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

one hand, he was spreading the Mahayan sect, this avowed Buddhist was,
on the other hand, attacking his enemies with huge armies. In order that he
might be called the Emperor of China, he passed ten years of his life in
bivouacs with armed soldiers all round him. In the end, tired of his lust for
incessant warfare, his army revolted and killed him. Death alone could put a
stop to his insatiate lust for war.
242. One more thing to be pondered over: How could Kanishka spread
Buddhism in the Chinese territory beyond the Himalayas? It was possible
because he had first conquered those provinces with his weapons of war.
Spread of the Buddhistic cult there followed his martial glories on the
battlefields! That is why it spread there so rapidly. He sent hundreds of
missionaries there, built various vihars, fed and fostered thousands of
Bhikksus! All this was possible for him, because he had under his command
a very powerful empire i.e., he had a mighty armed strength.Wasn't it?
243. In fine, it will have to be said that the statements like, ‘Armed victory
is superior to religious victory’ or vice versa are untenable.
244. Without armed support, religious victory is tame and insipid, whereas
martial glory without a strong religious footing becomes grossly diabolic!
This alone is true.
Hereditary Disloyalty of the Buddhists
245. A Buddhist or a Vedic Hindu, Kanishka was after all a foreigner
belonging to the Kushan aggressive tribe, and had founded an empire on
the north-western frontier of India by force. His empire was, in fact, an
aggression on India. His was, not at all an indigenous Indian empire. So
the patriotic Vedic population of India fought furiously with Kanishka, as
it did with the Sakas, in order to overthrow his empire and to liberate all
those Indian provinces, which had the misfortune to grovel under his
political domination. But what were the Indian Buddhists doing at that
time? They tendered their submission to the Mlenchcha enemy, the
Kushan emperor, as soon as they courted the Buddhistic cult and began to
perpetrate acts of treachery against the Indian nation and the brave
patriotic Vedic people, who were fighting for her liberty! As has already
been described (in paragraphs 204 to 209), the Indian Buddhists had,
formerly in the time of Emperor Pushyamitra, who fought for national
liberty, sold their loyalty to the Greeks led by Menander and others, and
committed treason against their native land. In the very same manner, they

did not hesitate this time to act treacherously towards their motherland
when the foreign Kushan aggression was at her throat.
246. Had the Indian Buddhists put down the Sakas and founded a
kingdom of their own, the Buddhist King would certainly have had the
rightful claim to the credit of liberating India like any other Vedic King, and
like the Vedic King Salivahan or Emperor Pushyamitra, we would have
gladly felicitated them. But how could the Buddhists ever show this staunch
national spirit! Even when Vedic patriotic republics and states like the
Youdheyas and Satavahanas were engaged in a life-and-death struggle with
the Saka-Kushans for a hundred-and-twenty-five years or more, these
Indian Buddhists did not trouble themselves in the least for the cause of
national liberty. But as soon as the strongest of these national enemies,
Kanishka, proclaimed his conversion, albeit half-heartedly, to Buddhism,
the whole of the Buddhist population submitted their most affectionate
loyalty at the feet of that national foe. They extolled him like a God to the
skies! They prayed fervently in their vihars for the everlasting existence of
that Saka-Kushan Mlenchcha State. What wonder, if the inevitable
consequence followed! As a result of the extreme hatred, which the Vedic
Hindus felt towards the Buddhists for their high treason, Buddhism
continued to decline, as it had begun to do right from the time of
Pushyamitra, in spite of the royal support of Emperor Kanishka.
Kanishka’s Grandson Embraces Vedic Religion
247. Moreover, when Kanishka was killed, as has already been told, by his
rebellious soldiers while he was fighting in China, the Indian Buddhists
were in a miserable plight, as they found themselves utterly lost both ways.
For, the successor of Kanishka, his son Emperor Havishka, remained
comparatively cold in his sympathy towards the Buddhists. And after
Kanishka, Kanishka’s grandson, who became the ruler of the Saka-
Kushans, actually abandoned Buddhism and embraced the Vedic cult with a
public ceremony! He even changed his original name and took for himself
the purely Sanskrit appellation, Samrat Vasudeo and struck coins with the
images of Siva and Nandi imprinted on them!
After Kanishka’s Death
248. As soon as Emperor Kanishka died, his Indian empire fell to pieces.
His rule in India was not far extended even in north India. It was never
very strong. It had covered only a small north-western strip of India,
which comprised Punjab, Malava, Sourashtra and Gujrat and a small

