Xtreme,
Please read the following article to understand how India went back to dark ages when Abramical religions came to India. The post is little too long but most of it is relevant to the discussion at hand. ==========================================================================================
Let the Mute Witnesses Speak
SITA RAM GOEL
The cradle of Hindu culture 1 on the eve of the Islamic invasions included what are at present the Sinkiang province of China, the Transoxiana region of Russia, the Seistan province of Iran and the sovereign states of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The Islamic invasion commenced around 650 A.D., when a Muslim army secured a foothold in Seistan, and continued till the end of the eighteenth century, when the last Islamic crusader, Tipu Sultan, was overthrown by the British. Hordes of Arabs, Persians, Turks, and Afghans who had been successively inspired by the Theology of Islam poured in, in wave after wave, carrying fire and sword to every nook and corner of this vast area. In the process, Sinkiang, Transoxiana region, Seistan and Afghanistan became transformed into Daru'l-Islãm, where all vestiges of the earlier culture were wiped out. The same spell has engulfed the areas which were parts of India till 1947 and have since become Pakistan and Bangladesh.
We learn from literary and epigraphic sources, accounts of foreign travelers in medieval times, and modern archaeological explorations, that, on the eve of the Islamic invasion, the cradle of Hindu culture was honeycombed with temples and monasteries, in many shapes and sizes. The same sources inform us that many more temples and monasteries continued to come up in places where it was forced to retire for some time by the rallying of Hindu resistance. Hindus were great temple builders because their pantheon was prolific in Gods and Goddesses and their society rich in schools and sects, each with its own way of worship. But by the time we come to the end of the invasions, we find that almost all these Hindu places of worship had either disappeared or were left in different stages of ruination, of the sacred sites had come to be occupied by a variety Muslim monuments - Masjids and Idgãhs (mosques), dargãhs and ziãrats (shrines), mazãrs and maqbaras (tombs) madrasas and maktabs (seminaries), takiyas and qabristans (graveyards). Quite a few of the new edifices had been from the materials of those that had been deliberately demolished in order to satisfying the demands of Islamic Theology. The same materials had been used frequently in some secular structures as all — walls and gates of forts and cities, river and tank embankments, stepwells, palaces and pavilions.
Some apologists of Islam have tried to lay the blame at the door of the White Huns or Epthalites who had overrun parts of the Hindu cradle in the second half of the fifth century A D. But they count without the witness of Hiuen Tsang famous Chinese pilgrim and Buddhist savant, who traveled all over this area from 630 to 644 A.D. Starting from Karashar in Northern Sinkiang, he passed through Transoxiana Northern Afghanistan, North-West Frontier Province Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, North-Eastern Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Nepal, Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Mahakosal and Andhra Pradesh till he reached Tamil Nadu. On his return journey he traveled through Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Bharat, Sindh, Southern Afghanistan and Southern Sinkiang. In most of these provinces he found in a flourishing state many Buddhist establishments consisting of vihãras (monasteries), chaityas (temples) and stupãs (topes), besides what he described as heretical (Jain) and deva (Brahmanical) temples. The wealth of architecture and sculptures he saw everywhere confirms what we learn from Hindu literary sources. Some of this wealth has been recent times from under mounds of ruins.
During the course of his pilgrimage, Hiuen Tsang stayed at as many as 95 Buddhist centers among which the more famous ones were at Kuchi, Aqsu, Tirmiz, UchTurfan, Kashagar and Khotan in Sinkiang; Balkh, Ghazni, Bamiyan, Kapisi, Lamghan, Nagarahar and Bannu in Afghanistan; Pushkalavati, Bolar and Takshasila in the North-West Frontier Province, Srinagar, Rajaori and Punch in Kashmir; Sialkot, Jalandhar and Srihind in the Punjab; Thanesar, Pehowa and Sugh in Haryana; Bairat and Bhinmal in Rajasthan; Mathura, Mahoba, Ahichchhatra, Sankisa, Kanauj, Ayodhya, Prayag, Kausambi, Sravasti, Kapilvastu, Kusinagar, Varanasi, Sarnath and Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh; Vaishali, Pataliputra, Rajgir, Nalanda, Bodhgaya, Monghyr and Bhagalpur in Bihar; Pundravardhana, Tamralipti, Jessore and Karnasuvarna in Bengal; Puri and Jajnagar in Orissa; Nagarjunikonda and Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh; Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu; Badami and Kalyani in Karnataka; Paithan and Devagiri in Maharashtra. Bharuch, Junagarh and Valabhi in Gujarat; Ujjain in Malwa; Mirpur-Khas and Multan in Sindh. The number of Buddhist Monasteries at the bigger ones of these centers ranged from 50 to 500 and the number of monks in residence from 1000 to 10,000. It was only in some parts of Eastern Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province that monasteries were in a bad shape, which can perhaps be explained by the invasion of White Huns. But so were they in Kusinagar and Kapilavastu where the White Huns are not known to have reached. On the other hand, the same invaders had ranged over Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and most of Uttar Pradesh where HiuenTsang found the monasteries in a splendid state. The white Huns had even established their rule over Kashmir where Hiuen Tsang saw 500 monasteries housing 5,000 monks. It is therefore, difficult to hold them responsible disappearance of Buddhist centers in areas where Tsang had found them flourishing. An explanation h as to be found elsewhere. In any case, the upheaval they caused over by the middle of the sixth century. Moreover, the temples and monasteries, which Hiuen Tsang saw, were only a few out of many. He had not gone into the interior of any province, confined himself to the more famous Buddhist Centers.
