IV.
India.—Indian Amazons—Cleophes, Queen of Massaga—Moynawoti, Queen of Kamrup—Ranee of Scinde—Sultana Rizia—Gool Behisht—Booboojee Khanum and Dilshad Agha, Mother and Aunt of a King of Bijapur—Durgautti, Queen of Gurrah—Khunza Sultana, Regent of Ahmednuggur—Chand Sultana, Regent of Ahmednuggur—Nour Mahal, Empress of Hindostan—Princess Janee Begum—Juliana—Madam Mequinez, Colonel in the Service of Hyder Ali Khan—Begum Somroo, General in the Service of the Emperor Shah Aulum—Begum Nujuf Cooli—Mrs. W., Wife of a British Sergeant—Lukshmi Baee, Ranee of Jhansi—Female Mutineer captured before Delhi, 1857—Female Guards in the Zenanas of Indian Princes—Begum of Oude—Female Soldiers in Bantam.
The early history of India is involved in such deep obscurity that we have no reliable information before the invasion of Alexander the great. True, we read of a nation of Indian Amazons, mentioned by Nonnus, but we have no details on the subject. Amongst the sovereigns who opposed the invincible Macedonian, was Cleophes, Queen of Massaga, whose capital city was said to have been impregnable. While reconnoitring the fortress, Alexander was wounded in the leg. But without waiting for the wound to heal, he commenced battering the walls with various military engines of the most redoubtable aspect; which so terrified the Queen, who had never even heard of anything like them, that she speedily tendered her submission. Alexander, who merely conquered cities for the sake of glory, permitted her to retain all her dominions in peace.
In Martin's "History of Eastern India" we read of a warrior-queen named Moynawoti. She was married to Manikechandro, brother of Dhormo Pal, a King of Kamrup, and on the death of her husband, she made war on the king, who was defeated and slain on the banks of the Tista. Gopichondro, son of Moynawoti, succeeded his uncle on the throne, but he left the management of state affairs to his mother, and gave himself up to a life of pleasure. When he grew up, however, the young king wished to take an active share in the government, but his mother persuaded him to dedicate his life to religion, and he ever after practised the utmost humility and self-denial.
It was during the caliphate of Walid that the Mahommedans made their first conquests beyond the Indus. About the year 711 A.D., an Arab ship having been seized at Dival, or Dewal, a port connected with Scinde, Hejaj, the Moslem governor of Bosra, demanded its restitution. Daher, Rajah of Scinde, refused; and this led to the invasion of India by six thousand followers of Islam. Daher marched at the head of fifty thousand men to oppose the invaders, but in the battle which ensued he was slain, and his troops routed with terrible slaughter.