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1 Attachment(s)
Chaturmukha Part 3 - mRdayopaliptaM
Chapter Three - War of Karmegha
The Hell's Seashore (part 2/2)
A slight high pitch buzzing noise in his right ear made Kacha to reopen his eyes. Tiredness made every motion around him seem slow paced. He witnessed a pilum, the sharp long iron shank javelin, travel over his right shoulder ; it’s wooden shaft swam in the air like a fish.
The Red Lady behind Shamu curved backwards by bending her back towards the ground and the pilum cut past few inches above her nose. It struck an unaware soldier, by digging itself in his throat. Several pilums raced above the kneeling line of prisoners towards the enemy group opposite to them. Few masked swordsmen blocked the pilum with their shields ; the iron shank of the javelin embeded into the metal and held itself on to it, making the shield useless to be carried. Others who were unprotected tired to block the javelin with thier weapons and filpped it aside and the sharp spears dug themselves into the sand. Most of the standing enemies were pulled away by the force of the pilum and they fell dead holding to the iron bayonet pierced inside them.
Kacha noticed the Red Lady running towards the Iron Mask not minding the sudden swarm of pilums. Leather Hood leaped over the flying javelins and crossed the prisoners to reach the Iron Mask. The Bow Man, who was beside the Iron Mask, quickly took a defensive stand, droping his composite bow to the ground and pulling the crossbow from his back.
The three warriors of The General strategically covered their leader and all the four quickly backed off in unison.
Silence took full control on the seashore ; only the waters carasing the land was audible. The bandits, pirates and the Emperor’s soldiers looked at the wall of fog behind Kacha with their respective weapons in their hands drawn ready to defend and they advanced few steps forward.
Distant grunts echoed on the seashore. The moan was mixed with slobber noise. Slowly but steadily, tramp sound spread over the sands replacing the calmness.
A rider on a camel leaped over Kacha while he gazed at the under belly of the jumping animal. The rider landed in front of Kacha and inserted the bottom end of his double headed golden spear into the heart of the nearest standing man. The camel grunted and then slobbered, while the enemy soldiers backed off in fear and surprise. Kacha looked at the camel rider, his eyes opened wide.
"Take the heart of everyone who attacks", odered Sultan-The Warrior. The Merchant from the Sea led his camel calvary on the Hell’s Seashore to restore hope for the hopeless.
Immediately hundreds of camel riders emerged from the fog. There were three sets of camel riders – Solo spearsmen or solo archers or two riders on the same camel, one rider was a quick draw archer, the other behind him was a pikeman handling a two headed spear. The camel riders of Sultan's calvary covered their faces with the white cloth extending from their turbans. Sutan, their leader was dressed in black and his camel was decorated with a red carpet over it's hump. Two huge protective shield hung to either of it’s side.
The camels ran over the sands fluently while the riders punctured anyone still standing with thier sharp spears. Mounted archers with baer bows elegantly shot down the bandits by quickly drawing alluminium arrows from their belt quiver hanging to their both side. They wore an ivory thumb ring to gain a clean realease of the string. The double riders worked in unison, the archer wounded the enemy, while the pikeman struck him as soon as they neared fallen victim. The Mounted spearmen were quick too - within a blink of an eye the sharp end of the pike entered and exited the victim, and even before the enemy fell to the ground, the rider passed on to take out another soldier next to the falling victim. The killing chain continued as the Sultan's camel cavalry completely dominated the seashore battle.
http://www.mayyam.com/talk/attachmen...0&d=1471384086
"Take the wounded to the boat", shouted Sultan while still holding his golden spear inside a bandits chest. He galloped his camel dragging the bandit along with him before detaching his weapon from the breathless bandit. Sultan looked around and noticed General Kalai face down on the sand holding his right hand above him. Sultan rode his camel towards Kalai, comanding it to push forward faster by making purring sounds at the same time stirring the stirrups. He blew up the face an attacking bandit with the shaft of his double headed golden spear ; a fountain of red fluid ejected from the wounded man's mouth. Before reaching General Kalai, Sutan slayed two more enemy solidiers who went into a permanent sleep on the sea bed. Sultan reached out and elegantly pulled General Kalai from the floor and threw him behind on the back of the camel. Kalai's head fell on Sultan's shoulder when they were heading to the ship.
Sultan heard General Kalai whisper into his ears. He looked at the direction pointed by his companion and saw four men trying to escape the Pirate’s bay. Kalai held tightly to the spear in Sultan's hand. Giving the spear to Kalai, Sultan turned his camel and chased the fleeing cowards admist several war camels charging on the sand.
Noticing a rider advancing towards them, the Leather Hood halted. He signaled the others to continue. He removed two flail with two piked iron ball attached to a chain from his belt loop. Gripping a weapon in each hand he marched over the sand towards Sultan. He hit the neck of an aggresive camel with his flail. The spikes tore the camel's skin which made it skid over the sand past him. Leather Hood evaded a deadly spear thrown at him by rolling on the ground and when he got up, he jumped and hit his attacker on the back of the head ; the heavy iron smashed the skull. He reacted quickly by falling on the ground when he saw two other camel riders approaching him. He skidded over the sand and threw his flails at the front legs of each camel. The two camels fell neck down, throwing the riders in the air. Another attacker aimed and thrusted his spear at the Leather Hood, which he caught in midair and pulled the rider down to the ground and stamped the fallen rider’s throat with his left foot. The camel ran away aimlessly on the sands.
The Leather Hood removed two flat throwing knifes from his belt. He aimed and threw one at Sultan and the other at his camel’s neck. Sultan pulled his camel to the side and fell on the sand, saving himself as well as the camel. The animal sat upright and shaked its neck spraying a bunch of sand on Sultan and Kalai. Sultan got up to his feet quickly and took out his meqleh, his personal combat sword, from his hip belt. He punched an attacking enemy on his face, at the same time introduced his meqleh inside him.
Kalai, with the help of Sultan’s golden spear that he was still holding on to, got up and faced the Leather Hood. He blinked and a drop of his blood mixed with sweat and sand dripped above his left eye. Kalai heard Sultan say something, but he did not bother to know what. He fixed his eyes on the Leather Hood.
His attacker removed a ninja machete and walked towards Kalai with a devilish smile on his face. When he was close to Kalai, Leather Hood doubled up and leadped in the air aiming his flat sword at Kalai's skull. Sultan shouted and tried to run to the rescue of Kalai, but it was already too late ; the Leather Hood was mid air almost on top of Kalai. Sultan skidded to a stop.
Kalai did not move, he held his feet firmly on the sand. When the Leather Hood crossed his weapon over Kalai, with one sharp reflex, Kalai droped himself to the ground by gliding his hand down the shaft of the golden spear and pulled it out of the sand. He rolled backwards, while inserting the spear’s bayonet right into the forehead of the Leather Hood.
Kacha saw victory when Kalai and Sultan slayed the enemies. A smile dropped on his face when few men carried him away. His hanging head noticed few others attending to Shamu.
The hold on to the strategic territory on enemy lands, Narukukanna, was retained.
... to be continued ...
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Chaturmukha Part 3 - mRdayopaliptaM
Chapter Three - War of Karmegha
A White Dream
"That's not possible!", argued Sena.
"Why is it impossible!", asked The Monk, "I need Rana to find the Vashris hidden inside the palace. We have tracked men, but this one is different, you should know better than me". Sena was silent.
Kanakavalli monitored the conversation with her eyes, along with the other men inside the Planning Room. Rana looked confused.
"This girl knows to read", The Monk informed Sena, pointing at Kanakavalli. It then occured to Rana ; his brother does not wish to go looking for the Vimana Records with Kanakavalli. Rana chuckled silently.
"With Rana and Littleman, whose assistance at the palace is valuable, Kali will help me to diffuse Vashris, if at all we find it. Us four must enter the palace", The Monk briefed. "We have three dawns to find what we seek, before the arrival of the allied army fleets", he continued looking at Nobleman who was incharge of receiving the allied forces. Nobleman nodded his head affirmatively. "An incomplete job will just stay that way, as the march to the battle field Karmegha would have begun", The Monk watched Yesodha Putran, who moved his head in agreement. Looking at Sena, The Monk said, "We are merely seeing the sun set and rise without performing our duties".
