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

establishment of a new Hindu Kingdom by Maharaja Ranjit Singh right from the river Shatadru (Sutlej) to the Sindhu (Indus) and much above towards Jammu and Kashmir by uprooting the Muslim power from Punjab and avenging the defeats of Jaypal and Anangpal. But even today, it pains me to say that the manuscript of that book must have very likely fallen into the English hands who destoryed it. Else, the person with whom I had entrusted it to be taken to India for being printed and published, must have drowned it into the sea for fear of the search by the English police somewhere on his way to India. Doubtless it is, that Marathi book of mine has been lost before it could be published—has been destroyed! 978. Even then whoever has a mind should read my poem composed in the Andamans on this tragic, yet imperishable and resplendent martyrdom of Shree Veer Banda, which is available even now. 979. According to the belief prevalent among his disciples, Veer Banda’s body was thrown away into the debris on the outskirts of the city under the impression that he was dead. But with his magic power and some miraculous herb that his disciples made him eat, Veer Banda Baba came to his senses and he was secretly and immediately taken to Punjab. Further on, an institution grew up in his name and hundreds of his Sikh followers have kept it running to this day under the name ‘Bandai’. Like the Kuka followers of Guru Ram Singh of a later date, these ‘Bandais’ call themselves Hindus. 980. After the tragic death of Veer Banda, there was no armed force left either of the Khalsas, Bandais, Sahajdharis or any other Sikh or Hindu sect. Every one of them was disorganized and disgruntled. But on the contrary, the Muslim political power had begun to crumble down by the time it was fighting with Veer Banda. Throughout the whole of India, a new resurgent Hindu power—the Maratha military and political aspiration—was dealing knock-down blows to the Moghal imperial power and the latter existed only nominally from Delhi to Punjab, Multan, Kashmir and Kandahar. Only the local ruffians terrorized the general populace with their bands of scoundrels! 981. How the Sikh power grew thereafter and how, at last in the times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, it spread throughout the whole of Punjab and Kashmir, obliterating every vestige of the Muslim rule and how the Hindu independent empire came into existence—we can only just hint at here! For all these events fall out of the period under discussion here.