The Queen of the Nagas turned to gaze at Shiva, riding ahead. And smiled. Sometimes, simple faith could lead to profound peace.
Kali repeated Ayurvati’s line. ‘Om Namah Shivaiy.’
The universe bows to Lord Shiva. I bow to Lord Shiva.
Ayurvati turned towards Kartik riding a little behind. The boy, a few months older than four, looked like a nine-year-old. He presented a disturbing sight. Scars were visible on his arms and face. Two long swords tied in a cross across his back, no sign of a shield. His eyes were focussed beyond the fence, searching for threats.
Kartik had become withdrawn after the day his elder brother had saved him single-handedly from the lions, nearly dying in the process. He rarely spoke, except to his parents, Krittika and Ganesh. He almost never smiled. He always accompanied hunting parties into the jungle. Many a times, he had brought down animals single-handedly. Awed soldiers had given Ayurvati graphic details of Kartik moving in for the kill: Quiet, focussed and ruthless.
Ayurvati sighed.
Kali, who had developed a strong bond with Ayurvati over the months since they had left Kashi, whispered, ‘I think you should be happy he has taken the right lessons from life.’
‘He is a child,’ said Ayurvati. ‘He has many years to go before he grows up.’
‘Who are we to decide when it is time for him to grow up,’ said Kali. ‘The choice belongs to him. He will make all of us proud one day.’
It had been eight months since the march from the banks of the Madhumati. The convoy was only a day away from the Naga capital Panchavati. They were camped near the road, next to a mighty river as big as the Saraswati in its early reaches.
Bhagirath thought that this great river must be the fabled Narmada. The border mandated by Lord Manu that was never to be crossed. They were on the northern side of the river.
‘This must be the Narmada,’ said Bhagirath to Vishwadyumna. ‘I guess we’ll cross over tomorrow. Lord Manu have mercy on us.’
Parvateshwar spoke up. ‘It must be. Narmada is the only river in the southern regions as enormous as the mighty Saraswati.’
Vishwadyumna smiled. They were already far South of the Narmada. ‘My Lords, sometimes the mind makes you believe what you want to believe. Look again. There is no need to cross this river.’
Anandmayi’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘By the great Lord Rudra! This river flows West to East!’
Vishwadyumna nodded. ‘That it does, Your Highness.’
This couldn’t be the Narmada. That river was known to flow East to West.
‘Lord Ram be merciful!’ cried Bhagirath. ‘How can the existence of such a wide river be a secret?’
‘This entire land is a secret, My Lord,’ said Vishwadyumna. ‘This is the Godavari. And you should see how much bigger it gets by the time it reaches the Eastern Sea.’
Parvateshwar stared in awe. He put his hands together and bowed to the flowing waters.
‘The Godavari is not the only one,’ said Vishwadyumna. ‘I have heard rumours of other such giant rivers further South.’
Bhagirath looked at Vishwadyumna wondering what further surprises lay ahead the next day.
‘Ganesh,’ said Nandi.
‘Yes, Major Nandi,’ said Ganesh.
Nandi had slipped back to the end of the caravan to relay a message from Kali to Ganesh. ‘The Naga outposts will follow their standard practice vis-a-vis the convoy, irrespective of the fact that the Queen and the Lord of the People travel with it.’
Queen Kali, ever cautious when it came to the welfare of her people, was indirectly referring to the fact that the progress of the convoy would now be monitored all the way to the Naga capital so that any potential threats could be neutralised.
Ganesh nodded. ‘Thank you, Major.’
Nandi looked back at the small Naga outpost that they had just passed. ‘What security can a hundred men provide, Ganesh? They are isolated, a day’s journey from the city. The outpost is not even fortified properly. Seeing all the elaborate security measures the Nagas have in place, most of them bordering on genius, this one makes no sense.’
Ganesh smiled. He would normally not have trusted any non-Naga with details of their security. But this was Nandi, Shiva’s shadow. Doubting him was like doubting the Neelkanth himself. ‘They cannot offer much protection on the road. But if there is such an attack, they trigger an early warning. Their key task then is to set booby traps along the way to Panchavati as they fall back towards the city.’
