A tale of Paithan
This story is written as an entry in the Write India contest by Times of India, under the Genre Historical Fiction based on the history available about the 17th century paithan city. The story is developed from the preface given by Amish Tripathi- author of the Shiva Trilogy.
Close to the city of Paithan, in
a small village called Sauviragram, which lay along the banks of the great
river Godavari, lived a woman named Ilaa. Being cotton farmers, her family was
well to do, but not among the richest in their area. It was the harvest season,
and cotton had to be picked from the plants. The wholesalers and traders from
Paithan would be arriving in just a few weeks, carrying gold and goods for
barter. They would exchange what they carried for the cotton that the farmers
grew. The bales of cotton had to be ready in time! Work was at its peak! But
Ilaa was not to be found in the fields. She wasn’t working. Instead, she was
sitting by the banks of the great river Godavari.
‘I am sick of this!’ she grunted
loudly.
‘Calm down Ilaa!’ Her friend
vaishnavi comforted, as she was washing her wound in the cool soothing waters
of the mighty Godavari.
How long we have to practice like
this hiding from the others? Why can’t we have equal rights like those of men
when it comes to show of your valiance on the battlefield? Why we are only
treated as a decorative piece for religious functions or as an instrument for
the pleasure of men? Ilaa chanted, as she looked seamlessly into the flowing
waters of the mother Godavari. It was like the vastness of Godavari herself was
fueling her thoughts, was empowering her will for an equal status in the male
dominated society.
Though being from a farming
family, Ilaa’s interest was never towards living a normal prescribed life of
working on the fields, and eventually getting married to another potbellied
rich guy which their parents could manage to find for her. She had this burning
desire inside her to fight for her land, protect her people from the foreign
invaders, alongside the men on the battlefield. She wanted women to have equal
status to men in all respects and not just in religious and political
activities. She wanted women to not be treated as weak. She remembered the Vedic
days when women were considered supremely powerful and have set examples. She
wanted those days back.
‘Stop daydreaming! We should
return to the fields fast before anyone notices our absence!’ vaishnavi
interrupted Ilaa, bandaging her wound which was made by Ilaa’s sword during the
practice. Ilaa have learnt quite a deal till now , her secret teacher being the
Senapati himself, whom she fondly called’ Ajo ba’. The Senapati Pritnanda was
training Ilaa right from her childhood. When Ilaa was young the Senapati witnessed
her taking down two Mughal soldiers single handedly during the Mughal invasion.
That day he vowed to train her, with or without permission from the Peshwa
himself, to be the finest warrior Paithan has ever seen.
‘Where have you been? How can you
be so irresponsible Ilaa?’, Ilaa’s father Damodar Rao grunted, as he piled up another sack full of
raw cotton on to the cart to be taken away to the processing house. Damodar
looked much tensed, which was obvious to the fact that Roman parliament had put
a ban on the import of the high priced cotton of Paithan to save Rome from
Extravagance. Losing such a trade opportunity was a major setback for Paithan’s
cotton industry. Amidst such chaos, a relieving news had arrived that the
Maratha Emperor Chatrapati Shivaji himself would be halting at Paithan next month
on his journey to Jalna, and would be buying cotton garments for the royal
marriage to be consummated in the vaishakh month. Damodar wanted to grab this
opportunity to the fullest so as to make up the losses occurred due to the
Roman Ban. So consequently the workload was bound to increase in the coming
days.
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Preparations were on at full
swing to welcome the emperor Shivaji, as his route to Paithan passed through
Sauviragram. The village was being decorated with garlands and roads were
cleaned until a single speck of dust is swept away. Ilaa was on her way home
from the fields, walking along the dusty countryside road alongside Godavari.
She heard something which engraved her attention.
Help! Help!.... please help me !
The sound came from behind the
wild bushes along the road to Sauviragram. Ilaa rushed with her friend
vaishnavi and a few others whom she used to train secretly the art of sword fighting.
