भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)
भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)
Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History by Veer Savarkar
स्वातंत्र्यवीर विनायक दामोदर सावरकर द्वारा
DevanagariHindipublished494 पृष्ठ
पृष्ठ 123, कुल 494 में से
संदर्भ में पढ़ेंपृष्ठ 123
- Soon after the death of Anangpal, Mahmud annexed Punjab to his
kingdom of Ghazni, as he had formerly done with the north-west frontier
province. Sultan Mahmud then marched on Thaneshwar and Mathura, the
most renowned of the holy places of the Hindus; and after demolishing and
burning as many of the Hindu temples, and killing as many of the Hindu
male population as possible, and violating the chastity of hundreds of Hindu
women and abducting them, Mahmud, like a ferocious wolf returned to his
den, Ghazni. He also took with him immeasurable booty of gold and
jewellery. In A.D. 1019, he pounced on the Pratihari capital of Kanouj and
destroyed it in the same brutal fashion. The result was that the surrounding
Hindu population took such a fearful fright for him, that when in A.D.
1023, he once again paid his sinister visit to Gwalior and Kalinjar, the
princes there helplessly and meekly accepted his overlordship.
His Dash on Somnath - Next, when in A.D. 1026, Sultan Mahmud assailed the famous
temple of Somnath in Sourashtra, he did it with such a huge army and with
such terrible vows and declarations that Raja Bheem of Sourashtra and
Gujarat fled away, leaving the kingdom exposed to every sort of humiliation
and destruction at the hands of this appalling enemy, tainting his own name
of Bheem with everlasting shame. Naturally, the Hindus had no army left,
sufficiently well-equipped and well-organized to face this formidable
Muslim assault. Nevertheless, even at this critical time, the priests of the
Temple of Somnath offered to shoulder the responsibility of protecting the
sacred temple as best as they could. They called upon the surrounding
Hindu population to run to their aid in the sacred cause of defending the
temple and their religion, and thousands of Hindus from far-off regions
also, answered their call and ran to the rescue of the Temple of Somnath.
The battle was to be fought not for any ruler or king; no Hindu soldier was
to profit by it individually. It was a crusade, pure and simple. Moreover,
these thousands of Hindu soldiers were not a trained and well-formed army.
It was a conglomeration of Hindu crusaders that was collected at the
eleventh hour. Even then, they fought ferociously and desperately for the
sacred cause without intermission or relaxation, by day and even by night,
with the well-organized and stalwart Muslim soldiers! While the Muslim
army climbed right upto the ramparts and barricades over the high walls of
the temple, and even after it forced itself into the very temple, the toughest
of Hindu resistance continued unmitigated. Muslim blood, too, was shed