Excellent mod. I do have a couple critiques, which I will go into before the compliments both for ease of reading and also because I think it is nicer to end with positives. First, the Pala Dynasty post Narayanapala are Shaiva, from what I can tell this is based on the specific research of modern, more Hindu inclined historians but is not the academic consensus as they continued to patronize Buddhism above Shaivism and that Shaiva, Shaktah, and Tantric Buddhism all borrowed heavily from one another and they were not always seen as being in competition. To support this, see Genesis and Development of Tantra page 115-123. However, this section of the book frequently overstates the role that Shaivism played in the development of tantric traditions by noting borrowings in Buddhism but not the inverse, nor the evidence of development within the Buddhist tradition evident within Buddhist works dating before the Tantric period of Shaiva, as expressed by Ronald Davidson in Indian Esoteric Buddhism pages 205-217 as well as within Wendy Doniger's the Hindus: an Alternative History (the whole section on Tantra) and in Geoffrey Samuel's The Origins of Yoga and Tantra in the later half but succinctly summed up on page 232. The point for this digression of the Shaiva bias in the first book is that the author's Shaiva bias still has him point to the likely Buddhist orientation of the majority of the Palas; To quote directly page 87 " Like the Candras of southeast Bengal they chose the wheel of the Buddha’s teaching (dharmacakram) as the seal-symbol on their charters; they began their inscriptions with obseisance to the Buddha; and the following among them appear with the epithet paramasaugatah [devoted Buddhist] in the lacunose record of inscriptions and manuscript colophons: Dharmapala (r.c. 775-812), Devapala (rc. 812-850), Mahendrapala (850—865+), Narayanapala (r.c. 865+—-917), Vigrahapala II (r.c. 972-977), Mahipala I (x. c. 977-1027), Nayapala (r. c. 1027-1048), Vigrahapala III (r.c. 10438-1070), Ramapala (r. c. 1072-1126), and Madanapala (r. c. 1143-1161)." Thus it is safe to conclude that these individuals, while many were personal supporters of Shaivism and perhaps even very inclined to the Shaiva faith, still considered themselves Buddhists above all. Mahipala, for instance, begins his donation inscription wherein he boasts of his donations to Shaivas with "om namo buddhaya" and finishes it with his boasting of donations to Buddha temples (ibid,110).

Critique 2 is in relation to the Muda peoples. In the mod, they are represented in a single county, which is likely somewhat more limited than it should be at this particular time, though their numbers are hard to estimate. Furthermore, their religion (and the religion of the Gonds) are counted as unreformed Hindu faiths, which is somewhat ahistorical. While many tribal religions are included in the fold of Hinduism in our modern era, including these two religions, that would not have been the case during the medieval era when those not following the Vedas would have been considered ritually impure and would not have been included within the fold of Hinduism. Thus, it would make sense to include these within their own religion as other pagan faiths are within the system. While I understand the gameplay concerns of doing such a thing, especially given how limiting that makes certain alliances, it is more accurate and there are other faiths introduced by the mod which are actually more closely related.

The final critique is the lack of the Ajivika religion, which while certainly declining at this point in time as it was slowly absorbed into Jainism, was still present within South India according to some evidence that has been collected. Specifically, A.L. Basham indicates they were present in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu into the 14th century in his book The History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas.

Onto the things I really like. First and foremost is the expansion of faiths that show the widespread diversity within medieval Indian Religion and its complex web of doctrinal and philosophical schools, including the much neglected Purva-Mimamsa tradition that was immensely popular during the Gupta period and remained influential among the elites until the colonial period. The inclusion of the Adivasi faiths is also a welcome addition which provides a counter to the Brahminical and institutionalized idea of premodern (and indeed modern) India. Having traditions which exist outside the fold of the more institutionalized religions on the periphery helps show a more complete picture of India as it historically existed and as it exists in the present, a mosaic of intersecting religions and traditions which all mutually influence one another and have their own identifying practices.

I also want to compliment the work done on cultures. While indeed a simplification, it is a marked improvement from the base game's extreme simplification to the point of absurdity. The undertaking of making those cultures is in and of itself a massive achievement and I have to compliment the research done. It adds a greater diversity to the region which improves the gameplay as well as the accuracy.

Finally, I want to thank the creators specifically for putting in the work. It's a region which is much neglected by paradox, but one which is extremely important to the history of the period.