Saptsindhu Chronicles: A Rama - Krishna Saga

1 | Ram | Ayodhya

~ Ayodhya ~

The morning came with many surprises, and uncalled winds and bad weather. They had to shut the main door, and all other two thousand windows of the palace to avoid the sandstorms invading the palace of King Dushrath. The palace, which usually remained calm, had now become a battleground. 

The city market was closed and the foreign merchants needed to be sheltered. The palace could easily accommodate more than a thousand guests but in this uncontrolled weather, it's impossible to garrison a hundred. There was some mild arrangement for food and beverages at the southern store but the directions board was swept away by wind, so no one really knew where to head. It quickly became a chaotic mess. 

The situation could be handled if the unexpected guests had not come, but they came in numbers, and all of them were important. More than a hundred sages, army officials, royal ministers, foreign messengers, and poets. The sages came in three groups, one led by Guru Vishwamitra, the others by unknown hermits from distant lands. 

Amidst all this hassle, there was also a royal summon, urgently inviting all the important family members to the royal chambers of King Dushrath. Everyone had their own theories regarding the summon.

Kausalya, the eldest Queen of Ayodhya, guessed that the king, Raja Dushrath, has decided to send their children to a distant Gurukul for education. 

Kaikeyi and Sumitra, the Second and Third Queen-wife of King Dashrath were believing the rumors that a civil war has erupted in the Kosala Kingdom, and the King wanted to take immediate actions to stop it.  

King Dushrath succeeded King Aja as the Suryavanshi emperor of Sapt Sindhu and the ruler of Kosala Empire. The Kosala Kingdom for many centuries was ruled by Ikshvaku princes, who descended from the great and first Human King Manu, who marked the inception of this new age of heroes. The previous Yuga was known as Sat-Yuga, the age of truth, but this new age had a different destiny. It was the age of Conquest. Many rulers, big and small, started conspiring against the Kosala Empire. The Southern states couldn't defend themselves from the invasions of foreign Asuras, who successfully captured the southern part of Bharatvarsha, and were now planning to conquer the rest of the provinces of Sapt Sindhu.

Ayodhya had remained the capital city of Kosala kingdom from the times of Ikshvaku and gradually became a great trade center, and remained one of the most prosperous cities thereafter. Situated on the banks of Sarayu River, the city inhibited all classes of people, rich and poor, smart and fool, but there was not a single man in the town, who wouldn't know the young Prince of Ayodhya.