Muhammad wars against Muhammad Ghori 22 was Sultan of the new Afghan CHAPTER II, kingdom. He filled the void which was left by Ghori,1180-1206: Mahmud. The Mussulman kingdom still included the Rajpoots. the Punjab as well as Kábul. Eastward of the Punjab the political status of the Rajpoots was almost the same as at the death of Mahmúd. There was still the old rivalry between Delhi and Kanouj; but Delhi was the stronger of the two, because she had been united with the southern kingdom of Ajmír. Prithi Raja was the sovereign of Delhi and Ajmír; Jai Chand was the sovereign of Kanouj. In 1191 Muhammad Ghori marched an army against Prithi Raja. A great battle was fought at Thanesar. The Afghan Sultan tried the old tactics of piercing the Hindú centre; but the Rajpoots outflanked him, surrounded his army and cut it to pieces. Muhammad Ghori was compelled to fly back to the Punjab. Jai Chand, however, began to intrigue against his Delhi rival. He invited Muhammad Ghori to renew the war. Muhammad Ghori gained the victory. was taken prisoner and murdered in Delhi and Ajmír were both captured by the Mussulmans, and thousands of people were slaughtered. This time Prithi Raja Defeat and cold blood. Raja of Delhi, death of Prithi 1193. death of Jai Jai Chand paid dearly for his treachery. He was Defeat and a Rajpoot sovereign of the type of Síláditya and Chand of Asoka. His empire included Benares, and stretched which have been published of late years under the title of "History of India as told by its own Historians; edited from the posthumous papers of the late Sir H. M. Elliot, by Professor John Dowson." (London: Trübner & Co., 1867—75). Briggs' Ferishta forms four volumes 8vo; Elliot's History already extends to six volumes 8vo, and two more have yet to be published. 22 The Afghans had established their independence at Ghor, a mountain fortress between Ghazní and Herat. Hence the Sultan was named Muhammad Ghori. In the early part of his career he was known by the title of Shaháb-uddin; but his later name is alone used in the text to prevent confusion. Kanouj. CHAPTER II. far away to the eastward towards Bengal.23 In 1194 Muhammad Ghori advanced against him, defeated him, and drove him into the Ganges. The Mussulmans then advanced still further to the eastward towards Benares, and broke down idols and plundered temples. The story of the campaign is told by the Rajpoot bard. The Rahtore of Kanouj was at feud with the Chohan of Delhi. He invited the Mussulman to capture Delhi, and he was duly punished by the loss of his kingdom and his life.25 Rise of Kutbud-din. Muhammad Ghori assassinated by Gakkars, 1206. The right hand man of Muhammad Ghori was Kutb-ud-dín. This man had been bought as a slave, but rose to the command of armies. He led the vanguard of the army which routed the host of Jai Chand. When Muhammad Ghori returned to Ghazní, he left Kutb-ud-dín as his viceroy in Mussulman India. Muhammad Ghori was killed by assassins. He had been harassed by the Gakkars, the same mountaineers who had cut down the horsemen of Mah 23 According to the history of Ibn Asir the empire of Jai Chand extended from Malwa to the borders of China. Its western frontier was within ten days journey of Lahore. Eastward it reached the Bay of Bengal. (Elliot's History of India, vol. ii.) This description is somewhat vague. The empire of Jai Chand may, however, have included many vassal kingdoms to the eastward that became independent after his overthrow. Ferishta states that Muhammad Ghori only reached the frontier of Bengal. It will presently be seen that Bengal was subsequently conquered by Muhammad Bakhtiyar. 21 See ante, vol. iii. chap. vii. 25 Jai Chand is perhaps the last of the Rajpoot kings who can be referred to the Buddhist era. He kept a white elephant at Benares, which was a relic of the religion of Buddha; but Buddhism has long since been driven out of Hindustan and taken refuge in Burma and Siam. Jai Chand also wore false teeth fastened with golden wire; the teeth were perhaps a relic of an age of Hindú civilization which has passed away. It will be seen hereafter that a white elephant was kept by the Rai of Vijayanagara as late as the fifteenth century. It may be regarded as a relic of Buddhism which had survived the Brahmanical revival. It was paraded before the sovereign every morning, as looking upon it was regarded as a favourable omen. múd. They laid waste the Punjab, and cut off the CHAPTER II. communications between Peshawar and Múltan. Muhammad Ghori fell upon them and slew many; twenty men swore to be revenged. In 1206 Muhammad Ghori was marching from Lahore to Ghazní. One evening he halted at a village on the bank of the Indus. The Gakkars watched every movement. At night they swam across the river and crept through the darkness to the Sultan's tent. Some cut down the sentries, others rushed in and stabbed the Sultan. The affair was the work of a moment; when the confusion was over Muhammad Ghori was a corpse. founds the of Slave-kings, The death of Muhammad Ghori was followed Kutb-ud-din by a revolution. Kutb-ud-din ceased to be the