Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

10th October 1655

Ramayya Senapati and Narasimha Naik set their next target to the city of Surendra Nagar. But this time, they were not in a hurry; the plan was to slowly whittle down the strength of the city defence corps in Surendra Nagar. The reason for this strategy being used was because of the conclusion reached by Vijay and Kiran Poojari.

According to the decision of both of them, the battle would transition from a fast-moving Blitzkrieg to a battle of attrition mainly in order to reduce casualties. Kiran Poojari and Vijay came to this conclusion after understanding that if the casualties are not reduced, the troops may not be enough to launch the next attack.

While this battle was going on in the Gujarat region, Vijay was happily feeding Kavya some mangoes. Since the time the war started, he hadn’t gotten any chance to spend time or be with her. On the other hand, Kavya is not a spoiled princess and could understand his difficulties, so she did not pester him too much.

But it was Vijay who felt guilty and decided to spend a little more time with her today since he had some spare time in the morning.

*Crunch*

Kavya took a bite of the green mango and chewed it eagerly like a little mouse. Her cheeks bulged as she laughed with contentment. Vijay, looking at her face, felt very happy and fulfilled.

After spending an hour more with Kavya, he eventually reluctantly left the palace.

The first stop Vijay chose was the Bharatiya Academy of Sciences.

As soon as he entered the academy, he was welcomed by its director, Raghuram Bhatt, who was an experienced artisan In his uncle’s workshop before the establishment of the academy. it was with the recommendation of his uncle and his own tests that Raghuram Bhatt was selected as the director of the Bharatiya Academy of Sciences.

Raghuram Bhatt was only in his 40s, and he was already familiar with most of the crafts available in the empire. Although he himself was not the best craftsman in a certain field, he was familiar with most of them.

Along with that, he Was proficient in Sanskrit and had good management experience in his uncle Sunil Shetty’s workshop, thereby making him eligible to serve as the director of the Bharatiya Academy of Sciences.

Meeting with Raghuram Bhatt, Vijay directly inquired, "Is there anyone in the academy who is proficient in most, if not all the languages of our empire?"

Raghuram Bhatt was taken aback by the question, as in the current situation where the war is being fought between the empire and the Mughal Empire, he could not understand why His Majesty would inquire about a linguistic professional. But still, as a professional and capable director, he quickly perused through his memory and came up with a name.

"Yes, Your Majesty, there is a person who fits your description. This person’s name is Venu Das Kumar. Please wait a moment; let me get his details for you."

Vijay took the file and looked at Venu Das Kumar’s resume, and he had to say he was very surprised and impressed.

Venu Das Kumar not only completely mastered his mother tongue Kannada, but was also proficient in local languages like Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Gondi/Koitur, Tulu, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Odiya, Thai, Bhojpuri, along with some of the foreign languages like Persian, a little Portuguese, a little Old Latin, Greek, and surprisingly, he had also mastered the new Bharati language.

He had even written a few textbooks for primary and secondary schools. He was quite famous in the linguistic and scholarly circles of the Empire. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Vijay was surprised that he did not notice this person, but come to think about it, he never inquired about the progress of art and literature in the empire. He left them to progress by themselves, kind of like autopilot.

Although Vijay knew that art and literature were some of the biggest weapons for soft power propagation in the world, he is currently busy in the War of Unification and cannot distract himself with other things that do not contribute to the hard power of the empire.

"This person is interesting, Raghuram. Please call him to meet me."

Raghuram nodded his head and immediately had his assistant call, Venu Das Kumar.

Venu Das Kumar, who was in his office and thinking about ideas for his new poem, was suddenly called by the assistant of the director. He was taken aback because the director wouldn’t call him unless he had completed the writing of a book or assigned him a task.

But Venu Das does not think the current situation applies to both of the scenarios because he has already been assigned a task to write the book, and this book is the reason he is thinking of a poem.

The other reason to congratulate him is even more impossible, as he had already been congratulated the last time he had submitted a book, and it received a lot of praise among the scholars of the Bharatiya Academy of Sciences and the various Bharatiya Institute of Technologies around the empire.

*click*

"Director, I heard that you called... Your... Majesty."

Venu Das, who opened the door with practised proficiency, was suddenly dumbstruck and struggled to speak after witnessing the figure of His Majesty the Emperor. Venu Das’s pupils suddenly dilated as he began to hyperventilate because of anxiety, and ludicrous thoughts began to pop up in his mind.

He began to wonder if he had done some heinous crimes and if His Majesty was there to punish him, or if His Majesty was asking for him in order to scold and beat him up for the nonsense he had written. He was inherently an antisocial person and always kept to himself. If it were not for work-related concerns, he wouldn’t even talk with the director.

