Preamble
Our loathsome, lowly, leftist, anti-national, pseudo historians, while profusely palavering plaudits on the plunderers and pillagers like Ghaznis, Quasims, Khiljis, Timurs, Ghengis Khans, they condescendingly, superciliously, disdainfully mention in passing, under the pretext of justification, just a few names like Chhattrapati Shivaji, Rana Pratap etc., thus, blacking out achievements of lot of other preeminent heroes and perfidiously presenting a distorted picture of our nation’s history with an intent to create a feeling that we are congenitally inferior, insecure, incomplete, indigent and impoverished.
But, do we know that Taimur was defeated by a woman warrior Rampyari Gurjar Chauhan? Or, Ghazni was defeated seventeen times, yes, seventeen times by Vudhyadhara, Chandela, a Rajput king? Now, take your breath, can we believe that there was a Hindu warrior who, not only stopped the invaders from entering, but himself invaded the Arab countries and marched majestically as far as the banks of Euphrates river in Central Asia, converted Muslims to Hindus and himself married princesses in the lands of his conquests totalling hundred girls among whom thirty five were Muslims?
Can’t believe? Search for the name Bappa Rawal. An addendum: The city of Rawalpindi, presently in Pakistan was built by him, as a symbol of his victory!
Early Years
Bappa Rawal was born in 713 CE. His childhood name was Kalbhoj. When he was three years old, His father, Rawal Mahendra II and all other male members were assassinated in a battle. Bappa Rawal had to remain in disguise assisted by his two loyal Bheel servants. He was brought up by his mother with the help of those Bheel attendants.
After his father’s death, he along with his mother used to stay with the Bheel Tribal community, and they helped the young prince learn the warfare tactics, tips, tricks, and techniques. As a young prince, Bappa ruled over the ravines inhabited by the Bheel community, and this experience equipped him with managerial and martial abilities that proved to be of immense utility in his future as a warlord. He succeeded to the throne and became a king at the age of 21.
He gave up his name on ascending the throne and took the title of Bappa Rawal, where Bappa indicates father and Rawal is the family name.
In 734 CE, at the age of 21, he defeated Man Mori, ruler of Chittoor, and conquered the Chittoor fort. He was the eighth ruler of the Guhilot Rajput dynasty, but he didn’t continue the name of his dynasty of seven generations, when he came to the throne. Instead, he established Mewar kingdom, which lasted as long as 1250 years! (728 CE-1950 CE). Mewar is the birthplace of many great warriors such as Rana Kumbha, Rana Sanga, Rana Uday Singh, Maharana Pratap and Rani Padmini, to mention a few.
His Mind-Blowing Conquests
Umayyad Caliphate was a gigantic kingdom of thirty five nations in Central Asia, ruled by a mighty emperor Muhammed Bin Quasim. That rapacious marauder, having defeated Iran, Afganisthan, Sind and after plundering their wealth and destroying temples and civilisational heritages, set his pleonectic eyes down further south in 738 CE. That was his fatal mistake. To drive that menacing enemy out and teach that predator an unforgettable lesson, Bappa Rawal created a confederacy of warriors by uniting the Hindu rulers of Ajmer and Jaisalmer. Under his leadership, a series of battles, called ‘Battle of Rajastan’ was fought when Bappa Rawal ruthlessly decimated the enemy, chased and drove them into the deep desert beyond Ghazni in Afganistan. After successfully raiding Afghanistan, he defeated and killed Commander Salim of Afghanistan and made his own nephew, king of Ghazni.
As a visionary commander of army and a ferocious fighter, he knew that it is not enough if the enemy is exterminated within our border alone but should be annihilated in their homeland as well. So, He marched ahead, wiped them out and established his reign upto Iran. On his way back, he erected guard posts at every hundred kilometres, each with one thousand troops and headed by Rajput chiefs, so that the enemy cannot dream of striking again. Thus the Islamic invasion was successfully thwarted for more than four centuries till the Second battle of Tarain in 1192 CE. To further fortify the North West Frontier, he built a city by name, Rawalpindi [presently in Pakistan] and made that place his military base. Stationed there, he launched sixteen successful attacks in north west, thus expanding his kingdom of Mewar upto Iran. His guts, grit, gallantry were so astonishing that the Arabs were mortally afraid even at the mention of his name. They christened him ‘Hindu invader’! His vast empire extended Sindh, Baluchistan, Ghazni, Kandahar, Khorasan, Turan, Isfahan, Iran in Central Asia!
