Money for Nothing
We will almost certainly see reformers who attempt to weaken the varna system, in much the same way that the French Revolution (and liberalism in general) saw reformers try to weaken all the outdated systems holding back the conservative regimes of Europe. I don't wanna get too much into spoiler territory.
I don't know about seeing all of India as the holy land, but there are lots of Buddhist pilgrimage spots in India. Sarnath comes to mind off the top of my head, but the Buddha's birthplace and death place and whatnot (I don't have the names in front of me right now) are also significant spots of pilgrimage. For Hinduism of course Varanasi is important, and since plenty of people in India especially are both Hindu and Buddhist I'd expect that many people go to Sarnath/Varanasi at the same time.
Of course, there's lots of pilgrimage sites the world over. There's some great temple complexes in the Khmer Empire and in Majachaiya like Borobudur [okay, I know it's after our PoD but I can't be expected to make everything up whole cloth] that also have significant importance. In general, most people right now wouldn't travel all the way back to India - they'd just stop off at their local most important pilgrimage site.
Hinduism (or at least Indian religious ideas and practices) have spread dramatically! Huge numbers of people across Southeastern Asia (Indo-China) are Hindu, as are a lot of people in Majachaiya. That's millions of people. East Africa is also majority Hindu, with a lot of Shaivism.
A lot of the more orthoprax Hindus would consider Buddha an avatar of Visnu. Others would consider him a religious philosopher who was just wrong about some basic ideas, like the existence of the self. Still others consider him to be an enlightened teacher, and are Buddhists while continuing to worship either members of the traditional Vedic pantheon, Shiva, Visnu, Shakti, etc. or their own local gods like Jagannath.
Here is a quick overview of the Indian subcontinent in the 14th Century, which should get people somewhat back up to speed as to what's going on in post-Sahputi India:
Money for Nothing
The titanic wars between the Chandratreya and Pala dynasties were primarily fought by proxies, but when the two great nations clashed in earnest, their battles usually took place along the Upper and Lower Doabs. It was always a matter of Chandratreya strategy to split open the back of the Pala Empire by winning control of the Ganges in some part. In the Kannauj campaigns of 1326, the Chandratreya came dizzyingly close to accomplishing this goal for the first time, but ultimately their armies outpaced their lines of supply and the Chandratreya commander had to endure a frustrating march back up the Betwa River and towards the official censure that would end his career.
But even as the Pala celebrated their victory at Kannauj, the tide was shifting. Although it would not be until a decade later that the first real Gurjaratra Kingdom [OTL Rajasthan] would be declared in the Northwest, the tensions between the Gurjar soldiers that made up a significant portion the armies in the West and their Chandratreya and Pala paymasters began to grow. The Gurjar, for their part, had fought for and against the Sahputi during their invasion, but primarily against, and now were disinclined to accept the rule of either the Pala or the Chandratreya as an indefinite conclusion of Pala “assistance” in liberating the subcontinent. Aided by the soldiers of other fiercely independent tribal groups such as the Kathi, Paramara and Bhils, they began resisting orders and deserting en masse, often aided by convenient Chandratreya and Pala “gifts.”
The Chandratreya, less overstretched than the Pala, had their own share of problems, in large part inaugurated by a horrifically poor foreign policy despite having excluded the Ansara Suf dynasty from the White Elephant Concordat in 1306, they suddenly and abruptly reversed course, courting the Iranians as allies against the Pala. This led to the Ansara Suf invasion of Gandhara in 1327, where they seized Taksa, Mardan and Poshapura before advancing south along the Sindh, besieging Lohawar, the former Sahputi capital early the next year. Despite the Pala designing a massive and complex earthwork defense around the city, the main Pala army was forced to withdraw before the Iranian forces completely encircled the city, and ultimately the City of Princes fell without a shot being fired. Finding Kannauj once again besieged, the Pala army was forced to retreat south towards Multan.
The Pala were able to sign a temporary peace with their new enemies, but the emergence of new competitor in the north sounded the death knell of their ambitions there. Over the next decade, they would lose the entirety of Sindh and Pajcanada to the Iranians. The Chandratreya, realizing that their dream of controlling the Sindh now belonged to a foreign occupier, immediately reversed course and attacked the Iranian garrisons – driving the Ansara Suf back into Gandhara (from which they would not be easily ejected) but at the cost of hundreds of thousands of casualties which they could ill afford. As the 1330’s drew to a close, it became increasingly evident that the Chandratreya monarchy was under significant strain. Dharapatta Chandratreya’s dream of a universal empire stretching across the entire subcontinent – the Maurya or Maukhani restored – had a habit of taking one step forward and two steps back.
