The Curse of Kukkutarma

Book excerpt: The protagonist, a prodigy, now a grown-up scientist, realizes his childhood dream of making a time machine. He creates Atitayā́n (a machine that travels to the past). In his quest to witness the Kurukshetra war, he sets off to travel thousands of years into the past. But due to some technical glitches, he travels 100 years into the future instead. A brother-sister duo rescues him. Together, they relaunch the Atitayā́n. The Anthropologist sister travels thousands of years into the past in Atitayā́n to witness the Indus Valley Civilization. There she witnesses a conspiracy brewing at Kukkutarma (Mohenjo-daro) organized by the Priest-King to grab the power of the Indus Kingdom. Enraged by the conspiracy, a sorcerer from the Indus state, Kot-Dilji, curses the Priest-King: unless he abandons his unconsecrated plans to conquer and rule the Indus Kingdom, the kingdom will perish.