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

his royal family was at Pattan, which he shifted later on to a new place and named it Karnavati, and it remained the capital of Gujarat even afterwards. 722. But later on, when Gujarat was overcome by the Muslims, Sultan Ahmedshah, who persecuted the Hindus most cruelly, changed the historical Hindu name of Karnavati to Ahmedabad in A.D.1412, befitting the traditional Muslim malignity towards the Hindus, and added to it, a newly built suburb. And the meek and submissive attitude of the Hindus of those times has been fondling that name ever since as their own. The first Invasion of the South by the Foreigners and Non-Hindus 723. Sultan Jalalluddin's nephew, Allauddin crossed the Vindhyas with a huge army without any permission from his uncle and attacked the south of India, to loot the fabulous wealth, of which he had so long been receiving tempting reports. This invasion was so unexpected and the negligence, conceit and narrow-mindedness of the South Indian Hindu Kings of that time were so profound and criminal, that perhaps it is after his kingdom was actually attacked that the king of Devgiri, Maharaja Ramdevrao Yadav, came to know of it, and being thoroughly unprepared to face it, was utterly confused. 723A. Is it not really strange that even while the Muslim states were being founded everywhere in the north of India, while they had been so very cruelly ravaging the Hindu religion and Hindu states for two or three centuries, while thousands of Hindu temples were being continuously and insultingly demolished, while Kashi was almost turned into Mecca, while Dnyandev, Namdev and other saints and their followers and millions of travelling Hindu pilgrims were going right up to the Punjab to visit the holy places and were returning aggrieved at the sad plight of Hindu religion there, while the Muslims were openly swearing and voicing their ambition to invade the South and convert it to Islam, the Hindu kings of the South should be so very careless and negligent, that instead of collecting their armies and sending them to the north to help the Rajputs face the Muslim aggression, Ramdevrao's forces under some of his chieftains, should have gone far to the South, and Ramdevrao himself should have been wandering most frivolously with his small army, hunting wild animals away from his capital? But... 724. Let alone Ramdevrao's state of Devgiri, but didn't even a single spy from the secret intelligence service of the four or five prominent Hindu states in the south go to the north and observe and inform his king or kings

much ability and skill, as Allauddin himself. The ageing Allauddin began to call the slave Maliq-Kafur. Later still, he began to run the whole administration of the empire with the latter’s advice. The second Muslim campaign on Ratanbhor 730. It has already been told that Jalalludin was defeated by the Hindus of Ratanbhor. In order to avenge that defeat, Allauddin marched again for the second time on the fort of Ratanbhor in A.D. 1301. Even the then Rana Hameer of Ratanbhor fought to the last, and laid down his life along with thousands of his soldiers in that furious battle, and on seeing the fall of the Rajput warriors, hundreds of Rajput ladies including Hameer’s queen standing on the ramparts of the fort, leapt into the blazing fire according to a pre-settled plan and burned themselves to death. How often have the Hindu warriors and their brave wives done such magnificent deeds of valour and sacrificed their lives! That is the only reason why the Hindu nation could still remain alive! Invasions of Chitod Subsequent to the fall of Ratanbhor 731. The most beautiful daughter of the Rajput king of Ceylon, named Padmini, was married to Rana Bheemsingh of Chitod. According to the shameless but proud vaunt of the Muslims in general that to kidnap the non- Muslim beautiful women openly was a Muslim’s religious duty, Allauddin openly demanded from Rana Bheemsingh his charming queen, and as the Rajputs spurned it, Allauddin marched on Chitod round about A.D. 1302. While describing the battles at that time, the Rajput history tells a story how in order to deceive Allauddin, the Rajputs promised to send Padmini to him but actually sent armed gallant fighters disguised as women in several palanquins and successfully executed a daring plan of rescuing the captured Bheemsingh, but the paucity of space prevents us from narrating it in any detail. Finding it impossible to crush the mighty Rajput valour even in that furious battle, Allauddin had to return to Delhi. This incident clearly shows that Rajputs, too, could resort to cunning. 732. In order to avenge the defeat inflicted by the Rajputs in this battle and for the sake of Padmini, Allauddin once again invaded Chitod in A.D. 1303, when once again the brave Rajputs donned the ‘ Kesaria’ (saffron garments) and fought till the end, slaying hundreds of Muslims, and died to a man. Seeing the victory smile upon the Muslims and fortune darken upon the Rajputs, about ten thousand Rajput women, including Rani Padmini, leapt into the blazing fire with their children at their breasts. Allauddin conquered

