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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), Shaiva, isrecorded to have granted a village to a, Buddhistvihar. The jains also appear to have, pursued theirfaith in peace and harmony., SOUTH INDIAN VILLAGE SYSTEM, The organisation which was responsible forthe, continuity of life and tradition in the midstof, frequent political changes in south India wasthe, village, and the vitality of this institute isattested by, hundreds of inscriptions from all artsof south India., The degree of autonomy at thesouth Indian village, level was quite remarkable.Participation of royal, officials in village affariswas more as advisors and, observers than asadministratiors., Type of Villages, The village with an intercaste population,paying, taxes to the king in the form of landrevenue, was, the most frequent type., Brahmadeya or agrahara villages werevillages, granted to Brahmins and inhabitedentirely by them., These were less common thanthe first type, but, much more porsperous,because of their exemption, from tax.Devadan were villages granted to god,, theyfunctioned more or less in the same manner, sathe first type except that the revenues form, thesevillages were donated to temple, and,, hence,received by the temple authorities and not, bythe state., During the Pallava period, the first two typewere, predominant, but under the Cholas whentemples, become the centres of life, the third ofthe last type, gained more popularity., The emperor was the pivot on which the whole, machinery of the state turned. Hedischarged his, onerous duties and responsibilitieswith the advice, and help of ministers and otherhigh offcers. The, inscriptions of the Cholas provethat there system of, administration was highlyorganise and efficient., Public revenue wasderived mainly from land and, collected in kind,or in cash, or in both, by village, assemblies. Landwas possessed by individual and, communities.There were peasant proprietorship, and otherforms of land tenure. The state’s demand, of landrevenue seems to have been one third of the, grossproduce in the time of Rajaraja I. The other, itemsof public income were customs and tolls,, whichwere, taxes, on, various, kinda, of, professions,mines, forests. Salt, etc. There were, occasionalfamines, general or local; the visitation of, 1152evidently, belonged, to, the, former, category,though there is evidence of the, sympatheticadministration of the tax systemKulottunga Iearned fame by abolishing toll some, cases of oppression are on record. The chief items, ofpublic expenditure were the regular expenses, ofthe king and his court, army and navy, civil, administrative staff, roads, and irrigation tanksand, , channels, besides, temples, and, religiousendowments.The village assembly held, society together through its unique feature of an, autonomous self sufficient village. The village was, the primary unit of society and polity. From, inscriptional records we are able to trace the, presence of atleast three types of assembly held, society together through its unique feature of, anautonomous, self-sufficient, village., The, villagewas the primary unit of society and polity,, from inscriptional records we are able to trace the, presence of at least three types of assemblies which, played a regular part in localadministration, namely, (a) the ur,, (b) the sabhaor mahasabha and, (c) the nagaram., The ur wasevidently the more common type of, assembly ofthe normal villages. Land was held by, all classesof people who were, therefore, entitled to, membership in the local assembly. The sabha was, apparently an exclusively Brahmin assembly ofthe, brahmadeya villages where, all the land belonged to, the Brahmins., The nagaram was an assembly of merchantsand, belonged to localities where traders andmerchants, were in a dominate position., , Functioning and constitution of assemblies, , The functioning of assemblies differed formplace to, place according to local conditions. Theur was open, to all the tax paying adults of the village, but in, effect, the older members played more prominent, role with some forming a small executive body, the, ur had an executive body, called alunganam, whose, numerical strength and the manner of the, appointment of its members are not clear. The, sabha had a more complex machinery, and it, functioned very largely through its committees, called the variyams. Both usually constituted, smaller committees of different sizes from among, their members for specialised work. Election to the, executive body and other committees of the ur of, sabha appears to havebeen conducted by draw of, lots form amongthose who were eligible, though, amendments tothe constitution and working of the, ur or sabhawere made whenever necessary. The, Uttaramerur Inscription, behinging to the reignof, Parantaka I (10th century), gives us detail about the, functioning and constitution of thelocal sabha. It, mentions not only qualifications, ranging from, property and education to honesty, but also, disqualification of the local sabha. Itmentions not, only qualifications, ranging form property and, education to honesty, but also disqualifications, such as lunacy and corruption.Other inscriptions, also give similar information,though there are a few, variations. The assemblygenerally met in the, premises of the temple. Theassemblies collected the, 5|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), varioussymbols that the emergent social groups, soughtfor the legitimation of their newly, acquiredpower. The early medieval and medieval, Rajputclans,, representing, a, mixed, caste, andconstituting a fairly large section of petty, chiefsholding, estates,, achieved, political, eminencegradually, There was a direct relationship, aKshatriya lineage. In this context, it is importantto, note that these dynasties claimed descent, fromancient Kshatriyas long after their accession, topower.A preliminary idea of the processes idea, ofthe processes involved may be formed by tryingto, defind the term rajput. In the early medievalperiod, too, as in other periods, it may not be atall easy to, distinguish the Rajputs from the nonRajputs,, despite the clear evidence regardingcertain, recognisable clans and frequentreferences to the, Rajaputras in inscriptions andliterature. If the early, medieval and medievalreferences to the Rajputras, in general are takeninto account, they represented, a mixed caste andconstitited a fairly large section of, petty chiefsholding estates. The criterion for, inclusion in thelist of Rajput clans was provided by, thecontemporary status of a clan at least in the, earlystages of the crystallisation of Rajput, power.There are two important pointers to, theprocess of the emergence of the Rajputs in, theearyl medieval records. As these records, suggest,at one level the process may have to be has, to betraced not only in the significant expansion, ofthe number of settlements but also in, someepigraphic, references,, suggesting, an, expansionof an agrarian economy.However, to, conceive of the emergence of theRajputs only in, terms of colonisation would beto take a wrong view, of the total processinvolved, and here we come to, the second pointerprovided by the records. The fact, that the mobilityto the Kshatriya status was in, operationelsewhere in the same period, prompts, one tolook for its incidence also in Rajasthan, The, casesof two groups who are included in the list, ofRajput clans are significant in this context. Oneis, that of the Medas who are considered to, havereached the Rajput status form a, tribalbackground. The other is that of the Hunas., Theinclusion of these two groups in the Rajput, clanstructure is sufficient to believe that the, structurecould be composed only of such groups as, wereinitially closely linked by descent, ‘foreign’, or‘indigenous’., AGRARIAN ANDPOLITICAL STRUCTURES, From about the beginning of the eighthcentury,, there emerged a political set up inwestern India, and central India in which newsocial groups, acquired political power by variousmeans such as, settlement of new areas. Thepattern of the, emergence of the Rajputs, whichwas partly a clan-, , based organisation of politicalauthority, shows, some deviations formdevelopments outside, western India. However,the mobility of new powers, towards Kshatriya status for legitimation was not, specific to westernIndia as a similar process was in, operationelsewhere in early medieval India. After, seekinglegitimacy for their new Kshatriya role, the, rulingclans of western and central India, formulateddetailed geneologies in the period of, theirtransition form feudatory to independent, status.They consolidated their political position, bymeans, of, specific, patterns, of, land, distributionand territorial system. Some other, prominentfeatures of the polity and the, agrarianstruchtures in the region are, • Organisation of bureaucracy which couldconnect, different modes in their politicalstructures marked, by different foci orlevels of power., • Dominance of landlord-subordinaterelations., • Landholding as an important componentof the, samanta status., • Integration of local polities into largerstatus, polities., • Certain amount of land-based rankingassociated, with politico-administrativeroles and services., • Wielding of vast-administrative andfinancial, powers by vassals and officersto the extent of subinfeudation., INDIAN FEUDALISM, This period (from 750 to 1200) in Indianhistory has, been termed as a period of ‘IndianFedualism’ by a, few historians. They believedthat a number of, changes took place in Indiansociety. One significant, change was the growingpower of a class of people, who are variouslycalled Samantas, Ranaks, Rauttas, etc. Theirorigins were very different. Some, weregovernment officers who were defeated, rajaswho continued to enjoy the revenue of, limitedareas. Still others were local hereditary, chiefs ortribal leaders who had carved out a sphere, ofauthority with the help of armed supporters., Incourse of time these revenue-bearing lands, beganto be considered hereditary and monopoly of, afew families. The hereditary chiefs began, toassume many of the functions of the, government.They not only assessed and collected, landrevenue but also assumed more and, moreadministrative power such as the right lands, totheir followers without the prior permission, ofthe rulers. This led to an increase in the numberof, people who drew sustenace form the landwithout, working on it.The salient features of Indian, feudalism wereas follows., 1. Emergence of hierarchical landedintermediaries., Vassal and officers ofstate and other secular, assignes hadmilitary obligations and were, calledSamonta. 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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), regions) by these donees to gettheir land cultivalted, led to the growthof different strata of, intermediaries. Itwas a hierarchy of landed, aristocarats,tenants,, share, croppers, and, cultivators.This hierarchy was also reflected in, thepowers, administrative structure, wherea sort of, lord vassal relationshipemerged. In other words,, Indianfeudalism, consisted, of, the, unequaldistribution of land and its produce., 2. Prevalence of forced labour. The rightof, extracting forced labour (Vishti) isbelieved to have, been exercised by theBrahmanas and other, grantees of land.Forced labour was originally, aprerogrative of the king or the state. Itwas, transferred to the grantees, pettyofficials, village, authorities and other.As a result, a kind of serfdom, emerged,in, which, agricultural, labourers, werereduced to the position of semi-serfs., 3. Due to the growing claims of greaterover them by, rulers and intermediares,peasants also suffered an, curtail at oftheir land rights. Many were reducedto, the positon of tenants facing evergrowingthreat of, eviction. A numberof peasants were only sharecroppers(ardhikas)., The, strain, on, the, peasantrywas also caused by the burden oftaxation,, coercion and increase in theirindebtness., 4. Surplus was extracted through variousmethods., Extra economic coercion wasa conspicuous method,, new mechanismsof economic subordination also, evolved., 5. It was relatively a closed villageeconomy. The, transfer of humanresources along with land to, thebeneficiaries shows that in such villagesthe, peasants, craftsmen and artisanswere attached to, the village and, hence,were mutually dependent., Theirattachment to land and to service, grantsensured, control, over, them, by, thebeneficeries.Recently, the validity of the feudel, formationin the context of medieval India has, beenquestioned., It has been suggested that themedieval society was, characterised by selfdependent of free-peasant, production. Thepeasants had control over the, means and theprocesses of production. It is added, that therewas relative stability in social and, economicstructure and there was not much change, in thelevel of techniques of the surplus than