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

my sword, I have completely vanquished those very Mlenchchas in every
battlefield.” With the same haughty affront of Kama, he could have flung in
the face of those railing enemies, the following words:
सूतो वा सूत पुत्रों वा यो वा को वा भवाम्यहम्
दैवायत्तं कुले जन्म मदायत्तं तु पौरुषम॥
वेणोसंहार of Bhatta Narayan, Act III, 37
[“ Whether a charioteer or a charioteer’s son, or whoever (else) I may be,
(that is of no consequence!) Birth in a (noble) family depends on fate; but
manliness depends on me!”]
91. The son of Mura is a Maurya! That is precisely why Chandragupta is
called a Maurya. Proud of his maternal extraction, Chandragupta designated
his royal family as Maurya and immortalized the name of his mother,
Muradevi, in Indian history. The Maurya emperors accepted the same
Moriya caste too (one traded in peacocks) that belonged to his mother. The
guardian deity of the Maurya family is also a ‘peacock’. This fact is
corroborated by rock inscriptions. The Ashoka pillar found at Nandangad
bears at the foot, a picture of a peacock. The stories from the life of Ashoka
inscribed on the celebrated ‘stupas’ at Sanchi have similar figures of
peacocks carved beside them.
The Emperor of Magadha
92. Mahapadmanand was the emperor ruling at that time over the vast
Magadha empire. He was already very unpopular because of his many vices.
His subjects were exasperated because of the heavy taxes, levied on them, in
order to satisfy his lust for gold. People called him Dhananand instead of
Mahapadmanand, in order to deride him for his excessive lust for money. He
could come to the throne because he happened to be the brother of the
earlier emperor, but he had not a single virtue, fit for an emperor. He would
have proved his worth had he but taken up the challenge of Alexander and
crushed him in the Panchanad, when the latter had marched on India, and
when he had proudly declared his intention of conquering Magadha and
becoming the emperor of India. He should have at least undertaken such a
great expedition as to overthrow the Greeks, and free the Indian territory
subjugated by them to deserve the title of an emperor! But he did nothing of
the kind, and meekly swallowed the insult hurled at him by Alexander! This
cowardliness on his part made, on the one hand, every self-respecting and
nationalist Indian despise him, while, on the other, made him crafty. He