How I wrote a Pre-Historic Novel
Vasant Davé
Published by Vasantrai P. Davé
Electronic format ISBN: 978-1-4660-4440-1
Copyright 2011 Vasant Davé
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Table of Contents
Map of Samasin's Voyage
Introduction
A first-time novelist, I have written 'Trade winds to Meluhha' which harks back to Bronze Age Mesopotamia. It involves adventure, strife and love in young Samasin's life in which swift events chase him to a strange land 3,000 Km. across the sea.
Implicated in a foreigner's murder, he is saved from a gory sentence by a rare event which is actually recorded on clay tablets excavated in ancient Babylon. He flees to 'Meluhha', Indus Valley Civilization, in search of Siwa Saqra whose name was uttered by the alien before he died. There besides Siwa, he also meets two damsels. Anu is a Sumérian who poses as a Meluhhan because she is on a lookout for a couple of faceless men for revenge. Velli, who wins his heart, is still devoted to a person who had jilted her. Interactions with all three lead Samasin on the trail of a diabolic trade that is ruining the lives of youngsters and women back in Mesopotamia.
Sub-genre
The genre 'Historical Fiction' could be split into 'Normal' and 'Pre-Historic'. The time period of a 'Normal' historic narrative is the past few centuries. There is ample record for a Normal Historical Novel in the form of official documents, autobiographies and private diaries, paintings, photos, audio cassettes and films produced during that period. However, none of that is available for Pre-Historic period. We only have excavated sites, bones and skeletons, artefacts and the inferences arrived by archaeologists and historians. Thus, the author of a Pre-Historic novel is called upon to temper his imagination with tangible archaeological evidence.
Five ancient cultures viz., Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Indus Valley, Chinese and Mayan civilizations co-existed during the 3rd millennium B.C. While the later two were so isolated that they were not aware of any other, evidence suggests that Mesopotamia had had considerable interaction with Egypt as well as Indus Valley. Then generally known as 'Sumér', Mesopotamia was spread over almost the entire part of the present day Iraq and portions of its neighbouring countries. Indus Valley Civilization which the Sumérians knew as 'Meluhha', was twice as large as Sumér, extending from Eastern Iran through Pakistan to Western India and from Southern Afghanistan to the Arabian Sea.
Pre-Historic Globalization
While the Indus script is not deciphered so far due to scanty records, thousands of hard-baked clay tablets discovered on Sumérian sites have provided a fairly good idea about that period. Numerous tablets contain reference to interactions between the Sumérians and the Meluhhans.
One of them as translated by Dr. Samuel Noah Kramer recorded that Sargon the Great who founded Mesopotamia's Akkadian dynasty considered it his achievement that:
'The ships from Meluhha (Pakistan and India),
the ships from Magan (Oman),
the ships from Dilmun (Bahrain) -
He made tie-up alongside
the quay of Akkad.'
Michael Rice held that merchant colonies were established in cities linked by mutual trading interests. A set of weights found at Qalaat-al-Bahrain was equivalent to weights used in Indus Valley settlements. Seals found at Ur indicated the existence of a Meluhhan merchant-colony there. Dr. Jane McIntosh wrote that 'E-duru-mel-luh-ha', presumably a trading colony managing the Sumérian end of the Indus trade network, existed on Lagash land in the 21st century B.C. Dr. Adolph Leo Oppenheim referred to a personal cylinder seal of a man named Shu-ilishu who was a translator of the Meluhhan language.
On a lighter note, Antonio Panaino and Andrea Piras quoted an Akkadian text that a Meluhhan named Lu-Sunzida broke a tooth of a Sumérian named Urur Amar-Luku in what evidently was not a boxing match. The rowdy foreigner had to cough up 110 grams of silver as compensation.
Birds and animals from the Indian subcontinent like peacock, mongoose, dog and water buffalo were brought to Sumér. The buffalo was depicted on Akkadian cylinder seals and mentioned in texts.
