Through the way of the dense forest Dandyakaranya , three Aryan boys came near the bank of Godavari. They drank the cold water of Godavari and quenched their thirst. The scorching heat above their head, now entered into the mud of the horizon. As time was short, they procured some food and set up their camp on the bank of the river. They ate the fruits from the mightiest Dandakaranya. Then they made their sleeping cushion by binding the roots of a huge banyan tree. There they were to spend their night. The grigs, the firefly made the night humorous. The previous experience of two days before did not let their mind to be calm. So the three or Yashodhar, Sibi and Sudas decided that one among them would keep himself awake for the 3 hours, and the other two would sleep. If he would get any symptoms of danger, he should immediately awake the other two. First Yashodhar would guard. Sibi and Sudas would sleep. Sibi immediately fell asleep as he had to wake up in the next. Sudas did not sleep. Finding that the elder brother Yashodhar asked him--"Hai! Sudas. What is keeping you awake?" Hesitating for a moment, he said, " I am not feeling asleep. I am thinking of the incident. You know that the incident that happened two days ago was a great threat to our determination. I cannot sleep until we are able to fulfil our task." Yashodhar said, " oh that is the matter. Don't over think of it. INDRA is with us. Always remember him instead of thinking of the upcoming events." Sudas said with mild annoyance, "Have you also become like sibi brother! We can't sacrifice our future in the hand of fate." Now Yashodhar told, "So, Is it okey to be awake all the night! No sleeping will surely make you sick. Moreover, no one has slept well in the two days. You should sleep now. Look, I will tell you a story. Which story should I tell you, my dear?" Sudas could not resist more. As he was awake for two days, he was feeling severe headache. Finally he said, " tell me the story of dasarajan war". Yashodhar affirmed and said, " Ok, listen."
A long time ago, about 5000 years ago, the Vedic civilization which was set up on the bank of Seven rivers was very famous among the other civilizations like Persia, Mesopotamia. The fine clothes, swords made of iron, somros or wine were in heavy demand in the markets across the world. The recluse, the hermits, monks were always in the thought of God. The Kshatriyas were at war, Vaishyas were busy at business and the Sudras were for the work of farming and service of the other three. There was divisions of labours, but it was not hereditary. The Sudras could become kings, the Vaishyas could worship, and the kshatriyas could make their livelihood in pottery. But at the end of the Vedic age this matter of social division became hereditary. The four Vedas made the life of the Aryans filled with philosophy and poetry. The war of Dasrajan was happened near the bank of the Indus at a place name Indrakshetra with the motto of ruling over the land of seven rivers. There were two opponents. On one side, there were ten kings and on the other side there was only one king of the sudra clan, Sudas. The names of the ten king were Puru, Yadu, Durbasa, Anus,Darayus, Alinas, Pakhtas, Bhalanas, Sibis and Bhisana. Sudas was the king of Bharata(India). The ten kings were against the thing that a king of sudra clan would rule over the Yambudip(another name of India). They wanted to teach him a lesson. So the ten kings united and called for a war. So the war was inevitable. The war started and lasted for 10 years. On the last day of the war Sudas was infront of the Chakrabuha of the opponent . He was standing by his closest friend Prithwisthana. The ten kings from the centre of Chakrabuha started raining of arrows towards Sudas' army. It was impossible for the archerers of Sudas to attack in return because the chakrabuha was engulfing the infantry so fast that it would be same side for them. But at the same time the ten mightiest opponents were killing their armies. Seeing the huge Chakrabuha made by the opponent army, Prithwisthana said, "Sudas, we cannot just wait and see the opponent come towards us. We have to enter the Chakrabuha. Otherwise they will engulf our whole army!" Then Sudas told Prithwisthana, "your anxiety lives in veracity. But we have to wait for The Shield". "But our army is dying. The rivals are destroying us. I will tell you that the Shield, you are waiting for is not gonna help us. The shield will be damaged by the raining of arrows." "You need not to believe, but I do."