Chhatrapathi Shivaji

[Shambhu]

http://www.sandeepweb.com/2008/10/29/the...f-nijagal/

<b>The Battle of Nijagal</b>
10.29.08 | 2 Comments | Filed Under History


Driving on National Highway 4 towards Tumkur shows several milestones of history erected so high and steep that you are compelled to listen to their story. Nijagal is such a milestone. It is an imposing, rocky hill that stares at your back miles after you’ve driven past it. I stopped and it made a substantial difference.

Nijagal is a few kilometres after Dobbespet (a little after the Kamat highway hotel if that’s how you identify it) to your left if you are driving from Bangalore. In all, a little over 40 Kilometres from the heart of Bangalore. The climb to the top costs you about two hours.

At the top lies the remnants of a once-impregnable fort, the site of a historic battle won with a mix of strategy and raw, barbaric warfare.


The later half of the 18th Century saw a fierce power struggle between the Marathas, Hyder Ali and the British.

The Maratha empire, which was till then torn by internal strife suddenly reasserted itself under Madhava Rao I. The Maratha army under his leadership began an unstoppable, whirlwind expedition to wipe out Hyder Ali. Beginning with Adoni, Madhava Rao took Bellary, Kurnool, Devadurga, Rayadurga, Kolar, Bhairavgad (near Bangalore), Devarayanadurga (near Tumkur), and reached Nijagal, en route to his final destination, Srirangapatana, Hyder Ali’s capital.

The Nijagal fort was built at the tip of the rocky mountain. Nijagal resembled an enormous, rocky semicircle placed atop a mountain decked on all directions with gigantic, steep, slippery boulders, effectively sealing it off from any sort of assault. The altitude of the fort was beyond the reach of cannonfire. Physical scaling of the fort was scorched by pouring enormous amounts of boiling oil and water, and excreta from specially-constructed holes (typically) near the top of the fort to make ascent impossible. A Burj/Bateri (an oval-shaped construction made of stone, sand and mortar and served as a watch tower) had guards patrolling round the clock. A large, deep and wide fosse circumvented the base of the mountain and was sprinkled with thorns. Crocodiles were bred in the moat to add yet another layer of security. Besides, Nijagal was never in the danger of running out of water. Three fresh-water mountain streams–Rasa Siddara Done (Done=stream/pond), Kanchina Done, and Akka-Tangira Done –provided ample water supply.



Example of a Burj : The oval-shaped (encircled in red) stone structures standing atop the steep boulders.

The seige of Nijagal was a prestige issue to Madhava Rao I and a question of survival for Hyder Ali. Hyder Ali’s morale like his treasury at that juncture, was almost barren. Unexpected, and successive thrashings and warfield insults saw him nestled inside Srirangapatana. On the other side, Madhava Rao’s confidence made it seem that Srirangapatana was waiting to be picked. However, none his earlier decisive victories in far stormier battles and under much tougher conditions had prepared him for Nijagal. At the end of about two frustrating months, Nijagal refused to yield. Madhava Rao I was left with a brother with one hand cut off, and his ammunition and supplies were perilously low.

Nijagal belonged to Sardar Khan, Hyder Ali’s vassal. A shrewd and ruthless ruler, Sardar Khan had mercilessly stripped the region by hoarding enormous wealth in the form of money and produce enough to last him for two years.

At this juncture, Madhava Rao I requested Madakari Nayaka, the Nayaka/Pallegar of Chitradurga, for assistance. Chitradurga’s history is the stuff romantic, warrior-legends are made of, but I’ll save it for another day. Madakari Nayaka, en route to Nijagal was moved by the remorseless rape of the entire region, a spread of about 150 Kilometres. The Maratha army had turned entire villages into smoking graveyards and charred prosperity.

Upon reaching Nijagal, Madakari Nayaka quickly reconnoitered the surroundings. His first break was when he discovered that the fort had two entrances for people to move into the town and back: the heavily-guarded Northern and Eastern entrances. His plan was as clear as it was immediate. Identify a relatively-less slippery route. Scale the fort at night. Use the special hunter-force he had selected for the mission.

