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

993. Is it not testimony enough that the very first quatrain by the very first poet should be born of a highly exciting sentiment, which could never be conveyed in simple words?
994. Precaution, however, must be taken that the poetic description of such exceptional yet exciting events should not pervert the original facts. A well-authenticated history should express itself through all this emotional display.
995. The period of Indian history, which we are now going to discuss in this book is from the point of view of the Hindu Nation so glorious, so thrilling, and so full of daring events that the poetic style of writing alone can describe it adequately and in a living manner.
996. In the twentieth chapter of this book, the Hindu-Muslim war, which had been going on for six centuries, had entered the seventh. But even when such a long time of bitter warfare had elapsed and even when the Hindu Nation had been sorely plagued and profusely bled by the ferocious religio- political aggressions of all the Asian Muslims—the Arabs, the Afghans, the Pathans, the Turks, the Moghals—yet even by the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Hindu Nation had, neither in the north nor in the south, been completely vanquished! Nay, it was still fighting on bravely on the battlefield itself, although sorely smarting under the countless wounds it had so far received. On the contrary, the aggressive might of all the Asian Muslims had been steadily but surely getting weaker and weaker after their incessant warfare with the Hindus right from the beginning of the eighth century to the death of Akbar. We have already shown, in Paragraphs 818 to 857 of this book in the chapter named ‘The Beginning of the Fall of the Muslim Power’, how that ‘beginning’ was made from the 14th century and how the ground was being prepared for the establishment of the victorious Hindu Kingdoms, like that of Vijaynagar.
997. The same resurgent spirit of the Hindus grew steadily every day and ultimately by the time which the course of our story has now reached, the presiding deity of the Hindu Nation seems to have felt the dire necessity to use the histro-mythological phraseology, of bringing forth an extraordinarily, illustrious Hindu family which could ultimately lead the ever-growing Hindu might throughout the whole of India. In the old times when that deity felt a similar need of extirpating the Saka-Hun and other Mlenchhas, she performed, according to Chand Bhat in his epic ‘The Story of Agnikula’, a great sacrifice on Mount Abu and brought forth four Indian

Hindu heroes. But unfortunately, it was not sufficient to bring forth four such valiant heroes to meet the exigency of the times of which we are telling here, to extirpate the Muslim political power throughout India. A whole generation of such divinely blessed heroes was needed for such a stupendous task! As such, to use again the metaphorical style of Chand Bhat, the presiding deity of the Hindu nation glanced all over India. That enraged deity sprinkled her holy water on the heights of Sahyadri thinking, perhaps, that region alone was the fittest one for the final overthrow of the Muslim power after a millennial war with it. How could a small sacrificial pit at Abu be equal to that stupendous task! And all of a sudden, the whole of the Sahyadri mountain was aglow with the fire of war and resonant with the beat of the drum. And there arose a whole class, a whole generation of brave warriors. Each one lighted his individual torch on the general conflagration and traversed the whole of India with the war cry, ‘Har, Har Mahadev’ on his lips to wipe out the Muslim political menace. The name of this national race? It is— ‘MAHARASHTRA BORN OF THE TIMES OF SHIVAJI’ Hindu Maharashtra alone fought with the whole Muslim World 998. At this time in the millennial Hindu-Muslim epic war, such a great catastrophe befell the whole of India—and especially Maharashtra—as had menaced perhaps a very few nations of the world. To add to the Muslim maelstorm, from the north European nations like the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French and the English dashed on India—and especially the Deccan, with an avalanchine force, and it was practically the lot of the Maharashtra, born out of the times of Shivaji, to face all alone all these terrific aggressions. Stranger than this is the fact that this Maharashtra, born as it was from the sacrificial fire of dire calamities, faced them all successfully and was a match for all the enemies! The Muslim imperial throne of Delhi was hacked to pieces by the Marathas and the Muslim power was finally rooted out throughout the whole of India. 999. The legend of this exceptional glory and valour of Maharashtra has now been generally known in its true perspective and form, to the common people in Maharashtra at least. The credit of making it widely known in its grand and spectacular aspect, in its all-India context, must necessarily go to the great research-scholars and writers of history like Rajwade, Ranade, Khare, Itihasacharya Sardesai and others. But with the exception of Ranade, others have written their books in Marathi. Histories of the Marathas

