as at first
protected, and at last overthrown, by their servants; and, in the public
disorders, the fortune of Mahmud continually increased. From him the
title of _Sultan_ was first invented; and his kingdom was enlarged
from Transoxiana to the neighborhood of Ispahan, from the shores of the
Caspian to the mouth of the Indus. But the principal source of his
fame and riches was the holy war which he waged against the Gentoos of
Hindostan. In this foreign narrative I may not consume a page; and a
volume would scarcely suffice to recapitulate the battles and sieges
of his twelve expeditions. Never was the Mussulman hero dismayed by the
inclemency of the seasons, the height of the mountains, the breadth of
the rivers, the barrenness of the desert, the multitudes of the enemy,
or the formidable array of their elephants of war. The sultan of Gazna
surpassed the limits of the conquests of Alexander: after a march of
three months, over the hills of Cashmir and Thibet, he reached the
famous city of Kinnoge, on the Upper Ganges; and, in a naval combat on
one of the branches of the Indus, he fought and vanquished four thousand
boats of the natives. Delhi, Lahor, and Multan, were compelled to open
their gates: the fertile kingdom of Guzarat attracted his ambition and
tempted his stay; and his avarice indulged the fruitless project of
discovering the golden and aromatic isles of the Southern Ocean. On
the payment of a tribute, the _rajahs_ preserved their dominions; the
people, their lives and fortunes; but to the religion of Hindostan the
zealous Mussulman was cruel and inexorable: many hundred temples,
or pagodas, were levelled with the ground; many thousand idols were
demolished; and the servants of the prophet were stimulated and rewarded
by the precious materials of which they were composed. The pagoda of
Sumnat was situate on the promontory of Guzarat, in the neighborhood
of Diu, one of the last remaining possessions of the Portuguese. It was
endowed with the revenue of two thousand villages; two thousand Brahmins
were consecrated to the service of the Deity, whom they washed each
morning and evening in water from the distant Ganges: the subordinate
ministers consisted of three hundred musicians, three hundred barbers,
and five hundred dancing girls, conspicuous for their birth or beauty.
Three sides of the temple were protected by the ocean, the narrow
isthmus was fortified by a natural or artificial precipice; and the
city an