A few days ago, I came across this email from Arjuna in which he was responding to an assertion regarding foreign origin of the word “Hindu”.

I have written on this before (see e.g. here and more recently, here) but Arjuna had some good references in his email which I am excerpting below:

“While it is true that…foreigners used this term as a derogatory label, it is simply a lie to claim that the Hindu people feel this way about the word “Hindu”.
 
In actual fact, the Vijaynagar Empire was proud to call itself “Hindu” in its long struggle to maintain and preserve our culture. Shivaji and his Maratha followers were also proud to call themselves “Hindus”. 

For your benefit, we quote some epigraphic evidence and its implication as cited on pages 8 and 9 of “Hindus and Hinduism: Manipulation of Meanings” by Sita Ram Goel:
 
‘The Somalpuram Grant of the Vijayanagara king Virupaksa is dated Saka samvat 1389 (AD 1467). It describes the king (“in the glowing fire of whose valour, the Turushkas were scorched up”) as “elevated by the titles such as hinduraya-suratrana”.

…In an inscription found at the holy city of Gaya in Bihar, the Vijayanagara king Acyutadevaraya is eulogised as “hinduraya-suratrana, the firm establisher of the Hindu kingdom.” His Unamanjeri Plate issued in Saka samvat 1462 (AD 1540) calls him not only hinduraya-suratrana but also induvamsa-sikhamani (the jewel in the crown of the lunar dynasty). 

…by the middle of the fourteenth century, the word “Hindu” had dropped the derogatory associations imposed on it by the Iranians and the Islamic invaders, and acquired a lot of lustre in the eyes of our countrymen.

Native heroes such as Maharana Kumbhakarna and Krishnadevraya, who defeated the Islamic onslaught, were hailed as the Hindu heroes in subsequent centuries. Padmanabha uses the word “Hindu” for glorification of the Chauhana heroes of Jalor in his epic poem, Kanhadade-prabandha, which he composed in AD 1455.

It will not be long before Maharana Pratapa Simha of Mewar becomes renowned as hindu-kula-kamala-divakara, that is, the Sun which brings bloom to the lotus that is the Hindu nation.

Chhatrapati Shivaji, who turned back the tide of Islamic invasion and inaugurated the war of liberation from Islamic imperialism, will be hailed all over Bharatavarsa as the saviour of Hindu Dharma and the protector of its significant symbols – gau-brahmana, sikha-sutra, devamurti-devalaya, and so on. So also Guru Gobind Singh, and Maharaja Chhatrasal.’”

Thanks Arjuna for sharing this with us.

Related Posts:

“Hindu”, India and “Bharat” – The Story behind Word Origins and

This must be the last word on origin of “Hindu”…  (This cites a very well researched paper disputing the “foreign origin” of the word “Hindu”)

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