The Oath of The Vayuputras

by Amish

  ‘Yes,’ said Sati. ‘Our main aim has to be to destroy the Somras manufacturing facility. It will take them years to rebuild it. That much time is more than enough for your word to prevail amongst the people. The average Meluhan is devoted to the legend of the Neelkanth. The Somras will die a natural death. But if we attack directly, the war with Meluha will drag on for a long time. The more it drags on, the more innocent people will die. Also, the Meluhans will begin to look upon the war as an attack on their beloved country, and not the Somras. I’m sure there will be large numbers of Meluhans who would be willing to turn against the Somras, but if we challenge their patriotism, then we have no chance of winning.’

  Kali was smiling.

  ‘What?’ asked Sati.

  ‘I noticed that you said “they” instead of “we” when you referred to the Meluhans,’ said Kali.

  Sati seemed perplexed. She still believed Meluha was her own land. ‘Umm, that’s unimportant... It’s still my country...’

  ‘Sure it is,’ smiled Kali.

  Gopal cut in. ‘Just for the sake of argument, let us imagine what would happen if there is a direct all-out war.’

  ‘That is something we will have to avoid,’ said Shiva. ‘I see sense in what Sati is saying.’

  ‘Nevertheless, let us consider what Lord Bhrigu and Daksha might think,’ said Gopal. ‘I agree, it is in our interest to not have a direct war. But it is in their interest to have one, and a destructive one at that. They will want tensions to escalate so that they can confuse the people. They will then say that the Neelkanth has betrayed Meluha. Like Lady Sati just pointed out, the patriotism of the Meluhans could drown out their faith in the Neelkanth.’

  ‘I agree that Lord Bhrigu may want to escalate the situation,’ said Shiva. ‘What I do not understand is how he will manage it once it has. I have seen the Meluhan army from up close. It’s a centralised, well-drilled unit. But the problem with such armies is their utter dependence on a good commander. Their general, Parvateshwar, is with us. Trust me, they do not have another man like him. If Lord Bhrigu is as intelligent as you say he is, he would know that too.’

  Ganesh and Kartik sighed at the same time.

  Shiva glared at his sons.

  ‘Baba...’ said Kartik.

  ‘Dammit!’ screamed Shiva. ‘You will not doubt his loyalty! Am I clear?’

  Ganesh and Kartik bowed their heads, their mouths pursed mutinously.

  ‘Am I clear?’ asked Shiva once again.

  Kali frowned at Shiva before looking at Ganesh and Kartik, but remained silent.

  Shiva turned back to Gopal. ‘We have to avoid provocation. Our military formations have to be solidly defensive, so as to deter them from staging an open confrontation. The main task for our army is to keep them distracted, so that a smaller unit can search the towns on the Saraswati for signs of the Somras manufacturing facility. Once we succeed in destroying that facility, we will win the war.’

  ‘Nandi,’ said Sati, turning to the Meluhan major.

  Nandi immediately laid out a map of Meluha. Everyone peered at it.

  ‘Look,’ said Sati. ‘The Saraswati ends in an inland delta. The Meluhans will not be able to get their massive fleet from Karachapa into the Saraswati. Their defence doctrine covers just two possible threats – a naval attack via the Indus or a land-based army attack from the east. That is why they don’t have a massive fleet on the Saraswati.’

  Shiva grasped what Sati was alluding to. ‘They’re unprepared for a naval attack on the Saraswati...’

  ‘You have to understand that this is with good reason. They assumed that no enemy ships could enter the Saraswati. No enemy-controlled rivers flow into it and the Saraswati does not open to the sea.’

  ‘But isn’t that just the problem?’ asked a confused Athithigva. ‘How will we get ships into the Saraswati?’

  ‘We won’t,’ said Shiva. ‘We will capture the Meluhan ships stationed in the Saraswati instead.’

  Kali nodded. ‘That is the last thing they would expect, which is the reason why it will work.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Sati. ‘All we have to do is capture Mrittikavati, which is where most of the Saraswati command of the Meluhan navy is stationed. Once we’re in possession of those ships, we will control the Saraswati. We can quickly sail up, unchallenged, even as we continue our search for the Somras manufacturing facility.’

  ‘That’s correct,’ said Brahaspati. ‘The manufacturing facility can only be on the banks of the Saraswati. It cannot possibly be anywhere else.’