written in languages other than Marathi have been mostly written by our age-old enemies like the Muslims, the Portuguese, the English and others with horrid perversion of facts, and unfortunately, our Hindu writers from the other Indian States have echoed them mostly through ignorance. 1000. Hence I, at least, felt, right from my student days, that this post- Shivaji history of Maharashtra should be written in English, based on the research-work done in this field till today; so that non-Maharashtrians and other foreigners might know! But, as I had selected warfare with the then enemy of our nation rather than that of the past, as the field of my action, I was more and more involved in the revolutionary activities against the British. Hence, till the time I was released from the Andamans, I had no time to write about the past history of Maharashtra. Again I thought people like Sardesai who had devoted themselves to the writing of history should better undertake that job and it was, I thought, proper from the point of view of division of labour. So off and on, I tried in that direction. Sardesai Himself sees me 1001. By the way, it would, I think, be proper to relate just here a small incident that bears on this topic. I had an earnest desire to see the late Shree Sardesai from my very young days. For, his books on Indian history, we had been reading constantly. But we were all revolutionaries, while he was a high placed servant of a king—although that king happened to be the ruler of a feudatory state like Baroda—subordinate to the British government! Again, he was older; I was younger! Later on, I was transported to the Andamans and was eventually released from there in 1924. I learn from other people that Sardesai praised my revolutionary activities as brave deeds. So up to the time I was at Ratnagiri, I sincerely felt that Sardesai should write a History of the Marathas in English. As such, I sent oral messages to him to that effect, because every letter of mine was a burning spark of fire, which was most likely to reduce to ashes the whole house of a government officer like him. Such things often happened in our revolutionary life. So I kept quiet. And one fine morning, an old gentleman appeared at my doorstep, my rented tenement in the house of Shree Nana Patwardhan at Ratnagiri. I got up in deference to his grey hair and asked, ‘Whom have I the pleasure to receive?’ ‘I am Sardesai from Baroda’, came the answer, ‘whom you know as the writer of Indian history’. I was surprised. ‘What? Riyasat-Kar Sardesai?’ When he nodded his head in assent, I told him how I had cherished high respect for him ever since I had

read his big volumes on Muslim Riyasat. I told him that I had read all of his books. But having had a chance of mixing with non-Marathi scholars, I could authoritatively say that they had no knowledge of the greatness of nor even a nodding acquaintance with, the essence of Maratha history: that many of them bore a sort of grudge towards the Marathas. So I requested him to undertake the writing of an authentic, handy history based on solid facts so that non-Marathi world might know it in its true form and perspective; upon which he said that some one else should do it now. So I said, ‘No, at least today, you are the only authoritative writer who can possibly do it. Although your old age may present difficulties, you should undertake it as the crowning glory of your life work. Possibly it will be completed! You seem to have been blessed with a long life. At least, you should begin at once to write such a history in English.’ Then after some casual talk while seeing him off, I expressed my gratitude at the visit of such a great historian at my residence. Before even my sentence was completed he said ‘No, No, the real pleasure is mine! We are all the writers of history; but you are the makers of history! When you make history, we note it down and I came here with a sincere desire to see you as the maker of history! And then we took leave of each other with thankful hearts. 1002. And I think it would be proper to set down just here that some fifteen years or so after this visit of ours, he wrote as the ripe fruit of his life, a detailed history of the Marathas in English in three volumes. 1003. As soon as I came to Ratnagiri, after being released from the Andamans, I was forbidden to take any active part in politics and because of the ban on the change of district, I was forced to set limits to my movements. So in this restricted life of mine at Ratnagiri, I decided that I myself should write a discursive book although without any help from reference books that would interpret and explain the unrivalled valour of the post-Shivaji Maharashtra and the freedom of the Hindu nation that it effected by destroying the Muslim domination. Why, before the end of February 1925, I completed the writing of that book. Hindu Padpadshahi 1004. The very name of that book I chose as ‘Hindu Padpadshahi’ rather than merely the history of the Marathas. For, in my opinion, the Marathas in general did not fight only for Maharashtra, nor for their household land or their fields. Their sole objective was to liberate Hindu religion and Hindu Nation—of which Maharashtra was known to them to be only a part—from

the yoke of Muslim domination and to establish all over India, a sovereign Hindu power. The inner urge of the new resurgent Maharashtra was to dethrone the Muslim imperial power at Delhi, and to hoist in its place the Hindu imperial standard. The anguish that rankled in the hearts of the Hindus and that found expression in Shree Ramdas’s famous couplet— 1005-6.या सकल भूमंडला ठायी। हिन्दू ऐसा उरला नाही। (‘Nowhere on the face of this whole earth is there left any Hindu’) was mainly responsible for all the future glory of the Marathas! The heartache of the Hindus as expressed by Shree Ramdas. 1007-8. प्रस्तुत यवनां चे बंड। हिन्दू उरला नाहीं चंड। बहुत दिसां चे मुंड। शास्ता न मिले तयासि। (At present, the revolt of the Muslims has come to stay, and no daring Hindu has been left; no one is able to curb and subdue this long standing evil) set aglow the whole of Maharashtra. The Maharashtrian movements in that century spread far and wide throughout India, the invasions and campaigns, the battles and pursuits and retreats, consistent or inconsistent historical events, which so far baffled the greatest of historians, can well be explained by the magic words ‘Hindu Nation’ and ‘Hindu Imperial Power’. Hence, it is, that I named that book as, ‘Hindu Padpadshahi’, the name which stamped its own seal on the history of the millennial Hindu-Muslim war, by gaining ultimate victory over it. 1009. Even in this book of mine, the history of the Marathas has not been given in all its details, because historians have already done that work most painstakingly and on a larger scale. Jadunath Sarkar, who wrote in English, and Riyasatkar Sardesai, who wrote in Marathi, had already written books collocating all the available research-work most laboriously done by several research scholars and assimilating and interpreting it in the best way they could. It is, therefore, to avoid needless repetition that I did not attempt to write a detailed history of the Marathas. Moreover, sitting as I was in the small room, made available to me for my residence in a small village of Shirgaon near Ratnagiri, by my friend Shree Vishnupant Damale, even in those days of local detention imposed on me

