Porus 156-158: Mind games end, end game begins - Page 3

How is that a defeat? That way Chanakya also escaped from the Magadha police, so is that to be a defeat for Rakshas? Defeat or victory is only if the opponent is definitively in your power.

Shyamala Aunty

Yeah that can be said to be defeat of rakshash also when chank escaped...but it was Bhadrashall who failed to stop Chankya...😊...there are too many stories about this trio... unfortunately ancient Indians records are not available to us...I wonder if that nalanda university wasn't burnt we may have all the records of daily life😛 of these men

I am glad you liked this "jolly good post". That reminds me of Bertie Wooster in Wodehouse's Jeeves classics, so I value the compliment!

Somehow, I feel a streak of bitterness in most of your comments. All this is long gone, and not just this but the self inflicted destruction at the hands of the likes of Mohammed Ghori, whom Prithviraj Chauhan foolishly let off because of a misplaced sense of generosity. If he did not want to kill a defeated opponent, he could at least have locked him up, and saved the lives of hundreds of thousands all over north India.

Anyhow, to come back to what I was saying, we have survived all this and worse. And we will survive in the future as well. So I see all this as a story, and the principals as characters, no more, to be watched to the extent that they interest me. If I was to allow myself to be sucked back into that age, I would not be able to watch it at all.

Shyamala Aunty

Of course. The destruction of Nalanda by Bakhtiyar Khilji was one of the greatest tragedies of our history. They say that the Nalanda library burned for 3 whole months. What a loss for future students and scholars! 😭And they slaughtered all the Buddhist monks, the barbarians.

Takshashila too was similarly destroyed and the loss in terms of our history must have been similar.

So we have hardly any original resources as far as our ancient history is concerned.

Difference between Gauri and Alexander is that neither Alexander is an evil womaniserrr who will throw lachii and Anusuya before his army to rape them nor he is alootera..porus and Alexander friendship is more famous than their enmity😊.

Edumeus ki entry hi nahin hui to poras Nahin marega..😆...Battle of hydespass was total destruction of Paurvas while Alexander suffered no serious casualty but don't worry here porus will make ocean of blood of Macedonians...hell even can win it 😆a

Of course there can be no comparison between the pupil of Aristotle and a barbaric ruffian like Mohammed Ghori. I cited that example to point out that at times we brought horrendous miseries down on ourselves. Compared to this, what we suffered during Alexander's invasion was very little.

Shyamala Aunty

Hi Aunty!

This is well overdue, but I had promised myself to write a response once I felt better, especially after you've put in so much effort into sharing your thoughts here. So here goes!

I love tennis and so I loved your references to the sport here! Very apt.

Please see my comments in green.

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Folks,

At the end of last night's episode, Maharaj Purushottam was standing tall, hands locked behind his back, looking at the departing Alexander, with a fuming Acharya Chanakya, looking as if he was going to get an apoplectic fit, in the background.

He had just finished countering Alexander's parting challenge: Zeus ka beta hoon main, saare Bharat ko jala daalonga!, with a cool Agar tumhare paas aag hai, to hamaare pas Maa Jhelum ka aashirwaad hai . Uske pavitra jal se tumhari aag bhi bujh jaayegi, aur raakh ka tarpan bhi ho jaayega!

I doubt if Alexander understood this tarpan business, but it was a truly 🤣 moment, and I was in stitches. If it has been a tennis match over these last three episodes, it would have been the last game, the last set and the match to Porus.

I too doubt that Alexander understood what this tarpan business was all about. However, for someone who has now for ages been after his arch enemy's kata hua sar perhaps he ought to invest some time in learning about to do about the rest of the body once rigor mortis sets in. I will say though that this punishment is far more lenient that what he did to the Thracian king.

I don't want to overstrain either your patience or my fingers, so I shall try to be as brief as I possibly can. Which will be tough, as there were wonderful passages in all three episodes, but I will do my best.

Most of my space will be devoted to last night's one, which I quite frankly loved. And it is very rare for me to love an episode with large chunks of Porus 😉 holding forth, as he usually does, on matters moral that distinguish the Bharatiyas as a race from the lesser mortals!

This time I loved it because he made short statements, statements that fitted neatly into, and flowed naturally from the structure of his argument with Chanakya, he was unfailingly logical and to the point, and he did NOT make a speech.

If this had been the annual debate in the Oxford Union, and the proposition was: It is perfectly all right to trap the enemy of your country through deceit and kill him, Porus , speaking against the proposition, would have won hands down. 👏👏👏

Completely agree. This time every word of his made sense and I could not find fault with his logic. I still can't get over the fact that Chanakya became his guru out of the blue, without wondering if Porus actually wanted to give him that place in his life. Or anyone else in the court, for that matter. Bamni and Anusuya didn't seem to be interested, and neither did any of the other kings present.

Also, for someone who is supposed to be that intelligent, who knows how shrewd Alexander is and how impulsive, idealistic, and "emotional" Porus tends to be, I found it a little hard to believe that Chanakya hadn't anticipated that Porus would counter his arguments or throw a spanner in the works. However, I told myself that I understand he was desperate, and that after the mini encounter with the elephants, which he must have been watching from afar, or must have at least heard about later on, Chanakya was likely convinced of Alexander's invincibility in battle, especially against Porus. He had known Alexander to be capable of thinking several steps ahead, but even with this surprise elephant attack, Alexander turned the tables on Porus.

After that, Chanakya's would have really understood/been witness to how quick-thinking Alexander is and that the battlefield is his home. The news of this event must have traveled to other kingdoms, and would compel other kings to side with Alexander out of fear and to stay out of his warpath. This was Chanakya's most efficient tactic to get Alexander out of the way and prevent further bloodshed. He cares about people but he is not letting that take over his single-minded goal of nipping the prospect of impending bloodbaths in the bud.

Three sets, three winners

Episode 156: Set 1: Chanakya: In the Monday episode, the winner was clearly Chanakya. He came back from a losing postion - when Alexander turned the invitation to visit Paurav Rashtra, which Chanakya had faked so meticulously, down flat - to win hands down. He achieved this by identifying and exploiting Alexander's one weakness, his love for his mother, and using it to trap Alexander in the web he has spun with such care.

Alexander's lines are usually very good, but here they were excellent.

Alexander kisi mauke ka mohtaj nahin, Aalim. Maine sari duniya apne sharton par jeeti hai, aur Bharat bhi main apni sharton par jeetoonga... .Aur sher ke liye jangal apna ho ya kisi aur ka, wo jangal ke doosre janwaron ke saamne dosti ka haath nahin badhaata.

Beautiful lines! I just loved the way he said this, along with the slight tilting up of his chin to underline the fact that he is in control of his destiny and his surroundings.

And then, at the end of the passage, as Olympias, her fear writ large on the face, forbids him from going to Paurav Rashtra: Aapka khauff main samajh raha hoon, Maa. Par wo Shah hi kya jo khudh duniya jeete aur uski maa khauff se haar jai? Alexander is not a touchy feely person, and he rarely hugs even Olympias, but here protective tenderness drips from every word of his.

I loved these lines too, and the look in Rohit's eyes changed beautifully when he turned from Chanakya to his mother as he mouthed them.

Yes, I don't think a touchy feely Alexander would work, either.

What is so great about him is that consistency and fidelity to his own principles with respect to his thoughts, words, and actions. As I've noted before, everything about him tends to be extreme. Not only does he think at another level altogether but he feels emotions very deeply. I can't forget the look in his eyes when Philip was ill, when he felt vulnerable before the final day of battle at Issus as we saw his exchange with Hephaestion, when he felt a sense of pride and accomplishment at being able to take the leftover Farsi soldiers into his army and the subsequent rage at what Darius had done to them in his camp, the list goes on and on.

I had written before that

They say children will always be a part of their mothers no matter how old they become, but in this case Olympias will always be a part of Alexander no matter how old and mature he becomes.

And now I'll add

... no matter how successful or power he becomes. His ability to keep in mind his mother's feelings amongst all that is going on and act to assuage her fears is very touching. I salut him for that.

Yes, and the nazar utarna scene. It was so sweet and touching, the way in which the otherwise hard as nails Olympias invokes the gods to protect her son, and the way in which Alexander laps up all this coddling, eyes closed in sheer pleasure.

Beautiful scene. Those two don't needs words to express how much they love each other. They are fire and magical onscreen.

