‘They’ve used the best technologies available in both our lands. These ships had navigated through a lot of sea water, judging by the molluscs on them. They needed the best to be able to make the journey quickly.’
Shiva breathed deeply, lost in thought.
‘My Lord,’ said Bhagirath. ‘For all his faults, I cannot imagine my father would be capable of leading a conspiracy such as this. He simply does not have the capability. He is just a follower in this plot. You have to target him, of course. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that he is the main conspirator. He is not.’
Sati leaned towards Shiva. ‘Do you think my father can do this?’
Shiva shook his head. ‘No. Emperor Daksha too is incapable of leading this conspiracy.’
Parvateshwar, still shame-faced at the dishonour brought upon his empire, said quietly, ‘The Meluhan code enjoins upon us to follow the rules, My Lord. Our rules bid us to carry out our king’s orders. In the hands of a lesser king, this can lead to a lot of wrong.’
‘Emperor Daksha may have issued the orders, Parvateshwar,’ said Shiva. ‘But he didn’t dream them up. There is a master who has brought the royalty of Meluha and Swadweep together. Someone who also managed to procure the feared daivi astras. Heaven alone knows if he has any more divine weapons. It was a brilliant plan. By Lord Ram’s grace, we were saved by the skin of our teeth. It cannot be Emperor Daksha or Emperor Dilipa. This is someone of far greater importance, intelligence and resource. And, one who is clever enough to conceal his identity.’
‘Return to Meluha?!’ asked Veerbhadra.
Veerbhadra and Krittika were in Shiva’s private chambers. Kali and Sati were also present.
‘Yes, Bhadra,’ said Shiva. ‘It was the Meluhans and the Ayodhyans who attacked us together.’
‘Are you sure Meluha is involved?’ asked Veerbhadra.
‘Parvateshwar has himself confirmed it.’
‘And now you are worried about our people.’
‘Yes,’ said Shiva. ‘I’m worried the Gunas will be arrested and held hostage as leverage over us. Before they do so, I want you to slip into Meluha quietly and take our people to Kashi. I will meet you there.’
‘My scouts will guide Krittika and you through a secret route,’ said Kali. ‘Using our fastest horses and speediest boats, my people can get you close to Maika in two weeks. After that, you are on your own.’
‘Meluha is a safe country to travel in,’ said Krittika. ‘We can hire fast horses up to the mouth of the Saraswati. After that we can travel on boats plying on the river. It’s an easy route. With luck, we will reach Devagiri in another two weeks. The Gunas are in a small village not far from there.’
‘Perfect,’ said Shiva. ‘Time is of the essence. Go now.’
‘Yes Shiva,’ said Veerbhadra as he turned to leave with his wife.
‘And Bhadra...’ said Shiva.
Veerbhadra and Krittika turned around.
‘Don’t try to be brave,’ said Shiva. ‘If the Gunas have been arrested already, leave Meluha quickly and wait for me at Kashi.’
Veerbhadra’s mother was with the Gunas. Shiva knew Veerbhadra would not abandon her to her fate so easily.
‘Shiva...’ whispered Veerbhadra.
Shiva got up and held Veerbhadra’s shoulder. ‘Bhadra, promise me.’
Veerbhadra remained quiet.
‘If you try to release them by yourself, you will be killed. You will be of no use to your mother if you are dead, Bhadra.’
Veerbhadra stayed silent.
‘I promise you, nothing will happen to the Gunas. If you cannot get them out, I will. But do not do anything rash. Promise me.’
Veerbhadra placed his hand on Shiva’s shoulder. ‘There is something you aren’t telling me. What have you discovered here? Why are you so afraid suddenly? Is there going to be a war? Is Meluha going to become our enemy?’
‘I’m not sure, Bhadra. I haven’t made up my mind as yet.’
‘Then tell me what you do know.’
It was Shiva’s turn to remain silent now.
‘I’m going back to Meluha, Shiva. Had you asked me a month back, I would have said this would be the safest journey possible. A lot has changed since then. You have to tell me the truth. I deserve that.’
Shiva sat them down and revealed everything he had discovered during the course of the last few days.
‘And you killed the rhino all by yourself?’ asked an impressed Anandmayi, her face suffused with a broad smile.
