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

seemed to have surrendered completely to the Indian civilization. From the common man to their royal families, the Sakas abandoned their own original Saka names and adopted purely Indian ones like Satyasingh, Rudrasen and others. It is strange to note that most of them embraced the Vedic religion. In fact, ever since the Sakas crossed the Hindukush and entered Baluchistan and Sindh and settled there permanently, they had come in constant contact with the Buddhist population and the Buddhist centres there, preaching and propagating the tenets of Lord Buddha from the time of Ashoka and Menander. Moreover, the Malava-Youdheya republics, which fought with them furiously at that time and defeated them, and also the valiant armies of the Satavahans were Vedic Hindus. The Buddhists had never resisted them with or without arms. Under these circumstances, it would have been but natural, had the Sakas hated the Vedic religion of their powerful enemies and accepted the Buddhist cult of those who ungrudgingly submitted to their political domination. But what happened was exactly the opposite of this natural expectation. The majority of the Sakas, right from the commoner to the royal prince, got themselves converted, most willingly to the Vedic religion. The raison d'etre perhaps was that the Sakas being originally of a warlike disposition, whose blood always rushed violently through their veins at the thought of a battle, looked with awe and respect at the valiant Vedic warriors, who fought and defeated them, enemies though they were, and the Vedic religion, which inspired such fighting spirit amongst its votaries, that it must have exerted a great fascination for them. 233. The Sakas came to love the Sanskrit language too. The kings of two or three feudal Saka principalities that were left in their hands, patroinized Sanskrit studies. One of the Saka kings made Sanskrit the official language for all correspondence of his court and administrative department. Their correspondence with the other Indian states, big or small, was also carried on in Sanskrit. Their social customs and manners too, underwent rapid changes and they got themselves attuned to Indian Social life. The Kushan Invasion 234. While the Indians were, thus, gaining victories over the Sakas in military, as well as cultural fields and were uprooting their aggression, the locust-like hordes of the Kushans dashed against the northern frontier of India towards the Hindukush. These Kushans were ousted from their homeland by the Huns along with their women and children. As such,