Chapter 12: He Came, He Saw, He Stayed

GUNUNG BATU, UPPER GALAS RIVER VALLEY, KINGDOM OF AMDAN NEGARA 980 AD

Prabhava travelled by land from the estuarine port at Tumpat. A journey by longboat upriver all the way to Jelawang would have been easier and faster, but he wanted to see the villages on the way. He hitched a ride on a bullock cart to Palekbang. He walked around the riverside village for a while, then took a boat to Pasir Mas. A pony took him to Tanah Merah. He rode a buffalo to Krai. Another boat took him to Dabong. When Prabhava reached Dabong, it was well past sunset.

He strolled around the place for a while before finding what looked to him like the site of the local trader's market. Then he saw a modest public pavilion, with stilts, flooring and framework of nibung, a sturdy kind of tall thorny palm, and roofing of dried coconut frond. It was just what he needed for the night.

He took his rucksack off his back and lay down. Exhausted after a full day of travelling, the rest felt divine. He was drifting into sleep when a loud shrill laugh jolted him. He lay still, primed himself for action, got up deliberately slowly and looked about him. There was noone to be seen. He heard another similar laugh from the grove of big tall trees behind him. It echoed eerily.

He turned around. He heard furtive movement from up among the tree branches. He saw the murky form of a creature with long arms and short legs. A faint jet of liquid hit the leaves lower down, followed by a sharp acrid smell. The thing was squatting on a branch, pissing away for all it was worth. It grinned at him, its white teeth gleaming in sharp contrast with the dark tree leaves. Then it laughed again.

It must have been a siamang, a cantankerous local gibbon with a ghost-like cackle which he had heard about, he decided. Probably out looking for crumbs left behind around the market area. Perhaps its was trying to steal his rucksack too.

The sweat and grime on his body was beginning to feel unbearable. He just had to have a bath. He walked around again and found a communal well. Several buckets, made of folded coconut fruit flower sheath, lay in the vicinity. Some rolls of coconut rope lay nearby. A few long poles of bamboo and wood, each fitted with a hook at one end, lay next to them. He decided to use the rope. It would be faster and easier. The well water smelt clean, and the bath felt so good.

His evening meal was roast banana and boiled tapioca with fried salted fish, which he had bought in Krai. He also had some boiled jering. It was a pungent smelling local bean normally eaten as a salad, but it tasted quite delicious when boiled and eaten dipped in grated coconut.

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Adhi Vira drove the surplus rice from his highland rice fields in Gunung Batu by bullock cart to Dabong, to be sold at the weekend market there. He was accompanied by his two assistants, Utih and Uda, who were now in their early twenties. While they were having a break, enjoying some roast tapioca dipped in grated coconut, washed down with refreshing thick sweet black coffee, a tall stranger approached them. He looked like a foreigner, and they had not seen him before. He looked several years older than Utih and Uda, Adhi Vira thought. 

"Excuse me, gentlemen," the man spoke. "I'm a traveller from afar, just arrived in Dabong a few days ago. I saw you three coming from the direction of the mountains. Could you have come from Jelawang?"

"Yes, we did, young man," replied Adhi Vira. "Would you be so good to introduce yourself, and perhaps enlighten us on the reason for your question?"

"I'm sorry," the stranger continued. "My name is Prabhava, from the land of Bhangala. I wish to go to Gunung Batu. If things permit, and nothing stands in my way, I would like to meet someone by the name of Adhi Vira, Prince Adhi Vira, also called Jati Perkasa, while I understand his followers like to call him ... Lord of the Mountain."

“Is that so?” Adhi Vira remained nonchalant. "But you don't look like the typical Bhangali young man that we normally meet. I see some telling differences."

"Umm, that could be because I have taken more after my father. He's a Kambhoja, from the clan of Ashvaka."

"Fair enough. So, are you a friend of this Adhi Vira then?"

"No. I don't know him. And he doesn't know me either. I only know his name."

