CONTINUED INVASIONS BY MAHMUD 23 A HINDU IDOL. kingdoms, many of which were at feud with one an- other. There were the Brahman kings of Gandhara on the Indus, the Tomaras at Delhi and Kanauj, the Buddhist Palas of Magadha on the lower Ganges, the survivors of the Guptas in Malwa, the Kalachuris on the Narbada, the Chandellas of Ma- hoba, and many more, who united might have stemmed any invasion, but whose jealousies brought them ruin. Internal division has proved the undo- ing of India again and again, and has sapped the power of mere numbers which alone could enable the men of the warm plains to stand against the hardy mountain tribes and the relent- less horsemen of the Central Asian steppes. To the contrasts of union and disunion, north and south, race and climate, was added the zeal of the Moslem and the greed of the robber. The mountaineers were as poor as they were brave, and covetous as they were devout. The treasures of India, heaped up round the colossal figures of obscene idols, appealed irresistibly to these hungry fanatics. It was no wonder that they carried all before them, devoured the rich lands lik;e a cloud of locusts, and returned to their frozen homes with a welcome such as meets the mooring of an argosy. Each campaign made them stronger and more terrible. They brought home not treasure only, but recruits, and to the volunteers who flocked to the spoil from the Oxus and Jaxartes, and to the unrivalled cavalry of their native
