In this episode, we’re talking about the king of heaven. And that is not Indra. It may surprise you to know this, but Indra was not always the ruler of heaven. There was a time when heaven was ruled by Nahush. He was accompanied by his wife Ashoksundari. This is the origin story of Nahush and Ashoksundari.
It starts with a prophecy. The person who originated the prophecy is me! That should not be a surprise. As I’ve said countless times on this show, I know everything there is to know including the past, the present, and the future.
So there I was one day walking in a garden, when I met Shiva and Parvati.
They were there on a picnic and cordially invited me to join them. And because I accepted, what follows is an eyewitness account.
Parvati’s expression suddenly changed. “I can’t believe I forgot to bring spoons again!” she said
But Shiva was not in the least bit disturbed. “We’ve got nothing to worry about, see?” he asked, waving spoons in his hands.
“Where did the spoons come from?” Parvati asked surprised. “Your hands were empty a second ago”
“I just waved my wand and made up whatever I wanted” Shiva explained but with a smile
“No, you can’t fool me. If Brahma said that I could have believed it. But you – you’re a destroyer”
“You’re right, I’ll come clean” Shiva relented. “It’s not me. It’s the tree”
“Kalpavriksha!” Parvati exclaimed in delight. “I’ve always wanted one. What version is this?”
“This is version 2.4, not the latest, but perfectly capable of creating anything material,” Shiva replied.
“So how does this work?” Parvati asked, “Do I need a catalog and feed in an SKU number or scan a barcode somewhere?”
Before Shiva could reply, a thick product catalog dropped into her lap. Along with a barcode scanner.
“That’s the more complicated way. Usually, I just think of something and it appears. Like this”
And just like that, a big, red, and juicy apple fell into his outstretched hands.
They spent the next few hours testing the powers of the tree.
“Kalpavriksha is able to create fruits, I think it should also be able to create a regular human-looking baby”
And just like that in her arms appeared a newborn baby girl. Parvati was delighted! Both her other children, Ganapati and Kartikeya, were boys and she had longed for a girl for a long time.
They called her Ashoksundari.
That’s when I supplied my opinion. “She’s going to marry the King of Heaven”
“Not Indra! She can’t marry Indra” gasped Parvati. Yeah, Indra has a bit of a… reputation… if you know what I mean. Not unlike his Greek equivalent Zeus.
“That’s not what I said”, I corrected, “I said she’ll marry the King of Heaven”
A casual observer hearing this would likely have bet heavily that a change of leadership in Swarg was imminent. But we’ll come back to that.
Ashoksundari grew up to be a brave, intelligent girl. When your daddy can destroy the whole Universe, and your mommy is power itself, it’s highly likely that you will grow up to be fearless yourself.
One day, Ashoksundari and her friends were picnic-ing in the same garden that she was born in.
Sometimes there are picnics that turn out great, they are filled with surprises, like in Shiva and Parvati’s case. But sometimes picnics can be ruined by inclement weather. Or worse, if you have the worst kind of uninvited guest. The worst kind of uninvited guest is exactly what Hunda was. Hunda was an evil Asura. It started with him generally disrupting the picnic, swiping their sandwiches, kicking dirt over their picnic blanket, that sort of thing.
“Get out of here, right now” screamed Ashoksundari. But Hunda failed to notice the dangerous tone in her voice. To him, this was a challenge. Which he accepted.
He reached out to grab her but Ashoksundari was too quick for him. She twisted his arm and Hunda did his best not to scream in pain. As Ashoksundari’s friends advanced on the Asura, he decided that 5 to 1 were not fair odds and that he was pretty much overpowered already.
He had quite the ego though. So he said, “5 of you against me are not fair odds. I’m going to wait for you to get reinforcements. Get more people if you want to fight fair”. He said this with gritted teeth to hide the pain in his arms.
Ashoksundari laughed and let Hudna go, at which point he exited the scene – stage left, claiming to be late for an appointment.
Ashoksundari’s friends warned her that this Asura was the worst sort and that he would be planning her revenge.
