As Avanthika and Mahendra stood encircled by a hundred men, a tornado of thousand different thoughts flitted in and out of his mind stream. Not all battles were merely physical. Some battles took place in one's mind too. Everyone had their own inner demons playing with their minds and souls.

His greatest demon was uncertainty. He had battled against it his whole life. He grew up not knowing who he really was. Once he had learnt who he was, he had to spend the rest of his time forgetting the person he had been for twenty-five years of his life. Now at thirty, he had hoped that at least his children would not face what he had been through. He thought that he would provide them with stability and certainty.

But he could see history repeating again. He had heard that the Kalachakram (wheel of time) went round and round in cyclic motions. The almanacs kept repeating themselves every sixty years. It came up time to time only to go down. His children were going to face that everything he had wanted to protect them from.

Testing times were ahead of them. He only hoped that they would make a better job of all this than him when their time to make choices and decisions would come. But he had placed them in good and safe hands. Not that he had too many options at that point of time. His own people had denounced him. What else could he do? He had only enemies and enemies before him.

Though he had never met his aunt, Shodasi Devi in person before this; though this was the first time he was seeing her; he instinctively knew that he could trust her with his most precious and prized possessions on earth, his children. To know if the rice in a pot is cooked or not, it is enough if you taste a single morsel. There is no necessity to upturn the entire pot of rice.

True; his aunt never came to him or Mahishmati when he was the King. But she came to guide him when he had lost his everything to tell him what was right and what was wrong. She stood beside him and his family when there was no one else. That was something only family could do for family. She was his own, like a mother after his own mother, Devasena. And he, Mahendra Baahubali could trust his children  and their welfare with his own mother.

He ought to have sent Avanthika with his children and Shodasi Devi as well. But he knew she could not live without him. The punishment of living without him would be even more agonizing and gut-wrenching for her. When there was some bit of hope, he had wanted to leave her behind with his children and go alone with his aunt for the battle. But now, when there was none, he wanted her to be with him in his last moments of life and death. He knew he was being selfish but all the same in his last moments of uncertainty, he wanted the most certain relationship he had forged in life to remain with him. Avanthika was his both in life and death.
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An undercurrent of disturbing images from the recent past ran across his mind as he externally tackled his enemies. One voice in his mind ran like this:
"Mahendra, you cannot change these things immediately. The society of Mahishmati was always like this, class-based, unequal, power hungry, ambitious, exploitative, imbecile and pretentious. One thing on the exterior and the other in the interior. All this did not happen in a single day. Similarly, you cannot correct it or change it in a single day.The very people who raise you to the skies in adulation and blind hero worship will hurl you unceremoniously to the ground when you try to change the foundations on which this society rests!"

There were always big, big rules I was told by everyone about how a true king should be ever since I ascended the throne. Which was Raja Dharma which was not! But didn't the Praja have some Dharma and responsibility as well? In what way could we call ourselves better and civilized than the barbarians or Kalakeyas? What could the most ideal of kings do with a backward, superstitious, irresponsible, classist, unequal society of people except being misfits? I was a warrior. I could fight a thousand external enemies and annihilate them? But how could I fight somebody's thinking and that too my own Praja's?
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Yet another memory went past:
I was seated for the Varuna Yagam to bring the rains to the drought-hit regions of the kingdom.The priest who was officiating explained that once they began, I could neither discontinue nor get up from the Puja. It would result in terrible calamities and misfortunes. The puja began when one of my men ran to me and whispered in my ears, "Kattappa is no more...." I instantly got up and ran behind the soldier without realizing where I was or what I was doing. The priests remonstrated, "Why?....All this for a slave?"......I roared, "He was my grandfather....He is dead........And he is not a slave.....You will never realize what he meant to me......He was greater and bigger to me than any of your superstitions.....Nobody in Mahishmati is a slave....If it is the institution of slavery that makes you treat another human being as a non-entity or sub-human, I abolish from this minute the institution of slavery....Everyone is an equal in Mahishmati.......Idhe naa maata.....naa maate sasanam".......