Delhi dynasty viceroy of a province of the empire of Ghazní; he 1206-10. became the Sultan of Mussulman India. He threw off all allegiance to Ghazní and henceforth reigned at Delhi, and caused the Khutba to be read and money to be coined in his own name.28 Ghazní and Ghor were now forgotten; they dropped out of the history; Delhi became the capital of Mussulman India. The column of Mussulman victory is still towering above the ruins of old Delhi. It is known as the Kutb Minár, and was built to commemorate the victories of Kutb-ud-dín. 26 The Khutba, and the coining of money, are acts of the highest significance in Mussulman history. They are emphatically the assertion of sovereignty. The Khutba is the daily prayer offered up in the mosques for the prosperity of the reigning sovereign. The introduction of the name in the Khutba is the recognition of the sovereign by the church. The introduction of the name on the new coinage is the recognition of the sovereign by the state. They are the first acts of a legitimate prince or a successful usurper. It was the boast of the Seljuk princes,-Toghrul Beg, Alp Arslan, and Malik Shah,-that the Khutba for their prosperity was to be heard every day in the mosques of Mecca and Medina, Jerusalem and Bagdad, Ispahan, Samarkand, Bokhara, and Kashgár. : CHAPTER II. Delhi empire Conquest of Bihar and Ben mad Bakhtiyar. The wars of Muhammad Ghori and Kutb-uddín may be likened to those of Mahmúd. They destroyed idols, and they compelled the idolaters to pay Jezya or tribute. But the Indian dominion of Kutb-ud-din and his successors formed the separate and independent kingdom of Delhi, which soon grew into an empire. On the west this kingdom of Delhi was bounded by the Indus, on the north by the Himalayas. On the south the Rajpoots opposed a barrier. To the eastward, beyond Allahabad, there was no barrier at all. The people of Bihár and Bengal were no warriors like the Rajpoots. They never even tried to withstand the Mussulmans. They were fascinated with terror, and submitted without a struggle to the wolf-like invaders. There is thus a striking contrast between the gal by Muham- conquest of Bihár and Bengal to the eastward of Allahabad, and that of the Rajpoot Rajas of Delhi and Kanouj. A Mussulman adventurer named Muhammad Bakhtiyár established his supremacy over this eastern region with the utmost ease. Bakhtiyar was a man of great valour and audacity, but he was ill-favoured and very long in the arms. His appearance was so much against him, that he could not obtain military service at Ghazní or Delhi; he therefore went away to the eastern frontier in the neighbourhood of Allahabad. Here he made plundering raids into Bihár, and was joined by other freebooters until he found himself in command of numerous horsemen. He captured the city of Bihár, and plundered it. He also destroyed a college of Bráhmans with shaven heads, and put them all to the sword. He entered Nuddea, the capital of Bengal, with only eighteen horsemen disguised as horse-dealers. Nobody stopped him; CHAPTER II. at last he and his men reached the palace, and murdered all they met. Meanwhile his main force began to enter the city. The Raja was eating his dinner when he heard an outbreak in the courtyard. He was so alarmed that he went out at the back of the palace and fled to the river; he then embarked in a boat and sailed away to Jagganáth, leaving all his women and treasures at the mercy of the Mussulmans. He never returned to Nuddea, but passed the remainder of his days at Jagganáth as a religious devotee.27 Henceforth Bihar and Bengal belonged to the Mussulmans, and Gour became the capital of the new dominion. in Mussulman and Gour. Mussulman India thus formed two separate Two kingdoms regions, which may be distinguished as the kingdom India: Delhi of Delhi, and the kingdom of Gour. The kingdom of Delhi included all the Punjab, and all Hindustan as far to the east as Allahabad.28 The kingdom of Gour included all Bihár and Bengal, from Allahabad eastward to the Brahmaputra river. But these two regions did not always form separate kingdoms. Sometimes they were united into a single empire. Sometimes the Sultans of Delhi exercised a suzerainty as far east as the river Brahmaputra, and the 27 Elliot's History of India, vol. ii. The Raja of Nuddea was named Rai Lakhmaniya. His timidity may be in part ascribed to a belief in astrology. His mother is said to have been put to horrible torment in order to delay his birth a couple of hours. The astrologers had assured him that he would be deprived of his kingdom by a man with long arms. 28 The town of Allahabad, the ancient Prayága, is situated at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna in the centre of Hindustan. A line drawn from Allahabad northward, to Ayodhya, or Oude, would probably correspond to the line of separation, whenever Delhi and Gour formed separate kingdoms. It will of course be borne in mind that the region to the south, answering to Guzerát and Rajpootana, were not as yet included in Mussulman India, although geographically they form part of Hindustan. |