Ang Mutia nan Katimuran: The Chronicles of Pre-Colonial Philippines (Story-Only)

[ramones1986]

"Indeed, the Philippines before the Spanish colonial era was a mosaic of different nations, culturally influenced by China, India and the Malay Archipelago, also known as Nusantara. However, a single entity has a significant influence and an enough power to control the affairs and destiny of the rest of the archipelago: the Tondo-Namayan Kingdom, founded by the ethno-linguistic group of the same name living in the eastern part of Manila Bay, whose ethnogenesis resulted from intermarriage between seafarers originally came from within the Nusantara (Malay Peninsula and/or Borneo) and Austronesian tribes of the area who spoke a language (almost) identical to Namayan tongue, the direct descendant of what linguists called the "ancestral Philippine language. Their dominance of more than eight hundred years was well-recorded not just in the annals of the Philippinee history, but also in the chronicles of Maritime Southeast Asian history."​

- "General History of the Philippines"
Gat Teodoro Agoncillo y Andal



​

"Claiming their descendance from a marriage between Gat Amaron and Dayang Po Inahan[2], the monarchs of Tondo-Namayan (and their immediate relatives) carried the clan name Haringadlaw and belived they have the divine right to rule the whole Luzon (and later, most of the Philippine islands) as living gods and expected respect and tribute from the local rules outside their direct area of influence, as expected in a typical Southeast Asian mandala state. Beyond this mythmaking, both the archaeologists and historians believed that the Haringadlaw clan, and the rest of the Tondo-Namayan people in general, is a product of intermarriage between Bornean/Malayan immigrants and a group of tribes who speak a direct descendant of proto-Philippine language (or for some, the proto-language itself)."​

- "Myths and Facts about the Haringadlaw and Tagean-Talanen Clan"
Xiao Chua


​

NOTE:
Finally, another full-length Philippine-centered timeline of mine! After a long time planning, I can expand what I've started in the List of monarchs thread (24th February to 20th March) and one of my post in Explain the AH Quote thread (22nd February) with some help, especially in linguistics: the proto-Philippine section of Austronesian Comparative Dictionary. Well, for the people who want to know the PoD behind this timeline, here's the recap:

The OTL ancestors of Chams sailed further northeast to the Manila Bay area (and interior, up to Pacific coast), composed of OTL provinces of Metro Manila, Cavite, Bulacan, Rizal, and Quezon's Reina (Real, Infanta and General Nakar) and Polillo regions). In the said lands, they've encountered a confederation of tribes who spoke a direct descendant of the proto-Philippine language. The immigrants and the tribes formed alliances and intermarried each other, thus forming the ethnogenesis of Tondo-Namayan ethnolinguistic group, whose language was an interesting combination of proto-Philippine and Malayic vocabulary, using the Philippine focus and the grammatical rules of every Philippine language.

Spoiler: WARNING: Read at your own risk

The same thing happened in the southeast coast of Panay (OTL eastern Iloilo and Guimaras), where a proto-Chamic tribe/clan encountered and intermarried tribes who, surprisingly, spoke a variant of the direct descendant of the proto-Philippine language.

The title of my new timeline "Mutia ng Katimuran", is obviously "Pearl of the Orient" in Namayan language; I knew it's relatively hard to tell this story in narrative form (compared to my first full-length scenario), but I hope I could make it right.

 

[ramones1986]

BOOK 1
The Beginning of a New Civilization

Namayan Bay
Cradle of Luuk/Tondo-Namayan Civilization​

 

[ramones1986]

BOOK 1
Chapter 1
The Beginning of a New Civilization​

ca. 1150s BCE

Seafarers from Malay Archipelago arrived in the eastern portion of Namayan Bay[1], where they've encountered tribes/clans of people who spoke a (direct) descendant of proto-Philippine language; despite the relative obscurity of their origins, the tribes/clans were closely-knitted and related to each others, as agreed by the majority of historians and archaeologists. The economy of the so-called Luuk people[2] were relatively developed, albeit in a local level, at the time the Malayic seafarers moved northward; in fact, they already mastered the art of making jade crafts with the raw material imported from southeastern part of Formosa; besides, woodcarving and handicrafts industries were also practice by the Luuk people as of this moment. As the Malayic maritime immigrants and the Luuk people were Austronesians, intermarriage between the two people were common, and the result would be crucial to the long-term development of Luuk civilization: advanced maritime skills was acquired thanks to the skills of the Malayic seafarers while at the same time the Luuk language borrowed new words from the Malayic tongue of the migrants.

Namayan Bay
(Luuk ng Namayan)
​

1120s BCE

The Second Dynasty of Meluhha/India, also known as the Ashura Dynasty after the city-state where the imperial family came from, had its empire already expanded from its heartland in the northern plains to the western coast of the southern part of the subcontintent; as of this moment, their cultural and political influence could be felt across the length of the subcontinent, including non-Meluhhan/Indian groups such as the Austroasiatic Mundas, living between the Mundari Nad[3] plateau and the Gangam River delta[4], and the people of Ayeyarvadi Valley, including the linguistically-isolated Andamanese. At the same time, Meluhhan traders started to trade with their contemporaries, initially to the western part of the Meluhhan Ocean, often reaching the Mesopotamian city-states and even Egypt.[5] Meluhhan/Indian traders began to trade with the people of Malay Archipelago, particularly in the northern part of Tankamnadu[6]; curiously, these traders were actually identified as Tamils, a southeastern Dravidian people who recently received significant Meluhhan/Indian cultural influence and took advantage of their seafaring skills to spread the Meluhhan/Indian civilization in the Malay Archipelago. As of the moment, hordes of Aryan tribes entered the empire's territory, ending up being assimilated to the Meluhhan/Indian society, like their predecessors several generations ago
​

1110s BCE

Immigrants from nearby Cuyo and Agutaya islands immigrated to the southern tip of Great Kalamian island[7], where they've encountered a group of people called Mangyans. The immigrants, who also credited for the domestication of the tamaraw, intermarried and assimilated the natives, paving the way to the ethnogenesis of what currently known today as Kalamianon ethno-linguistic group. Immigration from Cuyo Archipelago to other parts of Great Kalamian island, particularly in the east and the center of the islands, would continue for the next generation, intermarrying with the local tribes and subsequently, within each other. The remaining Mangyans, especially the Hanunoo, lived in the islands of Romblon[8], where they began to culturally influenced by their neighbors.​

