THE REVENGE OF THE SNAKE KING -
I have to take revenge on him. My whole tribe was ensconced in that lovely
forest. Generations lived there : my father, my grandfather whom I barely
saw, my great grandfather whom I never saw. Women from different forests
came here to become wives, mothers and grandmothers. And now all of
them are burnt to ashes. I am alone now, managed to escape with a friend’s
help.
Why did they burn us all ? Not just the beasts and birds, but also the
stately trees. I never knew humans were bad till we met our fate at the
hands of these cruel princes. The humans we knew earlier were gentle
souls who entered the forest to sit and meditate. At times they would tell us
stories and we would sit around them and listen. They never harmed us
and we never got in their way.
It seems that the five princes wanted to build a new city. This was
the region they got as their share of the ancestral property. They could
have built their city outside the forest. They had all the land they wanted.
Why did they burn this lovely forest Those trees were as old as the
heavens. Don’t these people have any eye for beauty ? All this to build
dwellings for themselves and their wives !
Now I know that they don’t worry about our kind. There were so
many species of beasts and birds in that forest. They have all disappeared
from this earth now. Don’t these humans realize the devastation that they
are causing Mother Nature ?May be I should not blame all the humans. But
this prince known all over as the best archer is the real villain. He has four
other brothers but this archer is our enemy .
It is over now. I have escaped and I am told that my son also has
escaped. All we have to do now is to plot our revenge. We have to bide our
time. We were happy when we learnt that those princes lost their kingdom
in gambling. The city they built by burning the forest is now with their
cousins. Yes, they have paid their prince for annihilation of Mother Nature
and her children. Well, not quite. The archer still has to pay his price for
obliterating us all !
------------------
Time marches on and the five princes after their exile of 13 years
had a a major battle with their cousins and vanquished them. During the
battle, my son decided to take revenge on the archer. With magic he
transformed himself into an arrow and took his place in the quiver of
archer’s adversary but was found out and killed by our enemy . This has
increased my sorrow and my desire for revenge.
I wait and wait. The five princes are no more. Now the archer’s
grandson has become the king . I myself am much older. I cannot even
remember the number of times I have shed my skins. But I have to take my
revenge on the archer’s family before I die. This is my last chance .
Fate seems to be helping me now. It seems the king got a curse
that he would be bitten by a snake within a week and die. I don’t know
about the curse, but he sure got some phobia. May be it is guilt for what his
grandfather did ! This is how the sins of fathers and grandfathers visit their
youngsters! He has constructed a high tower for himself in the middle of
water. And all holes and crevices have been filled up so no snake enters !
I find all these precautions strange ! Don’t these humans know
that snakes take revenge whatever may be ? They may wait and wait but
finally they make it ! We snakes know magic very well. That was how I had
escaped from the burning forest. It was with magic that my son had
transformed into an arrow. I looked for ways to enter the high tower. I
decided to use magic and became a very small worm. I found that fruits
were being sent from the royal kitchen. I bore a minute hole in a mango. As
the king, my archenemy’s grandson, bit into the fruit, I transformed back
into myself and bit him. The youth died very fast since I had pumped
venom stored from years into him.
My revenge was complete! But I know full well that the humans
will get back at us. They will try to destroy us totally. And that is how it will
be as they destroy more and more forests for their selfish ends !
(This could be Takshaka’s story in Mahabaharata: To build their new
kingdom, Arjuna sets fire to Khandava forest in which many animals,
snakes etc die. The snake (naga) king Takshaka takes revenge on him by
biting and killing his grand son Parikshit.As implied at the end of this story,
Parikshit's son Janamejaya decides to kill all snakes.. khandava forest was
cleared to build their capital Indraprastha - the purana Qila area of Delhi)
(repeat of a story which appeared 18 months ago
)
THE RACE STRUGGLE - The Astika Story
I get up this morning and see my mother crying. My father is not home.
