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

754. It has to be taken for granted from the latter course of events, that it
     is there, that they must have hatched some important conspiracy for the
     benefit of Hinduism.
755. The first proof that contributes to this assertion is that Khushrukhan
     appointed his former Hindu Paria or Parwar brother to the governorship of
     Gujarat, his native province.
756. The second very important pointer: Khushrukhan appointed openly
     in Delhi itself, for his own protection, thousands of his former Hindu
     warrior compatriots—at least twenty to thirty thousand strong—in the
     Muslim army.
757. The Third Pointer: These manoeuvres of his were highly resented to
     by many of the Muslim grandees. But the innormost intention behind them
     all was kept so very secret that, it is doubtful, whether, it had by that time,
     become so crystal clear to Devaldevi or even to Khushrukhan himself, let
     alone the others! Faintly and slowly, yet surely enough, was that intention
     taking shape in their minds.
758. The Fourth Pointer: Khushrukhan incited the most incapable Sultan
     like Mubarik to lead an expedition to the South to put down in good time,
     the rebellions of the conquered Hindus in the Deccan, and he himself
     accompanied him second-in-command. The Hindus were worsted a lot.
     Their immeasurable wealth, taken as spoils of war, filled the Sultan’s
     treasury. Most probably, it was during this expedition, that after the death of
     Shankardev of Devgiri, his relative, King Harpaldev, rebelled and founded
     the kingdom of Devgiri once again, for which he was defeated and ordered
     by the Sultan to be skinned alive and then put to death! And for the defence
     of his religion, the royal Hindu warrior bore it bravely.
759. Thereafter, Mubarik returned with his army to Delhi. Because of
     these deeds of valour of his for the sake of a Muslim Sultan and the Muslim
     state, and because of his devastation of the Hindus, his rival Muslim
     grandees, too, could not breathe a single word against his unshakable faith
     in the Islamic religion. They could at the most, only whisper that there was
     danger of his overthrowing Sultan Mubarik and become the Sultan himself
     in his stead. But that, he would be a Muslim Sultan and none else, there was
     not the least doubt.
760. But if at this very time that future conspiracy of a Hinduistic
     revolution, which was very strange and unheard of before, had germinated

in the minds of Khushrukhan and Devaldevi, it must have been kept highly
secret with utmost caution.
761. Very soon, Mubarik sent Khushrukhan to the Deccan for an extensive
conquest but he himself did not go with him. So complete was his faith in
Khushrukhan! In this expedition, Khushrukhan subdued the King of
Malabar too, and exacted therefrom immeasurable plunder in the name of
Sultan Mubarik!
But
762. But in this very campaign of South India, various open or secret
Hindu conspiracies against the Muslim empire began to brew up from
various quarters of the South Indian peninsula. The royal Hindu families of
Varangal and Gujrath, the valiant Rana Hameer, the redeemer of Chitod,
and other Hindu Chiefs, the religious leaders and propagandists in the
various religious institutions and monasteries like those of the
Shankaracharya and even the common people were becoming restless and
agitated with a common antagonism to the Muslim domination. And
anonymous complaints by Khushrukhan’s enemies had reached the ears of
the Sultan of Delhi to the effect that Khushrukhan was in some mysterious
way and most secretly connected with this universal discontent!
763. So, scanty and self-contradictory bits of information are available in
the writings of the contemporary Muslim writers about this Khushrukhan,
the conqueror of Malabar, and the whole of the Muslim empire, that we
have to correlate them into some sort of consistent account, only as far as it
is possible from the later happenings! Once in the open court of the Sultan
at Delhi there was a rumour, which apprehended that instead of coming
back to Delhi amongst the ring of his adversaries, Khushrukhan was about
to escape to some neighbouring foreign island by sea with the immense
wealth he had amassed in the South. One Muslim writer has gone to the
length of saying that Khushrukhan was brought back to Delhi in fetters!
764. With an exceptional daring and ability to cut off the strings of the net
of inimical conspiracies with one stroke, Khushrukhan at once declared his
intention to go back to Delhi in the grand manner of the conqueror of the
South with all his army. For, his secret accomplice, the former Hindu
princess but now the Muslim empress, Devaldevi, must have been keeping
him posted with every detail of the daily happenings at Delhi!
765. From the few English translations of the Muslim books of the time
that are now available, even those who do not know either Persian or

Arabic can have some information. Most of the Muslim writers mention
Khushrukhan with utmost scorn and finish him within four or five lines
only. The reason is plain enough. The Muslim historians can never bear
with equanimity Khushrukhan’s taking the conceit out of the Muslim rule at
Delhi. Even these Muslim historians have found it at places improper to
distort and garble up the truth about Khushrukhan or to suppress it
altogether. Their manuscripts, especially the recently published ones, prove
very useful in this respect. Even the account by the recent Hindu historians,
who based their conclusions on the above mentioned old Muslim books, is
to that extent useless. The Hindu writers have done nothing more than
merely repeating the obloquies like ‘mean-minded’, ‘shameless’,
‘dastardly’, hurled at him by the Muslim writers. But there are two
honourable exceptions to this general tendency: one is that of the veteran
historian Riasatkar Sardesai and the other of Shree Munshi. These two
historians, however, have given a comparative account of Khushrukhan and
Devaldevi, too, and have attempted to appraise, though very faintly and
cursorily, the great revolution they had finally effected to etablish a Hindu
empire. But theirs is a half-hearted attempt, which fears its own
conclusions, and which could never fully grasp nor could explain the real
implications and nature of that unprecedented revolution. A contemporary
Hindu writer, who could elucidate the Hindu side of this great event is,
obviously enough, not to be found! For, no Hindu of the time could have
been dared to express his own independent opinions or judgement.
766. Under these circumstances, it is only possible to give in the form of a
connected narrative, the obvious conclusion that can be drawn from what
little consistency can be found in the disconnected reports in the above-
mentioned original Muslim writings, and the actual undisputed acts of the
leading personalities like Khushrukhan, Devaldevi and others.
767. As already told above, Khushrukhan went to Delhi with his
victorious army and the immense spoils he had gathered in the Deccan, But
why did he go there? Not only in Delhi but even in the Deccan a political
rumour was secretly disseminated amongst the Hindu political circles that
the Hindu leaders, who were organizing Hindu revolts in the south against
the Muslims, were in collusion with Khushrukhan about some deep-laid
conspiracy to disrupt the Muslim empire. In Gujarat, Khushrukhan’s brother
himself was the de facto ruler, while all the Rajputs were inspired by Rana
Hameer to overthrow the India-wide unitary Muslim empire, the first of its

