The Lost Paradise of Vijaynagar

By Chetan Shirasi

The Vijaynagar Empire was born out of ashes of burning Hindu civilization at the beginning of 14^th century. It was established by two brothers Hariharaya I and Bukkaraya I. The brothers, horrified by Muslim genocide and barbarism decided to create an empire so powerful that it could ward off the Islamic invaders from the heartland of South India and provide a safe haven for the heritage and culture of the Hindus. The empire was named after its capital city, Vijaynagar, which was arguably one of the most beautiful cities in the world, described to be bigger than Rome by Domingo Paes(a Spanish traveler); this city shadowed the beauty and magnificence of Renaissance cities of Italy from that era.

The empire lasted for more than 250 years until finally it was destroyed at Battle of Talikota, in 1565, where the combined might of the Deccan Sultanates won after a strategic mistake made by the presiding ruler, Ramaraya, proved fatal. Although the empire was lost, it did serve a great purpose in reviving the Hindu culture in the South, which had come under severe strain in the North due to the Muslim invaders. At the zenith of its power, Vijaynagar was one of the most magnificent cities and the centre of Hindu culture. Excavations continue to reveal the little known aspects of this once powerful empire and city. The remains of this city are today the part of UNESCO World Heritage site at Hampi Karnataka, a site which to this day retains the magic and carries the nostalgia of once glorious past.

The series, presented in a dialogue and story form for easy comprehension, covers the origin, rise and then the subsequent fall of Vijayanagar.

The Origins of Vijaynagar

The following part of article is reproduced in form of story form for a better and a more comprehensive understanding of the origins of this Great Empire. The origin is important because unlike any other empire , this empire came in to existence solely, to stop the Muslim invasion of the South India in 13^th and 14^th century AD. The story highlights the many legends and reasons for the origin of Vijayangar
1335 AD– Hoysaleshwara Temple Premises, Karnataka

‘Harihara’ along with his brother ‘Bukka Raya’ hurriedly entered the temple premises with concerned look, for he was summoned two days ago by Hoysala king Vir Ballal III with great urgency, and was asked to arrive at the temple as soon as possible..What possible debacle could have fallen over the Hoyasala kingdom?

The ancient temple of ‘Hoysaleshwara’…a place most scared to the Royal family and once a revered centre for kingdom was reduced to, plundered and ravaged by the savage attacks of the armies of the Delhi Sultanate

King Vira Ballal III of Hoysala Empire welcomed Harihara with a smile…but his eyes were telling a entirely different story.

Bukka spotted five other men along with the great Hoysala king .Bukka gave his brother a look of concern..The five other men did not bother Harihara. Known faces seldom do, especially when a calamity as big as a collapse of numerous kingdoms strikes…

The three men were commander of the fallen Kakatiya Kingdom of Warangal, Musunuri Prolaneedu, Kaapaneedu and the King of the Cheras and the rules of the vanishing Pandya kingdom Vira Pandyan IV

South India in beginning of 1300 AD

South India in 1325 AD(territory marked in red occupied by Delhi sultanate)

Harihara : Salutation O King ! The Sangam brothers are at your esteemed service.
Vir Ballal: Its not me Harihara - today our culture and people need your service more than my own self.

Musunuri Prolaneedu : And yet, to our misfortune, you serve the Delhi Sultanate.
Kaapaneedu.: Whose service has meant only destruction of our lands, traditions and culture..loot and pillage of our villages, women and temples…Look around you…The very temple that you are in now stands testament to the ruining unleashed by these savages… and yet you wishfully want to ‘serve ‘them?

Harihara: My fellow soldiers, I was forced by circumstances to adopt a prudent course for the safety of my people. After the fall of Kampila, it was necessary for me to secure the region and protect it from further devastation. We did not have much power. The only option left for me was to swore allegiance with Sultanate and convince them to make me their governor. But certainly, my intention is not to emulate them, but to have a certain degree of control on the region and protect my people, even if it meant allegiance to the Sultanate.

Bukka: Brothers, moreover after the death of Warangal king, we escaped to Hoysala and when even the same kingdom was attacked, my brother had no option but to secure the region by pledging allegiance to them.

Vir Ballal III : Well it’s time we fight the Sultan Tughlaq together, The atrocities inflicted by him on the Hindus exceed all powers of description. We cannot just sit and watch, while our people suffer.

Vira Pandyan IV: I heard that the Sultan is planning to shift his capital to Devgiri in the Deccan, and has forced the entire city to move along with him..In all probability, he is still not set in the new city.

Cheras : I have heard that even those who were unwilling to come were dragged all the way to the new city, and for many, only their limbs succeeded in reaching Dev Giri…What a maniac.

Musunuri Prolaneedu: The Delhi Sultanate has been weakened by his errors. His armies have reduced to a fraction of what they were after he sent them to conquer Persia and China! Thousands have perished, without any gains for the empire!

