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The Prophets
of Bactria
∙
An alternate history
By Alexandru Herman
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Foreword
I
t is but an impossible task to provide a clear answer to the question “Are we a product
of history or is history our own creation?” The philosophical arguments are endless;
science is quiet for its standards concerning time have no meaning inside the human
realm. As for religion, the Divine Plan (a common ground for most monotheistic faiths)
can be easily contradicted by dualists, Gnostics, pantheists or polytheists.
The alternate history genre offers a rare chance of establishing a solid border between the
two kinds of history: the one whose final product is us and the one whose final product is
our own creations. While being part of the official timeline, we can also manage a second
universe, which depends entirely on our not-so-divine-yet-pretty-awesome plan. It’s a
philosophical, scientific and religious game in the same time, forcing us to choose
realistic pathways for characters, events and even phenomena, without forgetting that in
the end it is still an intellectual exercise.
The Prophets of Bactria is such an exercise. It does not constitute an attempt to
realistically portray the society of an era we know little about, it does not take itself
seriously by employing painstaking research in the fields of weaponry, literature,
philosophy or religious dogma. What we have here is a work of fiction, an attempt to
provide an entertaining read for those interested in history. In the end, it’s all that
matters.
Alexandru Herman, 2011
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Chapter 1. About the early history of Bactria
B
actria’s special role in the history of religions cannot be emphasized enough. It
was in this region that a revolution in how we perceive the world took place. And
while we may take for granted religious thought in this modern era, one cannot
but be amazed by the complex spiritual intricacies that the people originating from this
region brought forth for all humanity to learn. And fight for or against.
The prehistory of Bactria is not very well known. The general consensus is that the
Japhetic1 invaders of the 4000-3500 BC found no human trace in the territory around
Oxus River. While some fringe naturalists argue that the few skeletal remains of apes
constitute proof of the so-called “Germination Theory2” (human evolving from lesser life
forms in a process guided by the Divine Reason), no one could successfully demonstrate
the existence of a spiritual life outside the beastly need for survival and reproduction.
Anyway, the so-called “intelligent apes3” had been long dead before the appearance of the
first human person on the Bactrian plains.
The origins of the Japhetic invaders can be traced back to the Caucasus Mountains and
the Hunnish plains region4. We don’t know the reason for their sudden emergence in
Iran, but it’s clear that Bactria seemed to be the answer to their prayers: enough fodder
for horses, natural barriers against enemies, good water sources for irrigation projects.
Cut off from their original homeland, the invaders turned Bactria into a monument of
remembrance. And here our story becomes truly interesting.
By 3300 BC the Japhetic army had conquered the Indus Valley and began settling in large
towns, giving birth to the so-called Lavapuri Civilization5, a confederacy of cities, led by
Japhetite rulers. The original Indian population still formed the majority, yet its power
was severely diminished by the introduction of two new factors into the equation.
First, the army. While using infantry, archers and even elephants, the Japhetite kings
employed in large numbers horsemen from the Bactrian region. In fact, a very popular
hypothesis says that Lavapuri cities were forbidden to wage war against each other on the
1
Alternate name for Indo-Europeans
2
Evolutionist theory, with strong religious overtones
3
Our world’s Homo Erectus
4
Alternate name for the Scythian Plains
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The Indus Valley Civilization
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grounds that guilty parties would stop receiving military help from Bactria’s rulers, the
High Priests of Athar6. All over the Indus Valley the horse cult reached monstrous
proportions: over 30 percent of all excavated statues and drawings bear, in one way or
another, the equestrian sign. Faithful to their traditions, the Indian Japhetites maintained
the horsemen as their ideal soldier long after their links (and supply of horses) to the
Oxus region disappeared.
The second reason for the superiority of the conquerors laid in their religious make-up,
that later formed the basis of the Vedic system. The Japhetites introduced a new
pantheon, dominated by two essential elements, fire and water. Their main gods, Athar,
Indra and Mithra, were adopted by Indians with passion and religious fervor. Most
spiritual matters of the period relied on the existence of a powerful priest caste,
controlled from Bactria by the High Priests of Athar. Centered around the sacred city of
Bactra (founded in 3400-3300 BC), these men held in their hands an almost unlimited
supply of horses, as well as the proper influence to dominate the inner-workings of the
Lavapuri confederation.
This first great civilization crumbled by 1700 BC when the droughts emptied the cities
and forced the people to seek better areas of habitation in the Indian subcontinent. Due
to their tight caste system, they managed to maintain their individuality, while, through
the priests (gymnosophists), the religious system of the Japhetites became predominant
in India. It’s no wonder the Vedas placed the battle between Indra and Vritra as a symbol
of the Great Drought7.
6
Athar is the son of the Universe in Iranian mythology. He became Agni, God of Fire, in the Vedas.
7
The battle between Indra and Vritra is the main conflict in the Vedas. The hypothesis of this work is that
Vritra, the God of Drought, represents the symbol (in the hymns) of the natural phenomena that led to the
downfall of the Harrapian civilization.
