DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

358 INEVITABILITY OF INVASION [10.1
to people who themselves had barely enough to eat, and no interest
in better cattle. It has not even now been fully realised that supposedly
degenerate sheep, cattle, horses and dogs can, by careful selection,
crossing, and a proper diet, produce new breeds that serve local
purposes better than imported stock.
It was inevitable that the fine horses of Arabia would ultimately
reach India ridden by men who had no caste, who did not let their
social position hinder personal care of steeds whose pedigrees were
often far longer than their own. Equipped (DB. 119) with cuirass, chain
mail, swords of better steel than any in India, and bows that outshot
anything carried by Indian cavalry, these new invaders (Arabs, Turki,
Mongol, or heterogeneous Muslims) steadily penetrated deeper into the
country. Undefended Madura was sacked on April 14, 1311 by Malik
Kafur, the commander-in-chief of Alauddin Khalji, who had been
invited by another Sundara-Pandya during a civil war between
brothers (which had been noted by Marco Polo). The spiritual
descendants of the Aryans who had first brought the horse into
Indian warfare refused to learn the lesson from their own past. The
sensible portions of the Arthasastra, along with its war-engines, had
been completely forgotten ; even the long bow, with its irresistible shot,
seems to have degenerated with local exceptions (DB. 181). Yet
Indian feudalism was as dependent upon arms and the horse as the
European. It was far easier to keep the villagers defenceless than to
control them should they learn how to defend themselves.
Most important is the testimony of the Venetian traveller that
confirms the incredible, new feudal accumulation and the growth of
a new class, feudal landholding barons of a peculiar type. In the
inscriptions, these are the Rastrakutas and the like, mentioned from
the 10th century onwards in the south (EL 5. 118-141 ; 27.41-7 ;
3.221-4, &c.). Marco Polo says :
“I tell you that this king has a multitude of lieges (feoilz), and they are of this sort. For
they are lieges of their lord in this world and wherever the king goes these barons keep him
company; and they at court; and ride with the king ; and bear great lordship about him; and
wherever the king goes these barons keep him company ; and they have very great lordship in
all the kingdom. And know that when the king dies, and his corpse is burning in the great fire,
then all these barons