Devotion To Siva And Last Years
Valiant and venturesome warrior was just one side of his personality. On the other side, he was a pious devotee of Shiva! He had an esoteric, spiritual relationship with his guru, Harit rashi, a saint in the Pasupata sect of Saivism, who is said to have guided him in his ventures and blessed him with victory. He constructed a Shiva temple in Udaipur, by name, Eklingji, the ruling God of Mewar dynasty. Eklingji Temple is still one of the most famous temples of Rajasthan. Located in the town of Eklingji (Kailashpuri), the place got its popular name from the temple. The temple is very grand, magnificent in conception and perfect in execution. He issued gold coins, depicting Shiva, His trident and Nandi, to commemorate the establishment of Mewar kingdom. He initiated the tradition of worshipping this deity, that is being followed by his descendants to this day. Many details about Bappa Rawal can be seen in the book, Ekalinga Mahathmya.
While he was ruthless, rancorous and relentless to his enemies, he was charitable, compassionate and considerate to his own subjects. Since, he was immensely loved by his people, they looked at him as their father and started calling him ‘Bappa’ [Father].
Bappa Rawal ruled his vast empire before he took to spiritual path to submit and surrender himself to the devotion of God Shiva. After abdicating the throne in 753 CE, he retreated to the forest and completely submerged himself into the devotion of Lord Shiva. He is known to have lived very long, perhaps exceeding hundred years and attained the divine feet of God Shiva at a very ripe age. In short, his life epitomised the dictum enshrined in Kalidasa’s Mahakavya, Raghuvamsam described as under:
शैशवेऽभ्यस्तविद्यानां यौवने विषयैषिणाम् ।
वार्द्धके मुनिवृत्तीनां योगेनान्ते तनुत्यजाम् ॥ १-८॥
[The kings of Raghu dynasty, in their adolescence are masterly in studies; in adulthood predisposed for material pleasures; in old-age gravitating towards saintly activities, and finally yoking their minds with the Absolute and ultimately evicting their souls from their bodies to attain moksha.] [1-8]
An Underrated Legend
In short, Bappa Rawal, the most under-rated hero in history, was a true kshatriya – pugnacious, combative, militant, bellicose, truculent, defiant, aggressive. His motto was simple: Attack! Offence is the best form of defence. In the present day warfare, the inane, insipid, asinine ethical canons of conscience, convention, comportment, consideration are all anachronism. We live not in Threta yuga, but Kali yuga, dog-eats-dog world, where the scheming, shrewd, sharp, sly victor is always right. If only our subsequent kings, chieftains, warriors had scrupulously been unscrupulous in adopting this principle, they could have successfully thwarted onslaughts of the aliens later in history.
Now, let us reflect on the most vital aspect of history chronicling. The mighty Romans invaded and conquered Britain in AD 43. But, not a single mention can be found in the history books of schools in Britain. The Mongols under the notorious bandit Chenghis Khan pulverised China in 13th century AD. The Chinese children are never taught about it. Their historians meticulously ensure that their future generation is kept insulated from such gloomy defeatist details, justifying that it will interfere in their aim of inculcating in them positive spirit of patriotism and pride, chutzpah and courage.
On the other hand, it is indeed shocking to note that, even after seven decades of freedom, we have to punctiliously search for Bappa Rawal to know anything about him. It is awful, appalling, atrocious that all our history books have, while scrupulously blacked out his heroics as well as the victories of our own kings, shamelessly, sing paeans on the fake victories of foreign invaders in profusion.
It is imperative that an immediate sweeping change is made in all our history text books throughout our nation, weeding out all the portions of foreign intruders and instead, plant in them, the true magnificent, majestic, monumental triumphs of our own monarchs, on reading which, our future generation will saunter through the globe with pride and pomposity, elation and euphoria. When are we going to start and complete the exercise, since, till then, in every academic year our younger generation, i.e., the future citizens of our nation will continue to be fed with false, farcical, fabricated, fictitious negative narrations as history, deleterious to their psyche?
(Parasuram Sharma is a retired bank officer and an octogenarian whose interests include Sanathana Dharmam, Samskritam, history and politics.)
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References
https://www.indianrajputs.com/famous/Bappa-Rawal.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bappa_Rawal
https://historicalindia.org/article/bappa-rawal
Bappa Rawal, a Hindu king, who inflicted a humiliating defeat on invading Arabs in 8th century AD