History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s6.11

v3.c33.s6.11

Sind fell before the Arabs under Muhammad Kasim in 712; the Panjab fell before the Turks under Mahmud in 1009, and Northern India fell before the Afghans under Ghori from 1193 to 1200 A. D. The causes of the downfall in each of these three cases were not the same; were in fact extremely different. We have discussed the causes of the downfall of Sind in Volume I and shown that Sind fell chiefly owing to the treachery of some feudatories of Chach and the pusillanimity of the Buddhists. Sind was then ruled by a Brahmin and Panjab also was ruled by a Brahmin king; but both Dāhar and Ānandapāla fought with the bravery of Rajputs. These ruling Brahmin dynasties were practically Kshatriyas. And from the most ancient times when Droṇa fought in the Mahābhārata war down to the time of the Peshwas, Brahmin kings and chiefs fought as bravely as the Kshatriyas. Indeed Brahmin soldiers also such as the Pandes of Northern India in the days of the mutiny fought as valiantly as other soldiers in the British army. Curiously enough the same accident befell Dāhar as befell Ānandapāla in their final hard contested battles and the elephant of Dāhar left the battlefield as that of the latter did and would not stop until it had thrown itself into a lake and alloyed its fever. But accidents befall every man in his life and are not the real causes of downfalls; as stated before fate is an over-riding and common factor in all the concerns of this world and in a historical survey of causes it may be excluded from consideration. Though these two facts in the case of Sind and the Panjab are almost identical yet the real causes of the fall of the Panjab are different from the causes of the fall of Sind. In the case of the former we read of treachery or defection of no Indian king or feudatory. Perhaps the Mahomedan historian Utbi, the Secretary of Mahmud, who must have known all secrets omitted purposely the mention of such cases. But as in even Mahomedan histories of Sind we have such a mention, we may safely say that in the case of the Panjab treachery was not one of the causes of its downfall. Nor was there any great difference of religion in the Panjab causing pusillanimity of the people. As explained in the last chapter of Volume II, India at this time was under one and the same religion viz. Hinduism, without the feuds between ‘Vaishnavism’ and ‘Saivism’ which later distracted that religion. As stated therein, India at this time was in the happiest condition of having one religion, Buddhism being dead and Mahomedanism being yet far off. India was also blessed in other respects in the tenth century A. D. and was at the height of its strength and prosperity from which as from a summit there was bound to be a descent by the laws of nature. The historian has to find how this descent came on.