It’s Shivaji Jayanti or the anniversary of Shivaji’s birthday. On this occasion, I thought it might be appropriate to do a story set in Shivaji’s kingdom. Appropriately, Shivaji does make an appearance. But not until the end. The main storyline features a mother, Hirkani, and her struggle to be reunited with her child.
So let’s dive right in.
Hirkani was a single mother. She lived in a little village outside of the fort of Raigad, which was the capital of Shivaji’s Maratha Empire. We’re talking about 17th century India, at the height of the Maratha empire, which Shivaji had founded.
If you think your 21st century commute is tough, think again. Hirkani lived in her village, but her workplace was inside the fort. She was a milkmaid. She collected milk from the cows in the morning, and took it up to the fort to sell. The Raigad fort had a designated area for salespeople like Hirkani.
Now coming to her commute let me describe what she did. She had to climb up to the fort every single day. Now, as a modern day visitor to Raigad, you can get there within minutes by a rope-way. But Hirkani’s daily commute began with a slow winding climb up the mountain. There were over a thousand steps, she had to climb those carrying heavy milk cans. Barefoot. At the end of that long walk, she also had to continue walking along the fort walls. And at the end of that, there was the wait at the gate. The Maha Darwaza, which translates into the Great Door. It was a long wait there as the security guards checked everyone entering and leaving. No metal detectors back in the day which made it a longer process. It was only after the officials had stamped her entry permit and verified her trading permit, and she had to walk further into the fort that she could finally set down the heavy milk cans she was carrying.
The worst part? She did this every day. Rain or shine. This was the only way she could earn any money. She couldn’t live permanently in the fort, she certainly couldn’t maintain her cows there. But she needed to do this. For her baby boy who was just a few months old. She was the sole breadwinner in her family and her income from milk allowed her to feed herself and her son. Now if you were getting worried about what she did with her baby while she went to work, hold on. There’s no need yet to call Child Protection Services. It’s true that her work kept her away from home all day but that doesn’t mean she left a 6 month old baby by himself. She used a babysitter. You might be puzzled how someone who lived a hand-to-mouth existence could afford a babysitter. Well, Hirkani paid the lady next door by offering her all of the leftover milk. After milking her cows, anything she got in excess went to her neighbor. The neighbor was fine with this arrangement. She didn’t have cows of her own, and considering what Amazon home delivery and Instacart prices were, this arrangement with Hirkani meant that she didn’t have to spend a fortune, and she didn’t need to walk miles to the nearest grocery store, which was inside Raigad fort. The one caveat was that there wasn’t a clean handshake between the babysitter and Hirkani. Hirkani would return sometime around sunset, and the babysitter would have returned to her home and her domestic duties before then. But that was okay. The longest that her baby had been left unsupervised so far had been just 5 minutes.
Things were going fine for Hirkani. In fact, they were more than fine. Hirkani had begun saving up a little money. It wasn’t much, just a few paise here and there. But the possibilities of growth filled her with optimism. Maybe she could buy herself some time with the fort announcer. The 17th century version of buying a facebook or google advertisement. That would bring her more business. She could then add attached services, maybe she could sell butter, ghee, yogurt, paneer, tea and coffee. Then she could buy more cows, and use the proceeds to diversify, maybe even ice cream. She could name her startup – A Milkmaid’s Unparalleled Labor, A.M.U.L or Amul.
But enough speculation. She needed to focus on the day ahead. As she stood in line and waited to be let in, she sighed as she realized whom she had to deal with. The guards on duty today were Bandya and Khandya. If their names rhyme, that’s deliberate! Think of them as the equivalent of Tweedledum and Tweedledee. They followed the rules a little too strictly. It was impossible to get them to deviate one iota from the rulebook.
Hirkani was upset because they would most certainly not allow her to carry those milk cans because they weighed a few grams above regulation. But she had learned her lesson from past encounters with the pair. She grabbed a siphon and quickly extracted a bit of milk from the cans into a bottle she had. Unfortunately for her, that was insufficient to satisfy Bandya and Khandya. They made her get rid of more milk, and this time because Hirkani had no more glass bottles she had to let it go to waste.
She shrugged it off and focused on the next part of her day. Selling the milk. Hirkani would realize later that Bandya and Khandya were not done messing with her.
The day passed by quickly. A number of maids in the palace inside the Raigad fort came by to grab. People came by, made conversation, paid by cash which Hirkani had to keep careful track of. Occasionally some folks tried to pay by QR code but Hirkani hadn’t heard of this fancy thing called PayTM and politely refused to accept anything but cash.
She had a lunch break, during which she chatted with her fellow vendors like always. There was the usual loudspeaker announcing that people had to make their way to the exit before door closing time. And because it was the 17th century, the loudspeaker was not an electronic device for public address, but actually just a man who had a very loud voice. Hirkani was used to the announcement. It was the same thing every day. The Maha Darwaja would close and anyone who had a green passport, meaning they did not live inside the fort, had to exit before sunset. As you exit, mind the lack of a gap between the doors. These were the kinds of things to take for granted. The day wore on.
