A History of Civilisation in Ancient India Based on Sanscrit Literature Volume 2

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVI. COMMENCEMENT OF THE MODERN AGE. In the last chapter we have tried to give a brief sketch of Hindu life and civilisation at the close of the Ancient Age from the writings of the great Hindu authors who flourished in the sixth and succeeding centuries. But it is always a gain to see ourselves as others see us, and we propose in the present chapter to draw a similar sketch of Hindu civilisation at the commencement of the Modern Age, from materials supplied to us by a cultured and large-hearted foreigner, Alberuni, who wrote in the eleventh century. The value of Alberuni's work on India has long been known to scholars, but a scholarlike edition and translation of it had hitherto been wanting. Dr. Edward C. Sachau has now removed the want, and has performed an eminent service to the cause of Oriental research and of Indian history. Alberuni, or, as his compatriots called him, Abu Raihan, was born in 973 A.D. in the territory of modern Khiva. When Mahmud of Ghazni conquered Khiva in 1017, the eminent scholar was brought to Ghazni as a prisoner of war. It is probably this circumstance which made him look on Hindus with the sympathy due to fellow-sufferers from the conquests and oppression of Mahmud; and while he never hesitates to point out what he considers blemishes in Hindu civilisation and literature, he has at least taken the pains to study that civilisation and literature in a catholic spirit rare among later Mussalman writers, and he never withholds the meed of praise where praise is due. Of Mahmud's reckless work of destruction in India, Alberuni speaks with deserved animadversion. "Mahmud," he says, "utterly ruined the prosperity of the country, and performed those wonderful exploits by which the Hindus became like atoms...