The Yoddha

“There he is!” He heard a loud scream as he jumped out of the raft with the makeshift oar in his hand. He fell on the sand owing to the momentum and as he raised his head, he saw shadows of men surrounding him.

He looked up to find a group of men pointing spears at him. Bhimisi thought for a moment and soon his worrier instinct got activated. He swung to the right, hitting two men with his makeshift oar and grounded them. There was another man who came running with a spear. Bhimisi dodged him on his left and hit him on his head as he crossed him and grounded him.

There were many more standing a little away, perhaps with a thought that the frontal attack would be sufficient for the strange creature. They all came running towards him raising their swords. “Get him!” Shouted the leader of the armed men.

He turned back and hit the attacker with his axe slicing a portion of his face as he continued screaming. Sensing trouble, the leader of the armed men came from behind and hit him with the butt of the handle of his sword on his head. Bhimisi fell on the ground like a huge tree. As he fell, the men continued kicking him from all sides.

Bhimisi was a valiant young Bhil[1] in his early twenties standing more than six feet above the ground. He was the son of Nava, a chieftain of a Bhil village called Dhunusi consisting of seven Hamlets occupied primarily by his cousins.

He had accidently discovered the River Kshipra, near the modern day Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, while chasing a deer during one of his hunting sprees. He was astounded to see the existence of another world across the river. He had so far not seen a river. He came close to the river but was taken aback by the thought of crossing it.

Suddenly his eyes had caught up with something that he had never seen in his life, a boat with men on it. He hid himself behind the hillock to avoid being noticed. Soon there were many of such boats appearing, following one another. Bhimisi was mesmerized on seeing the fleet of boats.

He examined the boats carefully, ran towards the bamboo forest and came back with a bunch of bamboos. He cut them into few pieces, tied them together with twigs and dropped them on the water. The makeshift raft started floating and had slowly drifting away towards the southern downstream.

He abandoned his plans of crossing over for the next day. He came back the next morning and went straight to the bamboo shed and made a similar raft. He had also tied a few palm leaves at the head of a long bamboo to use it as an oar.

He dropped the raft on the water, pushed it and jumped on it. The raft started swinging violently. The swinging stopped as he sat quietly without making any movement. His raft had started drifting to the other side of the river of its own and had hit the shore and he fell on the riverbank due to the momentum.

Bhimisi, by now had enough of beating. His left eye was completely swollen and closed while his right eye was partially open. He was bleeding from everywhere and was tied with ropes, crisscrossing his entire body. He had lost consciousness.

He woke up to see from his partially opened right eye, a man sitting on a chair at a distance. He looked up to find wooden beams not less than twenty feet above the ground, far above than their huts. It looked like a huge hall. There were many worriers standing in rows on both sides.

He was held by four worriers and they were dragging him to the man sitting on what he thought was a throne. When he was close enough, the men holding him stopped. The man who had led the armed men, bowed and said something to the ‘king’ that he didn’t understand, perhaps explaining about his prime catch.

The man descended from his throne, came to have a closer look of Bhimisi and asked him something that he could not understand. Bhimisi thought that perhaps he was asking for his name. “Bhimisi!” He shouted.

“Your name is Bhimisi?” He asked. Bhimisi nodded. The leader of the armed men named Nagashakti came forward and said, “Sir, we had seen an empty raft drifting from the other side of the river yesterday. Sensing trouble, we had laid a trap and today we found this creature coming from the other side on a similar raft. He has killed five of my men, injuring another six. We somehow managed to tame him.”

The ‘king’ smiled sarcastically looking at Nagashakti and said, “He is not a creature. He is like one of us. I know of a lot of wild tribal groups residing deep inside the jungle on the other side of Kshipra. They are great worriers and are very proficient in ambushing technique. Take him to Shumudraksh, the Mahavaid (doctor) and get him treated. Nagashakti nodded reluctantly.

The man on the throne was not the king but the Chief of Internal Security in the Kingdom of King Vikramaditya (Chandragupta II; 380-415 CE), with his capital at Ujjaini. His name was Supratik and he was responsible for maintaining internal security. He was also assigned the task to assist Rudraprakash, the chief of Army of the king in both training the worriers and formulate war strategies.

Supratik was aware of the ‘tribal warfare technique’ and thought that Bhimisi could be of immense use in their war against the Western Kshatrapas (Shakas). Shakas were a group of Iranian nomadic tribes from the Eurasia Steppe and the Traim Basin. The Western Kshatrapas ruled the western and central India until Vikramaditya defeated them by 405 CE.

Bhimisi had slept the whole day on a wooden plank. The rope crisscrossing his body was removed and he had recovered from his injuries to a large extent. Mahavaid Shumudraksh entered the room to check his wounds, applied some paste again and left. After a couple of hours of sleep, he was woken up and taken through the corridors to the large room where Supratik was sitting on his ‘throne’.

