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

honoured in every home and be remembered by everybody as are those of Rana Pratap, Raja Chhatrasal, Govind Singh, Chaitanya, Banda Bairagi and other great men of those times. But today, North-Indian Hindus seem to have never heard of them, while in the South, hardly one in a thousand seems to know them but faintly. This is most shameful for the Hindus and this state of things must be changed forthwith. The establishment of the Bahamani Kingdom 868. Seeing the disintegration of the sovereign power of the Sultan of Delhi, set afoot by the Hindu State of Vijaynagar in the South, Hassan Gangu, the Muslim Governor of the Southern Muslim possessions, revolted against the Delhi Sultanate and proclaimed himself Sultan of the so-called Bahamani Kingdom in A.D. 1346. His domain spread from the Narmada in the north to the Krishna in the south. The rulers of Delhi completely lost their hold on the south, which was now to be ruled by two prominent powers. The Bahamani Kings and the Hindu Princes of Vijaynagar. The name Bahamani, which Hassan Gangu adopted for his kingdom, is explained away by the historians in two different ways. It seems that this Hassan Gangu was a domestic servant with a Hindu Brahmin, named Gangu, when the former was but a slave. Pleased with his loyal service, the Brahmin looked into his horoscope and prophesied that the slave Hassan would, sometime in the future, become a king. Mad with joy to hear this prophesy, Hassan began to style himself as Hassan Gangu and when he actually got the sovereign power over the Deccanese sector of the Muslim empire, he designated it as the Bahamani kingdom, thinking it to be the fruit of the blessings of his former Brahmin master. Some other historians suggest another derivation for the name Bahamani Kingdom. They say that perhaps Hassan Gangu might have felt that he belonged to the Bahamani stock, a princely lineage from Persia. If it be so, why did Hassan continue till the end to call himself Hassan Gangu which clearly referred to his Brahmin master? Moreover, what proofs are there to show his descent from the Persian Bahamani royal family? There is none forthcoming so far! 869. This Bahamani Kingdom and the Vijaynagar Empire had a common boundary, the Tungabhadra river. Naturally, intermittent warfare between these two rival states was the result. Those who want to read a more detailed account of the Vijaynagar Empire and its wars with the Bahamani Kingdom should read with profit two books viz.: (i) ‘The Forgotten Empire’ by Robert Swell and (ii) ‘The Never To Be Forgotten Empire’ by Dr. S.

Krishnaswami Aiyangar. The second book, so to say is an answer, at least to a certain extent, to the first one by an English scholar. 870. As this one, far from being a book of history, is in fact an interpretation of history (as we have been saying from the beginning), we shall restrict ourselves to those events only, which are relevant to our purpose. For, there is no room here for any detailed historical account. Foundation—the building of the City of Vijaynagar 871. The site selected on the banks of the Tungabhadra for the capital city of Vijaynagar by the great Hindu leaders of the day, such as Vidyaranyaswami and others, was from the architectural and military points of views so beautiful and well fortified, surrounded as it was by hills on the three sides and a deep river on the fourth, that the architectural and military acumen in the selection of this site has been highly praised by several foreign travellers, well-versed in these two sciences. There were as it were a natural fortification for this vast city, seven strong enclosures, one within the other, round this city of Vijaynagar. In every one of these enclosures, there were majestic buildings, beautifully carved temples, and rich palaces and pleasant lakes. On all these buildings, temples and royal palaces, flew the saffron-coloured flag masked with a golden cup. For the authorized standard of Vijaynagar was the same traditional flag of the Hindu Nation, the saffron-coloured banner! 872. Of all these temples, the grandest, most magnificent and spacious was that of Shree Nursingh, for he was the presiding deity of the royal family of Vijaynagar. Inasmuch as very few temples are found to be dedicated to this God. Nursingh, throughout the length and breadth of India, represents the genius and practical sense of those kings of Vijaynagar who chose for their daily worship, this incarnation of Nursingh from amongst many others of the Hindu pantheon, which is undoubtedly praiseworthy. 873. For, in those days of bitter warfare between the most cruel and diabolic Muslim invaders on the one hand, and on the other, the tolerant Hindu Society emasculated to suffer persecution and indignities to the last limits of endurance from the days of Gautam Buddha himself, it was this incarnation of Nursingh that could inspire in the spineless Hindus of the day, instinctive and effective reaction to retaliate every wrong done to them and also violent valour, which could strike terror in the hearts of the enemy.

