Lost in Rani ki vaav

The Riddle in the Map

With a jerk Kriya flipped back to the present, the cries of the crowd applauding and cheering still ringing in her head. What mesmerized her the most was the image of king Siddhraj Jaysinh who was sitting with an amazing disposition. He commanded lot of respect and exuded inherent bravery . It had left her totally spellbound. The influence his presence seemed to have over the entire setting of the scene was stupendous. And though she had already read a lot about this Chalukyan king, a desire to dive deeper into knowing about him crept into her.

' Wake up didi... what happened?'

Kriya found Pearl and Richa trying to wake her up thinking she had become unconscious. Slowly as she opened her eyes, she saw everyone staring at her with enquiring and anxious eyes. She rubbed her eyes and then looked out of the window . Jayveer was driving the car at a constant speed and they were passing through a densely populated city. It seemed so incredulous that she had just been over eight hundred years back into time and seen a man who had shaped the history of her state Gujarat.

'Jai ho,jai ho.' Kili suddenlystarted singing, looking at Kriya.

'Now where did you learn this from, Kili?' Kriya looked at Kili and enquired.

'He has learnt it from you didi, you were going on shouting... Siddhraj Jaysinh no jai ho. And you must've said it atleast 5 to 6 times,' said Pearl.

'Is that so?' Kriya was surprised. It meant that she had spoken whatever she had heard when she had gone in trance. That was surprising.

'What happened beta, did you find out anything about our village?' Just then Bhuvansinh eagerly asked Kriya.

' Yes Kriya, tell us what happened. ' Suryadada also was very eager to know.

Kriya narrated whatever she had seen with great enthusiasm. Everyone listened to her in great amazement. She had witnessed some significant moments of the life of Siddhraj Jaysinh, who was considered as the greatest ruler of Gujarat. It was such a mind boggling moment.

'Did he give any clue about where the village is?' Bhuvansinh asked with impatience.

' Well, that was a task allocated to your ancestor so as to judge whether he was capable of being its leader or not,' Kriya replied.

Bhuvansinh was extremely disappointed. Suryadada was also listening to all these things and started wondering about what to do next to solve both puzzles, that of finding the village and that of finding the Surya Angulika.

' I think the map might have the clue to this, ' snapped Pearl, who was holding the map in her hand keenly observing it.

' Yes didi, why don't you dive into the past of this map as well?' Suggested Richa.

' Of course, I'm quite looking forward to it.' Kriya took the map and got ready to dive again into that golden era of Gujarat. She was elated at the prospect of seeing king Siddhraj Jaysinh again.

She looked at the map first. It had quite a few lines and a few undecipherable lines written at the end. Then she once again closed her eyes and thought about the era of the rule of Siddhraj Jaysinh, and finally about the goddess who had granted her the boon. Very soon she found herself going in the trance again.

When she opened her eyes, there was  silence around her. She found herself standing in a huge room, beautifully decorated with colorful and vibrant decorative motifs hanging around the walls. The ceiling too consisted of elegant carvings which gave the room a very exquisite look.

In the far corner of the room was a huge king sized bed with vibrant colored bed cover and many colorful pillows laid out there. And next to the bed were two figures standing. Both the figures were very tall and well built. Closer look revealed one of the figures wearing a lot of golden jewellry and having graceful long hair falling upto his shoulder. He resonated lot of power and Kriya soon recognized him as King Siddhraj Jaysinh.  He was holding a scroll in his hands and saying something to the other person who was standing with folded hands in front of him. Kriya recognized him as Vikramsinh,  the ancestor of Bhuvansinh.

'Vikramsinh, here's a clue you'll require to find out the village. I hope you emerge victorious in your test.' Saying this King Siddhraj handed over the scroll to Vikramsinh.

' Your majesty,  I thank you very much for this great support and help.  I'm sure your clues will be of great help to me,' saying this he opened the scroll. After scrutinizing the document for an instance,  he noticed something at the end of it.

'Sand above water,
Water above the sand,
Gushing through the sand goes the water.

Roof of sand
Roof of water
Gliding through the dark lives the strange art.

From the Sun to water
Water to the Sun
Magic reigns through the wooshing Veena Vadini.'

Vikramsinh was completely intrigued as he read out the lines .

' What are these lines about your majesty?' Vikramsinh asked the smiling king.
' Your clue to find the village your own.' Replied the king.

As soon as  this dialogue was over,  the whole place went dark in front of Kriya. She couldn't dive further in that incident and found herself back in the present when she opened her eyes.

' The clue , it was was so flabbergasting. ' Kriya announced as everyone stared at her. They had just heard Kriya blabber some poetic lines they couldn't understand.
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