serve to represent the period between the reigns of Henry VIII. and King John of England; or, as a later standard, between Henry VIII. and the present year, 1870, in the reign of Queen Victoria. The events of the intervening periods may be followed mentally, and the progress made estimated; and hence a deduction follows in regard to the time which has been needed to produce the changes that are evident. It is by no means so easy, however, to deal with the variations of a distant period, in a country entirely differing, in all respects, from any European standard; and while there is nothing on record among Hindoos, it is from the histories of the Mahomedans alone that the deficiency can be supplied; and from the details of their progress up to 1526, the conclusions to be arrived at are eminently unfavourable. This period has been shown to have been one continuous struggle for dominion, and, for the most part, for the suppression of Hindooism; and though the former had succeeded, the latter had made no progress whatever. It was in vain that millions, perhaps, of the Hindoos had been sacrificed under the fanatic zeal of an intolerant faith; equally vain that their temples had been destroyed, the idols they contained broken to pieces, and their holiest shrines desecrated. Hindooism yet remained, in every part of India, dear to the people, and its rites were practised in defiance of edicts, and of Mahomedan terrorism. There is hardly a reign of the early Mahomedan kings, in which expeditions for the express purpose of the extermination of idolatry and infidels are not chronicled with undisguised exultation by the Mahomedan historians; and the details of wholesale brutal massacres, or making slaves of tens of thousands of captives at a time, up to the period under notice are at once savage and repulsive. If here and there they are varied by the comparatively benevolent toleration of one monarch, he is almost invariably succeeded by another of the hereditary stamp. Up to the period of 1526 there is no appearance of the Hindoos having enjoyed the continuance of their own peculiar laws; and indeed, under the tenets of the Mahomedan faith, and its practice, it would have been impossible for Mahomedan law officers to have administered, or even recognised them. It can only be assumed, therefore, that they were continued in secret, and were applied to questions of inheritance after a manner which avoided, or did not provoke, interference; and that their social ranks of caste protected them from disabilities which would otherwise have ensued. The Emperor Babur mentions in his Memoirs, that when he arrived in India, the officers of revenue, merchants, and workpeople were all Hindoos. In regard to the two last, the statement is no doubt literally correct. Mahomedan merchants, or dealers in money, were very rare, and with few exceptions Mahomedan artisans equally so; but his statement as regards the first classes must be received with reservation: and it is most probable that the employment of Hindoos extended only to the lower order of collectors of revenue, scribes and clerks-offices for which Mahomedans had neither qualifications nor tastes. In their dealings with the people, who spoke only vernacular languages, Hindoos were indeed indispensable, as interpreters and local managers; but, with very few exceptions, there is no trace of them having been admitted to public offices, or to any share in the government of their own people. Nor was it until after-times that their abilities were put to use, and they were allowed to rise in the imperial service to the rank to which they were entitled. There was not only no progress in Hindoo literature or science, which before the Mahomedan invasion had attained great perfection, but what they possessed had grown obsolete from actual desuetude. Their trade had become impoverished, and that with foreign countries, except on the western coast, appears to have ceased altogether. Every Hindoo State, except a few of the Rajpoots in Rajpootana, had disappeared from the records of history; and while those that remained had as yet held their position only by their indomitable valour, they were tributary to the paramount power. In the whole of India there remained but one unconquered and independent, which was the kingdom of Beejanugger, and that was soon to follow the fate of the rest. Had, however, these great national revolutions been attended with any corresponding benefit to the people? Had the Mahomedan Government introduced any civilizing influence of its own in furtherance of what had existed before? It is difficult to discover any whatever; nay, it is evident that in the destruction of the Hindoo nationality, the Mahomedans had supplied none of their own spirit or energy. They had not sought to raise the Hindoos to their own level, but to depress them as much as it was possible to effect; and they lay, as it were, at the feet of their conquerors, humbled and helpless, the sport of every succeeding tyrant, or breathing awhile in peace under the rule of a monarch comparatively merciful and considerate. In one point, however, the Mahomedans could make no impression upon the ancient Hindoo system, which would in any degree tend to their own benefit, and for the most part it underwent no interference. This was the independent government of villages by their local and hereditary corporations; and it was this system which secured to the Hindoo people, and perpetuated, the only freedom they retained. The antiquity of village administration cannot be estimated: 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 attiibutable 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, 152, 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, 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 |