over, aredistribution, of, means, of, production., Theappropriation of agrarian surplus to the, stateformed the chief instrument of exploition., Thehigh fertility of land and the low subsistence, levelof, the, peasants, facilitated, the, stateappropriation of the surplus in condition, ofrelative stability.This line of approach does not, take note ofsuperior right and inferior rights of one, party oranother over land. In fact, in early, medievaltimes, in the same piece of land, the, , peasant heldinferior right and the landlords held, superiorright., The landgrants clearly made the positionof the, landlords strong over the land ascompared to that, of peasants. The critique offeudal polity does not, take note of massiveevidence in support of the, subjection andimmobility of peasantry, which is, anindispensable element in the feudal system., Someof these factors are stated below., 1. It weakened the position of the ruler,and made, him more dependent on thefeudal chiefs, many of, whommaintained their own military forceswhich, could be used to defy the ruler., 2. The internal weaknesses of the Indianstates, became crucial in their contestwith the Turks later, on., 3. The small states discouraged trade,, andencouraged an economy in whichvillages or, groups of villages tended tobecome largely selfsufficient., 4. The domination of the feudal chiefs, alsoweakened village self-government., 5. The feudel order had a few advantagesas well. In, an age of disorder andviolence, the stronger feudal, chiefsprotected the lines and property of, thepeasants and other without which dailylife could, not have functioned., Some ofthe feudal chief protected the lives, andproperty of the peasants and otherswithout, which daily life could not havefunctioned. Some of, the feudal chief alsotook an interest in the, extension, andimprovement, of, cultivation.Economically, the first phase, i.e, AD, 750–AD 1000, is believed to be one of decline. It, isevident from the absence of coins for, exchangeand the decayed condition of towns, inorthernIndia. But in the second phase after AD, 1000,we notice a revival of trade activities. Not, onlydo we come across new gold coins, there are, alsonumerous references to trade goods and, towns.What could be the reason for it?, There seem tobe two main reasons for it. One, there, wasincrease in agricultural activities on account, ofland grants in fresh areas. It led to, surplusproduction of goods for exchange. And, second,the Arab traders had emerged on the, coastalareas of India as important players, ininternational sea trade. The Arabs had acquireda, foothold in Sind in AD 712 and later, gradually,they, set up their settlements all along the sea, fromArabia to China. These settlements served, asimportant channels for the sale and purchase, ofIndian goods, and thus helped in the growth, ofIndian external trade. In south India, the, Cholakings maintained close commercial contact, withsoutheast Asia (Malaya, Indonesia etc), andChina., 11|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), instance of the two types of Indianwomen, ascetic, and domestic. A magnificentexample of a, brahmavadini in the Ramayana isAnasuya, wife of, the Sage Atri. Anothercelebrated woman. She was, the disciple of thegreat sage Matanga and had her, hermitage onthe bank of the lake Pampa On the, other hand,the highest manifestation of domestic, perfectionin the Ramayana, is found in the, inimitablepersonality of Sita, the idol of, Indianwomanhood., The, Mahabharata, too, isresplendent with a galaxy of great womenfulfilling, their destinies. For instance. Suitable,who was a, great scholar, for want of a suitablebridegroom,, became an ascetic for life androamed about from, place to place in search ofknowledge. Other, celebrated brahmavakinis ofthe Mahabharata are, the daughter of Sandklyadescribed as a Brahmani, and Siva had whomastered the Vedas. Far more, numerous are theinstances of women who led, dedicated lives athome, e.g., Kunti and Draupadi., One of the mostcelebrated women of the Puranas is, Makalasa,the escort of king Ritdhvaja. She was at, once agreat scholar, a saintly woman and, dutifulhousewife. Another saintly woman of, thePuranas is Devahuti, wife of the great, sagePrajapati Kardama and mother of the, greatersage Kapila. The propounder of the, samkhyasystem of Indian philosophy. Her, philosophicaldiscourses with her learned husband, and songo to prove her unique spiritual, attainments,even though she lived a household life., Theposition, of, women, in, India, graduallydeteriorated as the golden Vedic ideals of, unityand equality began to fade off through, thepassage of time. During the period of the, Smritis,women were bracketed with the Sudras,, andwere denied the right to study the Vedas, to, utterVedic mantras, and to perform Vedic, rites.Hence, during such an age, it was not to, beexpected that women would continue to enjoythe, old privilege of choosing a life of celibacy, andasceticism. Since women and property, arebracketed together in several reference in, theepics, Smritis and Puranas, there is no doubt, thatwoman herself was regarded as a sort, ofproperty. She could be given away or loaned, asany item of property. Manu and Yajnavalkya,for, example, hold that a woman is neverindependent., This was like the attitude of atypical patriarchal, society based on privateproperty. Because of this, attitude, theBrahmanical law did not allow any, proprietaryrights to to women; the provision for, stridhanais of a very limited character and does not, extendbeyond the wife’s rights to jewels,, ornamentsand presents made to her. Manu declares, thatthe wife, the son and the salve are, unpropertied,whatever they earn is the property of, those towhom they belong. This sort of social, , philosophytook strong roots in the Gupta and postGuptaperiods, although the institution of, monogamousfamily and private property had been, developedmuch earlier., THE ARABS IN SIND, The establishment of Arab rule in Sind in 712A.D., was preceded by a number of efforts topenetrate, India. The view that the Arabs indeedwere not, interested in territorial acquisition tillthe ruler of, Sind in 700 A.D. provoked them, isnot accepted by, the book ‘A ComprehensiveHistory of India’. This, book relies on the authorityof baladhuri, who is, regarded as the most reliableauthority on the, subject. According to the book,the Arabs made, systematic inroads on the threekingdoms of Kabul,, Zabul and Sind. Very oftenthe first two were united, in resisting theaggression of the Arabs. Baladhuri, says that after650 A.D. the Arabs entered India. One, moreexpedition was sent by the Caliphate of Ali, toconquer, Kabul, but, was, frustrated., Anotherattempt was made in 698 A.D., which was, stillless successful. The weakness of the Arabs, wasundoubtedly due to internal troubles, andweakness of the Caliphate during the last daysof, Umayyids, but after the establishment ofpowerful, Abbasid Caliphate the earlier designswere, repeated. Kabul was conqured but againescaped, from the control of the Caliphate. Zebulwas, conquered only in 870 A.D.Although both Kabul and, Zabul succumbed to Islam the heroic resistance, they offeredchecked the spread of Islam into, thesubcontinent. Few countries in the world,, thattoo small principalities like these, have defied, thearms of Islam so bravely and for so long, 2000years.Good number of details are found, regardingthe history of Sind in the 7th Century A.D., inChachnama, a Persian translation of an oldArabic, history of the conquest of Sind by theArabs. An, expedition of the Arabs was sentagainst Debal some, time before 643 A.D.Baladhuri speaks of Muslim, victory butChachnama says that the Muslims, weredefeated. The conquest of Sind was, abandonedfor some time. When then new Calipha, Uthmanattempted to conquer, he too left it after, asetback. During the days of Caliphate of Ali, awellequipped Muslim Army came along theland route., According to Baladhuri, the Muslimswere put to, rout. After this, a series of expeditionswere sent to, conquer an outpost of Sind, whichall ended in, failure.The Arabs resumed their aggression, againstSind only after 705 A.D. An Arab ship fell in, thehands of pirates near Debal. A Muslim, governordemanded their release and also the, arrest of thepirates. It appears, Dehar refused to, oblige. As amatter of fact, the governor for Iraq, wasappointed for both the areas of Hindi and, Sind.For long time the Arabs chafed at their failure, 13|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), toconquer Sind. Thus, the governor Hajja, merelyseized the policy as a pretext to defeat, andconquer, Sind.After, making, elaborate, preparation,Mohammad-Bin-Kasim, the son-in-law, of Hajjaj,was sent with a well equipped army., Headvanced to Makran and laid siege to Debal, in711, A.D., The, capital, was, captured, then,Muhammad advanced along the Indus, toconquer the whole area. It appears that veryoften, treachery led to the Arab conquest of, SindMuhammad, advanced, against, Multan, andsucceeded in capturing it. According, toChachanam, Muhammad himself advanced tothe, frontier of Kashmir.The triumph and career of, Muhammad wassuddenly cut short by political, changes at home.Since the new Caliph was the, sworn enemy ofHajjaj. Muhammad was taken, prisoner, insultedand tortured to death.This, development made Jaisimha, the son ofDaher, to reoccupy Bahmansbad. The Caliphsent an army to, subdue the rebels. They evenparleyed with, Jaisimha. Junaid, the Governor ofSind, defeated, Jaisimha and took him prionser.Thus ended the, dynasty of Daher and theindependence of Sind.The, comperatively easy conquest ofMuhammad, son of, Kasim, should not make usforget the long, resistance offered by Sind to theArabs.Later, Junaid, sent several expeditions to theinterior of India., They were signally defeated bythe Pratihara king, Nagabhatta - I Pulakesin, theChalukya chief of, Gujarata, and probably alsoby Yasovarman. These, defeats forced the Arabsto confine themselves to, Sind. The Arabs lostcontrol of Sind during the last, years ofUmayyids. The Abbasid Caliphs once, againstarted to re-establish their power in Sind., Aclaim was made. The Arabs once againconquered, Multan and Kashmir but the evidenceshows that, Lalitadiya thrice defeated the Arabs.It was some, time between 800 and 830 A.D. thatthe Arabs fully, re-conquered the lost areas. Itwas during this, period that the Arabs forcesprobably advanced as, far as Chittor but theresistance offered by Indian, kings probably forcedthem to retreat.After the, collapse fo the Abbasid power, Sindbecame virually, independent and was dividedinto two independent, states. Neither of themcould become powerful., Significance:It is no longer believed that the Arab, conquestof Sind was a mere episode in the history, of India.What this event reveals is the sea change, thatcave over Hindu Civilisation by 1000 A.D., A fewMuslim traders earlier settled in the, Malabarregion. But the might of Islam was, experiencedin Sind. This challenge was met by, rulers of theday., It is now well-known that the politicalambitions of, the successors of Muhammad-bin-Kasim were, check mated by Lalitaditya, Bhojaand a few other, , rulers. This particular resistancebears testimony to, the political consciousness ofthe day. It is this, consciousness that was totallyabsent in India when, Mahumud of Ghazniraided the country and soon he, was followedby Ghori who succeeded in, establishing Islamicrule in India. It is surprising to, note that whenthe Sahiyas checkmated the Arab, penetrationin the north-west and rulers within, Indiacontained the penetration of Arabs in Sind,, noconcerted efforts were made by Indian, rulersafter 1000 A.D. to defeat the invaders except, forthe first battle of Tarain to some extent., Instead,we hear that Hinduism retreated into its, ownshell, a fact sharply revealed by the, observationsof, Alberuni.Apart, from, this, significance, the Arab rulein Sind led to interaction, between two cultures.It is held by some historians, that Sind was thebirth-place of later-day Sufism, which in turnoccasioned the emergence of the, famous bhakticult in the middle ages.Apart from, this consequence, the Arabconquest of sind also led, to the transmission ofIndian culture-Panchtantra, and scientific lore ofancient India like the digital, system andknowledge of medicine. It is to be kept, in mindthat after the collapse of the Roman, empireintellectuals, began, to, gather, in, Baghbad,meaning city of god in Sanskrit. The, intellectualspeculations that the city facilitated by, theinteraction of Greek and Roman heritage, withthat of the Indian lay at the base of, theRenaissance movement in Europe in the, 16thcentury. “We know definitely from Masudin, IbnHauqal that Arab settlers lived side by side, withtheir Hindu fellow-citizens for many years, onterms of amity and peace, and Amir, Khusravmentions that the Arab astronomer Abu, Masharcome to Benaras and studied astronomy, therefor ten years.Finally, the significance of the, Arab conquestof