Sena did not argue.
The Monk gave Sena the details that he had collected from Youngman's Library - the potential location where the Vimana Records maybe resting. He passed a tiny hand drawn map to help them reach the other side of the Nothern Mountains. He made his closing statement, "The mission to enter the Palace and the Fort may end as quickly as it may start, if we are not able to find the tunnels mentioned in these floor plans. If sealed or inexistant, then we have to force ourselves to beleive that a devastating terror like Vashris is just a myth". He paused and stared at Sena before continuing, "Same with the expedition. Time has a value, stop running in circles". He took a deep breath and concluded, "We meet here on the thrid sunset, may sucess light our paths". Without another word he turned and left the Planning Room. His team consisting of three men looked at Sena, and followed their mission leader. Nobleman and Putran walked away casually talking to eachother, leaving Sena and Kanakavalli alone inside the tent.
Sena handed over the tiny book to Kanakavalli which was given to him by The Monk at the Wise Brother's residence, and without an alert he walked out of the tent pocketing the map detailing the route across the jungles around the Northern Mountains. Kanakavalli followed Sena while flipping through the pages of the book.
The tiny map, hand drawn by The Monk, led them through several paths and shallow rivers. The vegetation around was dense with small evergreen shrubs under the shade of medium height trees. The jungle floor was frequented by rongeurs and over the space above, birds belonging to the family of trochilidae circled, seducing the amaryllis with their hums and flapping their wings in midair to take the nectar from the flowers generously bloomed coloring the floor of the forest.
While they were cutting their way through the thick bushes, Kanakavalli suddenly pulled Sena to the ground. Hiding behind a woody shrub, she stretched her hand through the leaves pointing at a direction before them. Sena looked through the gap between the tiny branches and noticed a white deer looking their way, it's eyes shining in the thin ray of sunlight escaping from the leaves of the trees. "Seneca", Sena exclaimed with a bright glow on his face, while the white hind moved it's ears rapidly. It looked directly at the woody plant behind which the couple were hiding. The white doe licked it's nose to keep it moist, as well as to communicate with the other deers using the scent produced from it's glands. A white stag with it's bones grown above it's head, as symmetrical pairs of white horns, joined the hind, followed by two white fawns. Several white deer pooped their heads out from behind the thick bushes. The mystry behind who was watching whom continued, when the family of Seneca stood close to each other gazing at the couple behind the the bush. Sena and Kanakavalli, sat cramped closely inside the shrubs watching the nature's beauty standing over the ground around them.
They camped at the spot where they were gifted with the sight of rarest animals. Kanakavalli slept deeply on the green bed of the forest. She had no fear, she felt safe in the presence of Sena, and her solid lump of agony over her grandfather's demise melted in the warmth of the cosy fire lit by Sena. She roamed with Sena in her dreams, amoung herds of Seneca deers running around them and the green pastures swaying to the song sung by the breeze.
Sena descended into a gesund sleep. He sat with his legs crossed over eachother and had Arha, his father's sword, as his arm rest. His eyes were closed while his lids were still moving. A blue butterfly rested on his shoulder settling close to his right ear as though whispering secrets to him.
Sena walked behind Lali on the snowy ground with a white stag with white long horns beside him. Lali wearing a white fork and holding to a red rose given to her by her father, was chasing two white fawns. She turned occasionly to look at her father, the laughter exposing her pearl white teeth and pink tongue, echoed around the white mountains, making the snow flakes on the green pine trees to stumble and fall. A tiny flake flew in the silent breeze and stuck itself on Sena's right cheek. He felt a wierd fell of coldness and the warmth at the same time, when the snow slowly started to melt on his face. Sena looked at the bright blue sky sprinkled with white clouds. He closed his eyes taking in the wonderful moment, all at once in his single breathe and held the air of happiness tight in his chest.
Sena's smiling lips sent out a mild snore.
... to be continued ...
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3 Attachment(s)
Chaturmukha Part 3 - mRdayopaliptaM
Chapter Three - War of Karmegha
Where Two Stones Met
At noon, they reached the spot which was literally the end of the route map. Beyond, there was only nature at it's wildest form, the unexplored territories under monstrous mountains and cliffs.
The bottom of the hill, below which they were standing, was surrounded by a dense growth of tall trees. Sena approached the hill's facade and started removing the creeping plants covering the ground. Kanakavalli pulled the crawling and climbing stems which have aggressively took over the foot of the hill. Beneath the ground-covered plants, she found a thin pathway. Kanakavalli pushed Sena's shoulders and showed him her discovery when he turned and looked at her with a frown on his face. Sena checked the ground before starting to climb the hill through the path which was initially hidden by thick vegetation. Kanakavalli ascended the hill behind him.
They landed on a plain ground with two huge stones on either side of the path. Sena examined the rocks.
There were four diagrams craved on the stone to the left - a square, an equilateral triangle, a rhombus and a parallelogram. Inscribed below the shapes were four single line text one below the other, which looked more like symbols than any letters from languages he knew.
And on the right rock - a circle was present, surrounded by four semi circles. Two straight lines intersected with each other in the area of the circle, slicing it into four equal portions. Inside each pie-slice, a square, an equilateral triangle, a rhombus and a parallelogram were craved, the shapes identic to the ones present on the other stone. The semi circles were positioned at the centre of each pie-slice outside the circumfrence of the center sphere.
http://www.mayyam.com/talk/attachmen...1&d=1471553311
Sena watched the text symbols and identified them to be resembling to the ones drawn in the book given to him by The Monk. He turned to avert Kanakavalli, and found her already going through the untitled document. Sena silently turned back and continued to investigate the strange emblems on the rocks using his index fingers. There was nothing particularly alarming on the shapes present on the left stone, but Sena found the smoothness of the four semi circles surrounding the sphere on the right rock were finished with a roughness at the top and bottom corners. He scratched the dust around these areas and found two holes about the size of a finger ring punched at each corner above and below. The scooped parts seemed to be some kind of keyhole mechanism. He tried to insert his thumb and index fingers into the aperture present on the vertical semi circular object at the right top corner of the rock. Once his fingers were fixed, he applied pressure to rotate the semi circle rightwards.
To his surprise, when the semi circle was turned, the circle started to rotate clock-wise automatically and made a full quater of a turn before coming to a stop. The motion of manual turn and automatic rotation, altered the positions of the shapes inside the circle, as well as, made the semi circle to settle horizontaly with it's curved side pointing downwards. Sena also noted that the new face of the semi circle was now in allignment with a new object, the triangle. Initially it was facing the rhombus.
http://www.mayyam.com/talk/attachmen...4&d=1471554185
He tried the horizontal half circle at the bottom corner of the rock, that was facing the rhombus shape currently and turned it leftwards. The object switched to stand vertical with its curved surface facing inwards. The sphere at the center rotated counter-clockwise making the semi circle sit next to it's inital shape, the square.
http://www.mayyam.com/talk/attachmen...5&d=1471554193
Sena noticed that the full circle in the middle rotated with respect to the direction in which the semi-circles around it were turned - Right Turn:Clockwise / Left Turn:Counter Clockwise.
When he selected a semi circle and turned it radomly, he could see a phenomenal change in the objects themselves as well as the postions of the shapes inside the sphere. The semi-circles continued to change their faces - the curve or flat line pointing inwards or ourwards with respect to the direction they were turned. Each time, the full cirlce moved a quater of a turn, clockwise or counter-clockwise accordingly, constantly changing the position of the shapes it held inside.
It gave two results and an inference, Sena assumed - One, the form of the semi-cirlce alters with the manual turns ; Two, the shapes inside the circle changes position through an automatic rotation provoked by turning a semi circle, thus, each spin makes a different face out of the half circle turned, alligning it with a different shape at the same time ; infering that when a semi circle was turned only the full circle rotated, but the other three half circles did not move.
Sena tried to move two half circles at the same time using both his hand. Absolutely nothing moved.
