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

Hindus could not withstand their earlier invasions. But as those wild and
valorous Muslims from beyond the Himalayas began to settle down here for
centuries together, generation-after-generation, and as many of their
dynasties ruled here, they, too, were victims of laziness, mildness, and
proclivity towards luxurious living. They could not retain their former
sturdiness, endurance and savage strength, which could stand them in good
stead on the battlefield. The ‘unhealthy’ climate of India did not fail to tell
upon their originally strong wild bodies! On the whole, the descendants of
those very Muslims came to be weaker and ‘not true to their mettle’. That is
why the Hindu, especially the Marathas could vanquish only those
Muslims!
1054. How very imperfect and unrealistic is this statement! Only one
instance of the Maratha offensive against the Rohillas and the Pathans in the
Doab and the fact that the Marathas killed as many as twenty thousand of
the enemy in the action is quite sufficient to prove the falsity and platitude
of the above estimate of the Muslim failure! The Pathan-Rohillas ruling
from the Doab to Rohilkhand at that time considered themselves to be
‘high-born’ Afghans of the finest mettle. Even the Moghal imperial power
and the Turkish Nawabs and chieftains dreaded them most. These Afghans
had even at that time close and uninterrupted blood relation and family ties
with the ‘original’ stalk of the Afghans beyond the Himalayas. Every year,
hundreds of those ‘true-bred’ and ‘real’ Afghans came to reside in this
Pathanistan in the Doab, while the Afghans here went over to their original
homes. It clearly means, therefore, that the thousands of the Pathan-Rohillas
in the long tract between the Doab and the Rohilkhand were till that time, at
least, ‘real’ and ‘original’, ‘true-born’ and ‘thorough-bred’ Pathans and
Afghans! And the Marathas? They belonged, after all originally and
traditionally, to that country—India—which her enemies called sterile-born
and brought up there for
generations together!
Even then, did they not often prove these so-called ‘true-born’ and
‘thorough-bred’ Pathans and Afghans to be of baser mettle in the final test
on the field of battle? Even when Nadirshah fell upon Delhi with an army of
the thousands of his ‘true-born’ and ‘thorough-bred’ Pathans, crowned
himself ‘Emperor of Delhi’ and threatend to march to the South like
Mahmud of Ghazni, is it not because he realized in his heart of hearts that
the times had then changed—that it was not the India of Ghazni’s times—

that now it was the Marathas, whom he had to face, that he retreated so
hastily and went clean out of India! Simply because of the dread of the
Marathas? In his wake, followed Abdali invading India thrice or four times,
every time with an army of not less than fifty thousand strong, made up of
the pick of Turkish, Iranian, Durani, Pathan soldiery. But how every time he
had to go back crestfallen, because of the armed counter-offensive of the
Marathas, how even in the turning of the scale of fortune and even after the
terrible losses for the Marathas at Panipat, he had to sign a treaty that the
direction of the Moghal imperial affairs at Delhi be left into the hands of the
Marathas, how he agreed not to interfere with it, in the least, and how,
relinquishing his high ambition to be the absolute and unlimited Emperor of
Delhi, he had to submit to the Marathas and go back, never to return, can
best be read by every Hindu from our book, Hindu Padpadshahi. It is going
to be referred to again in the following pages.
1055. Physical build, height and breadth and weight do count as important
and decisive factors in matters of personal combats. Even then, it cannot be
made a rule without exception! The grave of the monstrous Afzalkhan at
the foot of Pratapgad is evidence enough! But in the struggles of nations,
the chances of success or failure can never be assesed on the strength of
physical build, enduring capacity and the stubborness of constitution.
Didn’t the dwarfish Japanese lay the gigantic Russians low on the battlefield
in the first Russo-Japanese war—the towering and sturdy Russians in
comparison with whom the ‘true-born’ and ‘thorough-bred’ Pathans seem
absolute midgets? Our Hindu Gorkhas are veritable Marathas in respect of
stature. But haven’t these very Gorkhas vanquished the Italian, the Austrian
and the colossal Hitlerian German armies on various occasions and on
various battlefields in the last World War? The whole world still resounds
with the fame of the Gorkhas—‘A Hindu Gorkha means a gallant fighter’ is
a common place adage nowadays who once ruled as the invincible Emperor
of all the European nations like Germany, Russia and others, renowned for
their tall and sturdy soldiers, if not the ‘short’ Napoleon and his small
French army?
Abdali’s third invasion of India
1056. The Moghal Emperor had made Gazi-ud-din his chief minister
(Vizier), who went all the way along to Sarhind in Punjab in February,
1756, to appoint Adina Beg as the chief imperial officer there. Gazi-ud-din
acted in this case depending solely on the Maratha support, and this act of

