Chapter 10 - The Outwitter and The Outwitted

10 days later

Central Prison, Kaushambi, Vatsa

RATTLE, RATTLE ..

The noise had just gotten louder, but the prison guards didn’t care. They were used to it by now. Besides, a new batch of prisoners had arrived yesterday. It would take these new ones time to overcome their aggression and settle down, the guards thought.

Crown Prince Vishvajit unclenched his fists from the prison bars and sat down on the floor. He knew his actions were pointless and provoked only the ridicule of the guards. After all, he had imprisoned so many and tortured quite a few. He had always considered himself clever, for he knew how to manipulate the mind of the victims, and yet, today he had fallen prey to the same methods. In the past, he had enjoyed the upper hand and laughed at the plight of the victims , never considering that he could be at the receiving end one day. He now realized that being at someone else’s mercy was pure torture and he suddenly didn’t feel very clever.

He was angry, very angry. How had he allowed himself to be captured? He could vividly imagine his father’s disappointed face. The horror of the past ten days was fresh in his mind.

On the night they launched the attack, the first batch of soldiers had been sent off with almost a festive air. Vishvajit’s battle experiences had taught him to anticipate the unexpected. Consequently, he had sent out spies beforehand. The reports he had received the day before had been mundane, both from within Magadha and from Vatsa. Suspecting nothing, he had even hit the bed early to prepare for a busy time the next day.

At dawn, they received the signal they had been waiting for. Across the river they saw that their flag had been hoisted. With 2 villages of Vatsa conquered, they had gained a foothold in enemy territory and it was time to begin the large scale attack, or so he had thought.

Durmukha had led the next contingent of 2000 soldiers, horses were loaded onto the boats and sent across. By afternoon, another 2000 soldiers, armed with provisions, had made their way across the river. But by evening Vishvajit had begun to feel uneasy. No messengers had returned and the silence was beginning to gnaw on him. By night he was seriously worried and then the fateful message arrived.

‘Rear attack at TriRajya Bindu. Send reinforcements immediately’.

A soldier on horseback had brought this urgent message from the western border.

He had walked right into a trap, Vishvajit realized. The 5000 soldiers they had sent across the river would have been killed by now. All his confidence drained away as he began to understand how precarious their situation was. His mind went blank.

Somadatta, the Chief of Defence, began to pace the room.

‘5000 soldiers… 5000 soldiers lost’, he was murmuring.

‘Reinforcements… we need to send reinforcements to TriRajya Bindu’, he looked to Crown Prince Vishvajit for affirmation.

Crown Prince Vishvajit exerted himself to focus on the present.

‘Send a thousand soldiers, no more. It is a suicide mission anyway. No more offensive strikes, create a line of defence at Chunar’, he replied.

Once the order had been sent out for execution, Vishvajit and Somadatta had sat down to revise their strategy.

‘Where are our battalions? How soon can we get reinforcements?’, Crown Prince Vishvajit asked.

‘We have 2 large divisions. One near the Capital and the other at the Kalinga-Magadha border. Each is at a distance of at least a ten-fifteen day march.’,Somadatta replied.

‘Patliputra must be protected at all costs. We can’t touch the division at the Capital. How soon can the Kalinga division arrive?’, Crown Prince asked.

‘Not soon enough … Not soon enough’, Somadatta sat down with a pained expression.

Having no other choice, the plea for reinforcements had been sent. They had almost no hope, but all they could do was wait.

‘Crown Prince, the enemy boats are crossing the Ganges?’, a soldier rushed to report at dawn.

‘How many?’, Somadatta asked.

‘20-30 , not sure Sir, they are all over the river’.

‘We must retreat, Crown Prince. It’s only one town and a few villages. We can afford to lose them. Once the reinforcements join us we can set up camp and create a new line of defence’ , Somadatta had said.

But Vishvajit’s desperation had overcome his commonsense. His father’s words echoed in his memory.

‘You must get Vatsa for me. Don’t come to me with excuses. Failure is not an option.’, his father had said.

It requires humility to accept one’s mistakes, and courage to face the consequences of failure. Vishvajit neither felt humble nor courageous at that point. His emotions had taken over and he had stopped thinking rationally. Unfortunately, his troops had to pay the price for this. Within a day, they were down to 2000 soldiers, and by the next afternoon, it was all over. In 3 days, Vishvajit’s world had fallen apart. He was captured along with Chief Somadatta and brought here to Kaushambi.

