SKR ff : The Season of Oleander Blossoms ch4 pg13

Originally posted by: sugunmanas

mytho-historicalPOV😊
You will develop ur own version of Ramayan. Is it this way

Originally posted by: milinda.shreyz

hey Manas !
i love your vms . plz make more. now about ur query. I shall follow the known storyline only i wish to humanise the characters more. and yaa there would me more references from Vhababhuti's Ramacharit and Kaalidasha's Raghuvansam.

Originally posted by: TOTAL-ROMANTIC

welcome & please go ahead, we in this SKR forums who are fanatics of the show are equally broad minded & we accept little changes here & there as a beautiful thing if it docent harm the story as a whole. Infant we love happy things..so it will only be wonderful I guess..

Chapter 1 : The two daughters of Janak

Treta Yuga(around 5000 BC), Mithila of Koshala Mahajanapada



"Do we really have to wake up this early and trek such towering height? Its not even dawn,Jyestha."

Kirti could not stop whinning at getting untimely roused from her sleep. The prahar sand clock indicated it was only 4. But Mandavi was insistent. Agraja Seeta had trusted her with this difficult duty and she was not going to fail her.

Now like every noble born lady, Shrutkirti loved gorgeous dresses, lovely ornaments, perfumes, her favourite pony, and yes her precious sleep. But looked like someone had made it her life's mission to disrupt her fairytale. Seeta Didi neither slept late or indulged in any luxury that their royal birth ensured them nor she let her other sisters stray from that self-imposed discipline. She had to see sunrise every day be it summer or winter from Nagakoot* hilltop and every now and then she would coax the sisters to accompany her. That damned hill must be the steepest rock to climb on their land.


"Kirti! Kusadwajh duhita Srutkirti!", Mandavi's voice rose another notch, "If you are not going to wake up, I shall have to complain to our parents that you are growing insolent day by day. Disobeying your elder sisters and disregarding their sentiments have become your..."

"Oh dear Mahadev! Do you have to overact all the time?", shrieked kirti shutting her eyes tight in clear exasperation.
"Don't really understand why you have to act like a faithful accomplice to Seeta Jyeyaa all the time . No matter how much you run around her like a faithful puppy, she would favor Urmila only. She does that all the time. She is her birth sister after all. I wish you do the same for me sometimes!"




Mandavi stopped dead in her track for a while, as if she couldnot believe her ears. Within a spilt second her fair face grew fiery red in anger. She jumped into Kirti's grand four poster bed and tore away the comforter that she huddled so long and threw it onto the cold ground. Catching kirti by her shoulders she shook her fiercely until she turned pale in shock and fear. She had definitely spoken something very very wrong...


"Never ever utter these words again Kirti. Not to me. Not to anybody." Mandavi hissed like an angry Naagmata, her eyes blazing. "Never again you shall slander Seeta jyeyaa. You know very well she never differentiates between sisters. If these are your sorry excuses to avoid waking up, so be it. Sleep and remain unblessed while we toil hard and climb mountain, and receive blessing of newly awakened Suryadev and golden hued Giriraj Himalay. Enjoy nature's serenity and behold the joy of watching every things turn alive at the advent of dawn. So go to sleep or rot in hell, I really dont care. And before you say I am parroting Seeta Jyeyaa*, I shall let you know I have learnt all these things from her.She is an inspiration, an ideal human being I hope to be one day following her footsteps."


Mandavi let go her shoulders and got down from bed with quiet dignity. Before she could reach the threshold, however she got a great tug at the end of her uttariya. Srutkirti was holding the end of it with such sincerity as if praying for her dear life. She would burst into tears any moment."I would never behave like this ever again, jyeyaa, I promise you. I would never say such things to agraja. Please dont leave me behind. I will be ready in 10 minutes."

Mandavi's eyes moistened too. Kirti was such an adorable little sister when she was not behaving like a spoilt princess."Make it 5."

Mandavi snapped her finger and pointed Srutkirti to the prahar lamp and rushed out of the chamber laughing.


A few more delayed minutes and then the morning star, still shining bright in the dark Western sky of early Phalguna saw the bevy of Maithili princesses emerging from the simple yet aristocratic wooden mansion that housed the royal family of Videha.