‘Yes, Your Highness,’ said Kartik, stoic and expressionless as usual.
Anandmayi, Ayurvati and Kartik were settled comfortably on soft cushions in the dining room. Kshatriya in word and deed, Anandmayi and Kartik partook of the delicious rhinoceros meat. The Brahmin Ayurvati restricted herself to roti, dal and vegetables.
‘Have you decided to stop smiling altogether?’ asked Anandmayi. ‘Or is this just temporary?’
Kartik looked up at Anandmayi, a hint of a smile on his face. ‘Smiling takes more effort than it’s worth, Your Highness.’
Ayurvati shook her head. ‘You are just a child, Kartik. Don’t trouble yourself so much. You need to enjoy your childhood.’
Kartik turned to the Meluhan chief physician. ‘My brother Ganesh is a great man, Ayurvatiji. He has so much to contribute to society, to the country. And yet, he was almost eaten alive by dumb beasts because he was trying to save me.’
Ayurvati reached across and patted Kartik.
‘I will never be so helpless again,’ swore Kartik. ‘I will not be the cause of my family’s misery.’
The door swung open. Parvateshwar and Bhagirath walked in.
Just by looking at them, Anandmayi could tell that they had discovered what she feared. ‘Was it Meluha?’
Ayurvati winced. She could not imagine her great country’s name being dragged into a vile conspiracy like the attack on the Neelkanth’s convoy at the outskirts of Panchavati. And yet, after what she had discovered of Emperor Daksha’s perfidy during Sati’s pregnancy at Maika, she would not be surprised if Meluhan ships had carried out this dastardly act.
‘It’s worse,’ sighed Bhagirath as he sat down.
Parvateshwar sat next to Anandmayi and held her hand. He looked at Ayurvati, his pained expression bearing witness to his stark misery. The general prized his country, his Meluha, as Lord Ram’s ultimate legacy. It was the custodian of Ram Rajya. How could this great country’s emperor have committed a dastardly act such as this?
‘Even worse?’ prompted Anandmayi.
‘Yes. It seems Swadweep is in on the conspiracy as well.’
Anandmayi was stunned. ‘What?!’
‘It’s either only Ayodhya or all of Swadweep. I cannot be sure if other kingdoms of Swadweep are following Ayodhya’s lead. But Ayodhya is certainly involved.’
Anandmayi looked at Parvateshwar. He nodded, confirming Bhagirath’s words.
‘Lord Rudra, be merciful,’ said Anandmayi. ‘What is wrong with father?’
‘I for one am not surprised,’ said Bhagirath, barely able to conceal his contempt. ‘He is weak and gets easily exploited. It doesn’t take much for him to succumb.’
For once Anandmayi didn’t rebuke her brother for denigrating their father. She looked at Parvateshwar. He seemed lost and unsure. Change was horrible for the Suryavanshis, for the people of the masculine, used as they were to unchanging rules and stark predictability. Anandmayi turned her husband’s face towards herself and kissed him gently, reassuringly. She smiled warmly. He half-smiled back.
Kartik quietly put his plate down, washed his hands and walked out of the room.
It was early afternoon as Kartik and Ganesh’s steps led them around the five banyan trees from whose existence Panchavati derived its name. Non-Nagas were not allowed inside the inner city. In truth, many of them, Brangas included, refused to enter due to a strong superstition about the misfortune that would befall those that did. But the Neelkanth’s family did not believe in
it. And anyway, nobody wanted to enforce an entry ban on them.
‘Why have only Lord Ram’s idols been depicted on these trees, dada?’ Kartik asked his elder brother.
‘You mean why have his wife, Lady Sita, and his brother, Lord Lakshman, not been shown?’
‘Not just them, even his great devotee, Lord Hanuman, is missing.’
Ganesh and Kartik were admiring the beautiful idols of Lord Ram sculpted into the main trunk of each of the five banyans. The five tree idols showed the ancient King, respected as the seventh Vishnu, in the five different roles of his life known to all: a son, a husband, a brother, a father and a godly king. Each banyan trunk depicted him in a different form. In each form, in a manner that somehow appeared natural, the sculptors had made the idols look towards the temple of Lord Rudra and Lady Mohini at one corner of the square. Their idols, on the other hand, were placed in the front section of the temple as opposed to the back as in most temples, with the effect that the two deities appeared to be looking at all five tree idols as well. It seemed as if the architects intended to show the great Mahadev and the noble seventh Vishnu being respectful to each other.
