And now to perspectives from the Indian Ocean, which I hope aren’t too ASB. But seriously- if any of this seems ASB, tell me so that I may rewrite it completely.
The Rise of the Ellasha Empire, Damasena Sungha, University of Sopara [1], 1968 AD
By the late 4th century, the western satrapies that had ruled Gujarat were under increasing pressure from states to their east, specifically the Gupta Kingdom. Descended from the Saka [2] and before them the Indo-Greeks, the state was undergoing military and dynastic breakdown just as the Gupta burst onto the stage.
It was in this climate that Simhasena contracted a group of Hellenic pagan mercenary-prisoners, exiled by the Christian Roman emperors so as to keep Greece and Anatolia peaceful. Many of these soldiers came from Mani, remote mountain regions, and Crete. In the ports of Roman Eastern Arabia, these exiled soldiers congregated, often influenced by the semi-Romanized pagans living in Arabia at the time. Greek, by trade and volume of Greek pagans, became the lingua franca of the mercenaries. By the time of Simhasena, these pagan exiles had formed mercenary companies, often working for the Aksumites, the Sassanids, the Romans or even kingdoms in the far east like Funan and the Malayan states. Eventually, these small, now professional bands formed into companies, and when the Romans withdrew from eastern Arabia, these companies suddenly found themselves larger and in need of greater amounts of work. Although they termed themselves Hellenes, after the adoption of vulgar Greek and their gods, these mercenaries were often composed of Roman pagans, Greek pagans, barbarian pagans and a sizable number of isolated Arabs, both urban and Bedouin.
Simhasena may not have had geopolitical strength, but he did have trade routes and a sizable treasury. Eventually, the largest company of these Hellenic soldiers arrived in India, and entered the service of Simhasena. Upon arrival, they assimilated into the armies of Simhasena, making up the officer core and many of the elite units.
They soon took to fighting in battles for the western satraps, and gained much fame as fearless warriors, cutting down Guptas, rebels and other enemies in battle despite numeric disadvantages. Eventually, after the death of Simhasena in 387, these mercenaries became the Royal Guard.
It was in this climate that the leader of these mercenaries, Menandros, became the military power behind the throne. The officer corps of the army was largely full of these Hellenic exiles, and they held a lot of sway in the dying kingdom.
A new king rose to power in 387, by the name of Rudrasena IV. However, due to incompetence (and not paying the Hellenes enough), he was overthrown by the successor to Menandros, Leonidas. Leonidas married the youngest daughter of Simhasena, and soon had competing nobles and royals assassinated by his Hellenic cohort.
The new king, calling himself Basaraja [3], immediately consolidated civil and military control of the state. More Hellenes and even Roman pagans were contracted as a feudal warrior class for the state, promised land, women and money as their faith was eroded away in Europe. In 391, Leonidas went to war in the north. The experienced Hellene soldiers and their well-trained Indian comrades were soon able to conquer all of the petty northern realms, including the ruins of the Kushanshas. These states folded to the might of the Hellene-led Indian armies, and the northwest of India belong now to Basaraja Leonidas. He declared the Ellasha, a corruption of Hellas that became the name of the dynasty. The Greeks themselves were still called Yavana.
Leonidas then turned to the Indus, where the border with the Huns was at best fluid. He conquered land to the banks of the Indus, and even conquered past the western bank to Krokola [4]. He also seized the city Multan and its environs. The lands between those environs and the forking of the Hydaspes and the Asecines stayed Hunnish, and the border was set on the banks of the Hydaspes, and then the Nain Sukh tributary river. It would be this Indus border that separated India and Persia afterwards.
By 397, the land from the Gujarat to the Kashmir to the Gupta border belonged to the Ellasha Empire- the previously fractious northwest now belonged to a new, dynamic sovereign. Of course, this peace was not to last- in 400, the brothers, Emperor Ramagupta and the younger Chandragupta went to war with Basaraja Leonidas.
The war was ill-advised, in part because the Ellasha had a strong, veteran army and a defensive advantage. Eventually, the Gupta armies were trapped by the Ellasha, with Chandragupta slain in battle by Leonidas. With the Gupta armies slaughtered in the Gujarat, their own realm began to crumble, and Leonidas invaded with both his forces and Gupta defectors.
Over the course of 7 years, the Gupta empire was slowly conquered, bereft of armies and the tactical genius of Chandragupta. Eventually, Leonidas captured all of the cities on the river Ganges, the last being the sacred Varanasi captured in December 403. The Gupta were forced into the northern regions near the Himalayas after the Treaty of Varanasi on April 4th, 404. The Ellasha, after the defeat of the Gupta, would continue moving south, conquering the Abhiras, the Parivrajakas, and the northern parts of the Vakataka kingdom, before stopping.