Chitod, only to collect the ashes of Padmini! When the Hindu warriors and Hindu women fought, they fought thus! 733. It must be told here that before the old Allauddin breathed his last, this defeat of the Hindus was avenged under the very nose of Allauddin in A.D. 1313 by the famous Rajput, Hameer, who conquered Chitod, after inflicting a crushing defeat upon the Muslims. He even captured a son of Allauddin alive —but he was not converted to Hinduism. He should have been, at least, to pay the enemy in its own coin! This is the very same suicidal generosity of the Hindus. 734. In A.D. 1307, this Maliq Kafur, Allauddin’s famed general, was sent by the Sultan to invade the South. Ramdevrao was once again defeated, but he made peace by paying off the accumulated ransom. But during this turmoil, the runaway Princess Devaldevi of Gujarat, who was married to Ramdevrao’s son Shankardev, was captured and sent to Delhi by Maliq Kafur. Soon after in A.D. 1308, he invaded the Deccan for the third time and defeated in a bloody action Raja Pratapdev of Varangal, the heroic king who had once vanquished the Muslims. Raja Pratapdev had to swear allegiance to the Sultanate at Delhi. 735. Flushed at this success, Maliq Kafur marched on the third Hindu State in the Deccan and defeated the Hoysal king there likewise. Kafur’s victorious sword then subdued the remaining Hindu kingdom of Madura. 736. Thus, for the first time, during the past two thousand years, practically the whole of the Deccan passed into foreign and non-Hindu enemy hands! The independence and prosperity of the Deccan came to an end in this year! At the Southern-most end of the Deccan, Maliq Kafur built a fine Masjid as if to commemorate this Muslim conquest of South India. But the Hindu reaction to it was to precipitate the successful Hindu conspiracies against Muslim bondage. 737. Ramdevrao’s son, Shankardev, succeeded him to the throne of Devgiri, and soon repudiated the oath of allegiance to Sultan Allauddin, whereupon Maliq Kafur swooped down on the Deccan once again. Shankardev did not surrender till the last and fought furiously till he was killed. 738. As Allauddin and Maliq Kafur stamped out the Hindu political power from the Deccan during their frequent invasions, they likewise crumbled to dust the huge and magnificent Hindu temples of the South, cut up their golden pinnacles and in majority of the cases, built palatial masjids

on their sites, forced thousands of Hindus to be converted. These innumerable converted Hindus made big farming and feudal estates in this Deccan itself. But Hindus, however, did not massacre these Muslims nor did they destroy them outright as and when they subdued the Muslim power later on. This is what we call the perversion of the concept of virtues! Most often the Hindus used the same War strategy of the Muslims, according to the Military Science of the time 739. On the religious front, the Hindus were, thus, being vanquished mostly because of their own foolish religious concepts and traditions, but on the political front, they were fighting with the Muslims as they ought to have done! Even after being completely overcome, they rose again and again and defeated the Muslims! Craftiness and cunning were generally matched with the same strategic moves by the Hindus! 740. Allauddin surpassed every other Sultan before him in cruelty in the persecution of the Hindus. He would have reached greater heights in cruelty in respect of his treatment of the Hindus, had he not been forced to fight on the other front with the Mongols, who unceasingly hurled their armed might against the western borders of India and caused a great turmoil throughout Mongolia and Cenral Asia. A few of them took to Islam and formed a new Muslim colony in Delhi itself. At last, the enraged Allauddin cut off the whole of this new Muslim colony to a man! Death of Allauddin 741. Allauddin was the first and the last Muslim Sultan to rule over practically the whole of India with the exception of some Hindu states like those of Chitod and others. Neither Akbar nor even Aurangzeb can take that place, as their territories never equalled those of Allauddin. 742. But in his old age, Allauddin was surely afflicted by his bodily diseases, which were the outcome of his physical vices. Naturally, he became a tool in the hands of Maliq Kafur, and in that miserable state, this valorous but Hindu-hater Sultan died of dropsy in A.D. 1316 or as it is said, Maliq Kafur killed him or had him killed. His ‘Allah’ could not bless him with a happy death because of his virtue of Hindu-hatred! In a few days Maliq Kafur, a one-time slave of Allauddin, usurped the whole power of Allauddin, but in the political chaos that ensued after Allauddin, he was soon killed. In the turbulent days that followed, a certain Khushrukhan of exceptional abilities, who had been shining in the diplomatic circles at

Delhi, rose to the highest seat of power. From the point of view of the Hindu nation, his story deserves a separate chapter in the history of India. ❑

