Thursday 14 December 2017

RaaRaa-8 - Gajasi

Some thousands year back...

In the land of Masaka...

One day, the king of Masaka "Gajasi" plans for a visit to the villages and see how his people are leading their life. To his surprise, he finds that some people are in very poor condition. A very old and thin man came to the king with his daughter and told him to arrange proper irrigation for farming. The king agreed to it and then he gifted a diamond necklace to the poor man. The man thrown that necklace at King's face. The bodyguards of the King were going to hit him but the king stopped them. Then the daughter of that person came near the king and told him that they urgently need the proper irrigation facility, not the diamond necklace. The king orders his minister to work on war footing and minister delegates the work to the concerned person.

During the meantime, invaders attack Masaka kingdom...

King Gajasi is riding and racing to the war front at a faster pace...
Behind the mountains, when the warrior's head is visible, soldiers shout louder for their leader. (Imagine like a movie scene. :) )
Was he riding a horse? No. It was an elephant. The elephant-rider warrior takes the lead and the war starts against the invaders. During the war, the leader gets severely injured and the soldiers take him to a safer place. The king wants to go the village area as he feels that he may not survive and want to see whether the ministers worked for the betterment of the village or not. The old man comes to the rescue and gives a medicine which will help the heal the wounds. Next day, though he is eager to come to the war but his body does not support. Many of his soldiers get killed that day...

Flashback:
A young man named "Si" used to live in a village. From childhood, he was very active in many of the extra curricular activities like horse riding, martial arts etc. He was very much fond of elephant. He keeps his pet elephant's name as Gaja. With time, Gaja and Si become very close friends and so people start calling Si as Gajasi. In the nearby village, a girl names Shri used to live. One day while riding the elephant Gajasi meets Shri and both fall in love. Now Gajasi has one more partner Shri along with Gaja. Their love story continues for some years.
One day while roaming in the forest, Shri wants to pluck mangoes. Shri tells Gajasi, while he is sitting on the Gaja(elephant) she will sit on his shoulders with legs on both sides so that she can easily pluck the mangoes. But when she sits on Gajasi's shoulders, she gets afraid due to something and falls down and breaks her leg. Gajasi is really horrified and rushes her to the village and gets medical treatment. When people ask what happened, he just tells that she fell down from the mango tree.

As the king of Masaka of that time didnt have any descendant, he makes test among all the youngsters of the Kingdom to be the King. As Gajasi is very good in martial arts and  good in elephant riding, he is chosen as the next king. He works well for the people and defends his kingdom against all invaders. Then he marries Shri and Shri becomes the queen of Masaka kingdom.


-------------------------------------------------INTERVAL-------------------------------------------------------


Coming to the current situation when the king Gajasi is injured and not able to go to the war zone...
The old man in the village comes near him and requests to tell something. King agrees.
Then the old man tells "You and Shri need to fight the war together against the invaders." King Gajasi gets surprised. The man tells "I was there when Shri fell down from your shoulder.  When you were sitting on the elephant and Shri on your shoulder, your face suddenly changed to lion face and you whole body looked like a lion, your roaring was terrible..."

After hearing this, King Gajasi takes a deep breath. He thinks for few hours and then calls Shri near him and explains the situation of the war. Only Gajasi, Shri and Gaja together can win the war. Shri agrees to it. Now the King Gajasi sits over the elephant, and then Shri sits over Gajasi's shoulders. Within few seconds the transformation starts. Gajasi's face and whole body looks like that of a lion and it looks like a lady riding a lion and the lion riding an elephant. The enter the war zone and fight against the invader and stand as winners.

In this way, all the next wars were fought with the same format. Due to constant attack of invaders, the King Gajasi and Queen Shri dont prefer to have a kid of their own. Throughout life they served the people and fought the wars in the same format. But time does not remain the same. King and Queen get old and in one of the wars, when Shri sits on the shoulder of Gajasi, the transformation doesnot happen. But both are brave and think of fighting like normal human as they used to do. They fight and loose their lives but somehow save the kingdom from invaders.

After their death, the people of the kingdom make a temple in their remembrance and the idol installed was like "a lady warrior siting on the shoulder of lion look-alike man and the man sitting over an elephant".

Thanks
Ashish Kumar Nayak
Ashish Sarangi

1 comment:

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