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diff --git a/39848-h/39848-h.htm b/39848-h/39848-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ae78b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/39848-h/39848-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,16977 @@ + +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>India Through the Ages: A Popular and Picturesque History of Hindustan</title> +<meta name="Author" content="Flora Annie Steel"> + +<meta name="Publisher" content="George Routledge & Sons, Limited"> +<meta name="Date" content="1911"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +body {margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; background-color:#FFFFFF;} + + +p.normal {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify;} +.center {margin: auto; text-align:center; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} + + + +p.right {text-align:right; margin-right:20%;} + +p.continue {text-indent: 0in; margin-top:9pt;} +.text10 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} +.text20 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:20%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} + + +.poem0 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 0%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + +.poem1 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 2em; + margin-right: 10%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + +.poem2 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 30%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + +.poem3 { + margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 30%; + margin-right: 30%; text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%} + + + + + +figcenter {margin:auto; text-align:center; margin-top:9pt;} +.i6 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; text-indent:-6pt;} +.i8 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; text-indent:-8pt;} +.i12 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; text-indent:-12pt;} + +.t0 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0em; margin-right:0px;} +.t1 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:1em; margin-right:0px;} +.t2 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0px;} +.t3 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:3em; margin-right:0px;} +.t4 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:4em; margin-right:0px;} +.t5 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:5em; margin-right:0px;} +.t6 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:6em; margin-right:0px;} +.t7 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:7em; margin-right:0px;} +.t8 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:8em; margin-right:0px;} +.t9 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:9em; margin-right:0px;} +.t10 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10em; margin-right:0px;} +.t11 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:11em; margin-right:0px;} +.t12 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:12em; margin-right:0px;} +.t13 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:13em; margin-right:0px;} +.t14 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:14em; margin-right:0px;} +.t15 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:15em; margin-right:0px;} +.t16 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:16em; margin-right:0px;} + + +.quote {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify; font-size:90%; margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:36pt} +.ctrquote {text-align: center; font-size:90%; margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:36pt} + +.dateline {text-align:right; font-size:90%; margin-right:10%; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 {text-align: center;} + +span.sc {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:110%;} +span.sc2 {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:90%;} + +hr.W10 {width:10%; color:black; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt} + +hr.W20 {width:20%; color:black; margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt} + +hr.W50 {width:50%; color:black;} +hr.W90 {width:90%; color:black;} + +p.hang1 {margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em;} +p.hang2 {margin-left:3em; text-indent:0em;} + + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of India Through the Ages, by Flora Annie Steel + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: India Through the Ages + A Popular and Picturesque History of Hindustan + +Author: Flora Annie Steel + +Release Date: May 29, 2012 [EBook #39848] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIA THROUGH THE AGES *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (University of Michigan) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br> +<br> +1. Page scan source:<br> +<br> +http://books.google.com/books?id=swpuAAAAMAAJ<br> +<br> +(University of Michigan) +<br> +2. The letter "y" with circumflex is Courier New 375.<br> +<br> +3. Map images are incomplete and are not provided here.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="center">Map: India to the Present Day.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>INDIA THROUGH THE<br> + +AGES</h1> +<br> +<h2>A POPULAR AND PICTURESQUE<br> +HISTORY OF HINDUSTAN</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h2>FLORA ANNIE STEEL</h2> + +<h5>AUTHOR OF "ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS," ETC.</h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>WITH 7 MAPS</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>THIRD EDITION</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>LONDON<br> +GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LIMITED<br> +NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.</h3> +<h4>1911</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A history, above all one which claims to hold no original research, +but simply to be a compilation of the work of others, needs no +introduction save the compiler's thanks to many who have been +consulted.</p> + +<p class="normal">One word, however, may be said regarding the only accent used--the +circumflex.</p> + +<p class="normal">This is put always on the tone of stress; that is to say, on the +syllable to be accented. Thus Mālwa, Ambźr, Jeysulmźr, Himālya, +Vizigapatām. Where no accent appears the syllables are of equal value.</p> + +<p class="right">F. A. STEEL.</p> + +<p class="normal"><span class="sc2">Talgarth, Machynlleth</span>.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>LIST OF MAPS</h2> +<br> +<p class="normal">INDIA TO B.C. 231.</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">INDIA TO A.D. 1000.</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">INDIA TO A.D. 1483.</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">INDIA TO A.D. 1556.</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">INDIA TO A.D. 1707.</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">INDIA TO A.D. 1757.</p> +<br> +<p class="normal">INDIA AT THE PRESENT DAY.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<br> + +<h3><a name="div1Ref_01.0" href="#div1_01.0">PART I</a></h3> +<br> +<h3>THE ANCIENT AGE</h3> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01.1" href="#div1_01.1">CHAPTER I</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The Ancient Age--When it began--Earliest hymns--The Black +people--The White people-Was there a third tribe?</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01.2" href="#div1_01.2">CHAPTER II</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The Vedic times--Extent of India--Rig-Veda--Seven +rivers--Agriculture--Aryan gods--Aryan features--Hymns to +the Dawn.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01.3" href="#div1_01.3">CHAPTER III</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Days of the Epics--Larger extent of India known--Two great +epics--The Brahmānas--The Māhābhārata--Story of Bhishma +--A golden age--Bhishma's vow and its results--The Princess +Drāupadi--Bhishma's death--The Rāmāyana.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01.4" href="#div1_01.4">CHAPTER IV</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The marvellous millennium--Its literature--The Ūpanishads--Kapīla's +philosophy--Vedanta teaching--Religious atmosphere--Gāutama +Buddha--Yoga, and other philosophies--Megasthenes' accounts.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01.5" href="#div1_01.5">CHAPTER V</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The Sesu-nāga and other kings--Actual history--Scythians--First +breath of reality--History of parricides--Nanda dynasty.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01.6" href="#div1_01.6">CHAPTER VI</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The Anabasis--Alexander's march--Halt on the Indus--The +Hydaspes--The stealing of a passage--His victory--Appeal to +his soldiers--Forced to return--His sail down the Hydaspes to +the sea--His death.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01.7" href="#div1_01.7">CHAPTER VII</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The Great Mauryas--A landmark of history--Chāndra-gupta's ability +--His iron nerve--Seleukos Nikator--His great success and +vast empire--Bindu-sāra--The great Asoka--His reign of +religion--The Rock and Pillar edicts--An example to all people +--His vast empire.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01.8" href="#div1_01.8">CHAPTER VIII</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The outlying provinces--Difficulty of piecing together historical +facts--Case of coins--The personal equation our only +guide--The Sākas--The Yuehchi--Manes--Gondophares--St Thomas +--Horse sacrifice--Vikramadītya--His era--Difficulty of +recognising him--Soter Megas-Greek influence on India.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01.9" href="#div1_01.9">CHAPTER IX</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The Bactrian Camel and the Indian Bull--Indo-Greek rulers--Age +of gold--Transference of power--Mongolian invasion--Embassy +to Rome--Kanīshka--Buddhist council--Hūshka, Jūshka, +Kanīshka--Secretiveness of India--Song of the Plough.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01.10" href="#div1_01.10">CHAPTER X</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The Great Gūpta Empire--Wedding bells--Kumāri Devi-- +Chāndra-gūpta II.--Samūdra-gupta--An Indian Alexander-- +An Admirable Crichton--Vikramadītya-gupta--The Golden +Age of Hindus--Extraordinary artistic activity--A real +Renaissance.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01.11" href="#div1_01.11">CHAPTER XI</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The White Huns and good King Harsha--Attributes of the Huns-- +Worst invasion--Hindu life crystallised into +custom-Hypoęstheticised--Good King Harsha--Conversion to +Buddhism--Hiuen T'sang, the Chinese priest.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_01.12" href="#div1_01.12">CHAPTER XII</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Chaos--The Dark Ages--No hero to hold the imagination--History +silent--The Mahomedan invasion imminent--Mahomed's character.</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3><a name="div1Ref_02.0" href="#div1_02.0">PART II</a></h3> +<br> +<h3>THE MIDDLE AGE</h3> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.1" href="#div1_02.1">CHAPTER I</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Campaigns of the Crescent--Northern battlefield--Constant invasion +--New blood against old--New creed against old--Mahmūd of +Ghuzni--Taking of Nagarkot--Twelve raids--The last to +Somnāth--Mahmūd's cruelty--His avarice--A born doubter.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.2" href="#div1_02.2">CHAPTER II</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Campaigns of the Crescent again in milder form--Masūd's imitation +of Mahmūd's exploits--The Ghuznevide dynasty--Shahāb-ud-din +and Ghiāss-ud-din, the brother kings--The former's change +of name to Mahomed--His loot and riches.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.3" href="#div1_02.3">CHAPTER III</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The Rājput resistance--Rājputs born soldiers--Prithvi-Rāj--Story +of his marriage with Princess Sunyogata of Kanaūj--His victory +over Mahomed Ghori--The latter's disgust--His final attempt +at revenge--Princess Sunyogata's reply--The fatal field of +Pāniput--Rājputs overthrown--Kutb-din the slave left viceroy +of India--Mahomed Ghori's death.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.4" href="#div1_02.4">CHAPTER IV</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The slave kings--Delhi founded by a slave--The Kutb Minār-- +Kutb-ud-din Eībuk--Altāmish--His bad sons and good +daughter--The Empress Rāzia--Scandal--Her and her +husband's death--Nāsir-ud-din--A good king followed by +many bad ones--Extinction of dynasty.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.5" href="#div1_02.5">CHAPTER V</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The Tartar dynasties--Slack rule--Tendency to break up into petty +States--House of Khilji--Allah-ud-din--His murder of his +uncle, Dervish Sidi--Allah-ud-din and Padmani--Sack of +Chitore--Difficulties in the Dekkan--Extinction of House of +Khilji--Toghluk dynasty--Ferōze Toghluk.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.6" href="#div1_02.6">CHAPTER VI</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Invasion of Timur--The Toork--Timur's terrible cruelty--A +crushing blow--Thirty years of stupefaction.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.7" href="#div1_02.7">CHAPTER VII</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Devastated India--No master hand in India--Puppet kings--The +Dekka fairly consolidated--The Rājputs raise their heads-- +Thirty-six years of kinglessness--Three strong men: a warrior, +a bigot, a tyrant.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.8" href="#div1_02.8">CHAPTER VIII</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The Great Moghuls--Story of Babar the adventurer--His +extraordinary versatility and charm--His memoirs and literary +skill--His constant knight errantry and endless fluctuations +of fortune--His final attraction to India.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.9" href="#div1_02.9">CHAPTER IX</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Babar Emperor of India--His invasion of the Punjāb and return to +gather more troops--His swoop on Delhi--The fatal field of +Pāniput once more--His victories--His dislike to India--His +overthrow of the Rājputs--His vow of total abstinence and +victory--His unfailing vitality--Babar as lover and husband-- +Devotion to his wife and children--His son Humāyon--Strange +story of a father's devotion--The most romantic figure in Indian +History.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.10" href="#div1_02.10">CHAPTER X</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Humāyon--His patience and clemency--Addicted to opium-- +Dilatory character--The brothers' bracelet--Ungrateful brothers +--His flight from Bengal--Increasing misfortunes--Driven to the +desert--Falls in love--Romantic story--Akbar born in the +desert--Father and mother forced to fly to Persia.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.11" href="#div1_02.11">CHAPTER XI</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The House of Sūr--Absolute usurpers--Not royal--Aided, however, +by Humāyon's brothers--Held India for twelve years.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.12" href="#div1_02.12">CHAPTER XII</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The wanderings of a king--Humayon's record of misfortunes--His +dilatoriness and absolute good temper--Little Prince Akbar's +marvellous escapes--Europe's first knowledge of India--The +Portuguese settlement-Humāyon's final return to India as +Emperor--His death.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.13" href="#div1_02.13">CHAPTER XIII</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Akbar the Great--The times in Europe--His singular, almost +incredible, character--A man of genius--His age at accession--His +immediate grip on affairs--Byrām-Khān--Fatal field of Pāniput +once more--Hemu--Akbar's mercy--Dismissal of Byrām--Record +of the reign--English merchants--Birth of an heir--Fatehpur +Sikri--Akbar's religion--His disappointment in his sons--A +great dreamer.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.14" href="#div1_02.14">CHAPTER XIV</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Jahāngir and Nurjahān--Story of Mihr-un-nissa--Her meeting with +Jahāngir-His constancy and final marriage--The first charter +of the English trading company--Sir Thomas Roe's embassy-- +Captain Hawkins--Nurjahān's influence.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.15" href="#div1_02.15">CHAPTER XV</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Shāhjahān--Knight of the rueful countenance--An age of gold-- +Grant to England--Greatest magnificence of the Court--Trouble +with English settlers at Calcutta--Pirates of Arracan--Indian +revenues--Shāhjahān's sons--His devotion to his wife--The Tāj.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_02.16" href="#div1_02.16">CHAPTER XVI</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Aurungzebe--End of Middle Age--Unamiable character--Good +king--Quarrel with Mahrattas under Siva-ji--Likeness between +Aurungzebe and the Mahratta general--Extreme astuteness of +latter--Additional grants to England--Help promised by James +II. to East India Company--Sir John Child as scapegoat-- +India's coral strand--Aurungzebe's untiring energy--His +deathbed.</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3><a name="div1Ref_03.0" href="#div1_03.0">PART III</a></h3> +<br> +<h3>THE MODERN AGE</h3> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.1" href="#div1_03.1">CHAPTER I</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">India in the beginning of the eighteenth century--General <i>volte</i> +<i>face</i>--Review of the Indian Peninsula--Temptation of Tom +Tiddler's ground--Gold but no riches--Bernier's horror at +commercial status of India--Surprise at high state of +intellectual civilisation--Curious contrasts--Western methods-- +Salaries of officers--Story of the king of Guzerāt--Gabriel +Boughton--William Hamilton.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.2" href="#div1_03.2">CHAPTER II</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Rise of the Mahratta power--Siva-ji's genius for the sea--Moghuls' +star descending--Bahādur Shāh's difficulties--The Sikhs--Death +of the Emperor--Recrudescence of the murders and horrors of +the past--Accession of Farokhsir--Mahratta war--Growing +strength of Mahrattas--Final victory--Asaf-Jāh returns +Delhi-wards--Nādir the Persian crosses the Indian Border.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.3" href="#div1_03.3">CHAPTER III</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The invasion of Nādir--Once more the cry of "Toorkh"--Sole object +gold--The raid seemed born out of due time--Diplomacies of +Nādir--The fatal field of Pāniput once more--This time an +almost bloodless route--Delhi sieged, one hundred and fifty +thousand killed--Thirty millions worth of solid plunder +carried off--Decrease in dividends of Company--Opposition +to its monopoly in trade once more raised--Renewal of +monopoly.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.4" href="#div1_03.4">CHAPTER IV</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The game of French and English--French East India Companies-- +Joseph Dupleix--His diplomacies--Admiral Labourdonnais-- +Jealousies between the two--British squadron--Game of hide +and seek--Pondicherry given to French by Nawab of Arcot-- +Siege of Madras--Plight of England--Saved by a storm-- +Labourdonnais impeached by France--Nawab of Arcot sides +with England--Coast of Coromandel saved by another storm-- +Siege of Pondicherry--Disastrous failure--Dupleix sings "Te +Deums"--Peace of Aux la Chapelle.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.5" href="#div1_03.5">CHAPTER V</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Plots and counterplots--Peace brings thought--French and English +turn to commerce--Only ascending power in India the +Mahrattas--Western soldiers used as mercenaries--Immediate +difficulties--Successional wars, French on one side, English +the other--Putting up of puppets--England gets the worst of +it--Robert Clive as champion.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.6" href="#div1_03.6">CHAPTER VI</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Robert Clive as writer, as soldier, as writer once more--Tales +of his youth--He takes Arcot--Wonderful vitality--Great +influence with natives--They refuse to start on campaign +unless led by him--Constant increase of his army by desertions +from the enemy--Game of French and English again--Council +of Negotiation a farce--Attention of both France and England +drawn to constant hostilities in the East--Dupleix recalled +--Dies miserably in poverty--Clive commanding at Madras-- +News of Black Hole outrage--Sails to avenge it--Cause of the +outrage--Clive avenges it--Great friction at Calcutta--Battle +of Plassey--Omichand incident--England has real hold on +India.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.7" href="#div1_03.7">CHAPTER VII</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Robert Clive as Governor of Bengal--State of Upper India-- +Ahmed-Shāh's invasion and revenge--Comte de Lally--Bussy and +Bobbili--Sir Eyre Coote--Gradual defeat of French interests-- +Quarrels over <i>batta</i> money--Mir-Jāffar as Nawāb of Bengal +gives trouble--Gives <i>jāghir</i> to Clive--Clive goes home-- +Trouble at Murshidabad--Ahmed-Shāh, Durrāni, invades Upper +India--Historic battlefield once more--Question of private +trade--Warren Hastings opposes it--Clive returns to India-- +Raises status of Civil Service--Puts down corruption--Health +fails--Goes to England--Disgrace--Disillusionment--Dies by +his own hand after a grudging acquittal.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.8" href="#div1_03.8">CHAPTER VIII</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Hyder-Ali et Alia--Treaty of Paris harmful--Hyder-Ali's +lawlessness--Colonel Smith holds his own--Treaties--Money-bags-- +Plunder--Price of India stock goes down--Financial pressure.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.9" href="#div1_03.9">CHAPTER IX</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Warren Hastings--Early career--Supporter of Clive--Makes many +enemies--Treaty of Nawāb of Oude and Mahrattas--English +mercenaries--Hastings appointed first Governor-General-- +Reconstruction of appointments under new Act--Mr Francis-- +Persistent enmity--Dissensions in the Council--Incident of +Nuncomār--Hastings in minority--In majority--Financial +reforms--Francis refuses assent or criticism--Suggests the +Great Mistake--Hastings relieved of office--Refuses to accept +dismissal--Two Councils, two Governor-Generals--Supreme +Court decides for Hastings--Incomprehensible conspiracies in +Mahratta Court--Hyder Ali again gives trouble--Dies--His +son, Tippoo Sahib--Case of the Rājah of Benares--Of the +Begums of Oude--Harsh terms imposed on Nawāb of Oude.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.10" href="#div1_03.10">CHAPTER X</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Administrations and impeachments--Review of Clive's and Warren +Hastings' careers--Attempt to unravel the clues--Influx to India +of foreigners--Walter Reinhardt--Begum Sumroo--George +Thomas--General view of India.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.11" href="#div1_03.11">CHAPTER XI</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The Board of Control appointed by the Crown--Responsibilities-- +Lord Cornwallis--Jāwan Bakht--Civil and military reforms-- +Tippoo Sahib again--Four years' wear--Permanent settlement +evolved at Wimbledon--Immediate effects--France and +England at war--Renewed trouble in Oude--Death of Tippoo +Sahib--English action in Oude--Threatening outlook-- +Mahratta jealousy--Assaye--Marquis of Wellesley--First +interview of conquering England with Great Moghul--Mutiny at +Vellore--Lord Minto--Debt of India.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.12" href="#div1_03.12">CHAPTER XII</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The extinction of monopoly--Church establishment formed-- +Parliament--History of cotton trade--Earl Moira--War in Nepaul-- +Rājputana smouldering--Kishen Kumāri--Lord Hastings-- +Final Mahratta war--More trouble in Oude--Lord Amherst-- +Burmese war--Lord William Bentinck--Policy of noninterference-- +Disastrous result--Trouble in Oude--Diplomacy with +Shāh-Sujah--The short sea passage.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.13" href="#div1_03.13">CHAPTER XIII</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Freedom and frontiers--Tea--India thrown open to the world-- +Struggle over Governor--Generalship--Lord Auckland-- +Macaulay's Penal Code--Fresh trouble in Oude--Embassy to +Dost Mahomed--Sir Alexander Burnes--Disaster at Kabul-- +Lord Ellenborough--Sir Henry Hardinge--Annexation of +Punjāb.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.14" href="#div1_03.14">CHAPTER XIV</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Manners, morals, and missionaries--Second Burmese war--Annexation +of Oude--Unrest--Causes of it--Evangelical wave--Successions-- +Annexations--General review of Oude--Question.</p> +<br> +<h4><a name="div1Ref_03.15" href="#div1_03.15">CHAPTER XV</a></h4> +<br> +<p class="hang1">The Great Mutiny--Sir Charles Metcalfe's prediction--Signs of the +times--Barrackpore--Meerut--Delhi--Fateful delay--Lucknow-- +Cawnpore--John Nicholson--End of defence--Success of attack-- +Retribution--Final question.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>INDIA THROUGH THE AGES</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.0" href="#div1Ref_01.0">PART I</a></h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.1" href="#div1Ref_01.1">THE ANCIENT AGE</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">As the mind's eye travels backwards across the wide plains of Northern +India, attempting to re-people it with the men of olden time, +historical insight fails us at about the seventh century B.C. From +that date to our own time the written Word steps in to pin protean +legend down to inalterable form.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet before this seventh century there is no lack of evidence. The +Word is still there, though, at the time, it lived only in the mouths +of the people or of the priesthood. Even if we go so far back as B.C. +2000, the voices of men who have lived and died are still to be heard +in the earlier hymns of the Rig-Veda.</p> + +<p class="normal">And before that?</p> + +<p class="normal">Who knows? The imaginative eye, looking out over the vast sea of young +green wheat which in many parts of the Punjāb floods unbroken to the +very foot of the hills, may gain from it an idea of the wide ocean +whose tide undoubtedly once broke on the shores of the Himalayas.</p> + +<p class="normal">The same eye may follow in fancy the gradual subsidence of that sea, +the gradual deposit of sand, and loam brought by the great rivers from +the high lands of Central Asia. It may rebuild the primeval huts of +the first inhabitants of the new continent--those first invaders of +the swampy haunts of crocodile and strange lizard-like beasts--but it +has positively no data on which to work. The first record of a human +word is to be found in the earliest hymn of the Aryan settlers when +they streamed down into the Punjāb. When?</p> + +<p class="normal">Even that is beyond proof. The consensus of opinion amongst learned +men, however, gives the Vedic period--that is to say, the period +during which the hymns of the Rig-Veda were composed--as approximately +the years between B.C. 2000 and B.C. 1400.</p> + +<p class="normal">But these same hymns tell us incidentally of a time before that. It is +not only that these Aryan invaders were themselves in a state of +civilisation which necessarily implies long centuries of culture, of +separation from barbarian man; but besides this, they found a people +in India civilised enough to have towns and disciplined troops, to +have weapons and banners; women whose ornaments were of gold, poisoned +arrows whose heads were of some metal that was probably iron.</p> + +<p class="normal">All this, and much more, is to be gathered in the Rig-Veda concerning +the Dāsyas or aboriginal inhabitants of India. Naturally enough, as +inevitable foes, they are everywhere mentioned with abhorrence, and we +are left with the impression of a "tawny race who utter fearful +yells."</p> + +<p class="normal">Who, then, were these people?</p> + +<p class="normal">Are we to treat the monotonous singing voice which even now echoes out +over the length and breadth of India, as in the sunsetting some +Brahman recites the ancient hymns--are we to treat this as the <i>first</i> +trace of Ancient India? Or, as we sit listening, are we to watch the +distant horizon, so purple against the gold of the sky, and wonder if +it is only our own unseeing eyes which prevent our tracing the low +curve that may mark the site of a town, ancient when the Aryans swept +it into nothingness?</p> + +<p class="normal">"The fiction which resembles truth," said the Persian poet Nizāmi in +the year 1250, "is better than the truth which is dissevered from the +imagination"; so let us bring something of the latter quality into our +answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">Certain it is that for long centuries the reddish or tawny Dāsyas +managed to resist the white-skinned Aryas, so that even as late as the +period of that great epic, the Māhābhārata--that is, some thousand +years later than the earliest voice which speaks in the Vedic +hymns--the struggle was still going on. At least in those days the +Aryan Pandāvas of whom we read in that poem appear to have +dispossessed an aboriginal dynasty from the throne of Magadha. This +dynasty belonged to the mysterious Nāga or Serpent race, which finally +blocks the way in so many avenues of Indian research. They are not +merely legendary; they cross the path of reality now and again, as +when Alexander's invasion of India found some satrapies still held by +Serpent-kings.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is impossible, therefore, to avoid wondering whether the Aryans +really found the rich plains of India a howling wilderness peopled by +savages close in culture to the brutes, or whether, in parts of the +vast continent at least, they found themselves pitted against another +invading race, a Scythic race hailing from the north-east as the Aryan +hails from north-west?</p> + +<p class="normal">There is evidence even in the voice of the Rig-Veda for this. To begin +with, there is the evidence of colour--colour which was hereafter to +take form as caste. We have mention not of two, but of three divergent +complexions. First, the "white-complexioned friends of Indra," who are +palpably the Aryans; next, "the enemy who is flayed of his black +skin"; and lastly, "those reddish in appearance, who utter fearful +yells."</p> + +<p class="normal">It seems, to say the least of it, unlikely that a single aboriginal +race should be described in two such curiously different ways.</p> + +<p class="normal">As for the fearful yells, that is palpably but another way of +asserting that the utterers spoke a language which was not understood +of the invaders. "Du'ye think th' Almighty would be understandin' +siccan gibberish," said the old Scotch lady when, during the +Napoleonic war, she was reminded that maybe many a French mother was +praying as fervently for victory as she was herself. The same spirit +breathes in many a Vedic hymn in which the Dāsyas are spoken of as +barely human. "They are not men." "They do not perform sacrifices." +"They do not believe in anything." These are the plaints which precede +the ever-recurring prayer--"Oh! Destroyer of foes! Kill them!" And +worse even than this comes the great cause of conflict--"<i>Their rites +are different</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">So the story is told. These Dāsyas, "born to be cut in twain," have +yet the audacity to have different dogma, conflicting canons of the +law. Even in those early days religion was the great unfailing cause +of strife.</p> + +<p class="normal">These same hymns of the Rig-Veda, however, give us but scant +information of the foes who are called generally Dāsyas, or "robbers." +But here again divergence creeps in. It is impossible to class "the +wealthy barbarian," the "neglecters of sacrifices," who, "decorated +with gold and jewels," were "spreading over the circuit of the earth," +whose "iron cities" were to be destroyed, who were to be "slain +whether weeping or laughing, whether hand to hand or on horseback, +whether arrayed in hosts or aided by missile-hurling heroes"--it is +impossible, surely, to class these enemies with the mere robber brutes +of whom it is written that they "were slain, and the kine made +manifest."</p> + +<p class="normal">Were then these tawny-hued foes, with the mention of whom +wealth is invariably associated, in reality the ancestors of the +treasure-holding Takshaks or Nāgas, that strange Snake race of which +we read in the Māhābhārata, and of which we hear again during the +invasion of Alexander?</p> + +<p class="normal">At least there is nothing to prevent us dreaming that this is so; and +while we listen to the voice of some Brahman chanting at sunset-time +the oldest hymns in the world, there is nothing to hinder us from +trying to imagine how strangely these must have fallen on the ears of +the "neglecters of sacrifices, the dwellers in cities, rich in gold +and beautiful women," of whom we catch a passing glimpse as the +stately Sanskrit rhythm rolls on.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sun sets, the voice ceases, and the far-away past is no nearer and +no further from us than the present.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.2" href="#div1Ref_01.2">THE VEDIC TIMES</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>B.C. 2000 TO B.C. 1400</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Before entering on its history it is necessary to grasp the size of +the great continent with which we have to deal. Roughly speaking, +India has fourteen and a half times the area of the British Isles. Of +most of this country we have next to no history at all, and in the +time which is now under consideration we have to deal only with the +Punjāb, the "Land of the Five Rivers," the area of which about equals +that of Great Britain. That such lack of information should exist is +not wonderful, since, for all we know, this upper portion of India may +then have been on the shores of a still-receding sea; indeed, colour +is given to this suggestion by the remembrance that the five rivers of +the Punjāb plain to this day act as huge drain-pipes which deprive the +intervening country of surface moisture. Naturally, this fact, in the +days when all India, save for its few isolated ranges of central +mountains, must have been one vast swamp, was an immense boon to +humanity.</p> + +<p class="normal">The geographical area, therefore, with which we have to treat in the +Vedic period is very limited. It is a mere patch on the present +continent of India, bounded on the north by the snowy Himalayas, on +the south by the Indus (and probably by the sea), on the west by the +Suleimān Mountains, while on the east lay the unknown, and possibly +marsh, land of the Ganges and Jumna Rivers.</p> + +<p class="normal">Curiously enough, although we speak of this very tract nowadays as the +"Land of the Five Rivers," in Vedic times the rivers were counted as +seven. That is to say, the Indus was called the mother of the six--not +five--streams which, as now, joined its vast volume. In those days +this juncture was most probably in comparatively close proximity to +the sea. Of these six rivers only five remain: the Jhelum, the Chenāb, +the Rāvi, the Beās, the Sutlej. The bed of the sixth river, the "most +sacred, the most impetuous of streams," which was worshipped as a +direct manifestation of Sarāswati, the Goddess of Learning,<a name="div4Ref_01" href="#div4_01"><sup>[1]</sup></a> is +still to be traced near Thanźswar, where a pool of water remains to +show where the displeased Goddess plunged into the earth and dispersed +herself amongst the desert sands.</p> + +<p class="normal">The stream never reappears; but its probable course is yet to be +traced by the colonies of Sarāswata Brahmans, who still preserve, more +rigidly than other Brahmans, the archaic rituals of the Vedas. The +reason for this purity of rite being, it is affirmed, the grace-giving +quality of Mother Sarāswati's water which, with curious quaint cries, +is drawn in every village from the extraordinarily deep wells (many of +which plunge over 400 feet into the desert sand), at whose bottom the +lost river still flows.</p> + +<p class="normal">Into this Land of the Seven Rivers, then, came--somewhere about two +thousand years before Christ--wanderers who describe themselves as of +a white complexion. That they had straight, well-bridged noses is also +certain. To this day, as Mr Risley the great ethnologist puts it, "a +man's social status in India varies in inverse ratio to the width of +his nose"; that is to say, the nasal index, as it is called, is a safe +guide to the amount of Aryan, as distinguished from aboriginal blood +in his veins. One constant epithet given to the great cloud-god +Indra--to whom, with the great fire-god Agni, the vast majority of the +hymns in the Rig-Veda are addressed--is "handsome-chinned." But the +Sanskrit word <i>sipra</i>, thus translated "chin," also means "nose"; and +there can be no doubt that as the "handsome-nosed" one, Indra would be +a more appropriate god for a people in whom, that feature was +sufficiently marked to have impressed itself, as it has done, on +countless generations.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whence the Aryans came is a matter still under dispute. That they +were a comparatively civilised people is certain. The hymns of the +Rig-Veda, which were undoubtedly composed during the six hundred years +following on the Aryans' first appearance in the Punjāb, prove this, +as they prove many another point concerning these the first white +invaders of India. How the idea ever passed current that they were a +pastoral people is a mystery, since from the very first we read in +these hymns of oxen, of the cultivation of corn, of ploughing, and +sowing, and reaping.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Oh! Lord of the Field!" reads one invocation. "We will cultivate this +field with thee! May the plants be sweet to us; may the rains be full +of sweetness; may the Lord of the Field be gracious to us! Let the +oxen work merrily; let the man work merrily; let the plough move +merrily! Fasten the traces merrily; ply the goad merrily.... Oh! +Fortunate Furrow! speed on thy way, bestow on us an abundant crop--sow +the seed on this field which has been prepared. Let the corn grow with +our hymns, let the scythes fall on the ripe grain. Prepare troughs for +the drinking of animals. Fasten the leathern string, and take out +water from this deep and goodly well which never dries up. Refresh the +horses, take up the corn stacked in the field, and make a cart to +convey it easily."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Practically Indian agriculture has gone no further than this in close +on four thousand years.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is true that a hymn to the God of Shepherds finds occasional place +in the Rig-Veda, but in these there is an archaic ring, which seems to +point to the Aryan wanderings before India was reached. One of them +begins thus: "Oh! Pushan, the Path-finder, help us to finish our +journey!"</p> + +<p class="normal">From purely religious hymns, naturally, one has no right to expect a +full crop of information concerning the political and social life of +the times in which they were composed, yet the light which the +Rig-Veda throws upon these dark ages is luckily surprising; luckily, +because we have absolutely no other source of knowledge.</p> + +<p class="normal">From it we learn something of commerce, even to the extent of the laws +regulating sale and usury. We learn also of ships and shipwrecks, of +men who, "taking a boat, took her out to sea, and lived in the boat +floating on the water, being happy in it rocking gracefully on the +waves"; from which we may infer that our early Aryan brothers did not +suffer from sea-sickness. There is also a phrase in fairly constant +use, "the sea-born sun," which would lead us to suppose that these +writers of hymns had often seen sunrise over an Eastern ocean.</p> + +<p class="normal">Many kinds of grain were cultivated, but the chief ones seem to +have been wheat and barley. Rice is not mentioned. Animals of all +sorts were sacrificed, and their flesh eaten; and as we read of +slaughter-houses set apart for the killing of cows, we may infer that +the Aryan ancestors of India were not strict vegetarians.</p> + +<p class="normal">But all mention of food, even sacrificial food, in the Rig-Veda fades +into insignificance before its perfectly damnable iteration concerning +a fermented drink called "Soma." Scarcely a hymn finds finish without +some mention of it, and pages on pages are full of panegyrics of the +"exhilarating juice," the "adorable libation," "the bright effused dew +of the Soma, fit drink for gods." And apparently for men also, since +we read that the "purifying Soma, like the sea rolling its waves, has +poured out on men songs, and hymns, and thoughts." An apotheosis of +intoxication, indeed!</p> + +<p class="normal">It appears to have been the fermented juice of some asclepiad plant +which was mixed with milk. The plant had to be gathered on moonshiny +nights, and many ceremonials accompanied its tituration, and the +expressing of its sap.</p> + +<p class="normal">In later years, of course, the Soma ritual expanded into something +very elaborate, and no less than sixteen priests were required for its +proper fulfilment; but in the beginning, it is evident that each +householder prepared the drink, and offered some of it, and of his +food also, to Indra the cloud-god first, then to Agni the fire-god, +and so by degrees (increasing with the years) to a host of smaller +gods--the Winds, the Dawn, Day, Night, the Sun, the Earth.</p> + +<p class="normal">For these ancient Aryans had not far to look for godhead. They found +it simply, naturally, in themselves, and in all things about them, as +the secret verse which to this day is held in sacred keeping by the +twice-born amply shows. For there can be small doubt that the closest +rendering to the original meaning runs thus:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Let us meditate on the Over-soul which is in all souls, which +animates all, which illumines all understandings."</p> +<br> + +<p class="continue">Mankind makes but small advance with the years in metaphysics, and it +needed a Schopenhauer to reinvent the Over-soul--after how many +generations? Who can say?</p> + +<p class="normal">Only this we know, that a few centuries after Christ, a Chinese +pilgrim to India committed himself to the assertion that "Soma is a +very nasty drink!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There is no trace in these Vedic hymns of the many deplorable beliefs, +traditions and customs, which in later years have debased the +religious and social life of India.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Aryans worshipped "bright gods," and seem to have been themselves +a bright and happy people. We hear nothing of temples or idols, of +caste or enforced widowhood. Indeed, the fact that the language +contains distinct, concrete, and not opprobrious terms for "the son of +a woman who has taken a second husband," and for "a man who has +married a widow," proves that such words were needed in the common +tongues of the people. Neither is there any trace of, nor the faintest +shred of authority for, either suttee or child-marriage.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the ancient Aryan rises to the mind's eye as a big, stalwart, +high-nosed, fair-skinned man, with a smile and a liking for +exhilarating liquor, who, after long wanderings with his herds over +the plains of Central Asia--where, reading the stars at night, he sang +as he watched his flocks to Pushan the Path-finder--looked down one +day from the heights of the Himalayas over a fair expanse of new-born +land by the ripples of a receding sea, and found that it was good.</p> + +<p class="normal">So for many a long year he lived, fighting, ploughing, and +praying--with copious libations--to Indra, the God of Battles, and to +Agni, the humble, homely God of Fire, who yet was the invoker of all +Gods mysteriously connected with the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the +very Lightning.</p> + +<p class="normal">And one of the prayers to the god who "comprehended all things," who +"traversed the vast ethereal space, measuring days and nights and +contemplating all that have birth," ran thus:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Take me to the immortal and imperishable abode where light dwells +eternal."</p> +<br> + +<p class="continue">We have not gone much further. The cry which rises in the Rig-Veda is +the cry of to-day:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"From earth is the breath and the blood; but whence is the soul? What +or Who is that One who is ever alone; who forms the six spheres; who +holds the unborn in His Hand?"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Yet the religious feeling of these primitive Aryans was not all tinged +by doubt, by sadness; some of their hymns to the Dawn breathe the +spirit of deep joy which is in those who recognise, however dimly, +that the One of whom they question is no other than the Questioner.</p> + +<p class="normal">So let us conclude this chapter with a few verses collated from these +hymns.</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Many-tinted Dawn! Th' immortal daughter of Heaven!<br> +Young, white robed, come with thy purple steeds;<br> +Follow the path of the dawnings the world has been given,<br> +Follow the path of the dawn that the world still needs.</p> +<br> +<p class="i6">"Darkly shining Dusk, thy sister, has sought her abiding,<br> +Fear not to trouble her dreams; daughters, ye twain of the Sun,<br> +Dusk and dawn bringing birth! O Sisters! your path is unending;<br> +Dead are the first who have watched; when shall our waking be +done?</p> +<br> +<p class="i6">"Bright, luminous Dawn; rose-red, radiant, rejoicing!<br> +Shew the traveller his road; the cattle their pastures new;<br> +Rouse the beasts of the Earth to their truthful myriad voicing,<br> +Leader of rightful days! softening the soil with dew.</p> +<br> +<p class="i6">"Wide-expanded Dawn! Open the gates of the morning;<br> +Waken the singing birds! Guide thou the truthful light<br> +To uttermost shade of the shadow, for--see you! the dawning<br> +Is born, white-shining, out of the gloom of the night."</p> +</div> + +<p class="continue">Surely there is something in these phrases, taken truthfully from the +original and strung together consecutively so as to give the spirit +which animates the whole, that makes us of these later times feel +closely akin to those who sang thus in the Dawn of Days.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.3" href="#div1Ref_01.3">THE DAYS OF THE EPICS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>ABOUT B.C. 1400 TO ABOUT B.C. 1000</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The area of India which has now to be considered is much larger. Oudh, +Northern Behar, and the country about Benares are comprised in it; but +Southern India remains as ever, unknown, even if existent.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sources of information concerning this period of six hundred years +are also much larger, though in a measure less trustworthy; for the +two great epics of India, the Māhābhārata and the Rāmāyana, are +avowedly imaginative, and not--as are the hymns of the Rig-Veda--the +outcome of the daily life of a people, which, like the accretions of a +coral reef, remain to show what manner of creature once lived in them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even the remaining Vedas, the Yajur, the Sāma and the Athārva, partake +of the same purely literary spirit, although the first and second of +these were probably in existence towards the end of the Vedic period. +The last named is--at least in its recognition as a Sacred Text--of +far later date. All three consist largely of transcripts from +the Rig-Veda, and around each of them, as indeed around the +Rig-Veda-Sanhita itself, there grew up a subsidiary literature called +Brahmānas, the object of which was to explain, consolidate, and +elaborate both the ritual and teaching of the Vedic age, as it became +archaic under the pressure of a greater complexity in life.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is to the epics and to the Brahmānas, then, that we must look for +what sparse information is to be gleaned concerning India during this +six hundred years or so. It should be remembered that even these books +were to remain truly the "spoken word" for at least two centuries +longer, until the art of writing became known about B.C. 800. As +against this, however, we may set the undoubted fact that such was the +marvellous memory of those early days, that by the close of the Epic +period every syllable of the Rig-Veda had been counted with accuracy, +and the whole carefully compiled, arranged, analysed as it now stands.</p> + +<p class="normal">To tell the honest truth, the Brahmānas are but a barren field. Full +of elaborate hair-splitting, cumbered with elaborate regulations for +the performance of every rite; prolix, prosy, they reflect only a +religion which was fast breaking down into canonical pomposity. It is +true that towards the end of the Epic period matters improved a +little, and in the teachings of the Ūpanishads--last of the so-called +"revealed Scriptures" of India--we find a very different note; but as +these seem to belong, by right of birth, more to the Philosophical +period which follows on the Epic, we will reserve them for subsequent +consideration.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is, then, to the Māhābhārata and to the Rāmāyana that we must look.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not, however, for history as history; for the personages, the +incidents in these two great poems are purely mythical.</p> + +<p class="normal">But that a strong tribe called Bhāratas or Kurus who had settled near +Delhi did for long years struggle with another strong tribe called the +Panchālas, who had settled near Kanauj, is more than likely. With this +background, then, of truth, the story of the Māhābhārata is a fine +romance, and throws incidentally many a side-light on Hindu society in +these remote ages. But it is prodigiously long. In the only full +English translation which exists it runs to over 7,500 pages of small +type. Anything more discursive cannot be imagined. The introduction of +a single proper name is sufficient to start an entirely new story +concerning every one who was ever connected with it in the most remote +degree. But it is a treasure house of folk-lore and folk tales, +interspersed, quaintly, by keen intellectual reasonings on +philosophical subjects, and still more remarkable efforts to pierce +the great Riddle of the World by mystical speculations. It is, +emphatically, in every line of it, fresh to the uttermost. It is the +outcome of minds--for it is evidently an accretion of many men's +imaginations--that still felt the first stimulus of wonder concerning +all things, to whom nothing was common, nothing impossible.</p> + +<p class="normal">A redaction even in brief of the Great Epic is beyond the power of any +writer. To begin with, many of the side-issues are to the full as +worthy transcription as those of the main thread of the story; and +then it is almost impossible to make out what the latter really was in +the beginning, before the endless additions and interpolations came to +obscure the original idea.</p> + +<p class="normal">To most critics this main thread presents itself as a prolonged war +between the Kaurāvas and their first cousins the Pandāvas--in other +words, between the hundred sons of Dhritarāshta, the blind king, and +the five sons of his brother Pāndu--but to the writer the <i>leit motif</i> +is the story of Bhishma. It is a curious one; in many ways well worthy +of a wider knowledge than it has at present in the West.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bhishma, then, was the heir of Shantānu, the King of Hastinapūr. His +birth belongs to fairy tale, for he was the son of Ganga, the river +goddess, who consented to be the wife of the love-struck Shantānu on +condition that, no matter what he might see, or she might do, no +question should be asked, no remark made. There is therefore a +distinct flavour of the world-wide Undine myth in the tale. In this +case the lover-husband is of the most forbearing type. It is not until +he sees his eighth infant son being relentlessly consigned to the +river that he cries: "Hold! Enough! Who art thou, witch?" In +consequence of this, in truth, somewhat belated curiosity, the goddess +leaves him, after assuring him that her purpose is accomplished. Seven +Holy Ones condemned to fresh life by a venial fault have been released +by early death, and this last child is his to keep as being, indeed, +the pledge of mutual love.</p> + +<p class="normal">So far good. Bhishma is brought up as the heir until he is adolescent. +Then his father falls in love with a fisherman's daughter who is +obdurate. She refuses to marry, except on the condition that her son, +if one is born, shall inherit the kingdom. Even a promise that this +shall be so is not sufficient for her. She claims that Bhishma must +not only swear to resign his own claim to the throne in favour of her +son, but must also take a solemn vow of perpetual celibacy, so closing +the door against future claims on the part of his children. Devoted to +his father, the boy, just entering on manhood, accedes to the +proposal; his father marries, and dies, leaving a young heir to whom +Bhishma becomes regent. An excellent one, too, as the following +extract concerning his regency will show:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"In these days the Earth gave abundant harvest and the crops were of +good flavour. The clouds poured rain in season and the trees were full +of fruit and flowers. The draught cattle were all happy, and the birds +and other animals rejoiced exceedingly, while the flowers were +fragrant. The cities and towns were full of merchants and traders and +artists of all descriptions. And the people were brave, learned, +honest and happy. And there were no robbers, nor any one who was +sinful; but devoted to virtuous acts, sacrifices, truth, and regarding +each other with love and affection, the people grew up in prosperity, +rejoicing cheerfully in sports that were perfectly innocent on rivers, +lakes and tanks, in fine groves and charming woods.</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"And the capital of the Kurus (Hastinapūr), full as the ocean and +teeming with hundreds of palaces and mansions, and possessing gates +and arches dark as the clouds, looked like a second Amaravati +(celestial town). And over all the delightful country whose prosperity +was thus increased were no misers, nor any woman a widow, but the +wells and lakes were ever full, full were the groves of trees, the +houses with wealth, and the whole kingdom with festivities.</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"So, the wheel of virtue being thus set in motion by Bhishma, the +subjects of other kingdoms, leaving their homes, came to dwell in the +golden age."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A golden age indeed! A millenium dating a thousand years before the +Christ. And for this, Bhishma the Brother Regent and Sātyavāti the +Queen-Mother were responsible. The Boy-King appears to have been +but a poor creature. Even Bhishma's famous exploit of carrying off the +three beautiful daughters of the King of Benares--Amva, Amvīka and +Amvalīka--as brides for the lad, does not seem to have kept him from +evil courses. True, the elder of these three "slender-waisted maidens, +of tapering hips and curling hair," cried off the match by bashfully +telling the softhearted Bhishma that she had set her affections on +some one else; whereupon he, holding that "a woman, whatever her +offence, always deserveth pardon," bid her follow her own +inclinations. Still the two remaining brides did not avail to prevent +the young bridegroom from succumbing to disease, leaving them +childless.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here, then, was a situation. Bhishma and the Queen-Mother, both of an +age, left without an heir! After Eastern fashion she urges him to take +his half-brother's place, and raise up offspring to his father and to +herself. But Bhishma is firm to his oath. "Earth," he says, "may +renounce its scent, water its moisture, light its attribute of showing +form, yea! even the sun may renounce its glory, the comet its heat, +the moon its cool rays, and very space renounce its capacity for +generating sound; but I cannot renounce Truth." Pressed to the +uttermost he can only reiterate: "I will renounce the three worlds, +the empire of heaven, and anything which may be greater than this, but +Truth I will not renounce."</p> + +<p class="normal">Poor Bhishma! One feels that he is a veritable Sir Galahad, beset by +loving women, for when another father for possible heirs is found, +Amvīka, who had expected Bhishma, refuses to look at his successor, +the result being that her son Dhritarāshta is born blind, and being +thus unfitted for kingship, Amvalīka's son Pandu becomes heir to the +throne.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>Hinc illę lachrymal!</i> Bhishma's vow of celibacy produces the rivals, +and his part in the epic henceforward shows but dimly on the bloody +background of the long quarrel between the hundred God-given sons of +Dhritarāshta, and the five God-begotten sons of Pandu.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet, overlaid as it is by diffuse divergencies, the story of +self-sacrifice, of a man whom all women love and none can gain, goes +on. Bhishma, on Pandu's death, installs the blind Dhritarāshta as +Regent King, and continues, as ever, faithful to his trust. Once or +twice a ring of human pathos, human regret, is heard in the harmony of +his good counsels, his unswerving loyalty, his fast determination to +"pay the debt arising out of the food which has been given me."</p> + +<p class="normal">Once when Arjuna, third of the five Pandus, climbs up on his knees, +all dust-laden from some boyish game, and, full of pride and glee, +claims him as father--"I am not thy father, O Bhārata!" is the gentle +reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">Again, when Amva, the eldest princess of the three maidens whom +Bhishma had carried off as brides for his brother, returns in tears +from seeking the lover he had allowed her to rejoin, saying that the +prince will have none of Bhishma's leavings, there is human regret in +the latter's refusal to accept the assertion that the carrying off was +equal to a betrothal, and that he is bound in honour to marry the +maiden himself! Yet of this refusal comes much. The injured girl calls +on High Heaven for requital, and though her champion Rāma is unable to +conquer the invincible Bhishma, Fate intervenes finally.</p> + +<p class="normal">Amva's penances, prayers, austerities, find fruit in revenge. She is +born again as Chikandīni, the daughter of a great king whose wife +conceals the child's sex for twenty-one years, until, according to the +promise of the Gods, Chikandīni becomes in reality Chikandīn, the most +beautiful, the most valiant of princes, who is destined in time to +cause the death of Bhishma. For amongst the many confessions of a +soldier's faith which the latter here makes is this: "With one who +hath thrown away his sword, with one fallen, with one flying, with one +yielding, with woman or one bearing the name of woman, or with a low, +vulgar fellow--with all these I do not battle." So Chikandīn is beyond +Bhishma's retaliation, and when in the final fight he "struck the +great Bhārata full on the breast," the latter "only looked at him with +eyes blazing with wrath; remembering his womanhood, Bhishma struck him +not."</p> + +<p class="normal">This, however, was not yet to come. Bhishma had as yet to bring up the +five Pandu princes and the hundred sons of Dhritarāshta to be good +warriors and true, and in the process we come across many quaint +interludes. The story of Princess Drāupadt's Self-choice is charming, +and the description of the ceremony worth giving as a picture of the +times.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The amphitheatre," we read, "was erected on an auspicious and level +plain to the north-east of the town, surrounded on all sides by +beautiful mansions, enclosed with high walls and a moat with arched +doorways here and there. And the vast amphitheatre was also shaded by +a canopy of various colours, and resounded with the notes of a +thousand trumpets, and was scented with black aloes, and sprinkled +with sandal wood water and adorned with flowers. The high mansions +surrounding it, perfectly white, resembled the cloud-kissing peaks of +Himalaya. And the windows of these mansions were covered with lattice +of gold, and the walls thereof set with diamonds and precious stones. +The staircases were easy of ascent, while the floors were covered with +costly carpets and rugs. Now all these mansions were adorned with +wreaths of flowers and rendered fragrant with excellent aloes. They +were white and spotless as the necks of swans. And they were each +furnished with a hundred doors wide enough to admit a crowd of +persons. And in these seven-storied houses of various sizes, adorned +with costly beds and carpets, lived the monarchs who were invited to +the Self-choice, their persons adorned with every ornament, and +possessed with the hope of excelling each other. Thus the denizens of +the city and the surrounding country, taking their seats on the +platforms, beheld these things.</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"And the concourse of princes, gay with the performances of actors and +dancers, increased daily, until on the sixteenth morning the daughter +of the King entered the arena, richly attired and bearing in her hand +a golden dish on which lay offerings to the gods, and a garland of +flowers.</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Then a priest of the Moon race ignited the sacrificial fires and +poured libations, uttering benedictions; and all the musical +instruments that were playing, stopped, and in the whole amphitheatre +was perfect stillness. Then the Princess' brother, taking his sister +by the hand, cried in a voice low and deep as the kettledrums of the +clouds: 'Hear all ye assembled Princes, hear! This is the bow, these +are the arrows, yonder is the mark! Given Beauty, Strength, Lineage, +he who achieveth the feat hath Princess Drāupadi to wife.' Then, for +the sake of her unrivalled Beauty, the young Princes vied with each +other in jealousy, and rising in their royal seats each exclaiming: +'Princess Drāupadi shall be mine!' began to exhibit their prowess."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">It would take too long to give <i>in extensor</i> how one after the other +the Princes failed to string the mighty bow. How Karna, the +Disinherited Knight of the Romance--in reality uterine brother to the +five Pandu princes, but passing as their deadliest Kuru enemy--strung +it easily, but "turned aside with a laugh of vexation and a glance at +the Sun, his real father," when Princess Drāupadi cried: "Hold! I will +have none of mixed blood to my lord!"</p> + +<p class="normal">How the young Arjuna, second of the five Pandu princes, "first of +car-warriors and wielders of the bow," came disguised as a Brahman +youth and achieved the feat; rousing no remonstrance, it may be +remarked, as to admixture of race from the fair Princess Drāupadi.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then follows the incident of Drāupadi marrying the whole five Pandu +brothers, in obedience to their mother's mistaken command. She, when +her five sons appeared in the dusk, "bringing their alms," bid them +share it as ever; so, despite much heart-questioning, the fivefold +wedding took place. It is an incident which is glozed over by ardent +admirers of the Māhābhārata, and spoken of deprecatingly, as a mere +myth. Why, it would be difficult to say, since it is palpably held up +to honour as an instance of almost superhuman virtue. It is a +voluntary self-abnegation on the part of the Five Princes, who swear +to set aside jealousy for ever; an attempt on their part to right the +relations between the sexes, and to return to the purer teaching of +old times when, as we are distinctly told, "men and women followed +their own inclinations without shame or sin." Certainly the record of +this union of the Five Brothers to the devoted, almost divine +Drāupadi, holds no suspicion of either the one or the other; surely, +therefore, it requires neither disguise nor apology.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thereinafter, amid ever-recurring sweep of furious blasts and +counterblasts, ever-changing chances of fortune and misfortune, comes +the great gambling scene which, deprived of disagreeable details and +properly staged, should make the fortune of any dramatist who could +really touch it. A fine scene, truly! Yudishthira, eldest of the Pandu +princes, their ruling spirit, the brain, so to speak, of Bhima's +strength, Arjuna's skill, Nakula's devotion, Sahadeva's obedience, had +been challenged to a gambling bout by his chief enemy, Dhritarāshta's +eldest son Duryōdhana. To this, according to the soldier's code of +honour, there could be no refusal. But Yudishthira, gambler at heart, +would not acknowledge himself beaten. He stakes his riches, his +kingdom, his brothers, himself--last of all, his wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">Losing her, she is sent for to the gambling saloon. She refuses to +come. Finally, dragged thither by force, she pleads that Yudishthira, +having first gambled away himself, was a slave, and so had no right to +stake a free woman. Then ensues a scene of conflicting passions and +protest which, once read of, lingers in the mind, rising superior to +the certain disagreeable details which undoubtedly disfigure it in the +original.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the story sweeps on and on, ending really with Bhishma's death on +the field of battle after a final encounter in which Arjūna, realising +that victory is unattainable so long as "the Grandsire" lives, uses +Chikandīn, the man-woman, as his shield, and so brings about the +defeat of the otherwise invincible Bhishma. The latter, "lying on his +bed of arrows," surrounded by all the princes, then proceeds to +discourse for long days ("until the sun, entering its northern +declension, permitted him to resign his life-breath") on the whole +duty of mankind, and especially on the duties of kingship.</p> + +<p class="normal">These discourses, which in the English translation run to over 2000 +pages, are marvellously illuminating. When we read in them doctrines +of kingly science which long centuries later were to be re-enunciated +by Machiavelli, when we find in them many a theory of modern science +forestalled by some bold, theoretical plunge into the Infinite, that +Infinite to which "it is impossible to set limits since it is +limitless," we may well pause to ask ourselves how much nearer we are +to discovering the Great Secret than those were who, nearly three +thousand years ago, puzzled themselves over the problem of +consciousness, and why, "when the mind is otherwise engaged, the +life-agent in the body heareth not."</p> + +<p class="normal">Have we, even in science, gone much further than the assertion that +"Space, which even the Gods cannot measure, is full of blazing and +self-luminous worlds?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps we have; but of a certainty we cannot outclass the Māhābhārata +in the imagination with which it treats the Insoluble.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"In the Beginning," we read, "was infinite Space motionless, +immoveable. Without Sun, Moon, or Stars, it seemed to be asleep. Then +a darkness grew within the darkness, and water sprang to life."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">So, gaining force as it goes like some giant wave, the vast epic +sweeps on, gathering worthless pebbles and hopeless wreckage, with its +thousand facets of bright bold sea, to leave us, after it has crashed +over us, bewildered, storm-shaken on the shore, our heads whirling +with wild memories of flashing, jewel-set cuirasses, "beautiful like +the firmament of night bespangled with stars," of floating veils "like +wind-tossed clouds," of celestial voices, "deep as the kettledrums of +the skies," of "sparkling showers of keen arrows like the rays of the +sun," of "tender, small-waisted maidens," and "mighty, high-souled +car-warriors."</p> + +<p class="normal">It is a marvellous dream, and as one reads it the ceaseless fall of +seas upon a shore seems to fill the ear with the eternal message of +indestructible life.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Rāmāyana, great though the epic is, and, in a way, more poetical, +has none of this storm and stress. As R. C. Dutt, in his "Ancient +India," says:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"On reading it one feels that the real heroic age of India had passed. +We miss the rude and sturdy manners and incidents which mark the +Māhābhārata. The heroes of the Rāmāyana are somewhat tame and +commonplace personages, very respectful to priests, very anxious to +conform to all the rules of decorum and duty, doing a vast amount of +fighting work mechanically, but without the determination, the +persistence of real fighters. A change has come over the spirit of the +nation. It is more polished, more law-abiding, less sturdy, less +heroic. In brief, the two epics give us the change which Hindu life +and society underwent from the commencement to the close of the Epic +age."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Griffiths, in the introduction to his metrical version of the +Rāmāyana, remarks that one of its most salient features is the +complete absence of any mention of "that mystical devotion which +absorbs all the faculties," to which we have constant reference in the +Māhābhārata. The remark is full of critical acumen, and at once +differentiates the varying planes on which the two dramas move.</p> + +<p class="normal">That of Rāma and his long-suffering wife Sīta, is, doubtless, the more +human of the two; but there is a grandeur about the story of Bhishma +before which the former crumbles to commonplace. Still, as R. C. Dutt +asserts:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"There is not a Hindu woman in the length and breadth of India to whom +the story of Sīta is not known, and to whom her character is not a +model to strive after and to emulate. Rāma, also, though scarcely +equal to Sīta in the worth of character, has been a model to man for +his truth, his obedience, his piety. Thus the epic has been for the +millions of India a means of moral education, the value of which can +hardly be over-estimated."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Historically, there is little to be gleaned from it beyond the +conquest of Southern India and Ceylon. Socially, it shows the +accretion of custom, the consolidation of dogma, and the passing of +power from the soldier to the priestly caste. Yet even here it is but +a very modified Brahmanism of which we catch glimpses, and even caste +itself is not as yet crystallised into hard and fast form.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, with the Rāmāyana and some few Purānas which, however, will be +better considered in the next chapter, the Epic period closes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some few points in it may lay claims to distinct historical basis. The +existence of Janaka, King of Kosāla, the father of Sīta, the +befriender of wisdom, is so far attested by later writings and by +legend, that his personality gains reality; but it is in the crashing, +confused welter of the Māhābhārata that we must look for a just +estimate of what India was like a thousand years before Christ.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.4" href="#div1Ref_01.4">THE MARVELLOUS MILLENNIUM</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>B.C. 1000 to A.D. 1</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A millennium indeed! A thousand years of Time which (despite many +purely historical events in its latter half, to which return will be +made in the next chapter) must be treated, as a whole, as perhaps the +most wonderful period in the history of the world. For, just as in the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries humanity appears to have set its +mind on art, and such names as Shakspeare, Dante, Rafael, Leonardo da +Vinci, Palestrina, Cervantes, and a hundred others are to be found +jostling each other in history, so, during these thousand years, the +mind of man throughout the whole world appears to have been set on +solving the great secret of Life and Death.</p> + +<p class="normal">The answer was given in many ways by the Greek and Roman philosophers, +by Confucius in China, by Christ in Judea, by Buddha and the great +systems of Indian philosophy in Hindustan; and yet the question is +still being asked with the old intensity, the old keen desire for +answer!</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, since these thousand years have, in India, left behind them a +very remarkable literature which, even in these latter days, is the +root of all life and thought in that vast peninsula, it is as well to +attempt a slight sketch of the time, as a whole, before embarking on +actual history; though to do the latter we shall, after treating of +the religious age, have to hark back to the year 620 B.C.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the commencement, then, of this thousand years, the Aryans were +still pushing their way westwards and southwards from the alluvial +plains of Northern India.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seems likely that the tide of their conquest followed that of the +retreating sea. However that may be, certain it is that they found +before them dark, almost impenetrable, swampy forests, swarming with +enemies of all kinds. Who or what these were we have at first small +record. Doubtless the human foes belonged to the aboriginal tribes +which are still to be found clinging to the far mountain uplands and +inaccessible fastnesses which the Aryans did not care to annex. But in +the literature of which mention has been made, all and sundry are +disdainfully dismissed with the epithet "<i>Rakshas</i>," or evil demons.</p> + +<p class="normal">Behind this shrinking verge of devildom, however, we know that "the +children of light" were settling down; towns were springing up, waste +land was being cleared and cultivated, schools were being established, +and many principalities rising into power. But of all this we have as +yet no record at all, until about one-half of the millennium was over. +On the other hand, we have exhaustive literary evidence of what the +minds of men were busying themselves about, first in the Ūpanishads, +and then in the myriad Sūtras or Aphorisms, on every subject, +apparently, under the sun, which are still extant.</p> + +<p class="normal">Regarding the former--of which the German philosopher, Schopenhauer, +wrote: "They have been the solace of my life; they will be the solace +of my death"--though some of these treatises or essays belong, +undoubtedly, to the dying years of the Epic age, they fall far more +naturally into place during the opening years of this, the succeeding +one. Their bold hypotheses covering all things were the first reaction +against the soul-stifling formalisms of the Brahmānas; these, again, +being due to the development of the dignity of the priestly class, +which followed naturally on the excessive militarism so noticeable in +the Māhābhārata. Of a truth, its stalwart warriors, for ever engaged +in deadly combat and stirring adventures, could as heads of households +have had little time for the due performance of domestic ceremonials +after the customs of their fathers. Hence the rapid growth of the +professional priesthood.</p> + +<p class="normal">The fatal facility, however, with which speculative thought, after +throwing off the shackles of canon and dogma, finds fresh slavery for +itself in scientific formalism, is shown by the succeeding Sūtra +literature, in which every department of thought and action is +crystallised and codified into cut-and-dried form.</p> + +<p class="normal">A reaction from this, again, is to be found in the succeeding +philosophy of Kapīla and his disciples, which must have been +promulgated a century or so before the birth of Gāutama Buddha. +Frankly agnostic, many of the conclusions of this Sankhya system are +to be found in the works of the latest German philosophers. Like +theirs it is cold, and appeals not to the masses, but to speculative +scholars. Still, it is strange that the very first recorded system of +philosophy in the world, the very first attempt to solve the Great +Question by the light of reason alone, should differ scarcely at all +from the last. The human brain fails now, as it failed then; for +Kapīla's doctrine never really overset those of the Ūpanishads, though +the system of philosophy founded upon these last (and therefore called +the Vedanta) was not to come for many years. But what, indeed, can or +could overset the doctrine laid down in these same Ūpanishads, of a +Universal Soul, a Universal Self, which is--to use the very words of +the text:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Myself within the heart smaller than a corn of rice, smaller than a +mustard seed, smaller than the kernel of a canary seed: myself within +the heart greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than +heaven. Lo! He who beholds all beings in this Self, and Self in all +beings, he never turns away from it. When to a man who understands, +the Self has become all things, what sorrow, what trouble can there be +to him who has once beheld that unity? He, the Self, encircles all, +bright, incorporeal, scatheless, pure, untouched by evil; a seer, +wise, omnipresent, self-existent, he disposed all things rightly for +eternal years. He therefore who knows this, after having become quiet, +subdued, satisfied, patient and collected, sees Self in Self, sees all +in Self. Evil does not overcome him, he overcomes all evil. Free from +evil, free from stain, free from doubt, he becomes True Brahman. The +wise who, meditating on this Self, recognises the Ancient who dwells +for ever in the abyss, as God--he indeed leaves joy and sorrow far +behind; having reached the subtle Being, he rejoices because he has +obtained the cause of rejoicing."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Such words as these live for ever, a veritable Light in the Darkness +of many philosophies.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet even the Vedanta teaching failed to satisfy the masses; its +atmosphere was too rarefied for them. So about the middle of the +millennium a new Teacher arose. Gāutama Buddha was born about the year +B.C. 560 at Kapilavāstu, and the followers of the religion of which he +was the founder number at this present day nearly one-third of the +whole human race.</p> + +<p class="normal">A magnificent work truly, look at it how we may! Yet it becomes the +more astounding when we enquire into the religion itself; for it holds +out no bait to humanity. It neither gives the immediate and certain +grip on a spiritual and therefore eternal life which the Vedanta +promises, neither does it proclaim the personal individual immortality +for which the Christian is taught to look.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet it holds its place firmly as first favourite with humanity. There +are some five hundred million Buddhists, as against some three hundred +million Christians; while about the tenth century of our era fully +one-half the world's inhabitants followed the teaching of Gāutama.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why is this? Wherein lies the charm? Possibly in its pessimism, in the +declaration that all is, must be, suffering.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Hear! O Bhikkhus! the Noble Truth of Suffering. Birth is suffering, +decay is suffering, illness is suffering, Death is suffering.</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Hear! O Bhikkhus! the Noble Truth of the cause of suffering. Thirst +for pleasure, thirst for life, thirst for prosperity, thirst that +leads to new birth.</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Hear! O Bhikkhus! the Noble Truth of the cessation of Suffering. It +is the destruction of desire, the extinction of thirst.</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Hear! O Bhikkhus! the Noble Truth of the Pathway which leads +to the cessation of suffering. Right Belief, Right Aspirations, Right +Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of Livelihood, Right Exertion, +Right-mindedness, Right Meditation."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">In these few words lies the whole teaching of Buddhism. To king and +beggar alike, the world is evil; there is but one road to freedom, and +that must be trodden alike by all. In that road none is before or +after others.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now to the poor, to the oppressed, there is balm in this thought. +Lazarus does not yearn for Abraham's bosom! Before all lies +forgetfulness, peace, personal annihilation.</p> + +<p class="normal">This, then, was the teaching which Gāutama Buddha, the son of a king, +gave as a gift to his world; and his world, wearied yet once more with +formalism, with the ever-growing terrorism of caste and creed, +welcomed it with open arms. The progress of the Buddhistic faith was +fairly astounding, and half India was converted in the twinkling of an +eye. Of the life led by the founder himself much has been written. +Many of the incidents bear a strange resemblance to those in the life +of Christ. Perhaps none is more beautiful than the story of the woman +who applied to Gāutama, begging him to restore her dead child to life. +As given in Sir Edwin Arnold's <i>Light of Asia</i>, it runs so:--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Whom, when they came unto the river side,<br> +A woman--dove-eyed, young, with tearful face<br> +And lifted hands saluted, bending low:<br> +'Lord! thou art he,' she said, 'who yesterday<br> +Had pity on me ...</p> + +<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> + + +<p class="t0" style="text-indent:20%">when I came<p> +<p class="t0">Trembling to thee whose brow is like a god's.<br> +And wept, and drew the face-cloth from my babe,<br> +Praying thee tell what simples might be good.' ...</p> +<br> +<p class="t0">'Yea! little sister, there is that might heal<br> +Thee first and him, if thou couldst fetch the thing.<br> +Black mustard-seed a tola; only mark<br> +Thou take it not from any hand or house<br> +Where father, mother, child or slave hath died.'<br> +'Thus didst thou speak, my Lord.<br> +... I went, Lord, clasping to my breast<br> +The babe grown colder, asking at each hut:<br> +"I pray you, give me mustard, of your grace<br> +A tola, black," and each who had it gave.<br> +But when I asked: "In my friend's household here<br> +Hath any, peradventure, ever died?<br> +Husband or wife or child or slave?" they said:<br> +"Oh, Sister! what is this you ask? The dead<br> +Are very many, and the living few." ...<br> +Ah sir! I could not find a single house<br> +Where there was mustard seed, and none had died.'</p> + + +<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> + +<p class="i6">"'My sister! thou hast found,' the Master said,<br> +'Searching for what none finds that better balm<br> +I had to give thee....<br> +Lo! I would pour my blood if it could stay<br> +Thy tears, and win the secret of that curse<br> +Which makes sweet love our anguish ...<br> +I seek that secret: bury thou thy child.'"</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">Buddha, it will be observed, answered no questions. He left the +insoluble alone. He simply preached that holiness meant peace and +love, that peace and love meant pure earthly happiness.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, even while they accepted the morality of Buddhism, and acquiesced +in its negation, the keener speculative minds were still busy trying +to find some key to fit the Great Lock.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Yoga system of philosophy followed on the Sankhya, the Nyaya and +the Vaisasika on the Yoga; finally, the two Mimamsa or Vedanta +philosophies. Of these the Yoga is merely a repetition, with some +alteration, of the Sankhya; the Nyaya--which is to the Hindu what the +Aristotelian system was to the Greek, and which is still the school of +logic--finds its complement in the scientific and atomic theories of +the Vaisasika. This last, which is the first effort made in India to +enquire into the laws of physics, is curiously provocative of thought. +A Rip-van-Winklish feeling creeps into the mind as the eyes read that +all material substances are aggregates of atoms, that the ultimate +atom must be simple, that the mote visible in the sunbeam, though the +smallest perceptible object, must yet be a substance, therefore a +thing composed of things smaller than itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Once again the question arises, "How much further have we gone towards +solution?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Of the Vedanta system enough has already been said. It is pure Monism, +matter being but a manifestation of the Supreme Energy, the Supreme +Soul, the Supreme Self which comprises all things, holds all things, +is all things.</p> + +<p class="normal">So much for the speculative thought of this remarkable age. But when +we turn to other subjects, we find the same truly marvellous acumen +displayed in almost every field of enquiry.</p> + +<p class="normal">Panini, whom Max Muller called the greatest grammarian the world has +ever seen, lived in the middle of this millennium, and by resolving +Sanskrit to its simple roots, paved the way for the Science of +Languages. It is strange, indeed, to think of him in the dawn of days +discovering what was to be rediscovered more than two thousand years +afterwards, and adopting half the philological formulas of the present +century.</p> + +<p class="normal">So with geometry, a science which certainly developed from the strict +rules concerning the erection of altars, as the science of phonetics +grew from the study necessary to ensure absolutely accurate +intonations of the sacred text. Of the former science much is to be +found in the Sulva Sūtras; amongst other things, the celebrated +theorem that the square of the hypothenuse is equal to the square of +the two other sides of a rectangular triangle. This proposition is +ascribed by the Greeks to Pythagoras, but it was known in India long +before his time, and it is supposed that he learnt it while on his +travels, which included Hindustan.</p> + +<p class="normal">Geometry, however, was not destined to take hold of the Indian mind. +The cognate science of numbers speedily took its place, and the acute +Asiatic intellect soon evolved Algebra out of the arithmetic which +they had rendered of practical use by the adoption of the decimal +system of notation.</p> + +<p class="normal">For all these many discoveries the world is indebted to this +marvellous millennium.</p> + +<p class="normal">Regarding the social life of this time the Dharma Sūtras give us +endless laws--which are the originals of later and codified +laws--concerning almost every subject under the sun. As every Hindu +student (and every Hindu had to be student for a definite number of +years) had to learn these Sūtras by heart, it may safely be predicted +that they faithfully reflect the general conduct of affairs. They are +extraordinarily minute in particular, and from them it may be gathered +that life had become much more artificial. Amongst the king's duties +is that of "guarding household weights and measures from +falsification." It may also be noticed that "the taxes payable by +those who support themselves by personal labour differ materially from +those paid by mere possessors of property." Any injury, also, to a +cultivator's land or to an artisan's trade was punished with great +severity, and violence in defence of them was held justifiable. A +legal rate of interest was settled, and the laws of inheritance were +laid down minutely, as also were those of marriage. Indeed, as Mr R. +C. Dutt puts it:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Everything that was confused during the Epic period was brought to +order--everything that was discursive was condemned; opinions were +arranged and codified into bodies of laws, and the whole social system +of the Hindus underwent a similar rigid treatment."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Briefly, it was at once an age of keen speculation and rapid +crystallisation almost unequalled in the history of any nation. Nor +have we to found this estimate of it solely by inference from the +literature which it has left behind it. We have other evidence on +which to draw. True, the earliest foreign notice of India is that of +Hekataios of Miletus, who wrote about B.C. 520, but he seems only to +have been aware of its existence. The next is that of some +inscriptions of the Persian king, Darius, which may be dated about +B.C. 486, while Ktesias of Knidos, who collected travellers' tales +about the East, wrote a little later. But Alexander's Indian campaign, +which began in the year B.C. 327, brought many Western eyes to wonder +at what they saw, and from this time Greece practically gives us the +chronology of Hindustan.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of what these Western eyes saw we gain glimpses in the few fragments +of the works of Megasthenes which have withstood the destruction of +time. Living, as he did, in the fourth century B.C. as Ambassador at +the court of Pālipūtra, he gives us a picture of the times well worth +reading, with a few extracts from which this chapter may well +conclude.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The inhabitants, having abundant means of subsistence, exceed, in +consequence, the ordinary stature, and are distinguished by their +proud bearing. They are also found to be well skilled in the arts, as +might be expected of men who inhale a pure air and drink the very +finest water ... they almost always gather in two harvests annually; +and even should one of the sowings prove more or less abortive, they +are always sure of the other crop. It is accordingly affirmed that +famine has never visited India, and that there has never been any +general scarcity in the supply of nourishing food.... But, further, +there are usages observed by the Indians which contribute to prevent +the occurrence of famine among them; for whereas amongst other nations +it is usual, in the contests of war, to ravage the soil, and thus to +reduce it to an uncultivated waste, among the Indians, on the +contrary, by whom husbandmen are regarded as a class that is sacred +and inviolable, the tillers of the soil, even when battle is raging in +their neighbourhood, are undisturbed by any sense of danger, since the +combatants allow them to remain quite unmolested. Neither do they +ravage a land with fire nor cut down its trees.... The Indians do not +raise monuments to the dead, but consider the virtues which men have +displayed in life and the songs in which their praises are celebrated, +sufficient to preserve their memory.... All the Indians are free, and +not one of them is a slave. The Indians do not even use aliens as +slaves, and much less one of their own countrymen.... They live +frugally and observe very good order. Theft is of very rare +occurrence. The simplicity of their laws and their contracts is proved +by the fact that they seldom appeal to law. They have no suits about +pledges or deposits, nor do they require either seals or witnesses, +but make their deposits and confide in each other. They neither put +out money at usury or know how to borrow.... Truth and virtue they +hold alike in esteem.... In contrast to the general simplicity of +their style, they love finery and ornaments. Their robes are worked in +gold, adorned with precious stones, and they wear flowered garments of +the finest muslin. Attendants walking behind hold umbrellas over them; +for they have a high regard for beauty, and avail themselves of every +device to improve their looks....</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Of the great officers of state, some have charge of the market, +others of the city, others of the soldiers, while some superintend the +canals and measure the land, some collect the taxes, and some +construct roads and set up pillars to show the by-roads and the +distances....</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Those who have charge of the city are divided into six bodies of five +each. The first body looks after industrial art. The second attends to +the entertainments of strangers, taking care of them, well or ill, +and, in the event of their dying, burying them and forwarding their +property to their relatives. The third enquires of births and deaths, +so that these among both high and low may not escape the cognisance of +Government. The fourth deals with trade and commerce, and has charge +of weights and measures. The fifth supervises the sale of manufactured +articles which are sold by public notice, and the sixth collects the +tithe on such articles. There is, beside the city magistrates, a third +body, which directs military affairs. One division of this has charge +of the infantry, another of the cavalry, a third of the war chariots, +a fourth of the elephants; while one division is appointed to +co-operate with the admiral of the fleet and another with the +superintendent of the bullock trains used for transporting the +munitions of war."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">So much for the East before it was gripped by the West. With a +full-blown War Office, and a statistical registration of births and +deaths, it appears to have gone far on the course of our civilisation.</p> + +<p class="normal">Concerning the "Brahmanes," as the old writers term the Brahmans, +Megasthenes says of them that they live in groves, and</p> +<br> + +<p class="continue">"spend their time in listening to sermons, discourses, and in +imparting knowledge to such as will listen to them. The hearer is not +allowed to speak, or even to cough, and much less to spit, and if he +offends in any of these ways, he is cast out from their society that +very day, as being a man who is wanting in self-restraint. Death is +with them a very frequent subject of discourse. They regard this life +as, so to speak, the time when the child within the womb matures, and +death as the birth into a new and happy life. They go about naked, +saying that God has given the body as sufficient covering for the +soul."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">One may still hear this teaching given in the mango groves, or in the +shade of a banyan tree, throughout this India of the twentieth +century.</p> + +<p class="normal">And it still satisfies the hearers.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.5" href="#div1Ref_01.5">THE SESU-NĀGA (<span class="sc">and Other</span>) KINGS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>B.C. 620 TO B.C. 327</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">We stand now on the threshold of actual history. Before us lie two +thousand five hundred years; and behind us? Who can say? From the far +distance come the reverberating thunders of the Māhābhārata, still +filling the ear with stories of myth and miracle. But the days of +these are over. Henceforward, we are to listen to nothing save facts, +to believe nothing to which our ordinary everyday experience cannot +give its assent.</p> + +<p class="normal">Who, then, were these Sesu-nāga kings of whom we read in the lists of +dead dynasties given in the Purānas--those curious histories of the +whole cosmogony of this world and the next, some of which can now be +fairly proved to have existed in the very first centuries of our era, +and with them an accredited claim to hoar antiquity?</p> + +<p class="normal">How came these kings by their name Ses, or Shesh-nāga? A name which +indubitably points to their connection with the sacred snake, or +"nāg."</p> + +<p class="normal">Were they of Scythic origin? Nothing more likely. Certain it is that +Scythic hordes invaded India from the north-east, both during and +after the age of the Epics. It is conjectured, also, that they met in +conflict with the Aryan invaders from the north-west on the wide, +Gangetic plains, possibly close to the junction of the Sone River with +the Ganges.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here, at any rate, lay the ancient kingdom of Magadha, the kingdom of +these Ses-nāga kings.</p> + +<p class="normal">There were ten of these kings, and of the first four, we, as yet, know +nothing. But almost every year sees fresh inscriptions deciphered, new +coins discovered, and therefore it is not unlikely that some day these +mere dry-as-dust names, Sesu-nāga, Sakavārna, Kshema-dhārman, and +Kshattru-jās, may live again as personalities. At present we must be +content with imagining them in their palace at Raja-griha, or "The +kings abode surrounded by mountains."</p> + +<p class="normal">It has a curiously distinguished, dignified sound, this description. +One can imagine these Ses-nāga princes, their Scythian faces, flat, +oblique-eyed, yet aquiline, showing keen under the golden-hooded snake +standing uręus-like over their low foreheads, riding up the steep, +wide steps leading to their high-perched palaces, on their milk-white +steeds; these latter, no doubt, be-bowed with blue ribbons and bedyed +with pink feet and tail, after the fashion of processional horses in +India even nowadays. Riding up proudly, kings, indeed, of their world, +holders of untold wealth in priceless gems and gold--gold, unminted, +almost valueless, jewels recklessly strung, like pebbles on a string.</p> + +<p class="normal">This legend, indeed, of countless uncounted gold, of fair women, and +almost weird, rough luxury, lingers still around the very name of +Snake-King, and holds its own in the folk-lore of India.</p> + +<p class="normal">In these days the kingdom of Magadha--so far as we can judge, a +Scythic principality--was just entering the lists against that still +more ancient Aryan kingdom of Kosāla, of which we read in the +Rāmāyana. But there were other principalities in the settled country +which lay between the extreme north-west of the Punjāb and Ujjain, or +Mālwa. Sixteen such states are enumerated in various literary--chiefly +religious--works, which were probably compiled in the fifth century +B.C.; but these, again, are mere dry-as-dust names.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first breath of real life comes with Bimbi-sāra, the fifth +Sesu-nāga king. He, we know, conquered and annexed the principality of +Anga and built the city of New Rajagrīha, which lies at the base of +the hill below the old fort. But something there is in his reign which +grips attention more than conquests or buildings. During it, and under +his rule, the founders of two great religions gave to the world their +solutions of the problem of life. In all probability both Māhāvīra and +Gāutama Buddha were born in Bimbi-sāra's days; certain it is that he +must have heard the first teachings of Jainism and Buddhism preached +at his palace doors. He is supposed to have reigned for nearly five +and twenty years, and then to have retired into private life, leaving +his favourite son, Ajāta-sutru, as regent.</p> + +<p class="normal">And here tragedy sets in; tragedy in which Buddhist tradition avers +that Deva-datta, the Great Teacher's first cousin and bitterest enemy, +was prime mover. For one of the many crimes imputed to this +arch-schismatic by the orthodox, is that he instigated Ajātasutru to +put his father to death.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whether this be true or not, certain it is that Bimbi-sāra was +murdered, and by his son's orders; for in one of the earliest Buddhist +manuscripts extant there is an account of the guilty son's confession +to the Blessed One (<i>i.e</i>., Buddha) in these words: "Sin overcame me, +Lord, weak, and foolish, and wrong that I am, in that for the sake of +sovranty I put to death my father, that righteous man, that righteous +king."</p> + +<p class="normal">If, as tradition has it, that death was compassed by slow starvation, +the prompt absolution which Buddha is said to have given the royal +sinner for this act of atrocity becomes all the more remarkable. His +sole comment to the brethren after Ajāta-sutru had departed appears to +have been: "This king was deeply affected, he was touched in heart. If +he had not put his father to death, then, even as he sate here, the +clear eye of truth would have been his."</p> + +<p class="normal">Apart from this parricidal act, the motive for which he gives with +such calm brutality, Ajāta-sutru seems to have been a strong, capable +king. He had instantly to face war with Kosāla, the murdered man's +wife--who, it is said, died of grief--being sister to the king of that +country. Round this war, long and bloody, legend has woven many +incidents. At one time Magadha, at another Kosāla, seems to have come +uppermost. Ajāta-sutru himself was once carried a prisoner in chains +to his opponent's capital; but in the end, when peace came, Kosāla had +given one of its princesses in marriage to the King of Magadha, and +had become absorbed in that empire.</p> + +<p class="normal">But this was not enough for ambitious Ajāta-sutru. He now turned his +attention to the rich lands north of the Ganges, and carried his +victorious arms to the very foot of holy Himalaya.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the course of this war he built a watch-fort at a village called +Patali, on the banks of the Ganges, where in after years he founded a +city which, under the name of Patāliputra (the Palibothra of Greek +writers), became eventually the capital, not only of Magadha, but of +India--India, that is, as it was known in these early days.</p> + +<p class="normal">Patali is the Sanskrit for the bignonia, or trumpet-flower; we may +add, therefore, to our mental picture of the remaining four Ses-nāga +kings, that they lived in Trumpet-flower City.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the rest, these two great monarchs, Bimbi-sāra and Ajāta-sutru, +must have been near, if not actual contemporaries of Darius, King of +Persia, who founded an Indian satrapy in the Indus valley. This he was +able to do, in consequence of the information collected by Skylax of +Karyanda, during his memorable voyage by river from the Upper Punjāb +to the sea near Karāchi, thus demonstrating the practicability of a +passage by water to Persia. All record of this voyage is, +unfortunately, lost; but the result of it was the addition to the +Persian Empire of so rich a province, that it paid in gold-dust +tribute to the treasury, fully one-third of the total revenue from the +whole twenty satrapies; that is to say, about one million sterling, +which in those days was, of course, an absolutely enormous sum.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is not much more to tell of Ajāta-sutru; and yet, reading +between the lines of the few facts we actually know of him, the man's +character shows distinct. Ambitious, not exactly unscrupulous, but +uncontrolled. A man who, having murdered his father, could weep over +his own act, and seek to obliterate the blood-stain on his hands by +confessions and pious acts. When Buddha died, an eighth portion of his +bones was claimed by Ajāta-sutru, who erected at Rājgrīha a +magnificent tope or mound over the sacred relics.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, if tradition is to be believed, he handed down the curse of his +great crime to his son, his grandson, and his great grandson; for the +Ceylon chronicle asserts, that each of these in turn were parricides. +It is--to use a colloquialism--a tall order; but assertion or denial +are alike unproven.</p> + +<p class="normal">If it be true, there is some relief in finding that the last of these +criminal kings--Māhā-nundin by name--was ousted from his throne and +killed by his prime minister, one Māhā-padma-Nanda, who is said, also, +to have been the murdered man's illegitimate son by a Sudra, or +low-caste woman.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whether this latter be true or not, certain it is that about the year +B.C. 361, or thereabouts, the reign of the Ses-nāga kings ends +abruptly. The dream-vision of the steps of old Rājgrīha with Scythian +princelings--parricidal princelings--riding up to their palaces on +processional horses, or living luxuriously in Trumpet-flower city, +vanishes, and something quite as dream-like takes its place.</p> + +<p class="normal">For in the oldest chronicles we are told that there were but two +generations in the next, or Nanda dynasty--viz.: Māhā-padma and his +eight sons--yet we are asked to believe that they reigned for one +hundred and fifty-nine years!</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth, these nine Nandas seem in many ways mythical, and yet the +very confusion and contradictions which surround their history point +to some underlying reason for the palpable distortion of plain fact. +They are said to have reigned together, the father and his eight sons. +The name of only one of these is known, Sumā-lya; but when Alexander +the Great paused on the banks of the Beās, in the year B.C. 326, he +heard that a king was then reigning at Patāliputra, by name Xandrames +(so the Greek tongue reports it), who had an army of over two hundred +thousand men, and who was very much disliked, because of his great +wickedness and base birth. For he was said to be the son of a barber, +and as such, "contemptible and utterly odious to his subjects."</p> + +<p class="normal">This king must have belonged to the Nanda dynasty, and the story, if +it does nothing else, proves that the family was really of low +extraction. That it gained the throne by the assassination of a +rightful king, is also certain. But revenge was at hand. The tragedy +was to be recast, replayed, and in B.C. 321 Chandra-gūpta, the +Sandracottus of the Greeks, himself an illegitimate son of the first +Nanda, and half-brother, so the tale runs, of the eight younger ones, +was, after the usual fashion of the East, to find foundation for his +own throne on the dead bodies of his relations.</p> + +<p class="normal">But some four years ere this came to pass, while young Chandra-gūpta, +ambitious, discontented, was still wandering about Northern India +almost nameless--for his mother was a Sudra woman--he came in personal +contact with a new factor in Indian history. For in March, B.C. 326, +Alexander the Great crossed the river Indus, and found himself the +first Western who had ever stood on Indian soil. So, ere passing to +the events which followed on Chandra-gūpta's rude seizure of the +throne of Magadha, another picture claims attention. The picture of +the great failure of a great conqueror.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.6" href="#div1Ref_01.6">THE ANABASIS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>B.C. 326 TO B.C. 320</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Some talk of Alexander...."</p> + +<p class="normal">Who does not know the context? Who also does not think that he knows +who Alexander was, who could not, if necessary, reel off a succinct +account of his character, his conquests?</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet, though most know of his Anabasis, how few have really grasped +the picturesque points of his grand sweep on India. Who, for instance, +has properly appraised and inwardly digested, until it remains as a +living picture in the mind's eye for ever, that quaint thirty days' +halt of the Macedonian legions on the western bank of the Indus, while +on the eastern lay, ripe for plucking, the rich harvest of the fertile +plains of India?</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not a halt of preparation. Hephaistion had already swung the +barges across the tumultuous swirls of the great river, and a bridge, +unstable, yet firm, lay ready for use. The cohorts were eager. +Taxīles, the Indian king, had sent from the Takhsha, or Snake-City, +over the water, half a million of tribute, and an advance guard of +seven hundred horsemen and thirty caparisoned elephants. For he was +wily, and the Western army would aid him against his hereditary enemy +the great Porus, or Puar, a representative, doubtless, of the Rājput +tribe of that name, who reigned beyond the next river--the Jhelum.</p> + +<p class="normal">So there was no real need for this prolonged rest, for this fateful +pause, ere the West reached out its hand and gripped the East. Still, +Alexander deemed it necessary for the purpose, as Arrian puts it +naļvely, of "offering sacrifice to the gods to whom he was in the +habit of sacrificing."</p> + +<p class="normal">Wherefore?</p> + +<p class="normal">He had conquered many other lands. Whence came this hesitation, this +desire for divine guidance? And wherefore did Taxīles, sacrificing to +the gods to whom he was <i>not</i> in the habit of sacrificing, send over +three thousand oxen and ten thousand sheep as victims?</p> + +<p class="normal">Who can say? All we know is, that the sacrifices were favourable to +the crossing, as they were bound to be since Alexander had made up his +mind to it. Whereupon he "celebrated a gymnastic and horse contest +near the river"; those who took part in it, doubtless, wearing crowns +of the ivy leaves which the Macedonian legions, as Arrian writes, had +found at Mount Merus to their great delight, "for they had not seen +any for a long time. So they eagerly made garlands of it, singing +hymns in honour of Dionysus."</p> + +<p class="normal">It must have been a pleasant rest, a jolly time, those thirty days of +February and March spent by the sliding river. Those of us who know +Northern India have memories of many such a sojourn in the enchanted +no-man's-land of a Punjāb river-bed, where the soil on which the tent +is pitched one year may be deep stream the next, and the great solemn +cranes stalk amongst the young green wheat, and the flocks of +flamingoes show rosy-red in the sunrises. Bright, bracing memories +these, full, as it were, of the wild wings of many quaint aquatic +birds, full of the deep spoors of the heavy black buffaloes, and the +motionless grey logs of bottle-nosed crocodiles.</p> + +<p class="normal">Alexander's army, however, had no such <i>mise en scene</i>. At +Attock--about which place the bridge must have spanned the Indus--the +river rushes between fixed rocky banks; the uneven country is broken +by ravines, or, rather, deep clefts, which look as though they had +been split open in the barren, undulating valley by the burning summer +heat of the sun. And all around, upon a near horizon, rise, curiously +opalescent at all times, whether red by day or white by moonlight, a +circle of rocky hills. Elusive hills, distant at one moment, seeming +to crush in the valley at another.</p> + +<p class="normal">One can imagine them rose-red in the dawn, when the order came at +last, and Alexander the Invincible closed in grips with his new +antagonist.</p> + +<p class="normal">Plain sailing at first, despite the false alarm of the last day's +march to Taxīla, when a complete army in order of battle was seen on +the horizon, and startled Alexander into instant dispositions for +attack, until this display of force was proved to be an Indian form of +honourable reception. The Serpent-City, yielded up to him by its +willing ruler without a blow, gave occasion "for more sacrifices which +were customary for him to offer."</p> + +<p class="normal">Once again, however, <i>not</i> customary to "Taxīles the Indian," who must +have watched this honouring of strange gods with furtive, wily eyes, +thinking the while of Porus, with the whole of his mighty army waiting +on the further side of the Jhelum River for this upstart Western +conqueror as a spider waits a fly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here at Taxīla, also, "the king of the Mountaineer-Indians sent +envoys, the embassy including the king's brother, as well as the other +most notable men." This is one version of the story. Another is that +Alexander fought a pitched battle with the mountaineers, defeating +them, of course; but this is negatived by Arrian's distinct assertion +that when the conqueror moved Jhelum-wards in May, he left behind him +only "soldiers who were invalided by sickness."</p> + +<p class="normal">In those days Taxīla was a University city, one of the largest in the +East--rich, luxurious, populous--noted as the principal seat of +learning in Northern India. All that is left of it now is some miles +of ruins between Hasan-Abdāl and Rawalpindi, and a few copper and +silver pieces, more ingots than coins, punched in quaint, rude +devices. To Alexander it was a hospitable resting-place, where king +vied with conqueror in lavish generosity of mutual gifting. Golden +crowns for the Macedonian and all his friends; caparisoned chargers, +Persian draperies, banqueting vessels for the king and courtiers.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pleasant rain fell also, laying the Punjāb dust, and hastening the +flower-buds to bursting.</p> + +<p class="normal">But behind all the policy and the pleasure, like a low, distant +thunder cloud, lay Porus, with an army fifty thousand strong, biding +his time beyond the river.