by the British Government, I could not think of writing such a big volume without the aid of reference books! The Hindu Nation 1010. Just as a man lost in a dense forest on a dark night can see everything in its true perspective, in its form and colour, as soon as he throws around him a flashlight from the electric torch in his travelling kit, and in that enlightened state of his mind can very easily find his way out, similarly very early in my college days, when I threw the electric searchlight of the Hindu national point of view on the then extensive but chaotic mass of details about the history of the Marathas, my mind, too, became suddenly enlightened. Viewed in that brilliant light of the national Hindu outlook, that whole incoherent, loose and chaotic mass of historical details regarding the Marathas' enterprise appeared to me absolutely consistent and well-defined. Then alone was it that its essential greatness and unique character became apparent to me. The import and essence of Maratha history is most certainly not as it appeared to most of the historians, including Jadunath Sarkar, who read it simply as the history of the Marathas and found it self-centred, self-seeking, marauding, bellicose and mediocre. On the contrary, I could well see in it the grand manifestations of a Maharashtra (a great nation), which had singly accepted with a grave determination, the onerous responsibility of meeting and beating down the challenge for the supremacy over our country, thrown by all the foreign powers in the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa—i.e. the whole of the then known world—by the non-Hindu aggressors who had attacked our great Hindu Nation. Especially, when even after continuously fighting, although not unitedly, severally, yet grimly enough, with these aggressors, for over ten centuries, no other Hindu state nor any other Hindu community seemed to win that epic war, annihilating the enemy completely, it is significant that Maharashtra should do it. The Hindu War of Independence 1011. It is, therefore, as a sacred national duty, that I earnestly request every loyal Hindu, setting aside all false humility to read the above- mentioned book of mine, viz. 'Hindu Padpadshahi', which surveys the Hindu War of Independence, carried on by the Marathas from the seventeenth century, from the Hindu national standpoint. For looking at it, as impersonally as it is possible to do so, this one of all the extant books on

the history of this period, appears even to me as the most stimulating, most searching and teeming with the national spirit imbued with Hindutwa. Ranade forever closed the mouths of the foreign as well as our own historians, which derided the Maratha history of the times of Chhatrapati Rajaram as the anarchy of the rabble, and called it the Maratha War of Independence. 1012. But the all-India war, which the Maratha fought for nearly a century subsequent to the times of Rajaram, was not merely a Maratha War of Independence, it was an all-India war of Hindu Independence. My book ‘Hindu Padpadshahi’, is really the golden temple of the survey and appraisal of that great war—an enthralling piece of sculpture in colour and solidity, of the Goddess of that great war, like any in the Caves of Ajantha. 1013. And still every paragraph in that book is based on solid evidence not because extracts from the writings of other renowned historians of acknowledged authority have been freely used therein, but because the very sentences uttered by the heroes who actually fought on the various battlefields and by those who actually played the political and diplomatic game are cited. Extracts from the letters fresh from their hands, written just after the events have been profusely used. As such, the book is as authoritative, as it is interesting to read. The genius of the historians, Rajwade, does not seem to have altogether missed this all-India character of this Maratha history. But in his writings, it did not receive the all-round treatment it deserved. Perhaps his writing itself was so extensive and varied as to preclude even the vast intellectual capacities of the man from grasping its full significance and import. His incidental and desultory discourses on the subject appear, by the very nature of their topics, incomplete and inconsistent. About the English, the Muslim and other historians, we had better not say anything. Under such circumstances, therefore, my book Hindu Padpadshahi estimating this great Hindu-Muslim War through the Hindu national angle of vision is the only one of its kind. That is why I recommend it whole-heartedly to every Hindu nationalist. 1014. That is why, again and because of my failing health, I do not propose to go in for that review of the war in these pages. The curious readers might advisedly read it from those pages. It is only necessary here in these pages of the ‘Six Glorious Epochs of Hindu Victories over the Aggressors’ to display the golden chain of events that led ultimately to the

pinnacle of glory that the Hindus obtained by finally subduing the Muslim power at the close of this millennial Hindu-Muslim war of epic dimensions. A Chain of rare and remarkable events 1015. The first of such rare and remarkable events, which at the outset appears trivial but, viewed now from the telescope of historical studies, assumes exceptional importance and which follows immediately after the account of this Hindu-Muslim war given in this book up to Ch. 20 is The Birth of Shivaji either in 1627 or 1630 A.D. 1016. Shivaji’s father, Shahaji, was reckoned among the petty Maratha chieftains and noblemen, who took active part in the political movements of the time. But all of them had to owe allegiance to some one of the five Muslim Sultans that they might enjoy their own knighthood or ‘Jagirdari’. Not a single Hindu independent State—not even the smallest that can be thought of—had remained throughout the whole of Maharashtra. But the son born to the above-mentioned Shahaji Raje, was, however, destined by Providence to lead the Hindu War of Liberation and to be honoured with the auspicious red mark, applied to his head, of the gushing blood of the mortally wounded Muslim power, heralding the advent of Hindu independence! A wonderful coincidence 1017. Whether because of good fortune or because it was the will of God, whether again owing to mere accidental coincidence or as the extraordinary harvest reaped from the well-coordinated sowing of the seeds of gigantic efforts—call it what you will—but ever since the birth of Shivaji from the womb of his mother Jijabai, there was a strange turn given to the technique of the national front in this Hindu-Muslim War. 1018. Generally speaking, right from the beginning of the eighth century to that of the seventeenth, wherever the mighty armies of the Muslims and the Hindus fought, wherever the Hindus and the Muslims were engaged in decisive battles affecting the destinies of the states and the Hindu Nation as a whole, it was the Hindu who usually, barring honourable exceptions, suffered crushing defeats with heavy losses in men and material, sometimes because some leader sat in ‘Hawda’ on the elephant, while at others one sat in palanquin—sometimes because there was treachery in the Hindu ranks, at others again when victory was almost in Hindu hands—mere chance coincidence deflected it towards the Muslims. This cruel verdict of the Goddess of War was, as it were, predetermined. The resistance offered by

