As a merchant and representative of the Vaishya varna, I came from Varanasi to the western cities to trade and discover something new. The land I have seen, called Mesopotamia, is not in the best condition, being attacked by warriors who call themselves Persians. The city I’m heading to has recently been taken over, so I don’t expect to get a lot of sales there. However, I can nevertheless study the life and culture of the people of this land.
Even at first glance, the Babylon I came to is significantly different from the Hindu culture I am used to. These people do not have the concept of varnas and the strict division of people into priests, warriors, or merchants (crackonwall). Instead, people share more according to their wealth and what they can do. They also lack the concept of karma and dharma, which only confirms the chaos reigned. Given the scale of this city, it can be clearly said that the karma of many of its residents is leaning towards the negative side, determining the fate of these people and partly being the source of current disasters. Local orders are not connected with the maintenance of general order, and moral foundations are hardly visible; therefore, people suffer and cannot achieve enlightenment.
From what I know, throughout the history of this city, it was part of many so-called empires, both foreign and founded in this place. These immense structures leave a specific imprint on the way people live, as cities, especially cities as large as Babylon, strive to squeeze the best out of their surrounding lands. Therefore, there is a vast difference between small settlements and civilization centers (CrashCourse). Like many cities in this region, Babylon is full of legends and myths associated with this place’s greatness. In part, these legends are confirmed by what a visiting person sees.
Despite the recent conquest by the Persians, the city looks good both from the outside and in its inhabitants’ lives. For example, the townspeople’s diet is much richer than in the lands around, and even meat dishes are quite typical, for example, lamb stew (Barnes). Since there are very few building materials, animal manure, straw, and dirt are actively used to make so-called adobe. It may not be the ideal material, but Babylon’s inhabitants can build impressive structures out of it. Many buildings have straight lines, including quite large pyramids called ziggurats (Zero One). In many ways, they are helped by some form of speech preservation, called writing (CrashCourse). As the locals say, it allows them to calculate the required distances accurately. It is also extremely convenient to use in trading, so I will need to study it.
According to the townspeople, there are no barriers to learning this writing since both women and men can do it. The social structure here is quite unusual, as are the beliefs of the Babylonians, whose gods are very willful and evil (CrashCourse). However, in recent years they favor them since the Persian invaders were not so harmful as one could expect. Some Babylonians even call them liberators and are glad to see them. According to residents’ stories, the Persians managed to sneak into the city during the holiday, lowering the water level and quickly capturing all the outlying areas.
Those who are versed in military affairs speak of King Cyrus with respect, paying tribute to his plan to conquer Babylon, whose walls were considered impregnable until now. Besides, rumor has it that soon the king must make some positive changes in the city’s life, developing its science and culture. At least, people speak positively about the Persians’ arrival, and the invaders are not engaged in robbery, which gives hope for a slightly brighter future than what the inhabitants had before.