“You are right Pandit ji, but what can we do anyway? Panchayat stated out its decision and if Shatvari has rejected it, we can't force a woman. After all she is living with her in-laws now.” replied Jugalkishore.
“We can file a complaint in the state court. I have inside news that the state priests and other Brahmin chiefs are also not happy with Gunjan's fame spreading so fast.”
“If that is the case, I will go to Sripur tomorrow itself and lodge our complaint before the state court.”
Jugalkishore went to Sripur the very next day and placed his application in front of the King Rudrasen. Rudrasen was a young king of about thirty. Young kings are either philosophical thinkers or rowdy strongmen. Rudrasen belonged to the latter category. After hearing Jugalkishore's plea, he summoned the royal priest and senior ministers for a consultation.
“What do you all have to say about the Panchayat's decision?” asked the king.
“I believe that the decision to declare Gunjan at par with Brahmins is very unfortunate. He is now openly provoking Shudras against priests and Brahmins.” replied the royal priest.
“I also agree with the royal priest in toto. On one hand, he is encouraging Shudras to do the work of Brahmins and on the other hand, he is associating with a Brahmin woman. People believe that they have illicit relations and her child is also his progeny.” said the chief minister.
“Hmmm..” Rudrasen pondered over the matter, took a deep breath and said, “I also think so. Then what should be done now?”
The royal priest took the initiative to speak first and opined.
“The wrong should be amended. It's not fair to declare a Shudra a Brahmin. On top of that he has relations with a Brahmin girl, which are unforgivable. If this is allowed to go unpunished, we'll have anarchy and our social hierarchy will simply collapse.”
“You are right. I have decided what should be done,” the king sounded resolute. The faces of the royal priest and the chief minister lit up with the anticipation of a desired verdict.
Veera found out about the news of Gunjan and Shatvari's complaint in the state court. He was delighted and deep down desperate to see them suffer.
The court was convened the very next day. All the accused and their relatives were asked to come. Pandit Vishvamohan and Jugalkishore were also invited.
King Rudrasen stated the accusations out loud, “This court has come together to hear the arguments drawn against the cartman Gunjan and Brahmin girl Shatvari. Gunjan has been accused of studying the holy texts despite being a Shudra and interpreting the texts in his own way. He is spreading his interpretations amongst the Shudra community who are not supposed to seek any scriptural knowledge. Apart from that he has also been accused of maintaining illicit relations with Shatvari who is a married Brahmin girl.”
Shatvari was shocked to hear this, “What a baseless accusation this is. Me and Gunjan?”
She got up and wanted to defend the accusations right away, but the king asked her to settle down. “Devi, you please sit down. You too are accused of the same sin. Your son still doesn't have the father's name.”
Acharya ji interrupted the accusation, “This is not right, your Highness. I am the father of this child's father and I have no doubt that he is my Damodar's child. I would give this child my family's name.”
“If that is the case then why don't you call your son and ask him to publicly accept the baby. Where is he?” asked the king.
Nobody knew where Damodar was. He had left Shatvari and gone away.
“If your son was this child's father, he would have come rushing to him. The fact that he doesn't live with the child and is not even present in this court to accept him proves that the child's father is someone else. Such a child with no legitimate father has no right to live in a civil society, as per the holy Shastras,” said the king to Acharya ji.
“I beg your pardon your Highness, but this is not true. I have complete knowledge of the holy Shastras and nowhere has such a thing been mentioned,” Shastri ji added.
“I have consulted state priests and my ministers, and they all agree that such a child cannot live in our society. Lawmakers and royal priests have all the rights to amend the Shastras. This has been happening since centuries,” the king took his stand.
“I have heard everyone and all the relevant arguments in support and against the accusations. I am firm with my decision.” The king asked the royal priest to write the decision down. They discussed one final time and finally wrote the verdict on a copper leaf.
The royal priest stood up and asked the court to read out the verdict.
