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Rashtrakutas seem to have ruled over most of western India from Malwa to the Tungabhadra.
7. The Rashtrakutas collapsed before a revival of the Calukya dynasty which reappears from 993 to 1190 as
the Calukyas of Kalyani (in the Nizam's dominions). The end of this dynasty was partly due to the usurpation
of a Jain named Bijjala in whose reign the sect of the Lingayats arose.
We must now turn to an event of great historical importance although its details are not relevant to the subject
of this book, namely the Mohammedan conquest. Three periods in it may be recognized. First, the conquest of
Sind in 712 A.D. by the Arabs, who held it till the eleventh century but without disturbing or influencing India
beyond their immediate neighbourhood. Secondly, the period of invasions and dynasties which are commonly
called Turki (c. 1000-1526 A.D.). The progress of Islam in Central Asia coincided with the advance to the
west and south of vigorous tribes known as Turks or Mongols, and by giving them a religious and legal
discipline admirably suited to their stage of civilization, it greatly increased their political efficiency. The
Moslim invaders of India started from principalities founded by these tribes near the north-western frontier
with a military population of mixed blood and a veneer of Perso-Arabic civilization, and apart from the
greater invasions, there were incursions and settlements of Turkis, Afghans and Mongols. The whole period
was troublous and distracted. The third period was more significant and relatively stable. Baber, a Turkish
prince of Fergana, captured Delhi in 1526 and founded the power of the Mughals, which during the
CHAPTER II. HISTORICAL 58
Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I.
seventeenth century deserved the name of the Indian Empire.
The first serious Moslim incursions were those of Mahmud of Ghazni, who between 997 and 1030 made
many raids in which he sacked Kanauj, Muttra, Somnath and many other places but without acquiring them as
permanent possessions. Only the Panjab became a Moslim province. In 1150 the rulers of Ghor, a vassal
principality near Herat, revolted against Ghazni and occupied its territory, whence the chieftain commonly
called Muhammad of Ghor descended on India and subdued Hindustan as well as the Panjab (1175-1206).
One of his slaves named Kutb-ud-Din Ibak became his general and viceroy and, when Muhammad died,
founded at Delhi the dynasty known as Slave Sultans. They were succeeded by the Khilji Sultans
(1290-1318) the most celebrated of whom was the capable but ferocious Ala-ud-Din and these again by the
Tughlak dynasty. Muhammad Adil, the second of this line, attempted to move the capital from Delhi to
Daulatabad in the Deccan. In 1398 northern India was convulsed by the invasion of Timur who only remained
a few months but sacked Delhi with terrible carnage. Many years of confusion followed, and a dynasty known
as the Saiyids ruled in greatly diminished territories. But in 1451 arose the Lodi or Afghan dynasty which held
the Panjab, Hindustan and Bundelkhand until the advent of the Mughals. These five royal houses do not
represent successive invasions from the west. Their founders, though of diverse origin, were all leaders
engaged in the troubled politics of northern India, and they all reigned at Delhi, round which a tradition of
Empire thus grew up. But the succession was disputed in almost every case; out of thirty-four kings twelve
came to a violent end and not one deserved to be called Emperor of India. They were confronted by a double
array of rivals, firstly Hindu states which were at no period all reduced to subjection, and, secondly,
independent Mohammedan states, for the governors in the more distant provinces threw off their allegiance
and proclaimed themselves sovereigns. Thus Bengal from the time of its first conquest by Muhammad
Bakhtyar had only a nominal connection with Delhi and declared itself independent in 1338. When Timur
upset the Tughlak dynasty, the states of Jaunpur, Gujarat, Malwa and Khandesh became separate kingdoms
and remained so until the time of Akbar. In the south one of Muhammad Adil's generals founded the Bahmani
dynasty which for about a century (1374-1482) ruled the Deccan from sea to sea. It then split up into five
sultanates with capitals at Bidar, Bijapur, Golkonda, Ahmadnagar and Elichpur. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]