ribbon like piece of land from the north-Konkan, which had formerly been
in the hands of the Sakas. Now after the death of Kanishka, the two or
three Saka kingdoms that formed part of this Kushan empire threw away
the Kushan sovereignty and once again became independent. During the
century-old Saka-Kushan aggressive wars, the Satavahanas had
maintained the independence of their entire Southern India unimpaired and
now the north-Indian states also, who had so far accepted the nominal
overlordship of Kanishka, renounced it and regained their independence.
In this very confusion, the principality of Pataliputra in the eastern part of
India also became independent.
Once Again rose the Sunken Sun of Pataliputra
249. Pataliputra has been called a small principality in the previous lines.
Our readers might feel that it is a slip of our pen. But it is not so. For during
the deluge of the Saka-Kushan aggressions at the beginning of the Christian
era, the throne of Pataliputra, which was adorned by the celebrated
Emperors like Chandragupta, Ashoka, Pushyamitra and others, and from
which were guided for centuries together the destinies of the all-India
empire from the Himalayas to the southern seas, was lost all of a sudden,
just as the setting sun vanishes while we are still looking on and know not
when it has set. During the century-and-a-half of incessant Indian war with
the Saka-Kushans that followed, the separate existence of Pataliputra or
Magadha was never felt. Some non-entity of king from somewhere ruled
and lived within the four walls of Pataliputra.
250. But about the year 300 A.D. was established on this very principality
of Pataliputra, the rule of Lichchavi Republic, which was known in
Magadha from the times of Lord Buddha.
251. The daughter of the chief of this Lichchavi Republic, Kumardevi,
was wooed and married by a promising youth, son of a feudal chief
named Chandragupta in 308 A.D., With the strong support of the same
Lichchavi Republic, he established his sway over the surrounding
territory and in 320 A.D. he founded an independent kingdom in
Pataliputra. Let not this Chandragupta be confused with the famous
Emperor Chandragupta Maurya, because of their similar names.
Emperor Chandragputa belonged to the Maurya dynasty, while this
promising Chandragupta was born in the Gupta family. His
achievements, however, were as brilliant as would have befitted the
glorious dynasty of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya. During his short

reign of ten or eleven years, he extended his small kingdom of
Pataliputra wide enough to include Magadha, Prayag and Ayodhya, so
that the epithet of Maharaj should be applied to him deservedly.
Entrusting his kingdom into the able hands of his son, Samudragupta,
who was ambitious of uprooting the Mlenchcha power of the Saka-
Kushans in the north-western part of India, and of establishing an
extensive Indian empire, Chandragupta died in the year 330 A.D. This
Gupta dynasty was a staunch adherent of the Vedic religion—Shree
Vishnu being their chief God of Worship.
Emperor Samudragupta
252. As soon as he came to the throne, Samudragupta planned to conquer
the several independent Indian states in the north as well as in the south, and
establish a strong Indian empire like the Mauryan Empire of Chandragupta
and Chanakya, and then to sweep over the still lingering Mlenchcha power of
the Saka-Kushans in the north-western part of India with all the might of his
empire. Accordingly, he conquered Kamrup, Samatat, Nepal and all the
region from north-eastern frontier provinces to the Vindhyas. Thereafter,
crossing the Vindhyas, he entered South India with a powerful army. He
conquered twelve prominent kingdoms in South India. Many of the defeated
kings, after having been brought captives and after having accepted his
overlordships, were granted their kingdoms and were allowed to go free.
About these glorious campaigns of his in the north and south of India, many
western historians have spoken with eloquent praise, giving him the best of
their current phrases, ‘The Indian Napoleon’. After such an extensive
military expedition, Samudragupta returned to Pataliputra. Then in order to
proclaim to the world his acquisition of this new Indian empire, according to
the Vedic religious rites, he celebrated the horse sacrifice, on a grand scale
and was rightfully appointed a Samrat (an emperor). Thereafter, he began his
extensive preparations for his dash against the Saka-Kushans.
The Final Surrender by the Kushans
253. At the fearful reports of this impending attack of Emperor
Samudragupta, whatever small kingdoms of the Kushans like Gandhar and
others were, still leading a precarious existence in the north-western regions
of India, voluntarily sued for peace and accepted the Gupta paramountcy.
Our Indian ancestors at that time called these Kushans ‘Kush’ also. As a
token of their surrender, those Kushans sent rich offerings along with their
personal envoys to Samudragupta. Thus, after an incessant warfare for a

century-and-a-half or two, the Indian sword ultimately cut asunder the very
root of the Kushan power in India. The Kushan problem was finally
disposed of, here and now!
254. But the Saka kings from Malava to Sindh who, as has been told in
paragraphs 236 and 248, had thrown off the yoke of Andhra domination
when the latter was engaged in a life and death struggle with Kanishka and
later on, after the death of Kanishka, declared themselved free, did not on
their own initiative talk of any submission.
Samrat Samudragupta’s Death and After
255. While he was just preparing to march upon the Mlenchcha power of
these Sakas, this powerful Emperor Samudragupta breathed his last in 375
A.D. He had expressed his wish that after him, his younger but valiant and
virile son, Chandragputa II, should be crowned emperor. But discarding this
dying wish of his, the elder son, Ramgupta, ascended the throne on the
strength of his seniority in age. But he was so weak that almost all efficient
officials in his military and civil service and his ministers too began to hate
him secretly. Just at this juncture, a strange thing happened, which
galvanized the popular feeling against Ramgupta’s feebleness. Although
some historians consider this to be a hearsay anecdote, still ancient writers
like Vishakhadatta and Banabhatta have credited it with truth, and a
reference to it is to be found in the copperplate grant of King Amoghvarsha.
Again as in the comparatively recent times, the Rajput warriors had faced a
similar situation against Alla-ud-din in respect of Padmini, the opinion of
some other historians that this anecdote about Ramgupta must be
substantially true is more acceptable. The incident in question may be
summarised in the following manner:
256. Emperor Samudragupta having died and a weakling Ramgupta
having ascended the throne after him, the Saka kings became fearless and
began to behave insolently with the Magadhan empire, which was at
inimical terms with them. An impertinent and mean-minded Mlenchcha
king of these Sakas commanded Ramgupta, in order to humiliate him, that
he should send his young and beautiful wife, Grahdevi, to him or else be
prepared for war. This insolent and wicked message convulsed the whole
political atmosphere of the Magadhan empire with shame and indignation.
But Emperor Ramgupta had become so utterly imbecile and shameless, as
to start preparations to send his queen, Grahdevi, to that Saka Satrap with
the sole intention of avoiding a conflict. This infuriated his younger brother,

