The clan of Pallavas rose to power during the reign
of Mahendravarman I (571 to 630 CE) and Narasimhavarman I (630 to 668 CE) and
dominated the Telugu speaking Andhra region and the northern parts of Tamuzh
Nadu for about six hundred years until the end of the 9th century. This is a
fictious story set in the period of the Pallavas; so read on & I hope you
enjoy it…
The young woman stared desolately out of the
window. Her vacant gaze revealed the turbulence in her mind. The young lady was
rather attractive and must have been not more than twenty-five years of age.
She wore the finest jewelry and ornaments of her time. Her features were
exquisite and she was one of the most attractive women in the entire capital
city of Kancheepuram. However, she was also one of the unhappiest women in the
entire city
The young lady in her unhappiness and resentment began to
think of her past; a past filled with poverty and hunger. The young woman had
hailed from a poor agrarian family, which had lived in a small town called
Goontur, which belonged to the Pallava Empire in the 8th century A.D. During a
terrible time of drought and famine, ten years ago, her father had brought his
two daughters, her elder sister and herself to the capital city of
Kancheepuram. During those days it was the custom to get daughters married
within a couple of months after they attained puberty but unfortunately the
poor farmer from Goontur had no money and his resources were further depleted
by recurrent drought and famine. As a result he could not get his two daughters
married at the appropriate time and they had grown to be sixteen and fifteen
while continuing to live in their father’s house.
The poor father soon realized that the two girls
were well past their marriageable age and had therefore decided to dispose them
of in an alternative manner. He had therefore brought these two daughters to
the market in Kancheepuram in an attempt to sell them off to the highest
bidder.
While at the market, the eldest daughter, Kamya,
had caught the fancy of a Chola Nobleman who had come on a visit to the capital
of the Pallava kingdom as an emissary of the Chola king. Attracted by the
beauty of the elder sister he had taken away the sixteen-year-old girl as his
concubine to Thanjavoor the capital city of the Chola Kingdom after paying
twelve gold coins to the poor farmer. The poor farmer was overjoyed with the
money he received and thought of taking back his younger daughter with him to
Goontur. But he then realized that she would still be a burden upon him and
therefore waited for the right customer to come and buy her as well.
Maya which was the name of the younger daughter did
not fetch as much as her elder sister but a Minister in the Pallava court who
happened to pass by the market happened to take a liking to her and therefore
after a lot of bargaining agreed to buy her for ten gold coins. The poor farmer
was indeed overjoyed and without even a cursory good bye to his younger
daughter left the market to enjoy the benefits of his new found wealth and numb
his consciousness into a drunken stupor.
Poor Maya was rather frightened as she followed the
Pallava Minister who dragged her along to a big house situated on the
out-skirts of Kancheepuram city which belonged to him. The Pallava Minister was
almost fifty years old and was already married to a mean matron who was
forty-two years old. His wife was a shrew and kept lashing the Minister
constantly with her verbal tirade. She found fault with any and everything,
which the Minister did for her. She neither fed him properly nor took care of
his sexual appetites leaving the old Minister frustrated and despondent.
When he bought Maya from her father, the Minister
had two sons aged twenty and eighteen respectively. His sons were the apples of
his eyes and he loved them very much; but not as much as he began to love Maya.
He was then a Minister in charge of maintaining the King’s Palaces of that
time. He considered Maya as his Talisman for it was only after she came into
his life that his professional career graph soared up and he soon became the
Principal Minister of the then Pallava king Raghaveendra Varman. Ten years had
passed since he had bought Maya and it was the happiest ten years of his life.
Initially, the girl had been rather frightened and
uncooperative but as time passed Maya began to accept her fate and settled down
to her life as the mistress of one of the most powerful men in the Pallava
Kingdom. The Minister for his part really doted on Maya. He showered costly
gifts on her of finest silks, exquisite jewelry and costly stones. Having been
sexually starved he behaved like a starving man in front of whom a royal feast
had been laid. He initiated young Maya into the world of sexual pleasures and
taught her the fine art of making a man happy.
