10 Lessons from Hindu History in 10 Episodes: Tales of Grit, Heroism and Valour

by Sandeep Balakrishna

Dedicated to the nameless warriors who throughout the ages fought for their ancient Dharma till the end. It is because the blood they shed and the sacrifices they endured that India still retains her original name: Bharatavarsha

Perhaps no other people have fought as hard and for so long and endured centuries of humiliation and tyranny under alien despotisms and finally emerged victorious as the Hindus.

Paramara Bhoja’s beloved capital, Dhārānagara (today’s Dhar city in Madhya Pradesh), which once housed a grand Saraswati Temple is now bereft of Her. The mūlamurti of the temple was befittingly named Vāgdevī, the Goddess of Speech, Articulation and Learning. This Vāgdevī continues to languish as an “artifact” in the British Museum.

The enormous Saraswati Temple complex also served as a mini-university until it was spotted by a pious Sufi fakir named Kamal Maulana, who stayed in Malwa for three decades, collected intelligence and faithfully transmitted it to the super-bigot Ala-ud-din Khalji. What happened to it after that is a gory story unnecessary to narrate here. Today, whatever remains of the Vāgdevī Temple is surrounded by four dargahs of Sufi saints, and Hindus are allowed to offer Puja only once a year, on Basant Panchami.

The modern-day version of Ala-ud-din Khalji named Digvijay Singh had completely banned Hindus as long as he was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. This is the selfsame Bhojsh...

In a sense, Bharatavarsha lost her independence the day one of her most sacred cities, the ancient Tirtha-Kshetra, Mulastāna brutally got the taste of what a pious Jihad looked like on the ground. Woe betide the city, town, village, and locality that undergoes a name change like how Mulastāna became Multan.

Jayasimha (or Jaisimha), the indomitable son of the foolish and imprudent Raja Dahir (or Dahar) presents a great illustration of this historical fact. Under Muslim duress, he converted to Islam but when the Muslim control weaned, he beat them back and returned to his Matru-Dharma, his original Hindu fold.

Clearly, it was not magic or voodoo that sustained it but something that was rooted in the Sanatana DNA: the superb, original and inimitable fusion of the evocative and inspiring spirit of Brahma (Spirituality) and Kshatra (Valour) that played out so gloriously on battlefield after battlefield for centuries on end until the barbaric sword of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s soul-snuffing and civilisation-shattering nonviolence killed it.

The last vestiges of this Aryavarata Consciousness were slowly getting extinguished with the Gurjara-Pratiharas, Rashtrakutas, and Palas busily trying to slash one another’s throats.

His name was Parama Bhattaraka Maharajadhiraja Sri Jayapaladeva, the forgotten last frontier hero of Sanatana Bharatavarsha mentioned in our deracinated history textbooks simply as “Jaipal.”

That vile task of inducing self-shame, the logical consequence of which is deracination was completed by two forces: (i) the British through “education” and (ii) Mohandas Gandhi through his death cult of non-violence and Satyagraha of which the worst and the most representative example is Ishwar Allah tere naam.

Indian Resistance to Early Muslim Invaders by Dr. Ram Gopal Misra, and Heroic Hindu Resistance to Muslim Invaders by the intrepid Sita Ram Goel.

Purushapura or Peshawar,

K.M. Munshi calls the Aryavarta Consciousness

Even worse, these Hindu kingdoms naively, literally, and foolishly took for granted, for example, Medhatithi’s dictum that Aryavarta was so called because the Aryas sprang up in it again and again. Even if it was overrun by the mlechchhas, they could never abide there for long.

As history shows, these Hindu kings went to war armed with the following sacrosanct weapons: No matter how grave the enemy’s provocation, the temple, the Murti, the Shrine, the cow, and the Brahmana were not to be touched. War was a privilege accorded only to the Kshatriyas (or those who enrolled for a life of military honour) and harming civilian population was a serious lapse of Kshatriya Dharma. However, there is plenty of evidence that shows that all classes of the Hindu society participated in the repeated wars to save their Dharma. The chastity of women, which was held in divine reverence by the Kshatriyas, was inviolable.