After these conquests, they begin to consolidate rule and create a new noble class, and Basaraja Leonidas the Great would die in 407. Luckily for them, their filibuster state would survive the conqueror Leonidas.
For about a period of 149 years, the Ellasha would remain peaceful, and focus on controlling the mass expanse of land they had conquered. The capital was moved to Varanasi, and the beginnings of modern Hinduism start with the Ellasha, who centralized the faith and modified it significantly, cutting the numbers of gods and incarnations, eliminating the castes and creating a local clergy. Of course, the early Ellasha kept to their faith, but of many of the lower Hellenic nobles did not. Old gods from their lands were equated with equal Hindu figures, speeding the assimilation of the conquerors. These reforms were intensely gradual- castes died out fully in the late 10th century- but the influence of the Greeks on culture and faith was immense. Although the rulers began to Indianize, the architectural and artistic styles of India would be heavily influenced by the Ellasha.
Conquest began again with the rule of Leonidas’ great-grandson Basaraja Skandrashoka [5]…
Chronicles of the All-Highest Basaraja Alexandrachokos Hellachas, Mohindras Chadros, 600 AD
In the year 556, after 6 years of peaceful rule, my lord became restless- he demanded action, to march forth with the army, to conquer that which his forebears Demetrios and Seleukos had not conquered. In the times of peace, the middle of India had not stirred. However, the Kalabhras and Pallavas of the south had been overthrown by the devoutly Buddhist branch of the Chera clan, which established kingship of all the Tamils and had converted much of the southern tip to the Buddha. The Tamils and Malayalams all worshipped the Buddha- the families Pallava and Kalabhra also converted, and Buddhism even spread further north, going against the Hindus. They were even bolstered by Hindus from the land of my just lord, who had taxed them and set against their praying places. In their perfidiousness, many of them had fled, despite the just conversion of many of their fellows.
My lord, a devotee of Shakti and a member of the Nyaya school of philosophy, had codified the official royal interpretation of Hinduism in 551, and my lord justly and rightly spread it across the country, to every village, town and city, in the pockets of preachers, gurus and holy men. It already had gained devotees by 556- tax breaks and a general admiration and loyalty to the Basaraj helped the spread of his own interpretation of the Hindu truth.
In order to achieve this end and conquer all of Bharat [6], Alexandrachokos assembled the great hosts, the Yavanas and all the martial races within his right dominion, and went on campaign. In 556 alone, my lord conquered the rest of the Vakatakas and their Nala allies. Their soldiers rotted in the fields, felled by the righteous fury of our hosts, and my conquering lord paraded through the burning husks of their cities, taking much plunder and captives.
In 557 and 558, many more states were brought under the right and just rule of my lord. The petty lords of Kottura, Erandapala, Devarastra, Pistapura and Avumkta all fell to our glorious and mighty armies, the houses plundered and the women taken as wives by our soldiers. Our war banners flew on every fort and city, and our great lord Alexandrachokos, devoted of the greatest divinity Shakti, continued creeping southward.
From 558 to 560, a peace settled on India as our conquests gained nobles and governors, the hallmarks of our state extending over the people and the clergy. Buddhist monasteries and devotees were expelled, all of them streaming south to the Chera, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Hindu temples glorifying Shakti and other rightful deities were built in their place. Other Buddhists saw the light and recanted the Siddhartha Gautama, who our lord rightly rejected, and they helped tear down the worshipping places of him. In other places, our lord had mercy- many Buddhists lived in Varanasi, and our glorious capital became a center of tolerance for Buddhism, for that it is where it was founded.
In 560, a naval campaign took place to conquer Taprobane [7], as it was undergoing civil war. Within months, our armies had taken the island and pacified the lawless jungles of the island, and raised the rightful banner high above their capital. In addition,
In 561, campaigns against the Rashtrakutas and the Salankayanas began. They were conquered by 563, and new nobles and governors established in those regions. In 564, the Kadambas and Gangas were conquered, and their cities, monasteries and towns put to plunder. For two more years, peace reigned in India as they two were consolidated and centralized.
In 566, the last campaign against the Chera came, and our armies, by then almost 70,000 strong, invaded them as their king died in the capital. On August 9th, 567, their capital fell to our glorious forces, and Alexandrachokos the All-Highest executed their false lords and officials, and cast down the Buddha idols from their main temples.
