Shrill cries from the Gurukul army came to their ears as the assault on the Nagas began.
Garuda continued his aerial offensive against the Nagas even as the Gurukul army began their attack. The celestial bird dived again and again into the mass of Nagas below him, his gargantuan form a blur even in the light of the orbs.
Repeatedly, Garuda scooped up armfuls of the Nagas, seizing even more of them using his clawed feet and then shot back up into the sky, where he, then, let go of the creatures, not stopping to watch them plummet to their deaths, but diving once again to rip through their ranks, using his claws to deadly effect.
As Arjun had predicted, the fresh assault from the direction of the Gurukul only added to the turmoil among the Nagas, who were in a wild state of disarray by now. On three sides, they were being prodded and poked at close quarters and from above them, a deadly death rained down in the form of Garuda.
The seven children watched with a new found glee as the monstrous reptiles who, until a short while ago, had seemed invincible, now ran helter-skelter, trying to find a place to hide.
But there was none.
The Nagas who had attacked the dormitories and the guesthouse also made off, leaving their work of destruction incomplete, focused only on escaping the wrath of Garuda.
Illustration by Ishan Trivedi
The reptiles had amassed in such large numbers to exploit the weakness they had discovered in the boundary of the Gurukul, that they became easy pickings for the celestial bird.
A few of the luckier Nagas were able to beat a hasty retreat towards the river and across it, managing, somehow, to escape into the darkness. But many of them did not make it.
Only Vishwaraj stood his ground, balefully glaring at the Gurukul.
Maya stared at the lone, unmoving, figure of the boy. She was sure that she had seen him once before, on the night they had arrived at Panna. His face had not been visible that night. Tonight, too, she couldn’t distinguish his features. But something told her it had been the same person she looked upon tonight. Until tonight, she hadn’t even known who he was. Arjun had just told her. The only time she had heard of Vishwaraj before tonight was when his name was mentioned in the Assembly Hall, after Satyavachana had arrived at the Gurukul.
As Maya watched him Vishwaraj suddenly turned and walked away, disappearing into the night. He didn’t seem to be afraid of Garuda at all, to Maya’s surprise.
Maya stared at the retreating figure of the boy who was supposed to have gone over to Shukra. This was the boy who had met DJ sir just before the history teacher had died. There was a connection between this boy and her father’s murder, since she now knew that Trivedi had called her father minutes before his death.
What was that connection?
Chapter Eighty-five
The Saptas
The Guesthouse
Gurukul
Peals of laughter echoed round the sitting room of the ruined guesthouse. The ground floor had survived, more or less intact, though the upper floors had been either completely or partially destroyed by the Nagas.
‘The Nagas were coming in through the balcony, and she refused to open the door for us!’ Agastya chuckled, eliciting another round of laughter.
The seven children — Arjun, Maya, Varun, Adira, Tanveer, Agastya and Amyra — had been permitted to stay up late tonight, after a session with the Mahamati Council, where their courage and resolve had been feted by Satyavachana, among others. It was during the session that Arjun had been informed that the Council had received word from Mahamati Mahesh and the others who had left to apprehend Vishwaraj.
‘We don’t know if the news about locating Vishwaraj was a ruse by Shukra to get them to leave the Gurukul,’ Parth had said, ‘but we have managed to confirm that all four of them are safe. They are on their way back, now that we know that Vishwaraj was last seen here, at the Gurukul, with the Nagas. Who knows where he must be by now.’
This piece of news had left Arjun in considerably higher spirits than he had been in all evening.
After the Council session, Arjun had requested permission for the group to spend time together.
‘Mahamatis , in a way all seven of us worked as a team in whatever we did,’ he had told the Council. What he had left unsaid was that all of them had lots of questions, which were unanswered, and they were all keen to hear about Maya’s journey to seek the help of Garuda.
They were sitting together and laughing now, but they could all remember the terror they had felt moments ago. Amyra’s refusal to open the door, which was now a joke, had seemed a matter of life and death, then.
Amyra had taken the jokes sportingly. For a novice, to be accepted as a part of an elite group in the Gurukul was enough reward for her dogged protection of Maya.
