21 CHAPTER 21-Excerpt. (Time skip to follow)

Excerpt from the book "Annals of History- The Early Days of the Empire."

In Scholarly circles dealing with the history of the Empire, this is the most controversial period. As you might know, dear reader, the early accounts of the period after the Great Emperor had taken his throne, are a bit shoddy.

With the recent discussion regarding what is considered propaganda and what history, I have decided to observe this short period from the perspective of an outsider. Even though official history records of the empire had proven time and time again, that they are trustworthy, we will not be considering them for this discussion.

As History was not a well-documented subject during that time, there were very few writings except the official records of what happened, during the early months after the First Emperor had taken the throne of what was then called 'Dharanikota Kingdom'. 

The Battle for Dharanikota itself is a well-documented subject, and I am sure you can find a more experienced take on this, making any further commentary about it unnecessary.

But what happened after the battle is the main point of this discussion. Even without considering the official narrative, we know that most of the supporters of Karana Deva were murdered. There are many theories about what happened in the next three months and why it happened.

After killing all the supporters of his uncle, it is said that our great emperor ascended the throne of that kingdom, still soaked in the blood of his victims. Quite a gruesome picture if I say so myself.

As per the logs kept at the forts all around the kingdom's territory, we can easily verify the claims that the entire kingdom's army was summoned to the capital, leaving the forts with the minimum required garrisons.

From the territory that once belonged to the Golconda Sultanate, we have a record mentioning that new members were added to the officer corps and that they were exiled from the kingdom of Dharanikota.

With this information, we can verify the claim that there was a reorganization in the military structure. These reforms are just surface-level changes and nowhere near the changes that happen in the following years.

It seemed that after getting crowned, the Emperor, then King Rudra Deva, wanted to remove any disloyal officers from the military to improve his already strong influence in the military. 

Major changes happened in the officer corps of the areas influenced by the Vijayanagara Empire and the Golconda Sultanate. Some big names were replaced and the overall command was centralized.

The method of removing these people was also ingenious, I must add. Although my colleagues may term it as cruel, and barbaric. King Rudra Deva didn't remove them outright from the military. Instead, he made them do his dirty work.

The followers of Karana Deva who attended the capital during that fateful day were killed. But most of their families were left untouched. From observing all accounts, we can only conclude that they were plotting revenge on the king, for killing their family members.

What else could explain the cruel acts that were committed against them? Not to mention the records of weapon sales to these anonymous parties from both the Portuguese and Golcondan Merchants.

Whatever the reason may be, their end was written in blood. King Rudra Deva unleashed Hordes of soldiers led by disloyal officers, on the families of Karana Deva's supporters. 

No one was spared in these attacks. Every living being in their families was hunted down. Not even the women and children were spared. These attacks are to this day, one of the most brutal acts committed by the kingdom/empire on its citizens, especially in such a core territory.

Such an act was notable enough to be noticed in the bordering kingdoms too. A courtier of the Golconda Sultanate tried to convince its sultan that the time was ripe to invade the then-troubled kingdom.

It's a pity that the sultan didn't act on it. If he did, maybe his 'sultanate' would have survived to this day. The Sultanate posed the first major challenge to the then-budding empire. It would be interesting to see how the history would be if the empire was never there.

Though this is not verifiable information, I hypothesize that the brutal acts were a plot by the young Rudra Deva to gain total control of his territory. It also matches with the deaths of some of his own influential supporters, further proving that you were not safe even if you were on his side.

Though it is to be noted that, no such acts were performed on his ardent supporters, at least not openly. The most notable of these deaths was that of the then-Treasury minister of the kingdom, who suspiciously slipped on a banana peel and fell off a tower. 

After nearly 2 months of inaction from the king, as his soldiers systematically cleansed the kingdom of any opposition, he acted. King Rudra Deva blamed all that had happened on the disloyal army officers, and either had them executed or exiled from the kingdom.

While discussing this topic with my students, some raised an important point. The reason for such indirect action by the First Emperor Rudra Deva may be due to public perception. If it was true, I must say he quite succeeded.

Although he possessed a reputation as a brute among his contemporaries, nearly no one from the Empire connects the name of the emperor, to such brutal acts as the one described above.

Those 3 months after the Battle for Dharanikota, was a bloody one in the empire's history. Brighter and more hopeful days didn't come until the formation of the royal council, the precursor to the imperial senate we have today.

Despite the tragedies, I must reiterate that the level of development the kingdom/empire achieved would not have been possible without the centralization of power in the hands of the king, which was a direct result of these events.

-An excerpt from the book "Annals of History- The Early Days of the Empire."

Written in 128 NST, by Kavita Cheng, Professor of History, Imperial University of Singapura.