The First Aryan

by Paramu Kurumathur

  Kaśyapa was surprised. ‘Drugged?’

  ‘Yes. He had clearly ingested some hallucinogenic drug. It is not clear whether he took it in orally or smoked it or inhaled it, or whether he took it of his own will or was forced.’

  Kaśyapa asked, ‘How did you come to know this?’

  ‘Otherwise it would not have been easy to hold his head under water. He would have struggled and signs of the struggle, like cuts and scratches, would be visible on his body’

  Agastya asked, ‘Do you know what drug it was?’

  ‘I am not sure. It could be any herb.’

  Kaśyapa asked, ‘If he was drugged, maybe he went to the rivulet on his own but fell into the water, hit his head against something and was knocked unconscious?’

  ‘Could be, but that does not seem likely in this case. There were no marks on his head to indicate that he had hit anything.’

  Agastya asked, ‘Maybe he just fell in and was so badly affected by the drug that he lost consciousness?’

  ‘There was coagulation of blood on the sides of his head, which indicates pressure. He was definitely held down with force.’

  This seemed very logical. Taking mental notes, they went to meet their guru’s wife, Arundhatī, next. She was in the front room of the house, sitting on a woollen rug, preparing some items for a domestic sacrifice Vasiṣṭha was to perform the next day. He was not at home. She smiled when she saw her husband’s disciples.

  Kaśyapa began by saying, ‘Mother, you must be aware that our guru has asked us to look into how and why Atharvan died.’

  ‘Yes, it is always unfortunate when somebody so young dies.’

  Agastya said, ‘The physician feels that he did not commit suicide. He was murdered.’

  ‘He was not the kind of person who would commit suicide. I have known him since he came to study here nearly fourteen years ago, as a small boy. I never felt that he was sad enough to give up on life or careless enough to make a mistake like falling into the ditch. He looked very happy and enthusiastic about finishing his studies and becoming a logician. I understand that he had reached an advance stage of knowledge of the esoteric sciences. His parents were very proud.’

  Agastya was thinking of his parents in their faraway village. A wave of sympathy passed through him for Atharvan’s parents. Kaśyapa could sense what was going through Agastya’s mind. His own thoughts went back to the day when his parents had brought him to Vasiṣṭha’s house. Agastya and his parents were there too that day.

  The guru was performing his afternoon domestic sacrifices. They had to wait till he finished. Kaśyapa and his parents had come to Parśupur from their village, which was half a yojana to the east. They had started very early in the morning in their ox-cart and had reached the guru’s house by mid-morning. The ride had been very tiring and the road bumpy.

  Agastya’s father had been telling Kaśyapa’s father about how they had come from a remote village and that it had taken them five days to get here. On the way, they had stayed with relatives and friends. ‘I know we should have enrolled him two years ago, but we could not bear to send him so far away from us while he was still so small.’

  The carts of both the families were outside. The oxen had been washed, given water and fodder from the guru’s cowshed and were now resting.

  Arundhatī, meanwhile, reassured the mothers, ‘Don’t worry. I will take good care of them. Your children will be as if they are our own.’

  The women continued their discussions. Kaśyapa, then all of six years, was feeling a bit low. He felt a tightness around his chest. Agastya, who was two years older than Kaśyapa, looked even more crestfallen than him. They knew that all children of the priestly class had to leave their parents and live with a guru who would give them all the knowledge they required to lead the life of a priest. Their fathers had already initiated them into studies. Now, it was the job of the teacher to guide them further.

  Vasiṣṭha finished his rituals and came out to meet them in the small veranda where they were waiting. ‘So, these are the young fellows, are they?’

  Agastya’s father said, ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Children, what have you learnt so far? Do you know the Sāvitrī hymn?’

  Kaśyapa said, ‘Yes, sir. My father taught me that.’

  ‘And you?’ he asked Agastya.

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Recite it for me.’

  ‘May we attain the great effulgence of the god, Savita . . .’ they enunciated cleanly and clearly.

