The Mahabharata Secret (19 page)

Vijay looked at White. ‘Good idea. Come on Greg. You’re the historian here.’

‘Not many structures built during Asoka’s reign have survived,’ White frowned and continued, ‘Asoka built lots of things—pillars, stupas, monasteries, palaces and, of course, his edicts. None of the palaces have survived. Some of the stupas are still in existence today. It could be any one of them.’

‘The riddle was meant to be interpreted after Asoka’s time,’ Radha said thoughtfully. ‘So if the reference is to four structures, they would have to stand out in some way; unique features or special associations which could be identified by someone who was familiar with Asoka.’

‘And they would have to be structures that would be virtually indestructible. At the very least, they should be capable of withstanding the ravages of time and weather,’ Shukla added. ‘We’ve seen that the Nine have been fastidious in their selection of sites and landmarks. They left very little to chance, so it is highly unlikely they would choose to compose a verse like this around structures that might disappear with time.’

‘Suppose,’ Vijay suggested, ‘We follow the edicts once more, as urged by my uncle. The edicts seem to be the only durable things that were created by Ashoka. Are there any edicts that are somehow related to each other? Linked in some way that could lead to them being perceived as “brothers”?’

Colin produced the sheaf of papers that Vijay had distributed earlier when they had deciphered the clues on the disk. He passed them around and the group bent over the papers, studying them, searching for a clue that would help find the meaning of the riddle.

The clock ticked by as the minutes passed in silence, broken only by the rustle of papers.

Suddenly Colin gave a whoop and looked up, beaming. ‘I think I’ve found something. Listen to this.’ He read from the sheet of paper in front of him. ‘The Barabar hill caves were carved out of the Barabar hills in the 3rd century bc, during the reign of Asoka the Great. These caves have one or two chambers and their interior walls are highly polished.’

Vijay involuntarily glanced at the polished rock ball at these words. Coincidence? Or was this a possibility? He rose and walked to the desk and typed out something on his laptop.

Colin continued, grinning and enjoying the attention. ‘These caves were donated by Asoka to the...the,’ he faltered then slowly pronounced the phonetics of the next word. ‘A-j-i-v-i-k-a. Did I get that right?’ He looked around. The others nodded, eager for him to complete.

He returned to the sheet. ‘Asoka donated these caves to the Ajivika sect and the caves were exact copies of the wooden beehive-shaped huts that were used by monks of that time. And here’s the clincher. There were four caves carved out during the reign of Asoka. The oldest cave was carved out in the 12th year of Asoka’s reign.’ He looked around again. ‘Well, what do you think?’

‘Four caves,’ Vijay mused. ‘Four brothers...polished walls. And we have this ball of polished rock. It may make some kind of sense. What’s wrong with you?’ The question was addressed to Radha, who had a curious expression on her face.

‘I am so stupid.’ Radha shook her head. ‘I can’t believe I didn’t get it.’

‘What do you mean?’ Colin asked.

‘I’m certain now that you are right about the Barabar caves being the four brothers.’

‘It certainly seems plausible, but how can you be certain?’ White wondered.

‘Have any of you read EM Forster’s book,
A Passage to India
?’

No one had.

‘Well, in his book, Forster describes caves with polished interior walls in a group of hills, near an imaginary town called Chandrapore. He called them the “Marabar caves.” Forster’s description of the Marabar caves was inspired by the Barabar caves. The similiarity in their names was more than a mere coincidence. Forster had visited the caves on one of his two visits to India and one of the central events of that book occurs in the cave.’

She paused and shook her head once again, chagrined at not having thought of this earlier.

‘Now, here’s the clincher, as Colin put it. One of the outstanding features of these caves, which Forster describes in his book as well, is their extraordinary echo. The caves echo!’

‘
Echoes the secret of the Nine
,’ White murmured, quoting the verse. ‘This is almost unreal. It’s like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falling into place. Now that you’ve explained this, the verse really does seem to make sense.’

‘It certainly does,’ Vijay agreed. ‘The four caves are the four brothers. They were donated by Asoka—
offered by the Emperor
. And each cave has an echo. That last line has two meanings. It sums up the purpose of the caves, to lead us to the secret of the Nine. But it also describes the one unique feature that makes the caves stand out, differentiating them from all the other structures built by Asoka.’

