Gold Digger: Treasure Of Son Bhandar; Quest Into A Barrel Of Laughs

Based on the true legend of the caves of Son Bhandar and real locations around Rajgir, Bihar, the book is an adventure quest and a romantic comedy, a trip into history and a barrel of laughs. The addition of some reference images of the places in this gripping novel makes it a beautiful cinematic interpretation for readers.

Gold Digger, An Excerpt

The legend of Son Bhandar begins and ends with King Bimbisar. Friend and disciple to Lord Mahavir and the Great Buddha. And the earliest renowned ruler and consolidator of the mighty Magadha empire, all the way back in the fifth and sixth centuries BC.

For reasons unknown, King Bimbisar locked the wealth of his empire inside a cave vault so secure that no one had ever been able to open it. But tales of the vault spread, and even the British had once wheeled a cannon into the main cave and tried shooting its thick stone wall. (They had either not known about, or ignored, the dangerous geology of the mountain.) The cannon ball had left a small dent in the wall, visible till today, but the wall had remained as impenetrable as ever.

Prateek took them through this explanation, his Hindi accented by a friendly Bhojpuri lilt. Aunum listened patiently; she knew the same facts, but didn’t want to step on his toes. The linguist seemed intent on impressing Nik.

They had entered the main cave, blissfully cool and shaded from the Bihari sun. It was before official opening hours, so they had the place to themselves. 

Recently, Prateek continued, scans of the mountain had revealed the presence of something at its heart. And yet, the only way to find that something seemed to be to solve the cryptic puzzle King Bimbisar had left behind.

Prateek first showed Nik the “doorway” to Son Bhandar: a human-sized rectangle, carved into its wall.

“And here’s the famous inscription from King Bimbisar,” Prateek said, gesturing at two lines of curving, squiggly letters above the doorway. 

Aunum’s skin rose. She stood on tiptoes to touch the inscription.

The magic password…

“It’s written in a script very, very few people know about,” Prateek began telling Nik.

“Shankhalipi,” Aunum murmured, almost absent-mindedly.

Prateek turned to her. “You know about Shankhalipi, huh?”

“An ancient language that nobody can read any more.”

Prateek grinned suddenly. “Says who?” He launched into an explanation of how he’d spend years hunting down examples of Shankhalipi around Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Karnataka, even Indonesia, and created a software which could decipher its alphabets. The software was still being debugged, it still had some faults, but the eventual result of this labour, Prateek concluded, his chest swelling, “is that we can now read Shankhalipi. As of this very week, in fact.”

Aunum’s brows had nearly shot into her hair. “You’re kidding,” she breathed, rewarding Prateek with a look of such admiration that he blushed. She’d known he was studying the ancient script, but this was much, much more than she’d dared to expect. “So?” she urged. “What does the inscription mean?”

But Nik was frowning at Prateek. “You mean to tell me, this inscription can’t be read by anyone else in the world. Only you? Because of your software?”

“I think so, sir,” Prateek said shyly.

“Come with me.” Nik put out an arm, to usher Prateek away with him. “Babe,” he said, turning to Aunum. “You stay here and examine the doorway.”

“No, Nik, I want to know what the inscription—”

But Nik was already guiding Prateek towards the exit. 

The excerpt is extracted from Gold Digger, written by Sukriti Y.J. and published by Unibrow Stories