Veerapandian Magal

Twists Of Fate

Nandini sat under a tree in the forest where Veerapandian's cremation preparations were being organised by his bodyguards. They had brought his five-year-old son Amara to perform his last rites. Ravidasan, the boss of the bodyguards, approached Nandini and said "Get ready to take the Oath of Revenge with us. And do not even dream of escaping from us. Forget your lover boy who kicked you out of his kingdom and refused to heed your behest to leave your father alive. Make his beheading the sole aim of your life. These are the king's wishes. So feel honoured to honour them. You too will benefit by doing this. The king has ordered us to take good care of you." 

Nandini nodded and asked if he knew who her mother was. Ravidasan seemed pleased with her submission. "Mandakini of Eazham is your mother. Veerapandiyar had a brief fling with the mute boat lady when he was in self-exile in Srilanka, just because she was Sundara Chozhan's erstwhile sweetheart. He then went to meet his friend, the Sinhala King, got engrossed in his kingly affairs and forgot about her. When you visited the palace with the temple group last year, Veerapandiyar was astonished at your resemblance with Mandakini and his instincts cried out to him that you were his daughter born of Mandakini. The king sent word through a messenger to Karuathiruman, his old associate in Eazham, who did his homework. The messenger confirmed to the king that you were indeed Mandakini's daughter abandoned by her and raised by the Krishnar koil bhattar in Pazhayarai. You have a twin brother, growing up as Prince Madhurantakan in the chola royal house. Karuthiruman was caught and lodged in the subterranean prison while trying to access Madhurantakan's chambers to tell him his birth secret and to woo him to the Pandiya camp. But we will not give up. We will eventually bring him to our fold."

After Ravidasan had finished, Nandini was overwhelmed by the information and the world seemed to spin vigorously in front of her eyes. She lied down on the ground as if to hold the earth for support. After some time, she was shaken up by Ravidasan. Amara lit Veerapandiyan's pyre and as his body started to burn, Amara, the Aapathudhavigal, a few other loyal ladies and Nandini cut their hands with a knife and let out their blood drops into the burning pyre. Then they lit camphor in the palm and took the oath to avenge their emperor's beheading by killing Karikalan. "In the name of Kotravai, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; the Chola clan, we shall uproot", they shouted in unison and put the burning camphor off with the other palm. Amara then hugged Nandini and cried inconsolably.

Now that the Cholas had the upper hand after their victory over the Pandiyas and the chola warriors still remaining in the Pandiya country, Veerapandiyan's core group of loyalists decided to meet on every full moon day in different forested locations to plan their modus operandi and dispersed. Nandini was sent away with Vasuki, the king's loyalist, who was ever watchful and the two women moved to a humble dwelling in the city's fringes.

Nandini slumped into the bed in her room that night, when she was finally left alone. And slept. She woke up well after dawn and when Vasuki knocked to check on her, Nandini told her not to disturb her as she was sick. Nandini was numb after the series of shocks. Aditha showing up at her front-yard, Veerapandian's revelation and demand for promise, Aditha mercilessly killing Veerapandian, Ravidasan disclosing her mother's identity and the dreadful oath to murder Karikalan. Is there anyone more unlucky in this world than myself? Why hasn't my heart shattered to pieces after all this?

My parents! They must be be so worried about me. I am glad you have another loving daughter who will not break your hearts like i do, dear Amma and Appa. My real mother! How could you throw me away, woman? Even if you were mute and poor, shouldn't you have swum against the tide and made sure that your daughter was loved and cared for? My real father! I hate you, you cruel king. I hope i have not inherited a single gene from you. How dare you expect me to uphold your honour and entrust your son to me when you did not even know that i existed until you casually came across me a year ago? The gall of you, to reveal that you fathered me just to extract a promise from me one moment before you die. What audacity to harass me with your deranged sycophants even after you are gone? And how dare you royally screw a mute woman, who was another man's darling, brush her aside and go your way? I would not have set foot in your palace even if you had carried me in a palanquin yourself and begged my forgiveness for not doing your fatherly duties. Little nuisance, Amara! I disowned you even before your dad thrust you on me! Sundara Chozha! You were almost my father, man. And your son will follow in his father's footsteps, i am sure - entice a woman, only to settle down later with a zillion others from the royal flock. Perumale! Do you even exist? How could you dump all the cruel twists of fate into one entity, that is me.

My promise to you goes to hell with you, you satan! And so does my oath.

When Veerapandiyan revealed that she was his daughter, Nandini did not expect a backstory of cruelty and callousness to be clipped with it until she heard Ravidasan's narrative in the forest. So she tried to be compassionate to a dying man who happened to be her father and touched his palm in promise to let him die in a false sense of peace. Nandini begged Aditha to spare his life in the same spirit and also because Veerapandian held the key to her knowing who her real mother was. She desperately wanted to know her birth secrets. On hindsight, she also realised that she fuelled Aditha's resolve to kill Veerapandian. Aditha was a possessive lover who would have imagined the worst when she said Veerapandian was dear to her and he could not bear the fact that Nandini was protecting his worst enemy. What followed and led to her taking the oath was beyond her control, as she would have been dead had she had not played along.

I would rather beg and befriend the cholas to put you down, you barbarians! and then get back at them. I hate you all, you royals! I can't wait to settle down in Brindavanam with my parents and sing for my Krishna once i am done with you all.

But Nandini knew that she had to be in the zealots' good books for now. So she cried silently into her pillow as her body shuddered uncontrollably.