Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

Vijay named the state of Gujarat as Solankipuri, named after the Solanki Dynasty, which ruled from the 10th to 13th centuries. The Solanki Dynasty was originally called the Chaulukya Dynasty, which was believed to be inspired by the Chalukyas of the Deccan; however, no direct linkage could be proven. Bhima I of the Solanki kings, established the kingdom in Gujarat and later adopted the name Solanki as a form of adaptation to local conditions.

The Solanki Dynasty was known for its patronage of Hinduism, Jainism, and architecture, including the Sun Temple at Modhera.

10th July 1659

Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Solankipuri State, Intellectual and Cultural Capital Vadodara

The city of Vadodara is a peaceful one. Although it does not have all the modern amenities that could be found in some of the more developed cities in the south, it makes up for it with its rich cultural heritage and beautiful architecture, which can be seen on each and every street corner.

On normal days, there is not much going on in the city except for frequent pujas and ceremonies held as a form of worship. The fact that the Bharatiya Institute of Technology in Vadodara is still under construction makes it even more isolated from the rest of the empire.

However, today was not the case. In a large warehouse, newly constructed by the Strategic Materials Management Bureau to store grains, there was a flurry of activity.

Hundreds of northern merchants, all influential in their own states had arrived at this warehouse. Looking at luxurious carriages moving through the streets one after another, the kids of the city, who usually did not get to see such things, were suddenly excited by the liveliness. Little kids ran behind the carriages with happy expressions on their faces.

This created a small-scale traffic problem in the city of Vadodara. The police were a little unprepared for it since they had never experienced dealing with traffic congestion, as the roads of Vadodara had been built according to the standards of some of the biggest cities in the empire, and the problem of traffic congestion had never arisen. Fortunately, although initially overwhelmed, they still remembered the protocol and followed the instructions in the book.

To avoid any further incidents, the Sub-Inspector of Vadodara who was alerted of the matter immediately decided to provide some assistance to the merchants by organizing the meeting event and blocking off any carriage that was not invited to the meeting.

When the Sub-Inspector personally arrived near the warehouse and directed traffic, the merchants were greatly surprised. They had chosen Vadodara as the place for the meetup solely because everyone could agree on this location, while other places had caused some disagreements. They never expected their decision to cause such a ruckus. Fortunately, although the incident was unexpected, everything ended in peace.

---

Merchants who had just gotten down from their carriages entered the warehouse one by one, where a red carpet had been laid out, with serious expressions on their faces.

Inside, hundreds of chairs were arranged for seating, and a temporary stage had been built. On top of the stage, five middle-aged men were seated with calm expressions on their faces.

"Uncle, who are those people?" a teenage boy who had just entered the warehouse with his uncle asked with a curious expression.

The middle-aged man ruffled his nephew's hair and proceeded to make his way to his seat as he looked at the five people on the stage with a complicated expression. "They are the richest families in the northern part of the empire, Ujjwal. Remember how I told you our Deshmukh family contributed 0.5% of the gold for the establishment of the new bank?"

The boy thought about it and nodded. "Yeah, you did say that."

The middle-aged man looked at his nephew with a serious expression. "Remember their faces, Ujjwal. No matter where you come across them, you should never act out of line. You understand?" The boy nodded. The middle-aged man looked at the people on the stage once again. "These are the five people who occupy 15% of the stake in the new bank by themselves. While we contributed 100 kilograms of gold after selling off all our ancestral properties, these five families came up with 600 kilograms of gold each. The five of them together contributed three tons of gold."

The boy was immediately shocked. "Uncle, how come they are so rich? Didn't grandfather say our family has been accumulating wealth for many centuries? How come these people have more money than us? Have they been accumulating money even before us?"

"Hehe," the middle-aged man was a little amused. "No, kid, it's not how things work. Even though we have accumulated a lot of wealth over a few centuries, we are, at the end of the day, only rich merchants, while the people sitting on that stage belong to a completely different class."

His eyes had a hint of envy. "They are Rajputs, son, descendants of families that ruled kingdoms. Even though the establishment of the Akhand Bharatiya Empire has made their titles and political power useless, their social connections and wealth have not."

"They grew richer than before, and with the absence of the Rathores of Marwar and the Kachwahas of Jaipur, their strength increased as they took over the leftover resources of the Rathores and Kachwahas after they were destroyed by the empire for siding with the Mughals."

The boy nodded his head with a thoughtful expression on his face.

Looking at his smart nephew, the middle-aged man looked very pleased. "It's time I introduce them to you since you'll take over our family's legacy after all."

"From the right, the first person is from the Sisodia family, who used to be rulers of Mewar. Then it's the Chauhan dynasty, a prominent Rajput clan. They did not have much power during the existence of the Kachwaha and Rathore clans, but after their absence, the Chauhans grew in wealth. The third person is from the Paramara dynasty, which used to be a significant Rajput dynasty before the Mughal occupation. After the Bharatiya Empire took over, they grew to prominence. The fourth person is from the Bundela family, who used to be rulers of Orchha and Datia, and the last person is from the Tomar family, who used to be rulers of Gwalior and another influential family among the Rajput clans."

