War ethics in Bharatvarsha were spiritual and more superior to the rest of the world, wars were confined to the battlefield & the defeated adversaries were treated with honour.
Conquerors like Julius Caesar, Cyrus, Alexander also fought only to win.
War ethics of Bharatvarsha:
A king could invade another country if only he was more capable than the other.
He was supposed to send an ambassador with a simple message – Fight or Surrender.
Killing an ambassador was against law.
The winning army was not allowed to ravage, destroy temples, trees, gardens, agricultural lands of the adversary.
War shouldn’t instill any fear amongst farmers & civilians, should be left alone to carry out their activities even if a fierce war is in progress in the neighborhood.
Kshatriyas were to fight, one warrior- one opponent at a time, & not attack a disabled opponent.
A heavily armoured warrior should not fight the opponent army warrior who was not well-armored.
A warrior would never kill a a retreating/ surrendered warrior, woman, child, old.
And then came the invaders with an outlook that raised mass killings to a holy creed, beheading rejoiced, killing of an enemy, a cause for hysterical celebration. Barbarous slaughtering of civilians, ravaging the women, carrying back slaves, destroying & burning down properties, Breaking Temples & moortis, loot & plunder were the new rules of war.
The Arabs now converted to Islam, unleashed a never ending war on the world to impose their belief, language and cruel characteristic on those they invaded, ensuring that their victims ended up becoming at best like them and murderous at worst.
Were the Pharaohs, the builders of Pyramids Arabs, why does every Egyptian call himself Arab?
Why do the Libyan, Sudanese, Algerian, Tunisian, Somalian call themselves Arab? These were the people whom Arabs so Islamized, submerging them into the Muslim Ummah, that they have completely forgotten their original national identities!
Some historians painted portraits of Islamic rulers being protectors and being charitable towards the non-Muslim subjects. Where as, the Muslim Moors rolled back out of Europe only when the sword stopped & defeated them.
(Reconquista- long series of wars between the Christian Kingdoms & the Muslim Moors, that lasted from 718 to 1492, & the Crusaders)
At the battle of the Bridge/ Al Jisr , 636 CE, the Persians used their elephants to trample over the Arab attackers. The Arabs retreated in panic with the Persians chasing them up to the Bridge on the Tigris river, the boundary between the Persian Empire and Arab Domains. The Persians did not follow the Arabs into the Arabian desert but stopped at the bridge. Was the opportunity to hunt down the invaders in their homeland and pay them back in the same coin wasted by the Persians?
A similar opportunity was lost by the Franks at the Battle of Poitiers, 732,
by the Austrians, the Poles in 1683 at the battle of Vienna,
by the Rajput Hindu, Prithviraj Chauhan in 1191 at the Battle of Taraor/ Tarain,
by the Israelis in 1967, at the six day war,
the liberation of Afghanistan 2001,
Iraq in 2003.
Now read in part 5, the retaliatiaton of Hindus with counter aggression...
India, whose people invented iron & steel, who first laid down concept of moral conscience, who fought heroic wars but did not permit their kshatriya warriors to smear the tip of their arrows with poison, whose most striking feature is humanity, the great temple builders who lost millions of their people to forced religious conversions, did not perish inspite of suffering sustained attacks from Islam since the 7th century. Instead they continue to be a vibrant religious and cultural force to this day.
This is what Lieutenant Colonel James Tod (1782-1835) wrote in Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan:
“What nation on earth could have maintained the semblance of civilization, the spirit or the customs of their forefathers, during so many centuries of overwhelming depression..…. Rajasthan exhibits the sole example in the history of mankind, of a people withstanding every outrage barbarity could inflict, or human nature sustain...... not an iota of their religion or customs have they lost…”.
After an unsuccessful campaign of about eighty years, though Muhammad-bin-Qasim was successful in capturing Sindh in 712 A.D, it took him eight months to acquire control over Sindh due to the tough resistance by the people of many towns including Alor and Brahmanabad. The brave Hindus were following the vedic tradition:
अमर्याद प्रवृत्तेच शत्रुभिस्संगरे कृते
सर्वेवर्णाक्ष्च दृश्येयु: शत्रवन्तो युधिष्ठिर ।।
In the event of an extensive war with the enemy, O Yudhisthir, all classes of people should be seen well armed with weapons.
