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

ruler, before or after him; who was according to them a veritable Raja Ramchandra amongst the Muslims! 948. But let it also be remembered that, as if not content with this blood- curdling sacrifice of men, women and children of Chitod, Akbar entered the blood-stained city of Chitod, put to sword every one of the bewailing Hindu citizens that remained there—and mark well—he made no exception for the Hindu women. Thirty thousand Hindus lost their lives in this one battle of Chitod. Eventually, it seems the stones and other inanimate objects of Chitod appeared to him as deadly enemies of the Muslims as the Hindus there, and hence this devilish destroyer Akbar went on pulling down the Hindu temples, prayer halls, palaces, houses—everything that came his way, and reduced them all to heaps of rubble and ashes. The temple of the presiding Goddess of Chitod, likewise, was razed to the ground, the idol of the Goddess and all the courtyard being completely destroyed. The beating drums, the fifes, the lamps, jewellery and ornaments, door frames and every sort of valuable or grand articles of Hindu interest were sent away to Agra. Only after quenching his fiendish fanaticism a little with such an inhuman destruction of the Hindu capital of Chitod, did this Muslim Emperor Akbar return to Delhi, calling himself ‘Gazi’ for this virtuous and pious act of his. 949. On the other hand, Uday Singh, who had been wandering in the forest for four years, unable to avenge the brutal destruction of his kingdom and the capital city of Chitod, died of grief in A.D. 1572. Rana Pratap Singh, the jewel among the Hindus 950. Uday Singh’s son, Rana Pratap Singh, immediately ascended the non-existent, imaginary throne of Chitod! But, as he was offered the truly great throne in the hearts of all the staunch Rajputs and as he was considered the very emblem of their invincible courage and valour, this Rana Pratap Singh shone with more dazzling glory than many enthroned kings. He turned out to be the one such Rajput Rana, who would never, under any odds—even at the peril of his life—leave the traditional high sense of honour of the Rajputs. Instead of seeking the humiliating friendship with Akbar and the moments of peace and ease that it would have offered, he preferred to be the direst enemy of the most powerful of Muslim Emperors, regardless of untold miseries and calamities that such an enmity devolved on him. He considered it to be the hallmark of true Hinduism and true Hindu kingship to do so?