kind, at least till that day. And most wonderful of all, was the fact that
Sultan Mubarik's supreme commander and chief administrator,
Khushrukhan himself, working as he was directly under Sultana
Devaldevi's confidential orders, was taken in confidence by the Rajput
leaders in respect of this daring plot to establish a Hindu empire! Such a
rare concurrence of opposing forces is bound to astound history itself!
Stand to reason, it never can, till at least something miraculous happens.
768. But something of the kind did begin to shape itself at the time. In the
fiery brains of Sultana Devaldevi and Khushrukhan, there really was
seething some such extraordinarily magnificent and by its very nature
almost an incredible idea or plan, which seemed possible only to some
mysterious intrigue and daring of a Nurshinh!
769. But neither their enemies nor their friends could breathe it openly!
For with what magic wand was this supreme commander of Mubarik—the
commander, who had brought all the Hindu states in the Deccan to meek
submission before the Muslim Sultan-who had very recently devastated the
wealthy Hindu kingdom of Malabar and hoisted there the green Muslim flag
of the Delhi Sultanate—and who, above all, had come to Delhi to lay down
all that success, all that glory, as an humble homage at the feet of the
Muslim emperor—how was he, the sole supporter of the India-wide foreign
and non-Hindu empire—he, who, born though he was as a Hindu, had
become converted to Islam—how was a man of such a status likely to
transform so suddenly the whole Muslim empire into a Hindu one? No
staunch Muslim could even dare express it openly. Khushrukhan and
Devaldevi had been keeping up till the last, the pretence of their being
diehard Muslims and of their greatest loyalty to the Muslim Sultan and his
empire so scrupulously and thoroughly, that even their direst enemies who
had dark suspicions of their having underground connections with the
Hindu rulers, feared that were they personally to charge Khushrukhan
before the Sultan in Delhi or in the open court, the Sultan would point out
proofs to the contrary and outwit them forthwith. Even the top-level
Muslim officials feared this eventuality. Whatever complaints had reached
the general populace of Delhi of the ears of the Sultan himself were so
baseless and completely anonymous, that nobody credited them with any
more veracity or seriousness than they would do hearsay report or false
accusations by some mischief-mongers!

770. As soon as he came to Dehli, Sultan Mubrarik did not put him under
     heavy fetters and custody, as his Muslim enemies had expected, but being
     extremely pleased with the immense treasure Khushrukhan had laid at his
     feet and the unlimited power he had gained for the Delhi Sultanate,
     Mubarik, on the contrary, conferred upon Khushrukhan the administrative,
     military, civic and all other residual authority. And if he had put anybody
     under arrest, it was the great Muslim noblemen and Khankhanas of the
     court, who were dismissed for charging Khushrukhan unreservedly.
     770A. On the other hand, in the regime of Khushrukhan as the chief
     administrator, the strictest bans against the Hindu introduced by Allauddin
     in former days were now being gradually relaxed; the exploitation of the
     Hindu-Muslim farmers, and the people in general, also was stopped; the
     Hindus, too, got much relief in matters religious; the common discontent
     amongst the subjects against the tyrannical rule of the emperors was on the
     wane. And the whole credit of this comparatively happy state of things
     began to go very naturally to Khushrukhan, who was the chief of the
     imperial administration at that time. Gradually, by Sultan, the common
     people came to understand, not the vicious and good-for-nothing Mubarik,
     but his all-in-all, valiant and popular administrator, Khushrukhan, and
     behind him loomed the Sultana, Devaldevi, with whose internal and open
     support he could wield this authority.
771. The Hindu began to look upon Khushrukhan as their saviour; even
     though he was still a Muslim, because he had set them free to a great extent
     from the vexatious taxes and restrictions imposed on them by Allauddin and
     the untold humiliation they had to undergo. Khushrukhan began to be
     popular amongst the Muslim farmers and other citizens, because of the
     relief they got from heavy taxes. And, above everything else, because of his
     military exploits, which had resounded throughout the whole of India and
     his superb adroitness in statecraft, many of the high-ranking Muslim
     noblemen had enlisted themselves on his side.
772. Seeing such a favourable opportunity, Khushrukhan and Devaldevi
     thought the right moment had come for them to proclaim boldly their grand
     scheme of a politicial revolution—for one who hesitates to undertake this
     hazard under favourable circumstances must be a coward, who would
     accomplish no daring feat! It was not merely a coup d'etat in a small state;
     it was an imperial revolution, which sought to subvert the India-wide
     unitary and danger-free Muslim empire of the late Allauddin and of the

