The Darling of the World - A Persian TL
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Part 21: In Spite of Everything
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Part 21: In Spite of Everything
While Uldin was busy settling his people in Anatolia and fighting the Greeks who already lived there, causing much devastation in the process, two mighty monarchs and the soldiers under their command were locked in a brutal struggle for control of one of the most important cities of the Iranian Plateau. The siege of Spahan, which had started in late 346 A.D., dragged on and on for many months afterward, and winter gave way to spring, which was finally succeeded by an extraordinarily hot summer. As temperatures began to rise, the conditions became unbearable for both the defending Iranians and their Hephthalite besiegers, with thousands perishing every day from disease and starvation due to lack of supplies. Desperate to end the siege, and aware that he would be in a great disadvangate if his men were forced to fight the defenders and the relief army at the same time, Mihirakula ordered attack after attack on the Spahan city wall, hoping to capture it before Yazdegerd's massive army breached the circumvallation that protected the invaders. The Shahanshah and the spahbeds had the same idea, and as the summer of 347 went on, a number of breaches began to appear and grow along both walls.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the Iranians launched an all out assault against multiple weak points along the circumvallation sometime in July, when temperatures were at their highest and any more dithering would lead to mass desertions. Surprisingly, this assault was not only completely successful, but also resulted in few casualties among the attackers, with many of the higher-ups wondering if the Hephthalites had already been pushed past their breaking point by hunger, disease and the heat. The real reason, however, was much more cruel: while the relief army bickered and discussed the exact date of their grand attack, the Hephthalites launched their own assault against the bloodied and exhausted defenders of Spahan, capturing the city and burying all prisoners alive in a mass grave as punishment for their prolonged resistance, something that greatly contributed to Mihirakula's bloodthirsty reputation. This discovery enraged Yazdegerd, who ordered a final, bloody attack against the nomadic invaders within the devastated city, a brutal battle that had no clear winner. Having had enough of this humiliating and ultimately useless spectacle, the spahbeds forced their young sovereign to disband what was left of his army, a far cry from the 100.000 men that were initially mustered at the beginning of the siege, and returned to their estates.
Although nominally victorious, Mihirakula lost just as much as Yazdegerd. With his own force devastated by the double siege, he abandoned his imperial ambitions and limped back to his own kingdom in Central Asia, where he would spend the rest of his reign turning the royal capital of Bactra into a center of trade and culture, as well as forge diplomatic connections with the Celestial Empire that had originally expelled his people out of Transoxiana. In time, these links with not so distant Luoyang would lead to the widespread adoption of paper as well as the techniques to fabricate it (obviously) sometime during the rule of his successor Khushnavaz, who sponsored it (1). In the end, the Jackal's only lasting conquest in Iran was that of Nishapur and its surroundings, which would be used as a staging area for further attacks by Khushnavaz. However, the Iranian-Hephthalite border would remain largely peaceful for the following years, since neither side was willing or capable of waging a long war.
Part 21: In Spite of Everything
While Uldin was busy settling his people in Anatolia and fighting the Greeks who already lived there, causing much devastation in the process, two mighty monarchs and the soldiers under their command were locked in a brutal struggle for control of one of the most important cities of the Iranian Plateau. The siege of Spahan, which had started in late 346 A.D., dragged on and on for many months afterward, and winter gave way to spring, which was finally succeeded by an extraordinarily hot summer. As temperatures began to rise, the conditions became unbearable for both the defending Iranians and their Hephthalite besiegers, with thousands perishing every day from disease and starvation due to lack of supplies. Desperate to end the siege, and aware that he would be in a great disadvangate if his men were forced to fight the defenders and the relief army at the same time, Mihirakula ordered attack after attack on the Spahan city wall, hoping to capture it before Yazdegerd's massive army breached the circumvallation that protected the invaders. The Shahanshah and the spahbeds had the same idea, and as the summer of 347 went on, a number of breaches began to appear and grow along both walls.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the Iranians launched an all out assault against multiple weak points along the circumvallation sometime in July, when temperatures were at their highest and any more dithering would lead to mass desertions. Surprisingly, this assault was not only completely successful, but also resulted in few casualties among the attackers, with many of the higher-ups wondering if the Hephthalites had already been pushed past their breaking point by hunger, disease and the heat. The real reason, however, was much more cruel: while the relief army bickered and discussed the exact date of their grand attack, the Hephthalites launched their own assault against the bloodied and exhausted defenders of Spahan, capturing the city and burying all prisoners alive in a mass grave as punishment for their prolonged resistance, something that greatly contributed to Mihirakula's bloodthirsty reputation. This discovery enraged Yazdegerd, who ordered a final, bloody attack against the nomadic invaders within the devastated city, a brutal battle that had no clear winner. Having had enough of this humiliating and ultimately useless spectacle, the spahbeds forced their young sovereign to disband what was left of his army, a far cry from the 100.000 men that were initially mustered at the beginning of the siege, and returned to their estates.
