I recently went on a school trip meant mainly for historical education. And I have to say, history does become a lot less boring when you see the forts...the architecture...the planning...all that beauty. Somehow, (at least, this is the way it is with me), it evokes that feeling of nationalism, which generally gets buried under all that practicality and selfishness. And it also instills a certain amount of anger at people who write messages like "I love you blabla, please come back to me" on the forts' walls and such. Sure, they have their own way of thinking, their own logic, etc, I get that. Still, I just feel that just because you don't appreciate something much, it doesn't give you the right to vandalize it. Anyway, as much as I appreciate the architecture, I must admit I feel rather differently about the rulers. The number of people who were tortured, hanged...well, I wasn't there, so I can't judge...but, who knows how many of them were innocent? I guess that being a normal citizen in a country where power defines good and evil, I do have an understanding of the misuse of power. I can't express how much I'd appreciate it if every architect, every artist, every soldier whose blood and sweat went into establishing an empire was remembered. So many soldiers died, so many prisoners (God knows how many of whom were innocent) were hanged, and yet hardly any of them are remembered.
As they rightly say, history is written by the winners. So all those nameless, faceless prisoners, were probably working for a cause, perhaps even a good cause, which was just considered wrong because it wasn't the cause of the ruler. If any of them were innocent, and their names went yet unnoticed, here's a silent tribute from someone who didn't know them, their cause, or their life, but regrets their wasted life all the same.