King PriamRaja had never spared the captured enemy, especially if they were from the royal family. He was paranoid about avoiding uprisings in future.

‘Kill them’, he always said.

‘Thank God, King Mahendra is not like Father or me’, Vishvajit thought. There was a wry smile on his face as he realized the irony.

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Clinic, Gangapur

‘How much longer, Sister?’, Bhola enquired as he looked at the long queue ahead of them.

Most Kings instructed their armies to avoid hurting civilians during war. King PriamRaja was of course an exception. With Magadha’s base camp at Chunar, and their soldiers stationed across Chunar, Divyasthal and Gangapur, the involvement of the villagers became inevitable. During the war, Bhola had been tasked with distributing food packets to the soldiers of Magadha. When Vatsa’s soldiers had marched into Gangapur, Magadha’s soldiers fled and the villagers panicked. There had been a scramble and many had been injured. Some had just fainted from the shock of seeing the enemy at close quarters. Bhola, though conscious, had injured his arm.

‘Soon, very soon.’, Maya said as she peered through the windows of the clinic.

They were now getting a taste of Vatsa’s administration, and what a contrast there was!, Maya thought. Once the war was declared over, several doctors from Vatsa had arrived. Inside Gangapur’s small clinic, there were no less than ten doctors and many more attendants. Maya’s gaze fell on an elderly villager holding his chest.

‘It hurts, It hurts… I feel like there is a huge weight on my chest.’

A doctor rushed to him and gave him some medicine. The pain seemed to subside.

‘Thank you Doctor’, he mumbled and slowly sat up. He stared at the scene around him for a while and then looked into the Doctor’s eyes.

‘I thought, I thought… I was going to die.

But the world around me, it was going on just like it always has. What does this mean?

What is the meaning of life?’, the elderly man asked.

As he had stared at the possibility of death, suddenly his life and the world around him didn’t make any sense anymore. Confusion, shock and fear, all had gripped him and he was in a daze. The Doctor had probably heard this question often, for his answer sounded well-rehearsed.

‘No idea, Sir. I just do the best I can everyday. That way when death beckons, I won’t have any regrets.’

The Doctor smiled as he said this and Maya noticed the kindness in his eyes. She thought about what he said and realized that he was right. We must do the best we can everyday, and that is the only way to prepare for a peaceful exit from this world.

‘I never thought of death until I came face to face with Vatsa’s soldiers’, Bhola, who had also been watching the Doctor, said.

Bhola seemed to be still in shock and Maya patted his back lightly.

The first introduction to death - whether it is our body failing, or in facing a peril or seeing a loved one pass away, is always frightening. And we never really learn to overcome this fear completely. At best, we learn to accept it and distract ourselves with other pursuits, Maya realized.

‘Please come in, young man’, the attendant called out.

Bhola and Maya walked into the clinic. Bhola’s wounds were not severe and the attendant did the dressing himself, without calling for a Doctor. It was a quick job and soon they were on their way out.

The usual cash payment counter had been replaced by a donation box. Treatment had been made free due to special circumstances. Bhola dropped a few copper coins into the box and looked up at Maya.

‘Is it enough?’

‘Give what you are able to, and with gratitude. That will be enough’,Maya replied.

‘Oh, Why bother? The treatment is free.’, a middle-aged man waiting to be examined said.

‘These Doctors probably play around with Gold coins. Our Copper coins are more valuable for us, than for them.’, his wife chipped in.

‘But if we contribute to their cause, they will be able to help more people.’, Maya said.

‘What help??? They will extract a price anyway. You wait and watch. Tomorrow they will say we should buy medicines only from Vatsa’s pharmacies. It’s all business, Madam’, the man retorted.

Maya colored as she saw the Doctor, they had observed earlier, quietly listening.

‘Strange that the Kings of Magadha have never been keen to enter this business then.’, she murmured.

‘Ah, Doctor, Doctor ! It's our turn. Please have a look’, The man’s wife called out.

The Doctor ignored the couple and moved to a different line of patients.

‘Ill-mannered. That’s what these Doctors are! They think that we are at their mercy and they can act the way they want.’, the man continued venting.

Maya signalled to Bhola and quietly they made their escape.

‘The Doctor is a kind man. Why did he ignore them?’, Bhola asked.

Maya had seen the Doctor say a prayer before he walked away. Clearly, he considered service to humanity as service to God.

