He looked at the king. ‘Sire, the most obvious suspect in many of these incidents was you. You were involved in a great intrigue to capture power from our erstwhile king, Turvaśa, so that his ineffectual rule could be corrected. And later in the year, you had your attentions focused on putting down a rebellion. And then there was the great battle. Your main motive for all the murders seemed to be ensuring your own smooth succession and rule. But the risk that this would give you a bad name was far too great for a strong ruler like you; one who leads by example. Thus, you were eliminated from my list of suspects.’
The king laughed good-naturedly and said, ‘Well, indeed, I did not have the time to do all this.’
Kaśyapa smiled and nodded in reverence. ‘Queen Jabālā was too new to the kingdom. She was not even here when Atharvan died. So, she was never on the list of suspects. The king, Turvaśa, I eliminated right at the beginning. I did not think that he had the patience or the will. Why would he want to kill his own son? The erstwhile queen, Menakā, seemed to have had a stronger motive for killing someone like Atharvan. I saw her looking angrily at him in the assembly last year, on this very day. I thought that she had heard Atharvan when he said that Turvaśa’s rule was not effective. But I was not sure if she had had the opportunity. She had to get the deed done through a servant, which she could have easily done—who would dare to refuse the queen’s orders? She had not hesitated when a strong motive for kidnapping her son presented itself, after all; and she had told me plainly that it was she who engineered Kutsa’s kidnapping. She had bribed one of the servants to let her into the then prince’s palace, and would go into Kutsa’s room when the guards were away, drinking and being merry together. But why try to kill him? It was possible that she was not trying to kill him; maybe the servant had drugged him to make it easier to carry him out and accidentally administered an overdose. But I did not think that Menakā would allow for her son to be drugged.’
Kaśyapa continued, ‘And Vāyata? Why did she want to kill him? There was a rumour going around that she was carrying Jaraduṣṭra’s child. Did Vāyata question her morality over this? We can only conjecture here, of course, though Menakā had clear motives for trying to poison the then princess, Jabālā, or give her an abortifacient. She was rather vocal about being displeased at the prospect of Sudās producing another heir to the throne. But then what about the killing of the old man in the castle, and then Veśa and Aṅgiras? She was too far away from the kingdom by the time these lives were lost. The old man’s killing convinced me that Menakā did not have anything to do with the other killings either. She was more worried about ensuring the succession for her unborn child. So, I eliminated her from the list of suspects.’
Kaśyapa looked at Agastya. ‘Of course, we eliminated my guru, Vasiṣṭha, and Jaraduṣṭra from our list of suspects, for obvious reasons. What was their motive? ‘
‘I also eliminated Ghoṣā since I could not see her committing these crimes. And she had no motive except, perhaps, for killing Vāyata, who railed against her incessantly with his guru. If the Varuṇa group did manage to seize control, they would ensure that she and the others of her profession would have been exiled from the kingdom. But it was her character that militated against such killings, and hence, redeemed her in my eyes.’ Saying this, he smiled at her and she shied away from his gaze.
‘Before we went to the northern castle to put down the rebellion by the vassal kings, I was convinced that Vāyata was the murderer. Remember, there were only two killings to account for then—Atharvan and Kutsa. Agastya was of the opinion that it was Veśa, but when we argued with one another over it for some time, we finally conceded that it must be Vāyata. But how wrong we were!’
Vasiṣṭha interrupted him, ‘Why did you think it was Vāyata?’
Kaśyapa answered, ‘We thought that Vāyata was unhappy with Atharvan for having insulted him about the subject of esoteric sciences. Atharvan had also insulted Jaraduṣṭra during the first debate, which we later found out that Vāyata greatly disapproved of. We decided, however, that him killing Atharvan might have been an accident. He could have simply drugged him and challenged him to come out of the spell that he had cast upon him. But when Atharvan tripped and fell into the rivulet, Vāyata, perhaps jokingly at first, might have held his head under water, just to incite fear in him, without realizing that Atharvan could have died, which he did.