Khushrukhan and Devaldevi 743. If the millions of students who are learning history in all the states in the Indian Union today are asked what they know of Khushrukhan, a unique unforgettable character, who was acclaimed as the Sultan of Sultans in the Muslim Sultanate at Delhi, and who was worthy of high praise from the point of view of the Hindus, it is more likely than not, that at least 93 per cent of these millions of students will reply with evident surprise, “Khushrukhan? No, we haven’t come across any major reference to such a man as you describe!” Let alone the students, but even if you were to ask the same question to the teachers in general, to the whole editorial staff of the newspapers in India or even to any educated man or woman, at least 75 per cent of them will very probably reply in the same manner; ‘who is this Khushrukhan? We have never heard even of his name!’ 744. It is for this very reason that we are attempting to give a brief sketch of his life and work, as far as we can do so with the available evidence. For, although he is a unique character in the modern Indian history, his name has been obliterated, as it were, by the Muslim historians and their blind foreign and Indian, Hindu followers, from the textbooks of history used in schools, for his sole offence of putting the Muslim Sultanate to shame in order to avenge the wrongs and insults hurled by them at the Hindu nation. Wherever he has been mentioned, he has been given the most insulting and abusive attributes like, ‘low-bred’, ‘depraved’, ‘a knave’, ‘a hell-hound’ by the Muslim writers. The early history of Khushrukhan 745. When in the reign of Allauddin, Gujarat had to face the first onslaught of the Muslims in A.D. 1298 and the governing authority of the Hindus was much shaken down, in the chaotic conditions then prevailing, a very tender, attractive but very brilliant Hindu youth had been captured and made a slave by the Muslim noblemen and was offered into the service of Allauddin, much the same way and for the same reason as Maliq Kafur was made a slave. This youth was originally a Hindu, belonging to the untouchable caste of Paria of Parwar (sweepers) in Gujarat. One or two Muslim writers deny that he was a Paria (sweeper), but emphatically assert that he was a Rajput. Alter having been captured and converted to Islam, he was first called ‘Hasan’. When he was taken in the service of Allauddin at

Delhi, in keeping with the social vice of the Muslims (viz., sodomy; paragraph 729), the greatest noblemen and generals of the court had unnatural sexual relations with him, and so they were extremely solicitous about serving his whims! When after Allauddin’s death in A.D. 1316, Maliq Kafur became the chief administrator, he also came to have great regard for his abilities. Very soon, Hasan was given the title of Khushrukhan. For, even in the days of Allauddin, he was being sent independently on some small military expeditions in charge of small troops. That Hasan should become Khushrukhan and then a general in the army so rapidly, bespeaks of his exceptional qualities. But more than these qualities of his limitless love that Mubarik, the son of Allauddin, bore towards this charming young man, was responsible for such a spectacular rise. So after both Allauddin and Maliq Kafur died or were dispatched as the case may be, Mubarik got the Sultanate of Delhi mainly with Khushrukhan’s assistance and quite naturally, all the reins of the government passed easily into the hands of Khushrukhan, the dearest, ablest and the most trustworthy young nobleman of Mubarik’s court, and young Khushrukhan, too, proved wholly efficient in the discharge of his responsible job. Mubarik was vicious and pleasure- seeking by nature. Therefore, he considered it a godsend gift to have such an efficient assistant in the person of Khushrukhan to run the whole administration, and especially, a loyal executive to manage his private affairs in the harem. Devaldevi 746. When in the court of Delhi, the attractive Maliq Kafur, who was born a Hindu but converted by Allauddin to Islam, became later on the commander-in-chief and an astute politician, practically at the same time, rose in status another young, handsome, Hindu convert, Khushrukhan, who after the death of Maliq Kafur, wielded all authority at the court of Delhi. In a similar way and simultaneously enough, rose a third figure in the political circles at Delhi, who was equally important, able, and who managed the affairs of the state only with the twitch of her eyebrows, and her sidelong glances—I mean the former Hindu princess of Gujarat and the sometime wife of Shankardev Yadav of Devgiri, namely Devaldevi. 747. Of these three Hindu converts, Maliq Kafur seems later on to have wholly turned a Muslim even mentally, completely forgetting his Hindu origin, the Hindu blood running through his veins, his Hindu parentage, let alone his love for all these! But Khushrukhan and this royal princess of

Gujarat, Devaldevi, seem to have borne in their mind not only the memory, but a love, a fascination for their Hindu origin, their Hindu blood, and their essential Hindu make-up—there seems to be rankling in their hearts, intermittently or continuously, the atrocities inflicted on them by the Muslims. It seemed to burst out through their actions. At last, it is because of their irrespressible yearning to avenge the wrongs done to their ‘Hindutwa’ that in Delhi itself, broke out that great conflagration which like the wild fire of Khandav forest of Mahabharat, reduced to ashes the Muslim Sultanate which had under its sway practically the whole of India, if only for a short while! 748. In the very first expedition of Allauddin against Gujarat, after the Gujarat ruler’s defeat, his crowned queen Kamaldevi fell into the hands of Allauddin while she was fleeing for safety. But the ruler, however, could effect his escape along with his princely daughter, Devaldevi, a mere child then. Used to all sorts of royal comforts and pleasures till the very previous day as she was, how hard and unbearable might this tender and beautiful royal princess have found it to undergo all the calamities and privations and exertions of wandering for days together through forest-after-forest, and trying to evade the ever present possibility of capture by the pursuing Muslims, might easily be imagined. In that tender age, hatred for the Muslims must have been engraved deeply on her bosom, because of other people’s and her own actual experience. Her very mother, Rani Kamaldevi, had become the beloved queen of Sultan Allauddin at Delhi, and that very mother of hers was now out to seize her and make her a Muslim! How painful must this news have been to her tender heart! In order to evade this terrible fate, she was married, even a little against her father’s wishes, to Ramdevrao’s son, Shankardev, the staunch follower of Hinduism. But her evil star did not leave her alone there. In one of the invasions of Maliq Kafur against the Hindus, she was caught and carried away to Delhi as a captive. She must have been smarting with pain and humiliation a hundred thousand times in that moment of despair! At last, on reaching Delhi, she was forced to marry Khijrakhan, the eldest son of Allauddin. Some writers vouch that Devaldevi and Khijrakhan greatly loved each other. But this seems to be the flattering way of the courtly writers. Her subsequent course of action makes it abundantly clear! But that shrewd Hindu princess seems to have affected her love for Islam and for her husband till she got the desired opportunity.

