Jal-Samadhi
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                      by Gunavant Ray Acharya

The story starts with a character called Lala..He is a pirate in the indian
ocean with his base being an island called ``Amarant'' in the indian ocean.
He had run away with a businessman's daughter a while ago and now he himself
has a daughter. He is interested in getting her married. Among his crew,
he chooses a pirate called Sambal, to marry his daughter Bijali.
Bijali is not interested in Sambal and looks down upon him.
 
During a piracy, Lala is chased by the Navy of Calicut, led by Sarangpani.
He is trapped on one side of the island. His daughter helps his
ship escape and wins Lala's confidence as a new leader. But the pirates do
not want a woman as their leader. A pirate called Gorilla contacts another
pirate Kanji Malam (who is famous for his fast black ship) and there is a
revolt on Lala's ship. Kanji Malam attacks this ship at the same time and
becomes the new leader. Sambal is deserted from the ship.

Kanji, however, is getting interested in Bijali, in the meantime. Due to this
behaviour, Gorilla again revolts and throws him off the ship. He drifts with
a broken wooden raft and manages to reach the coast of Melindi.
Vasco De Gama, who is stuck at Melindi realizes that he is a native Indian,
and asks him to show the way to India.

Kanji is without a ship, alone on another continent. He asks De Gama that if
he manages to take De Gama to Calicut,
he will be awarded one of DE Gama's three ships. De Gama agrees.
They take off from melindi.

Saranpani captures Sambal and uses him to find the base of the pirates.
Sarangpani uses Sambal's knowledge and manages to capture Gorilla and company
after a while and brings them to Calicut. The pirates are kept in a fort,
zamorin likes Bijali and tells his soldiers to bring her to the palace.
The pirates decide to go suicidal and die intead of going through a torturous
death. Most of them die, but Bijali and Lala manage to escape from the fort
and hide in a temple. Zamorin's army attacks the temple. The priest of the
temple (Guruvayur temple) resists them by saying that they have taken refuge
in God's place and shall not be harmed. The priest is killed by Zamorin's
order, but the army refuses to charge in the temple.
This causes religious tension in the people and army and
situation gets out of control. In the precise moment, De Gama arrives at
Calicut.

He realizes that the kingdom is on the brink of revolt and decides to attack
the palace. he captures zamorin, and starts filling his ship with Calicut's
treasure. Then he attacks the rich temple of Guruvayur and other places.
Kanji comes to know that Bijali is in the temple and since De Gama has refused
to give him his ship, he gathers people and defends the temple.
Sambal who has seen how the other pirates gave their life for Lala, feels
embarrased at his selfishness and dies fighting against De Gama.
Kanji and people manages to drive De Gama back to his ship.

Gama decides to come back with the idea of a permanent establishment
and complete victory over Calicut.
Kanji feels himself responsible for all the destruction caused by De Gama
and without his ship, feels that his karmas are over.
He decides to finish his life by embracing the ocean in the ancient way
and Bijali joins him.

--
The ancient mualim way of committing suicide with the ship-
also known as ``Sargos''..
When the people involved, take their ship in the ocean and then start breaking
it apart till it sinks and they sink with the ship.