Dahor by Ankur Bar [Paperback]

What is a Dahor?

A confined water body—or more precisely, a sacred pond.

Just beyond the Lodhashuli forest, nestled within the heart of Junglemahal in the newly formed Jhargram district, lies a small village called Bardewl. Deep within one of its dense Sal forests, there exists a mysterious water reservoir—so feared that the villagers shudder at its very name, even in daylight.

It is said that the Dohor is sealed off with a sacred barrier, ensuring that no human may ever come into direct contact with it. This Pandava-forsaken pond can only be approached at a specific time—and even then, only with extreme caution.

Why is touching the Dohor’s water strictly forbidden? Why does anyone who mistakenly falls into it face immediate death at the hands of the villagers—even by their own father’s hands, without mercy?

The people believe that something is trapped within the Dohor, something that desperately seeks a way to escape.

What is this dreadful entity whose name no one dares to speak?

What exactly do the people of Bardewl and Ranidihi summon in the four days following the Tusupujo festival?

Who are those shadowy figures that venture to the forbidden pond under the cover of darkness?

And who are those three mysterious old men, dressed in women’s clothing and adorned in jewelry, roaming about in secrecy?

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A Stranger in the Cursed Land

Transferred to Junglemahal for work, divorced father Abin arrives in Bardewl with his son and daughter, hoping for a new beginning.

But was moving here the worst mistake of his life?

On the night of the Kala Akhan, his son Tom vanishes without a trace. The police search every corner, yet fail to find him. Then, exactly three days later, Tom returns—but something is wrong.

Where had he been all this time?

Why does everything around him begin to change the moment he comes back?

His younger brother Tutu, once inseparable from him, now shrinks away in terror at the sight of him.

Why do cloaked figures in black circle Abin’s house every evening, performing strange rituals?

Why do people whisper that those who once died in tragic accidents are returning to their homes—one by one?

The villagers murmur in fear:

“The Dohor has awakened.”

But who awakened it?

And why?

What terrifying curse is about to befall Bardewl and Ranidihi, forever marking their fate in blood?