Nandi frowned. An outpost just to set booby traps?!
‘But that is not their primary task,’ continued Ganesh, pointing with his finger. ‘Their key function is to protect us from a river attack.’
Nandi looked at the Godavari. Of course! It must meet the Eastern Sea somewhere. An opening that could be exploited. The Nagas truly thought of everything.
The faint light of the full moon, breaking through the dense foliage intermittently, had lulled the creatures of the Dandak into a false sense of security. All was quiet in Shiva’s camp, everyone fast asleep. Most had been awake till late into the night, eagerly discussing the end of their long and surprisingly uneventful journey through the dangerous woods of Sundarban and Dandak. Panchavati was only a day away.
Suddenly, the quiet of the night was broken by the shrill call of a loud conch shell. Actually, many shells.
Kali, at the centre of the huge encampment, was up immediately. As were Shiva, Sati and Kartik.
‘What the hell is that?’ shouted Shiva, over the din.
Kali was looking towards the river, stunned. This had never happened before. She turned back towards Shiva, teeth bared. ‘Your men have betrayed us!’
The entire camp was up as the conch shells kept persistently sounding out their warning.
Ganesh, closest to the blaring conches at the camp end nearest to the river, was making a beeline for it, Nandi, Veerbhadra and Parshuram in tow.
‘What is going on?’ screamed Veerbhadra, to make himself heard over the din.
‘Enemy ships are sailing up the Godavari,’ shouted Ganesh. ‘They have tripped our river warning system.’
‘What now?’ yelled Nandi.
‘To the outpost! We have devil boats!’
Nandi turned around and relayed out the order to the three hundred men who had already rallied around to face the unknown threat. The soldiers had been following close on the heels of the four men. They doubled back to the outpost, where the hundred Naga men were already pushing out their devil boats.
Meanwhile Vishwadyumna, at the end farthermost from the enemy threat, rapidly controlled his disbelief and started carrying out the standard drill set in place for such an eventuality. A red flame was lit, warning Panchavati in the distance.
Meanwhile, Bhagirath ran up to Vishwadyumna. ‘What are your river defences?’
Vishwadyumna glared angrily at Bhagirath, refusing to answer. He was sure the Nagas had been betrayed.
Bhagirath shook his head and ran to Parvateshwar, who was already gathering soldiers and deploying them in defensive formations along the river.
‘Any news?’ asked Parvateshwar.
‘He won’t talk, Parvateshwar,’ screamed Bhagirath. ‘My fears have come true. They have betrayed us. We walked straight into a trap!’
Parvateshwar clenched his fists, looking at the five hundred men arrayed behind him in battle formation. ‘Kill everything that emerges from the river!’
And then, the sky lit up, ablaze at a thousand points. Bhagirath looked up. ‘Lord Ram be merciful.’
A shower of fiery arrows flew high. They had obviously been fired from a distance, from the battleships racing up the Godavari.
‘Shields up!’ screamed Parvateshwar.
At the centre, Shiva and Kali had issued similar orders. Soldiers ducked under their shields, waiting for the onslaught of flaming arrows to stop. But scores of arrows had already found their targets. Setting clothes on fire and piercing through many bodies. Injuring large numb
ers and killing some unfortunate ones.
There was no respite. The curtain of arrows kept raining down in an almost continuous shower.
One arrow hit Ayurvati’s leg. She screamed in pain, folding her leg closer to her body, holding her shield nearer.
The sudden attack and its severity had forced most of Shiva’s camp to cower behind their shields. But real fighting was on at the river end of the campsite, within the Godavari itself.
‘Quickly!’ screamed Ganesh. If the downpour of arrows continued for a few more minutes, the entire camp would be destroyed. He had to move fast.
His soldiers, the Suryavanshis, Chandravanshis and the Nagas, were swimming hard, pushing the hundred small boats towards the five large ships rowing rapidly up the Godavari. The small boats, with dried firewood and a small flint inside, had been covered by a thick cloth. Once in range, the devil boats would be lit and rammed into the ships. Fire was the best way to destroy such large, wooden ships.
