The Oath of the Vayuputras: Shiva Trilogy 3

Chapter 23

Battle of Bal-Atibal Kund

The lead ship of the Magadhan navy passed the Bal-Atibal Kund. Kartik’s army had heard the low monotonous sounds of rowing and the drumbeats of the timekeepers long before they had sighted the Magadhan ships.

Kartik motioned for a signal to be relayed by hand over a line of men who had been positioned for this purpose, till the message reached the southern end of the camp, more than a kilometre away. A group of soldiers pulled a rope quietly, releasing a net that had been tightly cast over a flock of birds. The birds took off suddenly, startled by their unexpected freedom. Kartik detected some movement in the Magadhan ships. They had clearly heard the birds.

Kartik strained his eyes. The Magadhan soldiers had their eyes pinned towards the top of the main masts.

‘Shit!’ whispered Bhagirath, as he realised the implications.

A small wry smile of appreciation for a worthy enemy flickered on Kartik’s face. He turned to Divodas who stood right behind him. ‘Divodas, send messages to our tree-top soldiers that the Magadhans have lookouts stationed on their crow’s nests. Our soldiers should remain low to avoid detection.’

A crow’s nest is built on top of the main masthead of the ship, where sailors would be stationed as lookouts to survey far and wide so as to report to the captain below on deck. This was a common practice on sea-faring ships, but was rarely used in river ships. Surapadman was obviously a cautious man for he had built crow’s nests on his ships. Divodas left quietly to carry out Kartik’s orders.

‘The ships are pulling back their oars,’ said Bhagirath, pointing forward.

As they were sailing against the natural flow of the river current, the Magadhan ships slowed down quickly. The sails were re-adjusted to bring the ships to a halt. Their earlier speed was such though, that at least ten ships passed the area where Kartik stood before Surapadman’s fleet came to a standstill. The soldiers on the ships stared hard into the dense forests on the western banks.

‘Now we wait,’ said Kartik.



Bhagirath leaned over to Kartik. ‘Their scout is a short distance behind us, close to the water’s edge.’

Kartik stretched his arms in an exaggerated manner and then spoke to Divodas, loud enough for the Magadhan scout to hear. ‘Check if their ships have started moving up ahead.’

Divodas moved towards the river, making the scout fall back silently. He returned almost instantaneously. ‘Lord Kartik, their scout is swimming back to the ship.’

Kartik immediately rose and crept to the edge of the forest. He could see the Magadhan scout swimming noiselessly away.

‘I expect the attack soon,’ said Bhagirath. ‘We should fall back to our positions.’

‘Let’s wait a few moments,’ said Kartik. ‘I want to see which ship he boards. It’ll tell us where Surapadman is.’



‘It’s been almost half an hour,’ said Bhagirath. ‘What is he waiting for?’

Kartik and his army remained behind the forest line. They wanted to give Surapadman the impression that the Brangas did not wish to engage in a battle. They hoped he would be lulled into believing that he could launch a surprise attack.

Kartik suddenly exclaimed, ‘Son of a bitch!’

‘Lord Kartik?’ asked Divodas.

‘Send a message to our lookouts,’ said Kartik. ‘Tell them to communicate with those on the other side. I want to know what is happening there.’

Bhagirath slapped his forehead. ‘Oh my God! We’d asked our lookouts to stay low!’

Divodas rushed off and messages were soon relayed across the Sarayu using light signals. He was back in no time with worrying news. ‘They’re mobilising on the other side, hidden by their massive vessels. Row boats are being lowered quietly into the river and soldiers are boarding it even as we speak. It looks like they’re preparing to row downriver.’

‘That cunning son of a flea-bitten dog!’ said Bhagirath. ‘He intends to row downriver, hidden by his own ships, and attack us from the south.’

‘What do we do, Lord Kartik?’ asked Divodas.

