HISTORY (_continued_). THE MUHAMMADAN PERIOD, 1000-1764 A.D.
~The Ghaznevide Raids.~--In the tenth century the Turks were the
janissaries of the Abbaside Caliphs of Baghdád, and ambitious soldiers
of that race began to carve out kingdoms. One Alptagin set up for
himself at Ghazní, and was succeeded in 976 A.D. by his slave
Sabaktagin, who began the long series of Indian raids which stained with
blood the annals of the next half-century. His son, Mahmúd of Ghazní, a
ruthless zealot and robber abroad, a patron of learning and literature
at home, added the Panjáb to his dominions. In the first 26 years of the
eleventh century he made seventeen marauding excursions into India. In
the first his father's opponent, Jaipál, was beaten in a vain effort to
save Pesháwar. Ten years later his successor, Anandpál, at the head of a
great army, again met the Turks in the Khaibar. The valour of the
Ghakkars had practically won the day, when Anandpál's elephant took
fright, and this accident turned victory into rout. In one or other of
the raids Multán and Lahore were occupied, and the temples of Kángra
(Nagarkot) and Thanesar plundered. In 1018 the Turkish army marched as
far east as Kanauj. The one permanent result of all these devastations
was the occupation of the Panjáb. The Turks made Lahore the capital.
~Decline of Buddhism.~--The iconoclastic raids of Mahmúd probably gave the
_coup de grâce_ to Buddhism. Its golden age may be put at from 250 B.C.
to 200 A.D. Brahmanism gradually emerged from retirement and reappeared
at royal courts. It was quite ready to admit Buddha to its pantheon, and
by so doing it sapped the doctrine he had taught. The Chinese pilgrim,
Fahien, in the early part of the fifth century could still describe
Buddhism in the Panjáb as "very flourishing," and he found numerous
monasteries. The religion seems however to have largely degenerated into
a childish veneration of relics.
~Conquest of Delhi.~--For a century and a quarter after the death of
Mahmúd in 1030 A.D. his line maintained its sway over a much diminished
empire. In 1155 the Afghán chief of Ghor, Alá ud dín, the "World-burner"
(Jahán-soz), levelled Ghazní with the ground. For a little longer the
Ghaznevide Turkish kings maintained themselves in Lahore. Between 1175
and 1186 Muhammad Ghorí, who had set up a new dynasty at Ghazní,
conquered Multán, Peshawar, Siálkot, and Lahore, and put an end to the
line of Mahmúd. The occupation of Sirhind brought into the field Prithví
Rája, the Chauhán Rájput king of Delhi. In 1191 he routed Muhammad Ghorí
at Naráina near Karnál. But next year the Afghán came back with a huge
host, and this time on the same battlefield fortune favoured him.
Prithví Rája was taken and killed, and Muhammad's slave, Kutbuddín
Aibak, whom he left to represent him in India, soon occupied Delhi. In
1203 Muhammad Ghorí had to flee for his life after a defeat near the
Oxus. The Ghakkars seized the chance and occupied Lahore. But the old
lion, though wounded, was still formidable. The Ghakkars were beaten,
and, it is said, converted. A year or two later they murdered their
conqueror in his tent near the Indus.
~Turkish and Afgháns Sultáns of Delhi.~--He had no son, and his strong
viceroy, Kutbuddín Aibak, became in 1206 the first of the 33 Muhammadan
kings, who in five successive dynasties ruled from Delhi a kingdom of
varying dimensions, till the last of them fell at Pánipat in 1526, and
Bábar, the first of the Moghals, became master of their red fort palace.
The blood-stained annals of these 320 years can only be lightly touched
on. Under vigorous rulers like the Turkí Slave kings, Altamsh
(1210-1236) and Balban (1266-1287), a ferocious and masterful boor like
Alá ud dín Khaljí (1296-1316), or a ferocious but able man of culture
like Muhammad Tughlak (1325-1351), the local governors at Lahore and
Multán were content to be servants. In the frequent intervals during
which the royal authority was in the hands of sottish wastrels, the
chance of independence was no doubt seized.