And Roxanne was not there either, a big plus for me!😉

If Olympias is really leaving, I think that Alexander won't tell her about Porus being alive after all, for that would throw her into a blue funk, and she will stay put !😆

I no longer question scripting bloomers like Chanakya quoting the Delphic prophecy as warning against a king who would be Jhelum paar.The junior Priestess never says anything about the Jhelum, or about Alexander having had Philip assassinated either, but Chanakya incorporates the first in his spiel that flummoxes Olympias, and mentions the second in his retort after Alexander accuses him of dhoka. Chalo chodo!

Chinese whispers!

Chanakya is superb in the whole of this passage, as in fact in the earlier, though unsuccessful one in Ambhiraj's state room. His face is a study in innocence and would be helpfulness, and he even asserts, with a perfectly straight face, that he has nothing against Alexander gaining dominion over the whole of Bharat.

Ha ha! I cracked up at that. The actor is doing a good job, and emotes well with his eyes too. I love his and Rohit's scenes together. No matter the subject matter, they light up my screen.

And even in the moments when no one is looking at him, he remains in character, so to speak, instead of smirking for the benefit of the audience, as most of our TV actors are made to do. Small mercies!

Yes, absolutely. He doesn't give anything away to Alexander, nor to us. Sometimes, as a viewer I prefer not to know the intricate details or get a sneak preview because it tends to less the impact later on.

Sony Chanakya: In all that follows, I am of course discussing only the actions of the Sony Chanakya and the reactions thereto. The real one would never have committed such a colossal error of judgment as keeping Porus in the dark all along, and then expecting him, when the matter is sprung on him without warning, to kill Alexander, under the prevailing circumstances, in cold blood.

Yes, this wasn't what I would have expected of the real Chanakya either. For someone who likes plotting and scheming and knows what kind of adversary they are up against I am surprised that he had no backup plan. But maybe he had just not considered that Porus would eventually not obey him.

Episode 157: Set 2: Alexander: Now this was a real treat for students and practitioners of diplomacy. We saw Alexander, facing almost sure death, talk his way out of the steel jawed trap that Chanakya had sprung on him.

The end result was that the most astute, devious and ruthless political tactician of that age in Bharatvarsh, and most likely the whole world, has the tables smoothly turned on him by an even shrewder Macedonian.

What a fabulous move! Alexander used what was on hand, didn't need to do anything else. His deep understanding of human psychology was again on display here. He knew that Porus would come charging at him, and that the only way to stop him would be use the very instrument that Chanakya had wielded in order to bring him there by deceit. But Alexander didn't speak up as Porus raced down the stairs. He waited until Porus was in front of him and taking a swing at him. He didn't move from his place and had the demeanor of someone in full control of what was going on around him. When he lifted that invitation, it threw Porus off. He wasn't expecting his blow to be countered by the scroll.

I also thought it symbolic that the material was white, almost as if Alexander were waving a white flag in front. Which of course he wasn't but it signified that he had come in peace, his intentions were genuine. I truly believe hadn't come with the intention to harm anyone, until he had discovered the treachery of course, following which he yelled "Yalgaar ho!" This very fact of lifting the invitation up to Porus' face had two effects. One, it stopped him in his tracks and two, once Porus read the letter which explicitly mentioned a peace treaty, he immediately made the connection that Alexander had really not come to harm PR in that moment.

I confess that I did not expect this twist. I thought that Puru would not be able to kill an unarmed man, and would thus stop in the very last moment. Which is of course what he does, Chanakya's desperate command to him notwithstanding.

What I did not expect was that Alexander would, with his back to the wall, pull off a verbal coup that stops Porus in his tracks, checkmates Chanakya, and also dismays the assemblage of kings.

Alexander played to the gallery here, and as I had thought before, there was a very good reason that CVs made the other kings present there. They were witnessing a sampling of the great mind of Alexander at play and could extrapolate that to figure out what it would mean to go up against. There were bound to be some that he could turn over to his side.

Superb tactics: He betrays not the least fear or even agitation. Instead, he is unruffled and effortlessly articulate. His words drip searing contempt and cut deep into Porus' psyche:

Sone ki chidiya hai yeh sunkar aaya tha, par yeh nahin jaanta tha ki yahan ke baashinde giddhon ki tarah shaatir nikalenge (the latest addition to the Porus menagerie; siyaar aur abhi giddh, or vulture!😆) Mehmaan banakar nyota denge par dushman banakar kaath denge...