What was it that really happened to thousands upon thousands of temples and monasteries? Why did they disappear and/or give place to another type of monuments? How come those there architectural and sculptural fragments got built into the foundations and floors and walls and domes of the edifices which replaced them? These are crucial questions, which should have been asked by so medieval Indian history. But no historian worth his name has raised these questions squarely, not to speak of finding adequate answers to them. No systematic study of the subject has been made so far. All that we have are stray references to the demolition of a few Hindu temples, made by the more daring Hindu historians while discussing the religious policy of this or that sultan. Sir Jadunath Sarkar 2 and Professor Ram Sharma 3 have given more attention to the Islamic policy of demolishing Hindu temples and pointed an accusing finger at the theological tenets, which dictated that policy. But their treatment of the subject is brief and their enumeration of temples destroyed by Aurangzeb and the other Mughal emperors touches only the fringe of a vast holocaust caused by the Theology of Islam, all over the cradle of Hindu culture, and throughout more than thirteen hundred years, taking into account what happened in the native Muslim States carved out after the British take-over and the formation of Pakistan after Partition in 1947.
Muslim historians, in India and abroad, have written hundreds of accounts in which the progress of Islamic armies across the cradle of Hindu culture is narrated, stage by stage and period by period. A pronounced feature of these Muslim histories is a description - in smaller or greater detail but always with considerable pride - of how the Hindus were slaughtered en masse or converted by force, how hundreds of thousands of Hindu men and women and children were captured as booty and sold into slavery, how Hindu temples and monasteries were razed to the ground or burnt down, and how images of Hindu Gods and Goddesses were destroyed or desecrated. Commandments of Allah (Quran) and precedents set by the Prophet (Sunnah) are frequently cited by the authors in support of what the swordsmen and demolition squads of Islam did with extraordinary zeal, not only in the midst of war but also, and more thoroughly, after Islamic rule had been firmly established. A reference to the Theology of Islam as perfected by the orthodox Imams, leaves little doubt that the citations are without foundation
The men and women and children who were killed or captured or converted by force cannot be recalled for standing witness to what was done to them by the heroes of Islam. The apologists for Islam - the most dogged among them are some Hindu historians and politicians - have easily got away with the plea that Muslim "Court scribes" had succumbed to poetic, exaggeration in order to please their pious patrons. Their case is weakened when they cite the same sources in support of their own -speculations or when the question is asked as to Why the patrons needed stories of bloodshed and wanton destruction for feeding their piety. But they have taken in their stride tiles, doubts and questions as well.
There are, however, witnesses who are not beyond recall and who can confirm that the "court scribes" were not at all foisting fables on their readers. These are the hundreds of thousands of sculptural and architectural fragments which stand arrayed in museums and drawing rooms all over the world, or which are waiting to be picked up by public and private collectors, or which stare at us from numerous Muslim monuments. These are the thousands of Hindu temples and monasteries which either stand on the surface in a state of ruination or lie buried under the earth waiting for being brought to light by the archaeologist's spade. These are the thousands of Muslim edifices, sacred as well as secular, which occupy the sites of Hindu temples and monasteries and/or which have been constructed from materials of those monuments. All these witnesses carry unimpeachable evidence of the violence that was done to them, deliberately and by human hands.