the brave Daheer, the one offered by the valiant Jayapal or his son Anangpal or the last battle given by Veer Prithviraj or again the one fought by Maharana Sanga, in every decisive action fought throughout, through all these centuries up to that fought in 1565 A.D. at Talikot by the dauntless Ramraja of Vijaynagar the scales of war turned always against the Hindus —the Hindus alone were unmistakably defeated! But since the beginning of the 17th Century 1019. That means from the birth of Shivaji, so to say, the same cruel Goddess of War began to show a highly astonishing difference in her verdict regarding the same Hindu-Muslim struggle. And it was this! Just as formerly, it seemed almost predetermined that the Hindus were bound to be defeated in every Hindu-Muslim struggle, similarly now onwards, wherever the Hindu-Muslim armies met, the Hindu victory was almost assured and the Muslim defeat a foregone conclusion! From this seventeenth century onwards, wherever they met the Muslims in a state of war, the Hindus invariably vanquished them! Whether they were the decisive battles shaking the very foundations of states or nations or whether they were only fleeting skirmishes, the victory for the Hindus and the rout of the Muslims was the result! Every Hindu young man should necessarily read the long list of Hindu victories from the same book of mine viz: Hindu Padpadshahi, the victories which swell our hearts with pride, the victories again that were won not only on land from Punjab to Kanyakumari in the south seas but in hundreds of naval engagements from the Western (the so-called Arabian sea!) to the Eastern (the Bay of Bengal) seas! The guiding principle of the new Maratha strategy—Aggression—not merely defence 1020. The most important reason why since the time the Marathas assumed the military leadership of the Hindu nation, the Hindus alone went on winning victories, as has been already shown above, all over the vast subcontinent of India whenever they joined battle with the Muslims, was that these Marathas with their daring valour, had at once purged the Hindu mind of that pernicious epidemic of the perverted sense of virtues, which had afflicted and paralysed most of the Hindu society all over India and which had given birth to the false notion of chivalry, deeming it highly despicable from the ethical point of view, a veritable sin, as it were to lead a military attack—even against the direst enemy.

1021. In fact, the creed of every national army is to march upon the enemy even before the latter attacks—to lead a blatant aggression, not merely to stage defensive formations! The first successful attempt to inspire this aggressive mentality amongst the Hindus was made at the time of the establishment of the Vijaynagar empire against the Muslims, even before the Marathas took the lead. But it was restricted to the south alone and the terrible defeat at Talikota deterred the Hindu mind from invading the Muslims. It was then that the Marathas inspired the Hindus with a new war- like spirit by successful inroads upon the Muslims.
1022. To invade the enemy territory is the chief aim or the chief duty of a national military strength. The nation that maintains armed forces just strong enough for the purposes of defence—and does not build it up so as to be capable to undertake an invasion and considers it improper to do so—-is either basically coward at heart or is labouring under a delusion. Perhaps it is to camouflage that inward cowardice that such high sounding declarations are made. A nation, whose armed might is evidently built up on the basis of its aggressive capacity, is certainly capable of self-defence.
1023. Again, the Hindu aggression against the violent and unjust political domination of the Muslim rulers was basically not an aggression at all. The really unjust aggression was that of the Muslims who had invaded the territories of the Hindus. The aggressive risings of the Hindus against the outrageous Muslim rule can never be called revolts or rebellions. For, the aggression of the Muslim rulers against the independent and rightfully established Hindu states was itself mutinous and revolting. The rising of a robber against the rightful owner can be called mutinous, not the taking up of arms by the rightful owner to chastise the rebellious freebooters! It is, therefore, to inspire with indomitable courage the majority of the Hindu society all over India, which had taken fright of these Muslim freebooters that Shree Ramadas raised his war-cry from every peak of the Sahyadri. ‘प्रस्तुत यवनांचे बंड’ “It is the Muslim-insurrection!” “The insurgents are the Muslims and not the Hindus! In order to punish them severely invade them from all sides all at once!”
1024. ‘धर्मासाठी मरावें। मरोनि अवघ्यांसि मारावें। मारितां मारितां घ्यावें। राज्य आपुले।’