Several attempts of twisting and turning the objects yeilded nothing but only a soft noise of stone rubbing over one another under the ground. Sena continued to play with the mechanism like a kid amusing with a new toy when Kanakavalli tapped him on his back. He turned and faced her with a grin on his face. She showed him a single page holding a few lines of hand written texts, attached to the middle of the book and pointed at a single word present in the thrid line by tapping her index finger on it, which read - "Sumeru".
... to be continued ...
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Chaturmukha Part 3 - mRdayopaliptaM
Chapter Three - War of Karmegha
Into the Tomb
The gaurds at the Vettaiyan Palace gate stopped the two heavy four-wheeled carriage, each pulled by two horses, approaching the entreance with a deep rumbling noise. The hefty coachman of the first cart obliged to the soldiers command by halting his vehicle. He looked at the gaurds and put up a crooked smile on his face. The second wagon came to a stop behind it's lead wagon. One of the Emperor's security officier walked towards the newly arrived strangers. He passed the six gaurds who were blocking the entrance and reached the hefty coachman siting on the dilapidated vehicle, a kind of rumble-tumble coach. He glanced at the second horse-drawn vehicle that looked almost damaged, with a high risk of the four bent wheels breaking without being able to support the body over it. A short man over an elevated box seat, holding to the lead lines attached to the halter of the horses, saluted the officer from the second carriage which resembled to a funeral coach.
"What is the purpose of your visit, Stranger", asked the controlling officer. The hefty man did no speak, but contiuned to shower his smile.
"Greetings Sir", the officer turned towards his right and saw a thin man with a weird hairdo getting out from the side door of the rumble-tumble coach. The door swayed aimlessly for a while, and remained half open.
"I am the Keeper of the Garden", the thin man said. "We have to come to build a massive garden block at the east end of the Palace. Here is the authorisation from the Palace Architect". He produced a document which had the prestigious Kingdom seal on it. The officer looked confused as such sealed document were rare and demands immediate permittance without any questioning. He wondered what is the urgence to issue it to a gardner during the time of war. He bit his lower lip. His hesitation was quite visible, but he was left with no other choice but allow the strangers with high level authorisation to proceed through the fortified gate.
"I understand", the thin man said. "Why a garden work during a time of war ? I can tell you two reasons, pick the one that suits you. One, each to his line of work. Brave soldiers like you win the war, while gardners like me keep the Palace decorated to invite our victorious King". The thin man paused to check whether he had the attention of his listener. Satisfied, he contiued, "Two, Why stop works around the Palace when the threat is just minimal ? Having valliant soldiers like you, the war shall be won even before it is fought". The second reason sparked a glow on the Gate Keeper's face.
"If you have gone through the document, may I take it back please", The Monk requested the officier.
"Of course, of course", the officier said with a graceful smile while handing back the document The Monk. Kali was still holding on to his grin and Littleman sat watching the conversation.
"But I have to check the transports", he informed and with a shoulder shrug he added, "Protocol".
"Nothing to misunderstand. Full co-operation will be given to you by my assistants", The Monk turned and signaled at Kali and Littleman to get down from their respective vehicles. He continued to address the officier by pointing his hand towards the rumble-tumble coach, "This one here contains gardening tools, plants and other materials to create a scenary around the Brother's Cemetry". He elegantly moved his shoulders while presenting the funeral coach parked behind him, "That carries a dump of manure", with a smile he said, "organic fertilizer".
The officier along with the other gaurds checked the first wagon. Couple of soldiers climbed inside through the back door of the coach and searched the unkempt space inside by taking peeks behind the rows of plants errect on a lump of wet mud. They checked for weapons but found only gardening tools. "Clear", shouted one while getting down. The checking team reached the second wagon when a finger tapped the right shoulder of the officier. When he turned, The Monk handed him a white cloth and spoke with a pleasant smile, "This would come handy".
When the gaurd opened the back door of the second wagon, a pungent odor from the huge dump of semisolid metabolic waste inside, leaked into the clean air. The officer brought the white cloth to his nose. The other gaurds looked at an younger soldier, while pinching their nostrils with their fingers. The man incharge opened his eyes wide looking at the young soldier as though giving him a strong command to move forward.
The young gaurd advanced slowly griping a spear in one hand and closing his nose completely with the other. He stepped inside the funeral coach containing the manure. He digged the organic fertiliser with his spear by entering it deep the soft mount of manure. Few flies flew out from the dump. When he entered his spear the third time, he felt as though it resisted to exit while he pulled it back. The Monk's head started to shake mildly. Kali looked at Littleman who gulped. Not minding the tiny resistance show by his spear, the soldier continued picking the manure couple of more times. He turned and shook his head at his officer. Immediately after, he got down from the coach and ran to it's side to vomit his disgust.
The gates were opened and the two wagons entered the Palace garden and slowly rolled east towards the Brother's Cemetry where the nine brothers of Vettaiyan were buried.
They halted under a shade of a tree and The Monk tapped twice on the side of the funeral coach and whispered, "The enterance to the tunnel should be under the third tomb. Be quick when it shall be found". The Monk walked straight to the spot where the floor plan indicated the presence of a secret door leading to the Palace storage rooms. Kali brought a barrel of water and Littleman followed him carrying two buckets full. They placed it behind the funeral coach and waited with a clean cloth beside. The Monk stood near the third tomb and stamped the grass floor with his left foot. Then, he took a step forward and used his right foot to push the ground below.
At the back, under the thrid tombstone, he found the floor to be resisting. The Monk pulled an hand signal at Kali. Kali opened the back door of the funeral coach. Littleman entered and exited the rumble-tumble coach and handed a sharp blade knife to The Monk using which he sliced the thin grass and exposed a wooden plank, the secret enterance door to the Palace.
"I hope it takes us where we intend to travel", The Monk heard Rana speaking to him from behind. The Monk turned to look at Rana who had washed himself and was drying with a white cloth.
Blocking his nostrils and ears with buds of cloth, covering his hair up to his neck with a tight bandana and fixing a long bamboo pipe in the mouth to breathe, Rana travelled burying himself in the manure carried by the funeral coach. There were three others hidding with him inside.
The Monk looked beyond Rana and saw the other men, identic to himself, Littleman and Kali, cleaning themselves assisted by Kali.
Rana lifted his tunic and examined the scratch on his lower hip. He explained to Littleman that the spear of the soldier wounded him and luckily it passed over his left palm just after. Completely blinded in the dump, Rana knew that the wound would have strained the bayonet with his blood. When he felt it passing over his palm, he had pinched the spear head with his thumb and index fingers, wiping the blood strain. The Monk realised the reason for the soldier to put up a doubting face when he tried to pull his spear out during his third check process.
Rana forced the handle on the flat door to open, which uncovered a wooden staircase pathway that ran under the tomb.
The Monk slowly got up and walked towards the other three men. "You know what to do. Don't talk much with others or with eachother. Just decorate this place with the materials from the wagon. If we are not out by dusk, leave. And don't forget to cover the passage door with the grass once we have entered". The three men nodded. They will replicate the three gardners who had entered the Palace, while the original trio will explore the tunnels underneath with Rana.
When The Monk returned, he saw Rana standing on the first step. "Find another way out. I am not entering into the funeral coach burying myself ", saying so, he disappeared into the tunnel. The three men exchanged smiles and descended behind Rana.
As soon as they had disappeared into the darkness below, the replicate gardners above sealed the woooden door.
... to be continued ...
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1 Attachment(s)
Chaturmukha Part 3 - mRdayopaliptaM
Chapter Three - War of Karmegha
The Mysteries of Nature
Sena read the hand written text from the book attentively :
11:13 - Sumer. Special people with special gifts. Existance of writing and speech during primitive days.
19:21 - Found it. Their power of thought to win over the body happened with the discovery of a white crystal that casted a shadow of the Divine Dancer. Where is the crystal now ?
27:32 - Sumeru. The mount that grows above and under the ground. They travelled up and down ? In the dark, creating the first library for mankind ? They called them Records.
35:36 - Understand. Grammatical unit is the word complex rather than the individual word, thus the grammatical particles tend to retain their independent structure rather than become inextricably attached to the word roots.