"So what is your intention in wishing to meet him, if I may?"

"Right. It goes like this, Sir. Adhi Vira is said to be a scion of the Dharma Kusuma Dynasty, the rightful heirs to the throne of Amdan Negara, descendant kingdom of the Raktam Rttika, Chi Tu or Red Earth kingdom, called by the locals here as Bumi Merah. That kingdom was said to have been founded by someone named Buddha Gupta, Prince Buddha Gupta of the ancient Gupta Federation in northern Hindustan."

"So?"

"It so happened that this Buddha Gupta had a sister named Bhanu Priya, Princess Bhanu Priya. She was later married off to a prince of Gauda province, where Buddha Gupta once ruled as adhi pati, or regent. These two people, Bhanu Priya and the Gauda prince, then became my ancestors."

"If what you say is true, that means we are cousins of the same ancestry, for I am Adhi Vira. Although the time of Buddha Gupta and Bhanu Priya was five centuries ago, I still consider us cousins sharing the same one lineage. The lineage that began with the parents of Buddha Gupta and Bhanu Priya. Welcome to Amdan Negara."

Prabhava watched Adhi Vira again. The man whom he had been seeking for so long and only now found. Powerfully built, long faced and sharp featured, with high cheekbones and a dimple in his chin, Prince Adhi Vira was indeed a striking man, as much as Prabhava had often heard described to him.

"Oh!" Moments later the young man spoke again, his voice now tinged with excitement. "My father reminded me, that if I ever did meet you, to convey his regards, and his message of friendship, to you."

"How good of him. He sounds like a courteous gentleman. What is his name, if I may know?"

"Prakasha."

"A splendid name. Is he a native of Bhangala?"

"No. He was an adventurer from Badakshan, way away on the western side of the Himalayas. He came to Bhangala as a young man seeking to see the world. There are many of his like in Bhangala, serving in the army of the Pala Dynasty, the current rulers of Bhangala and many adjoining provinces."

"He's some kind of an army man then, I guess."

"He was."

"An officer?"

"Umm, yes. He was Maha Senapati of the Cavalry."

"A most important position. Then you would have some of his valour in you."

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Prabhava surveyed the hilly surroundings. Adhi Vira's residence was modest in size and style. But its construction had a special elegance about it, it had something subtly different from the other houses nearby.

Then Prabhava saw a young lady. She was washing some items of clothing by a well.

"Did you manage to sell many things, Father?" the girl spoke to Adhi Vira. A bright pink frangipani flower was pinned through her hair, which was tied up in a bun. Prabhava just stood there, stunned and dumbstruck. The girl was strikingly beautiful. Then she saw Prabhava, and their eyes met briefly.

"The Goddess of Luck must be with us today, Wangi," replied Adhi Vira. "Everything I brought was snapped up by midday." Then he turned toward Prabhava.

"Well, Prabhava. Suddenly you look lost in your own thoughts."

"Sorry, Sir. I was just captivated by the design of your home. Its architecture especially. It looks simple, but extremely beautiful and elegant in its construction and finishing."

"Wangi," Adhi Vira turned to his daughter. "Let me introduce to you our surprise guest. This young man has travelled so far just to look for us and to meet us. He's indeed a relative of ours from a couple of shared ancient ancestors. Prince Prabhava, from the city of Gauda, in the land of Bhangala." Prabhava nodded briefly to Kembang Seri Wangi.

"Young man," Adhi Vira now addressed Prabhava. "This is my daughter, Kembang Seri Wangi."

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Six months passed ...

"They must be fought, Lord Adhi Vira,” urged Prabhava. "Fought all the way, with all our might. Until they're totally defeated and ousted from Bukit Panau and the entire Kelantan River Valley. Because Amdan Negara is the absolute birthright of the sons and daughters of this land. And Dharma Kusuma Palace is the absolute birthright of the Dharma Kusuma Dynasty."