He taught her various methods, postures and
positions as expounded in the “Kokko Shastra” which was a treatise in Tamuzh,
which equaled the Sanskrit creation of Vatsayana, which was popularly called
the “Kama Sutra”. In fact a few Tamuzhs even believed that the “Kama Sutra” was
a plagiarisation of the “Kokko Shastra”. For her part, Maya was happy to make the
Minister happy and remained loyal and faithful to him. His smallest whim and
wish were her commands and she did all that she could to make him happy.
However, that was not the cause of her unhappiness.
Meanwhile, Kamya, her elder sister too had done very
well for herself in the Chola capital of Thanjavoor to which the Chola Noble
Man had taken her. The Chola Noble had a rather sickly wife who could not take
good care of him and all his needs. This was the reason why he had purchased
Kamya from her father. He had no children since his wife was too sickly to bear
a child and therefore he lived a rather lonely life.
Within a year of his bringing Kamya to Thanjavoor
and setting her up in a palacious house, his legally wedded wife passed away.
It was Kamya who then filled the vacuum in his life and made him happy. The
Chola Noble Man began to love Kamya sincerely for he sensed a character of
steel within her that added to her beauty. When his relatives started searching
for another wife for him from within his community he put his foot down and
refused to toe their line. He insisted that he would only marry Kamya and much
against the wishes of his friends and relatives he married her in a simple but
stately ceremony and brought her to live with him in his ancestral house.
It was eight years now since the Chola Noble had
married Kamya and they now had two children; the first-born a girl who was six
years old followed by a boy who was just four years old. They were very happy
and Maya soon obtained all this information from the traveling salesmen and
tradesmen who went from kingdom to kingdom to sell their wares. Maya had even
sent a message to Kamya through one of them and the wandering salesman had
brought back a message from Kamya on his next trip. In her message Kamya had
expressed her happiness at Maya being the mistress of the Principal Minister of
the Pallava Empire and had invited her to come and stay a few days with her in
her house in Thanjavoor.
However, this was not the cause of Maya’s grief and
remorse today. Though she was one of the most beautiful women in the Pallava
Empire she was still not accepted amongst the womenfolk of Kancheepuram city
and was only treated with contempt for after all she was only the mistress of
the Principal Minister and not his legally wedded wife.
Maya had made several attempts to be friendly with
the wives of the other Ministers and nobles in the Pallava King’s court but had
failed miserably in all her attempts and only ended up being sarcastically
called a whore and a prostitute. This hurt Maya rather badly for she did not
consider herself a prostitute. She was not the kind who sold her body to all
and sundry without any emotions. She loved her Master and Lord, the Principal
Minister and was sincere and faithful to him and only him. The more she
pondered on the taunts of the neighbourhood women, the more she felt
heart-broken. She was unable to accept their taunts with a couldn’t care less
attitude and every taunt was a whiplash on her soul. However, Maya was not one
to take things lying down. She decided to do something about it; but before
that she wanted to spend some time with her elder sister and play with her kids
for she felt that would be the balm that would soothe her soul….
That night when the Principal Minister came to
visit her, she casually told him that she wished to see her sister since it was
ten years since she had last seen her and a lot of water had flown under the
bridge since then. Moreover, she told him that she wished to play with her
niece and nephew and spend a week or two with them.
The Pallava Minister at first objected since he
knew that his nights would turn desolate if Maya was not there to spend them
with. However, Maya insisted that she should go and that it would also provide
the Minister an opportunity to spend some time with his children who were now
in the prime of their youth. The Principal Minister of the Pallavas mulled over
the idea of spending time with his two grown up sons and decided that he would
take them out hunting to the forest near by as it would provide an opportunity
for male bonding and comradeship.
Finally, with great hesitation the Principal
Minister agreed to let Maya go to her sister’s house in Thanjavoor while laying
the condition that she should not be gone for even a day more than two weeks.
Maya happily agreed to this for it was only two weeks that she needed. The next
morning the Minister made arrangements for a stately Palanquin with strong
able-bodied eunuchs to take her all the way to Thanjavoor. It was a journey of
almost 200 miles and with a heavy heart he bid farewell to Maya while bestowing
a lot of expensive gifts, which she could give to her sister and her children.
