ILAA – THE LEGEND
Close to the city of Paithan, in a small village call
Sauviragram, which lay along the banks of the great river Godavari, lived a
woman named Ilaa. Being cotton farmers, her family was well to do, but not
among the richest in their area. It was the harvest season, and cotton had to
be picked from Close to the city of
Paithan, in a small village called Sauviragram, which lay along the banks of
the great river Godavari, lived a woman named Ilaa. Being cotton farmers, her
family was well to do, but not among the richest in their area. It was the
harvest season, and cotton had to be picked from the plants. The wholesalers
and traders from Paithan would be arriving in just a few weeks, carrying gold
and goods for barter. They would exchange what they carried for the cotton that
the farmers grew. The bales of cotton had to be ready in time! Work was at its
peak!
But Ilaa was not to be found in the fields. She wasn't working. Instead, she
was sitting by the banks of the great river Godavari.the plants. The
wholesalers and traders from Paithan would be arriving in just a few weeks,
carrying gold and goods for barter. They would exchange what they carried for the
cotton that the farmers grew. The bales of cotton had to be ready in time! Work
was at its peak!
But Ilaa was not to be found in the fields. She wasn’t
working. Instead, she was sitting by the banks of the great river Godavari.
‘I am sick of this!’ she grunted loudly. She had just
blurted out her frustration of continuously working in the cotton fields, day
in & day out, with breaks only for lunch & a half an hour siesta. All
of 19 years, she was married as per the prevailing practice of that time, when
marriages of girls were done as soon as they reached puberty. Shripati Gaikwad,
her husband, was a strapping young man from the same village and was a soldier
in Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s army. Currently he was on an expedition
in the south of India and hence she was staying with her father. Her husband
had lost his father & mother a few years back.
Ila was a very headstrong woman now with a mind of her
own and who did not flinch from stating the truth. After all, she was brought up on stories of her
immediate family, the Gosavis . Her great-grandfather, Kusha Bhau Gosavi was a
warrior in the Yadava army stationed at Paithan, and was killed, fighting
bravely with the foreign army. His wife, Kaveribai, had moved from the main
city of Paithan to Sauviragram, in the 16th century, alongwith her 2
sons, Haribhau & Sopanbhau. The 5 acre land in Sauviragram was given as a
gift to Kusha Bhau’s father, Mahipatrao, in appreciation of his military service to the Yadava rulers. Sauviragram, being on
the banks of the Godavari river, was a rich land for farming due to the
centuries of silt deposited by the Godavari. Since cotton was the staple crop
of the area, Haribhau, the elder son, decided that he would cultivate cotton too.
In this he met with success from the beginning, and with time, he became one of
the respected personalities of the region.
Ilaa was the daughter of Shankarrao, the elder son of
Haribhau. She had an elder brother, Ganeshrao. In a time when most of the
families had 4 or more children, Shankarrao & his wife, Iravati had only
two. And both Illa & Ganeshrao were equally loved by their parents. But
going by the society norms, while Ganeshrao received the best of the education,
right from memorising the vedas and learning the 2 great epics, Ramayana and
Mahabharata, to the basic sciences like Mathematics and Bhugol, Illa, on the
other hand did not go to the gurukul. But she had a wise mother in Iravati, who
had given her daughter good tutelage, especially in the ancient vedic way of
life, where women had an equal say. Ilaa was especially struck by the strong
character of three women from the ancient past. One was Draupadi, who did not
take her humiliation lying down, and had her revenge on the perpetrators of the
great crime, by subtle and sometimes, not so subtle persuasion of her husbands.
The others were Maitreyi & Gargi, who were glorified as women of great
knowledge. Ilaa imbibed the fighting spirit of Draupadi, as well as the hunger
to learn and the composure, of Maitreyi & Gargi. In addition to this, she
was also captivated by martial stories of her great- grand father & his
father. In fact, she had implored her husband to give her training in sword
fighting in the 5 years they were married and whenever he was in the village.
