Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Vishkanya Part-1

430 B.C

more than 50 years passed after Gautama Buddha departed the world. In the meantime some change had been occurred in north Indian politics. 16 mahajanapadas didn't exist anymore maximum of them was merged with Magadha including Kosala which was once strongest opponent of Magadha. western India was taken over by Persian rulers. Except Magadha in eastern and central India only two powers exist Avanti in central India which has made other powerful mahajanapada Vatsa merged with it. Another was republican Vrajji whose capital was Vaishali and it was a confederacy of ganarajyas , it was once annexed by Ajatshatru and was merged with Magadh, but Vaishali and few parts of Vrajji got freed during the rule of inefficient ruler of magadha after Ajatshatru.
                          Bimbisara, the first historical king of Magadha who first attempted to expand of Magadha from kingdom to empire and founder of Haryanka dynasty was contemporary of Gautam Buddha who became disciple of Buddha, His son Ajatshatru became ruler by executing his father. After that this became the curse of Haryanka dynasty. Every king got eliminated and assassinated by their son who became the next ruler. it was known fact to become king to this dynasty one must kill his father. Ajatshatru succeeded to make Magadha an empire by his strategy. Pataliputra was built by him. later he also became a disciple of Budha inspite being violent on Budha in past. Ajatshatru too was terminated and killed by his son Udayin who transferred the capital of Magadh from Rajgriha to Pataliputra. But from his time Haryanka dynasty started getting weakened because of inefficiency of rulers, He also assassinated by his son Anuruddha . magadh's kings started turning to be more cruel and tyrant to their subjects, Anuruddha was executed by his son Munda.and he was murdered by Nagdashak. Nagdashak turned out to be worst ruler of more than 100 years of history of Haryanka dynasty. His cruelty crossed every limit , there was no bad side which was not present in him, Wine and women was instruments of his brutal pleasure. His most horrible habbit was to invent mode of punishing those who oppose him to torture them in worst possible way , his cruelty were unbound. His feature more frightening , huge , black ugly and hairy as bu fellow that's why people had named him Chanda. with time Nagdashak was started to be remembered as Chanda.

It was 3 years passed after Chanda ascended the throne. People of Magadha had been traumatized with his tyranny already , but frightened people was yet not united to rebel. Chanda's prime minister was Shibmishra was the only person who was sympathetic to the countrymen. But with all his best effort he couldn't do anything good for the people and his hatred for the king get stronger. Through his man Nagbandhu he tried to help the poor of Pataliputra secretly but it was not possible to change people's condition without king's conscent.Once when Chanda was planning to suck the blood of subjects by some new policy Shibmishra couldn't tolerate anymore, Politely he disagreed with Chanda and the result was as expected, Chanda ordered to get Shibmishra buried alive in cremation ground with only head outside the soil so that at night wild animals can eat his flesh. people shivered by this ordeal but they didn't dare to say anything to avoid the same fate.
After issued the order Chanda with pleased state of mind sitting on the throne , enjoying dance of the best dancers of Magadh. Musicians playing a beautiful tune.And consuming alcohol from the glass of a young maid sitting on his lap. Another maid is airing her, Chanda's look and gesture used to remind demons in the puranas. His men are sitting silently on courtroom silently , Shibmishra's punishment left an effect on them. they are sitting with heavy heart but not daring to utter a single word. An astrologer is busy in reading future . Suddenly Kanchuki (the caretaker of Andarmahal and king's mistresses) enters and talks something in Chanda's ears. Chanda frowned , and raising hand asked to stop the musician then burst into demonic laughter much to the astonishment and fear of courtroom, He stops and then announces,
"Morika gave birth to a daughter."

Morika was one of the most beautiful kept of Chanda , a poor maid with poorer fate.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Vishkanya (The Poisonous Girl)

The creation that I am trying to translate here is the one of those tragic tales that affected me so much that I got impatient to share this particular write up to know whether others agree to the end? I will share the story with few addition of mine and my readers will decide weather i will keep the ending as it was by Sharadindu.

       As the name suggests this story is about a poisonous girl. Vishkanya or poisonous girls was a practice of ancient India to be used as weapons to destroy enemy of the then king, Vishkanya were those girls who had a natural resistance to poison so they used to consume very less quantity poison with food which used to made those girls immune to poison and so their blood, teeth or nails used to get poisonous and if they bite or scratch any person that person get poisoned and die. this girls used to work as king's defense in ancient India. the practice was introduced by Chanakya Visnugupta as defense for India's first emperor Chandragupta Maurya, later this custom had been adopted by various kings and emperor to make army of poisonous girls
       These Vishkanyas used to get deprived of love life as any male comes in physical contact to them used to die. They were not allowed to love and marry.
     
 This story is not on above kind of Vishkanya, rather there use d to be another kind of poisonous girls who didn't used to consume poison , they were made Vishkanya by fate not by any king , these girls used to take birth with curse of harming the people close to them so astrology used to mark them as Vishkanya.So they were treated same as the general Vishkanya to harm the enemies though poison didn't flow with their bloods This story is about such a Vishkanya. I have taken few modification to justify the story's timeline and making it more convincing.

I am sharing main characters of these story for readers to memorize.

Ulka - Vishkanya (illegitimate child of  Chanda)

Nagdashak (Chanda given name by people) - King of Magadh (last successor of famous king Bimbisara-Ajatshatru of Haryanka dynasty) the tyrant

Shibmishra (later called as Shibamishra) - former prime minister of Chanda , foster father of Ulka

Senjit - the last living descendant of Haryanka dynasty , he has distant blood relation with the dynasty but no proper relation with Chanda , a warrior still loving man towards all living being

Morika - maid servant of Chanda, mother of Ulka

Nagbandhu - follower of Shibamishra

Batukvatta - A Brahmin Jester of Chanda's court

Shishunaga - viceroy of Kashi and army general of Chanda , childhood friend of Senjit , illegitimate son of a Lichhavi king and a courtesan of Vaishali an ambitious young man ,

Avantiivardhana - king of Avanti (last king of Pradyota dynasty), in a friendly treaty with Chanda

Rupnandini - princess of Avanti

Basabi - Ulka's friend. attendant and adviser (daughter of Shisunaga's mother)

Jatismar - author himself, a traveler who keeps taking birth in Bharatvarsh in various character and keeps account of the experiences of every birth , a silent spectator of time.


Idol Of Mine

As a devoted history lover historical fictions are ones which make me mesmerized most quickly and the only one legendary author in Bengali literature can be called the almighty of this filed and he is Sharadindu Bandopadhyay (he is famously known as the creator of a legendary Bengali detective Byomkesh Bakshi whose tales had been dramatized by a Hindi  tele-series on DD in early 90’s with actor Rajit Kapoor playing Byomkesh Bakshi).
The historical fictions and romances of Sharadindu had the power to transport you to that era, as if you can feel there is a curtain between you and the ancient world , a call for you is coming from beyond the ages you will feel restless to remove the curtain but you can't. Perhaps Sharadindyu could.