The Rajmata's choice
Full moon was staring through the window of her Shayan kaksh. She felt as if the moon was sending her some message. Mandodari, the chief queen of the great kingdom of Lanka was feeling uneasy. She perspired even in the cool night of Ashvin month.
She looked below. Her dear Lanka city, a very prosperous one, was extremely quiet- not as the night had advanced but as the city was burnt by Hanuman, a doot from the enemy Ram. The gold plated roof tops of eminent buildings were looking black and smoke was rising to the sky like a monster about to attack and eat away them.
Flames were rising into the sky like the tongue of dev Kaal. The scene was terrifying.
Mandodri wished that all these must stop. Just due to a lady sitting in the garden whom Rakshash raj Ravan, the mighty king and her husband had brought for a revenge. Revenge due to the rejection of Surpankha, her sister in law, by Laxman and eventually abducting that lady Sita by Ravan. She brought nothing but troubles and misfortunes for Lanka. All These must end. At once.
She decided to meet Sita alone and so started towards the Ashok vatika garden where she was kept. But just as she came down the marble stairs shining in bright full moon, her son Meghnad came to her.
"Mate, where are you going ? Are you not well ?" he asked.
"Putra, are you awake at this hour ? I am well but anything worries you ?" she said, moving her hands affectionately in the thick black hair of Meghnad.
"Mate, I am performing Yagna for victory against Ram and his army tomorrow. I am sure of victory but let our family goddess Nikumbala give her blessings to make things sure."
"Son, my innermost heart says you should not go. Already much has been lost by this ever prosperous state just over a false issue involving a married lady. Is that Sita more important than this kingdom of Lanka ?" She said and started going down the stairs.
"Mate,we Rakshash putras stick to anything once we decide on. A king should not be afraid of loss of life in a battlefield. Whatever be the underlying issue, it is now not important. It is now our prestige at stake.. At any rate, even at the cost of our lives we have to maintain it, else the future humanity will laugh at us forever. I am here now to fight for Pitashri. Come what may."
Saying this, Meghnad went into his palace to appease the goddess Nikumbala.
Mandodari came to the courtyard. She could smell the smoke coming out of burning green trees, silk clothes and wood. She passed through a big field where she saw many small fires. She heard tragic crying sounds of a woman. She went near that. She was young, perhaps in her late twenties. A small child was clinged to her breasts trying to suck drops of milk from her already dried breasts due to shock. She was beating her breasts, her forehead. "I curse you, King Ravana, for you have made me a helpless widow. You have made this my child fatherless. Just to satisfy your lust for a woman, you have made almost all the wives of your armymen widows. I curse you, Be childless. Be wealthless. Let your wives be widows like me. Let your soul never get peace. I curse you, you, the killer of many braves of Lankan army just for your ego."
Mandodari saw the many fires. They were pyres of the dead soldiers being burnt on the ground.
Now as the wind blew towards her from the ground, she smelt the burning human bodies. The smell of their cut organs lying all around. She could not bear the grief any more.
Suddenly an armed guard passed near her riding on a tall horse. He had a spear in his hand. He asked her to stop saying "O you, a lonely lady. It is the king's order to kill anyone passing through this field. We are here searching if any other enemy, besides Hanuman is moving in Lanka. Show your face else this spear will pierce your body. Are you an enemy in a woman's dress?"
She let the extravagantly costly, jewellery knitted sari drop her head and looked at the guard. The guard dismounted the horse and folded his hands to her.
" O the empress of Lanka, forgive me. But please go back to the palace. This ground is turned into a cremation ground as the Smashan of Lanka is now too small to burn the massive number of dead soldiers. It is the Maharaj's agna (strict instructions) to not allow anyone cross this field. Where were you going, respected Maharani ?"
"To the Ashok vatika where Sita, the root cause of all these destructions is housed. I wanted to meet her."
"I plead you, Maharaniji, go back."
The guard said as he helped Mandodari mount the horse.sitting on another horse guiding her and with a tailing horse behind her, they escorted Mandodari back into her palace.
The remaining night and for the entire next morning, Mandodari could not sleep, could not concentrate on anything. She felt her breath warmer and faster, her heart drumming louder with fear. She chanted prayers but her mind was not into it.
She called a confident aide Dasi. She asked her to go out secretly and to call her sister in law, Sarama, wife of Vibhishan, Ravan's younger brother.
