Rather than having an umbrella civilisation as Indians, I would love to see a variety. Such is the diversity of the great subcontinent. I’m no modder. But I teach history and economics for a living and can definitely contribute ideas for design and language and actual history.
What I intend to do is to get those who can mod and perhaps work together to build a few to start off with.
My suggestions: Tamils, Bengalis, Deccanese
Let’s discuss! 
Oh I’d like to add. In such a scenario, Indians as a civilisation would perhaps need a name change to Hindustanis (I’d welcome other recommendations).
My suggestion will be to add the following civilizations:
*Vijayanagar(Sangama-Kannada)(To represent shaivite hindus of South India region)(rival of Bahamani and Orissa)
*Orissa(Gajapati-Odia)(To represent vaishnavite hindus of East India region)(rival of Vijayanagar Bahamani and Delhi)
*Delhi(Sultanates-Hindavi)(To represent sunni muslims of North Indian Sultanates)(rival of Tatars, Mewar, Orissa, Bahmani)
*Mewar(Rajputs-Rajasthani)(To represent hindus/sikhs of North West India)(rival of Delhi)
*Bahamani(Sultanates-Dakhini)(To represent Shia muslims of South Indian Sultanates)(rival of Vijayanagar, Orissa, Delhi)
Some Nomenclatures:
Vijayanagar
Unique Unit:
Polygar (Horse Rider) (feudal title given to nobilities in south india who mustered troops)
Unique Techs:
City of Victory (stronger villagers) (vijayanagar the city of victory, magnificent city built in hampi)
Arab Horses (stronger cavalry units) (vijayangar often hired mercenaries from western coast from arabs, proved fatal in battle of talikota when some muslim general switched side to opposing deccan sultanates)
Wonder: Brihadeswara Temple/Meenakshi Temple
Orissa
Unique Unit:
Paikaraya (Elephant Mounted Unit) (leader of paika army, gajapatis literally lord of elephants pushed the vijayanagar troops to ramsetu (strait of sri lanka)
Unique Techs:
Cult of Jagannath (lower conversion rate) (lord jagannath’s culture is a unifying factor in the region, modern day states of orissa and chhatisgarh have lowest muslim populace historically)
Heritage of Sadhabas (faster naval units) (ancient ships boitas were used to have trade connections with java, sumatra, ceylon and south east asia. bali jatra festival)
Wonder: Konark Sun Temple/Jagannath Temple
Delhi:
Unique Unit:
Amirs (Cavalry Archer)(delhi sultanate used afghan turkic mamluk cav archers, they repelled multiple mongol invavsions using their cavalry archer tactics.
Unique Techs:
Throne of Hindustan (faster gold income) (triumph over delhi the capital of hindustan)
Grand Trunk Road (cheaper villager) ( Sadak-e-Azam/Badshahi Sadak is a network of road maintained in the northern gangaetic planes connected to central asia)
Wonder: Buland Darwaza/Qutb Minar
Mewar:
Unique Unit:
Purbiyas (Camel Cavalry)(Rajput Led Mercenaries working in the Gangaetic Plains)
Unique techs:
Chittorgarh Fortress (stronger castles) (enourmous fort complex, many other such fortresses such as kumbhalgarh fort, mehrangarh fort, ramthambore fort exist in rajptana region)
City of Lakes (cheaper farms) (udaipur the capital of mewar also called the city of lakes has 7 major lakes in the city)
Wonder: Karni Mata Temple/ Vijayastambha
Bahmani:
Unique Unit:
Pindari (Raiding Cavalry) (Muslim Irregular Raiders who raided and plundered villages, also known as Bidari after Bidar the capital of Bahmani Sultanates)
Unique Techs:
Mahmud Gawan Madrasa (cheaper university techs) (An ancient islamic madrasa(university) in the deccans in bidar, karnataka)
Malik-i-Maidan (stronger bombard cannons) (literally lord of battlefield, powerful cannon installed in the bijapur fort)
Wonder: Gol Gumbaz/Char Minar
Tagging some people that may be interested in more Indian Civ Ideas for AoE2:
@Mahazona
@Amitraghata
@PeakHornet46539
@Parthnan
@JonOli12
@SauravT
@BattyMussel374
@Ongarelli173
I’m very much interested in there being atleast 8 Indian cvilizations, but not as a mod, I rightfully want them to be in-built to the game itself, 
For now, there should be AT LEAST the Dravidian (Vijayanagara+Chola) and Pala (Bengal+Oriya+Pataliputra) Civilization added IN-BUILT TO DE
Truth remains, nobody cares about decentralized and independently built mods, everyone cares about the 100% centralized decisions of the devs in adding IN-BUILT content.