He had been clicking away at his laptop and he now looked at the screen. ‘I googled “Barabar.” The caves are around 20 kilometres from Gaya. From all accounts, it’s in the boondocks of Bihar. Here’s another description which says that from Bela there is a dirt track leading to the caves.’

He looked up from the laptop. ‘Well, what do you think? Could the secret of the Nine really be hidden away there?’

‘A likely candidate,’ Colin answered immediately. ‘Miles from civilisation; the last place anyone would suspect a secret to be hidden.’

‘I have to say I agree with Colin,’ Shukla put in.

‘My vote goes to Barabar.’ White raised his hand.

‘I’m with them,’ Radha said excitedly. ‘Vijay, this has to be it.’

‘Okay,’ Vijay beamed at them. ‘We leave for Patna tomorrow morning. I’ll organise our tickets immediately.’ He glanced at Shukla. ‘But first, there’s one thing I have to clear up. I had forgotten about it in the excitement of interpreting the verse.’

Shukla looked enquiringly at Vijay, unsure of what he was alluding to.

‘The inscription on the wall in the secret chamber at Bairat,’ Vijay explained. ‘You said it was a book from the Mahabharata about aircraft. I didn’t get it.’

‘Oh, yes, of course. I was going to tell you about it when we discovered the hidden stairway.’

‘You mean when
I
discovered the hidden stairway,’ Colin protested with mock indignance.

Vijay made an impatient clicking sound and Colin subsided, grinning.

‘The inscription on the wall was a brief summary of the
Vimana Parva
,’ Shukla explained. ‘Literally translated, it means the book of flying machines. But here’s the strange thing. In all versions of the epic that have been handed down through the centuries, there is no mention of this book. It doesn’t exist. But here it was—at least a summary of it. On the wall of a secret chamber that belonged to the Nine. Or so we believe.’

‘Hang on a minute,’ Colin interjected. ‘I’m confused here. The Mahabharata is an epic that is hundreds of years old. So how can a book go missing?’

‘I’m guessing here, but there could be a logical explanation,’ Shukla replied, thoughtfully. ‘The Mahabharata was documented relatively recently. The exact date isn’t certain, but probably somewhere between 500 bc and 200 bc. Until then, it was transmitted orally, across generations.’

Realisation dawned on Colin. ‘You mean that it could be possible that this missing book was transmitted orally down the generations but when the epic was written down, it somehow got left out?’

‘Exactly. Why and how is a matter of conjecture but it certainly seems to be the most probable explanation.’

‘So what does the book say? Anything about the secret of the Nine?’ Vijay was impatient to unravel the meaning behind the presence of the inscription on the cavern wall.

Shukla shook his head. ‘I don’t know. At least, I couldn’t see anything in the summary suggesting a secret that could destroy the world. The book told a story, like all the other books of the Mahabharata. The
vimana
or flying machine has several references in both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana
.
These flying machines are usually the chariots of the gods, or
deva
s, used in battle to defeat their enemies. The
Vimana Parva
tells the story of the King of Magadha, who was allied with the Kauravas. According to the inscriptions, he secretly set out to build a fleet of
vimana
s equipped with a secret celestial weapon that would decimate the Pandava army. But the summary doesn’t reveal the name or nature of the weapon of the gods that was to be employed against the Pandavas. It concludes by saying that the plans of the King came to naught because the war ended before the fleet could be completed. The Pandavas won, the King of Magadha was killed and that was the end of the plan.’

‘A secret weapon that could decimate an army?’ Colin was incredulous. ‘That sounds a bit far-fetched, doesn’t it?’

Shukla smiled. ‘You must remember,’ he explained, ‘the epics often talked in metaphors. Several weapons in the Mahabharata are described as “celestial weapons,” weapons given by the gods to the warriors who wielded them.’

‘Yes,’ Vijay murmured, recalling the tales his uncle had narrated to him when he was a child. ‘I remember. The
Brahmastra
was one such weapon. Arjuna used it in the war.’

Shukla nodded. ‘That is correct. There are many such weapons in the epic. Arjuna also released a weapon called
Mahendra
, which was given to him by Indra, the king of gods. It showered hundreds of thousands of blazing arrows upon the Kaurava army. Then, Dhristadyumna used a weapon called
Pramohana,
which deprived the Kaurava army of their senses so they fell to the ground, helpless. To counter this, Dronacharya, the guru of the Pandavas and Kauravas, released a weapon called
Prajna
.’

