6_Glorious_Epochs_of_Indian_History

-6TH GLORIOUS EPOCH 255
times ! When Vishwamitra took Shreeram to the forest to
-protect the Rishis, the latter was told at great length how
those Rakshasas destroyed the religious rites of the time,
viz., the sacrifices, and how the daughters of the Rishis were
kidnapped^. Later on in Dandakaranya Shreeram came to
know what great havoc had the Rakshasa army of Ravan
wrought upon the hermitages of the Rishis, who were in a
-minority there, with their sacrificial rites, with their colonies
and even with their lives*. Ram was also shown at various
places the heaps of bones of those Rishis whose blood those
•cannibals had drunk and whose flesh they had eaten.' This
will clearly show that this long-drawn mythological war of
•our ancestors with the Rakshasas was fought not only on the
political but also on the religious front. And at that time
those gods and god-like emperors, too, considered it the
holiest religious duty to shows uper-savage cruelty to beat
•down the cruelty of the Rakshasas, to be arch-devils against
the devils ! (For a fuller discussion of the point please refer to
paragraphs 460 to 461 of this book). It is enough to mention
here that the incarnation of Nursinh who appeared in the
most terrifying form in order to protect the great devotee
-Prahlad and who tore to pieces his religious enemy, the
wicked Hiranya Kashipu with his leonine talons was—
A GOD-HEAD OF OUR NATION
—was our leader ! The story of Kacha also shows that in
the war our gods followed the policy—
642. gsrfjcT ?r i ^mf^ ^rf^R: ii*
'To fight the crafty enemy with super-craft, to destroy bar­
barism with hyper-barbarity, as the only effective means of
annihilating the foe, was the praiseworthy principle of
religious warfare of our ancestors till at lease the close of
the Puranic era.
643. However, when gods fought against other gods,
•or when there were internecine wars like that of the Kouravas
and the Pandavas, the war strategy differed completely. No
single charioteer was to be attacked by many charioteers;