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had to be faced; so, early in May, Alexander, his small force +augmented by a contingent from Taxīla, arrived on the banks of the +Hydaspes. Very different weather now from what it had been in March. +The hot winds were blowing, the rocks and sand were all aglow, and in +its widening bed, as the Jhelum debauched from the hills, the river, +swollen by the melting of Himalayan snows, showed a turbulent flood, +separating him from his enemy, who, with all his army and his huge +troop of elephants, could be seen lining the opposite shore.</p> + +<p class="normal">How to cross to him, how to give the invincible Macedonian cavalry +time to recover and re-form after a forced passage, was the problem +before Alexander.</p> + +<p class="normal">He set his camp face to face with his enemy's, and sent back for the +boats with which he had crossed the Indus. A veritable burning of the +bridge behind him in a way; but Alexander never considered defeat.</p> + +<p class="normal">The easiest plan would no doubt have been to wait comfortably encamped +till October chill should have checked the melting of summer snow; +but, once again, Alexander considered no delay.</p> + +<p class="normal">So there ensued what Arrian terms "the stealing of a passage." Day and +night long the sentinels of Porus were given no rest. Flotillas of +boats went up and down the river, reconnaissance parties were here, +there, everywhere, menacing a ford; and all the while it was being +spread about that Alexander, baffled, disappointed, was fast making up +his mind to wait till winter.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet 16 miles upwards, almost among the mountains, behind a wooded +island which shut out the view southward, galleys, rafts, skins +stuffed with hay, everything needful for a forced passage was secretly +being prepared.</p> + +<p class="normal">Night after night brought a feint of attack. As Arrian writes:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The cavalry was led along the bank in various directions, making a +clamour and raising the battle cry ... as if they were making all +preparations for crossing the river.... When this had occurred +frequently ... Porus no longer continued to move about also; but, +perceiving his fear had been groundless, he kept his position."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">It was not, however, as Arrian calls it, by "marvellous audacity" +only, that Alexander finally succeeded in his object. As one reads the +minute precautions, the stringent orders, the foresight displayed for +every possible complication, one is forced to acknowledge the master +mind of the commander. Small wonder if the very heavens fought for +him. It was now July, month of torrential rains, fierce storms; and +one of these fell suddenly like a pall over Alexander's forced night +march of 16 miles--"The noise of the thunder," Arrian writes, "drowned +with its din the clatter of the weapons."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus, noisily yet secretly, the position was gained by the 11,000 +picked troops led by Alexander in person. The storm passed; the dawn +rose, calm and bright, to find the Western soldiers across the stream, +crashing through the low undergrowth of what their general deemed was +the mainland. For it was July now, and the rains had brought that +marvellous luxuriance of sudden life which springs ever from the union +of sun and water. So we can imagine the well-greaved Greeks brushing +aside the low daphne bushes, and crushing under foot the trailing +arches of the ground maidenhair fern. To find disappointment await +them, as, standing on a further shore, they realised that they were on +an island, that before them lay another formidable channel, swollen by +the night's rain. For a while the cavalry could find no ford; when +found, it was but a swimming one. Yet even so, dripping, half-drowned, +the legions were over and deployed in the open, before any attempt at +opposition could be made.</p> + +<p class="normal">So with Alexander at the head, the West did battle for the first time +with the East.</p> + +<p class="normal">The result was foregone. Outnumbered as it was by nearly five to one, +Alexander's force was still one of veterans, and Alexander himself the +foremost military genius of his own or any age.</p> + +<p class="normal">The story, then, of the great battle of the Hydaspes remains as a +lesson in warfare, and soldiers of to-day may pore over the sketch map +of it in admiration. Here, in this attempt to give Indian history in +picturesque form, all minor things, the magnificent charges of the +Macedonian cavalry, the desperate courage of the Indians, even the +awful carnage wrought by the maddened elephants cooped up within +narrow space, all these fade into insignificance before the tale--so +seldom told as it should be told--of the meeting of Alexander and +Porus after the battle was over in the eighth hour of the day. Let it +be told in Arrian's own words.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"When Porus, who exhibited great talent in the battle, performing +deeds not only of a general, but of a valiant soldier, observed the +slaughter of his cavalry ... and that most of his infantry had +perished, he did not depart, as Darius the Persian king did, setting +an example of flight to his men.... At last, having received a wound +... he turned his elephant round and began to retire.</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Alexander, having seen him valiant in battle, was very desirous of +saving his life. Accordingly, he sent to him first Taxīles the Indian, +who, riding up ... as near as seemed safe, bade him ... listen to +Alexander's message. But when he saw his old foe Taxīles, Porus +wheeled and prepared to strike him with a javelin, and would probably +have killed him, if he had not quickly driven his horse beyond reach. +But not even on this account was Alexander angry ... but kept sending +others in succession, and last of all Meroės the Indian ... an old +friend of Porus.</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"As soon as the latter heard the message of Meroės, and being overcome +by thirst from his wound, he dismounted from his elephant. After he +had drank water and felt refreshed, he ordered Meroės to lead him +without delay to Alexander....</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"And Alexander rode in front of the line with a few of the Companions +to meet him, and stopping his horse, admired the handsome figure and +the stature of Porus, which reached somewhat about 5 cubits (6 ft. 6 +in.). He was also surprised that he did not seem to be cowed in +spirit, but advanced to meet him as one brave man would meet another +brave man.... Then, indeed, Alexander was the first to speak, bidding +him say what treatment he would like to receive.</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"'Treat me, O Alexander, in a kingly way!'</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Alexander, pleased, said: 'For my own sake, O Porus, I do that, but +for thine, do thou demand what is pleasing unto thee.'</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"But Porus said all things were included in that, whereupon Alexander, +being still more pleased, not only granted him the rule over his own +Indians, but also added another country of larger extent than the +former to what he had before. Thus he treated the brave man in a +kingly way, and from that time found him faithful in all things."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A fine picture this; one which does not readily desert the mind's eye +when once it has found place there. And a fine beginning also to the +dealings of the West with the East. Pity that in the years to come the +same policy was not always adopted.</p> + +<p class="normal">In commemoration of this victory a town was founded on the +battle-field, and another near the present one of Jhelum, in memory of +the horse "Bucephalus," who died there full of years and honour; not, +as Arrian says,</p> +<br> + +<p class="continue" style="font-size:90%">"from having been wounded by any one, but from the effects of toil and +old age; for he was about thirty years old, and quite worn out with +toils. He had shared many hardships and incurred many dangers with +Alexander, being ridden by none but the King, because he rejected all +other riders."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The triumphal progress through the Doabs, which ensued on Alexander's +passage of the Hydaspes, was only checked by the stout resistance of +Sangāla, a fortified town as yet unidentified. But with the help of a +fresh contingent brought by Porus, it was razed to the ground as a +punishment for its stubborn and useless resistance.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now before the conqueror lay the river Beās; beyond it, a nation +by repute brave, well equipped, more civilised than those through +which he had passed like a flaming sword. His own courage rose high; +to him "there seemed no end of the wars so long as anything hostile to +him remained."</p> + +<p class="normal">But the spirit of the soldiers had begun to flag. It was now +September, the most trying month in Upper India. The lassitude born of +long heat disposed the men to listen to the tales of gigantic heroes +beyond the water, and so the exhortations of their leader fell on deaf +ears. Yet, as given by Arrian, the words were stirring beyond compare.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"If they had come so far, why should they shrink from adding further +lands to their Empire of Macedonia? To brave men there was no end to +labours except the labours themselves, provided they led to glorious +achievements. The distance to the Eastern ocean was not great, and +that must be united to their own familiar sea, since the Great Waters +encircled the earth. If they went back, the races they had conquered, +not being as yet firm in allegiance, might revolt. Oh! Macedonian and +Grecian Allies stand firm! Glorious are the deeds of those who undergo +labours, who live a life of valour, and die, leaving behind them +immortal glory."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">But the words only provoked a long silence. And so the flaming sword +turned back; but the great fighting heart of its holder seems to have +been left behind in the old bed of the Beās River, where, on its +furthest bank, as a memorial of what would have happened but for dull +humanity, he erected twelve huge altars--</p> +<br> + +<p class="continue" style="font-size:90%">"equal in height to the loftiest military towers, while exceeding them +in breadth; to serve both as a thank-offering to the gods who had led +him so far as a conqueror, and also to serve as monuments of his own +labours. And after completing them, he offered sacrifices on them" (to +the gods to whom he was in the habit of sacrificing, doubtless!), "and +celebrated a gymnastic and equestrian contest."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A very different festivity this from that upon the banks of the Indus; +and we can imagine the great leader coming back across the wide stream +in his oared galley from the useless, unreal ceremonial, with bent +head and arms crossed like Napoleon on his way to St Helena.</p> + +<p class="normal">A picture that fittingly may end the story of Alexander in India; for +the record of his retreat is a record of success without aim, beyond +the discovery of the Great Sea which encircles the whole Earth.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is something intensely pathetic in this story of his choice of +the river Hydaspes as his means of retreat, of the infinite care for +every unit in his force which he showed before that approach of the +dawn in late October, when, without confusion, without disorder, he +poured a libation out of a golden goblet from the prow of his vessel +into the stream, in the name of his gods and the three great rivers, +the Jhelum, the Chenāb, the Indus, to whom he trusted; then, +doubtless, flinging the cup of gold far into the sliding water, +ordered the signal for starting seawards to be given with the trumpet. +So in slow, stately, orderly procession (the "noise of the rowing" +mingling with "the cries of the captains, the shouts of the +boatswains," and the choric "songs of farewell from the natives who +ran along the banks, into a veritable battle cry"), he passed down to +the Great Ocean. The voyage took a year, and he reached the sea coast +not very far from where Kurrachee now stands. Practically, Alexander +was in India proper but nineteen months, and the outward result of his +flaming sword had passed almost before his premature death at Babylon, +a year and a half after he left its shores. But, though India remained +outwardly as ever "splendidly isolated," forgetful of the West, she +had felt the Hellenic power; she feels it still. In every little +village "Jullunder" (Alexander) is still a name wherewith to conjure, +and the village doctor still claims, with pride, to follow the Yunāni +(Ionian) system of medicine.</p> + +<p class="normal">That the former should be the case is surely small wonder. India +is ever the slave of vitality, and Alexander was vital to the +finger-tips. What else could be said of the man who, finding himself +checked in an assault on a stronghold, leapt from the bastion into the +fort, and, supporting himself against the wall, kept the enemy at bay +with his sword, till one by one his followers, maddened by the sight +of their beloved leader's danger, followed him in time to rescue him, +wounded, fainting?</p> + +<p class="normal">But the deed which, of all others, Arrian extols as the most noble +deed ever performed by Alexander, took place in this wise in the +desert. His army, parched with thirst, were stumbling on blindly, led, +as usual in times of distress, by Alexander on foot.</p> + +<p class="normal">To him, weary and exhausted, returned scouts, bearing with them water +collected in a helmet with great difficulty from some cleft in a +distant rock.</p> + +<p class="normal">He took it, thanking the bearers, but immediately poured it upon the +ground in sight of all. "As a result of this," Arrian writes, "the +entire army was reinvigorated to so great a degree that any one would +have imagined that the water so lavished had furnished draught for +every man."</p> + +<p class="normal">Truly, though he left little of sovereignty behind him, Alexander left +enough pictures imprinted on the soil of Hindustan to furnish forth +many a gallery.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.7" href="#div1Ref_01.7">THE GREAT MAURYAS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>B.C. 321 TO B.C. 184</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">We come here to one of the landmarks of Indian History. There were +seven kings of the Maurya dynasty; of these, two gained for themselves +an abiding place in the category of Great World Rulers. Their names +are Chandra-gūpta and Asōka. Grandfather and grandson, they made their +mark in such curiously divergent ways that they stand to this day as +examples of War and Peace.</p> + +<p class="normal">Concerning Chandra-gūpta's usurpation of the throne of the Nine +Nandas, something has already been said. It has also been mentioned +that while still almost a lad, he met with Alexander during the +latter's brief summer among the Punjāb Doābs or Two-waters, so called +because they are the fertile plains which lie between the rivers.</p> + +<p class="normal">The identification, indeed, of the Sandracottus mentioned by Greek +writers with Chandra-gūpta has been of incalculable value in enabling +historians to fix other dates. It has been, as it were, a secure +foundation for a superstructure which has grown, and still grows, year +by year, and in which every new stone discovered is found to fit +accurately in its place.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the time of this meeting, Chandra-gūpta was a nameless adventurer, +a political exile from Magadha. Who he really was seems doubtful. The +illegitimate son, it is said, of one of the Nine Nandas by a beautiful +low-caste woman (from whose name, Mura, the titular designation of the +dynasty Maurya is taken), it is hard to see whence came the young +man's undoubted claim to be of the Shesh-nāg, or Serpent race; for the +Nandas were as undoubtedly of low-caste origin themselves. It is +possible, therefore, that some further history of wrong may have +existed to make Chandra-gūpta claim kinship with the Serpent-Kings +whom the Nandas had ousted, and hold himself, like any young +pretender, a rightful heir.</p> + +<p class="normal">Be that as it may, he was ambitious, capable, energetic, and seized +the first opportunity given him of rising to power.</p> + +<p class="normal">This came with the news of Alexander's death in B.C. 323. In the +instant revolt of conquered India which followed, he took a prominent +part, and found himself, in B.C. 321, with an army at his back which, +having accomplished its purpose and given its leader paramount power +in Punjāb, was eager to follow his fortune elsewhere.</p> + +<p class="normal">He led it to Magadha, and taking advantage of the Nanda king's +unpopularity, slew every male member of the family.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was the Eastern etiquette on such occasions; the sparing of a +brother or an uncle being considered a weakness sure to bring speedy +repentance in its train.</p> + +<p class="normal">Except in as far as the principals were concerned, this revolution +appears to have been easy and bloodless. At least so we gather from +the play called the "Signet of the Minister," which, though not +written till nearly twelve hundred years after the event, seems fairly +trustworthy in fact.</p> + +<p class="normal">In itself it is so studiously realistic, so palpably free from all +appeal to the imagination, as to form a marked contrast to all other +dramas of the period. It is most likely the first purely political +play that ever was written, for, excluding love passages and poetical +diction, it deals entirely with the stir of plot and counterplot. +Chānakya, the wily Brahman--whose advice had been Chandra-gūpta's best +weapon in gaining the throne--realising the insecurity of that throne +without the hearty support of the nobles and, above all, of the late +King's Prime Minister, sets himself by sheer diplomacy to cut the +ground from beneath the feet of his master's enemies, and, succeeding, +yields up his signet of office to the appeased Rakahāsa, whose final +aside when he accepts it--"Oh! vile Chānakya--say rather, Wise +Chānakya, a mine of wisdom inexhaustible! Deep ocean stored with +excellent rare gems"--shows that he feels himself overmastered by +sheer wit.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the whole play is well worth reading; some of it--notably the +parts in prose-reminding one of Shakspeare.</p> + +<p class="normal">The remainder of Chandra-gūpta's career, however, was anything but +bloodless. It was scarcely possible that it should be so, considering +that he began life as a nobody and ended it as undisputed Emperor of +India from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. A man of iron nerve, +born to conquer, born to rule, he went on his way undeviatingly, +holding his own despite the constant threats of his enemies, despite +the danger of constant plots; a danger which made perpetual precaution +necessary. He never occupied the same bedroom two nights in +succession; he never during the daytime slept at the same hour.</p> + +<p class="normal">A story is told of Chānakya's wily vigilance for his master. He +noticed one day a long caravan of ants on the wall of the king's room +carrying crumbs. This was enough for Chānakya. Without an instant's +hesitation, the royal pavilion was ordered to be set on fire and, as +the plaint runs:--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="t4">"The brave men who were concealed</p> +<p class="t0">In the subterrene avenue that led<br> +To Chandra-gūpta's sleeping chamber, so,<br> +Were all destroyed."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">So far as one can gather, Chandra-gūpta's character was not a lovable +one; but there can be no question of his power to rule men wisely and +well. Megasthenes' account of Pālipūtra (which applies more to the +reign of Chandra-gūpta, during whose lifetime the Grecian was +ambassador to the court, than to that of any other monarch) gives us a +marvellous picture of the grip which Government kept on the people; +and kept for their good. Every department (especially the land revenue +and irrigation, both of paramount importance in an Indian State) was +legislated for with the utmost care, and though the whole system of +government was based on the personal power of the king, it was far +from being a mere arbitrary autocracy. His greatest contemporary was +Seleukos Nikator, who in addition to ceding Kābul, Herāt, and Kandahār +to him, bestowed on him his daughter in marriage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Chandra-gūpta died in B.C. 297, having reigned for twenty-four years. +A short enough time in which to have accomplished so much; for at the +day of his death, the only portion of the vast continent of India +which did not acknowledge his rule was a strip of sea coast country +about Cuttack, on the Bay of Bengal, and that part of the lessening +peninsular which lay southward, beyond a line drawn through Mangalore +and Madras.</p> + +<p class="normal">His son Bindu-sāra reigned in his stead. Of him we know nothing; not +even if he was born of the Grecian princess. Only this is on record, +that he was extremely fond of figs, and, presumably, of learning; for +a letter of his to Antiochus, the son of Seleukos Nikator, asks +naļvely for the purchase and despatch of green figs and a professor! +To which the dignified reply is still extant that the figs shall be +procured and forwarded, but that by Grecian etiquette it was +indecorous either to buy or sell a professor!</p> + +<p class="normal">Bindu-sāra had this merit: he handed on the empire which he had +received intact to his son, after a reign of five and twenty years.</p> + +<p class="normal">So let us pass to Asōka, who, next to Akbar the Great Moghul, was the +greatest of all Indian kings. Curiously enough, both these monarchs, +Asōka and Akbar, ruled India through its imagination. Both claimed +pre-eminence as apostles of a Faith in the Unknown; both appealed to +the people on transcendental grounds.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the time of his fathers death in B.C. 272, Asōka was Viceroy of the +Western Province. He had previously ruled in a similar position in the +Punjāb, where his headquarters had been Taxīla, the Serpent City. +Chosen as Crown Prince from amongst numerous other sons on account of +his ability, he had been given this semi-independent control, partly +because of his ungovernable temper, which earned him the nickname of +"The Furious." He thus seemed to take after his grandfather, +Chandra-gūpta, who, with all his many virtues, was unquestionably +cruel and arrogant. But Asōka was not to follow in his ancestor's +footsteps. Forty years afterward, when his long and peaceful reign, +marred by but one war, had come to an end, he had earned for himself +the well-deserved title of "The Loving-minded One, Beloved of the +Gods." A great change in any man's life; but nothing to the change +which his life was to bring into his world.</p> + +<p class="normal">In B.C. 260, when he came under the mingled influence of Buddhism and +Jainism, those creeds were little more than sectarian beliefs confined +to the India which had given them birth. When he died, Buddhism had +spread through Asia, and had touched both Africa and Europe. Asōka has +been called the Constantine of Buddhism, but he was more than that. +The creed which brought him comfort was not, as Christianity was in +Constantine's time, already a power to be reckoned with, it was simply +the belief of a few enthusiasts, a few select souls who sought almost +sorrowfully for some solution of the Great Secret.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was the cause which led the Emperor of India, in his luxurious +autocracy, to join himself to this Search? Undoubtedly it was remorse; +remorse for the numberless lives needlessly sacrificed, the needless +suffering entailed on humanity by the one war of his reign--the +conquest of Kalīnga, a maritime province on the sea-board of the Bay +of Bengal. We have this remorse with us still (as we have so much of +the innermost soul and thoughts and aspirations of Asōka) in the +marvellous edicts engraven on rock and pillar, which, outlasting Time +itself, tell to wild waste and deserted ruins their story of one man's +struggle towards the light. One can almost hear the break, as of +tears, in the voice that clamours still of "the regret which the +Beloved-of-the-Gods felt at the murders and the deaths and the +violence."</p> + +<p class="normal">This regret, then, was the cosmic touch which drove Asōka to find +comfort in preaching the doctrine of the sanctity of life. Was it +Jainism (amongst the tenets of which this takes first place) which +influenced Asōka most, or was it Buddhism? Doctors differ; only this +we know, that it was through Asōka's exertions that the latter became +the creed of one-third of the human race. For the energy of the man +was incomparable. His missionaries were everywhere. "Let small and +great exert themselves," is the cry still carven upon stone. "The +teaching of religion is the most meritorious of acts.... There is no +gift comparable to the gift of religion ... it is in the conquests of +religion that the gods takes pleasure." So his yellow-robed monks went +forth beyond the confines of his visible, tangible world, and found +their way to Egypt, to Greece, to Syria. Their influence is still to +be traced in other religions, though no record exists of their +labours.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus for some thirty years of his life Asōka set himself to alter the +faith of the world. Why? And how? Because he believed with a whole +heart, not in ritual or dogma, but in something which--hard to be +translated--is best rendered by the "Law of Piety." And this his +edicts explain to be "mercy and charity, truth and purity, kindness +and goodness."</p> + +<p class="normal">A good creed even in these later days. Not to be improved upon by +conformists or non-conformists!</p> + +<p class="normal">As to how this gospel of good-will was to be preached we learn from +these edicts also. It is by example, by tolerance, by "gentleness and +moderation in speech."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Government by religion, law by religion, progress by religion." This +was Asōka's rule, and in it he stands alone as the only king who has +subordinated all things to a faith which must only be preached in +gentleness and moderation.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first series of fourteen edicts were cut on rocks in various parts +of his kingdom, from Attock on the Indus to Cuttack on the Eastern +Sea, during the twelfth and thirteenth year of Asōka's reign. They +are, therefore, the first-fruits of his conversion. They range over a +vast number of subjects, but in each of them there is a personal note +which justifies the belief that they are verily the words of the king, +and not the mere drafts of some secretary.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the other hand, the Minor Rock edicts were carven in the last year +of Asōka's reign, and thus gain an additional interest from being the +farewell of a king to the people whom he had striven so hard to lead +into the Way of Peace. In one of them he says that the truest +enjoyment for himself has been making men happy by leading them to +follow the path of religion, that "with this object he has regulated +his life"; yet, though he has "promulgated positive rules, it is +solely by a change in the sentiments of the heart that religion +makes true progress." The edict ends thus: "So spake Piyadāsi, +Beloved-of-the-Gods. Wherever this edict exists on pillars of stone +let it endure to remote ages."</p> + +<p class="normal">It has endured. The Prakrit language in which it was engraven--the +spoken language of those times--has passed; but Asōka's words are not +of Time, they are of Eternity.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was a great builder, but few of his buildings remain to this day. +What their magnificence must have been we may judge by the topes at +Sanchi, where the eye wearies in following the intricacy of ornament, +the brain is bewildered in attempting to re-fashion in imagination the +whole stupendous structure as it must have been. But here and there +some monolithic sandstone pillar still remains, slender, perfect in +proportion and execution, still bearing in close-carven character +Asōka's message to his people, to the world.</p> + +<p class="normal">Strange, indeed, that the West knows so little of him! Strangest of +all that the twentieth century, with its Peace Party and its +Anti-Vivesectionists, should not put Asōka's name as President in +perpetuity of their organisations. Asōka, who more than a thousand +years upheld the equal rights of animals with men to the King's care, +and openly adjured his successors to follow in his steps, and not "to +think that a conquest by the sword deserves the name of conquest."</p> + +<p class="normal">What manner of man Asōka was outwardly, we have no means of knowing; +but those who know of his life can picture him in his yellow monk's +robe, wearied yet unwearied, pondering over his lifelong problem. "By +what means can I lead my people into the path of peace?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Unwearied because of the spirit which inspires the words, "Work I must +for the public benefit"; wearied because, "Though I am ready at any +hour and any place to receive petitions, I am never fully satisfied +with my despatch of business."</p> + +<p class="normal">He died in B.C. 231, leaving his empire intact, and was apparently +succeeded by a grandson. After him came five kings, all mere names. +The duration of the dynasty was 137 years, and as 89 of these belonged +to the combined reigns of Chandra-gūpta, Bindu-sāra, and Asōka, the +remaining six kings have but eight years apiece. Long enough, however, +to disintegrate, to dissipate the vast empire of Asōka. So much so, +that before continuing the story of what may be called the central +kings of India, it is necessary to give a side-glance at the outlying +provinces where, on the removal of Asōka's firm grip on Government, +various minor dynasties began to rise into a power superior to that of +Magādha.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.8" href="#div1Ref_01.8">THE OUTLYING PROVINCES</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>B.C. 231 TO A.D. 45</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A growing tide as it nears the springs claims more and more of the +shore at each rise and fall. So it was with the tide which on Asōka's +death set in around his throne.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the north-western frontier, that battle-ground of India, there had +been peace since Chandra-gūpta wrested half Ariana from the grip of +Seleukos Nikator. But the country itself had remained more or less +under Hellenist influence. Antiochus, Demetrios Eukratides, such are +the names of the passing rulers of whose existence we know by the +multitude of coins which form almost their only history.</p> + +<p class="normal">Indeed, as in some museum we gaze with keen yet clouded interest at +some case of coins labelled "Indo-Greek, Indo-Parthian <i>civ</i>: B.C. +250, A.D. 50," we are really gaining at a glance an impressionist +picture of the strange welter of principalities and powers, of sudden +diminutions and almost causeless exacerbations of influence, which +marked the passage of these few centuries upon the borderland of +India. Here a big gold plaque arrests our eye, just as the name of +Arsakes or Menander heaves into sight out of the confused medley of +their more insignificant surroundings; or some quaint half-Aryan, +half-Parthian inscription leaves us wondering of the why and the +wherefore, just as some trivial incident which has survived Time in +the pages of obscure Greek writers makes us pause to wish for more. +Strange, ghost-like personalities are those which live rudely hammered +out on a rough ingot of bronze, or silver, or gold, telling their tale +truly,--succinctly at times however, as when the name and portrait of +one prince forms at first the obverse of another, then the name alone +remains, and finally Hermaios disappears, and Kadphīses rules supreme.</p> + + +<p class="center">Map: India to B.C. 231</p> + +<p class="normal">Who are they all? Historians peer and ponder; they add date to date, +and divide the total by their own desires--for in no branch of +knowledge is the personal equation more powerful than in history--yet +still that glance at the case of coins gives to the uninitiated the +best impression of the period.</p> + +<p class="normal">One thing which militates against a concise pigeon-holing of such +information as we can gather into this brief review of Indian history, +is the fact that much of it has really nothing to do with India at +all. The Hindoo Kush range of mountains may be taken as the western +boundary of Asōka's empire, and the powers which encroached on that +empire matured their plans, conquered and governed such provinces as +they gained from beyond that boundary. The Bactrians, for instance, +who appeared on the banks of the Indus, came from the valleys +and fertile plains about the Oxus. They were a semi-civilised, +semi-Hellenised race, who boasted the possession of a thousand cities. +The Parthians, on the other hand, hailed from the wide steppes about +the Caspian Sea, and were barbarian utterly in the sense of not caring +for either luxury or culture. Mounted shepherds, mere moss-troopers, +they were a hardy race, and under the leadership of Arsakes, gripped +at the crown of Central Asia, and so, inevitably, after a time reached +out to the fat lands about the Indus; for the most part leaving the +princelings who parcelled out the land in possession, as feudatories +to the foreign power.</p> + +<p class="normal">It will be remembered that Seleukos Nikator's attempt to recover India +for Greece in Chandra-gūpta's time failed. Thenceforward for a hundred +years no other attempt was made. In B.C. 206, however, Antiochus the +Bactrian made a sweep on Kandahār, and Demetrios, his son, in B.C. +190, following his example, captured both the Punjāb and Sinde. To his +own cost, however; for, weakened by these distant wars, he had to +yield his throne to one Eukratides, and be content for a time with the +title of "King of the Indians." Not for long, however, for Eukratides, +being bad to beat, eventually got a grip even on these eastern +provinces.</p> + +<p class="normal">Justin the historian gives a few personal details of this Eukratides. +How he and three hundred held a fort for five months against Demetrios +and sixty thousand; and how he was killed in cold blood by his son and +colleague, who drove his chariot wheels over his father's dead body +and refused it burial. A poor return for trust, and honour, and +devoted love! It is satisfactory to know that the monstrous crime +brought its own punishment The dead hero's hold once gone, the +successes he had gained drifted from the murderer's hands, and +thereinafter ensued one of those confused welters of conflicting +names, powers, principalities, which send us back to our outlook on +the case of coins. Menander's name rises out of the obscure in B.C. +155, when he attempted to follow Alexander's footsteps. With a large +army he marched on India, and crossing the Beās, which had defied his +predecessor, actually threatened the capital of Pālipūtra itself. At +that time, however, the sovereignty of Magadha lay with a strong man; +the man who, ousting the degenerate Mauryas, had shown himself to have +the qualities of both a soldier and general. So the Greek king had to +beat a hasty retreat, thus ending the last attempt of Europe upon +India until Vasco de Gama's, in A.D. 1502.</p> + +<p class="normal">About this time two nomad tribes from the wide Roof-of-the-World began +a march southward, which, like a flood, was eventually to sweep +everything before it. The first were the Sākas, who, driven from +behind by the following tribe, the Yuehchi, overwhelmed Bactria, +forced their way into the Punjāb, and penetrated as far south as +Mathura, while another section founded a Sika dynasty at Kathiawār. +They seem to have owned allegiance to the Arsakian or Parthian kings +of Persia, and bore the Persian title of satrap.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus, from the pell-mell of petty princelings and wild, nomadic +chieftains another name springs to notice. On the coins it runs: +"<i>Maues basileus basileon</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">This king of kings, as he proudly calls himself, was Maues, the first, +or nearly the first, of an Indo-Parthian dynasty replacing the +Indo-Greek and Indo-Bactrian ones. As our eye runs over the coins--the +only relics of dead kings--it is arrested by the name of Gondophares.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now who was Gondophares? The question clamours vainly for answer, +until a faint recollection of the early fathers brings Origen and the +Acts of St Thomas back to memory. Yes! Gondophares was the King of +India in the days when</p> +<br> + +<p class="continue">"the twelve Apostles, having divided the countries of the world +amongst themselves by lot, India fell to the share of Judas, surnamed +Thomas or the Twin, who showed unwillingness to start on his mission."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Poor St Thomas! It was a far cry, but Habbān, the Indian merchant, +conveyed his saintly purchase (for the Lord sold the unwilling +missioner to him in a vision for twenty pieces of silver) to King +Gundephar in safety. And the king bade the apostle, who was an +architect, build him a palace in six months.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"And St Thomas, commanded therefore by the Lord, promised to build him +the palace within the six months, but spent all the monies in +almsgiving. So when the time came, he explained that he was building +the king a palace, not on earth, but in heaven, not made with +hands--and multitudes of the people embraced the faith."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">So runs the old Monkish story. Is it true? Who knows! Gondophares was +a real man, he was a real Indian king, he is associated in legend with +a Christian mission, and the claim that St Thomas was the missioner is +not at variance with known facts or chronology. With that we must be +content.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now the coins tell another tale. In their turn the Indo-Parthian +princes were being driven southward. Their names disappear before +those of the horde of Turki nomads called the Yuehchi, who about the +middle of the second century B.C. followed the path taken years before +by the Sākas, and with two hundred thousand bowmen and a million +persons of all ages and sexes poured themselves into India in search +of pastures new.</p> + +<p class="normal">So much for the north-western frontier. In the south-west, while Greek +prince after Greek prince in the north was minting coins that were to +carry his name idly, ineffectively, through the centuries, an +aboriginal Dravidian people, driven, no doubt, thousands of years +before from the fertile fields of the Gangetic plain by the steady +advance of the Aryan immigrants, were as steadily regaining their hold +upon Central India. The Andhra race was not slow to seize opportunity. +The death of Asōka gave them the chance of casting off their +allegiance to the Maury a empire, and they took it. A few years later +the King of the Andhras, self-styled the "Lord of the West," was able +to send an army to the eastern sea-coast, and so help Kalīnga to +revolt also. The capital of the Andhra kingdom appears to have been an +unidentified city called Sri-Kākulum, on the banks of the Krishna +River; and the area of Andhra rule gradually increasing, crept closer +and closer to that of Magadha. The memory of Hāla, the seventeenth +king, lives still by virtue of an anthology of love-songs called "The +Seven Centuries," which he is said to have composed. That, a +collection entitled "The Great Storybook," and a Sanskrit Grammar all +belong by repute to the reign of this king. Finally, the inevitable +collision occurred between the powerful Andhra dynasty and the +degenerate, dissolute monarchy at Magadha, which resulted in the +annihilation of the latter. But before turning to this, the course of +the years since the Maurya kings disappeared from sheer inanition +must be traced briefly. It was in B.C. 194 that Pus<font face="Courier New">ŷ</font>a-mitra, +commander-in-chief to the last of the Mauryas, lost patience with his +weak master, assassinated him, and founded the Sunga line. A strong, +unscrupulous man evidently, he held his own, succeeded in stemming +the steady tide of disintegration on both the south-east and the +north-west, and drove back the Greek invasion of Menander.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still unsatisfied, he revived, in order to strengthen his rule, the +old traditional Horse-sacrifice, of which we read in the Vedas.</p> + +<p class="normal">A quaint old ceremony without doubt. Imagine a grey horse, approved by +lucky marks, sanctified by priests, turned loose to wander at its +will. And behind it, following it from field to field as it ranges, a +complete army ready to claim pasturage for it from all and sundry +during the space of one whole year. Hey presto! by beat of drum the +fiat goes forth, as it grazes, that proprietors, principalities, +powers, must submit or fight. So, if an unconquered army returned when +the trial was ended, he who sent it forth had right to claim +suzerainty, to call himself Lord-Paramount of all the others.</p> + +<p class="normal">This particular "Asva-medha," as it is called, has a peculiar +significance, in that it proves a determined return from Buddhism to +Brahmanism on the part of the holders of the Magadha throne. It is +said, indeed, that Push<font face="Courier New">ŷ</font>a-mitra, like so many bloody usurpers, was +<i>dévote</i>, and that his piety included persecution of the new faith. +One thing seems certain: his ten successors in the Sunga dynasty were +all more or less in the hands of the Brahmans, who managed the state +while the titular monarchs amused themselves in various discreditable +ways, until in B.C. 75, one Vasu-deva, Brahman prime minister, lost +patience with <i>his</i> hereditary master, killed him while engaged in a +dishonourable intrigue, and started a new dynasty--the Kanva--by +mounting the throne himself! an idle proceeding, since it was soon to +pass from the hands of his ineffectual successors to those of an +Andhra prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">But by this time--B.C. 75--another advancing flood--the Yuehchi +migration--had appeared in the north-west, and for the first two +centuries or so of our era was to claim equal share with the Dravidian +kings in the Government of India.</p> + +<p class="normal">And what of Vikramadītya? Vikramadītya the hero, the demigod, the king +<i>par excellence</i> of the Indian populace of to-day? The monarch whose +victory over some Scythian invaders in B.C. 57 was celebrated by the +introduction of the Samvat era, which dates from that year? Are all +the stories of him that are told about the smoke-palled winter fires +in the Punjāb fields, the hundred and one tales of his munificence, +his courage and his goodness--are all these mere legends?</p> + +<p class="normal">So far as this early date is concerned, historians tell us that they +are. More than five hundred years later one of the Gupta kings bore +the name, and answers in some way to the description.</p> + +<p class="normal">But how came he to be connected with the Samvat era which undoubtedly +dates from B.C. 57? Who can say! Vikramadītya is a terrible loss to +India. How can we bear to part with the king whose swans sang always:</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Glory be to Vikramajeet,<br> +He gave us pearls to eat!"</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">The king whose puppets of stone that bore aloft his throne refused to +bear the weight of his successor, and wandered out into the wide +world, each telling a tale of departed glory!</p> + +<p class="normal">No! Vikramadītya, the beloved of every Indian school-boy for his +valour, of every little Indian maiden for his gentleness, cannot be +given up without a protest.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The fiction which resembles truth is better than the truth which is +dissevered from the imagination." Let us hark back to those words of +wisdom, and search round for some faint foothold for blessed belief.</p> + +<p class="normal">Let us turn to our case of coins in hope. Stay! What is this?</p> + +<p class="normal">A nameless one. The date is close to the era we are seeking; the only +inscription runs thus, "<i>Soter Megas</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">The "Great Saviour!" Is not that enough for the imagination? So let us +pass by the cogitations of the historian as to what nameless king +minted the coin, and listen with renewed confidence to the tale told +by a childish voice of how King Vikramadītya slew the foul fiend.</p> + +<p class="normal">What does it matter whether he was Vikramadītya or another? Foul +fiends must always be killed; as well by a nameless king, provided he +be a "Great Saviour."</p> + +<p class="normal">But one point more requires a few words ere we pass on--the extent to +which Greek culture influenced India.</p> + +<p class="normal">Curiously little. A glance at the Gręco-Buddhist carvings which still, +in some places on the frontier, are to be had for the mere picking up +as they lie littered about among the rough-hewn stones which once were +fort or palace, temple or shrine, shows that while India accepted +Greek art, she did not oust her own, but grafted the new skill on the +old stock.</p> + +<p class="normal">And though it fires the imagination to think of Greek customs, Greek +philosophy, Greek valour and intellect making its home for hundreds of +years among the young green wheat-fields by the bed of the Indus, we +must not blind our eyes to the fact that the broad yellow flood of the +river seems to have been an impassable barrier to the whole theory of +life which was the root-stuff of such custom, such philosophy, such +valour, such intellect.</p> + +<p class="normal">India went on her way, as she has gone always, almost untouched by +outside influences. Despite the brilliancy of the Macedonian cavalry, +her own retained its ancient traditions; despite the intellectual +keenness of European theorists, India has dreamt--as she dreams +still--her old dreams.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is a little temple near the supposed site of Taxīla. Or perhaps +it was not a temple at all: it may have been anything else. But two or +three of the broken pillars have Ionic capitals.</p> + +<p class="normal">That is about the extent of Greek influence in India.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.9" href="#div1Ref_01.9">THE BACTRIAN CAMEL AND THE<br> +INDIAN BULL</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 45 TO A.D. 225</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">The device of a camel and a bull on the reverse and obverse of a coin +minted by Kadphīses, the first Kushān king in India, is, Mr Vincent +Smith remarks, a singularly appropriate symbol for the conquest of +Hindustan by a horde of nomads from Central Asia.</p> + +<p class="normal">These wanderers, ever pressed from behind, had come far; they had met +and overwhelmed by sheer numbers many hostile tribes. But all this was +prior to their passage into India proper. That took place about the +year B.C. 40, when Hermaios, the last of the Indo-Greek rulers, gave +way to the first Mongolian king.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is curious to note this transference of power viewed in the light +of our case of coins. First, we find the names of both princes +preserved in the legend, the portrait of the Greek, with his title in +Greek lettering, still adorning the obverse. After a while the legend +changes, the Mongolian's name monopolises it, though the portrait +remains. Again a while, and Hermaios' face disappears in favour of the +features of the Roman Emperor, Augustus; a piece of flattery due to +the growing fame of Rome at its zenith, even in the Far East. So, +after again a little while, the coin shows nothing but that symbol of +conquest, the Bactrian Camel dominating the Indian Bull!</p> + +<p class="normal">A pause for consideration will show us that this was no ordinary +conquest. The domination of a highly civilised people such as the +Indians were undoubtedly, even in those far ages, by a horde of upland +wanderers, veneered with a culture picked up hastily as they +journeyed, cannot have come about without much disturbance. Yet of +this we have no record. The feet of those million or more of men, +women, children, seem to have overwhelmed even their own noise and +clamour. Still, we know that the final overthrow of the old dynasties +in the Punjāb and the Indus valley was deferred until Kadphīses I. had +been gathered to his fathers after a reign of forty years, and his +son, Kadphīses II., reigned in his stead. As energetic, as ambitious +as his father, he was keen enough to see the advantages of propitiating +that great Western emperor of Rome, whose gold was now pouring into +India in exchange for the latter's silk, gems, dye-stuffs, and spices; +so, after conquering the whole of the North-Western Provinces, he sent +an embassy to Rome in order to acquaint the Emperor Trajan of the fact.</p> + +<p class="normal">Probably we have here the first political connection between East and +West.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the rest, was this in truth, not the golden age, but the age of +gold, for in addition to the Roman Aurei, of which numberless +specimens are to be found in our Museums, we have examples of Oriental +gold coins of the same purity and weight, which must have been struck +by the Kushān kings, as these leaders of the wanderers are called.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the death of the second Kadphīses, one Kanīshka came to the throne. +This is a name which still has a voice in Indian tradition, and, +beyond India, is still known in the legendary lore of Tibet, Mongolia, +and China.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet as to who he was, whether he came to the throne by honest +succession, or even as to the date of his reign, we have next to no +accurate information.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here and there, as we dig at the grave of this dead king, our spade +and mattock turn up a coin, an inscription, perhaps an allusion in +later literature; but the point remains unsettled as to whether +Kanīshka reigned in B.C. 57 or A.D. 120. The evidence of coins points +to the latter date. There is a certain quaint four-pronged symbol to +be found in most of the coins struck by Kadphīses II., which is found +also in the innumerable coinage of Kanīshka; for, whoever he was, he +minted much. Sure sign of a long and prosperous reign.</p> + +<p class="normal">But there is evidence also which brings home to the enquirer the +mysterious attraction which lingers alike in the search for buried +treasure, and the search for buried history. For, close beside our +traces of Kanīshka, of Kadphīses, we come upon those of that nameless +King, the Great Saviour, whose unknown personality dominates for the +imaginative the two centuries of time which holds in their grip of +years the birth of Christ. A hundred years before that event, a +hundred years after, this vision of a Great King flits vaguely through +the obscure, making us say: "It cannot be, and yet--suppose it were?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Good old Vikramadītya! Will the years, as they bring new discoveries, +bring you back from the realms of myth?</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, "Soter Megas Basileus Basileon" remains free of the fetters +of fact, and Kanīshka, the king, evades them in a fashion that is +purely tantalising.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Strangely open to doubt," is the verdict of the historian on almost +everything concerning him.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet we know much.</p> + +<p class="normal">We know that, like Asōka, he was an ardent Buddhist, though of how or +why he adopted this faith we are ignorant. We know that he ruled as +far east as Benares, as far south as the mouths of the Indus, as far +west and north as the Pamirs. His capital was Peshawur; but he had +subdued the old Indian capital of Pālipūtra. We know, also, that he +was a man of artistic tastes, a student and an admirer of Nature; for +his favourite holiday ground was the valley and hills of Kashmir, +where he erected many great monuments. At Peshawur itself, besides a +monastery whose ruins may still be traced outside the Lahore gate of +the modern town, he raised a great tower to cover some Buddhist +relics. The spire or pinnacle of this was in thirteen stories, made of +beautifully carved wood, and, surmounted by an iron finial, rose 400 +feet in height. It is thus described by a Chinese pilgrim who visited +it in the sixth century.</p> + +<p class="normal">But what best deserves remembrance in connection with Kanīshka's name +are the wonderful sculptures which of late years have been discovered +in such quantities in the Hashtnūgar district, and elsewhere. They are +known, generically, as the Gandhāra sculptures, as they are supposed +to be the output of a distinct school which flourished in the district +of that name. But in conception, style, and execution, they assimulate +closely to the Gręco-Roman school, which at this period of the world's +history was nearly cosmopolitan.</p> + +<p class="normal">Kanīshka is also to be remembered for the Great Buddhist Council he +convened, in imitation, apparently, of Asōka. The story goes that +certain commentaries, being approved by this Council, were ordered to +be engraved on copper, and placed, for security, in a st'hupa or +tumulus.</p> + +<p class="normal">The site of this has not yet been discovered, the copper plates remain +unread!</p> + +<p class="normal">A find this, perchance, for the coming years! It is something to look +forward to, something which may clear up many points concerning +Kanīshka now "strangely open to doubt."</p> + +<p class="normal">The history of his successors is, likewise, doubtful. We stand, +indeed, on the threshold of one of those curious intervals in Indian +story, when the curtain comes down on the living picture of the stage, +leaving us to wonder what the next act of the drama will be, and when +it will recommence. Still more like, perhaps, is the position of the +spectator to one who, on some mountain top, watches the rolling clouds +sweep through the valleys below him. A stronger breath of wind, a +little rift in the hurrying white vapour, and a glimpse of the life +that goes on and on below the mists comes into view for a moment, and +is gone the next.</p> + +<p class="normal">So we look back towards the beginning of the third century after +Christ. A glint of sunlight, a passing peep of something recognisable, +obliterated in an instant by the rolling clouds growing more and more +obscure as they deepen and darken.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then there were in this land three kings, Hūshka, Jūshka, and +Kanīshka, who built three towns."</p> + +<p class="normal">So runs the Kashmir chronicle.</p> + +<p class="normal">It reads like the beginning of a fairy tale, but nothing follows +save a gold coin with the beautifully executed portrait of a +striking-looking man upon it, a man with deep-set eyes and determination +marked upon every feature. Beneath it, the legend of King Huwūshka, or +Hūshka.</p> + +<p class="normal">Another glimpse comes to us of one Vāsu-deva. Does he in truth belong +to the Mongolian princes, with their strange uncouth names? His is a +purely Indian one, and the coins which bear his name no longer bear +the Bactrian camel. The bull, too, is attendant on the Indian God +Siva, complete with his noose and trident.</p> + +<p class="normal">Had Buddhism, then, gone by the board? Who can tell. The curtain is +finally rung down about the year A.D. 230 on the confused passing of +the Andhra dynasty in the south, the Kushān dynasty in the north, and +does not rise again, not even for a moment, until a hundred years have +passed.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet, before this little book is published, the grave may have +given up its dead, and out of a few dry bones, a chance coin, a +half-obliterated inscription, some new personality may have arisen to +live again through those long, empty years.</p> + +<p class="normal">India is very wide, and she is very secretive. How can it be +otherwise, when beyond reach of the clash and welter of kings, of +courts and conquests, the great mass of the people live untouched by +change, watching their crops, ploughing, sowing, reaping, +"undisturbed" (as Megasthenes pointed out with wonder), "even when +battle is raging in their neighbourhood, by any sense of danger, since +the tillers of the soil are regarded by the Indians as a race sacred, +inviolable." To the world beyond such lives are a secret; they hold +the unknown.</p> + +<p class="normal">So from behind the curtain the "Song of the Plough" rises in monotonous +chant as, in the same dress, using the same implements as he uses +to-day, the peasant drives his white oxen, and sings:--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Bitter blue sky with no fleck of a cloud!</p> +<p class="t2">Ho! brother-ox drive the plough deep.</p> +<p class="t0">Sky-dappled grey like the partridge's breast!</p> +<p class="t2">Ho! brother-ox drive the plough straight.</p> +<p class="t0">Merry drops slanting from East to West!</p> +<p class="t2">Oh! brother-ox drive home the wain.</p> +<p class="t0">The gods give poor folk rain."</p> +</div> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.10" href="#div1Ref_01.10">THE GREAT GŪPTA EMPIRE</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 308 TO A.D. 450</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The curtain rises again upon a wedding; the wedding of Princess Kumāri +Devi. Eight hundred years before, King Bimbi-sāra of the Sesu-nāga +dynasty had strengthened his hold on Magadha by marrying her +ancestress, a princess of that Lichchāvi clan which for centuries has +held strong grip on a vast tract of country spreading far into the +Nepaul hills.</p> + +<p class="normal">This kingdom of the Lichchāvis had given Bimbi-sāra much trouble. It +was to check the inroads of the bold hill folk that he first built the +watch fort of Patāliputra, the modern Patna. Of the history of the +warlike clan during these long intervening years nothing is known; but +they must have kept their independence, for Princess Kumāri Devi +(which, by the way, is tautological, since Kumāri means princess, the +whole name therefore standing as Princess-Goddess) appears from the +obscure as a person of importance, apparently an heiress. Whether she +was the reigning princess history sayeth not; but it appears not +unlikely that this was the case, and that at the time the Lichchāvis, +instead of being checked by, were in possession of, Patāliputra.</p> + +<p class="normal">Be that as it may, the Goddess-Princess chose to marry one +Chandra-gūpta, a mere local chief of whose father and grandfather only +the names have been preserved. Possibly he was good-looking; let us +hope so! From the character of his son, Samūdra-gupta, it is +reasonable to suppose that he rose above the common herd of +princelings in both intelligence and accomplishments; though, on the +other hand, these might have been derived from the princess.</p> + +<p class="normal">Scarcely, however; unless the fairy god-mother had worked hard, since +the bride's race warrants us in presupposing beauty. Even now, says a +contemporary witness, "the delicate features and brilliantly fair +complexion of the Lichchāvi women are remarkable."</p> + +<p class="normal">Anyhow, the immediate result of what must have been a love match was +the appearance for the first and last time in Indian History of a +veritable Prince Consort, who, though calling himself king, struck +coins which bore the name of his queen as well as his own, and whose +son claimed succession as the "son of the daughter of the Lichchāvis."</p> + +<p class="normal">Indeed, save as husband and father, Chandra-gūpta, the first of the +Gūpta race, has little claim on attention. After the fashion of Prince +Consorts, he is more or less of a figure-head, though the prospects of +his dynasty were considered sufficiently dignified and secure to +permit of his coronation date being made the beginning of yet another +of the many Indian eras; one which has, however, passed entirely out +of use.</p> + +<p class="normal">Chandra-gūpta seems to have died when still quite a young man, leaving +his son, apparently quite a boy, to reign in his stead.</p> + +<p class="normal">A precocious stripling this Samūdra-gupta, who was to fill the throne +of India as it has seldom been filled for more than half a century. +Possibly there may have been some interval of Regency with the +Queen-Mother at its back, but one of the most curious features in this +fifty-year-long reign, is that we know nothing of it from the words of +any historian, that we gather no allusion to it from any +contemporaneous literature. Our knowledge, which year by year +increases, comes from coins, from inscriptions; notably from a pillar +which now stands in the fort at Allahabad. Originally incised and set +up by Asōka six centuries earlier, Samūdra-gupta's court panegyrist +has used its waste space for a record of his master's great deeds. A +quaint contrast; since these were chiefly bloody wars, and Asōka +everywhere was a peace propagandist.</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth, Samūdra-gupta appears to have been an Indian Alexander. What +he saw he coveted, what he coveted he conquered. From this same pillar +we learn that his empire included all India as far south as Malabar, +as far north as Assam and Nepaul. It was thus larger than any since +the days of Asōka, though the southward sweep of Samūdra-gupta's +victorious armies cannot, in the nature of things, have been much more +than a raid. A campaign, involving fully 3,000 miles of marching, +which cannot have occupied less than three years, and the furthest +limit of which lands one more than 1,200 miles from one's base, must +be a mere march to victory and a retreat with spoils.</p> + +<p class="normal">The record of this march is fairly complete. The courtly panegyrist's +stilted verses tell us in detail of Tiger-Kings subdued, of homage and +tribute; but, so far as this slight history is concerned, all we need +picture to ourselves is an apparently invincible hero, laden with loot +from all the treasures of the south.</p> + +<p class="normal">With honour also, for he made many treaties with foreign powers.</p> + +<p class="normal">One gives us a quaint picture of the time. The Buddhist king of Ceylon +sent two monks, one the king's brother, to visit the monastery which +pious King Asōka of olden days had built by the sacred Bo tree at +Bodh-Gya.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, India being at this time Brahmanical, the worthy brothers met +with scant courtesy, and on return complained that they had literally +found no place at the holy shrine wherein to lay their heads. The +Buddhist king, therefore, anxious to redress this anomaly, despatched +an embassy to Samūdra-gupta, asking leave to found a rest-house for +the use of pious pilgrims, and sent with it rich jewels and gifts +galore. These were duly accepted by the Hindoo as tribute, and +gracious permission given. Whereupon the decision to build a special +monastery close to the sacred tree was duly engraved on a copper +plate, and, in due time, carried out by the erection of what was +described two centuries later by the Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen T'sang (to +whose literary labours we of to-day owe nearly all our knowledge of +India in these far ages), as having three stories, six halls, three +towers, and accommodation for a thousand monks,</p> +<br> + +<p class="continue">"on which the utmost skill of the artist has been employed; the +ornamentation is in the richest colours, and the statue of Buddha is +cast of gold and silver, decorated with gems and precious stones."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Natheless this was the golden age of the Hindoo, not of the Buddhist, +and, imitating Push<font face="Courier New">ŷ</font>a-mitra, who overset the Buddhist Maurya +dynasty, Samūdra-gupta determined to proclaim his supremacy by the +ancient Horse sacrifice. So once more the doomed charger, followed by +an army, set out on its wanderings for a year. This we know by reason +of a few rare coins bearing the effigy of the victim standing before +the altar, encircled by an explanatory legend, which have survived +time, to be discovered of late years. There is also a rudely-carven +stone horse now standing at the door of the Museum in Lucknow, which +some archęologists label as belonging to Samūdra-gupta's great +sacrifice.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the coins of this king are somewhat lavish of information. +Several, which represent him playing on a lyre, remain a proof that +the court panegyrist was not a wholesale flatterer in counting him +musician. This, again, gives ground for belief that he was also, as is +claimed for him, a poet. That he took delight in patronising art of +all kinds is proved beyond doubt by the great number of eminent +men whose works date from the reign of Samūdra-gupta, and his +son Chandra-gūpta II., who, on his coronation, took the name of +Vikramadītya; the latter being, of course, the one associated in the +mind of every Hindu of to-day with the splendid renaissance of national +learning and art, on which they love to dwell. To them Vikramadītya is +synonymous with the zenith of Hindu glory; but it is open to doubt +whether the hero's father may not lay claim to a lion's share of the +record of great achievements. We know of a certainty that he was +sufficiently notable as musician to warrant his coins being stamped +with majesty in that <i>rōle</i>; his poet-laureate tells us of keen +intellect, love of study, and skill in argument. Is not this sufficient +to make us at any rate date the beginning of the Renaissance from the +days of Samūdra-gupta?</p> + +<p class="normal">Be that as it may, it is abundantly clear that in him we are dealing +with another of those rare kings, who are kings indeed by right of +their personal supremacy.</p> + +<p class="normal">India is curiously fruitful in them, and, so far as we have come in +Indian history, their individualities stand forth all the stronger in +contrast with the mists and shadows which surround them. Bhishma, +Chandra-gūpta, Asōka, Kanīshka, Samūdra-gupta--we gauge our admiring +interest by our desire to know what manner of men these were in +feature and form. But Fate, for the most part, denies us even the +scant suggestion of a rude coin. She does so here. Whether Samūdra +inherited his mother's beauty is for the present an unanswerable +question. We do not know even the year of his passing, still +less the manner of it: the story goes on without a pause to +Chandra-gūpta-Vikramadītya, his son, whose fame, until lately, quite +overwhelmed all memory of his father; that father who conquered India, +who allied himself with foreign powers, who made the subsequent +achievements of his son possible.</p> + +<p class="normal">The question which besets us now is the extent to which +Chandra-gūpta-Vikramadītya's fame is really his own; how much of it is +due to the fact that we possess of his reign and administration an +almost unique record in the account given of his travels and sojourn +in India by the Buddhist pilgrim from China, Fa-Hien? This gives us +information which fails us in the reigns of other kings. How much, +again, of this Vikramadītya's fame belongs by right to that other +mythical Vikramadītya of before-Christ days? That nameless king who +flits like a Will-o'-the-Wisp through the mists of early Indian +history?</p> + +<p class="normal">How much, again, is rightfully due to his father--that striking +personality which historians have forgotten, but which now comes +surging through the shadows, a veritable man indeed?</p> + +<p class="normal">Who can say? All we know is that the Gūpta dynasty was a mighty one; +that it still serves the modern Hindu as a model of good government, +just as the Mahomedan still points with pride to Akbar's rule.</p> + +<p class="normal">What, then, were the salient points of this beloved control? Judging +by Fa-Hien's account they may be summed up in personal liberty. The +subject was left largely to follow his own intentions, and the +criminal law was singularly lenient. This was rendered possible by the +wide acceptation amongst the masses of Buddha's gospel of good-will; +for although Brahmanical Hinduism had ousted Buddhist dogma, it had +scarcely touched its ethics. Capital punishment was unknown; there was +no need for an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. "Throughout the +country," we read, "no one kills any living thing."</p> + +<p class="normal">An easy kingdom in good sooth to rule! According to our traveller, the +people seem to have vied with each other in virtue. All sorts of +charitable institutions existed, and the description of a free +hospital, endowed by benevolence, is worth quoting:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Hither come all poor or helpless patients suffering from every sort +of infirmity. They are well taken care of, and a doctor attends to +them, food and medicine being given according to their wants. Thus +they are made quite comfortable, and when they are well they may go +away."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Thus, once more, the East saw light sooner than the West; for the +first hospital in Europe only struggled into existence more than five +hundred years after this one at Magādha.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the chief glory of the Gūpta empire was its patronage of the arts +and sciences. Every pundit in India knows the verse which names the +"nine gems of Vikramadītya's court"; those learned men amongst whom +Kālidāsa, the author of "Sakūntala" (so far as fame goes, the +Shakspeare of India), stood foremost. Poets, astronomers, grammarians, +physicians, helped to make up the <i>nawa-ratani</i>, as it is called, and +the extraordinary literary activity of the century and a quarter (from +A.D. 330 to 455), during which long period Samūdra, Chandra, and his +son, Kumāra, reigned, is most remarkable. The revival of Sanskrit, the +sacred language of the Brahmans, points to an upheaval of Hindu +religious thought, and so does the almost endless sacred literature, +which, still surviving, is referred to the golden age of the Gūptas. +The Purānas in their present form, the metrical version of the Code of +Manu, some of the Dharm-shāstras, and, in fact, most of the classical +Sanskrit literature, belong to this period.</p> + +<p class="normal">Architecture was also revolutionised. As Buddhism slipped from the +grip of the people under pressure from the ever-growing power of the +Brahmans, the very forms of its sacred buildings gave way to something +which, more ornate, less self-evident, served to reflect the new and +elaborate pretensions of the priesthood. Mr Cunningham gives us +somewhere the seven characteristics of the Gūpta style of +architecture; but it is more easily summed up for the average beholder +in the words "cucumber and gourd." These names serve well to recall +the tall, curved <i>vimanas</i>, or towers, exactly like two-thirds of a +cucumber stuck in the ground, and surmounted by a flat, gourd-like +"Amalika," so called because of its resemblance to the fruit of that +name.</p> + +<p class="normal">That such buildings are interesting may be conceded, but that any one +can call the collection of pickle-bottles (for that is practically the +effect of them) at-let us say-Bhuvan-eshwar beautiful, passes +comprehension.</p> + +<p class="normal">Exquisite they are in detail, perfect in the design and execution of +their ornamentation, but the form of these temples leaves much to be +desired. The flat blob at the top seems to crush down the vague +aspirings of the cucumber, which, even if unstopped, must ere long +have ended in an earthward curve again.</p> + +<p class="normal">To return to history.</p> + +<p class="normal">Chandra-gūpta-Vikramadītya died in A.D. 413. His greatest military +achievement was the overthrow of the Sāka dynasty in Kathiawār, and +the annexation of Mālwa to the already enormous empire left him by his +father. In other ways we have large choice of prowess. All the tales +which linger to this day on the lips of India concerning Rājah +Bikra- or Vikra-majīt are at our disposal.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of his son Kumāra we at present know little, save that he reigned +successfully for not less than forty years, keeping his kingdom +intact, remaining true to its traditions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps some day his fame also will rise from its grave, and coin or +inscription may prove him true unit of the Great Trio of Gūpta +emperors. This much we may guess: he was his grandmother's darling, +for he bears her name in masculine dress.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.11" href="#div1Ref_01.11">THE WHITE HUNS AND GOOD KING +HARSHA</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 450 TO A.D. 648</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The name Huns has quite a familiar sound. We think of Attila; we +remember the 350 pounds weight of gold which Theodosius of Byzantium +paid as an annual tribute to the victorious horde which swept into +Europe about the middle of the fifth century; finally, we hark back to +Gibbon's description of this race of reckless reiving riders; for the +Huns seem to have been born in the saddle and never to have lived out +of it. This is what he says:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"They were distinguished from the rest of the human species by their +broad shoulders, flat noses and small black eyes, deeply buried in the +head; and, as they were almost destitute of beards, they never enjoyed +either the manly graces of youth or the venerable aspect of age." (<i>En +passant</i>, we can but wonder what our poor Gibbon would have said to +the shaven chin of to-day!) "A fabulous origin was assigned worthy of +their form and manners--that the witches of Scythia, who for their +foul and deadly practices had been driven from society, had united in +the desert with infernal spirits, and that the Huns were the offspring +of this execrable conjunction."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Again, poor Huns! We do not need such legend to know that they were +utterly barbarian; that they rode like the devil, fought with +bone-tipped javelins, clothed themselves in skins, and ate herbs and +half-raw meat which they had first made tender by using it as their +saddle! It is a sufficiently black indictment, and, though it applies +only to the rolling swarm of savages which, on leaving that hive of +humanity, the wide Siberian Steppe, turned westward, we have no reason +to suppose that the swarm which turned eastward differed much from the +type. It is true they are called the White Huns, but that is most +likely because among the dark races of Hindustan, the yellow Mongolian +complexion showed fair.</p> + +<p class="normal">India had been overrun many times before, but it needs small +consideration to see that this invasion must have been the worst, must +have brought with it a perfect horror of havoc. Far more so than the +Hun invasion in Europe. There the ultimate savage met, for the most +part, with Goths and Visigoths. In India they stood between a Brahman +and his salvation, between culture and comfort. For India was in these +days far more civilised than Europe; its people were refined, bound +hand and foot by ritual, curiously conventional in custom.</p> + +<p class="normal">The long ages which had passed since the Vedic times had made religion +more complex, had multiplied ceremonial to such an extent that the +performance of the simplest duty was hedged about by the danger of +fateful commissions, and still more fateful omissions. The revival of +Hinduism during the paling days of the Gūpta empire had vastly +increased the power of the Brahman. In brief, Purānic Hinduism--that +is, religion based on the Purānas, as distinct from the Vedas--with +all its hair-splitting, its overlay of ritual by ritual, was at its +zenith. From birth to death a man--even the meanest man--was in the +grip of innumerable petty commandments.</p> + +<p class="normal">The very gods he worshipped had changed. The elemental deities of the +Rig-Veda--the Winds, the Fire, the Sun, the Dawn--behind which lay +ever (half recognised, wholly mysterious) the Unconditioned, the +Absolute, were lost; crowded out, as it were, by the three hundred and +thirty millions of Purānic godlings, which rumour says had replaced +the thirty-and-three of the Vedas. And beset by an Athanasian <i>furore</i> +for faith, the Purānas had defined the undefinable. The doctrine of a +Trinity seems about this era of the world's history to have been more +than usually in the air, and we find it here, hard and fast, +crystallised unchangeably.</p> + +<p class="normal">Brahma the Creator, Siva the destroying Spirit, Vishn or Krishn the +Saviour, the Man-God, kind to the weaknesses of humanity. The three +hundred and thirty millions of little gods were contained in the +Three; they were emanations, attributes, as such imaged and +worshipped. A great change this from the singing of a hymn to Agni the +Fire-God, as the victim's flesh shrivelled in the flame, and the +cooling of the ashes with a libation of soma juice.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the worshipping of images brought with it a veneration for +temples, a reverence for a paid priesthood, with its inevitable +corollary of cult and custom and ceremonial. This complexity of +religion naturally showed itself in the character of the people. As Mr +Dutt writes:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Pompous celebrations and gorgeous decorations arrested the +imagination and fostered the superstitions of the populace; poetry, +arts, architecture, sculpture, and music lent their aid, and within a +few centuries the nation's wealth was lavished on these gorgeous +edifices and ceremonials which were the outward manifestations of the +people's unlimited devotion and faith. Pilgrimages, which were rare or +unknown in very ancient times, were organised on a stupendous scale; +gifts in land and money poured in for the support of temples, and +religion gradually transformed itself to a blind veneration of images +and their custodians. The great towns of India were crowded with +temples, and new gods and new idols found sanctuaries in stone +edifices and in the hearts of ignorant worshippers."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Add to this the testimony of the literature of the period. The dramas +of Kālidāsa, beautiful as they are, concern themselves entirely with +Love. The very descriptions of nature have reference to it, as when we +read:--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="t11">"The oleander bud</p> +<p class="t0">Shows like the painted fingers of the fair,<br> +Red tinted on the tip and edged with ebony."</p> +</div> + +<p class="continue">His very reflections also are tinged with the same soft note of +underlying passion:--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Not seldom in our hours of ease,<br> +When thought is still, the sight of some fair form<br> +Or mournful fall of music breathing low<br> +Will stir strange fancies thrilling all the soul<br> +With a mysterious sadness."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">And, leaving poetry alone, such knowledge as we have of social life in +these days points to a certain effeminacy. In fact, there is evidence +that woman played a larger part in society than she does in the India +of to-day. The perennial joke against learned ladies, indeed, appears +in the drama of the "Toy Cart," where the comic man says he always +laughs when he "hears a woman read Sanskrit, or a man sing a song!" +Then the heroine of this drama is frankly a courtesan, an Indian +Aspasia, who received her lovers in a public court furnished with +books, pictures, gambling-tables, etc., and who was</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Of courteous manners and unrivalled beauty,<br> +The pride of all Ujjain."</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">Such, then, were the people who "felt, dreaded, and magnified" (as +Gibbon says of the Goths--a far less civilised nation--in like +predicament) "the numbers, the strength, the rapid motions and +implacable cruelty of the Huns; who beheld their fields and villages +consumed with flames and deluged with indiscriminate slaughter."</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps it is as well, therefore, that history is for the most part +silent concerning the horror and the havoc of the century or so of +time during which the Huns ravaged India. We hear only of the greater +tragedies, of Toramāva the Tyrant, and his son Mihīragūla, who +out-Heroded his father in implacable cruelty towards the cultured, +caste-bound Hindus, to whom all things were sacred. Of him it is +written that his favourite amusement in Kashmir was watching elephants +goaded into impassable, precipitous hill-paths, so that he might laugh +like a fiend if they slipped and fell; fell with a wild shriek of +terror and anger, to be dashed to pieces thousands of feet below. An +unpleasing picture this! One cannot wonder at the criticism passed on +his death, when "the earth shook, thick darkness reigned, and a mighty +tempest raged." It was succinct, bald, but forcible: "<i>He</i> has now +fallen into the lowest hell, where he shall pass endless ages."</p> + +<p class="normal">After his death, which must have occurred about the year A.D. 540, the +clouds gather darkly, and we are permitted few peeps as to what was +going on behind them. Certain it is that no trace of a paramount power +is to be found in the scant records of the last half of the sixth +century.</p> + +<p class="normal">The beginning of the seventh, however, finds the historian in very +different case. He has first and foremost the detailed account of +Hiuen T'sang's travels with which to deal, and this is supplemented by +the "<i>Harsha-charita</i>," or "Deeds of Harsha," written by a learned +Brahman who lived at the court of the good king. That this latter book +partakes more of the character of a historical romance than a steady, +straightforward chronicle of events is true; but even so, the +information at disposal is fuller and more precise than that which has +been forthcoming hitherto, excepting, perhaps, in regard to the great +Maurya kings.</p> + +<p class="normal">Harsha, then, was younger son of a Rājah of Thanźswar, in the Punjāb.</p> + +<p class="normal">His father dying in A.D. 606, his elder brother ascended the throne, +but was almost immediately most treacherously assassinated in +conference by the King of Bengal; the conference apparently being for +the purpose of arbitrating between the young Rājah of Thanźswar and +the King of Mālwa, who had murdered the former's brother-in-law for +the sake of possessing his wife, and was keeping the Thanźswar +princess a prisoner, with "iron fetters kissing her feet."</p> + +<p class="normal">The assassinated king being too young to have a son, his brother +Harsha was invited to take the throne. For some unknown reason he +hesitated, and his formal coronation did not take place until nearly +six years after he had assumed the actual responsibilities of +kingship.</p> + +<p class="normal">The story of the recovery of his widowed sister from the hands of her +abductor is full of incident and romance. The rescue was but just in +time, for the Princess Rāj-yasri--a most attractive and learned young +lady, and well versed in the Buddhistic schools, apparently--was about +to commit <i>suttee</i> amid the pathless forests, whither she had fled to +escape her persecutor, when her brother, led to her retreat by the +aboriginal chieftains, arrived upon the scene. The hurry was so great, +that in it the assassin-lover appears to have escaped.</p> + +<p class="normal">It will be observed by this that the family of Harsha was of the +Buddhist faith. How, or why, we know not. The very name of his +kingdom, Than-źswar (<i>S'thaneswara</i>, or, The Place of God), is purely +Hindu; nevertheless, this, the last great King of Hindu India, +professed the religion of Gāutama.</p> + +<p class="normal">In fact, in many ways his reign is a poor imitation of that of Asōka. +He did not, however, follow that king's example as a peace prophet, +for he spent nearly thirty-six years out of his forty-two in bloody +warfare. And in all his long career of aggression he met with but one +check. He was unable to push his forces through the narrow defiles of +the Deccan passes, and had to confine himself to being Lord Paramount +of the North. So his empire, though extensive, never touched that of +Asōka; in truth, he did not touch that monarch in any way. +Nevertheless, his rule was excellent, and our Chinese pilgrim is loud +in praise of it. Harsha did not trust to officialdom; personal +supervision was his theory of government, and he was constantly on the +move inspecting, punishing, rewarding. His camp must have been quaint, +for in those days tents were unknown, and the "King's Palace" was +built at each halting-place of boughs and reeds, and solemnly burnt +after it had been used.</p> + +<p class="normal">Like all these Eastern kings whose personalities have survived the +years, he appears to have been somewhat of a genius. Besides being a +most expert penman and draughtsmen, he wrote various learned books, +and in his salad days produced several plays which still remain part +of the literature of India. One, "The Necklace," is quite the +liveliest of all Indian plays, and with appropriate songs and dances +must have been rather like a Savoy comic opera. There is a legend that +Harsha spent so much money on poets, actors, dancers and artists of +all descriptions, that he had eventually to sell the gold and silver +ornaments of the Hindu temples in order to pay for his pleasures; but +this is pure legend. Following the example of Asōka, he established +rest-houses for travellers, hospitals for the sick, magistrates for +the regulation of morals; yet in all this, somehow, the sense of pose +is never absent. Asōka's voice is still to-day a <i>cri du cœur</i>; +Harsha's is--<i>fin de sičcle</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">He could not help it. The curious religious eclecticism of the period +favoured it. His family showed keenly the general tendency to +self-consciousness, and it was written of his father:</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"He offered daily to the Sun a bunch of red lotuses set in a pure +vessel of ruby, and tinged, like his own heart, with the same hue."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Could Oscar Wilde have done more? Strange, indeed, how the cycles of +culture come round and round.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was in his later years that King Harsha became a pronounced +Buddhist. This was largely owing to the preachings and teachings of +Hiuen T'sang, in honour of whom a solemn assemblage was held at Kanaūj +in the fresh spring-time of the year A.D. 644. The scene is admirably +given in Hiuen T'sang's Record, and is well worth a reading. We can +imagine the king carrying in person the canopy upheld over the golden +statuette of Buddha; we can see him "moving along, scattering golden +blossoms, pearls and other rare gems." We catch a glimpse of the +flaming monastery accidentally catching fire, to be extinguished by +the mere sight of the good Harsha. The rush of the mad Hindu fanatic +to slay this "favourer of Buddhists" comes as a startling incident, to +be followed by the immediate exile of five hundred Brahmans for high +treason.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then we learn of the journey to Prāg (Allahabad), where every five +years Harsha, in accordance with ancient custom, had held a +distribution of alms.<a name="div4Ref_02" href="#div4_02"><sup>[2]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">The description of this is even more entrancing, and we can take part +in all the ceremonials of the seventy-five days during which Buddha, +the Sun, and Siva were apparently worshipped indiscriminately. The +proceedings were opened by a magnificent procession of feudatory +princes, and ended with a forty-days' distribution of alms to all and +sundry.</p> + +<p class="normal">After this, Hiuen T'sang writes</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"the royal accumulation of five years was exhausted. Except the +horses, elephants and military accoutrements ... nothing remained.... +The king gave away his gems and goods, his clothing and neck-laces, +ear-rings, bracelets, chaplets, neck jewels, and bright head jewel; +all these he freely gave away without stint."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Was it a real gifting, we wonder, or, after duly worshipping in a +borrowed second-hand suit, did Harsha return to his palace to find his +wardrobe much the same as ever?</p> + +<p class="normal">The hint of unreality in all things provokes the question.</p> + +<p class="normal">King Harsha died in A.D. 648, shortly after his beloved Chinese +pilgrim had departed for his native land. Once again it has to be +written that the "withdrawal of the strong arm plunged the country +into disorder."</p> + +<p class="normal">Arjūna, his minister, seized the throne, but drew down on himself the +wrath of China, and after a brief interval was carried thither as a +prisoner.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, no one appeared to take the reins. In truth, degeneration +had already set in. The people who had posed so long as a nation of +culture, of refinement, who had spent their lives in applauding +poetasters, who had laughed when the court wit said the +commander-in-chief's nose was as long as the king's pedigree, who had +been ready to worship any god if so be the ceremonial pleased their +ęsthetic sense, who had given free pass to their emotions in all ways, +such people were not ready for action. And so once for all the clouds +cover Hindu supremacy.</p> + +<p class="normal">The next four hundred years are the Dark Ages of Indian history. Even +the impressionist outlook of our case of coins is denied us. A +thousand names jostle each other in commonplace confusion. In the +chaos of conflicting claims, any attempt at classification is +hopeless.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_01.12" href="#div1Ref_01.12">CHAOS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 700 TO A.D. 1001</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">These, as has been said, are the Dark Ages of Hindustan. She has ever +been the prey of personality, the willing victim of vitality. From the +year B.C. 620, when her real history begins, until now, that history +has been that of individuals who have either risen from her ranks, or +appeared on her horizon; who have dominated her imagination, and left +her too often at their death confused, helpless, to fall back into the +bewildering anarchy of petty princedoms.</p> + +<p class="normal">The light shines clearly for a few years, reflected by one man's keen +sword, or keener eyes; and then the strong arm falls, the vision +fails, and India sinks back into the Great Apathy concerning things +sublunary which is ever her most salient characteristic.</p> + +<p class="normal">And these three hundred years give us no personality striking enough +to be seen through the mist which settled down like a pall over India +after the death of Harsha. This death, says Mr Vincent Smith, +"loosened the bonds which restrained the disruptive forces always +ready to operate in India, and allowed them to produce their normal +result: a medley of petty states with ever-varying boundaries, and +engaged in unceasing internecine war."</p> + +<p class="normal">No new thing this in the past history of India; it will be no new +thing in the future, for Hindustan will always need some strong, +centralising, magnetic force to hold together its innumerable atoms.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is true that in literature some few names hover doubtfully about +the eighth century, and that round the outskirts of India, in Kashmir, +Nepaul, Madras, Ceylon, we hear every now and again of events which +arrest the attention for a moment. The reassertion of Chinese +influence along the northern borderland, though brief, was noteworthy, +and in Kashmir the names of several kings and one queen stand out from +the general <i>posse</i>. Amongst them that of Lālāditya, who built the +famous Temple of the Sun at Martand, not far from Bāwun in Kashmir. A +magnificent ruin this, standing out sharply against both the rising in +the east and the setting in the west; set high on one of those lofty +<i>karźwas</i>, or tablelands, which are so marked a characteristic of +Kashmir. Fringing the mighty mountains, they stretch like promontories +into the rice and saffron fields, still showing by their precipitous +sides the force of the mighty flood which at some time must have swept +through the valley, lowering its levels, and leaving these landmarks +to tell of its passage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then we have two names--rather painfully reminiscent of comic +opera--Avanti-vārman and Sankāra-vārman, good and bad boys of Kashmir +history. The former remembered for his beneficent schemes, his kindly +patronage; the latter for his ingenuity in squeezing the last drop of +blood-tax from his oppressed subjects, and his aptitude in stealing +temple treasures.</p> + +<p class="normal">Finally, and alas! we have a queen called Didda. The less said of her +the better. It is sufficient to record that she was the Messalina, the +Lucrezia Borgia of Kashmīr for close on half a century.</p> + +<p class="normal">A long time this! Could she by chance have had the secret of youth +like Ninon d'Enclos?</p> + +<p class="normal">Her death, however, brings us to A.D. 1003, and in A.D. 1001 Mahmūd, +so-called of Ghuzni, was to begin his first raid into India, and so +bring a new factor--Islāmism--to its welter of creeds and castes.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here, therefore, ends the Hindu period of Indian history. There +follows on it the Mahomedan age from A.D. 1001 to 1858, when the +English formally took over the entire charge of Government.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now as in this Mahomedan age the new faith of the conquerors had much +to say to the general trend of events, it may be as well to occupy +this empty chapter by a brief exposition of what that faith is, and +how it inspired those constant invasions of India which make the next +few hundred years the record of an almost continuous campaign. Before +doing this, however, let us take still briefer stock of this past +Hindu age.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was an age of growth, of renaissance, of decadence.</p> + +<p class="normal">The natural vigour of the Vedas grew to the more complex, more +artificial energy of the Epics, and out of this arose strangely the +quietism of the Buddhist. War and Peace, Glory and Dishonour, Riches +and Poverty, all faded away to nothingness before the hope of +Nirvana--of escape from Desire. Thus Asōka becomes the dominating +figure, and even after his death the names of Kanīshka and Hūshka and +Harsha faintly echo his fame.</p> + +<p class="normal">But they failed to keep it alive. The Brahmans, rising to power, +thrust out alike the simplicity of the Vedas and the nescience of +Buddha. So came the Renaissance.</p> + +<p class="normal">An epoch marked, as such epochs generally are, by a curious cult of +the emotions in all things. The Indians of the Gūpta empire were +emphatically <i>fin de sičcle</i>, so they did not survive. King Harsha, +Mithraist, Buddhist, Hindu, worshipping his several deities by giving +in alms even "his bright head-jewel," pictures the time. A time when +the court panegyrist Bana, writing of his dying master, can so juggle +with words as to describe his agony thus:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Helplessness had taken him in hand; pain had made him its province, +wasting its domain, lassitude its lair ... broken in utterance, +unhinged in mind, tortured in body, waning in life, babbling in +speech, ceaseless in sighs."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Of a truth, there is no wonder that the Indian world also had come to +"the tip of death's tongue," to "the portal of the Long Sleep."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was becoming neurotic, hyper-ęstheticised. It needed a rest and a +rude awakening.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mahomedanism was to give it the latter, and the founder of this faith +had been born at Mecca on the 10th November A.D. 570. By a curious +coincidence, the date on which he began his teaching and that of King +Harsha's coronation are very nearly synchronous.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mahomed was an Arab, but was in every way unlike his race. A +posthumous son, he had "inherited from his mother a delicate and +extremely impressionable constitution, and an exaggerated +sensibility." He was melancholy, silent, fond of desert places, +solitude, and dreamy meditations.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nature appealed to him. The sight of the setting sun inspired him with +vague restlessness, and he would weep and sob like a child at slight +provocation.</p> + +<p class="normal">His religious excitability was of the most acute character, and passed +at times into attacks of epilepsy.</p> + +<p class="normal">A true revivalist this! Small wonder if, having in his mountain +solitude seen, or thought he had seen, a vision of the Great Unity +which men call God, he should have claimed inspiration, and claimed it +militantly. The time was ripe for a revival. Religion was being +discussed on all sides, and Mahomed having, it is said, gained nine +converts by his first vision, set to work to gain more. Ere he died +all Arabia frankly followed his teaching. This, however, was not the +result of what Asōka advocated as the only legitimate method of a +mission, for "example, tolerance, gentleness and moderation in speech" +have never found much place in Mahomedan proselytising; the rather +fire and sword, a sharp blade held to the throat that hastily gabbles +the Kalma or Mahomedan creed.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet it is a faith which has held, which still holds, its own, and +which was to be responsible for much in the future history of India. +Like all faiths, however, it has gone far beyond its founder, and it +is doubtful for how much of the Mahomedanism of to-day the seer-prophet +of A.D. 610 is really responsible. Within six years of his death his +successors had carried their version of the dreamer's thoughts to Syria +and Egypt. Ere Harsha died the whole of Persia as far east as Herāt was +added to the Arab empire. Thence in the slow centuries it drifted +towards India; for the lust of personal and temporal power amongst the +leaders checked its progress much. The great dispute as to the rightful +succession to the Prophet provoked almost instant schism; while the +assassination of Ali, the fourth <i>kalifa</i>--he was son-in-law of the +Prophet--and the subsequent murders of his two sons Hussan and Hussain, +was productive of a strife which lasts to the present day between the +rival sects of <i>Shīahs</i> and <i>Sunnis</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, while the Dark Age of India drifted on, the Awakener was creeping +closer to the border, and in A.D. 976 one Sabaktagīn, a Turkish slave +who had married the Governor of Khorassan's daughter, began the +invasion by sweeping the western bank of the Indus, and retiring laden +with loot.</p> + +<p class="center">Map: India to A.D. 1000</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.0" href="#div1Ref_02.0">PART II</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>THE MIDDLE AGE</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.1" href="#div1Ref_02.1">CAMPAIGNS OF THE CRESCENT</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1001 TO A.D. 1200</h3> + +<h3>Part I</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">For close on these two hundred years the northern plains of India were +a battle-field. Winter after winter, as the sun's power declined, and +the curious second spring began of cold-weather crops and fruits and +flowers, which to this day make the Punjāb seasons hover between the +tropics and the temperates, there debouched from the snow-clad hills, +all along the western and north-western frontier of India, long files +of wild-looking horsemen, followed by camels, by foot soldiers; and +somewhere, in their midst always, was the green flag of the Prophet, +with its over-riding, overbearing crescent, telling its tale of rising +power; the crescent which is an apt symbol of a fighting faith.</p> + +<p class="normal">What tempted these hardy northern folk into the wide plains of India? +Was it, indeed, zeal for Souls? Hardly. By the way, as a sort of salve +to conscience, such zeal was good to break an idol or two, or an +idolater's head; but <i>au fond</i>, the money bags outweighed all other +reasons for these recurring raids.</p> + +<p class="normal">For during those three centuries of Chaos, during the dark ages of +degeneracy, India had grown rich-inordinately rich. Overlaid, and yet +again overlaid with finikin fanciful ornamentations, almost incoherent +in their diffuse discursive details, the temples were perfect mines of +wealth; in some cases of useless, buried treasure, since in the +gradual downfall OF the Hindu nation at large, the privileged class of +Brahmans had closed their grip even on the power of the princes. The +only thing which remained comparatively untouched, as in India it has +ever remained untouched, being the slow-moving mass of the peasantry, +who, willing bondsmen to Mother Earth, took no heed of anything save +famine.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first swoop for plunder was made by one Mahmūd, King of Ghuzni, in +November A.D. 1001. He must have entered India by the Khyber Pass, for +on the 27th of that month, near Peshawar, he met and defeated King +Jaipal of Lahōre. One can imagine the contest. The long-nosed, +long-curled, long-bearded Ghuznivites, rough and ready in their +skin-coats, their burly bosoms aflame with covetousness for creed and +gold, their guttural throats resounding with the war-cry of Islam: +"Kill! Kill! For the Faith!" And on the other side, the clean-shaven, +oiled, scented Hindus lax with long centuries of ease, yet still full +of pride, full of high courage.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a foregone conclusion, despite the mailed elephants and the +elaborate old War Office dispositions and compositions of corps and +<i>cadre</i> which had come down, we may be sure, from Chāndra-gūpta's +days. For once the East gets hold of a thing, it sticks to it.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was new blood against old--a new faith against one so ancient +that it had almost been forgotten. Almost, not quite, as the story +shows of what Jaipal did, when the Mahomedan conqueror, driven back to +the cool by the approach of a new summer, carelessly gave the royal +prisoner--whom he had dragged about with him in his victorious raid--a +contemptuous freedom. But ere this time came, Mahmūd of Ghuzni had to +set one of his many marks--he invaded India no less than twelve +times--as far south in the Punjāb as Bhattinda, a town in the Patiala +State. A marvellous place this even nowadays, set as it is amid +deserts of sand, patched with green grain-fields. The low, +insignificant city seems lost in the old fort; a perfect mountain of a +place, visible for miles and miles, a rose-red mass of sun-scorched +bricks with white-edged, crenulated parapets so quaintly stern, so +still more quaintly fragile-looking in its suggestion of some huge +iced cake.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here, doubtless, in the half-desert land, it was the sound of the +<i>koėl</i> knelling his sonorous note in the <i>kikar</i> trees, or the sudden +transformation, mayhap, of the uncanny, witchlike, gnarled thickets of +the low <i>dhāk</i> trees into coral-pink stretches, showing like sunset +clouds on the gold of the sun-saturate sands, that warned Mahmūd he +must be up and away from the oncoming of the heat.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he passed up the Peshawar valley, laden to the last limit with +loot, the peach gardens must have been a-blossom; and, being a man +with the odd strain of imagination in him, which all have had who have +left their mark on India, he must, despite his plunder, have regretted +leaving so much beauty behind him.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he left tragedy also; for Jaipal, the beaten king, went straight +back to Lahōre, and having formally proclaimed himself unworthy to +reign after having suffered defeat at the hands of the unclean, +mounted a funeral pyre, and burnt himself in sight of his people, +leaving his son Anang-pal to reign in his stead.</p> + +<p class="normal">Truly Indian history is provocative of picture-making. We have one +here which would tax most painters' power. Yet the look which must +have been on the proud king's face, as, remembering his name, "The +Guardian of Victory," he defied defeat, defied disgrace, by defying +death, is worth recording, worth recalling in these later days when +the primitive virtues are somewhat overclouded.</p> + +<p class="normal">So there was peace for three years. Apparently the plunder was +sufficient unto the day until 1004, when Mahmūd again appeared with +the return of the wild birds from Lake Mansarawar, on the Siberian +Steppes; but this was more a primitive campaign against a tributary +chief on the western side of the Indus, than a real raid.</p> + +<p class="normal">The following year, however, things were organised on a larger scale, +and he was opposed by Anang-pal, who met no better fate than his +father, and fled incontinently to Kashmir. But Mahmūd's progress +southward was checked by the news of revolt in Ghuzni, and he had to +return in order to count scores with his pet converted Hindu, one Sek +Pal, who, left governor, had resumed his Brahmanical thread, and was +in full swing of conspiracy with his fellows in India.</p> + +<p class="normal">It took the burly Mahomedan short time to settle his shrift, and send +him to cells for life, so that the next fall of the leaf found Mahmūd +ready for his fourth invasion of India.</p> + +<p class="normal">A real invasion, a real resistance this time. For the Rajas of Lahōre, +Delhi, Gwalīor, Ujjain, Ajmir, Kanauj, had joined confederacy to rout +the Unclean Stranger. It was a holy war: women sold their jewels, and +men sent their hoards to furnish forth its munitions.</p> + +<p class="normal">To no purpose. It is true that at the outset Mahmūd suffered a +reverse. The Ghakkars, Scythic warrior race of the Salt Range, laughed +at the invader's entrenched camp amongst their bare hills, bore down +on it, overpowered his outposts, and accounted for some four thousand +of his army.</p> + +<p class="normal">But even that failed to stop these big, burly men, bent on plunder, +bent on proselytising at the sword's point. The result of this raid +was the destruction of Nagar-kōt, ancient town hard by the temple +called Jawāla-Mukhi, or Flame's Mouth, where, since the beginning of +Time, the jets of combustible gas issuing from the ground amongst the +dark shadows of the sheltering spire have burnt bravely as emanations, +manifestations, of the Goddess Dūrga, that Fury of Womanhood. +According to native historians Mahmūd's returning army must have been +a perfect caravan, for it carried with it about seven thousand pounds +weight of gold coins, six thousand of gold and silver plate, fifteen +hundred of golden ingots, a hundred and twenty-eight thousand of +unwrought silver, and more than a hundred and fifty pounds weight of +pearls, corals, diamonds and rubies.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the combustible gas must have remained to be re-lit in honour of +Mai Dūrga, and so have remained to help the memories of the +iconoclasts! A fine trade this, that of smashing golden idols in the +name of the Prophet, and carrying the bits and the diamond and +sapphire eyes away in the name of Mammon!</p> + +<p class="normal">It found its apotheosis in the twelfth and last expedition to India, +when Mahmūd directed all his energy towards Som-nāth, a temple +renowned throughout India, set proudly on a peninsula in Guzerāt, +surrounded on all sides save one by the sea.</p> + +<p class="normal">The intervening seven excursions were all marked by noteworthy +incidents, all full to the brim of reckless romance, and each left +India the more helpless, the more ready to let the invader pass to +fresh, more southern conquests. Indeed, a certain suzerainty was +acknowledged by many Hindu rajahs, and on one occasion Mahmūd's march +was ostensibly to the relief of a feudatory.</p> + +<p class="normal">But it would take too long to follow in detail events which were in +general so alike. Swift marching, utter unpreparedness, almost pitiful +submission, and then "a halt at some sacred city, during which the +town was plundered, the idols broken, the temples profaned, and the +whole fired." Yet, as the ravaging raids touched Rājputana, resistance +became more spirited. At one place the garrison rushed out through the +breaches in true Kshatriya fashion to do or die, whilst the women and +children burned themselves in silence in their houses. Not one, we are +told, survived. This is the first mention in history of the <i>johār</i>, +or great war-sacrifice of the Rājputs. It is not the last.</p> + +<p class="normal">So let us turn to Som- or Soma-nāth. Now "Soma" is the Moon-God, +"Nāth" is Lord. We have, therefore, a simple Temple to the Moon by +name; but in reality Som-nāth, or Som-eswara, is one of the forms of +the God Siva--his self-existing form.</p> + +<p class="normal">The crescent moon on the forehead with which the God always is +portrayed alludes to this, and to the intimate relation between the +phases of the planet as a measure of time, and the upright stone or +lingam, which as all know is worshipped as a symbol of material Life. +It is customary to condemn this nature or phallic worship in India as +unclean, almost obscene; it is not so, anyhow, in spirit.</p> + +<p class="normal">Som-nāth, then, was a shrine of Life. The idol in its holy of holies +bore no semblance of created beings. It was the symbol of Creation +itself, a tall, rounded, black monolith of stone, set six feet in the +ground, rising ten feet above it. One of the twelve lingams believed +by the Hindus to have descended from Heaven, it was unexpressedly +holy, marvellously mighty in miracle. Small wonder, then, with a +priesthood of clutching hands, that Som-nāth stood renowned as the +richest shrine in India.</p> + +<p class="normal">It must have been fine to see this temple, with its fifty-six pillars +set in rows, all carven and inlaid with gems, its gilded spires above +the dark, unlit sanctuary, where the great bell swung on a solid gold +chain which weighed some fifteen hundred pounds.</p> + +<p class="normal">Steps led down from it to the sea--that sea which was a miracle in +itself to the ignorant, up-country pilgrim, accustomed to parched +deserts, unwitting of such natural phenomena as tides; for did it not +bow, did it not rise and fall incessantly in constant adoration of the +Great Lord of Life? So, at any rate, said the priests, and the pilgrim +went back to his parched desert with empty pockets, to dream for the +rest of his life of the solemn, ceaseless adoration of the sea. Aye! +even when it raged black with monsoon winds, and spat white with fury +at the temple walls, yet still in subservience, still as a slave.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was not a place to be yielded up of the Brahmans without a +struggle. So we read of a three days' battle, of scaling ladders, +of heavy reinforcements of the "idolatrous garrison," of an +"idolatrous"--surely there is no better word in the language with +which to fight a foe!--array in the field which withdrew Mahmūd's +personal attention. And then there is the crucial moment: Mahomedan +troops beginning to waver, their leader leaping from his horse, +prostrating himself on the ground before the Lord God of Battles, and +imploring aid for the True Faith.</p> + +<p class="normal">To speak trivially, it did the trick. One wild, cheering rush, and +"the Moslems broke through the enemy's line and laid five thousand +Hindus dead at their feet; so the rout became general." So general +that the garrison of four thousand, abandoning the defence, escaped by +the sea in boats.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing left, then, but to enter the temple in pomp. A goodly +procession of warriors! Mahmūd, his sons, his nobles; all, no doubt, +spitting profusely, while keeping their weather eye open on the gems +starring the heavy, carven pillars. Darker and darker! The pillars +close in. No light now, save,--high up in the shadows--one pendent +jewelled lamp, reflected in the glistening stones, showing dimly the +huge, massive golden chain, the swinging bronze bell.