‘So we have a swastika—so what, Roger?’ asked Chhedi. ‘How has it added to your knowledge in any way?’
‘Dumpy, the swastika is probably the oldest symbol of the Vedic civilisation. Unfortunately, it was adopted by Adolf Hitler’s genocidal Nazi party and acquired a negative connotation the world over,’ said Saini. ‘Among Hindus, however, it is extremely holy. The word “Swastika” itself is derived by combining two Sanskrit words “Su” and “Asti”. Su means “good” and asti means “existence” or “life”. The overall context of the symbol is thus of peace, good health, prosperity and happiness. The question that has always plagued me though, is this: is the swastika merely a symbol, or did it mean much more in ancient times? After all, an X in an algebraic equation does not mean the same thing as an X used to mark a spot on a map!’
‘Are you trying to say that the swastika marks a specific physical location geographically?’ asked Chhedi.
‘I am not in any way discarding the symbolism of the swastika,’ said Saini, hastily drawing a modern swastika on a notepad to illustrate his point before proceeding to elaborate.
‘Just for a minute, though, let us forget the symbol we consider as the swastika today,’ continued Saini. ‘Today’s swastika symbol is more geometric and defined. It also has sacred mathematical properties. It is one symbol that is composed of eight limbs. Notice the fact that 1 and 8 are at play here also? However, what was the original swastika? It was much curlier, somewhat like this.’ Saini drew another symbol, but a gentler version, with curves.
‘What’s your point?’ asked Priya, peremptorily.
‘Mathematicians Cundy and Rollett have defined the swastika curve mathematically,’ continued Saini, ignoring Priya’s curtness. ‘It is a quartic plane curve representing the Cartesian equation y4 – x4 = xy. Want to see what their curve look like?’ Without waiting for an answer, Saini drew an approximation of Cundy and Rollett’s swastika curve on the notepad before him.
‘When you see this curve, what does it remind you of?’ asked Saini excitedly. His question was greeted by silence.
Realising that there were no volunteers, Saini spoke up once again. ‘Don’t you see the significance?’ he asked, his voice rising. ‘It’s the very shape,’ replied Sir KhanQ sai that represents the flow of four rivers from an elevated point!’ he exclaimed. ‘The swastika became a holy symbol much later. For the ancient Vedic sages, it represented a very holy destination. I’ve given both of you sufficient clues. Can you tell me of a hill or mountain that has four rivers?’
Priya was suddenly like the studious kid in the front row, eager to answer the teacher’s question. ‘I have it! It’s the mountain from which four rivers—the Indus, the Sutlej, the Brahmaputra and the Karnali—flow down and outwards,’ she rattled off.
‘And what is the name of that mountain?’ asked Saini, slipping into his academic role effortlessly.
‘Mount Meru!’ exclaimed Priya. ‘Also known to millions of Hindu devotees as Mount Kailash!’
Some days later, when the Pandava brothers were elsewhere in the forest, Draupadi was surprised to find Jayadhrata, the husband of the Kauravas’ only sister Dusshala, outside her cave. She could not understand the purpose of his visit but she offered him water, fruits and a place to sit. Little did she know that Jayadhrata had come to abduct her. It was his view that a woman could have a maximum of four husbands and that by having five, Draupadi was a prostitute by social norms. He grabbed hold of her and placed her in his chariot but Draupadi’s screams were heard by the sages who immediately informed Arjuna and Bhima. Both brothers caught up with the chariot and Arjuna used his arrows to break the chariot’s wheels. Bhima pounced on Jayadhrata and would have murdered him had Yudhistira not reminded him that killing Jayadhrata would leave their only female cousin widowed.
‘I don’t understand one thing, though,’ said Chhedi.
‘What’s that?’ asked Saini, once again attempting to read the note that Chhedi had passed him. Only a few words were clear. Be… in… next… listening. The missing words were badly blotted.
‘Mount Kailash is viewed as the abode of Shiv. How does Krishna enter the picture?’ asked Chhedi.