his clearly meant that the whole of the province of Punjab, which was
reduced by Abdali, was once agian seized by the Moghal Emperor. Even in
Delhi, the Afghan influence was ineffectual and Gazi-ud-din, strongly
supported by the Marathas, spoke for the Moghal Emperor. Under these
circumstances, Malika Zamani, the old and crafty chief stewardess in the
Moghal imperial household, who was frightened out of her wits (at this all-
enveloping Maratha hold on the Moghal Empire) and Nizibkhan Rohilla,
who was then a prominent leader of all the Rohillas and Pathans in India
and who was the bitterest enemy of the Marathas, secretly wrote letters to
Ahmadshah Abdali to the effect that if at all Muslim power in India was to
be saved, it was Abdali alone who could save it, and that, as such he should
forthwith march on India with a well-equipped army. They had also
mentioned the fact that the Maratha armies were occupied in the south and
that Delhi was practically defenceless. But the Moghal Emperor, they
wrote, had already sent word to the Marathas to come to Delhi in all haste.
So, if Abdali was late, they argued, the Marathas were very likely to
establish their authority right up to Punjab, Thattha and Multan (Sindh) as
per their treaty with the Moghal Emperor and that they were to march with
mighty armies on Delhi and Punjab.
1057. At this news, Abdali was enraged beyond measure. It was to nullify
the imperial charter (Sanad) which entrusted the government of Punjab and
the neighbouring region to the Marathas, that he had recently invaded India
and annexed that region to his kingdom. He, therefore, took it highly amiss
that Gazi-ud-din should reincorporate that part into the Moghal empire,
without any sort of appeal or reference made to him. Naturally, once again,
he came to Peshawar in November, 1756, with a view to invading India
sending his son, Taimurshah and his General Jahankhan to take Lahore. The
Moghal general Adinabeg fought with Taimurshah, but was defeated, and
there was nobody to beat down the orgy of sword and fire which the Afghan
force indulged in, while they rushed headlong from Lahore to Sutlej.
Emboldened by this Moghal infirmity, Shah Abdali advanced straight to
Delhi without stopping anywhere for rest, with an army of eighty thousand
strong in January 1757 A.D. Delhi fell into his hands practically without
any resistance. Immediately, he took over the imperial authority and began
to run the government in his own name.
1058. And he precipitately performed what the Pathans and the Muslims
of the time thought to be their first and foremost duty, according to the

religious code of every Muslim Emperor. In order to make it suit his
dignity, he even fumed and fretted at the slightest pretext and ordered a
horrible general massacre of the citizens of Delhi, so that they might submit
meekly to his rule over Delhi. Within a few hours, ‘true and high-born’ and
‘thorough-bred’ Afghans beyond the Himalayas slaughtered more than
eighteen thousand people, and according to the second universally
acknowledged notion of the time, regarding the regal function in
accordance with the Muslim religious code, he proclaimed forthwith that as
an humble and royal adherent of Islam, he would completely destroy all the
Kafirs and their temples and all religious institutions throughout India!
1059. Without any loss of time, he brought his horrible announcement into
action. Under his orders, the Hindu temples, shrines, idols and their houses
began to be pulled down and set ablaze. Emperor Abdali was particularly
infuriated against the several Hindu holy places like Mathura and Prayag,
which the Marathas had rescued from the Muslim hands. So he began to
defile them all, one after another. On such occasions, Mathura, which is
very close to Delhi, was the first to fall a prey after Delhi, to all sorts of
vandalism of the monstrous aggressors and stoically enough, did that holy
city offer itself, time and again, as sacrificial oblation, as any brave lady in
the famous immolation (Johar) of Chitod or the very city of Chitod itself.
But this time, it did not merely submit itself to the Muslim religious
persecution, without fighting, as it had been doing till this time. Although
detailed description is not possible here for want of space, it must be told
here that nearly five thousand Hindu Jat citizens fought to the last drop of
blood left in them that innumerable and well-organized Muslim army.
Every brave Hindu, who died, did so only after killing as many of his
Muslim foes as was possible for him to kill. After bathing Mathura in blood
and burying it under heaps of the rubble of its demolished temples and
shrines and idols, Abdali attacked another neighbouring holy place of the
Hindus, Gokul Vrindavan. This also had been the object of Abdali’s fury for
the simple reason that the Marathas had recently snatched it away from the
Muslims. In order to halt this monstrous attack, more than two thousand
valiant ‘Gosavees’ (Monks), from the famous gymnasium of ‘Nanga
Gosavee’, suddenly fell upon the Muslim army with a grim determination
to fight unto death. This assault of the Gosavees was so sudden, so well
organized and so ferocious that Abdali’s forces reeled back all of a sudden
at the first knock. Thousands of Muslim soliders were killed outright, and

the brave gosavees, too! After the fierce fighting that continued throughout
the day, the Muslims left the town and retreated while the wounded and
bleeding city resounded joyously and thankfully with praises for those
Nanga Bairagees (naked ascetics), who had defended its Gokulnath. If at
all, one wishes to be a naked ascetic (Nanga Bairagee), he should be one
such!
1060. Abdali then marched against Agra and invested that strong fort. In
this very fort was fighting the direst enemy of the Pathan party in imperial
court, and one who sincerely tried to save the Moghal imperial power,
namely Gazi-ud-din, and he was every moment expecting reinforcement
from his protectors, the Marathas!
1061. But what were the Hindu kings and princes of Jaipur, Jodhpur and
Udaypur and other neighbouring states, the sardars and noblemen of courts
and the million of their warriors and subjects doing at this critical time for
the Hindu religion? While Abdali was indulging in reckless and ruthless
bloodshed of thousands of Hindu warriors, who sacrificed their lives in the
defence of their religion, and while all the Hindu places of pilgrimage were
being turned red with the blood of these innumerable Hindu martyrs, it was
the common people in north India, and not their rulers, who anxiously
waited every moment for the arrival of the Marathas and the relief at their
hands from all these atrocities! But the rest of Hindu kings and princes and
landlords (jagirdars), who had in their pay large fighting forces, wasted their
time cherishing malice towards the Marathas. All the Rajput princes were
secretly longing for the destruction of the Marathas at Abdalis’s hands.
Many of the Hindu rulers there—significant as well as insignificant—had
been carrying on secret negotiations with Abdali’s. But what, if Abdali had
wiped out the Maratha influence from Sindh-Multan to the end of
Rohilkhand and Nepal in the north, according to the wishes of the Hindu
and Muslim rulers in the north! The appalling answer to this question
doesn’t seem to have disturbed them a bit. Except for the Marathas, who
else were there of these Hindu princes and kings, who could have proved to
be the destroyer and conqueror of the Muslim domination? None at all!
What, then, could these incompetent Hindu Rajputs and others have gained,
if the Marathas had been destroyed by Abdali and the latter had once more
established Muslim imperial power throughout the North of India? All that
would have happened was perhaps that, a new wave of bloodshed of

