||A Night After Chittor Siege||
The whole city of Agra was overwhelmed with the excitement of the post-war celebration, as the imperial caravan had entered in Agra today. It has been announced that a great fiesta will be celebrated in Agra for the great victory of Mughal force in Chittor fort, which is the greatest victory of the Mughals till now. After a long battle which continued for four months, after flooding a river of blood throughout the Rajputana, after sacrificing countless innocent lives in the fire of urge of power, the long Chittor siege was successful... Chittor fort, which was the sign of pride for Mewar- the centre of great Rajput clan, the dream of Emperor Akbar was at last captured by him! Was at last won by him! The whole city had adorned with lights; Crackers were being fired for announcing the victory to the whole world... All were happy, were overflowing with joy and enthusiasm...And in front of their joyful zeal the cry of the mothers of Chittor was somehow seemed to be dimmed!
One person was trying hard to escape from that festival of victory- the festival which was seemed to be a bare, atrocious exposal of the inhumane nature of human being! She was no one but Jodha. One of the main consorts of Emperor Akbar, his most favorite wife, whom he believes to be his soul-mate... But she is something more than those denominations too- She is the daughter of Rajputana, and she can never forget that fact. And more than that, she is a human! She cannot celebrate some barbaric savage in the name of victory!!
Slowly she went out from the gathering of harem after attending all the functions being politically smart and polite enough, and started walking towards the darker side of the palace. Yes she needed darkness. She needed loneliness to extinguish the fire of her heart.
She was heading towards her personal room, but who knows from which call of destiny, she at last reached in front another dark room; the most grand and vast room of the palace; the restroom of His imperial majesty...
Jodha entered into the room without thinking anything. In contrast of the gorgeous lights of the whole city, all the darkness had sheltered into this room. This room was too dark to see one's face, and silent enough to feel each and every heartbeat of one clearly! Jodha knows each and every details of this room. She came forward and lit up one candle of the candlestick. Jalal's face was reflected at that dimmed light.
"Come in Jodha Begam. I was waiting for you..." His majesty's weighted voice echoed in the dark room. His voice has some extraordinary magnetic force that compels the person in front of him to listen to him, but somehow Jodha felt a strange agony in his majestic voice today!
"You were drinking wine here being absent in the celebration?" Jodha could not help but to be surprised. "Mughal army has got such a grand success, you have announced a grand celebration; and you yourself are not present there? Why are you sitting in the dark as if any sad incident has taken place?"
"Happiness and sorrow walks together Jodha Begam..." He uttered in a tiresome voice. "Sometimes the joy of win brings the silence of death in heart!" He took Jodha's hands in his palms very affectionately and made her sit beside him. In the dim light of the candle he kept starring at her face, inhaling all the essence of her innocent beauty with his thirsty, tired eyes. Jodha did not tell anything; she took his hands and kissed them. After a long time her lover has come to her; after so many life-risking, blood shedding days, so many sleepless nights, bearing so many injuries and tire he has come to her, how can she sit without any response! Her heart, the beloved inside her heart, is crying for this moment only for last five months...when she will sit beside him, when she will take his head on her lap, when she will break down in cry in his arms... How can that eagerness of heart be wiped out by some external political matters?
Jalal took Jodha's head in his chest; Jodha did not protest, she only started to care the wound of his hand, which was deep enough and had not been cured yet, with her gentle touch. A drop of tear fell on his hand suddenly...
"You are angry on me. Isn't it?" Jalal said suddenly. Jodha nodded her head with the sign of negation and hugged him passionately. No! How can she be angry with the man of her heart?
"You had not come to me meet me once from morning. And not talking with me even now!" Jalal said in a sad voice. "I am feeling that the rhythm of our relationship has somehow broken! Has this war torn the thread of our relationship?"
"Nothing can create distance between you and me Shahenshah!" Jodha told confidently. "But I was thinking one thing only from morning!"
"Say me, what were you thinking?"Jalal cupped her face into his palm.
"If I were not your wife, if I did not love you, if I would have same hatred for you like before our marriage," Jodha uttered almost silently, as if she is feeling guilty to confess her inner feeling to her beloved, "Then perhaps that hatred would have been increased 100 times after hearing the description of this war."
Jalal's eyes did not vibrate, but his heart trembled to hear the words of Jodha. He did not say anything, only freed her from his hold and turned back his face, sighing...
