Kamadyu the Magnificent

Kamadyu
Basilissa (Hellene) Bāmbusht (Khaltian) Virajni (Classical Kankrit)
Artist depiction of Kamadyu in battle gear.
Reign	257-306
Predecessor	Hritsvashaya
Successor	Vipulasvant II
Born	236
Died	303
Dynasty	Kadipsus
Religion	Buddhism Kalaism

Kamadyu of Hannashka, commonly known as Kamadyu the Magnificent, was an empress in the latter half of the Hannashka Empire's sovereignty over parts of Tennai and a large expanse of southwest Siduri. She was the daughter of Hritsvashaya and her mother was Amba.

Before her accession, Kamadyu served as a low-ranking officer in the Hannashka army. She served in numerous battles against the Makedonian Empire and other smaller nations. Kamadyu also traveled extensively outside of the battlefield and was tutored extensively in many subjects.

Under her rule, the empire enjoyed great military success, reconquering lands lost to the Makedonian Empire in prior wars and also expanding into new territories. The terrirorial gained under Kamadyu's rule would, for the most part, remain under Hannashka control until the Rideva Empire conquered much of the Hannashka Empire's territory in the last decade of the 4th century. Kamadyu's territorial expansion secured the section of the Spice Road that linked the Sabri Sea with the Varuna Ocean and allowed for the safe passage of merchants across a vast expanse of southern Siduri.

Background

Kamadyu was the youngest child of daughter of Emperor Hritsvashaya and low-ranking concubine of northern Tennaiite descent, Amba. From her mother she had three brothers named Bhoja, Satrajit, and Pathina. She also had three sister named Satyabhama, Devaki, and Karenumati. Almost nothing is known of her mother's family except that they were from the city of Ajmer, modern day Sewa. Ajmer was known at the time for its excellent ironworking. Many historians postulate that Kamadyu's mother was from high ranking family and was made a concubine to help maintain the the loyalty of Ajmer and thus secure a supply of high quality iron goods. It was not uncommon for Hannashka emperors and empresses to taken wifes, husbands, and concubines from the powerful and wealthy familys of its subject peoples to help maintain thier loyalty.

Early Life

Military

At the age of 17, Kamadyu was given command of a small contingent of troops by her father and sent to engage with Makedonian forces at the frontier of the two empires. With her small contingent of 250 heavy cavalry, 700 horse archers, and 1000 levy infantry she managed to inflict heavy losses on the Makedonian forces that greatly outnumberd her own. The account of one battle describes Kamadyu squaring off with a Makedonian force of 7,500 and inflicting severe casualities in the number of 3,100 dead and 3,000 wounded on the Makedonian side and only 150 dead and 100 wounded from Kamadyu's force. The accuracy of such accounts can be held up to scrutiny, but both Helene and Kalkrit sources agree that Kamadyu was highly successful.

Two years later at the age of 19 and after continued success, Kamadyu's force was reduced to that of 300 medium cavalry and she was sent out again to engage the forces of both Erani petty kingdoms and Makedon. Lacking the numbers to engage in pitched battles, Kamadyu engaged in hit-and-run warfare, skillfully utilizing the flexibility and skill of her medium cavalry. Using this style of warfare she was able to inflict significant losses over time while suffering very few casualties herself.

Scholars have debated the reason for Kamadyu being given such small commands and subsequently engaging far supior forces for many centuries. The most prominent theory holds that as the daughter of a low ranking concubine and possessing great charisma and ambition she was viewed as a threat by Hritsvashaya and his potential heirs. Thusly, sending Kamadyu to engage much larger forces with very limited resources was intended to kill off a potential rival to the throne without having to execute her and causing unrest within the imperial household and among subject populations.

Education and Travel

Prior to and during her early military life, Kamadyu was educated by a group of three Buddhist monks headed by Mahanta and the Kalaist purohit and scholar Narumai. It is through this group of scholars and teachers that Kamadyu was educated in topics such as history, art, mathematics, statecraft, military strategy and tactics, diplomacy, and of course religion. Narumai is said to have had an especially profound influence on Kamadyu's future diplomatic and administrative endeavors. It is also through her teachers that Kamadyu gained a great appreciation for education which would manifest in the form educational policies that would have a lasting impact on southern Siduri.

