History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s21.5

v3.c41.s21.5

The different kingdoms subsisting at the end of the last sub-period continued to thrive during this sub-period also with some notable exceptions. Most notable of these was the Panjab which fell at the beginning of this sub-period, as we have already seen, before Mahmud of Ghazni and was lost to Hindu India. We have discussed the causes of the fall of the Panjab elsewhere; but we may note here again one important cause viz. the absence of a strong and sufficient standing army. This was a feature of almost all the mediæval Hindu kingdoms on which we have commented in Vol. II (p. 223). Hindu armies, as the Arab writer Sulaiman has testified, consisted chiefly of levies and auxiliary forces of the Sāmantas, paid by them from the revenues of the districts assigned to them. The Imperial Pratihāras of Kanauj in the last sub-period maintained a strong standing army but it appears that, like the Peshwas in later Indian history, the Pratihāras of Kanauj latterly neglected to maintain an efficient Huzur force and Rājyapāla consequently was compelled to submit to the Turks. U. P. was saved, however, from being finally subjugated by Ghazni for two reasons, 1st, the incompetence of the successors of Mahmud and secondly, the conquest of the Kanauj kingdom by Gāhadavālas. Their kings down to Govindachandra appear to have maintained a strong standing army consisting of foot, horse and elephant and as stated in an inscription already noted (p. 212), Govindachandra compelled the Hammira to consent to a treaty recognising the inviolability of his frontier. The Pratihāras hereafter disappeared as a ruling independent clan.