The Making of a Maharaja
The Making of a Maharaja
The Miracle of Kalot, stone representation of the Zunbil protected by Zun's messengers. Found in lost temple near Locil in Kalot province.
Jouishka was the great nation builder of Zunism. After uniting the church, he worked towards uniting his people. After gaining complete control of the Hindu Kush alongside Ghandhara and Multan, he would found a new Zunist state from his seat in Multan, inspired by the old Kidarite kingdom.
With the shift of seat of power into lowland India, there was a splintering of culture between the mountain dwelling tribes and the new lowland Zunist converts of India. Jouishka would attempt to heal the split but over the next few decades the lowlanders would identify as Hindustanis while the mountain folk would refer to themselves as Pashtunis or Pashtuns. The lowlanders would identify strongly with the Indian cultures around them while the Pashtuns would hold on to their East-Iranian cultures. The Zunbils would style themselves Maharaja of their new kingdoms moving forward.
The First Grand Sacrifice
Jouishka did not rush to implement the more brutal aspects of Zun worship upon his newly conquered people. Instead, he would focus on opening religious schools across Multan, indoctrinating the people into the creed and practices of Zun. It was fortunate that the Persians dynasties were still busy with their own feuds and the Zunbil enjoyed a near decade of peace to instil in his people the necessary piety and devotion to the one true god, Zun.
In 934 CE, he would call for the first grand sacrifice with all in Satrapy of Multan invited. He had a grand ziggurat built in the middle of a field and had many of his prisoners from past wars marched up the pyramid. Each would have their hearts carved out and be ritualistically disemboweled as the High Diviner offered their lives to Zun and seek his forgiveness for their sins and ask for his blessing. Many attendees stood numbly through the event but when the ground shook at the end of the ritual, many took it as sign of Zun’s favor and several cut themselves to offer their own blood to this deity who was evidently present.
Later Reign of Maharaj Jouishka
The Zunbil would take only two wives, Mrigavati of the house of Utpala and rulers of Kashmir and Nestokhot, a Zunist commoner. Maharani Mrigavati would bear him three sons and two daughters while Maharani Nestokhot would only gift him a daughter. Despite only gifting him one child, he would favor Nestokhot and would even make her his primary wife, much to the chagrin of the royal Mrigavati. All his children would live to adulthood but his twin younger sons would pass on soon after. Rajkumar Katana would be struck down by cancer at 27 while Jouishka II would see another three more years but indulged in heavy drinking in that time, to help him manage his grief and the paranoia that his father had incalculated into him. His only surviving son was Jouishka’s least favourite, a layabout who focused more on love affairs then on realm management. He refused all marriage proposals and bore no children even as he entered his 40s, fully expecting his younger brothers to be gifted his father’s throne.
The Maharaj would fight one last great war during his waning days as the mighty Chola Empire declared a holy war to expunge the so-called bloodthirsty Zunists from India. This war would drag on for four years and ravage eastern Multan before the Cholas surrendered.
His final decade of life would see Jouishka mellow out on some of his more hardline view. The stress of kingship, his innate paranoia and the lost of his favourite son, Katana would see the Zunbil explore ideas from other religions as well as slide into a kind of depression, refusing to partake of food. Combined with his other practice of self-flagellation, it drove him into ill health as the realm debated between the merits of the dilettante Prince Shania and marshal Prince Youishka, now a man grown deep into his cups and reputed frequent visitor to the whorehouses.
Jouishka would finally ascend to Zun in 947, a man exhausted by his labours and praying to the sun that his realm would survive the incompetence of his son.
The Miracle of Kalot, stone representation of the Zunbil protected by Zun's messengers. Found in lost temple near Locil in Kalot province.
Jouishka was the great nation builder of Zunism. After uniting the church, he worked towards uniting his people. After gaining complete control of the Hindu Kush alongside Ghandhara and Multan, he would found a new Zunist state from his seat in Multan, inspired by the old Kidarite kingdom.
