Hill stations and lakes have always been weak spots for tourists, but Roopkund lying on the laps of Trishul massif in Himachal Pradesh is proven to be a horror sight for everyone. You will get chills here and that is obviously not for the weather. Beneath the beautiful glacial lake lies the graveyard for more than 500 skeletons that have been piled up for thousands of years.
Yup you heard me right, 500 skeletons whose origins are yet unknown.
In 1942, these skeletons were discovered by Hari Kishan Madhawal, a ranger of the Nanda Devi forest. Although there were random reports about finding bones near Roopkund, nobody was enthusiastic about digging deeper because the trek to Roopkund was treacherous, and so random deaths were not an uncommon incident.
But what was surprising was the finding of 200 skeletons scattered near the lake that remains frozen for most of the year. At first, the British suspected the skeletons to belong to the Japanese hidden army that suffered casualties, but they were soon relieved to find out that the bones were way older to be Japanese warriors. At that time no logical explanation was found for this mystery. The bodies did not show any sign of epidemic or fatal wounds received during wars, so there was absolutely no clue as to why masses of the body lay deposited at the lake, but that doesn't mean the villagers didn't have a story, a folk song tells the story of victims of goddesses wrath. The story revolves around the Nanda Devi Raj Jat, Once upon a time, a king defiled the pilgrimage by taking dancing girls for his entertainment at the holy trek which enraged the goddess to such an extent that she struck everyone with heavy" iron balls" that fell from the sky.
As absurd as this story sounds the more absurd event is that the skeletons that were examined were found to have holes the size of cricket balls in their skulls or shoulders bones eerily giving fuel to the belief of 'being hit by iron balls'.
In 2004, after a trek and closer inspection, scientists concluded that this set of people were not hit with iron balls rather caught in a hailstorm mostly during the pilgrimage, and thus were victims of bad weather day rather than of someone's wrath. The theory is more logical and reasonable was approved and accepted with open arms.
BUT
BUT
BUT
Some curious-minded people were not completely convinced with the theory, being caught up in a hailstorm is okay but so many being hit in the head is kind of fishy, isn't it?
So they did a little more digging up.
Two things: DNA Analysis, Radiocarbon dating
And that just twisted and complicated everything, making our return to square one, only more clueless than before.
After studying 38 skeletons from Roopkund, researchers revealed that these people did not die in a single incident. There are at least three identifiable distinct groups who died at least thousands of years apart. People dying once in huge numbers, at the hands of nature is believable, twice justifiable but thrice or more than it at the same place, then it is suspicious, that's what makes it more mysterious and creepy.
Out of the 35 skeletons studied 23 closely matched with the DNA of modern-day Indians and is assumed to have died between the seventh to the tenth century, while 14 of them closely resemble the people of Meditterean islands like Crete or Greece. The one left shares ancestry with South Asia, the latter group of fifteen individuals is believed to have died between the 17th to 20th century.
The mystery just goes on being more creepier since more recent bodies were found at the lake, the bodies were frozen with skin attached to them but were still unidentified.
anthropologist Kathleen Morrison suggests, "When you see a lot of human skeletons, usually it's a graveyard," but Harney thinks the area is too remote to be a graveyard beside there were no genetical similarities with the nearby villages.
And even if the area is a graveyard, What is the reason for having holes in the skulls and shoulder bones. Moreover, why would someone come all the way to Roopkund just to dump bodies? There is no logical answer to these questions.
The question that is now roaming in all our minds is what lured these peoples to Roopkund? Was it for the sake of religion? or some other mystery that lies in the depths of the lake, that none of us know about?
The second question is How and Why did they die?
According to Harney the answers to the questions may be achieved by digging deeper into the age-old ancient texts associated with the lake.
Could it be the handiworks of someone or something or maybe some crazy sacrificial event that no one knows about?
No matter what, it seems to be a perilous dark secret buried deep into the icy waters of the skeleton lake. A secret that itself has the capacity of lurings hundreds of lives to its depths from where there is no return. it's the secret that people have sought for ages but still remains buried. Whatever the reason skeleton lake still remains a mystery to all the curious minds out there, and one day this mystery will surely be solved. Until then let's hope the web does not get more tangled than it already is.
blue rose belles
( Archie)
