance. Raja Bihari's son, Raja Bhagavan Das, Akbar's brother-in- law, was one of the most distinguished courtiers in this reign ; and was appointed Amir-ul-Umara, and governor of the Panjab. Bhagavan' s son, Raja Man Singh, was one of Akbar's best generals ; and as a commander of seven thou- sand, was of higher rank than any Muhaminadan officer. He did good service in the Panjab and Kabul ; and, as governor of Bengal, settled the affairs of that province, an<l put down the Afghan rebellions. SISTOKY Oft INDIA. 61 The Band of Chitor (afterwards of Udaipur) was Udai Singh, son of Rana Sanga. Here there was an obstinate and bloody war, and Akbar was victorious. In 1580 Rana Partab (son of Udai Singh) regained a part of his domi- nions and founded Udaipur. The Rana of Jodhpur or Marwar was Maldeo. Akbar married his heir Jahangir to the grand-daughter of Maldeo, called Jodh Bai. Jahangir's mother was also a Rajput princess ; and the Muhammadan historian expresses a hope about her, ' that God will receive her in his mercy; for Jahangir's mother, though a Hindii, could hardly be sent to hell.' The Ranas of Udaipur alone refused all such imperial alliances, and despised the other Rajput families for permitting them. 7. The Conquest of Bengal. After Gujarat Lad submitted, Akbar's next conquest was that of Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa. Munim Khan, the successor of Bairam Khan as Khan-Khanan, and Akbar's governor of Jaunpur, had extorted promises of submission from Sulaiman Kararani, the Afghan chief of Bengal ; but DAUD Khan, the son of Sulaiman, had asserted his independence. Akbar himself marched against him in 1574, and took from him Hajipur and Patna ; leaving Munim Khan as governor of Bihar, with orders to follow Daiid into Bengal. Raja Todar Mall, the celebrated finance minister, was the life and soul of this expedition ; Daiid was reduced to sub- mission at the battle of Mughulmdri, near Jaleswara (Jellasor) in Orissa, and was allowed to retain possession of Katak (Cuttack'). Shortly afterwards, Daud again rebelled, and overran Bengal. Khan Jahan had succeeded Munim Khan (who had died of the effects of the climate of Gaur) ; and he, with Todar Mall as second in command, defeated and slew Daiid at the battle of Akmahall, in 1576 A.D. Khan Jahan subsequently defeated the remnants of Baud's followers at Satganw, near Hiigli ; and gradually con- quered the whole of Bengal, before his death in 1578 A.D. 62 AN EAS\ INTRODUCTION TO Not long after his death, however, a more serious insur- rection than ever broke out amongst the great Mughal Ji'njinldfs of Bengal and Bihar, who had been granted lands in the conquered provinces. [NOTE. A jagirdar is the holder of a jagir, i.e., land given (gene- rally as a reward for distinguished conduct) to a person on condition of his performing certain services to the supreme lord. These services were nearly always of a military nature, i.e., the jagirdar was bound to attend his lord in time of need with a specified number of troops ; and if the rules were exactly followed, the surplus revenues of the jagir, after paying the stipends of the jagirdar himself and his troops, ought to be paid to the supreme lord. It was the enforcement of this last rule that led to the great military revolt in Bengal of which we are now Before this revolt of the Jagirdars was entirely put down, the Afghans had again risen in Orissa and had over- run part of Bengal ; and these provinces were only finally conquered and settled during the long and successful governorship of Raja Man Singh of Jaipur [see 6], who ruled Bengal for Akbar from 1589 to 1604. 8. Ghdnd Bibi of Ahmadnagar. In consequence of the dissensions in Ahmadnagar between the Hindu and Abyssinian nobles, Murad (second son of Akbar) andMirza Khan (son of Bairam Khan) were sent to take possession of the city, 1595 A.D. The city of Ahmadnagar was then in the hands of the celebrated Chand Bibi, the aunt of the infant Sultan, Bahadur Nizam Shah. She made peace with her father-in-law the king of Bijapur, conciliated the Abyssinian nobles, and defended the city with astonishing skill and bravery against Prince Murad, who was now pressing the siege. A breach was made in the wall, and the defenders were on the point of giving up the city, when the Sultana appeared in full armour, veiled, with a drawn sword in her hand ; and standing in the breach she renewed the struggle, which ended at night-fall by the withdrawal of the Mughul armies. The dawn beheld the breach thoroughly repaired, and the queen-regent, who had not quitted her post, ready to meet the assailants. But THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 63 Murad abandoned the siege, and a peace was concluded. Akbar in 1599 arrived in person at Bnrhanpnr. Daulatabad had been taken, and Prince Danyal (Akbar's third son), with Mirza Khan, was sent on again to besiege Ahmadnagar, Chand Bibi had been murdered by the opponents of her little nephew the Sultan. The Mnghuls now took the city, made a great slaughter of the traitors, and took the young king prisoner. 9. General remarks on Akbar's character and adminis- tration. When Akbar was growing old and was sick unto death, there were great discussions as to whether his son Salim (afterwards the Emperor Jahangir) or his grandson Khusrau should succeed him. But the Sultan himself at length solemnly nominated Salim as his successor, in the presence of the Umaras or grandees ; and shortly afterwards died, having done his best to inculcate unity and loyalty by his dying words. Akbar was strongly built and handsome in person, sober and abstemious in his habits. He was fond of hunting and athletic sports, and often walked thirty or forty miles in a day. He was very studious, most methodical in the despatch of business, understood Sanskrit, encouraged every kind of literature, and superintended many im- portant literary undertakings. He was very affectionate both to his family and to his friends ; humane, and com- passionate. He founded a new sect of Muhammadanism, which he called the ' Divine Faith,' and of which he declared himself the head ; and because he allowed the disciples of this faith (the ' elect ') to prostrate themselves before him in private, though not in public, many orthodox Mu- hammadans accused him of assuming rights that belong only to God. He was also accused of worshipping the sun ; and he certainly had a great leaning to the religious views of the Parsis, who see in the sun a manifestation of the Deity. But the peculiar feature of his religion was universal toleration. G4 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO He desired to treat all his subjects alike, to abolish th* distinction of Hindu and Muhammadan, and thus to fuse the discordant elements of his empire into one homo- geneous -whole. Nearly every conquered king or general, whether Hindu or Musalman, who showed signs of sub- mission and loyalty, received proofs of Akbar's lenity and favours in the shape either of an appointment at court or of the command of a district. In the seventh year of his reign he abolished i\\e jiziali (a poll-tax on all Hindus and other infidels, which had been exacted with great severity under some of the Afghan kings) and all taxes on pilgrims. The jiziah was not reimposed until the time of Aurangzeb. The famous financial reforms of Akbar, in reducing the expense of the collection of the revenue, in preventing the extortions of the government officers, and in equalising the pressure of taxation, were ably carried out by the great Hindu financier, Raja TODAR MALL [see 7]. Todar Mall is said to have based his wise fiscal measures mainly on the enactments of Sher Shah, the first of the Sur dynasty. The empire was divided into eighteen Siibahs, each under a Siibahdar or viceroy. A full account of these subahs, with a minute description of every department of govern- ment, and everything connected with the emperor's esta- blishments, public and private, may be found in the Ain-i- Akbari or Institutes of Akbar, written by ABUL FAZL. This eminent man, and his brother Faizi (who was also a learned man, a poet, and the first Muhammadan who studied the literature of the Hindus) were Akbar'g most intimate friends and counsellors. Abul Fazl rose to the highest military commands, and was prime minister. He was killed at the instigation of Prince Salim in 1603. Akbar also effected important reforms in the administra- tion of the army ; of which the most important was tho order that soldiers were henceforward to be paid in cash, not by jagirs or assignments of lands. THE HISTOET OF INDIA. 65 CHAPTER XIV. JAHANGfR, SHAH JAHAX, AND AUEANGZEB. A.D. 1605 16271658 1707. 1. Gradual Conquest of the Dakhin. 2. The Story of The Empress Niir Jahan. 3. Sir Thomas Koe. 4. The ^Rebellions of Shah Jahan and Mahabat Khan. 5. Shah Jahan as Emperor. 6. Aurangzeb. 1. Gradual Conquest of the DaJchin. The son, grandson, and great-grandson of Akbar, who occupied successively the imperial throne of Hindustan, were three of the richest and most powerful monarchs that have ever lived in the world ; and the last of them, Aurangzeb, though inferior to the great Akbar in personal character, was fully his equal in general ability, in resolution, and energy, whilst he reigned with absolute sway over a much larger empire. During the course of these three long and prosperous reigns the Mughuls were gradually conquering the Muham- madan kingdoms of the Dakhin [see Chap. XI.] Under Aurangzeb they completed those conquests, and they first came into contact with the Mahrattas, who afterwards so effectually humbled the Mughul power. We cannot at- tempt to give the details of the various campaigns in the Dakhin. It may, however, be noted that the power of Ahmadnagar was sustained, during nearly the whole of Jahangir's reign, by a famous Abyssinian noble of that city, named MALIK AMBAR, who administered the government in the name of the successor of Chand Bibi ; (2) that Ahmad- nagar was finally subdued early in the reign of Shah Jahan (1637) ; and (3) that Bijapur, and at last Golkondah, were conquered by Aurangzeb in 1687 and 1688, after many arduous campaigns. 2. The Story of the Empress Nur Jahan. Some f 66 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO most interesting incidents of the reign of Jahangir are con- nected with his marriage with the celebrated Mihrunnisd Khdnum, the widow of Sher Afkan, which took place in 1611. She was called after her marriage Nur Mahall (the light of the palace) ; and subsequently obtained the name by which she is most commonly known, Nur Jahau (the light of the world). She was of a noble Persian family, which had been reduced to poverty ; in consequence of which her father emigrated to India. On the way, at Kandahar, Nur Jahan was born. To such poverty were they reduced, that the infant, who was afterwards to become the mighty empress of world-wide renown, was exposed on the high road, where a merchant saw the child, and compassionately took it for his own. The child's own mother was em- ployed by him as its nurse ; and to his kindness her family was indebted for an introduction to the court of Akbar. Here the father and eldest son soon rose into notice ; and the mother had free access to the haram of Akbar, avhere the young and beautiful girl saw and captivated Jahangir, then Prince Salim. To remove her from the Prince's sight she was, by Akbar's advice, married to Sher Afkan, a young Persian, who was made governor of Burdwan. When Jahangir became emperor he suggested to Kutb- ud-din, Viceroy of Bengal, that he should induce Nur Jahan's husband to divorce her. Her husband refused; and in the quarrel that ensued both the Viceroy and Sher Afkan were killed. Nur Jahan was sent to Dehli ; but she, looking upon the emperor as the murderer of her husband, rejected his overtures with disdain. After a length of time, however, a reconciliation took place, and Niir Jahan became empress of India. Her name was put on the coinage with the emperor's. Her influence was unbounded. Her father was made prime minister; and her brother, Asaf Khan, was given a very high appoint- ment. They used their power well ; and though Jahangir still indulged in nightly drunken debauches, the affairs of THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 67 the kingdom were henceforth, managed with prudence and humanity. 3. Sir Thomas Roe. The year 1615 was marked by the arrival of a grand embassy from James L, King of England, to the Emperor Jahangir. Sir Thomas Roe was the ambassador, and he was received with great honour, being assigned the highest place at court at all public ceremonies. By his influence the English trade with India was encouraged. We shall see in a future chapter that the Portuguese had already established themselves in the country ; and from this time the European settlements in India rapidly grew in importance. 4. The Rebellions of Shah Jahdn and Mahabat Klidn. The intrigues of the Empress Niir Jahan to ensure the succession of Prince Shahryar, Jahangir's youngest son (who had married the daughter she had borne to Sher Afkan, her first husband), drove Shah Jahan (the third son of the Emperor) into rebellion. Shah Jahan had greatly distinguished himself in many wars, and he now succeeded in making himself supreme in Bengal for two years. He subsequently submitted to his father. Mahabat Khan, a famous general, had been brought to Dehli from his government of Kabul, by Nur Jahan, who hoped that he would aid her in carrying out her wishes in opposition to Shah Jahan. He did so at first, and the reputation which he won in the campaigns in the Dakhin made him the most eminent man in the empire, except per- haps the queen's own brother, Asaf Khan. But he became a friend and partisan of Prince Parwiz, whom Nur Jahan hated as much as Shah Jahan, and thus he incurred the bitter hostility of the queen. Mahabat was summoned to join the emperor, as the latter was marching with his army towards Kabul. He came, attended by 5,000 Rajput horsemen devoted to his service ; but on his arrival was told that he could not see the emperor. Seeing that his disgrace was resolved on, he determined to avert it by a stroke of unparalleled F 2 63 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO audacity. Ho waited until the emperor's troops had crossed the Jhelam, and when Jahangir himself was about to follow he suddenly secured the passage of the river with a part of his Rajputs, whilst with the rest he seized the emperor's person. Nur Jahan strove in vain to liberate her husband, and at length resolved to share his captivity. She nar- rowly escaped being put to death by the victor. Mahabat was now supreme, and retained his power for nearly a year. Nur Jahan at length succeeded in effecting the escape of the emperor, and Mahabat was compelled to fly to the south, where he joined Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan soon after this succeeded his father as em- peror, and he ordered Nur Jahan to lead a strictly secluded life, but generously allowed her a magnificent income. This generosity, however, was marred by the fact that he slew his brother Shahryar and every male of the race of Babar. 5. Shah Jahan as Emperor. A formidable rebellion of the Siibahdar (governor of the Subali or province") of the Dakhin, who was called Khan Jahan Lodi, was sup- pressed in 1630. A large part of Shah Jahan's reign was occupied by incessant wars in the Dakhin, conducted at first by himself and his generals, and latterly by his sons, especially the great Aurangzeb, who was the third son. Shah Jahan will always be famous for the splendour of his buildings and other public works, and for the magni- ficence of his court, with the glorious ' peacock throne,' covered over with precious gems, and worth six and a half crores. He built the Taj Mahall at Agra, as the mausoleum of his queen, Mumtaz Mahall ; it is made of pure white marble, decorated with mosaic-work of many-coloured precious stones, and is in solemn grandeur unsurpassed by any building in the world. Besides the peacock throne Shah Jahan left vast treasures, including no less than twenty-four crores of rupees in coin alone. He was on the whole a good and just ruler. He never remitted his vigilance over the administration ; and in this THE HISTORY OF INDIA, 69 way, and by a judicious selection of his ministers, lie se- cured the prosperity of his dominions, which enjoyed almost uninterrupted tranquillity during his reign. 6. Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb had two elder brothers, named Dara and Shuja, and one younger, named Murad. In 1657 the illness of Shah Jahan became known to the brothers, although Dara, who was at Agra, endeavoured to conceal it ; and they all immediately made preparations to seize the throne. Aurangzeb at last managed, by the most shameful duplicity and unnatural cruelty, to defeat and kill or drive away all his brothers and their families in succes- sion (1658) ; and he kept his father, old Shah Jahan, in prison until his death in 1666. Mir Jumlah was a great general, to whose aid Aurang- zeb was much indebted for his success against his brothers ; so he was made Governor of Bengal m succession to the Prince Shuja, whom he had driven into Arakan. Shuja and all his family miserably perished in Arakan ; and Mir Jumlah, after a great campaign, in which he overran Koch Bihar and Assam, died at Dacca. Aurangzeb was incessantly at war in the Dakhin, either fighting with the Mahratta Sivaji [see Chap. XVI.], or engaged in the conquest of Bijapur and Golkondah, as narrated in 1. He also had to encounter some serious insurrections of the Rajputs, towards whom, as towards all his Hindu subjects, he displayed the most furious in- tolerance and bigotry. NOTE. Amongst other acts cf bigotry Aurangzeb revived the Jieiah, which had been abolished by Akbar. The Jiziah was a poll- tax, levied on every person who was not a Muhammadan. It had been an instrument of great oppression by some of the Pathan Sultans, and was detested by all Hindus. In the course of one of these Rajput rebellions his favourite son, Prince Akbar, joined the rebels, and endea- voured to seize the Mughul throne ; but Aurangzeb, though a very old man, successfully met this new danger, and the young Akbar ultimately died as an exile in Persia. 79 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO During this reign the English and French settlements (as we shall see in Chap. XVIII.) were rapidly rising into importance. Under Aurangzeb the Mughal power attained its greatest splendour and its widest extension ; by the time of his death it was rapidly falling into decay. Pure and even austere in his private life, and a rigid Muhammadan, he is generally regarded by Musalman historians as the greatest of the Mughul dynasty ; greater even than Akbar. In general ability, in resolution, in energy he was fully Akbar's equal. Like that illustrious monarch, he was just and laborious ; but in almost every other respect his character is almost the reverse of that of Akbar. Both were masters of policy ; but Aurangzeb always preferred, a crooked policy, to attain his ends by stratagem or trickery. Akbar was perfectly liberal and tolerant, generous to all men, and specially merciful to a fallen enemy ; Aurangzeb was a bigot and a persecutor, suspicious of all men, ruel to the conquered, and ready to avail himself of every mean advantage. His universal mistrust destroyed his own hap- piness, impaired the success of every undertaking, and undermined the empire. His heir Muazzam once incurred his unjust suspicions, and was imprisoned for six years, from 1687 to 1694. The contrast between the characters of Akbar and Aurangzeb is best exhibited by their treat- ment of the Hindus, and specially of the Rajputs. We have seen that Akbar converted the Rajputs from enemies into the most loyal supporters of his throne, whilst Aurang- zeb caused them to detest him. He even made it difficult to carry on the administration of the empire, by ordering that no Hindus should be employed as public servants ; and he insisted on exacting the jiziah not only in Hindustan, but even in the Dakhin. The consequence of all this was that most of his Hindu subjects were in heart allies of the Mahrattas ; and to this cause may be ascribed, mainly, ihe rapid decay of the empire. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 71 CHAPTER XV. THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE MUGHUL EMPIRE. 1. The Successors of Aurangzeb. 2. The Sikhs. 3. The Provinces become independent of Dehli. 4. The Invasion of Nadir Shah, the Persian. 5. The Invasions of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Afghan. 6. Shah Alam II. and the last of the Family of Timur. 1. The Successors of Aurangzeb. At the death of Aurang- zeb there was the usual contest amongst his sons; and finally the eldest, Muazzam, slew his two brothers, and succeeded to the throne with the title of Bahadur Shah. He reigned six years. He owed his success mainly to a powerful nobleman named Zulfikar Khan; and the same nobleman also secured the succession of the next emperor, Jahdnddr Shah, who obtained the throne on the death of Bahadur. Zulfikar was the vazir of the Emperor Jahandar Shah, and possessed more real power than his master. Jahandar and his vazir had taken care to slaughter all the other sons and relations of Bahadur on whom they could lay their hands ; but Farrukh Siyar, a grandson of the Emperor Bahadur, had succeeded his father in the govern- ment of Bengal, and had been able to escape the murdering hands of Jahandar. The latter had hardly reigned twelve months, when Farrukh Siyar induced two powerful nobles to help him with a large body of troops, and he defeated Jahandar in a great battle near Agra, and put him to death, together with the vazir Zulfikar. The two nobles who made Farrukh Siyar emperor were the Sayyid Husain All, governor of Bihar, and his brother, Sayyid Abdullah, governor of Allahabad. For several years they possessed all power in the realm. When they found that Farrukh Siyar, after reigning in this way about six years, was in- clined to diminish their authority, they assassinated him, and set on the throne three emperors, one after another. 72 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO who reigned in quick succession the two former ones, named Rafi-ud-darajat and Rafi-ud-daulah, dying after short reigns of two or three months each, in the year 1719. The third emperor nominated by the Sayyids was called Raushanakhtar, and he assumed the imperial title of Muhammad Shah. Shortly after his accession the Sayyids were overthrown and slain by a combination of other nobles ; the battle which finally destroyed their power was fought at Shdhpur, between Dehli and Agra. These Sayyids, Husain All and Abdullah, are often called ' the king-makers.' It will be seen from the above short account that the six Mughul emperors who followed Aurangzeb were all set up in turn by great noblemen, the first two by Zulfiltar Khan, the last four by the Sayyids, Consequently these noblemen were far more powerful than the emperors them- selves. All the other great nobles of the empire began to hope in like manner to elevate themselves to royal power ; so that before the death of Muhammad Shah (who reigned from 1719 to 1748 A.D.) all the more distant provinces had assumed independence, and the authority of the emperors became almost nominal. By far the most important power that arose in this way during this period was that of the Mahrattas, who soon became the leading power in India. An account of their origin will be given in the next chapter. 2. The Sikhs. The Sikhs were originally an inoffen- sive religious sect ; but the fierce persecution of Aurangzeb and his successor Bahadur Shah changed them into a formidable military confederation. The sect was founded by Nanak in the time of Babar. He went about preaching the worship of one God, in a fosm of religion resembling Muhammadanism in some points and Hinduism in others ; and collected a large number of Sikhs or disciples (for that is the meaning of the word Sikh). In the seventeenth century their tenth Guru, or spiritual leader, named Guru Govind Singh, who was a man of ambitious and warlike THE HISTORY OF INDIA,, 73 temper, completed their military organisation. He was slain by a private enemy, and his relatives and followers were visited with every kind of cruelty. Their Guru in the time of Bahadur Shah, Jahandar, and Farrukh Siyar was called Banda. During the reign of Bahadur Shah their hatred to the Musalmans, inflamed by long persecution, broke out into fearful atrocities. The Emperor marched against them, and spent the last five years of his life in a Sikh war. They soon resumed their retaliations on the Muhammadans ; but in the reign of Farrukh Siyar, Banda and a large number of his followers were captured, and executed with the most inhuman barbarities. The Sikhs met torture and death with the most heroic courage, dis- daining to a man to purchase life by renouncing their faith. They were nearly extirpated by Farrukh Siyar ; but before the end of the century they again became a great power [see the life of Ranjit Singh, Chap. XXV., 3]. 3. The Provinces become independent of Delili. Be- sides the MAHRATTAS, the chief provinces that obtained independence about this time were Rajputdnd, the Dakhin, Oudh, and Bengal. Jeswant Singh, Rana of Jodhpur or Marwar, had been a mighty prince during the reign of Aurangzeb. The in- surrection of the Rajputs against Aurangzeb [see Chap. XIV., 6] had been mainly to avenge the wrongs of Jeswant's children ; and the most important provision of the peace was, that Ajit Singh, his eldest son, should be restored to the throne of Marwar on the attainment of his majority. Ajit Singh turned out a wise and powerful ruler, and the Emperor Farrukh Siyar was glad to make peace with him by marrying his daughter. From Muhammad Shah, Ajit Singh obtained the acknowledgment of his independence ; and from this time the Rajputs ceased to have any connec- tion with the Mughul empire. Nizdm-ul-mulJc, Siibahdar of the Dakhin under Farrukh Siyar, was the head of the confederacy of nobles which overthrew the Sayyids in the battle of Shahpur, in 1720 74 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO \see 1]. He then made himself vazir of the Emperiir Muhammad Shah, but subsequently returned to his Subah of the Dakhin, which became from this time independent [see Chap. XIX., 1]. He was the ancestor of the present Nizam of Haidarabad. The chief confederate of Nizam-ul-mulk in his opposi- tion to the Sayyids was Saddat Khan, who had originally been a Persian merchant, and who had risen to be Suliah- dar of Ondh. Saadat Khan made himself independent, in Oudh, and his descendants were kings of Oudh until that country was annexed to the British Indian Empire in 1H56. Bengal, too, became virtually independent in Muham- mad Shah's time. Shuju-ud-din, the last Subahdar nomi- nated by the Mughul Emperor, died whilst Nadir Shah was in Dehli ; and his son was set aside by the famous Ali Virdi Khan, one of the Umaras of the Court, who possessed much ability and experience. Muhammad Shah afterwards confirmed him in his usurped dominion, but Ali Verdi was really independent. 4. The Invasion of Nadir Shah. The ruin of the Mughul empire was hastened by two terrible foreign inva- sions during the reign of Muhammad Shah. In the midst of the difficulties caused by the increasing power of the Mahrattas the terrible Nadir Shah of Persia swept down on the hapless Mughul emperor. This famous warrior, originally a shepherd on the shores of the Caspian Sea, had delivered Persia from the oppres- sion of Afghan invaders, and had usurped the Persian throne. In retaliation for the Afghan invasion he had conquered Herat and Kandahar ; and now, on the frivolous pretext that the Mughnls had sheltered some of his Afghan ene- mies, had advanced on Kabul, and thence to the Isdus, which he crossed in November 1738. The emperor had under- rated the power of Nadir's force, and there are also suspi- cions of treachery on the part of the great commanders, Asaf Jah (the Nizam) and Saadat Khan. Hence the in- vader met with no resistance till he was within one hun. THE HISTORY OF INDIA* 75 dred miles of Dehli. Here, at KARNAL, he met and utterly routed the Indian army ; and Muhammad had no resource but to give himself up as a prisoner, and he entered Dehli in the train of the conqueror. At first Nadir behaved with great courtesy towards his captive, and appeared inclined to spare the vanquished people ; but enraged by some risings of the inhabitants of Dehli, in which many Persians were slain, he at length gave orders for an indiscriminate mas- sacre, which lasted for nearly a whole day. Shortly after- wards, laden with an immense booty (which included the celebrated peacock throne of Shah Jahan) he left Dehli and returned home, having first reinstated Muhammad on the throne, cad having sent messengers to the chief Indian po- tentates (including the Mahrattas) to threaten them with his vengeance if they did not obey the emperor. 5. The Invasions of Ahmad Shah Abddli, the Afghan. . The three successors of Muhammad Shah as emperors of Dehli were Ahmad Shah, Alamgir (called Alamgir II., to distinguish him from Aurangzeb, who was also called Alam- gir), and Shah Alam (called Shah Alam II., to distinguish him from Bahadur Shah, who was also called Shah Alam). What little shadow of the old Mughul power which had belonged to Muhammad Shah was entirely lost during these reigns, and the successors of Shah Alam II. were only emperors in name, and were really pensioners of the British Government. The horrors of the invasion of Nadir Shah were repeated no less than six times during these reigns by Ahmad Shah AbddlL He was the chief of the Afghan tribe called Ab- dali or Durrani ; he had been Nadir's treasurer, and had seized all his money, together with the kingdom of Kan- dahar, when his master was assassinated in 1747. He im- mediately marched against Dehli at the head of a strong Afghan army, but in this first invasion he was driven back by the skill and valour of Prince Ahmad (afterwards the Emperor Ahmad Shah) and the Yazir Kamar-ud-din, in the great battle of SIRHIND. This defeat of the Afghans 76 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO was the last exploit of the Mughal arms, and imparted some glory to the concluding year of the reign of Muham- mad Shah. But in the following year the Abdali chief re- turned to India, and extorted from his namesake, the Em- peror Ahmad Shah, the cession of the Panjab, which from this time (1748) was severed from the Dehli empire. Ghazi- ud-din, a turbulent man, who was grandson of the old Nizam- ul-mulk [see 3], and vazir of the Emperor Alamgir II., endeavoured to retake the province in 1757 ; and this pro- voked the third invasion of Ahmad Shah Abdali, who now sacked Dehli, appointed a Rohilla Afghan named Nazib-ud- daulah as vazir, and then returned to Kandahar. Nazib-ud-daulah was soon afterwards expelled by Ghazi- <id-din with the aid of the Mahrattas, and the Mahratta Raghoba now invaded the Panjab. The result of this en- croachment of the Mahrattas was the fourth and most ter- rible invasion of Hindustan by Ahmad Shah, who again occupied Dehli, and almost destroyed the Mahratta power in the crushing victory of Panipat (the third battle of*Pa- nipat, described in the account of the Mahratta Peshwas, Chap. XVII., 5). 6. Shah Alam II. and the last of the House of Timur. Whilst the Afghan king was crushing the Mahrattas at Panipat, Shah Alam was vainly opposing the English in Bihar [see Chap. XXI.] At last he consented to become a pensioner of the British Government, and resided for some years peaceably in Allahabad. Subsequently, however, tho Mahrattas persuaded him to join them, in 1771, in driving out Zabitah Khan, the son and successor of the Afghan Nazib-ud-daulah, from Dehli. They were successful, and from this time until the British conquest in 1803 the Mah- rattas were supreme in Dehli. Only for a short interval, in 1T88, did the Afghan or Mnsalman party regain their hold of the city and of the emperor's person ; and the Af- ghan chief, a wretch named Ghulam Kadir, son of Zabitah Khan and grandson of Nazib-ud-daulah, on this occasion struck out the eyes of the poor old emperor with his dag- THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 77 ger, having previously tortured his sons and grandsons in his presence. The Mahrattas soon came up and delivered the poor blind old man from his inhuman persecutor ; but he remained in extreme poverty and neglect until, in 1803, he was rescued from the Mahrattas by the British under Lord Lake, in the course of the Second Mahratta War. He was then granted a pension by the English, and the sceptre ot Hindustan passed into the hands of the British Govern- ment. Retribution fell on Ghulam Kadir ; for, falling into the hands of the Mahratta chief Sindia, he was horribly tortured and mutilated, and at length his head was sent to be laid at the feet of the old emperor whom he had treated so cruelly. One of the grandsons of Shah Alam, who had been tortured by Ghulam Kadir, was that Muhammad Bahadur who, in 1857, joined the Sepoy mutineers, and permitted, if he did not instigate, similar atrocities in the same place in Dehli, perpetrated on innocent English pri- soners ; and who paid the penalty of his crimes by dying as a prisoner in a distant land beyond the sea. CHAPTER XVI. SIVAJI AND THE RISE OF THE MAHRATTAS. 1. Maharashtra and the Mahrattas. 2. The Rise of Sivaji. 3. The Murder of Afzal Khan. 4. Wars with Aurangzeb. 5. Sivaji's Prosperity. 6. His Death and Character. 1. Maharashtra and the Mahrattas. The country of the Mahrattas, formerly called Maharashtra, included all the southern portion of the Bombay Presidency, with the Barars and large portions of the Central Provinces, of the Central India Agency, and of the dominions of the Nizam of Haidarabad. It was bounded on the north by the Sat- pura Mountains and on the west by the sea ; and extended eastward beyond Nagpur, in the Central Provinces. 78 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO The Mahratta Hindus had in early times long fought against the Musalman invaders, but they were conquered long before the fall of the Pathan dynasty of Dehli ; and from the time of Akbar to that of Aurangzeb part of the Mahratta nation was subject to the Mughul emperor, and the rest to the Muhammadan kings of Ahmadnagar and Bijapur. 2. The Rise of Sivaji. Sivaji, the great founder of Mahratta power, was born at the fort of Saoner in the year 1627 A.D. the year of the death of Jahangir and acces- sion of Shah Jahan. He belonged to a respectable family of Rajput descent, named Bhonsle. His father was Shahji, who was at first an officer under Malik Ambar, of Ahmad- nagar, and afterwards entered the army of the king of Bijapur, and fought for Bijapur against Mahabat Khan and the armies of Shah Jahan. A curious story, showing the superstitious character of the Mahratta people of that time, was told of Shahji. It was said that a goddess appeared to him and predicted that one of his family would become a king, and would restore Hindu customs, protect Brahmans and kine, and be the first of a line of twenty-seven rulers of the land. Sivaji was early taught all that it was considered neces- sary for a Mahratta chieftain to know, but he never could write his name. He was brought up a zealous Hindu, thoroughly versed in the mythological and legendary stories current among his countrymen. His hatred of Muham- madans prepared him for that life of intense hostility to Aurangzeb which he led. From his boyhood he seems to have planned his after-career ; and he was but nineteen years of age when he seized the hill-fort of Tornea, twenty miles S.W. of Puna. He found a large treasure in the ruins near this fort, which he spent in building another, which he called Rajgarh. His advance was rapid. He obtained possession of Kondaneh (Singhgarh), Supa, and Purandhar. Meanwhile he tried every art to deceive the Bijapur authorities, who THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 79 probably thought they could crush him whenever they pleased. The suspicions of Muhammad Adil Shah being at length roused by the acts of open violence to which Sivaji proceeded, he sent for Shahji, built him up in a stone dungeon, leaving only a small aperture, which was to be closed, if in a fixed time Sivaji did not surrender himself. Sivaji now boldly entered into correspondence with Shah Jahan, who by his artful representations was induced to forgive Shahji, admit him into the imperial service, and to give Sivaji himself the command of 5,000 horse. By the Emperor's intercession Shahji's life was saved ; but he remained a prisoner for four years. 