averse to maritime enterprise. demand in the East, skirted the Arabian and Persian coasts, taking advantage B.C.of such prominent head-lands as enabled them to steer direct without following the windings of the shore, and thus reached the Indian coast near the mouths of the Indus. How far they afterwards proceeded south is not known; but as there was no obstacle in the way, and some of the most prized products of the country lay in that direction, it is to be presumed that, instead of confining themselves to a few isolated spots, they formed a general acquaintance with the whole sea-bord. To secure the command of this lucrative trade, the Egyptian kings maintained a large fleet at sea, which, while it kept down piracy, deterred other nations from entering into competition with them. The nation which could have done so with most effect was Persia, which possessed the obvious and very important advantage of a far shorter sea passage. From the Persian Gulf they could have reached India in about half the time which the Egyptians must have taken. The Persians, however, had long an aversion to maritime enter- The Persians prise-an aversion so great, that they are said to have erected barriers across the Tigris and Euphrates for the purpose of rendering it impossible. Be this as it may, it seems established that the Indian produce which they obtained for their own use, or the supply of adjacent countries, came mostly overland by the caravans. Another cause of the supineness of the Persians in regard to maritime intercourse with India, may be found in the erroneous ideas generally entertained respecting the proper limits of the Caspian Sea on the north, and its relative position to the Black Sea. The Caspian was somewhat unaccountably imagined to be a branch of the great Northern Ocean, and it was believed that by means of it a channel of communication might be opened up with Europe, which might thus be made to receive the products of India by a far Errors in shorter route than the Indian Ocean, and consequently at a far cheaper rate than they could be furnished by the Egyptians. Ideas of this kind seem to have weighed particularly with some of Alexander's successors in the East. Seleucus Nicator, the first and one of the ablest of them, is even said to have contemplated a canal which would have joined the Caspian and Black Seas, and thereby secured a monopoly of European and Indian traffic. geography. takes ad After the Romans conquered Egypt and converted it into a province, in B.C. 30, the channels of traffic with the East continued unchanged, while its amount was enormously increased both by land and sea. By the latter, in particular, the traffic received an impulse unfelt before, when a navigator of the name of Hippalus conceived the idea of cutting off nearly a half of the voyage between Hippalus the Red Sea and India, by abandoning the timid track pursued along the intervening shores, and steering boldly far out of sight of land through the very middle of the ocean. The plan seems so natural, and the considerations which suggested it so obvious, that one finds some difficulty in recognizing Hippalus as the inventor, or in giving him much credit for the invention. He had simply observed the regularity of the monsoons, and concluded that by vantage of the mon soons. B.C. Pliny's account of the voyage to India. choosing the proper seasons, the one would carry him out and the other bring him home. The course of the voyage, and even the time occupied by it, is minutely detailed by the elder Pliny. The cargo destined for India being embarked on the Nile, was conveyed by it and a short canal to Coptos, a distance of 303 miles. At Coptos the land carriage commenced, and was continued 258 miles to Berenice, on the west shore of the Red Sea. From Berenice the vessel started about midsummer, and after a short halt near the Straits of Bab-el-mandeb, took its final departure usually for Musiris on the Malabar coast. The whole time occupied, on an average, from the Mediterranean to India was a little more than three months, or ninety-four days. Of these, the inland navigation to Coptos occupied twelve, the land transport to Berenice twelve, the voyage down the Red Sea thirty, and the voyage across the Indian Ocean forty days. The time occupied by the Red Sea voyage seems out of all proportion to the other, but may be accounted for partly by the difficulty of navigating a sea notorious for baffling winds and storms, and perhaps partly also by delays which may have been occasioned by calling on both sides of the coast for the purpose of completing the cargo. The homeward voyage, commenced early in December, appears to have been the far more tedious of the two. Though the Persians had failed to take advantage of their maritime proximity to India, the Romans had no sooner carried their eastern frontier to the 1 Plinii Historia Naturalis, b. vi. c. 23. A.D. by the Per banks of the Euphrates, than an important trade sprung up in the Persian Gulf, and Indian produce was transported in large quantities up the river, and then west to Palmyra, which reaped the advantage to such an extent that even Rome Indian trade condescended at one time to court its alliance. After this proud city had sian Gulf. declined and was tottering to its fall, the Persian monarchs continued the traffic which had been established, and by means of it enriched themselves at the expense of the Greeks, who had made Constantinople the capital of their empire. As we have now touched on medieval times, it may suffice, in concluding the sketch of ancient India, to mention that the great staples of its trade were then nearly the same as at present, and consisted chiefly of cotton and silk goods, dyes, drugs, spices and aromatics, pearls, diamonds, emeralds, and other precious stones. These were paid chiefly in the precious metals, but partly also in woollen cloth, lead, tin, brass, wine, and a few foreign perfumes. Though a passage in the Institutes of Menu, which refers to sea voyages as well as land journeys, implies that the inhabitants of India had begun at an early period to navigate the ocean, they seem to have confined themselves to coasting, and to have left the external trade entirely in the hands of strangers. This aversion to commit themselves to the open sea had its origin in superstitious fears, which still continue to operate. CHAPTER II. Medieval India--Arab conquests-First appearance of Mahometans in India-Conquest of Scinde by M AHOMETANISM, which had made little progress so long Rapid progress of tanism. as persuasion only was employed to propagate it, no sooner Mahomebegan to wield the sword than it spread rapidly on every side. Before the death of Mahomet, in 632, it had subdued all Arabia, and made a considerable impression both on Syria and Persia; and under his successors it had, in the course of less than a century, not only consolidated these