present Mubarik, and to establish in its place overnight, most unexpectedly,
a Hindu empire all over India. It was a religious revolution inasmuch as it
sought to pull down the enthroned Muslim religion and to supplant it by the
Hindu
Vedic religion.
773. That such a perfect revolution was most difficult—almost impossible
—to be accomplished, even if Hindu-Muslim wars were to be fought
continuously for five hundred years, was quite plain from the Arab
invasions of Sindh in the seventh century and the later history of Muslim
invasions, till the time of Allauddin. But such a complete revolution was in
fact brought about by the exceptional genius of Khushrukhan and
Devaldevi, even if it was only for a short while!
774. Had not the Muslim Sultanate conquered the Hindus completely by
hard fighting for centuries together and turned their country wholly
Muslim? Then if Khushrukhan were able to wrench the imperial authority
from the single Sultan and if he were to ascend the throne of the Delhi
Sultanate in the name of Hinduism, then the whole of the empire would
necessarily be a ‘Hindu’ one, with one stroke! Then the Muslim Sultan
would necessarily become a Hindu emperor. This feat was as daring in
planning as it was easy in execution under those circumstances! It was quite
possible too. It is this magic wand that Devaldevi, originally a Hindu
princess, and Khushrukhan, the original Hindu Paria youth wielded, which
worked as an unparalleled miracle not only in Indian but in the whole
human history!
775. Having arranged every minute detail of the future revolution most
secretly, Khushrukhan humbly requested Sultan Mubarik, who had
willingly allowed himself to be governed completely by the former: “The
thousands of Hindus of my caste whom I have stationed in Delhi want to be
converted to Islam with proper religious ceremony; but they are fighting shy
of doing so openly in the city. Some of them are really afraid to do so.
Hence, I wish to bring the choicest amongst them into the palace today and
convert them in due course.” Under this pretext, Khushrukhan brought the
hundreds of his bravest Hindu warriors in Delhi into the palace and housed
them in the barracks for the imperial guards. One day in A.D. 1319, at the
dead of night, suddenly there was a great turmoil in the palace in the midst
of which Sultan Mubarik was killed.

776. But many had been the tumults and turmoils, causing change of
     rulers before this. Sultan Allauddin himself, was similarly dispatched.
     Sultan Mubarik had dealt with Maliq Kafur in this very way. The city of
     Delhi, which was quite used to such turmoils, began to whisper the next
     morning: “What terrible things happened in the palace last night?”
777. Within a very short time, only a single proclamation of a political
     nature gave a violent shock, as that of an earthquake, to the whole capital
     and brought to it the rude realization that the previous night Khushrukhan’s
     people had effected at one and the same time, an imperial and religious
     revolution by putting Sultan Mubarik to death, and it was immediately
     followed by another that Khushrukhan had installed himself as a Sultan!
778. However, there was nowhere to be seen any immediate, open and
     organized opposition amongst the people to this unprecedented revolution.
     The fact that the new Sultan Khushrukhan married Sultana Devaldevi, the
     queen of Mubarik, as soon as the latter was killed, stirred the revolutionary
     curiosity of the people but did not overawe them!
     For, that was the age-old tradition of the earlier Sultans! Kutubuddin’s
     widows were married to the latter Sultans who succeeded him, while
     Allauddin’s and his son’s, Khijrakhan’s widow, this very Devaldevi, was
     espoused by Mubarik himself. Quite consistent with this time-honoured
     tradition was this act of Khushrukhan of marrying Devaldevi, the widow of
     the late Sultan Mubarik, with whom he had established very close contacts
     much earlier and who was really his partner and perhaps a source of
     inspiration! Why should it not then seem quite natural to everybody in the
     state?
     But...!
779. But more startling than this was another proclamation made
     authoritatively and with every political formality by Khushrukhan and
     Devaldevi, which suddenly turned this political revolution in the royal
     palace into a religious one of a unique nature. Everybody in India right
     from the Kings and Nawabs to the Parias and Parwars, Mahars and Mangs
     was thrilled with a strange sensation at this unique proclamation! The
     Hindus were thrilled with unlimited joy while the Muslims were filled with
     the darkest apprehensions. The said proclamation made by Sultan
     Khushrukhan himself from his throne on the 15th April, 1320 meant to say:
780. “Although till today I was forced to lead the most detestable life of a
     convert to Islam, I am originally a son of a Hindu. The mainspring of my

