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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
( DECEMBER, 1922
and Australia. The conqueror was only a wayward and self-willed accomplice of an unscrupulous offspring of the Imperial family of Delhi, who was casting his wistful eyes on the Imperial throne, and for it was even aiming his ungrateful and treacherous sword at the neck of his old, loving, benevolent and unsuspecting uncle the Emporor Jalalu'd-din. The results of a conquest pressed on under such auspices to such distant parts were bound not to be permanent or far-reaching. The cyclone comes, sweeps over the earth's bosom, but does not stay on. Trees fall. Buildings shake and crumble. And villagos perish. The cyclone is off before the next hour ends. But the dire effects of its rudo play last for a long period. Such also were the effects of this Muhammadan conquest on the peninsular portion of India. Out of the conqueror's vanity an attempt at setting up a viceroyalty in the Pånlyan country was actually made. The lifeless bija for an abortive dominion was thus sown vainly. For nearly a quarter of a century from A.D. 1310 this alien viceroyalty lived on with a great deal of strain on itself and not a little discontent of the subjected native dynasties and people. The contact with Delhi at its great distance was for some years a difficult thing to maintain. Without the imperial patronage and reinforcement so small a military settlement at such a distant place could not live for a longer time. The fact that this viceroyalty, consistently with the spirit of the original conquest, persisted even after becoming a local government in a religious policy very offensive to the people which hastened its doom. In 1327 A.D., that is within two decades of the establishment of the Pandyan viceroyalty, the viceroy revolted against Delhi and sought refuge with the Hoysa la king. To squeeze more tribute from the South Indian royal houses an expedition was organised against these. But this time the Hindu dynasties of the south formed themselves into a national military confederacy and effectively resisted the expedition. Though it was carried out almost under the very nosa of the Tughlak emperor who had just then held his fickle capital at Devagiri (Daulatâbâd) in preference to Delhi, it failed in the face of such an opposition. This was in A.D. 1344. In A.D. 1347 the Bahmani viceroyalty of the Dekhan declared its independence of Delhi. Though the Pandyan viceroyalty had failed, the Bahmani viceroyalty lived long enough to measure swords with the opposing south. The ambitious, premature and more distant viceroyalty had failed, while the more opportune and less distant viceroyalty lived on.
Till now the ascendency of a particalar ruling house in Dravidian India wae but the manifestation of the martial superiority of one over the rest of the Hindu kingdoms. His. tory, like agricultura, presents to us the truth of the law of 'rotatory fertility.' As new lands give profuse crops, new communities give powerful heroes and rulers. So far as Dravidian India could yield, it had yielded powerful dynasties with magnificent capitals in all its parts, except where Vijayanagara was now to rise. The Eastern Châļukyas had run out their glorious career in the north of the eastern country. The Pallavas had shone and set still earlier in the mid-east districts. The Cholas had held their supremaoy over most of the Peninsula with Kanchi and Tanjore as their later centres. The Pandyas had by their brilliant history raised Madura into the star-like cluster of the classic capitals of the south. The Hoysalas had grown, ripened and withered. The Cheras being only a cornered dynasty could never naturally become a representative and strong military power in the south. Thus it seems as though the turn came to a feudatory family, as has almost always been the case in the history of the south, to rise to prominence, on the ground of natural causes and historio relevanoy, viz., (1) its connection with the part of the country which was rich and civilised and hence exposed to the greedy expeditions of the Muhammadans then in the ascendant in
