by Harvey Kraft
Gautama turned to look at the sky. He picked out the planet Nebu (Mercury), the star of knowledge and prophets. “It is time,” he said turning to the Magi aides.
“Please, World-honored One,” the Budii messenger said. “I am here with my brothers. The Saka king, your honorable royal father, Sud-dhodana, has instructed us to escort you to the Indus. He will protect your family while you are away. Please wear this robe I have brought for you. You will be one of us Budii now. No one will know of your whereabouts.”
The smiling Gautama turned to his Magi colleagues, clasping his hands together, he bowed to them and said: “I will remember you, always, my dearest friends. Let’s congregate again in the stars when the Sun, Moon, and Venus are in perfect alignment. Please assure the others that I have embarked on my journey to liberate all the people from suffering. If you hear news that I have been killed, do not accept it, for in death my life begins anew.”
With Gautama’s departure the Achaemenid bloodline resumed under the helm of the new Emperor, Darius the Great. On the face of a gorge in Bisutun in Persia five columns of etched inscriptions speak with the voice of Darius describing his predecessor. The Persian Emperor claimed therein that for a few months an imposter who pretended to be the brother of the deceased King Kambujiya, a Magi named “Gaumâta,” had sat on the stolen throne belonging to the Achaemenid family.
CHAPTER FOUR
Leaving Babylon
True to their word, the Budii safely escorted the deposed Chief Magus and former King of Babylon to the lower Sindhu (Indus River) forests. They may have taken Gautama on a northern route through Medes toward the Kingdom of Gandhara then across the Punjab to Kuru. Or perhaps they went from Babylon along the Euphrates River to its mouth at the Persian Gulf near ancient Eridu, and then by sea route along the southern coastline to the mouth of the Indus. Most likely, they took a southern land route along the Saka held coastline through Makran79 to the spot where the Indus meets the Arabian Sea (part of the Indian Ocean).
Meanwhile, the new Emperor, Darius I, took control of the crown. He had sent out agents to find Gautama with instructions to send detailed reports on his activities. If the opportunity to kill him presented itself, they were to make sure that it looked like an accident.
But his physical whereabouts would remain unknown.
Standing at a river’s edge Siddhartha Gautama spotted a large white lotus flower balanced on top of the water. His eyes followed its stalk to the root in the muddy bottom.
“What is the secret of the blossom, World-Honored One?” asked his lead companion.
“From the beginning of time,” he replied, “the light of Existence emerged from the swamp of chaos. So shall it be again.” He smiled fondly as he recalled his youthful studies with the religious teachers in Babil and his earlier sojourn in the Vedic forest, his astral research at the Esagila tower, and his most recent efforts to bring compassionate relief to the people of Babylon. Now on the run, with agents of the Persian army on his heels, he reflected on where he was headed.
“Near by are my old mentors of mediation, the watchers of the Cosmic Mountain. Let us find them. They will help us open the portal to peace for this suffering world,” Gautama said.
When the Achaemenid General took power, he claimed that he had averted a conspiracy of Median interests, a plot by Median nobles and the Magi to reclaim the status they held during the former Medes Empire. Immediately after the Achaemenid Persians were restored to power, a number of rebellions broke out throughout the empire. Emperor Darius I was prepared for this development. He launched a military campaign to consolidate his territorial dominance crushing the opposition in Media and other parts.
He would go on to attack areas or leaders who supported the deposed Gautama or those foolishly inclined to seek a return to independence.
Darius declared that his selection to the throne was a divine act requested and sanctioned by the Supreme God. He no longer felt compelled to follow the strategy of Cyrus the Great, the late Persian Emperor who acknowledged the God Marduk in establishing his right to the Babylonian throne. Darius instead honored Assura Mazda, the Persian Supreme God espoused by Zoroaster, his religious advisor since his youth in Anshan.
Darius would declare Mazdaism to be the state religion. He would place Zoroaster at the head of a new Magi Order after a purge of the clerical community. Any sages not willing to join in the new state religion would be relieved of their duties. The Esagila temple would no longer be relevant. Henceforth, the Magi would be an exclusively Zoroastrian Order, a training ground for priests (Per. Athravan) to conduct state and religious ceremonies. Their outdoor fire rituals became the exclusive franchise for honoring the emperor, and keeping the empire pure of lascivious influences. Because Assura Mazda had given only human beings control over fire, and not animals, this meant that those who controlled fire were his chosen and blessed followers.
