Hindu civilization has witnessed a glorious past. Hindu kings were known for their righteousness, fearlessness and valour and were always keen for overall development of their empires and therefore people were very prosperous. Life stories of these forgotten kings, are source of inspiration for coming generations. Some of the past events in the lives of hindu kings awaken the extinct pride in the minds of Hindus about their religion, nation and culture.
Among these ancient upright kings, Raja Dahir was the last Hindu Brahmin ruler of Sindh. He died while defending his kingdom from Mughal invaders.
Life story of this great Sindhi hindu king, create a new urge and enthusiasm in the minds of all sanatna dharma followers (hindus) to defend their religion, nation and culture.
His life story also cautions hindus worldwide that they should always be ready to fight back against any type of unethical assault against them by taking a cue from this part of history.
Dahar was nostalgically looking back towards the days of the pre-Islamic Persia, when the glorious Sassanid Dynasty ruled over that vast empire. It was difficult for him to accept that the ancient glory of Iran had gone, forever.
He could never accept the fact that the nomadic tribes of the Arab Deserts had become successors of the great Persian Emperors.
Islam arrived in hindu India consequent to the defeat of Raja Dahir, who had followed highly civilized hindu military traditions, during the war, while his opponent army headed by a brutal Arab commander, Muhammad bin Qasim.
His kingdom was invaded by the Umayyad Caliphate led by Muhammad bin Qasim In 711 CE. Raja Dahir was born in 663 AD at a place called Alor, the present day Rohri located in Sindh. His kingdom spanned to today’s Sindh, Balochistan, parts of Iran, parts of Afghanistan and Punjab.
Islam arrived in Indian subcontinent during 7th century when the Arabs unethically captured Sindh. They later captured Punjab and parts of North India in the 12th century. As late as 10th century, entire region comprising Afghanistan, Baluchistan, & Central Asian republics of Soviet union, Tajikistan, Magnolia etc were hindu states with cent percent hindu population.
Vedic values of warfare, followed by hindu kings, against a brutal force, had led to downfall of most prosperous, hindu empires of north India.
The Hindu warfare laws, were mutually respected by all adjoining hindu kingdoms during border conflicts, and Mughals took advantage of this weakness of Hindu kings
Most important unwritten battle agreement, was that the troops shall not attack non combatants, unarmed soldiers or civilians & their families. They shall deploy proportional force during armed engagement, so that human sufferings, during combat may be minimized. All prisoners of war & survivors, including defeated kings, shall be adequately looked after by the conquerors.
But Mughal armies had no respect for human life, especially for so-called kafirs as well as their families & children. This resulted in massive death & destruction of hindu lives.
Raja Dahir was defeated and killed by Arab invaders in a 18-day-long battle. The defeat also led to the spread of Islam in the Indian sub-continent.
Sindh region witnessed rape, murder & loot of innocent civilians, by invading arab troops.
It is pertinent to mention here that since many years, Sindhi hindus have been demanding the installation of a statue of Raja Dahir, but their just demand had been turned down by the Pakistan government. Raja Dahir, who was an upright king, and was a role model of the sindh history and therefore real natives of sindh, want to honor their hero.
Pakistan has been wrongly trying to justify that the idea that Pakistan, came to existence before Muhammad bin Qasim, had invaded hindu India. Entire world knows that Pakistan came to existence consequent to unethical partition followed by hindu holocaust, during 1947-48.
“Pakistan and radical Islamist groups are against the true history of Sindh as they hate the Sindhi hindu king dahar. Taking the name of Raja Dahir is considered to be a blasphemy in a country, which was recently founded by Jinnah on dead bodies of hindus.
Dahar, had always been friendly with Muslims. He welcomed the Arab talent at his court. Unfortunately, the Arabs who had found refuge at Dahar’s court were the Allafi adversaries of the Umayyad Caliphate.
