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

The Peculiar Nature of the Muslim Atrocities [Sultans of Ghazni] 364. During the long period of nearly three hundred years, in which the Arab menace was being successfully hemmed in Sindh, and was finally overthrown by the Sumra Rajputs, different Muslim tribes were busy founding a strong Muslim power in Ghazni, further north of Gandhar. A Sultan of Ghazni, Sabakhtageen, was now preparing himself fully to attack his contemporary Brahmin king, Jaipal, whose forefathers had all along been ruling the whole of Punjab and Gandhar right up to the Hindukush, ever since the rout of the Huns. 365. Shrewdly anticipating the plan of Sabakhtageen to invade India, Jaipal himself attacked Ghazni, but unfortunately he was repelled, Encouraged by this success, Sabakhtageen boldly fell upon Jaipal, a few years afterwards, with a large army. In order to meet this fierce aggression more determinedly, King Jaipal formed a powerful alliance with the neighbouring Hindu princes, but he was again defeated and the whole region beyond the Indus river, including Gandhar, was lost to the Muslim invader. Soon afterwards, Sultan Sabakhtageen died and was succeeded by his son, Mohammed, a hundred times more fanatical and more crueller than his father, and an arch-enemy of the Hindus. This was the same Mahmud of Ghazni, who styled himself ‘Butshikan’, the Idol-breaker or ‘Iconoclast’. At his accession to the throne of Ghazni, he had vowed in the presence of the highest religious and temporal Muslim authority, the Grand Khalipha, that he would wipe out the Kafir Hindus from India and in order to keep his word, he soon began a series of expeditions beyond the Indus. 366. It is from now onwards—i.e. about A.D. 1000—that the really great wars between the Hindus and the Muslims were to be fought for centuries together. 367. If the Muslim soldiers had gained great confidence, having twice defeated the Hindu forces under Jaipal, King Jaipal and his soldiers, without being disheartened and downcast even after suffering two defeats, speeded up their preparation for a still more determined stand against the Muslims. But fortune once again frowned upon the Hindu King. And when, notwithstanding all his valour and all his efforts to save his religion and his