The Nayakas of Chitradurga originally descended from hunter tribes that inhabited the mountainous and heavily-forested surroundings of Chitradurga. Despite becoming proper rulers in later years, they never lost touch with their roots. They preserved and nurtured generations of hordes of fierce, barbaric hunter-warriors for use in special occasions like this. These hunter-warriors were specially trained to impale fear deep into the enemy’s heart and camp alike. They used hideous camouflage, emitted blood-curdling war cries by producing a variety of beastly sounds, fought in the most daunting conditions, were expert mountain-climbers, and in general had no fear of death.

At nightfall, Madakari Nayaka’s hunter-warriors made a fire out of dried wood not too far from the fort. By its light, they gorged on a heady diet of roasted and raw meat, and liquor and marijuana. Dinner done, they wrapped rugs on their bodies, dangled a rope made of fibre on their shoulders, and secured a bag comprising Giant Monitor Lizards to their waists. When they reached the moat, they killed a couple of horses they had with them, and threw the horsemeat into the moat to distract the crocodiles. They dipped into the moat, swam noiselessly, closing their mouth lest any poison in the water kill them, and climbed on top the other side. They fastened the fibre rope to the feet of the lizards and threw the creatures upon the rocks. Once the lizards’ grip was secure, they began a steady, swift, and silent ascent. In about an hour, Madakari Nayaka’s hunter-warriors were waiting in the pregnant darkness at one of the two fort doors for their leader’s signal. Five hundered warriors had surrounded the Nijagal fort from all directions. In response, Nayaka let out a shrill battle cry by leading the charge. The guards that opened the fort door upon hearing the noise saw the hordes of death tearing towards them. Madakari Nayaka’s army of barbaric warriors had just begun to colour the silent night with a riot of blood and death. With their honed bestial yawling, the hunter-warriors broke the door and chopped everybody in their path with their incisive battleaxes. They sliced soldiers and non-combantants alike like leaves on a twig. Madakari Nayaka’s charge left no chance for Nijagal’s defenders to even realize what was happening much less respond to it. Heads and necks and hands and arms and legs and fingers flew. The ill-prepared Sardar Khan’s force simply watched itself being butchered indiscriminately. Once it attained this bloody, decisive foothold, the hunter-warriors opened all avenues to enter the fort to the rest of the awaiting army. Nijagal was awash with fresh blood. While his hunter-warriors were busy slaughtering at will, Madakari Nayaka made his way to Sardar Khan’s bedroom, roused him from sleep, and engaged him in a man-to-man swordfight. It was an unequal contest: Madakari Nayaka was already intoxicated with wanton murder and raring to slay more while Sardar Khan was struggling to shake off his slumber. More significantly, Sardar Khan could not fathom that his impregnable fortress could ever be breached. In one blow, Madakari Nayaka lumbered Sardar Khan’s hand, forcing him to surrender.

In the morning, Madakari Nayaka delivered Sardar Khan to Madhav Rao I.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Postscript:

In my readings, Hyder Ali’s military successes owed to a combination of treachery, payout, cowardice, and luck. The defeat at Nijagal marked one of the all-time lows in his military career. However, Madhav Rao I died of Tuberculosis a short period after he won Nijagal. The united Maratha empire lapsed again into internal discord giving Hyder Ali enough time and resources to systematically recuperate his losses and resurface as a major power. One of the side effects of this recuperation is the tragic fall of Madakari Nayaka and with him, the Nayaka dynasty of Chitradurga.

[Bodhi]

By the June of 1665, jai singh had succeeded in gaining enormous military advantage over the forces of shivAjI, and as a result began a series of diplomatic movements from shivAjI's side to come to terms with mughals, leading finally to a remarkable interview of shivAjI with the elderly rAjapUt and a most notable general of his time, jaisingh, when the former came out secretly from the fort of purandar with only six brAhmaNa councillors to meet the latter in his tent.

Here, we know of what transpired during the interview between the two great men through the minutes and dispatches sent to Delhi by the munshI of jaisingh. What is very remarkable here is that shivAjI demands jaisingh to arrange for him "a similar treatment as to the house of mewAr", and a similar treaty "as been offered to the mahArANA of udaipur"!

Did shivAjI know that just a few decades, almost a century earlier, in that very month, a direct ancestor of jaisingh was negotiating a similar arrangement with mahArANA pratApa singh at the outskirts of udaipur fort? Might shivAjI have mentioned any more of mewAr to the rAjapUta chief? Did the embarrassment of jaisingh' grand-father at the hands of pratApa ever cross the minds of either men? Might they have ever referred to pratApa at all? One never knows, but one wonders.