Although nominally victorious, Mihirakula lost just as much as Yazdegerd. With his own force devastated by the double siege, he abandoned his imperial ambitions and limped back to his own kingdom in Central Asia, where he would spend the rest of his reign turning the royal capital of Bactra into a center of trade and culture, as well as forge diplomatic connections with the Celestial Empire that had originally expelled his people out of Transoxiana. In time, these links with not so distant Luoyang would lead to the widespread adoption of paper as well as the techniques to fabricate it (obviously) sometime during the rule of his successor Khushnavaz, who sponsored it (1). In the end, the Jackal's only lasting conquest in Iran was that of Nishapur and its surroundings, which would be used as a staging area for further attacks by Khushnavaz. However, the Iranian-Hephthalite border would remain largely peaceful for the following years, since neither side was willing or capable of waging a long war.
The Hephthalite Empire after Mihirakula's death in 371 A.D.. Khushnavaz would greatly expand it.
The King of Kings that ruled Iran after the siege was profoundly different from the one that preceded it: humiliated and beaten, Yazdegerd, still as pious as he always was, never again went on a military campaign, believing that this great defeat was a punishment from God because of his own dreams of glory, much like his father's horrible death almost certainly was. Rarely leaving the capital of Ctesiphon, the monarch spent the rest of his reign much like his archenemy, focusing on the maintenance of internal stability and a reasonable, peaceful foreign policy. The fact that the Sasanian dynasty had no powerful foreign enemies also helped (Egypt was busy doing its own things, the Huns were busy conquering Asia Minor from the Greeks, and the Hephthalites were too exhausted to do anything worth of note just yet). Unlike the glorious, legendary, outrageously successful but ultimately short-lived Ardashir II, Yazdegerd proved himself to be a forgettable, average ruler, who was more dedicated to praying and performing ordinary tasks and ceremonies than pursuing glory and opulence. This was exactly what the empire needed at the moment, a long period of peace that allowed it to recuperate.
However, although Yazdegerd himself was a rather boring individual, his reign was far from being such. Thanks to the monarch's relatively hands-off approach to governing, as well as his blatant support of the Magi, which dissatisfied many nobles who saw that as a threat to their own power, a great deal of intrigue took place within the palaces of major cities like Istakhr, Antioch and obviously Ctesiphon. As the years went on and the Shah began to sire many children, ensuring that the Sasanian dynasty would retain the throne, he became increasingly less interested in actually doing his duties as head of state, handing over more and more power to a man named Tiridates, a clergyman who not only held the position of Moabadan-Moabad ("Priest of Priests"), but was also recognized as a member of the wuzurgan (the high nobility) and held many privileges that naturally came with these titles. Though he couldn't allow other faiths to be persecuted (he wasn't a fool), Tiridates was still dead set on strengthening the Zoroastrian faith in Iran, sponsoring the construction of new fire temples in places like Antioch, Damascus and even Jerusalem, the last of which infuriated the local Christian and Jewish population (2).
However, although Yazdegerd himself was a rather boring individual, his reign was far from being such. Thanks to the monarch's relatively hands-off approach to governing, as well as his blatant support of the Magi, which dissatisfied many nobles who saw that as a threat to their own power, a great deal of intrigue took place within the palaces of major cities like Istakhr, Antioch and obviously Ctesiphon. As the years went on and the Shah began to sire many children, ensuring that the Sasanian dynasty would retain the throne, he became increasingly less interested in actually doing his duties as head of state, handing over more and more power to a man named Tiridates, a clergyman who not only held the position of Moabadan-Moabad ("Priest of Priests"), but was also recognized as a member of the wuzurgan (the high nobility) and held many privileges that naturally came with these titles. Though he couldn't allow other faiths to be persecuted (he wasn't a fool), Tiridates was still dead set on strengthening the Zoroastrian faith in Iran, sponsoring the construction of new fire temples in places like Antioch, Damascus and even Jerusalem, the last of which infuriated the local Christian and Jewish population (2).
A tower of silence that was built during Tiridates' administration as Priest of Priests. This photo was taken in 1481 (3).
A particularly difficult task that fell onto Yazdegerd and inevitably Tiridates' hands was the resettlement of the citizens of Spahan, for said city had been thoroughly devastated first by the long siege and then by Mihirakula's victorious soldiers, though there wasn't much left for them to loot. In the end, as many as 100.000 people (maybe more, considering Spahan was one of Iran's larger cities, and had become even more important during the Age of Division) were settled in northern Syria and Mesopotamia, as a way to strengthen the government's control over these regions, especially in case the currently distracted Huns of Armenia and Anatolia ever got any ideas. This obviously wasn't an easy process, and there was a lot of friction between the new arrivals and the people who already lived in these areas, especially in Syria. However, this was nothing that a few good years of peace and prosperity couldn't fix, especially since the Tyrian pirates who once made maritime trade practically impossible were now gone, and the ports of Caesarea, Seleucia and Laodicea could function normally once more.
Thus, far from being the stereotypical shadowy, malevolent statesman who controlled the king behind the throne for his own benefit, the mighty cleric became the archetype of the so-called "Good Vizier", a clever ruler who carried out his sovereign's will and ensured the maintenance of order, respect and stability, ensuring that Iran properly recovered from the traumatic period that started with the death of Ardashir II and ended with the Siege of Spahan. It is said that, when Tiridates passed away from old age in 361 A.D., after ruling Iran in all but name for fourteen years, Yazdegerd wept as if he had lost a second father: indeed, it is likely that he truly was, since the Shah's biological one passed away when he was just ten. The Priest of Priests' legacy is preserved in the many new buildings (especially fire temples) that were erected during his administration, and by the works of contemporary and future historians, their words being unanimosly positive whenever he was referred to.