‘We thought that Vāyata was doing the esoteric sacrifice outside the south gate to atone for the sin of having killed Atharvan. However, that was not right. Only Veśa got it right, when he guessed that the sacrifice was for creating impediments to the annual Cows’ Walk sacrifice, which, I’m afraid, we can’t claim to know any more about. As for Kutsa, Vāyata had challenged Bhārgava to see who could influence the boy faster and win his allegiance. Since Vāyata was left alone with the boy, he could have slipped some intoxicating herbs into the boy’s milk; this could even have been part of his plan to brainwash the child. But the drugs proved to be too strong since he was only a small boy.’
Sudās asked, ‘So, you thought that even if the murderer was Vāyata, both the killings he had committed were accidents?’
‘Yes, because as argumentative as he was, he was quite unwilling to employ physical force in our view, as per what we saw after growing up with him during the course of our education. But then he himself was killed. And with him, so was our theory. The death of Vāyata and that of the old man in the castle were then added to the repertoire of mysterious murders. We had to rework our search for motive and opportunity to account for Vāyata’s death.’
Yadu said, ‘Vāyata was killed with a blow to the head.’
Kaśyapa said, ‘Yes. We surmised from there that the murderer was a strong person. Also, remember how there was an attempt to either poison or induce abortion in the princess? And then the many major events that happened in the kingdom: the rebellion by one of the city captains, and then, of course, the battle. I got a chance to do some thinking only after the battle was over.
‘After seeing the Vāyata surmise vaporize, Agastya and I did some more thinking. We arrived at the conclusion that one of the three—Yadu, Dīrghaśravas or Veśa—was the murderer. All three had the motive, the opportunity and the morality which would allow them to commit the first four murders and attempt the others.’
Vasiṣṭha said, ‘It is interesting that the suspects were from the servant class, the merchant class and the warrior class—it seems criminal instincts know no social hierarchies!’
Sudās rebutted, ‘Yes, and as it turns out, it was a priest who did the ghastly deeds!’
While everyone in the assembly laughed, Kaśyapa stood, awaiting his turn to detail his and Agastya’s findings from a few days ago regarding the three suspects. He said, ‘Let’s take Veśa. He had a motive behind killing Atharvan. He had asked Atharvan to perform some esoteric sacrifices to cast a spell on Dāsa. Veśa wanted to become the chief servant and did not want anyone else to know about this. He was outside the city walls when the murder was committed. So, he could easily have done this. And regarding the kidnapping attempt and murder of Kutsa, it was extremely important for Veśa that Sudās succeed in his quest for control of the kingdom, since only then could he hope to become the chief servant. Of course, he still did not become the chief servant, but he had already planned his way to that. If Sudās lost his position, Veśa would stand no chance. And he was in Sudās’s palace when these incidents happened, so he could have easily done them. The servants would all obey any instructions given by him. Also, the physicians told us that he bought many kinds of herbs.
‘He was clearly against the queen too. She wanted to get rid of him and replace him with a servant from her paternal home; the queen herself told us this. He was also not very happy that she was a Dasyu; hence, he could also have made the attempt on her life. The poison he gave her was also an abortifacient. His thinking may have been that even if the queen did not die, she would at least miscarry, which
might cause the king to abandon her for her inability to produce an heir. He was present on both the occasions when the queen was attacked, and he could have either done the deeds himself or asked a junior servant to do them for him.
‘Vāyata was very moralistic. He may have heard about Veśa asking Atharvan to perform esoteric sacrifices and chided him for it, threatening to make it public. In fact, we once did see Vāyata scolding Veśa. This may have incensed Veśa enough to want to kill him. Veśa would also not have wanted the troublesome Varuṇa doctrine creating any problem for Sudās’s kingship; this too was a reasonable motive. And, of course, he had the opportunity. He was seen around the quadrangle in the fourth part of the night when the killing happened.
‘And as for the old man: the poor man may have wandered into the quadrangle at night and may have seen Vāyata being killed. If the old man talked, people may have started believing him. It was easy to kill him. He liked to eat and it would have been easy to feed him some poison mixed with food. Also, Veśa is a person who does not care much for people, and this is why the other servants did not like him.’
Dīrghaśravas asked, ‘What did you have against me?’
