HISTORY OF HINDOSTAN. 



BOOK V. 



' 



CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF THE EARLIEST TARTAR, PER- 

 SIAN, AND GRECIAN, INVASIONS OF HINDOSTAN. 



CHAPTER I. 



Sketch of the original Form of Government of India under its ancient 

 Maharajahs, or great Rajahs. Causes assigned of the frequent 

 and successful Invasion of India by their Tartar and Persian 

 Neighbours. An Account, from Persian Authorities, of the first 

 Settlement of the Provinces directly North of India, called by them 

 the Empire of TURAN, and by the Arabians MAVER-AL- 

 NAHAR, or Transoxana, with an Account of the earliest Irruptions 

 into India of their Inhabitants, known generally under the Name 

 O/'ORIENTAL TARTARS. 



F ROM the regions of doubt and the mazes of mythology we 

 return, with renewed pleasure, in the present book, to explore the 

 field of classical history ; a field, however, in these early ages, not 

 wholly unadorned with those gaudy but delusive flowers which 

 spring up in such wild luxuriance on Indian ground. We are 

 now to enter upon the detail of events comparatively modern, to 