Thus, far from being the stereotypical shadowy, malevolent statesman who controlled the king behind the throne for his own benefit, the mighty cleric became the archetype of the so-called "Good Vizier", a clever ruler who carried out his sovereign's will and ensured the maintenance of order, respect and stability, ensuring that Iran properly recovered from the traumatic period that started with the death of Ardashir II and ended with the Siege of Spahan. It is said that, when Tiridates passed away from old age in 361 A.D., after ruling Iran in all but name for fourteen years, Yazdegerd wept as if he had lost a second father: indeed, it is likely that he truly was, since the Shah's biological one passed away when he was just ten. The Priest of Priests' legacy is preserved in the many new buildings (especially fire temples) that were erected during his administration, and by the works of contemporary and future historians, their words being unanimosly positive whenever he was referred to.
Tiridates' inscription near the ancient Achaemenid capital of Persepolis (4).
However, there was one forgotten, yet very damaging part of his legacy, the fact that he more and more powerful at the Shahanshah's expense. Though this wasn't a problem while Tiridates was still alive, by the time he died, Yazdegerd was still only 37 years old (older than his father, though), and wasn't going away anytime soon thanks to his healthy lifestyle. but very few people still respected him, and fewer still believed that he was able to truly run the country on his own, considering that he spent more than a decade doing almost nothing worthy of note. But despite having no great ambitions anymore, he was tired of sitting on the sidelines, and reasserted his own power largely because nobody disliked the Shah to the point of risking life and limb, plus spend a lot of energy, to actually depose him. But there was an issue that not even Yazdegerd the Grey's boring nature could solve: his very ambitious sons, all of whom were nothing like their father, and though murdering him was off the table, "ensuring" that he was succeeded by the "correct" individual was not. But it would take time for these plots to take place, considering that Yazdegerd was still a young man, and Ardashir, Shapur, Narseh and Kavad were just children for now.
There were still a lot of good times ahead.
EDIT: Summary:
347 A.D. -- After a brutal siege that lasted at least six months, Spahan is captured by the Hephthalites and its defenders are massacred. Humiliated, Yazdegerd I retreats from public life, leaving his Priest of Priests, Tiridiates, in charge of things.
354 A.D. -- The resettlement of Spahan's citizens into northern Syria and Mesopotamia is completed.
356 A.D. -- The Jerusalem Fire Temple is completed, to the outrage of the local Christian and Jewish communities.
358 A.D. -- The Royal Road begins to be constructed (5).
361 A.D. -- Tiridates dies from old age, and Yazdegerd "the Grey" returns to power after years in the sidelines.
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Notes:
(1) Thank you @LostInNewDelhi for your input on papermaking in page 8.
(2) Even smart men make stupid decisions every now and then.
(3)1281. You read that right. I've edited the date of the photo to 1481. Looking back, having photography develop in the 13th century was a bit too fast.
(4) That's actually Kartir, the High Priest who had Mani executed.
(5) We'll have a teeny tiny update specifically on this road later.
There were still a lot of good times ahead.
EDIT: Summary:
347 A.D. -- After a brutal siege that lasted at least six months, Spahan is captured by the Hephthalites and its defenders are massacred. Humiliated, Yazdegerd I retreats from public life, leaving his Priest of Priests, Tiridiates, in charge of things.
354 A.D. -- The resettlement of Spahan's citizens into northern Syria and Mesopotamia is completed.
356 A.D. -- The Jerusalem Fire Temple is completed, to the outrage of the local Christian and Jewish communities.
358 A.D. -- The Royal Road begins to be constructed (5).
361 A.D. -- Tiridates dies from old age, and Yazdegerd "the Grey" returns to power after years in the sidelines.
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Notes:
(1) Thank you @LostInNewDelhi for your input on papermaking in page 8.
(2) Even smart men make stupid decisions every now and then.
(3)
(4) That's actually Kartir, the High Priest who had Mani executed.
(5) We'll have a teeny tiny update specifically on this road later.
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Oh my, Yazdegerd seems like he is in for quite the mess when his sons come of age. Just one question: Are they all by one mother, or are they half-brothers? Excellent update!
aaaaaAAAAAAA (but wait, this might not be the Christian calendar...)
At any rate, you might want to add some blur and noise filters to that picture, unless photography really has gone that far.
Hey, that's more than a thousand years after the POD, a lot of things can happen
. Oh, and I don't know how.
I'll have to look up female Middle Persian names, but they're half brothers. Half of them from one woman, the other half from another one. Think about Roxelana vs Mahidevran, with the difference that the Shah doesn't have favourites of his own.
And thanks!
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There will be a lot of murder once it becomes clear that Yazdegerd is going to die, that much is clear. An all out civil war isn't as likely, surprisingly, but there will still be a lot of upheaval that guys like Khushnavaz and whoever is the king of the Huns can exploit for their own benefit.
Hey, that's more than a thousand years after the POD, a lot of things can happen
For better or worse...
How's this? I tried to get that lack of difference in shades of a similar color you see here.
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I've replaced it with your version. Thanks a lot, seriously.
Out of curiosity, what program did you use?
GIMP, it's a free program. It's really obtuse at first but you figure it out as you go along.
Before writing the next update, I decided to add a summary to the last one, to keep things nice and easy to understand. I also corrected a little mistake in there.
