BY E. NARAYANAN

SCENE I

KAUTILYA

So, that is the end!

To yield up all my dreams, to fortify myself with unnatural content, to say, "Let all be as you wish"–to whom? –not to the King's imperial self–not to the rising tide of popular demand which I have prophesied will overtake each State, not to a conqueror such as Sikander.¹ That would be natural. But nothing is to be natural in this most unnatural life of mine. To smile and to bow, to greet with reverence, to whisper and to nod–whom?–that shaven priest who prates of nirvana and sushupti, of ordained law that transcends all created rules, who shivers at the mention of my code, and blanches at the record of my life–whom, if twenty years ago he had dared to interpose betwixt me and the King, would have annihilated as the river Ganga does the creeping cottages of the poor upon her flooded banks. To such an one I yield my place. My place–not mine! For mine is not the place beside a senile man. I stand behind the King, the abstract, most imperial lord–the man is nought to me. But–Oh Chandragupta!–

Speak! I am in no mood for ceremonies. I have no time to go through all the formulas, that I myself created.

THE MESSENGER: [Blows again, joins his palms on his breast.]

"May the most learned master of all arts, be who is the ear and eye to the Lord of all this wide domain, the–."

KAUTILYA

Enough, you mud-souled parrot, I say, enough; out with what thou wert commissioned to convey. Drop all the prefixes.

MESSENGER

My supreme Lord the King would speak to you.

KAUTILYA

Yes?

KAUTILYA

He would speak to me. But what has he to speak to me? To me who always was the first to speak! Perhaps he wants me to stay on, to wean his son to Royalty, to begin yet again where I began with him–and by slow degrees to teach the boy the great fact that power and love are poles asunder, that the King is opposed to the Man, that there is neither reward, regret nor recompense to him who acts, that being conscious of the action is the only drop of heaven vouchsafed to supermen, while all the nameless millions of mankind can have their sleep, their loves and hates, and rhapsodies. Aye, to teach all this, and when his spirit breaks beneath the weight of will, to let the son go, take his father's course and follow cattle-like some single-visioned maniac. Let him ask me that–and I shall show him that even Vishnugupta can refuse the wandering chela of a monk. Why is it that I feel like this? Am I too on the road to vile decay? I–I am Kautilya–and I must fight. Fight for the King against the Man. I will not yield without a word. [Exit]

SCENE II

FIRST GUARD

Whither so fast, my friend? What is the great news?

MESSENGER

I know not, The King smiles on me, asks me what my name is, how much I get for my services, says "Will you do this?" or "Will you go there?" as if asking a kindness of me–and then Chanakya bursts upon me like an anger-laden thunder cloud, shouts at me to haste, to drop all prefixes, and after hearing my message, asks "Yes?" so coyly and so hesitant as would a bride upon the first night summoned to her lord's bedside.

SECOND GUARD

But what was the message that got this wonderful reply?

MESSENGER

It was nothing; day in, day out, I carry such to all the ministers, and never once in all this thirteen years has His sweet Majesty once upon me smiled–nor ever has that marble-faced Minister lost once his placid temper and bid me haste.

FIRST GUARD

The message?

MESSENGER

I tell it was nothing more than this– "Go, as Kautilya if he can attend on me awhile," said my Lord the King.

GUARDS

Ha– Ha–and on this you built up all this tale, We thought some second conqueror had come across the Sindhu–[They laugh]

FIRST GUARD

He is in haste.

SECOND

True. The sweat drops stood upon his brow. His eyes did sparkle like red cinders. What does this cool man's ire portend?

FIRST

Nothing good for such as we.

FIRST GUARD

She is going to the Prince.

SECOND

But I heard she was not in favour with him.

FIRST

Oh! That was because she wanted him to bring the boy up far away from Court.

SECOND

Lest he should know how his mother earns her livelihood?

FIRST

And it seems the Prince so likes him that he CANNOT PART with him a day.

SECOND

That boy looks more a prince than Bindusara himself.

FIRST

Harlot's children always are the best.

SCENE III

But even in your wonderful chariot, will not the central axle once get worn? And when the outer wheel begins to slow, would you not rather change it? And to prove your own theory, will you not see if this same perfect chariot would go with another axle?

KAUTILYA

Yes. If I do have the running of the chariot, as you so graciously say I have, I would pluck out the age-worn part without compunction. Be it the central axle or the veriest spoke in any little wheel, I would not hesitate. The dead and dying are not, and will never be, interesting to me.