~Mongol Invasions.~--In 1221 the Mongol cloud rose on the north-west
horizon. The cruelty of these camel-riding Tatars and the terror they
inspired may perhaps be measured by the appalling picture given of their
bestial appearance. In 1221, Chingiz Khán descended on the Indus at the
heels of the King of Khwarizm (Khiva), and drove him into Sindh. Then
there was a lull for twenty years, after which the Mongol war hordes
ruined and ravaged the Panjáb for two generations. Two great Panjáb
governors, Sher Khán under Balban and Tughlak under Alá ud dín Khaljí,
maintained a gallant struggle against these savages. In 1297 and 1303
the Mongols came to the gates of Delhi, but the city did not fall, and
soon after they ceased to harry Northern India. During these years the
misery of the common people must often have been extreme. When foreign
raids ceased for a time they were plundered by their own rulers. In the
Panjáb the fate of the peasantry must have depended chiefly on the
character of the governor for the time being, and of the local
feudatories or _zamíndárs_, who were given the right to collect the
State's share of the produce on condition of keeping up bodies of armed
men for service when required.
~The Invasion of Timúr.~--The long reign of Muhammad Tughlak's successor,
Firoz Sháh (1351-1388), son of a Hindu Rájput princess of Dipálpur,
brought relief to all classes. Besides adopting a moderate fiscal
policy, he founded towns like Hissár and Fatehábád, dug canals from the
Jamna and the Sutlej, and carried out many other useful works. On his
death the realm fell into confusion. In 1398-99 another appalling
calamity fell upon it in the invasion of Timúrlang (Tamerlane), Khán of
Samarkand. He entered India at the head of 90,000 horsemen, and marched
by Multán, Dipálpur, Sirsa, Kaithal, and Pánipat to Delhi. What lust of
blood was to the Mongols, religious hatred was to Timúr and his Turks.
Ten thousand Hindus were put to the sword at Bhatner and 100,000
prisoners were massacred before the victory at Delhi. For the three
days' sack of the royal city Timúr was not personally responsible. Sated
with the blood of lakhs of infidels sent "to the fires of Hell" he
marched back through Kángra and Jammu to the Indus. Six years later the
House of Tughlak received a deadly wound when the Wazír, Ikbál Khan,
fell in battle with Khizr Khán, the governor of Multán.
~The later Dynasties.~--The Saiyyids, who were in power from 1414 to 1451,
only ruled a small territory round Delhi. The local governors and the
Hindu chiefs made themselves independent. Sikandar Lodí (1488-1518)
reduced them to some form of submission, but his successor, Ibrahím,
drove them into opposition by pushing authority further than his power
justified. An Afghán noble, Daulat Khán, rebelled in the Panjáb. There
is always an ear at Kábul listening to the first sounds of discord and
weakness between Pesháwar and Delhi. Bábar, a descendant of Timúr, ruled
a little kingdom there. In 1519 he advanced as far as Bhera. Five years
later his troops burned the Lahore _bazár_, and sacked Dipálpur. The
next winter saw Bábar back again, and this time Delhi was his goal. On
the 21st of April, 1526, a great battle at Pánipat again decided the
fate of India, and Bábar entered Delhi in triumph.
~Akbar and his successors.~--He soon bequeathed his Indian kingdom to his
son Humáyun, who lost it, but recovered it shortly before his death by
defeating Sikandar Sur at Sirhind. In 1556 Akbar succeeded at the age of
13, and in the same year Bahram Khán won for his master a great battle
at Pánipat and seated the Moghals firmly on the throne. For the next
century and a half, till their power declined after the death of
Aurangzeb in 1707, Kábul and Delhi were under one rule, and the Panjáb
was held in a strong grasp. When it was disturbed the cause was
rebellions of undutiful sons of the reigning Emperor, struggles between
rival heirs on the Emperor's death, or attempts to check the growing
power of the Sikh Gurus. The empire was divided into _súbahs_, and the
area described in this book embraced _súbahs_ Lahore and Multán, and
parts of _súbahs_ Delhi and Kábul. Kashmír and the trans-Indus tract
were included in the last.
~The Sultáns of Kashmír.~--The Hindu rule in Kashmír had broken down by
the middle of the twelfth century. A long line of Musalmán Sultáns
followed. Two notable names emerge in the end of the fourteenth and the
first half of the fifteenth century, Sikandar, the "Idol-breaker," who
destroyed most of the Hindu temples and converted his people to Islám,
and his wise and tolerant successor, Zain-ul-ábidín. Akbar conquered
Kashmír in 1587.
~Moghal Royal Progresses to Kashmír.~--His successors often moved from
Delhi by Lahore, Bhimbar, and the Pír Panjál route to the Happy Valley
in order to escape the summer heats. Bernier has given us a graphic
account of Aurangzeb's move to the hills in 1665. On that occasion his
total following was estimated to amount to 300,000 or 400,000 persons,
and the journey from Delhi to Lahore occupied two months. The burden
royal progresses on this scale must have imposed on the country is
inconceivable. Jahángír died in his beloved Kashmír. He planted the road
from Delhi to Lahore with trees, set up as milestones the _kos minárs_,
some of which are still standing, and built fine _sarais_ at various
places.