And indeed the 1665 treety of Purandar, is almost a xerox copy of mughal treaty with the house of mewAr. Most notable point being excuse of personal appearance in court, and only sending his son with 5000 force into the mughal service.

[Bodhi]

dasarathajU ke rAma bhe basudev ke gopAla
soI pragaTe sAhi ke srIsiurAja bhuvAla
udit hota siurAja ke mudit bhaye dvijdeva
kaliyug haryo miTyo sakal mlechChan ko ahameva

he, who had taken birth in house of dasharatha as rAma, and in house of vasudeva as gopAla,
(it must be he himself) who has now appeared in the house of Shahji, and being called Shivaji the King,
for, as soon as he has appeared, joy has overcome both the dvija-s and deva-s,
receding is kaliyuga and diminishing the pride of those mlechCha-s

[Bodhi]

bhUShaNa says in shivarAja-bhUShaNa:

"Apasa kI phUTa hI te sAre hinduvAna TUTe!"
and:

bhUShaNa kahata sab hindun ko bhAga phire
chaDhe te kumati chakatAhU kI pisAnI me...
and:

"ropyo rana khayAla hwai kai DhAla hinduwAne kI"

TRANSLATION:

"the sole reason of Hindu misfortune? their disunity!"
and:

"Says bhUShaNa, the fate of Hindus is now taking a turn, ironically,
when idiots (kumati says bhUShaNa) are being grinded in the mill of the tyranny (and therefore turned into one uniform mix)"
and:

(advise of the rANA of udaipur to shivA, on his rAjya-abhiSheka "Always go to war thinking yourself to be the protective armour of all Hindu Nation"

[Bodhi]

छूट्यो है हुलास आमखास एक संग छूट्यो
…हरम सरम एक संग बिनु ढंग ही
नैनन तें नीरधीर छूट्यो एक संग छूट्यो
…सुखरुचि मुखरुचि त्यों ही मनरंग ही
भूषण बखानै सिवराज मरदाने तेरी -
…धाक बिललाने न गहत बल अंग ही
दक्खिन के सूबा पाय दिली के अमीर तजें
…उत्तर की आस जीवआस एक संग ही ॥
(shivarAja-bhUShaNa.150, ’sahokti’ alaMkAra in kavitta meter of the ‘manaharaNa’ vareity)

The poem describes the terror of the founder of marahaTTA nation in the hearts of the Imperial officers of Delhi, and how they react when they hear from their superiors about their posting in the souther provinces:

With all excitement evaporated; matters of palace and forts interest no more;
Harem and chivalry have become meaningless;
Pride has left the glances so also the bravery the heart;
Tastes and Pleasures, all dried up; face paled…
O shivarAja, how can bhUShaNa describe your manliness -
Effect of your terror is such, that:
No boastfulness (of their bravery, from their bards) brings life back to the Amirs of Delhi,
When ordered to march to the Southern Provinces;
They cease both at once - hope to ever return back to North, and to live further!

[Bodhi]

…and rAma setu also finds mention in the annals from the pen of the favourite poet of cHatrapati shivAjI.

In this clever kavitta, with a marvelous turn of phrases, king of poets bhUShaNa churns out a dual-meaning (shleSha) poem. On one hand, he offers a description of rAmachandra, and on the other that of shivAjI’s, and in the last line equates the two. Here is the kavitta in manaharaNa meter variety:

सी-ता संग सोभित सुलच्छ्न सहाय जाके
…भू पर भरत नाम भाई नीति चारु है
भूषन भनत कुल-सूर कुल-भूषन हैं
…दासरथी सब दास जाके भुज भुव भारु है
अरि-लँक तोर जोर जाके संग बन्दर हैं
…सिन्धु रहैं बान्धे जाके दल को न पारु है
तेगहि कै भेंटै जौन राकस मरद जानै
…सरसा सिवाजी राम ही को अवतारु हैं !!