“The court finds Gunjan guilty for studying and wrongfully interpreting the holy texts despite being a Shudra. He is also guilty of having illicit relations with a Brahmin married girl. He is ordered to be expelled from the society. Pandit Aditya Shastri helped Gunjan study the holy texts and so he will be stripped off his Shastri status. Shatvari's child is also expelled from the society and Gunjan will accept the responsibility of the child and will live in the Chandala community with him. Shatvari is accused of leaving her husband and making relations with another man, that too, a Shudra. She is hereby ordered to become the Nagarvadhu.”
Everyone looked surprised at this verdict. Nobody expected such a cruel decision. Some faces drooped down in acute disappointment while some others lit up with joy. A few eyes were moist. The king's decision was the final word. Pandit Vishvamohan and Veera were visibly delighted.
Shastri ji could not bear the embarrassment and he took Jalasamadhi in the river Mahanadi. His wife also followed him.
Aditi found out about her father Pandit Vishvamohan's conspiracy and she fought with him. But she couldn't do anything else.
Gunjan was worried about the child and Shatvari. He cared nothing about himself. But how will Shatvari live a life of humiliation. He tried to console Shatvari, “Don't worry. We will leave the state tonight after dark. We will go to the adjoining state Kalinga and start a new life.”
“How will we live there? What will we do?” asked Shatvari.
“We'll do anything. I will drive a cart, do farming, and teach music, whatever we can. I will not let you live a life of a Nagarvadhu. Trust me I have always took you as my guru and I will protect your honour.”
Gunjan's words made Shatvari even more emotional. She took his hand and said, “I could never understand you truly Gunjan. You are such a great human soul.”
“Don't say that. You always gave me respect. We should now have some rest and we will leave as soon as it's dark. We will move towards the east to Kalinga,” Gunjan wiped Shatvari's tears with his hand.
But the walls have ears. Their secret plan somehow found its way down to Veera. He assembled his men and waited for the opportune moment.
As the night dawned upon the village, Gunjan took Shatvari and her child towards the east direction. It was pitch black. Gunjan had deliberately planned to move without any light. Their steps were falling on uneven farmland. They kept moving while Shatvari tightly clutched her child in her arms. They felt hopeful of getting away from the village. But fate had something else in store for them. Soon they noticed some fire torches at some distance moving towards them. Next, they could hear a cacophony of a crowd. Gunjan wasted no time in deciphering that the crowd was coming to stop them. He quickly jumped behind a tree and motioned to Shatvari, “You walk fast towards the east. I will hide here and keep an eye on them.”
“But Gunjan how can I leave you alone?”
“Don't worry about me. You can't do anything anyway. I will hide here and make sure they can't see me.”
Shatvari left Gunjan there and moved on with her child in her arms. She was ambling in total darkness across strange farmland.
The crowd came nearer and Gunjan saw that Veera was with his accomplices with torches. Veera ordered the men to search for Gunjan and Shatvari. They all had thick wooden batons and fire torches.
“They must be somewhere here. We heard them running from here.” Veer
a shouted to his men and motioned to look around.
“Yes, but all we can see here is bushes and trees.” said one of the men.
“They must be hiding somewhere behind the trees or bushes. Just look carefully.” replied Veera.
Shatvari somehow kept on running and crossed that field and reached a bit further away. She tried to look back for Gunjan but with her child in her arms all she could do was to keep moving forward.
Gunjan was still hiding behind the tree and waiting for Veera and his men to disperse away. He was a bit relieved that Shatvari had gone far away by then. He didn't care about his life anymore.
When Veera's men couldn't find Shatvari and Gunjan in the fields, Veera shouted, “Torch the crop and the trees. They must be hiding here somewhere. Let the bastards burn to death and go to hell.”
Gunjan heard this and got worried that if Veera burnt the field, it would be a disaster for the field owner farmer and his family. His whole year's hard work would turn to ashes because of Veera's anger. He decided to come out of his hiding and face Veera.
