The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c22.3

c22.3

Indian literature and science had been eagerly studied by the scholars of Baghdad for centuries before the Muhammadan conquest of Hindustan. The skill of Indian master-builders made Mahmûd of Ghaznî's capital one of the finest cities of the East. Hindu generals fought in the armies of the Muhammadan invaders of India, and when finally the old Hindu capitals, Delhi and Gaur, became the seats of Muhammadan power, Baghdad and Mecca nominally remained the spiritual centres of Muhammadan India, but the culture of Islamic India was farther removed from its birthplace than the Muhammadanism of Arabia and Turkey from Judaism and Christianity. The philosophical differences between Muhammadan and Hindu thought were no greater than those which existed between the different sects of Hinduism itself. The success of Islam in India from a proselytising point of view was always due to its material inducements and the attractions of a social system which freed the low-caste Hindu from Brahman tyranny, rather than from the spiritual appeal of its dogma.