Mauryan Adventure

Sen Gupta Subhadra

Description

3rd Century BCE, Pataliputra, India Madhura lives in the legendary city of Pataliputra during the reign of King Ashoka of the Maurayan dynasty. She works in the palace as the maid and companion of Princess Sanghamitra. Madhura does not like it at all! Life is so boring. She dreams of travelling across the land like her brother Kartik, who is a trader and growing up to become a soldier, fighting with swords and riding horses. Madhura's dream suddenly come true as she travels with Kartik from Pataliputra to Ujjaini in a caravan. On the way mysterious things begin to happen. Who is that fat man giving out packets full of gold and silver coins to Kartik? Why are they stopping at Vidisha to meet a Buddhist monk? Kartik is up to something and Madhura has to find out the truth. Read this fascinating account of Madhura's life, and discover what it was like to grow up in the past!

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788184756623
• Langue: English

Extrait

SUBHADRA SEN GUPTA


Girls of India A Mauryan Adventure

Illustrated by Hemant Kumar

PUFFIN BOOKS
Contents
About the Author
By the Same Author
Map
1 An Angry Little Girl
2 A Queen and a Monk
3 Getting into Trouble
4 A Caravan to Vidisha
5 A Prince Rides Past
6 Fooling a Chamberlain
7 Looking for Kamalika
8 Singing for the King
Follow Penguin
Copyright
PUFFIN BOOKS
A MAURYAN ADVENTURE
Subhadra Sen Gupta has written over thirty books for children including mysteries, historical adventures, ghost stories and comic books. Right now she is waiting for someone to build a time machine so that she can travel to the past and join Emperor Akbar for lunch.
She loves to travel, flirt with cats, chat with autorickshaw drivers, and sit and watch people. To start a conversation with her on any topic under the sun, you can email her at: [e-mail]
Other Books in the Girls of India Series
Girls of India: A Mauryan Adventure by Sunila Gupte
Girls of India: A Chola Adventure by Anu Kumar

1
An Angry Little Girl
Madhura dipped the water pot into the river, then raised the filled pot to rest it on her hip, and began walking very carefully up the slippery stone steps. All around her, other girls and women were doing the same. That is how you began your day in Pataliputra.
People who lived in other towns or villages said to her, You are so lucky Madhura! You live in King Ashoka s famous city!
And Madhura felt like snapping back, What s so special about that, hahn? I still have to cook and clean, carry heavy pots of water and wash clothes. When you are poor your life is the same everywhere.
She was twelve and she knew that pretty soon she would be married. So the drudgery would go on-cook, clean, wash and cook again . . . ohhh-for the rest of her life! What was worse, she had to do the same chores in the palace too, where she worked for the princess: dust and polish, fetch and carry, yes princess , no princess . . . Madhura sighed.
Ooof! she muttered to herself. Why was I born the daughter of a soldier? Why couldn t I be a princess? All they do is comb their hair, put on jewellery, don a silly smile, and sit and chat with friends.
As her frown and glum face made it very clear to everyone, Madhura was not in a good mood.
She had been feeling unhappy for a long time now. It all began over a year ago when Ashoka Vardhan of the Mauryan dynasty, the ruler of their kingdom of Magadha, decided to go to war against the kingdom of Kalinga; Madhura s father had to go off to fight. Madhura did not like it, but then he was a soldier, a rider and swordsman, and going to war was his job. Ashoka had conquered many other kingdoms, so he had gone to war before and come back with his body covered in wounds, but also with bags of silver coins. The generals were paid in the gold coins called karshapanas but her father was just an ordinary soldier.
Once they heard that the battle was over, Madhura, her mother Ganga, and her older brother Kartik waited anxiously for the news. When the other soldiers began to return, they heard that Magadha had won the battle and Kalinga was now a part of the Mauryan Empire. But it had been a fiercely fought battle and thousands had died. Their hearts sinking with dread, Madhura s family waited and waited till one day the commander of her father s battalion came to their house bearing her father s sword and the news that he was dead.
Does the king even care that my father is dead? Or is he too busy celebrating his victory? she asked Kartik; her brother just shrugged. No one ever answered her questions and that made her even angrier.
Soon the money that the commander had given them began to run out and Kartik, Madhura and her mother had to go to work. She and her mother found work as maids in the palace, and Kartik became a trader; this meant that he was never home. Taking his bullock carts filled with cloth, pottery, rice or spices, he was always travelling to far-off places like Ujjaini, Varanasi or Taxila. He would be away for months leaving Madhura alone in the house with her mother. Hence, she not only missed her father but also her brother. What was even worse, she was stuck at home with her mother, who made her work all day.
Madhura was tall for her age and many people thought she was older, fourteen at least. What she loved to do was to play with her friends in the lane-run in the orchards, climb trees, play hide-and-seek. She could run faster and jump higher than all the others, and she was better than the boys at using the catapult. Her mother would often say she should have been born a boy and then she could have become a soldier like her father.
Madhura turned into her lane and stopped. There was an empty bullock cart parked outside their tiny home with the bull happily munching on some fresh grass. Oh joy! Kartik was home! She ran down the lane, slopping water everywhere. Then dumping the water pot in the courtyard, she ran in to find Kartik in the kitchen. He was watching their mother cook and both of them were talking away at full speed.
Bhaiii . . . screamed Madhura, you re baaack!! And she launched herself at him with a big jump.
Ooof! Hold on, mad girl! Kartik nearly fell over as she landed in his lap with a thump. You are getting too big for this, you know.
Then Kartik brought out the gifts-a sari for his mother and a piece of cloth to be stitched into a skirt for her, made by the weavers of Varanasi; also a necklace of blue beads and carved wooden bangles. Then there was a bag of long-grained rice from the hills, and packets of raisins and spices. The rest of the day went by in a whirl of happiness as Madhura strutted around wearing the bangles and beads. Later in the day, their mother made a delicious kheer for lunch, adding the rice and raisins to sweet thickened milk. Kartik said that after months of eating street food, it tasted like heaven.
In the evening they went wandering through the markets of Pataliputra, the capital of Magadha and the most famous city in the kingdom. The shops were full of such magical things-one sold the famous Magadhan pottery that included bowls, plates, glasses and jars with pretty designs painted in black, white and red. Kartik had some coins in his pocket, so they bought a set of bowls and pots for the kitchen. Another shop had metalware- spoons and knives, ladles and lamps. In the jewellery shop the craftsmen were busy setting pearls and precious stones on silver and gold. And in the cloth shop, lengths of cloth in the colours of the rainbow floated in the breeze. Madhura picked up a matching piece to make a blouse for her new skirt.
The air was fragrant from the flower shop where garlands of marigolds, jasmines and champa lay in piles. People had gathered around a brightly-lit shop where a woman was selling paan, folding the betel leaves with spices and betel nuts. The food shops were smoky with puris being fried and the aroma of vegetables being cooked, even as milk was being thickened in huge iron pans to be made into many kinds of sweets.

