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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INDIAN PEOPLES

TITLE PAGE

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INDIAN PEOPLES

By SIR WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER, K.C.S.I., C.I.E. M.A. OXON., LL.D. CAMBRIDGE A VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY

TWENTY-THIRD EDITION. EIGHTY-NINTH THOUSAND

OXFORD: AT THE CLARENDON PRESS; 1903

PRINTER’S PAGE

OXFORD PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, M.A. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

PREFACE

IN this book I try to exhibit the growth of the Indian peoples, to show what part they have played in the world’s progress, and what sufferings they have endured from other nations. Short Indian histories, as written by Englishmen, usually dismiss the first two thousand years of their narrative in a few pages, and start by disclosing India as a conquered country. This plan is not good, either for Europeans in India or for the Indians themselves; nor does it accord with the facts. As long as Indian history is presented to the Indian youth as nothing but a dreary record of disunion and subjection, our Anglo-Indian Schools can scarcely become the nurseries of a self-respecting nation. I have therefore tried to put together, from original sources, a brief narrative of what I believe to be the true history of the peoples of India. These sources have been carefully examined in my larger works. This little book merely states, without discussing, the results arrived at by the labour of thirty years.

I have tried to show how an early gifted race, ethnically akin to our own, welded the primitive forest tribes into settled communities. How the nobler stock, set free from the severer struggle for life by the bounty of the Indian soil, created a language, a literature and a religion, of rare stateliness and beauty. How the very absence of that strenuous striving with nature, which is so necessary a discipline for nations, unfitted them for the great conflicts which await all races. How, among the most intellectual class, the spiritual and contemplative aspects of life overpowered the practical and the political. How Hinduism, while sufficing to organize the Indian communities into social and religious confederacies, failed to knit them together into a coherent nation.

India was destined, by her position, to receive the human overflow from the ancient breeding-grounds of Central Asia. Waves of conquest from the north were as inevitable in early times as are the tidal waves from the ocean at the present day. But such conquests, although rapid, were seldom enduring; and although widespread, were never complete. The religious and social organization of Hinduism never succumbed. The greatest of India’s conquerors, the Mughals, were being hemmed in by Hindu confederacies before their supremacy had lasted if centuries. So far as can now be estimated, the advance of the British alone saved the Delhi Empire from dismemberment by three Hindu military powers, the Marathás, Rajputs, and Sikhs. The British Rule has endured, because it is wielded in the joint interest of the Indian races. But while these thoughts have long been present in my mind, I have not obtruded them on my pages. For I hope that this little book will reach the hands of many who look on history as a record of events, rather than as a compendium of philosophy. The greatest service which an Indian historian can at present render to India, is to state the facts accurately and in such a way that they will be read. If my story is found to combine truth with simplicity, it will have attained all that I aimed at. If it teaches young Englishmen and young Natives of India to think more kindly of each other, I shall esteem myself richly rewarded.

PREFACE TO THE TWENTY-FIRST EDITION

I AM grateful to my critics in many countries for the reception which they have given to this book. It has been translated into five languages, including a literal rendering in Burmese, and a poetical version in Urdu. The English issue alone has reached its eighty-second thousandth copy, and from 1886 onwards for many years the Calcutta University prescribed the work as a text-book for its Entrance Examination. The present edition incorporates suggestions kindly forwarded to me by Directors of Public Instruction, and other educational authorities in India. To Mr. Griffith, formerly Director of Public Instruction in the North-Western Provinces, and to Professor A. A. Macdonell, Deputy Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, I am specially indebted for a revision of the earlier chapters. The whole proof-sheets have been kindly revised for me by Mr. Morse Stephens, B.A., Lecturer on Indian History to the University of Cambridge.

On my own part, no pains have been spared to render this edition an improvement on its predecessors. Although compressed into a small size, it essays to embody the latest results of Indian historical research, and of that more critical examination of the Indian Records which forms so important a feature of recent Indian work. My endeavour has been to present the history of India in an attractive and accurate narrative, yet within a compass which will place it within reach of the ordinary English and American reader, and render it available as a text-book for English and Indian colleges or schools. The Twenty-first Edition includes the population returns of the latest Indian Census in 1891, and brings down the chronicle of events to the Chitral Expedition of 1895.

W. W. HUNTER.

OAKEN HOLT, CUMNOR, near OXFORD, 1895.