  ‘Good. What else do you know?’

  Kaśyapa said, ‘I can recite the alphabet.’

  Agastya said, ‘I know the numbers.’

  ‘Good.’ The guru was impressed with the boys. ‘You can go out and play. Let me talk to your parents.’

  The boys walked towards the cowshed and Agastya petted the calf there. The calf rubbed itself against him while the mother cow looked at him suspiciously. Kaśyapa somehow felt that the guru’s wife would be good to him. Of course, she would not be able to replace his mother but she seemed nice enough. He had assumed that the guru would be a forbidding old man. But he was not too old or too forbidding; he was very pleasant. He felt comforted after the first meeting.

  His mind returned to the present. Atharvan’s parents too would have brought him to the guru a couple of years before Kaśyapa and Agastya arrived. They must have been just like his parents—heartbroken at leaving their son behind. And now he was dead, gone far too soon.

  He focused on what Arundhatī was saying. ‘We have sent a messenger requesting Atharvan’s parents to come here. Your guru and I will talk to them . . .’ her voice trailed off and she looked worried.

  Kaśyapa changed track. ‘Mother, you said that you had seen somebody go out with him yesterday morning.’

  ‘Yes. I saw the boy going out and, after some time, I thought I saw somebody behind him. I am not sure whether the other person was with him or following him, but he was just behind him.’

  ‘Was Atharvan, if it was Atharvan, aware that someone was with him?’

  ‘Oh, I am sure it was Atharvan. What I am not sure about is who the other person was. It was difficult to tell.’

  ‘Was it a man or a woman?’

  ‘Again, it was difficult to tell. You know that yesterday morning was dark and cold and there was a thick mist. I did wonder why he was going out earlier than his usual time but, alas, I did not think of asking him.’

  *

  They took her leave and walked towards the south gate. Kaśyapa asked Agastya, ‘What could the motive be? Why would anyone want to kill Atharvan?’

  ‘We do not know why, but we do know that the killer was a determined person, who had resolved to be able to hold the struggling Atharvan’s head under water till he died.’

  ‘Think back to last morning. Is there anything else you remember in particular?’

  ‘All I remember is that it was a misty morning but that the mist had lifted by the time we found the body.’

  ‘I think in addition to teaching us students about induction and deduction, they should teach techniques to improve our observation powers.’

  ‘Well, it is too late for us and Atharvan.’

  ‘My question is why would Atharvan go out in the morning? What was he doing there that early? If we can find an answer to that we may know why he was killed.’

  ‘Yes. That is the key question.’

  Suddenly, Agastya asked, ‘Do you think that this death will reflect on Vasiṣṭha’s reputation for providing a safe environment for students?’

  ‘No. I don’t think it will. He is too well respected for anybody to point fingers at him and cause real damage to his reputation. There has never been a problem before—this is a singular incident.’

  They found the gatekeepers who were on duty the previous morning. They explained their mission of finding the details of the student’s death at the behest of their guru. When the guards agreed to cooperate, Kaśyapa asked, ‘What do you think hap
pened to the young student who was found dead last morning outside the gate near the rivulet?’

  One of the gatekeepers said, ‘He was, I think, a student of the king’s household priest. The talk was that it was a case of suicide.’

  The gatekeepers appeared to be wary about talking further to students like them. Kaśyapa said, ‘Our guru wanted to give the parents of the student all the information about his last moments. So, he sent us to talk to you. Please tell us everything you know. Atharvan was his ward and his safety was his responsibility . . . our collective responsibility . . .’

  The reference to their guru worked wonders. ‘Poor people,’ one of them said, ‘I hope they find the strength to deal with their loss.’

  All of them nodded sagely.

  ‘What do you want to know?’ the guard asked.

  Kaśyapa said, ‘Are you able to keep complete track of the people coming in and going out through the gate?’

