The Mystery of the Ancient Temple and Well

Famous hunter Kenneth Anderson had many mysterious and supernatural experiences. Ishtiaq Hasan presents one such experience to readers.

A small village called Sampigehalli is located near the city of Chitradurga. It lies east of Shimoga district in Mysore. About four miles from the village along an isolated road through the forest toward Budhalli village, the ruins of an ancient temple can be seen deep inside the woods. Beside it is a deep and eerie well. No one goes near it even during the day. After sunset, the area is completely off limits. According to local folklore, the place is extremely haunted.

Once, two men from the villages of Sampigehalli and Budhalli suddenly disappeared. No trace of them was ever found. Around the same time, a huge tiger appeared in the area. The villagers’ livestock began disappearing one after another. When tiger tracks were found near the temple in the early morning light, everyone assumed that this was the man eating tiger and that it was responsible for the tragic fate of the two villagers. To escape the terror of the tiger, the villagers wrote to Kenneth Anderson. The story took place at least 70 years ago.

Anderson arrived in the village 15 days later. While investigating the disappearance of the two young men, he learned that both had been seeking to marry a poor young woman and that they were carrying large amounts of money when they disappeared. After speaking with the woman, Anderson felt that she was more dangerous than the tiger and was hiding many things. However, Anderson’s real target was the tiger.

Suddenly, the mysterious incident occurred. Three sharp whistles came from the well.

After lunch, Anderson set out alone for the temple carrying a rifle, ammunition, a flask of tea, a bottle of water, an electric flashlight and biscuits. After an hour’s journey, he reached the ruins. The surroundings were extremely gloomy. Seeing fresh tiger tracks in the sandy ground outside the temple, he realized that the animal was sleeping inside the main temple. Trying to confront the tiger inside would be suicidal. So he took position behind a broken wall about one yard high beside the well. He arranged some granite stones to create a gap about six square inches through which he could look and fire.

The heat, flying insects and even lizards crawling over his body could not break his concentration.

At one point, evening fell. A silvery moon appeared in the sky before the full moon. As everything around him became quiet, the first mysterious incident suddenly occurred. Three sharp whistles came from the well. The first was low. The second was high. The third was extremely sharp and short.

Moments later, a gray figure appeared at the entrance of the temple. It was the huge tiger.

The animal slowly walked out and began licking its front paws. Just then, the three whistles sounded again. Strangely, the tiger seemed unable to hear anything. Completely indifferent, it continued licking its fur. Was the tiger deaf or could only humans hear the sound?

Then came the sound of heavy and slow wingbeats from deep inside the well. It sounded as if some enormous bird or bat was rising upward. After the whistles sounded for the fourth time, an indescribably horrifying sight appeared at the mouth of the well.

In the moonlight, no clear shape could be seen. It was as if a dense pillar of black smoke or cloud emerged from the well. It was about six feet in diameter and six feet high.

As soon as the smoke touched Anderson, he was overwhelmed by a strange sadness and uncontrollable despair. A voice seemed to rise from inside his mind and say, “What is the point of staying alive in this miserable life? Why not jump into the well and end all your suffering?”

He shook his head and tried to regain control of himself. After remaining still for a moment, the smoky cloud disappeared into the air. As soon as the cloud was gone, the suicidal depression in his mind vanished instantly.

By then, the tiger had moved out of sight. However, Anderson was certain that it was not a man eater. At night, when the tiger returned and stood about 40 yards behind Anderson and growled softly, it could have attacked him but did not. Anderson also lowered his rifle and allowed the tiger to leave.

The next morning, Anderson returned to the village and told a local friend about the wingbeats and what had happened at the well. His friend’s face turned pale with fear. He then told Anderson a blood chilling story from 200 years earlier.

The temple had once been very powerful. A dispute arose between its powerful chief priest and an adviser to the landlord. Later, through a conspiracy by the priest, the man was sentenced to death and thrown alive into this well.

Before his death, he placed a curse on the temple. Within a week, the chief priest’s body surfaced in the well. After that, priests began mysteriously disappearing one after another and their bodies were found in the cursed well. According to the story, the restless and evil spirit would pull many priests into the well and kill them.

Anderson laughed off his friend’s story and dismissed the incident as nonsense. But after traveling six miles, he felt remorse. He returned to the village to see the mystery through to the end and announced that he was going to hunt not the tiger but the evil spirit of the well.

On the second night, he again took up a position beside the well. As the night progressed, the same three sharp whistles were heard again. The intense sound of wingbeats also rose from the depths of the well. This time, Anderson moved closer and shone the powerful beam of his flashlight into the well.

As the beam entered the darkness of the well, it stopped at a dense realm of black mist. The black cloud or pillar of smoke began rising in a spiral motion from the mouth of the well. The flashlight could not penetrate the cloud. The smoke completely engulfed Anderson’s head and shoulders.

Once again, the evil spell took hold of his mind. Overwhelming exhaustion, extreme despair and the poisonous pull of the well left his consciousness numb. He began to feel that jumping into the dark water of the well would be life’s greatest and most pleasurable release.

His feet wanted to move toward the well. He reached the very brink of self-sacrifice. The same curse that had claimed the priests was now ready to consume Anderson as well.

At the final moment, he used his extraordinary mental strength to regain control of himself and stepped backward. The cloud of mist slowly rose above his head and disappeared into the air. About 10 minutes later, his consciousness returned completely. He realized that the evil spirit had also tried to pull him into the depths of the well.

Before leaving the village, he openly told his friends about his experience. Everyone shook their heads and said, “We told you so!”

One of them said, “You are lucky because you are alive. Luck has saved you once again from joining those who drowned in the well. This happened because your time has not yet come. But if you spend a third night there, then, sahib, your time will have come. You will definitely jump into the evil well.”

Translated by Al Eakram Mahmud Shoumik