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

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

boom of cannons and the swaggering wagers with empires as the tempting stakes, we would rather discuss it a little later so far as it will be possible to do so. 929. The French: Of the European nations that followed suit after the Portuguese and tried their hand at the eastern trade and the overseas empires, the French, were the last to appear on the scene. For the French East India Company was floated as late as A.D. 1664. But they prospered quickly in their commercial activities. Why, if credit is to be given to any European, who thought for the first time of acquiring not only small scattered footholds but large empires in India and who tried to realize these ambitious schemes of his by large-scale military intervention in Indian politics, it was French Governor Dupleix. The next claimant to that honour is that vagabond and tempestuous English youth, Robert Clive, who entered India as a common soldier, but who soon came to command large armies and to lay the foundations of the vast British Empire in India. The basic idea underlying the schemes of these two far-sighted young men was that with proper training, great drilled and well-disciplined armies could be formed here in India out of the very Indian soldiers within a very short time, and that, with competent, efficient and uncorruptible European military officers and commanders at the head of this very Indian army, they could easily build up their strong Empires in India. It will be discussed in its proper place, how great was the harvest that these daring schemes reaped in the years to come. 930. It is, however, proper to discuss the French affairs in India to a certain extent. For, although for a time, the French and the English fought amongst themselves on the Indian soil and although they took opposite sides in the internecine civil wars of the Indian Kings and Princes, in the end the French were on losing grounds. Again their defeat at the hands of the English in the European theatres of war rendered the French authorities in India thoroughly incapable of defending their positions against the ever increasing severity of the English attacks. The leaders like Dupleix, Busie, Suffren and others, who worked hard and spent the best of their energies for the expansion of the French empire in India, were very shabbily treated at home by the French people and the French Govenment. Nobody appreciated their best efforts at the proper times nor gave them any support. Again, this Indian army of the French fought against the Marathas, on a few occasions, only to receive stunning blows and as such when it was clear that

the chances of the French empire in India were almost nil, they began to help the Indian princes and especially the Marathas, particularly in respect of the training of the army and the use of the new guns. The English were very reluctant to help any native ruler create a disciplined army or to sell them newer weapons like the guns and cannons. But the French were only too willing to do that in exchange for large sums of money or substantial grants of land, and especially so, if that purchasing authority was engaged in a struggle with the English. The Marathas, in particular, realized the inevitable greatness of the European type of training of troops and the production of the efficient new weapons of war like the various types of small and big firearms. Hence, they employed veteran French military officers and their satellites in their armies. Ibrahim Khan Gardi, the famous artillery commander in the Maratha army at the battles of Udgeer and Panipat, had received his training in that field in the French artillery divisions. Later on, Mahadaji Shinde (Scindia) employed French officers like De Boyne and M.Perron as the chief commanders of their artillery and other divisions and formed a well-equipped, well-trained, mechanized army of his own. With this well-trained strong army, Mahadaji could overawe the whole of the antagonistic north and vanquish the enemies in various military engagements. But after a while, the European nations working in India had come to a certain unwritten understanding, at least as regards India, that in the event of any Indian ruler fighting against any of the European nationals, no European army leader should take sides with the Indian and help him with his army. As such, later on when Shinde (Scindia) was engaged in a deadly struggle with the English, De Boyne, who had been receiving thousands of rupees by way of salary, and the army trained by him flatly refused to fight. The Marathas, too, were conscious of such a treacherous behaviour on the part of these salaried foreigners some time or the other. Hence, the Marathas, on their part, had begun to open factories to manufacture similar guns and to prepare Indian officers to train and drill the army on European lines. But in those stormy days of incessant warfare, it would have been unwise to depend solely on nothing but such trained army divisions. Even second rate states like the Jats and the Sikhs maintained such battalions. On the whole, the existence of the French military might in India, helped here and there check the onward march of the British imperialistic power, and the Marathas, Tipu, the Sikhs and other Indian rulers did not fail to utilize it to that extent.

