Mandakini and Poonguzhali Leave the Palace Through the Secret Passage

Mandakini and Poonguzhali leave the palace through a concealed passage beneath the Ravana Statue of Mount Kailasa in the Palace Garden. The departure turns Mandakini’s earlier, misunderstood attempt to seal the opening into a revelation: she had been trying to prevent access to the underground route, not damage the sculpture. By morning, the two women have vanished, and the palace search cannot establish how they escaped or what they intend to do next.

Restless Night in the Palace

The departure unfolds after a day that has unsettled Mandakini, otherwise described as serene. While Sundara Chozhar sleeps undisturbed by the nightmares that have troubled him on other nights, Mandakini cannot rest. Her thoughts return repeatedly to the treasure vault and the subterranean passage; most distressing to her is that she failed to close its entrance. The contrast is pointed: the emperor finds a rare night of peace, while Mandakini lies awake over a danger the others have not understood.

As the third watch of the night draws to a close, Mandakini notices a shadowy figure at an upper window, peering into the room below. The sight alarms her, and she recognizes the figure sufficiently to form an idea of its identity, but the figure disappears before she can confirm it. She quietly checks the adjoining room, where Sundara Chozhar is asleep, then returns without waking the household. The episode heightens her vigilance, but the passage scene does not establish who the figure was or what it intended.

Poonguzhali Follows Her Aunt

Back in their room, Mandakini gently wakes Poonguzhali and signals that she should come. Poonguzhali rises without speaking and follows her aunt. Their exchange depends on gestures: Mandakini does not explain her purpose aloud, and Poonguzhali has to infer it from where she is led. The niece’s immediate willingness to accompany her aunt makes their closeness essential to the escape; she follows even while uncertain what Mandakini plans to do.

Mandakini carries a lamp from its bracket and walks through the winding corridor towards the sculpture hall. Poonguzhali hesitates, suspecting that her aunt may be going to attack the figure of Raavanan again. She fears that such an attempt would wake the palace and strengthen the judgment that Mandakini is dangerously deranged. Poonguzhali is prepared to stop her if necessary, but the apparent threat proves to be a misreading: the chisel at the statue’s foot is not Mandakini’s concern.

The Concealed Opening

Instead, Mandakini raises the lamp towards the dark space between the statue’s heads and limbs and the mountain figure. Its light reveals a hollow: the unobtrusive entrance to the Secret Passage Beneath the Palace Sculpture Hall. The construction has hidden the route in plain sight, making the sculpture’s darkness and irregular form part of its concealment. What had looked to Poonguzhali like an approach to the statue’s destruction is actually a return to the passage that Mandakini had earlier tried to close.

Poonguzhali now understands that earlier effort. Others had prevented Mandakini from sealing the opening because they misunderstood why she was trying to do so. The revelation changes the meaning of her conduct without removing its urgency: Mandakini was not simply pursuing an attack on the sculpture but trying to shut off the concealed way. The episode does not explain what lies at the passage’s far end or disclose Mandakini’s full plan; it establishes only that she recognizes the opening and is intent on using it now.

Mandakini gestures for Poonguzhali to follow, then bends and works her way into the narrow gap with difficulty, still holding the lamp. Poonguzhali follows, twisting through the cramped entrance with the help of her agility and taking care not to strike her head on the low roof. Mandakini disappears first, then the lamp’s light; Poonguzhali follows until the sculpture hall is dark again. Their passage underground is presented as a deliberate, shared departure, not as a disappearance caused by confusion in the palace corridors.

Discovery and Uncertainty

In the morning, Kundhavai and Vanathi discover that neither Mandakini nor Poonguzhali is in her bed. They search the palace, the royal gardens, and the sculpture hall, but find no trace of either woman. The searchers cannot determine how the pair left or why. The reader has seen their route, while the people in the palace are left with an unexplained absence; the secret passage gives the disappearance a concrete mechanism without resolving its destination or purpose.

When informed, Sundara Chozhar outwardly dismisses the news and says the women’s departure is no loss. Yet his flippant response does not entirely conceal his unease: a vague alarm takes hold despite his attempt to shrug the matter off. His reaction echoes the night’s contrast between spoken dismissal and inward disturbance. The passage has enabled Mandakini and Poonguzhali to leave unseen, but their absence continues to trouble the palace, and the escape ends with uncertainty rather than an account of where they have gone.