Vishkanya: Poison Personified

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I walk a solitary path; I live a solitary life- devoid of love, without an identity and regardless of my heart. But I did not choose this path… some 20 years earlier, it chose me. When I was first fed that “stuff” 20 years back, it made me vomit, sweat, and turn almost blue. But little did I know, as a 4 year old, that that “stuff” was POISON! Subsequently, began the ordeal of taking pings of it every day, until I stopped turning blue and sweaty. Well, because I had developed an “immunity” of it. I was venomous, no different than a snake- but unlike the snake, I was attractive and had been taught the art of seductiveness with much preening and pruning. I was a “poison damsel”, a VISHKANYA actually. Created by the greatest guru- Chanakya. And the sole purpose of my life was- to protect the empire of my king, my lord- Chandragupta Maurya and destroy his enemies. My first task had been to kill “Parvatak”- an enemy of Chandragupta and Chanakya. I set about the task- disguised as a dancing girl; I was ushered directly into the unsuspecting king’s bedchambers. I seduced him, had sex with him and he died. And my lord had won the battle without having to fight an actual war. My lord was very generous in rewarding me and I was satisfied. But after years of the same gruesome, dark cycle of “love, sex and dokha”, my heart weeps for a life. I want to live- with a husband and children- without killing them. My heart yearns for the love lost. There is nobody to hear my soulless cries, nobody who could lend me a shoulder to cry on, no love and certainly no life. I am Sulochna- but that doesn’t matter, because above that, I am a VISHKANYA. And that is my only identity. There are more like me- an army of Vishkanyas. 'Vishkanya' lives in literature and folk imagery, and apart from appearing in classical Sanskrit texts, it has appeared repeatedly in various works like
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