History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c40: Chapter XXIV. Downfall of Northern India.—Subsidiary Causes.

History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c40

Language: English

Chapter XXIV. Downfall of Northern India.—Subsidiary Causes.

In the last chapter we have given what appear to us to be the chief causes of the fall of the Rajput kingdoms of Northern India, viz: first, the constant fighting among the several Rajput states and their consequent weakening and second, the rigidification of caste which made the several important sections of the people in each state, except the Rajputs, incapacitated and unwilling to fight. In this chapter we notice some subsidiary causes which contributed to the fall of these kingdoms, though these individually could not have led to that result. Most of the facts given here will have to be noticed again in our survey of the general condition of the country; but it is as well to mention them here separately.

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1. One may first again mention the absence of the feeling of nationality in the people of all these states. We have already said that in India at this time, as elsewhere in Asia, there were kingdoms but no peopledoms. The people did not feel that the state was theirs and the king ought also to be theirs. The country belonged to the king and any one might be king whom God chose. Under this view of the state, the sentiment of nationality cannot arise, nor, as stated in Vol. II (p. 220) and Vol. I (p. 123), the virtue of patriotism. There was the sentiment of loyalty, no doubt, and you find in the Prithvīrāj Rāsā that sentiment appealed to everywhere. To die for the master was the highest dharma of the Rajput soldier. But when that master failed and another master was substituted by the will of God, the soldier was ready to die for him also. Thus we find even Kshatriya soldiers dying for Mahomedan kings and masters. This was doubly true of the common people who were not Rajputs i. e. of the caste whose duty it was to rule.

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Though one essential of a state in its modern sense was indeed developing in India in the rise of separate modern languages and Gujarat, Rajputana, Antarbed, Bengal, Mahārāshtra, Telangana, Tamilnādu and Malyālam could now be considered as separate countries by reason of separate languages, viz., their modern vernaculars, this did not develop the feeling of nationality among the speakers of the same language for the above reason and in each of these countries or provinces, there were consequently several kingdoms which fought with one another. Why these did not coalesce, we shall discuss later on, but we may state here that the sameness of language did not develop the sentiment of nationality in these provinces in the absence of the other essential conditions which give rise to the feeling of nationality.

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2. There being no sentiment of nationality, the ingress of foreigners was usually not objected to. Except in Kashmir and Tibet which had impregnable boundaries, the ingress of foreigners was not prohibited, was not even watched. Hence Mahomedans came into the several kingdoms freely and often settled therein. Thus we find them settled in Nāharwala, in Cambay, in Sopara, in Mahārāshtra and even in the Kanauj kingdom.* They even insisted on being governed by their own magistrates, as is evidenced by Mahomedan writers, as also by the expression Hanjamana-Nagara-Trivarga already noticed in Thana inscriptions. That the strength of states is impaired by the presence of foreigners is seen clearly by the modern states of the west which exercise strict watch over the ingress of foreigners. Indian states did not realise this or feel the necessity of strict watch over them owing to the absence of the feeling of nationality. Though there is no recorded evidence of it, one can imagine how the presence of Mahomedans in the several kingdoms must have contributed to their eventual subjugation.

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3. Superstition sometimes contributes its quota to the fall of nations and superstition acted like a double-edged sword towards the fall of India. While the Mahomedans believed that victory was bound to come to them "for the judgment of God was upon those who were against him and could not be avoided," the Hindus thought that India was bound to be overrun by the Mlechchhas in the Kali age. Superstition has often acted thus upon the mind of peoples. The Aztecs of Mexico believed that they were destined to be conquered by men coming from the east. When the Goths and the Vandals overthrew the Roman Empire, the Christians thought that the end of the world was coming on as foretold in the Bible and made no opposition. In India too, though there is no recorded evidence of it, except in the case of Lakhnauti where the Tabakat records that king Lakshmaṇasena had been told that he would be conquered by a long-armed Turk, the Hindus generally must have submitted to the new state of things through the superstitious belief that it was inevitable.

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∗ The Benares Gazetteer states that in the city of Benares there are Mahomedan Mohollas which are anterior in date to the final conquest of Benares by the Mahomedans according to tradition, though it is difficult to believe that Chandra or Govindachandra or even Jaichand could have allowed Mahomedans to settle in Benares. Perhaps they settled in the time of the subservient Pratihāra kings.