(One should court death for the sake of religion (But) while dying, one should kill (the enemies) and by thus killing them, one should win back one’s kingdom.) 1025. The most important weapon of this aggressive war policy of the Marathas was at least, till that time a new one to the Hindus. It was not used so far by any before them. That weapon is Guerrilla Warfare 1026. This type of war is called in Sanskrit’ Vrikayuddha’ (वृकयुद्ध). This Vrikayuddha (वृकयुद्ध) of the Marathas humbled the vast armies of the Muslims. According to the peculiar mode of this guerrilla warfare, the Marathas never faced the highly well-equipped fourfold armies of the enemy. Whenever the Maratha force were small in number, they attacked the enemy from the right or the left flanks or from behind. 1027. Yet, it should be borne in mind that while thus harassing and cutting off the huge armies of the Moghals with their meagre numbers and inadequate arms, they never hesitated to offer pitched battles standing face- to-face at the most unexpected moments, if they found that their own military strength had grown sufficiently strong to do this. As even when the Maratha forces went on increasing in number and quality, and their responsibility about the various states, smaller or greater in size, about the forts and territories that fell in their hands, began to assume enormous dimensions, they did not lie idly in their different capitals, guarding their own positions. Everyone of them had always a keen eye on the neighbouring or the distant Moghal territories and pushed on into those territories as soon as the monsoons were over, even before the enemy had time to come aggressively against the smaller Maratha feudal lords and Jagirdars or their forts. The Maratha forces attacked even the Muslim Nawabs and Nizams, who never gave them offence under some pretext or another. Moreover, they were hardly to be found in their usually known capitals, great or small, or in their forts or caves known to be their usual resorts. On the contrary, they seemed to carry their so-called capitals on horse-back while they started on their campaigns against the Muslims. The de facto address of the various Maratha warlords and their brave followers was not their homes or fortresses; it was invariably their ever shifting camps or bivouacs in the Moghal territories.

1028. Even a solitary instance in the times of Rajaram, regarding Aurangzeb, may be suffcient to show clearly what great havoc was caused amongst the vast and unwieldy Muslim armies, harassed, hacked and hewed by these Maratha guerrillas! The huge armies of Aurangzeb pursued the Maratha force right up to Jinji (or Zinji) in the South, reducing their territories as they went. But? - the moment they turned their back, they saw that smaller bands of the Maratha irregulars had already crossed the Narmada and after having entered Gujarath, they had frightened the Subhedar of that province out of his wits. Farther off, the Marathas were often reported to have attacked the central provinces to the utter dismay of the already confused Moghal Emperor. In the end, giving up Maharashtra as precipitately as they would have dropped a glowing cinder from their hands, those huge Moghal hosts hacked, harassed and harried by the indomitable Maratha warriors retreate, crestfallen, back to Delhi.
1029. It is not correct to assume that the Marathas had resorted to this aggressive war policy only so long as their martial power and their administrative machinery had not had a sound footing or had not grown sufficiently strong. On the other hand, they renewed their aggressive incursions into the remaining Muslim territories under the command of the invincible veteran war leaders, like Bajirao I, with greater rigour and zest, when every one of the several Sardars and Chieftains had tens and scores and thousands of soldiers under them, fighting, conquering and establishing Maratha rule right from Jinji to Gujarat and even Malwa and Central India! If at all, they were to establish Hindu-Padpadshahi throughout the whole of India, the defensive war policy of preserving whatever they had, would have been of little use. They had necessarily to adopt the bolder policy of making new acquisitions. That way, those brave and indefatigable Maratha warriors had an insatiable desire to assail their religious enemies whenever and wherever they could! The aggressive war policy of the Marathas stopped the inroads of the Foreign Enemies beyond the Himalayas
1030. The reports that the bold thrusts of Bajirao I right up to the gates of Delhi, had convulsed the Moghal imperial power to its very foundations and rendered it disjointed, and that the mighty Maratha armies were about to invade the territories even beyond Delhi up to Punjab, did not fail to give a rude shock to the Muslim powers of Kabul, Ghazni, Iran, Turan, Balkh, Bokhara, Arabia and other countries beyond the Himalayas!

1031. It has already been shown in this book how, before the rise of the Marathas, these very Arab, Iranian, Durani, Turk, Moghal and other Muslim tribes had often swooped down the Himalayas into the Indian plains with all the ferocity and barbarity at their command; how some of these Muslim aggressors overran the Hindu states, dashed towards the south, worsting the Hindu religion, heaping up inhuman religious persecutions and untold devilish atrocities on its adherents; and again, how some other of them established their own independent stable Sultanates at Delhi and like Alauddin, made straight for the southernmost end of India.
1032. The then Hindu Kings themselves could not invade Iran, Turan or Arabia beyond the Himalayas even before those diabolic Muslim aggressors could trespass the Indian territory. They could annihilate those Muslim invaders in their very homes! Nadirshah and Abdali
1033. But as soon as the Marathas assumed the Hindu leadership all over India in this millennial Hindu-Muslim epic war, and so soon again as the ramparts of Delhi began to crumble with the forcible thrusts of the Maratha arms, this age-old notorious habit of the Muslim aggressive tribes and states in Asia of attacking every now and then, like Mahmud of Ghazni, with vociferous vows of complete destruction of the Hindu and their religion was for ever broken! Since the time the Maratha arms brought Delhi under their control, and the imperial administration at Delhi began to obey the dictates of the valiant Peshwa, like Bajirao I, only two—Nadirshah of Iran and Ahmedshah Abdali of Ghazni—dared cross the Indian borders from beyond the Himalayas, putting on the pompous airs of the former Muslim invaders swearing terrible wrongs unto the people herein and longing in vain to become the Emperors of India. But really speaking, none of them had come upon India, like the former invaders, on their own initiative and with an irresistible itch. The full knowledge that the Marathas had succeeded in establishing the Hindu rule all over India up to Delhi or that they could do so, had overawed both Nadirshah and Abdali, too! It was only at the supplications of the Muslim Sardars of Delhi and Punjab and at times, the secret invitation of the Emperor himself, that Nadirshah and Ahmedshah made bold to cross the Hindukush and march upon India. The Rohillas, the Pathans and the Moghals secretly pleaded that the Marathas had practically usurped the whole power, that the Kafirs were gradually becoming dominant throughout the whole of India and that they were approaching

