INDIA. 



21 



A.D. iota. 



Ml 

 (ju/cnt, 

 A. D. 10*0. 



Hjdih. 



A.aiosa 



Exentrf 



raountains adjoining the Punjab country . His sixth ex- 

 pedition took place in the year 1011 ; in this also 

 he was successful, and true to his religion, he again 

 took advantage of his success to destroy Tannasar, 

 m place of Hindoo worship, on the west of Delhi; 

 the city of Delhi itself was taken r.t the same time. 

 In the year 1018, he reduced Canoge, and destroyed 

 the temples of Mature, near Agra. I lushed with his 

 victories, be resolved to attempt the subjugation of the 

 Itajpoots of Ajmeer who had joined in the confederacy 

 against him ; but their country, full of mountains and 

 fastyfiiri, presented such serious difficulties, that he 

 was compelled to relinquish his attempt About this 

 period be seems to have reduced Benares and Patna. 

 Hitherto his conquests and victories had been confined 

 to the north of India ; but about the year 1020, allu- 

 red by the reputed treasures of the south, he directed 

 his raari-h to that quarter. His route was by Multan 

 axil Ajmeer, the citadel of which larthe was compelled 

 to leave in the poasetsioB of the enemy ; and in Croat 

 ing the desert between it and Multan, he nearly lost 

 the whole of his army from the want of water. He 

 penetrated, however, as far as Guzerat, which appear* 

 to have fallen an easy prey : Nehrwalla, the ancient ca- 

 pital of that kingdem, was reduced ; and the famous 

 Hindoo temple of Soumenat, adjoining the town of 

 Puttan, on the sea coast, was destroyed. Mahmoud, 

 however, suffered this new conquest to retain at least si 

 nominal independence, appointing a descendant of the 

 ancient rulers of Guzerat to be ha sovereign. 



After an active and successful reign of thirty-one 

 yean, this prince died in the yew 1028: hi* 



at the period of his death, consisted of the eastern, and 

 by far the largest portion of Persia, as well as nomi- 

 nally of all the Indian province* from the western nart 

 of the Ganges, to the paninaula of Guserat; and from 

 the Indus to the mountains of Ajmeer. The Punjab, 

 however, which wa* in the immediate vicinity of the 

 empire of Ghazna, wa* the only part that wa* subject 

 to regular government, under the Mahomedana. KUh- 

 mouar appear* to have been a prince distinguished for 

 the elegance and magnificence of his court, as well a* 

 for hi* patronage of literature. By hi* rxprea* order, 

 the material* of the Shab-nameh were collected ; and 



TtttlMtof 

 aiidruMv. 

 A.P. lljft. 



Drasstysf 



t. ' 



under hi* eye, Ferdouei 

 ha* immortalised hi* 



The empire of Ghazna, which bad been brought to 

 rapid and unnatural maturity by the talents and suc- 

 cess** of Mahmoud, contained within itaelf the seeds 

 of it* own decay and deeti action : hi* eacctssms were 

 occupied, either with petty warfare at home, or in the 

 defence of their distant province*, with various sue. 

 earn Thirteen monarch, of the dynasty of Sebectag. 

 bin reigned at Ghana. Kho.ru Shah wa* the last ; 

 he wa* deposed and imprisoned in A. D. 1154, the 

 western and largest part of hi* empire being seized on 

 by the family of the Gaurides: the province* conti- 

 guous to both shores of the Indus, T-mittnl to the old 

 dynasty till the year 118*, when the Gaundes also 

 gained them. The new dynasty established perma- 

 nently the Mahomedan belief on the throne of Delhi, 

 which they fixed upon aa their capital in India. The 

 father of Hassanl en Hassan owed his advancement to 

 the throne of Gaur to the seventh sultan of the Sebec- 

 Ugbio dynasty; and Hassan taking advantage of the 

 distracted and enfeebled state of the empire of Ghazna 

 during the reign of the twelfth sovereign of that 

 dynasty, invaded it, and after various .access, ac- 

 complished hi* object, and, a* has been already men* 



tioned, deposed and imprisoned Khosru Shah. Pre- Huton. 

