The Enchantress

Chapter fifty six

"Now, I declare you as the king of the Mafia," Ayush said, giving a sword to Viraj that was passed on from generations.

"And I declare you as the Queen of the Mafia," Aabha said with a smile, moving an aarti ki thaali (a plate with lamp, vermillion, turmeric and sweet) round and round in front of Mahamaya, before finally feeding her the sweet. Aabha then took rice grains from Sameera who was holding the bag and kept the grains on Mahamaya's lap.

Mahamaya was wearing a royal pink saree, with ornaments fit for royalty. Meanwhile, Viraj was indeed dressed like a King, wearing traditional clothing and ornaments too.

They had returned the previous day from the travelling and were given the rest of the day to cope up with exhaustion of the travel. 

After both had woken up, they were taken separately to two different bath houses in the bungalow. The men were helping Viraj and the women were helping Mahamaya.

There, the water of the six rivers, Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada, Kaveri, Godavari, Sindhu (Indus) were kept in a golden pot. There were holes at the bottom of the pot, thus mimicking a shower as the water dripped on them. It would have been seven but the river Saraswati had dried up.

A Brahmin man and a woman respectively chanted, "Gangecha Yamunechaiva Godavari Saraswati, Narmade Sindhu Kaveri jalasmeen sannidhim kuru."

(Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu, Kaveri rivers, I invoke you in this water.)

The chanting could have been done by anybody but it was necessary to be trained in the vocals, to know which sound was to be lengthened and which were supposed to be short. That's why, especially Brahmins were asked to come conduct the ceremony of crowning the new King. They both were then dressed and gotten ready for the ceremony.

Then, they were brought to the courtyard where this ceremony was taking place and many politicians and guests were invited in this ceremony too. First, Vijay had taken the oath to save the King and his Mafia family, even if it would cost him his own life. Viraj and Mahamaya were required to deliver similar speeches.

However, they had one more speech to deliver and Mahamaya could still hear Viraj's words, "I, Vishnuvyas (Viraj's another name used by him as the Mafia name), on this auspicious day, with Agnideva (fire God) as witness, (because it was a hawan (sacrificial fire) ceremony, where fire is burnt, like in a marriage ceremony) declare Sumati (Mahamaya's new name) as my wife and more than that, your Queen. I thereby declare that it is my duty to protect her and her honour."

Mahamaya's speech had followed his, "I, Sumati, on this auspicious day, with Agnideva (fire God) as witness, declare Vishnuvyas as my husband, thus making me the Queen, mother to you all and I vow to love everyone of you as my kids."

Mahamaya was busy remembering what had happened, that had led to the present, as she tasted the sweetness in her mouth which was fed to her by Aabha. She smiled as they were showered with blessings. She had not taken it seriously when they would call Viraj the future King but this indeed felt like a crowning ceremony of a King.

She leaned close to Viraj and whispered to him discretely, "When you had said coronation, I didn't know you meant it this literally. I had not imagined that crowning of the Mafia King could be this religious."

Viraj chuckled, smiling politely in front of everybody as he whispered back, "No, this is not how it is done. If Maayi (mother, Aabha) had gotten this much respect, Aaba (father) couldn't have abused her."

Mahamaya was stunned as she whispered to him again, "Then what is all this?"

He had a gentle smile on his face as he whispered, "All this was my wish. I wanted to show you what you mean for me and for everyone here."

Mahamaya's eyes almost watered. She whispered again, "Thank you. This means a lot. It reminds me of the coronation ceremony of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj."

Viraj whispered, "Where do you think I got this idea from? Of course I got it from the history textbook of the fourth grade."

That made Mahamaya chuckle and shake her head in amusement. She saw Tara and Yuvraj playing together and she leaned back on the throne made for her, relaxed.

Ayush and Viraj declared, "We officially pronounce you two as the new King and the Queen of our Mafia..."

*****
The end. The book two will take a while to start, maybe more than two weeks. Till then, I will cross check this book again and look for mistakes here. Thank you so much to everyone who read till this and I hope I will have you in my further journey as a writer. If you want to know when I'll launch the next book, follow me and I'll announce it.