sects in India are involved in obscurity, nor is much known of the general history of the country during the middle ages; which has given rise to a conjecture that the Bramins, who ultimately triumphed over their rivals, destroyed all the records that might have proclaimed to posterity the subversion of their power.

The Bramins of that period differed from those of ancient times in regard to many particulars. Their authority was less absolute, and the religion they taught was more idolatrous. The sacred books of the ancient priests were disused, and others substituted, called the Puranas, which were more adapted to the new system; and, although ascribed to the same origin as the Vedas, are known to have been composed by many learned Bramins at different times, between the eighth and sixteenth centuries. They contain a number of legends and unconnected fragments of history, with instructions for the numerous religious ceremonies to be observed by the different castes, which were maintained as strictly as in former times. The punishment for breaking any of the rules was loss of caste, a sentence more terrible even than that of excommunication by the Roman pontiff, in the early days of Christianity; for the excommunicated Christian might be restored to his former state by expiating his offence, but the unhappy Hindu who forfeited his station became an outcast from society for ever, without a hope of regaining the position he had lost. The wretched men thus situated were termed parias. They were aliens from their kind, forced to hide themselves in some cave or forest, not daring to speak to or approach any human being; and so great was the horror of coming in contact with one of this degraded class, that no Indian would dress his food on a spot of ground over which the shadow of a paria had been seen to pass. Thus the loss of caste was, in those days, far worse than death. It is contrary to the Hindu laws for persons of different castes to eat together; and this was one of the crimes that brought the offender to the miserable condition of a paria.

CHAPTER IV.

MUSSULMAN CONQUESTS IN INDIA.

Two hundred years had elapsed since the expulsion of the Arabs from the Scind, when the Mussulman arms were again directed toward India, which became the theatre of a long series of calamitous wars, that ended in the subjection of the country to the Mogul emperors. The new invaders were the Turks, who had founded several states on the ruins of the Arabian empire, and had extended their dominions so near to the Indus, that some of the Hindu rajas grew alarmed at finding a Mohammedan government established close to their frontiers.

The city of Ghazni, near Cabul, had become the capital of a sovereignty founded by the Turkish governor of Chorasan, who, from the condition of a slave, had been raised to that high office, but, having revolted against the sultan, his master, he seized on Ghazni, among the mountains of Soliman, and took possession of the whole tract of country between that and the Indus, where his authority was acknowledged by several Turkish and Afghan tribes. This chief left his newly-acquired dominions to a favorite, named Sebektegin, who had also been a slave, but had gradually attained to the highest rank in the army, and had been rewarded for his services by the hand of his sovereign's daughter.

Soon after the accession of Sebektegin, the raja of Lahore, whose dominions were only separated from those of his Mohammedan neighbor by the Indus, entered the territory of Ghazni with a large force, hoping to crush the rising power of that infant state; but he soon found it was already strong enough to support itself, so that he was glad to retire without coming to an engagement, although he was only allowed to do so on condition that he should give up fifty elephants and pay a certain sum of money to the new state. Having agreed to these terms, he returned to his kingdom; but when Sebektegin sent for the money, he refused to comply with the demand, and imprisoned the messengers-an insult which the chief of Ghazni revenged by invading Lahore, which was speedily subdued, and all the Afghan tribes within that territory tendered their allegiance to the conqueror. Such was the beginning of the Mussulman conquests in India; and thus was opened a future path of glory for Mahmud, who succeeded his father, Sebektegin, in the year 997.

Mahmud, who assumed the title of sultan, was one of the greatest warriors of his time. His chief ambition was to extend his religion throughout the rich provinces of India-a task to which he was stimulated by a belief, cherished from his early boyhood, that he was intrusted with a divine mis

sion to extirpate idolatry from the land of the Hindus. It was about four years after his father's death, that he marched from Ghazni at the head of his army, and crossed the Indus, where his passage was opposed by Sebektegin's old enemy, Jeipal, the raja of Lahore, who was defeated and taken prisoner; but after a short captivity he was released, on condition of paying the same tribute that had been exacted by the late king of Ghazni. The unfortunate raja, who had been despoiled of jewels to the amount of eighty thousand pounds, which he had about him when he was made prisoner, returned to his capital; but being dispirited and worn out with the toils of war, he abdicated in favor of his son. He then raised a funeral pile with his own hands, calmly ascended it, and kindled the flames, in which he perished.

The contest with Mahmud was regarded by the Indians in the light of a holy war, and a powerful confederacy of all the princes was formed for the defence of their religion, while the women gave up their jewels and golden ornaments for the support of a cause that was as dear to them as to their husbands and fathers; but all their efforts proved ineffectual against the conquering arms of the sultan, who dispersed their armies, and plundered their temples, the great depositories of the wealth of the country. After each campaign, Mahmud returned to his capital laden with spoil, and followed by trains of wretched captives doomed to slavery, leaving behind him scenes of misery and desolation such as had never been witnessed in Hindostan until that unhappy period.