But now, suddenly seeing His Majesty the Emperor and him being in the same room caused him to go into a panic-stricken mode.

Vijay looked at the man, who was not more than 32, with a bald head. By the Vibhuti patterns on his forehead and on his shoulders, he could tell that this person was a Brahmin. From the information he saw about this man, he was married and had two children.

Now, seeing the way the man was struggling to even get out a single word from his throat, Vijay understood what sort of a man he was, and he couldn’t help but feel a little nostalgic. On the other hand, Vijay was more curious about how this guy was able to interact with a woman with his ultra-introvert attitude.

Vijay was curious because he was the same in his past life, But putting aside the memories from his past life, he had the man sit down and continue to chat with the director.

The chat was about the importance of literature and arts in the empire. Vijay did this in order to put Venu Das Kumar at ease so that he could relax his mind and be ready to interact with him.

Noticing that Venu Das Kumar had calmed down greatly, Vijay asked the first question, and this question was very direct, with no greeting whatsoever. He knew that introverts could not handle greetings properly; it would make them more nervous than anything. "I have a task for you, and it is related to a language. Can you do it for me?"

Venu Das Kumar found himself caught off guard by His Majesty’s direct question. He had been rehearsing various greetings in his mind, preparing for the moment he would address the emperor. However, the abruptness of the question left him momentarily speechless.

Vijay couldn’t help but feel perplexed by Venu Das Kumar’s unexpected reaction. He found himself pondering, "Are the introverts of my era different from those of this era? Do people nowadays prefer formal greetings and struggle with straightforward communication?"

Before Vijay could pose another question, Venu Das Kumar suddenly regained his composure and responded, "Your Majesty, I am unsure of the task you have in mind for me. However, if you could kindly provide me with detailed instructions, I will be able to respond accurately."

Vijay nodded his head in approval as the man was finally willing to answer. "What I need is not a written or spoken language, but a code language to be developed. The conditions are relatively simple. First, let me explain."

Vijay was about to start explaining the conditions when he suddenly remembered that there was someone else in the room, so he silently looked at Raghuram Bhatt, The only other person in the room. Raghuram, understanding the meaning of the stare, got up from his chair and quickly left the office, after giving himself an excuse of inspecting some experiment.

With only two people remaining in the office, Vijay began to explain his request. "I require a language that functions, let’s say... in simpler terms, it’s a method of conveying information derived from the time signature of a recurring phenomenon."

Upon hearing His Majesty’s request, Venu Das Kumar fell into deep thought. He muttered to himself, "Time signature? Recurring phenomenon?" Despite his efforts, he couldn’t grasp the connection between these two words. He tried to formulate various theories but found himself continually failing.

Eventually, he gave up, realizing he couldn’t comprehend the question, and admitted, "Your Majesty, I’m afraid I do not understand what you mean."

Vijay paused for a moment, considering how best to explain Morse code to someone from this era. After a brief moment of contemplation, an idea struck him. Rising from his chair, he made his way to the window and pulled the curtains closed. "Alright, imagine closing the curtain represents a longer mark (-)," he began, then promptly reopened it. "And opening it represents a short mark (·)."

He repeated the action of closing and opening the curtain at a steady pace. "The gap between the open and close signifies the intra-character gap," he clarified, motioning between the movements. Then, he proceeded to explain the concept of the short gap (time between letters), the medium gap (time between words), and finally the long gap (time between sentences).

"Got it so far?" Vijay asked, ensuring his explanation was being understood before concluding, "My request to you is to develop a set of commands based on these six operations for communication purposes." He hoped his explanation had been clear enough for understanding.

Venu Das Kumar felt like he understood the request from His Majesty, although he did not know what it could be used for. It was relatively a simple task to do; the only problem was that he felt like it would take a lot of his time. But since it was His Majesty that requested it, he would do it.

"Leave it to me, Your Majesty. I will get it done."

Satisfied with Venu Das Kumar’s confidence, Vijay assigned him the task and left for the Boswell Design Bureau.

What Vijay assigned Venu Das Kumar was essentially the Morse code of the 21st century. Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information using a series of on-and-off tones or light clicks that can be easily understood by a person trained in Morse code.

This technology was developed in the early 19th century by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail to be used for long-distance communication, particularly in telegraph, radio communication, and aviation during that era.

Vijay decided to bring it to the 17th century as he had planned for a new communication system for the purpose of war, and his travel to the Boswell Design Bureau was also for the same purpose.