  ‘This sounds like a good plan,’ said Gopal. ‘But how do we capture their ships? Where do we enter their territory from? Mrittikavati is not a border town. We will have to march in with an army. And we will obviously face resistance from the border town that falls on the way – Lothal.’

  ‘Lothal?’ asked Kartik.

  ‘Lothal is the port of Maika,’ said Gopal. ‘They are practically twin cities. Maika is where all the Meluhan children are born and raised, while Lothal is the local army base.’

  ‘Don’t worry about Maika or Lothal,’ said Kali. ‘They will be on our side.’

  Gopal, Shiva and Sati seemed genuinely surprised.

  ‘If there are any Meluhans who will have sympathy for us, it will be the people of Maika,’ continued Kali. ‘They have seen the Naga children suffer. They have tried to help us on many occasions, even breaking their own laws in the process. The present Governor of Maika, Chenardhwaj, is also the administrator of Lothal. He was transferred from Kashmir a few years back. He is loyal to the institution of the Neelkanth. Furthermore, I have saved his life once. Trust me, both Maika and Lothal will be with us when hostilities break out.’

  ‘I remember Chenardhwaj,’ said Shiva. ‘All right then, we will utilise the support of Lothal to conquer Mrittikavati. Then we’ll use their ships to search the towns on the Saraswati. But remember, we must try and avoid a direct clash.’

  Chapter 14

  The Reader of Minds

  ‘Do you believe we can convince him?’ asked Shiva.

  The Vasudev chief, Gopal, had just walked into Shiva’s chamber. Sati and the Neelkanth were preparing to leave for Magadh with him. Ganesh and Kartik had come to say goodbye to their parents.

  ‘I would have been worried had we been meeting Lord Bhrigu,’ said Gopal. ‘But it’s only Surapadman.’

  ‘What is so special about Lord Bhrigu?’ asked Shiva. ‘He is only human. Why are all of you so wary of him?’

  ‘He is a maharishi, Shiva,’ said Sati. ‘In fact, like Gopalji had mentioned, Lord Bhrigu is believed by many to be beyond a maharishi; he’s a Saptrishi Uttradhikari.’

  ‘You should respect a man, not his position,’ said Shiva, before turning to Gopal. ‘Once again I ask, my friend, why are you so nervous about him?’

  ‘Well, for starters, he can read minds,’ said Gopal.

  ‘So?’ asked Shiva. ‘You and I can do that too. Every Vasudev pandit can, in fact.’

  ‘True, but we can only do so while we’re in one of our temples. Lord Bhrigu can read the mind of anyone around him, regardless of where he is.’

  Ganesh looked genuinely surprised. ‘How?’

  ‘Well,’ said Gopal, ‘our brains transmit radio waves when we think. These thoughts can be detected by a trained person, provided he is within the range of a powerful transmitter. But it is believed that maharishis can go a step further. They do not need to wait till our thoughts are converted into radio waves, to be able to detect them. They can read our thoughts even as we formulate them.’

  ‘But how?’

  ‘Thoughts are nothing but electrical impulses in our brain,’ said Gopal. ‘These impulses make the pupils of our eyes move minutely. A trained person, like a maharishi, can decipher this movement in our pupils and read our thoughts.’

  ‘Lord Ram, be merciful,’ whispered a stunned Kartik.

  ‘I still do not understand how this is possible,’ remarked a sceptical Shiva. ‘Are you saying al
l our thoughts are exposed by the movement of our pupils? What language would that communication be in? This makes no sense.’

  ‘My friend,’ said Gopal, ‘you are confusing the language of communication with the internal language of the brain. Sanskrit, for example, is a language of communication. You use it to communicate with others. You also use it to communicate with your own brain, so that your conscious mind can understand your inner thoughts. But the brain itself uses only one language for its own working. This is a universal language across all brains of all known species. And the alphabet of this language has two letters, or signals.’

  ‘Two signals?’ asked Sati

  ‘Yes,’ said Gopal, ‘only two – electricity on and electricity off. Our brain has millions of thoughts and instructions running simultaneously within. But at any one point of time, only one of these thoughts can capture our conscious attention. This particular thought gets reflected in our eyes through the language of the brain. A maharishi can read this conscious thought. So one has to be very careful about what one consciously thinks in the presence of a maharishi.’

  ‘So the eye is indeed the window to one’s soul,’ said Ganesh.

  Gopal smiled. ‘It appears that it is.’

  Shiva grinned, his brows raised. ‘Well, I’ll make sure that I keep mine shut when I meet Lord Bhrigu.’