3. The Murder of Afzal Khan. In 1659 the Bijapur authorities made an attempt to crush Sivaji, which he ren- dered unsuccessful by an act of treachery celebrated in Mahratta history. He enticed their commander, Afzal Khan, to a conference ; and in the customary embrace he struck a wagvakh (a steel instrument with three crooked blades, like the claws of a tiger), which he had secreted for the purpose, into the bowels of his unfortunate enemy, and quickly dispatched him with a bichwa, or scorpion-shaped dagger. The Bijapur troops, disheartened at the loss of their general, were cut to pieces or made prisoners. The decisive advantage gained by this act of detestable treachery greatly benefited Sivaji's position, and many successful campaigns followed. 4. Wars with Aurangzeb. In 1662 Shaista Khan was the Mughul viceroy of the Dakhin ; and Sivaji, at peace with Bijapur, attacked the Mughuls, and ravaged the country to Aurangabad, where the viceroy lived. Shaista Khan marched southward, and took up his abode in Puna, in the very house where Sivaji was brought up. Sivaji now performed one of those exploits which more than any- thing else make his name famous among his countrymen. With a part of his men at nightfall he slipped unperceived into the city, mingled with a marriage procession, passed through the out-offices of the well-knowp house, and almost 80 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO surprised the Khan in his bedchamber. The Mughal escaped with the loss of two fingers ; but his son and attendants were slain. Sivaji made off, and ascended his hill-fort of Singhgarh (twelve miles off) amidst a blaze ot torches. If this adventure did nothing else, it inspirited his men, and taught them to despise the Mughuls. His next exploit was the sack of Siirat ; the English factory alone escaping, by the determined valour of its defenders. This was particularly offensive to Aurangzeb, as pilgrims to Mecca embarked from Surat, hence called Bab-ul-Makkah, the gate of Mecca. Sivaji, in 1664, assumed the title ot Raja, and began to coin money. He also collected a fleet of eighty- five ships, sailed down the coast, sacked Barcelor, and plundered the adjacent country. He even attacked some vessels conveying pilgrims to Mecca, and thus doubly roused the indignation of Aurangzeb, ever the champion of the Muhammadan faith. The emperor now sent a formidable army under Mirza Raja, a gallant officer, to chastise Sivaji. The latter lost one fort after another, and at length was cooped up in his strong castle of Purandhar, and compelled to come to terms with the emperor. By the agreement of PURANDHAR he surrendered twenty of his forts, retaining twelve as a jagir. His son, Sambaji, was to become a commander of 5,000 horse in the Mughul army. He was also to have certain assignments of revenues, called cliauih (or the fourth), and sirdeshmukhi (or 10 per cent.), on some districts of Bijapur. This was the ground for the ill- defined claims of the Mah- rattas in affcertimes to plunder and extort tribute from the inhabitants of every province of the empire. Sivaji now joined the imperial army, and so distinguished himself in the invasion of Bijapur that the emperor wrote him a com- plimentary letter and invited him to Dehli. Sivaji, accord- ingly, in March 1666, with his son, set out for the Court. Aurangzeb received him haughtily, and Sivaji finding him- self slighted, and in fact a prisoner, contrived to escape with Sambaji, and reached Raigarh in December. Thus HISTORY OF INDIA. 81 did the emperor foolishly lose an opportunity of converting an enemy into a firm friend and vassal. Sivaji now openly, for a time, resumed his old attitude of defiance ; but soon, through the intercession of Jeswant Singh, obtained most favourable terms from Aurangzeb, and in fact was left in perfect independence, though doubtless this was done with the intention of crushing him, when an opportunity should present itself. 5. Sivaji' s prosperity. In 1674, Sivaji was solemnly enthroned at Baigarh. He was then weighed against gold, and the sum, 16,000 pagodas, given to Brahmans. From that time he assumed the most high-sounding titles, and maintained more than royal dignity in all his actions. His kingdom was now both extensive and powerful, and the extraordinary faculty which the Mahrattas always pos- sessed for plundering, made him also a very rich monarch. In 1676 he still further extended his influence and empire by a very successful expedition into theCarnatic. His latter days were much embittered by the bad conduct of his son, Sambaji, who was a youth of violent temper and unre- strained passions, and who actually, at one time, deserted to the camp of the Mughul general because his father had punished him for some outrageous conduct. 6. His death and character. Sivaji died at Kaigarh, of fever, brought on by a swelling in his knee-joint, on the 5th April, 1680. He was a daring soldier, a skilful ge- neral, and an able statesman. Though the predatory warfare which he carried on necessarily caused dreadful sufferings, he was always anxious to mitigate those sufferings as far as possible. In order to gain his ends he was sometimes guilty, as in the murder of Afzal Khan, of the utmost cruelty and treachery. But he was never wantonly cruel, and it was possibly remorse for his crimes that caused the religious zeal, which he had always affected, to degenerate in his old age into superstition and austerity. This religious zeal, whether real or pretended, had the effect of infusing into 6 82 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO the Mahrattas an intense national enthusiasm, which at- tached to their cause all those Hindu subjects of Dehli who were discontented with their Muhaminadan masters. CHAPTER XVH. THE PROGRESS AND DECLINE OP THE MAHRATTA POWER. 1. Balaji Viswanath, the First Peshwa. 2. Baji Rao, the Second Peshwa. 3. The Mahratta Confederacy. 4. Balaji Baji Rao, the Third Peshwa. 5. The Third Battle of Panipat. 6. Madu Rao, Fourth Peshwa. 7. Narayana Rao, Fifth Peshwa. 8. Madu Rao Narayana, Sixth Peshwa; and the First Mahratta War. 9. The Battle of Kurdla. 10. Baji Rao II., the last of the Peshwas; and the Second Mahratta War. 11. The Third Mahratta War. 12. Causes of the Downfall of the Mahratta Power. 1. Balaji Viswanath t the First Peshwa. The short J*eign of Sambaji, the son of Sivaji, was entirely taken up with wars against the Portuguese [see Chapter XVIII.] and the Mughuls, and he was at length taken prisoner by Aurangzeb, and put to a cruel death. Sivaji's grandson, a boy of six, was at the same time captured, and kept a prisoner for years amongst the Mughuls. He is generally known by the nick- name Stihu (thief) given him by Aurangzeb, and the result of his education at the Mughal Court was that he became indolent and luxurious. When he was at length liberated Genealogical TabU of Sivaji's Family. Sivaji. Sambaji. Rdj& Ram, married Slhu. Tara Bai. ' 1 Sivaji, Sambaji, Kaj* of Satara Raja of Kolbapur. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 83 after the death of Aurangzeb, he willingly professed himself a vassal of the Mughal empire, and left all the government of the Mahratta kingdom to his minister, Bdldji Viswdndth. Bdldji Viswdndth was a wise and able Brahman, who was taken into Sahu's service about the year 1712, and made Peshwa or minister, an office which his ability soon made paramount even over the kingly one, and which he was able to make hereditary in his family. In 1718, the dissensions between the Sayyids ank Nizam-ul-mulk, which ended in the battle of Shahpur [see Chap. XV., 1] enabled the Peshwa to interfere in the affairs of Dehli. He marched an army to Dehli to help the Sayyid Husain, and in 1720 obtained from him a treaty granting the Mahrattas the chauth or fourth part of the revenues of the Dakhin, the sirdeshmukhi [see Chap. XVI., 4], and the swdrdji (absolute control) of the districts be- tween Puna and Satara. 2. Bdji Rdo, the Second Peshwa. Balaji died shortly after this treaty, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Bdji Rdo, who was the greatest and ablest of all the Peshwas. Before 1 736 he had conquered, from the Mughuls, the whole of Malwah and the territory between the Narbaddah and the Chambal ; and in that year he forced the Nizam-ul- mulk, who had marched from the Dakhin to help the em- peror, to sign a convention by which all these territories Genealogical Table of the Mahratta Peshwds. Balaji Viswanath, First Peshwa. Baji Rao, Second Peshwa. Balaji Baji Rao, Third Peehwa. Raghoba. I I I Viswas Rao, Madu Rao, Narayana Rao, Baji Rao II., killed at Panipat. Fourth Peshwa. Fifth Peshwa. Seventh Peshwa Madu Rao Narayana Sixth Peshwa, a 2 84 Art EASY INTRODUCTION TO were granted to him, and fifty lakhs of rupees promised as compensation for the expenses of the war. Baji Rao was also eminently successful in a great war against the Portuguese settlements on the west coast ; and in May 1739 the Mahratta army took Bassein by storm from the Portuguese. The Peshwa after this aspired to conquer the whole Dakhin, and attacked the Nizam's domi- nions ; but he was obliged shortly afterwards to make peace, and he died in 1740. 3. The Hahratta Confederacy. The period of the third Peshwa may be regarded as that of the greatest Mahratta prosperity and power ; and yet the confederacy was already showing symptoms of that disunion which ultimately de- stroyed it for it was no longer completely under the rule cither of the descendants of Sivaji (who, as we have seen, had long ceased to have any real power) or of the Peshwa. The Mahratta power was at this time strictly a confederacy of independent princes, who only obeyed the Peshwa when the latter was able to enforce his orders. Here is a list of the most important of these princes : (1) and (2). Sdhu, the rightful representative of Sivaji as Raja of the Mahrattas, reigning as Raja of Sdtdra ; and Sambaji, another descendant of Sivaji, who had established himself as Raja of Kolhapur in opposition to Sahu. The power of these two princes was never great. (3). Sindia, who established himself in the north-east of Malwah. The descendants of this chieftain have gene- rally been the most powerful of the Mahrattas. They all have borne the name Sindia ; and though they were fre- quently at war with the English in the early times of which we are now speaking and a little later, yet in recent times the Maharaja Sindia of Gwaliar has been one of the most loyal feudatories of the British Indian empire [/or the meaning of" Feudatory," see Appendix]. (4). Malhar Rao Holkdr, who established himself as Raja of Indor in Malwah. The successors of this chief- tain have always borne the name of Holkar a and have THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 85 often been the rivals of the Sindia dynasty as the leaders of the Mahrattas. (5). Raghuji BlionsU was Raja of Barar. The Bhonele dynasty subsequently extended their power to the Bay of Bengal, by conquering Katak and nearly the whole of Orissa from the Nawab of Bengal. These eastern terri- tories were taken from them by the English in the Second Mahratta War of 1803 [see 10] ; and ultimately the dominions of the last Raja of Barar were annexed by Lord Dalhousie in 1853. (6). Damaji GaiJcivdr was Raja of Baroda in Gujarat; and his descendants, who have always borne the title of Gaikwar, are still reigning in Gujarat as feudatories of the British Indian empire. Besides all these, there was of course the Peshwd, whose court from this time was held at Puna, and who was re- garded as the head of the whole confederacy. 4. Bdldji Bdji Bdo, the third Peshu-d. The eldest son of Baji Rao was Bdldji Bdji Rdo, and succeeded as third Peshwa; the younger son was called Raghoba. Balaji Baji Rao reigned from 1740 to 1761, a period full of important events, of which we can here only speak of the three most important. These were two great wars against the Mughuls under the Nizam of Haidarabad ; and the disastrous conflict with Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Afghan invader [see Chap. XV., 5]. The first war against the Nizam of Haidarabad, Sdldbat Jang, was in 1751-52. The Peshwa was defeated at Rdjd- pur by the French allies of Salabat, under the celebrated Bussy [see Chap. XIX., 2] ; but before the end of the year he obtained a large cession of territory from the Nizam. The second war occurred in 1760. The Peshwa had obtained possession of Ahmadnagar ; so the Nizam, Sala- bat Jang, marched against him. The result was a com- plete victory for the Peshwa, at the great battle of UDGfR ; and the Nizam was now compelled to cede to the Mahrattas all the north-western portions of his dominion?. 86 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO The conflict with Ahmad Shah Abdali must be narrated in the next section. 5. The Third Battle of Pdnipat.ln 1758 Raghoba, the brother of the Peshwa, foolishly invaded the Panjab, a part of the dominions taken from the Mughal emperor by the Afghan King Ahmad Shah Abdali. A Rohilla chief named Nazib-ud-daulah, who had been left by Ahmad Shah Abdali in Dehli, together with the Muhammadan Nawab of Ondh, now took up arms against the Mahrattas ; and the Abdali himself immediately made his most terrible invasion of India. The Peshwa was engaged [see last section] in conquering the Nizam ; so the Afghans were first opposed only by Holkar and Sindia, whose troops were twice totally defeated and cut up by them. At last Vis was Rao, the son of the Peshwa, and Sivadas Rao Bhao (commonly called ' the Bhao ' ), cousin of the Peshwa and one of the best Mahratta generals, marched northward to recover the lost reputation of the Mahrattas, and to drive the Afghans beyond the Attock. Their success at Udgir had unduly elated them. The Mahrattas (and it was a sign of decay), contrary to old custom, took the field with great splendour. All the Mahratta chiefs were ordered to join them. The tota' number of Mahratta troops assembled was 55,000 horse, 15,000 foot, and about 200,000 Pindaris and followers. They had also 200 pieces of cannon. The Muhammadans had 46,800 horse, 38,000 foot, and 70 pieces of cannon. From October 28 to January 6, 1761, continual skirmishes took place ; but the Abdali steadily refused a general en- gagement. The improvident Mahrattas were without provisions or money, and were in fact closely besieged. Shuja-ud-daulah of Ondh had been endeavouring to effect an accommodation between the invaders and the Mahrattas ; but Ahmad Shah knew his own strength and the distressed condition of the enemy, and was disin- clined to come to terms. At length, on January 7, 1761, Sivadas Rao wrote a note to Shuja-ud-daulah, saying, ' The THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 87 cup is now full to the brim, and cannot hold another drop ; ' and the whole Mahratta army, prepared to conquer or die, marched out to attack the Afghan camp. From day-break till 2 P.M. the rival cries of ' Har, Har, Madeo' and ' din, din,' resounded. The Afghans were physically stronger; and in this terrible struggle, their powers of endurance at last prevailed against the fierce enthusiasm of the Mahrattas. By 2 P.M. Viswas Rao was killed. In despair Sivadasa Rao descended from his elephant, mounted his horse, and charged into the thickest of the fight. He was seen no more. Holkar left the field early, not without some imputation of treachery. Thousands perished in the fight, and the remainder were surrounded, taken prisoners, and cruelly beheaded the next morning. The Peshwa died shortly after he received the news of this fatal battle, by which the Mahratta hopes of supremacy in India were greatly diminished, if not de- stroyed. 6. Mddu Rao, Fourth PesJiwd. Mddu Rdo, the bravest of all the Peshwas, succeeded his father Balaji Baji when he was only seventeen years of age. His uncle Raghoba, an ambitious and intriguing man, was his guar- dian ; whilst bis tutor and spiritual guide was a Mahratta Brahman named Ram Sastri. This Brahman was pro- foundly learned, and a pattern of integrity and prudence ; he reproved all wrong-doers, however high their rank, and awed the most dissolute ; he was distinguished by the most extraordinary industry, zeal, and benevolence, and his memory is still revered by the Mahrattas. Madu Rao's reign was mainly occupied with wars (in which he was generally successful) against the Nizam of Haidarabad, the Raja of Barar, and the newly-risen Sultan of Mysore named Haidar All [see Chap. XX., 4]. A bright example of a good and virtuous female ruler is afforded by the Queen of the Indor (or SdUcar) branch of the Mahrattas, who wa called Ahalyd Bdi. Old Malhar Rao Holkar died in 17b't>, having for forty-two years been 88 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO one of the bravest and most indomitable spirits amongst the Mahrattas ; and as his only son had died before him, and his only grandson died very soon afterwards, the son's widow succeeded as Maharanf, and remained so until her death in 1795. She was one of the most extraordinary women that ever lived. She adopted, by consent of the Peshwa, an experienced soldier called Tukaji ffolkdr, who was no relation to the family. He assumed command of the army, and one of his descendants still rules in Indor, Takaji always paid to Ahalya Bai filial reverence. She ruled, while he was commander-in-chief. She was devout, merciful, and laborious to an extraordinary degree ; and raised Indor from a village to a wealthy city. She was well educated, and possessed of a remarkably acute mind. She became a widow when she was twenty years old, and her son died a raving maniac, soon after. These things affected her whole life. In one thing she far excelled even the renowned English Queen Elizabeth : she was insensible to flattery. While living, she was ' one of the purest and most exemplary rulers that ever lived ; ' and she is now worshipped in Malwah as an incarnation of the deity. 7. Nardyana Rao, Fifth Peshwa. Madu Rao, dying at an early age in 1772, was succeeded by his younger brother named Nardyana Bdo ; but this unfortunate youth was assassinated by some conspirators who were incited to do the wicked deed by Ananda Bai, the wicked wife of Raghoba, the Peshwa's uncle and guardian. Meanwhile the Mahratta arms had once more overrun Hindustan, occupied Dehli, and got the Emperor Shah Alam H. com- pletely into their power. One of the chief ministers of the Peshwa's Court at this time was the famous Ndnd Farnavis, a clever statesman. After the murder of Nardyana Rao, Raghoba declared himself sixth Peshwa; but his hopes were frustrated by the birth of a posthumous son* of Narayana, and by the * &. posthumous son js one born after the death of his father. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 89 combination against him of Nan a Farnavis and all the other great Mahratta leaders, 1774. 8. Mddu Bdo Ndrdyana, sixth PesJnvd ; and the First Mahratta War. Madu Rao Narayana was the posthumous son of Narayana Rao ; but Raghoba professed to think him an impostor, and induced the English to favour his own claims to the dignity of Peshwa. The English Government, which was now under Warren Hastings [see Chap. XXII.], at first refused to help Raghoba; but find- ing that his opponent Nana Farnavis was intriguing with the French, they at length consented to do so, and the fighting that ensued is called the First Mahratta War. This war was undertaken by the English at a time very unfortunate for them ; for they were immediately attacked by Haidar Ali, Sultan of Mysore, and by the Nizam, as well as by Sindia and the other Mahrattas. The most important events of the war were (1). The famous march of Colonel Goddard and a small body of English troops from Calcutta, right across India, to Surat, in 1779 ; after which he drove away the combined forces of Sindia and Holkar, and subsequently took the town of Bassein by storm. (2). The disgraceful Convention of Wargdm, a treaty by which a small Bombay army purchased its escape from the Mahratta forces by which it was surrounded, 1779. The First Mahratta War was concluded by the Treaty of Salbdi, of which the chief stipulations were, that the French and other Europeans (except the Portuguese) should be excluded from the Mahratta dominions, and that Haidar Ali should be compelled to give up some territoiy he had conquered from the English, whilst the English agreed to acknowledge the infant Madu Narayana as Peshwa, on condition that Raghoba should be given a pen- sion by the Mahrattas and allowed to live where he pleased, 1782. 9. The Battle of Kurdld. The chief incidents of the long minority of Madu Rao Narayana were connected with 90 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO the great increase of the power of Maliddaji Sindia, who was supreme at Dehli, and gradually became the most powerful of the Mahratta princes, and quite independent of the Peshwa. After his death in 1794, Ndnd Farnavis (the minister of the Peshwa) was the chief ruler of the Mah- rattas, and he soon began to quarrel with the Nizam of Haidarabad, because the latter had not regularly paid up the tribute which had been agreed upon after the battle of Udgir. War was begun in December 1794. Under the Peshwa' s banner, for the last time, came all the great Mahratta chiefs. At Kurdla (March 1795) a victory was obtained Dy the Mahrattas, more the result of a panic among the Mnghula than of Mahratta bravery. But Nizam All was obliged to treat. An obnoxious minister, Maasir-ul-mulk, who had resisted the Mahratta claims, was surrendered. The young Peshwa was seen to look sad ; and when asked the cause by the Nana, he replied, ' I grieve to see such a degeneracy as there must be, on both sides, when the Mughnls can so dis- gracefully submit to, and our troops can vaunt so much, a victory obtained without an effort.' The yonug Peshwa was just twenty-one years of age. Shortly after this fortunate battle he committed suicide, 1795, in a fit of ill-temper, because he was not allowed to see his cousin Baji Rao, the son of Raghoba, with whom he had contracted a great friendship. 10. Baji Rao J/., the last of the Peshwds, and the Second Mahratta War. Baji Rdo became Peshwa after many in- trigues. Jeswant Rao Holkar, son of Takaji Holkar [see 6], succeeded in the same year to the throne of Indor, and after long wars against Daulat Rao Sindia and the Peshwa, at last pressed the latter so hard that he was obliged to fly to the English for help. In 1802, Baji Rao signed the cele- brated Treaty of Bassein, which was the commencement of the Second Mahratta War, by which he agreed (1) to re- ceive an English force quartered in his dominions for their THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 91 protection, and to pay twenty- six lakhs for i*s maintenance annually ; (2), to receive no European of any hostile nation into his dominions ; (3), to give up all claims to Siirat, and to leave his disputes with the Nizam and the Gaikwar to British mediation ; (4), to remain the faithful ally of Eng- land. Full protection to him and to his territories was guaranteed by the British. On the outbreak of the Second Mahratta War, the great Lord Wellesley was Governor- General of India; and under him were two famous generals his brother, General Wellesley (afterwards Duke of Wellington, England's greatest soldier), and Lord Lake. Their chief opponents were Daulat Rdo Sindia and Raghuji Bhonsle, of Barar. The first great battle fought by General Wellesley was at Assai, on the borders of Barar and Khandesh (1803). Both Sindia and Raghuji Bhonsle fled from the field, and the English gained a complete victory, though at the cost of one-third of General Wellesley's army. Multitudes of towns and fortresses were captured by the English during the course of the war, but we need only mention two great battles, those of Dehli and Ldswdri, won by Lord Lake. At the battle of Dehli, a French general, named Bourquin, was the commander of Sindia' s army ; he was utterly routed by Lord Lake, who now entered Dehli, and took under his protection the Emperor Shah Alam, who had long been in the power of the Mahrattas (see Chap. XV., 6], This was in September 1803 ; in No- vember of the same year, Lord Lake gained a decisive vic- tory at Laswari over all the remaining Mahratta forces ; and before the end of the year, both Sindia and the Raja of Barar had submitted to the British arms, and had ceded a large part of their territories, 11. The Third Mahratta War. In the following year, 1804, a war broke out with the Mahrattas under Jeswant Rdo Holkdr, who had taken no part in the former war. In this, as in the former war, a large number of fortresses were captured by the British troops, though they experienced a 92 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO check in attempting to storm the great fortress of Bhartjpur [see Chapter XXVII.] The Raja of Bbartpur, however, was forced to give np Holkar's alliance, and to pay 20 lakhs to the English, and in 1805 Holkar himself was driven away into the Panjab, when a peace was made. The most famous battle of this war was that of Dig, fought in 1804, between the English, under General Fraser and Colonel Monson, and Holkar's troops. The gallant General Fraser was killed, but the English won a complete victory, and captured no less than 87 cannon. 12. Causes of the downfall of the Mahratta Power. All the great Mahratta leaders had now submitted to the British arms ; the remainder of their history will be briefly given in the later chapters on the Governors- General of British India. The causes of the downfall of the Mah- rattas were many. First, excessive aggrandisement of Ma- hadaji Sindia, making him independent of the Peshwa, and, in fact, a rival to him. Secondly, the dissensions conse- quent on the death of "Narayana Rao, the quarrels and rivalries of Raghoba, Nana Farnavis, Baji Rao II., Jeswant Rao Holkar, and Daulat Rao Sindia, completely disinte- grated the confederation. Thirdly, the confederation had within itself elements of disunion and consequent weakness. The Peshwa and his councillors were Brahmans ; Sindia, Holkar, and Raghuji Bhonsle were of lower castes. Fourthly, Shah Alam II. was now in the power of the British. Under the shadow of the new paramount power, the corrup- tion and disorder which favoured the rise of the Mahrattaa cannot exist. THE HISTORY OF IKDIA. 93 CHAPTER XVIII. EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN INDIA. 1. Discovery of the Sea-route from Europe to India by the Por- tuguese. 2. Albuquerque, the great Portuguese Viceroy of India. 3. Extent of the Portuguese Possessions. 4. The Dutch in India. 5. Early English Expeditions to India. 6. Progress of the English Settlements. 7. The English in Bengal. 8. Early French Settle- ments in India. 1. Discovery of the Sea-route from Europe to India by the Portuguese. The European nations that have at various times made permanent settlement in India are the Portu- guese, the Dutch, the Danes, the English, and the French. Of these, the Portuguese and the French have played an important part in its history, as well as the English, who ultimately became the paramount power in India. All these settlements were at first made only for purposes of trade, though the Portuguese very soon began to entertain the idea of founding an Indian empire. During the middle ages, European intercourse with India was mainly carried on by the enterprise of the mari- time nations inhabiting the shores of the Mediterranean, and latterly chiefly by the Venetians and Genoese, who traded with the ports of Syria and Egypt, whither Indian produce was brought through Persia or by the Red Sea. But during the fifteenth century the Portuguese became great navigators. In 1498, a great Portuguese mariner, named Vasco da Gama, discovered a sea-route to India around the coast of Africa, and this put the whole trade between Europe and the East into the hands of the Portu- guese, who retained it for a long time. Vasco da Gama landed in the territories of a petty chief, named the Zamorin of Calicat, a place on the coast between Goa and Cochin, and the Portuguese settlements were at first made on this west coast, though not without opposition from the native Rajas. 94 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO 2. Albuquerque, the great Portuguese Viceroy of India. At length the Portuguese settlements became numerous, and the King of Portugal thought it best to appoint a Viceroy of India to govern these settlements and carry on the wars against the native kings. The second of these Portuguese viceroys was the great Albuquerque, who landed in 1508 ; and who, after having taken Goa (which still be* longs to the Portuguese) and a great many other places, was in his old age dismissed from his office by the ungrate- ful King of Portugal, ya. 1515. 3. Extent of the Portuguese Possessions. The Portu- guese empire in the East attained its highest power and its greatest prosperity under Albuquerque, whom his country, men, though ungrateful to him in his lifetime, have unani- mously styled ' the Great.' A few towns and factories were added to it during the seventy years that followed his death, but these additions were unimportant. The student must, however, remember that this empire was almost wholly a maritime one. The Portuguese fleets were masters of the Indian Seas, and they possessed many valuable seaports, at which they carried on an extensive trade, and which were guarded by their ships of war. These ports were scattered over an immense extent of coast, from the eastern coasts of Africa and the island of Ormuz on the west, to the Malay Peninsula and the islands of the Eastern Archipelago on the east. At the end of the sixteenth century, when their power began to decline, their most important possessions were : Goa and some minor ports on the west coast of India, Ceylon, and Malacca, in the Malay Peninsula. Besides these they had important settlements in Bengal, of which the chief were Hugli and Chittagong, with Diu, in Gujarat, and many other places of less importance. But they never possessed more than a few miles of territory, even in the neighbourhood of their greatest cities, and their power was usually confined strictly to the limits of their factory or trading settlement. 4. The Dutch in India. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, the enterprising navigators of Hottand THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 95 determined to try to take into their own hands some of the Indian commerce hitherto monopolised by the Portuguese ; and during the following fifty years they gradually suc- ceeded in driving the latter out of many of their settlements, and in taking from them the maritime supremacy which they had possessed on the coast of India. Chinsurah in Bengal was the capital of the Dutch settlements. But they soon had to meet more powerful rivals than the Por- tuguese ; for the English had already commenced to settle in India. 5. Early English Expeditions to India. The first at- tempts of the English to reach India, like those of the Dutch, were by the north-east passage through the Arctic Seas, and the corresponding north-west passage along the northern shores of North America ; and many expeditions were sent, and many lives and much treasure lost, in these fruitless expeditions. The first English expedition that sailed for India by the direct route round the Cape of Good Hope started in 1591 under Lancaster and some others ; but it degenerated into a piratical cruise, and ended disastrously, all the ships being lost or deserted successively. Notwithstanding this ill success, the British EAST INDIA COMPANY was incor- porated by Queen Elizabeth in 1600. [It may here be noted that a second Company was set on foot in 1698 ; and the old and the new Companies were amalgamated in 1708.] Its first expedition was in 1601, again under the command of Lancaster, and was eminently successful ; and was quickly followed by others. 6. Progress of the English Settlements. Jahangir in 1613 gave permission to the English to establish four factories in the Mughul dominions. The trade of the Eng- lish was established on a more secure footing by the great embassy of Sir Thomas Roe [see Chap. XIV., 3] ; and Surat was long their chief factory. In 1638 an English surgeon named Boughton, resident in Surat, was sent for by the Emperor Shah Jahan to attend his sick daughter. He succeeded in curing her, and 96 AN EAST INTRODUCTION 10 obtained from the grateful Emperor important commercial privileges. By similar success in his profession, he ob- tained similar concessions from the Viceroy of Bengal ; and in 1656 the English erected a fortress at Hvigli. In 1640 they obtained the site of Madras from a brother of Bam Raja of Bijanagar [see Chap. IV., 18]. It was fortified by order of King Charles L, and called Fort St. George ; and in 1653 made the seat of a presidency on the Coro- inandel coast. Bombay was a part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, Queen of Charles II. ; and in 1668 that king made it over to the East India Company, who now removed thither the presidency of the western coast, formerly at Surat. As early as 1611 the English had traded with Masuli- patam ; and in 1624 they obtained permission to build a factory at Pipli near Balasor. In 1656 they built a factory at Hugli. But in 1686, owing mainly to their violence, they were expelled from this place, as well as from Kasim- bazar and Patna, and from Surat and most of their pc-sses" sions (except Bombay) on the west coast, by orders of Aurangzeb. In 1696 the villages of Chuttanatti, Calcutta, and Govindpur were purchased from their owner by per- mission of Prince Azim-us-Shan, grandson of Aurangzeb. A fort was ordered to be built, and called Fort William in honour of King William III. The history of Calcutta to 1756 is little else than a record of the efforts of the British merchants to resist the exactions of the Nawab of Mur- shidabad. In 1716 a deputation was sent to the Emperor Farrukh Siyar to secure a greater degree of protection from the native powers. They were successful, and Cal- cutta was thereupon declared a separate presidency. The term Presidency ,o& applied to Surat (afterwards to Bombay), to Madras, and to Calcutta, originally meant that the chief of each of these factories respectively was supreme also over the subordinate factories in that part of India. In 1742 theMahrattas attacked Bengal, demanding Chauth. It was then the Mahratta ditch was dug around Calcutta, to afford protection against a repetition of the attack, THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 97 8. Early French Settlements in India. The first ex- pedition sent to India by the French was in 1604 ; but subsequently a French East India Company was formed, and in 1G74 the French governor, Martin (the real founder of French power in India) bought Pondicherry, on the south-east coast, from the king of Bijapur. The Dutch at one time bribed the Mughul generals of the Emperor Aurangzeb to help them to take Pondicherry from the French ; but it was afterwards restored, and Martin greatly enlarged and fortified it, and made it a great com- mercial city. In 1688 the French obtaiued from the Emperor Aurangzeb the Settlement of Chandernagar on the Hugli, above Calcutta ; and subsequently they acquired several other possessions. In 1741 the great French statesman, Dupleix, who had been for ten years Governor of Chandernagar, was appointed Governor of Pondicherry and Governor- General of the French possessions in India. He immediately formed the plan of expelling the English from India, and of establish- ing a French empire here ; and an opportunity shortly offered itself of making the attempt, for a war broke out between the English and the French in Europe, which lasted from 1740 to 1748. CHAPTER XIX. THE WARS OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH IN THE CARNATIC. 1. The commencement of the Struggle. 2. Temporary Success of Dupleix. 3. Clive, and the Defence of Arcot. 4. The Battle Df Wandewash, and final ruin of the French Cause. 