Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/80

 4G

HISTORY OF INDIA.

[Book I.

Tenii)le of

NaKiircoto.

x.D. :oo5 watching liis opportunity. It came at Ijust. AnangfjaVs elephant, galled hy the arrows and frightened by the fireballs, turned round and hurried him off the field. The Hindoos, thinking themselves deserted hy their general, slackened their resistance, and finally turned their backs. No time was given them to rally, and ere long 20,000 lay dead upon the field. The rest were so complet<dy dispersed that Mahmood had nothing more to do than gather the fruits of his victory. The one most gratifying to his avaricioas temper was the capture of the fortified temple of Nagarcote, situated on one of the lower ranges of the Himalaya. It owed its sanctity to a natural flame which issued from the ground ; and, from the veneration in which it was held, as well as the strength of its position, was not only rich in votive offerings, but was the common depository of the wealth of the adjacent country. To assist in the recent struggle, its garrison had been withdrawn, and when Sultan Mahmood arrived before it, he was met only by a crowd of defenceless Brahmins clamorou.sly imploring mercy. The inventory of its treasures was, according to Feri.shta, 700,000 golden dinars, 700 maunds of gold and silver plate, 200 maunds of pxire gold in ingots, 2000 maunds of un wrought silver, and 20 maunds of pearl s, corals, diamonds, and rubies. The value mast have been fabuloas, and justifies Ferishta's assertion, that it was greater than ever was collected before into any royal treasury.^ The sultan, on his return to Ghuznee, gave a triumphal banquet, which was spread out on a spacious plain, and lasted three days. The spoils of India, exhibited on thrones of gold, and tables of gold and silver, made a display rivalling the utmost that has been told of Oriental wealth and

Splendid banquet.

vol. i. p. 100) " once possessed the whole country be- tween the Indus and the Hydaspes ( Jailum), but have been driven out by the Siks." In his map, they are re- presented as occupying a considerable tract of the Punjab east of the town of Attock, in the direction of Cashmere. On his homeward journey lie passed through their country, in consequence of a letter of invitation which he received from the .sultan, accom- panied by a vast quantity of grapes, which tlieregrow wild. Shortly after passing Rawil Plndee, lie made a circuit of about forty miles, and saw "the ruins of some Gucker towns destroyed by the Siks, and those of some others, still more ancient, which had suffered the same fate from the Mussulmans." The only other information he gives respecting them is, that they "have still a high military reputation." Ferishta, in narrating the exploit of the Gukkurs in their en- counter with Mahmood, says, that they "repulsed his light troops, and followed them ko closely, that no less than 30,000 Gukkurs, with their heads and feet bare, and armed with various weapons, pene- trated into the Mahometan lines, when a dreadful carnage ensued, and 5000 Mahometans in a few minutes were slain." Price, in his Chronological Re- trospect, or Memoirs of the Principal Events in Ma- hommedan Historji, vol. ii. p. 284, while professedly borrowini,'from Ferishta, improvesupon his narrative, apparently for the purpose of making it still more

graphic, and says, "In spite of the circmnspection of Mahmood, and in the heat of the action, a body of 1000 Kahkares or Guikkers, bareheaded and bare- footed, variously and strangely armed, passed the entrenchments on both flanks : and falling in with astonishing fury among the cavalry, proceeded with the desperation of savages, and with their swords and knives, to cut down and maim both the horse and his rider, until almost in the twinkling of an eye, between 3000 and 4000 men had fallen victims to the rage of these infuriated maniacs."' That the}' had the cunning and vindictiveness of savages will become apparent in the coufse of the narrative, from an assassination which some of them committed under singular circumstances; but that they were under regular government, and ruled by princes who occupied no mean place among their contem- poraries, may be inferred from the fact that they were recognized by the title of sultan, and that the daughter of one of them was considered a fit match for the celebrated Jelalu-din, son of the King of Kharism, and the only prince in whom Gheniihis Khan found a formidable opponent. — See Bri^'g's Ferishta, vol. iv. p. 415-418.

' The value of the ■.;olden dinar is about 9«. ster- ling. Tlie Indian maund weighs 80, and the Persian only 11 lbs. The latter seems to be the one which is here intended.