those foreigners as the defenders of the Muslim faith in order that they might invade India to save the Muslim imperial power at Delhi. They even offered to make those foreign Muslim leaders, the Emperors of Delhi. It was on the invitations of these Indian Muslims and depending on their strength and assistance, that the above-mentioned violent aggressors could think of attacking India. The Invasion of Nadirshah 1034. Of the Muslim Sardars, Emirs and Khans who secretly invited Nadirshah to invade India in order to crush the Marathas, Nizam-ul-Mulk was the most prominent. As Bajirao I had vanquished him completely, he fondly hoped that the Marathas would be squarely punished and destroyed by Nadirshah. He did not care what would happen subsequently. Nadirshah crossed Attock and reached Lahore in 1732. The Emperor of Delhi made a grand show of opposing him with his army. But in the very first battle, he was routed entirely. Nadirshah called him and put him in his prison. Nizam too was similarly reprimanded for suffering the Marathas to be so very powerful as to engulf the imperial power of Dehli, and because he did not pay the several crores of rupees that he had promised, Nizam, too was put behind the bars. Then, Nadirshah marched straight to Delhi. On the 10th March, 1739, Nadirshah liquidated the Moghal imperial power and proclaimed himself the Emperor of India. With precipitate haste, he not only followed the age-old Muslim imperial tradition but far outdistanced it with all sorts of monstrocities and orgies of blood and fire. Plunder, arson and man-slaughter ran riot in the streets of Delhi. The Muslims, however, hoped that Nadirshah would at least annihilate the Marathas. But deliberately or knavishly, Nadirshah did not offend the Marathas. Why, in his rage of Delhi, he never spared the Muslims. Nadirshah himself seated the Nizam on the back of a donkey and forced him to undergo the humiliation of a parade throughout this city. 1035. Soon the news came headlong that the Marathas had inflicted a great defeat upon the Portuguese and the well known sea-port of Bassein (Vasai) had been conquered from the latter and that the Portuguese Governor of the place and his army had laid down their arms and sued for peace with the Marathas, and that feeling himself free, therefore, to do as he liked, Bajirao I had started with huge preparations and was heading towards Delhi. 1036-37. अरे बघतां कायः चला जोरानें चाल करून!

हिंदु पदपादशाहीस आतां उशीर काय! “Why do you look so amazed? March on to Delhi (My Boys!) What can now delay the establishment of Hindu Padpadshahi?” —Bajirao Peshva I. The Maratha Sardars in the North and the various diplomats and political workers that Bajirao I had stationed everywhere also felt keenly that Nadirshah had to be taught a lesson. From various different places, they informed Bajirao about the movements of Nadirshah and the state of affairs in the north. Of those reporters one writes: तहमास्प कुल्लीखान (नादीरशाह) कांहीं देव नाहीं जे पृथ्वी कापून काढील। जबरदस्ताशीं सुलुक करिल। म्हणून मातबर फौजे निशी यावे। आधी जबरदस्ती नि मग सुलुख। आता (सारे) राजपूत नि स्वामी बाजीराव क झालिया निकाल पडेल। समस्तास बुंदेले वगैरे क जागा करून मोठा भाव दाखविला पाहिजे। नादीरशाह तसा माघारा जात नाहीं, हिंदु राज्यावरी निघेल। रायाचे सवाई जयसिंग मनी राणाजी उदेपूर चा महाराणा दिल्लिचे बादशाही तख्तापर बसवावे आसे आहे हिंदुराजे सवाई आदि करून स्वामीचे स्वारीची मार्ग प्रतीक्षा करतात। स्वामींचे पुष्टिबल होताच जाट बगैरै फौज दिल्ली कडे पाठवून सवाईजी आपण दिल्लीस जाणार॥ Tahmaspa Kulikhan (Nadirshah) is not after all a god who will devastate the whole world! He will surely come to terms with a mightier adversary, hence come with a mighty force. Pressure (should be applied) first and peace treaty afterwards! Now it is only the combined might of all the Rajput kings and princes and your Excellency (Bajirao I) that will settle the matter for ever. Boundella Princes and all others should be brought together and the invincible power (of the Hindus) should be manifested on a grand scale. Nadirshah is not likely to go back unless he is forced to do so. He will (most surely) assail the Hindu States, Rai (Sawai Jaysingh) is of the opinion that Ranaji (Maharaja of Udaipur) should be installed upon the imperial throne of Delhi. Sawai (Jaysingh) and other Hindu kings are eagerly waiting for a mighty campaign under your Excellency’s leadership. With the strong backing of your Excellency’s forces, Sawai (Jaysingh Ji) decides

