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

Chandragupta. Flouting Ramgupta’s orders, he took Grahdevi under his protection. Then resorting to guile, Chandragupta sent word to the Saka king that, according to his commands, Queen Grahdevi was being sent to him, but that because of natural womanly bashfulness and modesty, she would like to go in a curtained palanquin. She was also to be accompanied by a retinue of her maids in similar litters. The Saka king was mad with joy to hear this message, and he replied that the queen might be sent that way. Chandragupta, however, himself donned the female attire and sat in the Queen’s palanquin, while in the accompanying ones, too sat the chosen warriors in feminine garb. As the train (procession) of those covered palanquins drew near the capital of that Saka King, the latter, beside himself with joy, came forward to the queen’s palanquin to receive her in person; whereupon out came Chandragupta, in the guise of a woman, and pouncing on the unsuspecting Saka King, slew him instantly with his sword. From other litters too, issued forth the warriors with drawn swords, and before the shocking news of the slaughter of the Saka King could spread out, they vanished along with Chandragupta, quite out of the enemy’s reach. 257. The whole capital and the nation itself was resounding with the praise for Chandragupta, when the glad news spread that Prince Chandragupta had returned to Pataliputra after accomplishing this unprecedented daring feat and punishing with his own hands the Saka King, who had insulted the nation, with instant death. There was a great agitation to dethrone the cowardly Ramgupta, who had ascended the throne of Magadha, setting aside the last wish of the deceased emperor, Samudragupta, and to crown Chandragupta in his place. In that commotion, Ramgupta was killed. Immediately Chandragupta was crowned emperor and he married the same Grahadevi, whom he had with his exceptional valour, saved from humiliation at the hands of the enemy. Later on, with a well-equipped huge army, Samrat Chandragupta marched upon the Saka satraps. Saka Satrap Rudrasingh Killed: the last phase of the war with the Sakas 258. When the war came to closed grips on the Gujarat-Malava frontier of the Saka dominions, the Saka kings offered tough resistance at every place, and at every place, the Indian warriors crushed the enemy! In the last battle, the remaining Saka Satrap, Rudrasingh, the son of Satyasingh, himself was killed by Chandragupta.

Thus Ended the Saka Rule 259. Having thus vanquished the Sakas completely, Chandragupta liberated the provinces of Sindh, Kaccha, Sourashtra, Gujarat, Malava and others under their domination and incorporated them into his Indian empire. After such a total destruction of the Sakas, when Emperor Chandragupta entered the ancient and renowned city of Ujjayini, which till a little while ago was the capital of the Saka kingdom, the people there celebrated his entry as a grand national festival. Samrat Chandragupta assumed the title of Vikramaditya. In order to immortalize his glorious and crushing victory over the Sakas, he renamed the so far universally current Malava Samvat itself as Vikram Samvat after his own name (cf: paragraph 222). He made Ujjayini the capital of the western part of his India-wide empire, and there he lived like a crowned King. 260. How far can one describe the satisfaction and pride that the people all over Bharat felt at this decisive victory won by Vikramaditya over the Mlenchchas? The whole of India became free from the foreign domination and became ‘Ekrat’, united under one King! How profound must have been the joy and pride of Vikramaditya himself when he saw that the strenuous efforts and successes and failures of a hundred-and-fifty years or so of the Youdheyas, Malavas Vilivayankur (Vilinayankur?), Satavahan and other great warriors for the destruction of the Saka power, and of the valorous achievements of his grandfather and the national aspirations of Vedic Hindus had, at last borne such glorious fruit! 261. Of this, the English historian, Vincent Smith says, though rather grudgingly, “We may feel assured that differences of race, creed and manner supplied the Gupta monarch with special reasons, for desiring to suppress the impure foreign (म्लेच्छ) rulers of Western India. Chandragupta Vikramaditya, although tolerant of Buddhism and Jainism was himself an orthdox Hindu, espeically devoted to the cult of Vishnu, and as such, could not but have experienced peculiar satisfaction in violently uprooting the foreign chieftains.” The Sakas too Vanished 262. In paragraph 230, it has already been described how the Sakas adopted the Vedic faith, Sanskrit language and Indian customs and manners. Now that Vikramaditya had utterly destroyed their political power with his ‘mailed fist’, they, hereafter, lost their separate existence as the Sakas as distinct from the Indians. Only within two or three generations, there was

hardly any Saka to be seen in India, as it previously happened in the case of the Kushans. 263. In the historical past, there lived and ruled good many emperors in India, but there was hardly any as suprisingly popular as this Emperor Vikramaditya, who exterminated the Saka-Kushans so thoroughly, that not a trace of any of them is found today. Even a foreigner, the Chinese traveller, Fa-hien (or Fa-hsien), who visited India in his reign, has paid a glowing tribute to the prosperity, happiness, wealth and contentment that had reached its height, throughout the whole of the Indian empire under the Guptas. Even today in the innumerable Indian villages, the name of King Vikramaditya, and his high sense of administration and justice is lovingly sung in folk-tales and ballad. After having defended the powerful unitary Indian empire and having developed it in every respect for more or less thirty-five years, Samrat Vikramaditya died in 414 A.D. 264. The epoch, which began with the royal seal of Samrat Vikramaditya, the proud Victor of Saka-Kushans, is THE THIRD GLORIOUS EPOCH of Indian History.