When I ask my mother she does not say anything. But keeps on weeping. I
entreat her. Finally she opens up MY PEOPLE ARE GETTING
PERSECUTED. She stops her crying and goes away. But not before she
gives me a big stare. Mother is usually very cheerful. But today her stare had
anger written all over it
My father is much older than my mother. It seems he was very much
immersed in his Vedic studies and had no time for anything else. And he
was getting older . It was at that time he had a strange dream. In it he saw
several people hanging upside down from a thin branch which was about to
fall. And when he asked them the reason , they told him that they are
ancestors of a scholar who has not married and has no children. They cannot
go to heaven unless he gets married and he has offspring. As he was about to
ask them the name of the scholar, it became daybreak. As he started
thinking about it , he realized that he indeed was the scholar in the dream.
My mother tells it better. All of a sudden your father had a shock. He
realized that he had spent all his youth in the study of this and that. All that
he got was some smugness that he knew about things. Big Deal. And he
realized that he does not know anything about anything else. And then this
business of his ancestors in the dream. He started seeing them more and
more often in his dreams . And in one of the dreams he saw himself hanging
from that slender branch. And that was it. He decided to get married. He
looked at himself in the mirror. He had lost some of this hair. And here and
there he had white hairs too. He went looking for a bride. He probably
would have gotten one soon if not for his strange requirement. No, he still
wanted a girl. But what he wanted was one who had the same name as his !
He could not find any suitable bride in his community.
And then he came to our village. My father who was the head of the
village was thrilled to see a great Brahmin scholar come to his village.
Your father's scholarship impressed my father enormously. He was asked to
stay in the village for some more time. My parents decided that he would be
the right bridegroom for me. I demurred slightly and said somethng about
the age difference. My mother rebuked me and said she was after all 20
years younger than my father and that it really did not matter. And then
there was this strange condition of your father about the name of the bride.
My parents said it is a very small matter and chaned my name to match
your father's . Though our community was different and looked down upon
in the society, the marriage took place. yes, I did not want to live with a
man's name and got it changed back to my original one. And it was
confusing too !
MY PEOPLE ARE GETTING PERSECUTED. What did she mean
by that ?. I ask her the next day about what she said about her people. She
looks at me and smiles weakly. You are too involved with yourself . Go back
to your studies What was I supposed to do ? Mine was the age for studies
and that was that ! No, she is angry for some reason and taking it out on me
!
From that day onwards , life became very different at home. My
mother would always be morose. Or she would scream sometime. And the
same words. MY PEOPLE ARE GETTING PERSECUTED. My father was
rarely at home and even then he did not seem to care. But I was bent on
getting some answers from him. When I finally got him, he said
something like it is all one's karma. I was not satisfied with the answer and
badgered my mother about it.
I learnt from her about the the relation between the two
communities , the Nagas and the Kurus. It went far back in time. It would
be peaceful sometime and then again some skirmishes . It had gone on for
ages like that,. But recently the provocation seemed to have come from the
Kurus . The Nagas were known to be one with nature and were living in a
forest. In some dispute in the Kuru royal family , this forest and land of
Nagas was given away to one of the cousins. In fact, the Kurus had no
jurisdiction over the land. The Kuru cousins burnt the forest and occupied
the land of the Nagas and evicted them. During that forceful occupation ,
many Nagas were killed . The leader of the Nagas swore revenge . He
eventually killed the scion of the Kurus. And now the present Kuru king
was determined to exterminate all Nagas. Nagas from everywehre were
being rounded up and burnt at the stake.
My mother's health was deteriorating. And her lament about her
people went on increasing. I slowly realized that her people are after all my
people too. I had to do something about it. I could not sit quiet anymore. On
one morning I went to her and told her that I want to do something for my
people. She smiled but asked me to think more deeply about it. Your
education is still not complete , You know .
Yes, it was true. There was still much I had to learn. But how long
do I sit doing nothing about it . I decided that my studies had to take a back
seat. The paramount thing was the welfare of my people who were inc
chains and being burnt.
I again went to my mother and she welcomed my decision this time. She
went ahead and said that was my destiny. Son, you are ready now. May be
you are the one born to put a stop to this great injustice. I did not
understand her words. I was sceptical about being a hero but i also wanted
to do something for my people . And yes, I also wanted to make my
presence felt in this world ! As I was about to leave she told me something
which I had not known. Your grandfather was indeed the king of the nagas
and his son, my brother, was the one who killed the Kuru king . His name ?