Vir Ballal III : This is a good opportunity for the Hindus to strike back, with a military force representing all of us.

Vira Pandyan IV: A combined military expedition can reduce the armies of the Sultanate.
Vir Ballal III: This is not what I meant. The time of alliances is passé. The need of the hour is powerful kingdom, with the economic, political and military strength of an alliance.

Kaapaneedu: But who would be the king.? Will it be the Pandyas or the Cheras, or your own self who has taken this initiative? The position of the King itself has been at the root of the lingering enmity between the Cheras and the Pandyas for decades.

Vir Ballal III: And this precisely is the reason why the Islamic invaders are defeating Hindu armies and ravaging our lands, without any significant opposition. Our selfish motivations have taken over the instinct for self-preservation.The question is not of power, dynasty or region, it’s the question of cultural values. Do only the Hoyasalas stand to lose when Hoysaleswar temple, was devastated? Did you not feel pain when temple at Madurai was plundered? Our values and religion are stake, without which there is not going to be a bedrock for our existence, much less our valor. For now, lets have the heart of the kings, and not go into the petty infighting for over lordship.

After a long discussion over the army and the strategy to be adopted, the commanders, the princes and the kings decided that it was fitting that the region around the Tungabhadra river, and town of Kampli be fortified and used as a base for their future expeditions, and attacks on the army of Delhi Sultanate. The Sangam brothers, Harihara and Bukka were deemed to be the overlords of the regions, and were given the responsibility of defending the regions against the Islamic invaders from the North….

…To be continued

http://www.ariseindiaforum.org/lost-paradise-vijaynagar/

Tribute to Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya on his 150th Birth Anniversary

Source: IBTL

Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, born in the holy pilgrim city of Prayagraj (later renamed to Allah-abad) on 25th December 1861, was a great Scholar, educationist, man of action and a leader of tile national liberation movement. His ancestors were poor but were known for their Sanskrit scholarship. Madan graduated from the Calcutta University in 1884 and was appointed as a teacher in his school. He attended the Second Congress Session held in Calcutta in 1886 and delivered a speech which held the audience spell-bound. After that, he was offered the editorship of the Hindi weekly, the Hindustan. He became popular for his outspoken views about media as a subject of the British, the abject poverty of the masses and the indifference of the British towards them. He studied law and became a High Court Vakil in 1893. He was elected to the Provincial legislative Council in 1902 and later to the Imperial Legislative Council in 1909.

He founded the Hindu Mahasabha in 1906 to oppose the "divide and rule" policy of the British Government. He virtually withdrew from the legal profession in 1909 but he made an exception in 1922 in regard to the appeal of 225 person condemned to death in connection with the Chauri Chaura riots (Gorakhpur District U.P.) on account of which Mahatma Gandhi suspended the Civil Disobedience movement, and saved 153 accused from the gallows. He started the Abhyudayaas a Hindi weekly in 1907 and made it a daily in 1915. He also started the Maryada a Hindi monthly in 1910 and another Hindi monthly in 1921. He started the Leader, an English daily in October 1909. He was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hindustan Times from 1924 to 1946. He was elected its President in 1909,1918,1932 and 1933.

As Malaviya realized that many Indians were so proud of the English language, customs, manners and civilization that they were getting the feeling that anything Indian was shameful, as an eminent scholar and patriot of the nation that in order for Indian culture to receive due respect by educated men, there had to be a change in the education system. He decided to establish a Hindu University in Varanasi (Benares). Malaviya went on a tour of the whole country to solicit funds for the Hindu university. On February 4th 1916 on the auspicious day of Vasant Panchami, the foundation stone of the Hindu University was laid on the banks of Holy Ganga.

Malviya was a conservative in social matters but wanted to take the leaders of the Hindu community and the Benares pandits with him in matters of social reform. He felt strongly the injustice done to the depressed classes in connection with temple entry and pleaded their cause before the pandits in 1936. He was the President of the All India Seva Samity from 1914 till 1946. He had the courage to differ more than once from Mahatma Gandhi even at the risk of becoming unpopular.

He breathed last on November 12, 1946, he was 85 years old.

 http://www.ibtl.in/news/exclusive/1646/tribute-to-pt.-madan-mohan-malviya-on-his-150th-birth-anniversary

Guru Hargobind ji (1606-1644)

While in prison, before his execution at Lahore, Guru Arjun had sent a message to his son, Guru Hargobind, then aged only eleven, that he should henceforth maintain an army. At the very time of his installation as Guru, he insisted that he should wear two swords, one representing his spiritual leadership and the other his temporal and political leadership. Soon after it, he constructed in front of the Amritsar temple, another building called the Akal Takht (God's throne) as the seat of temporal power. This place continues to the present day as the centre of every sociopolitical deliberation and power of the community. There, like the two swords he wore, he raised aloft two flags representing the two aspects of his activities. He told his followers, "My rosary shall be my swordbelt and on my turban I shall wear the emblem of royalty." The Sikhs were already engaged in the trade of horses and the Guru advised every Sikh to keep a sword and maintain a horse, wherever possible. He started recruiting a regular army. He had a personal bodyguard of 57 horsemen and kept 700 horses, 60 gunmen and 500 infantry men. Thus a state within a state, started and developed by the earlier Gurus, was consolidated by him. When this news reached the Emperor, he demanded from the Guru the fine imposed on his father. The Guru was imprisoned in the Gwalior fort along with other political prisoners of high status. Later he was released.


