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

be prolonged. The haughty Alexander could not bear it. He thought of ordering the ladders to be put up on the ramparts of the enemy stronghold, and commanding his Greek soldiers to climb them up and straightaway storm the city. 52. But the same sort of unrest and disaffection against Alexander began to be seen in his army, as was once experienced at the time of the crossing of the Vyas. The Greek army was avowedly wending its way homeward in order to avoid new wars. But all along the bank of the Indus, they had to fight fresh battles. And they knew that unless Alexander gave up his aggressive designs calculated to pacify his unsatiable lust for conquests, brutal wars were unavoidable. Because of this bitter war with the Malava- Shudrak combined forces, the Greek discontent reached the climax and there were rebellious whispers openly flouting Alexander’s commands. 52A. When the Macedonian soldiers found that they had still on hand a fresh war in which the most war-like nations (गणs) would be their antagonists, they were struck with unexpected terror and began again to upbraid the King in the language of sedition. (Curtius Bk. IX Ch.IV. as quoted in ‘Hindu Polity’) {Mc Crindle I.L. by Alexander P. 234). 53. Still, in the end, Alexander promulgated his command to his soldiers to climb up the ladders and leap straight into the enemy stronghold, which valiantly defied the Greek siege. Seeing that his Greek soldiers hesitated to undertake the daring feat, that exceptionally valiant commander of the Greeks, the mighty Alexander, himself began to climb one of the ladders put up against the ramparts of the stronghold. At this, the whole Macedonian army was suddenly inspired to do the great deed, and all began to climb instantaneously. Once at the top of the ramparts, Alexander straightaway jumped down in the midst of the enemy and there ensued a hand-to-hand fight between the Indian and the Greek forces. And Suddenly 54. And suddenly an Indian warrior took out an envenomed arrow from his sheath and applied it to his bowstring, and let it fly with an unmistakable aim at the place where Alexander stood edging on his warriors, and shining in his golden helmet. 55. It was not an arrow, it was, in fact, Indian revenge incarnate. To use the lines of poet Moropant (with a slight variation of course) we can say— तो शर गरधरवरसा पविसा रविसा स्मरारिसायकसा।