CHANDRAGUPTA

Who else should know the axle is decaying than the axle's very self? Ah, me!

Oh King–and this from you, and that unnecessary sigh! I tell you it is not decay. It is but the dirt that gathers round the axle and makes slow the revolutions, and I am here to brush away the dirt.

CHANDRAGUPTA

Chanakya, this is the truth: It is not the priest alone that has made the resolve. I feel–I feel–

KAUTILYA

Don't feel–that is left for your innumerable slaves. Do, do as Sikander did! Don’t you remember that cold winter day when Taxila bent low as, from the West, sun-like, resplendent in his vital strength–dispensing punishment and justice without thought–he came? The mightiest man of Time that has been yet! And our own kith and kin–our loud–spoken Porus, and that wonder-bag of learning and humility, that long-forgotten king of Taxila,–begged favours and crept cur-like, with gold and wine, and softly-breathed praise–crept to his very heel. And you?–that stood by me in that vast throng that saw the Yavan going like the sun, preceded by the dawn-flush of his own bright glory into the heaven where, but a moment gone, a thousand stars had scintillated! Are you the same who turned to me with shaded eyes and said,–your breath all gone with suppressed ambition–, "I will go West as he is coming East," And how far have you gone West? Not further than that, slow-wittd Nikator's, your father-in-law's, harem. The West is not Iran! It is past that and far away, and with such as you the East will never lay its hand upon the West. You and yours will ever bend to Time's decaying touch and yield what you have accomplished, when but the final touch is wanted, when the last effort alone remains for completion. Would I had been a Greek and had that man for master! I would have kneaded all this your petty empire as so much dough and mixed it with the glory of fast-breaking Greece! Oh! Rebel, my King, rebel against this onset of your weakness–say, "I will not yield to stupor." Organise, as once you did. Tear up my hard-created constitutions, stamp upon your treaties as if they were poisonous worms, don't let your person's habits, and the customs of the Government, and the traditions, sit on your bright imperial mind. Act once more. There to the East lie all the war-ring millions of China. Or to the West unnumbered millions of Barbarians, who await but your approach to become nations. Have vision. Aye, do anything. I promise to withdraw my codes to write a thousand new ones. If you will but act. Be Chandragupta once again–the man who, looking on the glaciers of the North, that smiled in unsurpassable height, and at his famished followers, said, "My friends, what glory! Better to die upon those peaks of frozen white, than weep here and be buried." Be the King again–Kautilya's master, your own dear peerless self.

CHANDRAGUPTA

You indefatigable old man! Your Chandragupta, as you call him, will be where you are. I, the weakling, go, I leave behind me my own blood. And if Bindusara is my son, he cannot but flame up, as often I have done, at your supreme eloquence. Stay on. Forget me. Make him greater than I was.

KAUTILYA

Is that your final word?

CHANDRAGUPTA

It is.

SCENE IV

CHAMBER OF THE PRINCE

BINDUSARA

But I too love him, Indu.

INDULEKA

You do. Then do you earnestly want him to grow up in this cloying wilderness of intrigue, lovelessness, and falsehood? Do you want his slowly wakening mind to see that she whose breast fed him to strength is but a harlot? Do you want him to see me ply my wiles to collect deep secrets of State from enemies? Do you want him, least of all, to see my unhallowed love for you? No! No father worth the name would like his child to curse the womb that bore him.

BINDUSARA

But when the King has given me the State, and Kautilya has been pensioned off, you shall lead your life as you would wish. You need not act the spy. Your only care shall be to bring him up, our child. He need not know that you are anything but my chosen consort, which indeed you shall be. And I promise you by his sweet self, he shall be the Emperor of a greater empire than I now inherit. Bear with me awhile–a little while, my Indu, and I shall wash this Court of all its dross, and make it chaste enough for our own love and our love's child. What say you? Yet doubting! Yet hesitant! Do you not know your Bindusara, Love!

Would I have taken you from where Kautilya's victim had cast you, and held you to my breast, if I had not intended, even then, to cherish you?

INDULEKHA

No–No–my lord, remind me not of that. I may go mad even yet. Allow me but this. Let him be brought up, till the time you talk of comes, in some removed place. Let him breathe awhile unpolluted air, where courtesans will not kill his childish mind with their poison-breath;–where envy will not follow him, nor slander, nor this politics. Yield only this once to my wish, my Prince; and your Indulekha shall be ever grateful–ever.

KAUTILYA: [Looking at the Prince]

I have been to the King’s chamber.

BINDUSARA

Is he still stubborn?