Darius, a military and political mastermind, and his advisor, Zoroaster, a master of strategy and mythmaking, had planned and executed a complex coupe and purge. It was ambitious in scale and consequence and shrewdly executed. Its obfuscations fooled many, but its true intention would not evade detection by the Scythian and Indian peoples east of Persia.
THE INSULT
Cyrus the Great established the vast Persian Empire, becoming its first emperor by consolidating the Median and Babylonian Empires under his rule. He reigned for thirty years and built the first Persian Empire capital at Pasargadae (546 BCE) in Parsa (today Fars Province, Iran). From this fortified center his administration organized a system for the efficient operation of provincial nations, acting much like a federal government for the mutual benefit of the empire and its states. His conquests facilitated the acquisition of wealth from raided treasuries, the takeover of mining resources, and the levying of taxation. His neighbors became vassals forced to carry the burdens of heavy taxation.
His military appetite compelled Cyrus to enlarge his eastern holdings. He personally led a great army to battle (530 BCE) against a confederation of Scythians (the Massagetae)80 in northeastern Aryana (today Afghanistan). Tens of thousands were killed on both sides including Cyrus himself. At the end, the Persians were forced to withdraw, taking the body of Cyrus for burial at Pasargadae. Of his two sons, the elder Kambujiya had long since been deemed to be his successor.
From the moment he took power, Cyrus sought to reestablish the traditional relationship between the ruler and the clergy and avert the religious clash his predecessor had with the Magi Order. He granted the Magi of Babylon their request to reinstate the popular twelve-day festival honoring Marduk, an ancient custom dating back to Old Babylon’s founding in the era of Hammurabi some 1,300 years earlier.
The event had been interrupted for ten years (549–539 BCE) during the reign of Nabonidus. Cyrus leveraged the neglect and insult of the Magi in his campaign to demonize Nabonidus before capturing the city. Although a Persian, Cyrus understood the long history of Babylon’s assertiveness against foreign royals and was careful not to offend the historical sensitivities of the proud city. He made an effort to act like a Babylonian native—shrewdly declaring that he would put the interests of the people of Babylonia ahead of his own.
By restoring the New Year’s Harvest Festival (Akitu),81 a celebration coinciding with the vernal/March equinox, he gained the support of the city’s citizens and leaders immediately after his defeat of Nabonidus (539 BCE). Now he would prove his intentions were sincere when summoned to Esagila to honor the Magi Order’s dictum requiring the annual reaffirmation of the king. However, this ancient ceremony calling for Marduk’s annual acceptance of a sitting sovereign included a “humiliation ritual” where the king is made aware of his mortality and, therefore, his inferiority to the immortal Lord. While acknowledging its socio-political importance, Cyrus wanted to avoid attending this scene personally.
Upon his takeover of Babylon, he sent word that he was unavoidably detained. Military business required his presence elsewher
e in another part of the kingdom. In his place, he sent his son, Kambujiya, to attend the Akitu Crowning Ceremony at Esagila on his behalf. Cyrus had groomed Kambujiya (aka Cambyses II), to inherit his throne, and in sending him to Babylon, he declared the prince to be his royal successor.
The traditional role for the King of Babylon was to lead an elaborate procession festooned with ornamental decorations, colorful streamers, flags, and chimes. As the celebration headed for the Esagila temple, the king would be given the honor to preside over the resetting of the yearly calendar’s alignment with the solar cycle. When the king “took Marduk’s hand,” the Lord God would restart the cycle of existence, initiating the first season, spring. Readings of the scripture82 reminded all in attendance that Marduk had originally created and set the cosmos into rhythmic motion. The people lined the street cheering and praying as display carts carried breads from the barley harvest, gifts to the bull god-idol (Nebu), and sheep to be offered to all the gods in the pantheon for their bestowal of bounty and fertility.