Ouf! Rohit was mind-blowing here! His every word cutting through the collective consciousness of those present in the court.

He claps derisively, and then moves to address the assemblage. ...Suna tha dosti ki khatir seene par kataar jhel lete hain Bharatiya.. Par yahan to dost banakar peeth par chura bhonka jaa raha hai..

His lines were perfectly tailored to put Porus on the defensive. They were also splendidly worded.

Yes. He also exploited another vulnerability in PR: the fact that the position of ruler had changed hands quite frequently lately and that the brand new king was inexperienced. He forced people to consider if they wanted such a ruler after they had recently witnessed the atrocities committed by Shivdutt, and by extension Kanisk, in the name of of the king. Would they want to side with a king who practiced deceit and who might deceive them in turn later? I was reminded again of Alexander's words to the Macedonians about Philip's ability to rule over them in his drunken state, as well as his hard hitting words to a dying Bessus about ghaddaari vs wafaadaari.

Khair, qubool hai! Par kam se kam duniya ki taareeq yeh to maanegi ki Sikandar ne apne junoon aur dushmani mein duniya fateh ki, par uski shikast huyi to dosti ke bulaawe par!

I loved, loved, loved this line.

He really made the way for himself to leave with honor or die with glory if Porus chose to attack him there. Of course, he was completely confident that his move would play out the way he had meant it to. I also liked that he didn't want to antagonize the PR soldiers and end up getting his own soldiers killed due to attempted bravado.

Bade fakr se kehte the, taaqat se maarenge, dhoke se nahin, par yahan to talwar ki dhaar dhoke ki aag (?) mein paini ki gayi hai.

Theek hai, Porus, aage badho! Sikandar tumhare saamne nihatta khada hai!

The nihatta angle was a most telling one, but I could not for the life of me understand how Alexander, who sleeps with his sword next to him, would have gone into enemy territory, even on a friendly invitation, without his sword at his side for all eventualities.

I thought he must have had a dagger hidden somewhere in his robes, like in the Bactrian jashn, but chose not to take it out so that he would appear unarmed. Once he realized he'd been trapped he quickly decided how to play the game without giving anyone a chance to find fault with his reasoning or his actions. It was important that he appear rightfully indignant and betrayed.

The arms akimbo pose was perfect too. One expected him to be unafraid, but the bright-eyed sarcasm in his face was amazing, and exactly calculated to hit Puru where he is the most sensitive, his sense of personal honour.

I loved how he extended his arms and seemed to embrace the potential death that may come to him, while knowing that no such thing would happen after all. By his words and actions he had raised his level of esteem in everyone's eyes.

And Alexander meant what he said, for just as he knows how to conquer, he also knows how to die with his head held high.

Chanakya's ploy fails: By the way, since when has Chanakya become Puru's Acharya? That was a neat ploy to compel Puru's obedience in something he would otherwise not want to do, but unfortunately it does not work.

It does not work because Alexander is an expert psychologist, and he plays on Puru's sense of self esteem, of honour, of moral uprightness. All the virtues, in short, about which Puru has been boasting in front of Alexander as being quintessentially Bharatiya. Which is an assertion that can be easily disproved by citing Ambhiraj, Shivdutt. Kanishka, Dhananand - the list is a long one. But that is not the point.

The point is that Puru believes in and is committed to these virtues. So he cannot flout them in the blatant manner that Chanakya demands of him, and still live with himself.

Absolutely! Ever since Alexander first met Porus, all he's been hearing about is Bhartiya sanksaar, etc. So he has the best ammunition possible at that moment.

So Chanakya's grand scheme fails, for its intended victim, Alexander, understands Porus better than his self-appointed Acharya does.

There is no point in reciprocal attacks on Alexander's misdeeds and Porus' failings. The key element here is that Alexander does not claim to be mahaan or in any way virtuous. Porus does, constantly. So he has to be a priori held to a higher standard than Alexander is.

Porus might not have invited Alexander, but the fact remains that the invitation was in the name of the Paurav Rashtra, and as the king now, he has to honour it. And to kill someone who has been invited to your home as a guest would go against all that Porus is committed to, and Alexander does not let him forget that.

