Chapter 19

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.

~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."

~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.