Unlike the popular belief that Hindus offered practically no resistance to Islamic aggression, there arose from time to time, heroic men and women warriors who fought the invaders with counter- aggression making it impossible for the Muslims to bring the entire Hindu society under their green flag.
The Hindus not only inflicted political defeats on the Muslims but kings like Bhima, Rana Pratap, other Rajput princes and kings of Vijayanagar crippled and rendered them out of gear. With deadly blows the Marathas under the leadership of Peshwa, fluttered their flag right up to Attock.
सर्वे धर्मों प्रक्षेययूर्विरद्धा:
क्षात्रे त्यकते राजधर्मे पुराणे।
In the event of the Kshatriyas forsaking their kingly duty all the religions are bound to perish.
And that is what happened to the Kshatriyas who had chosen to follow the path of ahimsa. Bin Qasim beheaded the Buddhists more ruthlessly than the Hindus…but hadn’t they greeted him after he captured the Port of Debal?
Fifty years before Ashoka, foreseeing the ill effects of some teachings of buddhism on the national strength, Chanakya laid down certain essential restrictions in Arthshastra- prohibition of men to become bhikshus unless they provided for their families, minor girls from entering into Sangham without the government & her parents’ permission etc. according to his treatise, all the Varnas including the brahmins had free access to military services.
These restrictions disappeared during Ashoka’s reign, he preached that armed strength was sinful. He spent major part of revenue collection ( his Imperial treasury was the estates of the Vedic Hindus) in building Buddhist Viharas and maintenance of millions of Bhikshus who were allowed free food, clothing, beddings and houses.
When Bin Qasim attacked Sindh in 711, the majority of its population was Vedic Hindus with Dahir as their King, Buddhists were only a small minority. When Dahir fell and Qasim captured Port Deval, Buddhists rang the bells in vihars to greet him and prayed for his prosperity…perhaps they thought that the new aggressors might embrace their cult too?
"We have nothing to do with Dahir and his Vedic Hindu cult, our religious faith differs from theirs. Buddha taught us Ahimsa so we never take arms and never dabble in politics. Since you are the victor, you are our king, we pray that we should not be subjected to any indignities.” - Veer Savarkar, Six glorious epochs of Indian History, 326A, page117.
Muslim writers of Tarikhs mention:
“Buddhist in Sindh helped the Muslims in every possible way, while the latter marched onwards, by showing them difficult passes, providing them with foodstuff and fodder and supplying them secret military intelligence.”
Qasim assured the Buddhists of safety…but went on beheading them ruthlessly since there was no armed opposition in Buddhist Vihars, the Hindus were fighting them in groups or individually. All Buddhist Vihars throughout Sindh were knocked down, only those were spared who accepted Islam.
Much later, about 1565 rout Ferishta describes, “The river which ran near the field was dyed red with their blood. It is computed that 1,00,000 infidels were slain during the pursuit.”
From the Sultans to the common soldiers, all began to settle down in Bharatvarsha with at least three or four forcibly polluted Hindu women each in their harems. Considered kafirs and slaves, Hindu girls were often enticed, carried away by Muslim women who considered it their holy duty to convey them to Masjids and Muslim centres. Wether a begum or a popper, no Muslim women ever protested against the atrocities committed by their men on Hindu women, on the contrary they played devilish roles by doing whatever possible in their power to harass the captured Hindu girls.
Contrary to that, the Hindu Kings in those times were chivalrous towards the enemy women who feared no retribution or punishment at their hands for their heinous crimes. But the Hindus of the Pre-Islamic Era never extended chivalry to men/ women who deserved nothing but the most stringent punishment for their atrocious crimes. They knew very well that ahimsa is the highest virtue, the highest self control, highest sacrifice, finest strength, greatest truth & happiness, but they also knew,
Non-violence is the ultimate duty but the path of Violence has to be taken for protection of Dharma.
अहिंसा परमो धर्मः धर्म हिंसा तथैव च:।।
When Tratika marched on Shri Ram, he killed her without a moment’s thought. When Shrupnakha attacked Sita, Laxman deprived her of her nose & ears. When Narkasur carried away thousands of Ary women to his kingdom-Assyria (the ancient city of Assur), Shri Krishna killed him and brought back all 16000 imprisoned women. In the post Puranic period, victorious Hindu kings invariably married the enemy princesses of Greek, Sakas, Huns for eg Chandragupta also married Seleucus's daughter.