Tamaraw
​

1100s BCE

The Luuk societies of eastern Manila Bay area were already developed to the point of exploring other parts of the island of Luzon through maritime trade. Within the period of jade culture, Luuk seafarers already exchanged goods with their neighbors in the west and the south, particularly the Sambals, the Sisuan people[9] and the proto-Kumintang people respectively. In turn, these peoples were influenced in some way by the relatively advanced civilization of the Luuk people, particularly its way of government and the emerging societal stratification; curiously, such stratification wasn't as rigid as first thought.
​

1090s BCE

The Philippine Jade culture reached the Ede-Jarai region[10] as the Luuk merchants from Kawit[11] and Maraungan[12] areas brought imported Formosan jade and the technology of crafting the said metal to the ede-Jarai communities. Curiously, the Jarais themselves were descendants of the Malayic immigrants and tribes/clans who spoke the same language as the Luuk people; it has been agreed by the historians, linguists and archaeologists that such clans went to southeastern part of Pan-ay island by boat. In turn, the Ede-Jarais was able to export the Formosan jade and technical know-how to neighboring islands in the Visayas. Nonetheless, the trade between the Ede-Jarai and their northern counterparts were sporadic at best until several generations later.
​

1080s BCE

Austronesian-speaking sea nomads, reported to be ancestors of the Moken people, began to settle the southeastern coast of Tiru Lanka[13] and started communities on the said region. The proto-Mokens, whose origins were said to be within the Malay Archipelago, retained their relatively simple lifestyle and maritime economy, was considered as one of first of the successive waves of Austronesian migration to Tiru Lanka; the latter-day migrations hailed from Borneo, particularly from the Barito River region.​

​

1070s BCE

The permanent settlement of northern Great Kalamian island was completed as immigrants from Kuyo and Agutaya islands were joined by the so-called Daang Kalamian (Old Kalamian) people, who were descendants of intermarriage between the Kuyo-Agutaya people and the Mangyans of central-southern part of the island; the Daang Kalamian brought with them the domesticated variant of tamaraw in accompanying the immigrants up north; the later, all of whom where men, ended up marrying northern Mangyan women, subsequently acculturated and assimilated within the next generation. Curiously, the resulting settlement patterns of northern Great Kalamian were a mix of Daang Kalamian and Bagong Kalamian (New Kalamian) families existing side by side in every village.
​

1060s BCE

In the southeastern part of the Indochinese Peninsula, particularly in the area between the Sea of Indochina[14] coast, Central Highlands and the delta area of Dânle Dhum[15], Bahnar tribes were living in the said area. Their relatively-simple society have a basic economy, in which include some trading with the peoples of Palawan, and a simple government as most of them were living in the villages in communal homes. Their location at the crossroads of Indochina would influence the succeeding generations of Bahnars, as they would be sandwiched between the Indianized/Meluhhanized kingdoms in their west and the semi-Sinicized entities in their north.

Rong
A Bahnar communal house
​

1050-45 BCE

The Second Empire of Meluhha/India was decayed after decades of expansion; despite the fact that Emperor Kiwayanai II[16] still ruled the country from the capital Ashura, his empire was actually limited to the confined of his Imperial Palace as the country was divided into rival principalities, each claiming to be independent of the imperial power and at the same time, their individual sovereignty was closely (and jealously) protected and always aware that their neighbors would take advantage to conquer them. The Imperial Civil Service, led by Tirukikata Wayalwitu[17], became the de facto governing power in the Empire, serving as mediator to the increasingly tense principalities as well as keeping the records in its archive and receiving routine reports from every part of the Empire. Two of the principalities emerged from the disintegration of the Ashuran Empire were Cherayal of the south, whose leader Nakkarchenni[18] was more interested in expanding trade and increasing Tamil influence in the east; the other one was the Santal principality, whose leader Tirusimha Konbonga[19] won the respect of both other Santali nobles and neighboring Munda tribes.
​

1040s BCE

Several clans from Balintawak[20] area migrated inland and founded the settlement of Liangan[21] near the shores of Ba-i Lake[22]. The settlers named the new settlement after the cave in which they believed was sacred as they believed that the petrogylphs written in its walls were classified as "divine" and contained special healing powers that could cure the sick. The petroglyphs were actually late Neolithic in origin and was considered as the oldest piece of art in the Philippines; the settlement of Liangan would pave the way for the Luuk inland settlement several generations later.

Liangan petroglyphs
​

1031 BCE

In the Santali capital Durandaah, Prince Tirusimha Konbonga was formally proclaimed the king of the Mundas in an assembly of all Santali nobles and other Munda chieftains. Using the term Siem (a borrowed term from the Khasi, whom the Mundas had been trading with despite the former being outside the Meluhhan cultural sphere) for the title of the Munda monarch, Tirusimha would assure the people gathered in the assembly the he would do his best to retain the independence of the newly-formed kingdom while at the same time, assuring the Meluhhan/Indian Empire to respect its sovereignty, as he wrote to the Imperial Civil Service in Ashura. Thus, it was the beginning of the mandala model of government that would be adapted by both Mainland and Maritime Southeast Asia as they received indirect Meluhhan/Indian cultural influences by their links with, respectively, the Mundas and the Tamils.
​

1020s BCE

The Jade culture of the Philippine Islands was developed further through the appearance of the lingling-o, an earring/a necklace made of jade. Like the earlier phases of the jade culture, the raw material was imported from southeastern Formosa, but the craft was made by local artisans, and their trade was passed to the rest of the Austronesian-speaking world. In the eastern Manila Bay area, it would signified the arrival of the Iron Age in the region more or less than twenty years, as the Luuk people (and their contemporaries) were transitioning to iron and metallurgy; however, the Jade culture would still remain, complementing with the next era in the annals of pre-colonial Philippine history.

