‘Valor and Dharma’ are two of a kind for Naga Sadhus. They have been warrior saints and taken on numerous conflicts against Islamic thieves and after that British, in this manner shielded Hindus and temples. Who is curious about the valor of the Naga Sadhus shielding Gokul from the Afghans drove by Sardar Khan?

In like manner, they shielded Hindus and temples for a few centuries. Do you know Naga Sadhus severely crushed Aurangzeb and his powers in Varanasi? This battle occurred close to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi in 1664.

Aurangzeb and his powers had come to loot Kashi Vishwanath temple and more temples in the locale. Also, the Naga Sadhus guarded the temple from the primitive Mughal raiders. Aurangzeb didn’t set out to assault Varanasi again until 1669.

The relic of the presence of Naga Sadhus goes back a great many years. Scholarly records and old stories ascribe their author to Dattatreya, the manifestation of the Trinity – Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahadev. The Dashanami sampradaya of ascetic tradition ascribed to Dattatreya was sorted out into four mutts by Adi Shankaracharya.

Other than the mutts, he additionally sorted out an area of warrior sadhus to ensure Sanatana Dharma. Later they came to be known as Naga Sadhus. They have no dread of death and their weapons have been the Trishul, sword, and stick. They additionally convey different weapons including melodic instruments and conch shells. Their debris-secured bodies and tangled locks separate them from different sadhus.

A segment of the Naga Sadhus was additionally redesigned by Madhusudana Saraswati of Bengal in the sixteenth century. They remained bare and their job was to shield Hindus from the oppression of the Mughals.

Madhusudana Saraswati, a savant from the Advaita Vedanta tradition, was a contemporary of Akbar. Seeing assaults on sadhus by Muslims, Madhusudana Saraswati visited Akbar’s court in Agra and griped at him. At the point when his grievance was not tended to, he redesigned the Naga Sadhus and started them vigorously to shield Hindus from monstrosities dispensed by Muslims.

Despite the fact that numerous historians don’t have faith in this hypothesis, a couple of historians legitimize it to be valid. William R. Squeeze in his book Soldier Monks and Militant Sadhus has depicted its historical premise. Regardless of the discussion on whether this hypothesis is valid or not there is proof that after Madhusudana’s arrival from Agra, Naga Sadhus collected in Varanasi and made a vow to shield Hindus.

Baba Rampuri in his book Autobiography of a Sadhu: A Journey into Mystic India has given a nitty-gritty record about Naga Sadhus and their Akharas. An American conceived as William A. Gans, he is presumably, as he claims, the main Westerner to turn into a Naga Sadhu after he found solutions to his inquiries on truth from Indian philosophy and culture. At present, he is the Shri Mahant at Shri Panch Dashnam Juna Akhara.

Kashi Vishwanath temple is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas. This temple discovers notice in the Puranas including the Skanda Purana, which is one of the 18 Mahapuranas attributed to Rishi Ved Vyas. What’s more, Ved Vyas lived during the Mahabharata time frame.

The vestige of this temple is hence a few thousand years old – at any rate from the Mahabharata period. Past the Puranas, this temple discovers notice in different historical composed records. Like practically all temples, this temple was additionally remodeled, remade, and extended after some time.

Kashi Vishwanath Temple was assaulted a few times by Islamic bandits. It was first demolished by Qutb-ud-racket Aibak in 1194 CE. He was then an officer under the military of Mohammad Ghori. The wrecked vestiges lay dismissed for a couple of years.

Like most different temples, this temple was likewise modified. The remaking was done under the support of a Gujarati dealer before the mid 13th century. Kashi was pillaged again by the Sharqi rulers of the Jaunpur Sultanate pursued by the Muslim armed force of Sikandar Lodhi in the 15thcentury. It was revamped by Raja Todar Mal in the last piece of the 16th century, for example in 1585.

Aurangzeb and his Mughal powers assaulted Kashi Vishwanath Temple in 1664. The Naga Sadhus opposed and protected the temple. They gravely vanquished Aurangzeb and his powers. This thrashing of the Mughals discovers notice in James G. Lochtefeld’s book The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume 1. 