‘Hey,’ Arjun said, finally, ‘enough jokes here. She was doing her job and I respect that. Her instructions were very clear. Maya was not to be disturbed.’ He flashed a smile at Amyra, who smiled back awkwardly. A compliment from Yayati’s scion, mentioned in the prophecy as the One, was high praise indeed.
‘I never knew Maharishis could travel physically from one place to another,’ Maya said, changing the subject. ‘I knew the atma could travel, but what Satyavachana did was new to me.’
During the Council session, Satyavachana had disclosed the reason for his disappearance. He had realized that while Maya could return from Dwarka in an instant in her atma form, Garuda would take some time to fly from his island to Panna, his enormous wings and speed notwithstanding. So he had decided to help Maya and had used his siddhis to travel to Dwarka and bring Garuda back with him.
‘I have heard stories of powerful Maharishis using their siddhis to travel long distances physically, in a short span of time,’ Agastya admitted. ‘But I don’t know how they did it or how Maharishi Satyavachana did it. Did he tell you how?’
Maya pursed her lips. ‘No, he didn’t. He did the same thing last night, when I visited his ashram as an atma . I accidentally came back to the Gurukul and within moments, he was on my balcony, knocking at the door. I never asked him how he did it and he never offered an explanation either.’
‘Well, you’ll get to know, I’m sure,’ Agastya said, sounding a bit envious. ‘After all, he has said he’s going to teach you himself.’
‘I’m nervous about that,’ Maya said, truthfully. Tonight had been a red letter day for her. The Council, albeit in the absence of three members, had decided to enroll Maya officially in the Gurukul. Her exploits had saved the Gurukul and its inhabitants from annihilation. Satyavachana had initiated the idea and Jignesh and Parth had readily agreed.
‘So,’ Arjun looked around at the group. ‘I’ve been thinking about it . . . are we the Saptas mentioned in the prophecy?’
Adira shrugged. ‘I would think so. I think the seven of us have come together for a reason. If you look back, you can see that each of us made a choice. A decision. And the actions we took as a result of that decision led us here. I don’t believe that was a coincidence.’
‘If that’s true,’ Tanveer said, thoughtfully, ‘then it is up to us to fulfil the rest of the prophecy.’
Tonight, for the first time, the seven children in the room had heard the prophecy. Or at least the part that had been left in Bhu-lok .
Shukra’s eclipse shall fade one day
In Kaliyuga will his power grow
Seven weapons, sharp and swift
Will be the means to counter him
The One will come, born on the day
The solstice that will be the sign
Yayati’s scion shall be the One
To lead the Seven into war.
‘ Yes,’ Varun agreed. ‘If we are the Seven mentioned in the prophecy, then we need to find the seven weapons the prophecy refers to.’
‘Before we do that,’ Arjun said, ‘we need to find the other two parts of the prophecy. Until we know the complete prophecy, we will not have the means to defeat Shukra. If the Saptarishis thought it bet
ter to divide up the prophecy and hide each part away, then there must be something in the prophecy that will give us the power to go up against Shukra. My gut feel is the same as Maya’s. I think we both believe that the weapons mentioned in the prophecy are not going to be sufficient to defeat Shukra.’
And the key to finding the rest of the prophecy may just be found in the diary.
Maya sat quietly, listening to Arjun. She had not forgotten Satyavachana’ s words — he could help her with deciphering the verses in her father’s diary. She had resolved that she would ensure that Satyavachana did help her to find out just why her father had believed the diary to be so important. But she kept her thoughts to herself. She wanted to be sure before she told the others anything.
There was a knock on the door of the sitting room and Virendra entered.
‘Time to wind up, guys,’ he smiled at them. ‘Tomorrow, we start rebuilding the Gurukul.’
‘What do we do about the destruction of the trees by the river?’ Maya wanted to know. ‘Won’t the sadhs notice that they’ve been burned down?’
Virendra shook his head. ‘Mantras have already been chanted to create the illusion of the forest along the river exactly the way it was before tonight. The sadhs will not notice the difference. You will see for yourself in the morning. Now, guys, wrap up. Adira, Maya’s in your dorm now, right?’
