NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1048: The Māori People (1)
Whakarongo Pōtatau drank a pot of water as he felt his throat parched, and as he was drinking, in the corner of his eyes, he noticed something. It was a black dot that was gradually enlarging. Unsure, he squinted his eyes for a better view, and it was land. He smiled, causing the wrinkles on his face to look like a dried-up riverbed.
" We are here, get up, you brats, " he walked over to the cabin and kicked a few boys who were sleeping without a care in the world.
"Ah"
The young adults were startled awake, they looked around in vigilance, but seeing the blue ocean everywhere, they relaxed.
Rangiwhenua Te Aho, who was irritable after being rudely woken up, angrily glared at his grandfather, " What happened, old man, have the evil spirits taken over your body or something? "
Whakarongo Pōtatau's expression immediately turned ugly, ' this brat '. Without hesitation, he kicked his grandson in the back and growled, " We are almost at the port, get ready to disembark. "
" Also, when we get there, I don't want any of you acting like fools. "
His eyes were stern.
" Have I made myself clear? "
' Gulp!! '
" Yes, sir! " four loud voices came out in unison.
Whakarongo Pōtatau nodded in satisfaction and turned around, going to the cupboard to prepare his luggage to disembark.
' Damn old man, he hit me so hard '
---
(Melbourne) Parivartanpura, capital of the Kingdom of Reshmi Vardhana.
When King Lachit Borphukan visited the town on his tour of the kingdom, he realised that it was in an excellent geographical location, in a bay that could be used as a massive port, a port not smaller than the port of Nakkavaram. Also, it was in close proximity to the land of the Māori tribes, making it convenient to import supplies. Besides, he realised that it would be very convenient to manage the overseas territory of Sundaralia (Tasmania), so he was already considering making it the capital of the kingdom; however, he did not know what to name it. But when he encountered four different weather in the same day, he got the idea to name the city Parivartanpura, the city of change.
So, since then, Parivartanpura, as its name suggests, has been changing every single day. It went from being a small town of only around a few kilometres in diameter to a bustling city stretching over ten kilometres in a matter of a few months. Although this change is only on paper, and in reality it is still a small settlement, barely a city, changes can be seen every day. If there is anything that could be seen everywhere in the city, then it is construction sites; the whole city is being built right before everyone's eyes, and that includes the Royal Palace that Lachit Borphukan had contracted to be constructed.
Not to mention, he also organised people to clear out a road for the railway tracks to be established from Parivartanpura to Indrapura (Sydney), the capital of Vishalanagari.
The distance is about 400 kilometres long, but due to both him and Narasimha Nayak pouring large amounts of resources for the road to be cleared out, a mud road was made in a matter of three months. Now, the process of laying down the railway tracks had already begun.
Since so many things are happening in Reshmi Vardhana, the port of Parivartanpura is naturally extremely busy, so the ship of Whakarongo Pōtatau had to wait outside the bay for several hours until they were eventually let in.
Rangiwhenua Te Aho and the other boys were so bored waiting on the boat that was going nowhere that they took the opportunity to have a quick nap. As for Whakarongo Pōtatau, he couldn't be bothered to scold the young guys. In the end, succumbing to boredom, he picked up his stick and started fishing. Though he could not catch any fish since the waters outside the bay don't have any fish due to the high traffic of ships, holding the fishing rod was able to relax him and let the time flow by quickly.
---
Disembarking from the ship, the four boys were mesmerised; they had never been to the legendary Kingdom of the Bharatiyas.
" Hey, idiots, stop staring at the crowd and get up here and unload the luggage. I don't want to pay the fine for docking the ship at the platform for too long. " Unfortunately, their excitement was cut short by the words. As an old man, looking at the blaming and annoyed eyes of the brats, Whakarongo Pōtatau smiled and shook his head. Was he not the same when he first visited this country?
After unloading everything, he paid the sailor the money, took his grandson and the three young boys, and left.
Ever since the people who called themselves the Bharatiyas visited their lands, a lot of communication has taken place.
There has even been trade between the two parties. His tribe, the Ngāpuhi tribe, being the largest in the North Island with over 20,000 people, were the first to establish a trade relation with the Bharatiya. For so many years, they had been trading fish, animals, fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Their tribe was mostly based on horticulture, hunting, and fishing, so these were the only resources that could be traded. In exchange, they bought the utensils and tools of the Bharatiya Empire, including weapons.