life is Hinduism and the blood that throbs into my veins and arteries is that
of a Hindu. Now that I have won independent and powerful status of a
Sultan for myself, I am hereby breaking off the shackles of conversion to a
foreign religion, and I do hereby declare that I am a Hindu! I have now
ascended publicly the throne of the vast and entire, undivided India as a
Hindu Emperor! Similarly, Sultana Devaldevi till very recently was
originaly a Hindu daughter. Her husband, the Raja of Devgiri, Shankardev
Yadav, was most brutally murdered and she was treacherously captured
from her father sneaking miserably through dense forest to avoid seizure by
the enemy. She was brought to Delhi and put to shame and ignominous
disgrace by being forced to marry Khijrakhan, in the first place, and
secondly after his brutal murder, Sultan Mubarik, who was killed in the
coup d'etat last night. That Devaldevi is my queen, the empress of
Hindusthan of today! Being originally Hindu in flesh and blood and a
Hindu royal princess, she also hereafter renounces disdainfully her
shameful conversion to Islam and henceforth will lead her life strictly
according to Hindu religion! May this solemn vow of ours absolve us both
of our former sin of forceful conversion!”
781. To refute or to challenge a proclamation of this nature came forth no
stronger Hindu, nor even a single Muslim!
782. Hence, hereafter, we are going to address Sultan Khushrukhan as a
Hindu Emperor and Devaldevi as a Hindu Empress!
783. This Hindu Emperor did not, however, disclose his original Hindu
name of his young years! Most probably, he had no recollection of it
whatsoever; today it is eternally lost. The imperial title that he adopted for
himself was also a Muslim one, viz., Nasir-ud-din! The reason for this,
perhaps, was that the whole of the Muslim world and even the millions of
Hindus who were used to Muslim titles for generations together, might not
be scandalized in respect of these minor details also. Nasir-ud-din, roughly
speaking, means a sort of a defender of faith or religion! Hence, this Hindu
Emperor made it clear in the said proclamation that ‘Din’ or religion that he
was going to defend was not Islam! Naturally, it must be the Hindu
religion! It is, therefore, proper that his name Nasir-ud-din should be
translated as the Defender of Hindu Religion—Hindu dharmarakshak!
The Unprecedented Revolution!
784. As soon as this unheard of revolution, transforming the India-wide
Muslim Empire into the Hindu one, suddenly within a day, was

accomplished, this Hindu Emperor disbursed amongst the thousands of
soldiers of his caste, the immense wealth, which he had pillaged in his
conquest of Malabar by vanquishing the Hindu states and which had filled
the coffers of the late Sultan Mubarik, along with the unlimited wealth
accumulated during the regimes of the former Sultans. Similarly, he
increased the pay-scale of both the Hindu and Muslim soldiers. Having won
over his soldiery in this way, he introduced new reforms, gave to the
farmers and common Hindu-Muslim citizens facilities, and allowed them
concessions they were never allowed to enjoy by any of the former Sultans!
Likewise, he set free thousands of Hindu prisoners who were interned as a
diversion in religious persecution and the hundreds of Muslims, who were
imprisoned simply because they were repugnant to the former Sultans for
one reason or another. No wonder if this Hindu Emperor, Dharmarakshak,
immediately became popular amongst the Hindus as well as the Muslims
throughout his empire!
785. It is needless to say that he also absolved all the Hindus of all the
humiliating bans on their pilgrimages and holy baths. The Jizia tax was
repealed and other degrading conditions that had been enforced upon them
by Sultan after Sultan were ameliorated forthwith. What wonder then if the
whole Hindu world felt a thrill of joy and freedom that at long last, they had
a saviour!
786. Even when this Hindu Samrat was fighting in the guise of a
converted Muslim, victoriously in the South and reducing Malabar, he had
been formulating the scheme of the future revolution. So, all the big Hindu-
Muslim officers and generals in the fighting forces, who depended on his
patronage and who had risen mainly because of his support, of course,
remained loyal to him for safeguarding their own selfish interests and also
for protecting themselves from the malice and enmity of the old Muslim
Khans, Nizams, and other co-religionists of theirs. For, as a natural
consequence of intermingling of the two religious communities, Muslims
serving in the armies of many Hindu States had come to form a habit of
rendering loyal service to their Hindu masters! The political service of a
Hindu King was taboo formerly when the Muslims first came to India, but
by this time, the taboo had lost its intensity and in its stead such a loyal
service rendered to a Hindu master came to be considered quite in
conformity with the Muslim religious code! Many incidents illustrating this
point have already occurred so far, and will occur in the following pages

too. Although acceptance of any high office under a Hindu ruler was no
more considered contrary to the Muslim religious law, the staunch
moulanas and moulavis, however, looked upon such acts as necessary
exceptions and bore a secret grudge in their hearts that they were time
bombs laid under the Muslim political power! Never from the very
beginning, did the Hindus consider it contrary to their religious code to fight
in the Muslim army on the side of the Muslims! It was only the exchange of
food and women in marriage with the Muslims which endangered the
sanctity of their religion! How foolish and suicidal to think so!
786A. This Hindu Emperor did not rest with the mere declaration of his
adherence to Hinduism, but he fearlessly began to bring it into action in the
presence of the Muslims. Idols of Hindu gods and goddesses were
immediately installed in the holiest of places of Muslim civilization, the
Diwan-i-Aam and Diwan-i-Khas in the royal palaces of Delhi. All the
worships and all the religious rites in royal palaces began to be performed
according to the Hindu ritual. Loud chanting of Hindu mantras and singing
of Hindu devotional songs took the place of the ‘Ayats’ in the Koran! This
Hindu Emperor himself and the hundreds amongst his old Hindu battalions,
who had remained Hindus from the beginning and who were guarding the
royal palace, paid scrupulous attention to the protection and proper worship
of these new idols of Hindu gods and goddesses. The enthusiasm and
vigour of the Hindu citizens and especially of the Hindu soldiers in the
capital knew no bounds! Just as formerly the aggressive Muslims
completely demolished the godly idols in the Hindu temples and turned
them into Muslim masjids immediately after they conquered any Hindu
capital, so did these counter-revolutionary Hindus install new images of
their gods in every masjid as a retaliatory measure, and most ceremoniously
converted the masjids into Hindu temples and filled them with loud
chanting of mantras. It is only by this counter-attack of the Hindu Parias
that the fanatic Muslims could ever have had any idea of the pangs of
humiliation and grief that might have rankled in the hearts of the Hindu
community, which had grown feeble because of their malady of religious
tolerance, when the Muslims polluted the Hindu temples by cow-slaughter
and turned them into masjids.
787. It might be true that in the heat and excitement of this unheard of and
unprecedented religious revolution, the Muslim scriptures, some Muslim
writers charge, might have been exposed to ridicule or shame. But at least