39:48 - Poetry. Few lines crisply explain the devine phenomenon. Diagrams with symbols and illustrations about agriculture, medicine, science, music (the seven notes of sound - The Swapta Swara) including ways to fly and float under water.
51:64 - Wonderful. Sumeru to Meru to Mir and now Medu is a Mountain in the middle connecting Pameru and Kumeru, the north-pole & south-pole [Pa-high; Ku-low]. The floating high mountainous land between was Kumari, My Mother Land.
75:77 - Confirmed. Sumero is genetically related to my mother tongue. My Origins. Spoken by my Forefathers.
83:84 - Simple. Orientation of signs became language. Earlier written top to bottom, then left to right. The symbols were rotated at certain degrees clockwise or counter clockwise to produce a new word, providing altogether a new meaning out of the same symbol. Some were even attached to eachother, thus, language evolved.
101:108 - Amazing. Checked the logogram and syllabogram. The phonetic complements match. Sounds strikingly similar, except the written signs are different and primitive ; childlike as the first paint brush stroke on a blank canvas :
Text, phonetic transcription : uLu Odi uLu Odi amma moonRa uNar-idu
Pronounciation equivalent : உளு ஓடி உளு ஓடி அம்மா மோன்ற உனர் இடு
Translation (for Tallman & Shortman) : O Runner! O Runner! inform my mother
127:132 - Fantastic. Numeric system was both decimal and sexagesima contained inside few symbols. The 'Base 60' was very much in use, can it be adapted to calculate units of time ?
142:144 - Interesting. Cycle of Nature ? Maybe Wheel! Mount Sumeru is the axis.
156:157 - Trust. Tallman & Shortman don't beleive me. The Records exist and whatever I have discovered will unlock the doors to access them.
158:158 - Wondering. What will it be like once inside ? Dark ? Cold ? A Gaurdian ? An Angel ? The End !
10225:10227 - Kochadaiiyaan. Knowledge was Killed. Like cutting the teats of the Mother of a New Born. The Twelve Men confirmed to me the existance of these Records, and spoke to me about Him, the one who traveled over the Mount. Tallman & Shortman beleive me now. Must accompany Ranadheeran Kochadaiiyaan to unearth the invaluble treasures, the Sacred Knowledge left behind for us by our forefathers.
The notes ended abruptly.
Sena flipped through the book and identified the symbols on the rock, matching them to the description in the book maintained by Youngman. He tried to associate the inscription - the ancient language carved on the right rock, with the help of the appropriate translation from the book :
O Runner! O Runner! Inform My Mother
The Brothers shall play with Each Other
Behind this door they Spin and Shredder
Going above or below, none shall suffer
Sena thought to himself, "This door - may refer to the entrance to access the Records!"
"But who are the Mother and the Brothers, and those who shall not suffer while going above or below!", he uttered aloud.
Kanakavalli pulled Sena by his wrist and made him sit beside her. She picked up a tiny twig and wrote on the muddy path between the two rocks:
Sun lights Moon
Moon cools Sun
Sun melts Moon
Moon hides Sun
She then pointed at the left stone ; she had written down the translation of the texts craved on it.
Sena immediately got up thinking, "The left stone illustrates the cycle of the sun and the moon, the various forms they take influenced by one another, resulting in a change occuring on the Earth. The craving on the right rock ..."
It then occured to him. The Brothers are Sun & Moon who played around their Mother, the Earth.
Kanakavalli pulled Sena again without hiding the frustration on her face. Sena grined. She showed him the shapes that she had already drawn on the floor. Beside each shape she wrote :
Triangle implies Flame (Light)
Rhombus => Land (Mountains)
Parallelogram = > Water moving either way (Dissolve)
Square => Emptiness, a box of air (Breeze)
She then matched her theory assembling the written text with the respective shapes :
Sun lights Moon => Flame => Triangle
Moon cools Sun => Breeze => Square
Sun melts Moon => Water => Parallelogram
Moon hides Sun => Mountain => Rhombus
Sena looked at her appreciatively for the first time in their journey. He was very much impressed with her intelligence and suddenly found her brimming with beauty. Finally, it all made complete sense to Sena. The Nature's Cycle occurs on Earth, so that the habitants of any part above or below the seperating lines will not suffer but only profit from the result of the changing phases.
On the right rock, the sphere at the center represents Earth and the four semi circles are symbols of Sun or Moon according to influence created by the shapes inside the pie-slices of the Mother Circle.
He looked at the right rock and then at Kanakavalli waiting for her to guide him. She coupled her hands signaling Sena to allign the semicircles with the appropriate shapes inside the pie-slice to create the four natural phenomenons indicated on the left stone. She also gestured him to attentively turn the half cricles matching the respective cycle, as the object has two faces - flat and a curved one. The flat is absense as in 'No Moon' when "Sun melts Moon" or 'Disapperance of the Sun' when "Moon hides Sun" ; the curve is existance when "Sun lights Moon" or "Moon cools Sun".
Sena worked on turning the semi circles. He arranged the four cycle of the sun and the moon around the earth, rotating them to allign with the shapes according to their state of absence and existance. Each time the sphere at the center, the Mother Earth, spinned provoking the shapes to move to a spot above or below. He had to make complete rotation of couple of half circles to bring it in line with the shapes inside the pie-slices.
http://www.mayyam.com/talk/attachmen...7&d=1471818813
Once all the semi circles were positioned to their respective faces, matching the shapes contained inside the full circle, Sena and Kanakavalli heard a click sound and the other stone behind them started to move backwards, opening a stairway leading to a dark tunnel below.
Sena gently kissed Kanakavalli on her forehead over Mount Sumeru. Kanakavalli smiled.
... to be continued ....
[Author's Note : 'O Runner! O Runner! inform my mother' is a line from a Sumerian Cagkam poetry (named 'The Letter of Ugubi') written on a clay tablet, dating several hundred years before Calender Era. It is largely beleived that : The Runner mentioned could refer to a Postman, assuming that a sort of courier service was handled between the cities by the Sumerians. This letter is supposed to be written by a soldier or watchgaurd, a son to his mother about a flood in which he got caught. The letter mentions about Eridu, the prosperous city of Enki and talks about Ugubi himself, siting at the door steps of a musician, being happy, etc., until he claims to be drowning and scared. There is no certanity or accuracy on the assumptions and translations, as the scholars in the specific fields are still researching. Several other interruptions of the same text are available, provided by different researchers.
This particular line got my attention, and so, used it in the trilogy to show my respect to this Great Man (maybe called Ugubi) who wrote a letter to his mother. The other three lines were written by myself, adapted to suit the story. These three lines are not carved anywhere or present in any clay tablet, but are only present in this story text here. The urbanism and advanced culture & science described in this episode are fictional. The puzzle, explanations, diagrams, language, symbols, the rocks and their locations (etc.), are all imaginary, created by myself for fiction and does not stand as a proof nor should be taken as facts, about any particular event in the history or to be used to point at any particular (ancient) civilisation recorded in the history].
-
Chaturmukha Part 3 - mRdayopaliptaM
Chapter Three - War of Karmegha
Tunnels of Liberation
The officer at the Palace entrance walked up and down before the huge gate, something about the document produced by the Keeper of the Garden was worrying him. He entered through the wicket gate and stood staring at the three gardeners working around the Brother's Cemetery to the far east. A moment later, he walked briskly, turning left from the Vettaiyan Statue to reach the imperial quarters, so that he can gain access to Architect Vitara's office and report to him about the special entry.
The stairways under the third tomb led the four men into a storage room two decks below the ground level. They crossed the huge hall where several barrels were resting. As they walked across, the hall narrowed down and they were put forward at the starting point of two tunnels - both were curved sharing the single wall in between. The Monk verified the floor map and read out the options, "The extreme bend runs to Fort Ayan, the other, to the Palace". Rana opted to check the one extending to Fort Ayan. He carried a fire lamp torch and guided his men inside the dark tunnel. Odour of dampness occupied the air and falling drops of leaking water were audible. Soon, they reached a huge wall blocking their path. After examining the wall, Rana confirmed that it was a dead end. The tunnel was shut down with a barricade which was impossible to break through.
Entering Fort Ayan and disabling cannon Vettai failed.