After the great conquests, Alexandrachokos took rest, and went off to administer and convert our glorious nation. The Empire of all Bharat was declared, and the Hellacha dynasty made its ruler. From the banks of the Indus to the Ganges delta to Taprobane, all of India belonged to Alexandrachokos the All-Highest, the Glorious, the Mighty White Tiger of Bharat.
In these thirty-four years, roads were commissioned and forts were built, and the nobles of the realm, who had grown arrogant, were brought to heel. The empire was thoroughly centralized, and tribute streamed in to the capital in Varanasi, where our lord ruled supreme.
The imperial interpretation of the Hindu truth was proliferated throughout the land, and even the most ignorant of serfs were soon singing the songs of praise to Shakti, called Isis by the high Yavana lords. And Nyaya was spread throughout all the academies, and through the communities of the wise men, and all of Bharat had a standardized faith, ready to be spread. With it came the standardization of language- the modified Sanskrit of the royal court was mandated throughout the empire, and the imperial dialect was mandated as well. Buddhism, popular amongst the far southern peoples, was heavily discouraged by taxes, and these people were displeased.
In 579, the Buddhists revolted against our rightful sovereign, and he went to their dwelling places and destroyed them utterly. The Tamil rebels were exiled to a land beyond the farthest ocean to the south, a tip of some great island where they would rot in perpetuity, unable to bother the rightful lord of all Bharat. The Malayalam went to the west, to another island barely settled, resigned to the same fate as the Tamil. The other Buddhists, mainly those of the center and north of India, were allowed to stay by the mercy of our lord. It would not be too long before they too saw the lies of Buddha and the truth of Shakti.
And after that our lord was most effective, a fair and litigious ruler. The corrupt and unjust officials were crucified publicly for their transgressions, and the government of the land began to take shape. The armies went to rest, to become the Kshatriyas of the land. And Alexandrachokos raised his son Porukles to be a good administrator, a man of law and faith, and Bharat had a proper Rajput [8].
And even now the glorious peace continues, led by Alexandrachokos the glorious, the lawgiver, the conqueror, the great sovereign and true servant of Lady Shakti.
The Ancient Austronesian Exodus, by Hatta Simawang, Yogyakarta University, 1979
Although archaeological records are scant, we know that the Austronesian peoples of various islands suffered a great plague in the mid 600s. This plague is established as being the same as the great Serican plague from three centuries earlier, which reemerged in the Lac Kinh states and spread down to the Malay islands.
This plague killed large percentages of the population in the islands, and sent great amounts of people elsewhere to avoid the plague. A great number of Austronesian settlers from all the islands went to the island in the far west, conquering the native Papuan peoples. This also weakened native influences in the culture of islands like Sumatra and Java- Indian influence spread over the survivors. Indian merchants began to set up colonies, taking over places like Bali and the smaller islands, acculturating the native Malay peoples. It was this cultural hegemony that allowed the Bharati Empire to seize many of the islands during the First Domination from about 789 to 1234.
People like the Dayaks and the Tagalog went west, hoping to escape whatever malus caused the breakdown of their societies. Most of these people moved over a span of 4 decades, from 640 to 670, settling in the interior of Madagascar, where they were confronted with the settled Malayalam communities of the coasts and the Austronesian inhabitants of the interior. It is estimated, from primitive Malayalam records, that about 69,000 people immigrated to Madagascar, flooding into the interior and the booming coastal settlements. This upset the fragile accord had with the interior tribes, and chaos broke out across the island. The interior was the scene of much violence for those 4 decades before the tribes settled down into some sort of peace. At the same time, Malayalam settlements began to have an influx of Austronesian settlers, and some communities, like the Tagalogs, set up their own communities on the coasts of the island.
For about 100 years, this state of affairs continued, with the Malayalam subsisting on their own and the interior tribes coexisting in the jungles. However, the merger of Tagalog and Malayalam trade communities into a Buddhist hybrid of the two yet again upset the balance of the island. This hybrid people began to move into the interior, looking for agricultural opportunities (especially the chance to trade elephant birds to rich, curious buyers). This community began to expand inward until they conquered the island fully in the 770s, setting up small agricultural holdings of luxury goods and cutting down the forest. Soon, rich Malayalam warriors had vanilla plantations, and Theravada monasteries began forcefully recruiting Austronesians into the faith. Of course, the tribes fought back in the jungles, but the forces of trade, intermarriage and social cohesion proved too great. The Tagalam kingdom, as it was called, became the one political entity of Madagascar, and would last as a unifying Buddhist trade kingdom for another three centuries before splitting into culturally similar Theravada fiefdoms in 1066.