Takshaka
As I started from my home, I was not sure how I would go about
doing this. After all, I had learnt archery too. Yes, i was not a bad archer.
But what can I do when the whole Kuru army faces me. How can I fight
them ? No, that wont work. I had to think of other ways. This battle was not
going to be won with arms. I had no choice except to persuade the Kuru king
that what he was doing was wrong.
As I proceed towatds the Kuru capital, I see several places with
piled up ash. When I went near those piles, i saw half burnt limbs. When i
asked people around, I was told that they were Nagas set on fire by the Kuru
army. Now I understood my agony of my mother. MY PEOPLE ARE
BEING PERSECUTED . Yes, it was true. It was not just persectuion; this
was a pogrom to finish a race !
As I enter the Kuru capital, I see lot of excitement evrfywhere.
It seems a big number of Nagas had been rounded up and the king himself
was to set fire to them. Why was it so special ? It seems a Naga leader had
been caught and he was the prime catch . Who was it ? Takshaka, the one
who had killed the present Kuru king;s father. While a powerful chieftain
called Indra had provided shelter for Takshaka,, he had to obey the Kuru
King'sorders since the Kuru soldiers had told him that he, Indra , would
also be captured and burnt if he continued giving succour to Takshaka. Now
Takshaka was alone and he was to be burnt today !
Yes, this is the time for me. I had to stop it, not just for my
uncle but for the whole Naga race. I asked to be taken near the king. The
soldiers obliged. After all I was a Brahmin and we were respected
throughout the land. The king was seated on his throne at one end of a abig
field. There was his entourage nearby. And at the other end of the field, there
were many people . Most of them looked very tired . Some of them did not
have any clothers on. And there were women and children too. I realized that
these were the Nagas about to be burnt
Since thre was still time for the burning to start , the king
started chatting with me. He asked me about wht I had learnt. I told him
about the Vedas and all the knowledge I had. He was very impressed. And
he gave me a boon. I could ask for anything and he would give me that !
And there was my opportunity !
I said ' O king ! This killing has to stop ! You are an
intelligent peson. You have to see that no single individual is responsible for
whatever has happened. Your great grandfather drrove Nagas from their
abode. And many Nagas were killed at that time. . And because of it the
Naga chief, takshaka, kills your father. May be you could have taken
revenge only on Takshaka. . But you have invovled all Nagas in the fight
between two people. How long can this go on ? '
The king was annoyed. Young man, it does not concern
you. You should ask for land and wealth. Sir, I do not want any land or
wealthI told him that I do not need any land or wealth. Learned Youth, i
am ready to give my s daughter in marraiag e. I told him that I dont want it,
at least not for the present.
I tried convincing him again . Oh, King ! How long do you
want this to continue ? You kill a Naga today. And you get satisified . But
there is some naga somehwere else . He will take revenge on you. Then
your son will take revenge on Nagas. It will just go on. There is no end for
revenge. This has to stop'
It took great persuasion on my part to stop the Kuru king
from his cruel act. And finally i did. The emperor gave me his daughter in
marriage. When we get children, I hope they get the best qualaities of both
communiteis.. It will be a new race. It will be the beginning of good times
for Bharatavarsha !
Sahadeva Speaks Out !
(A LETTER TO SAGE VYASA)
Sir Author,
at some time or other every human being wonders about
the purpose of his existence. The Creator owes them some explanations.
Similarly you created us and we are questioning you about why you put us
in the great story. What was your purpose in introducing us? You glorified
the exploits of our three elder brothers –Dharma (The Wise One) , Bheema (
The Big One) and Arjuna (The Egotist) You made them out to be so great
and in singing their praises you totally ignored us !Don’t tell us that you do
not know who we are ! Sir, our mother is Madri , the second wife of King
Pandu. And we, Sir, are her sons. Just to refresh your memory our names
are Nakula and Sahadeva. Though I, Sahadeva, am writing this letter to you
I am speaking on behalf of my brother also.