millions of Hindus and atrocities at the orders of another imperial power of
a new Allauddin or a new Aurangzeb would have swept the Hindu world.
1062. But perhaps it was because of the earnest desire and heartfelt
longing of the above-mentioned millions of the Hindu commonality, who
themselves being disorganized, were utterly powerless to do anything in the
matter, except secretly wishing for the speedy arrival of the Marathas, who,
in their opinion, were the only ones to smash the Muslim power completely
or perhaps because of the original sustaining power of the Hindu nation in
general, that nothing of the kind happened.
1063. For, on receiving letters from the Maratha Sardars and Gazi-ud-din
and others, Peshwa Nanasahib immediately sent Malharrao Holkar under
the chief command of Raghunathrau Dada, with a large army. Urgent letters
were also sent to the Maratha Sardars such as Govindpant Bundeley, Barve
and others, who were already in the North to render every sort of assistance
to Raghunathrao. Before Raghunathrao left Indore and marched ahead,
news arrived that hearing the reports of the Maratha advance, Abdali had
left Mathura, Vrindaban and other Hindu places of worship and pilgrimage,
and gone to Delhi and thence to Kabul, taking away all the booty he had
acquired. But he had vested, before his departure to Kabul, the supreme
command of that region in the hands of his son, Taimurshah, stationing ten
thousand soldiers under him at Sirhind and installing his officers at various
important places in Punjab.
1064. While on this side, the Maratha forces under different military
leaders in the North, which had gathered together under the one command
of Raghunathrao, began to punish severely all those who had begun anti-
Maratha activities, relying on Abdali for support. Sakharam Bhagwant,
Gangadhar Yeshwant and other Maratha Sardars entered the Doab and once
again beat down the Pathan-Rohilla malfactors, released and brought into
their fold Vazir Gazi-ud-din, who had been made a captive by the Abdali
party. Vithal Shivadev himself marched on Delhi, and after about a
fortnight's fierce fighting, entered the city triumphantly, crushing down the
Abdali faction completely. The greatest of the triumphs was that the direst
enemy of the Maratha and Abdali's right-hand man, Najibkhan Rohilla,
was caught alive. Eventually, Abdali's settlement of the region under his
suzerainty was toppled down completely. The Pathan army of ten thousand
strong, which Abdali had stationed at Sirhind under the command of Abdul
Samad in order to maintain his hold on the region, itself lost courage.

Consequently, when the Marathas themselves advanced menacingly
towards Sirhind, there was a great commotion caused in the Muslim ranks
even before a regular battle was joined, and they were completely routed in
the initial skirmishes and their commander was caught alive. This news
made Taimurshah, the son of Abdali and his governor of Punjab, and his
commander-in-chief, Jahankhan, leave off their original plan of defending
Lahore and in the face of this forceful and precipitate Maratha counter-
offensive, both of them struck an honourable retreat to Kabul along with all
their army, hardly daring to face the Marathas on the battlefield. Abdali had
strictly urged upon them that they were under no circumstances to let the
vast treasures of millions (crores) of rupees, which was still in their
possession, to fall in the enemy hands. As such, they tried utmost to carry it
safely, retreating in as orderly a manner as was possible. But the Marathas
not only pursued them even beyond Lahore but they played such a havoc in
the Muslim ranks that Traimurshab crossed Attock and fled to his own
province, leaving behind at various places all his elephants, horses, camels,
and all the treasure in cash and jewellery, gold and silver. He had nothing
to carry home of the vast plunder from India, except his own life!
Whatever else belonged to him, was either sacked or destroyed by the
Marathas. Whatever little of his Afghan army escaped only with their lives
to Kabul like their governor, were the only ones that remained alive! All of
the veteran Pathan army of fifteen to twenty thousand strong, which was
kept behind in Delhi and Punjab by Abdali to annihilate the Hindus and the
Hindu religion throughout India, was attacked group by group and
massacred by the Marathas in the battles and skirmishes fought with them.
1065. Thus, by inflicting crushing and humiliating defeats on Emperor
Ahmadshah Abdali and by reconquering from the Afghan empire the
whole vast region from Sindh to Multan and Multan to Sirhind, the
Marathas once again gained the de facto control over the governance and
administration of this extensive province which they had earlier gained by
a paper treaty with the Moghal emperor! But the then Moghal emperor and
his Vazir, Gazi-ud-din, themselves knew very well that in their own
interest, too, it was essential that the Marathas should do this. Hence, the
Emperor himself gave order that Raghunathrao’s formal triumphant entry
into Lahore for the settlement of the affairs there, was to be celebrated
publicly with all pomp and festivities. All the Hindu chieftains of Kashmir,
Dogra nobles, Missals of the Sikhs and the so-called Muslim Empire,