The Fabulous Four retraced their way back and took the other path. They moved gradually on the serpent pathway and finally reached a spiral upward staircase. As the visibility was null behind to the curved steps, Rana signalled his team to rest at the bottom and started to climb upstairs.
Architect Vitara was in his office when the officer reached the closed door and requested for permission to enter by softly knocking on the closed door. Vitara continued to work on his table showing complete ignorance towards the knock. The officer stood behind the door for a while, and then, he said in a raised voice, "Two men with the Keeper of the Garden have arrived my Lord. They are currently working at the Brother's Cemetery". He waited but got no reply. He turned briskly and started to walk away, when he heard the doors behind him creak open.
"What?" demanded Vitara at the doorstep. "Weren't the orders quite clear. None in, none out. Under whose authorisation did you permit them entrance!", the Architect talked showing his displeasure in his voice.
The officer walked back towards Vitara and after performing a royal salute, he said, "They produced the Emperor's proprietary document stamped with the Empire seal, and the authorisation was signed by yourself my Lord. I have come to inform you", he added proudly, "without any delay".
The Architect looked sharply at the officer with his tiny eyes before slamming the door angrily on his face. He rushed to his desk and opened a wooden box fixed to the floor under it. He pushed the pedal that was inside with his left leg. Immediately, the painting on the opposite wall slided, turning itself into a door mat before an opening in the wall. Vitara rushed inside.
The three men below heard a hissing sound. Littleman peeped through the spiral staircase and identified Rana as the source of the mysterious noise. Rana waved his hand calling Littleman to join him. Once the members regrouped upstairs, they followed the trail led by the tunnel. The upper level of the tunnel was completely different than the lower one - it was spacious, like a wide corridor and very clean. Further down the secret passage, Rana noticed a rectangular block sticking out of the wall. He traced his hand over it and then gently knocked on the spot. Camouflaged to rest as a wall, this portion made a hallow sound. Rana handed over the fire torch to Littleman, and examined it. At the right bottom, he found a hidden gap. Inserting his four fingers, he pulled the latch that hit his index finger towards him and exposed the hole in the wall about the size of a wicket door. Rana peeped inside and his face hit a red curtain.
Vitara hurriedly searched through the drawers of his desk at the centre of the secret room. Around him several numbered scrolls were neatly arranged inside the wall mounted cabinets. He checked the bunch of blank papers - the Palace Documents with the Empire seal on them. There were five in his hand. He did a breif calculation using his thumb over other finger tips, and recollected that the Emperor had given him a dozen such documents, to permit him to work autonomous, and he had used only five out of the twelve. Two have gone missing. Vitara cried out his fury, "V E R M A N!” He was about to storm out of the secret room, but suddenly stopped and checked the wall cabinets with his eyes. Emptiness filled two specific spots, and Vitara exactly knew which were the floor plans that were missing. Stolen. He left the secret chamber to alert the Emperor in person.
Rana gently moved and popped his head out between the red curtains. His sight directly fell over a huge portrait of someone queenly. The Queen was young and looking beautiful in her kingly clothes, ornaments and jewels, holding herself proudly in an excellent posture. Rana noticed two mirrors occupying the walls on either side of the human size painting, both reflected the images of the portrait. Rana slowly stepped out and walked to the curtain-less window behind him that gave a fantastic view on the Palace Garden, but landed straight at the Brother’s Cemetery. Rana watched the three gardeners working around the cemetery, he also noticed a distinct movement near a window on the building opposite to the room he was standing in.
A soft touch on his feet startled Rana. He quickly moved away from the window and looked down. Below Rana, a bald man with a hairless face was crawling on the floor; he was moving slowly towards Rana by pushing his chest. The man slithering on his bellies had big nostrils, yet struggled to breathe. He was gasping for air making sucking sounds when he advanced towards Rana. He again caught hold of Rana's left leg. Rana immediately shook him off and moved to the centre of the room, in front of the Queen's Portrait.
The crawling man advanced and Rana saw his reflection on the mirrors. The projection was as though the man on the floor was seeking the Feet of the Queen in the portrait. Rana sympathized with the crawling man and bent down to sit cross legged beside him. He took his deformed face and placed it on his lap. Rana found the man opening and closing his cracked lips. Rana took his left ear near the toothless mouth.
"f r e e m e f r e e m e f r e e m e", Rana heard the crawling man's uninterrupted whispers. Rana, without a second thought, decided to liberate the damaged soul.
The sharp blade of a hand knife entered inside King Sama Suyodhana's chest and punctured his heart. He sucked for air while watching the Portrait of the Queen hung on the wall behind Rana. He laid still staring at his wife Dasa Radha.
Rana lifted the head of the dead man and placed it on the floor. He placed the two arms crossed over the chest. The mirror reflection looked like the Queen in the Portrait was looking at the sleeping man. Rana turned and looked at the portrait on the wall behind him and suddenly got a weird feeling that the Lady in the Painting was smiling at him. Rana panicked and hurried to the exit through the red curtain.
... to be continued ....
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Chaturmukha Part 3 - mRdayopaliptaM
Chapter Three - War of Karmegha
Dampened by Darkness
Sena dug inside his travellers pack prepared by Rana for their expedition and took out a tiny wooden torch. A thick thread hung from the top and when Sena pulled it, the rugs at the tip alighted through an automatic built-in system that produced sparks by pulling the thread, thus igniting the rugs damp with lamp oil.
Kanakavalli placed both her hands on Sena's shoulders who guided her through the steep stairway into a dark narrow tunnel below. As they advanced, the sunlight that managed to escape through the crack started to fade away. The serpent path stretched itself and descended into the deep. After the walk in the dark, mildly illuminated by the dim flame from the torch, the couple landed onto a flat surface.
Sena moved the torch to his left and then to his right before concluding that they must be standing on large platform, yet he could not determine its size. He managed to find the wall of the mysterious room made of sharp and badly cut rocks. Sena walked straight and the dim light projected a raised platform few feet from where they had entered. Sena assumed it to be the centre of the floor, making a rough calculation about the size of the hall. Recollecting the curves in rocky wall, he was sure that he was standing on a circular floor. Kanakavalli had not removed her hands from his shoulders, her grip tightened on each stride they made. Sena sensed her fear, and turned to assure her. The steady flame of the torch light, captured her face by giving it a shiny glow. And it also exposed a pair of sharp yellow eyes hanging just above her right shoulder.
Sena was taken aback. He controlled his eye movements to hide his surprise. He calmly looked at Kanakavalli and smiled.
The yellow eyes were open without blinking staring back at Sena. At a moment, its shutter closed and reopened, making the eyes disappear and reappear in the darkness. Sena, without removing the smile from his face, moved the light from his torch closer to Kanakavalli's shoulder. The face that was suspended in the darkness behind her had stripes of dried mud all over crossing between its flat nose and thick lips. Sena held his breathe to supress the terror.
Amidst the minute noise of combustion coming from the torch light, Kanakavalli heard a faint noise behind her, someone inhaling and felt that warm air hiting the back of her neck was coming from the exhale. Without moving, she rolled her eyeballs to her right to the furthest corner of her eye and tried to catch a glimpse behind her. She slowly rolled them back and fixed them with the ones of Sena, and witnessed the reflection of fear in the smiling man.
Without rising an alert, the courageous lady spun around in the darkness, cringing her back on Sena's chest. Her eyes widened when she got the picture of what was standing behind her - a blemished human-like figure with yellow eyes on its striped face. The form had its hairy hand hung to its side and its curved posture made the palms swing below its knees; its unkempt nails scratching through the dense hair around its legs. Long thin hair peeped out randomly all over its body. It was breathing softly through the huge nostrils and looked at Kanakavalli with dazzling yellow eyes.
Sena slowly took a step backward; Kanakavalli moved along with him. Darkness fell before them, covering whatever was standing there. Suddenly, the Monkey Man took a step forward and appeared, again, under the light of the torch. It kept gazing at the couple, this time while moving its upper lip occasionally to display the sharp fang. Sena knew that the Monkey Man was not happy with their backward motion. He stood still, but Kanakavalli did not.