On the other side of the bushes lied wounded a person very well known to the
entire population of Paithan- the head priest Guru Kawale. His left leg had a
deep wound and he was bleeding severely. Without wasting a moment Ilaa and her
friends washed his wound, which appeared to be due to a sword truce.
Ilaa was curious as why someone
would ever think of hurting a humble person as Guru Kawale himself.
She asked, while bandaging his
legs from a piece of cloth, torn from the cloth which she used to cover her
head while working in the fields amidst intense sunlight, “Guruji, what
happened here? Who did this to you? “
“Dear Ilaa, I was chasing an
infiltrator from the palace backyard that I saw having conversation with
someone from the palace, who was in royal dress up but his face was covered.
His other partner was hiding somewhere here and caught me off guard, but they
saw you people coming and ran away in fear of getting caught. I tried very hard
to stop them from fleeing away, but I failed. Hence is this wound.”
“What all this mean Guruji?”
asked Ilaa curiously, while tendering to his wounds.
“There is a huge conspiracy going
on by the Mughals to assassinate Chatrapati Shivaji on his way to Paithan, and
someone from the royal court of Paithan is also involved. Senapati Pritnanda has
asked me to keep an eye on the royal treasurer as he suspect him to be
involved. The worst part is that we can’t even approach the Peshwa about this
as he wouldn’t believe me without some concrete proof. I tried telling him
about this but he ridiculed me saying that I was a priest, what I know of
security or anything. So all we can do is to try to catch the persons behind it
before they try to do anything.”
“I won’t let anything bad to
happen to our Emperor by these filthy backstabbing invaders. I won’t sit idly
while peace from my Paithan is taken away by conspirators. I will make the
waters of Godavari red with the blood of these invaders.” Ilaa said, declaring a war against the
conspirators, with her women army repeating the sentences in chorus with their
leader.
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People in Paithan were over
excited to receive the emperor. The preparation was complete, but still people
were giving final touches to the decorations as they wanted to leave no stones
unturned to make the welcome perfect. Amidst the whole crowd, which has started
to gather in the Paithan city, a few faces were absent- Ilaa and her gang of
warriors. They vowed to protect the emperor and they were acting on their
vouch. Priest Kawale using his and Senapati Pritnanda’s trusted sources in the
court as well as spies from the treasurer Gopimath’s mansion, has gathered the
information that the attack is planned to happen on the outskirts of
Sauviragram , near the Mahadev temple, where emperor will be halting to offer
his prayers. He will be without weapons inside the temple and thus it will be
easy to take him down. Accordingly Senapati and his few trusted soldiers and
Ilaa’s gang had planned on how to take the invaders down.
Chatrapati shivaji’s convoy
halted near the Mahadev Temple, as presumed by the conspirators. The convoy was
not of big size, as Shivaji wanted to travel light and moreover taking more
soldiers with him would mean compromising border security as it would require
withdrawal of soldiers engaged in security of the empire. There were about 30
people in the convoy including the emperor’s personal guards. Shivaji asked the
soldiers to take some rest while he visits the temple. He left his sword inside
the carriage as taking weapons inside the temple was thought of an insult to
the peace and sanctity of the temple premises. The Mahadev temple was on a
small hillock, with dense vegetation all around, providing ample hiding space
to the invaders. Shivaji, along with prime minister and one of the personal
guard marched his way up on the stairs to the temple. The invaders were waiting
for the right moment to strike, which would be when the emperor would be at a
considerable distance from the resting soldiers.
As soon as Shivaji neared the
temple on the top of the hillock, an army of Mughal soldiers attacked the
resting soldiers on the foothills. The soldiers were caught off guard and unprepared,
yet they retaliated with full force. A single Maratha soldier could easily take
down about ten of Mughal soldiers. Another party of well trained and
experienced assassins came out of the woods and circled the emperor and his
associates. But before they could harm the emperor, the tables turned. Senapati
along with his army of trusted soldiers reached for the help of the soldiers
battling with the Mughal army. A huge bloodbath followed, as Maratha soldiers
fought valiantly and watered the grounds with the Mughal blood. On the uphill,
Ilaa’s women army was engaged in one to one sword combat with the assassins,
along with Shivaji himself. The assassins were skilled to kill but Ilaa was no
less than anyone. The way she fought with swords in both her hands, it looked
like goddess Kali has herself appeared on the battlefield. She engaged about
ten of the assassins herself, which made it easier for the other warriors to
take down the other assassins. She beheaded a few, left many on the ground
bleeding to death, many limb less trying to crawl away, but only to meet
certain death.
