In the history of India, there have been a few decisive wars. The Battles of Panipat also form a part of that. If the results of the three Battles of Panipat had changed even slightly, the future of India would have been completely different. One of the great heroes who fell in one of these Panipat wars is Hemachandra or Hemu.
Ala-ud-din Khalji raided Chittorgarh and took its king Raja Ratan Singh as his prisoner. Rani Padmini was the wife of this same Raja Ratan Singh. Khalji pretended to befriend Ratan Singh, took his hospitality, and while exiting from Chittorgarh, took him prisoner by stealth and deceit. He sent this shameless message to Rani Padmini: “If you want to see your husband free, you must submit yourself to me.” Unfazed, Rani Padmini assembled five hundred palanquins with five hundred female helpers and a force of three thousand soldiers, went out and rescued Ratan Singh.
Malik Kafur came to Devagiri, which was at the forefront of South India. Ramachandra was the king of that region. Initially, all of Malik Kafur's ruthless attacks bore no fruit. However, in his second battle with Ramachandra, Malik Kafur defeated him using deceit and foul-play. Soon after, he came to Kapilaraya's Anegondi. Even there, there was widespread bloodshed. Then he attacked Ballala III, a weak Hoysala king who was ruling over Dvarasamudra (Halebidu). When Malik Kafur attacked Dvarasamudra, Ballala III was away at Thiruchanapalli. The whole of Dvarasamudra was razed to the ground.
Our 'leaders' and 'intellectuals' have turned a blind eye to the rampant whitewashing of the atrocities committed [by the Muslims]. And so, we can observe a few more aspects:
Just as Timur himself records, when he pillaged the town by name Dipalapura, he gave the order to kill ten thousand people within an hour and ensured that it was executed thus. He looted all the grains in every house and then set them all on fire.
Prithviraj was the last Hindu king of Delhi. It was he who originally had the Red Fort built; scholars opine that it changed due to the Islamic invasions.
K M Munshi writes in his preface to the fifth volume of the History and Culture of the Indian People,
From here onwards we shall specifically focus on the nature of the barbaric assault on India by the Islamic forces from West Asia and its unfortunate results; in the light of this we shall observe how our awareness of kṣātra helped in both the protection of the land as well as the preservation of our culture.
After the demise of Prataparudra, it was the Reddy Kings who faced Muslim invasions in Andhra. Prominent among are Vema Reddy and his younger brother, Malla Reddy. Their role in protecting the Andhra country from Islamic onslaught in the 14th century is truly laudable.