Well in my opinion 4 to 5 civs per architecture set is good, so that no set is overpopulated. Currently only 1 civ is using the south asian architecture.
I love these. However, I would stick to the terms you mentioned in brackets as they are more inclusive with the theme of “ethnicity” that AoE II uses. Kannada, Odia, Hindavi, Rajputs, Dakhini, sound great! I’d add Tamils (Chozha era), and Bengalis (Pala era) to the mix.
Also love the units and tech.
Yes, as far as ethnicity is concerned, there should be atleast all these civs and more, atleast 8 civs in the Indian subcontinent NOT ONE
I agree Tamils(Imperial Chola) are a good option as well. The problem is Vijayanagar came after the Chola and they owned the Tamil Territories so that’s why I did not include them since I already wrote about Vijayanagar which encompasses most of Dravidian Region.
Bengali’s are kind of a confusing case. The language itself was created in around 11th century. Pala Empire (Hindu-Buddhist) existed in 8th century (proto-Bengali was spoken back then), then Bengal came under Delhi Sultanate, it broke from Delhi as Bengal Sultanate(Bihari Ruler Sher Shah Suri) and underwent rapid conversion to Islam. Though the sultanate did not last very long soon mughals came in and defeated them. So there is no fixed identity for them to rely on. In different time periods they were Hindu, Buddhist and Islam. Their population rose very quickly under british and mughals due to being a center of trade…
I agree, I just felt like collecting all good ideas in one place can be the first step to influencing future of the game. It will indeed be very good idea to get atleast south india and east india region being separated from the camel focused indians we have in the original game. It will do justice to crores of people living in the region. It feels so weird to play indians in the game.
For India, I could see at most 2 other civs, but not much after that, since even if we could make more, it would set a precedent that people would use to break up Slavs, Incas and Saracens too.
I would like Odiyas and Tamils, though I could also change Odiyas for Sinhalese.
The Bengals did not have great empires at the time, as far as I am aware, and were mostly broken up into small kingdoms.
Paradoxically, the height of Bengali culture was during the British Raj, which is out of the game’s timframe.
Tibetans could also be added, and use the Indian architecture set, even though they are not Indians, though South Tibet does have a lot of Indian style buildings.
The precedent has been set with Huns, which get Central European architecture, yet never actually built anything at all, as far as we know.
AoE2 does not use ethnical themes, only cultural themes. All of the Levant and a huge chunk of North Africa is Saracens, for example.
This Idea is great but its too much for AOE and people would want other umbrella civis to get broken down as well.The trick would be to introduce 2 -3 other cultures/people without clashing with the term indians.
This would not clash much with the umbrella Indians but again Bengali/Pala seems like an odd mismatch like the Goths.
This also is a great idea but bit too over crowded for a DLC but excellent idea for an Indian mod.
One thing I noticed is the term Chola is repeatedly used in the Indian civi and the wonder is also from Vijayanagar so having a new chola/darvidian/vijayanagar might not happen.Pala on the other hand is once there once and no leader name is given too.
wonder has been changed multiple times for indians for aoe2 in past (taj mahal then gol gumbaz then the current one)
only one king name is Rajendra Chola while the other 11 king names are from mughal sultanate, rajput and delhi sultanate.
i think those two things can be fixed if they plan to introduce east and south proper.
You know what the problems caused by that could be. In China. There is no way Microsoft has the balls to anger them. Forget it, Tibetans can’t happen unfortunately.
Nobody cares what the CCP things, Tibetans Empire was in the Middle Ages (12th century, if I recall correctly) so it would not even matter.
Also, I couldn’t give a care about what the CCP finds offensive. This is a game about Medieval empires, not their weirdo control issues.
Tamils are good to represent the ethnically distinct southern Indian region, and they can be retroactively added to the fourth Suryavarman I mission to replace the Indians civ. Bengals are a great addition imo because they could finally be an Indian civilization that specifically specializes in melee elephants, as war elephants were a significant part of their military.
Also the Tamils have some very special weapons to select their unique unit from: