The Rise of India: Legacy of Jodha
Chapter 4: The War of Mysorian Succession
Jagat Singh I, Raja of Rajputana and Master of Mysore, After his Coronation, September 14th, 1487
The years leading up to the War of Mysorian Succession were bitter years for the Hindi powers in India. The fractures in the various alliances were beginning to crummble, as the powers would begin to ally themselves with their various regions. Before we get into the kettle that was the War of Mysorian Succession, let us take into account two events that began the first split in the alliances: specifically between Rajputana and her long-time allies, Bihar and Nepal.
Ironically it would be Rajputana's initial attempts to gain control of the Muslim possessed Indus Valley which would begin to hamper its relations with Hindi powers
In the year 1479, Madhu Singh began turning his eyes towards the fertile Indus Valley, one of the 'cradles of civilization' from which the first Indian nation states, and eventual empires, were born. While Madhu was very much aware that Baluchistan was a rather backwards nation, compared to its fellow Islamic nations, with little income and only a small army that could easily be trampled, Madhu was well aware that recklessly taking another piece of territory, especially one that had an actual majority muslim populace, would create tensions up to the north with the Mughal and Timurid Empire.
So, in an attempt to gain a nationally recognized claim to the edge of the Indus (and, in time, the actual valley) Madhu had his most trusted scholars begin to '... look through the history of Rajputana's growth, make sure that what is supposed to be in our hands, is...', a simple enough task. It took years of travel and geographical study, but the scholars eventually came to Madhu in 1483 with the information he needed... and even a sudden discovery that he did not expect.
They had indeed found that Baluchistan, the current holder of what was once the capitol the Sind Sultanate, had overstepped its bounds in its conquest. According to their findings, a small portion of the Thar Desert, in what we recognize today at the Tharparkar District, had been guaranteed to Rajputana by the Sind Sultan after the 'War of Hindi Resurgence' ended in peace, a region under the 'official' governance of Baluchistan.
The claim, while easily substantiated by the Treaty of Kutch, was laughable. The joke throughout India and Central Asia in the era was that Rajputana wanted to make a fertile valley out of a claim on dirt. Rajputana, unabashedly pushed for its claim, demanding the entire province as part of reperations for having 'invaded Rajput territory'. Baluchistan would not give into the demand, and would not be forced to for quite sometime.
As mentioned before, another unsettling discovery was made by the scholars. During the War against Delhi, the Heathen Sultan of the state signed away a particular valley neighboring the Biharian province of Oudh to, well, Bihar as a part of the peace deal between the two nations. Subsequentially, when Rajputana completely engulfed and occupied Delhi, as the peace deal was inked, the Delhi Sultan wrote in that Rajputana would receive the same valley.
When the Rajput scholars had investigated, they found that, indeed, the valley was under the control of Bihar, something that had gone unnoticed thanks to the administrative strain already on the Princely State. At the time. Madhu, while not greatly interested into expansion and conquest of fellow Hindi nations, decided to press the claim in order to present leverage against Bihar in future. This 'insult', as Bihar would put it, was only the beginning, as the next of Madhu's decisions would threaten what made the small country wealthy: trade.
The removal of Minister of Trade as a position in Madhu's administration opened up Rajput trade in the city of Kutch to another nations, drawing them away from Bihar
Mahdu was no man's fool, nor was he deluded by illusions of grandeur. He recognized that keeping Rajputana's trade of good and ideas closed off for any period of time longer would present abject risk to the nation's well being as a whole. While the city of Kutch was rich beyond the wildest imagination of most Indians, Mahdu recognized that there was a large world out there, and in order to be part of it, or better yet, dominate it, Rajputana had to be ready to trade (or take) ideas from elsewhere.
One thing he beleived stifled trade in Rajputana was his Minister of Trade, a man who had long since fancied himself as the 'Raja of Trade'. Madhu, seeing an opportunity to begin the opening of Rajputana, called 'The Second Raja' to his palace, and immediately stripped him of his duties, forcing him to leave a battered, title-less man.
Though the Minister had been rather closed off when it came to trade, many of the merchants in the city of Kutch believed that he was in their best interests in order to protect them from competition. Though trade was not yet the great wealth bringer to Rajputana it would be in the future, the concerns, and anger, of the merchants greatly destablized the country. In time Madhu's reform would prove to be wise in the long-term goal of Rajputana dominance... at the cost of its relationship with Bihar, whom lost many merchants as suddenly Kutch, the richer of the two cities, was much more open for trade.
It was these two 'stabs in the back' that caused Bihar to refuse the call to arms it received from Rajputana when Orissa would declare war upon it, an alliance that would be resigned when the war was won by Rajputana, and Bihar was suddenly concerned with its 'hated brother' on its border.
The war plans drawn up from the beginning were actually rather simple. Vijayanagar would invade Orissa's southern provinces to draw the main bulk of their army. Mysore would provide back-up to both Vijayanagar and Rajputana, only if needed. Finally Rajputana would merely pass through Gondawa (an agreement of joint military access signed merely a week after the war began) and invade the Orissan capitol, ending the war in victory and with a full claim to the throne of Mysore.
Sadly, the best laid plans of mice and men are often the ones that go horribly, horribly wrong.
Unlike Roa Jodha, Madha specified a group of men to lead the nation in the instance of an heirless death.
Madhu, having just celebrated his 55th birthday mere days beforehand, was found July 27th, 1484, dead. Two things came out of this particular Raja death that titulates the minds of historians (or, conspiracy theorists) to this day. The first was that Madhu actually left behind a message designating who would lead Rajputana, in the form of a regency, in his death. This confused many persons at the time, as no one, especially a ruler of a large country, counts on having to depend on a regency council to lead the nation for any amount of time.
The second thing that came out of this was quite the shocking discovery: Madhu Singh I was childless. Many theories have been formed, each with a varying degree of fact to back it up. The first, and most popularly held, was that Madhu's wife, Ishya, was barren and unable to produce an heir.
Another was, quite simply, that Madhu was gay, and only kept Ishya around to hold up appearances in front of members of the court. I could go on listing many other theories, however these are the only two worth of note for actually having some foundation in plausible reality.
However, beyond the mysterious circumstances of Madhu's heirlessness, the regency council had much larger problems. Word spread quickly to Mysore that Rajputana was now without its own suitable leader to take the throne. A series of diplomatic conferences were held, and a small deal was cut. If Rajputana could find itself a new leader before the end of the war, Mysore would allow this new Raja to claim its throne.
Not missing a beat, the regency council immediately began looking all over Rajputana for Madhu's various brothers, trying to scrounge a suitable leader to the throne. Meanwhile, the military plans initially developed were enacted, as Rajput soliders began marching across Gondawa to Orissa. By the end of the year and the opening of 1485, the Rajput Royal Army would find that Orissa would not go down as easily as initially thought.
Orissa had immediately begun recruiting new soldiers and mercenaries upon the opening of the war, creating a vast new army in order to handle the multiple fronts the Rajput Alliance sought out to force the small country to fight. 10,000 Orissan soliders struck at Vijayanagar, actually managing to break through the country's wall of soldiers and take over the border fortresses, while 7,000 soliders, war elephants, and mercenaries managed to hold the 9,000 strong army of Rajputana at bay.
The war would drag on for the next two years, Orissa and Vijayanagar glaring at each other from opposite sides of their borders (control of said border going back and forth between each nation), while Rajputana would barely manage to capture the regions of Cuttack Jharkhand outside of the capitol region of Orissa. Mysore was still waiting for Rajputana to produce a new leader before initiating its own fight... a wait that, on September 4th, 1487, would end.
Though his coronation would not take place until the 14th, Jagat was brought in immediately to handle the affairs of the nation
Jagat Singh I has often been described by modern historians as the 'Napoleon of his time'. A genius through and through, Jagat was well educated and well brought up, as capable in administrative facilities as Mahdu. However, Jagat was also quite interested in the pursuit of the sword, becoming quite the military mastermind in his own right before he was even considered to be Raja, having fought in many of Mahdu's wars as a captain. At a cursory glance, one wonders how it took three years for the Regency Council of Mahdu to pick Jagat. After all, it was only because of his youth he was skipped over by his father's council, what would keep such a great man from the seat of power for so long.
In short, the insufferable stutter that Jagat was cursed with from his first words to his last. No matter how long or how short Jagat's sentences were, almost every few words would be struck with the man's fumbling lips. One Biharian dignitary, after leaving the coronation ceremony, was quoted as saying 'It is a shame that the newly risen Raja of Rajputana will only lead his country stammering into the ground'.
Jagat would be sure to force the other nations to recognize that he was no 'st-st-stuttering buffoon' as some had whispered behind his back. As soon as he was in full-fledge control of Rajputana's reigns, he got to work. Hiring a new general to take command of the army, a fellow captain he had known to be quite skilled, to lead an assault onto Orissa. This was helped by Mysore, finally, agreeing to send troops to the front lines, helping Vijayanagar route the main Orissan force within days. With only a band of mercenaries, exhausted from years of warfare, to protect the capitol from the Rajputan troops... well, they were immediately routed themselves, giving Rajput soldiers full access to the walls of Orissa and, on November 28th, the walls of Orissa fell to Rajputana.
The war would not only help to establish a Rajput foothold into South India, but East India as well
The War of Mysorian Succession was considered a strong, if long awaited, victory for Rajputana, effectively inserting the country into every sphere of Indian affairs. Jagat, it would seem, was in a position that he had the entire sub-continent at his finger-tips.
Indian Overview: December 3rd, 1487
Thirty-four years and three Rajas (and two Regents) later, Rajputana has seen a rather awesome explosion of growth and prosperity since Rao Jodha began his quest for Indian Glory.
Rajputana has grown from his original position, expanding in all directions. With the throne of Mysore in their posession, and core territories yet to be gather, it doesn't appear that the growth will be stunted, either.
Rajputana, at this point, is a religious homogenous, with Hinduism being the dominant religion in all of the provinces without question. Rajputana's expansion has brought it many different trade goods to produce, however it has also brought them people of many different walks of life and territories that aren't necessarily considered 'there's'.
Economically the lose of stability incurred by the firing of the Minister of Trade, along with the War of Mysorian Succession, has been rather draining on Rajputana's economy, something that will, hopefully, be righted quickly by Raja Jagat.
Finally, the world around India that is considered to be gravely important to Rajputana foreign policy at the time. The three main competitors with Rajputana for dominance in Central Asia/India at this point are the Timurid Empire, the Mughal Empire, and Vijayanagar. China, still stuck behind Burmese territory, has not completely enterred the minds of Indians, and the Bihar-Assam alliance, while tough, would not likely deter Rajputana from future, considered, action.
