FORAY The Secrets of India

I would like to prepare you for your time here in India, my childe. This land hides many secrets from the rest of this world of darkness, some sinister, some wonderous beyond belief. Veiled deep in her bosom great India holds many truths and many lies. I know you have come here to seek the truth and thus I feel I must prepare you against the deceivers that lurk here even as they did in your old Homeland.

As those of us who have sworn ourselves to the path of the Inconnu will not interfere in the affairs of others, it is only by teaching you that I can assure that your ascension along the path of redemption will not falter. Yet you will have to weigh my words for yourself, as it is said that the only true teacher is experience. Let me begin by reminding you of your oath to keep our ways secret and to refrain from involving yourself in the continued embroilment in the affairs of our own kind. As you have come to us of your own free will, I must remind you that you have offered us the right to enforce your own words upon you."

It was thus that the old one welcomed me to India, and I must say that I wondered yet again if perhaps the transcendental state of Golconda was mere fiction, a bait proffered by the elders to gain power over those childer who succumbed to their plans due to their religious overtones. But since then I have learned many things from him and on my own, and I do not regret a single evening's lesson. Well maybe one, but that is a matter for later.

Thuggee: The name comes from the Sanskrit word sthaga which means deceiver. The Thuggee were a Hindu sect whose members worked in small gangs in India. They murdered (usually by strangulation),
robbed, and buried travelers passing through their region. The Thugs worshipped the goddess Kali, the Hindu goddess of death, and observed very strict rules in dedication to her. They even employed a secret language amongst themselves. The Thuggee cult was suppressed in the 1830's.

Rakshasa: It is with a shudder that I recall him, for his visage bears more in common with some horrid tiger hybrid than with a man, his tall body is bent and misshapen like that of an ape, and his hands gnarl into fearsome claws that clutch grotesquely when he speaks. His eyes seem to burn with the fury of a caged animal, and you know you have seen a secret from which there is no turning back. You feel that his grasp is upon your soul and that even your rage will only bring you that much closer to his dark heart. And then with a negligent wave he shimmers into the handsome avatar of the ancient gods which strikes deep into your very childhood beliefs as it looks at you from a thousand remembered paintings and from a hundred forgotten statues. It is a terrifying thing to discover that you cannot decide which face you fear most.

The rakshasa is a fearsome creature firmly ensconced in Indian myth and horrific legend. What is known by more perhaps than would admit it to their Western critics is that the rakshasa are real. They form a dangerous sect, unruly and vicious, directly opposing the goals of the Inconnu.

Akashic Records
While perhaps properly discussed in areas even more deeply influenced by the Akashic Brotherhood, it seemed fitting to mention the fact that I have found a definition of the Akashic records. As the Akashic Brotherhood is definitely of impact in India, their concepts deserve
additional inspection. Akashic records The "pictures" of all past events, emotions, and thoughts, believed by occultists to be retained in supersensory fluid called Akasha. Clairvoyants and mediums claim to have access to these records. Webster's Family Encyclopedia 1991 Edition.

Golconda
That's right, the elusive goal of enlightened kindred, the myth, the lie, the truth, it all depends to whom you talk. Would you be surprised if I told you that Golconda is a real place? A place you could go if you had a mind to do so? Well, it is. In cartographer's notation the ruined city is located 17 24N 78 23E. In layman's terms that is in the Andhra Pradesh province in southern India near the city of Hyderabad. The ruined city served as the capital of an Islamic kingdom of the Deccan from approximately 1518 to 1687. The tombs of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, and the fortress built upon a granite ridge, still stand, starkly beautiful memories of the city's former glory.

Golconda Fort stands 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) from the center of Hyderabad, or about 6 kilometers from its contemporary architectural partner the Charminar. The fortress was first built in the 13th century, to protect the rich diamond mines of Golconda. At this time Golconda was the center of one of the world's largest diamond markets, and it attracted Europeans such as Marco Polo. Unfortunately, the obvious wealth led to the southern expansion of the Moslems of the Delhi sultanate, whose armies captured two Hindu princes of the area and converted them to Islam in Delhi before sending them south to establish a Moslem powerbase in Andhra and Karnataka. The dominant Moslem kingdom was knowm as Bahmani.

It is reputed by certain individuals that the secret center of the Inconnu really lies here. That the city of Hyderabad serves as a meeting place for the sect on occasion is certainly true. This should really not surprise anyone who has made any study of the Golconda movement, given that Saulot spent a great deal of time in this corner of the world. Indeed the idea of Golconda seems to be in part a blending of Eastern mystic ideals and kindred psychology.

Calcutta
City of Astonishments. Nothing can prepare you for Calcutta. It is one of the largest cities in the world, seemingly in the dismal grip of death and yet vibrant enough to attract hundreds of refugees every day. For over one hundred and fifty years Calcutta has been the soul of India, a center of culture and intellectual and political growth. But to the outsider it appears as if unending tragedy and suffering assault visitor and inhabitant alike.

A western kindred would do better to avoid the ancient city, for it has such a terrible reputation amongst them that it is called, as far away as Bombay, "The Black Hole of Calcutta". It is said by a few that there is no prince, and that the Rakshasa rule the city. Others claim that Kali incarnate protects the city from those who do not belong there. And of course those in the know point out that at very least one should consider the fact that a powerful cult of death mystics calls the city home.