Chandrakanta – Aiyyar Warfare – {Ep.236} – Stories From India – Podcast

In today’s episode we’ll continue the story of Chandrakanta, where Kroor Singh allies with another evil mastermind, Maharaj Shivdutt, and his all powerful Aiyyars. Plus cryptic poems and secret passwords that could just save Prince Virendra’s life.

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

In this episode, we’re continuing the story of Chandrakanta. This is a fantasy/science fiction novel written by Devaki Nandan Khatri over a century ago. 

If you haven’t heard previous Chandrakanta episodes on this show that is fine, I’ll recap the story so far. But I do recommend you check out the links in the show notes and on the site sfipodcast.com.

Prince Virendra of Naugarh and Princess Chandrakanta of neighboring Vijaygarh were in love. To be clear, they were in love with each other. Chandrakanta’s father was against their union. 

Originally, everyone including both sets of parents had agreed that Virendra and Chandrakanta would marry. But Kroor Singh has poisoned Chandrakanta’s father’s mind. Kroor Singh was the Vijaygarh Minister’s son, and assassin. And I mean assassin quite literally. Besides figuratively poisoning the King’s mind, Kroor Singh had literally poisoned his father’s drink. The rather casual way in which he deliberately committed patricide should inform you that Kroor Singh was a principal villain in the story. 

Villains are usually motivated by money, power or love. In Kroor Singh’s case it was all three. He wanted to marry Chandrakanta, become King and access all the power and money that the position guaranteed. Patricide was simply the first step. He would get to be the next minister, because these positions were hereditary. Then find a way to eliminate the King as well.

Most of the characters in the story were aided by very special sidekicks called Aiyaars. You could argue that the Aiyaars were the real heroes, because they did all of the real work.

Aiyyaars were a cross between Mystique from the X-Men, James Bond, and Sherlock Holmes. Because they could shapeshift, they had access to futuristic technology, and they were experts at chemistry. Rival Aiyyars were constantly locked in a cat and mouse game – trying to trick each other. 

Virendra’s aiyyaar Tej Singh had outwitted and imprisoned Ahmed, one of Kroor Singh’s aiyyaars. Only Tej Singh, and his brother-in-law and fellow aiyyaar Devi Singh knew about the beautiful valley where Ahmed was being held.

Kroor Singh’s other aiyyaar, Nazim, had at one point been caught by Chandrakanta’s aiyyaars Champa and Chapla but he managed to escape.

A bit more back and forth, until Kroor Singh and Nazim discovered Virendra and Tej Singh in Chandrakanta’s garden. They immediately did their civic and selfish duty by warning the King. But when the King got there, Virendra and Tej had already escaped. A mysterious person in rags had appeared out of nowhere and warned them of the King’s impending arrival. The result was that the King thought Kroor Singh had been lying to him.

Kroor Singh and Nazim were severely punished. Out of resentment, and in an effort to escalate this game, they both traveled to the Empire of Chunargarh seeking help from Maharaj Shivdutt against the crafty Tej singh. But in their absence, Tej continued being crafty. In disguise as Kroor Singh’s servant, he tricked the King into thinking that his master had turned traitor. And as a result, the King exiled Kroor Singh’s household staff, took over all of his property, and gave Tej Singh a handsome reward too.

That’s where we’ll continue the story today.

Kroor Singh and Nazim stepped through the grand archway into Chunargarh. Their jaws dropped at the site. The place was absolutely fabulous!

“Say, Boss. Did you ever consider trying to take over Chunargarh instead? This place makes the Vijaygarh palace look like a jhopdi.” A Jhopdi is a hut, but bet you smart listeners already knew that or figured it out.

“Boss, this fort is at least 25 elephants tall!” Nazim said, obviously betraying the absence of the metric system.

“Sounds like high maintenance for the staff. How do you know how tall it is anyway?” Kroor Singh challenged. “Did anyone stack 25 elephants to check its height?”

“No Boss. See – it says here on the tourist brochure.” Nazim said, handing Kroor Singh a glossy printed brochure. 

“Eat at Joe Singh’s! He sings as you eat?”

“Oops wrong page, here look at those towers, they are so massive, the towers have towers of their own. And there are 6 moats and drawbridges. None of those need to be powered by hand. They have re-moat control. And the best part is – they have state of the art wifi technology inside!”

Kroor Singh confessed that he had never heard of wifi before. What was it? 

Nazim explained. “It’s an acronym. W. I. F. I. It stands for “Winged Instant Flying Information”, because anyone can send messages to each other via very carefully trained pigeons. One can simply write their message on a piece of paper and send it via pigeon to anyone else in the city. They reply back the same way. It’s what everyone in the whole country is raving about these days.”