1. The commencement of the Struggle. The struggle between the English and the French in India was mainly carried on in the Carnatic [see Chap. I., 3], and lasted from about 1746 to the final capture of Pondicherry by the English in 1761. It commenced unfavourably for the H 98 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO English ; for the French under Dupl&ix and another great French general called Labourdonnais took the town, of Madras, which was the chief seat of the English in those parts, in the year 1746. The old Nizam-ul-mulk, of whom we have already spoken several times [see Chap. XV., 3 ; and XVII., 2], though nominally only Mughul Siibahdar of the Dakhin, had long been independent at Haidarabad. The Carnatic had also attained independence under its Nawab ; but the first independent Nawab, Dost Ali, had been defeated and slain by the Mahrattas, and his son-in-law, Chanda Saheb, imprisoned, and in 1743 an officer of the Nizam, named Anwar-ud-din, had been appointed Nawab of the Carnatic. Shortly after the capture of Madras, Anwar-ud-din demanded that the town should be given up to him by the French, but Dupleix objected ; and when the Nawab sent his son with an army of 10,000 men to enforce this claim, Dupleix ordered one of his best officers, a brave and skilful general, named Paradis, to resist them. Paradis had tinder him only 230 Europeans and 700 sepoys, yet with this small force he utterly routed the Nawab's army. This battle had very important indirect results ; for it proved, both to the European leaders and to the native chiefs, that native Indian troops are little better than useless against Europeans, even when they have immense odds on their side. Paradis was now made Governor of Madras; but a strong fleet soon arrived to help the English, and they were able, not only to drive the French out of Madras, but also to besiege them in Pondicherry. Then, in 1748, came a short peace, and all things returned to the condition in which they had been before the war. 2. Temporary Success of Dupleix. In 1748, the old Nizam-ul-mulk died, and there was immediately a contest for the throne of Haidarabad between two of his sons, Muzaffar Jang, the eldest, and Ndsir Jang, the second son. Muzaflar, on finding himself ousted by his younger bro- ther, went to Satara to implore the aid of the Mahrattas : THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 99 and whilst at Satara he formed a romantic friendship with Chandd Saheb, who was in prison there, and who claimed to be the rightful Nawab of the Carnatic as son-in-law of Dost AH. The French took up the canse both of Muzaf- far Jang and of Chanda Saheb; and Dupleix ransomed the latter from the Mahrattas, and immediately took the field with the united forces of Muzaffar, of Chanda, and of the French. They defeated and slew Anwar-ud-din and his eldest son at the great battle of Ambur, in which the famous Bussy was the general of the French. Muzaf- far Jang was now for a short time Subahdar of the Dakhin, and Chanda Saheb was Nawab of the Carnatic ; but their triumph was not for long. The younger son of Anwar-ud-din was Muhammad Ali, afterwards Nawab of the Carnatic, and henceforward a prominent actor in this war ; and he now implored the aid of the English. There was thus a triple alliance on each side : the English siding with ISTasir Jang and Muhammad Ali, against the French, who sided with Muzaffar Jang and Chanda Saheb. The war was carried on with continual changes of for- tune. Nasir Jang and Muzaffar Jang having each .in turn secured the Subahdarship of the Dakhin, were each in turn assassinated. At last the French set up Salabat Jang, a younger son of the old Nizam- ul-mulk, and therefore brother of both Muzaffar and Nasir ; and by the aid of the intrepid French commander Bussy, Salabat managed to establish himself at Aurangabad as Subahdar of the Dakhin, and to set up Chanda Saheb as Nawab of the Carnatic, 1751 A.D. In the course of this struggle the French troops had greatly distinguished themselves under Bussy, who had stormed the fortress of Grinji, the strongest place in the Carnatic, within twenty-four hours, 1750 A.D. The French governor Dupleix and his brave general Bussy were now triumphant. Dupleix set up ' a pillar of victory ' on the spot where he had defeated the forces of Nasir Jang, and ordered a town to be built there, called u2 100 AK EASY IKTKObUCTlON (TO Dupleix-fath-abad. The cause of the English seemed almost desperate. 3. Clive, and the Defence of Arcot. When the affairs of the English were in this miserable condition, a brave and skilful young Englishman appeared on the scene, whose genius completely retrieved their fortunes. Clive, the son of a gentleman of small property in Shropshire, was born in 1725, and landed in India as a civilian in 1743. His active and violent disposition made him unfitted for the civil service, which at that time was still chiefly engaged in commercial operations ; and conse- quently, on the breaking out of war with the French, he had obtained a commission in the army as an ensign. He distinguished himself at the first siege of Poadicherry, and at the taking of Devikottah, in 1748 ; and now his courage and skill rescued the English cause from almost certain ruin. Mr. Saunders was governor of Madras ; and Clive went to him, and begged to be allowed to relieve Trichi- napalli by carrying the war into the enemy's own country. He determined to seize Arcot itself, the capital of the Nawab Chanda Saheb ; and having effected this with only 200 Europeans, 300 sepoys, and a few light guns, he pre- pared to defend the fortress against the overwhelming forces sent against him from Chanda Saheb's army that was be- sieging Trichinapalli, 1751. With his little band of heroes reduced to 320 men and four officers, he made good his position for seven weeks against 10,000 men headed by Raja Saheb, the son of Chanda Saheb. The people seeing Clive and his men march steadily in a storm of thunder and lightning, said they were fireproof, and fled before him. The hero contemptuously refused Raja Saheb's bribes, and laughed at his threats. When provisions failed in the besieged town, the sepoys came with a request that they might cook the rice, retaining for themselves only the water it was boiled in, handing over every grain of it to the Europeans, who required, they said, more solid food such self-denial and heroic zeal had Clive's influence inspired in these men ! Morari Rao, the Mahratta chief THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 101 of Gutti, and his 6,000 men, who were not far from Ambur, waiting to see the course of events, joined Clive, say- ing, ' since the English can so nobly help themselves, we will help them.' Mr. Sannders exerted himself energeti- cally to aid the gallant garrison ; and after a desperate assault, in which he lost 400 men, Raja Saheb raised the siege. The moral effect of this memorable defence was incalculable, in firmly establishing the prestige of the English. Clive now gained victory after victory ; and in March 1752 he demolished the town of Dupleix-fath-abad and the pillar of Dupleix, as a sign that he had demolished the French power in India. After many struggles, Chanda Saheb was slain, and the French army with 41 guns surrendered to the English at Srirangam, near Trichinapalli, in June 1752 ; and at length the brave and gallant Dupleix was recalled in disgrace by the ungi-atefnl French Government, in 1754 ; he died in Paris ten years after, a ruined and broken-hearted man. 4. The Battle of Wandewasli, and final Ruin of the French Cause. Although the French general Bussy was still all-powerful at Aurangabad with the Subahdar Salabat Jang, yet the new French governor made very large con- cessions to the English, and a peace was patched up ; Muhammad All, the ally of the English, being acknowledged as Nawab of the Carnatic. The peace, however, only lasted until 1757, and then commenced the final struggle. Clive had been appointed Governor of Madras, but had been almost immediately called off to Bengal, to exact terrible retribution for the atrocities of the Black Hole. Count LALLY was sent out early in 1757 by the French Government to fight the English in the Carnatic, and was so far successful, that at the end of 1758 he laid siege to Madras, but was subsequently compelled to retreat to Pondicherry. At length, in 1759, English reinforcements arrived under Colonel Eyre Coote, who was the hero of this cam- paign. Lally and Bussy, with the whole French army, 102 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO attacked the town of Wandewash (Wandwas), and Coote instantly marched against them to relieve it. In the Battle of WANDEWASH the French were totally routed, the heroic Bussy was taken prisoner, and all hope of establish, ing a French empire in India was destroyed. In a very short time all the towns held by the French, or subject to their influence, were successively taken by Coote ; and in January 1 761 Pondicherry itself surren- dered, and Lally was sent as a prisoner of war to Madras. He was subsequently beheaded in Paris in 1766. The French East India Company ceased to exist in 1769 CHAPTER XX. CLIVE, AND THE BATTLE OF PLA88KY. * 1. The Independent Nawabs of Bengal. 2. The Massacre 01 the Black Hole. 3. The Conquest of Bengal by Olive. 1. Tlie Independent Nawabs of Bengal. Whilst the two most powerful nations of Europe, the English and the French, had been fighting in the Carnatic for the supremacy of the Dakhin, the skill and bravery of the great Clive had in the meantime obtained for the English an ascendency in Bengal which very soon made them the paramount lords of Hindustan. The conquest of Bengal was not, however, thought of by them until a dreadful outrage perpetrated on them by the wicked Nawab made it necessary to inflict on him a terrible punishment by depriving him of his kingdom. I shall now give some account of how this came about. I have already noticed that under the weak rule of the twelfth Mughul Emperor, named Muhammad Shdh, the great Subahs or provinces of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa became virtually independent under the powerful Nawab Alt Virdi KJidn [see Chap. XV., 3]. A great part of Ali THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 103 Virdi's reign was occupied with wars against the Mahrattas, who continually invaded and devastated his dominions ; and at last, in order to obtain peace for Bengal, he was obliged to give up to the Mahratta Raja of Barar nearly the whole of Orissa. [NOTE. The whole of Orissa south of Balasor remained in the hands of the Mahrattas uptil conquered by the English in the Second Mahratta War in 1803.] Ali Virdi, though he has been styled usurper, on the whole ruled wisely and well. His subjects, both Hindu and Muhanunadan, increased considerably in wealth and prosperity. He exacted large sums from the English merchants who were settled at Calcutta, and was very anxious to prevent their obtaining any political power in the country ; but he did his best to protect them, and to encourage their trade, so they gladly paid all his demands. In 1756, Ali Virdi Khan died, and was succeeded by his grandson Siraj-ud-daulah, a monster of cruelty and lust. He oppressed his Hindu subjects in the most atrocious manner ; degrading the noblest families of Bengal by his licentiousness, impoverishing them by his extortions, and terrifying them by his inhuman oppressions. 2. The Massacre of the Black Hole. Amongst many other acts of wickedness, he endeavoured to get possession of all the wealth of the rich Hindu governor of Dacca, who was called Rajballabh ; and when Rajballabh's son Krishna Das fled to Calcutta with some of his father's treasures, the Nawab ordered the English to surrender him. The English governor refused to give up an inno- cent refugee, and at the same time refused to obey the Nawab's order to demolish the fortifications of Calcutta ; so Siraj-ud-daulah immediately seized and plundered the factory of the East India Company at Kasimbazar, near his capital Murshidabad, and imprisoned all the English officers whom he found there. He then marched on Calcutta, where he found the English altogether unpre- pared for such an attack. They tried in vain to con- 104 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO ciliate him, but he was inexorable ; and after a slight check at the Mahratta Ditch, his artillery began to bombard the fragile defences of the English, who were soon driven within the walls of the fort. They now (June 18, 1756) held some hurried and disorderly councils ; the women and children were sent on board one of the vessels in the river under the charge of two high officials ; and at nightfall the governor lost courage and went off to the ships in the last boat. The ships now weighed anchor and dropped down the river to Faltah, leaving the unfor- tunate soldiers and officers of the garrison to their fate. The latter elected Mr. Holwell as their leader, who the following morning felt himself compelled to negotiate ; and in the afternoon the Nawab's army marched in. The Nawab summoned Mr. Holwell to his presence, accused him of rebellion and of having concealed the treasures of the English factory, but promised him that no harm should happen to the prisoners. Notwithstanding this, the whole garrison, consisting of 146 men, were crammed into a small dungeon eighteen feet square, with very small apertures for light and air. This miserable dungeon, ever since infamous in history under the name of THE BLACK HOLE, had been used as a place of punishment for single indivi- duals ; and the torments now endured by the unhappy prisoners, during a night of the hottest season of the year, were more terrible than anything that has ever been de- scribed. They endeavoured by alternate threats and bribes to induce their jailers either to put an end to their tortures by death, or to obtain better quarters from the Nawab ; but the miscreant Siraj was asleep, and the guards were (or pretended to be) afraid to awake him. At first the struggles of the victims for the places near the windows, and for the few skins of water that were handed in to them, were terrific; but the ravings of madness gradually subsided into the moans of exhaustion ; and in the morning, only twenty-tljree wretched figures, almost in the pangs of THE HISTORY OP INDIA. 105 death, wore extricated from a pestilential mass of dead bodies. It is uncertain whether the Nawab was really an active accomplice in this wholesale murder ; but in his anxiety to discover the treasures which he supposed the English' had concealed, he took no pains to prevent it, and he evidently felt no subsequent remorse about it. He was morally responsible for it, and a terrible vengeance was justly inflicted on him. 3. The Conquest of Bengal &?/ Clive. The news of these disasters in Bengal soon arrived in Madras, and filled the settlement with consternation. But Colonel Clive and Admiral Watson were now at Madras. They were soon ready to sail to avenge the massacre in Bengal, with 900 English troops and 1,500 sepoys, all full of enthusiasm for the cause and of confidence in their leaders. Various delays, however, occurred ; and they did not arrive in the river Hugli till December 1756. And now commenced in earnest the work of retribution ; Budge-budge was soon taken, Calcutta occupied, and the town of Hugli stormed. The tyrant Nawab knew something of the wars in the Carnatic, and had a lively dread of the defender of Arcot : hence, after the recapture of Calcutta by Clive on January 2, 1757, he made pressing overtures for peace, offering to reinstate the English in their former position. The honest old Admiral Watson disapproved of any accommodation with the author of the Black Hole massacre, saying that the Nawab should be ' well thrashed ; ' but Clive from political motives agreed to sign the treaty, February 9, 1757. Clive now seized the opportunity to humble the French in Bengal. Notwithstanding the opposition of the Nawab, who aided the French with men and money, he attacked Chanderuagar, and with the aid of Admiral Watson and the fleet, he captured the town in May 1757. Meanwhile, the Hindu subjects of the Nawab had been goaded to desperation by his frantic excesses ; and a powerful conspiracy was set on foot against him, headed ty/ 106 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO Raja Raidurlabh, his treasurer, and Jagat Seth, the richest banker in India joined by Mirjafar, the Commander-in- Chief, and many discontented Muhammadans. The English, represented by Mr. Watts, the resident at Murshidabad, entered into the conspiracy with alacrity ; and it was felt by Clive, and indeed by all the Council at Calcutta, that Siraj-ud-daulah must be crushed if the English settlement wished for peace and security. The conspirators agreed that Mirjafar should be set up as Nawab in the place of the tyrant, and that the English should receive from the gratitude of Mirjafar ample compensation for all their losses, and rich rewards for their assistance. Umachand, a crafty Bengali, was the agent employed to transact business between the English and the Nawab ; and he was an active helper in the plot. But at the last moment he threatened to turn traitor and disclose all to the Nawab, unless he were guaranteed a payment of thirty lakhs (300,OOOZ.) Clive and the other conspirators were in despair ; and at last they condescended to cheat Uma- chand, in order to escape from their present difficulty. Two copies of the treaty between the English and Mirjafar were made out ; one on white paper was the real treaty, in which no mention was made of Umachand's claim ; the other on red paper, a mere fictitious treaty, in which Umachand was guaranteed all the money he demanded, was shown to the faithless Bengali. This piece of decep tion has always been a stain on dive's character ; Admiral Watson (who had already shown himself to be an honest English gentleman in objecting to a temporising policy with the Nawab) refused to sign the false treaty so his signature was forged by the others. Clive now wrote in peremptory terms to the Nawab, demanding full redress of all grievances, and announcing his approach with an army to enforce his claims ; and immediately afterwards set out from Chandernagar, with 650 European infantry, 150 gunners, 2,100 sepoys, a few Portuguese, and 10 guns. The Nawab's army consisted THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 107 of 50,000 infantry, 18,000 cavalry, and an immense train of artillery. As Clive approached the Nawab's encampment near Kasimbazar, Mirjafar appears to have lost courage ; for he ceased to communicate directly with the English, whilst it was known that he had taken solemn oaths to his master that he would be faithful to him. Under these alarming circumstances, Clive called together his officers in a Council of War, to decide whether they should fight against such enormous odds, or should wait for a better opportunity. The majority of thirteen, including Clive himself, voted for the latter course ; only seven, at the head of whom was Eyre Coote, voted for immediate fight. After dismissing the Council, Clive took a solitary walk in an adjoining grove, and after an hour's solemn medita- tion, he came to the conclusion that Coote was right, and that the attack ought to be made at once. Accordingly, early next morning he crossed the river with his little band and came upon the Nawab's army about daybreak in the fields and groves of PLASSEY. During the early part of the day the English remained almost entirely on the de- fensive, contenting themselves with repelling the charges of the enemy's cavalry, and keeping up a desultory can- nonade. At length, however, some of the Nawab's chief officers having fallen, the troops of Mirjafar (who had hitherto remained undecided) were seen to separate them- selves somewhat from the rest of the Nawab's army ; Clive now gave the order for a general charge, and carried all before him. Siraj-ud-daulah mounted a swift camel, and escorted by 2,000 of his best cavalry, fled to Murshidabad. The great battle of Plassey, which virtually transferred the sovereignty of Bengal (and ultimately of India) to the English, was fought on June 23, 1757 ; the victors only losing 22 killed and 50 wounded. Mirjafar, now that the English were successful, openly joined Clive ; who did not condescend to notice his vacil- lation, but saluted him Nawab of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. Siraj-ud-daulah fled in disguise from Murshidabad, and the 108 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO victors at once occupied that city. The fugitive was soon betrayed by a Hindu, whose ears he had formerly cut off. He was seized and brought before the new Nawab. Mir- jafar wished, or pretended to wish, to spare him ; but his eon Miran caused him to be put to death. And now came the settlement of the engagements of the treaty. Vast sums were paid to the Company, to the British merchants, and to the Native and Armenian mer- chants of Calcutta, as indemnity for their losses in the sack of the city. The army and the navy with their leaders, including Clive, Watson, and the members of Council, all shared in the spoil. Umachand expected, too, to get his thirty lakhs, but ho was soon undeceived. He was at first stunned by the blow ; but he seems to have recovered, for he was afterwards recommended by Clive as ' a person capable of rendering great services, and therefore not wholly to be discarded.' CHAPTER XXI. CLIVE, AND THE GRANT OF THE l>fWANf OP BENGAL. 1. Clive as Governor of Bengal. 2. The Nawab Mirjaiar. 3. The Nawab Mir Kasim. 4. The appointment of the East India Company as Diwan of Bengal by the Mughul Emperor. 5. Olive's Itoforras. 1. Clive as Governor of Bengal. Clive was twice go- vernor of the English settlements in Bengal ; the first time for three years, from 1757 to 17GO; the second time for eighteen months, from 1765 to 1767. We have seen that on his arrival in 1757 he had found the English affairs in Bengal utterly ruined, and the English merchants and officers driven away; before his departure in 1767, he was undoubtedly the most powerful man in India, and the English were unquestioned masters of Bengal, Bihar, THE HISTORY OF INDIA. lOD and Orissa, and formally acknowledged as such by the Mughul Emperor. 2. The Naiudb Mirjafar. From the time of his ac- cession to the Nawabship of Bengal after the battle of Plassey, Mirjafar was little more than & tool of Clive, and was Nawab only in name. As long as Clive remained in India, he retained this position. Clive fought his battles for him. At one time, when All Gauhar, now called the Emperor Shah Alam II. [see Chap. XV.], invaded Bihar, Clive sent an English army against him under Colonel Caillaud, who soon defeated him in the first Battle of Patna, and drove him and his ally, the Nawab-Vazir of Oudh, out of the province. Clive ruled Bengal, and Mirjafar enjoyed his riches and pleasures at Murshidabad. But when Clive went away to England for five years, the new governor (Mr. Vansittart) and his Council found that the Nawab was madly extravagant in his expenses, and was unable to pay them all he owed ; so they deter- mined to depose him, and to set up his nephew Mir Kasim as Nawab. This was soon done ; and in the next section will be found an account of the rule of Mir Kasim, and of his deposition. After this Mirjafar was again set up as Nawab by the Calcutta Council, who made him pay heavily for the favour; and in January 1765 he died, partly of vexation at their enormous and incessant demands. His son was put on the throne, on the payment of more money to the Council ; his name was Ndzim-ud-daulaJi. He was the last of the Mughul Subahdars of Bengal ; for during his time the Diwani of the province was given by the Emperor to the English East India Company, who thus became legally (as they already were really) the lords of Bengal. 3. Mir Kasim. When Mir Kasim was put into the place of his uncle Mirjafar, he gave the English the three districts of Burdwan, Midnapur, and Chittagong. This was in 1760. But the new Nawab was a clever and vigorous ruler ; 110 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO and he determined to try to make himself independent of the English masters who had given him his throne. He abandoned Murshidabad as his capital, and went to live at Monghir (or Hunger), in the hope of being more inde- pendent at such a great distance from Calcutta. He pro- ceeded to collect a large army, and to discipline it in the European fashion. About this time, the Mughul Emperor Shah Alam II. again attempted a permanent occupation of Bihar, when he was again defeated in the second Battle of Patna by Colonel Carnac. After this defeat, the Emperor accom- panied his conqueror, Colonel Carnac, to Patna, where Mir Kasim came to pay him homage, and was in conse- quence formally invested by the Mughul with the Subahdar- ship of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. At length an open quarrel broke out between Mir Kasim and the English Council in 1763. Mir Kasim appears to have been at first in the right, for the conduct of the Council was unjust and tyrannical. But the Nawab* dis- graced himself and his cause by the Massacre of Patna : when he was hard-pressed in the fortress of Patna by the advance of the English army, in a fit of rage and madness he ordered all his English prisoners (148 in number) to be killed in cold blood. The English troops soon advanced and took Patna, and Mir Kasim was compelled to flee into Oudh, where he took refuge with the Nawab- Vazir of Oudh (as the ruler of that country was then called) and Shah Alam, the Mughul Emperor. These two great princes determined to help Mir Kasim ; so the three marched towards Patna, 1764. They were, however, re- pulsed by the English army, and at last took up a position at Baxar on the Son ; and in October 1764 followed the great battle of BAXAR. Major Munro was in command of the English forces. The Nawab- Vazir was utterly routed with the loss of 160 pieces of cannon. The consequences of this victory, were very important. The Nawab- Vazir of Oudh, though nominally subject to THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 1U Shah Alam II., had long been the real master of the Mughul Empire. He was now thoroughly humbled ; and was subsequently obliged to throw himself on the mercy of the English, who thus succeeded to the real mastery of the central plain of Hindustan. The Emperor himself came into the English camp at this time. 4. The appointment of the East India Company as Diwan of Bengal by the Mughul Emperor. I have already noticed that during the absence of Clive in England, the English Government in Calcutta had become very corrupt, and the Members of Council thought more of enriching themselves than of the good of the country ; so the Di- rectors of the East India Company, though they had not before been very grateful to Clive for his great services, were now very anxious that he should go to India again, in order to reform all these evils and abuses ; and at length Clive consented to go, and he landed in Calcutta in 1765. His first measure was to enforce the orders of the Directors, prohibiting the acceptance of presents by their servants. He made all sign covenants binding themselves to obey this rule. He then proceeded to the English army at Allahabad, where the Emperor Shah Alam and Shuja-ud- daulah, the Nawab of Oudh, were suppliants in the camp of General Carnac. The result of his negotiations was that Oudh was restored to Shuja on condition of his being a faithful ally of England ; the districts of Korah and Allahabad were given to the Emperor ; and the latter con- ferred on the English the Diwani (i.e., the right of collect- ing the revenue really involving the whole sovereignty) of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, in return for a yearly pay- ment of twenty-six lakhs. Though the English had long virtually possessed all the power thus given to them, the Imperial grant of the Diwdni was valuable, as constituting them the legal (as well as the actual) sovereigns of the country. This happened on August 12, 1765. The Nawab of Bengal was soon compelled to retire on a large pension. 5. Olive's Reforms. The remaining months of Clive'a AN fiASt INTRODtTCTION TO rule were devoted to carrying out the reforms in the ad. ministration of government which he had been sent to India to effect. He reduced the gains of the English mili- tary officers ; and firmly suppressed a combination of about two hundred of them who had agreed to resist his in- tentions. He also took severe measures to prevent servants of Government from engaging in private trade. Clive left India for the last time in 1767, a poorer man than he was when he returned to it in 17G5. He was received in England with great honour ; but his reforms had raised tip for him a host of enemies. All whom he had punished, or whose corrupt schemes he had thwarted, leagued against him. The Court of Directors did not support him as it ought to have done; but a resolution was passed, ' that he had rendered meritorious services to his country.' He died in 1774, ten years after Dupleix. CHAPTER XXII. WARREN HASTINGS, THE FIRST GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA. 1. The Abolition of the Double Government in Bengal. 2. The Rohilla War. 3. Warren Hastings as Governor-General of India. 4. Haidar All and Tippu, Sultans of Mysore. 1. The Abolition of the Double Government in Bengal. After the departure of Clive from India, Mr. Verelst became Governor of Bengal ; and he was succeeded by Mr. Cartier, who was governor until 1772, During the whole of this time Bengal was under a double government^ i.e., it was ruled partly by the native officers of the Nawab and partly by the officers of the English East India Com- pany. This state of affairs produced a great deal of mis- management and corruption, under which both the people and the revenue suffered, whilst the officers of Government alone gained. At length the East India Company deter- THE HISTORY OF INDI4, 113 mined to pr.fc an end to the double government; so in 1772 they sent out Warren Hastings as Governor of Bengal, with orders to take upon himself all the authority which belonged to the Company as Diwan of the province. \Varren Hastings had already distinguished himself in various important posts in the Bengal Civil Service, and had been Member of Council at Madras. Immediately on his arrival in Calcutta as governor, he transferred the seat ef government to that city from Murshidabad ; he imme- diately made arrangements for the establishment of new Courts of Civil and Criminal Justice under the authority of the East India Company, and he set to work to draw up a new code of laws. 2. The Rohilla War. The most Important event that occurred whilst Hastings was Governor of Bengal, before he became Governor- General of India, in 1774, was the ftohilla War. A tribe of Afghans called Rohillas had conquered and occupied the province on the north-west of Oudh, now called after them Rohilkhand, during the dis- orders of the reign of the Emperor Muhammad Shah \_see Chap. XV., 3]. In 1771 the Mahrattas had invaded Rohilkhand ; and the Rohillas had offered the Nawab-Vazir of Oudh, according to his account, a sum of forty lakhs for his protection against them. In 1773 the Mahrattas abandoned Rohilkhand ; the Nawab now claimed the forty lakhs, whilst the Rohillas affirmed that no such promise had been made. The Nawab appealed to Hastings, who believed his statement, and ultimately sent a small English army into Rohilkhand. The result was that the Rohillas were conquered ai*d their territory given to the Nawab- Vazir of Oudh ; whilst the disputed forty lakhs of rupees were made over to the English Government, together with all the expenses of the war. 3. Warren Hastings as Governor-General of India. About this time the English Parliament in London, hearing of the many disorders and abuses of the English rule in India, passed an Act for bettei regulating the administra- I H4 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO tion of that Government. This Act was called the REGU- LATING ACT ; it was passed in 1773, and came into operation in 1774. Amongst other changes made by the Regulating Act, it was ordered that the Governor of Bengal should be Governor- General of all the British possessions in India, and should rule those possessions according to the advice of his Council of four. The Govern or- General and the Mem- bers of Council : had each one vote in deciding on the ques- tions brought before the Council : in this way each Member of Council was almost as powerful as the Governor- General himself a state of things destructive of all good govern- ment. Warren Hastings was now Governor- General of India. Of the first four Members of Council, Mr. Barwell had been long in India, and generally supported the measures of Warren Hastings, but the other three were entirely unac- quainted with this country, and one of them (Mr. Francis, afterwards Sir Philip Francis) was bitterly hostile to the Governor- General so that the latter was out- voted in the debates of the Council, and the three new Members carried everything their own way until the death of one of them in 1776. The people during this interval generally regarded the power and authority of Hastings as extinct, and many ac- cusations were brought against him by persons who wished to please the factious majority in the Council. Of these charges the most serious was brought forward by Nanda- kumdr, a man infamous for his treachery and perfidy. Francis and his colleagues, however, took him under their protection, and encouraged him in his charges against the Governor-General. Suddenly Nandakumar was arrested, at the suit of an eminent native merchant, for forgery ; he was tried by Sir Elijah Impey in the Supreme Court, was found guilty by a jury, and hanged hanging was at that time the usual punishment for forgery. This execution created a great sensation, and Hastings has often been accused of having procured it unjustly to screen himself, but there THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 116 seems no reason to doubt that Nandakumar was justly con- demned to death. Good proof that Hastings was in no way concerned with the conviction and execution is to be found in the fact that the Members of Council might have in- terfered to refer the matter to England, but they refused to do so. The Judges of the Supreme Court established in Calcutta, in striving to ' protect natives from oppression and give India the benefits of English law,' committed many great mistakes. They interfered between the zamindars and their rayats. Their attorneys stirred up strife everywhere. Hastings interfered to protect the landholders from this vexatious interference, and Parliament was petitioned for a change of system, and meanwhile a remedy was disco, vered. In the Sadar Diwdni Andlat, the Governor- General himself and his Council were appointed to preside. This they could not do, and Hastings offered the appointment of Chief Judge of this Court to Sir Elijah Impey, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. This reconciled all parties, and enabled Impey to turn his attention to the subject of the administration of justice according to such forms as might suit the great simplicity of native habits. This, though disallowed by the Court of Directors at the time, is the system now restored by the amalgamation in each pre- sidency of the Supreme Court with the Company's old Court of Appeal. During the later years of his reign, Warren Hastings was engaged in many and great wars, some account oi which will be found in the next section In order to ob- tain money for these wars, he adopted some harsh mea- sures, especially towards Chait Singli, who was the Raja of Benares, and the Begums of Oudh, and for these and some other measures he was afterwards much blamed by his countrymen in England. Benares had formerly been under the dominion of the Nawab-Vazir of Oodh, but in 1775 the factious majority in the English Council, against the wishes of Hastings, forced It 116 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO the Nawab to give the territory of Benares to the English. They then gave up tho charge of this territory to the Hindu Zamindar, who was declared a feudatory Raja under the protection of the English, on condition of his paying an annual tribute of twenty-two and a half lakhs. In 1780 the Governor- General, being urgently in need of more money to carry on the wars against the Mahrattas and the Sultan of Mysore, informed the Raja Chait Singh that he must pay larger tribute than the twenty-two and a half lakhs, and that he must also provide some soldiers to help the English Government. This the Raja was very unwilling to do, so "Warren Hastings proceeded to Benares, chiefly with the in- tention of forcing him to obey. Hastings at last was so much annoyed by the ingratitude of the Raja that he ordered some sepoys to arrest him. Now Raja Chait Singh was so much respected by the people of Benares, that when they heard of this order they immediately rose in insurrection and massa- cred the soldiers who had been sent to carry it out, and 4/hen they came and surrounded the place where Hastings was. The Raja escaped from the city. The Governor- General was in extreme danger, as he had hardly any guards with 1dm, yet he did not lose his coolness or presence of mind, and ultimately he was able to reach the fortress of Chanar. Troops were now summoned to him from all quarters ; the Raja's army of 20,000 men was defeated, and the fortress of Bijgarh, in which he had taken refuge, was taken. The troops, however, seized all Chait Singh's treasures that they found in Bijgarh, and the Raja himself escaped to Gwaliar, so Hastings was doubly disappointed. He appointed Chait Singh's nephew to be Raja of Benares, and then returned to Calcutta. In the following year he was more successful in getting a, large sum of money from the Begums of Oudh. The old Nawab- Vazir of Oudh had died in 1775, and his widow and mother, the Begums, declared that he had left to them by will all the immense treasures of the State of Oudh. The English Council at Calcutta, against the wishes of Hastings, had forced the young Nawab to allow the Begums to retain THE HISTORY OF INLIA. 