It was getting on towards closing time and normally, Hirkani would begin cleaning up her stall at this point. But just then someone came running. It was a maid from the palace.
“Hirkani, Hirkani, I need you to deliver some milk to the palace urgently.”
“It’s almost closing time, I have to go home soon,” she protested. But when the maid told her that the Queen urgently needed milk for her son and that there was a gold coin in it for her. That cast things in a new light. Hirkani reasoned that she could run to the palace, deliver the last bit of milk she had left and rush back. She looked at the position of the Sun, and it seemed there was a bit of time.
Deciding not a moment was to be lost, she grabbed one of the milk cans and rushed to the palace. The milk was quickly accepted but Hirkani couldn’t just walk away. Not until she got paid. A gold coin was a lot of money. She had been in the right place at the right time and this was her chance to make the most of it.
It took the Queen’s secretary a while to find a gold coin. All the while Hirkani kept praying that the Sun had not yet set. But in the absence of wristwatches and wall clocks she had no way of being sure. Grabbing the coin the moment she received it, she dashed madly towards the Maha Darwaja. She even dropped her milk can. She was not worried. She could collect it the next day. Her name was etched on it and she had spare cans back home to bring tomorrow’s milk. She ran out of the palace and looked at the Sun. It had already begun setting. But a sliver of it still shone. She dashed to the exit and then her heart sank.
Bandya and Khandya had already closed Maha Darwaza. She asked them to let her through, but they wouldn’t.
“But it’s not yet sunset,” she protested.
But Bandya and Khandya had a different idea of what Sunset meant.
“That’s nonsense. Check your rulebooks. It’s not when a part of the Sun disappears, it’s when the Sun completely disappears”
Reluctantly, Bandya pulled out his rulebook. He only did this to not give the appearance that he was doing something against the rules. It took him some time to locate the appropriate section, because first he had to light a lamp to see better. When he flipped to the appropriate section he read that Sunset was indeed defined as the disappearance of the upper limb of the Sun completely below the horizon.
“She’s right!” Bandya said. “We’ll have to let her through”
“No way!” Khandya interjected. He pointed towards the Sun, and this time it had completely disappeared. “The Sun has set. We can’t open the gates. That’s now against the rules”
Hirkani was afraid that’s what they were going to say. It was easier to bang her head against a brick wall than to talk sense into Tweedledum and Tweedledee here. She would have to find another way. Was there a way she could send a signal? Another secret way off of the fort somehow? No, that would be against the whole idea of keeping this fort secure.
The fort had been constructed carefully by one of Shivaji’s cleverest engineers. The Raigad mountain had some very steep sides to it. The parts that weren’t very steep were guarded by the Maha Darwaza.
There was no way off, unless she sprouted wings. And yet, she could not stay here the whole night. Her baby was back home. By now, the babysitter would probably be wrapping up and ready to head back to her own home. Hirkani had no way to get a message to her. It was also too much to expect that her babysitter neighbor would hear the baby crying and react. She was a heavy sleeper. Just a month ago, she had slept through an earthquake. And those thunderstorms had not bothered her in the least. No way would she react to the sound of a baby crying. Would Hirkani’s baby even cry? Maybe he would just lie there in his crib, disappointed at his mother for not appearing. What if a wild animal snuck in? The doors weren’t too strong. It was not beyond the realm of possibility that a tiger might appear looking for a snack.
That thought drove her towards a new level of desperation. She needed to get off of this fort. Right now. It was getting rather dark. She needed to work quickly. She began methodically examining the wall, looking for signs of weaknesses. Maybe a crack somewhere or a loose brick. But she didn’t find anything. She got to the part of the wall that overlooked the steepest section, and that’s when she realized. If she stood up her milk cans one on top of the other, and stood on top of them, she might be able to reach the top of the wall. She could climb up, and then begin the perilous descent. Yeah, it seemed crazy to risk her life like this, but her child had practically no chance of survival if she didn’t make it down quickly.
She rushed back, grabbed one milk can, and then found the other in the Palace’s lost and found bin. Going back to the section she had spied earlier, she set the cans down and… success! She could in fact reach the top of the wall with her fingers and raise herself up. Thank goodness, the top of the walls were NOT covered in shards of glass, as is still seen on some modern walls in India.
She let herself down on the other side. It was a good thing it was so dark. Otherwise she would have gotten dizzy just looking down. On the other side of the wall, there was another reason to be thankful for the darkness. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness and she could make out vague shapes. That included trees here and there, and some rocks. She clambered down the rocks. Barefoot and wearing a saree, she really was not well equipped to deal with the treacherous climb. It was slow progress as she descended further and further, but she was beginning to get a handle of things. She could now easily classify the vague shapes into trees, rocks, and bushes. That made it easier and as she kept lowering herself, she began to gain more and more confidence. Finally she tried to go a step lower and discovered she couldn’t. You might have encountered this yourself when walking downstairs in the dark and you try to take a step down when you are on the lower floor already. That discovery usually fills you with surprise. But for Hirkani it meant elation. Hirkani didn’t spend any time celebrating, she ran in the direction of her home. Thankfully the big tall fort next to her, helped her orientation. After that, it wasn’t even thirty minutes before she found the familiar main road and 15 minutes after that she barged into her home, still fearing the worst.