Sind lies in the tolerance that was, shown toHinduism by Islam. Although jaziya, wascollected, the Arab governors chose to, leaveHindu religious practices untouched. What, Indiawitnessed after the invasion of Mahmud, ofGhazni was not Islamic influence as pioneeredby, the Arabs but central-Asian culture of theTurkish,, nomad who carried the banner of Islam.In other, words, what the history of Arabs in Sindconveys is, the fact that persecution of otherreligious was not, the avowed doctrine of Islam.The Arabs had to, leave India towards theend of the 9th century. After, the Arabs, the Turksinvaded India. They were, attracted mainly bythe fabulous wealth lying in the, garbhagriha ofthe temples., THE GHAZAVIDS, The empire of the Ghaznavids was built onthe ruins, of the Abbasid Caliphate concentratedin west and, central Asia. From the end of the9th Century, the, 14|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), A largenumber of Indian soldiers were killed., Prithvirajtried to escape but was captured near, Sarsuti.The Turkish army captured the fortresses, ofHansi, Sarsuti and Samana. Then they, movedforward running over Delhi and Ajmer.After, Tarain, Ghori returned to Ghazni,leaving the affairs, of India in the hand of histrusted slave general, Qutbuddin Aibak. In AD1194 Muhammad Ghori, again returned to India.He crossed Yamuna with, 50,000 cavalry andmoved towards Kanauj. He gave, a crushingdefeat to Jai Chand at Chandwar near, Kanauj.Thus the battle of Tarain and Chandwar, laidthe foundations of Turkish rule in Northern, India.The, political, achievements, of, MuhammadGhori in India were long lasting than, those ofMahmud of Ghazni. While Mahmud, Ghazniwas mainly interested in plundering, MuhammadGhori wanted to establish his political, control.His death in AD 1206 did not mean, thewithdrawal of the Turkish interests in India., Heleft behind his slave General Qutbuddin, Aibakwho became first Sultan of the Delhi, Sultanate., CULTURAL, TRENDS, (750-1200)Religious, Conditions: Importance Of TemplesAnd Monastic, Temples, held, an, important, place, in, thepredominantly, agrarian, economy, of, medievalIndia, especially in south India. Even, thoughtemples rose to power during the Pallava, period,they gradually consolidated their position, underthe Cholas with the help of royal patronage., Theimportance of temples was more visible, duringthe early medieval period largely because of, thefact that land grants during this period, weregiven more prolifically. During this period, wesee the emergence of great royal temples, whichsymbolised the power of the ruling kingdom., From the 10th to 13th centuries, a large numberof, temples were built in various regionalkingdoms. On, account of the royal support andpatronage they, received, temples had an accessto agricultural, produce and a control of society.They were also, used to counter the divisive forcesprevailing in, those kingdoms. Temples flourishedon the, landgrants and cash endowments by thecrown,, merchant guilds and others which, inturn, made, them the biggest employer, moneylender and, consumer of goods and service. Itssocial role, based, on this economic substructure,pivoted around its, role of preserving andpropagating education and, culture., Sources both archaeological and literary, likeMitakshara, Pratagmanjari and Tahkike, Hind,help a lot to reconstruct the socio-economic, roleof temples. All these are corroborated by, copperplates,, stone, inscriptions, and, numismaticfindings., , Land, endowments, were, the, most, importantresources of the temples in medieval, south India., The landgranted to the temples had twofunctions:, first, to yield and income with whichto maintain a, specified ritual service in the nameof the donor, and, second, to provide a productiveplace to invest, funds granted to the temples forthe performance of, services in the first place, theyincreasingly led to an, expansion of templepersonnel who were paid in, kind or throughallotment of land. This resulted in, the growth offeudal land tenure which is evident, from variousepigraphic references to tenants, fiscalconcessions, and, immunities, which, accompaniedmany grants perhaps caused greater, economicbondage of the peasantry and weakened, thecentral authority., There were various ritual functionariesattached to, temples who were given monetaryendowments by, the temple out of their incomefrom the landgrant, and donations from variousquarters. These, functionaries included membersof educational, institutions (mathas) reciters ofSanskrit and Tamil, sacred works, teachers,scholars, musicians and, poets. They also receiveda share of consecrated, food offering of thedeities. The economic value of, consecrated foodhad an important function in the, endowmentof money to the temple. The, secondarydistribution of consecrated food to the, devoteespermitted the temple functionaries to, resourcesof the temple.Temples also discharged, vital, responsibilitiestowards, agricultural, development, e.g.,providing irrigation facilities to, agriculturists.Temples also had economic functions, in theirvaried roles as landholders, employers,, consumerof goods and services, and banks. They, alsodischarged the function of money lenders, anddepositories. The continuous handling of, fundsand receipts of gifts in cash, goods,, preciousmetals and services gave the temples, capitalwhich the usually reinvested in productive, ways.We have evidences the loans given by, templesto village assemblies for economically, productivepurposes. They also granted loans to, cultivators,traders and artisans in reutrn for, various articlesgiven as interest ranging usually, between 12.5percent to 15 percent.As per as the, social role of temple isconcerned, they were the, centre of activity asassemblies and schools. Caste, consciousness hadbecome a marked feature with, the society dividedvertically between the, Brahmanas and the non-Brahmanas. The medium, of education in thetemples was sanskrit., Debates were held invarious mathas and colleges, regardingphilophical, aspects, of, Hindu, theology.Sankaracharya’s ideas continued to be, developerand improved upon and theories, andphilosophies, of, other, teachers, were, 17|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), highlighted by Alberuni when herefers to the, various ‘sidhantas’ and the progressmade in, astronomy and mathematics, but hepaints a very, pathetic picture of the 11th century,He says “The, Indians are in a state of utterconfusion, devoid of, any logical order, and theyalways mix up with silly, notions of the crowd.Ican only compare their, mathematical andastronomical knowledge to a, mixture of pearlsand sour dates. Both kind of things, are equal intheir eyes since they cannot raise, themselves tothe method of a strictly scientific, deduction.”, Social Evils, Alberuni mentions evil social practiceswithin the, Indian society like child-marriage,sati, the low, position of women in general andwidows in, particular. He mentions that Hindusmarry at a very, young age, If a wife loses herhusband due to death, she cannot remarry, Awidow has only two options,, either the remaina widow as long as she lives, or to, burn herself(sati). The latter option was generally, preferredbecause as a widow she was ill-treated., Religious Beliefs and Practices, Alberuni, who had carefully studied theHindu, religion’s philosophy and institutions,found no, difficulty in marking out the trinitygods (three, deities of the Hindu religion) andphilosophy of the, Upanishads. He says that thebelief in a multitude of, gods is vulgar and is atypical of the un-educated., Educated Hindusbelieve god to be one and Eternal., Hindusconsidered the existence of god as real., Becauseeverything that exists, exists through, god.Alberuni had also learned all about theHindu, concept of transmigration of soul. Heexplains that, Indians believed that every act ofthis life will be, rewarded or punished in the lifeto com, and the, final emancipation of a humanbeing is possible only, through true knowledge,He terms all these beliefs, of the Indian as narrowmindedness.He says that, insularity at every levelwas the characteristic, feature of India in the 11thcentury and the price of, this insularity was thedisruption of the country be, the coming of theTurks., Scientific Knowledge and legal System, Although, Alberuni, is, critical, of, the, scientificknowledge of Indians, sometimes he has, praisedtheir knowledge. He made great effort, tounderstand the Indian legal system. He, notesevery practical aspect of the legal system, andpoints out the difference between these and, thelegal theories as expounded in the law books, likeManusmriti., He also praises the weights andmeasure system and, distance measurementsystem of Indians. He also, notices the manyvariations of the Indian alphabets., , He providesinteresting geographical data and takes, intoaccount, local, astronomical, and, mathematicaltheories.While making his profound, observation,Alberuni, did not pay a partisan role, andcondemned, Mahmud, Ghazni’s, destructiveactivities. He was perhaps the first, Muslim tohave undertaken the study of Indian, society onsuch a major scale.Where Alberuni was, not very sure of his ownknowledge, he frankly, admitted it. His criticalassessment of Indian, customs and ways of life,festivals, ceremonies is, particularly interesting.He says that the fact that, Indians had starteddepending on tradition heavily, was a hindranceto genuine intellectual quest. He, felt that learningand scientific spirit suffered, because they hadbeen sub-ordained to religion., Art And Architecture, The Cholas continued and developed the, arttradition of the Pallavas and pandyas, whomthey, succeeded. During the nearly four certurieslong, rule, the entire Tamil country was studdedwith, temples and Chola art traditional wereadopted and, followed in Sri Lanka and otherparts of south India., The replacement of brickby stone structure went, on steadily under thecholas. The chief features of, Chola temples aretheir massive vimanas of towers, and spaciouscourtyards. In the Brihadeswara of, Rajarajesvaratemple, dedicated to Siva, the vimana, of toweris about 57 metres high upon a square,, comprisingthirteen successive storeys. It is, crowned by asingle block of granite, 7.5 metres high, and about80 tonnes in weight. Similarly, Rajendra, Ierected a splendid temple at his new, capital,Gangakonda Cholapram. Some Chola, templesat Thanjavur and Kalahasti contain, beautifulprotrait images of royal personages, like, thoseof Rajaraja I and his queen Lodamahadevi, andof Rajendra I and his queen Cholamahadevi,The, Cholas also encouraged plastic art; the metaland, stone images cast during the period areexquisitely, executed and display a wounderfulgivour, dignity, and grace., The masterpiece ofchola sculpture is the famous, Nataraja of thedancing Siva image at the great, temple ofChidambaram. Numerous such images, were alsomoulded in bronze. This Nataraja has, beendescribed as the “cultural epitome” of the, cholaperiod. The Cholas also patronised painting., Ofthe Chola paintings, the most important are, thosein the pradakshina passage of the, Rajarajesvaratemple.Temple, architecutre,, particularly theDravida or south Indian style of, architecture,reached the pinnacle of glory under, the Cholas., The chief feature of a Chola temple is the vimanaor, the story, which was later eclipsed by therichly, ornamented gopuram of gateway. Underthe Cholas,, 22|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), Balbanpoisoned his, ascendedthe throne., , master, , Nasiruddin, , and, , • Balban (AD 1266–87), The struggle between the sultan and theTurkish, nobles continued, till one of the Turkishchiefs,, Ulugh Khan, known in history by thename of, Balban, gradually arrogated all powerto himself and, finally ascended the throne in AD1266. When, Balban became the Sultan, hisposition was not, secure. Many Turkish chiefswere hostile to him; the, Mongols were lookingforward for an opportunity, for attacking theSultanate, the governors of the, distant provinceswere also trying to become, independent rulers,the Indian rulers were also, ready to revolt at thesmallest opportunity.The law, and order situation in the areaaround Delhi and in, the Doab region haddeteriorated.In the GangaYamuna doab andAwadh, the roads were infested, with the robbersand dacoits, because of which, thecommunication with the eastern areas, hadbecome difficult. Some of the Rajput, zamindarshad set up forts in the area, and defied, thegovernment. The Mewatis had become so boldas, to plunder people up to the outskirts of Delhi.To, deal with these elements, Balban adopted astern, policy. In the Mewat many were killed. Inthe area, around, Badayun,, Rajput, strongholdswere, destroyed.Balban ruled in an autocratic manner, andworked hard to elevate the position of the, Sultan.He did not allow any noble to assume, greatpower. He even formulated the theory, ofkingship. The historian Barani, who was himselfa, great champion of the Turkish