Already, in the four hundred
and twenty-sixth year of the Hegeira, we read of the destruction of
the great Butkhan, or image-house of Sumnaut, by the armies of the
far-conquering Mahmoud, when the dissevered heads of the Brahmans
rolled down the steps of the gigantic and Babel-like temple of the
great image -
[Text which cannot be reproduced - Arabic?]
(This image grim, whose name was Laut,
Bold Mahmoud found when he took Sumnaut.)
It is not our intention to follow the conquests of the Mahometans
from the days of Walid and Mahmoud to those of Timour and Nadir;
sufficient to observe, that the greatest part of India was subdued,
new monarchies established, and the old religion, though far too
powerful and widely spread to be extirpated, was to a considerable
extent abashed and humbled before the bright rising sun of Islam.
The Persian language, which the conquerors (68) of whatever
denomination introduced with them to Hindustan, and which their
descendants at the present day still retain, though not lords of
the ascendant, speedily became widely extended in these regions,
where it had previously been unknown. As the language of the
court, it was of course studied and acquired by all those natives
whose wealth, rank, and influence necessarily brought them into
connection with the ruling powers; and as the language of the camp,
it was carried into every part of the country where the duties of
the soldiery sooner or later conducted them; the result of which
relations between the conquerors and conquered was the adoption
into the popular dialects of India of an infinity of modern Persian
words, not merely those of science, such as it exists in the East,
and of luxury and refinement, but even those which serve to express
many of the most common objects, necessities, and ideas, so that at
the present day a knowledge of the Persian is essential for the
thorough understanding of the principal dialects of Hindustan, on
which account, as well as for the assistance which it affords in
communication with the Mahometans, it is cultivated with peculiar
care by the present possessors of the land.
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