Lehal Library

INTRODUCTORY vii done, though this again is in need of supplementation It seems hardly in the hght of modern research. necessary to guide the modern reader in this direction when so many excellent gazetteers are now available, but for a very lucid summary of the Hill States of the Punjab and their peoples, a subject in which the author is a little difficult to follow, reference may well be made to an article (in vol. iii of The Journal of the Punjab- Historical Society) by Messrs. Hutchison and Vogel, which is admirably explicit and is supplemented by a short bibliography on the subject. Chapter II is concerned with the old religions of India. Here again knowledge has moved forward and much of the author's information is archaic. His conception of the lingam and its significance, for example, Unfortuis not in consonance with modern theory. nately, too, he lived before the days when the labours of the Archaeological Department had thrown a flood of light upon the teaching of Buddha and the prevalence of his religion in India. Indeed, his only reference to the British in this connexion is an accusation of iconoclasm which reads strangely- to a modern geneHis account of 'modern reforms' naturally ration. stops at an early point, and he seems to have been led into the somewhat erroneous conclusion that the whole Indian world Hindu and Muhammadan at the tim.e that he wrote, was moving in the direction of a new revelation. As I have pointed out in a supplementary note, the tendency is rather, in the case of both creeds, towards a reversion to ancient purity and the removal The chapter concludes of accretions and corruptions. with an account of Guru Nanak and his teaching. Chapter III is concerned with the lives and teach-ing of the Gurus. The gradual spread of the Sikh religion in the Punjab led to the establishment of a sort of imperium in imperio. This development caused Mughal emperors to follow a line of policy much like that adopted by the Roman emperors when confronted by the rising organization of the Christian Church. This policy one of repression and persecution caused a profound modification of the whole Sikh system. The simple altruism of the early days was laid aside and, under Gobind Singh, the tenth and last Guru, the Sikhs became a definite fighting force. At first the armies of the Khalsa met with little success, and the death of Gobind Singh in 1708, followed by that of Banda. his successor in the command of the armies, in 1716, seemed to sound the knell of Sikh hopes and ambitions. But — — — —