to send the Jat Battalions to Delhi first and then to follow them himself thither!’ 1038. Other Maratha leaders from North India also sent similar spirited letters full of confidence and urging bold action! On the basis of those letters, Bajirao addressed in these stirring words those dignitaries at Chhatrapati Shahu’s court, who had always tried to disparage every one of his heroic and aggressive moves and bring all sorts of impediments in his progressive measures, O! You brave warriors, why all these doubts and apprehensions? March on united and the glorious dawn of the founding of Hindu-Patpadashahi is a certainty beyond all measure. I, for my part, am determined to cross the Narmada (river) and deploy my troops everywhere right up to the Chambal (river). I shall see then how Nadirshah dares descend southwards!’ 1039. As soon as he received the news that the Marathas were already on an aggressive march to the north against him, Nadirshah lost all his enthusiasm to push forward with his conquests to south India as did the former Irani, Turani, Turkish and other Muslim aggressors before him; and with a view to pack off before the Marathas reached Delhi, he voluntarily relinquished the imperial authority, reinstalled the former Emperor of Delhi on his throne and admonished all the courtiers and feudatory princes and vassals to obey the Moghal emperor. Thereafter, Nadirshah hurriedly went back to Persia with the enormous plunder of about five to six hundred million rupees worth of treasure and the peacock-throne and other pieces of art. And that, too, he did because of the fearful apprehensions of a counter- attack by the Marathas! 1040. Along with the letter that he sent to other princes and Kings and vassals of India. Nadirshah sent one to Bajirao Peshwa, commanding him peremptorily to be always faithful to the Moghal Emperor and with a stern warning of the consequent punishment, in case he failed to do so. Foolishly enough did Nadirshah write this letter, but wisely he retreated! It goes without saying that this preposterous letter of Nadirshah, was shown its way to the waste paper basket, and in A.D. 1739, Chhatrapati Shahu unequivocally declared in his court that Nadirshah took a fright of the Maratha retaliation and fled away out of India. Ahmadshah Abdali becomes the Emperor of Kabul 1041. In Nadirshah’s army and under his command had been rising on the strength of his own merit, a certain Afghan Sardar (Emir) called Abdali,

who ultimately became the former’s right hand man. Abdali had accompanied Nadirshah in his above-mentioned raid against India. After his return to Persia, Nadirshah was soon killed in 1747. In the confusion that was caused subsequent to Nadirshah’s death, Ahmadshah Abdali usurped all power and since he was an Afghan, Ahmadshah proclaimed himself an Afghan Emperor making Kabul his capital (1747 A.D.). The Rohillas and the Pathans 1042. Now, there had been an incessant internal rivalry about the acquisition of the imperial throne of Delhi and consequent mutual hatred between the Moghals and the Afghans (Pathans), who chiefly led the Muslim administration throughout the large tracts of India from Punjab, Delhi, Farukhabad to Rohilkhand—sometimes quite openly, at other times covertly! The former Sultanates of Delhi were Afghans. It was after extirpating the last of the Afghan dynasties, that the victorious Moghal conqueror, Babar, had attained the imperial power over Dehli (as has already been shown in this book earlier). Nevertheless, several Afghan Sardars dominated even this Moghal administration. Amongst these Afghans, the Rohillas and the Pathans had their own states of varying sizes. Later on, when the conquering Maratha armies soon began to establish, one after another, Hindu state all over the Northern half of India and reached Delhi and when in the political affairs of Delhi, practically not a blade of grass could move without the Maratha support, all those Muslim factions became absolutely one at least in the early years of the Maratha preponderance in order to subvert it. Yet later, still the dissentient and scheming amongst these Muslim leaders, secretly sought for the Maratha help for the destruction of their co-religionist opponents. The first invasion of India by Abdali 1043. Abdali was closely watching these developments in Delhi. He knew full well that the Pathans over there were highly perturbed lest the hated Marathas might leave a vestige of their own existence, unless in the meanwhile, the Pathans overthrew the Moghal imperial authority over Delhi, and on its ashes raised their own. They could find only one way out of this predicament: to invite the new Afghan emperor, Ahmadshah Abdali who had all along supported their political moves. So, the Pathan-Rohilla leaders sent letters to Abdali, importuning his armed help, if at all Islam in India was to be saved. Abdali, too, had cherished the ambition to strangle the moribund Moghal imperial authority in Delhi and to revive in its place

the Pathani rule, as of yore. But earlier, he had visited India along with the warriors of Nadirshah's invasion and was fully conscious of the growing Maratha influence in the imperial administration at Delhi. So, he was far too cautious in making his moves. After having secretly supplied all sorts of armed help to the Pathans and the Rohillas in the Doab, Abdali himself came aggressively in the month of January 1748 up to Lahore and captured it. This was the first of his invasions of India. 1044. But the Moghal imperial army defeated Abdali's advance guards just near Lahore and blocked his way to Delhi. Just at this time, he got reports that his enemy, the Emperor of Persia, was preparing to invade Kabul and that at the invitation of the Moghal Emperor to help arrest his onward march, the Marathas had set out with a large army towards Delhi. So considering it to be inopportune to press onwards to Delhi, that shrewd general Abdali retreated immediately to Kabul. But before his departure, he had it proclaimed throughout India that the whole of Punjab was subject to the sovereign Afghan rule under him. The first treaty of surrender by the Moribund Moghal Empire with the Marathas 1045-46. In the meanwhile, the Moghal Emperor at Delhi had delegated most solicitously all administrative authority over the whole of India right from Bengal, Bihar, Orissa to Sindh (including the Subba of Multan), the whole of Punjab, Rohilkhand, Doab and all the South Indian divisions of the Moghal empire to the Marathas by a special treaty. 1047. By this treaty, at least by this written consent of the Moghal emperor, the Marathas had become since that date the de facto sovereigns of the whole of India, and the Moghal Emperor himself had been reduced to a non-entity. 1048. The tremendous reponsibility that devolved upon the Marathas because of this change in the imperial administrative authority was, of course, the onerous one of defending the Moghal empire against all internal as well as external dangers—against internal rebellions and revolts as well as against foreign invasions. Gigantic as this responsibility was, it was only the Maratha sinews that could bear it efficiently—the sinews that had almost realised the dream of the foundation of Hindu—Padpadshahi! That is why they accepted that condition of the treaty quite readily as if it was a boon. Abdali's second invasion of India

