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

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.
❑

5^TH GLORIOUS EPOCH
5.
The Climax of Maharashtrian Valour!
The Maratha Standard Flutters Proudly Over Attock
Nature of the Millennial Hindu-Muslim Struggle
311. The scope of this book, ‘Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History’, has
already been explained in Chapter I (Paras: 4 to 8), from which it should be
clear that a detailed account of the continuous, long-drawn fierce and
gigantic Hindu-Muslim struggle is not intended here. What we intend to do
here is to examine thoroughly and from the Hindu standpoint, this epic
struggle and the period covered by it as searchingly, as faithfully and as
fearlessly, as it ought to have been done—but unfortunately has not so far
been done.
312. For even today, it is absolutely essential and beneficial to the
interests of the Hindu Nation.
Two ages of our History: Ancient and Modern
313. We feel our History is naturally divided by the course of events into
two great ages: the Ancient and the Modern; the first, ending with the
seventh century, and the second, stretching from the beginnings of the
eighth century to the present day. In the preceding four chapters, we have
dealt with the vast ancient period of about a thousand years or so, while we
intend to analyse, in the following nineteen chapters, the course of events
in this modern age of Hindu History.
314. In doing so, detailed accounts of the many stray events supporting
our main thesis will certainly be given, where necessary, and the
chronological sequences will also be maintained. But the chronological
details will not be allowed to crowd up the limited space at our disposal, as
they are easily available in various big or small volumes by many other
writers. Hence, our whole attention will be focussed mainly on the bearing
of different important points in the subject-matter in hand, rather than,
though not without regard to, the chronological order.
The Epic Hindu-Muslim War

315. The struggle on the two fronts in all the bloody wars fought at every
     Muslim invasion, right from the beginning of this modern age was hitherto
     unknown and unheard of. For the Greek, the Saka, the Hun and other
     invaders, who came pouring in down the plains of Punjab, was political
     domination of this country as their sole objective. Barring this political
     aim, their raids had never been occasioned by any cultural or religious
     hatred. On the other hand, these new Islamic enemies, not only aspired to
     crush the Hindu political power, and establish in its place Muslim
     sovereignty over the whole of India, but they also had seen things’ in their
     brains another fierce religious ambition, not heretofore dreamt of by any of
     the old enemies of India. Intoxicated by this religious ambition, which was
     many times more diabolic than their political one, these millions of Muslim
     invaders from all over Asia fell over India, century-after-century, with all
     the ferocity at their command, to destroy the Hindu religion which was the
     lifeblood of the nation.
     The Outrageous Christian Incursion
316. To add to these catastrophic Muslim inroads over India, Christian
     nations like the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, the British and others
     rushed upon our nation from the sea, round about the fifteenth century
     A.D.—even if we were to ignore the infiltration by the Syrian Christians in
     the Malabar during the 1st century A.D. This Christian offensive, like the
     Muslim one, was both political and religious and equally devilish. They
     also wrought havoc by converting millions of Hindus at the point of the
     bayonet—an account of which will be given at its proper place.
317. Although the two fronts of this Muslim aggression, viz., the
     religious and political, were only the two parts of the same epic Hindu-
     Muslim struggle, their original forms, their weapons of war and their
     ultimate end, were altogether different. Naturally, they have to be discussed
     separately, as far as it is possible to do so.
318. Hence, we shall first examine the religious aspect of the Muslim-
     Christian aggression over our country in Chapters VI to XII, and then in
     Chapters 13 to 22 of this book, we shall discuss its political side.
     ❑

Beginning of Muslim Incursion
319. We have already pointed out—and shall do so hereafter - how the
histories written not only by foreign historians or those who are avowedly
inimical to us, but even by our own people, ignore the glorious episodes of
exceptional valour and monumental successes of the Hindus and in their
stead, catalogue only the calamities that befell them and present them as the
only true history of the Hindus, because they were never fearlessly written
from the pure and simple Hindu standpoint. We have already referred to
many such instances, in the first four chapters in support of our convention
and will do even in the following pages. The period under consideration
here is an instance in point.
320. Generally speaking in all histories, especially in the history textbooks
used in schools, the writers invariably jump from an account of Hunnish
onslaught to the first successful Muslim campaign on Sindh, without
writing even a line or two about the intervening long period of these
hundred years or so. Next follow in quick succession, the detailed narration
of Muslim invasions one after another, so that a common reader, especially
a pupil, catches an impression, which is very often carried even in his later
life, that the history of the Hindus is nothing but a doleful tale of foreign
subjugation and national defeats. Our enemies have publicized these false
impressions as established facts all over the world for the last two or three
centuries. For instance, a man like the late Dr. Ambedkar, burning with
hatred against Hinduism, writes:
“..The Hindus’ has been a life of a continuous defeat. It is a mode of
survival of which every Hindu will feel ashamed.”
321. In fact, historical evidence shows that after the total rout of the Huns,
that is to say, since about A.D. 550, Hindu kings and emperors successfully
crossed the Indus at various places and reconquered not only what are now
known as Sindh, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Herat, Hindukush, Gilgit,
Kashmir and many other regions from the Greeks, the Huns, the Sakas and
other foreign people, but hoisted the victorious national flag of the Vedic
Hindus far beyond the north-western boundaries of Chandragupta Maurya’s
empire upto Uttar Kurus! Why, even in Khotan in Central Asia beyond
Kashmir, there ruled Hindu kings and in the opinion of many historians,
even Ghazani was ruled by King Sheeladitya.