According to this book, the Naga Sadhus of Mahanirvani Akhara of Varanasi offered opposition against Aurangzeb. The book additionally depicts the annihilation of the Mughals. The writer ran over this historical event in a written handbook in the documents of the Mahanirvani Akhara in Varanasi. He portrayed the event as the ‘Battle of Gyan Vapi’ in his book.

Be that as it may, our scholarly history books discover no notice of this triumph of the Naga Sadhus against Aurangzeb. Rather, the Mughal ruler has been abundantly celebrated. Other than no different historians or researchers have ever referenced about this triumph straightforwardly in their works. However, James G. Lochtefeld has referenced that historians have gathered the vanquished Sultan as Aurangzeb, which means this triumph is accessible in different records yet kept covered up until this point.

To cite James G. Lochtefeld on the Battle of Gyan Vapi from his book The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume 1 (Note that the ‘triumph’ of the Naga Sadhus against Aurangzeb and his powers has been named ‘extraordinary’ in this depiction. In this way, regardless of whether the battle hasn’t been depicted well, it very well may be envisioned how the Naga Sadhus made destruction on the Mughal armed force!).

Truly, Aurangzeb may have or probably won’t have been actually present in that battle yet it is 100% genuine that his Mughal armed force was seriously vanquished by the Naga Sadhus in 1664. Aurangzeb assaulted Varanasi again following four years, for example in 1669, and vandalized the temple.

He manufactured a mosque in its place called the Gyanvapi mosque. This mosque still exists in the temple premise. The way that Aurangzeb himself was available in the 1669 battle and himself partaking in the development of the mosque in the temple reason recommends that he may have been available in 1664 as well!

There are not very many recorded events of Hindu warriors or local communities offering protection from spare temples and to spare the land. It is said the British set ablaze and crushed numerous such composed records, in this manner decimating proof of triumphs and resistance.  Oral history and local historical fables that have been passed down starting with one age and then onto the next do have some validity.

For instance, the historical legends of Alha Udal – Bundelkhand warriors overcoming Turks, Karnavati of Garhwal vanquishing Shah Jahan’s powers in Garhwal, Naiki Devi of Gujarat crushing Mohammed Ghori, and increasingly valorous events have scholarly confirmations as well. When Aurangzeb assaulted Varanasi the second time in 1669, Naga Sadhus more likely than not fought back till their final gasp. As per local old stories and oral portrayals, around 40,000 Naga Sadhus relinquished their lives, shielding Kashi Vishwanath Jyotirling. Furthermore, Islamic bandits have consistently pursued strategies of duplicity and foul play in warfare and something else.

Maratha ruler Malhar Rao Holkar strategized to annihilate the Gyanvapi mosque and modified the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in 1742, however his arrangement neglected to emerge. The Nawabs of Lucknow interceded. Following eight years, for example in 1750, the Maharaja of Jaipur arranged another methodology to reconstruct the temple subsequent to annihilating the mosque. He chose to purchase the land where the whole temple and mosque reason was found. Be that as it may, his arrangement flopped as well.

In 1780, Ahilyabai Holkar, the little girl-in-law of Maratha lord Malhar Rao, built the present temple structure neighboring the Gyanvapi mosque. Ahilyabai Holkar additionally remodeled a lot more temples the nation over including the Char Dhams other than dealing with their upkeep. Baiza Bai, a widow of the Maratha ruler Daulat Rao Scindhia of Gwalior, further extended the Kashi Vishwanath temple and pursued more development in later years under the support of increasingly Hindu rulers and dealers.

The Raja of Nepal talented a 7-foot high stone statue of the Nandi bull to be introduced. While Bhosales of Nagpur gave silver, the 1-ton gold utilized for plating the arch of the place of worship was given by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Each time our temples were demolished, they were modified. This was the manner by which confidence triumphed over zeal.

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rebellionvoice.com - BY SHRABANA MANNA