NOTE TO THE TWENTY-THIRD EDITION

IN preparing the revised edition which has become necessary, I have altered nothing in Sir William Hunter’s work but what time has rendered incorrect. The figures of the Census of 1901 have been inserted, and the last chapter has been revised where this was necessary, and brought up to the Coronation Darbár of 1903. Where it was possible, I have adopted the words of distinguished public servants in describing the events of the last few years. What it has been my privilege to do is only what the accomplished and deeply regretted author would himself have done. I trust that, touching it with reverence, I have not damaged his work.

W. H. HUTTON.

ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE, OXFORD, May, 1903.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

THE COUNTRY — Pages 17-31

Situation and size of India, 17, 18; the four regions of which it is composed, 18; first region—the Himalayas, 18-21; Himalayan river system—Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra, Ganges and Jumna, 21, 22; second region—river plains of India, 22, 23; work done by the rivers—the Bengal Delta, 23-26; crops and scenery of the northern river plains, 26, 27; third region—the southern table-land, its scenery, rivers and products, 27-30; fourth region—Burma, 30, 31; materials for reference, 31.

CHAPTER II.

THE PEOPLE — Pages 32-39

General survey of the people, 32, 33; population statistics in British and Native India, 33-35; density of population, 36; scarcity of large towns, 36; overcrowded and under-peopled Districts, 36, 37; distribution of the people, 37; nomadic system of husbandry, 37; rise in rents, 37, 38; abolition of serfdom, 38; four-fold division of the people, 38, 39; the two chief races of pre-historic India, 39; materials for reference, 39.

CHAPTER III.

THE NON-ARYANS — Pages 40-51

The non-Aryans or ‘Aborigines,’ 40; as described in the Veda, 40, 41; the non-Aryans at the present day, 41, 42; the Andaman islanders, 42; hill tribes in Madras, 42, 43; in the Vindhya ranges, 43; in the Central Provinces, 44; leaf-wearing tribe in Orissa, 44; Himalayan tribes, 44, 45; the Santals of Lower Bengal, their system of government history, &c., 45-47; the Kandhs of Orissa, their customs, human sacrifices, &c., 47-49; the three great non-Aryan stocks, 49; character and future of the non-Aryans, 50; materials for reference, 51.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ARYANS IN INDIA — Pages 52-73

The Aryan stock, 52; early Aryan conquests in Europe and Asia, 52; the Aryans in their primitive home in Western Asia, 53; the common origin of European and Indian religions, 53; and of the Indo-European languages, 53; Indo-Aryans on the march, 53, 54; the Rig-Veda, 54, 55; Aryan civilization in Veda, 55; Vedic gods, 55-57; a Vedic hymn, 57; Vedic literature, 58; the Brahmanas, 58, 59; the four castes formed, 59, 60; establishment of Brahman supremacy, 60; four stages of a Brahman’s life, 60, 61; the modern Brahmans, 61, 62; Brahman theology—the Hindu Trinity, 62, 63; Brahman philosophy, literature, astronomy, medicine, music, law, poetry, 63-67; the epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, 67-71; later Sanskrit epics, 71; the Sanskrit drama and lyric poetry, 71, 72; materials for reference, 73.

CHAPTER V.

BUDDHISM IN INDIA (543 B.C. to 1000 A.D.) — Pages 74-84

Rise of Buddhism, 74; life of Gautama Buddha, 74-76; Buddha’s doctrines, 76, 77; missionary aspects of Buddhism, 77, 78; early Buddhist councils, 78; Asoka’s conversion to Buddhism, and its establishment as a State religion, 78, 79; his rock edicts, 79; Kanishka’s council, 79, 80; rivalry of Buddhism and Brahmanism, 80, 81; Siddharya’s council (634 A.D.), 81; great Buddhist monastery of Nalanda, 82; victory of Brahmanism (700 to 900 A.D.), 82; Buddhism an exiled religion from India (900 A.D.), 82, 83; the Jains the modern successors of the ancient Buddhists, 83; influence of Buddhism on modern Hinduism, 83, 84; materials for reference, 84.

CHAPTER VI.

THE GREEKS IN INDIA (327-161 B.C.) — Pages 85-89

Early Greek references to India, 85; Alexander the Great’s campaign in the Punjab and Sind, 85-87; his successors, 87; Chandra Gupta’s kingdom in Northern India, 87, 88; Megasthenes’ description of India (300 B.C.), 88, 89; later Greek invasions, 89; materials for reference, 89.

CHAPTER VII.

SCYTHIC INROADS (about 100 B.C. to 500 A.D.) — Pages 90-93

The Scythians in Central Asia, 90; Scythic kingdoms in Northern India, 90, 91; Scythic races still in India, 91; wars of Vikramaditya against the Scythians (57 B.C.), and of Sálivahana (78 A.D.), 91, 92; later opponents of the Scythians, the Sáh, Gupta, and Valabhí dynasties, 92, 93; materials for reference, 93.