Among the many places of Hindu worship destroyed by this prince, were the temples of Nagarcot and Somnath, both containing immense treas

range, and besides having been enriched by the valuable offerings of a long line of Indian princes, all the wealth of the neighborhood, consisting of gold, silver, and jewels, had been placed there for security during the wars, consequently it proved an important prize to the invaders, who broke the idols, and carried off all the treasures. These precious spoils were exhibited by Mahmud, at Ghazni, on tables said to be of solid gold, on the occasion of his celebrating his triumph by a grand public festival, when the people of all ranks were feasted for three days, on an open plain, and alms were liberally distributed among the poor.

Mahmud had now extended his conquests over the whole of the Punjab, and his next scene of action was the mountainous country of Ghor, inhabited by Afghan tribes, where he was equally successful, and the chief of whom, to avoid the humiliation of making submission, put an end to his life by poison. The descendants of that great chief, about one hundred and seventy years afterward, deposed the princes of the house of Ghazni, and became, in their turn, conquerors and rulers.

In the meantime, the city of Ghazni was growing into a great and splendid capital. The court was magnificent, for Mahmud was one of the richest monarchs in the world, and dispensed his ill-gotten treasures with a liberal hand. He founded and endowed a university at Ghazni, and granted pensions to men of literary talent, who were treated with great respect at his court. He also built a handsome mosque, and adorned the city with baths and fountains, while most of the great men erected palaces for themselves; so that Ghazni was one of the finest capitals in the East. Almost all the inhabitants were Persians.

The unjustifiable wars carried on by Sultan Mahmud in India were, no doubt, undertaken from a mistaken zeal in the cause of religion, aided, perhaps, by a desire of appropriating the wealth of the numerous shrines; for he was not oppressive in his government, but, on the contrary, was just toward his own subjects, easy of access, and ready to listen to any complaints. One day a poor woman appeared before him in great distress, saying that a caravan had been attacked in a desert, within one of the states which had come into his possession by conquest, and that her husband was among those who had been killed by the robbers. The sultan said that he was sorry for her misfortune, but that it was impossible for him to keep order in so distant a part of his dominions; to which the woman fearlessly replied, "Then why do you take kingdoms which you can not govern ?" Mahmud, so far from being offended, dismissed her with a handsome present, and adopted measures for the future protection of the caravans.

During the space of twenty years, Mahmud had confined his invasions to the countries already mentioned, but his ambition increasing with his success, he determined to make an expedition to the Ganges, and after a march of three months, arrived before the gates of Kanoj, the richest and largest city of Hindostan, having succeeded Palebothra as the capital of the

states bordering on the Ganges. The raja being thus taken by surprise, and totally unprepared for defence, came out with his whole family, to surrender himself prisoner, when the sultan magnanimously proposed to enter into a friendly alliance with him. After remaining at Kanoj a few days as the guest of the prince, he departed with his army to Mattra, one of the holy cities of the Hindus, which, for that reason, was plundered without scruple, and numbers of the inhabitants carried away for slaves. The magnificence of the temples at Mattra, which were all built of marble, astonished the sultan, who commanded his soldiers not to destroy them; but they were plundered of their treasures, and all the idols broken.

Many fine old cities were destroyed by the Mohammedans in this and succeeding wars, the sites of which are now only a matter of conjecture. The remains of ancient temples, coins of an early date, fragments of walls, pottery, and the numerous interesting relics of antiquity, lately discovered, buried, in some instances, far below the surface of the earth, serve to show that many a spot now deserted was formerly the abode of a vast population. The Afghan shepherds who feed their flocks on a wide plain not far distant from Cabul, frequently meet with evident tokens of former habitation, and the remains of a very ancient wall, about four feet under ground, mark out the boundary of a city of immense extent; but there is no history extant to furnish us with the date of its existence, the condition of its inhabitants, or the cause of its being buried in the dust. The numerous coins of the early and middle ages, found recently in various parts of Hindostan, prove

Female Dancer.

the existence and duration of several states, and record the names of many of their sovereigns not otherwise known; but they throw no light on the general state of the country, nor do they afford any information with regard to the people for whose use they were coined.

The most celebrated exploit of Sultan Mahmud in India, was the conquest, before alluded to, of the temple of Somnath, near the southern extremity of the peninsula of Guzerat, the richest and most frequented place of worship in the country. There were two thousand priests belonging to the shrine of Somnath, with a numerous train of musicians and female dancers, whose talents were called forth at all the religious festivals, which were conducted with the utmost joyousness; and all these were maintained out of the