A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

viii

INTRODUCTORY

is a detailed description of the industries of the Punjab and
its dependencies, much of which has been rendered
archaic by the natural march of events. The ethnological part of this chapter has been carefully done, though
this again is in need of supplementation in the light of
modern research. It seems hardly necessary to guide the
modern reader in this direction when so many excellent
gazetteers are now available, but for a very lucid summary
of the Hill States of the Punjab and their peoples, a subject
in which the author is a little difficult to follow, reference
may well be made to an article (in vol. iii of The Journal
of the Punjab Historical Society) by Messrs. Hutchison and
Vogel, which is admirably explicit and is supplemented by a
short bibliography on the subject.
Chapter II is concerned with the old religions of India.
Here again knowledge has moved forward and much of the
author's information is archaic. His conception of the lingam and its significance, for example, is not in consonance
with modern theory. Unfortunately, too, he lived before
the days when the labours of the Archaeological Department
had thrown a flood of light upon the teaching of Buddha
and the prevalence of his religion in India. Indeed, his
only reference to the British in this connexion is an accusation of iconoclasm which reads strangely to a modern
generation. His account of 'modern reforms' naturally
stops at an early point, and he seems to have been led into
the somewhat erroneous conclusion that the whole Indian
world-Hindu and Muhammadan-at the time that he
wrote, was moving in the direction of a new revelation. As
I have pointed out in a supplementary note, the tendency
is rather, in the case of both creeds, towards a reversion to
ancient purity and the removal of accretions and corruptions.
The chapter concludes with an account of Guru Nanak
and his teaching.
Chapter III is concerned with the lives and teaching of
the Gurus. The gradual spread of the Sikh religion in
the Punjab led to the establishment of a sort of imperium in
imperio. This development caused the Mughal emperors to
follow a line of policy much like that adopted by the Roman
emperors when confronted by the rising organization of