1 B^ba Ndnak. 17
2 Vijayanagar and Rajputana, practically the whole of
3 India was under the control of Muhammadan kings.
4 But though professing one faith, these alien rulers
5 had little else in common. The offshoots of the
6 various dynasties that had succeeded one another
7 on the imperial throne, they came of different races
8 and from different countries ; and hence they re-
9 garded one another with as little good will as they
10 displayed towards their Hindu subjects. The hand
11 of each was against his neighbour, and that king
12 reigned longest who could longest keep his enemies
13 at bay. Confusion and bloodshed prevailed through-
14 out India, and nowhere more so than in the Punjab.
15 Lying in the very path of the invader, this unhappy
16 land had been a stranger to peace since Mahmud of
17 Ghazni first led his victorious armies across the Indus.
18 Though nominally a part of the Delhi kingdom, it
19 had long been at the mercy of its Afghan governors,
20 who, despising the authority of their weak masters,
21 sought only to secure their own independence, and to
22 enrich themselves at the expense of the unfortunate
23 people over whom they held their tyrannical sway.
24 Turning from the political to the religious world,
25 confusion and unrest again confront us. The
26 Muhammadan invaders had brought with them their
27 own methods of government, their own manners and
28 customs, their own arts, crafts, and language, all of
29 which were new to the peoples of India, and exer-
30 cised a powerful influence on their political and
31 social development. But nothing that the followers
32 of the Prophet imported from the West was more
33 alien to the land of their adoption than their
34 (1.841) 2