Umraos, ‘Nizams and Nawabs’, who had been so far engaged in riotous
actions and ravaging the country to their own sweet will, were so much
overawed and struck dumb by this extraordinary heroism of the Marathas
in recapturing the whole of Punjab and the adjoining territories, that they
began to join the Maratha General Raghunathrao as subordinate allies. The
Sikhs had been recently gaining control over things in Punjab and they
were infuriated by Abdali’s wanton act of demolishing their at Amritsar
and filling up their holy lake round it with filth, mud, stones and bricks
during his retreat to Kabul for fear of the Marathas. They had, therefore,
become inveterate enemies of Abdali, and mighty leader of one of their
powerful ‘Missals’, namely Alasingh Jat (whom the Maratha
correspondence of the times referes to as ‘Ala Jat’) had joined the Marathas
openly in the battle of Sirhind. Hence, as almost all these leaders and
parties who had been then active in the political movements in Punjab were
favourable to such a grand ovation to be given to Raghunathrao, it was
agreed on all hands that the imperial ceremony felicitating the triumphal
entry into Lahore of Raghunathrao at the head of his army should be
celebrated after the Maratha general’s successful campaign towards Sindh.
The Triumphant March of Raghunathrao Peshwa in Punjab
1066. Taimurshah, who fled beyond the frontier, tried to carry with him
the immense treasure the Muslims had plundered in India, and it was to
seize that treasure that Raghunathrao entered Punjab in hot pursuit of the
Pathan army, which ran helter-skelter. Conquering more than half of Punjab
of Abdali, Raghunathrao drove them off to the frontier. Leaving the rest of
the work of regaining the frontier to the other Maratha companies and
brigades, he returned to Lahore, the Capital of Punjab, in order to
consolidate the Maratha gains and settle the affairs there and lay a firm
foundation of the Maratha power in the newly accquired territory. On the
11th of April, 1758, he made his triumphant entry into Lahore with all the
regalia and his victorious army.
1067. A magnificent ovation was given to him in order to glorify this
victorious entry of his, attended with feasting and dancing. Raghunathrao
sojourned in no less a place than the imperial palace itself. The other
prominent Maratha warlords had also put up in big palaces in Lahore or the
camps in the vicinity of the city. Everywhere, hundreds of well-adorned
elephants, horses, camels and fatted bulls paraded through the streets.
Various big Hindu-Muslim from different places, Emirs, Umraos, the so-

called Nawabs, Nizams, Raos, Kings and courtiers presented themselves in
the magnificent Darbar in the afternoon. Everyone of them, the political as
well as the civil administrators, nay, even the imperial army in Punjab,
vowed allegiance to the Peshwa at Poona and Raghunathrao was honoured
as the representative of that Peshwa. Every one of them tendered his
homage in the form of rich gifts to Raghunathrao. At night, the whole city
was gloriously illumined. Dazzling fireworks were displayed everywhere.
Even the neighbouring cities round about Lahore celebrated that feast of
light and fireworks display.
1068. What was the setting or the location of this triumphant assembly—
this feast of light? It was no other than the recreation grounds of the greatest
of the Moghal Emperors, like Akbar, Jahangir, Shahjahan and others—the
extensive courtyard of the most famous Shalimar gardens of Lahore!! The
Marathas had thus reduced the Muslim imperial power to serfdom!
1069. At the news of this glorious Maratha victory, there was literally a
shower on Raghunathrao of the congratulatory letters written not only by
the numerous Kings and courtiers, Sardars of various ranks and the
learned Shastri-pandits, who were openly or secretly endeavouring beyond
all measure in the cause of Hindu-Padpadshahi throughout the length and
breadth of India, but by the self-less ascetics, also. As has been said in
Paragraph 991, the various writers of these multifarious congratulatory
letters were so much overcome by a sense of pride and jubilation over this
unconceivable Maratha victory, that they could not convey their feeling in
simple prose. These could only be conveyed through some mythological
imagery, a sample of which can be had in this one sent to Raghunathrao on
the 5th of May, 1758, by a Maratha General in Delhi, Antaji Mankeshwar,
who was in the habit of writing nothing but simple political reports and yet
who was one of the higher officers in the Maratha army.
1070. “Received your Excellency’s favour (of 13th April). How can I
express adequately the excessive joy I felt at the news in your
Excellency’s letter about the victory at Lahore, the destruction of the
enemy and the acquistion of the terrirories there? (Your Excellency’s)
fame has spread far and wide in Hindusthan (North India). The high-born
Emirs and Umraos and Governors, all are overawed! It is your Excellency
alone who avenged the wrong of the whole of Hindusthan (North India)!
As such, your Excellency’s success vies with the mountains! Your
Excellency is (destined to be) successful. How can this poor servant of

