Originally, the earliest inhabitants of Bharatavarša were the minotaurs, who created one of the earliest civilizations in history, along with the donkeys in Miyanrudan and Agiptus. However, around 2000 BSE, the unicorns, then living on what today is Turan, began migrating southwards, with some of them continuing eastwards, where they conquered the local minotaur population, establishing their rule throughout the whole area between the Sindh and the Ganga basins, which they called Aryavarta. Over time, the unicorns that lived in each side of the Sindh began differentiating, as miscigenation with pegasi and earth ponies homogeneized the apperance of the three races.

Soon enough, the different unicorn and minotaur southern tribes began coalescing into small queendoms, the former of which were unified for the first time under the Maurya dynasty in the 6th century BSE, while at the same time, under the Chera, Chola and Pandyan dynasties, minotaur culture flourished.

After this period, multiple other dynasties, among them the Šungas, Guptas, Palas and the Kušansasanids managed to unify a part of Aryavarta, and some parts of it were controlled by Yauna hippogriffs, dragons, and Kušan griffons at times, until in the 8th century SE, the Equestrian Artabanid dynasty, who claimed descent from Artabana V, the last Aršakid Equestrian queen, starting off from a small principality between the Chandrabagha and Vitasta rivers, established their control over Aryavarta, before declining after the 11th century.

Around the same time, Karnatprantam, the minotaur-majority southern part of Bharatvarša, also went trough cycles of different dynasties achieveing proeminence and being eventually overthrown by newer ones, with the most notorious during this time being the Kadambas, Hoysalas, Gangas, Chalukyas and Rashtakutras.

Despite by then being reduced to a rajanate around the town of Dhilika, the Artabanids mounted another comeback in the early 14th century, even briefly expanding south before being pushed back by the rajas of Vijayanagara, who went on to create a empire that even competed with Equestria for control of Mazandaran before declining and the rajanate of Mahishūru eventually achieving proeminence in Karnatprantam. This stage of the Artabanid era, much like the previous one, introduced much Equestrian influence to Aryavartan culture.

In general, the area of Bharatavarša is mostly divided into small principalities, under the suzerainty of a Maharaja, with this being valid for both Aryavarta and Karnatprantam, although how much effective authority the Maharaja wields varies over time. the current era is one of increased centralization. the Maharajanate of Aryavarta is currently held by <ins>Šayarša XIV</ins> (birth name: Gondi), here seen meeting the Maharaja of Karnatprantam, <ins>Narasaraja VI</ins>.

And once again, we move away from Equestria proper and into the rest of the world.

Minotaurs are related to Yaks, so their anatomy is rather similar, with the main difference being that minotaur fur is far less voluminous than Yak fur. Naturally, since this is a anthro AU, i conflated cows and minotaurs together in terms of design, although there are obviously non-sapient quadruped cows.

The only kirins that are able to mutate into niriks live in the relatively-isolated archipelago of Andamandvipa.

Outfits mostly based in the Rani of Travancore, Nur Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal.

Background based on this depiction of the Diwan-i-Khas

Five/six days to finish this.

EDIT: Fixed lighting.