Ornaments made from lapis lazuli mined in Afghanistan and processed in India were discovered in Oman, Bahrain and Iraq. In 1954, a port was excavated at the Indus Valley site of Lothal in Western India. According to archaeologist S. R. Rao, Lothal dock was designed to sluice ships 18 to 20 metre long and 4 to 6 metre wide. Comparing with country-craft using the smaller age-old dock at Gogha, Rao estimated draught of ships using Lothal dock as 2 to 2.5 metre and capacity 50 to 60 ton. Large reed boats with space for people, animals and cargo were depicted on cylindrical seals from Mesopotamia, seals from the Indus Valley and on paintings in Egyptian tombs from as early as 2500 B.C.
All this evidence pointed to maritime trade across 3,300 Km. of Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf during a time when ships were still made of reed and the magnetic compass was not yet discovered.
Thor Heyerdahl's voyage
In 1977, Thor Heyerdahl of Kon-Tiki fame undertook a voyage in an 18 metre long reed-boat named 'Tigris'. His calculations showed that reed vessels of this size were capable of carrying 30 to 50 ton cargo and could therefore have been used as trade vessels. He sailed from Iraq (Mesopotamia) to Oman and from there to Pakistan (Indus Valley). To reach Egypt, he continued up to the Horn of Africa but political unrest in the Red Sea impeded progress. Annoyed, he set the Tigris on fire at Djibouti.
To me, Heyerdahl's validation offered a remarkable setting for a narrative based on adventure and interaction between the two diverse cultures.
Fact versus Fiction
Set during King Shulgi's reign in Babylon, the story is supposed to have taken place three centuries before the great King Hammurabi founded the first Babylonian empire. Shulgi is ascribed with putting the Code of Ur-Nammu in practice. The earliest legal text in existence, it is remarkably advanced as it institutes non-violent punishment for physical harm as against 'eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth' rule followed in the Code of Hammurabi. However, the novel quotes a couple of laws from Hammurabi as they contribute more to create and hold interest in the narrative.
Ironically, women in what is present day Middle East were more empowered in the Bronze Age than their descendents today. Sumérian ladies could own property and get a divorce if they had good reason. They flaunted jewellery imported from Indus Valley Civilization. A beautiful gold necklace carrying jasper, agate, steatite and green stone beads was discovered at Mohenjo-daro. Such a necklace is intricately woven in the narrative and highlights two characters – one saintly and the other wicked.
Indus Valley lapidaries painted designs on carnelian beads using extract of caper shoots and alkaline salts. Caper trees grow wild in Sindh and Punjab regions of Pakistan. That germinated into the idea of 'stone dye' which attains significance towards the climax of the novel.
Rhinoceros, tiger, elephant and pangolin which have become extinct in the land of the erstwhile Meluhha, are portrayed in seals and toys discovered on Indus Valley sites. While a few figurines, bones and teeth of horse have been discovered, carbon dating places them around 2000 B.C. Therefore the narrative, which is taking place in 2138-37 B.C., only has a foal being imported from Sumér rather than any use of horse as a means of transport in Meluhha. African gorilla is depicted in clay tablets found at 3rd millennium B.C. sites in Sumér. In the story, a baby gorilla creates an emergency of sorts for a Meluhhan visiting Babylon.
Among the artifacts at the National Museum in New Delhi, there is a small hand-held twin pipe similar to those which wandering mendicants in India use in smoking hand-made hashish and marijuana. Discussing the history of cannabis, the Wikipedia quotes that charred cannabis seeds were found in a Bronze Age grave in Romania. That made me wonder whether drug smoking was prevalent in Indus Valley Civilization. While Dr. Asko Parpola thought it was unlikely, Dr. McIntosh and Dr. Richard Meadow did not reject it outright. Thus narcotics got woven into the plot.
Several experts pointed out that the trade was rather skewed in Indus Valley's favour. Meluhha exported to Sumér gold jewellery, ivory seals and boxes, timber, cotton textiles, copper and bronze fish-hooks, carnelian and precious stone beads, live chicken, shell and bone inlays, and even water buffaloes. Sumér exported to Meluhha only silver, tin and copper ingots, woollen textiles and bitumen. It is believed that the balance of trade was made up by consumables which have not left any archaeological traces. I imagined of yet another 'commodity' whose trade is not uncommon in the world, albeit underground, even today.
