The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.61

v3.c20.61

It is only in a limited sense that Mahmūd can be described as an Indian sovereign, for it was not until the later years of his reign that he annexed and occupied the Punjab, the only Indian province which he held, but he was the first to carry the banner of Islam into the heart of India and to tread the path in which so many followed him. He founded an Indian dynasty, for the later kings of his house, stripped of all their possessions in Persia, Transoxiana, and Afghānistān, were fain to content themselves with the kingdom of the Punjab, which had been but an insignificant province of his great empire.