1049. Abdali had been secretly given reports of this forthcoming imperial treaty with the Marathas six months or more before the actual event. That is why in 1749, he invaded India for the second time simply to oppose the Marathas. So the imperial governor of Punjab, Mir Mannu, himself ceded helplesssly Thattha, Sindh (Multan), Punjab and other adjoining territories to Abdali and accepted the overlordship of the latter over that region. Satisfied with the thought that the Maratha authority over that region, relegated to them by the imperial treaty, was wiped out by the abject surrender of Mir Mannu, the imperial officer-in-charge of that part, and that the time for further advance was not yet, Abdali once again went back to Kabul.
1050. But the Marathas were highly infuriated at this duplicity of the imperial officers and the reported mute consent of the Emperor himself to the treacherous act. The Marathas vowed to avenge Abdali's usurpation of the regions between Sindh, Thattha and Punjab, in defiance of the Moghal- Maratha treaty just as furiously as would a cobra, whose tail has been trodden down wilfully. But they were at this time preoccupied with the South-Indian Muslims, the westerners like the Portuguese and also with the domestic political troubles at Satara. As such, Nanasahib Peshwa ordered Malharrao Holkar and Jayajirao Shinde, and the two Maratha leaders crossed the Jamuna and fell upon the fifty-to sixty-thousand-strong army of the Rohillas encamped at Kadargunj on the 20th March, 1751. The Pathans fought tenaciously, but in the end, the Marathas completely routed and destroyed the joint army of the ‘original and legitimate’ Pathans and Rohillas. Quickly following this signal success, the Marathas fought the Pathan, Ahmadkhan Bangash, who had come on a hot scent to Farukhabad with his army. Ahmadkhan took shelter in Farukhabad and was timely joined by the second mighty army of the Rohillas. But again, the Marathas besieged the conjoint army of these ‘true born’ Rohilla-Pathans in the month of April, 1751, and fetching them in open field, inflicted a crushing defeat on that huge army on the 28ᵗʰ of April, 1751. About twenty to twenty-five thousand Pathans and Rohillas were cut off in the battle. Everything belonging to them including their camp was plundered. Thousands of horses, elephants, camels and the battery of guns were all captured. Jayappa Shinde writes in his letter, “The devotees of Hari appropriated that booty to themselves.”

1051. When the Peshwa received the news of these battles, Shreemant Nanasahib himself felt elated at the exceptional valour of the Marathas. In his congratulatory reply to the Sardars and soldiers, he himself wrote:
1052. शाबास तुमच्या हिमतीची नि दिलेरी रुस्तुमीची दक्षिणच्या फौजांनीं गंगा यमुना पार होऊना पठाणांशीं युद्ध करून फते पावावें ठे कर्म लहान सहान नव्हे तुन्ही कनिष्ट कृत कर्में दौलतीचे स्तंभ आहात इराण तुराण पावे तो लौकिक झाला वझीर पळाला असता फिरोन फतेच्या मसनदीवर बसविला (Bravo, well done! All praise to your intrepidity and valour! That the Southern armies should cross the Ganges and Jamuna and win a glorious victory over the Pathans in the open battlefield, is neither a small nor a commonplace thing! You are single- minded loyal men of action, the pillars of the (Maratha) Empire! Your fame has spread far beyond Iran and Turan. While the Queen (on the chessboard) had run astray, (you) have installed her at the vantage position once again! The Marathas humbled time and again the Hauteur and pride of the true-born and the greatest Muslims too!
1053. A common misleading statement is very often to be seen in the histories written not only by the Muslim, the English, the Portuguese and such other writers who are naturally inimical (hostile) towards the Marathas, and have always tried to disparage them and to detract from their glorious deeds, but also by some of the Hindu writers who evince a slavish mentality and only 'look' and 'write' (without using any independent judgment of their own) — a statement that purports to say: 'One important cause why later on the Muslims were often defeated in India and why the Maratha could set in the process of disintegration of the Muslim empire under their crushing blows, was that the Muslims of the latter days had lost much of the 'original' and 'real' blood and spirit of the early Arab, Mongol, Turkish, Irani, Durani, Afghan, Moghal invaders. Because of the racy climate beyond the Himalayas, big, rushing rivers, hilly and snowy territory and their hardy and robust constitution, which was the result of their spending whole lives in constant warfare, and such other reasons, the comparatively more civilized and 'hence' milder and 'feebler'