nobles, says, thatBalban remarked ‘whenever I see a base boring, noble man, my eyes burn and I reach in angerfor my, sword (to kill him).” We do not know ifBalban, actually said these words but his attitudetowards, the non-Turks was that of contempt.Balban was not, prepared to share power withanyone, not even, with his own family.Balban was determined to, break the powerof the Chahalgani. To keep himself, wellinformed, Balban appointed spies in, everydepartment., He, also, organised, a, strongcentralized army, both to deal with, internaldisturbances, and to repel the Mongols who, hadentrenched themselves in the Punjab and, poseda serious threat to the Delhi Sultanate., Balbanre-organised the military department, (diwan-iarz)and deployed army in different parts of, thecountry to put down rebellion. The, disturbancesin Mewat, Doab, Awadh and Katihar, wereruthlessly, suppressed., Balban, also, securedcontrol over Ajmer and Nagaur in, easternRajputana, but, his, attempts, to, captureRanthambore and Gwalior failed. In AD, 1279,encouraged by the Mongol threats and the, oldage of Sultan the governor of Bengal, Tughril, , Beg,revolted, assumed the title of Sultan and had, thekhutba read in his name. Balban sent his, forcesto Bengal and had Tughril killed., Subsequentlyhe appointed his own son Bughra, Khan as thegovernor of Bengal. By all these harsh, methods,Balban controlled the situation. In order, toimpress the people with the strength and aweof, his government, Balban maintained amagnificent, court. He refused to laugh and jokein the court, and, even gave up drinking wine sothat no one may see, him in a non-serious mood.He also insisted on the, ceremony of sijada(prostration) and paibos (kissing, of the monarch’sfeet) in the court. Balban was, undoubtedly oneof the main architects of the, Sultanate of Delhi,particularly of its form of, government andinstitutions. By asserting the, power of themonarchy, Balban strengthened the, DelhiSultanate. But even he could not fully, defendnorthern India against the attacks of, theMongols. Moreover, by excluding nonTurkishfrom positions of power and authority and, bytrusting only a very narrow racial group he, mademany people dissatisfied. This led to, freshdisturbances and troubles after his death., Balbanadopted a policy of consolidation rather, thanexpansion. He introduced a new theory, ofkingship and redefined the relations between, theSultan, and, nobility., Through, these, measuresBalban, strengthened, the, Delhi, Sultanate.Balban died in AD 1287. After his death, thenobles raised his grandson Kaiquabad to, thethrone. He was soon replaced by his, son,Kaimurs, who remained on the throne for a, littleover three months. During Balban’s reign,, Firozhad been the warden of the marches in, northwestand had fought many successful, battlesagainst the Mongols. He was called to Delhi, asAriz-i-Mumalik (Minister of War). In AD, 1290Firoz took a bold step by murdering, Kaimursand seized the throne. A group of Khalji, noblesled by him established the Khalji dynasty., Somescholars call this event as the ‘dynastic, revolution’of AD 1290. It brought to an end the so, calledslave dynasty and Firoz ascended the, throneunder the title of Jalaluddin Khalji., THE KHALJIS (AD 1290–1320), • Jalaluddin Khalji (AD 1290–1296), Jalaluddin Khalji laid the foundation of theKhalji, dynasty. He ascended the throne at theage of 70, years. Although Jalaluddin retainedthe earlier, nobility in his administration, but therise of Khaljis, to power ended the monopoly ofnobility of slaves, to high offices. Jalaluddin ruledonly for a short span, of six years. He tried tomitigate some of the harsh, aspects of Balban’srule. He was the first ruler of the, Delhi Sultanateto clearly put forward the view that, the stateshould be based on the willing support of, 26|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), thegoverned, and that since the large majority ofthe, people in India were Hindus, the state inIndia could, not be a truly Islamic state.Jalaluddin tried to win, the goodwill of thenobility by a policy of tolerance., He avoidedharsh punishments, even to those who, revoltedagainst him. He not only forgave them but, attimes even rewarded them to win their, support.However many people including his, supporters,considered him to be a weak, sultan.Jalaluddin’s policy was reversed by, AlauddinKhalji who awarded drastic punishments, to allthose who dared to oppose him., • Alauddin Khalji (AD 1296–1316), Alauddin Khalji was Jalaluddin’s ambitiousnephew, and son-in-law. He had helped his unclein his, struggle for power and was appointed asAmir-iTuzuk (Master of Ceremonies). Alauddinhad two, victorious expeditions during the reignof, Jalaluddin. After the first expedition of, Bhilsa(Vidisa) in AD 1292, he was given the iqta, ofAwadh, in addition to that of Kara. He was, alsoappointed Arizi-i-Mumalik (Minister of War)., InAD 1294, he led the first Turkish expedition, tosouthern India and plundered Devagiri., Thesuccessful expedition proved that Alauddin, wasan, able, military, commander, and, efficientorganiser. In July AD 1296, he murdered, hisuncle and father-in-law Jalaluddin Khalji, andcrowned himself as the Sultan.Alauddin decided, to revive Balban’s policiesof ruthless governance., He decided to curb thepowers of the nobles and, interference of Ulemain the matters of the state., He also faced, a fewrebellions in succession during, the early years ofhis rule., According to Barani, the author ofTarikh-i-Firuz, Shahi, Alauddin felt that therewere four reasons for, these rebellions:, 1) Theinefficiency of the spy system,, 2) The generalpractice of the use of wine,, 3) Social intercourseamong the nobles and inter, marriage betweenthem and, 4) The excess of wealth in thepossession of certain, nobles., In order to prevent the reoccurrence of, theserebellions,, Alauddin, formulated, certainregulations and implemented them., (1) Familiesthat had been enjoying free land to, supportthemselves should pay land tax for, theirholdings. This curbed the excess of, wealthowned by some people., (2) The Sultanreorganized the spy system and took, measureto make it more effective., (3) The use of liquorand intoxicants was prohibited., (4) The nobleswere ordered not to have social, gatherings, orinter-marriages, without, his, permission.Alauddin, established, a, huge, , permanent,standing army to satisfy his ambition of, conquestand to protect the country from Mongol, invasion., Market Regulations of Alauddin Khalji, Alauddin’s measures to control the marketswere, one of the most important policy initiative.Since, Alauddin wanted to maintain a largearmy, he, therefore, lowered and fixed the priceof the, commodities of daily use. To control theprices,, Alauddin set up three different marketsfor different, commodities in Delhi. These marketswere the grain, market (Mandi), cloth market(Sarai Adl) and the, market for horses, slaves,cattles, etc. To ensure, implementation,, Alauddinappointed, a, superintendent (Shahna-i-Mandi)who was assisted, by an intelligence officer.Apart from Shahna-iMandi, Alauddin receiveddaily reports of the, market from two otherindependent sources, barid, (intelligence officer) andmunhiyans (secret spies)., Any violation ofSultan’s orders resulted in harsh, punishment,including expulsion from the capital,, impositionof, fine,, imprisonment, and, mutilation.Control of prices of horses was, veryimportant for the Sultan because without, thesupply of good horses at reasonable price, toarmy, the efficiency of the army could not, beensured. Low price in the horse market, wereensured by putting a stop to the purchase, ofhorses by horse dealers and brokers (dalals), inDelhi market., Expansion of Delhi Sultanate, Under Alauddin Khalji the territorialexpansion of, the Delhi Sultanate, beyond NorthIndia, was the, most important achievement.Alauddin first began, his territorial conquestwith a campaign against, Gujarat. Alauddin wasmotivated by his desire to, establish a vast empireand obtain the wealth of, Gujarat. The riches ofGujarat were to pay for his, future conquests andher sea port was to ensure a, regular supply ofArab horses for his army. In AD, 1299, an armyunder two of Alauddin’s noted, generals UlughKhan and Nusarat Khan marched, againstGujarat. Rai Karan the ruler of Gujarat fled,, thetemple of Somnath was captured. An, enormousbooty was collected. Even the wealthy, Muslimmerchants were not spared. Many slaves, werecaptured. Malik Kafur was one among, themwho later became the trusted commander of, theKhalji forces and led the invasions to South, India.Gujarat now passed under the control of, Delhi.After, the, annexation, of, Gujarat,, Alauddinturned, his, attention, towards, Rajasthan.Ranthambore was the first target., Ranthamborewas reputed to be the strongest fort, of Rajasthanand had earlier defied Jalaluddin Khalji., Thecapture of Ranthambore was necessary to, 27|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), In contrastto Allauddin Khalji’s policy the, Tughlaqsannexed, the, Deccan, region., MuhammadTughlaq even decided to transfer his, capital fromDelhi to Deogir and renamed it as, Daultabad.In fact he wanted to control the, northernregion from this place. Substantial number, ofnobles, religious men and craftsmen shifted tothe, new capital. It seems that the idea was totreat it as, the second capital and not abandonDelhi. Later the, whole scheme was given up.However, the plan, improved ties between thenorth and south. Apart, from territorialexpansion the social, cultural and, economicinteractions also grew., East India, Bhanudeva II, the ruler of Jajnagar in Orissahad, helped Rai Rudra Dev of Warangal in hisbattle, against Delhi Sultans. Ulug Khan led anarmy against, him in AD 1324 Bhanudeva II wasdefeated and his, territory annexed. In Bengalthere was discontent of, nobles against theirSultan. The dissatisfied nobles, invited theTughlaq prince to invade their ruler. The, armyof Bengal was defeated and a noble, Nasiruddinwas installed on the throne., North West, The Mongol invasions from the North-Westregion, were rocking the Sultanate on regularintervals. In, AD 1326–27 a big Mongol assaultunder, Tarmashirin Khan took place., Transfer of Capital, One of the controversial measures ofMuhammad, bin Tughlaq was that he transferredhis capital from, Delhi to Deogir (Daultabad).According to Dr. Mahdi, Hussain, the Sultanwanted to maintain both Delhi, and Daultabadas his capitals. As per Barani, in AD, 1326–27,Sultan decided to shift his capital from, Delhi toDeogir (Daultabad) in the Deccan because it, wasmore centrally located. According to Ibn, Batuta,the people of Delhi used to write, letterscontaining abuses to the Sultan, therefore,, inorder to punish them Sultan decided to shift, thecapital. Isami say that it was a place at a, saferdistance from the North West frontier and, thussafefrom, the, Mongols., In view of, differentversions it is difficult to assign one definite, reasonfor this shift.The entire population was not, asked to leaveonly the upper classes consisting of, shaikhs,nobles, ulema were shifted to Daultabad., No.attempt was made to shift the rest of, thepopulation., Though, Muhammad, bin, Tughlaqbuilt a road from Delhi to Deogir and set up, resthouses but the journey was extremely harsh, forthe people. Large number of people died, becauseof rigorous travelling and the heat. Due, togrowing discontent and the fact that north, couldnot, be, controlled, from, south,, Muhammaddecided, to, abandon, , Daultabad.Muhammad Tughlaq decided to secure, thefrontier. The region from Lahore to, Kalanurincluding Peshawar was conquered and, newadministrative control was established., Besides,the Sultan also planned invasions of, Qarachilregion (In present day Himachal) and, Qandharbut did not succeed. In fact these, schemesresulted in heavy loss. Muhammad Tughlaq, wasvery innovative in adopting new policies., Hestarted a new department for the developmentof, Agriculture. It was called Diwan-i Kohi.Peasants, were given financial support to help inarranging, seeds for cultivation. This loan wasalso given in, case of crop failures. Anotherimportant measure, was to introduce tokencurrency to tide over the, shortage of Silver.However, this scheme failed, causing greatfinancial loss to the sultanate., Token Currency, Another, controversial, project, undertaken, byMuhammad bin Tughlaq was the introductionof, “Token Currency”. According to Barani, theSultan, introduced token currency because thetreasury, was empty due to the Sultan’s schemesof conquest, as well as his boundless generosity.Some historians, are of the opinion that there wasa shortage of silver, world wide at that time andIndia too faced the, crisis therefore, the Sultanwas forced to issue, copper coins in place of silver.Muhammad, introduced a copper coin (Jittal)in place of silver, coin (tanka) and ordered that itshould be accepted, as equivalent to the tanka.However, the idea of, token currency was newin India and it was difficult, for