Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

212  Shri and Shrimati Part :3

Dakshin Bhartiya Empire, Vijayanagar State, Capital City - Hampi

Three days later...

The Sriranga street, named after the previous emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire and Vijay's father, is the place where Kavya's new shop is located. It is currently bustling with activity as today is the day of the shop's inauguration. High-end and luxurious carriages are parked throughout the footpath. While there is a designated parking space for guests, due to the number of people that came with carriages, it is completely packed. Fortunately, the roads have been widened, and there is ample space on the side of the road for these carriages.

High-class elites emerge from these carriages, adorned in luxurious dhotis and opulent silk sarees.

"Hello, Mrs. Vaishnavi, how are you doing? How is your family? Is everyone well?"

"Hello, Mrs. Kirti Verma. By the Lord's grace, everyone is doing well. Tell me, how about you?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"It's all by God's blessing; we are also doing well."

The ladies who came along with their husbands talked with each other like typical married middle-aged women. As the high-class elite society in the capital is relatively small, everyone was acquainted. However, the only flaw in most of these guests is that they all looked overly luxurious, wearing jewellery that is extremely verbose and 'in your face'. There is nothing wrong with wearing such outfits, but it just feels like the people wearing them were nouveau riche.

Different from them, there was another group of people headed by Pawan Kalyan, the owner of the Kalyan group of industries. He wore a very subtle outfit that looked sophisticated; some might even mistake it for a commoner's outfit, but only by a closer look would one know the actual quality of the clothes. The Kalyan family is one of the surviving noble families in the empire, although they do not possess any titles; their heritage remains. This group of people was soon joined by Ravi Shetty, Vijay's uncle, and Nirmala Shetty, Vijay's aunt.

As soon as the Shetty family entered the group, the whole dynamic changed as people started greeting the Shetty couple, and this included Pawan Kalyan.

Ravi Shetty initially did not want to attend this event because he did not approve of his niece-in-law Kavya starting her own business. 'What kind of a woman starts a business?' was the thought in his head. On top of that, the woman starting the business was none other than his niece-in-law and the queen of the Empire. Wouldn't it be a laughing stock if this news were to reach the Mughal Empire? He conveyed his thoughts to his wife, but unfortunately, out of his expectations, he was reprimanded by his wife, who quite liked the idea. Initially, he wanted to argue with her, but the laws of nature could not be changed. His wife threatened to take his daughter and move to her mother's house. This one comment of hers made him speechless, so he reluctantly agreed.

The majority of people attending this event today had the mentality of Ravi Shetty, but they couldn't miss the event as it was the royal family that hosted it. Although they did not approve of their Queen starting some sort of business, no one voiced it out for fear of offending His Majesty, the Emperor. After a few moments of wait, the royal carriage arrived in which Vijay and Kavya were both present. They were wearing matching outfits of yellow colour, with some red accents here and there. The jewellery adorned with red pearls complemented the dresses they were wearing.

They received looks of admiration from the crowd, as the middle-aged uncles and aunts could not take their eyes away from the beautiful couple. Vijay noticed the stares but did not react, as he was already used to it, and so was Kavya. After greeting their family, such as his uncle and aunt, they went on to greet the elites of the empire, like Pawan Kalyan, Arjan Bakshi, Bhupati, and others. Sadly, the ministers could not make it because of their busy schedules, but they did send their wives. After greeting everyone, the rituals for the shop's inauguration were performed, aligning with the auspicious time of the day. Finally, it was time to unveil the dress designed by Kavya. Unknown to her, Vijay also had a hand in her design, as he transferred his knowledge about future clothing to Kavya.

Two mannequins were arranged at the centre of the new establishment, covered with a curtain. To do the honours, Vijay himself took part in pulling the curtain. As soon as the curtains were pulled, *Gasp* The crowd collectively gasped, and seeing this scene, Kavya felt very proud. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the pair of clothes sent shockwaves throughout the shop as the people were collectively speechless for a few moments before discussions erupted among themselves. The middle-aged aunts were manic; it was a dress that they had never imagined. Originally, they just thought it was a traditional dress with some design alterations. Still, now, looking at this beautiful pair of clothes, people do not know what to think anymore. These dresses broke their concept of what a luxurious and comfortable dress could be. Particularly, the textile merchants attending this event had their eyes light up after seeing these dresses. Just by the looks of it, they concluded that if they could somehow use affordable materials, these styles of dresses would sell very well among the common people.

The creators of the dresses, Kavya Devaraya, Latha Bhai, and Punit Kundan, were very satisfied with the reaction given by the crowd.

Instead of Kavya, Latha Bhai took centre stage in introducing these dresses: "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the opening of Her Majesty the Queen's boutique clothing shop, Shri and Shrimati. With your blessings, let me introduce this pair of gorgeous dresses."