The Simultaneous Attack of all the non-Hindu Nations of the World on the Deccan (South India) 931. When the European powers, mentioned above, invaded India, they all did so by the sea. Naturally, their first tremendous onslaughts had to be borne and resisted by the Deccan and especially by the Marathas. Earlier, North India had to bear for six or seven centuries, the whole brunt of the fierce and marauding attacks of the fanatical Muslims like the Moghals, the Turks, the Afghans, the Arabs and others, and had to offer them the sternest possible resistance. Eventually, all these Asiatic Muslim nationals and the barbaric tribes fell violently upon the South with a view to conquering it for ever. Even while all these enemies were repeatedly invading from the North and the Deccan was engaged with them in bloody and deadly wars, in which thousands of Hindus were offering their precious lives for the sake of defending their religion, as they did in the North, the South Indian people were invaded, by the sea, by the new European Christian nationals, as numerous as the locusts themselves. The enemies crowded in upon the Deccan not only from the north-west or the north-east but also from the west. Not only by land but by sea also, did all the combative, marauding, aggressive and fanatic Muslims and Christian nations had simultaneously attacked the Deccan at the time, to overrun the Hindu states there and to eradicate Hindu religion from the land. 932. North India had to face only the Muslim nations, which itself was not an easy job. The deadly war that the Hindus had been fighting with the Muslims for centuries was as fierce and beset with all sorts of dangers as to exhaust even the Gods who had fought against the demons! But the Deccan had the misfortune of facing not only all those Muslims but also the European Christian nations like the Portuguese and others, who were even greater enemies of Hinduism than the Muslims, and who tried every form of cruelty to proselytize the Hindus. And the South Indian Hindus—and especially the Marathas, who had assumed their leadership in this war— showed the rarest tenacity and irresistible daring to repel single-handed, these waves of aggression rising all round them. While thousands of Hindus had been sacrificing their lives along with those of their wives and children on the religious front against the Muslims and the Portuguese Christians, as many others were fighting battles after battles and wars after wars on the political and military fronts. This exceptional struggle of the Hindus against foreign aggressors is worth a glorious mention in the history of the world.

Hindu Vikramaditya, Hemoo 933. The many Rajput and Muslim states, which had collected together under the leadership of Rana Sang, and who had aspired to re-establish the Hindu empire had joined battle with Babar at Kanvah. But after fierce fighting, Rana Sang was finally defeated and Babar laid the foundation of the Moghal empire at Delhi. Soon in 1530, Babar died and was succeeded by his son, Humayun, who in his turn was overcome by Sher Shah, the founder of the Sur dynasty. As Sher Shah Sur captured Delhi, Humayun had to wander in exile through various countries such as Kabul, Kandahar, Persia and others, of which we need not give any detailed account. It is enough to say that even in the royal dynasty of Sultan Sher Shah, the upheavals, usual and inevitable in every Muslim regime, took place and after violent rebellions and bloodshed, Mohammed Adilshah was at last installed as the Emperor. 934. This Mohammed Adilshah had enturested his administration to an able Hindu Vazir named Hemoo. Hemoo, too, without ever endangering his Hindu religion in the least, appropriated the de facto power of the Sultan to himself and ruled his dominions efficiently. 935. But this roused the jealousy and anger of other Muslim sirdars. In the meanwhile in 1542, while he was yet in exile, Humayun had a son, named Akbar, who was later on destined to be a great emperor. With the help of the Shah of Iran (Persia), Humayun invaded India and burning the eyes of his faithless brother, and inflicting exemplary punishments on other enemies, he reconquered Delhi. But soon after his regaining the throne of Delhi, he slipped over the marble staircase of his palace and died in 1556, giving rise to anarchy everywhere. The last emperor of the Sur dynasty, Mohammed Shah Adil, who was defeated by Humayun, had fled to the north-west frontier. But his able minister, Hemoo, however, lingered on in Delhi itself, trying to avail himself of that opportunity. 936. A very scanty reference has been made in the Muslim historical writings about the past or future life of Hemoo, the valiant Hindu leader. A Hindu historian was an impossibility at that time and whoever tried his hand later on at writing history has not said anything independently about Hemoo. But we have already shown in Chapter Seventeen about Hindu Emperor Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din), that his actual heroic deed is far more important and reliable a proof than any written record. Similarly, we