KAUTILYA

That quality alone is left in him of my old master.

BINDUSARA

So he is renouncing?

KAUTILYA

Yes. He is renouncing.

BINDUSARA

Stay, dear one! I and Vishnugupta have no secrets that you may not hear. (To Kautilya) Has the priest come?

KAUTILYA

I have no interest in priests. They, like the words on their lips, are superstitions. I am a care only for facts. Prince!

BINDUSARA

Why not sit, Vishnugupta–and you too, my love; come near me. Here is our man of facts, and there is no need to hide the truth from him. Our love is a fact; is it not?

KAUTILYA: [Sits down]

Your father is renouncing his kingdom. He tells me he is weary of it. He has taken for his master a stray madman from amongst those lunatics who ever prate of nirvana and knowledge. He is leaving in a day or two with this same madman on an endless pilgrimage. Has he told you all his plans?

BINDUSARA

Yes. Last night he called me to his bed-chamber and we talked far into the night. He recounted to me the troubles that he took to mould this State to what it is today. He talked of you and your inexorable will. He told me that he would leave me to you and you to me. He–

KAUTILYA

Leave me to you! When did I indeed become a thing to be left, a chattel to be handed over by sweet, renouncing, sentimental father to the young hopeful son? Listen, I have told him and I tell you–I am not a retainer–a flunkey to be paid well and pensioned off when sucked work-dry. I might die–my person might disintegrate. But I–the real I–am Fact. I have no sentiment. I am the Spirit of the State. I encompass the People, the Government and the King. I am not to be passed on with thanks and gratitude. I am the essence of the sense of nationhood–I have no separate existence from the organisation that has grown around me. People grow tired of me. They fly from me. Some dread me. But I assert. I am not some vile inanimate lovable toy to be shifted from owner to owner. When a king rejects me, he is no more a king. I–

KAUTILYA: [Continues as soon as the door closes]

I and your father made this kingdom. You raise your brows at my want of modesty. I assume modesty only with those I want to win over to my side. Your father and I met when he was a landless young marauder and I was but a stripling full of garnered old-world lore. But I had even then in me the vision of an empire, –the premonition of a scheme to weld the various peoples of our land into a nation. We met. He was ambitious. He was strong and brave. He was honest. I perceived in him the ideal First Ruler for a State,–the man who can with but a little effort be a God to men. We worked. We wrought this kingdom. And now he tells me he is tired, that he wants some calm before his death. I have told myself and him that it is not yet time for him to go away. Our foundations for an empire are strong. But the super-structure has not yet had the final touch. He tells me that I can remain and touch it up. And I will stay and touch it up if you will consent.

BINDUSARA

Most gladly I do consent.

KAUTILYA

Consent to what, my Prince?

BINDUSARA

To your remaining at Court, to your being what you all along have been–the main and central prop of our dynasty and our crown, the chiefest counsellor, and the dearest friend.

KAUTILYA

Aye, all that and something more, my Prince.

BINDUSARA

What more?

KAUTILYA

Your father and I, Prince, grew together. I modified him and he in turn might have affected my own growth. We complemented each the other till the two of us were but one single whole–the State. Now he goes and you step in. You in your youth, and your want of experience, will not complement me. I must mould you into what your father is. I must wean you from yourself, must take away your self and instead graft on you a mighty kinghood. Till I succeed in doing that, I must be free to be both parts of the whole, what your father and I have been. Do you consent to this?

BINDUSARA

I do not comprehend you. You talk in abstractions.

KAUTILYA

I was never fond of generalisations. I work in detail. It is only when I have achieved that I draw broad conclusions. So, then, if you want to know what my conditions are–well, listen. You must entrust yourself to me–not as heretofore, the pupil to the teacher,–but the King-to-be to the King-maker. You must give up your pleasures, your company, your personal happiness even.

BINDUSARA

My pleasures, my company, my happiness even! Oh God! When had I happiness? You and my father wilted my childhood and buried my youth in arid reasoning and ambition. Pleasures? What pleasures have I had between you two? I never played with flowers or children as others do. I never quarrelled, never laughed, and when my manhood was awaking in me, I never looked at women who were not in our pay. What pleasures then have I to give up? What company and what happiness?

KAUTILYA

Repining and sloth are the pleasures of weak kings. You must give these up–and more– I again assert you must give up tour present company.

BINDUSARA

You mean–

KAUTILYA

Yes, I mean the dancing girl who was here but now.

BINDUSARA

Indulekha?