the Muslims, who considered to be Gazis, those scoundrels, who destroyed
the whole university of Nalanda in flames and sat warming themselves at
that bonfire and laughed scornfully and shamelessly as the valuable
religious books of the Hindus were being reduced to ashes, had no moral
right whatsoever to blame this incendiarism against the Muslim religion!
787A. This Hindu Samrat converted with their willing consent the young
wives, daughters and nieces of the earlier Sultans and other Muslim women
to Hinduism and married them to his Hindu Paria followers.
788-789. But more than this, this Hindu Dharmarakshak did not do!
Even the Muslim historians do not mention any atrocities or religious
persecution or plunder as having been committed by this Hindu Emperor as
the Muslim aggressors were wont to do after overpowering any Hindu
State. As against the wholesale forcible conversion of the Hindus, the brutal
ravaging of Hindu women, the reckless destruction of Hindu property and
temples, the Muslim historians have no grievous crime to attribute (impute)
to this Hindu Emperor! Even if he had committed the very same atrocities
on the Muslim community as a revenge against the Muslim diabolism
towards the hapless Hindus, it would have been not a bit derogatory, but all
the more glorious for this revolutionary Hindu Emperor! The non-Hindu
aggressors would have taken the fright of their lives as never before, and it
would have proved a deterrent to their perfidious activities! We have
already made it amply clear that it is only the fierce retaliation that destroys
atrocity, root and branch!
790. But the main reason why this Defender of Faith (Dharamarakshak
Nasir-ud-din) did not commit any such revengeful atrocities on the Muslims
must probably be his keen sense of the strength and weakness of his side.
Were the whole of the Hindu community in the Indian sub-continent and the
ruling Hindu kings of the time to lend him their immediate and active
support—had his example in Delhi of reconverting to Hinduism the
converted Muslims at their own free will, of turning masjids into Hindu
temples and of other revolutionary activities of his, been copied in various
towns and cities of India from Rajputana to Southern capitals—and had the
Hindus risen openly against the Muslims and if the proclamation of the
success of Hinduism were published openly, this Hindu Emperor would
have persecuted the Muslims as were the Hindus actually before them and
would have also launched a special military offensive against the Muslims
and would have made it impossible for them to live as Muslims!

791. But the Hindu kings and Hindu people in general did not openly
     support this Hindu political revolution. They were, however, inwardly
     proud of it and overjoyed at it. They did appreciate this utter humiliation
     and ruination of the Muslim Sultanate at the hands of this Hindu
     Dharmarakshak ‘Nasir-ud-din’. The Hindu kings and the Hindu society at
     large nevertheless refrained from attempting any open revolt. The one
     reason why the Hindu Society failed to attempt the establishment of a
     Hindu Empire at this most opportune moment, was that the Hindus
     harboured serious doubts whether this undreamt of revolution would
     succeed. If that revolution were to fail, they feared, the followers would
     never escape complete annihilation. So, the Hindu community only waited.
     Secondly, the entire Hindu society never approved of the mass conversion
     of Muslims to Hinduism that was effected in and around Delhi as a sound
     religious practice! The Hindu Dharma of the day meant ban on
     reconversion, not reconversion! Religious tolerance had been their religion
     because of their perverted sense of values; their religion never brooked
     either the demolishing of masjids or converting the Muslims to Hinduism.
     This sort of reactionary measure was considered by the Hindus to be the
     greatest sin! So, who could have predicted that the Hindu society itself
     would not oppose tooth and nail this religious revolution? That possibility
     could not be ruled out altogether! Muslim opposition to this revolutionary
     change, however, in the imperial government and religion was quite natural.
792. Under these circumstances, Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din) refrained
     from any further atrocities or revenge upon the Muslims in Delhi or
     elsewhere in the empire, considering that his religious and political
     revolution in Delhi was in itself so daring as to put the Muslim power to
     shame, and so he was satisfied that the Hindu society had now become
     strong enough to relish and digest such a revolution! And this was not a
     small achievement! The next step could be deferred to a later date! The next
     favourable opportunity would most certainly be availed of. He did not,
     therefore, think it wise to stretch things too far so as to cause a complete
     break.
793. On the other hand, as had already been told (in Paragraph 784), he
     allowed the Muslim soldiers and peasants and civilians equal rights to the
     new facilities and exemption from taxes, which he did in the case of
     Hindus. Moreover, he kept on sending extremely valuable presents to those
     Muslim officers and Mullah-Maulvis, whom he suspected to be secretly

