Chapter Thirty-Six: Round One Won! Cracks Emerge!
In a secluded cave within the forest on the opposite bank,
Satyajit sat at Acharya Chanakya's feet and forcibly dressed the wound caused due to the poisoned knife on his right knee with the poison antidote herbs and soothing medication in the folds of his tunic though his mentor kept on protesting that it was nothing much to worry or bother.
Satyajit: I know you would say that this is nothing much to bother or worry about. I know that you are very strong and care nothing beyond the welfare of Magadh and our Bharath. But to me, your welfare is as important as that of Magadh or Bharath. You cannot stop me from caring for you!
Chanakya: Alright! Have it your own way!
After Satyajit had finished dressing the wound, and stood up, Chanakya asked, "Are you done with it? Can we get down to the real business now? What's the current situation in Dhananand's camp?"
Chanakya heard about the detailed intelligence report given by Satyajit regarding the present situation in Dhananand's forest camp.
Chanakya, after listening to Satyajit, pondered aloud, "The army strength is not too bad if we go by the numbers. They can be a force to reckon with. Moreover, they are not engaging in direct attack either. They are firmly entrenched in the frontier and making themselves as irritating as possible. A problem you cannot rid yourself of nor one you could afford to ignore!"
Satyajit: Yes, Acharya! Amatya Rakshas's presence in Magadh makes our enemies all the more powerful. As long as he is with Dhananand, it would be impossible to capture the prince. A direct attack would yield no results because till date we have changed locations and hideouts a number of times.
Chanakya: How many army contingents are in Dhananand's possession and currently operating and working against us on the soil of Magadh?
Satyajit: There are fourteen in the aforesaid locations I have mentioned in my report. We have negated the kingdom of Parvathak only recently. But Uttara Meru continues to be a thorn in our side. Two of our neighboring states, Anga and Videha to the East and and Gandhar and Khambhoj to the north west are jealous of the growing power and supremacy of Magadh under Maharaj Chandragupt. The same is the case with Toshali to the south. They are indirectly aiding and abetting in subversive activities via Padmanand. They are providing the logistics for a long drawn out battle though they dare not directly involve in this for fear of bringing the ire of Maharaj Chandragupt on them.
Chanakya: Yes, I was made aware of all these facts by my other spies working in these kingdoms. I am looking into this. We will find a solution to quell this. Anything else of interest?
Satyajit: Acharya, I don't know if this piece of information is of any use or interest to you. Dhananand and Amatya Rakshas have been in communication with a famous arms dealer from Central Asia. The disguised and camouflaged caravan carrying the weapons cache is expected to arrive in a day or two via the Hindukush frontier near Takshashila from where it is going to be smuggled in. I am still to ascertain or find out by what modus operandi they intend to exactly do this. General Vakranas has personally gone to inspect the weapons and their quality before taking delivery of the same from the dealer after paying the requisite amount.
Chanakya: Any specific reasons why you think they are doing this?
Satyajit: I heard them discussing that their existing weapons were old and worn out and they were intending to replace them with the new weapons. Since they were preparing for war, they want to be well-prepared for it! I found nothing unusual in this! Old weapons are usually replaced from time to time with newer ones!
Chanakya (with a intriguing smile on his face): INTERESTING!
Satyajit: I have to leave now, Acharya! Anything else before I leave?
Chanakya: Remember one thing! I have my information, and I didn't want you to go back this time! So you can return any time you want!
Satyajit: No, Acharya! My mission is still incomplete! It will not be until Dhananand is completely annihilated. Acharya, I am in the same contingent with Amatya Rakshas and Dhananand. If they could plan to assassinate you, why can't we do the same with them? I will get many opportunities to try this!
Chanakya: You can go if you want. I wouldn't like to curb either your patriotism or enthusiasm. But all I advise is a bit of caution and prudence. And none of those grand assassinating plans you were outlining! You are a spy and not an assassin or mercenary. So just stick to intelligence and information gathering! Firstly, I have some major designs on Amatya Rakshas! So I don't want him to be harmed. Leave it to me on how to nullify Amatya Rakshas. As for assassinating Dhananand, I wouldn't have you try it! If you succeed, great! But if you don't, you are bound to get caught! And in that case, you would be faced with the prospect of the most horrible and excruciating death.
Satyajit: Acharya, you needn't fear for me! I am your Shishya! I will not be caught!
