The Untold Story of the Lost Empire of Jharkhand
It was the year 1615. I was racing through the forest of the Vindhya range. Something horrible had happened… something unexpected… our dear King Durjan Sal had been defeated and imprisoned. But I had something important to deliver….and it was the Queen’s message.
My throat was drying. I quenched my thirst in a nearby rivulet. My arms were aching and my back hurt due to constant riding. The Bhils were friendly and offered me food. I was so grateful to them. The simple dal and rice was a savoury delight for I was starving badly. I was worried for my King Durjan Sal and the plight he would be put into by Jehangir. I also knew that for him his subjects of Khukhragarh would be his first worry but he was well aware that the Queen was capable of looking after herself and the kingdom but he couldn’t be sure about Jehangir and his moves.
Being a woman myself and a close confidant of the King and the Queen I was well aware of the times that we lived in, the Queen’s potential and the challenges that she would face in the absence of the King.
I must be with the Queen. She would need me every minute. Her eyes would be looking for me, her close friend, a spy for knowing everything that was going on in the kingdom. I had to ride faster and faster with my male disguise fully intact. I was trained to be rough and tough from my early childhood and it was paying off well.
My trusted sources had secretly informed me about my King’s area of confinement; the Fort of Gwalior. It was a closely guarded place on top of Gopachal in the Vindhya range that was almost near the place I had landed.
Wait a moment…. I spotted some guards outside the eastern part of the fort. I examined the rocky surface. A wide crack and a dim light. That’s exactly where they must have kept my King.
I moved closer and pushed myself in the middle of a clump of trees nearby. It was getting late in the evening. The moon was playing hide and seek with the clouds. One of the guards dozed off while the other two sat down to chat. This was my golden chance. The crevace had a branch of a tree peeping just outside it. As soon as I found them deep in conversation I dashed across and in a second was up the rocky surface and neatly placed myself inside the crevace, the shadow of the branch hiding my existence.
Through the crack I could now see my king deep in thought. He was sitting on the wooden bed provided to him. I had never seen him so pensive. I had no time to lose. I imitated the sound of a lizard as trained by him. His head moved with a jerk. The Queen had written her secret message in an intricately embroidered silken cloth. I stealthily broke a strong twig from the overlooking branch, tied the cloth around it and aimed it right through the window. The King made a swift turn and grasped it in an instant and read it immediately.Then without losing a moment he took out his ring and a small pebble.He wrapped both of them with the silken cloth and aimed it back to me with the help of the same twig.I saluted my King emotionally and in a few seconds was back to the same clump of trees.I gave a last look to our King Durjan Sal whom I would be unfortunately meeting after twelve long years. I left my beloved horse ‘ Goonj ‘ with the Bhils who would bring it back to me once conditions were safer.I would now have to move back to the fort of Khukhragarh through the secret tunnel.Among the Bhils was an old companion of mine, who immediately informed me about the exact location of the tunnel.The tunnel had an old stream, a branch of the Yamuna river which after a few hours of an exhausting journey transported me to a spot exactly under the Queen’s chamber.
A secret ladder and a secret opening near the King and Queen’s chamber led me to the Queen.I found the Queen desperately waiting for me, her hands firmly placed on top of one another. I bowed down and paid my respects while handing over the King’s reply. I could sense her joy when she blessed me.She took a moment before she revealed that she would be moving through the underground chambers to Navratangarh where the king had decided to build a fort, along with me and the nine gems or the learned men of the court.The Fort of Khukhragarh would remain well lit to keep the enemies confused.
All the precious diamonds that had been unearthed from the bed of the Sankh river had been taken away by Jehangir’s trusted official Ibrahim Khan. Every bit of our labour had been snatched, every dream of providing a better livelihood to the people of the Kingdom having vanquished, depleted to the core to amplify the treasure trove of the Mughals.
These thoughts hurt me while the Queen directed me to move towards the secret tunnel. Once inside, the nine gems arrived including our Head Priest.What was going on? There were too many questions running in my mind. The chanting started in hushed voices. The air was pensive. Our Queen moved in a palanquin while the rest of us moved on foot with the Head Priest leading the procession.
The air was warm. It must have been an hour or so. The procession stopped. The tunnel came to an abrupt end. We had landed in a circular chamber. What was this? The air had suddenly turned cool. I could hear the sound of water. But from where was this sound coming? Our Head Priest Shambhuji tapped the wall. Did something move? A sudden dash of light pricked our eyes. What was shining so brightly and why?
I looked around and I saw something unbelievable. Right above was a glass ceiling concealing water above it. The reflection of sunlight was making somethings sparkle. Were they diamonds embedded in the walls? I rubbed my eyes. The chanting increased. It was ethereal and magical. They were indeed diamonds of enormous sizes, of unprecedented beauty and brilliance which were visible only when the glass ceiling made its appearance. So, everything was not being handed over to Jehangir. Everything was being preserved for us, for the betterment and the upliftment of the people of the kingdom. No wonder our King was truly called Heera Raja. ‘Long live our King. Long live our Heera Raja ‘were the very words which reverberated in my mind as we made our way back through the same tunnel to the same place from where we had started but this time with some of the precious diamonds and a strong will to keep our kingdom intact and prosperous till our true ‘ Heera Raja ‘ the connoisseur of diamonds made his comeback.
By Deblina Ghosh
