The Reconstructions

Prince Krishna was born in the Provenance of Darkness, the first Realm (the Realm of Matsya), in the Castle of the Great Khan.  The castle, which stood on the top of the mountain called the Seven Levels, was stern and forbidding.  Lashed by perpetual winds, the vast stone fortress expressed the personality of the ruthless conqueror the Khan had been in his early days.  The greater complexity of his middle years was reflected in the unrivaled splendor of the entertainment he provided.  The latter, drawing upon the best talents of scholars and of artisans, representing the cultural variations in the Empire as it was then constituted, was singularly devoid of the confusion of taste that is generally associated with imperial ripeness.  The ideal of unity in diversity, which the Khan hoped to actualize within the span of his reign, was nowhere more evident than in the social life at the court of the Glorious Castellan.

Within the protection of those mighty walls ... protected also from the Court, where excessive stimulation might have produced in the mind of a child a premature sophistication without depth or perspective ... the young Prince spent an idyllic boyhood.  The domain over which he ruled had once been a private game preserve of his father’s.  The Khan, however, after his marriage to Queen Gaya, had given over many of the half-savage pursuits which had been considered appropriate to his station as a young nobleman.  With the zeal and equanimity that were so characteristic of him, he made of the hunting preserve a game refuge, taking great pleasure in befriending the wild creatures whose kind he had formerly killed.

These ... “the Khan’s pardoners” ... became the Prince’s companions.  The wilderness flourished as a beautiful garden within whose depths the encircling walls were seldom seen or else they were felt merely as friendly guardians.  Here the Prince wandered at will, fascinated by the life about him, growing with it, unfolding tranquilly, surrounded by whatever the Khan considered suitable for him at that tender age.  In addition to many wonderful pets, the Khan provided him with a playmate, a lovely young girl named Gita, in order that he might be early affected by the gentleness of womankind.

Prince Krishna’s mother, the Lady Gaya, having given the Khan a son according to the original marriage treaty with her conquered people, had departed for her ancestral seat in the northernmost district, whence she continued to “govern,” in a restricted and largely symbolic way, the Realm of Matsya.  Because of the Prince, she and the Khan were not formally divorced; but they maintained separate households and led their own lives, so the Prince did not escape the usual effects of a broken home.  The irrevocable nature of the separation is suggested by the appellation given her by her own subjects, many of whom regarded her as their savior, since by her sacrifice she had stood between them and a fuller integration into the Imperial system.  In spite of the informal but serious nature of the liaison between her and a handsome youth she had taken as her paramour, they often referred to her as the Widow.

Lest he be burdened prematurely by a responsibility that was still far in the future, the Prince was not permitted to go up on the walls, battlements and parapets, or otherwise look out upon a world of strife and suffering.  Yet often at night the Khan stood moody vigil upon the central parapet.