Why are the following incidents of counter-aggression and reconversion of Hindus not covered in our history books?
Maharshi Deval, wrote down rules for reconversion of Hindus in ‘Deval Smriti’, he gathered Brahmins and Kshatriyas and led an active shuddhikaran campaign for converted Hindus. The campaign was so successful that it led the Muslims to seek refuge in a fortress called al-Mahfuzah, constructed for that purpose. Within 30 years of Qasim’s invasion, by reconverting the Hindus and absorbing them in their midst in Sindh, Hindus defeated the Muslims completely, both on political and religious front and maintained their grip for over 200 years.
“Maharshi Deval reclaimed the converted Hindus compelled to kill cows, sweep left over food of malecchas, eating forbidden food, the abducted/ raped women in the borderlands of Sind, Sauvira (lower Indus Valley), Saurashtra, Kalinga, Konkana and Vanga. The vision reflected in Deval Smriti is unparalleled in any Dharmasatra. He discarded the older view of 'no purification for the one who lived with the malecchas for four years.” - KM Munshi, Chakravarti Gurjaro.
Sages who motivated Hindus to fight the Muslim onslaught with counter aggression.
Acharya Medhatithi, the oldest and most famous interpreter of Manusmriti, sought to overcome Muslim religious aggression with disastrous counter-aggression to repulse the enemy. To establish the old empire of Aryavarta, and to conquer and annex if necessary with force, Muslim states beyond the limits of Aryavarta, he taught the lesson of expansionism and victorious imperialism of Chanakya. He regenerated into Hindus, the courage to strike the aggressors hard and inspired them to instantly repulse the armed religious aggression of the Muslims. Keeping in tradition of the Aryan empire in fighting down the aggressors, he gave them the Rigvedic slogan, “Krinvanto Vishwam Aryam”.
इन्द्रं वर्धन्तो अप्तुरः
कृण्वन्तो विश्वं आर्यं
अपघ्नन्तो अराव्णः - Rigveda 9.63.5
हेपरम ऐश्वर्ययुक्त आत्मज्ञानी, तुम आत्म शक्ति का विकास करते हुए गतिशील, प्रमादरहित होकर कृपणता, आदरशीलता, अनुदारता, ईर्ष्या आदि का नाश करते हुए सारे विश्व को आर्य बनाओ ।
Shree Vidyaranya Swami, the 12th Jagadguru of Sringeri Sarada Peeth, also known as Madhvacharya, the author of the Sarvadarsanasargrah accepted the leadership of Shankracharya and like Maharshi Deval and Medhatithi, inspired Hindus to retaliate. He himself publicly reconverted the forcibly converted Harihar and Bukka, and crowned Harihar as a Hindu emperor when the two brothers defeated Muslims and established the Hindu state of Vijayanagar in A.D 1336. After the overthrow of Muslim power in Gomantak, Vidyaranya Madhavacharya built a lake named Madhav Teertha and effected mass reconversions.
Shree Ramanujacharya, his disciples Shree Ramananda and Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also purified hundreds of Muslimized Hindus.
Bharatvarsha never compromised her sovereignty over any part of her Motherland. Hindus never ceased to strive for throwing out aggressors and freeing our mother land from their clutches. The Sages and Kings were determined to recuperate the numerically stupendous losses suffered at the hands of the Muslims and save Sanatana Dharma from extinction.
After Bin Qasim conquered Sindh, Bappa Rawal of Mewar (Guhila/ Gahlot clan, ancestor of Sisodia dynasty) attacked not only Sindh but Muslim strongholds beyond that and annexed them to his territory. He married a captured Muslim princess, (some accounts say he married 35 Muslim princess) his children from her were Hindus.
Rawal Jaisal married the daughter of Haibat Khan, Ahmad Shah’s nobel, and named her Somaldevi.
Rao Rawal Mallinath was the ruler of Malani (presently Barmer district). His son Kunwar Jagmal defeated the Muslim Sultan of Gujarat, annexed his domain to his own, married his daughter and assimilated her children amongst the Rajputs.