749. It becomes crystal clear from the latter part of her life that after all the atrocities and persecutions, she was constantly worshipping the Hindu god.
750. Even after being forced to marry Allauddin’s eldest son, the mental agonies of Devaldevi did not cease. For, immediately after Allauddin’s death, there was a revolution, in which Allauddin’s second son, Mubarik, attacked and blinded his brother along with his followers and then put them to death. Installing himself as the Sultan, he seized his brother’s wife, Devaldevi, and forced her to marry him.
751. This alone seems to be the civilized and polite tradition of the Muslim Sultans and Emperors to marry again the fairest of queens and wives of the late Sultans or Emperors, dead or put to death!
752. This way did the former Hindu princess, Devaldevi rise to the highest status of a Sultana! However, she abhorred Mubarik most bitterly, yet she had, per force, to keep marital relations with him. Although her precious body was thus continually defiled, she had the most favourite opportunity of her life owing to this marriage of hers with Mubarik.
753. In gaining the Sultanate of Delhi, Mubarik had mainly to depend on the former Hindu slave, who later on was forced to become a Muslim, and who now had become the commander-in-chief of the whole Sultanate of Delhi—namely Khushrukhan! Mubarik himself had willingly entrusted the whole administration to Khushrukhan, for he had no time to mind other things except every sort of depravity and vice. For instance, he was extremely fond of dressing like a woman, going to the greatest noblemen of the court with the whole band of dancing girls, and there dancing himself, or having dancing and musical concerts there. So, while this licentious Mubarik was fully engrossed with his various vices, his chief minister of state, Khushrukhan, who had the burning memory of his former Hindu wife, and his present wife but the former Hindu princess, Devaldevi, who had similar thoughts and tendencies and similar mishaps in life as the former—both being Gujarati Hindus originally—had the greatest opportunity of coming into closest contact, of developing the strongest love-ties and the greatest confidence in each other. They could carry on the day-to-day political intrigues and plans authoritatively and with impunity, even to the solitude of the innermost secret chambers of the Sultan’s private palace.

754. It has to be taken for granted from the latter course of events, that it is there, that they must have hatched some important conspiracy for the benefit of Hinduism.
755. The first proof that contributes to this assertion is that Khushrukhan appointed his former Hindu Paria or Parwar brother to the governorship of Gujarat, his native province.
756. The second very important pointer: Khushrukhan appointed openly in Delhi itself, for his own protection, thousands of his former Hindu warrior compatriots—at least twenty to thirty thousand strong—in the Muslim army.
757. The Third Pointer: These manoeuvres of his were highly resented to by many of the Muslim grandees. But the innormost intention behind them all was kept so very secret that, it is doubtful, whether, it had by that time, become so crystal clear to Devaldevi or even to Khushrukhan himself, let alone the others! Faintly and slowly, yet surely enough, was that intention taking shape in their minds.
758. The Fourth Pointer: Khushrukhan incited the most incapable Sultan like Mubarik to lead an expedition to the South to put down in good time, the rebellions of the conquered Hindus in the Deccan, and he himself accompanied him second-in-command. The Hindus were worsted a lot. Their immeasurable wealth, taken as spoils of war, filled the Sultan’s treasury. Most probably, it was during this expedition, that after the death of Shankardev of Devgiri, his relative, King Harpaldev, rebelled and founded the kingdom of Devgiri once again, for which he was defeated and ordered by the Sultan to be skinned alive and then put to death! And for the defence of his religion, the royal Hindu warrior bore it bravely.
759. Thereafter, Mubarik returned with his army to Delhi. Because of these deeds of valour of his for the sake of a Muslim Sultan and the Muslim state, and because of his devastation of the Hindus, his rival Muslim grandees, too, could not breathe a single word against his unshakable faith in the Islamic religion. They could at the most, only whisper that there was danger of his overthrowing Sultan Mubarik and become the Sultan himself in his stead. But that, he would be a Muslim Sultan and none else, there was not the least doubt.
760. But if at this very time that future conspiracy of a Hinduistic revolution, which was very strange and unheard of before, had germinated