4^TH GLORIOUS EPOCH 4. Yashodharma, the Conqueror of The Huns The Hunnish Onslaught over the whole World 265. A reference has already been made earlier in this book to the Huns who routed all the Saka and Kushan tribes from their original homes and themselves occupied the vast tracts of lands. These very Huns, fiercer and far more cruel than their predecessors, now menaced not only the whole of Asia but also the whole of Europe. Every one of the then well-established, civilized, and strongly built nations and kingdoms of the world, right from China to Rome, was rocked to its bottom at the very thought of this impending doom. There was no limit to their number, nor were their raids limited to this region or that. 266. When their armies marched out, thousands of their men and women carried fire and sword to every city and every village they entered and to every human being, young or old, child or woman, whom they came across. Not only by day, but even at the very dead of night, did they carry on these nefarious activities, shouting wildly like beasts and engulfing the enemy lands like wildfire. At the end of every bloody battle, they celebrated their victory then and there, dancing wildly, and drinking strong liquors in cups made of the very skulls of the slaughtered enemy soldiers and their women or children. 267. Being very close to the original Hunnish territory, almost all the provinces of the vast Chinese empire were rendered desolate because of their terrible raids. The great China Wall of today is a glaring testimony to prove the incapacity of the Chinese Emperor to ward off these Hunnish locusts. The one great wonder of the world—this China Wall-is indeed the greatest monument to Hunnish Terror! 268. One of the leaders of these Huns, Attila, organized these horsemen, who pillaged Central Asia and made straight for Europe. His various marauding armies dashed like an avalanche into European Russia through whichever inlet they could find and wrought havoc everywhere. Universities and art centres, houses and churches, the poor men’s huts and rich palaces, towns and cities—whatever they could lay their hands on,

these Huns went on reducing them to ashes. Whoever came in their way was ruthlessly cut to pieces. After trampling down Russia, they rushed into Poland, thence attacking the Goths in Germany and France. Army-after- army of the once invincible Roman Empire was put to rout. These Huns loved not victory so much as they did ruin and destruction for its own sake. Consequently, the whole of Europe was not only defeated in war but was virtually bathed in blood and laid utterly waste. For a harrowing description of this devastation of Europe at the hands of these barbaric Huns, one should read Gibbons, ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’. Even today, most of the European languages use ‘Hun’ as the foulest of abuses, indicating thereby, the horror they looked upon these devilish Huns with. 269. In the very same manner, did another avalanche of these Hunnish horses, which hovered for some time round about the Himalayas destroying whatever remained of the Saka-Kushan strongholds, dashed against regions like the Gandhar and others to the north-west of India. With the very same energy and devilish ambition with which they devastated the empires of China, Russia and Rome, did these Huns march impatiently to trample down India from end to end under their horses’ hoofs, and began to force their way to the Indus. But 270. But, fortunately, India was no longer being ruled by any coward like Dhananand, who brought disgrace to the land at the time of the Greek invasion of Punjab. It was now under the sovereignty of Kumargupta, the illustrious son of Emperor Vikramaditya, the avenger of the Saka-Kushan domination. India at that time enjoyed the century-old Golden Age of the Gupta era. The Mauryan Golden Age saw, towards its close, the Indian military strength disorganized and powerless, because of the foolhardy Ashokan policy of total non-violence (ahimsa). But the Vedic India of this time under the leadership of Kumargupta did not allow the imperial army to degenerate in the least. Being always aware of the avalanche-like Hunnish onslaught, which was expected sooner or later, Emperor Kumargupta kept a very strong war-like and well-organized army, ever prepared to defend its frontiers. The first Hunnish Onrush Paralysed 271. The moment he learnt of the Hunnish aggression on Gandhar, Kumargupta sent his valiant son, Skundgupta at the head of the four-fold