The two different meanings are in subsequent lines in different colours:

Whose presence is ever embellished by Sita by His side and graced by lakShamaNa to His assistance
<b>Whose side shrI never leaves, and who is always assisted by generals of good lakShaNa</b>
Whose brother named bharata is always eager to spreads benevolence on earth
<b>Whose name this earth takes with affection as a “bhartA”, the nourisher</b>
Says bhUShaNa, He Who is the real crown-jewel of all sUrya-kula
<b>Says bhUShaNa, He Who is the real crown-jewel of all shUra-s (braves)</b>
That son of dasharatha, Whose arms are supporting the weight of entire earth
<b>In whose service are valorous rathI-s (Lieutenants) to support the weight of the kingdom</b>
To fame of whose might is destruction of laMkA in collaboraton with vAnara-s
<b>Who breaks the very back of the enemy, such are whose mighty arrows</b>
Who even constructed a bridge over ocean, whose army has no count
<b>At doors of whose forts are always dwelling elephants, whose army has no count</b>
Who knows how to slay rAkShasa-s when encountered
<b>The Very embodiment of manliness who meets his enemies only with his sword</b>
That shivAjI, the Lionheart, says bhUShaNa, is none other than another incarnation of rAmachandra!

Do notice the turn of words… “sindhura hai bAndhe” means ‘constructed setubandha’ and since sindura also means elephant, the phrase also becomes, ‘Elephants are tied’ too! Likewise, “marada” while means ’slaying’ in one sense, but also ‘Manliness’ in the second…

[Bodhi]

Anybody watching the serial rAjA shiva cHatrapati that recently started on Star Pravah channel?

[Pandyan]

Looks ok for indian production.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=689Yh1MJN6o

[Bodhi]

first episode
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEqNrBo7nFA

I think it is good. It is very appropriate that in the title song they have adopted the first ever cHanda uttered by bhUShaNa in shivAjI's court (posted on this thread earlier).

[Pandyan]

Just money and more good actors is needed to make a very good serial. Good example would be HBO's Rome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGYI1UHK5jM

[Husky]

<!--QuoteBegin-Pandyan+Mar 7 2009, 09:52 AM-->QUOTE(Pandyan @ Mar 7 2009, 09:52 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Just money and more good actors is needed to make a very good serial. Good example would be HBO's Rome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGYI1UHK5jM
[right][snapback]95266[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Don't get me wrong, British actors are very good at their job <i>in their homesettings</i>. But to see Brits parading around as if they were Romans is too much for me. Also the series totally skewed history. There was a nice DVD review on <i>I, Claudius</i> was it (or maybe just on the Beeb's <i>Rome</i>) where the reviewer went over how the west now likes to make series about past civilisations - especially of those where the peoples/cultures have ceased to exist - to superimpose modern ideas on them. As a case in point he brought up the Romans and how often they were essentially parodied as immoral characters. Even in the case of some realism, such as their more extreme food habits, the exceptional cases were made the rule rather than the exception that they were. Particularly, excesses of promiscuity and one orgy after another seem to be focussed on. An insightful observation was when he (the reviewer) noticed that it was the underlying fetish of the west to explore and film these things that were instead projected onto a population that no longer exists (people of a long-gone civilisation can't protest or defend themselves from the slander, nor sue for historical inaccuracy that presents them in a very unfavourable light), simultaneously passing the charges of morbidity and unwarranted excess onto the Romans with excuses like "but we're trying to be realistic". Realistic would be to not just make programs on Rome a list of all the worst and most sensational events that occurred here and there in the empire of ~300 million people for over centuries, but to have representative events.

And James Purefoy is a good actor, but what's with a Norman playing a Roman? And poor Polly Walker, she also looks out of place. And the whole gang of Saxons. Just get some Italians and make it real Rome. I may watch. But this sort of thing makes as much sense as the old complaint: Americans/Brits in Troy and Irish playing Greeks in Alexander, or the Brits playing Russians in ITV's Anna Karenina (complete with Latin rites used in catholicism, instead of Orthodox rites! As if Russia is orthodox and as if people are too stupid to notice such absurd, unreal impossibilities).

[Guest]

Where can we see all the episodes of Star Pravah's Shivaji serial?

[Pandyan]

I think it is a new series. Wait for a few more months, episodes will eventually be posted.