</p> + +<p class="normal">And what more? Only a roughly-polished, black marble, upright boulder, +hung round, doubtless, as such lingams are to-day, with faded +<i>champak</i> chaplets and marigold wreaths.</p> + +<p class="normal">Was it disappointment which made Mahmūd strike at it with his mace? +One could imagine it so, but that he had had experience of the idle +objects of which men make idols. Perhaps the backward swing of the +mace-head hit the bell and sent its last hollow boom of appeal--which +so many worshippers had raised--straight to the ears of the Lord of +Life.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is a rare picture this, of one faith defying another. It does not +need the amplification which legend brings to it, in order to grip +attention.</p> + +<p class="normal">That legend runs thus. When Mahmūd had ordered two fragments to be +hewn off the idol, one for the threshold of the mosque at Ghuini, +another for the threshold of his own palace, some of the two thousand +priests of Baal in attendance offered untold gold to arrest further +destruction; an offer viewed with favour by the king's sons, and the +attendant nobles. Smashing one idol out of millions was but mildly +meritorious, whereas the money thus gained might be given to the poor +But the Judas argument failed.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The King"--to quote the text--"acknowledged there might be reason in +what they said, but replied that if he should consent to such a +measure his name would be handed down to posterity as 'Mahmūd the +idol-seller,' and he wished it to be 'Mahmūd the idol-breaker.' He +therefore directed the troops to proceed in their work. The next blow +broke open the belly of Som-nāth, which was hollow, and discovered a +quantity of diamonds, rubies, and pearls of much greater value than +the amount which the Brahmans had offered."<</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Very dramatic, no doubt, but, unfortunately, none of these lingams are +hollow. It is possible, however, that the story found base in the +discovery of sacred vaults.</p> + +<p class="normal">Be that as it may, Mahmūd, "having secured the wealth of Som-nāth," +apparently fell in love with the country round about it; so much so +that he proposed remaining there and sending his son Masūd back to +reign at Ghuzni. It needed pressure on the part of his officers to +induce him to stir; but after some difficulty in securing a Governor +for Guzerāt, he started to march direct towards Ghuzni by way of the +desert.</p> + +<p class="normal">This same difficulty gives us another picture.</p> + +<p class="normal">Apparently there were two cousins Dabeshleems--fateful name, of what +nationality or family absolutely uncertain--one a hermit, the other a +rajah. The hermit was made governor, the prince became pretender.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mahmūd, ere leaving, reduced the latter, and handed him over prisoner +to the former. To this the hermit objected. But one course, he said, +was open to him, since by the tenets of his religion no king could be +put to death; he must build a vault under his throne and place the +unfortunate gentleman therein for life. This would be inconvenient, +therefore he prayed the conqueror to carry the rajah back with him to +Ghuzni.</p> + +<p class="normal">So Mahmūd, his army, and his vast loot, set out for the desert, set +their faces for the last time away from the wealth and idolatry of +India. Set them, as it turned out, very nearly away from all wealth, +all faiths; for in the desert the whole army was misled for three days +and three nights by a Hindu guide, "so that many of the troops died +raving mad from the intolerable heat and thirst." A Hindu guide who, +under torture, confessed exultantly that he was one of the priests of +Som-nāth, and so died, satisfied with his measure of revenge.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mahmūd, however, had only to prostrate himself once more, and lo! a +guiding meteor, and after a long night-march, water! Water, even +though it must have been the Great Salt Lake.</p> + +<p class="normal">After this, time passed in comparative uneventfulness, until on the +23rd of April A.D. 1030, in the sixty-third year of his age, "this +great conqueror gave up his body to death and his soul to immortality +amid the tears of his people."</p> + +<p class="normal">One of his last recorded remarks was his exclamation when, in answer +to his enquiry, the Lord High Treasurer told him that before becoming +extinct, the last dynasty had accumulated seven pounds weight of +precious stones. "Thanks be to Thee, All-Powerful Being!" cried +Mahmūd, prostrating himself yet once more. "Thou hast enabled me to +collect more than a hundred pounds."</p> + +<p class="normal">What did he do with all the vast wealth which in the course of his +missionary work he managed to annex? We know that he built a +magnificent mosque at Ghuzni called "The Celestial Bride"; but that +could not have absorbed it all.</p> + +<p class="normal">Indeed we know much of it was still in the treasury; for two days +before his death he ordered all the gold and the caskets of precious +stones to be brought before him, and "having seen them, he wept with +regret, ordering them to be carried back, without exhibiting his +generosity at that time to anybody."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gold had evidently gripped at the heart and soul of this middle-aged, +well-shaped, ugly man, who was strongly pitted with the smallpox. His +was not a lovable personality in any way. Gifted with a touch of +genius, gifted above all things with that marvellous vitality which is +always as magic to the Indian, he was just, curiously callous, and +absolutely sceptical.</p> + +<p class="normal">He openly doubted if he was really the son of his father, and scoffed +at the idea of a future state. Certainly annihilation would be a +kinder fate than the one which the poet Sa'adi gives to him in the +Gulistan, and which may be paraphrased thus:--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"The King of Khurasan saw in a dream<br> +Mahmūd the son of Subaktigeen,<br> +Dead for this hundred years or more,<br> +His head and his heart, his arms and his thighs<br> +Dissolved to dust, and only his eyes<br> +Moved in their sockets and saw<br> +His gold, his empire, everything<br> +He loved in the hands of another King."</p> +</div> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.2" href="#div1Ref_02.2">CAMPAIGNS OF THE CRESCENT</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1001 TO A.D. 1200</h3> + +<h3>Part II</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The Great Raider Mahmūd being now put past, the Campaigns of the +Crescent continued in feebler fashion. In truth, for a few years +Mahomed and Masūd, the dead king's twin sons, were occupied in +settling the succession. Mahomed, the elder by some hours, mild, +tractable, was his father's nominee and on the spot; Masūd, on the +other hand, was a great warrior, bold, independent, and promptly +claimed as his right those provinces which he had won by his sword. So +they came to blows.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the outset Mahomed's piety failed him; for having decorously halted +his host during the whole of the Month of Fasting--Ramzān--Masūd +thereinafter fell upon him, armed at all points, defeated him, and put +out his eyes after he had reigned a short five months.</p> + +<p class="normal">Masūd, the new king, appears to have been a man of considerable +character and grim humour, for one of the first acts of his reign was +in cold blood to hang an unfortunate gentleman who once, long years +before, when the question of succession was the subject of +conversation, had been heard to say crudely that if Masūd ever came to +the throne he would suffer himself to be hanged.</p> + +<p class="normal">So he suffered.</p> + +<p class="normal">But in truth, as we read the story of this Ghuznevide dynasty, and of +the Ghori dynasty which followed it, we rub our eyes and wonder how +many centuries we have gone back. For these big, bold, burly men are +fairly savages in comparison with the cultured Hindu whom they +harried. And Masūd, though by repute an affable gentleman, generous +even to prodigality, and of uncommon personal strength and courage, +was as turbulent as a king as he had been as a prince.</p> + +<p class="normal">His favourite maxim was, "Dominion follows the longest sword." His was +not only long, but heavy. No other man of his court could wield it, +and an arrow from his bow would pierce the hide of a mailed elephant. +During the ten years of his reign he entered India with an army three +times. But the first of these raids was followed, A.D. 1033, by a +terrible famine, a still more terrible outbreak of plague, from which +in one month, more than forty thousand people died in Isphahān alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was in its turn followed by a severe defeat of the Ghuznevide +arms by the Turkomāns on the north-east frontier; for it must not be +forgotten that though these dynasties of which we are treating are +counted as of India, they have in reality but little to do with it. +They were but titular suzerains, and very often not that, of the more +northerly provinces of Hindustan.</p> + +<p class="normal">Apparently as a salve to resentment and shame at this defeat, Masūd +began to build a fine palace at Ghuzni, over which he must have spent +some of his father's treasures, for a golden chain and a golden crown +of incredible weight appears as a canopy in the Hall of Audience.</p> + +<p class="normal">It must have been this depletion of the royal treasures which led to +his last and most successful campaign against the kingdom of Sivalak, +where he is said to have found enormous wealth; and so on to Sōnput, +ancient Hindu shrine and city to the north of Delhi, whence he made a +Mahmūd-like return laden with loot.</p> + +<p class="normal">A quaint old city is Sōnput, and a curious authenticity of its hoar +antiquity turned up not long ago, when some cultivators were digging a +well. This was a small clay image of the Sun-God, a deity to which +there is now in India but one single shrine.</p> + +<p class="normal">But here the star of Masūd's fortune touched its zenith. The +Turkomāns, encouraged by success, renewed operations, finally forcing +the king to abandon his border principalities and seek time in India +to recover strength for renewed efforts.</p> + +<p class="normal">Urged, perhaps, by kindness, perhaps by fear, he ordered his blinded +and imprisoned brother to be brought to Lahōre, with the unforeseen +result that his household troops suddenly revolted, and hoisting the +blind prisoner on to their shoulders, incontinently proclaimed him +once more King.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was all over in a moment; and Masūd, whose life was spared by the +mild Mahomed, found himself forced to beg a subsistence of his +brother. His pride, however, would not stand the pitiful dole of £5 +which was sent him, so he promptly borrowed £10 from his servants and +bestowed them as <i>bakshish</i> on the messenger who had brought, and who +took back, the shabby gift.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not a very tactful way of beginning what was practically an +imprisonment. But it was not to last long, for Prince Ahmed, Mahomed's +son, in whose favour the blind king resigned the crown, would have no +half-measures, and prevented further complications by burying Masūd +alive.</p> + +<p class="normal">The historian explains that the prince was suspected of a "strong +taint of insanity."</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth, homicidal mania appears to set in generally, for the +remaining records of the Ghuznevide dynasty are as irrational, as +murderous as transpontine melodrama.</p> + +<p class="normal">Prince Ahmed was in due time murdered by the murdered Masūd's son, who +reigned long enough to see his Indian empire almost reft from him; +since with violent internal dissensions racking the body politic, +there was naturally no time for foreign affairs. So in the year A.D. +1048 the Rājah of Delhi, taking counsel with his compeers of Ajmīr, +Kanauj, Kalungar, Gwalīor, once more made themselves practically +independent of the Crescent. Only Lahōre remained Mahomedan, repelling +a siege of seven months, and after actual street fighting, succeeded +in driving off the investing force.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus in a History of India there is small need to note that Masūd II., +a child of four years, succeeding his father, reigned six days; or +that Hussan Ali and Absal Raschīd between them numbered but four +years.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the general turmoil, wonder comes faintly how Ibrahīm--a worthy +soul who, as the historian says, "begot 36 sons and 40 daughters by +various women"--ever managed to rule for forty-two years. Apparently +by a peaceful policy; but, as the same historian goes on to say that +this monarch "was remarkable for morality and devotion, having in his +youth succeeded in subduing his sensual appetites," one hesitates +before accepting either the narrator's facts or his deductions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Finally, after the Ghuznevide dynasty had touched a bakers' dozen, +came one Byrām, who was destined to lose the throne for his race by +two useless and brutal murders. The first was the public execution of +his son-in-law, an apparently harmless prince of Ghor--as the country +of the Afghāns was then called. The reason of this act is obscure, +though it seems probable he was suspected of high treason. Be that as +it may, Kutb-din Ghori-Afghān was an ill man to assail, for he had two +big brothers. The first of these, Saīf-ud-din, had no little success +in his immediate campaign of revenge. Byrām fled, Ghuzni was occupied; +but finally, by a stratagem, the victor fell into his enemy's hands, +whereupon the latter doubled and excelled his former crime, by +blackening his captive's face, and sending him face tailwards round +the town on a bullock as a preliminary to torturing him, beheading +him, and impaling his grand <i>wazīr</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Allah-ud-din, the last brother, then took up the gloves, after defying +Byrām in these words: "Your threats are as impotent as your arms! It +is no new thing for kings to make war on their neighbours, but +barbarity like yours is unknown to the brave, and such as none have +heard of being exercised towards princes. You may therefore be assured +that God has forsaken you, and has ordained that I, Allah-ud-din, +should be the instrument of that just revenge denounced against you +for putting to death the representative of the independent and very +ancient family of Ghor."</p> + +<p class="normal">A quaint touch! that of the "very ancient," showing the value set on +blue blood in those days.</p> + +<p class="normal">Allah-ud-din proved a true prophet. In the resulting battle the two +"Khurmiels," gigantic brothers-in-arms, the Gog and Magog of those +days, brought victory to his arms by the ripping up of elephants' +bellies and other prodigies of strength and valour. Byrām fled, to die +miserably in India overwhelmed by misfortunes, while the conqueror +earned for himself the title of "The Burner of Worlds," by the deadly +revenge he took on Ghuzni and its inhabitants.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The massacre," writes the historian, "continued for the space of +seven days, in which time pity seems to have fled from the earth, and +the fiery spirits of demons to actuate men. A number of the most +venerable and learned persons were, to adorn the triumph, carried in +chains to Ferōz-Kuh, where the victor ordered their throats to be cut, +and tempering earth with their blood, used it to plaster the walls of +his native city."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Allah-ud-din thus ended the House of Ghuzni; for though two +descendants of Byrām's kept a feeble hold on power from Lahōre during +the space of a few years, he was the last real king. His actions are +strangely at variance with his character, for he is said to have "been +blest with a noble and generous disposition!"</p> + +<p class="normal">We hear also of an uncommon thirst for knowledge. But in truth these +wild, revengeful Mahomedans of the borderland were then very much as +they are to-day; that is to say, proud, lawless, quick to respond in +kind to good or evil, above all, possessed by a perfect devil of +revenge--the cruel revenge which is ever associated with sensuality.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, naturally, Allah-ud-din, after plastering the city walls with +blood, spent the gold he had taken from Ghuzni on pleasure, until he +died four years later, in A.D. 1156.</p> + +<p class="normal">His son only reigned for a year. A fine fellow this, apparently, both +physically and mentally, if we are to believe what is said of him; +but, as usual, passionate, revengeful. So, seeing a chief who had +fought against and defeated his father wearing some of the family +jewels which had been stripped from his own wife after that occasion, +he out with his sword and slew the offender forthwith. Whereupon the +dead man's brother, choosing a convenient moment in the middle of a +subsequent battle, out with his lance and ran the young king through +the body.</p> + +<p class="normal">Scarcely any of them, however, died in their beds. The procession of +murders and sudden deaths becomes indeed monotonous, but was now to be +broken for a while by the advent of another of those strong men who +every now and again make, as it were, a landmark in Indian history.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was Shahāb-ud-din who, counting the time during which he was his +elder brother's deputy, was to reign for close on fifty years, and +once more weld the principalities of India proper into one solid +empire.</p> + +<p class="normal">A strange history is this of the devoted brothers, who appear from +their babyhood to have gone through life hand in hand in fortune and +misfortune; but the house of Ghori seems to have been remarkable alike +for its family feuds and for its family affection. The latter it was, +be it remembered, which led to the establishment of the dynasty. +Another peculiarity was their sonlessness. Ghiāss-ud-din, the elder +brother, succeeded to the throne by virtue of cousinship only, and as +neither he nor Shahāb-ud-din had sons, it passed at their death to a +nephew.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before that, however, India had to be reconquered, and for this +purpose the Campaigns of the Crescent had to recommence.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first was in A.D. 1176, when Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din--for ere +commencing his task he added the name of the Prophet to his own, which +signifies the "Meteor of Faith"--swept through the low-lying lands +about the junction of the Punjāb rivers with the Indus. He must have +had in his mind's eye the exploits of Mahmūd nigh on two hundred years +before. Perhaps it was this memory which made him choose what is +practically the same name; on the other hand, he may only have been +seeking an excuse for plunder, like the dead conqueror had done in the +religious enthusiasm roused by the name of the prophet.</p> + +<p class="normal">Be that as it may, in reading the account of his exploits, one is +tempted to rub one's eyes and ask, "Is this Mahmūd of Ghuzni, or +Mahomed of Ghori?" So curiously alike are they in every way.</p> + +<p class="normal">He did not, however, lead quite so many raids: on the other hand, he +was more permanently successful in them, despite far more organised +resistance than that which had opposed his great predecessor.</p> + +<p class="normal">In fact, it is in this resistance that the real interest of the period +lies, so it may be as well to make a complete <i>volte face</i>, and having +viewed the introduction of Islām to India through Mahomedan eyes, look +at these final Campaigns of the Crescent from the Rājput side.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before passing on to this, let us picture the man who, for close on +half a century, found his sole occupation in a soldier's life. Here we +have no added reputation of the arts or sciences. We are told he was a +great king and a just man, but he appears to have been quite +unscrupulous towards every one excepting his brother. Many of his +successes were due to treachery, and when he died--an old man, +assassinated in his sleep by those same wild tribes of the Punjāb Salt +Range who inflicted so much damage on Mahmūd of Ghuzni--he was the +richest king in the world. "The treasure," says the chronicler, "which +this prince left behind him is almost incredible. In diamonds alone of +various sizes he had five hundreds <i>muns</i> (at the lowest computation +about 1,000 lbs.), the result of his nine expeditions into Hindustan, +from each of which, excepting two occasions, he returned laden with +wealth."</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet India was still rich!</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.3" href="#div1Ref_02.3">THE RAJPUT RESISTANCE</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1176 TO A.D. 1206</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">More than a hundred years had passed since Mahmūd of Ghuzni's strong +grip had relaxed on India. During that time she had reverted, as she +always will revert, to those ideals of life which suit her dreamy yet +fireful temperament.</p> + +<p class="normal">The fierce on-sweep of the Moslem scimitar had mowed down the tangle +of petty chiefships which had grown up in the Dark Ages, and so left +room for the spreading of four great kingdoms, Delhi, Ajmīr, Kanauj, +Guzerāt, which were all held by the representatives of certain Rājput +clans.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now the Rājputs are born soldiers. They represent the second, or +military (called the Kshatriya) caste of ancient Vedic time; they have +provided India for long centuries with her warriors, her nobles, her +monarchs. Rāj-pūtra means, in fact, a king's son. Their history is a +magnificent one. They have faced and fought every enemy which Fate has +brought to their native land in the past; they are ready still to face +and fight whatever may come to it in the future. They are the Samurai +of India, each clan led by a hereditary leader, and forming a separate +community, bound by the strongest ties of military devotion and pride +of race.</p> + +<p class="normal">They claim to have sprung from the sun, or from the moon, or from the +fire; and between them lies ever the faint jealousy of a different +origin. Thus the Tomāras or Tuars of Delhi claimed the kinship of +flame with the Chauhans of Ajmīr, while the Rāthors of Kanauj stood by +their distant sun-cousins of Guzerāt. For to this day the pride of +ancestry is the Rājput's most cherished inheritance. Often he has +little else; but he stills scorns to turn his lance into a +plough-share.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the rest there is no people in the world whose history yields more +pure romance. The chivalry of Europe seems strained and artificial +beside the stern, straight-forward code of honour by which the early +Rājputs regulated their dealings alike with women and with other men; +and no roundel of troubadour or challenge of knight-errant could have +roused more enthusiasm than did the wild love and war songs of the +Rājput bards.</p> + +<p class="normal">These, then, were the people whose resistance Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din of +Ghor had to overcome, when, after an ineffectual attempt to reach the +heart of India through the sandy deserts of Multān and Guzerāt, and a +further swoop on the country about Lahōre (in which, by treacherous +stratagem, he seized on the persons who still prolonged the dying +Ghuznevide dynasty and sent them northwards to imprisonment and +death), he finally marched on Hindustan proper in the year A.D. 1191.</p> + +<p class="normal">And here once more the pink-and-white mass of the huge fort of +Bhatīnda heaves into view as our <i>mise en scene</i>. The flowers of the +<i>dākh</i> trees had long since been picked as dye-stuff by the village +women, when once more the hosts of hardy horsemen swept over the +horizon. For, as ever, the <i>Toovkhs</i>--as the peasantry learned to call +these wild raiders--came with the flights of winter birds. The fort +gave in at once to the fierce attack of the Mahomedans. The filagree +sugar-work on its battlements seems, indeed, to have infected the mass +of stone beneath it with frailty, for despite its apparent strength, +Bhatīnda has been taken and retaken ofttimes. So, leaving a garrison +there, Shahāb-ud-din commenced his return; for the hardy horsemen +always seem to have been more afraid of melting in the heat of India +than meeting the onslaught of her armies.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ere he had gone far, however, news of recall came to him. The great +Prithvi-Rāj, conjoint King of Delhi and Ajmīr, with many other Indian +princes, two hundred thousand horse, and three thousand elephants was +behind him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here was challenge indeed! The heat was forgotten; he faced round to +the relief of the garrison he had left, and boldly passing Bhatīnda, +paused to give battle on that wild plain between Karnāl and Delhi, +where half the struggles for the possession of India have been fought +to the bitter end.</p> + +<p class="normal">He must have awaited his enemy with anxiety, for the fame of +Prithvi-Rāj had spread even amongst Mahomedans. To the Hindus he was a +demi-god: the personification of every Rājput virtue, the pattern of +all Rājput manhood. A bold lover, a recklessly brave knight-errant, +the story of his exploits, as told by his bard, Chand, fills many +books, and is still listened to of winter nights beside the smoke-palled +fires by half the men and women in India. It will be sufficient to +recount one here to show what manner of man he was, and how he comes +still to hold the admiration, not only of the romantic Rājputs, but of +all India.</p> + +<p class="normal">Prithvi-Rāj, then, was of the Chauhan, Fire-born race. Rājah of Ajmīr +only, by father-to-son descent, the kingship of Delhi had come to him +by the death of his maternal grandfather without male issue.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the Rājah of Kanauj was also grandson, and elder grandson, of the +dead king by another daughter. Hence arose envy and strife between the +cousins; the more so, because the sixteen-year-old Prithvi carried all +things before him with an <i>élan</i> not to be imitated. It was all very +well to match the young hero's Great Horse sacrifice (the last one, it +is believed, in India), with which he claimed empire, by instituting a +Sai-nair, accompanied by a Self-choice (also the last), for one's only +daughter, the Princess Sunjogāta of Kanauj. Now the ceremony of +Sai-nair is a most august one. It is virtually a claim for universal +supremacy, for divine honour. Every one concerned in it, even the +scullion in the kitchen who helps to cook the feast, must be of royal +blood. So all India's princes were bidden to take their part in it, +excepting Prithvi-Rāj, and in his place an image of clay was made and +set to the lowest job--that of door-keeper.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus the Rājah of Kanauj strove to save his dignity, for the rites +were equally old, equally honourable; but what man, even though he +were king, could calculate on what a young girl, just blossoming into +womanhood, would say or do?</p> + +<p class="normal">As a matter of fact, the young Princess Fortunata (a literal +translation of the name) did a very distressing thing. No doubt +as she entered the splendid arena (decorated, possibly, in imitation +of the celebrated one, described in the Māhābhārata as the scene +of Drāupadi's Swayāmbara), where all the assembled princes of +India--excepting, of course, her wicked cousin, Prince Prithvi--were +eagerly awaiting her choice, she looked very sweet and innocent--quite +entrancing, briefly, in her fresh young beauty, about which every one +was raving; but who would have dreamed of the mischief which was +lurking behind the eyes down-dropped as she stood hesitating, the +marriage garland--which every prince longed to feel, even as a yoke, +round his neck--in her dainty little hands.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then? Hey presto! Her dainty little feet sped determinedly over +the Court to the door, and there was the garland, not round any living +man, but be-decorating the misshapen image of clay which Jai-Chand, +her father, had caused to be put in absent Prithvi's place!</p> + +<p class="normal">There must have been wigs on the green in the women's apartments that +fateful day, with papa cursing and mamma upbraiding, while all the +little culprit's female relations held up pious hands of horror. But +the deed was done, and there in broad daylight, on the wings of fierce +love and pride, awakened by the tale of that maiden garland on cold +clay, was the twenty-one-year-old Prince Prithvi himself, the flower +of Rājput chivalry, followed by youthful heroes, ready, like their +chief, for soft kisses or hard blows. The last came first in that +desperate five-days-running fight all the way back to Delhi, with +willing Princess Fortunata in their midst, her cheek paling but her +eyes dry, as one by one the dear, brave lads fell out from her cortege +dead or dying.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the bravest, the dearest, the best, held her close, unharmed, and +so the soft kisses came at last.</p> + +<p class="normal">For Prince Prithvi, though he lost some friends--lost, as the +historians put it, "the sinews of India"--kept his prize, and gained +for himself immortal memory in the hearts of all Rājput maidens even +to the present day.</p> + +<p class="normal">This, then, was the paladin who took the field against the bearded, +middle-aged Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din, and deftly outflanking his wings, +drove them back and back until the whole Mahomedan army showed a +circle surrounded by the enemy. In the centre the great general +himself, mad with passion at the counsel sent to him by his +subordinates to save himself as best he could. His reply was to cut +down the messenger, and calling on all who would to follow him, rush +out on the enemy, dealing reckless, almost futile death. To no +purpose. Prithvi's younger brother, marking down his quarry, drove his +elephant full against the burly-bearded leader of the desperate sally; +but Mahomed Ghori lacked no courage, and the charge was met half-way, +horse against leviathan, lance couched to lance.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the honours lay with the Moslem, for Chāwand Rao took the +lance-head full in his mouth, to the destruction of many teeth. But +Prithvi was in support of his brother, and a well-aimed arrow twanged +and quivered in the northerner's scimitar arm; he reeled in his saddle +and would have fallen, had not a faithful servant, taking advantage of +the wild, swift closing in of rescue for the wounded monarch, leapt up +behind him in the saddle, and turning the horse's head to the open, +carried the almost fainting king from the field. He was followed by +his whole army, harassed for full 40 miles by the victorious Hindus.</p> + +<p class="normal">Princess Fortunata's kisses must have been sweet that night to her +victorious hero. But Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din's calm had gone. Smileless, +he waited for the healing of his wound at Lahōre, then, returning to +Ghor, publicly disgraced every officer who had not followed his +forlorn hope, by parading them round the city like horses or mules, +their noses in "nose-bags filled with barley, which he forced them to +eat like brutes," and afterwards flinging them into prison. So two +years passed in moody anger and sullen disgrace, crushed into +forgetfulness by reckless pleasure and festivity. Then, taking heart +of grace, he got together a picked force of 120,000 Toorki and Afghān +cavalry recruits, for the most part men of his own class and calibre, +whose helmets were encrusted with jewels, their cuirasses inlaid with +gold; and so off Peshawur ways.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Since the day of defeat," he said to an old sage, "despite external +appearances, I have never slumbered with ease, or waked but in sorrow. +I go, therefore, to recover my lost honour from these idolaters, or +die in the attempt."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My king," replied the wise old man, kissing the ground, "wherefore +should not those whom you have so justly disgraced likewise have +opportunity of wiping away the stain of their defeat?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The plea struck him by its justice. He issued orders for the disgraced +officers' freedom, and gave leave for those desirous of redeeming +their character to follow his example. A picked force this, indeed, +with a vengeance!</p> + +<p class="normal">And on the other side was haughty defiance, marked still by the +chivalrous sense of honour which, to such as Prithvi-Rāj, was dearer +than life.</p> + +<p class="normal">A proud acceptance of the issues met the curt declaration of war +should the Indians refuse to embrace the true faith, which the +Mahomedan general sent to Ajmīr by accredited ambassador. A 'cute move +this; one to enhance the martial ardour of his men; perhaps to still +further inflame his own determination to turn past defeat to present +victory. Then ensued a pause for parley, in which the Princess +Fortunata had her share--a worthy share, as the following extracts +will show. Till then her kisses had lulled Prithvi-Rāj to +forgetfulness of sterner things; now they were to rouse him from +his dream. For this was her reply when her husband, leaving his +War-Council to deliberate, sought wisdom where he had so often found +pleasure:--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"What fool asks woman for advice? The world<br> +Holds her wit shallow.... Even when the truth<br> +Comes from her lips men stop their ears and smile.<br> +And yet without the woman where is man?<br> +We hold the power of Form--for us the Fire<br> +Of Shiv's creative force flames up and burns:<br> +Lo! we are thieves of Life and sanctuaries<br> +Of Souls. Vessels are we of virtue and of vice,<br> +Of knowledge and of utmost ignorance.<br> +Astrologers can calculate from books<br> +The courses of the stars, but who is he<br> +Can read the pages of a woman's heart?<br> +Our book has not been mastered; so men say<br> +'She hath no wisdom' but to hide their lack<br> +Of understanding. Yet we share your lives,<br> +Your failures, your successes, griefs and joys.<br> +Hunger and thirst, if yours, are ours, and Death<br> +Parts us not from you; for we follow fast<br> +To serve you in the mansion of the Sun.<br> +Love of my heart! Lo! you are as a swan<br> +That rests upon my bosom as a lake.<br> +There is no rest for thee but here, my lord!<br> +And yet arise to Victory and Fame.<br> +Sun of the Chauhans! Who has drunk so deep<br> +Of glory and of pleasure as my lord?<br> +And yet the destiny of all is death:<br> +Yea even of the Gods--and to die well<br> +Is life immortal---- Therefore draw your sword,<br> +Smite down the foes of Hind; think not of self--<br> +The garment of this life is frayed and worn,<br> +Think not of me--we twain shall be as one<br> +Hereafter and for ever.--Go, my king!"</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">So the fiery cross sped round Rājputana, and ere long Prithvi-Rāj +could confront the enemy with an army of 300,000 horse, 3,000 +elephants, and a large body of infantry. They encamped opposite and +within sight of each other on the old battle-field, with the river +Sarāswati, which was soon to lose itself in the desert sands beyond, +running between the opposing armies. Despite the disparity in numbers +the forces were not ill-matched, for the Indians were hampered by a +thousand old traditions, old accoutrements, old scruples. The +Mahomedans, on the other hand, were full up with desire for gold, for +souls. But it was a holy war on both sides. The Hindus had sworn on +Ganges water to conquer or die, the Moslem had sworn likewise on the +Korān; so heads were bowed in humble prayer to the Lord of Hosts, and +human hearts beat high with murderous hope. Quaint conjunction when +all is said and done!</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus far, well. Now comes Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din's diplomatic +strategy, which some might call by another name, even though the +account of what occurred comes to us through the pen of an ardent +Mahomedan, and cannot, therefore, but put the best face on what +happened. Prithvi-Rāj, then, facing his foe, so much smaller in +numbers, so altogether insignificant beside the splendid lavishness of +the Rājput camp, wrote a letter to Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din. Whether +dictated by mere pride or martial honour, by contemptuous pity, +religious dislike to take life, or, as the Mahomedans aver, by mere +brag, the terms of it are worth reading:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"To the bravery of our soldiers we know you are no stranger: and to +our great superiority in numbers, which daily increases, your eyes +bear witness. If you are wearied of your own existence, yet have pity +on your troops who may still think it a happiness to live. It were +better, then, you should repent in time of the rash resolution you +have taken, and we shall permit you to retreat in safety."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Not an undignified appeal, this first recorded attempt at peace with +honour. Its reply was, as the historian puts it, "politic." It +consisted in Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din's assertion that he was only the +general of his brother's forces; that therefore he dare not retreat +without orders, but he would be glad of a truce until such time as +information could be sent to Ghuzni and an answer received.</p> + +<p class="normal">A simple and admirable adjunct to the night-attack which followed, and +which found the Rājputs unprepared, in fancied security.</p> + +<p class="normal">About the false dawning, when even the noise of revelry in the +opposite camp had quieted down to sleep, the Mahomedan army forded the +river in silence, and drew up in order on the sands beyond. Some +portion of it was actually within the Hindu lines ere the alarm was +raised.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even so, the Rājput cavalry was to the front immediately, and checked +the advance.</p> + +<p class="normal">For what followed, Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din deserves unstinted praise. It +was good general-ship.</p> + +<p class="normal">He formed his bowmen into four divisions, and placing them one behind +the other, ordered the first to come into fighting line, discharge +their arrows, and wheel to the rear, thus giving place to the second +fighting line, the whole army to retreat slowly, giving ground +whenever hard pressed.</p> + +<p class="normal">All that day he fought, biding his time with such patience as he and +his twelve thousand steel-armoured horsemen could muster. The sun was +just setting when, judging the delusion of victory had done its work +in the hot heads of the Rājputs, he gave the orders for one desperate +charge.</p> + +<p class="normal">It did its work!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Din! Din! Fateh Mahomed!" once and for all overcame the Hindu war-cry +of, "Victory, Victory!" In the years to come success and failure were +to attend both; but only in detail. The great issue between Brahmanism +and Mahomedism was fought out on the vast Karnāl battle-plain in A.D. +1193, when, as the chronicler of Islām says,</p> +<br> + +<p class="continue">"one desperate charge carried death and destruction throughout the +Hindu ranks. The disorder increased everywhere, till at length the +panic became general. The Moslems, as if they now only began to be in +earnest, committed such havoc, that this prodigious army once shaken, +like a great building tottered to its fall, and was lost in its own +ruins."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">How many thousand pagans "went below?" Who knows? But one is sure that +Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din duly praised God from whom all blessings flow. +His subsequent atrocities prove that he must have relied on something +which he deemed Divine Guidance; mere humanity could never have been +so cruel.</p> + +<p class="normal">Half Rājput chivalry lay dead under the stars, but the flower of it +was hiding in the sugar-cane brakes, stealing his way back to Delhi, +to the Princess Sunjogāta his wife, who, as she had watched him go +forth, lance in rest, his sword buckled on by her own steady hands, +had said with foreboding courage to her maidens: "In Yogināpur (Delhi) +I shall see him no more: we will meet in Swarga." The tale of what +happened is almost beyond telling.</p> + +<p class="normal">Prithvi Rājah was murdered in cold blood, murdered ignominiously. The +Princess Fortunata escaped a like, or a worse, fate by a funeral pyre, +and Delhi was given over to such hideous devils work as even that +long-suffering city has never seen before or since. The followers of +the Prophet wiped out their own and their God's disgrace in torrents +of blood, filled their pockets by the way, went on to Ajmīr, enacted a +like tragedy, and so returned northwards when the pink clouds of the +low-lying groves of <i>dākh</i> trees began to blossom about the +battle-field where the sun of the Hindus had set for ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din left his pet Turki slave Kutb-din-Eībuk +behind him at Delhi, and he, assuming almost regal honours, "compelled +all the districts around to acknowledge the faith of Islām."</p> + +<p class="normal">How many murders go to the making of a Moslem is a question which +might fairly be asked. Converts, however, hardly came in fast enough +for Shahāb-ud-din's zeal, so the next year saw him back again to help +his slave in crushing the Rājah of Kanauj, who, doubtless, had not +been of Prithvi-Rāj's host. Thence he marched to Benares, in which +hot-bed of idolatry he thoroughly enjoyed himself by smashing the +idols in a thousand temples, which he subsequently purified by prayer +and purgation, and thereinafter consecrated to the worship of the true +God.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was his last real outing, for Fate--can it have been that she +dissociated herself from his doubtful use of the white flag--began to +play him false. His slave-viceroy showed inclination to plunder on his +own behalf, and though the master once more returned to India, it was +but a flying visit, apparently to check independence. To no avail, for +Kutb-din-Eībuk, "ambitious of extending his conquests, led an army +into Rājputana, where, having experienced severe defeat, he was +compelled to seek protection in the fort at Ajmīr."</p> + +<p class="normal">For the fighting spirit in the Rājput was not to be quenched by blood, +or burned out by fire. It was to flame up fiercely for many a century +to come, until the wisdom of Akbar won it over to his side.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din's hands were, however, too full to permit of his +giving much attention to India. His brother, Ghiāss-ud-din, the mere +figure-head of a king, died in A.D. 1202, and though Shahāb-ud-din was +crowned in his stead without any opposition, bad luck seemed to attend +him afterwards. His army was literally cut down to a mere body-guard +of a hundred troopers in Khorassan, and though his fortunes were +recovered in some measure, his time seems to have been taken up in +quelling the rebellions of his favourite slaves whom he had promoted +to honour.</p> + +<p class="normal">In India, Kutb-din, it is true, remained faithful in name, though his +power and prestige rose above his master's, and he was virtually king, +not viceroy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Finally, in A.D. 1206, the leader of the last real raid of the +Crescent into India was assassinated by the Ghakkars of the Salt Range +upon the banks of the Indus.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The weather being sultry, the King had ordered the screens which +surround the royal tents to be struck in order to give free admission +to the air. This afforded the assassins an opportunity of seeing into +the sleeping apartments. So at night time they found their way up to +the tents and hid themselves, while one of their number advanced +boldly to the tent door. Challenged by a sentry, he plunged his dagger +in the man's breast, and this rousing the guard, who ran out to see +what was the matter, the hidden assassin took that opportunity of +cutting a way into the King's tent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He was asleep, with two slaves fanning him. They stood petrified with +terror as the Ghakkars sheathed their daggers in the King's body, +which was afterwards found to have been pierced by no fewer than +twenty-two wounds."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.4" href="#div1Ref_02.4">THE SLAVE KINGS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1206 TO A.D. 1288</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"The Empire of Delhi was founded by a slave."</p> + +<p class="normal">So runs the well-known jibe. And it is true; for although India, +despite the combined resistance of the Rājputs, was overcome during +the reign of Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din Ghori, the real glory of conquest +belongs by rights to Eībuk, the slave; Eībuk of the "broken little +finger," who took the name of Kutb-ud-din, or Pole-star of the Faith.</p> + +<p class="normal">To those who know India the name conjures up one of the most +marvellous sights in the world. A dark December morning in the Punjāb, +when the Christmas rain-clouds gather black on the horizon, and on +them, above the rolling, brick-strewn ridges of Old Delhi, rises a +thin shaft of light--the Kutb Minār, the finest pillar in the world.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was built by the Turki slave Eībuk, and one can forgive him much in +that he left the world such a thing of beauty to be a joy for ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet as one stands beneath it, marking here and there the +half-obliterated traces of previous cutting on the stones of the +wonderful tapering pillar, all corbeilled with encircling balconies, +and banded in dexterous art with interlaced lettering; as one looks +round on the dismantled ruins of still more ancient temples, the mind +suddenly ceases to give the glory to Kutb-ud-din, and turns almost +with amaze to the thought of the Hindu architects who built it to +order out of their dishonoured shrines.</p> + +<p class="normal">Think of it! Art, true Art rising superior to Self! Surely as they +chiselled at those interlaced attributes of the One Unknowable, +Unthinkable, they must have been conscious that though all things in +this life were--as their religion told them--but Illusion, behind that +Illusion lay Reality.</p> + +<p class="normal">And so their work comforted them.</p> + +<p class="normal">How much of India is built into this watch tower of her gods? The best +of her, anyhow, and English civilisation can scarcely add an +additional story to this record of her past.</p> + +<p class="normal">To Kutb-ud-din Eībuk, however, belongs the glory of inception; +therefore also some forgiveness, which, in truth, he sorely needs. For +from the beginning his attitude towards strict morality is, to say the +least of it, doubtful. He was a beautiful Turki slave, the avowed pet +and plaything of his master Shahāb-ud-din, who gave him "his +particular notice, and daily advanced him in confidence and favours."</p> + +<p class="normal">He appears to have been diplomatic, for on one occasion, being +questioned by the king as to why he had divided his share of a general +distribution of presents amongst the other retainers, he kissed the +ground of Majesty's feet, and replied, that being amply supplied +already by that Majesty's favours, he desired no superfluities.</p> + +<p class="normal">This brought him the Master of the Horse-ship, from which he went on +to honour after honour, until in the year A.D. 1193 he was left as +viceroy in India. Thenceforward he was practically king. It was he who +took Delhi after a conflict in which the river Jumna ran red with +blood. It was he who commanded the forces at Etawah, and it was his +hand which shot the arrow that, piercing the eye of the Benares Rājah, +cost him his life and the loss of everything he possessed.</p> + +<p class="normal">A quaint picture that, by the way, of the search for Jai-Chund's body +amidst the huge heaps of the slain, and its final recognition after +weary days by "the artificial teeth fixed by golden wires." Had +dentistry got as far in the West, I wonder?</p> + +<p class="normal">Then it was Kutb-ud-din who presented to his master the three hundred +elephants taken at Benares; amongst them the famous white one which +refused to kneel like the others before the <i>M'lechcha</i>, king though +he might be. The beast's independence serving him better than a man's +would have done, since it brought no punishment, but the honour of +being pad elephant to the viceroy thenceforth.</p> + +<p class="normal">And it was he who marched his forces hither and thither, "engaged the +enemy, put them to flight, and having ravaged the country at leisure, +obtained much booty."</p> + +<p class="normal">The eye wearies over the repetitions of this formula, as the hand +turns the pages of Ferishta's history, while the heart grows sick at +the thought of what such a war of conversion or extermination meant in +those days.</p> + +<p class="normal">The victorious procession of the Mahomedan troopers was only broken +once in Guzerāt. Here Kutb-ud-din, despite six wounds, fought +stubbornly and with his wonted courage, until forced by his attendants +from the field, and carried in a litter to the fort at Ajmīr, where he +managed to hold out until reinforcements came to his aid from the King +of Ghuzni.</p> + +<p class="normal">Defeat seems ever to have been the mother of victory with these +passionate, revengeful Afghāns, for on the very next occasion on which +Kutb-ud-din "engaged the enemy," he is said to have killed fifty +thousand of them, and to have gathered into his treasury vast spoils.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing seemed to stop him. Even the swift assassination by his own +prime minister of a cowardly rājah who was coming to terms with the +<i>M'lechcha</i> instead of resisting the Unclean to the death, did not +avail to preserve almost impregnable Kalūnjur; for a spring +incontinently dried up in the fort, and there once more was one last +sally, and then death for the garrison.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was in A.D. 1205, after Kutb-din had had twelve years of battles, +murders, and sudden deaths, twelve years of absolute if not nominal +kingship, that Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din's successor, feeling himself not +strong enough to assume the reins of government in India, made a bid +for peace for himself in Ghuzni by sending Eībuk the slave, the drums, +the standards, the insignia of royalty, and the title of King of +India.</p> + +<p class="normal">Eībuk received them all with "becoming respect," and was duly crowned. +This fact did not prevent his being crowned again in Ghuzni the +following year!</p> + +<p class="normal">He then, having attained to the height of his ambition, seeing no more +worlds to conquer, having for the time being crushed even Rājput +resistance, gave himself up "unaccountably to wine and pleasure."</p> + +<p class="normal">This seems to have irritated the good citizens of Ghuzni. They invited +another claimant to the throne to try his luck. He came, found Eībuk +unprepared, possibly drunk. Anyhow, there was no time to attempt a +defence. He fled to Lahōre, thus finally severing the Kingship of +Ghuzni from that of India.</p> + +<p class="normal">There, we are told, he became "sensible of his folly," repented, and +thereinafter "continued to exercise justice, temperance, morality."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was killed while playing <i>chaugan</i> (the modern polo) in A.D. 1210. +At that time he was supposed to be the richest man in the world; but, +unlike Mahmūd, he was generous. "As liberal as Eībuk" is still a +phrase in the mouth of India.</p> + +<p class="normal">His son Arām (Leisure) appears to have deserved his name. He never +gripped the kingdom, and lost it fatuously after less than a year. +Apparently he was not deemed worth the killing, and Altāmish, a +favourite slave of the slave Eībuk, took his place by virtue of being +son-in-law to the dead king.</p> + +<p class="normal">Altāmish was also of Turki extraction. As a youth, the fame of his +beauty and talents was noised abroad, and Shahāb-ud-din was in the +bidding for him, but hung back at the price; whereupon Eībuk the +Lavish put down the fifty thousand pieces of silver, and carried off +the prize.</p> + +<p class="normal">Years after, he was married to the Princess-Royal, and so, adding +Shums-ud-din (Sword of the Faith) to his name, ascended the throne, +and reigned for no less than twenty-six years.</p> + +<p class="normal">So Delhi, indeed, was founded by slaves!</p> + +<p class="normal">Atlāmish appears to have been of the regulation type. He was, so to +speak, Kutb-ud-din and water. The largest number of Hindus he is +recorded to have killed at one time is three hundred; a sad +falling-off in <i>Ghāzi</i>-dom.<a name="div4Ref_03" href="#div4_03"><sup>[3]</sup></a> On the other hand, he was the barbarian +who, taking Ujjain, destroyed the magnificent temple of Māhā-Kāli +which it had taken three hundred years to build. The idols thereof, +and also a "statue of Vikramadītya, who had been formerly prince of +this country, and so renowned that the Hindus have taken an era from +his death," were conveyed solemnly to Delhi, and there broken at the +door of the great mosque of which the magnificent ruins--spoils of +many a Jain and Hindu temple--still lie about the foot of the Kutb +Minār, a monument to the slave Eībuk who commenced it, the slave +Altāmish who finished it.</p> + +<p class="normal">This solemn smashing was doubtless a fine ceremony, yet as we of the +present day contemplate it, regret goes forth, especially for the +statue of Vikramadjīt. How many a riddle might it not have solved +concerning the Unknown King!</p> + +<p class="normal">We are told that Altāmish was an "enterprising, able, and good +prince"; he has, however, another, and in the history of the world, +quite unique claim to regard. The father of seven children, six of +them in turn mounted the throne with more or less success.</p> + +<p class="normal">Considerably less as regards the first occupant, Ruku-ud-din (Prop of +the Faith), who spent his six months and twenty-eight days tenancy in +lavishing his inherited treasures on dancing girls, pimps and +prostitutes.</p> + +<p class="normal">This might have been borne for longer, but the hideous cruelties of +his mother, a Turki slave to whom he entrusted the reins of +government, were such as to rouse even the dull humanity of a +thirteenth-century Mahomedan. She had murdered horribly every one of +the dead king's women, and had begun on his son's, when the patience +of the various viceroys gave way. They entered into a conspiracy, +deposed the king, and threw his mother into prison--a lenient +punishment for such a monster of cruelty.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then? Then they did a thing unheard of in Indian history--they +raised a woman to the throne.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Sultana Rāzia Begum was no ordinary mortal! Indeed, there is +something so quaint about the recapitulation of her virtues, as given +in the pages of Ferishta, that, perforce, one cannot but quote it.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Rāzia Begum (my Lady Content) was possessed of every good quality +which usually adorns the ablest princes; and those who scrutinise her +actions most severely, will find in her no fault but that she was a +woman."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Alas! Poor Lady Content! Of what avail that you changed (as it is +solemnly set down) your apparel; that you abandoned the petticoat in +favour of the trews; that your father, when he appointed you regent +during one of his long absences, defended his action by saying that +though a woman, you had a man's head and heart, and were worth more +than twenty such sons as he had? All this was of no avail against +womanhood. Let this be thy comfort, poor shade of a dead queen, that +the argument still holds good against thy sisters in this year of +grace 1907!</p> + +<p class="normal">Setting this aside, the career of Queen-Content matches in tragedy +that of Mary Queen of Scots. A clever girl, evidently, her father made +her his companion, and while her brothers were dicing and wenching, +drinking and twanging the <i>sutara</i>, she was frowning with him over +endless pacifications, endless violences, becoming, apparently, an +adept at both. For it would have needed great qualifications to ensure +the almost unanimous vote of the nobles which placed a woman on the +throne.</p> + +<p class="normal">At first even these contemptuous Mahomedans were satisfied. Then came +discontent. Did Rāzia Begum really favour the Abyssinian slave whom +she allowed--<i>horribile dictum!</i>--to "lift her on her horse by raising +her up under the arms"? Or had she really forgotten the petticoat in +the trews? Who can say? All we know is that Malik-Altūnia, the Turki +governor of Bhattīnda--curious how that name crops up in all the +really exciting tales of Indian history!--revolted on the plea of the +queen's partiality to the Abyssinian; that she marched against the +rebel, leading her troops; that a tumultuous conflict occurred in the +old place of battles, in which the Abyssinian favourite was killed, +the queen taken prisoner, and sent to Altūnia's care in the fort.</p> + +<p class="normal">So far good. But here affairs take a turn which is fairly breathless, +and which gives pause for doubting Altūnia's disinterested care for +morality and <i>les convenances</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">He promptly married the empress, and with scarce a comma, we find him +raising an army to espouse her cause, and fighting her battles, the +Bothwell of his time. He failed, and he and his wife were put to death +together on the 14th of November A.D. 1239.</p> + +<p class="normal">A tragic tale indeed! Best finished by another excerpt from the +historian.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The reign of Sultana Rāzia Begum lasted three years, six months, and +six days. Those who reflect on the fate of this unfortunate princess +will readily discover from whence arose the foul blast that blighted +all her prospects.--What connection exists between the high office of +Amīr-ul Omra and an Abyssinian slave? Or how are we to reconcile the +inconsistency of the queen of so vast a territory fixing her +affections on so unworthy an object?"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">And no one, apparently, remembered that she herself was the daughter +of a Turki slave who achieved empire.</p> + +<p class="normal">Byrām was the next brother to ascend the throne. The two years, one +month, and fifteen days before he also "sipped the cup of fate" is a +welter of crimes. Enemies were trodden under foot of elephants, slaves +suborned to feign drunkenness and assassinate friends; in short, +"these proceedings, without trial or public accusation, justly alarmed +every one," so Masūd, the next brother, had his innings. A poor one, +though it lasted twice as long as Byrām's. He found time in it, +however, to repel the first Moghul invasion by way of Tibet into +Bengal. This was in A.D. 1244, and it was followed by a similar +incursion the next year, by way of Kandahār and Sinde. Masūd seems to +have become imbecile over wine and women, and when deposed, was +contemptuously allowed to live by his brother, Nāsir-ud-din, the only +one of Altāmish's sons who appears to have been worth anything; +possibly because he had passed the whole of the last four reigns in +prison!</p> + +<p class="normal">Adversity may be a hard, but she is a good taskmistress, and in +Nāsir-ud-din she had evidently good mettle on which to work. He was a +man, distinctly, of original parts, for while in prison he had always +preferred supporting himself by his writings to accepting any public +allowance; a "whimsical habit" which he continued after he came to the +throne. He was also almost scandalously moral according to the +orthodoxy of the day in refusing to have more than one wife, and in +cutting down all outward show and magnificence on the ground that, +being only God's trustee for the State, he was bound not to burden it +with useless extravagance.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he reigned for no less than twenty years, he had time to gather +together the <i>disjecta membra</i>, of the Indian empire which Eībuk had +built up, and which was fast coming to be a series of semi-independent +provinces, and even once more to annex Ghuzni to the kingdom of Delhi. +He followed his predecessors' example also in rousing yet again the +Rājput resistance. During the previous reigns the clans had recovered +themselves, and, from the Mahomedan point of view, needed a lesson. So +some few thousands were killed in battle, some few hundred chiefs put +to death, and innumerable smaller fry condemned to perpetual slavery. +And yet a story is told of Nāsir-ud-din which shows him not devoid of +heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">A worthy old scholar, criticising the king's penmanship, pointed out a +fault. He, smiling, erased the word, but when the critic was gone, +began to restore it, remarking that it was right, but it was better to +spoil paper than the self-confidence of an old man.</p> + +<p class="normal">He died, after a long illness, in A.D. 1266, and thereinafter +Ghiāss-ud-din the <i>wazīr</i>, who had married a sister of Sultana +Rāzia's, ascended the throne, possibly in the absence of more direct +heirs. He must have been nearly sixty at the time, for he died +twenty-one years after in his eightieth year.</p> + +<p class="normal">He also was a Turki slave, first employed as falcon-master by +Altāmish, who promoted him again and again; wherefore, Heaven knows, +for history gives us but a poor character of him. He appears to have +been a pious, narrow-minded, intolerant, selfish tyrant, with a +hypocritical dash of virtue about him which took in his world +completely. Circumstances also aided him in posing as perfection; for +about this time the Moghul invasion had reached the western +borderlands, and hundreds of illustrious and literary fugitives +crowded thence, to find in Delhi the only stable Mahomedan government.</p> + +<p class="normal">These, flattering and fawning, helped to noise his fame abroad as a +paragon. Then the son of his old age, Prince Mahomed, was a potent +factor in his popularity. The apple of his father's eye, he seems to +have been an Admirable Crichton, and his death, in the moment of +victory, not only "drew tears from the meanest soldier to the +General," but came as a final blow to the old king, "who was so much +distressed that life became irksome to him."</p> + +<p class="normal">This great affection between father and son--for "Prince Mahomed +always behaved to him with the utmost filial affection and duty"--is, +indeed, the one human interest of a life devoted to pious pretences, +to pomp and pose.</p> + +<p class="normal">His grandson Kźik-obād came to the throne at his death, and promptly +gave the reins to pleasure and the guidance of public affairs to his +<i>wazīr</i>. He succeeded in painting Old Delhi very red indeed during his +short reign of three years. "Every shady grove was filled with women +and parties of pleasure, every street rang with riot and tumult; even +the magistrates were seen drunk in public, and music was heard in +every house."</p> + +<p class="normal">His minister kept him at this task also; for, perceiving a faint check +in the pursuit of pleasure, he "collected graceful dancers, beautiful +women, and good singers from all parts of the kingdom, whom he +occasionally introduced as if by accident."</p> + +<p class="normal">So, finally, the three-year-old Prince Keī-omurs--the only child of a +miserable father who was now paralytic--was smuggled out of the harem +to be King-designate, while the wretched, debauched, half-dying man +had his brains beaten out with bludgeons while he was lying on his bed +helpless; and so, battered out of all recognition, his body was +hastily rolled up in the bed-clothes, and flung through the window +into the sliding river.</p> + +<p class="normal">A horrid tale, with which the history of the Slave Kings fitly comes +to an end.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were not a good breed. Even Ferishta the historian, who has a +weakness for kings, feels this, for he ends his account of them with +the sphinx-like remark: "Eternity belongs only to God, the great +Sovereign of the Earth!"</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.5" href="#div1Ref_02.5">THE TARTAR DYNASTIES</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1288 TO A.D. 1398</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">As can easily be imagined, India at the end of those ten Slave reigns +(which between them lasted but eighty-two years) was a very different +place to what India had been when Eībuk's iron hand first closed on +it. Half the Punjāb, almost all Rājputana, and the better part of the +United Provinces, had run red with Hindu blood in those days; but as +the stream subsided, the terrible legacy of the flood had remained as +a lesson welding the whole land into apathetic acquiescence, until +absorption set in with the years, and as time went on, the crushed, +half-dead organism began once more to feel life in its veins. For +Hinduism is India--India is Hinduism. When the last trace of the +metaphysical Monism which underlies every aspiration, every action, +has disappeared, India and Hinduism will have disappeared also, but +not till then.</p> + +<p class="normal">So as time crept on, and under slack rule Mahomedan began to fight +Mahomedan, each petty governor playing for his own hand, his own +independence, the Rājputs raised their dejected heads, and, seizing +every opportunity, strove to recover part at least of their own. +Gwalīor with its rock,--that almost impregnable fort--for instance, +changed hands many times, and, save during the reign of Nāsir-ud-din, +no attempt was made on the part of the Mahomedans after the time of +Altāmish, either to increase their conquests, or do more than +temporarily bolster up their rule.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nor when the Slave dynasty ended, and one Jelāl-ud-din, of the House +of Khilji, established himself on the throne of Delhi by the murder of +the three-year-old Keī-omurs, was there any change of policy. He was +seventy years old; old for kingship in any country, extraordinarily so +for India. And he was weak, hesitating. For a while distracted by +feeble remorse he refused royal honours, and after a very short time +delegated his authority to his nephew, Allah-ud-din, who succeeded +him, and who for many years prior to his uncle's death arrogated to +himself almost absolute independence.</p> + +<p class="normal">The seven years of Jelāl-ud-din's reign, then, are but a prelude to +Allah-ud-din's twenty.</p> + +<p class="normal">A vigorous man this, and an unscrupulous. One of his first emprises +was the conquest of the Dekkan which, as yet, had been untouched by +Mahomedan adventure.</p> + +<p class="normal">He got no further, however, than Deogīri, the capital of the +Māhārājah of the Mahrattas. Far enough, however, for pillage <i>ą la</i> +Kutb-din-Eībuk. He found the Rājputs unprepared--they had strict +scruples of honour regarding the necessity for a formal declaration of +war, by which their adversaries were not bound--and the usual +slaughter took place. For the first time, also, mention is made of +merchants being tortured to make them disclose their treasures. +"<i>L'appetit vient en mangeant</i>," and a rich Hindu <i>banya</i> was to the +Mahomedan what the Jew was to a Crusader.</p> + +<p class="normal">The result was prodigious. Allah-ud-din left Deogīri--surely misnamed +thus the "Shelter of the Gods"--with "2,400 pounds weight of pearls, +12 pounds of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, 6,000 pounds +of silver, 4,000 pieces of silk, besides a long list of other precious +commodities to which reason forbids us to give credit." In truth, +reason appears as it is somewhat over-taxed!</p> + +<p class="normal">It was on Allah-ud-din's return from this campaign that he perpetrated +the foulest murder of Indian history; and that means much.</p> + +<p class="normal">His expedition had been absolutely unauthorised by his uncle, the +king, who, almost dotingly affectionate though inwardly relieved at +his favourite's success, was persuaded to ask on Allah-ud-din's return +for explanations, and express displeasure. The latter feigned remorse, +went so far as to hint that the excess of his regret might put an end +to his melancholy life; so lured the old man to meet him on the banks +of the river Ganges, where the villain halted, fearful, he protested, +of just punishment. The king, deceived, crossed the river in the Royal +Barge almost unattended, bidding those who did accompany him unbuckle +swords lest the beloved prodigal might take affright. He reached the +landing-stage, and found Allah-ud-din backed by trusty friends. The +old man advanced, the prodigal fell at his feet, to be raised with +almost playful tenderness. "Lo!" said the tremulous old voice, as the +tremulous old hand patted the villain's cheek, "how couldst thou fear +me, Allah-hu? Did I not cherish thee from childhood? Have I not held +thee dearer than mine own sons?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The words had hardly left his lips, the first step hand-in-hand +towards the Royal Barge had hardly been taken, when Allah-ud-din gave +the signal. The feeble old man was thrown down. One cry, "Oh, +Allah-ud-din, Allah-ud-din!" and all was over. His head, transfixed on +a spear-point, was paraded about the city, and his murderer, making a +pompous and triumphant entry into Delhi, ascended the throne in the +Ruby Palace, and thereinafter utilised part of his loot by spending it +on magnificent shows, grand festivals, and splendid entertainments, +"by which the unthinking rabble were made to forget in gaiety all +memory of their former king, or of the horrid crime which had placed +the present one on the throne."</p> + +<p class="normal">So much for Allah-ud-din's accession. His reign is literally crammed +full of picturesque incidents, and would almost require a volume to +itself. Before attempting a few details, there is one tale of +Jelāl-ud-din's which deserves record--that of the Mysterious Stranger. +He was called Sidi--Dervish Sidi. He appeared in Delhi suddenly, +opened a large house, and commenced to distribute charity on a scale +of magnificence which led instantly to the belief that he must possess +the philosopher's stone. He thought nothing of giving three thousand +pieces of gold in casual relief to some noble but distressed family. +Every day he expended about 8,000 pounds of flour, 400 pounds of meat, +with sugar, spices, and butter in proportion to feed the poor, while +he lived on rice alone, and foreswore both wine and women. So, after a +time, his influence almost exceeding that of Majesty itself, he was +accused of high treason, and by the king's orders condemned to the +ordeal by fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was to be carried out <i>coram populo</i>. On the plain between the town +and the river all preparations were made: a circle round the blazing +pile to give fair view to the populace; Sidi Dervish, and his +companions in suspicion, saying their prayers; then, at the last +moment, objection raised and upheld by learned doctors that such +ordeals were both contrary to the law of God and against Reason. So +Sidi Dervish and his friends are being hauled off to prison once more, +until the foiled king gives a hint to some shaven monks hard by: "I +leave him to you to be judged according to his deserts."</p> + +<p class="normal">Cut down by the shaven ones' razors, Sidi offers no resistance, begs +them to be expeditious in sending him to God, lays his curse heavily +on the king and his posterity, and dies; whereupon a black whirlwind +rises and envelopes all for the space of half an hour. A terrifying +end to one whose piety was unquestioned, but whose dogma was +disturbing; for Sidi Dervish held, we are told, "very peculiar +opinions, and never attended public worship."</p> + +<p class="normal">A quaint, incomprehensible tale, surely, that reads true, and brings +wonder as to who the poor man could possibly have been.</p> + +<p class="normal">To return to Allah-ud-din. One of the most picturesque stories of +Rājput history is associated with his name: the story of the Princess +Padmani and the first sack of Chitore--that terrible happening which +still haunts the memory of the race, and provides its ultimate +inviolable oath, "By the sin of the sack of Chitore."</p> + +<p class="normal">Padmani, then, was peerless. Her very name survives to the present day +as synonymous with perfect womanhood. And Allah-ud-din--who seems to +have been eclectic in his pleasures--hearing of her beauty while still +only commander-in-chief to his uncle, forced his way to the sacred +stronghold of the Rājputs, and threatened instant attack if he were +not allowed to see her, if it were only her reflection in a mirror. +Now such hardy, yet in a way honourable, requests were not foreign to +the Rājput spirit, and Rājah Bhim-si, her husband, granted it. With +due pomp and ceremonial he escorted Allah-ud-din to his palace, with +due pomp and ceremony showed him the reflection of the most beautiful +woman in India, with due pomp and ceremony escorted the Mahomedan +general back to his tents, trusting to his honour. But Allah-ud-din's +honour was a mutable quantity: he seized the husband as ransom for the +wife, and swore instant death if the princess were not delivered to +him without delay. So forth from the frowning rock came seven hundred +litters, Padmani and her women offering themselves up in exchange for +a life that was the dearest thing on earth to every Rājput man and +woman. Into the camp they came; and then? Then each litter belched out +reckless manhood armed to the teeth; each disguised litter-bearer +threw off his swathing shawl and proclaimed himself warrior.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the husband was brought back to the wife, and in the ensuing battle +the Rājputs died hard. There is a story of how one widow of the slain, +standing with foot ready to mount the funeral pyre of her dead hero, +called in a loud voice to the page who had followed him in the fight:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Boy! Tell me once more ere I go how bore himself my lord?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"As reaper of the harvest of battle! On the bed of honour, he spread a +carpet of the slain, whereon, a barbarian his pillow, he sleeps ringed +about by his foes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yet once again, oh boy, tell me how my lord bore himself?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh mother! Who can tell his deeds! He left none to fear or to +praise!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The memory of Padmani's trick rankled. After ascending the throne +Allah-ud-din returned to Chitore. Up till then, A.D. 1303, the fort +was maiden, had been held unassailable, impregnable. But Allah-ud-din +was rich beyond belief. He gave gold for every basket of earth brought +to raise the pile, whence, overtopping the rock, he could pour his +missiles into the doomed city.</p> + +<p class="normal">Night and day, day and night through the long hot weather the baskets +worked, the gold was paid, until the end drew near.</p> + +<p class="normal">The tale which is still told round many a watch-fire runs that one +night Rājah Bhim-si, to whom twelve sons had been born by the +beautiful Padmani, woke in fear. Before him, in a lurid light, stood +Vyan-Māta, the tutelary goddess of his race. "I am hungry," she +wailed. "Lo! I drink Rājput blood, but I am hungry for the blood of +kings. Let me drink the blood of twelve who have worn the diadem, and +my city may yet be inviolate."</p> + +<p class="normal">So one by one eleven of the young princes were raised to the throne. +Then, after three days' reign, they went forth to meet the foe, to +meet fate.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the youngest, Prince Ajey-si, was the darling; so when his turn +came, his father's heart failed him, and he called his chiefs +together. "The child shall go free to recover what is lost. I will be +the twelfth king to die for Chitore."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yea-we will die for Chitore," was the reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">So each Rājput man put on the bridal coronet and the saffron robe, and +every Rājput woman her wedding garment. And when the dawn came, the +city gates were set wide, and through them poured desperate manhood +surrounding a little knot of picked heroes who had sworn to see the +child safe; while from behind rose up on the still morning air a +column of smoke from the vast funeral pyre on which desperate women +had sought the embrace of death in the dark vaults and caves which +honeycomb the rock, and which, since that fatal day, have never been +entered but once by mortal man. Their very entrance is now forgotten.</p> + +<p class="normal">So runs the story. This, at least, is fact: the great Sacrifice of +Honourable Death--the Johār--was performed at Chitore, and +Allah-ud-din, entering victorious, found a silent city.</p> + +<p class="normal">Given an unscrupulous man, possessed of boundless wealth, and all +things are possible in a country distracted by jealousies as India was +at this time. And all things were achieved. The frequent incursions, +growing year by year on larger scale, of the Moghuls who had already +gained foothold to the west and north, were repelled. The Dekkan was +finally conquered and annexed by the king's worthless slave and +favourite, the eunuch Kafūr, a man whose life was one long tale of +infamy. Originally the seat of the great Andhra dynasty, the Dekkan, +divided into many principalities, had passed into many hands. In the +seventh century King Hārsha had attempted to gather it into his +empire, but had been foiled by the skill of Pulikźsin the king, during +whose reign the wonderful caves in the Ajanta valley were excavated +and adorned.</p> + +<p class="normal">Another dynasty, another king in the eighth century gave to the Dekkan +the marvellous rock-cut temple at Ellora. At first a stronghold of the +Jain religion, it oscillated between that and Brahmanism, until in the +twelfth century the latter finally came uppermost with the Haysāla +line of kings.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was in A.D. 1310 that Kafūr swept through the kingdom, despoiled +the capital, laid waste the country, and carried off the reigning +Rājah, though its final absorption in the Mahomedan empire was not +until A.D. 1327. Kafūr, however, set his mark so far south as Adam's +Bridge, opposite Ceylon, the furthest point yet reached by any +northern invasion.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was the zenith of Allah-ud-din's power. His health had yielded to +intemperance of all kinds; he became more and more despotic, more and +more cruel, more and more under the baleful influence of his creature +Kafūr.</p> + +<p class="normal">Rebellion grew rife. Little Prince Ajey-si's heir, Hāmir, recovered +Chitore, Guzerāt revolted, and almost ere it was annexed, the Dekkan +rose and expelled half the Mahomedan garrison.</p> + +<p class="normal">These tidings coming to the already suffering king brought on +paroxysms of rage, and he died, his end accelerated by poison +administered by that slave of his worst passions, Kafūr. Thereupon +followed the usual murders and sudden deaths of an Indian succession, +followed by the death of Kafūr, and the final enthroning of +Allah-ud-din's third son, Mobārik. He was a weak sensualist, who, +nevertheless, was human. So he removed some of his father's more +oppressive taxes, and did away with his restrictions on trade and +property. After which he and his creature Khūshru, a converted Hindu +slave, outraged all decency, and gave way to sheer dissolute devilry, +which ended in the master's murder by his favourite, who thereinafter +snatched at the crown.</p> + +<p class="normal">But this man even the Mahomedan India of the time could not stand. +Mobārik, "whose name and reign would be too infamous to have a place +in the records of literature, did not our duty as historian oblige us +to the disagreeable task," was bad enough. Khūshru was worse. So he +was killed, and a worthy warrior, by name Ghāzi-Beg Toghluk, who had +repelled many invasions of Moghuls, was invited to the throne.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ferishta's description of this is rather nice, and bears quotation:</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"So they presented him with the keys of the city, and he mounted his +horse and entered Delhi in triumph. When he came in sight of the +Palace of a Thousand Minarets" (this must have been somewhere close to +the Kutb) "he wept, and cried aloud:</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh, subjects of a great empire! I am no more than one of you who +unsheathed my sword to deliver you from oppression, and rid the world +of a monster. If, therefore, any member of the royal family remain, +let him be brought, that we his servants should prostrate ourselves +before his throne. But if none of the race of kings have escaped the +bloody hands of usurpation, let the most worthy be selected, and I +swear to abide by the choice.'"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Not a bad speech. Small wonder that there followed on it the first +historical notice of "chairing"--"the populace, laying hold of him, +raised him up, carried him to the throne, and hailed him as +Shāhjahān, Master of the World; but he chose the more modest title of +Ghiāss-ud-din...."</p> + +<p class="normal">For the curse of Sidi Dervish had been effectual, and the House of +Khilji was extinct.</p> + +<p class="normal">Warned by the past, one of the first acts of Ghiāss-ud-din was +formally to nominate his successor from amongst his four sons. He made +an unfortunate choice, for there is little doubt but that Prince Jonah +was accessory to his father's death four years afterwards, when he +invited him into a wooden palace which promptly fell upon, and crushed +the king and five of his attendants.</p> + +<p class="normal">Neither was Prince Aluf-Khān--under which title Jonah became +heir-apparent--a lucky choice in other ways. He lost a large army in +attempting to regain Deogīri, and was not particularly successful +against the Rājputs. The king, meanwhile, spent most of his energy in +building a new citadel at Delhi, the ruins of which still survive +under the name of Tōghlukabad. A fine, massive piece of work it must +have been, with its huge blocks of dressed stone and curiously sloping +walls, reminding one of a modern dam.</p> + +<p class="normal">So with the death of honest Ghiāss appears the typical Eastern +potentate, complete as to arrogance, cruelty, power, and pride, who +for seven-and-twenty years was to cry, "Off with his head!" to any one +he pleased.</p> + +<p class="normal">He seems to have been clever. We are told that he was the "most +eloquent and accomplished prince of his time, and that he was not less +famous for his gallantry in the field than for those accomplishments +which render a man the ornament of private society."</p> + +<p class="normal">It sounds well, but, judged by his acts, it appears doubtful if pride +and arrogance had not made Mahomed Toghluk partially insane. No other +supposition explains the extraordinary contradictions of his rule. He +"established hospitals and almshouses for widows and orphans on the +most liberal scale," but "his punishments were not only rigid and +cruel, but frequently unjust. So little did he hesitate to spill the +blood of God's creatures, that one might have supposed his object was +to exterminate the human species." On more than one occasion, going +out for a royal hunt, he suddenly announced his intention of hunting +men, and not beasts; so the unoffending peasantry were driven in by +the beaters and slain as if they were blackbuck. He imagined and +started vast schemes for conquering China and Persia, in order to +enrich his coffers, yet bribed a Moghul invasion to return whence it +came by a huge subsidy which completely crippled him. He attempted to +face famine--one of the worst India has ever known--by projects for +agricultural improvements, and then added to the horrors and distress +by ordering Delhi to be evacuated, and its inhabitants on pain of +death to migrate with his court to Deogīri, which he rechristened +Dowlutabād, or the "Abode of Wealth." He founded an admirably +regulated postal system throughout the country, but the roads +themselves were bad, and absolutely unsafe for travellers. He tried to +escape insolvency by coining copper at silver values--the first +instance of token money in India--then fell upon his people tooth and +nail because the public credit was not stable enough to stand the +strain. Consequently, vast tracts of land were left uncultured, whole +families fled to the woods to subsist on rapine and murder, while +famine desolated wide provinces.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the potentate remained a potentate. So strong was his grip on the +people, that when, after having once been allowed to return to Delhi +he again ordered them to Dowlutabād, they obeyed, leaving "the +noblest metropolis, the Envy-of-the-World, a resort for owls, and a +dwelling-place for the beasts of the desert."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus it was not the hand of an assassin, but a surfeit of fish which +eventually carried him off. This much may be said in his favour--he +was no sensualist.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was succeeded by his cousin Ferōze in A.D. 1351, who until his +death, at the great age of ninety, in A.D. 1388, bent his whole mind +towards restoring peace and prosperity to his distracted empire; +which, while the largest, nominally, that India had ever seen, was in +reality at the breaking-up point from sheer disorder. His great +panacea appears to have been irrigation, and many an old canal in +India dates from the time of Ferōze Toghluk. Despite his efforts, +however, the empire began to disintegrate. The Dekkan and Bengal +gained independence by the reception of ambassadors at court, and +various smaller states seceded into autonomy. India was, in fact, at +this time semi-fluid, half-gelatinous. Its form was for ever changing. +Each principality at one moment, amœba-like, reached out an +invertebrate arm and clutched at something, the next it had shrunken +to a mere piece of jelly, quiescent, almost lifeless. And Ferōze +Toghluk's hand was not strong enough for the task set it. Yet he was a +good and kindly soul, as is evidenced by the resolutions which he +caused to be engraven on the mosque he built at Ferōzebad (another +portion of Old Delhi). In one he abolished judicial mutilation, +claiming that God in His goodness having conferred on him the power, +had also inspired him with the disposition to end these cruelties. +Another orders the repeal of many vexatious taxes and licences. Yet +another reduced the share of war plunder due to the sovereign from +four-fifths to one-fifth, while it increased that of the troops to +four-fifths from one. A fourth recorded his determination to pension +for life all soldiers invalided by wounds or by age. A fifth declared +his intention of severely punishing "all public servants convicted of +corruption, as well as persons who offer bribes." The latter being a +nicety in legal morality which one would hardly expect of the +fourteenth century.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ferōze was followed in about six years by no less than five kings +whose only record of interest is that they stood by and watched the +great empire which Kutb-ud-din Eībuk had wrested from the Rājputs, and +which Allah-ud-din had consolidated by sheer tyranny, fall to bits. +Anarchy reigned supreme, civil war raged everywhere, and in Delhi +itself two nominal kings were in arms the one against the other when, +in A.D. 1398, news came that for an instant checked quarrel, and made +all India hold its breath.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Moghuls, under Timur, on their way to Delhi, had crossed the +Indus, The long-dreaded, ofttimes-delayed invasion had come at last.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.6" href="#div1Ref_02.6">THE INVASION OF TIMUR</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1388 TO A.D. 1389</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">There is one cry of terror which from time immemorial has echoed out +over the wide wheatfields of Northern India. Sometimes it has come +when the first sword-points of the new-sprouted seed give a green +shading to the sandy soil, and the flooding water from the wells which +cease not night or day follows obedient to the naked brown figure with +a wooden spud which directs it first to one patch of corn, then to +another. Sometimes, again, it has come when the village has emptied +itself upon the harvest field, when men are cutting and threshing, and +women winnowing, while the children lie asleep in the great heaps of +chaff, or make quaint images out of the straw.</p> + +<p class="normal">At times, again, but not often, it has come, as it did in the Mutiny +days, when the bare burnt fields lie idle, resting against next +crop-season, and the peasant women sit outside the breathless village, +picking and carding and spinning. But the cause is always the same: a +knot of hurried horsemen showing on the level horizon, messengers, as +it were, from the outside world beyond village ken.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Toork! The Toork!" rises the cry, and in an instant jewels are +torn off and hidden, everything that can be concealed concealed, and +with a wild prayer to some god for protection, the ultimate atom of +India awaits destruction or dishonour or death in apathetic despair.</p> + +<p class="normal">It must have needed a bitter biting indeed to have engraven this fear +so indelibly on the Hindu heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet looking back on the four hundred years of Mahomedan inroads which +we have just followed, small wonder can be felt at the persistence of +this terror. How many times had not this knot of horsemen appeared, +done their worst, and disappeared, leaving behind them miserable, +dishonoured women, maddened by the sight of their murdered husbands, +and the very dead boy-babies at their breasts.</p> + +<p class="normal">A horrible legacy of fear, in truth!</p> + +<p class="normal">And of late, in addition to the endless incursions of the Mahomedans +proper, there had been persistent appearances and reappearances of the +yellow-skinned Moghuls. From north, from east, from west, this rising +race had ridden, had ravaged, and had returned whence they came.</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth they were more of a rising race than these poor peasants +knew; more so than the effete monarchies and nobilities of Mahomedan +India realised. Close on a hundred and fifty years before, Chengiz +Khān, a Moghul chief, had barbarously swept through the plains of +North-Western Asia, and now his descendant Timur--though born in +comparatively civilised times, and by profession a Mahomedan--was to +carry on the destruction which his ancestor had begun. History hardly +presents a more terrible personality than that of this man, as judged +by the autobiography he left behind him. It is one of the most +remarkable records ever written. Here is no mere rude barbarian, but a +wily man of the world, ready to practise on every weakness of his +fellows, ready with cant, with real devotion, full of courage as well +as full of address, and with and through it all the most unscrupulous +selfishness, the utmost admiration for his own perfidies.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he was a great man; in his way, a genius. There is nothing in its +way finer than the record he gives in this autobiography of his--which +he entitles, "Political and Military Institutions of Tamārleng," or +the Lame Timur--of his reasons for advancing on India, and his +experiences there.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"I ordered 1,000 swift-footed camels, 1,000 swift-footed horses, and +1,000 swift-footed infantry to bring me word respecting the princes of +India. I learnt that they were at variance one with the other.... The +conquest appeared to me easy, though my soldiers thought it dangerous.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Resolved to undertake it, and make myself master of the Indian +Empire.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Did so."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Brief to the point almost of bathos; but surely a brevity which brings +with it a shiver as at something inhuman in its strength.</p> + +<p class="normal">So in September 1398 the "admirably regulated horse and foot post" +which Mahomed Toghluk had given to India, brought news that a huge +host of Turks and Tartars and Moghuls, led by Timur in person, had +crossed the river Indus by a bridge of rafts and reeds.</p> + +<p class="normal">The tidings seem to have brought about no concerted action in India. +It was too much given over to anarchy for cohesion. And so the +celebrated march of the "Lame Firebrand of the World" began in +earnest.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is a horrid record of brutal butchery. As if fascinated by some +unholy spell, the inhabitants of India seem to have yielded their +necks to the smiter, without, as Ferishta puts it, "making one brave +effort to save their country, their lives, or their property."</p> + +<p class="normal">His first halt was at Talūmba, a strong fort and city at the junction +of the Chenāb and the Rāvi rivers. He plundered the town, but as the +fort was strong, left it comtemptuously alone and went forward on his +path of desolation and destruction. Not a village was left unburnt, +not a male left alive, not a female unravished. The next pause was at +a town famous for the shrine of a Mahomedan saint, for whose sake he +spared the inhabitants, and after (doubtless) saying his prayers, +dutifully pressed on to Bhatnīr, the headquarters of the Great Lunar +Race of Rājputs. This he reached in two days by forced marches, the +last being one of close on 100 miles. Here his ferocity broke beyond +bounds. He slew by thousands the helpless country folk who had fled +for protection to their Rājah, and who, overcrowding the city, were +huddled together like sheep beyond its walls. The garrison gave +battle, but, hard-pressed, sought refuge in the citadel, and Timur, +gaining the gates of the town ere they could be shut, drove the +unfortunates from street to street. Overmastered by numbers, by sheer +terror, the place capitulated on terms. To no purpose. For, even while +the Tartar was receiving the delegates and accepting their presents, +orders were given to sack and slay. Whereupon, struck with horror, +with despair, the cry, "Johār! Johār!" arose from the men, wives and +children were slain, and the Rājputs sought nothing but revenge and +death. "The scene," says Ferishta, "was awful. The inhabitants in the +end were cut off to a man, though not before some thousands of the +Moghuls had fallen."</p> + +<p class="normal">This so exasperated Timur that every living soul in the city was +massacred, and the place itself reduced to ashes.</p> + +<p class="normal">To Sarāswati, to Fatehābad, to Rājpur, he carried his flaming sword; +then at Kāitul he rejoined the main body of his army--for he had only +commanded a flying column hitherto--and settled his face fairly +towards his goal--Delhi.</p> + +<p class="normal">But now abject fear was beforehand with him, and he marched through +desolate fields, deserted houses, empty cities.</p> + +<p class="normal">A strange march of Death indeed! The young green wheat showing green +as ever, the hearth fires still burning bravely, the litter and +leavings of human life lying about in the sunlight; but life +itself?--nowhere! Everything, gold, gems, home, country left, but that +had gone. It must have angered the horde of butchers to find no blood +with which to wet their swords, to hear no piteous cries for mercy as +they rode. The very hands must have grown listless as they gathered in +the unresisting spoils.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps that was the reason why Timur, arriving within touch of Delhi, +sought to revive his soldiery by an order for the wholesale slaughter +of all prisoners.</p> + +<p class="normal">And all this time at Delhi the puppet-king Mahmūd, the last degenerate +scion of the House of Toghluk, had sate in the massive palace of his +forefathers, waiting.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Delhi dūr ust."</p> + +<p class="normal">["It is a far cry to Delhi."]</p> + +<p class="normal">This had been his hope as he waited. But early in January an old +man--for Timur was now past sixty years of age, and his life had been +a strenuous one--crossed the river with a small body of seven hundred +horse, and calmly reconnoitered Tōghlukabad.</p> + +<p class="normal">Seven hundred horse only! Mahmūd took courage, sallied out with five +thousand, was contemptuously driven within the walls again, until +Timur, "having made the observations he wished, repassed the river, +and rejoined his army."</p> + +<p class="normal">A good general this, trusting to no Intelligence Department, but to +his own eyes.</p> + +<p class="normal">That night the one thousand prisoners (the figure is that given by +Mahomedan historians) were slain in cold blood. Next day, 13th +January, he and his army forded the river without opposition and +entrenched themselves close to the gates of Tōghlukabad. Despising the +astrologers, who pronounced the 15th of January to be an unlucky day, +Timur chose it for his attack, and drew up his army in order of +battle. His foes were barely worthy of such trouble. They certainly +returned the challenge by marching out, elephants covered in mail, +warriors in armour, pennants flying, drums sounding; but at the first +charge of Moghul horsemen, the elephants' drivers were unseated, and +leviathan in terror fled to the rear, communicating confusion to the +ranks.</p> + +<p class="normal">So almost without a blow the Tartar found himself by nightfall at the +very gates of the city.</p> + +<p class="normal">A fateful night! The king fled in it, the chief men in the city +resolved during it on submission, and were promised protection on +payment of a heavy indemnity.</p> + +<p class="normal">Next morning, Timur was proclaimed Emperor in every mosque, guards +were placed at Treasury and gates, and troops sent to enforce +immediate payment.</p> + +<p class="normal">What followed may have been due to insubordination on the part of the +pillaging soldiery; on the other hand, it occurred far too often in +Timur's career to make us quite unsuspicious of perfidy. Anyhow, +whether by collision between the populace and the troops, or by mere +wanton violence, resistance was aroused even amid the panic-stricken +inhabitants, and the greatest tragedy Delhi has ever seen began. Once +more the cry, "Johār! Johār!" echoed out helplessly, the gates were +overpowered by mob-force and closed, the houses were set on fire, and +while women and children perished in the flames, the men fought +desperately to death in the streets, hand to hand with their butchers. +The lanes were barricaded by the bodies of the dead, lives were sold +dear, and a scene of carnage beyond description ensued; until the +gates being once more forced, the whole Moghul army was let loose, to +deal inevitable death on the almost unarmed crowd.</p> + +<p class="normal">Five days afterwards Timur offered up to God "his sincere and humble +tribute of grateful praise for his victory" in the splendid mosque of +marble which Ferōze Toghluk had built on the banks of the Jumna.</p> + +<p class="normal">Once more we are reminded of that idle rhyme--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Three thousand Frenchmen sent below,<br> +Praise God from whom all blessings flow."</p> +</div> + +<p class="continue">The primitive passions change very little.</p> + +<p class="normal">After that he departed, his work accomplished, his task done. He took +with him plunder inconceivable, and with a few minor excursions to +"put every inhabitant to the sword," made his way back to Samarkhūnd +by the Kābul route. To the last exposing himself to every fatigue, +every privation which he imposed upon his army.</p> + +<p class="normal">So he quitted India, taking no trouble to make provision for holding +the empire he had won. He left anarchy, famine, pestilence, behind +him. For two months Delhi was a city of the dead, and for thirty-six +years India owned no government either in name or in reality. Dazed, +depopulated, despairing, she dreamt evil dreams--dreams almost worse +than the nightmare of the past.</p> + +<p class="normal">No greater proof of the totality of Timur's destruction is needed than +this--a whole generation had to pass away ere men could be found with +hope enough wherewith to face the future.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.7" href="#div1Ref_02.7">DEVASTATED INDIA</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1389 TO A.D. 1514</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">For over a hundred and twenty years India remained free from a master +hand. It is true that the puppet-king Mahmūd, who had fled from Delhi +on that fateful night of the 15th of January 1389, returned to it, +first as a mere pensioner, afterwards as nominal ruler; but the whole +continent had split up into petty principalities governed by Mahomedan +rulers. Guzerāt, Mālwa, Kanauj, Oude, Kārra, Jaūnpur, Lahōre, +Dipalpūr, Multān, Byāna, Kalpi, Mahōba, these were but a few of the +countless kings who rose up and warred with one another.</p> + +<p class="normal">Beyond these, again, to the southward, lay the great kingdom of the +Dekkan, which one Allah-ud-din Hassan had reft bloodlessly from +Mahomed Toghluk. This Hassan had a curious history. The servant of a +Brahman astrologer, he appears to have lived a life absolutely without +colour, until one day, when ploughing, the share caught in a chain +attached to an old copper vessel full of antique gold coins. This +treasure trove introduced him to the king's notice; he was made +captain of a hundred horse, so rose gradually to power. And wherever +he went he took with him his former master, the Brahman Ganga, who +long years before had predicted for him great distinction. When Hassan +reached royalty, the Brahman became finance-minister, and from this +fact the whole dynasty was called Bāhmani, or Brāhmani. It lasted for +close on two hundred years; a most unusual stability for India. But +ere the period now before us had closed, the Dekkan also had split up +into five separate states--Bījapur, Golcōnda, Berār, Ahmudnāgar, +Hyderabād.</p> + +<p class="normal">About the time of Timur's invasion, the Brāhmani dynasty was in the +zenith of its fortunes. We have in the description of it, then, a +picture of Eastern despotism that fits in with the preconceived ideas +of most Westerns on this subject. Absolute power, untold wealth, +munificence, cruelty, passion, pride, prejudice; all the concomitants +of an Eastern potentate are there. The celebrated Turquoise Throne +itself fills the imagination with its "enamel of a sky-blue colour, +cased in gold which was in time totally concealed by the number of +precious ornaments"; but when we add to this the golden ball over the +throne "all inlaid with jewels, on which sate a bird of paradise +composed entirely of precious stones, in whose head was a ruby of +inestimable price," we desire no more. The Eastern glamour is +complete.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the kings of the Dekkan went on ruling, every now and again letting +themselves loose on some minor rājah, and killing a few thousand +Hindus for the sake of the Faith; every now and again ruling wisely +and well, but as often as not badly and brutally. Sometimes they +combined the epithets, as in the case of Mahomed Shāh Bāhmini, A.D. +1358-1375, during whose reign it is said "all ranks of the people +reposed in security and peace," and that "nearly five hundred thousand +unbelievers fell by the swords of the warriors of Islām, by which the +population of the Carnatic was so reduced that it did not recover for +several ages"!!!</p> + +<p class="normal">Some of these precious potentates died in their beds, a larger +proportion of them were assassinated. This much, at any rate, may be +said of Indian public opinion in these times, that it sided with +morality, for the most condign punishments on record are invariably +meted out to the biggest villains. Perhaps the most picturesque of +these records is that concerning King Ghiāss-ud-din Bāhmini and +Lālchi, one of the principal Turki slaves of the household. This man +possessed a daughter of exquisite beauty, whom the seventeen-year-old +young monarch happened to see and instantly desired. The father +refused, the king persisted. So Lālchi laid his plans. He invited the +passion-struck lad to an entertainment at his house, plied him with +wine, and then induced him to order his attendants to withdraw, in +order that the exquisite beauty might appear. The half-intoxicated +prince attempted flight when Lālchi returned from the harem not with a +girl, but a naked dagger, rolled down some steps, and the next instant +both his eyes were blinded; whereupon Lālchi coolly sent for the royal +attendants one by one, as if by the king's order, and put them to +death severally as they appeared. As these were mostly nobles and +officials of high rank, he found no difficulty in deposing +Ghiāss-ud-din, who had only reigned for six weeks!</p> + +<p class="normal">The history of the Dekkan finds echo in the kingdoms of Kandeish, +Mālwa, Guzerāt, all of which came into existence about the same +period. But in addition to these Mahomedan principalities a great and +powerful Rājput confederacy--for the semifeudal system of the race was +antagonistic to empire--was springing up among the hills in Mźwar, the +"middle mountain" country now called Oudipur, and in the deserts of +Mārwar or the "Region of Death," now called Jodhpur and Jeysulmeer. +The two former kingdoms were ruled by princes of the Sun, but +Jeysulmeer claimed, as it does now, descent from the Moon.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such slight differences, however, were as naught before a common +enemy, and ever since Mahmūd of Ghuzni had defeated Anangpal, Lunar +king of Delhi--representative of a dynasty which, legend has it, had +lasted since the days of Yudishthira of Māhābhārata fame--down through +the time when Mahomed Ghori had annihilated Prithvi-Rāj, grandson of +the last Anangpal, and Kutb-uddin Eībuk, his Slave-general, had +carried on his butchery, until the present day, the common enemy of +every Rājput had been the Mahomedan.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, naturally, the conflict of the conquerors was the opportunity of +the vanquished.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is true that the young Ajey-si, saved from the sack of Chitore by +so much bloodshed, did not fulfil his father's hope that the child +should recover what the man had lost, but his appointed heir, Hamīr, +more than redeemed the promise; for, during the two centuries +following on the recapture of his kingdom, it rose to a pitch of power +and solidarity never before touched, and received the homage of all +surrounding principalities. The story of Hamīr's success is a strange +one, and is reminiscent of the legend of Sir Gawaine, or the Knight of +Courtesy, since the success came as a consequence of chivalry to +womanhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hamīr's perseverance had brought him to the very walls of Chitore, but +the real struggle for possession was before him. At this juncture the +city gates opened, and a peaceful procession passed out, bearing the +recognised symbol of a marriage proposal, a cocoa-nut. It came from +the mercenary but highborn Hindu Governor of Chitore, offering his +daughter as a preliminary to peace. The young prince's advisers voted +for a return of the offer. Hamīr bid its retention, boldly saying +that, come what might, his feet would thus tread the rocky steps which +his ancestors had trodden.</p> + +<p class="normal">Forth, therefore, with but the stipulated five hundred horse, went the +Bridegroom-Prince. He was met at the gate by the bride's five +brothers, gloomy of face, solemn of mien. But on the city portal was +no mystical triangle of marriage, no wedding garlands decorated the +streets. Yet ceremony was not absent. The ancient hall of his +ancestors was filled with chiefs awaiting him with folded hands; the +bride's father welcomed him gravely. One can imagine the young man, +ready to take what the gods chose to give for the sake of a hold on +Chitore, waiting while the bride was led forth.</p> + +<p class="normal">No cripple this! The young heart must have breathed more freely as the +slim, veiled figure stood silent by his side. A promise of beauty +here, surely! The young blood shivered through his veins, as the +strong sword-hand met the soft, slender fingers; then seemed to flow +almost tumultuously towards the new, the unknown, as the attendant +priest knotted the marriage garments together. Yet still no smile, no +word of congratulation. What did it mean? What matter! it was for the +sake of Chitore.</p> + +<p class="normal">So to the marriage chamber, where the family priest lingered +hesitatingly to preach patience.</p> + +<p class="normal">Patience! with a bride before one, every fold of whose veiled figure +told of beauty!</p> + +<p class="normal">Beauty indeed! but--one glance was enough--she was a widow!</p> + +<p class="normal">He had been tricked indeed! A virgin widow, no doubt, and beautiful, +exceedingly; yet still a widow, and accursed, almost unclean.</p> + +<p class="normal">What did she say to him? History does not tell us. All we know is that +"her kindness and vows of fidelity overcame his sadness."</p> + +<p class="normal">Doubtless, the pity which is akin to love swayed him, but it was her +cleverness, and not her kindness that gained the victory. For that +strange marriage night was spent in a woman teaching a man how to win +back his ancestral kingdom. Not by war, that was too crude. The people +must be won over. Let her husband ask next morning as the marriage +gift which no Rājput bridegroom is refused, for one Jāl, a humble +scribe of the city.</p> + +<p class="normal">So Hamīr went home burdened by a widow-wife and a scribe.</p> + +<p class="normal">A year passed, and a prince was born; another year spent in what wiles +and guiles only the widow mother and her scribe adviser knew, and the +little prince, sick, had to be taken back to Chitore in order to be +placed for healing before the shrine of Vyan-Māta. Taken, oddly +enough, while his grandfather, the mercenary governor, was away with +most of the troops on an expedition.</p> + +<p class="normal">A beautiful injured queen, a lovely baby prince, a hero husband ready +to regain the throne of his ancestors, a devoted adherent prepared for +every emergency; these were the factors in the sudden acclaim by which +Hamīr, in consequence of his courtesy, was able once more to raise the +standard of the Sun on the walls of Chitore. Where it remained for +long years gloriously, comparatively peacefully; for while in +Mahomedan Delhi no less than twenty-five monarchs were needed--such +was the perpetual procession of assassinations, rebellions, +dethronement--to bridge the period between Kutb-ud-din's seizure of +Delhi and Timur's invasion of India, in Chitore--that is to say, +Mźwar, or as it is now called, Oudipur--eleven princes had sufficed to +fill the throne.</p> + +<p class="normal">But in addition to Mźwar we have to reckon with Mārwar, or Jodhpur and +Jeysulmeer. The former, however, was at this time a comparatively +modern principality. After the defeat of Jāichand, the Rājah of +Kanauj--who had so unavailingly performed the Sai-nair rite at which +Prithvi-Rāj had carried off the Princess Sunjogāta--his grandsons +Shiv-ji and Sāyat-Rām, set out towards the great Indian Desert, hoping +to carve fresh fortune from its barren stretches. They succeeded; but +it was not until A.D. 1511 that Prince Jodha laid the foundation of a +new capital, and brought Mārwar into line with the other great Rājput +powers.</p> + +<p class="normal">Jeysulmeer had a longer record. Headquarters of the Bhatti clan, its +legendary history goes back to the eighth century; but from A.D. 1156 +the chronicle is fairly continuous, and is full of romance and +interest. Proud, passionate, clean-lived princes, these descendants of +the Moon--for they were of the Yādu race--seem to have been. One of +them, still quite a lad, giving way to Berserk rage, struck his +foster-brother. The blow was returned; whereupon, stung with shame, +both at the insult and the lack of self-control which brought it +about, the offender stabbed himself with his dagger. Another still +more typical story is told of the passing of Rāwul (an honorific title +equalling Rājah) Chachīk, who, finding disease his master, sent an +embassy to the Mahomedan ruler of Multān, begging from him the last +favour of <i>jūd-dan</i>, or the gift of battle, "that his soul might +escape by the steel of his foeman, and not fall sacrifice to slow +disease."</p> + +<p class="normal">The challenge was accepted, after the Mahomedan had been assured that +honourable death was the sole end and aim.</p> + +<p class="normal">So on the appointed day Rāwul Chachīk, followed by seven hundred +nobles, who, having shared all his victories, were prepared to follow +him to death, marched out "to part with life."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"His soul was rejoiced, he performed his ablutions, worshipped the +sword, bestowed charity, and withdrew his thoughts from this world. +The battle lasted four hours, and the Yādu prince fell with all his +kin, after performing prodigees of valour. Two thousand Mahomedans +fell beneath their swords, and rivers of blood flowed in the field; +but the Bhatti gained the abode of Indra, who shared His throne with +the hero."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Such, then, were the people who were gradually recovering some of the +possessions and the prestige which they had lost when Prithvi-Rāj fell +victim to Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din Ghori.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, at Delhi the thirty-six years of kinglessness passed into +seventy-three, during which the government was in the hands of three +comparatively strong men, Belōl Lodi, Secūnder Lodi, Ibrahīm Lodi.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first was a warrior, the second a bigot, the third a tyrant. Of +the three, Belōl did most for his country, since at his death his +empire extended eastwards as far as Benares.</p> + +<p class="normal">Secūnder seems to have subordinated policy to religion. He destroyed +every image and temple which he could see, or of which he could hear, +and promptly put to death a Brahman who preached that "all religions, +if sincerely practised, were equally acceptable to God."</p> + +<p class="normal">Tolerance was not a virtue in those days.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was during the reign of Ibrahīm Lodi that Babar, the first of the +great Moghuls, entered India in A.D. 1514; but this was an event of +such vast importance that it will be necessary to hark back some +thirty years to the little kingdom of Ferghāna, where Babar was born +on the 14th of February, A.D. 1483.</p> + +<p class="center">Map: India to A.D. 1483</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.8" href="#div1Ref_02.8">THE GREAT MOGHULS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>BABAR THE ADVENTURER</h3> + +<h3>A.D. 1483 TO A.D. 1514</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Born on St Valentine's Day, A.D. 1483, the boy-baby, who was hereafter +to be called Zāhir-ud-din Mahomed, and nicknamed Babar, must have been +plentifully supplied with fairy godmothers, for he was gifted with +almost every possible gift.</p> + +<p class="normal">To begin with, he had good looks, even judging by the curious +portraits of those days. Then, there can be no question of his ability +as a soldier, while intellectually he would have been remarkable in +any age. Besides this, he was possessed of the true artistic +temperament to a quite unusual degree; he was painter, poet, author, +and in the smallest thing that he wrote showed unerring literary skill +and taste.</p> + +<p class="normal">Beyond, and above all, however, he had that nameless charm which makes +him, surely, the most delightful personality known to history.</p> + +<p class="normal">Given such a man, it would be sheer perversity to treat of him solely +in reference to the part he played in India, as this would be to +deprive ourselves of no less than thirty-six years of the very best of +company.</p> + +<p class="normal">So let us begin at the very beginning. It is possible to do this with +an accuracy unobtainable with any other Indian king--or, indeed, with +any king of any clime--because Babar left to the ages an autobiography +of himself, his thoughts, his acts, his failures, his successes, which +is, truly, a quite extraordinary record. Between the covers lies a +whole, real, live, human being.</p> + +<p class="normal">It opens, however, with these words, "In the year 1494, and in the +twelfth year of my age, I became King of Ferghāna." We have therefore +to go back eleven years for the birth of Babar. Before doing this, a +glance round the world will give us the <i>milieu</i> in which our hero was +to play his part.</p> + +<p class="normal">Briefly, then, Vasco da Gama had but just discovered India, Henry VII. +was King of England. Michelangelo was revolutionising the world of +art, Copernicus creating that of science. For the rest, a hundred +years had passed since Timur the "Earth Trembler" had shaken literally +the whole world; for his grip on it had reached West to Moscow and +East to China. Yet a hundred years further back again Chengiz Khān had +swept over the same ground like a devastating flame.</p> + +<p class="normal">Babar had both these unamiable ruffians as ancestors, but, apparently, +was by no means proud of his Mongal or Moghul descent. He called +himself a Turk, and wrote hardly of the race whose name, by the irony +of fate, was to be attached to the dynasty he founded.</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"If the Moghul race had an angel's birth,<br> +It still would be made of the basest earth;<br> +Were the Moghul name writ in thrice-fired gold,<br> +It would ring as false as it did of old;<br> +From a Moghul's harvest sow never a seed<br> +For the seed of a Moghul is false indeed!"</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">Babar was the son of Omār-Shaīkh, King of Ferghāna, or as it is now +called, Khōkand. At his birth a courier was sent post-haste to inform +his maternal grandfather, the Khān of the Mongols, who, despite his +seventy years, came back post-haste to join in the festivities, +and--his uncouth, Mongolian tongue trippling over the polished Persian +name Zāhir-ud-din (the Evidence of Faith)--to dub the child Babar, or +"the tiger," a nickname which stuck to him for life. A fine old man +this grandfather of Babar's, and a fine old woman his grandmother must +have been. A woman not to be trifled with, to judge by her action when +one Jāimul-Khān, having for a time defeated her husband, seized her +and made her over to one of his officers.</p> + +<p class="normal">Isa-Begum raised no puerile objections. She received her new master +quite affably, but once he was within her chamber door she locked it, +bade her maids stab him to death, fling the body to the street, and +send this message to Shāikh-Jāimul: "I am the wife of Yunās. Contrary +to law, you gave me to another man, so I slew him. Come and slay me if +you choose."</p> + +<p class="normal">The erring Jāimul must have had good in him, for, struck by her +courage, he restored her honourably to her husband.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the age of five Babar was betrothed to his cousin Ayźsha, and the +next six years must have been spent at the millstone of education, +since this was all the schooling Fate granted him, and he emerged from +it with two languages at his fingers' end, and an amount of literary +skill and general knowledge which was fairly surprising. His father, +still in the prime of life, was killed by an accident while away from +his capital, and the incident is thus described by the boy-king, who, +36 miles away, "immediately mounted in the greatest haste, and, taking +such followers as were at hand, set out to secure my throne."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The river flows under the walls of the castle, which is situated on +the very edge of a high precipice, so that it serves as a moat. And +some of the ravines down to it being scarped to support the castle, in +all Ferghāna stands no stronger fortress. Thus one of the walls giving +way, my father, feeding his pigeons, was, with the pigeons and the +pigeon-house, precipitated from the top of the steep, and so himself +took flight to another world."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">A quaint description, giving a picture which lingers in the mind's +eye. The fortress hanging over the abyss, the king, in Eastern +fashion, making his pigeons tumble for their corn. Then the sudden +slip, and a startled soul among the startled white wings on its way to +another world. Even the body which the soul had left remains alive for +ever in Babar's words:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"My father was of lowish stature, had a short, bushy beard, and was +fat. He used to wear his tunic very tight, and as he drew himself in +when he put it on, when he let himself out the strings often burst. He +plaited his turban without folds, and let the end hang down. He was +but a middling shot with the bow, but had such uncommon force with his +fists that he never hit a man but he knocked him down. His generosity +was large, and so was his whole nature. He was a humane king, and +played a great deal at backgammon."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Peace be to thine ashes, oh, Omār-Shāikh! Even after all the centuries +we seem to know the man himself, as we read the words in which his son +has pictured him.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, let us hark back to Ferghāna, the little kingdom watered by the +river Jaxārtes, and give one more extract from Babar's journal to show +what manner of place it seemed to the eleven-year-old king.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Ferghāna is situate on the extreme boundary of the habitable world. +It is a valley clipped by snowy mountains on all sides but the west, +whither the river flows, and on which side alone it can be entered by +foreign enemies. It is of small extent, but abounds in grain and +fruits. Its melons are excellent and plentiful. There are no better +pears in the world. Its pheasants are so fat that four persons may +dine on the stew of one and not finish it. Its violets are +particularly elegant, and it abounds in streams of running water. In +the spring its tulips and roses blow in great profusion, and there are +mines of turquoise in the mountains, while in the valley the people +make velvet of a crimson colour."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Surely this description is sufficient, not only to show us Ferghāna, +but also to give us a clear idea of the boy who saw it thus. Truly the +temptation to quote from this delightful record is well nigh +irresistible, but space forbids, for there is much to say of Babar as +poet, painter, musician, astronomer, knight-errant, soldier-lover, +king, and <i>bon vivant</i>. He was all of these in turn; and in addition, +kindly, valorous, courteous. A real paladin if ever there was one.</p> + +<p class="normal">From the very first he gripped the reins of kingship with a firm hand. +And it was no easy task to guide the little kingdom through the +dangers which beset it; but he succeeded "through the distinguished +valour of my young soldiers" (he himself being but twelve!) in besting +his uncles the Kings of Samarkhūnd and Tashkūnd, so holding his own. +Shortly after this the young king nearly fell a victim to conspiracy, +owing to his confidence in one Hassan-Yukūb, "the best player of +leap-frog I have known." From this infatuation he was rescued by his +shrewd old grandmother, of whom Babar speaks with sneaking awe: "She +was uncommonly far-sighted; few of her sex equalled her in sagacity." +This incident evidently sobered him, for he "began to abstain from +forbidden meats, and seldom omitted midnight prayers."</p> + +<p class="normal">For there is always something absolutely translucent in Babar's +accounts of himself, and of everything which he heard and saw. +It is impossible even for a moment to doubt their accuracy. His +self-revelation is frankness itself, and his views of men and manners +bring conviction with them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ambition seems to have seized on him early, for ere he was fifteen, +his uncle the king having died, he marched on Samarkhūnd to make a bid +for the throne. And he succeeded. He was Emperor of Samarkhūnd, as his +ancestor Timur had been, for exactly one hundred days, during which he +appears to have enjoyed himself hugely. One is apt to think of these +Eastern cities beyond the verge, as they are now--half-ruined, dreary, +dead-alive. But in those days they were centres of commerce, learning, +and art. To Samarkhūnd Timur had brought the untold riches of India, +her clever craftsmen, her skilled artisans. It was a beautiful, a +cultured city, and Babar came to the conclusion "that in the whole +habitable world there are few places so pleasantly situated."</p> + +<p class="normal">His dream of success lasted but those hundred days; then evil news of +rebellion at Ferghāna and an appeal for help came from his mother. "I +was ill," he writes, "but had not the heart to delay an instant, so +being unable to nurse myself, I had a relapse."</p> + +<p class="normal">He came so near death, indeed, that some of his followers, despairing +of life, shifted for themselves, and brought the news of his demise to +Ferghāna. Thus when the young king came back to consciousness, it was +to find himself without a kingdom; for his friends, believing him +dead, had surrendered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thus for the sake of Ferghāna I had given up Samarkhūnd, and now +found I had lost the one without securing the other."</p> + +<p class="normal">Such is his philosophical comment. But Babar's remarks are always +inimitable. When they hanged his envoy over the gate of the citadel, +he sets down his instant belief that "without doubt Khwaja Kazi was a +saint: he was a wonderfully brave man--which is no mean proof of +saintship. Other men, brave as they may be, have some nervousness or +trepidation in them. The Kazi hadn't a particle of either."</p> + +<p class="normal">This reverse necessitated two years of wandering in the hills. He took +his mother with him and his old grandmother, giving them the best +shelter he could find. And wherever he wandered, he himself was always +cheerful, always kindly, always ready to enjoy the beauties and the +gifts of Nature; especially "a wonderful delicate and toothsome melon, +with a mottled skin like shagreen."</p> + +<p class="normal">Until one day, just as the sun was setting, a solitary horseman +bearing a message sped up the valley towards his mountain fastness, +and in less than half an hour Babar was up and away through the +deepening night in response to those who loved him; and there were +many of them. Indeed his capacity for winning over most men to his +side is one of his most salient characteristics. He was <i>bon camarade</i> +with half his world.</p> + +<p class="normal">An eventful ride this over hill and dale, through darkness and through +light. "We had passed three days and three nights without rest, +neither man nor horse had strength left," when, hanging on the edge of +a hill, the city of his hope showed rose-red in the dawn. Then for the +first time fear came. Had he been over-hasty? What if this were a +trick to decoy him and his handful of followers to their death?</p> + +<p class="normal">But "there was no possibility of retreat, no refuge even to which we +could retreat. So, having come so far, on we must go. (Nothing happens +but by God's will.)"</p> + +<p class="normal">The trite little sentence of consolation was justified. Babar found +himself once more King of Ferghāna; but he promptly lost his kingdom +again by attempting to make his ill-disciplined Mongolian troops make +restitution to the peasantry of the loot they had taken from them.</p> + +<p class="normal">He admits his error frankly.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"It was a senseless thing to exasperate so many men with arms in their +hands. In war and in statecraft a thing may seem reasonable at first +sight, but it needs to be weighed and considered in a hundred lights +before it is finally decided upon. This ill-judged order of mine was, +in fact, the ultimate cause of my second expulsion."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">This was in A.D. 1500, when he was seventeen years old. Still his +buoyancy remained, despite his evil fortune, and for the next few +months his itinerary is full of the joys of "a capital hunting-ground, +with good covers for game," in which he coursed, and shot, and hawked, +to his heart's content.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not for long, however. Samarkhūnd tempted him again in the summer; but +he had to retire and seek shelter in the hills once more,</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"by dangerous tracks among the rocks. In the steep and narrow ways and +gorges which we had to climb, many a horse and camel dropped and fell +out. After four or five days we came to the col of Sir-i-Tuk. This +<i>is</i> a pass! Never did I see one so narrow and steep, or follow paths +more toilsome and strait. We pressed on, nevertheless, with incredible +labour, through fearful gorges and by tremendous precipices, until, +after a hundred agonies and losses, at last we topped those murderous +steep defiles and came down on the borders of Kān, with its lovely +expanse of lake."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">When eighteen he finally managed to conquer Samarkhūnd, and in the +same year his first child, a daughter, was born; for he had wedded his +cousin Ayźsha while in hiding in the hills. He called the baby "The +Glory of Womanhood," and chronicles regretfully that "in a month or +forty days she went to partake of the Mercy of God."</p> + +<p class="normal">Marriage, however, appears to have roused him to no emotion, for he +admits first that he had "never conceived a passion for any woman, and +indeed had never been so placed as even to hear or witness words of +love or amorous discourse"; secondly, that in the beginning of his +wedded life, shyness almost overcame affection; "and afterwards," he +adds quaintly, "as my affection decreased my shyness increased."</p> + +<p class="normal">A curious record of clean-living this for an Eastern king in the very +hey-day of youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Babar's success did not last for long. Two years after he was once +more a fugitive, and this time he did not succeed in saving all his +womenkind. His favourite sister, older than he was by some years, +remained behind, part of the price paid for bare freedom, and entered +his victorious enemy's harem. This was a bitter pill to swallow, and +Babar never forgot it. This sister figures in the Memoirs of Babar's +daughter, Gulbadan, as "Dearest Lady." She seems to have kept her +brother's deep devotion to the last.</p> + +<p class="normal">So for three long years Babar wandered once more. This is perhaps the +most exciting portion of his Autobiography. It is absolutely packed +full with hair's-breadth escapes, crowded in each word with human +interest. We see the young king, now in the very prime of his manhood, +standing stripped for his bathe in "a stream that was frozen at the +banks, but not in the middle, by reason of its swift current." We +watch him "plunge in and dive sixteen times, but the biting chill of +the water cut through me." We follow breathlessly the vain endeavour +made by him and three trusted friends to induce his frightened troops +to rally: "I was constantly turning with my three companions to keep +the enemy in check, and bring them up short with our arrows; but we +could not make the men stand anyhow." We mourn with him on another +occasion his ignorance that "the horsemen who followed were not above +twenty or twenty-five, while we were eight." We agree with him that +had he "but known their number at first, he would 'have given them +warm work.'" We share his faith in his own nimbleness in climbing a +hill as the only escape from the arrows of bowmen, and we positively +hold our breath in the amazing story of the Garden at Tambal, where he +waited for Death, and found Life, and friends, and new hope.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was the capture of Kābul. The kingly blood in him craved a +kingdom. He felt he must have one if he died for it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Surely never was claimant for royalty worse fitted out for the quest +than was Babar! Even Prince Charlie, with his head in Flora +Macdonald's lap, does not come up in forlornness with Zāhir-ud-din +Mahomed Babar, who gave his only tent to his mother, and whose +followers, "great and small, were more than two hundred and less than +three. Most on foot with brogues to their feet, clubs in their hands, +and tattered cloaks over their shoulders." Yet a short time afterwards +he finds himself, "to my own great surprise," at the head of quite a +respectable army.</p> + +<p class="normal">A short time, again, and he is King of Kābul; such are the amazing ups +and downs of this most unfortunate, most fortunate of princes.</p> + +<p class="normal">By this time his wife, Ayźsha, had left him, giving as her reason the +perfectly true plaint that he did not love her. He had, however, +fallen in love with some one else; the woman who was to be the mother +of his son Humāyon, and of his three daughters, who were named by +Babar's express wish, "Rose-face, Rose-blush, Rose-body." It was at +Kābul that Humāyon was born. At Kābul, also, Babar lost his mother, +whom he helped to carry shoulder high to her grave in the Garden of +the New Year, outside the city, "the sweetest spot in all the +neighbourhood."</p> + +<p class="normal">He remained King of Kābul until he made his first expedition to India +in 1514. He gives us detailed accounts of his new kingdom. He seems to +know everything that is to be known about it. The names and habits of +every animal, bird, and beast, even to the fact that in stormy weather +the migratory birds are stopped by the everlasting snows of the +Hindu-Kush hills, and so are taken in hundreds by the bird-fowlers. He +knows the place where the rarest tulips are to be found, and is +unceasing in his praise of three-and-thirty different kinds, one +"yellow, double, scented like a rose." Doubtless, the parents of that +favourite in modern gardens, "Yellow Rose."</p> + +<p class="normal">He knows also of the different clans and people of Kābul, their past +history, their present languages. In fact, he knows all things that +are possible to vivid vitality, all things that are given to friendly +hand and seeing eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was from Kābul that he went on a visit to his cousins, the Princes +of Herāt. Here, for the first time, he learnt what luxury meant, for +Herāt was the home of culture and of ease. At first he is somewhat +shocked. There are so many things "contrary to the institutions of +Chengiz Khān"--that sacred rule from which his family never deviated.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he began to meditate that after all "Chengiz had no divine +authority," and that if a "father has done wrong, the son should +change it for what is right."</p> + +<p class="normal">From this to doing at Rome what Rome did is but a step; and yet it +seems as if he had kept his vow of drinking no wine sacred while at +Herāt. Pity he did not keep it so always.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was in returning to Kābul by the mountains from his twenty days' +visit to the most charming "city in the whole habitable world," that +Babar met with the following adventure which shows him at his best. He +and his army were lost in the snow, and "met with such suffering and +hardship, as I have scarcely endured at any other time of my life."</p> + +<p class="normal">The poem about it which he sat down to write has not survived, but +Babar's prose is sufficient for most things.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"For about a week we went on trampling down the snow. I helped with +Kāsim Beg, and his sons, and a few servants. Each step we sank to the +waist, or the breast; but still we went on. After a few paces a man +became exhausted, and another took his place. Then we dragged forward +a horse without a rider. The horse sank to the stirrups and girths, +and after advancing ten or fifteen paces, was worn out and replaced by +another. It was no time for using authority. Every one who has spirit +does his best at such times, and those who have none are not worth +thinking about.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In three or four days we reached a cave at the foot of the Yerrin +pass. That day the storm was terrible, and the snow fell so heavily, +we all expected to die together. When we reached the cave the storm +was at its worst. We halted at the mouth. It seemed small, so I took a +hoe and, clearing away the snow, made a resting-place for myself about +as big as a prayer-carpet, and found a shelter from the wind in it. +Some were for my going into the cave, but I would not. I felt that for +me to be within in comparative comfort while my soldiers were in snow +and drift would be inconsistent with that fellowship and suffering +which was their due. So, remembering the proverb, 'Death in the +company of friends is a feast,' I continued to sit in the drift. By +bedtime prayers 4 inches of snow had settled on my head and lips and +ears."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The description is excellent, and gives a delightful background to the +quaint comment with which it finishes: "<i>N.B</i>.--That night I caught a +cold in my ear."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then once again the haunting dream of Samarkhūnd, the desire to +possess the throne of his ancestor Timur, came to obsess him, and +bring disaster. He gained the throne once more, only yet once more to +lose it. Whether by his own fault, or because Fortune's wheel had +turned for the time, we know not. The Autobiography is silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">All we know is that in A.D. 1519--that is, when he was thirty-six +years of age--he finally gave up the thought of Samarkhūnd, and turned +his eyes to India.</p> + +<p class="normal">Timur had conquered it; why should not he?</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.9" href="#div1Ref_02.9">THE GREAT MOGHULS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>BABAR, EMPEROR OF INDIA</h3> +<h3>A.D. 1519 TO A.D. 1530</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">These eleven years are all that India really can claim of Babar's +life; yet ever since the day when, after a fatal battle in 1503, he +had taken refuge in a shepherd's hut on the Kuh-i-Sulimān hills, and +(as he sate eating burnt bread like another Alfred, and looking out to +where in the dim distance the wide plain of Hindustan rose up like a +sea ending the vast vista of mountains) an old woman, ragged, +decrepid, had told him tales of her youth when the earth trembled +under Timur--ever since then the idea of India had been part and +parcel of his adventurous mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">To do as his great ancestor had done; that became his ambition. At +thirty-six he tried to make that ambition a reality.</p> + +<p class="normal">How the last twelve years from A.D. 1507 had passed, we have no +record. The Memoirs are silent, the Diary has ceased to be written. +Why, it is impossible to say. Perhaps Babar felt his life too tame and +commonplace for record, especially after his melodramatic youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">We left, therefore, a young man of four-and-twenty, inclined to be +shocked at a wine party, we find him again a man of thirty-six and an +inveterate toper. Anything and everything is an excuse for the +wine-cup. "Looking down from my tent on the valley below, the +watch-fires were marvellously beautiful; that must be the reason, I +think, why I drank too much wine at dinner that evening." For Babar is +still translucently frank. "I was miserably drunk," is an oft +confession, and he does not hesitate to record the fact that he and +his companions "sate drinking wine on the hill behind the water-run +till evening prayers; when we went to Tārdi-Beg's house and drank till +midnight--it was a wonderfully amusing and guileless party."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the vice of his age. He had resisted it apparently until he was +six-and-twenty, and he had every intention of giving it up at a stated +time, for he writes in 1521: "As I intended to abstain from wine at +the age of forty, and as I now wanted somewhat less than a year of +that age, I therefore drank copiously."</p> + +<p class="normal">One thing may be said in his favour: he never let wine interfere with +his activities, either of body or of mind. He was ready, as ever, to +detail the flowers he saw in his marches, to expatiate on a beautiful +view, to turn a <i>ghazel</i> or quatrain, to rise ere dawn, to spend +arduous days in the saddle or on foot.</p> + +<p class="normal">The portraits of him belong to this period, and they show us a man +tall, strong, sinewy, with the long straight nose of his race, a broad +brow, arched eyes, and a curiously small, sensitive mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was the man who conquered India, and in the beginning of his +conquests set Timur before himself as an example to such purpose that +it is hard to believe that the ardent and bloodthirsty Mahomedan of +his first campaign is our sunny, genial Babar.</p> + +<p class="normal">In fact the taking of Bajāur is sad reading. "The people," writes +Babar, "had never seen matchlocks, and at first were not in the least +afraid of them, but, hearing the reports of the shots, stood opposite +the guns, mocking and playing unseemly antics."</p> + +<p class="normal">By nightfall, however, they had learnt fear, and "not a man ventured +to show his head."</p> + +<p class="normal">This was, nevertheless, not the first time that we hear of guns and +matchlocks in Indian warfare, although it is the first absolutely +authentic mention of them. But a hundred and fifty years before this, +Mahomed-Shāh Bhāmani, King of Guzerāt, is said to have employed them. +As a digression, it may be observed that Babar's Memoirs give us an +interesting account of the casting of a big gun by one Ustād-Ali, "who +was like to cast himself into the molten metal" when the flow of it +ceased ere the mould was full! Babar, however, "cheered him up, gave +him a robe of honour," and "succeeded in softening his humiliation." +Which, by the way, was unnecessary, since when the mould was opened +the mischief was found to be reparable, and the gun, when finished, +threw over 1,600 yards.</p> + +<p class="normal">To return to Bajāur. The influence of Timur was strong upon Babar, and +though women and children were spared, the less said about the fate of +the town the better. Once or twice in his life the Tartar which lay +beneath his culture showed in Babar's actions; but only once or twice. +Ere he arrived at the next town he had found an excuse for clemency. +He claimed the Punjāb as his by right of inheritance. "I reckoned," he +writes, "of the countries which had belonged to the Turk as my own +territory, and I permitted no plundering or pillage." An admirable +compromise, which allowed him to read his great ancestor's account of +his campaign with a clear conscience.</p> + +<p class="normal">After a short expedition he returned to Kābul, having set a faint +finger-mark on the extreme north of India. In the next five years he +is said to have made three more expeditions into the Punjāb, but the +Memoirs are again silent as to these, and they appear to have been +insignificant. But the idea of Indian conquest was not dead, and in +A.D. 1524 it burst forth again into sudden life. The cosmic touch +which roused it being the appeal of the rightful heir to the Kingdom +of Delhi for help against his nephew Ibrahīm Lodi, who, he said, had +usurped the throne. At the same time Babar's governor in the Punjāb +begged the emperor to come to his aid.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the psychic moment, and Babar was prepared for it. He marched +instantly on Lahōre, and finding affairs unsatisfactory, paused ere +going further to return to Kābul, and beat up reinforcements with +which to secure his line of retreat. Coming back, he found it +necessary to settle the governor, an old Afghān, who had broken into +rebellion, and who, girding on two swords, swore to win or die. He did +neither, for Babar, catching him red-handed in rebellion with the two +swords still hanging round his neck, forgave him--as he was inclined +to forgive all men.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, free at last, he set his face towards Delhi. What the state of +India was at this time we know. It was one of countless jealousies, +seething rebellions, open disunion--on all sides conquest seemed +possible; but Delhi had been the goal of Timur, so it must be the goal +of his descendant.</p> + +<p class="normal">Curiously enough, this last, and in all ways most decisive attack from +the North-West on India did not come as those of Mahomed of Ghuzni, of +Mahomed Shahāb-ud-din Ghori, and of Timur had come, with the returning +flight of migratory birds from the summer coolth of the high Siberian +steppes. The birds were winging westward in this April A.D. 1526, when +Babar, choosing with the eye of a general the old battle-field on the +plain near Panipūt, set to work entrenching himself in a favourable +position. This was a new method of battle to the Indians. So was the +laager which he made out of his seven hundred gun-carriages linked +together by raw cow-hide to break a possible cavalry charge, and +strengthened by shield shelters for the matchlock men. For a whole +week, though the army of Delhi--consisting of a hundred thousand +troops and a thousand elephants--lay before him, Babar, whose total +force numbered twelve thousand, was neither let nor hindered in his +work. But then Sultān-Ibrahīm, who commanded the enemy himself, is +briefly dismissed by the man whose whole life had been one long fight, +as being "inexperienced, careless in his movements, one who marched +without order, halted or retired without method, and engaged without +foresight."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was on the 21st that Babar accepted the challenge which followed on +a repulsed night-attack which he attempted in order to draw the enemy.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is interesting to note the formation Babar adopted. The laagered +guns in front; behind them--the line broken at bowshot distances by +gaps through which a hundred horsemen could charge abreast--the right +and left centre, right and left wing. Behind that again the reserve, +and the cavalry left over from the flanking parties at the extreme +right and left.</p> + +<p class="normal">On came the Indians at quick march, aiming at Babar's right; finding +the enemy entrenched, they hesitated, and pressure from behind threw +them into disorder. In an instant the Mongol cavalry charged through +the gaps, took them in rear, discharged their arrows, and galloped +back to safety. This is their national manœuvre, and proved once +more of deadly effect, as it had done in the days of Timur.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the battle waged fiercely, uncertainly. At one time Babar's left, +over-rash, might have been overwhelmed, but for his watchful eyes, his +instant support.</p> + +<p class="normal">So as the sun rose high, the wavering victory chose the side of the +Northerners. The Southerners, driven into their centre, were unable to +use what strength they possessed, and by noon Sultān-Ibrahīm himself +lay dead, with fifteen thousand of his finest troops. The rest were in +full flight. It had been "made easy to me, and that mighty army in the +space of half a day was laid in the dust."</p> + +<p class="normal">So wrote the victor modestly, though there can be no question that the +battle was won by superior generalship.</p> + +<p class="normal">The way was now clear before him. He seized on Delhi and Agra without, +apparently, much bloodshed, and immediately distributed the treasures +gained amongst his followers, only reserving sufficient for the State +to send a silver coin to every living soul in Kābul, bond or free, and +to pay the army and the Government.</p> + +<p class="normal">He kept nothing for himself; he was not of those to whom gold brings +pleasure. Yet in Hindustan he found few things for which he cared. +There can be no question that it was a disappointment to him.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"It is a country," he writes, "that has few pleasures to recommend it. +It is extremely ugly. All its towers and its lands have a uniform +look. Its gardens have no walls; the greater part of it is level +plain. And the people are not handsome. They have no idea of the +charms of friendly society. They have no good horses, no good +flesh, no good grapes, or musk-melons, no ice or cold water, no good +food or bread in their bazaars, no baths or colleges, no candles or +torches--<i>never even a candlestick!</i>"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Poor Babar! It was now the hottest of the hot weather, and the heat in +the summer of 1526 "chanced to be unusually oppressive." Hitherto +these northern invaders had sought relief from discomfort in return to +their cooler climes; but Babar had other aims. He wished to establish +himself Emperor of India, and all around him in Mźwar, in Mārwar, in +Gwalīor, everywhere save in the line of his victorious march, lay +enemies.</p> + +<p class="normal">He determined to remain, but had to meet as determined an opposition +on the part of his troops.</p> + +<p class="normal">It irritated even his placid good-temper.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Where is the sense of decency," he writes, "of eternally dinning the +same tale into the ears of one who had seen the facts with his own +eyes, and formed a calm and fixed resolve in regard to the business in +hand? What use was there in the whole army, down to the very dregs, +giving me their stupid, uninformed opinions?"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">What indeed!</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave them his in return at a full review.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Are we to turn back from all we have accomplished and fly to Kābul +like men who have been discomfited! Let no man who calls himself my +friend ever again moot such a thing, but if there be any of you who +cannot bring himself to stay, let him go!"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Needless to say, this appeal to personal friendship was effectual, +though apparently pleasantry passed between the comrades-in-arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">One wrote on the walls of the fort:--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Could I but cross the river Sind,<br> +Damned if I would return to Hind."</p> +</div> + +<p class="continue">To which Babar sent the following reply:--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="i6">"Babar thanks God who gave him Sind and Ind,<br> +Heat of the plains, chill of the mountain cold.<br> +Does not the scorch of Delhi bring to his mind<br> +Bitter bite of frost in Ghuzni of old?"</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">He was always writing verses; always, as he puts it, "wandering into +these follies. For God's sake, do not think amiss of me for them."</p> + +<p class="normal">His determination to stick by what he had won proved a great factor +for peace. Many of the Mahomedan governors and petty kings +acknowledged him as suzerain; he forced others to submission, and, ere +the rains fell, bringing a welcome cessation to the fiery heat, he +found himself with only Hindus to conquer. He attempted this at first +by generosity and kindness. The son of Hassan-Khān, Rājah of Mźwat +(who from his name must have been a converted Hindu), was a prisoner +of war. Babar returned him to his father with a friendly message; but +the overture failed. No sooner at ease about his son than the chief +overtly joined the enemy, and with Rājah Sanga of Mźwar (sixth in +succession from Hamīr, whose widow-wife won back Chitore), marched to +attack Babar. They met at the ridge of Sīkri, about 20 miles from +Agra, where in after years Babar's grandson, the great Akbar, was to +found his city of victory.</p> + +<p class="normal">We can imagine the meeting, for Rājah Sanga, though an old man, was, +in his way, Babar's double in chivalry and vitality. Both knew it was +war to the death. And the old "Lion of the Rājputs," minus an eye and +an arm, lame of leg and with eighty scars of battle on his body, must +have taken stock of his foeman with inward admiration.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here was no weakling, unnerved by luxury, but a man after a Rājput's +heart. A man who swam every river he crossed for sheer joy in +breasting a strong stream, who lived in the saddle, who, if +challenged, would snatch up a comrade in either arm, and run round the +battlements of a fort, leaping the embrasures in laughing derision; a +man, too, well versed in warfare, better armed, if with a far smaller +force at his disposal.</p> + +<p class="normal">But if Babar had advantages he had also disadvantages. The hot weather +had told on his troops, a preliminary reverse at Byāna had unsteadied +their nerves, which broke down absolutely when an astrologer, arriving +unseasonably from Kābul, talked about the aspect of Mars and loudly +presaged disaster. It needed all Babar's marvellous vitality, all that +self-confidence which is the very essence of genius, to keep his +followers in hand. For he recognised the virtues of his enemies. He +saw that they were animated by one all-vivifying spirit of devotion, +of national pride.</p> + +<p class="normal">To match this, if he could, in his own rough-and-ready hordes of +horsemen, he proclaimed a "Jehād," or Holy War. Yet something more was +needed to "stiffen their sinews, and summon up the blood." His own +mind reverted, despite his courage, to many a sin of omission and +commission. It was a time for repentance, for vows, for anything which +would, as it were, bring the fourth dimension into life. So one +evening he assembled his troops; before them he broke his jewelled +wine-cups and beakers, he emptied the wine of Shirāz, the wine of +Tabrźz upon the dust, and solemnly made his confession of sin, his vow +of total abstinence. His manifesto began well--"Gentlemen and +soldiers! Whoso sits down to the feast of life must end by drinking +the cup of death."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was an inspiration! Wine-cups poured on to the pile, oaths were +sworn, from that moment the army plucked up courage. There was no good +in further delay. Babar had staked his all on this chance, he was +eager to try conclusions. On 12th March he marched his army in battle +array for 2 miles, he himself galloping along the line encouraging, +giving special orders how each division was to act, how each separate +man was to proceed and engage. But it was not until Saturday, the 16th +March 1527, that the second great fight between the west and the east, +between Mongol and Aryan, Islāmism and Hinduism began, this time on +the plains of Kanwāha. What the force of the imperial troops was is +unknown; most likely less than one-half of the two hundred thousand +said to have been ranged on the Rājput side. In truth, there were +almost too many there, and their interests were too divided.</p> + +<p class="normal">So suspicion of some treachery is not lacking. Be that as it may, both +sides fought bravely; but Babar's unusual disposition of his troops, +by which fully one-half of his force was held in reserve, seems to +have turned the tide of fortune in his direction, and by evening (the +battle began at half-past nine in the morning) the last lingering +remnant of concerted Rājput resistance was swept away, and Babar was +unquestioned Emperor of India. Had he then pressed his victory home, +the Rājput power would have been shattered absolutely. But he +preferred to take the task in detail. It is a thousand pities that +Babar's desire to do justice to this great battle induced him to give +it in the grandiloquent and elaborate despatch of his Secretary, +instead of in one of his own inimitable descriptions, but we have at +least the satisfaction of reading the torrent of abuse with which he +greeted the astrologer who--"<i>most unwisely</i>"--came to congratulate +him on his victory. "Insufferable evil-speaker" is one of the mildest +of his epithets; but he gave him a liberal present, and bid him quit +the presence and the dominions for ever.</p> + +<p class="normal">He spent the next few months in attempting to restore order to the +Government, and when winter brought the fighting season once more, he +marched on the town of Chandźri, which had become a stronghold of the +remaining Rājputs. Here he saw, almost contemptuously, the final +sacrifice of the <i>Johār</i>. It did not impress him, possibly because he +held the previous defence of the fortress to have been poor, +half-hearted.</p> + +<p class="normal">About this time prolonged attacks of fever warned him that he could +not in India trifle with his health as he had trifled with it in the +north.</p> + +<p class="normal">He thought once that he had hit on a marvellous febrifuge--the +translation of religious tracts into verse!--and he records with +interest how one bout ended before he had finished his task; but the +effect was not lasting. Still, nothing crippled his extraordinary +energy, and so late as March 1529 he writes in his diary:</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"I swam across the Ganges for amusement. I counted my strokes, and +found that I swam over in thirty-three; then I took my breath and swam +back. I had crossed by swimming every river I met, except (till then) +the Ganges."<</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He was very happy, apparently, in these days. India was at peace under +stern military control. At Agra, where he had settled, beautiful +gardens were growing up, in which flourished many a flower he had +loved in the wild adventurous days of his youth. Nor did he confine +himself to old favourites. We read of a wonderful red oleander, unlike +all other oleanders, which he found in an ancient garden at Gwalīor. +His old love of Nature, too, finds expression in a detailed account of +the fauna and flora of his new possessions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Finally, he was happy in his domestic relations. In the Memoirs +of his daughter, Gulbadan, we read of the joyful evening when news +came to him that the long-expected caravan from Kābul was within six +miles of the city, when, without waiting for a horse, bareheaded, in +slipper-shoon, he had run out to meet his "Dearest-dear," had met her, +and walked the weary miles along the dusty road beside her palanquin.</p> + +<p class="normal">In Babar's Memoirs this stands in a single sentence, pregnant with +meaning:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"On Sunday at midnight I met Mahum again"--</p> +<br> + +<p class="continue">Mahum being the pet name for the wife who had borne him the three +daughters whom he loved so well, the son Humāyon of whom he was so +proud.</p> + +<p class="normal">Concerning the latter he writes:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"I was just talking to his mother about him when in he came" (from +Badakhshān). "His presence opened our hearts like rosebuds, and made +our eyes shine like torches. The truth is, that his conversation has +an inexpressible charm, he realises absolutely the ideal of perfect +manhood."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Brave words these; but Babar was ready to stand by them to the death.</p> + +<p class="normal">The story is a strange one, but it is well authenticated. In October +A.D. 1530 Humāyon was brought back to Agra, sick. The physicians +despaired of his life, the learned doctors declared that nothing could +save him save the Mercy of God, and suggested some supreme sacrifice.</p> + +<p class="normal">Babar caught at the idea. "I can give my life," he said, "it is the +dearest thing I have, and it is the dearest thing on earth to my son."</p> + +<p class="normal">And in spite of remonstrance--the learned doctors having apparently +intended a present to God (through them!) of money or jewels--he +adhered to his decision. He entered his son's room, he stood at the +head of the bed in prayer, then walked round it three times, solemnly +saying the while: "On me be thy suffering."</p> + +<p class="normal">Was it the extreme nervous, tension acting on a constitution weakened +by fever, by hardships of every kind, which made his prayer effectual? +Who can say? Certain it is that he died in his forty-ninth year, and +Humāyon lived on to die at the same age.</p> + +<p class="normal">Babar, by his own request, was buried beside his mother in the Garden +of the New Year at Kābul. He rests there within hearing of the running +streams, within sight of the tulips and roses which he so dearly +loved, for which he had so often longed with a "deep home-sickness and +sense of exile."</p> + +<p class="normal">So the most romantic figure of Indian history vanishes from our ken.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.10" href="#div1Ref_02.10">THE GREAT MOGHULS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>HUMĀYON</h3> +<h3>A.D. 1530 TO A.D. 1556</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Humāyon was practically the only son of his father. There can be no +doubt that Babar regarded Mahum, the mother of the four children of +whom he was so passionately fond, Humāyon, Rose-blush, Rose-face, +Rose-body, from a different standpoint from his other wives, of whom +he seems to have had four. This, however, did not prevent there being +three other princes, Kamrān, Hindal, and Āskari, in the direct line of +succession. Apparently they must have been somewhat troublesome before +Babar's death, since one of his last words to his beloved heir was the +hope that kindness and forgiveness should ever be shown to them. And +right well did Humāyon keep his promise. Had he been less +affectionate, less tender-hearted, he had been a better and a more +successful king. His patience was early tried. Almost before the deep +and sincere mourning for the kindly dead, which Lady Rose-body +describes in her Memoirs, was over, he had to decide between fraternal +war and Kamrān's claim to supremacy in the Punjāb. He chose the +latter, an initial mistake which cost him dear. There must, indeed, +have been some impression abroad that the new king had less fibre than +his father, for from the very first Humāyon found himself enmeshed in +a perfect network of revolt and conspiracy. He was now a young man of +three-and-twenty, tall, extremely handsome, witty, and of the most +charming manners. Unfortunately, he had already contracted the opium +habit, which, though as yet it had not set its mark on his vitality, +undoubtedly disposed him to be more easy-going than even Nature had +intended him to be; and that is saying much, for his sweetness of +temper is surprising. His whole life appears to have been spent in +forgiving injuries which, by all the rules of justice and expediency, +he should not have forgiven. Succeeding to his father in A.D. 1530, he +was instantly engaged in war--fruitless war. Brave to a fault, not +without intelligence, something always seemed to stand between him and +success. The story of his failure to relieve Chitore is typical of +him. Its widowed Rāni, in sore straits to save it for her infant son +from the hands of Bahādur-Shāh, King of Guzerāt (one of the many +kings who snatched at every opportunity of enlarging their borders), +sent a Rām-Rukhi, or Bracelet-of-the-Brother, to Humāyon. Now this +Brother-Bracelet is in Rājasthān what a lady's glove was to chivalry. +Only in greater degree, for the recipient becomes a brother--a +bracelet-bound brother. There is no value in the pledge. It is generally +a thin silk cord, to which are attached seven differently-coloured +tassels; but once given and accepted by the return of a tiny silken +bodice, called a <i>kachli</i>, it is an inviolable tie. In her extremity +Kurnātavi sent hers to Humāyon, whose fame as a puissant knight had +reached her ears. He was enchanted with the romance of the idea, and +instantly left the campaign on which he was engaged to go to her rescue. +And then? Then he dallied. Then he became involved in a wordy, witty, +pedantic war in verse with Bahādur-Shāh, in which much point was laid on +the resemblance of the name Chitore to some other word; in the midst of +which the city fell, and suffered yet one more sack.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the most memorable event of the early years of his reign was, +however, the siege of Chunar, where he found himself first matched +against the man who was eventually for a time to wrest his kingdom +from him, and send him out a wanderer on the face of the earth for +twelve long years.</p> + +<p class="normal">This siege, which Humāyon felt compelled to carry through before +marching on Bengal, was in reality a deep-laid plan of the rebel +Sher-Khān. It was a method--often adopted in modern warfare, but until +then unheard of in the East--of holding up his enemy's forces until +such time as he had consolidated his own powers. It answered +admirably. The rock of Chunar, detached outpost of the Vindhya +mountains which frowns over the Ganges, engaged all Humāyon's +attention for months, and when, after reducing it, he pushed on, +Sher-Khān once more met brute-force by guile, and leading Humāyon on, +left him to stew for the rainy season in the delta of the Ganges, a +prey to flood and fever, while he himself looked down on him from the +low hills of Northern Berars. It was a bitter beating! A prey to +mosquitoes, to malaria, it was with difficulty that Humāyon's troops +managed to preserve their communications with their base. Every tank +was a lake, every brook a river. Their spirits sank, and no sooner +were the roads opened than they deserted in hundreds; Prince +Hindal--who, despite the virtue of being nearly always faithful to his +brother, appears to have been of little good to him--setting the +example by leaving ere the rains had stopped.</p> + +<p class="normal">So when the dry season brought the possibility of campaign, Humāyon +had no choice but to retreat from the now daily increasing boldness of +his enemy, and try to force his way back to Agra. In this he was +stopped by the river Ganges, which it was necessary to cross in order +to avoid an entrenched camp which he could neither pass nor hope to +reduce.</p> + +<p class="normal">The bridge of boats took close on two months to complete, and then, a +night or two before retreat became possible, the imperial camp was +surprised about daybreak by the watchful enemy. It must have been a +very complete surprise, for the emperor himself had only time to mount +his horse, and after a vain appeal to his officers for one effort at +least to repel the attack, accept their advice and ride for his life +to the river-side. The bridge was not finished, there was no time for +hesitation, so Humāyon urged his horse into the stream. It sank ere it +could reach the shore, and the emperor would undoubtedly have done so +likewise, but for the intervention of a water-carrier who was crossing +with his skin bag, inflated with air, doing duty as a float.</p> + +<p class="normal">It proved enough to support two; Humāyon's life was saved, but his +queen was left in Sher-Shāh's hands. The whole story has a smack of +opium about it, and it seems more than probable that the young king, +roused out of a drugged sleep, had not his wits about him. Nothing +else can explain the fact of Babar's son running like a hare, and +leaving his womenkind behind him. His wife appears, however, not to +have suffered thereby in any way, not even in her affection for her +handsome, thriftless king, for it was she, a childless widow, who +after his death erected the splendid mausoleum at Delhi which bears +his name.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is also something of opium in the promise which Humāyon made to +the water-carrier, that <i>if</i> he came to Agra, and <i>if</i> he found +Humāyon alive, he might, as a reward, claim to be king for a day.</p> + +<p class="normal">He did come, so we are told, and for a day sate on the throne of the +Emperor of India. Humāyon, always fond of a joke, made merry over this +one, and had prime fun in cutting up the water-carrier's skin bag into +wads (which were duly stamped as coin in the mint), and in other merry +antics, for he was light-hearted like his father. Nevertheless, the +jest cost him dear, for it drew down on him the wrath of his sour +brother Kamrān, who always nourished the secret belief--not an +unfounded one--that he would have made a better king than his brother.</p> + +<p class="normal">This, however, was after Humāyon's generous condonation of both his +brothers' grievous faults, and should have closed their lips from +criticism. For both Kamrān and Hindal, seizing the opportunity of this +disaster, claimed the throne, and marching on Agra from different +sides, fell out over the question, until recalled to a sense of their +common danger from the Bengal enemy.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the three royal brothers made friends, Humāyon, as ever, eager to +clasp hands with those of whom he used to say: "How can I quarrel with +them? Are they not monuments of my dear, dead father?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Practically this defeat on the banks of the Ganges was Humāyon's +Waterloo. He held his head above water for a while, attempted another +campaign next year, lost once more on the banks of the Ganges near +Kanauj, and was, with his army, absolutely driven into the river. +Thence he escaped with difficulty, and but for the timely aid of two +turbans knotted and thrown out to him, would undoubtedly have been +drowned under the high bank which was too steep for his elephant to +climb. Joined by his brothers Hindal and Āskari, he fled to Agra, +thence with his women and part of his treasures to Delhi, and so, +gathering what he could at the latter place, to Lahōre. But he was no +welcome guest to Kamrān, who, fearing to be embroiled in the quarrel +with Sher-Shāh, withdrew to Kābul, leaving Humāyon helpless. He turned +then to Sinde as a refuge, and after two and a half years of many +adventures, found himself a mere wanderer in the desert.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was, then, at the lowest ebb of fortune, that Fate interfered to +make him--which is, indeed, his only real claim to remembrance--the +father of the greatest king India has ever known.</p> + +<p class="normal">The story is romantic in the extreme. His brother Hindal was over the +Indus-water, in the rich province of Sehwān, and Humāyon, who from +bitter experience had reason to doubt the former's loyalty, was +keeping an eye on his proceedings. He therefore crossed the river for +an interview at the town of Patār. He found Hindal in the midst of +festivities; for what purpose history sayeth not, but from what +followed it seems likely that it was preparatory to a marriage. His +mother, at any rate, gave an entertainment to all the ladies of the +court, and at this Humāyon saw, and instantly fell in love with, a +girl of sixteen, called Hamida-Begum. Hearing she was not as yet +betrothed, he instantly said he would marry her. Then ensued a violent +quarrel between the brothers, from which it seems likely that +Humāyon's fancy had chosen the bride-elect. The girl wept at both +brothers. They stormed; but finally Hindal's mother counselled her son +to yield, and the thirty-eight-year-old Humāyon carried off the prize. +Their honeymoon cannot have been cloudless, for they spent it in +danger of their lives; but Humāyon must from his temperament have been +a most beguiling bridegroom, and the little bride's tears soon dried. +She followed him bravely, early in the next year, through the Great +Desert of India, where horse and man nearly died of thirst.</p> + +<p class="normal">That ceaseless marching from fresh enemies by day and night must have +been a terrible experience for the young wife, soon to become a +mother; but she had at least the consolation of her husband's deep, +absorbing devotion. Once when her palfrey fell never to rise again, +the king put her on his charger, and walked beside her bridle rein all +through the long, weary night-march. The stars must have looked down +kindly on them as they toiled along, hand fast in hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is a pretty picture, anyhow. So, after unheard-of miseries, they +gained the quaint, stern old fort of Amarkōt, which rises bare and +square out of the desert sand. One can imagine that August day, with +the parching wind beating the fine, sharp sand of the desert against +the purple-stained bricks, and grinding them to grey frostiness.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here the Pathān chatelain, taking pity on the outwearied princess, +offered her asylum. Humāyon, however, must go on; there was no rest, +no shelter for such as he. It was four days after the sorrowful +parting that a courier rode post-haste after the wanderer, telling him +that a son was born to him-his first, his only son. There was no gold +in the camp to give the messenger. All of regal pomp that could be +found was a bag of musk, and this the proud father broke upon an +earthenware platter, and distributed to his followers as a royal +present in honour of "an event which diffused its fragrance over the +whole habitable world."</p> + +<p class="normal">One historian gives a somewhat different version of the birth of +Akbar. In it he was born under a tree in the desert, and the little +sixteen-year-old mother wept with fear at the hard-featured village +midwife summoned hastily to her aid, then flung her arms round her and +cried for joy when the boy-baby was put into her young arms. Within a +month she and the child were back sharing her lover-husband's danger. +It increased day by day, hour by hour. When the young Akbar was but a +year old, it reached its climax. Compelled to quit Sinde, Humāyon, his +wife and child with him, and some half a dozen followers, was on his +way to Kandahār, when news came that his brother Āskari was marching +against him in force. There was nothing for it but swift, immediate +flight. But the weather was boisterous, the only safe road almost +impassable.</p> + +<p class="normal">How about the child? Rapidly calculating chances, they decided on +leaving the infant prince behind them. What tears, what forebodings +must not have been miserable Hamida's--what vain kisses and strainings +to her heart!</p> + +<p class="normal">But when Āskari entered the little camp, the deed was done. The baby +Akbar was there regal in his nurse's arms, with all his equipage, all +his poor mockery of state and service about him, but the two fugitives +were riding hard for the Persian frontier.</p> + +<p class="normal">Humāyon had lost all things, even his fatherhood.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.11" href="#div1Ref_02.11">THE HOUSE OF SŪR</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1542 TO A.D. 1554</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Sher-khān, the man who, worsting Humāyon, seized on the throne, had no +atom of royal blood in his veins. He was a plain soldier, though of +good birth; but, his father neglecting him, he had run away from home +and entered the ranks. A rough-and-ready soldier, too, who, even in +Babar's time, had not scrupled to tell a friend that in his opinion it +would be no hard task to "drive these foreign Moghuls from Hindustan; +for though the king himself was a man of parts, he trusted too much to +his ministers, who were corrupt."</p> + +<p class="normal">The friend laughed; but Sher-Khān was right even in his estimate of +the king who, curiously enough, singled him out unerringly a few days +afterwards, when, at a military banquet, he called for a knife to +carve a chicken withal, and, the servant taking no notice of his rough +order, immediately drew his dagger and coolly used it with +contemptuous disregard for the diversion of his neighbours. Babar's +quick eye caught the incident, and he remarked: "He may be a great man +yet; trifles do not disconcert him."</p> + +<p class="normal">He does not, however, appear to have been either an amiable or an +estimable person, though he was not vicious, and even his successes as +a soldier are somewhat too crafty for admiration. He knew well when to +attack, when to retreat, and, if imperialist and Rājput accounts are +to be trusted, was not over-scrupulous in his use of the white flag.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then there is no doubt but that a secret understanding existed between +him and Humāyon's brother Kamrān; for on the withdrawal of the latter +from Lahōre, Sher-Shāh instantly pounced down on it, and would have +captured the fugitive king but for his hasty flight.</p> + +<p class="normal">He does not in truth appeal to one's sympathies, this Afghān of the +House of Sūr, though he was by no means without good points. It is, +however, impossible to get up much interest in a man who picks a +quarrel with an innocent Rājput rājah on the ground that he has +Mahomedan women in his harem, and who, after a lengthy siege, induces +capitulation by promise of the garrison being allowed to march out +with their arms and their property: thereinafter, on the advice of a +learned doctor of law (who declared it was a sin to keep faith with +infidels), proceeding to surround the brave band and cut them off!</p> + +<p class="normal">It is satisfactory to learn that they sold their lives dearly. But +Sher-Shāh continued to be diplomatic. He gained his success against +the Rājah of Mārwar by a stratagem. Finding himself in a tight place, +he forged treasonable correspondence between himself and certain of +the Rājput generals, which was then so disposed of as to fall into the +generalissimo's hands. The distrust thus sown of his levees' loyalty +caused the rājah to give way; and with disastrous results.</p> + +<p class="normal">The death of this Machiavel in armour was a Nemesis, for it arose in +consequence of the Rājah of Kalinjasr's refusal to capitulate, on the +ground of Sher-Shāh's many treacheries.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the subsequent mining which became necessary to reduce the fort, +Sher-Shāh was blown to bits in an explosion of a powder magazine that +had not been properly secured.</p> + +<p class="normal">Despite his treachery, he did much for India in the way of public +works. The caravanserais, the wells which still stud the course of the +high road from Bengal to the Indus, are of his building; and the very +trees which shade the weary traveller in the long marching, if not of +his planting, stand in the places of those which he watered with care.</p> + +<p class="normal">He reigned five years, and left two sons. The elder and rightful heir +preferred obscurity to prolonged battle for the crown, and after a +while disappeared and was no more heard of, leaving Islām-Shāh, or, as +he is called by a mispronunciation, Salīm-Shāh, to follow in his +father's treacherous footsteps. The most noteworthy event in his reign +was the insurrection of the Māhdi sect, led by one Ilāhi. The tenets +of their faith seem to have been curiously destructive of each other. +Neither their profession of predestination nor their pure socialism +prevented them from going about armed, meting out lynch-law to all and +sundry whom they deemed to be disobeying any divine law.</p> + +<p class="normal">They must have been uncomfortable people to deal with, but the faith +spread to such alarming proportions, that Salīm-Shāh finally called a +Court of Arches to decide whether "Ilāhi's pertinaciously +disrespectful manner to the king was consistent with his situation as +a subject, or was enjoined by any precept of the Koran?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He was subsequently tried on the accusation of presuming to +personate the Great Māhdi--for whose advent all pious Mahomedans +look--condemned, and refusing to abjure his faith, was brought up for +punishment, though at the time suffering from the plague which was +then raging. He died under the third lash.</p> + +<p class="normal">Almost immediately after this, Salīm-Shāh himself died, when his +cousin Mobārik succeeded by a singularly brutal murder. Prince Ferōze, +Salīm-Shāh's son, was then twelve years old. His mother, Bibi Bhāi, +was Mobārik's sister, and devoted to her dissolute, pleasure-loving +brother, whose life she had begged of the king. Notwithstanding this, +immediately on the latter's death Mobārik entered the harem, tore the +wretched boy from his mother's very arms, and killed him with his own +hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">Fraternal affection with a vengeance. His subsequent career was in +keeping with this initial act. Sensual to a degree and absolutely +illiterate, he set a Hindu usurer called Hemu at the head of affairs, +and contented himself with remaining in the harem, and parading the +city with pomp, surrounded by a body of archers, whose duty it was to +discharge gold-headed arrows worth ten or twelve rupees each amongst +the crowd; the scramble for them amusing the jaded satiety of this +truly Eastern potentate.</p> + +<p class="normal">He succeeded in A.D. 1552, and for two years the throne was the centre +of a perfect anarchy of revolt.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hemu, who seems to have had wits, held his own until faced by the +returning Humāyon, backed by that splendid old Turkomān soldier, Byrām +Khān. Backed also by the son, whom eleven years before he had left +alone with his nurses in the royal camp on the road to Kandahār, and +who now--an extremely youthful warrior--won back empire for his father +by precipitating an action before the walls of Lahōre, in which the +Moghuls, "animated by the conduct of that young hero," seemed to +forget that they were mortal.</p> + +<p class="normal">So ended the usurping dynasty of Sūr.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.12" href="#div1Ref_02.12">THE WANDERINGS OF A KING</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1542 TO A.D. 1556</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">When Humāyon and his Queen Hamida-Bānu-Begum left the infant Akbar to +face fortune by himself, their own hopes for the future were low +indeed. Look where they would, there seemed small chance of success.</p> + +<p class="normal">India itself had practically become independent of Delhi, where +the dreamful, opium-drugged king had thought to consolidate his +empire by building a new capital. It is curious to mark in that +fourteen-mile-long expanse of faintly-broken ground strewn with +purple-stained bricks, which stretches between the massive ruins about +the Kutb Minār to modern Delhi at the foot of the red ridge, how each +succeeding dynasty had shifted its ground nearer and nearer the river, +until at last it flowed beneath the very walls of the palace which +Shāh-jahān built, and where his descendant Bahādur-Shāh carried on, in +1857, the conspiracy which led at last to the extinction of the Moghul +dynasty.</p> + +<p class="normal">The long fight for Rājputana which had gone on for centuries so that +the taking and retaking of its principal forts forms the standing dish +of every reign, had for the time ended in temporary independence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even at Chitore, Humāyon's delay in coming to the rescue of his +bracelet-bound sister had been unproductive of result; for the +Princess Kurnāvati's young son Udāi-Singh had escaped, and was now +back in his own.</p> + +<p class="normal">The story of his escape is still a favourite one in India, and women, +cuddling their babies, tell breathlessly how one Rājputni once gave +her child to death to save a king.</p> + +<p class="normal">Little Udāi-Singh, smuggled to safety with his foster-mother, found +asylum in his half-brother's palace. But one night screams rose from +the women's apartments, followed by the sudden ominous death-wail. +Punnia, the foster-mother, knew what had happened. The half-brother +must have been assassinated as a preliminary to the murder of her +charge. She caught him up, thrust opium into his mouth with a last +drop of her milk, hid him, still sleeping, in a fruit-basket, and sent +him out by the hands of a faithful servant, to await her among the +rushes of the river-bed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, throwing the little king's rich coverlet over her own child, she +sat down to wait--for what?</p> + +<p class="normal">For a question which she must answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet, when it did come, human nature was almost too strong for her. +She could only point to the little sleeper in reply to that clamour +for "The King! The King!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And still she had to wait. To weep reservedly over her own darling, to +do him reverence, and so, the last ceremony over, steal away hastily +to where her king waited her in the rushes. Then, dry-eyed, stern, she +carried him, drawing life from her bereaved breast, over wild hill and +dale, till, reaching the mountain fortress of Komulmźr, she could set +her nurseling on the governor's knee, and say: "Guard him--he is the +King!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Udāi-Singh, unfortunately, grew up unworthy of his foster-mother's +sacrifice. Still, he held Chitore, and many another Rājput prince held +other portions of the central tableland of India, whose rocky +mountains form an ideal country for independence and revolt. For the +rest, as we have seen, the Dekkan, Guzerāt, and Mālwa were held by +Mahomedan dynasties, as were the smaller principalities of Khandźsh, +Bengal, Joūnpur, Multān, Sinde. Towards the south-east the vast +kingdom, mostly forest, of Orissa remained unexplored, and in the +west, the whole narrow strip which includes the Western Ghāts figures +not at all in history. Yet it was on this narrow strip that the first +grip of Europe on Hindustan was to be laid.</p> + +<p class="normal">Columbus was sailing the High Seas. The maritime nations, Italy, +England, Spain, were on the <i>qui vive</i> for new worlds, and in +1484--just a year after Babar was born on Valentine's day--one Pedro +de Covilham set out for India, overland, by the orders of King John of +Portugal, with instructions to return with a report as to the +practicability of reaching Hindustan' by sea. He reached India, being, +apparently, the first European to touch its soil, but was detained on +the return journey by the Arabs.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ere he reached home in A.D. 1525 (after close on six and-thirty years +of imprisonment), Portugal had acted on the advice which he had +managed to send, God knows how. Vasco da Gama, leaving the Tagus in +1497, "coasted Guinea southwards, until he rounded into the Indian +Ocean"; so reached Calicut in A.D. 1498. It was the beginning. Almost +each year that followed saw a fresh, and ever a larger armament sent +out chiefly by the Portuguese Order of Christ, with the ostensible +object of converting the heathen. We read of nine, of seventeen, +finally, in 1507, of twenty-two ships carrying one thousand five +hundred fighting-men, and the very first Viceroy of India, Dom +Francesco Almeda. Goa was taken and made the seat of Government by Dom +Alfonso Albuquerque--after a tussle for the Viceroyalty--in 1510, and +in 1542 St Francis Xavier, joint founder of the Jesuits with Ignatius +Loyola, went out on a mission and had an enormous success of +marvellous stability, since to this day a large proportion of the +population on the south-west coast is professedly Roman Catholic.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus all India is practically accounted for in this, the first half of +the sixteenth century. At a casual glance it seems as if here we have +the vast continent tabulated, scheduled, within our reach. But a +closer look shows us that these dynasties, these wars, these +annexations and depredations, are but scratches on the surface of +life. The India of reality was, as ever, in the fields, heedless of +politics, heedless of all things beyond the village cosmogony save +that recurring cry of, "The Toorkh! the Toorkh!"</p> + +<p class="normal">That brought ruin, perchance death; but after death comes life, after +ruin prosperity. And the new masters, no matter who they were, were +not on the whole bad masters. When the revenues of the state depend +upon the peasantry and the peasantry only, it is not politic to press +the revenue-giver too hardly. There can be small doubt, therefore, +that the general state of the country was distinctly flourishing. The +land-rent or land-tax, call it what you will, was high, but the land +itself was abundant, the people who had to live on it not too +numerous. And luxury did not come, as it came in Europe, to the lives +of the poor to make them poorer still. The standard of living did not +rise, women were content with the fashions of their mothers; men asked +no more than to be let live and die; humanity was its own amusement.</p> + +<p class="normal">Practically, there was little difference in the system of Government +under Hindu and Mahomedan rule. In both, the supreme power was easy of +access. Petitions could be brought to the final authority without any +difficulty, and a certain rough justice undoubtedly prevailed.</p> + +<p class="normal">The king hired and paid for a portion of the army which he mounted on +his own horses, but a large number of men came in independent parties +under leaders of their own.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was the India which Humāyon left behind him for twelve long +years. His adventures during this time are less entertaining than the +wanderings of that prince of Bohemians, his father, but they are still +interesting.</p> + +<p class="normal">When he crossed the Persian border, he found himself received with a +certain contemptuous pity. Still, female servants were sent to attend +on the queen, and demonstrations were made in his favour. Arrived at +the court of King Tahmāsp, however, the exiled monarch of India found +himself by no means on a bed of roses. Even the gift of the greatest +treasure he possessed, a huge diamond, did not ameliorate his +situation; for Shāh Tahmāsp affected to despise the jewel, and is said +to have sent it away disdainfully in a gift to the King of the Dekkan. +But the whole history of this diamond, which has now disappeared, is a +fine romance. It is said to have been the eye of Shiv-ji in some +shrine, and to have passed into the possession of many conquerors, +until it was given to Babar in recognition of chivalrous kindness and +courtesy shown to them by the family of the Rājah of Chitore. Babar, +who kept nothing for himself, gave the stone, "worth half the daily +expenditure of the world," to his son. It is said to have weighed +about 280 carats, and to have been of the purest water; it is also +conjectured that it reappeared as the Great Moghul diamond which +Tavernier describes as belonging to Shāh-jahān, and that possibly it +is this very stone which, cleft and badly cut, still shines as the +Koh-i-nur.</p> + +<p class="normal">It did not, anyhow, avail Humāyon much. More effective was his servile +consent to wear the red cap of the Persian, and by this becoming a +<i>khizil bash</i>, renounce his Sunni faith, and proclaim himself a Shiah. +He did not do this without much pressure, and at the very last nearly +broke bondage; but the promise of ten thousand horse wherewith to +recover his kingdom was too tempting. With this force he attacked +Kandahār, where his brother Āskari still held little Akbar as a +hostage; or, rather, had so held him until the attacking army loomed +over the horizon, when, after some hesitation as to whether it would +not be wiser to send the boy under honourable escort to his father, +Āskari decided on obeying his brother Kamrān's orders, and despatched +the little prisoner to Kābul. The story of that inclement winter march +across the hills, with its attempts at rescue and numberless +adventures, would make a charming book for English children.</p> + +<p class="normal">After five months siege, Kandahār surrendered, "Dearest Lady" having +succeeded in obtaining a promise of pardon for Āskari from his +brother. It was revoked, however, in an altogether indefensible +manner, and Āskari was kept in chains for the next three years. This +is so unlike Humāyon's usual conduct towards his brothers, that it +gives colour to the assertion made by some authorities that Āskari's +punishment was due to the discovery of a further offence.</p> + +<p class="normal">After Kandahār had capitulated, Humāyon marched on Kamrān and Kābul. +This is the march rendered famous by Sir Donald Stewart in the Afghān +War, and by Lord Roberts' subsequent and rapid repetition. It was now +winter, which had set in with extraordinary severity, and much of the +country was under snow. Half-way to Kābul Humāyon was joined by his +brother Hindal, who, with brief intervals of hesitation, appears to +have been fairly faithful. Their amalgamated armies proved too +formidable for Kamrān to face, though at first he had prepared for +extremities by removing little Akbar from his grand-aunt "Dearest +Lady's" care, and giving the lad to a trusted creature of his own; so +flight to Ghuzni followed. The child, however, remained, and Humāyon's +delight at recovering his little son was great. Taking the boy in his +arms, he exclaimed: "Joseph was cast by envious brethren into the pit; +but in the end he was exalted to great glory, as thou shalt be, my +son."</p> + +<p class="normal">Only remaining in Kābul long enough to restore the young prince to +safer keeping, Humāyon set off in pursuit of his brother, who, finding +the gates of Ghuzni closed against him, had fled to the Indus; but +while on this campaign Humāyon fell so sick that his life was +despaired of. After two months' confinement to bed he recovered, only +to find himself deserted by his troops, and to hear that Kamrān, +returning to Kābul one dawn, had managed to slip in with a chosen band +of followers as the city gates were being opened, had murdered the +governor in his bath, had put out the eyes of Fazl and Muttro, the +young prince's foster-brothers and playfellows, and had given the +young prince himself into the charge of unkindly eunuchs. It was an +anxious moment, and the almost despairing father, still weak from +illness, set himself to beat up recruits and march to recover his +capital, recover his son. Kamrān's troops, meeting with a reverse in +the suburbs of the city, where--this being April--the peach-blossom +must have been all ablow, Humstyon was enabled to establish himself on +an eminence which commands the town, and to commence shelling it. +Whereupon Kamrān sent a message to say that if the cannonade +continued, he would expose the young heir to all his father's high +hopes on the wall where the fire was hottest. A brutal threat, upon +the carrying out of which history stands divided, some authorities +saying that Akbar was so exposed, others declaring that Humāyon +ordered the artillery to cease firing.</p> + +<p class="normal">Be that as it may, on the 28th of April he entered the city in +triumph, Kamrān having fled the previous night.</p> + +<p class="normal">So little Akbar was once more in his father's arms. In his mother's +also, ere long, for Hamida-Bānu-Begum rejoined her husband in the +spring. Regarding this, a pretty story is told by Aunt Rosebody in her +Memoirs. Humāyon, ever a lover of pleasure, devised a sumptuous +entertainment to welcome his wife, and amongst the many devices for +amusement was this. All the ladies of the family, unveiled, +resplendent in jewels, were to range themselves in a circle round a +hall; and to this dazzling company the baby-prince--he was but +four--was to be introduced to choose for himself a mother! One can +imagine the scene. Those laughing faces-all but one--around the child +who had not seen her he sought for two long years. The pause for +hesitation, the sickening suffocation of one heart, the sudden sense +of shyness, of loneliness, making one little mouth droop.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then?</p> + +<p class="normal">Then a quick cry, "<i>Amna! Amna-jān!</i>" and Hamida's arms closed +convulsively over the sobbing child. What laughter! What tears! As +Auntie Rosebody loves to say of all things that bring the sudden +vivifying touch of emotion, "It was like the Day of Resurrection." But +the young Akbar's trials were not yet over, neither were his father's +dangers. In the summer of 1548 Humāyon once more pursued Kamrān, +taking with him at first both Akbar and Akbar's mother--for whom the +king (or, as he was now called, the emperor) had an affection that +never wavered. Finding the way rough, he sent them back to Kābul; and +when he marched out from that city the next time on the same bootless +errand, he left the boy, who was now eight years old, behind him as +Governor of Kābul, under tutorship. Whereupon Kamrān, who appears to +have had the faculty of doubling like a hare, taking advantage of a +serious wound which delayed his brother in the Sertun Pass, slipped to +his rear, and for the third time captured Kābul and that apple of +Humāyon's eyes, Prince Akbar.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was the last of Kamrān's exploits, however, for Humāyon, after +suffering agonies of fear lest evil should happen to his heir, gained +a complete and final victory over his brother, who fled once more; +not, however, to the emperor's great relief, taking Akbar with him. He +was soon after captured by the King of the Ghakkur tribe, that warlike +race of the Indian Salt Range who broke the ranks of the Ghuzni +Mahmūd, and assassinated his successor in campaign, Ghori-Mahomed. +Being immediately betrayed to Humāyon, he met his fate at last. Yet +even now, after treasons seventy-and-seven, he was nearly forgiven; +would have been forgiven but for the fact that Humāyon's favourite +brother, Hindal, had been killed in the pursuit of him. He deserved +death, but the blindness which was meted out to him leaves us with a +revulsion of feeling against the man who was driven by his adherents +into giving the order. A revulsion which Humāyon hardly deserved, +since, opium-soddened, flighty in a way, unreliable as he was, cruelty +was not one of his faults.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the adherents were right. With Kamrān scotched, Humāyon's fortunes +began at once to improve, and in 1535 he was able to invade the Punjāb +with fifteen thousand horse. Within a year he was once more Emperor in +Delhi; but not for long. Six months after he re-ascended the throne, +before he had time even to take breath and look around him, he fell +from the roof of his library, and died from the result of the accident +four days afterwards. Visitors to Delhi are still shown the broken +stairs from which he fell, and are told the story of how, descending +the steps, he heard the call to prayer, and stopped to repeat the +creed and sit down till the long sonorous sound of the <i>muāzzim</i> had +ended. And how, in attempting to rise again, his staff slipped on the +polished marble of the step.</p> + +<p class="normal">The parapet is certainly but a foot high; but as one looks over it, +and remembers that Humāyon was a man in the prime of life, the wonder +comes if the opium which claimed so large a share in the emperor's +life had not an equal share in his death.</p> + +<p class="center">Map: India to A.D. 1556</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.13" href="#div1Ref_02.13">AKBAR THE GREAT</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1556 TO A.D. 1605</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Here is a subject indeed!</p> + +<p class="normal">Considering the time--a time when Elizabeth of England found that +England ready to support her in beheading her woman-cousin, when +Charles IX. of France idly gave the order on St Bartholomew's Eve, +and Pope Urban VIII., representing the highest majesty of the +Christian religion, forced the tortured, seventy-year-old Galileo to +his knees, there to abjure by oath what he knew to be God's truth: +considering the country--a country to this day counted uncivilised by +Europe--there is small wonder that the record of Akbar seems +incredible even to the owner of the hand which here attempts to +epitomise that record.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet it is a true one. Discounting to the full the open flattery of +Abul-fazl's Akbarnāmāh, the source from which most information is +derived, giving good measure to Budāoni's grudging criticisms, the +unbiassed readers of Akbar's life cannot avoid the conviction that in +dealing with him, they are dealing with a man of imagination, of +genius.</p> + +<p class="normal">Between the lines, as it were, of bare fact, the unconventional, the +unexpected crops up perpetually, making the mind start and wonder. As +an instance, let us take the account of the great hunt at Bhera, near +the river Jhelum, and let us take it in the very words of the +historians.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The Emperor gave orders for a <i>gamargha</i> hunt, and that the nobles +and officers should according to excellent methods enclose the wild +beasts.... But, when it had almost come about that the two sides were +come together, suddenly, all at once a strange state and strong frenzy +came upon the Emperor ... to such an extent as cannot be accounted +for. And every one attributed it to some cause or other ... some +thought that the beasts of the forest had with a tongueless tongue +unfurled divine secrets to him. At this time he ordered the hunting to +be abandoned. Active men made every endeavour that no one should even +touch the feather of a finch."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Now whether the legend which lingers in India be true or not, that it +was the sight of a <i>chinkara</i> fawn which brought about the Emperor's +swift change of front, we have here baldly set down certain events +which apparently were incomprehensible and but vaguely praiseworthy, +even to Abul-fazl's keen eye for virtue in his master. Viewed, +however, by the wider sympathies of to-day, the fact stands forth +indubitably that the "extraordinary access of rage such as none had +ever seen the like in him before" with which Akbar was seized, was no +mere fit of epilepsy, such as the rival historian Budāoni counts it to +have been, but a sudden overmastering perception of the relations +between God's creatures, the swift realisation of the Unity which +binds the whole world together; for it seems certain that he never +again countenanced a <i>battue</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now Akbar's life was full of such sudden insights. We see the effect +of them in his swift actions; actions so swift, so unerring, that they +startle the dull world around him. He was that rare thing--a dreamer +who was also a man of action.</p> + +<p class="normal">That he was full of faults none can deny, but, judging him by the +highest canon, one feels bound to place him amongst those few names, +such as Shakspeare, Michelangelo, Beethoven and Cęsar, who seem to +have had equal control over their physical and their subliminal +consciousness; and so, inevitably, head the lists of leaders amongst +men.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of Akbar's early years enough has been said. From his birth in the +sand-swept desert, to the day on which, a lad-ling of eight, he +finally escaped the clutches of his uncle Kamrān, and rode into his +father's camp before Kābul at the head of a faithful contingent, he +had suffered such constant vicissitudes of fortune that there can be +no surprise at the belief, which grew up later, that he bore a charmed +life.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of the next three years until, at the age of twelve, he marched with +his father on India, and brought success by, with youthful energy, +precipitating a decisive battle, nothing is known, save that he was +married with much pomp to his cousin Rāzia-Khānum, daughter of his +dead uncle Hindal, a woman many years his senior.</p> + +<p class="normal">Akbar, then, was thirteen years and four months old when at Hariāna, a +town in the Jullunder district, he received the news of his father's +accident, and almost at the same time those of his death. He, together +with his governor, tutor, or, as it is called in Persian, <i>atalik</i>, +Byrām-Khān, was engaged in pursuing Sikūndah-Shāh, the last scion of +the House of Sūr, and it seemed to them best, ere returning to Delhi, +to secure the Punjāb by securing Sikūndah. But their decision proved +of doubtful wisdom; for Kābul instantly revolted, and Hemu, the +shopkeeper-prime-minister of the third Sūri king, with an army of +fifty thousand men and five hundred elephants, marched on Delhi, +flushed by his victories, to restore the late dynasty, and took the +city.</p> + +<p class="normal">In this predicament, Akbar's counsellors advised retreat to Kābul. Its +recovery seemed certain, and he could there await future developments. +But Akbar's instincts were for empire, and Byrām-Khān, the old +Turkomān soldier, was with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Delhi must be won back at all hazards; so, not without trepidation, +the old man and the boy crossed the river Sutlej, and were joined at +Sirhīnd by Tārdi-Beg, and the forces which had fled from Delhi. Now +Tārdi-Beg was a nobleman of the House of Chagatāi (which also claimed +the young king as its most distinguished scion), and between him and +Byräm-Khān there had ever been enmity. The latter, therefore, taking +as his excuse the over-haste of Tārdi-Beg's retirement from Delhi, +called him to his tent, and without referring to their youthful +master, had him assassinated. The event, common enough in Indian +history, is noteworthy, because it caused the first rift in the +confidence between Byrām and Akbar, who, boy as he was, showed his +displeasure, and refused to accept the rough soldier's excuse that +violence was necessary to assert power.</p> + +<p class="normal">The next breach was of the same kind. Passing by our old friend, the +fort of Bhattīnda, Akbar gave battle to Hemu on the old field at +Pāniput, where, thirty years before, his grandfather, Babar, had +decided his fate.</p> + +<p class="normal">No doubt the thought of this had something to do with the renewed +victory which left Hemu, sorely wounded, a prisoner in Byrām's hands. +Not satisfied with this, the savage old Tartar general brought him +into Akbar's tent, and, presenting the boy with a sword, said: "This +is your first war, my king. Prove your sword upon this infidel." But +Akbar drew back indignantly. "How can I strike one who is no better +than a dead man?" he replied hotly. "It is on strength and sense that +a king's sword is tried." Whereupon Byrām, incensed, no doubt, by the +proud refusal, instantly cut down Hemu himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">They say the boy-king wept; certain it is that he never forgot, never +quite forgave, the incident. Next day, marching 53 miles without a +halt, Akbar entered Delhi, the acknowledged Emperor of India.</p> + +<p class="normal">What that India was, we know. On all sides was despotism; good or bad +government being the result of the personal equation of the despot.</p> + +<p class="normal">Akbar was to change much of this by wise, unalterable, and beneficent +laws during the nine-and-forty years of his reign; for the present, +however, he was under tutelage, and the first four years after his +accession passed without the young king's showing any of the +markedly-original tendencies which characterised him in after life.</p> + +<p class="normal">But during those four years he was learning to recognise what he +liked, what he disliked. Amongst the latter was the arbitrary exercise +of Byrām's power. This became more and more galling as the years sped +by, and the boy, now growing to manhood, began to realise <i>himself</i>, +began to dream dreams, began to see realities with a clearness and +insight far beyond those of his tutor. But he had a generous, an +affectionate heart. He hestitated long to throw off the yoke of +tutelage and proclaim his determination to rule in his own way; and +despite the efforts of Byrām's enemies--and he had many--added to the +persuasions of Mahām-Anagāh (Akbar's foster-mother, who all his life, +from the day when, a yearling babe, he was left in her charge while +his father and mother fled for their lives across the Persian +frontier, had been his chief adviser), it was not till A.D. 1560 that +Akbar made up his mind to action. Then, leaving Byrām engaged in a +hunting expedition, he returned, on pretext of his mother's sudden +illness, to Delhi and issued a proclamation announcing to his people +that he had taken the sole management of affairs into his own hands, +and that no orders, except those given under his own seal, should in +future be obeyed. At the same time he sent a dignified message to +Byrām-Khān to this effect:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Till now our mind has been taken up with our education and by the +amusements of youth, and it was our royal will that you should +regulate the affairs of our empire. But, it being our intention +henceforward to govern our people by our own judgment, let our +well-wisher withdraw from all worldly concerns, and taking the +pilgrimage to Mecca on which he has for so long been intent, spend the +rest of his days in prayer far removed from the toils of public life."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The very dignity of this was, however, irritating, and Byrām, after a +brief feint of obedience, broke out into open revolt.</p> + +<p class="normal">It needed Akbar himself to reduce his disloyalty by a display of +clemency which must have convinced the old Tartar that he had here to +do with some one, with something, the like of which he had never seen +before. For when, driven to bay, in utmost distress he sent in an +almost hopeless appeal for pardon, Akbar's reply was the despatching +of a guard of honour equal to his own to bring the unfortunate man to +his presence with every mark of distinction. It was too much for the +old soldier. His pride broke down, he flung himself at his young +master's feet in a passion of tears. Akbar's reply was to raise him by +the hand, order a robe of honour to be flung round him, and to place +him in his old seat by the king's side above all the other nobles.</p> + +<p class="normal">So in "the very loud voice," and with "the very elegant and pleasant +manner of speech" for which the young king was famous, he addressed +him thus:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"If Byrām-Khān loves a military life, the governorship of Kālpe offers +field for his ambition. If he prefers to remain at court, our favour +will never be wanting to the benefactor of our family. But if he +choose devotion, he shall be escorted to Mecca with all the honour due +to his rank, and receive a pension of 50,000 rupees annually."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Byrām chose the last, and from that time Akbar reigned alone; and, to +his credit be it said, except in his disastrous leniency towards his +sons, there is scarcely a mistake to be laid to his charge. Before, +however, embarking on what must necessarily be a very inadequate +sketch of this remarkable man, a few words as to his personality and +his looks may not be amiss. He was "inclined to be tall, sinewy, +strong, with an open forehead and chest and long arms. He had most +captivating manners and an agreeable expression." According to his +son, "his manners and habits were quite different from those of other +persons, and his visage was full of a godly dignity." For the rest, he +was a great athlete, the best polo-player and shot at court, and ready +for any exploit that required strength and skill.</p> + +<p class="normal">His mind followed suit with his body, though he was absolutely unlike +his grandfather Babar in versatility. Yet he had had, apparently, much +the same opportunity of education. In both, the four years from eight +to twelve were all that Fate gave them for schooling; but Babar +emerged from his, a writer, a poet, a painter, a musician. Akbar, +strange to say, could neither read nor write, but he was counted the +first musician of his day.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was the man who at eighteen started to rule India on new lines, +whose head held a new idea concerning kingship. The king according to +this, should be the connecting link between his subjects. He should +rule not for one but for all. Just as Asōka, nigh on two thousand +years before, had protested that conquest by the sword was not worth +calling conquest, so Akbar, whose soul in many ways followed close in +thought to that of the old Buddhist king, felt, vaguely at first, +afterwards more clearly, more concisely, that the king should be, as +it were, the solvent in which caste and creed, even race, should +disappear, leaving behind them nothing but equal rights, equal +justice, equal law. To secure this, it was necessary to make all men +forget conquest.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a big idea, and to carry it through in the face of a society +which deemed kingship a personal pleasure to be gained by a long purse +or a stout arm, needed a strong will.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Akbar was young, and vital to his finger-tips. The first thing to +be accomplished was to annex all India--as bloodlessly as he could. +That is the first thing to be noticed in Akbar's rule. War, even from +the beginning, was never to him anything but the lesser of two evils; +the other being disunion, decentralisation, consequent misgovernment.</p> + +<p class="normal">His first annexation was Mālwa, where the governor, hard-pressed, +"sought a refuge from the frowns of fortune" in Akbar's clemency. As a +result of which he lived, and fought, and died, long years afterwards, +in the service of the king, feeling his honour in no way impaired by +his defeat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Immediately after this, Akbar had to choose between personal affection +and abstract justice. His foster-brother, Adham-Khān, son to that +Mahām-Anagāh whose kindly, capable breast had been the young king's +refuge for so many years, began to give trouble. Lawless, dissolute, +he presumed on the king's love for his former playfellow in a thousand +ways. It was he who was chief actor in the tragedy of Rūp-mati, the +beautiful dancing-girl with whom Bāz-Bahādur of Mālwa lived for "seven +long happy years, while she sang to him of love," and who killed +herself sooner than submit to Adham-Khān's desires. This brought down +on him the king's anger, but he defied it still more by assassinating +the prime minister as he sate at prayers in Akbar's antechamber on the +roof. Some say, and this is probably true, that the king, hearing the +old man's cry, came out sword in hand to avenge him, but, restraining +his wrath, ordered the murderer to be instantly thrown over the +battlements. The story, however, is also told that the young Akbar, +coming out from his sleeping-chamber, himself gripped the offender in +his strong arms, and forcing him backward to the edge, paused for a +last kiss of farewell ere he sent the sin-stained soul to its account. +It is, at least, more dramatic.</p> + +<p class="normal">But either tale ends with the greatest of tragedies for the young +king. Mahām-Anagāh, his more than mother, died of grief within forty +days--died unforgiving.</p> + +<p class="normal">The task of consolidating his empire occupied Akbar for the next two +years. It would be idle to attempt to follow him from the Nerbūdda to +the Indus, from Allahabād to Guzerāt. One incident will give an idea +of his swiftness, his extraordinary dash and courage.</p> + +<p class="normal">Returned from a long campaign on the north-western hills against his +young brother, Mahomed Hakīm, Akbar heard of renewed trouble with the +Usbeks in Oude. Though it was then the height of the rainy season, he +made a forced march over a flooded country, and arriving at the Ganges +at nightfall, swam its swollen stream with his advanced guard, and +after lying concealed till daybreak, sounded the attack.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The enemy, who had passed the night in festivity, little supposing +the king would attempt to cross the river without his army, could +hardly believe their senses when they heard the royal kettledrums." +Needless to say, the rebels, surprised, were defeated, and, as usual, +pardoned. This was Akbar's policy. To punish swiftly, then to forgive. +Thus he bound men to him by ties of fear and love. Already he had +conceived and carried out the almost inconceivable project of allying +himself in honourable and peaceful marriage with the Rājputs. Behāri +Mull, Rājah of Ambźr (or Jeypore), had given the king his daughter, +while his son Bhagwan-dās, and his nephew Mān-Singh, were amongst +Akbar's most trusted friends, and held high posts in the imperial +army. Toleration was beginning to bear fruit; but Chitore, the Sacred +City, held out alike against annexation or cajolery. So it could not +be allowed to remain a centre of independence, of revolt. It was in +A.D. 1568 that Akbar began its siege. Udāi-Singh, the Fat King, had +fled to the mountains, being but a bastard Rājput in courage, leaving +one Jāimul in charge of the sanctuary of Rājput chivalry.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a long business. Once an accident in the mines which Akbar was +pushing with the utmost care, brought about disaster, and the siege +had practically to be begun again. In the end, it was a chance shot +which brought success. Alone, unattended, in darkness, Akbar was in +the habit of wandering round his guards at night, marking the work +done in the trenches, dreaming over the next day's plans. So occupied +in a close-pushed bastion, he saw by the flare of a torch on the +rampart of the city some Rājput generals also going their rounds. To +snatch a matchlock from the sentry and fire was Akbar's quick impulse.</p> + +<p class="normal">It won him Chitore; for the man who fell, shot through the head, was +Jāimul himself. Next morning, Akbar went through scenes which he never +forgot. He saw, as his grandfather had done, the great war-sacrifice +of the Rājputs; but, unlike Babar, he did not view it contemptuously. +It made an indelible mark upon his soul. The story goes, that two +thousand of the Rājput warriors escaped the general slaughter by the +"stratagem of binding the hands of their women and children, and +marching with them through the imperial troops as if they were a +detachment of the besiegers in charge of prisoners."</p> + +<p class="normal">If this extraordinary tale be true, the explanation of it surely lies +in Akbar's admiration; an admiration which led him on his return to +Delhi to order two huge stone elephants, formed of immense blocks of +red sandstone, to be built at the gateway of his palace. And on the +necks of these elephants he placed two gigantic stone figures +representing Jāimul and Pūnnu, the two Rājput generals who had so +bravely defended Chitore.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was during this siege that Akbar's friendship with the poet Faizi +commenced. Five years younger than the young king, who was then but +six-and-twenty years of age, Faizi, or Abul-faiz, as he is rightly +named, was by profession a physician, by temperament an artist in the +highest sense. Charmed by his varied talents, fascinated by his +goodness, Akbar kept him by his side until he died nineteen years +afterwards, when it is recorded that the king wept inconsolably. One +thing they had in common--an unusual thing in those days--they were +both extraordinarily fond of animals, especially of dogs.</p> + +<p class="normal">This friendship, bringing about as it did the introduction to Akbar of +Abul-faiz's younger brother, Abul-fazl, marks an important change in +the king's mental development.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hitherto he had been strictly orthodox. In a way, he had set aside the +problems of life in favour of his self-imposed task; henceforward his +mind was to be as keen, as swift to gain spiritual mastery, as his +body was to gain the physical mastery of his world. Possibly he may +have been led to thought by the death in this year of his twin sons; +apparently these were the only children which had as yet been born to +him, and at twenty-seven it is time that an Eastern potentate had +sons. With him, too, the very idea of empire must have been bound up +with that of an heir to empire. So it is no wonder that we find him +overwhelmed with joy at the birth, in 1569, of Prince Salīm. Yet his +sons (he had three of them in Fate's good time) were to be the great +tragedy of Akbar's life. Long years afterwards, when the baby Salīm, +whom he had welcomed verily as a gift from God, had grown to be a man, +a cruel man, who ordered an offender to be flayed alive, Akbar, with a +shiver of disgust, asked bitterly "how the son of a man who could not +see a dead beast flayed without pain, could be guilty of such +barbarity to a human being?"</p> + +<p class="normal">How indeed? Were they really his sons, these hard-drinking, +hard-living young princes, who had no thought beyond the princelings +of their age?</p> + +<p class="normal">This resentment, this disgust, however, was not to be for many years. +Meanwhile, Akbar, having built the fort at Agra, that splendid +building whose every foundation finds water, whose every stone is +fitted to the next and chained to it by iron rings, began on his City +of Victory, Fatehpur Sikri.</p> + +<p class="normal">And wherefore not, since sons had been born to his empire? It was wide +by this time, but Guzerāt was still independent and had to be brought +within the net.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was in this campaign that Akbar nearly met his end in the narrow +cactus lane at Sarsa, when he and the two Rājput chieftains, +Bhagwan-dās and Mān-Singh, fought their way through their enemies, +each guarding the other's head.</p> + +<p class="normal">Akbar's life is full of such reckless bravery, such +wonderful escapes; in this, at least, he was true grandson to +Babar-of-the-Thousand-Adventures.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was in the following year that the famous ride from Agra to +Ahmedabād in nine days was made; and, after all, somewhat uselessly +made, since the emperor was too chivalrous to take his enemy unawares, +and, finding him asleep, ordered the royal trumpeters to sound a +<i>reveillée</i> before, after giving him plenty of time, the imperial +party "charged like a fierce tiger." It is good reading all this, +overburdened though the pages of the Akbarnāmāh-Abul-fazl's great +History of his Master--may be with flatteries and digressions.</p> + +<p class="normal">But it is not in all this that Akbar's glory lies. It is in the +far-reaching justice of his legal and administrative reforms, above +all, in the reasons he gives for these reforms, that he stands unique +amongst all Indian kings. We have, however, still to record his +conquest of Bengal (where, it may be noted, he swam his rivers on +horseback at the head of every detachment for pursuit, every advance +guard), still to tell the tale of the Fat King Udāi-Singh's son, Rājah +Pertāp, before at Fatehpur Sikri, in the twentieth year of his reign, +and the thirty-third of his life, we can find pause to consider +Akbar's principles and practice. Bengal, then, was added to empire +with the usual rapidity. Then arose trouble in Mźwar. Udāi-Singh was +dead, still defying from a distance Akbar's power, still scorning the +alliance by marriage which had brought his neighbours revenue and +renown; but his son Pertāp lived--Pertāp, who was to the sixteenth +century what Prithvi-Rāj had been to the fourteenth; that is to say, +the flower of Rājput chivalry, the idol of the men, the darling of the +women. He had taken to the hills, he had outraged Akbar's sense of +justice, and he must be crushed. The battle of Huldighāt decided his +fate. Wounded, wearied, he fled on his grey horse "Chytuc" up a +narrowing stony ravine, behind him the clatter of another horse +swifter than his own; for "Chytuc," his friend, his companion, was +wounded, too, and more wearied even than wounded.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Ho! nīla-ghōra-ki-aswār!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">["Oh! Rider of the grey horse!"]</p> + +<p class="normal">The cry rang out amid the echoing rocks. What! Was his enemy within +call already? "Chytuc" stumbled on, urged by the spur.</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Ho! nīla-ghōra-ki-aswār!</i>"</p> + +<p class="normal">Nearer and nearer! A cry that must be answered at last. One final +stumble, "Chytuc" was down, and Pertāp turned to sell life dearly. +Turned to find his brother.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thy horse is at its end--take mine," said Sukta, who long years +before had gone over to Akbar's side, driven thither by Pertāp's +pride.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And thou?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I go back whence I came."</p> + +<p class="normal">Those who had watched the chase from the plains below asked for +explanations. They were given.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Tell the truth," came the calm reply.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then Sukta told it. Drawing himself up, he said briefly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"The burden of a kingdom over-weighted my brother. I helped him to +carry it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Needless to say, the excuse was accepted. And to this day the cry, +"<i>Ho! nīla-ghōra-ki-aswār</i>," is one of the war-cries of the Rājput.