The Rejuvenescent Hindu Nation
322. Even the foreign historians like Vincent Smith are astounded at the
enduring ability of the Hindu nation to rejuvenate itself after crushing
defeats. For a detailed account of this period and Smith’s glowing tribute to
the successful struggle for independence of the Hindus, the curious readers
are advised to refer to the concluding portion of Chapter IV of this book.
Only one sentence will suffice here.
322A. “After the defeat of Mihirgula (by the Hindus) and the extinction of
the Hun power, India enjoyed immunity from foreign attack for nearly five
centuries.”
323. Smith has thus completely refuted the extravagant and vulgar remark
of Dr. Ambedkar on Hindu history.
The Beginning of the awful Muslim War with India
324. It is generally believed that Mohammad Bin Kasim was the first of
the Arabian or Muslim invaders to march upon Sindh. But, in fact, it was at
least fifty years before him, that other Arabian Muslims had started picking
up quarrels with the Brahmin Kings of Sindh. They had even tried an armed
aggression. Yet we do not intend to dilate upon the systematic and
chronological account of these various skirmishes by armed bands or
military detachments. It is enough for our purpose to bear in mind that all
these attempts were foiled successfully by the Hindus. At length, Usman, the
governor of the Grand Khalipha’s distant province of Oman, openly attacked
the Hindu state of Sindh. The then Brahmin King of Sindh, Chacha,
vanquished not only these Arabs, but killed their very Commander-in-Chief,
Abdul Aziz, in a battle. After these sporadic attempts till about A.D. 640, the
Arabs did not undertake any important expedition with perhaps the only
exception of the small distant province of Makram, which they reduced to
ashes converting the Hindus there at the point of the sword to the Muslim
faith. These Hindu Baluchistanian converts of those days became later on
bigoted Muslims.
The first big Muslim Expedition against Sindh
325. Thereafter, it was in A.D. 711, that Mohammed-bin-Kasim launched
the first large-scale offenive against Sindh with a huge army, fifty-thousand
strong. The majority of the population of Sindh, then, was Vedic Hindus,
with King Dahir at the head of the state, while, only a small minority was
the follower of Lord Buddha. Formerly, when Sindh was under the Huns,
their last King Mihirgula had persecuted the Buddhists very cruelly,

because in spite of his Hunnish extraction, he had become a faithful
follower of the Vedic religion and lulled Buddhism for its feebleness.
(Chapter 4—Paragraphs 284 & 285). But after Mihirgula, when Sindh went
under the sway of the Vedic Hindu kings, the Buddhists no longer suffered
any such persecution. They were free to follow their own religion so far as
it concerned only with their own selves.
The Buddhist Traitors
326. Nevertheless, these Indian Buddhists were elated to see the Muslim
foreigners’ march against the Hindu kingdom. These Buddhists, who bore
malice towards the Hindu, perhaps thought that these new Muslim
aggressors might embrace their Buddhist cult, as did their forerunners, the
Greeks under Menander or the Kushans under Kanishka, and establish a
Buddhist empire over India. So they went and greeted the Arabian-Muslim
leader, when he captured Port Deval from the hand of King Dahir. They
appealed to him in some such way saying following:
326A. “We have nothing to do with Dahir and his Vedic Hindu cult. Our
religious faith differs very widely from theirs. Our Prophet, Lord Buddha,
has taught us ‘Ahimsa’ (Total Abstinence From Violence). We never take
arms and dabble with political affairs of the state. Whoever wins can be the
ruler of the state, we obey him in all matters temporal. You are now the
victor, so now you are our King! Never suspect for a moment, that we shall
even enlist ourselves in Dahir’s armed forces or help him in any way. So we
pray that the Buddhist should not be subjected to any indignities or troubles
at your hands.”
326B. Complying with some such request of the Buddhists, which
amounted to complete surrender, the arch diplomat Kasim gave them
temporary assurance of safety.
327. On receiving the news of the fall of Port Deval, King Dahir, on the
other hand, mobilized his army and took the field. Kasim too, on his part,
went ahead subjugating some parts of Sindh. The Muslim writers or tarikhs
(reports), who have recorded the details of this campaign, testify that the
Buddhist in Sindh helped the Muslims in every possible way, while the
latter marched onwards, by showing them difficult passes, providing them
with foodstuff and fodder and supplying them secret military intelligence.
Some few Vedic Hindus also were guilty of this treachery, but their attempts
were individual and exceptional.
King Dahir dies Fighting on the Battle-Field

