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but that it descended from the Aryan period can hardly be doubted. As lands were occupied by communities, which supported themselves by agriculture, members of trades and handicrafts were necessary to the general wants, and to retain their services, became hereditary officers. The carpenter, the blacksmith, the goldsmith, the potter, and others, were servants of the village, and were paid by dues levied on the produce at harvest. Over these was placed a chief authority or magistrate, and an accountant and registrar, whose offices also became hereditary. The head men, with the artificers and some others, formed the village council, which managed all local affairs, regulated the distribution of lands, settled local disputes, agreed with the officers of State for the revenues to be paid, collected them and transmitted them. Revolutions in general governments, of kingdoms or provinces, did not affect the constitution of these village republics: they were independent in the management of their own affairs; sometimes paying more, sometimes paying less, according to the rigour or mercy of the demand, but still preserving independence as far as social government was concerned. Nor did it much signify whether their government were Hindoo or Mahomedan. Over these communities the storms of dynastic revolution passed without effect; and as they were in 1526, so for the most part they remain, still practically free. The Mahomedans made no change in them; they must have seen that they could substitute nothing more simple or more efficient. A brutal monarch like Mahomed Toghluk might, for a time, impose cesses or taxes which rendered cultivation impossible, and when the villagers fled, might hunt them down like wild beasts; but even such misery had only a temporary result. When the storm passed over, the people resumed their old habits, and their old system, which, throughout India, might be modified by local existing circumstances, but was never wholly changed or eradicated. It was the only condition of freedom which remained to the Hindoos, and it was maintained. The Hindoo system had involved payment in kind—a fifth generally of the produce. This was changed by the Mahomedans into a commuted payment in coin, when coin became plentiful, and was probably of mutual advantage to both parties. It may also be stated, to the credit of the Mahomedan Governments, that their demands and assessments were seldom excessive or tyrannical, except when a poll-tax was imposed in addition to the demand upon the cultivation; and when this took place, it was attributable to the fanatic zeal which sought to abolish general idolatry by taxation of individuals.

It has been often said in praise of the Mahomedan period, that its monuments are unsurpassable in grandeur; and this is true to a

certain extent, though that grandeur belongs to the period to come, rather than that which has been described. Up to 1526, architecture had made comparatively little progress, and their magnificent fortresses were only perfected after the introduction of artillery. Feroze Toghluk had constructed canals, and introduced from the south of India the system of irrigation; but his is a solitary instance of this public benevolence, and personally, in all respects, he was one of the most considerate of the early emperors of Dehly. Of the rest there are but few remains of any beauty or grandeur; even their mausoleums and palaces are insignificant in comparison with those which followed at Agra and Dehly, and in the Deccan; and it was in Guzerat and Malwah only, where the local monarchs applied the principle of Jain architecture to their public edifices, that up to this period, 1526, any remarkable buildings had been constructed.

In regard to education, the Mahomedans founded many colleges and schools at their capitals, and in some instances extended their school system into villages in connection with the endowments of mosques; but the languages taught in them, Persian and Arabic, were foreign to the people, and even to Mahomedans who became gradually part of the general population, and spoke vernacular languages. The range of acquirement was confined to religious works and a few elementary sciences, inferior to those of the Hindoos, and were unattainable by the people at large. It may be presumed that ordinary Hindoo village-schools were not interfered with, but they formed no part of the State system. It is recorded of many of the kings, that they patronised literature; that they themselves were authors and poets; but the learned men who assembled at their courts were not Indian; they came from Syria, Arabia, Persia, and even Spain; that is, from those countries to which the best era of Mahomedan literature belongs. Some local historians made records of their times; but the best of them, Ferishta, was a Persian, and belonged to a later period. Any progress in science which distinguished other Mahomedan countries did not appear in India. In poetry, and in novels and tales, there is an equal blank as regards native Mahomedans; for Ameer Khoosroo, and other Dehly authors, were foreigners. It has been already stated, that Hindoo literature was dead.

In the general improvement of the country no progress appears. Main tracks between the capital and the chief towns of provinces might be cleared of impediments and jungles; but it has not been discovered that any permanent road or causeway was ever attempted or executed. There were horse-posts, and post-houses in some instances; but these were for the use of Government

servants and messengers, not for the people at large. In other respects, the communications through the country, whether by wheeled carriages or bullocks, remained as they were before the advent of the Mahomedans.

It will be admitted, perhaps, that such a system of government was capable of no enlightened progress, and was not fitted for initiating any. It had never attempted any centralizing influences of amelioration, and was one of brute force and conquest only, without other aim or consequence. In its turn, and without any principle of co-adhesion, it had fallen to pieces, as was its inevitable destiny; and it may be believed that in 1526, the inhabitants of Northern India regarded their deliverance from their gloomy and dissolute Afghan tyrants with a grim satisfaction, though they might not have much hope from their Moghul suc

cessors.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE MOGHUL DYNASTY-THE REIGN OF BABUR,
A.D. 1526 To 1530.

