Shatru Sesham: Sequel of Baahubali ✔️

Chapter Thirteen

In the Kardalivan,
Bhagiradhi had fallen asleep on the horse in front of Shodasi Devi. Her cheeks were lined with the moistness of freshly shed tears. Everything that had been her world collapsed right in front of her in a matter of few hours. She had neither father, mother, nor brother. A few days ago, she was the princess of a mighty kingdom. Today she was nobody.

She was all alone in this wide universe with just strangers beside her. Though they seemed very kind and thoughtful towards her and her needs, yet they were strangers. She knew them not, and they knew her not. Being small and young, she did not know how to express all these tumultuous emotions and feelings raging within her in the form of words. Even if she could, to whom would she tell. Her parents and brother were no more. She felt a helpless rage and frustration welling up within her.

Shodasi Devi observed the young child with compassion, "Poor child!" She turned towards one of her men who was riding beside her and said, "Rudra, we have come very far. We have been riding non-stop for hours. You and your battalion also need some food and rest to recuperate. We should be safe enough for this night. Set up the camp right here and place sentries all around. In the meanwhile, send a band into the forest to scout for some food. All the rest will stay here."

She laid Bhagiradhi to rest on a soft bed made out of leaves and grass. She was about to go when the child clenched her hand in sleep and murmured, "Don't go, mother! Don't leave me and go!"

She was about to unclasp her hand from the child's grasp when on second thoughts she let it remain in the child's tightly clenched fists. Her entire past and present seemed to run before her.
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Shodasi Devi's Flashback,
Years ago, she came away from her son. He had been crying, "Don't go, mother! Don't leave me and go!"

Her Bhadra had clung to her waist refusing to let her go. He was rudely snatched away from her and she was thrown out of Mahishmati. She did not protest this injustice to her motherhood then because the entire fate of Vijayapuri hung in balance.

Her father Ganapathi Deva had died. Her only brother and heir to the throne of Vijayapuri, Prathapa had a very mysterious end during a hunting expedition to which he went with her own husband. She suspected foul play in his death. She voiced her doubts and dissensions but was ruthlessly silenced.

Her husband wanted to annex Vijayapuri too into the kingdom of Mahishmati. She vehemently opposed it. Bijjaladeva intervened in this quarrel between her and her husband, Bhallaladeva. Politics, power, profit and gain were all that her husband ever cared. He had no use for any of the finer emotions or moral codes and ethics.

Two options were placed before her. She could either choose her son and husband or Vijayapuri. She chose Vijayapuri and its independence over her motherhood that day. Why is a mother and her motherhood judged on the basis of her offspring? Her Bhadra could have also turned out to be good like Mahendra if he had grown up with her. But she never got the opportunity to bring up the child she bore.

Maybe her husband and father-in-law thought that she, a helpless woman could never lead a kingdom on her own merit and that she would ultimately come running to them for help. But she never came. She faltered, fell down and got up. She learnt from her own mistakes. She learnt how to rule over her people, peacefully, generously, and efficiently.

She did not have to look very far for motivation. She had the inspiring example of her own late mother-in-law, Rajmata Sivagami before her. How she had led Mahishmati from the deep precipice of destruction that loomed after Maharaj Mahadeva's death! She, Shodasi Devi would become to Vijayapuri what a Rajmata Sivagami had been to Mahishmati in her times.

She moved ahead in her life. Her people and Vijayapuri were the axis around which her entire life revolved. She never looked back to see what she had left behind her. But personally, as a mother, she was still stuck in that time warp where she unwillingly left behind her crying child who was pleading her not to go. Her son, Bhadra instead of growing up like her, grew up into the mirror-image of her husband. She couldn't exactly blame him for what he had turned out to be. Would she ever get a chance to redeem her motherhood?