In fact, should I ever forget to put on a summary at the bottom of every update from now on, please remind me.
In fact, should I ever forget to put on a summary at the bottom of every update from now on, please remind me.
Part 22: The Lands of Vikramaditya
Dear souvikkundu25140017 , I hope this update anwers your question.
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Part 22: The Lands of Vikramaditya
Despite being one of the richest corners of the Earth, the vast Indian subcontinent has spent most of its history divided into multiple small kingdoms that often fought each other, unlike China or even Iran, which were often united even if not completely centralized like the former. However, under fortunate circumstances, a great conqueror could arise and bring most of the lands between the Indus and the Ganges under his rule, and from there control most of the subcontinent. Two such conquerors were Chandragupta Maurya and his more famous grandson Ashoka Maurya, who, from their capital of Pataliputra, controlled a territory that stretched from Qandahar to the Gulf of Bengal and from the Himalayas to the Krishna river, a mighty empire that was populated by as many as sixty million people. Unfortunately, this realm quickly collapsed in the decades that followed Ashoka's death, and was replaced by the usual mess of petty kingdoms.
By the late third century, as Iran fought for surviival against its new Syrian foe, Rome rebuilt itself and China reunited, the foundations of another great Indian empire were laid in the important kingdom of Magadha. Magadha was quite wealthy and powerful on its, but it had the potential be much, much, much more than that, as proven by the already mentioned Maurya dynasty, which turned said kingdom into the center of its power. The new family that would lead it back to greatness was started by a king named Gupta, who is known from only a few sources, but apparently left for his descendants a promising and stable realm from which they could build on. His grandson, Chandragupta I, who ruled from 319 to 350 A.D., was the first member of the dynasty to be given the title of "Great King of Kings", which showed just how Magadha's power had grown under the rule of the early Guptas, and how it could grow even further. In 350 A.D., Chandragupta was succeeded by his son, Samudragupta, who would become one of the dynasty's greatest members and was already planning to lead his kingdom to new heights of grandeur by subjugating the southern kingdoms of the subcontinent.
These dreams were brutally smothered in the cradle.
A well preserved coin that was made during Samudragupta's reign.
In the 340s, a massive invasion took place in northwestern India. The Kidarites, who had been expelled from Transoxiana, their homeland, by the Celestial Empire, crossed the Khyber Pass in large numbers and settled in the fertile valleys of the Punjab, the land of five rivers, home to large cities such as Taxila, famous for its university, which attracted scholars and students from regions such as Greece, Mesopotamia, Iran and even China, and fielded professors that were among the very best in their respective subjects, such as medicine, philosophy and even politics (one of its most famous students was Chandragupta Maurya himself). The arrival of the Kidarites, surprisingly enough, did not devastate the region, with Taxila becoming the capital of a powerful new state, with its king, a formidable warrior named Kidara. converting to Buddhism and becoming an important sponsor of said religion, refurbishing many monasteries and similar centers of learning everywhere, especially in Gandhara, the area where Taxila was located (1). After spending the rest of the decade consolidating his power and getting used to it, Kidara was ready to expand it once again, and his new target was none other than Magadha.
While this was all happening, Samudragupta had just been crowned Maharaja, and was planning to subjugate or perhaps even conquer the kingdoms of the south in a single grand campaign. This campaign would never materialize, for the Kidarites surged from the west with a massive army that captured every city that stood before it with no opposition (since most of the Gupta soldiers were massed in the south in preparation for the war that would erupt there), marching along the course of the Yamuna and later the Ganges. By the time the king of Magadha finally realized what was happening, Kidara's troops had already captured the critical city of Kausambi, and his next stop was Pataliputra. After calling off his plans and gathering all the soldiers that were left (which numbered tens of thousands, actually) for a desperate defense of the capital, whose gates would otherwise be wide open for the invaders (2).
While many events in this period of history are often known only from a few broken sources, making it very difficult to pinpoint when and where they happened, the monumental confrontation between Kidara and Samudragupta is a glaring exception, with it being documented by poets, historians, musicians and multiple other intellectuals, including many who studied in Taxila. The battle between the two kings and their anonymous soldiers, one of the largest and bloodiest ever to happen in the subcontinent, took place near the town of Sasaram, located right on the immediate vicinity of Pataliputra, in the autumn of 353 A.D..
A mural depicting the Battle of Sasaram.
Contemporaries say that both armies had one million men each, and half of both perished on the battlefield, with the waters of the Ganges ran red with blood for a month due to the scale of the carnage. Though these accounts are obviously exaggerated, it does give an idea just how massive and brutal the Battle of Sasaram was (3). However, at the end of the day, the Magadhis controlled the battlefield, and although his army was tired and bloodied, Samudragupta could finally breathe a sigh of relief, for his capital was safe from enemy hands for the moment. The was was not over just yet, and the Maharaja spent the rest of the year reoccupying the lands that had been overrun by the Kidarites along the Ganges and the Yamuna, starting with the reconquest of Kausambi. By the time 353 reached its end, the status quo ante bellum had been restored, with Kidara deciding that abandoning all of his new conquests and limping back to Taxila was a better idea than fighting an emboldened enemy right in the middle of their homeland.