"Indeed, we have fought long and often towards that end, Bhava," replied Adhi Vira. "Since the time of my ancestors, as a matter of fact. But our problem is often that our fighting men are too few, while the enemy is always much more numerous and much better armed than us."

"If that is so, let me organise some squadrons of mercenaries from Bhangala, from among both Bhangali and Kambhoja. They're hardcore fighters. Along with a few shiploads of arms. With enough warriors and weapons, and with your own and your men's formidable combat skills, I'm confident we can raise an army capable enough of beating those foreign usurpers."

"Only, how would those weapons penetrate their tight embargo to reach us? Their boats and ships patrol and control all areas along this river valley, all the way to the rivermouth, as well as a large part of the shores around the rivermouth."

"We'll make landing on the west coast," Prabhava suggested. "Could we do that at Manjung, in Gangga Negara?"

"No, I would not. That wouldn't be suitable. The king of Gangga Negara is himself from the line of Bala Putra Deva, an ancient maharaja of Palembang Sri Vijaya. As a result of their Gangga Negara being conquered by Bala Putra Deva nearly two centuries ago. That means the current king of Gangga Negara is still quite a close relative of the court of Palembang. So he'd probably ally himself with Palembang."

"Or we make a shore-hugging expedition from Bhangala, sailing by the country of Arakan, then the lands of the Pyu, the Bhama and the Mon," Prabhava continued. "We can then pick up more mercenaries in those places. We make landing at Sungai Mas or Pangkalan Bujang, in Kedah Negara. A portion of the weapons we give away to our friend the Nara Pati of Kedah Negara, as a token of friendship. He'll appreciate that, I'm sure. The rest we carry here by land, through the jungle, across the interior."

"Only, from what I hear, Sungai Muda is now fast silting up," Kembang Seri Wangi interjected. "Its waters are getting shallower by the week. So for big ships to land by there would be problematic. Whereas, the waters of Sungai Merbok are still deep enough, making Pangkalan Bujang a more preferred jetty."

"Right. These are among the many things that we have to consider," Adhi Vira commented. "Apart from that, transporting the weapons by land, through thick jungle and across hills and mountains, would be a formidable challenge."

"We'll use animals, Sir," responded Prabhava. "Cattle, water buffaloes, and horses. If you could get hold of some trained elephants, that would be even better. This will take a long time. But it would be the best way for us. Your fighters control the jungle, the hills and the mountains of the interior. Biduk Bota and his men can't touch us there."

"Umm,” Adhi Vira stroked his beard. "Some interesting ideas. They're worth pondering."

"Bhava's ideas sound plausible enough, Father,” Kembang Seri Wangi stepped out into the verandah from the main hall, bringing pumpkin porridge, roast chestnut and juice of young coconut from the kitchen. "We should give them a thought."

"We buy as many cattle and buffaloes as we can in Kedah Negara, Sir," Prabahva's mood buoyed further as his proposal received support from his paramour. "We bring warhorses by ship from Bhangala. We can get fine Kambhoja horses there. The place has become a horse trader's haven, rivalling Singhala Dvipa. We can get support from my father on that."

"That would be good. We'll study your suggestion then. I have also seen your fighting skills. They're quite formidable. Where did you learn them, if I may?"

"I picked things up everywhere I went, Sir. But the place where I learned the most was Kerala. I studied under a master who taught in the grounds of the Sri Venkata Eshvara Vihara, in the Thirupati Hills."

"I have heard of that vihara before. From adventurers and merchants from Kerala whom I have met."

"Venkata Nayaka, also called Venkata Eshvara, is believed by the people of Kerala to be the guardian deity of Venkata Hill, the tallest of a cluster of seven hills named the Thirupati. They also consider him as their god of fortune. Because the Venkata vihara has for long been the richest vihara in all Hindustan, holding the biggest treasure of wealth. While the Shastra and the Purana has also declared that one could attain mukhti just through worship of Venkata Nayaka."

