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[1] Previously, the centre of power had been Pataliputra in the lower half of the Gangetic plains, however the Mandeshis have shifted the capital to the Upper Ganges, not far from the Indus valley either. Until now, India was experiencing medieval period very similarly to Europe, with the local power residing in the hands of the military aristocracy; such conditions have been favourable to Hinduism; however under the Shahdom of Hind, which has united much of northern India, power again came to be concentrated and cities attract more and more people from the countryside. Buddhism has become the religion of the city-folk, as well as the religion of the military elites. While a considerable number of the nobility could trace their descent from Mandesh and Zabulistan and other regions of the eastern Iranian plateau, they have adopted the Indian culture relatively fast, leaving few traces of their Persianate heritage

[2]. While the Iranian languages of the conquerors did leave behind them some linguistic heritage, the few Pakhtun loanwords were mostly related to military terminology.

The conquerors relied on the light cavalry, which held the empire together, greatly reducing the number of polities and autonomous rulers which had existed in the place before. Effective and centralized administration has allowed the maintenance of monasteries, and Buddhism was again gaining ground in the Ganges valley at the expense of Hinduism. In the rural areas and backwaters, of course the population remained largely unaffected and continued to practice a form of folk devoutness, which can be labelled as Hinduism.

However, in the west, in the region of Multan, it remained Manicheism, which was the popular religion.

The Manichean faith, as it has established a foothold in Multan, it adapted to the local customs, as the Manicheans have been doing anywhere they went. Contact with Samarqand, the seat of the Denawar denomination in Central Asia has weakened; and in the region known to Greeks as Pentapotamia or Pantzab, a new denomination called Roshblani

[3]. The Roshblani sect of Manichaeism has incorporated a number of elements from Hindu and Buddhist practices

[4]. The original Gnostic nature of the faith appears to be rediscovered, as the Manichean religion has entered the caste-based society of the Subcontinent. Some early Manichean texts have never made into Pantzab, and as a result the Roshblani denomination has partially diverged from the remaining Manichean denominations

[5], although Mazouni merchants travelling the Indus River upstream did recognize the religion as Manichean.

As for the writing systems used in India, we may mention a handful of them. The scripts employed in the Indian subcontinent are descendants of Brahmic, which itself descended from Aramaic. The Brahmic script was later adapted to the individual languages of India, and by the 12th century there are numerous abugidas. Firstly there was the Gupta script, from which the Sharadi

[6] script of northern India and Kashmir descended, itself being the ancestor of the Landa script used in the region of Punjab. In the east, in the Brahmaputra and Lower Ganges, the Siddham script developed

[7]. Most of northern India would be writing in the Nagari script, however.

The western coast of India was in close contact with Mazoun and Arabia, and trade existed between the Konkani and Malabar Coasts and southern Arabia, resulting in the development of a stronger, more confident merchant class, perhaps a small bourgeoisie in the western coast, where cultures and religions met. While caste distinctions remained in this region as well, they were not as pronounced as in the rest of the Subcontinent.

The northeastern edges of the Deccan Plateau have remained still largely tribal; the Tamil regions in the south of the Subcontinent were the second centre of civilization in India, still maintaining ties to Southeast Asia. In fact, the Tamil regions continued to extend a degree of influence across the *Bay of Bengal*.

With Buddhism rooted in the Gangetic plain, the Indian Subcontinent remains the heart of the Buddhist world, maintaining ties with Tibet and the Khmer regions and Nusantara, as well as the highland regions of the eastern Iranian plateau, being part of the Greater Indosphere.

[1] Buddhism will remain the religion of this urban elite of the Gangetic state. Unlike islam in OTL, Buddhism is not going to be perceived as foreign to the same degree as was islam considered in OTL. Moreover, there will be a considerably higher number of native Indian converts to Buddhism again.

[2] Without islam as the religion of the conquerors, it is much more likely that they would adapt to Indian customs, as the Indian civilization appears to be way more civilized that the highlands of Afghanistan. Of course, some cultural aspects from Afghanistan will be introduced, but not that many as in OTL.

[4] Interestingly enough, the Roshblani are located in the same geographic area as the Sikhs would emerge a few centuries later in OTL. I can imagine this Manichean group to survive in the long-term. You may also consider the fact that as Sikhism was actually intentionally created as a syncretic religion, combining the elements of Islam and Hinduism; Manicheism could also be considered a syncretic religion accpeting the authority of Christianity, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism.

[5] I was going to write „mainstream Manicheism“, but I realized there remains no such thing. Out of the original three denominations „Msadeqi of Middle East, Denawar of Central Asia and Toxoxian of the Uyghurs, only Denwar remains vibrant. Remaining Msadeqi communities of the Gulf have merged with the Mazdakis of Oman, and have diverged significantly as well (and as the Mazdakis are sometimes corrupted to Msadeqi, the confusion has grown. Anyhow, Mazdaki remains the sole Manichean denomination in the Gulf region). And lastly, the Toxoxian faith has submerged into Buddhism.

[6] Used in Kashmir. Today, mostly displaced by Perso-Arabic script.

[7] Used in modern day to write Assamese and Bengali