Lingling-o​

1015 BCE:

Meluhhan/Indian Emperor Kiwayanai II was found dead in his sleeping chamber in the imperial palace of capital Ashura; it was believed that he was poisoned by an assassin pretending to be a palace servant, paid by both Tirukikata Wayalwitu and Kuntusimha Annavijay[23], a member of the Meluhhanized/Indianized Aryan noble clan of Parimalnangar[24], a frontier principality in the northwestern part of the empire and the son-in-law of the recently deceased Emperor. The successor, Kiwayanai III, tried to convinced the Imperial Civil Service to let him rule the Empire directly, but Wayalwitu told him that the princes were too powerful to be subdued by him alone, especially the situation where the Tamils of Cherayal and the Mundas were now acting like independent kingdoms; the younger Himayanai never knew that the head of the Imperial Civil Service was actually favoring his brother-in-law, whose appearance was once described as "imposing and regal, white his dark-brown hair and dark green eyes", as the new Emperor of Meluhha/India.​

NOTES:
[1] OTL Manila Bay.
[2] The prototype to Tondo-Namayan people.
[3] Chola Nagpur Plateau.
[4] Ganges River.
[5] This event is my tribute to @Flocculencio's scenario about surviving Harappan civilization.
[6] OTL Sumatra
[7] OTL Mindoro,
[8] ITTL Romblon includes OTL Marinduque.
[9] OTL Kapampangan people.
[10] OTL eastern Iloilo and Guimaras.
[11] OTL northern Cavite.
[12] OTL southwestern Cavite.
[13] OTL Sri Lanka.
[14] South China Sea.
[15] Mekong River
[16] Fictional name.
[17] Fictional name.
[18] Legendary (as of this moment) Chera/Chola king.
[19] Fictional name
[20] OTL northeast Metro Manila
[21] OTL Angono, Rizal.
[22] Laguna de Bay.
[23] Fictional name.
[24] Gandhara.

 

[ramones1986]

BOOK 1
Chapter 1​

The Beginning of a New Civilization
​

1008 BCE:

From their homeland in the northeastern part of Pan-ay[1], clans who were the first direct ancestors of Hiligaynon people migrated to the northernwestern coast of Buglas[2] island and started settlements there as they cleared the land, initially the coastline and adjacent plains inland, and developed it for agriculture. As generations passed, the inland migration was complemented by arrivals from the same area of origin: northeastern Pan-ay. The proto-Buglasnon, who spoke a language of probably eastern Visayan origin, would eventually dominate the western half of the whole island; their eastern counterparts were called the Magahat, a people of semi-oscure origin who, curiously, spoke a language neither related to their neighbors, but classified as a part of the Philippine language family.​

​

1005 BCE:

Ten years after he became the Emperor of Meluhha, Kiwayanai III was found dead in his sleeping chamber within the Imperial Palace complex in the capital Ashura. Like the case of his father five years ago, the cause of the middle-aged emperor's death was through a poisoned tip of an arrow, shoot by an unknown assassin hired by an influential personality within the Meluhhan imperial court. The death of Kiwayanai III triggered the already tense relationship between the nobles, rulers of minor states and the Imperial Civil Service that would led into a five-year war of succession; only the Tamils of Cherayal and the Mundas in the east remained free of the increrasing violence sprawling in the borders, although they sent additional troops in their respective frontiers, strategic and otherwise, to defend their kingdoms from possible overrun by the soldiers of rival Meluhhan factions, especially between the rulers of the minor states.
​

1000 BCE:

At this moment, the Jade Culture was complemented by the arrival of the Iron Age in the Philippines, known as Tabon-Balay Paniki[3] after the two caves in Palawan and Bulakan respectively, where artifacts were found by archaeologists in abundance. The Tabon-Baniki culture was characterized by the development of metallurgy, as evident in tools such as swords, spearheads and axes. The Tabon-Balay Paniki culture was also characterized through their burial customs: cremating the dead and buried in elaborately decorated jars covered in lids, as exemplified in the Manunggul Burial Jar discovered in Tabon Cave. In effect, the Iron Age brought improvements in productivity in the economy of the ethno-linguistic groups of the Philippine archipelago, especially in the eastern Manila Bay area: the trading partners of the Luuk people expanded to include Han China and Nanyue[4], a semi-Sinified kingdom north of the Indochinese peninsula, whose inhabitants spoke Austroasiatic languages. The Philippine Iron Age would last until about CE 200.

Manunggul Jar
The symbol of Tabon-Balay Paniki culture​

​

998 BCE:

After five years of violence and shedding blood over the powerful Imperial Throne of Meluhha/India, Kuntusimha Annavijay emerged as the eventual winner of the Meluhhan War of Succession. Secretly aided by Imperial Civil Service, especially by its leader Tirukikata Wayalwitu, the warrior noble, previously known as the ruler of the frontier princely state of Parimalnangar in the northwestern part of the country, retained Ashura as the capital of the whole empire, claiming continuity and legitimacy through his marriage to Princess Meenamukai, the daughter of former Emperor Kiwayanai II and brother of Emperor Kiwayanai III, the last two rulers of the Second Meluhhan Dynasty (also known as the Ashura Dynasty). One of the first tasks of Kuntusimha I as the new Emperor was the eventual reform of the Bloodguard corpse of palace bodyguards by incorporating them as part of the imperial military apparatus: for him, loyalty to the imperial authority was the most important role a Bloodguard guard must took part; defying the Emperor of the Land of Meluhha, he thought, would be a disgrace to the empire as a whole, and it could lead into terrible consequences; indeed, Meluhhan court historians said that "twenty-seven generals of the Bloodguard corps" were forced to retire by the new Emperor within first decade of his reign; most of them found employment in neighboring kingdoms, particularly the Cherayal/Tamils and Munda.
​

985 BCE:

It was now believed there were some Moken clans went to the interior of Tiru Lanka island from the coast and intermarried with the local Vedda population and adapted to the latter's hunter-gatherer economy. The relationship between the linguistically Austronesianized Veddas in the interior and the Mokens in the coast was best described as "friendly and cordial"; in fact, some Moken families were actually descendants of sea nomads and Coast Veddas. Indeed, there was already an Austronesian presence in Tiru Lanka before the arrival of Borneans generations later.

