The history of Delhi could be heartwrenching. Invasion after Islamic invasion for centuries beginning with 7th century CE from Sindh left the city in ruins. May be the city was cursed. Indhraprastha as Delhi was called in Mahabharat times, was throne of contention for which the Mahabharat battle was fought. One of the worst and bloodiest invasions of Delhi was that of Timur from Samarkand, today’s Uzbekistan. Its said that after the ransacking of Delhi, jackals and vultures filled the city streets and skies for years. It took almost a whole century for one of the oldest capital cities of the world to limp back to normalcy. Its not just Delhi. Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and other states of India too bore the brunt of brutal attacks of invasions lasting many centuries before the British took over. Hindu temples held tonnes of gold and diamond jewelry that became reason for attacks. Hindu society was also already civilized that rendered the community weaker compared to the untamed barbarity of the invaders. Mohammad of Ghazni attacked Somnath for a record 17 times and succeeded only on the last, plundering the temple wealth and leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. For centuries Bharat/India was the richest country in the world. Columbus set out to discover India, not America which is why the natives even today are referred to as Indians, who he thought they were.
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I have done a copy & paste job here from Google.This is on Ghazni Mohammad who ransacked Somnath. This is to show what invasions meant for nations through the times we have lived through. Indian history especially could be very traumatic. I would prefer the word, HINDU HISTORY.
“So to plunder the wealth of India he made very first attack in 1001. He attacked India 17 times on India. He made his 16th attack on the Somnath temple in 1025 just to plunder the gold. Mahmud Ghaznavi was the king of Ghazni who ruled from 971 to 1030 AD.
Forgotten Chandela Rajput King Vidhyadhara and the story of how he stopped Ghazni’s advance in India. When we talk about the expeditions of Mahmud Ghazni ,we seem to only give importance to the fact that he invaded India 17 times and plundered the temples, their huge wealth and took slaves through these barbaric raids. “
The same Somnath temple today:
https://www.gujarattourism.com/saurashtra/gir-somnath/somnath-temple.html
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Its funny when they talk about Timur attacking the Delhi Sultanate, the Tuglaqs are presented as benevolent rulers of Delhi. In truth, all of them were invaders in whose times Hindu blood flowed like river with their wealth stolen, and their women taken over. Timur was most extreme of all.
So it was not with an open mind at all that I toured Uzbek. Coming face to face with Amir Timur’s tomb was not easy for me. In the complex is a small circular stone tank which Timur reportedly filled with pomegranate juice. His soldiers were asked to drink from it to get used to the colour of blood. On return from his battles, he once again filled the tub with the juice and asked his soldiers to drink the juice again. The difference in levels of juice told him how much was casualty on his side.
Finally this man too lay in his grave which was also supposedly desecrated by Nadir Shah of Iran, who for some reason decided to return the remains to the original site. This country Uzbek is full of mausoleums. Turkey was full of galleries with instruments of torture. I have already blogged about how I found the Sambaji (of Shivaji fame) museum in Tanjore. The Marathas spread upto the Kaveri/Cauvery Delta. The museum of the Hindu emperor was in contrast holding exhibits of small machines used in granaries/fields in the 16th century, copper and brass utensils of those times, measuring units, barn storages, jewels and gems, art, creativity – in general anything and everything relating to a rich peasant life – the way India was.
So imagine a leading Bollywood actor naming his son ‘Timur.’ You have to be a sadist to do that, a psycho. But given his faith, its no wonder. This place Tashkent is a hit with Indian tourists ironically today. Its been so for a while. In the 60s, Raj Kapoor made India famous in Uzbek with his ‘Avaaraa.’ I had the pleasure of applause of Uzbek locals, singing ‘mera juta hai japani’ in a local train from Tashkent to Samarkand recently. Centuries later what we have here may be two friendly nations whose populations love and respect each other. There is an enormous goodwill for India in present times in Uzbek. I forgave Timur for Uzbeks of today who cannot and must not be held responsible for his bloody deeds over nearly a 1000 years back. Someone walked upto me in the street asking if I was an Indian. I said ‘yes.’ Selfie followed with a big smile. I can see the impact of India on this new nation of 35 years, that was born after the Soviet revolution of 1989. It retains memories from the Russian days. We dined at a restaurant named after Raj Kapoor whose popularity was equally shared by Mithun Chakraborty. Locals today seem to have no connection with the barbarity of Timur’s army. In fact the converse is true: Modern day Uzbeks come across as most non-controversial and peace loving people.
Indian economy despite centuries of having nurtured a broken back, is resurgent and buoyant today. Hindu Dharma is seeing a revival as well. Hindus/India lived a nightmare from 7th century CE to 1947 until we won our independence from the British. You are looking at a nation whose Hindu genocide shall never make it to the history text books of the world. What a comeback for India/Bharat. Kudos to fellow Hindus. Even the Indian christians and muslims are Hindu by culture.
As for Timur, one can imagine what a wasteland his country must have been in those bygone eras. Plunder and looting meant survival and self-defence, especially given the powerful Mongols next door. Timur’s great great great grandson was Babur who established the Mughal empire in India which was equally ruthless and bloody even if some Mughals patronized art and literature. Ayodhya recently witnessed the resurrection of Ram Janam Bhoomi mandir that was desecrated and razed by Babur. Aurangzeb killed at least two Sikh Gurus burning one alive at stake. Today the irony is that the Sikhs in Canada are collaborating with Pakistanis against India. India today enjoys good diplomatic relations with most of our past conquerers including the Afghans and Uzbeks. Its the converted Pakistan that was largely Hindu that is pain in the neck for India. India is also quietly prosperous and more progressive and advanced today than the nations that conquered us. It looks like none of the looted wealth from India has helped them anyway.
I want to round off this post with a mention about our second prime minister Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri. Its an open secret that his death in 1965 just before the Tashkent agreement with Pakistan in the capital was not natural. Soviet Union was the peace maker in the aftermath of the Indo-Pak war of 1965. I would like to borrow someone’s words here: who stood to benefit from Shastri’s death. That can give us a clue for the motive. Took a picture with Shastri’s bust in Tashkent. The capital has a street named after him. Somehow its very difficult for me to associate today’s Uzbek with Amir Timur of Samarkand. I wish this peaceful nation Uzbekistan all prosperity despite Timur! They are proud of him naturally for his conquests. It was not easy for me to hide my pain listening to his exploits. Uzbek today is 80% muslim but they are moderate or what we may call modern muslims.
A local told me that his sister had a major open heart surgery at Vedanta, Gurgaon (from the same Delhi devastated by Timur) some 15 years back and is doing well. That is the gift Bharat/India has given back Timur centuries after what he did to Delhi. I am sure Timur then turned in his grave.
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