</p> + +<p class="normal">To return to Akbar, in the twentieth year of his reign. It was just +ten years since Faizi had come into his life--Faizi, the first +Mahomedan to trouble his head about Hindu literature, Hindu science. +It had opened up a new world to Akbar, and when six years afterwards +Abul-fazl entered into the emperor's life also, with his broad, clear, +tolerant, critical outlook, and his intense personal belief in the +genius of the man he served, it seemed possible to achieve what till +then Akbar had almost despaired of achieving. The dream had always +been there. In some ways he had gone far towards realising it. He had, +early in his reign, abolished the capitation tax on infidels, and the +tax on pilgrimages, his reason for the latter being, "that although +the tax was undoubtedly on a vain superstition, yet, as all modes of +worship were designed for the One Great Being, it was wrong to throw +any obstacle in the way of the devout, and so cut them off from their +own mode of intercourse with their Maker."</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he had absolutely forbidden the slavery of prisoners of war; and +having observed, both during his many campaigns and his still more +numerous hunting expeditions, that the greater portion of the land +he traversed remained uncultivated, he had set himself, alone, +unaided--for his courtiers were content with conventionalities--to +find out the cause. The land was rich, the cultivators were +industrious; the reason must lie in something which made cultivation +unprofitable. What was it? An excessive land-tax? He instantly started +experimental farms, which convinced him that this, and nothing else, +was the cause of the land lying idle. But on all sides he met with +opposition. Convinced himself that the old methods were obsolete, he +had almost given up the task of reform in despair, when he met +Abul-fazl. In religious matters, too, he had gone far beyond his age. +The intolerance the bigotry of those around him shocked his innate +sense of justice. Here again Abul-fazl was a tower of strength, and, +inch by inch, yard by yard, his support enabled the king to fight for +his final position, until in 1577, after endless discussions in the +House-of-Argument (which he had had built for the purpose, and where, +night after night, he sate listening while doctors of the law, +Brahmans, Jews, Jesuits, Sufis--God only knows what sects and +creeds--discussed truth from their varying standpoints), he took +the law into his own hands and practically forced the learned +Ulemas to put their signatures to a document which proclaimed him +Head-of-the-Church, the spiritual as well as the temporal guide of his +subjects. The reason he gave for desiring this decision was, that as +kings were answerable to God for their subjects, any division of +authority in dealing with them was inexpedient.</p> + +<p class="normal">So in 1579 he mounted the pulpit in his Great Mosque at Fatehpur +Sikri, and read the Kutbah prayer in his own name in these words, +written for the occasion by the poet Faizi:--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="t2">"Lo! from Almighty God I take my kingship,</p> +<p class="t0">Before His throne I bow and take my judgeship,<br> +Take Strength from Strength, and Wisdom from His Wiseness,<br> +Right from the Right, and Justice from His Justice.<br> +Praising the King, I praise God near and far--<br> +Great is His Power! Allāh-hū-Akbār!"</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">They were not unworthy words; and they were, as Sir William Hunter +well calls them, the Magna Charter of Akbar's reign. He was now free +to realise all his long-cherished dreams of universal tolerance and +absolute unity. In future, no distinctions of race and creed were held +cogent. The judicial system was reorganised and the magistracy made to +understand that the question of religion was no longer to enter into +their work.</p> + +<p class="normal">The whole revenue administration was altered, and it remains to this +day practically as Akbar left it. In this, as in finance and currency, +he was ably aided by Tōdar-Mull, a Hindu of exceptional ability and +tried integrity.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Akbar was fortunate in his friends. In addition to Faizi, who +appears to have satisfied his philosophic instincts, and Abul-fazl, to +whose clear eyes he always turned when in doubt, he had a third +intimate companion who, in many ways, stood closest to him of the +three.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was Rājah Birbal, who began life as a minstrel. His pure +intellectuality, his quaint humour and cynical outlook on life, seem +to have given Akbar the nerve tonic, which, dreamer as he was at +times, he seems to have needed; for like all really great men, the +emperor was almost feminine in sensitiveness.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is difficult to decide what his own personal creed was. That which +he promulgated as the Divine Faith is a somewhat nebulous Deism. That +which is credited to him in the following words is poetically +mystical:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"In every Temple they seek Thee, in every Language they praise Thee. +Each Religion says that it holds Thee, the One. But it is Thou whom I +seek from temple to temple; for Heresy and Orthodoxy stand not behind +the Screen of thy Truth. Heresy to the Heretic, Orthodoxy to the +Orthodox; but only the dust of the Rose Petal remains to the seller of +perfume."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Behind all this there lies the conviction so strongly expressed that +"not one step can be made without the torch of truth," that "to be +beneficial to the soul, belief must be the outcome of clear judgment."</p> + +<p class="normal">But the chronicle of the remainder of his reign claims us.</p> + +<p class="normal">In 1584 he outraged the orthodox by choosing a Rājputni Jōdh-Bai, the +daughter of Rājah Bhagwān-das, as the first wife of his son and heir, +Prince Salīm.</p> + +<p class="normal">He himself had left such things as marriage behind him, and, though +still in the prime of years, led the life of an ascetic. Five hours +sleep sufficed for him; he ate but sparingly once a day; wine and +women he appears to have forgotten. There is a saying attributed to +him of his regret that he had not earlier recognised all women as +sisters. Certainly for the last five-and-twenty years of his life he +had nothing in this respect wherewith to reproach himself. Wider +interests absorbed him. Child-marriages had to be discountenanced, +abolished by a sweep of the pen; education placed on a firmer, better +basis. It seemed to him, as it seems to many of us to-day, that an +unconscionable time was spent in teaching very little, and, hey +presto! another sweep of the pen, and school-time was diminished by +one-half. There is nothing so dynamic as a good despotism!</p> + +<p class="normal">All this was crowded, literally crammed into a few peaceful years at +Fatehpur Sikri, and then suddenly he left his City of Victory, the +city that was bound up with his hope of personal empire, the city he +had built to commemorate the birth of his heir and removed his +capital, not to Delhi, but to the far north--to Lahōre.</p> + +<p class="normal">Why was this?</p> + +<p class="normal">It is said that a lack of water at Fatehpur was the cause. And yet +with the river Jumna close at hand, and Akbar's wealth and boundless +energies, what was a lack of water had he really been set on remaining +there?</p> + +<p class="normal">It seems as if we must seek for a cause behind this patent and pitiful +one. Such cause, deep-seated, scarcely acknowledged, is surely to be +found in the bitter disappointment caused to the emperor by his sons. +From his earliest years Salīm had given trouble. At eighteen he was +dissolute, cruel, arrogant beyond belief. His younger brothers, Murād +and Danyāl, were little better. Of the three, Murād was the best; it +was possible to think of him as his father's son. Yet the iron must +have eaten into that father's soul as he saw them uncomprehending even +of his idea, his dream. In leaving Fatehpur Sikri, as he did in 1585, +therefore, it seems likely that he left behind also much of his +personal interest in empire.</p> + +<p class="normal">The ostensible cause of his northward journey was the death of his +brother, and a consequent revolt in Kābul; but he did not return for +fourteen long years--years that while they brought him success, while +they justified his wisdom, brought him also much sorrow and +disappointment. Though both earlier historians and Western +commentators fail, as a rule, to notice it, there can be no doubt to +those who, taking Akbar's whole character as their guide, attempt to +read between the lines, that the emperor's policy changed greatly +after he left Fatehpur Sikri behind him. A certain personal note is +wanting in it. Take, for instance, the war which he carried out in the +province of Swāt, and which ended in a disaster that cost him his +dearest friend, Rājah Birbal. Now that disaster was due entirely to +this new note in Akbar's policy. He did not desire conquest; not, at +least, conquest on the old blood-and-thunder lines. He wished, and he +ordered, what we should nowadays call a "peaceful demonstration to the +tribes." The army was to march through the Swāt territory, using as +little violence as possible, and return. The idea was outrageous to +the regulation general, so Abul-fazl and Birbal drew lots as to which +of them should go and keep Zein-Khān's martial ardours in check. It +fell on Birbal; much, it is believed, to Akbar's regret. Of the exact +cause of disagreement between Birbal and Zein-Khān little is known; +but they did disagree, and with disastrous results. The whole Moghul +army was practically overwhelmed, and it is supposed that Birbal, in +attempting escape by the hills, was slain. His body was never found. +Elphinstone, in his History, accuses Abul-fazl of giving a confused +and contradictory account of this event, "though he must have been +minutely informed of its history"; but a little imagination supplies a +cause for this: Abul-fazl knew that Birbal was undoubtedly acting on +the king's orders.</p> + +<p class="normal">The emperor for a long time refused even to see Zein-Khān, and he was +inconsolable for the loss of his friend--his greatest friend--who had +known his every thought. It is said, indeed, that these two men, both +keenly interested in the answer to the Great Riddle of Life, the one +Agnostic, the other hopeless Optimist by virtue of his genius, had +agreed that they would come back the one to the other after death if +possible, and that therein lay Akbar's strange eagerness to credit the +many reports which gained currency, that Birbal had been seen again +alive.</p> + +<p class="normal">There can be no doubt but that the loss of his friend saddened the +remainder of Akbar's life. Indeed, it may be said that from the year +in which he quitted Fatehpur Sikri, thus abandoning his Town of +Conquest to the flitting bats, the prowling hyenas, the year also of +Birbal's loss, a cloud seems to fall over the gorgeous pageant of +Akbar's royalty.</p> + +<p class="normal">Just before this, however, on the very eve of departure, an event +occurred at Fatehpur Sikri which in itself, had the Dreamer-King but +possessed second sight, would have been sufficient to dim the lustre +of his personal life.</p> + +<p class="normal">For in 1585 three travellers from England arrived with a letter from +Elizabeth their queen, to one "Yellabdin Echebar, King of Cambaya, +Invincible Emperor."</p> + +<p class="normal">The letter is worth giving:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The great affection which our subjects have to visit the most distant +places of the world, not without good intention to introduce the +trades of all nations whatsoever they can, by which meanes the mutual +and friendly traffique of merchandise on both sides may come, is the +cause that the bearer of this letter, John Newberie, joyntly with +those that be in his company, with a courteous and honest boldnesse, +doe repaire to the borders and countreys of your Empire; we doubt not +but that your Imperiall Maiestie, through your royal grace, will +favourably and friendly accept him. And that you wold doe it the +rather for our sake, to make us greatly beholden to your Maiestie, wee +should more earnestly, and with more words, require it, if wee did +think it needful.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, by the cingular report that is of your Imperiall Maiestie's +humanitie in these uttermost parts of the world, we are greatly eased +of that burden, and therefore we use the fewer and lesse words; only +we request, that because they are our subjects, they may be honestly +entreated and received. And that in respect of the hard journey which +they have taken to places so far distant, it would please your +Maiestie with some libertie and securitie of voiage to gratify it with +such privileges as to you shall seem good: which curtesie of your +Imperiall Maiestie shall to our subjects at our request perform, wee, +according to our royal honour, will recompense the same with as many +deserts as we can. And herewith wee bid your Imperiall Maiestie to +farewell."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Akbar's answer was to give the travellers safe conduct. So John +Newbery, of Aleppo, after seeing all that was to be seen, journeyed +Punjāb-ways, to be never again heard of. Ralph Fitch, merchant of +London, went south-eastward to find the Great Delta of the Ganges, and +so return to England, and by his report, help to start the first +British venture to the East; and William Leedes, jeweller, who had +learnt his trade in Ghent, remained to cut gems for Akbar.</p> + +<p class="normal">A notable event, indeed, this first touch of England on India. And it +happened when the Moghul dynasty was at the height of its power, when +Akbar Emperor, indeed, had but one failure in his life--his sons.</p> + +<p class="normal">Surely it must have been some prescience of what was to come, which +made him, so soon after giving that safe conduct, leave the outward +and visible sign of his personal hold on Empire--the City of his +Heirs--a prey to the owl and the bat?</p> + +<p class="normal">Akbar's fourteen-year stay in the Punjāb, spent partly at the Fort of +Attock, which he built, and which still frowns over the rushing Indus, +and at Lahōre, was marked by the annexation of Kashmir, which was +effected with very little bloodshed. Owing to the difficulty of the +passes, the first expedition made terms with the ruling power, by +which, while the sovereignty of the Moghul was ceded, his interference +was barred. This did not suit Akbar's dream of united, consolidated +government. So he refused to ratify the treaty, and when the winter +snows had melted, sent another expedition to enforce his claim to +rule.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dissensions due to bad government were rife in Kashmir. The troops +detailed to defend the Pir-Punjāi pass were disloyal. Half, deserted +to the invading force, the remainder retired on the capital. +Whereupon, the whole valley lying at the mercy of the Moghul, terms +were dictated.</p> + +<p class="normal">Akbar himself went twice into Kashmir. Those who have been fortunate +enough to see the indescribable beauties of its lakes, its trees, its +mountains, can imagine how it must have appealed to a man of his +nature.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sinde and Kandahār followed Kashmir swiftly into the wide net of +Moghul influence, and took their places quietly in the emperor's Dream +of Empire. Kābul followed in its turn. While there, Akbar suffered a +severe blow in the news of the death in one day--though at different +places and causes--of two of his most trusted friends and adherents, +Rājah Todār-Mull, the great Finance-Minister, and Rājah Bhagwān-dās, +his first Rājput ally.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Dekkan was in process of being netted also, when another and still +heavier blow fell on the emperor in the death of his second--and, in +many ways, most promising--son, Murād. He died, briefly, of drink.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the worst blow was the conduct of his son and heir, Salīm, +which in 1598 made it necessary for his father to leave Lahōre for +Agra, in order to check the prince's open rebellion. He was now +thirty--arrogant, dissolute, passionate in every way; and, finding +himself as his father's viceroy at the head of a large army, made a +bid for the crown, while his father's forces were engaged in the +Dekkan.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Akbar's love made him patient. He wrote an almost pitiful letter +of dignified tolerance. His affection, he said, was still +undiminished. Let his son return to duty, and all would be forgotten.</p> + +<p class="normal">Salīm chose the wiser part of submission, but even as he did so, +prepared to wound his forgiving father to the uttermost.</p> + +<p class="normal">Abul-fazl was on his way back from the Dekkan, and Prince Salīm +instigated the Rājah of Orchcha to lay an ambuscade for this old, this +most beloved companion of the king.</p> + +<p class="normal">History says that he and his small force defended themselves with the +greatest gallantry, but were eventually cut to pieces. Abul-fazl's +head was sent to Prince Salīm, who, however, had craft; for his +father, mercifully, never knew whose was the hand that really dealt +the death-blow. Had he done so, his grief would have been even greater +than it is reported to have been. He touched no food for days; neither +did he sleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">Akbar, indeed, was fast becoming almost unnerved by his tenderness of +heart. Salīm, professedly repentant, abandoned himself to still +further debaucheries at Allahabād.</p> + +<p class="normal">As a last resource, a last effort, Akbar resolved, in a personal +interview, to appeal to his son's better feelings.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had hardly started from Agra, however, when he was recalled to his +mother's death-bed. It was yet another shock to Akbar, who, ever since +that day of choice, when, surrounded by smiling, expectant faces, he +had stood frightened, almost tearful, then with a cry found--he knew +not how--Hamida-Begum's loving arms, had held his mother as he held no +other woman in the world.</p> + +<p class="normal">Something of the pity of it must have struck even Salīm's passion-torn +heart, for he followed his father and gave in his submission. Not for +long, however. Akbar could not be hard on those he loved. The +restraint was soon slackened; the physicians who were to break the +drug-habit sent to the right-about, and the patient restored to +freedom and favour.</p> + +<p class="normal">And still Fate had arrows in store for poor Akbar's wounded heart. +Prince Danyāl, his youngest son, drank himself to death in the +thirtieth year of his age, having accomplished his object by liquor +smuggled to him in the barrel of his fowling piece.</p> + +<p class="normal">A pretty prince, indeed, to be the son of the greatest king India has +ever known.</p> + +<p class="normal">This rapid succession of sorrow left the emperor enfeebled. He had +always been a hard worker, had spared himself not at all; now Nature +was revenging herself on him for his defiance of fatigue.</p> + +<p class="normal">As he lay dying in the fort at Agra, the emperor, bereft of his +friends, worse than bereft of his sons, had but one comfort--his +grandson, Prince Khurram, who afterwards succeeded his father under +the title of Shāh-jahān. A word from Akbar might have set him on the +throne; but the father was loyal to his disloyal son. He summoned his +nobles around him, and his personal influence was still so great that +not a voice of dissent was raised against his declaration of Prince +Salīm--little Shaikie, as he still called him at times--as his heir.</p> + +<p class="normal">Akbar died at sixty-three, almost his last words being to ask +forgiveness of those who stood about his bed, should he ever in any +way have wronged any one of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Mahomedan historians assert loudly that he also repeated the +Orthodox creed; but this is not likely. He had wandered too far from +the fold of Islām to find shelter from death in it.</p> + +<p class="normal">So died a man who dreamt a dream, who turned that dream into a reality +for his lifetime; but for his lifetime only. Fate gave him no future.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even his enemies admit with a sneer, saying he had it a gift from a +Hindu <i>jogi</i>, his almost marvellous power of seeing through men and +their motives at a glance. Did he ever, we wonder, look at his own +face in the glass, and see written there his failure?</p> + +<p class="normal">Most of his administrative reforms exist to the present day. Some, +such as the abolition of <i>suttee</i> and the legislation for widow +remarriage which he enforced easily, nearly cost us India to +establish.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Akbar had the advantage of being a king indeed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is but one God, and Akbar is his Viceroy."</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was his first motto. If it made him a despot, his second one made +him tolerant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is good in all things. Let us adopt what <i>is</i> good, and discard +the remainder." And this admixture of despotism and tolerance is the +secret of Indian statesmanship.</p> + +<p class="normal">Akbar was the most magnificent of monarchs; but all his magnificences +held a hint of imagination. Whether in the scattering amongst the +crowd by the king's own hand, as he passed to and fro, of dainty +enamelled rose-leaves, silvern jasmine-buds, or gilded almonds, or in +the daily Procession of the Hours, all Akbar's ceremonials have +reference to something beyond the weary, workaday world. In the midst +of it all he was simplicity itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">No better conclusion to this ineffectual record of his reign can be +given than this description of him by a European eyewitness:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"He is affable and majestical, merciful and sincere. Skilful in +mechanical arts, as making guns, etc.; of sparing diet, sleeping but +three hours a day, curiously industrious, affable to the vulgar, +seeming to grace them and their presents with more respective +ceremonies than those of the grandees; loved and feared of his own; +terrible to his enemies."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">One word more. He invariably administered justice sitting or standing +below the throne; thus declaring himself to be the mere instrument of +a Supreme Power to which he also owned obedience.</p> + +<p class="normal">So not without cause did this record begin by calling Akbar a Dreamer.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.14" href="#div1Ref_02.14">JAHĀNGIR AND NURJAHĀN</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1605 TO A.D. 1627</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">These names, "Conqueror of the World" and "Light of the World," are +inseparable.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is as well they should be so, for they supply us with the only +excuse which Prince Salīm could put forward for the curious animosity +that for many years went hand in hand with his undoubted affection and +respect for his great father, Akbar; the excuse being that he had been +crossed in love, real, genuine love, by that father's absurd sense of +justice.</p> + +<p class="normal">The story will bear telling.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a poor Persian called Mirza or "Prince" Ghiāss, of good +family but abjectly poverty-stricken, who, finding it impossible to +live in his own country, determined to emigrate to India with his +family. On the way thither, his wife, Bibi Azizan, somewhat of a +feckless fashionable, was delivered of another daughter. Already in +dire distress, the parents felt unable to cope with this fresh +misfortune. So they left the child by the wayside. The chief merchant +of the caravan by which they were travelling, happening to come along +the same road a few hours afterwards, found the baby, and being struck +by its beauty, determined to rear it as his own.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now in a travelling caravan wet-nurses are rare. Small wonder, then, +that the infant, whom the merchant had instantly called the "Queen of +Women" (<i>Mihr-un-nissa</i>), should find its way back to its mother. This +led to explanations. The merchant, discovering the father to be much +above his present position, employed him in various ways, and became +interested in his future.</p> + +<p class="normal">This led to his being brought to Akbar's notice, who, finding him +straightforward and capable, advanced him until he rose to be Lord +High Treasurer of the Empire. A fine position, truly, especially for +Bibi Azizan, who, amongst the ladies of the court, was noted for the +<i>dernier cri</i> of fashion both in dress and perfume. It was she, +briefly, who invented the attar of rose, which at first sold for its +weight in gold.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now Bibi Azizan was a matchmaking mamma, and in little Mihr-un-nissa +she had a pretty piece of goods to bring to market. A thousand pities, +indeed, that husband Ghiāss, honest man, had already allowed talk of +betrothal with young Sher-Afkān of the King's Light Horse. All the +more pity because there was Prince Salīm giving his father trouble +despite the Rājput wife they had given him.</p> + +<p class="normal">That Bibi Azizan cast nets is fairly certain; but it was Fate which +sent the bird into them.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was after one of Akbar's favourite diversions, a Paradise Bazaar, +when the lords and ladies of the court had been playing pranks, that +Salīm first saw the girl who was, long years afterwards, to be his +good genius. The tale may be fully told in verse of how--</p> + +<div class="poem1"> +<p class="i6">"Long ago, so runs the story, in the days of King Akbar,<br> +'Mid the pearly-tinted splendours of the Paradise Bazaar,<br> +Young Jahāngir, boyish-hearted, playing idly with his dove,<br> +Lost his boyhood, lost his favourite, lost his heart, and +found his love.<br> +By a fretted marble fountain, set in 'broidery of flowers,<br> +Sat a girl, half-child, half-maiden, dreaming o'er her coming +hours.<br> +Wondering vaguely, yet half guessing, what the harem women mean<br> +When they call her fair, and whisper, 'You are born to be a +queen'.<br> +Curving her small palms, like petals, for their store of +glistening spray,<br> +Gazing in the sunny water where in rippling shadow lay<br> +Lips that ripen fast for kisses, slender form of budding grace,<br> +Hair that frames with ebon softness a clear, oval, ivory face.<br> +Arched and fringed with velvet blackness from their shady +depths her eyes<br> +Shine as summer lightning flashes in the dusky evening skies.<br> +Mihr-un-nissa, Queen of Women, so they call the little maid<br> +Dreaming by the marble fountain where but yesterday she played.<br> +Heavy sweet the creamy blossoms gem the burnished orange +groves,<br> +Through their shade comes Prince Jehāngir, on his wrist two +fluttering doves.<br> +'Hold my birds, child!' cries the stripling, 'I am tired of +their play',<br> +Thrusts them in her hands, unwilling, careless saunters on +his way.<br> +Culling posies as he wanders from the flowers rich and rare,<br> +Heedless that the fairest blossom 'mid the blaze of blossom +there<br> +Is the little dreaming maiden by the fountain-side at rest<br> +With the orange-eyed, bright-plumaged birds of love upon her +breast.<br> +Flowers fade and perfume passes; nothing pleases long to-day;<br> +Back toward his feathered fav'rites soon the Prince's +footsteps stray.<br> +Dreaming still sits Mihr-un-nissa, but within her listless hold<br> +Only one vain-struggling captive does the lad, surprised, +behold.<br> +'Only one?' he queries sharply. 'Sire', she falters, 'one has +flown!'<br> +'Stupid! How?' The maiden flushes at his quick imperious tone.<br> +'So! my lord!' she says defiant, with a curving lip, and +straight<br> +From her unclasped hands the other circling flies to join its +mate.<br> +Heavy sweet the creamy blossom gems the burnished orange tree,<br> +Where the happy doves are cooing o'er their new-found liberty.<br> +Startled by her quick reprisal, wrath is lost in blank +surprise,<br> +Silent stands the heir of Akbar, gazing with awakening eyes<br> +At the small rebellious figure, with its slender arms +outspread,<br> +Face half frowns, half laughter, royal right of maidenhead.<br> +Slowly dies the flush of anger as the flush of evening dies,<br> +Slowly grow his eyes to brightness as the stars in evening +skies.<br> +'So, my lord!' So Love had flitted from the listless hand of +Fate,<br> +And the heart of young Jahāngir, like the dove, had found its +mate!"<br> +</div> + +<p class="normal">Such is the tale which, even nowadays, the women of India love to +tell, bewailing the unkind destiny which separated the lovers for +nearly twenty years. But, as a matter of fact, there is no evidence to +prove that the little Queen-of-Women fell in love with the prince at +all. On the contrary, it seems probable that, being a girl of great +sense as well as great beauty, she preferred her father's young +soldier to her mother's somewhat debauched heir to a throne. Certain +it is, however, that the orthodox Mahomedan faction would have viewed +with favour the introduction of a Mahomedan bride. Akbar, however, +possibly from political motives, ostensibly because of the previous +promise, vetoed the match, and giving the young soldier-bridegroom an +estate in Bengal, sent him thither with his disturbing wife. Here they +seem to have been very happy. But Jahāngir did not forget, and the +fact that fourteen years afterwards, at least, one of the very first +acts of his reign was to send to Bengal, pick a quarrel with +Sher-Aikān (who appears to have acted as an honest and upright +gentleman by point-blank refusing to be bribed), and treacherously +killing him, carry off his wife, makes one pause to wonder whether +Jahāngir's life might not have been a better one had his inclinations +towards this most masterful woman not been thwarted.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is a curious story altogether, one which needs reading between the +lines. Not the least curious part of it being the fact that Jahāngir, +passionately lustful as he must have been by the time when, as a man +of nigh forty, he gained actual possession of Nurjahān, used no force +towards her. He accepted her scornful rejection of her husband's +murderer, and after months spent in the endeavour to soothe and +conciliate her, accepted his defeat.</p> + +<p class="normal">For six long years Nurjahān lived at the court as one of the +attendants of Jahāngir's Rājput mother, refusing any pension from the +hand of the man who had killed Sher-Afkān, and supporting herself +entirely by her exquisite skill in embroidery and painting.</p> + +<p class="normal">And then?</p> + +<p class="normal">It is customary to say that ambition overcame her scruples; but the +seeing eye, reading between the lines, may find a womanly pity for the +man who in the prime of life had lost all control over himself, and +who sorely needed help. She was a clever, a fascinating woman; and no +woman could quite keep her head before such long constancy as his.</p> + +<p class="normal">It needed little to bring him back. The story runs, that a single +visit to her rooms, where, dressed in the simple white which she +always wore after her widowhood, she received him gravely, kindly, was +sufficient.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were married almost immediately, and from that time the woman +whom he had first seen as a little maiden beside the fountain was the +one over-mastering influence in his life.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus before we begin even on Jahāngir's career we must concede to him +the grace of being a constant lover.</p> + +<p class="normal">The six years which had passed since he had succeeded to his father +had been fairly peaceful ones.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had found the whole of his vast empire tranquil. The Rāna of +Oudipur, it is true, was still unvanquished; but the thorn of Chitore +had almost ceased to rankle from its sheer persistence. The Dekkan was +also disloyal; but there was no pressure of battle, no stress of +struggle anywhere, for Jahāngir's eldest son, Khushrou (Fair Face), +had, after years of open enmity, subsided for the time into sullenness +and dejection.</p> + +<p class="normal">But almost the very first act of Jahāngir's administration was one +which, as it were, swept away the whole foundation of the empire which +Akbar had built up.</p> + +<p class="normal">He restored the Mahomedan confession of faith to the coins of the +realm, thus giving the casting vote to a creed.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the first nail in the coffin of Unity.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the rest, Jahāngir evidently did his best for a while. He issued a +few edicts, notably one against drug-takers and dram-drinkers, he all +the while continuing his notorious habits.</p> + +<p class="normal">Just before his marriage with Nurjahān, the Dekkan gave him serious +trouble. An Abyssinian slave called Malik-Ambźr rose to power and +swept all before him, compelling the Imperial troops to retire. But in +Bengal peace was restored, and after many successes Oudipur succumbed +to a final attack from Prince Khurram, Jahāngir's second son, who +afterwards reigned as Shāh-jahān. The emperor's delight on this +occasion was childlike. In a rather inefficient and unreal diary, +which he kept in imitation of his great-grandfather Babar, he records +how the very day after the arrival of some captured elephants from +Chitore, he sent for the largest of these and "went abroad mounted on +Ālam-gomān, to my great satisfaction, and distributed gold in great +quantity."</p> + +<p class="normal">But in all ways he appears to have been blatant, even in his good +humours. And these came to the front after his marriage. For Nurjahān +was skilful. She held him hard in leash; her ascendency was absolute. +It is usual, once more, to discount her influence by asserting its +root to have been ambition; but there is absolutely nothing to warrant +this assertion. It is true that she raised her own minions to office, +that her father held the post of prime minister; but he was wise and +just. Nor can there be any doubt that the whole administration +improved after Jahāngir's marriage. As for his private character, he +became, for a time, quite a decent and respectable monarch. If he +drank, he drank at night in secret; his day duties were done with +decorum.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, the report which a certain Mr Ralph Fitch had brought home +to a certain "island set in steely seas" was beginning to bear fruit, +and something more than hope of mere commerce filled the sails of the +innumerable fleets which, not from England alone, but from Holland +also, set forth to break through the monopoly of the shores of Ind +which Portugal was endeavouring to maintain. The Dutch succeeded +first, and their East India Company was formed in 1602. The first +Royal Charter given to an English Trading Company was in 1601, but it +was not until 1613 that a fleet of four joint-stock vessels, with Sir +Thomas Roe aboard, as accredited ambassador from James I to Jahāngir's +court at Ajmīr, sailed for India.</p> + +<p class="normal">The journal of this voyage, written by Sir Thomas Roe himself, is +excellent reading, and gives us a quaint picture of life at the court +of the Great Moghul. Jahāngir himself, dead-drunk as often as not, +with the figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary hanging to his +Mahomedan rosary. A spurious Christianity (deep-dyed by the monkish +legends which the Jesuit translators had coolly interpolated into the +version of the gospels which Akbar had ordered and paid for!), +hustling Hinduism and Islāmism combined. Nurjahān, with trembling +lips, no doubt, at times, driving her despot gingerly what way he +should go, proud of her power, but weary, a-weary of heart. A +beautiful queen, beautifully dressed, clever beyond compare, +contriving and scheming, plotting, planning, shielding, and saving, +doing all things for the man hidden in the pampered, drink-sodden +carcase of the king; the man who, for her, at any rate, always had a +heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">The inconceivable magnificence of it all, the courtesy, the +hospitality, the devil-may-care indifference to such trivialities as +English merchants or solid English presents! As Sir Thomas Roe writes +sadly to his Company:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"But raretyes please as well, and if you were furnished yearly from +Francford, where are all knacks and new devices, £100 would go farther +than £500 layd out in England, and <i>here better acceptable</i>."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Thus the rivalry of "made in Germany" is no new thing to India. Sir +Thomas himself seems to have been a most excellent, God-fearing man, +who was both perplexed and distressed at the attitude of the heathen +towards his own faith.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"I found it impossible," he writes, "to convince them that the +Christian faith was designed for the whole world, and that theirs was +mere fable and gross superstition. There answer was amusing" (?) +"enough. 'We pretend not,' they replied, 'that our law is of universal +application. God intended it only for us. We do not even say that +yours is a false religion; it may be adapted to your wants and +circumstances, God having, no doubt, appointed many different ways of +going to Heaven.'"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Whether amusing or not, the argument was singularly unanswerable!</p> + +<p class="normal">One of Sir Thomas Roe's most striking sketches is that of Prince +Khurram, who moved through the court, a young man of five-and-twenty, +cold, disdainful, showing no respect or distinction of persons; +"flattered by some, envied by others, loved by none." "I never saw," +writes the ambassador, "so settled a countenance, or any man keep so +constant a gravity."</p> + +<p class="normal">Sir Thomas Roe was not by any means the only Englishman at court. +Captain Hawkins had come thither nearly six years before, and +had--Heaven knows why!--been beguiled by the capricious king into +remaining, on the promise of a high salary. More than once he had +attempted to escape in various ways; but even his plea that he lived +in fear of poison was met by Jahāngir with almost ludicrous firmness, +and the presentation of a "white mayden out of his palace, so that by +these means my meats and drinks should be looked into."</p> + +<p class="normal">Poor Hawkins! His protest that he would take none but a Christian girl +was of no avail. An orphan Armenian was promptly found, and the +discomfited Captain could only write home:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"I little thought a Christian's daughter could be found; but seeing +she was of so honest a descent, and having passed my word to the king, +could not withstand my fortunes. Wherefore I tooke her, and, for want +of a minister, before Christian witnesses I marryed her; the priest +being my man Nicolas; which I thought had been lawful, till I met with +a preacher that came with Sir Harry Middleton, and he, showing mee the +error, I was newly marryed againe."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">An honest soul, apparently, this Captain Hawkins. Sir Harry Middleton +was hardly so virtuous, for, disappointed in his desire to establish a +factory at Surat, he started with his little fleet for piracy on the +High Seas, waylaying other people's golden galleons! But all round the +coast, nibbling, as it were, at India's coral strand, were strange +ships out of strange nations, seeking for a foothold, seeking for +merchandise, for money.</p> + +<p class="normal">But of this the emperor took no notice; neither did his far more able +son, Prince Shāhjahān. Backed by all Nurjahān's influence, he was fast +superseding his father in a dual administration, leaving the +latter free to amuse himself in Kashmir. But the death of +Ghiāss, Nurjahān's father, about the year 1620, brought about +complications. His sound good sense, his justice, had so far kept +the impulsive womanhood of the empress inline with policy. Now she +suddenly betrothed her daughter by her first husband to Prince +Shariyār, the youngest of Jahāngir's sons, and naturally threw over +the Knight-of-the-Rueful-Countenance, in whose inflexibility she saw +danger to her own power. For Jahāngir was ill of asthma, and like to +die.</p> + +<p class="normal">Aided by her brother, she set to work instantly to sow dissension +between father and son, to such purpose that Shāhjahān, till then the +undoubted heir-apparent, his father's fighting right hand, was forced +to take refuge in the Dekkan, which once more was in the act of +throwing off allegiance to the Moghul.</p> + +<p class="normal">Having thus disposed, for the time being, of the inconvenient heir, +Nurjahān took her emperor to Kashmīr, where, no doubt, he enjoyed +himself, for he returned thither the next year. He was, however, +living in a fool's paradise, while Nurjahān, bereft of her father's +shrewd eyes and Shāhjahān's haughty insight, was but poor protection +for a debauched and drunken monarch.</p> + +<p class="normal">So one dawning the crisis came. Mohabat Khān, whilom Governor of +Bengal, a worthy and excellent man, fell into disgrace with the +empress. His son-in-law, sent to beg forgiveness, was bastinadoed and +returned to him, face towards tail, on an ass.</p> + +<p class="normal">So it came to pass that while the imperial camp, conveying the emperor +to a summer in Kābul, was marching northward, there followed behind it +a half-defiant, half-repentant chieftain, commanding some five +thousand stalwart Rājputs.</p> + +<p class="normal">A word might have brought him to obedience once more; but the imperial +camp was large, and proud, and self-confident. So Mohabat bided his +time. There was a bridge of boats over the Jhelum River, nigh where +the bridge stands now, and after the usual custom, the imperial +troops, marching at nightfall, spent the dark hours in crossing and +preparing the new camp on the opposite bank.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus by dawn little was left but the scarlet-and-gold imperial tents, +wherein Majesty lay sleeping; a drunken sleep, it is to be feared.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was Mohabat's opportunity. He swooped down, overpowered the +guards at the bridge, burnt some of the boats, cut others adrift, and +then awoke the confused monarch.</p> + +<p class="normal">One can picture the scene. A protesting prince in pyjamas begging to +be allowed to dress in the women's tents, and so gain a few words with +his ever-ready counsellor. Mohabat wilily refusing; and so out into +the dawn, down by the river-bed, with the red flush paling to primrose +in the sky, and the wild geese calling from every patch of green +pulse, a disconsolate despot bereft of his guide.</p> + +<p class="normal">The empress, however, discovering her loss, was nothing daunted. She +put on disguise; somehow--Heaven knows how!--managed to cross the +Jhelum, and finding her generals somewhat doubtful, somewhat chill, +upbraided them for allowing their rightful king to be stolen before +their very eyes. That night an attempt was made to rescue him by a +nobleman called Fedai-Khān, who swam the river at the head of a small +body of horse; but it failed, and half the party was drowned.</p> + +<p class="normal">Next morning, Nurjahān, having succeeded in rousing the army to a +sense of its duty, herself headed a general attack. There was no +bridge; the only ford was a bad one, full of dangerous deep pools. But +the rashness of impulse was leader, and the woman was amongst the +first to land of a whole army, drenched, disordered, dispirited, with +powder damp, weighed down with wet clothes and accoutrements.</p> + +<p class="normal">The result was a foregone conclusion. Nurjahān herself was as a fury. +Her elephant circled in by enemies, her guards cut down, balls and +arrows falling thick around her howdah, one of them actually hitting +her infant grand-daughter, Prince Shahriyar's child, who was seated in +her lap. A strange place, in truth, for a baby, unless it were put +there as a loyalist <i>oriflamme</i>. Then, her driver being killed, and +leviathan cut across the proboscis, the beast dashed into the river, +sank in deep water, plunged madly, sank again, and so, carried +down-stream, finally found shore; and the empress's women, looking to +find her half-drowned, half-dead with fear, discovered her busy in +binding up baby's wound.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bravo, Nurjahān! One can forgive much for this one touch of +grand-motherhood.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of course she was beaten; whereupon she gave up force and instantly +went to join her husband in the guise of a dutiful wife. It was her +only chance of regaining him, and her empire over his enfeebled brain.</p> + +<p class="normal">Already she was almost too late. Mohabat had been before with her, had +treated him with deference, with profound respect, had made him see +that she was the cause of all his troubles--which was hardly the case. +Anyhow, she was met point-blank with an order for her execution.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even this did not daunt her courage. She only asked for permission to +kiss her lord's hand before death.</p> + +<p class="normal">Grudgingly assent was given; it could not well be withheld. And one +sight of her was enough. Jahāngir's heart had really been hers ever +since, as a boy, she had defied him in that matter of the doves.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps--who knows?--she may have stood before him--guilefully--in the +very attitude in which she had stood while Love flitted from the +listless hand of Fate; and all that Mohabat could do was to bow low +and say: "It is not for the Emperor of the Moghuls to ask in vain."</p> + +<p class="normal">So Nurjahān was once more in her old place beside the drunkard, free +to begin again with her fine, feminine wiles. It did not take her long +to undermine Mohabat's influence. Within six months her intricate +intrigues bore fruit. Jahāngir, whose person was so watched and +guarded that he was practically a prisoner, was spirited away by a +muster of Nurjahān's contingent in the middle of a review, and Mohabat +having thus lost his hostage was compelled to come to terms.</p> + +<p class="normal">One of these being an extremely guileful one, namely, that the +ex-Governor of Bengal should turn his military capacity to the +crushing of Shāhjahān, who was beginning to give trouble in the +Dekkan.</p> + +<p class="normal">This policy of the Kilkenny cats seemed to promise peace, and, +relieved of all anxiety, the emperor and empress set off for their +annual visit to Kashmīr. But this time death lurked amid the purple +iris fields which they loved so well. The asthma from which Jahāngir +had suffered for many years became alarming. What were the floating +gardens of the Dhal Lake, the Grove of Sweet Breezes, or the Festival +of Roses to a monarch who could not draw his breath? They tried to get +him back to the warmer climate of the plains, but he died almost ere +he left the valley, being carried dead into the tent on one of the +high uplands of the Himalaya.</p> + +<p class="normal">So ended the reign, and with it, Nurjahān's. She made no effort to +enter public life again; she put on the white robes of widowhood, and +spent her days in prayer and charity, a sufficient answer to those who +charge her with personal ambition. As far as India is concerned, +Jahāngir's was a neutral influence, except for that one first act of +his, that rehabilitation of the Mahomedan formula. Under this, the +whole of Akbar's dream of unity was dissolving into thin air. Yet the +danger which perhaps he had foreseen, against which he had, perhaps, +attempted to guard India, was becoming every day more dangerous.</p> + +<p class="normal">The vultures--or, let us say, the eagles--were gathering over the +carcase. From Holland, from Portugal, from England, even from France, +came galleons, like birds of prey eager to carry off the riches of the +East.</p> + +<p class="normal">So for picturesque purposes we can think of this reign as of the +picture of a man, pampered, bloated, half-drunken, looking in the lazy +sunlight at the figure of a woman round whose head doves flutter +amongst the hawks.</p> + +<p class="normal">Jahāngir's famous drinking-cup, cut from a single ruby about 3 inches +long, after passing from hand to hand for many years down to the last +century, has finally and mysteriously disappeared.</p> + +<p class="normal">In some ways it would be worth while once to drain the good wine of +Shiraz from the glowing red heart of that fatal cup which bears on it, +in fine gold characters, a single name.</p> + +<p class="normal">They say it is "Jahāngir"--Or is it "Nurjahān"?</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.15" href="#div1Ref_02.15">SHĀHJAHĀN</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1627 TO A.D. 1657</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The Knight-of-the-Rueful-Countenance in his youth, remarkable for his +lack of amiability, Shāhjahān's character appears to have changed to +cheerfulness from the moment when, at the age of thirty-seven, he +ascended the throne.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was immediately evident also that not without purpose had he sate +at the feet of that Gamaliel of administrative ability, Akbar. Without +his grandfather's genius, a man, in brief, of infinitely lower calibre +all round, he is yet palpably a lineal descendant of the Great Moghul. +In reading of him we are continually reminded of that grandfather to +whom he was so much attached, that when in the hour of Akbar's death +he was urged by his father to follow his example and flee the court +for fear of assassination by those who were pushing Prince Khūshru's +claim, he replied proudly "that his father might do as he chose, but +that he would watch by Akbar till the last."</p> + +<p class="normal">It may be that this devotion had not been disinterested, and that +disappointment at not being chosen to succeed may have had something +to do with the moroseness of the young prince; but, on the other hand, +it may have been the hidden impatience of knowing that filial +affection, honour, everything his grandfather (who had been his +boyhood's hero) held most dear compelled him to bide Nature's time for +kingship, that made the long years seem wasted. For Jahāngir's +government was not good; after a very few years the whole +administration of the country had visibly declined. It rose again +under Shāhjahān, and some historians go as far as to say that, +although "Akbar excelled all as a law-maker, yet for order and +arrangement, good finance and government in every department of State, +no prince ever reigned in India that could be compared to Shāhjahān." +One thing is certain. India during his time was peaceful, easeful, and +prosperous.</p> + +<p class="normal">One reason for this is not hard to trace. Europe for the first time +had really entered the Indian markets, and the superfluities it found +there were being paid for in gold. There had been a time of truce, as +it were, between the Dutch and the English after the massacre at +Amboyna--a needless and brutal massacre which still stands to the +discredit of the Dutch. England had threatened war, Holland had +promised redress, and so the long years passed by, giving +opportunities of commerce to both sides. But it was not until the +seventh year of Shāhjahān's reign that the <i>firmān</i> granted by +Jahāngir to Thomas Roe, authorising the English to trade in Bengal, +was acted upon, and a factory (as such trading centres were called) +opened at Pepli, close to the estuary of the river Hugli.</p> + +<p class="normal">That the commerce was growing by leaps and bounds may be judged from +the fact that the original East India Company had to petition +Parliament first; to restrain their own servants from taking undue +advantage of a regulation which permitted a certain fixed limit of +private trade; and secondly, against the formation of another trading +company to the East India's. The chief cause of complaint made about +the original one being its failure to fortify its factories, and so +"provide safety or settledness for the establishment of traffic in the +said Indies, for the good of posterity." Whence it may be observed +that the policy of "pike and carronade" was beginning to find favour. +For Charles I. granted a charter to this new company; whereupon time +was lost, as well as tempers, in the consequent conflict of interests. +The record written by the French physician, Francois Bernier, of his +"Travels and Sojourn in the Moghul Empire," gives us clear insight as +to what was happening in this first organised attempt of the West on +the East. Scarcely a page passes without reference to new efforts of +the Portuguese to outwit England, England to outwit Portugal, and of +both to double-dam the Dutch. And behind all were the refuse leavings +of all three nations, mixed up with Malays, Jews, Turks, Infidels, and +Hereticks, in the redoubtable persons of the Pirates of Arracan; those +foremost of buccaneers, who swept the Indian seas and harried its +coral strands. Bernier's description of them is worth recording, as it +shows graphically how the cancer of commerce and so-called +civilisation was eating into the dreamful, slothful, ease-loving +body-politic of the whole peninsula.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The Kingdom of Arracan has contained during many years several +Portuguese settlers, a great number of Christian slaves, or half-cast +Portuguese and other Europeans collected from various parts of the +world. That kingdom was a place of refuge for fugitives from Goa, +Ceylon, Cochin, Malacca, and other settlements ... and no persons were +better received than those who had deserted their monasteries, married +two or three wives, or committed other great crimes.... As they were +unawed and unrestrained by the Government, it was not surprising that +these renegades pursued no other trade than that of rapine and piracy. +They scoured the neighbouring seas in light galleys, entered the +numerous arms of the Ganges, ravished the islands of Lower Bengal; +and, often penetrating forty or fifty leagues up the country, +surprised and carried away the entire population of villages on market +days, and at times when the inhabitants were assembled for the +celebration of a marriage, or some other festival.... The treatment of +the slaves thus made was most cruel.... By a mutual understanding, the +pirates would await the arrival of the Portuguese ships, who bought +whole cargoes at a cheap rate; and it is lamentable to reflect that +other Europeans have pursued the same flagitious commerce with the +Pirates of Arracan, who boast that they convert more Hindus to +Christianity in a twelve-month than all the missionaries in India do +in twelve years."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Not a pleasing picture, though it whets the curiosity to know more, +for instance, of the career of Fra Joan, the Augustine monk who, +having by means unknown possessed himself of the island of Sundiva, +reigned there King-of-the-Pirates for many years.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the encouragement given to these scourges of the seas which +brought down on the Portuguese the vengeance of Shāhjahān, whose +laconic reply to the complaint of his governor in Bengal against their +new factory at Hugli is delightful in its peremptoriness, pathetic in +its pride: "Expel those idolaters from my dominions!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Easier said than done, even though the image-decorated church at Agra, +which had been built in the reign of Akbar, and the newer one with +chimes in its steeple, which had been erected at Lahōre in Jahāngir's +time, could easily be demolished. Still Hugli could be besieged and +captured, and no doubt the success made a subject for general +rejoicing. For above all things Shāhjahān delighted in fireworks; that +is to say, he had a perfect passion for expensive entertainments, for +gorgeous processions, for magnificent buildings. Half the +architectural sights of to-day in Northern India are due to +Shāhjahān's lavish love of beauty. Some of his <i>fźtes</i>, again, are +estimated to have cost over a million and a half sterling. The famous +peacock throne, of which Tavernier, a French jeweller by profession, +asserts--with apparent credence--that it was commonly supposed to have +been worth nearly six and a half millions, was constructed by this +king's orders.</p> + +<p class="normal">The question rises insistently: "How came the Emperor of India by such +enormous wealth?" The answer is curiously simple: "L'etat c'est moi."</p> + +<p class="normal">The State was the Emperor, or rather the Emperor was the visible +State. Every atom of imperial revenue passed through his hands for +distribution. Not in precise pay to clerks and collectors, to +magistrates and ministers, departments and divisions, but in lavish +gifts and prodigal scatterings abroad over the land. Whence the gold, +gaining circulation, filtered down in smaller payments, smaller +giftings. It was a quaint, but not a bad method of making the +king the Fount-of-all-Goodness, the veritable Father-of-his-people. +Indeed, Shāhjahān was counted, despite the fact that he spent the +three-and-twenty millions sterling of revenue in right imperial +fashion, to have been an economical king, getting his full money's +worth in all ways. Nor was he privately an inordinately rich man, for +Bernier states that when he died his whole personal estate was worth +about six millions. Thus, while we read of peacock thrones, of +marvellous mosques, of three millions spent without regret on a +mausoleum, of half that sum squandered in what we have called +fireworks, it is necessary to readjust our Western vision, and see +public utility behind the personal extravagance. In fact the spectacle +of Shāhjahān, the most magnificent of monarchs, raises the problem as +to how far a millionaire's reckless squandering of a sovereign injures +that coin of the realm for its final purpose of bringing bread to a +hungry mouth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Regarding the actual events of Shāhjahān's reign, there is very little +to say. The Dekkan--in which we can now include the whole southward +country down to Cape Cormorin, the hitherto unsurveyed, unrecorded +triangle forming the apex of India having, chiefly by the nibbling of +foreigners along the entire seaboard, by this time come into the +equation--was as ever unsettled. It had, even in Akbar's time, been +nothing more than a fief of the Crown, and though under his system it +would doubtless have become in time an integral part of the empire, it +was gradually making once more for independence. So, naturally, there +was trouble in the Dekkan. The Rājputs, however, seem to have been +fairly quiescent, and the chief disturbances of Shāhjahān's time were +the constant quarrels of his four sons, Dāra, Shujah, Aurungzebe, and +Morād. These, with four daughters, Pādshāh or Jahanāra Begum, +Roshanrāi Begum, and two others, were undoubtedly the children of one +wife; nor is there mention of others, so if it be true that Mumtāz +Mahal, to whose memory the Tāj was built, died in giving birth to a +thirteenth child, many of her family must have died, or been done away +with in infancy; legend says the latter, Shāhjahān being three parts +Rājput. It was, curiously enough, Shāhjahān's absolute adoration for +his eldest daughter, Pādshāh or Jahanāra Begum, which was the cause of +England's first hold on Bengal. She was badly burnt in attempting to +save a favourite companion, and an English doctor, Gabriel Boughton, +hastily summoned from Surat, asked and received as his fee, the right +for Great Britain to trade in Bengal.</p> + +<p class="normal">To return to the sons. Dāra, the eldest, is drawn by Bernier in fairly +pleasing colours. Frank and impetuous, liberal in his opinions, he +made enemies with one hand while he made friends with the other, while +his open profession of the tenets held by his grandfather Akbar, and +the writing of a book to reconcile Hindu and Mahomedan doctrines, +alienated the orthodox from his cause. Shujah, by his father's +estimate, was a mere drunkard; Morād, the youngest, a sensualist. +There remains Aurungzebe. He was an absolute contrast to Dāra. A small +man, with a big brain and absolutely no heart. A man of creeds and +caution, of faith and faithlessness. He had what historians call an +"early turn for devotion." In a thousand ways--and those the least +estimable--he reminds one of Cromwell; Cromwell without his +magnificent sincerity of purpose.</p> + +<p class="normal">The history of the mutual misunderstandings and divisions and +coalitions of these princes is indeed a weary one. Only Dāra comes out +of it with comparatively clean hands. Indeed, in the last act of the +drama of Shāhjahān's actual reign of thirty years our sympathies go +entirely with Dāra, as he struggles to maintain his own future +position, and still uphold that of the sick king.</p> + +<p class="normal">As this final incident is an excellent example of what in lesser +degree had been going on for years, it may be given with advantage. +Shāhjahān was in his sixty-seventh year. His sons, therefore, all but +the youngest, Morād, touched and overpassed forty. His eldest, Dāra, +had for some time had a large share in the Government, both as +heir-apparent, and also because his father in his old age had turned +to wine and women. Pādshāh Begum, the elder daughter, to whom the aged +emperor had devoted attachment, unbounded affection, was ever on her +brother's side. Shujah, the second son, was Viceroy in Bengal; Prince +Morād, the youngest, Viceroy in Guzerāt. Aurungzebe was occupied in +Golconda carrying the Moghul arms into the diamond country.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus Dāra, on his father's sudden and dangerous sickness--of the cause +of it the less said the better--found himself able for a time, with +his sister's help, to keep all knowledge of the king's danger from +spreading throughout the country. But as Pādshāh Begum was Dāra's +ally, so Roshanrāi, the younger sister, was fast friend to Aurungzebe. +Through her he learnt the truth, and instantly took his part +cautiously, diplomatically. He did not instantly proclaim himself +king, as Shujah and Morād did in their several viceroyalties when the +news also reached their ears. He stood aside and waited, while Shujah +marched with his army to engage Dāra, and then wrote to his younger +brother Morād one of the most fulsome letters of flattery ever penned, +declaring that he, and he alone, was fit for the crown, and offering +him the service of one who, weary of the world, was on the eve of +renouncing it, and indulging the devotion of his nature by retirement +to Mekka! Morād must have been a fool to have swallowed the bait, but +swallow it he did; and with this cat's-paw puppet in front of him, +Aurungzebe, with their conjoined armies, moved to Agra, whence Shujah +had been driven back by Dāra into Bengal. The old king was by this +time convalescent, and, finding Dāra, instead of taking advantage of +his illness, was, on the contrary, ready to yield up his brief regency +with cheerfulness, was inclined to trust his eldest son more than +ever. He therefore consented, somewhat against his own will, to the +latter trying conclusions at once with the Morād-Aurungzebe +confederacy. Fortune went against him. During the battle Aurungzebe, +who asserted that he warred alone against the irreligious, the +heretical, the scandalous Dāra, was loud in prayerful protestations +that God was on their side; after it he fell on his knees and thanked +Divine Providence for the victory and the round thousand or so of +souls sent below. Dāra fled, and three days afterwards Aurungzebe +marched into Agra, coolly imprisoned the aged king in the fort, and +having now no further use for Morād, invited him to supper, plied him +with drink (waiving his own pious scruples for the time), so, when +hopelessly intoxicated, disarmed him in favour of chains, and packing +him on an elephant, despatched him as a State prisoner to Selimgarh, +the mid-river fort at Delhi! So ended poor, foolish Morād's dream of +kingship; nor was his life much more prolonged, for shortly afterwards +he was executed in prison on a trumped-up charge. Shujah escaped a +like fate by disappearance, and poor Dāra, after unheard-of dangers, +difficulties, trials and terrors, met with a worse one.</p> + +<p class="normal">But this record belongs to the reign of Aurungzebe, the man without a +heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">Shāhjahān, meanwhile, remained for seven years a captive in the fort, +old, decrepid, tearful, counting his jewels, and comforted by his +daughter, Pādshāh Begum.</p> + +<p class="normal">A sad ending this, for a man who had been the most magnificent monarch +who ever sate upon the throne of India. But all his energies, all his +capabilities seem to have deserted him. He made no effort to reassert +his kingship, and what is still more strange, no friend or companion, +no minister, no adherent, attempted it for him. Utterly deserted by +all save his daughter, he died seven years afterwards, in 1665, and +was buried at his own request beside his wife in the Tāj Mahal, that +most marvellous monument of marriage which the world has ever seen.</p> + +<p class="normal">And out of this there springs to light for the seeing eye a pitiful +story which brings back a pulse of human sympathy for the man whose +old age was so sordid, so degenerate.</p> + +<p class="normal">How many years was it since with bitter grief he had buried the wife +to whom he was so devotedly attached that history declares he kept +faithfully to her, and to her only, till death did them part?</p> + +<p class="normal">It was four-and-thirty years since the daughter she was bearing to him +cried--so the story runs--ere it was born, and within a few hours, +Ārjamund the Beloved lay dead with her still-born babe.</p> + +<p class="normal">A tragedy indeed! Think what it means! Long years of hardship, exile, +wandering, and then four only--four short years of content, of +kingship, in which to heap comforts, luxuries, on the woman whom you +love--who has borne with you the heat and burden of the day.</p> + +<p class="normal">That was Shāhjahān's fate. But the history of these Moghul kings, +these Great Moghuls whose name still lingers in conjunction with that +of the Grand Turk and Bluebeard as something slightly shocking and +decidedly despotic so far as women are concerned, is curiously +disconcerting to one's preconceived ideas on this counter.</p> + +<p class="normal">Babar, whose Mahum met him after long years "at midnight," as with +bare head and slipper-shoon he ran to catch the earliest glimpse of +her along the dusty road. Humāyon, whose sixteen-year-old bride, +Hamida, wedded in hot love-haste, brought him his first son at the age +of thirty-eight. Akbar, who, after a brief youth of normal passion, +settled down into the life of an anchorite. Shāhjahān, who built the +Tāj, who spent twenty-two years of his life in gathering together +every conceivable beauty to lay at the dead feet of a woman who bore +him thirteen children.</p> + +<p class="normal">These are not the records which we should have expected from a line of +Eastern kings.</p> + +<p class="normal">Regarding this same monument of marriage, the Tāj. So much has been +said about it, that little remains to say. Perhaps the most +bewildering thing about its beauty is the impossibility of saying +wherein that beauty lies. Colour of stone, purity of outline, +faultlessness of form, delicacy of decoration--all these are here; but +they are also in many a building from which the eye turns--and turns +to forget.</p> + +<p class="normal">But once seen, the Tāj--whether seen with approval or disapproval--is +never forgotten. It remains ever a thing apart. Something which the +world cannot touch with either praise or blame--something elusive, +beyond criticism in three dimensional terms.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was Shāhjahān who first thought of it; but who designed, who built +it?</p> + +<p class="normal">The very question brings a certain revulsion. It is impossible to +dislocate one stone of the Tāj from another, to think of it in +fragments, as anything than as a perfect whole.</p> + +<p class="normal">No! it was never built. It is a bit of the New Jerusalem which some +yellow Eastern dawn coming after a velvet-dark Eastern night, found +standing, as it stands now, amid the cypresses of the garden.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02.16" href="#div1Ref_02.16">AURUNGZEBE</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1657 TO A.D. 1707</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">With Aurungzebe, the Middle Age of Indian History ends. From the date +of his death, interest finally ceases to centre round the dying +dynasties of India, and, changing sides, concerns itself absolutely +with the coming sovereignty of the West.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even during his long reign of fifty years, the attention is often +distracted by the welter of conflicting commerces which, leaving the +sea-boards, spread further and further up-country. It requires, +therefore, some concentration to deal with Aurungzebe, the last of the +Great Moghuls; the last, and, without doubt, the least estimable of +them all.</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth, the steps to his throne were littered with black crime. +Shāhjahān, his father, had, it is true, made his seat more secure by +the deaths by poison, bow-string, or sword, of the three next heirs to +the throne--one of them his half-uncle; but Aurungzebe trod on the +bodies of three brothers in reaching kingship, and for seven years of +that kingship carried about with him the prison key of a deposed and +dishonoured father. Of minor sins, such as the poisonings of nephews, +cousins, even aunts, there were scores. Well might he exclaim upon his +death-bed: "I have committed numerous crimes--I know not with what +punishment I may be seized."</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet he was, in his way, a good king. Had he been less of a bigot, +he would have been a better one; but this bigotry was necessary to his +peace of mind. He could not have borne the sting of conscience without +some anodyne of hard-and-fast religious rectitude. It was after the +murder of his brother Dāra, who, caught on the confines of Sinde, +almost unattended (for he had sent his most trusted adherents back to +Lahōre with the dead body of his wife, who had died of fatigue), was +given a mock trial for heresy and done to death, that Aurungzebe built +the celebrated Blood-money Mosque at Lahōre, in which no Mahomedan +prayed for long years, feeling it to be defiled indeed.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Aurungzebe was for ever hedging between this world and the next, +so we must take him as we find him--an absolutely contemptible +creature, who yet did good work. Needless to say, however, "Akbar's +Dream" vanished into thin air from the moment he set his foot upon the +throne.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first five years of his reign were practically spent in ridding +himself of relations. The whole family of Shujah suffered death, and +even his own son was immured as a state prisoner in consequence of a +trivial act of independence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then--and small wonder!--he was seized with a mysterious illness, +which left him speechless. Nothing but his marvellous determination +could have averted the chaos which must have followed in a state but +half broken in to his murderous methods. But he sent for his great +seal and his sister Roshanāra, and keeping them both by his sick-bed, +held order by sheer insistency until he recovered.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, after a brief holiday in Kashmir--that happy hunting-ground of all +the Moghul kings, who seem to have inherited the love of beautiful +scenery from their great ancestor, Babar--he came back to face the +greatest foe to the Moghul power which had arisen since the combined +Rājput resistance was finally broken by Mahomed-Shahāb-ud-din-Ghori.</p> + +<p class="normal">This foe was the Mahratta race, which had been gradually growing to +power in the Western Ghāts, that natural stronghold of mountains which +rises in many places like a wall between the Western Sea and the high +table-land of Central India. No more fitting birthplace for warlike +tribes could be imagined. Towards the sea, breaks of rich rice-fields, +tongued by spurred rocks and outlying strips of almost impenetrable +forest. Then the bare, broken ridges, 3,000 or 4,000 feet high, ending +often in a scarp of sheer precipice, and giving on wide, thicket-set +woods, through which, after a while, ravines break into valleys to the +eastward. A land of rain--clouds from the south-west monsoon, of +roaring torrents and drifting mists; full of wild beasts fleeing +fearfully from the small, sturdy huntsmen of the hills. These were the +Mahrattas. Not a very interesting race when all was said and done. +Brave, dogged, determined, but, by reason, doubtless, of their Sudra +extraction, lacking the nobility of the Rājput and the Rājput nicety +in honour.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was in the time of Malik-Ambźr, the Abyssinian slave who in the +reign of Jahāngir gave new life to the dying dynasty in the Dekkan, +that the Mahrattas first made their mark. Before this, history does +not even recognise them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Amongst the Mahratta officers of Malik-Ambźr was one Mālo-ji, who had +a five-year-old son called Shāh-ji. To a Hindu festival at the house +of a Rājput this boy was taken, and by chance was lifted to one knee +of the host, whose little daughter of three occupied the other.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They are a fine couple," laughed the host and father. "They should be +man and wife!"</p> + +<p class="normal">This was enough for Mālo-ji's ambition. He started up, and called the +company to witness that the girl was affianced to his son.</p> + +<p class="normal">Naturally enough, the claim roused indignation; but in the end, +Mālo-ji's fortunes improving, Shāh-ji gained his high-caste bride, and +from the marriage sprang Siva-ji, the national hero of the Mahrattas, +who was destined to wreck the power of the Moghuls in the south.</p> + +<p class="normal">Siva-ji, by the time he was sixteen, was already notorious. His love +of adventure, his knowledge of the popular ballads of the people, his +complicity in the great gang-robberies which formed an ever-recurring +excitement to life in the Ghāts, his intimate acquaintance with every +footpath and defile in that wild country, his horsemanship, his +sportsmanship, were on the tongues of all; and when, still in his +teens, he fortified one of the neglected hill-citadels and set up a +chieftainship of his own, there were not wanting those who laughed at +the impertinence as a high-spirited, boyish freak.</p> + +<p class="normal">But within a few years the boyish freak was found to be open +rebellion, and Siva-ji was practically king of the wild western +country. What is more, he had become an ardent Hindu, and laid claims +to Divine dreams.</p> + +<p class="normal">The court at Bījapur attempted remonstrance, imprisoned poor Shāh-ji, +his father, and threatened to wall him up unless Siva-ji repented of +his errors: whereupon, with the cunning which distinguished him in all +things, the latter made overtures to, and was taken into the service +of, Shāhjahān, then engaged in the Dekkan. So for a few years affairs +remained at a deadlock; Siva-ji, apprehensive for his father, Bījapur +of the Moghuls.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then Shāh-ji being released, his son began his career of annexation +afresh, being checked, however, in his depredations by fear of Prince +Aurungzebe, who was then fighting the King of Golconda.</p> + +<p class="normal">Both of the same kidney, artful, designing, specious, the diplomacies +which passed between the Mahratta robber-chieftain and Aurungzebe, +intent on stealing the throne of India, cannot have been edifying. +The former took the opportunity of the latter's hasty retreat on the +news of his father's illness, to increase his power by an act of +double-dyed treachery. He induced the commander of the King of +Bījapur's forces to come unattended to the hill fort of Partabghar in +order to receive his submission.</p> + +<p class="normal">The scene is dramatic.</p> + +<p class="normal">The generalissimo, in white muslin, carrying for ornament only a +stiff, straight sword of state, awaiting on a rocky plateau with one +single attendant the advance of Siva-ji, who, also in white muslin, +was seen slowly descending the steps of his eyrie, apparently unarmed, +and also with but one attendant. A slim little bit of a fellow this +Siva-ji, timid, hesitating. But appearances are deceitful: underneath +his muslin robing was chain armour, within his closed left hand were +the "tiger's claws" (sharp hooks of steel fastened on to the fingers +with which to grapple with the foe), and close to his outstretched, +salaaming right hand was a poniard. It was all over in a second. The +tiger's claws gripped and held, the dagger did its work. And then +Siva-ji's wild robber hordes, conveniently disposed beforehand by +secret paths round the royal troops, fell upon them and spared not +until victory was secure. For in truth Siva-ji appears to have been of +the noble highwayman type--that is to say, not set on murder if he can +gain gold without it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Siva-ji's next exploit was less blameworthy. Shayista-Khān, who +commanded Aurungzebe's forces in the Dekkan, marched to annihilate the +little robber, and, succeeding in worsting him in the open, took up +quarters at Poona; curiously enough, occupying the very house in which +Siva-ji had spent his youth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Possibly the intimate knowledge of back-door passages, which he must +thus have possessed, suggested what was more a boyish escapade than a +serious attack. Siva-ji, with some twenty followers, entered Poona at +night by joining a marriage procession, made his way straight to the +house, entered by a side door, and was in Shayista-Khān's bedroom but +half a minute too late, yet just in time to cut off with his sword the +two fingers that clung to the window-sill as the Mahomedan general let +himself down into the courtyard below. Whereupon, seeing that same +courtyard full of ramping soldiery, Siva-ji retired as he came, until, +once outside the city gates, he lit up torches and flambeaux; so +making his way back to his hill eyrie, some 12 miles off, in a blaze +of triumph that was visible to every Moghul in the place. This tale is +still told by the Mahratta bards with immense enthusiasm, though the +story of his march against Aurungzebe at Delhi is really more +exciting.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were birds of a feather these two: both small, slippery, +absolutely untrustworthy; both playing consistently for their own +hands. At one time, however, Siva-ji seems to have been inclined to +yield to Aurungzebe, and honest, liberal treatment might have turned +the rebel freebooter into a staunch adherent; but it was not in +Aurungzebe to trust any one. So, mistaking his man utterly, he +received the little Mahratta cavalierly, and when he stormed and raged +and positively swooned with vexation, made him virtually a prisoner.</p> + +<p class="normal">Almost alone in Delhi with his five-year-old son Samba-ji, Siva-ji was +too wily to precipitate matters by any display of annoyance; but he +laid his plans. His first move was to beg leave for his small escort +to leave Delhi, the climate of which he said was insalubrious. To this +Aurungzebe gave glad consent; it seemed to leave Siva-ji still more at +his mercy. The latter next took to his bed on plea of sickness. This +afforded him an opportunity of, first, being able to use the Hindu +physicians, who were allowed to attend him, as spies and go-betweens; +second, of sending sweetmeats and other offerings to various <i>fakirs</i>, +Hindu and Mahomedan, with a request for their prayers. And as he grew +more and more sick, the hampers and baskets containing the offerings +grew larger and larger, until one day--hey presto!--little Siva-ji and +his little son occupied the place of the sweetmeats. It was hours +before the guards discovered that the sick-bed was occupied by a +dummy, and by that time Siva-ji was in Muttra amongst his disguised +followers. He himself adopted that of a wandering <i>jogi</i>, and, smeared +all over with ashes, arrived in due time quite jauntily in his old +haunts.</p> + +<p class="normal">Aurungzebe took his defeat in good part. For the time he was occupied +with Shāhjahān's death, and with embassies from Arabia and Abyssinia. +Then Little Tibet had just been brought under his sway, and in Bengal +the kingdom of Arrakan, which held the rich rice-fields of Chittagong, +had been added to the crown.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was some years, therefore, before Aurungzebe pitted himself once +more against the Mahratta.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then once again he found the impracticability of subduing an enemy +which, at the first attack, reduced itself to a horde of units, each +one animated by individual love of fight, love of plunder. It was +guerilla war with a vengeance, so after a time the emperor was not +sorry to have his attention drawn from it to the northwest frontier. +On his return from this unsuccessful expedition, he settled down for a +time to govern his kingdom, which he did in a way that irritated and +exasperated both Hindus and Mahomedans. The former almost rose in +revolt at the reimposition of the poll tax on infidels; the latter, +especially in the court, objected to the prohibition of all +amusements. Amongst other prohibitions was the curious one of +forbidding history to be written, or court annals to be kept; the +result being that no real record of the last forty years of this reign +is extant.</p> + +<p class="normal">As time went on, he bore more and more hardly on the Hindus, until +discontent spread on all sides, and in the Dekkan every one was at +heart a partisan of Siva-ji.</p> + +<p class="normal">Finally, an attempt on Aurungzebe's part to get into his power the +infant children of Rājah Jāi-Singh of Ambźr, whom he had caused to be +poisoned in his distant viceroyalty of Kābul, joined to the iniquity +of the <i>jizya</i>, or infidel tax, set the whole of Rājputana in a flame. +In this connection the letter sent to the Emperor by Rana Rāj-Singh of +Chittore may be quoted in part, as an example of the dignified +remonstrances which preceded the appeal to the sword.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"How can the dignity of the sovereign be preserved who employs his +power in exacting heavy tribute from a people thus miserably +reduced?... If your Majesty places any faith in those books, by +distinction called divine, you will there be instructed that God is +the god of all mankind, not the god of Mahomedans alone. The pagan and +the Mussulman are equally in His presence ... to vilify the religion +or customs of other men is to set at naught the pleasure of the +Almighty ... In fine, the tribute you demand from Hindus is repugnant +to justice; it is equally foreign to good policy, as it must +impoverish the country."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The appeal, needless to say, was fruitless; but after a long and +mutually disastrous war a sort of peace was patched up between the +Rājputs and the Moghuls, leaving Aurungzebe free to attempt yet once +again to repress the irrepressible Siva-ji, who by this time had been +crowned King of the Mahrattas, and had become a still more ardent +Hindu, minutely scrupulous to ceremonial and caste.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus the two great rival powers in India were bigoted Hinduism, +bigoted Islāmism. A far cry, indeed, from dead Akbar's Dream of +tolerant Unity.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the struggle recommenced. But Siva-ji was more elusive than ever. +He fought by sea as well as by land, and the first record of a naval +war in India is that which he waged along the shores of Western India. +Only the English settlement at Surat defied him. They put their +factory into what state of defence was possible, garrisoned it with +their crews, and met the marauding Mahrattas with a sally which +effectually drove them off. For which valiant defence of their own, +Aurungzebe exempted the English for ever from a portion of the customs +duty paid by other nations, and remitted the transit charges.</p> + +<p class="normal">Siva-ji thus indirectly did a good turn to English commerce.</p> + +<p class="normal">Years passed, bringing advantage to the Mahratta side, when, in 1680, +death suddenly intervened and carried off the clever, astute little +Siva-ji in the fifty-third year of his age.</p> + +<p class="normal">A bit of a genius was Siva-ji, quick to seize on the mistakes of his +adversary, and far-seeing enough to appeal to natural spirit and +religious enthusiasm in his adherents. Thus, though his death was a +great blow, it did not crush the rising fortunes of the Mahrattas, +despite the fact that Samba-ji, his heir, had shown no capability for +kingship during his youth, and on his accession gave himself up to +cruelty and passion. Still the war dragged on; defeat was indeed +impossible to an army which had no cohesion, and which now, in +consequence of the failure of regular pay under Samba-ji's career of +idle luxury, degenerated into plundering hordes of mere freebooters.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was at this juncture that Aurungzebe himself, possibly suspicious +of his generals, always distrustful of everything that did not +actually come under his eyes, and pass through his hands, marched +southwards. In a way, it was a fatal mistake; for he brought with him +all his intolerant authority, his infatuation for his faith. Hitherto +his officers, seeing the evil effects of levying the infidel tax +strictly in this land of infidels, had let it slide; now affairs took +a very different turn. But at first the imperial troops were fairly +successful, though by the time they had marched through the Ghāt +country they were crippled by sickness, outwearied by the difficulty +of the roads, harassed by the continual depredations of Samba-ji's +guerillas both by sea and land. To add to difficulty, the latter +concluded a sort of a defensive alliance with the King of Golconda; +whereupon the emperor, tired of hunting a Will-o'-the-Wisp through +mists and swamps, seized on a stationary enemy. Golconda reduced to +terms, Bijapur next came under displeasure. A very small state, its +capital was an extremely large town, the circumference of the walls +being more than 6 miles. Garrisoned by a very small force it soon +fell, and Aurungzebe was carried in a portable throne through the +breach into the deserted city. It remains now much as it was then--a +city, not of ruins, but of desertion. The walls, still entire, are +surmounted by the cupolas and minarets of the public buildings within, +so that from outside Bijapur shows bravely; but within all is +desolation. The wide Mosque, the splendid palace, the great domed tomb +of the kings, are alike deserted, the home only of bats and hyenas. +Yet still, centering the desertion, stands the old brass cannon, +weighing 41 tons, which "Rumi the European" cast in 1585.</p> + +<p class="normal">While this was going on, be-drugged, dissolute Samba-ji watched the +proceedings inertly, ineptly. The Mahratta historians accuse Kalusha +the Brahman, his favourite, the pandar to all his vices, of having +enchanted the young man; but the enchantment was mere sensuality, +self-indulgence.</p> + +<p class="normal">His time for enjoyment, nevertheless, ran short. Golconda and Bijapur +taken, Aurungzebe, triumphant--after, as usual, alienating the people +by his religious intolerance--added to religious hatred by capturing +the person of Samba-ji while drunk and incapable in his favourite +palace of pleasure, and thereinafter, having paraded him through the +camp in disgrace, ordering him to prison. Whereupon Samba-ji, roused +at last to sense, openly reviled the emperor, his prophet, his faith, +in language so strong that it was considered necessary to cut his +tongue out as a punishment for blasphemy, before beheading him and his +favourite, the vile Kalusha.</p> + +<p class="normal">Anything more injudicious could not well be conceived. Despised as +Samba-ji had been whilst alive by the better class of Mahrattas, he +was now a martyr. From this time, the fortunes of Aurungzebe, and with +them the Empire of the Moghuls, began to fall; and for the few +remaining years of his life, the emperor, now growing old, must have +felt himself and his power on the downward grade. His indefatigable +perseverance, his laborious energy, are almost pitiful. Over eighty +years of age, he rested not at all, and despite our reprobation, the +heart softens towards the tired old man as we see him, seemingly +careless of the greater enemy along his sea-board, leading his armies +through trackless forests and flooded valleys, enduring hardships that +would have tried youth, in pursuit of the irrepressible, irresponsible +Mahrattas. An old man, small, slender, stooping, with a long nose, a +frosted beard, and a perpetual smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">That smile was worn outside; but within? Within was weariness and fear +even for this life. The remembrance of his father's fate at his hands +seems never to have left him; every action of his during the later +years of his reign showing his fear lest a like fate should be his. So +he held every tiny thread of the great warp and woof of Government in +his own hands. Only thus could he feel secure.</p> + +<p class="normal">In such a system abuse is inevitable. No single eye can supervise a +wide empire, and so corruption grew apace, and with corruption, +inefficiency. The noblemen, waxing effeminate, wore wadded coats under +their chain armour; their horses, laden with ornamentations, housed +with velvet, were purely processional, and utterly unfit for war. The +common soldiers, aping their superiors, followed suit, and became so +slothful that they could neither keep watch nor picket, and discipline +disappeared utterly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet all the time, while Aurungzebe, old, enfeebled in health, +outwearied himself in precautions, in providence, the greatest enemy +to the Moghul dynasty was advancing, apparently unnoticed, in rapid +strides. For the West had finally set its face towards the East. +Commerce had already joined hands over the empire. In 1667 Britain, +France, Holland, and Denmark, signed a treaty of common cause at Breda +that was practically a league against the Pagan and the Portuguese. A +few years previously the island and town of Bombay had been ceded to +England as part of the dower of Catherine of Braganza, and had become +thereby so much an integral part of Great Britain that every native in +it, every child born there, had the right to claim every privilege of +a British subject.</p> + +<p class="normal">Fort St George, the nucleus of Madras, was finally established, and +the group of factories around it formed into a presidency. Job +Charnock had founded Calcutta, and Hugli was soon to be merged in it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then a new note had come into the dealings of the English with the +accession of James II. A large shareholder, he promised the East India +Company military support, and henceforward the "native powers were to +be given to understand that the Company would treat with them as an +independent power, and, if necessary, compell redress by force of +arms." In consequence of this the President, Sir John Child, was +appointed "Captain-General and Admiral of all forces by sea and land."</p> + +<p class="normal">Poor Sir John Child! He was the first instance of a cat's-paw in the +East (there have been many since!), and when the tortuous policy of +the Company towards the Great Moghul failed, and they found it +impossible to hunt with the hounds and run with the hare, by making +war in Bengal, and wearing a mask of friendship in Bombay, he went to +the wall promptly in obedience to Aurungzebe's "irreversible order" +that "Mr Child, who did the disgrace, should be turned out and +expelled."</p> + +<p class="normal">But there was more disgrace than the making of a scapegoat out of one +man in store for the old original East India Company. How much of the +dirt flung at it in the next ten years or so deserves to stick? Who +can tell? Or who can say how much of the moil and turmoil which arose +around it was due to honest John Bull's honest love of clean hands, +and how much to the itching of his palm? When gold is in dispute, +motives are hard to dissever, impossible to pigeonhole. And in those +days the Pagoda Tree was in full bearing, the gold lay on Tom +Tiddler's ground ready to be picked up. So, at least, it must have +seemed to England.</p> + +<p class="normal">A terrible temptation to all sorts of sins. And so we have allegations +of bribery, Parliamentary enquiries, scandalous disclosures, +petitions, answers at length, impeachment of the Duke of Leeds, +convenient disappearance of the Duke's servant, final hint by the +disturbed king--William of Orange--that disclosures and exposures were +out of season, as he was under the necessity of "putting an end to +this session in a few days."</p> + +<p class="normal">So at last we get at Act 9, William III., c. 44, for "raising a sum +not exceeding 2,000,000 upon a fund for payment of annuities after the +rate of £8 per annum, and <i>for settling the trade to the East +Indies</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus the new company, started by solemn act of legislature, was left +eyeing the old one. At first there seemed likelihood of their fighting +it out like the Kilkenny cats. But in the pursuit of gold the main +chance is a potent factor for peace. And so, while Aurungzebe, near +his life's limit, was still, in his ninth decade of years, wearily +pursuing the Mahratta, Earl Godolphin, Lord High Treasurer of Great +Britain, as referee, succeeded in reconciling the conflicting claims +of commerce, and--to make his award binding on both parties--inserted +a special clause in an Act of Parliament, by which the old London East +India Company and the new English East India Company were for ever +amalgamated under the title of the "United Company of Merchants of +England trading to the East Indies."</p> + +<p class="normal">By this arrangement there passed to one control in India alone, the +ports and islands of Bombay, the factories of Surat, Sivalli, Broach, +of Amadād, Agra, Lucknow, and on the Malabar Coast, the forts of +Kārwar, Tellicherri, Anjengo, besides the factory at Calicut. Rounding +Cape Cormorin, the coast of Coromandel held Orissa, Chingi, Fort St +George, the city of Madras and its dependencies; Fort St David, the +factories of Cuddalore, Porto-Novo, Pettīpoli, Masulipatām, +Madapollām, Vizagapatām. Going northward to Bengal there was Fort +William or Calcutta, with its large territory, Balasore, Cossimbazaar, +Dacca, Hugli, Mālda, Rājmahal, and Patna.</p> + +<p class="normal">From which long list may be seen how steady had been the nibbling at +India's coral strand during the last fifty years. The grant of +Calcutta, with leave thereupon to erect fortifications, was +practically the beginning of the end. This was almost the last act of +Aurungzebe's reign. Shortly after, he lay dying, a man of eighty-nine, +still in full possession of his faculties.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is something very terrible about the death-bed of this man, who +for fifty long years had held, without aid of any sort, the reins of +Government. He had no friends; he could not trust any one sufficient +for friendship. His one lukewarm affection seems to have been for his +intriguing sister Roshanrāi, the woman who had sate beside his sick-bed +guarding the Great Seal. For others he had literally no heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">So in his death he was quite alone. Except for his remorse.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Old age has arrived.... I came a stranger into this world, and a +stranger I depart. I know nothing of myself; what I am, and for what I +am destined. The instant which has passed in power, hath left only +sorrow behind it. I have not been the guardian and protector of the +Empire. My valuable time has been passed vainly. I had a guide given +me in my own dwelling" (conscience), "but his glorious light was +unseen by my dim sight. I brought nothing into this world, and, except +the infirmities of man, take nothing out. I have a dread for my +salvation and with what torments I may be punished.... Regarding my +actions fear will not quit me; but when I am gone, reflection will not +remain. Come, then, what come may, I have launched my vessel to the +waves. Farewell, Farewell--Farewell!"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">So he wrote from his death-bed to his second son, and to his youngest +thus:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Son nearest to my heart! The agonies of death come upon me fast. +Wherever I look I see nothing but the Divinity. I am going! Whatever +good or evil I have done it was done for <i>you</i>."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He was a great letter-writer. Three huge volumes of his epistles are +still extant; but even in these last solemn ones the absolute truth +was not in them; for under his pillow when he died a paper was +found--a sort of will, in which he appoints his eldest son Emperor, +bids his second be content with Agra and Bengal, while to the one +"nearest his heart," the doubtful kingship of Bijapur and Golconda was +gifted. Aurungzebe was diplomatic to the last.</p> + +<p class="center">Map: India to A.D. 1707</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.0" href="#div1Ref_03.0">PART III</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>THE MODERN AGE</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.1" href="#div1Ref_03.1">INDIA IN THE BEGINNING OF THE<br> +EIGHTEENTH CENTURY</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1707</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Before making our <i>volte face</i>, and in future chronicling the history +of India from the Western standpoint, it will be well to see what this +India was which England set herself deliberately to annex.</p> + +<p class="normal">So far as the East India Company was concerned, the vast peninsula was +at this time what a huge slice of iced plum-cake upon a plate must be +to a hungry mouse. That is to say, nice enough for outside nibblings, +but with unexplored possibilities of plums within. Every now and again +a bolder merchant would dive into the comparatively unknown centre, +and come back laden possibly with idol-eyes, rich brocades, jewels in +the rough.</p> + +<p class="normal">It must--to repeat ourselves--have been a tremendous temptation having +to live, as these early writers or clerks to John Company had, on the +very verge of Tom Tiddler's ground--to have only to reach out their +hands and touch a totally different world. A world which by virtue of +immutable changelessness had not commuted the gold which the years had +brought it into luxuries, but had stored it up uselessly in lavish +ornamentation and idle, almost unappropriated treasure. Except as a +gaud for a woman, a toy for a babe, or a flourish of trumpets for some +man who called himself noble, gold in India had practically no value, +for the rich man lived in all ways much as the poor man lived. The +standard of personal comfort had not risen at all either for the +wealthy or the poverty-stricken during the four thousand years and odd +since the splendours of Princess Drāupadi's Swayāmvara had been +chronicled in the Māhābhārata. An instant's thought will show us the +effect which this hoarding of every diamond found in Golconda, of +every bale of rich stuff made by some leisurely artificer, must have +had upon the country. It became full to overflowing with scarcely +recognised riches. To English traders, keen on commerce, India must +indeed have been the land of Upside-down; a land into which their gold +was sucked down at the same time that astounding, almost undreamt-of +treasures were literally vomited forth from every petty bazaar. +Francois Bernier's views on this matter, and the conclusions which he +draws from the indubitable facts which he observed, are so distinctly +what may be called conventionally insular, that they serve well to +show the attitude of mind in which the West, strong in conviction of +its own worth, faced the East, all unfamiliar and startling.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Before I conclude," he says, in a letter addressed to M. Colbert, the +French Minister of State, "I wish to explain how it happens that +though the gold and silver introduced into the Empire centre finally +in Hindustan, they still are not in greater plenty than elsewhere, and +the inhabitants have less the appearance of a monied people than those +of many other parts of the globe.</p> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"In the first place, a larger quantity is melted, re-melted, and +wasted in fabricating women's bracelets, both for the hands and feet, +chains, ear-rings, nose and finger rings, and a still larger quantity +is consumed in manufacturing embroideries; <i>alachas</i> or striped silken +stuffs, <i>touras</i> or tufts of golden nets worn on turbans; gold and +silver cloths and scarves, turbans, and brocades. The quantity of +these articles made in India is incredible."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He then goes on to paint, in vivid, horror-stricken phrases, the evils +of a paternal despotism, pointing out that it is "slavery," that it +"obstructs the progress of trade," since there is no encouragement to +commercial pursuits when the "success with which they may be attended, +instead of adding to the enjoyments of life, only provokes the +cupidity of a neighbouring tyrant." This we are assured is the sole +cause why the "possessor, so far from living with increased comfort, +studies the means by which he may appear indigent: his dress, lodging, +and furniture continue to be mean, and he is careful, above all +things, never to indulge in the pleasures of the table."</p> + +<p class="normal">Poor Bernier! And after more than a hundred years of comparative +freedom under British rule there was still not a face-towel or a bit +of soap in an Indian household; not a chair, not a table, and the +simple food, cooked over a hole dug in the ground, was served on +leaf-plates set upon the floor. For luxury has hitherto passed India +by. Will it do so in the future? Who can say?</p> + +<p class="normal">The state of the arts in India evidently puzzled Bernier's Western +brain, and he sets to work to find out some occult cause for the +undoubted skill of the artisan. He asserts that</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"no artist can be expected to give his mind to his calling" without +the stimulus of personal advantage, "and that the arts would long ago +have lost their beauty and delicacy if the monarch and the principal +nobles did not keep the artists in their pay to work in their houses."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Then:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The protection afforded by powerful patrons, rich merchants and +traders, who give the workmen rather more than the usual wages, tends +to preserve the arts; rather more wages, for it should not be inferred +from the goodness of the manufactures that the workman is held in +esteem, or arrives at a state of independence. Nothing but sheer +necessity or blows from a cudgel keeps him employed."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">And this in a country where, to this day, the pride of hereditary +dexterity in hand and eye is handed down from father to son, and to +say of a coppersmith or a carpenter or a weaver in brocades: "His +grandfather, see you, was a real <i>ustad</i> (teacher)," is to raise that +man above his fellows. Once more, poor Bernier! He might have learnt +something from the eager-faced, lissome-fingured Indian smith, who, +handling a gun made by Manton, laid it down reverently and salaamed to +it as if it had been a god, with these simple words: "He who made that +was a Great Artificer."</p> + +<p class="normal">Here we have epitomised the true artistic temperament.</p> + +<p class="normal">But it needs art to apply the solvent of sympathy; and the dealings of +the West with the East were at this time purely commercial; so we meet +with absolute, almost pathetic lack of comprehension. Indeed, as we +read with painstaking care every record that exists of these Western +dealings with the East at this period, we know not whether to laugh or +to cry at the spectacle presented to us of mutual misunderstanding. +India is a problem even now. What must it have been then, to these +worthy Lombard Street merchants who knew nothing of ancient faiths and +past civilisations, who looked on the native of India as a barbarian +utterly. What a shock it must have been to them, when a native +accountant, given some abstruse problem in arithmetic, solved it +lightly, easily, by algebra! Small wonder that, finding the Hindu +circle divided into 360 equal parts and the ratio of diameter to +circumference expressed correctly at 1 to 3.14160 they credited +Alexander's Greek phalanxes with being mathematical teachers as well +as conquerors. Small wonder that every discovery of scientific +knowledge amongst these "barbarians" should have been referred to some +contact with the West.</p> + +<p class="normal">It required long years before due credit could be given to the East; +it is doubtful indeed whether sufficient credit is given to it even +now. Who, for instance, knows of the accurate trigonometrical tables +of India, in which <i>sines</i> are used instead of the Greek <i>chords?</i>--or +of their framer, of whom Professor Wallace writes:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"He who first formed the idea of exhibiting in arithmetical tables the +ratios of the sides and angles of all possible triangles must have +been a man of profound thought and extensive knowledge. However +ancient, therefore, any book may be in which we meet with a system of +trigonometry, we may be assured that it was not written in the infancy +of the science. Hence, we may conclude that geometry must have been +known in India long before the writing of the 'Surya Siddhanta.'"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Now this book on Astronomy was written at the latest computation about +the year A.D. 400. Centuries before this, therefore, India was aware +of certain of those inviolable laws of our Universe, in the +apprehension of which lies humanity's best hope of immortality. And +there is one curious fact about these vestiges of ancient knowledge +which Professor Playfair has noted in a pregnant remark concerning +these same trigonometrical tables. "They have the appearance, like +many other things in the science of these Eastern nations, of being +drawn by one <i>who was more deeply versed in the subject than may at +first be imagined, and who knew much more than he thought it necessary +to communicate</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">It is a remark which stimulates the imagination.</p> + +<p class="normal">But as a matter of fact the Western imagination of those days appears +not to have been stimulated at all by anything save the prospect of +plunder. And in truth the hoarded wisdom of the East was not nearly so +much in evidence as its hoarded wealth. In Akbar's time some effort +had been made to give such wisdom fair hearing. There is small doubt, +for instance, but that his study of the kingcraft chapters of the +Māhābhārata had done much towards making Akbar what he was--the best +ruler India has ever seen, or is likely to see; but, taking it as a +whole, the tide of Mahomedan conquest had simply submerged Hindu +learning, and the rising flood of Mahratta power was not one whit less +prejudicial to philosophy. But below the troubled surface of wars and +rumours of wars the heart of India dreamt on undisturbed. All things, +as ever, were illusion. The Wheel-of-Life revolved between the pivots +of Birth and Death, so what mattered it whether the painted zoetrope +showed the yellow face of a Toorkh from the North, or the white one of +a trader from the West? Both sought gold; and even gold was illusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is quaint to think, say, of those pirates of Arracan bursting in +upon a crowd of pilgrims round some ancient shrine, and carrying off +the whole concern, as it were--priests, worshippers, offerings, even +the idol-eyes, leaving the empty sockets staring out helplessly at the +deserted village.</p> + +<p class="normal">But there are many such quaint items to be added to our picture +gallery of India in the beginning of the eighteenth century, not the +least of these being the spectacle of Job Charnock, the founder of +Calcutta, carrying off from amongst the very flames of her husband's +funeral pyre the Hindu widow who afterwards became his wife.</p> + +<p class="normal">For on the confines of the various factories in the contiguous lands +which had been won from Moghul rule by purchase, or bribe, or treaty, +English laws had already begun to oust native customs. Indeed, quite +an elaborate legal procedure, duly decked with Courts of Appeal, had +been set up in the three presidencies. So far, it is to be feared, +without much benefit to the people, for those who held the power seem +ever to have been more occupied by the rules of commerce than those of +justice.</p> + +<p class="normal">Already, also, each presidency had its own regular army. This was +composed first of recruits from England, sent out by the Company in +their ships; secondly, of adventurers who had deserted from other +European armies and had come out to the East to seek their fortunes; +thirdly, of half-caste Indo-Europeans, the offspring of mixed +marriages. In the beginning of the eighteenth century a few pure +natives were enlisted, and from this time the Sepoy army of John +Company grew by leaps and bounds.</p> + +<p class="normal">As yet, however, there was no attempt at the policy of pike and +carronade. That had been disastrous in the days of Sir John Child; so +the small armies--the garrison of Calcutta in 1707 was <i>raised</i> to +three hundred men--were kept simply for defence.</p> + +<p class="normal">The insecure state of the country, also, which followed on +Aurungzebe's death led to greater caution on the part of the Company. +Hitherto, its clerks and merchants and agents had themselves carried +their English goods to the various markets in the interior of the +country; but now orders were issued directing everything to be sold by +auction at the port of import, thus minimising the risk of loss.</p> + +<p class="normal">A simple order which, nevertheless, must have had far-reaching +results, since it introduced the middleman between the English +merchants and the people of India; an unscrupulous middleman also.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the method employed, and necessarily employed, in the collection +of the calicoes and other woven cotton-stuffs which at this time +formed the staple of Indian trade was one which made fair dealing +almost impossible. For there were no large merchants with whom the +Company could deal. It had therefore to elaborate an agency of its +own, by which it could come in contact with the weaver, who--ever one +of the most poverty-stricken of Indian artisans--required raw material +and sustenance given him before he could keep his rude loom going.</p> + +<p class="normal">A fateful affair this! One European functionary issuing orders to a +native secretary, he employing a native agent, who in his turn calls +together the local brokers, who send out to village and towns by their +paid messengers and advance cotton and money to the actual workmen. +Here indeed were sufficient loopholes for fraud. Each one of these men +had, in addition to his poor pay, to find secret gratification for +himself and for those who were supposed to keep an eye upon him. The +wretched weaver, of course, coming off worst in the scramble, being +made, first, to work as he had never worked before, and secondly, as a +set-off to the sustenance given, to take a price often 40 per cent. +less than the work would have fetched in open market.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the rate of pay which at this time the Company offered to its +servants tells in unmistakable brevity the whole tale of its +administration.