The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c10.12.4

v1.c10.12.4

A period of struggle has always intervened between the fall of one and the rise of another powerful dynasty in India until the establishment of British rule. But if for practical purposes we must draw a line between the so-called ancient and mediaeval periods, it is more convenient to draw it somewhere about 916 A.D. when the Pratīhāra empire in Northern India at last began to break up into numerous petty states. As usual, ‘‘a political re-adjustment would probably have taken place, sooner or later, if the Indian states were left to themselves.’’ But unfortunately the Turks appeared at this crisis on the north-western frontier carrying the Muslim flag. The Pratīhāra empire had played no insignificant part in preventing the Arabs from gaining the same success in India as in other lands. But the Turks were more fortunate, and before the breach could be repaired by the same natural process which had hitherto always operated in India, they charged through the gap and carried everything before them. The incidents during the period of about three hundred years (*c.* 916 to 1200 A.D.) may be taken to be only a prelude to the final act of the drama, which saw the standards of Islam on most of the important citadels of Northern India. Considered from this point of view, the year 916 A.D. may for practical purposes be accepted as the line of demarcation between the two periods in the history of Northern India. These may be called the ancient and the mediaeval periods;