KAUTILYA

Yes, Indulekha.

BINDUSARA

But I love her. She is the mother of my child.

KAUTILYA

My King cannot find time to love or indulge in selfish father-hood.

BINDUSARA

What would you do with her and me then?

KAUTILYA

I would have her back at her destined work–dancing and singing, sleeping with those I want to crush, thieving dear secrets from their close-guarded minds–and–

BINDUSARA: [Springs up]

Listen, man, I will not have you talk so. I love her–I, the King-to-be––

KAUTILYA: [Without minding the interruption]

And you–Prince, King–to–be, I would have you work. I will take you from your ease and sentiment, your leisure and your repining for lost pleasures. I will take you with me into the ugly intricacies of statecraft, show you the workings of human ambition and greed, teach you to curb rebellion with subtlety and spurn friendship with force. I shall have you work with me day and night, and, when you looked long enough behind the scenes, to know that personal comfort is not the thing for which kings spend their lives. I shall let you be King again and no more Man!

BINDUSARA

Vain man, you forget you are a man–your limitations in your affected abstractions–that encompassing your constitution is a greater constitution, one of love–that to it each one of us must, nay, will submit, as has my father, your complement, and even you, some day.

KAUTILYA

Ah! Love–love–and meek religiosity–how long am I to bear with this? I who will not understand this prattle of weak fools?

BINDUSARA.

Aye you will–you will and a very short while hence, my friend! You shall have some taste of this greater law. You shall see me make this kingdom greater than you ever did, and still remain a man, and love and weep, and glory in my ‘selfish’ fatherhood. You shall see the ‘scenes behind,’ with which you threaten me, swept off, and their place true scenes, most open scenes established!

KAUTILYA

You mean?

BINDUSARA

I mean that you will see me reign and yet be man. I mean the woman whom you cast to the horrors of political harlotry and espionage grown into her womanhood and truth, and reign with me. I mean that the dear flower of our love, my child, succeed me to a purer throne, if God vouchsafe you a length enough of existence.

KAUTILYA

The flower of your love! Your child! Her womanhood! What I shall tell you now, I tell you not out of any sense of personal triumph or hatred. I speak because I want to break the coils of petty selfishness that bind you. Do you remember how you came upon this woman whom you love––who bore your child?

BINDUSARA

I do, and I do know who brought her to the place from which I dragged her.

KAUTILYA

I –was it not?

BINDUSARA

Yes, you–and you shall pay for it.

KAUTILYA

Now, now, let us not quarrel and get angry. There is time enough for that. Do you know how I brought her to that place?

BINDUSARA

How should I know? My mind is clean and cannot ever think of all the vile persuasion you might have used–and she has ever been silent upon it.

KAUTILYA

She has cause to be–

BINDUSARA

KAUTILYA

I don't. I merely recollect aloud. She was even more beautiful than she is now, and she was the most intelligent of all our girls. She could sing like the early wind in the bamboo grove. She danced like sun-beams on the ripples of the lake. And I had need of her, dire need. We were hard pressed–check-mated as it were. A vile man had the secrets I wanted––vital secrets–and I was resolved to have them. I tried him all my ways and he was obdurate. At last I resolved to try this girl. And I bought her. . . .

BINDUSARA

Enough–don't gloat over your sinister triumph. I knew too well you bought her,–poor misguided miserable poverty-stricken thing she was!

KAUTILYA

You err, my Prince. She was not miserable. She was not poor. She might have been misguided. I did not pay my price in money. I bought her with my manhood.

BINDUSARA

What?

KAUTILYA

I bought her services with the yielding up of my celibacy. She wanted that–nothing more, nothing less. She loved me. From very early days she had loved me. She wanted me. I was her God. And when she would have no other price, I gave, what she wanted. I am the father of her child––not you, nor that poor dupe who parted with his secrets. I do not excuse myself. I don't defend my action. There was no other course–and in a way she was beautiful. Her mind, which I had trained, was the fruit I had hoped it would be.

BINDUSARA:

You–you–I have borne with you enough. Swear that what you said now is a lie; or, by all that's true, I will kill you, for even you can be killed.

KAUTILYA: [Quietly]

No, my Prince, I cannot be killed. I am Fact–and I never tell an untruth but to my enemy or my tool, and you are neither yet. Instead, I assert the child you thought was yours is mine. Now let me sit here for a while. You must think over it.

BINDUSARA:

It is getting late, my Prince. The sun is almost down. I want your decision. I must see the King once more before that cursed priest comes back.

