Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Hemu the forgotten legend

Hemu  the forgotten legend


  



Some days back  somebody told me that shivaji was the only main hindu king  who clashed  with  Mughals, Which striked a name in my mind HEMU
Who was hemu, if u watched “akbar the great “  then it might be possible that some traces of  2nd battle of panipat was present in ur memory .  he was played by a character who used be a rapist in Indian movies, so that even u can’t have a sympathy for him as the killing of hemu was the second most coward thing ever done by Akbar, as I hope real akbar  was not like  hrithik of jodha akbar (remember killing sorry massacre of Hindu peasants just to show he was a ghazi was the most coward thing ever done) .But  Seriously a master piece work  done by director to paint his character in such a color that we created YET ANOTHER HERO OF OUR SOCIETY

Any way akbar is not focus here , so who was hemu or hemachandra vikramaditya (as a title given by himself). Very intresting fact is that those who took his name is just to put him as another  HINDU KING but the fact was , that he was one of most secular king with most secular army in india

As explained by other , he was in real term him as “ napoleon of India” before actual napoleon
Why so …
Because as napoleon he was also not from royal background ,. He was a son of  vaishya or some says Brahmin. He got education in Sanskrit, hindi urdu , Persian and other languages. He learned all the art of fighting from his friend who was eventually a Rajput . 

These are some abstract from kk bhardwaj book
“At a very young age, Hemu,who was based at Rewari started supplying cereals to Sher Shah Suri's army. Slowly he started other supplies like saltpetre (for gunpowder) to Sher Shah's army. Sher Shah had defeated Humayun in the year 1540 and had forced him to withdraw to Kabul. Hemu also laid the foundation of brass cannons casting and manufacturing industry in Rewari, which remains an important industrial brass, copper sheets and utensils manufacturing centre even today.

After Sher Shah Suri's death in 1545, his son Islam Shah became ruler of North India. Islam Shah recognised the calibre, and administrative skills of Hemu and therefore made him his personal adviser. He consulted Hemu in matters relating not only to trade and commerce, but also pertaining to statesmanship,


diplomacy and general politics. Islam Shah initially appointed Hemu as Shahang-i-Bazar, a Persian word meaning 'Market superintendent' who managed the mercantile system throughout the empire. This post gave Hemu an opportunity to interact with the king frequently in order to apprise him of the trade and commercial situation of the kingdom. Abul Fazal says that Islam Shah held Hemu in great esteem. In 1550, Hemu accompanied Islam Shah to the Punjab where he was deputed along with other high officers to receive Mirza Kamran in the fort of Rohtas. Islam Shah consulted Hemu on a variety of matters. After serving as Sahang-i-Bazar,for some time, Hemu rose to become Chief of Intelligence or Daroga-i-Chowki (Superintendent of Post). Hemu held this position till October 30, 1553, when Islam Shah died.

Islam Shah was succeeded by his 12 year old son Firoz Khan who was soon killed by Adil Shah Suri. The new king Adil was an indolent, pleasure-seeker, drunkard and debauch as well as faced revolts all around. Adil Shah took Hemu as his Chief Advisor and entrusted all his work to him. Hemu now became the prime minister and chief of the Afghan army. After some time, Adil Shah became insane and Hemu became the virtual king.

Many Afghan governors rebelled against the weak King Adil Shah and refused to pay the taxes; Hemu went to various states in North India to crush rebellions. Ibrahim Khan, Sultan Muhhamad Khan, Taj Karrani, Rukh Khan Nurani and several other Afghan rebel officers were defeated and killed one by one by Hemu. At the battle of Chhapparghatta in December 1555, Hemu routed the Bengal forces under Muhammad Shah, who was killed in the battle.

At the time Afghans considered themselves to be natives (and were considered to be natives by the Hindus); on the other hand Akbar, writes Vincent Arthur Smith, was considered to be a foreigner. Writer K.K.Bhardwaj in his book "Hemu-Napoleon of medieval India" claimed that Hemu was a native ruler leading a native Afghan army to victory, battle after battle. Thus, Hemu became popular among Hindus as well as Afghans. Another writer K.R.Qanungo writes that, it indicates that the rule which Hemu established, commanding Afghan army was secular and nationalistic.

Hemu never saw the defeat in a battle and romped from victory to victory throughout his life (he died in the only battle he lost). If Napoleon promised his soldiers a glorious future they fought bravely in his Italian campaign and instilled in them a new vigour and enthusiasm by an excellent address leading to glorious victories, Hemu practiced[9] it by his lavish distribution of the spoils of war among his soldiers. After winning Agra, Hemu moved towards final assault on Delhi.

Tardi Beg Khan who was Governor of Delhi, representing Akbar, sent a despatch to Akbar and Bairam Khan that Hemu had captured Agra and was intending to attack the capital Delhi which could not be defended without adequate reinforcements. Bairam Khan who visualised the gravity of the situation, sent his ablest lieutenant Pir Muhammad Sharwani with other brave commanders to Tardi Beg to hearten him advising to do his utmost for the time being. Tardi Beg Khan summoned all the Mughal commanders of the neighbourhood to the rescue of Delhi and a war council was held. It was decided to fight Hemu and plans were made accordingly.”

