Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

3rd March 1660

Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The name Nakkavaram was not decided randomly without any thought. Instead, Vijay had his own opinion. The island was named Nakkavaram by the Chola explorers who had discovered it, led by Vira Rajendra, son of the great Rajendra Chola, who conquered the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the year CE 1067–69. Vijay simply honored the legacy of the Chola dynasty and kept the original name.

Supply ships could be seen travelling between the Port of Nakkavaram and the Port of Swaraj, forming a close-dependent economy.

All the supplies and industrial goods produced by the Bharatiya Empire would have to go through Port Swaraj in the main Andaman Island, as the direct route to Nakkavaram is not famous among merchants. Since the population of Nakkavaram is barely 40,000, only some small merchants who have found a niche market go directly to it.

It was a busy day in Port Swaraj. The mid-noon sun was unrelenting, but people had to go on with their duties. Suddenly, a one-masted sailing ship, no more than 50 tons, attracted the attention of everyone, not for anything else but just because of the emblem that was painted on the ship.

"Since when did the post office provide this service?" a merchant who was lifting up the port anchor wondered, his expression perplexed. In fact, he was not the only one; all of his colleagues were surprised and looked at the ship with their mouths agape.

The ship was surprisingly from the post office, here to deliver letters. In fact, the service was not provided by the post office before; it was only recently started, and it did not gain too much market recognition since the cost of sending a post through the naval vessels of the post office to someplace out of the mainland was much costlier than simply finding a merchant who was going there and handing him a letter, or simply consigning a logistics company to do it for them, which had become quite popular recently.

However, since it is a royal edict, a matter of the face and dignity of the empire, one of a dozen post office ships was used to deliver the letters.

Bhonsle Palace

Aditya Bhonsle had a wide smile on his face after he read the royal edict. Andaman had been developing very well due to the trade with the mainland acting as the door to Southeast Asia, but now, after knowing the intention of his brother-in-law, he could not help but become even happier.

"Although developing Nakkavaram should take away a lot of trade from Andaman, it should not matter much because if Nakkavaram really turns into a metropolis like Bengaluru, Mangaluru, or Chennai, I will gain much more benefits from it." He immediately summoned Dhruv Kak and Gharuda Nakha, his two administrators, to a meeting about how to make the best of the situation for Andaman.

The sailing ship with a red post office emblem quickly left Port Swaraj heading south.

Moments later, the silhouette of a rocky island appeared on the horizon. It had much less vegetation on it than the other islands. In fact, this was one of the reasons the Cholas named it Nakkavaram, as it meant "naked land" in Tamil.

Surprisingly, as the ship got closer, there was actually some decent port infrastructure laid out—enough for ships of over 2,000 tons to dock. This left even the captain sailing the ship confused. "Weird! The foundations built here look to be for some sort of a large city," he thought. He then shook his head in amusement. "Pff, who would build a city here?" He got down from the ship, shaking his head, not knowing the contents of the letter he was going to deliver.

---

"Krrrrr", A grainy sound was heard inside a bungalow

With a final line, Vajrakarma put a finishing touch on the design of the sanitation network of Nakkavaram. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and left his room to show the design to Nakul, the administrator of Nakkavaram and its surrounding islands.

Nakul looked at the drawing and shook his head. Even though he had learned to read the Bharati script and speak the Bharati language, he did not understand how to interpret the design drawings.

However, Thinking about something else, a hint of melancholy could be seen in his eyes. "Will the development funds be larger at least this quarter?" he asked, unable to hide his disappointment.

"Ah!" The smile on Vajrakarma's face immediately froze. He became embarrassed because it was true that development in Nakkavaram had been progressing at a snail's pace. He had been sent here by His Majesty personally to plan for the construction of a big port city years ago, and he had been busy with the work for so long, just adding some finishing touches and adjustments here and there. But the funds for the construction of the city and the development of the island never came. The only thing the island received was an initial development fund, which was used to clear out all the weeds and flatten the uneven ground. A few more funds followed, which were used to build a medium-scale dock with a capacity of 20,000 tons, but after that, the funds became less and less.

The people of Nakkavaram, who were initially very happy about the prospect of development, gradually lost their excitement. Even though they were provided sturdy cement houses to live in along with an average plot of land of 50 acres per person, they were unhappy when compared to the prosperity of their neighbours in the Andamans.

"Nakul, didn't you meet with His Highness Aditya? Did he say anything?" Vajrakarma asked.

Nakul shook his head. "No, His Highness only said that it will be developed soon." He looked very regretful. "I even found an investor from Andaman called John Brown who wanted to invest in the village, but even that was rejected by His Highness, saying that His Majesty had bigger plans."

He looked at Vajrakarma, a little sad. "When will His Majesty's plans become reality, Vajra?" he asked, his eyes slightly red.

Vajrakarma had no answer to the question; he simply lowered his head.

However, suddenly a loud shout was heard.

"POST!"

Vajrakarma and Nakul both looked at each other, confused. "Post?... here?"

They curiously went out to the balcony to take a look, and sure enough, it was really a postman. Albeit an unlucky one, as he was rubbing his head firmly while a few little boys could be seen looking at him with panicked expressions and apologizing profusely.

The postman was annoyed after getting hit by a ball, but looking at the panicked expressions on the boys' faces, he didn't have the heart to scold them. So, he simply waved at them to be careful and moved towards the only bungalow on the whole island.

By the time he got to the gate, both Vajrakarma and Nakul were already waiting for him.

"Post for Vajrakarma." Vajrakarma numbly took the letter and signed his name in the booklet.

"Um, who is Nakul? The same address is given for both. Is he here?"

"Huh? He's right here."

"Here you go. This letter is for you. Please sign here."

Everything happened so quickly that Vajrakarma and Nakul didn't have time to react. Before they could collect their thoughts, the postman was already a few hundred meters away. Receiving a post in the middle of nowhere was simply bizarre.

Scratching his head, Vajrakarma opened the letter. Right after taking it out, his eyes widened as it bore the emblem of the royal family and the emblem of the Bharatiya Empire—the Ashoka Chakra. His heartbeat quickened like a drum. He hurriedly read the letter, and then looked at Nakul with excitement, but he was shocked to see that Nakul had already broken down crying.

---

Out of nowhere, the logistics companies of the Bharatiya Empire felt like a pie had fallen from the sky. The central government put out various contracts to transport essential building materials like cement, steel bars, industrial machinery, and more.

The cement and steel companies were overjoyed as they received orders worth millions of Varaha. People got to know about the empire's plan to turn the whole island of Nakkavaram into a container transhipment port and a large trading city similar to Thiruvananthapuram. Sensitive businessmen immediately saw this as an opportunity and rushed to the Bhosale Palace, the centre of power in Andaman and Nicobar, to purchase large tracts of land in Nakkavaram.

Unfortunately, all the businessmen were disappointed as the sale of land or any sort of property was completely banned in Nakkavaram until the construction of core infrastructure was completed, after which all the property would be auctioned off.

John Brown, who got to know about the news from the arriving merchants, felt like he was doused in honey. Even though the investment he had planned failed, he had bought 700 acres of land near the coast, intending to convert it into a private dockyard of sorts. But now, after His Majesty and the empire announced the development of Nakkavaram, the value of the land he had bought had skyrocketed.

What made him even more overjoyed was the fact that the Bharatiya Empire was continuing to expand in Southeast Asia.

"I knew it! Southeast Asia is the biggest focus of the Bharatiya Empire," he said.

Imagining the opportunities that were about to open up to him, he couldn't help but feel giddy.