As a result of the destruction of the guesthouse, and also Maya’s formal induction into the Gurukul, she had been assigned to a dorm where she had to sleep from tonight. Virendra, too, had to move out to share a cottage with one of the Mahamatis . All the dorms that had been destroyed were the ones in which the boys were accommodated. They would spend their nights in the Assembly Hall until the cottages were reconstructed, which wouldn’t take too much time since mantras would speed up the process.
Adira beamed and nodded. ‘I’m glad she’s been assigned to our dorm. I’ll help her settle in.’
‘Great,’ Virendra rubbed his hands together. ‘See you all tomorrow, then. We have a lot of work to do to get the Gurukul back to normal.’
Epilogue
Day 13
SP Kapoor’s Office
New Delhi
Raman Kapoor sat at his desk and stared at the sheet of paper he had retrieved from Upadhyay’s study. He studied the crudely drawn sword that had been sketched on the page. A long, broad sword, with a hefty looking hilt.
A two-edged sword whose blade was engulfed in flames.
What in heaven’s name was this drawing about? Was it a clue to some angle of the case that had not yet been revealed? Or was it insignificant?
He studied the rows of inscriptions above and below the drawing. The script was definitely Devanagari, but the language was not Hindi. Neither was it Sanskrit. Kapoor had sent a scanned copy of the inscriptions for translation and it had been confirmed that the language was an unknown one.
A new language? Or an old, forgotten one?
In either case, how did Upadhyay know of it? He was a history teacher. Was it possible that he had come across the inscriptions somewhere? Perhaps on some ancient monument or stele? There were thousands of inscriptions in monuments and temples scattered all over India. Where was Kapoor to start looking in order to connect the dots?
So many questions.
It had been a whole week since he had found the drawing of the sword and nothing new had turned up in the last seven days to shed light on the mysterious case.
And then, there was the fire that had been reported to have broken out in Panna National Park last night. A man from one of the villages bordering the park had claimed to have seen flames in a section of the forest that was fairly remote and barely frequented, bordered by the river Ken. The villager had also reported hearing noises of some sort, though he couldn’t make out what was causing the uproar.
The park rangers had immediately set out to investigate. Three rangers had taken a motorboat and cruised along the Ken, searching for the fire, or traces of it. Helicopters had been placed on standby to help put out the forest fire if, indeed, there was still a conflagration going in the jungle.
But the rangers had seen nothing untoward. They had cruised up and down the river a few times, without coming across any indication of a forest fire. A subsequent helicopter survey of that part of the forest had also drawn a blank.
The park rangers had dismissed the case and put it down to either hallucination or the effect of alcohol.
But Kapoor could not dismiss the matter so easily. There were too many coincidences. Panna was where Virendra had fled with his family. It was also where Upadhyay’s daughter had possibly landed up, an unexpected twist to the case. It was this very forest where one of his best men claimed to have been chased by evil spirits. There was still no sign of Virendra or his family; or Upadhyay’s daughter — if it had indeed been her — for that matter. They had all seemed to disappear into thin air after reaching Panna.
Was there a connection between his case and the mysterious forest fire?
Kapoor didn’t know. But he had some ideas on how he wanted to proceed with the investigation. And he believed strongly that Virendra would not — could not — remain hidden forever.
Sooner or later, the man had to surface.
Kapoor would be waiting and watching.
Until then, his investigations would continue.
Raman Kapoor was not going to rest until he had got to the bottom of this mystery.
Author’s Note
While this is a fantasy story and, therefore, completely fictional, there is much in the book that is based on real verses in the Mahabharata, the Srimad Bhagavatam, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Puranas. I thought I should help readers understand which parts of the story are products of my imagination, and provide references for the parts which are based on or sourced from the texts mentioned above. The list below is organised by order of appearance in the story, as far as possible.