your Excellency have the ability to dilate upon this topic? The Vazir was
extremely pleased to hear these tidings (and said) “His Excellency is truly
an incarnation of God. How can a human being praise Him sufficiently’?
Your humble servant (i.e. I) has no other safe shelter anywhere except at
your feet. If your Honour is likely to encamp at Lahore, I will come there
with the Emperor and his Vazir. The Vazir and all others, great and small,
fear that in case your Excellency were not to encamp, the Pathans are
likely to return to Lahore in the rainy season. I have just set down here
what the people say. Your Honour’s is the right to decide upon the course
of action to be followed. May your Excellency be kind enough to let this
humble servant know whether the proposal of bringing the Vazir and the
Emperor there is fair or otherwise, and your Excellency’s orders in this
respect are awaited. Vithal Shivdev would escort them there if Your
Honour so pleases. Krishnarao (Kale), too, might come, and put before
Your Honour everything.”—5.5.1758.
The report on the conquest of Punjab sent by Raghunathrao Peshwa
Himself
1071. Now letters-after-letters followed in quick succession from
Shreemant Nanasahib at Poona asking Raghunathrao to return along with
his army to the South before the monsoons set in. But as Punjab had been
very recently conquered, it was absolutely essential that proper system had
to be urgently laid down for the governance and administration of the vast
territory. As such, it was desirable that Raghunathrao should entrench
himself there with all his army for another four months. All the ablest
Maratha leaders and army commanders thought and urged that
Raghunathrao had better not to go to the Daccan along with Malharrao
Holkar. But Raghunathrao Dada and Malharrao Holkar, too, were in their
heart of hearts inclined to go to the South. Now that Nanasahib had ‘called’
him back, Raghunathrao himself sent an authentic report, penned by
himself, to Shreemant Nanasahib about the unprecedented success in
Punjab, and began his return march towards Poona. Many other Maratha
Sardars, including the one of the status of Malharrao Holkar, returned to the
Deccan along with Raghunathrao. Of course, in order to maintain the
Maratha rule unhampered in Punjab the requisite Maratha forces were
stationed at different places by Raghunathrao under some Sardars.
1072. Although it was quite possible to describe the valour of the
Marathas in this campaign in Punjab in the grand style of an epic or heroic

poetry, Raghunathrao, however, it is especially to be noted, put the whole
thing in the report he sent of this campaign to Poona in the most direct
matter-of-fact way, befitting his solider’s profession, without any long-
winded digressions or self-adulation or exaggeration of any sort. Hence, we
should like to cite his very words.
1073. Writes Raghunathrao in his despatch of the 4th May, 1758, to the
Peshwa: “As regards the bandobasta of (resettling the affairs or re-
establishing firm control over) the provinces, the Lahore, Multan, Kashmir
and rest of the territory this side of Attock, I should like to say that a part of
the work is done and rest of it I shall do very shortly. After hotly pursuing
Sultan Taimur and Jahankhan, we have routed and plundered all their army.
Fighting some skirmishes here and there and being beaten, they have fled to
Peshawar beyond Attock. Abdali marched against Iran but the Persian
emperor despoiled his whole army. Abdali then came (back) to Kandahar,
followed by the Irani army in hot pursuit. Jabardestakhan and Mur-r-
rubkhan, the Sardars and Landlords of this province, who had tendered their
loyalties to Abdali because of the latter’s threatening might (or tyrannical
treatment), have also now changed their side and are promising to serve
faithfully and to chastise Abdali. Abdali himself has lost courage. In short,
it does not seem that he can muster strong from that front. He has been,
already, chastised by the Shah of Iran on the other side. It would be proper
if you send reinforcements and establish His Majesty’s control beyond
Attock. His nephew and heir to the throne, who had approached Your
Excellency and whom Your Excellency had sent to us, will be given some
territory this side of Attock to establish himself and then will be appointed
to the Subha of Kabul, Peshawar beyond Attock. The chief of Abdali’s
forces, Abdul Samadkhan, who was in Sirhind, is captive of our state. I
shall send him and some Moghal and Irani forces from this province. They
will manage the affairs there. By virtue of Your Excellency’s greatness and
piety, they will bring pressure on Abdali and punishing him severely, they
will establish our control beyond Attock. Renake Anaji and Rayaji
Sakhadev have been posted in Lahore. Gopal Ganesh (Barve) also is quite
at home in this region. He too will stay. The Emperor of Iran had sent the
letters to me and to Malharrao (Holkar) calling us precipitately to Kandahar
to destroy him (Abdali) and to fix up the frontier at Attock. But we, at least
on our part should like to send Abdul Rahimankhan of Kabul, whom your
Excellency had sent to us, and we shall help him with some armed forces

and other sinews of war. The provinces of Kabul and Kandahar, beyond
Attock, have been a part of Hindusthan from (the times of) Akbar to (that
of) Alamgir; why should we then give these away? For the present, we shall
establish Irani control over the region and send a pleasant reply.
Ambassadors from all the neighbouring powers like Jammu and Kashmir
have come. We shall settle about the territory this side of Attock; further
beyond, it is not yet possible (to do anything of the kind). Efforts (in that
direction) will be made. For the present, I shall do whatever is most urgent.
Whoever stronger person will lead the next expedition will effect a
permanent settlement. The province has a revenue collection of about two
to four crore (twenty to forty million of rupees). But the landlords and
Jamindars are very powerful. We collect only a nominal revenue. It is
difficult to realise even two hundred thousand rupees from a province with
a yield of at least two and a half million. For the present, we are staging a
comeback under Your Excellency’s orders. As such, we do whatever is
possible; we do not stretch matters too far. For the time being, the
governance of the territory has been entrusted to Adina Beg alone. To him
we have given Lahore and Multan on lease. This year, the whole (of the
revenue collection) will be consumed by the occupation army (garrison
army); even fitting out such an occupation army will be difficult; things
would be favourable after two or three years. With compliments to Your
Excellency!!”
1074. THE ONLY DISGRACEFUL PART OF IT IS THAT WHILE
RETURNING TO THE DECCAN, THE MARATHAS DID NOT TAKE
REVENGE ON THE MUSLIMS FOR THEIR RELIGIOUS
PERSECUTION!
1074A. In Chapter 8, on the ‘Perverted Conception of Virtues’, of the
book, it has already been shown in greater detail how the Hindu society (of
the time) was haunted by a false and perverted sense of virtues and as such
how the Hindus did not even slightly avenge the unbearable and unlimited
persecution and the diabolic atrocities perperated by the Muslims on the
Hindu religion. Unlike Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Greece and other
(European) nations which saved Christianity from extinction (from their
lands) by ridding completely their homeland of Muslims, the Hindus did
not extirpate the Muslims from India. They refrained from inflicting similar,
not to speak of greater atrocities even on the enemy, like Muslims who
considered religious persecution and diabolic and heinous atrocities

