Category: Legendary Battles
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Church Bells of Vasai Fort
After the Marathas defeated the Portuguese in 1739 all the churches and building in the fort where captured by the Marathas. The bells from the churches were paraded, carried off on elephant backs as victory souvenirs. Number of bells in the fort are unknown but four bells are located. One such Bell was carried to…
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1758 : Battle of Attock
As the dreaded Afghan leader Ahmed Shah Abdali left India with his hitherto undefeated armies he left his Indian provinces (comprising of Western Punjab and the hill areas of modern Pakistan) under his son and future king of the Durrani Empire, Timur Shah guided by his able lieutenant, Sardar Khan. Strong Afghani forces were stationed…
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The Forgotten Heroes: Hindu soldiers in the First World War
The narration of First World War is that war was predominantly European and was fought exclusively by Europeans. This is quite a long way departure from the truth. Today, while few would remember that Indian Corps won 13,000 medals and 12 Victoria Crosses in the First World War, Hindus’ contribution in the war is altogether…
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Battle of Somnath : Symbol of Unbroken Faith
Amidst the thundering roar of projectiles and arrows an old man stood silently – behind him the sacred temple of Somnath was in ruins with hordes of Turk horsemen riding over the dead bodies of the custodians of the holy shrine. Their desperate attempts at defending the temple against the fanatical iconoclasm of the Muslim…
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The Last Raid : Dying Embers of the Mughal Empire
In 1754 the Marathas arrived as the kingmakers in Delhi . The defeat and decline of the Imperial Mughal armies had led to the ethnic tensions between the ruling classes of the Mughals being the Iranis, the Turanis and the much despised Hindustanis. Their erstwhile allies composing of part of the Hindu ruling classes of…
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For the Ashes of their fathers and the temples of their Gods: The Hindus of Armenia
Prelude Then out spoke brave Horatius, the Captain of the Gate: “To every man upon this earth, death cometh soon or late; And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods, And for the tender mother who dandled him to rest, And for…
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Raja Bhoja’s Vengeance
Amidst the horrific stench and screaming of dying men a battered and torn saffron flag fluttered. Over the defeated and crushed armies of the Yamini dynasty a band of warriors rode, heedless of the multitude of corpses ranged around them in the blaze of the midsummer Indian sun. A defeat so calamitous had never been before thought of…
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Warrior Queen Karnavati of Uttarakhand
In the mid-1300s the legend goes that their Raja Ajayapala performed a vigorous mantra-sadhana of various bhairava mantra-s into which he had been initiated by a natha-yogin. Consequently, he came to dominate the whole Uttarakhand, and his clan became its paramount rulers. In this period they used to have a lineage of kali kula (kali…
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The Epic 27 Year War That Saved Hinduism
”Shivaji was the greatest Hindu king that India had produced within the last thousand years; one who was the very incarnation of lord Siva, about whom prophecies were given out long before he was born; and his advent was eagerly expected by all the great souls and saints of Maharashtra as the deliverer of the…
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The Huns : Barbarians Tamed by the Warriors of Dharma
[box_light]Myth says that when told of the power of the mighty Persian empire of antiquity, their ability to cover the very sun with their hail of arrows the Spartans would retort mockingly – ‘so much the better – at least we will fight in the shade’ The reality of war in the ancient world was…