874. व्रजन्ति ते मूढधियः पराभवन। भवन्ति मायाविषु वे न मायिना॥:। साध्वाचारः साधुना प्रत्युपेय। मायाचारो मायया बाधितव्यः॥ (Those dull-witted, who do not behave knavishly with base and crafty rogues invariably court failure! A polite person should be treated politely while a crafty scoundrel should be destroyed by super-craft.) [THE SELF-SAME STORY OF NURSINGH ITSELF TELLS] that not with the perverted virtues of Prahlad but with the cruel, crafty measures alone could that demon, Hiranayakashipu, be killed.
875. Shree Shankar had blessed Hiranyakashipu with a boon that he would not be killed by any man or beast, with any weapon or missile, ordinary or charmed with magic power, on the earth or in the skies, neither by day nor by night, neither in nor out! But mysteriously enough, an effective expedient was found for every one of these thoughtless terms of the equally thoughtless boon and the enemy of the Gods, the invincible demon, Hiranyakashipu, was killed by an incarnation, which was neither purely human nor purely beastly, but a mixture of both, at twilight, on the threshold, taking him on the lap and by cutting open his stomach with his sharp talons! 875A. It is this frightful incarnation of God, whose whole body has been besmeared with the spouts of blood emanating from the dying body of the wicked demon, rending the whole universe with his horrible war-cries, and at whose furious visage, made ten-times more terrible by his beard standing erect, even the Gods themselves were alarmed and began to request him to calm down, that a Nation wishing to keep itself alive in this diabolic warring world, should worship as the emblem of the high peak of national valour!
876. This story also implies another noble principle that although the outward appearance of this violent incarnation of Nursingh was fierce and repellant, its heart was that of a human being made of the ‘milk of human kindness’. Its merciless valour also is most essential, even unavoidable, to the development of ‘human kindness’! For this violent act of tearing open the entrails of Hiranayakashipu, a reckless tyrant, a terror to Gods and demons alike, was performed solely to protect a devotee of the Gods, Prahlad, and that too as the last remedy! It is for the sake of free

development of human virtues that the principle of अहिंसा (non-violence), which emasculates human beings with the curse of weakness, should at times be killed by cruel violence! It itself becomes a truly righteous, a truly religious act, leading to the development of human culture! At a particular stage of development of the human society throughout the world, and in the tumultuous times when it was surrounded by different warring nations, fired with the inordinate selfish ambition and diabolic violence, the Hindu nation, too, ought to have chosen Nursingh as its God of worship, if it wanted to preserve its free existence or even its invincibility! 877. The magnificent temple of this Nursingh, whom the kings of Vijaynagar had offered their devout hearts, does not stand there today in its original form. When the Muslim invaders attacked and devastated Vijaynagar in A.D. 1565, they also demolished and razed to rubble this royal temple of Nursingh. However, whatever ruins are left over of that old idol of Nursingh in that temple, are even now sufficiently clear to signify the originally huge, magnificent, furious figure of that Godhead, and we can easily imagine how very majestic and awe-inspiring the temple in its original form and glory might have been, distinguishing itself from the other huge, magnificent temples all over India by its inimitableness. Bahamani Sultan defeated by the King of Vijaynagar 878. After the death of the valiant Harihar, the brave Bukkarai ascended the throne of Vijaynagar. This Bukkarai too was of a daring and aggressive nature. He not only saved his own kingdom but also waged counter- offensives on the Muslims round about the year A.D. 1374 and defeated Majahid Shah, the great Sultan of the Bahamani kingdom. There is proof to show that this King Bukka had sent a friendly mission to the King of China. 879. In A.D. 1379, this brave monarch of Vijaynagar, Bukkarai, died and was succeeded to this ancestral throne by his son Harihar II, born posthumously to his queen Gowri. During his reign, the Hindus inflicted frequent and crushing defeats on the Muslims and extended the boundaries of Vijaynagar empire, whereupon Harihar took for himself the title of Maharajadhiraj with a grand ceremony to grace the occasion with the brother of Madhavacharya (Vidyaranyaswami) Shree Sayanacharya himself as the Chief Minister of his and Sudha, Isag and Gund, the well-known commanders in his army. Maharajadhiraj Harihar ruled prosperously and extended the boundaries of his Empire to include Goa, as is borne out by a copper plate inscription dated A.D. 1391.

[गोवाभिदां (भिदानाम्) कोकण राजधानीम्] 880-881. It is impossible and unnecessary to give the lineages of the Vijaynagar or any other royal families in this volume. It is enough to say that the kings who succeeded Harihar II also added to the glory of Vijaynagar. There was only one unhappy exception of a weak and imbecile king named Devrai, who came to the throne in A.D. 1406. He did hate the Muslims, but he found a strange expedient for destroying the Muslim powers, that of employing Muslim warriors in his army, as the Muslim rulers employed the Hindus! But seeing his weak and vacillating nature, those Muslim warriors in his employ became so very conceited, that they refused to bow down to him in his very courtly assembly, as they never bowed their heads before any mortal! So, for their satisfaction, Devrai had the Book of the Koran placed on a high pedestal beside him, so that when they bowed, the Muslims were satisfied that they did so to the Koran and not to the King, whereas the King was satisfied that the decorum of the assembly was not violated! He even went to the length of building a masjid in Vijaynagar in order to please those Muslims. It is needless to say that these pampered Muslim soldiers did not fail to betray Devrai in the very thick of the battle, and Devrai was defeated at last by the Bahamani Sultan, Phiroz Khan, who faithful to the demonic Muslim tradition, asked for the daughter of Devrai at the signing of the treaty and the latter had to concede the demand most shamefully and helplessly! Fortunately, during those two or three hundred years of Muslim ascendancy, hardly five or six kings followed this tradition of abject surrender of the Rajputs. Of course, it must be remembered that no Hindu conqueror even laid down this condition for the vanquished Muslims in the great victories that the Hindus gained in those days over the Muslims! The reason is plain enough! For, whoever thought of marrying Muslim girl, would himself have been converted to Islam! The evil effects of this perverted virtue of the Hindus have been dealt with in the chapters on the ban on reconversion (Paragraphs: 413 to 473). Retaliation by the Hindus 882. However, after the death of Devrai, the kings of Vijaynagar began to avenge this ignoble defeat on various battlefields and once again, the Muslim powers were overawed. Especially in A.D. 1417, when Phiroz Khan invaded Telengan, the Hindus routed the Muslim forces killing their very Vazir.