CHAPTER VIII.

GROWTH OF HINDUISM (700 to 1500 A.D.) — Pages 94-108

The three sources of the Indian people—the Aryans, non-Aryans, and Scythians, 94, 95; Aryan work of civilization, 95; the Brahmans, 95, 96; two-fold basis of Hinduism, caste and religion, 96-99; Buddhist influences on Hinduism, 99; non-Aryan influences on Hinduism, 99; the Hindu Book of Saints, 99, 100; Sankara Acharya, the Sivaite religious reformer of the ninth century, 100; two-fold aspects of Siva-worship, 100, 101; the thirteen Sivaite sects, 101, 102; Vishnu-worship, 102, 103; the Vishnu Purana (1045 A.D.), 103; Vishnuite apostles—Ramanuja (1150 A.D.), Ramánand (1300-1400 A.D.), Kabir (1380-1420 A.D.), Chaitanya (1485-1527 A.D.), Vallabha-Swami (1520 A.D.), 103-106; Krishna-worship, 106, 107; religious bond of Hinduism, 107; materials for reference, 107, 108.

CHAPTER IX.

EARLY MUHAMMADAN CONQUERORS (714-1526 A.D.) — Pages 109-131

Muhammadan influence on Hinduism, 109; chronological summary of Muhammadan dynasties, 109, 110; Arab invasions of Sind (647-828 A.D.), 110, 111; India on the eve of the Muhammadan conquest, 111, 112; Muhammadan conquests only partial and temporary, 112, 113; first Turki invasions—Subuktigin (977 A.D.), 113; Mahmud of Ghazni (1001-1030), his seventeen invasions of India and sack of Somnath, 113-116; house of Ghor (1152-1186), 116; Muhammad of Ghor, 116-119; defeat of the Rajput clans, 117, 118; conquest of Bengal (1203), 118; the Slave kings (1206-1290)—Kutub-ud-din, 119; Altamsh, 119, 120; Empress Raziya, 120; Mughal irruptions and Rajput revolts, 120; Balban, 120, 121; house of Khilji (1290-1320), 121-124; Jalal-ud-din, 121, 122; Ahmad-ud-din’s conquest of Southern India, 122; extent of the Muhammadan power in India (1306), 122, 123; Khusru, the renegade Hindu emperor, 123, 124; the Tughlak dynasty (1320-1414), 124-126; Muhammad Tughlak, his cruelties, revenue exactions, 124-126; Firuz Shah Tughlak, his canals, 126; Timur’s invasion (1398), 126; the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties, 127; Hindu kingdoms of the south—Vijayanagar, 127, 128; the Muhammadan States in the Deccan, 128; the Bahmani dynasty, 128, 129; the five Muhammadan States of the Deccan (1489-1688), 129; downhill of Vijayanagar, 129, 130; independence of the Muhammadan Provinces, 130; weakness of the early Delhi empire, 130, 131; materials for reference, 131.

CHAPTER X.

THE MUGHAL DYNASTY (1526-1761) — Pages 132-155

Edbar’s invasion of India and overthrow of the Lodi dynasty at Panipat (1526), 132; Humayun’s reign (1530-1556), 132, 133; his defeat by Sher Shah, the Afghan, 133; he flies to Persia, but regains India as the result of the second battle of Panipat (1556), 133; Akbar the Great (1556-1605), chronological summary of his reign, 133, 134; the regent Bairam, 134; Akbar’s work in India, reduction of Muhammadan States and the Rajput clans, 134-136; his policy of conciliation towards the Hindus, 135, 136; his conquests in Southern India, 136, 137; his religious faith, 137, 138; Akbar’s organization of the Empire, 138, 139; his revenue survey of India, 139; his ministers, 140; Jahangir (1605-1627), his wars and conquests, 140; the Empress Nur Jahan, 140, 141; Jahangir’s personal character, 141, 142; Shah Jahan (1628-1658), his administration and wars, 142, 143; his great architectural works at Agra and Delhi, 143; his revenues, 143, 144; deposed by his rebellious son, Aurangzeb, 144; Aurangzeb’s reign (1658-1707), 144-150; chronological summary of his reign, 144, 145; he murders his brothers, 145, 146; his great campaign in Southern India, 146, 147; his war with the Marathas, and death, 147, 148; Mir Jumla’s unsuccessful expedition to Assam, 148; Aurangzeb’s bigoted policy and oppression of the Hindus, 148, 149; revenue of the empire, 149, 150; character of Aurangzeb, 150; decline of the Mughal power under the succeeding nominal Emperors, 150, 151; independence of the Deccan and of Oudh, 151; Maratha, Sikh, and Rajput revolts, 151; the invasions of Nadir Shah the Persian, and Ahmad Shah the Afghan, 151, 152; misery of the country, 152, 153; decline and downfall of the Empire, 153; India conquered by the British, not from the Mughals, but from the Hindus, 154; chronological summary of principal events from the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, till the banishment of Bahadur Shah, the last Mughal Emperor, for complicity in the Mutiny of 1857, 154, 155; materials for reference, 155.

