The faint
glow of the setting sun glistened on the ripples of the Jhelum, as the ripples
moves away one by one. The wind coming from the North-westerly direction,
murmured as they passed through the Chinar leaves. As far as her eyes could
see, the banks on both sides of the river Jhelum was green with Eucalyptus and
Chinar trees. The fields extending beyond the banks, were aflame with ripened
wheat. Cornelia was savouring these few moments of peace with herself, before
Cleon would eventually come back with the message that she already apprehended.
‘She stood by the palace window, tall and still, gazing absently at the blurred
distance. She had two choices: both unattractive, out of which, she would have
to take a decision.’ Her mind flitted back to the horses that she had seen with
the pair of horse-traders who had come to the palace grounds the previous
morning. The trader had promised to return with a white Arabian horse. Horses
were Cornelia’s passion. As a princess, she had by default taken military
lessons, and unlike her timid step-sister Loudois, she was very skilled at
horse-riding.
Dusk was
descending on the valley, like a pall of gloom. Her heart was held hostage, and
she felt like she was struggling to break free, just like that pigeon, which
was enmeshed in the fine nets covering the terrace. Before she could make a
move, Cleon was already by the bird’s side, gently disengaging its claws from
the net. The very small golden capsule attached to the bird’s neck, came to
both the maidens’ notice almost simultaneously. The looked at each other with
amazement, while the white messenger pigeon sat on Cornelia’s shoulder as her
white downs glistened whiter in the fading light.
“Prince
Antiochus has dispatched general, Hector, with the permission of the Emperor, who
will be arriving at the palace by the Jhelum in a couple of days and has asked
for the privilege of audience with princess Cornelia, my Lady,” Eugene, the
other, lady-in-waiting, bowed. Cornelia’s eyebrows furrowed. The very name of
Antiochus, made her blood boil. Antiochus, her eldest step-brother, and
Cornelia’s own mother were engaged in an illicit relationship. The Emperor had
found his son and his second wife Stretonis in bed, and his weakness had not
allowed him to punish either of them. Antiochus was his first born from the
Persian princess Apama and he loved him dearly. So instead of punishing them, Emperor
Seleucus Nicator had married off his legal second wife, Syrian princess,
Stretonis to his eldest son and had given him the governorship of the Babylonian
part of the Seleucid empire. Cornelia had never known, what it was like to have
a mother. All the motherly love that she had ever received was from, her step
mother, Apama, Antiochus and Loudious ‘s mother. The very name of Antiochus and
Stretonis brought up varied distasteful memories, it brought bitter bile up her
throat, and today, that very Antiochus had, had the audacity to force his
choice, ‘Hector’ as her probable suitor. Hector was a general in Seleucus’s
army and was loyal to Antiochus. Cornelia, had every reason and the will to
rebel against this choice, but it had come to her ears that, an Indian ‘Satrap’
who was not of aristocratic bearings had defeated the great Mauryan emperor
Dhanananda, who ruled over the entire North and North Eastern part of India,
killed him in a battle with the able guidance of his minister cum mentor,
Chanakya, and had sent a messenger to her father’s court, asking for her hand
in marriage.
Cornelia was
forced to wind up her memories, as it was time to light the lamp at the Temple
of Apollo. She was torn by the desire to read the message that the messenger
pigeon carried, but her sister Loudois, stepped into her room at that moment. Loudois,
picked up the golden cylindrical object from Cleon, and exclaimed in
astonishment, “this seems to be a message” and excitedly, she wound the knob on
the top of the cylinder, and took out a rolled-up piece of paper. To the
amazement of all present, a replica of Cornelia was drawn on the paper, that
was all that was there, and it was simply signed off as ‘your secret admirer’. Loudois, Cleon, Eugene, all stared at
Cornelia. Cornelia was even more amazed than the other three. It seemed to be
straight out of a fairy tale. The details of her face had been depicted almost
perfectly. One thing was quite evident. The sender of the message was not an
ordinary person. He seemed to have considerable artistic skills as well as
substantial money and power. It was not within the ability of a common man to
acquire, tend to and train messenger pigeons, that too with gold cylindrical
message capsules.
It was
already dark and the tiny lights on the boats plying on the Jhelum. The blind
goat herder was playing his flute like every other day, as he walked back to
his mud dwelling. Such uncomplicated, existence, Cornelia thought as she
yearned for a simpler life. She had craved for love and affection all her life,
wished for an uncomplicated way of life, hoped to wake up in the arms of the
person who would love her, unreservedly, but she shook her head with a wane
smile, it was Not to be! Never to be! She was the princess of the mighty
Seleucid Empire, a pawn in the power game. She gathered herself and held Loudois’s
hand as the sisters came down the stairs and walked up the steps towards
Apollo’s temple.