Representing the new king, Kambujiya arrived at Esagila to formally receive the confirmation of his father Cyrus as the Lord’s selection to rule Babylon.
Although the sacredness of the location and certain rules of the ceremony were publicly known, Kambujiya had not been prepared for it. Entering the temple gate of Esagila, he and his entourage were dressed in full Elamite regalia and inappropriately armed with swords and other weapons. Kambujiya wore a princely crown on his head, and held a scepter in one hand and a mace in the other.
Following the cleansing of the temple with holy water purification rituals and drum beatings to exorcise demonic spirits, the Master of Magi Ceremonies (sesgallu) met Kambujiya in front of the Lion of Babylon, a black rock sculpture dedicated to the Magi Order by Nebuchadnezzar. Shocked by Kambujiya’s seemingly unwitting desecration of the sacred ground, the priests scolded him and his men and ordered them to disarm. Embarrassed, surprised and seething with anger, still Kambujiya held his tongue. He was then told to order his bodyguards to stay behind as he was escorted to wash his hands before being allowed to enter Marduk’s Inner Sanctum.
The clerics surrounded the rattled prince and removed his regalia— crown, scepter, and mace—placing the objects at the feet of Marduk’s golden statue. Facing the prince, the High Priest then slipped into a trance and suddenly, with all his might, slapped Kambujiya across the cheek. Grabbing him by the ear, he pulled him down in front of the idol declaring that the King of Babylon was not any more important than any other mortal in the eyes of the Lord. Kambujiya, on his knees, was told to beg Marduk to give his father, the king, his powers and privileges. Next, he was given a prayer to recite, wherein on behalf of his father he pledged the purity of the king’s intentions, his allegiance to Marduk, and readiness to accept his royal duties for the benefit of the city’s citizens. Still in trance, the High Priest, now channeling the voice of Marduk, changed his mood. Upon hearing the pledge his tone shifted from reprimand to mercy. Through him the Lord God addressed Kambujiya, saying that he had decided to permit Cyrus to sit on the throne for the upcoming year.
Kambujiya had endured the treatment in order to receive the prized acknowledgment of the Persian Achaemenid takeover. After his royal dress and accessories were returned to him, the High Priest, still speaking as the vessel and oracle of Marduk, granted the new king the destiny of a successful reign. Just when he thought it was over, the channeler, his voice resonating with divine power, suddenly stepped forward and slapped the prince once again with another stinging blow to his sore cheek. Seeing tears well up in his eyes, the clerics in attendance rejoiced and appeared to be relieved, for they regarded royal tears to be indicative of humility before God, a harbinger of good fortune to come. At sunset, Cyrus’s stand-in departed the temple and took his prominently displayed seat on a lavishly opulent cart drawn by a white ox. The procession left the Esagila temple and headed back through the Gate of Ishtar. After this departure, Kambujiya would never again return to the temple.
Soon Cyrus appointed Kambujiya to rule as King of the former Medes Empire, including the Elam-Medes-Parsa territories (today Iran). Eight years later (531 BCE) he also appointed his son the King of Babylon, and in the following year, with the news of his father’s death in battle, Kambujiya ascended to the throne of the entire Persian Empire.
At the beginning of his seven-year reign Kambujiya moved the empire’s seat from his father’s center in Pasargadae to Susa, the former Elam capital, a more convenient location between Babylon and Ecbatana. There his administration operated with a heavier hand levying oppressive taxes across the empire, primarily to finance his growing military ambition. At his court his servants watched as the emperor fed his obsession for becoming the greatest ruler of all time with a growing drinking problem. He would fly into wine-induced rages, whereby he might kill any noble in his line of sight if he suspected disloyalty.
Like his father, Kambujiya coveted the expansion of his borders, but the prize he eyed was Egypt. However, before embarking on a military campaign to Africa, he was concerned that a long absence might jeopardize his throne at home. Kambujiya secretly instructed his most trusted lieutenant, Prexaspes, to assassinate the only possible threat in his view, his younger brother, Bardiya. As the Emperor marched on to Egypt (525 BCE), Bardiya disappeared.