She slipped her four fingers, excluding the thumb, of both her hands inside her waist belt and removed them dressed with brass knucles. She gripped the fingers of her right hand tightly and punched the Monkey Man on its face with the brass knuckles, the spike over each knucklehead tore the flesh around the cheek of its victim, also left four deep scratch marks over its cheek. The Monkey Man started to bleed, the blood was pale red. A severe growl of anger escaped from its mouth, which opened wide letting out a cry of pain between its nail sharp teeth. Kanakavalli punched it a second time with her left spiked brass knuckled hand. The blow produced a similar devastating effect on the Monkey Man's face, which made it turn its head completely to the right. The Monkey Man slowly straightened up his neck and stared at Kanakavalli with red liquid pouring down its face.
Soft noise of wood hitting the rock gathered around the couple. The sound increased progressively and settled into a deep rhythmic bangs. Sena took out a hollow black aluminium cylinder baton and held to it tightly in his free hand. He moved the fire torch around him and could see several hairy feet assembling around them. All of a sudden the banging stopped. And too many yellow eyes opened in the darkness. Sena and Kanakavalli found themselves in the middle of a huge and dense circle of Monkey Men.
On a spur of moment, a Monkey Man leaped from the crowd and attacked Kanakavalli. When it was briefly suspended in the air, Sena pushed Kanakavalli closer to his side and struck the flying Monkey Man with his baton behind its left ears. The attacked fell to the ground and did not move. The bleeding Monkey Man looked at his wounded comrade fallen to the floor. It raised its head and looked severely at Sena before letting out a scream. The others joined with their crying call and charged at the couple.
Sena elegantly blocked the attacks with the fire torch and the baton. Kanakavalli fought beside him punching anything that her spiked brass knuckles met with. They both danced close to each other, interchanging their positions by circling their feet around one another to cover the spiral attack area of the Monkey Men. Sena noted that the savages were primarily trying to attack his face. They aggressively moved their hands and feet trying to pull Sena to the ground, so that they can tear down his face. The couple spun on the floor defending the charge of the Monkey Men, keeping in mind their sharp nails and teeth.
A slap from a heavy hairy hand landed on the back of the head of Kanakavalli. She started falling to the floor face down, when Sena managed to catch her by coupling his hand around her waist. He kneeled on one leg to break the fall and to steady himself, before gently making her fall on his lap. He slipped the baton that his hand was still holding, so that he coulc grip firmly and turn Kanakavalli face-up. She was breathing, but unconscious. Her head hung loosely searching for the floor.
Pairs of yellow eyes approached the couple cutting through the darkness. Sena held on to the torch light in one hand and Kanakavalli with the other, while kneeling on one leg and surrounded by the Monkey Men.
... to be continued ...
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Chaturmukha Part 3 - mRdayopaliptaM
Chapter Three - War of Karmegha
The Maze
A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze - Margaret Atwood
Vettaiyan believed his eyes won't lie to him; he was convinced that he did notice a faint movement behind the window in his father's prison-room. It had been a while that his father had come over to greet his sleeping sons. With a crooked smile on his face, Vettaiyan made quick strides to across his Chamber and entered the corridor. The echoes of footsteps faded away as Vettaiyan marched briskly to meet his father.
Rana's bloody hands were trembling. Rana looked at The Monk and confessed, "I murdered a man". He paused and then started to talk rapidly, "I don't know ... I don't know ... the portrait, the crawling man ... I have seen them all. The visions are becoming reality".
"Why would you tremble, then?", The Monk asked.
"Sena. What would he become? The Demon Eye!" Rana wondered.
The confused Littleman looked at The Monk, who gestured him not to worry and walked few steps forward. "We only have time until they find the dead body", and without waiting for his group, the Monk advanced into the tunnel.
Architect Vitara reached Vettaiyan's Chamber and found it empty. He turned and returned back to the corridor, hoping to meet the Emperor with Vaithiyar. When he reached the intersection at the far end, he changed his mind and turned left rather than taking the right. He was heading directly to the room where the intruders maybe heading.
After running through half a dozen more bends, a white door marked the end of the secret tunnel. The Monk standing in front of the white door announced to his team, "We are before the First Door of the Maze."
Placing the plan on the floor and under the light showered by Littleman, The Monk briefed about the design of the Palace by pointing out respective spots with his index finger.
http://img4.hostingpics.net/pics/278...MazeVer042.jpg
(Floor Plan of Vettaiyan Palace designed by Architect Vitara)
"Vishiris must be here", The Monk tapped twice on the cross marked by Minister Narendhira Verman. "We have to open several doors to get into this room. Nine doors to be precise".
The Monk lifted his head and said, "The Palace is divided into three parts :
One, The Underground - Storage Room, House of Slaves and numerous tunnels; we have used only couple of them.
Two, The Upper Level - The Throne Room, Royal Residence and Imperial Chambers. "
He paused and looked at the listeners directly in their eyes and said, "And then, The Maze."
The Monk continued:
"The Maze is the interior part of the Palace. The purpose of the multicursal maze which is well designed with many junctions and nodes and having more than one path, is to trap anyone who enters within its complex structure. It is a multiply connected maze known as the Braid Maze where there are no dead ends but it simply goes around in circles. The wonder of the architecture is that the interior is designed close to a Planair Maze, a true mind bender where the colour and decor of the entered room modifies itself, creating a confusion over the physical route through a maze. "
"Any intruder will not get out of this Palace, alive or dead, as the Maze keeps the intermeddler inside forever within its confusing network of interconnecting and uninterrupted pathways. "
"There are fifty four rooms sharing three to six doors each. The doors perform a dual duty – as the junction and as well as a node - where a junction is the connection between the seemingly endless rooms and the node is the decision point leading to the exit. The doors permit The Maze to form a vortex within, by leading to multiple passageways. Vortices are disoriented, making it difficult to predict the right direction leading out; and multiple vortices linked by these doors together can be particularly confusing to navigate. Out of the doors found inside a single room, only one door is the node. Each time while entering into a new room, the right door - the node - has to be picked, else the junctions will start looping itself allowing to wander inside the structure forever. "
"This is where the floor plan comes handy, but it’s useless once inside the maze as all will seem identic inside making it look complex. I have generated an algorithm to find our way through The Maze and also retracing the path - an end to end route inside The Maze", with his index finger The Monk traced the best-solution; the shortest path indicated by the blue line on the floor plan of the Vettaiyan Palace.
"This spot where we were are standing, is the bottleneck of the maze - the passage that connects one area with another within The Maze - using which I have identified the nodes from the junctions. There are several blind alleys - looping passageways inside The Maze - merely placed to make the backtracking difficult. These very large areas permit to wander aimlessly as there shapes do not define any end. "
"We will be crossing the transition point - a bottleneck that seperates the upperlevel of the Palace and the Maze - and gain ourselves entry into the King's Gallery through the King's Library which will place us right under the Throne Room, thus we have walked right under the nose of the Emperor’s Army guarding the fortified Palace."
"And that’s just about the start and the beginning", The Monk winked at Littleman. The Monk’s head started to shake rapidly when he spoke, "The Mechanism of The Maze should be understood to solve its puzzle" he announced.
"Once a door is opened and closed, the interiors of the room alter automatically. Reopening the same door will permit entry into an altogether different space; whereas technically it’s the same room. The trick is played with the colours and decors. During the modification, a new set of coloured walls gets installed with newly positioned doors, making it difficult to identify which one of them is the node. "
The Monk spoke in a sober tone, "Every third occurrence of the full moon, a salve is sent inside The Maze. None have ever made out of it – Dead or Alive. "
"There are rows of decorated wooden walls and roofs arranged one behind the other", The Monk explained. "A pulley system engages automatically, that is triggered by the handle of the door. The exchange of the walls happens as the existing dividers are pulled towards the roof and replaced by another coloured wooden boards. A third wall moves forward behind the installed one, while the one stored in the roof during the exchange is put back into the third position. Similarly, the roof folds and unfolds to match up with respective colour of the replaced panels. The system is connected directly to the underground where slaves carryout the maintenance. "
"The beauty of the Maze is it's weakness too. The rooms modify themselves to only a specific set of three decors - blue, white and red. When the rotation puts the connecting room to either of these three colours, the next set of three rooms will follow suite, meaning, when the fourth door is opened, the mechanism reinitiates the cycle, thus, initialising the very first room that was entered to its original decor."