117 all this money, and thus the young Nawab was left with no money, either to pay his army or to discharge his debt to the English Government. In 1781 the Nawab declared that he was unable to pay this debt, except with the money which the Begums had seized ; and charges were brought forward against these ladies of having helped Chait Singh with money and with soldiers. Hastings consequently allowed the Nawab to extort seventy-six lakhs from the Begums, wherewith to pay his debt to the English. This appears to have been an action of very doubtful justice, though it is impossible to ascertain how far the Begums were originally entitled to all the money which they had seized. However this may be, the conduct of Warren Hastings, both towards the Begums and towards Chait Singh, was severely censured by the Directors of the East India Company in London, so he determined to resign his office as Governor- General. He left India in February 1785. Shortly after he reached England, his enemies de- termined to bring him. to trial for his conduct in India, and a famous orator, named Burke, was especially bitter in his prosecution of Hastings. The case was tried before the House of Lords, the House of Commons being the accusers (such a trial is called an impeachment'). It began on the 13th February, 1788, and was protracted till the 23rd April, 1795, when he was completely and honourably acquitted. The trial cost him 100,OOOZ. Though thus reduced to com- parative poverty, he lived peaceably at Daylesford, till his death, in 1819. Once only did he again appear in public, and then he was called to give, in 1813, evidence before the House of Commons regarding Indian affairs. On that occasion the whole assembly stood up to do him honour. Some important alterations were made by the English Parliament in 1784, in the constitution of the Government of India both in England and in this country. The chief point was that the control of the British Indian empire was confided, in all essential points, to a Minister of the King of England, who was called President of the Board of Con- trol, who had the power of appointing the Governor. 118 AN EAST INTEODUCTION TO General. The Act of Parliament that made these alterations was called Pitt's India Bill, because it had been devised by Mr. Pitt, the great English Prime Minister. A great rival of Mr. Pitt, named Mr. Fox, had previously endeavoured to persuade the English Parliament to pass another law about the Indian Government, which would have put the English dominions in India directly under the authority of the Eng- lish Crown, almost as they are at present, but the Parlia- ment refused to sanction this Bill. 4. Haidar Ali and Tippu, Sultans of Mysore. The pressing want of money which led Hastings to adopt such severe measures against the Raja of Benares and the Be- gums of Oudh was mainly caused by the many great wars in which he was involved about this time. These wars were directed against the Mahrattas, the Sultan of Mysore, the French, and the Dutch. The war against the Mahrattas, called the First Mahratta War, has been briefly described in Chap. XVII., 8, and we there saw that the aid at first offered to Raghoba by the English was ineffectual, owing to the many difficulties in which they were involved elsewhere, and especially the war with Mysore. The State of Mysore in Southern India had risen into importance and power owing to the great abilities of a famous military leader, named HAIDAR AlA . This man had been one of the captains of the troops of the Hindu Raja of Mysore, and in 1761 he had expelled the Raja and his minister from the kingdom, and had established himself as Sultan. He had already collected a considerable number of troops and much treasure ; and not long after he had suc- ceeded in placing himself on the throne, he seized the for- tress of Bednor, in which he found an immense hoard of treasure, which aided him in his future wars. In 1765 the Mahrattas, under Madu Rao, the fourth Peshwa, invaded Haidar's dominions, and utterly defeated his army, and he was consequently obliged to cede to them all the territory he had conquered on the northern frontiers, and to pay thirty-two lakhs. In the following year, how- THE HISTORY OF INDIA 119 ever, he recovered some of his lost ground, for he led his army westward into the fertile Malabar country and con- quered most of that district. Here he was guilty of the most disgraceful treachery, for though the Zamorin (or petty Raja) of Calicat came out and submitted to him, he took that city by surprise and sacked it, the Zamorin burning himself in his palace to avoid a worse fate. The First Mysore War broke out between the English Government of Madras and Haidar in 17b'6, not long before Clive left India for the last time. At first the Mahrattas under Madu Rao, and the Haidarabad forces under the Ni- zam, were in alliance with the English, but they were bribed by Haidar, and ultimately the Nizam's forces joined those of Mysore. Colonel Smith was the English general, and he was at one time in considerable danger, as he had only 7,000 men and 16 guns against 70,000 men and 100 guns of Haidar and the Nizam. Ultimately, however, he repulsed them at Chdngama, and soon afterwards routed them at Tri'ti-omaU, both places being in South Arcot, A.D. 1767. The war was continued with varied fortune for two years longer, and Haidar was at one time so hard pressed that he was obliged to sue for peace. But at last, in 1769, the skilful Mysore chief made a rapid march at the head of a large force of cavalry, so as to avoid the army of Colonel Smith, and appeared within a few miles of the city of Madras. On this the Madras Council immediately made peace with him, on condition that all things should remain as they had been at the beginning of the war. This treaty of Madras concluded the first Mysore War. In 1769 Haidar was again attacked by Madn Rao and the Mahrattas. In the war that followed he was continually defeated and well-nigh ruined, and at last, in 1772 (about the time that Warren Hastings was appointed Governor of Bengal), the unfortunate Sultan of Mysore was compelled to buy off the Mahrattas by giving them all his northern dominions, and by promising to pay them enormous sums. In the following six years, however, he more than re- 120 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO covered all lie had lost, owing to the death of Madu Rao and the dissensions among the Mahrattas [see Chap. XVII., 7]. In 1780 the Second Mysore War broke out between the English and Haidar. The Sultan of Mysore had taken ad- vantage of the English being involved in the difficulties of the first Mahratta War, to induce the Mahrattas and the Nizam of Haidarabad to help him in conquering the Eng- lish dominions in the Carnatic. He invaded the Carnatic in July 1780, with a grand army of 90,000 men, and was at first entirely successful. He took many English forts, and at length succeeded in defeating part of the English army under Colonel Baillie, taking as prisoners Baillie himself and about 200 men. The English commander-in-chief was called Sir Hector Mwiro, and he was now forced to retreat to Madras, and to send a request for help to Warren Has- tings, the Governor- General, at Calcutta. Hastings imme- diately sent Sir Eyre Coote to Madras by sea with some troops, and this brave and skilful general defeated Haidar iu three great battles during the course of the year 1781, at Porto Novo, PoUilor, and Solingcvrh. But in the following year Sir Eyre Coote was obliged to resign his command owing to ill-health, and the war was carried on throughout the year with varied success, until at length, in December 1782, Haidar died somewhat suddenly. His son Tippu, who now succeeded him as Sultan of Mysore, was distin- guished by an implacable hatred of the English. He was a man of a cruel and ferocious temper, like his father, and hardly inferior to him in military skill, whilst he was far superior in general knowledge. He carried on the war against the Madras Government for more than a year longer, and at last, in 1784, when an English army under Colonel Fullarton was about to march on his capital, Se- ringapatam, lie concluded a treaty with the Governor of Madras (in opposition to the wishes of the Governor-Gene- ral), by which it was agreed that both sides should restore the conquests which they had made. This was much to the THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 121 disadvantage of the Madras Government, for the English had made many more conquests than Tippu had. The treaty which ended this second Mysore War was called the Treaty of Mangalore, 1784. We shall hear of the third My- sore War (1790) in the time of Lord Cornwallis, but the final conquest of Mysore was not effected until the reign of the great Marquis Wellesley (1798-1799), in the fourth Mysore War. CHAPTER XXIII. LORD CORNWALLIS ; THE THIRD MYSORE WAR, AND THE PER- MANENT SETTLEMENT OF BENGAL. A.D. 1786 TO 1793. 1. Eeforms in the Administration. 2. The Third Mysore War. 3. The Permanent Settlement of the Revenues of Bengal. 4. Reforms in the Law Courts. 5. Sir John Shore, Governor- General. 1. Reforms MJ the Administration. When Warren Has- tings retired from the Governor- Generalship in 1785, there was some delay before any one was appointed to that high office ; and in the meantime Sir John Macpherson, Senior Member of Council, acted as Governor-General. At last Lord Cornwallis was appointed, a nobleman of great firm- ness and energy, and he commenced his reign by some vigorous reforms in the administration of the Government, which had suffered much from corruption and bribery, not- withstanding all the efforts of Clive and Warren Hastings. The officers and public servants of the East India Company had been hitherto allowed only very small salaries, and as their opportunities were great of enriching themselves by taking bribes and in other dishonest ways, they had fre- quently yielded to the temptation. Lord Cornwallis now ordered that every officer of the Government should receive such a good salary as should leave no shadow of excuse for trading or attempting to acquire money by improper means, 122 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO and this benevolent order, combined with great firmness in punishing all evil-doers, soon produced a very beneficial effect. 2. The Third Mysore Wwr. After the treaty of Man, galor and the conclusion of the Second Mysore War in 1784, Tippii Sultan advanced rapidly in power and wealth. During the six years from 1784 to 1790 he had successfully resisted a most formidable attack of the Mahrattas and the Nizam of Haidarabad ; he had conquered the districts of Caiiara, Coorg, and Malabar, often with circumstances of the greatest cruelty and oppression destroying all Hindu temples and forcing as many of the people as he could to become Muhammadaus. At last he attacked the Raja of Travancor, the territory which lies in the extreme southern corner of India. In his first attack on the wall which the Raj! of Travancor had built to defend his country, Tippu was repulsed with immense loss and with considerable danger to himself ; so he determined in his rage to tak,e & terrible revenge, and made large preparations for the con- quest of the little State that had dared to defeat him. But the Kaja of Travancor was an ally of the English ; and Lord Cornwallis determined to prevent Tippu from carrying out his designs. The Nizam of Haidarabad had just at this time (1788-89) fulfilled an old promise by ceding to the English the district of Ga,ntur, south of the Krishna ; and he now agreed to help the English against Tippu, being promised that he should receive some of the conquered territory. The Mahrattas of Puna also, under the clever minister named Nana Farnavis [see Chap. XVII., 8J, promised help on the same condi- tions. In 1790 Lord Cornwallis went in person to Madras to conduct the war. In March 1791 he captured Bangalor, the second city in point of size and importance in Tippu's dominions ; and two months afterwards he totally defeated Tippu and all his army in the great battle of ARIKERA. After this the capital Seringapatam must itself have been taken, if the Mahrattas had been at hand to help Lord THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 123 Cornwallis, as they had promised ; but their general Hari Pant had been intent only on plunder, and had conse- quently delayed his march so long that at last Lord Corn- wallis was obliged, for want of supplies, to return to Madras. During the rest of the year he busied himself with prepa- rations for the next campaign, and in taking sundry of Tippu's fortresses; and at the very beginning of 1792 he marched once more against Seringapatam. This great fortress was just about to fall, indeed, the outer works had already been taken, when Tippii agreed to the terms im- posed by Lord Cornwallis. These were, to cede half his territories, to pay three crores of rupees to the English, as well as thirty lakhs to the Mahrattas, and to give up two of his sons as hostages. Lord Cornwallis faithfully fulfilled his promise of giving a share of the conquered territories to the Nizam and to the Mahrattas, though their soldiers had done nothing in the war, and had even treacherously corresponded with Tippu. The English gained by this successful war the districts of Dindigal, the Baramahall, and Malabar ; whilst Coorg was restored to its own Raja. These final arrangements that concluded the Third Mysore War were perfected in February 1792. 3. The Permanent Settlement of the Revenues of Ben- gal. Lord Cornwallis gained much credit for the successful prosecution of the war against Tippu ; and he was raised to the rank of a Marquis for it, though the East India Company disapproved of the acquisition of new territory. But the chief ground of his fame is the Permanent Settle- ment, which he effected in 1793, of the land revenue of Bengal. The land had been the principal source of revenue under every dynasty. The collectors of this revenue in Bengal under the Mughul Emperors had, by degrees, converted themselves into zamindars, possessing military and judicial authority. Many of these zamindars were also the repre- sentatives of the old local aristocracy. These persons the British Government did not at first recognise ; but in 1 786, 124 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO the Directors wrote out that all engagements should, as a matter of policy, be made with the zamindars. This was to be done for ten years ; and the settlement of revenue- payment to be made permanent, if it were found to answer. Lord Cornwallis, by his regulations in 1793, confirmed the zamindars in the absolute proprietorship of the soil. They were legally constituted landlords under the British Govern- ment ; and the cultivators were recognised as their tenants. These last were left too much at the mercy of the zamindars, and this was the weak point in the whole settlement. Mr. Shore opposed its being made permanent ; Lord Cornwallis, and the authorities in England, decided that it should be permanent. 4. Reforms in the Law Courts. The reform of the Civil and Criminal Courts next occupied his attention. Sir Elijah Impey's rules were developed into a volume of regulations by Sir George Barlow ; and the system of Civil Courts and procedure which, with modifications, still exists, was established. The greatest evil of this system was the power it gave to the police of oppressing the people. Natives were excluded from all share in the administration of justice, and from all but the most subordinate offices in the public employ. This was remedied in after-times. 5. Sir John Shore as Governor-General. Sir John Shore, an eminent civilian, was appointed to succeed Lord Cornwallis as Governor-General of India ; and he reigned from 1793 to 1798. The period of his rule, however, was not distinguished by many important public events ; and as he, like Lord Cornwallis, regarded himself bound by the orders of the Directors of the East India Company not to interfere in any quarrels between native princes, we may properly include his reign in the same chapter with that of Lord Cornwallis. This ' non-intervention policy ' gave great encouragement to the ambition both of Tippii in Mysore and of the Mahrattas. The Mahrattas were em boldened by it to attack the Nizam of Haidarabad, whose power they effectually humbled in the battle of Kurdla, as THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 125 narrated in Chap. XVII., 0. Throughout this period, Nana Farnavis, the prime minister of the Peshwa, was the most powerful Mahratta statesman. On one occasion, however, Sir John Shore found him- self obliged to interfere with the affairs of a native State. In 1797 the Nawab- Vazir Asaf-ud-daulah of Oudh died. In vain had he been exhorted to pay some attention to the welfare of his kingdom. He lived and died a child in in- tellect, and a debased sensualist. A reputed son of the late Nawab- Vazir Ali succeeded him ; but his proved ille- gitimacy and worthless character led Sir John Shore to displace him, and elevate Saadat Ali, brother of the late Nawab. Mr. Cherry was the Resident at Benares; and he negotiated the treaty with Saadat Ali, then living at Benares. Soon after, the new Nawab marched to Lucknow, where Sir John was encamped. The Governor- General was in extreme peril from Vazir All's hordes of lawless soldiers ; but he, with the utmost calmness and composure, maintained his position, and the new Nawab was placed on the masnad, Vazir Ali being sent to Benares. In 1799 Vazir Ali assassinated Mr. Cherry in Benares, and raised a temporary rebellion, but was defeated and taken prisoner. Sir John Shore, who was created Lord Teignmouth, sailed for England in March 1798. CHAPTER XXTV. THE MAEQUIS WELLESLEY ; THE CONQUEST OP MYSORE AND OF THE MAHRATTAS. A.D. 1798-1805. 1. The Subsidiary System. 2. The Fourth (and last) Mysore War. 3. Formal Annexation of the Carnatic, and of the North-West Provinces. 4. The Conquest of the Mahrattas. 1. The Subsidiary System. A few words are here ne- cessary to explain the SUBSIDIARY SYSTEM, which Warren Hastings was the first to introduce in his dealings with 126 IN EAST INTRODUCTION TO Oudh, and which was the basis of the policy of the Marquis Wellesley in his dealings with native States. When a State consented by treaty to accede to this system, it ac- knowledged the British Government as the paramount power in India ; and in return it received the guarantee of that Government for its safety and integrity. It agreed not to make war or peace without the sanction of the paramount power, and to maintain a contingent of troops as a subsidiary force wherewith to aid the British Govern- ment in time of need. Such were usually the main con- ditions of this policy, modified, of course, according to circumstances. It superseded altogether the policy which had been in vogue under Lord Cornwallis and Sir John Shore, which had been based mainly on the foolish idea of maintaining a balance of power amongst the native States, so as to prevent any of them becoming too powerful. 2. The Fourth (and last) Mysore War. At the mo- ment of Lord Wellesley's arrival, the British empii^ in India was threatened by a combination of a large number of native chiefs, who were encouraged to resist the English arms both by the ' non-intervention ' policy of the two preceding Governors- General, and by the aid and money of the French, with whom the English had now been long at war. Tippu Sultan of Mysore, the Nizam of Haidarabad, and Sindia, the most powerful of the Mahratta chiefs, were all under French influence, and had their armies chiefly officered by Frenchmen ; whilst Zatnan Shah, the Durrani monarch of Afghanistan and the Pidnjab the grandson of the terrible Ahmad Shah Abdali,fwho had so often over- run Hindustan [see Chap. XV., 5], threatened to invade Northern India as an ally of Tippii Sultan. But Lord Wellesley, by his extraordinary vigour and ability, and by the military skill and bravery of the soldiers under him (especially of his brother, Colonel Wellesley, after- wards the great Duke of Wellington), was ultimately able to dissipate all these dangers. His first step was to conclude a ' subsidiary treaty' THE HISTORY OF INDIA 127 i.e., a treaty on the subsidiary principle explained in the preceding section with the Nizam of Haidarabad ; under which the Nizam helped the English in the Mysore War with a considerable force, the command of which was given to Colonel Wellesley. He then proceeded to Madras, to direct the operations against Tippu, who had madly de- clared himself a ' citizen of the French republic,' and had publicly asked for the help of the great French general Napoleon Buonaparte (who was at this time in Egypt) to expel the English from India. Two armies were ordered to invade the Mysore territories ; one under the com- mander-in-chief, General Harris, was called the army of the Carnatic, and advanced on Tippu from the side of Madras ; the other, under General Stuart, consisted of Bombay troops, and advanced on the Malabar side. Tippu was defeated by each of these armies successively by General Stuart's forces in the battle of Sedasir, and by General Harris's forces at Mallavelli (1799). At length both the English armies arrived before Seringapatam, Tippu's capital, and the great Siege of Seringapatam began. Tippu seems to have lost all the energies of his mind at this time, and to have been overwhelmed by fear and despair. He consulted soothsayers /and Brahmans, and caused prayers to be offered up both in Muhammadaii mosques and in Hindju temples, Torgetfnl of the frightful cruelties which he had inflicted on the Hindus. He sent to propose terms oNj>eace, and then refused to listen to the conditions offered by TSjeiieral Harris. He appears to have lost all generalship aiftL^ diplomacy, and even common sense. Meanwhile, GeaeraHHarris was vigorously bom- barding the defences of the sfatpendous fortress, and on May 3, 1799, the breach was reported to be practicable. Before daybreak on the 4th, General Baird, who had for four years been a prisoner in the dungeons of the city, led the troops to the assault. In seven minutes the British flag was planted on the summit of the breach. The two co- lumns, after encountering many obstacles, and gallant 128 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO opposition from a small band of Mysore troops, met ovei the eastern gateway. The city was taken. The body of the Sultan himself was found in a palanquin under an archway, beneath a heap of slain. It was buried with military honours the next day in a beautiful mauso- leum in the Lai Bagh. It was ascertained (and it takes away any lingering feeling of pity for the tyrant) that every European prisoner taken during the siege had been put to death by Tippu. Lord Wellesley now gave part of the territories of Tippii to the Nizam of Haidarabad, retaining for the English the districts of Canara, Coimbator, and the Wainad. He restored to the throne of the principality of Mysore a little boy who was the legal representative of the ancient Hindu royal family, and left his brother, General Wellesley, to su- perintend the settlement and administration of the country; The conquest of Mysore made the English power unques- tionably supreme in the Dakhin. , 3. Formal Annexation of the Carnatic and of the North' West Provinces. In 1801, two years after the fall of Serin- gapatam, the Nawab of the Carnatic (son of the old Mu- hammad All see Chap. XIX., 2 who had died in 1795) formally resigned to the British Government the territories known as the Carnatic, in return for a large pension, and this cession enlarged the Presidency of Madras to its pre- sent size. The Governor-General about this time (1801) inter- vened in the affairs of Oudh, which had been frightfully misgoverned and oppressed by the Nawab-Vazir Saadat AH and his Vazir, who moreover had neglected to maintain their array in the efficient and disciplined state promised by the subsidiary treaty. Lord Cornwallis now compelled the Nawab to remedy this, and to cede certain districts to the British Government for the support of these troops. The districts thus ceded comprised a great part of what are now called the North- Wosi Provinces. 4. The Conquest of the Mafirattas. The (toverncnrt THE BISTORT OF INDIA. 1.29 General had had many disputes with, the Directors of the East India Company, who disapproved of his extensive conquests, and also of his liberality in wishing to throw open the trade of India i.e., to allow any one to carry- on trade between England and India that wished to do so, instead of reserving the whole trade for the East India Company. At last, in 1802, Lord Wellesley had almost determined to resign his office, but he was induced to re- main as Governor-General a little longer ; and this was a most fortunate thing for British India, for just now hap- pened the Treaty of Bassein (1802), followed by the Second Malira.Ua War (1803-1804) against Sindia and the Raja of Barar, and the Third Hahratta War (1804-1805) fegainst Holkar and the Raja of Bharfcpnr, which finally crushed the power of the Mahrattas and established the British Em- pire as the Paramount Power throughout India. A short account of these wars and their consequences has already been given in Chap. XIX., 10, 11, 12. This was tha time when Orissa was finally taken from the Mahrattas by the English, 1803-1804. Lord Wellesley left Calcutta in August 1805, after a most glorious and successful administration. He had in- rreased the dominions of the East India Company to more than double their former extent, and had firmly consolidated this gigantic empire. CHAPTER XXV. tORD CORNWALL1S AGAIN, SIB GEORGE BARLOW, LORD 1805 1813. 1. Peace with the Mahrattas. 2. The Vellor Mutiny. 3. Tho Else of the Sikh Power in the Panjab. 1. Peace with the Mahrattas. The warlike Lord Welles- ley, who had made so many conquests, was succeeded by Lord Cornwallig, who came out to India to be Governor- K 130 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO General for the second time, but who died within a few months of his arrival. Next Sir George Barlow was ap- pointed Governor- General, and both Lord Cornwallis and Sir George Barlow were determined immediately to make peace with all the enemies against whom Lord Wellesley had been fighting. The consequence of this was, that the Mahratta chief Holkar [see Chap. XIX., 12] obtained peace on very easy terms in November 3805; and what was particularly disgraceful to Sir George Barlow in thus hastily making peace, was the fact that the Mahrattas were now allowed to revenge themselves on the faithful Rajput allies of the English, for the Governor-General declared that he would no more interfere in any of the quarrels between Native Princes. 2. The Vellor Mutiny. During Sir George Barlow's short reign (1805-1807) occurred also a mutiny at Vellor amongst the Madras sepoys, who had been deluded into the belief that some change which was made by the Ggvern- ment in the shape of their head-dresses was intended to break their caste and turn them into Christians. The mu- tinous sepoys were at once dispersed or slain, but not until they had killed some European fellow-soldiers, whom they surprised in sleep. After this, Sir George Barlow was de- prived of the office of Governor- General, and made Governor of Madras ; Lord Minto was appointed Governor-General, and reigned from 1807 to 1813. 3. The Rise of the Sikh Power in the Panjab. During the reign of Lord Minto, the war between the English and the French, which had been going on for many years in Europe, was continued with great fury, and the British In- dian troops took away from the French all the colonies in the East that were held by them or their allies, the Dutch, particularly the rich Dutch Island of Java. About the same tune it was feared that the French and the Russians were hoping to disturb the British rule in India, by stirring up the rulers of the Panjab, of Sindh, of Afghanistan, and of Persia to conspire again?*' the English. Lord Minto, how- THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 131 ever, succeeded in persuading the kings of Kabul and of Persia, and the Amirs of Sindh, to make treaties with him, by which they promised to have nothing to do with any other European Powers. He also induced the great Ranjit Singh, the leader of the Sikhs in the Panjab, to make a similar treaty : and it will be well for us here to go back a little, to note the rise of the power of the Sikhs in the Panjab. We have seen, in Chap. XV., 2, that the Sikhs were at first an inoffensive religious sect, and that gradually, in con- sequence of the cruel way in which they were persecuted by the Muhammadan Emperors of Dehli, they became a mili- tary as well as a religious body. They were nearly extirpated by the Emperor Farrukh Siyar (1713-1719), but they soon recovered their numbers and influence in the Panjab. This province was subjugated by the Persians under Nadir Shah in 1738, and again several times by the Afghan Chief Ahmad ShahAbdalior Durrani, 1747-1759 [see Chap. XV., 4, 5]. From the year 1751 it was severed from the Mughul Empire, and was attached more or less closely to the Durrani Empire of Kabul under the successors of Ahmad Shah. Ranjit Singh was born on November 2, 1780. He first attracted the attention of Zaman Shah Durrani [see 62], the grandson of Ahmad Shah, by recovering some guns for him which had been lost in the Jhelam. By Zaman Shah he was appointed Governor of Lahore in 1798, when he was only eighteen. From this time Ranjit Singh devoted his great abilities to the improvement of his army and the enlargement of his territories. In 1809, the Sardars of the Cis-Satlej States of Pattiala and Jhind appealed to Lord Minto for protection against the encroachments of Ranjit. Mr. Metcalfe (afterwards Sir Charles Metcalfe, and sub- sequently Lord Metcalfe) was sent to Lahore as an envoy, and a treaty was concluded by which Ranjit Singh agreed to respect the rights of the Cis-Satlej States, and to culti- vate the friendship of the British Government. Ranjit x2 132 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO Singh was greatly pleased with the demeanour of young Metcalfe (who was only in. his twenty-first year), and was so much impressed in favour of the English character, that he could never afterwards be induced to break this treaty. CHAPTER XXVI. tHE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS: THE NEPAL AND PIND^RI WAEt. A.D. 1813-1823. 1. The Nepal War. 2. The Pindari War. 1. The Nepal War. The Earl of Moira (afterwards the Marquis of Hastings) was appointed to succeed Lord Minto, and arrived in Calcutta in October 1813. He found the finances embarrassed, and many disputes with Native States pending ; for nine years he ruled with resolution and success, and left the Empire in a flourishing condition. He \vas a distinguished soldier, an experienced statesman, and a man of amiable manners and noble character. The Ghurkas, a powerful and warlike tribe, had recently established themselves in Nepal. Gradually extending their conquests, they had thoroughly subjugated the sub- Himalayan valleyr, and were now displaying an inclination to encroach on their southern neighbours in Hindustan. The ruler of Nepal had imprisoned the zamindar of Bhutwal, and had seized his territory : and eighteen British police officers in that district had been murdered. The Governor- General determined to teach the Ghurkas a severe lesson, and ordered a British army to advance into Nepal in four divisions by different routes, A.D. 1814. Generals Ochter- lony and Gillespie were in command of the British troops ; but the latter was killed in a gallant but unsuccessful Attempt to take the fortress of Kalunga, and the army met with several reverses. Amir Sinp;h was the General of the THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 133 Ghiirkas. General Ochterlony at length succeeded in driving him from the heights of Ramgarh, which were exceedingly strong ; the Raja of Bilaspur was detached from the Nepal cause, and the province of Kumaon subdued. At last Amir Singh was shut up in the fortress of Maloun ; and in May 1815 he was forced to capitulate to General Ochterlony. All the forts between the Jamnah and the Satlej were then given up, and Garhwal evacuated. The Court of Nepal, terrified by these reverses, now made over- tures for peace ; but the negotiations were broken off, owing to the unwillingness of the Nepalese to cede some districts of the Terai. General Ochterlony resumed military operations in January 1816, and gained some more victories ; when at length the Nepal Darbar convinced of their in- ability to oppose the British, agreed to cede all the con- quered provinces, and peace was concluded (1816). 2. The Pinddri War. The Pinddris were hordes of lawless plundering robbers that had long followed like jackals the armies of the Mahratta chiefs, especially those of Sindia and Holkar. Assignments of lands had been made to them on the banks of the Narbaddah ; and they had for some years been the scourge of Central India. The Go- vernor-General now determined to suppress these enemies of mankind ; and at the same time firmly to assert the supremacy of the British power over the Mahratta chiefs themselves, who had been encouraged by the Nepal war to conspire. Baji Rao, the Peshwa at Puna, was the head of this conspiracy : and Appa Saheb, the Raja of Barar at Nagpur, was one of the chief conspirators. Sindia submitted to the British, and his representatives are still Maharajas of Gwaliar. So did Amir Khan, the most prominent leader of the Pindaris ; and his descendants are still Nawabs of Tank. Baji Rao resisted, and even dared to attack and plunder the house of the British Resi- dent at Puna, November 1817; but he was soon put to flight, and after a long series of attempts to withstand the British arms, he was deposed. His dominions were annexed 134 AN BAST INTRODUCTION TO to the British Empire, except a small tract around Satara which was given to the Raja who was the true representa- tive of Sivaji, 1818. Appa Saheb had attacked the Eng- lish at Nagpur shortly after Baji Rao had failed at Puna ; but he was easily defeated and taken prisoner, and ulti- mately he escaped to the Panjab, where he lived and died in utter obscurity among the Sikhs. After the submission of Amir Khan, all the other Pin- dari leaders were gradually conquered. The last of these was named Cliitu. He at one time took refuge among the troops of Holkar, who had murdered their Queen- Regent, Tulsi Bdi, because she was suspected of favouring the Eng- lish ; and had determined to resist the British arms. A great battle was fought at Mahidpur (December 1817), in which the Mahrattas and Pindaris of Holkar's army were utterly defeated by the English Generals Hislop&nd Malcolm. After this the young chief Maihar Rao Holkar made a &tb- sidiary treaty [see Chap. XXIV., 1] with the English. Chitu, the Pindari leader, fled from place to place, being gradually deserted by his followers ; till at length he was devoured by a tiger in the jungles near Asirgarh in Khandesh, 1819. The whole of the Mahratta country, and indeed the whole of Central India, had been reduced to order and submission during the course of this war. The Marquis of Hastings returned to England in 1823, accompanied by the applause of all. CHAPTER XXVII. LORD AMHERST: THE FIRST BDRMAH WAR, AND THE STORMING OF BHARTPUR. A.D. 1823-1828. 1. The First Burmah War. 2. The Storming of Bhartpur. 1. The First Burmah War. Lord Amherst arrived in India as Governor-General a few months after the depar- THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 136 tare of Lord Hastings : and he soon found it necessary to defend the British power in India against the insults with which it was threatened from the ignorance and folly of the King of Burmah. Burruah, as we have seen in Chap. I., is a country far away to the east of the Bay of Bengal, bejond Chittagong and the easternmost parts of Bengal ; and the Burmese are a people not at all like the Hindus, but somewhat like the Chinese. Until this year (1823) there had been hardly auy contact between the people of Burmah and the people ot India ; though in very early times Bnrmah had received its religion, which has always since been Buddhist, from India. The Burmese en- croachments of 182:5 have ultimately led to its annexation. The King of Burmah had been largely extending ms conquests in the countries on the north-east shores of the Bay of Bengal (see the Map). His armies had overrun the provinces of Arakau and Assam ; and his territories were now bounded on the west by the Bengal provinces belonging to the English. Not being fully acquainted with the irre- sistible power of the British Empire, he thought, at one time during the reign of Lord Hastings, that he might take advantage of the English being engaged in the Pindari war, and with impunity seize some of the Bengal terri- tories. He actually had the audacity to send a letter to Lord Hastings, demanding the cession of some of these territories, on the ground that they had formed part of the old kingdom of Arakan ; but Lord Hastings treated the letter as a forgery, and the King of Burmah finding that the English had conquered the Nepalese and their other enemies in India, was afraid to say that he had really sent the letter. In 1823, however, he proceeded to attack Kachar (the Raja of Kachar being in alliance with the English), and in other ways to show that he had no respect for the English power; so Lord Amherst determined to send an army into the Burmese territories in order to punish the King. Sir Archibald Campbell was the General of this army (1824) ; and he fought many battles with the troops 136 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO of the King of Burmah, and thoroughly conquered them. The greatest and last of these battles was fought at a place called Pagahn; in which 2,000 British troops routed a Burmese army of 18,000. At length, when the British army was close to Amarapura, which was then the capital of Bnrmah, and the place where the royal palace was, the King of Burmah submitted, and signed a treaty called the Treaty of Yendabu ; by this treaty he agreed to givo up Arakan and several other rich provinces to the English, as well as a crore of rupees in money ; and he promised never again to claim any rights over Assam, Kachar, or Jaintia. 