History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c3.3

v1.c3.3

the date of the fall of the empire of the Varmās of Kanauj, second from 800 to 1000 A. D. that is the period of the supremacy of the Pratihāra emperors of Kanauj and third from 1000 A. D. to 1200 A. D. the date of the fall of the Gaharwar Rathod emperors of Kanauj. It must be mentioned here that during the whole of the Hindu period Kanauj was looked upon universally as the capital of India just as in the previous Aryo-Buddhistic period, Indian kingdoms looked up to Pātaliputra as the Urbs Prima of India. In the Deccan, these three sub-periods were distinguished by three Maratha kingly dynasties viz. the Chālukyas of Bādāmi, the Rāshtrakūtas of Malkhed and the later Chālukyas of Kalyan, brought on in the rear by the Yādavas of Devagiri from 1200 to 1300 A. D. These three sub-divisions of the Hindu period we propose to treat of in three separate volumes to which a fourth volume may be added dealing with the history of the Deccan during the fourteenth century and the history of South India down to the final fall of the Hindus of Vijayanagar in 1561 A. D. In fact our history may well be described as the history of the decline and down-fall of the Aryan empire in India, like the immortal work of Gibbon on the decline and fall of the Roman empire ending with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 A. D. We have, however, called this work of ours by the more modest name of the history of Mediæval Hindu India containing as it does the history of the several Hindu independent kingdoms which ruled in India in mediæval times. This first volume contains the history of the first set of Hindu kingdoms which ruled in India from about 650 to 800 A. D. though in particular cases like that of Kashmir it has been found advisable to bring the history down to the end of the Hindu period i. e. to 1200 A. D. We have, however, followed the example of Gibbon in one important respect and have given in Book I a detailed account of the reign of Harsha which is in a manner the basis of this history, and we have also taken a survey of the political, social and religious condition of the country in the time of that emperor, a condition which furnishes the starting point for the subsequent evolution of the Hindu people. As the reign of the Antonines was the culminating point of the Roman empire so was the reign of Harsha the culminating point of India's evolution, and curiously enough it will be found from these pages that Harsha resembled the two great Roman emperors in many and most marked points. And it is interesting to note that as reliable materials are available for giving an account of the reign of Harsha and the condition of his times, as were available to Gibbon in writing about the age of the Antonines. The records of the travels of Hiuen Tsang and the life of Harsha written by the court-poet Bāṇa, supply us with two most vivid and detailed pictures drawn by eye witnesses, which are invaluable to the historian of ancient India. It is no wonder, therefore, that we have in this volume based most of our remarks on the observations of these two writers who, it is refreshing to find, corroborate each other in the minutest details.