481:75 From this we might infer that the Vishńu P. was compiled when the Mohammedans were making their first encroachments on the west. They seem to have invaded and to have settled in Sindh early in the eighth century, although Indian princes continued on the Indus for a subsequent period. Scriptor. Arab. de rebus Indicis. Gildemeister, p. 6. They were engaged in hostilities in 698 or 700 with the prince of Kabul, in whose name, however disguised by its Mohammedan representations of Ratil, Ratbal, or Ratibal, it is not difficult to recognise the genuine Hindu appellation of Ratanpál, or Ratnapál. Their progress in this direction has not been traced; but at the period of their invasion of Sindh they advanced to Multan, and probably established themselves there and at Lahore within a century. Kashmir they did not occupy till a much later date, and the Rája Tarangini takes no notice of any attacks upon it; but the Chinese have recorded an application from the king of Kashmir, Chin-tho-lo-pi-li, evidently the Chandrápid́a of the Sanscrit, for aid against the Arabs, about A. D. 713. Gildemeister, p. 13. Although, therefore, not actually settled at the Panjab so early as the beginning, they had commenced their incursions, and had no doubt made good their footing by the end of the eighth or commencement of the ninth century. This age of the Puráńa is compatible with reference to the cotemporary race of Gupta kings, from the fourth or fifth to the seventh or eighth century; or, if we are disposed to go farther back, we may apply the passage to the Greek and Indo-Scythian princes. It seems more likely to be the former period; but in all such passages in this or other Puráńas there is the risk that verses inspired by the presence of Mohammedan rulers may have been interpolated into the original text. Had the Mohammedans of Hindustan, however, been intended by the latter, the indications would have been more distinct, and the localities assigned to them more central. Even the Bhágavata, the date of which we have good reason for conjecturing to be the middle of the twelfth century, and which influenced the form assumed about that time by the worship of Vishńu, cannot be thought to refer to the Mohammedan conquerors of p. 482 upper India. It is there stated, that rulers fallen from their castes, or Śúdras, will be the princes of Saurásht́ra, Avanti, Abhíra, Śúra, Arbuda, and Málava; and barbarians, Śúdras, and other outcastes, not enlightened by the Vedas, will possess Káshmír, Kauntí, and the banks of the Chandrabhágá and Indus.' Now it was not until the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that the Mohammedans established themselves in Guzerat and Malwa, and the Bhágavata was unquestionably well known in various parts of India long before that time. (Account of Hindu Sects, As. Res. vol. XVI.) It cannot therefore allude to Mohammedans. By specifying the princes as seceders from the Vedas, there is no doubt that the barbarians and outcastes intended are so only in a religious sense; and we know from indisputable authorities that the western countries, Guzerat, Abu, Málava, were the chief seats, first of the Buddhists, and then of the Jainas, from a period commencing perhaps before the Christian era, and scarcely terminating with the Mohammedan conquest. Inscriptions from Abu, As. Res. vol. XVI.