Jodha was hurt to see Jalal's reaction; she kept her head on his shoulder from back, murmuring "I did not know you before marriage. I had made an image of you from the tales of your cruelty from everyone's mouth. An image of terror, cruelty and hatred! Even I did not see anything beyond that image inside you after our marriage! I was happy to blame my fortune while thinking you as a live image of terror and destruction, never wanted to see your great heart! But the day I started to know you, connected my heart with yours, I understood that you are just the opposite of the image made by me! You are not an image of cruelty; you are a great man with a great heart!! So I am in dilemma after hearing the description of war! Have I done mistake to understand you, or you had gone against your soul? This war has not created any problem between us Shahenshah, only it has raised some questions."
"Ask whatever you want!" Jalal smiled palely while looking at her.
"Which one of your entity is real Shahenshah?"Jodha looked at his eyes. "That one who enjoyed the death of 30000 men, had announced his triumph by making a tower of the heads of them? Or he, who is finding peace in the darkness and solitary, hiding himself from the light of celebration?"
"Both are real Jodha!" A sarcastic smile touched his majesty's lips. "Both are the same human of same name and same soul!" He now turned to Jodha; fully, seriously fixing his eyes on her eyes he uttered- "Whatever you have heard about the battle is true Jodha; and whatever I was fully in my sense while doing everything. Not under anyone's influence, not being under any misunderstanding! I had done everything in my sense and sanity, to create fear in the heart of each and every man of Chittor I had to do these; and" His voice was extremely cold. "I don't regret my decision!"
"You do not regret!! 30000 common people have died apart from normal soldiers your majesty!!"Jodha almost screamed. "1000 of women have sacrificed their lives in jauhar to save their honour! Who knows how many mothers have become childless; how many kids have been sacrificed!" She could not suppress the excitement and hatred in her voice now! "And you are telling that you were not wrong? You do not regret?"
"We were there for fighting a battle Jodha Begam, and common peoples are to be sacrificed in a war...This is not a new thing! Maybe here the army had created much havoc destruction than I expected, but it does happen sometimes under the strange intoxication of vehemence that makes the warriors ruthless and insane in war-field!" Jalal answered calmly. "Whether the decision taken at the battlefield was right or wrong can only be judged by the person who is leading the army of thousands of soldiers on spot; it cannot be judged while sitting peacefully inside the palace and hearing the story of destruction."
"I have no experience of war-field." Jodha told in a humble tone. "Nor I know much about politics or war tactics. But I am a human! How can I accept that the cruel murder of 30000 innocents was a right decision?" Her voice again forgot to keep control over her heart. "It was murder Shahenshah! I had heard that it was a ravaging mass-murder! They did not get a death like warrior, they got killed cruelly! Mughal Army killed everyone irrespective of their age!"
"You heard right!" Jalal told while sipping from the goblet in one chance.
"Why???!!!"
Jalal looked at her agonized face and sighed! "So that they fear me! So that they think twice before going against Emperor Akbar ever!"
"The emperor of Hindustan's heart arranged mass-murder to cultivate fear in the heart of his subjects?" Jodha lashed out. "Where had all your thoughts of love gone?"
"Love and fear both are only human emotions Jodha Begam!" Jalal said in a monotone. "Who does not accept love he has to be feared!" he smiled. "Love and fear both are truth. But fear is more rational than love. So an emperor has to spread terror too. It's essential to chain a lion while taming it."
Jodha was silent. She was looking at her toe without saying anything. Jalal again took her hand into his hands.
"It was needed Jodha. It was needed to break the backbone of Mewar. It was needed to break the bubble of virtue and pride of whole Rajput clan! The seed of vigorous warrior is hidden inside each and every dweller of that fort; it was needed to eradicate that warrior instinct by hook or crook so that they can never raise their head!" His voice became authoritative. "This time I have directly stabbed in the heart of Rajputana. Now the whole Rajputana will come under my territory without any further combat!" The aspirations of Jalal were clearly reflected in his voice, which sounded too cruel to Jodha!
"How will you fear them who are not feared of death?" she laughed sarcastically. "Do you really believe that Chittor will bend her head in front of that person who has demolished her pride?"
"Of course not! I never underestimate my enemy Jodha, especially if they have a gem of warriors like Kunwar Pratap Singh! I know they will never bend in front of me- at least till the date Pratap is alive." He said... "But neither they will be able to raise their head also! I have ensured that forever! And also..." he was calculative- "I doubt if there any single strong force is still left in Rajputana who would dare to defend and combat me after witnessing this incident! The other small rebel kings, who plans to uproot my existence with my dynasty with their tiny troops day and night, will get to know how much inhumane I can become if I want! This single war has brought the half of this Hindustan under my feet Jodha. Believe me or not, fear works!" His smile suddenly became vicious in the dim light of candle. "I only know how to win! I can do anything to ensure my victory. Winning is important... not the way of how you conquer that!"
