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

that now it was the Marathas, whom he had to face, that he retreated so hastily and went clean out of India! Simply because of the dread of the Marathas? In his wake, followed Abdali invading India thrice or four times, every time with an army of not less than fifty thousand strong, made up of the pick of Turkish, Iranian, Durani, Pathan soldiery. But how every time he had to go back crestfallen, because of the armed counter-offensive of the Marathas, how even in the turning of the scale of fortune and even after the terrible losses for the Marathas at Panipat, he had to sign a treaty that the direction of the Moghal imperial affairs at Delhi be left into the hands of the Marathas, how he agreed not to interfere with it, in the least, and how, relinquishing his high ambition to be the absolute and unlimited Emperor of Delhi, he had to submit to the Marathas and go back, never to return, can best be read by every Hindu from our book, Hindu Padpadshahi. It is going to be referred to again in the following pages. 1055. Physical build, height and breadth and weight do count as important and decisive factors in matters of personal combats. Even then, it cannot be made a rule without exception! The grave of the monstrous Afzalkhan at the foot of Pratapgad is evidence enough! But in the struggles of nations, the chances of success or failure can never be assesed on the strength of physical build, enduring capacity and the stubborness of constitution. Didn’t the dwarfish Japanese lay the gigantic Russians low on the battlefield in the first Russo-Japanese war—the towering and sturdy Russians in comparison with whom the ‘true-born’ and ‘thorough-bred’ Pathans seem absolute midgets? Our Hindu Gorkhas are veritable Marathas in respect of stature. But haven’t these very Gorkhas vanquished the Italian, the Austrian and the colossal Hitlerian German armies on various occasions and on various battlefields in the last World War? The whole world still resounds with the fame of the Gorkhas—‘A Hindu Gorkha means a gallant fighter’ is a common place adage nowadays who once ruled as the invincible Emperor of all the European nations like Germany, Russia and others, renowned for their tall and sturdy soldiers, if not the ‘short’ Napoleon and his small French army? Abdali’s third invasion of India 1056. The Moghal Emperor had made Gazi-ud-din his chief minister (Vizier), who went all the way along to Sarhind in Punjab in February, 1756, to appoint Adina Beg as the chief imperial officer there. Gazi-ud-din acted in this case depending solely on the Maratha support, and this act of