58 



STK 'ANDREW WINGATE, K.C.T.E., ON INDIA. 



centuries, ending about a.d. 1000, of what is known as the 

 Hindu period of Indian history, the Brahmans moulded public 

 opinion and conduct, and became the dominating class throughout 

 India, with the net result that Hindustan, the Deccan and the 

 Far South, all alike, were left in a welter of bloodshed and a 

 tangle of morals. Brahmans had a free hand to regenerate 

 India or even bring it decent government, for they were the only 

 universal influence. They utterly failed. Why ? Because, in 

 my judgment, they used their intellectual strength to despise 

 other men to a, degree unknow^n even in slavery, and to justify 

 the worship of debasing idols. 



Mohammedans. 



Such a population, retrograde in civilization, degenerate in 

 character, devouring one another, with wealth stored in centres 

 by kings and priests, asked for trouble. Judgment came in 

 terrible form. Raiding began from Afghanistan. Round about 

 A.D. 1000, Mahmud of Ghazni plundered one rich temple after 

 another, including Somnath, and annexed the Panjab. The 

 warning was unheeded, and in a.d. 1175 Sultan Mohammed 

 Ghori, advancing from Eastern Afghanistan, had no difficulty in 

 overthrowing the huge Hindu host of confederate kings under 

 the Chauhan Rajput Prithiraj, ruler of Ajmer and Delhi. This 

 victory (a.d. 1192) sealed the doom of Hindustan. Armies 

 reared on the caste system, which divides, were no match for 

 the unified enthusiasm of the Moslems. Bengal fell an easy 

 victim about a.d. 1200, and remained under the Mohammedan 

 heel till the British brought deliverance after five and a-half 

 centuries. The ferocity of the early invaders was merciless, 

 slaughtering idolaters and destroying temples, in place of which 

 mos(.[ues were everywhere substituted. 



From this time till the middle of the fourteenth century the 

 Sultans of Delhi reigned supreme. Only two need mention. 

 Ala-ud-din in 1303 stormed the hill-fort of Chitor in Meyw^ar, 

 when the Rajput ladies and their female attendants saved them- 

 selves from the horrors of capture by entering a subterranean 

 gallery, where they perished by fire, including the lovely Pad mani. 

 Tod says he went to the entrance only of the sacred cavern. He 

 was probably informed, as I was by a later Maharaua, that the 

 place had already been ransacked by the victors. 



This Ala-ud-din understood the taxation of profits. In his 

 instructions for the treatment of Hindus, he recorded that he 



* 



