भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

And the working of the latter institution sheds light on the unrecorded proceedings of the earlier ones.” The Martyr Louse! 339. Out of the proceeds obtained by selling the confiscated property of the offender, who committed the ‘atrocious crime’ of cracking the said louse, was built a big temple worth lacs of rupees and it was named ‘Yukvihar’—the Temple of Louse! 340. Had this incident been decribed by any other writer, it would have been a parody of the Jain faith. But it is the Jain writers themselves, who cite it with evident pride. Hence, it has to be taken as true. 341. What a paradoxical practice! In order to save a louse in the hair of a man, to cut off the very head of that man! And this is called ‘ahimsa’! As if to kill a man is no ‘himsa’—violence! Man seems to have no life at all! It is because of this ‘ahimsa’, more ruthless and more violent than violence —‘himsa’—itself, that millions of Indian hunters, fishermen, seamen, gamekeepers, foresters and others, who lived by hunting and fishing lost their professions. 342. When these millions of flesh-eaters jointly protested and demonstrated how they and their wives and children would starve to death and how this would spell violence of an enormously grave nature, King Kumar Pal of Gujarat most graciously issued another order that these millions of people, who have been carrying on violent professions, ought to leave those professions themselves. However, as per their demand, the state was to subsidize them for three years. 343. But what after those three years! Starvation could not be completely ruled out in the case of these unfortunate millions. For, flesh and meat was their chief food, which could be had almost for nothing. But because this intolerant ‘ahimsa’ made flesh-eating punishable by death, this common mass of people was antagonized to the Buddhist faith. These millions of people shook off its tyrannical yoke, and sought refuge in the Vedic religion, which had now taken an all-embracing noble form, accepting a relatively considerate ahimsa, which allowed concessions for particular time and place and persons, concentrating mainly on human welfare! Untouchability Aggravated by the Buddhist Religion 344. Even today, not only common people and good many propagandists, but even historians seem to be labouring under the delusion that the Buddhists did not recognize the principle of untouchability, and that no one