Notes For a fuller discussion, see for example: Hindus beyond the Hindu Kush: Indians in the Central Asian Slave Trade.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 12: C Scott Levi, 2002 Foreword by K.M. Munshi to The History and Culture of the Indian People: Vol 5: R C Majumdar: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2015: p viii. Vishnupurana: II, 3, 4. Paraphrased by the author. Medhaithi’s commentary on Manusmriti: II. 22 Foreword of K.M. Munshi to The History and Culture of the Indian People: Vol 5: R C Majumdar: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2015: p x For a detailed and in-depth discussion on Kshatra from the Vedic era up to the modern times, see: The Tradition of Kshaatra in India at Prekshaa Journal. https://www.prekshaa.in/. This is the English translation of the Kannada original, Bharatiya Kshatraparampare by Shatavadhani Dr. R Ganesh. Geopolitcs of India and Greater India: Dr. S Srikanta Sastri: Madhu Publishers, 1943. Emphasis added. See the Foreword by K.M. Munshi to The History and Culture of the Indian People: Vol 3: R C Majumdar: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2015. Foreword of K.M. Munshi to The History and Culture of the Indian People: Vol 5: R C Majumdar: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2015: p x. Emphasis added Devi-Swaroopa: akin to a Mother Goddess

The Tower of “Victory” When Aibak returned to Delhi flushed with these great victories, he decided to commemorate them by building the first ever mosque in the city. But it was not enough to simply build the Quwwat-ul-Islam, the “glory of Islam.” It necessitated an emphatic spectacle and a permanent reminder of what this glory meant in actual practice. Accordingly, Qutub-ud-din Aibak demolished twenty-seven Hindu and Jain temples and used their debris as construction material for the mosque. The Quwwat-ul-Islam is noted for the Qutub Minar, the “tower of victory,” celebrating and stamping the first ever Muslim conquest in the heart of Delhi. The same applies to the “construction” of the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque in Ajmer built after razing down the existing Sanskrit College, which had housed a beautiful Saraswati Temple within.

Epilogue The Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque also earned another distinction. Iltutmish, Qutub-ud-din’s slave and successor, completed the construction of the Qutub Minar. Around 1233-4, he marched to Ujjaini, the beloved city of Mahakavi Kalidasa, and home to the magnificent and sublime Mahakala Temple (or Mahakal) dedicated to Shiva, one of the twelve sacred Jyotirlingas. Quite naturally, Iltutmish regarded it as one of the great hubs of infidel idolatry. With a savage stroke, he demolished this exquisite temple, a majestic, living proof and a profoundly dignified symbol of the possibilities of what innate devotion and stainless piety could accomplish when it finds unsullied expression in architecture and refined sculpture. A work of three hundred painstaking years and countless generations of dedicated, joyous, backbreaking work, an awe-inspiring system of transmitting generational knowledge, an economic framework and political stability that sustained all this tragically fell to the sword and the pickaxe and the fire of a determined, zealous vandal inspired by Islamic piety. After the pious ravaging was complete, Iltutmish ordered his troops to carry these broken idols and “many other figures” and “brass statues of Vikramaditya and other notable rulers” to Delhi where they were “broken at the door of the great” Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque so that the Faithful could trample upon it. Qutub Minar. Tower of victory. Indeed.

References Nishapur is now in the Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran. The accurate meaning of the word “Aibak” is disputed. According to some scholars, “Aibak” might also mean the name of a tribe or a town. Taju-l Ma’asir: Hasan Nizami. Quoted in The History of India As Told by Its Own Historians: Vol 3, Elliot and Dawson. p 220 Kol was also known as Koil before the 18th Century. Its origins are obscure. A Puranic account narrates that Balarama slew the demon named Kol in this region and with the help of the Ahir people, established peace and order. Another account attributes the establishment of this city to the Dor Rajputs in the fourth century CE. The latter account can reasonably be verified by the ruins of the Dor fort still standing in Aligarh. For fuller details, see: Descriptive and Historical Account of the Aligarh District: Edwin T. Atkinson: Oxford University Press, 1875 Taju-l Ma’asir: Hasan Nizami. Quoted in The History of India As Told by Its Own Historians: Vol 2, Elliot and Dawson. p 222 6. Jayachandra is the same Jaichand mentioned in the epic poem, Prithviraj Raso, which blames him for betraying Prithviraja Chahamana. The account is historically inaccurate. However...