in the minds of Khushrukhan and Devaldevi, it must have been kept highly secret with utmost caution. 761. Very soon, Mubarik sent Khushrukhan to the Deccan for an extensive conquest but he himself did not go with him. So complete was his faith in Khushrukhan! In this expedition, Khushrukhan subdued the King of Malabar too, and exacted therefrom immeasurable plunder in the name of Sultan Mubarik! But 762. But in this very campaign of South India, various open or secret Hindu conspiracies against the Muslim empire began to brew up from various quarters of the South Indian peninsula. The royal Hindu families of Varangal and Gujrath, the valiant Rana Hameer, the redeemer of Chitod, and other Hindu Chiefs, the religious leaders and propagandists in the various religious institutions and monasteries like those of the Shankaracharya and even the common people were becoming restless and agitated with a common antagonism to the Muslim domination. And anonymous complaints by Khushrukhan’s enemies had reached the ears of the Sultan of Delhi to the effect that Khushrukhan was in some mysterious way and most secretly connected with this universal discontent! 763. So, scanty and self-contradictory bits of information are available in the writings of the contemporary Muslim writers about this Khushrukhan, the conqueror of Malabar, and the whole of the Muslim empire, that we have to correlate them into some sort of consistent account, only as far as it is possible from the later happenings! Once in the open court of the Sultan at Delhi there was a rumour, which apprehended that instead of coming back to Delhi amongst the ring of his adversaries, Khushrukhan was about to escape to some neighbouring foreign island by sea with the immense wealth he had amassed in the South. One Muslim writer has gone to the length of saying that Khushrukhan was brought back to Delhi in fetters! 764. With an exceptional daring and ability to cut off the strings of the net of inimical conspiracies with one stroke, Khushrukhan at once declared his intention to go back to Delhi in the grand manner of the conqueror of the South with all his army. For, his secret accomplice, the former Hindu princess but now the Muslim empress, Devaldevi, must have been keeping him posted with every detail of the daily happenings at Delhi! 765. From the few English translations of the Muslim books of the time that are now available, even those who do not know either Persian or

Arabic can have some information. Most of the Muslim writers mention Khushrukhan with utmost scorn and finish him within four or five lines only. The reason is plain enough. The Muslim historians can never bear with equanimity Khushrukhan’s taking the conceit out of the Muslim rule at Delhi. Even these Muslim historians have found it at places improper to distort and garble up the truth about Khushrukhan or to suppress it altogether. Their manuscripts, especially the recently published ones, prove very useful in this respect. Even the account by the recent Hindu historians, who based their conclusions on the above mentioned old Muslim books, is to that extent useless. The Hindu writers have done nothing more than merely repeating the obloquies like ‘mean-minded’, ‘shameless’, ‘dastardly’, hurled at him by the Muslim writers. But there are two honourable exceptions to this general tendency: one is that of the veteran historian Riasatkar Sardesai and the other of Shree Munshi. These two historians, however, have given a comparative account of Khushrukhan and Devaldevi, too, and have attempted to appraise, though very faintly and cursorily, the great revolution they had finally effected to etablish a Hindu empire. But theirs is a half-hearted attempt, which fears its own conclusions, and which could never fully grasp nor could explain the real implications and nature of that unprecedented revolution. A contemporary Hindu writer, who could elucidate the Hindu side of this great event is, obviously enough, not to be found! For, no Hindu of the time could have been dared to express his own independent opinions or judgement. 766. Under these circumstances, it is only possible to give in the form of a connected narrative, the obvious conclusion that can be drawn from what little consistency can be found in the disconnected reports in the above- mentioned original Muslim writings, and the actual undisputed acts of the leading personalities like Khushrukhan, Devaldevi and others. 767. As already told above, Khushrukhan went to Delhi with his victorious army and the immense spoils he had gathered in the Deccan, But why did he go there? Not only in Delhi but even in the Deccan a political rumour was secretly disseminated amongst the Hindu political circles that the Hindu leaders, who were organizing Hindu revolts in the south against the Muslims, were in collusion with Khushrukhan about some deep-laid conspiracy to disrupt the Muslim empire. In Gujarat, Khushrukhan’s brother himself was the de facto ruler, while all the Rajputs were inspired by Rana Hameer to overthrow the India-wide unitary Muslim empire, the first of its