Again, there is no point in accusing Alexander of hypocrisy. He is, in fact, exactly like Chanakya. He will use any weapon at hand to win, and right now, his weapons, and very successful ones, were his tongue, and his grasp of the psychology of his opponent. Using them to excellent effect, he turns disaster into victory.

Episode 158: Set 3: Porus: He laughs best who laughs the last. And last night, that one was Porus.

Till the moment when Alexander brandished the invitation before his eyes, Porus was perfectly ready to finish off the enemy who he assumed had invaded his domain, not even pausing to realise that Alexander was unarmed. But from that instant, everything changed for him.

Yes, Alexander's mocking accusations did get through to him and made him all the more conscious of what he had been about to do. But even without them, Porus, the purushottam, would still have behaved exactly the way he did. He would not, could not have killed an unarmed enemy who had come to his palace as an invited guest, no matter what aadesh his current mentor dinned into his ears, no matter that the Acharya, who had saved his father's life and had been his unwavering support in his recent travails, was now seriously displeased with him.

For he could not help who he was. Nor could he do something his conscience would not allow.

Lucid,rational eloquence: I loved it that Porus refuted Chanakya's increasingly shrill demands not only on grounds of abstract morality, but also because of solidly practical concerns as a king. A king who can forsee the highly negative impact his following such kootneethi now, for instant victory, would surely have down the line on the character and behaviour of his praja.

I loved it that he spiked the master of sophistry at his own game, quoting his own Arthashastra to remind him of what he had preached: that a people are only as good as their king, and the king is only as good as his country, so that if the people are brasht, the fault is that of the king, and if the king turns adharmi, the fault would be seen as that of the whole country.

Aaj main koyi anarth nahin kar sakta Acharya, nahin to laanchan mere poore desh par aayega, aur wo mujhse sahan nahin hoga. Jahan chal hota hai, wahan bal ghat jaata hai, Acharya...And in a blunt response to Chanakya's warning that excessive emotionalism would destroy his vivek, Main sajj hoon aise vivek ko naash karne ke liye jo mere desh ke samman ko maarta ho..

NB: It is another matter altogether that the Arthashastra, as far as I am aware, was written during the 14 years after the coronation of Chandragupta Maurya, when Chanakya had retired to his ashram after handing over the reins of the prime ministership to Amatya Katyayan aka Amatya Rakshas. How then could Puru have got hold of it this early? Par hamare CVs se aise sawaal poochna vyarth hai!

Porus is so sure of his ground that he is unaffected by Chanakya's grim warning: Ho sakta hai ki agla avasar tumhare paksh mein na ho. Even were he to lose his next battle, he is confident (in a strange echo of Alexander's similar conviction about his own reputation ) that itihaas yaad rakhega ki Bharat ke is laal ne apni mathrubhoomi ki laaj ke saath nahin khela.

In warning him, Chanakya also publicly betrayed his level of fear regarding Alexander's prowess. This is the kind of thing that Alexander can exploit as a weakness.

Alexander remained silent throughout a large part of this episode, but I loved the sideways glances he was giving Chanakya as Porus was doing all this, watching the aftermath of the table-turning tactic of his.

Duel of convictions: The most gripping of all was the duel of convictions between Porus and Chanakya that comes when the Acharya crowds the younger man aggressively, trying to bulldoze him into falling in line and killing Alexander.

To Chanakya's apocalyptic warning that he was committing a bahut badi bhool, Porus responds, in a gentle put down, that bhool bhulaye jaate hain, apradh itihaas ban jaate hain.. For Porus, to have it said that humne ek shatru ko mitra ke bahane bulaya, aur phir apni hi dharti par uska sar kaat diya, would be intolerable.

When Chanakya cites the use of saam, daan, dand, bhed to get rid of the enemy as rajaneeti, Porus counters that rashtra ke gaurav ki raksha karna rajadharma hai.

When challenged with the dictum that rashtra ki raksha sabe se bada rajadharm hai, Porus' counter is a classic that stops Chanakya in his tracks with a simple question: Aur kya hai rashtra, Acharya?

For him, a rashtra is not just the land he rules over, it is the sanskaar, parampara, sanskriti , that is to say the traditions, the culture, that define the people. And so he asserts once more, with ironclad conviction: Chal karna Bharat ke sanskar nahin. Gher ke aakraman karna to siyaaron ki parampara hai, Acharya, Bharat ke sheron ki nahin!