882A. Round about A.D. 1460, there was a bitter struggle for power in the royal family of Vijaynagar in the reign of Virupaksha. Availing himself of this opportunity, a mighty Vijaynagar Chieftain, Shalva Narsingh by name, dethroned Virupaksha and thus ended the original Sangam dynasty by assuming sovereignty and establishing order throughout the kingdom. Advent of Western Nations in India 883. During this very period, the European, Portuguese discovered a sea route to India and entered the Indian political arena. Their first entry was not effected in Vijaynagar; it was the coastal Prince Samudrin (Zamorin), to the southern corner of India who was their first host. This seemingly insignificant event is recorded here merely for keeping up the time- sequence. The new locust-like aggression of the western powers that followed it, will have to be reviewed in a separate chapter. Maharaja Naresh 884. Following the thread of the history of Vijaynagar, it must be said that during one or two generations, this second royal dynasty of Shalva Narsingh was in its turn overthrown when another military commander, Naresh by name, assassinated the then ruling monarch, and established the third ruling dynasty of Vijaynagar in A.D. 1507. In all these three political revolutions, one remarkable thing is noticeable that even when the Muslim States were waiting most anxiously to destroy this Hindu Empire, and even when these Hindu-Muslim states were constantly at war, these political revolutions took place amongst the Hindus themselves. The surrounding Muslim states got no opportunity to lend a helping hand to one contending Hindu side against the other and thus force their grip on it, nor had they the courage to do it. The Break-up of the Bahamani Kingdom 885. Before the third political revolution in Vijaynagar was effected, the Bahamani Kingdom of the Muslim was broken up into five. The Bahamani Sultans first of all extended their boundaries from the Narmada to the Tungabhadra, but as its boundaries reached those of Vijaynagar, there was constant warfare between the Hindu-Muslim States. The many victories that the Vijaynagar kings won over the Muslims effected the annexation of Gomantak to the Hindu Kingdom and the extension of its boundaries right up to Orissa. As a natural consequence of these Hindu victories, the Bahamani power weakened considerably. Moreover, the last of its monarchs were absolutely worthless. Mohammed Gawan, the last Bahamani Vazir,

however, was able and warlike in spirit. Because of his honest and diligent service, his valour and prudence, that Muslim state managed to exist somehow between A.D. 1484 and 1526. But some Muslim noblemen, who were Mohammed Gawan’s enemies at the court, contrived to have him killed by royal order. It must be remembered that, however great Mohammed Gawan might be, like practically every other Muslim ruler, he never left anything undone to persecute the Hindus in the Bahamani Kingdom. Yet he met his doom, not at the hands of the Hindus, but at those of his own Muslim colleagues. 886. Even before the death of Mohammed Gawan, the Sultan’s capital had been shifted to Bidar, and after his death, that feeble Muslim power was broken up into the following five parts:

1. Adilshahi of Vijapur.
2. Imadshahi of Berar (Varhad or Vidarbha (1484-1503).
3. Kut-b-Shahi of Gowalkonda.
4. Nizamshahi of Ahmednagar (1489 to 1637).
5. Baridshahi of Bidar.
6. Two remarkable things about this break-up of the Bahamani Kingdom should well be remembered, especially by the Hindus. The first is that the founder of Imadshahi of Berar (second in the above list) was originally a Telangi Brahmin. His father lived in Vijaynagar. In one of the battles with Vijaynagar, this son of a Telangi Brahmin was captured by the Bahamani Muslims, who, true to their wicked custom, converted him to Islam. He was, thereafter, raised to a higher status by the kindness of Gawan. At last in A.D. 1484, he divorced himself from the Bahamani Kingdom and as a Muslim, took for himself the proud title of Imadshah and proclaimed himself an independent ruler of the Province of Berar, relegated to his charge.
7. The second remarkable fact is that of the foundation of the Nizamshahi of Ahmednagar, the fourth fragment of the Bahamani Kingdom. At Vijaynagar, there was a Brahmin named Timmappa Bahiru (Bhairao?), whose son was taken captive and converted to Islam, when Ahmedshah was at war with Viaynagar. He was renamed Ahmed. When this convert Ahmed was posted at the command of a big Muslim army, he utilized his authority to break loose from the Bahamani domination and established his own Sultanate in A.D. 1489. Because of his title of the Nizam, his Sultanate came to be known as Nizamshahi. In his domain was

