LecherKing                                                                                         Satyr                                                                                   Veeraswamy Krishnaraj There was an nth century town by name Indrapuri (இந்திரபுரி), which was ruled by satyrical King Varman (வர்மன்). He married Vani (வாணி), a woman with beauty and grace. He maintained a mighty army of elephants, horses, and men with chariots, weapons, spears, swords... He was an amorous character, fully charged with testosterone. He had a golden complexion. He was muscular and handsome and always had see-through keen eyes for beautiful women. He had a harem of three hundred women and then some. The women were let go after delivering a royal baby or reaching the age of twenty years, whichever came first. The concubines had a generous pension and health plan. They had unlimited visitation rights with their children in the school. There were constant ingress and egress because of strict adherence to rules. If there was hanky-panky with the male employees of the palace outside the harem, both were banished out of the country. With a generous benefit package, no one took that chance. The employees in the harem and hospital wards were females or natural-born eunuchs.  If anyone wanted to leave anytime, there was no royal objection or punishment. Criminal activity resulted in immediate dismissal and or punishment. Applicants for entry into harem were screened on age and fitness: Girl with one or more wisdom teeth in place was summarily rejected at the interview because the stated age was suspect.  Would his subjects allow such a stud-king among them and provide him with an endless supply of nubile girls? Are there any women left for them? The king knowing short supply in his nation-state meeting his specifications interviewed applicants from faraway lands. The Royal maternity wards and nurseries were chock-full of women in labor and wall to wall babies. Every day was Labor Day in the palace grounds. The midwives, physicians and nurses were very busy at the palace hospital. The Royal youths once out of the palace fend for themselves; their (and his) girls could not serve the king in the harem. When the princes reached the age of majority, they were let go to conquer and acquire lands for themselves. When the princess reached a marriageable age, the king held what was then known as Svayamvaram (சுயம்வரம் =  Selection of husband by a princess herself at a public assembly of suitors). Eligible invited bachelors of royal or noble descent would come to the palace grounds, where the men participated in tournament showing their skills in hand to hand combat, archery, spear throwing, boxing, wrestling, weight lifting... Every bachelor had his name, rank, ancestry, heredity, education, skills announced for all to know. Once the tournament was over, the princess would place a garland of white flowers on the youth of her choice. It was not uncommon for a princess to choose a boy over the king's or parent's objection.  King Varman used to go hunting in thick jungles within his kingdom. When he was on one of these expeditions, he saw a hermitage in the forest clearing by a river. There was a young woman, with a monkey, a donkey, an assortment of birds in the yard of the hermitage. She (Mullai = முல்லை) was listening to birds, watching the monkey do its practiced tricks. It was an innocent life for the young woman who was most likely the wife of a Rishi.  Varman: Good tidings to you young woman. What is thy pleasure? Mullai: Same to you. My husband has gone to the river to perform morning ablutions, rituals and prayers. These animals keep company with me, while he is gone.  Varman: Your face looks like the moon; better yet, because you have no blemishes. You have silken face, arched eyebrows, lotus eyes, endowed breasts, narrow waist... Mullai: Stop there. What is the purpose of your visit? Talk no further and leave the premises.  Varman: I own this place. You can't ask the owner to vacate his land.  Mullai: If you own the place, show me your papers. Varman: I need not show you any paper. I am the king of this land, you are living in. Varman tries to grab her hands. The animals get agitated. The donkey gives him a kick in his groin. The monkey climbs on his head pulling his hair. The birds were poking on his head and body. He was bleeding from his head, clutched his groin in excruciating pain and fell on his face. Soon thereafter, the Rishi appears and wonders why a bleeding man was flat on his face in front of his hermitage with his wife standing far away from him.  Mullai explains what happened. The Rishi (Ronan = இரோணன்) picks up the injured man and sits him on a fallen tree trunk. He was dazed and had a blank face. By that time, king's men arrive at the scene. The king regains his composure, the animals and birds withdraw and there it was when everyone was trying to figure out what happened.  Varman: What happened? Why am I bleeding from my head? Who did this ? The king's men attended to the king. The king could not recall the incident. He had retrograde amnesia.  King's men found blood in the beaks of the birds. The apparent amnesia stopped the Rishi and his wife from raising the subject of conversation between the king and Mullai and his near-molestation of Mullai. They told him that the animals and birds probably mistook him for an intruder and attacked him. The king's men and the king accepted the explanation, thanked the Rishi for his help and left for the palace. The hope was that the king will not recall the incident once he fully recovers from his concussion. The Rishi and Mullai did not want to take that chance.  Why did a king known for fairness to women of his harem was suddenly bitten with lust? Maintaining a harem: Is it fair for the women? Why did the animals and birds attack the king?  Ronan and Mullai moved out of Varman's country with their animals and birds to a neighboring forest. The animals took care of themselves with forest food.  It was not uncommon in those days that the forest-dwelling Rishis and their spouses moved from country to country. Ronan had Yogic vision and caused the animals to attack the intruding king, when he attempted to molest Mullai.  The king was getting old and disbanded his harem as his machismo was waning. The only woman to share his bed was his queen, Vani.  His subjects breathed a sigh of relief.  Some of his sons stayed and many left to found their own kingdoms, some of which were small, some large. The Svayamvarams were becoming rarer and rarer.  