Part 51 (1/2)

He turned to Vasant Rao, whose face showed no trace of fear. The Rajput seemed oblivious to the smell of death as smoke from the fire engulfed the palms that lined the village roads. They were approaching the porch of the great house where the head of the dynasty had lived.

Two guards shoved Hawksworth roughly to his knees. He looked up to see, standing on the porch of the house, the young man who had tossed the torch into the pit. He began speaking to them, in the tones of an announcement.

”He's the son of the man you killed. He has claimed leaders.h.i.+p of the dynasty, and calls himself Raj Singh.” Vasant Rao translated rapidly, as the man continued speaking. ”He says that tomorrow there will be an eclipse of the sun here. It is predicted in the Panjika, the Hindu manual of astrology. His father, the leader of this dynasty of the sun, has died, and tomorrow the sun will die also for a time. The Brahmins have said it is fitting that you die with it. For high castes in India the death of the sun is an evil time, a time when the two great powers of the sky are in conflict. On the day of an eclipse no fires are lit in our homes. Food is discarded and all open earthenware pots are smashed. No one who wears the sacred thread of the twice-born can be out of doors during an eclipse. The Brahmin astrologers have judged it is the proper time for you to pay for your cowardly act. You will be left on a pike to die in the center of the square.”

Hawksworth drew himself up, his eyes still smarting from

the smoke, and tried to fix the man's eyes. Then he spoke, in a voice he hoped would carry to all the waiting crowd.

”Tell him his Brahmin astrologers know not the truth, neither past nor future.” Hawksworth forced himself to still the tremble in his voice.

”There will be no eclipse tomorrow. His Brahmins, who cannot foretell the great events in the heavens, should have no right to work their will on earth.”

”Have you gone mad?” Vasant Rao turned and glared at him as he spat the words in disgust. ”Why not try to die with dignity.”

”Tell him.”

Vasant Rao stared at Hawksworth in dumb amazement. ”Do you think we're all fools. The eclipse is foretold in the Panjika. It is the sacred book of the Brahmins. It's used to pick auspicious days for ceremonies, for weddings, for planting crops. Eclipses are predicted many years ahead in the Panjika. They have been forecast in India for centuries.

Don't Europeans know an eclipse is a meeting of the sun and moon?

Nothing can change that.”

”Tell him what I said. Exactly.”

Vasant Rao hesitated for a few moments and then reluctantly translated.

The Rajput chieftain's face did not change and his reply was curt.

Vasant Rao turned to Hawksworth. ”He says you are a fool as well as an Untouchable.”

”Tell him that if I am to die with the sun, he must kill me now. I spit on his Brahmins and their Panjika. I say the eclipse will be this very day. In less than three hours.”

”In one _pahar_?

”Yes.”

”No G.o.d, and certainly no man, can control such things. Why tell him this invention?” Vasant Rao's voice rose with his anger. ”When this thing does not happen, you will die in even greater dishonor.”

”Tell him.”

Vasant Rao again translated, his voice hesitant. Raj Singh examined Hawksworth skeptically. Then he turned and spoke to one of the tall Rajputs standing nearby, who walked to the end of the porch and summoned several Brahmin priests. After a conference marked by much angry shouting and gesturing, one of the Brahmins turned and left.

Moments later he reappeared carrying a book.

”They have consulted the Panjika again.” Vasant Rao pointed toward the book as one of the Brahmins directed a stream of language at Raj Singh.

”He says there is no mistaking the date of the eclipse, and the time.

It is in the lunar month of Asvina, which is your September-October.

Here in the Deccan the month begins and ends with the full moon. The _t.i.thi_ or lunar day of the eclipse begins tomorrow.”