Although he was safe for the moment, Samudragupta knew that it would be only a matter of time before the Kidarites invaded Magadha again, and, if historians are to be believed, he believed that he had no choice but to pre-empt their attack and invade the Punjab before they could recover. Gathering a mighty force that may have had as many as 100.000 infantrymen and 40.000 horsemen, as well as hundreds of elephants, Samudragupta crossed the Yamuna in the spring of 355 A.D. and marched northwest, bent on capturing Taxila and after that seal off the Khyber Pass from any additional invaders that could lay beyond it. In a curious role reversal, Kidara had no choice but gather the soldiers that he had left, a formidable 100.000 men, and sally forth to meet his foe in the wide plains of Tarain, right on the border of the two kingdoms (4).
Though it ended up becoming the most celebrated of all of Samudragupta's victories, the Battle of Tarain was actually a very even, hard fight right until its last moments, despite Kidara's obvious numerical inferiority. The reason for that was due to the fact that the Kidarites were excellent warriors in their own right, and the horse archers that they had were especially deadly, often spreading panic into the Magadhi ranks by creating a seemingly endless rain of suffering and death. This martial prowess was magnified by Kidara's talent as a military leader, which showed when he, according to some sources, organized his army in a way that allowed his soldiers to outnumber the Magadhis in a few crucial points, a strategy that, if successful, would allow him to break up Samudragupta's massive army and defeat it in detail. However, it seems that he didn't realize just how many elephants the Maharaja had, and they caused just as much terror among his own soldiers as his horse archers did to the enemy. In the end, as his army began to buckle, under the numerical weight of its foe, who was no slouch either, Kidara was hit in his right eye by a stray arrow, dying shortly after. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, and the Kidarites force quickly devolved into a panicked mess that was easily wiped out.
Samudragupta's army marches in triumph after the Battle of Tarain.
Without any forces left to oppose him, and the Kidarite kingdom now leaderless due to the death of its king, Samudragupta had no difficulties in conquering it within a few years. By the time he died in 375 A.D., after ruling Magadha for twenty five years, all of the punjab was under his authority, and the critical Khyber Pass had been heavily fortified, with a fortress being built just outside of the town of Purushapura (5). The Maharaja went down in history as one of the greatest monarchs of Indian history, a ruler who not only saved his land from the brink of destruction, but also vanquished his greatest enemy and conquered his kingdom instead, sealing off the subcontinent from northern nomads such as the one that he defeated for many years to come. But even his legacy would eventually be overshadowed by that of his son, the legendary Chandragupta II.
Little is known about Chandragupta's early life, other than the fact that he accompanied his father in a few of his campaigns in the Punjab, and received a first-class education, evcen being sent to the University of Taxila, where he spent a few years learning the arts and sciences, especially political ones (6). Because of this upbringing, he became a great patron of Buddhism, with some sources even saying that he converted to said religion, while others disagree on that regard. However, all agree that he sponsored the construction of new monasteries and schools all over the Indo-Gangetic Plain, from Purushapura to Pataliputra, becoming the single most powerful sponsor of Buddhism since the days of emperor Ashoka. His greatest material and intellectual legacy by far was the construction of the University of Varanasi, a world famous institution that exists to this day, just like its counterpart in Taxila. Working in unison, these universities would create an immense number of bureaucrats, philosophers, artists and inventors for the next centuries, being directly responsible for the creation of things such as the first known hot air balloon and eventually the first modern steam engine (7).
The ruins of Varanasi's first university. As the years passed, the institution was moved to different buildings.
But far from being just an intellectual, and unlike the pacifist Ashoka, Chandragupta II was an eager, ambitious and very successful conqueror, even surpassing his father. The first major offensive was made against the kingdom of the Western Satraps, a state that controlled the fertile region of Sindh (the area where the Indus met the ocean) and Gujarat, a place whose cities had become quite wealthy thanks to maritime trade. This conquest brought Magadha's wealth and power to new heights, since it allowed the cities of the Indus and the Ganges to trade directly with regions such as Iran, Axum and Egypt, with the port of Patala, located right on the mouth of the Indus, becoming especially rich thanks to that, with many spices and silks and other valuable materials flowing through it every day. However, Chandragupta's most celebrated military achievement, the one that gave him the title of "Vikramaditya" (Vikramaditya being a legendary, ideal emperor) was the crossing of the Hindu Kush, a massive expedition that happened in 390 A.D. and led to the conquest of Kabul, Ghazni and eventually Qandahar, and also assisted in the destruction of the massive Hephthalite Empire that had been created by Mihirakula and Khushanavaz, both of whom were too busy trying to conquer Iran to notice the mighty new foe that was rising in the east until it was too late (8).
Summary:
Late 3rd century A.D. -- The Gupta dynasty begins to rise in Magadha.
319-350 A.D. -- Reign of Chandragupta I, first emperor of the Gupta dynasty.
340s -- The Kidarite kingdom rises in the Punjab.
350 A.D. -- Accession of Samudragupta.
353 A.D. -- The battle of Sasaram takes place, and although it is a tactical draw, it is a decisive strategic victory for the Magadhis, who manage to stop the Kidarite invasion of their country.
355 A.D. -- Samudragupta decisively defeats and kills Kidara in the battle of Tarain. The Punjab is captured shortly after, with Taxila capitulating after a brief siege.
367 A.D. -- The fortress of Purushapura, located right outside the city with the same name, is completed, sealing the Khyber Pass from foreign invasions for the time being.
