When the Rani of Jhansi realized that the fort is about to fall, there was absolute silence for some time. The outer corridor has already fallen while the Rani was holed up in the inner fort. One fine day, the main gates opened and bust out of it, the Rani in person with an escort of 500 mercenaries and the royal treasury on a state elephant amidst. They charged directly into the cannons, destroying them and breaking away. She didn't jump out of a window in the night. She crashed through the main gate in pomp. The British took some time to realize what happened and the hunt started.

One geopolitical mess which no one bothers to look into, is North Myanmar. There is a near clean demarcation between Tai, Burmese and Chin. You can ignore Chin - even till 1900, they were primitive tribes. Real deal here is the Shan and their allied Kachin. Now, if you expand the scope out of Myanmar, you will see that there are historically two Tai nodes - one in the West, including Tai Ahom and their parent state Mongkwang, and one in the East centred around Thailand. The eastern node is not our concern.

So, was reading some book over Sangam Era history. Some important points. While I am not happy with the quality of scholarship, the book, however, reveals some interesting insights.
1. The earliest kingdom Tamils know is that of Nagas. Nagas ruled from Puhar and they were conquered by Cholas. The story is exactly identical to Pallava conquest of Chutu Naga Vaijayanti. This means that Tamils had no concept of a kingdom before 200-250 AD. 2. The historic trajectory is divided into two sets of tribes - the first wave is just tribes which mainstreamed themselves like the Vedar, Kurumbar and others. They just had raw valour unlike the next wave including Malavar, Kosar and others who were sophisticated militarily. In fact, Malavar is assumed to be first ones who used horses in the Tamil country.

People think as if Vasco Da Gama did a great thing by discovering a sea route to India. It's not so. He didn't do anything actually. Bartolomeu Dias already crossed the Cape of Good Hope and confirmed that the coast turns North East from there. He would oversee building of Vasco da Gama's ships and would accompany him at least till Cape Verde. And da Gama, after a bout of piracy and clueless what to do, came across an Indian merchant in Mombassa who took him to Calicut. These European "explorers" didn't understand the concept of longitude and

Let me bite the bullet then. Anyone, feel free to pick the topic.
Kurwai: Kurwai troops led by it's crown prince Izzat Khan was a part of Holkar troop. He either rebelled on field or defected - Abdali felicitated him.

https://x.com/cbkwgl/status/1931673255464579190

He died of injuries soon after and on the other hand, Holkar invaded Kurwai and severely chastised it's ruling line.

The 600s Tang campaigns which genocided Agni and imposed Chinese rule on the Tarim Basin were the decisive blow for Indic influence and culture in Tarim Basin. The implication of it was not actually lost on the locals. Led by Khotan, a kind of pacificst Buddhism was dominant in the area(its military power broken, and with Tibet and Arabs breathing down it's neck, there is only that much they can do).

Bangladeshis posted an image today of a headless Mahadeva, right? Shall I tell you the story of Mamarak Khan or Mubarak Khan, one of the last great commanders of Karrani Dynasty? He was sacrificed to Mahadeva himself. That was one of the last gasps of Muslim power of Bengal and it ended up a Mughal province for the centuries to come. So, Mamarak Khan's story goes thus.
After a major defeat at Chatogram in the hands of Bijaya Manikya, the Pathans ruling the area fled to Bengal and petitioned Suleiman Karrani.

Again, an old topic. Mahmud of Ghazni and Somnath. What is the sequence of events? Mahmud, who was known for his physical ugliness according to chronicles got his window of opportunity to pillage India proper after the collapse of Shahi enterprise. So, by 1026, he has decided to pick one of the prized temples of India as a glorious conclusion of his career - Somnath. Accordingly, he entered India through Punjab and skirting the desert, crashed on Somnath. Except for people like Romila Thapar,

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Another of Nehru's stupidities. When the Islamic Jinnahate of Pakistan was being formed, Kalat was dead against joining it. Ahmed Yar Khan in fact went to the extent of influencing the formation of independent Balochistan and Pashtunistan. What did Nehru do? Nothing. Pakistan had the support of Kalat's Prime Minister Aslam Khan and Foreign Minister Douglas Fell but even after Jinnah appeared in Quetta in person, he wasn't able to achieve anything. Ahmed Yar Khan was supposed to meet Jinnah with the accession treaty but he feigned illness and

Want to know how the concept of propaganda and narrative works? Try to find about the Dhulap family online. You will find literally nothing. Because according to the mainstream narrative, they are pirates. Reality? They headed Maratha Navy and oversaw both Salsette and Kolaba. How is Sarjerao Dhulap related to Harji Dhulap? Are Krishnaji, Janoji and Rudraji brothers? Who succeeded Anandrao? Who ruled Vijaydurg in 1818? In fact, Brits said Vijaydurg fell in 1812 but somewhere else they wrote, they were chased away even in 1818 just before the war!!

Superficially, yes. But, its much more nuanced than that. Singh Sabha, Arya Samaj, Congress - all came at the same time. All of them directly or indirectly did the same thing - dilute Hinduism. Let's focus on Congress. Congress was created as a

https://twitter.com/bhootkrit/status/1708683880415301860

vehicle that Indians don't go the wrong way. If you look at the earliest crop of Congress leaders, almost all of them are bible inspired Hindi social reformers. Ranade used bible to teach his wife English, Chandavarkar was excommunicated 15 years after he returned, Gokhale,

I just can't understand. How can one be so stupid? For Murshidabad, India surrendered Khulna. Siliguri Corridor became leaner. Chittagong Hill Tracts were written off. Are we really saying India didn't have a visibility for all this or are we saying people had zero clue? And Nehru didn't invade Noakhali and cut off Chittagong as a response to 1947 Pakistani Invasion of Kashmir. Seriously? Its a different thing that Sneha Kumar Chakma has already given him ideas and he was horrified at that.

A synopsis of the genesis of Manipur troubles.
1. Mizoram is carved out of two territories - North Lushai Hills which was illegally taken over from Tripura and South Lushai Hills which was carved out of Chakma Hills 2. The gap between Manipur and Chakma Hills is known for migration of tribes from the direction of Yunnan. Every few decades, a new clan becomes the master of the hills and either ejects or absorbs the last power of the area.

How many of you heard about a certain Hope Cooke, a filthy rich, politically connected American woman who married the widowed crown prince of Sikkim and in lust for power, poked repeatedly at India and when India annexed Sikkim, left her husband for good, with her children? Oh!! Nothing much. Born to a flight instructor, she shifted to her grandfather's place on her mother's death. Her grandfather, the an international shipping brokerage firm died soon leaving her a decent fortune.

https://twitter.com/omarali50/status/1670882534933295104

The problem with British imperialism is, it didn't have enough people to run the vast administration. The direct consequence of that is broken trusts and unnecessary wars. Take for example, John Claude White. He made a mess out of Sikkim in the role of Regent all his tenure. Of not so great antecedants, he was born to a doctor in Calcutta and studied at Royal Indian Engineering College before joining Bengal Govt as an Assistant Engineer in PWD in 1876. Such a nobody, simply because there were no enough people became the Resident in Khatmandu in 1883