Document 7: King Mahadeva's Royal Notes
I assumed Kingship after the death of my father, Somadeva. The kingdom of Mahishmati was at peace after a very long while. Everyone was happy. The Vaithalikkas and other warring factions had been peacefully assimilated within the kingdom. They were given complete internal autonomy over the Gauri Parvat and forest lands. They were allowed to resettle there and make these lands their permanent homes.

But we had to pay a definite price for this peace- our military strength. Since mining for Gauri Kant had ceased, our weapons were no longer as strong as they used to be. They used to break often. If word about this got round to other kingdoms, we would be susceptible to attacks from external enemies.

So it was decided by the cabinet of ministers that we should expand our army strength by recruiting more soldiers and train them vigorously in all the warfare techniques and strategies. By making our man force strong, unbreakable, fit, alert and agile enough to face any contingencies, we sought to cover up the fact that the weapons of Mahishmati were no longer what they used to be.

Though the current batch of weapons were crafted to look like the weapons of the past crafted using the technology of Gauri Kant, they were but cheap imitations of the former. Whatever old weapons we had were carefully preserved and used but still they were not sufficient to equip everyone in the growing work force of Mahishmati's army. All these details were kept as a closely guarded secret.

Kattappa took the exclusive responsibility of training a special contingent of soldiers who were adept in any sort of warfare, fighting under all sorts of conditions, and in the art of infiltration, espionage, disambiguation and disguise. These men were our true strength.

But whatever damage our past generations had done by indiscriminately mining Gauri Kant from the sacred mountain of Gauri Parvat could not be repaired. The expert committee of learned scholars predicted that there would be severe climatic changes in several regions of the kingdom. There could be severe droughts for several years while during other years, there could be floods, storms and severe rains.

There would be a steady rise in the temperatures and several regions along the coastline of the Sea of Ratnasagara could be wiped out. All this could happen immediately or after several years. This was the price all of us would have to collectively pay for the avarice of our ancestors in indiscriminately using and exploiting a resource they should have preserved.

If any more mining on the Gauri Parvat was ever carried out in the future, the entire region of the Sapthagiris and the Gauri Parvat would become highly unstable and there would be a severe volcanic explosion that would result in this entire region being decimated to naught.

To prevent this from ever happening, all the mining tunnels of Gauri Parvat were permanently closed and sealed and the sacred idol of Amma Gauri was installed at the top of the precipice closing the volcanic crater once and for all.

It was inscribed in the 'sasanalu' (divine ordinances) of the temple that the divine idol of Amma Gauri could not be moved or taken from where she was. If ever it was done, it would result in terrible calamities and ten generations of whoever has committed this crime will be destroyed.

If you tell the common people, it is for the sake of the environment, they would not heed it. But if the same injunction is given a religious garb and fear is instilled in them for not following it, they will not disobey it. However despite all these precautions, once in twenty-six years, molten magma overflowed in small quantities from beneath the idol bringing the Gauri Kant along with it.

Ever since my dynasty had come to power, the ritual of Agni Prastham had been discontinued. To divert the wrong kind of attention regarding the Gauri Kant, the old ritual and custom of the Vaithalikkas, the Agni Pratham was restarted. My Queen Komalavalli did this ritual with the fire from the volcanic stones of Gauri Kant after a gap of nearly three hundred years.

Whatever stones of Gauri Kant came up like this were then carefully preserved in a secret arsenal. The propaganda machinery had then been set into motion that this had always been done since time immemorial every twenty-six years by the ruling family of Mahishmati. With the passage of time everyone forgot about the mystery behind the Gauri Parvat and the Gauri Kant.

It simply remained a sacred temple worshipped by one and all in Mahishmati. Whatever we did, we did in the best interests of our kingdom and to protect it from the wrong kind of attention of avaricious, ambitious and power hungry people. Some secrets are best left buried and hallowed in mystery.
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Document 8: Report submitted by Kattappa to Mahapradhana of Mahishmati, Rajamata Sivagami on the Royal deaths of Maharaj Somadeva, Maharaj Mahadeva and Maharani Komalavalli
A secret inquiry was conducted on the mysterious Royal deaths of Maharaj Somadeva, Maharaj Mahendra and Maharani Komalavalli with special orders from Rajamata Sivagami immediately after she took over the regency of the kingdom.

