Rajasthan Summary

[Kaiser Kirk]

Rajasthan
Current Ruler  : Maharana Fateh Singh Sisodia
Government : Imperial with strong traditional Kingdoms, Founded 1761
Government Model : 1867+ Austrian-Hungarian
Historical Departure Point(s) : 1700, 1761.
Traditional Historical Countries : India, Pakistan
Traditional Friendly Power(s) : Byzantium, Thailand, China.
Traditional Competting Powers(s) : Parthia, Deccan, Laksmanavati


Current Outlook: The world wide expansion of various states matters little to Rajasthan, who's focus is land based. They view Parthia as turning it's attention elsewhere as a positive.

Military Viewpoint : The primary foe is the centralized state of Laksmanavati, over the fertile territory to the east. The Deccan Sultanates have numbers, but wars tend to be grand border skirmishes. The Parthians are strong enough to pose a great threat, but are limited by the passes and the strong threats of Byzantium and the Horde. The 1896 war taught any battles between the two would be brutally costly.

Naval viewpoint : The navy is for coastal defense and to interfere with the trade of any warring neighbor. They have chosen strategic footholds at the edges of the Indian Ocean, so that they may protect their trade, or harass those of other nations.

Rajasthan is a large area of rich soils and deep history. The riches of Rajasthan have long made it worth conquerors pushing past barriersIn the north, the foothills are rich in timber, and the mountains in ores. West of the Indus, the Hindu Kush is only broken by a few passes, but has been the source of several large invasions.  The Thar desert secures the Southeasstern border. The Eastern border is the least secure, extending in a fertile plain. This is the site of repeated battles and border changes with Laksmanavati and the Deccan Sultanates for centuries.

Rajasthan is an Empire founded by the Kings of Mewar in southern Rajasthan, ruled by the feudal nobility of the Rajput Caste. The Legendary past of the Rajputs place them as a blend of foreign mercenaries and horse riders and locals clans who resisted the Muslim expansion. This refers to (in Navalism) the collapse of the last Indo-Parthian holdings of House Suren as the Muslim invasion broke Parthia into pieces. The rump portion of House Suren blended with the local nobility to form Gurjara-Pratiharas dynasty which founded the Kingdom of Mewar.  Likewise the remnant Parthians allied and married with the local Clans to resist the Muslims. 

Rajasthan includes the Thar desert, but also the fertile lands of the Punjab region, the five rivers making for an extremely productive farmlands. The end of the Silk road through eastern Parthia to western China is here, and long brought both prosperity and invaders. Parthia holds the silk road passes and the western side of the Indus valley, long a source of intermittent conflict.

The history includes the Indian, Persian, Indian, Macedonia, Indian, Greco-Bactrian, Scythian, Sassanid , Parthian, then Indian rulers of the area putting their stamp on the region. The Muslim faith was introduced with the invaders of the Muslim conquest. It was refreshed in the expansion of Tamerlane and again a century later under the Mughals.  A Chieftan in the Transoxus,  Babur pushed south along the silk road, through a Parthia still recovering from the devastation of Tamerlane and into what would one day be Rajasthan. In India Babur founded the Mughal empire and expanded, even as Parthia reclaimed it's Afghan territories.  This Mughal Empire with a Muslim ruling class would be a major power in Northern India.

The professional military castes were known as Rajput. Like the Persian Satraps, military leaders were appointed to lead the various small Kingdoms which made up the Empire. When the Maratha Empire
shattered the Mughals at the 1700 Battle of Satara, civil war ensured, as the Kingdoms revolted, tearing the Mughals apart.

The brief peace afterwards was shattered by a Parthian invasion leading to the sack of Delhi in 1739. A Parthian prince Ma'nu Arascid was placed on the throne of a newly formed Kingdom of Rajasthan. When bubonic plague eliminated five Parthian Monarchs in two years, devastating the line of Succession, the King of Rajasthan Ma'nu Arascid, proclaimed himself the Parthian emperor, gained the backing of House Suren (and control of the passes) and invaded. This led to 9 years of war before his death in battle against the Parthian Queen Rhodogune.

The Kingdom of Rajasthan splintered, as the small kingdoms proclaimed freedom. The Marathas of the Deccans, and the Laksmanavatis proceeded to start advancing their boundaries. The small Rajput states found themselves divided and unable to resist.  The Kingdom of Mewar formed alliances with the other minor Rajput Kingdoms of the area, to reform the Kingdom of Rajasthan. This was later expanded via an alliance with the Jats of the Sikh Empire. This combination was cemented in the victory over the Deccan Marathas at the 3rd Battle of Panipat in 1761.  Subsequent to the battle, a meeting of states was held and an Imperial Constitution agreed to. The Rana of Mewar, Hamar Singh II of the Sisodia clan became the Maharana of Rajasthan presiding over a dual Rajput / Sikh Empire.

A warrior people, Rajasthan has repeatedly fought it's neighbors both for expansion and to defend the agrarian heartlands.  While wars with both the Deccans and Laksmanavati have repeatedly occurred, they last fought the Parthians and were victorious in 1896-97, In that war, a mineral survey led to a dispute over the boundary and a failed Parthian attempt to seize the important seaport of Karachi.

Ethnicity and religion : The peoples are Indo-Aryan, the Religions are primarily Sikh and Hindu, with Zorastorism, Muslim and Buddhism as large minorities.