The Rambalas had laid waste to the land of Trikoot in search for the four scrolls. And now Tantali, one among the four provinces to be carved out of Trikoot, bore the brunt of their fiercest attacks.
King Haridan of Tantali was the protector of one of the four scrolls. He knew well that the Rambalas would come for him soon, so he got a carrier ready – a boat called Vikansha which would find the next protector and deliver the scroll to him/her. The Rambalas tried to capture Vikansha, but it got lost in a storm.
Meanwhile in an idyllic coastal village of Tantali, there lived a 16-year old boy called Mridant.
Mridant lived alone with his father and was an excellent archer, owing to his father’s training.
One day he was fishing with his father near the groves when they spotted a beautiful boat.
It was the Vikansha. They found a scroll with ancient scripts written on it. Just then a Rambala ship appeared, and began shooting at them, gravely wounding Mridant’s father.
Mridant rowed Vikansha into the groves, and they were followed by three Rambalas on a canoe. Seeking to escape, Mridant spotted a Paanika at which he shot an arrow. The enraged Paanika, lying submerged on the side of the Rambalas, jumped out of the water to attack them.
Thus Mridant escaped.
In the village, the healer told Mridant that nothing much could be done about his father.
But before he died, Mridant’s father told him to keep the scroll safe, as this was not the end.
“Your destiny is but beginning to unfold.”
Mridant left the village after his father’s cremation, owing to a strange unrest his father’s words had on him.
The quiet and timid Nadaga was the youngest of three brothers. He had a tough childhood, harassed and bullied by his brothers, Jiven and Urshal. The only thought that kept him happy was his dream of becoming a monk.
One day the three brothers were traveling to another town when they noticed a wreckage. There was gold strewn all over, and a few people lay dead on the ground.
Jiven and Urshal rushed to collect the gold, but found one man still breathing.
Filled with greed, Jiven and Urshal decided that they would kill the man so that he wouldn’t get them into trouble later. Nadaga tried to stop his brothers, but they hit him for coming in their way, and he fell unconscious.
When Nadaga woke up, he was in the ashram of the great monk Vaishali. She took him as her student. Nadaga learned the art of healing, which included the secret of the Maraka tree. The tree could bring even a dead person back to life. Many years passed by, and Vaishali left the ashram after putting it under Nadaga’s care.
One day Nadaga found his brothers lying dead on a jungle path. It seemed like Rambalas had attacked them. He brought his brothers to the ashram and prayed to the Maraka tree. There was no response from the tree as it knew how evil the brothers were. Nadaga tried again, but to no avail.
At last, blinded by a duty he had never quite grasped, but which still burned strong in him, Nadaga slashed the bark of the Maraka tree to make its sap come out. That was the way Vaishali had taught him, but on the other hand, he had broken the rule that the tree was never to be harmed.
And although the sap encased the brothers, the Maraka tree died.
Leaving Nadaga in a state of eternal waiting, and wondering – about what he did and why.
On the outskirts of Tantali, where the deserts of Sarachit met the fertile forests of Itrav, there lived a farmer with his wife and a daughter called Roopali.
Life was hard in the wastelands as the rains were far from frequent and there was little grazing for the livestock. However, all of them were content and frequent visits to the town of Korhia kept Roopali’s spirits up. She was very able for a child of her age and was very skilled in horse riding, archery and hunting.
Roopali’s mother had gifted her a blue pendant which she wore around her neck. Roopali would always wonder where the stone had come from and why it used to glow sometimes, especially during the night.
One day, they saw a great amount of smoke rising in the distance, in the direction of the town.
Roopali’s father became very worried. He gathered what little livestock they had closer to home. During this time, he did not permit Roopali to go out on her riding trips. One day Roopali’s father had a brief whispered conversation with her mother after which Roopali was called by her mother.
Her mother began explaining – “It is time for you to know the truth. The stone you wear around your neck is one of the most powerful magical objects in the land, given by a traveling monk who asked me to hand it to you. He had said that a time would come when you would have to protect the stone.” Her mother went on to explain how the Rambalas were coming for the stone, drawn by its power. If the Rambalas got their hands on the stone it would be terrible as they would misuse the stone’s power.
They went to the hills in the south, from where they could see their home. They waited there for the Rambalas to pass through so that it would be safe.
The Rambalas came, trampling everything that was on their way.
The three of them watched in horror as the Rambalas wrecked their home in search for the stone. They set fire to everything, killed the livestock and looted the grain. Roopali knew that she couldn’t let her parents face this again. She turned to her parents and told them that she had to take the stone away. “The Rambalas will return. They will wreck our home again. We can’t live in hiding forever. I must take the stone and go away from home!”
Her parents tried stopping her, but Roopali had made up her mind. “If you must go, then you should go to Nguran and search for the monks who protect the Boonya Stone. You might get some answers,” her father told her.
Roopali left on her horse that night with a promise to return one day.
Vaishali was the daughter of a gifted healer in a village. Brought up in a famous house-hold, she grew to emulate the qualities of her legendary father. And by the time she reached twenty, she had become a practicing healer herself.
Questions often arose in her mind about the true nature of her work.
Once she asked her father from who had he learned the art of healing from. Her father said that it was the monk Shivenraj, one of the greatest monk and healer in Trikoot.
Curious, Vaishali decided to travel to the ashram where her father had learned the art of healing.
It was a journey of many days, but Vaishali was determined and reached the ashram.
There, Vaishali found an old monk who gave her old texts containing accounts of Shivenraj’s travels when she told him the purpose of her visit.
As Vaishali read, she learned that Shivenraj had traveled all over the land, communing with nature, and finding the real essence of things, which he called the true meaning of being a monk and a healer.
This was the answer to Vaishali’s questions, and she decided to go on her own journey.
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