"How amazing! Because this place, this Gunung Sembatu, is also the tallest of a cluster of seven mountains. I hope it's a good omen. For you and for us."

"Indeed, Sir, when I first arrived here, that was just what I thought. Because, the last place in Kerala from where I departed was a cluster of seven hills, while the final place which I reached in Amdan Negara was this cluster of seven mountains. Only I did not mention that to you."

"Good. I've heard also that the Kambhoja tribe, especially the Ashvaka clan, are great horsemen. Are you one of them?"

"Great or not would not be for me to say, Sir. But I've been taught to ride since I was just seven years old. By my own father.  By the time I was twelve years old, he had taught me to how to loose an arrow accurately on the gallop."

"Then you're just the kind of man we need. I want you to teach my men your skills. I want you to help me build a cavalry for the Dharma Kusuma Army, until one day it becomes the finest and the strongest in all Langkasuka."

"I am proud to accept the challenge, Sir. I consider your faith in me as the highest honour. One thing though ..."

"What is it?"

"If we're to have and use cavalry, then we'll have to build long wide roads and highways all over Amdan Negara. And we'll also have to clear a fair amount of jungle to grow proper grass for feed, and also to make plains for riding and fighting on. A horse army won't be much good in thick jungle. It'd be useless, basically."

"We can do all that if we defeat Biduk Bota, Father," Kembang Seri Wangi weighed in. "If we do one day build them, those roads and highways would also facilitate travel and transport, of both goods and people. That would enhance trade and commerce throughout Amdan Negara. It would be good for our people. It would enrich the kingdom, when it becomes our kingdom."

"Then, with that wealth, we could build even more roads and highways ," Adhi Vira smiled. "Sounds good."

Adhi Vira stroked Jalak, his favourite fighting cockerel. The white, cream and bluish green powerfully built, athletic looking bird crowed proudly, ending with a sharp curt cut characteristic of a fighter of consummate pedigree. Jalak's sire was a gift to Adhi Vira from a chieftain friend from Singgora, a town in northern Patani famed throughout the Langkasukan Federation for its excellent cockerels. Now in his prime, Jalak had needle sharp spurs that grew out of the back of each leg like a keris, an elaborate combless crest shaped in the preferred form, like a segment of lime fruit, and a luxuriant cluster of elegantly crisp tail feathers.

A small bald dip on his head just behind the crest indicated pure breeding, meaning that Jalak's mother had mated with only one cockerel, Jalak's father, all throughout a single laying cycle. This would only have been achieved by complete confinement of the pair over that entire period.

Jalak also had a desired distinctive legscale pattern. He had two penyelit, or inserts, on his right leg, and three on his left. A penyelit was a single scale on the front of the leg that lay centrally, but prominently out of line with the columns of scales on either side of it, as if it had deliberately been inserted there. It was known among the gaming fraternity as a mark of courage, tenacity, excellent lineage and a fierce will to win. That Jalak had five over two legs was considered an extremely rare occurrence. All in all, Jalak had every attribute coveted in an outstanding Langkasukan breed.

As Adhi Vira released him, Jalak's feathers flared gamely. He flapped his wings robustly and crowed again. He made to circle Adhi Vira, dropping both wings low as he did so, then wheeled around and pecked his master's hand playfully.

Prabhava's youthful bravado was undoubtable, matching his boldness and daring during a fight. In those respects he was not unlike Jalak. Those qualities even reminded Adhi Vira of himself as a young man. But to a seasoned fighter like Adhi Vira, the viability or otherwise of Prabhava's ideas had to be evaluated and tested first, his quite outstanding combat skills notwithstanding.

As for his own daughter, Adhi Vira had learned to respect her views when she spoke. Kembang Seri Wangi had changed so much since her childhood days. She was a shy child, inclined to be tentative, often preferring to play alone, and rather insecure with herself. But she had gradually, over time, turned into an independent minded young lady, stout hearted and strong spirited, with a will and courage to stand by something she believed in. It had been an immense transformation, and it had amazed Adhi Vira.