</p> + +<p class="normal">The salary of a president was but £300 a year, that of a factor but +£20. Even when Bengal was practically ceded to it, and all power, +judicial and executive, vested in its servants, the pay of a man who +had almost unlimited power, and who had doomed himself to a life of +exile, was but £130. Yet the actual profit of the East India Company +at this time was nothing prodigious; it barely touched 8 per cent. on +the capital employed. Still, the monopoly must have been valuable, for +the efforts made to retain it would fill volumes; and one Act of +Parliament followed another, prohibiting foreign adventure to India +under penalty of forfeiture of triple the sum embarked, and declaring +all British subjects found in India who were not in the Company's +service liable to seizure and punishment, and generally crying "hands +off" to all and sundry.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Portuguese power in India had by this time dwined away; +none too soon for its reputation. It had suffered reverses at many +hands, not least of these being one dealt by itself; for the story of +Bahādur-Shāh, the king of Guzerāt, is not one to bring credit with it.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had entered into negotiations with the Portuguese, had granted them +many favours, amongst others the right to build a factory. This, +however, they surrounded with a wall which converted the whole into a +fortification. Bahādur-Shāh remonstrated, and was met with fair words +from Nuno de Cunha, the Portuguese viceroy, who, however, came to the +conference with a suspiciously martial fleet containing over four +thousand fighting-men. Now, whether the Portuguese historians are +right in attributing meditated treachery to the Mahomedans, or the +historians of the latter are right in attributing it to the +Portuguese, matters little in face of what actually happened. The +viceroy, feigning sickness as an excuse for not paying his respects on +land, the king, with but a few unarmed attendants, went to meet him on +the admiral's ship. Once there, he became alarmed at whisperings and +signs that were passing between the viceroy and his officers, and took +a hasty leave. Hardly had he reached his boat, however, when he was +attacked. Being a good swimmer he flung himself into the sea, was +pursued, struck over the head with an oar, and when he clung to it, +was finally despatched with a halbert.</p> + +<p class="normal">The facts are brutal. Nothing can extenuate them, and though the +affray may have originated in mutual distrust and alarm, there can be +no doubt that such evidence of premeditated treachery as there is +points to the Portuguese as the real criminals.</p> + +<p class="normal">By the beginning of the eighteenth century, however, they had retired +to Further India, there to repeat their brilliant but evanescent +career of conquest, and in 1739 they finally ceded their few remaining +possessions in the Konkan to the Mahratta power.</p> + +<p class="normal">But their influence lives still all along the western coast, where to +this day a large proportion of the people are professedly Roman +Catholic, the descendants of the converts who, it is said, flocked in +thousands to be baptized by St Francis Xavier. This, however, is +extremely doubtful. Yet even the Portuguese power was but a sea-board +influence, the nibblings, as it were, of the Western mouse upon the +rich cake of India.</p> + +<p class="normal">Inside this frayed and fraying fringe of contact with the outside +world India was very much what it had been always, what in a way it +will be always. So far as princes and principalities went it was a +very distracted country; so far as the peasantry went it was a very +peaceful one. But neither prince nor peasant seemed to realise that a +great change was imminent.</p> + +<p class="normal">One of the most curious points about this coming change was that +though the greed of gold was undoubtedly the chief factor in bringing +it about, the first two solid holds which the English got on India +were due to the skill, not of British diplomacy or British commerce, +but of British medicine. It was in consequence of the services +rendered by Ship's surgeon Gabriel Boughton to the Emperor Shāhjahān's +beloved daughter Jahanāra, when she was as a child badly burnt, that +the Old East India Company gained the right to trade in Bengal free of +all duty; this being the only fee asked--surely a public-spirited and +disinterested one. And equally so was the only fee demanded by Staff +Surgeon William Hamilton in 1715 for curing the decadent Emperor +Farokhshir of a tumour in the back which had resisted the efforts of +all the court physicians. He asked for the first sizable grant of land +on the Indian peninsula which had ever been given to any foreign +power: that is to say, for thirty-seven villages contiguous to the +factory at Calcutta, which gave the English command of the river for +10 miles south of the port, for some villages near Madras, which +consolidated that <i>pied ą terre</i>; and for the island of Din on the +western coast.</p> + +<p class="normal">These two fees, given by gratitude for services rendered, were +practically the fee simple of all India.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some vague recognition of this fact doubtless prompted the epitaph on +William Hamilton's neglected tombstone in Calcutta, which runs thus:--</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<p class="t0">His memory ought to be dear to his Nation</p> +<p class="t3">For the credit he gained the English</p> +<p class="t8">in curing Ferrukseer</p> +<p class="t4">the present King of Hindustan</p> +<p class="t5">of a malignant distemper</p> +<p class="t2">By which he made his own name famous</p> +<p class="t3">At the Court of that Great Monarch</p> +<p class="t0">And without doubt will perpetuate his memory</p> +<p class="t3">as well in Great Britain as all other</p> +<p class="t8">Nations in Europe.</p> +</div> + +<p class="normal">He died, 4th December 1717. Gabriel Boughton, his predecessor in +patriotism, dying God knows when, being buried God knows where.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the epitaph is a trifle over-confident; for Great Britain has a +trick of forgetting her most faithful servants.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.2" href="#div1Ref_03.2">THE RISE OF THE MAHRATTA POWER</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1707 TO A.D. 1738</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The story of Siva-ji has already been told. His early decease, while +it did not materially check the rising flood of Mahratta power, +certainly left the invading West a freer hand along the shores of +India from Bombay to Calicut.</p> + +<p class="normal">For Siva-ji seems to have had a genius for sea, as well as for land +warfare. It was his unerring eye which, seizing on an island along the +coast overlooked hitherto by both Portuguese and English, had it +fortified for use as a <i>point d'appui</i>, whence he could control the +shipping north and south. Indeed, having in view the fact that he was +the only person who managed in any way to harass English fleets, it +seems not unlikely that, had he lived longer, British commerce would +have been longer, also, in finding firm foothold in India.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he died, and his son Samba-ji died also, meanly, miserably. That, +however, only delayed the inevitable for a short time. The Mahratta +star was in the ascendant, that of the Moghuls was sinking fast, and +the death of Aurungzebe accelerated both ascent and descent.</p> + +<p class="normal">To begin with, it ended what may be called the Rājput acquiescence in +empire; that is to say, their acceptance of "Akbar's Dream" as an +ideal, which by good fortune might become real. It was an ideal +absolutely foreign to the whole Rājput spirit, the whole Rājput theory +of life. In their State-Politic, one chieftain had as independent a +position as any other chieftain, and even amongst the followers of +those chieftains none was really before or after the other. Every +Rājput owed equal fealty to his race, was equally free to defend his +own rights as he chose. Yet side by side with this curious individual +independence ran what, for want of a better word, we may call a feudal +bond betwixt follower and chieftain, between chieftain and suzerain. +Akbar's Dream of Empire had been antagonistic to this, yet they had +accepted that Dream at his hands, and at his death the mere fact of +his heir Jahāngir being half a Rājput by birth, had helped them to +forget what they had given up to the dead man's genius. Shāhjahān was +still more Rājput. In his veins there flowed but one-fourth of the +hated Mahomedan blood, so they bore with him. But with Aurungzebe it +was different. Born of a Mahomedan mother, the old race intolerance +showed in him early, and from the moment he set his foot on the +throne, alienation of loyalty began actively, passively, so that by +the time the bigot's reign of fifty years was over, every Rājput in +India was ripe for revolt; a fact which naturally was in favour of the +Mahrattas, since it weakened the power of the Moghuls. It was still +more favourable to the advancement of the West, since with India +engaged in internecine strife, attention was withdrawn from many a +seemingly slight advance which yet was the first step to final +conquest. Naturally, after Aurungzebe's anxious efforts to settle the +succession by means of a last will and testament, his sons immediately +came to blows over the business; in which quarrel the best claimant +appears to have gone to the wall, for Azim, the second son, was +defeated and killed near Agra by his elder brother, Shāh-Alam, and +Kambaksh, the youngest, shortly afterwards drew death down on himself +by a desperate defiance near Hyderabād. Thus Shāh-Alam was left to +face the situation for five years under the title of Bahādur-Shāh. It +is worthy of note that he, the first puppet-emperor of Delhi, had thus +the same name as the last, the old man Bahādur-Shāh, who, after +dallying with disgrace and deceit in 1857 went to end his miserable +life in the Andaman Islands.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bahādur-Shāh the First found his hands full. Having pursued Kambaksh +to the very confines of the Dekkan, it was necessary ere returning +northward to settle the Rājput rebellion (which was becoming daily +less restrained), and to temporise in some way with the Mahrattas. And +here a piece of diplomacy on the part of the dead brother, Azim, +served Bahādur's turn well. The former, when advancing to dispute the +crown, had sought to strengthen his position and protect his rear by +giving back to the Mahrattas the rightful heir to Siva-ji's throne in +the person of his grandson Sāho, who had been kept in captivity by the +Moghuls ever since his father Samba-ji had paid the penalty for +blasphemy amongst the Mahomedans, and so been made a martyr by the +Mahrattas. It was a wily move, for during the young claimant's long +incarceration, another pretender to Siva-ji's crown had arisen. +Azim-Shāh, therefore, had deliberately started a successional dispute +in the hopes of being thereby freed for a time of troublesome +neighbours.</p> + +<p class="normal">The ruse succeeded, and Bahādur-Shāh, by ratifying his brother's +promise of favourable peace should the young pretender succeed in +establishing his claim, managed to keep the Mahrattas quiet for some +years.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was less fortunate with the Rājput confederacy, though he was +prepared to give up all things but the mere name of Empire. In the +case of Oudipur (Chitore) he went so far as to restore all +annexations, to release it from the obligation of furnishing a +contingent, to abolish the infidel capitation tax, or <i>jizyia</i>, and to +re-establish religious toleration as it had existed in the time of +Akbar. He could not well have done more; but for once--almost for the +only time in Indian history--a faint political feeling is here to be +traced. For even the removal of the hated <i>jizyia</i> was not enough for +the Rājput; he wanted, and he meant to have, independence. This is--or +seems to be--the only occasion in all the long centuries of Indian +history which gives us a hint of any recognition on the part of the +people of political rights, and as such it is peculiarly interesting. +Unfortunately, it is so mixed up with the religious motive that it is +impossible to say if it really gives ground for supposing that we have +here a faint realisation of the rights of the individual.</p> + +<p class="normal">While Bahādur-Shāh was engaged in pacifying the Rājputs by the +relinquishment of everything, he was suddenly called to the Punjāb by +an insurrection amongst the Sikhs.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nānuk, their original founder, had lived in Akbar's time; a time +peculiarly productive of religious enthusiasms all over the world. And +Nānuk was a religious enthusiast pure and simple. Of the soldier +caste, the son of a grain merchant, he was <i>devote</i> from childhood. +Much travel and mature manhood turned him into an almost inspired +preacher of the Theistic doctrines of Kābir, who in his turn was a +disciple of the great Ramanuja. Concerning this same Kābir there is a +curious legend, the recital of which may serve to impress the memory +with the most salient feature of his teaching--his tolerance.</p> + +<p class="normal">The tale runs that at his death the Mahomedans claimed the right to +bury the saint, the Hindus to burn him; in consequence of which there +was a free fight over the corpse, in the midst of which the still, +white-shrouded form lay, mutely appealing for peace. And lo! when +blood had been uselessly spilt, and a compromise effected, it was +found that beneath the white sheet was no dead man, only where his +holy head had lain grew a sweet basil plant, sacred to the God Vishnu, +only where his holy feet had touched, a perfumed <i>rehan</i> bush, green +as the green of the Prophet's turban!</p> + +<p class="normal">Nānuk, then, was a preacher, a quietest, and being possessed of this +spirit of universal charity, was allowed, naturally, to live in peace +during the reign of that past--master in tolerance, Akbar. At his +death, however, the rapid increase of the sect attracted the +unfavourable notice of Jahāngir, and Nānuk was cruelly put to death. +The usual result followed. Armed with a sainted martyr, religion +became fanaticism. Har-Govind, the murdered man's son, brought revenge +and hatred to his holding of the supreme pontiff-ship, and from this +time the Sikhs, expelled forcibly from their lands, presented from the +mountains north of Lahōre an unbroken front of rebellion to the +Government.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not, however, till 1675 that, under Govind, the tenth Guru (or +spiritual head of the sect) from Nānuk its founder, the Sikhs formed +themselves into an aggressive military commonwealth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Guru Govind was a wise man. Numbers were his first need, so he set to +work to establish a creed wide enough to contain all converts, +attractive enough to compel them to come in.</p> + +<p class="normal">Caste was abolished; Mahomedan or Hindu, Brahman or Pariah, were alike +when once the oath of fealty was taken, when once the new-made Sikh +had vowed to be a religious soldier, to carry cold steel about with +him from birth to death, to wear blue clothes always, and never to +clip a hair which God had sent to grow upon him. In order still +further to emphasise the separation of the Sikh from his fellows, new +methods of salutation, new ceremonials for all the principal events of +life, were instituted.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing more interesting in the annals of heredity exists than the +startling rapidity of the change thus brought about in the Sikhs. They +are now--that is, after two hundred years--(as they were, indeed, +after a scant one hundred) as distinct a race as any in India, with as +well marked a national character as any of the original peoples of +India.</p> + +<p class="normal">So far, therefore, Guru Govind was successful; but his personal +mission proved disastrous. Despite his diplomacy, he failed in +numbers; his foes were too strong for him, and in the end the pontiff +saw all his fortresses taken, his mother and his children murdered, +his followers tortured, dispersed, or killed.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was in Aurungzebe's time, that most bigoted and bloodthirsty of +pious kings. The closing years of his reign, however, found him with +all his energies centred on the Dekkan, and almost immediately after +his death, the Sikhs recovered from their stupor, and having found a +new, and this time an unscrupulously cruel leader, broke out into +almost incredible excesses of revenge. They ravaged Sirhind, they +brutally butchered whole towns, and after penetrating southward as far +as Saharunpur, retreated to the Cis and Trans-Sutlej states, which are +to this day the stronghold of the Sikh faith.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was against these stalwart rebels--for one of the quickly acquired +national characteristics of the Sikhs is unusual physical height and +breadth--that Bahādur-Shāh had to march in person. He managed with +infinite trouble to besiege the chief offenders in a hill-fort, +whence, after enduring the utmost extremities of famine, they made a +wild sally, headed, apparently, by their leader Banda, who, after +making himself conspicuous by desperate resistance, was captured and +brought to the Mahomedan camp in triumph. Once there, however, the +prisoner threw aside his borrowed <i>rōle</i>, openly declared himself +nothing but a poor Hindu convert who had dared all to save his Guru, +and taunted his captors with having fallen into the trap and allowed +the real Banda to escape them!</p> + +<p class="normal">It is pleasantly noteworthy to find that Bahādur-Shāh, struck by the +man's self-devotion, spared his life.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before, however, the further endeavours to secure the real leader and +crush the Sikhs were successful, the emperor himself fell sick and +died, and the usual turmoil of murder and intrigue followed, which +ended in the temporary enthronement, at the instigation of Zulfikar +Khan (who had been chief instrument in the late king's succession), of +the eldest son, Jahāndar-Shāh. An inveterate intriguer was this same +Zulfikar. He it was who had suggested hampering the hands of the +Mahrattas by presenting them with a new claimant for their crown; and +now he chose his nominee--despatching the remainder of the royal +family <i>instanter</i>--because Jahāndar, weak, vicious, enslaved by a +public dancer, offered himself an easy prey to Zulfikar's desire to be +the real ruler.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Farokhshir, son of one of the murdered princes, who had escaped +massacre by being in Bengal, had just sufficient spunk in him to +oppose the maker of puppet-kings. Fortune favoured him miraculously, +quite irrationally, and--surely to his own surprise--he found himself +marching on Delhi, victorious, triumphant. But the whole affair had +degenerated--as purely Indian history after the death of Aurungzebe so +often does degenerate--into transpontine melodrama and comic opera, +and he was met at the gates by an obsequious Zulfikar and his still +more obsequious papa, both ready, willing, and eager to deliver up +their prisoner, the late Emperor Jahāndar, and take the oath of +allegiance to the new one, Farokhshir.</p> + +<p class="normal">But this passed. It was, to use a vulgarism, "too thick" even for a +debased Moghul. So the double-dyed traitor was calmly strangled in the +imperial tent, Jahāndar was quietly put out of the way, and Farokhshir +reigned in his stead.</p> + +<p class="normal">One is irresistibly reminded, as one reads the records of the few +following reigns, of the terrible annals of the Slave and Khilji +Kings. There is only this to choose between them, that the latter +concerned themselves with kings who, however degenerate, were at least +real, whereas these occupants of Akbar's throne, Farokhshir, the two +infant princes who were in turn raised to power by political factions, +and Mahomed-Shāh, were all purely puppets.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first-named, who owed his kingdom entirely to the ability for +intrigue of two Syyeds of Ba'rr'ha, spent his time largely in trying +to emancipate himself from their claims on his gratitude. His was a +feeble, futile nature, a feeble, futile reign. During it the +Mahrattas, becoming tired of their civil war of succession, began to +renew their depredations along the Moghul frontiers. But in all ways +Farokhshir was a timid creature; so nothing, great was done to hold +the marauders in check. He, however, through the aid of a general with +an unpronounceable name, was equal to a final tussle and final +crushing of the Sikh zealots, seven hundred and forty-nine of whom, +defeated and taken prisoners to Delhi, were duly paraded through the +streets, exposed to various indignities, and finally beheaded in +batches of one hundred and eleven on seven successive days of the +week.</p> + +<p class="normal">Their leader, Banda, was, however, reserved for more refined +barbarity. Nothing in the whole annals of history can exceed in +devilish malignant cruelty the revolting details of the treatment +meted out to this man, who had himself, it is true, led the way in +lack of humanity! They are sickening to read, and shall not be +repeated here.</p> + +<p class="normal">Farokhshir only reigned six years. By that time even his masters, the +Syyeds, had tired of him, and despite his abject submission, he was +finally dragged from the women's apartments, a faint, frightened +shadow of a king, and privately made away with.</p> + +<p class="normal">But these same Syyeds--king-makers as they justly called +themselves--were unfortunate in their choice of a successor. They set +up one young prince of the blood, who promptly died of consumption in +less than three months. They followed him with another, who as +promptly followed his example in less time.</p> + +<p class="normal">The question naturally presents itself--was it tuberculosis or some +other toxin? Who can say?</p> + +<p class="normal">They then, in despair, chose a healthy young man. But the public +confidence in them as king-makers was waning, and almost before the +new emperor--who was enthroned in the title of Mahomed-Shāh--was +firmly settled in his seat, Hussan-Ali--the most powerful of the two +Syyeds--was assassinated in his palanquin, and his brother, after +vainly trying to hold his own single-handed, was defeated and made +prisoner near Delhi, his life being spared out of respect for his +sacred lineage--Syyeds being descended directly from the great +Prophet.</p> + +<p class="normal">And all this time, while emperors intrigued against ministers, and +ministers intrigued against emperors, while here and there some +austere old Mahomedan like Asaf-Jāh (whilom Grand Vizier, and +afterwards Governor in the Dekkan), who remembered the bigoted decorum +of Aurungzebe's court, lifted up voice of warning and held up holy +hands of horror--all this time the Western nibblings continued on the +sea-coast, and in the interior the Mahratta power was growing day by +day.</p> + +<p class="normal">For some time the Moghuls kept themselves fairly secure of it by +pitting Samba, the one claimant to the crown, against Sāho, the other +claimant. But Sāho found a friend in the person of one Bāla-ji, a +Brahmin, who began life as a mere village accountant. Ere long, +however, he was his master's right hand, and it was by his wits that +Sāho found himself no longer a mere vassal of the empire, but an +independent ruler, entitled to claim endless minor dues over a large +extent of land. A quick wit was this of Bāla-ji's, which recognised +the infinite opportunities for encroachments and interference given by +widespread, ill-defined rights.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the confusion worse confounded which ensued, the Mahratta scored +invariably against the Moghul, and when Bāla-ji died, his son, still +more capable, still more astute, took up the prime minister or +Peishwa-ship, and with it his father's life-work.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, there is no doubt that this son, by name Bāji-Rao, is, after +Siva-ji, by far the ablest Mahratta of history.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was a warrior, born and bred in camps, a statesman educated ably by +his father, a man frank and free, hardy beyond most, content to live +on a handful of unhusked grain, vital to the fingertips.</p> + +<p class="normal">He found himself confronted by a Peace-party, who would fain have +paused to consolidate what had already been won, to suppress civil +discord, and generally to give a firm administrative grip on the south +of India before attempting further conquests on the north.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Bāji-Rao was clear-sighted; he saw the difficulties of this +policy. To attempt the consolidation of what was still absolutely +fluid, to bid the bands of predatory horsemen which constituted the +Mahratta army suddenly lay down their lances or turn them into ox +goads, would be fatal.</p> + +<p class="normal">The only chance of peace was to form a regular army out of these +robber hordes, give that army work to do, and so establish a stern +military control as the first and most necessary step towards a fixed +Government.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Moghul empire lay ready to hand, rotten at the core, simply +waiting to be overthrown.</p> + +<p class="normal">He therefore urged his master to "strike the withered trunk, when the +branches will fall of themselves," and roused the lazy, somewhat +luxurious Sāho to such enthusiasm that he swore he would plant his +victorious standard on Holy Himalaya itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">The career of Sāho-plus-Bāji-Rao was singularly successful. Ere long, +after harassing the Dekkan, he forced his rival, Samba, to yield him +almost the whole Mahratta country except a portion about Kolapur. +Having done this, he turned himself to engage the Moghul force of +thirty-five thousand men which had marched on him with the avowed +object of delivering Sāho from the terrible tyranny of Bāji. This was +defeated, and Sāho-cum-Bāji proceeded to apportion various parts of +Southern India amongst the great Mahratta families. The Gaekwars of +Baroda date from this time. The Holkar of those days was but a +shepherd-soldier, and the Scindias, though of good birth, a mere +body-servant of the Peishwas.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mālwa was the next emprise, and though its Afghān governor effected +his own personal escape by means of a rescue party from Rohilkand +summoned by his wife, who sent her veil as a challenge to her +brethren's honour, the whole rich province fell into Mahratta hands. +The Rājah of Bundulkhund, alarmed, acceded to Bāji-Rao's demands, and +Jāi-Singh of Ambźr, hastily summoned by the Moghuls to defend their +cause, after a futile and half-hearted resistance, also yielded.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was more of a scientist than a soldier was Jāi-Singh, and would +have been remarkable in any age for his astronomical work. His 'List +of the Stars' is still of importance.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hitherto, all these aggressions had been made by the Mahrattas under +cover of claims; those ill-defined, widespread rights of share and +taxation which Bāla-ji had started. Now, seeing his opponent's +weakness, Sāho-cum-Bāji's demands rose, until even Moghul supineness +could not submit to his terms.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing daunted, the former advanced on Delhi itself, but while his +light cavalry under Holkar were ravaging the country about Agra, they +were attacked and driven back by the Governor of Oudh, a man evidently +of some spirit, for he had actually left his own province to defend +the adjoining one.</p> + +<p class="normal">The skirmish was magnified into overwhelming victory by the Moghuls, +and this so irritated Bāji-cum-Sāho, that he conceived and put into +practice what was more an impish piece of mischief than a serious +assault.</p> + +<p class="normal">Leaving the imperial army which had come out solemnly, solidly, to +repel him on the right, he led his swarms of active freebooters by a +<i>detour</i> to its rear, and then contemptuously disdaining an attack on +the pompous martial array, made one almost unbroken march to the very +gates of Delhi.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here was consternation indeed! The Mahrattas at the very steps of the +throne, while the court army was seeking them in the wilderness!</p> + +<p class="normal">His object, however, was mere intimidation; as he phrased it himself: +"Just to show the emperor that he could come if he liked."</p> + +<p class="normal">So, after repelling with heavy loss one sally caused by the Moghul +misapprehension of a retrograde movement he made beyond the suburbs +(which was due to his desire to prevent damage by his freebooting +followers), he retreated as he came, just as the befogged, bewildered +Moghul army, duly bedrummed, beflagged, and bedisciplined, was on the +eve of arriving at Delhi.</p> + +<p class="normal">A sheer piece of devilry, no doubt. He had meant to have crossed the +Jumna and looted the rich Gangetic plains, but the rainy season was +due, and there was more comfortable work to be done in the Dekkan.</p> + +<p class="normal">Asaf-Jāh, still active though old, followed him so soon as the weather +permitted, and he could manage to scrape together sufficient soldiery; +but so low had the power of the Moghul fallen by this time, that he +had to start with a bare thirty-five thousand men. Then ensued a +campaign of some months on the old well-known lines.</p> + +<p class="normal">The regulars marching with difficulty, the irregulars harassing the +line of march. The Moghuls entrenching themselves scientifically, the +Mahrattas cutting off supplies, laying waste the country for miles, +looting every baggage-train that tried to get in, and finally cutting +off all communication with the base. There was nothing for it finally +but retreat; a slow retreat of 4 or 5 miles a day, the enemy's light +cavalry hanging on the rear, harassing the disheartened army in every +possible way. There could be but one end to it--almost unconditioned +surrender.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bāji-cum-Sāho demanded the cession of all Mālwa, the country between +the rivers Nerbudda and the Chumbal, and an indemnity of fifty lacs of +rupees, or five millions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Weighted down with these fateful terms, for which he promised to gain +the emperor's sanction, poor Asaf-Jāh continued his way Delhi-wards, +Bāji-cum-Sāho marching a few days behind him to take present +possession of his conquests. Whether Asaf-Jāh's efforts would have +resulted in confirmation of these terms or not cannot be said; for +this was in the year of grace 1738, and in the November of that year +Nādir the Persian invaded India.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.3" href="#div1Ref_03.3">THE INVASION OF NĀDIR</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1738 TO A.D. 1742</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The old cry once more!</p> + +<p class="normal">Over the wheat-fields of the Punjāb, just as the seed was bursting +into green, that cry--</p> + + +<p class="center" style="font-size:90%">"The Toorkh! The Toorkh!"</p> + +<p class="continue">Surely no land on the globe has suffered so much from invasion as +Hindustan? The mythical Snake-people first, coming from God knows +where.... Then the Aryans, with their flocks and herds, from the Roof +of the World.... Next the well-greaved Greeks, leaving their indelible +mark on Upper India.... So through Parthian, and Scythian, and +Bactrian, to the wild, resistless influx of Mongolian immigrations. +Then finally Mahmūd and Mahomed, Tamerlane and Babar ... last of all, +Nādir the Persian.</p> + +<p class="normal">His was an unprovoked, almost an unpremeditated invasion. It burst +upon India like a monsoon storm, swift, lurid, almost terrible in the +rapidity with which action follows menace. And like that same storm it +came, it passed, and the blue, unclouded sky seemed far away from the +desolation and havoc that had been wrought.</p> + +<p class="normal">In many ways this, the last, was the worst of all the sacks which +India had suffered. To begin with, it came so late in time. Towards +the middle of the eighteenth century one does not expect a robbing +raid on so vast a scale. It seems almost incredible that an army of +eighty thousand men should march through a country bent on plunder, +and plunder only.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then its sole object--gold--was such a mean one. No political reason +lay at the back of the raid. Nādir had no ambitions. He did not wish +to add to his kingship; it was all wilful, wicked, merciless greed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet Nādir-Shāh himself was not absolutely a mean man. He was a native +of Khorasān, that is to say, an Afghān, born of no particular family, +but born a warrior. At the age of seventeen he was taken prisoner by +the Usbeks, but after four years of captivity made his escape.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he took service with the King of Khorasān, but, believing himself +ill-rewarded for a success against the Tartars, gave up his command, +and became, frankly, a freebooter.</p> + +<p class="normal">A few years later, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, he threw in his +fortunes with those of a Persian princeling <i>en retraite</i>, and in his +name fought a variety of battles, in which he was invariably +victorious. They ended in the nominal restoration of Tāhmāsp to the +throne of his fathers. But behind Tāhmāsp sate Nādir, who had become +the idol of the Persian people; and small wonder, since he had raised +the nation from abject slavery to such military glory as Persia has +seldom possessed.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was necessary, however, to continue soldierly exploits; so Nādir +set to work to settle a dispute with the Turks who had taken Tabrīz. +He had recovered it, when trouble in Khorasān called him back, and +kept him employed for so long, that when he returned to the capital, +Isphahān, it was to find that his puppet Tāhmāsp had, during his +absence, become a person of much importance, and was exercising all +the royal prerogatives.</p> + +<p class="normal">This did not suit Nādir, so, on the excuse of lack of statesmanship in +concluding a treaty with the Turks, he deliberately deposed Tāhmāsp, +and set his infant son in his stead.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was practically the beginning of Nādir's reign, but he refrained +from assuming the title of King until many victories over the Turks +and Russians had strengthened his hold on the Persians.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, covered with glory, he assembled all the dignitaries, civil and +military, to the number of about one hundred thousand in a sort of +mutual admiration conference, when, no doubt by previous arrangement, +they offered him the crown, which, after some display of surprise and +reluctance, he was pleased to accept.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now this was all very deep-laid, very diplomatic; but Nādir's +cleverness was at times too clever. In some of his campaigns +he had deliberately changed his religion--or rather his +denomination--becoming Sunni instead of Shiah, in order to gain over a +warlike tribe which was obdurately troublesome; now, hoping to stamp +out any sentimental attachment to the dynasty which he had just +deposed, and whose claim to kingship rested entirely on its +championship of the Shiah tenets, he changed the national +denomination, and declared Persia henceforward a Sunni country. It was +a mistake; for though the Sunni section was pleased, the Shiahs felt +themselves alienated from their new king.</p> + +<p class="normal">In another way Nādir showed more sense. It was his greatness as a +general which had won him sovereignty, and he recognised that it must +be kept by the same means; so he gathered together an army of eighty +thousand men and set off to conquer Kandahār.</p> + +<p class="normal"><i>L'appetit vient en mangeant</i>. India lay just over the barrier of the +Koh-i-Suleiman hills, and the tribes who had hitherto been subsidised +by the Moghul Government to keep the peaks and passes, were now sulky +over their failure for some years past to squeeze anything out of the +bankrupt Government of Delhi.</p> + +<p class="normal">But even Nādir required some excuse for bald, brutal invasion. He +therefore peremptorily demanded the expulsion of some Afghāns who had +fled from punishment to shelter in Indian territory. At all times it +would have been difficult to lay hands on a band of wandering Pāthāns +amongst the frontier hills, but Delhi was at this time distracted by +fear of the Mahrattas, and still all uncertain whether to acknowledge +Nādir-Shāh's claim to kingship.</p> + +<p class="normal">The hesitation suited the latter; he was over the border, had defeated +a feeble resistance at Lahōre, and was within 100 miles of Delhi +before he found himself faced by a real army.</p> + +<p class="normal">There must surely be some malignant attraction about the wide plain of +Pāniput! Surely the Angel-of-Death must spread his wings over it at +all times, since bitter battle has been fought on it again and again, +and its sun-saturated sands have been sodden again and again with the +blood of many men.</p> + +<p class="normal">How many times has the fate of India been decided amongst its +semi-barren stretches, where the low <i>dhāk</i> bushes glow like sunset +clouds on the horizon? First by the mythical, legendary Pāndus and +Kurus, backed by the gods, protected by showers of celestial arrows. +Next, when Shahāb-ud-din-Mahomed Ghori broke down the Rājput +resistance, and Prithvi-rāj, the flower of Rājput chivalry, was killed +flying for his life amongst the sugarcane brakes. Timur passed it by, +but his great descendant Babar strewed the plain with dead in his +victorious march to Delhi. Here Hemu met with crushing defeat at +Akbar's hands, and now Nādir was to carry on the tradition of death, +until that last great fight in 1761, which ended the Mahratta power, +and so paved the way for British supremacy.</p> + +<p class="normal">How many men's dust is mingled with the soil of Pāniput? All we know +is that the life-blood of over a million is said to have been spilt +upon it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nādir's battle, however, appears to have been a comparatively +bloodless rout of an absolutely incapable enemy. Mahomed-Shāh, the +so-called emperor of all the Indies, at any rate gave up the struggle +incontinently, sent in his submission, and the two kings journeyed +peacefully together to Delhi, which they reached in March 1739. Did +the populace come out to greet the sovereigns riding in, brother-like, +hand in hand, to take up their residence in the palace built by +Shāhjahān? It is a quaint picture this, of cringing submission and +reckless ascendency.</p> + +<p class="normal">To Nādir's credit be it said that, whatever ultimate object of plunder +he may have had, he wished to avoid bloodshed. For this purpose he +stationed isolated pickets of chosen troops about the city and suburbs +to keep order and protect the people. Unavailingly, for a strange +thing happened. Whether owing to some deep-laid, well-known plan for +poisoning the intruder which failed unexpectedly, or from some other +cause, the report was spread abroad within forty-eight hours that +Nādir-the-Conqueror, Nādir-the-mainspring-of-Conquest, was dead. The +rumours blazed like wildfire through the bazaars. In quick impulse the +mob fell on the pickets, and seven hundred Persians were weltering in +their blood when Nādir himself rode through the midnight streets, +intent, they say, on peace. But the provocation proved too much for +his cold, cruel Persian temper.</p> + +<p class="normal">Struck by stones and mud hurled at him from the houses, the officer +next him killed by a bullet aimed at himself, he gave way to Berserk +rage. It was just dawn when the massacre he ordered began; it was nigh +sunset when it ended, and night fell over one hundred and fifty +thousand corpses. Nor did his revenge stop here. The treasure, which +he would no doubt have extorted in any case, was now seized on by +force, torture and murder being used to make the miserable inhabitants +yield up every penny. Every kind of cruelty was employed in this +extortion; numbers died from ill-usage, and many others destroyed +themselves from fear of a disgraceful death. As an eye-witness writes: +"Sleep and rest forsook the city. In every chamber and house was heard +the cry of affliction."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Afghān has always possessed a perfect genius for pillage, and +after a short two months Nādir-Shāh left Delhi, carrying away with him +an almost incredible quantity of plunder, which it is very generally +estimated at being worth £30,000,000; an enormous sum, but it must be +remembered that the famous peacock throne in itself was counted by +Tavernier as equal to £6,000,000 sterling.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Nādir left Delhi something which, possibly, it might have +done better without; for ere leaving, he solemnly reinstated the +puppet-king, and swore fearful oaths as to the revenge he would take +on the nobles when he returned in a year or two should they fail in +allegiance. But he never did return; he really never meant to return. +He was a robber <i>pur et simple</i>, and he had got all that he had any +hopes of getting.</p> + +<p class="normal">So he disappeared northwards again, to die a violent death ere long. +For despite his success, something of remorse had come to him, +uninvited, with the spoils of ravaged Delhi. He became cruel, +capricious, tyrannical; finally, he grew half-mad, until one night +the nobles, whose arrest he had decreed, the captain of his own +body-guard, the very chief of his own clan, entered his tent at +midnight. Then from the darkness came the challenge in the deep voice +which had so often led them to victory.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who goes there?"</p> + +<p class="normal">For an instant they drew back, uncertain; but only for an instant. +They went for him with their sabres as they might have gone at a mad +dog, and Nādir, their hero, their pride, their tyrant, their horror, +ended his life.</p> + +<p class="normal">How had he affected India?</p> + +<p class="normal">First of all it had for the moment checked Mahratta aggrandisement. +The appearance of this unknown, hitherto almost unheard-of foe, who +traversed with such ease the country he had hoped to annex, and did +the things he had meant to do, seemed to paralyse Bāji-Rao. His first +impulse was to aid in a general defence of India. "Our domestic +quarrels," he wrote, "are now insignificant; there is but one enemy in +Hindustan. The whole power of the Dekkan, Hindu and Mahomedan alike, +must assemble for resistance."</p> + +<p class="normal">And even when Nādir-Shāh had retreated without further progress +southward, Bāji-Rao, free-booter, as all the Mahrattas were at heart, +must have felt himself frustrated. What use was there in reaching a +city desolate utterly, still infected by the stench of unburied +bodies; a city whose treasury doors stood wide open, empty, deserted; +a city, briefly, which an Afghān had pillaged? So he and his Sāho +retired southwards.</p> + +<p class="normal">As for the effects which Nādir's sudden swoop on the interior of the +plum-cake had on the nibbling mice upon its circumference, there is +little to be said. It must have been a surprise to the civilised +communities which were so rapidly coming into existence at such +centres as Calcutta, Madras, Bombay; centres in which life went +elegantly, and people began to talk of the latest news by mail from +England. Still, the mere brute-force of the invasion cannot have +shocked them much, for Europe itself was a prey at this time to wars +and rumours of wars. The 1715 rebellion was over in England; the 1745 +had not yet begun. In France affairs were working up towards the +Revolution. Spain and Germany were alike, either at the beginning or +the end of disastrous struggles.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet the mere fact which must have filtered through to the +seacoast--<i>that thirty millions worth of solid plunder had just been +filched away from the treasury of India by foreigners</i>--cannot have +been pleasing news. The East India Company, however, seems to have +made no great efforts at aggrandisement during the years between the +special granting to it of lands by Farokhshir and 1746, when it +formally entered into grips with the French East Indian Company, which +about this time began that dispute for supremacy in India which +virtually ended with the taking of Trichinoply in 1761.</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth we have very little information indeed regarding the doings +of John Company during this period. All we know is that British +imports into India fell from £617,000 in 1724 to £157,000 in 1741, +which, taken with a corresponding decrease in dividends, would seem to +show some depression, some check to trade.</p> + +<p class="normal">One thing is certain. The Constitution of the Company was not +satisfactory. An attempt had been made to avoid a monopoly of large +shareholders by ruling that, no matter what the share held might be, +it should only, whether £500 or £50,000, carry one vote for the +election of the Court of Directors. But this ruling could be, and was, +easily evaded. All that had to be done was to split the £50,000 into a +hundred £500 shares, registered in the names of confidential agents, +who--in consideration of an honorarium, no doubt--voted according to +direction. It was not very straightforward, of course; on the other +hand, the original ruling was silly in the extreme, since it prevented +those who had a real interest in the Company from exercising their due +share of influence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Unfortunately, this faggot-voting brought with it a corrupt +atmosphere. Appointments under the Company were a common bribe, and as +the Court of Directors had to be reappointed every year, there was +endless opportunity for jobbery.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, after a time, opposition to the monopoly of the trade began once +more to take form. Proposals for yet a new company were floated. +Parliament once more took up the matter; which was finally settled by +the existing company offering £200,000 to Government, and a reduction +of 1 per cent. on the rate of interest payable on the previous loan of +some three-and-a-half millions (that is to say, a yearly income of +£35,000), as payment for the extension of their monopoly till 1766. +This offer was accepted, and in 1744 the term of monopoly was still +further extended until 1780, in consideration of a further loan to +Government of £1,000,000 sterling at the low rate of 3 per cent. +Coming as it did in the middle of a very expensive war, the temptation +of this pecuniary assistance must have been potent; but there can be +but little doubt that, publicly at any rate, the trade of India +suffered considerably from the exclusion of private enterprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">Certain it is that while the English East India Company found +themselves forced to reduce their dividends to 7 per cent, the Dutch +Company was dividing 25.</p> + +<p class="normal">Altogether, then, it is not surprising that, until the French, by +assuming the aggressive, forced the East India Company to bestir +itself, it did nothing of importance in the way of progress.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.4" href="#div1Ref_03.4">THE GAME OF FRENCH AND ENGLISH</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1742 TO A.D. 1748</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The eye of France had been on India for a century and a half, for it +was in 1601 that a fleet of French merchant ships set out from St Malo +for Hindustan, but failed of their destination.</p> + +<p class="normal">The first French East India Company was formed in 1604, the second in +1611, a third in 1615; a fourth was founded by Cardinal Richelieu in +1642, yet a fifth in 1664, and finally a sixth, made up by the +co-ordination of various older ventures, began in 1719 to trade under +the name of "Compagnies des Indes."</p> + +<p class="normal">There was thus no lack of organisation; of action, there had been, up +to 1742, comparatively little. They had secured a factory at Surat, +they captured Trincomalee from the Dutch, and they had occupied +Pondicherry, which they still hold. Aurungzebe had ceded Chandanagore +to them, and they had also obtained Mahé and Karikal, which they +bought from the Rājah of Tanjore.</p> + +<p class="normal">This, then, was the position of France in India when, in the year +1742, the office of Governor was bestowed on one Joseph Dupleix. He +had spent his life in India, had amassed a huge private fortune by +private trade, but at the same time had done his duty by the company +of which his father had been a director.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was thus saturated, as it were, with the methods and manners of the +East, and in addition he had the advantage of a clever wife, who, +though European by birth, had been born and bred in India.</p> + +<p class="normal">Incited, it is believed, by her, he evolved a plan by which he hoped +to gain supremacy for France. Competition in fair trade with both the +English and the Dutch had failed, but he hoped to gain that by +diplomacy which had been denied by commerce. The Moghul dynasty was +tottering to its fall. On all sides the petty governors of provinces +were aspiring to feeble power, and the balance of parties was often so +nearly equal, that a very little support thrown into the scale would +determine failure or success. Here Dupleix saw his opportunity, and he +set deliberately to work, using Madame Dupleix as his go-between, to +make friends for France in this welter of conflicting interests. The +work was going on secretly and surely, when in 1744 the war of the +Austrian Succession broke out in Europe between England and France.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dupleix was evidently unwilling that this secret work of his should be +interrupted by any outbreak of hostilities in the East, and some +little time previous to the open declaration of war, both the French +and English Companies had taken steps to provide for peace at any +price. But a new factor had arisen on the French side in the person of +Admiral Labourdonnais, the Governor of the Isle of France and the Isle +of Bourbon.</p> + +<p class="normal">His had been an adventurous life, and he had often been in and out of +favour with those who had employed him. His government of the two +contiguous islands was a case in point. He had found a plentiful crop +of abuses, he had rooted them out, and in consequence of this, when he +returned on private affairs to France, was pursued with unscrupulous +enmity and bitter detraction.</p> + +<p class="normal">In endeavouring to right himself he gave to the Ministers of State and +the directors of his Company a full exposition of his views on the +Eastern question. It commended itself to the authorities, and he found +himself setting sail for the Isle of France in April 1741, backed by a +fleet which, with care and training, should be able to secure to his +country supremacy in the Eastern seas.</p> + +<p class="normal">But disappointment awaited him. Long before the declaration of war +which he expected, the French Company, who thought it had been made to +bear more than its fair share of the cost of fitting out the fleet, +sent for their ships, and Labourdonnais was left at a disadvantage. A +British squadron was now cruising about the Bay of Bengal, taking the +place which he had hoped to fill, and making many French prizes. But +he was not a man of discouragements, and the situation having been +saved on the Coromandel Coast by the diplomacy of Dupleix, who induced +the Nawāb of Arcot to claim Pondicherry as his territory and so save +it from occupation by the English, he managed somehow to scrape +together sufficient ships and men to try conclusions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Fortune played a stroke in his favour by the inopportune death of the +English captain, by which the command devolved on one who erred on the +side of prudence, and who, after the two squadrons had been engaged at +long distances until nightfall off the coast, thought it wiser to cut +and run under cover of darkness, in consequence of a leak springing in +one of his largest vessels.</p> + +<p class="normal">Labourdonnais, who had suffered far more, and who, in truth, had been +anxiously cogitating his best move during the night, thus found +himself, as the grey dawn showed an empty sea, a complete victor, and +full of relief and pride set sail for Pondicherry. But here a cool +reception awaited him, for Dupleix had no notion of having his aims +achieved by any one but himself. So the commander by land and the +commander by sea were mutually obstructive, and continued to be so; a +course which eventually ruined both, destroyed French hopes in India, +and for the present saved those of England from almost certain +annihilation.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the British squadron was nowhere. After a month of shelter in the +harbour of Trincomalee, it reappeared, only to disappear once more.</p> + +<p class="normal">Labourdonnais therefore put back to Pondicherry, and prepared +seriously to take Madras; which he did, without the least trouble, in +September 1746. It was, in truth, incapable of defence.</p> + +<p class="normal">The French admiral brought eleven ships, two thousand nine hundred +European soldiery, eight hundred natives, and adequate artillery +against a small fort manned by two hundred men. For the Black Town and +the White Town, together with the contiguous five miles of sea-coast, +in which were gathered over two hundred and fifty thousand souls, lay +absolutely unprotected, at the mercy of all and sundry.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is said that the English relied for security on the Nawāb of Arcot, +who had promised to claim Madras as he had claimed Pondicherry; but, +doubtless, Dupleix had been beforehand with them.</p> + +<p class="normal">This much it is pleasant to record, that the siege, which lasted no +less than seven days, was the most bloodless on record. The death-roll +was only one Frenchman and five English.</p> + +<p class="normal">The terms of capitulation were severe. All goods, stores, merchandise, +etc., passed to France; all English were prisoners-of-war. A ransom +was suggested, but Labourdonnais, while intimating that he was +prepared to receive the proposal reasonably, stipulated for previous +surrender. Indeed, throughout the whole affair he appears to have +behaved honourably and liberally. Not so Dupleix, who, when the +subsequent negotiations had commenced, roughly interfered, denied the +power of Labourdonnais to dictate terms, claimed Madras as standing in +his territory, and generally brought about a dead-lock, during which +three more French ships-of-war, with over one thousand three hundred +men on board, arrived at Pondicherry.</p> + +<p class="normal">With this addition to his fleet Labourdonnais could have swept the +seas, and Calcutta and Bombay must have shared the fate of Madras; +but--alas, for France!--her sons were quarrelling amongst themselves.</p> + +<p class="normal">And before they could settle their differences the weather intervened. +Truly, Great Britain scores something of tenderness from the breezes +that blow, by being "set in the steely seas," in the path of the north +and the west and the east and the south winds! They saved her once +from the Spanish Armada, and now the monsoon rolled up along the coast +of Coromandel, and broke in the Madras roads, foundered a French ship +of the line, and drove five others dismasted, disabled, out to sea.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a crushing blow, one from which France never recovered, and by +which poor Labourdonnais, who had consented to be tied by the leg +simply from a sense of honour, a determination to stand by his word at +all hazards, met with early and disappointed death; for the French +Government, filled up with the able lies of Dupleix, sent him to the +Bastille, where he lingered for three years, dying soon after his +contemptuous and unsympathetic release of poverty and a broken heart.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dupleix, however, flourished like the proverbial green bay tree. He +repudiated ransoms and restorations alike, and seemed likely to remain +in possession, when the Nawāb of Arcot intervened, asserting--and no +doubt with truth--that the French governor, in order to prevent aid +being sent to the English, had promised to make over Madras to him as +a reward for quiescence. The intervention was followed by an +undisciplined army of ten thousand men. And here, however much the +character of Dupleix may arouse dislike, credit must be given to him +for showing indubitably the inherent strength of his claim, that +European methods should be the weightiest factor in Eastern politics. +He met this horde of ten thousand with a body of four hundred +half-disciplined native troops--barely half-disciplined--and he +literally wiped his enemy out. Henceforward a new element entered into +the Eastern problem, for it was abundantly demonstrated that to +conquer India it was not necessary to import a whole army. There was +that of valour, that of sheer soldiership, amongst the natives +themselves, to make them, when properly led, the finest troops in the +world. It is hardly too much to say that India practically changed +rulers in 1746, when the Nawāb of Arcot was repulsed from Madras.</p> + +<p class="normal">Out of this repulse (necessary in order to enable Dupleix--despite the +promise without which Labourdonnais had refused to budge--to carry +through his treacherous intention of repudiating the negotiations, +refusing ransom, and holding Madras for the French) arose much. The +Nawāb, disgusted, broke with Dupleix and assisted the English at Fort +St David, a smaller factory some miles further down the coast. Here +the appearance of the undisciplined troops just as the French, +imagining themselves secure of victory, were refreshing themselves in +a garden, produced such a scare that the victors were across the river +again, and on their way back to Pondicherry before they could be +rallied.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dupleix, greatly enraged at his failure, and knowing to a nicety how +to deal with natives, now commenced to make the Nawāb of Arcot's life +a burden to him by reason of petty raids, until, wearied out, he once +more threw the weight of his support into the French scale.</p> + +<p class="normal">It cannot have been a clean business; it certainly was not an edifying +spectacle to see two civilised European communities vieing with one +another in their efforts to secure an Oriental potentate, but this +much may be said in English extenuation--the French began it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The case of the English along the Coast of Coromandel now seemed quite +desperate. They had lost their only ally, and though an attack by boat +on Cuddalore had been repulsed--once more by the aid of Neptune, who +always seems favourable to Britain, and who on this occasion swamped +half the enemy in the Coromandel Coast, and sent them dripping, +half-drowned, with wet powder and soaked magazines, back to sea--they +could not hope to avert the renewed assault on Fort St David, which +took place in 1747.</p> + +<p class="normal">But this game of French and English was a series of surprises, a +perfect melodrama of dramatic coincidences; for no sooner were the +French once more comfortably ensconced in the old garden than--Hey +presto!--sails appeared to sea-ward, and in less than no time--hardly +long enough for Monsieur's hurried escape--there was a British fleet +at anchor in the roads!</p> + +<p class="normal">It reads like some tale of adventure in which a "God-out-of-a-machine" +always appears in the nick of time to save the hero. But so it was, +though it must be confessed that beyond a display of <i>force majeure</i> +the British fleet did nothing. In truth a more incapable fleet never +floated. It seems to have spent a whole year in sailing about the Bay +of Bengal looking for the French fleet, and when it caught a glimpse +of the enemy, promptly changing its <i>rōle</i> from hound to hare, and +running away itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, on land one Major Lawrence--this is the first time that +this honoured name appears over the horizon of Indian history--a +distinguished King's officer, had come out to take over charge of the +Company's forces. At first he certainly distinguished himself, for he +began by discovering a deep-laid plot, in which Madame Dupleix was +prime mover, to tamper with the fidelity of the few hundred sepoys +which the English, following the example of the French, were bringing +into discipline. Banishment and death having disposed of this +conspiracy, Admiral Griffin and the British fleet were given a chance +of more honourable warfare; but, unfortunately, at the time the French +vessels showed close in to the coast the admiral and all his officers +happened to be ashore enjoying themselves, and so once more honest +battle degenerated into the looking for a needle in a bundle of hay; +in the midst of which the French vessels achieved their object of +landing £200,000 in specie, and four hundred soldiers at Pondicherry.</p> + +<p class="normal">Major Lawrence, however, almost neutralised this failure by a clever +repulse of the French at Cuddalore, which lay but 3 miles north of +Fort St David. Hearing that a large force was advancing, he ordered +all the guns and stores from Cuddalore to be dismantled and taken in +to the former fort. Native spies, naturally, brought the news of this +to the enemy, who consequently advanced carelessly, applied their +scaling ladders to the walls, and were surprised by perfect platoons +of musketry and a shower of grape. The guns removed by day had been +restored by night, and the garrison largely reinforced. The result was +headlong flight.</p> + +<p class="normal">Once again it reads like a shilling shocker; one is tempted, almost, +to take the whole story as the figment of a super-excited brain.</p> + +<p class="normal">All this time neither France nor England had--and small wonder--taken +this game of French and English on the Coromandel Coast at all +seriously; but at long last, in 1748, both the Government and the +Company of the latter woke up to the necessity for doing something. +The result being such a fleet as no Western nation had hitherto put +into Eastern waters. Thirty ships in all, thirteen of them being ships +of the line, and none of them less than 500 tons burden.</p> + +<p class="normal">With these, close on four thousand European troops, three hundred +Africans, two thousand half-disciplined sepoys, and the support of the +Nawāb of Arcot (who had once more changed sides), Fort St David +rightly felt itself strong enough, not only to recover Madras, but +also to take Pondicherry.</p> + +<p class="normal">But here, alas! begins one of the most fateful tales of sheer +ineptitude to be found in the whole history of English warfare. Delay, +crass ignorance, useless persistence, and exaggerated importance, +marked the preliminary siege of Arrian-aupan, a small fort which might +with ease have been left alone. For the season was already far +advanced, and the object at which it was all-important to strike was, +palpably, Pondicherry.</p> + +<p class="normal">September, however, had well begun ere the attacking force found +itself within 1,500 yards of the town, and instantly started, with +unheard-of caution, to throw up parallels. Wherefore, save from +ignorance, God knows, since in those days 880 yards was the limit for +such diggings. On they laboured with praiseworthy persistence until, +after a month's work, they reached the point at which they ought to +have begun, and found that their toil was useless! Between them and +the city lay an impassable morass.</p> + +<p class="normal">The British fleet, meanwhile, getting as near to their range as strong +flanking batteries manned with over a hundred guns would allow, had +been pounding away quite uselessly at fair Pondicherry, which lay +smiling and peaceful, immaculate as any virgin town behind the white +line of surf.</p> + +<p class="normal">What was now to be done? To begin again was hopeless, to persist +useless, so after losing over one-third of its European force from +sickness, and expending Heaven only knows how many rounds of +ammunition, England retired, having inflicted on France the loss by +the fire of her ships of one old Mahomedan woman, who was killed by a +spent shot in the street, and by sickness and other casualties some +two hundred soldiers.</p> + +<p class="normal">No wonder Dupleix sang "Te Deums" until he was hoarse! No wonder he +wrote bombastic, boastful, letters round to every Nawāb and Rājah, +including the Great Moghul, proclaiming that the French were the +fighters, and that those who were wise would side with them.</p> + +<p class="normal">There can be no doubt whatever that this pantomimic siege of +Pondicherry lost the English prestige, which it took many years of +subsequent victories to regain.</p> + +<p class="normal">For by the irony of fate, no immediate opportunity of revenge for +reparation of their honour was given them.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle terminated the long war between France +and England, and one of the provisions of that treaty was the +restoration to each power of all possessions taken during the +hostilities.</p> + +<p class="normal">Madras, therefore, was formally receded to England, and the combatants +on the Coromandel Coast were left eyeing one another, looking for some +new cause of conflict.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the game of French and English was over.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.5" href="#div1Ref_03.5">PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1748 TO A.D. 1751</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">When the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ended open warfare between the +French and the English, both naturally turned their eyes more keenly +upon India.</p> + +<p class="normal">What they saw there was stimulating to those who felt within +themselves the power of conquest. On all sides were petty wars and +rumours of wars. The horrors of Nādir-Shāh's invasion were being +forgotten, but the country was not coming back to its pristine quiet. +There was a strange new factor in India now: the factor of a new +knowledge of alien races, by whom it was possible to be helped, or who +could in their turn give help.</p> + +<p class="normal">But this, still, was only about and a little beyond the sea-board. +Up-country matters went on much as ever. Mahomed-Shāh's majesty crept +out of its hiding-place again, and made shift with a pinchbeck peacock +throne, a pretence of power.</p> + +<p class="normal">Bāji-cum-Sāho, the Mahratta, however, almost ere he recovered from his +alarm at the Persian hordes, had died, leaving his son, Bāla-ji, as +Peishwa in his stead; leaving him also some very pretty quarrels to +settle. One with the semi-pirates of Angria, which, involving the +Portuguese, ended in the latter being ousted from India in 1739 by the +Mahrattas, who, however, admitted to the loss of five thousand men in +the siege of Bassein alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Bāla-ji was a strong man, fully equal to the position in which he +found himself; and after driving his most formidable private enemy and +claimant to the Prime Ministership, Rāghu-ji, back to his task of +besieging Trichinopoly, he turned his attention to aggression. He +began by renewing the long-deferred claim on the court at Delhi, and +was granted it, on condition that he aided the Governor Ali-Verdi-Khān +to repulse the invasion of Rāghu-ji; who, having succeeded in his +siege, had made an independent raid into Bengal. This opportunity of +killing two birds with one stone was naturally welcome to Bāla-ji, who +drove out the intruders without difficulty, and received his reward.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, so far as Bengal was concerned, it was merely a postponement of +an evil day, for Rāghu-ji returned to his prey, and finally obtained +the cession of a large part of Orissa, and a tribute from Bengal +itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus in 1748 the only ascending power was that of the Mahrattas. On +all other sides France and England were spectators of a general +scramble for territory, a general assertion of independence on the +part of petty chiefs.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the question naturally came swiftly--"Why should we remain +inactive? Why should we not extend our sphere of influence by giving, +perhaps even <i>selling</i>, our aid?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The question had already been answered by France. Dupleix had dipped +deep into Indian politics, and, by so doing, had undoubtedly +strengthened the position of the French. The temptation to follow suit +was almost overwhelming, and so in 1749 England drew the sword which +was impatiently resting in its scabbard, and became a mercenary in the +pay of one Sāhu-ji who claimed the Rājahship of Tanjore. The +ostensible bribe offered was an unimportant fort of Devi-kottah, and a +slip of country along the coast. The real cause of the coalition being +the fact that the large English army, brought eastward during the late +war, was eating its head off in idleness.</p> + +<p class="normal">The whole affair of the Tanjore succession was absolutely trivial, yet +almost too complicated for abbreviated detail. It is sufficient to say +that one Pratap Singh had reigned for years, that England had +recognised him, negotiated with him, and courted his assistance +against the French.</p> + +<p class="normal">Policy, however, changes with the times, and it was now thought +advisable, without any further provocation, to assist in dethroning +him! No doubt there were excellent reasons for this <i>volte face</i>, only +at the present they are not in evidence.</p> + +<p class="normal">This first venture on mercenary lines was not a brilliant passage in +the history of British arms. In truth, England in the East did not at +that time possess any man fit to carry on similar work to that which +Dupleix was doing for France; for Lieutenant Clive, though he had +given proof of high courage during the pantomimic siege of +Pondicherry, had not yet raised his head above those of his compeers. +Indeed, but for a chance he might never have so raised it, since at +the taking of Devi-kottah he narrowly escaped death; being one of the +four survivors in a rash attempt to cross the river Kolarun on a raft.</p> + +<p class="normal">So this Tanjore campaign, which began in a tempest<a name="div4Ref_04" href="#div4_04"><sup>[4]</sup></a> that killed all +the baggage-animals and severely crippled the whole force, ended +ignominiously in another <i>volte face</i>. For, finding their <i>protégé</i>, +Sāhu-ji, had no local support for his claim, the English forces, on +condition of his receiving a pension of four thousand rupees, +re-transferred their friendship to the original King Pratāp, who, +however, was made to ratify the bribes promised by the pretender, and +also to pay the cost of the war! The latter being certainly a seething +of the kid in its mother's milk.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, France had been busy with more important matters.</p> + +<p class="normal">To understand what was happening, it is necessary to go back to old +Asaf-Jāh, who had begun his career under Aurungzebe, and who only died +in 1748 at the extraordinary age of one hundred and four.</p> + +<p class="normal">A cunning old fox, brave to the death after the manner of foxes when +in a tight place, he had, under the title of Nizām-ul-mulk--a title +still held by the rulers of the Dekkan--kept his grip on that country +in almost absolute independence of Delhi.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, at his death, innumerable points cropped up for settlement. The +Carnatic was a fief of the Dekkan, and in the Carnatic were two +semi-independent kingdoms, Tanjore and Trichinopoly. The successions +of all these were disputed, especially that of the Carnatic, which was +held by that very Nawāb of Arcot who had bandied about his allegiance +between the French and English. A most immoral proceeding, no doubt, +but at a time when civilised and Christian men were palpably only +playing for their own hand, it is not to be wondered at if less +cultivated, more pagan peoples followed suit. There seems, anyhow, no +reason--except the advantage to be gained from having a real +<i>creature</i>--why Dupleix should have thrown him over and supported the +claims of Chanda-Sāhib. But he did; chiefly because Chanda-Sāhib, the +only member of a former ruler's family who had sufficient talent for +the rise in fortune, had been brought up in the refuge of Pondicherry, +and promised important concessions should he succeed. This decision on +the part of Dupleix put the English in a quandary. They could not sit +still and see France succeed, and yet the chances of success on the +other side were small. So they temporised by sending one hundred and +twenty Europeans to help Trichinopoly, by which, of course, they +committed themselves as much as if they had sent twelve hundred.</p> + +<p class="normal">They themselves, however, did not seem to think so, for in spite of +this absolute challenge to France they refused the English admiral's +offer to remain in Eastern waters. So suicidal did this appear to +Dupleix that for some time he treated the departure as a mere feint.</p> + +<p class="normal">So both parties settled down with their "legitimate heir," neither +caring one straw for the justice of the claim, since both were equally +bad.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whatever else may be said, this much is certain, that the <i>protégé</i> of +the French was a better puppet than the <i>protégé</i> of the English. +Furthermore, he drew into the French net no less a person than +Muzaffar-Jung, a grandson of old Asaf-Jāh, who was a claimant for the +Dekkan. Truly, therefore, with a Nizam of the Dekkan, and a Nawāb of +the Carnatic, both owing their thrones to French interference, Dupleix +had a right to expect much for his country.</p> + +<p class="normal">Their interference, also, was successful. There was a pitched battle +close to Arcot, at which the Nawāb was killed (at the most unusual age +of one hundred and seven), and only one of his sons escaped with the +wreck of his army to Trichinopoly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Dupleix, it is said, urged the allies to press on after him, but the +Oriental mind, as a rule, is satisfied with the present. Chanda-Sāhib +and Muzaffar-Jung amused themselves with playing the parts of Nizām +and Nawāb to their hearts' content, and spending themselves and their +resources in luxurious pleasures, until the rightful claimant of the +former <i>rōle</i> appeared on the horizon with an army composed largely of +mercenary Mahrattas. A big army, a good army; Dupleix saw victory in +it, and he instantly began with his usual unscrupulous diplomacy to +attempt negotiations.</p> + +<p class="normal">In this, however, for once, the English were beforehand with him. They +had, as we know, moved by vague fear of the growing French ascendency, +sent a few men to support Trichinopoly against possible attacks from +Chanda-Sāhib-cum-Muzaffar-Jung, and now, taking heart of grace, Major +Lawrence and four hundred troops joined the camp of the rightful +Nizām.</p> + +<p class="normal">The two armies, that of Nāsir-Jung backed--in truth but feebly--by the +English, and that of Chanda-Sāhib-cum-Muzaffar-Jung backed by the +cunning of a man versed in all the tortuosities of Indian policy, were +now in touch with each other, but they did not come into action.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thirteen of the French officers resigned their commissions the day +before the battle; the disaffection--due to some failure to divide +spoils--spread to the men, and their commander, Monsieur d'Auteuil, +feeling it unwise in the circumstances to venture anything, took +veritable French leave during the night, followed by Chanda-Sāhib. +Muzaffar-Jung, thus left in despair, seized the bull by the horns and +surrendered himself to the rightful heir, who was in truth his uncle. +There is an element of the comic opera in all these incidents which +almost preclude their being taken seriously.</p> + +<p class="normal">But here we have an <i>impasse</i>. At Pondicherry all was confusion, and +Dupleix driven to despair because his cock would not fight. At Arcot, +Major Lawrence trying through an interpreter to warn his cock, the +triumphant Nizām, against froggy Frenchmen, and seeking to get the +reward promised for the loan of the now useless British soldiery.</p> + +<p class="normal">In both of which attempts he failed. In the first, because the +politeness of Oriental manners refused bald translation of the +Englishman's home truths. In the second, because wily Oriental +astuteness suggested that services having been bought must be given +before being paid for, and that Major Lawrence had better serve out +his time--if as nothing else--as a boon companion!</p> + +<p class="normal">This suggestion was refused, and "after speaking his mind freely" +(through the polite interpreter!), the English commander and his +troops went back in dudgeon to Fort St David.</p> + +<p class="normal">It took the French less time than it did the English to recover from +this fiasco. Dupleix, indeed, was once more deep in diplomacy ere +Major Lawrence had made up his mind whether to intrigue or fight.</p> + +<p class="normal">His decision came too late for success, his indecision too early; for +having offered English support for the retaking of the Pagoda of +Trivādi, a strongly fortified place but 15 miles west of Fort St +David, he withdrew it when an advance of pay was refused. Whereupon +the French stepped in--the misunderstanding was in all probability the +result of their machinations--and added to their acquisitions by +taking the celebrated fort of Jingi, which, situated on a vast +isolated mountain of a rock, had been considered impregnable.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was an exploit of which to be proud, and it is said that after +fully realising its natural strength the French force was lost in +wonder as to how it had managed to take it!</p> + +<p class="normal">It was an exploit, also, which roused the Nizām Nāsir-Jung from his +dream of luxurious pleasures. A nation which could take Jingi was +evidently the nation with whom to make terms. He therefore offered to +negotiate. Dupleix made extravagant demands, and so lured the Nizām to +take the field, for the wily diplomatist was aware that conspiracy was +rife amongst the Nizām's supporters, and hoped by getting in touch +with them to rid himself more effectually of a troublesome opponent +than by entering into terms with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">It took fifteen days for the unwieldly army, 300,000 strong--60,000 +foot, 45,000 cavalry, 700 elephants, 360 pieces of artillery, the rest +being camp followers--to march 30 miles.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then it was stopped by the bursting of the monsoon. And so, with his +enemy blocked hopelessly within 15 miles of him, treachery became +possible to the Frenchman. And black treachery it was! To be brief, +Dupleix negotiated with the conspirators, and also with the Nizām; so, +finding himself finally in a dilemma as to which side to choose, took +the opportunity of a delay in sending back a ratified treaty with the +latter, to order the whole French force to attack.</p> + +<p class="normal">The miserable Nizām at first refused to believe it possible that those +with whom but the day before he had signed a treaty of peace should +take arms against him; refused to believe it possible that disloyalty +was the cause of half his camp standing sullen spectators of the fray. +He mounted his elephant and rode straight to rouse them. It being +early dawn, he feared lest he might not be recognised, and rose in his +howdah in order to give a clearer view of his person.</p> + +<p class="normal">Too clear, for he fell in an instant, pierced through the heart by two +bullets fired by one of his favourites.</p> + +<p class="normal">Muzaffar-Jung, thus set free once more, resumed the Nizāmship of the +Dekkan, and all went merry as a marriage bell. Both he, the Pathān +nobles who had formed the bulk of the conspirators, and Dupleix, had +their share of the two and a half millions of treasure said to have +been taken from Nāsir-Jung; and much of it was spent in various +elaborate festivities, notably in the official installation of +Muzaffar; he, in his turn, nominating Dupleix as official Governor for +the Great Moghul in all countries south of the Kistna. All the +revenues of these countries were to pass through him, and no coins +save those minted by the French at Pondicherry were to be current coin +of the realm.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a tremendous victory for France. The English, who had hitherto +been fairly content to exist in India on sufferance, heard their +enemy's boast, that ere long the Moghul himself would tremble at the +name of Dupleix, with absolute stupefaction. So stunned were they that +they did not even object to the commander of their forces choosing +this most inopportune moment to return on leave to England.</p> + +<p class="normal">Fortunately, however, for them, thieves are apt to fall out. The +Pathān nobles, discontented with their share of the plunder, once more +became conspirators, with the result that Muzaffar-Jung, the creature +of the French, was killed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Fortunately, also, for the honour of England, a man called Robert +Clive had been born in Shropshire six-and-twenty years before, and +after several years of uncongenial employment as a clerk, had in 1747 +received an ensign's commission, from which he had risen in 1751 to +the rank of Captain.</p> + +<p class="normal">And now, when the power of the French was in its zenith, he appeared, +young, arrogant, determined to try a sword's conclusions with that +past-master of diplomacy, Dupleix.</p> + +<p class="normal">But before we pass on to the most honourable, the most exciting +chapter in the history of British India, a look round must be given to +see what had been going on in the far-away north, which lay almost out +of touch with Trichinopoly, Arcot, Pondicherry, Madras, the Carnatic, +Jingi, Masulipatām, all those places on which the fingers of France +and England had been laid more or less tentatively.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mahomed-Shāh had died after having successfully resisted the +invasion of the Durrāni or Afghān prince, Ahmed-Khān, who, fired by +Nādir-Shāh's example, tried in 1748 to imitate his exploit. He was +badly beaten at Sirhind, close to the old battlefield of Pānipat. +Before this Ali-Verdi-Khān, Governor of Bengal, had revolted, and +become independent; but in his turn had suffered reverse at the hands +of the Mahrattas, and had to yield up the province of Orissa.</p> + +<p class="normal">The latter race had been much exercised over the succession to the +throne, for the puppet Sāho, who, combined first with Bāji-rao and +afterwards with Bāla-ji, had exercised sovereignty for so long, had no +children. The right of adoption, therefore, was his, and, his wife's +influence being paramount on personal points, he was inclined to +choose the Rājah of Kolapur. This, however, did not suit Bāla-ji. He +therefore induced the old queen, Tara-Bhāl, to trump up a tale of a +posthumous son of her son, whose birth had been concealed from fear of +danger to the child. Sāho, almost imbecile by this time, was deluded +into believing the tale of a collateral heir, and ere dying, secretly +signed an instrument giving the regency to Bāla-ji, on condition of +his supporting the claims of Tara-Bhāi's supposed grandson.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the ghost of a grandmother thus raised proved a curse to the +Peishwa, for Tara-Bhāi, old as she was, did not lack energy or +ambition, and at the time of Muzaffar-Jung's death in 1751, she had +taken the opportunity of Bāla-ji's absence in the south to meet and +crush the combined advance of the French under General Bussy and the +puppet they had instantly set up in Muzaffar's place, to proclaim her +own story a pure fiction, put the pretended heir into chains, and +assert herself Queen of the Mahrattas.</p> + +<p class="normal">Truly the impossibility at this time of putting reliance on any one's +word, the fluctuations of faith, the unforeseen, unexpected +complications arising from the general fluidity of morals, makes +history read like undigested melodrama.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such, then, was India when England, all too tardily, found a champion +in Robert Clive.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.6" href="#div1Ref_03.6">ROBERT CLIVE</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1751 TO A.D. 1757</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Never was the strange susceptibility of India to the influence of +personal vitality better exemplified than in the case of Robert Clive.</p> + +<p class="normal">When, in 1751, he first emerged--a good head and shoulders taller than +the general ruck of Anglo-Indians--from the troubled turmoil of +conflicting interests, conflicting policies which characterised India +in those days, Hindostan was on the point of yielding herself to +France; when, in 1767, he finally left the land where he had laboured +so long and so well, England was paramount over half the peninsula.</p> + +<p class="normal">Never in the whole history of Britain was better work done for her +prestige, her honour, <i>by one man</i>; and yet that one man died +miserably from opium, administered wilfully by the sword-hand which +had never failed his country; administered as the only escape from +disgrace.</p> + +<p class="normal">It will always be a question whether Clive was or was not guilty of +the charges preferred against him. Those who really know the Indian +mind, who fully realise the depth of the degeneracy into which that +mind had fallen amongst the effete nobility of the eighteenth century, +may well hesitate before denying or affirming that guilt, knowing, as +they must, how easy a thing is false testimony, understanding how +skilfully an act, innocent enough in itself, may be garbled into +positive crime.</p> + +<p class="normal">Either way, this much may be said. The benefits he had conferred on +his country were sufficient surely to have ensured him more +sympathetic treatment at the hands of that country than he actually +received.</p> + +<p class="normal">But this is to anticipate.</p> + +<p class="normal">Clive was born--but what does it matter when, where, and how, a man of +deeds comes into the world? All that is necessary is to say what he +did. Clive, then, was a writer, or clerk, in the East Indian Company's +service. It was not, apparently, a congenial employment. Quiet, +reserved, somewhat stubborn, he led a very solitary life, knowing, he +writes in one of his home letters, scarcely "any one family in the +place." A friend tells a tale of him, characteristic, yet hardly +sufficiently authenticated for history. He found young Clive sitting +dejectedly at a table, on which lay a pistol. "Fire that thing out of +the window, will you?" said the lad, and watched. "I suppose I must be +good for something," he remarked despondently, when the pistol went +off, "for I snapped it twice at my own head, and it missed fire both +times."</p> + +<p class="normal">Whether true or not true, the lad of whom such a story could even have +been told must have been something out of the common.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was rather a tall English lad, silent, with a long nose and a +pleasant smile. He was barely one-and-twenty when Dupleix took Madras, +and for the first time he found himself a soldier. He returned to his +writership, however, for a time, but such a profession was manifestly +impossible to his temperament--a temperament admirably illustrated by +the following story. He accused an officer of cheating at cards. A +duel ensued, in which Clive, with first shot, missed; whereupon his +adversary, holding his pistol to Clive's head, bade him beg his life. +This he did instantly with perfect coolness, but when asked also to +retract his accusation, replied as calmly: "Fire, and be damned to +you! I said you cheated, and you did. I'll never pay you."</p> + +<p class="normal">The adversary, struck dumb by his--no doubt--righteous stubbornness, +thereupon lowered his weapon.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was the young man who at six-and-twenty, in the absence on leave +of Major Lawrence, set off as a captain to the relief of Trichinopoly +with six hundred men. He was completely outclassed both in numbers and +pecuniary resources, and feeling himself to be so, he returned to Fort +St David and boldly proposed a complete <i>volte face</i>. The French were +thoroughly engaged aiding their ally at Trichinopoly. If he and his +small force made a detour to Arcot, the capital, they might find it +unprepared. They did; Clive marched in, took possession of the fort +before the very eyes of one hundred thousand astonished spectators, +and finding over £50,000 worth of goods in the treasury, gave them +back to their owners, and issued orders that not a thing in the town +was to be touched; the result of such unusual consideration being +that, when he finally had to defend his capture, not a soul in the +town raised a hand against the strange young <i>sahib</i> who seemed to +have no fear, and certainly had no greed.</p> + +<p class="normal">But young Clive had a Herculean task before him. With a mere handful +of men--three hundred and twenty in all--he had to defend a ruinous, +ill-constructed fort one mile in circumference--ditch choked, parapets +too narrow for artillery--from the determined onslaught of ten +thousand men. And he did so defend it. Despite failures due to +inexperience, rebuffs due to rashness, despite hair's-breadth personal +escapes, due to reckless, almost criminal courage, he won through to +the end. There is something impish and boyish about the record of +these six weeks' siege. How, more out of sheer bravado than anything +else, the garrison crowned a ruined tower on the ramparts with earth, +hoisted thereto an enormous old seventy-two-pounder cannon which had +belonged to Aurungzebe! How they turned it on the palace which rose +high above the intervening houses, and letting drive with thirty-two +pounds of their best powder, sent the ball right through the palace, +greatly to the alarm of the enemy's staff, which was quartered there! +How once a day they fired off the old cannon, until on the fourth day +it burst and nearly killed the gunners!</p> + +<p class="normal">All this, and the thrilling story of the mason who--luckily for the +garrison--knew of the secret aqueduct constructed so as to drain the +fort of water, and stopped it up ere it could be used, would make a +fine chapter for a boy's book of adventure. Here it is enough to +record that on the 14th November, after a desperate and futile +assault, the enemy--French allies and all--withdrew, and Clive found +himself free to follow on their heels to Vellore, where he succeeded +in giving those of them who were sufficiently brave to stand, a most +satisfactory beating; in consequence of which numbers of the beaten +sepoys, with the quick Oriental eye for vitality, deserted their +colours. Clive enlisted six hundred of the best armed, and returned to +Madras, where he was received with acclaim, for victory was then a new +sensation to the Anglo-Indian. A month or two afterwards, however, he +was out again on the war-path, giving the French-supported army of +Chanda-Sāhib a good drubbing at Cauvery-pak. Whilst out, he received +an urgent summons to go back to the Presidency town. Major Lawrence +was returning from leave, and would resume command.</p> + +<p class="normal">Despite the urgency, he found time, nevertheless, on his way back to +go round by a certain town which Dupleix, in the first pride of +victory, had founded under the name of Dupleix-Fattehabad, to +commemorate--what surely had been better forgotten--his terrible act +of treachery towards Nāsir-Jung in the matter of the ratified but +delayed treaty which cost the latter his life. And here, with the same +reckless hardihood which had characterised the whole campaign, he +paused--though in the midst of an enemy's country--to batter to pieces +the pretentious flamboyant column on which Dupleix had recorded his +conquest in French, Persian, Mahratti, Hindi.</p> + +<p class="normal">One can picture the scene, and one's heart warms to the English boy +who watched with glee the hacking and hewing, while the natives stood +by, their sympathy going forth inevitably to the strong young arm.</p> + +<p class="normal">Three days afterwards Clive gave up his command, and here his first +campaign ends. It was very straightforward, very clear; but what +followed was complicated--very!</p> + +<p class="normal">Trichinopoly was still besieged: the French backing Chanda-Sāhib, who +claimed it as Nawāb of the Carnatic; the English backing Mahomed-Ali, +who held it as Nawāb of Arcot. To the support of the latter Major +Lawrence led his mercenaries, and for a time the siege was raised. By +this time, however, the Directors in London were becoming restive over +hostilities which interfered with the commerce of the Company. In +order to bring the struggle for supremacy to a head, Clive proposed a +division of forces, south and north. Whether he was actuated in making +this bold proposal by any hope of getting a command over the heads of +his seniors or not, certain it is that after agreeing to the proposal, +Major Lawrence found it impossible to keep to seniority. The natives +flatly refused to go north unless Clive led them.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here, again, the personal equation--the only thing that has ever +counted in India--stepped in. It was a genuine tribute to Clive's +possession of that greatest attribute of a good general--<i>fortunę</i>. It +heartened him up, and he instantly began a second campaign of success, +driving Dupleix to despair, since after every petty victory some of +the beaten sepoys, following fortune, invariably deserted to the +English side. Clive's army, in fact, was a snowball. It increased in +size as it went, and after the big fight at Samiavźram, was joined by +no less than two thousand horse and fifteen hundred sepoys. But the +young man, for all his gloomy face, his silence, his stubbornness, had +a curiously sympathetic personality to the natives. When Seringhām was +taken, and a thousand Rājputs shut themselves up in the celebrated +pagoda swearing death ere it should be defiled, Clive "did not think +it necessary to disturb them," but at Covelong he drove the frightened +recruits back to battle at the point of the sword. After taking +Chingleput, the campaign came to an abrupt conclusion. Clive, falling +sick, had leave to go to England. This was in 1752.</p> + +<p class="normal">Major Lawrence, meanwhile, in the south, had been fairly successful. +The siege of Trichinopoly raised, the French, who had done all the +artillery work, retreated to Pondicherry.</p> + +<p class="normal">But complications arose. Mahomed-Ali, Nawāb of Arcot, showed +indisposition to press his advantage, and to his great chagrin Major +Lawrence discovered that Trichinopoly itself had been promised to the +Mysore king, one of Mahomed-Ali's native allies. The Nawāb himself was +ready to repudiate his promise; the English, it is to be feared, did +not favour straightforward fulfilment. The result was a hollow +compromise, which in its results showed that honesty would have been +the best policy. For the next two years, therefore, Trichinopoly +became the scene of constant warfare, and such was the stress of +battle that raged round the unfortunate town, that in November 1753 +not a tree was left standing near it, and the British detachment and +convoy which finally relieved it was forced to go six or seven miles +to get a stick of firewood.</p> + +<p class="normal">The story of the final and futile assault of the French is a thrilling +one, especially the incident of the night-attack frustrated by the +falling into a disused well of a soldier, whose musket going off, +alarmed the garrison, thus rendering of no avail a previous wholesale +tampering with the guard. For the French had no hesitation in using +underhand means; in this, indeed, lay the strength of Dupleix. On this +occasion, anyhow, they suffered for it, since, pinned between the +outer ramparts and an inner one, four hundred out of six hundred +Frenchmen were either killed, wounded, or taken prisoner.</p> + +<p class="normal">The year 1740 brought a mutual fatigue of warfare both to the French +and the English East India Company. They called a truce to assert that +they had never really been at war, the hostile interlude being merely +the amusements of mercenaries.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the whole affair was comic. The Council-of-Negotiation which met +at a neutral little Dutch settlement was as unreal as the patents +produced on both sides in support of the claims of their puppets. +There were seven on the French side for the murdered Muzaffar-Jung's +successor, Sālabut, including one from the Great Moghul. The English, +too, had patents for their puppet Mahomed-Ali, also including one from +the Great Moghul. Now it is possible that both these contradictory +patents were genuine--anything was possible in the India of 1754--but +the English one was not produced, and the French one had a wrong seal!</p> + +<p class="normal">So the affair ended in added exasperation.</p> + +<p class="normal">But in truth France and England's attention was now awakening to the +unceasing hostilities in India. International conferences were held in +London, where the Secretary of State, in order to be prepared for +refusal of his terms, fitted out a fleet for Eastern waters. The +menace proved successful. France, never greatly enamoured of her +Eastern Company, gave away the game by sending out one Monsieur +Godeheu to take over the Governorship from Dupleix.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a bolt out of the blue. Whatever his faults may have been, the +latter had spent his life for, and risked his whole fortune in, the +Company. He never recovered the blow, but went home, sought bare +justice by a lawsuit, and died ruined, broken-hearted, ere his case +was decided. So England has no monopoly in ingratitude to her public +servants.</p> + +<p class="normal">Monsieur Godeheu was peaceful, painstaking, praiseworthy. He produced +an ill-considered but plausible treaty which rather knocked the wind +out of Clive's sails when he returned to Bombay in 1755 with Admiral +Watson's fleet, fully prepared to attack the Dekkan from the north. He +had to content himself with a campaign against the pirate-king of +Anghria, in the course of which a momentous quarrel arose between the +English and their Mahratta allies. The latter claimed a share of the +plunder, the former refused it, asserting with righteous indignation +that deliberate treachery had been proved up to the hilt against their +so-called allies, and that consequently they were entitled to nothing. +A sordid quarrel at best, which bore bitter fruit in years to come.</p> + +<p class="normal">From this, Clive sailed to take up command at Madras, where he was met +by disastrous news from Calcutta.</p> + +<p class="normal">Surāj-ud-daula, Nawāb of Bengal, had seized on it, suffocated a +hundred and twenty-three of its inhabitants--many of them men in the +best positions--in the Black Hole, and had returned to Murshidabad, +whence he had issued orders for the destruction and confiscation of +all English property in his dominions. Such was the ineptitude of +England at that time in India, that two whole months elapsed ere +Clive, in a fever of impatience, was allowed to start for retaliation.</p> + +<p class="normal">While we can imagine him fretting and fuming, we shall have time for a +glance back to see who Surāj-ud-daula was, and what was the cause of +his action.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ali-Verdi-Khān, who, it will be remembered, had ceded Orissa to the +Mahrattas, had also snatched the Nawābship from his master's son; a +graceless youth, it must be admitted, while Ali-Verdi-Khān himself +was, despite many horrid acts, a fairly just ruler. During his +lifetime the English had no complaint; but at his death he committed a +gross injustice on every soul in his dominions by appointing as his +heir his grandson Surāj-ud-daula, a perfectly infamous young man. No +one, apparently, had a good word to say for him, except those amongst +whom he spent a vicious, depraved life.</p> + +<p class="normal">His aunt, Ghasīta Begum, at any rate, nourished no illusions +concerning him, and being an ambitious woman, anxious to preserve her +great fortune for future occasions of conspiracy, took immediate +precautions while Ali-Verdi lay dying against any confiscation of her +treasures. She employed one Kishen-dās, a pretended pilgrim to +Juggernath, to carry them off in boats down the Ganges. Once on the +river, Kishen steered, not for the sea, but for Calcutta. It is +difficult to say whether the Governor and Council knew what they were +harbouring, but the fact remains that the treasures sought and found +British protection, one Omichand, a Hindu merchant, giving Kishen-dās +hospitality.</p> + +<p class="normal">Surāj-ud-daula took the business very badly. He made a scene at his +grandfather's death-bed, and accused the English of siding with the +faction that was against his succession. Yet, when that succession was +an accomplished fact, and the English agent appeared at his audience +to apologise in set terms for a so-called mistake in turning away, as +an impostor, from Calcutta, a spy who asserted he bore a letter from +Surāj-ud-daula, the latter kept a calm countenance and said +negligently that he had forgotten the incident. And yet it was no +slight one; for there is little doubt that the Council were not quite +satisfied with its own action.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Nawāb, however, was biding his time, and he soon found it. War was +on the point of breaking out once more in Europe between France and +England, and orders were, in consequence, sent out by the Directors of +the Company to overhaul fortifications. Repairs were at once +commenced. This was Surāj-ud-daula's opportunity. He first sent a +haughty enquiry as to why, without leave, the English were building a +new wall, and, pretending that the reply given was inadequate, +followed up his first communication by marching to Kossimbazaar with +his army, sending for Mr Watts the Governor, and with threats forcing +him to sign an engagement to destroy, within fifteen days, all new +works which had been begun at Calcutta, deliver up all the Nawāb's +subjects he might call for, and refund any sums the Nawāb might have +lost by passports of trade having been illegally granted.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, in dealing with these Indian disputes it is notoriously difficult +to read through the written lines of the formulated plaint and +counter-plaint, and reach the palimpsest below; that palimpsest of +fine, complicated motive which invariably underlies the simplest plea, +which makes even a petty debt case in India like an English A. B. C. +scrawled over a Babylonian brick, covered closely with fly-foot +stipplings. But here the stipulation regarding the Nawāb's subjects +gives a clear clue. Whether Surāj-ud-daula had any just cause of +complaint or not, his real grievance was the loss of his aunt's +treasure.</p> + +<p class="normal">This abject yielding of the English was fatal. Had any one of the +type of Clive or John Nicholson been on the spot, events might have +been very different; as it was, disaster and destruction followed. +Surāj-ud-daula marched on Calcutta, receiving by the way the gift of +two hundred barrels of gunpowder from our treaty-bound friends the +French at Chandanagore! Reading the record of these few fateful days +in June 1756 one knows not whether to laugh or to cry, to let pity or +righteous wrath prevail, as the history of silly delay and still +sillier activities unfolds itself. The feverish digging of absolutely +untenable trenches, the three weeks' delay without any preparation +whatever while letters were passing to and fro, the neglect to apply +for reinforcements to other presidencies, the imprisonment of +Omichand, the miserable fracas in his house, in which a Brahmin peon, +mad with rage and professing fear lest high-caste women should be +violated, rushed into his master's harem, killed a round dozen of +innocent ladies, and then stabbed himself, reminds one of nothing but +the fateful days of May a hundred years after, when Englishmen stood +by and watched the Mutiny grow from a chance by-blow to a giant +unrestrained. Calcutta was taken. Mr Drake, the governor, and Captain +Minchin, the commandant, ran away. The ships weighed anchor and sailed +out of gunshot, leaving one hundred and ninety deserted men in the +fort. But if cowardice showed unabashed, courage was not lacking, and +among those who showed it Mr Holwell deserves honourable mention. A +civilian himself, he locked the gates of the fort to prevent further +desertion, and final resistance being hopeless, did his best by +diplomacy to avert absolute destruction. A hard task, for he lost +twenty-five of his miserable garrison in one assault, and he lost the +aid of more by drunkenness: for the soldiers got at the <i>arrack</i> +store.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still, he might have succeeded but for the fact that the Nawāb lost +his temper on finding that the treasury only contained £5,000! And he +had imagined the English rich beyond dreams. He jumped to the +conclusion that there must be treasure concealed, and when none was +forthcoming, seems to have cared nothing for the personal safety he +had guaranteed to Mr Holwell and his following of a hundred and forty +men, women, and children.</p> + +<p class="normal">The tale of the Black Hole of Calcutta is too well known to need +repetition. The unfortunate company were herded at nightfall into a +room eighteen feet square, and despite their agonising appeals for +deliverance, left to suffocate. By daybreak only three-and-twenty +remained alive.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the ships which could have carried them off ere hostilities began, +which even afterwards might have rescued them, were sailing merrily +down the river, the full breeze of dawn bellying their sails.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is an indelible disgrace!</p> + +<p class="normal">Surāj-ud-daula, disappointed in plunder, retired to Murshidabad +fulminating vain thunders against all things British, as he abandoned +himself once more to infamous pleasures.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Clive was on his track. Clive, filled-according to his +letters--"with grief, horror, and resentment"; determined that the +expedition should not "end with the retaking of Calcutta only, but +that the Company's estate in these parts shall be settled in a better +and more lasting condition than ever."</p> + +<p class="normal">The story of his success is a long one, and is, unfortunately, marred +by more than one doubtful, almost inexcusable act. But that he should +utterly have escaped from the corruption of the whole atmosphere in +India at this time is more than any one has any right to expect, even +of a hero. He was but mortal, and from the time he was twenty, had had +to steer his way through a perfect network of intrigue. Again, his +complicity in much that happened is by no means assured, for we know +that he was surrounded by enemies amongst his own countrymen, who, +jealous of his success, angered with his blunt outspokenness, did +not hesitate to injure him. Let us consider for a moment what Clive +must have said to Captain Minchin, to Mr Drake, concerning their +pleasure-trip down the Hooghly while their friends were suffocating in +the Black Hole! We have his opinion of the "Bengal gentlemen" in his +letters, which runs thus:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The loss of private property and the means of recovering it are the +only objects which take up their attention. I would have you guard +against everything these gentlemen can say; for, believe me, they are +bad subjects and rotten at heart, and will stick at nothing to +prejudice you and the gentlemen of the Committee. Indeed, how should +they do otherwise when they have not spared one another? Their conduct +at Calcutta finds no excuse even amongst themselves; the riches of +Peru or Mexico should not induce me to dwell among them."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">These are strong words, but they were written under strong emotion. +Clive, arriving at Calcutta, after a most fatiguing march of +skirmishes along the river, had been mortified by finding that Admiral +Watson, who had sailed up it and captured the town after two hours' +desultory cannonading, had already appointed a Captain Coote as +military governor. This post, naturally, was Clive's by every right, +and he objected strenuously. Matters went so far that the admiral +threatened to fire on the fort if Clive refused to leave it, and +though a compromise was effected, the affair shows the <i>animus</i> +against the young colonel.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was hampered on all sides. We find him point-blank refusing to +place himself under the orders of the Committee.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"I do not intend," he writes, "to make use of my power for acting +separately from you, without you reduce me to the necessity for so +doing; but as far as concerns the means of executing these powers, you +will excuse me, gentlemen, if I refuse to give it up."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The very existence, therefore, of this friction makes caution +necessary in judging of Clive's actions, since, except from his own +admissions, we have nothing on which absolute reliance can be placed. +He seems to have felt himself overmatched in every way. Certainly he +proceeded with more caution than usual, except in regard to his attack +on Surāj-ud-daula's camp outside the very walls of Calcutta.</p> + +<p class="normal">Deputies had been sent overnight to interview the Nawāb with a view to +negotiation, and had returned in confusion, lightless, by secret +paths, convinced that they were to be assassinated. Huge eunuchs and +attendants, made still more terrific by stuffed coats and monstrous +turbans, had scowled at them--the Nawāb had been superciliously +indifferent. Clive had about two thousand men under his command; the +enemy, under Mir-Jāffar, Surāj-ud-daula's general, mustered forty +thousand; but instant assault seemed necessary in face of that +contemptuous discourtesy.</p> + +<p class="normal">It began at dawn, and though, owing to fog, it was not so decisive as +Clive had hoped, achieved its end, for the very next day the Nawāb +proposed peace.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now in this, again, we must read between the lines. The terms of peace +which was duly signed--Clive feeling himself far too weak to continue +war, for a time at any rate--were not acceptable to the Committee, for +Clive refused to allow the claims of "private individuals to stand in +the way of the interest of the Company." The treaty, in fact, was +singularly easy on the Nawāb, but it must be remembered that Mr +Holwell, who had himself been in the Black Hole, had exculpated +Surāj-ud-daula from wilful participation in the ordering of it; +indeed, there seems little doubt that it was due to the reckless +indifference of subordinates. Thus we see here an honest endeavour on +Clive's part to deal with Surāj-ud-daula fairly and squarely. He +trusted him, disregarding Admiral Watson's warning that without a good +thrashing <i>first</i>, treaties with natives were of no avail.</p> + +<p class="normal">His subsequent disgust at finding this warning had been correct must +be admitted in defence of his future actions. After endless +intriguing, difficult to follow, and still more difficult when +followed to understand--for the friction between Clive and his +environment seems to obscure everything--the young colonel (he was +but thirty) seems to have reverted to his desire to dislodge the +French, with which his services had begun, and, war between the +nations being opportunely declared, he attacked and took Chandanagore. +This brought about, however, a complete revelation of the perfidy of +Surāj-ud-daula, who in letters to the French governor (whom he calls +"<i>Zubat-ul-Tujar</i>," the "Essence of Merchants"), abuses "<i>Sabut-Jung</i>" +(the "Daring in War," by which name Clive is still known in India), +and promises his heart-whole support. "Be confident," he writes, "look +on my forces as your own."</p> + +<p class="normal">Clive, conscious of having acted against general opinion in trusting +the man, resented this personally. Then Surāj-ud-daula was practically +a monster in human form. By twenty, his vices were hoary. So it may +well have been honest disgust which made Clive first consider the +possibility of deposing him in favour of Mīr-Jāffar. Pages have been +written inveighing against the enormity of intriguing against a ruler +with whom you have a treaty of peace. And it is mean according to +Western ideals. Still, Clive did not shrink from it; his verdict is +brief: "I am persuaded there can be neither peace nor security while +such a monster reigns."