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

tenaciously fought for more than six or seven hundred years the bloody and disastrous wars with the Arabs, the Pathans, the Turks, the Moghals, millions of pillaging aggressors of numerous nations and communities of almost the whole of Asia and halted their all-sweeping advance there in the North for such a long period; and to those millions of Hindu martyrs who gave away their lives for defending their religion by leaping into the hungry flames, into the bounding waves of the Hooded rivers or in the wholesale man-slaughter carried on by the enemy, but never forsook their religion as per their various beliefs! The Hindus, history can never forget— must never forget—these immeasurable obligations of those generations of Hindus of the North over the whole of the Hindu nation-obligations which can have no requital whatsoever! 709. However, world history itself tells us that even the greatest of nations, too, fall victims some time or the other, even if after a very long lapse of time, to some foreign domination. Similarly, towards the very end of the 13th century (in A.D. 1294), this sub-continent of South India was overcome with this calamity of the foreign Muslim aggression. 710. But it must be remembered here that the only nation in the then known world, which could be fairly compared with India as regards its extent and greatness—the Chinese nation—was overrun from end-to-end, and subjugated by Chengeezkhan nearly a hundred years prior to the 14th century; and simultaneouly with the first invasion of South India by Allauddin—of which we are going to write very shortly—it had already become the footstool of the foreign throne of the Mongol Emperor, Kublai Khan! But can any profane, abusive writer make bold to say that the Chinese nation has all along been rotting in foreign bondage? Modern History of South India 711. The relevant and sufficient portion of the ancient history of South India has already been referred to in an early part of this book. We can safely assume that with the downfall of the Shalivahan dynasty in A.D. 236 or thereabout, began the modern history of South India. Thereafter, the gallant Chalukya Emperor, Pulakeshi shone like a lighthouse tower, counting the passage of time, in the history of the South. He too has been mentioned in the earlier chapters. To his court had come the famous Chinese traveller, Huen-tsang (or Yuan Chwan), who has first used the word Maharashtra to describe Pulakeshi's kingdom. That is the first important recorded use of the word in history. Emperor Pulakeshi fell fighting with the