As he looked back, he felt that it had begun some time after the arrival of Nibung and Pinang in his home. Perhaps their presence had triggered some sisterly protective instinct in Kembang Seri Wangi, slowly but surely changing her into someone more assertive and outspoken, and who relished assuming responsibility. While her subsequent exposure to fighting training, much of it under Adhi Vira's own supervision, had forged a certain robustness and self-confidence in her character.

Then Adhi Vira recalled the prophecy of Teratai Putih the Seer about his daughter twenty years past. He had always wondered about the ways of folks like Teratai. They always liked to talk in riddles which others found hard to fathom, even when they could have said something in a simpler way.

While he himself preferred to rely on his strength, courage and skills, apart from common sense, sly and wile, to survive and thrive, and thereby sustain his life's quest. Nevertheless, the progressive changes in his daughter's persona seemed to him to be directed toward fulfilling Teratai's prophecy. Perhaps there was some method, after all, to Teratai's strange talents, he contemplated.

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Seven years later …

The prophecy of Sarghuna had been fulfilled. To near absolute accuracy. Just a year after Prabhava's arrival in Amdan Negara, he and Kembang Seri Wangi was married. In a wedding of as much pomp and pageantry as was possible for a dethroned royal household living in exile in the far interior, far from their former dynastic abode. They were blessed with a son, whom they named Shakranta, after a great grandfather of Adhi Vira.

Kembang Seri Wangi stirred the porridge of sarek yam, sweetened with dark brown flakes of coconut sugar and made fragrant with pandan leaf, in the copper pot. It had been a favourite of her father's ever since she could remember. Now her husband had taken a special liking to it too. Every so often, she would glance out of the wide open window of the kitchen, to watch six year old Shakranta and his antics while he was playing nearby.

"Tata," Kembang Seri Wangi peered out of the kitchen window, looked left, then right. "Where are you?"

"I'm here, Mother," the little boy answered. "Right here. Under the mangosteen tree."

"Oh. I see. So, what have you done today, Son?"

"I chased a baby dragon away."

"Ooo. What a brave young man. I thought it was your friend."

"This is a different one, Mother. It wanted to steal our chicken's eggs. So it can't be my friend."

"All right then. Just mind yourself watch out that it doesn't bite you."

Kembang Seri Wangi glanced out again. A biawak, the local monitor lizard, reared its head, looking furtively in the direction of the chicken laying nests under the high planked flooring of their stilt supported wooden house. The nests were made out of cut bamboo stems with one end split up into strips spread out and held apart with coconut fibre rope, padded out with dried grass and leaves, then stood up on the other end and tied to a house stilt. Her son picked up a stick and strode towards the big lizard, brandishing his stick at it menacingly. The biawak scampered away into the bushes.

"Tata," a while later Kembang Seri Wangi chucked out some yam skin peel to the ducks and geese. "What're you doing now then?"

"I'm feeding Rinting some padi, Mother," her son answered. "I want him to grow up strong and tough. He's going to be a champion one day. Just like his father."

Rinting was one of the numerous juvenile progeny of Jalak, Adhi Vira's now ageing but still unbeaten prizefighter. In plumage, legscale pattern and crowing style, Rinting stood out from the contemporary crop of juveniles, and Adhi Vira had given him to Prabhava as a special gift.

"Don't you go wandering too far, all right."

"I won't, Mother. I'll just be around here."

While waiting for the sarek porridge to cook, Kembang Seri Wangi boiled a kettle of coffee in the old copper kettle, an heirloom from her late mother, the mother whom she never knew. In a little while, her husband would be home and the family would be having their late morning snack togeher.

"Wangi,” she heard her father's voice from the front of the house.

"Yes, Father. What is it?"

