Ramayana Retold - Shivam's Romantic Version

THE SECOND NAGA PRINCESS

                       CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS CHAPTER

It was almost an hour since the The Prince of Lanka had reached the Kingdom of the Nagas , Popularly referred to as Naaglok

The Kindgdom of Naaglok was said to be designed by the Great Vishwakarma Himself , consisting of five large intertwined cities , with the Palace right in the middle of the kingdom , fortified heavily.

Originally there were supposed to be 100 small regions which were meant to be governed by the hundred children of Kadru and Rishi Kashyap , but the differences in ideologies and subsequent violent disputes led to disownment of all but four of Sheshnaag 's siblings , namely Vasuki , Takshaka , Manasa and Iravati , and hence the hundred regions were merged into five for the five eldest siblings. The rebellion of Ninety five was absolutely crushed in front of the overwhelming brute strength of the eldest five , specially the three Brothers Shesha , Vasuki and Takshaka.

But even then , as fate would have it , rather than govern each territory separately , all the siblings chose to reside at the palace itself , close to one another , and govern the entire five regions collectively as one strong united force from within the walls .The eldest ShehshNaag, mightiest of all the brothers and sisters , was hardly ever present in Naaglok , he had always wished to reside close to his prabhu , Lord Vishnu , whom he heavily priotorized over his own blood family , and it was very seldom that he would grace his presence in his home kingdom , entrusting the duties of the kingdom to his able second brother Vasuki, who in turn fully understood as well as respected his decision. And With Fate of the Third Brother Takshaka Unknown after the war with Lanka eighteen years back , Vasuki along with his sisters tried to stay close to find solace in each other , at least until the things got better , and in the best case scenario as Vasuki Wished , be back to normal.

Naagraj Vasuki himself was a very just ruler , not lacking in any cababilities as compared to his older brother. Although Not as mighty as him , still one could not count even on fingertips the number of brave warriors who would dare to challenge him to duel , the man was practically a vicious beast , reaching almost six and a half feet in his human form and stretched to almost a hundred meters in length when he changed to his fearsome serpent avatar , with his century massive hoods spewting the most lethal of toxins. If his nature had been anything but similar to his other devilish younger siblings who always thought on forceful annextation of other kingdoms, it would not be understatement to say that even Indra and the other demigods would have found it impossible to defend his swarga against naaglok.

The current naagraj , Vasuki , along with his sisters Iravati and Manasa , was also helped in great lengths by his consort , ShataShirsha , whom he would often playfully cherish by the name of Shirsha.

Call it fate or whatever , the Consorts of both brothers had very similar rhyming names when being called upon , Shirsha for Vasuki and Ksheera for AdiShehsa . They had to ensure to speak very clearly to even differentiate when calling their respective better halves. .

Shatashirsha herself had all exquisite qualities of handling the kingdom , like she would often do when Vasuki would be in Kailash. Just Like her Brother in Law , her sister in Law Ksheera , with whom she had a relationship like a real sister , too preferred to Stay in Vaikunth with Godess Lakshmi and Lord Vishnu , thereby rendering responsibilities of Naaglok to her .A simple and graceful woman , although hardly comparable to Ksheera  ( Also known as Naaglakshmi )in terms of appearance , her calm demeanour and strong intellect made up for it .