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

upon her people, and which sadly lacks the armed might to ward off this
disastrous situation), has no other go than to forbid her people, of course,
for self-preservation alone, from going to the enemy lands.
Self-imposition of the ban on crossing attock or the seas
536. The greatest mistake made was that when these various bans were
interpolated in the older smritis, as the best means of serving the needs of
the particular hour, the spurious verses dealing with these bans were also
given the same sanctity, the same authenticity and the same inviolability by
stamping them with the old authoritative seal of एष धर्मः सनातनः ‘This
is the old tradition’, as was given to the genuinely old verses. That is why
even after the particular adverse times, for which these bans on crossing
Attock or the sea were originally designed, had passed off and more
favourable times prevailed, inasmuch as when the Hindu military might
under the Peshwas and Ranjit Singh was powerful enough not only to cross
Afghanistan but even attack Persia, this anti-national blind faith in those
bans, however, did not vanish. It was still boulking the credulous Hindu
Society with the fear of committing a sin in crossing Attock. That means
even when the once beneficial religious tradition had grown harmful to the
nation, the Hindu Society was not prepared to give it up immediately for
fear of the religious injunction. Even when to break that tradition would
have definitely proved greatly advantageous to the nation and holy from the
religious point of view, the blind faith in the old tradition that to break the
old custom was to commit a sin was still maintained. It is, therefore, the sea,
एष धर्मः सनातनः that the modern writers of smritis affixed to these later
interpolations, which acted as a bugbear, that played the greatest mischief.
537. Take for instance, the ban on seafaring! Had these writers of smritis
of later times specifically mentioned that in old ‘Krit yug’, our Arya nation
was mighty enough to cross the (seven) seas and rule over other islands and
archipelagos, that even up to the time of Rajendra Chola, we were the lords
of the three seas (त्रिसमुद्राधीश) and that, as such, crossing the seas was
essential for the spread of our religion and empire and was holy, but as the
naval power and the lordship of the seas had now been unfortunately lost,
crossing the seas and going into the enemy land in the helpless humble way,
was highly injurious to our nation, and so sinful, and that it was, therefore,
banned till we regained that lordship of the seas. Had they but said so in so