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32- 7 85 Or. B. R. AMBEDKAR OPEN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY HYDERABAD-SOD 033 Dr. B.R. AMBEDKAR OPEN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ,^ Accession No. J C Author: /W t > J *' * Title: } /;J\ This book should be returned on or before the date last marked below. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED B* K. MITTRA, AT THE INDIAN PRESS, LIMITED, ALLAHABAD PREFACE This essay was written in 1922. Circumstances *over which I had little control prevented me from revising or completing it. I publish it now as it was written, because I no longer entertain the vain hope that 1 will be able to devote in the near future adequate time and attention to fulfil my original plan of writing a history^ of Indian civilization during the middle ages. The development of Indian civilization is a subject of absorbing interest, and historians are now beginning to pay attention to it. This interest is not merely topical," arising out of the clashes of our present-day life in India. The subject has a wider import and deeper philosophical significance. We are studying to-day the problems of .migrations of primitive and pre-historic cultures, and of conflicts of races and of civilizations during the past and in the present. The history of India which furnishes a striking illustration of the impact of many divergent cultures which were gradually transformed by a process of mutual adjustment, surely needs the attention of a student of sociology and history who endeavours to understand the inter- actions of human mind and the effects of 'cultural contacts as presented in the customs* religion, literature and art of a people. Before any generalizations can be made, it is necessary in to collect facts. I have sought mainly to collect facts this essay and facts too connected with only two aspects of civilization religion and art. I am conscious of the inadequacy of the attempt. It is partly due to the nature of |h enquiry- cultural facts are so deeply shrouded in obscurity and partly to difficulties. But for the encouragement of friends , my personal its . who rr^ad the essay in the manuscript and considered publication worthwhile, it might still lie mouldering in the desk, . iv PREFACE My thanks are due to Dr. Banarsi Prasad Saxena for pre- paring the index and making improvements in the manuscript, and to Mr. Bhagwat Dayal for reading the proofs. I am indebted to Mr. H. K. Ghosh, the enterprising proprietor erf The Indian Press, for undertaking its publication. TARA CHAND CONTENTS PAGE * INTRODUCTION ... ... ... ... i PRE-MUSLIM HINDU CULTURE ... ... ... 1 THE ADVENT OF THE MUSLIMS IN INDIA ... ... 29 MYSTICISM IN ISLAM ... ... ... 49 HINDU REFORMERS OF THE SOUTH : I ... ... 84 HINDU REFORMERS OF THE SOUTH: II ... ... 109 THE ADVENT OF THE MUSLIMS IN THE NORTH % .. 130 RAMANANDA AND KABIR ... ... ... 143 GURU NANAK ... ... ... ... 166* SIXTEENTH CENTURY SAINTS ... _ ... ... 178 LATER SAINTS ... ... ... ... 192 REFORMERS OF BENGAL AND MAHARASHTRA ... 213 INDIAN ARCHITECTURE ... ... ... 229 INDIAN PAINTING ... ... ... ... 258 BIBLIOGRAPHY ... ... ... ... 275 APPENDIX ... ... 289 INDEX ... ... ... ... 298 ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE No. I. Buddha answering questions (Ajanta). II. Buddha answering questions (Ajanta). HI, Departure of Bodhisatva as a deer (Ajanta). IV. The agony of Prince Sibi (Ajanta). V. The King of Benares and the golden geese (Ajanta). VI. Raja going out to attend the Sermon of the Hermit (Ajanta). VII. Temptation of Buddha by Mara (Ajanta). VIII. A Court Scene The game of Dice (Ajanta). IX. A Palace Scene Dancing girls (Ajanta). X. Husband and wife in a forest (Ajanta). XI. Vijaya's conquest of Ceylon (Ajanta). XII. A Procession of Vidhura-Pandita Jataka (Ajanta). XIII. A Royal Procession Raja riding on an Elephant (Ajanta). XIV. A Procession (Ajanta). XV, Farud slays Zarasp on Mount Sapad (Persian, about 1440). XVI. A disputation of Doctors (Mir AK Shir Nawai, 1485). XVII. Scene in a Public Bath (Bihzad, 1495). XVIII. Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babar Padishah in his youth at the time of his campaign against Kandahar and India (1505). XIX. Battle between the armies of Alexander the Great and those of Darius, King of Persia (Mir AH Shir Nawai. 1526). XX. Pastoral Spene (Mir Sayyid AK, 1539-43). ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE No. XXI. A Picnic (Persian, 1569). XXII. Baz Bahadur and Ruprqati (Rajput School). XXIII. Shikar by night (Bichitar, Rajput %hool). XXIV. Agata-Patika (Rajputana). XXV. Ragini Sarangi (Jaipur School). XXVI. Dance of Siva (Kangra School). XXVII. Birth of Krishna (Kangra School). XXVIII. Gai-Charan Ula (Kangra School). XXIX. Hori Lila (Kangra School). XXX. Rape of Yadava Women (Chaitar, Tehri-Garhw School). XXXI. Hour of Cow-Dust (Chamba School). XXXII. Siege of Lanka (Jammu School). XXXIII. Siege of Lanka (Jammu School). XXXIV. Maharaja Shatrujit on horseback (Bundela Schoo 1762-1801). XXXV. Temple of Visvanath at Khajuraho (Northern sty'e XXXVL Temple of Nuggehalli, Mysore (Deccan style). XXXVII. Temple of Subrahmanya, Tanjore (Dravidiai style). XXXVIII. Hoysalesvara Temple, Halebid (Sculpture 01 eastern side). XXXIX. Jerusalem Exterior of the Qubbat As-Sakhrah (Dome of the Rock). XL. Exterior from the East. XLI. Cairo, Madrasah of Qayt Bey. XLH. The mosque of Sultan Barquq. XLI II. Mosque at Tabriz. Mosque at Ispahan. ii ILLUSTRATIONS LATE NO. XLIV.-Tomb of Uljaitoo, XLV. Mosque in Mirz^pur Quarter at Ahinedabad. XLVL Central portion of Facade of Jami Masjid at 'Ahmedabad. XLVIL Atala Devi Mosque, Jaunpore. XLV1II. Lower Group of Jain Temples at Sonnaghur. XL1X, Chaumukha Temple, Rampur. L The Man Mandir Palace S. W Corner. LL The Man Mandir Palace Interior West Room. LI I. The Man Mandir Palace General View. LHL Mausoleum of Birsbgh Deo at Qrchha Rear View. LIV. Cenotaph of Maharaja Chhatarpur. LV, Chhattri of Maharaja Baladeva Singh, Gobardhan. LVI. The Pavilion of Jain Mandir, in the palace of Amber. LV1I. Kantanagar Temple. LV1I1, Temple of Gobind Deva f Brindaban. LIX. Temple of Jugal Kishore, Brindaban, LX Court in the palace, Tanjore, LXI.Qadam Rusul Mosque, Gaur. INTRODUCTION INDIAN culture is synthetic in character. It comprehends ideas of different orders. It embraces in its orbit belter's, customs, rites, institutions, arts, religions and philosophies belonging to strata of society in varying stages of development. It eternally seeks to find a unity for the heterogeneous elements which make up its totality. At worst its attempts end in a mechanical juxta- position, at best they succeed in evolving an organic system. The complexity of Indian life is ancient, because from the dawn of history, India has been the meeting place of conflicting civilisations. Through its north-western gates migrating hordes and conquering armies have poured down in unending succession, bringing with them like the floods of the Nile much destruction, but also valuable deposits which enriched the ancient soil, out of which grew ever more fresh and ever more luxuriant cultures. These foreign impulses have played an important part in India's history. As a matter of fact the process of its cultural development may be envisaged as the blending of three strands producing the characteristic pattern of their cycle. There have always been two distinct strata of society in India, the one higher and the other lower ; the first small in numbers, but in possession of highly developed religions, social ideas and institutions ; the second comprising the great mass of the people who occupy a humbler rung on the cultural ladder. The first provides the intellectual and aristocratic and the second the folk element in India's culture. r These two in their interactions have supplied two strands of the pattern, while the third was previded by foreign influences which in peaceful ways or by forcible means entered the country and contributed their sham m die perfection of trie design. The synthesis of the three Mid the evolution of new culfttres were wrought along its own mrUSttWrt lines by tte peculiar genius of the race, and age alter agevfe process has INFLUENCE OF ISLAM ON INDIAN CULTURE Hitinued. These ages in Indian history may be fixed and numerated. In the first place, Indian history may be broadly divided nto three epochs ancient, medieval and modem ; the first Beginning from the earliest times to the eighth century of the Christian era, the second consisting of the one thousand years oliowing the eighth century, and the third commencing with he nineteenth century and still running. The ancient epoch may be subdivided into four ages the /edic ending in the seventh century B.C., the Buddhist in the second century B.C., the early Hindu in the middle of the third century A.D., and the later Hindu in the eighth century A.D. The medieval epoch is divisible into two ages the early medieval from the eighth to the thirteenth and the later from the thirteenth to the end of the eighteenth century. In the first age India is discovered as an agitated scene of conflicting tribes and races in which one group attempts to impose its civilisation on the other. The Aryans and the non- Aryans meet in struggle and the war is waged not merely on the plane of politics and economics but also on that of cult and culture. The literature of the Vedic age is a mirror of this vast social conflict, it reflects its various stages (not necessarily successive) : the commencement of the Aryan onset when the victors warriors and priests exhilarated by their triumph sing joyous paeans in praise of the shining gods who confer the boons of victory, prosperity and long life; then the process of settlement and spread over Northern India when