Kroor Singh thought all that was great, could they send a message to the King that they wanted an audience? 

Nazim replied that maybe his boss was being a bit rash. They shouldn’t go talk to the King on an empty stomach. They should eat first. “Did you know?” Nazim began, quoting the brochure again. “The city has 35 Bhel Puri joints! There’s one near here, it’s right next to a selfie spot that we must also visit again at sunrise!”

Kroor Singh had to caution his Aiyyaar not to let his enthusiasm run away with him. But he was hungry. So they went to the first Bhel Puri seller they met and were just about to eat when suddenly Nazim elbowed his boss and pointed to the table next to theirs. “That’s the King, Maharaj Shivdutt” the aiyyaar whispered, perhaps a little too loud.

Kroor Singh would have dismissed his aiyyaar except the man at the next table looked at them, and Kroor Singh had a sudden chilling realization that he was indeed Shivdutt. Maybe it was the crown and royal robes he was wearing. Or maybe it was the paparazzi clustered around with mini easels and paint brushes hastily painting away on canvas, trying to capture the scene for the highest bidder. But this was definitely Shivdutt.

“Maharaja, you are out here in the open all by yourself? I don’t see any aiyyaars or bodyguards around!”

Shivdutt said “Exactly. That …. Is the entire point of having aiyyaars. And Chunargarh has nothing but the best. Seven of the most powerful and stealthy aiyyaars.”

The Emperor observed that these two were foreigners. How did you guys get here? By the Dunki trail? 

“No, we came by horse,” Nazim explained.

Kroor Singh cleared his throat and launched into what he called a “short” presentation. It took an hour. Shivdutt’s patience had worn thin by then. “So let me get this straight. You lost Nazim once, and then you lost Ahmed, whom you still haven’t recovered. And then you were incompetent enough to lose two birds in hand when Virendra and Tej singh were practically at your mercy, and then you got your aiyyaar whipped for it. Clearly you can’t manage aiyyaars and yet you expect me to lend you mine?”

That was a little hard to argue against. Shivdutt would have gone on, but just then the waiter came by with a note. Shivdutt read it and smiled and said. “Well gentlemen, you’re in luck! I will loan you four of my best aiyyaars”

“What was in the note?” Nazim asked. “Was that waiter really Badrinath in disguise? Can I get his autograph?”

Shivdutt quickly said, “Don’t look at the waiter. Look at me. I’m the big boss. I call the shots here”

Kroor Singh had to wonder if there was something in the note. There must be a catch. But he couldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Yes, sir, you can have four of my best aiyyaars. In exchange, you’ll pay taxes to me when you become King of Vijaygarh.”

Kroor Singh still didn’t know what the catch was. A promise to pay taxes was no problem. Besides, he could change his mind after he became king, could he not?

“What if you change your mind?” Shivdutt asked. “I need some kind of a guarantee.”

Kroor Singh drew himself up to full height. “Kroor Singh gives you his word,” he said.

Shivdutt said, “I don’t want Kroor Singh’s word. I want your word.”

Kroor Singh had to clarify that his name was Kroor Singh and not the “The Betaaj Badshaah” that had just been a fancy title he put on his slideshow.

Shivdutt seemed to accept that. He told them to come back the next morning and take the 4 aiyyaars with them.

Meanwhile, back in Vijaygarh, a very different kind of a conversation was taking place.

Chandrakanta’s mom and dad were talking. I called it a conversation, except it was more of a monologue. The Queen, Ratnaprabha was speaking her mind.

“It’s all your fault” she told the King. “You always trusted that rat Kroor Singh, and all the while he was getting ready to spit in our faces as he stabbed us in the back”

The King thought he had her there. First of all, rats could not stab anyone, they could not reliably hold a knife. It was questionable if they could spit into anyone’s face. They were so tiny. And what’s more, it was physically impossible for a person to stab someone in the back while also spitting in their faces. Maybe a particularly long limbed octopus might manage it. But certainly not a human, and definitely not a rat.

But Ratnaprabha had already moved on to a different topic. She was talking about Virendra now.
The Queen was saying they had to reexamine everything Kroor Singh had told them, and come to think of it, the secret conspiracy papers, the doodles of the King in a less than respectful position, the trick spider that had been hidden in the King’s crown – all of those were in theory done by Virendra. But the only evidence for that had been Kroor Singh’s testimony. All that had to be questioned again.

“So,” Ratnaprabha concluded. “Virendra and Chandrakanta should marry. All the preparations we did, we can just continue – we just need to change the date on the cards.”

“Alright dear,” said the King. “I’ll ask the clerical staff to get started on it right away”.