She looked at the serene sleeping face of her baby boy and sighed with relief. She was so exhausted, she sat down next to her baby’s crib and went to sleep.
The next morning was a normal day again. Except she looked like a mess. Given her social status, she didn’t even own a mirror to check what she looked like, and she hadn’t even a second set of clothes to replace her saree that was torn in many places. Her hands and feet were dirty from the climb down. But there was work to be done.
She took out the spare milk cans, milked her cows, shared some of the milk with her neighbor and made her way up. This time she resolved to leave the fort way before sunset. Gold coin or no gold coin. Walking on the heavily trafficked and smooth flagstones was almost pleasant, compared to the rough climb down last night.
She made it to the Maha Darwaza to discover it was her two least favorite guards on duty again. Bandya and Khandya continued their examination of everyone and everything. When they got to her. Bandya looked puzzled. “Hirkani? How did you get here?”
“I walked,” she said, not caring to elaborate.
Khandya had not recognized her, but he did a double take when he looked at her passport. “There’s an entry stamp from yesterday but no exit stamp. Something fishy is going on here”
“Of course it is. Hirkani, I’d like to know how you got out”
But Hirkani was reluctant to explain. Which was a good thing. Because if she hadn’t been tight-lipped, they would not have taken her to their superior. Their superior, seemed to think this was a National Security issue, and called in the MI5 to help. Maratha Intelligence, Division 5.
The MI5 agent showed up promptly and would have started interrogating Hirkani right there.
Bandya, Khandya, and their superior were all whispering about how many years she would get in prison for being a spy.
But just then, there was some trumpeting and a bit of fanfare. Everyone dropped what they were doing and saluted as Shivaji himself passed by.
Shivaji was an observant ruler who really cared about his people. His attention was immediately caught by the scene of two muscular guards, an MI5 agent, and a poor woman in dirty and torn clothing carrying heavy milk cans.
He inquired what was going on here. Bandya, Khandya, and the MI5 agent explained their sides of the stories, after which it was Hirkani’s turn. Finally, she let it all out. She had been trapped inside the fort last night on a silly technicality. She described her desperate attempt to get out of the fort, the crazy climb down in the dark night. And her usual trek back up this morning.
Shivaji was silent, absorbing Hirkani’s remarkable tale.
Bandya spoke up “Maharaj, she violated section 1.8 we should put her in prison for 10 years”
“With a possibility of parole after 5 if she behaves” added Khandya.
“I’m sure she’s in the pay of a foreign power. Delhi probably. Let me try my truth serum on her. I’ll have a confession out in no time” the MI5 agent chimed in.
Even Shivaji’s own advisers seemed to think Hirkani deserved deeper investigation at a minimum.
Finally, Shivaji spoke up and addressed the guards and the agent. “Friends, I thank you for always looking out for ways to protect the fort and the country. Your efforts are deeply appreciated.”
“That being said, I am confident that Hirkani has done nothing wrong. On the contrary, I am about to reward her for finding a major flaw in our defenses. An enemy could have climbed up the same way she climbed down”
“But Maharaj,” began Bandya.
“But nothing. Just look at her clothes and her hands and feet. This kind of appearance cannot be faked. She is not a spy. And she’s telling the truth. However, if you doubt the veracity of her statements. There’s an easy way to verify it. Go try to climb down the way she did. We’ll know soon enough if she was telling the truth”
Bandya gulped at the thought of climbing down. “I’ll …. I’ll take her word for it, Maharaj,” he said sheepishly.
Well, that was that. Hirkani was handsomely rewarded. And Shivaji had his engineers raise the wall in that section of the fort to discourage any future attempts to scale it.
And taking a little feedback from Hirkani, he had it arranged that the loud speaker would announce a few more times right before the Maha Darwaza closed, and not just announce it at lunchtime.
That’s all for now
Some notes on the show
Raigad is one of the strongest forts in the Deccan Plateau. It’s possible to visit it. But if you’re thinking of doing what Hirkani did, I’d advise against it, it’s not an easy descent and a rather dangerous one. Which makes Hirkani’s achievement all the more remarkable. Especially when she did it in the dark, with no real equipment either. It’s a lot easier to get to the top of the fort these days. All you need to do is to take the rope-way, which didn’t exist in Hirkani’s day.
Raigad fort
Maha Darwaza
Raigad fort hidden walls
By the way, it’s easy to confuse the district Raigad with the fort Raigad. They are separate. Shivaji also constructed around 360 forts. Here’s a link to some notable ones
There’s also a bastion called Hirkani Buruj which is part of Raigad now
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’ll go back to the Panchatantra. It’s been a while since we covered those stories, so we’ll learn more from animal behavior.