Why do you seem to dislike Gurjaras so much? In my opinion they are the better Hindustanis.
They have 0+7 melee armor camels, technology is cheaper than Imperial camel. Absolutely devastating against any classical European Paladin army.
They have shakrams, looks cool, lovely trash unit shredders
They have shrivamshas, an excellent raiding unit that seems to be even better than knights, faster, cheaper, ignores arrows
Is it the fact that they have only spearmen (but Turks do too and they otherwise are S tier civ) or you don't like the berry bush start? I found it even better, as it allows to stockpile sheep, later use the sheep when berry and game runs out to get overall more than anyone else would.
Hindustani on the other hand have only gulams, being situational but expensive and caravanserai for lategame teamgames. Shatagni is the only thing I count but I have a hand cannon fetish since childhood.