So, there she was sitting by the banks of the great
river, letting the cool waters caress her feet, while she was lost in her
thoughts. She had once overheard her father and brother discussing about the
low rates paid by the wholesalers and comparative higher rates charged by them
to the Paithan merchants for the same cotton. On top of that there were the
regular raids by the foreign Paithan ruler, made on Sauviragram for claiming
unjust taxes. But going by her current circumstances, she was bereft of ideas
on what action to take. But she decided
on one thing – broach this subject with her father and brother immediately.
At night Ilaa’s mother, Iravati called out to Ilaa for
laying the dishes for dinner. Two leaves of Banana were laid out, one for
Shankarrao and one for Ganeshrao. Iravati & Ilaa would eat later. As
Shankarrao & Ganeshrao started eating, the 2 ladies fanned them with hand
held fans. Shankarrao asked, “Ilaa, why were you not in the fields today. You
know very well that we are short on hands and we really need to pick the cotton
at a faster rate”. Shankarrao spoke in a gentle but firm manner. Ilaa was happy
that the subject had been brought up by her father and replied, “Baba, why do
we have to keep labouring in the fields every year. Why should we trade with
the Paithan merchants through their middlemen? After all, these middlemen sell
our cotton at much higher rates in Paithan while paying us a pittance. On top
of that, the wretched Paithan ruler raids the village and makes unjust demands.”
“Beta, you know very well that we do get enough to lead a
comfortable lifestyle in Sauviragram.” consoled Shankarrao. He was a very
simple man who had simple needs.
“Baba, what Ilaa says is correct.” Ganeshrao now joined
the conversation. “We should think about this and try to reach the Paithan
merchants directly.” Ilaa was happy with this unexpected support from her
brother and laid out her plan to them. “Baba, today I was sitting by the bank
of the Godavari and many thoughts crossed my mind. Baba, you are a much
respected person in Sauviragram. People hear what you say. What we can do is to
organise the farmers of this village to unite and stop selling to these middlemen
and contact some of the major merchants of Paithan and offer them our produce
directly. I am sure the merchants will be ready to do this change.”
Shankarrao was happy to hear this clarity of thought from
his daughter. But he was not yet convinced. “But why would the merchants
suddenly agree to a new arrangement where they will have to deal with new
persons. After-all, they have now got old ties with many of the wholesalers
& traders and would not like to suddenly change.”
But Ilaa was not to be supressed. “Baba, we will have to
think about the benefits to the merchants. For this, we can offer lower rates
to them than that offered by the wholesalers & traders. In this way, we can
get better compensation for the cotton and at the same time, the merchants will
also get their raw material at a lower rate. It can become a mutually
beneficial arrangement for both the parties”.
Shankarrao was certainly influenced by Ilaa’s ideas and
next day he wasted no time in calling for a meeting of all the village elders
at his house. As he explained his plans, there was a great murmur in the
assembly with most of the people in agreement. Suddenly a booming voice rang
out, “Friends!! This plan can certainly be implemented. But a word of caution!” All turned towards the
corner of the room from where the voice rang out. It was Ganpatrao Mohite, one
of the wealthier denizens of the village. “All of you are ignoring one issue here, the
support the wholesalers and traders enjoy from the Paithan establishment. This
support is guaranteed to them because of the regular extortion money that is
being paid to the authorities in Paithan. You should note that any change,
which will reduce this money inflow to the authorities, will not be tolerated
by them and they will nix any such arrangement between the merchants and the
villagers of Sauviragram, in the bud.”
Ilaa was hearing all this from behind a curtain in the
inside room. Since morning she was feeling excited that her father had honoured
her thoughts and acted on them at such a fast pace.
On hearing the cautionary note from Ganpatrao, she could
not control herself any further and was convinced that there was only one
solution to this. She came into the hall and addressed the gathering, “Oh
learned men! Every problem has a solution, if your heart is set on solving it
out. Who are the authorities in Paithan? They are foreigners! Who are the
merchants? Who are the villagers of Sauviragram? They are the sons of the soil.
On the one hand, the wholesalers and traders don’t pay us the market rates for
our cotton, whereas on the other hand, the Paithan rulers raid our villages demanding
unjust taxes. But now the time has come to uproot these foreigners from our
beloved Paithan. By doing this, the merchants, the villagers and most
importantly, the city of Paithan are benefitted.”
