The Flame Akbar Could Not Cover

The emperor did not believe it, so he sent for iron plates.

Akbar had been told about a shrine in the Kangra hills where fire came straight out of the rock and never went out. He wanted to see whether the reports were exaggerated. Perhaps he wanted to end something he thought unworthy of the reverence being paid to it, the accounts differ on his motive.

Either way the method was the same. Bring metal. Cover the flames. Hold them down and see what happens.

They covered them.

The fire came back through the metal.

What is burning

Jwalamukhi is one of the fifty-one Shakti Peethas, the places where a piece of Sati's body is held to have fallen to earth. What fell here was her tongue.

And it is unlike the other fifty in one respect. There is no image.