RaaRaa-11 - RathaHaDasa

Thousands of years back...

In the Kingdom of Masaka...

There was a King named "Brushaka". He was a very good Brushabha/Bull rider and so his name was Brushaka. Along with taking care of the whole kingdom, he has the personal interest to take care of the cattle. The kingdom was very famous for milk and rice production. As the paddy husk and straws are good for cattle, so there was no problem for feeding the cattle.

The king used to take some extra care of the Bulls. Why so?
It is because Bulls were used in war zone as those were the fastest running animals of that time in the kingdom of Masaka.

In Masaka, there was a village called as "Haatika". "Haati" means Elephant. There were numerous elephants in that village. Many villagers knew how to train the elephants. They used have elephant race as an annual festival funded by the seafaring businessmen when returned from south-east world after long years of business.

But the King Brushaka did not like the elephant as they used eat the paddy and there was shortage in the food for the cattle, specifically the Bulls.

Time passes...

One day, the war bell rang.
The neighbouring kingdom attacked. The king got ready with his weapon, his army and the Bulls.
The was a fierce fight the Brushaka and so the Kingdom won the battle.

The next day, the people of the village Haatika riding elephant come nearing the entry gate of the Masaka Gada/Garh/Fort and welcome the King by spraying water by the elephants. There the village people requested Brushaka to attend the annual elephant race which was supposed to happen in the next week. The King agrees to it.

Now the annual festival scene. The King reached the festival spot. The elephant race started and one one rider and her elephant became the winner. As part of the award ceremony, the King gifted a golden shield to her. While having a chat, the girl asked "Raja, How was the speed of the elephants?". The king sarcastically laughed and told "Lesser than my Bulls". The girl was somewhat disheartened and replied "Ok, You will one day need these elephants. Please wait for the time."

Time passed and the war bell rang again. This time, the war was with the King "Krurashya" of neighbouring Kingdom "Bayavi".
The king got ready with his weapon, his army and the Bulls. But there was a change in the enemy army. They used a new animal called horse which were very fast runners whereas the the bulls were not that much fast. The war started and the enemy stated winning the first day of battle. There was major loss to Masaka army. King Brushaka somehow managed the war.

The entry of the new fastest animal horse really made Brushaka shocked. During night time, when there was no war, the King suddenly thought of the village girl who told "Ok, You will one day need these elephants. Please wait for the time.". The King immediately ordered his messenger to call the girl. The girl reached the spot. The king greeted her and asked her name and the girl replied "Haatinaami". Then the girl asked why the King called her. Brushaka told the story of the new fastest animal called horse. Haatinaami took some time and told something to Brushaka was very much happy with that.

Next day in the war zone...
There were around twenty bull riders in the front including the King Brushaka.
Behind them, all the army were standing.
Behind them, 11 soldiers were holding big size flags. Imagine an inverted
rectangular-U-shaped frame and a big cloth/flag hanging from it, just like a window curtain of the size of a one-storey building...

There were some people playing some music instruments which created sounds like the different roaring sound "snorts, barks, grunts, trumpets, cries" etc.    

Now both sides signal to start the battle.

King Brushaka and his fellow bull-riders rode at a faster pace. The foot soldiers slowly ran behind them as per the plan.

From the opposite side, King Krurashya and his fellowmen rode the horses at a much faster rate.

Before the bull-riders and horse-riders face each other, the bull-riders including the King Brushaka suddenly got divided, half of them started running to left and half towards the right. The foot-soldiers also did the same. Enemy king Krurashya was surprised with this.

Then suddenly, the 11 soldier from Brushaka, remove the flags, and the picture became clear. There were 10 elephants standing behind the big flags and the some people were playing music instrument with the same sounds of elephants so that the enemy gets confused and could not guess about the presence of elephants.

Now the elephants started running at a faster pace with the chief elephant rider "Haatinaami".

The road was clear. The elephants started crushing the enemy soldiers. To each elephant, there was a chariot attached. A soldier was on the chariot holding spears. Whoever were able to cross/pass through the elephants, they were getting killed by them. Many of the enemy soldiers were killed like that.