traders andcommon people to accept it. The, State also didnot take proper precautions to check, theimitation, of, coins, issued, by, the, mints.Government could not prevent people, fromforging the new coins and soon the new, coinsflooded the markets. According to Barani, thepeople began to mint token currency in, theirhouses. However the common man failed, todistinguish between copper coin issued by, theroyal treasury and those which were, locallymade. Thus the Sultan was forced to, withdrawthe token currency.Muhammad Tughlaq, was succeeded by hiscousin Firuz Tughlaq. Under, him no newterritories could be added to the, Sultanate. Hemanaged to keep large areas intact, with greatefforts. However, the political control of, Delhigradually weakened during the rule of, Firuz’ssuccessors. The invasion of Timur in AD, 1398left the sultanate desolate. By the end of, Tughlaqrule (AD 1412) the Sultanate was confined, to asmall territory in north India. A number, ofregions proclaimed independent status. In, theeast, Bengal, and, Orissa, enjoyed, completeautonomy. In eastern UP and large parts of, Bihara new independent kingdom of Sharqis, 29|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), Asia.Timur’s raid into India was a plundering, raidand his motive was to seize the, wealthaccumulated by the Sultans of Delhi over the, last200 years. Sultan Nasiruddin and his, WazirMallu Iqbasl faced Timur but were, defeated.Timur entered Delhi and stayed for 15, days. Heordered general massacre and large, number ofHindu and Muslim including women, andchildren were murdered. Before leaving, IndiaTimur’s invasion indicated the downfall of, DelhiSultanate. Delhi Sultanate lost control, overPunjab. Timur appointed Khizr Khan, the, rulerfor Multan who controlled Punjab also. After, thefall of Tughlaq dynasty he occupied Delhi, andbecame the ruler of Delhi Sultanate. He laid, thefoundation of Saiyyid Dynasty., 2. Inner Conflict of Nobility, Three hundred years of Delhi Sultanatewitnessed, five dynasties ruling over it. The mainreason for, change of dynasties and deposing ofrulers was a, constant struggle between theSultan and the, nobility (Umara). Soon after thedeath of Aibak they, started fighting over thequestion of succession., Finally Iltutimish emergedvictorious. Iltutimish, created a group of loyalnobles called Turkan-iChihiligani (‘The Forty’).After the death of, Iltutimish various factions ofthe group of forty got, involved in making theirfavourite son/daughter as, the sultan. In tenyears five sultans were changed., After that theSultan who occupied the throne, (NasiruddinMahmud) for 20 years hardly ruled and, one ofthe powerful noble Balban was defacto, sultan.The same Balban succeeded Nasiruddin after, hisdeath. Almost similar events happened after, thedeath of each powerful sultan (Balban,, AlauddinKhalji, Firoz Tughlaq and others.) Since, therewas no well defined law of succession each, nobletried to either crown himself or support, somefavourite heir of the dead sultan. Finally, Afghansreplaced the Turks as sultan with the, accessionof Bahlol Lodi., 3. Provincial Kingdoms, Another, consequence, of, this, conflict, wasdeclaration, of, independence, by, variousprovincial heads in the regions. As a result, anumber, of, independent, Afghan, and, Turkishkingdoms emerged. Important ones of, suchstates were Bengal (Lakhnouti), Jaunpur,, Malwa,Gujarat, the Bahmani kingdom in the, Deccanetc. Quite often these states were at war, withthe Sultanate. The whole process weakened, thesultanate., 4. Resistance by Indian Chiefs, The sultans had to face the resistance fromIndian, chiefs at regular intervals. The Rajputchiefs in, Rajputana (Mewar, Ranthambhor,Chittor etc.),, , Warangal, Deogiri & Ma’bar inDeccan and South,, the king of Dhar, Malwa inCentral India, Jajnagar in, Orissa and a host ofsmaller chieftains were, constantly at war evenafter successive defeats. All, these strugglesweakened the sultanate.The Delhi, sultanate was considerablyweakened after the, Khalji and Tughlaq reign.Finally the invasion of, Babur in AD 1526 broughtit to an end. Now a much, more centralised andstrong empire under the, Mughals establisheditself in India and ruled for a, further period ofmore than two hundred years. We, will discussit in our next lesson on the Mughal Rule., Butbefore moving to the Mughals we provide you, abrief account of the provincial kingdoms., EVOLUTION, OF, THE, ADMINISTRATIVESTRUCTURE UNDER DELHI, SULTANATE, When Qutubuddin Aibak established himselfas an, independent Sultan at Lahore, theavailable, administrative apparatus wascontinued in the, initial phase. The prevailingstructure was not, altered or disturbed and aslong, as the local rulers, recognised the supremacyof the Sultan in Delhi,, they were allowed tocollect taxes and send it to the, central treasuryas tribute. The central officials in, these areas weremainly to help the local rulers in, theiradministrative tasks. With the expansion, andconsolidation, of, the, Delhi, Sultanate,, newadministrative institutions also started, emerging.The administrative structures and, institutionsintroduced in India were influenced by, theMongols, Seljukids etc, brought by the new, rulers.The existing administrative institutions, indifferent parts of the country also contributedin, giving shape to the new system.The Sultans were, aware of the fact that theyhad to rule over a subject, population that waslargely non-Islamic. Thus the, Sultans of Delhihad to introduce particular, measures to suit theprevailing conditions in the, Sultanate. From theadministrative point of view,, the local leveladministration, it seems, was left, mainly in thehands of village headmen etc. The, large extentof the Sultanate necessitated the, evolution ofadministrative structure separately for, the centreand provinces. Thus, during the, Sultanateperiod,, administrative, institutions, emerged atdifferent levels - central, provincial and, local., Administrative System, The government established by the Turks wasa, compromise between Islamic political ideas, andinstitutions on the one hand and the, existingRajput system of government on the, other.Consequently, many elements of the, Rajputpolitical, system,, with, or, without, 31|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), changes,became part and parcel of the, Turkishadministration in India., MUSLIM POLITICAL IDEAS, Theological Basis Muslims believe thatIslamic, society and govermet should be organisedon the, basis of divine injunctions of the Quran.The sayings, and doings of Prophet Muhammad,collectively, known as hadis, began to besupplemented with the, above. The ulema(Muslim theologians) gave vrious, ruligns on thebasis of the Quran and the hadis to, meet differentsituations and problems, which are, togetherknown as the Sharia (Islamic Law)., Secular Basis Moreover, Zawabit (rules, andregulations framed by the Sultans) were also, usedfor a smooth and efficient running of, theadministration, Allah-Prophet Relationship According tothe, Qurun, the real master and sovereign of thewhole, universe is Allah: Allah has sent to alllands, through, the ages: his prophets for thetransmission of his, message, Muhammad beingthe last one. While it is, the duty of the governedto obey the ruler, it is, equally the duty of theruler to discharge his, functions efficiently., Caliphate In principle, the entire Muslimfraternity, should have only a single monarch.But when the, caliphate or the empire of thecaliphs became very, extensive and disintegrativeforces began to gain the, upper hand, the ulemaor Muslim jurists developed, the theory ofgovernors by usurpation and said that, whomthe, caliph, did, not, oppose, he, approved.Similarly they held that only an elected, headcould be the ruler. But when the, caliphatebecame a hereditary monarchy they, evolved anew doctrine of election. Now election by, elevenor five or even by s single person enjoying, theconfidence of the people was regarded as, electionby the people. This legalised nomination by, aruling sovereign as election by the people. In, theabsence of any widespread uprisings against, aruler, it, was, held, that, acquiescence, wastantamount to approval or election by, thepeople., Caliph-Sultan Relationship Most of theSultans, kept up the pretence of regarding thecaliph as the, legal sovereign while theythemselves were the, caliph’s representatives.Most of them included the, name of the caliph inthe khutba (prayer) and the, sikka (coin) andadopted titles indicative of their, subordinationto the caliph.As against this, three, rulers emphasised theirown importance. Balban, used to say that afterthe Prophet the most, important office was thatof the sovereign and called, himself the ‘Shadowof God’. Muhammad bin, , Tughlaq assumed thisstyle during the early years of, his reign andalthough Balban had retained the, name of the caliph in the khutba and sikka,, Muhammadmade no mention of caliph anywhere., But,despite all this, neither of them had the, audacityto call himself the caliph. The only person, whohad, done, this, was, Qutub-ud-din, MubarakKhalji.But only three Sultans sought, and, sacred amansur or letter of investiture’ from the, caliph.The first among them was Iltutmish., NextMuhammad bin Tughlaq tried to pacify, theulema by securing an investiture from, theAbbasid caliph in Egypt. After him Firoz, alsosought and secured it twice.The real object of, honouring the office of thecaliph is interesting., Muslims in general regardedit as incumbet on the, Sultan to show respect tothe caliph, and opposition, to the Sultan, whohad been recognised by the caliph, as his deputy,was regarded as contrary to the Hod, Law. Hencethe Sultans kept up the pretense of, subservienceto the caliph just to exploit the popular, Muslimsentiments in their favour., Law of Succession According to Islamicideals,, essential attributes of a sovereign requiredthat he, should be a male adult, suffering fromno physical, disability, a freedom Muslim, havingfaith in Islam, and acquinted with its doctrines,and he should be, elected by the people.However in practice there, were severalviolations of the prescribed criteria for, beingelected to the throne. Raziya was raised to, thethrone despite her womanhood. Minority, provedno bar in the case of Muhammad bin, Tughlaq.Qutub-ud-din Aibak’s authority was, recognisedeven, before, his, manumission., Kaiqubadremained the Sultan as a paralytic. Nasirud-dinKhusrau had no special reverence for Islam, andyet he was accepted as the Sultan of Delhi., Alaud-din Khalji frankly admitted his ignorance, ofthe sharia but nobody dubbled him a unfit torule, on that score. As far as election wasconcerned, it, had never existed in Islam. At best,support of a few, leading men was regarded astantamount to election, by the people. This farceor peculiar type of election, by the people. Thisfarce or peculiar type of election, was tried in thecase of Iltutmish, Ghiyasud-din, Tughlaq andFiroz Tughlaq., Theory of Kingship The doctrine of farr orfarrah, (supernatural effulgence or radiance) wasfirst, enunciated in the Shah Namah by firdausi,according, to whom the God endows the rulerswith farr, which, symbolises the divine favour.Among the Delhi, Sultans, Balban was the firstto exhibit his awareness of the doctrine whenhe remarked that ‘the, king’s heart is the mirrorof the divine attributer’., Later Amir Khusrauobserved that Kaiqubad was, endowed with thefarr., 32|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), Limits to Sultan’s Authority in the framingof new, rules and regulations the authority of theSultan was, circumscribed and every ruler couldnot govern the, kingdom in complete disregardof the advice of the, ulema or theologians as Alaud-din Khalji and, Muhammad Tughlaq hadbeen able to do. The, power of the nobility alsoblunted their authority to, some extent. Whenthere was a weak ruler on the, throne, the nobles,and the ulema particularly,, dominated him. Butduring the reign of Balban, Alaud-din Khalji orMuhammad Tughlaq, these checks, provedineffective., The, Sultans, were, not, powerfulenough to rule the land in complete, disregard ofthe sentiments of the Hindus. And,, thenumericial inferiority of the Muslims gave, themlittle or no opportunity to interfere with, localgovernment.During the Sultanate period, theadministrative apparatus was headed by, theSultan who was helped by various nobles., Therewere various other offices along with the, officeof the Sultan. Theoretically, there was a, councilof Ministers Majlis-i-Khalwat to assist the, Sultan., (i) The Sultan, The Sultan was the central figure in, theadministrative set up. He was the head of, thecivil administration and Supreme Commanderof, the army. He made all the appointments, andpromotions. He also had the right to, removeanybody from the service. He had, absolutepower in his hand. He was also the head of, theJudiciary. He used to confer titles and, honoursupon people. Theoretically the Sultan had, anexalted position but in actual practice, differentSultans