‘Ask our lookouts if the Magadhans are disembarking from their tenth ship. That is where Surapadman is.’ Turning to Bhagirath, Kartik continued. ‘Prince Bhagirath, I suspect he will launch a two-pronged attack. There will be one at Bal-Atibal Kund. Surapadman would want to keep us busy here. In the meantime, another contingent of Magadhans would row down south, flank our southern side and aim to enter our camp from behind. We would be sandwiched between two sections of his army.’

‘Which means we need to break up,’ said Bhagirath. ‘One of us will stay here at the Bal-Atibal Kund, and the other will ride out to meet their southern force.’

‘Exactly,’ said Kartik.

Meanwhile, Divodas returned. ‘Lord Kartik, they are disembarking from Surapadman’s ship.’

‘Prince Bhagirath,’ said Kartik, ‘You will lead our main force here. We have to ensure the Magadhans don’t get past Bal-Atibal. I want this to be a death trap for them.’

‘It’ll be so, Kartik, I assure you. But do not leave too many from our forces with me. You will need a large number of soldiers to battle Surapadman in the south.’

‘No I won’t,’ said Kartik. ‘He’s rowing downriver. He will not have any horses. I will.’

Bhagirath understood immediately. A single mounted cavalry warrior was equal to ten foot soldiers. He had the advantage of height as well as his horse’s fearsome kicks. ‘All right.’

Kartik snapped orders to Divodas even as he rose. ‘Ride down south. Inform our forces to expect a Magadhan charge soon. You will be leading them. I’m going to ride out with two thousand cavalrymen in a giant arc from the west. I intend to attack Surapadman’s forces from behind. Between my horses and your troops, we will crush them.’

Divodas smiled. ‘That we will!’

‘You bet!’ said Kartik. ‘Har Har Mahadev!’

‘Har Har Mahadev!’ said Divodas.

Divodas ran to his horse, swung onto the saddle and rode away.

Kartik appeared to be running over the instructions in his mind, not wanting to miss out a single detail.

‘I have fought many battles, Kartik,’ said Bhagirath with an amused look. ‘Go fight yours. Let me take care of mine.’

Kartik smiled. ‘We’ll gift my father a famous victory.’

‘That we shall,’ said Bhagirath.

Kartik walked up to his horse, stretched up to put his left foot into the stirrup, for he was still quite short, and swung his right leg over to the other side, mounting his horse. Bhagirath, who had followed Kartik, saw the same steely look in the boy’s eyes that he had seen many times during the animal hunts. A familiar sense of fear and fascination entered Bhagirath’s heart. He smiled nervously and whispered, ‘God have mercy on Surapadman...’

Kartik heard the remark and chuckled softly. ‘He will have to be the one, for I won’t.’

The son of the Neelkanth turned his horse and galloped away into the dark.



The slender moon was now cloaked in clouds, its faint light hidden in the mist. Bhagirath could barely make out the lines of men in the wood beside him. He sensed them now by the sound of their breath rasping in the darkness. The metallic smell of sweat hung heavy in the air. Bhagirath could feel the perspiration beading on his upper lip, trickling into the corner of his mouth. Whispers came floating back to his ears from up and down the line – ‘Har Har Mahadev... Har Har Mahadev...’ – like a prayer as the men braced to face Surapadman’s army.

Suddenly the moon burst through the clouds and Bhagirath could see men running up and down the length of the enemy ships carrying fire torches. They were lighting the arrows for the archers.

‘Shields up!’ screamed Bhagirath.

Bhagirath’s soldiers, primarily Brangas, immediately prepared for the volley of arrows that would soon descend upon them. The sky lit up as the archers shot their fire arrows. They flew out in a great arc before descending into the jungle. Bhagirath had kept his men strictly within the forest line, so the trees worked as their first line of defence. The few that got through were easily blocked by the raised shields.

The Magadhans had hoped that their fire arrows would set the forest aflame, causing chaos and confusion amongst the Brangas. But mist and the cold of the night had ensured dew formation on the leaves. The trees simply did not catch fire.

As the arrows stopped, Bhagirath roared loudly. ‘Har Har Mahadev!’

His soldiers followed him as their cry rent the air, ‘Har Har Mahadev!’

The Magadhans quickly lit another line of arrows and shot. Once again, the trees and the Branga shields ensured that Bhagirath’s soldiers suffered no casualties.

The Brangas put their shields aside and let out their war cry, taunting their enemies. ‘Har Har Mahadev!’

Bhagirath could see the rowboats being lowered from the ships. The attack was about to begin. The fire arrows were just a cover. As he watched the arrows being loaded again, he turned to his men. ‘Shields!’

The Brangas effortlessly defended themselves against another volley of fire arrows.

‘Send a message to our men on the other side to launch their fire coracles! Now!’

As his aide rushed away, Bhagirath saw his enemies rowing out towards the kund. And yet another shower of arrows was fired.

‘Don’t move!’ shouted Bhagirath, keeping his men in check. ‘Let them land first.’

In order to inflict maximum casualties Bhagirath would allow a large contingent of enemy soldiers to land ashore before launching a three-pronged attack from the adjoining forest. An impregnable phalanx of his infantry, standing shoulder to shoulder, shields in front, would advance and push at the frontline Magadhan soldiers with unstoppable force. The enemy soldiers bringing up the rear would inevitably be forced into the water. Weighed down by their weapons and armour, they would drown. The frontline, hopelessly outnumbered, would then be decimated.

‘Shields!’ ordered Bhagirath once again as he saw the arrows being lit.

His gut feel was that this would be the last volley. Enemy soldiers were jumping off their boats onto the sands of Bal-Atibal. Brutal hand-to-hand combat was moments away. Bhagirath could feel the adrenaline rushing through his veins. He could almost smell the blood that was about to be shed.

‘Charge!’ bellowed Bhagirath.



Kartik rode furiously with his two-thousand strong cavalry. Even through the dense foliage, he could see fire arrows being shot from Magadhan ships. They had commenced battle, which meant that the southern contingent of the Magadhan army was in position.

‘Faster!’ roared Kartik to his horsemen.

They could see that the ships at the centre of the fleet had already caught fire. The devil boats had struck. Bhagirath was obviously hurting the Magadhan navy. What was surprising though, was that the southern end was also aflame. The Vaishali forces must have arrived and were attacking the Magadhan navy from behind.

Kartik was distracted by the din up ahead; it was the sound of a fierce battle between the southern contingent of the Magadhans and Divodas’ Brangas.

‘Ride harder!’

Surapadman’s men had probably shot fire arrows here as well, for parts of the camp were on fire. But this served as a beacon for Kartik’s horsemen. They kicked their horses hard, spurring them on. The Brangas at the southern end were hard at work, holding almost twenty thousand soldiers at bay. The Magadhans, who had expected to decimate an unprepared enemy, were shocked by the fierce resistance they were facing. Things would get a lot worse though, for the Magadhans did not expect danger from the back as well.

‘Har Har Mahadev!’ yelled Kartik as he drew his long sword.

‘Har Har Mahadev!’ roared the Branga horsemen as they charged.

The last rows of the Magadhan foot soldiers, completely unprepared for a cavalry charge from the rear, were ruthlessly butchered within minutes. Kartik and his cavalry cut a wide swathe through the Magadhan units, their horses trampling hapless soldiers, their swords slicing all those who stood in their path.

Initially, the rear attack of the Branga cavalry went unnoticed due to the massive size of the rival armies and the brutal din and clamour of a battle well joined. Quickly overcoming their surprise, many brave Magadhan soldiers leapt at the horsemen, stabbing at the beasts and even fearlessly holding on to the stirrups, hoping to bring them down. Sensing that he led the cavalry charge, a clutch of infantrymen tripped Kartik’s steed bringing them both down in a crash. They would soon wish that they hadn’t.

