GTAmario
Banned
Yes, I was thinking of the sea route- the Indo-Greeks are interesting but I've already done an AH scenario with them (Sons of Alexander) and I feel that South India gets ignored too much in AH- but it's interesting that a lot of people seem to be focusing on a later time period than I had thought.
The great age of Hindu/Buddhist expansion beyond India was in the last couple of centuries BCE and into the first few centuries CE. This is before the Hindu reforms that overthrew Buddhism as the dominant strain of the Dharmic religions (this process took quite a while- there's some evidence that a number of early Syrian Christians in South India were actually converts from Buddhism who were oppressed by the new reformed Hindu dynasties).
MNP- the prohibitions on crossing the Black Water are, AFAIK a more North Indian thing. South Indians have always had a thriving maritime culture.
It's the earlier, more flexible Hindu/Buddhism that spread to SE Asia and has more of a chance of spreading across the Indian Ocean. Trade goods are a must- horses as you say, are a good incentive.
Perhaps a religious incentive too? Maybe a more evangelical strain of Buddhism develops in Kerala and Ceylon and missionaries set off across the Arabian Sea to spread word of the Noble Eightfold Path.
As a North Indian, I call BS. The Marathis established the forerunner to the modern Indian navy, the Bengalis are well known for their seafaring abilities and Punjabis have emigrated in large numbers. This superstition is gone and never played a huge part.
I've always felt that Ethiopia and India would make good cultural partners, there just needs to be a good economic reason for it.
What does India have in common with Ethiopia?
Wouldn't it depend on what part of India you were talking about? North, central and western India were pretty well supplied with horses and produced native breeds. The superior horses and horsemanship of the Mongols is a given almost anywhere, but in the earlier Islamic invasions I had the impression that cavalry-based groups like the Rajputs were beaten (in the short term) due to other factors than inferior horses or horsemanship.
The high caste Rajputs were horsemen but the bulk of the army was infantry.