Mughal Administration c17.s9.1

c17.s9.1

Muslim rule also arrested the growth of the Hindus. At the first stage of the conquest, all our monasteries and rich temples were sacked, and thus the centres of Hindu learning were destroyed. No powerful Hindu rajah was left to serve as a patron of Sanskrit scholars and authors. In consequence, Sanskrit learning virtually died out of mediæval India. What little was left of it, was extremely barren and consisted of logical subtleties, elaboration of rituals, new editions of Canon law, commentaries on old books, and commentaries on commentaries. Thus North India was intellectually a desert from 1200 to 1550 A.D. It was only under Akbar that with Tulsidas in Hindi and the Vaishnav writers in Bengali, a great Hindu literature reappeared, but in the vernacular. The same Emperor founded a truly national Court, and under him there was a great upheaval of the Indian intellect.