6_Glorious_Epochs_of_Indian_History

380 SIX GLORIOUS EPOCHS OF INDIAN HISTORY
leaderless Hindn army, captured Hemoo alive'^. Taking him
to young emperor Akbar Bahiramkhan requested the latter to
•behead Hemoo with his own royal hands. But young Akbar
•could not bring himself up to do such a cruel deed. So the
enraged Bahiramkhan himself _ unsheathed his sword and cut
off Hemoo's head'*.
942. This martyrdom that Vikramaditya Hemoo cour­
ted was as obviously (manifestly) done in the cause of Hindu
leligion, and the greater glory of the Hindu nation and
Hindu welfare as any other. The Hindu nation must always
bow down its head in all reverence to this hero, who un­
fortunately is not so remembered amongst the very few so-
called martyrs and warriors in the Hindu world. Well, be
it so ! But even if the millions of these self-deceived and
ungrateful Hindus have forgotten him, the Hindu nation as
a whole must always remember that the undying Hindu aspi­
ration to free itself which was kept continually ablaze
through a succession of generations and over centuries to­
gether and which ultimately rent to pieces the Muslim
imperial power, planting on its dead remains the glorious
banner of an Indi^-wide Hindu empire, was fed on the now
forgotten martyrdom, and the sacrificial offerings of their
lives on the altar of war, of the numerous brave heroes like
Hemoo, who were fatwff^ "l^fate^: (ambitious of being the lords
of Delhi).
943. Here itself may we offer our reverential tributes
to the glorious memory of Vikramaditya Hemoo, the great J
and proceed further !
THE VALIANT QUEEN DURGAWATI
944. Bahiramkhan, thereafter, took Akbar straight to
Delhi; later they two together reduced all the rebels upto
•Gwalior (Gwalher). But they soon fell out and Akbar assumed
•supreme authority, whereupon Bahiramkhan rebelled, but
was defeated'*. Even then Akbar did not kill him out­
right, but sent him away to Makka. Bahiramkhan, however,
fell a prey to a revengeful enemy of his of the earlier days'^.