The Naga Princess

The Nagas (symbolically snakes) were a tribe who were well acquainted with life in forests and on rivers. They were said to be the ones who ruled the waters. Historically speaking, the Nagas lived in the northeastern parts of Aryavarta, close to Manipur, and extended their villages up to the land of Burma. The Naga tribe staying in the current state of Nagaland are proof of this. Now, this brings us to the story. The Naga Chief was Kauravya, who ruled the waters of the Ganges. His daughter was Ulupi. Some say she was a widow at a tender age, and some say she was unmarried.

The Pandava prince Arjun was roaming around Aryavarta in exile, for he had broken a promise and entered his elder brother's intimate room with their Shared wife. The punishment was this. He roamed all the way from Indraprastha to the mystic lands of Manipur and Nagaland. Ulupi, like any other princess of that time, desired the handsome and brave prince of Hastinapur. On hearing of his arrival in their land, she was quite in awe at the thought of meeting him.

As Arjun sat in a clearing beside the river, lost in his thoughts, the sound of a woman's anklet broke his chain of thoughts. He looked up to see the beautiful Ulupi clad in finery. She smiled like the dazzling stars, and her eyes were as dark as the night sky. The eyes were mesmerising and captive.

" You must be the Prince of Hastinapur."
" How do you know me, Lady?"
" Who doesn't know you, My Lord? You are the greatest archer in the whole of Aryavarta." Arjun smiled modestly.
" Who are you, my Lady?"
" I am Ulupi, Princess of the Nagas. "
" Nagas?" His smile faded. The grip around his bow tightened. His family had a long-drawn-out love-hate relationship with the tribe. The Nagas were not to be trusted, his father had told him.
" Yes, my Lord, we live at the Ganges, do accompany me to my father's palace under the waters. He is Kauravya, the King of the Waters." Ulupi went on unaware, hoping he would come with her and she could convince him to marry her.
" I am sorry, Princess, I can not accompany you to the Palace of your father."

" But..."
" I would prefer living like a hermit away from any palace luxury."
" But my Lord, not going with me will mean you are insulting our Royal invite."
" I can not help if you think so." Arjun was determined to stay away from the Nagas.

Angry at this rejection, Ulupi lost her cool. She was too determined to take him back to her Palace. She took out a mystic powder and intoxicated him in moments. Before he could realise it, Arjun was unconscious in one of the rooms of Ulupi's palace. She was happy to have him. He came into consciousness only after a few hours and was surprised to find himself underwater. In a flash, he remembered what had happened, and a smile curved his face. He liked the Naga Princess's determination.

" The Princess of Nagas is arriving at the chambers."

He turned around to see the same girl, clad in simple clothes, a balm in hand, an ever-smiling face looking at him.

" Here is a potion you can drink to get rid of your drowsiness." She handed him the bowl.
" I have never seen a girl like you. You make me unconscious and bring me here, then give me this to clear my head. Why were you so determined?"
" I would not have let any Prince insult my father by refusing his invitation. Whoever he might be."
" You are a strong woman. I admire that."
" Not all Nagas are bad, Rajkumar Arjun. Like people, there are some bad Nagas and some good Nagas; your conception needs to be corrected."
" By kidnapping me?" He was amused.
" My father will be meeting you shortly." He watched her leave.

At the King's Chamber, Arjun got a hero's welcome from the Nagas. The princess was indeed right about them being the good ones. At the gala dinner organised in his honour, the King took him aside and gave him a proposal. " Rajkumar, my only daughter Ulupi, is in love with you. She wishes to marry you, and upon your agreeing to this proposal, the Nagas and all other living creatures in the water shall be your slaves thereupon, and the kingdom will belong to you. Please accept this proposal and oblige."

Arjun was taken aback. Marriage to a Naga? Was it worth hurting Panchali and his brother's sentiments? Wouldn't his cousins laugh at him for marrying a Naga? He looked at Ulupi across the room. But she has come a long way in his love; there was no turning back for her.

" I need some time to think, and I want to talk to Ulupi." The King agreed.

The next morning, Ulupi came to his chambers with eyes clearly asking a lot of questions about why he called upon her.

" Ulupi, when you have heard everything about me, I hope you know that my loyalty to Panchali is irreplaceable, and no other wife can accompany me to Indraprastha."
" I don't wish to leave Nagaland for you, too, Rajkumar, I will rule in the absence of my father, and am training in warfare to do so..."
" Then I can marry you."