Emperor
Dhanananda, of the great Nanda dynasty, of Pataliputra, had once insulted and
thrown out one of his ministers, Acharya Chanakya, who was one the ablest of
administrative advisors to Dhanananda, for what he considered as arrogance on
the Acharya’s part. Chanakya left the court in search of livelihood but never
once did the idea of getting even with mighty emperor leave him. He had once
spotted a few boys playing in the fields, one of the boys had dressed up as a
king and had regal bearings. Acharya Chanakya’s instincts told him that the
child had promise. He enquired about the boy’s antecedents and came to know
that his father Sarvartha Siddhi Maurya was the chieftain of a small
principality and that his mother’s name was Mura, both of whom had been killed
by Mahapadmananda. Chanakya picked up the boy and asked him, “will you be my
disciple?” to which, the boy had answered “yes, if you help me kill, Dhanananda.”.
More than a
decade had passed and Chandragupta had established the Maurya dynasty in
Pataliputra, after routing the Nanda dynasty completely. He had married
Durdhara, his cousin. It was evening, and the Nagchampa flowers were in full
bloom near the window, outside his chamber. Oil lamps adorned the heavy brass
chandelier that hung from the ceiling. The pillars were lightened up with oil
lamps placed in their grooves. Chandragupta was resting with his hands behind
his head. Mandakini was near his feet, playing the Veena. His mind fluttered to
a vision. He was doing the rounds of his empire as a commoner, disguised as a
horse-trader. Acharya Chanakya was with him. He was in the habit of executing
this exercise intermittently, so as to check on the corruption in his kingdom.
They had wandered towards the western flanks of his empire by the Jhelum and
had come upon a palace, facing the Jhelum. Chanakya had warned the emperor that
it apparently was a Greek palace. It was then that Chandragupta had chanced
upon this vision, a vision that he was never to forget. A Greek Goddess in
flowing white robe with her curly golden mane was wandering up and down the
terrace. The sunlight had washed her entire being and she did not seem human.
That vision reminded him of the legend of The Helen of Troy. “This was how,
Helen must have seemed to Paris, when he had first chanced upon her,
Chandragupta mused. From that day onwards, that light falling on the golden
hair of the lady on the terrace never left the Emperor. In his waking hours, in
his dreams, that vision lingered in his mind.
The emperor
seemed restless and interrupted, the rendition. “Mandakini, do you know of
anyone who knows Greek well?” Chandragupta asked as he sat up on the chaise.
Just as she was about to answer, Mandakini, saw the reflection of empress
Durdhara entering the room. Durdhara was expecting her first child. Mandakini
bowed before the royal couple as she left the room. Durdhara seemed very
agitated. She had met the spiritual Guru of Chandragupta, an Ajivik seer named
Bhadrabahu, who had foretold that, the child that Durdhara was carrying would
lose its life because of a cat. “I want you to kill all the cats in your empire,
my Lord” Durdhara pleaded to Chandragupta. “Do you hear me, My Lord?” she
repeated. Chandragupta was lost in his thoughts, and Durdhara’s sharp words
seemed to break his trance. “I shall certainly see that your wishes are carried
out, Maharani”, Chandragupta pacified her. “Meanwhile you need to rest as it is
quite late.”
