Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

26th July 1658

With the decision made by Emperor Vijay Devaraya, over the past two weeks, the demand for festive items and sports equipment like brass lamps, Sports jerseys, kabaddi mats, handmade jewelry, savory snacks, decorative rangoli powders, cricket bats, footballs, silk and cotton textiles, sports helmets, flour garlands, rugby balls, agarbatti, sweets, cricket balls, sports padding, and perfumes, has seen an unprecedented surge since the sports and decorative industries were established in the Bharatiya Empire only a few years ago.

What is even more remarkable is that this demand is not only present in the state of Vijayanagar, currently the most developed state in the empire, but also in every state across the empire, including the extreme northwestern states like Lahore, Sindh, Baluchistan, Pashtun Pradesh, and as far northeast as Ahom and Bengal.

This demand isn’t due to any formal festival in the empire where everyone is celebrating; rather, it’s because today marks the day of national integration.

The people of the empire are spontaneously, out of their own volition and with the guidance of the government, buying these festive and sports products to turn the day into a celebration by hosting various sports competitions and conducting rituals in the temples as a process of truly unifying the cultural practices of everyone in the nation.

In the current Bharatiya Empire, even though there are influential festivals celebrated across large regions, the empire itself, as a unifying entity over the subcontinent, is relatively young, so festivals are not yet unifiedly celebrated across the empire.

While all Hindus share common festivals due to their shared civilizational heritage, not every community celebrates these festivals as broadly as their neighbouring communities.

This creates a significant difference even within the same community. The only festivals that may bridge this gap, even in the future 21st century, are only the Ganesha Chaturthi and Deepavali. The remaining festivals are regional and celebrated primarily within specific communities.

Now, one can imagine the grandeur of the present Bharatiya Empire, where every state—even those in the far west, north, and far east—has simultaneously decided to celebrate this day as a major festival.

However, this day, the 26th of July, wasn’t supposed to be this grand and wasn’t supposed to be a day of unity and sports throughout the empire, nor was it meant to become the first national festival celebrated unified across the empire. The reason for such a change has to do with something that happened three weeks ago.

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July 5, 1658

Vijay, who had just decided on the date of integration a few days ago, was greatly shocked by the response he was getting from all over the empire. It was not that the response was bad; on the contrary, it was overwhelmingly positive, so much so that the normally ignored sports and decorative industries saw a huge surge in demand. He was pleasantly surprised.

In all honesty, Vijay had not planned to make the day of integration a huge festivity since a lot of people in the empire were still in dire straits and were recovering from the effects of the war against the Mughal Empire.

But now, after feeling the intent of his people, which was like a firm reassurance, Vijay decided to put aside his worries and firmly support this activity that had spontaneously originated from within the people of Bharat.

Kavya was also present when Vijay received the report, as she had come to take Vijay’s opinion on the second volume of the Bahubali novel. But once she understood what was happening, she couldn’t help but fall into a deep thought, as if she were experiencing déjà vu.

"This reminds me, in the beginning, my father had come up with an event aimed at uniting the Maratha people and the Sikh people. The current situation in the Bharatiya Empire was a lot like the event my father had founded."

As she unconsciously muttered, a hint of sadness could be seen in her eyes. Vijay noticed this and went on to comfort her.

But Vijay was even more curious about this festival his late father-in-law had founded.

"Can you explain more?" Vijay asked.

Kavya nodded. "Yes, it is said that when our family migrated from Central Bharat to the northern parts of Rajasthan and the region of Punjab, we received a lot of resistance from the Sikh community. Even though we had won militarily, we could not make the Sikh people believe that we were one among them.

So my father came up with an event which he called Aikyotsava, where he would arrange competitions between the two ethnic groups in our kingdom to increase unity among ourselves."

Kavya smiled, thinking about her childhood. "The idea was a great success, much more than what my father had expected. From then on, the alienation between the Maratha and Sikh people began to gradually reduce, and the event started to gain a lot more influence and gradually evolved into a festival celebrated throughout the Maratha Kingdom.

Sadly, the festival had to be stopped as it proved to be a big security risk when the threat from the Mughal Empire increased significantly."

*Sigh!* She shook her head, waking up from her dazed state. "Anyway, that festival seems a lot like the precursor to the celebration being made for Bharatiya integration."

Vijay was taken aback as he never could have imagined his father-in-law making such an effort to use sports as a factor of unification and turning it into a festival. Vijay had to admit his father-in-law was one of the most capable rulers the subcontinent had ever seen.

But then again, he quite liked the name of Aikyotsava, meaning the festival of unity. "Alright then, it’s decided; let’s do it!"

Vijay immediately came to a conclusion about how the festival would be celebrated.

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With the full support of the royal family and under the command of Ganesh from the emperor’s office, orders quickly passed through the Bharatiya Empire in an efficient manner. Advertisements were immediately issued all over the empire about the events that would be held on the day of integration, which would henceforth be called Aikyotsava.

Although not every town and village could be informed of this news, it did reach every city in the empire that had an Arkha Drishti communication network.

The city panchayats receiving the order immediately took action and started posting notices on all the public notice boards in the city, as well as sending people to manually shout the news in every street.

"Listen one, listen all! The integration of the empire will be celebrated as a festival, which will henceforth be known as the Aikyotsava Festival or the Festival of Unity!"

"On the occasion of the festival, various sporting events will be held at the taluk, district, state, and finally, national levels."

"The winners of the taluk-level competition will be directly awarded the prize and congratulated by a Minister of Parliament, as well as receiving a sum of 1,500 Varaha."

"The winners of the district-level competition will be directly awarded the prize and congratulated by a cabinet minister of the state, as well as receive a sum of 2,500 Varaha."

