Conquerors from the North-West—From the earliest historic times, Persian, Greek, Scythic, Arab, Turk, Moghul, and Afghan conquerors from the N.W. have been coveting the wealth and the fertile plains of the Gangetic valley, and dynastie. professing Buddhism, Hinduism, and Mahomedan ism have been striving for possession within.
Scythic races appeared in India in the early centuries of the Christian era. They came from the inhospitable mountain and desert lands in the north and north - west ; and after them Turk, Moghul, Arab, and Afghan have continued to the present day to seek dominion in the more genial climate of India, and to engage in its commerce. Darius Hystaspes, B.C. 518, had conquered to the N.W. part of it. The Greeks appeared under Alex ander B.C. 327-325, and under Seleucus B.C. 312, and Menander B.C. 181-161. During his two years' campaign in the Panjab and Sind, Alexander captured no province, but he made alliances, founded cities, and planted Greek garrisons. At Taxila (Deri-Shahan) and Nikaia (Mong) in the Northern Panjab, at Alexandria (tTchh) in the Southern Panjab, at Patala (Hyderabad) in Sind, and at other points along his route, he established military settlements of Greeks or allies. A body of his troops remained in Bactria; and in the partition of the empire after Alexander's death in 323 B.c., Bactria eventually fell to Seleucus Nicator, the founder of the Syrian monarchy.
During the next six hundred years the Greeks were followed by Scythic tribes of the Su, the Saka, the Hun, the Naga, and the Getm, who made con tinuous, several of them successful, efforts to remain. About B.C. 126, the Tartar tribe of Su are said to have driven out the Greek rulers from Bactria.. The Grmco-Bactrian settlements in the Panjab were overthrown by the Tue-Chi; and during the rule of Kanishka, who held the fourth Buddhist council about A.D. 40, Scythic settlements were formed as far south as the districts now known as the Central Provinces. Scythian races more than once overthrew prior rulers, and more than once sustained great defeats ; but some of the Rajput dynasties, and also the Jat, the ancient Getm, now about 9,000,000 in the Panjab, retained a permanent hold on the country east of the Indus and southwards to the mouth of that river, and Jat princes are still ruling in Bhartpur and Dho]pur.
The Sah of Saurashtra (B.C. 70 or 60), the Gupta of Kanauj (A.D. 319-470), and the Valabhi of Cutch (A.D. 480-722), seem to have opposed successive hordes of Scythians. But Mr. Fergus son believes that it was the White Huns who over threw the Gupta dynasty between A.D. 450 and 475, and that the Saka and the Hun were finally defeated at the great battles of Karur;"near Multan and Maushari, which that learned writer supposes to have been fought between A.D. 526 and 544.
During these struggles for dominion, Vikrama ditya, a king of Oojain, about B.C. 57, drove back one Scythic invasion, and his victory gave rise to the Samvat era still current in India. Salivahana, another king of Southern India, is supposed to have successfully checked another Scythic inva sion, A.D. 78, from which event the Saka era is reckoned ; but the repulse was not permanent, for Cosmos Indicopleustes, who traded in the Red Sea about A.D. 535, speaks of the Hun as a powerful nation in Northern India in his day.
Tradition names Nushirwan, king of Persia A.D. 521-579, as having invaded Western India and left descendants there ; but from that time till near the 19th century, it was Arab, Turk, Moghul, and Afghan races who were the invaders, till Portuguese, British, Dutch, Danish, and French appeared on the scene.
The Khalif I:Ismail (A.D. 636) sent an expedition to Thane and Broach. A few years later (A.D. 662 and 664), raids were made towards Sind, which the youthful Kasim (A.D. 712-714) con quered, again to be lost and again regained (A.D. 828), only to be finally lost again.
The Valabhi dynasty of Cutch, Malwa, and the N.W. districts of the Bombay Presidency (A.D. 480-722), seem to have been overthrown by the Arab invaders of Sind in the 8th century ; and since then the Mahomedan dynasties who have ruled in India have come from Central Asia, and their families have reigned for various periods from 20 to 331 years.