Raghu, the great grandfather of Rama, sent his son Aja to
Vidarbha to compete for a wife. Her name was Indumati. On his way to Vidarbha,
a fierce elephant attacked Aja. After a long battle Aja finally came out
victorious and delivered the final blow. A burst of bright light shot out of
the elephant and its form changed to that of a gandharva (celestial musician).
The celestial musician was impressed by Aja’s combat skills and offered him a
gift. The gandharva said, “This magical
spear is a celestial weapon. It will help you in your future conquests. Good
luck.” Aja thanked the gandharva and continued his journey to Vidarbha.
Aja finally arrived at the city of Vidarbha. He made his way
to the bride and noticed that many suitors were trying to court her. Princess
Indumati announced that there would be a huge competition where the suitors
would have to fight for her hand in marriage. She said that each suitor would
get one weapon of choice, and would have to be the last man standing in the
arena if they wanted to secure their prize. Each contestant will fight one on
one in a tournament style. The way to win is to either push your opponent
outside of the ring or to keep them down for ten seconds.
All of the suitors were excited for the tournament. They
each selected their weapons and prepared themselves for the fight. The first
couple of rounds were very easy for Aja. He did not even have to rely on his
magical spear. He used hand-to-hand combat and overwhelmed his opponents with
his speed and strength. After many battles Aja secured himself a spot in the
final match. Princess Indumati said the final battle will take place the next
day. She gave Aja and his opponent a room and some food to for the night.
The next day was filled with excitement. Everyone in the whole
city gathered at the arena to watch the two fierce competitors battle it out.
The bell rung and the fight began.
“Before we start this fight I would like to introduce
myself. I am Aja, son of Raghu, from the Kingdom of Ayodhya. Prepare yourself,”
Aja screamed.
“I am Rizwan from the Kingdom of Lanka. Sumali is my cousin.
It is you who is going to have to prepare yourself,” Rizwan screamed.
The two warriors began to fight the serious battle. They
were even fighters matching each other in every strike. At one point in the
battle Aja, almost succeeded in throwing Rizwan outside of the ring. Rizwan
plunged his sword into the edge of the ring and used it to stay in bounds.
“You are going to try to defeat me off of that cheap tactic?
I will destroy the ring,” Rizwan said as he jumped up into the air and
delivered an earthshaking punch right in the center of the ring. The ring
disintegrated at the sheer force of the blow.
“Now we will fight like real warriors! You will die now,”
Rizwan cried.
The two warriors fought with all their might. The battle
went on for hours and neither of them would let up. They began to rely heavily
on their weapons towards the end of the battle. At one point Aja’s spear and
Rizwan’s sword clashed. The two warriors pushed back and fourth at each other
but neither one would give in. Aja gave one final push with all of his strength
and knocked the sword out of Rizwan’s hand. Aja was about to claim the
finishing blow on Rizwan but decided to spare his life.
“You are a great warrior, and I enjoyed this fight very
much. I will spare your life,” Aja said. He turned his back to Rizwan and began
to walk away. Rizwan grabbed his sword that was lying on the ground next to him
and hurled it at Aja’s head. Aja’s spear began to glow with a bright light. The
light enveloped Aja, and caused the sword to redirect its path to Rizwan. The
sword pierced Rizwan’s body and delivered a lethal strike.
Aja looked into the sky said a silent thankyou to the
gandharva that gave him the spear. The whole crowd began to cheer for Aja as he
claimed his bride. Aja and Indumati made there way to Ayodhya where they lived
happily ever after.
One of Rizwan’s messengers went back to Lanka to deliver the
bad news. “Hahaha, little Rizwan was defeated by the likes of a mere human.
Serves him right for being so cocky all the time. I can’t believe that he is so
weak. Curse the day that another human brings shame to our great rakshasha
lineage,” Sumali laughed as he sipped on his tea.
This is a picture of the comic book that the story was based off of.
Author’s Note:
In the original story, Aja wins the spear from the gandharva
elephant as I described in my version. Aja is chosen by the bride to be her
husband and they make way for Ayodhya. On the way home a group of jealous
princes attack the couple but are quickly put down by Aja. In my version I
wanted to make the suitors fight for Indumati’s love. I thought it would be
interesting to bring in a made up relative of Ravana’s to compete for Indumati’s
hand in marriage. This would add more history to the conflict between Ravana’s
family, and Rama’s family. At the end of the story I made Sumali laugh off the
event like it was no big deal. This part of my story was meant to show irony.
Author: Amar Chitra Katha
Year: 1977
Title: Ancestors of Rama
