136 Abode of Gods
has an excellent forest and tourist rest house for which prior
reservation can be made from Divisional Forest Officer, Badri-
nath, Gopeshwar, District Chamoli. Local guides and coolies
are also available here who can take you to this mysterious lake
which provides besides trekking scientific investigation and exce-
llent opportunity of adventure which is full of scenic and scienti-
fic attractions.
The trek to Rupkund calls for unstinted courage and the capa-
city to snug in a bed roll and pass sleepless night under a
bivauac braving the hazards of a bitting wind, hail, storm and
snow.
For whom the beath del! tolls
The lone forest ranger who frequented this area suddenly
struck in the year 1944 on a heap of human skeletons which
were spread all over the place. Frightened by the ghastly sight
he fled and reported the matter to his higher ups who immedia-
tely concluded that the skeletons must be of those fugitives who
had fled from the war front. But soon this choosy theory was
rejected since locals were already in the know of these remains
of the past and year after year they were frequenting the area
during Nanda Jat. They had a different story to tell.
In the year 1957 Dr. D. C. Majumdar visited this area and
made startling revelations about the human skeletons and pre-
sented before the world the theory that the dead bodies were
either remains of some Buddhist mission or Mohammad Tugh-
luq's army which went to invade China. Commenting on the
futility of these conclusions, some historians did put forward
the idea that the remains could be of Gen. Zorawar Singh's ill-
fated army, which went on a campaign of Tibet and met the sad
fate on its return journey. This theory stands rejected in view
of the fact that the route for Tibet does not lie from here.
The prevailing confusion about the identification of these
known skeletons drew the attention of Swami Pranawanand of
Andhra, living in Himalayas who hazarded a journey to the area
and came out with certain definite conclusions. He visited the
area five times and thus each time laid bare new facts of hidden
past each drawing its origin from the folklore, particularly that
of Raja Jasdhawal of Kannauj who undertook fateful journey to