The Fall of the Moghul Empire of Hindustan | Page 7

the
Deccan; which country has been largely peopled, in its more accessible
regions, by the Sudras, who were probably the first of the Scythian
invaders. After them had come the Sanskrit-speaking race, a congener
of the ancient Persians, who brought a form of fire-worshipping,
perhaps once monotheistic, of which traces are still extant in the Vedas,
their early Scriptures. This form of faith becoming weak and eclectic,
was succeeded by a reaction, which, under the auspices of Gautama,
obtained general currency, until in its turn displaced by the gross
mythology of the Puranas, which has since been the popular creed of
the Hindus.
This people in modern times has divided into three main denominations:
the Sarawagis or Jains (who represent some sect allied to the Buddhists
or followers of Gautama); the sect of Shiva, and the sect of Vishnu.
In addition to the Hindus, later waves of immigration have deposited a
Musalman population — somewhat increased by the conversions that
occurred under Aurangzeb. The Mohamadans are now about
one-seventh of the total population of Hindustan; and there is no reason
to suppose that this ratio has greatly varied since the fall of the
Moghuls.
The Mohamadans in India preserved their religion, though not without
some taint from the circumjacent idolatry. Their celebration of the
Moharram, with tasteless and extravagant ceremonies, and their forty
days' fast in Ramzan, were alike misplaced in a country where, from
the movable nature of their dates, they sometimes fell in seasons when
the rigour of the climate was such as could never have been

contemplated by the Arabian Prophet. They continued the bewildering
lunar year of the Hijra, with its thirteenth month every third year; but,
to increase the confusion, the Moghul Emperors also reckoned by
Turkish cycles while the Hindus tenaciously maintained in matters of
business their national Sambat, or era of Raja Bikram Ajit.
The Emperor Akbar, in the course of his endeavours to fuse the peoples
of India into a whole, endeavoured amongst other things to form a new
religion. This, it was his intention, should be at once a vindication of
his Tartar and Persian forefathers against Arab proselytism, and a bid
for the suffrages of his Hindu subjects. Like most eclectic systems it
failed. In and after his time also Christianity in its various forms has
been feebly endeavouring to maintain a footing. This is a candid report,
from a source that cannot but be trusted, of the result of three centuries
of Missionary labour.
"There is nothing which can at all warrant the opinion that the heart of
the people has been largely touched, or that the conscience of the
people has been affected seriously. There is no advance in the direction
of faith in Christ, like that which Pliny describes, or Tertullian
proclaims as characteristic of former eras. In fact, looking at the work
of Missions on the broadest scale, and especially upon that of our own
Missions, we must confess that, in many cases, the condition is one
rather of stagnation than of advance. There seems to be a want in them
of the power to edify, and a consequent paralysis of the power to
convert. The converts, too often, make such poor progress in the
Christian life, that they fail to act as leaven in the lump of their
countrymen. In particular, the Missions do not attract to Christ many
men of education; not even among those who have been trained within
their own schools. Educated natives, as a general rule, will stand apart
from the truth; maintaining, at the best, a state of mental vacuity which
hangs suspended, for a time, between an atheism, from which they
shrink, and a Christianity, which fails to overcome their fears and
constrain their allegiance." — Extract from Letter of the Anglican
Bishops of India, addressed to the English Clergy, in May, 1874.
The capital cities of Northern India have always been Dehli and Agra;

the first-named having been the seat of the earlier Musalman Empires,
while the Moghuls, for more than a full century, preferred to hold their
Court at Agra. This dynasty, however, re-transferred the metropolis to
the older situation; but, instead of attempting to revive any of the
pristine localities, fixed their palace and its environs upon a new--and a
preferable—piece of ground.
If India be the Italy of Asia, still more properly may it be said that
Dehli is its Rome. This ancient site stretches ruined for many miles
round the present inhabited area, and its original foundation is lost in a
mythical antiquity. A Hindu city called Indraprastha was certainly there
on the bank of the Jamna near the site of the present city before the
Christian era, and various Mohamadan conquerors occupied sites in the
neighbourhood, of which numerous remains are still extant. There was