History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s6.2

v3.c33.s6.2

Let us see how like a consummate diplomat or statesman, Mahmud slowly extended his empire from Ghazni by gradual annexations, as the British did from their centres in Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. Mahmud was originally king of Zabulistan or the territory round Ghazni which again formerly belonged to the Rajputs and he was also governor of Khorasan on behalf of the Samani emperors. When the Samani empire fell owing to the attacks of the Turkish hordes beyond the Oxus, he annexed Khorasan and allowed Ilek-khan, the Turk, to annex the northern portion of the Sāmāni kingdom beyond the Oxus, or Mawarannahar. Thus these two powerful kings accommodated each other. From Zabulistan, Mahmud extended his dominion eastward and from Khorasan westward by the gradual absorption of the adjoining kingdoms. Even this was not done all at once. Mahmud or his father first acquired Kabulistan, then he annexed the lower part of the present N. W. Frontier Province viz. Bannu and the adjoining territory and subsequently the northern portion viz. Peshawar and Wahind. These three provinces belonged, as we have seen, to Jaipal, the Brahmin Shahi king of Kabul who was also the ruler of the whole of the Panjab. We see how adroitly Mahmud deprived Jaipal of his provinces one by one without driving him to sudden despair like the British who from Bombay gradually acquired one district after another of the Brahmin ruler of the Deccan. Ānandapāla, like Bajirao, was for a time left in the possession of the Panjab after the loss of his provinces to the west of the Indus, subject to a tribute. But the final collision came as it was bound to come and both Ānandapāla and Bajirao lost their kingdoms which were finally annexed by the conquering power. When Sir Vincent Smith makes an exception of the Panjab, the largest part of Mahmud's dominions in the east, he practically admits that Mahmud as a result of his various raids up to the twelfth expedition did annex vast territories and effected permanent occupation. Nay more, Mahmud attempted to consolidate his dominions by the forcible conversion to Islam of the people of the annexed provinces. He probably realised the necessity of unity of religious belief in the people as an important factor in the consolidation of kingdoms; and systematically carried out the forcible conversion of the people; for example of Ghor on the west and Swat and Bajaur in the north-eastern corner of Afghanistan on the west side of the Indus. On the east side, that is in the Panjab, it appears that the rigour of the policy of conversion was not continued though even in the Panjab he converted forcibly many peoples especially in the westen part contiguous to the river Indus. Mahmud's statesmanship as a Mahomedan king in forcibly converting the people of the annexed territories immediately in the vicinity of his kingdom cannot be denied and Mahmua thus not only annexed but consolidated territories.