Anaadhai: Pazhavur Ilaya Raani
Had it not been for Ravidasan’s trust in her, Nandhini would be dead right now, burning away with Veera Pandiyan’s body.
“I did not save you for you.” he whispered in her ear. “I saved you because no daughter deserves to burn away with their father as their wife.”
Nandhini once again found herself cursing fate for the cruel twists in her life. Had the Mandakini he’d spoken of been the woman she saw in her room on the nights she could not go to her mother? The one she saw more and more of these days when she looked in the mirror?
Before she had time to reply, she heard a rustling in the trees. The Pandiyas scattered, leaving behind only the smoke and Nandhini. A horse, carrying a strong and handsome man. He paused when he saw her.
"Who are you, Devi?" He questioned, circling her.
"I am an orphan, Aiya. Who might you be?"
He straightened up. "Periya Pazhuvettarayar, the King of Pazhavur."
King of Pazhavur… this was Karikalan’s Thatha! Her heart beat harder in her chest.
"I should not even be speaking to you, Aiya."
"Nonsense. A woman as beautiful as you deserves to be a queen… will you be mine?"
Nandhini felt disgusted. He was nearly three times her age and he wanted to marry her? Still, she recalled her vow to use her beauty to avenge the death of Veera Pandiyan. Surely, Karikalan would visit his grandfather, wouldn't it be easier to kill him then?
"Would you really take this orphan as your wife?" She asked, swallowing the rising bile.
Lust clouded his eyes as he looked at her body. "Without a doubt."
True to his word, he married her with a grand procession and Nandhini thanked fate for the first time in years. Karikalan had not come to her wedding. If he had, she feared that she would have run to him immediately.
Terror seized her heart when Pazhuvettarayar locked the door and began to undress. "Lord, no! I am observing a poojai as of now, I can not be with you physically."
To Nandini's relief, he had left the topic alone for now, though it was clear he was not going to leave the matter behind. She had cried herself to sleep that night. How had she ended up here? From being the separated lover of Aditha Karikalan to the ninth wife of Periya Pazhuvettarayar?
What had become of her family? Of her village? If the niece or nephew she would never meet? Of the brother who had cared for her more than life itself?
'I have failed them all," she thought numbly.
Nandini's brief fortune disappeared within a few months when the man who had married her brought her to Kaanchi to see Aditha Karikalan be crowned as crown prince. She saw his eyes light up when he saw her, his body swaying slightly. Their eyes met and Nandhini cursed herself for melting at the love in them still.
The moment was broken by the scream of Sundara Chozhan as he fainted. Nandhini briefly wondered if it was for the same reason that Veera Pandiyan had fallen for her.
She saw Kundavai whisper something to him and saw his gaze shatter. She moved closer to Periya Pazhuvettarayar.
He knew. She could tell by the strangled cry that he emitted, so quiet, but she always heard him.
Really, Nandhini should have expected that he would come to see her.
"Congratulations on your coronation, Lord." She said, her heart hammering in her chest.
"How could you-" he broke off, eyes locked on the thaali around her neck.
Everything was a blur after that. He had begged her to run away with him, reminding her of everything they had once shared. For one horrible moment, she felt the need to make it a reality. She imposed horrible conditions on him. Kill Pazhuvettarayar, imprison his family, marry her and make her queen. A horrendous and cruel laugh escaped her throat. This would end one of two ways now. Either, lost in his obsession with her, he would follow her command. If not, he would kill her instead out of anger for threatening her family.
Of course her fate would not make her life so easy and Karikalan turned and left. No one died then.
That night, for the first time in years, Nandhini saw a silhouette by her bedside. Was it her mother? The mute woman who had watched over her every day when she was a child? Had she come to save her daughter from the clutches of the lustful Pazhuvettarayar?
No. When the hazy image came into focus, Veerapandiyan’s eyes stared back at her, lustful as ever.
“Why did you leave me, Nandhini?” he whispered, inching closer.
“Go away!” she shouted, “You’re dead, do not come to haunt me now!”
But Veerapandiyan was as insistent in death as he was in life, and he refused. He accused her of marrying the enemy, of loving the man who had brutally murdered him. She was his, he claimed. Nandhini didn’t want to be his. She didn’t want to be Pazhavettarayar's, she didn’t even want to be Karikalan’s! She just wanted to go back to being the girl who would string flowers for Krishna and whisper secrets to his statue.
She sobbed every time he inched closer.
“I will avenge your death!” she promised, “That is what I have come here to do! Then you will leave me alone, right, my love? Please tell me that you will move on from this wretched girl!”
“Do that,” he agreed, “And I will take you to my seat in heaven and crown you queen there.”
Nandhini despaired. Was there no escaping from him? Where was Karikalan when she needed him?
‘He’s never there.’ her mind supplied helpfully, ‘Not when his family chased you out of the kingdom. Not when Veerapandiyan harassed you. Not when the Pandiya Abathudavigal threatened to burn you. Not when Pazhuvettarayar married you. So why would he be here now?’
Her life became a continuous cycle of torture. Her days were filled with Pazhuvettarayar trying to seduce her into bed, and her nights tormented by Veerapandiyan’s ghost inviting her to join him in death. Krishna! Why did all these older men desire her? Was she good for nothing other than her beauty, which had caught the eyes of so many men?
One such night of nightmares was interrupted by the arrival of Ravidasan who sought to kill her for abandoning them. Despite wishing for death, she refused to die at their hands. What if they delivered her to their deceased king?
“I have married him to help you!” she cried desperately. “Do not think I have forgotten our oath!”
Bless him, for some reason, he believed her and Nandhini lived to see another lust-filled day.
Years she spent manipulating Madhuranthakan and starting scandals. Each move was calculated to make Karikalan despise her more, to make him hate everything she stood for. But the Pandiyas were getting impatient. They wanted their revenge.
She no longer had time to lament over the state of her life. She had to kill him soon. So then she wrote the dreaded letter inviting him to Kadambur Maaligai.
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