Kartik took a deep breath and said happily, Ah, the smells of Pataliputra! How I miss it when I m travelling.
Then why do you go away all the time? Madhura asked. Why don t you open a shop in the bazaar then? I could help you run it.
Maybe I will one day. But right now I want to be a trader because there is good money to be made.
You will stay home when you get married, their mother smiled. I think I ll start looking for a girl for you.
That night, tired and happy, Madhura fell asleep. Suddenly, around midnight, she woke to the sound of voices. Her bed was right next to a window that opened into the veranda by the back garden. She could hear the low hum of Kartik and her mother talking outside, and then she was wide awake because she realized they were talking about her.
So how is she ? Does she still cry for Baba? Kartik asked.
Not so much, her mother replied. But she is often very angry with her life. She sees her friends who have fathers earning for the family, and then when we have to go to the palace to work, she hates it.
Is she still fighting with you?
Oh all the time! Right now I m her biggest enemy because I make her do the housework.
Amma you know . . . sometimes . . . you can be very strict . . .
Girls have to be disciplined. Soon she will be married and if she does not know how to run a house . . . and oh, you don t know just how much she hates cooking! They both laughed.
Looks like I ll have to talk to her.
Yes, you do that. And Kartik, if you stayed home for a while it would really help. She is much happier when you are here.
You know Amma, my trips are by the orders of the king and I can t refuse him. If he has a job for me, I have to go.
Yes, I know. There was a sigh in her mother s voice.
Madhura was sitting up by now. By the orders of the king ? What did Kartik mean by that? He was not a soldier or a royal official; he was a small trader. Then why would the king give him orders? And orders to do what? Then she heard them get up and head to their beds, so she quickly lay still with her eyes tightly shut. As she was falling asleep Madhura thought, What does Kartik really do?
Next morning Madhura did not want to go to work. Amma tell them I m ill. I have fever. Pleeeease!
You don t have fever and I won t lie for you.
I want to spend the day with Bhai.
We took leave yesterday and you spent all day with him. Let s go Madhu, we re getting late, pleaded her mother.
A sleepy-eyed Kartik came out of his room, his hair standing on end, and asked with a yawn, What s up?
She s refusing to go to work.
You ll be back by the afternoon, no?
Madhura gave an angry shrug and sat biting her nails, I hate it at the palace-dust this, polish that, fetch and take that away, and Kani is always after me . . .
Who is Kani?
She is the senior maid, Madhura answered glumly. She just sits and orders me about, and I have