THE HISTORY OF INDIA FROM THE EARLIEST AGES. BY J. TALBOYS WHEELER, SECRETARY TO THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF BRITISH BURMA; PREFACE. At the THE present publication (Vol. IV. Part ii.) completes the fourth volume of the History of India. same time it completes the history of Hindu and Muhammadan rule which preceded the establishment of British rule. The portion thus brought to a close may be described as both ancient and modern. It begins with the earliest dawn of Sanskrit legend, and ends with the downfall of the Moghul Empire, about the middle of the eighteenth century. Vol. I. deals with the Vedic hymns and the Sanskrit epic known as the Mahá Bhárata; Vol. II. with the Sanskrit epic of the Rámáyana and the Laws and Institutions of Manu; Vol. III. with the history of India during the Hindu, Buddhist, and Brahmanic periods. These three volumes cover a period which can only be imperfectly mapped out by chronology, as they deal with a remote antiquity, whilst overlapping much of modern times. Vol. IV. is more definite. It comprises the history of Muhammadan rule in India, from the Arab conquests in the eighth century down to the eve of British conquest in the eighteenth; a period of a b thousand years, corresponding to the interval in English history between the later wars of the Heptarchy and the accession of George the Third. Muhammadan rule in India is an important era in the history of the world, inasmuch as it intervenes between the idolatry of Hindus and the professed Christianity of Englishmen. The annals of early Muhammadan conquest are, perhaps, of comparatively minor importance. Arabs, Turks, and Afghans were mostly bent on plundering temples and breaking down idols, but they could not crush out the old mythological worship of the Hindus, or establish the religion of the Koran as the dominant faith of the masses. Kingdoms were created by the sword and maintained by the sword; but there was no cohesion between the Muhammadan rulers and the Hindu population to ensure the permanence of Muhammadan dominion. The Moghul Empire, which was established in India during the sixteenth century, was based upon a totally different policy. Akbar, the contemporary of Queen Elizabeth, was the real founder of the empire. Although a Muhammadan in name, and for some years a Muhammadan by profession, he introduced a new system of religious toleration and equality of creeds, which was unknown to previous Muhammadan princes, and, indeed, was repugnant to the fundamental principles of the Muhammadan religion. Akbar trampled on the exclusiveness of the Koran, threw off the ecclesiastical domination of the Ulamá, raised Hindus as well as Muhammadans to the highest offices in the |