Chandragupta. Flouting Ramgupta’s orders, he took Grahdevi under his
protection. Then resorting to guile, Chandragupta sent word to the Saka
king that, according to his commands, Queen Grahdevi was being sent to
him, but that because of natural womanly bashfulness and modesty, she
would like to go in a curtained palanquin. She was also to be accompanied
by a retinue of her maids in similar litters. The Saka king was mad with joy
to hear this message, and he replied that the queen might be sent that way.
Chandragupta, however, himself donned the female attire and sat in the
Queen’s palanquin, while in the accompanying ones, too sat the chosen
warriors in feminine garb. As the train (procession) of those covered
palanquins drew near the capital of that Saka King, the latter, beside himself
with joy, came forward to the queen’s palanquin to receive her in person;
whereupon out came Chandragupta, in the guise of a woman, and pouncing
on the unsuspecting Saka King, slew him instantly with his sword. From
other litters too, issued forth the warriors with drawn swords, and before the
shocking news of the slaughter of the Saka King could spread out, they
vanished along with Chandragupta, quite out of the enemy’s reach.
257. The whole capital and the nation itself was resounding with the
praise for Chandragupta, when the glad news spread that Prince
Chandragupta had returned to Pataliputra after accomplishing this
unprecedented daring feat and punishing with his own hands the Saka King,
who had insulted the nation, with instant death. There was a great agitation
to dethrone the cowardly Ramgupta, who had ascended the throne of
Magadha, setting aside the last wish of the deceased emperor,
Samudragupta, and to crown Chandragupta in his place. In that commotion,
Ramgupta was killed. Immediately Chandragupta was crowned emperor
and he married the same Grahadevi, whom he had with his exceptional
valour, saved from humiliation at the hands of the enemy. Later on, with a
well-equipped huge army, Samrat Chandragupta marched upon the Saka
satraps.
Saka Satrap Rudrasingh Killed: the last phase of the war with the
Sakas
258. When the war came to closed grips on the Gujarat-Malava frontier of
the Saka dominions, the Saka kings offered tough resistance at every place,
and at every place, the Indian warriors crushed the enemy! In the last battle,
the remaining Saka Satrap, Rudrasingh, the son of Satyasingh, himself was
killed by Chandragupta.

Thus Ended the Saka Rule
259. Having thus vanquished the Sakas completely, Chandragupta
liberated the provinces of Sindh, Kaccha, Sourashtra, Gujarat, Malava and
others under their domination and incorporated them into his Indian empire.
After such a total destruction of the Sakas, when Emperor Chandragupta
entered the ancient and renowned city of Ujjayini, which till a little while
ago was the capital of the Saka kingdom, the people there celebrated his
entry as a grand national festival. Samrat Chandragupta assumed the title of
Vikramaditya. In order to immortalize his glorious and crushing victory
over the Sakas, he renamed the so far universally current Malava Samvat
itself as Vikram Samvat after his own name (cf: paragraph 222). He made
Ujjayini the capital of the western part of his India-wide empire, and there
he lived like a crowned King.
260. How far can one describe the satisfaction and pride that the people all
over Bharat felt at this decisive victory won by Vikramaditya over the
Mlenchchas? The whole of India became free from the foreign domination
and became ‘Ekrat’, united under one King! How profound must have been
the joy and pride of Vikramaditya himself when he saw that the strenuous
efforts and successes and failures of a hundred-and-fifty years or so of the
Youdheyas, Malavas Vilivayankur (Vilinayankur?), Satavahan and other
great warriors for the destruction of the Saka power, and of the valorous
achievements of his grandfather and the national aspirations of Vedic
Hindus had, at last borne such glorious fruit!
261. Of this, the English historian, Vincent Smith says, though rather
grudgingly, “We may feel assured that differences of race, creed and
manner supplied the Gupta monarch with special reasons, for desiring to
suppress the impure foreign (म्लेच्छ) rulers of Western India.
Chandragupta Vikramaditya, although tolerant of Buddhism and Jainism
was himself an orthdox Hindu, espeically devoted to the cult of Vishnu, and
as such, could not but have experienced peculiar satisfaction in violently
uprooting the foreign chieftains.”
The Sakas too Vanished
262. In paragraph 230, it has already been described how the Sakas
adopted the Vedic faith, Sanskrit language and Indian customs and manners.
Now that Vikramaditya had utterly destroyed their political power with his
‘mailed fist’, they, hereafter, lost their separate existence as the Sakas as
distinct from the Indians. Only within two or three generations, there was

