THE CURSE OF BRAHMA (13 page)

Devki was late for the prayers. She had to be at the Shiva temple by the first light of dawn. It was believed by her family that the first prayers of the day offered before the sun came up, were the most potent. She wanted to make sure that she was there in time to seek blessings for Kansa. Her mind had been deeply troubled after the last meeting with her brother. She wanted to do everything in her power to get him back to the way he had been before Ugrasena shared the secret of his birth with him. Ugrasena too had been closeted in his personal chambers ever since the fateful conversation with his son. She couldn’t bear to see two of the most important men in her life, losing their zest for life with the passage of each day.

‘Mandki, we are late!’ she exclaimed, goading her childhood friend and companion to move fast. Mandki glared at her. She had been ready and waiting for Devki for the past half-an-hour. Devki gave her a sheepish grin, and put her left arm around her friend in an attempt to appease her. In her right hand she carried the puja thali, precariously balanced on the balls of her fingers.

‘The horses are ready, My Lady,’ Airawat nodded respectfully at Devki. Even though Airawat had addressed Devki, she noticed that his eyes were subtly observing her friend. Mandki seemed to be aware of the attention she was getting from the chief of Madhuvan’s cavalry division. She suppressed a smile but consciously avoided looking in Airawat’s direction.

‘Thanks, Airawat. Are you going to be accompanying us to the Shiva temple too?’ Devki smiled at the handsome man holding the reins to her horse.

‘Yes, My Lady. I will be coming along,’ he said in a soft and slightly self-conscious tone.

‘Come on, Airawat. You don’t need to call me “My Lady” and all that. You have known me since I was a child and you used to teach me how to ride a horse. You used to call me “little Devki” in those days.’

Airawat smiled at the memory of days gone by. He had been an ordinary cavalry man employed in King Devak’s army. But more importantly, he had also been a personal bodyguard of the king and his favourite at that. When Devak’s wife had died, he had been the one to ride all the way to Madhuvan to give Ugrasena the message from Devki’s father. Later, he had also accompanied Devak to the forest where the king gave up his body to depart the mortal world. When he returned to Haripur, Devki and Mandki had already left with Ugrasena and his son Kansa, but there was a message awaiting him from Ugrasena at the palace. Ugrasena, who had been impressed with Airawat’s loyalty to Devak, had invited him to Madhuvan to be a part of his retinue of personal bodyguards. As the king of the combined nations of Madhuvan and Haripur, Ugrasena wanted people he could trust, by his side. Airawat had been at the king’s side for the past fourteen years. He had been a young man back then. Now he was almost thirty-three years old. While he had always respected Devki as a princess, he had developed a fascination for her companion, Mandki. Initially, he hadn’t given her much notice as she was still a child. As the years progressed, however, he began to fall in love with her character and the nobility with which she conducted herself in everything, including rejecting the best suitors for her hand, because she did not want to leave Devki alone. It never occurred to him that Mandki was not just a woman with a flawless character. She was also possibly the most beautiful woman in Madhuvan, second perhaps only to Devki. Having said that, the brave soldier that he was, he had never been able to draw up the courage to declare his love to Mandki. He wasn’t even sure if she had any idea about his feelings for her.

‘Airawat…Airawat!’ the sound of his name being called brought him out of his reverie. Devki was smiling at him, her eyes twinkling with mirth. Both Mandki and she were already saddled and waiting for him.

‘I’m sorry, My Lady. I…I…’ he stammered in confusion as he too, hastily saddled up.

‘It’s okay, Airawat. All of us have the right to get lost in our thoughts sometimes,’ Devki grinned at him. Her keen insight told her Airawat was besotted with her childhood friend.
I wonder if Mandki knows how he feels
, she mused with a smile.

Devki and Mandki set off, accompanied by Airawat. A squad of twenty soldiers followed them at a respectful distance. Two pairs of watchful eyes observed their departure with satisfaction. They knew that the pisaca awaited them at the top of the hill. The branches and leaves on the trees rustled in fury as the two monsters raced from tree to tree in the direction of the Shiva temple.

‘Where is Devki?’ Kansa asked as he poured himself some sherbet. He had come to bid farewell to Devki before leaving for Magadha. He intended to spend some time there with his brother-in-law, Jarasandha. The depression of the past few days had been weighing heavy on his heart and he felt it would help to get away from Madhuvan for a few days. His wives, Asti and Prapti, were also keen to meet their brother. They planned to be back in time for Devki’s wedding. Kansa wanted to avoid meeting Ugrasena before he left, but he couldn’t go away without saying goodbye to Devki.

‘Where is she?’ he asked one of the attendants hovering around him. ‘She has gone to the Shiva temple, prince.’

‘So early?’ Kansa was surprised. He knew Devki loved her sleep and it was impossible to rouse her in the wee hours of the morning.