‘Shivaya Vishnu roopaya, Shiva roopaya Vishnuve; Shivasya hridayam Vishnu, Vishnoscha hridayam
Shivaha!’ said Saini turning his attention away from the smudged note. ‘The shloka means that Shiv is merely a form of Vish and that Vish is merely a form of Shiv. Shiv resides in the heart of Vish and Vish resides in that of Shiv. According to the Vedic sages, Mount Kailash was the centre of the world. It had four clear faces—thus resulting in its pyramid shape. As per mythology, the four faces were made of crystal, ruby, gold, and lapis lazuli. In Vedic times, it would have been considered the pillar of the world! Twenty-two thousand feet high, Mount Kailash lies at the heart of the world’s mandala and is nestled within six mountain ranges that symbolise a lotus. The four rivers originating from Kailash supposedly flow down to the four quarters of the world and divide the world into four regions. The sacred character of this mountain goes way beyond Vishnu, Shiv, or Hinduism.’
‘How?’ asked Chhedi.
‘The book of Genesis, in the Bible, describes the Garden of Eden, where Creation started. It says: Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden;,’ replied Sir Khan three on the Kaliyuga and from there it divided and became four rivers. Kailash was the original Eden, my friend!’ exclaimed Saini. ‘Even today our own Mount Kailash is considered a sacred place in four religions—Bön, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. Many of the world’s greatest stories have their origin right here in India. Have you heard of the lost city of Atlantis?’
‘It was the fabled city that was submerged by tidal waves,’ said Priya, butting in excitedly. ‘Plato first mentioned Atlantis in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias—written around 360 BCE, I think.’
‘And do you remember the location of Atlantis as mentioned by Plato?’ asked Saini.
‘I think that Atlantis was described as lying beyond the pillars of Heracles,’ answered Priya.
‘Ah! And because the philosopher Plato was Greek, people simply assumed that he was talking about Heracles—a son of their supreme god Zeus. The same Heracles who was later adopted by the Romans as their own Hercules. Right?’ asked Saini.
‘True,’ replied Priya.
‘But we seem to have forgotten the fact that Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador in the court of Chandragupta Maurya, made the first written reference to Krishna and that in his account, he called Krishna by the very same name—Heracles. He went on to say that the Sourasenoi—the descendants of Shurasena, Krishna’s grandfather—who lived in Methora—or Mathura—held Heracles in high esteem. Isn’t it also curious that both Plato and Megasthenes lived around the same time? Isn’t it possible that Plato was not referring to the Greek mythological figure of Heracles but to the Indian deity Krishna?’ asked Saini.
‘Are you trying to say that the story of Atlantis was actually the story of Dwarka?’ asked Chhedi.
‘Think about it,’ said Saini. ‘The term pillars of Heracles may not be a reference to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, but may instead refer to the sixty pillars of the original Dwarakadheesh Temple that had been built by Krishna’s great-grandson Vajranabhji in Dwarka. Although the present temple is relatively modern—having been built during Emperor Akbar’s rule—it is at the same spot at which Vajranabhji’s original temple stood and it would have been right there during the visit of Megasthenes!’
‘The hypothesis is sound,’ said Chhedi. ‘But where is the corroborating evidence?’
‘If I recall, Plato had said that in Atlantis there existed a confederation of kings, of great and marvellous power, which held sway over all the island, and over many other islands also and parts of the continent,’ recounted Saini. ‘The Yadavas were a confederation of eighteen clans with several chiefs and a single governor—a structure very unique in those times. Isn’t that another tantalis
ing clue?’
‘But did both cities get destroyed in the same way?’ asked Priya.
‘In the context of Atlantis, Plato says that at a later time there occurred portentous earthquakes and floods, and one grievous day and night befell them, when the whole body of warriors was swallowed up by the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner was swallowed up by the sea and vanished. On the other hand, the Mahabharata tells us that ,’ replied Sir Khantothe sea rushed into the city. It coursed through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the city. The beautiful buildings were submerged one by one. In a matter of a few moments it was all over. The sea had now become as placid as a lake. There was no trace of the city. Dwarka was just a name—just a memory. Incredibly similar stories, wouldn’t you say?’ asked Saini.