So far no one has cared to make these witnesses speak and relate the story of how they got ruined, demolished, dislocated, dismembered, defaced, mutilated and burnt. Recent writers on Hindu architecture and sculpture - their tribe is multiplying fast, mostly for commercial reasons -ignore the ghastly wounds which these witnesses show on the very first sight, and dwell on the beauties of the limbs that have survived or escaped injury. Many a time they have to resort to their imagination for supplying what should have been there but is missing. All they seem to care for is building their own reputations as historians of Hindu art. If one draws their attention to the mutilations and disfigurements suffered by the subjects under study, one is met with a stunned silence or denounced downright as a Hindu chauvinist out to raise "demons from the past" 4 with the deliberate intention of causing "communal strife".
We, therefore, propose to present a few of these witnesses in order to show in what shape they are and what they have to say.
Delhi
Archaeological excavations during 1992-95 at Lalkot, Tomar citadel near Mehrauli before Delhi was occupied by Muhammad Ghuri in 1192, have uncovered the following antiquities in the levels of Period II (Early Sultanate):
"A number of sculptural (PI.87) and architectural fragments in stone of Rajputs period have been noticed scattered on the surface or found in the levels of Period II, either in the deposits or reused in construction of early Sultanate structures. They included a Varãha head (PI.86); ãmalakas; adhisthãna moulding; pillar bases; parts of sculptured door jambs, one with mithuna figures (PI.89); moulded and decorated architectural fragments; small sculptures showing Tirthafikara, deities, vase etc.; Nandi figure and a lion's head (PI.88) which can be connected with the story of stone lion figures at the gate of the palaces of Anang Pal Il and Iltutmish. The evidence of stone Nandi (PI.18) suggests for the first time the existence of a Siva temple in the vicinity.
"The pre-Muslim association of this structural period of early Sultanate age is evidenced by a number of scattered or reused architectural and sculptural stone fragments. Among them, the hind part of a figure of Nandi, the vãhanaof Lord Siva, reused in the foundation of wall as a rubble (PI.72), four decorated pillar bases reused in room-1 of palace complex around the circular water cistern, the figure of sãrdula (lion) and a figure of mithunas found from the debries are noteworthy which were reused in construction of the walls in early Sultanate sub-phase IA; the figure of Varãha, incarnation of Vishnu, ãmalakas, pieces of adhisthãna moulding with other architectural fragments come under, category of such pieces which were further reused in the successive phases of Sultanate period. The quarter part of a huge ãmalaka and pillar bases scattered with other pieces and around the Anang Tal area of the mound LKT-1 still retain this evidence."5
Tordi (Rajasthan)
"At Tordi there are two fine and massively built stone baolis or step wells known as the Chaur and Khari Baoris. They appear to be old Hindu structures repaired or rebuilt by Muhammadans, probably in the early or middle part of the 15th century ... In the construction of the (Khari) Baori images have been built in, noticeable amongst them being an image of Kuber on the right flanking wall of the large
Steps…" 6
Naraina (Rajasthan)
"At Naraina ... is an old pillared mosque, nine bays long and four bays deep, constructed out of old Hindu temples and standing on the east of the Gauri Shankar tank ... The mosque appears to have been built when Mujahid Khan, son of Shams Khan, took possession of Naraina in 840 A.H. or 1436 A.D... To the immediate north of the mosque is the three-arched gateway called Tripolia which is also constructed with materials from old Hindu temples ... " 7
Chatsu (Rajasthan)
"At Chatsu there is a Mohammedan tomb erected on the eastern embankment of the Golerava tank. The tomb which is known as Gurg Ali Shah's chhatri is built out of the spoils of Hindu buildings ... on the inside of the twelve-sided frieze of the chhatri is a long Persian inscription in verse, but worn out in several places. The inscription does not mention the name of any important personage known to history and all that can be made out with certainty is that the saint Gurg Ali (wolf of Ali) died a martyr on the first of Ramzan in 979 A.H. corresponding to Thursday, the 17th January, 1572 A.D." 8
Saheth-Maheth (Uttar Pradesh)
"The ruined Jain temple situated in the western portion of Maheth ... derives the name 'Sobhanãth' from Sambhavanãtha, the third Tìrthamkara, who is believed to have been born at Srãvastì ... 9
"Let us now turn our attention to the western-most part of Sobhanãath ruins. A domed edifice, apparently a Muslim tomb of the Pathãn period... 10
"These remains are raised on a platform, 30' square, built mostly of broken bricks including carved ones ... This Platform, no doubt, represents the plinth of the last Jain temple which was destroyed by the Mohammedan conquerors ... It will be seen from the plan that the enclosure of the tomb overlaps this square platform. The tomb proper stands on a mass of debris, which is probably the remains of the ruined shrine ...11
"3. Sculpture ... of buff sandstone, partly destroyed representing a Tìrthamkara seated cross-legged attitude of meditation on a throne supported by two lions couchant, placed on both sides of a wheel...
