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

invincible Indian army. Would they all not have taken this golden
opportunity to throttle the ‘bhikksu-ridden’ India and Ashoka’s religious
triumph without the use of arms, and drawn its blood?
158. But it is hardly necessary to indulge in these ‘ifs’ and ‘whens’. At
that very time, India had unfortunately to suffer the grievous consequences
of the preaching, not only of Ashoka but of the Buddha himself, as has been
shown in my play, ‘Sanyasta Khadga’. The miserable plight of the people
and the successful resistance, which the Vedic Hindus offered, will be
described hereafter.
159. While describing these sad consequences, I do not, at all, intend to
analyse the comparative merits and demerits of all religious principles,
practices or rituals of both the Vedic and the Buddhist religions like the
sacrifices, penances, sanyas and the like, from the ‘other worldly’ point of
view, nor do I wish to examine them thoroughly and comparatively from
‘this worldly’ outlook. To see how many of those principles are trustworthy
today, or how many of those rituals are worth following at the present time,
is also out of the scope of this book. So these points will not be raised. I,
however, wish to discuss in this book, the nation-wide consequence of
different religious principles and actions of their followers on political life
of India of those days. For without any such historical analysis, the different
currents and undercurrents of history of those times cannot be properly
shown.
After the Death of Ashoka
160. This pious emperor, Ashoka, who till his end, laboured hard
according to his own religious faith, for the ultimate good of mankind, died
in 232 B.C.
161. His death proved to be the beginning of the end of that magnificent
Maurya Empire!
162. During the last 25 years of his life, he had applied himself heart and
soul to the propagation of the Buddhistic cult. His descendants, who
succeeded him as emperors, were all honest Buddhists, and that is why, they
turned out to be nominal rulers, weak in armed strength. Because of the
criminal neglect of the imperial military might for these forty years or so by
the ‘extremists’ among the followers of the Buddhist principle of ‘non-
violence’ and their rulers, the whole military organization of the Maurya
empire right up to the frontiers, and espeicially the north-western frontier,
gradually went into complete disorder. This was allurement enough for the