kind, at least till that day. And most wonderful of all, was the fact that Sultan Mubarik's supreme commander and chief administrator, Khushrukhan himself, working as he was directly under Sultana Devaldevi's confidential orders, was taken in confidence by the Rajput leaders in respect of this daring plot to establish a Hindu empire! Such a rare concurrence of opposing forces is bound to astound history itself! Stand to reason, it never can, till at least something miraculous happens. 768. But something of the kind did begin to shape itself at the time. In the fiery brains of Sultana Devaldevi and Khushrukhan, there really was seething some such extraordinarily magnificent and by its very nature almost an incredible idea or plan, which seemed possible only to some mysterious intrigue and daring of a Nurshinh! 769. But neither their enemies nor their friends could breathe it openly! For with what magic wand was this supreme commander of Mubarik—the commander, who had brought all the Hindu states in the Deccan to meek submission before the Muslim Sultan-who had very recently devastated the wealthy Hindu kingdom of Malabar and hoisted there the green Muslim flag of the Delhi Sultanate—and who, above all, had come to Delhi to lay down all that success, all that glory, as an humble homage at the feet of the Muslim emperor—how was he, the sole supporter of the India-wide foreign and non-Hindu empire—he, who, born though he was as a Hindu, had become converted to Islam—how was a man of such a status likely to transform so suddenly the whole Muslim empire into a Hindu one? No staunch Muslim could even dare express it openly. Khushrukhan and Devaldevi had been keeping up till the last, the pretence of their being diehard Muslims and of their greatest loyalty to the Muslim Sultan and his empire so scrupulously and thoroughly, that even their direst enemies who had dark suspicions of their having underground connections with the Hindu rulers, feared that were they personally to charge Khushrukhan before the Sultan in Delhi or in the open court, the Sultan would point out proofs to the contrary and outwit them forthwith. Even the top-level Muslim officials feared this eventuality. Whatever complaints had reached the general populace of Delhi of the ears of the Sultan himself were so baseless and completely anonymous, that nobody credited them with any more veracity or seriousness than they would do hearsay report or false accusations by some mischief-mongers!

770. As soon as he came to Dehli, Sultan Mubrarik did not put him under heavy fetters and custody, as his Muslim enemies had expected, but being extremely pleased with the immense treasure Khushrukhan had laid at his feet and the unlimited power he had gained for the Delhi Sultanate, Mubarik, on the contrary, conferred upon Khushrukhan the administrative, military, civic and all other residual authority. And if he had put anybody under arrest, it was the great Muslim noblemen and Khankhanas of the court, who were dismissed for charging Khushrukhan unreservedly. 770A. On the other hand, in the regime of Khushrukhan as the chief administrator, the strictest bans against the Hindu introduced by Allauddin in former days were now being gradually relaxed; the exploitation of the Hindu-Muslim farmers, and the people in general, also was stopped; the Hindus, too, got much relief in matters religious; the common discontent amongst the subjects against the tyrannical rule of the emperors was on the wane. And the whole credit of this comparatively happy state of things began to go very naturally to Khushrukhan, who was the chief of the imperial administration at that time. Gradually, by Sultan, the common people came to understand, not the vicious and good-for-nothing Mubarik, but his all-in-all, valiant and popular administrator, Khushrukhan, and behind him loomed the Sultana, Devaldevi, with whose internal and open support he could wield this authority.
771. The Hindu began to look upon Khushrukhan as their saviour; even though he was still a Muslim, because he had set them free to a great extent from the vexatious taxes and restrictions imposed on them by Allauddin and the untold humiliation they had to undergo. Khushrukhan began to be popular amongst the Muslim farmers and other citizens, because of the relief they got from heavy taxes. And, above everything else, because of his military exploits, which had resounded throughout the whole of India and his superb adroitness in statecraft, many of the high-ranking Muslim noblemen had enlisted themselves on his side.
772. Seeing such a favourable opportunity, Khushrukhan and Devaldevi thought the right moment had come for them to proclaim boldly their grand scheme of a politicial revolution—for one who hesitates to undertake this hazard under favourable circumstances must be a coward, who would accomplish no daring feat! It was not merely a coup d'etat in a small state; it was an imperial revolution, which sought to subvert the India-wide unitary and danger-free Muslim empire of the late Allauddin and of the

