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

celebration of our religious rites and the words ‘Shalivahan Saka’ or merely ‘Saka’ as wrongly used in our religious ceremonies, should be banned. (c) That both the national eras, namely the Vikram Samvat and the Salivahan Samvat, should be closely connected with the glorious memory of Indian victories over the Saka-Kushan is not merely a queer coincidence; it is of great significance. Many eras like those of the imperial Guptas and others, although greatly honoured during those particular periods, are lost in the abyss of time. Only these two, which recorded the Indian victories over the Saka-Kushan, have enjoyed immortality. This may give us a fair idea as to how our Indian Vedic people had to suffer grievously at the hands of the ungovernable hordes of the Saka-Kushan. For, otherwise, these Vikram and Salivahan Samvats, which were started to perpetuate the memory of the victories of the Salivahan and Gupta emperors over the diabolic atrocities of, and political subjection by, the Saka-Kushans, would never have attained so much importance vis-a-vis the extinction of many other victorious eras, and could never have been observed even after the lapse of two thousand years as the chief national eras of the Hindus. Indian’s Martial & Religious Victory over the Sakas 230. Just as the Malavas firmly checked the aggression of Sakas by killing their king, Nahapan (cf: Para 219), in a similar way and at the same time, did our Andhra warriors march from the south towards the north and destroy the Saka kingdoms in Gujarat, Sourashtra, and Sindh. Harassed by the repeated offensives opened against them by the valiant Salivahan Kings like Vilinayankur, Gautamiputra Satkarni:, Vashishthputra Pulamayi and others, the Saka kings upto Ujjain ultimately reconciled themselves to the sovereignty of the Salivahan Emperors. There exists a rock inscription that tells us that a Saka Satrap ‘Rudra’ even gave his daughter in marriage to a Salivahan King as the Greek King Seleucos had years before given his daughter to Emperor Chandragupta! 231. It must also be borne in mind that because of incessant fighting with the Indians on various battlefields and the consequent destruction during this century or a half, of thousands of their original number of soldiers that came to India, the Saka power suffered great numerical losses. 232. As the Saka military might thus began to lose strength because of the Indian resistance, the highly developed Indian civilization began more and more effectively to impress itself on the foreign Sakas. As a natural result of the constant warfare with the Indians for over a hundred years, the Sakas