The Jat settled in the country as cultivators of the soil, and they continue to the present day engaged in husbandry, but with the Mahomedan dynasties, the Turk Mahmud, the Moghul Timur, the Persian Nadir, and the Afghan Ahamd seem to have been attracted by the hopes of plunder. Mahmud of Ghazni twelve times (A.D. 1001-1026) made inroads on the south-western parts of the country, carrying back with him immense wealth ; Timur (A.D. 1398-99) sacked Dehli and Meerut, and left fifteen years of anarchy, famine, and pestilence behind him. Nadir Shah (A.D. 1738-39) took away with him from Dehli eight or nine millions in gold and silver money ; Ahniad Shah, in his invasions, obtained the Paujab (1751-52) and sacked Dehli (1756) ; and his invasion of 1759 led to the assassination of Alamgir ri., but after he overthrew the Mahrattas at Paniput (1761) he left India never to return to it.
The duration of such of the invading dynasties as obtained a hold of the country, was as under : House of Ghazni (Turki), . A.D. 1001-1186 Years 185 Ghor (Afghan), . 1186-1206 20 Kings (chiefly Turki), 1206-1290 84 House of Khilji (Turki), . 1290-1320 30 Taghalak (Panjab Turks), 1320-1414 94 Timur (Moghul), . . 1398-1399 Syuds, , 1414-1450 36 Lodi (Afghans), . . . 1450-1526 76 House of Baber (Moghul), . 1526-1857 331 Whilst these races were striving for the pos session of the Indo-Gangetic plain, several dynasties of prior occupants in the south of India were overwhelmed by Mahomedan armies, and families professing Islam formed kingdoms in Gujerat, Kulburga, Beder, Golconda, Bijapur, Ahmad nagar, Malwa, Kandesh, Bengal, Berar, Sind Hyderabad, Mysore, and Arcot.
111 the 14th century (1347), Masan Gangu, surnamed Bahmani, headed a successful rebellion in the Dekhan against Mahomed Taglialaq, and drove the armies of Heidi across the Narbada. Hasan was an Afghan of humble origin, but had attained distinction in the Peninsula, and, on declaring for independence of the empire, lie fixed his capital at Kulburga. His descendants reigned 179 years (13.17-1526), through thirteen genera tions. Their territory, when at the height of their power, comprised the central parts of the Dekhan from sea to sea, and from Berar in the north, southwards to Conjeveram ; and when at length the dynasty became effete, several smaller houses assumed sovereignty : Mal Shahi of Bijapur, . . . . 1489-1579 Nizam Shahi of Ahmadnaggur, . . 1490-1595 Kutub Shaba of Golconda, . . 1512-1580 Imad Shahi of Berar, . . . 1484-1560 Barid Shahi of Bader, . . . . 1498-1572
Almost contemporaneously (1336-1565) a Hindu race had been dominant at Vijayanagar. But it fell to a combination of four of these Mahomedandynas ties, who were victorious at Talikata. Tho aged monarch, Rama Raja, was taken prisoner, and put to death at Kala-Chabutra in cold blood. The Vijayanagar monarchy at that time comprehended almost all the south of India, but mutual jealousies prevented the victors from extending their respec tive frontiers, and they, too, in succession shortly disappeared.
During the 14th and 16th centuries, Bengal, Kandesh, Malwa, and Gujerat saiv many chang ing 3lahomedan monarchies ; but in the 17th century (1662) a great Hindu power was formed in the Peninsula by Sivaji, a Mahratta, a brave and skilful leader, between whom and the Maho medans no faith was held, and, on his death, a Brahman tribe, with the title of Peshwa, continued to direct the energy which Sivaji had evoked. The emperor of Dehli, Aurangzeb (Alamgir during a long life strove to hold the Central Dekhan, but from his death, A.D. 1707, the Moghul dominion there was practically at an end, and for the next fifty years the empire even of all India wavered between the Mahrattas of Poona and the Moghuls of Dehli. The Peshwas, however, never recovered from the destruction of their army at' Paniput (1761) ; and the British under Clive, and Hastings, and Coote, and Laurance, and Hector Munro, obtained a prominence which they still maintain ; the Mahratta territories of the Peshwas became partitioned into many separate states, often at war,Kolhapur, Satara, Gujerat, Gwalior, Indore, Tanjore, and Berar, with ninny Hindu chiefships along the valleys of the Kistna and its affluents. During the convulsions, Mahotnedans of Arab, Afghan, Pathan, and Turk descent seized on Cuddapah, Hyderabad, Kurnool, Banaganapilly, the Carnatic, and Mysore ; chief officers of the Mahrattas retained the jaghir lands which had been assigned for their own salaries and that of their followers; and rajas of Sundur, Mudhol, Akalkot, and sirdars of the Dekhan, still hold these estates.
The power of the Walajah family of Aroot in the Carnatic, closed after a few troubled years. Ryder Ali and his son Tipu, after a brief sway in the Mysore, which they had won, were followed by a Hindu monarch. Numerous Hindu polygar chiefs apportioned among themselves the lands of the Pathans of Cuddapah ; Satara, Berar, and Tanjore disappeared Al Mahratta dynasties ; and in Ih39 the Pathan ruler of Kurnool, dreaming of con quests, was overthrown in battle at Zorapore.