The effect of population drain, plague and climate change on islands like Borneo, Sulawesi and the Takei Jima[9] was immense. While islands like Sumatra, Java, Seram, Timor, and the Moluccas largely kept their populations, these three groupings of islands were particularly devastated and depopulated. The Hindu trade ports of Borneo were abandoned, found by the Shirokishi Kaizoku centuries later as they set up their own colonial fiefdoms in the island in the name of Christ and Emperor.
The Malay populations, on the other hand, would partially bounce back, although the cultural and linguistic diversity of the jungles was severely reduced. Particular areas, like Sulu, south Borneo and eastern Sulawesi would become what counted as population centers in the islands after the exodus.
In Khmer, Malay and Bharati histories, this “devils trio” of islands is generally referred to as devoid of goodness, cursed and forbidden. Although small Minyue settlements would dot all three island groups, the islands themselves would remain largely unimportant until the Shirokishi settlements later on.
The Genesis of Damizhao[10], Rantung Ukwa, Tecatninkarru University, 1985 AD
The history of Damizhao rightly begins with the expulsions of Basaraj Skandrashoka, known as devil to Tamils even to this day. In 579, the rebellious Tamils, numbering in the thousands, were exiled to the ocean, without any set course or destination. These Tamils included former nobility, especially the Kalabhras, Pallavas and Cheras of southern India. The ocean winds, legendarily “blessed by Buddha”, sent the ships to the southwestern tip of we now know as Hunaporoa [11].
These Tamil settlers originally stuck to their landing settlement, the city of Tecatninkarru [12]. This city soon grew as these exiles explored the surrounding areas, and the population began to grow. In 584, the first Buddhist temple was built in Tecatninkarru, later becoming the Great Stupa. From the beginning, the Hindu elements of society were generally cast off, seen as remnants of old India, and Theravada guidelines were instituted. Participation in the rigid Buddhist order was mandatory, and the settlement was tightly controlled by a council of oligarchic elders appointed for civic and religious purposes.
The city of Tecatninkarru soon encompassed surrounding environs, and three smaller coastal settlements connected by ship and eventually by road. Native tribes were assimilated into the Tamils, and the arrival of more exiles bolstered population. The settlements soon became a general collection of very small villages and other places, organized into a very loose league centered in Tecatninkarru. This league, largely oligarchical or monarchical, was largely undisturbed for about a century, allowing for the establishment of agriculture in the region. The Cheras, Pallavas and Kalabhras became major families in the new land, nobility once more despite a markedly lower amount of wealth or military power.
Sheep were imported from the Malays, the Persians and Northern India by trade so that they could be raised for meat, milk and wool. The resulting breed, the Rusty Sheep, became the main meat animal, while gayal were brought in as draft animals. Camels from Arabia were brought for transportation and milk by newer Tamil exiles. Major crops included barley, oats, lentils, some fruits (with the notable exception of grapes) and vegetables. With the establishment of agriculture and irrigation, the Tamils were able to survive. The southwestern corner of Hunaporoa was slowly dotted with monasteries and various remote villages, with most of the population living near the city or the major towns. Fishing became a major food industry on the coasts, and the small Tamil colony slowly gained population from not only the last exiles but their own growth.
This status quo was upset in the 710s by the arrival of traders from Minyue and other parts of Seres. These merchants and settlers came from a few key groups- the Miao, the Tanka, the Xiang, the remains of the previously rebellious Liao peoples, the Yao, the Kra, and the Tujia. Together, these are called the Nanzu, or “Southern Peoples”. These varied peoples started settling in the northern far west of Hunaporoa during that decade, and more traders would come after them. Settlement is considered to have stopped in the 780s. These peoples brought rice (after many died building the irrigation systems), millet, pork, and their folk religions.
The Theravada monasteries clustered in the north soon went out to convert these peoples, and had a rather easy time of it- by the time these settlers stopped coming in the late 780s, most of the people had become Theravada. Some of the settlers moved south from Nanluwan [13] and intermixed with the Tamil peoples. Other settlers sailed to the far south and settled in nominally Tamil regions. Although the Tamils outnumbered these new settlers, they could not forcibly subdue the new peoples, and the two groups of people began to trade and coexist peacefully. Crops and livestock were traded, and both groups began to build more villages as the population of far west Nostaroa began to grow. Eventually, there were rudimentary paths, known by the caravan traders, from Nanluwan down to the far southern settlements like Veldanil [14] and Shaoshan [15].