A stark contrast between the features of human figurines and masks of Indus Valley struck me as something odd. Men have a narrow sloping forehead like a Neanderthal, whereas women exhibit a prominent vertical forehead with a much higher hairline. I wondered if feminine beauty was exemplified by women of a race other than the one inhabiting the land. In a way, it was backed by Dr. Inez During Caspers' study of all portrayals of Indus Valley people which inferred that there was a cosmopolitan population in Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
On the other hand, slavery was prevalent in Sumér, and rampant exploitation of female slaves cannot be ruled out. It is likely that some unscrupulous Sumérians hired them out for sexual gratification. While there is no evidence of organised prostitution in Sumér in the form that is prevalent today, the foregoing provided a probable balancing factor in the seemingly unequal trade – that of human trafficking. My suggestion was summarily dismissed by Dr. Shereen Ratnagar, Dr. McIntosh and Dr. Rita Wright.
Nevertheless, I went ahead with that hypothesis in order to pack suspense and action in 'Trade winds to Meluhha'. Earlier writers of Pre-Historic Fiction had taken even greater literary liberty. Three novels set in Indus Valley Civilization were published previously, one in Canada (2004) and two in India (2010-11). The first revolved around the occult wherein the Meluhhans sacrificed children of other races. The other two drew heavily from Hindu mythology wherein Lord Shiva descended from his abode in the Himalayas to save the Meluhhans. None of the theemes was supported by archaeological evidence.
'Conviction factor'
Serious readers of Historical Fiction might overlook some diversion from facts, but they reject a fantasy that fails to convey them to the period and the land of their imagination. That poses a formidable challenge to the author. So after completing the first draft of my novel, I requested several authorieties on Indus Valley and Mesopotamian civilizations to scan through it.
Dr. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Dr. Paolo Biagi and Dr. V.H. Sonawané lauded this attempt at popularizing the two ancient cultures, but were unable to spare time. Dr. Ratnagar asked to send over the manuscript with a strict understanding that she would comment only on the veracity and plausibility of the past situation as constructed in it. A meeting with her cleared a load of my misconceptions and made it necessary to rewrite substantial portions. I treasure her back-handed compliment, 'To Vasantbhai, who is engaged in much more creative activity than mine'!
I had assumed wide use of camels as the means of transport in Meluhha, and had timed the hero Samasin's travel accordingly. Dr. Ratnagar pointed out rarity of the animal in Indus Valley during time period of the novel. Single-humped Dromedary camels were not yet domesticated and double-humped Bactrian camels were rare, considering that a terracotta figurine resembling to the animal was discovered only at one site viz., Shortugai in Afghanistan. Ox-carts were the common mode of transport. The change resulted in rescheduling of the entire travel plan which had to be completed before trade winds changed direction and the voyage back to Sumér was made impossible. That is just one example of how Dr. Ratnagar helped me to raise the conviction factor of my narrative far above the earlier novels.
Author's predicament
What are the major points of dilemma that the author of a Pre-Historic Novel faces? I coped with those related to linguistic and geographic fields. During the period of the novel i.e. 2138-37 B.C., Sumérian was the spoken language in Southern Mesopotamia. Only after 2000 B.C. was it replaced by Akkadian. On the other hand, research by Iravatham Mahadevan and Dr. Parpola suggests that Proto Dravidian was spoken in Indus Valley Civilization. Major current languages which have descended from Proto Dravidian are Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. They are spoken in the Southern Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh respectively.
In a historical novel, the author faces certain limitations in using familiar names which can be recollected with ease by readers. 'Samuel' for a Babylonian youth and 'Valerie' for a damsel in ancient Pakistan do not sound convincing. Even the current names in these two lands would not suit characters who supposedly lived there 4,000 years ago. So I had to take help of lexicons of the ancient languages to derive some sensible, easily pronunciable names. In Sumerian, ‘Šamaš’ meant the Sun god and ‘Sîn’ meant the Moon god. Since both the celestial bodies play a crucial role in the hero’s life early in the narrative, a combination of Šamaš and Sîn i.e. ‘Samasin’ was selected for his name.