enjoyed varying power. The, position ofthe Sultan was always under pressure, from thepowerful group of nobility and Ulema., Sultansof Delhi, particularly the powerful, Sultans,adopted various strategies to keep these, groupsunder control. Balban kept the nobles, firmlyunder his control. Thus the personality of, theSultan, played, a, significant, role, in, theadministrative structure of the Sultanate., Underthe, capable, and, strong, Sultans,, theadministration, and, the, administrative, structurefunctioned well but under the inefficient, andweak ruler the same was under pressure., (ii) Nobility, The nobles were the most importantfunctionaries, of the state and enjoyed high socialstatus. In the, initial stage they were thosecommanders who came, with the victoriousarmy. Over a period of time their, descendantsformed the main strength and some, Indiangroups also emerged. The position and, powerof the nobility varied from time to time as, , hasbeen mentioned above. Nobles, particularly, thosewho were based at Delhi, emerged as a, verypowerful group and at times even played a, rolein the selection of the sultan.The nobility was, not a homogeneous class.There were different, groups within the nobilityand often there were, inter group clashes andrivalries. The clash between, Turkish and Tajiknobles started during the time of, Iltutmish andbecame intense after his death. The, group ofchahalgan (group of 40 nobles), which, wascreated, by, Iltutmish,, also, emerged, verypowerful.Balban was the first Sultan to bring, thenobility, firmly, under, his, control, (interestingly,he had been a part of chalalgan, earlier).Qutubuddin Aibak and Iltutmish had, consideredthe nobles at par with themselves., Balbanmaintained distance from the nobility, andenforced strict code of conduct for himself, andfor the nobility. No loose talk or laughter, wasallowed in the court. He also emphasized on, highblood and made it a criteria for occupying, highpositions and offices.With the expansion of the, Delhi Sultanatethere were also attempts on the part, of differentsections of the society to join the, nobility. Initiallyit was the preserve of the Turks, only. Duringthe rule of the Khalji and Tughlags the, doors ofthe nobility were opened to people of, diversebackgrounds. The low caste people, both, Hindusand Muslims, joined the nobility and could, riseto, high, positions, especially, under, MuhammadBin Tughlaq. During the Lodi period the, Afghanconcept of equality became important when, theSultan was considered “first among equals”.Thus, the nobles enjoyed equal status with theSultan., Some of the Lodi Sultans like SikandarLodi and, Ibrahim Lodi found this uncomfortableand tried to, bring the nobles under their control.The nobles, resisted this which resulted in thetrouble for both, the Sultans., (iii) Ulema, The religious intellectual group of Muslimswas, collectively referred as Ulema. People of thisgroup, managed religious matters and interpretedreligious, regulations for Sultan. They were alsoincharge of, judicial matters and worked as Qazisat various, levels. It was quite influential groupand, commanded respect of Sultan and nobility.They, also had influence among Muslim masses.This, group used to pressurize the sultan to runthe, Sultanate as per the religious laws of Islam.The, Sultan and nobles generally tried to run, theadministrative affairs as per the need of, staterather than religious laws. Sultan like, AlauddinKhalji could ignore the opinions of Ulema, on anumber of issues but some followed their line., , 33|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), keep a record of theincome of the Iqtas. It was on, the basis of thisrecord that the Sultan used to make, his revenuedemands. A barid or intelligence officer, was alsoappointed to keep the Sultan informed., Duringthe reign of Muhmmad-bin-Thughlaq a, numberof governors were appointed on revenue, sharingterms where they were to give a fixed sum, tothe state. During the time of Feroze ShahTughlaq, the control of state over iqtas wasdiluted when, iqtas became hereditary., Local Administration, The village was the smallest unit of, administration.The functioning and administration, ofthe village remained more or less the same as, ithad existed in pre Turkish times. The main, villagefunctionaries, were, khut,, Muqaddam, andPatwari. They worked in close coordination, withthe muqti in the collection of revenue and, inmaintaining law and order etc. A number of, villagesformed the Pargana. The important, Parganaofficials, were, Chaudhary,, Amil, (revenuecollector) and Karkun (accountant). Village, andpargana, were, independent, units, of, administration,and yet there were inter related, areas. Incertain cases the province had a local ruler, (Rai,Rana, Rawat, Raja) who helped the governor, inhis duties. In such cases the local rulers, wererecognised as subordinates of the Sultan., MARKET REFORMS OFALAUDDIN KHALJI, The market reforms of Alauddin Khalji, wereoriented, towards, administrative, and, militarynecessities. Medieval rulers believed, thatnecessities of life, especially food grains,, shouldbe available to the city folk at reasonable, prices.But few rulers had been able to control the, pricesfor any length of time. Alauddin Khalji was, moreor less the first ruler who looked at the, problemof price control, in a systematic manner, and wasable to maintain stable prices for a, considerableperiod. It has been pointed out that, AlauddinKhalji instituted the market control, because afterthe mongol seige of Delhi, he wanted, to recruita large army. All his treasures would have, soonexhausted if he was to spend huge resources, onarmy. With low prices the sultan could recruit, alarge army with low expenses. Whatever maybe, the, reason, for, the, market, reforms,, elaborateadministrative arrangements were made, toensure that the market control was, followedstrictly.Alauddin fixed the prices of all, commoditiesfrom grain to cloth, slaves, cattles etc., He alsoset up three markets at Delhi, the first for, foodgrains, the second for cloth of all kinds and, forexpensive items such as sugar, ghee, oil, dry, fruitsetc. and the third for the horses, slaves and, cattle.For controlling the food prices, Alauddin, , triedto control not only the supply of food grains, fromthe villages, and its transportation to the city, bythe, grain, merchants,, but, also, its, properdistribution to the citizens. A number, ofmeasures were taken to see that prices laid, downby the Sultan were strictly observed. An, officer(Shehna) was in charge of the market to see, thatno one violates the royal orders. Barids, (intelligence officers) and munhiyan (secret, spies)were also appointed. Alauddin also tried, toensure that there were sufficient stocks of, foodgrainswith the government so that the, tradersdid not hike up prices by creating an, artificialscarcity, or indulge in profiteering., Granarieswere set up in Delhi and Chhain, (Rajasthan).The Banjaras or Karwaniyan who, transported thefood grains from the country side to, the city wereasked to form themselves in a body., They wereto settle on the banks of Yamuna with, theirfamilies. An official (Shehna) was appointed, tooversee them. To ensure the regular supply, offood grains to the Banjaras, a number, ofregulations were made. All the food grains wereto, be brought to the market (mandis) and soldonly at, official prices.The second market for cloth, dry, fruits, gheeetc. was called Sarai-i- adl. All the, clothes broughtfrom different parts of the country, and also fromoutside were to be stored and sold, only in thismarket at government rates. To ensure, anadequate supply of all the commodities, all, themerchants were registered and a deed, takenfrom them that they would bring the, specifiedquantities of commodities to the Sarai-iadl everyyear. The Merchants who, brought, commoditiesfrom long distances including foreign, countrieswere given advance money on the, condition thatthey would not sell to any, intermediaries. Incases of costly commodities an, officer was toissue permits to amirs, maliks etc. for, thepurchase of these expensive commodities, inaccordance with their income. This was done, toprevent any black marketing of these, expensiveproducts.The third market dealt with, horses, cattleand slaves. The supply of horses of, good qualityat fair prices was important for the, army.Alauddin did away with the middleman or, dallalwho had become very powerful. It was, decidedthat the government fixed the quality and, pricesof the horses. Similarly, the prices of slave, boysand girls and of cattle were also fixed. But, thesereforms didn’t last long and after the death, ofAlauddin these reforms got lost., RURAL CLASSESPeasantry: The peasantry, known, as thebalahars, paid one thrd of their produce as, landrevenue, sometimes even one half of the, produce.Besides land revenue, they paid certain, othertaxes which prove that taxation during, 36|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), thisperiod was as much, if not higher than, as in, theprevious period. In other words, the, peasantswere always living at the subsistence level, whichwas easily denied by the frequent wars,, thusresulting in large scale, and not so, infrequent,famines., , Autonomous Chieftains: They constitutedthe most, prosperous rural section Though theywere now a, defeated ruling class, they were stillpowerful in, their respective areas and continuedto live a, luxurious life as in the pre-Muslimperiod., , agear mechanism was also attached to it, and, withthe help of animal power this wheel was, madeto rotate.The Delhi Sultans, in particular,, promotedcanal irrigation. Ghiyassuddin Tughlaq, (A.D1320–1325) built a number of canals for, thispurpose. However, Firuz Shah Tughlaq laid, thelargest network of canals. Four such canals, arefrequently mentioned in contemporary sources., These were –, (i) from Sutlej to Ghaggar,, (ii)Opening from the Nandavi and Simur hills, toArasani,, (iii) from Ghaggar, reaching upto thevillage to, Hiransi Khera, and, (iv) excavated fromYamuna and extended upto, Firuzabad., , Improvement of Agriculture, The, Sultans, undertook, efforts, to, enhanceagricultural production by providing, irrigationalfacilities and by advancing takkavi loans, fordifferent, agricultural, purpose., They, alsoencouraged peaseants to cultivate cash, cropsinstead of food crops, and superior crops, (wheat)in place of inferior ones (barley). There was, anoverall improvement in the quality of, Indianfruits and the system of gardening. Waste, landswere, granted, to, different, people, therebyextending the cultivated area.The Indian, agriculture has always dependedon various sources, of water both natural andartificial, for its, irrigational requirements, viz -rain, wells, river,, tanks, canals, lakes, etc. Dams,lakes and water, reservoirs were some of theimportant means of, irrigation. In south India,the state, local chiefs and, temple managementsconstructed a number of dams, over rivers forthis purpose. The Madag lake, for, instance, wasbuilt by the Vijaynagar rulers on the, Tungbhadrariver to meet the irrigational need of, the adjoiningterritories. Lakes and water reservoirs, such asthe Dhebar, Udaisagar, Rajasamand, andJaisamand (all in Mewar); Balsan (Marwar), andMansagar, (Amber), etc., served, as, importantsources of irrigation in medieval, Rajasthan.Wells, as a common source of irrigation,, wereuniformly spread in different parts of, thecountry. A number of artificial devices were, usedto lift water from wells. Pulleys were, employedover wells for this purpose. Another, deviceworked on the lever principle. In this, methodfork of an upright beam was kept in a, swingingposition with its one end tied with a long, ropeand the other carried a weight heavier than, thefilled bucket. The Persian wheel which began, tobe used in India from the Sultanate, period,however, was the most advanced water, liftingdevice of this period. In this method, a, garlandof pots was attached to the rim of a wheel,, , GROWTH OF COMMERCE ANDURBANIZATION, During the Sultanate period, the process, ofurbanization gained momentum. A number, ofcities and towns had grown during this, period.Lahore,, Multan,, Broach,, Anhilwara,, Laknauti,Daulatabad, Delhi and Jaunpur were, importantamong them. Delhi remained the largest, city inthe East. The growth of trade and commerce, wasdescribed, by, contemporary, writers., Indiaexported a large number of commodities to, thecountries on the Persian Gulf and West Asia, andalso to South East Asian countries., Overseastrade was under the control of Multanis, andAfghan Muslims. Inland trade was dominatedby, the Gujarat Marwari merchants and MuslimBohra, merchants. Construction of roads andtheir, maintenance facilitated for smoothtransport and, communication. Particularly theroyal roads were, kept in good shape. Sarais orrest houses on the, highways were maintainedfor the convenience of, the travelers.Barani, a contemporary historian,, gives anexcellent account of their