For the past eight months, Rajamata Sivagami had been relieved from her duties as Mahapradhana of Mahishmati by Maharaj Mahadeva heeding to the request of her husband, Bijjaladeva who cited concerns about the toll her official duties were taking on her health and pregnancy.

Soon after this, Maharaj Mahadeva was afflicted by a strange and wasting illness whose symptoms were very similar to the illness that afflicted Maharaj Somadeva. And then, the death of Maharani Komalavalli during childbirth despite the fact that there seemed to be no apparent medical complications.

We have reason to believe that all these deaths are interconnected and caused due to the administration of a kind of slow poison found in the land of the Kalakeyas. We do not have any proof that incriminates the involvement of the King of Kalakeyas, Inkoshi in these deaths.

But all these mysterious deaths could not have happened without the involvement of an insider in Mahishmati. What his actual motivations were or who he is are still a mystery.
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Document 9: Supplementary Note by Senapathi Bhairava Varma
The actual reason for the severe drought condition that occurred in the Western Part of Mahishmati during Maharaj Mahendra's reign has to be attributed to environmental imbalances that were predicted a long time ago, a consequence of the past misuse of Gauri Parvat.

When Rajamata Devasena died mysteriously in her sleep, everyone concluded that her twenty-five years of imprisonment were gradually taking toll of her health. But there is a definite pattern in the previous deaths of Maharaj Somadeva, Maharaj Mahadeva, Maharani Komalavalli and Rajamata Devasena's death in her sleep.

The symptoms are the same. It is literally impossible that four people belonging to three different generations of the same family could have died in a similar manner of similar symptoms so many years apart unless it is a well-hatched and well-planned conspiracy.

Rajamata Devasena and Sarvasainyadhipathi Kattappa were two pillars of Maharaj Mahendra's strength. When they were gone, he became vulnerable and took the wrong decision of abdicating the throne because there was no one left to guide him.

Similarly the idol of Amma Gauri was stolen by Kalanemi and his Asura Sena in order to misuse the Gauri Kant and not by anybody within the kingdom of Mahishmati. The lies that were told accusing a particular section of the people were simply fabricated by Kalanemi and his men to divert attention from the actual fact.

Similarly Kalanemi and his men needed complete control over the whole of Mahishmati to discover where the secret arsenal of Gauri Kant was kept. A secret known only to King Mahadeva, Sarvasainyadhipathi Kattappa and Rajamata Sivagami. The Kalakeyas secured all this knowledge about Mahishmati, its strengths and its weaknesses on the basis of the secret documents stolen by the spy Saket.

Ever since that period, Mahishmati has been at war with the Kalakeyas. We defeated and routed them twice, once during Rajamata Sivagami's regency and once during Maharaj Bhallaladeva's rule with Amarendra Baahubali's help.

The Kalakeyas will keep coming again and again because of their ambition and desire for supremacy and uncontrolled power over other kingdoms that the secret of Gauri Kant will bestow upon them. Hence Kalanemi and his Asura Sena instigated riots and internal disturbances and induced a state of civil war within the kingdom of Mahishmati to destabilize Maharaj Mahendra and his rule.

Old enemies like Bijjaladeva and Vijayamarthanda joined hands and formed secret military, political and marital alliances with Kalanemi. Maharaj Mahendra without knowing any of these facts simply concluded that the people of Mahishmati did not wholeheartedly accept him as their ruler and abdicated the throne of Mahishmati complicating matters.

I was able to deduce all this on the basis of the duplicate documents in the Secret Documents Archive. I have done my part. I have told you why things are the way they are. Now it is up to you the reader whoever you are to do what should be done to rectify this situation.
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End of Book Five: A Story Written in Blood