"The topes and stupas whose ruins Everard saw in twentieth-century Afghanistan would not be built for generations."
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 2018), 209 B.C., p. 47.
The Patrol agent in place in the vihara is Chandrakumar of Paliputra.
The Bactrian Greeks identify the Asian goddess, Anaitis, with Aphrodite Ourania and have built a fane to her beside the Stoa of Nicanor. There are ithyphallic herms along the Sacred Way. Theonis, reputed to be an avatar of Anaitis, has endowed a temple of Poseidon outside the town.
Chandrakumar gathers intelligence not because he is among enemies - far from it - but because the Patrol must know the history of Bactra in order to protect it against threats like the Exaltationists. That Theonis has endowed a temple just outside a city that is about to be besieged is a crucial link in the Exaltationist plan to alter the history of the siege.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I wondered just now if there could also had been Jewish synagogues in Bactra. The Assyrians and Babylonians exiled many Jews thru out their empires, after all.
Sean
Sean,
Yes. Not mentioned by Anderson or I would have mentioned it.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I had a similar thought as well.
Sean
There were Jews in India at this time, IIRC.
And there still are Indian Jews with synagogues, Torahs, rabbis etc.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I'm amazed, Jews in India as early as the time of the Persian Empire and Alexander the Great??? I'm reminded of how the Mar Thoma Christians of India, both Catholic and Orthodox, has also been in India for many centuries.
Sean
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