The year is 1024. After fierce resistance from valiant Hindu devotees, Mahmud of Ghazni emerges victorious, barbarically smashes the sacred Shivalinga and burns the beautiful temple — massacring 50,000 Hindus and plundering all the immense amount of wealth.
After acquiring a humongous quantity of wealth well over 20,000,000 dirhams and annihilating almost every Hindu warrior in his way — Ghazni did something really illogical — something which would not be done under ordinary circumstances. He did not return via the same old route he had invaded — he chose another difficult route via the perilous deserts of Kutch and Sindh- Why did he do that? Why not retreat easily via the old route?
The simple reason of this was fear.
Fear of encountering one of the most powerful and glorious Hindu Emperors of Bharatavarsha during those times. His name and glory struck anxiety & fear in the heart of Ghazni. Standing with a defeated & exhausted army, Ghazni feared utter defeat & loss of all the wealth he had plundered by his hands.
Such was the fear within the tyrannical Ghazni’s heart that he willingly took the perilous and almost untraversable desert route, sacrificing many of his Muslim soldiers in the process, who died due to dehydration & exhaustion after fighting in tedious battles. He felt dying by the hands of nature’s wrath was still a better deal than dying by the hands of a certain “Param Deo”
The Tayaqat-i-Akbari also mentions that Sultan Ghazni felt it extremely unadvisable, under all circumstances, to have a direct military conflict with this “Param Deo”.
His troops, unfortunately for Ghazni, couldn’t retreat as swiftly and easily as he had planned. They faced extreme difficulties (as stated above) — thousands died due to dehydration and physical exhaustion, since the temperatures of the Sindh desert reach upto 46 degree Celsius! Not to mention, the numerous logistical challenges they would face while transporting supplies).
It was clear that Param Deo was extremely powerful; thus Ghazni chose such a hasty retreat over a war. He even risked fighting against the Jats of Sindh — who had a clear geographical advantage — which further killed more of his men, affected his supply chains & led to lack of resources also caused by the plundering — but he never took the risk of returning to Ghazni (his capital) via the old, same route. Why was this?
It was due to this certain, mysterious “Param Deo”.
Now, the obvious question arises — “Who is this Param Deo”. According to some, it was Bhima I of the Chalukyas, but he was a novice ruler at that time — having succeeded to the throne only recently years before Ghazni’s raid. A list of reasons why Bhima I does not quite suite the personality of “Param Deo.”
”Etymology might as well hold the key here in identifying “Param Deo”, along with a bunch of historical facts. “Parama Deo” is an obvious mistranslation of the word “Paramara-deva” i.e. Lord of the Paramaras — clearly referring to the glorious Raja Bhoja of the Paramara Dynasty. It can also be a mistranslation of another title of raja Bhoja — which is “Parameswara Paramabhattaraka”
This must be the case, since Firishta was a Persian poet who must have mistranslated “Paramara-deva” (or “Parameswara Paramabhattaraka”) to “Param Deo” and must have mistaken him for Bhima I.
This is precisely what Sun Tzu meant when he said “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”. Bhoja’s military was so threatening, that Ghazni truly feared it & had to retreat from Bharata via an arduous route — even if it costed the lives of his own soldiers.
The story doesn’t end here, readers.
These are solely the military achievements of Raja Bhoja. It is but a mere fraction of the true legacy of such a glorious king. Not only Paramara Bhoja was a strong and able military commander, he was also an accomplished author who has written eighty four books in total!
Yes, that is the true glory of Paramara Bhoja. Such an underrated scholar-king who struck fear into the hearts of Ghazni, as well as wrote eighty four books on more than sixteen different topics is truly a legend born once in a century. What a blessed soul Raja Bhoja must have been, to be proficient in both military art as well as scholarly subjects. Kings of Bharata were not mad barbarians, unlike those of a certain religion. Such was the divine glory of Bharat Mata’s sons back then.
Raja Bhoja wrote books on an extremely wide variety of topics, such as the Vidvajjana-Vallabha on astronomy, Vyavahara-Manjari (Vyavahāramanjarī), a work on dharmasastra or Hindu law, Yukti Kalpataru, a work dealing with several topics including statecraft, politics, city-building, jewel-testing, characteristics of books, ship-building, Shringara-Prakasha (Śṛṅgāraprakāśa), a wonderful treatise on poetics and dramaturgy, Shalihotra (Śālihotra), a detailed book on horses, their diseases and the remedies, Samaragana-Sutradhara, (Samarāṇgaṇasūtradhāra), a treatise on architecture and iconography.