While out in the field, Kamadyu was sent across the width and breadth of Hannashka territory. When not planning or engaging in combat, she would visit the cities, villages, and encampments of the locals inhabitants of whatever territory she was operating in. Kamadyu would listen to and discuss the issues concerning both the wealthy and common people equally and then would seek to craft solutions for those issues in locales she visited. Through these interactions with a wide variety of cultures, Kamadyu gained a greater understanding of those she would rule over in the future, a fact that helped her maintain the peace and stability of the empire througout her reign.

Rise to power and Ascension to Empress

When Kamadyu was 21 Emperor Hritsvashaya was struck ill with "the plague" during an outbreak of the disease in Halram. Despite the efforts of the court physicians, the emperor's condtition worsened and his condition rapidly declined. Normally, a Hannashka emperor's eldest living child would inherit the throne with the children of wives being regarded more heavily. At the time of Hritsvashaya's illness though, all of his sons and daughters from his wives had either died in battle or had also contracted the disease that afflicted him. Following the children of wives, the children of favored and politically imporant concubines would then have been considered but, with the exception of Kamadyu, all these children disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Ancient and contemporary sources theorize that Kamadyu engineered the disappearance of the concubine's children and also the deaths of many of the children of Hritsvashaya's wives.

With no children of his own left to follow him, Emperor Hritsvashaya declared his brother's eldest son, Kohada, as his heir. Soon after Hritsvashaya's declaration the emperor died and Kohada was granted the emperorship. A week after taking the throne though, Kamadyu entered Halram with a contingent of 10,000 of the Empire's most elite cavalry and delegations from subject peoples across the empire. It was initially thought that Kamadyu was entering the city to overthrow her cousin Kohanda, but she and her soldiers dismounted their horses shortly after entering Halram and instead quarterd themselves in the city. Kamadyu declared that she was entering the city to safeguard the emperor's safety and that she had also entered the city to protect the subject delegations as they traveled. Kohada, unsure of what was occurring, allowed the delegations from the Hannashka subject peoples to enter the imperial abode. Once inside the palace, the delegations declared that if Kohada continued to sit on the throne, his empire would rise up against him with the spears of a million sons and daughters if he did not step down and declare his cousin Kamadyu empress. Fearing a civil war and knowing that Kamadyu controlled the loyalty of many important military and tribal leaders, he acquiesced to the demands of the delegations and declared Kamadyu empress in his place. At the age of 21, Kamadyu was enthroned as empress of the Hannashka Empire and declared that she would restore the empire's lost lands and ensure its safety from foreign invaders.

Military Campaigns

Khaltian Campaign (260-275)

Kamadyu leads a cavalry charge at the Battle of Pedzhikent.

The campaign to recapture parts of the Khaltian core of Hannashka territory lost to Makedon in previos decades was Kamadyu's major endeavor in the first fifteen years of her reign. The lengthy campaign comprised numerous large battles and costly seiges across the large front. Kamadyu's primary oponent during the course of the campaign was the Makedonian general Rhoekos who, like Kamadyu herself, was also a skilled and experienced commander in his own right. The two leaders squared off on numerous occasions and developed a mutual respect for one another which was often demonstrated through the exchanging of war captives and the calling of temporary truces to allow one side or the other to celebrate important holidays.

The climax of the Khaltian campaign, though not it end, was the Battle of Pendzhikent which occured in the spring of 271. During the winter of 270, Kamadyu had moved her army of AAAA and camped in the hills 15 kilometers north of the Khaltian city of Pendzhikent. Her Army consisted of large numbers of Hannashka, Erani, and Khaltian light and heavy cavalry at its core, a sizable contingent of war elephants from Tennai, Erani and Tennaiite archers, Khaltian and Erani light infantry, heavy infantry from the Khaltian highlands, and Nalayan levies. Her army was also comprised of numerous mercanaries, the the largest contingents being composed of heavy infantry from central Tennai, heavy cavalry of the Tennaiite kshatriya warrior class, medium infantry from the Korkha region of northern Tennai, and also Nalayans.