The people also began to share the fervent Theravada faith of the Tamil, mixing traditions and cultures until the faith across the settlements and remote monasteries was basically uniform. The merchants who traveled the camel routes across the deserts began to intermarry with the other groups, and even the natives who assimilated into the settlements.
The Tamil nobles were especially receptive of the new people, who had come without noble families. Although some were established, like the Mao or the Yang, other Serican settlers submitted to the rule of the Cheras, Pallavas or Kalabhras. With more population and greater cultivation of stone, iron, metal and timber resources, major cities began to grow in size as cosmopolitan centres.
This intermixing also produced a lingua franca across the vast landmass of far west Nostaroa, one with a different writing system and various influences from the settler peoples. Written in a simplified mix of Minyue writing and Tamil, the language soon spread to many of the monasteries, and then to all of the merchant communities. While the farming villages still kept to their old languages, increasing numbers of people started speaking this lingua franca as an economic necessity. Despite the de jure independence of every Tamil and Nanzu village and principality from each other, the trade economy and the need to defend from native raids often bonded these towns and villages together. A new culture and new people was emerging, from Tamil, Nanzu and native.
This increasing centralization and cultural merger went on for quite a while, until the de jure unification of all of far west Hunaporoa under one ruler. By that time, colonies had spread to the northern coast, and the trodden paths zigzagged across the landscape. The deserts were traversable by camel, and the descendants of the Tanka and Tamil fishermen ruled the seas. In the late 890s, a man, from Tamil and Nanzu (Xiang-Tanka, to be exact) noble descent rose to the throne of the defunct Kalabhra principality. He happened to be a devoted, if heterodox, Buddhist and scholar of both government and theology.
This man, Mao Zedong, came about at a time when the state of Damizhao was in flux. The noble families, bereft of the means of production, had long since become merchants in the major cities, growing wealthy in their urban homes. These cities, by and large, were interconnected, but rather disconnected from the settlements dotting the vast countryside. The agriculturally rich parts of the country also held the landed nobility, built on a system of feudalism and serfdom. Most of the population was concentrated in these regions.
There were also the rural towns and outposts. These settlements, by necessity and quirk, had slowly become communal over time, and practiced a form of direct democracy. Each town was independent, save for the larger ones that formed confederations, and they barely paid tax to the great cities of the coast. The monasteries rounded out the mix, surviving in the hardscrabble deserts. Driven from the large towns and even the cities, these warrior monks protected the communes from harm and spread the faith to natives, encouraging them to move to the communes. They largely ruled over the communes as a religious and military authority, independent of the traders and the caravan men who crossed the desert. It was from the farthest monastery in Honacattiram [16] that Mao Zedong emerged.
He was a idealistic man, who had come from the poor communes, searching for a sense of unity. The natives had slowly been growing more and more hostile, pushed from the richer east by new peoples, whom Mao did not know of. He sought to unify the communes and the warrior-monks into one state, even seizing the cities so as to create a nation. His particular brand of secular and religious though mobilized many followers in the communes, and he started his march across Damizhao.
His march from the desert monastery of Honacattiram to the city of Tecatninkarru is referred to as the Long March, which he accomplished with a small host of followers. Armed only with a book of his own reflections on the Buddha, a hammer and a sickle, Mao made his across the desert by foot, defeating natives and converting others to his cause.
He arrived in the capital in 898, and immediately began freeing the peasants and increasing the livelihoods of the craftsmen, as explained in his populist version of Theravada Buddhism. He also inspired the younger warrior-monks, who became his Red Guard. The hammer and sickle, newly covered in gold, became the symbols of his power, and he soon began consolidating power, saying he was on a quest for nirvana. This nirvana, he said, would be achieved through the unification of the settler states, the cowing of the merchants and the freeing of the oppressed workers and peasants of the settler states.
For 11 years, Mao and his nigh-indefatigable Red Guards conquered the other states, hoping to eliminate the cravings of the merchants, the unnecessary accumulation of wealth, and to free the people so that they could reach nirvana collectively, a principle Mao believed in passionately. Finally, in 909, the last settlements in the southeast were taken, and Mao Zedong created the state of Damizhao. His book was widely recopied and spread to every monastery and village in the new country, and his popular adaptation of Theravada principles of discipline and meditation became more widespread. The merchants were largely left alone, although guilds were formed and tithes were instituted so as to develop the vast rural wastes of Damizhao.
