Time started ticking away. Bhagiradhi's stomach started growling. She wished she was sitting on a fruit tree instead of a banyan tree. She could have at least eaten something. She wondered if she could just get down this tree and find herself some food. But if she were to get down from this tree before Shodasi came for her, she would surely take her to task and reprimand her.

She started wondering why it was taking so long for Shodasi to come. What if those barbarians, those Raktabijas about whom Shodasi was describing had attacked her? What if Shodasi and the men with her were caught too? No Kattappa Thatha, no mother, no father, no brother. They had all fallen by the wayside. She did not have the time to even mourn or cry for them properly. At present, she was clutching only the straws. Were even those straws about to be snatched from her?

Her heart started beating so loud and hard that she could hear her own heartbeats. Sweat started pouring from all the pores of her body. She felt unusually stuffy and constrained. Bhagiradhi felt the same kind of intuition she had felt when her Kattappa Thatha died, when her grandmother Rajmata Devasena died in her sleep, when she beheld their enemies closing in upon her parents from afar. She felt a helpless rage, frustration and powerlessness.

To divert herself from her negative thoughts and emotions, she started playing and fiddling with the branches. She started sharpening and cutting the branches near her into curious shapes with the sword beside her. This was a favorite pastime of hers even in Mahishmati.
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Bhagiradhi's Flashback
Her grandmother, Rajmata Devasena who was an archer and markswoman par excellence was teaching her how to hit the target with darts. Bhagiradhi was in a playful mood. She was in the mood for talking and not learning. She asked, "Grandma, I have heard that you can hit three arrows at a time. Is it true?"

Devasena replied, "Yes. I will teach you how to do that when you are older. You are too young for that now. For the present, you have to learn with this target board and darts."

Bhagiradhi curious to know more, "Who taught you to shoot like this, grandma?"

"Your grandfather, Amarendra Baahubali", said Devasena.

Bhagiradhi questioned, "With three arrows, you can hit three people at a time without moving from your spot. Can you hit ten or twenty people at the same time?"

Devasena replied, "This proposition sounds impossible even to me. I don't think we can hit ten or twenty people at the same time without moving from your spot." Addressing Mahendra and Avantika who had just joined to watch her and Bhagiradhi during their lessons, "Can we Mahendra?"

"I don't know if we can shoot with the arrows or not. You know I grew up with tribals. But the people in our tribe used a unique weapon. It is known as the boomerang. It is made of a flat and curved piece of wood. It looks somewhat like this." He roughly crafted a boomerang with a small tree branch, "When used properly, it goes round like this, hits all the enemies, whether they are one or ten and comes back to you. People who are adept in this art can throw two of these weapons simultaneously at the same time and catch them when they come back to you. In that way, they can fell twenty enemies at the same time."

Rajmata Devasena expressed her admiration clicking her tongue and clapping her hands on witnessing this demonstration of her valiant son, "Incredible!"

Bhagiradhi jumped up and down in her excitement, " Father....father..... can you teach me?"

"Of course......my little princess!"Mahendra said.

"We hold it like this.....and this is how we release the weapon" explained Mahendra holding Bhagiradhi arms in the correct position. The boomerang went round hitting all the targets and came back to where they were standing. Bhagiradhi was very excited.
End of Bhagiradhi's Flashback
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Back to the present
Bhagiradhi looked at what she had crafted out of the branches with the sword in her lap. She sat staring at two boomerangs that lay in her lap. She looked above at the skies and asked, "Father....Is this an indication....a blessing from you?"

Just then the leaves started rustling as though a heavy wooden vehicle was being led that way. Amidst the heavy foliage, there appeared the barbarians, the Raktabijas. They were dancing a kind of victory dance leading a heavy wooden caged vehicle with ropes.

It looked as though a fierce, pitched battle had taken place at a short distance from there. They were angry with their victims because they seemed to have retaliated and fought pretty bravely. But now all of them lay helpless and immobile in the vehicle unable to move as a result of darts, spears, knives pierced into the skin and smeared with the herb Indraneeli. To rub salt into open wounds, the Raktabijas occassionally kept prodding their victims.

Bhagiradhi's eyes widened in shock to see that the victims were none other than Shodasi Devi and her soldiers. Her blood started boiling with rage and fury. She was about to get down from the tree when she beheld two pearls of tears drop down from Shodasi's eyes that seemed to be telling her, "Don't child! Don't get down and put yourself in danger! Stay safe! SURVIVE!"

That moment, Bhagiradhi beheld her own mother, Avantika in Shodasi. She could not afford to lose her mother a second time before her eyes. She took a deep breath, "Father.....I understood what you were trying to tell me."

She counted how many Raktabijas were there, "Fifty.....and I have two weapons....." She closed her eyes for a split second calculating her targets in her mind's eye before she released the two boomerangs in her hands. They went faster than the wind and came back to her felling twenty Raktabijas on the spot at the same time.

She released the boomerangs once again. This time, another twenty fell. The Raktabijas were unable to comprehend what was happening. They stood rooted to the spot as though stuck by lightening. The remaining ten Raktabijas bowed to the ground surrendering themselves to that natural force or fury who had stuck them down exclaiming, "Aparaajitha! Aparaajitha!"

Aparaajitha, the invincible! They prayed to her to appear before them and show mercy on them. By this time, Mrithyunjay and the others had reached there and took the remaining Raktabijas who had surrendered captive. They freed Shodasi Devi and the soldiers from the caged vehicle. The debilitating effect of the herb Indraneeli had also worn off.

The people were furious with the Raktabijas for the destruction they had caused and were about to kill them when Bhagiradhi held them back saying, "They have surrendered and sought refuge in me. So they are also my people from today." She exhorted to the Raktabijas, "Eevela ninchi, bijamai padithe rakthamai kaadhu, oka mahaa vrukshamai molavandi! Evarikaina oke jananam oke maranam! Manaki bhagavanthudu ichchini ee avakasam lo srushtinchandi, karanam lekunda inkkokarini champoddu! (From this moment onwards, if you fall as a seed, don't rise up as blood, rise up as a mighty tree. Anyone has one birth and one death! Make use of this opportunity given by God to create, and not to kill without any reason!)"

Just like Goddess Kali killed the demon, Raktabija of the mythical yore without leaving behind a single trace of blood, Bhagiradhi killed all the Raktabijas. No Raktabija rose from where they fell. She did not kill the human in them. She killed the evil in them. She transformed them with her goodness.

Mrithyunjay's mind went back to the time when he had asked his mother if Mahendra Baahubali's son would rule over them after Mahendra Baahubali. Maybe, the son was not going to rule over them. But it really did not matter. If the seed was one, would the tree be different whether it was the son or daughter?

All the people of Mahishmati raised Bhagiradhi up on their shoulders. They rechristened her that day with the name the Raktabijas had given her, Aparaajitha, the invincible. They shouted themselves hoarse crying, "Aparaajitha......Aparaajitha......Aparaajitha!"

They had found a hero, a warrior, a savior that day. She did not know what her true potential was until the time for that came. She was ordinary until one  transfiguring, extraordinary moment happened. When a warrior falls, another is reborn in the forge of time and need! Aparaajitha, the invincible was born that day.

Mrithyunjay looked at Aparaajitha with admiration from afar. He said to himself, "Princess, from today onwards I will stand behind you in all your endeavors. I will serve you without any expectations or desire for recognition. I will be your backbone. I will be the ground that will give wings to all your dreams. I wholeheartedly bow before you. Wherever you will lead us, I will follow. I will follow you to the ends of this earth. My life is not mine. It belongs to you and Mahishmati. If people say that this is who a slave is, then I am your slave for life."
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