Maybe they ought to have also informed Virendra or his father of this decision, but somehow it didn’t come up.

Let’s go back to Chunargarh. It was the next morning.

Kroor Singh and Nazim stood facing Maharaj Shivdutt. The Emperor was in his throne room, and he asked “Well, Kroor Singh, are you ready to go back to Vijaygarh with 4 of the best Aiyyaars?”

“5 Aiyyaars, your majesty,” Nazim corrected. He was an aiyyaar himself, and he wanted it to be known that he was amongst the best too.

“4 Aiyyaars, and that one” Shivdutt retorted.

“Yes, I am,” Kroor Singh said, putting a stopper on this sort of thing. The last thing he wanted was for Shivdutt to get upset and withdraw his support.

“Well, take them and go. What are you waiting for? A pat on the back?” Shivdutt asked.

Kroor Singh glanced around. But there was no one else there. And then he noticed something.

The empty chair in the room shook and slowly morphed into the shape of a man.

“You! You’re an aiyyaar!” Kroor Singh explained. He poked Nazim in the ribs and whispered “look, you may learn something from him”

“Yes, this is Ramnarayan, the Raider of Raebareilly, the Rana-killer of Ranathambore” Shivdutt explained. “We also call him Mr. Chairman”

“Well, let’s get rocking!” Ramnarayan said out loud.

At those words, there was a vacuum cleaner in the corner that shimmered and changed into a person. Another Aiyyaar.

Shivdutt introduced this one as well. “Pannalal, the Terror of Tihar, the Nimble-footed Nagpur spy. You saw him in his best disguise. He’s been gathering dirt on all my enemies”

Nazim was awestruck “You guys have to teach me how you do all that. You guys are amazing”

There wasn’t all that much time remaining, because at this point, the chandelier gently came down off the ceiling. It too was an Aiyyaar in disguise.

This was Bhagwandutta, the scourge of Surat, the bane of bhopal.

Nazim and Kroor Singh began looking around for the 4th aiyyaar – Badrinath. “Has he secretly disguised as my horse? Or my turban? Oh maybe he’s that goblet over there.” Kroor Singh asked excitedly.

They were still searching, when Badrinath, totally in human form cleared his throat to say “guys, I’m right here”

Kroor Singh and Nazim looked wide-eyed. Had Badrinath been one of the silver teaspoons on the King’s table? 

“No, I just walked in the door,” he said.

Wow, Kroor Singh thought. With powers like these at his disposal, he was sure to become King of Vijaygarh in no time.

Badrinath merely shook his head. He had seen his share of crazy clients, but he only supposed his boss – Shivdutt knew what he was doing.

After all the shaking of hands all around, Kroor Singh, his 4 world-class aiyyaars and Nazim were going to go back, when news arrived. It was one of Kroor Singh’s former servants, here to complain about how the King of Vijaygarh had discovered Kroor Singh’s absence, and punished and exiled everyone in Kroor Singh’s home. Kroor Singh heard all this with increasing fury.

When he further heard about “Ahmed” returning and about RamLal betraying him, his suspicions were confirmed. Because if Ahmed had really escaped as he claimed, he’d have come straight here. And he hadn’t. Shivdutt had his men check the visitor logs. Besides, Kroor Singh didn’t recall a servant named RamLal. That meant all of this was Tej Singh’s handiwork.

“Don’t worry,” Badrinath said. “When we’re through, Tej Singh won’t know what hit him.”

Kroor Singh said that he wanted Tej Singh to know what hit him. Badrinath had to clarify that it was just an expression signifying the sudden shock of defeat that Tej Singh was about to experience.

“Take Pandit Jagannath too,” Shivdutt said.

Nazim and Kroor Singh were shocked, but pleased. Extremely pleased. Pandit Jagannath the Juggernaut. The Jaggery-eating Jwalamukhi of Jaipur, the Astrologer supreme! Jagannath could predict the future, and that was going to come in handy.

With ominous intent, Kroor Singh, the Aiyyaars and the Astrologer set out for the towers of Vijaygarh, to bring Doom and Destruction.

Let’s go over to Naugarh. Virendra and Tej Singh were near the Vijaygarh border as usual. 

Tej Singh was going on and on about something, but Virendra wasn’t paying attention. He had a glazed look in his eyes, he was still thinking about Chandrakanta.

“Virendra, are you listening?” Tej asked again.

“Huh? What? Yes, of course” Virendra said, when he clearly was not.

It wasn’t often that Tej Singh would lose patience, but this seemed like it might become one of those cases. But we never get to find out, because the two of them were interrupted.

There was a rishi that appeared out of nowhere. He was walking by and singing loudly. 