"4. Sculpture ... of buff sandstone, partly defaced representing a Tìrthamkara seated cross-legged (as above)...
"8. Sculpture ... of buff sandstone, defaced, representing a Tìrthamkara standing between two miniature figures of which that to his right is seated.
"9. Sculpture ... of buff sandstone, defaced, representing a Tìrthamkara standing under a parasol...
"12. Sculpture ... of buff sandstone, much defaced representing a male and a female figure seated side by side under a palm tree.
"13. Sculpture ... of buff sandstone, broken in four and carved with five figurines of Tìrthamkaras ... seated cross-legged in the attitude of meditation. The central figure has a Nãga hood. The sculpture evidently was the top portion of a large image slab."12
Coming to the ruins of a Buddhist monastery in the same complex, the archaeologist proceeds:
"In the 23rd cell, which I identify with the store-room, found half-buried in the floor a big earthen jar ... This must have been used for storage of corn...
"This cell is connected with a find which is certainly the most notable discovery of the season. I refer to an inscribed copperplate of Govindachandra of Kanauj ... The charter was issued from Vãrãnasì on Monday, the full moon day of Ãshadha Sam 1186, which... corresponds to the 23rd of June, 1130. The inscription records the grant of six villages to the 'Community of Buddhist friars of whom Buddhabhattaraka is the chief and foremost, residing in the great convent of the holy Jetavana,' and is of a paramount importance, in as much as it conclusively settles the identification of Maheth with the city of Srãvastì. 13
He describes as follows some of the sculptures unearthed at Srãvastì:
, S.1. Statuette in Grey stone ... of Buddha seated cross-legged in the teaching attitude on a conventional lotus. The head, breast and fore-arms as well as the sides of the sculpture are broken.
"S.2. Lower portion ... of a blue schist image of Avalokitesvara in the sportive attitude (lìlãsana) on a lotus seat.
"S.3. Image of Avalokitesvara seated in ardhaparyanka attitude on a conventional lotus... The head and left arms of the main figure are missing." 14
Sarnath (Uttar Pradesh)
The report of excavations undertaken in 1904-05 says, "the inscriptions found there extending to the twelfth century A.D, show that the connection of Sarnath with Buddhism was still remembered at that date". It continues that "the condition of the excavated ruins leaves little doubt that a violent catastrophe accompanied by willful destruction and plunder overtook the place."15 Read this report with the Muslim account that Muhammad Ghurì destroyed a thousand idol-temples when he reached Vãrãnasì after defeating Maharaja Jayachandra of Kanauj in 1193 A.D. The fragments that are listed below speak for themselves. The number given in each case is the one adopted in the report of excavation.
a. 42. Upper part of sculptured slab...
E. 8. Architectural fragment, with Buddha (?) seated cross-legged on lotus...
- Defaced standing Buddha hands missing.
a. 17. Buddha heads with halo.
a.8. Head and right arm of image.
E. 22. Upper part of image.
E. 14. Broken seated figure holding object in left hand
a. 11. Fragment of larger sculpture; bust, part of head, and right over arm of female chauri-bearer.
E. 25. Upper part of female figure with big earring.
E. 6. Fragment of sculpture, from top of throne (?) on left side.
n. 19. Seated figure of Buddha in bhumisparsamudrã much defaced.
n. 221. Torso, with arms of Buddha in dharmachakramudrã
n. 91. Lower part of Buddha seated cross-legged on throne. Defaced.
n. 142. Figure of Avalokitesvara in relief. Legs from knees downwards wanting.
n. 1. Relief partly defaced and upper part missing, Buddha descending from the Trayastrimsa Heaven. Head and left hand missing.
i. 50. Lower half of statue. Buddha in bhumisparsamudrã seated on lotus.
i. 17. Buddha in attitude of meditation on lotus. Head missing.
i. 46. Head of Buddha with short curls.
i. 44. Head of Avalokitesvara, with Amitãbha Buddha in' head dress.
n. 10. Fragment of three-headed figure (? Mãrìchì) of green stone.
i. 49. Standing figure of attendant from upper right of image. Half of face, feet and left hand is missing.
i. 1. Torso of male figure, ornamented.
i. 4. Female figure, with lavishly ornamented head. The legs from knees, right arm and left forearm are missing. Much defaced.
i. 105. Hand holding Lotus.
n. 172. Torso of Buddha.
n. 118. Head of Buddha, slightly defaced.
n. 16, Female figure, feet missing.
n. 163. Buddha seated. Much defaced.