"Firstly, this is a pair of men's clothing similar to Angarkha but lengthened until just above the knee. To differentiate, we call it Sherwani (look up pictures). The Sherwani is made up of art silk, designed using detailed thread, zari embroidery with stones, and sequin embellishment work. It is curated with a mandarin collar, buttoned-up front, and full sleeves. It comes along with a red-coloured stole and white-coloured churidar in art silk."

"It also includes this lion head bracelet." The men were very impressed after looking at this white Sherwani, and much more with the imposing double lion-headed bracelet.

Next, Latha Bhai introduced the beautiful women's outfit next to the Sherwani.

"This is a new take on upper-class women's wear, that Her Majesty the Queen has designed; we call it Vṛddhiṁ ( Progress ), symbolizing the progress of women in our society. The dress is made up of Banarasi Silk, decorated with sequins, stone, and zari with gold thread embroidery. It comes with a matching pink-coloured embroidered choli in satin and a pink-coloured dupatta in viscose georgette. The jewellery is made by Puneet Kundan, sourced from the best materials and gems we could find."

"Amazing"

"Husband, i want one."

The women were mesmerized by the red Vṛddhiṁ as they started pestering their husbands to buy them a pair, As they had never seen a dress like this. If they had to compare the looks of the dress, it looked similar to what the Mughal nobles wore in terms of length, but the top had a design similar to a saree. Looking at it, they could feel that this was an extremely comfortable and easy dress to wear compared to the current dresses they were wearing.

Even the jewellery on the mannequin was breathtaking, like a bunch of water droplets grouped together to form a spectacle of brilliance. Latha Bhai quickly started auctioning the dress: "There are only 10 sets of such dresses. The initial price is set at one gold Varaha (3 grams of gold), bidders can increase their bid by 500 Varaha (1 Varaha = 3 grams of copper)".

The bidding war started:

"2 gold Varaha."

"3 gold Varaha."

"10 gold Varaha."

"13 gold Varaha bidder 15 going once, twice..."

"15 gold Varaha."

"15 gold Varaha bidder 25 going once, twice. No one else? SOLD."

The pair of dresses sold for a historically high price of 15 gold Varaha, or 45 grams of gold. In the context of the 21st century, 45 grams of gold is worth about 3,015,000 rupees. Although it may not look too high, in ancient times when gold was only mined at the surface level, gold was much more valuable than in modern times.

The event hosted by Kavya ended in a huge success. The most significant achievement for Kavya was not the money she earned but the change of minds among a few elites in society. This included Pawan Kalyan, who happened to be the winner of the first pair of dresses. His views on women changed significantly after witnessing the achievements of both Kavya and Latha Bhai. It sparked a thought in his mind about whether to let the girls in the Kalyan family have the same resource allocation as the boys when growing up.

The impact extended beyond individual perspectives, causing a significant change in society. As news about the sales figures achieved by Her Royal Highness Kavya spread among the common people, it gave more confidence to the women of the Empire.

"Husband, I think I can also do it."

"Dad, let's open a restaurant."

"Daughter, Mother has made up her mind to start a pickle company," said Jayamma, the woman who inherited 5 acres of land due to her husband passing away in Lingapura.

In this way, a pure form of feminism took shape in the empire, where women, for the first time, embraced predominantly masculine roles, with both Kavya and Latha Bhai becoming leading figures. Vijay also noticed this delicate change among some of the women in the empire. He was happy for them for the most part, seeing that women were getting liberated from their own mental shackles. Still, he went on to caution Kavya not to turn this new confidence in women into a movement that involved hating men and downgrading them, similar to what happened in the 21st-century West. Vijay would never let that happen.

Hence, noticing the seed of feminism in the empire, Vijay quickly arranged for Kavya to form a committee on her own and guide the women in the right direction. Thus, the Women's Association of Bharat was born under the leadership of Kavya Devaraya.

In the future, historians had great things to say about Kavya for leading this movement. Although constitutionally, women were given rights in the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire, the women at that time were stuck in their own mental shackles and were not willing to change their old feudal ways of life. It was Her Majesty, Empress Kavya Devaraya, who changed this situation. She proved time and time again that women are no less capable than men, taking her clothing business from one city to all over the world, becoming a fashion giant and the biggest contributor to Bharatiya clothing becoming famous throughout the world.

They also praised her for correcting mistakes within the feminist movement. When it was about to turn into something that it hated, it was Kavya who redefined the rules for both men and women, stating that both are integral parts of human society, each with their own roles. These roles are not designed by humans but are a natural placement of roles due to the circumstances of the human species.

P.S. I dropped my phone, The Screen Cracked, #SadLife