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

pinnacle of glory that the Hindus obtained by finally subduing the Muslim power at the close of this millennial Hindu-Muslim war of epic dimensions. A Chain of rare and remarkable events 1015. The first of such rare and remarkable events, which at the outset appears trivial but, viewed now from the telescope of historical studies, assumes exceptional importance and which follows immediately after the account of this Hindu-Muslim war given in this book up to Ch. 20 is The Birth of Shivaji either in 1627 or 1630 A.D. 1016. Shivaji’s father, Shahaji, was reckoned among the petty Maratha chieftains and noblemen, who took active part in the political movements of the time. But all of them had to owe allegiance to some one of the five Muslim Sultans that they might enjoy their own knighthood or ‘Jagirdari’. Not a single Hindu independent State—not even the smallest that can be thought of—had remained throughout the whole of Maharashtra. But the son born to the above-mentioned Shahaji Raje, was, however, destined by Providence to lead the Hindu War of Liberation and to be honoured with the auspicious red mark, applied to his head, of the gushing blood of the mortally wounded Muslim power, heralding the advent of Hindu independence! A wonderful coincidence 1017. Whether because of good fortune or because it was the will of God, whether again owing to mere accidental coincidence or as the extraordinary harvest reaped from the well-coordinated sowing of the seeds of gigantic efforts—call it what you will—but ever since the birth of Shivaji from the womb of his mother Jijabai, there was a strange turn given to the technique of the national front in this Hindu-Muslim War. 1018. Generally speaking, right from the beginning of the eighth century to that of the seventeenth, wherever the mighty armies of the Muslims and the Hindus fought, wherever the Hindus and the Muslims were engaged in decisive battles affecting the destinies of the states and the Hindu Nation as a whole, it was the Hindu who usually, barring honourable exceptions, suffered crushing defeats with heavy losses in men and material, sometimes because some leader sat in ‘Hawda’ on the elephant, while at others one sat in palanquin—sometimes because there was treachery in the Hindu ranks, at others again when victory was almost in Hindu hands—mere chance coincidence deflected it towards the Muslims. This cruel verdict of the Goddess of War was, as it were, predetermined. The resistance offered by