Indian Chieftain

Overall strategy
Not all peoples of India are sedentary agrarian descendents of the Indo-Dravidian tribes of yore - some of them have a provenance that is far more modern - Greek, Saka, Kushan, and Hunnic. Whatever the case, the chiefs of these tribes are more often than not capable of breeding, owning and riding horses. And they are not the only players in the cavalry game. Thanks to the military foresight of the late Guptas, some Indian princes — especially those who were late Gupta clients — have even obtained horses and the panoply required for them, and can also be recruited alongside these non-Indic peoples to do your bidding.

Such is the use of Indian Chieftains - they are in essence a form fo recruitable mercenary heavy cavalry, meant primarily for use by the Indians and Tibetans. Use these equestrian aristocrats as a form of shock cavalry, but be aware that they are not necessarily as strong as mainstream Cataphracts as employed by the Chinese, Turkish or Middle Eastern factions. Still, they are useful as shock cavalry and can be of use, especially if used offensively against foot archers, or a defensive corps against enemy light cavalry.

History
Ever since time immemorial, the history of India has been one of continuous migration, invasion and assimilation, with many different peoples bringing in their own culture (and sometimes that of others) and their own methods of waging war to the Indian subcontinent.

Of these groups, the Huns were dominant in northern India at the beginning of the mediaeval period. While their cousins - the so-called "Red" and "Black" clans (the notiorious Atilla the Hun was ruler of the Black Huns) would be absorbed by the Turkic peoples, most notably the Khazars, the wars of the Hephtalites or "White Huns" in India laid pressure on the Guptas until the latter's empire dissolved by the 550s CE. Even so, Hunnic domination of northern India - comprising the lands from the Bactrian mountains all the way to the dry expanses in the northwest of the present-day Republic - would not last. Following the Battle of Sondani in the 530s CE, the White Huns were finally contained to the lands west and north of the Indus.

By the 660s CE, the last vestiges of Hunnic rule in India were effaced by a new dynasty of Turkic provenance, the Shahis, but their legacy of cavalry tactics, as well as the worship of the Hindu god Shiva, and the sun, would continue for centuries more in India proper. Modern day Afghanistan and Pakistan aside, the peoples of present-day Rajasthan and Gujarat are said to be the last descendents of the Huns in India. Of these, the formerly nomadic equestrian Jat peoples are said to be direct descendents of the Huns in modern day India.