hardly any Saka to be seen in India, as it previously happened in the case of
the Kushans.
263. In the historical past, there lived and ruled good many emperors in
India, but there was hardly any as suprisingly popular as this Emperor
Vikramaditya, who exterminated the Saka-Kushans so thoroughly, that not a
trace of any of them is found today. Even a foreigner, the Chinese traveller,
Fa-hien (or Fa-hsien), who visited India in his reign, has paid a glowing
tribute to the prosperity, happiness, wealth and contentment that had
reached its height, throughout the whole of the Indian empire under the
Guptas. Even today in the innumerable Indian villages, the name of King
Vikramaditya, and his high sense of administration and justice is lovingly
sung in folk-tales and ballad. After having defended the powerful unitary
Indian empire and having developed it in every respect for more or less
thirty-five years, Samrat Vikramaditya died in 414 A.D.
264. The epoch, which began with the royal seal of Samrat Vikramaditya,
the proud Victor of Saka-Kushans, is THE THIRD GLORIOUS EPOCH of
Indian History.

4^TH GLORIOUS EPOCH
4.
Yashodharma, the Conqueror of The Huns
The Hunnish Onslaught over the whole World
265. A reference has already been made earlier in this book to the Huns
who routed all the Saka and Kushan tribes from their original homes and
themselves occupied the vast tracts of lands. These very Huns, fiercer and
far more cruel than their predecessors, now menaced not only the whole of
Asia but also the whole of Europe. Every one of the then well-established,
civilized, and strongly built nations and kingdoms of the world, right from
China to Rome, was rocked to its bottom at the very thought of this
impending doom. There was no limit to their number, nor were their raids
limited to this region or that.
266. When their armies marched out, thousands of their men and women
carried fire and sword to every city and every village they entered and to
every human being, young or old, child or woman, whom they came across.
Not only by day, but even at the very dead of night, did they carry on these
nefarious activities, shouting wildly like beasts and engulfing the enemy
lands like wildfire. At the end of every bloody battle, they celebrated their
victory then and there, dancing wildly, and drinking strong liquors in cups
made of the very skulls of the slaughtered enemy soldiers and their women
or children.
267. Being very close to the original Hunnish territory, almost all the
provinces of the vast Chinese empire were rendered desolate because of
their terrible raids. The great China Wall of today is a glaring testimony to
prove the incapacity of the Chinese Emperor to ward off these Hunnish
locusts. The one great wonder of the world—this China Wall-is indeed the
greatest monument to Hunnish Terror!
268. One of the leaders of these Huns, Attila, organized these horsemen,
who pillaged Central Asia and made straight for Europe. His various
marauding armies dashed like an avalanche into European Russia through
whichever inlet they could find and wrought havoc everywhere.
Universities and art centres, houses and churches, the poor men’s huts and
rich palaces, towns and cities—whatever they could lay their hands on,

these Huns went on reducing them to ashes. Whoever came in their way
was ruthlessly cut to pieces. After trampling down Russia, they rushed into
Poland, thence attacking the Goths in Germany and France. Army-after-
army of the once invincible Roman Empire was put to rout. These Huns
loved not victory so much as they did ruin and destruction for its own sake.
Consequently, the whole of Europe was not only defeated in war but was
virtually bathed in blood and laid utterly waste. For a harrowing
description of this devastation of Europe at the hands of these barbaric
Huns, one should read Gibbons, ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’.
Even today, most of the European languages use ‘Hun’ as the foulest of
abuses, indicating thereby, the horror they looked upon these devilish Huns
with.
269. In the very same manner, did another avalanche of these Hunnish
horses, which hovered for some time round about the Himalayas destroying
whatever remained of the Saka-Kushan strongholds, dashed against regions
like the Gandhar and others to the north-west of India. With the very same
energy and devilish ambition with which they devastated the empires of
China, Russia and Rome, did these Huns march impatiently to trample
down India from end to end under their horses’ hoofs, and began to force
their way to the Indus.
But
270. But, fortunately, India was no longer being ruled by any coward like
Dhananand, who brought disgrace to the land at the time of the Greek
invasion of Punjab. It was now under the sovereignty of Kumargupta, the
illustrious son of Emperor Vikramaditya, the avenger of the Saka-Kushan
domination. India at that time enjoyed the century-old Golden Age of the
Gupta era. The Mauryan Golden Age saw, towards its close, the Indian
military strength disorganized and powerless, because of the foolhardy
Ashokan policy of total non-violence (ahimsa). But the Vedic India of this
time under the leadership of Kumargupta did not allow the imperial army
to degenerate in the least. Being always aware of the avalanche-like
Hunnish onslaught, which was expected sooner or later, Emperor
Kumargupta kept a very strong war-like and well-organized army, ever
prepared to defend its frontiers.
The first Hunnish Onrush Paralysed
271. The moment he learnt of the Hunnish aggression on Gandhar,
Kumargupta sent his valiant son, Skundgupta at the head of the four-fold