With cat-like reflexes, Kartik sprang to his feet, viciously drawing his second sword as well, and cutting at the first of the soldiers pressing on to him. The Magadhan crumpled in midstep and fell silently to the ground, his windpipe severed, a gush of air bursting from his slit throat, splattering blood on those around him. A second soldier charged, and was cut down before he’d taken two steps, a single stroke of Kartik’s blade slicing through his torso, almost to his spine.

The remaining soldiers paused, cautious now of this boy who could kill with such ease. They spread out in a circle around him, swords at the ready. Kartik knew they would charge together from all sides, and waited for them to make their move.

The charge came, two from the front, one from the back and a fourth from the left. Kartik crouched, and with near-inhuman speed sidestepped to the left and swung fiercely. Generating fearful blade speed through his swinging strikes, he brutally sliced limb, sinew, head and trunk all around him. Blood and entrails were splattered all over.

He paused, panting, the swords in his hands dripping red with blood. He looked around him, selected an opponent and charged again. As the Bhagavad Gita would say, Kartik had become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

The fighting raged for half an hour as the tide of the battle tipped more and more against the Magadhans. But they fought on as no quarter was given either by Kartik or his army.

Slowly the screams of the dying lessened, and then were silenced as Surapadman’s army perished. Soldiers stopped their slaughter and stood quietly on the battlefield, leaning exhausted on their swords and panting. But Kartik did not slacken, pressing attack after attack on all those that remained standing.

Divodas tried to run as he approached Kartik, but his legs were weak and trembling, and he could scarcely manage more than a stumbling trot. He was covered in blood from a dozen small cuts, and a deep gash on his shoulder left his right arm dangling limply to his side. ‘My Lord,’ he called out, breathless and hoarse, ‘My Lord!’

Kartik swung viciously, the speed of his movement building formidable power in his curved blade. Divodas took the blow on his shield as his hand reverberated with the shock of blocking the brutal blow, numbing his left arm to the shoulder.

‘My Lord!’ he pleaded in desperation. ‘It is I, Divodas!’

Kartik suddenly stopped, his long sword held high in his right hand, his curved blade held low to his left, his breathing sharp and heavy, his eyes bulging with bloodlust.

‘My Lord!’ shrieked Divodas, his fear palpable. ‘You have killed them all! Please stop!’

As Kartik’s breathing slowed, he allowed his gaze to take in the scene of destruction all around him. Hacked bodies littered the battlefield. A once proud Magadhan army completely decimated. Divodas’ frontal attack combined with the rear cavalry charge had achieved Kartik’s plan.

Kartik could still feel the adrenalin coursing furiously through his veins.

Divodas, still afraid of Kartik, whispered. ‘You have won, My Lord.’

Kartik raised his long sword high and shouted, ‘Har Har Mahadev!’

The Brangas roared after him, ‘Har Har Mahadev!’

Kartik bent down and flipped a Magadhan’s decapitated head with his sword, then turned to Divodas. ‘Find Surapadman. If there’s life left in him, I want him brought to me alive.’

‘Yes, My Lord,’ said Divodas and rushed to obey.

Kartik wiped both his swords on the clothing of a fallen Magadhan soldier and carefully caged the blades in the scabbards tied across his back. The Branga soldiers maintained a respectful distance from him, terrified of the brutal violence they had just witnessed. He walked slowly towards the river, bent down, scooped some water in his palms and splashed it on his face. The river had turned red due to the massive bloodletting that had just occurred. He was covered with blood and gore. But his eyes were clean. Still. The bloodlust had left him.

Later in the day, when the dead were counted, it would emerge that seventy thousand of the Magadhan army from amongst seventy-five thousand had been slaughtered, burned or drowned. Kartik, on the other hand, had lost only five thousand of his one hundred thousand men. This was not a battle. It had been a massacre.

Kartik looked up at the sky. The first rays of the sun were breaking on the horizon, heralding a new day. And on this day, a legend had been born. The legend of Kartik, the Lord of War!