despising this religious revolution of the Hindus and the Hindu Empire, as
often as he sent them to those Muslim officers, who were loyal to him and
with a extremely polite treatment, kept them under his obligation.
794. It is because of this exceptional skill of his at diplomacy that even
after the successful realization of this religio-political revolution of the
Hindus, immediately or for months together thereafter, there was not a
single Muslim revolt—no riots nor brawls—throughout the length and
breadth of his vast empire. His whole administration was working as
smoothly as it did in the days of the old Muslim Sultans. Revenues, taxes or
ransoms were collected from all provinces and remitted to the imperial
treasury at Delhi without any default. In Delhi itself, the greatest of Muslim
knights and feudatory princes, generals and sardars and other courtiers and
officers attended the imperial court on the orders of this Hindu
Dharmarakshak and took their appointed seats. Of the great Muslim
noblemen reported by the historians of the time to be attending the court of
this Hindu emperor, Nasir-ud-din, some may be mentioned here: they were
Ain-ul-Mulk Multani, Yusuf Safi, Hatim Khan, Kamaluddin Sufi, Faruk-did
an-Tughlak, Mulgati, Mohammed Shah, Baharam Anayya, Yuklakhi,
Hoshang, Kaphur Saheb. Because of the presence of these big shots in the
Hindu court of Nasir-ud-din and because of written letters promising
allegiance to the emperor from governors, and administrators and Muslim
officers in the army, peace throughout the whole of India was never broken
for months together.
795. On the other hand, the Hindu kings from Rajputana to Madurai did
not protest, perhaps according to some previous secret pact, against the
revolution effected by this Hindu emperor. Why, availing themselves fully
of this military coup in Delhi, they began to rule the Hindu States
independently as before. Their chief fault was that at this greatest and rarest
of opportunities, they did not make a well-organized effort to proclaim the
independence of the Hindus and establish a united strong central imperial
power at Delhi.
796. Under the circumstances, the shrewd ‘Dharmarakshak’ (Nasir-ud-
din) well knew that although at first his Hindu administration was running
smoothly, his revolutionary Hindu empire depended on no other thing than
his armed might. He, therefore, kept the thousands of his choicest of Hindu
soldiers stationed in the capital in all readiness! At every vital centre of
defence in his empire, he drafted his most faithful Hindu battalions and also

the Muslim troops, which had sworn loyalty towards him. For, he knew
perfectly well that although the Muslims everywhere in his empire obeyed
him implicitly and swore alligance to him, sooner or later some rebellious
faction amongst them was bound to organize itself and stage a counter-
revolution against his pro-Hindu authority!
797. Want of space obliges us to skip over many intervening events.
Suffice it to say that the imperial administration, which nobody could have
expected to work smoothly even for a day, ran most efficiently, not for a
day, nor a month, but for nearly a year, overthrowing the Muslim
domination and turning the very same Muslim ‘Takhta’ (throne) which
means a ‘Sinhasan’ of a Hindu emperor, and replacing the green Muslim
Chand, which had been flaunting almost over the whole of India by the
victorious Hindu flag. Millions of Muslims, rich or poor, liege or serf,
throughout the whole of India, accepted without a murmur the overlordship
(sovereignty) of the Hindu empire. For, at least a year, the great Muslim
governors and officers obeyed implicitly the orders of this Hindu emperor
and made the common Muslim community do likewise. This itself was a
great wonder that glorifies the Hindu history of the times.
798. And another equally great wonder, which condemns the Hindus of
the time and those of later times also, is that in the histories written of the
Hindu people and by the Hindu people no major reference, let alone
grateful reference is made either to this Hindu imperial and religious
revolution and to its architect and engineer Dharmarakshak, (Nasir-ud-din)!
Whatever few words are written about him are full of censure and ridicule
for him and for his acts, in strict pursuance of the Muslim historical
writings!
Ghyasuddin Tughlak
799. But before this year of amazement elapsed, one or two top-ranking
Muslims ventured to hatch a conspiracy to overthrow the yoke of this
Hindu Emperor. Secret provocative pamphlets were being circulated and
bigoted moulavis were already instigating sedition secretly in their masjids,
that it was a grave insult to the whole Muslim world that the Muslim
imperial throne should be turned into a Hindu one, and that the Muslims
should be forced to bow down meekly before a ‘kafir’, and finally, that it
was highly essential for the Muslims to go on a crusade against the Hindu
sovereignty in order to end the utter degradation of Islam. But no Muslim
‘amir’, nor military chief, nor any superior officer offered to lead the

insurrection. Ultimately, the administrator and governor of Punjab under the
Sultan of Delhi, by name Ghyasuddin, aspired to shoulder that
responsibility. He began sending secret emissaries and epistles to that effect
to various higher Muslim authorities under Sultan Nasir-ud-din.
Ghyasuddin himself had sworn allegiance to the Sultan and was appointed
military Governor of Punjab, while one of his sons was an officer at Delhi
itself under the direct control of this ‘Hinduised Sultan’. Ghyasuddin called
this son of his for a private visit under some pretext, and gathered every sort
of minute detail about the situation in Delhi in his private interview with
that son. Whereupon he came to know for certain that after the murder of
Allauddin, his sons and relatives were either killed or deprived of their
eyesight and thus rendered useless. When he was thus satisfied that there
was no proper heir of Allauddin’s for the Sultanate at Delhi, he was all the
more elated to declare boldly, that as there was no proper heir left from the
house of Allauddin’s, it was only some powerful Muslim who could lay
claim to the throne at Delhi. That kafir Hindu Paria was not to be suffered to
touch it even. That kafir had married all the widows of all the earlier sultans
and the young Muslim girls and maidens from the royal palace to the Parias
(sweepers), whom he had formerly raised to eminence, and converted all
those ladies of the Muslim royal families to Hinduism. As no Muslim dared
to dethrone such a sinful Hindu kafir, he himself was going to shoulder the
responsibility.
800. For the first time, these secret letters of his were turned down with
spite by the top Muslim officers, while some others placed them into the
hands of Dharmarakshak Nasir-ud-din himself, who having already
apprehended such an eventuality and undaunted by it, calmly prepared
himself to crush this rising of Ghyasuddin immediately. Good many
Muslim generals, who had acknowledged him as a Sultan, enlisted their
forces in his service while the Hindu section of that imperial army was
always ready to fight at the cost of their lives under his standard.
801. At last, depending chiefly on the Muslim battalions, which were
employed under his command for the protection of Punjab and the frontiers,
Ghyasuddin decided to march upon Delhi. Some Hindu soldiers, too, were
amongst those advancing Muslim forces. No sooner did he hear that
Ghyasuddin was marching towards Delhi than the Hindu Emperor—
Dharmarakshak Nasir-ud-din himself—attacked him with his whole
imperial army. Along with this Hindu Emperor, marched the great Muslim

