AU_Bigbang

[toujours_nigel]

so I've gone and signed up for au_bigbang and will be writing The Iliad (or some of its events) set in nineteenth century India, after the 1857 Mutiny but before the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885.

Names, as of now:

Agamemnon: Agastya.
Menelaus: Manoj.
Clytemnestra: Kalyani.
Helen: Hemangini.
Odysseus: Ullas (though this'll mean, possibly, that he's from a different region? idk.)
Penelope: Pratiksha.
Achilles: Akhilesh.
Patroclus: Pratap/Partha, still waffling.
Paris: Parimal.
Priam: Priyam (courtesy fireshowers )
Hector: Meghnad (working title, because, well, he is, subject to change)

more to come as inspiration strikes.

Agastya is Raja Agastya Chaudhri, and has vast, not-entirely-legally-acquired estates in the United Province, his father was a Rai, but he made good during the 1857 Mutiny, and was rewarded for being loyal to the Brits with greater territory. He's on good terms with the Brits and they ignore him as long as he pays up, which he does with great regularity. Manoj has his wife's lands as fief, their brothers-in-law having died, but he and Hemangini live with Agastya and Kalyani in, well, somewhere in the Braj Bhumi in the Middle Doab region?

Ullas and Pratiksha are rather wary of Agastya, but being as how Pratiksha and Kalyani are cousins, they don't really have a way out of it. Ullas has a way with words, as well he should, being a barrister educated in England, and this makes him an asset Agastya is very unlikely to part with.

Akhilesh is the only son of the Rai Sahib of [place to be named] and his much-younger wife, Tara. (Tara is higher-caste, but her natal chart is somewhat blemished, hence her marriage to the undoubtedly-nice, but also rather unimportant Kailash.) Pratap/Partha is Kailash's nephew, and might have, possibly, entirely-by-accident, killed someone when he was very young, and had to flee home. Alternatively, this might be a story Akhilesh tells to embarrass him, nobody's entirely sure. Theylive up north, in modern Uttarakhand, Garhwal/Kumaon

As the story starts, Hemangini has run away with Parimal, to his father's lands, downriver to the Purvanchal. Priyam is deeply unhappy about it, but susceptible to Hemangini's stories and Parimal's charm. His wife and eldest son are rather less impressed, and would rather like to hand chhoti rani Hemangini back to her kin and clan.

*breathes* Hold me? Also, can someone please beta for historical details (er, not that there will be many, but general screwing-up) and names/wording?

Comments

[dhobikikutti]

I am SO looking forward to this, although if it ends up being only about the rich folks who support the British without in any way addressing how fucked up they are, then I will have to weep and possibly hit something.

I am not sure I can beta for historicity since my knowledge of the period is limited to 10th class history textbooks. But I might be able to find some History honours students who would read it once it is complete?

Feel free to grab me in chat for general names etc idea bouncing off though. (I'm my username on gtalk)

[toujours_nigel]

I am hoping it won't just be about the rich people. I think Ullas has Congress inclinations, at any rate. I dunno how much of that will show up, but *deep breath* well, Binati (Briseis analogue) is going to be from the fisherfolk, so something there, at least.

And thank you.