(चतुरँग) army to uproot the Hunnish menace. With their special technique based on their unlimited number, which had so far been unmatched for its efficacy, these Hunnish invaders began to make short work of the Indian frontier guards. No sooner did the Indian soldiers destroy one Hunnish army at a place, than would they emerge up from all other quarters, like ants pouring forth from their anthills. Even if these were completely wiped out, there would appear a fresh one, creating confusion all over the land. The armies of Skundgupta fought battle-after-battle with the irresistible Huns, destroying them steadily but surely for years together. The result was that even the innumerable forces of these Huns gradually lost their strength and energy and dared cross the frontiers of the Gupta Empire no more. Why, they could not even defend the places they held so far against the aggressive and fierce impact of the Guptas. The remaining troops of the Huns, therefore, fled clean out of the Indian frontiers through the very passes they had come in. This crushing defeat kept the Huns away from India for the next forty years or so. The Brave Skundgupta 272. After having fought continuously for years on end and having defeated the most powerful enemy, who had already brought to their knees the greatest empires of the world, Skundgupta proudly returned to his father at Pataliputra, where the victorious Prince was greeted with unprecedented enthusiasm, pomp and glory. Old Emperor Kumargupta’s joy can easily be imagined. It knew no bounds. In order to celebrate this singular success, Kumargupta performed the horse sacrifice (अश्वमेध), according to the age- old Indian tradition. Death of Kumargupta 273. Shortly after this, the old Emperor Kumargupta died, having satisfactorily fulfilled his life-mission. He was succeeded by his eminent son, Skundgupta, many of whose memorable deeds showing his rare abilities cannot be recounted here for want of space and also because they do not directly bear upon the present theme. 274. While Skundgupta was thus ruling in India, another Hunnish adventurer, Khikhil by name, organized their scattered forces in Asia, as Attila before him had done in Europe, and founded another kingdom and styled himself a king. Towards the end of Emperor Skundgupta’s career, this new Hunnish adventurer marched towards India at the head of a

powerful army, with a view to avenging the ignoble defeat the Huns had earlier suffered here. Second Hunnish Invasion of India 275. During the very first encounters, the Huns overthrew the imperial frontier guards and drove them back at one or two places. No sooner did he hear of this fresh Hunnish aggression than Skundgupta, in spite of his old age, left his capital and marched as far as the Panchnad (the modern Punjab). While he was thus preoccupied in his military camp, organising the overthrown imperial frontier forces for a counter-attack upon the enemy, he learnt that his step brother, Purgupta, was busy treacherously planning to usurp his throne. Nevertheless, the patriot Skundgupta, disregarding his personal interests, kept on fighting the alien invaders, instead of speedily returning to the capital to settle his domestic trouble, as some others in his place might have most probably done. Had he done so, and left the imperial army fighting without his guidance, the Indian soldiers would have, in all probability, lost courage and the invaders would have swept over the whole of Punjab and at least the half of north India. As he was convinced of this impending calamity, he rather preferred fighting against the barbaric Huns to returning home! 276. And even as he was fighting in the defence of his motherland, this aged warrior-king died about A.D. 471 in his military camp, like a true King that he was! An Emperor must die Standing 277. An interesting anecdote is told about a well-known Roman Emperor who ruled in those ‘palmy days of Rome,’ that while he was lying on his deathbed in his royal palace, he once suddenly got up, sword in hand, and said to the frightened attendants, who suspected it to be a delirious fit, that a king must not die in his bed. “A Roman Emperor”, he said, “must die standing”. 278. In the same manner did this great Indian Emperor, Skundgupta, die in a small military camp fighting relentlessly, in spite of his failing years, the very enemy on whom he had inflicted severe defeats in his earlier career. Renouncing all royal comforts and pleasures, he spent almost fifteen to twenty years of his life, suffering all the discomforts and hardship of a camp-life for the sole purpose of defending his empire and preserving the independence of his motherland. And when he did die, he did so fighting the arch-enemy of his nation, far away in a bivouac in the farthest province

of Punjab—not in his royal palace in the capital! If ever there was an ideal emperor, it was he! 279. If the Huns were hemmed in one small corner of the Indus and if India was saved from all the indignities, massacres and wanton destruction at their hands to which Europe had been subjected almost contemporaneously, all the credit must go to the armed strength of Skundgupta. Although he died before the Huns were completely annihilated, his exemplary valour brought forth another generation of warriors, much stronger than before, to take the field against these once war-intoxicated but now enfeebled Huns. 280. Hence, we bow down to the memory of Emperor Skundgupta, with as much reverence and pride and a sense of national gratitude as we might do to any other conqueror like Vikramaditya. After the Death of Skundgupta 281. Subsequent to the death of Skundgupta, the throne of Magadha was usurped by his rebel brother, Purgupta, whose lack of every sort of ability encouraged the Huns once again to push forward under their King, Khilkhil. In the reign of Torman, who succeeded Khikhil, Huns once again let loose the dogs of war and Kamboj, Gandhar, and Punjab suffered most from their horrible depredations and arson. The world-famous University of Taxila was razed to the ground. Thousands of its invaluable books only served to make bonfire for the Huns. 282. This is another instance that shows how even the national literature, civilization and culture are destroyed at the hands of foreign invaders, if they are not defended and supported by the nation’s mailed fist. 283. In the meanwhile, those Hunnish hordes that had so far overrun the kingdom of Persia, and in A.D. 484 put her King, Phiroz, to death, were now free to join the army of Torman in his work of reducing India to the same miserable state. With his army so suddenly augmented, Torman pushed ahead of Punjab into Malva and captured it round about 511A.D., along with its capital Ujjain. When tormans son, Mihirgula, who was braver and more atrocious than the father, succeeded to the Hunnish throne, strangely enough, he became a sincere devotee of the Vedic God, Rudra and held the cult of Buddha in the greatest spite. Mihirgula, the Devotee of the Vedic God 284. Strange as it may seem, the Huns were speedily attracted to the worship of the Vedic God Rudra at least from the time they entered the