--said Sudas. The Chakrabuha has come near to the line where the two friends were standing.Now it was only 50 metre away from them. Prithwi could not remain standing anymore. He was about to go inside the Chakrabuha. He went to his horse Chetak without listening to the prohibition of Sudas. Sudas shouted and forbade him to go. He told him, "I don't want to loose you like Abhimanyu!" Suddenly the sound of Hawk came into the ears of them penetrating the sky of the Indraskhetra. Then Sudas said to Prithdi, "Wait, Listen. He has come.The Shield has come. The hawk is the messenger." Sudas felt happy. Finally the runner has come with two shield. Prithwi was already on his ride. He got down from Chetak, and came near to Sudas. Sudas said Prithdi, "Look prithdi, here is the shield," Saying that he handed over the shield to him. Getting the shield prithwi looked up toward Sudas and said, "it feels lighter than the one I have.And it also feels like more harder than that one. It will be fun to use it." Pointing toward the shield, hanging from a rope bound around Chetak. He again overwhelmingly asked Sudas, "How did you come to know about this?" Sudas replied , "It is not the time for questioning .Now tell me can you remember, we used to play a game when we were child. We used to make shield with the buckle of Coconut and used it against the stones which were thrown towards us by the village girls for breaking their pots. And we used to stand behind one another holding the shields. And we did the same till they would finish their stones." Prithwi said , " Yes. So now we are going to do the same thing". Sudas nodded his head. "Ok.Lets do it."prithwi exclaimed in sheer joy. They shouted "Har har Mahadev" Sudas played the devdut Conch. They rided on their horses and went toward the chakrabuha. Then the Chakrabuha engulfed them also. The two were riding side by side. Finally they came near the ten kings who were at the centre of the Chakrabuha. They were not attacking unlike sudas' expectation. At the inner circle of the chakrabuha, the ten kings were waiting for them to come. The two got down from their horses. Now Pakhtas started abusing Sudas for his attachment to sudra clan. Pakhtas "hai! sudas. Coward !, You are to be doomed. You idiot you, have no right over the kingdom of our Sapta sindhu. Sidhu is for us upper clans. We have warned you earlier to give the land to us. But you refused. Now you are going to die." The two bharatiyas(indian) was listening to pakhtas until prithwi resisted to hear the abusing anymore. He asked Sudas ,"How long will you listen to this fool? They are not attacking us unlike we thought.So they could have guessed about our plan. We should attack them now. " "No it is not the time. We can't just fight with the ten persons alone." "So what to do now?"asked Prithwi "Wait and see",told Pakhatas now told all his cowarriors to get down from their chariots and told them to finish it. Seeing that Sudas smiled and told prithwi to give his shield .Then he hold the two shield together by his hands and smashed it together with a bang. Immediately, the sky was filled with a deafening sound. "Come to me hurry up." said Sudas, "it is that moment". Then the two sat down and put the shield over their head. Seeing that Pakhtas knew what was coming. Flocks of arrows were coming from the North East which would immediately penetrate all who were on the way of the arrows. The ten kings became afraid and tried to resist the arrows with their shields but they could not.The arrows penetrated every shields except the special ones. The arrows did not even scratch the shields of the two bharatiyas. After the arrows were over, the bodies of the kings only remained. There were lumps of arrows. So the two friends had to remove the arrows and make their road . "So, we have won the war. Hai..We have won the war."--said Prithwi in great joy.. But suddenly from the pile of arrow, Pakhtas jumped out and inserted his sword into prithwi's back twice. Blood was oozing out of his wound. And he fell down on the ground. Sudas was shocked to see that. He lost his friend. He did not think for a single moment of losing his friend. Pakhtas laughed Satan's laugh. "You knew that I am cursed of not winning a war if I fight from the chariot. So you tried to use this opportunity. But you have forgotten that I am the disciple of Agastya. I also have that shield what you have." Meanwhile the army of Sudas had penetrated the chakrabuha and made the army of dasrajans to surrender. They were now waiting for the war to be finished. Till now sudas was listening to Pakhtas words but now he controlled himself and forgot the initial shock and attacked Pakhtas. Suddenly Sudas broke pakhtas's sword into two pieces with a single stroke and immediately Pakhtas got himself with a broken sword. He was astonished. Now Sudas shouted toward Pakhtas, "You fool. I know you are Rishi Agastya's disciple. But I also know a great monk like him will never give his all power to his egoist student. And I was there in the foothills of anaimalai for that shield, and also prepared my sword also with that Ayam(metal). Now die with that metal in your chest." Saying that he penetrated the sword into Pakhtas' chest and left it in his body. Thus Sudas got victory over 10 kings. But he was so sad over the death of his friend that he abdicated his power in the hand of his only son Indramitra and went to seclusion in the forest of the mightiest Himalayas. After that there was no news about him. After finishing the story, Yashodhar said to his younger brother, "Have you any question?" Sudas said, "yes I want to know about the curse of Pakhtas and the shield." Yashodhar, "That's another story. It is enough for today. Now sleep." The protagonist Sudas fell asleep.