१८५७ का स्वातन्त्र्य समर (वीर विनायक दामोदर सावरकर - अंग्रेजों द्वारा छपने से पूर्व प्रतिबन्धित महाग्रन्थ)

KUMAR SINGH AND AMAR SINGH
elephants of Kumar Singh as soon as they would appear.
Brave soldiers! Enjoying all the while the sweet pros-
pects of success, conceal yourselves near Balila till the
looked for enemy comes! There, seven miles below this
very spot, is Kumar Singh actually crossing the river
Ganges! Having duped the English by the story of the
elephants and Balila, the Raja got together as many boats
as he wanted and, from the Ghat of Shivapur, he began
to cross the sacred Bhagirathi at night. The duped foe,
awaked to this fact, got extremely irritated and, hurriedly
marching from Balila, reached Shivapur and even succeed-
ed in capturing a boat belonging to the Raja—but that
was the last boat! The whole army had already been
sent on the other side and in a minute or two the chieftain
too, having supervised the crossing of the army, would
have crossed the river himself. But, alas! What a
calamity this one moment has brought with it! While
this hero of the nation, the pride of chivalry, the sword of
Liberty—Rana Kumar Singh was in the middle of the
stream, a bullet shot from the enemy's guns entered his
wrist! But old as he was, the octogenarian leader did not
mind it at all! And when amputation was deemed
necessary, with his own hand—the hand that was not
wounded—Kumar Singh unsheathed his sword, lopped off
the wounded arm at the elbow, and threw it into the
sacred Ganges saying, "Accept thou, Mother, this last
sacrifice of a loving son!"
Though innumerable are the people who have addressed
the Ganges as Mother, it is Kumar—this brave son of
Ganga, and such as he, that make the motherhood of the
sacred Ganges fruitful and glorious. As the poet says,
innumerable are the stars that are in the sky; but, it is
the moon alone that adorns it and makes it lovely!
After offering this sacrifice to the Mother Ganges, this
distinguished son succeeded in crossing the river without
further trouble from the English army. The enemy, on
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