Prem Purana Read online

  Kapila welcomed the prince with cordial words and escorted him to his own seat under a banyan tree. He had his students bring him the traditional madhuparka, a mix of honey, curd and ghee. He hoped that if he treated Kamasura as an honoured guest, he would be persuaded not to harm his people. The sage saw the asura’s lustful glances and wondered if he should send the three girls away to their father’s abode. But Brahma was too old to be able to protect them. It would be better that they stayed here under the protection of the valiant Ganesha.

  ‘Let me offer you my humble hospitality,’ said Kapila. ‘You and your men have travelled from afar and I can provide you with food and drink to refresh yourselves.’

  ‘A beggar offers his prince fruits and berries!’ mocked Kamasura before accepting his invitation. Kapila astounded him by conjuring up a huge feast with an unending array of food and wine.

  ‘I have never tasted food so exquisite even in devaloka,’ said the asura in astonishment. ‘Tell me how an ascetic like you could provide such a rich spread.’

  ‘This is the blessing of the Chintamani gem that Indra gave me, a rare prize given to him by Vishnu,’ said the rishi. ‘There is nothing that the gem cannot yield, and no boon that is beyond its power.’

  Kamasura’s eyes widened in greed. ‘Such a great jewel should adorn a palace, not a hut!’ he exclaimed. ‘Moreover, have you not taken a vow to forsake all riches and lead an ascetic life? So give me the gem, Kapila.’

  The rishi was taken aback by his demand. ‘I offer worship every day to the Chintamani which is dearer to me than life itself,’ he replied. ‘Ask me for anything else, but not the jewel.’

  Kamasura argued with him, but Kapila remained adamant. The asura stayed on in the forest and tormented the sage with his fervid requests to give him the gem. Each time, Siddhi stood guard next to Kapila, resolved to protect him. But the asura refused to take her seriously.

  ‘You must show me your skills in my bed, not in battle,’ he told her. ‘Your lips are meant to be kissed and your body to be caressed, not pierced by swords and arrows. Come to me, Siddhi, and I will quench your desire. The Chintamani will soon be mine, and with its power added to mine, I will lay the earth at your feet.’

  ‘Who will marry a monster like you?’ Siddhi shouted angrily. ‘You are vile and abuse the boons given by the great gods. Even if I marry, it will be to someone who is my equal in valour and virtue, not a coward who preys on women and ascetics. Do not delude yourself that I refuse you in order to increase your ardour. My aim is to kill you, foul creature!’

  Her harsh words finally struck home. Kamasura screamed abuses like a madman. He cut down the students who guarded the Chintamani and snatched it from its shrine. ‘This is my last warning to you,’ he roared. ‘The gem belongs to me now and so will you. Tonight is the full moon and I leave you now to perform the rituals to invest myself with the powers of the Chintamani. But I will return for you and your sisters. You would be wise not to protest then, or I will kill your guru and his students before your eyes!’

  The asura was flanked by his men, monsters all, armed to the teeth with dire weapons and occult powers. Kapila stretched out an arm to stop Siddhi who pushed forward with an oath. He knew that even if she killed Kamasura’s men, she could not defeat the asura himself who was armed with mighty boons.

  The sage’s rage however erupted in a curse. ‘I swear now in the name of the god I worship that you will pay for this sacrilege!’ he proclaimed. ‘Look your fill on this earth, asura, for soon you will burn in the fires of the netherworld.’

  As the asura stormed away, Kapila returned to his altar to meditate on Ganesha, saying that only Shiva’s son had the power to defeat Kamasura.

  However, Siddhi was irate and swore that she would tear the asura prince to pieces and restore the gem to her guru. When she saw Buddhi looking worriedly at her, Siddhi assured her that with her new powers she could easily accomplish the task.

  It appears that Siddhi’s tussle with her ego will continue every day of her life, thought Buddhi as she hurried to Ganesha to seek his help. She told him what had happened, her hands twisting together in anxiety. ‘Once he invests himself with the powers of the Chintamani, Prince Gana will become invincible, and I fear for our safety and that of our guru,’ she said. ‘I am worried too that Siddhi will attempt something dangerous in the heat of the moment.’

  Ganesha nodded in agreement, for he knew well how powerful Kamasura was. He knew also that Siddhi was likely to embark on a hasty mission without thinking it through.