conquests, but established an empire which stretched continuously from Arabia as a centre, west to the Atlantic, engulfing Spain and threatening the fairest portion of France-north and north-east through Persia, to the vast region which extends between the Oxus and the Jaxartes, from the Caspian to Mount Imaus-and east beyond the banks of the Indus. Its progress in this last direction must now be traced. As early as the caliphate of Omar, the Arabs, coasting along the shores of the Indian Ocean, had made predatory descents upon Scinde, chiefly for the ance of the Arabs in India Mohamed A.D. 664. purpose of carrying off the women, whose beauty was in high repute, to adorn the Arabian harems; but no land expedition deserving of notice took place till First appear- 664, when part of an Arab force which had penetrated from Merv to Cabool, and gained, it is said, 12,000 converts, was despatched to explore the lower part of the Punjab. This detachment, under the command of Mohalib, who afterwards figured as a warrior in Persia and Arabia, forced its way into Mooltan, and returned with numerous captives. The next expedition was on a greater scale, and led to more permanent results. An Arab ship had been seized at Dewal, a seaport of Scinde. Restitution was demanded, but Rajah Dahir, whose territories are said to have included Mooltan and all Scinde, together with some adjacent plains, endeavoured to evade compliance, by pretending that Dewal was not subject to his authority. The Arabs, thus refused redress, determined to compel it, and, with this view, sent a body consisting only of 1000 infantry and 300 horse. It was altogether inadequate, and perished. Exasperated at the failure, Hejaj, governor of Bussorah in 711, despatched a regular force of 6000 men, under the command of his nephew Mohamed Casim, who, though only a youth of twenty, possessed great military talents, and after surmounting all difficulties, encamped under the walls of Dewal. The siege commenced with an attack on a celebrated pagoda contiguous to the town, and inclosed by a high wall of hewn stone. In addition to the Brahmins who usually occupied it, it had a strong garrison of Rajpoots. The defence was resolute, and might have been successful, had not Casim learned that the safety of the place was conceived to depend on a flag which was flying from a tower. Acting on this information, he directed all his engines against the flag, and had no sooner struck it down, than the resistance became so feeble as to make his entrance easy. With barbarous fanaticism he circumcised all the Brahmins, as a first step to their conversion, and on finding it ineffectual, put all the males above seventeen to death, and made slaves of the women and children. The capture His capture of Dewal itself soon followed, and Casim continued his victorious progress, taking in succession, Nerun (the modern Hyderabad), Sehwan, and a fortress called Salim. A more formidable resistance was, however, in preparation; and the arrival of the rajah's eldest son at the head of a strong force, reduced him to the necessity of acting on the defensive. This continued, till the arrival of 2000 Persian horse gave him once more the superiority; and he began to advance on Alor, the capital, which was situated in the north of Scinde, near the modern Bukkur. of Dewal. His subsequent conquests. The rajah himself being now, as it were, brought to bay, determined to make a final stroke for his kingdom, and appeared at the head of an army of 50,000 men. Casim again stood on the defensive, and skilfully compensated for inferiority of numbers by the strength of his position. The rajah, advancing boldly to the attack, was wounded by an arrow, and at the same time the elephant on which he was mounted, being struck by a fireball, rushed off in terror and plunged with him into the river. The occurrence completely dis- A.D. 714. concerted the Indians; and though Dahir mounted a horse, and displayed both skill and courage in endeavouring to rally them, it was too late. The fortune of the day was decided, and his gallant effort to retrieve it only cost him his life. defence of bad. The remains of the Indian army took refuge in the city of Brahmanabad. Heroic Casim advanced against it, and met a resistance which probably he had not Brahmanaanticipated. The rajah's widow heroically assumed the defence, and made it good while provisions lasted. When they failed, and resistance in consequence became hopeless, she erected a funeral pile, and committed herself and children to the flames. Many of the garrison, equally prepared for death, met it by throwing open the gates and rushing out to perish by the swords of the besiegers. Those who remained had no better fate. On the assault, all in arms were slaughtered; the rest were carried into bondage. Casim, in pursuing his conquests, took Mooltan without resistance, and became master of all the territories which had belonged to Rajah Dahir. revenge It would seem that, beside the children who perished with their mother Singular in Brahmanabad, the rajah had two daughters possessed of great personal attractions. They were among the captives; and seeming fit to grace the caliph's harem, were accordingly conveyed to Damascus, which was at this time the capital of the caliphate. On their arrival, Walid, the caliph, whose curiosity had been excited, ordered the elder to be brought to him. On entering, she burst into tears, exclaiming, "How can I be worthy of your notice, after having been dishonoured by Casim?" Walid, consulting only his indignation, sent orders forthwith to sew up Casim in a raw hide, and send him forward. When the body arrived, it was produced to the rajah's daughter, who, overjoyed, exclaimed, "Now I am satisfied; Casim was innocent of the crime I imputed to him, but he was the ruin of my family, and I have had my revenge.” After Casim's death in 714, the Arabs made no new conquests in India. Even those which he had effected were maintained only till the downfall of the Ommeiad dynasty in 750, when the Hindoos rose in insurrection, and recovered all that had been wrested from them. conquest oxiana. Reference has been made to the Arab conquest of the territory between the Arab Oxus and the Jaxartes. From its position it is usually called by classical of Transwriters Transoxiana, and by Arab writers Mawar ul Nahr, words literally meaning beyond the river. Its inhabitants were mostly Persians, living in fixed habitations, and nomadic Tartars, the latter forming apparently the great majority. This territory, which the Arabs first entered in 706, and overran in the course of the eight following years, became finally dissevered from their empire about 820, and was ruled successively by the Tahirites till 872, the Sofarides till 892, and the Somanis till 1004. The last dynasty becomes interesting, because during it, and owing to one of its princes, the house of VOL. I. 6 |