Sitting inside the secretary’s office, Inspector Radhika Singh was listening to every word that was being exchanged with rapt attention. She continued counting her beads as she watched the meeting proceed inside Chhedi’s office.
My cousin Arjuna wished to use his time in the forest wisely, and decided to pray for Shiv’s divine weapon—the Pashupat. In a clearing he installed a smooth oval stone that represented a lingam, offered it flowers and then sat before it, his mind entirely concentrated on Shiv. Quite suddenly, a wild boar rushed towards him and Arjuna was forced to open his eyes and shoot a single arrow to stop the animal in the nick of time. When Arjuna walked up to examine the dead boar, he noticed that it had two arrows protruding from it. Next to the boar stood a hunter who claimed that he had shot the boar first. A duel followed in which the hunter defeated Arjuna. Dejected but determined, Arjuna went back to his prayers, only to wake up to the fact, barely a moment later, that the hunter had been none other than Shiv! Arjuna fell at the feet of the god, who now stood before him, and Shiv blessed him with the divine Pashupat.
‘But myths around great floods have been around for aeons,’ argued Chhedi. ‘There are over five hundred legends centred on floods around the world. Ancient civilisations—including those of China, Babylonia, Wales, Russia, India, America, Hawaii, Scandinavia, Sumatra, Peru, and Polynesia—all have their own versions of a giant flood. And that’s not surprising, since most of these myths coincided with the end of the last ice age.’
‘True. But the most famous story among them is that of Noah, who built the magnificent ark in order to save all living creatures from extinction,’ said Saini. ‘It’s from the book of Genesis in the Bible. Almost all flood tales are frequently linked by common elements that parallel the Biblical account—the preevent warning, the construction of a ship or barge, the saving of animals, and the releasing of birds to check if the flood had receded. The incredible pattern shared by flood myths from around the world is an indication that they were all referring to a historical event that had been passed down by word of mouth over several generations and over several lands.’
‘You’re not going to tell me that Noah’s ark was built in India!’ said Chhedi jokingly.
‘Actually, yes,’ said Saini. ‘The story of Noah is almost identical to a Sumerian legend called The Epic of Gilgamesh and I’ve already told you that the Sumerians were simply Vedic inhabitants who had migrated westwards after the drying up of the Sarasvati.’
‘So Noah was from India?’ asked Chhedi incredulously.
‘Not Noah, but the historical event upon which the story of Noah’s ark was based. Gilgamesh was the king of Uruk—modern-day Iraq—who fortified the walls of his kingdom,’ explained Saini. ‘In the epic we have Gilgamesh te at St Stephen’s College in New Delhi. that b scriptureslling a ferryman that the walls of Uruk had actually been built by seven sages. The concept of the seven sages—or the saptarishi—is as old as Vedic civilisation itself! The Gilgamesh story was essentially a recounting of the flood that engulfed Dwarka that future waves of Vedic inhabitants carried with them into new lands such as Sumeria. Just take the name Noah and flip the two vowels in the middle. What do you get? Naoh—the Hindi word for boat! Even the very concept of man’s creation is from India. The English word man is derived from the Sanskrit root manus—which is also the root of the Indian name Manu, the mythological progenitor of the Hindus.’
Chhedi and Priya were stumped. Saini seized the moment. ‘For a moment, if we take the biblical Noah story literally, it’s evident that the ark built by Noah would have had to be pretty large, right? In fact the Bible specifies the dimensions of the ark. It had a length of three hundred cubits, breadth of fifty cubits and height of thirty cubits. That’s huge! It would have been taller than a three-storey building and would have had a deck area the size of thirty-six tennis courts. Which shipyard of that time would have been able to construct such a vessel?’ asked Saini.
Priya caught on immediately. ‘There was only one ancient port that could have dealt with that size—Lothal!’ she said, warming rapidly to Saini’s revelations.