situated the famous fort of Shivneri. Somewhere between Daulatabad and Junner, there was a small village called ‘Binkar’. Finding it suitable for his capital, he named it as Ahmednagar after his own name Ahmed in A.D. 1494. 889. This break-up of the Bahamani Kingdom was mainly due to the internal dissensions of the Muslims. The original Bahamani Kingdom had vowed to destroy Vijaynagar. But the latter survived to see the break-up of the Bahamani Kingdom into five fragments and continued to fight adamantly with all those five Muslim states, and proved to be more than a match to all of them for at least seventy-five years to come! 890. The claim that the Muslims never fought amongst themselves is once again belied by this five-fold fragmentation of the Bahamani kingdom, which was caused by their internal rivalries. That the Muslim Sultans looked for help at the mighty Hindu empire of Vijaynagar in order to put down their Muslim rivals, gives the lie to their second boast that they never sought help from the Hindus! Maharajadhiraj Krishnadevrai 891. To the above-mentioned Tuluv dynasty of Naresh of Vijaynagar, belonged the mighty emperor Krishnadevrai, who ruled from A.D. 1509 to 1530. He was well-educated and his address was clever and pleasing. He impressed even the greatest of scholars of the time. The learned scholars of Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil and Kannad literatures were generously patronized by his court. In his court were eight great poets, whom he called अष्टदिग्गज (‘Elephants of the Eight Directions’). He himself was a great writer. His Telugu book named अमुक्ता माल्यदा is very well-known. Maharaja Krishnadevrai was equally fond of architecture and sculpture. It was he who got the famous Ram Mandir of Vijaynagar built, besides the many forts, ramparts, temples, courtyards, monasteries and caravan sarais throughout his empire. He made munificent grants to the Brahmins and temples. His career shines with his various virtues such as courteous behaviour, dexterity in discourse, prudence in politics, his long-range view in chalking out plans and formulating policies, and last but not least, his sternness and valour in respect of the enemies. Western and other foreign historians have unanimously praised him as an unrivalled great ruler! 892. If Maharajadhiraj was most civil with the gentle folks, he was unrelenting and merciless when he fought bravely with the enemies of his

religion or those of his nation! Victory graced him in his bitter war with Adilshah, whereupon, the treaty he effected with the Adilshahi Sultan, laid down such acid terms as completely crushed down the Muslim swaggering claims of invincibility, established the superiority of the Hindus, and were accepted by the abject Muslim rulers with great reluctance. 893. His army was vast and powerful. It comprised seven hundred thousand foot, twenty-two thousand cavalry and five hundred and fifty-one elephants, ever prepared for war. 894. The glory of Vijaynagar reached its zenith in the times of Maharaja Krishnadevrai, which can be proved beyond doubt by the various detailed accounts written by many foreign travellers, who visited his court. Many of them have even described his appearance. He was very handsome to look at, a man of action and a very powerful personality to impress at first sight any visitor. 895. He was a Vaishnav himself, yet he gave the same sympathetic and tolerant treatment to the Vedic Hindus, who were in a majority, and to the other minorities like the Jains, Lingayats, Mahanubhavas and other Hindu, sects, avoiding every sort of clash of dissentient opinions and thus tried to cultivate amongst the Hindus the feeling of oneness by means of his compromising attitude. From the inception of the Empire of Vijaynagar, the great Hindu leaders like the Shankaracharya Vidyaranyaswami and Sayanacharya and others had adopted a wise policy of assimilation, equality and tolerance that precluded every sort of clash between any two religious sects, while their religious preaching fostered high respect for their Hindu religion and their Hindu national sentiment. Foreign travellers refer most admiringly to this religious tolerance and the sense of equality that the Vijaynagar kings always showed. Prosperity and Glory of Hindu Empire of Vijaynagar 896. Foreign travellers have very highly praised not only the civic and religious liberties that the people of Vijaynagar enjoyed, but also its overall prosperity and glory and the powerful influence that it wielded far and wide. For instance, when the Portuguese traveller, Duarte Barbose, visited Vijaynagar and stayed there for a while, he was very much astonished to see its exceptional wealth and glory. 897. The ambassador from the Shah of Persia has clearly said, “The like of this city is nowhere to be found on the face of this earth.” Adjoining the royal palace, there were four-fold extensive market places for jewellery and

pearls. Foreign travellers have written that thousands of citizens were to be seen adorned with ornaments of gold, jewels and pearls, Portuguese traveller Paes asserts that the area of Vijaynagar was as extensive as that of Rome. 898. Even before the reign of Maharajadhiraj Krishnadevrai, the Hindu Empire of Vijaynagar had been renowned as the most powerful in the whole of Deccan. The five fragments of the former Bahamani Kingdom were beset with internal dissensions and fratricidal wars, to the immense advantage of Vijaynagar Empire, and the then Hindu political leaders did have the sense to utilize this opportunity for the extension of its boundaries and for teaching a lesson to the Muslims. The Muslim Sultans could do nothing independently without the help or consent of the ‘Rais’ of Vijaynagar! Every one of the Muslim cliques laboured hard to secure the support of the Hindu rulers of Vijaynagar. As has already been said above, the absurd patronization by the Hindus and their indulgence of the Muslim soldiers, as in the times of the weak and imbecile King Devrai, had been abandoned. Those of the Hindu Kings, who built masjids for the Muslims in their own capital, did so in order to win them over and to parade their religious tolerance. But now that ‘cowardly’ religious tolerance had given place to valiant aggression on the Muslim States and the retaliatory demolition of the Muslim mosques and masjids. Forbearance, due to the perverted sense of virtues, began to give the palm of honour of the real virtue of retaliation! 899. Maharaja Krishnadevrai died in A.D. 1530; just four years before it, Babar had captured Delhi. Rana Sang was his contemporary. He was succeeded by his brother, Achyutdev with Salur Timma as his Chief Minister, who for all practical purposes ran the administration. Achyutdev died in A.D. 1542 and then after an insignificant King Sadashivrai, the nephew of Achyutdev, ascended the throne. But Ramrai, the son of the Chief Minister, Timma had done so much in helping Sadashivrai become the king that within a very short time, all the real power passed into his hands. This Ramrai himself is called Ramrajah. Ramrai, the valiant defender of Religion! 900. All the five Muslim States in Maharashtra tried to obtain help from the powerful army of Ramrai to fight their fratricidal wars. Although these five Muslim rulers knew well enough that Shree Ramrai was a strict adherent of Hinduism and hated all Muslims alike as equally treacherous