"The Maze Mechanism places two checkpoint in the handle of the opened door :
Checkpoint One - once a single door initiates the change, a lock is forced inside the system eliminating it from triggering the pulleys for a second time whenever opened or closed again. Another door must be opened to reinitialise the lock, thus opening and closing a single door will trigger only one set of modifications in multiple rooms, adding more essence to the already boiling confusion.
Checkpoint Two - There is a second internal lock installed inside every door, which does not permit them to be opened at the same time. Only one door can be opened at a single point in time, and the rest will stay locked until the opened door is closed."
"If we follow this pattern while opening and closing each door, then backtracking is quite possible and we can all be standing at this same spot in no time."
"During our tour inside the Maze, we shall be opening nine doors, and use the same nine doors to exit. Between these 18 doors opened and closed the rooms will be constantly changing colours. I have prepared three coded maps, using which we will identify the doors to be opened and track our way by validating the colour of the rooms that we cross. Remember if a junction is opened and it happens not to be a node, then we will be roaming inside The Maze for the rest of our lifetime."
Without taking questions, The Monk opened the white door and entered into a blue room with three doors. The walls were decorated with painting and other regular prettifying items. The Monk said "Please wait here", and walked briskly to the opposite door and disappeared into the next room while his head turned left and right repeatedly in quick succession.
Rumbling noise echoed inside the blue room where Rana, Kali and Littleman were standing as soon that The Monk Closed the door through which he had entered. The sound of chains rolling over pulleys resonated behind the walls. The blue wooden boards with their doors suddenly mounted over to the roof. A quick shift happened, and white panels moved forward, and immediately the blue boards from the roof slid down behind them. The room cover fell down horizontally and cut its way through a thin line opening. Noises of wood scratching over each other ended when a white roof fell to its place. The new white panels with two newly positioned doors and several striking different decorative items completely changed the look of the cubical. The door behind them through which they had entered and the one opposite that The Monk had used retained their places.
The noise stopped. Silence was restored in the white room which was initially blue.
The Monk reopened the door and peeped inside the white room where Rana, Kali and Littleman were standing with their mouth wide open with surprise.
"Mine was white, but now it's red”, he said in a still small voice.
... to be continued ...
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Chaturmukha Part 3 - mRdayopaliptaM
Chapter Three - War of Karmegha
Speaking without Talking (part 1/2)
atha tesham bhavishyanti manamsi vishadani vai
vasudevanga-ragati- punya-gandhanila-sprisham
paura-janapadanam vai hatesv akhila-dasyushu
"After all the imposter kings have been killed, the residents of the cities and towns will feel the breezes carrying the most sacred fragrance of the sandalwood paste and other decorations of Kalki, and their minds will thereby become transcendentally pure."
- The Gita Chapter 02 Verse 25
The bleeding Monkey Man forcibly took away the torch light from Sena. It stood in front of him watching him with its sparking yellow eyes under the flames of the torch. Sena gently placed Kanakavalli's unconscious body on the floor and knelt before the savage. The Monkey Man kicked Sena on his chest. Sena rolled backwards and stayed still in his fallen position near the raised platform - a circular hearth surrounded by four columns - at the centre of the dark hall.
Sena opened his eyes. He was seated crossed legs on the floor before the hearth. A loud female voice echoed around the underground cave. The pairs of yellow eyes dropped steadily in the darkness and halted midway. Sena looked around and made out from the collective glow of their eyes that The Monkey Men were rooted to the ground. Then, there was complete darkness around him. The Monkey Men have closed their eyes.
The voice spoke in an incomprehensible language followed by a deep silence. Sena looked straight ahead. All of a sudden Sena heard a female voice talking to him, "You won't find what you look for, but here, you will only get what you seek".
A heap of grey flames glowed in front of Sena on the raised platform surrounding a dark shadowy human form which posed to be seated cross legged - the right leg over the left. Sena found himself staring at a thick and dark outline of a woman, her black hair flowing freely at the same time interfering with the grey flames surrounding her. But there was no face.
"What are you?" asked Sena.
The voice laughed, "Is that what you seek?"
Speechless, Sena looked at the beautiful and bright image before him. His mouth opened wide with surprise while admiring the glittering grey sparks appearing and disappearing around the sitting form. The Monkey Men were breathing rhythmically. Sena calmed down.
"I am Yasha, an identity not yet known to this world. I am the Shadow of Time and I am put to wait here. I will rise with Time, when this Yuga (age) attains maturity and the birth of the Golden Age."
"Kalki?" Sena exclaimed, "but ...", before Sena could complete his confusion, Yasha interrupted, "Yes, I will be the first Huwoman, the other half. And I am not a destroyer. I am the administer of the New Age where They are its future”, Yasha raised her hand to point out at The Monkey Men grouped around Sena while speaking, “who will maintain the order put in place by the Creator which is currently being violated in all the Three Worlds."
"The End does not mean fatal neither it’s an extinction, but just another door to another beginning. As The Father said: Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these other living entities nor in the future shall any of us cease to be", Yasha explained.
"This World was created to serve as the eternal existence of the individual souls, never will it be allowed to be destroyed", she confirmed and continued :
"When the Evil Being poses itself as King, begins devouring men who appear righteous and feed on human beings, this world as it is will end. The conflict of the Evil Being is with the Creator, I will ensure no harm to His creations. I shall alight the Light of the Creator buried inside the heart of his creations and ensure their return to the path of righteousness. In the Golden Age, through the awakening of the Light, the grain of illumination will raise many more saints and sages who will assist me to cleanse this world polished with dirt. The world will prosper during The Age of the Sage."
"At the conjunction of two Yugas - Kali Yuga and Satya Yuga - only the rulers of the earth who have degenerated into plunderers will become extinct."
"This End was stopped twenty-one times before in this world, each time the Saviour called The One, brought back the balance. But now, this world will perish as there is no One. Evil men govern the lands. With great fury he has occupied this world, and as powerful as never before, he, the Son of the Devil, had penetrated in here too."
"Your father was a Saviour. He did a great service by re-establishing peace in this Future Kingdom by stopping the invasion of hearts that devised wicked acts, cutting the lying tongue, chopping the hands those which shed innocent, shattered the discord and finally turning the desire into ashes when harm was done by one brother to another."
"And he had asked me to give you a chance, if you will come seeking for it."
Sena felt a burning sensation in his chest and throat. Before he could react, Yasha started talking again, "This world has committed enough crimes, thus, I will become reality."
"During the war between the Creator and the Other World, massacre of innocent souls angered them. It was not their fault. The fault only occurred when they sent their Hunter to destroy this world, the Dream of the Creator. He is human, but his actions are evil.This world as you see will end."
Sena became restless while Yasha spoke about the end. "Rana! What will he become? The Prophecy!" Sena wondered aloud.
"What is new is not true, what is true is not new. Truth works on the function of the past, and until that happens it shall be called a Prophecy", Kalki explained. "And in the battle of three, only one will stand, is truth less, until it becomes true. As a door opens two other doors, truth shall set itself free only through the right opened door, else the wronged will stand on this world."
"The mighty forces, good or evil, must be directed aright - mouldering the good away from evil, and overcoming of evil with good", Kalki summarised the Prophecy.
Looking at the confused being before her, Kalki showered brightness through her song about The Father, The Master, The Sons and The One Who Doesn't Belong Here:
O! listerner, O! listerner, listen.
The lack of wisdom is the root of all evil.
Down on His Holy head,
Of His loose and flowing hair,
As vast and boundless as the woods,
Amid the entangling meshes spread,
And within that labyrinthine hair,
In those winding long meanders,
For many an age the Goddess wanders.
The science and mathematical that he knew,
The arts wherein trained men excel.
On his back the Creation he drew,
And all the lore of Nature as well.
Through his Father's grace his eye was never dim,
When sacrifices he made crossing the fiery tide.