Louis Alexandre Berthier: is a historical figure and was, as described, the Chief of Staff under Napoleon. For more information, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis-Alexandre_Berthier
The Rosetta Stone: was, indeed, discovered by Captain Pierre Bouchard in August 1799. However, it wasn’t until much later that it became the means to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphics. I have taken the liberty of compressing several years into the shorter space of a month, purely for dramatic effect. For more information on the Stone which is housed today in the British Museum, in London, please log in to The Quest Club to read the complete history of the Stone as published by the British Museum, along with photographs taken by me of the Rosetta Stone.
Napoleon’s night in the Great Pyramid: there is no historical record of this, though there are several references to the episode I have described in the prologue, some narrated by respected writers. It is true, however, that Al-Mamoun first tunnelled into the pyramid in 820 AD, and Alexander and Caesar couldn’t possibly have entered it before then. For more information on this, and photographs, please log in to The Quest Club. According to most accounts, Napoleon carried the secret of what happened that night to his death and the words ‘You will never believe me if I told you’ were supposedly uttered by Napoleon on his deathbed when he was asked to describe his experience on that night. I have taken the liberty of altering the story, and, in the Prologue, Napoleon says these words to Berthier immediately after he emerges from the pyramid.
Bhrigu: is a Brahmarishi — created by Brahma. In Book 4 (Pauloma Parva) of the Adi Parva (Book 1 of the Mahabharata), Chapter 5, Verse 6, Bhrigu is described as having been begotten by Brahma. Bhrigu’s birth is also described in Book 7 (Sambhava Parva) of the Adi Parva, Chapter 66.
Shukracharya: was the son of Bhrigu and, therefore, a grandson of Brahma as mentioned in Chapter 30. Shukra has been described in several places in the Mahabharata as a very powerful Rishi, an ‘ascetic of ascetics’. He was the Guru of the Asuras, and possessed the ability to resurrect the dead as the result of a boon from Lord Shiva,
whose devotee he was. Interestingly, one of his wives was Jayanti, Indra’s daughter. How he lost one eye is described in the story of the Vamana avatar of Lord Vishnu and Bali. You can read more about it in Puranic Cosmology, Page 760 (point 8) and Page 103 (Point 6). .
Saptarishis : the story about their power diminishing during Kaliyuga is fictional. So is it with the Devas.
Narsimha mantra : this is a real mantra and has been reproduced in its exact form wherever it is quoted in the book. The mantra used in the book is also referred to as the Narsimha Maha Mantra.
Hiranyakasipu and Prahlad: the story can be found in the Vishnu Purana, Chapter 3, Section 1, Verses 11-14. It can also be found in the Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 7, Chapters 2-10.
Visvavasu: in the Mahabharata, Visvavasu is described as the King of the Gandharvas in the Adi Parva: Book 4: Pauloma Parva, Chapter 8, Verse 5.
Sadh : short form for sadharan , which means ‘ordinary’ in Hindi. Used to refer to people who are not members of either the Sangha or the Gana for reasons explained in Chapter 50.
Kacha and Shukra: the story of Kacha and Shukra, as narrated in Chapter 29, can be found in the Mahabharata, in the Adi Parva: Book 7: Sambhava Parva, Chapter 76.
The Chandravanshis: Yayati’s history is described in the Mahabharata, Adi Parva: Book 7: Sambhava Parva, Chapter 75.
Lord Shiva and the Bhutagana: the references in the book to Lord Shiva’s command of the Bhutagana is based on the descriptions in the Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 4, Chapter 2, verses 14-15, 32; Chapter 3, verse 7; Chapter 4, verse 34; Chapter 5, verses 4, 13, 25-26. However, the passing of the command to Shukra is purely fictional.
Vikritis: are fictional. Who are they? You will find out as the series progresses.
Brahmabhasha: my description and interpretation of Brahmabhasha as a predecessor of Sanskrit and the language of the Devas was inspired by a similar line of thought expressed by Akshoy K. Majumdar in his book The Hindu History , Chapter 6, page 68 : ‘Their tongue at “Indralaya” was Brahmabhasha, often mentioned in the Upanishadas. That tongue, gradually refined by the Devas, became Sanskrit.’
Son of Bhrigu Page 29