north-western frontier province. Of these people, Vincent Smith says, “The savage invader who worshipped his patron deity Shiva, the God of Destruction, exhibited ferocious hostility against the peaceful Buddhistic cult and remorselessly overthrew the Stupas and Monasteries which he plundered of their treasures.” The Patriotic Vedic Hindus and Treacherous Buddhists 285. In this context, the readers are referred to paragraphs 182 to 209 and 245 to 246 of this book, wherein we have commented on the patriotic spirit of the Vedic Hindus and the treacherous attitude of the Buddhists. In order to vouchsafe this comment of ours, this incident of Mihirgula should be most significant. 286. Even when this Hunnish aggressor Mihirgula had accepted the Vedic cult of God Rudra and brutally oppresed the Buddhists, who had become inveterate enemies of the Vedic Hindus, the latter did not accept his political dominance, nor did they ever join him in his atrocities against their own rivals. In spite of his avowed acceptance of the Vedic cult, Mihirgula was looked upon as a foreign aggressor and as such, a national enemy by the Vedic Hindus. They avowed enmity towards him for the sake of making politically free those regions that had so far gone under his sway. It cannot be denied that even amongst the Vedic Hindus, kings like Kamoj and Jaichand did commit treason earlier or later, but on the whole, the Vedic community had all along been hating the non-Vedic people and had been giving terrible battles for protecting the independence and imperial power of their nation unimpaired. Even the English historians like Smith could not help mentioning, maybe in malicious terms, this strong national feeling of the Vedic people. While stating in general terms that these Vedic Hindus were the born enemies of any foreign political power, trying to subdue the country, he says, “Those foreign tribes, Sakas, Pahlavas and Ionians (Yavanas), at the time, settled in Western India as the lords of a conquered population, were the objects of hostility of the Vedic King Vilivayankur II.... He recovered the losses his kingdom had suffered at the hands of the intruding foreigners and utterly destroyed the power of (the Saka King) Nahapan. The hostility of the Andhra (Vedic) monarch was stimulated by the disgust felt by all the Hindus, and especially by the followers of the Orthodox Brahmanical system of the outlandish foreign barbarians.” 287. It should not surprise the reader if he finds in this observation of Smith, a faint echo of an Englishman’s heartache at his painful experience

of the British Imperial Colonies. King Yashodharma 288. Under the undeserving and weak Purgupta, the suzerainty of Magadha began to be flouted and disregarded by almost every one. Most of the vassals of the Gupta Empire and even the provinces and principalities began to rule themselves independently. All these virtually subordinate but actually independent provinces and different feudal lords feared the political dominance of the Huns, which had by then spread as far as Malava. Everybody was seething with indignation at seeing a foreign tyrant like Mihirgula occupy the throne of the Great Vikramaditya at Ujjain, and every patriotic Vedic Indian was anxious to see the Huns overpowered and routed at the earliest oppurtunity. Yet, none of all these smaller states and provinces had the courage to take any aggressive move against these Huns. Nonody could broach the subject openly. 289. At such a critical time, an adventurous youth vowed to solve this knotty problem. He was not even a titular king or emperor. He was merely a small chieftain, Yashodharma by name, of a relatively small principality in the province of Malava. But his ambition, his sense of patriotism and his daring spirit were as lofty and powerful as to challenge the might of the mightiest and pompously styled ‘King of Kings’ of the Huns, Mihirgula, and dethrone him, and to destroy the Hanish influence root and branch. A common front of the Vedic Kings 290. First of all, he organized almost all the neighbouring independent Indian states with a view to fighting out the Hunnish menace. Even Baladitya of Magadha supported this organized war effort, and under the leadership of King Yashodharma, all these kings marched against the Huns from all sides. This well-organized Indian Army could do what none else could think of doing single-handed, and the most powerful Hunnish army began to be slaughtered on the battlefields of India. Defeat of the huns: capture of Mihirgula Himself 291. In the end, the Supreme Commander, Yashodharma marched at the head of a very powerful army on Mihirgula himself, and joining battle at Mandasore or Korur sometime about A.D. 528, overthrew the Hunnish dragon for ever. After a very savage man-slaughter, Mihirgula himself became a captive of King Yashodharma. 292. This singular success resounded thunderously throughout the length and breadth of India.