BINDUSARA:

Love, Sweet Love!

All-pervading, all–compassing,

Spirit of Life–breath of God,

Love, Sweet Love!

Scent of the flower, Light of the Star,

Sweetness of honey, Music of song,

Love, sweet Love!

KAUTILYA

Ah me!–There it goes again. Love–love–love–fantasy–humbug. When will Fact be sung to like that? Knowledge–precision–never, by the throbbing flesh of man–Oh, never! Prince!

BINDUSARA

Yes?

KAUTILYA

Have you decided?

BINDUSARA

Yes.

KAUTILYA

And what is your decision? Are you cured of your sentiment. Ready for the Kingship?

BINDUSARA

Yes, cured of my selfish jealousy. Ready for my Kinghood. Proud of my love for that poor woman and her child. Decided. Yes, decided that I shall yet give her happiness, and this maltreated country of mine a breath of truth, and honesty, and leisure to love. That is my decision. You go, unless you bend to my way of looking at things.

KAUTILYA

Is that so? But I will not go so easily my Prince, I tell you. I will see the woman again, will put forth all my power to wean her away from you–aye, even claim my child. Not to thwart you and take revenge, but because I care for this State more than I do for all the kings on this earth.

BINDUSARA

And if you fail?

KAUTILYA

When a fact is proved a failure or a lie, it ceases to be. That is all.

BINDUSARA

God will it be so!

KAUTILYA

Aye, God! How easily these words leap to the mouths of men when they are helpless in their impotence. God–Love–Justice–Truth–poor maltreated words, deified to soothe unreasoning human littleness. Aye, God will it so, when you with your littleness have not the magnitude to will it as you want; You are not King enough for me, my Prince. Even your father who is now courting bald-headed priests never called on God when he was of your age.

BINDUSARA

Poor, misguided man!

KAUTILYA

Misguided indeed, in not being guided by you. I go to see the woman–the mother of my child. [Exit]

SCENE V

[The dancing girl’s room. Kautilya reclining on a couch. The evening sun shines in. The dancing girl stands with her back to a pillar, looking at Kautilya. Kautilya looks intently at her face.]

KAUTILYA

So, you believe you love him.

INDULEKHA

Why believe?–I know.

KAUTILYA

So did you say about me, when you thirsted for my kisses.

INDULEKHA [Flinching]

If you are a man you will not remind me of it!

KAUTILYA

Because I am a man, I remind you of it. I have begun to want you. I even love you.

INDULEKHA

Don't abuse that sweet word. I don't know what you want with me. Is it again some poor wretch to be cheated?

KAUTILYA

No. I tell you I want you. I want to take you away from this Court and give you and our child a quiet life where he will grow into a good man.

INDULEKHA

Our child?

KAUTILYA

My child, then. I am getting old and I must have rest. The King is going away. So be kind to me. Come with me.

INDULEKHA

But how can you leave the Court?

KAUTILYA

Oh, if they want me I shall be available, but I must from now have a private life of my own. Do you consent?

INDULEKHA

How could I consent? I tell you I love the Prince. He loves me. I have had my day of passion and now want only sweet love. So I cannot come with you. And as for my child, I shall trust a thousand-fanged snake before I trust you.

KAUTILYA

He is not yours alone. He is mine too–and if the Prince knows that, will he be as fond of him as he is?

INDULEKHA

God knows! But be assured, If you force me to it, I will even tell him the truth and trust to his sweet clemency.

KAUTILYA

I can be as sweet and kind as he.

INDULEKHA

Aye, to your dupes.

KAUTILYA

(Rises and goes near her) Indu, my love, listen to me. I might have been a chariot. But do you know how tired a chariot grows? Perpetual work, with no thought of reward–do you know how weary it looks after a time? Is it for my own pleasure that I have denied myself till I am almost marble-hearted? Yow know you loved me once–loved with a passion that even I could not obstruct–and do you think such love evokes no response? I tell you from the day I held you in my arms, full of cynical triumphant abandonment, you have been part of me. And see, dear, the future; you with your matchless beauty and I with my brain can make our child the greatest of all men. Think of it, don't–

INDULEKHA

Don't force me. I may have to tell the Prince all my dark story. I shall, before you try to take away my child. And he is so kind!

KAUTILYA

Try his kindness then and I shall try Chandragupta's sense of justice.

INDULEKHA

You call that justice, you–

KAUTILYA

I have no time. I must be with the King ere that bald-pate has him in his snare. [Goes out.]

