MASTER MORYA

(Extract: From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan 
Part 20. THE ROAD TO JÂJMAU. VAST UNDERGROUND TUNNELS.

THE THÂKUR MANIPULATES SECRET DOORWAYS.

IMMENSE CAVE AND WHAT TOOK PLACE THERE AGES PAST.

THE THÂKUR’S STRANGE WAY.

I will now try briefly to tell the history of this cave and the episode referred to by the Thâkur, concerning the mutiny of 1857. The latter belongs to history, though the English tried to distort the accounts of it, as they have distorted and even concealed many other facts of this, to them, disgraceful epoch. Having learned these facts first from Gulâb-Lal-Singh, we later heard some very interesting details concerning them from several old Hindus, some of whom had been eyewitnesses to the events; and on one occasion we heard about them from an Englishman, an old Anglo-Indian officer.

The Purânas recount the following sad story about the end of the ancient city of Asgarta. Sudâsa-Rishi was the sacred head of the “Brahmâtma,” (“Soul of Brahmâ, the highest religious dignity) and his brother Agastya was the Mahâ-Kshatriya (the great warrior–king) of Asgarta. In their absence, the Kingdom was ruled by the Mahârâni (the great queen) who was formerly a kumâraka (Virgin of the Sun) in the temple of Sûrya-Nârî (Sun-Nature). Her beauty captivated the king; at the very moment when she was about to offer herself on the altar of fire (religious cremation), he took advantage of the ancient custom giving to kings the right of saving Hindu vestals from death and claimed her as his wife. There had been previously another suitor, the king of Himavat, but she refused him, preferring death in the fiery embrace of her husband-god, the sacred fire. The insulted trans-Himâlayan king swore vengeance. Many years later, when King Agastya was at war in Lankâ (Ceylon), his vanquished rival, profiting by his and his army’s absence, invaded Asgarta. The queen defended her city with the courage of despair; finally however, the city was taken by storm. Then, having assembled all the “Virgins of Sûrya” from the temples, the wives and daughters of her subjects and her own children, in all 69 000 women, including the kumârakas, the queen locked herself in the enormous underground temple of Sûrya-Nârî; ordering sacred pyres to be built along the passages she burned herself and all the other women and all the treasures of the city, leaving to the conquerors but the empty walls.

When the king returned and found, instead of his palace, wife and children, nothing but ashes, he at once set out to pursue the victorious army. Having overtaken it, he defeated it, took the king and 11 000 men of his army prisoners, and returned to the ruins of Asgarta. Here he forced the prisoners to build on the site of the old city a new and more beautiful one, and then, when the work was finished, he ordered them to erect in the middle of the city, in front of the temple of Nârî, a funeral-pyre sufficiently large to take care of 11 000 man. It was there that the king of Himavat and all his warriors were burned alive amidst the curses and insults of the people of Asgarta, to avenge the death of the Queen.

According to tradition and the ancient chronicles, the underground tunnels we had just passed through, as well as that portion of them which was still ahead, on the other side of the cave, are the ones in which the queen had burned herself. The soft soil under our feet which I mistook for fine black sand, consisted of the ashes of 69 000 women and kumârakas, or Virgins!

P 381 – 387

We went out of the caves by another passage which led uphill. The road sloped gently, and our feet trod, as before, on ground which was as soft as a carpet. Finally, after turning sharply to the right, we came to a solid wall similar to the first, with this difference: instead of sliding into the side wall, this closing stone went down, to open the entrance, leaving a low wall some foot and a half high, which we had to step over. Behind this wall, in a small cave, there is a deep well. Here, all around us, over 16 square miles, are buried the ruins of the sleeping city of Asgarta. P 391

