History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c3.1

v1.c3.1

IN these volumes it is proposed to give the history in detail of India during what may be called the Mediæval Hindu period. The history of India naturally falls into two main portions, the ancient and the modern. It is plain that the modern history of India commences from the establishment of the Slave Dynasty of Mahomedan emperors and is divisible into three periods viz. (1) the Mussalman period from about 1200 A. D. to roughly 1650 A.D. (2) the Maratha period from 1650 A.D. to 1818 A.D., the date of the fall of the Peshwas and (3) the British period from 1818 A. D. down to the present day. The ancient history of India also sub-divides itself into three main periods which may be called the Aryan period, the Aryo-Buddhistic period and the Hindu period. The Aryan period commencing from the most ancient times variously considered to go back to from 4000 to 2000 B. C. comes down to about 300 B. C. and closes with the invasion of India by Alexander. Ancient Aryan Kshatriya kingdoms then disappeared and the Sudra Maurya dynasty, of emperors was established in India, ushering in the supremacy of Buddhism under Asoka. The second period is remarkable for the alternate triumphs of Buddhism and Aryanism politically as well as religiously, and this period may, therefore, be called not Buddhistic but Aryo-Buddhistic. It extends from 300 B. C. to 600 A. D. and closes with the final and greatest triumph of Buddhism under Harsha. The third period of ancient Indian history which it is proposed to treat of in these volumes begins with the fall of Buddhism after Harsha and the rise of new Hindu (not Aryan) kingdoms in India. Hinduism, as it is to-day, was then formed and gathering strength it finally overthrew Buddhism by the aid of the revived Pūrva Mīmāmsā philosophy which re-established the supremacy of the Vedas and the Vedic sacrifices. The long prevalence, however, of the religion of non-salughter had created sentiments among the people too strong to be suppressed; and although Buddhism was extinct in India excepting Magadha, that sentiment feared its head again in the rising popularity of Jainism and Vaishnavism and in the reviving ascendancy of the Uttara Mimāmsā philosophy of the Vedanta. The first Hindu kingdoms established after the death of Harsha about 650 A. D. fell about 800 A. D. both by natural decadence which overtakes kingly dynasties after a period of about 150 to 200 years, and by other causes which will be presently discussed. About this time, however, fresh orthodox Hindu kingdoms of Rajputs arose to withstand the first onslaught of the Mahomedan religion on India under the Arabs and raised Hinduism to its climax. These kingdoms lasted from about 800 A. D. to about 1000 A. D. when they fell before the second onslaught of Mahomedanism under the Turks of Mahmud of Ghazni. He, however, retired from India excepting the Panjab and a third set of Hindu kingly dynasties ruled in India for about 200 years more and these finally fell before the third onslaught of Mahomedanism under Turks and Afgans who now settled in the country and established Mahomedan rule in India on a permanent footing. The principal Hindu period thus ranges from 600 to 1200 A. D. and it may also be called, by reference to time, the Mediæval period of Indian history. But although in Hindustan, or Northern India, the Hindu period thus closed about 1200 A. D. Hindu independent kingdoms continued to rule in the Deccan for a hundred years more and these fell before the conquering expeditions of Allauddin Khilji and his general Malik Kafur in about 1300 A. D. South India rallied again for the last time and reared a strong independent Hindu kingdom viz. that of Vijayanagar, and this kingdom, after a brilliant career of about 200 years, was finally defeated and completely destroyed by the Mahomedan powers of the Deccan at the battle of Talikot in 1561 A. D.