Sure enough, Ashoksundari found out first hand within a week when she went to what she thought was a secret birthday party for her friend. It was an elaborate plan by Hunda to abduct the girl and force her to marry him.
Ashoksundari casually entered the house at the address on the birthday invite. The moment she did, all the doors and windows of the house shut, and she realized that she was the only one there. Well, not the only one, strictly speaking, there was Hunda grinning an evil grin.
“What are you going to do now? Scream for Mummy and Daddy? I had the house specially constructed. No one can hear anything, even Gods”
“Perfect,” said Ashoksundari. It took a full minute for Hunda to realize that she had not said the word sarcastically. There had been a real menace in her tone that caught him by surprise.
“You mean you’re really very frightened aren’t you?” he asked nervously.
She advanced on him with a menacing grin on her face. Hunda gulped once or twice.
It wasn’t much of a fight. A few minutes later standing over the badly bruised Asura, Ashoksundari warned him. “I could finish you off you know? But I really won’t. I don’t want to get my hands dirty. I’ll leave that task for my husband”
“You’re married?! I seriously didn’t know that” begged the Asura
“Hush, I’m not married. I’m talking about my future husband, the future son of the future King Ayus”
“You’re going to marry Ayus’s son? He doesn’t have a son. In fact, he’s just in elementary school. Are you seriously going to wait that long?”
“Why not? I’m a goddess, I’m not going to age” replied Ashoksundari.
So Ayus’s son was going to kill him, was he? Not if he killed Ayus first.
Ashoksundari was meanwhile bidding him farewell.
“And next time you want to ask a lady out, don’t try to abduct her. Get her flowers, chocolate, and … seriously try anything except abduction.”
I don’t think that Hunda got the message. Because from that very day onwards he began to work on a plan to abduct Ayus’s baby. He had cooked up the perfect plan but he had to wait for several years before he could put it in action.
You see, Ayus had to grow up first. But Hunda was waiting.
Ashoksundari’s curse meant that he would not be killed until after Ayus had the baby. Knowing that his survival was guaranteed, that would have been the perfect time to dry dangerous things like skydiving and bungee jumping. I guess Hunda was just the glass-half-empty kind of person.
After several years of school Ayus finally went through the other phases of life for a King, including his coronation and some politically motivated marriages! Through one such marriage, Ayus and his Queen had a baby boy. They called the boy Nahush.
The very night that Nahush was born, Hunda put his evil master plan in action. It began easy but then got complicated. It started off with Hunda jumping in through the balcony, picking up the sleeping infant Nahush, and flying off again.
As he was flying back home if Hunda had done one of a dozen things, even if he accidentally lost his grip on the baby the story would have been very different. But he did not do that. Instead, he went home and asked his cook to prepare dinner, with Nahush. And just to be clear I don’t mean that the baby would help the cook make dinner. I meant Nahush was on the main course.
The cook was used to some outlandish requests from his employer. Just yesterday Hunda had eaten Jalebis with Salt and Pepper. But this was a new low even for him.
The cook just could not bring himself to follow instructions today. Luckily for him, he had just heard the few episodes on this show where babies were substituted with something else. So he did the same. He cooked a really tasty vegetable meal, knowing that Hunda had never eaten vegetables or babies before and wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
There is no way the cook could stay employed if he kept the baby himself. So he decided the best thing to do would be to leave the baby at the doorstep of a Rishi. That’s another thing that’s happened a couple of times on the show. This really goes to show that the cook was a big fan of this podcast.
And he could not have chosen a better rishi. He picked Vashishta. Vashishta was a maharishi and the more sensible of the two battling rishis back in Episode 15.
There was no accompanying letter to explain the circumstances but when you’re a super powerful and knowledgeable Rishi like Vashishta, an explanation is usually not necessary.
The next morning there were two diametrically opposite emotions. In Ayus’s palace, the King and Queen were distraught at finding their baby missing. Vashishta was glad to give the baby shelter. He also realized that returning the baby would not help. Because Hunda would just try again. This was better. Let the baby grow up here. He thought.