Ananda Coomaraswamy’s Prophecy Fulfilled In India, it’s worse. The average urban, English-educated Indian Hindu since Independence is a stranger in his own land and has today brought to fruition Ananda Coomaraswamy’s prophetic warning that this Hindu is “a nondescript and superficial being deprived of all roots, a sort of intellectual pariah who does not belong to the East or the West, the past or the future.”

Remember: the only thing that grows in the wreckage of Communism is unchecked Jihadism.

Unsurprisingly this long heritage which we have every reason to be proud of happens to be Hindu. Perhaps in no other country has self-hatred succeeded and touched its pinnacle as it has in India.

Notes Education in India: Essays in national idealism: Ananda K Coomaraswamy, 1910 Who’s the Charioteer? : 7 February 2010, The New Indian Express See for example: Sources of Vijayangar History: S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, University of Madras, 1919 The Connoisseurial Climate of Krishnadevarya’s Period: Prekshaa Journal. *

However, it is the extremely gifted Queen of Kumara Kampana, poetess extraordinaire, Gangadevi who gives us a valuable account of the condition of the period. She laments thus in the classic epic poem, Madhura Vijayam (The Victory over Madhura). Numbers in square brackets indicate the verse number below. O King! The city, which is called Madhurapuri for its honeyed loveliness, has now become the city of cruel beasts; it now lives up to its earlier name of Vyaghrapuri, the city of tigers because humans don’t dwell there (anymore). [1] Those temples of Gods, which used to reverberate with the sacred melody of the mridangam, now echo the dreadful howls of jackals. [5] In the Brahmin Quarters [Agraharams] of our city, huge columns of smoke emanating from the scared Yagnas used to rise up and reach the skies amid the sacred Vedic chants but alas! today those selfsame Quarters send up wretched stenches of meat roasted by the Turushkas; the Vedic chants are today replaced by the beastly cacophonies of drunken hoodlums. [7] During the days of Pandyas, our women used to bathe in [river] Taamraparni, whose waters turned white from the sandal-paste applied to their breasts. My lord! Now she’s coloured only in red from the currents of blood flowing into her from all the cows slaughtered by its wicked occupiers all over the country. [13] O King! I cannot bear to look at the countenance of those Dravida ladies who were bounteously endowed with beauty. Ravished horribly by the scourging ...

It occurred on January 23, 1565 in that fateful Battle of Talikota, or what I call the Sunset Battle of the Hindus.

Partial picture of an Empire in Decline We can reasonably trace the seeds of this Sunset Battle to Aliya (literally: son-in-law) Rama Raya, the son-in-law of Krishnadevaraya. Rama Raya was a valiant commander, a tactful and fearsome warrior who had led several successful campaigns under Krishnadevaraya. He was also an able administrator and a skilful diplomat. Rama Raya was also endowed with a fatal flaw: an unquenchable thirst for power, haughtiness and overconfidence in his own abilities. He was also given to excessive sensual indulgence. After Krishnadevaraya’s death, the throne passed on to his younger brother, Achyuta Raya who died in 1542 CE. His nephew, Sadashiva Raya was then a minor. Rama Raya seized this opportunity and eventually put Sadashiva Raya under virtual house arrest. Acting as regent, he quickly took control of state power and replaced officers in important positions with people personally loyal to him. However, till the end, he could not become king because he had not descended from the royal lineage of the Rayas of Vijayanagara. To his credit, Rama Raya was a shrewd political operative. Surrounded by the five hostile Bahamani Kings, he constantly pitted one Sultan against the other and in the process ensured two things: one, he extended the borders of the Vijayanagara Empire occupying territories north of the Krishna river and two, he kept Vijayanagara secure by capitalising on the incessant enmity between the Bahamani Sultans. However, his luck did e...

