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

mobilizing a strong four-fold army, eager to fight, he fell upon Menander, who had so far dug in his feet safe in Ayodhya. Finding it extremely difficult to hold their ground before the mighty arms of the Indian army, the Greek general Menander began to retreat. Earlier, Demetreos had not been pursued, but this time, Pushyamitra was not going to be slack. He chased and hunted down the Greek army. Inflicting defeat after defeat on the Greek army and causing confusion in their ranks, Pushyamitra drove the dispirited and vanquished Menander far beyond the Indus. The Indian empire right up to the Indus was once again set free from the Greek political dominance. The Greek sword was broken, the Greek shield shattered, the very root of their Political power dug up and Destroyed! 194. This was the last of the Greek aggressions on India. This terrible defeat inflicted on the Greeks by Pushyamitra consumed their strength so much, that they never had the heart to strike again at Bharat any time in future! Bharat, thus, annihilated this Greek enemy that had been a source of constant trouble since the time of Alexander. 195. Pushyamitra annexed all the territory liberated from the Greek hands to his own empire. He appointed at Ujjain his son, Agnimitra, as the viceroy of the region. General Agnimitra was a brave and able commander like his father. He forced the land up to Vidarbha in the South, to acknowledge his overlordship. But later Vidarbha refused to do so. Hence, Agnimitra attacked it. In the battle, Vidarbadhish (the lord of Vidarbha) was defeated. Amidst all this confusion, Princess Malavika, the daughter of the Vidarbharaj, was enamoured of the bravery and other virtues of Agnimitra, and was very eager to marry him. So with the consent of Pushyamitra, the King of Vidarbha celebrated her marriage with Agnimitra. This not only created the bonds of friendship but also the bonds of blood-relation between the two royal families. On this romantic theme itself, Kalidas composed his famous play Malavikagnimitra. A Horse-Sacrifice in the very Pataliputra of Ashoka! 196. Pushyamitra, who had completely destroyed the Greeks, the age-old alien enemies of the nation, and rejuvenated the Indian empire, had acquired with his own splendid victories, the right to perform a horse-sacrifice according to the Vedic tradition. About this right of Samrat Pushyamitra, Vincent Smith writes in his Early History of India (1924), “The Yavanas and all other rivals having been disposed of in due course, Pushyamitra was justified in his claim to reign as the paramount power of north India, and