One does not know why you bumped our mother off very early in her
life. Even our step mother was not partial to our elder brothers. She was
such a great lady we always called her Mother. We never missed our real
mother. But, Sir, you as the author have been extremely partial to the three
elder ones. You even forgot that we are also your grandchildren. We did
not have a father and when we came to you for affection you never picked
us up. Our evil cousins used to ridicule the two of us a lot. They would
intentionally call me by my brother’s name and my brother by my name.
Even their friends would torment us. Sir Author, we had to bear all this due
to your callousness towards us.
One of our many complaints is that you gave the Egotist all the
women in the story. He visits the Dark One on the west coast, woos her and
marries his sister. Do you think we could not have done it ? He goes to
heaven and Urvashi falls for him. Sir, you know very well that Nakula is the
most handsome of us all. Then you send the Egotist to the eastern region
where he marries several women including the serpent princess. You did
good job of acting out all your fantasies through him. Well, we could have
also been the conduit for your fantasies .
Infamy after infamy ! Sir, why did you tear up the first draft in which
you had described our marriage in great detail? It is true that for a long
time that our young queen was never sure of who was who amongst the
brothers. Yes, she quite often did mistake me for my brother and my
brother for me. Later there was some misunderstanding and I went in
instead of the Egotist. She mistook me for him and told me/him that it was
the best night she had in her entire married life. It would have shown your
great hero in poor light, Is it not? Sir, you may not know it but what will go
down as one of the greatest secret of all times is the intimacy between her
and us. You probably sensed it but never dared to tell the whole world that
our queen did indeed prefer the two of us to our illustrious elder brothers.
Sir, we three had such wonderful times. Yes, in the bedroom and elsewhere
! Our greatest happiness was that our beautiful queen liked and loved us
more than the other three. She told us once about the miserable nights she
used to have with our elder brothers . The Wise One did not know anything
about sex, the Big One treated her as though she was an opponent in a
wrestling match and the Egotist acted as though he was God’s gift to all
womankind. May be we should not criticize you much. After all you had sex
only three times in your life. Sir, it was pathetic. The first one closed her
eyes when you entered her boudoir which resulted in the birth of our blind
uncle (Even if he had had eyes, he could be described as blind!) . The
second one became pale and after nine months gave birth to our father.
And the third one was just doing her duty! Sir, while your procreating
powers with a single shot does merit some applause, we believe that you
do not know anything about women. Our queen was the most wonderful
woman in the whole universe. And it was our greatest pride that it was the
two of us who were closest to her through thick and thin. Do you know to
whom she came for solace when our great eldest brother sold her off to our
evil cousins? Yes, Sir! it was to the two of us and you conveniently forgot
that incident. There was the other time when one of Egotist’s wives
ridiculed our queen that if she had been taken out of the fire earlier she
would not have been dark like cinder ( You do remember she was born out
of Fire and came out of the sacrificial altar). Our queen cried so much that
night in front of us that we two had to talk very roughly to the Egotist. We
would have beaten him up that day if our queen had not come in between
us.
You remember the chapter where all of us had to be incognito so that
our evil cousins wont find us. We do agree that the whole episode was one
of your best tries. But you denied us juicy roles and again gave the Egotist
a great role. Even here you let him spend all the time with ladies. May be it
was one more of your fantasies . And, pray, what roles did we get ? My
handsome brother had to look after cows and I had to look after horses. I
also could have killed that villain who lusted after our wife. No, you had the
Big One do it. Don’t you think I could have done it. I had even defeated the
Big One several times in the wrestling arena. No, Sir you had your
favorites. And you made the Egotist defeat single handedly the army of the
evil cousins. If he was so great , please tell us why did the great war go on
for 18 days. Do you know that we joked with our brothers that we do not
have to be really incognito since we were never recognized even otherwise.
You again gave wonderful lines to the Egotist on the very first day of
the great war. You knew who gave the Egotist such thoughts but you chose
not to mention it. The Wise One had compromised and the Big One never
had any doubts. Our queen was in favour of the war and this is where we
disagreed with her. The Egotist was in two minds. Sir, it was we two- my
brother and I - who abhorred the idea of any war, let alone against our evil
cousins. As everybody knows, it is always the young who have doubts. We
conveyed it to the Egotist in no uncertain terms. We made a good job of
sowing the seeds of doubt. The great dialogue between the Egotist and the
Dark One eventually came to be known as the Song Celestial. The Egotist
could have mentioned it in the beginning that these were not entirely his
thoughts. But he never gave credit to others in his entire life.
