Unbridled Story (Part 2) —

(Recap– In the first part of the story, I mentioned about an old Chinese story as a prologue that I happened to go through in my childhood. In that story I narrated, how a Chinese peasant happened to find a piece of mirror ….. )

The very piece of the mirror, Chinese peasant procured from his land was unique in the sense, so that, at that period of time, human civilization had not stepped into an advanced stage of discoveries and inventions. Hence the concept of mirror was altogether out of the imagination of people of that era. The invention of mirror came into light about more than two thousand years of that occurrence. In a nutshell that was the period of time when just had entered into civilized from its prehistoric phase. Though, till that time man had discovered Iron only and proven as a significant metal for farming and warfare. Of course, wooden and soil made appliances were in vogue majorly.

We simply may draw the conclusion that piece of mirror procured by the Chinese peasant, in no condition belonged to the extent civilization of the time. That simply belonged to some antediluvian era of another eon which existed prior to the present Eon.  In all the major religious books we often find the description of “Great flood” as a mythological story. This major event of Great flood ever took place at the end of every Eon after million of years. In this Great flood entire earth upsides down and annihilates every thing. After that again a new journey begins from the zero point and again after taking millions years of evolution man once again reaches to his present form.

Obviously, the piece of mirror recovered by the peasant didn’t belong to the present era but had its connection with the Eon which existed prior to the last Great flood. Though, the backdrop of the journey of evolution of man kind of that Eon was akin to this Eon’s evolution. The same circumstances and ambiance, people of that Eon too encountered as ours. From here, we truly steps into the story of invention of that particular piece of mirror. This goes back firstly into the ambiance of social system, when  and  in what situations this “mirror” was invented. The era of that civilization and particularly the territorial region of the invention was a sort of large Kingdom at the time of invention of this Mirror.

The ambiance and circumstances of the aforesaid large Kingdom were in semblance to the kingdoms of our Medieval time, we read in the historic books. In that time, men were educated up to a given standard and had learnt to construct big castles, stone made big dams, roads, irrigation system etc but agrarian society based culture prevailed majorly. There existed a good deal numbers of kingdoms whole through the surface of the earth. Many of them connected through land boundaries but others also separated by ocean and unknown to one another. Though sea voyage been initiated but without having any countable success in the account.

Education was a most preferred option but confined to privileged high order of society of the time only. Every such kingdom owned army as per need of the time. Mainly foot soldiers, horse regiment, chariot regiments were the main contingents. The miraculous “gun powder” too had not been invented up to that period of time. All the battles were fought in conventional modes, meant, by swords, arrows and bows and javelin. It was,in fact the formation of that middle time civilized society. These kingdoms, as usual were prone to remain engaged in war with neighboring lords incessantly with intent to extend land boundaries.

Other needed metal like iron, bronze, copper too had been discovered and used as per the procurement and demand but precious metal “gold” as usual was the rare metal and extracted in absolute modicum.The hurdles in procuring the gold were similar to our present era and it needed very hard and laborious efforts, despite all the given efforts outcome were the same. After the precious metal, refined clothing fabric like silk and linen too were costly  but could be produced with lesser efforts comparatively. Engineering too were in the primary advanced stage but despite of all the gold was the precious metal most looked after and given the name as “mysterious metal.”

In education line, a prominent sector dealt with medical science in its indigenous form based upon the knowledge of herbs and other subsidiary resources. Since war were in  incessant occurrence and wounds inflicted patients needed to be cured. This gave birth to the surgery as an important segment. Otherwise also, injuries happened to be sustained by people in day to day activities hence surgery was essential organ of the medical sector. This sector of medicine needed other branches to assist it hence a prominent class of scientists emerged in the name of researchers in this field. These prominently were given the responsibility to develop and find out various types of ointments and chemicals which may be proven helpful in curing wounds and diseases.

But some of these scientists focused their mind in preparation of precious or mysterious metal   gold artificially. In a short span of time, their repute became subject of envy added with adoration. This class of people happened to nomenclature as Alchemist. Since, every one was after the mysterious gold hence the class of alchemist too began to be treated as mysterious class with an awe. Though, customarily medical men earned a prominent place in the court of king as well as among common people; but shortly this class of alchemist succeeded in securing a privileged class in the eyes of every one.

This class of alchemist had two categories. One supported, promoted and funded by the Royal Court and another one assisted by local rich people who in general were feudal lords. They were provided everything free of cost. Their livelihood and expenses of research work were bear  by either King or the feudal lord who promoted them. Any promising youth who was educated enough with an acumen could be patronized by King’s treasury or other feudal lords. To opt for the Alchemist was a prestigious vocation and earned a great respect. That was an old time and people were ascertained somewhere that on one day this class of Alchemist was to invent the precious “mysterious metal” some how. The greed has ever been the significant element of the human mind, it can’t be denied.

In the light of this, Alchemist were supposed to attain high level of filthy richness in coming future. In all, the quest to find the precious gold was the prop on which repute of Alchemist stilted. Any educated youth inclined to dedicate his life for this search in the “work shop” ( lab) was even a target to be hooked on by local lords as promoter. They hooked on him by enticing to provide a suitable ambiance in shape of finance, accommodation and cozy place to stay permanently. Some of such feudal lords, in anticipation of precious gold had already got wed locked  their marriageable daughters with such promising Alchemists and afforded them every kind of amenities needed for the research work as son-in-law. In a word, to become an Alchemist was in similitude to become high prestigious stake holder as a “Civil servant” in the government of the time. (end of the Part 2. Cont’d.) Penned by — Vinay Pharasi —–