Curse of Yagnavalika
The curse broke loud as thunder,
The tower cracked in flame;
Its stones fell into silence,
And scorched Yagnavalika’s name.
The Mystic Mistress wandered,
She loosed the chains of night;
She sealed the weary horseman,
Then veiled her face in light.
To dust the three fell slowly,
Their vigil never to renew;
They bore the sun’s long burden,
Never kept their hours true.
The day’s stolen measure,
Its fourfold call was unclear;
Yet shadows clung like ashes
Of all her wrath and fear.
The lady lost her lover,
Sworn never to part;
But dawn still bore remembrance
Of sorrow hidden in their hearts.
For oft she meets the white one,
At sunrise and at sunset;
Two moments marked forever,
By love that fate set to test.
The Frozen Night
Seven friends went walking,
Deep into shadowed wood,
To seek the hidden garden
Where Yagnavalika stood.
The trembling earth awakened,
The hut rose on its feet,
It turned to follow sunlight,
Then sank back to its seat.
Three horsemen circled slowly—
Orange, yellow, black;
But white had fled at dawning
And never had come back.
They hailed the forest creatures:
“Tell us what you know!
The white was bound to guard the day,
Yet strayed where none may go.”
The sorceress grew wrathful,
Her silence burned as flame;
She froze the three in stone and dust
And cursed the vanished name.
With basket full of herbs she passed,
Her footsteps split the ground;
The garden shook with shadows,
Yet made no single sound.
The seven watched in stillness,
As truth was carved in stone:
That night may keep its secrets,
But wisdom walks alone.
The Lost Horseman
The seven friends departed,
The garden cracked to sand;
They fled the grinding ruins
That swallowed tree and land.
They met an ancient sage then,
With bleeding arm and hand;
His sword was dulled by bloodstains,
His shield by scars was spanned.
They told him of the garden,
How silence broke in flame;
He whispered, “Curses linger,
They rang with Yagnavalika’s name.”
Her fury swept the heavens,
It plunged the world in night;
Till white returns with morning,
There shall not dawn a light.
The horseman fled in terror,
He held his lady’s hand;
But lost the road before him,
And strayed from promised land.
Around the shattered ruins
Her minions closed the way;
The lovers circled helpless,
With no escape from day.
Yagnavalika’s Prisoner
The horseman faced her minions,
His shield against their blade;
He bent to guard his lady,
Though bleeding where he stayed.
A dagger struck his bosom,
He fell upon the ground;
The night grew still and heavy,
No hope nor voice was found.
Yet seven friends came swiftly,
They bound his wounds with care;
He woke to broken whisper,
Her name still trembling there.
They told him she was taken,
By witch’s spell and power,
Locked high in cruel silence,
Within the midnight tower.
His lady turned from water,
She spurned the offered bread;
She swore to wait in hunger,
Or lie beside him dead.
A day of night passed slowly,
He drifted, weak, in pain;
Three quarters of the darkness
Lay heavy in its chain.
Friends Come to Rescue
The seven beasts were gathered,
Beside the warrior sage;
They swore to seek the tower
And break the witch’s cage.
In silence they went marching,
Through forest dark and deep;
The crow gave watchful omen,
The doe her steps did keep.
The fox was swift and cunning,
The bear was firm and strong;
The squirrel carried tidings,
The dove brought peace along.
The parrot’s cry went skyward,
It fluttered near the cell;
It told the waiting lady
That all would yet be well.
They felled the guards in shadow,
With tooth and claw and hand;
And bound them fast in silence,
By ropes of bark and strand.
The horseman, scarred but steadfast,
Took hold of rope in flight;
He climbed toward her chamber,
Through endless, frozen night.
Broken Curse of Yagnavalika
From the doomed tower falling,
They fled with hearts aflame;
The stones fell into shadow,
And cursed Yagnavalika’s name.
The lady clasped her lover,
A glass she held in hand;
The crystal hour lay broken,
Its sand dissolved to sand.
She spoke: “This glass was fashioned,
By spells of endless night;
To bind the fourfold horsemen,
And steal the dawn from sight.
Her power sought to conquer,
To bend both day and years;
But in this shattered hourglass,
The curse dissolves in tears.
The tower sank in silence,
Its roots undone in fire;
The garden wept in ashes,
Of wrath and dark desire.
Yet from the sky resounded,
The sun’s returning call;
The horsemen took their stations,
And light embraced them all.
The lovers turned to morning,
The curse at last undone;
But whispers of Yagnavalika
Still haunt the setting sun.
Source: Illustration generated with AI, based on the author’s concept of the ballad The Curse of Yagnavalika.
Authorship: Co-Created with Mira (AI powered ChatGPT)
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