The tragic story of Moomal and Rano is from Sindh province. Moomal was a beautiful girl and to make sure that she got married to the person who truly deserved her, her folks built a Kak Mahal a sort of an illusionary palace.
The king of Amarkot, along with his three ministers used to go for hunting in the far flung areas of Amarkot. Once during a hunting spree, these four men were encountered by a person who came across them accidentally.
They did not disclose to the fellow who they were and what they did. But the fellow engaged them in the story of what happened to him in the preceding days. He was a prince from the area near Kashmir, who had heard the legend of Moomal’s beauty and charm and got so inspired that he pursued the adventure, but he was not only overpowered by her enchanting beauty but also the tricks and schemes played by her female servants and sisters, who not only robbed that prince of his wealth and material but also so confused him in multiple puzzles that he could do nothing else but save his life and run.
The story told by this prince was sufficient to intrigue those four friends. They extracted information from the prince about Moomal’s whereabouts and decided to pursue the same adventure. The place where Moomal lived was near Lodhruva, in the north-east of Umerkot. She lived with her seven (some historians say nine) sisters in a palace called Kak Mahal.
It was a magical palace with labyrinths, puzzles, fake ponds, illusions and much more. It was a legend that anyone who wanted to be a suitor for Moomal would undergo several obstacles, and the one who succeeded in reaching the palace unharmed would possibly be accepted as her consort.
Many a men tried to beat the illusions to reach Moomal but failed. Rano a minister at Umer Kot was an intelligent man who with his intelligence and courage crossed all the obstacles and broke the spell woven around the palace. If Rano was bowled over by Moomal’s beauty, Moomal was impressed by his intelligence and soon the two got married.
Rano then returned to Umer Kot but kept shuffling between the two places. Moomal desperately in love with her husband missed him very much. One night she asked her sister Sumal to wear her husband’s clothes and lay down beside her. When Rano saw the two, he thought that the person in masculine attire was his wife’s paramour.
Disgusted he left his riding cane at the bedside and headed back to Umer Kot. Moomal realising what a big mistake she had made tried to clarify her position but Rano turned a deaf ear at her pleas. Finally out of desperation, she set herself on fire, Rano on seeing this also jumped into the flames and the two were burnt to ashes.