[Bharatvarsh]

http://kavibhushan.blogspot.com/

[Bodhi]

bhUShaNa, now in advanced years and living in retirement, must be impressed by the gallantry of peshavA bAjIrav and his younger brother chimanAjI appA. In talking of the latter he goes as far as making an exception in referring to him as sirajA/sAha, titles he otherwise reserves exclusively for shivAjI.

[Bodhi]

While bhUShaNa was never a court poet of Moghals, two of his elder brothers were. Talking about himself, he says that since boyhood he was looking for a patron who could stand up to yavana's. So first he went to the Hindu king of kumAyUN in himAlaya-s and stayed for some time there. Although he was richly rewarded but was not impressed. He then went to chitrakUTa where bundela-s were still exerting some amount of freedom. It is here that he acquired the name of bhUShaNa (which is not his real name). While he was living here that the episode of shivAjI's heroic escape from the house-arrest in AgarA from tha palace of the son of savAI jai singha kacHavAhA became known, and shivAjI's fame spread all over and he became sort of a living legend among Hindus and was talked about in the streets of North India.

Hearing of his valour bhUShaNa immediately went to raigaDha and met with shivAjI -- an association which would last for life time but will remain of immortal fame till there is left one lover of brajabhAShA or one admirer of shivAjI.

He was not only a poet, but also a brilliant envoy and negotiator, and it is due to this skill that shivAjI appointed him his vakIl and sent on many occasions to negotiate on his behalf and carry his messages, to North Indian Hindu princes in rAjapUtAnA and mAlavA.

Legend about his being with awrangzib is partly true.

He met awrangzeb, on the invitation of the latter, but as the employee of shivAjI. The bhAkhar of chiTaNisa mentions this meeting, and a dispatch of its report to shivAjI. bhUShaNa had taken leave from shivAjI, for settling some matters at his native village near kAlapI on outskirts of today's Kanpur. While he was living here at the house of his brother, who was in service of awrangzib, he received an invitation from the latter for a meeting. Awrangzib probably wanted to lure him into his service and gain some inside information about deccan. bhUShaNa agreed to meet on condition of the conduct of safe passage.

At the moghal court, he was asked to recite some poems which he refused in the beginning. following is a kiMvadanti, that he asked awrangzib to first wash his hands before asking him to recite the poems. When asked why, he said because it seemed the emperor was used to listening to romantic poems (bhUShaNa's brother was a shR^i~NgAra-rasa poet), and must be stroking some other body parts, whereas himself being the poet of shivAjI, who hears the poems of vIra-rasa from bhUShaNa, which force the listener's fingers to one's mostaches. This way, if emperor insisted on listening to the poems that shivAjI listens to, then he had better wash the dirty hands first, lest his nUr-i-khudA (beard) becomes defiled and curse of harAm come on bhUShaNa.

Whatever be the truth of the above, which to us seems just a legend, there are some 8 kavitta-s which end with awrangzibs' name, and are said to have been recited by bhUShaNa before awrangzib himself. Each one is a harsh criticism of the moghal emporer, one even mentions kAbAh/kiblAh, which infuriated awrangzib too much that as per chiTaNisa he ordered immediate beheading of bhUShaNa, but was reminded by his courtiers of the promise of safe conduct and bhUShaNa was merely dismissed and asked to vanish.

These 8 manaharaNa kavitta-s are not found in shivarAja-bhUShaNa, which was already completed by this time, but are part of other collections of bhUShaNa's poems, and each ends with this half-line: "ali awrangzib tau champA shivarAja hai": If awrangzib be the Black Bee, then shivarAja is the flower of champA (to which Bees are attracted but can not reach close to).

[Hauma Hamiddha]

The four sons of ratnAkara tripAThI, a kAnyukubja brAhmaNa, were all major contributors to the literature in NIA languages. They were in order (Bodhi is that right?)
chintAmaNi
bhuShaNa
matirAma
nilakaNTha.
I am not familiar with the theoretical treatises on hindi poetics of chintAmaNi though I have seen matirAma's erotic verses being cited.
shivarAja bhUShaNa appears to be again a manual rather than a poem itself. It is like say in the tradition of daNdin's kAvya darsha in saMskR^ita or more so a work of jayadeva that I forget. It appears that bhUShaNa is intending to illustrate types of brajabhASha alamkAra using incidents from the Chatrapati's life as examples. Bodhi is that correct? Clearly he is a poet embodying the Hindu consciousness of the age.
His brother's erotic poems seem to mention the chAlukya (solAnki) rAja shambhunAtha siMha rather than the Mogol.

