6_Glorious_Epochs_of_Indian_History

414 SIX GLORIOUS EPOCHS-OF INDIAN HISTORY
battles affecting the destinies'of the states and the Hindu
nation as a whole it was the Hindu who usually, barring
ionourable exceptions, suffered crushing defeats with heavy
losses in men and material, sometimes because some leader sat
in 'Howda' on the elephant*, while at others one sat in palan­
quin'—sometimes because there was treachery in the Hindu '
ra'nks,* at others again when victory was almost in Hindu
hands—mere chance coincidence deflected it towards the
Muslims. This cruel verdict of the Goddess of War was as it
were, predetermined. The resistance offered by the brave
Daheer, the one offered by the valiant Jayapal or his son
Anangpal or the last battle given by Veer Prithviraj or again
the one fought by Maharana Sang, in every decisive action
fought throughout, through all these centuries upto that
fought in 1665 A.D. at Talikot by the dauntless Ramraja
of Vijaynagar the scales of war turned always against the
Hindus—the Hindus alone were unmistakably defeated !!
BUT SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE 17TH
CENTURY
1019. That means from the birth of Shivaji, so to say,
the same cruel Goddess of War began to show a highly
astonishing difference in her verdict regarding the same
Hindu-Muslim struggle. And it was this I Just as formerly
it seemed almost predetermined that the Hindus were bound
to be defeated in every Hindu-Muslim struggle, similarly
now onwards, wherever the Hindu-Muslim armies met, the
Hindus' victory was almost assured and the Muslim defeat a
foregone conclusion I Prom this seventeenth century onwards
wherever they met the Muslims in a state of war, the Hindus
invariably vanquished them ! Whether they were the decisive
Tjattles shaking the very foundations of states or nations or
whether they were only fleeting skirmishes, the victory for
the Hindus and the rout of the Muslims was the result !
Every Hindu young man should necessarily read the long
list of Hindu victories from the same book of mine viz :
Hindu Patpadshahi, the victories which swell our hearts