The Imperfections of a Perfect Monarch - Part One

What ran in the minds of the characters when such a magnitude event happened?

Spoiler Alert- Those of you who haven’t read or watched the Baahubali series, continue reading after you’ve read and watched the series. I will wait. You have been warned.

Sivagami and Kattappa were in turmoil. Both of them hated what they had turned out to be. Fate had been so cruel to them.

Kattappa

When Kattappa kills Amarendra Baahubali, Baahubali says, “Mama, I am finally going to meet my mum and dad!” His mother, Akhila, and his father, Mahadeva, had died the same day Baahubali was born. Little did he know that the same day he died, his son, Mahendra Baahubali was born.

It was at this moment when Kattappa had killed Baahubali that he truly began hating his life and had never wished for death as much as he did at this time! Kattappa had had enough!

Perhaps his brother, Shivappa had been right! He was sick of being a slave, being called names, and treated like an animal. He screamed looking upwards to his father, Malayappa, in the heavens, "Father! I've always followed the path you taught me! But look at where being a slave has led me! Are you happy that your son has never lived happily? Why couldn't you teach me something that didn't involve having to live such a cursed life? Why didn't you allow Shivappa to live freely, and instead condemned him to death? Speak up!"

He was fuming with anger and was hurt at the betrayal. He hadn’t expected Bhallaladeva to conspire against Baahubali, and Shivagami to order Baahubali’s death by Kattappa’s hands. He was shaking as he walked up the palace steps, oblivious to the crowds thronging towards the palace.

For the first time in his memory and in Shivagami’s, he pointed an accusatory finger at Shivagami and shouted at her foolish mistake, raised his voice against authority, and point-blank told Shivagami that he no longer trusts her.

Sivagami

She had killed her own son!

She had believed the falsehood one of her sons put on the other!

She had executed the murder of her innocent son when he had just married and started his family!

Her own husband and her son had lied to her, cheated her, and provoked her to kill her innocent son who was to become a father that day!

The son of her sister!

The son of the man she once had fallen in love with!

The orphan boy she had adopted at birth.

Sivagami’s heart broke into a trillion pieces as Kattappa explained furiously about Bhallaladeva and his father, Bijjaladeva having schemed to make Sivagami kill Amarendra Baahubali, his wife, Devasena and their unborn child.

Plot to get the crown! Sivagami never expected her son, Bhallaladeva would stoop as low as her tyrant husband, Bijjaladeva, and resort to cruel methods to fulfil their greed.

Was it her fault? Was this the same greed that had made her kill her foster father, Thimma decades back?

Mahadeva’s words from decades ago rang in her ears as though he was right there talking to her now, ”I thought you wanted to be the Bhoomipathi.”

Was this the same ambition that made her kill people for revenge decades ago?

But those people were responsible for the deaths of her parents, and Thimma had requested her to kill him in that duel!

Yet she knew Thimma was an innocent man just like her father, Devaraya had been. Her father and foster father were honest men like her mentor, Skandadasa. They all died because this cruel world wasn’t for such honest souls.

But then, in the name of revenge, hadn’t Sivagami burnt Rudra Bhatta and Mekhala alive, and hanged Pattaraya? She remembered the gory details as though it were yesterday,

As if on a tape, she went back to that day and saw Skandadasa’s disappointed look, Parameswara unhappily shaking his head, and heard Somadeva bursting with laughter. The three of them had been long dead even on that day in the past.

No matter how much she tried, she could never get over that nagging feeling that she was as ambitious and power hungry as the next politician. Her thoughts drifted to Baahubali’s childhood, him coming with Devasena, Sivagami disapproving Baahubali’s relationship with Devasena owing to the blind promise she had made about Devasena to Bhallaladeva without first consulting Devasena. She remembered the baby shower incident and the temple incident after which she, Sivagami, banished the couple from the royal palace.

And now, Sivagami had killed her son, leaving her daughter-in-law alone in this world with her grandchild.

Sivagami had lived like an orphan. Akhila had become an orphan because Sivagami had killed Thimma and caused the death of Bhama and later Raghava, who were Akhila’s parents and older brother respectively.

Sivagami’s best friends, Kamakshi and Gundu Ramu were orphans.

Amarendra Baahubali had become an orphan, so Sivagami had adopted him. But now that she had killed him, she had ensured his son went the same path towards being an orphan.

Son? Is that Devasena entering? She is holding a baby, a baby boy!

Oh, what shall I do? Yes, there is only one way!

Sivagami walked to Devasena and, hands trembling with sorrow, guilt and shame, touched Devasena’s feet and apologized. She decided she would dethrone and punish Bhallaladeva and the culprits involved severely.

Sivagami then took the newborn infant to the balcony and announced Mahendra Baahubali as the next king since his father, Amarendra Baahubali was dead.

The crowd roared with emotion; cheering for the new king and lamenting the loss of Amarendra Baahubali.

I have imagined the thoughts of Kattappa and Sivagami during this incident. Did you like it? Do you want me to add Part Two? It will be from another scene in the same series.