Tuesday 29 June 2021

India

I am rereading Ninian Smart's The World's Religions, having come to Lancaster to be supervised by Ninian many years ago. A Poul Anderson fan is bound to think that there must have been much work for the Time Patrol in India from the beginning of the Indus Valley civilization in about 3000 B.C.E. However, there is scant mention of India in the Time Patrol series because one man cannot cover everything. As Bob Shaw once said, how far a time traveler penetrates back into the past depends on several factors including which period the author has been mugging up on.

These are the only references that I remember. First, when Everard and Denison don luminous robes with halos and wings of light in Persia, Everard explains:

"'I had the boys in the Middle Mohenjodaro office fix 'em up to my specs. Their situation is such that they often need this type of disguise for themselves.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Brave To Be A King" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 55-112 AT 9, p. 108.

Secondly, when Everard is on the run from the Exaltationists in Bactra in 209 B.C., he reflects that the Patrol kept stations in several cities in that era, including Palipushtra.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Exactly. Manse Everard could not be everywhere and everywhen! So of course the Patrol would have other agents and Specialists focusing on the Indus Valley area. And in the Yellow River region in Hsia Dynasty times (the fourth location where a true civilization independently arose).

Ad astra! Sean