After
Durdhara left, Chandragupta’s chamber, Mandakini sneaked in again, this time
with another lady. “Maharaj” Mandakini, said while pointing out to the new
entrant, “this is Shivani, she was captured by Alexander and served in his army
as a lady-in-waiting and she knows Greek, quite well.” Shivani prostrated in
front of the king. Chandragupta said, “I
need you to do two things for me, Shivani, but before that, I need you to swear
complete secrecy, not even the Acharya must know about this.” Shivani stood nervously
before her emperor. There was nothing that she would not do for her king. She
had been saved by Chandragupta, and now she was leading a comfortable and
respectable life in the palace premises. She knelt and looked up at
Chandragupta, “your wishes are sacrosanct to me, my king, I shall never divulge
your secrets, even if I am faced by death.” “Shivani, I need you to teach me
Greek, but before that, right now, I want you to write a letter for me in
Greek”. Shivani sat at the foot of the chaise, where Chandragupta sat, with a
paper and a duck feather pen in her hand.” Chandragupta started off by “My
beloved, from the time, that I have set my eyes on you…”
Cornelia was
seated in her royal attire with her ladies in waiting, as General Hector, sent
by Prince Antiochus, entered her chamber. He saluted the royal lady and
transferred a royal note from the Emperor Seleucus Nicator himself. The letter stated that, since the times were
not favourable and that because a pall of war hung in the air, Seleucus had started
withdrawing and consolidating his troops from the far ends of his empire to
Seleucia, his capital city, and for the very same reason, he wanted Cornelia
and Loudois to return with General Hector to Seleucia in a week’s time. This
meant that Cornelia and Loudois had to leave with the entire household within a
couple of days. Cornelia was doleful. She loved to stay in this palace, by the
Jhelum, far removed from the aristocratic pageant and display of wealth and
power. She loved the quiet life by the Jhelum, her morning spent in the
gardens, her evenings on the terrace or at times on the royal boat on the
Jhelum. She cherished her time spent alone at the temple of Apollo. She doted
on Loudois’ daughter Hermes with whom she spent a lot of time and entertained
her, as Hermes’ father, Nicomedes another general in Emperor Seleucus’s army
was away in Persia. Cornelia wanted to spend her last evening in the royal boat
on the Jhelum. The cool breeze soothed her mind. She wistfully looked around
the ethereal settings and wished that she would one day, come back here. She
was so engrossed in her thoughts that she did not notice a white pigeon with a
similar gold cylinder tied around its neck, sitting atop the mast. Loudois was
the first to notice and it tamely flew down and sat on Loudois’ hand. The
message was extracted from the capsule which read, that Cornelia’s secret
admirer was enamoured by her beauty. Not a moment passed that he did not think
about her and that one day they would surely meet. The message was in Greek and
left Cornelia wondering. By this time, she had started taking an interest in
the writer of the letter. The anonymity of the writer intrigued her, but she
was sure about one thing, that, someone of extremely high calibre was doting on
her.
General
Hector was attracted to beautiful Cornelia and as the party proceeded towards
Seleucia, with Hector at its head, through forests and plains, with heavily
armed guards surrounding the convoy, Hector kept up a conversation with
Cornelia. Hector had been promised Cornelia’s hand, by Antiochus and he felt
that he had already gained right over her. General Hector was famed for his
bravery and like most of the Greeks, he was very handsome. His sword glistened
as he rode alongside, Cornelia’s horse. The convoy had stopped for lunch, and
Loudois, Cornelia and Eugene, along with Loudois’ daughter Hermes were seated
beneath a tree. Lunch had been laid out and Hector was about to join them. The
murmur of the leaves reminded Cornelia that she had left behind precious
memories, perhaps to none of which, she would be able to go back again. She
would never know who her secret admirer was, who had observed her so keenly
that he had succeeded in drawing her face so flawlessly. Surely, he would never
find her again, as she was leaving her location at a very short notice. She sat
absent-mindedly and picked at her food. Loudois observed her sad face and urged
her to complete her lunch as they still had a long way to go. Meanwhile, hector
joined them at the makeshift table and in a blink of an eye, there was a sword
to his throat.
All of
General Hector’s guards were on the ground, weapon-less and totally helpless.
An Indian contingent of highly skilled soldiers had surrounded the entire
convoy. Loudois clasped hold of Hermes and Cornelia and held them to her breast
while shaking uncontrollably. There was chaos all around. The man who was
holding a sword at Hector’s neck, asked all the ladies to calm down, all asked
Hector to surrender his weapons. Hector instantly abided by his orders. The man
who was holding Hector seemed to be the leader had his face covered by the end
of his turban. He spoke softly “I will only need a few minutes with Princess
Cornelia”. As Loudois gasped and clutched onto Cornelia even more tightly, the
man assured them that no harm would come to any of the ladies. He then lightly
took Cornelia’s hand, while another soldier held on to Hector. The man gently
guided a shaking Cornelia to a distance and uncovered his face. It was a very
handsome face, but the most striking factor in the face was the pair of eyes.
The eyes were very deep and said that this person could be relied on. The man
spoke as he knelt before Cornelia, “I am Chandragupta Maurya, The Emperor of
the Mauryan dynasty, and I have loved you with all my heart, dear Helen, from
the time, I have set my eyes on you. I could have taken you away today, this
instant, but because I respect you my Princess, I shall take your hands with
your father’s consent, either by love or by force”. He added, “from today
onwards, you Helen, are betrothed to me”. With these words he stood up, held
his Helen close and kissed her hands as the rays of the fading sun remained a mute
spectator and a witness to a royal love that would go down in the annals of
time.
The rest as
they say, is history.
Author: Jayeeta Sen Roy