A modern Moken girl
Eastern Tiru Lanka
​

975 BCE:

In the island of Palawan, the people living there started to develop their own civilization partly through trade with the Luuk and Kalamian peoples in their north; it was now believed that migrants from Borneo took a very important part in accelerating ancient Palaw-anon civilization to the level that equaled their northern neighbors, particualry those who came from a place called Barunai[5] in the northern tip of Borneo, just below the southern tip of Palawan; hence, the changes in the Palawa-anon society first occured in the north. In summary, he cultural and economic development of Palaw-anon society happened within the Tabon-Balay Paniki (Iron Age) period, oftenly complemented by the Philippine Jade culture.
​

968 BCE:

The Munda king received the emissary of the Meluhhan Emperor in the royal palace complex in the capital Durandaah, where Tirusimha Konbonga received the personal letter sent by Emperor Kunthusimha I; the letter, personally written by the Annavijay sovereign himself, told the Siem that Meluhha recognized the existence and sovereignty of the Munda Nadu kingdom in exchange of a (minimal) monetary tribute to the Empire. Emperor Kunthusimha added in his letter that the tribute would symbolize the good relationship between the two monarchies, and explained that the tribute was a form of paying respect to the Empire. In the said letter, it was indeed evident that the Meluhhan Empire would begin a system of tributary from neighboring states, similar to its Chinese counterpart.
​

964-63 BCE:

The head of the Imperial Civil Service and the de facto chief minister of the Meluhhan Empire for more than thirty years Tirukikata Wayalwitu died in the capital Ashura from heart attack. He was sixty-three years of age. Hailed from the powerful Wayalwitu clan. Tirukikata rose to the top of the Imperial Civil Service through a combination of hardwork, his intelligence and a little scheming: As the de facto head of the Imperial Government of Meluhha, Tirukikata managed to built the reputation of the Imperial Civil Service as the unifier of the country when it was increasingly disentagrated into rival principalities, two of which became independent kingdoms (albeit later received protection from the Empire as tributary states): Mundari Nadu and Cherayal. He served between the last phase of the Ashura Dynasty and the first few years of the Annavijay Dynasty, particularly under the reign of Kuntusimha I. A year after the death of Tirukikata Wayalwitu, the Emperor appointed senior civil servant and diplomat Kumarmurugan Balkuntam as the head of the Imperial Civil Service; his previous experience include as the emissary to the Munda royal court in the capital Durandaah.
​

961 BCE:

The Ifugao[6] tribes of Buludang Raya[7] started to construct terraced agricultural fields, particular in the area between Batad and Lagawe, considered as the center of the Ifugao society, particularly its culture and economy. As of this moment, the principal crop of the Ifugaos were taro, and the terraced fields were constructed for planting and harvesting taro; rice would be reintroduced later through their neighbors: the Samtoy[8] in their west, the Ibanags-Itawis and Gaddangs in the east and the Kaboloans[9] in the south. The construction of the terraced fields was part of the economic and cultural development brought by both Iron Age and the Jade culture in the rest of the Philippines.

Terraced taro fields​

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950s BCE:

Male water buffaloes (kalabaw in most Philippine languages, Luuk/Namayan included) from mainland Luzon were imported by Luuk and Kumintang traders to northern (Greater) Kalamian agricultural villages to improve the lineage of the existing (domesticated) tamaraw population. Already known in the northern part of the island for its robustness and the fact that these animals were heavier and more muscular than the tamaraws, the Kalamianen farmers felt that interbreeding carabaoes with the female tamaraw would improve the animal's physical appearance and increased robustness in the succeeding generations, and they've succeeded: as the result of inbreeding between male carabaos and female tamaraws produced another breed of domesticated tamaraws that were taller and heavier than their counterparts in the southern part of Great Kalamian, yet smaller and lighter than pure-breed carabaos. Nevertheless, some of the tamaraw-carabao hybrids went to the south and interbreed with few female tamaraws, so the resulting difference went unnoticeable.
​

946 BCE:

It has been rumored within the imperial circles in the Meluhhan capital Ashura that a canal was planned to built in the midst of the Great Meluhhan Desert[10], connecting the Gangam and Harappa[11] rivers and opening new lands for agriculture and possible immigration from the rest of the empire. According to the courtesans within the Imperial Palace complex, it was the son of the chief of the Imperial Civil Service who personally proposed such an ambitious project to the Emperor; Pontapuli Balkuntam,himself a general of the Meluhhan army, argued before Kuntusimha I that such a project could help the full integration of the peoples living in the northern part of the empire, much of which was located west of the Ashura and its surrounding area. If the project succeed, the Imperial Treasury would spend a lot of money for constructing a potentially ambitious canal that would connect the two main rivers of the Meluhhan Empire.
​

930s BCE:

In the eastern regions of Negros island, the lifestyle of the Magahat people began to change as a result of their increasing contacts with both the proto-Buglasnon and proto-Sugbuanons in the other side of Tañón Strait (Selat Tañón in Luuk language): traditionally a semi-nomadic people of hunters and seed gatherers, they learned agriculture from the two Visayan groups, especially wet-rice planting, fishing and animal husbandry; as a result, permanent villages was founded in the whole Magahat territory, clan system was starting to formed. Curiously, the transformation of Magahat society included intermarriage between the Magahats and their neighbors, particularly between the male proto-Sugbuanons/Buglasnons and Magahat females, although marriages (or actually cohabitation) between the male Magahats and female proto-Sugbuanons/Buglasnons. In addition, it was this during this period that Mount Kanlaon (Bulud Kanlaon) became a sacred place for the Magahats.