present Mubarik, and to establish in its place overnight, most unexpectedly, a Hindu empire all over India. It was a religious revolution inasmuch as it sought to pull down the enthroned Muslim religion and to supplant it by the Hindu Vedic religion. 773. That such a perfect revolution was most difficult—almost impossible —to be accomplished, even if Hindu-Muslim wars were to be fought continuously for five hundred years, was quite plain from the Arab invasions of Sindh in the seventh century and the later history of Muslim invasions, till the time of Allauddin. But such a complete revolution was in fact brought about by the exceptional genius of Khushrukhan and Devaldevi, even if it was only for a short while! 774. Had not the Muslim Sultanate conquered the Hindus completely by hard fighting for centuries together and turned their country wholly Muslim? Then if Khushrukhan were able to wrench the imperial authority from the single Sultan and if he were to ascend the throne of the Delhi Sultanate in the name of Hinduism, then the whole of the empire would necessarily be a ‘Hindu’ one, with one stroke! Then the Muslim Sultan would necessarily become a Hindu emperor. This feat was as daring in planning as it was easy in execution under those circumstances! It was quite possible too. It is this magic wand that Devaldevi, originally a Hindu princess, and Khushrukhan, the original Hindu Paria youth wielded, which worked as an unparalleled miracle not only in Indian but in the whole human history! 775. Having arranged every minute detail of the future revolution most secretly, Khushrukhan humbly requested Sultan Mubarik, who had willingly allowed himself to be governed completely by the former: “The thousands of Hindus of my caste whom I have stationed in Delhi want to be converted to Islam with proper religious ceremony; but they are fighting shy of doing so openly in the city. Some of them are really afraid to do so. Hence, I wish to bring the choicest amongst them into the palace today and convert them in due course.” Under this pretext, Khushrukhan brought the hundreds of his bravest Hindu warriors in Delhi into the palace and housed them in the barracks for the imperial guards. One day in A.D. 1319, at the dead of night, suddenly there was a great turmoil in the palace in the midst of which Sultan Mubarik was killed.

776. But many had been the tumults and turmoils, causing change of rulers before this. Sultan Allauddin himself, was similarly dispatched. Sultan Mubarik had dealt with Maliq Kafur in this very way. The city of Delhi, which was quite used to such turmoils, began to whisper the next morning: “What terrible things happened in the palace last night?”
777. Within a very short time, only a single proclamation of a political nature gave a violent shock, as that of an earthquake, to the whole capital and brought to it the rude realization that the previous night Khushrukhan’s people had effected at one and the same time, an imperial and religious revolution by putting Sultan Mubarik to death, and it was immediately followed by another that Khushrukhan had installed himself as a Sultan!
778. However, there was nowhere to be seen any immediate, open and organized opposition amongst the people to this unprecedented revolution. The fact that the new Sultan Khushrukhan married Sultana Devaldevi, the queen of Mubarik, as soon as the latter was killed, stirred the revolutionary curiosity of the people but did not overawe them! For, that was the age-old tradition of the earlier Sultans! Kutubuddin’s widows were married to the latter Sultans who succeeded him, while Allauddin’s and his son’s, Khijrakhan’s widow, this very Devaldevi, was espoused by Mubarik himself. Quite consistent with this time-honoured tradition was this act of Khushrukhan of marrying Devaldevi, the widow of the late Sultan Mubarik, with whom he had established very close contacts much earlier and who was really his partner and perhaps a source of inspiration! Why should it not then seem quite natural to everybody in the state? But...!
779. But more startling than this was another proclamation made authoritatively and with every political formality by Khushrukhan and Devaldevi, which suddenly turned this political revolution in the royal palace into a religious one of a unique nature. Everybody in India right from the Kings and Nawabs to the Parias and Parwars, Mahars and Mangs was thrilled with a strange sensation at this unique proclamation! The Hindus were thrilled with unlimited joy while the Muslims were filled with the darkest apprehensions. The said proclamation made by Sultan Khushrukhan himself from his throne on the 15th April, 1320 meant to say:
780. “Although till today I was forced to lead the most detestable life of a convert to Islam, I am originally a son of a Hindu. The mainspring of my

life is Hinduism and the blood that throbs into my veins and arteries is that of a Hindu. Now that I have won independent and powerful status of a Sultan for myself, I am hereby breaking off the shackles of conversion to a foreign religion, and I do hereby declare that I am a Hindu! I have now ascended publicly the throne of the vast and entire, undivided India as a Hindu Emperor! Similarly, Sultana Devaldevi till very recently was originaly a Hindu daughter. Her husband, the Raja of Devgiri, Shankardev Yadav, was most brutally murdered and she was treacherously captured from her father sneaking miserably through dense forest to avoid seizure by the enemy. She was brought to Delhi and put to shame and ignominous disgrace by being forced to marry Khijrakhan, in the first place, and secondly after his brutal murder, Sultan Mubarik, who was killed in the coup d'etat last night. That Devaldevi is my queen, the empress of Hindusthan of today! Being originally Hindu in flesh and blood and a Hindu royal princess, she also hereafter renounces disdainfully her shameful conversion to Islam and henceforth will lead her life strictly according to Hindu religion! May this solemn vow of ours absolve us both of our former sin of forceful conversion!” 781. To refute or to challenge a proclamation of this nature came forth no stronger Hindu, nor even a single Muslim! 782. Hence, hereafter, we are going to address Sultan Khushrukhan as a Hindu Emperor and Devaldevi as a Hindu Empress! 783. This Hindu Emperor did not, however, disclose his original Hindu name of his young years! Most probably, he had no recollection of it whatsoever; today it is eternally lost. The imperial title that he adopted for himself was also a Muslim one, viz., Nasir-ud-din! The reason for this, perhaps, was that the whole of the Muslim world and even the millions of Hindus who were used to Muslim titles for generations together, might not be scandalized in respect of these minor details also. Nasir-ud-din, roughly speaking, means a sort of a defender of faith or religion! Hence, this Hindu Emperor made it clear in the said proclamation that ‘Din’ or religion that he was going to defend was not Islam! Naturally, it must be the Hindu religion! It is, therefore, proper that his name Nasir-ud-din should be translated as the Defender of Hindu Religion—Hindu dharmarakshak! The Unprecedented Revolution! 784. As soon as this unheard of revolution, transforming the India-wide Muslim Empire into the Hindu one, suddenly within a day, was