  The second gatekeeper, more voluble than the other, said, ‘Normally, we are able to do that. But in the early morning hours, the traffic coming into the city is so much that it’s nearly impossible to do so. At such times we concentrate on specific entrants. We do not want to let in undesirables or people against whom there is a restriction.’

  Agastya said, ‘But you do see people going out, right?’

  ‘Yes, we do.’

  Kaśyapa asked, ‘Did you notice the student going out yesterday?’

  ‘Alas, I am not sure. It was a pretty busy day and there were many carts coming in and going out. But I did notice that one student was going out of the city far too early in the morning.’ He turned to the other gatekeeper. ‘Remember? I commented on this?’

  The other gatekeeper said, ‘Yes, he kept turning to look behind him. I wonder why.’

  ‘Yes, that’s right. To me, it seemed that he was worried about someone following him. Maybe he did not want anyone to know that he was going out?’

  The other gatekeeper replied, ‘It was the same student. Yes, I remember recognizing his face when the body was brought into the city later.’

  Kaśyapa asked, ‘You said that he was looking back. Was there anything else that you noticed when you saw his face?’

  One of the gatekeepers said, ‘I am not very sure of this but I did think that there was something strange about his face—as if he was only looking and not seeing anything . . .’

  ‘Maybe he was just sleepy in the morning?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Was he right about someone following him? Was anyone?’

  ‘It is difficult to tell if someone was specifically following him. So many people were going in and coming out.’

  ‘Did you see anybody else of note going in or coming out afterwards?’

  ‘There were so many people. Masters and their servants, small merchants and businessmen, and others. There were also one or two people from the priestly class. I think the chief disciple of Jaraduṣṭra, I can’t remember his name, went out in the morning. The merchant, Dīrghaśravas, also came in with a few carts of goods. He normally does not accompany his goods himself; one of his right-hand men does that. However, yesterday it looked like the goods being brought in were particularly expensive, and hence he wanted to keep an eye on it personally.’

  ‘Did you talk to him?’

  ‘No. His assistant just declared what goods he had and we let them in.’

  ‘What was he bringing in?’

  ‘I don’t remember, unfortunately. Nothing out of the ordinary, I suppose. Also, the prince’s servant, Veśa, came in with a cart. He sometimes gets household items for the prince’s palace from outside in the morning.’

  ‘Anybody else you recognized?’

  ‘Well, the commander, Yadu, goes out every day to the archery practice field with some of the soldiers who serve as his bodyguards, to practise his weapon-wielding skills with the mace, spear and bow and arrows. He is a dedicated man, our commander.’

  ‘Did you talk to him?’

  ‘No, we would not dare ask him anything.’

  *

  Kaśyapa and Agastya decided that they had acquired enough information for one day. They walked back towards their house discussing and turning things over in their heads—their investigation had officially begun.

  Kaśyapa said, ‘Was Atharvan worried about someone following him or was he worried about someone not following him? Maybe someone asked him to come to the rivulet in the morning for some reason and he was looking back to see if that person was coming after him?’

  ‘Yes. That is a possibility. The killer may have asked him to come to the rivulet for some compelling reason and then killed him.’

  ‘What a devil! And let’s not forget that three others were also killed yesterday.’

  ‘Yes. But I doubt if there is any connection.’

  ‘You are right. There may not be any direct connection. But there may be an indirect one. What was it that brought the kingdom to this state of anarchy in the first place?’

  Kaśyapa suddenly remembered one of the students telling them that he had accompanied Vasiṣṭha some days ago, when he went to the king with a proposal; the proposal he had discussed with Prince Sudās to prevent the kingdom from falling into anarchy.

  7

  The King Accepts the Guru’s Proposal

  The royal palace was a magnificent building made of stone. Vasiṣṭha was talking to King Turvaśa in the front room where the windows had been carved into the walls to let in air and light. These windows could be covered with grass or wool curtains to keep out the light, cold or insects. It was the second part of a bright morning on the eighteenth day of the year.