He looked around. ‘There are more examples. When the demon, Alambush, covered the battlefield with a dense darkness, Abhimanyu countered this illusion by releasing a solar weapon that lit up the battlefield and dispelled the darkness. Another celestial weapon used by Arjuna was the
Vayavya
, which created a hurricane. And, of course, one of the most famous weapons is the
Anjalika
, which Arjuna used to kill Karna. It is described as measuring three cubits and six feet long, with the brilliance of the sun. When Arjuna put it to his bowstring, the earth trembled and sounds filled the sky. The weapon was released with the sound of thunder and severed Karna’s head from his body.’

‘Wow,’ Colin was overwhelmed.

‘Of course, none of these descriptions can be taken literally,’ Shukla continued. ‘The storytellers of the epic often took dramatic licence to enhance the stories and make them more interesting for listeners, in ancient times. Over the centuries, these embellishments became part of the story and it was difficult to distinguish between the original story and the enhanced versions. So, the
Vimana Parva
isn’t unique. Flying machines, for example, may well have referred to swift chariots that
flew
into battle, so to speak.’

‘So, why was a summary of this book inscribed on the wall of a secret chamber hidden in what may have been the library of the Nine?’ Vijay wondered aloud.

Shukla shrugged. ‘Perhaps this book was part of the library?’

‘That’s interesting,’ Radha remarked. ‘They must have had some reason for doing that. They must have known that this inscription would last much longer than the other texts in the library. After all, Asoka, their Emperor, was inscribing his edicts on stone as well.’

‘I can’t help thinking that there is some significance around the inscriptions.’ Vijay frowned. ‘But what can it be?’

He hoped they would find the answer at Barabar.

23

Day 7

Intelligence Bureau Headquarters, New Delhi

Imran nodded with satisfaction as he surveyed the portrait before him. Blake, who was sitting across the desk from Imran guessed correctly at the reason for his obvious pleasure.

‘It’s a match.’

Imran nodded, smiling now. ‘It was a long shot, but it paid off.’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘Sometimes I wonder if there’s a force behind stuff like this. Coincidences like this just don’t happen. I mean, what are the chances that we’d find that the person who kidnapped the nephew of a murdered nuclear scientist was a Pakistani nuclear scientist who appears in an Al Qaeda video and whose name is mentioned in a telephone call with a suspected assassin?’

Blake smiled. Their suspicions that Farooq Siddiqui was involved in something big in India had been confirmed. What that was, however, was still a mystery.

‘So what are you going to do now?’ Blake was painfully conscious that the success of his mission depended on how Imran Kidwai moved from here on. But his experience with the IB officer so far gave him confidence. The man’s intuitive ability and perspicacity was admirable.

Imran grinned back at him. ‘Two things; first, I’ve given an order to tap Vijay Singh’s mobile and landline phones. If Al Qaeda and LeT are interested in him, there’s got to be a reason. Second, I’m going to interview a Maharaja, Bheem Singh.’

Blake raised an eyebrow. ‘You managed to pull that off?’

‘We had to pull strings in the Home Ministry to get an appointment. And I have a feeling it won’t go well.’

Blake grinned mischievously. ‘Why do I have this feeling that you’ll come out on top?’

Focused Agenda

Farooq’s face darkened as he listened to the speaker on the other end of the line. The call had come through a few minutes ago and the caller had immediately launched into a critique of the operation at Bairat.

‘If you’d controlled your impulses, you would have discovered the hidden chamber as well.’ The speaker had an acerbic edge to his voice. ‘I don’t understand why you are in such a hurry to get rid of Vijay Singh and his friends. Once we’ve achieved our goal, I don’t give a damn what you do to them. What happened at Bairat could have cost us the search if we didn’t have our backup plan in place.’

Farooq listened but said nothing, restraining an impulse to respond, as the caller continued. ‘So far, we’ve been getting publicity that we can do without. But we don’t seem to be any closer to our goal. We really can’t afford to miss out on any information that might help us. And, don’t forget, the deadline for the announcement is near. We don’t have time for games.’