1 SINDE. 221
2 Some centuries later, Sinde became a tributary to the empire
3 of Ghuznee. On the dissolution of that empire, the Sindian chiefs
4 asserted their independenceagainst the Ghoorun during many years,
5 and with various success. Ultimately they were compelled to yield,
6 and Sinde became a constituent part of the Imperial dominions.
7 In the time of Baber, it was invaded and conquered by the
8 prince dispossessed by that emperor at Kandahar. The invader
9 was subsequently compelled to yield the larger portion of his con-
10 quest. He soon made an effort to regain what his father had lost,
11 but found new enemies, to whom he was compelled to make large
12 sacrifices. Sinde then, for a time, maintained a claim to inde-
13 pendence, but was the scene of great disorders, two successive
14 princes being afflicted with insanity in its most outrageous form.
15 Late in the sixteenth century it yieldéd to the emperor Akbar,
16 and for about a hundred and fifty years it remained in the usual
17 Condition of oriental dependencies; its chiefs usually professing
18 unqualified submission to the emperor; paying tribute when they
19 could no longer postpone it, but scrupulously evading that ac-
20 knowledgment of supremacy whenever their fears were not suffi-
21 ciently active to prompt to a different course. In 1739, Sinde
22 fell to the Persian conqueror, Nadir Shah. On his death, and the
23 consequent dismemberment of his empire, it seems to have re-
24 verted to its nominal subjection to the imperial throne of Delhi.
25 In 1756, Sinde was included in certain territories forming part of
26 a dowry bestowed by the reigning emperor upon Tymur, son of
27 Ahmed Shah Durani. It is thenceforward to be regarded as an
28 appendage of Kabool, the new relation being maintained pre-
29 cisely in the same mode as that previously existing with the
30 sovereign of Delhi. In 1779, a rebellion was raised by the Tal-
31 poor tribe of Belooches against the reigning, Nawaub of the Ku-
32 loora tribe, who was defeated and forced to fly. He was reinstated
33 in his dominions by the aid of the ruler of Kabool, and the in-
34 his success, died on the third day after being subjected to the punishment.
35 The tale was subsequently discovered to have been fabricated, and the ven-
36 geance of the Khalif, then directed towards the beautiful, but vindictive prin-
37 cesses, was manifested in a mode not less characteristic of Eastern cruelty,
38 than was the punishment inflicted on their victim. He ordered them, after
39 being totally divested of clothing, to be tied by the hair of their heads
40 to the tails of horses, and in this manner dragged through the strects of Bag-
41 dad tillthey were dead. The horrible sentence was executed, and the mangled
42 remains of the sufferers then ignominiously cast into the river. Pott. 380, note.