riches., Politicalunification of major parts of India removed, thepolitical, as, well, as, economic, barriers.Introduction of the institution of dalals or, brokers(dalal, meaning one who acts as an, intermediary,is Arbic in origin), facilitated, commercialtransactions on a large scale., Construction ofnew roads and maintenance of old, onesfacilitated easy and smooth transport, andcommunication. Sarais or rest houses, weremaintained on the roads for the convenience, oftraders and merchants.Cotton textile and silk, industry flourished inthis period. Sericulture was, introduced on a largescale which made India less, dependent on othercountries for the import of raw, silk. Paperindustry had grown and there was an, extensiveuse of paper from 14th and 15th, centuries. Othercrafts like leather-making, metalcrafts andcarpet-weaving flourished due to the, increasingdemand. The royal karkhanas supplied, , Maqaddams and Small Landlord: They hada, better standard of life, for they readily misusedtheir, power in order to exploit the ordinarypeasants., , 37|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), the goodsneeded to the Sultan and his household., Theymanufactured costly articles made of gold,, silverand gold ware. The system of coinage had, alsodeveloped during the Delhi Sultanate., Causes for Changes in Urban Economy, The foremost cause was the immigration ofartisans, and merchants from the Islamic East toIndia,, bringing with them their crafts, techniquesand, practices. Secondly, there was an abundantsupply, of docile trainable labour obtainedthrough large, scale enslavement. Finally, theDelhi Sultans, established a revenue systemthough which a large, share of agriculturalsurplus was appropriate for, consumption intowns.Contemporary historians like, Isami give usa good account of the immigration of, artisansand merchants to India. The large number, ofcaptive obtained for enslavement in the, militarycampaigns were trained as artisans by, theircaptors, and they later became free artisans, byobtaining or buying their freedom. Thus, theimmigration, and, enslavement, were, responsiblefor the growth of urban centres and, crafts, andtheir sustenance was provided by the, increasein the revenues with the establishment of, the newland revenue system. The ruling class,, whoappropriated, a, large, part, of, the, country’ssurplus, spent most of it in towns., Coins of Delhi Sultanate, The gold coins which Muhammad of Ghurstruck in, imitation of the issues of the Hindukings of Kanauj,, with the goddess Lakshmi onthe obverse, are, without a parallel in IslamicHistory. For the first, forty years the currencyconsisted almost entrirely, of copper and billon:hardly have any gold coins, been struck and silvercoins of the earlier Sultans, are scarceIltutmish, however, issued several types, ofthe silver tanka, the earliest of which has, aportrait of the king of horseback on the, obverse.The latest type bears witness to the, diploma ininvestiture he had received from the, Khalifa ofBaghdad, AI Mustansir.Gold, though, minted by Masud, Nasir-uddinMahmud, Balban and, Jalal-ud-din Khalji,was not common until Ala-ud-din, Khalji hadenriched his treasury by conquests in, south India.These gold coins are replicas of the, silver inweight and design. Ala-ud-din, whose, silverissues are very plentiful, changed the design, bydropping the name of the caliph from the, obverseand substituting the self laudatory titles., Thesecond Alexander, the right hand of, theKhalifate. His successor, Mubarak, whose, issuesare in som respects the finest tof the whole, series,employed the old Indian square shape for, somof his gold, silver and billon. On his coins, appearthe even more arrogant titles, The supreme, headof Islam, the Khalifa of the Lord of heaven, , andearth. Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq was the, firstIndian, sovereign, to, use, the, title, Ghazi(Champion of the faith).Most of the coins, struck in billon by theseearly Sultans, including, Muhammad of Ghur,are practically uniform in size, and weigh (about56 grains). Numerous varieties, were struck. TheIndian type known as the, delhiwala, with thehumped bull and the sovereign’s, name in Nagarion the reverse, and the Delhi, Chauhan type ofhorseman on the obverse, lasted till, the reign ofMasud. Another type with the, Horsemanobverse and the Sultan’s name and titles, inArabic on the reversem survived till NasiruddinMahmud’s reign. The billon coins of AlauddinKhalji are the first to bear dates. The, earliestcopper of this period is small and, insignificant.Some coins, as well as a few billon, pieces, bearthe inscription adl, which may mean, simplycurrency. All copper is dateless.Muhammad, bin Tughluq, has been called thePrince of moneyers., Not only do his coins surpassthose of his, predecessors in execution, especiallyin calligraphy, but his large output of gold, thenumber of his issues, of all denominations theinterest of the inscriptions,, reflecting hischaracter and activities, his, experiments with thecoinage, entitle him to a place, among the greatestmoneyers of history. For his, earliest gold andsilver pieces he retained the old, 172.8 grainstandard of his predecessors. His first, experimentwas to add to tesem in the first years of, his reign,gold dinars of 201.6 grains and silver aslis, of 144grains weight. Muhammad bin Tughluq’s, goldand silver issues, like those of his, predecessors,are identical in type. One of the, earliest and mostcurious of these was struck both, at Delhi andDaulatabad, in memory of his father. It, bearsthe, superscription, of, Ghiyas-uddinaccompanied by the additional title, alShahid(the Martyr). The early gold and silver, of, whichabout half a dozen different types exist,, wereminted at eight different places, including, Delhi.And at least twenty five varieties of his, bullioncoinage are known. From inscriptions on, thetoken currency we learn the nams of, theirvarious denominations. There appear to, havebeen two scales of division, one for use at, Delhiand other for Daulatabad and the south. In, theformer the silver tanka was divided into, fortyeight, and in the latter into fifty jitals.The gold, of Firoz Shah is fairly common, andsix types are, known. Following his predecessorsexample he, inscribed the name of the caliph onthe obverse and, his own name on the reverse.Firoz associated the, name of his son, Fath Khan,with his own on the, coinage. Gold coins ofsubsequent kings are, exceedingly scarce; theshortage of silver is even, more apparent. Onlythree silver pices of Firoz have, ever come to light,but the copper coins are, 38|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), abundant.The coinage of the later rulers,, thoughabounding in varieties is almost confined, tocopper and billon pieces. During the wholeperiod,, with but two exceptions, one mint nameappears,, Delhi. The long reign of Firoz seems tohave, established his coinage as a popularmeadium of, exchange and this probablyaccounts for the, prolonged series of hisposthumous billon coins,, extending over a periodof forty years. Some of these, and of theposthumous issues of his son,, Muhammad andof his grandson, Mahmud, were, struck byDaulat Khan Lodhi and Khizr Khan., Thecoinage of the Lodhi family, despite, thedifference in standard, bears a close, resemblanceto that of the Sharqi King of Jaunpur., EVOLUTION OFINDO-PERSIAN CULTURE, The establishment of the Delhi sultanatemarket a, new phase in the cultural developmentof the, country. When the Turks came to Indiathey not, only had a well defined faith in Islamto which they, were deeply attached, they also had definite ideas, of government artsarchitecture, etc. The interaction, of the Turkswith the Indians who had strong, religious beliefs,well defined ideas of arts,, architecture andliterature resulted in the long one, with many upsand down., ART AND ARCHITECTUREUNDER SULTANATE, Architecture:, The assimilation of differentstyles and elements to, create a new one is wellrepresented by the, architecture of the Sultanateperiod. Many of the, characteristics of Indianarchitecture are obvious in, the buildings of theMuslim rulers. This was because, though thebuildings were designed by Muslim, architects tosuit the requirements of their religious, ideas,Hindu craftsmen actually built them. The, newfeatures brought by the Turkish conquerors, were:, (i) the dome;, (ii) lofty towers:, (iii) the true arch unsupported by beam:, (iv) the vault. This showed advancedmathematical, knowledge andengineering skill. They also brought, withthem an expert knowledge of the use, ofconcrete and mortar, which hadhitherto been, little used in India. TheSultans of Delhi were liberal, patrons, ofarchitecture, and, they, erected, numeroussplendid edifices The use of arch andthe, dome had a number of advantages.The dome, provided a pleasing skyline.The arch and the dome, dispensed withthe need for a larger number of, pillarsto support the roof and enabled, theconstruction of large halls with a clearview. Such, place of assembly were usefulin mosques as well as, , in palaces. Thearch and the dome needed a, strongcement otherwise the stones could notbe hel, in place. The Turks used finequality mortar in their, buildings.The a, rchitectural device generally used bythe Indians, consisted of putting one stone overanother,, narrowing the gap till it could becovered by a, caping stone or by putting a beamover a slab of, stones which is known as the slaband beam, method.The Turks eschewedrepresentation of, human and animal figures inthe buildings. Instead,, they used geometrical andfloral designs, combining, them with panels ofinscriptions containing verses, from the Quran.Thus the Arbic script itself became, a work of art.The combination of these decorative, devices wascalled arabesque. They also freely, borrowedHindu motifs such as the bell motif, lotus, etc.The skill of the Indian stone cutters was, fullyused. They also added colour to their, buildingsby using red sand stone, yellow sand stone, andmarble., Development and Growth, Ilbari were the first to converted templesand, other existing buildings into mosques.Examples of, his are the Quwwat-ul-islammosque near the Qutub, Minar in Delhi (whichhad originally been a Jaina, temple thenconverted into a Vishnu temple by som, Hindus,and finally into the mosque by the Turks), andthe building at Ajmer called Arhai Din, KaJhonpra (which had been a monastery), anexquisitely carved mehrab of white marble anda, decorative arch screen. The first example oftrue or, voussoired arch is said lo be the tomb ofGhiyas-uddin Balban in Mehrauli. The mostmagnificent, building constructed by the Turks(founded by, Aibak and completed by Iltutmish)in the 13th, century was the Qutub Minar atDelhi. The tower, standing at 71.4 metres wasdedicated to the sufi, sant, Qutub-ud-dinBakhtiyar Kaki. Although, traditions of buildingtower are to be found both in, India and WestAsia, the Qutub Minar is unique in, many ways.It derives its effect mainly from the, skillfulmanner in which the balconies have, beenprojected yet linked with the main tower the, useof red and white sand stone and marble in, panelsand in the top stages, and the ribbed effect.In, the Khalji period the usage of voussoiredarch and, dome was established once and for all.The, monuments show a rich decorativecharacter. Alaud-din built his capital at Siri, afew kilometres away, from the site around theQutub, but hardly anything, of this city survivesnow. Ala-ud-din planned a, tower twice thehight of the Qutub, but did not live, to completeit. But he added an entrance door to the, Qutub,called the Alai Darwaza. It has arches of, verypleasing proportions. It also contains a, domewhich, for the first time was built on, 39|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), Shahi. Ibn Battutah -Kitab-ul-Rahla. Firdausi - Shah, Namh., , 3 - EMERGENCE OF REGIONAL, STATES IN INDIA, The Delhi Sultanate expanded as a result of the, annexation of the states like Bengal, Bihar,Gujarat,, Malwa, various Rajput states of Rajasthan, like, Ranthambor, Jalore, Nagore, Ajmer, the Deccan, states of Warangal, Telengana, Yadavas of Deogir,, and the southern states of the Hoysalas of, Dwarsamudra, Pandyas of Madurai, and so on. We, have already studied about the various campaigns, of Alauddin Khalji and the shift of capital from Delhi, to Daultabad in the Deccan, during Mohammad bin, Tughlaq's period. Those states that were annexed, to the Sultanate formed various provinces and were, placed under the administration of the provincial, governors. From the establishment of the Delhi, Sultanate in the thirteenth century till its downfall, in the fifteenth century, there was a constant, interaction between the provinces that were once, upon a time independent states andthe centre, that, is, Delhi. However, rebellions from these areas, never seized. We all know that as a prince,, Muhammmad bin Tughlaq spent his, entire career in crushing the rebellions in the, Deccan, Orissa and Bengal., Though these regions