  Gopal and Sati laughed softly.

  ‘Nevertheless, we will win,’ said Gopal.

  ‘Yes,’ said Ganesh. ‘We’re on the side of Good.’

  ‘That is true, without doubt. But that is not the reason, Lord Ganesh. We will win because of your father,’ said Gopal.

  ‘No,’ said Shiva. ‘It cannot be only me. We will win because we’re all in this together.’

  ‘It is you who brings us together, great Neelkanth,’ said Gopal. ‘Lord Bhrigu may be as intelligent as you are, maybe more. But he is not a leader like you. He uses, rather misuses his brilliance to cow down his followers. They don’t idolise him; they are scared of him. You, on the other hand, are able to draw out the best in your followers, my friend. Don’t think I did not understand what you did a few days back. You had decided upon your course of action already. But that did not stop you from having a discussion, allowing us to be a part of the decision. Somehow, you guided us all into saying what you wanted to hear. And yet, you made each one of us feel as if it was our own decision. That is leadership. Lord Bhrigu may have a bigger army than ours, but he fights alone. In our case, our entire army will fight as one. That, great Neelkanth, is a supreme tribute to your leadership.’

  Shiva, embarrassed as always when complimented, quickly changed the topic. ‘You are being too kind, Gopalji. In any case, I think we should leave. Magadh awaits us.’

  ‘Bhagirath is here?’

  Siamantak nodded at his stunned emperor. ‘Yes, My Lord.’

  ‘But how did he...’

  ‘Prime Minister Siamantak,’ said Bhrigu, interrupting Dilipa. ‘I would be delighted to meet him. Have Princess Anandmayi and her husband accompanied him?’

  ‘No, My Lord,’ said Siamantak. ‘He has come alone.’

  ‘That is most unfortunate,’ said Bhrigu. ‘Please show him in with complete honour into our presence.’

  ‘As you wish, My Lord,’ said Siamantak, as he bowed to Bhrigu and Dilipa before leaving the room.

  As soon as he had left, Bhrigu turned towards Dilipa. ‘Your Highness, you must learn to control yourself. Siamantak is unaware of the attack at the Godavari.’

  ‘I’m sorry, My Lord,’ said Dilipa. ‘It’s just that I’m shocked.’

  ‘I’m not.’

  Dilipa frowned. ‘Why, My Lord! Did you expect this?’

  ‘I can’t say that I expected this specifically. But I had strong suspicions that our attack had failed. The only question was how they would be confirmed.’

  ‘I don’t understand, My Lord. Our ships could have got destroyed in so many ways.’

  ‘It wasn’t only the destruction of our ships. There is something else. I had asked Kanakhala to try and locate the Gunas.’

  ‘Who are the Gunas?’

  ‘They are the tribe of that fraud Neelkanth. The Gunas were immigrants in Meluha. There are standard policies in Meluha for immigrants, one of them being that their records are kept strictly secret. This system ensures that they are not targeted or oppressed, and are in fact, treated well. But the upshot was that the royal record-keeper was refusing to tell his own Prime Minister where the Gunas were settled.’

  ‘How can the record-keeper do that? The Prime Minister’s word would be the order of the Emperor. And his word is law!’

  ‘Well,’ smiled Bhrigu. ‘Meluha is not like your empire, Lord Dilipa. They have this irritating habit of sticking to rules.’

  Bhrigu’s sarcasm was lost on Dilipa.

  ‘So what happened, My Lord? Did you find the Gunas?’

  ‘At first, Kanakhala seemed quite sure that the Gunas were in Devagiri itself. When that initial search yielded nothing, she had no choice but to approach Emperor Daksha. He passed an order through the Rajya Sabha that would force the Meluhan record-keeper to reveal the location of the Gunas. By the time we reached their village, they were gone.’

  ‘Gone where?’

  ‘I don’t know. I was told this happens quite often. Many immigrants are not able to adapt to the civilised but regimented life in Meluha and choose to return to their homelands. So I was asked to believe that the Gunas must have gone back to the Himalayas.’

  ‘And did you believe that?’

  ‘Of course I didn’t. I suspected the fraud Neelkanth must have spirited his tribe away before declaring war. But what could I do? I didn’t know where the Gunas were.’

  ‘But why is Bhagirath here? Why would the Neelkanth reveal his hand?’

