LOTS AGAINST A PEOPLE

ODAY marks the start of the ancient Jewish festival of Purim, which begins at sunset and ends at nightfall tomorrow.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

It celebrates the deliverance of the Jewish people from genocide in Persia. The story is found in the Book of Esther in the Old Testament.‘Ahasuerus’ (Xerxes I or Khshayarsha in Old Persian) was the Achaemenid king of Persia in the fifth century BCE. He was a Zoroastrian who did not impose his faith on his subjects. The Achaemenid empire extended from Ethiopia to the Indus Valley across twenty satrapies or provinces. In 2005, I got to see the carvings of coolies in loincloths carrying baskets of tribute on their heads, at the Apadana Palace in Persepolis. The Indian province was the eastern limit of the Achaemenid empire and is mentioned twice in the Book of Esther as Houd, from Honoud or Hindu, the Persian pronunciation of Sindhu.

One day, a Jew named Mordecai of the tribe of Benjamin unearthed a plot by two palace guards, Bigthan and Teresh, to assassinate the king. He informed the chief of police and the two conspirators were caught and hanged. Mordecai’s service was entered in the court records.

Khshayarsha, having quarrelled with his queen, Amastari (Vashti in the Bible), ordered the eligible girls in his capital, Susa, to appear before him so that he could select a new bride. Mordecai sent his beautiful orphan cousin Esther before the king, warning her not to disclose that she was Jewish. Esther was chosen and became queen. Mordecai had hoped to place her in that high position in case she could help the Jewish people someday, for trouble was brewing in Khshayarsha’s court.