293. And in order to avenge the numerous atrocities that Huns in general and Mihirgula in particular, had so far perpetrated against the Indian population, King Yashodharma forthwith ordered the hanging of Mihirgula. Baladitya’s Anti-National Generosity
294. But as soon as Baladitya, the Emperor of Magadha, learnt of this death sentence passed on Mihirgula by king Yashodharma, he, as a member of the Combined Front, insisted that the Hun be spared and be handed over to him alive. Yashodharma did so only to avoid displeasing Baladitya. Whether according to a secret treaty with Mihirgula to serve some selfish end of his, or under some disastrous delusion of the so-called superhuman generosity consisting in the release of the deadliest enemy, who deserved nothing but hanging, a delusion that seems almost permeated through the very veins of the Indian people, Baladitya spared not only Mihirgula’s life but even allowed him to go honourably to the remnant of the Hunnish territory to the north-west. A great many years after him, Prithviraj allowed another inveterate enemy, Mohammed Ghori, to go scot-free! Milk offered to the Snakes Brings Venom only (Payah-panam Bhujanganam Kevalam Vishwardhan)
295. Thanking his good stars, Mihirgula hurried straight to Kashmir, where he secretly organized the Huns and killed the king, annexed Gandhar, persecuted the people of the land, and especially liquidated the pockets of Buddhist influence after slaughtering wholesale thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns.
296. It is very difficult to say if fate had brought to life this Mihirgula, only to give a practical lesson to the Indian Buddhists who were intoxicated by the delirious idea, viz. ‘Religious victory was greater than armed victory’ and to show that without one’s own armed support, even religion cannot survive the onslaughts of the barbarous enemy’s fire and sword.
297. Nevertheless, these milkshops of the Buddhists who were sorely distressed at these persecutions, did not fail to use the only weapon they had to avenge themselves on Mihirgula. Only when Mihirgula died a perfectly natural death, these Buddhists recorded his death in their myths, sending him forthwith to hell. “When this demon of a Hun, Mihirgula, died”, they wrote, “he went to eternal hell to atone for his hatred towards Lord Buddha and to suffer inhuman pangs, the Earth broke into two by the very shock. It rained as heavily as the Deluge of Manu, and the birds and beasts ran helter-skelter, crying horribly. Many other upheavals also took place.”

297A. For these enfeebled Buddhists, was there any other way open for consolation than to imagine themselves, the unlimited tortures in the infernal fires of purgatory or the hell or the ‘narak’, as we Indians should like to style the place, for terrible enemy, whom they dared not think of harming in the least, while yet he lived in this world? But wasn’t this consolation of these non-violent Buddhists violent? Is it kindness of extreme cruelty? The Victorious entry of Yashodharma into Ujjain! 298. After vanquishing Mihirgula completely Yashodharma overthrew all Hunnish influence from the Panchnad and after having re-established Indian rule in this newly freed land, he returned to Malava with his victorious army. With great pomp and ceremony did this Yashodharma enter Ujjain, which had the reputation of being the capital of India since the time of Vikramaditya, and which he had freed anew from the foreign yoke. Now he did not remain a simple king but had become the king of kings, Maharajadhiraj! He erected two pillars to commemorate the victory of the Indian patriots against the Huns. They even now testify to the gratification that the people of these times might have then felt. What Happened to the Huns Next? 299. What else could have happened to them? They met with the same fate that their forerunners, the Ionians, the Sakas, the Parthians and the other aggressors did. Soon after Mihirgula died round about A.D. 540, the Hunnish states in the north-west region beyond the Indus valley dwindled into insignificance, within a generation or two, and perished completely. After wresting political power from the Huns, the Vedic Hindu kings once again began to rule right up to the Hindukush. The moment they lost political power, because of an armed might stronger than their own, the Huns became meek lambs. Dr. Jayaswal writes, “The Huns were fully crushed within a century by the successive (Hindu) dynasties.” Because of the great losses in their ranks, suffered during a century of incessant warfare with the Hindus, Hunnish population diminished rapidly in numbers. Whosoever remained, took over willingly to Indian religions and languages and customs, and within a generation or two, merged so completely with the Hindus that they could never recollect their Hunnish extraction. 300. Vincent Smith has the following comments to offer on the far- reaching effects of this decisive Indian victory over the Huns: “After the

