In the Vedas, Indra has been called Purandara. It means that he is the Indra who destroyed the puras of asuras. The word ‘pura’ can either mean the ‘forts’ of the enemies or their ‘bodies.’ Purandara is used in the sense of one who is capable of destroying the three kinds of shariras – स्थूल, सूक्ष्म, and कारण.
Since how long has the spirit of strength and courage been in the world? Indeed for thousands of years. In the Upanishads – the preeminent portion of the Vedas – we have a famous story of the creation of braahma, kshaatra, vaishya, and shudra along with dharma (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4). All the varnas arose from Prajapati (Brahma).
An unfortunate outcome of the “modern” way of thinking–shaped by the all-are-equal assumption–is the fact that over the years, it has contributed to the reduction in the capacity of a society to produce heroes, role models etc. Today’s heroes derive from the entertainment, fashion, business and sports streams. Equally, the (primarily Marxist) widespread notion that all people–no matter what their genuine achievements are–are “subjects” to be “analysed,” has also hastened this reduction.
Sardar Patel visited Junagadh in November 1947 after the state of Junagadh formally joined Indian Union. Jam Saheb and Kakasaheb Gadgil who were prominent citizens of Junagadh accompanied Sardar during this visit. Jam Saheb has recounted his memory of Sardar’s visit to Somanath on 12 November 1947 in the following words:
For several years now, there has been an attempt to distort India’s history, culture, and traditions starting from the Islamic invaders, British imperialism, the missionaries, and more recently, the Marxist historians and so-called intellectuals. This trend continues unabated even to this day.
Describing the situation in India after Mahmud Ghazni’s military expedition, Alberuni says, “Mahmud destroyed the wealth of India. The scars of this attack couldn’t be erased in the minds of people of India. The people of India developed enmity towards Muslims”
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Somnath is an ancient city on the West coast of India. Somnath has a history of at least 1,500 years that is well documented and there have been many references to this port city in the Mahabharata and the Puranas. The story of Somnath has to be looked at from different perspectives for the city has contributed to various different aspects of Indian life, most importantly to the soul of Indian civilizational values.
Do Indians have a sense of history? No, says the received wisdom even today in major sections of the academia and the media. If you as much as question the sources, the roots of this received wisdom, you are branded with the choicest of Leftist labels but that’s the least of our concerns.
Before looking at a “sense of history” or “historical sense,” we need to look at how history is defined. Commonly accepted definitions include: