2023-02-17 20:22:01 by ambuda-bot
This page has not been fully proofread.
48
MADHURAVIJAYA M
it was now at the zenith of its power. "Hidden is refine-
ment; hushed is the voice of Dharma; destroyed is
discipline and gone is nobility of birth".
The state of affairs described above made an im-
mense impression in the minds of the Hindus of South
India. In the significant words of Sewell," "Although
fighting had been incessant throughout the cen-
turies it had been only between Hindus and what-
ever suffering was entailed on the mass of the
population it did not touch the Brahmin priests
or the temple. Dynasties might be wiped out for
ever; the chiefs killed, the country devastated but
the temples and the persons of the Brahmins
were inviolate and these temples were immensely
wealthy. For many centuries the civil rulers had
lavished on them the revenues of innumerable villages,
laid enforced taxes for their support on the people and
presented them with all kinds of valuables, precious
stones and gold in quantities. And whatever slaughter
of people went on the Brahmin remained untouched.
The deadliest curse that could be pronounced on a
man was as is evidenced by the inscriptions that his
punishment hereafter should be like that awarded by
the high gods to a man who had killed a Brahmin. And
yet there now came down on the Hindus those masses
of marauding foreigners sacking the cities, slaughter-
ing the people destroying the ancient fanes and killing
even the sacred Brahmins in the name and for the
glory of God. The thing was monstrous-unheard of. The
result was that the whole of Southern India was con-
vulsed by this catastrophe; the one hope in men's minds
23. Sewell: Historical Inscriptions of South India, p. 177.
MADHURAVIJAYA M
it was now at the zenith of its power. "Hidden is refine-
ment; hushed is the voice of Dharma; destroyed is
discipline and gone is nobility of birth".
The state of affairs described above made an im-
mense impression in the minds of the Hindus of South
India. In the significant words of Sewell," "Although
fighting had been incessant throughout the cen-
turies it had been only between Hindus and what-
ever suffering was entailed on the mass of the
population it did not touch the Brahmin priests
or the temple. Dynasties might be wiped out for
ever; the chiefs killed, the country devastated but
the temples and the persons of the Brahmins
were inviolate and these temples were immensely
wealthy. For many centuries the civil rulers had
lavished on them the revenues of innumerable villages,
laid enforced taxes for their support on the people and
presented them with all kinds of valuables, precious
stones and gold in quantities. And whatever slaughter
of people went on the Brahmin remained untouched.
The deadliest curse that could be pronounced on a
man was as is evidenced by the inscriptions that his
punishment hereafter should be like that awarded by
the high gods to a man who had killed a Brahmin. And
yet there now came down on the Hindus those masses
of marauding foreigners sacking the cities, slaughter-
ing the people destroying the ancient fanes and killing
even the sacred Brahmins in the name and for the
glory of God. The thing was monstrous-unheard of. The
result was that the whole of Southern India was con-
vulsed by this catastrophe; the one hope in men's minds
23. Sewell: Historical Inscriptions of South India, p. 177.