2. The Storming of Bhartpur. In 1826, the fortress of Bhartpur was stormed by the British army under Lord Combermere, who was Commander-in-Chief under Lord Amherst. The only importance attached to this conquest was owing to the fact that many of the enemies of the English rule in India had believed, or pretended to beiieve, that Bhartpur was such a strong fortress that even the English could not take it. In 1827, Lord Amherst went to Dehli, and solemnly informed the King of Dehli (the representative of the old Mughul Emperors, who at this time was in receipt of a pension from the British Government) that the English were now the Paramount Power in India. Up to the period of this declaration, the representative of the Mughul Em- perors had been regarded as nominally the Lord Paramount of India, though his power had long before really passed into the hands of the British. Lord Amherst, one of the least eminent of the rulers of British India, retired in March 1828 ; and Mr. Butter- worth Bayley, one of the distinguished school of statesmen trained under the Marquis Wellesley, acted as Governor- until the arrival of his successor. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 137 CHAPTER XXVIII. LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK : PEACE AND REFORMS. A.D. 18281835. 1. Peaceful Character of this Reign. 2. Settlement of Mysore and Coorg. 3. Economical and Social Reforms. . 1. Peaceful Character of this Reign. Lord William Bentinck had formerly been Governor of Madras ; and he had been recalled in 1807. He was consequently anxious to have a chance of retrieving his reputation, by becoming Governor- General of India ; and he fully attained the object of his wishes, for his administration marks an era of peaceful improvement and progress in India. It com- rnenced in July 1828, and lasted until March 1835 ; and though not remarkable for any great military exploits, was distinguished by a large number of reforms, economical, judicial, and social, of far greater value and importance than any conquest. 2. Settlement of Mysore and Coorg. "We must, how- ever, notice the one war that happened during this reign, which was the conquest of the little State of Coorg, ad- joining Mysore in Southern India. Its Raja was a mad tyrant, who slew every member of the royal family, and most cruelly oppressed the people ; and as he defied the British Government when called upon to amend, it was resolved to depose him. The war was a nominal one, and only lasted ten days ; the Raja was then sent as a prisoner to Benares, and the British rule was established throughout the province, 1833. The year before this, in 1832, it had been found neces- sary to put Mysore also under a British Officer, as the ministers of the Raja had been guilty of gross misgovern- ment. The country has subsequently prospered won- 133 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO derfully. The Raja has since died, and the British Go- vernment has recognised the succession of his adopted son and heir, and restored him to full sovereignty. 3. Economical and Social Reforms. Many important economical reforms were carried out by Lord William Bentinck in the civil and military administrations. Of these the one that provoked most opposition was the abolition of double batta. Double batta was an allowance given to the army when on service, in addition to their ordinary pay. The judicial reforms carried out at this time were of considerable importance, especially with reference to the extended employment of native judicial officers in responsible posts. Bat the reform for which Lord William Bentinck is most famous was the abolition of sati or suttee. This hor- rible custom (the self-immolation of widows on the funeral pile of their deceased husbands) had long been practised in India, though by many scholars it was believed not to be authorised by the Sastras. The Governor-General, aided by Mr. Butterworth Bayley and Sir Charles Metcalfe, his two councillors, at this time (December 1829) enacted that any person aiding or abetting a sati should be visited with the terrors of the law. The barbarous superstition is now nearly obsolete in India. In 1829, the Governor- General appointed Major Sleeman (afterwards Sir William Sleeman) as Commissioner for the suppression of thuggee. The thugs were bands of wretches, half-robbers and half-fanatics, who were in the habit of decoying away and murdering defenceless travellers, especially in the forests of Central India. They regarded this occupation, not only as a mode of getting money, but also as a part of their religion. Sleeman, however, suc- ceeded in almost entirely suppressing this horrible form of crime. A great Bengali reformer rose into eminence about this time. He was called Rammohan Rai : he was both a learned and a good man, and did his utmost to improve THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 139 the condition of his countrymen in every way. At length the King of Dehli (who was much distressed at the humble condition to which he had been reduced by the declaration of Lord Amherst, see Chap. XXVII., 2) induced Bam- mohan Bai to proceed to England as his agent, to en- deavour to get better terms and a larger penson from the English Government ; and the great Bengali died at Bristol in 1833. Lord William Bentinck left India in May 1835 ; and Sir Charles Metcalfe took his place as Acting Governor- General, until the arrival of a successor in March 1836. Under Metcalfe, who was supported by the advice of Macaulay, all vexatious restrictions on the free action of the Press were removed. CHAPTEB XXIX. LORD AUCKLAND: THE AFGHAN WAR. 1. State of Afghanistan 2. The Afghan War. 1. State of Afghanistan: Lord Auckland succeeded as Governor-General in 1836. Afghanistan is a very mountainous country beyond the north-west frontiers of India. It lies next to the Panjab, from which it is sepa- rated by high mountains, crossed by very difficult and dangerous roads called passes. Through these roads over the mountains of Afghanistan have come most of the foreign invaders (such as Mahmiid of Ghazni, Muhammad Ghori, Timur, Babar, and Nadir Shah) that have at various times invaded India ; indeed, this is almost the only direction from which they can possibly come, unless they come in ships by sea. On this account, ever since the English have been the Paramount Power in India, the English Government has wished that the country of Afghanistan should be ruled 140 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO over by princes friendly to the English power ; for then the Afghans would make it more difficult for any foreign enemy to disturb the peace of India. Now, until a short time before the time of Lord Auck. land, Afghanistan had been under the rule of the Durrani kings, descendants of Ahmad Shah Abddli or Durrani [see Chap. XV., 5] ; and in 1809, Lord Minto had made a treaty of friendship with Shah Shuja, the grandson of that Ahmad Shah. But lately, during the reign of Lord William Bentinck, Shah Shuji! had been driven out of the country by his brother, Mahmud ; and Mahmud had in his turn been murdered by the Barakzai tribe of Afghans ; so that when Lord Auckland came to be Governor-General of India, Dost Muhammad, the chief of the Barakzai Af- ghans, was the ruler of most of Afghanistan. Lord Auck- land at first tried to conciliate Dost Muhammad ; but when he found that that chief was not inclined to be friendly to the English, he determined to help Shah Shuja (who had all along been friendly, and who was now living as a British pensioner in India) to recover the throne of Afghanistan. 2. The Afghan War. Lord Auckland took up the cause of Shah Shuja under the mistaken impression that he was really more popular amongst the people of Afghan- istan than Dost Muhammad ; so the army which he sent to invade Afghanistan was not a very strong one. Ranjit Singh, the old ' Lion of the Panjab ' as he was often called [see Chap. XXV., 3], promised to help Shah Shuja with the power of the Sikhs ; but he died soon after, and the Government of the Sikhs fell into disorder. The British army of invasion was commanded by Sir John Keane, accompanied by Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Macnaghten. They first marched to Kandahar, which is one of the capitals of Afghanistan, where Shah Shuja was solemnly put on the throne. Then they went on to Ghazni, which they found to be strongly fortified ; but they blew up one of the big gates with gunpowder, and then took the THE HISTORY OF INDIA, 141 fortress by storm (1839). They then marched to which is the chief seat of the Afghan Government, and which they entered in August 1839 ; and now their task of restoring Shah Shuja was done, for Dost Muhammad had fled away to the wild country north of Afghanistan. Most of the army now returned to India, a portion remain- ing to settle the country under Shah Shuja ; and at the end of the following year (1840) Dost Muhammad gave himself up as a prisoner to Sir William Macnaghten. After this, for nearly a year, everything seemed peaceful. But, in December 1841, the whole of Afghanistan rose in insurrection against the small garrison of Indian troops, and at length the latter were so surrounded by innumerable and warlike enemies, that they were obliged to purchase a safe retreat by making the most humiliating promises and con- cessions. The chief leader of the Afghans was Alcbar Khan, a son of Dost Muhammad, and he, with the utmost baseness and treachery, shot Sir William Macnaghten at a confer- ence. The Indian army had not proceeded far in its retreat before the Afghans broke their solemn promises, and fell upon it. The British soldiers, both Europeans and sepoys, defended themselves as well as they could, and struggled on in the midst of the greatest privations, from the piercing cold of these snowy mountain-passes, from the want of food and clothing, and from the terrible difficulties of the roads. But the mountains that overhung all these passes were crowded with treacherous and ferocious Afghans, who kept up a murderous fire on the unprotected soldiers below, until at length, with the exception of a few ladies and married officers who surrendered themselves as prisoners to Akbar Khan, and one man who escaped to carry the news to Jala- labad, not a single man of the little army remained alive ! The melancholy disasters of this campaign, in which so many British soldiers and sepoys perished, spread a gloom over British India, which was not removed until the bril- liant successes of General Pollock and the conquest of Kabul under the next Governor- General restored the glory 142 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO of the English arms. This has thrown a cloud over the repu- tation of Lord Auckland, which would otherwise have been an honourable one. His abilities were great, and before the commencement of the Afghan war, his good management had placed the finances of the country in a most flourishing condition. He left India in March 1842. CHAPTER XXX. LORD ELLENBOROUGH : THE CONQUEST OF KABUL AND THE ANNEXATION OF SINDH. A.D. 1842 1844. 1. The Conquest of Kabul. 2. The Conquest of Sindh. 3. War with Gwaliar. 1. The Conquest of Kabul. Lord Ellenborough succeeded Lord Auckland as Govern or- General, and arrived in Cal- cutta in March 1842. It was now clearly seen that the people of Afghanistan preferred Dost Muhammad to Shah Shuja as their king ; indeed, Shah Shuja shortly after this was shot by the Afghans at Kabul, and his body thrown into a ditch. So the British Government determined that the Afghans should be severely punished for their treachery and hostility to the British army, but that in future they should be allowed to choose what king they liked without any interference from India. During the whole of the time occupied by the miserable retreat of the British army from Kabul described in the last chapter, and during the whole of the spring of 1842, a gallant little band of heroes, under a brave general, named Sale, had defended themselves in a ricketty Afghan fortress, called Jalalabad, against countless hosts of Afghans, under the murderer Akbar Khan. They had to contend against innumerable difficulties, for after they had slightly repaired the fortifications an earthquake threw them down again. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. But the 'Illustrious Garrison, as they have often been called, once more repaired the breaches in the walls, and not only defended the fort, but even sallied forth, routed Akbar Khan and his thousands of Afghans, and burnt their camp. Another little detachment of British troops held' out in like manner at Kandahar, under General Nott, all through the long winter and spring. At length, when the returning warmth of summer had melted the snow in the passes, and rendered it possible for an Indian army to march again into Afghanistan, General Pollock, at the head of a number of English soldiers and Indian sepoys, forced his way through the Khaibar Pass, which is the name of the very difficult and dangerous road over the mountains between Peshawar in the Panjab and Jalalabad in Afghan* istan. General Pollock soon rescued the ' Illustrious Gar- rison ' of Jalalabad, and then marched on against Kabul. Another army had been sent from India through the Bolan Pass (the road over the mountains into the north of Bilu- chistan, just south of Afghanistan) to rescue General Nott and his soldiers, who were in Kandahar, and General Nott being joined by this new army, took Ghazni, and utterly destroyed that fortress, and then marched on to meet Ge- neral Pollock at Kabul. The great bazar of Kabul was utterly destroyed, as a punishment to the Afghans for their treachery, and when all resistance throughout the country had been crushed, every important fortress captured, and the English prisoners rescued, it was determined to evacuate the country. The army marched back quietly through the dominions of the Sikhs to Firuzpur in British territory ; it had completely restored the glory of the English arms, and vindicated the honour of the English Government., Dost Muhammad and the other Afghan prisoners were set at liberty. 2. The Conquest of Sindh. During the troubles of the Afghan war, the Amirs of Sindh had shown many signs of hostility to the English, so Lord Ellenborough now deter- mined to teach them the folly of such conduct. 144 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO NOTE. Sindh, which is the part of India nearest to the Bolan Pass and Baluchistan, had been conquered in 1786 by a fierce tribe of Baluchi s from the mountains of Baluchistan on the western frontier. The Amirs of Sindh were the descendants of these Baluchi conquerors, and lived as feudal nobles in fortified castles, often cruelly oppressing the 'conquered people. They were at all times very jealous of the British power, and tried to prevent any trade being carried on between Sindh and the British Indian dominions. Sir Charles Napier was sent as Commander-in- Chief to Sindh, with orders to find out clearly whether the Amirs were really inclined to be friendly or hostile to the English. Soon afterwards, however, a large Sindh force attacked the house of Major (afterwards Sir James) Outram, and thus commenced the short Sindh war. Sir Charles Napier ut. terJy routed the Amirs and all their forces in two great battles, first at Miani and afterwards at Haidardbdd (both these towns are in Sindh). It was then decided that Sindh should be annexed to the British dominions, and that the Amirs should be sent to Benares as State prisoners. ThiS ex- tremely severe sentence was believed by many to be very unjust ; and it was thought that Lord Ellenborough ought to have restored the Amirs to power after punishing them for their treachery. As far as the poor inhabitants of Sindh were concerned, the change was certainly a most happy one, and the country has since greatly increased in wealth and prosperity. 3. War with Gwaliar. During the Afghan and Sindh wars, the Mahrattas in Gwaliar had been growing turbu- lent. There was an immense and highly-disciplined army there, and the young Sindia (every Maharaja of Gwaliar is tailed Sindia) was only a little boy. A quarrel as to who should be Sindia' s guardian and regent of Gwaliar now threat- ened to plunge Central India into the horrors of a Mah- ratta civil war, so Lord Ellenborough resolved to interfere, and marched two armies towards Gwaliar, expecting that the Mahrattas wculd immediately submit. The two divi- sions of the Gwaliar army, however, confident in their gi-eat numbers and their fine artillery, ventured to resist, and two THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 145 great battles were fought on the same day, December 20, 1843 ; one at Mahdrdjpur, and the other at Pannidr. In both of these battles the English arms were completely tri- umphant, and all the guns, ammunition, and treasures of the Mahrattas were captured. Ever since that period, tho Maharaja of Gwaliar has been a loyal feudatory of the Bri- tish Crown. Lord Ellenborough had had many differences of opinion with the Directors of the East India Company, and in Fe- bruary 1844i he was suddenly recalled. CHAPTER XXXI. LORD HARDINGE : AND THE FIRST sfKH WAR A.D. 1844 1848, 8 1. The First Sikh War. ^ 2. Social Reforms. 1. The First Sikh War. Since the death of Ranjit Singh in 1839, the Panjab had been in a dreadful state of anar- chy and confusion. There had been numerous assassina- tions amongst the survivors of Ranjit's family and Ministers of State, and many revolutions; and at last Dhulip Singh, the son of Ranjit by his favourite wife Chand Kaur, was set up as Maharaja. The great Sikh Sarda^ or Chiefs formed themselves into a Council of State, and the name of the 'Khalsa ' (the pure) was given to the whole Government. But in 1845 the disorder was as bad as ever, the Maharani Chand Kaur and the other Sikh leaders were all intriguing for supreme power, while the strong and well-disciplined Sikh army was turbulent and anxious for war. In the meantime, Sir Henry Hardinge (afterwards Vis- count Hardinge) had been appointed Governor-General ; he landed in India in 1844, and left it in 1847. He had greatly distinguished himself in the wars of Europe against the French, particularly in the Peninsular Wai> L 246 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO and in the great battle of Waterloo, where he had lost an arm. The new Governor- General refused to interfere in the affairs of the Panjab, and was sincerely anxious to maintain peace with the Sikhs ; when suddenly the Sikh army of its own accord invaded British territory by cross- ing the Satlej, which was at that time the boundary be- tween the English ard the Sikh dominions, December 1845. It is believed that the Sikh leaders induced their, army to do this in order to relieve themselves from the fear of its turbulence. Sir Hugh Gough, the Commander- in- Chief, joined afterwards by the Governor-General, immediately marched against the Sikhs, and though much inferior in numbers, within a fortnight drove them back across the Satlej, after two sanguinary battles at Mudki and Firiizshahr,* both of which places are near Firuzpur and close to the frontier of the Panjab. Unfortunately the English army was deficient in ammunition, in guns, and in stores of all kjnds, and consequently Sir Hugh Gough was unable fully to follow up the glorious victory of Firuzshahr. And in the meantime the Sikhs again crossed the Satlej in great force and with seventy guns. At length, however, Sir Harry Smith was sent forward with a small body of troops. He met Gulab Singh with a strong force of Sikhs at Baddiwal, but was unable to attack him, whilst the British troops suffered from the Sikh fire. This was regarded by the Sikhs as a victory; so Sir Harry Smith, having in the meantime obtained some reinforcements, marched out to attack the enemy on January 28, 1846, at ALIWAL. The British infantry, by their steady advance drove the Sikhs into the river ; the latter lost fifty-six guns and immense quantities of ammunition and stores of all kinds. Gnlab Singh, who had been very confident in the final success of the Sikh arms, now gave up hope, and commenced nego- tiations with the English leaders ; whilst the Cis-Satlej States immediately declared in favour of the British. * Often called in histories Ferozeshah. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 147 Sir Harry Smith, now formed a junction with Sir Hngh Gough ; and the latter determined to force the passage of the Satlej, and to take possession of the Panjab. The Sikhs had entrenched themselves on both sides of the Satlej, at SOBRAON, above Firiizpnr. The Commander- in-Chief, having received a siege-train from Dehli and plenty of ammunition and supplies, drew up his forces in the form of a crescent along the Sikh front, and commenced the attack before daybreak on February 10, 1846. For three hours there was a terrific cannonade on both sides ; and then Sir Hugh Gough ordered the British troops to charge the entrenchments of the enemy. Tej Singh fled ; but the aged Sham Singh, in white garments, devoted himself to death as a martyr for the Guru, and fell at length on a heap of his slain countrymen. Many thousands of Sikhs gallantly fell at their posts ; .-ind it was not till after two hours' fierce fighting at C!OL>J quarters that the shattered remnants of the Khalsa army fled in helpless confusion across the Satlej, under the deadly fire of the British artillery. Three days later (February 13, 1846) the whole British army crossed the Satlej ; and on February 14 Sir Henry Hardinge issued a proclamation, announcing the intentions of the British Government which were singularly moderate. An interview was accorded to Gulab Singh, the chosen representative of the Khalsa and the leading Sikh chiefs at Kasur ; and ultimately the young Dhulip Singh per- sonally made his submission, the citadel of Lahore wa> occupied by the British troops, and the conntry submitted on the terms imposed by the conquerors. Sufficient tre>- sure for the payment of all the war-expenses was noc forthcoming, so Kashmir and Hazara were retained ; and ultimately Kashmir was formed into an independent State under Gulab Singh of Jammu, who in return paid one million sterling towards this indemnity. 2. Social Reforms. After all these great and bloody Wars, in which the armies of Sindh, of Gwaliar, and of L2 X48 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO the Sikhs had been successively annihilated, India enjoyed peace for nearly two years ; and Lord Hardinge was able to apply himself to those humane efforts for the suppression of cruel customs, with which his name is honourably con, nected. The horrible crimes of thuggee, infanticide, sati, and human sacrifices were still prevalent in many parts ot India. Of the last the most important were the Meriah sacrifices in Gumsar, amongst the Khands and other ab- original tribes of Orissa, Gondwana, and the hills and forests of Central India. These are now suppressed. Free trade was at this time promoted by the abolition of octroi duties, that is, of taxes paid for importing food and other merchandise into some of the large towns of India. Lord Hardinge left Calcutta early in 1848. During his short administration he had gained the affections of all classes ; and his name will always be remembered with respect as that of a skilful and gallant soldier, and b no less able and beneficent politician. CHAPTER XXXII. LORD DALHOUSIE : THE SECOND SfKH WAR. A.D. 1848 1856. 1. The Second Sikh War. 2. The Annexations of Pegu, Nagpur. and Oudh. 3. Social Progress in India under Lord Dal- housie's rule. 1. The Second Sikh War. The Earl of Dalhousie was appointed to succeed Lord Hardinge, in the hope that he Avonld be able to secure peace to India after the recent bloody wars. His administration lasted from 1848 to 1856, nnd is chiefly famous for the vast additions made to the British Indian Empire, by the annexations of the Panjab, of Pegu in Burmah, of Oudh. of Tanjor, of Uagpur, of THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 149 Satara, and of Jhansi. The policy of increasing the British Empire in India by annexing other States, though not originated by Lord Dalhousie, was carried to the greatest extent by him. This policy was generally adopted out of pity for the oppressed inhabitants of the States annexed ; but it has long been abandoned by the Government. The turbulence of the Sikhs soon made it clear to the new Governor-General that another Sikh war was inevitable; and he determined to prosecute it with vigour, and to take possession of the Panjab, so as to render it impossible for the Sikh soldiery again to disturb the peace of India. The speech, which he is said to have made on coming to this conclusion, is a famous one : ' I have wished for peace ; I have longed for it ; I have striven for it. But if the enemies of India desire war, war they shall have ; and on my word, they shall have it with a vengeance ! ' The outbreak of the Sikhs began in Multan, where two British officers were assassinated and preparations made for defending the fortress ; and the flame of insurrection soon spread throughout the Panjab. A young English- man, named Lieutenant Edwardes (afterwards Sir Herbert Edwardes), who was stationed near Multan, immediately collected some troops and prepared to attack Multan ; and soon the Commander-in-Chief of the British army, Lord Gough, was in the field with a large force. Multan wa? taken by storm, and after a bloody and indecisive battle ai Chillianwallah, Lord Gough succeeded in utterly defeating the Sikh army in the victory of GUJARAT (February 1849), which is a small town in the Doab between the Chenab and the Jhelam. The Sikhs had been joined by a powerful body of Afghan cavalry, who had been sent to help them by Dost Muhammad, the old foe of the English. The battle of Gujarat was remarkable, because it was won almost entirely by the tremendous fire of the English artillery. For two days a terrific storm of cannon-balls and sheila pounded the Sikh lines, and cut down the brave Sikhs by thousands ; till at last the whole Sikh army fled before the English troops. All that remained were at last compelled 150 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO to give themselves up at various places in the Panjab as prisoners to the English. Amongst those who surrendered was Sher Singh, the chief Skh commander ; and a brave English General named Gilbert, who was one of the best of the leaders under Lord Gongh, chased Dost Muham- mad's Afghan cavalry across the Indus and as far as the entrance to the Khaibar Pass. Lord Dalhousie determined to annex the Panjab to the British Indian Empire, now that the Sikhs were thoroughly defeated ; for he saw that that brave people, as long as they were ill-governed, would be a continual source of trouble both to the Panjab and to Hindustan. The Maha- raja Dhulip Singh signed a treaty in full Darbar, by which he gave up the sovereignty to the English, receiving in return a large pension ; and he has since lived a quiet and useful life in England as an English landowner. The Panjab was put under the rule of a Board of English Com- missioners ; of whom Sir Henry Lawrence was the "chief, and his brother, John Lawrence (afterwards Lord Law- rence, and Governor-General of India) was the second. Ever since that time it has been well and justly governed ; the Sikhs have been some of the most loyal subjects of the British Crown, and the Panjab has rapidly grown in wealth and importance. 2. The Anneratious of Pegu, Ndgpur, and Oudh. Other annexations soon followed that of the Panjab. The second Burmese War, which broke out in 1852, was caused by the arrogance of the King of Ava, who was so foolish as to think that he might insult and injure British subjects with impunity ; and the result was, that all the maritime provinces of Burmah (called Pegu, which is now a part of the flourishing chief-coinaiassionership of British Burmah) were conquered and annexed in 1852 to the other pro- vinces that had been ceded to the English in the First Burmese War. In the following year, 1853, Ndgpur was also annexed, because the Mahratta Raja had died without heirs and without having adopted a son. THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 151 In 1856, the great and populous kingdom of Oudh was also annexed. By the treaty of 1801, it had been placed under the protection of the British, and the King had been guaranteed security as long as he ruled well and peaceably. But the Government had gone from bad to worse ; and the anarchy and oppression in Oudh had been such as to endanger the peace of the surrounding British districts. The sufferings of the people themselves were terrible ; and the British guarantee prevented their rising in insurrection with any prospect of success. Every dictate of humanity and prudence was in favour of annexation ; Lord Dal- housie advised it, with the unanimous consent of his Council. The Home Government ordered that the pro- vince should be annexed ; and the ex- king was transferred to Calcutta with a pension. 3. Social Progress in India under Lord Dalhousie's Rule. A wonderful degree of progress marks the adminis- tration of Lord Dalhousie, both in civilisation and material prosperity. The first Indian Railway was opened in 1853 ; and railways and telegraph-lines began rapidly to spread over the whole country. Vast schemes of education were set on foot ; Universities were ordered to be founded ; and the Presidency College in Calcutta was established in 1855. Gigantic schemes of Public Works, too, of a useful kind such as great public buildings, roads, and canals were planned, and large sums of money borrowed for them. The crime of extracting evidence from accused persons by torturing them was stringently put down; and earnest endeavours were made to do fnll justice to all classes in this great empire. Indeed, during the brilliant and vigo- rous administration of Lord Dalhousie, which lasted eight years, from 1848 to 1856, was thoroughly inaugurated that equitable and honourable system of governing India with a single view to the happiness and prosperity of the people which has been conscientiously followed up by every suc- ceeding Governor- General. Lord Dalhousie left Calcutta on the 6th of March 1856 152 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO His health was utterly broken down by his labours and anxieties, and he died within a few years ; but his fame will always endure as one of the greatest of the Governors- General of British India. CHAPTER XXXIII. LORD CANNING: THE SEPOY MUTINY. A.D. 1856-1862. 1. The Sepoy Mutiny, its Causes and Nature. 2. The Extent of the Mutiny. 3. The Fidelity of the Indian Chiefs and Peoples. 4. Summary of the Events of the Mutiny. 5. Meerut and Delhi. 6. Cawnpore. 7. Lucknow. 8. Sir Hugh Rose in Central India. 9. The Persian and China Wars. 10. The Abolition of the East India Company's Rule, 11. The Queen's Gracious Proclamation. A 1. The Sepoy Mutiny. Lord Canning was appointed to succeed Lord Dalhousie as Governor-General ; and he arrived in Calcutta on the 29th of February, 1856. The history of his administration is chiefly connected with the 'Sepoy Mutiny,' which broke out in 1857, and which resulted in the abolition of the rule of the East India Com- pany, and in the assumption of the direct government of India by Her Gracious Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India. The broad general points, in regard to the nature and causes of the great Mutiny, that should be remembered by the student, are: Except perhaps in Ondh, the rising was strictly a mutiny, not a rebellion i.e., it was an insurrection of traitorous soldiers of the Native Bengal Army, and was rarely joined in by any other part of the population except through fear or under compulsion. For some time the discipline of the Sepoy army had been lax; and some of the bolder among the Sepoys had grown to believe that the THE HISTORY OF INDIA, 153 rule of the East India Company depended on them alone. And then, a few clever intriguers, desperate men who hoped to gain by the anarchy and disorder which would follow the subversion of the British power, encouraged these foolish men to rebel ; and at the same time they aroused the pre- judices and the fears of the more ignorant among the Sepoys, by circulating absurd rumours regarding the in- tentions of the Government. The wicked men who thus deceived their poorer fellow- countrymen, and led them into disgrace and ruin, were in many cases those who hoped to regain that power of op- pressing their subjects that had been taken away from them by the Government. Perhaps the worst of all was the miscreant Dundhu Pant, called also the Nana Saheb, who will always be infamous as the author of the grea< massacre of helpless prisoners including 125 women and children, who were slaughtered and their bodies thrown into a well at Cawnpore. The Nana was the adopted son of the last Peshwa ; and, encouraged by a wily secretary named Azimullah, and a clever soldier named Tantia Topi, hoped to restore the power of the Peshwas over the Mah- ratta peoples. The old King of Delhi, too, and his sons though the family had long been pensioners of the Company enter- tained a foolish hope of being able to restore the Mughul dynasty. Some members of the family of the dethroned King of Oudh, and some of the Oudh chiefs, desired a return to the old days of despotic government and misrule in Oudh ; and a lady of that family, commonly known as the Begum of Oadh, proved one of the most obstinate of the rebels. Another lady, the Rani of Jhansi, believed she had just cause of complaint against the Government of the Com- pany ; and she, at a later stage of the Mutiny, in combina- tion with Tantia Topi, induced the troops of the Maharaja Sindia to rebel againt their Maharaja, who was a faithful supporter of the Government. 154 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO Joined with the foregoing were all those who were disaffected against the Government, all those who hoped for plunder, criminals who hoped to escape from justice, and debtors who hoped to kill their creditors. These com- bined to inflame both the patriotic and the religious senti- ments of the Sepoys, by circulating absurd rumours. They pretended that the Government intended to annex every native State in India, and to confiscate the land ; but what had most effect was the ridiculous pretence that the Government wished to destroy the religions of Hindus and Muhammadana, and to force all to become Christians. The educated could not believe these fables ; but the ignorant Sepoys were misled by them. Early in 1857 a new kind of rifle was introduced into the Indian Army, of which the cartridges (i.e., the packets containing the gunpowder and ball) had to be greased before they were put into the rifle to load it ; and the Sepoys were told by these wicked traitors that the cartridges had been greased with tne fat of pigs, so as to defile both the Musalmans and the Hindus. Other foolish stories were invented ; as, for example, that the flour served out to some of the troops for food had been adulterated with bone-dust. The story about the greased cartridges originated in Lower Bengal, but it soon spread to every military station in India. 