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

Gujarat, Devaldevi, seem to have borne in their mind not only the memory,
but a love, a fascination for their Hindu origin, their Hindu blood, and their
essential Hindu make-up—there seems to be rankling in their hearts,
intermittently or continuously, the atrocities inflicted on them by the
Muslims. It seemed to burst out through their actions. At last, it is because
of their irrespressible yearning to avenge the wrongs done to their
‘Hindutwa’ that in Delhi itself, broke out that great conflagration which like
the wild fire of Khandav forest of Mahabharat, reduced to ashes the Muslim
Sultanate which had under its sway practically the whole of India, if only
for a short while!
748. In the very first expedition of Allauddin against Gujarat, after the
Gujarat ruler’s defeat, his crowned queen Kamaldevi fell into the hands of
Allauddin while she was fleeing for safety. But the ruler, however, could
effect his escape along with his princely daughter, Devaldevi, a mere child
then. Used to all sorts of royal comforts and pleasures till the very previous
day as she was, how hard and unbearable might this tender and beautiful
royal princess have found it to undergo all the calamities and privations and
exertions of wandering for days together through forest-after-forest, and
trying to evade the ever present possibility of capture by the pursuing
Muslims, might easily be imagined. In that tender age, hatred for the
Muslims must have been engraved deeply on her bosom, because of other
people’s and her own actual experience. Her very mother, Rani Kamaldevi,
had become the beloved queen of Sultan Allauddin at Delhi, and that very
mother of hers was now out to seize her and make her a Muslim! How
painful must this news have been to her tender heart! In order to evade this
terrible fate, she was married, even a little against her father’s wishes, to
Ramdevrao’s son, Shankardev, the staunch follower of Hinduism. But her
evil star did not leave her alone there. In one of the invasions of Maliq
Kafur against the Hindus, she was caught and carried away to Delhi as a
captive. She must have been smarting with pain and humiliation a hundred
thousand times in that moment of despair! At last, on reaching Delhi, she
was forced to marry Khijrakhan, the eldest son of Allauddin. Some writers
vouch that Devaldevi and Khijrakhan greatly loved each other. But this
seems to be the flattering way of the courtly writers. Her subsequent course
of action makes it abundantly clear! But that shrewd Hindu princess seems
to have affected her love for Islam and for her husband till she got the
desired opportunity.