The Enchantress

4. Strongest weapon

Mahamaya exclaimed excitedly, "Today's Pune?"

Indrayani nodded, smiling as she continued, "In those days, kings would gift lands to the ministers instead of paying them. The ministers could get the tax collected from the land. However, they would collect too much, exploiting the farmers. In those days, these taxes were collected according to the amount of land they had, not according to the produce that had gotten. If the produce was less because of droughts or floods, people wouldn't even have anything to eat. Also, many wolves were roaming the town of Pune, making the people flee from the town. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj rewarded those who would bring a dead wolf's carcass. Many wolves were killed and many people were rewarded. Some people however lost their lives while hunting them but they wanted to for the extra money. The dead people were honoured, praised publicly and their families still got the prize money. Finally, the city became safe as people started coming back to Pune. It was his first victory as he rebelled from the then King and went on to capture more and more forts. When a fort was captured, he could keep a watch on the surrounding area and protect the people there."

Mahamaya asked curiously, "Who helped him capture so many forts?"

The mother smiled fondly, feeling proud of telling her, "The mAvalAs, they were tribal people who grew up with Shivaji Maharaj and were childhood friends of him. They came from the lower caste but Shivaji Maharaj always looked beyond caste. He saw the people, their strengths, their weaknesses and that's why he was so successful in his endeavours, because he had people who would happily die while protecting him, while protecting swarajya (self-rule, the name of his kingdom). That's why Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is also called as JAnatA RAjA, or the King who lived for the people and who knew how his people were living because he lived among them."

Mahamaya asked her mother, "Why didn't his father teach him when he had dreamt of Swarajya himself?"

The mother's face saddened as she answered, "Because he was sent to South India for conquest. Many good Kings still ruled there and the greedy kings wanted that land. They also knew that he was dangerous because he could pull powerful ministers to his side. They wanted to make sure that they could control the trained son of Shahaji Maharaj by sending the father away. However, they thought wrong. Shahaji Maharaj's elder son, SambhAji was also killed to teach Shivaji Maharaj's father, Shahaji Raje, a lesson. So, Shivaji Maharaj's mother JijAbAi stayed back and took care of her son and molded him to be a good son, husband, father, king and human. She stayed away from her husband her entire life for this. They had to exchange letters to communicate. Those letters always had normal looking messages but there were tricks on how to decipher the correct message."

Hearing the hardships they went through, tears gathered in the young girl's eyes. She felt sad. So, to change the subject, she asked suddenly, "Why do you apply a black dot in the middle of my eyebrows Aai?"

Indrayani was shocked with such a change in topic. She answered, "Because it is culture. It is called as tikli in Marathi and bindi in Hindi. Besides, the black colour makes sure that my daughter will not catch an evil eye."

The girl looked at her mother and asked, "Can I get a red liquid like that?"

Her mother's forehead creased, "Why, Maya?"

Mahamaya replied enthusiastically, "I want that crescent moon tikli (bindi between eyebrows) on my forehead that Shivaji Maharaj and Queen Lakshmibai have in their pictures."

This made Indrayani chuckle as she said, "Okay, okay, anything for my daughter but I might not to be that good in drawing it at first. You will need to allow me to make mistakes first times."

Mahamaya smiled and nodded, feeling satisfied as she mumbled, "I will become Shivaji Maharaj too."

The daughter didn't hear the mother's chuckle as her eyes got heavy and she slept on her mother's lap. Indrayani was happy that she was not sad anymore like she was when she had entered the apartment.

A/N: sorry I forgot to update yesterday I updated today though ❤️

Fun fact: Shivaji Maharaj still has a big presence in Pune. The Muslims from Pune visit temples often and vice versa and they wouldn't even talk to you if you speak in Hindi, only pure Marathi allowed, compared to the other parts of the India where they prefer Hindi.

This song has a separate emotion ^^ and every line has a story.