The ships were sailing up river rapidly, the flaming arrows still being continuously shot from their decks. Due to the manic speed of the vessels coming towards them, Ganesh’s soldiers didn’t have to swim too far to reach the enemy battle ships. The devil boats were already in place, aligned to ram into them.
‘Light them!’ screamed Ganesh.
Soldiers rapidly pulled the cloth off each boat and struck the flints. The boats were aflame almost instantaneously, before the assassins on any ship could react. Ganesh’s men pushed the boats into the sides of the ships.
‘Hold them in place!’ screamed Nandi. ‘The ships have to catch fire!’
The lookout assassins on the ships turned their bows onto their attackers in the water. A hailstorm of arrows started tearing into the brave soldiers in the river, maiming and killing many. The fire from the devil boats was also lapping Ganesh’s men, but they grimly kept swimming, pushing the boats onto the ships.
All five ships were aflame within moments, but the loss of life till they had caught fire made it seem like an eternity.
‘Back to the shore!’ screamed Ganesh.
He knew he had to form his line on the Godavari’s banks now. As fire spread through the ships, the assassins would jump over or into lifeboats and row up to the shores to resume battle.
Ganesh’s soldiers had barely made it to the riverbanks when they heard a deafening blast. They turned around in shock. The first ship of the enemy fleet had just blown up. Within a few moments, the other ships went up in gigantic explosions as well.
Ganesh turned to Parshuram, stunned. ‘Daivi astras!’
Parshuram nodded, shocked out of his wits. Only divine weapons could have led to such explosions. But how could anyone lay their hands on such weapons? And that too in such alarming quantities?
Ganesh rallied his men, counting the living. He had lost one hundred of the valiant four hundred who had charged behind him, mostly Nagas — the only ones who knew the drill. The Lord of the People gritted his teeth in anger and marched towards the camp to find Kali and Shiva.
‘You led us into a trap!’ a livid Parvateshwar screamed. He had lost twenty men in the hail of arrows.
The number of dead in the camp centre was significantly higher. Close to fifty soldiers had been killed. The highest casualties were of course at the end closest to the enemy warships. Three hundred soldiers had died there, including the hundred that were killed while attacking the enemy ships. Ayurvati, with a broken shaft buried in her thigh, was rushing around with her medics, trying to save as many as she could.
‘Nonsense!’ yelled Kali. ‘You betrayed us! Nobody has ever attacked us from the Godavari. Ever!’
‘Quiet!’ shouted Shiva. He turned to Veerbhadra, Parshuram, Nandi and Ganesh, who had just arrived. ‘What were those explosions, Parshuram?’
‘Daivi astras, My Lord,’ said Parshuram. ‘The five enemy ships were carrying them. The fires triggered the explosions.’
Shiva breathed deeply, staring into the distance.
‘My Lord,’ said Bhagirath. ‘Turn back now. More traps await us on the way and at Panchavati itself. There are only two Nagas here. Think of what a fifty thousand could do!’
Kali exploded. ‘This is your doing! Panchavati has never been attacked. You led your cohorts here. It was lucky that Ganesh led a fight back and decimated your troops. Otherwise we would all have been slaughtered.’
Sati touched Kali lightly. She wanted to point out that even Suryavanshi and Chandravanshi men fighting alongside Ganesh had been killed.
‘Enough!’ shouted Shiva. ‘Don’t any of you get what really happened?’
The Neelkanth turned towards Nandi and Kartik. ‘Take a hundred men and go down-river. See if there are any survivors from the enemy ships. I want to know who they were.’
Nandi and Kartik left immediately.
Shiva looked at the people around him, seething. ‘We were all betrayed. Whosoever was firing those arrows was not picking and choosing targets. They wanted us all dead.’
‘But how did they come up the Godavari?’ asked Kali.
Shiva glared at her. ‘How the hell should I know? Most people here didn’t even know this river wasn’t the Narmada!’
‘It has to be the Nagas, My Lord,’ said Bhagirath. ‘They cannot be trusted!’
‘Sure!’ said Shiva, sarcastically. ‘The Nagas sprung this trap to kill their own Queen. And then Ganesh led a counterattack on his own people and blew them up with daivi astras. If he had daivi astras and wanted us dead, why didn’t he just use the weapons on us?’