SCENE VI

KAUTILYA

But my terms are these,–the Prince should give up his pleasures–should, be at my disposal absolutely–obey me in every respect till I find he is fit to think for himself as a King.

CHANDRA

He is very tractable, Vishnugupta. He never yet has defied me.

KAUTILYA

Too tractable and prone to yield to his sentiments. He must assert himself or, rather, the King in him should assert himself over the Man. He must deny his lesser self.

CHANDRA

Have we not all along taught him to do that?

KAUTILYA

Teaching is one thing, learning is another. No teaching ever has effect till the pupil wills to be taught.

CHANDRA

Does he feel he was compelled?

KAUTILYA

He does. He says we killed his boyhood and maltreated his adolescence with our codes and rules.

CHANDRA

Oh God, forgive me! But what is this particular instance where you differed with him?

KAUTILYA

Your Majesty must be alone before I speak of that.

CHANDRA

What ia it?

KAUTILYA

The Prince, your Majesty knows, loves particularly a dancing girl of the Court. He believes or rather believed he was the father of her child. He wants them near him. They are not averse to that either. In fact the woman too says she loves him, refuses to part from him. But they must part before the Prince thinks seriously of Kingship.

CHANDRA

Indulekha?

KAUTILYA

Yes

CHANDRA

She is a sweet girl. I like her child too. Is he not Bindusara’s?

KAUTILYA

No.

CHANDRA

Still he wants him?

KAUTILYA

I believe so.

CHANDRA

And the girl too loves him, loves him very much. Once I saw them together, and the light in her eyes was like the setting sun seen through a bank of lacy clouds.

KAUTILYA

Your Majesty has turned poet.

CHANDRA

I am getting old.

KAUTILYA

I realise it.

CHANDRA

What do you propose?

KAUTILYA

That your Majesty order him to give them up, and tell the girl to quit the Court with her bastard.

CHANDRA

But how can I? I am seeing things as I never thought I would see them, as you will never see them.

KAUTILYA

Don't pity me, Sire. I am content with my shortsightedness. So you will not interfere.

CHANDRA

Not that I will not–I cannot.

KAUTILYA

Why?

CHANDRA

I have lost the power. I know the mightiness of love. There is no warring against it. Love's way is the straightest.

KAUTILYA

Love again! I will not trouble myself or you with dissertations. I will put the case in another way. That child is mine.

CHANDRA

That child is yours!

KAUTILYA

Yes, I am the bastard's father. I begat it.

CHANDRA

How do you mean?

KAUTILYA

I mean that woman once was my mistress. The child is mine. I claim a father's rights. I want the mother too. Will you now separate them? Will you send them out of the Court, tell the Prince that kings are not to take the leavings of other people? You cannot refuse me.

CHANDRA: [Rises up]

At last! Oh Vishnugupta, you are human after all. So you loved once. You yielded to weakness once. You were a man!

KAUTILYA

No! I never was so stupid. I gave in conditionally. I bought her services with a child. I shall not speak of it.

CHANDRA

And now she says she loves my son. And it is a question of rivalry between the Prince of the realm and the Prime Minister. My God, I could laugh myself to death. But yours is the prior claim. I shall investigate. I shall decide.

INDULEKHA

I am a suppliant, your Majesty. I come to plead. A mother, and a woman in love. I do not know what is right. I will let everything rest in your Majesty's hands. I shall abide by your decision.

CHANDRA

My daughter, I know the story. I was acting the judge even while you came in, Whom do you love? The child, Vishnugupta, or my son?

INDULEKHA

I love my child–which woman will not? I love my lord the Prince–Oh–so much that if it is right that I must go away, I simply shall–and I . . . .

THE PRIEST

He is dead. Poor lovely one. I ran with him in my arms. But I am too late. He is dead. [The dancing girl springs towards the priest, takes the child and sinks down.]

My child–my child–my love–Oh God!

[Bindusara hastens to her and stands silent. Kautilya gets up and stands staring at the group. Chandragupta cries out, "What is it? How did it happen? Is it the child?]

THE PRIEST

I was coming into the Court of the Palms when a chariot driven by soldiers dashed in, the horses uncontrollable. The child with his friends was playing there. It was too quick. I jumped but was too late. The horses trampled him. The wheels went over him. My God, the pity of it! Sweet little thing! Is it her child?

BINDUSARA: [To Kautilya]

You can go.

KAUTILYA

Yes, I am going. [Walks away.]

CHANDRAGUPTA

Kalltilya– Kautilya–listen!