The attendant endeavoured to hide her smile. Everyone was aware of the princess’ dislike for rising early. ‘Princess Devki wanted to offer the first prayers of the day to Lord Shiva. She seemed somewhat rushed; in fact, she even forgot the fresh ash for the puja.’

Kansa rolled his eyes.
Mornings really aren’t your time of the day, are they sister?
he thought to himself, both amused at Devki’s penchant for being lost in the early part of the day; and full of affection, knowing that Devki would have got up early to offer prayers for him. He knew, however, that she wouldn’t be able to do the puja without the fresh ash. It was a practice at this particular temple to put freshly created ash on the Jyotirlinga. The fresh ash served as a symbolic reminder that the only constant in life was death. Everything else could change any moment. ‘Just like my life,’ he thought to himself, the shadow of the past few days falling over his face.

‘Who accompanied her to the temple?’ he asked the attendant, making an attempt to shake off the depressing thoughts that plagued his mind.

‘Mandki and Commander Airawat went with her, prince. They left half-an-hour back.’

‘Hmm,’ Kansa reflected for a brief moment. ‘I shall carry the fresh ash for her myself.’
It will also give me a chance to meet her before I leave for Magadha
, he thought.

Carefully putting the urn of ash in the saddlebag, he mounted his mammoth steed and was off in a flash. He smiled slightly as he imagined Devki’s expression when she would realize she had forgotten the ash behind.

‘O Shiva! I forgot to carry the ash!’ Devki exclaimed morosely. Mandki and she had walked up, leaving their mounts at the base of the hill, where Airawat and the soldiers were waiting for them to return after the puja.

‘Now what?’ Mandki asked, her face mirroring her friend’s distress. She knew how badly Devki had wanted to finish the puja before the break of dawn.

‘I don’t know’ Devki sighed. ‘Do you think someone could ride fast enough to the palace and get the ash in time? I won’t need it till the end of the puja in any case,’ she finished hopefully.

‘Hmm, that’s not a bad idea. Should I ask Airawat to ride back? He is the fastest rider in the Kingdom,’ Mandki said with a shy smile.

‘Yeah, why not? I’m sure he would ride for you till the end of the world’ Devki joked.

Mandki, the woman who always seemed to have a hold on her emotions, actually blushed at the joke.
Ah! So she is aware of Airawat’s feelings for her, and she isn’t averse to liking him either it seems
, Devki mused with the hint of a smile on her face.

‘Go now!’ she playfully pushed Mandki. ‘I’m starting the puja. You tell Airawat to come back with the ash, and then join me inside the temple compound.’

The pisaca saw Mandki hurry down the hill. He couldn’t believe his luck. He had thought they would have to kill both the women. Now, it was just Devki. They could finish her off and leave with her severed head before the other woman returned. He looked in the direction of the peepul tree on the far side of the hill. His uncanny powers of sight allowed him to see what no human eye would have been able to make out—the form of the bonara hiding amidst the upper branches of the tree, his sharp talons quivering with the excitement of a kill. The kalakanja was already inside the temple and he had been instructed to execute Devki quickly and quietly. She was to be given no chance of escaping the precincts of the massively built temple. The inner structure was built in such a way that once inside, the walls set at particular angles acted as natural barriers to any sound escaping outside. No sound could go out; and no sound could come in.
I hope the kalakanja doesn’t botch up this job
, he thought. It was five minutes since Devki had stepped inside the temple compound.
He should have finished the job by now
, he thought with satisfaction.

Devki bent down reverentially in front of the enormous Jyotirlinga. Inhabitants of the land of Bharat believed that there were twelve Jyotirlingas spread in different corners of the great realm. But citizens of Madhuvan knew that there was a thirteenth one; it was in Madhuvan itself. All Jyotirlingas looked like a normal Shivling, but were different; only a person who had attained a high level of spirituality could actually see the Jyotirlinga in its true form—as a pillar of flame arising out of the earth. The Jyotirlingas represented the infiniteness of existence—the fact that there was no end and no beginning to existence. The thirteen Jyotirlingas were believed to have been personally charged by Lord Shiva with his blessings and his formidable aura. The two Jyotirlingas closest in proximity to the one in Madhuvan were in the holy city of Kashi (Kashi Vishwanath Jyotirlinga) and in the snow-clad Himalayan town of Kedarnath (Kedarnath Jyotirlinga). They were about fifty-six yojanas and forty-four yojanas apart respectively from the one in Madhuvan. The Madhuvan Jyotirlinga was different from the other twelve, in terms of its sheer size. Standing at a height of one gavuta, it was almost four gavutas in circumference and was made of gleaming black stone. The sign of Aum was handpainted in red at the top of the Jyotirlinga, presumably by the pundit of the temple. A large trishul measuring five feet in length, with three sharp protrusions, lay behind the Jyotirlinga.