The Cevirukkai, the great Mahratta banking house (now based out of the rapidly expanding port city of Thana [OTL Mumbai]) saw a void into which they could step. When an ivory tusk, harvested in West Africa, made its way down through Watya, was carved by an artisan in Mzishima, then sold in Majachaiya to a Chinese merchant, the Cevirukkai had their hands in every single transaction. They had a few rivals, of course – the Tamils could claim a few joint-stock companies wealthier than them, and in the ancient city of Mahatitta in Sri Lanka (and in the newer, growing port of Vaddapura [OTL Colombo]) there were many banking houses who perhaps together could rival their splendor. But Cevirukkai stepped in at an integral moment in the history of history of the Chandratreya – seeing the dream of a united subcontinent as their opportunity to stop being a competitor among competitors and become the financial engine of a global empire. Between 1320 and 1340, Cevirukkai became the financier of the Chandratreya war effort, turning their enormous trade revenues into loans to the Chandratreya Empire.
Over the next fifty years, as the Chandratreya Empire tore itself apart at the seams, the real victors were the Cevirukkai. As taxes were raised across the board and mass conscription and corvee labor sucked the vitality out of the empire, the Cevirukkai always got their share. When the Chandratreya came to the verge of default, the aging Emperor Dharapatta began distributing special privileges and grants of land in an attempt to forestall ruin. On his deathbed in 1358, Dharapatta realized his son Somesvara would inherit little more than debt, but it was too late. By now, the Pala had themselves begun working with the Ayyavole and the Ainnurruvar merchant houses, both Tamil associations who feared the growing power of the Chandratreya to their north, and the escalating cycle of debt and warfare would not reach a breaking point for another thirty years (although only seven of those would be spent in open war and the remaining twenty would witness a period of brief anarchy as the Pala and Chandratreya dynasties both breathed their last). In 1364, Somesvara was forced to declare bankruptcy, an act which started the dramatic decline of the Cevirukkai, wrapping both his crown and the joint-stock company in a protracted legal negotiation. By the end of the century, the Cevirukkai would be one trading house among many, their title as the most powerful and wealthy merchant association and bank in the world stripped permanently.
This period of constant conflict would lead to a century of relative peace and prosperity, as the collapse of the last universal empires led to the reestablishment, this time permanently, of regional kingdoms and regional identities. The 14th century would see the stirrings of a distinct Kannadan identity (in no small part motivated by the relentless taxation of the Chandratreya) and the continuing development of Tamil culture (to be covered in a later post). The establishment of Gurjarat and the final independence of Utkala, Sindh and Kannauj would all mark the fracturing of India upon linguistic and cultural lines which, although embryonic, would continue to influence politics and culture for centuries to come. As for the mercantile associations, this truly was their heyday. Future rulers would monitor their growth and their power more carefully, establishing regulations and utilizing royal investment and patronage as a tool to ensure that such companies were instruments of government policy rather than autonomous actors. The degree to which said rulers would succeed ultimately varied.
However, even during this period of military conflict and chaos, economic and social development continued apace. Particularly on the coasts and in South India, the series of massive military conflicts were more opportunity than danger. Even along the Ganges, the conflict often had the paradoxical effect of spurring social change. Abandoned farmland and pasture could be acquired and cultivated by the victors in a more rationalized manner. Refugees who streamed into the cities often became permanent residents, and their dislocation from their ancestral lands made them a source of cheap labor for the growing forces of capital that were beginning to grip the continent. As the Chandratreya and Pala attempted to milk every last drop of tax revenue out of their subjects they inadvertently spurred rebellions among the peasant class and the murmurings of intellectual discontent among the lower rungs of the merchant and goshthi classes, for whom any unexpected burden could have the dangerous side effect of casting them back into the a life of unremarkable toil. And all the while, while the Deccan and the Doab burned, while Iranian fleets ravaged Saurashtra [OTL Kathiawar] and Gurjar cavalry looted Malwa, the South rose to ever greater heights of global wealth and prosperity.