CHAPTER XI.

THE MARATHAS — Pages 156-163

Rise of the Marathas, and the growth of their power in the Deccan, 157; Sivaji’s guerilla warfare with Aurangzeb, 157; the house of Sivaji, 157, 158; the Peshwas and the Maratha confederacy, 158, 159; the five Maratha houses, viz. the Peshwa, Sindhia, Holkar, the Nagpur Bhonslas, and the Gaekwar of Baroda, 160-162; the three Maratha wars with the British, 162, 163; materials for reference, 163.

CHAPTER XII.

EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS — Pages 164-175

Europe and the East before 1500 A.D., 164; Vasco da Gama, 164; early Portuguese governors and their oppressions, 165, 166; downfall of the Portuguese power, and extent of its present possessions in India, 166; the Dutch in India, and their supremacy in the Eastern seas, 166-168; early English adventurers (1496-1596), 168, 169; English East India Companies, 169, 170; first voyages of the English Company, 170; massacre of Amboyna (1623), 170; early English settlements in Madras, 171; in Bombay, 171, 172; in Bengal, 172; other East India Companies, 173, 174; materials for reference, 175.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA — Pages 176-199

Table of Governors, Governors-General, and Viceroys of India (1758-1892), 176, 177; French and English in the south, 177; state of Southern India after the death of Aurangzeb (1707), 177, 178; wars in the Karnatik—Dupleix and Clive, 178, 179; battle of Wandiwash, 179; Native rulers of Bengal (1707-1756), 179, 180; capture of Calcutta by the Nawab Siraj-ud-daula, and the ‘Black Hole’ tragedy, 180; Clive recaptures Calcutta, 180; his victory at Plassey (1757), 180, 181; installation of Mir Jafar, as Nawab of Bengal, 181, 182; Clive’s jagir, 182, 183; Clive, first Governor of Bengal (1758), 183; dethronement of Mir Jafar, and substitution of Mir Kasim as Nawab of Bengal, 184; Mir Kasim’s revolt, and the massacre of Patna, 184; reconquest of Bengal, battle of Baxar, 184, 185; Clive’s second governorship, and the acquisition of the Diwani or financial administration of Bengal by the Company, 185, 186; Clive’s reorganization of the Bengal service (1766), 186; dual system of administration, 186, 187; Warren Hastings (1772-1785), his administrative work, 187, 188; policy to Native chiefs, 188; Hastings makes Bengal pay, 188, 189; sells Allahabad and Kora to the Wazir of Oudh, 189; the Rohilla war (1773-1774), 189; on Chait Singh and the Oudh Begam, 190; Hastings’ impeachment and trial in England, 190; first Maratha war (1779-1781), 190, 191; war with Mysore (1780-1784), 191, 192; Lord Cornwallis (1786-1793), 192, 193; Permanent Settlement of Bengal, 192, 193; second Mysore war (1790-1792), 193; Marquess Wellesley (1798-1805), 193-198; French influence in India (1798-1800), 194; India before Lord Wellesley (1798), 194, 195; Lord Wellesley’s policy, 195; treaty with the Nizam (1798), 195, 196; third Mysore war (1799), 196; second Maratha war (1803-1804), 197, 198; India after Lord Wellesley (1805), 198; materials for reference, 199.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH INDIA — Pages 200-221