"Such a lust for power?" Jodha sighed! "On the verge of conquest you forget the value of humanity, the virtue of a king and the meaning of love and peace?"
"I went there to fight a war Jodha, not to shower the rain of love and peace." Jalal's modulated controlled voice was as sharp as a whip. "War is another name of killing humanity. War is a word completely opposite to love and peace. Each and every war is brutal in its own way, and I, being a warrior, am proud to occupy the skill of keeping the basic humanity aside and to become brutal in need! You can never be a perfect warrior if you have a trace of humanity left inside heart in the battlefield!"
"So the thing is..." Jodha's voice was strangled by a hard rock of dejection and anguish. She uttered with a suppressed sarcasm- "You will shower all your love and respect to them who will happily accept you as their supreme; and who will not, you will smash them under your heavy boot of power! Perhaps this is the actual rule to abide by an emperor and a warrior!"
Jalal smiled and lowered his head for a moment while closing his eyes. Perhaps he was fighting a battle inside his mind... between his two entities of an emperor and a human... between his strategist brain and his compassionate heart... after some time he picked up his face and sipped once. Looking at Jodha's excited red face for once he moved his eyes to the imperial turban placed on the nearby table. "That crown demands sacrifice Jodha! Sacrifice of blood, sacrifice of love, sacrifice of belief, sacrifice of humanity..." He sighed. "I am an emperor after all Jodha, not a sage! To ensure the safety of my throne and my crown and to expand my empire I have to obey the norms of being an emperor! And for that I can go to any extent!"
"Perhaps! Perhaps those innocent lives were too much valueless in front of the great ambitions of the great Emperor! Perhaps the price of the vermillion of those thousands of women's head was too much less than the arrogance and ego of the emperor!" Jodha smiled strangely with a lot of despair and disgust together mixed in her glare. "But I am surprised Shahenshah! Why you are sitting in this dark? You have won the half of Hindustan in this single war; you do not regret your decision of the bloodbath you conducted there. You have written the destiny of thousands of man and woman with your bloodsucking sword. Then instead of celebrating, instead of showering the rain of alcohol among all in the rain of lights outside why are you drinking all alone in this dark room, as if you have lost your path?"
"Because perhaps!" He sighed unmindfully. "Perhaps I myself knew for the first time that my dreams cost so many lives! The moment I witnessed the heap of lifeless bodies piling here and there inside Chittor Fort, the moment the odour of fresh blood burnt my nose, the moment the mark of bullets on the fort wall and the flow of red blood in the roads stroke me hard and got me out of the insane addiction of bloodshed under the intoxication of the ambience of war, I suddenly found myself standing in dark...aloof from my own world... all alone... That moment I suddenly thought- if I were only a mere soldier, or maybe a simple peasant or a labourer maybe, would it have made a bigger change for me? Then why I am not a common people; why my God sent me with so much power in hand? I suddenly thought... perhaps for the first time in my life I doubted on my own belief- that is this great victory of this Chittor siege, this memorable achievement of my army which is going to leave a mark in the pages of History forever, is really a victory for me? Or is it the greatest defeat of Emperor Akbar in the disguise of victory? What I actually got to achieve by smashing the pride of a valiant clan this way? This may look as winning, but the patriotism and valour of each and every people of that fort has defeated my strength, I had to eradicate them from the world forever to hide the fact that they did not bend in front of me!" He again poured wine in the goblet. "I don't regret my decision as an emperor. I was born in such an ambience where only the spark of sword and urge of power can survive! I do not despise bloodshed; I do not despise my inhumane orders after the siege. But..." He sighed and gulped the liquor in one sip.
"But what Shahenshah?" Jodha's frowns had not still disappeared from her brows. "Are you feeling dissatisfied as your ego of an emperor has not been fully accomplished due to the vigour and pride of the children of Mewar?"
