History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s5.3

v3.c41.s5.3

Lower down in Bengal the policy of forcible conversion was, it seems, later adopted by Khilji governors and succeeding Bengal kings to some extent and hence the Mahomedan population in Eastern Bengal predominates. But this happened later than our period and hence Bengal may also be taken as Hindu in the map above referred to. But though thus from the Sutlej to the Brahmaputra and from the Himalaya to the Vindhya, the country was wholly Hindu in the beginning of this period and only sparcely Mahomedan at the end of it, the unity of religious belief even in this region was marred during this sub-period by the progress of Jainism notably in Gujarat and Rajputana and of Vaishnavism in Bengal. Curiously enough Jainism declined in the south in this sub-period. It would be interesting to note this progress of Jainism in one part and decline in another and try to explain it as far as can be done from the scanty historical evidence available on the subject. It will be necessary for this purpose to sketch briefly the rise and progress of Jainism up to the beginning of this sub-period.