And this one time, I did not feel exasperated by this endless praise of Bharatiyata, whereas the truth is that it is Porus' own convictions and his personal morality that dictate his unshakeable code of honour. It was necessary, at this juncture, to bring in Bharat, and what Porus sees as owed to the honour of the land, in order to silence the aggressive, infuriated Chanakya.

Deadly putdown: But Chanakya, unused to such opposition, will not back off, and now accuses Porus of having become too big for his boots because he is now a king, and of forgetting whose orders he was flouting, and in whose presence he stood. It is then that Porus crosses the Rubicon, so to speak, and brings home to the Acharya, whom he has revered thus far, that he is being untrue to his own convictions.

His Nahin samajh paa raha hoon ki aap kaun hain, aur aapki pehchaan kya hai, is the most deadly putdown of anyone of that stature that I have come across for ages.

When he ends by wondering Ya phir aap wo kootneetignya Kautilya hain, jo apne hi desh ke maathe par chal ka daag lagana chahte hain?, Chanakya's face is livid and ashen with barely suppressed fury. He knows that it is he who has pushed Porus too far, but that is of no comfort to him.

I also think it was interesting that as Porus' sense of identity has been evolving due the events in his life, he is also questioning the identity of his so-called acharya.

Then comes the Arthashastra sequence that has already been discussed, and which writes Finis to this duel of convictions, especially when Porus' parents, and the assemblage, cheer him unreservedly. And Chanakya is left tearing his shikha, and lamenting that this temporary shishya of his is nowhere near as obedient as Chandragupta Maurya.😉

I know that there would be those who feel that Porus went too far, that he crossed the limits of maryada in the way in which he countered Chanakya. I am not of this mind. I don't think he said anything inappropriate, except that one line where he says that the kutilneetigya Kautilya had wanted to put a black mark on the forehead of Bharat.

That was too much, and I can see why Surbhi is upset. But for the rest, seeing that Chanakya had pushed Porus into the kind of position where, if he did what the Acharya wanted, he would no longer be able to live with himself, I do not feel that he said anything that was unnecessary or arrogant.

Come down for Chanakya: But one thing is for sure. The Porus CVs, who are usually busy putting Alexander down, have now done a hatchet job on Chanakya himself. I doubt if this will go down well with most viewers, though I did not mind it. For the average Indian TV viewer, Acharya devo bhava, and when the Acharya happens to be Chanakya, doubly so. They won't like seeing Chanakya lowered in order to elevate Porus who is, all said and done, only a vaguely known personality for most of them.

I think this scene set the foundation for a potential defeat of Porus that viewers may find easier to accept, i.e. he lost the battle but fought honorably till the end.

Porus and Alexander: The air crackled with electricity at the very end,as Alexander finally departed. It was not just the spat about who was the lion of which jungle, but even the exchange of rings, and the way in which each held the other's hand while doing so, became a subtle game of one upmanship.

I loved the lion and jungle references, especially considering what Alexander said to Chanakya back in Taxila "Aur sher ke liye jungle apna ho ya kissi aur ka, woh jungle ke dusre jaanwaron ke saamne dosti ka haath nahin badhata".

Earlier, Alexander seemed to have no problem with literally looking up to Porus, and he stood in a graceful relaxed pose, hands crossed behind his back. And yes, he did punctiliously address Porus as the Shah-e-Paurav. Neat touch, that!

Rohit's body language there was spot on, exuding supreme confidence and a touch of arrogance!

Unexpected realization: I was looking for some clear evidence of a change, however oblique, of mindset in Alexander, but I could not find it. Perhaps it is too early for that.

Yes, but it's accumulating in Alexander's subconscious and will come to the fore later on.

It must have come as a shock to him to realise that Porus, whom he had till now seen as spouting a lot of hot air about what Bharatiyata meant, was actually living by those selfsame convictions, to the point of giving up an assured victory over a world conqueror, and peace for his people, because it did not fit in with his code of honour and the traditions of his land as he perceived them.

It will take Alexander a while to digest all this, and a bit more to formulate his reaction to it. But till then, this unexpected realization will haunt him, nagging away at the edges of his mind, and forcing him , perhaps, to reconsider what Porus had been to him, and what he could be.