Chanakya: Never say never when you are up against a man of Rakshas's caliber! You've already had a minor brush with the soldiers of Dhananand, this handwriting test, and the failure of this assassination attempt on me; they are bound to be on the lookout for you! One of the primary rules of sleuthing is the element of surprise which is precisely missing in your case. Our enemies are aware of your presence, they just do not know your identity. It is just a matter of time before they discover you. How many times do you expect to outwit them? And how many times do you think Rakshas is going to fail? If I were you, I wouldn't test my luck so much!
Satyajit: Acharya, please...just a few more days! I might be able to bring more information!
Chanakya: I was just telling my opinion about this! You have done very well for this assignment! I have learnt everything I needed to learn. I would personally have you return now instead of indulging in undue risks! It is not at all necessary or advisable!
Satyajit: Acharya, I will stick just to business. Just allow me to go back!
Chanakya, his voice quivering a slight bit before he said, "Alright!
Satyajit bent down to take blessing from Acharya Chanakya by touching his feet before leaving. Acharya Chanakya, with pride and affection brimming in his eyes for his student, placed his palm on top of his head in blessing.
Satyajit immediately covered his face and left from the cave while Acharya Chanakya sat down biding his time.
At the other bank,
Bhimsen sent one third of his troops ahead of him in pursuit of Bhadrasal before he stayed behind a couple more minutes to give parting instructions to a couple of his Aides who were to stay behind and bring the reinforcements he had sought from the Military Outpost, and how and where they would exactly find him on the opposite bank after his arrival.
Bhimsen: Send for a few scouts and guides from the village of Arwal who know the forests very well to accompany each of our divisions in their search and comb operations. I will make marks like this wherever I go. So you will be able to locate me easily if you need me at any point of time.
One of the Aides expressed a doubt at this point, "Sir, I just have a doubt. These are dense forests. I don't know even if a hundred guides or scouts would be of any help to us. They would only know the terrain, not where our enemies would be hiding. It is already very dark now. It will be the work of a minute for Bhadrasal and his men to hide and camouflage themselves. How are we even going to find them if we cannot see them? It's not like we can smell our enemies like hunting dogs!
Bhimsen, for a moment, was stuck by the unexpected brilliance of his Aides's casual remark and got an idea out of it, "I am told that the Chief Commanding Officer of the nearest Military Outpost has a brilliant troop of hunting dogs! Seek his permission to take them and use them in our operations! Now I'd like to see how Bhadrasal and his men escape from us because we can see them and smell them now!"
The search and fighting continued in bursts and starts on the opposite bank. The involvement of the hunting dogs in this operation made it literally impossible for Bhadrasal's men to hide from the Mauryan forces. They were dragged, chased and hunted down from wherever they were hiding. Nearly two-thirds of the force with which Bhadrasal had set out was decimated to naught in a couple of hours. The reinforcements that were supposed to join Bhadrasal were intercepted and tackled on their way itself by the Mauryan reinforcements from the Military Outpost.
So Bhadrasal had been isolated and cut off from all possible help or aid. However, owing to his superior skills, Bhadarasal and a few of his men had still evaded the net and were out in the open in the dense forests on the opposite bank of Son River. They were still searching for Acharya Chanakya. Neither did the Mauryan forces under Bhimsen's leadership nor did Bhadrasal and his men come across the whereabouts of Acharya Chanakya in all this while.
In the cave,
After Satyajit's departure, Acharya Chanakya coolly sat down and meditated visualizing the near possible future, his short term and long term goals for Magadh and the whole of Bharath, the key people he was going to use for this task, and how he was going to set about doing this; while outside both the troops battled it out among themselves.
He was very well aware of what was happening outside. He did not want to prove an impediment in that task to the very least. Bhimsen and his soldiers were apparently having a whale of a time. Moreover, a bit of a practice match and minor scuffle like this always came in handy before any major battle or war. Even a knife occasionally had to be sharpened for better cut and thrust! So were one's soldiers and generals too! They best way to judge your possibilities of victory were to actually see them in action in a true battlefield.
And that was what it had been today. The way Purushottom and his men had defended on the banks of Son by getting into the Mandala Vyuh and holding back Bhadrasal and his men who were many times larger than them in number (When they were fighting, they were hardly going to be aware that the reinforcements were even going to turn up), and now the way Bhimsen and his men seemed to be approaching this search and comb operation was praiseworthy.