Rao Raimal of Marwar captured 600 Muslim women, converted and married them to several noblemen of his court.
Rana Kumbha of Mewar defeated the Muslims, took all their women to his kingdom, converted them and married them to his noblemen.
The political histories, the Rassos of Rajput royal families quotes many instances of conversion of Muslim women.
Shivaji avenged all the wrongs done to the Hindus by establishing a Hindu independent state, he himself reconverted Bajaji Nimbalkar and Netaji Palkar.
Raja Jayasthiti Malla of Nepal drove out the Nawab Shamsuddin of Bengal from Nepal. Following the policy of Mahrshi Medhatithi, he rebuilt the temples destroyed by the Muslims and reconverted the forcibly converted Hindus.
Arundev Rai of Ajmer ousted Muslims from his kingdom and performed a huge ceremony to purify the land and built a temple and a lake named ‘Anasagar’, bathed the converted Hindus in the lake and brought them back in Hindu fold.
Raja Amarsing of Jaisalmir performed a similar ceremony and built a lake called ‘Amarsagar’. Sanctified by a pompous ceremony, thousands of converted Hindus from Sindh bathed in the lake and reconverted to Hinduism.
The Hindus payed the barbarians back in the same coin sending the whole of Muslim society in a state of horror seeing the ferocious outburst of Hindu rage.
Aurangzeb destroyed Kashi Vishvanath temple in September, 1669, temples in Khandela, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Chitor were destroyed few years later. Around 1680, to avenge the destruction of temples, under the powerful leadership of Maharana Jaswant Singh and Durgadas Rathod, about thirty smaller and one large Masjid erected on the Hindu Temples as well as others were razed to the ground and temples were built and on their sites.
- R.C. Majumdar, The Mughal Empire (Bombay, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1974), 351
- Sita Ram Goel, Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them
The Jodhpur Rajputs reconverted not only Muslimized Hindus but also extensively converted Muslim women, married or even kept them as concubines just like the Muslims did to Hindu women.
To restore political and religious stability after conquering the Huns, the Hindu leaders shouldered the responsibility of reconstructing the vast Hindu community and raising the warrior class. Besides the four former varna, the Hindus were meticulously moulded into parentage dominated caste system. To preserve the purity of Vedic religion, they enforced bans like Lotibandi/ prohibition of drinking water, Roti bandi/ prohibition of food, Beti bandi/ prevention of inter caste marriages, Sparsh bandi/ untouchability, Shuddhi bandi/ prevention of reconversion of converts.
Earlier the Syrian Christians and later the Muslims would throw beef, meat in the wells of Hindus, thrust a morsel/ beef into their mouths. The effected Hindus would have no place in the Hindu community…
During the Rathod period, if the Muslims threw beef into the Hindu temples and wells, the Rathod armies threw pork in Masjid after Masjid and responded in the language the barbarians understood best!
James Tod has narrated many incidents:
The political histories, the Rassos of Rajput royal families quotes many instances of conversion of Muslim women in to Hindu society.
In the Muslim Tarikhs, Muslim writers are found complaining that,
“At least opportunity, the Hindu kafirs converted the Muslim women and married them in the Hindu community.”
Writer of Taikh-i-Sorath gives this interesting information on Shuddhikaran of Muslim women by the Hindus:
“Even at the troubled times of Mahmud Gazni’s expedition, the king of Anhilwar carried away several Turkish, Mughal and Afghan women who lingered behind, converted, and married them.”
The simplicity, compassion & patience of the Hindu society, pushed beyond its ultimate limits, retaliated to the followers of the cult that finished root & branch, the natural coexisting cultures across the world.
Back in 326 B.C. when Alexander was marching into India, Acharya Chanakya was secretly planning a transfer of the crown to his young disciple Chandragupta who a little later was to carve a glorious page in the history of India. Said Chanakya:
“Warlike spirit and armed- strength, were the very life-breath not only of the political but also the civil life of a community.”
The transformation of the demoralized Hindu society into an aggressive militant fervour by Guru Gobind Singh ji is a landmark in the Indian history. In Zafarnama, he wrote –
Chu kar az hama heelt e dar guzshat,
Halal ast burdan ba shamsheer dast.
When all avenues have been explored, all means tried, raising of sword is just and pious....!