Read Online Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi - Free Book Online Page B

with the good king. Once the influence of Lord Bharat was gone, the Chandravanshis were up to their old ways and the war began once again. The symbol was forgotten. And the word Aum reverted to its original form of a word without a written representation.’
    ‘But the symbol on the bracelet of this hooded man was not coloured. It was all black. And the parts of the symbol didn’t look like lines to me. They looked like a drawing of three serpents.’

    ‘Naga!’ exclaimed a shocked Nandi, before mumbling a soft prayer and touching his Rudra pendant for protection.
    ‘Now who the bloody hell are the Nagas?’ asked Shiva.
    ‘They are cursed people, my Lord,’ gasped Nandi. ‘They are born with hideous deformities because of the sins of their previous births. Deformities like extra hands or horribly misshapen faces. But they have tremendous strength and skills. The Naga name alone strikes terror in any citizen’s heart. They are not even allowed to live in the Sapt Sindhu.’
    ‘The Sapt Sindhu?’
    ‘Our land, my Lord, the land of the seven rivers. The land of the Indus, Saraswati, Yamuna, Ganga, Sarayu, Brahmaputra and Narmada. This is where Lord Manu mandated that all of us, Suryavanshis and Chandravanshis, live.’
    Shiva nodded as Nandi continued. ‘The city of the Nagas exists to the south of the Narmada, beyond the border of our lands. In fact, it is bad luck to even speak of them, my Lord!’
    ‘But why would a Naga attack me? Or any Meluhan for that matter?’
    Cursing under his breath, Nandi said, ‘Because of the Chandravanshis! What levels have these two-faced people sunk to? Using the demon Nagas in their attacks! In their hatred for us, they don’t even realise how many sins they are inviting on their own souls!’
    Shiva frowned. During the attack, it hadn’t appeared that the Naga was being used by the small platoon of soldiers. In fact, it looked to him like the Naga was the leader.

    It took another week for them to reach Devagiri. The capital city of the Meluhans stood on the west bank of the Saraswati, which emerged at the confluence of the Sudej and Yamuna rivers. Sadly, the Saraswati’s flow was severely reduced compared to her once mighty size. But even in her abbreviated state, she was still massive and awe-inspiring. Unlike many of the tempestuous rivers of the Punjab, the Saraswati was achingly calm. The river seemed to sense that her days were coming to an end. Yet, she did not fight aggressively to thrust her way through and survive. Instead, she unselfishly gave her all to those who came to seek her treasures.
    The soaring Devagiri though, was in complete contrast to the mellow Saraswati. Like all Meluhan cities, Devagiri too was built on giant platforms, an effective protection against floods and a sturdy defence against enemies. However, where Devagiri was different from other Meluhan cities was in its sheer size. The city sprawled over three giant platforms, each of them spreading over three hundred and fifty hectares, significantly larger than other cities. The platforms were nearly eight metres high and were bastioned with giant blocks of cut stone interspaced with baked bricks. Two of the platforms, named Tamra and Rajat , literally, bronze and silver , were for the common man, whereas the platform named Svarna or gold was the royal citadel. The platforms were connected to each other by tall bridges, made of stones and baked bricks, which rose above the flood plains below.
    Along the periphery of each enormous platform were towering city walls, with giant spikes facing outwards. There were turrets at regular intervals along the city walls from where approaching enemies could be repelled. This spectacle was beyond anything that Shiva had ever seen. In his mind, the construction of a city like this must truly be man’s greatest achievement.
    Shiva’s entourage rode up to the drawbridge across the field of spikes to the Tamra platform. The drawbridge had been reinforced with