Friday 25 December 2015

Princeley States of India

Well, it's been long I worked over this and it's time to pick this activity up again. Basing everything on the earlier post over Indian Princely States, I will start compiling information over Indian Princely States, one post per state.
Though data is readily available for some of the kingdoms, it is literally unavailable for those outside the Mughal Empire and Kathiawad. There are a few reasons for this, two of the most major being antiquity and inconsequence. Take the case of, say, Bashahr. It is a kingdom on the borders of Tibet, sufficiently insulated from the complete world. Tradition says this kingdom was founded by Pradyumna, the son of Lord Krishna but commonsense tells otherwise. But do we have a way to prove that commonsense is right?
Next, let's go to a kingdom, bang in the centre of India - Kanker. How many of us have heard it's name? No one,except it's resident and the king cared whether it existed or not. In a classic example of Vitasa Nyaya, it either avoided coming in the way of the mighty or it followed the wind. In this case as well, how much information is readily available to us?
I will focus more on the ruling dynasty and less on the kingdom as such - wait and watch for the rivulet to take shape...