328. At last, the main forces of the Muslims and the Hindus joined battle
     at Brahmanabad. The Hindus fought fiercely. Although the Muslims then
     had no cannon, they had firearms of a new type the Hindus did not possess.
     Naturally, the latter began to find themselves weaker in strength. Moreover,
     the Arab platoons that were in the pay of Dahir rebelled, when the Hindu-
     Muslim armies came to close quarters; the Arabs informed him that they
     would not fight against Mohammed-bin-Kasim since the latter was a
     Muslim as they themselves were, and that it was a religious crusade against
     the Kafirs. What more, they even marched on their Hindu master himself.
     This artlessness of the Hindus in placing complete faith in the enemy met
     the same fate, whenever in future a Hindu King employed Muslim soldiers
     in his army. This very often caused the Hindu strategy to topple down and
     made their battle-arrays ineffective.
329. Nevertheless, without letting this betrayal of the Arab platoons cause
     any confusion in his ranks, King Dahir mounted his elephant and kept on
     fighting in the thick of the fray. But when he himself was killed in the
     battle, the Hindu army was routed, and the Muslims, in hot pursuit, entered
     the city.
330. However, the moment she received the horrible news of King Dahir’s
     death on the battlefield, the Queen and hundreds of other brave Hindu
     women leapt into a great fire and burnt themselves to death. It was the limit
     of warlike spirit, the Kshatriya Dharma! The enemy’s attempts to capture
     and molest the Queen and other women of high-rank were mostly foiled.
331. Even then, in the confusion that was wrought everywhere, Dahir’s
     two daughters named Suryadevi and Pramiladevi fell into the hands of the
     Muslims, who had dashed into the city, killing every captive soldier and
     every citizen. Mohammed Kasim took them and also hundreds of others
     away as courtesans. The looting and massacre of the Hindus and the large-
     scale arson in the city went on unhindered. But that was the fate of not only
     one city, but of every other city or town that the Muslims visited on their
     onward march through Sindh, which met with the same disaster.
     But what were the Buddhists Doing in this National Catastrophe?
332. At the news of the fall of King Dahir and the victory of the Muslims,
     these Buddhists began to ring bells in their vihars to greet the Muslim
     conquerors, and prayed in congregations for the prosperity of the Muslim
     rulers!

333. But what they thus asked for as a boon proved to be an inexorable
     curse for them. After winning the final battle, when the Muslim rushed
     violently, like a stormy wind throughout Sindh, they went on beheading
     these Buddhists even more ruthlessly than they did the Vedic Hindus. For,
     the Vedic Hindus were fighting in groups or individually at every place and
     so they struck at least a little awe and terror in the minds of the Muslims.
     But as there was no armed opposition in Buddhist vihars and Buddhist
     localities, the Muslims cut them down as easily as they would cut
     vegetable. Only those of the Buddhists who took to the Muslim faith were
     spared, while all their vihars throughout Sindh and the innumerale shrines
     in them were knocked down, and hammered to pieces; for the Muslims
     hated these ‘Buddhparastis’—these shrine-worshippers.
334. The very word, “Buddhaparasta”, which found its way into the
     Islamic tongue, is itself a corrupt form of the original Sanskrit word of the
     Buddhists, “Buddhaparsata”. The Muslims began to call the shrine-
     worshippers “Buddhaparashta” because on their way to India, they first
     found such numerous shrines nowhere but in the Buddhist vihars. To
     annihilate such shrine-worshippers was for the Muslims, a sort of religious
     commandment.
     Buddhist Ahimsa and Muslim Himsa
335. This is now the place where the question that we have discussed at
     length in Chapter II (Paras 152 to 159) of this book, about the downfall of
     Buddhism in India should be chronologically concluded. By the year A.D.
     700, of which we are speaking in these pages, that is, before the Muslims
     could set foot in India towards Sindh, the Buddhists all over India were fast
     diminishing in numbers and dwindling into non-existence as is already
     shown in previous chapters. The successful theoretical refutation of the
     Buddhist philosophy and religious tenet by the stalwart Vedic theologians
     and ‘pandits’ is not the only cause of the total extinction of the Buddhists in
     India; many other social and political events also had a fair share in this
     momentous task. Of them only those, which have not received the proper
     attention from the historians so far, or which have not been given enough
     prominence they really deserve, will be conspicuously referred to at their
     proper places in these brief concluding remarks.
     The first cause: the Buddhists’ High Treason
336. We have already dwelt at length on this collective high treason of the
     Buddhists in India against their nation in Ch. II Paras 152 to 159; 182-209,