2. The Extent of the Mutiny. The chief strength of the Mutiny was in the great military stations of Oudh and the North- Western Provinces, and the adjacent dis- tricts. During the height of the military revolt its centre was at first at Delhi ; then, for a short ti*ne longer, at Lucknow ; and subsequently in various districts of Central India, Oudh, and Rohilkhand. In the Panjab, the Sikhs, both chiefs and people, were splendidly loyal ; they showed the most conspicuous bravery in aiding to suppress the revolt ; and so also did many Pathans and other Panjabis. The Panjab contained a greater number of troops than any other province. But, fortunately, it was under the rule of Sir John Lawrence, THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 155 a statesman of great courage and ability ; and under him were some other equally able and devoted Englishmen, of whom the greatest, perhaps, was General John Nicholson. These men promptly disarmed the disaffected regiments among their troops, and sent the greater part of the English regiments and the loyal Sikhs and Panjabis to Delhi under General Nicholson. The Madras and Bombay troops were for the most part ' true to their salt,' and refused , to rebel. Some Madras regiments, almost unaided, repulsed a furious sudden attack that was made by some Rohilla desperadoes on the Residency at Haidarabad. And Lord Elphinstone, the Governor of Bombay, having suppressed all disturbances in the Bombay territories, was ultimately able to spare troops to aid in the pacification of Central India. The great State of Haidarabad in the south of India, with the exception of the above-mentioned outbreak, was maintained in loyal tranquillity, chiefly by the ability and fidelity of the Nizam's Prime Minister, Sir Salar Jang. In Lower Bengal the Sepoys at many of the military stations mutinied ; but they received no support from the Zamindars or the people, and generally dispersed to their homes without causing serious danger. 3. The Fidelity of the Indian Chiefs and Peoples. I have already spoken of the loyalty of the Sikhs and Panjabis, which was almost general throughout that pro- vince. Many of the Sikh Rajahs and Sardars armed their retainers, and put themselves at the disposal of the authori- ties. Conspicuous among them was the Raja Sir Randhir Singh of Kapurthala, and his valiant brother, the Sardar Bikram Singh. They established order throughout the Jalandhar Doab, and then volunteered for service in Oudh, whither they marched at the head of 2,000 men, and during a year's campaigning fought no less than six battles with the rebels. The Raja of Patiala sent his troops to Delhi, where they kept open the communications 156 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO along the Grand Trunk Road ; and he also sent contingents of Sikhs to Gwaliar and Dholpur. In Rajpntana, where the Government was represented by a brave and capable brother of Sir John Lawrence, named George Lawrence, many of the chiefs rendered valu- able aid to the cause of order ; and the Maharaja of Jaipur was especially zealous in his loyalty. So in Central India, the Maharaja Sindia of Gwaliar was conspicuous for his fidelity, which at one time exposed him to great danger from his own mutinous soldiers. In Oudb, on the other hand, many of the great chiefs thought themselves ill-nsed by the Government of the Company so recently established ; and the influence of the family of the deposed king was considerable. But, even here, several of the greatest Talukdars, of whom the chief was the Maharaja of Balrampur, put themselves at the head of their retainers, and fought against the rebels. The Ghurkas of Nepal, under Jang Bahadur, also*ren- dered efficient aid to the Government, and a powerful force of these brave troops helped in the capture of Lucknow and in the pacification of Oudh. I have already noticed the fidelity of Sir Salar Jang and the State of Haidarabad. 4. Summary of the Events of the Mutiny. The troubled time of the Mutiny may be divided into five sections, thus (1) The outbreak of the Mutiny at Meerut (or Mirath) on the 10th May, 1857 ; and the massacres of the Euro- peans by the Sepoys at Meerut, Delhi, Cawnpore, and elsewhere in Northern and Central India. (2) The Siege of Delhi (June to September), the storming of that fortress by the British troops on the 14th of September, and the complete conquest of the city by the 20th of September, 1857, before the arrival of the expected reinforcements from England. (3) The defence of the Residency of Lucknow by the English residents, and its first relief by the troops under Havelock and Outram, 25th September, 1857. THE HISTORY OP INDIA. 157 (4) The second relief of Lucknow by Sir Colin Camp- bell (afterwards Lord Clyde) in November, 1857; thearrival of reinforcements, and the suppression of the Mutiny in Oudh and the neighbouring districts of Hindustan, during the latter part of 1857, and the early part of 1858. (5) The campaigns of Sir Hugh Rose (afterwards Lord Strathnairn) in Central India ; the death of the Rani of Jhansi, the capture of Tantia Topi, and the destruction or flight of the other rebels, in 1858. The last mutineers were driven into the jungles of Nepal early in 1859. 5. Meerut and Delhi. When the outbreak of the Mutiny occurred at Meerut, three Bengal regiments re- volted, murdered all the Europeans they came across, burnt the bungalows, and then marched away to Delhi. In another part of the station there was a large European force ; but, either through some mistake, or else by the unaccountable folly of the General, nothing was done to stop or punish the rebels. At Delhi they were joined by the troops there, who committed the same atrocities, and then proclaimed the old Mughul King of Delhi as Padishah of India. In most of the other military stations of that part of India, similar scenes of horror were enacted. The Sepoys very generally professed loyalty, and their English officers refused to suspect them ; until at last, led astray by the pre- vailing epidemic, the Sepoys suddenly rose, murdered the Europeans and burnt their houses, seized the treasury, broke open the gaol, plundered the bazaar, and marched off to Delhi, looting as they went. This was the usual course of the atrocities. In June 1857 a small force of British troops appeared before Delhi, and the siege nominally began. But within were gathered an immensely superior force of rebels, sheltered behind the stupendous walls of that vast fortress, and furnished with inexhaustible supplies of ammunition and stores. At length, however, some heavy guns arrived 158 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO for battering the walls ; and in August, General Nicholson appeared on the scene, with the reinforcements from the Panjab. In the assault that followed, on September 14th, Nicholson fell mortally wounded ; but he was the real captor of Delhi. The old King of Delhi was captured, brought to trial, and transported across the sea to Rangoon, where he afterwards died. Two of his sons and a grand- son were shot, and most of the leaders of the mutineers were either shot, or hanged, or blown away from cannon. 6. Cawnpore. I have already referred to the most horrible tragedy of the Mutiny, the Cawnpore massacre.. Here a large number of Europeans, including 125 women and children, had surrendered to the vast army of the Sepoys under the Nana Saheb, on a promise of safe conduct from the latter as far as Allahabad. But the men had no sooner got into their boats than they were fired on by the rebels, and exterminated ; only four strong swimmers suc- ceeded in escaping, by swimming down the Ganges,*until they were rescued by the loyal Raja Digbijai Singh of Murarmau. The women and children were kept close prisoners for a further term, and were at last hacked to pieces and their mangled remains thrown into a well, just as Havelock's victorious force was approaching to punish the murderers. 7. Lucknow. A little earlier than this tragedy, and soon after the commencement of the siege of Delhi, a struggle, perhaps the most glorious of the whole war, commenced at Lucknow. Sir Henry Lawrence, brother of Sir John Lawrence and G-eorge Lawrence, was the Chief Commissioner of Oudh ; and was one of the ablest and most heroic men that India has ever known. He had made some preparation for the coming danger by strength- ening the defences of the Residency, and by storing it with ammunition and provisions ; and thither he brought, at the beginning of July, all the European residents with their wives and children, together with a few faithful Indians. The whole country round was crowded with THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 159 armed rebels ; but the handful of heroes in the Residency held out for nearly three months, though overwhelmed by the most dreadful privations and sufferings. Sir Henry Lawrence had been killed by the bursting of a shell, only a few days after the beginning of the siege but the defence was still maintained with the utmost gallantry. At length Havelock, after having thrice crossed the Ganges, and after having gained innumerable victories, forced his way through the besieging force, and got into Lucknow on the 2 5th of September. The chivalrous Sir James Outramhad been sent to take command of the relieving army, but he generously refused to supersede Havelock until the city had been relieved ; and thus the latter had the pleasure of himself accomplishing that for which he had dared and endured so much. He had not sufficient force, however, to bring away the garrison, and had to sustain a second siege until finally relieved by Sir Colin Campbell (after- wards Lord Clyde) in November, 1857. 8. Sir Hugh Rose in Central India. During the year 1858, the Mutiny was gradually crushed in all quarters, and the remaining bands of mutineers were everywhere hunted down, and killed or dispersed. This work was carried out in Ondh and Rohilkhand, where alone the population had joined the rebellions troops, with great patience and efficiency by Lord Clyde. And at the same time Sir Hugh Rose had been selected to lead an army from Bombay, which marched up and down through the length and breadth of Central India, captured Tantia Topi after he had long evaded pursuit, and defeated the Rani of Jhansi, who fell gallantly fighting at the head of her troops. The loyal Maharaja Sindia was restored to his throne, and the rebellious Gwaliar contingent, with all the other remnants of the mutinous forces, were finally conquered and punished. 9. The Persian and China Wars. Two short foreign wars, one against Persia and the other against China, had been waged during 1857 by British Indian troops. The 160 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO English arms were entirely successful in, each case ; and the wars were only of importance because the conclusion of the Persian expedition, and the fact that English troops were passing near India on their way to China, opportunely furnished the Calcutta Government with reinforcements to send to the disturbed districts in the North-West of India. 10. The Abolition of the East India Company's Rule. One of the results of the troubles and dangers of the Sepoy Mutiny was that the English Parliament determined that the British Empire in India should no longer be left in the hands of the East India Company ; but that it should be placed directly under the control of Her Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, and should be governed by a Viceroy (or representative of the Queen) in India, and by a Secretary of State in .England. In consequence of this change, Lord Canning became the first Viceroy of British India, and every Governor-General now bears that higher title. 11. The Queen's Gracious Proclamation. One of the last public acts of Lord Canning was the bestowal of Sanads on the Feudatory Princes of India who had dis- tinguished themselves by their loyalty to the British Crown. By these Sanads the Indian Chiefs were constituted feudal Princes of the Indian Empire, and were guaranteed the peaceable enjoyment of their dominions and all their rights and privileges, including the right to adopt a son and heir in case of failure of male issue, provided that they faith- fully fulfilled all the promises they had made to the British Government, and maintained their loyalty to their Gracious Sovereign. The Proclamation by which Queen Victoria took the millions of India under Her Gracious protection, and pro- mised to govern them according to those beneficent maxims which have always distinguished British rule, was trans- lated into all the vernacular languages of India, and was read in every station and in every native Court on the 1st of November, 1858. Her Majesty's kind words, full of THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 161 grace and dignity, doubtless did much to reassure the minds of the people, and to convince them that the inten- tions of their English rulers were as just and benevolent as their military strength had recently proved to be irresistible. The closing words of that Proclamation are especially memorable : ' When by the blessing of Providence the internal tranquillity shall be restored, it is Our earnest desire to stimulate the peaceful industry of India, to pro- mote works of public utility and improvement, and to administer its Government for the benefit of all Our sub- jects resident therein. In their prosperity will be Our strength, in their contentment Our security, and in their gratitude Our best reward. And may the God of all power grant to Us, and to those in authority under Us, strength to carry out these Our wishes for the good of Our people.' CHAPTER XXXIV. THE VICEROYS OF INDIA UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN. A.D. 1588 1900. 1. Lord Canning and Lord Elgin. 2. Lord Lawrence and Lord Mayo. 3. Lord Northbrook. 4. Lord Lytton. 5. Lord Eipon. 6. Lord Dufferin. 7. Lord Lansdowne. 8. Lord Elgin and Lord Curzon. I. Lord Canning and Lord Elgin. The restoration of peace and order in 1859 enabled Lord Canning to turn his attention to internal reforms ; and in the years 1860 and 1861 respectively, he passed into law the famous Penal Code that had been originally drafted by Macaulay, and the Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure. In 1859 had been passed a great Rent Act for Bengal known as Act X, of 1859 which was intended to protect the culti- vating tenant from unjust enhancement of rent by the Zaminddr ; it produced much litigation between landlords and their tenants in Bengal, and opinions differ as to its M 162 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO merits as a reform. The last remark will also apply to the provisions of the Police Act, passed by Lord Canning in 1861 ; bnt all this legislation was introduced by the Viceroy from the most benevolent motives. Lord Canning retired in March 1862. He died almost immediately after his arrival in England, and was buried in Westminster Abbey which is the highest honour that can be paid to a deceased Englishman. Lord Elgin succeeded ; but died at Dharmsala in the Himalaya mountains after a brief rule of eighteen months. An expedition against the Wahabi fanatics on the Hazara frontier of tho Panjab was the most important event of his Viceroyalty. 2. Lord Lawrence and Lord Mayo. Lord Elgin was succeeded by Sir John Lawrence, who had so greatly dis- tinguished himself in the Panjab during the Mutiny ; after his retirement he was created Lord Lawrence, and after his death he received the same honour as that which had been paid to Lord Canning. During his reign there were serious disturbances in Afghanistan, and the Russian Power made great advances towards that country. Lord Lawrence, however, refused to take any active part in the politics of Afghanistan or Central Asia. His policy in ;hat respect, commonly called ' the policy of masterly inac- tivity,' has been greatly blamed by some, and greatly praised by others; but subsequent events have rendered it obsolete, and Afghanistan is now avowedly under British influence. A short war in 1864 against Bhutan resulted in the annexation of the Bhutan Dooars. In 1866, the province of Orissa was attacked by a terrible famine ; and owing to the lack of railways and other means of communication by which grain might have been rapidly transported, a great loss of life occurred. Lord Lawrence retired early in 1869, and was suc- ceeded by Lord Mayo, who was an exceedingly popular Viceroy with all classes, and especially beloved by the Indian Feudatory Chiefs. Shortly after his arrival he THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 163 received the Amir Sher AH of Afghanistan in a splendid Varbdr at Ambala ; and in the following winter His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of the Queen, made a most successful tour through India. Lord Mayo introduced some important reforms into the financial, fiscal, and agricultural administration of India ; and was busily elaborating many other schemes of usefulness, when, to the grief of the whole Empire, he was assassinated by a convict at the Andaman Islands, when returning from an official visit to Burma in 1872. 3. Lord Northbrook. Lord Mayo's reforms had called attention to the great importance of Indian finance ; and his successor, Lord Northbrook, was chosen because he was one of the greatest authorities on that subject. The period of his rule was rendered especially memorable by the visit to India of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, the heir to the Imperial Throne, during the winter of 1875-76. The Prince's arrival was hailed with the greatest cordiality and enthusiasm by all classes of the Indian population, and especially by the Chiefs and the men of education ; and His Royal Highnesa's kindness of manner, and the deep interest he evinced in everything concerning the welfare of the people, made him exceedingly popular in every part of the country. The Royal visit had a valuable political effect, in greatly encouraging that sentiment of personal loyalty which has always been a conspicuous feature of the Indian character. Aided by Sir Richard Temple, then Lieutenant- Governor of Bengal, Lord Northbrook had succeeded, by the liberal expenditure of public money, in enabling the people of Bengal to meet a terrible famine, with which that province was afflicted by reason of the great drought of 1873. The only other event of first-rate importance that occurred during this Viceroyalty was the trial and deposition of the Maharaja Malhar Rao, Gaekwar of Baroda. The Gaekwar had long misgoverned the great State committed to his charge, and was accused of attempt- M 2 164 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO ing to poison the British Resident; fortunately for Baroda, he was succeeded by the present Gaekwar, whose rule has been a benevolent and successful one. 4. Lord Lytton. Lord Northbrook retired in 1876, and was succeeded by Lord Lytton, who had been a dis- tinguished English diplomatist, and was the son of the eminent novelist and statesman, best known as Bulwer Lytton. Long before this period, the power of the British Indian Government had been universally recognised as paramount throughout the vast continent of India. But though, by virtue of this unquestioned right, the Qaeen of England was the supreme ruler of a mighty Empire, including within its borders many great and ancient king- doms and principalities, yet in name India had hitherto been only a settlement or dependency of England. This inconvenient arrangement produced many anomalies. It was by no means pleasing to the self-respect of the Indian princes, who really held towards the supreme head of the Empire the same relative position as that held by the princes of Germany towards the German Emperor, Taut who nominally had no better or more honourable position than the savage chiefs of some petty settlement. And the people of British India naturally preferred to be the sub- jects of the Empress of India, rather than of a foreign potentate. So it was now resolved that the title of the supreme head of the Government should be altered, so as to correspond with the actual facts, and that the relations of the Indian princes to the Empire should be put on a definite and honourable basis. On January 1, 1877, Her Majesty was proclaimed Empress of India in a Darbdr of unprecedented magnificence, styled the Imperial Assem- blage. This Darbar was held at Delhi, as the ancient capital of the overlords of India, both in Hindu and in Muhammadan times ; and it was attended by all the greatest princes of full age from every part of India, and by vast numbers of the most distinguished men of every THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 165 community. Most of the Chiefs received additions to their titles, and other suitable honours and rewards ; and some were created Councillors of the Empress, and others Generals in the British Army. On the same day the Imperial Proclamation was read, amidst general rejoicings and with the strongest manifestations of enthusiasm and loyalty, in every district of India. In 1877-78, the whole of the country from Eajputana in the north to Travancore in the south was afflicted with a terrible famine, which was especially severe in Madras, Mysore, and the Deccan districts of Bombay. Extra- ordinary efforts were made by the Government to meet this distress, on which was spent eleven crores of rupees in providing food for the people. The Lord Mayor of London opened a fund, and collected subscriptions in England for the same benevo/ent object ; and considerably more than a crore of rupees (820,000?.) was subscribed by the Queen, the Royal Family, and the people of England, and sent out as a gift to the suffering Indians. It is worthy of notice that every colony of the British Empire sub- scribed liberally to this fund about ten lakhs were given by the people of Australia alone. And help also came from the provinces of India not afflicted by the famine; among the rest, the college students of Bengal sent their contributions. Tet, notwithstanding all this public and private generosity, the distress was so widespread, and so difficult to reach by even the most lavish expenditure of money, that very large numbers died of starvation, espe- cially in Madras and Mysore. The later years of the Viceroyalty of Lord Lytton were mainly occupied with the great Afghan war, which has ultimately resulted in the establishment at Kabul of a prince approved by the British Government and pledged to accept British guidance in all matters of foreign policy. The war, which broke out in 1878, was rendered necessary by Russian intrigues. The Amir Sher Ali, though he had been on such friendly terms with Lord Mayo, was now so 166 AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO foolish as to receive a Russian embassy with honour, and to refuse to receive a British Indian embassy. War was declared, and our armies advanced on Kabul simultaneously by three routes, through the Khaibar Pass, the Knrain Pass, and the Bolan Pass (see Chapter I.). The Amir fled northward, hoping to escape to Russian territory ; but he died in Afghan Turkestan. The first part of the war was terminated by the Treaty of Gandamak, signed in May 1879, by which Sher Ali's son, Yakub Khan, was acknowledged as Amir, and certain districts ceded to the Paramount Power. A British Resident, Cavagnari, was sent to Kabul ; but in the autumn of the same year, 1879, he was murdered with his escort by an insurrection of some Afghan regiments so once more condign punish- ment had to be inflicted on the Afghans. The British foi-ces advanced into the country, and occupied Kabul and Kandahar; and Yakub Khan was compelled to abdicate, and was sent as a State prisoner to Masuri. * Early in 1880, Lord Lytton retired, and was created Earl of Lytton and Viscount Knebworth, in recognition of his services to the Empire. 5. Lord Ripon. Lord Ripon was appointed to succeed Lord Lytton. Soon after his arrival in India, the very unusual event occurred of a British force being defeated at Mai wand by Aynb Khan, who claimed to succeed Yakub Khan as Amir of Afghanistan. This disaster was, how- ever, promptly avenged, The famous march of Sir Frede- rick Roberts (now Lord Roberts) from Kabul to Kandahar, to punish Ayub, is one of the most brilliant military achievements of the age. Ayub was utterly routed and put to flight, on September 1, 1880 ; and the present Amir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman, was placed on the vacant mas n ad. Lord Ripon's Viceroyalty is chiefly famous for the great extension of local self-government that was effected by his endeavours (bee Appendix, Part II.) . He also abolished the import duties on cotton goods, and carried out other THE HISTOKY OF INDIA. 167 reforms. Much difference of opinion arose in regard to one of Lord Bipon's legislative proposals, commonly called * the Ilbert Bill,' from the name of the Secretary to Govern- ment, Mr. Ilbert; but, fortunately, a compromise was ultimately arrived at, that satisfied all parties, and thus a most regrettable dispute was put an end to. Lord Bipon devoted much attention to the important question of averting that terrible scourge of modern India, famine ; and with this purpose he gave a wise and liberal encouragement to the extension of Indian railways. He sent a contingent of Indian troops to Egypt in 1882, to fight side-by-side with English troops in the war there. These native troops greatly distinguished themselves ; and after the conclusion of the campaign, some of them visited London before returning to India, and were received by the English people with great cordiality and enthusiasm. Lord Bipon left India in 1884, much regretted by the people, to whom he had greatly endeared himself. 6. Lord Du/erin. Lord Dufferin, who had already been Viceroy of Canada, succeeded Lord Bipon in the autumn of 1884, and his Viceroyalty is chiefly remarkable for the annexation of Upper Burma, and for the celebration, with extraordinary rejoicings throughout India, of the Jubilee (or fiftieth anniversary) of the reign of Her Majesty. Early in 1885, Lord Dufferin received the Amir of Afghanistan in a grand Darbdr at Rawalpindi in the north of the Panjab ; and during the period of his rule such measures were taken by the Viceroy arid his Commander- in-Chief, Lord Boberts, for the strengthening of the Afghan frontier, that all danger of invasion from the side of Bussia is believed to be at an end. At a time when trouble with Bussia seemed imminent, his Highness the Nizam of Haidarabad wrote to the Viceroy a most friendly and loyal letter, offering large monetary aid in the defence of the Empire, and promising to take the field in person if it should be necessary. 168 AN EAST INTRODUCTION TO The misconduct of Thebaw, King of Burma, so gravely threatened the peace of Lower Burma and the prosperity of the Empire, that it was resolved in 1885 to dethrone him and annex his territory. General Prendergast took Mandalay, the capital, without any difficulty ; the ex-king was deported to India, and the whole of Burma incorporated in one Chief Commissionership on January 1, 1886. Sub- sequently, on May 1, 1897, this rich and flourishing Pro- vince was proclaimed a Lieutenant- Governorship. The Viceroy on his retirement was created Marquess of Dufferin and Ava. 7. Lord Lansdowne. The Marquess of Lansdowne, who had already been Viceroy of Canada, succeeded Lord Dufferin in 1888. The completion of the defences of the Afghan frontier, and the establishment of a strong force, called the Imperial Service Corps, equipped and main- tained by the great Feudatory Chiefs of the Empire for frontier defence, were the chief events of Lord Lansdcwne's rule. A short-lived insurrection in Manipur, in which occurred the massacre of the Chief Commissioner of Assam and some other British officers, as well as a number of gal- lant Ghurka sepoys, was promptly suppressed and sternly punished ; the Senapati of Manipur, who was primarily responsible, being hanged for his crime. In 1892 an Act was passed in the English Parliament to increase the numbers of the Imperial and Provincial Legislative Councils ; and Lord Lansdowne subsequently tentatively introduced the elective system into the compo- sition of those Councils, by permitting the universities and other public bodies to nominate representatives therein (see Appendix, Part II). In the State of Mysore a repre- sentative assembly, duly elected by the people under the auspices of the Mysore Government, meets every year to discuss the affairs of that State. And in British India, an unofficial assembly called the National Congress, consisting of delegates elected to represent various centres of educa- tion throughout the Empire, has met annually, about 100 INDIA SHOWING THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS and Places of Historical hitei-est with tilf lltulwtty I'lttinininirntitmx . THE HISTORY OF INDIA. 169 Christmas time, for some years past, to debate certain political and social questions. 8. Lord Elgin and Lord Curzon. In the year 1894, Lord Lansdowne retired, and was succeeded by the Earl of Elgin ; and Lord Elgin was succeeded in 1898 by the present Viceroy, Lord Curzon of Kedleston. The events of these two Viceroyalties are too recent to be fitly dis- cussed in this work ; but it is satisfactory to note that the moral and material progress of India has continued in a marvellous manner, notwithstanding severe visitations of famine and plague. APPENDIX. PABT I. ANCIENT: AND MODERN POLITICAL DIVISIONS, AND PLACES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST. 1. Modern Political Divisions British India and Feudatory States. 2. The Thirteen Provinces of British India. 3. The Feuda- tory States. 4. Petty Foreign Settlements. 5. Ceylon. 6. Ancient or Popular Divisions of India. 1. Modem Political Divisions. India at the present day, in its political constitution, may be regarded as a Federation of Governments and States, all in more or less direct subordination to a central Supreme Government under the Viceroy and Gover- nor-General, the representative of Her Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, Empress of India. This Federation may be divided into two parts (a) British India, and (b) Feudatory States. (a) British India. British India consists of those Provinces which are directly administered by British officers, who are imme- mediately subordinate to the Supreme Government of India. They are now THIRTEEN in number, comprising an area of about 944,992 square miles, and containing a population in 1891 of 221,000,000. In these Provinces the head of the Government is called, in some a Governor, in others a LiButenant-Governor, in others a Chief Commissioner, and in others a Resident. The Pro- vinces of British India are: (1) Bengal, (2) the North- Western Provinces and Oudh, (3) the Panjab (or Punjab), (4) British lialuchistan, (5) Bombay, including Sind and Aden, (6) Central Provinces, (7) Ajmir, (8) Barar, (9) Madras, (10) Ooorg or Kurg, (11) Assam, (12) Burma (or Burrnuh), (13) the Andaman Islands. NOTE. British India was formerly divided into the three ' Presi- dencies ' of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras. These divisions are now almost entirely obsolete. APPENDIX. 171 (4) Feudatory States. The other States of the Indian Empire are ruled by Indian princes, under the protection and general control of the Supreme Government. These States are hound by treaties, in return for this protection, to render certain feudal services to the Paramount Power; as, for instance, in some cases, to furnish a certain number of troops in time of war. The princes are usually autocratic, or nearly so, within their own limits ; but by their engagements to the Paramount Power, they are generally bound to good government, and to submit the conduct of their external relations to the Imperial Government. Including all the petty feudatories, there are no less than 460 such States in various parts of India, comprising an area estimated at 600,000 square miles, and containing a population estimated in 1891 at about 66,000,000. The intimacy of the relations with the Paramount Power varies in the different States. In the more important a British officer, called a Resident or a Political Agent, is stationed ; whose functions broadly are, to act as the medium of communication between the Prince and the Supreme Government, and to advise the Prince in matters of moment. In this sketch we can only notice a few of the most important of the Native States. Those that are attached to the Governments of Bengal, the North- West Provinces, the Panjab, Bombay, and Madras, will be briefly noticed in the several accounts of those Governments. The others fall into six geographical groups : (1) Rajputana ; (2) the Central India Agency ; (3) Haidarabad ; (4) Mysore ; (5) the Frontier States of the northern mountain-zone (Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal) ; (6) the Frontier States of the western mountain-zone (Kabul or Afghanistan, Kalat or Baluchistan). Altogether outside the federation of the Indian Empire are a few petty French and Portuguese settlements, which will be noticed separately. 2. British India. It will be convenient to take the thirteen Provinces of British India, not in the order of their size or im- portance, but according to their geographical position, beginning in the extreme east, and coming westward. (a) Burma (or BurmaK). The great Lieutenant-Governorship of Burma is altogether outside India Proper, and occupies the country between India and China, in the Asiatic Peninsula called ' Further India,' east of the Bay of Bengal. It consists of the great inland kingdom of Upper Burma, annexed in 1886 ; and the three 172 APPENDIX. rich and fertile provinces of Arakan, Pegu, and Tenasserim, on the eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal, forming together Lower Burma. Arakan is adjacent to the extreme eastern limit of Eastern Bengal ; Pegu consists of the lower valleys of the great rivers Irawadi, Sitang, and Salwen ; and Tenasserim is a long narrow strip of sea-coast running southward from Pegu. Upper Burma lies between these maritime provinces and the frontiers of Assam, Thibet, China, and Siam. The chief places of interest in Burma are Rangoon, the capital of Pegu, and the seat of the Government of Burma, a flourishing port of 180,000 population, situated on one of the mouths of the Irawadi called the Rangoon river. It has a large export trade in rice and timber. Mandalay, the capital of Upper Burma, and for some time the residence of the Kings of Burma, had a population in 1891 of 188,815. It is situated on the upper course of the Irawadi. Bhamo is a town near the frontier of China. Moulmein, the chief town of Tenasserim, is a fine port, built on a small peninsula at the mouth of the Salwen river; its population (1891) is over 65,000. Akyab, the capital of Arakan, is a port on an island of the same name at the mouth of the Kuladan rirer. * The Burmese are a bright and cheerful race, connected with the Chinese and other allied peoples of Eastern Asia. The tribes on the frontier are chiefly Shans, among whom there are a great many Feudatory Shan States. (b) Assam. Assam consists of the valleys of the Brahmaputra and Surma rivers, with some adjoining hill-tracts. Until tbe beginning of 1874 Assam formed a part of the Lieutenant- Governorship of Bengal ; but it is now separate, and is governed by a Chief Commissioner. The following are places of interest in Assam: Gauhdti, the present chief town of Assam, in the Kamrup district; it was anciently called Pragjaitispur. Ghargaon, the ancient capital of Assam, now called Nazirah, in the Sibsagar district. Shillong, in the Khasi Hills, the residence of the Government of Assam. Assam contains an area of 49,000 square miles, and a popula- tion (in 1891) of nearly 6 millions. It is the chief seat of the tea-growing industry of India. Attached to this Government is the Feudatory State of Manipur, and a good many small Feudatory States in the valleys of the Khasi and Jaintia hills. (c) Bengal. West and south-west of Assam is the great Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, the largest and by far tha APPENDIX. 173 richest and most populous province of India. It consists of Bengal Proper, including the delta* and the lower valley of the Ganges ; Bihar, higher up on the Ganges ; Chutia (or Chota) Nagpur, which is the hilly country south of Bihar and west of Bengal ; and Orissa, which lies south-west of Bengal, and stretches down for a little way along the upper coast of the peninsula of South India. The Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal is sometimes called the Lower Provinces of Bengal. It contains about 151,000 square miles, and (in 1891) about 72 millions of people ; that is, about three-fourths of the area, and nearly double the population, of France. The following are places of interest in Bengal : 1. BENGAL PROPER. In the district of the twenty-four Parganahs, Calcutta, with a population in 1891 (including Howrah and the suburbs) of 978,000. In Nadiya or Krishnagar district, Nadiya (the old Hindu capital of Bengal), near the junction of the Bhagbirathi and Jalangi rivers, and Plassey or Paldsi, on the Bhaghirathi. In Bardwan, Bardwan. In Hugli, Hugli, Chinsurah, Chandernagar, Safgaon (formerly the capital of Bengal, now a small village close to Hugli). In Murshidabad, Murshidabad (formerly called Makbsusabad, the capital of the Nawabs of Bengal), and Kcisimbazar. In Malda, Gaur, or Lakhnauti, the ancient capital of the Mubammadan Kings of Bengal, now in ruins ; and Great Panduah, alfo in ruins. In Dacca, Dacca (Dhaka, called by the Muhammadans Jahangirnagar'), and the ruins of Sunargaon. In Chittagong, Cha.tga.on or Chittagong, called by Muhammadans Islam- abad. 2. BIHAR. In Patna district, Patna, the ancient Palibothra or Pataliputra, capital of the empire of Magadha. In Shahabad, Arrah, Baxar, Chausa, Sahsardm, and the fortress of Rohtas. In Tirhut (anciently called Mithilj,) is Hajipur, on the confluence of the Ganges and the Ghandak, opposite to Patna. In Hunger, Hunger. In tho Santal Parganahs, Rajmahal (formerly called Akmahal), and Teliagarhi (formerly a famous fort). 