"I would get better relief if it had been like what you said Jodha Begam!" Jalal smiled broadly casting his glance on her face. "But alas! The feelings which are creating turbulence inside my heart are not a dissatisfaction of hurt ego, nor a sting of regret it is. I am feeling as if..." He sighed. "As if someone has made me vacant from inside... The mad cheer of my army after I killed the leader of their army standing on the top of the fort in a single target of bullet; the cloud of smoke swirling up in the air from each and every house after that with the tears for the silent sacrifice of the women; the flood of blood on the roads; the slaughtered heads and dead-body here and there... each and every scenes are still floating in front of my eyes! None of the birds were chattering in the branches of Chittor that day Jodha; only a flock of vulture was gliding over the sky in the urge of dead flesh... The whole fort, which was once full of affluence and pride, was as silent as a graveyard! They were so feared of me and my name that they even did not dare to wail and cry for their dear ones, to save their lives from the violent Mughal force! I crushed Chittor, the strongest hurdle of my dreams- I smashed her under my feet brutally. Everything I did was as per my war strategy... But perhaps I did not know that the dead silence of the fort will take shelter in my heart too!"
Jodha tuned back her face and sighed! The short description of the fort had started a storm inside her heart. Chittor... the heart of Mewar... the heart of Rajputana, her motherland! Today the last flame of the pride of her motherland also has been forcefully extinguished! Chittor gadh and the ranas of Mewar... the children of Chittoreswari... the devotees of Eklingeswar Mahadev! She and her siblings have grown up hearing the stories of Bappaditya, Harit, Rana Kumbh, Rana Sanga, the valiant lady Rani Padmini... the thrills of childhood along with these stories, the immense respect for the valiant clan with growing age, the conventional belief inside heart that Chittor can never lose which was even working inside her subconscious mind when the Mughal Army was setting off, everything became a fallacy in the game of time! She is the daughter of Rajputana... but she is the daughter of Amer... the Amer fort which is glowing much each and every day with prosperity under the territory of Mughal kingdom. Today Amer is shining; Chittor is grabbed by the doom of darkness... Because Amer had lost their battle long before going to the battle field, and Chittor dared to stand up, dared to fight back... because Chittor did not lose her battle even after losing everything she had!
And Jodha, the daughter of Rajputana, the daughter of Amer has no right to shed a tear for this; as she belongs to their enemy team! She has no way other than to pray for the victory of the greatest enemy of Rajputs!
Still why she cannot help her heart to pray day and night for that enemy land? Why her heart still wants to stick with the old belief that the Rana of Mewar can never lose? Why she cannot stop herself to hope... that Chittor will not bow down. She will raise her head again... as that is the only ray of hope that left to beget the lost pride of Rajputana clan again! She wants them to win, but she can't wish her husband's defeat! How would she?
"You are very much angry on me Jodha Begam! The fierce tigress has come out from the shell of my innocent wife already!" He smiled sadly. Then he touched her with gentle affection mingled with a little dilemma. "You have started hating me again Jodha Begam... Like old days..."
"Do you think it is possible in my lifetime Shahenshah?" Jodha smiled unmindfully. "I can't hate you. I can't think anything against your wish and wellbeing! But..." She forcefully stopped a drop of tear to roll down. "Perhaps I will never be able to forget that... that I too belong to those helpless women of Rajputana! I have equal share in their tears, their pain and their defeat! Today you have won the most important battle your majesty; but I have lost in both ways!"
"This war was just a war for me Jodha Begam. Perhaps it would have been same for any other kingdom other than Mewar!" Jalal told in sensitive voice. "Don't categorise yourself as the defeated Rajputs!"
"But I am lost Shahenshah! When my sisters in Chittor Garh were burning in the fire of Jauhar, I was lighting the lamps of the victory to welcome my husband who is the conqueror of the world! How would I forget this shahenshah?" She could not hold her tears anymore. "I have lost long ago Shahenshah! I had lost the day when my father connected my fate with such a person who can never lose, and whose war is against my root! What will I do Shahenshah? Neither I can wish for your defeat, nor can I pray for my motherland's pride to be secured! Tell me how to extinguish the fire of my heart?"
"Don't try to extinguish that fire Jodha Begam!" Jalal uttered in a very low tone. "Don't try to overlook the emotions related to your pride of heritage, not even for me! Because those are the root of your personality! Once you get detached from your root, you lose yourself!"
Jodha slowly kept her head on his shoulder, her tears wetted his dress. "Why do you become unknown to me sometimes, Shahenshah? Why you go too far from me to reach you and to touch your heart?" She whispered.
"I have nowhere to go away from you Jodha." Jalal smiled delicately. "Wherever I may go, I have to come back to you to get solace... to get peace in the bloodthirsty real world!"
"Is this thirst of blood really needed Shahenshah? Why this thirst of power, this wailing for wanting more and more and more? What will we do with so much Shahenshah? How would we relish that triumph that has been written over the countless lifeless bodies lolling on the roads of Chittor?" Jodha sighed! "No matter how much this war is important to you, this war will always be a stigma in your name in the pages of History!"