  ‘Sire, you know that things have come to a very precarious point. Your support is dwindling. More and more noblemen are shifting their allegiance to Prince Sudās. At this moment, the prince is still considering his options. We need to act soon—I won’t be able to stop him any longer from rising against you. Till now, my conversations with him have kept him calm. The skirmishes between the two parties have already started claiming lives. People are worried about what is coming. Many citizens have started leaving the city to stay with their kinsmen in rural areas. Traders are transferring their goods away from the city for fear of being looted. We have to do something.’

  The king seemed to understand what Vasiṣṭha was implying. ‘Are you suggesting that I abdicate? I cannot do that; the queen will not allow that. What will happen to my son?’

  Vasiṣṭha sensed that the king was willing to reason. ‘Sire, the prince is of noble mind. He will not do anything to precipitate the kingdom into a conflict, if he can help it. But you must understand that the rebel movement has gathered such momentum that even the prince is finding it difficult to control.’

  ‘What do you suggest I do?’

  ‘I have a plan that can bring lasting peace to the kingdom. You do not have to abdicate. However, it means disinheriting your son and naming the prince as your successor.’

  ‘What!’ The king was enraged.

  Vasiṣṭha continued to speak quickly but calmly, ‘My suggestion is that you declare Sudās as the crown prince and disallow the queen from exercising any influence, letting Sudās assume control over the administration instead.’

  ‘What are you saying? What about my son?’

  ‘Your son is still an impressionable child. He can be removed from under the influence of his mother and become a ward of the prince. He will be educated by the best in the kingdom under the prince’s supervision. The prince has assured me that when the boy comes of age, he will himself install him as king of some of the neighbouring kingdoms annexed over time. The boy will thus retain his royal status and the kingdom will be at peace again.’

  As they spoke, the queen walked in.

  The king told her the guru’s plan. It was immediately clear to Vasiṣṭha where the power really rested. In Queen Menakā’s presence, the king seemed to be just a messenger.

  Menakā was furious. ‘Wh
at sort of a plan is this that will disinherit our son! Are you out of your mind? How dare you suggest this! We will never agree to this.’

  Vasiṣṭha said, ‘Madam, the choice is between this and civil war. Many of the nobles have pledged allegiance to the prince and are now egging him on to bring matters to a head. The commander, Yadu, is also on the prince’s side.’

  ‘So what? There are still many nobles on our side. I think we can withstand any uprisings. I think the prince should be captured so that this matter can be put to an end.’

  ‘Nobody will dare arrest the prince. He is well protected by his coterie. This very act, however, may trigger the rebellion.’

  ‘But how can we disinherit our own boy?’

  ‘Madam, if we implement my plan, we will avoid great bloodshed. The king can continue to rule for as long as he lives. Sudās is only eighteen—he can afford to wait for a few years to become king. And he will be in effective control of the government. So, he and his adherents will be satisfied.’

  ‘What are our alternatives? What if we make Sudās king over one of the vassal kingdoms?’

  ‘He will not accept that. He feels that he has a better claim to the throne of Parśuvarta than Turvaśa himself. After all, the kingdom was in the hands of his ancestors till two generations ago, until it was usurped by Turvaśa’s grandfather.’

  ‘Claim comes from actual possession. Turvaśa’s grandfather occupied the throne by the right of conquest. This right is as powerful as the right of descent.’

  ‘Madam, I suggest that you don’t put forward this argument. This cuts both ways. It gives immediate legitimacy to the prince dethroning the king. He can claim the right to overthrow the king through conquest. And, his right of descent was violated by the king’s ancestors’ usurpation. Either way, Turvaśa’s position is weak. My plan is the best bet there is for the benefit of both Turvaśa and your son.’

  Menakā looked at the king and narrowed her eyes.

  ‘Please give us time to think about this,’ the king said tersely.

  When Vasiṣṭha left, Menakā seemed to change her approach. She knew how to deal with her husband. ‘Noble one, please think carefully before you agree to anything that will have a lasting effect on our son’s life. He should be the rightful king of Parśuvarta.’