But as time went on, his tribe realised that the Bharatiya Empire was unfathomable, so for the first time, instead of buying Bharatiya utensils, tools, and weapons, his tribal chief bought a boat that could traverse the endless sea and sent someone to follow the Bharatiyas to see their land.
After the people who came back explained the true might of the Bharatiya Empire, their tribe began to understand how vast and mighty their neighbour was.
Then began a revolution in their society. A lot of practices of the Bharatiyas that were deemed applicable were applied to their own tribe, and many governance tools that were being used in the Bharatiya Empire were implemented in their tribe as well.
And this happened several years ago. After his tribal chief realised that the people in the Bharatiya Empire's frontier neighbouring them were very adventurous and open to new experiences, he made a rule in their tribe to immigrate people from the frontier to their tribe to teach their people the Bharatiya language, as well as to make a text for their own language, a dictionary out of it, so that it could be taught throughout the tribe like the Bharatiyas taught their language to their kids.
When the dictionary was finished, his tribe even celebrated the day as the day of knowledge and liberation, where his tribe went from ignorance to knowledge.
And since then, his tribe began to be more diversified, not in terms of people, because the people who settled from the Bharatiya Empire were still a very low percentage of their tribe, but in terms of jobs and what they did. Before, it was either growing fruits, vegetables, or flowers, hunting, or fishing. But now, there were new professions like artisan, who sold his artistic crafts to the Bharatiyas who were interested in them, teacher, civil servant, police, doctor, judge, and others.
Also, their tradition of tattooing caught the eye of some Bharatiyas, and some of them even wanted tattoos like theirs, but unfortunately, the first few people didn't like it because it was extremely painful, and someone even died.
When this happened, despite his tribe bearing no responsibility for the death, as they did not force anyone, the chief was so scared that for the first time, he travelled into the frontier of Reshmi Vardhana and apologised to the governor himself.
But the difference in power was too great after all, so the apology had to be given. But to the tribal chief's surprise, the governor was only a little disappointed and did not blame his tribal chief. Instead, he gave some suggestions.
" Chief Ngawaka Te Rangi, I do not know your traditions, but let me ask you this: Do you think it is just for your people to die during the process of getting the Tā Moko? " (Tattoo)
The chief was confused, " Of course not. Tā Moko is a representation of our rank, our ancestry, and our achievements. It is not some sort of test to prove that we can withstand the pain. "
" Then could you consider changing your technique of tattooing? "
" Change the technique? "
" Yes, change the technique. You might not know this, respected chief, but back in the mainland, there is a community called the Naga community. Their traditions are quite similar to your own. They use tattooing as a form of spiritual connection, achievements, rank, and bravery. "
" However, they used to use a sharp thorn, bone, or a metal spike instead of carving. "
" More recently, they started to use surgical needles, which made it safer. "
" Maybe your community could consider a similar approach. The frontier has a lot of Naga people; you can contact them if you need help. "
After that day, things changed. Although they still used the carving technique to apply Tā Moko to their own people, the most experienced tattoo artists among them started to experiment with tattooing using needles in order to learn that technique. They even contacted the Naga people in the frontier.
After months of trial and error on pig and animal skin, they finally mastered tattooing using the needle, and with this mastery, people no longer had to die due to pain and blood loss. The process of tattooing became much safer, and because of this, more people from the frontier were attracted.
Things were going extremely well for the last few years, and their lives were getting better. However, their good fortune seemed not to have left their side yet, because at the beginning of the year, the frontier of Reshmi Vardhan they were all familiar with became the Kingdom of Reshmi Vardhan.
Even a monarch was appointed to this kingdom by the empire. His chief, Te Hira Rangihau, was worried about how the relationship would change. Thankfully, King Lachit Borphukan showed no intention of stopping the trade between the two communities. Instead, he actually encouraged more trade to happen by putting forward new policies to allow people from his tribe and multiple other tribes to purchase land in the kingdom and set up shops. In exchange, he did ask that his people would be allowed the same privilege. It was not a big deal, so his chief readily agreed.
So since then, more communication has happened. His tribe got to know about the lives, customs, cultures, and beliefs of the Bharatiyas in a much deeper way. They absorbed everything they could and slowly developed their system.
To Be Continued...