Rhoekeos had camped his his army of AAAA 20 kilometers west of Pedzhikent at the same time that Kamadyu was setting up to the north of the city. The Makedonian army consisted of pike armed Makedonian pezhetairoi at its core with supporting groups of Ruvelkan heavy infantry,Mansuri skirmishers, Mansuri light cavalry and camels, Arknoennite horse archers and lancers, Galanian heavy cavalry, and Hayren and Bosrei mercenaries. The Makedonian historian Thespis, who was traveling with Rhoekeos' army at the time, records that the general had the intention of taking Pedzhikent during the spring after a successful season of campaigning which had seen Kamadyu retreat eastward. Thespis also notes that Rhoekos expressed some suspicion of his oponents retreat, but overcame it over the course of the winter when his scouts reported the Hannashka army at a distance that would make it very difficult for it to meet the Makedonians before Pedzhikent could be taken.

Administration and Diplomacy

Administration

Kamadyu kept the loose administrative structure established by previous Hannashka emperors and empresses with a few exceptions. These exceptions included extra military administrators and increased troop presense in the frontiers of the empire and also the creation of civil adminstrative positions that were filled by individuals chosen from local populations. These changes to the administrative structure of the empire, while small, greatly increased security and also espoused a deep respect and loyalty for Kamadyu.

Personality

According to Kankrit sources, Kamadyu is described as wise, cunning, even-handed, charismatic, seductive, devout, and ruthless. This view of Kamadyu reflects the popularity she enjoyed within Hannashka territory and also the fear and respect given to her by her enemies. Visiting dignitaries from the great empires and other independent nations of the period likewise commented on the graciousness, charisma, fierceness, and beauty of the Hannashka empress.

Marriages

In the Hannashka Empire, both emperor's and empresses took on multipe wifes and/or husbands and often dozens of concubines. This is thought to have served two primary purposes for Hannashka rulers: the first was to ensure an heir and the second was to create alliances between Hannashka rulers and important families within the empire. Kamadyu followed this tradition as well, though few records survive detailing her spouses and concubines.

Vibhavasu is the name recorded for her chief husband. What little is known about him comes from half a dozen inscriptions that describe him as "The chief of her (Kamadyu's) husbands who sired his empress an heir and came from a high and noble lineage." Much more is known of the chief of Kamadyu's wives, a buddhist Hellene woman given the name Media. Sources describe her as a woman of extreme beauty, posessing a sharp mind, and the only person capable of soothing Kamadyu when anger overcame the empress. The reltionship between Media and Kamadyu was "tender and loving" according to Hellene-Deva historian Orestes of Arosia. Orestes also notes that "Kamadyu held Medea above all other of her husbands, wives, and concubines..." and mentions the stupa of Nanda that was commissioned by Medea to commemorate Kamadyu after the empress' death.

Aside from a list of names, descriptions of only on of Kamadyu's many concubines exists. Janu, thought to be from northern Tennai, was said to be "One of the empress' closest friends and a profoundly cunning man". He, along with Medea, are mentioned as accompanying Kamadyu as she campaigned and traveled Hannashka territory.

Public Works

Alongside her military accomplishments, Kamadyu is noted for her many public works projects. These included the contruction of schools for the poor, rest houses along important trade routes and roads, improved irriagation and other hydrological projects, and also many religious structures. The hydrological projects commissioned by Kamadyu are credited with greatly increasing crop yields which in turn led to a population boom within the empire in the latter part of her reign and for several decades after. Moreso than than any other type of project, Kamadyu is credited with building numerous Buddhist stupas and Kalaist temples, though the former were more widespread. The Singar Palat stupa is the largest and best known of the Buddhists structures Kamadyu had constructed, though only ruins remain of the structure that ancient visitors called "a magnificent and truly behemoth structure for the faithful."

Death and succession

Following her death in 306 at the age of 70, Kamadyu was succeeded by her eldest son and child, Vipulasvant II. While not regarded as a strong ruler when compared to his mother, Vipulasvant II was nevertheless able to maintain his mother's military gains and also the internal stability she had cemented during her reign.

In Popular Culture

Kamadyu has featured in numerous Tennaiite films, books, television shows, and comic books/graphic novels. Of contemporary depictions of Kamadyu in cinema, Amaidhini Thanumisha's portrayal of the Hannashka empress in the 2018 film Empress of Blood and Buddha is considered to be most iconic and realistic of the Kamadyu in contemporary cinema.