(चतुरँग) army to uproot the Hunnish menace. With their special technique
based on their unlimited number, which had so far been unmatched for its
efficacy, these Hunnish invaders began to make short work of the Indian
frontier guards. No sooner did the Indian soldiers destroy one Hunnish army
at a place, than would they emerge up from all other quarters, like ants
pouring forth from their anthills. Even if these were completely wiped out,
there would appear a fresh one, creating confusion all over the land. The
armies of Skundgupta fought battle-after-battle with the irresistible Huns,
destroying them steadily but surely for years together. The result was that
even the innumerable forces of these Huns gradually lost their strength and
energy and dared cross the frontiers of the Gupta Empire no more. Why,
they could not even defend the places they held so far against the aggressive
and fierce impact of the Guptas. The remaining troops of the Huns,
therefore, fled clean out of the Indian frontiers through the very passes they
had come in. This crushing defeat kept the Huns away from India for the
next forty years or so.
The Brave Skundgupta
272. After having fought continuously for years on end and having
defeated the most powerful enemy, who had already brought to their knees
the greatest empires of the world, Skundgupta proudly returned to his father
at Pataliputra, where the victorious Prince was greeted with unprecedented
enthusiasm, pomp and glory. Old Emperor Kumargupta’s joy can easily be
imagined. It knew no bounds. In order to celebrate this singular success,
Kumargupta performed the horse sacrifice (अश्वमेध), according to the age-
old Indian tradition.
Death of Kumargupta
273. Shortly after this, the old Emperor Kumargupta died, having
satisfactorily fulfilled his life-mission. He was succeeded by his eminent
son, Skundgupta, many of whose memorable deeds showing his rare
abilities cannot be recounted here for want of space and also because they
do not directly bear upon the present theme.
274. While Skundgupta was thus ruling in India, another Hunnish
adventurer, Khikhil by name, organized their scattered forces in Asia, as
Attila before him had done in Europe, and founded another kingdom and
styled himself a king. Towards the end of Emperor Skundgupta’s career,
this new Hunnish adventurer marched towards India at the head of a

powerful army, with a view to avenging the ignoble defeat the Huns had
earlier suffered here.
Second Hunnish Invasion of India
275. During the very first encounters, the Huns overthrew the imperial
frontier guards and drove them back at one or two places. No sooner did he
hear of this fresh Hunnish aggression than Skundgupta, in spite of his old
age, left his capital and marched as far as the Panchnad (the modern
Punjab). While he was thus preoccupied in his military camp, organising
the overthrown imperial frontier forces for a counter-attack upon the enemy,
he learnt that his step brother, Purgupta, was busy treacherously planning to
usurp his throne. Nevertheless, the patriot Skundgupta, disregarding his
personal interests, kept on fighting the alien invaders, instead of speedily
returning to the capital to settle his domestic trouble, as some others in his
place might have most probably done. Had he done so, and left the imperial
army fighting without his guidance, the Indian soldiers would have, in all
probability, lost courage and the invaders would have swept over the whole
of Punjab and at least the half of north India. As he was convinced of this
impending calamity, he rather preferred fighting against the barbaric Huns
to returning home!
276. And even as he was fighting in the defence of his motherland, this
aged warrior-king died about A.D. 471 in his military camp, like a true
King that he was!
An Emperor must die Standing
277. An interesting anecdote is told about a well-known Roman Emperor
who ruled in those ‘palmy days of Rome,’ that while he was lying on his
deathbed in his royal palace, he once suddenly got up, sword in hand, and
said to the frightened attendants, who suspected it to be a delirious fit, that a
king must not die in his bed. “A Roman Emperor”, he said, “must die
standing”.
278. In the same manner did this great Indian Emperor, Skundgupta, die in
a small military camp fighting relentlessly, in spite of his failing years, the
very enemy on whom he had inflicted severe defeats in his earlier career.
Renouncing all royal comforts and pleasures, he spent almost fifteen to
twenty years of his life, suffering all the discomforts and hardship of a
camp-life for the sole purpose of defending his empire and preserving the
independence of his motherland. And when he did die, he did so fighting
the arch-enemy of his nation, far away in a bivouac in the farthest province

