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

exhibition of the perverted virtue of the Hindus, which makes any further discussion in this regard absolutely unnecessary! 432-433. After Mahmud of Ghazni demolished the temple of Somnath for the first time, it was rebuilt several times by the Hindus and destroyed by the Muslim conquerors as many times! Once, when a powerful Hindu king established his power in that region, he rebuilt it with all pomp and ceremony, and under his able guidance, the land also prospered. This Hindu ruler should have, in fact, debarred from entering into the Indian waters any Arab traders, who used the Indian ports in this region of Sindh as watering and fuelling stations on their way to the distant eastern and southern parts of India. For, the Hindus often had the bitter experience of the Arab armies and navies following these traders by sea. But in order to exhibit his religious tolerance and generosity, this Hindu ruler not only did not stop these Arabian traders from visiting the Indian coast, but treated them with such great deal of hospitality that they might feel quite at home there. Naturally, these Arabic traders, actuated whether by political trickery or by religious pride, thought of building by way of a challenge, as it were, a masjid just in front of the Somnath Temple, rebuilt by the Hindu kafirs. But under the circumstances, then prevalent there, they could not do so by force or bravado. Hence, with their usual craft, they applied in the most courteous and humble words to the King for permission to build the masjid. And O what wonder! That gullible Hindu King consented to it most willingly, and up rose the new masjid challenging the Somnath Temple. As a matter of fact, considering the highly miserable state to which the Temple of Somnath was reduced by Mahmud of Ghazni and others, that Hindu King should have wiped out of existence all the masjids, without exception, as soon as he conquered the land and then and then alone, could he have restored the Somnath Temple to its original glory. But instead of destroying the existing masjids he permitted a new one to be built up and bestowed an annuity on it for its maintenance. For this suicidal-religious tolerance (perversion of a virtue again!), he had very soon to pay dearly; because when after some time, the brutal forces of Alla-ud-Din and other Muslim aggressors attacked Gujrat and killed thousands of Hindu men and raped as many Hindu women, and pulled down hundreds of Hindu temples and marched straight towards Somnath, how did these Arabs and their descendants repay the religious tolerance of the Hindu King, who allowed the Arabian traders to build the said masjid? Did they allow the restored Somnath Temple to