Marquess Cornwallis’ second administration (1805), 200; Sir George Barlow (1805), 200; Earl of Minto (1807-1813), 200, 201; Lord Moira (Marquess of Hastings), 1814-1823, 201-204; the Gorkha war (1814-1815), 201, 202; Pindari war (1817), 202, 203; last Maratha war (1817-1818), and annexation of the Peshwa’s territory, 203, 204; Lord Amherst (1823-1828), 204-206; Burma in ancient times, 204, 205; first Burmese war, 205, 206; capture of Bhartpur, 206; Lord William Bentinck (1828-1835), 206-208; Bentinck’s financial reforms, 207; abolition of Sati and suppression of Thagi, 207, 208; renewal of Company’s charter (1833), 208; Mysore protected and Coorg annexed, 208; Lord Metcalfe (1835-1836), 208; Lord Auckland (1836-1842), 208-211; the first Afghan campaign and our dealings with Kabul, 209; restoration of Shah Shuja by the British (1839), 209, 210; military occupation of Afghanistan by the British (1840-1841), 210; rising of the Afghans, and massacre of the British force on its winter retreat to India, 210, 211; Lord Ellenborough (1842-1844), 211, 212; the army of retribution (1843), 211, 212; Lord Ellenborough’s proclamation, the gates of Somnath, 212; conquest of Sind (1843), 212; Hardinge (1844-1848), 212-214; history of the Sikhs and of their rise into a power under Ranjit Singh, 212, 213; first Sikh war (1845), battles of Mudki, Firozshah, Aliwal, and Sobraon, 214; Lord Dalhousie (1848-1856), 214-220; his administrative reforms, the Indian railway system, 214, 215; second Sikh war (1848-1849), battles of Chilianwala and Gujrat, 215; pacification of the Punjab, 215, 216; second Burmese war (1852), 216; prosperity of Burma, 216; Dalhousie’s policy towards the Native States, 217; the doctrine of lapse, 217, 218; lapsed Native States, 218, 219; annexation of Oudh (1856), 219, 220; Lord Dalhousie’s work in India, 220; Lord Canning in India before the Mutiny (1856-1857), 220; materials for reference, 221.

CHAPTER XV.

THE SEPOY MUTINY OF 1857 — Pages 222-229

Causes of the Mutiny, 222, 223; the ‘greased cartridges,’ 223; the army drained of its talent, 223, 224; the outbreak in May, 1857, 224; spread of the rebellion, 224, 225; Cawnpur, 225, 226; Lucknow, 226; siege of Delhi, 226, 227; reduction of Oudh by Lord Clyde, 227; of Central India by Sir Hugh Rose, 227; summary of the history of the Company’s charters, 227, 228; India transferred to the Crown (1858), 228, 229; materials for reference, 229.

CHAPTER XVI.

INDIA UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN, 1858-1892 — Pages 230-244

The Queen’s Proclamation of 1st November, 1858, 230; the cost of the Mutiny, 230; Mr. Wilson’s financial reforms, 230, 231; legal reforms, 231; Lord Elgin (1862-1863), 231; Lord Lawrence (1864-1869), the Bhutan war, Orissa famine of 1866, 231; Lord Mayo (1869-1872), the Ambala darbár, visit of the Duke of Edinburgh, establishment of Agricultural Department, reform of internal customs lines, Lord Mayo assassinated at the Andamans, 231, 232; Lord Northbrook (1872-1876), dethronement of the Gaekwar of Baroda, visit of the Prince of Wales to India, 232, 233; Lord Lytton (1876-1880), Proclamation of the Queen as Empress of India, the great famine of 1876-1877, 233; Afghan affairs (1878-1880), 233, 234; Marquess of Ripon (1880-1883), 234, 235; conclusion of the Afghan war, 234; Education Commission, 234; Sir Evelyn Baring, 234, 235; Native troops in Egypt, 235; Marquess of Dufferin (1884-1888), 235, 236; conquest and annexation of Upper Burma (1886), 235; Jubilee-year of the Queen-Empress (1887), 236; Marquess of Lansdowne (1888-1892), 236, 237; progress of self-government, 236, 237; fall of the rupee, 237, 238; religious riots (1893), 238; Lord Elgin, Viceroy (1894), 238, 239; The Opium Commission, 239; settlement of Indian Frontier lines, 239; Chitral Expedition (1895), 240; Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy, (1898), 240; military reforms, 240; Agrarian policy, 241; The Bubonic Plague, 241; The Famine, 1899-1900, 241; North-west Frontier Province, 242; Afghanistan and the Frontier, 242; Death of Victoria, Empress of India, 242; The Coronation Darbár (1903), 243.

NOTE

The orthography of proper names follows my system adopted by the Indian Government for the Imperial Gazetteer of India. That system, while adhering to the popular spelling of very well-known places, such as Punjab, Lucknow, &c., employs in all other cases the vowels with the following uniform sounds:

a, as in woman; á, as in father; í, as in pin; í, as in intrigue; o, as in cold; u, as in bull; ú, as in rural; e, as in grey.

ERRATA

Hunt’s Indian Peoples.