If legend is to be believed, there existed an “Illuminati” – a secret society in India, aeons before the western world could boast of one. It existed during the tumultuous reign of King Asoka, sometime around 273 BC, after the wrath he left behind during the conquest of Kalinga.
The battle claimed the lives of 100,000 men and is said to have disturbed the king. Seeing all the bloodshed moved him deeply and instead of waging more wars, he turned his attention to integrating “rebellious” people into the society.
He wanted intelligence, scientific and technological knowledge to be put to good use, instead of using them for war.
This led to the formation of a highly secret faction of 9 people called the “Nine Unknown Men”
The function of these Nine Unknown Men was to develop and preserve the secret information which might be too dangerous in the hands of the unknowledgeable. Each of the nine men was assigned the task of holding a specific special book. Some of these books even held the secrets of time travel!
The first book dealt with the nuances of propaganda and psychological warfare, mostly teaching how to mould mass opinion.
The second book talked about physiology and how to kill a person by simply administering touch, or the “touch of death” that taught how to reverse the pulse of a human.
It is believed that the art of Judo is a ramification of the studies from this book!
The third book focused on biotechnology and microbiology.
Alchemy and transmutation of metals served as the subject matter of the fourth book.
As per another legend, in times of severe drought, temples received large quantities of gold from “a secret source.”