The late V S Naipaul elucidates this mind set the best: …the very grandeur of the Mogul buildings is oppressive. Europe has its monuments of sun-kings, its Louvres and its Versailles. But they are part of the development of a country’s spirit; they express the refining of a nation’s sensibility; they add to the common, growing stock. In India these endless mosques and rhetorical mausolea, these great palaces speak only of a personal plunder and for a country with an infinite capacity for being plundered. The Mogul owned everything in his dominions; and this is the message of the Mogul architecture. I know only one building in England with this quality of dead-end personal extravagance…the Blenheim. Imagine England as a country of Blenheims, continually built, destroyed and rebuilt over five hundred years, each a gift of the nation and seldom for services rendered…leaving at the end no vigorous nation…no principle beyond that of personal despotism. The Taj Mahal is exquisite…But in India it is a building wastefully without function; it is only a despot’s monument to a woman, not of India, who bore a child every year for fifteen years. It took twenty-two years to build; and the guide will tell you how many millions it cost. [V S Naipaul: The Indian Trilogy. Emphases added]

In the words of Jadunath Sarkar, Mothers and daughters of kings, they were robbed of their religion and forced to lead the infamous life of the Mughal harem.

The Brilliant Battle of Nijagal: How the Mere Chieftain Madakari Nayaka Pounded Hyder Ali

The full story of this tragic decimation of Chitradurga is the subject of T.R. Subba Rao’s magnum opus, Durgastamana, a historical classic

The Forgotten Genocide of Hindus in Kohat in 1924

Communalism of the majority is far more dangerous than communalism of the minority… When the minority communities are communal, you can see that and understand it. But the communalism of a majority community is apt to be taken for nationalism. Let us spell it out: Jawaharlal Nehru

Muhammad Ali described it: I frankly confess it is on such occasions that I sigh for the days when our forefathers settled things by cutting heads rather than counting them.

Notes Jawaharlal Nehru: Speech at the All India Congress Committee, 1958. Emphasis added. RNP Singh: Riots & Wrongs: Islam and Religious Riots: A Case Study, India First Foundation, 2004 Koenraad Elst: Ayodhya, the Finale: Science Versus Secularism in the Excavations Debate, Voice of India, 2003 R.C. Majumdar: History of the Freedom Movement, Vol 3, p 274 Ibid: p 275 Ibid: p 275. Emphasis added. IAR Vol 2, p 25. Emphasis added. Ibid. Emphasis added. Ibid: p 278 Ibid IAR: Vol 2, 1924. p 26 Ibid Ibid R.C. Majumdar: History of the Freedom Movement, Vol 3, p 279 Quoted in Ibid, p 279 Quoted in Ibid, p 279 RNP Singh: Riots & Wrongs: Islam and Religious Riots: A Case Study, India First Foundation, 2004. p 194 Ibid R.C. Majumdar: History of the Freedom Movement, Vol 3, p 283. Emphasis added. Ibid. pp 279-80

Harvard Professor Diana Eck named her book, India: A Sacred Geography.

अङ्ग वङ्ग कलिङ्ग कश्मीर कंभोज कामरूप केरल केकय कोसल मैथिल कुन्तल कुरङ्ग कुरवक सौवीर सौराष्ट्र मत्स्य मागध माळव मराळ सिंहल मलयाल चोल बङ्गाल पाञ्चाल साळ्व पुलीन्द्र कर्नाटक वराटक मराटक सिक्क सिन्ध पञ्जविका पावका पाम्ड्य द्रविड यवन शूरसेन घॊर्जर कुक्कुर पराशर गान्धार विदर्भ बर्बर बरमा भोज बाह्लीक कोङ्कण टेङ्कण चीणा हूण दशार्णादि षट् पञ्चाशद्देश …

Madhya Desha = Middle or Centre 2. Udeecya Desha – Roughly, North of north west of the Sindhu River 3. Prachya Desha = East 4. Dakshinapatha = South 5. Aparanta = the Western borders

Alexander Cunningham’s superb work on the ancient and medieval geography of India mentions in so many words that Panini was both inevitable and indispensable for any work on ancient India. Yet