BABUR was a lineal descendant of Teimoor, or Tamerlane, and the sixth in descent from him. His father, Oomur Sheikh Mirza, had first been placed in charge of Kabool, by his father, Abu Said; but he was removed to Ferghana, on the Juxartes, where Babur was born. His mother was a Moghul of the race of Ghengiz Khan; but Babur had no liking for the tribe, and indeed has recorded that he detested them. It is strange, therefore, that the dynasty he founded in India should ever have been termed Moghul; it was essentially Tartar; but the most recent invasions from the west having been by Moghuls, all Mahomedans had become known under that appellation, and the emperors themselves never seem to have desired to alter what was assigned to them by the people. It would be foreign to the scope of this work to follow the early fortunes of Babur. They are full of romance, and the student will find in the Autobiography of this prince, translated by Mr. Erskine, not only a fund of information in regard to transactions in Central Asia in the beginning of the sixteenth century, but a delightful record of his own tastes, feelings, and adventures, written with truth, and under a high sense of enjoyment of the beauties and pleasures of nature and of life, which is very charming. When he was only twelve years old, he lost his father, and became king of the family dominions; and at the age of fifteen, he had conquered for himself his

ancestors' capital of Sarmacand. This he was too weak to retainhis conquest, and even his own dominions, alike passed away from him, and he was reduced to such straits of poverty, that his servants even abandoned him. When in his twenty-third year, Babur was driven out of Trans-Oxania, and this seems to have been the turning-point in his fortune; for in 1504, abandoning Central Asia, he had possessed himself of the kingdom of Kabool, where he reigned, in a constant state of chronic warfare with his neighbours, and of watchfulness to preserve his own possessions. In 1511 he had again taken Sarmacand; but, as before, could not retain it; and by a combination of Persians and Uzbeks, in 1514, he was deprived of all his dominions except Bactria. It was now that he turned his attention to India. The news of the distractions and repeated revolutions at Dehly reached him through Doulut Khan Lody, viceroy of the Punjab, from time to time; and he conceived it a favourable opportunity for establishing the empire, to which, by his ancestor Teimoor's conquest, he had at least a better claim than any of the adventurers who had successively filled the throne. His first advance into India took place in 1519; but he had only reached Peshawur, when an invasion of Budukshan by the King of Kashgar obliged him to return. He had been unable to establish communication with Doulut Khan Lody; but he had written to the Emperor Ibrahim Lody, that the Punjab should of right belong to him, and he requested its cession. In 1520 he again marched into India, but was obliged to return as suddenly as before, to repel an invasion from Kandahar. In 1524 Doulut Khan renewed his invitations, and Babur advanced as far as Lahore; but Doulut Khan had now turned against him, and in the uncertainty of his position, Babur returned to Kabool, having left governors in the districts he had occupied. Meanwhile the Prince Alla-ood-deen Lody, uncle to the King of Dehly, who had been residing at Kabool, made an attempt, under the assistance of Doulut Khan, to gain the throne of Dehly; but was defeated, and returned to his place of refuge. This seems to have encouraged Babur to make a final attempt. He crossed the Indus on December 15, 1525, at the head of only 10,000 chosen horse, and was met by Doulut Khan Lody and his son Ghazy Khan, at the head of 40,000 Dehly cavalry: but they declined an action, and reconciliation between Babur and Doulut Khan ensued soon afterwards. Invitations from many parties disaffected to the emperor now came in rapidly, and the sequel has already been related in Chapter XII., Book II.; the battle at Paniput, and the death of Ibrahim Lody in the action. Sending on his eldest son Hoomayoon to occupy Agra, Babur entered Dehly on May 10, 1526, and was proclaimed Emperor of India.

Babur had probably been misinformed as to the true condition of the monarchy of Dehly; he may have considered that it extended over all India, whereas he found it to be confined to a narrow tract, north-west of Dehly, communicating with the Punjab. All else, to the south and east, was in the possession of revolted chieftains, and must be reconquered. His army too was probably affected by this discovery, as much as by the heat of the weather for it became discontented, and even among the nobles and courtiers of Dehly an expectation appears to have arisen that Babur, like his ancestor Teimoor, would be content with a ransom, and leave them to their usual intrigues and revolutions. Babur, however, was equal to the emergency. He had come to conquer India, and would do so. His appeal to his own army was successful; under his resolute demeanour, many who had revolted made submission, and in four months his son Hoomayoon had recovered Joonpoor, and with it much of Bengal and Behar.

While the power of the Dehly kings was on the decline, that of the Hindoos in Rajpootana was on the increase, and had become in a great measure consolidated under Sunga, rajah of Chittore. In 1519 he had defeated and taken prisoner Mahmood Khiljy, king of Malwah, and since then had very materially increased in power. So long as Babur was merely opposed to a King of Dehly, anything that would tend to weaken that monarchy was welcome to the Hindoo prince, and he had sent Babur friendly communications; but when he became emperor, the situation was changed. Rajah Sunga summoned to his aid all the choicest warriors of the Rajpoot tribes and exciting them by an appeal to their former chivalrous deeds in defence of Hindooism and their country, received an enthusiastic response. Once overthrown, the Mahomedans could not again rise, and the national faith would be restored. War was now declared, Mahomedan outposts were driven into the fort of Byana, and the Hindoo army advanced towards Dehly, and was met by Babur near Sikry. His Memoirs afford ample evidence of the anxiety he suffered on this occasion. An astrologer from Kabool had foretold the defeat of his army; his best veteran troops were dismayed; his Indian horse either deserted to the enemy or left his camp. He became penitent before God, he says: forswore drinking, gave away his gold and silver cups, and vowed to let his beard grow; but he did more than this-he assembled his best officers, and appealed to their honour, and the glory they had already achieved in many a fight. Were men of Islam to quail before the infidels? The reply was a fervent shout of devotion. As he drew up his army before the action, he rode down the lines cheering the men, and giving his instructions, and saw with joy that their old spirit had

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