Accepted; Vedic sacrifices which were the chief bone of contention were given up; the popular religion of temples, popular among the masses and among the foreign rulers, was given a prominent place, and the Buddha was included in the hierarchy of gods. But what did the Brahman priests gain? Brahman­ism has never stood for any religious doctrine or faith. Its life and soul, then, as it is now, was the Caste System with the Brahman as the highest sacre­dotal caste, and its vital interest was priestly exploit­ation. These two objects were achieved in an abundant measure by the new arrangements—in fact in a greater measure than was ever possible in the past, as we shall see in the next chapter—and . Brahmans must have felt exalted by the great victory of their cause.

Though all these things were accomplished in the Gupta period, there was yet no guarantee that Brahman predominance would be upheld by succeed­ing rulers, and without the king’s support it could not be maintained. Repeated experience had shown that though new kings, in order to obtain Brahman co-operation to establish their power, often yielded to the wishes of the latter, no self-respecting ruler would long tolerate the yoke of Brahmanism. Indian kings almost invariably, encouraged Buddhism side by side with Brahmanism, even when they had been Taised to power with- the help of Brahmans. Brah­manism could therefore be permanently established ‘only with the disappearance of Buddhism and also of all Indian rulers. Its security lay in the revival of a race of Kshatriya princes who would submit to the Brahman as the highest caste and whose primary concern would be exploitation of the country—the common platform on which priestly imperialism could join hands with foreign imperialism. It happened exactly like this. The Brahmans did not rest until they succeeded in handling over the nation to a new race of Kshatriyas, the Rajputs –whom they raised to 4Cshatriyahood for the purpose and  who in a few centuries enslaved the country first  to debasing priestcraft, and then to Muhammadan fanaticism.

One of the Gupta emperors, Harsha Vardhana, became a staunch adherent of Buddhism, and when the Chinese scholar Hiuen Tsang visited India, he held a large assembly lasting for a number of days of many hundreds of Buddhist monks and learned Brahmans. The king’s love of Buddhism roused the ire of the Brahmans and the great pavilion of the assembly was set on fire and an attempt made on the life of the emperor, who used to give away all his wealth down to his robes and jewels to Brahmans and monks and the poor every five years. It is said that five hundred Brahmans were banished from the kingdom as a result of this conspiracy. But this small failure did not matter much to Brahmanis.m. ID a few years Harsha’s empire was completely broken up.

Harsha . sent a complimentary mission headed ‘by a Brahman to the Chinese emperor who sent a return mission to Magadha, but before the Chinese mission had arrived, Harsha died. “It was therefore to be expected that orthodox Brahmanism would seize the opportunity of Harsha’s death to re­assert its political supremacy in Aryavarta.”* One of the ministers usurped the throne; the Chinese mission was insulted; the Chinese leader became indignant and getting help from Tibet overran Magadha. The Brahman king of Assam helped the Chinaman with military equipment and large supplies of cattle. The emperor’s army was crushed, and the Chinese leader took full vengeance for the insult offered to him by the massacre of many thousand. Thus came to an inglorious end the last Hindu empire of Hindustan.

* Page 217, 1–113tory of Aryan Rti,e in India, by E. B. Havel/.

The empire having been broken up, the Brah­mans took the opportunity to invite foreign adven­turers to support their cause. The Rajputs appear on the scene as the valiant protectors of Brahman­ism. Historians do not know definitely the origin of the Rajputs; but all are agreed in believing that they were the descendants of some of the foreign invaders. That they were raised to power by the Brahmans is admitted in the legend of the Puranas. It says that they were the descendants of four warriors
iconjured into existence by the sage Vasishta from the sacrificial fire he kindled on Mount Abu. In plain language they were a new people raised to Kshatriya- hood by the Brahmans in order that they might re-establish Brahmanism in the land. “Everywhere they favored Puranic Hinduism, and the Brahmans rewarded them for their toil, and. recognized the new race as the Kshatriyas of modern times.”* “What- ever the origin of the Rajputs may be, there is no doubt that they were newcomers within the pale of Hindu civilization and religion. Like all new converts they were fired with an excessive zeal to revive the religion they embraced. Brahmans worked on the zeal of this new race of Kshatriyas and the • Chohan and the Rathore vindicated their claims to be regarded as Kshatriyas by establishing the supremacy, of the Brahmans.” With the help of the Rajputs wh6 became powerful in all parts of India, Brahmanism entered on a career of merciless extirpation of Buddhism, and with it of nationalism: The avenues of light and information were All closed. From the 8th to the To the century an impenetrable darkness enve­loped Northern India. History refuses to disclose the nature of the happenings of that terrible dark-

* Page 38, Later Hindu Civilisation, by R. C. mutt.
Page 40, Later Hindu Civilisation, by R.–C. mutt.

ness. As in the Dark Age which followed the Mahabharata War, so tinder the cover of this fright­ful oblivion, Brahmanism did its work thoroughly: monasteries were demolished; monks were banished or killed, books were burnt, Buddhism was stamped out; nationalism was crushed. The country fell; into the hands of Rajput barons, soon to be followed !by the –Muhammadan invaders who completed the work of annihilation. Rajputana became a con-,, genies of rival states, each with its own chief, war-loving and constantly quarrelling with each other. “As the robber barons fought in Europe, after the breakup of the Constantine Empire, so the clans and their chiefs fought in India . Rajput chiefs, both in Rajputana and the Punjab, battled unceas­ingly against each other; and, alas, with Muslims against Rajputs, with varied fortunes.”*.

There could be hardly any doubt that Rajpitt rule was an undiluted military imperialism, a coali­tion of Kshatriya exploiters and insatiable Brahman priests, in which the people were fleeced to amass wealth for palaces and temples. In an incredibly short time huge temples requiring the labour of many thousands of workmen, generally slaves or prisoners, and involving fabulous expenditure; were built all over the ‘country; the secret cells of temples were filled with gold and silver and other treasures beyond description; hundreds of dancing girls with all the temptations of music and decoration served in the temples to complete the vices of priestcraft. The kings surrounded themselves with all imagin­able pomp, luxury and vice. Nobody cared for the people; we hear nothing of the people when the Muhammadan invaders made their incursions into the big cities and temples for plunder of the accumu­lated treasures. The princes kept quarrelling among

* Page 20, India—A Nation, by Annie Besant.

themselves for wealth and women. the Brahmans were sunk deep in the temptations of the temple. We see Muhammadans marching through the country hundreds of miles without anybody opposing them, appearing before the gates of cities and tem­ples, before the authorities got any information, and loaded with rich. booty returning unmolested over vast tracts of inhabited area. There seemed to be no government in the land.

The despotic nature of the regime could be noticed also in the employment by Rajput rulers of large bodies of Muhammadan mercenaries. It was so in Vijayanagar too, another Brahman dominated empire. Both in North India and in Vijayanagar, the presence of Muhammadan troops in the heart of the Hindu kingdoms, in the employ and confid­ence of their rulers, facilitated the final success of the Tvluhammadans. What was worse, the soldiers of Islam were invited to invade India, and there were Rajput princes to help them in their conquest of the country. The four chief royal houses of North India were Delhi, Chittor, Kanouj and Gujrat. The last two kings sided with the Muhammadans until they became undisputed masters of the situation. Raja Jaichand of Kanouj is said to have invited Shahabuddin to attack Prithvi Raj of Delhi.* India fell betrayed by her own prjnces and priests who were no more interested in the unity, strength and prosperity of the Indian masses than the Muhammadan or the European conquerors.

  • Pagel% Decline and Fall of Hindu Empire, by I ala Sundal. D.