It details construction of buildings, forts, temples, idols of deities and mechanical devices, Nama-Malika, a compiled treatise on lexicography, Charucharya (Cārucārya), a treatise on personal hygiene, Bhujabala-bhima (Bhujabalabhīma), a work on astrology, Sarasvati-Kanthabharana (Sarasvatīkaṇṭhabharaṇa), a treatise on Sanskrit grammar for poetic and rhetorical compositions and the Raja-Mriganka-Karana (Rājamrigankakaraṅa), a treatise on chemistry, especially dealing with the extraction of metals from ores, and production of various drugs!
One must have an astonishingly high amount of wisdom to be able to compile books on such a huge number of topics. Some contest that all of these were not written by Bhoja himself, but they do not have any evidence to corroborate their claims – without any surprise, such claims at vilifying Bhoja’s legacy had come from our beloved Marxist historians themselves!
There is not a single emperor from the West who could match Bhoja’s legacy when it comes to his scholarly and literary contributions, written in extensive detail. That sure must have rattled the feathers of our renowned intellectuals!
The interesting tale of Bhojadeva isn’t over yet!
The glorious legacy of Raja Bhoja has yet another wonderful achievement – its stunning quality of architecture. As mentioned before, the Samaragana-Sutradhara, (Samarāṇgaṇasūtradhāra) a treatise on architecture and iconography- mentioned in extensive details regarding the construction of buildings, forts, temples, idols of deities and mechanical devices.
Bhojtal, a massive lake lying on the western side of the capital city of Madhya Pradesh is a major source of drinking water for the residents of the city, serving around 40% of the residents with nearly 30 million imperial gallons (140,000 cubic metres) of water per day, was built by the glorious Paramara Raja Bhoj during his tenure as a king of Malwa. He is also said to have established the city of Bhopal (also named after him, then as Bhojpal) to secure the eastern frontier of his kingdom.
There is a legend why they built the lake. Once king Bhoj suffered from skin disease and all Vaidyas (Doctor in English) failed to cure him. Then, one day a saint told the king to build a tank to combine 365 tributaries and then have a bath in it to wipe out the skin disease. Bhoj called upon his engineers to build up a huge tank. They spotted a place near river Betwa, which was 32 km away from Bhopal. It was found that it has only 359 tributaries. A Gond Commander Kalia fulfilled this shortage. He then gave the address of an invisible river. After merging the tributaries of this river the number 365 was completed.
The lake was created by constructing an earthen dam across the Kolans River. An eleven gate dam called the Bhadbhada dam was constructed at Bhadbhada in 1965 at the southeast corner of the Lake, and now controls the outflow to the river Kaliasote.
Yes, this massive 11th-century dam is working till date! This gives a clear idea of the quality of infrastructure during Bhoja’s rule. Such technological superiority is truly a marvel! This is so unlike the Mughals, who focused only on extortioning and dehumanizing their subjects to extract revenue!
Bhoja’s rule also saw unprecedented construction of temples. The famed Bhojeshwar Temple houses the largest ever built Shivalingam in India – which is a massive 2.3 metres high. Here are some stunning visuals of the Bhojeshwar Temple:
The unparalleled achievements of Bhoja’s dexterous architects and artisans does not end here. Raja Bhoja also undertook the construction of the majestic Bhojashala, an ancient university with a beautiful Saraswati Temple, which unfortunately had been converted into an Islamic semi-mosque where Muslims offer Namaaz on Fridays – which clashes with Hindu festivals.
Imagine how truly unfortunate and ironic it is that the temple build by the virtuous Raja Bhoja dedicated to Devi Saraswati is now being utilized by the same fanatics who massacred Hindus en masse!
I wonder when will the almost-secular-INC-2.0 Bharatiya Janta Party raise this issue and formally end the offerings of namaaz and demolish those hideous semi-mosques built by the barbarians who massacred Hindus and sexually assaulted Hindu women.
Anyways, back to the main topic. This glorious university had extremely beautiful architectural designs. Here are some breathtaking stills of the magnificent Bhojshala, built more than 100 years ago.
Pseudo-secular and Marxist historians have stooped to a new low, altogether denying the presence of the serene Bhojshala itself.
That is the level of foolishness they can stoop too. Such Marxist historians will absolutely destroy the beautiful legacy of glorious emperors like Raja Bhoja.
Thus, it is necessary to present strong intellectual countermeasures to present real Bharatiya Vidya in front of its innocent-yet-easily manipulated populace.
We at Vidyadayini are doing the same without any motive for profit. We don’t need any money, donations or financial support. Just spread this article as much as possible via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other Social Media platforms. I have disabled my social media accounts for some time, thus it would be helpful if you could spread this article via your respective platforms.
(This article was first published on the author’s blog and has been republished here with consent. Minor edits have been done to conform to HinduPost style-guide.)
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