enemies of the Hindus and looked down upon them with scorn, they had fully realized that without the powerful support of this valiant Hindu hero, they could hold no ground before their adversaries. 901. In A.D. 1543, the Nizamshah of Ahmednagar and Kut-b-Shah of Gowalkonda jointly thought of teaching a lesson to Adilshah, the Sultan of Vijapur. They implored Ramraja himself to take the lead. Accordingly, the three together marched on Vijapur and went on slaughtering the Vijapur forces. The most noteworthy was the fact that even the Muslims came to know that the Hindus had been cured of the one hateful vice of the ‘perverted virtues’, which we have so far condemned in this volume (Paragraphs 401 to 473). For, on the religious front, too, the Hindus overcame the Muslims and in order to avenge the demolition and molestation of the Hindu temples, they razed numerous masjids at various places to the ground. The houses of Muslims, the localities and townships, where the Hindus were persecuted and Hindu women were treated most insultingly as slaves, were burnt and destroyed completely. This religious retaliation by the Hindus struck new terror in the hearts of the Muslims, and quite contrary to their age-old practice, the Muslim community no more dared to tread upon the Hindu populations, as they would have upon ants. It dreaded the resurgent Hindu society as it would have dreaded a poisonous snake. Naturally, the Adilshah of Vijapur had to sue for peace and to please every one of the three. 902. This temporary compromise did not end the Muslim feuds for ever. The Adilshah of Vijapur felt sore about the two forts of Kalyani and Solapur appropriated by the Nizamshah of Ahmadnagar. As such, he decided to invade the Nizamshah in 1557 and entreated Ramrai to help him. So now along with the Vijapur army, the Hindu forces of Vijaynagar, which had gone out to help the Nizamshah, marched on the Nizamshahi lands. Needless to say, that the very idea that all the five Muslim states should seek help from the Hindu State of Vijaynagar thrilled the hearts of the brave, while the common people came to lose their former fear- complex about the Muslim might. In this war with the Nizamshah too, the Hindu forces punished the Muslims in the Nizamshahi lands and avenged the atrocities on the Hindus in earlier times on a larger scale and even more sternly and mercilessly than before. Not only on the battlefield, but even during their marches, the heretofore arrogant attitude of the Muslims to the Hindus was also punished by way of reprisals in the form of plundering of

their houses and property. The Muslim masjids were destroyed in the very same way as the Hindu temples had been demolished. On the battlefields, the Hindus simply routed the Muslim forces. 903. This fierce retaliation by the Hindus to the Muslim fanaticism and devilish treatment of the non-Muslims, which had gathered momentum during the last forty years or so, struck terror in the hearts of the Muslims, and they, in their turn, formed a new fear-complex about the Hindus. They began to complain most piteously that the Hindus perpetrated insults and atrocities on them and even exposed their religion to ridicule and shame. The Destruction of Vijaynagar 904. All the five Muslim States in the Deccan and the Muslim society in general took a great fright at the defeat of Nizamshahi at the hands of Ramrai, and especially, the fierce reprisals that the Hindus had newly begun, and were excited with extreme fear and anger. They came to realize that if they wanted their kingdoms to last and if at all they wished to live as Muslims, it was absolutely necessary for them to forget their mutual grievances, and launch a united and determined attack against the proud kings of Vijaynagar. For, they knew that none of them by itself was a match for the Vijaynagar Empire. So, Adilshah of Vijapur and his Vazir Kishwarkhan decided to take the lead in this daring project. Kishwarkhan personally went and interviewed the Nizamshah and Kut-b-Shah at their respective capitals, while all prominent Muslim Sardars and Manasabdars, and army chiefs and Mullah-maulvis preached jihad (crusade) everywhere. In order to cement their mutual trust and newly-formed friendship, these Muslim Sultans intermarried their daughters and formed family-ties, and, thus, after a thorough preparation the joint forces of all Muslim States marched on Vijaynagar. 905. Ramrai himself was not quite idle. Every now and then, he got details about this secret plot of the Muslim States. He was, in fact, an old man of seventy at that time, but his passion to fight with the Muslims had not grown a bit less in intensity than what it was in his youth. Undaunted, he, too, equipped his army in every respect and made ready to meet the Muslim attack. He posted two big divisions of his forces under the command of his two brothers—Tirumalrai and Vyankatadri—on two sides of the city, and he himself took the centre. 906. The Hindu-Muslim armies met for a savage struggle at Rakshasbhuvan (Rakkasgi-Tangadgi) near Talikot on Friday, the 2nd of