It is said by Arab historians that, a dignitary of the Allafi tribe, was beheaded in Mekran by a deputy of Hajjaj bin Yousuf as he refused to pay proper honour to that deputy. His skin was taken off and his head sent to Basra. In true Arab spirit some of the tribesmen of the victim took their revenge upon the deputy, who had by that time become the governor of Mekran, and thereafter fled to the court of Dahar. Consequent to capturing Debal, Muhammad bin Qasim, imprisoned all women of the region in his fort. Later on he distributed these women, among the captors. However some muslim historians opine that after the Arabs had conquered almost all of Sindh, the these women were once again brought to Muhammad bin Qasim and freed. We can’t be sure about these versions, given by muslim historians, due obvious reasons.
The events consequent to Muhammad bin Qasim’s invasion of Sindh are well known and has been communicated orally by the elders of sindhi hindus. What isn’t so well known to most students of history is the manner in which Raja Dahar met his death. It is said that when the Arab conqueror had captured most of Sindh, and Dahar’s countrymen had changed their sides to join the Arabs. Dahar called his Arab friends, the Allafi rebels. But they betrayed him. They became the cause of Dahar’s misfortune he had been giving them refuge. Dahar wanted their help because they were acquainted with the warfare strategies of the Arab army. Dahar wanted them to join his armed forces. But Allafi refused saying that although he was grateful to him, but he can not help kafirs and draw his swords against the army of Islam. He said that If his soldiers are killed by the arabs they will earn a bad name, and if they kill them they will be burnt to hell. Dahar permitted these suspicious characters to escape safely.
Sometime before the final battle, Dahar’s advisors had suggested him that he must take refuge with any of the hindu kings, but Dahar had refused. Saying that , ‘I am a wall between you and the Arab army. If I fall, nothing will stop destruction of all hindus at the hands of these devils’
Thereafter they requested him to atleast send away his family to some safe place but Dahar refused to do either. “I cannot send away my family to security while the families of my thakurs and nobles remain here. And I consider it shameful.
His advisor Budhiman then asked Dahar what did he intend, to do. To this Dahar had given a very dramatic reply.
“I am going to meet the Arabs in an open battle”, he said, “And fight them as best as I can. If I crush them, my kingdom will then be put on a firm footing. But if I am killed honorably, the event will be recorded in the books of Arabia and India, and will be talked about by great men. It will be heard by other kings in the world, and it will be said that Rajah Dahar of Sindh sacrificed his precious life for the sake of his country, in fighting with the enemy.”
Dahar,s reply was recorded faithfully by the early Arab historians, despite their hostility to an unfortunate infidel. After Dahar was killed in the Battle of Aror on the banks of the River Indus, his head was cut off from his body and sent to Hajjaj bin Yousuf. His queens burnt themselves to death in the tradition set by the Rajput heroines. These included Bai, the unfortunate sister of Dahar. Other ladies of the royal household, who remained alive, were captured by the Arab conquerors along with other women of Sindh, and sold into slavery. Thus ended the dynasty that had sprung out of the ambitions of Queen Suhandi and Chach the Brahmin.
After Raja Dahir was killed, two of his daughters, Suryadevi and Pirmaldevi, were captured and sent by the Arab commander Muhammad bin Qasim to his Caliph Walid bin Abdul Malik in Damascus.
Surya Devi took revenge against the Arab commander Muhammad bin Qasim.
When the Caliph wished to rape Surya Devi, she told him that she was no longer a virgin, since Muhammad bin Qasim had raped her and her sister before sending them on. As a response, the Caliph ordered that Muhammad was wrapped and stitched in oxen hides, and sent to Syria, which resulted in his death en route from suffocation.
This narrative attributes their motive for this subterfuge to securing vengeance for their father’s death. When the Caliph showed the corpse of Muhammad ibn Qasim to Surya Devi to illustrate the fate of anyone dishonoring or disobeying the Caliph, she reportedly answered that she had lied about Muhammad Bin Qasim, since she did not wish for her or her sister to become a slave in the harem of the Caliph, and wished to have vengeance on her father’s murderer.
Upon discovering this subterfuge, the Caliph is recorded to have been filled with remorse and ordered the sisters buried alive in a wall.
And this ended the most precious dynasty of this important sanatna dharma ruler.