‘Precisely! Lothal’s dockyard is the world’s earliest known. It was the only shipyard that was capable of producing a ship of that magnitude in ancient times. In fact the word “navigation” is derived from the Sanskrit word “navgati”—the science of sailing,’ said Saini. ‘Lothal was the point from where massive ships would have plied the trade route into the Persian Gulf. The other possibility was Dholavira. Both Lothal and Dholavira were extremely close to Dwarka—in fact all three cities had close links.’
‘In what way were they connected?’ asked Chhedi.
‘Dholavira was originally discovered in the 1960s by Jagat Pati Joshi and was excavated in the 1990s under the direction of R. S. Bisht,’ said Saini. ‘Bisht discovered that the city’s length and width were precisely in a ratio of 5:4. The main castle’s proportions also followed the city’s ratio of 5:4. Both ratios adding up to the sacred number nine.’
‘But what does that have to do with Lothal?’ asked Priya irritably.
‘Here’s where it gets really interesting,’ said Saini, rubbing his hands in childlike excitement. ‘Dholavira’s unit of measurement is exactly equal to 108 Lothal angulas. See the Vedic mathematical connection once again?’
‘Be that as it may,’ said Priya, attempting to regain her cool, ‘how does one explain the swastika—that you say is a representation of the abode of Shiv—being found on Krishna’s seals?’
Chhedi, who had only been asking questions till then, spoke up. ‘I have a theory,’ he said.
Saini looked up at his school friend, slightly surprised. ‘Yes?’ he asked.
‘If one were to view Krishna as being a historical personality rather than a mythological one, Krishna would have been like you or me—a bundle of bones, muscles, flesh, tissue and blood, right?’,’ replied Sir Khan Singh sai asked Chhedi.
Saini nodded.
‘In this context, the Bhagwad Gita does not make sense,’ said Chhedi. ‘The sermon delivered by Krishna to Arjuna is one in which Krishna specifically tells Arjuna that he is eternal, permanent and indestructible.’
‘What’s the point that you are trying to make, Dumpy?’ asked Saini.
‘The point that I am making, Roger, is this: isn’t it possible that when Krishna was killed by an arrow lodged in his left foot, what was witnessed was not a killing but a process of ancient DNA extraction?’ asked Chhedi. ‘And if this DNA had to be preserved, wouldn’t the logical place to preserve it be under a sheet of ice that never thawed? Say a location like Mount Kailash?’
Inspector Radhika Singh looked at the monitor closely. She tightened her grip on her prayer beads. It was time to move in.
Having acquired the Pashupat from Shiv, Arjuna started climbing the Himalayas. Soon, he saw a gleaming chariot. The charioteer told Arjuna that Indra—Arjuna’s father—had sent for him. Indra needed his help in fighting the Asuras. Arjuna fought along with Indra and they were victorious. Indra asked his son to enjoy the pleasures of paradise for some time, which Arjuna did. He was soon approached by one of the apsaras—Urvashi—who asked him to be her lover. Arjuna
/> knew that Urvashi had been the wife of one of his ancestors and said, ‘I look upon you as a mother figure. How can you expect me to make love to you?’ Furious at the rejection, Urvashi cursed Arjuna that he would lose his manhood. Arjuna beseeched his father Indra for help. Indra was able to dilute the curse so that Arjuna would lose his manhood only for a year and that, too, at a time of his own choosing.
Saini looked at the note that Chhedi had passed him once again. Determined to decipher the blurred scrawl, Saini screwed up his eyes until he could discern the words: ‘Be careful. Police in next room listening.’ Saini sat up in his chair with a start. They needed to get out immediately.
‘Put your hands up,’ shouted Radhika Singh as she flung open the door to Chhedi’s office. Saini and Priya froze in their chairs. Chhedi, looking rather sheepish, mumbled softly, ‘I’m so sorry, Roger. I had no bloody option but to cooperate with her. I did try to warn you, though.’ Saini nodded grimly at his friend. If he had been put in a similar situation, he might also have done the very same thing.
Saini and Priya raised their hands as Rathore briskly walked over to them and cuffed their raised arms. ‘Isn’t this a wonderful reunion?’ asked Radhika Singh sarcastically. ‘I’ve so looked forward to the moment we would meet again.’