themsleves to be their religious duties! Every drop of blood in the Hindu
veins and arteries was surcharged, as it were, with the false and suicidal and
perverted conception of religious tolerance towards the aliens. The notion
that whatever the nature of atrocities of the aliens on our religion, we
should not, even for resisting them, retaliate against these very aggressive
alien religionists, was the essence of their religious tolerance. And it was
considered by the Hindu to be their religion! It is because of this suicidal
notion of religious tolerance that Hindus, even when they had gained
unparalleled victories over the Muslims on the battlefields and in the
political arena, did not oppose them in the least on the religious front.
Naturally, on this religious front, the Muslims in India were not extirpated,
nor were they subdued. Root them out completely the Hindus never did, as
they had done with the Greeks, the Sakas, the Huns and other ancient
aggressors.
1074B. I should be failing in my duty if I were to proceed without
referring to one more illustration of this incurable disease of the Hindu
mind—of this perverted sense of virtues—which has proved highly
injurious to the Hindu valour and Hindu political victory had reached its
zenith in Punjab.
1075. Just at the time when Raghunathrao had started from Poona with his
army and reached Indore round about 14th February, 1757, the malevolent
Adbali had heaped untold humiliation and outrage on the Hindu religion
and Hindu women. He had sent some of the cruellest of the commanders to
Mathura, Vrindavan, Kurukshetra and other Hindu holy places, in order to
avenge their rescue by the Marathas from the Emperor's clutches. Abdali
had given these Muslim commanders strict order that—
1076. It was their religious duty as true Muslims that they should
devastate every one of the so-called Hindu holy places like Mathura and
massacre as many Hindus there, as was possible and to heap up the
chopped-off heads together. Whoever from amongst them would chop off
the heads of the Hindus as those of Kafirs, were to be rewarded by Abdali at
the rate Rs. 5 per such Hindu head.
1077. How mercilessly those savage Muslims wolves, instigated by
Abdali's order, attacked Mathura and other holy places of Hindus has been
described in Paragraphs 1059 and 1060. Accordingly, the Muslims fell upon
the Hindu religious centres at Mathura and slaughtered the innocent Hindus
there. Gigantic Hindu temples were toppled down one after another. Streams

of blood of the Hindu men and women, children and old people, began to
flow through every house and every street. Not a single young Hindu
woman escaped kidnapping. Not a single cow was spared her life. The
innocent blood of the cows, too, flowed like water. Those Muslim demons
were neither satisfied with nor tired of this brutality. On the country, in order
to adorn these devilish acts of theirs with their diabolic artistic sense, they
travestied the ceremony of the Hindu Rangpanchami, which happened to be
at that time. And how? Big cauldrons and vessels full of Hindu blood newly
shed, were kept at different places at short intervals, and the Muslim
solidiers with large syringes in hand went on drenching the Hindus in every
street and every home in their own blood. The same was the miserable fate
of the next town of Gokul, Vrindavan. But the moment he got the news that
Rughunathrao had left Indore and proceeded with a large army to destroy
him, that self-styled Shahenshah, Abdali, hurried for life to Delhi with all his
army and thence to Lahore and onwards straight to Kabul!
1078. Although the very same Maratha force that had beaten back
Abdali’s army straight beyond the (North West) frontier (of India) were now
returning to the Deccan after glorious victories in Punjab and were visiting
the same holy places of Mathura [wrongly spelt Mattra, CHI (1939) and by
other writers] Gokul, Vrindavan, and while they were performing their
religious rites and having ceremonial baths in the holy rivers, while again
they were listening to the harrowing accounts of the Muslim atrocities on
the Hindus and their religion, perpetrated only a year ago, while still the
Hindu blood spilled profusely by the Muslims on the well-built banks (घाट
ghats) of the Jamuna at Mathura had not yet completely dried away, while
again the ditches filled with the beef of cows (slain by the Muslims) had
been putrefying along the streets, the heads of this Mathura army were not
excited with anger at these Muslim brutalities! Nobody of them was beside
himself with shame and indignation! None of them was infuriated and none
of them vowed revenge of this religious persecution! The victorious general
of the Hindus, the brave Raghunathrao, did not issue any order to his army
to the effect that they should retaliate with the same atrocities on the
Muslims as were indulged in by the latter, that the Muslims as a whole were
to be slaughtered, that just like (the ruined) heaps of the Hindu temples, the
Muslim masjids should be pulled down without any exception, that the
Muslim women should be put to the same indescribable humiliation and
shame as the Hindu women folk were done by the Muslims, that it was their