~Prosperity of Lahore under Akbar, Jahángír, and Sháhjahán.~--The reigns
of Akbar and of his son and grandson were the heyday of Lahore. It was
the halfway house between Delhi and Kashmír, and between Agra and Kábul.
The Moghal Court was often there. Akbar made the city his headquarters
from 1584 to 1598. Jahángír was buried and Sháhjahán was born at Lahore.
The mausoleum of the former is at Sháhdara, a mile or two from the city.
Sháhjahán made the Shálimár garden, and Ali Mardán Khán's Canal, the
predecessor of our own Upper Bárí Doáb Canal, was partly designed to
water it. Lahore retained its importance under Aurangzeb, till he became
enmeshed in the endless Deccan wars, and his successor, Bahádur Shah,
died there in 1712.
~Bába Nának, the first Guru.~--According to Sikh legend Bábar in one of
his invasions had among his prisoners their first Guru, Bába Nának, and
tried to make him a Musalmán. Nának was born in 1469 at Talwandí, now
known as Nankána Sáhib, 30 miles to the south-west of Lahore, and died
twelve years after Bábar's victory at Pánipat. He journeyed all over
India, and, if legend speaks true, even visited Mecca. His propaganda
was a peaceful one. A man of the people himself, he had a message to
deliver to a peasantry naturally impatient of the shackles of orthodox
Hinduism. Sikhism is the most important of all the later dissents from
Brahmanism, which represent revolts against idolatry, priestly
domination, and the bondage of caste and ritual. These things Nának
unhesitatingly condemned, and in the opening lines of his Japjí, the
morning service which every true Sikh must know by heart, he asserted in
sublime language the unity of God.
[Illustration: Fig. 59. Bába Nának and the Musician Mardána.]
~The Gurus between Nának and Govind.~--The first three successors of Nának
led the quiet lives of great eastern saints. They managed to keep on
good terms with the Emperor and generally also with his local
representatives. The fifth Guru, Arjan (1581-1606), began the welding of
the Sikhs into a body fit to play a part in secular politics. He
compiled their sacred book, known as the _Granth Sáhib_, and made
Amritsar the permanent centre of their faith. The tenets of these early
Gurus chimed in with the liberal sentiments of Akbar, and he treated
them kindly. Arjan was accused of helping Khusru, Jahángír's rebellious
son, and is alleged to have died after suffering cruel tortures.
Hitherto there had been little ill-will between monotheistic Sikhs and
Muhammadans. Henceforth there was ever-increasing enmity. The peasant
converts to the new creed had many scores against Turk officials to pay
off, while the new leader Hargovind (1606-1645), had the motive of
revenge. He was a Guru of a new type, a lover of horses and hawks, and a
man of war. He kept up a bodyguard, and, when danger threatened, armed
followers flocked to his standard. The easy-going Jahángír (1605-1627)
on the whole treated him well. Sháhjahán (1627-1659) was more strict or
less prudent, and during his reign there were several collisions between
the imperial troops and the Guru's followers. Hargovind was succeeded
by his grandson, Har Rai (1645-1661). The new Guru was a man of peace.
Har Rai died in 1661, having nominated his younger son, Harkrishn, a
child of six, as his successor. His brother, Rám Rai, disputed his
claim, but Aurangzeb confirmed Harkrishn's appointment. He died of small
pox in 1664 and was succeeded by his uncle, Teg Bahádur (1664-1675),
whose chief titles to fame are his execution in 1675, his prophecy of
the coming of the English, and the fact that he was the father of the
great tenth Guru, Govind. It is said that when in prison at Delhi he
gazed southwards one day in the direction of the Emperor's _zanána_.
Charged with this impropriety, he replied: "I was looking in the
direction of the Europeans, who are coming to tear down thy _pardas_ and
destroy thine empire."
[Illustration: Fig. 60. Guru Govind Singh.]
~Guru Govind Singh.~--When Govind (1675-1708) succeeded his father,
Aurangzeb had already started on the course of persecution which fatally
weakened the pillars of Turkish rule. Govind grew up with a rooted
hatred of the Turks, and a determination to weld his followers into a
league of fighting men or _Khálsa_ (Ar. _khális_ = pure), admission into
which was by the _pahul_, a form of military baptism. Sikhs were
henceforth to be _Singhs_ (lions). They were forbidden to smoke, and
enjoined to wear the five k's, _kes_, _kangha_, _kripan_, _kachh_, and
_kara_ (uncut hair, comb, sword, short drawers, and steel bracelet). He
established himself at Anandpur beyond the Hoshyárpur Siwáliks. Much of
his life was spent in struggles with his neighbours, the Rájput Hill
Rájas, backed from time to time by detachments of imperial troops from
Sirhind. In 1705 two of his sons were killed fighting and two young
grandsons were executed at Sirhind. He himself took refuge to the south
of the Sutlej, but finally decided to obey a summons from Aurangzeb, and
was on the way to the Deccan when the old Emperor died. The Guru took
up his residence on the banks of the Godávarí, and died there in 1708.