[Bodhi]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->shivarAja bhUShaNa appears to be again a manual rather than a poem itself. It is like say in the tradition of daNdin's kAvya darsha in saMskR^ita or more so a work of jayadeva that I forget. It appears that bhUShaNa is intending to illustrate types of brajabhASha alamkAra using incidents from the Chatrapati's life as examples.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Absolutely. Beyond doubt, the chief purpose in mind of bhUShaNa in writing SB is to create a manual of poetics, rather than a historical account of shivAjI (although that does not deny the historical gems in the work). bhUShaNa himself says:

siva-charitra lakhi yauM bhayo kavi bhUShaNa kai chitta
bhA.Mti bhA.Mti bhUShani so.M bhUShita karauM kabitta
su-kabin so.M suni-suni kacHuka samujhi kabina kai pantha
bhUShaNa bhUShaNamaya karata shiva-bhUShaNa subhagrantha

roughly:

The bravery of shivAjI contagiously ignited this bold desire in the poet-heart of bhUShaNa
To create vareity of diverse 'bhUShaNas' for embellishing the (vernacular) poetics
Studying therefore first the methododology of great poets, to the best of his abilities,
bhUShaNa now takes up the task to create this blessed grantha of alaMkAra-s
(grantha, a treatise, not a kAvya nor a chronicle)

Reading SB, the students of saMskR^ita would be easily reminded of the kashmIraka handbooks on poetics, although this one thematically bound. Besides, no doubt here we are noticing a continuity of the same vital flow of saMskR^ita poetry, acclimatized for jana-bhAShA-s, no matter how much the Pollocks deny or dislike.

==

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->chintAmaNi
bhuShaNa
matirAma
nilakaNTha.

matirAma's erotic verses being cited. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

matirAma was elder to bhUShaNa

Of course matirAma, the author of celebrated lalita-lalAma and rasarAja, is the standard bearer of early Hindi erotics, who is only eclipsed later by the work of his student the more famous bihArIlAl who shined under the patronage of jai siMha of jaipur.

rAhula sAMkR^ityAyana while living in kumAyUM had disovered some works to show that a poet-envoy from satArA had visited the court of kumAyUM and was known here as maNirAma, and suggests that it must be the birth name of bhUShaNa.

They were all kashyapa trivedI-s from kAnyakubja. Sort of our western relatives <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Bodhi]

jora rusiyAna ko hai tega khurAsAna hU kI
nIti inglaNDa chIna hunnara mahAdarI
himmata amAna maradAna hinduvAnahU ko
rUma abhimAna habasAna-hada kAdarI
nekI arabAna sAna-adaba IrAna tyo hI
krodha hai turAna jyo pharAnsa phanda-AdarI
bhUShaNa bhanata imi dekhiye mahItala pai
vIra-siratAja-sivarAja kI bahAdurI
(BG.482)

Russians are as renowned for strength as khorAsAnians are for swordsmanship;
English suppress all in shrewd strategizing and Chinese in engineering;
It is by their valour and manliness that Hindus distinguish themselves;
If Romans were known for their pride and glory
Arabs are for rightfulness and Iranians for their courtesy and grace;
Turks are known for their wrath and French for their intrigues and conspiracies
bhUShaNa has seen these different people of this earth
But found no match to compare with the bravery of shivAjI, the crown-jewel of bravery itself.

1. In listing Hindu as a nationality, along with English and French, Chinese and Russian, Turks and Iranians, it is clear that bhUShaNa is reflecting the contemporary consciousness of a Hindu-Nationhood and self-identity, which flies in the face of those who propose the perverted argument of Indian Nationhood being a post-British construct.

2. Are these attributes of people that he mentions, mere rhetoric of poetry, or is there any real sense that bhUShaNa felt about those? French for hatching conspiracy, and English for strategizing!!

[Hauma Hamiddha]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->habasAna-hada kAdarI
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

What is this bodhi?
I would translate as: the Ethiopians (I guess he was meaning the Siddis) are characterized by trembling cowardice. Interesting that they were reduced that state probably due to shiva's valor.

nekI of the Arabs: May be he actually meant piety? given that they are kaTTar mullas.