Expertly turning the chariot, Sati urged her horses into a smooth trot. Without a backward look she sped away from the temple. Shiva kept staring at the disappearing profile of the chariot. Once it was gone, he continued to stare at the dust with intense jealousy. It had been fortunate enough to have touched her.

I think I’m going to like this country.

For the first time in the journey, Shiva actually looked forward to reaching the capital city of the Meluhans. He smiled and started towards the rest house.

Have to get to Devagiri quickly.

CHAPTER 4

Abode of the Gods

‘What! Who attacked you?’ cried a concerned Nandi as he rushed towards Shiva to check his wounds.

‘Relax Nandi,’ replied Shiva. ‘You are in worse shape than I am after your adventure in the water. It’s just a few superficial cuts. Nothing serious. The doctors have already dressed the wounds. I am alright.’

‘I am sorry, my Lord. It’s entirely my fault. I should never have left you alone. It will never happen again. Please forgive me, my Lord.’

Pushing Nandi gently back on to the bed, Shiva said, ‘There’s nothing to forgive, my friend. How can this be your fault? Please calm down. Getting overworked will not do your health any good.’

Once Nandi had calmed down a bit, Shiva continued, ‘In any case, I don’t think they were trying to kill us. It was very strange.’

‘Us?’

‘Yes, there were two women involved.’

‘But who could these attackers be?’ asked Nandi. Then a disturbing thought dawned on Nandi. ‘Did the attackers wear a pendant with a crescent moon on it?’

Shiva frowned. ‘No. But there was this one strange man. The best swordsmen of them all. He was covered from head to toe in a hooded robe, his face veiled by a mask, the kind I’ve seen you people wear at that colour festival. What is it called?’

‘Holi, my Lord?’

‘Yes, the holi kind of mask. In any case, you could only see his eyes and his hands. His only distinguishing feature was a leather bracelet with a strange symbol on it’

‘What symbol, my Lord?’

Picking up a palm-leaf booklet and the thin charcoal writing-stick from the side table, Shiva drew the symbol.

Nandi frowned. ‘That is an ancient symbol that some people used for the word Aum. But who would want to use this symbol now?’

‘Aum?’ asked Shiva.

‘My Lord, Aum is the holiest word in our religion. It is considered to be the primeval sound of nature. The hymn of the universe. It was so holy that for many millennia, most people would not insult it by putting it down in written form.’

‘Then how did this symbol come about?’

‘It was devised by Lord Bharat, a great ruler who had conquered practically all of India many thousands of years ago. He was a rare Chandravanshi who was worth respecting and had even married a Suryavanshi princess with the aim of ending our perpetual war.’

‘Who are the Chandravanshis?’ asked Shiva.

‘Think of them as the very antithesis of us, my Lord. They are the followers of the kings who are the descendants of the moon.’

‘And they follow the lunar calendar?’

‘Yes, my Lord. They are a crooked, untrustworthy and lazy people with no rules, morals or honour. They are cowards and never attack like principled Kshatriyas. Even their kings are corrupt and selfish. The Chandravanshis are a blot on humanity!’

‘But what does the Aum symbol have to do with this?’

‘Well, King Bharat came up with this symbol of unity between the Suryavanshis and the Chandravanshis. The top half in white represented the Chandravanshis.

The bottom half in red represented the Suryavanshis.

The part in orange coming out of the meeting of these two parts represented the common path.

The crescent moon to the right of the symbol was the existing Chandravanshi symbol.

And the sun above it was the existing Suryavanshi symbol.

To signify that this was a pact blessed by the gods, Lord Bharat got a mandate for the pronunciation of this symbol as the holy word Aum.’

‘And then what happened?’

‘As expected, the pact died with the good king. Once the influence of Lord Bharat was gone, the Chandravanshis were up to their old ways and the war began once again. The symbol was forgotten. And the word Aum reverted to its original form of a word without a written representation.’

‘But the symbol on the bracelet of this hooded man was not coloured. It was all black. And the parts of the symbol didn’t look like lines to me. They looked like a drawing of three serpents.’

‘Naga!’ exclaimed a shocked Nandi, before mumbling a soft prayer and touching his Rudra pendant for protection.

‘Now who the bloody hell are the Nagas?’ asked Shiva.

‘They are cursed people, my Lord,’ gasped Nandi. ‘They are born with hideous deformities because of the sins of their previous births. Deformities like extra hands or horribly misshapen faces. But they have tremendous strength and skills. The Naga name alone strikes terror in any citizen’s heart. They are not even allowed to live in the Sapt Sindhu.’

‘The Sapt Sindhu?’

‘Our land, my Lord, the land of the seven rivers. The land of the Indus, Saraswati, Yamuna, Ganga, Sarayu, Brahmaputra and Narmada. This is where Lord Manu mandated that all of us, Suryavanshis and Chandravanshis, live.’

Shiva nodded as Nandi continued. ‘The city of the Nagas exists to the south of the Narmada, beyond the border of our lands. In fact, it is bad luck to even speak of them, my Lord!’

‘But why would a Naga attack me? Or any Meluhan for that matter?’

Cursing under his breath, Nandi said, ‘Because of the Chandravanshis! What levels have these two-faced people sunk to? Using the demon Nagas in their attacks! In their hatred for us, they don’t even realise how many sins they are inviting on their own souls!’

Shiva frowned. During the attack, it hadn’t appeared that the Naga was being used by the small platoon of soldiers. In fact, it looked to him like the Naga was the leader.

It took another week for them to reach Devagiri. The capital city of the Meluhans stood on the west bank of the Saraswati, which emerged at the confluence of the Sudej and Yamuna rivers. Sadly, the Saraswati’s flow was severely reduced compared to her once mighty size. But even in her abbreviated state, she was still massive and awe-inspiring. Unlike many of the tempestuous rivers of the Punjab, the Saraswati was achingly calm. The river seemed to sense that her days were coming to an end. Yet, she did not fight aggressively to thrust her way through and survive. Instead, she unselfishly gave her all to those who came to seek her treasures.

The soaring Devagiri though, was in complete contrast to the mellow Saraswati. Like all Meluhan cities, Devagiri too was built on giant platforms, an effective protection against floods and a sturdy defence against enemies. However, where Devagiri was different from other Meluhan cities was in its sheer size. The city sprawled over three giant platforms, each of them spreading over three hundred and fifty hectares, significantly larger than other cities. The platforms were nearly eight metres high and were bastioned with giant blocks of cut stone interspaced with baked bricks. Two of the platforms, named Tamra and Rajat, literally, bronze and silver, were for the common man, whereas the platform named Svarna or gold was the royal citadel. The platforms were connected to each other by tall bridges, made of stones and baked bricks, which rose above the flood plains below.