There is an important incident which brings out the religious policy of the Gurus. One Ram Das, a Maharashtra saint, met Guru Hargobind. He questioned him as to how he reconciled his being a successor to the spiritual seat of Guru Nanak with his living as a soldier, maintaining an army and calling himself a true Emperor. The Guru replied that Guru Nanak had given up mammon (greed for money). He had not renounced the world, and that the sword was for the double purpose of protecting the poor and destroying the tyrant. These words of the Guru most clearly bring out the religious and spiritual philosophy of Sikh mysticism, its originality and its break with the past. Persons brought up in the tradition of old beliefs and ideas of dichotomy between the religious and the temporal life find it difficult to understand and grasp the significance of the Guru's system. The problem of comprehension that confronted saint Ram Das was the same as arose with the Nath Yogis in their dialogue with Guru Nanak. It arises even now with some of our present-day academicians. But, for the Sikh mystic, participation in life is spiritually essential. Consequently, the defence of moral life, reaction and responses to challenges from the environment form an integral part of the Gurus' mystic system. The reply of Guru Hargobind is an unambiguous clarification of the system of Guru Nanak as understood by the Gurus themselves. This also explains the various empirical steps taken by the first five Gurus in order to develop their religious system and organise the Sikhs in the way they did. Saint Ram Das's meeting with the Guru had a great historical consequence, for he was so impressed by the Guru's thesis that he later trained Shivaji, the great Maratha leader, in the same manner.
 
Guru Hargobind sponsored the cause of the downtrodden Hindus and provided leadership to the oppressed people of Punjab. In this struggle, he fought six battles with the Mughals in the plains of the Punjab. People came to him and joined his forces because they felt that no one else had the power to stand against the Emperor. In one of these battles he defeated 7,000 Mughal soldiers. Finally, he settled at Kiratpur. His reputation as a military leader spread and ambassadors of the hill Rajas waited upon him.

The organisation of the Sikhs into a separate socio-religious group with political implications had started from the time of the very first Guru. This close and integral combination of the temporal and the spiritual life was a thesis which was foreign to the Indian tradition. No wonder that some of the people around the Sixth Guru, including his own followers, could not understand the spiritual character of these military developments. This explains two points. First, that the transformation of the community into a spirituo- political organisation could only be gradual, because the Gurus had to carry the people with them. Unfortunately, they had all been conditioned by the old traditions. The full understanding and acceptance of the new thesis could only be slow.
 
The Gurus, naturally, had to wait till their followers fully realised the implications of the new doctrine and owned its responsibilities. Secondly, it also confirms the view that the object was to organise a mission and a movement in the empirical world and not merely to deliver a message and embody it in a scripture or a mythical tale. The scriptural thesis had to be lived among the people and not in the seclusion of a monastery for the training of a few. The aim was to uplift everyone irrespective of caste and creed and to show that each one, howsoever placed, could tread the spiritual path. This choice was open to everyone and the Guru was there to organise and lead the movement. Hence, the progress could only be gradual both in the education of the people and in the pace of the movement. The latter could not outstrip the former. The task was stupendous. For, it had to take place in the face of the understandable opposition of one of the greatest empires of all times.


One incident is very significant of the socio-political climate in the Guru's camp. During a hunt being carried out by the Imperial party in a jungle, the Sikhs also entered the same area in pursuit of game. The Sikhs got hold of a falcon, which was claimed by the official party. A clash took place and the Imperial forces were beaten off. But, what is important is the approval of the Sikhs who stressed, "you are talking of the return of the baz (falcon), we are after your tag (crown)." It clearly shows the independence of political status claimed by the Guru and his Sikhs.

The number and areas of sub-centres of preachings were extended. The Guru himself controlled both the religious centres and the temporal centre at Amritsar. The Guru, thereby, only brought out visibly and symbolically what, in view of the steps that had already been taken by the earlier Gurus, was inherent in the integrated spiritual thesis of Guru Nanak. In fact secure and clear foundations had already been laid by him. While the Gurus, and those engaged in these developments, were fully aware of their responsibility to maintain the original spiritual purity of the religion and the entire movement, to some outsiders, including historians conditioned and committed to different doctrines and systems of religion and polity, the Sixth Guru s work has seemed to show a departure from the original growth. But, a departure, as we have seen, it was not.



http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/gurus/