Lieut. -Colo7iel Briggs on the Life and JVritings ofFerishta. 359 



To him was left the task of completing the entire subjugation of all the 

 Muhamedan kingdoms ; which he effected in 1688, the era of the great 

 reformation in England. The enlightened wisdom of Akber was not found 

 in the mind of Aurungzeb. To the pedantic acquirements of the scholar, 

 he added the craft of the ascetic : and, in order either to indulge his own 

 private feelings, or to obtain popularity among those of his own persuasion, 

 he altogether abandoned the policy of his predecessor, which led him to 

 strengthen his dominion by a liberal employment of his Hindu subjects. 

 Aurungzeb levied a pole-tax upon them ; and unduly favoured by every 

 means his Muhamedan subjects. To this unwise and bigotted course is to 

 be ascribed all the evils that threatened his territory before he died. His 

 empire extended over all India north of the river Kishna, and contained a 

 population of a hundred million of inhabitants. 



At his death, in I707. the flame, which his presence and his energy had 

 tended to suppress, burst forth in all quarters. The Hindus of the Deccan 

 were excited to a revolt, which was dignified with the appellation of a, 

 religious war ; and the Muhamedans experienced to such a degree the 

 fury of their irritated enemies, that in less than fifty years scarcely a vestige 

 remained of their late extensive power. 



On the ruins of the Mogul government arose the Maratta state, which 

 attained a degree of strength that could hardly have been anticipated in so 

 short a time. Half a century had scarcely elapsed from the death of 

 Aurungzeb, ere the golden pennon of the house of Bhosla waved triumph- 

 antly on the walls of Tanjore in the south ; while the soldiers who 

 followed its standard overran the greater part of the country from the Caveiy 

 to Kashmeer, and from the Indus to the snowy range of Himala. Who 

 could have foretold, that the government which gave ample employment to 

 the British arms, from Trichinopoly to Gualior, in the year 1782, should be 

 now lying prostrated at the feet of England, without a single chief absolutely 

 free from her control ! That sucli is tlie case cannot be denied. Let us not, 

 however, repose too confidently in the magnitude of our present power. 

 The perusal of the pages of Indian history will teach us a lesson we should 

 never forget. The power of Malimud of Ghizni, supported by all the en- 

 thusiasm with which religious prejudices, education, and boundless ambition 

 could inspire the breasts of his soldiers, enabled him to hold in subjection 

 but a very small portion of the population of India. After reigning thirty- 

 years, he nominated a lieutenant to the province of Lahore : but his succes- 



3 A 2 



