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Eztainutlacatl

@cbkwgl

Mar 19

In 1542, Vijayanagara fought the Bahmanid coalition and defeated it. It was a massive battle and sensing a window, the three brothers - Ramaraya split the army into three and he along with his brothers Tirumala and Venkatadri marched in three directions chasing the big three - Ramaraya went on Golconda, Tirumala on Ahmednagar and Venkatadri on Bijapur.

Venkatadri clashed with the fleeing troops at Adoni, Kurakacherla and Manuva - in fact, Asad Khan who was holding Adoni abandoned the fort - while he fled with a select troop to raid Venkatadri's camp, he ordered the garrison to join the Adil Shah and Barid Shah.

He attacked Venkatadri's camp in the night and pillaged it - even to the extent of taking families hostage but was severely defeated. After this, he captured Amir Barid and overran Bidar. With Bidar collapsing, Adil Shah had no option but to flee even faster -

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Eztainutlacatl

@cbkwgl

Mar 14

Vira Narasingaraya who held the coast from Pulicat till almost Rameshwaram earned a revenue of 11 lakhs under Krishnaraya. Sewell gives it to around 3.5 rupees. He paid one third in tribute, maintained 30000 foot, 3000 horse, 30 elephants.
This is a good metric for Indian troop strengths.
39 lakh rupees revenue - 30000 infantry - 3000 horse - 30 elephant
Considering 30 lakhs, we will have a decent ratio -
1 lakh revenue - 1000 infantry - 100 horse - 1 elephant
While this is the number from around 1500, I don't see why this number should be different all history. There is only one counter metric. How does 30 lakh revenue translate to a cavalry based army.

Example, consider Battle of Raichur where Krishnaraya threw the full weight of the Empire. Now, if Narasinga Raya's contribution is 30k infantry, total Tamil country can be no more than a lakh. And total Vijayanagara, 3-3.5 lakh. Now, assuming he fielded a third of his army there(which is the maximum because of his logistics and the need for domestic security), the best Vijayanagara can field is 1-1.1 lakhs. We have another metric there to help us. Vijayanagara camp size is 7.36 lakh soldiers. Now, if we assume 10 camp followers for every soldier( you have shopkeepers, food supplies, barbers, grooms, everyone - some are capable of fighting anyways), we arrive at 73,600 troops. 75000 troops against a projection of 1 lakh seems a decent approximation. Now, what is this number? It's one-fifth of Vijayanagara's capacity. Can we assume A kingdom can field 20% of it's strength for a campaign? In case of Vijayanagara, it can be 75k troops, 7500 horse and 75-100 elephants with a 20% margin.

Summarizing,
1 lakh revenue - 1000 soldiers - 100 horse - 1 elephant
A kingdom can field 20-25% of it's total troop strength in a single campaign. Exceptions exist where you go for a total mobilization as in the case of a conquest but from a position of strength, this number holds.

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Eztainutlacatl

@cbkwgl

Mar 2

Another story. When Krishna Raya was ruling, the Chola country was ruled by Virashekhara Chola and Pandya country was ruled by Chandrashekhara Pandya. But, Virashekhara invaded Pandya country and ejected the Pandya out. The Pandya went to Vijayanagara and petitioned Krishna Raya.

Krishna Raya chastised Nagama Nayaka as the Tamil Country was under his mandate, how did things go this bad? And he asked Nagama Nayaka to take an army personally and fix the things. He told that the Chola country will have to be annexed into the royal territory and order should

be restored in the Pandya country. Nagama Nayaka went, defeated the Chola and chased him away, removed the Chola garrisons in the Pandya country and while he was restoring order, Chandrashekhara Pandya went to Krishna Raya again saying "while you ordered Nagama Nayaka to seize

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Eztainutlacatl

@cbkwgl

Jan 11

The Story of the Ahoms
A Mong Mao prince Sukhapha was appointed as the heir apparent in absence of succession and when the king Pao Meo Pung. Pao Meo Pung got a son after nineteen years, to avoid a conflict, Sukhapha left the kingdom in 1215 and crossed the Paktai Mountains. He and his followers were generally migrants and not invaders, and though they had to force their way through, they eventually settled in Kamarupa, which eventually came to be known as Assam after them.

The traditional dating of the kingdom’s foundation is given as 1228. They called their kingdom Mong Dun Shun Kham – the Casket of Gold. Sukhapha moved from place to place till he finally settled in Charaideo which would emerge as the ritual capital of the Ahoms even after they shifted the capital city from there. He would divide the administration into two parts, each headed by one of the Dangaria – Burhagohain and Borgohain. The Ahoms stayed as vassals of Mong Mao till Mong Kwang succeeded it.

The Ahom estate started to expand even from the time of Sukhapa’s son Suteupha who clashed with the Kacharis, Mong Kwang and Kamata being the earliest campaigns. Sukhrangpha would see a rebellion from his brother and his brother Sutupha would start the long drawn war with the Sutiya Empire. Though Ahoms won the war by 1376, Sutupha was murdered by the Sutiyas who was invited for peace talks. This led to an interregnum and Tyao Khamti, a son of Sutupha was made the ruler after four years.

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Eztainutlacatl

@cbkwgl

Dec 22, 2024

Ambedkar is a really tricky topic. He was born with a silver spoon - his family was the traditional palanquin bearers of the village temple in his place and he spent most of his childhood in a cantonment where his father was a teacher - what persecution are we talking here?

Now, as like many of the aspiring class of that India including a bulk of Indian freedom fighters, he went to England to study and returned back exactly how the main names like Jinnahbhai or Gandhi or Sardar Patel returned back. But, unlike the rest, he had another baggage with

him - caste. Many worked for the British and many openly sided them because it would hurt their career. How do you suppose great Congress leaders like Tej Bahadur Sapru made their money? Now, Ambedkar was the first legislator from his caste and people looked towards him as

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Eztainutlacatl

@cbkwgl

Jun 2, 2024

Let me propose a slightly different theory over Brahmin hatred in India. We understand that they being the guardians of Hinduism had to face the ire of Buddhists and Jain's during their days of ascendancy but then these cults were just corrective actions on Hinduism.

Their retreat was chaotic and still had local support. On the other hand, Rashtrakutas are one of the first kingdoms in India who expanded that massively and rapidly. This introduced a level of low level churning in the government. To establish control in the kingdom

and to ensure the resurgence of Hinduism, Rashtrakutas planted Brahmins and Agraharas all over the kingdom. This was less of a counterweight to those two decaying cults but more as a direct challenge to the local nobility.

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