The Nagas rejoiced in the grand wedding of their Princess, and a son, Iravan, was born to them. Arjun left Ulupi and Iravan with his other wife, Chitrangada, Princess of Manipur. When the Kurukshetra war broke out, Iravan, an eighteen-year-old lad, was sent by his mother to fight for his father. However, Arjun could not remember either Ullupi or her son before selfishly asking him to sacrifice his head to the goddess Kali. Iravan, who always wanted to please his father, did so without hesitation. Upon losing her own son, Ulupi trained Chitrangada's son Babruvahana in the art of warfare to make him an ideal king. Such was her training that during the Ashwamedha Yajna of the Pandavas, Babruvahana killed Arjun with his arrow when he stopped their horses at Manipur. Ulupi, hearing this, rushed to the spot and saved Arjun's life with the Mritunjay Mantra she learned from the goddess Ganga herself. Ulupi met her long-lost husband and never even once blamed him for sacrificing their son. She stayed all her life in Manipur, helping her stepson with the administration of the land. A proud Naga princess, she never depended on Arjun or expected his support, and was brave and independent enough to take care of herself.

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There have been a lot of talks going on regarding who won the Battle of Haldighati. While some want to change what we read and say that the Maharana won it, many oppose the point with a Mughal victory. Here, I compile every account I found of the Battle and its Aftermath and make my unbiased conclusion on the topic. PS. The dates vary from book to book; I gave the ones I found in most sources. The Background: Relation with Mughals Mewar was one of Rajputana's strongest individual kingdoms, along with the likes of Marwar and Kacchawar (Jaipur). Long before the Mughals under Akbar, Mewar under Rana Sangram Singh had successfully managed to keep the "Turk Invaders" under Babar at bay, fighting 17 wars, big and small. The relationship was further questioned when, during the invasion from Saurashtra, Sanga's widow, Rani Karnavati, had written to Mughal Emperor Humayun for help, sending him a rakhi. Contrary to popular belief, Humayun had rested on his way from Gaur (Beng...

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More often than not, the private lives of kings and the existence of their queens remain in the words of bards rather than those of chroniclers. Dhruvasvamini is no different, even after being the queen of the golden age of the Indian Subcontinent. She appears in the Basarh Clay Seal as the mother of Govinda Gupta (attributed as a sibling of Kumara Gupta I) and the queen wife of Chandra Gupta II or Vikramaditya. Except for one mention of Dhruva Devi, as she is popularly known, she remains a mysterious character in the Gupta lineage, with a side mention in the dynasty’s history. Visakhadatta, a famous poet and playwright, who later wrote DeviChandraGuptam as the play capturing the life of Chandra Gupta II, captured Dhruva Devi as one of the protagonists of his story. Although some scholars attribute Visakhadatta to be under the patronage of Chandra Gupta II himself when he wrote this story, many historians debate the literary work as a historical fiction written much after his time. Tru...

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Ruqaiya Sultana Begum was born to Babur's second surviving son, Hindal Mirza, and his wife, Sultanam Begum, in 1542 C.E., merely a few months after Hamida Banu gave birth to the heir Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar. She was well-versed in Persian, Urdu and Arabic and was attracted to poetry and music. Being a proud descendant of the Timurid clan, most of Rukaiya's childhood was spent in Kabul, near the Bagh E Babur, built by Babur himself. From early childhood, she had seen the struggle of her family to regain their lost power in Hind. Miniature of Rukaiya Begum as Empress In 1551 C.E., just after her father died young at a battle for Humayun, leaving her and her mother in the harem of the emperor, it was Hamida Banu who wanted the marriage of Rukaiya to her first cousin, Akbar. Theirs was the first in-house marriage of the Mughals, soon to be followed by many more in the generations to come. At the mere age of nine, she had married the crown prince, and when Humayun won back Lahore...

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It is believed that a human's existence has two parts, namely the body and the soul. The body is the Nashyar(mortal) part, and the soul is the immortal one. A human's body can never be immortal; what can pass on to the afterlife and be immortal is the soul. The main aspect of Spirituality is searching for the inner soul. The emotions in man are said to be in full control of his will through spirituality. When a man has full control over his emotions, he comes close to his inner soul and moves above the feelings of want, desire, sadness, anger, greed, lust, jealousy or happiness. This takes man closer to the immortality of his soul and thus sets him free from the cycle of life. All great religious leaders and reformers, from Prophet Mohammad and Lord Jesus to Mahavir, Guru Nanak and Sri Chaitanya, sought spirituality to discover their true calling and find purpose to teach people ways of life through religious preachings. While some preach the concept of the...

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