Note 41 — Chapter III

It was a part of the political system of the ancient Indian kings, that they never entered the territories of their neighbours in a hostile manner but upon the most urgent occasions. If they could not possibly avoid it, they at least suffered the people employed in agriculture to remain at peace, and molested neither their temples nor their priests. We are told so by Strabo, and by Adrian in his History of Alexander’s Expedition to India. The policy of the Mahometan conquerors and their allies in India has, on the contrary, been, as far as they were able, to reduce the mightiest sovereigns and kingdoms to obedience, and to endeavour to govern the latter themselves; to leave on the throne only the weakest princes, and to render them tributary; to foment quarrels between them, or bring about a reconciliation according as it suited their interest; never to undertake more than one war at a time; to allow religious liberty in its full extent only to their allies, and to suffer them alone to retain their ancient usages and customs; to take part always with one or other of two contending parties, and in that manner to increase their power; lastly, to furnish their allies with officers to command their troops. Ossa vides regum vacuis exhausta medullis. In this manner they suck the very marrow from the bones of kings, says Juvenal in his eighth satire. A.