Then King Brushaka and Haatinaami fought did a fierce fight against King Krurashya and his army, Krurashya got killed and Masaka kingdom won the battle.

After the war, King Brushaka apologized to Haatinaami for his ignorance about the elephants. Then both got married and Haatinaami became the queen and ruled the Masaka kingdom along with King Brushaka. 

Then the King ordered the construction of a big scale statue of 10 elephants and 10 chariots attached to it and named it as "RathaHaDasa" meaning "Ratha(Chariot) Haati(Elephant) Dasa(Ten)".

Thousands of years passed. The remnants are still there. When the people see it now and tell about the name "RathaHaDasa", we find different narratives like 

1) Ratha(Chariot) Haati(Elephant) Daasa(Servant) - King took care of elephants and chariots as a Daasa

2) Ratha(Chariot) Ha(Bisarga-Pronunciation) Dasa(Ten)

3) Some say, it might be Dasa(Ten) Ratha(Chariot)

Many narratives are there but the exact meaning could not be found yet. Time keeps many things hidden for ever and ever...

***Fictional story***

Thanks

Ashish Kumar Nayak

Ashish Sarangi

RaaRaa-10 - Bhalapata

After the psychological and language war, the people of Masaka developed a different syndrome. They all became lazy and stopped laborious work. The amount of time they spend in their fields and other sector were reduced. This made them a little weak in economical perspectives. The king, Sthiraka was too old to motivate the new generation and so he was also worried. He decided to call the businessmen and other elites in the assembly. He told them to elect a new king as he was too old to lead the state. They all decided to have a competition and the person who will emerge victorious will be the new king. They declared about the competition, which was a three day long, through the present king.

On the day of competition total fifty aspirants appear and after the three day long battle one person emerge victorious. His name was Gajapa...

Gajapa was a son of cobbler but he was least interested in all those kind of shoe mending work. So, he started travelling all over the Masaka. He learned various tribal languages and then became an exponent in Masaki language. He also learnt the various warfare techniques. He also learnt various tantric rituals and customs which he could use during any emergency. And above all, he was a worshiper of Lord Raaga...

After becoming King, he ordered to make a palace for Sthiraka near to the temple of Raaga. His first decision. Then he ordered to the army to make themselves prepare for any kind of war. This was a surprise to many. The commander-in-chief came to the king and told him about the treaty the erstwhile king made with Bayavi. Gajapa politely refused to see that treaty and told him that an order is an order. He also ordered to make female troops of warriors and opened doors to female in the army.

His decisions were widely accepted and across the state and soon he rose to a new level of height. One day, he saw a beautiful girl. He got in love with her on the first sight. “She is having sparkling eyes; every outfit would love to embrace her body. She was a beautiful mystery. Her life wasn't a fairy tale, but she sure was a princess” he thought in his dreams about her.

After enquiring, he came to know that she was a daughter of his minister and her name was Kanaka. He called the minister and expresses his desire to marry her. Without any second thought minister nodded and they got married. The celebration was grand. Sthiraka himself came to bless the couple and lots of events took on the day.

After couple of years, Kanaka gave birth to triplets. Gajapa named them as Hangupa, Mukhapa and Kapipa. There was a joy in the whole Masaka after this news was spread. Meanwhile, Gajapa started worshipping Raaga as per tantric rituals and customs, in his palace. The chariot making system of Lord Raaga, which was started by NisiaDei was still a custom. Every year this custom was going on inspite of all kinds of problem. Gajapa like his predecessor continued the custom. He went to Garden Temple as a part of custom and worshipped Raaga. One night he had a strange dream. He woke up in the middle of night and started his journey to the temple of Lord Raaga, in the port city of Manuka. He arrived in the early morning and after seeing the king, gatekeeper opened the door of temple. Gajapa went their alone and spent near about four hours inside the temple. He reappears and again came back to his palace in Masakanagari, without telling to anyone. He started some secret tantric rituals in his own palace and named it BHALAPATA…..