"The winners of the state-level competition will be directly awarded the prize and congratulated by the Honourable Chief Minister of the state, as well as receiving a sum of 3,500 Varaha."

"The runner-up of the national-level competition will be directly awarded the prize and congratulated by the Honourable Prime Minister of the Empire, as well as receiving a sum of 4,500 Varaha."

"The winners of the national-level competition will be directly awarded the prize and congratulated by His Majesty the Emperor, as well as receiving a sum of 5,500 Varaha."

"People who are confident in their abilities can immediately sign up at any government institution nearest to you."

"The main events will be Chaturanga, wrestling, mixed martial arts with army rules, track and field events, strongman events, and even team competition events with the five sports being cricket, football, kabaddi, kho-kho, and rugby, archery and shooting events, horse racing events, and finally freestyle gymnastics events."

"As this is the first time the Aikyotsava Festival is being celebrated, the opportunity is only for boys and girls over the age of 16 and under the age of 28."

"What are you waiting for? Immediately sign up and show your strength to the empire and win glory for your state and your community!"

"Listen one, listen all..."

The people who heard the news that was yelled out were immediately stunned. They were not aware that the empire was celebrating the integration so grandly. Everyone had thought of themselves as the only people or community celebrating the day, but who would have known that it was not the case?

While the adults were surprised by the turn of events and were planning various rituals in the local temples, the teenagers, who were the main participants in the festival, were overjoyed. They had always lacked something like this.

Even though the schools of the Bharatiya Empire encouraged the kids to participate in sports quite a bit, the students always felt that they had no way to pursue sports seriously. Sports had always been an extracurricular activity done for fun and, for some, in order to obtain the necessary credits.

But now, with this festival, the teenagers clearly see the path ahead. Even though the path is still filled with shrubs and thorns, it is still much better than a dangerous jungle where dangers lie at every turn.

As for the kids who had not gone to schools or colleges, mostly within the northern part of the empire, they were even more overjoyed since their daily life was pretty monotonous, as they had to work all day around since they had already come to an age where they had to stop being a burden on the family.

But now, this announcement was a glimmer of hope for these poor and uneducated teenagers who had nothing to show for themselves except maybe their higher physique. Trying out for the Aikyotsava events costs almost nothing for these teenagers.

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As the news began to ferment, even some of the major towns in the empire started to get involved with the events. Various panchayats throughout the empire spontaneously started to vacate the school grounds and began to build miniature stadiums and started to hold the taluk-level events in all the sports programs put forward by the Central Government.

The Bharatiya Empire, for almost a month, was quite lively as there was a huge craze for sports among the youth, and the demand for sports equipment leading up to the main day almost overshadowed the demand for normal industrial products that are always in demand.

Some people naturally found opportunities for wealth during this special time. Each and every southern state suddenly had a dozen or so sports equipment manufacturing companies.

Coincidentally, Shetty and Cooperative Industrial Bank had just opened, and being a bank that specializes in providing services to entrepreneurs and industrial enterprises, the Shetty Cooperative Industrial Bank immediately Expanded their market and influence after providing loans and investments for the newly established sports equipment manufacturing companies and decorative items manufacturing companies.

Although six out of 10 companies that took the loan declared bankruptcy as soon as the craze for sports ended a few months later, the remaining turned out to be profitable investments, which continue to provide profits to the Shetty and Cooperative Bank, overshadowing the loss.

Ravi Shetty had originally received quite a fright when six out of ten investments suddenly failed, but he felt at ease when the four investments filled up the gap for the remaining six. Ravi Shetty had his first taste of venture capital experience in his life. Although this experience was not too pleasant, it was not too harsh either.

A firm determination grew within him, making him resolutely willing to correct his methods and invest only in high-quality assets.

Leading up to the 26th of July, state champions in various sports had already been born, and they were immediately escorted to the capital by an entourage of police. This is an era where there isn’t much entertainment, so when such a lively event is held, it gets the attention of almost everyone who has the luxury of Living in the cities and its surroundings.

So when the state champions were born, each and every passionate individual of the state, according to their personal ability, went over to wish the champions the best of luck and also wholeheartedly requested the champions of their state to win back the national prize, which was a great glory for their state.

Looking at this horde of people constantly congratulating them, showering them with well wishes and putting all their hopes on them, the athletes who were being escorted by the police were overwhelmed.

Some were excited by the attention while others felt immense pressure, but overall each and every athlete group coming from all over the empire to the capital knew that they had achieved something amazing in their lives.

And one such individual was Raftaar Langove, who used to be an orphan migrant worker working for the dockyard in Baluchistan. He was lucky enough to have a friend who served milk and beverages to a local police station, who informed him of this competition and firmly suggested he join the competition, knowing that he had unusually fast legs.

Raftaar was initially skeptical about participating in the competition, but listening to his friend’s nagging, he finally signed up at the police station. After that, his life trajectory completely changed.

Not only did he beat his competition in his local coastal town, he even completely obliterated his opponents coming from Ormara, Gwadar, and Chabahar.

He immediately received a large sum of money as a prize, and he got to meet the nominal Chief Minister of Balochistan, who was unexpectedly a kind old man who greatly encouraged him and even provided him a lot of convenience, such as allowing him to immediately serve as a physical education teacher in the local college that was about to be established, even if he lost the national competition.

Adding to that, the Chief Minister also allowed him to take people with him as helpers or assistants.

Raftaar did not hesitate and immediately chose his friend, who was the reason he was here, along with his friend’s grandmother, since the grandmother would not allow his friend to leave Balochistan and go so far away.