Chapter 24 The Immersion of the Idol
The day of immersion dawned clear and bright. The sun blazed across the sky, not a cloud hid its magnificence. The banks swelled with people who had come to watch the spectacle. Their many-hued clothes made it look like a brilliant patchwork from up above.
The idol of Lord Brihadeeshwar was borne up on a huge, decorated elephant.
A whole entourage of people followed the idol’s progress, the crowd extending all the way from the temple gates.
Priests clad in pristine white panche presided over the procession; their upper bodies were bare except for a holy thread tied crosswise across the torso.
White ash marks decorated their foreheads in the vertically bisected U symbol of Vishnu, since many believed Lord Brihadeeshwar was his incarnation.
Their combined chant of prayers rose over the crowd. Huge drums made from hollowed wood were slung across the front of the musicians’ bodies, suspended by ropes tied across the shoulders, keeping rhythm with the clap of cymbals and the bleat of oboes that signified the start of the procession.
Flowers were thrown high in the air and across the path of the elephant, competing with the fragrant water perfumed with Lord Brihadeeshwar’s favorite flower, sugandha, sprinkled on the idol from silver flagons.
The sheer number of people, some of whom had come from far away on a holy pilgrimage, brought home to Veer exactly how devoted these people were.
He was loath to admit it, but Chandra had a point.
Interrupting the ceremony would be a blow to their beliefs.
But then, he had little alternate options either.
After asking Chandra about more information on the order of ceremonies, he found out there was one other opportunity he could use.
For a small period, after the immersion, the idol was supposedly left alone in the temple, with the doors closed, and no assigned guards.
So Veer adjusted the plan so that the heist was to take place after the purification ceremony.
The window of opportunity was much narrower, but Veer wanted to make it work. That way, the temple wouldn’t be in any danger of closing, and he could return the idol once he was finished with it.
Chandra didn’t like this option either. Her opinion had been to seek the temple leaders for help, but she couldn’t really object to the benefits that came from this alteration in plan.
More importantly, this way they could still keep the secrecy of Meru’s eruption.
Rajgarh, with its many enemies, would otherwise be in danger, if the news leaked prematurely, before they were able to complete the lotus key.
For the umpteenth time, though, Veer wondered what King Amarendra had been thinking, when he hid the key pieces in such hard to access locations. He had to know that they would require retrieval in the future.
In the flat land a short distance from the temple, a fathoms deep circular depression spread across a couple of miles. Three bamboo towers were constructed roughly at the points of a triangle in this deep basin, each tower fitted with a pulley system.
A flat platform made of wood waited, already hooked to this three-pulley system.
The ceremony was deemed complete once the idol placed on this platform took a dip in the three-river confluence and emerged once the solar eclipse broke.
Water from the River Narmada had already turned the land around the basin into a mud-soaked moat. Yet more water continued to stream as the sedate Tripti made an oxbow turn to reach the basin.
A cheer rose from the people as the monsoon-swollen Pravani broke its natural embankments. It streamed into the basin, reflecting the pure blueness of the sky to meet the red-tinted tributary of the Narmada and the earth-brown waters of the fertile Tripti.
A brilliant multihued whirlpool formed in the center of the basin as the waters of the three primary rivers of Saptavarsha met, swirled, and the confluence completed itself.
Water levels rose rapidly. People were corralled into safe areas enclosed by wooden fences that were erected on the banks.
Shota made his way toward Veer and whispered in his ear. Their men were inside. Now all that was left was for the idol to be purified and taken back to the temple and then they could strike.
The procession had reached its end at the wooden platform. The idol was lowered from the elephant, and after the requisite rituals, was mounted on the platform. Turmeric, flowers and sandalwood paste adorned the statue. Inlaid precious stones on the statue glinted in the sunlight.
The ropes creaked and the platform, with its heavy statue, moved to the center of the confluence, directly above the whirlpool.
Abruptly, gloom descended on the plains, accompanied by the cacophony of confusion from the birds in flight as they lost their directional compass.
The eclipse had started.
The head priest gave the signal—a solitary note from the ceremonial conch. The platform lowered slowly, the ropes controlling the descent of the idol.
Veer watched Chandra in the crowd, Sameera and Matangi beside her, their hands raised in prayer along with the rest of the devotees.