BHALAPATA was a new kind of tantric techniques through which you can communicate with Lord Raaga easily and it was something out of the box.

After some years, in an accident Gajapa and Kanaka died and Hangupa was made the king at the age of 16. Hangupa soon declared that Mukhapa is the new in charge of education system and Kapipa as in charge of medical emergencies. Both brothers agreed. One day suddenly Hangupa got some literature works of his father Gajapa. On the book, BHALAPATA was written with blood. He read the whole book and also gave that to his brothers. It was written in Masaki language. At the age of 18, they all become aware about the tantric pattern invented by their father Gajapa. They started implementing all those things in form of drawings and songs. But as they were afraid that if someone knew this then he or she might use all these in negative sense. So to protect these, they wrote some mysterious things, in same Masaki language but in different manner so that the common citizens or intellects also won’t understand this. But Hangupa told everybody that our mother nature is the epicenter of all the systems and we have to worship her also in the same manner in which we all are worshipping Lord Raaga. So as per some mathematical and astronomical calculations, he ordered to build several temples of Mother Nature near temples of Raaga. In Masakanagari, hundreds of temples were there that belong to Raaga and now they built the same numbers of Mother Nature. All the things were going smoothly. The Masakans, were, once again regain power in each and every sector, from architectural marvels to education, from agriculture to warfare technologies.  

In the mean time, a person came to their state. His name was Kukhyaka. On the very first day, he opposed the tantric rituals and patterns in which the priests were worshipping Lord Raaga. He also opposed the tribal manner of worshipping. Mukhapa came to know about him and immediately he called his internal minister and asked him to check the activities of Kukhyaka.

Kukhyaka was very crooked. He learnt Masaki language within fifteen days, mixed with the people and encouraged them to stop the tantric rituals and tribal worshipping of Raaga and provide his pattern of rituals and customs of worshipping. Some people also got convinced and started worshipping as per the materials provided to them by Kukhyaka.

Hangupa got worried after seeing all these things. He ordered to have a secret meeting with his internal minister and his brothers. After that meeting Hangupa invited Kukhyaka in his palace and challenge him about the tantric and tribal concepts and customs. Hangupa and Kukhyaka had a five day verbal fight about the rituals and customs. In the last, Hangupa won that and immediately ordered Kukhyaka to left the Masaka. Till now the people were not able to understand the real things. Kukhyaka left the palace and eventually Masaka. But he left some of his disciples in the state.

Then started a conspiracy theory. The disciples of Kukhyaka, lived in Masakanagari, learnt all kind of warfare technologies. One day, they killed Mukhapa and Kapipa. Hangupa got furious after hearing this news. This suddenly put a question mark on the governance of Hangupa. Citizens were also worried about their safety and security.

One day one messanger came to the court of Hangupa and told him about the planning of Kukhyaka. He also told him that kukhyaka was none other than a secret member of agents that belong to Bayavi. Now Hangupa was angry and he told Kruresh, the king of Bayavi, who was now in his fifties, to handover Kukhyaka to him or face the war. Kruresh agreed to handover Kukhyaka to Hangupa amidst lots of opposition. Kruresh told his assembly that whatever happened had happened, we cannot face the war with the mighty Masakans, who had a well equipped army and trained soldiers and moreover their king Hangupa, who was well versed with all kind of warfare techniques as well as BHALAPATA.

Kukhyaka was made prisoner and in the prison he was died.

In the meanwhile, Hangupa married and her wife gave birth to a girl child. Time went slowly. Peace, once again, prevails in Masaka. All live happily and without any conflict. But two things were there which Hangupa neglected. First, the Masakans started worshiping Mother alongwith Raaga and second slowly and slowly, a thought comes to their mind about their belief in tantric worshiping of Raaga, whether it was good or bad, as Kukhyaka was able to gain the sympathy of the Masakans…..

Thanks

Ashish Kumar Nayak

Ashish Sarangi