Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 785

Chapter 785: The Dharma Society & The Dharma Award
Returning from Kashyapamar, Vijay deliberated with Bhaskaracharya whether he should set up an award for excellent discoveries or not, similar to the Nobel Prize in his previous life. Vijay was uncertain because the merit system in the Bharatiya Empire was already somewhat similar to the Nobel Prize, which would be granted to any citizen making enough contributions to the empire. For example, Anand Binoy, the young inventor whom he had just recruited, would directly rise from a nobody to at least a Class One Yodha. In the future, as the importance of Vidyut increases, his nobility rank will also increase along with it.

Vijay had no doubt that in a few decades, as more discoveries are made in magnetism, electromagnetism, and other fields, his rank would at least rise to a Lower House Maha Mantri, But these are the merits and honours given to everyone in all fields to those who have made achievements, whether military, economics, medical, or anything else, and are not specialized.

With the benchmark of the Nobel Prize in mind, Vijay made a decision.

“Let’s do it, Bhaskar. Even though the merit system of the empire gives honour through nobility titles, it may not mean anything to scientific researchers or intellectuals.”

“So let’s set up a separate award given only in the field of science for new inventions or new discoveries.”

“This will not be a government organization but a private organization run by a community ”

“It will be called…” He was suddenly stuck for a long time trying to pick the name for the award. It had to be short and catchy, much like the Nobel Prize. It had to not include any name that could connect it with the Bharatiya Empire because he wanted to market the award as a global award, and adding the name Bharat in the award’s title would immediately make it a Bharatiya Award. Instead, he wanted to market it like the most valuable prize in science the rest of the world sees. Finally, it should not have any religious attachment to it while maintaining the roots of the Bharatiya Empire.

A lot of names crossed his mind, but in the end, ten minutes later, he found a name that satisfied him greatly.

“Let’s call it the Dharma Award, meaning great beings who have followed their life philosophy to its fullest extent with righteousness, duty, morality, and truth.”

“Also, five different awards can be established—one in physics, one in mathematics, one in chemistry, one in medicine, and finally, the last one could be for humanity.”

“Dharma Awards in physics, mathematics, chemistry, and medicine are self-explanatory. They are given to researchers and scientists who have made the most impactful discoveries so far in their respective fields. But the Dharma Humanity Award could be granted to those gems and people in society with excellent moral character, whose story inspires not only the empire but the whole world.”

When he thought about where to set up the award, it stumped him because one of the main reasons the Nobel Prize was accepted throughout the world was, apart from its historical heritage, its location in a neutral country that does not participate in war played a huge role. In the present case, the Bharatiya Empire could never be this country. So even though the Dharma Award would not lack heritage, it would definitely not have the neutrality and unbiasedness the Nobel Prize has. But if Vijay was being completely honest, the Nobel Prize was not totally unbiased. They were still hypocritical in many ways, but compared to other platforms, the Nobel platform was still somewhat fair—although this was only on the science side of things. When it came to the Nobel Peace Prize, they would give it to any American president, no matter how many people they had gotten killed and bombed.

‘Forget it. For now, let it be established in Bharat. In the future, after Israel is established, maybe you can turn it into a neutral country that will act as a bridge between the East and the West,’ Vijay finally decided. This would bring a lot of benefits since, no matter what, Bharat was responsible for the Jews reclaiming their historical homeland, and even if the government was neutral, the people would be biased.

Bhaskaracharya finally stopped writing as he had recorded everything Vijay had said in his notebook. “So what will the prize money be, Your Majesty?”

Vijay thought about it. 500,000 Varaha of Bharatiya currency today is roughly worth about one million US dollars. The prize money for a Nobel Prize winner in his past life was around 11 million Swedish kronor or one million US dollars. Taking it into consideration, he quickly thought of a number.

“Let’s make it one million Varaha.”

“I remember that for a person to be considered as an elite class of this society, his base income is around one million Varaha, so peg the prize money to this value.”

“With the increase of the base value for a person to become elite class, the prize money given out should also increase.”

Bhaskaracharya hesitated for a bit because one million Varaha was worth over 22 kilograms of gold. But in the end, he didn’t say anything and wrote it down.