defeat of Mihirgula and the extinction of the Hun Power on the Oxus, India enjoyed immunity from foreign attacks for nearly five centuries.” 300A. It clearly means that after the defeat of Mihirgula at the hands of Yashodharma and after the end of the Hun empire beyond the Oxus, there had been no foreign aggression over India for nearly five centuries to come. Thus the whole of India, right from Pariyatra (Hindukush), Gandhar, Kashmir, Punjab and Sindh straight to Kanyakumari, enjoyed under the Hindu kings, prosperity and happiness for nearly five hundred years. The whole of Bharat was independent, powerful, wealthy and happy! A Resume of the Ancient period in Indian History 301-307. If by the Ancient Period in Indian History, the one from B.C. 600 to A.D. 700—a period as large as 1300 years—and if the succeeding period is called the modern, it is in the fitness of things that here and now, should end that period so far as the subject-matter of this book is concerned. Some of the historical points pertaining to this ancient period—which should very carefully be impressed on the minds of our young men and women and the general reader, but which are generally lost sight of, are briefly dealt with here in this conclusion: (1) In this ancient period, no foreign aggressor could ever conquer the whole of India at any lime. This fact generally escapes the notice of good many of the foreigners or our own men, while some deliberately neglect it or pervert it. On reading such titles of Chapters as ‘Alexander’s Invasion of India’ “Sakas’ Aggression of India”, foreign as well as native readers are generally misled into a belief that the whole of India was overrun either by Alexander or by the Huns, and lost its independence. Under this delusion, many of the enemies of India and her so-called well-wishers have raised such objections and propounded such theory as to mean that the whole life of the Indian nation, i.e. the Hindu nation, has passed under foreign slavery. It is to bring to light and refute this foolish and wicked charge and to show that it is due to either unintentional ignorance or wilful malice, that such theories are ever propounded, that this book has been purposely written. So from the foregoing narration, it should be clear that—(2) Right from Nepal to Eastern Sea (Bay of Bengal), the whole of northern and eastern India and southern India, that is to say, practically three fourths of this great continent of India, had remained completely independent of any foreign domination for these 1300 years. No aggressor by sea or land could ever reduce it completely to slavery.

(3) Of the remaining western and northern India, roughly about 1/4 of the continent was only once traversed by a foreigner. Sakas and Kushans held the north-western tract of land between Punjab and Gujarat for some time. The Huns could barely reach Ujjain. How miserably these national foes suffered at the hands of Indian nationals has been briefly decribed in the foregoing pages. (4) Hardly any other contemporary nation of the world will be seen to have so successfully destroyed the foreign aggressors and maintained its national independence for such a length of time—not less than 1300 years. (5) It is not only India that these Ionians, Sakas and Huns and other aggressors invaded. Some of them disrupted almost all the other nations of the then known world and brought in the so-called Dark Ages. They threw some of the other nations into complete oblivion—a fact that must always be kept in view, when comparing them with India in respect of these barbaric aggressions. (6) These very barbaric aggressors, who came in such large numbers carrying powerful weapons, with the diabolic ambition of annihilating the whole of the Indian continent were themselves reduced by the Indian warriors to ashes in the conflagration of a general war, their beastly instincts being purified in the material fires and merged in the vast Indian multitude so completely, that even their name did not remain behind them! 308. Let us for a moment imagine that a certain Angel who had been oberving the affairs of this Earth at that time, has once again come down on the Himalayan peaks and is surveying the Indian scene. Not knowing what happened during the intervening years, he bagan to ask from the peak: “Well, are there still left over in this continent of India and of the Ionians (Greeks), who had once founded a kingdom in a small corner of this vast piece of land?” If any Angel does inquire this way, there is unfortunately no one left to tell him, ‘ Well, I am he—their descendant!” If again the Angel asks, “In one part of India, there were some kingdoms and communities of the Sakas and the Kushans. Is there anyone of them to be found here now?” To answer this question in the affirmative, there is unluckily none left. No one can be found today to say, “Yes, I am a Saka” or “I am a Kushan.” Were he again to ask for the third time. “At least some of the gentlemen belonging to the Hun clan, who had once harassed the whole of the world and who had once advanced up to Ujjain must be found here! Are there any

such?” Even to this question, no one can proudly say today: “Why not? Here I am their direct descendant.” 309. But if the awe-stricken Angel asks again, “Well, tell me at least, if there is any yet left of those Hindus who fought bravely with all these foreign aggressors and ruled over India?” Then the answer, “Yes, I am that Hindu! I am he! would spring from more than three hundred million mouths in this country and prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the deep-rooted foundations and the grand edifice of the Hindu nation and the Hindu State! 310. So this can be fittingly called The 4th Glorious Epoch of Indian History, glittering in the lustrous martial achievements of the most daring and successful emperor, YASHODHARMA! “The Mohamedan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within.” — Will Durant: Story of Civilization. ❑

