Yakshagni - An odyssey of unbroken devotion

Prologue - Avadhi

The story 'Yakshagni' travels through past and present, ancient and modern, inexplicably connected by a mysterious thread running through the ages although separated by time. Fantasy and romance, beyond the pale of human understanding, but feasible through the manifestation of an unknown force, reign over and above reason and logic...

'Avadhi', meaning time or period, is the name of an ancient house on the edge of a village in the southernmost tip of the land where the story reaches its denouement. The village is a part of the Land's End that is washed and purified by the waters of the three seas of different hues, the very air of which is believed to be of great restorative power.

'Avadhi' is more than a hundred years old. The walls of the house groan under their crumbling weight and the rickety balcony cries for attention. The columns of the porch echo with whispers of a forgotten period that had vanished into oblivion. Situated at the end of the village of Anuragnicheri, she is the only one that is unoccupied and has been lying vacant for many years. The façade of the house has two floors; the upper floor has a wooden balcony with railings and the ground floor has a veranda with tapering pillars holding the structure in place. The red tiles of the sloping roof are covered with fallen dry leaves and the dust settled in every corner of the cemented platform of the veranda sighs with age-old secrets. The village of Anuragnicheri has two rows of houses that face each other. Except for the corner house, all houses share common walls. One side of Avadhi, being the last house in the row, is exposed to the river that flows through the periphery of the village. The river Agni, named after the shrine Anuragni that takes center stage in the village, looks perpetually calm and serene. The villagers, however, warn anyone who tries to wade through the river or swim across the banks, of danger as the swirling waters of the river hide powerful currents. Some of the elders of the village are convinced that the original name of the river was something more exotic but there is no verification of the truth.

Avadhi which lay in silent ruins on the bank of the river is locked in a curse that enshrouds it within its time warp. True to the prophecy, her doors would open only when two souls from a distant era and a faraway land, entwined by a cruel destiny, decide to claim her as their own. The age-old wrath of the Great Storm would douse in the time-worn river of Agni if Avadhi is discovered and explored by a love that transcends the passage of time.

Till such time, Avadhi lingers on her desecrated legs, in the hope that she would not disintegrate over the turning of generations. Avadhi's pain and endurance are not visible but she chased away those falsely wanting to lay claim by dislocating one of the bricks or exposing one of her many sliding slimy visitors.

Till her unfathomable secret is discovered, Avadhi will not let herself perish. Her secret had to stay within the four walls of her and she fervently hoped that the land blessed by the virgin goddess, Anuragni would safeguard her from the tempestuousness of the Great Storm till everlasting love conquered it.