‘Even a saint wouldn’t want to serve someone who is ungrateful. If we have received in the name of God, then we must learn to give too. Gratitude is a must, if we want to be considered worthy of receiving such gifts of service’, Maya replied.

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Ashram, Gangapur

‘Why only Chunar? Why not Gangapur?’, Kailashnath exclaimed.

Acharya Chyavana, his father - Purohita Atri, and Kailashnath were seated in Chyavana’s private quarters at the Ashram. The past month had been very eventful at Gangapur. A constant anxiety had plagued Kailashnath which had been multiplied by the knowledge of Acharya Chyavana’s real identity. At first, Kailashnath had just set aside this knowledge and avoided the Ashram completely. He didn’t want to fall for any more traps. Eventually, around ten days back, Acharya Chyavana took matters into his own hands, and arrived at his doorstep.

‘Come, meet my father’, he had demanded.

‘He is in Gangapur?’, Kailashnath asked in surprise.

‘Yes, and he would like to meet you.’

The meeting had taken place. Though he was skeptical at first, Kailashnath eventually chose to trust Atri and Chyavana. Or more accurately, they had won his trust. They had related to him exactly how the war would play out and then went on to share details about Vatsa’s attack. These details, they could have known only if they were spies of Vatsa. And in the last 10 days, Kailashnath had ample opportunity to validate their claims.

‘We must leave room for King PriamRaja to negotiate’, Atri replied.

‘Vatsa has already extended their borders by 50 km and captured the Crown Prince as well. The blow on King PriamRaja is already very heavy. He will plan his revenge eventually, but even now, he will want to go away with something. So, as part of the negotiation Vatsa will retreat from Gangapur and Divyasthal.’

Kailashnath much preferred Gangapur being part of Vatsa’s administration. But though Gangapur meant the world to him, it was only a tiny part of the strategy of these powerful people.

‘Gramikaji, here is the list you had requested’, Maya had come over to the Ashram right after they had left the clinic.

‘Thank you my child. Have a seat.’, Kailashnath replied.

‘These are the list of Gyanadoot members in Magadha. I have already alerted them, Vatsa’s secret agents can contact them.’

‘He is here . He is here.’, Chandra announced as he came inside in a rush.

‘You are about to meet the second most powerful person in Vatsa. After King Mahendra, it is his word that carries weight. Sumedh, is the Chief political advisor to King Mahendra’, Acharya Chyavana said, to prepare Kailashnath and Maya.

There were footsteps outside. Everyone stood up. Maya had expected a large entourage, with bodyguards and attendants. Instead, a lone man entered.

‘Oh!’, she exclaimed. It was the Doctor she had seen at the clinic.

Sumedh too was surprised. But quickly, he collected himself.

Acknowledging her with a slight bow, he folded his hands and went forward to greet Kailashnath.

‘I have heard so much about you. It is an honor to meet you, Sir’, Sumedh said.

Kailashnath was struck at the humility of the man before him. To hold such a high office, at such a young age, meant that Sumedh was a man of exceptional abilities. But he was evidently not consumed with a feeling of self-importance.

‘ The honor is mine, Sumedhji’, Kailashnath replied with folded hands.

They all sat down.

‘Do you have the list?’, Sumedh got to the point immediately.

Kailashnath hesitated.

‘Why do you wish to collaborate with us? What is in it for you?’, he asked.

‘When governing his kingdom, a King cannot be mindful only of the unrest within his kingdom. If there is unrest outside , it will eventually spread and threaten the peace of his kingdom too. My King, King Mahendra, knows this and wants to help the people of Magadha’, Sumedh replied.

‘So, do you plan to conquer Magadha?’, Kailashnath asked.

‘We know there is unrest in Magadha.If we can free its people from tyranny by non-violent means, that will be our preferred option. If not, we can conquer Magadha so that we may offer its people a better life.

I do not stand in judgement of kings who wish to expand their kingdoms. Indeed, we too have done that in the past. Our conscience awoke only when we came face to face with the destruction we had caused. It dawned on us that unless we had something better to offer those people, our aspirations were merely our greed for power and wealth. It was a moment of great shame for us. Now we avoid war, unless our way of life is threatened. Of course, we will protect our people and our land at any cost.’

Kailashnath was touched by the man’s sincerity and straightforward manner. He quietly handed Sumedh the list.

‘Their safety will be our responsibility’, Sumedh said, sensing Kailashnath’s apprehension.

Kailashnath smiled in gratitude.