‘It’s in keeping with Bhoomidevi’s instructions,’ answered Ganesh. ‘I know his traditional depiction in the Sapt Sindhu is always along with his three favourite people in the world, Lady Sita, Lord Lakshman and Lord Hanuman. But it was an order of Bhoomidevi, our founding Goddess, that Lord Ram always be shown alone in Panchavati. Especially at the five banyans.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know. Perhaps she wanted us to always remember that great leaders, like the Vishnus and the Mahadevs, may have millions following them. But at the end of the day, they carry the burden of their mission alone.’
‘Like baba?’ asked Kartik, referring to their father.
‘Yes, like baba. He is the one who stands between Evil and India. If he fails, life in the subcontinent will be destroyed by Evil.’
‘Baba will not fail.’
Ganesh smiled at Kartik’s response.
‘Do you know why?’ asked Kartik.
Ganesh shook his head. ‘No. Why?’
Kartik clasped Ganesh’s right hand and held it to his chest, like the brother-warriors of yore. ‘Because he is not alone.’
Ganesh smiled and embraced Kartik. They walked silently around the banyan trees, doing the holy parikrama of Lord Ram’s idols.
‘What is going on, dada?’ asked Kartik, as they continued their circumambulation.
Ganesh frowned.
‘Why have both the emperors allied against baba?’
Ganesh breathed deeply. He never lied to Kartik. He considered his brother an adult and treated him as such. ‘Because baba threatens them, Kartik. They are the elite. They are addicted to the benefits they derive from Evil. Baba’s mission is to fight for the oppressed; to be the voice of the voiceless. It is obvious that the elite will want to stop him.’
‘What is the Evil that baba is fighting? How has it entrenched its claws so deeply?’
Ganesh took Kartik by the hand and made him sit at the foot of one of the banyans. ‘This is for you alone, Kartik. You are not to tell anyone else. For it is baba’s right to decide when and how others are to be informed.’
Kartik nodded in response.
Ganesh sat next to Kartik and explained to him about what Brahaspati and Shiva had discussed the previous day.
‘What have you been doing these past five years, Brahaspati?’ asked Shiva.
Sati and Shiva had joined the chief scientist in the Naga queen’s chambers. Brahaspati felt like he was being interrogated. But he could understand Shiva’s need to get to the bottom of the issue.
‘I was trying to find a permanent solution to the Somras problem,’ answered Brahaspati.
‘Permanent solution?’
‘Destroying Mount Mandar is a temporary solution. We know it will get rebuilt. The Nagas tell me the reconstruction has been surprisingly slow. It shouldn’t have taken five years. Not with Meluhan efficiency. But it’s only a matter of time before it gets rebuilt.’
Shiva looked at Sati, but she didn’t say anything.
‘Once Mandar is back to full manufacturing capacity, the destruction of the Saraswati and the production of the toxic waste will begin in large measure once again. So we have to find a permanent solution. The best way to do that is to examine the Somras’ ingredients. If we can somehow control that, we could possibly control the poisonous impact of the Somras waste. Many ingredients can be easily replaced. But two of them cannot. The first are the bark and branches of the Sanjeevani tree, and the second is the Saraswati water. We cannot control the availability of the Sanjeevani tree. Meluha has large plantations of it across its northern reaches. How many plantations can one destroy? Besides, trees can always be replanted. That brings us to the Saraswati. Can we somehow control its waters?’
Shiva remembered parts of a conversation with Daksha when he had first arrived in Devagiri. ‘I was told by Emperor Daksha that the Chandravanshis did try to destroy the Saraswati more than a hundred years ago. By taking one of its main tributaries, the Yamuna, away from it and redirecting its flow towards the Ganga. It didn’t really make much sense to me but the Meluhans seem to believe it.’
