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NORTI-ILESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH. 363 edicts containing the inscriptions of Asoka may be found at Peshawar, at Allahabad, at Delhi, at Kálsi, at Radhia and Mattiar in Tirhút, and on the Bay of Bengal. Asoka was the first of his line to embrace the Buddhist faith, and he established it as the State religion throughout his wide dominions, with, however, a liberal tolerance of the older religion. He was an eclectic monarch like his successor-longo inter allo-in the enpire of Hindustán, the great Akbar, before Akbar arrogated to himself divine honours in his own person. After the decline of the Gupta dynasty, during the 2nd century B.C., but scanty notices are found of the upper Ganges valley for several hundred years. It would appear, however, that a Brahmanical reaction, headed apparently by the Rajputs, opposed the peaceful spread of the Buddhist creed, and that a long struggle took place between the rival religions. Early in the 7th century A.D., Hiuen Tsiang, a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, visited all the most sacred sites in India, and found the Hindu pantheon re-established in many places, though the great kingdoms of Magadha and Kanauj still remained faithful to the teachings of Sakya Muni. Buddhism appears to have been finally stamped out by fire and sword throughout the whole of Hindustan about the Sth century, and the existing monuments bear marks of violent treatment froin the hands of the reactionary party. During this intermediate period, numerous petty principalities divided between them the valley's of the Jumna and the Ganges; but the most important were probably those of Magadha, Kanaui, Benares, Delhi, and Mithila. Continuous history begins for the North-Western Provinces with the Muhammadan invasion. Mahmúd of Ghazni, in 1017 A.D., was the first Musalmán leader who led his army beyond the limits of the Punjab into the plains of Hindustan. He entered the sacred city of Kanauj, in Farukhabad District, whose ruins yet cover a very large area ; and then sacked the holy shrines of MUTTRA, the birthplace of Krishna, still one of the most deeply-venerated seats of the Hindu religion. But Mahmúd did not succeed in permanently conquering any part of the Gangetic basin, the Provinces of Múltán and Lahore alone being incorporated with the dominions of Ghazní. Muhammad Ghori (Shaháb-ud-dín), who overthrew the Ghaznivide dynasty, really founded the Musalmán power in Hindustán. At the period of his invasion (A.D. 1176), Prithwi Ráj, the Tomár Rájá of Delhi, was the leading ruler of Upper India. He had been long engaged in a struggle for supremacy with the Ráthor Rájá of Kanauj, and the rivalry of the Hindu princes gave an opportunity for aggression to the Musalmán rulers of the Punjab. Muhammad Ghori attacked Prithwi Ráj, and though at Tirouri defeated with