Kambujiya’s invasion of Egypt was ferocious and timely. His military overwhelmed the armies of a new pharaoh only six months on the throne. He captured Pharaoh Psamtik III (526–525 BCE), deported him to Susa, and had him executed there.
Kambujiya clearly saw his victory as proof that Heaven had selected the Persian culture, as embodied by him, to dominate Egypt, thereby relegating its religion to an inferior status. He declared himself Pharaoh Mesuti-Rae (son of the Sun God Rae) and demanded that the Egyptians treat him as a living God. He relished the idea of being worshipped. To eliminate any possible resistance among the Egyptian nobles, he ordered the public execution of two thousand leading citizens including the son of the fallen Pharaoh. In addition, several thousand influential Egyptian citizens and scholars were arrested and pressed into service as personal slaves of his military’s officers and soldiers.
Declaring himself a liberator, Kambujiya charged that Egyptian temples had been taking advantage of the people. He ordered that religious taxes be cut in half. Most temples relied on revenue paid in cattle and poultry to sustain their clerical and support structure. This edict was a severe blow to the religious enterprise in Egypt, already in decline from its glorious past.
THE COVER-UP
For three years during his occupation of Egypt, Kambujiya failed to return to Babylon and neither reported to Esagila nor sent a stand-in for his anointment as king. To the Magi Order his absence appeared to cause a crisis. Ignored again by a detached emperor, some among its leadership council called for appropriate action. Because they enjoyed immense popularity and the support of the people, they appeared confident in asserting their divine right to certify mortal sovereignty. The Anointing Ceremony could become inconsequential again, they feared, unless they enforced it. On the other hand, if they vacated the throne, some asked, what would be the emperor’s reaction? Could it cause an unintended response?
Senior clerics, those who several years earlier witnessed what they perceived to be a compliant Prince Kambujiya, believed that once he returned to Babylon, he would express his regrets and beg for the throne to be restored. After some debate, during which even the Persian evangelist, Zoroaster, may have agreed to support the Magi’s proposed action, the council ruled that for the sake of social stability in the emperor’s absence they would evacuate the throne. They chose their Chief Magus, Siddhartha Gautama, to represent the crown temporarily. Expecting that the issue would be resolved when Kambujiya returned and repented, indeed they were heartened to learn that word of their action had reached Kambujiya, and he prepared to return to Babylon.
Behind the scenes a secret Persian conspiracy plotted to take the throne.
Darius Achaemenid, Kambujiya’s distant cousin and an ambitious military leader, his religious advisor and mentor, Zoroaster, and seven prominent Persian nobles hatched a complicated plot that would change the course of the world. They planned to take the reigns of the empire, as well as bring down the Magi Order.
His inner circle, a conspiracy of military leaders, landowner aristocrats, and religious leaders, had worried that the reigning Kambujiya was not reliable. They hatched a complex plan to change the leader at the top, but they could not be seen has having a hand in overthrowing a Persian kin.
The first step was to initiate a crisis by influencing the Magi Order to vacate the throne in Babylon. Gautama, the Chief Magus, they hoped, would then assume the mantle of governance. The conspirators would make sure that Kambujiya failed to return by “creating” a fatal accident. Once he was out of the way, the Persian conspirators would spread the story that the Magi had placed Bardiya, Kambujiya’s long lost brother, on the throne.
The Persian conspirators would then charge the Magi Order with perpetrating a fraud on the public. They would spread word that Bardiya was already dead, as Kambujiya had ordered his assassination three years earlier. Then they would accuse the Magi Order of greedily orchestrating a power grab by using a “Bardiya-imposter” as a puppet-figurehead, in order to maintain control of royal power. Exposing this supposed trickery would show that the Magi Order conspired against the Persians. They even charged that the Magi went so far as to threaten to kill any Persian aristocrats who might expose their ruse.
The Persian conspirators accused the Magi of plotting with the Median aristocracy to confiscate rich agricultural lands in Babylonia from Persians nobles and award it to their secret allies. Darius, in full control of the Persian military, would step in and rescue the throne from the clutches of the “traitorous Magi.” Ironically, to justify their actions, the Persian conspirators invented and decried a Magi Order conspiracy.