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

righteous war of liberation against the Yavan (Greek) enemy throughout that region, from Panchnad to Sindh. Many of such national propagandists, mostly Brahmins, were being caught and hanged by Alexander! (cf: paras 32 and 69 for Plutarch’s citation). 174. After the valiant soldiers of Chandragupta, thus, routed the forces of the Yavan emperor, Seleucos, Chandragupta and Chanakya built a strong steel wall of the mightiest four-fold army in the world to protect the Indian empire right up to the Hindukush mountain. The dread of that armed might alone stopped the Bactrian Greeks beyond the Hindukush, from harbouring any thought of enmity towards India for about 125 years. So long as Samrat Ashoka called himself the follower of the Vedic religon, which means till about 252 B.C., the north-western frontier guards of the Mauryan empire remained well-equipped and invincible. 175. But as soon as Ashoka adopted Buddhism, this security of the empire fell to pieces! Had Ashoka abdicated from the imperial throne of Magadha, when he adopted Buddhism as Lord Gautam Buddha himself forsook the Sakya nation before him, and had he travelled around as a bhikksu propagating the faith, the Indian empire might have been spared a great calamity and Ashoka’s loyalty to Buddhism, too, would have been truly tested. But till his death, Ashoka could not bring himself to abdicate this imperial throne. On the contrary, he turned his whole empire into a Buddhistic monastery to carry on the propaganda. Evidently enough in those frontier provinces, the dictums like ‘Religious victory excels martial glory’, ‘Anger should be conquered by the negation of anger’, “Non- violence is the supreme religious duty’, ‘Never kill any animal’ and such others, which had their roots in the Vedic religion, and which were beneficial to the society so long as they were practised with due regard to place, time and person, began to be preached in the Buddhist way, irrespective of any such consideration and in absolute terms without any reservations, bands of ‘bhikksus’ brought up and maintained by the imperial treasury of Ashoka began to preach in that region that armed might was a sin! Only the followers of Buddhism were appointed to high offices of Dharmamhamatra’ (धर्म महामात्र), provincial officers, and the faithful government servants like the Rajjuks. All these were expected, according to the orders from Ashoka, to render every sort of help at government level to the precept and practice of the Buddhistic cult. Throughout the provinces like Gandhar and Panchnad, Buddhism was preached not only amongst