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

righteous war of liberation against the Yavan (Greek) enemy throughout
that region, from Panchnad to Sindh. Many of such national propagandists,
mostly Brahmins, were being caught and hanged by Alexander! (cf: paras
32 and 69 for Plutarch’s citation).
174. After the valiant soldiers of Chandragupta, thus, routed the forces of
the Yavan emperor, Seleucos, Chandragupta and Chanakya built a strong
steel wall of the mightiest four-fold army in the world to protect the Indian
empire right up to the Hindukush mountain. The dread of that armed might
alone stopped the Bactrian Greeks beyond the Hindukush, from harbouring
any thought of enmity towards India for about 125 years. So long as Samrat
Ashoka called himself the follower of the Vedic religon, which means till
about 252 B.C., the north-western frontier guards of the Mauryan empire
remained well-equipped and invincible.
175. But as soon as Ashoka adopted Buddhism, this security of the empire
fell to pieces! Had Ashoka abdicated from the imperial throne of Magadha,
when he adopted Buddhism as Lord Gautam Buddha himself forsook the
Sakya nation before him, and had he travelled around as a bhikksu
propagating the faith, the Indian empire might have been spared a great
calamity and Ashoka’s loyalty to Buddhism, too, would have been truly
tested. But till his death, Ashoka could not bring himself to abdicate this
imperial throne. On the contrary, he turned his whole empire into a
Buddhistic monastery to carry on the propaganda. Evidently enough in
those frontier provinces, the dictums like ‘Religious victory excels martial
glory’, ‘Anger should be conquered by the negation of anger’, “Non-
violence is the supreme religious duty’, ‘Never kill any animal’ and such
others, which had their roots in the Vedic religion, and which were
beneficial to the society so long as they were practised with due regard to
place, time and person, began to be preached in the Buddhist way,
irrespective of any such consideration and in absolute terms without any
reservations, bands of ‘bhikksus’ brought up and maintained by the imperial
treasury of Ashoka began to preach in that region that armed might was a
sin! Only the followers of Buddhism were appointed to high offices of
Dharmamhamatra’ (धर्म महामात्र), provincial officers, and the faithful
government servants like the Rajjuks. All these were expected, according to
the orders from Ashoka, to render every sort of help at government level to
the precept and practice of the Buddhistic cult. Throughout the provinces
like Gandhar and Panchnad, Buddhism was preached not only amongst