shall try to give here the account of the Hindu Hero, Hemoo, as far as we can do so with the same unassailable logic. 937. It is to be noted that even while he aspired to form a Hindu Empire, he received help from many Afghan sirdars, who had fallen foul of the Moghal Muslims and especially of the Babar faction. 938. It is obvious that the life and career of the earlier Hindu Emperor, Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din), must have served as an ideal to be followed before Hemoo as regards the original inspiration to found a Hindu empire and the formation of a detailed scheme of his war of independence was concerned. An undying fire of freedom which sought to overthrow the Muslim rule and found a Hindu Empire in its stead had once inspired Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din) to bring about a glorious yet unsuccessful military coup, spurred Rana Sang and other Rajput warriors to cross swords, although not successfully, with Babar at Kanvah and at hundreds of places earlier and later, had stimulated millions of Hindu men and women to undergo all extremities of fortunes, to fight horrible battles or to immolate their lives to save their religion. The same blazing fire of freedom glowed clear and bright in the Hindu heart of Hemoo, the ambitious Hindu leader. 938A. As has been said above, he secretly prepared for a decisive battle, organized the Muslim dissentients against the Moghals and the Hindu army marched against Delhi. All the Hindu-Muslim officers at Delhi had served under him when he was the Chief Minister (Vazir). There, other politicians and the Hindus in general, offered him no opposition worth the name, surrendering to his once dreaded influence as a Vazir. His conquest of Delhi, the chief capital of Moghal empire, caused a great commotion everywhere. 939. Hemoo was born a staunch Hindu. During the Sultan’s regime, he rose to political eminence by sheer dint of his merit without the slightest slur on his Hindu individuality. In the end, assuming responsibility as the weak Sultan’s Vazir, he began to control the whole imperial administration and consolidate power into his own hands. And now he had openly hoisted the standard of Hinduism, boosted up a Hindu imperial power trampling down the whole of the Muslim Sultanate! Quite naturally, the whole of the Muslim world was rocked to the bottom with the cry that Islam was doomed and that kafirs flourished!

940. Immediately after capturing Delhi, he publicly ascended the imperial throne as a Hindu emperor with all the adequate pomp and glory and assumed the title of Vikramaditya for himself. Then after stabilizing and introducing efficient management of the affairs of his state, he started new conquests. Formerly as the Sultan’s Vazir, he had won fifteen to sixteen battles, crushing down the revolts of the Muslim and other chieftains. As such, he had a great self-confidence in his abilities, as regards the efficient conduct of war was concerned. At the first stroke, he stormed and seized the second great Moghal fort of Agra, which was considered to be impregnable and the city around it.
941. At this time, the future emperor Akbar was a mere lad of thirteen or fourteen years. His Vazir, Bahiramkhan, was his guardian and the de facto head of his administration. On hearing the news of Hemoo, he at once resolved to crush down this bold rising of the Hindus. But right from Rajputana to the Deccan, numerous Hindu-Muslim states, both big and small, had risen in revolt against this newly-formed Moghal empire. Hence, the other Muslim sirdars advised Bahiramkhan to put these down first and to keep young Akbar at Kabul in safety. But the discreet Bahiramkhan firmly asserted that Hemoo’s rising in the name of a Hindu empire had to be put down firmly. Accordingly, Bahiramkhan marched on Hemoo at the head of a powerful army, and instead of sending young Akbar to Kabul, he took him along to the battlefield. The armies of Bahiramkhan and Hemoo met near Panipat. Vikramaditya Hemoo’s warriors fought with exceptional bravery and skill. It seemed for a time that Hemoo had won the battle, but as ill-luck would have it, in the very hour of glory, Vikramaditya Hemoo was struck in the eye by a stray arrow from the army of Bahiramkhan and he fell from his elephant unconscious! This created a havoc in the Hindu ranks of Hemoo, while the Muslim soldiers in Bahiramkhan’s army, being quite mercenary were in a way let loose. With a determined attack, Bahiramkhan made this confusion worse confounded and vanquishing the leaderless Hindu army, captured Hemoo alive. Taking him to young emperor Akbar, Bahiramhan requested the latter to behead Hemoo with his own royal hands. But young Akbar could not bring himself up to do such a cruel deed. So the enraged Bahiramkhan himself unsheathed his sword and cut off Hemoo’s head.
942. This martyrdom that Vikramaditya Hemoo courted was as obviously (manifestly) done in the cause of Hindu religion, and the greater glory of the