VEDIC VOWS - BOOK 1 THE MOHINI

Chapter - 6 WAR PLANS

"During the year 142 BCE, Ugrasena the king of Raiypura, a minor under the Sunga Emperor on the behest of his Emperor's orders gave his daughter princess sunanda and her handmaiden vishpala in marriage to the warlord of Audumbaras Agni parahan to a formal alliance pact." - Historical anals of Raiypura

"Koteswara the capital city was very famous for its Queen's glass arbour. It was on the 2nd floor with a hemispherical balcony, which was alone about 9600 square feet. The balcony was a work of art; the whole of it was covered in a glass dome and lush with plants and trees. The glass panels were different shades of blue from pale blue of ice to deepest of midnight sky with a radiance that outshined the palace under the sun's caress.

The glass had etchings of roses and jasmine; the balcony itself had three sandalwood trees, champaka , ketakai, parijath, roses and many different herbs . In the internal pools there were Krishna kamalam, the panels could be slid, and the central panels could be open and shut that one could star gaze in to the night sky.

The kanchavana* as it was called by the people, was one of great pride for the audumbarans. . it is said by the castle maids and guards that, in the 18 years of her marriage, the first six years, the glass arbour was broken down 10 times, most often sunanda with broken limbs or legs along with vispala equally hurt put up the structure again and again with the same design and motifs except for the last time which was done with the help of their daughters." - Gargi. An excerpt from "The Fall of Sunga Empire"

Inside the Kanchavana, Aadhya was seated on a stool and was watching with kanchpura* the comets in the sky and making adjustments to it as she observed it with its placements to the nearest stars and making notations in a sheaf of parchment with her quill; she was seventeen years old. Abhaya, like her sister, used a different kanchadrishti* to watch the comets, she was fifteen. Unlike her mother and sister, though she excelled in all learning arts, she was a warrior through and through. Aadhya was the one with the enquiring mind; Abhaya was more in tune with vishpala in character. Their tranquility was broken by sound of footsteps; a lot of them, followed by their mother's arrival. She didn't arrive alone; the members of the inner circle all bound to their line by blood oath for many generations followed her.

Together, they smelled of ashes, even after their baths; the cremation grounds always had residual smell. It had taken them five days to collect parineetha's body parts. It had been hacked in to seven major parts; Abhaya had finally located the head from a drain tunnel. Their spy had been found out.

Sunanda was suffused with cold rage. There was no expression on her face. But inside her mind it was another story altogether. Today! All those bastards and bitches will die today! Sunanda decided. She had given vishpala all the time she could spare. She will exterminate these conniving rodents, today.

18 years, five friends, four cousins, ten loyal aides, fifty soldiers and one brother that she could ill afford to lose; that's how much it had cost her and lots of pain. She would have been a great queen; she had everything right except the husband. Agni parahan was a drunken, whoring, cruel, sadistic piece of very intelligent shit.

It had taken her six years to make parahan a drug addict. She had sacrificed so many dear ones as pawns in this game of chaturanga**; the drugs which made him impotent were added in due course. The next two years, amidst the reforms in the socio economic structure of the country, she had eliminated all his allies except Mansu; and now he was back with his sister Suneethi, her maid Adani and a child claiming to be the son of parahan.

"Like hell it was his, when he had been impotent for all these years" she seethed. They had forced her hand by appearing in a public hearing. And now within a week they had smuggled nearly fifty guards inside. But it didn't end with that; for them to have penetrated this much, so fast and to be so blatant, someone, a person with lots of reach was involved; most probable scenario, sunga influence."