the revolution of thousands of years. Nay, that at a period when our simple islanders painted their naked bodies, when the rudest forms of domestic comfort were unknown to the Anglo-Saxon,
And wild in woods the noble savage ran,
"the princes and nobles of India already dwelt in splendid palaces, and, clothed in the gorgeous products of its looms, glittering with gold and gems, indulged a corresponding luxury in every act and habit of their lives."[1]
From the wonderful subterranean remains of architecture which exist to this moment in the western parts of India, it is conjectured, and with reason, that its inhabitants were not inferior to the Babylonians and Cushites in their knowledge of the arts of peace. It is known for certain that the Tyrians carried on a trade with India, by means of the Red Sea; that the Persians under Darius Hystaspes conquered a portion of the country; and that the Greeks, beginning with Alexander, and ending with Antiochus, penetrated as far as the upper part of the Ganges,[2] taking possession of large tracts of country upon either side of the Indus; that the dominion of the Greeks was succeeded by the incursions of the Scythian nomades, who in their turn were driven out by the Tartars. Next came the Mahomedans, under Mahmood of Ghuzni, who, about the year 1000, carried into effect his father's project for the conquest of India, and, after a series of aggressive expeditions, established Mussulmaun authority from the west of the Ganges to the province of Guzerat. Under this race Delhi became the seat of Government, and capital of the Mahometan empire in India; and one of the successors of Mahmood of Ghuzni, though not one of his descendants, occupied the throne in 1398, when a new conqueror appeared upon the scene.
This was Timour, better known in Europe under the