‘We know that you had asked Bhārgava and Vāyata to cast a spell on a rival merchant. I do not know who did the work. Of course, as you would know, Bhārgava was of a flexible nature, capable of doing these things and not worrying about it. If it was Bhārgava who did it, you would not have wanted Atharvan to talk about this to anyone. If it was Atharvan who did the dirty work, then the risk would die if he died. You were also outside the gate that morning, bringing in the goods he was waiting for. And, of course, you had also bought herbs for use in your gambling dens.
‘In the case of Kutsa, your motive was simple. You wanted Sudās to be enthroned since you had financed his efforts heavily. The old king’s son was an impediment. You may have done these deeds through some servants who gained access to the prince’s palace. The motive for killing Vāyata may have been the same as with Veśa. Vāyata may have given you grief over running gambling dens. He may have threatened to have them closed. The gambling dens are your biggest sources of income. He threatened to become such a thorn in your flesh that you decided to get rid of him. And you had the opportunity. You were in the palace that night.
‘The old man needed to die and it was easy for you to kill him. Queen Jabālā is another story. She was not happy that Sudās was in your debt, while you were happy to keep things that way, since a king indebted to you would be easier to get favours out of. This is why you were not happy with the queen.’
Dīrghaśravas looked sheepishly at the queen.
Kaśyapa went on, ‘You are a shrewd man whose primary objective in life is the success of your business. You will not let anything stand in your way.’
They could all see that Dīrghaśravas was embarrassed. He said, ‘Some of the things you said were right. But I did not kill anyone!’
Kaśyapa said, ‘Right. Let us move on.’
Yadu asked, ‘Well, I am afraid to ask. But what did you have against me?’
‘Here again, the issue of the esoteric sciences come to the fore. You admitted that you had tried to cast a spell on Sudās to get him to marry your daughter.’
Yadu looked at Sudās who looked away. Kaśyapa continued, ‘You may not have wanted others to know of this. And, of course, like the others, you were also outside the gates that morning doing your training. As for the queen: you may have been still nursing the hope that your daughter could marry Sudās. Sudās would not marry your daughter while the queen was alive and could bear children. The old king’s son too was an impediment for your plans. He did not fit into your scheme for the kingdom. You wanted Sudās to succeed. If the old king’s party came back to power, you stood to lose a lot. You could have accomplished the deeds through some of your bodyguards.
‘Vāyata was also a thorn in your flesh. He may have found out about your asking Atharvan to cast a spell on the prince. This may have raised his hackles and he could have confronted you. You may not have wished this affair to become public knowledge. Hence, Vāyata had to go. And you were in the castle. You had the opportunity. In fact, I saw you go back to your room in the fourth part of the night.’
Yadu said, ‘I had come out only to check on the security arrangements and to go to the toilets.’
Kaśyapa continued, ‘I see. Anyway, the motive you could have had for killing the old man is clear and the opportunity was available. And, of course, being of the warrior class, you would have had no problems killing people.’
Yadu was impressed with Kaśyapa’s analysis. He shook his head at his underestimation of the young detective’s intelligence and smiled. Kaśyapa went on, ‘So, as you can see, it was clear that one of these three could have been the murderer. But who? I was still not sure. This is why I planned to set a trap. I thought that if I openly said in the presence of these three people that I had nearly solved the mystery and all I needed was some information from some unknown person who would come to meet me at Ghoṣā’s house that night, the murderer would do something to prevent me from exposing his identity. Remember, Bhārgava was also there at the time and would have heard me. So, when Agastya and I were walking towards Ghoṣā’s house that night; the king had arranged for some guards to follow us discreetly to intervene in case something unpleasant happened, and it did.’ Kaśyapa stopped and looked around at everybody.
He continued, ‘You all know what happened that night. The newly appointed leader of the Varuṇa group, Aṅgiras, and Veśa were killed. While we were walking up the road, we met Bhārgava coming from the opposite direction. We wondered where he was coming from, but were too preoccupied to think about this. He said that he was there to help us. Later, we learnt from Ghoṣā that someone had attempted to break into her house. He was seen by the guards and so he fled, not realizing that he had left an axe behind. Since it was dark, the guards were not able to identify the person. It must have been Bhārgava. He had heard me tell the guru, when we were baiting our trap, that Ghoṣā would arrange for somebody who had some information about the murders to meet me. Bhārgava wanted to know who this was and, if possible, eliminate him or her. I don’t think he would have hesitated to kill the “immoral” Ghoṣā too if he had to.