January, 1565. Both the sides had many good cannons and they were arranged before the armies, tied fast with strong chains. The fact that for some time after the first shots were fired, there was fierce fighting and that the Muslims had a very hard knock, which caused confusion amongst their ranks, is admitted even by the Muslim historians. Enraged at this unpleasant turn of event, and thinking that the slightest slackness might bring upon them all total ruin, Sultan Husen Nizamshah dashed right on the centre and forcing a breach amongst the Hindu ranks, he made straight for Raja Ramrai. The historians have no consensus of opinion about what exactly happened at the moment. Some say that a Muslim soldier in the pay of Ramrai himself treacherously killed him. Others declare that Raja Ramrai got down from his palanquin, sat on a jewelled throne in the centre of his army rewarding the feats of valour of his soldiers with gold and jewels, and encouraged them incessantly. Some others avow that when the battle reached its high pitch of ferocity, the Muslims, drove an intoxicated elephant against the royal palanquin and slew him. Whatever that is, one thing is accepted on all hands that as soon as Raja Ramrai was encircled by the Muslims, they slew him and on the orders of Nizamshah, his bloody head was exhibited on the sharp end of a long spear through the entire army. The sight of that gory head unnerved the Hindus and the Muslims closed in upon them with triumphant war-cries. 907. In spite of all this confusion wrought amongst the Hindu ranks, Tirumalrai, the brother and Commander of Raja Ramrai, made haste to reach the capital city of Vijaynagar with many of the royal family, and before the Muslim forces arrived there, he left for the south with whatever royal treasure he could load upon five hundred and fifty elephants, and the remnant of his army, foot and horse. Mad with triumph, the Muslim armies soon came in hot pursuit of the defeated Hindu ones and not only did they capture the city but destroyed it completely with their traditional cruelty and animosity. They razed to the ground grand palaces, temples, town- halls, beautifully laid-out gardens, market places and colossal statues. Libraries of books were burnt to ashes; crores of rupees worth of treasures were pillaged. The Muslim writers themselves state with evident pride that the infernal fires started in Vijaynagar by the Muslims kept burning for five or six months together. Thus perished the grand city of Vijaynagar at the hands of the Muslim demons in human form.

908-909. It is frivolous to say that the Muslims ravaged Vijaynagar only to avenge—only as a reaction to—the religious atrocities committed by the Hindus in return for the similar atrocities of Muslims. It is not tenable against the mass of evidence now available. 910. But these writers, both the foreign and Muslim ones—and also the Hindus with a perverted sense of virtues—do not see—do not remember— when they say so, what cause had the Hindus given to Mahmud of Ghazni, Mohammed Ghori, Taimurlang, Babar and others to invade them. They had never harmed any of them in any way. How many masjids in Ghazni had the Hindus burnt? How many of the Muslim subjects in the lands of Ghor of Ghazni had been oppressed and how many of their womenfolk had been raped by the Hindus? How many millions of the Muslim women had been kept by the Hindus as concubines or maids? What atrocities did the Hindus commit first on the Muslims for avenging which, the above-mentioned Muslim leaders marched towards India? Did they not, each one of them, declare openly in their courts that it was sotely for the sake of completely destroying the Hindus, for wiping out their race from the face of the earth and for converting them forcibly to Islam, that they attacked the Indian continent? 911. While reviewing this destruction of Vijaynagar, it is enough to see if even the Muslim writers have the face to say that before the mighty armies of Allauddin and Maliq Kafur marched against the Deccan, the South Indian Hindus had perpetrated any atrocities on non-Hindus in the north. If they cannot do so, they should explain why did the Muslim armies attack the Hindus in the South and brought wholesale destruction on state-after- state from Devgiri, Warangal to Madurai, much in the same horrible form as was meted out to Vijaynagar? Why did they hurl insults and indignities at the Hindu religion and why did those Muslim demons persecute the innumerable Hindu men and women? Nobody can say by any stretch of imagination, that it was to avenge the religious atrocities of the Hindus over the Muslims of the North. It was due to the fact that extirpating the Hindus was itself considered to be their religious duty—a holy faith as it was! 912. The unhesitating, shameless and open stand of the Muslim writers of the times, and of those before and after, is: “We believe that it is our chief religious duty to annihilate the non-Muslims. To conquer the kafir Hindu states, to rape the royal Hindu ladies, to enslave millions of other kafir

women and men, and to massacre others, to burn, devastate and demolish the Hindu capital cities, their temples, the idols of their Gods, to reduce to ashes their libraries of religious books and do all sorts of wrongs to them were all the ‘holy acts’ of the Muslim Gazis—the defenders of the Muslim faith! All these ‘holy’ acts were done to chastise the kafirs strictly according to the Muslim religious and ethical code, for their inexcusable (unpardonable) sin of being kafirs! When the kafirs call these holy acts atrocities, they must be plainly told that they were not atrocities at all! They were all righteous and virtuous acts! It is the bounden duty of every faithful follower of Islam, that he must thus chastise the kafirs whenever, and to whatever extent, he might be able to do so. 913. “But for the Hindus to call our religious chastisement atrocities and to retaliate against our holy religion as a reaction against our so-called cruelties, to burn our pure masjids because we have burned their temples— it is simply diabolic!—atrocious in the extreme!” 914. It is because the Muslims had this perverted conception of their religious duty that they marched upon Vijaynagar primarily as it was a Hindu State, and as the Hindus stubbornly refused to become Muslims. Even if the Vijaynagar armies had not invaded the Bahamani Muslim States, as they often did, and even if they had not retaliated with equal vehemence against the usual Muslim atrocities by burning their masjids and houses and plundering their property, all the Muslim Sultans would have attacked Vijaynagar Hindus simply for their fault of being Hindus. They would have committed the same inhuman atrocities, even if the Hindus of Vijaynagar had not done them any harm, had they but got an opportunity to do so! Why did the Muslim Armies go back after the Pillage of Vijaynagar? 915. The underlying reason why the Muslim armies drew back after pillaging Vijaynagar and did not pursue the fleeing Hindus is that they dared not do so; for the state of Vijaynagar had broken away from the old Hindu tradition of meek submission and tight-lipped endurance and had begun to reciprocate atrocities with counter-atrocities and reprisals with super-reprisals! 916. As has already been told above, Ramrai’s brother, Commander Tirumalrai, had already left Vijaynagar with his army into the South and was re-forming his forces for another knock. Had the Muslims advanced further they were bound to meet with strong opposition from Tirumal’s