For there has to be some substantial evolution in this relationship for the two to have become not just friends but, as our President said the other day, allies after the battle of the Hydaspes.

Right now, as for Alexander identifying with things that Porus said, I felt rather that he identified with many of the explanations for the rajyabhishek ceremony given by Chanakya. He was nodding his head in agreement time and again, and his eyes showed both keen interest and admiration.

Coming to what Porus said, one could take chal to mean not just deceit but also betrayal, and Porus' strong disapproval of chal should have struck a responsive chord in Alexander, whose hatred of deceit is violent.

There was nothing stated about friendship per se, except for that one reference to being as sweet in friendship as a mango (Laksh needs to work on his Sanskrit diction. I could hardly make anything out there!😉 ). Porus states that Alexander came there as a friend. Alexander says that he was invited in dosti, and that is also what Porus assumes after being shown the invitation.

But if this is what the CVs wanted to convey, they should not have made Alexander babble earlier about the kata hua sar of the Paurav king. They don't seem to be in the least bothered about continuity or coherence😡.

Nope, and I've given up on this!

Finally, though no one here seems to have remarked on it as yet, we already had the immortal line Wohi jo ek raja ko ek raja ke saath karna chahiya. So the end game is clear, and Porus will, it now seems - by coupling this with Chanakya's warning that the next time might not be favourable for him - repeat the same line to Alexander very soon.

It looks like the battle of the Hydaspes, and the end game, are both near at hand.

Oh, how I wish! But looks like we are in for more tit-for-tat exchanges.

Questions galore!:

- I could not understand what Alexander said about his now acknowledging that his muqaddar would not being complete till he had defeated Porus, and how that jelled with what he said earlier in the same passage about having always contradicted his mother and asserted that main apna muqaddar khudh likhta hoon. I presume it was about Olympias believing the High Priestess about Porus changing his muqaddar.

Yes, I think he was saying he finally realized he had to "sort out" this little speed breaker before he could go on to fulfil his muqaddar. I also loved that though she was far away, her words were running through his mind, enough for him to acknowledge this in public.

- Nor could I understand what Porus said about having had several opportunities to kill Alexander between Persia and the explosion on the bridge. One could perhaps count two: the time he held a sword to his throat, and then when he was atop the elephant and Alexander was on the ground, when he could have trampled him afoot. But how do two opportunities add up to several? Note that he does not include the present one.

As he was making these assertions, Alexander's eyes, and the corner of his mouth, were crinkled in what looked almost like amusement.

Yes, and Alexander realized that despite becoming a king, Porus still had a tendency to be impulsive, and lacked attention to details sometimes.

-Then I could not understand from where, and when, Alexander got hold of the scroll of invitation. It was Chanakya who collected it from the admissions guard at the entry point, and Alexander was not shown asking for it after that, but he produced it with all the aplomb of a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat,😉 just in the nick of time! And he had nothing in his hands all this while.

Just like he pulled out the dagger to throw at Bessus. Chanakya didn't realize how important scroll was and how it would change everyone's fate once Alexander got hold of it, so he wasn't guarding it very safely.

I am also wondering if Alexander left PR wondering where the Raja Kanishk was whose name had been on the invitation letter Chanakya had shown him. He must have figured out then, or later, that there had been some kind of coup?

-But what I could not understand at all was

a) how Chanakya made all the military deployments to keep Alexander in check, including the by now standard issue archers, bows bent and at the ready, without either Bamni or Puru knowing anything about it, and

Well, PR soliders are easily influenced, as we know.

b) what on earth Hephaestion and Cleitus were doing standing there like lamp posts when Alexander was facing imminent death.😡 They did try to draw their swords when Chanakya accuses Alexander of killing his father to get to the throne, but later they seemed to have been affected by a whole body paralysis. One would have expected them to rush to shield him, and to fight and die at his side, the Paurav archers notwithstanding. Very strange!

Yeah, but I like to think it's because Alexander stopped Hephaestion and I think Hephaestion knew that his shaatir demaag was at work. So he just stood back to watch events unfold. 😉

Phew! Well, I did try to keep it short, and it is not my fault that there was so much material! 😆 Those who have made it to this point, if you are so inclined, please do press the Like button.

Shyamala Aunty/Di