3. ORISSA. In the district of Katak or Central Orissa, Katak or Katak Banaras, on the river Mahanadi, the capital of Orissa ; and Jajpur, the ancient capital. In Purl, or Southern Orissa, Puri or Jagannath. In Balasor, or Northern Orissa, Balasor. 4. CHUTIA NAGPUR. Eanchi is the chief town, and Hazaribagh is a military station. Parisnath is a sacred hill of the Jains. * The delta of a river is the land between its mouths, i.e. between the various branches by which it falls into the sea. 174 APPENDIX. Attached to the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal is the Feudatory State of Kuch Bihar, on the lower slopes of the Himalaya mountains; and a large number of Feudatory chief- taincies in Orissa and Chutia Nagpur, called the Orissa Tributary Mahals and the Chutia Ndgpur Tributary Mahals respectively. (d) The North-Western Provinces and Oudh. West of Bihar, and higher up the valley of the Ganges, is the country called the NORTH- WESTERN PROVINCES and OUDH, ruled by a Lieutenant- Governor. It includes the provinces of Benares and Gorakhpur, adjoining Bihar; those of Allahabad, Agra, and Mirath, following one another successively as we go higher up the valleys of the Ganges and its great feeder, the Jamnah ; Jhansi, south of Agra and Allahabad; Rohilkhand, stretching north of Agra towards the Himalaya mountains; and Kumaon, a hill- district on the spurs of the Himalayas north of Rohilkhand. The following are places of historical interest in the North-West Provinces: In the Benares division, Benares (Banaras, population in 1891, nearly 220,000), Ghazipur, Chanar (a famous hill-fort in the Miwapur district), and Jaunpiir. In the Allahabad division, Allahabad (the capital of the province, situated at the confluence of the Jamnah and the Ganges, formerly called Prayaga), and Cawnpore (Kanhpur). In the Agra division, Agra (and near Agra are Fathpur Sikri and Chandwa or Firuzabad) ; Kanauj, formerly called Kanyakubja ; and Mathura. In the Meerut (or Mirakh) division, Meerut. In the Jhansi division, Jhansi. In Rohilkhand, By nor (the scene of Kalidasa's great drama, Sakuntala). Attached to the Lieutenant-Governorship of the North- Western Provinces, and nearly shut in between Rohilkhand on the west and Gorakhpur on the east, is the small but rich and populous province of OTTDH, formerly governed by a Chief Com- missioner. It stretches from the Ganges on the south to the Himalaya mountains on the north. The following are places of historical interest in Oudh : In Central Oudh, Lucknow (Lakhnau), the capital of the province. In Eastern Oudh, Ayorfhyd (the birthplace of Rama), near Faizabad. The NATIVE STATES attached to this Government are the Rohilla State of Rampur, and the Himalayan State of Garhwal in Kumaon. The North- Western Provinces are so called, though APPENDIX. 175 in the centre of Northern India, because they formed the north- west portion of the old Bengal Presidency before the annexation of the Panjab. Including Oudh, they contain an area of 107,503 square miles, and (in 1891) nearly 47 millions of people ; that is, nearly the area of Italy, and nearly the population of the German Empire. (e) The Panjdb. Proceeding from Agra up the valley of the Jamnah, we come to the city and province of Delhi or Dehli, which is now annexed to theLieutenant-Governorship of the PANJAB. The Panjab Proper includes the upper valley of the Indus, and derives its name (Panj-db = Five rivers) from the Jive tributaries of the Indus viz. the Satlej,the Biah or Bias, the Ravi, the Chanab, and the Jhelam or Bahat. Attached to the Panjab are many important Feudatory States, of which the chief are : (1) Kashmir, occupying a fine valley in the Himalayas north-east of the Panjab ; (2) Kapurthala ; (3) the Cis-Satlej States of Patiala, Jhind, and Nabba, called Cis-Satlej States because they are on this (i.e. the Calcutta) side of the Satlej. The following are places of historical interest in the Panjab : In the Dehli division, Dehli (population, in 1891, nearly 200.000) ; and (north of Dehli) Karnal and Panipat. In the Ambalah divi- sion, north of Dehli, TJianeswar, on the Saraswati, with the village of Tiraori and the field of Kurnkshetra near at hand ; Machhiwara, Aliwdl, and Sirhind, all near Lodiaria. In the Jalandhar division, Kdnyrah or Nagarkot. In the Lahor division, Lahor, the capital of the province, with a population (in 1891) of nearly 177,000; and (south of the Satlej) Firuzpur, Firitzshahr, Mudki, and Ro- brdon. In the Kawalpindi division (the country called Taxila by Alexander and the Greeks see Chapter V.), Attack (or Afak), on the Indus ; Gujarat (the town near which the Sikhs were defeated by Lord Gough in 1849 see Chapter XXXII. not to be confounded with the Province of Gujarat, on the west side of India); and Chilianwallah. In the Peshawa-r division, Peshawar (an important town beyond the Indus, on the frontiers of Afghanistan ; between Peshawar and Afghanistan is the famous Khaibar Pass, a difficult road through the mountains see Chapter XXX.) Southward, in the Multan division, between the Satlej and the Chanab, Multan. The Lieutenant-Governorship of the Panjab, excluding Kash- mir, but including the other Feudatory States, contains an area of nearly 150,000 square miles, and a population of over 25,000,000; 176 APPENDIX. that is, about three-fourths of the area, and half the population, of the German Empire. (/) British Baluchistan. West of the Panjab and of the Sind division of Bombay, and separated from them by lofty mountain regions connected with the Suleman and Hala ranges, is the Province of BKITISH: BALUCHISTAN, under the government of an Agent of the Governor-General. This territory consists of Pishin and six other mountainous districts of Afghanistan, ceded to India by the Treaty of Gandamak (see Chapter XXXIV.) ; together with the town and district of Quetta and the Bolan Pass, assigned to British administration by the Khan of Kalat. At- tached to the Provinces are the various tribal chieftains of Balu- chistan, under the suzerainty of the Khan (or Wali) of Kalat ; the most important of these sub-feudatories is the Jam of Las Bela. The total area of Baluchistan is about 130,000 square miles ; its population is about 500,000. The places of interest in Baluchistan are Quetta, an important military station commanding the approach to India through the Bolan Pass from Kandahar and Western Asia ; Kalat, the residence f the Khan; and Las Bela. The Bolan and Sind-Pishin railways have been constructed through most rugged mountains, and are regarded as triumphs of engineering. (g) Bombay.- The Governorship (or Presidency) of Bombay, with the numerous Feudatory States attached to it, occupies most of the west of India ; and extends from the frontiers of the Panjab to those of Madras and Mysore. Its northern portion is called Sind, which consists of the lower valley of the river Indus, and is separated from the rest of the Presidency by the Feudatory States of Gujarat and Kutch (or Kach). Gujarat consists of the peninsula of Kathiawar, divided among a large number of Feudatory Chiefs, and the adjacent territories of Western India, of which a large area is occupied by the great Feudatory State of Baroda, governed by His Highness the Maharaja Gaekwar. Kutch (or Kach) is separated from the mainland by a shallow arm of the sea, called the Rann of Kach, which is dry in the hot weather; it is governed by His Highness the Rao of Kutch. The southern portion of the Bombay Presidency consists of: (1) Gujarat; (2) the Konkan, including the island of Bombay and much of the adjacent mainland ; (3) Maharashtra, or the APPENDIX. 177 country of the Mahrattas, lying inland, and separated from the Konkau by the range of hills called the Western Ghats; (4) Khandesh, also inland, east of Gujarat and north of Maharashtra ; and in the extreme south, North Kanara, adjoining Mysore and the Madras Presidency, and separated from the Konkan by the small Portuguese territory of Goa. All these Provinces, except Gujarat, belong to South India, forming the western side of the Great Indian Peninsula. Including Sind, the Presidency has an area of over 125,000 square miles, and a population (in 1891) of nearly 19 millions ; that is, an area nearly as large as that of Prussia, and a population greater than that of Spain. The following are places of historical interest in the Bombay Presidency : In Gujaral , Surat. In the Konkan, Bombay, with a population, in 1891, of 821,764. TJianah (or Tanna), on the island of Salsette, north- east of Bombay ; and Basscin, north-west of Thanah. In Maharashtra, Puna (or Poona), long the capital of the Mahrattas ; near it, KhirJd and Fort Purandhar ; Ahmadnagar, the capital of the Nizam Shahi kingdom; Bijdpur, the capital of the Adil Shahi kingdom ; and Saldra, the capital of Sivaji's descendants. In North Kanara, Hondwar or Honorc. In Sind, Haidarabad, the capital; near it Miani and Amarkot; Tatta, the ancient capital of Sind ; and west of Tatta, the great port of Karachi. (h) The Central Provinces. South-west of the Bengal districts of Chutia Nagpur, and bounded on the north by the Feudatory States of the Central India Agency, on the west by the Bombay Presidency, on the south by Barar and Haidarabad, and on the south-east by the Madras Presidency and Orissa, is the Chief Commissionership of the CENTRAL PROVINCES. NOTE. Students will do well to distinguish clearly between the British territory known as the ' Central Provinces,' and the Feudatory territory (or group of Feudatory States) lying to the north thereof, which is known as ' Central India ' or the ' Central India Agency ' [see 3 (Z)]. The term Central India is sometimes loosely used to include both these vast regions. The Central Provinces consist of three territories historically distinct the Sdf/ar and Narbadd territories in the north (ceded by the Raja of Nagpur in 1818), Nagpur in the south (annexed by Lord Dalhousie in 1853), and the Tributary Mahals in the east. There are a good many Feudatory States attached to the 178 APPENDIX. Government of the Central Provinces, with a total area of over 29,000 square miles, and a population exceeding 2,000,000 ; of these States the largest is Bastar, which is larger than Belgium. Including these States, the area of the Central Provinces is about 110,000 square miles, with a population (in 1891) of nearly 13,000,000 that is, the area is much bigger than that of Great Britain, while the population is nearly half that of England. In ancient times the Central Provinces formed the kingdom of Gondwana, the country of the aboriginal Gonds. At present the Gonds and other aboriginal tribes are estimated to number about one-fourth of the population ; and many of the local Rajas or Thakurs are Raj- Gonds by descent. The capital is the city of N&gpur, with 117,000 inhabitants in 1891, formerly the seat of the Mahratta Rajas of Barar. Near it is Kamthi, a large cantonment of British troops. Jabalpur is a great railway centre, with a population of 85,000. In the district of Nimar, in the Narbada Commissionership, is Burkdt/pur, the capital of the old Kings of Khandesh ; and neat it is the famous fortress of Asirgarh. The country generally is rather thinly peopled, most of it being elevated upland and forest ; but it is rich in mineral resources, having very valuable coal-mines, and has grown into great importance as a cotton-growing region. (f) The Bardrs. Soutli and west of the Central Provinces and east of Khandesh in Bombay lies the territory called the Bardrs or the Haidarabad Assigned Districts, at present under direct British rule, the chief officer of Government being the British Resident at Haidarabad This territory was handed over tempo- rarily to the British Government by the Nizam of Haidarabad in 1853 as security for debts. Its area is 17,718 square miles; its population in 1891 nearly 3,000,000. Barar is a corruption of Vidarbha, the ancient name of the country. The province is divided into the two Commissionerships of East and West Barar. In the district of Ilichpur in East Barar is Ilichpur, the capital, and the fortress of Gawilgarh. In the district of Akola, in West Barar, are Arqiwn, und the ruins of Shahpur. The southern part of Barar is called Balaghat. (j) Madras. THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY occupies all the eastern coast of the Indian peninsula (called the Coromandel coast) as far north as Orissa, in Bengal ; all the southern portion of that peninsula, and a part of the western coast (called the APPENDIX. 179 Malabar coast). It has an area of 141,189 square miles, and a population in 1891 of nearly 36,000,000 ; that is, ib is consider- ably larger and more populous than Prussia. The north-eastern districts, bordering on Orissa, are called the Northern Circars; the eastern and southern districts are the Carnatic, the western are Malabar and South Kanara. Attached to the Madras Presidency are some Feudatory States, of which the chief are Trarancore, occupying the southern corner of the Indian peninsula, and Cochin, on the Malabar coast, north of Travancore. The following are the chief places of historical interest in the Madras Presidency : In the Northern Circars, Gumsur, Masulipatam, Guntur. In the Carnatic, Madras, with Chingalpat and Conjeveram near it, Arcot, and in the same district Vellor and Wandewash. In South Arcot, Cuddalore, the ruins of Fort St David, Ginji, Porto Novo, and the French town of Pondicherry. In the district of Trichinopoly, Trichinopoly, and the island of Srirangam. In the district of Tanjore, Tanjore ; and in that of Madura, Madura. In Malabar, Calicut, Cannanore, and the Palghat Pass. ID South Kanara, Mangalore. (K) Coorg. Coorg (or Kurg) is a small hilly territory, situated between the Malabar districts of Madras and the south-west of the Mysore State. It was, until March 1881, under the rule of the Chief Commissioner of Mysore and Coorg ; but is now administered by the British Resident in Mysore. The land is generally more than 3,000 feet above sea-level ; and with the Madras district of the Waindd (or Wynaad), is the seat of an important coffee and tea- growing industry. The chief town is Merkara. (I) Ajmir. AJMIK is a small British district in the centre of Rajputana. It is under the rule of the Agent of the Governor- General for Rajputana. (TO) The Andaman Islands. The Andaman and Nikobar Islands are two groups in the Bay of Bengal, opposite Tenasserim. They are ruled by a Chief Commissioner under the Government of India ; and in the Andamans is the great penal settlement to which convicts are transported from all parts of India. Port Blair, the capital, has the melancholy interest attached to it of having been the scene of the murder of Lord Mayo, who was here stabbed by an Afghan convict. The native Andamanese, supposed to number about 10,000, are savages of the lowest type, and are N 2 180 APPENDIX. reputed to have cannibalistic propensities. The Nikobareans are little better ; and one of the chief reasons why these islands are held by the Indian Government is to suppress the piracy and wrecking for which they were famous. 3. The Feudatory States of India. The chief Feudatory States attached to the various Provinces of British India have already been noticed. "We will now consider the six geographical groups of Feudatory States mentioned in 1. (a) JRdjputdna. South of the Panjab and west of the North- Western Provinces is the great group of Native States called Rajputana, or the country of the llajputs. It consists of eighteen Feudatory States, governed each by its own ruler (under the pro- tection of the Supreme Government) as a Prince of the Empire. The Supreme Government is represented by Residents or Political Agents in the various States or groups of States, and all these British political officers are subordinate to ' the Agent of the Governor-General for Rajputana,' who resides at Mount Abu in the south-west, and who is immediately responsible to the Supreme Government. There is also one district, already noticed which is directly administered by British officers. The Aravali Hills form a diagonal of Rajputana, from north-east to south-west. North and west of this line the country is more or less desert, though with many comparatively fertile patches, becoming more and more sandy and rocky to the north-west, where it forms part of the Great Indian Desert. East and south of the Aravalis the country, though much more fertile, is ou the whole hilly, until the plains of Bhartpur are reached, where Rajputana joins the North-West Provinces. The fastnesses of these hills and deserts were the refuge of some of those tribes and dynasties that had been dominant in the great empires of Northern India before the Muhammadan conquest : thus, the Maha- rana of Udaipur, the head of the Sesodia sept of the Gehlot clan of llajputs, is the direct representative of the Gehlot princes of Vallabhi in Kathiawar, who ruled an extensive empire in Gujarat from the begin- ning of the fourth to the end of the sixth century of the Christian era: and the Maharaja of Jodhpur or jMarwar is in like manner the repre- sentative of the Rahtor princes of Kanauj. When the dominant Rajput clan lost its dominion in the fertile districts of Hindustan, the whole or a part of the clan usually marched off westward and carved out a new and poorer lordship in Rajputana. There they have retained their clanship, their hold on the land, and their semi-feudal institutions to the present day ; and from the development of the States thus APPENDIX. 181 formed, or from sections or offshoots of them, all the chief Rajput States of Rajputana derive their origin. In them the land is held by the clan ; political status is measured by kinship with and purity of descent from the original conquerors; and the prince rules as the head of the clan. There, are, however, three non-Rajput States Bhartpur and Dholpur being Jats, and Tonk being Muhammadan : all these have had a modern origin the Nawab of Tonk is the descendant of the Pindari leader Amir Khan, who was guaranteed this principality by the Marquess of Hastings, on his submission in 1817. Rajputana contains about 130,000 square miles, and (in 1891) over twelve millions of inhabitants ; that is, it is nearly the size of Prussia, and contains about four times the population of Switzerland. Besides the people of Rajput descent, who form the aristocracy owning (and often also cultivating) the land, there are many other cultivating tribes or classes, of whom the Jats and the Gujars are the most numerous. In the last century nearly all the banking trade of Northern India was in the hands of natives of Rajputana, called by the name Marwaris; and wealthy and enterprising Marwaris are still to be found as bankers and merchants in most of the large towns. There are also in Rajpu- tana a large number of more or less uncivilised aboriginal tribes, of whom the chief are the Bhils, forming a large proportion of the total population in some of the wilder parts of the country. And there are some tribes that claim to be descended from a mixed parentage, partly Rajput, partly aboriginal, of whom the best known are the Mers or Mhairs, from whose numbers an excellent corps of the British Indian army has been recruited. Jaipur is a large and handsome city ; and that State (whose Maha- rajaisthe illustrious chief of the Kachwaha clan of Rajputs, and formerly a member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council) has always taken a pro- minent part in Indian history, and is at the present time one of the most progressive parts of Native India. In the Jaipur State are situated Amber, the former capital ; and Santanbhur, an historical fortress. In Maiwar or Udaipur, is Udaipur, the present capital of the Maharana of Udaipur, who is called the ' Sun of the Hindus,' and is regarded as the prince of highest lineage in India : his palace is placed on a ridge overlooking a most romantic and beautiful lake. Eastward is Chitor, formerly the capital of the State, and the renowned fortress successively taken by Ala-ud-din and by Akbar. Jodhpur, the capital of the State of that name, is a fenced city in the desert, containing nearly 70,000 inhabitants. In Alwar (or Ulwar), north of Jaipur, is Ldswdri, the scene of Lord Lake's crowning victory over the Mahrattas in 1803, which terminated the second Mahratta war. In Bhartpur is J&artpur, the capital and a fortress once deemed impregnable, but 182 APPENDIX. stormed by the British forces under Lord Combermere in 1826 ; and Dig, the scene of the defeat of Holkar's troops by the British in 1804. In Jhalawar is Gagron, the site of a fortress famous for Eana Sanga's great victory over the forces of Malwa in 1519. In Sirohi is situated Mount Abu, a sacred hill both for Hindus and for Jains, and the residence of the ' Agent of the Governor-General for Rajput ana,' who is the immediate representative of the British Government in this province. Rajputana, though sparsely populated and comparatively somewhat backward in general prosperity, is historically one of the most interesting provinces of India ; for therein have remained, more or less intact, and under the suzerainty of the successive conquerors of India, the only modern survivals of the most ancient forms of Hindu rule. (b) The Central India Agency. East of Gujarat and Rajputana, partly in Hindustan and partly in the Deccan, is the great group of Feudatory States known as the Central India Agency, so called because the representative of the Paramount Power is called * the Agent of the Governor-General for Central India.' The Agency comprises the seventy-one feudatories of Malwa, Bundelkhand, and Bajrhelkhand, with an area of nearly 80,000 square miles and a population (in 1891) of more than ten millions. The most important States are : (1) Gwalior (Gwaliar), or tke dominions of the Maharaja Sindia, in several detached portions, but aggregating an area greater than that of Holland and Belgium together ; (2) Indore, the dominions of the Maharaja Holkar, comprising a large part of Malwa ; (3) Bhopal, the dominions of Shah Jahan Begum ; and (4) Rewah, and the States of Bundelkband and Baghelkhand, south of the North- West Provinces and west of Chutia Nagpur in Bengal. In the territory of Sindia are : Gwalior, the capital, with its famous fortress (the state prison of the Mughul emperors), and the Lashkar or standing-camp ; near it, Mahdrdjpur and Paniar, the scenes of the battles in which Sindia's forces were defeated by the British in 1843 ; Ujjain, one of the most ancient and sacred cities of India, the capital of King Vikramaditya, and the first meridian of Hindu geographers ; Kimach (or Neemuch), a great British cantonment ; and Bhiha, famous for its Buddhist ' topes.' In Holkar's dominions are : Indore, the capital ; Mahidpur, near Ujjain, the scene of the defeat of Holkar's forces by the British in 1817 ; APPENDIX. 183 and Man (or Mhow), a great British cantonment. In Bhopal are : Raisin, a fort captured by Sher Sur ; and Sehore, a British cantonment. (c) Haidarabad. South of the Barars are the dominions of the Nizam of Haidarabad, the first Feudatory of the Indian Empire. They occupy the centre of the Deccan peninsula, being 1 cut off from the sea by the Bombay Presidency on the west and by the Madras Presidency on the east and south ; and the Nizam is often called the Nizam of the Deccan. In size and population the State of Haidarabad is nearly equal to the Central Provinces. Haidarabad (or Hyderabad), the capital, is on the Musi, a tributary of the Krishna ; it contains a population (in 1891) of over 400,000, with a large foreign element consisting of Arabs, Habshis (or Abyssinians), Rohilla and other Afghans, generally descended from or connected with the mercenary troops formerly largely employed by the Nizam's Government. Secunderabad, five miles north of Haidarabad, is the largest British cantonment in India the barracks and other buildings for the troops extending for a distance of four miles ; near it is the Husain Sagar, a tank or artificial lake several miles in circumference ; and further away is Bofdram, the chief cantonment of the Nizam's troops. North-west from Haidarabad lies Golkondah, formerly the capital of the Kutb-Shahi kings, and once famous fur its diamond mines. In the north-east is Warangal, once the capital of the Hindu empire of Telingana. Bidar, on a tributary of the Godavari, was the capital of the Barid-Shahi dynasty; and near it is Kulbargah or Gulbargah, formerly the seat of the Bahmani kings, and now an important railway junction on the line between Bombay and Madras. Kharki was the capital of Malik Amber ; it is now called Aurangabad, from Aurangzeb, who was subahda,' of the Deccan in the reign of his father, Shah Jahan. A little west of Aurangabad is Deogiri or Deogarh, now called Daulatabad ; a few miles to the north- west is Ellnra, famous for its cave-temples, and to the east is the battle-field of Assai. (cT) Mysore. In the southern-central part of the peninsula, south of the Haidarabad territory, and separated from it by some Madras districts called the Ceded Districts, is the great Feudatory State of Mysore. It is under the rule of the Maharaja of Mysore, and ranks as one of our most important Feudatory States. Until March 1881, Mysore had been for many years under the direct administration of a British Chief Commissioner ; but at that time full sovereignty was restored to His Highness the late Maharaja. It occupies a lofty tableland, with an average elevation of 3,000 feet. 184 APPENDIX. The capital is Mysore, with a population (in 1891) of over 74,000 ; and near it is the famous Seringapatam, the capital of Haidar Ali and Tippu, its fortress now almost in ruins. Bangalore, with a population (in 1891) of 180,000, has a large British cantonment, and enjoys a cool and pleasant climate. Other places of historical interest are Bednor and the hill-fortress of Nandidrug. Kolaris the centre of an important gold-mining industry; and in the north-western district are m.iny coffee-plantations. (e) The Frontier Hill States. In the valleys and slopes of the Himalayas are four Feudatory States, of which one, Kashmir, is a Feudatory attached to the Panjab. The others are Bhutan, in the Himalaya slopes north of Assam and Bengal ; Sikkim, in those north of Bengal ; and Nepal, in the slopes aud valleys north of Bengal, the North- West Provinces, and Oudh. On the frontiers of the Panjab and Sind, from the confines of Kashmir round to the sea near Karachi, there are a large number of wild or semi-civilised tribes, who either assert a savage independence or own an uncertain allegiance to military rulers at Kabul in Afghanistan, at Kaldt in Baluchistan, and sometimes at other centres. Of late years the most important of these chiefs has usually been the ruler of Kabul, called the Amir or Wall of Afghanistan [see Chapter XXIX., 1] ; and -besides the country of Kabul proper, and the Kohistdn, or mountain regions adjoining, the Amir of Kabul has for some time succeeded in holding in subjection the provinces of Ghazni and Kandahar southward, Herat and the rich and fertile valley of the Harimd westward as far as Persia, with some extensive possessions north of the Hindu Kush range, known as Afghan Turlristan. The Khan of Kalat is the chief ruler in Baluchistan. 4. Petty Foreign Settlements. There are three small Portu- guese settlements in India, namely, Goa (area, 1,062 square miles; population, 863,000), a town and district between the Konkan and North Kanara; Daman, a town in the British district of Surat (population, 33,000) ; and Diu, an island near the peninsula of Kathiawar (population, 10,000). There are also five petty French settlements, of which the chief are the town of Pondicherry, south of Madras (population, 363,000), and the town of Chandernagar, between Hugli and Serampore, on the river Hugli (or Hooghly), above Calcutta (population, 22,000). APPENDIX. 185 6. Ceylon. Oeylon is geographically an Indian island, though it has no political connection with the Indian Empire, as it is an English Crown colony, and is ruled by the English Government in London through a Governor, and not by the Viceroy of India. It is a little smaller than Ireland, with a population of over 3,000,000. The native name is Singhala, but the Hindus call it Lanka, and the Muhammadan name (in Arabic) was Sildn, of which the English name Ceylon is only another spelling. The Maldive Inlands, to the north-west, are tributary to Ceylon, as the Laccadives are to Madras. 6. Ancient or Popular Divisions of India. The administra- tive divisions of the Indian Empire, as given above, have in modern times altogether superseded the old divisions, both Hindu and Muhammadan. Many of these ancient divisions, however, are of considerable historical importance. It will be well for the student to know something about them, and also something about some divisions that still exist in the language of the people, though unrecognised officially. The chief divisions of the Mughul Empire in the time of Akbar (called Siibahs, the jurisdiction of a Subahddr or viceroy) are given in the map at page 57. In addition to this may be noticed, as Muhammadan divisions, the following : Jharkhand (jungle-land'), the northern part of Gondwana, closely corresponding to the modern Chutia Nagpur in Bengal. EoJiilkhand (the country of the immigrant Rohilla Afghans), "which is also a modern division of the North-West Provinces, west of Oudh. Bundelkhand (the country of the Bundela Rajputs), which is also a modern name, including the southern portions of the North- West Provinces, and the adjoining native States ; with Baghelkhand (the country of the Baghela Kajputs), east of Bundelkhand. Sambhal, which was an earlier name for the western part of Eohil- khand and some adjoining districts. Mewat, in Mughul times famous as a land of turbulent freebooters, was south-west of Delhi, and included most of the modern State of (Uwar in Kajputana. Dodb (the land of two rivers) is applied to all countries between too rivers which unite ; but the Doab generally means the country between the Ganges and the Jamnah. The Mughul Subah of Lahore, with parts of those of Delhi and Multan or Sind, form the modern Punjab. 186 APPENDIX. The Mnghnl Subah of Kabul seems to hare included Eastern and Southern Afghanistan and Eastern Baluchistan. In earlrer Musalman times, Afghanistan was divided into (1) KHlji or Ghilji, the country of the Khilji Afghans, between Kuram and Ghazni ; (2) Boh, the country of the Rohilla Afghans, between Ghazni and Kandahar; (3) Ghor, the country of the Ghori Afghans, between Balkh and Merv, north of the Hindu Kush mountains. Some of the most interesting Hindii divisions of very ancient times are the following : Kamrup was Lower Assam. Madra was Bhutan and Upper Assam. Odra or Utkala was Orissa. Anga, Banga, Varendra, Bard, Bagri, were divisions of Lower Bengal (Banga-des). Vriji was the earliest name of Tirhut in Bihar ; which was after- wards the kingdom of Mithila, and was probably also included in the realm of Vaisali. The centre of the great empire of Magadha was in Southern Bihar. Kashi was the Benares country ; north-west of it, to the Himalaya, was Kapila, or Kapilavastu. Panchala was Rohilkhand and the adjacent districts. The great Andhra, kingdom of Telingana (with its capital at War- angal) had its centre in the north-east of the Deccan (Haidarabad territory), and extended at times over the eastern part of the penin- sula. The portion of this empire adjacent to Orissa was called Kalinga, and was often independent. The vast territories of Kosala or Mahakosala extended from the western confines of Telingana and Kalinga to the eastern bounds of Malwa (then called Ujjayini or Ujjain, from its capital) and of Maharashtra. Vidarbha was Barar. Virata was a kingdom in the north east of Rajputana. Taxila (or Takshasila} was a city and realm in the north of the Panjab, conquered by Alexander, and visited by the Chinese pilgrims. Saurashtra (called by Muhammadans Sorath) was Kathiawar ; and once formed the centre of the great Vallabhi empire of Gujarat, and contained the capital Vallabhi. The extreme southern corner of the peninsula (now Travancore) was called Malakuta ; and north of this was a large territory called Dravida (whence the term ' Dravidian languages '), with its capital at Conjeveram (Kanchipuram). Tho Konkan is the term formerly applied- (and still in use) to the low country between the Western Ghats and the sea, in its northern APPENDIX. 187 part ; and Malab&r is the southern part. The similar low country on the eastern coast is called, in the north, the Northern drears ; and in the south, the Carnatic. PART II. INDIA IN 1900. 1. Races and Languages. 2. Religion. 3. Public Instruc- tion. 4. Agriculture. 5. Forests. 6. Mines. 7. Manufactures. 8. Commerce. 9. Railways. 10. Existing Forms of Imperial, Provincial, and Municipal Government. 1. Races and Languages. A large number of different races inhabit the great country of India, who are most easily distin- guished by the various languages which they spea^. It should be noticed at first, that, of the Muhammadans that are to be found in all parts of India, some are descendants of the old Afghan or Pathan conquerors of India [see Chap. IX.] ; others are descendants of the later Mughul conquerors \_see Chap. XII.]; a few are Persian, Arabian, or African immigrants ; but the ma- jority are only descended from converts, and do not differ in point of race from the rest of the population. They, however, generally speak some dialect or other of the Urdu or Hindustani language, which is formed of Persian mixed with the vernacular languages. The rest of the population may be divided broadly into Aryan- Hindus and Aborigines in the north of India, and into Dravidian- Hindus and Aborigines in the south. The aboriginal tribes are found in the hills and forests of every part of India. Thus there are the Santals, in Bengal ; the Bhars, in the North-West Provinces and Oudh ; the Gakkhars, in the Panjab ; the Gonds, in Central India ; the Bhils, in Bombay and Rajputaua; the Tudas, in South India; and many others. Many of the lower castes in all parts of India are largely mixed with aboriginal tribes. By far the most numerous and the most important part of the population of India consists of the Aryan-Hindus in the north, and the Dravidian-Hindus in the south. The precise relationship, if any, between these two races has never been settled ; it is gene- rally believed that the Hindus of Southern India do not belong to the great Aryan race at all, but are more nearly allied to the aboriginal tribes. The Aryan-Hindus are connected by descent with the chief nations of Europe (see Chap. II.) The languages spoken by the 188 APPENDIX. PUSHTU OR INDIA SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION Of? LANGUAGES STANFOKOS GEOGl CSTAST 55 APPENDIX. 180 different branches of the Aryan-Hindu race are all derived from the Sanskrit, with more or less admixture from other sources. Of these branches, the chief are : (1) the Jimdi-speaking people, in Bihar, the North- West Provinces, Oudh, and the Central Pro- vinces ; (2) the Bengalis, in Bengal and parts of Bihar, Orissa, r-nd Assam, the Assamese language itself being very closely allied to Bengali ; (3) the Mahrattas, speaking Marathi, in the Bombay Presidency, the Central Provinces, the Central India Agency, and the Barars; (4) the (rw/araYz'-speaking people, in the Bombay Presidency and the adjacent parts of Rajputana ; (5) the Uriyds, in Orissa and the adjacent parts of the Central Provinces and the Madras Presidency; (6) the Punjabis, in the Panjab; and (7) the Smdhians, in Sindh. The Dravidian races are: (1) the Telugus, in the northern portions of the Madras Presidency and in the east of the Nizam's dominions; (2) 'the Tamils, throughout the southern portion of the peninsula, speaking the Tamil language in the South Carnatic and Travancore, and the Malayalim dialect of that language in Malabar and Cochin ; (3) the Kanarese, in Kanara and other western portions of the Madras Presidency, and also in Mysore and Coorg, and throughout a considerable part of the Nizam's dominions. 2. Religion. The religion of the great majority of the inha- bitants of India is the Hindu. According to the census of 1891, out of a total of 288 millions, those who follow one form or another of the Hindu religion number no fewer than 208 millions ; while the Muhammadans are 57 millions. There are over 7 million Buddhists, but nearly all of these are in Burma, where, out of a population of 7 millions, nearly 7 millions profess that religion. It is, however, noteworthy that in some of the Shan States of Burma there are more Hindus than Buddhists. There are 2 million Sikhs, nearly all in the Panjab; while, of the 1 million Jains, about two-thirds live in Rajputana and the Bombay Presidency. There are about 00,000 Parsis, of whom nearly 77,000 live in the Bombay Presidency. Of the 2% million Christians, Madras contains more than 1^ million; while of the 17,000 Jews, over 13,500 live in Bombay. 