 vious to the final couquest of Ghazna, Hassan, on what "*"" "V""*' 

 pretence or with what object does not appear, invaded 

 the dominions of the SeluciiUr, when he was taken 

 prisoner ; but he ingratiated hjaajajf ao completely with 

 the reigning monarch, by his talents for poetry, that 

 the conqueror sent him back laden with his gifts to his 

 own capital. He died either in the same year in which 

 he took Khosru Shah prisoner, or in the year imme- 

 diately succeeding. 



Hassan was succeeded by his son Mahomed Seifed- 

 dein ; no event of moment occurred during his reign. 

 but the joint reigns of Giathodien AbulfTutteh and Sha- 

 habodien Abul MuzzuflTur, which lasted 40 years, and 

 the period of four years, during which the latter sur- 

 vived his brother, fixed the Mahomedan empire within 

 India proper on the throne of Delhi. The history of 

 the immediate cause of the revolution which overturn- 

 ed the ancient Hindoo monarchy of India, Patti, or 

 Delhi, is among the roost romantic that even the an- 

 nals of the East present. 



" Jya Chandra, emperor of India, whose capital was Ancient 

 Canoge, was not in truth the legitimate sovereign of Hindoo 



the country : that title belonged to the younsr hero "rTT!; . J . 

 . , . ; on it.- ,1 * of Delhi de- 



Pithaura. kmg of Delhi, whose noble character and un- tr ,,yi. 



happy fate are the theme of both Mussulman and A. D. 1*194. 

 Hindoo writers ; the two monarchs appear, however, 

 to have lived for some years in good intelligence, till 

 upon occasion of a solemn sacrifice at the capital of 

 Jya Chandra, where the functions of officiating priests 

 were to be performed by sovereign princes, Pithaura, 

 not chusing to perform an inferior part, while his rank 

 a* superior lord should have made him high priest, 

 absented himself from the ceremony, and thus incurred 

 the enmity and persecution of the monarch of Canoge. 

 Shortly afterward* a more romantic adventure termi- 

 nated not only in the destruction of Pithaura, but in 

 his own ruin. Jya Chandra had adopted as his daugh- 

 ter a beautiful and accomplished damsel, whom the 

 lUBgof Sinhala Dwipa, or Ceylon, had presented to him, 

 during an excursion be had made to that island under 

 pretence of a pilgrimage, but in reality to extract tri- 

 bute from the Kings of the southern provinces. This 

 damsel he had i 



1 promised in marriage to a neighbouring 

 that poem, which monarch, bat she being enamoured of the noble and 



valorous Pithaura, refused her consent. Pithaura be- 

 ing at that time at Delhi, and hearing of her affection, 

 disguised himself, his brother, and attendants, as the 

 servants of a bard whom he sent to the court of Jya 

 Chandra ; and having by this means obtained an inter- 

 view with the fair prisoner, for such site had been 

 since her avowal of her affection for Pithaura, lie car- 

 ried her oft* in safety to Delhi, during a species of tour- 

 nament held by Jya Chandra, though not without a com- 

 bat, which deprived him of some of his bravest warriors. 

 The king of Canoge, in order to revenge himself more 

 completely for this insult, implored the assistance of 

 Shahabudien, who accordingly inarched with a power- 

 ful army against Pithaura, who roused himself from 

 the delights of his capital, and the indulgence of his 

 love, to meet the Mussulmans in the plains of Thanes- 

 sar, where he was defeated and slain A. D. 1 1 OK His 

 capital immediately fell, and Shahabodien fixed in it 

 the first and greatest of the Mabomedan monarchies in 

 India ; and very shortly afterwards overthrew Jya 

 Chandra himself, and thus obtained the most extensive 

 and richest provinces of Hmdostan." 



Shahabodien was succeeded by Mahomed Gori, who ori 

 reigned seven years. He fell a victim to the jndigna- A.D. 121?. 



