Devasena - Bride of the War God

Chapter 1

Devasena sighed as she heard her friend describe for the nth time, just how spectacular the War God was. She never quite understood what it was with people going on and on about how he accomplished this and that, she was quite tired with all this unwarranted praise as she called it. Her pet cat stretched and purred contentedly while she gently stroked its back.

"Alright" she sighed and interrupted her friend who was in the middle of enacting the awesomeness of Skanda in all his spear hurling glory, for the hundredth time, "I get it! No, I don't. I don't understood how a man who laid waste to armies and pierced his spear straight through the heart of another like he was skewering a pig could be so celebrated"

Her friend, Malathi, glared at her and scooted closer, her sudden action startled the pet cat and it fled, meowing indignantly. Malathi raised her fingers and started ticking off her list of checkboxes, "He is rich"

Devasena clicked her tongue impatiently, "I am the daughter of the King of Heavens, what do I need his wealth for? Besides, is not his father, the Lord Shiva an ascetic who does not believe in wealth?"

Malathi shook her head, "Yes, Lord Shiva renounces wealth but his wife, Mother Parvati, she is a Princess, a daughter of King Himavanth and her brother, Lord Vishnu is one of the wealthiest men in earth, heaven and underworld."

Malathi raised another finger, "He is extremely handsome, so handsome that women are said to be unable to take their eyes off him even for a moment"

"Then, I will have trouble fending off competitors, don't you think?" Devasena laughed teasingly, watching her friend pout angrily

Malathi raised another finger, "He is the greatest warrior known across the world"

"All the more reason I should stay away from him" sighed Devasena, "I am a physician and a veterinarian, I heal people and animals, I have always given it my all to save lives - Malathi, you know, that I especially rehabilitate pregnant mother and children - thanks to this wretched war waged by men over an extra inch of land, I had to take care of several children affected by wars and women delivering war babies. Not to mention animals, how many animals were gruesomely mutilated, it was quite a horrible task as I began to mend their injuries"

"Oh, let's not forget plants, shall we?" added Malathi sarcastically, "I have seen how many plants you have researched on and saved. You are a pediatrician, veterinarian and botanist rolled into one. What do the people call you.....Shashti, isn't it?"

"Yes" Devasena answered, glowing with pride, she had her own title that she earnt on her own without bloodshed or her father's or husband's influence, she knew not many women among her contemporaries could boast of the same

Malathi threw her arms up and said, "If you continue to be this indifferent, Skanda will stay with Valli forever. As it is, he visits her so often, staying back at her hills, for weeks at times"

Pain knifed through Devasena's heart when she recalled how her mother's face often wilted when she would learn that Devasena's father would be spending the night with a courtesan - sometimes, the Madame herself, Rambha, sometimes, the most seductive one Menaka, sometimes, the most beautiful courtesan of Heaven, Tilotthama and mostly, with his favourite Urvashi.

Was she going to know this pain too, was she going to wait with desperate hope until dawn and often wake to an empty bed? Was she, too, going to become a bitter, harsh-tempered and nagging like her mother? Were people going to talk of her too, like they did of her mother, "she is such a nasty woman, no wonder Indra prefers the bed of better women than her."

When these thoughts ran across Devasena's mind, she stiffened her back and her friend rubbed soothing circles on her back, "You know that Lord Shiva and Mother Parvati married for love, they loved each other since that day till this day. Lord Shiva has never cast his eyes upon any other woman but Parvati. As Skanda grew up in a household built on love and fidelity, he is bound to follow the same. Mother Parvati will not tolerate infidelity in her son. You know this, then, why are you afraid?"

"Skanda loved Valli like Lord Shiva had loved Mother Parvati, what if he too, will never truly be able to cast his eyes upon another woman. Is it not as worse? At least, in my parents' case, my Father is unfaithful but he truly loves my Mother, but in my marriage to Skanda, it is I who will be the Other Woman, the Unloved One"

Her friend, patted her shoulder and said, "Do you remember what that astrologer said the day he visited?"
How could Devasena forget, it was nearly three years ago that the Astrologer had visited and read her a prophecy which had made Devasena's heart soar with joy. "You will wed the Slayer of the Demon Taraka, you will wed the Son of Shiva and Parvati, the wielder of the spear, he who will one day command all the armies of the Heavenly realm. You will bear him two children, a son and a daughter"

The astrologer paused and added words that haunted Devasena, "He will stay in the hills of Vallimalai" Devasena had shared the first part of the prophecy to her friend but did not disclose the second part, she did not want to soil her friend's opinion of Skanda nor could she bear to be pitied by her friend, as she had inherited her mother, Sachi's pride.

Devasena's heart broke upon hearing those words, the astrologer was none other than Brihaspati, the Preceptor of the Gods, widely renowned in Heavens as a fount of knowledge and wisdom. There has never been a recorded instance of Brihaspati's observation having gone wrong.

Devasena hid her hurt with a smile and said, "Enough about my life, let's talk of yours. I saw your eyes were constantly on Tritha"

Malathi blushed, Tritha was the right-hand man of Devasena's father, often assigned with the most important missions in Heaven.

While Devasena distracted Malathi, she recollected that she, too, was once smitten by Skanda nearly five years ago when she learnt of her engagement to him.

She was first shaken by the prophecy, then by Skanda's love affair with Valli in the hills of Vallimalai after his engagement to her which she felt was a betrayal just like her father always did with her mother, then, she was shattered on discovering that the charming and proud boy she had once loved who was often adorably awkward with women, had grown up in the five years to become an invincible and widely revered War God who relished in his military feats whose armies worshipped the very ground he walked on. She had seen him again and gone was the boy who was shy and reclusive and eager to impress his parents, there was a man in his place, a man whose body was taut with muscles and who walked measured steps of a conqueror, confidence radiating from every inch of him, whose head was always tilted and chin raised and eyes pierced through the onlooker like the sharpest of spear

He was a stranger to her as was the dispassionate and indifferent gaze he directed in her direction when he saw her leaning on the balcony of her father's court in the Heavenly Capital, Amaravati.

When she saw his bloodlust in the war tournaments hosted by her father and the ease with which he skillfully wielded his weapons poised to injure, she understood that his were hands irrevocably stained by blood, gone were the hands that held spears only to scare away animals from attacking vulnerable ones and gone were the hands that gently held her as they rode his pet peacock together into the skies.

When she saw the aftermath of war, she was convinced she could not marry a warrior, she would wed a physician and decided that she would try to wed a physician, she broached the topic to her Gurus, Ashwin Twins - the Gods of Medicine.

They advised her to seek the handsome and young and a prodigy of a physician, Dhanwanthari.