  Siddhi frowned when she saw Buddhi enter the ashram with Ganesha. ‘It is clear that you do not trust me,’ she said to Buddhi. ‘But I am determined to fight the asura myself, though I honour and respect Ganesha who has done so much to equip me for this battle.’

  ‘I will honour your wish,’ Ganesha replied. ‘I will accompany you to the battlefield but remain a spectator unless you call me yourself.’ Siddhi gazed at him doubtfully and he offered further assurances. ‘I allowed the trishul to behead me and Parasurama’s axe to sever my tusk only because I respected my parents. How then will I disregard your wishes when you are so important to me?’

  She saw the love in his eyes and lowered her own in confusion. Ganesha stayed silent, waiting for her decision. This was his last chance to win her over. If he failed now, his present avatara on earth would be a failure too.

  Siddhi looked up at him, her mind made up. ‘Let us hurry to find the asura!’ she said. ‘The sun hovers on the edge of the horizon, and when the moon rises, Kamasura will begin his rituals. We must defeat him before he joins the power of the Chintamani with his own. He will then be able to multiply his troops and his weapons at will and we will be unable to defeat him.’

  Ganesha nodded and they left, silhouetted against the setting sun.

  It was not difficult to find the asura’s camp as he made no attempt to hide his whereabouts, so confident was he that no one could harm him.

  Ganesha and Siddhi mounted two wild horses they had broken in, and approached the clearing where his troops were assembled. Shiva’s son stayed back in the shadows while Siddhi blew her war conch in challenge to the asura.

  On seeing her galloping towards him alone, Kamasura laughed in scorn. ‘Even my young sons will be able to kill you,’ he said. ‘But I will order them to bind you and bring you to me, so that I may enjoy your beauty in my bed. However, as you so rudely spurned my offer of marriage, I will treat you as a slave and not a queen. And when I have had my fill of your charms, I will cast you out to be used by my soldiers.’

  Siddhi roared in anger, and a huge army was born from her newly awakened shakti. From the men’s foreheads blazed flames that enveloped the asura’s army and sent them shrieking to their death. Kamasura’s young sons fought back fiercely with iron clubs, poison-tipped arrows and sorcerous weapons. Their retinue of giants hacked off heads and limbs, while a battalion of misshapen beasts immobilized Siddhi’s soldiers with their eerie squeals, and tore them to shreds with their curved tusks, fanged mouths and giant beaks. The field was grisly with blood, and the skies echoed with the screams of the dying.

  Brave Siddhi was everywhere, bringing down giants and demons alike, attacking the asura army with her mace and spear, her arrows and trident. Behind her came a phalanx of her men, carrying axes that they used to behead the asuras. Siddhi’s foes were so terrified that their mouths continued to clamour for help even as their heads rolled across the battlefield.

  Soon, the asura’s sons had been captured and the last of their men routed. ‘This is my last warning to you, Kamasura!’ shouted Siddhi, echoing his words to her. ‘Return the Chintamani to our guru, seek his forgiveness, and I will let your men leave the field alive. I will spare your life too as long as you give up your wicked ways and choose a righteous path. If you will not do so, I will kill you and drink your blood!’

  9

  The Mute God

  Kamasura felt a frisson of fear. He saw a vision of Yamaloka ope
ning its gates in readiness for him. Siddhi appeared to be fiery Durga herself come to annihilate him. But his ministers would not let him see reason. ‘You are invincible, O prince!’ they said. ‘You defeated Indra who wields the thunderbolt and won boons from Shiva. Your enemy now is but a slender girl riding a wild horse. Why then do you hesitate?’

  The asura’s arrogance overwhelmed him again. He shook away the dire visions that troubled him, summoned the rest of his fierce troops to accompany him and sallied forth into the battlefield. Siddhi’s eyes spewed fire on seeing him and from her energy rose a gigantic, thousand-armed warrior, Laksha. When he twanged the bowstrings of the 100 huge bows he wielded, the sound shattered distant mountaintops and sundered the earth.

  Kamasura ordered his generals to fight Laksha while he himself focused on Siddhi, playing with her as if she were a toy. He shot down her horse first and made her tumble to the ground. His next arrows skimmed off the ruby earrings she wore. When she rose to her feet, trembling with rage, he sent a jasmine garland flying on the back of an arrow to fall gently around her neck.