army. Partly owing to this fear, the Muslims retreated from Vijaynagar, content with whatever they could sack there. 917. Another reason that was responsible for this speedy retreat was the opening of the ‘old sores’ among the Muslim Sultans! Their belonging to different sects, like the Shias and Sunnis, had always created bickerings amongst them. Naturally, as soon as the hostilities with the Hindu state of Vijaynagar ended, their temporary alliance went to pieces and fresh warfare ensued. A little later, when their arch-enemies, the Muslims in the North, the Moghal Emperors, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb, invaded them with their invincible armies, they could not help looking for support from the then growing Maratha chieftains and their sturdy followers in Maharashtra. Being most mercilessly hammered from the North by the powerful Moghal armies and being internally eaten away by the very Maratha Sirdars who were called for help, these Muslim powers in the South perished one after another! Shahaji, the Valiant! 918. The most prominent of all these Maratha Sirdars, and the one in whom always blazed the secret ambition to establish a Hindu power was Shahaji, the valiant of the Bhosale family. 919. It has been already stated that after the collapse of Vijaynagar, Tirumalrai and other Hindu princes fled to the South and established another independent Hindu principality at Penukonda in A.D. 1567. Shreerang, Tirumalrai’s son, removed his capital to Chandragiri after his father’s death. Other princes, too, founded their small States, but they were in fact, the fragments of the old Vijaynagar empire, now set adrift after the deluge of the different ‘Nayaks’ (Subhedars) of the Vijaynagar empire; a few now consolidated their power and ruled independently. Some called themselves ‘Palegars’ and founded the states of Jingi, Tanjawar and other ‘small Hindu states. So, even after the collapse of Vijaynagar, the whole region south of the capital right up to Rameshwaram was under the Hindu sway. Later still, with the nominal suzerainty of the Sultan of Vijapur, Shahaji, as a Vijapuri Sirdar, established his “ de facto’ overlordship in the south and brought them all under his unifying control. Shahaji exerted a great influence as an able political and military leader, because of his victories, right from Ahmednagar to Rameshwaram under every Muslim power, from the Moghals of Delhi to the moribund Sultanate of Vijapur. He was equally known everywhere as the staunch supporter of the Hindus! His

was the deciding vote in respect of the political manoeuvres in the south. A line from a contemporary poet, which became a common saying in those days, stated that the earth was ruled by the two guardians of directions'; उत शाहजहां इत शाहजी है। (Shahajahan in the North and Shahaji in the South) 920. For Shahaji, thus to conquer the remnants of the Vijaynagar Empire in the name of a Muslim, would at the first sight, seem highly preposterous and would even smell of high treason against the Hindu nation. But it should, at the same time, be remembered that it is because he brought all these scattered and vanquished Hindu states under his unified control, that he could overawe his very Sultan and rule the South like an independent Hindu King at Mysore. That he did this in order to root out all the Muslim Sultans from the Deccan and to found an all-embracing powerful Hindu Kingdom can amply be proved by the act that very soon, one of his sons could set up an independent, powerful and conquering Hindu Empire and that he could help him secretly in that great cause. That this ‘insignificant rebellious’ son of his could not have grown into a successful empire-builder without, not only the benevolent connivance of Shahaji, but also his active but secret assistance and guidance, requires no further elucidation. Although for reasons of chronological sequence, we may not name this illustrious son of Shahaji just yet, it must already have flashed like a lightning in the hearts of the readers! There can be no doubt about it! 921. In similar circumstances during the years A.D. 1316-1322, Khushrukhan commanded the Sultan’s whole army at Delhi as a Muslim, because the Hindu military help was readily available, and conquered and consolidated forcibly the Southern Hindu States, which never united of their own accord, as parts of the vast empire of a Muslim Sultan (Ch XVII). And, only after he succeeded in perfecting the plans for his coup d’etat, did he kill the Sultan of Delhi overnight, ascending the throne himself as a Hindu monarch. He merely brushed aside, as it were, the label ‘Muslim’ from the imperial throne and wrote in bold letters ‘Hindu’ over it. Within a day, the all-India Khilji empire became a Hindu empire! Again, a little later, when Harihar and Bukka were captured and made Muslims and were rotting in captvity at Delhi, they first employed the same Koutileeya code of ethics to win the confidence of the Sultan of Delhi under their Muslim garb. They invaded the rebellious Hindus of the South as Muslim commanders at the