The names of IVC archaeological sites were influenced by later-period cultural changes in the subcontinent. Therefore they were tweaked in the novel to sound like place names in Southern India today. Thus Mohenjo-daro became 'Muenduru' and Harappa became 'Harappattur'
Since the Bronze Age, the coastline has altered drastically and rivers have either shifted course or disappeared altogether. Urim in in the novel is the Tell al-Muqqayar site in Iraq today. Constructed with bricks joined by bitumen, it is located 240 Km. from Persian Gulf (Fictional Lower Sea) and 10 Km. from the Euphrates (Fictional Purattu). Formerly the river passed through it and the sea reached that far inland. Abraham's native place in the Holy Bible, Ur (Fictional Urim) was the gateway to Babylon for ships from Bahrain (Dilmun), Magan (Oman), Tawi (Egypt) and Meluhha. It was abandoned around 500 B.C.
Similarly Allahdino (Fictional Alatinam) and Dholavira (Fictional Dholavaram) were located on the sea. River Indus (Fictional Sindhu) met the Arabian Sea (Fictional Sindhu Sea) at Allahdino, east of Karachi. River Ghaggar-Hakra (Fictional Saraswathi), flowing perennially then, merged in the Gulf of Kutch. Dholavira was a port on Khadir island located in the same bay.
The map shows that Samasin, the hero of 'Trade winds to Meluhha' started his voyage from Babylon (Fictional Bābili) and via Bahrain reached Lothal (Fictional Lothalur). Then he travelled to Mohenjo-daro. On his return journey, he reached home via Oman. All places shown in the map are archaeological sites where artefacts of 3rd millennium B.C. have been found.
Evolution of Characters
The heroine Velli's character evolved from a statuette named 'Dancing Girl' discovered at Mohenjo-daro site. About it, Sir Mortimer Wheeler said: "There is her little Baluchi-style face with pouting lips and insolent look in the eye – a girl perfectly confident of herself and the world." Dr. Gregory Possehl added: "We may not be certain that she was a dancer, but she was good at what she did and she knew it."
Siwa Saqra's character evolved from a figurine of a bearded man named 'Priest King', again discovered in Mohenjo-daro. Dr. Ratnagar wrote: "He was creation of British archaeologists for whom Indus Valley Civilization was contrasting in its paucity of weapons with contemporary Mesopotamia. India was the land of Religion; hence priest kings were more appropriate than ruling dynasties."
In the National Museum, New Delhi, there are two similar figurines of an obese woman heavily bedecked in jewellery and her nose turned up in air. Seeing them you wonder if they are caricatures of a snobbish person. From them evolved the character of Tanatti. She is projected as a simple, friendly and helpful lady in contrast to the image perceived from the clay figurines.
A seal from Indus Valley Civilization depicts a man donning a horned headgear like the Vikings. He is surrounded by wild animals including a rhinoceros. Not only did the Yotai's character evolve from it but the rhino removed one person from the heroine Velli's life and introduced another, resulting into two contradictory incidents – one serious and and other hilarious.
Evolution of Events
Several events in the narrative have evolved from the author's experience and interactions. An ex-colleague, the late Percy Vajifdar, once had an unusual experience at Sanjan beach on the west coast of India. He walked far into the shallow waters and sat on a rock for long, unaware that high tide had started surrounding him fast. He started for the shore , lost his bearing in twilight and stepped in a couple of deep holes. A small bird suddenly flew in and chirped around him. It guided him through a rocky seabed to safety. That anecdote became the basis of Samasin’s experience with a sea-eagle in the novel.
Once my father recounted about a popular tea stall in Morbi in western India. Its owner once went out of town. A stray donkey, that regularly ate the discarded tea leaves, kicked and broke open the wooden stall. It transpired that the owner covertly added opium in the boiling beverage to retain patrons. The animal too had got addicted and lost temper when it did not get its daily dose. That triggered a slightly different incident in the novel, equally hilarious all the same.
One event evolved from an Indus Valley seal that shows several men fighting an enraged buffalo; another from a tablet showing two birds perched on an ancient ship; yet another from an artefact in the National Museum flaunting a comical hairstyle.