"Where's your son?" Adhi Vira washed his feet and walked up the steps to the house. He plonked himself on the bench of their verandah and leaned on the wooden railing. Now blessed with a six year old grandson, the man remained sturdy of body, his muscles still taut and rippling. "I haven't seen him all morning."

"He's over there, Father. Near the samak tree. Showering padi to his father's young cockerel."

"Oh, so he's around. Good. Don't you ever let him stray too far out of your sight, Wangi. He's the last heir of the Dharma Kusuma Dynasty." 

Adhi Vira doted on Shakranta, his only grandson. He was always fiercely protective of the boy. As the folks liked to say, a fighting cockerel of fine pedigree often had difficulty producing enough offspring of similar quality. Could it be that the same challenge was now weighing down on the Dharma Kusuma Dynasty? Kembang Seri Wangi kept watching her son as she continued pondering.

"And what about Bhava, where is he?"

"He's gone to the river, Father. To buy some fish and veggies brought by folks from downriver."

"Pinang and Nibung, they're not back yet?”

"No. They might be late. They said they were going to set up traps for singing doves, while inspecting their other traps for fowl, pheasant and mousedeer."

Adhi Vira then laid down on his back. A little snooze would do him good.

"Grandfather!" Shakranta's pitched voice jolted Adhi Vira just as he was about to doze off. The child had moved to the front of the house. "Why wouldn't Rinting pick on the padi anymore?"

"Oh, Tata,” Adhi Vira sighed. "If he doesn't want to pick anymore, that means he's already full up. You just look at his gut. It's all big and puffed up, isn't it? Now, if you're already full up, your tummy swollen, and your mother still wants to feed you, would you continue to eat?"

"You always have to go on, don't you, Grandfather?" the boy complained. "Ask him a simple question, and he gives you a long lecture," he muttered.

Kembang Seri Wangi chuckled to herself at the banter between the two.

During her youth, it never ever crossed Kembang Seri Wangi's mind that she would meet and marry a prince. Let alone one from such a faraway land. That she was her herself a princess was of no consequence. Such a possibility seemed close to nought, considering the secluded environement that she lived in. Other than her own circle of close friends, all she had for company were, for most of the time, the screeching of crickets during the dry weather, the croaking of frogs in the wet season, the warbling of birds all day every day, the shrieking of monkeys in the late afternoon and the cackling of siamang in the early morning.

Not that she hankered after it all that much. In her eyes every fellow stood equal. She never saw anyone in terms of rank or lineage, or distinguished between people by such things. What was much more important to her was their own character.

Eventually, however, the will of the Great Ordainor surpassed all, when a prince of mixed Kambhoja-Bhangali ancestry turned up in Dabong one day and met her father. A meeting which led to the man's coming to Gunung Sembatu and his own first meeting with her. A meeting from which had sprung a love of the truest quality.

"Bhava … are you sure enough ... committed enough ... in your feelings for me ... to ask for my hand in marriage ... to settle in Amdan Negara ... and to not return to Gauda again?" Kembang Seri Wangi had asked, craving that little piece of certainty, in the midst of the sprays of mist by the great waterfall of Jelawang which cascaded down from the peaks of Gunung Batu.

"Indeed, my love," Prabhava had answered, his eyes first gazing into hers, then at the moon sailing the clouds. "I am as sure as can be, as committed as can be. I shall still return to Gauda every once in a long while, to release my longing for my mother and my father. But here, in you Wangi, in your family, in this village, in these entire mountains, I have found the complete peace I have been seeking all my life. With your father's blessing, only this place will be my sanctuary until the end of my days."

"Won't you ever be troubled ... by boredom ... in the days to come?"

"Not likely. I shall always be awed and excited by the struggle of the people of this land. A noble struggle, which knows neither weariness nor fatigue, against occupation and oppression. I want to give it all I have and all I can. I want to be a part of it all."

As the old proverb said, the fish came from the sea, the tamarind from the land, but still in the pot they met.

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