He looked at his nephew. "You remember all that?"

Ujjwal Deshmukh nodded his head with a serious expression on his face. "I do, uncle!"

---

Veer Chauhan, the patriarch of the Chauhan dynasty, looked at all the merchants who had arrived and got up from his seat with a smile on his face.

"Welcome, gentlemen, to Vadodara. Although I heard that there was a little hiccup on the road, I hope that it wasn't too much."

"With that being said, let's get on to the main topic."

"A few months ago, all of us came together and decided to form a bank."

"All of the people here are smart, so we know that if we let the capital from the southern part of the empire grow, then they would one day swallow up the whole north, and we would become economic colonies of these southern people, no different from the colonies of Europe. The only difference is there is no use of force; the rest, like the blatant use of resources such as raw materials, minerals and human resources, is no different."

"This situation worsened even more when the concept of a bank was established, the concept of investment was popularized, and the knowledge of finance was spread."

"We could not resist the southern capital even more with the leverage provided by the banks. The resources in all parts of the empire are being swallowed up before we could react."

"Fortunately, His Majesty is wise and fair. He did not make any exception for us northerners in starting the bank."

"So, in order to fight back the southern capital by absorbing the funds from the society, we had put forward an application to the Reserve Bank of Bharat along with a deposit of twenty tons of gold in order to establish the Bank of Aryavarta."

Veer smiled as he continued, "I am happy to inform you all that I have received a reply from the Reserve Bank of Bharat, and that reply is in my hand right now." He took out a document from his pocket and showed it to the people seated below.

Smiles immediately appeared on the merchants' faces. Anticipation built up in the warehouse as all the merchants looked at Veer Chauhan with bated breath.

However, there was a discordant voice that suddenly appeared. "If you had the document from the beginning, why did you have to give such a build-up, Veer? Couldn't you just reveal it immediately?"

This sentence shocked everyone present in the warehouse. However, their expressions returned to normal when they realized that the remark was made by Harshvardhan Tomar, the patriarch of the Tomar dynasty.

It is practically general knowledge at this point that the Tomar and Chauhan families don't get along with each other. The two families hold deep grudges against each other, and this grudge goes back many centuries, so it is not too surprising that Harshvardhan would say such a thing.
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Instead of being displeased by this act, the people seated below were a little happy because their original worry was that, after they had invested all their family's gold, they would not be able to have a say in the matters of the bank with the five major families sitting on top. But with the rift brought by Chauhan and Tomar, four distinct camps had been formed.

One was the Chauhan camp, where the Chauhan and Sisodia families were in alliance, and the other was the Tomar camp, where the Tomar and Bundela families were in alliance. The lone Paramara family formed alliances with a few dozen rich families with shareholding ratios above 0.5%. As for the remaining merchants with shareholding ratios below 0.5%, all of them elected three representatives for themselves to represent their interests forming the 4th camp.

Overall, although the rift between the Tomar and Chauhan families looked a little unsightly and unprofessional, it actually brought stability to the cooperation by giving a chance for the small investors to have a say in the bank.

The argument between Tomar and Chauhan went on for a few more minutes until Harshvardhan ultimately settled down.

Veer immediately changed his unsightly expression into a cordial one and turned towards the audience once more, as if he had not been quarrelling with someone just a few minutes before. The people couldn't help but be impressed by this change of face.

Veer finally tore open the document and read it. He was immediately overjoyed. "It is time to congratulate ourselves, everyone. Director of the Reserve Bank of Bharat, Mr Dharmendra, has accepted our application and has personally written us the letter wishing us the best of luck."

He put down the letter with a beaming smile. "Bank of Aryavarta is officially recognized by the Bharatiya Empire!"

"Woahhh!"

"Ahhh!"

"Yess!"

The people immediately exclaimed. They were reserved just a few moments ago, but now they were screaming at the top of their lungs. Even Harshvardhan Tomar, who didn't give a face to Chauhan, had to smile heartily because this was good news for him too.

"One more glorious piece of news: It is said that His Highness Raja Jayadwaj Singha of Ahom has also applied for the establishment of the bank. His application was also approved, and he will establish the Bank of Ahom in Guwahati."

"With this, there are two banks in the northern part of the empire which can form an alliance to share information and resources in order to combat the Shetti and Co. Industrial Bank and the Bharatiya Southern United Bank."

"As for the Raya Royal Bank, it does not have to be considered since His Majesty's Bank is adamantly fixed on providing services to the middle class and has no profit-oriented treatment on loans for enterprises, so it does not affect us much."

"With that being said, once again, congratulations to everyone."

'Clap' 'Clap' 'Clap' 'Clap' 'Clap'