The story
With a wide geographical spread of the plot from Iraq to India, ultimately what is the story? It is about SAMASIN who, in the year 2138 B.C., worked as a stable boy with a wealthy Babylonian named NERGAL. One day he was falsely implicated in the murder of a visiting Meluhhan businessman. Tipped off by Nergal's divorced wife ELATI, he fled to the distant land of Meluhha in search of SIWA SAQRA whose name the dying man had uttered. During the voyage, he met the beautiful VELLI with whom he fell in love but was dismayed to find that she was still devoted to a man who had jilted her. He also met ANU, a Sumérian woman who concealed her identity because she was searching for a couple of faceless persons for revenge.
On the way, Samasin learnt about the signboard which was actually excavated at the site of Dholavira. With Anu's help he deciphered the ten glyphs etched on it, leading to an adventure in the ravines of the Saraswathi. He faced a series of obstacles including a few which almost killed him. Then he discovered that they all were manoeuvred by a sailor whom he did not even know. Finally when he met Siwa Saqra, he was surprised to learn that there was more to the murder in Babylon than met the eye.
Circumstances brought all characters together in Babylon when with awe they discovered the truth about the trade between Meluhha and Sumér, and the identity of the brain behind the diabolic operations. A trial before Babylon's Council of Elders ended in a serious counter-allegation that jeopardized the lives of the judiciary itself. That was when Anu spoke up and shocked everybody, but more so Samasin. After a hot pursuit beyond the Lower Sea, the culprit was brought to book and sentenced to death. The three women wronged by him rallied to exhibit rare compassion.
Several questions spring up during the course of the novel, like
•Why was a native of Meluhha brutally murdered in Mesopotamia?
•Why was a powerful Babylonian afraid of an orphan on the run?
•Why did a beautiful damsel eagerly await a coded message from an old man?
•Why did a comely hairdresser want to kill a gentleman who would never harm a fly?
•Why did a wealthy merchant embark upon a long sea voyage after a stranger called on him?
•Why did an indignant woman seek pardon for an unscrupulous man who had exploited her?
•How did fate throw these individuals together?
Readers who would like to read the first few chapters of 'Trade winds to Meluhha' can download them from http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/123057 .
Bibliography
1.Rice, Michael. The Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf. Routledge (1994)
ISBN 978-0-415-03268-1
2.McIntosh, Jane R. The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives
ABC-CLIO (2007) ISBN 978-1-57607-907-2
3.Oppenheim, A. Leo. Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization
University of Chicago (1964). ISBN 978-0-226-63187-5
4.Panaino, Antonio & Piras, Andrea (Ed). Schools of Oriental Studies
& Development of Modern Historiography. Universita di Bologna & IsIAO (2004)
ISBN 978-88-8483-206-1
5.Harris, David R (Ed). The Origins & Spread of Agriculture & Pastoralism
in Eurasia. Routledge (1996) ISBN 978-1-85728-538-3
6.Rao S. R. Expedition, Spring 1965
7.Mesopotamia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia
8.Bhandari, Apoorva (Ed). Ancient Indus Questions and Answers
http://harappa.drupalgardens.com/questions
9.Ratnagar, Shereen. Understanding Harappa. Tulika Books (2006)
ISBN 978-81-89487-02-7
Credits for Images
Model of Thor Heyerdahl's 'Tigris' - Courtesy: Polylerus, Wikimedia Commons
Replica of 'Dancing Girl' statuette - Courtesy: Joe Ravi, Wikimedia Commons
'Priest King' artefact - Courtesy: Mamoon Mengal
http://www.world66.com/asia/southasia/pakistan/moenjodaro/lib/gallery/
showimage?pic=asia/southasia/pakistan/moenjodaro/priest_king
Seal of 'Shiva Pashupati' - Public domain
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About the Author
Vasant Davé is an electrical engineer from the University of Bombay. Besides providing Industrial Market Research services in India, he has also catered to corporate clients in Australia, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Singapore, the UK and the USA. His work called for extensive travelling throughout India and he could address his deep interest in archaeology by visiting numerous ancient sites during those tours.
Vasant started his first novel 'Trade winds to Meluhha' in 2008 and took three and a half years to write. His technical background helped him to understand and apply historical, geographical, environmental and cultural nuances bearing upon the life during the 3rd millennium BC, the period in which it was set. It is now available in electronic version at Smashwords. Next, he plans to write a sequel.
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