"I know!" Jalal laughed. "And I don't bother too. I told you I am an emperor, and it's my responsibility to extend my empire to elevate the name of my dynasty! My grandfather, my ancestors have done that and I too have to do the same! There is no need to think me a better person than my ancestors! I inherit the same blood...the cold blood of a brutal violent warrior who only knows to win!"
"Why you are so cruel your majesty!" Jodha exhaled a deep sigh! "This entity of you... the entity of a hardcore warrior- a ruthless ambition emperor is intolerable to me! Get me my love back Shahenshah... the kind-hearted, benevolent human who has a large great heart to change this bloodthirsty cruel world!"
"Hmm!" His majesty was smiling in his mind. A strain of strange melancholy had mingled with that smile. A strange strain of melancholy, that has tied them in a single thread even in this strange night! After a while he started to speak. "What do you think Jodha Begam, which one of me' is in front of you now? The cruel savage demon emperor, or the human for whom you had fallen once?"
Jodha told nothing, and simultaneously snatched the goblet of wine from his hand. "You have already drunk a lot." She said while caressing his hairs. "You will never need the help of alcohol to lighten your heavy heart until I am beside you to share your heart!"
Jalal smiled and took Jodha's hand on his lap. In an unmindful way he started speaking. "You know Jodha, I had seen a child... a little child of merely 4-5 years near the debris beside the west gate of the fort. He was standing alone in the flood of blood, perhaps was searching for someone- perhaps for his parents inside that debris. He was too small to even understand the gravity of the situation- that his parents might have left him forever alone it that debris! I don't know why... but..." The corner of his eyes shone suddenly. "Suddenly that child reminded me my childhood! I could not even look at that boy again; even could not arrange something better for him! I, the conqueror of Chittor, fled from the place to avoid the sight of that little boy!" He looked at Jodha who was gazing at his face with tearful eyes. "I am unable to get away from the helpless gaze of that little boy even now Jodha! Those innocent eyes have squeezed out every excitement, joy or pain from my inside! Perhaps that glare symbolizes my heart at the end of the day... Being defeated by the cruel urge of power, the heart roams aimlessly in the debris of defeated morality, trying hard to find out the traces of humanity from there!"
"Heart will win Shahenshah! It has to win." Jodha uttered in low tone. "Otherwise this world will ruin just like Chittor!"
A magnificent firecracker enveloped the whole sky with the wonderful craft of light and fireworks. The glee of festival pierced even the loneliness of the dark too. Jodha and Jalal stared out of the window for a moment, and then Jalal exhaled a huge sigh! "Today my Hindustan will witness how much savage and barbaric their emperor is! This festival of celebrating the mass-murder was needed too to increase the confidence of the co-warriors!" He closed his eyes. "This lust of power, this craze of celebration of victory all will go in its own pace till the earth revolves! But how would I be present there for celebrating this barbarian act Jodha? May the History knows Emperor Akbar from a different dimension after this celebration of war, but the heart inside me will never be able to go there! I am a human after all, not a bloodthirsty demon who urges for blood and death!" He smiled now, took the goblet from Jodha's hand again. "So this is my celebration of victory... in the darkness, in the silence, with a vacant heart, all alone! The celebration of winning the most important war of my life; the celebration of losing the war between heart and mind; and the celebration of the funeral of humanity... you told that you have lost Jodha, but the thing is none has won! War can never beget victory Jodha, it only begets the silence of death... the darkness of defeat!"
"Still people go to war! The rule of empire and the rule of this cruel bloodthirsty world!" Jodha sighed!
Both spent a long time together in each other's arms. "I am thinking to go visit Baba Salim Chisti for once Jodha! Perhaps he will pour some peace in my vacant heart! Will you accompany me?"
"I was going to ask you for the same Shahenshah! Don't know why I feel the pilgrimage in Sikri is calling us!" Jodha said.
The whole city of Agra was rejoicing in the charm of victory. Only the emperor and the empress were aloof from that joy... they were sitting together in the loneliness of dark, looking out of the window... War, victory, defeat, ambition, hunger for power, the addiction of getting more and more and more everything will come and go along with the time... But at the end of the day only one truth is constant- that is the sting of humanity... Till the date the heart will continue to roam inside the debris of defeated morality to fetch the trace of humanity from there, the world will continue to love. And love will overpower the curse of war one day! Otherwise how would the human survive?
The night passed slowly, the golden glow of the sun seeped over the East sky... the ray of a new morning... a new beginning...
Edited by Shinning_Stuti - 9 years ago
Fan Fictions
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