of Punjab—not in his royal palace in the capital! If ever there was an ideal
emperor, it was he!
279. If the Huns were hemmed in one small corner of the Indus and if
India was saved from all the indignities, massacres and wanton destruction
at their hands to which Europe had been subjected almost
contemporaneously, all the credit must go to the armed strength of
Skundgupta. Although he died before the Huns were completely
annihilated, his exemplary valour brought forth another generation of
warriors, much stronger than before, to take the field against these once
war-intoxicated but now enfeebled Huns.
280. Hence, we bow down to the memory of Emperor Skundgupta, with
as much reverence and pride and a sense of national gratitude as we might
do to any other conqueror like Vikramaditya.
After the Death of Skundgupta
281. Subsequent to the death of Skundgupta, the throne of Magadha was
usurped by his rebel brother, Purgupta, whose lack of every sort of ability
encouraged the Huns once again to push forward under their King, Khilkhil.
In the reign of Torman, who succeeded Khikhil, Huns once again let loose
the dogs of war and Kamboj, Gandhar, and Punjab suffered most from their
horrible depredations and arson. The world-famous University of Taxila
was razed to the ground. Thousands of its invaluable books only served to
make bonfire for the Huns.
282. This is another instance that shows how even the national literature,
civilization and culture are destroyed at the hands of foreign invaders, if
they are not defended and supported by the nation’s mailed fist.
283. In the meanwhile, those Hunnish hordes that had so far overrun the
kingdom of Persia, and in A.D. 484 put her King, Phiroz, to death, were
now free to join the army of Torman in his work of reducing India to the
same miserable state. With his army so suddenly augmented, Torman
pushed ahead of Punjab into Malva and captured it round about 511A.D.,
along with its capital Ujjain. When tormans son, Mihirgula, who was braver
and more atrocious than the father, succeeded to the Hunnish throne,
strangely enough, he became a sincere devotee of the Vedic God, Rudra and
held the cult of Buddha in the greatest spite.
Mihirgula, the Devotee of the Vedic God
284. Strange as it may seem, the Huns were speedily attracted to the
worship of the Vedic God Rudra at least from the time they entered the

north-western frontier province. Of these people, Vincent Smith says, “The
savage invader who worshipped his patron deity Shiva, the God of
Destruction, exhibited ferocious hostility against the peaceful Buddhistic
cult and remorselessly overthrew the Stupas and Monasteries which he
plundered of their treasures.”
The Patriotic Vedic Hindus and Treacherous Buddhists
285. In this context, the readers are referred to paragraphs 182 to 209 and
245 to 246 of this book, wherein we have commented on the patriotic spirit
of the Vedic Hindus and the treacherous attitude of the Buddhists. In order
to vouchsafe this comment of ours, this incident of Mihirgula should be
most significant.
286. Even when this Hunnish aggressor Mihirgula had accepted the Vedic
cult of God Rudra and brutally oppresed the Buddhists, who had become
inveterate enemies of the Vedic Hindus, the latter did not accept his political
dominance, nor did they ever join him in his atrocities against their own
rivals. In spite of his avowed acceptance of the Vedic cult, Mihirgula was
looked upon as a foreign aggressor and as such, a national enemy by the
Vedic Hindus. They avowed enmity towards him for the sake of making
politically free those regions that had so far gone under his sway. It cannot
be denied that even amongst the Vedic Hindus, kings like Kamoj and
Jaichand did commit treason earlier or later, but on the whole, the Vedic
community had all along been hating the non-Vedic people and had been
giving terrible battles for protecting the independence and imperial power
of their nation unimpaired. Even the English historians like Smith could not
help mentioning, maybe in malicious terms, this strong national feeling of
the Vedic people. While stating in general terms that these Vedic Hindus
were the born enemies of any foreign political power, trying to subdue the
country, he says, “Those foreign tribes, Sakas, Pahlavas and Ionians
(Yavanas), at the time, settled in Western India as the lords of a conquered
population, were the objects of hostility of the Vedic King Vilivayankur
II.... He recovered the losses his kingdom had suffered at the hands of the
intruding foreigners and utterly destroyed the power of (the Saka King)
Nahapan. The hostility of the Andhra (Vedic) monarch was stimulated by
the disgust felt by all the Hindus, and especially by the followers of the
Orthodox Brahmanical system of the outlandish foreign barbarians.”
287. It should not surprise the reader if he finds in this observation of
Smith, a faint echo of an Englishman’s heartache at his painful experience

of the British Imperial Colonies.
King Yashodharma
288. Under the undeserving and weak Purgupta, the suzerainty of
Magadha began to be flouted and disregarded by almost every one. Most of
the vassals of the Gupta Empire and even the provinces and principalities
began to rule themselves independently. All these virtually subordinate but
actually independent provinces and different feudal lords feared the
political dominance of the Huns, which had by then spread as far as
Malava. Everybody was seething with indignation at seeing a foreign tyrant
like Mihirgula occupy the throne of the Great Vikramaditya at Ujjain, and
every patriotic Vedic Indian was anxious to see the Huns overpowered and
routed at the earliest oppurtunity. Yet, none of all these smaller states and
provinces had the courage to take any aggressive move against these Huns.
Nonody could broach the subject openly.
289. At such a critical time, an adventurous youth vowed to solve this
knotty problem. He was not even a titular king or emperor. He was merely a
small chieftain, Yashodharma by name, of a relatively small principality in
the province of Malava. But his ambition, his sense of patriotism and his
daring spirit were as lofty and powerful as to challenge the might of the
mightiest and pompously styled ‘King of Kings’ of the Huns, Mihirgula,
and dethrone him, and to destroy the Hanish influence root and branch.
A common front of the Vedic Kings
290. First of all, he organized almost all the neighbouring independent
Indian states with a view to fighting out the Hunnish menace. Even
Baladitya of Magadha supported this organized war effort, and under the
leadership of King Yashodharma, all these kings marched against the Huns
from all sides. This well-organized Indian Army could do what none else
could think of doing single-handed, and the most powerful Hunnish army
began to be slaughtered on the battlefields of India.
Defeat of the huns: capture of Mihirgula Himself
291. In the end, the Supreme Commander, Yashodharma marched at the
head of a very powerful army on Mihirgula himself, and joining battle at
Mandasore or Korur sometime about A.D. 528, overthrew the Hunnish
dragon for ever. After a very savage man-slaughter, Mihirgula himself
became a captive of King Yashodharma.
292. This singular success resounded thunderously throughout the length
and breadth of India.