Pin-drop silence.
‘I think the astras were meant to destroy Panchavati. They planned to slaughter us easily from their ships and then sail up to the Naga capital and destroy it as well. What they didn’t bet on was the Naga wariness and extensive security measures, including the devil boats. That saved us.’
What the Neelkanth was saying made sense. Ganesh thanked Bhoomidevi silently that the Naga Rajya Sabha had agreed to his proposal of arming the banks of the Godavari outpost with devil boats for any such eventuality.
‘Someone wants us all dead,’ said Shiva. ‘Someone powerful enough to get such a large arsenal of daivi astras. Someone who knows about the existence of such a huge river in the South and has the ability to identify its sea route. Someone resourceful enough to get a fleet of ships with enough soldiers to attack us. Who is that person? That is the question.’
The sun was rising slowly over the horizon, spreading light and warmth over the tired camp. A relief party from Panchavati had just arrived with food and medical supplies. Ayurvati had finally relented and was resting in a medical tent, after having been assured that most of the injured were taken care of. The death toll had not risen further as the night had progressed. Even those with nearly fatal injuries had been saved.
Kartik and Nandi trooped into the camp after the night long search along the river and went straight up to Shiva. Kartik spoke first. ‘There are no survivors, baba.’
‘My Lord, we checked both the riverbanks,’ Nandi added. ‘Went through all the wreckage. Even rowed five kilometres downriver, in case some survivors had been washed off. But we found no one alive.’
Shiva cursed silently. He suspected who the attackers were but wasn’t certain. He called Parvateshwar and Bhagirath. ‘Both of you recognise the ships in your respective countries. I want you to study the wrecks properly. I want to know if any of those ships were Meluhan or Swadweepan.’
‘My Lord,’ cried Parvateshwar. ‘It cannot be...’
‘Parvateshwar, please do this for me,’ interrupted Shiva. ‘I want an honest answer. Where did those goddamned ships come from?’
Parvateshwar saluted the Neelkanth. ‘As you command, My Lord.’
The Meluhan General left, followed by Bhagirath.
‘You think it’s a coincidence that this attack happened just a day before you were to discover the secret?’
Shiva and Sati were sitting in a semi-secluded area along the river near the c
amp. It was the last hour of the first prahar. The cremation ceremonies had been completed. Though the injured were in no state to travel, the general consensus was that reaching the safety of Panchavati was imperative. The Naga city offered better protection than an indefensible forest road. The Nagas had arranged carts to carry the injured in the convoy to their capital and were scheduled to leave within the hour.
‘I can’t say,’ said Shiva.
Sati remained quiet, looking into the distance.
‘You think... that your father could be...’
Sati sighed. ‘After all that I have learned about him recently, I would not put it past him.’
Shiva reached out and held Sati.
‘But I don’t think he can order an attack of this magnitude all by himself,’ continued Sati. ‘He doesn’t have the capability. Who is the master puppeteer? And why is he doing this?’
Shiva nodded. ‘That is the mystery. But first, I need to know this big secret. I have a feeling the answers could be deeply connected with all that is going on in Meluha, Swadweep and Panchavati.’
The sun was high when the entourage, bloodied and tired, marched up the river banks of the Godavari to the Naga capital, Panchavati. The land of the five banyan trees.
These weren’t just any odd five banyans. Their legend had begun more than a thousand years ago. These were the trees under which the seventh Vishnu, Ram, accompanied by his wife Sita and brother Lakshman, had rested during their exile from Ayodhya. They had set up house close to these trees. This was also the unfortunate place from where the demon king Ravan had kidnapped Sita, triggering a war with Ram. That war destroyed Ravan’s glittering and obscenely rich kingdom of Lanka.
Panchavati was situated on the north-eastern banks of the Godavari. The river flowed down from the mountains of the Western Ghats towards the Eastern Sea. To the West of Panchavati, the river took a strange ninety degree turn to the South, flowed straight down for a little less than a kilometre and then turned East once again to continue its journey to the sea. This turn of the Godavari allowed the Nagas to build grand canals, and to use this cleared part of the Dandak to meet the agricultural needs of their citizens.