375 A.D. -- Samudragupta dies from old age, and is succeeded by his son Chandragupta II.
386 A.D. -- Chandragupta conquers the Western Satraps, adding the regions of Gujarat and Sindh to Magadha. From now on, all of India north of the Narmada river is united under Gupta rule (8).
390 A.D. -- Chandragupta conquers Kabul, Ghazni and Qandahar after crossing the Hindu Kush mountains. This, combined with Khushnavaz's defeat at the Battle of Valashabad, causes the destruction of the Hephthalite Empire.
403 A.D. -- The University of Varanasi is opened, and begins to function shortly after.
415 A.D. -- Chandragupta II dies and is succeeded by Kumaragupta I.
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Notes:
(1) The Kidarite conquest of the Punjab didn't cause much devastation IOTL, so I don't see why that would be different here.
(2) IOTL, Samudragupta's southern campaign became a reality, and the kingdoms of that region became tributaries. Here, that doesn't happen, leading to a Gupta Empire that is more focused on the north.
(3) IOTL, Sasaram was the capital of the Sur Empire, an entity that, for a brief time, expelled the Mughals from India.
(4) The Battle of Tarain that happened IOTL led to the eventual establishment of the Delhi Sultanate and Muslim rule in northern India.
(5) Peshawar.
(6) That is a butterfly spawned from the fact that Samudragupta was more focused on the north than OTL.
(7) That's right, India will be the first region in the world to industrialize.
(8) The northern focus of the Guptas butterflies the invasions of Toramana and Mihirakula, which IOTL devastated northern India and greatly contributed to the decline of Buddhism, away.
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Part 22: The Lands of Vikramaditya
Despite being one of the richest corners of the Earth, the vast Indian subcontinent has spent most of its history divided into multiple small kingdoms that often fought each other, unlike China or even Iran, which were often united even if not completely centralized like the former. However, under fortunate circumstances, a great conqueror could arise and bring most of the lands between the Indus and the Ganges under his rule, and from there control most of the subcontinent. Two such conquerors were Chandragupta Maurya and his more famous grandson Ashoka Maurya, who, from their capital of Pataliputra, controlled a territory that stretched from Qandahar to the Gulf of Bengal and from the Himalayas to the Krishna river, a mighty empire that was populated by as many as sixty million people. Unfortunately, this realm quickly collapsed in the decades that followed Ashoka's death, and was replaced by the usual mess of petty kingdoms.
By the late third century, as Iran fought for surviival against its new Syrian foe, Rome rebuilt itself and China reunited, the foundations of another great Indian empire were laid in the important kingdom of Magadha. Magadha was quite wealthy and powerful on its, but it had the potential be much, much, much more than that, as proven by the already mentioned Maurya dynasty, which turned said kingdom into the center of its power. The new family that would lead it back to greatness was started by a king named Gupta, who is known from only a few sources, but apparently left for his descendants a promising and stable realm from which they could build on. His grandson, Chandragupta I, who ruled from 319 to 350 A.D., was the first member of the dynasty to be given the title of "Great King of Kings", which showed just how Magadha's power had grown under the rule of the early Guptas, and how it could grow even further. In 350 A.D., Chandragupta was succeeded by his son, Samudragupta, who would become one of the dynasty's greatest members and was already planning to lead his kingdom to new heights of grandeur by subjugating the southern kingdoms of the subcontinent.
These dreams were brutally smothered in the cradle.
A well preserved coin that was made during Samudragupta's reign.
In the 340s, a massive invasion took place in northwestern India. The Kidarites, who had been expelled from Transoxiana, their homeland, by the Celestial Empire, crossed the Khyber Pass in large numbers and settled in the fertile valleys of the Punjab, the land of five rivers, home to large cities such as Taxila, famous for its university, which attracted scholars and students from regions such as Greece, Mesopotamia, Iran and even China, and fielded professors that were among the very best in their respective subjects, such as medicine, philosophy and even politics (one of its most famous students was Chandragupta Maurya himself). The arrival of the Kidarites, surprisingly enough, did not devastate the region, with Taxila becoming the capital of a powerful new state, with its king, a formidable warrior named Kidara. converting to Buddhism and becoming an important sponsor of said religion, refurbishing many monasteries and similar centers of learning everywhere, especially in Gandhara, the area where Taxila was located (1). After spending the rest of the decade consolidating his power and getting used to it, Kidara was ready to expand it once again, and his new target was none other than Magadha.
While this was all happening, Samudragupta had just been crowned Maharaja, and was planning to subjugate or perhaps even conquer the kingdoms of the south in a single grand campaign. This campaign would never materialize, for the Kidarites surged from the west with a massive army that captured every city that stood before it with no opposition (since most of the Gupta soldiers were massed in the south in preparation for the war that would erupt there), marching along the course of the Yamuna and later the Ganges. By the time the king of Magadha finally realized what was happening, Kidara's troops had already captured the critical city of Kausambi, and his next stop was Pataliputra. After calling off his plans and gathering all the soldiers that were left (which numbered tens of thousands, actually) for a desperate defense of the capital, whose gates would otherwise be wide open for the invaders (2).