The last one was held about 25 years after the forest incident of which king Varman had very sketchy memory. This was the last Svayamvaram. There were many invited bachelors from royal and noble households. This time it was his royal daughter by the queen. Often common folks pose as noble men. Most of the time they get discovered, identified and ejected. This time a young dashing man somehow escaped detection and won the love of the princess. Soon after, the parents enquired about the young man. No one could come up with any detailed information on this young man who won the princess by his ability. King Varman ordered his men to arrest the winner. Rishi Ronan and Mullai appeared before the king and asked him to feel his head for a fairly large scar on his head with the shape of a question mark.  There it was the question mark scar on his head. Only the king, his queen and the Royal barber knew the scar on his head with a thick bushy hair.  The Rishi and his spouse explained that he sustained injury from the monkey, the donkey and the birds in their forest hermitage. The king recognized both , thanked them for their help and allowed the validity of Svayamvaram.  Rishi's son Rishaban (இரிஷபன்) and princess Priti (பிரீதி) married in an elaborate ceremony lasting for a week. Fortunately, the king never regained his memory of reason for assault from animals and birds, which made it easy for the Rishi, the king and their families.  The biological princess was to be the queen after the demise of King Varman. Rishaban did not want to be the queen's consort in the palace. He was used to the life of a forest dweller; becoming a Yogi like his father was his goal. Priti concurred with him and they retired to the same location where the king had his encounter with Mullai and the animals.  Who would then rule the kingdom after Varman died? The concubine-born princes from his harem founded other kingdoms. The last and one only true royal offspring born of King Varman and Queen Vani was princess Priti. The king was in a pickle. There was a talk in the town that a concubine (கூத்தி kūtti), ejected from the harem after she had King Varman's baby at 17 years of age, was married to a commoner (ஆடவன் āṭavan) and had a son (மலையன் Malaiyan). He was the spitting image of the king. How could that be possible? It appeared the king impregnated her again before she was ejected. Everybody assumed he was the son of Atavan.  There was no heir to the king because of the decision of princess Priti and royal consort Rishaban to become forest dwellers. Kūtti saw an opportunity here. She approached the palace, which verified her authenticity as a concubine from the past. She requested and was granted an audience with the king.  Kutti: Dear King I am Kutti, one of the many inmates of your harem.  Varman: Yes, I remember you. You were one of my favorites. We played long and hard many nights. What can I do for you? Kutti: I had a son with you; he left to found his own kingdom. Six months after my mandatory retirement from your harem, I had a baby. I believe he is your baby. Varman: How can you be sure? You were married to a commoner. Your boy could be his son. Kutti: Your majesty, I married the commoner Atavan 4 months after I left the Harem. This boy was born 6 months after my marriage to Atavan. He was a full term baby and weighed 7 pounds, indicating conclusively that Malaiyan was your biological son.  Varman: I remember my mother telling me I too weighed 7 pounds at birth. Still it does not prove I fathered Malaiyan. Kutti: I have incontrovertible proof that Malaiyan is your son.  Varman: What could that be? Kutti: Remember our dalliance in the harem chambers. We both used to be naked. I knew you from head to toes.  Varman: That was what I did with other girls too. That is not a proof.  Kutti: You had a red patch on the back since you were born. I remember to have kissed the area to make it disappear, every time you came to the chamber. Varman: Yes, I remember it. You were the only one to kiss the red patch to make it go away. Others pretended they did not notice it. Kutti: Remember, you used to chase me around the chamber naked with your erect phallus. That was a game between you and me then. You said I was the doe and you were the stag. Varman: That was a common fun and frolic I had with every one of my concubines. Oh, those days. They were so much fun. Kutti: Remember, as you were running after me, you lost your step and hit your groin on the frame of the bed. Varman: Yes I remember. It was bleeding. You applied pressure and attended on the scratch many days. You also found I had four testicles. For a month, I did not have sex with any girl except you, so you could attend to my groin injury.  Kutti: I kissed your back and was the only one with the privilege to examine your royal testicles.  Varman: All you said is true. These incidents are not proof that Malaiyan was my son. Kutti: How many people would have these two anatomical features together in a person? Varman: I cannot think of anyone other than me. They are special only to me and no one else. Kutti: Your majesty, I have a spitting image of your highness in our son. Since you have no heir to the throne, would you appoint him as your regent? Varman: Impossible.  Kutti: The impossible would become possible from the incontrovertible proof I will present to you, your majesty.  Varman: That sounds good, only if you can prove that Malaiyan was my son.  Kutti brought Malaiyan to the palace and palace physicians examined both and declared Malaiyan was the spitting image of the king with  a red mark on the back, four testicles and the biological son of the king. Kutti also produced a birth certificate of Malaiyan with a record of identification marks on the body. The King broadcast this news throughout the kingdom and made him the regent. The King ran the harem like a business. The concubines were given a thorough examination on their virginity and age before induction. If the wisdom tooth was found in place, she was rejected because she was too old for the king. If she bore a child or reached twenty, whichever came first, she was automatically declared persona non grata and ejected from the harem with benefits. Kutti was the only harem inmate to know him well physically and had the longest dalliance with the king. Her reward to her son was to bequeath him the kingdom. Consider this. The king tried to molest the wife of the forest recluse, whose son married daughter of King Varman and Queen Vani.  Instead of founding a kingdom, both went to become forest dwellers. How tragic and a visitation of fate! The woman, ejected out of the harem after giving birth to a baby, had a second child by the king from his postpartum dalliance with Kutti; the child became the regent because he had a hemangiomatous patch on the back and four testicles like the king and princess Priti, the biological daughter of king Varman and Queen Vani abdicated the throne and became a forest dweller with her husband. What a turn of fate! The king and the queen faded away and died. Malaiyan became the king and the Kutti, ejected out of the harem, moved into the palace with her son, the king.  To be continued