~Bánda.~--Before his death he had converted the Hindu ascetic Bánda, and
sent him forth on a mission of revenge. Bánda defeated and slew the
governor of Sirhind, Wazír Khán, and sacked the town. Doubtless he
dreamed of making himself Guru. But he was really little more than a
condottiere, and his orthodoxy was suspect. He was defeated and captured
in 1715 at Gurdáspur. Many of his followers were executed and he himself
was tortured to death at Delhi, where the members of an English mission
saw a ghastly procession of Sikh prisoners with 2000 heads carried on
poles. The blow was severe, and for a generation little was heard of the
Sikhs.
~Invasions of Nádir Sháh and Ahmad Sháh.~--The central power was weak, and
a new era of invasions from the west began. Nádir Sháh, the Turkman
shepherd, who had made himself master of Persia, advanced through the
Panjáb. Zakaria Khán, the governor of Lahore, submitted and the town was
saved from sack. A victory at Karnál left the road to Delhi open, and in
March, 1738, the Persians occupied the capital. A shot fired at Nádir
Sháh in the Chándní Chauk led to the nine hours' massacre, when the
Daríba ran with blood, and 100,000 citizens are said to have perished.
The Persians retired laden with booty, including the peacock throne and
the Kohinur diamond. The Sikhs harassed detachments of the army on its
homeward march. Nádir Sháh was murdered nine years later, and his power
passed to the Afghán leader, the Durání Ahmad Sháh.
Between 1748 and 1767 this remarkable man, who could conquer but could
not keep, invaded India eight times. Lahore was occupied in 1748, but at
Sirhind the skill of Mír Mannu, called Muín ul Mulk, gave the advantage
to the Moghals. Ahmad Sháh retreated, and Muín ul Mulk was rewarded
with the governorship of the Panjáb. He was soon forced to cede to the
Afghán the revenue of four districts. His failure to fulfil his compact
led to a third invasion in 1752, and Muín ul Mulk, after a gallant
defence of Lahore, had to submit. In 1755-56 Ahmad Sháh plundered Delhi
and then retired, leaving his son, Timúr, to represent him at Lahore.
Meanwhile the Sikhs had been gathering strength. Then, as now, they
formed only a fraction of the population. But they were united by a
strong hatred of Muhammadan rule, and in the disorganized state of the
country even the loose organization described below made them
formidable. Owing to the weakness of the government the Panjáb became
dotted over with forts, built by local chiefs, who undoubtedly lived
largely by plunder. The spiritual organization under a Guru being gone,
there gradually grew up a political and military organization into
twelve _misls_, in which "a number of chiefs agreed, after a somewhat
democratic and equal fashion, to fight under the general orders of some
powerful leader" against the hated Muhammadans. The _misls_ often fought
with one another for a change. In the third quarter of the eighteenth
century _Sardár_ Jassa Singh of Kapúrthala, head of the Ahluwália
_misl_, was the leading man among the Sikhs. Timúr having defiled the
tank at Amritsar, Jassa Singh avenged the insult by occupying Lahore in
1756, and the Afghán prince withdrew across the Indus. Adína Beg, the
governor of the Jalandhar Doáb, called in the Mahrattas, who drove the
Sikhs out in 1758. Ahmad Sháh's fifth invasion in 1761 was rendered
memorable by his great victory over the Mahratta confederacy at Pánipat.
When he returned to Kábul, the Sikhs besieged his governor, Zín Khán, in
Sirhind. Next year Ahmad Sháh returned, and repaid their audacity by a
crushing defeat near Barnála.
They soon rallied, and, in 1763, under Jassa Singh Ahluwália and Rája
Ala Singh of Patiála razed Sirhind to the ground. After the sack the
Sikh horsemen rode over the plains between Sirhind and Karnál, each man
claiming for his own any village into which in passing he had thrown
some portion of his garments. This was the origin of the numerous petty
chiefships and confederacies of horsemen, which, along with the Phulkian
States, the British Government took under its protection in 1808. In
1764 the chiefs of the Bhangí _misl_ occupied Lahore.