The only thing remaining was to reassure Nahush’s parents. Through an extremely reliable messenger. One who could be trusted with a secret of this magnitude. And that’s where I come in. That’s part of my job description.
I was happy to reassure Nahush’s parents. Their baby was growing up with Vashishta. And when he was capable, he would take on Hunda.
Several years passed. And one day when Vashishta thought Nahusha had finally grown into a brave and wise young man, he decided it was time for him to fulfill the terms of his prophecy.
When Nahush learned his history, his destiny he was filled with rage.
Mixed in with all that rage was a little discomfort. He was expected to marry Ashoksundari who by all accounts was a hundred years older than him. He wasn’t on board with that part of the plan.
Nahush walked to the palace where Hunda lived. It seemed that Hunda had kept a low profile these days. And the palace seemed to be in an advanced state of disrepair. It was almost deserted but there was some sign of activity.
After searching several rooms, Nahush finally found the Asura. Hunda was in an upstairs bedroom. He was not sleeping.
Nahush walked in boldly and declared that this was Hunda’s day of reckoning.
“Finally! What took you so long?” asked Hunda. But the voice was weak and when Nahush turned on the lights and stepped in, he could see the setup. Hunda was lying down in bed. It seemed like he’d been in that bed for years. He had all kinds of tubes and systems that seemed to keep him hanging on.
“You’re Hunda?” asked Nahush, “We’re getting to the end of the show. Aren’t we going to have a major showdown? That’s what the listeners would have wanted”
Hunda explained that he wished things were different but he had led a difficult life. First, he was beaten up very badly by Ashoksundari. “Keep that in mind when you’re marrying her,” he advised Nahush. “If you want to avoid what happened to me, never ever annoy her in any way.”
“But Ashoksundari didn’t do this to you” retorted Nahush. “You were perfectly healthy when you abducted me”
“She started it. But you’re right to some degree. I was reasonably okay. It’s just that the night I abducted you, I got the worst case of vegetable poisoning. My cook probably didn’t realize it, but healthy vegetables are toxic to an Asur. My body weakened. I should not have survived for as long as I did. But I did survive because of Ashoksundari’s curse. Only you can release me from this painful existence. Please, please end this for me”
“I don’t think I will, Hunda. You have been a whole different level of evil than what I’ve seen. You need to be punished. And if punishing you means continuing this existence so be it.”
He turned and began walking out of the room. That’s when he tripped on the power cord connecting to Hunda’s support system. The end was quick for Hunda.
“Oh well, you can’t win everything,” thought Nahush and continued on his way.
Ashoksundari was waiting for him. Nahush saw her and immediately realized who she was. He shyly shuffled his feet and explained that he knew she looked about his age and that it was their destiny and all that, but honestly, maybe the hundred-year age gap was a little bit much you know?
At least that’s how the conversation began. Until Ashoksundari pointed out that she had spent most of her life traveling in parts of the Universe with her parents. And all the travel was close to the speed of light. That meant taking time dilation into effect, she wasn’t really that much older than Nahush.
“Okay, that works for me, let’s do it,” he said, quickly.
The two of them were married and had a son called Yayati who is the ancestor of most of the main characters in the Mahabharata. So you can think about today’s story as a kind of a prequel to the main storyline in the Mahabharata.
That’s all for now
Some notes on the show
We’ve seen Kalpavriksha and Indra before. In Episode 51 – Oceans Rising, Episode 52 – Oceans Rising Higher, and Episode 53 – Open the Quantum Gate!.
We also met Indra in Episode 121.5 – Anniversary Special – Shiva vs Vishnu.
Why did Indra disappear? We’ll cover that in a future episode too.
Both Yudhishthir and Bheema two of the Pandav brothers from the Mahabharat encountered Nahush. But that’s for another episode too.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’ll go back to Tenali Raman. It’s been a while since we did a story on the miserly but clever jester so this weekend we’ll do a couple.