“Veera have some mercy on the farmer whose crop you are thinking of burning. You are a farmer yourself, have some empathy.” shouted Gunjan while coming out from behind the tree.
“Huh. How can a man who maintains illicit relation with another man's wife talk about empathy!” Veera replied.
“Veera think before you speak.”
“Yeah you want to teach me how to act. You are running away in the dark with your beloved and you tell me how to behave. Where is she? She must be here somewhere as well; we'll find her out.”
Veera pointed to his men to spread around Gunjan,
“You'll have to pass over my dead body to reach Shatvari.”
Gunjan moved forward and stood in front of the men. One of the men jumped forward and tried to hit Gunjan with his fire torch but Gunjan swayed back in time and bent down to get between his legs and toppled him over. Gunjan snatched the fire torch from the fallen man and waved in front of the others to shoo them back. He madly started to try and hit anyone who came closer. But how long could a lone man survive attacks by an armed mob. A wooden baton hit his head from behind and Gunjan slumped to the ground. Shatvari heard the agonizing shriek from across the silent fields. She trembled for a moment and her feet stopped moving.
All the armed men pounced upon fallen Gunjan. They started to unleash their fury with their sticks on Gunjan's helpless body. His shrieks became calmer and calmer. The men went on as if under a fit of demonic rage. The rage settled only when they realized there was left nothing more to beat. Gunjan was lying dead on the ground laced with blood.
Shatvari withstood all this while hiding with her child. She knew there was nothing she could do. She couldn't even let her moans escape her throat for the sake of her child.
After some time when Veera's men wiped sweat from their foreheads and dusted their hands of Gunjan's murder, they walked off. They didn't care for searching on for Shatvari.
Shatvari walked towards the lifeless body of Gunjan. The blood was still oozing out from his body. Shatvari's eyes flooded with tears and she burst into a thunderous fit of scream. She somehow got hold of herself. She couldn't let Gunjan lie there. She summoned all her strength and started to pull Gunjan's body towards the crematorium on a solitary bank of Mahanadi.
As she reached the cemetery, the ritual keeper of the Dom caste came forward running and asked, “Who is it that you are dragging here in the middle of the night sister? Is it your husband?”
Shatvari couldn't reply for a while. She kept looking at Gunjan's bloodied corpse and finally said, “Last rites for him.”
“Last rites can only be done in the morning now.” said the Dom and added, “Your child is shivering with cold, sister, give him to me.”
Shatvari hesitatingly gave her child to him. A Brahmin woman's son in an untouchable Dom's lap.
Gunjan's last rites were completed in the morning. Shatvari sat by the burning pyre. Her eyes were staring into the fire that was taking Gunjan away from the physical world. Her eyes were devoid of any tears and face without a fleck of any emotion. She sat there until the whole body turned to ash. She got up, took a handful of hot ash from the burnt pyre and rubbed on her body and took a vow, “Gunjan, today I am taking a vow and I promise you that I will avenge the injustice done upon you by this cruel society. Until then this shamshan ash will not be removed from my body. I will keep the fire of your pyre burning in my heart. My every breath will remind me of the atrocities. From now on this shamshan is my home and the Chandalas will be my only family. I swear to bring justice to the downtrodden of society. This is the only cause of my life now.”
While listening to the pathetic narration tears were held up in Shatvari's son's eyes. Two streams of tears started rolling down his cheeks. His voice was choked by the sobbing. However, with immense effort, he composed himself and asked his mother, “Why didn't you tell all this to me much earlier?”
“With the fear that you could go for the search of your father. I didn't like to see the person, who had betrayed me,” asserted Shatvari.
“But why didn't you forgive him when driven by deep repentance, he rushed to you and asked for your forgiveness?”
“Betrayal is a sin. That sin could only be forgiven after a sincere penance,” she replied.