accomplished, this Hindu Emperor disbursed amongst the thousands of soldiers of his caste, the immense wealth, which he had pillaged in his conquest of Malabar by vanquishing the Hindu states and which had filled the coffers of the late Sultan Mubarik, along with the unlimited wealth accumulated during the regimes of the former Sultans. Similarly, he increased the pay-scale of both the Hindu and Muslim soldiers. Having won over his soldiery in this way, he introduced new reforms, gave to the farmers and common Hindu-Muslim citizens facilities, and allowed them concessions they were never allowed to enjoy by any of the former Sultans! Likewise, he set free thousands of Hindu prisoners who were interned as a diversion in religious persecution and the hundreds of Muslims, who were imprisoned simply because they were repugnant to the former Sultans for one reason or another. No wonder if this Hindu Emperor, Dharmarakshak, immediately became popular amongst the Hindus as well as the Muslims throughout his empire! 785. It is needless to say that he also absolved all the Hindus of all the humiliating bans on their pilgrimages and holy baths. The Jizia tax was repealed and other degrading conditions that had been enforced upon them by Sultan after Sultan were ameliorated forthwith. What wonder then if the whole Hindu world felt a thrill of joy and freedom that at long last, they had a saviour! 786. Even when this Hindu Samrat was fighting in the guise of a converted Muslim, victoriously in the South and reducing Malabar, he had been formulating the scheme of the future revolution. So, all the big Hindu- Muslim officers and generals in the fighting forces, who depended on his patronage and who had risen mainly because of his support, of course, remained loyal to him for safeguarding their own selfish interests and also for protecting themselves from the malice and enmity of the old Muslim Khans, Nizams, and other co-religionists of theirs. For, as a natural consequence of intermingling of the two religious communities, Muslims serving in the armies of many Hindu States had come to form a habit of rendering loyal service to their Hindu masters! The political service of a Hindu King was taboo formerly when the Muslims first came to India, but by this time, the taboo had lost its intensity and in its stead such a loyal service rendered to a Hindu master came to be considered quite in conformity with the Muslim religious code! Many incidents illustrating this point have already occurred so far, and will occur in the following pages

too. Although acceptance of any high office under a Hindu ruler was no more considered contrary to the Muslim religious law, the staunch moulanas and moulavis, however, looked upon such acts as necessary exceptions and bore a secret grudge in their hearts that they were time bombs laid under the Muslim political power! Never from the very beginning, did the Hindus consider it contrary to their religious code to fight in the Muslim army on the side of the Muslims! It was only the exchange of food and women in marriage with the Muslims which endangered the sanctity of their religion! How foolish and suicidal to think so! 786A. This Hindu Emperor did not rest with the mere declaration of his adherence to Hinduism, but he fearlessly began to bring it into action in the presence of the Muslims. Idols of Hindu gods and goddesses were immediately installed in the holiest of places of Muslim civilization, the Diwan-i-Aam and Diwan-i-Khas in the royal palaces of Delhi. All the worships and all the religious rites in royal palaces began to be performed according to the Hindu ritual. Loud chanting of Hindu mantras and singing of Hindu devotional songs took the place of the ‘Ayats’ in the Koran! This Hindu Emperor himself and the hundreds amongst his old Hindu battalions, who had remained Hindus from the beginning and who were guarding the royal palace, paid scrupulous attention to the protection and proper worship of these new idols of Hindu gods and goddesses. The enthusiasm and vigour of the Hindu citizens and especially of the Hindu soldiers in the capital knew no bounds! Just as formerly the aggressive Muslims completely demolished the godly idols in the Hindu temples and turned them into Muslim masjids immediately after they conquered any Hindu capital, so did these counter-revolutionary Hindus install new images of their gods in every masjid as a retaliatory measure, and most ceremoniously converted the masjids into Hindu temples and filled them with loud chanting of mantras. It is only by this counter-attack of the Hindu Parias that the fanatic Muslims could ever have had any idea of the pangs of humiliation and grief that might have rankled in the hearts of the Hindu community, which had grown feeble because of their malady of religious tolerance, when the Muslims polluted the Hindu temples by cow-slaughter and turned them into masjids. 787. It might be true that in the heat and excitement of this unheard of and unprecedented religious revolution, the Muslim scriptures, some Muslim writers charge, might have been exposed to ridicule or shame. But at least