generals, too, with their battalions to fight under his command. When the
two armies met on the first day, the imperial army of Sultan Nasir-ud-din
won the field, and Ghyasuddin had to retreat. But the latter did not lose
heart. Knowing that depression of heart at this time meant utter ruin, and
that success depended briefly on enterprise and intrepidity, Ghyasuddin
rearranged his ranks and made ready for another battle. Fortunately for
Ghyasuddin, on that very day, one or two Muslim chieftains in the Sultan's
armies conspired to betray the Hindu Emperor Nasir-ud-din and let the
former know of their decision most secretly. Encouraged by this,
Ghyasuddin himself fell upon the forces of Sultan Nasir-ud-din (Hindu
Samrat, Shree Dharmarakshak). In the melee that ensued, the betrayal by
the Muslim forces brought about the utter defeat of Sultan Nasir-ud-din. So
the Sultan—Shree Dharmarakshak—left the field and started for Delhi. But
mad with victory, Ghyasuddin marched straight towards Delhi, and in that
hot pursuit, Shree Dharmarakhak—Sultan Nasir-ud-din-—fell helpless in
the hands of the enemy.
802. When the victor, Ghyasuddin, ordered the captive Sultan, Nasir-ud-
din, to be brought before him and charging him with the murder of Mubarik
and decided to sentence him to death, he asked the captive the last question:
“Setting aside the question of political expediency or the bid for the throne
of the Sultan and considering only the personal aspect of this act of yours,
what personal wrong did Mubarik do to you, that you might seek to avenge
it by his death? To this, the captive Nasir-ud-din (Khushrukhan) replied to
this effect: “Of course! He was guilty of a such personal wrong to me! For
the most heinous crime of inflicting homosexual and other unbearable
atrocities that this mean and vicious Mubarik had perpetrated on my body
ever since my tender age and for the humiliation that he had heaped upon
my life. I had long vowed most solemnly that at the earliest opportunity, I
would avenge all those personal wrongs upon that villain with murder!”
803. Thereupon, Ghyasuddin dispatched him instantaneously.
804. That was the tragic end of Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din). But
the last of the accredited Hindu Emperor of Delhi, the valiant Prithviraj
Chouhan, was also equally tragically murdered by the Muslims after his
utter rout in the last battle!
805. And the dountless Shree Guru Banda of Punjab! After inflicting
several crushing defeats upon the Muslims, when at last he fell into the
hands of the Muslim monarch, was he not locked up in a cage like a wild

beast? Didn’t red-hot iron pikes and pincers pierce his body and pull out
large pieces of his flesh and was he not after so much torture, put to cruel
death by the Muslims?
806. But is any thoroughbread Hindu likely to forget the gratitude that we
all owe to those various Hindu gallant warriors for their glorious martyrdom
in the cause of Hinduism, simply because they were defeated in the end? It
is this grateful memory of such martyrs that becomes the perennial source
of inspiration for the nation for ages after ages!
807. O You! Hindu Samrat ‘Shree Dharmarakshak! This martyrdom of
yours, too, has become a freshwater spring of inspiration for the Hindu
nation! It is to atone for the sin of failing to utter a single grateful word for
you, to preserve some souvenir, some memento of yours, that the Hindus of
your own times or those of the later generations have committed, and it is
again in expiation of the sin of our Hindu ingratitude towards you, that we
have most reverently offered you this separate chapter in this book.
808. Had you but chosen to remain a Muslim Sultan, you could easily
have perpetuated the Sultanate of the whole of India down to your
descendants, generations after generations, as it happened in the case of the
Khiljee or Slave dynasties after Allauddin or Ghyasuddin. But with glowing
respect and pride for the Hindu religion and the Hindu nation, you purified
the very Muslim Title of Sultan, turned the Muslim, ‘Takhta’ into a Hindu
‘Sinhasan’, and slighting the Muslim Sultanate, proclaimed yourself Hindu
Samrat (Emperor)!
809. After Emperor Prithviraj Chauhan, it was you alone who made a
gallant bid to occupy the imperial throne of Delhi as a Hindu Emperor! In
spite of your birth in an humble and miserable Hindu family; in spite of
your being defiled and converted to Islam and made an abject slave by your
Muslim enemies at your tender age, you became the Sultan of Sultans by
the dint of your valour, your versatility, your military exploits, your arch-
diplomacy and your adroitness in engineering deep-laid plots, and made the
whole of India resound with the glory of Hinduism! We have done our duty
to relate with proofs, your (in a way) peculiar life to the Hindu Nation and
the world at large, so far as it is possible for us to do so.
The Peculiar Character of this Hindu Revolution!
810. Although in this millenial Hindu-Muslim war, the Hindu Nation had
been fighting on the political and military fronts more or less on equal
grounds, using effective counter-offensive and tactics and ultimately

