The Unploughed: Ahalya

4| Ahalya

Strange that lovers must hide in a world where culprits run free.

We have lost count of how many days we have been secretly living under the sea, with Varuna, a former Indra. He agreed to provide us shelter, having experienced prejudice first-hand when he was the Indra.

He had to give up this position for love, and now, along with his beloved, he stays in the eternal waters.

"I think we should visit Shiva," Varuna tells us. "He was the one who helped me and Varunani make a home. His heart is as vast as this cosmos. Surely he will understand."

Mahendra and I exchange glances. Not everyone gets the chance to meet the Great God, Shiva. My hands grow sweaty. It's good luck, definitely.

"We will go."

****

Deep in meditation, Shiva sits with his legs crossed. Mother Parvati sits on his left. Soon, he opens his eyes.

Shiva isn't someone handsome. With matted locks and ash-covered arms, tiger skin wrapped around his waist, he is what an ordinary human would term as ugly, or maybe commonplace. But there's a warmth emanating from him that makes this cruelly cold Kailash as beautiful as Indraloka. And then when he smiles, one is reminded of a brother's protection.

"Isn't it so saddening, Parvati, that lovers always suffer so much?" He turns to his wife. "Fate has the habit of testing the sweetest souls."

"You know about us?" I ask, baffled.

"Shouldn't I, Ahalya? And from what I can see," his third eye shines a little, "they are coming."

Of course, he is the All-Knower, the one present in every particle of matter. It relieves me that I don't need to narrate my eventful life, but I am anxious about the visitors who are coming.

They turn out to be Gautama Rishi and the Devas.

"This is blasphemy!" Gautama shouts. "They talk ill about a sage so wise and mighty as me. I am being humiliated!"

Shiva raises his hand. "Quiet, Gautama. What brings you and the Devas here?"

Gautama shots my lover a wrathful glare and then falls at the feet of Shiva. "My Lord! This woman here, whom Brahma gave to me, has broken the marital vow! Behind my back she has been sleeping with this Indra and refusing my advances. As a husband, do I not deserve her submission?"

"And we, O the Lord of Destruction," spoke a Deva, "seek the return of our Indra. He has forgotten his duties and taken refuge in the sea."

Shiva nudges Parvati with his elbow. The divine Mother gestures Gautama to stand. "Rishi, did you ask Ahalya if she was ready for the marriage?"

"Mother, I-I," he stammers, "why should I? She was given to me by Brahma himself!"

"Not expected from a Rishi as bright and brilliant as you. A woman's word is the last thing. Even the mortals are aware of it."

"But what about the fact that she has been copulating with a stranger despite being married?"

"She hasn't!" Mahendra comes forward and defends me. "She has not crossed her boundaries. And tell me, Rishi Gautama, didn't you raise Ahalya as your daughter? How can a father's heart so soon change and morph into passion? It shows you were never pious."

"You insult me before the gods?"

"Pardon me, Rishi Gautama, but you have wronged a woman."

"She is a sinner," he hisses. "An impure, tainted woman with no virtue."

"I am not a sinner," I trumpet through gritted teeth. "Not once but many times have you seen me as a forbidden fruit, the wish to violate me brimming in your heart. How could you think that I, who grew up seeing you as a father, would willingly marry you? It's shameful!"

"We aren't sinners, Rishi Gautama," Mahendra says. "And even if we are, we have sinned in love. Love has brought even the greatest gods to their knees," he looks at Shiva, "so who are we?"

The frown on Mother Parvati's face silences us all. We stand with her heads lowered.

"I must say, Rishi Gautama, you have knowingly made this woman miserable. Her heart belonged to someone else, and very rightly so. As a woman I can feel her."

We wait for Shiva to speak. His word will be the ultimatum.

"Gautama, you have sinned by watching a woman, equivalent to your daughter, with vicious desire. You forget that a woman and a woman only can decide whom to give her body to. And even after the seed of a man has entered her womb, she remains unadulterated, unploughed."

Shiva's words are directed at me. Goosebumps line my neck– his knowledge has filled me with divine strength. Unploughed– a woman whose body can never be abused, whose dignity never be slandered.

"Thus, I punish you to spend a thousand years in penance, until a liberator comes and frees you from the burden of sins."

Gautama shakes his head. "But–"

"Enough." Shiva's cold stare shuts his mouth. "And Ahalya, your marriage is annulled. You can create a home with Mahendra, whom I ask to immediately resume his duties in Indraloka."

Unable to control my joy, I flung myself in Mahendra's embrace, blissfully ignorant to the assembly. I squeeze him so hard that he begs me to be lighter. With a grin I face him, his cheeks flushed scarlet.

Mother Parvati teasingly smiles. "Do invite us to your wedding, Mahendra."

"We will," he says. "Me and my lovely wife."

The Devas take us to Indraloka, where I finally meet Urvashi after a long time. She cries and complains how I have been a bad friend, but it takes only a few hugs to calm her down.

"Bless you, Ahalya. May you have a prosperous marriage." Urvashi giggles.

Mahendra doesn't shy away from placing a kiss on my forehead. I give him a peck on his forearm, his height being too long for my short self. He bends down to give me access.

It's a different kind of thrill to kiss him when everyone is watching. The world around spins, blurring everything except his face.

"My prince from a fairytale," I murmur breathlessly.

"And my honey-eyed maiden."

I can't wait to have him forever.