"The king Ugrasena of Raiyapura married a kuninda princess Aarusi and her handmaiden Raya according to their tradition. The handmaidens were bound with years of conditioning. The hand maidens were so loyal, that they wed the consort along with their mistress. The princess became queens and the hand maiden concubines; they were half sisters and close friends and often ran the country together; their daughters shared the same fate. The handmaiden's daughter was always paired with the queen's as team. They ate, danced, sang, learnt and slept together. As for the sons of the handmaiden and queen, they were too bound as blood brothers sharing the same wife or wives. There is no account of the handmaiden's children betraying their step siblings. An example for such devotion, was the relationship between sunanda and vishpala, their mothers were half- sisters so were their maternal grandmothers and so on for the last ten generations." - Shashanka "Lectures on different Cultures and practices of Bharata" – Nalanda university Tomes.
124 BCE, 2nd Bhadrapada, Koteswara capital city of Audumbaras.
It took visha, two nazhigais to reach the fortress, as she came closer she could hear the clamour; she hit the summoning gong near the entrance with haste, the sight sentries atop the walls didn't spare her an extra glance; she a single rider, after intimation was not their concern.
But the mid guards were primed and ready. The huge gates remained closed, as did the smaller gate.
"Who goes there? State your business." The voice boomed out of a small pin hole from one of the thousands of identical motifs on the fortress walls.
"It's I vispala, the chief concubine of the warlord, sister to the queen." She replied.
There was a sound of turning gears and a small aperture opened on the seemingly solid wall, visha stepped in to clamor and acrid stench of burning.
They were waiting for her, the gramasevaks. And then she knew; that on this day when it counted the most, her sister, and her blood will have to walk their path alone, the urgency of the information she was carrying became redundant, for the sungas were here, and the people always came first.
"Where is my sister?"
"The queen isn't here my lady!" said Razmi danda.
"Then she is, where she is supposed to be, razmi"
"But, she asked us to wait for you here."
"What's the clamour for?"She asked.
"Mansu's palace is burning devi*" said Rukmin
"High time it did! Let it burn rukmin. Collect all the civilians who are involved in putting it off and send them on their way"
"What news, from the flyers Sutaja?"
"There is an advance guard of a thousand soldiers, devi; they will reach the fort within six nazhigais. They are preceded by an envoy of 250 soldiers; the envoy is very close and will reach us from the northern gate even faster." replied sutaja
The breeze gently moved the branches of the tree they were standing beneath, for a moment she felt so tired; mentally, physically, emotionally she was drained. She leant back on the tree and closed her eyes. She couldn't afford to show any weakness; not now.
A slight rustle and within a vinadi visha let fly 2 darts which pinned the black cape on to the tree as the intruder jumped and left him hanging like a bat, the intruder simply shrugged off his cape and landed on his feet, to reveal that it was a she.
"Are the people on their way Asi?"
"Yes, they are. Most of the women and children have left through the suranga patha"
"Why are you here? Take all the other flyers and go! Safeguard the children and women. We need you train them"
"Yes! Leave Asi. Let the men do their work" said Rukmin
For him to say that; was a great feat. It was rumoured, that asi had yavana blood and it was true. She towered over many males and was huge. There was not an ounce of fat on her. She was pure muscle. She was also very famous for her lighting temper and love for the same sex.
With a light smile, asi looked at the men as she spoke "As that may be, they need many trainers to learn the diversified arts that we know; but that's not my main purpose. All the males want to stay back. They think they know better than us females. Hey, as much as I like to mount females and even if all those women spread their legs for me, I cannot father a child on a woman now, can I?
"Rukmin, get the civilians, and summon the guards and together leave through the pathala suranga"
"Devi, why me and not sutaja?"rukmin asked in a low voice amidst the snickers from asi.
"You are one of the vyuhics. As asi said, we need at least one master from all arts and sutaja has an offspring; you don't. Empty the city and seal all the entrances of the suranga. Inform the men to consider their martyred brothers' wives as their own and increase our progeny"
Rukmin, turned and leapt on his horse and was gone leaving a swirl of dust and fading hoof beats.
"You know, you are a fine specimen. I would like......" started asi.
"Don't forget; I always come with my sister"
Asi paled for a fraction, and then cheerily replied "Well then it's a no go, your sister is one ruthless bitch; don't take me wrong, she's a great queen but...." She grimaced and said "Let's stop with that; can we?"
Visha then shook her head and motioned her hand towards the silent giant standing amidst the back drop; "vrishaba sound the assembly call of the sayas on your conch shell"
Then vrishaba blew on his mighty shell, it reverberated throughout the fast emptying fortress, and within 2 shanams the sayas crawled in from the shadows cast by the torches. The sayas were her special force, trained brutally in methods of warfare. Totally they were a 130 in strength, including the gate guards.
She then looked around her, the sayas stood in attention to follow her command, amidst the chaos; and in their eyes she saw unshakable faith.