K. 4. Fragment of seated Buddha in Blue Gaya stone.
K.5. Fragment of large statue, showing small Buddha seated in bhumisparsamudrã.
K. 18 Fragment of statue in best Gupta style.
J.S. 7. Figure of Kubera in niche, with halo behind head. Partly defaced.
r. 67. Upper part of male figure lavishly adorned.
r. 72. a and b. Pieces of pedestal with three Buddha in dhyanamudrã
r. 28. Part of arm, adorned with armlet and inscription in characters of 10th century, containing Buddhist creed.
B. 22. Fragment of Bodhi scene (?): two women standing on conventional rock. Head and right arm of left hand figure broken.
B. 33. Defaced sitting Buddha in dhyãnamudrã.
B. 75. Lower part of Buddha in bhumisparsamudrãseated cross-legged on lotus.
B. 40. Feet of Buddha sitting cross-legged on lotus on throne.
B. 38. Headless defaced Buddha seated cross-legged on lotus in dharmachakramudrã.
24 Headless Buddha seated cross-legged on throne dharmachakramudrã.
B. 52. Bust of Buddha in dharmachakramudrã. Head Missing.
B. 16. Standing Buddha in varadamudrã; hands and feet broken.
Y. 34. Upper part of Buddha in varadamudrã.
B. 24. Bust of standing Buddha in abhayamudrã; hand and head missing.
B. 31. Defaced standing Buddha in abhbayamudrã, Head and feet missing.
B. 48. Feet of standing Buddha with red paint.
B. 15. Lower part of Avalokitesvara seated on lotus lìlãsana.
Y. 23. Bust of figure seated in lìlãsana with trace of hallo
B. 59. Legs of figure sitting cross-legged on lotus,
B. 7. Female bust with ornaments and high headdress. Left arm and right forearm missing. 16
Vaishali (Bihar)
"In the southern section of the city the fort of Raja Bisal is by far the most important ruin ... South-west of it stands an old brick Stupa, now converted into a dargãh ... The name of t1te saint who is supposed to have been buried there was n the me as Mìrãn-jì ..." 17
Gaur and Pandua (Bengal)
"In order to erect mosques and tombs the Muhammadans pulled down all Hindu temples they could lay their hands upon for the sake of the building materials...
"The oldest and the best known building at Gaur and Pandua is the Ãdìna Masjid at Pandua built by Sikandar Shãh, the son of Ilyãs Shãh. The date of its inscription may be read as either 776 or 770, which corresponds with 1374 or 1369 A.D. The materials employed consisted largely of the spoils of Hindu temples and many of the carvings from the, temples have been used as facings of doors, arches and pillars..."18
Devikot (Bengal)
"The ancient city of Kotivarsha, which was the seat of a district (vishaya) under Pundravardhana province (bhukti) at the time of the Guptas...is now represented by extensive in mounds of Bangarh or Ban Rajar Garh ... The older site was in continuous occupation till the invasion of the Muhammadans in the thirteenth century to whom it was known as Devikot or Devikot. It possesses Muhammadan records ranging from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century ... 19
"The Rajbari mound at the South-east corner is one of the highest mounds at Bangarh and must contain some important remains. The dargãh of Sultan Pir is a Muhammadan shrine built on the site of an old Hindu temple of which four granite pillars ... are still standing in the center of the enclosure, the door jambs having been used in the construction of the gateway.
