Lehal Library

HISTORY OF THE SIKHS Drugs, dyes, and metals of the hills. Inhabitants. Immigration of the Jats, and introduction of Muhammadanism. CHAP. tains themselves produce drugs and dyes and fruits; their precipitous sides support forests of gigantic pines, and veins of copper, or extensive deposits of rock salt and of iron ore are contained within their vast outline. The many fertile vales lying between the Indus and Kashmir are perhaps unsurpassed in the East for salubrity and loveliness; the seasons are European, and the violent 'monsoon' of India is replaced by the genial spring rains of temperate climates. The people comprised within the limits of the Sikh rule or influence, are various in their origin, their language, and their faith. The plains of Upper India, in which the Brahmans and Kshattriya had developed a peculiar civilization, have been overrun by Persian or Scythic tribes, from the age of Darius and Alexander to that of Babar and Nadir Shah. Particular traces of the successive conquerors may yet perhaps be found, but the main features are: (1) the introduction of the Muhammadan creed; and (2) the long antecedent emigration of hordes of Jats from the plains of Upper Asia. It is not necessary to enter into the antiquities of Grecian 'Getae' and Chinese 'Yuechi', to discuss the asserted identity of a peasant Jat and a moon-descended Yadu, or to try to trace the blood of Kadphises in the veins of Ran jit Singh. It is sufficient to observe that the vigorous Hindu civilization of the first ages of Christianity soon absorbed its barbarous invaders, and that in the lapse of centuries the Jats became essentially Brahmanical in language and belief. Along the southern Indus thay soon yielded their conscience to the guidance of Islam; those of the north longer retained their idolatrous faith, but they have lately had a new life breathed into them; they now preach the unity of God and the equality of man, and, after obeying Hindu and Muhammadan they have themselves once more succeeded to sovereign power. ^ The Musalman occupation forms the next grand epoch in general Indian history after the extinction of the Buddhist religion; the common speech of the people has been partially changed, and the tenets of Muhammad are gradually revolutionizing the whole fabric of Indian society; but the difference of race, or the savage manners of the conquerors, struck the vanquished even more forcibly than their creed, and to this day Jats and others talk of 'Turks' as synonymous with oppressors, and the proud Rajputs not only bowed before the Musalmans, but have perpetuated the remembrance of their servitude by adopting rulers, ^ See Appendix I.