“Have you any inkling of my father's whereabouts?”
“I don't know. How come I know?”
“I have to meet him. I will find him out,” the young man resolved.
“You will not go anywhere. I am still burning with a sense of revenge from all these lords of society and the religion. That's why I named you Shatrughna, the destroyer of the enemy. You have to be with me in taking this revenge. We'll have to destroy them.”
“You will fight with the whole society, the whole system, the entire civilization? There are people like my father and your father too in this society.”
“They are exceptions, made irrelevant. This whole society is sick. The disease of discrimination based on caste and creed. The disease of social rift. We will have to set it right. You will have to stand with me in fulfilling this vow.”
“But why should it be violent? You used to sing the songs of love, affection and devotion.”
“When people stop respecting all the gestures of love, affection and devotion, then the only recourse left is to march on the path of armed struggle.”
“What do I have to do?”
“To find out that Yantra gifted with supreme power.”
Shatvari closed her eyes, took a deep breath and proceeded with her sadhana.
Chapter 24
Vaishali helped Neel and Dhananjay to get into a disguise. Silk clothes replaced their white cotton ones, yellow cotton turbans for the headgear. She trimmed some of her own hair to make fake moustache for the two. She put kohl in their eyes as per the prevalent fashion in South Kosala. Overall, she made them look a little older.
Neel scanned his new look in a mirror and said, “You have been of great help so far and I am sure you are going to be our great accomplice in the escape. Never know how many more guises we'll have to change to befool these Yaduvanshis. Tell me what you are going to dress like?”
“It'll be nearly impossible for me to change my looks. I'll be getting out in the darkness of the night,” replied Vaishali.
“How will you do that alone?”
“Chandalas come here every night for cleaning. I will change my appearance to mix with them and reach their shanty.”
“How will you get in touch with us?”
“You will have to contact me there.”
“Okay, so this is the final plan,” all agreed.
A boat arrived at the shore of river Mahanadi. The boatman quickly jumped off and tied the boat to a wooden pillar. Both ends of the boat had a wooden design like a crane's neck raised up previewing the waters. At the front end was an image of a lion engraved in wood. A small wooden room was in the middle. The door of the roo
m was covered with royal blue satin curtains. A flag was on full mast on top of this wooden room. The flag had a crescent moon in yellow in the middle, a royal signature of some sort. Two bodyguards of robust build also descended from the boat. They were lightly armed with a sword tucked in the waist and bow and arrows at the back. Another adjoining boat that stalled alongside had more armed soldiers on it. As soon as the boats were at the shore, one of the guards said with bowed head, “We have arrived Princess, you can come out now.”
An exotic beauty emerged from behind the royal blue satin curtain. There was something benign in her personality that made her seem like a timeless deity. It was a confluence of the majestic and the erotic. She seemed to walk straight out of the pages of Kamasutra. Her infinite presence was carefully entwined within the decorum of royal culture. Her magical beauty required no extra make-up, but she was very artistically adorned. A sky-blue scarf embraced her bosom and her slender waist that had the most artistic curves on both sides as if carefully sculpted by the skilled hands of a master sculptor. A satin yellow Choli and a dark purple sari held her sacred form within wraps. As soon as she descended upon the shore, an unusual melodic raga mixed in the air as if the Samaveda's verses were being played on Veena and Mridangam by the celestial musicians to welcome her. The sand beneath her every step seemed to rise to feel her feet clad in soft deerskin sandals. Her anklets throbbed on her ivory calves every time she raised her feet. Diamonds studded in her golden bangles; necklace with royal blue pearls and dangling golden earrings all synced in harmony to the music of her majestic form. The breeze that came from the Mahanadi behind her caressed her dark silken hair into the spontaneous dance moves of Odissi dance. She moved on and glanced at her bodyguards who felt too awed to hold their stare for more than a moment.
Revenge of the Chandalas Page 15