Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c5.s3.9

c5.s3.9

Alberuni writes that "Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country... by which the Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions... Their scattered remains cherish.. the most inveterate aversion towards all Muslims... Hindu sciences have retired far away from those parts of the country conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand *cannot yet reach* (italics ours), to Kashmir, Benaras and other places."³⁶ Later chroniclers write with a tinge of pride that fourteen Ghaznavids ruled at Lahore and its environs for nearly two hundred years. But there was progressive deterioration in their administration. However, the importance of occupation of most part of the Punjab lies in the fact that Muslims had come to stay in India. And these Muslims helped in the third wave of Muslim onrush which swept northern India under Muhammad Ghauri.