Pregnant King Read online

  Shilavati told her son, ‘All other princes will ride into Udra on their chariots. But you will ride in on an elephant. The largest bull elephant in Vallabhi. It will be decorated with a silver head-jewel, silver anklets and a silver chain round its neck. Two Brahmanas will sit behind you, one holding a parasol and another holding a pair of yak-tail fly whisks, waving it from side to side. Walking beside the elephant will be Kshatriya warriors on chariots, each holding the royal banner of Vallabhi. Leading you into the city will be our royal herald and musicians playing the flute enchanting everyone in the city. Round your neck will gleam a necklace of gold and sapphire. When you cross the gates of the city, the king of Udra will look out of his window and tell his queen, “There comes the crown prince of Vallabhi. If our daughter chooses him, she will be his chief queen and we will have a king as our son-in-law. Krishna is no king. Shikhandi not even a man. Arjuna shares his kingdom and his wife with his brothers. And the Kauravas? Their father clings to a crown that is rightfully Pandu’s. Let us encourage our daughter to select Yuvanashva instead.”’ Shilavati paused. She saw her son’s eyes gleaming with excitement. ‘Sometimes Gandharvas have to be clever to get the Apsara,’ she said.

  ‘And for the bridal gift, I will give her a game of dice painted on cloth,’ said Yuvanashva.

  ‘What? A game of dice!’ asked Shilavati, taken by surprise. Then she smiled indulgently, realizing how little her son knew about women. ‘I think she would prefer a necklace of pearls or gem-studded armlets.’

  Yuvanashva looked into his mother’s eyes. ‘No mother. No woman really wants that. A woman wants to know she is loved and appreciated and honoured. There is no greater sorrow for a woman, or for a man, to sit bejewelled knowing that nobody loves them or cares for them or appreciates them or honors them. A string of pearls or a gem-studded nose-ring will indicate my current fortune. But fortune does not last forever. Tomorrow, I may lose my kingdom, as Nala lost his, as Rama lost his, as Harishchandra lost his. My wife must continue to walk beside me, on my left side, close to my heart, whether I sit on the throne or walk in the forest. I want the princess of Udra to know that I invite her to reside in my heart and enjoy with me the game of life. What better way to express it than with a game of dice, each throw of the die filled with the uncertainty of Yama’s account book, each movement of the coin brimming with the assurance of Kama’s arrow.’

  ‘Where did you learn all this?’ said Shilavati, feeling proud of her son.

  ‘I hear everything you say, mother, when I sit behind you in the audience chamber. The bards whisper that you married my father to rule Vallabhi but I know you married him because you loved him. I watch you gaze at the bow he gave you. That look, mother, is what I would like my wife to have when she looks upon me.’

  Shilavati felt a lump in her throat. She saw her husband smiling on the other side of the Vaitarni. Before him was the game of dice rolled out. He was waiting for her to make the next move.

  Yuvanashva followed his mother’s advice. His grand entrance impressed the king. The princess loved his gift. Instructed by her father, directed by her heart, Simantini accepted Yuvanashva as her Gandharva and placed a garland of lotus flowers round his neck.

  Neither the Pandavas nor the Kauravas, neither Krishna nor Shikhandi nor his brother, Dhristadhyumna, attended Simantini’s swayamvara. Shilavati wondered why.

  Her spies gave her the reason. They were busy playing dice with their cousins and gambling away their fortune. ‘They gambled even their wife away,’ said the bards.

  ‘And no one stopped them?’ asked Shilavati in disbelief.

  ‘No, the elders felt everything was being done within the letter of the law. The Kauravas were not content to win everything the Pandavas possessed. They went on to humiliate the sons of Kunti. They dragged Draupadi by her hair from the inner chambers and tried to disrobe her in public.’

  Shilavati felt sick. ‘Publicly humiliating a woman is within the letter of the law? Since when? Since Dhritarashtra became king?’

  ‘Embarrassed by the whole event, Dhritarashtra allowed the Pandavas to play another game of dice. The conditions were that if the Kauravas lose they return to the Pandavas their lost fortune. If the Pandavas lose, they live as exiles in the forest for twelve years and in the thirteenth year live in hiding. Should they be recognized in that year, they go to the forest for another twelve years. If they don’t, they get their kingdom back. The Pandavas lost.’

  ‘So the Pandavas have gambled away even their identity. Fools. Irresponsible fools.’

  ‘The princes of Panchala, Shikhandi and Dhristadhyumna, rushed to meet their sister in the forest. Even if this had not happened, they would not have attended the swayamvara at Udra.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because Shikhandi loves his wife too much and Dhristadhyumna prefers war to wives.’

  ‘And where was their friend Krishna when this happened?’ Shilavati asked.

  ‘Defending Dwaraka. The ships of Shalva and Dantavakra had blocked the entrance to the harbour,’ they replied.

  ‘You have managed to get information from around Dwaraka too.’ Shilavati was impressed. She smiled. The bards bowed their head humbly. Shilavati asked her maids to give them cloth and rice and gold. More than the gifts, it was the look of appreciation that mattered to the spies. Shilavati was their mother. And they were her children ever eager to please her.

  Shilavati then busied herself for her son’s wedding. Thirty years old. Daughter. Wife. Mother. Now mother-in-law.

  the arundhati star

  After the wedding ceremony, the countless rituals, the unending advice, the feasts, the songs and the celebrations, Yuvanashva and Simantini sat alone in the bridal chamber, facing each other, wondering what it means to be husband and wife.

  Yuvanashva’s servants had removed all his jewels. He had been bathed in warm water and made to wear a fine white dhoti.

  There was only one lamp in the room. Lighting up his new bride. She too had been bathed in warm water. She was dressed in a sheer red sari. The light of the lamp penetrated the fabric and revealed a soft sensuous body. She was chewing tambula, a rich mix of herbs and nuts wrapped in a betel leaf. It made her lips red and her mouth fragrant. Behind her was a window that opened up to the sky.

  She bent her head and lowered her eyes. Afraid to look up at the man sitting in front of her. The crown prince who came into Udra on an elephant and won her heart with a game of dice. He was her Gandharva. She was his Apsara. No longer free like the river-nymphs. Now fettered by his music, ready to follow him wherever he went.

  After a long period of awkward silence had elapsed, Yuvanashva finally found the courage to speak, ‘Can you see the Arundhati star?’ Simantini looked up and saw her husband staring at the window behind her. She turned around.

  The sky was black. Stars glittered on it like diamonds set on Lakshmi’s hair. The Arundhati star? Where would it be? Next to the seven stars that represented the seven celestial sages, the Sapta Rishis, the first seven sages to hear the Veda from the four heads of Prajapati. Arundhati was the chaste wife, who followed them wherever they went, feeding them, taking care of them as a mother, a sister and a wife. Simantini located the Arundhati star easily. But as advised by her mother and her maids, she pointed to a star that was not Arundhati and said, ‘There is Arundhati.’

  This was a game, to help husband and wife engage with each other, prescribed by the kama-shastra, the treatise on pleasure.

  It was said that Prajapati, after singing out the chants that make up the Veda, sang out hymns related to conduct, wealth, pleasure and peace. These were the four shastras: dharma-shastra, artha-shastra, kamashastra and moksha-shastra. While the Veda explained the nature of the world, the shastras tried to organize and celebrate the same.

  The kama-shastras recommended that to make the wife comfortable on the wedding night, the husband must look to the sky and ask her to find Arundhati. The wife must feign ignorance and point to a star that is not Arundhati