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Love Stories from The Mahabharata  
Parikshit and Sushobhana – 11

Silently Sushobhana stands near the window of the chamber. The afternoon is growing pale. The angry hiss of that invisible and mysterious Baishakh storm draws near. Sushobhana feels that it is not to demolish the Manduka kingdom, but for attacking all her pride that this revengeful storm is approaching.

Suddenly Sushobhana laughs aloud. Like garbage of dead leaves she casts away the burden of such false anxieties from her mind. Lighting the lamps, she puts a cup of wine to her lips. Placing a golden mirror in front, she draws designs on her forehead with sesame seeds. Brushing aside the tormented cries of the people and the threat of the invisible storm with a curve of lips wet with wine, she takes the well-strung vina on her lap. But before she can strum the strings, Sushobhana is interrupted.

“Princess!”

Subinita has arrived. Irritated, Sushobhana frowns,

“What more ill news have your brought, sweet-of-speech?”
“It is bad news that I have brought, strict-vowed princess. King Parikshit has been fooled by your deception. But the Manduka people’s misfortune has not ended. By a quirk of fate, your offence has not been judged as the crime of the entire people.
Frowning, Sushobhana enquires, “The meaning of this?”
“King Parikshit has informed through his messenger that when, overcome with fear of the fateful curse, his fainting beloved was being swept away in the waters of the lake, at that time wicked Mandukas had murdered that jewel of his life, radiant with the beauty of the full moon. With his own eyes he had seen a Manduka spy fleeing.”
Plucking triumphant notes from the vina Sushobhana says, “I am reassured to hear your good news, maid.”
“Reassured?”
“Yes, reassured and delighted. By the side-long glances of these eyes, the smiles of this trembling mouth, the deceitful kisses of these honeyed lips, how the sharp-witted and powerful Parikshit has been befooled!”
“You have succeeded in your desires, playful lady. But that your lover, in the agony of losing you, grown so cruel has begun a terrible celebration of shedding so much innocent blood—do you not feel even the slightest regret for that? Even this lamp’s flame-bodied tongue of fire has a heart, but you have none, princess!”

The maid Subinita leaves the chamber.

The evening grows more dense. The sky darkens. Sushobhana draws near the window and sees lights glimmering in the enemy camp at the borders of the kingdom. Sushobhana can hear, wafted about in the breeze, the dying cries of her subjects struck down by enemy swords. Sushobhana moves away from the window. As though the lamp in the chamber, burning out its own heart, will not allow that terrible outer darkness to enter through the window. But today it seems to Sushobhana that she would prefer to hide herself in that darkness for some time and remain deaf.

Again the outcries can be heard. Sushobhana is startled. As though several heart-piercing cries were beating against her breast, the outcries of some innocent imperilled lives. This weeping is unbearable.  Blowing out the lamp, Sushobhana shouts from the threshold of the chamber, “Subinita!”

The maid Subinita comes running. Anxiously she says,

 “Your command, princess?”
“I command, maid, despatch, this very instant, a messenger to the camp of the enemy Parikshit. Inform him that no Manduka has murdered the woman he craves. Inform him, that the woman is the Manduka princess Sushobhana, who is alive and well, living in all luxury, in this palace.  Tell this king, maddened and befooled by make-believe love, to end this festival of destruction and leave.”
Subinita: “He has been informed, princess. The Manduka king Ayu himself, in the garb of a Brahmin, has visited Parikshit’s camp and informed him of this.”

– Continued

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