B.C.
to 200 A.D. Brahmanism gradually emerged from retirement and reappeared
at royal courts. It was quite ready to admit Buddha to its pantheon, and
by so doing it sapped the doctrine he had taught. The Chinese pilgrim,
Fahien, in the early part of the fifth century could still describe
Buddhism in the Panjab as "very flourishing," and he found numerous
monasteries. The religion seems however to have largely degenerated into
a childish veneration of relics.

~Conquest of Delhi.~--For a century and a quarter after the death of
Mahmud in 1030 A.D. his line maintained its sway over a much diminished
empire. In 1155 the Afghan chief of Ghor, Ala ud din, the "World-burner"
(Jahan-soz), levelled Ghazni with the ground. For a little longer the
Ghaznevide Turkish kings maintained themselves in Lahore. Between 1175
and 1186 Muhammad Ghori, who had set up a new dynasty at Ghazni,
conquered Multan, Peshawar, Sialkot, and Lahore, and put an end to the
line of Mahmud. The occupation of Sirhind brought into the field Prithvi
Raja, the Chauhan Rajput king of Delhi. In 1191 he routed Muhammad Ghori
at Naraina near Karnal. But next year the Afghan came back with a huge
host, and this time on the same battlefield fortune favoured him.
Prithvi Raja was taken and killed, and Muhammad's slave, Kutbuddin
Aibak, whom he left to represent him in India, soon occupied Delhi. In
1203 Muhammad Ghori had to flee for his life after a defeat near the
Oxus. The Ghakkars seized the chance and occupied Lahore. But the old
lion, though wounded, was still formidable. The Ghakkars were beaten,
and, it is said, converted. A year or two later they murdered their
conqueror in his tent near the Indus.

~Turkish and Afghans Sultans of Delhi.~--He had no son, and his strong
viceroy, Kutbuddin Aibak, became in 1206 the first of the 33 Muhammadan
kings, who in five successive dynasties ruled from Delhi a kingdom of
varying dimensions, till the last of them fell at Panipat in 1526, and
Babar, the first of the Moghals, became master of their red fort palace.
The blood-stained annals of these 320 years can only be lightly touched
on. Under vigorous rulers like the Turki Slave kings, Altamsh
(1210-1236) and Balban (1266-1287), a ferocious and masterful boor like
Ala ud din Khalji (1296-1316), or a ferocious but able man of culture
like Muhammad Tughlak (1325-1351), the local governors at Lahore and
Multan were content to be servants. In the frequent intervals during