Enter Anga:
Country of Drought
retelling
by Nicholas Wojcik
There is a place
near the river Ganges that once flourished with luscious greenery and
crops, and on any given day would provide sustenance to its proud
inhabitants - its name is Anga.
Anga is no
ordinary place; its people will tell you the same. They will tell you
of the magnificence of the man who unknowingly held the key to nature
and saved them from extinction.
Here is what I
have been told:
It was the middle
of summer. The searing heat and lack of rain left the crops burned and
the wells and rivers dry. Only the fear in the great King Lomapada's
eyes thrived after being told by his wisest ministers that not even the
rain God, Indra, who once battled the ferocious Agni, the fire God, in
the Khandava forest, could save them. Their only hope was for a man
with a pure heart to ask for the rain to come; otherwise, all hope
would certainly be lost.
Countless men
lined up before the king, asking for rain. All of the men's hearts
proved to be cloudy, for no rain came.
Just then, an old
man came before the king and spoke of the river Kausiki that runs
furiously from a lake found just on the edge of Anga. He said a
boy with the purest of hearts had been born there, a boy named
Rishyasringa.
The king insisted
that Rishyasringa be brought forth to the palace. But no chariot could
make the
roadless journey to fetch the boy and while the ministers could ride on
the back of the king's elephant, the massive elephant would certainly
frighten the innocent lad. The king's daughter, princess Santa,
convinced the king that she
could bring the boy back to Anga. The king
obliged and summoned his ministers to follow Santa's orders.
Santa instructed
the ministers to prepare the king's royal barge which would in turn be
docked on the side of the Kausiki river near the forest where
Rishyasringa and his father, Vibhandaka, lived.
One day, while
Vibhandaka was out collecting food in the forest, Santa went to the hut
wearing the finest of silks. Rishyasringa easily welcomed the fair
Santa to his home for never before had Rishyasringa met such a
beautiful creature. In fact, Rishyasringa had known only his father; he
had never met another woman before. She, too, was captivated by his
appearance.
He was quick to
offer Santa water and food and ask her where she lived. Santa kindly
refused the offer and said to the boy that her mission was sincere and
her vows prevented her from revealing her name or where she came from.
Instead, she kissed him and carried him to the forest where they
frolicked for many hours. All too soon, Santa informed Rishyasringa
that it was time for her to go but that she would eventually return.
It was perfect
timing, for no sooner was the princess gone than Vibhandaka returned
from gathering the day's food. The boy told his father about his visit
from the beautiful, nameless creature. Vibhandaka cast the explanation
aside; he was convinced that the visitor was none other than a ruthless
Rakshasa demon in disguise and must be hunted down and killed. Out of
respect, the boy vowed to his father that he would never speak to
a Rakshasa again, but knew in his pure heart that the visitor was
indeed
no
demon.
As I have been
told, the young Rishyasringa was "simple, but not that simple." The
next day, when the princess appeared just outside the hut, Rishyasringa
met her and told her that they must flee to her hermitage before
Vibhandaka returned or she would suffer a terrible fate. Santa obliged
and knew that this was the moment when she would triumphantly return to
Anga with a new love and the answer to her country's problems.
The royal barge
cast off from the shore of the river, as best it could, along the
shallow, muddy
waters back toward Anga.
When the couple
and the ministers arrived at their destination, they were crestfallen
by the harsh reality that surrounded them. Rishyasringa, unknowing of
Anga's horrendous drought, stood in silence and confusion which was
almost instantaneously broken by the clamoring footsteps of the
desperate king, Lomapada. The king beckoned to the boy with a slight
nod of the head, then spoke only the words, "Ask for rain."
In his innocence,
Rishyasringa did not question the king's order. The boy's mouth opened,
but
before the words could escape his gentle throat, a tumultuous sound
ripped through the sky overhead. The sweltering, stagnant air
evaporated, and turned soft and cool. No sooner than one could blink
did
clouds rush together casting the blackest shadow over the country of
Anga and dump a thousand rivers onto the crippled soil. All the
townspeople rushed from their homes and danced in the rain. Their
shouts of laughter reached all the way to the Himalayas where Indra,
the rain God, stood cheering.
For days on end
it thundered and poured. Crops grew and life was restored to the people
of Anga. As a reward, the king gave Rishyasringa half of the palace and
its crops. Upon this announcement, the boy sat, feeling melancholy and
thinking of
his father who at that very moment was hunting the "demon" who had
carried
him away.
Sure enough,
Vibhandaka had followed the trail of the royal barge. Upon
reaching
the palace gates,Vibhandaka was met by the king who told him of
Rishyasringa's miraculous achievement in restoring life to Anga,
Rishyasringa's reward of half the palace and crops, and, clarified the
true identity of the "demon" as none other than the boy's
bride-to-be. Vibhandaka blessed the king and the young couple and
prepared to return to the forest to finish his retirement.
Outside the
palace of Anga sat a snake who for days had watched all of these events
unfold. Upon seeing Vibhandaka in such a joyous state, the snake smiled
and recollected his own story.
Here is what I
have been told...
Advance:
or Return to:
This retelling is based on William Buck's
version of the story, as it appears in the Indian epic, "The
Mahabharata."
The title "Enter Anga: Country of
Drought" is my own interpretation and is intended for creativity
purposes only.
In Buck's version, the story begins by
describing how Rishyasringa was born a lonesome boy with antlers, like
a deer, and how he grew up never knowing another human except his
father, Vibhandaka.
The original version contains
extensive dialogue between all of the characters in the story. I have
chosen to omit the dialogue to emphasize the use of the third person
narrative except for the scene when the king Lomapada begs Rishyasringa
to "Ask for rain." I found these words to be extremely significant
since the notion of only a pure-hearted individual bringing rain is
essentially what the story revolves around.
In the original story, the princess
Santa, in preparation for departing to Rishyasringa's hut, instructs
the king to create a boat that will blend in with the natural
surroundings and not frighten the young Rishyasringa. When Santa finds
the boy's hut, she bears a basket of fruit for good tidings and a
bouncing ball for teaching the hidden dharma of playing with a rubber
ball. I omitted the fruit and ball to help keep the word count down!
For this same reason, I omitted a great deal of detail from the scene
when Vibhandaka returns from gathering food and Rishyasinga tells him
of the nameless visitor, and the scene where Vibhandaka goes searching
for his son.
Finally, I included the snake at the end to
lead into the next story. The snake is from a completely separate part
of the original story. Overall, I chose to include only the elements of
the original that pertained to the theme of ecology while still
providing adequate background information of characters and events.
Bibliography:
Buck, William. The Mahabharata.
(Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1973), 144-153.