‘A few steps up the road, Veśa popped out from somewhere. I now feel that he had, by then, worked out who the killer was and wanted to warn us. He was a clever fellow, no doubt. Poor man. He really just wanted to protect us. In fact, he said that having Bhārgava with us was the real problem and ran to warn Aṅgiras when he was told he was going to be joining us. Bhārgava had figured out by then that Veśa had guessed the truth. When we reached the road that turned towards the docks, Bhārgava told us that he was going to look for Aṅgiras. We did not know that he would kill him when he found him. The story he told us when we reached there was true in that it happened, except that it was Bhārgava who had been hitting Aṅgiras on the head when Veśa had come upon the scene and called for help. When Bhārgava turned around to find him standing there, he knew that if he did not kill him too, the game would be up. So, he must have thrown the stone at Veśa’s head, thinking that Veśa could be finished off once he fell. However, Bhārgava was lucky. He managed to hit Veśa in a way that he died immediately. And not a moment too soon, because we arrived almost immediately.’
The queen shuddered, thinking how close Bhārgava had come to killing her! Kaśyapa continued, ‘Of course, I did not know this at that moment—I believed what Bhārgava told us.’
Agastya pitched in saying, ‘These killings threw our plans into disorder. What motive did Veśa, Dīrghaśravas or Yadu have to kill the new leader of the Varuṇa group? We, therefore, went back that night more confused than before and not having come to any definite conclusion about the murderer.’
Kaśyapa said, ‘My thinking completely changed on the day of the debate. Towards the end of the debate, Bhārgava suddenly switched sides and started defending the Varuṇ
a position. Yes, it seems that he had always been a Varuṇa supporter. He was hoodwinking us all. Suddenly, things started falling into place. Bhārgava seemed to be the most obvious suspect. I started going back to all the killings, all the conversations I had with the others and my own discussions with Bhārgava, and his behaviour and his statements. But I did not have much time to think as we went directly from the debate to the sacrifice. At the sacrifice, two signs clearly showed me that Bhārgava was indeed the murderer. The sight of one of the priests at the sacrifice whose hands were dripping with blood from cutting up the beast brought back some repressed memory of a dream I had in the castle on the night of the third murder. I realized that I hadn’t been dreaming but had actually seen Bhārgava with his hands stained from killing a man.
‘At this moment, I looked at Bhārgava who was sitting some distance away from me; the second his eyes met mine, he knew I knew! He got up and started moving away. This was when our mother, who was sitting next to me, recognized his form as the one that followed Atharvan on the foggy morning when he was killed.
‘When I noticed Bhārgava making his way out, I thought I saw a very determined look on his face. I knew that his twisted trail of sin was yet to end and he would have to kill the queen and her unborn child to bring it to its rightful end. He knew now that he had been identified as the murderer, but before he was caught, he wanted to finish off his mission.
‘Thanks to our guru and the commander, we were able to catch him in the act and prevent him from committing another ghastly murder.’
Jabālā again shivered. It would indeed have been a tragedy if he had succeeded! The king was happy with Kaśyapa. ‘We have you two gifted boys to thank for it. Well done.’
Vasiṣṭha asked, ‘What was Bhārgava hoping to achieve by killing these innocent people?’
Kaśyapa said, ‘Bhārgava was a study in contrasts. He was not sure who he was or what he wanted. He wanted to be the master of the esoteric sciences, yet he was a secret follower of the Varuṇa group which is against it. He wanted to become the Varuṇa group leader, but he was also hoping to win the favour of Sudās to see if he could get a position in the palace. He did not want to upset the order in the kingdom, yet he wanted to bring in Varuṇa worship. He was not sure if he wanted Sudās’s rebellion to succeed or not. He was against the Dasyus, who he considered to be inferior. His confusion was the cause of his feeling that he was always right. Yes, he felt that he was always right. This persuaded him to get rid of anyone who stood in his way.
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