The reigning sovereign of Videha, maharajah Seeradhwajh Janak was a saint in royal garments. His country was ruled by Republican ideologies rather than strictly monarchical despotism. He never considered himself God send or any divine representative, the idea so prevalent in those day's kingdoms.

He called himself one among the sons of his land and was the first to lead them in any kind of physical, environmental or spiritual crisis. No wonder his country had become the safe haven of all free thinking learned men and women of the era, a centre for scholastic excellence and learning Vedas and Upanisadas.


Shiradhwajh and his brother ensured that their daughters too received the benefits of such a blessed ambience. All four princesses were trained with 64 skills( chatuhsasti kala)* what would make them an ideal woman, queen and mother when time would come. But then no training was necessary when it came to the senior most Videha princess Seeta, elder daughter of janak. All arts came naturally to her, she had natural logical aptitude that made philosophical debates with her Vedas gyani ather and teachers more enjoyable, her clear intellect made mathematics and astronomy easy subjects, razor sharp memory assured that all 4 vedas, upanishad, vedantas and ayurveda reigned at the tip of her tongue. Conscientious,beautiful and elegant, she was like a boon come true to Janak, an incarnation of Devi Laksmi to her subjects. Nobody minded her strange birth, nobody told her of her unknown origin.
**************


"Jyeyaa, I swear to Lord brahma, if I climb I more step, my legs will fall off." Mandavi and kirti complained in unison as they took another painstaking step towards the top of Nagakoot.


Mandavi nodded her head in agreement.they had hitched their skirts higher and tied their loose uttariya wounding it tightly round their waists so that clothes didnt interfere with their early morning adventure. But still they are few feet below the hilltop. sky was already showing signs of imminent sunrise and Seeta was trying her best to climb faster lest she missed the bhahmamuhurta (the exact moment of sunrise).she didn't want to waste her breath in talking useless so she simply gestured them to hurry up.


When she reached there it was exactly the moment. Without farther edo, she and her sisters took out the kalash of gangajal from the stash of their waists and started chanting Surya vandana.
Om

They are:

1. singing,
2. instrumental music,
3. dancing,
4. painting,
5. forehead adornments,
6. making decorative floral and grain designs on the floor,
7. home and temple flower arranging,
8. personal grooming,
9. mosaic tiling,
10. bedroom arrangements,
11. creating music with water,
12. splashing and squirting with water,
13. secret mantras,
14. making flower garlands,
15. head adornments,
16. dressing,
17. costume decorations,
18. perfumery,
19. jewelry making,
20. magic and illusions,
21. ointments for charm and virility,
22. manual dexterity,
23. skills of cooking, eating and drinking,
24. beverage and dessert preparation,
25. sewing (making and mending garments#,
26. embroidery,
27. playing vina and drum,
28. riddles and rhymes,
29. poetry games,
30. tongue twisters and difficult recitation,
31. literary recitation,
32. drama and story telling,
33. verse composition game,
34. furniture caning,
35. erotic devices and knowledge of sexual arts,
36. crafting wooden furniture,
37. architecture and house construction,
38. distinguishing between ordinary and precious stones and metals,
39. metal-working,
40. gems and mining,
41. gardening and horticulture,
42. games of wager involving animals,
43. training parrots and mynas to speak,
44. hairdressing,
45. coding messages,
46. speaking in code,
47. knowledge of foreign languages and dialects,
48. making flower carriages,
49. spells, charms and omens,
50. making simple mechanical devices,
51. memory training,
52. game of reciting verses from hearing,
53. decoding messages,
54. the meanings of words,
55. dictionary studies,
56. prosody and rhetoric,
57. impersonation,
58. artful dressing,
59. games of dice,
60. the game of akarsha (a dice game played on a board#,
61. making dolls and toys for children,
62. personal etiquette and animal training,
63. knowledge of dharmic warfare and victory, and
64. physical culture.These are among the skills traditionally taught to both genders, while emphasizing masculinity in men and femininity in women. Their subject matter draws on such texts as the vedanga and Upavedas, and the Shilpa Shastras, or craft manuals. Through the centuries, writers have prescribed many more skills and accomplishments. These include sculpture, pottery, weaving, astronomy and astrology, mathematics, weights and measures, philosophy, scriptural study, agriculture, navigation, trade and shipping, knowledge of time, logic, psychology and ayurveda.