"Sayas , the king of rajariya has opened his gates to our enemies. There is an envoy approaching consisting of 250 soldiers, and a fast approaching advance guard of 1000 soldiers. The envoys are too cowardly to approach parahan's kingdom alone; they will accompany the advance guards."
"Jaya, your squad of twenty will man the rockets on the mukas of the fortress; simha and his crew of five will handle the gates; Maruta your squad of ten will oversee the mines and their resetting. Harsa you five will stand ready at levers. Vidhyunmala you will handle the shravyavyavardhaka. The rest of us will meet the forces head on after the dust settles in a sarpa vyuga formation.
Lights flashed and sounds reverberated; "the flyers are sending a signal devi; reading it now." Said sutaja."The moats are filled and Makarati released. The ashva suranga is still open; and the palace is resounding with screams and sounds of fighting"
"Their job is done. Ask them to fly to their nest, leaving one at every exit of the palace. Let them kill everyone coming out of the palace, except the queen, princesses and their blood oathed loyals" said visha.
After 4 nazhigais,
Visha sat mounted on her warhorse sukhiviradha
"Commander, we are in place and primed" Asi murmured in visha's ear.
"Then we wait"..........
After another nazhigai and 4 shanams.......
A fire torch signal is seen from the ramparts.
"The sungas are here devi; they have been sighted and are at a distance of about 1 yojana" said vrishaba.
"Sayas ready your selves; plug your horses" commanded visha, her twin blades in hand. She then raised her right hand and made circular signals.
"sayas commence formation of vyuha" heralded asi
Then, a high pitched sound vibration was felt and the sunga war horses simply threw of their riders or jumped right into the pit of javelins or simply went berserk. Some of the unseated soldiers, who had their legs still caught in the stirrup, were dragged for yojanas. The first blood had spilled.......
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yay! Another chapter over.
So, guys let me give you a sneak peek....
The next chapters are going to be BLOODY.
Please vote, comment and share
· The main picture is the map of India during the time period our story takes place. You can see Audumbaras, Sunga, Kuninda, Pancala, Rajariya and the place marked as unknown is Raiyapura
· Next is the picture of ruins of the famous nalanda university.
· The final two pictures are of sarpa vyuga.
· Razmi danda- beam of rays [male gender in case of names]
· Sutaja- stoic [male gender in case of names]
· Raya[rhy-aa] – ardour, speed [feminine gender in case of names]
· Sukhiviradha – one who thwarts pleasure [male gender in case of names]a stallion in this case
· Aarusi – dawn, red mare [feminine gender in case of names]
· Rukmin – adorned with gold [male gender in case of names]
· Asi – sword [feminine gender in case of names]
· Vidhyunmala – wreath of lightning [male gender in case of names]
· Shashanka – Moon [male gender in case of names]
· Jaya – victory [used by both genders]
· Vrishaba – strong / bull [male gender in case of names]
· Simha – lion [male gender in case of names]
· Harsa - pleasure[male gender in case of names]
· Saya – swift arrow
· Devi – this is a feminine name denoting any goddess, but it also can be used as a form of respectful address in case of women like "my lady"
· Nalanda university – one of the worlds ancient university which excelled in multiple sciences and arts
· Yavana – Greeks [many Greeks remained in India after Alexander's invasion]
· Shravyavyavardhaka – Audio amplifier. Indian construction ingenuity was unrivaled. Specific formations could be used to amplify different frequencies of sounds. According to dhuvani shashtras different species of life forms can be affected by different frequencies of sound; thus high frequencies which is unheard by human ear can spook horses and have drastic results in a war party.
· Maruta – wind [male gender in case of names]
· Mukas – projections on the fortress
· Suranga patha / pathala suranga – underground tunnel
· Ashva suranga – underground tunnel wide enough to allow horses to pass
. Gramasevaks - village servers or Incharge officers.
· Rockects and mines are mentioned because they were extensively used in India. Though it is said that chineses invented gunpowder, it was first discovered in India and was known as agni curma. The Indian saltpetre' had more oomph than that of Chinese and was completely unrivaled in warfare, until Jaichand let Muhammad ghori into India through the back door. The british knew this. It was Indian gunpowder which helped them win waterloo. And they captured India itself quickly because by winning Bengal the saltpetre' mines came under their control. for more details https://2ndlook.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/indian-gunpowder-the-force-behind-empires/
· Polyandry – brothers sharing their wives or the same woman was common in certain tribes throughout India. This was done to keep the property whole and the children were commonly taken responsibility by all. Few ex. Kinnar, jaswan bawer tribes in uttrarkand still practice this today. Todas of nilgiri district and nayars of kerala practiced polyandry.
· Sarpa vyuha – snake formation, used in ancient warfare method.
· Makarati – crocodile. Filling up of moats with water and crocodiles was another war technique to withstand a siege.
· Yojana – ancient Indian measurement ~1.6 K.M. according to modern caliberation. The measurement of yojanas varies in lieu with the time periods from 2 to 12 K.M in length. In our case, we stick with the former.
· Vinadi - ancient Indian measurement ~0.8 second