314 A BRIEF SURVEY OF HUMAN HISTORY

had successfully resisted the incursions of the Mon-
gols under Kublai Khan. They had also carried on great
building activities (e.g. Borobudur and Angkor Vat)
and trade with India, China, the Philippine Islands, etc.
At home also medieval Hinduism expressed itself luxuriant-
ly in temple architecture. 'The Martiand Sun temple of
Kashmir, the Khajuraho Vishnu temple of Central India,
the rich Jaina temples of Mt. Abu, and the famous Saiva
and Vaishnava temples of South India, particularly
those built by the Cholas of Tanjore,' the Pandyas
of Madura, and the Hoysalas of Dwarasamudra
(Halebid and Bdur in Mysore), may be cited as
examples. Mahmud of Ghazni who destroyed the glorious
temple of Somnath was struck with a sense of beauty by
the shrines of Mathura and Kanouj thoiugh his zeal for
Islam did not permit his sparing them through admiration.
The Kailasa temple of Ellura, excavated under Krishna I
Rashtrakuta, still evokes the admiration of the world. Prin-
ces and peasants had lavished their best gifts on these crea-
tions for generations before their fatal endowments attract-
ed the heavy hammers of the greedy iconoclasts. Little
did pious andi self-complacent India of a thousand yeara
ago dream that its princes and gods would alike prove im-
potent against a race of more realistic foreigners/ *

1. Ibid., pp. 21-22.