Mount Kanlaon​

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920s BCE:

In the southern half of Luzon, particularly in the area around Namayan Bay, the society is now increasingly stratified as the economy prospered and expanded through interisland trade and improvements in agricultural practices among the people living in the said area. The villages, known as baranggays in Philippine languages like the Luuk/Namayan, found their way of governing themselves transformed from a elective form of government based on seniority of the wisest citizens in the baranggay (or more apropiately, kampong) into a basic monarchy ruled by a datu whose position would be inherited by his eldest child, either male or female; nevertheless, the council of the elders remained an essential part of a baranggay government, especially in the Luuk socities of eastern Namayan Bay where the clan system easiled identified people, especially in larger villages. Other peoples living in the Namayan Bay like Sambals, Sisuans and Kumintangs also experienced structural changes in the government of their villages; the villages themselves would find themselves forging alliance with each other.
​

911 BCE:

In the Asia Minor, the Anatolian-speaking entities of Pontus[12] and Caesaria[13] were finally unified under a direct descendant of the very last Hittite king, Suppiluliuma II. The person in question, Kurunta of Kussara, was already reigned in his own principality of of Caesaria when he was proclaimed the king of Kaskia when he won the last battle against a rival prince. In effect, the new Kaskian monarch decreed that all nobles should live in the newly-proclaimed capital Caesaria and would visit their residences four times a year, arguing that it would retain the cohesiveness of the new kingdom; curiously, it included the families of rival princes who lost their lives in the seven-year wars that engulfed the region. The population of the new kingdom was composed of Anatolianized Kaskians, indigenous Pala and the remnants of the Hittite Empire when it collapsed in about 1178 BCE.​

​

NOTES:
[1] OTL Capiz
[2] Pre-colonial name for Negros
[3] TTL version of Sa Hunyh culture.
[4] OTL Guangdong-Guangxi region.
[5] Not just OTL Brunei, but also include OTL Sabah.
[6] More appropriate term for Igorots; in fact, that's the autonym of the Igorots, particularly in the central Cordillera.
[7] Cordillera Central.
[8] OTL Ilocanos.
[9] OTL Pangasinenses and Ibalois.
[10] OTL Thar Desert.
[11] Indus River.
[12] TTL Pontus excluded Trabzon region.
[13] OTL Sivas Province

 

[ramones1986]

BOOK 1
Chapter 1
The Beginning of a New Civilization
​

897 BCE:

A series of underwater volcanic eruptions had occured in the Meluhhan Ocean[1], more than 550 miles (557.12 miles, to be exact) southwest of the western coast of Cherayal Nadu[2]. The eruptions were so powerful enough it generated a series of tidal waves strong and almost large enough to become a tsunami. Fortunately, the tidal waves directly hit the western coast of nearby Tiru Lanka, then a sparsely-populated to uninhabited region; the people of western Cherayal Nadu only suffered slight flooding, as the waves that hit their settlemente were relatively small. The underwater volcanic eruptions wouldn't only be the last in that part of the Meluhhan Ocean; it would still occur in the next few centuries, although the impact of later eruptions were not as severe as the very first volcanic eruption, until the underwater volcanic activity formally ceased, already gave way to the formation of the Maldivian Archipelago.[3]
​

895 BCE:

Seafarers from the northeastern coast of Mindanao settled in southeastern part of Bohol Island. The seafarers, who spoke a language distantly related to their Visayan counterparts, brought their families to their new home, thus they were relatively successful in settling southeastern Bohol, in the Giduuman Bay[4]. The Karagans, as both the people of northeastern region of Mindanao and the newcomers to Bohol was then called, continued their traditional livelihood of fishing, in which including the developing culture of fish breeding, and trading the with their peers in their ancestral homeland, thus reinforcing cultural and linguistic ties for a very long time. The settlement, Giduuman[5], would became the second principal city of the Meluhhanized/Indianized Kingdom of Butuan and eventually its capital after the Butuanon royal family and majority of its royal could fled as the result of Manobo Revolt and subsequent invasion, a people from interior of northeast Mindanao whose culture was partly to mostly influenced by the Butuanons.

Giduuman Bay
(Luuk ng Giduuman)
​

890 BCE:

The ambitious project that would connect Ganga and Harappa rivers was personally accepted by the new Emperor of Meluhha Tiruperabaal VI, the grandson of Emperor Kuntusimha I (reigned 998-938 BCE, died at the age of ninety) and son of Emperor Kuntusimha II (reigned 938-909 BCE, died of stroke at the age of seventy-eight), years after the project was proposed to his grandfather in the Imperial Palace complex in the Meluhhan capital Ashura. This time, it was the son of general Pontapuli Balkuntam who presented the proposal to the emperor; Tiruyangalkal Balkuntam, a well-known military leader and responsible for the successful campaigns againsts rebellious tribes[6] in the Kiwakuntam mountains[7]. According to the courtesans, the Emperor was said to be "more than impressed" by the arguments presented by the youger Balkuntam. However, for the cynics within the imperial circles, the project was accepted because of the influence of the Balkuntam family within the Imperial Court of Meluhha/India, aided by the head of Imperial Civil Service and de facto chief minister of the empire, Tirushanmugam Tenkkikuntam[8], formerly known as an official emissary to the Persian Empire. The only problem for both Emperor and the chief minister was financing the ambitious canal: both were cautious enough to impose new taxation on the people of Meluhha/India.
​

885 BCE:

Traders from South Arabia, particularly the Yemenites and Hadhramites, introduced their script to the ancient Somalis, a people living in the Horn of Africa. The South Arabian alphabet, one of the descendants of the Old Phoenician/Semitic alphabet, was already used in both sides of the Red Sea; its introduction to the Land of Punt was considered as a significant event in the history of the Somali nation, as the script was seen as the "bridge" to the . Curiously, the ancient Somalis wrote their adapted script from left to right, contrary to what the usual writing style used by the South Arabians themselves (right-to-left).

A sample of South Arabian alphabet
​

883-80 BCE

The Kaskians started to consolidate themselves as a unified kingdom as they started to codify old Hittite laws, creating a national culture by fusing/mixing elements of immigrant Hittite culture with Palaic and Anatolianized Kaska elements, one of which was the retelling of old Kaskian and Palaic tales by writing it on Hittite hieroglyphics, and starting to raise a permanent army (with the possibility of contructing a permanent navy), accompanied by the construction of strong fortifications in the border regions of the country and strenghtening of the garrisons within the kingdom. For the Kaskian monarch Kurunta of Kussara, the reinforecement of national defense was necessary in order to protect Kaskia from both invasions from rival kingdoms and potentially threatening internal revolts that could lead to a civil war, with a possibility of involvement from rival foreign powers. For the monarch himself, the consolidation of the new kingdom was a fulfullment of the life-long dream of his royal clan: reviving the old glory of Hittite Empire, albeit smaller and located in a different territory, far away from the original territory of the lost empire.
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879 BCE:

The construction of the Great Meluhhan Canal was started. The canal, which would connect Ganga and Harappa rivers and cross throughout the Great Meluhhan Desert, would use more than a thousand (or actually ten thousand) people to construct such engineering feat; some of the laborers were prisoners of war, others hailed from the rest of the empire, all were instructed by the engineer corps of the Meluhhan army. In order to fund the construction of the canal, a significant percentage of the imperial treasury was given; the other was through a new series of taxation that was implemented across Meluhha.
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877 BCE:

Some of the Sibugaynen[9] tribes from the north of Sibugay Peninsula[10] began their southern migration as they were motivated by new agricultural lands to be cleared and developed, aided by the improved agricultural toold brought by the Iron Age. As they gone south, they both assimilated and intermarried the people who originally living in the said region. On the other hand, the Sama-Bajau people felt the pressure of the increasing migration of the neighboring Sibugaynen; in fact, some of them already fled to nearby Sulu Archipelago, but large-scale migration would not still occur until years later, when they strongly felt the pressure.
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875 BCE:

In the kingdom of Munda Nadu, the king instructed his best generals to personally command the border forts across the country. Siem Mandaramu Konbonga explained that despite the assurance of protection from the Meluhhan Empire, it wouldn't be certain if such promise would be complied against potential enemies, more so if the larger neighbor's attitude would remain the same for a longer period, so he summoned some of the kingdom's best general to the royal palace in the Munda capital Durandaah. In addition, the Siem assured that other generals would still lead the principal garisons across the kingdom to maintain internal stability. The current Munda monarch, the great-grandson of the first Munda king Tirusimha I, was greatly concerned that Meluhha would invade and then annex the country in any moment, so he decreed the reinforcement of military forces across Munda Nadu. One of the generals who were summoned to Durandaah was Mimahangam Jartila[11], famous for his defense of the eastern border against invasion of tribes from the north. During this moment, the Munda navy was formed and led by Mimahangam's younger brother Timasak[12], a skilled sailor and navigator.​

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872 BCE:

Several Magahat families from eastern (present-day) Negros sailed to the nearby island of Katagusan[13] and established a settlement there. The Magahats living in Katagusan made their living through fishing, which include the developing industry of fish culture, and trading with fellow Magahats in the mainland west of the island; agriculture would be introduced later. As of that moment, the Magahat pioneer settlers of Katagusan were already influenced by their neighbors, the proto-Buglasnon and proto-Sugbuanon, and their physical appearance were starting to change to Mongoloid-type like their neighbors through intermarriage, although some of them retained some Australoid features like their semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer ancestors.​

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Katagusan Island coast​

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865 BCE:

Under pressure from the expanding Sibugaynen clans/tribes from the north, most of the (proto-)Sama-Bajau people of the southern tip of Sibugay Peninsula migrated to the island of Basilan and start of a new life there. By happy coincidence, Basilan is the northern tip of Sulu Archipelago, which would be eventually became the new homeland of the Sama-Bajau people; from there, their reputation, especially among the Bajaus, as skilled seafarers would grow across the Maritime Southeast Asia.​

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860 BCE:

Since the introduction and spread of South Arabian alphabet to the Somalis in the Horn of Africa, written communication between their city-states along the coast were vastly improved; besides practical uses such as written orders and mercantile exchanges, written literature, religious and otherwise, flourished significantly. The result was the cultural and economic exchange between the Somali city-states. As a result, the chiefs of all city-states across the Land of Punt formed the Beden League, named after the famed Somali maritime vessel, which would protect their common interests in trading with the rest of the known world, encourage the stimulation of local trade between the city-states, settle internal disputes peacefully amicably and defend their homeland as one against the enemy.​

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850s BCE:

From their original homeland in the eastern part of Namayan Bay, the Luuk people began their migration to the hinterlands, particularly in the southern slopes of Kabuludang Inahan[14], with the founding of Atipulu[15] by pioneer settled from Balintawak and Bulakan regions. Taking advantage of the agricultural tools and techniques brought by the Iron Age, the Luuk-speaking hinterland pioneers began to clear the lower and middle slopes and build terraced fields, which they used for wet-rice agriculture and intermediate vegetable and taro planting between seasons. Simultaneously, they faced relentless attacks/raids from the Dumagats, a semi-nomadic people of hunters and gatherers who were linguistically Austronesian but racially Australoid. In response to such attacks, the clan patriarchs began to raise and organize voluntary self-defense force to defend their villages against the Dumagats, with occasional capture of Dumagat men. Such way of life was the reality of the highland Luuk people, added with their perseverance to cope with new way of life, until the first century of the Common Era.​

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Kabuludang Inahan​

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847 BCE:

An underwater volcanic eruption occured in the middle of Ivatan Archipelago. According to the local legends associated with such event, the sky was said to be "devoid of sunshine and moonlight for twelve days and nights and the people prayed to the gods above" before the underwater volcanic activity stopped temporarily. It wasn't the proto-Ivatans who witnessed such an extraordinary event, but also the fishermen who hailed from the northeastern Luzon, particularly from its coast and the lower Tugigaraw River[6] area, which include the delta region. Such tectonic activity wouldn't be the first and only time; other eruptions occured within the same area in the next few centuries, thus it created a medium-sized island in the middle of Ivatan Archipelago.​

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830s BCE

The first wave of Bornean immigrants arrived in the southern coast of Tiru Lanka. Hailed from the southeastern region of the island, particularly in the Barito River basin, the Borneans brought with them a relatively advanced civilization and a well-organized, well-developed social structure than the Austronesianized Veddas and the Moken people, who inhabited the island's interior and the eastern coast respectively. The Vezo people, as called the ancestors of some of the present-day Lankanese, were the first in the wave of immigration from southeastern Borneo to the island of Tiru Lanka in the Meluhhan Ocean.[17]​

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The Vezo fishermen of Tiru Lanka​

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820s BCE:

Almost simultaneously to the immigration of southeast (Barito) Borneans to southern Tiru Lanka, another wave of immigration from Borneo had occured, this time from different region of the place of origin to the different region of the place of destination: the Kelabits of northwestern Borneo to the northern tip of the island. Like the Baritos of the southwest, the Kelabits (of Dayak origin) brought with them a relatively advanced culture and a nearly-visible social hierarchy; when they arrived in the northern coast of Tiru Lanka, tribes of Austronesianized Vedda were already living in the region, albeit in the interior far away from the coast. The Kelabits of northern Tiru Lanka would be influenced by the Tamils of eastern Cherayal Nadu, especially in their religion and high social organization[18].​

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815 BCE:

The Beden Lague and the Meluhhan Empire formally established their diplomatic relationship as the former's emissaries were received in throne room of the Imperial Palace in the Meluhhan capital Ashura. While there was an existing trade link between the Somali city-states of the Horn of Africa and the Meluhhan Empire, it was the very first time the two political entities established formal diplomatic ties between each other. In effect, the Somalis of the Beden League would benefit from trading with the large economy of the empire in the other side of the Meluhhan Ocean; for their part, the Meluhhans would have the opportunity to imports luxury goods such as frankinsence and myrrh.​

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800s BCE:

Traditionally known as semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, the Inagta-Manide people of the western tip of the Bikol peninsula found their lifestyles (and themselves) permanently transformed through contacts with both proto-Kumintang and proto-Bikol peoples, their neighbors in the west and east of their territory, respectively. Through them agricultural techniques and tools were introduced; it included aquaculture and fishing. In effect, the lifestyle of the Inagta-Manide people became more akin to permanent sedentary society as villages and hamlets were formed across the length and breadth of their whole territory, composed of huts made from locally available materials such as bamboo and nipa palm. In addition, intermarriage with the neighboring groups were not uncommon for some of them; as a result, the typical Australoid features of the Inagta-Manide people added significant Mongoloid traits in the succeeding generations.​

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NOTES:
[1] Indian Ocean.
[2] OTL Kerala.
[3] TTL Maldives is geologically developed than its OTL counterpart.
[4] Jagna Bay
[5] Composed of OTL Boholano municipalities of Jagna, Duero and Guindulman. The term Giduuman is the approximate Butuanon version of Guindulman.
[6] The tribes in question were a racial mix of Sino-Tibetan, Indo-Aryan and Dravidian elements; they were Dravidianized.
[7] OTL Himalaya.
[8] Fictional name.
[9] OTL Subanen.
[10] OTL Zamboanga Peninsula.
[11] Fictional name.
[12] Fictional name.
[13] OTL Siquijor.
[14] OTL Sierra Madre Mountains.
[15] OTL Antipolo.
[16] OTL Cagayan Valley.
[17][18] Slightly different from the OTL destinies of both Kelabit and Malagasy people.

 

[ramones1986]

BOOK 1
Chapter 1
The Beginning of a Civilization

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790s-770s BCE:

A series of unusual weather conditions had swept the Levantine interior (intermediate, typically arid region between the Levantine coast and Mesopotamia), particularly the area between the cities of Aleppo and Damascus. The traditionally arid region region received more than thrice the amount of rainfall every autumn and rainfall, sometimes extending to spring and even early summer, for more than twenty years. The landscape in general remained the same as like before; nevertheless, the area's water system permanently changed as the result of almost uninterrupted season of rainfall that lasted too long: The usually dry river beds and smaller lakes such as Lake Tadmor[1] became permanently filled with freshwater and larger in both density and size, respectively; the water supply was maintained by permanent oasis across the region, underground water table kept by deep-root plants in the higher parts of otherwise arid mountains/hills of the Aramean Desert[2] and lastly from the forested mountains of the west, who formed the natural frontier between the Desert and the areas of the Levantine coast. While there were small settlements in the area founded by migrants from both Mesopotamia and the Levantine coast during (and after) the seasons of almost uninterrupted rainfall, they were easily assimilated in the following generations as the long-term beneficiaries of (slight) changes in the Levantine interior were the Aramean tribes, who were traditionally semi-nomadic herders; they learned the basics of agriculture from the villagers, irrigating the field included. Despite being adopted to the sedentary life by building houses and founding tightly-knit communities (most often alongside the assimilated early villagers), the Arameans never forgot their traditional livelihood of herding and livestock grazing, albeit it's now confined within their backyard of their own homes.
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767 BCE:

In the homeland of the (New) Assyrian Empire, the king personally decreed to the members of his imperial bureaucracy based and working in heart of the empire and to his subjects in general in the said area that their native language (Akkadian) would remain the principal language of law and government in the said part of the country. In his decree, Ashur-dan III was said that he understood that the Akkadian-speaking imperial officials (and subjects in general) shouldn't feel marginalized despite the increasing prestige of the Aramaic language as the lingua franca of the whole empire, so he encouraged the bureaucracy to continue its use within the (New) Assyrian homeland. However, rumors circulated within the imperial palace complex in the imperial capital Nimrud that King Ashur-Dan III was pressured by the influential Akkadian-speaking courtiers led by Sargon of Nimrod[3] to issue such a decree that would protect the interests of the Akkadian-speaking heartland against the rise of Arameans (and conquered peoples) in the highest ranks of the empire; the latter considered Shamshi-ilu, the commander-in-chief (turtanu in Akkadian) of the (New) Assyrian army, as their de facto leader, and with a reason: he wasn't born within the then Assyrian territory. As of that moment, Akkadian remained as the language of traders within the heartland, while its fellow Semitic language Aramaic was used for inter-ethnic interaction between the different groups of the empire. For the reign of King Ashur-dan III, it was described as one of the most difficult for the country: the courtiers dominated the imperial palace, divided into two rival factions, plague outbreaks and a four-year revolt.