5^TH GLORIOUS EPOCH 5. The Climax of Maharashtrian Valour! The Maratha Standard Flutters Proudly Over Attock Nature of the Millennial Hindu-Muslim Struggle 311. The scope of this book, ‘Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History’, has already been explained in Chapter I (Paras: 4 to 8), from which it should be clear that a detailed account of the continuous, long-drawn fierce and gigantic Hindu-Muslim struggle is not intended here. What we intend to do here is to examine thoroughly and from the Hindu standpoint, this epic struggle and the period covered by it as searchingly, as faithfully and as fearlessly, as it ought to have been done—but unfortunately has not so far been done. 312. For even today, it is absolutely essential and beneficial to the interests of the Hindu Nation. Two ages of our History: Ancient and Modern 313. We feel our History is naturally divided by the course of events into two great ages: the Ancient and the Modern; the first, ending with the seventh century, and the second, stretching from the beginnings of the eighth century to the present day. In the preceding four chapters, we have dealt with the vast ancient period of about a thousand years or so, while we intend to analyse, in the following nineteen chapters, the course of events in this modern age of Hindu History. 314. In doing so, detailed accounts of the many stray events supporting our main thesis will certainly be given, where necessary, and the chronological sequences will also be maintained. But the chronological details will not be allowed to crowd up the limited space at our disposal, as they are easily available in various big or small volumes by many other writers. Hence, our whole attention will be focussed mainly on the bearing of different important points in the subject-matter in hand, rather than, though not without regard to, the chronological order. The Epic Hindu-Muslim War

315. The struggle on the two fronts in all the bloody wars fought at every Muslim invasion, right from the beginning of this modern age was hitherto unknown and unheard of. For the Greek, the Saka, the Hun and other invaders, who came pouring in down the plains of Punjab, was political domination of this country as their sole objective. Barring this political aim, their raids had never been occasioned by any cultural or religious hatred. On the other hand, these new Islamic enemies, not only aspired to crush the Hindu political power, and establish in its place Muslim sovereignty over the whole of India, but they also had seen things’ in their brains another fierce religious ambition, not heretofore dreamt of by any of the old enemies of India. Intoxicated by this religious ambition, which was many times more diabolic than their political one, these millions of Muslim invaders from all over Asia fell over India, century-after-century, with all the ferocity at their command, to destroy the Hindu religion which was the lifeblood of the nation. The Outrageous Christian Incursion
316. To add to these catastrophic Muslim inroads over India, Christian nations like the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, the British and others rushed upon our nation from the sea, round about the fifteenth century A.D.—even if we were to ignore the infiltration by the Syrian Christians in the Malabar during the 1st century A.D. This Christian offensive, like the Muslim one, was both political and religious and equally devilish. They also wrought havoc by converting millions of Hindus at the point of the bayonet—an account of which will be given at its proper place.
317. Although the two fronts of this Muslim aggression, viz., the religious and political, were only the two parts of the same epic Hindu- Muslim struggle, their original forms, their weapons of war and their ultimate end, were altogether different. Naturally, they have to be discussed separately, as far as it is possible to do so.
318. Hence, we shall first examine the religious aspect of the Muslim- Christian aggression over our country in Chapters VI to XII, and then in Chapters 13 to 22 of this book, we shall discuss its political side. ❑

Beginning of Muslim Incursion 319. We have already pointed out—and shall do so hereafter - how the histories written not only by foreign historians or those who are avowedly inimical to us, but even by our own people, ignore the glorious episodes of exceptional valour and monumental successes of the Hindus and in their stead, catalogue only the calamities that befell them and present them as the only true history of the Hindus, because they were never fearlessly written from the pure and simple Hindu standpoint. We have already referred to many such instances, in the first four chapters in support of our convention and will do even in the following pages. The period under consideration here is an instance in point. 320. Generally speaking in all histories, especially in the history textbooks used in schools, the writers invariably jump from an account of Hunnish onslaught to the first successful Muslim campaign on Sindh, without writing even a line or two about the intervening long period of these hundred years or so. Next follow in quick succession, the detailed narration of Muslim invasions one after another, so that a common reader, especially a pupil, catches an impression, which is very often carried even in his later life, that the history of the Hindus is nothing but a doleful tale of foreign subjugation and national defeats. Our enemies have publicized these false impressions as established facts all over the world for the last two or three centuries. For instance, a man like the late Dr. Ambedkar, burning with hatred against Hinduism, writes: “..The Hindus’ has been a life of a continuous defeat. It is a mode of survival of which every Hindu will feel ashamed.” 321. In fact, historical evidence shows that after the total rout of the Huns, that is to say, since about A.D. 550, Hindu kings and emperors successfully crossed the Indus at various places and reconquered not only what are now known as Sindh, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Herat, Hindukush, Gilgit, Kashmir and many other regions from the Greeks, the Huns, the Sakas and other foreign people, but hoisted the victorious national flag of the Vedic Hindus far beyond the north-western boundaries of Chandragupta Maurya’s empire upto Uttar Kurus! Why, even in Khotan in Central Asia beyond Kashmir, there ruled Hindu kings and in the opinion of many historians, even Ghazani was ruled by King Sheeladitya.