  Siddhi conjured up a silver chariot for herself and mounted a blistering attack on the asura with fierce astras that lit up the darkening skies like many suns. But he shot them down, one by one, with astras of his own that flashed towards her with a sinister howl. He trapped her next in a silver cage of glittering arrows, but she broke through them with the might of her axe. Her body was torn and bleeding but her indomitable spirit kept her going.

  But for how much longer?

  Buddhi and Riddhi ran sobbing to Ganesha who was watching from the periphery of the battlefield.

  ‘How can you watch silently while the asura torments Siddhi?’ asked Riddhi. ‘Do you not love us enough to help her?’

  ‘We know you promised not to intervene unless she invoked your help,’ said Buddhi, her eyes pools of pain. ‘But what if she is too foolish to realize that she will be stronger with your help? If she were to die now, could any of us survive the loss?’

  Ganesha did not reply but stood frozen like a statue, his eyes alone revealing his anguish at what was happening. Kapila and the other ascetics watched silently, hoping that the elephant-headed god would put an end to the battle and defeat the asura.

  Siddhi struck Kamasura with a firestorm of arrows that set his chariot ablaze, but he jumped to the ground before his panicked horses fled into the forest. He created a monstrous chariot for himself, with wheels as high as the tallest trees in the forest. The ratha rolled forward, crushing Siddhi’s soldiers like ants in an elephant’s path. Siddhi broke the axle of his ratha with her carefully aimed arrows and laughed in her turn when the asura was thrown to the ground. She assailed him with the weapons of Agni and Vayu and he countered them with those of Varuna and Indra. The forest shook, tormented by the force of a hundred hurricanes and tossed by a deluge of a thousand floods. It was a duel of will, a dance of death, where one misstep could result in catastrophe. Siddhi fought long and hard, wounding Kamasura again and again, but Yama could not touch him as long as he was protected by Shiva’s boon.

  Battered sorely, bleeding from a dozen deep wounds, Kamasura decided to put an end to his foe with the power of his occult weapons. He sent out a sorcerous shaft that separated into a thousand arrows, hiding the single real arrow aimed at her heart. Ganesha stirred in apprehension, torn between his vow to abstain and his fear for his beloved Siddhi. What if the phantom arrows diverted her attention from the actual shaft imbued with the potency of the asura’s energy? His hands flew to his own bow but he desisted from arming it with a supreme effort of will and continued to watch, his heart in his mouth.

  However, Siddhi’s luminous shakti was alive and warned her of the danger speeding towards her. She strung her bow with the Mohini astra that embodied the power of Vishnu to destroy all forms of maya. The astra hurtled into the heart of the firestorm, splitting the asura’s potent arrow in two, and making the false arrows disappear. Ganesha laughed joyfully, proud that his Siddhi had mastered the war craft he had imparted and put it to good use.

  Alas! Ganesha’s movements caught the attention of Kamasura who spotted him standing guard in the shadows. With his instincts honed by tapasya, the asura immediately realized that it was his old foe, Vikata, who had followed him into this life to kill him. He shivered as he felt the dark wings of death brush his body.

  Then he forced his mind to shed all fear and called out a challenge. ‘Is this the god you invoked to fight me, Kapila? How can this weakling who cowers in the shadows take on the power of my boons?’

  ‘Your arrogance blinds you to the power of the god born to destroy you, asura,’ replied Kapila. ‘Run away now or pay for your conceit with your life.’

  ‘Watch while I kill your mute god and seize the girls whom Brahma entrusted to your protection!’ swore Kamasura, ignoring Siddhi and advancing upon Ganesha. The god’s mace, goad and axe sprang into his hands but he stood unmoving, as if cast in stone. Encouraged by his strange stupor, Kamasura directed a fusillade of arrows at him, aiming for the parts left uncovered by his armour. Some struck Ganesha’s head and others his arms and feet. ‘Look, he bleeds!’ laughed the asura. ‘Perhaps he is not a statue after all.’

  ‘Ganesha, you must defend yourself, or he will kill you!’ shouted Riddhi, her voice shrill with fear.

  ‘I saw you defeat Vishnu and Shiva!’ sobbed Buddhi. ‘Why do you stay silent now, Adi?’