Vijay was very satisfied. “There is no need to be in a hurry to set up the award because the jury for the award should be selected from prominent scientific minds around the country. Take your time and form a special society—it’s like a club in most colleges but one that only high-achieving scientific minds can join. Call it the Dharma Society. Invite all the prominent scientific minds in the empire as well as overseas to the Society, and for who would get the award, let the members of the Society vote among themselves in secrecy to select the winner.”

Bhaskaracharya’s heart dropped because he was already filled with a lot of work, as he had to personally handle the construction of oil wells throughout the country and in different countries neighbouring Bharat. But now, there was one more major task he had to handle.

‘Maybe I should finally set up a secretary team.’ This idea had been looming in his mind, but until now, although the work was very busy, he could handle it. But now, with so much work falling on his head so suddenly, he had to seriously consider it.

A few days passed, and the news about the royal family setting up an award was made public. The news was all over the newspaper media

Bharatham Daily:  “Empire Announces Prestigious ‘Dharma Awards’ for Scientific Excellence”

Times of Bharat: “Dharma Society Established: Scientists to Vote for the Greatest Discoveries”

Ahom Daily: “A Million Varaha Prize: New Award to Honor Revolutionary Innovations”

Nepal Times: “Dharma Humanity Award: Recognizing the World’s Most Inspiring Figures”

The Observer: “Vijay Devaraya’s Vision: A Global Scientific Award Rooted in Righteousness”

The reactions were intense, especially in households with children. But given that raising a child in the Bharatiya Empire, especially now, was super easy, the majority of young families were having children.

“Oh my god! Prize money of one million Varaha—is this only one step from Poverty to wealth?”

“Did you see, son? This is why studying well in school is important. Learn well and become one of those scientists who get the Dharma Award in the future.”

The news instantly became popular, especially with the parents.

…

Sanjeev Banerjee, the director of the fluid mechanics department of the Bharatiya Academy of Civilian Sciences, had just read the headline in the newspaper, and he was greatly surprised. Then he became excited. Even though his life was currently very fulfilling with both the honour brought by his various inventions and discoveries and the wealth brought by the royalties he constantly received for the inventions he had made—like the miniature water wheels, the polished version of the propeller, among other things—who would say no to more wealth and fame? Even for an intellectual like him, it was irresistible, not to mention that this award was specifically set up for people like him.

He calmed down and quickly finished reading the newspaper. Putting it aside, he opened several letters he had received. Normally, he would get two to three letters per day from various universities, from professors and researchers who wanted to share their ideas and discoveries with him or to inform him of the developments that had happened in their universities. Usually, this was his pastime event during his morning coffee break, and he enjoyed it quite a bit.

There was nothing surprising in the first few letters, apart from some slightly unexpected news about the increased efficiency of the harvester after major modifications in the hydraulic delivery system. He remembered this project. The Gour Agricultural Company, apart from researching the method of using the Devaraya steam engine to power the harvester, had also given out tasks to various universities across the empire in order to help them research some of the tricky and core technologies that their research institute could not handle themselves.

‘It’s surprising that the result has been obtained so quickly,’ he thought to himself. But his happiness lasted for only a little while since developments like these were seen every once in a while. Although rare, it was not unexpected.

He continued to read the letters, but there was one letter, when opened, that greatly surprised him because it was not from any university, research institute, or organization that he knew of.

The emblem was the image of the world with a torch being lit in the foreground. It had the words The Dharma Society written on it. “Maa Kali!!!” Remembering the news written in the newspaper, Sanjeev Banerjee immediately exclaimed, ‘Did I win some prize?’ He was overjoyed and quickly started to read the letter, but by the end of it, the smile had faded a lot, and there was a hint of disappointment in his expression. However, he recovered quickly enough.

Even though it was not a letter informing him of his victory but only an invitation to join the Dharma Society, it was still good news. After all, from what he could read in the letter, the invitations to join the Dharma Society were only given out to a handful of people who had made great achievements in their scientific fields. Being included as one of those handful of people still raised his prestige and respect in society by a lot.

In such a way, some of the best scientific minds in the empire were starting to get invitations, while letters also started to be sent out to other countries overseas—to the Tokugawa, to the Qing, and to the European countries.