3. Public Instruction. The census returns of 1891 show that, out of a population of 288 millions, about 246^ millions can neither read nor write. More than 12 millions are able to read 190 APPENDIX. and write-; and considerably over 3 millions are under instruction in the various schools and colleges of the country. There are 5 universities, those of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Allahabad, and the Panjab ; and the great extension of academic instruction, since the founding of the University of Calcutta by Lord Dalhousie in 1855, is shown by the fact that there are now 160 colleges, with over 18,000 students. About 3,000 under- graduates, on an average, annually enter the University of Cal- cutta, and about 2,000 that of Madras ; while over 1,000 enter Bombay University yearly, and nearly 1,000 each those of Allahabad and the Panjab. There are over 143,000 schools, and more than 4 million scholars ; and about 600 of the schools are technical schools, including some of the most important medical schools in the world. There are 598 newspapers published in the vernacular languages, 17 different languages being thus represented in the Indian Press. 4. Agriculture. Out of 288 millions of inhabitants, nearly 200 millions are engaged in agricultural or allied pursuits. The largest crop is that of the millets and inferior food-grains ; ,pext to which comes rice, and then wheat. More than 20 million acres are at present under wheat cultivation, chiefly in the Panjab, the Central Provinces, the North- Western Provinces, and Bombay ; and much of this wheat is exported. Cotton and oil-seeds respectively occupy about 10 million acres each ; the former being chiefly grown on the black cotton soil of the Barars and the adjacent districts of Bombay, Madras, and Central India. Agriculture is encouraged by the Government, by (1) great systems of irrigation, (2) model and experimental farms, (3) takdm advances to cultivators i.e., advances of money at a low rate of interest for minor agricultural works and the improvement of estates, and (4) the introduction of new crops or improved varieties of the old crops. Sugar-cane is largely grown, and much sugar is also obtained from the sugar-palm. The cocoanut-palm produces both cocoa- nuts and coir (for matting, cordage, &c.), while " toddy " (or tart) is tapped from the Palmyra palm, the leaves of which are also used, with those of the talipot-palm, for the manufacture of fans. The betelnut-palm is cultivated for the sake of the nut, which ia commonly chewed. Millions of bamboos are yearly exported from the North- APPENDIX. 191 Western Provinces down the Ganges. The commonest species has stems forty to eighty feet high, which are used for every purpose in which lightness and strength of wood are required. Tobacco, opium, tea and coft'ee, indigo, and jute are also important crops. Two intoxicating drugs, called bhang and ganjd, are made from two varieties of hemp. Lentils (ddl) and many forms of melon are largely cultivated for food ; while a kind of bean (dhdnd or channa) is chiefly grown as food for cattle, horses, and sheep, though it is sometimes eaten by the people. 5. Forests, There is a State Department charged with the duty of preserving and improving the forests of India. Teak is the best timber, and is largely cultivated ; it grows wild on the Western Ghats, in the north-east of the Deccan, and in Burma. Sal is a timber-tree that often grows to the height of 100 feet. The beautiful and fragrant sandal- wood is indigenous in Mysore and some other parts of Southern India. The deodar, or Himalayan cedar, is abundant in the Himalaya and other mountains ; and the beautiful rhododendrons and tree-ferns are characteristic of the higher mountain-slopes. The large fig-trees, such as the banyan and the sacred pipul, abound in India. The former is well known for its habit of dropping roots from its branches, which strike upwards as well as downwards on reaching the ground, so that one tree becomes a grove. Another valuable fig-tree is the indiarubber-tree, which grows wild in the jungles of Assam ; the indiarubber, or caoutchouc, flows from its aerial roots. 6. Mines. The mineral wealth of India lies mainly in its magnificent coal-seams, its salt-mines, and iron-fields. There are four great groups of Indian coal-fields (1) those of the Rajmahal hills and Damudar valley, near Raniganj, in Bengal ; (2) those in Chutia Nagpur and Rewah ; (3) those in the Narbada valley and the Satpura hills ; and (4) those in the valleys of the Godavari and Wardha. Iron occurs in many parts, and is found in immense quantities in Salem (Madras), at Lohara in the Chanda district of the Central Provinces, in Bundelkhand, in the Narbada valley, and elsewhere. The salt mines and quarries of the Salt Range in the Panjab are unequalled for richness in the world 192 APPENDIX. Gold is mined in Mysore, and a few other places. Copper, lead, silver, and antimony are found largely in the Himalayas ; while in Tenasserim there are vast deposits of tin. 7. Manufactures. Some of the manufactures for which India was once famous such as that of the fine muslins of Dacca have nearly died out. But in other manufactures and especially in that of cotton goods and jute the expansion of late years has been marvellous. One of the first cotton-mills in India was erected by Sir Dinshaw Petit, Baronet, about the year 1855 ; and now, in less than fifty years, there are nearly 200 mills, with about 4 million spindles, at work. There are also at least 26 jute-mills, mostly in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, employing a large number of handsand an immense capital. The shawl manufacture of Kashmir and the Panjab is famous throughout the world ; so is the Indian art- work in silver ; and there are many similar industries. The other considerable manufactures are sugar, indigo, silk, and opium. 8. Commerce. The external sea-borne commerce of India in the year 1834-35 was about 14 crores ; in the year 1897-*98 it was about 199 crores having increased on the average 20 - 11 per cent, every year 1 The exports are chiefly the raw products mentioned above wheat, rice, oil-seeds, cotton, opium, jute, tea, indigo, coffee, raw wool, hides, and skins. During the year ending March 31, 1898, the largest exports were rice and jute (raw), which were taken to the value of over 21 crores, largely to England. Of late years, however, there has been a rapidly increasing export of manu- factured cotton, jute, and silk goods, chiefly to China and Australia. By far the largest import is that of cotton goods from England, which in the year 1897-98 were valued at more than 28 crores. Next in value came the imports of metals, hardware, and cutlery (7 crores in value) ; silk (.3 crores) ; oils (over 4 crores) ; sugar (nearly 5 crores) ; woollen-goods, railway plant and rolling-stock, nearly 3 crores ; machinery and mill-plant (nearly 3 crores) ; chemicals, provisions, and apparel, each about 1J crores. There is also a considerable land trade across the frontier, with Afghanistan, Thibet, Central Asia, China, and Siam ; amounting altogether to over 9 croros in 1897-98. APPENDIX. 193 India imports yearly, and absorbs, a vast quantity of gold and silver, amounting on an average to considerably more than 10 crores per annum. 9. Railways. There are more than 150,000 miles of roads maintained by public authorities in India ; and the great rivers, and in Southern India the canals, are largely used for traffic. But of late years railways have been rapidly spreading over the country. In the year 1876 there were 6,833 miles of railway open ; whereas in 1891-92 the mileage open or sanctioned had increased to 18,879 miles, and in 1897-98 to 21,157 miles. During the year 1897 alone, 151,263,816 passengers travelled on the Indian railways ; and the tonnage of goods, &c., carried was 33,698,617 tons. The capital invested amounts to about 300,000,000. The gross earnings during 1897 amounted to Rs.255,951,690, or over 255 lakhs. Of this, 125 lakhs were expended on the spot as working expenses, and the net earnings were at the rate of a little more than 5 per cent. Except in Burma, Rajputana, the Southern Mahratta country, and South India, most of the great trunk-lines of railways in India (with a mileage of about 10,000 miles) are constructed on the ' standard gauge ' that is, with a distance of 5^ feet be- tween the rails. Nearly all the other lines are constructed on what is called the ' metre gauge ' that is, with a distance of one French metre, or 3 ft. 3f in., between the rails. The main railway routes (most of which have many branches and feeders) are : (1) The East Indian Railway, from Calcutta to Allahabad; then (a) north-westward to Ghaziabad and Delhi ; and (6) south- westward to Jabalpur. (2) The North- Western Railway from Ghaziabad (Delhi) to Lahore ; and from Lahore northward to Peshawar, and westward to Quetta, and south-westward to Karachi. (3) The Great Indian Peninsular Railway, from Jabalpur to Kalyan and Bombay ; and from Kalyan to Raichur (for Madras); and from Bhusawal to Nagpur. (4) The Bengal-Nagpur Railway, from Asansol (on the East Indian Railway) to Nagpur. (5) The Southern Mahratta Railway, from Poona (or Puna), on the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, to Hubli, Bangalore, and Mysore ; and from Hutli (a) westward to Marmagao (on the o 194 APPENDIX. sea, in the Portuguese territory of Goa), and (6) eastward to Gun- takal and Bellary. (6) The Madras Railway, from Raichur to Guntakal, Arkonam, and Madras, and from Arkonam to Jalarpet, and thence (a) west- ward to Bangalore, and (b) southward through the Palghat Pass, to Calicut on the Malabar coast. (7) The South Indian Railway, from Madras to Pondicherry, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Erode, and Tuticorin (on the coast opposite Ceylon). (8) The Eastern Bengal Railway, from Calcutta to the Ganges at Goalando, and thence (a) to Siliguri and Darjiling, and (b) to Maiumnsingh. (9) The Nizam's State Railway t from Wadi to Hyderabad (or Haidarabad) and Bezwada. (10) The Burma Railway, from Rangoon to Prome, and from Rangoon to Mandalay. (11) The Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway, from Bombay to Ahmedabad and Wadhwan. (12) The Rajputana-Malwa Railway, from Ahmedabad to Ajmir, and thence to (a) Delhi and (b) Cawnpore ; and from Ajmir to Ujjain and Khandwa (on the Great Indian Peninsular Railway). (13) The Indian Midland Railway, from Bhopal to Jhansi, and thence (a) to Gwalior and Agra, (b) to Manikpur, and (c) to Cawnpore. (14) The Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway, from Mughul Sarai (Benares) to Saharanpur. Besides the above lines of first-rate importance, there are a large number of railways in every part of the country. Many of these are in the Feudatory States ; some have been constructed by the Feudatory chiefs, after the example of the Nizam's State Railway. Thus, the Maharaja Gaekwar of Baroda has several railways ; so have the Maharajas of Jodhpur, Kashmir, Gwalior, Indore, Bhaunagar, Gondal, Morvi, and Her Highness the Nawab Begum of Bhopal. 10. Existing Forms of Imperial, Provincial, and Municipal Government. At the beginning of Part I. of this Appendix it was stated that the Indian Empire is a Federation of States, under the supreme rule of Her Majesty the Queen, Empress of India. This supreme rule is constitutionally exercised immediately through the Secretary of State for India, in London, who is APPENDIX. 195 responsible to the British Parliament, and has the benefit of the advice of a Council, consisting of about twelve members, most of whom have been officers of the Government in India. The Secretary of State has the ultimate control of the Queen's repre- sentative in India, who is commonly called the Viceroy of India, but is officially styled ' the Governor-General in Council.' The Imperial authority in India is vested in ' the Governor- General in Council ' that is, the Viceroy or Governor-General, as advised by his Executive Council, whose members are appointed by the Crown. NOTE. This Executive Council must be distinguished from the Legislative Council (of which it forms a part) noticed below. The EXECUTIVE COUNCIL "consists of five ordinary members who preside respectively over the (1) Home, (2) Finance and Commerce, (3) Revenue and Agriculture, (4) Military, and (5) Legislative Departments and a Public Works member, whose post may be left vacant at the option of the Viceroy. The Com- mander-in-Chief may be, and in practice always is, appointed by the Crown to be an Extraordinary member of the Council ; and the Governors of Bombay and Madras, and the Lieutenant- Governors of Bengal, the North- Western Provinces, and the Panjab, become Extraordinary members of Council whenever the Council is convened within their Provinces. The department of Foreign Affairs including all affairs connected with the Feudatory States is usually under the immediate control of the Viceroy. Each member of Council has a secretary and other officers sub- ordinate to him in his own department, through whom he carries out the administration of the affairs of the Empire in that depart- ment. The LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL of the Viceroy has lately been in- creased and reorganised (in accordance with the Indian Councils Act of 1892) under new rules, that were announced by Lord Lansdowne on March 16, 1893. It will henceforward consist of the Executive Council, together with sixteen ' additional members for making laws and regulations,' of whom ten will be non- officials. Of these ten, four are to be appointed by the Viceroy ; one each to be elected by the Legislative Councils of Bengal, Bombay, Madras, and the North- Western Provinces ; one to be chosen by the Chambers of Commerce ; and one by the Calcutta Bar. Sub- ject to certain conditions, questions may be publicly asked of the 02 196 APPENDIX. Government by any member of the Legislative Council, and must be replied to, unless the Viceroy certifies that it would be injurious to the public interest to give a reply. Further, the Budget will be debated by the Council ; and its debates will be carried on in public. The laws passed by the Viceroy's Legisla- tive Couneil may apply to the whole of the Indian Empire (in- cluding Burma), or may be specially restricted to certain parts. The PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS have been enumerated in Part I. of this Appendix. The Governors of Bombay and Madras have each a Council of their own, both executive and legislative ; they also have each an army with a separate Commander-in-Chief, and their own Civil Service. The Lieutenant-Governors of Ben- gal, the North- West Provinces, the Panjab, and Burma, have each a Legislative Council, to make laws (subject to the approval of the Government of India) for his own Province ; but the other heads of Governments have no councils and no local powers of legislation, but are directly under the Government of India. Under the local heads of Government in British India there are Commissioners of Divisions (except in Madras; ; and each Division is divided into a number of Districts, which is the administrative unit of India. Including the recently annexed 17 districts of Upper Burma, there are 252 districts in British India. The constitution of the PROVINCIAL LEGISLATIVE COUNCILS those of Bengal, Madras, Bombay, and the North- Western Provinces was reformed by the Act of 1892, referred to above. Lord Lansdowne, in March, 1893, thus described the changes : The new rules for provincial Councils would be published immedi- ately, and he would summarise those referring to Bengal. The number of additional members of that Council was fixed at twenty, being the maximum number that the Act allowed, of whom not more than ten would be officials ; the other ten would be non-officials. The Lieutenant-Governor would nominate seven members on the recom- mendation of (a) the Calcutta Corporation ; (6) such other corporations or groups of corporations as he might from time to time prescribe ; (c) such district boards or groups as would be prescribed ; (d) such associa- tions of merchant*, manufacturers, and tradesmen as would be pre- scribed ; and (e) the Senate of the Calcutta University. The rules further provided that the Lieutenant-Governor might nominate the re- maining three in such a manner as would secure a fair representation of (he different classes, one seat being ordinarily held by a representative APPENDIX. 197 of the great landholders. The rules for the other Provinces were conceived in the same spirit. Each district in Bengal has a Collector and Magistrate, who is the executive head of the district, and is responsible (through the Commissioner) to the Provincial Government at Calcutta ; it also has a Judge, a Superintendent of Police, and many other officers of the Government in the various departments of State. And a similar state of affairs exists in the other Provinces. In the FEUDATORY STATES the sovereign power, within certain limits, is in the hands of the Prince, often aided by a Council of Ministers appointedby himself with the assent of the Government of India. These Princes bear various titles such as His High- ness the Nizam of Haidarabad, His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore, His Highness the Maharaja Gaekwar of Baroda. The closeness of their relations with the Paramount Power and the character of their Government varies in the "different States. In some of the greater States there is a regular constitutional Ministry, with a Diwdn, or Prime Minister, at its head, by whom the State is governed under the authority of the ruling Prince, and by whom tho business of the State is transacted, both with the subjects of the State and with the Government of India, In all cases the Feudatory States are governed with the help and advice of a Resident, or Agent, of the Paramount Power, who is in poh'tical charge either of a single State or of a group of States. But the more important chiefs possess absolute sovereign power in their territories, which is exercised without interference from the Government of India or its officers except on certain specified points, such as foreign affairs, peace and war, embassies, dealiogs with other States or with Europeans on a general understanding that actual misgovernment cannot be permitted. Some of the chiefs pay a tribute annually, but not all. One of the most interesting features of Indian development during the last few years has been the vast extension of LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT, in the growth of DISTRICT and LOCAL BOARDS in the rural districts, and of MUNICIPALITIES or Municipal Cor- porations in the towns and cities. Lord Mayo was the first ruler to give great encouragement to this development; and under the Viceroyalties of Lord North- brook and Lord Lytton it had grown so much, that before Lord Lytton's retirement there were no fewer than 894 municipalities in various parts of the ccmntry hi addition to those in the three 198 APPENDIX. great Presidency cities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras with an aggregate population of about fourteen millions, and directing the raising and expenditure locally of vast sums of money. Under Lord Kipon's rule this development was still further encouraged by the Local Self-government Acts of 1882-84, by which the elective principle has been extended, more or less fully, to all parts of India. At the present day, under Lord Curzon, in all the larger towns, and in many of the smaller, the majority of the members of the Municipal Corporations are elected by the ratepayers ; and everywhere the townsmen themselves, and not the European or Indian officials, constitute the majority. In March, 1897, there were 764 municipal towns of this character, with a population of nearly 16 millions. The Municipal Corporations have charge of the roads, water, drains, markets, and sanitation. They levy rates and enact bye-laws the sanction of the Provincial Government being first obtained before any new rates or taxes are levied, or new bye-laws enacted ; and they are charged with the duty of making improvements generally, and of spending the local revenues for the benefit of the locality and the public. * Similarly, in all the rural districts, except in Burma, there are District and Local Boards, which have the charge of schools, hospitals, roads, and local business generally. INDEX. ABD ABDUR RAHMAN, the Amir, 166 Aboriginal Tribes of India, 187 Abu, Mount, 28, 182 Abul Fazl, 64 Adil Shahi Dynasty of Bijapur, 49 Adisiira, 31 Afghan War, the First, 110 the Second, 165 Afghanistan, or Kabul, 139 Afzal Khan, Murder of, 79 Agnikulas, the, 28 Agra 174 Battle of, 71 Agriculture of India, 190 Ahalya Bai, 87 Ahmad Shah Abdali, 75 Ahmadnagar, 50, 62, 177 Ajmir, 30, 37, 179 Akbar, 56 Akmahal, 173 - Battle of, 61 Akyab, 172 Ala-ud-din Khilji, 44 Albuquerque, 94 Alexander's Invasion, 23 All Virdi, Khan of Bengal, 74, 102 Aliwal, 175 - Battle of, 146 Allahabad, 174 Altemsh, 42 Amarkot, 56, 177 Ambalah, 175 Amber, see Jaipur Ambur, Battle of, 99 Amherst, Lord, 136 Amir Khan, the Pindari, 133 BAH Ananda Bai, 88 Andaman Islands, 11, 163, 179 Andhrn, race of Kings, the, 29 Anga, 186 Anwar-ud-din, 98 Appa Saheb, 134 Arakan, 171, 172 Aravali Hills, the, 6, 180 Arcot, 179 the Defence of, 100 Argaon, 178 Arikera, Battle of, 122 Arrah, 173 Aryan-Hindus, the, 187 Aryavartta, 15 Asirgarh, 178 Asoka, the Edicts of, 26 Assai, 91, 183 Assam, 172 Atak, see Attock Attock, 175 Auckland, Lord, 145 Aurangabad, 183 Aurangzeb, 69 Avatais, 28 Ayodhya, the Birthplace of Rama, 17, 174 Ayub Khan, 166 BABAB, 52 Bactrian Greeks, the, 25 Baghelkhand, 185 Bagri, 186 Bahadur Shah, 71 Bahmani Dynasty, the, 49 200 INDEX. BAI Bairam Khan, 58 Baji Rao, the Second Peshwa, 83 Baji Rao II., the Seventh and Last Peshwa, 90 Balaghat, the, 178 Balaji Baji Rao, the Third Peshwa,85 Balaji Viswanath, the First Peshwa, 82 Balasor, 173 Balban, 42 Ballala Sena, 31 Baluchistan, 1, 2, 144, 176 Banga, 186 Banga-des, 186 Barars, places of historical interest in, 178 Band Shabi Dynasty of Bidar, 50 Baroda, 163, 164, 176 Bassein, 177 stormed by Goddard, 89 Treaty of, 90, 129 Bastar, 177 Baxar, 173 Battle of, 110 Begums of Oudh, the, 115, 117 Benares,. 174 Bengal, Hindu Kings of, 31 - laeutenant-Governorship of, 172 - Muhammadan Kings of, 50 Bengal Proper, places of historical interest in, 173 Bentinck, Lord William, 139 Bhagirathi River, 173 Bhamo, 172 ' Bhao, the,' 86 Bhartpur, 181 Siege of, 92 Storming of, 136 Bhils. the, 181, 187 Bhilsa Topes, the, 182 Bhonsle' Dynasty, the, 85 Bhopal, 182 Bhutan, 184 - War, 162 Bidar, 50, 183 Bihar, places of historical interest in, 173 Bijapur, 49, 50, 79, 177 Bijnor, 174 Bikanir, 31 CHA Bikram Singh, Sardar, 155 Black Hole, the, 104 Bolan Pass, the, 2, 143, 166, 176 Bolaram, 183 Bombay given to Charles II., 96 Bombay Presidency, places of his- torical interest in the, 177 Boughton, Dr., 95 Boundaries, 1 Brahman Power, Rise of the, 16 Brahmanic Age, the, 18 Brahmarshi-desa, 15 Brahmavartta, 14 British India, Divisions of, 169 Buddha (Sakya Muni or Gautama), 22 Buddhist Scriptures, the, 23 Bull and Horseman Dynasty, the, 33 n. Bundelkhand, 185 Burdwan (or Bardwan), 173 Burhanpur, 178 fc Burmah, 171 Annexation of Upper, 169 Burmah War, the First, 134 the Second, 150 the Third, 167, 168 Bussy, 99 CALCUTTA, 173 Capture of, by Siraj-ud-daulah, 103 Foundation of, 96 Calicut, 12, 93, 179 Campbell, Sir Colin, 159 Cannanore, 179 Canning, Lord, 160, 161 Carnatic, Wars in the, 98 Annexation of the, 128 Caste- system, the, 19 Cawnpore, 153, 156, 158, 174 Central India Agency, the, 182 Central Provinces, the, 177 Ceylon (Singhala or Lanka), 1 85 Chait Singh, 115 Chanar, 116, 174 Chand Bibi, 62 Chanda Saheb, 98 Chanderi, Storming of, 52 INDEX. 201 CHA Chandernagar, 173, 184 Chandragupta, 25 Chandwa, 174 Changama, Battle of, 119 Chatgaon, 173 Chausa, 173 Chauth, 80 Cherry, Assassination of Mr., 125 Chillian wallah, Battle of, 149, 175 China War, 159 Chingalpat, 179 Chinsurah, 173 Chitor, 181 Sack of, 45 Chittagong, 173 Chola Dynasty, the, 31 Chutia (or Chota) Nagpur, 173 Tributary Mahals, the, 174 Circars, the Northern, 179 Cis-Satlej States, the, 175 Clive, 100 et seq. Clyde, Lord, see Campbell, Sir Colin Cochin, 12, 179 Colar. see Kolar Commerce of India, 192 Congress, see National Congress Conjeveram, 31, 179, 186 Coorg, 137, 179 Cornwallis, Lord, 121 Coromandel Coast, the, 178 Cuddalore, 179 Curzon, Lord, 169 Cutch, see Kutch Cuttack, see Katak DACCA, 173 Dakhin (or Deccan), the, 3 Ancient Hiudii Kingdom in the, 44 Dalhousie, Lord, 148 Daman, 184 Darsanas, the Six, 21 Daiid, King of Bengal, 61 Daulatabad, 44, 183 Dehli, 157, 175 Battle of, 91 Siege of, 156, 157 Delhi, see Dehli Deogarh, see Daulatabad Deogiri, see Daulatabad Dewal Devi, 45 GAN Dig, Battle of, 92, 182 Diu, 184 Divine Faith, the,' of Akbar, 63 Diwani, Grant of the, 111 Doab, the, 185 Dost Muhammad, 140 Do'uble Batta, 138 Double Government, the, 112 Dramatic Poetry, Sanskrit, 160 Draupadi, 18 Dravida, 186 Dravidian-Hindus, the, 187 Dufferin, Lord, 167 Dupleix, 97 Dutch in India, the, 94 Dwara Samudra, 44 EAST INDIA COMPANY founded, 95 - rule abolished, 160 Edinburgh, H.K.H. the Duke of, 163 Edwardes, Sir Herbert, 149 Elgin, Lord, 161, 169 Ellenborough, Lord, 145 Ellora, 183 Empress, Proclamation of Her Majesty as, 164 English declared the Paramount Power in India, the, 136 Epic Poetry, Sanskrit, 160 Extent of India, 1 Eyre Coote, Sir, 101 FAIZABAD, 174 Farrukh Siyar, 71 Fathpur Sikri, Battle of, 52, 174 Ferozepore, see Firuzpur Ferozeshah, see Firuzshahr Feudatory States, 171, 180, 197 Firuzpur, 143, 175 Firuzshahr, 175 Battle of, 146 Forests of India, 191 Fort St. David, 179 Francis, Sir Philip, 114 GAGBON, 182 Gaikwar, the, 85 Gakkhars, 187 Gandak Kiver the, 172 202 INDEX. GAN Gandamak, 176 Treaty of, 166 Ganga Vansa, the, 32 Garhwal, 174 Gaubati, 172 Gaur, 31, 173 Gautama, Buddha, 22 Gawilgarh, 178 Gehlot Dynasty, the, 30 Ghargaon, 172 Ghats, the Eastern, 8 - the Western, 7, 8, 1 77 Ghazipur, 174 Ghazni, Storming of, 140 Ghilji, 186 Ghor, 186 Ghulam Kadir, 77 Ginji, 99, 179 Goa, 184 Goddard, Colonel, 89 Goha, 30 Golkondah, 50, 183 Gonds, the, 178, 187 Gondwana, 178 Gorakhpur, 174 Gough, Sir Hugh, 147 Government, Imperial, 194 Municipal, 197 Provincial, 196 Greeks Accounts of India, 25 Greeks in India, the, 23 Gujarat, 176 Battle of, 149, 175 Gulab Singh. 147 Gulbargah, 49, 183 Gumsur, 179 Guntur, 179 Guru of the Sikhs, the, 72 Gwaliar, see Gwalior Gwalior, 58, 84, 156, 159, 182 HAIDAR Aii of Mysore, 118 Haidarabad, or the Nizam's Domi- nions, 73, 74, 85, 90, 98, 122, 126, 128, 155, 156, 167, 178, 183 - (Sindh), Battle of, 144, 177 Harbours of India, 12 Hardinge, Lord, 145 Hari Pant, 123 Hastinapura, 17 JUM Hastings, "Warren, 113 the Marquis of, 132 Hazaribagh, 173 Hazipur, 173 Hemu, 59 Herat, 184 Hindustani Language, I he, 187 Hiouen Thsang, 27 Historians, Muhammadan, 160 Holkar, 84, 87, 91, 182 Honawar, 177 Honore, see Honawar Hooghly, see Hugli Hugli River the, 173 - Town and District, 173 Humayun, 54 Husain Sagar, the, 183 Hyderabad, see Haidarabad IBAB, 31 Ilichpur, 178 ' Illustrious Garrison of Jalala- bad,' the, 143 * Imad Shahi Dynasty of Barar, 50 Impey, Sir Elijah, 114 Indian Councils Act, 168 Indore (or Indor), 84, 87, 91, 182 Instruction, Public, in India, 189 Irawadi Kiver, the, 172 Islamabad, 173 JABALPUR, 178 Jagirs and Jagirdars, 62 Jahandar Shah, 71 Jahangir, 65 .Tahangirnagar, 173 Jainas, or Jains, the, 27, 173 Jaipur, 60, 156, 180, 181 Jajpur, 173 Jalalabad, Defence of, 142 Jalangi River, the, 173 Jam nah River, the, 174 Jaunpur, 174 Kingdom of, 51 Jhansi, 149, 153 Jharkhand, 185 Jhind, 175 Jiziah, the, 64, 69, 70 Jodhpur, 31, 61, 73, 180, 181 Jumna, see Jamnah INDEX. 203 KAB KABUL, 141, 142, 165, 166, 184, 186 Kacb, see Kutch Kaikubad, 43 Kalat, 176, 184 Kalidasa, 174 Kalinga, 186 Kamrup, 186 Kamthi, 178 Kanauj, 174 Battle of, 55 Kanchipuram, see Conjeveram Kangrah, 175 Kanhpur, see Cawnpore Kanyakubja, see Kanauj Kapila, 186 Kapilavastu, 22, 186 Kapiirthala, 155, 175 Karachi, 13, 177 Karnal, 175 Battle of, 75 Kashi, 186 Kashmir, 175 given to Gulab Singh by the Eng- lish, 147 Kasimbazar, 173 Katak (or Cuttack), 173 Khaibar Pass, the, 2, 143, 166, 175 Khdlsd, the, 145 Khsrki, 183 Khasi and Jaintia Hills, 172 Khilji, 186 Dynasty in Dehli, the, 43 Khirki, 177 Kishangarh, Maharaja of, 31 Kolar, 184 Konkan, the, 176, 177, 186 Kosala, 186 Krishna, 17 Krishnagar (or Kishnaghur), 173 Kshatriyas, the, 16 Kuch Bihar, 174 Kulbargah, see G-ulbargah Kumaon, 174 Kurdla, Battle of, 89 - Treaty of, 90 Kurg, see Coorg Kurukshetra, 18 ., 175 Kurus, the, 17 Kutb Shahi Dynasty of Golkondah, 50 MAH Kutch, 4, 176 Rann of, 176 LABOTTRDONNAIS, 98 Laccadive Islands, 185 Lahore, 175 Lake, Lord, 91 Lakhmaniya, 31 Laknau, see Lucknow Laknauti, 173 Lally, Count, 101 Languages of India, 188, 189 Lanka, 185 Las Bela, 176 Laswari, Battle of, 91, 181 Lawrence, Sir Henry, 158 Sir John (Lord), 154, 162 Lodi Dynasty of Dehli, the, 47 Lucknow, 174 Defence of, 158 Belief of, by Havelock, 159 Second Belief of, by Lord Clyde, 159 Lytton, Lord, 164 MlCHHTWARAH, 175 Battle of, 52 Macnaghten, Assassination of, 141 Madhya-desa, 15 Madra, 186 Madras, Foundation of, 96 Presidency, places of historical interest in the, 179 Madu Rao, the Fourth Peshwa, 87 Madu Bao Narayana, the Sixth Peshwa, 89 Madura, 179 Magadha, the Kingdom of, 25, 173, 186 Mahabat Khan, 67 Mahabharata, the, 17 Mahakosala, 186 Mahanadi Biver, the, 173 Maharaja Adbiraj, 30 Maharajpur, Battle of, 145, 182 Maharashtra, 77, 176 Mahidpur, Battle of, 134, 182 Mahmud, Sultan of Ghazni, 34 204 INDEX. MAH Mahratta Confederacy, the, 84 Ditch, the, 96 War, the First, 89 the Second, 90 the Third, 91 Mai war, see Udaipur Makhsusabad, 173 Malabar, 179 Coast, the, 12, 178, 179 Malakuta, 186 Malda, 173 Maldive Islands, 185 Malik Ambar, 65 Kafur, 44 Mallavelli, Battle of, 127 Man Singh, the Kaja, 60 Manchu Tartars, 32 n. Mandalay, 172 Mangalore, 12 Treaty of, 121 Manipur Insurrection, the, 168 Manu, the Laws of, 18 Manufactures of India, 192 Marwar, see Jodhpur Marwaris, the. 181 Masulipatam, 179 Mathura, 174 Mau, 183 Mayo, Lord, 162 Meerut, 157, 174 Aferiah, Human Sacrifices, the, 148 Merkara, 179 Metcalfe, Sir Charles, 139 Mewar, see Udaipur Mewat, 185 Mhow, see Mau Miani, Battle of, 144, 177 Mihruunisa Khanum (afterwards the Empress Nur Jahan), 66 Mines of India, 191 Mir Jumlah, 69 MirKasim, 109 Mirath, see Meerut Mirjafar, 106, 109 Mithila, 173, 186 Moulmein, 172 Mudki, Battle of, 146, 176 Mughuls, the, 32 n. Muhammad Ali, Nawab of the Car- natic, 99 NON Muhammad Grhori, 38 Muhammad Shah (or Kaushanakh- tar), 72 Muhammadan Conquest of Hindu- stan, the, 40 Multan, Siege of, 149, 175 Munger, 173 Murshidabad, 173 Muttra, see Mathura Muzaffar Jang, 98 Mysore, places of historical interest in, 183, 184 Mysore War, the First, 119 the Second, 120 the Third, 121 the Fourth, 121 NABHA, 175 Nadir Shah, Invasion of, 74 Nadiya, 173 Nagurkot, see Kangrah Nagpur, 148, 178 Annexation of, 150 Nana Farnavis, 88 Nana Saheb, the, 163 Nandakumar, 114 Nandidrug, 184 Napier, Sir Charles, 167 - Lord, 157 Narayana Kao, the Fifth Peshwa, 88 National Congress, 168 Nazib-ud-daulah, 76 Nearchus, 24 Neemuch, see Nimach Nepal, 184 War, the, 132 Newspapers of India, 190 Nicholson, 155 Nikobar Islands, 179 Nimach, 182 Nirvana, 22 Nizam of Haidarabad, the First (Nizam-ul-Mulk), 73 Nizam Shahi Dynasty of Ahmad- nagar, 50 Nizam's Dominions (Haidarabad), places of historical interest in the, 183 Non-intervention Policy, the, 124 INDKX. 205 NOR Northbrook, Lord, ] 63 North- Western Provinces, the, 175 places of historical interest in, 174 Nott, General, 143 Nundydroog, see Nandidrug Nur Jahan, the Empress, 65 ODEA, 185 Orissa, Acquisition of, 129 places of historical interest in, 173 Tributary Mahals, the, 174 Oudh, Annexation of, 150 places of historical interest in, 174 PAGAHN, Battle of, 136 Palghat Pass, the, 179 Palibothra, 173 Panchala, 186 Panduah, Great, 173 Pandus, the, 17 Pandya Dynasty, the, 31 Panipat, 175 First Battle of, 48 Second Battle of, 59 Third Battle of, 76, 86 Panjab, the, 175, 185 Derivation of the Name, 5 places of historical interest in, 175 Annexation of the, 150 Panniar, Battle of, 145, 182 Paradis, 98 Parisnath, 173 Pataliputra, 173 Pathans, or Afghans, the, 48 Patiala, 131, 155, 175 Patna, 173 First Battle of, 109 Second Battle of, 110 Massacre of, 110 Patriarchal Age in India, the, 14 Pegu, 172 Annexation of, 150 Penal Code, 161 Permanent Settlement of Bengal, the, 123 RAN Persian Invasion, 23 War, 159 Peshawar, 1, 175 Peshwas, the, 83 Philosophy. Hindu, 21 Pindari War, the, 133 Pishin, 176 Pitt's India Bill, 118 Plassey (or Palasi), 173 Battle of, 107 Pollilor, Battle of, 120 Pollock, General, 143 Pondicherry, 179, 184 Foundation of, 97 Poona, see Puna Pooree, see Puri Port Blair, 179 Porto Novo, Battle of, 120, 179 Portuguese Power in India, the, 94 Pragjaitishpur, 172 Presidency, the term, 96, 170 Presidency College, Calcutta, Foun- dation of, 151 Prince of Wales, Visit of H.E.H. the, 163 Prithvi Raja, 37 Proclamation, the Queen's, 160 Puna, 85, 177 Punjab, see Panjab Puranas, the, 27 Purandhar, Fort, 80, 177 Treaty of, 80 Puri, 173 QUETTA, 1, 176 KACES of India, 188, 189 Raghoba, 88 Eailways in India, 151, 193 Raisin, 183 Rajapur, Battle of, 85 Rajmahal, 173 Rajputana, places of historical in- terest in, 180, 181 Ram Sastri, 86 Ramayana, the, 1 7 Rammohan Rai, 138 Rampur (N.W.P.), 174 Ranchi, 173 Rangoon, 172 206 INDEX. RAN Eanjit Singh, 131 Kara, 186 Raziah, the Empress, 42 Regulating Act, the, 114 Religions of India, 189 Rent Act, 161 Rewah, 182 Ripou, Lord, 166 Roe, Sir Thomas, 67 Roh, 187 Rohilkhand, 174, 185 Rohilla War, the, 113 Rohtas, 173 Rose, Sir Hugh, 160 SAADAT KHAN (the first indepen- dent Nawab-Vazir of Oudh), 74 Sabaktigin, 32 Sahsaram, 173 Sahu, 82 Sakuntala, the, 174 Salabat Jang, 85, 99 Salar Jang, Sir, 155 Salbai, Treaty of, 89 Sale, General, 143 Silivahana, 30 Salsette, 177 Sambhal, 185 Santal Parganahs, the, 173 Santals, the, 187 Snraswati River, the, 14, 175 Satara, 84, 149, 177 Satgaon, 173 Sati, 25, 138 Saurashtra, 186 Sayyid Dynasty of Dehli, the, 47 Sayyids, the Two, 72 Secunderabad, 183 Sedasir, Battle of, 127 Sehore, 183 Sepoy Mutiny, the, 152 Serampore, 184 Seringapatam, 184 First Siege of, 123 Second Siege of, 127 Shah Alam I. (Bahadur Shah), 76 Shah Alam II., 76, 109, 110, 111 Shah Jahin, 67, 68 Shah Shuja, 140 TAX Shahabad, 173 Shabab-ud-din (Muhammad Ghori), 38 Shuhpur (Barar), 178 --the Battle of, 72 Shan Tribes, the, 172 Sher Afkan, 66 Sher Ali, the Amir, 165 Sher Sur, 55 Shillong, 172 Shore, Sir John, 124 Sikh Power in Panjab, Rise of the, 130 Sikh War, the First, 145 the Second, 148 Sikhs, Origin of the, 72 Sikkim, 184 Sind, see Sindh Sindh, 4, 176 Annexation of, 143 Sindia, 84, 150, 159, 182 Siraj-ud-daulah, 103 Sirhind, 18, 38, 175 Battle of, 75 Sivaji, 78 Slave-kings of Dehli, the, 39 Sobraou, Battle of, 147, 175 Solingarh, Battle of, 120 Somnath, Temple of, 34 Sorath, see Saurashtra Sources of early Indian History 13 Srirangam, 179 the Capitulation of the French at, 101 Strachey, Sir John, 157 Strathnairn, Lord, see Rose, Sir Hugh Subah and Subahdar, 68 Subsidiary System, the, 125 Sunargaon, 173 Supreme Court, the, 115 Surat, 177 TAJ MAHA.LL, the, 68 Talikot, Battle of, 50 Tanjore, 179 Tantia Topi, 153 Tatta, 177 Taxila, 175 INDEX. 207 TEL Teliagarhi, 173 Telingana, 186 Tenasserim, 11, 172, 179 Tbaneswar, 175 - Battles of, 39 Thuggee, 138 Timur the Tartar, Invasion of, 45 Tippii, Sultan of Mysore, 120 Tiraori, 38, 175 Tirhut, 173 Todar Mall, 64 Travancor, see Tra van core Travancore, 122, 179 Trichinapalli, 101, 179 Trichinopoly, see Trichinapalli Trinomali, Battle of, 119 Tripitaka (Buddhist Scriptures), 23 Tudas, 187 Tughlak Kings of Delhi, the, 45 Tulsi Bai, 134 Tiirkis, the, 32 n. UDAIPUR, 30, 31, 61, 180, 181 Udgir, Battle of, 80 Ujjain, 29, 182 Umachand, 106 Umballa, see Ambalah Universities of India, 190 Urdu Language, the, 187 Utkala, 186 YEN VAISALT, 186 Vaisyas, the, 17 Vallabhi, 30, 186 Varendra, 186 Vasco da Gama, 93 Vazir All, Rebellion of, 125 Vedas, the, 14 Vellor, 130, 179 Viceroy, the First, 160 Viceroys of India, the, 161 Vidarbha (Barar), 178, 186 Vijayaaagar (Bijanagar or Nar- singha), 50 Vikramaditya, 29 Village Communities, 20 Virata, 186 Vriji, 186 WAINAD, 179 Wandewash, 179 Battle of, 101 Warangal, 44, 183, 186 Wargam, Convention of, 89 Wellesley, General, 91 Lord, 125-129 Wynaad, see Wainad YAKUB KHAN, the Amir, 1 66 Yenda u, Treaty of, 136 I'KIXTED BY SrolTISWOODE AXD CO., NEW STREET SQUARE LONDON = University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 Box 951388 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 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