Spoliers Ahead - If you have not already read Ponniyin Selvan and you intend to read it, this post gives away key story points. If you have not read Ponniyin Selvan already and don't intend to, please go ahead and read the post - maybe it will motivate you to read the epic!
The country was mourning. Mourning the death of their bravest son. Men, women and children were beyond consolation; the houses in the cities and villages bore a lifeless look; the animals wore a look of despair; even the birds seemed to be singing a sorrowful tune.
The country was mourning. Mourning the death of their bravest son. Men, women and children were beyond consolation; the houses in the cities and villages bore a lifeless look; the animals wore a look of despair; even the birds seemed to be singing a sorrowful tune.
The eldest son of
their king - Aditya - the prince who recognized no fear, the warrior who was
capable of guiding his army to victory against the mightiest of enemies, the
handsome prince who, by now, should have married a beautiful princess and ruled
the country - is gone forever from the wicked world, under the most mysterious
circumstances in living memory.
She stood there, as one among at
least another thousand people watching Aditya being cremated. She couldn't help
but think of the irony, as she remembered begging for another man's life from
Aditya, even falling at his feet - a wish that was not granted by Aditya. And
now, the mighty Aditya was gone.
Even as she grew up as the
daughter of a priest, in a religious household, she always knew from within
that she was a princess. She knew that she was the daughter of a brave king,
supposed to be brought up in a palace but somehow was growing up in the wrong
family. She felt more like a Kshatriya than like a Brahmin. When was 12 years
old, she was taken to a big palace to play along with the kids of the Chola
king.
