History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c14.s1.55

v1.c14.s1.55

The history of Kashmir subsequent to Kalhaṇa may be finally given, before proceeding, in a few words. It remained a petty Hindu kingdom torn by internal dissentions while the whole of northern India came gradually under Mahomedan rule. At last a Mahomedan adventurer from the south named Shah Mīr deposed Queen Kota widow of the last Hindu ruler and founded a Mahomedan dynasty (1339 A. D.). Islam hereafter made its way among the population not by forcible conversion but by natural mutation. But the Brahmins though still sticking to their old religion retained the ascendant power in the land by their learning and their employment as government servants. Strangely enough till Akbar's final conquest of Kashmir in 1586 A. D. and its reduction to the status of a province of the Mogul Empire, Sanskrit remained the official language of the country, no doubt with many words borrowed from Persian and Arabic (Stein's Raj. Vol. I).