  Siddhi watched as more and more arrows struck Ganesha, causing blood to flow like a flood. Was he ready to meet death rather than forsake his promise to her? Would he sacrifice everything for the sake of his love? She could hear her sisters’ wails and the frantic prayers of Kapila and his students. Ganesha’s eyes met hers and she heard him whisper in her ear. ‘If I do not win your love, I might as well die,’ he said.

  The triumphant asura approached his foe with his mace upraised, ready to bring it down on Ganesha’s head. Riddhi knew that if he died she would lose everything. The three realms would be tormented to eternity by the demon prince. Kapila and his students would be killed and she and her sisters captured. She might as well kill herself now for she could not live without him. What was Ganesha waiting for? Was it for Siddhi to say something? Why was her sister so adamant? Riddhi sobbed as if her heart would break.

  Her sisters’ sobs and prayers echoed in Siddhi’s head. She realized that everything depended on her now. If she remained obstinate, it would cause the death, rather the slaughter, of her benefactor, friend and guru. She knew that despite everything he had taught her, she was still clinging to her ego, the last barrier to self-realization. And the world would pay the price.

  Kamasura was just a few strides away from Parvati’s son. Siddhi had already shown the world that she could fight the asura. And now she knew that with Gajamukha by her side she could fight all the asuras in the universe. Ganesha would deliver the killing blow at times while she did so at others. The two of them belonged together—as Siddhi Vinayaka. She realized that she loved him and could not let him die.

  Siddhi raised her hands and called out to Ganesha for help. But was she too late? The mace had already begun its downward arc. Her scream was echoed by her sisters and by all those who were praying for them. Siddhi closed her eyes to shut out the horror of watching Ganesha’s head split open by the monstrous mace. Alas, she was a sinner, doomed to spend her remaining days in torment.

  Then she heard Riddhi scream. What was happening? She saw Ganesha’s danda consuming the asura’s mace with searing tongues of flame. The god was now mounted on a rampant lion that roared so fiercely that the asura’s horse retreated in a frenzy of fear. As Kamasura struggled to stay on its back, Shiva’s son rode towards Siddhi, a brilliant smile lighting up his face. She sprang up behind the young god so that the two of them could fight the asura together.

  A ripple ruffled the treetops as if all the realms were sighing in relief. The devas and sages on high began to chant mantras of worship to Gajamukha. Riddhi and Bu
ddhi prayed to Parvati to watch over her valiant son. Thunder echoed in the skies like Indra’s celebratory drums. Brilliant Soma shone above them, enthralled that he would not be presiding over the asura’s victory.

  Kamasura managed to rein in his horse and turn it around. He hurled Indra’s formidable vajra at his foes. But Ganesha countered with the parasu that parasurama had given him. The two fierce weapons collided in mid-air and then disappeared in an explosion of light. The asura attacked next with a barrage of arrows, javelins and astras glowing with unearthly power.

  Ganesha retaliated with a flurry of golden arrows that blinded the asura with their radiance. When the asura managed to open his eyes, he saw before him countless Ganeshas, astride his many vaahanas—lion, mouse, peacock and even the serpent, Adisesha. One form was blue-hued, another was white. Others had bodies the colour of the blue lotus or the hibiscus. They were clad in robes of regal yellow and brilliant orange. One of them had a single elephant’s head, while others had four or five. One form had four arms while others had six or ten. As Vira Ganapati, Ganesha wielded a staff, a bow, a sword and other weapons in his sixteen arms. As Heramba, he glowed like a golden mountain, his cheeks anointed with vermilion and his battle axe proclaiming his victory over the asuras.

  Kamasura stood dumbstruck in his chariot, staring at the terrifying forms as they merged into one. He gathered his wits together with great difficulty and charged forward. Siddhi captured him with a luminous noose and Ganesha pierced him with many arrows. She encircled him with fire and Ganesha pounded him with his club as if he were a tabla.

  The asura escaped their hold and took up a huge form. He then showered them with a fusillade of weapons. But the lion they rode leapt at him and tore at his flesh while Ganesha pinned him down with his trident. Kamasura knew that he was nearing death but was defiant still.

  ‘Stop!’ he shouted. ‘By Shiva’s boon I can only be killed by someone who has defeated all the eight asuras I enumerated before the three-eyed god. You may have conquered six of them but Abhimanasura is still to be vanquished.’