Sir Jadunath Sarkar writes in detail about the battle of Tughlaqabad:

"The Mughal army was thus drawn up. Abdullah Uzbeg commanded the Van, Haider Muhammad the right wing, Iskander Beg the left and Tardi Beg himself the centre. The choice Turki Cavalry in the Van and left wing attacked and drove back the enemy forces before them and followed far in pursuit. In this assault the Victors captured 400 elephants and slew 3000 men of the Afghan army. Imagining victory already gained, many of Tardi Beg followers dispersed to plunder the enemy camp and he was left in the field thinly guarded. All this time Hemu had been holding 300 choice elephants and a force of select horsemen as a reserve in the centre. He promptly seized the opportunity and made a sudden charge upon Tardi Beg with this reserve."

The result was confusion and defeat for the Mughals. Hemu was helped by reinforcements from Alwar with a contingent commanded by Hazi Khan and desertions of various Mughal Commanders along with Pir Muhhammad Khan who fled away from the battle field to the utmost chagrin and surprise of Tardi Beg who followed suit.

Hemu won Delhi after a day's battle on October 6, 1556. Some 3000 soldiers died in this battle. However, Mughal forces lead by Tardi Beg Khan vacated Delhi after a day's fight and Hemu entered Delhi victorious under a royal canopy.”

Even in battle of panipat  he was on strong side or we can say was going to defeat but by accident a arrow injured his eye and he become unconscious , which was taken as opportunity by Bairam khan and rumour about his death created a virtual defeat of hemu. After that they have done series of famous coward act like beheading him in unconscious state

What I learned from his story that
Unlike other SO CALLED HERO OF HISTORY  he was not a royal.
He earned his power by true tactics, and in real terms  he was a great leader as to get power on that time when you were born slave to the MIGTHY FUC***G KING was really tough . he got it  by education, war strategy, business mind
Unlike other king he got a great command and knowledge on market as well as  war machine( like canons and saltpeter .)
He never lost any battle

But sorry to say , since he had not got any community ,( like maratha , muslims,,mundas etc.) who sympathize and take him as  ANOTHER HERO, he was lost in past

Situation is so bad no body remembers his name and many consider that period between Humayun and Akbar was not ruled at all. Even I have not any other photo than the picture I posted ( I mean not on even Google)
Here is a king who was Hindu  and was more powerful than mugals but so what , does he represent any community , no. so why  should you remember him ,. Why we should sung the bravery of a king who faced (unlike many so called HERO) battle himself and won each.

Today history is all about politicians, local leaders, artist who used it as their painting paper to paint whatever they want.
So Don’t ever be emotional fool and start thinking radically . Never ever believe on lok kathayein which are nothing but a work of toady poet (either its prthvi raj chauhan., jhansi ki rani , Mangal pandey, shivaji or  Vir kunwar singh )

When you Compare their life with him and other great kings of India , you will realize how much flattery in their tongue. I mean if they are so valiant why can’t they  defeat the English or invaders

Infact we worship all BIG LOSSERS who only fought ; never won

7 comments:

  1. अबे इतना बडा article copy किये हो, कम से कम credits मे Wikipedia का तो जिक्र करो .

    I mostly agree with you, but these facts do nothing to belittle the deeds of Shivajiraje.

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    1. nobody is belitteling the great shivaji,it is just to glorify the great hemu, nad the realit about akbar, we should be proud that instead of great shivakji we have two great heros, when we say lord vishnu is great it doesnt mean lord shiva is inferior, they both are great likewise we shouldnt fight wheather hemu was great or shivaji, instead we should feel proud that the both were great than mughals, shivaji wont feel insulted if ou praise hemu, or you would not become less maratha if you praise hemu,

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  2. It is true that a great warrior like Hemu Vikramaditya is not remembered in our country, though, he won many battles and even defeated Akbar's army in Delhi. You rightly pointed out that reasons are: though Hindu and Hindustani, his community identity is confusing, also because he was a commoner, no body is giving any attention to him.
    Delhi is dotted with roads named after Invaders like Aurangzeb, Humanyun, Babur, Akbar etc. etc. who destroyed Bhartiya Sanskriti, but a native commoner king, who had victories from Punjab to Bengal has no recognition. It is a sad and painful situation.

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    1. yes i agree with you, he was a great warrior of his time and we need to give some respect to him, today everybody knows about Akbar, even a small child but many people doesn't know about this great warrior. I am promoting such heroes of India through my Blog The Braves And Smarts so that each and every child of India can know about these great warriors and freedom fighters of India.

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  3. Hem Chandra Vikramaditya was presented shabbily in film Jodha-Akbar. He had lead an Army in the battle of Panipat as a 'Vikramaditya Hindu King' of Delhi, but is shown as villen. Yes! Hemu does deserve more attention in independent India.

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    1. madam instead of posting the valour of king hemu here, why dont you do something about it like educating the children at home about our glories and brave rulers

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    2. Mayank bro, i don't know about this madam but i am trying my best to promote these heroes through my blog.

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