The long and bloody 14th Century would belong to Sri Lanka and the Tamil.
I don't know about seeing all of India as the holy land, but there are lots of Buddhist pilgrimage spots in India. Sarnath comes to mind off the top of my head, but the Buddha's birthplace and death place and whatnot (I don't have the names in front of me right now) are also significant spots of pilgrimage. For Hinduism of course Varanasi is important, and since plenty of people in India especially are both Hindu and Buddhist I'd expect that many people go to Sarnath/Varanasi at the same time.
Of course, there's lots of pilgrimage sites the world over. There's some great temple complexes in the Khmer Empire and in Majachaiya like Borobudur [okay, I know it's after our PoD but I can't be expected to make everything up whole cloth] that also have significant importance. In general, most people right now wouldn't travel all the way back to India - they'd just stop off at their local most important pilgrimage site.
Hinduism (or at least Indian religious ideas and practices) have spread dramatically! Huge numbers of people across Southeastern Asia (Indo-China) are Hindu, as are a lot of people in Majachaiya. That's millions of people. East Africa is also majority Hindu, with a lot of Shaivism.
A lot of the more orthoprax Hindus would consider Buddha an avatar of Visnu. Others would consider him a religious philosopher who was just wrong about some basic ideas, like the existence of the self. Still others consider him to be an enlightened teacher, and are Buddhists while continuing to worship either members of the traditional Vedic pantheon, Shiva, Visnu, Shakti, etc. or their own local gods like Jagannath.
Here is a quick overview of the Indian subcontinent in the 14th Century, which should get people somewhat back up to speed as to what's going on in post-Sahputi India:
Money for Nothing
The titanic wars between the Chandratreya and Pala dynasties were primarily fought by proxies, but when the two great nations clashed in earnest, their battles usually took place along the Upper and Lower Doabs. It was always a matter of Chandratreya strategy to split open the back of the Pala Empire by winning control of the Ganges in some part. In the Kannauj campaigns of 1326, the Chandratreya came dizzyingly close to accomplishing this goal for the first time, but ultimately their armies outpaced their lines of supply and the Chandratreya commander had to endure a frustrating march back up the Betwa River and towards the official censure that would end his career.
But even as the Pala celebrated their victory at Kannauj, the tide was shifting. Although it would not be until a decade later that the first real Gurjaratra Kingdom [OTL Rajasthan] would be declared in the Northwest, the tensions between the Gurjar soldiers that made up a significant portion the armies in the West and their Chandratreya and Pala paymasters began to grow. The Gurjar, for their part, had fought for and against the Sahputi during their invasion, but primarily against, and now were disinclined to accept the rule of either the Pala or the Chandratreya as an indefinite conclusion of Pala “assistance” in liberating the subcontinent. Aided by the soldiers of other fiercely independent tribal groups such as the Kathi, Paramara and Bhils, they began resisting orders and deserting en masse, often aided by convenient Chandratreya and Pala “gifts.”
The Chandratreya, less overstretched than the Pala, had their own share of problems, in large part inaugurated by a horrifically poor foreign policy despite having excluded the Ansara Suf dynasty from the White Elephant Concordat in 1306, they suddenly and abruptly reversed course, courting the Iranians as allies against the Pala. This led to the Ansara Suf invasion of Gandhara in 1327, where they seized Taksa, Mardan and Poshapura before advancing south along the Sindh, besieging Lohawar, the former Sahputi capital early the next year. Despite the Pala designing a massive and complex earthwork defense around the city, the main Pala army was forced to withdraw before the Iranian forces completely encircled the city, and ultimately the City of Princes fell without a shot being fired. Finding Kannauj once again besieged, the Pala army was forced to retreat south towards Multan.
The Pala were able to sign a temporary peace with their new enemies, but the emergence of new competitor in the north sounded the death knell of their ambitions there. Over the next decade, they would lose the entirety of Sindh and Pajcanada to the Iranians. The Chandratreya, realizing that their dream of controlling the Sindh now belonged to a foreign occupier, immediately reversed course and attacked the Iranian garrisons – driving the Ansara Suf back into Gandhara (from which they would not be easily ejected) but at the cost of hundreds of thousands of casualties which they could ill afford. As the 1330’s drew to a close, it became increasingly evident that the Chandratreya monarchy was under significant strain. Dharapatta Chandratreya’s dream of a universal empire stretching across the entire subcontinent – the Maurya or Maukhani restored – had a habit of taking one step forward and two steps back.