</p> + +<p class="normal">So he did not reign long. Mīr-Jāffar was deliberately nominated; a +treaty, consisting of a preamble and thirteen articles, solemnly and +secretly drawn up. In this Omichand, merchant, moneylender, spy, +informer, a man of infinite influence at Murshidabad, was go-between. +As reward for his services and silence--for otherwise he threatened to +warn his real master Surāj-ud-daula--he insisted on receiving +£200,000. But, in truth, this treaty reads like a huge bill, for in +consideration of being made Nawāb, Mīr-Jāffar promised the Company to +pay, as damages for the sacking of Calcutta, £1,000,000, to the +English inhabitants thereof £500,000, to the natives £200,000, and to +the Armenians £70,000.</p> + +<p class="normal">These were immense sums, but they were the result of absurdly +exaggerated estimates of the treasure in Murshidabad, which was +currently reported to be at least £24,000,000.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the farce of friendship went on with the Nawāb. It was a toss-up in +the end whether Mīr-Jāffar would be faithful to his master or to the +treaty, and on the very eve of the battle of Plassey, that is to say, +23rd June 1757, Clive was still undetermined whether to attempt the +final blow or to refrain from it. His reputation would have benefited +if he had; for England would have won in the end without subterfuge. +Still, for all this excuse is to be found. Even the fact that Clive, +in common with half the army and navy, was to receive a stipulated +present--in his case a very large one--must not be counted, as it +appears to be at the first blush, bribery and corruption. There was no +law against the taking of douceurs; the employees of the Company, +indeed, were ill paid because of such perquisites, without which they +could not live. So, had he chosen to ask for a million of money, he +could only have been counted extortionate in his demands. But the +trick played upon Omichand with Clive's support and connivance +seems--at least--despicable. Briefly, it comes to this. Englishmen +were afraid of the scoundrel's blabbing, yet they were determined he +should not have the £200,000 for which he stipulated. They therefore +drew up two treaties, one with, one without, the stipulation. The one +they showed to Omichand was forged; the other was really signed.</p> + +<p class="normal">It seems almost incredible this should have been done by plain English +gentlemen, let alone by one who in many ways was a hero; but so it +was.</p> + +<p class="normal">To avoid paying £200,000 out of revenues which did not belong to us, +we resorted to fraud and forgery.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is but one consolation in the case. Clive himself, the +arch-actor, never regretted the act. When arraigned on this charge +before the House of Commons he asserted proudly that he thought "it +warrantable in such a case, and would do it again a hundred times. I +had no interested motive in doing it, but did it with the design of +disappointing the expectations of a rapacious man, for I think both +art and policy warrantable in defeating the purposes of such a +villain."</p> + +<p class="normal">But was Omichand "the greatest villain upon earth" that Clive held him +to be? Even this is doubtful, and our pity is his, no matter what he +was, as we read the story, as told by Orme the historian, of the +conference which was held the day after the battle.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"Clive and Scrafton went towards Omichand, who was waiting in full +assurance of hearing the glad tidings.... Scrafton said to him in the +Indostan language: 'Omichand! the red paper is a trick--you are to +have nothing.' The words overpowered him like a blast of sulphur; he +sank back fainting."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He did not recover the shock, but died a complete imbecile within the +year.</p> + +<p class="normal">No! Whatever way we look at this incident it offends eye and taste. +For it was so needless. If Omichand was the double-dyed scoundrel he +is said to have been, what more easy than to tell him when all was +over: "Yes! the £200,000 is yours, but you shall not have it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Clive, at any rate, was strong enough for that.</p> + +<p class="normal">The incident prevents the remembrance of Plassey being a pure +pleasure. It was victory complete so far as it went, and by the treaty +with Mīr-Jāffar Clive's hope "that the Company's estate in these parts +shall be settled in a better and more lasting condition than before" +was fully justified; for not only was Calcutta given to it freehold, +but also the land to the south of the town, as a <i>zemindari</i> subject +to the payment of revenue.</p> + +<p class="normal">England had a real hold on Indian soil at last, and Clive had given it +to her.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.7" href="#div1Ref_03.7">ROBERT CLIVE</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1757 TO A.D. 1767</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">It was in the year 1757, just one hundred years before the Mutiny, +that the battle of Plassey was fought, and that by the enthronement of +a Nawāb who owed everything to English arms the East India Company +became practically lords paramount in Bengal, Behar, and Orissa.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was in the same year that Upper India was once more disturbed by +the inroad of Ahmed-Shāh, the Durrāni king of Kandahār. Mahomed-Shāh, +the Moghul emperor, had once repulsed him, and Ahmed-Shāh, the +Afghān's namesake, son and successor of the Great Moghul, had, for the +six years of his reign, watched the north-western frontier nervously.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he died in 1754 without signs of the dread invasion.</p> + +<p class="normal">It came, however, in Alamgīr the Second's time, through no fault of +that distressful puppet, but owing to the arrogance of Ghāzi-ud-din, +Grand Vizier, and eldest son of the old fox Asaf-Jāh. Heredity is +strong. In his lifetime there was not a political pie in all India +into which the latter's wily old finger did not dip, and now his +descendants carried on the same game. Sālabut-Jung, his son, was +French nominee for the Nizāmship; Muzaffar-Jung, grandson, for the +Nawābship of the Carnatic. Nāzir-Jung, who perished miserably through +the treachery of Dupleix, had been another candidate, and at the +effete court of Delhi, Ghāzi-ud-din was virtually king. He chose to +insult the widow of an Afghān governor of Lahōre, and Ahmed-Shāh, +Durrāni, marched to avenge it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The vengeance was deep and bitter. Delhi was laid waste; the horrors +of Nādir-Shāh being repeated and excelled, for the Durrāni had +not the Persian's hold upon his troops. He also penetrated further +down-country than did Nādir, and harried the Gangetic plain as far as +Muttra. The news of his raid, indeed, was one of the many factors in +the problem of action or inaction which Clive had had to decide. But +the heat drove the hardy northmen back to their hills, and Upper India +reverted once more to its old peaceful life, Delhi to dreams. It was a +drugged city in those days, winking sleepily in the sunlight, enduring +ravishment patiently, returning when the stress was over to watch its +pageant king sitting on his pinchbeck peacock throne, pretending to be +all-powerful, looking out haughtily, with opium-dimmed eyes, upon a +subject world, that in reality cared not one jot for the so-called +descendants of the Great Moghul.</p> + +<p class="normal">In Bengal the English had been king-makers without one reference to +the sovereign power. In the very Punjāb itself, the Mahrattas, invited +to his aid by Ghāzi-ud-din, came and mastered the length and breadth +of the land. In truth, their star was in its zenith. Even in the +Dekkan, despite the help of a French force under Monsieur Bussy-by far +the ablest commander France ever sent to the East--Sālabut-Jung could +with difficulty keep in the field against them.</p> + +<p class="normal">And France was beginning to find her hands full. War had been declared +in Europe between her and England, and in 1758 the Comte de Lally, a +man of great reputation, was sent out avowedly with the intention of +breaking the English power in the East.</p> + +<p class="normal">A bit of a braggadocio was Lally, and all unversed in Oriental likes +and dislikes. He began ill by ousting Bussy, in whom the French allies +believed utterly, much as the English allies believed in Clive. The +secret of this belief may be evolved from the tale of the taking of +Bobbili. It was an old fort held by an old family of Rājputs, and +Bussy called on it to yield, assaulted it for three days, and finally, +on the third night, sounded "cease firing," and waited for the morning +to deliver his final blow.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not a sound disturbed the silence of the night. The primrose dawn +showed pale, the old fort rising stern against it. But the gates were +open. Bussy entered with caution. The sentries at their posts were +dead, the streets were empty, but in the arcades men lay sleeping +their last sleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">The palace doorkeepers were on duty--dead! As he and his staff hurried +through the narrow passages, they could see through dark archways +women lying huddled up in each other's arms--dead! The Hall of +Audience was reached at last; and there, each in his place, the +courtiers had drawn their last breath. But the chief was not on the +throne; that was occupied by a year-old boy-baby, the beloved heir, +playing unconcernedly with the heron's plume of his dead father, who, +with his sword through his heart, lay with his head at the feet of his +little son. Beside him was the only other living soul in Bobbili, the +oldest inhabitant of the town.</p> + +<p class="normal">Youth and age! The lesson was not unlearnt by Bussy, and Bobbili +remains a chieftainship to this day.</p> + +<p class="normal">Lally, however, was of different mettle. To him, surrounded by +well-born, fashionable French officers, all things Eastern were +beneath contempt. What was a Brahmin that he should not do what he was +told to do, even though the order involved his being yoked cart-fellow +with a sweeper?</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not conducive to anything but discipline; and discipline in +India is limited, like all other things, by caste.</p> + +<p class="normal">Small wonder, then, that, opposed to such a leader as Captain, +afterwards Sir Eyre Coote (for Clive could not leave Bengal), the +French fortunes gradually failed, until in 1761 all hold on India was +lost by the taking of Pondicherry. Poor Lally! He had pitted himself +against Orientalism, and he failed miserably. Yet, once again, he did +not deserve to be dragged to execution on a dung-cart for having been +"insolent to His Majesty King Louis XVth's other officers" (which was +a true count), "and for treason to His Majesty himself" (which was +false). Of how many reputations has not India unjustly been the grave? +Truly one can echo Lally's last words: "Tell my judges that God has +given me grace to pardon them: but if I were to see them again, that +grace might go."</p> + +<p class="normal">It is a wonderfully human speech. One can forgive him much for it, but +one cannot forgive his judges as he did; deep down, their meanness, +their lack of wide outlook, rankles.</p> + +<p class="normal">While Eyre Coote, however, was bringing the French power to its end +for ever, Clive was consolidating the British hold in Bengal; and +still under the stress of utterly uncongenial coadjutors.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot help feeling," he writes to the Select Committee, "that had +the expedition miscarried you would have laid the whole blame upon +me." And this was true.</p> + +<p class="normal">The influx into Calcutta of close on £800,000, paid according to +treaty from Surāj-ud-daula's treasure chest--which after all only +contained, revenues counted, something under £7,000,000--seems to have +roused rapacity on all sides. It is worthy of note, however, that +Clive's part in the squabble which ensued is invariably on the side of +justice. When Admiral Watson claimed his share of the loot as an +actual, though not a formal member of the Select Committee, Clive at +once saw the reasonableness of the claim, and set an example--which +was not followed--of handing over his share of the additional portion +which had to be made up. He also fought strenuously, and overcame, an +attempt on the part of the military to exclude the navy from any share +in the plunder. Indeed, his reply to the "Remonstrance and Protest" +sent him by the soldiers is worthy of quotation.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"How comes it," he asks, "that a promise of money from the Nawāb +<i>entirely negotiated by me</i> can be deemed by you a matter of right and +property?... It is now in my power to return to the Nawāb the money +already advanced, and leave it to his option whether he will perform +his promise or not. You have stormed no town and found no money there; +neither did you find it on the plain of Plassey. In short, gentlemen, +it pains me to remind you that what you are to receive is entirely +owing to the care I took of your interests."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">So, after pointing out that, but for this care, the Company would only +have awarded them at the outside six months' pay, he finishes by +upbraiding them with their disrespect and ingratitude, and placing the +officers who brought him the remonstrance under arrest.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now this letter, frank and straightforward, enables us to see the +position as Clive saw it. The army was purely a mercenary army. From +the day on which the English had sided with the Nawāb of Arcot it +always had been mercenary. The natives had paid their allies. The +question as to the advisability of this did not come in; the fact +remained. Therefore, on the supposition that Surāj-ud-daula's wealth +was enormous, enormous fees had been asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">Blame, therefore, could only be given for rapacity, not for the actual +taking of any fee. And the advantage to the Company of what had been +accomplished was so incalculable that no complaint from <i>it</i> was +possible.</p> + +<p class="normal">It had been an easy task to place Mīr-Jāffar on the throne, but it +required all Clive's will-power to induce him to do as he was bid. The +spoliation of Surāj-ud-daula's treasury had left the former in +comparative poverty, and he resented being made by Clive to fulfil his +engagements under the treaty. Still, he could not afford to quarrel +with one who maintained the peace by crushing rebellion, apparently, +by his mere presence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Just, however, as he was hesitating over an attempt at independence, +news came that the Wazīr of Oude was marching upon Bengal, and at the +same time an envoy of the Mahrattas appeared, demanding £240,000 +arrears of tribute. Fear threw him again into Clive's arms, who, +however, had by this time come to see that in choosing Mīr-Jāffar as +Nawāb, he had chosen one who would always be a thorn in the side of +good government.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"He has no talent," he writes, "for gaining the love and confidence of +his officers. His mismanagement of the country ... might have proved +fatal ... no less than three rebellions were on foot at one time."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Still, by unceasing efforts, Clive is able to report in 1758 that the +Nawāb seems now "so well fixed in his government as to be able, with a +small degree of prudence, to maintain himself quietly in it." Under +better management, money was flowing in, and the general outlook +seemed bright. In the same year Clive was by popular acclaim appointed +Governor of Bengal.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Directors in London had unaccountably overlooked him, possibly +because he ought really to have returned to Madras, but the Council in +India felt that, without his personal influence with Mīr-Jāffar, their +position was critical. The whole English position was, in truth, at +this time dubious. The French had been at this period successful on +the Coromandel Coast, and the prince-royal of Delhi, having quarrelled +with his father, had left the court, and was on his way with a large +army to claim the viceroyalty of Bengal. Now, open defiance of the +claims of the Great Moghul family was rank sacrilege. Mīr-Jāffar, with +a half-eye to ridding himself somehow of British influence, professed +horror. Clive's thumb, however, was over him, and escape impossible. +The prince-royal was curtly told that, as rebel to his father, he had +no authority, and when the Wazīr of Oude arrived in support of the +claim, both he and the prince were as curtly and decidedly beaten.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mīr-Jāffar was now full of gratitude, and determined to give Clive +(who, as a recognised official of the Court, ought to have had one) a +<i>jaghir</i>, or grant of land for services done. No high official of any +native ruler is without one. But Mīr-Jāffar was cunning. The +<i>zemindari</i>, or land subject to revenue, which, under pressure, he had +given to the Company was, he saw, really a screw which might be used +against him at any time by refusal to pay the just dues.</p> + +<p class="normal">He therefore hit on the happy idea of killing two birds with one +stone. He would give the quit-rent of this to Clive, and leave him and +his Company to fight it out between themselves! It really was very +ingenious, very acute, as the opposition the plan aroused in the +Council clearly proved. It is, in fact, amusing to read the many +arguments advanced against it; all of which are in reality founded on +the Company's inward determination to use the quit-rent as a set-off +against the Nawāb.</p> + +<p class="normal">He, however, had a perfect right to do as he did, and Clive himself is +not to be blamed for sticking to a bargain which gave him some hold of +his enemies and detractors. And yet when, after annihilating a Dutch +expedition, and forcing on the promoters as conditions of peace that +they should never again introduce or enlist troops or raise +fortifications in India, Clive announced his intention of going to +England on leave, the best part of Calcutta was on its knees to him +begging him to reconsider his resolution.</p> + +<p class="normal">Without him Mīr-Jāffar was a broken reed.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the Nawāb himself was as urgent in appeal. Without Clive's help, +how could he hope to keep the constant encroachments of the Company's +servants within bounds?</p> + +<p class="normal">But Clive was obdurate. He was clear-sighted, and he saw beyond the +present. He saw, as he himself writes, that what the future might +bring "was too extensive for a mere mercantile company," and he was +eager to get home to impress England with his belief, and induce her +to stretch out her right hand and take the rich heritage which might +be hers. Whether in strict morality she had a right to do this is +another matter. Clive thought she had, and in determining the point +there can be no doubt whatever that (as he himself writes, "with a +thorough knowledge of this country's Government, and of the genius of +its people, acquired by two years' experience") one of the chief +factors which weighed with him was his conviction that the people +themselves "would rejoice in so happy an exchange as that of a mild +for a despotic Government."</p> + +<p class="normal">And that the British Government would be mild was by every evidence +part of Clive's faith in himself and in his country. The natives loved +him. Nowhere in all his history is there one hint of cruelty in his +treatment of them, unless (as in the case of Omichand) hot anger at +treachery rose up in him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He was the greatest villain upon earth--I would do it again a hundred +times over."</p> + +<p class="normal">Surely if ever Clive gains his deserved memorial, these words of his +should find some place upon it in palliation of the offence which +tarnished his reputation. An offence which, when all is said and done, +has something of the nature of an unreasoning, impish, boyish trick +about it which is reminiscent of other incidents in Clive's career, +notably the firing of Aurungzebe's old gun at Arcot, and the <i>détour</i> +to smash up the victory-pillar of Dupleix.</p> + +<p class="normal">So Clive went home, and, arriving at an opportune moment of national +depression after a series of rebuffs abroad, was honoured as something +of which England could be proud. He was given an Irish barony. "I +could have bought an English one (which is usual), but that I was +above," he writes. And yet, apparently, he was not above holding his +tongue on many matters of national importance, because he was afraid +of irritating the Court of Directors who had the payment of his +<i>jāghir</i> money. But Clive was ambitious, extraordinarily ambitious, at +this time of his career.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We must be nabobs ourselves," is a phrase which occurs in one of his +letters; also this: "My future power, my future grandeur, all depend +upon the receipt of the <i>jāghir</i> money."</p> + +<p class="normal">What scheme lay hidden in his brain? One thing is certain. He scrupled +at little which would help him to its realisation. He failed, however, +in getting a majority in the Council of Directors, though to do so he +employed the discreditable tactics of his adversaries by manufacturing +votes. In his defence it must be remembered that he was fighting +single-handed against a corrupt monopoly, and that throughout the +whole quarrel he never flinched from his purpose.</p> + +<p class="normal">He took the question of his <i>jāghir</i>, which the Company refused to +pay, into Chancery, but ere the case was investigated, news of so +serious a nature was received from India that a sudden and imperious +call for Clive to return arose on all sides. He had made our dominion +in the East. Only he could save it from destruction.</p> + +<p class="normal">The story of what had happened during his four years' absence may be +briefly epitomised.</p> + +<p class="normal">Alamgīr II., emperor at Delhi, had been murdered by his minister +Ghāzi-ud-din from fear of his intriguing with Ahmed-Shāh, Durrāni, who +was once more marching on the Punjāb. Backed by his Mahrattas, the +minister thought himself secure; in this he was mistaken. True, the +Mahrattas were in the zenith of their power, their artillery surpassed +that of the Moghuls, the discipline of their army was better than it +had ever been before, but they had in consequence lost something of +their lightness, their alertness.</p> + +<p class="normal">And they were too numerous. When they finally found themselves +entrenched on the old historic battle-plain of Pāniput awaiting +Ahmed-Shāh's advance, they numbered no less than three hundred +thousand. Excellent foragers though they were, supplies soon ran +short. On the other hand, Ahmed-Shāh, with the confederacy of Mahomed +princes which had joined forces with him, mustered but a third of that +number. He saw his advantage, and waited, replying to his Indian +allies' importunities to attack: "This is a matter of war; leave it to +me." Night after night his small red tent was pitched in front of his +entrenchments, whence he watched his enemy. "Do you sleep," he would +say contemptuously to the Indian chiefs; "I will see no harm befalls +you."</p> + +<p class="normal">So the day came at last when the Mahrattas were forced by hunger to +attack. They fought well; but by eventide two hundred thousand of them +lay dead in heaps on the Pāniput plain. Nearly all the great chiefs +were slain or wounded, and Bāla-ji, the Peishwa, himself died on the +way back to Poona, it is said from a broken heart. Ahmed-Shāh, +Durrāni, returned to Kandahār and did not again enter India.</p> + +<p class="normal">In consequence of his father's murder the prince-royal, in natural +succession, became the Great Moghul. As such it became impossible to +further ignore his claims. But he could be, and was, again beaten, +together with his ally the Nawāb of Oude. Matters at Murshidabad, +however, deprived of Clive's guidance, had gone from bad to worse. Mr +Vansittart, Clive's successor in the Governorship, seems to have been +weak, and in addition could count on no support in his council save +that of Warren Hastings. The end being that Mīr-Jāffar was virtually +deposed for misgovernment, and his son-in-law Mīr-Kāssim placed on the +throne. It was not a clean business, and Mīr-Jāffar, full of +resentment, retired to live in Calcutta on a pension.</p> + +<p class="normal">Things, however, did not improve under Mīr-Kāssim, though the +Prince-Royal-Emperor, who was still hovering on the frontiers, was +interviewed by Mr Carnac (doubtless bearing a satisfactory present), +and an arrangement entered into by which, in consideration of being +confirmed in the Nawābship, Mīr Kāssim should pay an annual tribute of +£240,000. It is easy to be generous with other folks' money!</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus secured from invasion, Mīr-Kāssim began to try and fill his +treasuries, and instantly complained, as Mīr-Jāffar had complained, of +the injury done to him and his subjects by the rule which permitted +private trade to the servants of the Company, who, not satisfied with +using their public position to assist them, claimed the right to be +free of all duties, thus ousting the native trader from all markets.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was manifest, gross injustice; but here again Mr Vansittart and +Warren Hastings were alone in condemning it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Afraid to strike at the root of the evil, while continuing the +absolutely indefensible right to private trade, they agreed with the +Nawāb that the usual duty should be paid.</p> + +<p class="normal">This raised a storm in Calcutta, where a full meeting of Council +decided by ten to two that the agreement should not stand.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Nawāb retaliated in kind. Since the Council persisted in their +claim, he would extend its bearings to his own subjects. All could now +trade free, and let the devil take the hindmost!</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a fair retort. They tried to intimidate him, but he had the bit +between his teeth. Diplomacy had had its day; it was now war to the +knife!</p> + +<p class="normal">Within a month or two the massacre at Patna took place, in which two +hundred Englishmen lost their lives in cold blood; but not before the +Presidency troops had entered Murshidabad, deposed Mīr-Kāssim, who +fled, and reinstated Mīr-Jāffar.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a tissue of mistakes from beginning to end, which Major +Munro's subsequent victory at Buxar over the combined forces of the +Prince-Royal-Emperor (who had not yet managed to recover his capital +Delhi), the Wazīr of Oude, and Mīr-Kāssim did little to rectify. For +Mīr-Jāffar died shortly after of old age, and the Council was left +without a Nawāb to squeeze! After much discussion, however, they +decided on putting up Nujām-ad-daula, an illegitimate son of +Mīr-Jāffar's.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was the state of affairs when Clive, to whom, in view of the +painful state of disorder in Bengal, absolute power had been given, +arrived in Calcutta on his second period of Governorship in the +beginning of May 1765.</p> + +<p class="normal">His first act was to decline discussion.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"I was determined," he writes, "to do my duty to the public, though I +should incur the odium of the whole settlement. The welfare of the +Company required a vigorous exertion, and I took the resolution of +cleansing the Augean stable."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He began the work at once, and, undeterred by opposition, did not rest +till he had placed the Indian Civil Service on the upward path to its +present honoured and honourable position. Perquisites and presents +were swept away; unbiassed authority given in exchange.</p> + +<p class="normal">The only real political work of the next two years was his treatment +of, and treaty with, the Prince-Royal-Emperor, Shāh-Ālam, who was more +than ever a puppet king after the victory at Buxar, when he had thrown +himself on the protection of the English. So anxious, indeed, was he +to secure this, that before the answer to his petition was received +from Calcutta, he encamped every night as close to the British army as +he could for safety!</p> + +<p class="normal">The treaty into which he then entered contained an important +stipulation that the Company should assist him to recover the +territories usurped by his late ally Sūjah-daula, Wazīr of Oude.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hearing of this the Wazīr immediately prepared for resistance by +joining forces with Ghāzi-ud-din, the murderous minister at Delhi, and +with some bands of Rohillas and Mahrattas.</p> + +<p class="normal">But they were poor allies, and Clive, coming to the problem with his +clear head, proceeded to settle it with a high hand. Sūjah-daula was +left with his territories, save for the district around Allahabād, +which was ceded to Shāh-Ālam, the so-called emperor, who was also to +receive £260,000 a year as the revenue of Bengal. This was to be +payable, not as in the past, by the Nawāb, but by the East India +Company itself, who thus became the real masters of the country, and +so responsible for its administration, its defences; the Nawāb, +Nujām-ud-daula, reverting to the position of pensioner, a position +which he accepted gladly with the remark: "Thank God! I shall now have +as many dancing-girls as I please!"</p> + +<p class="normal">That the bargains were hard all round none can deny, but it is +difficult to see, as has been stated, that Clive derived any pecuniary +benefit from them.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the contrary, it may be observed that special precautions were +taken to ensure the legality of the compromise which Clive had entered +into with the Directors regarding his <i>jāghir</i>, when the public +interests, by recalling him to duty, had made some quicker settlement +of the question than that of a Chancery suit necessary. Now this +compromise, which gave him the revenues for ten years only, or till +his death, whichever was the shortest period, was not very favourable +to Clive. Its continuance, therefore, should not be urged, as it often +is, as proof of his rapacity.</p> + +<p class="normal">The problem which next employed him was one of extreme difficulty. It +was an enquiry into the conduct of officers in regard to their new +covenants which prohibited the receiving of presents. As a result of +this, ten officials who were dismissed for corruption went naturally +to join the ranks of Clive's many enemies.</p> + +<p class="normal">The question of private trade still remained, and was more difficult +of settlement. For the salary of a member of Council was but £350, and +he could not keep up the dignity of his position on less than £3,000.</p> + +<p class="normal">Clive settled this in a somewhat makeshift way, but it is worthy of +note that though as governor his pay was largely enhanced by the new +scheme, he did not personally take one penny of it, for he had +declared his intention of not deriving any pecuniary advantage from +his position. The money was spent in augmenting the salaries of his +office. All this caused much indignation; many of the Council retired, +and to fill their places Clive had the temerity to import outsiders. +No sooner was this over than almost every officer of the army mutinied +over the withdrawal of double <i>batta</i>, or war allowances. No less than +two hundred commissions were resigned, and the outlook was black.</p> + +<p class="normal">Clive set his teeth, and though one of the brigades sent in their +resignations <i>en bloc</i> in the very face of an enemy, he won through by +indomitable firmness, unending patience. The officers of the European +regiment at Allahabād gave most trouble, but a battalion of sepoys, +marching 104 miles in fifty-four hours, brought them to reason +sharply.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, when the fight was over, and the ringleaders--only six +officers--were tried and punished most leniently (the Mutiny Act of +the Company's service proving defective), Clive founded the military +fund which still goes by his name, and which has been, and is still, a +boon to many a poor widow. Its nucleus was Clive's gift of £63,000.</p> + +<p class="normal">But his health was failing. His last act ere leaving for +England--never to return--in 1767 was to attend a conference between +Shāh-Ālam's representatives, Sūjah-daula, now the Nawāb of Oude, and +some Mahratta deputies. The question was a proposal to regain Delhi +for the emperor, with the aid of the Company's troops.</p> + +<p class="normal">Clive at once negatived it. He saw the Mahrattas were now the only +possible enemies to peace from whom danger was to be apprehended, and +he declined to aid them in any way. On the contrary, he urged the +foundation of a confederacy to repel their incursions.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was his last attempt at diplomacy. He left for England, to find +disgrace and disillusionment awaiting him. He had made hundreds, +almost thousands of enemies by his just reforms, and with a British +public ready, as ever, to be gulled, they had their opportunity. There +is no more pitiful and pitiable reading than these records--and in the +case of Burke's famous impeachment of Warren Hastings they run to +volumes--of these tortuous attempts to twist Western standards of +ethics to fit Oriental actions. Putting aside the <i>animus</i>, the +devilish desire for revenge which inspires most of them, the absolute +ignorance of what may be called the atmospheric conditions of India in +them remains appalling.</p> + +<p class="normal">True, Clive had taken £180,000 as his share, when Mīr-Jāffar was +enthroned. What then? It was a trifle in comparison with the <i>sunnuds</i> +gifted to <i>omrahs</i> of the court by many a native principality and +power to those who served it well. And there was no rule against the +reception of honours or presents. Certainly, also, as one follows +Clive through all his great services, one can but say that rapacity +shows far less in him than in his compeers; one can but echo the words +in which the Company, at the time of his departure, summed up those +services.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your own example has been the principal means of restraining the +general rapaciousness and corruption which had brought our affairs to +the brink of ruin."</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, however, by the machinations of those whom he had checked, he was +brought to plead for bare honour before the bar of the House of Lords.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Before I sit down I have one request to make this Assembly, and that +is, that when they come to decide upon my honour they will not forget +their own."</p> + +<p class="normal">So he appealed, and the appeal was not fruitless: England was spared +the disgrace which France had brought on herself by her treatment of +Labourdonnais, Dupleix, and Lally.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the verdict, that "Robert, Lord Clive, as Commander-in-Chief, had +taken a sum of £280,000," but that "at the same time he had rendered +great and meritorious services to his country," was not one to satisfy +Robert Clive.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was ill; he suffered from an excruciating disease which opium +alleviated, and he ended all his troubles by an overdose of the drug a +few months after the day when, with an intolerable sense of injustice +at his heart, he quitted the tribunal before which he had been so +maliciously arraigned.</p> + +<p class="normal">For, as he said in his defence, sixteen long years had passed since +the offence--if offence there had been--was committed; sixteen long +years of silence, of confidence well repaid by faithful service.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.8" href="#div1Ref_03.8">HYDER-ALI ET ALIA</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1767 TO A.D. 1773</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">While Clive was laying the foundation-stones both of the Indian Empire +and the Indian Civil Service in Bengal, Madras had had its share of +wars and rumours of wars. It will be impossible, however, to treat of +them in detail. All that can be done is to pick out of the seething +mass of intrigue, of incident, those things which are necessary +to be known, in order that future events shall find their proper +pigeon-hole.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Peace of Paris, signed in 1763, gave back to France her +possessions on the Coromandel Coast, and further stipulated that the +English nominee, Mahomed-Ali, Nawāb of Arcot, should be recognised by +both parties as lawful Nawāb of the Carnatic, and Sālabut-Jung, the +French nominee, as Nizām of the Dekkan.</p> + +<p class="normal">Regarding the latter, there is grim humour in the fact, that three +years before the Peace was signed poor Sālabut had been ousted and +imprisoned by his brother Nizām-Ali, and that he was promptly murdered +by him the moment news of the treaty reached India! It is not always +safe to have the support of the ignorant!</p> + +<p class="normal">But the Treaty of Paris did more mischief than the murder of the poor +prince. It put wind into Mahomed-Ali's head, embroiled him with the +Nizām, led to complications with the Madras Company, which in the year +1765 found itself in the unenviable position of having to pay £900,000 +to the Nizām as tribute for the Northern Circars, instead of holding +them rent free from the Great Moghul, as arranged for by Lord Clive. +It was a gross piece of mismanagement, and carried with it the +perfectly monstrous provision that the Company should furnish troops +ready to "settle, in everything right and proper, the affairs of His +Highness's government." That is to say, the Nizām had the right to +call the tune without paying the piper!</p> + +<p class="center">Map: India to A.D. 1757</p> + +<p class="normal">The very first thing he did was to involve England in a war with +Hyder-Ali, an adventurer <i>pur et simple</i> who, beginning by being an +uncontrolled youth divided between licentious pleasure and life in the +woods, free, untamed as any wild creature, forced himself up from one +position to another till he held half the territories of the Rājah of +Mysore, and had usurped the whole government of that country. Lawless, +fierce, without any scruples of any kind, he sided first with one ally +then with another, until finally, in 1766, he found himself faced with +the fact that Māhdu Rao the Mahratta, the Nizām, and the Company, were +leagued together for his destruction. The latter had, some time +previously, tried to bribe him to proper behaviour, but had failed; +for he was, briefly, quite untamable.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hyder-Ali set to work with his usual fierce energy. He first +deliberately bought off the Mahratta mercenaries by parting with +certain outlying portions of his stolen territories, and the gift of +£350,000 out of his bursting treasures. It was a big bribe, but +Hyder-Ali's finances could stand it; for he was a super-excellent +robber, with a well-organised army of free-lances for backers.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, the Nizām's forces and those of the Company under Colonel +Smith were approaching Mysore from different sides. It was agreed, +however, that the two armies should, when they reached fighting +distance, join forces in one camp, so as to show their inviolable +unity. But alas! when this happy consummation was reached, the English +troops had the mortification of seeing the Nizām's troops march out as +they marched in!</p> + +<p class="normal">Hyder had been successful with his money-bags once more, and after an +absurd and futile farce of palavering on the part of the Company, +Colonel Smith prepared to face the enemy's seventy thousand men and +one hundred and nine guns with his own meagre seven thousand and +sixteen guns. It is astonishing to think how he won his battle and +managed to retreat in safety, though he had against his poor thousand +of cavalry over forty-two thousand of mounted men, pure freebooters by +trade. He seems to have had mettle, this almost unheard-of Colonel +Smith, for immediately he received reinforcements he resumed the +offensive, and after a time completely defeated Hyder and the Nizām at +Trincomalee. Concerning this battle a nice little story is told. The +Nizām, as is the custom of Eastern potentates, had taken his favourite +women with him to the fight mounted on elephants, which stood in line +at the rear. The Nizām, seeing the tide of war going against him, gave +orders for the elephants to turn and retire, when from one howdah +arose a clear, scornful, feminine voice: "This elephant has not been +taught so to turn; he follows the standard of Empire."</p> + +<p class="normal">And follow it he did, standing alone amid shot and shell, till the +royal standards, flying in hot haste, gave him the lead.</p> + +<p class="normal">But not even this sort of thing could avail. And Hyder's money-bags +failed him also in an attempt to suborn an English commandant, who +replied to the second flag of truce sent in with a bribe, that if +Hyder-Ali wished to spare the lives of his ambassadors, he had better +refrain from sending more, as they would be hanged in his sight.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still, bursting money-bags do much, and ever since the sacking of +Bednore, an ancient Hindu city where he had found treasures worth over +£12,000,000, Hyder had never been crippled by any lack of gold. +Nothing held him. He was here, there, everywhere. Recovering lost +territory one day, losing it the next, fighting everybody, even the +Mahrattas, like a wild cat, and inwardly raging at his failure to +crush the English, who had just entered into a new treaty with his +former ally the Nizām, by which the latter again acknowledged the +rights of the Company to the Northern Circars, and further ceded to +it, for the annual payment of £700,000, the whole district of Mysore. +Thus Madras gained its <i>diwāni</i> as well as Bengal.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is something almost ludicrous in the ease with which territory +changed hands in those days, and we are left with the picture in our +mind's eye of a be-jewelled potentate and a be-stocked officer +hobnobbing over bags of rupees, silk-paper documents, and large seals.</p> + +<p class="normal">This treaty was a bitter pill to Hyder, who retaliated in every +possible way, until one day, by deft stratagem, he took his enemies in +the rear, appeared by forced marches before the very walls of Madras, +so, with the pleasure-gardens and houses of the councillors at his +mercy, almost compelled a treaty of mutual aid and defence.</p> + +<p class="normal">A <i>volte face</i> indeed! Small wonder that the Directors at home, who +had been complaining ineffectively of the expenses of the war, became +bewildered by the sudden change of <i>venue</i>. The general public also, +seeing the price of East India stock go down 60 per cent., became +uneasy; there is nothing like a drop in Trust-Securities for rousing +the national conscience! Dividends were declining, debts were +increasing, the glorious hopes of unbounded riches from India had +faded; actuaries, nicely balancing debit and credit against the +Company, discovered that no less than one and a quarter million of the +original stock of four and a quarter of millions had gone, +disappeared!</p> + +<p class="normal">Fateful disclosures these! Public outcry rose loud; voices that had +kept discreet silence while profit seemed the certain result of wars, +and treaties, and giftings, were now uplifted against rapacity, +misconduct, corruption; in the midst of which the alarming discovery +was made that the Company required a loan of £1,000,000 from this same +public in order to carry on the business. Yet, unless the business was +carried on, how could the yearly payments of £400,000 to the royal +exchequer, on which the public had insisted, be continued?</p> + +<p class="normal">Could mismanagement further go?</p> + +<p class="normal">So three supervisors, vested with full powers, were appointed, and set +sail for India in one of His Majesty's frigates. But Fate intervened. +They passed the Cape in safety, but were never heard of again.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was too much. A victim must be found. Therefore Clive was +arraigned. That story has already been told, so we can pass on to the +mutual recriminations in Parliament, the growing determination on the +part of John Bull, honest and dishonest, that something must be done, +which found fruit in the first Regulating Act "for the better +management of the affairs of the East India Company as well in India +as in Europe." By this Act a governor-generalship with a salary of +£25,000 was created, together with four councillorships of £8,000. +Bombay and Madras were made subordinate to Calcutta, and a Supreme +Court of Judicature, appointed by the Crown, was established at the +latter place. All the other appointments were to be subject to the +confirmation of Parliament, and all the holders of these offices were +excluded from commercial pursuits.</p> + +<p class="normal">The scheme sounded well, but it provided very little aid in reforming +the abuses which undoubtedly existed.</p> + +<p class="normal">It increased the charges upon revenues already overburdened, and the +attempt to introduce English ideas of law was calculated to produce +more injustice, more oppression, and rouse more alarm and distrust +than the previous absence of it had done.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the dividend for the year 1773 had sunk to 6 per cent.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was manifestly time to be up and doing--something!</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.9" href="#div1Ref_03.9">WARREN HASTINGS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1773 TO A.D. 1784</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">It will be remembered that Warren Hastings was the only Member of +Council who supported Clive in his decision that all servants of the +Company engaging in private trade were bound to pay duty.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus, undoubtedly, Clive's enemies must have been his enemies. He had, +however, risen with reputation through the various stages of his +Indian career; in 1772 he was made President-of-the-Council in Bengal, +and immediately set to work to remedy the existing abuses in the +collection of the revenue and the whole general administration; +a task which was not likely to bring him an addition of friends. +While this great revolution in system, which involved the letting of +land by public auction, was in full swing, the native potentates +beyond Bengal were as usual in a seething state of intrigue. The +Prince-Royal-Emperor Shāh-Ālam had at last succeeded in getting the +Mahrattas to aid him in recovering Delhi, though he had had to pay a +huge price for their help, amongst other things the cession to them of +his grant from the English of Allahabad. Consequently, the rich +country of the Rohillas (an Afghān race who had settled in India), +which reached up from the Delhi plains to the Sivālik hills, attracted +him as a means of again filling his treasury. The Mahrattas were, +naturally, nothing loth; so the combined forces marched on Rohilkund, +despite the fact that its people were friendly. In the general +catch-who-catch-can of India in these days, friendship, honour, truth, +counted for nothing it is to be feared, neither with East nor West.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the tall price of £400,000 the Nawāb of Oude promised to rid the +Rohillas of the Mahratta hordes; but being recalled southward by +internal dissensions, the Mahrattas, it is said, left of their own +accord, and the Rohillas repudiated the bargain. Nothing had been +done, they averred, therefore nothing was to be paid.</p> + +<p class="normal">This gave the Nawāb Sūjah-ud-daula an excellent pretext for war. He +had long been anxious to annex Rohilkund, but he needed help to cope +with its warlike race. He naturally turned to the English, who had +come to aid him (for they were--and small wonder--incensed at the +thought of a Mahratta garrison at Allahabad) in repelling a threatened +invasion of the Emperor and his allies. So the Treaty of Benares came +to be signed, in which, for a payment of £500,000 yearly, Allahabad +was once more ceded by the Company (who had promptly repudiated its +cession to the Mahrattas) to its original and rightful owner, the +Nawāb of Oude. It was also agreed that for a sum of £21,000 a month +the said Nawāb should have the right to the services of a British +brigade.</p> + +<p class="normal">So much is certain. Beyond this, unreliability invades the whole +business of the Rohilla war. It has been so distorted, by both sides, +in the controversy which arose out of the famous impeachment of Warren +Hastings, that the truth is now beyond reach.</p> + +<p class="normal">Undoubtedly, the British troops were mercenaries; but so they had been +from the very beginning, and the exchequer of the Company was at the +time very low, whilst behind everything was the great company of +British shareholders clamouring for a dividend. Blame may be poured as +vitriol on the reputations of many men, but the great offender was the +general greed of gold <i>in England</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hastings, however, was already on his defence for this apparently +unnecessary war (which yet brought in grist to the mill) when he was +appointed the first Governor-General of India under the New Act.</p> + +<p class="normal">This same Act, however, brought out from England his and Clive's +bitterest enemy, Philip, afterwards Sir Philip Francis, as one of the +four councillors.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, from the very beginning, Hastings' hands were tied, for General +Clavering and Mr Monson had come out in the same ship with Mr Francis, +and were led by the nose by him, leaving only Mr Barwell to form an +ineffectual minority with the Governor-General.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was as if the desire at home had been to stultify reform, since +quarrel began at once. Warren Hastings declined even to consider the +recall of the Resident in Oude, who had been appointed by him under +the old rules. The Triumvirate not only recalled him--a man of whom +they knew nothing good, bad, or indifferent--by their majority of one, +but appointed in his stead a Colonel Champion of whom they knew less, +save that he was the author of various highly-coloured, sensational, +almost hysterical letters on the iniquities of the Rohilla war; the +appointment, therefore, tells its own tale of bias. The instructions +given to the Colonel were incredibly foolish. He was to call for +instant payment (within fourteen days) of the £400,000 the Nawāb had +promised to pay on the conclusion of the war, failing which he was to +withdraw the brigade at all costs. Anything more unscrupulous than +this demand for what the Triumvirate was pleased to call "blood +money," while appearances were to be saved by, possibly, withdrawing +aid at a critical moment, could not be imagined. But despite Warren +Hastings' vehement opposition, the instructions were issued, though +Fate intervened in the cause of common-sense ere they could be carried +out, by the news that the war was over!</p> + +<p class="normal">The dissensions in the Council soon became notorious; the +natives--time-servers by nature, and quick to seize on any opportunity +of ingratiating themselves with those who have the whiphand--lost no +time in trumping up charges against Warren Hastings. These, even one +which alleged that out of a bribe of £90,000, only £1,500 fell to the +Governor-General's share--a charge which refutes itself by sheer +absurdity--were enquired into with reckless, indecent animosity.</p> + +<p class="normal">Finally, the complaint of one Rājah Nuncomār brought matters to a +crisis. In this matter it is almost impossible to blame sufficiently +the conduct of the Triumvirate, who used their wretched majority of +one, not for any public purpose, but simply to gratify private spite. +Small wonder was it that, confronted with such absolutely unscrupulous +animosity, Warren Hastings took up the glove and fought fairly enough, +but with every weapon he could lay his hands upon.</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a Supreme Court in Calcutta, and Nuncomār had, amongst other +and many villainies (for he was known to be a desperate and +unprincipled intriguer), a bad habit of forgery.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had been on trial for this once before, and Hastings had interfered +for his release. Now he let the law take its course, and Rājah +Nuncomār, duly tried and sentenced, suffered the extreme penalty, for +forgery was then in England a hanging matter.</p> + +<p class="normal">The execution had immediate effect. The crowd of native informers +ready to pour their lies into the ears of the Triumvirate disappeared +as if by magic, but the animosity remained; and in the years to come +the death of Nuncomār was used with immense effect in the great +impeachment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, the Nawāb of Oude had died, and his son reigned in his +stead. Out of this arose fresh disputes on the Council. The +Triumvirate being all for imposing exceedingly harsh terms on the new +Nawāb, Asaf-daula; Mr Hastings refusing to sanction what was "no +equitable construction of the treaty with the late Nawāb," and was +indeed an extortion which the new ruler had "no power to fulfil."</p> + +<p class="normal">The Directors at home, however, continuing their career of persistent +greed, after first refusing to agree with the Triumvirate on the +ground that "their treaties with Oude did not expire with the death of +Sūjah-daula," suddenly changed their opinion when they realised the +immense pecuniary advantage to be derived from the new arrangement. +The extortion, therefore, was carried out, Mr Hastings protesting. And +now two new problems arose: one in Madras, one in Bombay, both +presidencies being subordinate to that of Calcutta. The first +concerned the re-installing of the Rājah of Tanjore, which country had +been made over to the Nawāb of the Carnatic. This was a quarrel which, +like a snowball, grew as it went along, and ended in most +extraordinary fashion, by the arrest and imprisonment of Lord Pigot, +the Governor of Madras, at the hands of a vice-admiral of the Fleet! +The bewildering complexity of complication in the whole case would +take pages to unravel, and the result--the death of one poor old man +(for Lord Pigot succumbed to the ignominious treatment meted out to +him)--would no doubt, in the opinion of the Directors, scarcely +justify the expenditure of so much pen and paper.</p> + +<p class="normal">The trouble in Bombay arose out of the taking of Salsette, and +involved conflict with the Mahrattas, who had persisted in refusing +possession of it to the English.</p> + +<p class="normal">The state of affairs amongst the Mahrattas was at this time confusion +itself. Rāgonāth-Rao had been made regent by Bāji-Rao, who, it will be +remembered, had died during his son's minority of grief, after the +fatal day of Pānipat. The boy Peishwa had since been murdered; +conspirators had declared that his wife had borne a son; claims and +counterclaims, intrigue and counter-intrigue, had reduced the Mahratta +Government to an invertebrate condition, which the Bombay Council +considered favourable to their earnest desire to keep the Portuguese +from again acquiring the peninsula (or island) of Salsette, which +virtually commands the harbour at Bombay. They therefore temporarily +annexed Salsette, and made its cession the foundation of an offer to +aid Rāgonāth-Rao (commonly called Rāgoba), who was then in very low +water, against the opposite faction. The temptation was great; a +treaty was signed, by which the East India Company, in addition to +gaining Salsette and Bassein, were to be paid £225,000.</p> + +<p class="normal">But here the Supreme Council at Calcutta intervened--why, it is +impossible to say--declared in one breath that the treaty with Rāgoba +was "unpolitic, unreasonable, unjust, and unauthorised," and advised +one with the opposite faction.</p> + +<p class="normal">The quarrel, as usual, becomes complicated in the extreme, and is +rendered more confused than it need have been, even in those days of +bewilderment, by the double interference from Calcutta and from +England. Considering that about six months was necessary to secure a +reply from the former place, and about two years from the latter, it +is marvellous how any action at all could be decided upon. In the end, +however, a treaty was signed with Rāgoba's enemies, which raised great +indignation in Bombay, not because it involved any breach of honour, +but because it brought in less to the Treasury.</p> + +<p class="normal">Warren Hastings, however, was now busy over financial reforms, and +despite the quibbling and captious criticism of the Triumvirate, +evolved a scheme which showed real grip of the problem at issue, as +indeed might have been expected from a man of his intelligence and +vast Indian experience. It was, however, rejected by the Three, who at +the same time excused themselves from suggesting any other scheme, +because they were not "sufficiently qualified by local observation and +experience to undertake so difficult a task."</p> + +<p class="normal">Surely fatuousness could no farther go? We have here men who consider +themselves qualified to criticise, while they admit total ignorance of +the subject criticised!</p> + +<p class="normal">Stung, no doubt, by this obvious retort, Mr Francis finally produced a +scheme--a scheme which, containing as it does the very first inception +of the "Great Mistake" which has dogged the footsteps of England in +her dealings with India, had better have been hanged like a millstone +round its promulgator's neck, and he drowned in the sea, than that it +should ever have seen the light.</p> + +<p class="normal">For amid quotations, no doubt, from Adam Smith and Mirabeau--the +latter in French, after his usual wont--Philip Francis, mastertype of +the self-satisfied Western mind--the mind which degenerates so easily +into that of the crank, the faddist--started the cardinal error of all +errors in India; that is, the statement that the property of the land +is not vested in the Sovereign power, but belonged to the people.</p> + +<p class="normal">Looking down the years, seeing the manifold evils which this +pernicious engrafting of Western ideals on Eastern actions has +produced; the alienation of the land, the hopeless slavery of the +cultivator to the money-lender, the harsh evictions rendered necessary +by the loss of the tenant's credit (which had ever been due to his +<i>unalterable</i> hold on the land, combined with his <i>inability to sell +it</i>), one can but wish that the millstone had done its work!</p> + +<p class="normal">The evil, however, was scotched for the moment. Colonel Monson died, +and Warren Hastings, by his casting vote as Governor, now ceased to be +in the minority.</p> + +<p class="normal">He immediately used his newly-acquired ascendency to appoint what was +practically the first Settlement Commission in India. That is to say, +a body of tried and experienced officers, who should "furnish accurate +statements of the values of lands, uniform in design, and of authority +in the execution," which should serve as a basis for revenue, and +would also "assure the ryots (peasants) against arbitrary exactions," +and "give them perpetual and undisturbed possessions of their lands."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"This," he goes on to say in his Minute, "is not to be done by +proclamations and edicts, nor by indulgences to <i>zemindars</i> (large +proprietors) or farmers. The former will not be obeyed unless enforced +by regulations so framed as to produce their own effect without +requiring the hand of Government to interpose its support; and the +latter, though they may feed the luxury of the <i>zemindars</i> or the +rapacity of the farmers, will prove no relief to the cultivator, +<i>whose welfare ought to be the immediate and primary care of +Government</i>."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Bravo, Warren Hastings! If there was anything to forgive, one would +forgive much for the sake of such a creed.</p> + +<p class="normal">His success spread consternation amongst his enemies. Something must +be done, and done quickly.</p> + +<p class="normal">One Colonel Macleane had gone home, arriving in February 1776. In a +moment of great depression in the previous year, Warren Hastings had +entrusted him with a letter of instruction to be conveyed to the +Directors, in which he declared that he "would not continue in the +Government of Bengal unless certain conditions" were accepted.</p> + +<p class="normal">No use was made of this letter till the 10th October, when, after a +stormy attempt on the part of the Company to oust Warren Hastings, +Colonel Macleane wrote announcing that he held the Governor-General's +resignation!</p> + +<p class="normal">These are the bald facts. Eager to catch at any excuse for the removal +of an opponent, the resignation, absolutely unauthorised, wholly +tentative, was accepted without any discussion of the conditions, and +a Mr Wheler appointed as successor.</p> + +<p class="normal">The English mail of the 19th of June 1777 which conveyed this +astounding piece of news to Calcutta took almost every one by +surprise; except, apparently, General Clavering and Mr Francis. At any +rate, on the very next day the former boldly issued orders signed +"Clavering, Governor-General," and requested delivery from Mr Hastings +of the keys.</p> + +<p class="normal">A free fight indeed! That day <i>two</i> councils were held: one by General +Clavering, with Mr Francis as sole supporter; one by Warren Hastings +and the ever faithful Mr Barwell.</p> + +<p class="normal">Could animosity, pitiful squabbling, disreputable intrigue, further +go?</p> + +<p class="normal">Luckily, there was another power in Calcutta capable of deciding the +rival claims, and to it Mr Hastings, ever inclined to toleration, +appealed.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Supreme Court decided unanimously in favour of Warren Hastings, +and so the matter ended for a time; Mr Wheler, who had come out to be +Governor-General, taking Colonel Monson's place, and, naturally, +restoring the Triumvirate, which, however, after a brief interval, +dwindled again by the death of General Clavering.</p> + +<p class="normal">All this is very petty, very uninteresting, in the face of the vast +questions which were surging up for settlement all over India, but it +is instructive as showing the absolute futility of the India House in +its attempts at control, in its inept shilly-shallying between greed +of gold and its desire to implant Western ethics on the East. So the +quarrel went on, involving amongst other things a duel between Warren +Hastings and Mr Francis, in which the latter was badly wounded and had +to go home!</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, the Mahrattas were more than ever at loggerheads amongst +themselves. Rāgoba's claims were readmitted by a large number of the +faction who had formerly been against him, and with whom a treaty had +been made. They applied for help under that treaty (to reinstate +Rāgoba this time!) and received it; no doubt all the more readily +because that gentleman had been the Bombay Council's original nominee. +Also because, about this time, the arrival of a French ship at Bombay +with a mission purporting to be from Louis XVI. to the Mahratta Court +at Poona caused some alarm. For hostilities seemed not far off in +Europe between France and England, and the chief member of the +so-called embassy was one Chevalier St Lubin, who was known to have +previously been with the Mahratta forces.</p> + +<p class="normal">And here followeth a welter of confused incidents, claims, and +counterclaims, which pages would not suffice to unravel.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Triumvirate, reduced to two, opposed help. Warren Hastings with +his casting vote carried it, but ere the brigade sent from Calcutta +arrived at the seat of war, Rāgoba's half of the Poona court had +whacked the other half, and having gained ascendency, proposed to do +without their candidate!</p> + +<p class="normal">Here was an <i>impasse</i> for people whose Western minds could not follow +such mental somersaults. To add to their confusion, war had been again +declared between France and England, and before the Council had had +time to recover from their surprise, the victorious Poona party had +been again overthrown, and the now ascendant one of Nuna Furnavese was +known to harbour Chevalier St Lubin, and to have French proclivities!</p> + +<p class="normal">There seemed to be nothing for it now save once more to make Rāgoba a +figurehead.</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth, as one follows in the maelstrom of Indian intrigue, even as +briefly as is possible here, the efforts of these harassed, distracted +Western diplomatists to keep their honour above water, one is filled +with pity for them. It would have been better not to fight at all, if +their code of ethics forbade them the full use of the weapons used +against them.</p> + +<p class="normal">So the weary Mahratta war dragged on and on, backed at first by the +hearty approval of the Court of Directors, who pointed out "the +necessity of counteracting the views of the French at Poona."</p> + +<p class="normal">This same war was full of incident. Scindiah and Holkar flash over its +horizon, now in alliance, now in defiance; territories and towns were +taken, and lost, and retaken; the whole wide, central plain of India +and all the western coast-line was perambulated by soldiery; and in +the end, in 1782, a treaty was entered into at Sālbai which was +utterly disadvantageous to the English, and which wrung from the +Bombay presidency the despairing cry that it must "henceforward +require from the Bengal treasury a large and annual supply of money" +to carry on the concern.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, in Madras, affairs had not been much more happy. During the +war with France, Pondicherry had been assaulted and had capitulated +with the honours of war, but in all other ways success was absent. +Friction arose between the presidency and the Nizām over the question +of a French garrison, and though the matter was outwardly smoothed +over and friendly alliance continued, it formed the basis of a +confederation between the Mahrattas, Hyder-Ali, and the Nizām, having +for object the <i>total expulsion of the English from India</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hyder-Ali, whose sword had been rusting in its scabbard since the +Peace of 1763, had his own private grievance of help promised by +treaty and withheld, because the object for which it was asked was +deemed unworthy. This was a constant cause of the endless dissensions +between the British and the native princes, and shows clearly the +absolute folly of attempting, as the Company did, to run with the hare +and hunt with the hounds; that is to say, to compound a treaty on one +ethical basis, and carry it out on another.</p> + +<p class="normal">He instantly commenced operations in the Carnatic, and, though the +Nizām was bought off by the conciliatory measures of the Bengal +Council, continued his attack with unhesitating ferocity. He was, +frankly, a murderous madman, who, as the phrase runs, "saw red" on the +slightest provocation. But even <i>his</i> excesses were no warrant for +Edmund Burke's blatant rhetoric in his celebrated impeachment, where +"menacing meteors blacken horizons," and "burst to pour down contents +(?) on peaceful plains" (?). Where "storms of universal fire blast +every field," and "fleeing from their flaming villages, miserable +inhabitants are swept by whirlwinds of cavalry into captivity in +unknown and hostile lands."</p> + +<p class="normal">What dictionary did Burke use, one wonders, and how comes it that his +cheap rhodomontade passes for eloquence?</p> + +<p class="normal">Hyder-Ali, however, made himself very disagreeable, and in the short +space of twenty-nine days brought one disaster after another to the +British arms. They began to look on defeat as their portion.</p> + +<p class="normal">Madras being, apparently, unable to grapple with its enemy, Sir Eyre +Coote was sent from Bengal to take command. But he found every +military equipment faulty. The commissariat was beneath contempt, and +for months the British force was kept stationary, unable to close with +Hyder, who, aided by French officers, flashed here and there at his +pleasure. But the day of reckoning came on the 1st July 1781, when +Hyder-Ali lost ten thousand men, and the English but three hundred and +sixty.</p> + +<p class="normal">Though fortune continued to waver between the combatants, this was +practically the turning-point in the war. France, it is true, sent a +fleet to interfere on the native side; England sent one to checkmate +it; but it was death which finally intervened--death who conquered +wild, untamable, almost irresponsible Hyder. He died suddenly, at the +age of eighty, from a carbuncle on the neck.</p> + +<p class="normal">He left a worthy tiger cub behind him, and Tippoo-Sultān continued his +father's fierce fighting with unvarying ferocity and varying success, +helped in all ways by the French, so long as that nation continued at +war with England. When that ended, he fought still, off his own bat, +and the war, which completely crippled Madras, dragged on with +markedly increasing arrogance on the one side, and increasing +submission on the other, until in 1784, in spite of Tippoo-Sultān's +many vile crimes, his shameless murderings of English officers, his +still more terrible offences towards women and children, peace was +concluded with him; a peace, certainly, without honour. To the minds +of some it may seem the most indelible stain on the reputation of the +British in India.</p> + +<p class="normal">Warren Hastings, at the time the treaty was signed by the other +members of the Supreme Council, was in Lucknow, whither he had gone by +way of Benares.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Rājah of this place had in 1775, it will be remembered, found +British protection by the treaty with Asaf-daula, Nawāb of Oude, which +Warren Hastings had condemned as unfair, and of which one of the +articles was the cession of Benares. As usual, an immediate dispute +arose as to what revenue and charges were to be paid; a dispute which +waxed and waned until 1781. There can be no doubt but that on the +English side increasing impecuniosity prompted growing demands, while +on the Rājah's side was as constant a desire for the evasion even of +just claims.</p> + +<p class="normal">That Warren Hastings considered his position unassailable is evidenced +by the fact that, when, in 1781, on his way to Oude he paused at +Benares, he placed the Rājah (who, it may be said, was a man of no +family whatever) under arrest in his palace to await further +explanations, in the charge of some companies of sepoys who did not +even <i>carry</i> ball-cartridge. Palpably, therefore, no violence was +intended. It could not have been, since Hastings had but a small +escort. Rescue, however, was immediately resolved on by the populace; +a general rush was made for the palace, the sepoys were cut to pieces, +and the Rājah made good his escape. Almost immediately afterwards, in +consequence of the annihilation of a small British relief force from +Mirzapore, the whole countryside rose in the Rājah's interest, and +some time elapsed ere a force sufficient to cope with the insurrection +could be gathered together. Finally, the Rājah (who had throughout +protested his desire for peace, even while preparing at all points for +war) fled to a fort, whither he had previously conveyed most of his +treasures. Warren Hastings, therefore, at once began to form a new +Government. A grandson was selected as successor, the tribute payable +was increased, and the whole criminal jurisdiction of the province +(which had been wretchedly administered) vested in Bengal. After this +the late Rājah was pursued to his fort, whence he fled, leaving his +women behind. His mother attempted defence, but finally capitulated on +the promise of personal safety and freedom from search; the latter +stipulation was, however, undoubtedly violated, as the payment of "10 +rupees each to the four female searchers" occurs in the accounts of +the incident. But this in no way implicates Warren Hastings, who +asserts his great regret that the breach of faith should have +occurred. It may be mentioned that some £300,000 was found in the +fort, which, with the amount that the Rājah had, doubtless, carried +away with him, effectually disposes of a poverty which prevented a +payment of £50,000. (These details are necessary because of the great +stress laid by Mr Burke in the impeachment on this Benares incident.)</p> + +<p class="normal">The Governor-General had intended passing on to Lucknow, but the Nawāb +Asaf-daula, put out by the delay at Benares, was in a hurry, and met +Warren Hastings at Chunar.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here a new treaty was signed. It will be remembered that when the last +one was entered into on the occasion of Asaf-daula's accession, Warren +Hastings had protested against it as unfair. He now, therefore, +exempted the Nawāb from all expenses of the English army quartered on +him, with the exception of the single brigade arranged for by his +father, Sūjah-daula, and from all other expenses to English gentlemen +excepting the charges of the Resident and his office.</p> + +<p class="normal">As a set-off to this nothing was exacted; but leave was given to the +Nawāb to resume certain <i>jāgkirs</i>, on condition that in all cases +where such grants were guaranteed by the Company, equivalent value to +the annual revenue should be given yearly. Not an unfair arrangement, +since a fixed revenue, though uncertain through the mutability of the +person who has to pay it, is less uncertain than one dependent on +fluctuating crops.</p> + +<p class="normal">But there were two <i>jāghirs</i> which, so to speak, filled the Nawāb's +eye: they were those held, and illegally held, by his mother and his +grandmother. In addition to the vast stretches of land, the revenues +of which made these two princesses not only independent, but as +possessors of small armies, dangerous factors for strife in internal +politics, they were known to possess, and wrongfully possess, the +treasure, estimated at £3,000,000, of the late Nawāb. To all this they +had no possible claim. Under Mahomedan law the widow takes one-eighth +only of her husband's personal possessions, the mother nothing. There +is no possibility of will, no possible over-riding of the law. They +were, therefore, robbers, and that the Nawāb should have refrained +from violence for so long is to his credit. This, however, was due to +an unwarrantable interference on the part of the British. Mr Bristow, +the Resident appointed by the Triumvirate, had, with their consent, +and despite Hastings' dissent, guaranteed immunity to Asaf-daula's +mother. As a matter of fact, no foreign power was admissible in a +family dispute; in addition, the Begum was in the wrong.</p> + +<p class="normal">There can be no doubt that Warren Hastings knew the justice of +Asaf-daula's claim to the treasure, or that English troops accompanied +the Nawāb to Fyzabad, where the Begum resided.</p> + +<p class="normal">Beyond this, we have "diabolical expedients," "torturing processes," +"works of spoliation," besides a variety of rhetorical and eloquent +abuse, on the one side; on the other, unconvincing affidavits of the +Begum's complicity in the Benares insurrection and a matter-of-fact +and apparently credible denial <i>in toto</i> of diabolical expedients <i>et +hoc genus omne</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">And behind all we have a very virtuous, very greedy British public, +which insisted on being paid £400,000 a year by a bankrupt and +overburdened concern.</p> + +<p class="normal">For that was now the condition of the Honourable East India Company. +It had attempted too much, or rather its servants had done these +things which ought to have been done, without regard to dividends. At +the close of Warren Hastings' administration--he resigned his office +on the 8th February 1785, practically compelled thereto by the action +of the Board of Directors--the revenues of India were not equal to the +ordinary expense of Government.</p> + +<p class="normal">A terrible indictment, truly! For which, however, some excuse may be +found in the following short chapter on administrations and +impeachments.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.10" href="#div1Ref_03.10">ADMINISTRATIONS AND IMPEACHMENTS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1761 TO A.D. 1785</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Clive and Warren Hastings need to be bracketed together in the history +of India. They were the men who made our Empire, and they were both +impeached for their methods by their countrymen.</p> + +<p class="normal">And both were acquitted. How came this about?</p> + +<p class="normal">There is a little sentence in the History of India by James Mill the +historian (father to John Stuart Mill), a man presumably above sordid +considerations, a man whom one would never suspect of commercialism, +which answers the question:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>In India the true test of the Government as affecting the interest +of the English nation is found in its financial results</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">This is not intended as blame. On the contrary, Mill goes on to make +the deliberate but not quite accurate statement that Warren Hastings' +administration <i>must</i> have been bad, because, though in 1772, when +that administration began, the revenue was but £2,373,750, as against +£5,315,197 in 1785, the additional income did not provide for 5 per +cent. interest on the additional debt incurred.</p> + +<p class="normal">That and that only was the <i>fons et origo mali</i>. England wanted gold.</p> + +<p class="normal">Doubtless the expenses of the ruinous wars which devastated India +during the latter half of the eighteenth century were a terrible +charge upon the revenues; but the revenues increased during the same +time, and were more than equal to current expenses, only they did not +provide for £400,000 a year tax, and the payment of more than 5 per +cent. interest.</p> + +<p class="normal">In truth, England had not yet grasped the significance of the White +Man's burden; she wanted to be paid for carrying it. That is the +bitter truth.</p> + +<p class="normal">But during the administrations of both Clive and Warren Hastings an +effort, at least, was made to make that administration worthy of +Englishmen. Clive spent his whole force against corruption; Warren +Hastings spent his in an attempt to govern the people peacefully and +righteously. So much attention is absorbed, as a rule, by the question +of his guilt or innocence in regard to certain specific charges, that +none is given to the masterly way in which he turned his brief +ascendency in the Council, caused by Colonel Monson's death, not +to any scheme for personal aggrandisement or even to public +money-getting, but to the passing of a revenue settlement which should +protect the peasant. In the course of the argument against Mr Francis' +views (which necessarily formed part of the scheme) Mr Hastings made a +remark which deserves quotation, if only because it seems to have +roused no denial, not even from the irrepressible Francis.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"It is a fact which will with difficulty obtain credit in England, +though the notoriety of it here justifies me in asserting it, that +much the greatest part of the <i>zemindars</i>" (big proprietors, petty +Rājahs, and Nawābs, etc.) "are incapable of judging or acting for +themselves, being either minors, or men of weak understanding, or +absolute idiots."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">This is a sweeping indictment which, had it not been incapable of +denial or mitigation, must certainly have met with censure. But even +Mr Francis acquiesces. He admits that "many of the <i>zemindars</i> will at +first be incapable of managing their lands themselves."</p> + +<p class="normal">Now we have here a most ominous admission which gives us the +clue by which we can unravel much more in this tangled web of +eighteenth-century India.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the upper class which was corrupt, which was degenerate +utterly. Long centuries of unpunished crime, of depravity without one +check, had done their work. The scions of the small nobility were born +decrepid; they died early, outworn by vice, leaving heirs as +degenerate as themselves. In lesser--ever, thank Heaven!--in lessening +degree this has remained the great problem in India: how to give +freedom to its hereditary rulers, and yet to ensure that the race +shall not suffer, yet to give it freedom from hereditary evils.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the eighteenth century the men of courts and cities were, as a +rule, vicious to the core. If evidence be needed on this point, +go to Delhi, go to Lucknow, and there, in the dregs, and lees, and +off-scourings of what was once a dynasty, you will still find some of +the meanest specimens of humanity on God's earth.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was with the far-away ancestors of these off-scourings of dead +courts, full, then, of pride and power, that men like Clive and +Hastings often had to deal. Small wonder, then, if they often dealt +with them unwisely, harshly, angered by their hopeless treachery.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the great factor in all the many oppressions which, undoubtedly, +formed part of English annexation in India was not private rapacity, +it was public greed.</p> + +<p class="normal">What, for instance, was even Clive's asserted £300,000 of plunder +beside the £400,000 of yearly tribute to the English Exchequer? As for +Warren Hastings' fortune, he left India an impoverished man, with +scarce enough wherewithal to pay the expenses of defending himself +from the charge brought against him by his country for unbridled +peculation.</p> + +<p class="normal">Both Clive and Hastings had hard parts to play, and, considering the +difficulties against which they had to contend, they played them well. +Though, perhaps, neither of them realised (and certainly no one else +did) that the times in which they lived were transitional, that the +very existence of the East India Company as a purely mercantile +concern was fast drawing to a close, and that a new life of +responsibility--the life of true empire--was opening before it, they +acted as if they had so realised it. They flung rupees behind them to +stay the gold-grubbing multitude, careless, over-careless of how they +gained them; but--but they took their own way! Hastings especially +identified himself with the people of India; he learnt their language, +knew their hoarded wisdom, and often appealed to the lessons of their +past history.</p> + +<p class="normal">This in itself was an offence to the self-sufficient West, which +failed, and often still fails, to find excuse for a breach of its own +laws in the different ethical standards of the East.</p> + +<p class="normal">Take Clive's rapacity. There was no law forbidding the reception of +presents. He did great things, very great things for Mīr Jāffar, and +under the same misconception of enormous wealth which made the country +itself claim one million of money as compensation for a loss of +£5,000, he accepted a fee of £180,000.</p> + +<p class="normal">Regarding the Omichand incident--the only other accusation formulated +against him which is of any importance--it is, at least, arguable that +when bare existence for your countrymen depends on outwitting a +traitor, an informer, a villain, any weapon is legal.</p> + +<p class="normal">In like manner, if it is possible to disentangle the actual charges +made against Warren Hastings from the network of words in which +Sheridan and Burke caught the unwary minds of many ignorant people, it +will be found that in every charge which went up to trial a simple +excuse bars the way of blame.</p> + +<p class="normal">The charge concerning his responsibility for the extermination of the +Rohillas, of which he was acquitted even by the House of Commons, +finds answer in his vehement dissent from the treaty forced on him by +the Triumvirate, and by which he was bound to provide the Nawāb of +Oude with troops.</p> + +<p class="normal">That concerning his cruelty to the Rājah of Benares is met by the +undoubted fact that no article in the treaty with the latter gives +colour to the contention that the tribute payable was a fixed and +unalterable sum, while the fact that £300,000 worth of treasure was +discovered in the possession of the Rājah's women, disposes +effectually of the plea that poverty prevented payment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Against the accusation of his having aided and abetted the Nawāb of +Oude in seizing and confiscating the personal property of the Begums, +stands the undoubted fact that these ladies could not, by the laws of +India, possess such property; while the charge of undue cruelty in the +treatment of these same ladies is absolutely unprovable, by reason of +the conflicting evidence on both sides.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the charge of having, during his administration, raised the cost +of the civil establishment some £5,000,000, is more than met by his +undenied efforts to place the Government of India on a basis worthy of +England, and by the necessity for either accepting and carrying +through new responsibilities, or allowing the Company to sink back +into its former state, when a paltry £20 a year was all the salary it +could afford to pay men whom it yet vested with almost unlimited power +of extortion.</p> + +<p class="normal">The eighth and last count--for it is as well to confine refutation to +what actually went up for trial--his personal rapacity and corruption +is answered conclusively by the undoubted fact that when he retired, +the sum of some £72,000 represented his entire fortune.</p> + +<p class="normal">Truly, there was some justification for the bitter cry with which he +ended his defence--a defence which lies practically in denouncing +English greed for gold:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"I gave you all, and you have rewarded me with confiscation, disgrace, +and a life of impeachment."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">He was on his trial for no less than nine years.</p> + +<p class="normal">These two great men left India a very different place from what they +had found it. The East India Company was trying now to govern, as well +as to make money. There was scarcely a district throughout the length +and breadth of the land into which the thought of England had not +entered; few in which the lives of Englishmen did not form a not +always wholesome example. In Lucknow, however, Claude Martin, soldier +of both France and England, quaint admixture of honour and dishonour, +while he aided and abetted the Nawāb in cock-fighting, drew the line +at debaucheries, though he kept a considerable number of wives. This, +however, was forced on him by his own merits, since the courtly, +good-looking, middle-aged Frenchman's favourite charity was the +educating of orphans, and the girls for whom he performed this kindly +office had a trick of refusing the eligible <i>partis</i> offered them, and +electing to remain with their guardian!</p> + +<p class="normal">Walter Reinhardt, nicknamed the "Sombre," was not so estimable a +creature. He was, undoubtedly, the murderer, while in the Nawāb of +Bengal's service, of the English at Patna in 1763, and the arch-factor +in many other crimes. But he met his dues by marrying one of the most +remarkable women of India. It was no light task to be the husband of +the Begum Sumroo, who buried a laughing girl at whom the blue-eyed +German from Luxembourg had cast an approving glance, under her chair +of state; buried her alive, and sat on her for three days. Four was +not necessary; Walter the Sombre had learnt his lesson in three!</p> + +<p class="normal">After his death she ruled her state of Sirdhāna, not very far from +Delhi, until she died in 1838, a very old woman, who possibly, despite +her conversion to Roman Catholicism, looked back on her youth as a +dancing-girl in Delhi with a vague regret.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then there was George Thomas, an Irishman, whilom favourite of the +aforesaid Begum, who cherished the hope--so he says--"of attempting +the conquest of the Punjaub, and aspired to the honour of placing the +British Standard on the Attock." He only succeeded in establishing for +himself an independent principality near Hānsi, which he yielded to +Lord Lake in 1803.</p> + +<p class="normal">But all over India, in almost every town of import, Englishmen were to +be found in positions of trust under native rulers. Briefly, they had +come to stay; and no amount of legislation by Parliament, no +prohibition of diplomacy, no exhortation to refrain from treaties or +from meddling in native politics, could now avail to prevent England +from becoming first factor in India.</p> + +<p class="normal">It may be worth while to glance round that India and gain, as it were, +a pictorial view of it at the time when England and the English +Parliament first assumed political responsibility in regard to it by +the establishment of a Board-of-Control appointed by the Crown.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the far north, Kandahār and Kābul were, as ever, engaged in petty +warfare, the sons and grandsons of Ahmed-Shāh Durrāni each striving +for the mastery. The Punjāb was held by the Sikhs so far as the +Sutlej. What are now called the Cis Sutlej States including the +great battlefield of Pānipat, being under Mahratta influence. This +influence had also made itself felt at Delhi, where the Great Moghul, +Star-of-the-Universe and Defender-of-the-Faith, Shāh-Ālam by name, led +the life of a pensioner, a prisoner, his authority gone save as a +watchword to rouse strife. Oude was in the hands of the British +debauchee Asaf-daula. Thence passing through Benares lay the +English-held Bengal, Behar, Orissa. Westward was Poona, Guzerāt, +almost all Rājputana, Agra, and a great part of Central India; these +were strongholds of the Mahrattas. Mysore, headquarters of the +man-monster Tippoo-Sultān, murderer-in-chief after his father +Hyder-Ali's death, marched with Central India the Dekkan fief of that +half-hearted ally the Nizām. Below that, again, came the Carnatic, +held by that most troublesome and expensive of potentates the Nawāb of +Arcot, tame bear (and bore) to the Madras Presidency, which must have +wished its <i>protégé</i> at the bottom of the sea many and many a time.</p> + +<p class="normal">And under all these broad classifications, such a welter of proud, +poor principalities and grasping, vicious courts as surely this +world's history shows nowhere else. The horrid outcome of unlimited, +unbridled power in the past.</p> + +<p class="normal">And below this again?</p> + +<p class="normal">Below this, again, the dreaming heart of India, unchanged, +unchangeable.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.11" href="#div1Ref_03.11">THE BOARD OF CONTROL</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1786 TO A.D. 1811</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The heroic age of the history of British India is now past. Forced by +Fate and by the strong right hand of two strong men, England, with one +eye still fixed on gold, had had to turn the other on the duties of +empire. So the Company was, as it were, split in twain. The old +commercial interests were dealt with, as heretofore, by the Board of +Directors, but the control "of all acts, operations, or concerns, +which in any wise relate to the civil or military government or +revenues of the British possessions of the East Indies," was vested in +a Board of six members, all appointed by the Crown.</p> + +<p class="normal">The word "British" is noteworthy in conjunction with possessions, and +shows the ease with which the English nation, while still loudly +condemning the action of the East India Company, availed itself of the +result of such actions. The chief point of interest in the New Act was +the power given to Parliament to pay the salaries, charges, and +expenses of the Board of Control out of the revenues of India, +provided this charge did not exceed £16,000. This was the nucleus of +the present payment of £144,000 in the India Office alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">As regards the Constitution in India few changes were made, and, after +a brief tenure of office on the part of Mr Macpherson, Lord Cornwallis +went out to India as Governor-General. He had served successfully in +Ireland, but with disaster in America. Considering his entire +ignorance of even the first conditions of Eastern life, his +Governor-Generalship was much less disastrous than it might have been, +though it was marred by the crystallisation of the Great Mistake which +Mr Francis had first presented in nebulous form; that is to say, the +engrafting on India of the Western idea that the land cannot possibly +belong to the State, but that some proprietor most be found for it.</p> + +<p class="normal">But ere this was embodied in the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, Lord +Cornwallis found his hands full of minor diplomacies. Tippoo-Sultān +was at war with the Mahrattas, and the latter had foolishly been given +promise of assistance by the British.</p> + +<p class="normal">"An awkward, foolish scrape," writes the Governor-General. "How we +shall get out of it with honour, God knows; but out of it we must get +somehow, and give no troops."</p> + +<p class="normal">That, practically, was the first charge on his administration. How to +get out of minor squabbles, and leave the prime movers to fight it out +amongst themselves. Hitherto the British troops had been mercenaries. +As such they had made their influence felt in every corner of India. +Now all was changed. England was a power in the East, hostile or +friendly as she chose, not to be bribed to the support of any one. His +next task was to interview the Nawāb of Oude on the subject of the +protection of <i>his</i> state, and in so doing rather to sidewalk round +this firm non-mercenary position adopted by the Board of Control. For +£500,000 was taken yearly as payment for two brigades which were to +bring "the blessings of peace" under the ęgis "of the most formidable +power in Hindustan." Asaf-daula, however, was hardly worth protecting. +He extorted every penny he could get from everybody in order to spend +it on debauchery, and allowed his ministers to cheat and plunder both +him and his country.</p> + +<p class="normal">Another and a more worthy visitor pleaded for an interview, and was +refused the favour. This was Jīwan Bakht, the heir-apparent to the +Emperor Shāh-Ālam. He had been received by Warren Hastings, who, +possibly because he saw in him a promise not often to be found in the +Indian potentates of those days, allowed him £40,000 a year as +maintenance. "Gentle, lively, possessed of a high sense of honour, of +a sound judgment, an uncommon quick penetration, a well-cultivated +understanding, with a spirit of resignation and an equanimity almost +exceeding any within reach of knowledge or recollection."</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was the character given by the great Proconsul after six months +of daily intercourse; but caution was now the order of the day.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The whole political use that may be derived" (from an interview) "is +at present uncertain, but there may arise <i>some future advantage</i> if +we can gain his affection and attachment ... but I have already +prepared his mind not to expect many of the outward ceremonials +usually paid in this country to the princes of the House of Timur, as +they would not only be extremely irksome to me personally, but also, +in my opinion, improper to be submitted to by the Governor-General at +the seat of your Government."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">So wrote Lord Cornwallis, and Jiwan Bakht, with spirit <i>and</i> +resignation, contented himself finally with a request that he might be +allowed at least asylum under British protection. He died of fever +shortly after at Benares. Poor, proud prince of the blood royal! Was +he really next-of-kin, as it were, to the Great Moghuls? If we had +given him a chance, as we gave it to the monster Tippoo, to +half-a-hundred scoundrels all over India, would he have regained the +empire of Akbar? Who knows? He vanishes into the "might-have-been" +with his high sense of honour, his spirit, and his resignation.</p> + +<p class="normal">After this, Lord Cornwallis with a light heart took in hand the abuses +of both the civil and the military services, and managed, by "making +it a complete opposition question" which "brought forth all the secret +foes and lukewarm friends of Government," to obtain higher salaries +and better positions for both soldiers and civilians.</p> + +<p class="normal">So far well. Then once more Tippoo-Sultān intervened, and in a trice +India was back in the old days of intrigue, secret treaties, allies, +and war. Even Lord Cornwallis, the Liberal pillar of upright, +straightforward policy, fell before the peculiar temptations of +Oriental diplomacy. There is much to be said for him. Tippoo was an +unwarrantable survival. He ought long before to have been hanged, +drawn, and quartered. As it was, he burst in upon the coming +civilisation and culture, as Mr Burke's 'meteor' burst upon the +'peaceful fields.'</p> + +<p class="normal">It would take too long to tell the tale of the four years' war during +which the Mahrattas, the Dekkanites, and the English, hunted Tippoo +ineffectively from pillar to post, and he retaliated in kind. Finally, +in 1792, he was cornered at Seringapatam, and once more peace was +concluded with a man who deserved nothing but the death of a mad dog.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then ensued a partition of spoil after the old style; each ally +receiving so many lakhs of money, so much territory. After which Lord +Cornwallis, covered with glory, found leisure to address himself +towards crystallising into our rule for ever--unless some Government +arises strong enough to put the wheel back and start afresh--the +Fundamental Error, the Great Mistake of the British Empire in India.</p> + +<p class="normal">In 1793 Mr Dundas and Mr Pitt, neither of them possessing a scrap of +first-hand knowledge of their subject, "shut themselves up for ten +days at Wimbledon" (Heaven save the mark!) and evolved out of their +inner consciousness the Permanent Settlement; thus once and for +ever--unless for the forlorn hope of a strong Government--alienating +from the Sovereign power of India a possession which had been the +Crown's by right beyond the memory of man--in all probability for over +five thousand years.</p> + +<p class="normal">As usual with all overwhelming errors, it was done from the purest +motives of truth and honour, mercy and judgment; that is to say, from +the Western definitions of these virtues. As Lord Cornwallis writes, +he was restoring the rightful landowners</p> +<br> + +<p class="continue" style="font-size:90%">"to such circumstances as to enable them to support their families +with decency and give a liberal education to their children according +to the customs of their respective castes and religions," thus +securing "a regular gradation of ranks ... nowhere more necessary than +in this country for preserving order in civil society."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">It sounds quite unassailable to Western ears; but the results opened +Western eyes. The measure was passed in 1794; in 1796 one-tenth of the +land in Bengal, Behar, and Orissa was on sale. The ancient order of +<i>zemindars</i>, so far from giving a liberal education to its children, +was fast disappearing, glad to accept the small amount of hard cash, +if any, which remained over after settling up ancestral debts. A new +race of proprietors was as rapidly taking the place of the old, to the +disadvantage of the peasant. For as Sir Henry Strachey writes:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The <i>zemindar</i> used formerly, like his ancestors, to reside on his +estate. He was regarded as the chief and father of his tenants. At +present the estates are often possessed by Calcutta purchasers who +never see them."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Nor were the judicial reforms of Lord Cornwallis much more happy. +"Since the year 1793," says Sir Henry Strachey, "crimes of all kinds +have increased, and I think most crimes are still increasing."</p> + +<p class="normal">This was a natural result, first of the attempt to graft English law +with all its legalities on Eastern equity, but mostly of the crass +ignorance of native life everywhere displayed. Mr Shore, afterwards +Lord Teignmouth, expresses this well when he says:--</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"What judge can distinguish the exact truth among the numerous +inconsistencies of the natives he examines? How often do those +inconsistencies proceed from causes very different from those +suspected by us? How often from simplicity, fear, embarrassment in the +witness? How often from our own ignorance and impatience? We cannot +study the genius of the people in its own sphere of action. We know +little of their domestic life; their knowledge, conversations, +amusements; their trades and castes, or any of those national and +individual characteristics which are essential to a complete +knowledge. Every day affords us examples of something new and +surprising, and we have no principle to guide us in the investigation +of facts except an extreme diffidence of our opinion, a consciousness +of inability to judge of what is probable or improbable.... The evil I +complain of is extensive, and, I fear, irreparable. The difficulty we +experience in discerning truth and falsehood among the natives may be +ascribed, I think ... to their excessive ignorance of our characters +and our almost equal ignorance of theirs."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The last sentence is perhaps scarcely strong enough, for Lord +Cornwallis failed to find one civil servant of the Company in Madras +who was "tolerably acquainted with the language and manners of the +people."</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, war had once more broken out between France and England, +and though it had not yet disturbed India, Tippoo-Sultān, with his +usual hardihood, bragged of the marvels of the French Revolution to +the English officer charged, now that the ransom had been paid, with +the duty of restoring the Sultān's sons, who had been kept as +hostages. A trifle, which yet showed the way the wind was blowing. The +Nizām of the Dekkan, also, irritated by the tepid neutrality of Lord +Cornwallis, had fled for help to French arms. Nor was Scindiah better +pleased. Though of low caste, being sprung from the slipper-bearer of +Bāla-ji, the first Peishwa, no Mahratta house claimed higher honours. +Practically, it was master of half Hindustan, and it had been greatly +offended by the refusal of Lord Cornwallis to accept its offer of help +against Tippoo in consideration of a like number of troops to those +promised to the Nizām. So on all sides there was hostility--a +hostility increased by Sir John Shore's policy (he succeeded Lord +Cornwallis as Governor-General) "to adhere as literally as possible to +the strictest possible interpretation of the restrictive clause in the +Act of Parliament against entering into war."</p> + +<p class="normal">Naturally, the fat was soon in the fire. The Mahrattas, always eager +for a fray, fell upon the wretched Nizām, who, fortunately for him, +failing British aid, had that of France; but so had Scindiah. +Therefore Monsieur Raymond and Monsieur de Boigne crossed swords; +until the death of Ragoba the Peishwa turned all Mahratta thought to +the choice of a new ruler.</p> + +<p class="normal">English thought, also, was at this time (1798) engaged in a question +of succession. Asaf-daula, the Nawāb of Oude, had died, acknowledging +a certain Wazeer-Ali as his son and successor. So the dissolute, +disreputable lad of seventeen was promptly placed by the British +Government on the throne with all honour: it did not do to divert the +weather eye, which was always open for "future advantage," to such +trivialities as kingly qualities. But alas and alack for the British +Government, its choice was instantly challenged by Sa'adut-Ali, the +late Nawāb's brother, who brought proof that not only Wazeer-Ali, but +all Asaf-daula's reputed children, were spurious.</p> + +<p class="normal">At first England hesitated at deposing her Nawāb. Then? Then it is +extremely difficult to know what the real motive underlying the action +was, but in 1798 we find Sa'adut-Ali on the throne of Oude, no longer +an independent ruler, but a mere vassal of the British Crown. The plea +of adoption raised by Wazeer-Ali had been dismissed, and in honest +truth, not absolutely without cause. For the Mahomedan law does not +specifically recognise it, especially when near blood-relations exist.</p> + +<p class="normal">These events, together with the death of old Mahomed Ali, Nawāb of +Arcot, aspirant to the Nawābship of the Carnatic--whose debts had been +a veritable millstone round the neck of his consistent backer, the +East India Company--saw Lord Cornwallis and Sir John Shore through +their term of office, and Earl Mornington, afterwards Marquis +Wellesley, reigned in their stead. He landed in April 1798 and found +himself instantly confronted with the results of the non-interference +policy; that is to say, with renewed war with Tippoo-Sultān, who--the +remark has been made before--ought long ago to have been hanged.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is somewhat refreshing to find that immediate negotiations were +carried on both with the Nizām and the Mahrattas in absolute defiance +of Mr Pitt's famous minute against diplomacy! But nothing restrained +Tippoo, not even considerations of personal safety. He was well backed +by the French, with whom the English were still at war. So he tried +conclusions with splendid audacity. And failed. Seringapatam was once +more taken, and this time Tippoo was found dead under a heaped mass of +suffocated, trodden-down corpses in the north gate. But he, +apparently, had died a soldier's death, for the flickering light of +the torches by which the search was made showed that a musket ball had +crashed into his skull above the right ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a better death than he deserved, for though his territories +were well administered, and though Seringapatam was found to be +fortified, garrisoned, provisioned, better than many a modern fort, +and though in every way his vitality was superhuman, it was the +vitality of a devil, and not of a man. Hyder-Ali, his father, had been +wild, untamable, given to long solitudes in the jungles, remote from +all save savage beasts. Let the only excuse, therefore, which can be +made from Tippoo-Sultān be given him--he was born with insanity in his +blood.</p> + +<p class="normal">Relieved from the Tiger-cub--the golden Tiger-head footstool of the +throne found in the royal audience chamber at Seringapatam is now at +Windsor--who had kept Madras in a constant state of alarm for close on +half a century, the Board of Control settled down to various pieces of +policy, for it must not be forgotten that all political work had been +taken out of the hands of the East India Company. This is a point +frequently overlooked, so it must be borne in mind that for all +actions after 1784, the Board of Control, that is, a body of unbiassed +English politicians appointed by the Crown, are entirely responsible. +They settled a disputed succession in Tanjore, they ousted the Nawāb +of Arcot, and by putting a nominee of their own on the throne with a +pension of one-fifth of the revenue only, became vested with the whole +of the rest of the Carnatic. They then turned their attention to Oude, +where the Government of Sa'adut-Ali was in a shocking state of +disorder. Reformation being urged upon him, he wilily announced his +intention of abdicating, and thus gained some delay. Rather to his +disadvantage than otherwise, since Lord Mornington was not long in +producing a cut-and-dried scheme by which the Company should "acquire +the exclusive authority, civil and military, over the dominions of +Oude"; and also that by "secret treaty, not by formal abdication," the +Nawāb, in consideration of receiving a liberal pension, the family +treasure and jewels, should agree to his sons' names being "no further +mentioned than may be necessary for the purpose of securing to them a +suitable provision."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a big order, and to it the Nawāb naturally objected. But the +screw was too tight. He had yielded himself vassal in order to gain +the throne. His government was atrocious. It was practically +impossible for the New Code of Western Ethics, which was everywhere +raising its head in menace to the iniquities of the East, to look on +such things and live. So in the end the treaty was signed; and +whatever else the result might be, one thing is certain, the +inhabitants of Oude were none the worse for the change of rulers.</p> + +<p class="normal">A trivial detail in the confused complication of this transaction +deserves unstinted blame, and that was Lord Mornington's acceptance of +the offer made by one of the Begums of Oude to constitute the Company +her heir. This was openly avowed to be a means of escaping from the +extortions of her grandson the Nawāb, but though it seems equitable +enough to Western ears, it must not be forgotten that the India law of +inheritance of those days allowed no right of will, neither did it +sanction the possession by any widow of wealth beyond a certain small +proportion of her husband's real and personal property, which in this +case could not have included anything but personal effects, the rest +belonging to the Crown.</p> + +<p class="normal">Volumes might be written on this question of the English action in +regard to Oude, but practically there are but one or two facts, one or +two admissions, to be made on both sides.</p> + +<p class="normal">First, it is at best doubtful if we had any right to depose Wazeer-Ali +in favour of his uncle. True, the right of adoption does not hold good +in Mahomedan Common Law, but Indian history gives countless examples +of Mahomedan sovereigns nominating their own successor, though it must +be admitted that this nearly always only held good where there was no +collateral heir. Second, this deposition was undoubtedly in our +favour. By elevating Sa'adut-Ali, a small pensioner to the throne, we +gained a hold on him which enabled us to dictate our own terms at the +time, and, by the mere fact of the vassalage to which we reduced him, +to enhance these terms at our convenience.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the other hand, none can deny that the state of affairs in Oude +strained patience to the uttermost; nor that in essence, the throne of +Oude was of our own creation. It had only a history of a hundred +years, and owned its very existence to the protection of England.</p> + +<p class="normal">The year 1800 showed the outlook all over India more than usually +threatening; so lowering indeed, that Lord Mornington, now the Marquis +Wellesley, consented to prolong his service in India in order to tide +affairs over the crisis which seemed about to come.</p> + +<p class="normal">The chief factor in the unrest was Mahratta jealousy. The Nizām of the +Dekkan, their hereditary enemy, had just been granted a new treaty. +Under it he had been promised a definite protection of troops in +consideration of his ceding territory to the revenue amount of the +subsidy which he would otherwise have had to pay--and, no doubt, would +have paid irregularly.</p> + +<p class="normal">It may here be remarked that this desire to secure regular payment for +the mercenary troops necessary to maintain prestige and power, was +nearly always the cause of English aggression and annexation in India.</p> + +<p class="normal">This treaty affronted the Mahrattas, but ere they could formulate +their grievances, internecine war broke out amongst them, consequent +on the death of Nāna Furnavese, the Peishwa who had for so long +opposed Ragoba. Over this Holkar and Scindiah, who for some time past +had been at each other's throats, fought furiously, and the new +Peishwa, Bāji-Rao, feeling himself in danger of falling between the +two stools of his unruly vassals, applied to England for the +protection of six battalions of British-trained sepoys, and promised +in return to cede territory of the annual value of £225,000.