293. And in order to avenge the numerous atrocities that Huns in general
     and Mihirgula in particular, had so far perpetrated against the Indian
     population, King Yashodharma forthwith ordered the hanging of Mihirgula.
     Baladitya’s Anti-National Generosity
294. But as soon as Baladitya, the Emperor of Magadha, learnt of this
     death sentence passed on Mihirgula by king Yashodharma, he, as a member
     of the Combined Front, insisted that the Hun be spared and be handed over
     to him alive. Yashodharma did so only to avoid displeasing Baladitya.
     Whether according to a secret treaty with Mihirgula to serve some selfish
     end of his, or under some disastrous delusion of the so-called superhuman
     generosity consisting in the release of the deadliest enemy, who deserved
     nothing but hanging, a delusion that seems almost permeated through the
     very veins of the Indian people, Baladitya spared not only Mihirgula’s life
     but even allowed him to go honourably to the remnant of the Hunnish
     territory to the north-west. A great many years after him, Prithviraj allowed
     another inveterate enemy, Mohammed Ghori, to go scot-free!
     Milk offered to the Snakes Brings Venom only
     (Payah-panam Bhujanganam Kevalam Vishwardhan)
295. Thanking his good stars, Mihirgula hurried straight to Kashmir,
     where he secretly organized the Huns and killed the king, annexed Gandhar,
     persecuted the people of the land, and especially liquidated the pockets of
     Buddhist influence after slaughtering wholesale thousands of Buddhist
     monks and nuns.
296. It is very difficult to say if fate had brought to life this Mihirgula,
     only to give a practical lesson to the Indian Buddhists who were intoxicated
     by the delirious idea, viz. ‘Religious victory was greater than armed
     victory’ and to show that without one’s own armed support, even religion
     cannot survive the onslaughts of the barbarous enemy’s fire and sword.
297. Nevertheless, these milkshops of the Buddhists who were sorely
     distressed at these persecutions, did not fail to use the only weapon they had
     to avenge themselves on Mihirgula. Only when Mihirgula died a perfectly
     natural death, these Buddhists recorded his death in their myths, sending
     him forthwith to hell. “When this demon of a Hun, Mihirgula, died”, they
     wrote, “he went to eternal hell to atone for his hatred towards Lord Buddha
     and to suffer inhuman pangs, the Earth broke into two by the very shock. It
     rained as heavily as the Deluge of Manu, and the birds and beasts ran
     helter-skelter, crying horribly. Many other upheavals also took place.”

297A. For these enfeebled Buddhists, was there any other way open for
consolation than to imagine themselves, the unlimited tortures in the
infernal fires of purgatory or the hell or the ‘narak’, as we Indians should
like to style the place, for terrible enemy, whom they dared not think of
harming in the least, while yet he lived in this world? But wasn’t this
consolation of these non-violent Buddhists violent? Is it kindness of
extreme cruelty?
The Victorious entry of Yashodharma into Ujjain!
298. After vanquishing Mihirgula completely Yashodharma overthrew all
Hunnish influence from the Panchnad and after having re-established Indian
rule in this newly freed land, he returned to Malava with his victorious
army. With great pomp and ceremony did this Yashodharma enter Ujjain,
which had the reputation of being the capital of India since the time of
Vikramaditya, and which he had freed anew from the foreign yoke. Now he
did not remain a simple king but had become the king of kings,
Maharajadhiraj! He erected two pillars to commemorate the victory of the
Indian patriots against the Huns. They even now testify to the gratification
that the people of these times might have then felt.
What Happened to the Huns Next?
299. What else could have happened to them? They met with the same
fate that their forerunners, the Ionians, the Sakas, the Parthians and the
other aggressors did. Soon after Mihirgula died round about A.D. 540, the
Hunnish states in the north-west region beyond the Indus valley dwindled
into insignificance, within a generation or two, and perished completely.
After wresting political power from the Huns, the Vedic Hindu kings once
again began to rule right up to the Hindukush. The moment they lost
political power, because of an armed might stronger than their own, the
Huns became meek lambs. Dr. Jayaswal writes, “The Huns were fully
crushed within a century by the successive (Hindu) dynasties.” Because of
the great losses in their ranks, suffered during a century of incessant warfare
with the Hindus, Hunnish population diminished rapidly in numbers.
Whosoever remained, took over willingly to Indian religions and languages
and customs, and within a generation or two, merged so completely with the
Hindus that they could never recollect their Hunnish extraction.
300. Vincent Smith has the following comments to offer on the far-
reaching effects of this decisive Indian victory over the Huns: “After the