"The dargãh of Shah Ata on the north bank of the Dhaldighi tank is another building built on the ruins of an older Hindu or Buddhist structure ... The female figure on the lintels of the doorway now fixed in the east wall of the dargãh appears to be Tara, from which it would appear that the temple destroyed was Buddhist...20
Tribeni (Bengal)
"The principal object of interest at Tribeni is the dargãh of Zafar Khãn Ghãzì. The chronology of this ruler may be deduced from the two inscriptions of which one has fitted into the plinth of his tomb, while the other is inside the small mosque to the west of the tomb. Both refer to him and the first tells us that he built the mosque close which dates from A.D. 1298; while the second records the erection by him of a Madrasah or college in the time of Shamsuddiìn Fìroz Shãh and bears a date corresponding to the 28[th] April, 1313 A.D. It was he who conquered the Hindu Raja of Panduah and introduced Islam into this part of Lower Bengal…The tomb is built out of the spoils taken from Hindu Temples… 21
"The eastern portion of the tomb was formerly a mandapa of an earlier Krishna temple which stood on the same spot, a sculptures on the inner walls represent scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, with descriptive titles inscribed in proto-Bengali characters ... The other frieze.. Shows Vishnu with Lakshmi and Sarasvati in the center, within attendants, and five avatarasof Vishnu on bot flanks ... Further clearance work has been executed during the year 1932-33 and among the sculptures discovered year are twelve figures of the Sun God, again in the 12[th] century style and evidently reused by the when the Hindu temple was converted into a structure...." 22
Mandu (Madhya Pradesh)
"Mãndu became the capital of the Muhammad Sultans of Mãlvã who set about building themselves places and mosques, first with material pilfered from Hindu temples (already for the most part desecrated and ruined by the iconoclastic fury of their earlier co-religionists), and afterwards with their own quarried material. Thus nearly all the splendid shrines of the Paramaras of Malva have disappeared save what we find utilized in the ruined mosques and tombs…23
The date of the construction of the Hindola Mahall cannot be fixed with exactitude ... There can, however, be no doubt that it is one of the earliest of the Muhammadan buildings in Mãndû. From its outward appearance there is no sign of Hindu workmanship but the repairs, that have been going on for the past one year, have brought to light a very large number of stones used in the structure, which appear, to have been taken from some pre-existing Hindu temple. The facing stones, which have been most accurately and smoothly cut on their outer surfaces, bear in very many cases on their inner sides the undefaced images of Hindu gods, or patterns of purely Hindu design, while pieces of Hindu carving and broken parts of images are found indiscriminately mixed with the rubble, of which the core of the walls is made." 24
Dhar (Madhya Pradesh)
"...The mosque itself from local tradition and from the numerous indications and inscriptions found within it to have been built on the site of, and to a large extent out of materials taken from, a Hindu Temple, known to the inhabitants as Rãjã Bhoja's school. The inference was derived sometime back from the existence of a Sanskrit alphabet and some Sanskrit grammatical forms inscribed in serpentine diagrams on two of the pillar bases in the large prayer chamber and from certain Sanskrit inscriptions on the black stone slabs embedded in the floor of the prayer chamber, and on the reverse face of the side walls of the mihrab. 25
"The Lat Masjid built in A.D. 1405, by Dilawar Khãn, the founder of the Muhammadan kingdom of Malva.. is of considerable interest not only on account of the Iron Lat which lied outside it ... but also because it is a good specimen of the use made by the Muhammadan conquerors of the materials of the Hindu temples which they destroyed..."26
Vijayanagar (Karnataka)
"During the construction of the new road – some mounds which evidently marked the remains of destroyed buildings, were dug into, and in one of them were disclosed the foundations of a rectangular building with elaborately carved base. Among the debris were lumps of charcoal and calcined iron, probably the remains of the materials used by the Muhammadans in the destruction of the building. The stones bear extensive signs of having been exposed to the action of fire. That the fire historical evidence destroyed the chief buildings shows, and many buildings, notably the Vithalaswamin temple, still bear signs, in their cracked and fractured stone work, of the catastrophe, which overlook them. 27
"The most important temple at Vijayanagar from an architectural point of view, is the Vithalaswamin temple. It stands in the eastern limits of the ruins, near the bank of the Tungabhadra river, and shows in its later structures the extreme limit in floral magnificence to which the Dravidan style advanced ... This building had evidently attracted the special attention of the Muhammadan invaders in their efforts to destroy the buildings of the city, of which this was no doubt one of the most important, for though many of the other temples show traces of the action of fire, in none of them are the effects so marked as in this. It’s massive construction, however, resisted all the efforts that were made to bring it down and the only visible results of their iconoclastic fury are the cracked beams and pillars, some of the later being so flaked as to make one marvel that they are yet able to bear the immense weight of the stone entablature and roof above... "28
Bijapur (Karnataka)
"No ancient Hindu or Jain buildings have survived at Bijapur and the only evidence of their former existence is supplied by two or three mosques, viz., Mosque No.294, situated in the compound of the Collector's bungalow, Karimud-d-din Mosque and a third and smaller mosque on the way to the Mangoli Gate, which are all adaptations or reerections of materials obtained from temples. These mosques are the earliest Muhammadan structures and one of them, i.e., the one constructed by Karimud-d-din, must according to a Persian and Nagari inscription engraved upon its pillars, have been erected in the year 1402 Saka=A.D. 1324, soon after Malik Kafur's conquest of the Deccan."29
Badami (Karnataka)
"Three stone lintels bearing bas-reliefs were discovered in course of the clearance at the second gateway of the Hill Fort to the north of the Bhutnath tank at Badami ... These originally belonged to a temple which is now in ruins and were re-used at a later period in the construction of the plinth of guardroom on the fort.