While a large number of the
Mughal soldiers were killed, Senapati captured a few of them too for
interrogation later on. Many Maratha soldiers were also killed and some of them
had severe injuries. Two of Ilaa’s warrior were severely injured and were
bleeding heavily. By this time news of the attack had spread all over and a
huge army from Paithan had arrived to escort the emperor safely to the Paithan palace.
Things happened so fast that Shivaji didn’t even have a chance to speak to Ilaa
to thank her for saving his life. The Peshwa himself took the charge of
escorting Shivaji and ensured that all the wounded soldiers get treated as fast
as it can.
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The royal court was called up the
next day, to discuss upon the major attack which happened on the way to
Paithan. People from all over Paithan city and the nearby villages thronged the
royal court, making it full up to the brim to just have a glance at the mighty
emperor. Every one of the commoners was thanking the almighty Mahadev for
saving the emperor from this major attack. The royal court at Paithan was
splendid and decorated to the full galore, speaking of the glorious rule of the
Marathas. The common people have
assembled along the sides of the hallway, which was then lined up by the
nobility and the aristocrats, followed by a lineup of grand thrones upon which
sat the various ministers and guests. At the end of the grand hall, was a stage
upon which a huge throne, made of ivory and decorated in gold floral design,
with peacock feathers adding a charm to it, was placed, waiting for the embrace
of the Emperor himself.
“Before any other thing, I want
to call upon here the person who saved my life. If they didn’t come on time, I
wouldn’t be standing here before you right now.” Shivaji announced.
The crowd in the court stood in
fascination, waiting for the names as for who these valiant warriors were. They
were surprised when the emperor called up the names.
“Please welcome our brave Ilaa
and her warrior girls, our valiant Senapati Pritnanda and our trustworthy
Priest Kawale.” Peshwa announced at the request of the emperor.
People clapped in astonishment as
they were not expecting that a gang of girls can ever do such acts of bravery.
Ilaa’s parents and other villagers of Sauviragram stood there in bewilderment,
still trying to figure out how on this earth was this even possible.
The emperor narrated the whole
incident as how he was attacked by the Mughals and how the rescue party saved
him, what was the role played by Pritnanda and Kawale in this whole rescue and
how he owes his life to Ilaa and her friends. Ilaa stood there humbly, with her
eyes down but still with a sense of pride for what she had done for her
country.
“Ilaa , ask of anything as your
prize. It will be yours, you have my word.” Shivaji announced.
Ilaa never had the greed for
money or any other earthly objects; she was a humble and down to earth girl
with simple needs. Yet there was one thing which she desperately wanted, and it
was high time for her to demand that.
“O mighty emperor, it is my good
fortune that I came of any use to my country. I have no desire of any gold or
throne. I have aimed for only one thing since my childhood and ask you of that
only. I request you to grant equal status to women in all fields of life
whether it be religion, politics or army. I dream of having a women contingent
in the Maratha army and I ask you of that only.” Ilaa spoke, as humbly she
could, fearing that the emperor may never accede to her request.
“I declare that from today
onwards we will have a women contingent in our Maratha army, with Ilaa as its
Senapati. Women in our empire will have equal rights in all aspects. Priest
Kawale, from today onwards is appointed as the head priest of the empire.
Senapati Pritnanda is to be the chief commander of the Maratha army.” Shivaji
announced and the crowd cheered up with joy. Ilaa was standing beside Shivaji
with tear in her eyes, as her wish had finally come true. The old Vedic days
have returned in the Maratha Empire.
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