The Cevirukkai, the great Mahratta banking house (now based out of the rapidly expanding port city of Thana [OTL Mumbai]) saw a void into which they could step. When an ivory tusk, harvested in West Africa, made its way down through Watya, was carved by an artisan in Mzishima, then sold in Majachaiya to a Chinese merchant, the Cevirukkai had their hands in every single transaction. They had a few rivals, of course – the Tamils could claim a few joint-stock companies wealthier than them, and in the ancient city of Mahatitta in Sri Lanka (and in the newer, growing port of Vaddapura [OTL Colombo]) there were many banking houses who perhaps together could rival their splendor. But Cevirukkai stepped in at an integral moment in the history of history of the Chandratreya – seeing the dream of a united subcontinent as their opportunity to stop being a competitor among competitors and become the financial engine of a global empire. Between 1320 and 1340, Cevirukkai became the financier of the Chandratreya war effort, turning their enormous trade revenues into loans to the Chandratreya Empire.
Over the next fifty years, as the Chandratreya Empire tore itself apart at the seams, the real victors were the Cevirukkai. As taxes were raised across the board and mass conscription and corvee labor sucked the vitality out of the empire, the Cevirukkai always got their share. When the Chandratreya came to the verge of default, the aging Emperor Dharapatta began distributing special privileges and grants of land in an attempt to forestall ruin. On his deathbed in 1358, Dharapatta realized his son Somesvara would inherit little more than debt, but it was too late. By now, the Pala had themselves begun working with the Ayyavole and the Ainnurruvar merchant houses, both Tamil associations who feared the growing power of the Chandratreya to their north, and the escalating cycle of debt and warfare would not reach a breaking point for another thirty years (although only seven of those would be spent in open war and the remaining twenty would witness a period of brief anarchy as the Pala and Chandratreya dynasties both breathed their last). In 1364, Somesvara was forced to declare bankruptcy, an act which started the dramatic decline of the Cevirukkai, wrapping both his crown and the joint-stock company in a protracted legal negotiation. By the end of the century, the Cevirukkai would be one trading house among many, their title as the most powerful and wealthy merchant association and bank in the world stripped permanently.
This period of constant conflict would lead to a century of relative peace and prosperity, as the collapse of the last universal empires led to the reestablishment, this time permanently, of regional kingdoms and regional identities. The 14th century would see the stirrings of a distinct Kannadan identity (in no small part motivated by the relentless taxation of the Chandratreya) and the continuing development of Tamil culture (to be covered in a later post). The establishment of Gurjarat and the final independence of Utkala, Sindh and Kannauj would all mark the fracturing of India upon linguistic and cultural lines which, although embryonic, would continue to influence politics and culture for centuries to come. As for the mercantile associations, this truly was their heyday. Future rulers would monitor their growth and their power more carefully, establishing regulations and utilizing royal investment and patronage as a tool to ensure that such companies were instruments of government policy rather than autonomous actors. The degree to which said rulers would succeed ultimately varied.
However, even during this period of military conflict and chaos, economic and social development continued apace. Particularly on the coasts and in South India, the series of massive military conflicts were more opportunity than danger. Even along the Ganges, the conflict often had the paradoxical effect of spurring social change. Abandoned farmland and pasture could be acquired and cultivated by the victors in a more rationalized manner. Refugees who streamed into the cities often became permanent residents, and their dislocation from their ancestral lands made them a source of cheap labor for the growing forces of capital that were beginning to grip the continent. As the Chandratreya and Pala attempted to milk every last drop of tax revenue out of their subjects they inadvertently spurred rebellions among the peasant class and the murmurings of intellectual discontent among the lower rungs of the merchant and goshthi classes, for whom any unexpected burden could have the dangerous side effect of casting them back into the a life of unremarkable toil. And all the while, while the Deccan and the Doab burned, while Iranian fleets ravaged Saurashtra [OTL Kathiawar] and Gurjar cavalry looted Malwa, the South rose to ever greater heights of global wealth and prosperity.
The long and bloody 14th Century would belong to Sri Lanka and the Tamil.
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