Whether I realized it or not, in that single moment I brought down one mighty institution....ugly.....but the mighty institution of slavery. Change is not so easily welcomed by the society........that too when it empowers the weak, poor, and powerless and results in profit loss for the rich, wealthy, strong, powerful and influential classes...........There was resistance....But I decided to tide across this once and for all.....
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As I twirled the sword in the air cutting down all the opposition surrounding me, yet another voice in my mind made its presence felt:
"We will not share our water or rivers with the Westerners. Should we share our rivers, our prosperity, our wealth, our everything just because they lack them? These belong to us...to us only....Our scriptures also tell that water sources should not be damed...They result in terrible natural calamities.....We do not accept your decision of building the water canal........Please reconsider your decision....Tomorrow if you will say share your wives with them, should we just because you say so?"

At these words, my face puckered and contorted with pain and disappointment. Was this what my people thought about me? Was this their infinite trust in me? Was their thinking really so cheap and low?
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A few angry voices complained:
"They have poisoned the water source you dug for us. None of us can drink that water. All of us are thirsty. We cannot live with those bastards of the East any more. We'd like to segregate from them. You can be either their king or ours. Whom will you choose?"

How could I choose between any of my children? Could I divide my heart into pieces and divide it between the different regions of my kingdom? I died figuratively that very second.
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Fate delivered another compelling blow on me. I lost another major support system I had in my life. My mother, my strength, my inspiration, my philosopher and guide had passed away in her sleep. I was mourning her loss. I had still not come out of my grief when riots broke out between the eastern and western regions of the kingdom. Somebody had stolen the prestigious idol of Amma Gauri in one of the most exhalted and sacred shrines located to the east of the Sapthagiris. The Easterners believed that the Westerners had done this, while the Westerners averred that they had nothing to do with this affair and that they respected and worshipped Amma Gauri equally. But the Easterners refused to believe their affirmations. Riots raged. Brother cut down brother. A stage came until both regions could not stay together and wanted to separate. Now the the northern and southern regions of the kingdom complained that if the east and west could separate, why couldn't the north and south do likewise? And if there were not going to stay together, and if there was no north, no south, no east no west, where was the need for a king or a kingdom? They could rule themselves, couldn't they?

My heart was broken....I had lost the will to rule......How could I rule a kingdom where there was no unity, integrity, solidarity, trust, or patriotism? A kingdom where there was only hatred and animosity? Wasn't it better to abdicate such a kingship? I did not go searching for kingship....Kingship came searching me.....Now shouldn't I let go of it?
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Externally and internally, the fighting still kept on raging. Both Mahendra and Avanthika still kept fighting though they were surrounded on all sides and heavily outnumbered. The blood was oozing from all over their bodies. They were heavily wounded. They knew it was futile. But they would go down their head held high, like true Kshatriyas fighting to the last drop of their blood.
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Midstream in the Mandakini,
With a heavy lump in their throats, a weight on their hearts, and eyes moist with tears, Shodasi Devi, the children, and her men were crossing the raging and inundated stream of water when this mishap suddenly occurred. The knot with which Shodasi had tied Gajendra to her back came loose and he drifted away along with the flow. Once they crossed to the other bank, they tried searching and scanning for him but in vain. They finally concluded that they had lost him forever. With a heavy heart, they made their way forward.

They did not know that destiny had other plans for little Gajendra and that he was going to be found by the very people, that very Subahu who had been the nemesis of his family; because of whom his father had lost his everything, because of whom his people's minds got corrupted and turned against their noble king, because of whom the Mahishmatians were going to lose their freedom, their honor, their everything. None of them could have anticipated that little Gajendra was going to grow up as the son of the very man whom he was destined to destroy.
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The next morning at Mahishmati,
Subahu announced, "From today onwards, Mahishmati belongs to me and to the Kalakeyas. We have won the war against you. Your king has abdicated and left the kingdom permanently while your army has lost in the battle with us. You have no option but me. Henceforth all your lands and properties will be confiscated and belong to the Kalakeyas. You will all serve us. All of you will be our slaves. You will have no rights of your own."
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