章 3: Invasions

During this time, the Indian subcontinent was in a very delicate balance of powers. The Mughal Empire, the largest empire at the time was dying with frequent wars of succession and the nobles rebelling against the crown and declaring independent rule over their lands.

The Maratha Empire was on the rise while collecting the fallen pieces from the Mughals and quickly rising to the position of the most powerful empire. Other smaller kingdoms were also breaking off from Mughal rule like the Jats, the Rajpoots, the Oudhs, and so on.

While the Indian subcontinent was busy fighting among themselves, the Western powers mainly comprising of the French, Dutch, Spanish, and English were eating away at the Indian coastline and slowly advancing inland.

The Mughals had control over the northern part of the subcontinent while the Marathas had control over the central and some southern parts. But while the Mughals were being pushed back north to their capital in Delhi, the Marathas were quickly spreading their influence in all directions.

Although Satara where the emperor and his palace were located was considered the capital of the Maratha empire, the center of the empire's politics stood at the palace of the Peshwa (Prime Minister). The Peshwa palace and the fort it stood in was called Shaniwar Wada and was located in Pune.

Although the empire still had an emperor, the balance of power was starting to tilt towards the Peshwas, the second in command of the empire. As such the political strength in the empire was also beginning to gather around the Peshwa or the Prime Minister and his men.

On this day, a discussion was being held in the palace between the Peshwa and the other ministers.

"The skirmishes around the lands we have been seeing are the results of the Westerners fighting a war in Europe. They are using the kingdoms in our lands as a battlefield." The Sumant or the foreign minister spoke up with slight anger.

Amrit Rao, a close aide to the Peshwa shrugged his shoulders, "Let them fight and kill each other. Just makes it easier for us to conquer them later. What I am worried about is the advance of Raghoji into Bengal. If we leave him unchecked, his powers might grow beyond our control."

The previous prime minister or Peshwa of the Marathas, named Baji Rao, was a legendary figure who was responsible for much of the empire's growth. This caused his power and influence to grow unchecked and became almost equal to the emperor himself.

After Baji Rao's death, that power was then transferred to his young son when he was appointed the new prime minister at the young age of 19 years just three years ago in 1740. Balaji Rao wasn't appointed the prime minister just for being the son of Baji Rao though. He was highly educated, extremely cunning, and an adept administrator.

Balaji Rao Peshwa nodded, acknowledging Amrit Rao's concern. "I agree. Raghoji has been against me ever since I was appointed as the Peshwa. If he gains more territories and land, he will recontest my position once more."

After a moment of thought, Balaji added, "We were already preparing an army to answer the call for support by the Nawab of Bengal, Alivardi Khan. We can use this chance to shave off some of Raghoji's power. On top of that, the Nawab's pay is good and we can even extort the smaller rulers on the way."

(Nawab is a Persian word that means a noble or a prince who rules over territories for the emperor. It is a title given to the highest ruling official of each region in the Mughal Empire.)

One of the generals of Peshwa Balaji's army Pilaji Jadav nodded, "We can use this opportunity to train the recruits while also displaying the power of our army."

Peshwa Balaji asked the general, "How many troops can we gather for the expedition?"

Jadav replied after some mental calculations, "If we were to gather all of the trained forces, it would be around 50 to 60 thousand soldiers including the cavalry, infantry, and the artillerymen."

Although the number was large, Balaji wasn't satisfied. This was a chance to give a warning to all the warlords in the empire who were getting restless. "Conscript the recruits and trainees into the army and prepare an army of a hundred thousand men. We will make an example out of Raghoji for everyone with such impure thoughts."

The Marathas being a group of families/clans of warriors were accustomed to acting as warlords of the regions they ruled over. Either they had to be loyal to the empire or fear the Peshwa or the emperor for them to keep in line.

Only with a strong show of force could the young Peshwa Balaji Rao gain the allegiance of all the nobles within the empire. If nothing, they would at least fear or respect him enough not to go against his wishes.

General Pilaji Jadav saluted the Peshwa, "We will make sure there are enough soldiers and train them to the best of our ability. When does Your Highness expect to start the march?"

Peshwa Balaji commanded, "Prepare for a march within a month. We can't give more time to Raghoji, there is already news of him reaching the Bengal capital. It wouldn't be good for us if Alivardi Khan loses Bengal to Raghoji."

….

Bengal is a region in the Northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. At this time, it was nominally under the rule of the Mughal Empire but Alivardi Khan, the Nawab of Bengal was ruling over the region almost independently.

The war of succession in the capital of the Mughal Empire had led to the empire's influence in faraway regions becoming almost non-existent.

Alivardi Khan had used his cunning and talents to bring the two regions of Bihar and Orissa bordering Bengal into his sphere of influence as well. With that, he had grown powerful enough to lend money to the princes in the capital to influence succession battles.

But with the Maratha Empire growing its influence eastwards, Alivardi had to face one of the strongest Maratha warlords who had gained the rule of the territories that bordered the territories under him.

Raghoji was a general of the Maratha army who was instrumental in its rise in power and had enough influence to oppose the Peshwa Balaji Rao and covet the post of prime minister for himself.

Raghoji had been fighting in the southern regions but had nothing to show for it. Now his greed and ambitions were pointed at Bengal, the richest region in the Indian subcontinent.

The riches of the Bengal region were legendary at the time and rightfully so. Bengal was where the European powers had been conducting trade with the Mughals for centuries. A lot of wealth was flowing in and out of Bengal.