At the very end when you decided to bump us all off, you killed off
our queen first. She was the force behind us all and it was really she who
would have survived the whole arduous journey. Even among the brothers,
you killed the two of us, the younger ones , first. Sir, what type of logic is
it ? You killed us as off though we were the old and the sick when, in fact, it
was the eldest who should have fallen first. This was your last act of
partiality in the whole story.
You gave us such an inferiority complex that it should have been
named after one of us. Even here we got cheated out. People talk of this
complex, that complex. Why not call it Sahadeva complex ? We want to
know whether you had the whole story in mind when you asked the
Elephant God to be your scribe. Or did you start making it up as you went
along ? It is true that big dramas need some small time players who come
and go in certain scenes. But, Sir, you made us small time players through
out the story.
We are told that another great story of our land went through several
transformations when it traveled to other lands. It is true that there is grave
injustice to the two younger brothers in that story also (Did you get your
inspiration from that story ?) . We hope that in some far off land
somewhere your great story will be transformed to make us the real heroes
and not zeroes as you have portrayed us.
Sir, we can go on and on but we cannot afford to do it. You just went
on dictating and one does not know how often Mother Parvati had to
bandage her son’s writing finger. But we do not have that luxury. Our editor
has allowed us a maximum of only certain number of words. We cannot
exceed the limit since we want this letter to be selected . This is the only
way that the whole world will hear our complaint. Sir, thanks for reading the
letter. If you do feel guilty, the letter has served its purpose.
the purpose of his existence. The Creator owes them some explanations.
Similarly you created us and we are questioning you about why you put us
in the great story. What was your purpose in introducing us? You glorified
the exploits of our three elder brothers –Dharma (The Wise One) , Bheema (
The Big One) and Arjuna (The Egotist) You made them out to be so great
and in singing their praises you totally ignored us !Don’t tell us that you do
not know who we are ! Sir, our mother is Madri , the second wife of King
Pandu. And we, Sir, are her sons. Just to refresh your memory our names
are Nakula and Sahadeva. Though I, Sahadeva, am writing this letter to you
I am speaking on behalf of my brother also.
One does not know why you bumped our mother off very early in her
life. Even our step mother was not partial to our elder brothers. She was
such a great lady we always called her Mother. We never missed our real
mother. But, Sir, you as the author have been extremely partial to the three
elder ones. You even forgot that we are also your grandchildren. We did
not have a father and when we came to you for affection you never picked
us up. Our evil cousins used to ridicule the two of us a lot. They would
intentionally call me by my brother’s name and my brother by my name.
Even their friends would torment us. Sir Author, we had to bear all this due
to your callousness towards us.
One of our many complaints is that you gave the Egotist all the
women in the story. He visits the Dark One on the west coast, woos her and
marries his sister. Do you think we could not have done it ? He goes to
heaven and Urvashi falls for him. Sir, you know very well that Nakula is the
most handsome of us all. Then you send the Egotist to the eastern region
where he marries several women including the serpent princess. You did
good job of acting out all your fantasies through him. Well, we could have
also been the conduit for your fantasies .
Infamy after infamy ! Sir, why did you tear up the first draft in which
you had described our marriage in great detail? It is true that for a long
time that our young queen was never sure of who was who amongst the
brothers. Yes, she quite often did mistake me for my brother and my
brother for me. Later there was some misunderstanding and I went in
instead of the Egotist. She mistook me for him and told me/him that it was
the best night she had in her entire married life. It would have shown your
great hero in poor light, Is it not? Sir, you may not know it but what will go
down as one of the greatest secret of all times is the intimacy between her
and us. You probably sensed it but never dared to tell the whole world that
our queen did indeed prefer the two of us to our illustrious elder brothers.