With the shift of seat of power into lowland India, there was a splintering of culture between the mountain dwelling tribes and the new lowland Zunist converts of India. Jouishka would attempt to heal the split but over the next few decades the lowlanders would identify as Hindustanis while the mountain folk would refer to themselves as Pashtunis or Pashtuns. The lowlanders would identify strongly with the Indian cultures around them while the Pashtuns would hold on to their East-Iranian cultures. The Zunbils would style themselves Maharaja of their new kingdoms moving forward.
The Kidarite Kingdom
The Kidarites, or Kidara Huns, were a dynasty that ruled Bactria and adjoining parts of Central Asia and South Asia in the 4th and 5th centuries. The Kidarites belonged to a complex of peoples known collectively in India as the Huna. The Kidarites consolidated their power in Northern Afghanistan before conquering Peshawar and parts of northwest India including Gandhara probably sometime between 390 and 410, around the end of the rule of Gupta Emperor Chandragupta II or beginning of the rule of Kumaragupta I. It is probably the rise of the Hephthalites and the defeats against the Sasanians which pushed the Kidarites into northern India. They would rule Bactria, Kabulistan and Punjab until they were exhausted by the imperial conflicts with the Gupta and Persian Empires in the late 5th century.
The First Grand Sacrifice
Jouishka did not rush to implement the more brutal aspects of Zun worship upon his newly conquered people. Instead, he would focus on opening religious schools across Multan, indoctrinating the people into the creed and practices of Zun. It was fortunate that the Persians dynasties were still busy with their own feuds and the Zunbil enjoyed a near decade of peace to instil in his people the necessary piety and devotion to the one true god, Zun.
In 934 CE, he would call for the first grand sacrifice with all in Satrapy of Multan invited. He had a grand ziggurat built in the middle of a field and had many of his prisoners from past wars marched up the pyramid. Each would have their hearts carved out and be ritualistically disemboweled as the High Diviner offered their lives to Zun and seek his forgiveness for their sins and ask for his blessing. Many attendees stood numbly through the event but when the ground shook at the end of the ritual, many took it as sign of Zun’s favor and several cut themselves to offer their own blood to this deity who was evidently present.
Later Reign of Maharaj Jouishka
The Zunbil would take only two wives, Mrigavati of the house of Utpala and rulers of Kashmir and Nestokhot, a Zunist commoner. Maharani Mrigavati would bear him three sons and two daughters while Maharani Nestokhot would only gift him a daughter. Despite only gifting him one child, he would favor Nestokhot and would even make her his primary wife, much to the chagrin of the royal Mrigavati. All his children would live to adulthood but his twin younger sons would pass on soon after. Rajkumar Katana would be struck down by cancer at 27 while Jouishka II would see another three more years but indulged in heavy drinking in that time, to help him manage his grief and the paranoia that his father had incalculated into him. His only surviving son was Jouishka’s least favourite, a layabout who focused more on love affairs then on realm management. He refused all marriage proposals and bore no children even as he entered his 40s, fully expecting his younger brothers to be gifted his father’s throne.
The Maharaj would fight one last great war during his waning days as the mighty Chola Empire declared a holy war to expunge the so-called bloodthirsty Zunists from India. This war would drag on for four years and ravage eastern Multan before the Cholas surrendered.
His final decade of life would see Jouishka mellow out on some of his more hardline view. The stress of kingship, his innate paranoia and the lost of his favourite son, Katana would see the Zunbil explore ideas from other religions as well as slide into a kind of depression, refusing to partake of food. Combined with his other practice of self-flagellation, it drove him into ill health as the realm debated between the merits of the dilettante Prince Shania and marshal Prince Youishka, now a man grown deep into his cups and reputed frequent visitor to the whorehouses.
Jouishka would finally ascend to Zun in 947, a man exhausted by his labours and praying to the sun that his realm would survive the incompetence of his son.
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