The resulting state was one governed by Mao’s followers, who were mainly rural Tamils, natives, Xiangs, Kra and Tujia. The Red Guards were the military, and after widespread recruitments, became an inherited position, one focused on scholarship and warfare. The officials were scholars from the new “High Monasteries” in the cities and some from the wilderness, including Honacattiram. The noble families stayed in power, but had little power in the apparatus of state, and focused completely on trade wealth. All the peasants and craftsmen were freed into the towns, and monasteries were streamlined with the teachings of Mao. This “Popular Buddhism”, one focused on equality and collective enlightenment (and the worship of Mao as a Second Great Buddha), became the state faith of Damizhao.
Despite the populism, land reforms and loss of noble power, the state still brought in a great deal of wealth. The sea merchants stayed lords of the ports, and the government of Damizhao, focused on the theocratic oligarchy of Mao Zedong, was not as centralized as one would think.
An Abridged History of the Deganbari, Audari Sond-Just, 1893 AD, Acadim Royau Gepidenna
The history of the Deganbari begins with the Bazrangids, a Persian noble family that went into exile in Africa after being defeated by the Sassanids. Their state, the Kilwa Empire, had a fairly short life, centered mainly in the city of Kilwa. When the Sassanids were defeated in the year 404, the last Shah, Ferdows, fled to the small Persian trade community in Zanzibar. Following him came the noble scions, the high Zoroastrian priests, and other important people. They set up capital in Zanzibar and Pemba, and soon swelled with people as Manichaeism was imposed on Africa. This swelling of people included craftsmen, merchants, and some more clergy, along with people loyal to the old Sassanid Shahs. These people settled on the coasts at Tanga, and other places. The remnants of the Sassanid army that came with the Shah also moved to the coasts.
Over the reign of Attila and Ernakh in Persia, thousands of people began to flee to Zanzibar and even Kilwa in search of free rule. During this chaotic time, much of the old institutions were changed by Ferdows, including the adoption of non-Zurvanite Zoroastrianism. Those who disagreed, mainly priests, were killed quietly in Zanzibar. By 476, the last people of the Sassanid Exodus had come to Africa, and people began to flow into the coastal settlements and the interior. The land was called Deganbar- or Coast of the Banished.
The Bazrangids in Kilwa were shocked, but also bolstered bynew exiles from Persia that helped bolster the city.
The histories of the two states are sketchy from about 476 to the 620s. By that point, the Sassanids had beaten down the interior tribes and intermarried with their nobility, and the Bazrangids had been become vassals, saved from the threat of hostile natives. The Deganbari Shah Kurosh is considered the start of the Empire itself, which before had been referred to as the Sassanid Empire.
Kurosh managed to conquer the coasts between Zanzibar and Kilwa, and the colonization of the interior by Zoroastrian tribes was begun in earnest. Fire temples penetrated the countryside, and tribes were destroyed or assimilated by settlers. He is considered the father of the nation- his reforms and defeat of natives led to the stability needed to expand the country. His successors, made heroes in the Zanameh of Mtumbe Ngoube, continued to conquer southward.
Their society was formed of the Zoroastrian culture abandoned in Persia and the influx of the Bantu into the coasts. The settlers and the natives intermarried, and the hybrid culture, by the 660s, had become a trade destination in the booming Indian Ocean networks. In the age of exploration and colonization, it also boomed as a slave port, selling rebellious tribes like the Acholi to prospective buyers across the Indian Ocean. Zanzibar became the glittering jewel of the Indian Ocean, a fact that remains to the present day.
Eventually extending down to Inhambane under the Erfani dynasty, these Persian exiles managed to create a lasting state in the lands of eastern Africa from little more than exilic might and native tribes. Their hegemony extends inward and into the islands off the coast, and the Zoroastrian faith considers Deganbar its holy land, officially renouncing Persia as holy in the reign of Shapur III Sassani.
……
[1] Bombay
[2] Those wacky Scythians!
[3] Basileus and Raja- bastardized.
[4] Area near Karachi
[5] Combination of Alexander and Askoha- common for early Basarajas.
[6] Name for India, adjective Bharati. Will be used as opposed to Indian most of the time.
[7] Sri Lanka. Note Greek name.
[8] Means son of a Raj.
[9] Phillipines.
[10] Far western bit of Australia, defined by slightly looser line from OTL Port Hedland to OTL Esperance.
[11] Australia. Guess where they get the name from…
[12] Perth
[13] Exmouth
[14] Bunbury
[15] Esperance
[16] Wiluna