The blood curdling cries he had been hearing somewhere afar in the forests, the swift hooves of the horses, the clashing blades of the swords, the barks of dogs; all these were a testimony to the fact that the Mauryan side were carrying out their business very admirably.
Hunting dogs put to the task! That was really a good brainwave! He knew that Bhimsen was very capable. But this was a new one even to him. Everything and everyone was working smoothly, efficiently, in a well-oiled manner, with perfect synchronization. Just then his thought were interrupted by the sound of footsteps rudely barging into the cave!
Bhadrasal: So we found you at last, Chanakya! (Pointing towards Acharya Chanakya, he turned to the men along with him and said) Do your task!
They were about to advance towards Acharya Chanakya when they were felled by a host of arrows shot from a distance by archers on horse cavalry. Bhadrasal was the only man standing alive apart from Acharya Chanakya in that cave. Bhadrasal quickly jumped for cover from the arrows behind a rock ledge in the cave, and drew his sword and shield lightening quick in a reflex action while standing in readiness for a fight. He weighed in all his possible options.
Could he manage to take Acharya Chanakya as a hostage and fight his way out of this? That didn't seem either possible or feasible. Acharya Chanakya was at the farthest end of the cave. All his men were dead and the only reason why he must have been spared must have been because Bhimsen probably wanted to catch him alive.
But all the same if he made the slightest move towards Acharya Chanakya, the archers were well prepared for it. He was surely but steadily under their aim. They wouldn't hesitate to finish him off in that eventuality even for a minute. He knew that his game was up. But if he was going to fall, he would not do so before he had taken as many of this side as he could along with him.
Bhimsen and his mounted horse cavalry approached the entrance of the cave. Bhadrasal was surrounded by soldiers but he continued fighting with the viciousness of a viper whose tail had been stamped by somebody. A few soldiers of the Mauryan side ran to Acharya Chanakya and formed an impenetrable safety circle around him with their shields and carefully escorted him out of the cave to a place of safety while their comrades and Bhimsen remained behind to tackle the indomitable Bhadrasal who was fighting like the devil himself though he was pushed against the wall.
Every time a Mauryan soldier fell, his energy and stamina got redoubled and rejuvenated. With every drop of enemy blood he drew, Bhadrasal became even more potent just like the Raktabheej of mythical yore who came alive as many times and in as many places as his drops of blood fell. His face and clothes were splattered with blood, and there were dismembered limbs strewn all over the cave.
It was a very lurid and unpleasant sight inside the cave such as one to make a person forgo his next nearest meal. Bhadrasal's sword broke, his shield was snatched away from him, and he was hastily disarmed of all the weapons he had with him. Finally, he was held back by the Mauryan soldiers and secured with chains and locks from escaping! He bellowed the most ominous fulminations and curses, "You cowards! Set me free and fight me! Then see who I am! Dare you touch me!"
Bhimsen in a very low voice of silent menace, "Thank your stars that you are alive, Bhadrasal! You would have been free and in the lower reaches of the Vaitrani of Hell if I had given my archers the command to shoot you down as well along with your men. It is only because I wanted to capture you alive that you are talking!"
Bhadrasal was instantly quietened by the silent authority of Bhimsen, which unnerved even a man like him. A lion was free and all powerful in its own jungle, but imprisoned in a circus, even a dreaded lion was scared of its lion tamer and his whip. If Bhadrasal was like a caged lion in a circus, Bhimsen was the lion tamer himself. He knew that he had perhaps a worse fate awaiting him in imprisonment and incarceration than he would ever face if he had been dead.
In Dhananand's forest camp,
Dhananand had been informed by the handful of survivors who came back about Bhadrasal's capture, the failure of their mission and about the literal annihilation of the entire force that had been sent for this mission. This news made Dhananand burst in uncontrollable rage. He fretted, fumed, upturned all the things and pieces of furniture in his tent, slapped his Aides, kicked anybody who had the misfortune to come before him out of his path to vent his frustration at the failure of a mission in which he had been anticipating sure success.
It was in this state, Amatya Rakshas found him. Despite all his loyalty and sincerity towards the cause of Padmanand, Rakshas felt a slight tremor of disgust and disenchantment unconsciously flowing through him at the manner and deportment of the corky, saucy, bull-headed Prince who neither behaved nor could be forced to behave at that particular moment.
He had much more important things and graver issues to discuss than managing the mood swings of a spoilt prince. But the prince never seemed to understand that. He was overwhelmed by the feeling of swimming against the tide and fighting a lost cause. He was emotionally tired and drained out.
