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

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