He saw his two sons in place of him,
Seeding His duties before he died.
As moon makes darkness to disappear,
The Nature's horns appear,
Like Two sharp-pointed tusks uplifted clear,
As Hope and Faith wander very near.
Two things alone - he and himself,
Deserve their presence here.
One, the moon of goodness,
The other, virtue of a flower.
When they blossom at night,
These two become the Ornaments of the Nature.
A man of evil heart,
Sees all the good depart.
Molten in the cruel heat,
He rules as if the sky is at his feet.
In liquid flows all the dream,
Like an aimless wandering stream.
His promise is the Devil's dung,
Cooked with ginger and meringue,
The mixture of perfumes eager to eat,
Served by his voice remarkably sweet.
The poor Devil will demand more,
He will plunder until no more.
The giver becomes his salve,
The brave will die in his cave.
By the time she finished, Sena had controlled his mind with his breathe. Yasha disturbed his yogic breathing with her words, "Ask what you seek, as time has come you for you leave."
... to be continued ...
-
Chaturmukha Part 3 - mRdayopaliptaM
Chapter Three - War of Karmegha
Speaking without Talking (part 2/2)
Sena opened his eyes which brimmed over with a brightness - the glitter of wisdom. He spoke with sincerity and clarity:
"Salutations to the Daughter of Kal*.
The Saviour is no more a Prophecy. It has become true. There is No One. The Forthcoming of Truth will be based on how this world was supported on the shoulders of the Two and not by the One. He will face the East, the other the West, carrying the Nature to perform her dance between dawn to dusk and from dusk until dawn. In this world, only a few have lost their path. Their wandering is not punishable as a crime. Once a Wise Man said:
**No man can long occupy satisfactorily a position for which he is not fit. There is no use in grumbling against nature's adjustment. He who does the lower work is not therefore a lower man. No man is to be judged by the mere nature of his duties, but all should be judged by the manner and spirit in which they perform them.
I assure you that I will set the lost back onto the right path and my other self will ensure their journey towards their destiny. Your arrival had been postponed twenty-one times, I courteously seek to push it down one more time. The End, where the stone falls, shall not be marked by the footprint of the wronged. My Father's sacrifices will not go in vain. Not in vengeance, but performing my duty will gain this world a new Hope and shall stamp the hand of Justice over it. And I will ensure that divinity shall be thrusted on this Loka* like the heavy Meru* falling from the sky."
"Adoration to the Queen of Kala*.
With limited physical strength, we, the humans have realised a much greater Power - The Knowledge. You see ten thousands foot soldiers around, I see them as my forefathers. Their Records I wish to access. The Man, the Creator's treasure, lost in darkness should realise that with the right knowledge he can fly. He can breathe under water. I will deliver it to them, with which they can ignite the Light within. One shall share it with Two, thus, permitting each and every to wander on the laps of the Nature in the Father's Playground. I humbly come to you seeking the Vimana Records."
"Hail the Princess of Kalavat*.
Let your army, for this once, roam on the grounds above to terrorise the Forces of Darkness. I seek not the entire, but a few to aid the carriers of Light pass through the valleys. Thirteen tribes occupy the mountains. Between its valleys, the Army of Light shall walk. Danger at every height will fall upon them like the hills shedding their stones. The rain of arrows will flicker the glow of Light, but I fear not when the Guardians will keep the flames upright inside their palms. I thoughtfully seek your Soldiers of Time to assist my men to travel through the mountains like water."
Sena slightly hung his head down in respect for Yasha, the dark form sitting before him. Silence was stirred with rhythmic breathes which short-lived when heavy and quick foot falls resonated around Sena.
A Monkey Man, with thin and long white hair covering his body, rushed towards Sena. He placed a rolled parchment on the floor and put his face close to Sena's. The White Hair Monkey stared at Sena with its flat face and black eyes. It moved its head to either side and tried to smell Sena with its downward projecting nostrils separated by a small and narrow septum. Suddenly it bent down and pulled Sena's footwear from the right leg. It examined Sena's feet and noting his pink foot heel, it took his feet to its face and started rubbing it all over. A moment later it dropped Sena's feet to the ground. It picked up and threw the parchment at Sena and disappeared back into the Darkness.
"Tatvagyanaprada", announced Yasha, "He was emotionally close to your father. The ones around you here are the beings before the Human. They are called Hanuman who await the arrival of Huwoman."
"You Father", continued Yasha, "accumulated many sins while performing his duty. Slaying Bhuva, the brother of Tatvagyanaprada, when he had kidnapped his own brother's wife, had costed your Father his own head. Shoora, the one standing behind you, is the son of Bhuva. His kick on your chest has revealed him from vengeance and has made him noble again."
"You have already stopped my arrival, Son of the Son. The Prophecy that I will be born in Shambala was postponed when you won the chariot race. It was the Devil's plan not to unite my parents and it succeeded with your help. Each action and every time an action is performed, has its own equal or opposite consequences", Yasha warned Sena.
"The Parchments are now yours. The mountains will be free for you to pass", declared Yasha.
"And remember the End is Near."
Yasha was consumed by the grey flames, and the dark fire was eaten by the floor of the hearth. The heavy breathing around Sena stopped. He heard only one singular breathe, his very own.
Sena opened his eyes. He was lying flat on the ground. He noticed Kanakavalli beside him. He got up and neared her. He admired her dark face on which strands of black hair were sleeping. He gently pushed them away and adored her pretty face shinning in the flames of the torch. Sena mildly shook her shoulders. Kanakavalli took her time to slowly open her almond shaped shutters exposing her eyes - a pair of black placid circular pool of shinny oil over snowy field. The four eyes stared at each other. They spoke to one another while their lips were surrounded with silence.
Suddenly Kanakavalli stood up and quickly took a boxing stance. She breathed heavily in fear and searched around her. Sena calmly stood in front of her.
"The journey had made you tired", he assured her. "You fell asleep as soon as we reached this place, maybe the dampness in the air had put you to sleep. You were murmuring something while sleeping. A bad Dream I suppose!", Sena spoke with his head tilted to his right putting up a face of curiosity.
Kanakavalli looked at him with wide eyes. "We should leave now", Sena told her. She bent down to pick up the two parchments from the ground.
"The Vimana Records", Sena said, "I found them behind those pillars." Saying so Sena moved towards the exit carrying the light torch.
Kanakavalli stood unmoved waiting for an explanation. Sena waited in silence, showing her his back. She slowly walked towards him, and this time she walked past him rather than clinging her hands to his shoulders. Sena followed Kanakavalli.
Sena shed light from behind through which Kanakavalli walked the crooked pathway. When they were midway across the path leading to the exit, Kanakavalli suddenly turned back. She searched in the darkness and then continued to move forward. Sena too had heard the mild footsteps behind him. Once Kanakavalli was advancing before him, he turned and looked back. A pair of Yellow Eyes were watching him.
Shoora blinked. Sena Smiled.
... to be continued ...
Footnote:
*Kal means Tomorrow
*Kala means Time (also Black in Urudu)
*Kalavat means ‘The One who is connected with the future.’
*Loka means World
*Meru means Mountain
** Quote from Spirit of Performing Duty by Swami Vivekananda
Additional Note:
1/ Puranas are ancient recorded texts in our literature containing legends and lores, enlarged with many tales. There are in total 18 Purana : Bhagavata, Vishnu, Naradiya, Vamana, Matsya, Garuda, Brahma, Bhavishya, Agni, Brahma Vaivarta, Brahmananda, Padma, Shiva, Lingaa, Kurma, Markandeya, Varaha, Skanda.
2/ Padma Purana is a very voluminous work divided into five sections/chapters, which accounts the state of the world at a certain period. Mentions of Kalki could be found in other Puranas including Agni & Vishnu Purana and in Padma Purana sixth division called Kriya Yoga Sara, predicts that Kalki will be born in a village called Shambala.
Author's Note: Kalki portrayed as a woman is fictional. It has nothing to do with any existing belief or records or texts. Village Shambala as described in this work of fiction does not exist. Similarly, the use of the name/word ‘Hanuman’ is merely in the context of a wordplay - Hanuman / Human / Huwoman.