A Slave who became Emperor Chapter 46

Prince Deepak looked at everyone . . he said, 'seriously no one has realized? north to both Magadha and Gupta empires . . almost equidistant to both Manipura and Indraprastha, there lies an abandoned city . . ' Pinaka smacked his forehead . . 'of course . . The city of Avanti . . abandoned by the great King Shantanu . . ' everyone sighed . .

Avanti city was renowed as the city of learning . . this city didn't have any warriors . . It was considered as the city of Knowledge . . the people who lived there were scholars . . It was governed by the great King Shantanu . . it stood independent and was never absorbed by any empire . . education was something which was valued by everyone . . the nobles and emperors sent their kin to Avanti to learn and develop . . one fine day King Shantanu and his subordinates were walking near his palace . . there was a well learned astrologer who came and said, 'King Shantanu, you need to abandon this city and move towards east . . the whole country will be struck by a famine . . since Avanti is an independent city . . . no empire will come forward to help you . . unless it gets absorbed into that empire . . ,in the East there is an abundance of food . . you and your people will flourish . . ' King Shantanu got scared, he immediately called the astrologer in his court and told him the prophecy . . . the court astrologer calculated something on his fingers,closed his eyes and cast his vision into the veils of time . . he saw black clouds approaching the city of Avanti . . he read them as misfortune . . he told the King what he saw . . King Shantanu made all arrangements for his people to migrate . . . . some scholars chose to leave Avanti and travel the country to exhibit their talent in courts of various Kings and Emperors . . . some moved out and established their own gurukuls (residential schools), the offsprings of various emperors and Kings were sent back to their respective places . . along with them message about upcoming famine was given to everyone so that they could be ready to face it . . then the whole city under the leadership of Shantanu left towards east . . they constructed a beautiful city in the east and called it Arunodaya . . now it became the seat of learning for Hindustan as well as neighbouring countries . .

Samyukta said, 'But, Avanti is not a forted city . . It's not strong enough to withstand wars and invasions . . ' Emperor Krishna Chandra said, 'my dear . . you are right . . but there is no need to build everything from scratch . . we already have structures built . . . we can rennovate few buildings . . and modify few . . we will also constuct a huge fort wall around Avanti . . I was fortunate enough to see Avanti city when it was flourishing . . the King's palace, the Trimurti (Three great Gods of Hinduism) temple, council Hall, learning centres and houses were well made . . people of Avanti excelled in Architecture . . every construction is a lesson in architecture . . but of course it has been many years . . now we need to see and decide what needs to be done to make Avanti city be the glorious capital of unified empire . . . '

Emperor Surya Gupta said, 'Avanti was a great city . . as emperor Krishna Chandra said, let's send some people along with few architects to study the old city . . based on their report . . things can be taken forward . . of course construction and renovation would be planned only after the war with Zaffar ends . . '

Everyone nodded in agreement . . Old emperor Kailash Nanda (Pinaka's Grand father) said, 'Prince Deepak is indeed very smart . . he came up with an excellent solution . . I wish I could marry him off to my granddaughter . . Princess Mallika Nanda, my son's daughter . . 'the Prince blushed . . everyone was taken aback, the old emperor was so decisive . . he just spoke his mind without dabbling his words in honey or playing word games . . emperor Krishna Chandra said,'old emperor, it would be an honor . . but of course the Prince and Princess have to meet first and decide . . '

'Hahaa . . of course . . let's discuss this in private . . later . . now the issue at hand is solved I believe . . arrangements should be made for the marriage . . my grandson will be married soon . . his freedom would be taken away . . 'emperor Kailash Nanda said and laughed out loud . . it was a lite hearted moment . . it brought a smile on everyone's face . .

Meanwhile Badshah Khan left Benazir with her grandfather and resumed his journey . . he reached the foothills of Hindukush mountains . . he traversed across the rough terrain . . he found a mountain pass . . as he moved forward he felt someone move in shadows . .

Chapter end