Now with eyes wide open, Bhimisi could see worriers and other men standing in a circle, similar to what used to be in a wrestling competition back home in his village. Bhimisi was brought at the center of circle by the sentries.

He could see Supratik very clearly and he was smitten by the graceful man that he was. He kept smiling at Bhimisi and soon signaled at someone. Bhimisi looked at his right side to see a gigantic man wearing a loincloth, much longer than what he was wearing, approaching him with blood in his eyes. The wrestling had started.

As the giant approached him, he swiftly ran and pounced on him throwing him on the ground and sat on his chest. He kept sitting on the man until Nagashakti came and pulled him up. Now suddenly the giant retaliated by pinning Bhimisi on the ground but soon he released himself from the giant by twisting his arms.

The giant groaning in pain sat on his knees and then fell flat on the ground as the crowd started cheering for Bhimisi, which he reciprocated by bowing his head. Supratik walked down to Bhimisi kept both his hands on his shoulders and patted.

The task ahead for Supratik was twofold-one to provide Bhimisi with a contemporary look and two to take him to Rudraprakash. On his order, Bhimisi was groomed by a battery of women who touched him everywhere to get a feel of him. He was unable to recognize himself as the savage in him had disappeared. The girls giggled loudly as they left the room. On his gestured request, his long hair tied with the serpentine rope was retained.

Rudraprakash was a tall man with a ponytail behind his head. He had thick beard and carried the physic of a worrier. Supratik introduced Bhimisi to Rudraprakash. Due to trouble in communicating, they had decided to engage Vachaspatidev, a scholar and a specialist in sign language to help Bhimisi with the language. He was called and he started tutoring a few important words to Bhimisi. Within a few hours, Bhimisi could communicate with others.

Rudraprakash wanted Bhimisi to go on his first assignment on an ambush along the southwestern bank of Kshipraagainst the Shakas. Bhimisi remembered seeing the contingent of boats the other day and gestured to them about their probable location. Within a couple of weeks Bhimisi had prepared his first ever band of worriers for an ambush.

After about fourteen weeks, Bhimisi and his men returned to Ujjaini to hero’s welcome. Though he had lost a few men, they had successfully ambushed the Shakas in groups and destroyed most of their men and materials forcing them to retreat inside the forest.

Bhimisi was now leading a large regiment of commandos trained in guerilla warfare. The Shakas were retreating in large numbers and now were almost whipped out of the southwestern part of the kingdom with only a residual group taking refuge in the forest. The strategy was to chase them back to, where they came from, that is, the northern part of the kingdom. Bhimisi was enjoying every moment of the glory.

He was however unaware of the conspiracy that was brewing behind him. Nagashakti could realize that as long as Bhimisi is around his elevation is impossible. So he hatched a plan to eliminate Bhimisi.

On the fateful day a commando from Bhimisi’s contingent came running to Supratik and informed him that he saw Bhimisi rowing on the other side of the river on a canoe, all by himself. It seems Nagashakti had told him that his village was attacked by the Shakas, which was a lie and Bhimisi had gone to save his people.

The commando elaborated by saying, “As Bhimisi approached the riverbank on the other side, he saw the Shakas waiting for him on prior information from Nagashakti. Before he could reverse his canoe, one of the Shakas had thrown an axe that had pierced through his backbone, while others showered arrows at him. Sir, please come, he is lying on the riverside.”

Nagashakti was helping fishing out the body without a sign of culpability on his face. Meanwhile, Rudraprakash was also informed about the episode and he was also standing besides Supratik watching the operation.

Bhimisi was pulled out of the water. Suddenly, Rudraprakash started running towards where Bhimisi’s body was being fished out. On his way, he stopped in front of Nagashakti, looked straight into his eyes, whipped out his dagger and slashed his throat. As blood started gushing out, Nagashakti fell on the ground holding his neck with both hands.

The funeral of Bhimisi was conducted with full military honor and the entire Ujjaini thronged the place to bid farewell to their beloved ‘Bhil’ worrier. Rudraprakash and Supratik took resolution to avenge the cowardly assassination of Bhimisi.

Both vowed that they would not rest in peace until they whip out the remainder of Shakas out of their kingdom. Rudraprakash and Supratik accompanied the little son of Bhimisi to lit the pyre of his father as the air resounded with “Long Live Bhimisi. Long Live Bhimisi, the worrier.”

Among others was King Vikramaditya who also witnessed the flames rising to the sky. In a couple of months by the end of 405 CE, the Western Kshatrapas or the Shakas were defeated by the army of Vikramaditya, the Sun of Valor.




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[1] Bhil or Bheel are an Adivasi Dravidian influenced ethnic group in West India.