It’s twilight and the spies are coming,

Over Virendra danger is looming,

Badrinath and Pannalal, their secrets spin,

Rise up Prince, or you might not win,

Bhagwandutta and Ramnarayan conspire,

Vijaygarh and Naugarh, their prime desire.

But Jagannath’s the tricky one,

He knows what you’ve done.

Before you’ve done it.

“What did he mean,” Virendra asked. “The holy man over there, did he mean me?”

“No, don’t worry. He was talking about a different Prince Virendra of a different Naugarh”

“Yes, I’ve sometimes received letters addressed to him, delivered to me by mistake. Something about credit card offers and an extended warranty for my chariot”

“Gosh!” he added with a sudden realization. “What if Chandrakanta’s letters accidentally get delivered to this other Prince Virendra of this other Naugarh”

Tej Singh pointed out that there was danger of that, seeing as he, Tej Singh, was the one who was delivering all of those letters.

“Now listen” the Aiyyaar told the Prince. “I must be off. I have to go see what Kroor Singh is up to. He has probably recruited some Aiyyaars from Shivdutt. I’ll go out on a limb here, but my money is on Badrinath, Ramnarayan, Pannalal and Bhagwandutta”

“Just like the ones in the poem,” Virendra observed.

“Yup just another coincidence”

Virendra should have realized that every bit of the poem was relevant to him, but his mind was still on Chandrakanta.

Tej Singh continued, “I have to give you some very strict instructions. I need your full attention here.”

“You absolutely have my full attention,” Virendra said half-attentively.

Tej Singh rattled off a few rules.

From now on, Virendra had to look at everyone with suspicion. Even if Tej Singh himself came back. It might not be Tej Singh. Don’t take candy from strangers, or from friends. Don’t accept any food. Don’t smell any flowers or perfume anyone offers you.

You and I will need a secret password so we can confirm each other’s identity.

Can the password be “Chandrakanta?” Virendra asked, dreamily.

But Tej Singh said it was too obvious. They haggled, and ultimately ended on Chandrakanta, but with all the letters “a” substituted with an “@” symbol. Reasonable compromise. No one else in that era knew what an @ symbol was so this might work.

And lastly, here look at this part of my left eyebrow, there’s a tiny mole there. No one else knows about it. If I come back to you and I don’t show you my mole, it’s not me. It’s an Aiyyaar in disguise.

Tej Singh got on his horse and sped away towards Vijaygarh knowing that he was up against the most powerful Aiyyaars and the Pandit Jagannath. And these would be a lot tougher to handle than Nazim and Ahmed.

Big dangers await Tej Singh and Virendra Singh, but we’ll have to wait for a future episode to find out what they are exactly.

That’s all for this week

Show Notes

Previous Chandrakanta episodes are here:

https://sfipodcast.com/category/chandrakanta/

Next Time

In the next episode, we’re going back to the Ramayana as some of you requested. With the fierce battle continuing between the Vanars and the Lankans, there may be more surprises in store, from both sides.

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

I’m thrilled to be the number 1 podcast for so many of you!

Tea and Coffee – thank you for your support. Glad you and your mum enjoy this podcast.

Nivedita and Aniver – thank you so much. It’s always heartwarming to hear your kind words.

And Nivedita – you certainly can. More power and encouragement to you if you try it out!

Harihar, Bala, Vishruth, Moshroom – thank you for the support as always.

Aarush, I haven’t forgotten about the Indus Valley Civilization story, and I appreciate your patience. 

Hariprasad – yes, Surasamharam has to do with Murugan’s victory over Surapadman. That’s a separate story from the one about defeating Tarakasura, but they are not very different.

Mamta, hope you liked this Chandrakanta episode today.

Hema, indeed yes. Though both Ayyappa and Karthikeya are sons of Shiva, Ayyappa’s mother is Mohini, the avatar of Vishnu during the Sagar Manthan, or the churning of the ocean.

Vishruth – yes we will start on Ponniyin Selvan soon-ish. Since it’s mostly fiction, I can’t simply tell you the story from my memory. That means I just need some time to research it a bit more.

I do intend to narrate Tipu Sultan’s story. Thank you for your patience Darsh.

And while you’re correct that I’m immortal, I could not help being scared of Shiva at that moment. Especially considering what he did to Kamadeva, who is a bonafide God as well.

Parasasapbi, I do wish you a very happy birthday. I don’t have a story on Hanuman this week, but in next week’s story Hanuman plays an important role. So look out for that

Taal, I wish you a happy birthday as well. Look out for Ponniyin Selvan to come up very soon.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook. If you want to send me an email it’s stories.from.india.podcast@gmail.com.

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A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!