Sir, we three had such wonderful times. Yes, in the bedroom and elsewhere
! Our greatest happiness was that our beautiful queen liked and loved us
more than the other three. She told us once about the miserable nights she
used to have with our elder brothers . The Wise One did not know anything
about sex, the Big One treated her as though she was an opponent in a
wrestling match and the Egotist acted as though he was God’s gift to all
womankind. May be we should not criticize you much. After all you had sex
only three times in your life. Sir, it was pathetic. The first one closed her
eyes when you entered her boudoir which resulted in the birth of our blind
uncle (Even if he had had eyes, he could be described as blind!) . The
second one became pale and after nine months gave birth to our father.
And the third one was just doing her duty! Sir, while your procreating
powers with a single shot does merit some applause, we believe that you
do not know anything about women. Our queen was the most wonderful
woman in the whole universe. And it was our greatest pride that it was the
two of us who were closest to her through thick and thin. Do you know to
whom she came for solace when our great eldest brother sold her off to our
evil cousins? Yes, Sir! it was to the two of us and you conveniently forgot
that incident. There was the other time when one of Egotist’s wives
ridiculed our queen that if she had been taken out of the fire earlier she
would not have been dark like cinder ( You do remember she was born out
of Fire and came out of the sacrificial altar). Our queen cried so much that
night in front of us that we two had to talk very roughly to the Egotist. We
would have beaten him up that day if our queen had not come in between
us.
You remember the chapter where all of us had to be incognito so that
our evil cousins wont find us. We do agree that the whole episode was one
of your best tries. But you denied us juicy roles and again gave the Egotist
a great role. Even here you let him spend all the time with ladies. May be it
was one more of your fantasies . And, pray, what roles did we get ? My
handsome brother had to look after cows and I had to look after horses. I
also could have killed that villain who lusted after our wife. No, you had the
Big One do it. Don’t you think I could have done it. I had even defeated the
Big One several times in the wrestling arena. No, Sir you had your
favorites. And you made the Egotist defeat single handedly the army of the
evil cousins. If he was so great , please tell us why did the great war go on
for 18 days. Do you know that we joked with our brothers that we do not
have to be really incognito since we were never recognized even otherwise.
You again gave wonderful lines to the Egotist on the very first day of
the great war. You knew who gave the Egotist such thoughts but you chose
not to mention it. The Wise One had compromised and the Big One never
had any doubts. Our queen was in favour of the war and this is where we
disagreed with her. The Egotist was in two minds. Sir, it was we two- my
brother and I - who abhorred the idea of any war, let alone against our evil
cousins. As everybody knows, it is always the young who have doubts. We
conveyed it to the Egotist in no uncertain terms. We made a good job of
sowing the seeds of doubt. The great dialogue between the Egotist and the
Dark One eventually came to be known as the Song Celestial. The Egotist
could have mentioned it in the beginning that these were not entirely his
thoughts. But he never gave credit to others in his entire life.
At the very end when you decided to bump us all off, you killed off
our queen first. She was the force behind us all and it was really she who
would have survived the whole arduous journey. Even among the brothers,
you killed the two of us, the younger ones , first. Sir, what type of logic is
it ? You killed us as off though we were the old and the sick when, in fact, it
was the eldest who should have fallen first. This was your last act of
partiality in the whole story.
You gave us such an inferiority complex that it should have been
named after one of us. Even here we got cheated out. People talk of this
complex, that complex. Why not call it Sahadeva complex ? We want to
know whether you had the whole story in mind when you asked the
Elephant God to be your scribe. Or did you start making it up as you went
along ? It is true that big dramas need some small time players who come
and go in certain scenes. But, Sir, you made us small time players through
out the story.
We are told that another great story of our land went through several
transformations when it traveled to other lands. It is true that there is grave
injustice to the two younger brothers in that story also (Did you get your
inspiration from that story ?) . We hope that in some far off land
somewhere your great story will be transformed to make us the real heroes
and not zeroes as you have portrayed us.
Sir, we can go on and on but we cannot afford to do it. You just went
on dictating and one does not know how often Mother Parvati had to
bandage her son’s writing finger. But we do not have that luxury. Our editor
has allowed us a maximum of only certain number of words. We cannot
exceed the limit since we want this letter to be selected . This is the only
way that the whole world will hear our complaint. Sir, thanks for reading the
letter. If you do feel guilty, the letter has served its purpose.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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