head of a Muslim army and aided by Muslim wealth; but at the earliest opportunity, they joined the rebellious Hindus themselves, and being reconverted to Hinduism, founded a strong independent Hindu empire at Vijaynagar. The same Koutileeya strategy was used by Shahaji in conquering the Hindu States right up to Jingi and Tanjawar with the Vijapur army and at the Vijapuri expenditure, and bringing them under the nominal sovereignty of the Sultan of Vijapur. Immediately after the fall of the Vijaynagar empire, Shahaji was consolidating the Hindu might to overthrow the Muslim domination and to establish a sovereign Hindu government, which was going to be far mightier than any gone before it, and which was destined to bring the final victory for the Hindus. This was the momentous job of laying the foundation of the future Hindu victory that Shahaji was engaged in those perilous times! 922. Because of these heartening events, the indomitable Hindu national aspiration could easily survive the grievous fall of Vijaynagar, whereas the Muslims could not avail of it in the least, so as to shape the future in their favour! ❑

The end of the Sixteenth Century and After 923. After having so far reviewed Indian History from the standpoint of the Hindu nation, we shall now take up some connected events of the sixteenth century and thereafter. Swarm of European Pirates Invade India 924. The first of the European nations to invade India was Portugal. It was Vasco De Gama, the Portuguese navigator, who first rounded the Cape of Good Hope and discovered a straight sea-route to India. He was, however, guided by one of the captains of the Indian mercantile morine. who plied to and fro between the Indian and the African coasts. In A.D. 1498, he first landed in the port of Calikat on the Western coast of India, professing purely commercial interests, which subsequently served to be a very fine pretext for the other Portuguese and European nationals, who followed suit, to camouflage their secret territorial ambitions in India. Accordingly, immediately after two years in A.D. 1500, came Padro Alvaira’s Cabral, another Portuguese admiral with thirteen warships fitted with guns and weapons under his command. Seeing that the Muslim traders had already established themselves well in Cochin, he went there first to undermine their preponderance in inter-continental trade. Since the beginning, the Portuguese had cherished inveterate enmity towards the Muslims as a result of the horrible religio-political aggression of the latter on Spain and Portugal as has already been referred to in Paras 539 to 546. Later in A.D. 1509, Albuquerque was made the Governor of the Portuguese possessions in India. It was he who conquered Goa and the surrounding territory from the Muslim Sultans of Vijapur in A.D. 1510. It was he again who encouraged his Portuguese compatriots to marry, even with force and deceit, if necessary, Hindu girls in order to ensure the permanent Portuguese settlements in India. About this time, the Portuguese priesthood claimed that it was their supreme religious duty to proselytize the Hindus even with force and made their king issue a royal order to that effect. It is under this royal sanction that the Portuguese in Goa perpetrated the indescribable atrocities, rapes and various other outrages on the Hindus—men and women—there as are mentioned in Paras 539 to 546 of this book.

925. The patron-saint directing these blood-curdling Portuguese religious formalities was the Jesuit missionary, Saint Francis Xavier, whom the persecuted Hindus called Satan incarnate! He came to India in 1540. 925.A. This so-called ‘Saint’ Xavier himself proudly states in one of his letters his triumphant success in the devilish persecution of the Hindus (see Paragraphs 539 to 546). He himself and hundreds of other missionaries, who came after him, converted innumerable Hindus to Christianity with all sorts of brutalities and vandalism. Countless Hindu men and women committed suicide to escape this violent persecution. The Portuguese gradually conquered Div, Daman, Sashti, Vasai (Bassein), Choul, Mumbai (Bombay) on the Western coast of India and Saint Tome near Madras, and Hugh in Bengal, of which Mumbai (Bombay) was presented to the English King as a dowry in 1668 (1661-2?) by the Portuguese King Charles II. It was subsequently made over the King Charles II of England to East India Company for a nominal rent of 4-10 a year. The rest of the region round about Bombay in the Portuguese possession was released by the Marathas. Goa was the only major possession left in the Portuguese hands.
926. The Dutch: Quick on the heels of the Portuguese, the Dutch of Holland entered India. The Dutch East india Company was formed in A.D. 1602 for the purpose, but they could not find a firm footing in India. Jawa and Sumatra, however, proved congenial to them. Hence, they directed all their attention to that region and made it their stronghold. When the English began to dabble there, the Dutch cut them all but one at Amboina, and ruled practically the whole of the Indonesian archipelago unhampered.
927. The English: Although the English East India Company was formed in A.D. 1600, it could not open its first factory in India till A.D. 1608. Jahangir gave them permission to open one at Surat in A.D. 1613. After a while in 1689, the monopoly of the British East India Company was cancelled because of many malpractices and rivalries in the Company’s servants and another company was formulated to carry on Indian Trade. But when it was seen that such competition was detrimental to the interests of the British Nation as a whole, the two companies were amalgamated.
928. As the British East India Company was later on to enlarge the scope of her activities to such an enormous extent as to encompass a foreign stupendous Indian empire, it is out of place and even impossible to discuss its extensive history in these introductory remarks. Moreover, as the English were to meet the Marathas on the battlefields amidst the clash of arms, the