"The bas-reliefs represent scenes from the early life of KRISHNA and may be compared with similar ones in the BADAMI CAVES..." 30
The Pattern of Destruction
The Theology of Islam divides human history into two periods - the Jahiliyya or the age of ignorance which preceded Allah's first revelation to Prophet Muhammad, and the age of enlightenment (Ilm) which succeeded that even, It follows that every human creation which existed in the, "age of ignorance" has to be converted to its Islamic version or destroyed. The logic applies to pre-Islamic buildings, as much to pre-Islamic ways of worship, mores and manners dress and decor, personal and places names. This is too large a subject to be dealt with at present. What concerns us here is the fate of temples and monasteries that existed on the eve of the Islamic invasion and that came up in the course of its advance.
What happened to many "abodes of the infidels" is best described by a historian of Vijayanagar in the wake of Islamic victory in 1565 A.D. at the Battle of Talikota. "The third day' he writes, "saw the beginning of the end. The victorious Musulmans had halted on the field of battle for rest and, refreshment, but now they had reached the capital, and from, that time forward for a space of five months Vijayanagar knew no rest. The enemy had come to destroy and the carried out their object relentlessly. They slaughtered the people without mercy; broke down the temples and places, and wreaked such savage vengeance on the abode of the kings, that, with the exception of a few great stone-built temples and walls, nothing now remains hut a heap of ruins to mark the spot where once stately buildings stood. They demolished the statues and even succeeded in breaking the limbs of the huge Narsimha monolith. Nothing seemed to escape them. They broke up the pavilions standing on huge platform from which the kings used to watch festivals, and overthrew all the carved work. They lit huge fires in the magnificently decorated buildings forming the temple of Vitthalswamin near the river, and smashed its exquisite stone sculptures. With fire and sword, with crowbars and axes, they carried on day after day their work of destruction. Never perhaps in the history of the world has such havoc been wrough so suddenly, on so splendid a city: teeming with a wealthy and industrious population in the full plenitude of prosperity one day, and on the next seized, pillaged, and reduced to ruins, amid scenes of savage massacre and horrors beggaring description ... 31
The Muslim victors did not get time to raise their own structures from the ruins of Vijayanagar, partly because the, Hindu Raja succeeded in regrouping his forces and reoccupying his capital and partly because they did not have the requisite Muslim population to settle in that large city; another invader, the Portuguese, had taken control of the Arabian Sea and blocked the flow of fresh recruits from Muslim countries in the Middle East. Alexander Cunningham describes what would have happened otherwise in his report on Mahoba (Uttar Pradesh). "As Mahoba was," he writes, "for some time the headquarters of the early Muhammadan Governors, we could hardly expect to find that any Hindu buildings had escaped their furious bigotry, or their equally destructive cupidity. When the destruction of a Hindu temple furnished the destroyer with the ready means of building a house for himself on earth, as well as in heaven, it is perhaps wonderful that so many temples should still be standing in different parts of the country. It must be admitted, however, that in none of the cities which the early Muhammadans occupied permanently, have they left a single temple standing, save this solitary temple at Mahoba, which doubtless owed its preservation solely to its secure Position amid the deep waters of the Madan-Sagar. In Delhi, and Mathura, in Banaras and Jonpur, in Narwar and Ajmer, every single temple was destroyed by their bigotry, but thanks to their cupidity, most of the beautiful Hindu were preserved, and many of them, perhaps, on original positions, to form new colonnades for the and tombs of the conquerors. In Mahoba all the other telpi, were utterly destroyed and the only Hindu building now standing is part of the palace of Parmal, or Paramarddi Deva, on the hill-fort, which has been converted into a masjid. In 1843, I found an inscription of Paramarddi Deva built upside down in the wall of the fort just outside this masjid. It is dated in S. 1240, or A.D. 1183, only one year before-the capture of Mahoba by Prithvi-Raj Chohan of Delhi. In the dargãh of Pir Mubarak Shãh, and the adjacent Musalman burial-ground, I counted 310 Hindu pillars of granite. I found a black stone bull lying beside the road, and the argha of a lingam fixed as a waterspout in the terrace of the dargãh. These last must have belonged to a temple of Siva, which was probably built in the reign of Kirtti Varmma, between 1065 and 1085 A.D., as I discovered an inscription of that prince built into the wall of one of the tombs." 32