The Rejuvenescent Hindu Nation 322. Even the foreign historians like Vincent Smith are astounded at the enduring ability of the Hindu nation to rejuvenate itself after crushing defeats. For a detailed account of this period and Smith’s glowing tribute to the successful struggle for independence of the Hindus, the curious readers are advised to refer to the concluding portion of Chapter IV of this book. Only one sentence will suffice here. 322A. “After the defeat of Mihirgula (by the Hindus) and the extinction of the Hun power, India enjoyed immunity from foreign attack for nearly five centuries.” 323. Smith has thus completely refuted the extravagant and vulgar remark of Dr. Ambedkar on Hindu history. The Beginning of the awful Muslim War with India 324. It is generally believed that Mohammad Bin Kasim was the first of the Arabian or Muslim invaders to march upon Sindh. But, in fact, it was at least fifty years before him, that other Arabian Muslims had started picking up quarrels with the Brahmin Kings of Sindh. They had even tried an armed aggression. Yet we do not intend to dilate upon the systematic and chronological account of these various skirmishes by armed bands or military detachments. It is enough for our purpose to bear in mind that all these attempts were foiled successfully by the Hindus. At length, Usman, the governor of the Grand Khalipha’s distant province of Oman, openly attacked the Hindu state of Sindh. The then Brahmin King of Sindh, Chacha, vanquished not only these Arabs, but killed their very Commander-in-Chief, Abdul Aziz, in a battle. After these sporadic attempts till about A.D. 640, the Arabs did not undertake any important expedition with perhaps the only exception of the small distant province of Makram, which they reduced to ashes converting the Hindus there at the point of the sword to the Muslim faith. These Hindu Baluchistanian converts of those days became later on bigoted Muslims. The first big Muslim Expedition against Sindh 325. Thereafter, it was in A.D. 711, that Mohammed-bin-Kasim launched the first large-scale offenive against Sindh with a huge army, fifty-thousand strong. The majority of the population of Sindh, then, was Vedic Hindus, with King Dahir at the head of the state, while, only a small minority was the follower of Lord Buddha. Formerly, when Sindh was under the Huns, their last King Mihirgula had persecuted the Buddhists very cruelly,

because in spite of his Hunnish extraction, he had become a faithful follower of the Vedic religion and lulled Buddhism for its feebleness. (Chapter 4—Paragraphs 284 & 285). But after Mihirgula, when Sindh went under the sway of the Vedic Hindu kings, the Buddhists no longer suffered any such persecution. They were free to follow their own religion so far as it concerned only with their own selves. The Buddhist Traitors 326. Nevertheless, these Indian Buddhists were elated to see the Muslim foreigners’ march against the Hindu kingdom. These Buddhists, who bore malice towards the Hindu, perhaps thought that these new Muslim aggressors might embrace their Buddhist cult, as did their forerunners, the Greeks under Menander or the Kushans under Kanishka, and establish a Buddhist empire over India. So they went and greeted the Arabian-Muslim leader, when he captured Port Deval from the hand of King Dahir. They appealed to him in some such way saying following: 326A. “We have nothing to do with Dahir and his Vedic Hindu cult. Our religious faith differs very widely from theirs. Our Prophet, Lord Buddha, has taught us ‘Ahimsa’ (Total Abstinence From Violence). We never take arms and dabble with political affairs of the state. Whoever wins can be the ruler of the state, we obey him in all matters temporal. You are now the victor, so now you are our King! Never suspect for a moment, that we shall even enlist ourselves in Dahir’s armed forces or help him in any way. So we pray that the Buddhist should not be subjected to any indignities or troubles at your hands.” 326B. Complying with some such request of the Buddhists, which amounted to complete surrender, the arch diplomat Kasim gave them temporary assurance of safety. 327. On receiving the news of the fall of Port Deval, King Dahir, on the other hand, mobilized his army and took the field. Kasim too, on his part, went ahead subjugating some parts of Sindh. The Muslim writers or tarikhs (reports), who have recorded the details of this campaign, testify that the Buddhist in Sindh helped the Muslims in every possible way, while the latter marched onwards, by showing them difficult passes, providing them with foodstuff and fodder and supplying them secret military intelligence. Some few Vedic Hindus also were guilty of this treachery, but their attempts were individual and exceptional. King Dahir dies Fighting on the Battle-Field