The elders in the gathering were feeling very
uncomfortable. They had not seen any other woman speak so confidently before
and were not ready to accept this behaviour from Ilaa either. Finally one Elder
spoke, “Ilaa, you are but a girl and you need to go back into the house and
look at the arrangements of tea and snacks for us. After we are all feeling
hungry” and the gathering started laughing at these remarks.
Her speech had served the purpose and there were people
in the gathering who had been impressed with her personality. Though they agreed
with her they could not bring it upon themselves to support her wholeheartedly
only due to the fact that she was a woman.
That year, Ilaa’s plan could not be implemented by the
village and life went on as usual. Being the strong woman that she was, Ilaa
decided that she had to act on her own, to get the results she desired. So the following
summer, when Shripati came back to the village, she clamoured after him to take
her with him to Pune. She decided that she will undergo sword fighting training
(a rudimentary level of which she had already undergone), and who better than
her husband to impart that training. So, over the period of next 5 years, she
underwent extensive and rigorous training under the tutelage of her loving
husband, Shripati.
One day she heard that Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj would
be visiting Pune for a short trip before going to Surat. She was not going to
miss this opportunity to somehow meet the Chatrapati. She knew that one of the
events, which the Chatrapati never misses, is the sword fighting competition
which is always held on such occasions. But how can she, being a woman,
participate in one?
The event day started early. The participants, 8 of them,
were lined out in front of the pandal where the Chatrapati would be seated.
They knew that the Chatrapati would be present only for the final fight and all
of them wanted to be in that fight. The fights started, one following the
other. One by one, the contestants started falling by, and then only 2 were
left. One was a bare chested muscular man, whereas the other was slender and
dressed in all black outfit. The head was fully covered by black cloth with
only the eyes being open.
The tutari and cymbals announced the grand arrival of the
Chatrapati. The sound of the tutari filled both the contestants with energy.
The fight started with the Senapati firing off the cannon into the distance.
The hefty man was showing off his sword wielding skills by twirling the sword
like a small blade in his mighty hand. The crowd got excited and gave out a big
roar in his support. The slender person stood still with the sword held with
both hands, one leg behind the other, with a side on stance. The bare chested
man approached the other person with mighty steps all the while twirling his
sword. The crowd waited with bated breath anticipating a quick finish of the
opponent. Then the big one made his move…he thrust his sword towards the eyes
of his opponent who , at the last moment jerked his head back and avoided the
stroke, while at the same time, hitting the big one with the handle of his own
sword. The strike brought blood from the big one’s nose. Surprised and angry by
this move, the big one made a wild swooping action of his sword, to hit his
opponent’s legs. But the opponent was alert; he hit the ground with his sword,
jumped into the air, swivelled about his sword and kicked at his opponents head
breaking his jaw with his outstretched leg. The hefty opponent staggered back,
and using this opportunity, the slender person got on his knees and thrust his
sword towards the opponent’s chest and drew blood. Those who drew the first
blood were declared to be a winner and the slender person had won everyone’s
admiration for his fighting skills. The Chatrapati applauded his skills, and
suddenly a gasp went through the spectators…the black scarf around the face had
come off, and here was Ilaa with perspiration streaming down her face. The
people were talking among themselves but the Chatrapati had only admiration
written on his face.
That very day, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj granted an
audience to Ilaa since he wanted to properly honour her fighting spirit. Ilaa
lost no time in elaborating on her dream for Paithan. She dwelt on the
importance that a town like Paithan can impart to the new Hindavi Swaraj, that
the Chatrapati was trying to build. Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, being the statesman
that he was, quickly recognised this and in the next few weeks, using his quick
and surprising manoeuvres, was successful in making Paithan a part of his
growing empire, by freeing it from the oppressive rule of the foreigners.
He recognised the potential and contribution of Ilaa in
this achievement, and made her a part of his advisory council for Paithan. Thus
Ilaa , through her sheer will and ability to overcome hurdles put in her path,
became a minister in the Hindavi Swaraj of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and
entered the legends of the historic town of Paithan which are still discussed
in awe in Paithan today.
Written by,
Yatindra Tawde