and Ch. III Paras 242-246 of this book. Because of this treacherous mentality
of the Buddhists, the whole of the patriotic and politically conscious Indian
population was up in arms to destroy them root and branch. Being convinced
beyond doubt by actual experience, that these Buddhist congregations
(Buddhasangha) were inherently anti-national and unpatriotic, and
treacherous institutions, the patriotic politicians and the kingly courts gave
them hardly any support anywhere in India. Especially in the north about the
year A.D. 700 as the new Rajput kingdoms, which were the staunch
supporters of the Vedic religion, began to prosper, the Buddhist population
and the Buddhist cult were rendered helpless, socially boycotted, weak and
invalid everywhere in India.
The Second Reason: Fanatic Buddhist Ahimsa
337. Just as the patriotic and politically conscious population of India
became impatient with the Buddhist cult, so was the general populace
disgusted with the harassment of Buddhist ahimsa. At times—though few
and far between—when the Buddhists gained the greatest political power
over the major portion of India as in the times of Ashoka and Shree Harsha,
they enforced the Buddhist tenets on the Vedic Hindus by misusing their
political authority. The writings of the times are replete with copious
references to, and illustrations of, the religious persecution carried on by the
Buddhists on those occassions. Yet, if passages are quoted from some Vedic
books, some over-sensitive soul might doubt their veracity as they occur
from an opponent’s mouth. Hence, we are adducing a specimen, to show
clearly how vehemently the foreign and non-Vedic historians have criticized
it. Vincent Smith in his ‘Early History of India’ has this to say—
338. “It is recorded by contemporary testimony that in the seventh
century, King Harsha, who obviously aimed at copying closely the
institutions of Ashoka, did not shrink from inflicting capital punishment
without hope of pardon on any person, who dared to infringe his commands
by slaying any animal or using flesh as food, in any part of his dominion.
Kumar Pal, a Jain King of Gujarat, imposed savage penalties upon violators
of his (similar) rules. An unlucky merchant who had committed the
atrocious crime of cracking a louse, was brought before a special court at
Anilhawada and punished with the confiscation of his whole property.
Another wretch, who had outraged the sanctity of the capital by bringing a
dish of raw meat, was put to death. The special court constituted by Kumar
Pal (for this purpose), had functions similar to those of Ashoka’s censors.

And the working of the latter institution sheds light on the unrecorded
proceedings of the earlier ones.”
The Martyr Louse!
339. Out of the proceeds obtained by selling the confiscated property of
the offender, who committed the ‘atrocious crime’ of cracking the said
louse, was built a big temple worth lacs of rupees and it was named
‘Yukvihar’—the Temple of Louse!
340. Had this incident been decribed by any other writer, it would have
been a parody of the Jain faith. But it is the Jain writers themselves, who
cite it with evident pride. Hence, it has to be taken as true.
341. What a paradoxical practice! In order to save a louse in the hair of a
man, to cut off the very head of that man! And this is called ‘ahimsa’! As if
to kill a man is no ‘himsa’—violence! Man seems to have no life at all! It is
because of this ‘ahimsa’, more ruthless and more violent than violence
—‘himsa’—itself, that millions of Indian hunters, fishermen, seamen,
gamekeepers, foresters and others, who lived by hunting and fishing lost
their professions.
342. When these millions of flesh-eaters jointly protested and
demonstrated how they and their wives and children would starve to death
and how this would spell violence of an enormously grave nature, King
Kumar Pal of Gujarat most graciously issued another order that these
millions of people, who have been carrying on violent professions, ought to
leave those professions themselves. However, as per their demand, the state
was to subsidize them for three years.
343. But what after those three years! Starvation could not be completely
ruled out in the case of these unfortunate millions. For, flesh and meat was
their chief food, which could be had almost for nothing. But because this
intolerant ‘ahimsa’ made flesh-eating punishable by death, this common
mass of people was antagonized to the Buddhist faith. These millions of
people shook off its tyrannical yoke, and sought refuge in the Vedic
religion, which had now taken an all-embracing noble form, accepting a
relatively considerate ahimsa, which allowed concessions for particular
time and place and persons, concentrating mainly on human welfare!
Untouchability Aggravated by the Buddhist Religion
344. Even today, not only common people and good many propagandists,
but even historians seem to be labouring under the delusion that the
Buddhists did not recognize the principle of untouchability, and that no one