duty to take such a revenge for the wrongs done to Hindu religion and
Hindu society! Abdali had but done it!!
1079. We have explained the inestimable wrong done to the Hindu society
by this suicidal disease of the perverted conception of virtues so fully in
Chapter 8 of this book, that it is needless to repeat it here again. We hereby
urge upon every reader to read the above-mentioned Chapter 8 over and
again and very carefully.
1080. The most fortunate thing for the Hindus was only this, that the
catastrophe, which threatened to extinguish very flame of life of the whole
Hindu nation, as a consequence of the silly Hindu religious notions (as the
ones described above), was averted by their retaliatory deed of valour and
more especially by those of the Marathas on the political and military
fronts. Although the Marathas are guilty of not taking revenge of the
Muslim vandalism on Mathura-Vrindavan, while on their triumphal march
from Punjab, the glorious victory that they won on the Muslims in Punjab
in this continuous millennial Hindu-Muslim war and the terrible blow that
they gave to the Muslim imperial power, establishing the independence of
the Hindu nation and their own political hegemony in the north
incapacitated the Muslims from completely destroying the Hindus in India,
just as they had completely annihilated the other ancient nations in Asia.
Babylon became Baghdad, but Mathura could not be transformed into
another Mecca! Fighting incessantly and indefatigably for ten long
centuries, Mathura still exists as a holy Hindu place. The traces of Muslim
domination have been wiped out! From the millions of Hindu throats, the
triumphant chants of the divine valour of Shree Krishna still resound the
Ghats of Jamuna and the temples unmitigated!

Not Only Attock—Even Beyond It!
1081. सरदार पदरचे कसे कुणि सिंह जसे कुणि शार्दुल गेंडे।
अरे ज्यानी अटकेंत पाव घटकेंत रोविले झेंडे॥
—प्रभाकर
(Of what caliber were the Sardars under (him)? Some were veritable lions,
others were tigers, whereas some others were rhinoceroses indeed! Why,
within a quarter of a ‘Ghataka’ (a period of 24 minutes), they planted their
flags in Attock!’
1082. As has been told in the previous Chapter, while Raghunathrao was
returning to the Deccan after his unprecedented triumph in Punjab, along
with his numerous Sardars and warriors, the tidings of his victory had
already been reaching Maharashtra from time to time. One day, all the
Maratha forces gathered together at Indore, the next day they were
collecting the Chauth and Sardeshmukhi taxes from all over Rajputana;
later on, they were reported to be rushing into the Antarvedi, punishing the
Rohillas and Pathans for joining hands with Abdali; then conquering Delhi
and performing the obsequies, as it were of the vaunted imperial authority
of Abdali and releasing the Moghal Emperor from his captivity and
esablishing him on the throne of Delhi as the puppet in Maratha hands;
then again immediately invading Punjab, routing Abdali’s Afghan army of
ten thousand strong, which was kept there for the protection of Punjab at
Sirhind. Then Abdali’s son Taimurshah and his general Jahankhan were
reported to have fled from the Marathas without giving any battle, and fled
straight to Kabul leaving Lahore to the tender care of the Marathas, and the
armies of Raghunathrao were said to be mopping up Punjab clean of the
Afghan domination and driving the enemy far beyond Attock. Then came
the news of the triumphant entry of Raghunathrao into Lahore! With such
heartening news and reports pouring in daily of the Maratha victories and
the worsting of the enemies at their hands, the mighty heart of Maharashtra
was filled with justifiable pride. Raghunathrao had already earned for
himself a name fit to be ranked with the greatest in the world in his single
victorious campaign right from Poona straight to the Indus! The whole of
Maharashtra began to call him, willingly or unwillingly, but lovingly

enough Ragho-Bharari, in order to express its wonder and pride about this
unhampered and undeterred spring of his, about this eagle-flight of his,
towards the Himalayas! This informal title of the victorious general,
Raghunathrao, had become immortal!
Soon arrived the news of the Crowning Glory of the Marathas
1083. Raghunathrao, the commander-in-chief of the Maratha force, had
posted some of the Maratha Sardars to punish severely all the Muslim
Emirs, Umraos, gangsters and marauders, fakirs and parasites of every sort,
who were creating anarchical conditions in Punjab and especially towards
the Indus Valley, plundering the peaceful populace there, and establish the
Maratha hold in that territory firmly and to collect the revenue and the
‘chauth’ and ‘Sardeshmukhi’ taxes from the territory. Of those Sardars,
Tukoji Holkar, Sabaji Shinde, Gopalrao Barve with their soliders attacked
the fort of Attock, which was the pride of the Indus valley, and snatched it
away from the Muslim hands in the month of July, 1758. The Muslim green
flag was uprooted and in its place was hoisted in the tumultuous war cries
of ‘Har Har Mahadev!’ of the Marathas, the saffron coloured ‘Jaripatka’ of
Hindus—on the fort of Attock. The Marathas and so the Hindu-horses once
again drank the holy water of the Indus!
1084. On that glorious day, at last, was the ban (Atak—अटक) of a
thousand years enforced by the religious law of the Hindus themselves,
broken by the Hindu arms! Why, the Maratha warriors pursued the Muslims
even beyond Attock upto Kandahar!
1085. It is already explained in Paragraphs 522 to 535 how this town was
named ‘Attock’ and why.
1086. When the news arrived in Maharashtra of the conquest of Attock
and of the hoisting by the Marathas of the Hindu Jaripatka on that fort, the
universal joy felt there knew no bounds. The Marathas had taken revenge of
the wrong done to the Hindus over a thousand years by routing and driving
the Muslims right up to Kabul and Kandahar and wrenching the de facto
sovereignty of the whole of India from the Muslim hands.
And this itself is the fifth Glorious Epoch of Hindu Victories over the
Aggressors
1087. The page in the history of the Hindu Nation, which records this
unique event of the conquest of Attock and the final victory of the Hindu in
the epic millennial Hindu-Muslim war and the establishment of the de facto
sovereignty of the Hindus over the so-called Muslim empire, is really the