  ‘Fraud Neelkanth, Your Highness,’ said Bhrigu, correcting Dilipa.

  ‘I’m sorry, My Lord,’ said Dilipa.

  Bhrigu looked up at the ceiling. ‘Yes, why has Shiva sent him here?’

  ‘My God!’ whispered Dilipa. ‘Could he have been sent here to assassinate me?’

  Bhrigu shook his head. ‘That is unlikely. I don’t think killing you, Your Highness, would serve any larger purpose.’

  Dilipa opened his mouth to say something but decided instead to remain silent.

  ‘Yes,’ continued Bhrigu, narrowing his eyes, ‘we do need to know why Prince Bhagirath is here. I look forward to meeting him.’

  ‘Father,’ said Bhagirath as he walked confidently into Dilipa’s chamber.

  Dilipa smiled as best he could. He didn’t really like his son. ‘How are you, Bhagirath?’

  ‘I’m all right, father.’

  ‘How was your trip to Panchavati?’

  Bhagirath glanced at Bhrigu, wondering who the old Brahmin was, before turning back to his father. ‘It was an uneventful trip, father. Perhaps the Nagas are not as bad as we think. Some of us have returned early. The Lord Neelkanth will join us later.’

  Dilipa frowned, as if surprised, and turned towards Bhrigu.

  Bhagirath arched his eyebrow before turning towards Bhrigu as well with a Namaste and quick bow of his head. ‘Please accept my apologies for my bad manners, Brahmin. I was overwhelmed with emotions on seeing my father.’

  Bhrigu looked deep into Bhagirath’s eyes.

  Bhagirath is consumed with curiosity about who I am. I better put this to rest so that his conscious mind can move on to more useful thoughts.

  ‘Perhaps it is I who should apologise,’ said Bhrigu. ‘I have not introduced myself. I’m a simple sage who lives in the Himalayas and goes by the name of Bhrigu.’

  Bhagirath straightened up in surprise. Of course he knew who Bhrigu was, although he hadn’t met him. Bhagirath stepped forward and bent low, touching the sage’s feet. ‘Maharishi Bhrigu, it is my life’s honour to meet you. I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to seek your blessings.’

  ‘Ayushman bhav,’ said Bhrigu, blessing Bhagirath with a long lif
e.

  Bhrigu then placed his hands on Bhagirath’s shoulders and pulled him up, while once again looking directly into his eyes.

  Bhagirath has realised that his imbecile father is not the true leader. I am. And he’s scared. Good. Now all I have to do is make him think some more.

  ‘I trust the Neelkanth is well?’ asked Bhrigu. ‘I have still not had the pleasure of meeting the man who commoners believe is the saviour of our times.’

  ‘He is well, My Lord,’ said Bhagirath. ‘And is worthy of the title he carries. In fact, there are those of us who believe that he even deserves the title of the Mahadev.’

  So, Bhagirath volunteered to uncover the identity of the true leader. Interesting. That Tibetan barbarian understands that this fool Dilipa could not have been the one. He has more intelligence than I thought.

  ‘Allow posterity to prevail upon the present in deciding the honour and title bestowed upon man, my dear Prince of Ayodhya,’ said Bhrigu. ‘Duty must be performed for its own sake, not for the power and pelf it might bring. I am sure that even your Neelkanth is familiar with Lord Vasudev’s nugget of wisdom which encapsulates this thought: Karmanye vaadhikaa raste maa phaleshu kadachana.’

  ‘Oh, the Neelkanth is the embodiment of that thought, Maharishiji,’ said Bhagirath. ‘He never calls himself the Mahadev. It is we who address him as such.’

  Bhrigu smiled. ‘Your Neelkanth must be truly great to inspire such loyalty, brave Prince. By the way, how was Panchavati? I have never had the pleasure of visiting that land.’

  ‘It is a beautiful city, Maharishiji.’

  They were attacked at the outskirts of Panchavati... So our ships did make it through. And their devil boats got us. Well, at least our information about the location of Panchavati is correct.

  ‘With Lord Ram’s blessings,’ said Bhrigu, ‘I will visit Panchavati someday.’

  ‘I’m sure that the Queen of the Nagas would be honoured, My Lord,’ said Bhagirath.

  Bhrigu smiled. Kali would kill me if she had half a chance. Her temper is even more volatile than Lord Rudra’s legendary anger.

  ‘But Prince Bhagirath,’ said Bhrigu, ‘I must complain about an iniquity that you have committed.’