Brahaspati sniggered. ‘The Chandravanshi ruling class cannot even build roads in their own empire. How can anyone think that they would have the ability to change the course of a river? What happened a hundred years ago was an earthquake that changed the course of the Yamuna. The Meluhans subsequently defeated the Chandravanshis and the resultant treaty mandated that the early course of the Yamuna would become no-man’s land. And Meluhans do have the technology to change the course of rivers. They built giant embankments to block and change the course of the Yamuna to make it flow back into the Saraswati.’
‘So what was your plan? Destroy the Yamuna embankments?’
‘No. I had considered it, but that is impossible as well. They have many fail-safe options. It would take five brigades and months of open work to be able to destroy those embankments. We would obviously have had to work in secret with a small number of people.’
‘So what was your plan?’
‘An alternative. We cannot take the Saraswati away. But could we make the Saraswati much less potent in the production of the Somras? Is it possible to add something to the Yamuna waters, at its source, which would then flow into the Saraswati and control the amount of waste being produced? I thought that we had found one such ingredient.’
‘What?’
‘A bacterium which reacts with the Sanjeevani tree and makes it decay almost instantly.’
‘I thought the Sanjeevani tree was already unstable and decayed rapidly. Ayurvati had told me the Naga medicine is created by mixing the crushed branches of another tree with the Sanjeevani bark to stabilise it. If the Sanjeevani is already unstable, why would it need bacteria to aid the decay? Wouldn’t it just decay anyway?’
‘The Sanjeevani bark becomes unstable once stripped off the branch. The entire branch, if used, is not. The bark is easier for small-scale manufacture, but for manufacturing the Somras in large quantities, we have to use crushed branches. This is what we did at Mount Mandar. But it is a method known only to my scientists.’
‘So what you want to do is make the Sanjeevani branch also unstable.’
‘Yes. And, I discovered that it was possible to do so with this bacterium. But it is only available in Mesopotamia.’
‘Is this what you picked up from Karachapa when you accompanied me on my initial travels through Meluha? You had said you were expecting a shipment from Mesopotamia.’
‘Yes,’ said Brahaspati. ‘And it would have worked perfectly. The Somras cannot be made without both the Sanjeevani tree and the Saraswati water. The presence of bacteria in the Saraswati water would render useless the Sanjeevani tree at the beginning of the process itself. And in any case, without the Saraswati water, the Somras cannot be made. Without the power of the Sanjeeva
ni, the Somras would not be as potent. It will not triple or quadruple one’s lifespan, but only increase it by twenty or thirty years. However, it would also mean that there would be practically no production of Somras waste. By sacrificing some of the powers of the Somras, we would take away all the poison of the Somras waste. Furthermore, these bacteria also mix with water and then multiply prodigiously. All we needed to do was release it in the Yamuna and the rest would follow.’
‘Sounds perfect. Why didn’t you?’
‘There is no free lunch,’ said Brahaspati. ‘The bacteria came with its own problems. It is a mild toxin in itself. If we mix it in large quantities, as would be required in the Saraswati, we could create a new set of diseases for all living beings dependant not just on the Saraswati but also the Yamuna. We would have only replaced one problem with another.’
‘So you were trying to see if the poisonous effect of the bacteria could be reduced or removed, without disturbing its ability to destroy the Sanjeevani tree?’
‘Yes. Secrecy was required. If those who support the Somras knew about these bacteria, they would try to kill it at its source. Had they known I was working on an experiment such as this, they would have had me assassinated.’
‘Aren’t you afraid of being killed now?’ asked Shiva. ‘A lot of Meluhans will be angry with you when they discover you weren’t the victim, but the perpetrator of the attack on Mount Mandar.’
Brahaspati breathed deeply. ‘Earlier, it was important for me to remain alive since I alone could have done this research. But I have failed. And the solution to the Somras problem is not in my hands anymore. It’s in your hands. It doesn’t matter if I live any longer. Mount Mandar will be reconstructed. It’s a matter of time. And Somras production will begin once again. You have to stop it, Shiva. For the sake of India, you have to stop the Somras.’
‘The reconstruction is a charade, Brahaspatiji,’ said Sati. ‘It’s to mislead enemies into thinking that it will take time to get Somras production back on track. To make them think that Meluha must be surviving on lower quantities of Somras.’