defeat of Mihirgula and the extinction of the Hun Power on the Oxus, India
enjoyed immunity from foreign attacks for nearly five centuries.”
300A. It clearly means that after the defeat of Mihirgula at the hands of
Yashodharma and after the end of the Hun empire beyond the Oxus, there
had been no foreign aggression over India for nearly five centuries to come.
Thus the whole of India, right from Pariyatra (Hindukush), Gandhar,
Kashmir, Punjab and Sindh straight to Kanyakumari, enjoyed under the
Hindu kings, prosperity and happiness for nearly five hundred years. The
whole of Bharat was independent, powerful, wealthy and happy!
A Resume of the Ancient period in Indian History
301-307. If by the Ancient Period in Indian History, the one from B.C.
600 to A.D. 700—a period as large as 1300 years—and if the succeeding
period is called the modern, it is in the fitness of things that here and now,
should end that period so far as the subject-matter of this book is concerned.
Some of the historical points pertaining to this ancient period—which
should very carefully be impressed on the minds of our young men and
women and the general reader, but which are generally lost sight of, are
briefly dealt with here in this conclusion:
(1) In this ancient period, no foreign aggressor could ever conquer the
whole of India at any lime. This fact generally escapes the notice of good
many of the foreigners or our own men, while some deliberately neglect it
or pervert it. On reading such titles of Chapters as ‘Alexander’s Invasion of
India’ “Sakas’ Aggression of India”, foreign as well as native readers are
generally misled into a belief that the whole of India was overrun either by
Alexander or by the Huns, and lost its independence. Under this delusion,
many of the enemies of India and her so-called well-wishers have raised
such objections and propounded such theory as to mean that the whole life
of the Indian nation, i.e. the Hindu nation, has passed under foreign slavery.
It is to bring to light and refute this foolish and wicked charge and to show
that it is due to either unintentional ignorance or wilful malice, that such
theories are ever propounded, that this book has been purposely written.
So from the foregoing narration, it should be clear that—(2) Right from
Nepal to Eastern Sea (Bay of Bengal), the whole of northern and eastern
India and southern India, that is to say, practically three fourths of this great
continent of India, had remained completely independent of any foreign
domination for these 1300 years. No aggressor by sea or land could ever
reduce it completely to slavery.

(3) Of the remaining western and northern India, roughly about 1/4 of the
continent was only once traversed by a foreigner. Sakas and Kushans held
the north-western tract of land between Punjab and Gujarat for some time.
The Huns could barely reach Ujjain. How miserably these national foes
suffered at the hands of Indian nationals has been briefly decribed in the
foregoing pages.
(4) Hardly any other contemporary nation of the world will be seen to have
so successfully destroyed the foreign aggressors and maintained its national
independence for such a length of time—not less than 1300 years.
(5) It is not only India that these Ionians, Sakas and Huns and other
aggressors invaded. Some of them disrupted almost all the other nations of
the then known world and brought in the so-called Dark Ages. They threw
some of the other nations into complete oblivion—a fact that must always
be kept in view, when comparing them with India in respect of these
barbaric aggressions.
(6) These very barbaric aggressors, who came in such large numbers
carrying powerful weapons, with the diabolic ambition of annihilating the
whole of the Indian continent were themselves reduced by the Indian
warriors to ashes in the conflagration of a general war, their beastly instincts
being purified in the material fires and merged in the vast Indian multitude
so completely, that even their name did not remain behind them!
308. Let us for a moment imagine that a certain Angel who had been
oberving the affairs of this Earth at that time, has once again come down on
the Himalayan peaks and is surveying the Indian scene. Not knowing what
happened during the intervening years, he bagan to ask from the peak:
“Well, are there still left over in this continent of India and of the Ionians
(Greeks), who had once founded a kingdom in a small corner of this vast
piece of land?” If any Angel does inquire this way, there is unfortunately no
one left to tell him, ‘ Well, I am he—their descendant!” If again the Angel
asks, “In one part of India, there were some kingdoms and communities of
the Sakas and the Kushans. Is there anyone of them to be found here now?”
To answer this question in the affirmative, there is unluckily none left. No
one can be found today to say, “Yes, I am a Saka” or “I am a Kushan.” Were
he again to ask for the third time. “At least some of the gentlemen
belonging to the Hun clan, who had once harassed the whole of the world
and who had once advanced up to Ujjain must be found here! Are there any

such?” Even to this question, no one can proudly say today: “Why not?
Here I am their direct descendant.”
309. But if the awe-stricken Angel asks again, “Well, tell me at least, if
there is any yet left of those Hindus who fought bravely with all these
foreign aggressors and ruled over India?” Then the answer, “Yes, I am that
Hindu! I am he! would spring from more than three hundred million mouths
in this country and prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the deep-rooted
foundations and the grand edifice of the Hindu nation and the Hindu State!
310. So this can be fittingly called The 4th Glorious Epoch of Indian
History, glittering in the lustrous martial achievements of the most daring
and successful emperor, YASHODHARMA!
“The Mohamedan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in
history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a
precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and
peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without
or multiplying within.”
— Will Durant: Story of Civilization.
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