Raghoji attacked Bengal with his army led by his general Bhaskar Pandit. By some luck, Bhaskar was able to recruit Mir Habib, an officer under Alivardi Khan into the Maratha camp. This proved fatal to Alivardi as Bhaskar and Mir Habib managed to take control over the Orissa region in less than a year.

Although it was named a war, it was anything but a war. Maratha soldiers wantonly roamed into villages and towns pillaging, murdering, mutilating, and raping. It didn't matter if you gave them all your money, the men would be mutilated and murdered and the women raped.

People in Bengal were living in terror as Alivardi focused on preserving his troops instead of fighting off the Maratha army pillagers or 'bargis' as they were called. Alivardi was waiting for reinforcements from the Bihar region and Peshwa Balaji Rao to arrive to mount a counterattack.

….

While the bloody winds of war were blowing everywhere, Vir was busy being surrounded by books and having discussions with scholars.

This began when Vir who was turning two was bored waiting for the books from Europe to arrive. Without the internet and smartphones, when he had nothing fun at home to read, Vir felt like time was slowing down.

Although he had as many as 7 siblings and half-siblings, Vir wasn't particularly close with them. Their mental ages were too far apart to have any meaningful attachments between them. Also, because of Vir's odd behavior, his siblings tended to avoid him whenever possible.

Alone and bored, Vir decided that he would take in orphaned children and teach them to work for him in the future. It was a good plan but he ran into a problem. What language should he use?

The Mughals used Persian as the court language and all their officials and nobles used Persian officially. On the other side, Marathas used Marathi as their court language. But this was the case for the official court language, the language spoken by the common people was a different story.

Most languages native to the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent originated from Sanskrit and Prakrit whereas, in the south, the two Dravidian languages Kannada and Telugu were the origins of most of the southern dialects and languages.

'The problem is that different geographical regions, ethnic groups, castes, and religions have their own local dialects and languages. Most common people of this time can't even communicate with people from a few regions over.'

Vir had plans to write down all his academic knowledge from his past life and teach it systematically to the common people by establishing schools and universities. By mixing his knowledge with the Europeans, he could accelerate the development of the subcontinent.

It wasn't like there were no schools or universities during the 18th century. There were multiple schools in every town and large villages. However, the curriculum was not comparable to the West. And the language depended on the region but mostly Sanskrit or Persian was taught.

The primary education included some practical maths with reading and writing. For higher education, it was mostly philosophical and theological subjects. There were very rarely schools where sciences, mathematics, and engineering were systematically studied.

'It's decided. The first order of business is to develop a language that can be used as a standard language by everyone.'

After centuries of Mughal rule, most of the languages were already influenced heavily by Persian, including Marathi. But Vir didn't want to use both the languages of the Mughals and Marathas.

He wanted to use a separate neutral language that could be used by everyone as their primary or secondary language. It was the language he was most familiar with since it was widely used in modern India. He wanted to use Hindustani, or more specifically its original form Khariboli.

Before it was divided into Urdu and Hindi by the British, Hindustani was a language that combined the features of both those languages. So it was widely spoken in the north.

In most northern regions, Khariboli or some dialects derived from it were used. It was also Vir's selfishness that he was familiar with the language and grammar. Although he could speak multiple languages, he was most comfortable with English and Hindi.

"You want me to find half a dozen scholars and poets of Khariboli for you to study the language?" Manu Chand was dumbfounded at his son's request.

His other children asked for toys, sweets, and horses but only Vir asked for books and scholars. He was worried about his son but also proud of his intelligence. But he couldn't just hire scholars at the request of a child. Although he could easily afford it, it wasn't good to indulge his child too much.

Vir who knew his father's thoughts explained, "Father, I want to write a dictionary that can be used by everyone. Think about it, a book that can help people learn and understand a different language. We can sell it for a lot of money."

Manu's business senses tingled when he understood what his son wanted to do. With so many languages in different regions, if a book that translated the meanings of the words from one language to the other was created, there was ample profits to be made.

The question remained if a young child like Vir could accomplish such a task but if he hired scholars for the job, it wouldn't matter too much. Then the question is, "Why do you need to make it a Khariboli dictionary? Why don't you make dictionaries between the languages like Persian, Gujarati, Bengali, and Marathi?"

Vir couldn't tell his father that his motive was to propagate the Khariboli language that he was developing. His motives were too difficult to explain to his father. So he thought of a simple economic reason.

"Won't people buy more books if we made 'Khariboli to Persian' and 'Khariboli to Marathi' dictionaries instead of a 'Persian to Marathi' dictionary?" Vir asked his father.

Logically it made sense to Manu, who was surprised by his son's wits. Even if it didn't work out as intended, it would help his son learn a lot so Manu decided to invest in this venture. Due to the war going on in Bengal, his business was booming so he could make risky investments.

Manu was quick to act and hired five Khariboli poets and writers within just a few days. He was going to hire more but Vir stopped him. "First we need to set up a system and plan everything. If we need more people later we can hire them at that time."

Once again, surprised by his son's maturity and meticulousness, Manu decided to take a wait-and-see approach and sent the scholars to a newly set up workshop in a side building of the mansion.

It worked as a workshop and a library where Vir and the scholars could work. It was planned to be used by Vir as his office when he begins to get involved in the family business in the future.

.....

Author here, I am sure some of the readers might feel that the Indian names, titles, and historical context are too difficult. But if you stick with the story, you will quickly get used to it. I have tried to keep it as uncomplicated a story as possible. Think of it as a fantasy story if it helps you, nobody starts with full knowledge of what mana or orcish mean anyway.