Ancient Worlds, Timeless Emotions.

A Storizen Exclusive Feature

- Pria Raiyani and Swapna Peri

In Daughter of Two Rivers, author Arun Krishnan takes readers on an extraordinary journey across time, blending the mystique of ancient India and Babylon into an epic tale of love, loss, and civilizational legacy. Inspired by a forgotten artefact, the disappearance of the Sarasvati river, and the rich, interconnected history of early civilizations, Krishnan crafts a narrative that is both historically grounded and emotionally resonant. In this exclusive interview, he opens up about the meticulous research, the timeless emotional currents that shape his characters, and the creative challenge of weaving fact and fiction into a story that spans continents—and centuries.

Your Author's Note mentions that the story is inspired by three historical facts, including an artefact at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and the disappearance of the Sarasvati river. What drew you to these particular elements, and how did they shape the narrative's foundation?

The story developed organically. I was fascinated by the fact that a piece of a Sumerian artefact was found off the coast of Mumbai. It pointed to long standing trade relations between our civilization and the Babylonians. We all know that the Mittani had Vedic/Indic roots. Hence, it was obvious that such trade ties existed from time immemorial.

While the actual tablet found at BORI is from around the 6th century BCE, I wanted to have a story that connected with the Sindhu-Saraswati civilization. The discoveries in Rakhigarhi dated to an earlier time period, that also coincided with the commonly accepted dates for when the Sarasvati river dried up. I also wanted to bring out facets of the Babylonian civilization. Luckily, it was around that time that one of the greatest Babylonian kings lived. Hence, the idea developed about locating the story around 1800 BCE, at the confluence of all these different events.