overpowering the Muslim sovereignty, it was incessantly overwhelmed on
the religious front, because of their own hateful bans on re-conversion and
the like—fetters, which prevented the Hindus from opening any counter-
offensive on the Muslim religion as such! But, this Hindu Emperor, Shree
Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din), successfully launched a counter-attack upon
the Muslims, both on political and military as well as on the religious
fronts, using the same means and weapons. To counter-balance the forceful
conversion of the Hindus by the Muslims, Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-
din) brought about hundreds of Muslim reconversions to Hinduism and
their republication ceremonies under the protection of his armed might.
Just as the Muslim used to rush headlong to ravage and convert the Hindu
women to Islam, in the same way, the Hindus broke into the harems of the
Muslim Sultan and converted the willing Mohamedan women to Hinduism
and married them to their Hindu followers. If the Muslims demolished the
Hindu temples, Shree Dharmarakshak, in the excitement of this victory,
turned the very Muslim Masjids into Hindu temples. It was this
Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din) who, for the first time in Hindu history,
showed so very successfully and on such a large scale, how the Muslim
armed aggression upon Hinduism and the religious persecution that they
perpetrated before and after, could be retaliated and how the Muslims could
be routed completely on the religious front too. If from the beginning, the
Muslims had to face such bold opposition and been forced to suffer such
powerful counterstrokes on the religious front, they would never have dared
to strike, in spite of all their military might at Hinduism. This first blow,
which the Hindus delivered to Islam in Delhi, shook the Muslims so very
severely! And this is the peculiar character of this Hinduistic revolution
brought about by Shree Dharmarakshak (Khushrukhan Nasir-ud-din).
811. We have intentionally called this account of Khushrukhan's life and
achievements as based on proofs! Although, as we have pointed out in
Paragraph 744, nobody barring some honourable exception, has written any
good word about you, O Khushrukhan, the very inconsistent and confused
and oblique reference to you, tell a story which is all the more glorious for
you! As such, although your life and career as painted by us too has so far
not any ‘written’ or ‘oral’ ‘basis’ or any strong proofs, even then there is
another equally strong and unimpeachable legal evidence, which, at times,
sets aside even written or oral ones, in such historical and judicial matters
of daily occurrence. That evidence is called circumstantial evidence!

The Authority of Circumstantial Evidence
812. In the science of logic the authority of circumstantial evidence is
considered, at least in certain cases, to be the better mode of reasoning than
inference, the word of the elders, or illustration. Especially, when the
intentions and feelings or emotions of the engineers of deep-laid political
conspiracies and plots are to be ascertained, circumstantial evidence is
considered to be the only strong basis for it and it should be thought so, and
rightly too! The written confession of the accused under their own signature
can be refuted by the circumstantial evidence of bodily persecution and
torture; so does written evidence!
813. Your life, O Dharmarakshak, therefore, has been based more on the
strictly logical circumstantial evidence than on your own words or the
writings of your contemporary and later day historians, hence it is based on
solid proof. Even if your words are not available, your very act and deeds
are in themselves far more telling.
814. The brother of this Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din) was himself
a very great warrior and an able administrator. The original Hindu name of
this brother of Shree Dharmarakshak is also not known as yet, for in his
very early childhood, he too was converted and made a slave. When this
Hindu Emperor appointed him the Governor of Gujarat, he openly accepted
Hinduism and canvassed for it. In order to overthrow the Muslim
government in Gujarat, he raised a Hindu revolt and sent twenty to
twentyfive thousand brave warriors of his parwar (community) to help his
brother at Delhi. What ultimately became of them all is not known to
history. He too deserves place of honour in Hindu history.
815. And on the same basis of this circumstantial evidence, does that
former Hindu royal princess and the Yadav Queen, Devaldevi, who was
equally responsible for bringing about the unprecedented Hindu revolution
of Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din) and who was his important
accomplice in the secret plot, and who became, after the successful
accomplishment of the said revolution, the Hindu Empress of Shree
Dharmarakshak, deserves even a greater place of honour, like that of Devi
Padmini of Chitod, for the unimaginable mental agonies that she had to
suffer in the most adverse circumstances! She deserves the honour of a
brave warrior Rajput Princess, burning herself on the pyre or in Johar!
816. Her end, too, is clouded in mystery! One of the writers of the time
has said that she was provided for Ghyasuddin after he became the Sultan

of Delhi.
Not a Fruitless Martyrdom!
817. Thus were the two valiant associates of the Hindu Emperor,
Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din) forced to court martyrdom! But their
martyrdom lent a wonderful strength to the morale of the Hindu Nation.
For, the fact that in Delhi itself, was established a Hindu Empire, which
could powerfully and effectively govern the Muslim States, Nawabs, and
Muslim populace throughout India for nearly a year, helped the Hindu kings
and the Hindu people to shake off the dominant influence of the Muslim
political superiority, which had for centuries overawed the Hindu mind. The
myth of this Muslim political superiority as at once exploded and a rare
confidence was inspired amongst the Hindus that, were they but to run a
little risk, they would also be able to crush the Muslim political hold on
them. Shree Dharmarakshak courted martyrdom in 1321; it was soon
followed by the risings in Hindu States in the north and south of India. The
Muslim provinces round about Delhi, too, began fighting with the Muslim
imperial power at Delhi in order to establish their own dynasties in their
own provinces. In the end, hardly within fifteen to sixteen years of the
martyrdom of Shree Dharmarakshak, the Muslim imperial authority at
Delhi became extremely weak, and a powerful Hindu revolt culminated in
the establishment of a completely independent Hindu Kingdom of
Vijayanagar, the detailed account of which must necessarily be deferred to
next chapter.
❑