Ranibaug—a treacherous peak situated at the bridge between the lesser and greater Himalayas that has never been scaled by a mountaineering party; comparable in mystery to K2, Nanga Parbat, and Mount Kailash. Only the bare feet of sadhus and ascetics are said to have trod upon its rocks. A topographical survey team had embarked on a journey in the spring of 1971, never to return. Now, a civil engineer decides against his better judgement to accompany Professor Chaturvedi, a mountaineer of some repute, and Shera, a Garhwali ex-guide, on this daunting trek that has been prescribed to them by a local astrologer as an act of pilgrimage to atone for their ongoing spiritual deterioration. They intend also to mark a rock at the summit where a temple is to be built. The engineer’s own reasons for journeying up the mountain however are only partly religious. It is the prospect of venturing towards uncharted territory that propels him on this harrowing climb up non-navigable pathways, through impenetrable forests, past sights, sensations and phenomena that are entirely inexplicable, and that confound their onward ascent; their descent into madness slowly precipitated by the increase in altitude. Forging ahead through abominable weather and starvation, they arrive at the discovery that a temple of immeasurable antiquity has already been built upon the mountain top… or at least what appears to be a temple, it is closer in form though to an inexplicable archaeological ruin that does not appear to have been constructed by anything remotely resembling the hand of human civilization… possessing an architectural ingenuity far surpassing human intelligence.