To recount our underground trip in greater detail cannot be done for many reasons, the main one being the fact that this locality is absolutely unknown; in addition, much of what we saw and heard there is so strange that I probably could not find words with which to describe it accurately. Other underground tunnels also exist, for instance at Amber, near Jaipur, that have never yet been visited by any other Europeans but ourselves; then there is also the underground passage leading far out under the sea at Elephanta, where having descended for some two miles, we, and our Pârsî guides nearly suffocated. These passages, however, are known to the English, though they have never visited them. As to the underground of Jâjmau, to my great astonishment and in spite of my frequent questioning, I found them to be unknown to the English. No wonder, then, that the Thâkur, who made us promise never to give a hint as to the road leading to them, was so sure of the fact that they would remain undiscovered by the English. The Hindus are in general a very secretive and mysterious people; but among them, the Thâkur was more mysterious than any of them. Not long ago, intending to describe this trip, I asked him: “Would you mind if I told my Russian readers about the underground tunnels of Jâjmau?”

“Certainly not,” he said, “if you will trust your memory.”

“I do trust my memory. But you said that the English do not even suspect their existence? What if they should read my article and make note of these facts? They avidly read all Russian papers and translate at once into English everything that in any way concerns India or even Asia in general.”

“Well, what of that? Let them take note of these facts.”

“But what if they should go looking for these caves and find them?”

Gulâb-Singh blinked strangely and looked at me either inquiringly or a bit contemptuously.

“What is there so strange in my words? I think the supposition is very plausible.”

“Very,” underscored the Thâkur, “but only from the European point of view, and not from our own. Permit me to take the liberty to say that I probably know a little better than you do, not only the English, but human nature in general. And having studied it, I can tell you ahead of time, there are nine chances out of ten that in reading your story the Englishmen will think it a tale of your invention. They are too proud and boastful a people to concede that there exist places in their dominions of which they have not heard, and where they have no guards stationed.”

“But what of the tenth chance; what then?”

“Then they will go looking for the caves and will find nothing.”

“How can you be so sure of that?… The underground passage does exist… It has not disappeared from the face of the earth, has it?…”

“Just because it actually does exist, they will not find it. Now, in case you had invented it, the English would surely find it, even if they had to excavate it themselves… They would do so to frighten the natives, and so prove their prowess at home. ‘You see what fine chaps we are! Nothing escapes our all-seeing eye!’ They did invent forged political correspondence and caught alleged political criminals by bribing escaped thieves; and all this merely to justify reports invented by them and which they had sent to themselves.”

“Now one last supposition! They, i.e., the Government and its spies, know that you were with us at Cawnpore and Jâjmau… I shall describe this as it took place… If they should bother you and insist on your showing them the caves, or, pardon me, if they should try to make you tell them the secret… what will you do then?”

The Thâkur laughed that silent laugh which always made me shiver.

“Do not worry. It can never happen. But in case they get the idea of ‘bothering’ me, I can warn you in advance that it will be you and not I, who will be in a false position.You can be sure I will not utter a single word under such circumstances and will leave my defense to the collector of my district and to those inhabitants who know me personally. The collector, Mr. V., will report, that from March 15th and up to June 3rd, 1879, I did not leave my ‘Râj’, and that he called on me twice a week during that time, and the inhabitants, mostly English, will confirm it.”

Having said this, he got up, mounted his horse, took his leave, and rode away, tossing this parting remark in a rather jeering tone:

“How do you know, perhaps I have a twin brother whose existence is as little known to the outer world as the caves themselves?… Put that down also; otherwise even your own countrymen will take us and our Theosophical Society for an enlarged edition of Munchausen.”

They surely will.

This had already happened once to the Thâkur. People once saw him in Poona, where he went about openly for a whole month. But when the authorities wanted to involve him in some political offence, the collector, the municipality and two missionaries bore witness that Gulâb-Lal-Singh had not left his estate for the last six months. I merely state the fact, as usual without attempting to explain it. This happened less than a year ago. P 392 - 395

Entrance of the Elephanta Caves

 To be continued

"SEVEN TIMES SEVEN THE WHEEL ROTATES"