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was granted to him, but the treaty contained other stipulations +regarding future relations which practically reduced the Peishwa to a +state of dependence.</p> + +<p class="normal">Holkar and Scindiah, on the part of <i>their</i> sections of the Mahrattas, +resented this fiercely. As usual, they refused to be bound by the +Peishwa's pusillanimity. So war was declared; a war which for the time +taxed even Sir Arthur Wellesley's military genius to the uttermost, +for the Mahrattas were born fighters. But the battle of Assaye, fought +on the 23rd of September 1803, broke their power in Central India. +They had over ten thousand disciplined troops commanded by Europeans, +chiefly French officers, and a train of one hundred guns, in addition +to nearly forty thousand irregular infantry and cavalry. Against these +Arthur Wellesley had but a total of four thousand five hundred men, +but they included the 78th Highlanders, the 74th Regiment, and the +19th Dragoons.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a fine fight; a double fight, for when, overwhelmed by a real +bayonet charge--the first, possibly, they had ever seen--the Mahrattas +fell back on, and passed, their guns, the artillery men, feigning +death, flung themselves in heaps on the ground. So, ridden over by the +pursuing cavalry, treated as dead, spurned as things of no account, +they remained until, the tyranny overpast, they were up and at their +guns again, bringing <i>volte face</i> destruction to their enemy's rear. +It needed a desperate charge of the Highlanders, with Arthur Wellesley +himself at its head, to retrieve the day.</p> + +<p class="normal">The number of British killed was one thousand five hundred and +sixty-six, more than one-third of their total force.</p> + +<p class="normal">England, however, was now finally on the war-path; hesitation was +over, the Mahratta power all over India had to be crushed. No less +than fifty-five thousand British troops of all arms were gathered +together in India, and these were divided out between the Dekkan, +Guzerāt, Orissa, and Hindustan proper. Of the foremost of these +divisions the record has just been given; the two next, though +successful, were in all ways of minor importance. The last, under +General Lake, was the largest, and consisted of nearly fourteen +thousand men all told. He advanced up the Gangetic plain, and the +battle of Alighur was fought before that of Assaye. It was practically +fought against Scindiah's forces under General Perron, the celebrated +French commander, who, with De Boigne and Raymond, had been for many +years the backbone of resistance against England. But it was fought in +the name of the blind Shāh-Ālam, puppet-emperor of India; for the +Mahrattas, always good fighters, had sent round the fiery cross on +every possible pretext of personal and national loyalty, of tribal +faith and racial adherence.</p> + +<p class="normal">But on the 16th of September, after a pitched battle before Delhi in +the low-lying land across the river Jumna--the country sacred now to +pig-sticking!--General Lake rode with his staff to the palace which +Shāhjahān in all his glory had built, there to have the first +interview which a conquering Englishman had ever had with the Great +Moghul himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a fateful interview. In the palace, glorious still in its lines +of beauty, an old man, blind, decrepid, seated under a tattered +canopy, poverty-stricken, miserable. By his side, soon to be Akbar +II., was his son, and his grandson, the man who afterwards, as +Bahādur-Shāh, served out the measure of his crimes in the Andaman +Islands.</p> + +<p class="normal">It reads like some bad nightmare, does that circumstantial description +given by Lake of his ride through the thronged city at sunset-time, +when the people, wide-eyed, curious, expectant, crowded so close that +the little cavalcade could scarce make a way for itself.</p> + +<p class="normal">Of what were they thinking, those poor Delhi folk who had suffered so +often at the hands of so many men? Were they still faithful to the +memory of the Moghuls, or did their eyes seek wistfully in the faces +of the newcomers for a new master?</p> + +<p class="normal">Certainly on that 16th of September at sunset-time, after the +interview had fizzled out with the exchange of empty titles, and as +"Sword of the State," "Hero of the Land," "Lord of the Age," and +"Victorious in War," Lake and his staff left the old palace to +nightfall, and the old king to dreams, a pale ghost may well have +walked through the halls of audience beneath the reiterated pride of +that legend: "If there be a Paradise upon Earth, it is this, it is +this, it is this," and asked itself what might have been it instead of +a fever-stricken grave at Benares, it had found help to recover +kingship?</p> + +<p class="normal">Poor Jiwan Bukht! Had you, indeed, as your name implies, the Gift of +Life?</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps you had--and we squashed it!</p> + +<p class="normal">But there was more to be done by Lake's force ere on the 27th February +1804 Scindiah, who was in reality the man behind the gun, gave in, and +a treaty was signed which enabled the Governor-General to give vent to +his feelings in the following bombast:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"The foundations of our empire in Asia are now laid in the +tranquillity of surrounding nations, and in the happiness and welfare +of the people of India. In addition to the augmentation of our +territories and resources, the peace manifested exemplary faith and +equity towards our allies, moderation and unity towards our enemies, +and a sincere desire to promote the general prosperity of this quarter +of the globe. The position in which we are now placed is such as suits +the character of the British nation, the principles of our laws, the +spirit of our constitutions, and that liberal policy which becomes the +dignity of a great and powerful empire. My public duty is discharged +to the satisfaction of my conscience by the prosperous establishment +of a system of policy which promises to improve the general condition +of the people in India, and to unite the principal native states in +the bond of peace under the protection of the British power."</p> + +<p class="normal">After which there was naturally nothing to be done save to whack +Holkar also; for he had kept out of the scrimmage discreetly. This +campaign was not so successful. The fort of Bhurtpore withstood four +assaults, and might have withstood four more, had not peace with +honour and a donation of £200,000 intervened.</p> + +<p class="normal">This--for the Rājah of Bhurtpore was an independent ally of the +Mahrattas--rather upset Scindiah's calculations, for he was on the +point of rejoining Holkar in defiance of all treaties. So the ultimate +issue stood deferred when the Marquis of Wellesley ceased to be +Governor-General.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had deviated horribly from the "restrictive policy," and had +consistently acted in the way which Parliament had pronounced to be +"repugnant to the wish, the honour, and the policy of our nation."</p> + +<p class="normal">But that policy had been a broken reed. It was virtually the policy of +folding the arms, and awaiting the blow in the face that was bound to +come sooner or later.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nevertheless, the expense of Marquis Wellesley's wars told against his +reputation; he went home obscured by a cloud of deferred dividends, +and Lord Cornwallis returned for a second attempt at Indian +administration. Age had undoubtedly cooled the ardour of his blood, +for he immediately made most pusillanimous concessions to Scindiah for +the sake of peace, passing over flagrant breaches of treaty with an +easy diplomacy, and might have done infinite harm had he lived longer. +But he died at Buxar within two months of his arrival in India.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sir George Barlow took his place, but thereon arose a fine dispute +between the Directors of the India House and the Ministers of the +Crown concerning the patronage of this appointment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps this was the reason why England failed to learn a lesson which +would have been of use to her fifty years afterwards; for the little +mutiny at Vellore occurred in 1806, and the Great Mutiny in 1857.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet the causes were identical. In 1857 it was a greased cartridge, in +1807 it was a cap; but beneath both lay unreasoning fear of forcible +conversion to Christianity. A fear which grew to bloodshed, and which +found the Europeans, as ever, totally unprepared. Nearly one hundred +of them lost their lives, and but for Colonel Gillespie's swift ride +from Arcot, and the wisdom of the officers in command at Hyderabad, +the mutiny might have spread, as did the one at Meerut in May 1857. +And it must be admitted that those sepoys of Vellore had greater cause +of offence than they of later years; for they were asked to shave to +European pattern, to wear a hat-shaped turban, and appear on parade +minus their caste marks.</p> + +<p class="normal">All this, including Sir William Bentinck's recall (he was Governor of +Madras at the time), went on while the India House and the Crown were +at daggers drawn over the Appointments question.</p> + +<p class="normal">The latter meant to nominate the Earl of Lauderdale, who, as a +pronounced free-trader, threatened to break up the Indian monopoly. +The fight ended by the Earl of Minto, President of the Board of +Control, taking up the appointment in 1807, which he held till 1811. +It was an uneventful administration, the extinction of the Company's +monopoly, which marked its close, being the only feature in it which +claims a place in this modest outline of history; this, and perhaps +the fact that owing to greater facilities of borrowing the Company was +enabled to pay off its old debts which it had contracted when the rate +of interest was 12 per cent., and renew them at 6 per cent.; thus +effecting a reduction of half a million in expenditure.</p> + +<p class="normal">As an instance of how little the Board of Control and the policy of +inaction had benefited the finances of the Company, it may be +mentioned that whereas its debt was in 1793 but £7,000,000, in 1811 it +was £27,000,000.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the world was beginning now to count it as a gift--as the cost of +Empire.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.12" href="#div1Ref_03.12">THE EXTINCTION OF MONOPOLY</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1812 TO A.D. 1833</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The Act of Parliament which inaugurates this period did not entirely +extinguish the monopoly of the East India Company; that was reserved +for the Act which marked its close. Yet the one promulgated in 1813 +was sufficiently wide in its scope to partake of the nature of a +revolution; for although the trade with China--chiefly tea--remained +on its old close footing, that with India was thrown open to any one +who possessed a licence, such licences not to be solely obtainable +through the Council of Directors, but also through the Board of +Control. But there were two additional clauses in the bill which, +though grafted in upon it during its lengthy passage through +Parliament, were of more gravity than some of original import. One was +the forming of a regular Church Establishment in India--a formal +declaration, as it were, of the creed of the new master; the other the +inclusion of missionaries as persons to whom a licence to pursue their +trade might be given. Taken together, these two clauses went far +towards an admission that it was the duty of England to uphold her own +faith. The speeches that were delivered for and against these clauses +in Parliament are excellent reading; perhaps the most informing of +them being one by Sir J. Sutton, who, attempting to hedge, as it were, +objected to the open avowal in the clause that persons were to be sent +to India for "the introduction of religious and moral improvement," as +calculated to alarm and annoy, and suggested that the words "various +lawful purposes" should be used instead. The suggestion was treated +seriously; Mr Wilberforce, the great speaker on the missionary side, +assuring his hearers that it was extremely unlikely that the natives +of India would <i>ever read the clause</i>, and ending with an impassioned +assertion that unless actual mention of religion was made in the Act +it would stand tantamount to a decision that though Christianity was +the faith of England, the creeds of Brahma and Vishnu were to be +upheld by England in India. There was a strong religious party in the +House, representing a stronger one in England. And feeling had been +roused by Lord Minto's refusal to allow certain Baptist missionaries +to print, publish, and disseminate pamphlets calculated to arouse +indignation amongst the people of other faiths. So, despite a very +able protest from Mr Marsh, who asserted that it must be remembered +that the people "we wished to convert were in the main a moral and a +virtuous people, not uninfluenced by such ideas as give security to +life, and impart consolation in death," the clause was passed.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is also an excellent speech made by Mr Tierney on the Commerce +question, in which he pertinently remarks that amongst all the +benefits which he was told were to accrue to the people of India from +free trade, he had never <i>heard</i> even of a proposal to allow one +manufacture of India to be freely imported into Great Britain! But +such remarks were of no more avail then than they are nowadays, when +the manufactures of India are stinted by the duty on cotton twists, +and her markets glutted by free Manchester muslins.</p> + +<p class="normal">The whole history of the cotton trade, in truth, is grievous. At this +time, when Parliament was piously purposing to preach to so-called +heathen the religion which claims first place as teaching the duty of +doing to others as you would be done by, the woven goods of India +could have been sold in England at rates 50 and 60 per cent. cheaper +than similar goods manufactured in England. What then? Were they so +sold? or sold at a price which would have brought wealth to the +miserably poor Indian craftsman? No! The mills of Paisley and +Manchester were protected by a duty of 70 and 80 per cent. on these +Indian goods, thus sacrificing those to whom we wished to teach +Christianity to those who, at any rate, said they had that faith.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ere going on to the events of the next few years it must be mentioned +that the East India Company, while vehemently protesting, had some +sops thrown to it by this Act. One was that the "commercial profits of +the Company were not in future to be liable for any territorial +payments until the dividend claims had been satisfied." This was +extremely comforting. Furthermore, £1,000,000 sterling was to be set +aside from the surplus revenue (when it existed, but up to the present +it had not) to meet any failure.</p> + +<p class="normal">With this, and a few more scraps of comfort, H.M.E.I.C.S. had to be +satisfied and start fair with a new Governor-General, Earl Moira. One +is irresistibly reminded, when following this history of English +dealings with India, of the fable concerning King Log and King Stork; +for after a calm, there comes invariably a storm. How many +governor-generals have not sailed out to India, loudly protesting +peace, prepared at all points to uphold the non-interference clause? +How many have sailed back again with reputations either marred, in +English eyes, by change of policy, or kept intact by leaving behind to +their successors a state of affairs out of which war was the only +escape?</p> + +<p class="normal">Earl Moira, therefore, suffered from Lord Minto's efforts after +economy by his undue reduction of the army, by his refusal to see what +was going on around him. So the first thing to be faced was the +necessity for war in Nepaul if the boundaries of Oude were to be +preserved intact. Hitherto Great Britain had been pacific over +invasion to the point of pusillanimity, dreading, and not without just +cause, a campaign amid the ascending peaks and passes of the +Himalayas, backed by the unknown regions of its eternal snows.</p> + +<p class="normal">But at last these dangers had to be faced. It took a whole year of +hill-fighting in the finest scenery in the world, and in a climate +which must have been some compensation for other hardships, ere a +treaty of peace was signed at Segowlie, by which England gained in +perpetuity the magnificent provinces of Kumaon and Gharwal.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, India was not happy. The well-meaning Western attempt to +raise money by a house-tax in large cities had nearly brought about an +insurrection in Benares, where the <i>pandits</i> had, not without cause, +claimed the whole city as a place for worship, and as such exempt; +while an assessment for municipal police led to hard fighting at +Bareilly.</p> + +<p class="normal">But by this time Earl Moira's eyes had been opened. On every side he +saw dangers to the State-politic which could not be averted save by +action. The predatory system, so often the curse of divided India, +was in full swing. In truth, no power wielded sufficient authority to +keep the others in order. What was happening in 1815 was what would +happen in 1915 if the alien rulers of India were to adopt a policy of +non-interference. The Pindārees were the chief offenders; since time +immemorial their hordes of free-booting horsemen had been a terror, +and of late years they had aided and abetted the Mahrattas. But, +despite growing atrocities, it was not until 1816 that Parliament +would permit them to be coerced.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, Rājputana was smouldering. After the murder of the Emperor +Farokhsīr the various states fell into the hands--as did almost all +India--of the Mahrattas; not without hard fighting, not without +bitter beatings, and still more bitter upbraiding, as when after one +defeat the Rana of Oudipore made a common courtesan carry the Great +Sword-of-State, avowing that in "such degenerate times it was no +better than a woman's weapon."</p> + +<p class="normal">So matters had gone on from bad to worse, while Scindiah, dissociating +himself from the Peishwa, became paramount, until in 1778 Rājah Bhīm +came to the throne of Mźwar (Oudipore, Chitore). During his reign +Scindiah and Holkar fought almost continuously over the hills and +dales of Rājputana, and the former threw the weight of his savage +influence into the pitiful tragedy of Kishna Kumari, the Virgin +Princess. Her story is well known, but if only for the strangeness of +such an incident being possible in the nineteenth century, and in a +court where Englishmen came and went, it may be given here.</p> + +<p class="normal">Kishen Kumari, the Virgin Kishen, was beautiful exceedingly. She was +promised in marriage to the chief of Jeypore. Scindiah, incensed at +non-payment of a claim by the latter, opposed this in favour of the +chief of Marwar; and in the ensuing struggle to the death, Bhīm Singh, +seeing ruin before him, determined to sacrifice his daughter's life as +the only way of ending the strife.</p> + +<p class="normal">They tried to poniard her, she standing calm; but the dagger fell from +the hand of the brother appointed, as one of sufficient rank, to the +deed. Then they tried poison. She drank it three times calmly, bidding +her grief-distracted mother remember that Rājput women were marked out +for sacrifice from birth, and that she owed her father gratitude for +letting her live so long. But the poison refused its work; so, as +calmly, she asked for a <i>kasumba</i> draught to make her sleep. It was +prepared. Sweet essence of flowers, sweet syrup of fruits, concealed +the deadly dose of opium; she laid herself down and slept, never to +wake.</p> + +<p class="normal">A terrible tale, which merits the comment made on it by old Sagwant +Singh, chief of Karrādur, who, riding hard for Oudipore, flung himself +breathless from his horse with the quick query: "Does the princess +live?" And hearing the negative, went on without a pause up the stone +steps of the palace, through the wide courtyard, adown the passage, +till he found Māhārājah Bhīm upon his throne. Then he unbuckled his +sword.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My ancestors," rang out the passionate, protesting old voice, "have +served yours for thirty generations. To you, my king, I dare say +nothing, but never more will sword of mine be drawn in your service."</p> + +<p class="normal">So, laying it with his shield at the feet of the weakling, he left.</p> + +<p class="normal">A fine old Rājput was Sagwant Singh; one feels glad he said his say.</p> + +<p class="normal">This, however, is by the way. Nine years after it happened--that +is to say, in 1819--after the war with the Pindārees (which, of +course--since war is ever bred of war in India--involved hostilities +with the Peishwa, with Holkar, with Scindiah, with all the native +states, briefly, who tried to bar the progress of the new master), +Rājputana found itself eager to claim alliance with a power which, +instead as of old protesting against protection, was now not only +willing to grant it, but prepared to make its promise good against all +comers.</p> + +<p class="normal">For once, then, in the sweeping changes which the year ending in 1819 +brought about, the English gave as good as they got. No great battle +had been fought, but Scindiah was humbled, Holkar's aggressions had +been stopped, the Peishwa's very name had disappeared, and on all +sides alliances had been formed--durable alliances, which would no +longer require the sword to enforce them.</p> + +<p class="normal">And all this arose out of Parliament's hesitating admission that +certain predatory robbers must be restrained, and Earl Moira's wise +interpretation of that scant assent into action which, after two weary +years, settled the great territorial question of India as only it +could be settled; that is to say, as the Earl (afterwards Lord +Hastings) phrases it: "by the establishment of universal tranquillity +under the guarantee and supremacy of England."</p> + +<p class="normal">But the Gurkha or Nepaulese war, and the third and final Mahratta war, +unfortunately, only form part of Lord Hastings' work. He was not so +happy in dealing with the question of Oude. It had simmered for long: +the Nawāb, who had been encouraged by Lord Minto, complaining of the +interference of the Resident; the Resident complaining of obstinate +obstruction on the part of the Nawāb. In the middle of the quarrel +Sa'adut-Ali died, leaving treasure, despite his plea of poverty, to +the amount of £13,000,000. He was succeeded easily, quietly, with the +help of British influence, by his eldest son, who, to show his +gratitude, offered one of his father's millions to the Company as a +gift. It was accepted as a loan at the usual rate of interest, 6 per +cent.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the young Nawāb was even more turbulent than his father, and when +a second million was asked for on the same terms as the first, took +the opportunity of practically demanding the withdrawal of the +Resident. Now it is impossible to be harsh with a potentate who has +just loaned you two millions of money out of his private purse. +Without for a moment doubting the decision that Major Baillie the +Resident had been wanting in respect, the fact remains that he went to +the wall, and that the Nawāb was set free of all control in his +administration. Furthermore, after a treaty signed in 1816, by which +the loan of the second million was written off against the cession of +a piece of territory scarcely worth the sum, the Nawāb was further +encouraged and advised to assume the title of King; thus once for all +asserting his equality with, and not his dependence on, the shadow of +the Great Moghul at Delhi.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, to the extreme indignation of the latter's sham Court +and the scandal of all true Mahomedans, he proclaimed himself +"Ghāzi-uddin-Hyder, King of Oude, the Victorious, the Upholder of Faith, +the Monarch of the Age."</p> + +<p class="normal">Not such a very poor specimen at that, whether taken at native or +English estimate; for he was at least amiable--a kind, not overclever +princeling, who cultivated the Arts in a dilettante fashion.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the rest, though the long service--over nine years--of the Marquis +of Hastings was eminently successful, it was not likely that one who +rode rough-shod over the faddists' cry for noninterference at home +could escape without censure. But regular impeachment was impossible +towards one who had actually augmented the public revenues by +£6,000,000 a year! So he escaped the fate of Clive and Warren +Hastings.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was succeeded by William Pitt (Lord Amherst) after an interregnum +during which a Mr John Adams, armed with supreme, if brief authority, +carried on a crusade against the press which, in view of recent +occurrences, is singularly informing. The censorship had been +abolished by Lord Hastings in rather bombastical language, which +scarcely matched the severe inhibitions that followed against anything +like criticism; the actual result being, that while the name of an +invidious office was abolished, the press was left to face +prosecution. In the case of the <i>Calcutta Journal</i>, against which Mr +Adams tilted, the end was deportation of the editor to England!</p> + +<p class="normal">The Burmese war, however, occupied Lord Amherst until 1826, when +various minor campaigns became necessary; one against a Sikh +mendicant, who announced himself as the last of the Avatārs of +Krishna, incarnated for the express purpose of ousting all foreigners +from India. Bhurtpore, also, had to be finally taken, a usurper +expelled, and a six-year-old rājah established on the throne, under +the guidance, naturally, of a British resident. Such things had to be +if the standard of Western ethics was to be enforced in Government.</p> + +<p class="normal">There remained also Oude, that perennial thorn in the side of those +who had created it. Ghāzi-ud-din-Hyder had lent a million and a half +more money to the Company--had lent it at 5 per cent.!--but yet, he +complained, there was no pleasing the English master! There is +something pitiful about the good-natured king's plea that +misgovernment <i>could</i> not exist, because Oude from one end to the +other was cultivated like a garden; there was not even a waste place +in it whereon an army might encamp! And as for the disturbances on the +British borders, was he responsible for the landholders being Rājputs +by tribe, soldiers by profession, and so refusing to pay except by +force? And for what did he pay English soldiers, except to use force?</p> + +<p class="normal">There was force, anyhow, in his arguments, but his grievances remained +unredressed at his death in 1827, when he was succeeded by his son, +Nāsir-ud-din-Hyder.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, without any great excitement save the Burmese war, Lord Amherst's +Governor-Generalship came abruptly to an end, owing to sudden illness +in his family, which prevented his awaiting any arrangement for his +successor. This is somewhat typical of one who never seems to have +taken any personal interest in Indian questions, who, in fact, seems +to have wearied of the East. He was the first Governor-General who +found a Capua at Simla.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, after much striving, Lord William Bentinck, who had been +deprived of the Government of Madras in 1807 in consequence of the +mutiny at Vellore, was appointed in Lord Amherst's place. It was a +great triumph for him, being, as it were, an admission that he had +been unjustly dismissed in the first instance. His administration, +however, did much to justify his early treatment, for there can be no +question that he showed an almost phenomenal want of tact. Indeed, but +for the fact that the final extinction of the monopoly of trade did +not take place until 1835, this chapter would end on the assumption of +office by Lord William Bentinck in 1828, since there can be no doubt +that many of his well-meaning efforts should be included amongst the +causes which led up to the mutiny of 1857. The best plan, therefore, +will be to catalogue them briefly here, and discuss them in connection +with others of a like nature after 1835. The first, which brought him +great disfavour with the military, was not, strictly speaking, his +action, but that of England. His only responsibility for what is +called the half-<i>batta</i> (extra allowance) order is that he did not, as +Lord Hastings and Lord Amherst had done, refuse to obey his superiors. +It was a silly retrenchment, since for the sake of a paltry £20,000 a +year it gave umbrage to a very deserving body of men, who could ill +afford to lose the money. The scheme was condemned by all competent +judges in India as "unwise and inexpedient, fraught with mischief, and +unproductive of good."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Lord William Bentinck had come out bound hand and foot to economy, +social reform, and missionary effort, so he spent his years in adding +up and subtracting, in framing laws, such as that against <i>suttee</i>, +and the forfeiture which, under Hindu law, followed on conversion to a +different faith.</p> + +<p class="normal">For political work he had but one catchword; the catchword of his +employers--non-interference. The puppet-emperor at Delhi complained +bitterly; his complaint being unheard, he actually sent an agent--no +less a person than Rām-Mohun-Rao, the founder of the Brahma-Somājh, +the modern Theistical sect of India--to plead his cause in England. +But he also was unheard. His mission had been kept secret, and so his +credentials were "out of order."</p> + +<p class="normal">In Oude, Nāsir-ud-din, realising this policy of non-interference, +began a series of petty aggressions against Āga-Mīr, the finance +minister, whom the British Government supported. These ended +unsatisfactorily for all parties by the minister being conveyed out of +the reach of Nāsir-ud-din's vindictive hatred. The Nawāb then refused +to appoint any one in Āga-Mīr's place, and, being totally unfit, by +reason of his dissolute habits, to manage the state himself, +everything fell into confusion. Finally, driven, for once, out of +non-interference by the effect of it, Lord William Bentinck not only +refused friendly intercourse if a responsible minister were not +appointed, but told the drunken, disreputable occupier of the throne +himself in so many words, that if he did not mend his ways he would be +deposed.</p> + +<p class="normal">So far well; but when, appalled by this prospect, Nāsir-ud-din +besought advice how to govern, this was refused. The policy of which +the Governor-General was the mouthpiece would not allow him to +interfere!</p> + +<p class="normal">Humanity is at times hard to understand; in this instance +peculiarly so, unless, as was stated at the time by the respectable +courtiers--and even in that sink of iniquity, Lucknow, there were some +just men--the real object of the English was not to improve +government, but to find an excuse for usurping it.</p> + +<p class="normal">But in Jeypore, in Jodhpore, in Bundi, in Kotah, and many another +minor state, to say nothing of larger ones, the almost slavish +adherence of Lord William Bentinck to the order he had received +brought strained relations. And yet all the while he was attempting +purely diplomatic <i>rāpprochements</i> with outlying states. The Russian +scarecrow had begun to trouble the slumbers of Indian statesmen, and +this curious creature, destined to remain a nightmare for generations, +led to interest in the affairs of Kābul. In Lord Minto's time Mr +Mountstuart Elphinstone had, with great difficulty, met the then Ameer +Shāh-Sujah at Peshāwar, and arranged the terms of a treaty with him, +but ere this could be ratified Shāh-Sujah himself had been turned out +of his throne. He had pleaded for help to recover it; but Lord Minto +being one of the non-interference faction, aid had been refused. The +Ameer had, however, been allowed a pension, on which he had lived in +Ludhiāna, a Sikh town on the Sutlej river.</p> + +<p class="normal">Here Lord William Bentinck found him in 1832, when he had an interview +with Runjeet-Singh, the Sikh king of the Punjāb.</p> + +<p class="normal">There can be little doubt that the question of aiding Shāh-Sujah to +recover his throne was mooted by Runjeet-Singh, and was negatived by +the Governor-General; there is also little doubt, however, that <i>too +much cold water</i> was not thrown over the scheme, since Dost-Mahomed, +the Kābul usurper, was suspicioned with Russian proclivities and was +being watched.</p> + +<p class="normal">But these are minor points compared to the changes which were coming +over the East India Company at home. Its charter expired in 1834, and +the question as to whether that charter should be renewed had to be +answered. It was answered in the negative, and on the 22nd April 1834 +India ceased to be a land of restrictions. It was thrown open to the +wide world. During the course of the twenty years which had passed +since the semi-extinction of the Company's power, but 1,324 licences +to go to India had been issued. What proportion of these had been +issued to those whose object was "the introduction of religious and +moral improvements" is unknown, but in 1833 mission work had begun +almost all over India; indeed, the concluding years of the period +between 1813 and 1833 were marked by greatly increased efforts and +results in proselytising the natives. One cause of this being the +shortening of the ocean passage to India by the adoption of the Red +Sea route. On the 20th March 1830 the <i>Hugh Lindsay</i>, a small steamer, +left Bombay harbour, arriving in Suez in thirty-two days, and on her +next voyage reduced the time to twenty-two. Thus, before the year +1836, despatches from London arrived in Bombay in two instead of six +months; the time taken now is twelve days.</p> + +<p class="normal">It may seem extravagant to say that the lessening of sea-sickness +brought about the Indian Mutiny, but taken seriously, it is true. That +is to say, the sudden letting loose on a country which had hitherto +been reserved to especially licensed persons, of all and sundry, the +dregs as well as the cream of the West, together with the removal of +the great personal discomfort and expense of a six months' journey +round the Cape, which had hitherto militated against travel in India, +combined to produce such a change in that country as was bound to +create alarm, distrust, and resentment, amongst the most Conservative +people in the world.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.13" href="#div1Ref_03.13">FREEDOM AND FRONTIERS</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1834 TO A.D. 1850</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">What was the cause which led England to refuse a continuance of its +charter to the East India Company?</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the price of tea. Before this, all considerations as to whether +the Company had done its duty to India or not vanish into thin air. As +Mr Mill the historian says succinctly: "The administration of the +Government of India by the East India Company was too exclusively a +matter of interest to India to excite much attention in England." But +with tea it was different. That was a question for every Englishman's +breakfast table. Hitherto China had been debarred from free trade, and +the price of tea was high; therefore monopoly was a bad thing for the +consumer of tea. Q.E.D.</p> + +<p class="normal">So on the 22nd April 1834, India was thrown open to the world, and +though "John-Company" still ruled its destiny, it did so on a +different footing. For the rest, the story of the dispute concerning +territorial and commercial assets, the haggling over bargains between +the Court of Directors and Parliament, is not edifying, as may be +judged by the fact that the latter suggested the abolition of the +salt-monopoly, not from the slightest consideration for the taxed +native of India, but from a desire to secure a new market for +Cheshire!</p> + +<p class="normal">One of the first results of the new arrangement was an unseemly +struggle over the filling up of the Governor-Generalship made vacant +by Lord William Bentinck's retirement from ill-health. That the +appointment should have been bestowed on Sir Charles Metcalfe is +certain; he had served India well in many capacities. But parties +objected. Then Mr Mountstuart Elphinstone came into the running, also +Sir Henry Fane, Lord Heylesbury, Lord Glenelg, until at last a +perfectly colourless appointment was made in the person of Lord +Auckland, a most amiable and estimable nobleman, with no experience of +India. He arrived in Calcutta in 1836, the interregnum, during which +Sir Charles Metcalfe had carried on the work, having lasted for over a +year. He immediately started on judicial reform with the aid of a law +commission, of which Mr, afterwards Lord Macaulay, was president. +It was he who drafted the Indian Penal-Code, which, founded on +common-sense and the old Roman Law, remains to this day practically +unaltered, a standing challenge of concise clearness to the confused +medley of old precedent and new practice which so often does duty for +equity in England. While this work was in progress unexpected trouble +in Oude occurred. Nawāb Nāsir-ud-din-Hyder died suddenly, leaving no +children. It may be remarked that the constant occurrence of +heirlessness amongst the reigning families of India at this time +tells its tale all too clearly. There were two boys favoured by the +Queen-mother, whom the Nawāb had once acknowledged, but had since +formally disavowed. He himself had no brothers, and the succession +therefore reverted to the heirs-male of Sa'adut-Ali, his grandfather. +Under British law the next-of-kin would have been the children of an +elder son; under Mahomedan law it was the younger but still living +son. Of this there can be no possible doubt. Looking back on Indian +history, though, as a rule, the failure of direct heirs-male brought +about a general free fight over the succession, a younger uncle has +always claimed above a cousin. Thus in Oude there were instantly three +claimants in the field. The Queen-mother's boy Mura-Jān, the younger +uncle Nāsir-ud-daula, and Yamīn-ud-daula, who claimed to be son of an +elder uncle, and was therefore a first cousin.</p> + +<p class="normal">Naturally, the British supported Nāsir-ud-daula. Legally, he was the +heir, though after a time another first-cousin-pretender, asserting +that he and he only was the rightful Nawāb, actually travelled to +England in order to urge his title. Meanwhile, on the Nawāb's sudden +death, old Nāsir-ud-daula, the English nominee, had been dragged out +of bed, promptly conveyed to the palace, and left to take an hour or +two's sleep before the fatiguing ceremony of being installed on the +cushion of State.</p> + +<p class="normal">This was the Queen-mother's opportunity. She nipped in from her +palace at Dilkusha with half the loose riffraff of the town (which in +Lucknow floats about aimlessly awaiting such an opportunity), seized +on the person of old Nāsir-ud-daula-it is a wonder they did not murder +him--and promptly put Mura-Jān on the throne; he occupied it for about +one hour and forty-five minutes. Then the British troops having +returned and cleared a way with a few charges of grape, the coronation +of the poor, miserable, by this time nerve-collapsed old uncle went on +in due course!</p> + +<p class="normal">Small wonder that he signed every obligation which he was asked to +sign. This does not, however, in any way exonerate those who, taking +undoubted advantage of the position, made him sign an unconditional +engagement of submissiveness.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still, signed it was; and for a very distinct and palpable "good +consideration." Therefore its legality is beyond question.</p> + +<p class="normal">The year 1836, however, brought up another political question for +decision. The Rājah of Sattārah, quite a small princeling, had given +trouble ever since the English had most unwisely rescued him from +poverty and imprisonment and placed him in power. His proceedings, +eventually, became so outrageous, that the Government deposed him, and +elevated his brother to the vacant throne.</p> + +<p class="normal">This is mentioned because the incident is made use of as evidence for +the "annexation at any price policy" of the English. In this case, at +any rate, they did not err.</p> + +<p class="normal">But now, over the horizon of a fairly peaceful India, its statesmen +saw, looming in the distance, the shadow of Russia, and all thought, +all energies, turned to the north-west frontier. Between it and the +territory already swayed by Calcutta lay the Sikh nation and the five +fruitful Doabas of the Punjāb. Of these England knew little, save what +she had learnt from Megasthenes the Greek, and Arrian's Anabasis.</p> + +<p class="normal">One or two courteous interviews had passed with Runjeet-Singh, the +Sikh king, but that was all. It was sufficient, however, to show him +able, a man not to be easily swayed. His life-history confirms this. +Left king at the age of twelve, with a profligate mother who for years +had carried on an intrigue with the chief Minister-of-State, and an +exceedingly ambitious mother-in-law, he managed to rid himself +speedily of their influence, and ere long take his position as +monarch of a far larger kingdom than he had inherited. His conquests +eastwards were, indeed, only checked by meeting with British-protected +states, and he kept an eye steadily on both Kābul and Kashmīr. The +former he hoped to gain by using Shāh-Sujah, the deposed Ameer, as a +stalking-horse; and as a bribe for help promised, but never given, he +succeeded in extorting from the latter the celebrated Koh-i-nur +diamond. The latter, and Peshawar, he wrested from the Afghāns, with +the aid of two French officers who opportunely arrived on the scene. +So much for the Punjāb. Below it, still on the western border, lay +Scinde, an independent state. Beyond it, Persia, with which England +already had relations. But what of Afghanistan? There Mr Elphinstone's +attempt to establish connection had ended with Shāh-Sujah's flight.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was determined, therefore, to attempt an embassy to Dost-Mahomed, +his usurping successor, and Sir Alexander Burnes was chosen as the +delegate.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was a man who had travelled all over Central Asia, who was in every +way qualified for his task. Unfortunately, or fortunately, he was too +well qualified for carrying out the simple commercial instructions +with which the English Government had tentatively, perhaps timidly, +entrusted him. But the discovery of Russian intrigues in full swing at +the Kābul court sent commerce to the right-about. Burnes was in the +thick of diplomacy without delay, and ere long formal questioning and +reply was going on between Russian and English ambassadors regarding +the former's influence on the Indian borderland, which elicited a +categorical denial of any ulterior object on the part of Russia.</p> + +<p class="normal">But Dost-Mahomed for all that refused to accede to England's somewhat +impertinent request, that he should dismiss the Russian agent from his +court. And so began a quarrel which is barely settled to-day.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sir Alexander Burnes left Kābul in dudgeon, and almost immediately +after his departure matters came to a crisis by the Persians--avowed +allies of Russia--besieging Herāt. Now, Herāt was considered by +diplomatists and the military alike the key of India, and in 1838, +after many <i>pour parlers</i>, manifestoes, and embroglios, the combined +armies of the tripartite alliance, that is to say, the British, the +Sikhs, and Shāh-Sujah, marched on the Punjāb to reinstate the latter +on his long-vacated throne in Kābul. In all the long history of India +no more unwarrantable invasion was ever undertaken, though half a +hundred good reasons were given for it at the time, and could be found +for its defence even now by those who fail to see that Dost-Mahomed +was, as Eastern potentates go, quite a decent ruler. There is but one +possible excuse. England chose her career deliberately, thinking not +at all of Afghānistān, but of Russia.</p> + +<p class="normal">After a halt at Ferōzepore, where the allies assembled and where +festivities were held, Runjeet-Singh, an old man now, blind of one +eye, desperately marked with smallpox, and inconceivably ugly, tripped +over a carpet, to the horror of his court (who considered it an evil +omen), and fell flat on his nose at the feet of a big English gun he +was examining; and where, also, Henry Havelock, one of the new school +of the Church-Militant, exclaimed in horror at "the ladies of a +British Governor-General 'watching' choral and dancing prostitutes" +(surely a somewhat over high-toned description of that deadliest of +dull and decorous entertainments, an Indian <i>nautch</i>). After all this +a fairly-triumphant march was made through Scinde (where the Ameer of +that country, after a distinct promise that no riverside forts should +be touched, was fairly diddled out of the one at Bukkhur, on the +shameless plea that it stood on an island), through Quetta to Kandahār +and Ghuzni (which made a good resistance); so to Kābul, which was +entered on the 7th August 1839, when Shāh-Sujah ran about the passages +of the Bāla-Hissār palace like a child, clapping his hands with +delight at finding himself back again after thirty years' absence.</p> + +<p class="normal">So far good. But, meanwhile, Runjeet-Singh had died, and our rear was +endangered by the almost open enmity of his successor. Thus a +limited garrison, only, had to be left in Kābul; and in addition, +Dost-Mahomed's first flight had proved to be but a prelude to +desperate resistance. Still, armed occupation was held of the town of +Kābul, cantonments were built for the British regiments and sepoys +which formed the garrison, in which the troops passed the winter and +summer of 1841 in comfort. Then came disaster.</p> + +<p class="normal">What caused the outbreak is a mystery. So far as one can judge, it +began in private revenge upon Sir Alexander Burnes. His house was the +first attacked on the 2nd November 1841 by a mob thirsting for blood +and plunder. He attempted to calm them by harangue. He offered large +sums for his own and his brother's escape, but they were both cut +down, every sepoy murdered, every man, woman, or child on the premises +brutally killed.</p> + +<p class="normal">And here follows <i>in petto</i> an anticipation of what occurred some +fifteen years later, when a like massacre broke out at Meerut in 1857. +A general paralysis seems to have attacked those in authority. Here, +there, everywhere, in isolated posts, Englishman and sepoy fought +together and fell together bravely; but at headquarters decision +disappeared, and Brigadier Shelton finally settled, weakly, to hold +the cantonments, instead of retiring on the fortified and almost +impregnable Bāla-Hissār, where there was a plentiful store of +provision. The mistake was fatal. Within a month a treaty had to be +signed which was practically unconditional surrender. Dost-Mahomed was +to be reinstated; Shāh-Sujah allowed to follow his friends back to +India. "The terms secured," writes Sir William McNaghten, "were the +best obtainable." At any rate, at the time, it was hoped that they +would save the lives of some fifteen thousand human beings. But fate +was against it. Sir William McNaghten, failing in a side-intrigue +which, even had it succeeded, would have been barely possible with +honour, was foully murdered, and on the 6th of January about four +thousand five hundred fighting-men and twelve thousand camp followers, +men, women, and children, were driven out into the inclement winter +cold to find their way, as best they could, over peak and pass back to +Hindustan.</p> + +<p class="normal">The horrors of that terrible march will scarcely bear telling. Over +three thousand found freedom at once by being massacred, wantonly +massacred by mountain tribes in the first pass; the rest, without +food, without fuel, without tents, pressed on, fighting fiercely as +they forced their way eastwards.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was on the 13th of January that the English garrison at Jellalabad, +looking out up the passes, saw one man swaying in his saddle, scarce +able to keep his seat, urging his jaded, outworn pony eastward, still +eastward!</p> + +<p class="normal">It was Dr Bryden, the only man who came through. But he brought the +welcome news that some women and children, and a few men, were +prisoners, and so far safe.</p> + +<p class="normal">Naturally, there was no more question now as to the rights or wrongs +of war. These captives had to be rescued, and punishment meted out to +many murderers. Both objects were accomplished within the year, but +not by Lord Auckland; for Lord Ellenborough succeeded him at the time +of the Kābul disaster, when matters were at their worst. There was +some difficulty in finding a candidate for the throne. Shāh-Sujah +himself had in the interval been shot through the head, and his son, +whom the mob of Kābul had first set up as a puppet-king and then +imprisoned, had no stomach for further sovereignty. A younger member +of the family was, however, eventually found willing to face +assassination for the sake of a doubtful crown.</p> + +<p class="normal">His kingship, which only lasted till the British forces were +withdrawn, at least secured the preservation of the Bāla-Hissār, which +otherwise, as a punishment to Kābul, would have been razed to the +ground; as it was, the Great Bazaar, a building entirely devoted to +commerce, was destroyed instead, possibly because Sir William +McNaghten's body had been exposed upon it.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus, in 1843, the first Afghān war came to an end with the absurd +incident of the Gates of Somnāth. These were supposed to be still hung +at the entrance of Mahomed-the-Despoiler's tomb at Ghuzni. So, with an +odd mixture of sham Orientalism and latter-day romanticism, they were +taken down, carried back to India to form the subject of a most +marvellous effusion addressed to the chiefs and peoples of India, +which goes by the name of "Ellenborough's Song of Triumph," in which +these gates, "so long the memorial of your national humiliation," are +said to have "become the proudest record of your national glory!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And after all, they were <i>not</i> the Gates of Somnāth!</p> + +<p class="normal">Almost immediately after this the relations with Scinde became +strained. The Ameer had, in truth, just cause of complaint in a breach +of treaty regarding the passage of troops across the Indus, and after +much discussion the sword became the only possible arbiter. So Sir +Charles Napier commenced the war which, conducted by consummate skill +throughout, ended virtually with the victory of Miani and the +annexation of Scinde.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was towards the end of the next little war, this time with +Scindiah, that Lord Ellenborough was recalled, and Sir Henry Hardinge, +being sent to govern in his stead, found himself instantly plunged in +a war of far greater magnitude with the Sikhs, with whom, after the +death of old Runjeet-Singh, friendly relations had ceased. In truth, +the kingdom was in a state of tumult. The army, which consisted of +almost the whole nation (since every Sikh is by birth and faith a +fighter), realising that the whole power was virtually in its hands, +clamoured for new conquests. Dhuleep-Singh, the heir, was a minor; his +mother, nominally guardian, had no influence, and finally, forced by +circumstances, gave her consent to an invasion of British territory. +It was an unprovoked, and yet not altogether unwelcome assault, and it +met with instant and overpowering reply. On the 13th December 1845 the +Sikh army crossed the Sutlej in force, and on the very same day a +British proclamation was issued, formally declaring that all +possessions of Māhārājah Dhuleep-Singh, on the British bank of the +river, were annexed. Swift battle followed. At Moodki on the 18th +December, on the 22nd at Ferozeshāh, on the 20th January at Aliwāl; +finally, the 10th February saw the last stand made at Sobrāon, a +village which stood then on the eastern bank of the sliding river. It +stands now on the western, for the Sutlej has shifted.</p> + +<p class="normal">Swift, and short, and sure, was the campaign, curiously enough leaving +little of rancour behind it amongst the tall, upstanding Sikhs. "You +were so much better than we were," said an old Sikh worthy, who had +gone through the four defeats, as he showed an infinitesimal slice of +his little finger tip; "just so much--no more! but you were better +led." And the keen old eyes ranged cheerfully over the wide wheat +plain, intersected by silver-shining streaks of sliding river, that +had once been the battle-field of Sobrāon, and the old voice went on +exultingly over the tale of how he had knelt to receive the British +cavalry at Aliwāl, and knelt on, through three consecutive charges, +until he had fallen unconscious amongst his dead comrades.</p> + +<p class="normal">A treaty of peace was signed at Lahōre twelve days after Sobrāon, +which stipulated for the formal cession of the whole Cis-Sutlej +country and an indemnity of £1,500,000, £500,000 of which was to be +paid immediately, and the remaining £1,000,000 to be discharged by the +cession of Kashmīr and Hazāra.</p> + +<p class="normal">This practically ended Lord Hardinge's Governor-Generalship, and late +in 1847 Lord Dalhousie took up the office.</p> + +<p class="normal">The whole of the next year was taken up with a war in Scinde +which spread to the northern half of the Punjāb beyond Lahōre, +which--despite the cession of Hazāra--still remained practically +unsubdued. After the taking of Multān and the defeat of Mulrāj's +troops, Lord Gough marched northwards against Shere-Singh, defeated +him at Rāmnuggar, fought an indecisive battle against him at +Chillianwāla, and finally, on the 21st February 1849, at Gujerāt, +completely annihilated the Sikh army, taking all their guns.</p> + +<p class="normal">Resistance was thus at an end, and the Punjāb as far as Peshawar was +coloured red in the map of India.</p> + +<p class="normal">The proclamation of the Governor-General in announcing the fact is +worthy of quotation as a finish to the long history of English +dealings with Hindustan.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"The Government of India formerly declared that it decreed no further +conquest, and it proved by its acts the sincerity of its profession. +The Government of India has no desire for conquest now; but it is +bound in its duty to provide fully for its own security and to guard +the interests of those committed to its charge. To that end, and as +the only sure mode of protecting the state from the perpetual +recurrence of unprovoked and wasting wars, the Governor-General is +compelled to resolve upon the entire subjection of a people whom their +own Government has long been unable to control, and whom (as events +have now shown) no punishment can deter from violence, no act of +friendship can conciliate to peace."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The question arises, how much of this admirable effusion is strictly +true? In the case of the Punjāb there can be no doubt that the Sikhs +began the struggle by wanton and unprovoked assault. But was this +always so? Certainly not always. Yet once begun, there was no +possibility of turning back in England's career of annexation. She had +put her hand to the plough, she was driving a Western furrow over the +uncultivated wilds of the East, and as she sowed and scattered seed, +the necessity for protecting the crop-scanty though it was at +first--arose immediate and insistent.</p> + +<p class="normal">People say England has brought poverty to India. Perhaps she has. +Poverty is the handmaid of so-called civilisation. But she has also +brought peace--and population!</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.14" href="#div1Ref_03.14">MANNERS, MORALS, AND MISSIONARIES</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1850 TO A.D. 1857</h3> +<br> +<p class="normal">Beyond the second Burmese war and the annexation of Oude there is +little to be recorded in this short period of seven years. The former +passed on, as did every war, to annexation; yet once again there seems +little doubt that this was brought about by obstinate refusal to keep +the treaty which ensured "the utmost protection and security" to +British ships trading to Burmese ports.</p> + +<p class="normal">The question of the annexation of Oude, however, falls into another +category, and is so often cited as one of the chief causes of the +Great Mutiny of 1857, that it is best discussed among the many other +reasons for resentment and rebellion which undoubtedly existed in +India at this time. One of these was the change of manners in the +ruling white-faced race.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the old days of a good year's voyaging and sea-sickness round the +Cape few women had been found to face it; and so the Englishmen in +India had formed irregular connections with native women, often of +very good birth. These connections, though, of course, contrary to our +marriage laws, were not exactly immoral; they were, indeed, often as +regular as the differing codes of Christianity, Hinduism, and +Mahomedanism would allow. And, naturally, they greatly bridged over +the gulf between the rulers and the ruled.</p> + +<p class="normal">The short sea-passage changed all this. English ladies came out in +crowds, and seeing themselves surrounded by native sister-subjects who +thought differently to what they did on almost every conceivable +social subject, held up holy hands of horror at everything they saw, +oblivious, apparently, of the obvious fact, that if the native sister +appeared a bogey to them, they also must have been a bogey to the +native sister.</p> + +<p class="normal">She, however, by her very seclusion, was prevented from airing her +opinion. Not so the Englishwomen and young girls who began to come to +live amongst those who were generally called the heathen. There is no +more charitable and kindly soul than the average British matron, and +in the days before '57 she was beyond measure romantic. This was the +time when, escaping from the stern rule of papa and mama, who had been +ready with bread and water for "miss" if she refused an eligible +<i>parti</i>, the English girl looked on Love with a big L, as something +only a trifle less divine than the God whom she worshipped. She was +not, therefore, likely to find anything but militant pity and charity +for a social system which began by ignoring love as synonymous with +passion. Thus the Englishwoman was no factor for peace in the new +order of things. Then the changes inaugurated by the inclusion of the +"introduction of religious and moral improvement" as a licensable +trade had borne much fruit. One has only to read missionary reports to +find out how enormously organised effort to convert the people of +India had increased since 1813, and still more from 1833. In the year +1840 Dr Duff's Christian college at Calcutta numbered over six hundred +pupils, and in 1845 came the added interest to the cause of Missions +brought by the great Evangelical movement, not only in the Church of +England, but throughout all Europe. This wave of religiosity left no +Christian sect untouched, and part of its result was the introduction +into India of a race of Church-Militant officials, admirable in +character, in work, who, despite their faithful performance of duties +to Cęsar which demanded absolute impartiality, could not divest +themselves absolutely of their other duty (as they held it) to God; +that is to say, to influence the natives for good--in other words, to +Christianity. Without attempting praise or blame, it is impossible to +deny that the example of such strong and militant Christians as the +Lawrences, as Havelock, as half a hundred other well-known names, to +say nothing of the hundreds of lesser-known ones who in civil stations +and cantonments were encouraging mission work with all their might and +main, must inevitably have attracted the attention of <i>pandits</i> and +<i>moulvies</i>, whose profession, whose bare living, was bound up in +so-called heathendom.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, ever since the days of Lord William Bentinck, legislation had +favoured the new faith. It will be remembered that he was mixed up +with the mutiny at Vellore--a mutiny, if ever there was one, caused by +abject fear of enforced conversion. His abolition of <i>suttee</i>, his +tinkering with Indian law so as to free Hindu converts to Christianity +from disabilities in succession (or as it has been put, "to free them +from the trammels of their former superstitions and secure them in the +full possession of Christian freedom"), had passed muster at the time, +but as their effects became palpable, their interference in matters of +custom and religion was resented. The very inauguration of female +education was an offence, and as the years went on, bringing ever more +and more missionary effort, and, above all, more support to that +effort on the part of the ruling race, fear of wholesale conversion +sprang up amongst the ignorant people, and was carefully fostered by +the priests and preachers who had all to gain and nothing to lose by +revolt.</p> + +<p class="normal">And behind all this lay slumbering a great resentment. Say what folk +would, be the excuse what it might, the fact remained that the last +hundred years had seen every Indian prince reduced to the position of +a pensioner, his land annexed. And the years between 1850 and 1857 +produced a large crop of such annexations and usurpations. To begin +with the petty state of Sattārah. When Pertāp-Singh the ruler +(given his chiefship by the British who hunted him up, prisoned, +poverty-stricken) had to be deposed childless, England forebore to +annex, and placed a brother on the cushion of State; but when that +brother, also childless, adopted a son but a few hours before his +death, she refused to recognise his right to do so in regard to the +succession. Such a son was legal heir to personal property, but +Sattārah, being a dependency, could not by Indian law pass by adoption +without the permission of the lord-paramount, which in this case had +not been asked. Legally, she was right; but the sting of annexation +rankled.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the case of Kerowli occurred, in which adoption was made without +permission; but here the Governor-General's order was over-ruled by +the Directors, who held that though "Sattārah had been originally a +gift and creation of the British Government, Kerowli was one of the +oldest Rājput states, and merited different treatment." Annexation was +not, therefore, carried out; but the very considerateness of the +decision intensified feeling in the other case.</p> + +<p class="normal">Following this came the Jhānsi case, involving an area of about +2,000 square miles. Here, again, no issue--almost no collateral +relationships--was the cause of an unauthorised adoption which, +because the chiefship was, again, a creation of the English, was held +inadmissible.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then, as if these three almost forced annexations, occurring in +1849,1852, and 1853 respectively, were not enough to damn British +policy in the eyes of disaffection, yet another case came up for +settlement in 1853; for on the 11th of December died Rāgoji-Bōnsla, +the Rājah of Berār. He left neither issue nor collateral heir, neither +had he attempted to supply their place by adoption; thus the question +of the state lapsing to the Crown arose in its simplest and clearest +form. The decision was, naturally, that by the Rājah's "death <i>without +any heir whatever</i>, the possession of his territories has reverted to +the British Government which gave them"; a decision without any doubt +legal.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now, ere passing on to the annexation of Oude, which stands on a +totally different footing, it is as well to notice the drift of what +may be read between the lines of this long record of principalities +passing by lack of heirs of the body to the lord-paramount. What does +it mean? Doubtless, it points first to degeneracy, to the fading away +of families which is due to dissolute life. But this life in high +places was no new thing; the English had found it rampant when they +came. Therefore some other reason for the necessity of State +interference must be found. What was this?</p> + +<p class="normal">Plainly, on the very face of things, the answer is to be found. It was +the order, the law, the freedom from conspiracy, assassination, +self-aggrandisement, which English protection had ensured. In the old +times an heirless rājah of past fifty would have been the centre of a +snatching crowd of nobles, and the strongest would have asserted his +right, and possibly hurried on the death of the dying king, or ever +the lord-paramount had time to interfere; and then a payment in gold +would have satisfied authority! So degeneracy did not matter; a new +family always took the place of the dead one.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now there was a hard and fast law which had to be obeyed by king and +subject alike; a bitter lesson for any Oriental to learn, whose very +idea of kingship is its superiority to order.</p> + +<p class="normal">The trouble in Oude began--when did it not begin!</p> + +<p class="normal">In 1760 Sūjah-ud-daula, its hereditary wazīr, well beaten by the +Company for aggression on Bengal, ceded Allahabad and Korah, but was +left undisputed master of the rest of his territories. In 1768, again +in consequence of defeat, he was bound over to reduce his army. In +1773 he once more bound himself to further dependence in return for +troops. In 1775 Sūjah-ud-daula died, and his son Asāf-ud-daula, in +return for "good consideration," ceded territory as perpetual payment +of the said troops, and afterwards, by various treaties, promised, in +return for the guarantee of the possession, protection, and +administration of Oude, to govern "in such a manner as would be +conducive to the prosperity of his subjects"; also, to act on the +advice of the British Government. Sa'adut-Ali, his successor, ratified +these treaties, and showed, by the mere fact of his amassing treasure +to the amount of £14,000,000 during his reign of fifteen years, that +they were not, at least, pecuniarily hard. Ghāzi-ud-din, the next +Nawāb or wazīr, regained a certain independence, not by treaty, but by +loaning out his father's millions to the Company. The sop of being +allowed to assert his independence of Delhi and call himself King was +thrown to him; but he was no ruler, and the aid of British troops +being refused him, "except in support of just and legitimate demands," +he defied the treaty which limited his own army, and kept sixty +thousand native troops, two-thirds of whom were entirely without +discipline, living naturally by rapine and robbery. His son +Nāsir-ud-din, hopeless debauchee, continued and increased these +evils, drawing down on himself the solemn warning of Lord William +Bentinck in 1829, that deposition must surely follow on such misrule. +Unfortunately, however, advice how to rule was refused, and on +Nāsir-ud-din's death--of course without issue--advantage was taken of +the accession of the old man--almost in his dotage--Nāsir-ud-daula, to +obtain a fresh and still more stringent treaty, by which, if misrule +continued, the British Government reserved the '<i>right to administer, +rendering account to the Nawāb</i>,' and so far as possible maintaining +existing forms so as to '<i>facilitate the future restoration of power +to its rightful owner</i>.' In other words the Nawāb was, if +contumacious, to be put under trustees for the time. This was in 1837. +At Nāsir-ud-daula's death in 1842 his son succeeded, and in 1847 +another son rose to the throne by his brother's death--of course +without issue. Now Wajīd-Ali-Shāh, the last Nawāb or King of Oude, was +utterly worthless. One has but to read the journal of the Resident, +General Sleeman, to recognise how hopeless was the problem of peace, +prosperity, or progress, under his rule. Surrounded by fiddlers, +prostitutes, poetasters, eunuchs, he wasted half the revenues on these +creatures, by whom he was led about, a silly imbecile, with drugged +brain and diseased body.</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal" style="font-size:90%">"There is not, I believe," writes General Sleeman--a man of infinite +knowledge of the native, infinite sympathy with them--"another +Government in India so entirely opposed to the best interests and most +earnest wishes of the people as that of Oude now is. People of all +classes have become utterly weary of it."</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">No better case for deposition, for the removing of a whole people from +the grip of fatuous immorality and crass misrule, could be found than +this; but the means chosen to effect the desirable consummation were +mean in the extreme. There were two definite treaties regarding the +government of Oude. The one signed in 1837, gave as the punishment for +misrule, the placing of the administration <i>under trustees only</i>. That +signed in 1801 gave a guarantee of British protection in return for +the cession of certain territories, <i>provided the administration of +Oude coincided with the advice of the Company</i>. In this case, +therefore, the only penalty was palpably the <i>withdrawal of +protection</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">Neither of these penalties satisfied the desire for a total change of +policy. Instead of saying this openly, instead of boldly running up +the flag of England, and saying: "This passes! It can no longer be +permitted, that, under the protection of England such vice, such +fraud, such extortion, such downright devilry, should exist. This +crazy, imbecile, lecherous, drunken scoundrel shall take his pension +and cease to be a tyrant." Instead of all this, with at least some +backbone of righteous indignation to carry it through, Lord Dalhousie +the Governor-General and his advisers informed the Nawāb that the +treaty of 1837 had never been ratified in England, but that by some +mistake the fact had never been notified to him! And this after Lord +Hardinge in 1847 had threatened the Nawāb with the penalty laid down +in that treaty, and no other!</p> + +<p class="normal">It is almost incredible! But there is more to tell. By thus setting +the treaty of 1837 aside, that of 1801 remained, under which the +English had no power to do more than withdraw their protection from +Oude. Thus annexation stood less justified than ever, except on the +plain ground of the greatest good of the greatest number.</p> + +<p class="normal">Oude was annexed in 1856. It was the recruiting-ground of a large +portion of our native armies, and there is no doubt whatever that we +have here the great political cause of disloyalty. In the previous two +or three years, also, many measures had been passed to rouse religious +resentment and suspicion, such as the Hindu widows re-marriage Act, +and the Act to remove all forfeiture of property due to a change of +religion. Nor were these things, as of old, too remote to touch on the +common lives of the people. In Lord Dalhousie's term of office alone +4,000 miles of electric telegraph wires had spread a network over +India, railways were every day eating into the heart of the land, a +road, metalled, duly laid out for posting, stretched 2,000 miles from +Culcutta to Peshāwar, schools were starting up in the rural districts, +and letters--stamped letters--carrying God knows what of lies born of +fear or fraud, were being delivered for a trifle to almost every town +and hamlet in India.</p> + +<p class="normal">A mighty change this, bringing with it at every point the defiling +touch of the Feringhi.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nor was this all. Government was changing. It might be for the +better--at any rate, it could not be for the worse--but still it was +strange. The man to whom the revenue would in future be paid would +have a white face, and that in itself was disturbing.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yes! without doubt, the West was encroaching fast</p> + +<p class="normal">Oude, it has been said, was the great recruiting-ground of our native +cavalry, but also for our table attendants. The first went home to +hear tales of annexation, of order which gave the brotherhood-of-arms +that had remained at home no chance of plunder as in the past. The +latter took home with them on their holidays long tales of the +mem-sahibas, and the sahibs' command that all servants should attend +family prayers; and of the <i>bakshish</i> of kindness to be gained by +professing interest in the new faith.</p> + +<p class="normal">So, fostered by professional agitators, by disappointed +claimants--even as the present unrest is fostered in India +nowadays--the indefinite fear of something grew in the years between +'fifty and 'fifty-seven.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03.15" href="#div1Ref_03.15">THE GREAT MUTINY</a></h2> +<br> +<h3>A.D. 1857 TO A.D. 1859</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Heaven knows there were not wanting signs and portents in India before +"'fifty-seven" which might have put statesmen on their guard--had they +known of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the terrible fact is that they did not know of them. Why? Because +those whose duty it was to keep their fingers on the pulse of the body +corporate, whose duty it was to note every passing symptom of the new +organism of whose life so much remained to be learnt, did not, as a +rule, know enough of the language of India; the language by which +alone they could gather information at first hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">Reading the records of these fateful two years, plodding through +question and answer in many a weary enquiry or trial in which long +pages of evidence are given by officers who required an interpreter in +dealing with the men under them, the connection comes home +startlingly, that the greatest cause of the Indian Mutiny was the +ignorance of Englishmen. And this much is certain; that in every case +where incipient rebellion was quelled, where officers seemed to have +had some hold over their subordinates, the influence came through +"knowledge of the vernaculars."</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet so great was the ignorance of England, that even General Hearsay, +a man noted for his tolerant friendliness with his sepoys, could write +on the 11th February 1857: "We have at Barrackpore been dwelling on a +mine ready for explosion."</p> + +<p class="normal">Still some there were who saw, who feared and even gave expression to +their fears, like Sir Charles Metcalfe.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I expect to wake some fine day and find India lost to the English +Crown."</p> + +<p class="normal">Fateful words, which might have come true but for the national +characteristic of Englishmen: their readiness to die in order to +retrieve the mistakes they have lived to make.</p> + +<p class="normal">What, then, were those signs. There were many. Chief amongst them the +steady distribution northwards and westwards of the hearth-baked cake +which passed from the hands of one village watchman to the other, with +the mysterious message? "For the elders; from the south to the north, +from the east to the west." What did it mean? Heaven knows. Most +likely it was merely an attempt to arouse in the calm, steadfast lives +of the peasants in their fields, something of the unrest which was +being felt wherever native life impinged upon the life of the new +master. It failed, of course. Throughout the whole Mutiny, the India +of the wide wheat-fields, the flooded rice-patches, the sugarcane +brakes, the tall millet-stretches, and the snow-tufted cotton bushes, +dreamt on peacefully.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then there was the general grievance, started craftily in Calcutta +and carried throughout every native regiment in India, of the +grease-defiled cartridges. Was the tale true or untrue? In the +beginning, at Dum-Dum, there may have been a possibility of suet +smearing. Afterwards there was none. But that mattered little. +Agitators, professional agitators, were abroad, and in India no lie is +too gross to be believed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then the commissariat flour was defiled purposely by bone dust--(it +may have been of malice prepense, for agitation in India <i>sticks at +nothing</i>); no righteous man could eat of it and live. This was a dish +prepared for the high-caste Brahmins, and Kshatriyas of Oude; and for +the Mussulmans a like poisoned <i>plāt</i> was made ready by the English +shiftings and shufflings over the annexation of that country and the +deposition of its king.</p> + +<p class="normal">Taking this, and a like anger from every decadent court in India, the +absolute brutality of the Mutiny ceases to be inexplicable. Every +scoundrel in India was against us. Doubtless, honest dread of +wholesale conversion, even a sense of duty, drove many fairly honest +men to murder; but the whole Mutiny was, so to speak, engineered by +lust of power which had passed.</p> + +<p class="normal">The 34th Native Infantry began the ball at Barrackpore, about 100 +miles north of Calcutta, and so within reach of the priestly power +that gathers always round Mai-Kāli's famous and bloody shrine. Thanks +to General Hearsay's prompt action, it was quelled. The story of the +old man's gallop across the parade-ground, revolver in hand, +accompanied by his protesting son as aide-de-camp, is well worth +telling, but there is no time for it here. Then fires began to break +out in cantonments all over India, showing a state of unrest, which +made old General Hearsay give the warning so early as the 18th of +April, that "the Hindoos, generally, are not at present trustworthy +servants of the State."</p> + +<p class="normal">By the 2nd of May his words were found true in Lucknow, where a +regiment of irregular cavalry--part of the late Nawāb's marauding +army--mutinied openly over the greased cartridge question--which had +now so openly become a pretence--and was disarmed by Sir Henry +Lawrence's prompt action. But India had not an indefinite supply of +heroes and hard-headed old campaigners ready and able to cope with +danger, and the 10th May at Meerut found hopeless, helpless weakness.</p> + +<p class="normal">In order to abate the growing grievance of the cartridge, orders +had been issued that they were no longer to be bitten as of old, +but torn, thus obviating, it was thought, all possible danger of +caste-defilement. It was a mistaken order, since it gave credence to +the lie of their being greased at all. Consequently, the 3rd regiment +of Light Cavalry (Oude-recruited almost to a man) refused even to +handle them. On the 9th of May, eighty-five men, condemned to ten +years' penal servitude for mutiny, were, by General Hewitt's senseless +severity, degraded publicly before the whole garrison, and marched off +to prison; he the while watching the proceedings complacently from his +buggy, for he had already been removed from the Peshāwar command on +account of physical unfitness for duty.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ere twenty-four hours had passed, he proved himself also mentally +unfit to grapple with a great emergency. Meerut was in flames, women +and children lying murdered, yet His Majesty's 60th Rifles, the 6th +Dragoon Guards, the European Artillery, and no small loyal contingent +from the native regiments, were cooped up, inactive; not even one man +sent to warn Delhi, but 30 miles away!</p> + +<p class="normal">How the heart aches as one reads of brave men on their knees begging +for a squadron! Only a troop! For a gun! for anything! wherewith to +dash down the broad, white road, and guard the way to Delhi--begging, +and being refused!</p> + +<p class="normal">All one can say is that, inadvertently, General Hewitt did good +service to his country, in that his folly precipitated, and made +premature, an outbreak which, had it gone on to full growth, would +surely have lost us India for a time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To Delhi! To Delhi!" That was the one cry of the half-dazed +mutineers, feeling freedom full in their faces; unexpected, +unhoped-for freedom. Yet, even so, the old habit was strong on them. +They must have a master; if the new one hid like a coward, they must +find another. And at Delhi was the representative of the House of +Timur, of Akbar, whose memory still lingered in the hearts alike of +Hindu and Mahomedan. He, the man without a State-religion, the man who +had held the balance true, to whom all religions equal, was master +indeed! Whether old Bahādur-Shāh, his degenerate descendant, who since +Akbar II.'s death had dozed and dreamed away a drugged life full of +causeful and causeless complaints, was in the plot beforehand, or +whether it took him by surprise to find himself acclaimed King instead +of Puppet, is a moot point. All that is to be known of this is, that a +nine months' trial--a trial, be it remembered, by a victorious, +autocratic accuser which thus, in a country like India, where strength +ever goes to the strong, could have its pick of witnesses--failed to +find evidence of complicity.</p> + +<p class="normal">Not that it mattered, save to one poor, dottled old man saved thus +from the hangman's noose, whether he knew or did not know. Events +marched with terrible rapidity, murderous certainty, whether the +palace gave orders for them or whether it watched, stupefied, +expectant. The Ridge was swept clear of Englishmen, women, children, +save for the few who sought refuge in the Flagstaff Tower, thus +deferring for a time their inevitable fate. Dawn had brought the first +troopers to shoot down the captain of the palace guards and savagely +to cut to pieces Simon Fraser, the Commissioner, who attempted to +harangue them, and all day long massacre had gone on unabashed; but +even the blood-drunken assassins paused and held their breaths when at +sunset, with a great roar, a shaking of solid earth which by force +made the bodies of the mutineers shiver, the "Glorious Nine" in the +Arsenal sent their message of defiance to the skies. Truly, that +blowing-up of the magazine by the "Nine"-by Willoughby, Forrest, +Scully, Buckley, and five others--may be likened to the roar of the +British Lion, as yet half-asleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was the only note of defiance that was heard at Delhi for five long +weeks.</p> + +<p class="normal">Women and children were murdered; the Palace, roused from its +dreamings, took the goods the Gods gave--and small blame to it, seeing +how coincident had been the dwining of the Moghuls' power with the +widening of English influence; the mutineers looked in each others +faces, almost appalled at their own success; yet still the master made +no sign. Truly had it been said that their rule was but to be one +hundred years, and was not this the centenary of Plassey, when +Sābat-Jung, the "Daring in War," had first laid finger on Hindustan?</p> + +<p class="normal">If the "Daring in War" had been here now! That was a thought which +surely must have been in the minds of many of these hereditary +soldiers whose fathers may have fought against Clive. But there were +no such sahibs nowadays; Surāj-ud-daula--on whom be peace!--had said +sooth when he held the English but a small nation--scarce ten thousand +warriors all told!</p> + +<p class="normal">In good sooth, however, there was some excuse for inaction. Of +personal courage--take a stronger word and say heroism--there was no +lack, but of national preparedness, nothing. Mutiny spread like +mushroom spawn in the dark, and everywhere took authority by surprise, +so holding back the power which otherwise would have been free for +giving help where help was needed. Fortunately, some places found a +man able and willing to take the lead. At Benares, two hundred +Europeans faced and overpowered two thousand sepoys, chiefly owing to +the personal vitality of Colonel Neill, and at Lucknow Sir Henry +Lawrence, after crushing one rebellion, was calmly making his +preparations for the next, which he knew must come ere long. Whether +in his sagacious head lay the thought that by holding Lucknow at all +costs he might lessen the pressure of Delhi, and so divert the +attention of some mutineers from that central point, who can say? But +his action undoubtedly saved the whole situation. Had Lucknow--the +defenders--gone, thus setting free the hordes of rebels investing it, +the forlorn hope of attackers who clung to the Red Ridge of Delhi in +almost helpless defiance all the long hot summer could not have held +their own.</p> + +<p class="normal">So when the question is raised as to which heads the list of +importance in this history of the Mutiny--the Defence of Lucknow or +the Forlorn Hope of Delhi--the only possible answer is, that they both +form part and parcel of the one desperate effort to retain hold of +Empire in India.</p> + +<p class="normal">The fact that a whole month elapsed ere the blow given at Meerut was +returned, made the task of the Red Ridge a harder one. But for the +loyalty of the Punjāb the counterblow might have been even longer in +coming. Sir John Lawrence, however, was at Lahōre, and none of the +Lawrences ever failed their country. Still, Fate was unkind, and +Englishmen--brave, patriotic Englishmen--still more unkind +in their lack of comprehension. When the blow was finally struck at +Budli-keserāi, and the mutineers ran pell-mell for Delhi, 6 miles off, +they were not followed, though the Kashmīr and the Mori gates were +open wide, though the populace were waiting, waiting, watching for the +master's return. But we condemned Delhi unheard. We held every man in +it a rebel, and so, as night fell, the open gates were closed once +more. How many men's life-blood was spilt thereinafter in trying to +open them as wide again? God knows. So the army clung to the Red Ridge +instead, and as the heat grew and the rocks seemed to blister and the +sunshine to scorch, half of it gave up the struggle for a quiet sleep +in the shadow of Earth's breast. Even the generals died; but the +change of command brought no change in action, until, on the 5th of +August, a tall, lank, black-bearded man rode into camp ahead of the +relief column with which he had marched from Peshāwar. It was John +Nicholson.</p> + +<p class="normal">By a curious coincidence, a faint echo of the challenging roar which +Willoughby and Forrest, Buckley and Scully, had sent to the skies just +three months before, greeted his entry as the powder factory in the +rebel camp blew up. But this was no challenge; it was a salute. Within +ten days of the arrival of the four thousand who had come to relieve +the six thousand on the Ridge, the battle of Nujufghur had been won. +On this occasion the troops under Nicholson marched 36 miles through a +morass, and fought a desperately hard fight in six-and-thirty hours. +But Nicholson did not spare others, because he did not spare himself. +Then ensued a wait of nine days, ere the siege-train arrived; a wait +that was full of work. The man saw what had to be done, and made up +his mind to do it, despite all difficulties placed in his way; for he +was but six-and-thirty, and the older officers had not his fire, his +dash.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was on the 14th of September 1857, at three o'clock in the grey +dawn, that the assault of Delhi commenced: by noon it was taken, but +the man who had taken it lay shot through the breast. He had attempted +the impossible. He had seen his own regiment--Jacob's rifles, the 1st +Bengal Fusileers--hesitate, and hesitate perhaps rightly, seeing that +the storming of that lane by the Burne bastion had been attempted many +times and failed. So he had given the old call, "Forward, Fusileers! +Officers to the front!" and had led the way.</p> + +<p class="normal">The rush did not fail that time. The Burne bastion was taken, but the +heart and soul of the man who had arisen for this purpose had orders +for recall. John Nicholson lay dying.</p> + +<p class="normal">He lived to see the whole city taken, the English flag floating over +the Palace. Concerning the charge that drunkenness amongst the English +army was the cause of the five days' delay in achieving this end, much +has been written. Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, who was on the staff, +has given an authoritative denial to this charge, by stating that he +did not see a single drunken man throughout the day of the assault, +although in the "discharge of his duty, he visited every position held +within the walls."</p> + +<p class="normal">This sounds satisfactory, were it not for the fact that this +inspection was immediately followed by a general order for fatigue +parties to destroy all liquor found in the shops (though some of it +was urgently needed by the hospital); and also for the subsequent +despatch which says, three days later, that an attempt to take the +Lahōre gate had failed, "because of the refusal of the European +soldiers to follow their officers."</p> + +<p class="normal">But Delhi was taken, and, practically, the Mutiny was at an end. For +the sepoys could not live without a master, and the master, a +trembling, distracted old man, had given himself up from his +hiding-place in his great ancestor Humayon's tomb, to Major Hodson, of +Hodson's Horse. Concerning the yielding up of, and the subsequent +shooting down of, the Delhi princes, much again has been written. +Whether honourably or treacherously given, they richly deserved their +fate; but the validity of the excuse that the shooting down was a +sudden necessity which arose out of the fact that rescue was attempted +while Major Hodson was conveying them under escort to Delhi, is +fatally injured by a tiny scrap of evidence, irrefutable absolutely.</p> + +<p class="normal">Hodson's favourite orderly, in telling the story in after years, +invariably gives this detail: "Prince Abūl-bakr wore a talisman on his +arm; so I said to Hodseyn-Sahib: 'Wait a bit, Huzoor! to kill him with +that on will bring ill-luck. I'll take it off ere we shoot him.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">No hurry there, no stress of circumstances surely, to make the +immediate use of a revolver necessary?</p> + +<p class="normal">But, once again, Delhi was taken. "If ever India needs a deed of +daring done, John Nicholson is the man to do it." So had said a +comrade-in-arms years before, and now the deed was done. Delhi, which +had focussed rebellion for four long months, was taken by assault.</p> + +<p class="normal">And how of defence?</p> + +<p class="normal">Lucknow still held out, despite the death of the man who had made +defence possible, for Henry Lawrence died from a shell-wound on the +4th July; but he left stout hearts behind him. And then, with all +justice be it said, the besiegers were but half-hearted. They must +have been so, else how could a scant garrison of fifteen hundred, in a +weak position, with scarce a palisade in some places between them and +the foe, have held their own against close on twelve thousand +soldiers, backed by the wildest, wickedest, most wanton town-rabble in +all India? And the population of Lucknow runs into hundreds of +thousands.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, English troops on their way to China had been stopped and +diverted to India by telegraph; England, grasping the magnitude of the +disaster, was sending out regiment after regiment, and divisions were +being formed up and sent hither and thither to quell and to punish. +Amongst the commanders of these, Henry Havelock stands first, and at +the head of a movable column, started for Cawnpore in July. Too late +to save the beleaguered garrison, pent up foolishly in untenable +entrenchments; too late even to save the horrible tragedy of the well +at Cawnpore, into which, by the wanton wickedness of a courtesan, two +hundred English women and children were thrown, after being foully +murdered.</p> + +<p class="normal">They did not, however, die in vain; for from the moment the news of +the awful massacre reached the English camps there was no more +hesitation. Not by God, but by the slaughter-house at Cawnpore, every +man swore that retribution should be bitter and deep. How deep, how +bitter it was, it is not well to say. Let the dead past bury its dead. +It was hard for the British soldier to believe that the peasants whose +villages he entered in his forced marches scarcely knew that war was +abroad. But so it was. Within 20 miles of Delhi itself there are +villages which passed through the Great Mutiny time knowing no more of +it than that "the Toorkh"--the bugbear of Indian rustic life--had +appeared again. That sometimes with a dark face, sometimes with a +white one, he appeared, plundered the grain-stores, perhaps cut down a +man or two, mayhap ravished a woman, and then disappeared. That was +all. To the vast, the overwhelming majority of the people of India, +that was all!</p> + +<p class="normal">But to those who had sworn by the festering, blood-stained well at +Cawnpore, all life seemed bound up in those two thoughts: "Will Delhi +fall ere we reach it to help?" "Will Lucknow hold out ere we can +relieve it?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was so much to be done. All over the country isolated +resistances were staring death in the face bravely. At Arrah, half a +dozen civilians held a miserable thatched bungalow for days, almost +amusing themselves in its defence, strengthening its possibilities +with mud from the garden, and using their sporting rifles with deadly +effect on their foes. In another place a magistrate used his bulky +files to fortify the public office roof, writing afterwards to report +coolly that for impenetrability he could recommend a good criminal +case, full of hard swearing.</p> + +<p class="normal">All this, and hundreds of other heroisms, filled up the long hot +summer of '57. The rains fell copiously, the crop was a bumper one, +the peasants, mercifully, had no time to think, even, of aught save +its harvesting and husbanding; there was so much to be done.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the 25th of September, just five days after the final fall of +Delhi, Havelock and Outram, with a small force, had pushed their way +through to Lucknow, but, though the garrison was relieved, the +generals did not feel themselves strong enough to march out and face +the rebels. So once more, but now heartened up by the certainty of +success which came to every Englishman in India with John Nicholson's +daring deed, Lucknow waited for more help.</p> + +<p class="normal">It came with Sir Colin Campbell's force on the 16th of November, when, +leaving Outram to hold the Alumbagh with three thousand five hundred +men, the general marched back as he had come, triumphantly carrying +with him the women, the children, and the sick.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus the Defence had ended, the Attack had succeeded, and only +Retribution remained.</p> + +<p class="normal">By this time the Delhi column, set free from its task, had marched +southwards for further assault. Agra, Jhānsi, Central India generally, +had to be settled, and settled they were satisfactorily.</p> + +<p class="normal">By the 11th of May 1858 the Mutiny had disappeared, as the mutineers +themselves had disappeared on that fateful day in late September 1857, +when, having retreated--some fifty or sixty thousand strong--from +Delhi to the plains about Agra, the dusk found them encamped, still +coherent, still resolved on struggle, and the night glittered with the +watch-fires of a vast army. But the dawn, coming cloudily, +reluctantly, found only the dead ashes of a resolve that had passed in +the night; the men who had made it had vanished into thin air. They +were hurrying back to their homes, eager to be found peacefully at +work when the master should once more come on his tour of inspection.</p> + +<p class="normal">The 2nd of August in that same year a bill for the "Better Government +of India" passed into law.</p> + +<p class="normal">It had eighty-five sections, but its general object was to transfer +the whole administration of India from the Company to the Crown.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whether better government has resulted, or not, is a question which it +is to be hoped the English reader of this mere sketch of Indian +history may be more qualified to judge than he (or she) was before the +perusal of these slight pages.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>INDEX</h2> +<br> + +<p class="continue">Abul-faiz,</p> + +<p class="continue">Abul-fazl,</p> + +<p class="continue">Agriculture,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ajāta-sutru,</p> + +<p class="continue">Akbar,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ala-ud-din,</p> + +<p class="continue">Alexander,</p> + +<p class="continue">Alighur,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ali-Verdi-Khān,</p> + +<p class="continue">Allah-ud-din,</p> + +<p class="continue">Altāmish,</p> + +<p class="continue">Anabasis,</p> + +<p class="continue">Anangpal,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ancient Age,</p> + +<p class="continue">Andhra,</p> + +<p class="continue">Antivivisection,</p> + +<p class="continue">Architects,</p> + +<p class="continue">Architecture,</p> + +<p class="continue">Arcot,</p> + +<p class="continue">Arrian,</p> + +<p class="continue">Aryan,</p> +<p class="normal">----gods,</p> +<p class="normal">----laws,</p> + +<p class="continue">Asaf-daula,</p> + +<p class="continue">Asaf-Jāh,</p> + +<p class="continue">Asōka,</p> + +<p class="continue">Assaye,</p> + +<p class="continue">Astronomy,</p> + +<p class="continue">Asva-medha,</p> + +<p class="continue">Attock,</p> + +<p class="continue">Auckland, Lord,</p> + +<p class="continue">Aurungzebe,</p> +<br> + +<p class="continue">Babar,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bactrians,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bāhmani dynasty,</p> + +<p class="continue">Baji-rao,</p> + +<p class="continue">Battlefield,</p> + +<p class="continue">Beās,</p> + +<p class="continue">Begums,</p> + +<p class="continue">Begum Sumroo,</p> + +<p class="continue">Benares,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bentinck,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bernier's views,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bhattinda,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bhim-si,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bhishma,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bimbi-sāra,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bindu-sāra,</p> + +<p class="continue">Birbal,</p> + +<p class="continue">Black Hole,</p> + +<p class="continue">Board of Control,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bodh-Gya,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bo tree,</p> + +<p class="continue">Brahmāna,</p> + +<p class="continue">Brahmans,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bucephalus,</p> + +<p class="continue">Buddha,</p> + +<p class="continue">Buddhism,</p> + +<p class="continue">Buddhist Councils,</p> +<p class="normal">----Creed,</p> + +<p class="continue">Bussy,</p> + +<p class="continue">Byrām I.,</p> +<p class="normal">----II.,</p> +<p class="normal">----III.</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Campaigns of the Crescent,</p> + +<p class="continue">Carnatic,</p> + +<p class="continue">Censorship,</p> + +<p class="continue">Chandra-gūpta I.,</p> +<p class="normal">----II.,</p> + +<p class="continue">Chaos,</p> + +<p class="continue">Character of Hindus,</p> + +<p class="continue">Charter,</p> + +<p class="continue">Chikandīn,</p> + +<p class="continue">Child, Sir John,</p> + +<p class="continue">Chitore,</p> + +<p class="continue">Christianity,</p> + +<p class="continue">Church establishment,</p> + +<p class="continue">Chytuc,</p> + +<p class="continue">Clive,</p> + +<p class="continue">Coins,</p> + +<p class="continue">Coote,</p> + +<p class="continue">Cornwallis, Lord,</p> + +<p class="continue">Cuttack,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Dalhousie, Lord,</p> + +<p class="continue">Darius,</p> + +<p class="continue">Dark Ages,</p> + +<p class="continue">Dāsyas,</p> + +<p class="continue">Dekkan,</p> + +<p class="continue">Delhi,</p> + +<p class="continue">Deva-datta,</p> + +<p class="continue">Devastated India,</p> + +<p class="continue">Dharnia Sūtra,</p> + +<p class="continue">Didda,</p> + +<p class="continue">Doaba,</p> + +<p class="continue">Drama,</p> + +<p class="continue">Drāupadi,</p> + +<p class="continue">Dupleix,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Eastern knowledge,</p> + +<p class="continue">East Indian Companies,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ellenborough, Lord,</p> + +<p class="continue">English administration,</p> +<p class="normal">----army,</p> +<p class="normal">----encroachments,</p> +<p class="normal">----grip on India,</p> +<p class="normal">----laws,</p> +<p class="normal">----motive,</p> +<p class="normal">----travellers,</p> + +<p class="continue">Epic period,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Faizi,</p> + +<p class="continue">Fatehpur Sikri,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ferghāna,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ferishta,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ferōze Toghluk,</p> + +<p class="continue">First grants,</p> + +<p class="continue">Fortunāta, Princess,</p> + +<p class="continue">Francis, Philip,</p> + +<p class="continue">French and English,</p> +<p class="normal">----Companies,</p> + +<p class="continue">Frontiers,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Ganga,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ganges,</p> + +<p class="continue">Geography,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ghāzi-ud-din,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ghiāss-ud-din,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ghori,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ghuznevide dynasty,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ghuzni,</p> + +<p class="continue">Godeken,</p> + +<p class="continue">Gold,</p> + +<p class="continue">Golden Age,</p> + +<p class="continue">Gondophares,</p> + +<p class="continue">Grammarians,</p> + +<p class="continue">Greased cartridge,</p> + +<p class="continue">Great Mauryas,</p> +<p class="normal">----Moghuls,</p> + +<p class="continue">Greed of gold,</p> + +<p class="continue">Greek influence,</p> + +<p class="continue">Gupta Empire,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Hamida,</p> + +<p class="continue">Hamīr,</p> + +<p class="continue">Hardinge, Lord,</p> + +<p class="continue">Harsha,</p> + +<p class="continue"><i>Harsha-charita</i>,</p> + +<p class="continue">Hastinapūr,</p> + +<p class="continue">Hekataios,</p> + +<p class="continue">Hemu,</p> + +<p class="continue">Herāt,</p> + +<p class="continue">Hiuen T'sang,</p> + +<p class="continue">Horse sacrifice,</p> + +<p class="continue">House of Sūr,</p> + +<p class="continue">Humāyon,</p> + +<p class="continue">Hydaspes,</p> + +<p class="continue">Hyder-Ali,</p> + +<p class="continue">Hymns,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Impeachments,</p> + +<p class="continue">Indian agriculture,</p> +<p class="normal">----architecture,</p> +<p class="normal">----geography,</p> +<p class="normal">----knowledge,</p> +<p class="normal">----literature,</p> +<p class="normal">----lost river,</p> +<p class="normal">----morality,</p> +<p class="normal">----philosophy,</p> +<p class="normal">----policy,</p> +<p class="normal">----religions,</p> +<p class="normal">----rivers,</p> +<p class="normal">----secretiveness,</p> + +<p class="continue">Indo-Bactrian,</p> + +<p class="continue">Indo-Parthian,</p> + +<p class="continue">Invasion, Aryan,</p> +<p class="normal">----Bactrian,</p> +<p class="normal">----Mahomed,</p> +<p class="normal">----Mongolian,</p> +<p class="normal">----Parthian,</p> +<p class="normal">----Sākas,</p> +<p class="normal">----Yuehchi,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue"><i>Jāghirs</i>,</p> + +<p class="continue">Jahāngir,</p> + +<p class="continue">Jainism,</p> + +<p class="continue">Jaipal,</p> + +<p class="continue">Janāka,</p> + +<p class="continue">Jesuits,</p> + +<p class="continue">Jeysulmźr,</p> + +<p class="continue">Jhelum,</p> + +<p class="continue">Jingi,</p> + +<p class="continue">Jodhpur,</p> + +<p class="continue">Johār,</p> + +<p class="continue">Jullunder,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Kabul,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kafūr,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kalidasa,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kalīngar,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kandahār,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kanīshka,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kapīla,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kārna,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kaurāvas,</p> + +<p class="continue">Khilji dynasty,</p> + +<p class="continue">King's duties,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kishna Kumari,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kosāla,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kshatriya,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kutb-din-Eībuk,</p> + +<p class="continue">Kutb Minār,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Labourdonnais,</p> + +<p class="continue">Lahōre,</p> + +<p class="continue">Lake, Lord,</p> + +<p class="continue">Lally,</p> + +<p class="continue">Lawrence,</p> + +<p class="continue">Lost river,</p> + +<p class="continue">Love,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">McNaghten,</p> + +<p class="continue">Madras,</p> + +<p class="continue">Magadha,</p> + +<p class="continue">Māhābhārata,</p> + +<p class="continue">Mahmūd Ghuzni,</p> +<p class="normal">----ambition,</p> +<p class="normal">----greed,</p> + +<p class="continue">Mahomed,</p> +<p class="normal">----death of,</p> +<p class="normal">----Ghori,</p> +<p class="normal">----Toghluk,</p> +<p class="normal">----treachery of,</p> + +<p class="continue">Mahratta,</p> + +<p class="continue">Manes,</p> + +<p class="continue">Mangalore,</p> + +<p class="continue">Marvellous Millenium,</p> + +<p class="continue">Maurya,</p> + +<p class="continue">Megasthenes,</p> + +<p class="continue">Mercenaries,</p> + +<p class="continue">Middle Age,</p> + +<p class="continue">Mihr-un-nissa,</p> + +<p class="continue">Mīr-Jāffar,</p> + +<p class="continue">Missionaries,</p> + +<p class="continue">Mobārik,</p> + +<p class="continue">Moghul,</p> + +<p class="continue">Moira, Earl of,</p> + +<p class="continue">Monism,</p> + +<p class="continue">Monopoly,</p> + +<p class="continue">Mornington, Lord,</p> + +<p class="continue">Mutiny,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Nādir, invasion of,</p> + +<p class="continue">Nāga,</p> + +<p class="continue">Nagarkōt,</p> + +<p class="continue">Nanda dynasty,</p> + +<p class="continue">Nāsir-ud-daula,</p> + +<p class="continue">Nāsir-ud-din,</p> +<p class="normal">----,</p> + +<p class="continue"><i>Nawa-ratani</i>,</p> + +<p class="continue">Nawāb of Bengal,</p> + +<p class="continue">New Rajagrīha,</p> + +<p class="continue">Nine gem necklace,</p> +<p class="normal">----Nandas,</p> + +<p class="continue">Nizām,</p> + +<p class="continue">Nuncomār,</p> + +<p class="continue">Nurjahān,</p> + +<p class="continue">Nyaya,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Omichand,</p> + +<p class="continue">Oude,</p> + +<p class="continue">Oudipur,</p> + +<p class="continue">Outlying provinces,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Padmani,</p> + +<p class="continue">Palibothra,</p> + +<p class="continue">Pandu,</p> + +<p class="continue">Pāniput,</p> + +<p class="continue">Parthians,</p> + +<p class="continue">Pataliputra,</p> + +<p class="continue">Patna,</p> + +<p class="continue">Peace of Aix la Chapelle,</p> + +<p class="continue">Permanent settlement,</p> + +<p class="continue">Persistency of creed,</p> + +<p class="continue">Personality,</p> + +<p class="continue">Pertap,</p> + +<p class="continue">Pillars of Asōka,</p> + +<p class="continue">Pirates,</p> + +<p class="continue">Plassey,</p> + +<p class="continue">Pondicherry,</p> + +<p class="continue">Portuguese,</p> + +<p class="continue">Porus,</p> + +<p class="continue">Prithvi-Rāj,</p> + +<p class="continue">Private trade,</p> + +<p class="continue">Punjāb,</p> + +<p class="continue">Puranas,</p> +<p class="normal">----creed,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Queen Elizabeth,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Rajagrīha,</p> + +<p class="continue">Rājputni heroism,</p> + +<p class="continue">Rājputs,</p> +<p class="normal">----confederacy,</p> +<p class="normal">----resistance,</p> + +<p class="continue">Rāmāyana,</p> + +<p class="continue">Rāzia Begum,</p> + +<p class="continue">Reinhardt,</p> + +<p class="continue">Religion,</p> + +<p class="continue">Rig-Veda,</p> + +<p class="continue">Rock edicts,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Sa'adut-Ali,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sabaktagīn,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sai-nair,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sākas,</p> + +<p class="continue">Salīm,</p> + +<p class="continue">Samūdra-gupta,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sanchi,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sandracottus,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sankhya,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sanwat era,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sarāswati,</p> + +<p class="continue">Scythians,</p> + +<p class="continue">Seleukos Nikator,</p> + +<p class="continue">Self-choice,</p> + +<p class="continue">Serpent kings,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ses-nāga kings,</p> + +<p class="continue">Shahāb-ud-din,</p> + +<p class="continue">Shāhjahān,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sidi Dervish,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sikhs,</p> + +<p class="continue">Siva-ji,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sivalak,</p> + +<p class="continue">Slave kings,</p> + +<p class="continue">Smith,</p> + +<p class="continue">Soma,</p> + +<p class="continue">Somnāth,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sonpūt,</p> + +<p class="continue">St Thomas,</p> + +<p class="continue">Successions,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sunjogata,</p> + +<p class="continue">Surāj-ud-daula,</p> + +<p class="continue">Susceptibility to personal equation,</p> + +<p class="continue">Sūtra,</p> + +<p class="continue">Syyeds,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Tāj,</p> + +<p class="continue">Takshaks,</p> + +<p class="continue">Taksīla,</p> + +<p class="continue">Tanjore,</p> + +<p class="continue">Tartar dynasties,</p> + +<p class="continue">Taxīles,</p> + +<p class="continue">Teetotalism,</p> + +<p class="continue">Teignmouth Shore,</p> + +<p class="continue">Thanźswar,</p> + +<p class="continue">Timur,</p> +<p class="normal">----, cruelty of,</p> + +<p class="continue">Tippoo-Sultān,</p> + +<p class="continue">Toghluk dynasty,</p> + +<p class="continue">Tōghlukabad,</p> + +<p class="continue">Toork,</p> + +<p class="continue">Trichinopoly,</p> + +<p class="continue">Trumpet-flower City,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Ujjain,</p> + +<p class="continue">University,</p> + +<p class="continue">Ūpanishads,</p> + +<br> + +<p class="continue">Vaisasika,</p> + +<p class="continue">Vedanta,</p> + +<p class="continue">Vedas,</p> + +<p class="continue">Vellore,</p> + +<p class="continue">Vikramadītya,</p> + +<p class="continue">Vyan-Māta,</p> + +<br> +<p class="continue">Warren Hastings,</p> + +<p class="continue">Watson,</p> + +<p class="continue">Wazīr-Ali,</p> + +<p class="continue">Wellesley, Marquis of,</p> +<p class="normal">----, Arthur,</p> + +<p class="continue">White Huns,</p> + +<p class="continue">Woman's plea,</p> + +<br> +<p class="continue">Yoga,</p> + +<p class="continue">Yuehchi,</p> + +<p class="continue">Yunāni system,</p> +<br> +<p class="continue">Zemindar,</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_01" href="#div4Ref_01">Footnote 1</a>: Comparable in modern mythology to Minerva.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_02" href="#div4Ref_02">Footnote 2</a>: This assemblage, or fair, still exists, under the name of +the Māgh-mela.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_03" href="#div4Ref_03">Footnote 3</a>: A Ghazi is the title of honour given to one who has +killed the infidel.</p> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_04" href="#div4Ref_04">Footnote 4</a>: It was in this storm that the admiral's ship, <i>Namur</i>, +went down, with seven hundred and fifty men.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h5>PRINTED AT THE EDINBURGH PRESS<br> +9 AND 11 YOUNG STREET.</h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's India Through the Ages, by Flora Annie Steel + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIA THROUGH THE AGES *** + +***** This file should be named 39848-h.htm or 39848-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/8/4/39848/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by +Google Books (University of Michigan) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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