Golden Page in Hindu history and that day is truly the Red Letter Day in the
life of Hindu nation!
However
1088. Just as a man on his deathbed, too, breathes a little longer and
sometimes even makes a violent effort to rise in epileptic fits, but dies at
last; or just as the whole body of the enormously long snake, twenty feet or
more in length, gigantic in thickness vying with the broad trunks of the Vat
(Indian fig- Ficus Indica) tree, moving dangerously at large in the forests,
does not lie lifeless all at once in a moment, even if its head has been
smashed completely, but keeps on moving convulsively and even at times
seeks to leap ahead, yet ultimately, the dying body does die at last,
similarly, in spite of the fact that the Marathas had smashed the head of the
Muslim imperial power and left it gasping for its breath on the battlefields
of the Indus valley, the moribund Muslim power did continue to make
feverish efforts to rise again here and there for sometime more; that dying
body did in fact take a long leap like that of the Panipat, but ultimately, it
could not avert its fast approaching death.
1089. And in the end, throughout the whole of India began to flutter the
flag of independent Hindu power! Not alone from the Indus but right from
the bank of the Kabul river, spread throughout the whole of Punjab, up to
the frontiers of Jammu and Kashmir, was established the Hindu-Sikh
empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh! Further on, from Delhi right up to
Rameshwaram in the rest of India, was established the paramountcy of the
Marathas, and to the north was the independent Hindu State of Nepal!!
Thus, everywhere in India began to rule once again the Hindu political
power: the Muslim power could not recover its fall!
1090. That is why it must be said that on the day on which the Marathas
uprooted and flung away the green flag of the Muslim political dominance
from the fort of Attock and hoisted in its place their own triumphant saffron
coloured Jaripatka, the Hindus gave a really mortal blow to the Muslim
power in India and caused its subsequent death!
1091. Even a historian like Sardesai, who was wont to make
understatements, wrote: ‘All Maharashtra felt electrified with the proud
performance of Raghunathrao and his bands having reached the extreme
frontier of India and bathed their horses in the Indus.’ (New History of
Maharashtra: Vol. II, page 401)

1092. As soon as the reports of the final victories of the Hindus over the
      Muslims in this millennial Hindu-Muslim war reached Maharashtra, the
      Charans, the Bhats, the Gondhalees, who were the chief exponents of the
      poignant national feelings of the people at large, began to surcharge the
      atmosphere of every village in Maharashtra with triumphant joy, by means
      of their heroic poems and ballads, imbued with the most warlike ‘spirit’.
      There was not to be found any self-respecting Maratha who was not
      enthralled and inspired to hear these deeds of his own army. Since it is only
      in the imaginative vein, that a true picture of the romantic mood of the
      Maharashtra of that day can be drawn. I have tried to express it in my poem
      ‘Gomantak’ through the mouth of Maharashtrabhat, a typical representative
      of the Bhats, Charans and Gondhalees! A few couplets from the same poem
      are translated into English from the original in Marathi and cited here for
      the perusal of the reader.
1093. A Panegyric
      By Maharashtrabhat
      Here, O Hindus, hear you all
      Comes the news of our victory in War,
      Wrongs of a thousand years aveng’d
      Down is the victor vanquish’d again’
      Celebrate the day with feastings and dancing
      Yours is the right by martyrdom seal’d
      But mind, th’task is not yet done!
      Only the ramparts so far’re won;
      The rock’s to be clim’d, the fort’s to be storm’d
      The wish’d for summit is safely to be made!
      Dawn’d today is the moment auspicious
      For Hindu-padshahi happy and glorious!
      Still the solemnities aren’t over
      Impending dangers overhead hover.
      Like Starters of Eras have we won this glory
      Like Starters of Eras must we hold it grimly
      Once again o’th banks of the Indus
      Proudly carrying the crest of gold
      Stands the horse of a Hindu warrior
      To quench his thirst of a thousand years!
      Come with the seas, ye, Gangamaiyya,

Waters pure of Caveri come;
Sindhu, Shatadru, Triveni, Jamuna
Goda, Krishna're welcome here!
Holy places'nd pilgrim-resorts
Spread o'ver India, come, you, all.
Haridwar, Kailas, Kashi'nd Puri
Dwarka'nd Mathura come in a hurry!
Hear, O, hear the tidings clear
Victory on th'field is pure, O, dear,
Wreck'd we our vengeance on the foe
Delay'd though 'twas for a thousand years,
And Look! The vaunting victor lies, how low!'
God has indulged Hindu warriors
With their cherished dream of life.
Proudly flutters on Attock today
Again the Hindu Jaripatka.
(Translated from the couplets numbered 1, 112, 116, 117, 118, 127, 128,
129, 130, 131 from the original poem)
❑