Maya was full of joy and wanted to reach Thanjavoor
as quickly as possible. She therefore informed the Minister that she would
prefer to ride on horse back since the journey would take more than four days
in one direction if she traveled by the Palanquin and she would not be left
with much time to spend with her sister and her family. A woman on horse back
was a very rare phenomenon in those days and the Principal Minister was
therefore shocked at her request. He refused to let her go on horseback but
Maya was adamant and the Principal Minister had to relent.
Finally, by eleven that morning Maya left on a
black stallion accompanied by two male eunuchs as her escorts riding two brown
geldings. Maya did not even bother to rest that night and stretched her horse
to the maximum limit possible. She knew that her horse needed rest and that physical
exertion of the horse would affect all her plans. However, her emotional need
was far greater than the physical needs of the horse and therefore she hardened
her heart and drove the horse hard as she rode all night long.
By the next morning she reached the out skirts of
Thanjavoor and managed to find her way to Kamya’s residence. Kamya was
overjoyed to see Maya and the two sisters hugged each other as tears flowed
down their cheeks incessantly. Kamya’s two little children were bewildered by
their mother’s display of emotions while her husband the Chola Noble man
observed their reunion rather dispassionately.
Maya spent the next two days with her sister and
her children. She was so happy that she wondered if she had ever felt happier
than that in all her life. However, by the end of the second day Maya began to
feel restless. Though Maya had been happy during the past two days she still
felt a void in her heart and she soon realized that she was missing her beloved
Principal Minister. On the third day morning she informed her sister that she
would like to go wandering around the city market since she wanted to pick up
some trinkets for her dear Principal Minister.
Kamya offered to come with Maya to the market but
Maya refused stating that she wanted some time to herself to think over a lot
of issues. Kamya was puzzled by Maya’s response but did not probe her. Maya
then proceeded on foot to the market. In the market she avoided all the
luxurious shops and went in search of the seedier parts of the market. At some
places she would stop and question the uncouth louts who happened to be lazing
around on the wayside. She returned to Kamya’s house that evening without
making any purchases. When Kamya questioned her about what she had done the
whole day she replied that she had not been able to find anything suitable or
worthy of her beloved Principal Minister.
The next day morning Maya again ventured out into
the city. When Kamya again offered to accompany her she muttered that she
needed time by herself and left in haste leaving Kamya surprised. That day Maya
finally found a man sitting outside a hut with a potter’s wheel in front of it.
However, the man did not look like a potter but appeared to look more like a
brigand with his rough unshaven face, coarse hands and muscular frame which
could put any theatric villain to shame. After a lot of bargaining Maya settled
at a price that seemed to make the roguish villain satisfied.
That evening when Maya returned to her sister’s
house, she had two dolls made of clay in her hands; the dolls were a pair; a
male and a female and were neatly painted on the outside, with bright colours.
The dolls were attractive and what was more attractive was that the dolls kept
shaking their heads in unison without remaining still. They were what is
popularly know as the famous Thanjavoor head shaking dolls which were the
specialty of the region.
Maya did not venture out of the house for the next
four days, but preferred to stay at home and play with Kamya’s kids. Though she
seemed to be physically in Kamya’s house her thoughts were far away and her
mind appeared vacant. When Kamya questioned her about it she said that she
missed her beloved Principal Minister and it was her longing for him that made
her appear to be far away.
The next day Maya again ventured out into the city
early in the morning. When Kamya again offered to accompany her, Maya again
refused saying that she wanted to be by herself for a while. Maya’s strange
behaviour perplexed Kamya but she kept quiet, as she did not want to make her
sister unhappy. That morning Maya hurriedly went to the same potter’s hut where
she had met the roguish oaf.
The brigand seemed to have been waiting for her and
as soon as Maya appeared he got to his feet and went towards her. “Have you
done what I have asked you to do?” Maya questioned the potter. “Yes, I have”,
replied the potter. “Did you leave any clues behind?” she questioned him again.
“No. I made sure that I left neither clues nor witnesses. In fact when I was
strangling the lady a man in royal attire came into the house and surprised me.
He tried to raise an alarm but I did not spare him as well. I finished him off
with my knife and left without anyone observing me” he replied. On hearing
this, Maya wailed out loud and swooned.
