the Mahomedan Period.

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numerous on the first invasion of India by the followers of the prophet, owing mainly to the terror of the arms of the Mahomedans, and the novelty of their doctrines. The Hindus were liable to a capitation tax (Jezzia) and to some other invidious distinctions, but were not molested in the exercise of their religion.

The condition of the people in ordinary times does not appear to have borne the marks of

oppression. Every ryot is said to have State of possessed a good bedstead and a neat the people. garden. The general state of the coun

try is also thought to have been flourishing, as travellers, both Europeans and natives, speak highly of the wellbuilt cities and towns they saw in different parts of the country, seated amidst beautiful gardens and orchards. That part of India still retained by the Hindūs was also represented as being prosperous, and Madura, in Southern India, was said to be as large as Delhi. The city of Bijāyanuggur is described as being exceedingly grand and extensive, and the pomp of the Rājā and the wealth of the inhabitants as equal to that of the palmiest days of Delhi or Kanouj.

Coinage.

Akbar is generally said to have been the first Mahomedan king who coined silver or gold money, but this appears to be an error, as coins of an earlier date have been found. The first princes used "dinars" and "dirhems," but these were subsequently changed for "tankas,” which were subdivided into "dāms or "jitals." The value of the dinar fluctuated in different districts from 24d. to 9d. The tanka appears to be represented by the modern "rupee." Shir Shah changed the name of tanka to that of "Rupeia" or rupee, and this was adopted by Akbar, whose rupee was worth 18. 11d., and was divided into 40 dams or peisas (copper), and the dām into 25 jitals (copper).

Mahomedan literature flourished mostly before the

reign of Akbar, and declined after his accession.

and Language.

The

Hindusthani language is supposed to have Literature made but little progress before the end of the twelfth century, and to have taken its present form during Teimur's invasion. The pure local dialect in which Mahomedan poets are first presumed to have written was Hindi.

A Chronological Table showing the contemporaneous Sovereigns of England and Hindusthān commencing from Mahmud of Ghuzni and ending with Alumgir II.

THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD FROM A.D. 1761

A

UP TO THE PRESENT TIME.

STAGE of Indian History has now been arrived at, when the English began to play an important political part in the country. At the end of 1761 Shah Alum, the emperor of Delhi was a fugitive, and possessed only of nominal power. The great Subahs or provinces of the empire had become independent. Bengal was under a Nabob, Mir Kossim, of English creation. In Madras the East India Company had but recently finished a successful war with France for supremacy in southern India, and had raised Mahomed Ali to the dignity of Nabob of the Karnatik. A new adventurer had turned up in Maisūr, formerly one of the provinces of the Hindu kingdom of Bijayanuggur, but which since 1564 had become independent under Hindu princes of This was Heidur Naik, born of an humble family, but who after forty-seven years of complete obscurity, laid, in 1755, the foundations of a fortune which six years later made him master of the kingdom of Maisur (Mysore). On the western coast the English power was small and contracted. Among the Marattas, Mahdū Rao had, in 1761, succeeded his father Ballaji Rao as Peishwa, and was preparing for a war with Salābut Jung, the Subhēdar of the Dekhun. The history of the

its own.

following thirteen years (1761-74), at the end of which the first governor-general of India was appointed, will therefore be considered under the separate heads of the three Presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay.

The Presidency of Bengal.

83

BENGAL (A.D. 1761 TO 1774).

In 1762 Mr. Vansittart was governor of Bengal and Mir Kossim the Nabob. The latter removed his seat of government to Monghir (320 miles from Kalkutta), and with the assistance of an Armenian, known as Gurghin Khān, formed a large and efficient army, reduced the expenses of his government, discharged all his pecuniary obligations with the English, and set to work to make himself independent of them. He despoiled several of the great provincial officers, among others, Ramnaryen, the governor of Patna, and this with the connivance of the English. In 1763 he abolished all transit duties throughout the province, in consequence of their great abuse by the Company's servants, and it was through the intemperate and unscrupulous conduct of one of them, Mr. Ellis, that war was declared in the same year against the Nabob. Several actions were fought in the months of July and August, and Murshedabād was taken. Enraged at his losses, the Nabob massacred his English prisoners and then proceeded to Patna, which was captured by the English in November, and Mir Kossim, four months after the rupture began, fled to the Nabob vizier of Oudh, Sūja-u-dowla, for protection. In 1764 the emperor of Delhi, the Nabob of Oudh, and Mir Kossim marched to Patna, which in May they attacked vigorously, but were repulsed, though not without difficulty, and compelled to retire to Buxar for the rains. It was in 1764 that the first Sepoy mutiny among the Company's troops took place, arising from a refusal of their demands for large donations and increased pay. Major Munro, then in command, had twenty-four of the ringleaders blown away from guns, and discipline was restored. In October, 1764, the important battle of Buxar was fought, followed by the capture of Luknow, and a second action at Korah; these demolished the