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4. The maintenance of a strong and sufficient army is the first duty of every state. The Hindu states had probably neglected this duty at this time. The great reputation of India in this respect noted before had been lost by it at this time. The probability is that Hindu states did not at this time maintain standing armies as in the days of Harsha or Bhoja. The army consisted chiefly of the quotas furnished by the Sāmantas. Though not exactly alike, these Sāmantas were like barons in England, who maintained for the use of the state certain quotas of fighters, the expenses of the same being borne by the barons or Sāmantas from their fiefs. This is the same system as existed under the Moguls viz., of Hazaris and Panch Hazaris. Prithvirāj had probably no standing army of the state. He had probably only a small Huzur force. We know that the Peishwas, after the battle of Panipat, neglected to maintain a strong Huzur army, and the sagacious Ahalyābāi expostulated often with Nana Fadnis for neglecting the Huzur pathak. The quota supplied by Sāmantas cannot always be relied upon, either in respect of number or of efficiency. The standing army of Mahmud or Shihabuddin Ghori must have been a more reliable force than the armies composed of the forces of Sāmantas called together hastily by the Hindu kings. Sāmantas or military sardars are again not disposed to fight stubbornly as there is a temptation to save themselves and their fiefs. We believe that the absence of sufficient standing armies in the Hindu states at this time strongly contributed to their eventual fall.

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5. It may further be observed that Hindu intelligence neglected the study of the science of war as well as the science of the proper conception of the state. Brahmin and Kshatriya intelligence revelled more in this subperiod in the study of poetics than in the necessary study of more useful sciences. The distinctions of heroines in love and despair, the essentials of poetry, poetical blemishes and embellishments, and the figures of speech engaged the highest intelligence of the land and even kings devoted their attention to writing elaborate treatises on poetics and dramaturgy. These works, no doubt, prove the fineness of Hindu intellect, but it should have devoted itself to more important studies. The attention and affluence of kings were bestowed more upon court-poets than upon generals; the stage attracted them more than the camp. The minute study of poetics led to the deterioration of taste and morals and the increase of voluptuousness can be marked from the Karpūra-Manjarī of Rājaśekhara to the Rambhā Manjarī of Nayachandra. The debasement of popular and kingly taste will be apparent from the first verse of adoration adopted even in Kanauj for such ceremonious and meritorious documents as inscriptions of grants of villages to pious Brahmins. Indeed luxury and voluptuousness were bound to overtake the people in this sub-period, since the last sub-period was the most prosperous period of Hindu history as shown in the last chapter of Volume II (pp. 247-258). Height of prosperity leads to decadence of morals and voluptuousness which undermine the physical and moral capacities of the people, as we see in the case of the Romans, the Arabs, the Moguls and others and it need not be wondered that the Hindu kingdoms in the twelfth century became weak, by reason of the very prosperity and happiness they had enjoyed.

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6. Lastly, we cannot conclude this short survey of the subsidiary causes of the downfall of Rajput kingdoms in Northern India without drawing the attention of the reader to the recrudescence during this sub-period of the Buddhistic sentiment of Ahimsa which, as we shall show in our chapter on religious survey, is evidenced by the rise of new Vaishnavism and the great popularity, power, and progress of Jainism and of Lingayat and other sects during this period. Though the rise of Vaishnavism or the spread of Jainism or other sects cannot be assigned as a direct cause of the downfall of Northern India, as Buddhism can be as a cause of the downfall of Sind, it cannot be denied that the dominance of the docile doctrine of Ahimsa throughout the Hindu society at this time made it inoffensive and weak. Most Brahmins whether Śaiva or Vaishnava, and almost all Vaiśyas Saiva, Vaishnava and Jain accepted at this time the non-slaughter of animals as a binding religious principle and gave up animal food altogether as we will show later on. The result was that with the exception of the Rajputs the whole Hindu mass became unfitted as well as unwilling to fight. (This influence of food on the nature of people can not be denied.) The masses of Indian people in the several states excepting the Rajputs, (the Śudras generally following the Brahmins and Vaiśyas through imitation as well as indigence) were like Indian elephants. Inspite of its enormous size and strength, the elephant is by nature timid and inoffensive. The elephant's arm of offense, its trunk, is delicate and is easily slashed. The elephant is usually afraid to endanger its life and shrinks at the least display of fire. No doubt, it can be trained to fight and to courageously withstand fire. So also the vegetarian Hindu can be trained to fight and perform deeds of valour. But where there is no such training, both by nature being inoppressive are easily subdued and made to obey the master. There are no doubt examples of Brahmin and even Jain brave generals and soldiers in this sub-period, but the generality of the people being unaccustomed to fight and becoming by their food inaggressive and docile, when the Rajputs failed, all the Hindu kingdoms from the Sutlej to the Brahmaputra and from the Himalayas to the Vindhyas succumbed and almost willingly submitted to the Moslem yoke within the short period of a quarter of a century. As stated in the preface to Volume I, the message of history to Hindus, especially those who have conscientious objection to a meat diet, is so to strengthen themselves by physical training and mental alertness as to enable them to take their share honourably in the internecine physical struggles of the human race which will never cease but will ever go on.

Linked texts (4)

Pṛthvīrāj Rāso — Cand Bardāī, Hindi
Karpūramañjarī — Rājaśekhara, Śaurasenī Prakrit
Ṭabaqāt-i Nāṣirī — Minhāj al-Dīn Jūzjānī
Rambhāmañjarī — Nayacandrasūri, Sanskrit