While many events in this period of history are often known only from a few broken sources, making it very difficult to pinpoint when and where they happened, the monumental confrontation between Kidara and Samudragupta is a glaring exception, with it being documented by poets, historians, musicians and multiple other intellectuals, including many who studied in Taxila. The battle between the two kings and their anonymous soldiers, one of the largest and bloodiest ever to happen in the subcontinent, took place near the town of Sasaram, located right on the immediate vicinity of Pataliputra, in the autumn of 353 A.D..
A mural depicting the Battle of Sasaram.
Contemporaries say that both armies had one million men each, and half of both perished on the battlefield, with the waters of the Ganges ran red with blood for a month due to the scale of the carnage. Though these accounts are obviously exaggerated, it does give an idea just how massive and brutal the Battle of Sasaram was (3). However, at the end of the day, the Magadhis controlled the battlefield, and although his army was tired and bloodied, Samudragupta could finally breathe a sigh of relief, for his capital was safe from enemy hands for the moment. The was was not over just yet, and the Maharaja spent the rest of the year reoccupying the lands that had been overrun by the Kidarites along the Ganges and the Yamuna, starting with the reconquest of Kausambi. By the time 353 reached its end, the status quo ante bellum had been restored, with Kidara deciding that abandoning all of his new conquests and limping back to Taxila was a better idea than fighting an emboldened enemy right in the middle of their homeland.
Although he was safe for the moment, Samudragupta knew that it would be only a matter of time before the Kidarites invaded Magadha again, and, if historians are to be believed, he believed that he had no choice but to pre-empt their attack and invade the Punjab before they could recover. Gathering a mighty force that may have had as many as 100.000 infantrymen and 40.000 horsemen, as well as hundreds of elephants, Samudragupta crossed the Yamuna in the spring of 355 A.D. and marched northwest, bent on capturing Taxila and after that seal off the Khyber Pass from any additional invaders that could lay beyond it. In a curious role reversal, Kidara had no choice but gather the soldiers that he had left, a formidable 100.000 men, and sally forth to meet his foe in the wide plains of Tarain, right on the border of the two kingdoms (4).
Though it ended up becoming the most celebrated of all of Samudragupta's victories, the Battle of Tarain was actually a very even, hard fight right until its last moments, despite Kidara's obvious numerical inferiority. The reason for that was due to the fact that the Kidarites were excellent warriors in their own right, and the horse archers that they had were especially deadly, often spreading panic into the Magadhi ranks by creating a seemingly endless rain of suffering and death. This martial prowess was magnified by Kidara's talent as a military leader, which showed when he, according to some sources, organized his army in a way that allowed his soldiers to outnumber the Magadhis in a few crucial points, a strategy that, if successful, would allow him to break up Samudragupta's massive army and defeat it in detail. However, it seems that he didn't realize just how many elephants the Maharaja had, and they caused just as much terror among his own soldiers as his horse archers did to the enemy. In the end, as his army began to buckle, under the numerical weight of its foe, who was no slouch either, Kidara was hit in his right eye by a stray arrow, dying shortly after. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, and the Kidarites force quickly devolved into a panicked mess that was easily wiped out.
Samudragupta's army marches in triumph after the Battle of Tarain.
Without any forces left to oppose him, and the Kidarite kingdom now leaderless due to the death of its king, Samudragupta had no difficulties in conquering it within a few years. By the time he died in 375 A.D., after ruling Magadha for twenty five years, all of the punjab was under his authority, and the critical Khyber Pass had been heavily fortified, with a fortress being built just outside of the town of Purushapura (5). The Maharaja went down in history as one of the greatest monarchs of Indian history, a ruler who not only saved his land from the brink of destruction, but also vanquished his greatest enemy and conquered his kingdom instead, sealing off the subcontinent from northern nomads such as the one that he defeated for many years to come. But even his legacy would eventually be overshadowed by that of his son, the legendary Chandragupta II.
Little is known about Chandragupta's early life, other than the fact that he accompanied his father in a few of his campaigns in the Punjab, and received a first-class education, evcen being sent to the University of Taxila, where he spent a few years learning the arts and sciences, especially political ones (6). Because of this upbringing, he became a great patron of Buddhism, with some sources even saying that he converted to said religion, while others disagree on that regard. However, all agree that he sponsored the construction of new monasteries and schools all over the Indo-Gangetic Plain, from Purushapura to Pataliputra, becoming the single most powerful sponsor of Buddhism since the days of emperor Ashoka. His greatest material and intellectual legacy by far was the construction of the University of Varanasi, a world famous institution that exists to this day, just like its counterpart in Taxila. Working in unison, these universities would create an immense number of bureaucrats, philosophers, artists and inventors for the next centuries, being directly responsible for the creation of things such as the first known hot air balloon and eventually the first modern steam engine (7).
The ruins of Varanasi's first university. As the years passed, the institution was moved to different buildings.