Many other ancient cities and towns suffered the same tragic transformation. Bukhara, Samarkand, Balkh, Kabul. Ghazni, Srinagar, Peshawar, Lahore, Multan, Patan, Ajnler. Delhi, Agra, Dhar, Mandu, Budaun, Kanauj, Biharshaff Patna, Lakhnauti, Ellichpur, Daulatabad, Gulbarga, Bidar, Bijapur, Golconda - to mention only a few of the more famous Hindu capitals - lost their native character and became nests of a closed creed waging incessant war on a catholic culture. Some of these places lost even their ancient names, which had great and glorious associations. It is on record that the Islamic invaders coined and imposed new and alien names, derived from their creed or history, on every place they conquered. Unfortunately for them, most of these impositions failed to stick, going the way they came. But quite a few succeeded and have endured till our own times. Reviving the ancient names wherever they have got eclipsed is one of the debts which Hindu society owes to its illustrious ancestors.
On the other hand, a large number of cities, towns and centres of Hindu civilization disappeared from the scene and their ruins have been identified only in recent times, as in the case of Kapisi, Lampaka, Nagarahara, Pushkalavati, Udbhandapura, Takshsila, Alor, Brahmanabad, Debal, Nandana, Agroha, Viratanagara, Ahichhatra, Sarvasti, Sarnath, Vaisali, Vikiramsila, Nalanda, Karnasuvarna, Pundravardhana, Somapura, Jajanagar, Dhanyakataka, Vijayapuri, Vijayanagara, Dvarasamudrã. What has been found on top of the ruins in most cases is a mosque or a dargãh or a tomb or some other Muslim monument, testifying to Allah's triumph over Hindu Gods. Many more mounds are still to be explored and identified. A survey of archaeological sites in the Frontier Circle alone and as far back as 1920 listed 255 dheris 33 or mounds which, as preliminary explorations indicated, hid ruins of ancient dwellings and/or places of worship. Some dheris, which had been excavated but were not included in this count, showed every sign of deliberate destruction. By that time, many more mounds of a similar character had been located in other parts of the cradle of Hindu culture. A very large number has been added to the total count in subsequent years. Whichever of them is excavated tells the same story, most of the time. It is a different matter that since the dawn of independence, Indian archaeologists functioning under the spell or from fear of Nehruvian Secularism, record or report only the ethnographical stratifications and cultural sequences. 34
Muslim historians credit all their heroes with many expeditions, each of which "laid waste" this or that province or region or city or countryside. The foremost heroes of the imperial line at Delhi and Agra such as Qutbu'd-Din Aibak (1192-1210 A.D.), Shamsu'd-Din Iltutmish (1210-36 A.D.), Ghiyasu'd-Din Balban (1266-86 A.D.), Aldu'd-Din Khilji (1296-1316 A.D), Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1325-51 A.D ') Firuz Shãh Tughlaq (1351-88 A.D.) Sikandar Lodi (1489-1519 A.D.), Babar (1519-26 A.D.) and Aurangzeb (1658-1707 A.D.) have been specially hailed for "hunting the peasantry like wild beasts", or for seeing to it that "no lamp is lighted for hundreds of miles", or for "destroying the dens of idolatry and God-pluralism", wherever their writ ran. The sultans of the provincial Muslim dynasties - Madura, Malwa, Gujarat, Sindh, Deccan, Jaunpur, Bengal - were not far behind, if not ahead, of what the imperial pioneers had done or were doing; quite often their performance put the imperial pioneers to shame. No study has yet been made of how much the human population declined due to repeated genocides committed by the swordsmen of Islam. But the count of cities and towns and villages, which simply disappeared during the Muslim rule, leaves little doubt that the loss of life suffered the cradle of Hindu culture was colossal.