Ashur-Dan III
King of Assyria
772-775 BCE​

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765 BCE:

After several years of intensive planning and construction, the Great Meluhhan Canal was finally completed. The said infrastructure, which was made from relatively primitive materials using generations of thousand of workers from across the empire, a large percentage of whom were prisoners, and guided by generations of skilled military engineers, who braved the largely insupportable heat of the Great Meluhhan Desert, almost cost a fortune to the Imperial Treasury to the verge of breaking down of the Meluhhan society of general: the dissatisfaction of some of the members of Imperial Civil Service, different revolts that were hard to suppressed by the imperial military, border skirmishes with both Mundas and the Cherayals, and the rise of the Kusundas[4] in the highest ranks of the imperial bureaucracy from their humble origins in the northern part of the empire. The recently completed Great Meluhhan Canal would connect Ganga and Harappa rivers, the two principal inland waterways of Meluhha, cut through the desert; it wasn't just trade would open in the region, but also agriculture (through irrigating the desert) and migration from different parts of the country, some of join the already existing communities whose descendants were laborers who settled during the time of the canal's construction.
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762 BCE:

The Austronesians of Tiru Lanka (Kelabits in the north, the Ma'anyans in the central and the southern regions) began to be culturally and politically influenced by the Tamils of the eastern Cherayal Kingdom as the former's tribal chiefs made a series of pacts with the emissaries sent by the Cherayal king Kaandhaman, in which the Austronesian principalities/chiefdoms would be under suzerainty of their larger neighbor in the north in exchange of protecting them from potential enemies. Of the two major Austronesian ethno-linguistic groups of Tiru Lanka, the Kelabits would soon became profoundly influenced by the Tamils of eastern Cherayal Kingdom, especially in the field of culture and religion (e.g. the proto-Austronesian animism of the Kelabits mixed with elements from Cherayal Karmaism[5], resulting in a syncretic mix of the latter that would spread later to most parts of Maritime Southeast Asia).
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750s-730s BCE:

From being semi-nomadic hunters, fishermen and seed gatherers, the Jomon people of the northern Japanese island Honshu[6] accidentally domesticated native millet by planting its seeds on fields near their humble and temporary shelter, waiting the crop to grow for approximately six months while they were hunting and seed gathering, two of their traditional livelihoods. As a result, the lifestyle of the Jomon society in general slowly evolved into a sedentary, permanent one: houses (and hamlets) were built, made from wood and other light materials found in their surroundings, permanent millet fields were set up, and previously hunted game animals were domesticated, as well as planting other crops (fruits, vegetables) and trees whose seeds were previously gathered by the Jomon women several generations before. For their part, the coastal Jomon communities remained the same, as fishing remained their primary livelihood, except that they complemented their way of life (and diet) with millet. In summary, the millet played a major role in the permanent transformation of the Jomon society in general, both inland, riverine and coastal.

Japanese millet
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728 BCE:

After a palace revolt that killed the last Annavijay emperor of Meluhha (Simhavasantam I), Peyattil Kokiwakuntam[6] took the Imperial Throne of Meluhha as Peyattil I. The new emperor, previously known as an able general who defeated the invading Mundas in the region of Kalingam Nadu[7] and permanently stopped the latter's invasion of the country's eastern frontier, was a prominent ethnic Kusunda who married the illegitimate (but only) daughter of his predecessor Mutianakara[8]. Among the first decrees of the Emperor Peyattil I as the Imperial Sovereign was the total reorganization of the local government across the country: Meluhha would be divided into provinces headed by the governor, whose appointment was personally approved by the emperor and the newly-created post of Chief Minister and was regularly consulted by a council of elders over the internal affairs of the province. The office of the Chief Minister (Perkata), according to another decree from the Emperor, was the highest civilian officer of the empire and the head of the imperial bureaucracy, replacing the head of the Imperial Civil Service, whom the emperor believed what was source of corruption and decadence that led to the fall of the Annavijayas; for the said post, he appointed his younger brother Koyanain Kokiwakuntam[9], a well-known scholar and well-skilled diplomat previously served as emissary to the Zhou king in Fenghao.
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725 BCE:

Bulud Talim[10] in the island of the same name within Danaw Ba-i[11] started to became the sacred mountain (and island) of the Luuk people as they expanded to the interior of the country from their homeland in the eastern coast of Namayan Bay. As of that moment, their legends said that their gods were dwelling in the island, particularly in its highest peak; one such legends also said that Gat Amaron and Dayang Po Inahan, the legendary founders of the Luuk people, were buried in the foot of Bulud Talim. Despite the purported sacredness of the mountain (and the island in general), religious shrines and temples weren't constructed until several centuries later, when the Luuk people (and most of the precolonial Philippine ethno-linguistic groups in general) received significant, albeit indirect, Meluhhan influences through the Tamils.​

Bulud Talim​

710s BCE:

Fishermen from northern and central parts of the Meluhhan Empire settled the northernmost tip of Maldivian Archipelago, whose geological history until that moment was relatively quiet after a series of underwater volcanic eruptions that formed the island several centuries ago. The Meluhhan fishermen found the island's climate and typography very favorable, so they eventually settled in the northern part of the archipelago; most of them brought their families and found coastal villages. The presence of Meluhhan fishermen in the northern Maldivian Archipelago was seen as the potential expansion of the empire beyond its territory as the current emperor, the Kusunda Peyattil I, consolidated and transformed the country into a centralized empire with a sizeable military within its borders, internal and maritime. Nonetheless, even the emperor himself in Ashura expressed his doubtness if Meluhha would possess the islands because of its distance.​

706-04 BCE:

The Kaskians successfully defended their southern border against Assyrian invaders as general Arnuwandas Neša[12] defeated the invaders led by general Shamshi-ilu Bashushgal[13] in the battle of Euphrate Banks; the Assyrian general was killed in the same battle. As a result, Assyrian king Sargon II was forced to acknowledge the independence (and relative military might) of Kaskia, their neighbor in the north. Nonetheless, the Assyrian king personally resented increasing political influence of the Kaskians on the internal affairs of the neighboring kingdom of Urartu, an Assyrian suzerain, and with a reason: both the Kaskians and the inhabitants of Urartu were Indo-European peoples, speaking related languages (despite using Aramaic in their correspondences) and have almost the same culture.​

NOTES:
[1] According to maps from some encyclopedias, there is a relatively small lake near Tadmor/Palmyra.
[2] OTL Syrian Desert.
[3] Fictional name.
[4] TTL Kusundas were "Meluhhanized" (OTL Dravidianized)
[5] OTL Hinduism, but without the caste system.
[6] Fictional name.
[7] OTL Orissa.
[8] Fictional name.
[9] Fictional name.
[10] OTL Mt. Tagapo (or better yet, Bundok ng Susong Dalaga).
[11] OTL Laguna de Bay.
[12] Fictional name.
[13] Fictional name.