But far from being just an intellectual, and unlike the pacifist Ashoka, Chandragupta II was an eager, ambitious and very successful conqueror, even surpassing his father. The first major offensive was made against the kingdom of the Western Satraps, a state that controlled the fertile region of Sindh (the area where the Indus met the ocean) and Gujarat, a place whose cities had become quite wealthy thanks to maritime trade. This conquest brought Magadha's wealth and power to new heights, since it allowed the cities of the Indus and the Ganges to trade directly with regions such as Iran, Axum and Egypt, with the port of Patala, located right on the mouth of the Indus, becoming especially rich thanks to that, with many spices and silks and other valuable materials flowing through it every day. However, Chandragupta's most celebrated military achievement, the one that gave him the title of "Vikramaditya" (Vikramaditya being a legendary, ideal emperor) was the crossing of the Hindu Kush, a massive expedition that happened in 390 A.D. and led to the conquest of Kabul, Ghazni and eventually Qandahar, and also assisted in the destruction of the massive Hephthalite Empire that had been created by Mihirakula and Khushanavaz, both of whom were too busy trying to conquer Iran to notice the mighty new foe that was rising in the east until it was too late (8).
Summary:
Late 3rd century A.D. -- The Gupta dynasty begins to rise in Magadha.
319-350 A.D. -- Reign of Chandragupta I, first emperor of the Gupta dynasty.
340s -- The Kidarite kingdom rises in the Punjab.
350 A.D. -- Accession of Samudragupta.
353 A.D. -- The battle of Sasaram takes place, and although it is a tactical draw, it is a decisive strategic victory for the Magadhis, who manage to stop the Kidarite invasion of their country.
355 A.D. -- Samudragupta decisively defeats and kills Kidara in the battle of Tarain. The Punjab is captured shortly after, with Taxila capitulating after a brief siege.
367 A.D. -- The fortress of Purushapura, located right outside the city with the same name, is completed, sealing the Khyber Pass from foreign invasions for the time being.
375 A.D. -- Samudragupta dies from old age, and is succeeded by his son Chandragupta II.
386 A.D. -- Chandragupta conquers the Western Satraps, adding the regions of Gujarat and Sindh to Magadha. From now on, all of India north of the Narmada river is united under Gupta rule (8).
390 A.D. -- Chandragupta conquers Kabul, Ghazni and Qandahar after crossing the Hindu Kush mountains. This, combined with Khushnavaz's defeat at the Battle of Valashabad, causes the destruction of the Hephthalite Empire.
403 A.D. -- The University of Varanasi is opened, and begins to function shortly after.
415 A.D. -- Chandragupta II dies and is succeeded by Kumaragupta I.
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Notes:
(1) The Kidarite conquest of the Punjab didn't cause much devastation IOTL, so I don't see why that would be different here.
(2) IOTL, Samudragupta's southern campaign became a reality, and the kingdoms of that region became tributaries. Here, that doesn't happen, leading to a Gupta Empire that is more focused on the north.
(3) IOTL, Sasaram was the capital of the Sur Empire, an entity that, for a brief time, expelled the Mughals from India.
(4) The Battle of Tarain that happened IOTL led to the eventual establishment of the Delhi Sultanate and Muslim rule in northern India.
(5) Peshawar.
(6) That is a butterfly spawned from the fact that Samudragupta was more focused on the north than OTL.
(7) That's right, India will be the first region in the world to industrialize.
(8) The northern focus of the Guptas butterflies the invasions of Toramana and Mihirakula, which IOTL devastated northern India and greatly contributed to the decline of Buddhism, away.
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Fresh new update! Please report any typos, dating mistakes or implausible events.
Next "update" will be a map of the Gupta Empire that will hopefully be ready tomorrow, or maybe even tonight. After that, I'll take a break, and draw some fanart for a very good (but also seriously flawed, I admit) animated show that ended a few weeks ago.
Next "update" will be a map of the Gupta Empire that will hopefully be ready tomorrow, or maybe even tonight. After that, I'll take a break, and draw some fanart for a very good (but also seriously flawed, I admit) animated show that ended a few weeks ago.
The glorious Gupta Empire
And here it is!
An important thing to note is that not every single bit of land in here is under direct control of the emperor (though having an expanded bureaucracy surely helps, as do the rivers, since they provide easy transportation), with some areas being more autonomous than others.
An important thing to note is that not every single bit of land in here is under direct control of the emperor (though having an expanded bureaucracy surely helps, as do the rivers, since they provide easy transportation), with some areas being more autonomous than others.
Huh, okay. Well, it takes a lot more than throwing money at universities to get that done, but medieval India certainly has ways to get the ball rolling on physics. The math is definitely there, astronomy was never fully able to abandon geocentrism but did admit at least some planets must orbit the sun, however optics mostly flourished in the Islamic world and then Europe and fluid dynamics... well, time to Google "india medieval vacuum" and related strings.
But in the meantime there's a problem: Pataliputra sits at the intersection of the Ganges and several tributaries, which made it a good place to hold markets (and charge tolls on market trades)... but from the 600s onward the course of the main river is going to shift north, and the tributaries' floods are going to inundate the city (silt layers are evident in archeological digs, and Xuanzang discusses the dilapidated state of the city at the time of his arrival). There's a reason that after the Guptas pretty much every other place in India (Kannauj, Bengal, the Deccan, Rajputana) is more relevant than Magadha.
So the Guptas must bid their old roost farewell and move their capital-- but where? Do they go west, or east? Which Buddhist schools will be already present (and ready to receive patronage) in the new capital-- the Mahayana schools of Gandhara, or the Tantric/Vajrayana school taken up by the Palas in Bengal? Which regional cliques/social groups win/lose out from the king's presence/absence? Which frontiers will they be more concerned with? And whichever side of the empire they choose, will they still be able to control the other? Such problems follow naturally from the symbolic and literal loss of a center.
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