“I brought you some clean water to drink Swami!”

There was no response. She gently shook Hariya’s head but there was no reply. Hariya laid silently on the cot without responding. Gangi had an ominous premonition as she shook Hariya’s head.

She placed her trembling hand near Hariya’s chest to feel his heartbeat.

‘Silence!’

There was no heartbeat. Her ominous premonition came true. Her dear husband had left her all alone in this cruel world and departed to the afterlife.

‘Drip!...Drip!...Uwoooh…!’

Tears began to drip down Gangi’s eyes as she wailed in the sorrow of her husband’s death. As she was mourning her husband’s death, a commotion had broken out in the village.

Many village guards lead by Kotwal were patrolling the village with torches in their hands. They vigorously searched for the culprit who disturbed the peaceful night of the village. Soon, one of them found the trail of water and all of them followed the lead. 

The village Kotwal with his men soon reached the entrance of the Gangi’s hut. The Village Kotwal had a huge frown on his face. The trail of water from the inner well leads to the house of a Sudra in an outer area. This can only mean one thing, this Sudra house dared to break the taboo and fetched water from the well. This complicates things and is out of his jurisdiction to handle.

He left his men to surround the house as he left to consult the Village Chief on this matter. Very soon, he reached the house of the Village Chief and described everything in detail to him. The Village chief had an ugly expression on his face as he immediately left his house to inform the newly appointed headteacher of the ‘Path Sala’ Guru Bharstacharya. He also brought his fifteen-year-old son with him to let his son experience the process of decision making to get him accustomed to his future duties, as his son was likely to succeed him for the post of Village Chief. 

They soon reached the house of Guru Bharstacharya and explained the intricacies of the matter to him. Guru Bharstacharya had a furious expression on his face as it flushed red in anger. He angrily barged out of his voice while roaring,

‘How he will make these lowly Sudras pay the price for defiling the purity of the inner well.’

Soon as the dawn approached a huge crowd gathered near the village square as the village chief together with the Guru Bharstacharya made the judgement on the fate of the culprit.

After the announcement of the judgement by the Village chief, the guards surrounding the Gangi’s hut barged inside it while breaking the door. One of them dragged the frail body of Gangi out as her eyes lifelessly stared in the oblivion.

Very soon the execution of the culprit would begin as Guru Bharstacharya will personally witness the punishment. Guru Bharstacharya together with Village Chief and his son reached near the hut. The Village chief respectfully looked towards the Guru Bharstacharya as he nodded and gave the signal.

The village chief called one of the guards and gave some commands to him. Shortly after, the guard arrived with a lit torch as he began to burn down the hut.

Gangi lifeless eyes livened up as struggled to free herself from the firm grip of the guard. Her sorrowful wailing and screaming together with the light of burning hut in her eyes gave her an eerie look. She turned around and gazed at the decision-makers of the village with a chilly expression as she cursed them,

“Today, it is my hut that is burning in flames, very soon a day will come when your manors will be incinerated in hell flames. Today my husband died a grave less death, very soon it will be you all who will be buried alive without a grave.”

As she spoke those words she dived right into the flames of her house and offered her life to Agni Deva to accomplish her curse.

-------------------------- 

The village chief got goosebumps as he remembered the gloomy eyes of Gangi that day. After thirty years, he replaced his father as the village chief and now he is going to make a major decision. Shaking unnecessary thoughts from his mind, he focused himself on the judgement of the Guru Bharstacharya. 

Guru Bharstacharya listened attentively to the entirety of the matter as he eyes blazed in his fury. He tightly clenched his fists as he roared in anger,

“These low-life Sudras again, they created such huge trouble for our village and lead to the massacre of our innocent villagers. They should be punished severely, god’s retribution shall fall upon these sinners.”

Guru Bharstacharya bellowed in anger as he marched out of his house,

“Order all your men and gather all the villagers. Today we will let the entirety of the village know about their sinners. We will let the villagers decide the fate of these low-lives. Men! Go and capture those culprits!”

A huge commotion occurred in the village as the news regarding the punishment of the culprit behind the attack of the Rakshasa was announced on the Village Square. All of the villagers began to gather at the village square as they began to whisper and discuss the matter among themselves. Some of the knowledgeable people were aware of the fact that it was a ploy by the higher decision-makers of the village to direct the villager’s rage to somewhere and thus give them a chance to vent it out.

These wise people silently prayed to themselves as they had only one thought in their mind, ‘Please grant peace to the innocent soul who became a scapegoat for the ploys of these higher people.’ One of these wise people was a Brahmana, Shisthacharya. He was one of the few Brahmanas who lived his life without any involvement in any struggle for power or wealth. 

Thus, his entire family was very poor and his family lived on the alms he gathered while begging or conducting any ritual for the people. He never particularly discriminated against the Sudras, but he also never expressed his opinion on their oppression. He always left everything to fate and thus was very pessimistic. He didn’t have a major say in the decision making of the village and thus watched the ongoing event from sidelines just like every other villager.

As such commotion was ensuing in the village,

Inside the forest of Death, the Rakshasa picked up his battle-axe as he watched the sun rising in the horizon. He began to march slowly towards the Shambhala Village. The Rakshasa still had a furious expression but his rage seemed to have subsided a little. As he was walking slowly towards the village, the Rakshasa began to reminisce about his plans and his past life. He used to be one of the Captain ranking soldiers in the army of Raksha Raj and his power was equivalent to a Gaja ranked warrior in his peak.

A Gaja ranked warrior in human words was a warrior riding on an elephant was capable of defeating twelve Ashvarohi while fighting them simultaneously. But now, after the battle hundred years ago, his power was only equivalent to two Ashvarohis even after recovery of a hundred years. It was only the tenacity of his body that gave him an upper hand while fighting the groups of human warriors many years ago.

Although his body contained the energy of a Gaja warrior, he was only capable of utilizing the energy of an Ashvarohi. Things will change after today, once he found the ‘Sahastra Gajbala’ and consumed it. His injuries will be healed in a few years and if he got lucky he will be promoted to Ardharathi warrior with a strength of combating six other Ardharathi warrior at a time. With such thoughts, the Rakshasa impatiently marched towards the village.

Meanwhile inside the village,

Many guards surrounded the hut of Adhiraman and three of them began to bang violently on the door. Thus, the scene which occurred thirty years ago ensued again.

Inside the hut, Adhiraman and Mandri became terrified as they peeked out from the window and were stunned to see their hut surrounded by lots of guards. They were clueless about the ongoing events as they were busy attending to their sick son and thus missed the announcement declared on the Village Square.

Somehow, a dreadful feeling began to rise in their hearts as this reminded them of the event which happened thirty years ago. Both of them gulped their saliva in unison and prayed silently in their heart. They were not worried about themselves but about their only son, Rudra. With a tense expression on their face, both of them began to skim through their memories of the past few days. They were pretty sure they haven’t offended any higher authority of the village in any way.

But little they were aware of the fact that their life and death had no usefulness in the eyes of these higher people. And thus, they had silently fallen in the devious scheme of the Fat landlord for whose sake they sacrificed their elder son.