Sarama came to her elder Jethani Mandodari and touched her feet. She was looking different from all the ladies around from Rakshash lineage. She was a Gandharva by birth, so beautiful and peace loving by nature.
Mandodari came to know that Vibhishan is also against making Sita such a mighty prestige issue to destroy an ever wealthy Lanka for her.
She asked his permission. Today let Meghnad win, but when the cause underlying this extremely fierce battle was immoral, the wrong must be set right by a proper act. If not by the adamant king Ravana, then by the chief queen, her - being the second most important person to care for Lanka.
She asked Vibhishan's permission to meet Sita at Ashokvatika in a 'chhadma vesh' (in hiding, impersonating as a different person) with Sarama. She and Sarama dressed as males and with spear and a dhanush in their hands, they marched towards Ashok vatika.
Just as they entered the gates of that well maintained garden, she saw Ashok vatika in an unusually quiet mode. She heard some ladies weeping. She asked in a whisked voice not to let her voice be recognised as a female voice why they cried.
On hearing, she felt the earth moving beneath her feet. She felt her entire body freezing with shock, her heartbeats stopping, her breaths stopping inside her stomach. Meghnad had died battling for his father.
She could not even weep loudly here. She wanted to cut Sita into pieces and bury her here to make the trees get a good fertiliser.
After sometime she composed herself.
She could tolerate her husband marrying a more beautiful woman. It was an accepted way of life amongst the kings of that time. She was, bit reluctantly, ready to sacrifice her status of the Patrani, chief queen. But it was highly immoral to abduct a married woman forcibly, that too by cheating. Which Ravan did. If he wanted to take revenge of the insult by Laxman, Sita's brother in law, Ravan could have marched and captured them all as his prisoners. But this act she will not support, no one in the three Loka.
This act of Ravan, her otherwise a learned and mighty husband, had cost Lanka an irreparable damage. And she loved Lanka. All Lankans were like her child and they also respected her like their loving and caring mother.
Thinking of child, again she burst into tears. She hid herself behind a bush and cried loudly over the death of her brave son. Her cry was merged with that of other women crying in this garden otherwise known for joyous environment.
She must take some action. To prevent Lanka from being destroyed completely. It was already destroyed but to save whatever she can.
She found out Sita. She and Sarama talked to her something secretly. Sita also did not want anybody's destruction. The ladies understood each other. After all both were daughters of powerful kings and chief queens of powerful states.
What will history say ? History will say only which is known. But unknown facts will be buried in its seventh Paatal forever.
Next day morning. The sun was yet to rise in the sky spreading its divine light burying all evils. The sky was dark with the stories of yesterday but blueness of light of hope had started to peep in from the horizon. Mandodari got up and with a heavy heart. She went to the window of her Shayan Kaksh facing the ground she visited last night.
She stood by the palace window.Tall and still, gazing absently at the blurred distance. She had two choices; both unattractive, out of which she would have to take a decision.
Choice one. Even after the death of her beloved Meghnad and after losing almost everything she had in life, support Ravan. Come what may. And to actually surrender that Sita who went on keeping Ravan away; to him and let the enemy army enter Lanka, come inside the palace and to see a fight here before her eyes. Before that, getting Vibhishan and Sarama imprisoned by declaring their faithfulness to the enemy Ram. Once Sita enters the palace, surely she will lose her status of Patrani. May be, even after that, the fight goes on and on. Then there will be no one to show enemy the way and Ram may have to tread back. But surely, Lanka will be safe.
Choice two. Let Sita escape by the secret path to Ram's army. Her Ravan will never give up in midst of a war. He will go with the remaining army and will get killed. She will remain Patrani of the dead king and Lanka will be saved.
Ravan or Lanka ? Husband or children ? What to choose ? One choice was to be made anyhow.
She stood and stood for a very long time. Finally she took a deep breath, summoned Sarama. She came in pre-decided disguise. They went to Ashok vatika. Sita was sent out through the secret path. Vibhishan declared Sita trying to escape through the aide of Ram. Ravan followed the enemy army out of Lanka. Ghor sangram. A fierce war unheard and never to be heard again, 'na bhuto na bhavishyanti' took place. Ravan was killed but Lanka was saved. For her children, Rajmata sacrificed her husband.
This tale will go untold in the history. But think, had Sita been there, would the army not have entered into Lanka and into the royal palace ?
-Sunil Anjaria
