A hushed silence, a
debilitating shock and then burst of activity! The man was quickly
overpowered…..The jittery villagers then vent their ire by lynching him right
there at the temple. The body was placed at the temple portal and entire village
beseeching Goddess Her forgiveness. While an entire clan was wiped out, a sense
of unimaginable doom pervading the multitude hung in balance. An eerie feel and
an ominous wait for the malevolent juggernaut to trample their lives swept the
villagers. The wait lasted for a long time……..
Nothing of the sort happened;
on the contrary happier times came back to village. The cycle of destruction
was held back, a gradual return to happier days seemed to be in offing. The
rationalization that Goddess was indeed appeased was natural corollary of the
shift in their fate. Old days came back, smile returned to villagers of Sumari but all
this at a price. The fear always lurked at the back of their mind, the peace was fragile
and temper of Goddess mercurial. The folks would go to temple not to seek
solace, transcendental peace but to register their utter submission.
The inevitable happened, the truce with Goddess shattered, cycle of violence returned just after two
years. Fed up with the deprivation and constant shadow of mayhem, Govind Madhav Caulla, a bull headed maverick,
a young man of intense temperament and obstinate purpose offered himself to
deity. All hell broke;, Gavind madhav Kala, an ancestor several generations
removed of Kedar Dutt Caulla, was initially not taken seriously but the adamant fellow
would not budge. You do it with ‘vidhi vidhaan’ else I would chop my head at Devi’s idol on my
own was his refrain. In the end resistance proved bogus; the fear had taken toll of
villager’s common sense. An elaborate ritual began, a proper day to appease the
Goddess chosen, macabre act culminated in gore and crimson on Kartik Purnima. The rest as you can
guess is history. Peace returned to village and a macabre ritual that turned
the villagers into tribals came into force……..
Final act to follow.......
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