Even since the very beginning, he had been having misgivings about this entire mission. That was why he had entrusted this mission to Bhadrasal and prevented Rajkumar Dhananand from personally going or leading this attack. They had lost a significant number of men on what had turned out to be a trap for them.
To boot, a warrior like Bhadrasal had been captured. Though he was confident that he wouldn't reveal any of their secrets to Chanakya and his men, it was terribly demoralizing to see one of their key men put out of action. To make matters worse, the Prince just did not realize that it was his rashness and yen for instant results that had led to them taking a bait they should have just let go in their present precarious position. What made him cringe was not the loss, but the fact that he felt a misfit in his surroundings and that his prize horse in the race was the lamest and most violent in existence.
Amatya: Ekant! (Privacy!)
Dhananand: Come, Amatya! Any specific pearls of wisdom to explain the loss in privacy? You keep bragging about your learning and your intellect! Pitha Maharaj gives you the full powers and authority to execute plans even over me, his own son; and yet, all you manage to produce is this? That Chanakya manages to outwit you all the time!
Rakshas: Prahaar karen mujh par, Kumar? (Attack me, Prince?)
Dhananand: Are you serious?
Rakshas: You can choose any method you want or any weapon!
Dhananand threw a javelin towards Rakshas. He defended that by catching it in the nick of time. This time he brought out his sword, but Rakshas defended it by holding up a shield before him.
Dhananand, perplexed by now, "What exactly were you intending to convey?"
Rakshas: Winning and losing are just part of the game. Neither have I lost nor has Chanakya won. This is just a minor setback. We will recoup. Har spardha main, hum kuch karthe hain, toh virodhi uska prathi uthar dehtha hai! (In any struggle, if make a move, our opponent makes a counter-move) That is just what Chanakya and his men have done. We need to keep our composure in each and every situation; in defeat, and in triumph. I know we lost this time. But even if we had succeeded, your state would have been so pitiable and unbalanced. Just as this defeat has enraged and demoralized you, that victory would have inebriated and made you outrageous. I feel as if I am wasting my everything in this struggle. I can assure you that perhaps half our troops are feeling the same. More than our enemies, we are endangering our own cause by this kind of behavior.
Dhananand: Watch your words, Amatya!
Dhananand while catching Rakshas in an apparent stranglehold, immediately drew the knife from his pocket and held its tip pointed to the throat of Amatya Rakshas's Adam's Apple until it drew a single drop of blood that dripped down the sharp pointed blade, before it tapered down the handle to touch the palm of his hand recalling him to some amount of sanity.
He glared at the man who had the insolence and temerity to state in plain terms to his face that he was unworthy. Rakshas too stood his ground, unmoved and as unyielding. Finally, it was the younger of the two men who was forced to relent. Subduing his volcanic rage that threatened to overwhelm him for a minute, he withdrew the knife, while laughing nervously and mercurially.
Dhananand: Another person in your place would have been dispatched by now! I tolerate you just for the sake of Pitha Maharaj!
Rakshas: I too do the same I assure you!
Dhananand: Excellent! We finally think alike on at least one thing. You cannot blame me here, Amatya. I had nothing to do with this loss. You never allowed me to do what I wanted. If only I had gone instead of Bhadrasal, things would have been better. You planned the whole thing. You chose the wrong man to execute your plans. I wasn't suspecting your loyalties or your abilities. I just wanted an explanation for this defeat!
Rakshas: We are apparently talking at cross purposes, Kumar! All this while, I was doing precisely that. I was explaining why we had failed. I cannot produce instantaneous results just like that. What do I gain by endangering my own life in this exile in the forest, fighting your cause, if you don't trust that I will deliver? I will resign and step down from my duties if that is what you want! You can find a worthier man than me for this post to produce the results you want. I have nothing more to say!
Dhananand, realizing that things had gone too far in his anger and haste, and that he had antagonized and hurt the man in front of him deeply this time, instantly backtracked, "Amatya, you're taking me too earnestly and seriously. I was just joking! Have things your own way, do things the way you want, just produce me the results I want instantly! I do not care how you're going to do it, I just want it done!"
At this point, Amatya Rakshas groaned, bone-weary and tired. He did not deign to explain any further, realizing the futility of wasting it on the object in front of him.
Edited by shailusri1983 - 8 years ago
Hindi TV Shows