were now a part of theDelhi, Sultanate, the regional characteristics oflanguage,, art, literature and religion remained.In fact, when, Islam reached here, it acquired aregional flavour., These states already hadsettlements of Muslim, merchants and Muslimsemployed in the army., Though there was hardlyany regional ruling, dynasty, the provincialgovernors of the Sultanate, allied with the local, rajas, and, zamindars, and, asserted, theirindependence. Most of the regional states, thatcame up after the fourteenth century when, theDelhi Sultanate was declining were a result ofthe, rebellions of the governors. The establishmentof, Vijayanagar and the Bahamani were a resultof the, assertion of power by the provincialofficers, like, Harihara and Bukka and AlauddinHasan Bahman, Shah respectively. During the, same period, Bengal in the east and Multan and, Sind in the west became independent. Feroz Shah, Tughlaq tried to regain the lost territories but could, not do so. He tried unsuccessfully to take over, Bengal. He attacked and plundered Jajnagar, (Orissa) but did not annex it. He plundered Kangra, and suppressed revolts in Gujarat and Thatta., With the death of Feroz Shah Tughlaq in 1338, the, decline of the Sultanate began.As wehave just, mentioned, a large number of localgovernors, , became powerful and asserted theirindependence, in the provinces. The relationshipbetween the, Sultan and the nobles worsened.The conflict with, the local rulers and zamindarsas well as regional, and geographical tensionsweakened the Sultanate, further. The decliningSultanate received the final, blow with the, invasions of Timur in 1398 AD. Timur was aTurk, who had come from Central Asia toplunder the, wealth of India. Timur entered Delhiand mercilessly, killed both the Hindus andMuslims and massacred, women and children aswell., Fifteen years after the Timur's raids in, Delhi,the Delhi Sultanate declined. The Sultanates, inGujarat,, Malwa, and, Jaunpur, near, Varanasiemerged as powerful regional kingdom., Gujarat and Jaunpur were constantly engaged in, tension with the Lodhis of the Delhi Sultanate, (1451 to1526 AD). New regional states, independent ofthe Delhi sultanate arose in Central, and SouthIndia too, out of which the prominent, ones werethe Gajapatis of Orissa, the Bahamanis, and theVijayanagara Empire. The Lodhi Sultans, likeBahlol Lodhi (1451-1485) and Sikander, Lodhi(1489-1526) tried to keep these regional, kingdoms under control., Finally, during the rule of Ibrahim Lodhi, (1517-1526), Bihar declared its independence., Daulat Khan, the governor of Punjab rebelledand, invited Babur to invade India in 1526., GUJARAT, On account of the excellence of itshandicrafts and, its flourishing seaports, as wellas the richness of its, soil, Gujarat was one of therichest provinces of the, Delhi Sultanate. AfterTimur's invasion of Delhi,, both Gujarat andMalwa become independent in all, but name. However, it was not till 1407 that Zafar, Khanformally proclaimed himself the ruler, with, thetitle Muzaffar Shah (1392-1410)., The real founder of the kingdom of Gujarat, was, however, Ahmad Shah I (1411-43),, thegrandson of Muzaffar Shah. During his, longreign, he brought the nobility undr, control,settled the administration and expanded, andconsolidated the kingdom. He shifted the, capitalfrom Patan to the new city of Ahmedabad,, thefoundation of which he laid in 1413. He was, agreat builder, and beautified the town with, manymagnificent places and bazars, mosques, andmadrasas., He, drew, on, the, rich, architecturaltraditions of the jains of Gujarat to, devise a styleof building which was markedly, different fromDelhi. Some of its features were:, slender turrets,exquisite stone-carvings, and highly, ornatebrackets. The jama Masjid in Ahamdabad, andthe Tin Darwaza are fine examples of the styleof, architecture during his time., 41|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), posts. A large number of templeswere repaired and, new ones constructed., Abul Fazl, the court historian of the Mughal, Emperor Akbar noted that Kashmir had, onehundred and fifty big temples. Sultan, ZainulAbidin married the daughters of the Hindu, rajaof Jammu. Some scholars call Zainul Abidin, asthe, Akbar, of, Kashmir., Under, him,, Kashmirbecame prosperous and he was called the, BudShah or the great king of Kashmiris., The, Sultan, contributed, to, the, agriculturaldevelopment, of, Kashmir, by, constructing dams, and canals. Agricultural records were maintained., During the period of famine and othernatural, calamities, relief in terms of loans andgrains and, fodder was provided to the peasants.Sultan also, introduced reforms in the currency.He introduced, market control and fixed pricesof the commodities., Traders and merchants wereasked to sell the, commodities at fixed prices.Sultan also subsidized, the import of the commoditieswhich were scarce in, the state. To makeup for the shortage of salt, he, imported salt from Ladakh and helped the traders, in every possibleway. Sultan also paid attention to, the developmentof handicrafts. He sent some, people to Samarqandfor training of paper making, and bookbinding. Sultan also encouraged stone, cuttingand polishing and many other crafts. He, introducedcarpet and shawl making, which, makeKashmir famous till day. Sultan also founded, thetowns of Zaingir, Zainket and Zainpur and, laidout the islands on the Dal Lake that can be, seentill today. His chief engineering achievement, wasthe Zaina Lanka, an artificial island in the, WoolurLake on which he built his palace and, mosque., He was a great scholar of Persian,, Sanskrit,Tibetan and Arab languages and, patronised theSanskrit and Persian scholars. Under, hispatronage,, the, Mahabharat, and, Kalhana'sRajatarangini were translated into, Persian andmany Persian and Arabic works were, translatedinto Hindi. He himself was a poet and, wrotepoetry under the pen name 'Qutb'., After him weak rulers ascended the, throneof Kashmir and there was confusion., Takingadvantage of this, Mirza Haider, Babur's, relativeoccupied Kashmir. In 1586, Akbar, conqueredKashmir and made it a part of the, MughalEmpire., BENGAL, Bengal was an important regional, kingdomunder the Palas in the eighth century and, theSenas in the twelfth century. Bengal was, theeasternmost province of the Delhi Sultanate., Thelong distance, uncomfortable climate and, , poormeans of transport and communications, madeit difficult for the Delhi Sultanate to control, thisprovince. Therefore, it was easy for Bengal, toassert, its, independence., Ghiyasuddin, Tughlaqtried to solve the problem by partitioning, Bengalinto three independent administrative, divisions:Lakhnauti, Satgaon and Sonargaon., However,the problems remained and finally, Bengalemerged as an independent regional state in, thefourteenth century., In 1342, one of the nobles, Haji Ilyas Khanunited, Bengal and became its ruler under thetitle of, Shamsh-ud-din Iliyas Shah and laid thefoundation, of the Ilyas Shah dynasty. He triedto annex Bengal, and raided Orissa and Tirhutand forced them to pay, tribute. Such expansionsalarmed the rulers of the, Delhi Sultanate, whotried to occupy Bengal several, times but werenot successful. One of the important, rulers ofthe Ilyas Shah dynasty was Ghiyasuddin, Azam.He was a learned man and promoted, Persianliterature. He was well known for, dispensing freeand fair justice to people. It is said, that once hekilled a son of a widow by accident. The, widowfiled a complaint with Qazi who summoned, theruler to the court. When the case was, decided,Azam told the Qazi that had he not, dischargedhis duties honestly he would have killed, him.Azam had cordial relations with China., Therewas a prosperous trading relationship, betweenBengal and China. The port of Chittagaong, wasan important centre for exchange of goods., Ondemand from the king of China, Azam also, sentBuddhist monks from Bengal. Pandua and, Gaurwere the capitals of Bengal., In 1538, Bengal was annexed by Sher, ShahSuri. In 1586, Akbar conquered Bengal,, andmade it into a suba. While Persian was, thelanguage of administration, Bengali developedas, a regional language. The establishment ofMughal, control over Bengal coincided with therise of, agrarian settlements in the forested andmarshy, areas of southeastern Bengal. Soon after,with the, spread of rice cultivation, this areabecame heavily, populated with the localcommunities of fisher folks, and peasants. TheMughals established their capital, in the heart ofthe eastern delta at Dhaka. Officials, andfunctionaries received land grants and, settledthere. Alauddin Hussain Shah (1439 to, 1519)was another important ruler of Bengal. He, wasvery efficient, and gave high administrative, poststo the Hindus and is said to have paid respect, toChaitanya of the Vaisnava sect. He came, intoconflict with Sikandar Lodhi and had to, makepeace with him., This was a fertile and prosperous, province.It had flourishing seaports and was, famous forits handicrafts. Alauddin Khalji was the, firstSultan to annex it to Delhi Sultanate and, 43|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), Different languages such as Sanskrit,, Telugu,Kannada and Tamil flourished in the, regions.There was a great development in Sanskrit, andTelugu, literature., The, peak, of, literaryachievement was reached during the reign, ofKrishna Deva Raya. He himself was a scholar, inSanskrit and Telugu. His famous court, poetAllasani Peddanna was distinguished in, Teluguliterature. Thus the cultural contributions of, theVijayanagar, rulers, were, many-sided, andremarkable., Sources, The history of Vijayanagar Empire, constitutesan important chapter in the history of, India.Four dynasties - Sangama, Saluva, Tuluva, andAravidu - ruled Vijayanagar from A.D. 1336, to1672. The sources for the study of Vijayanagarare, varied, such, as, literary,, archaeological, andnumismatics., Krishnadevaraya's, Amukthamalyada,Gangadevi's Maduravijayam and, AllasaniPeddanna's Manucharitam are some of the, indigenousliterature of this period., Many, foreign, travelers, visited, theVijayanagar Empire and their accounts are, alsovaluable. The Moroccan traveler, Ibn, Battuta,Venetian traveler Nicolo de Conti,, Persiantraveler, Abdur, Razzak, and, the, Portuguesetraveler Domingo Paes were among, them wholeft valuable accounts on the socioeconomicconditions of the Vijayanagar Empire., Thecopper plate inscriptions such as the, Srirangamcopper plates of Devaraya II provide, thegenealogy, and, achievements, of, Vijayanagarrulers. The Hampi ruins and other, monumentsof Vijayanagar provide information on, thecultural contributions of the Vijayanagar, rulers.The numerous coins issued by the, Vijayanagarrulers contain figures and legends, explainingtheir tittles and achievements., Bahmani Kingdom, The Deccan region was a part of, theprovincial administration of the Delhi, Sultanate.In order to establish a stable, administration inthe Deccan, Mohammad bin, Tughlaq appointedamiran-i-sada/ Sada Amir, who, were the administrative heads of hundred villages., From 1337 the conflict between the officers in, Deccan and Delhi sultanate accelerated. This led to, the establishment of an independent state in the, Deccan in 1347 with the capital at Gulbarga in, Andhra Pradesh. Its founders Hasan Gangu, assumed the title Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah as, he traced his descent from the mythical hero of, Iran, Bahman Shah and the kingdom was named, after him, the Bahamani Sultanate. After, Mohammad bin Tughlaq there were no attempts by, , the Delhi Sultanate to control the Deccan region., Therefore, the Bahamani Sultans without any, checks annexed the kingdom., There were a total of fourteen Sultans, rulingover, this, kingdom., Among, them,, AlauddinBahman Shah, Muhammad Shah I and, Firoz Shah were important. Ahmad Wali Shah, shiftedthe capital from Gulbarga to Bidar. The, powerof the Bahmani kingdom reached its peak, under the rule of Muhammad Shah III. It extended, from the Arabian sea to the Bay of Bengal. On, thewest it extended from Goa to Bombay. On, theeast, it extended from Kakinada to the mouth, ofthe river Krishna. The success of Muhammad, Shah was due to the advice and services of his, minister Mahmud Gawan. One of the important, acquisitions was the control over Dabhol, an, important port on the west coast., Under Bahman Shah and his sonMuhammmad, Shah, the administrative system was well, organised. The kingdom was divided into four, administrative units called 'taraf' or provinces., These provinces were Daultabad, Bidar, Berar and, Gulbarga. Muhammad Idefeated the Vijayanagar, kingdom andconsequently Golconda was annexed, to Bahamani kingdom. Every province was under a, tarafdar who was also called a subedar. Some land, was converted into Khalisa land from the, jurisdiction of the tarafdar. Khalisa land wasthat, piece of land which was used to runexpenses of the, king and the royal household.Further the services, and the salary of every noble was fixed. Those, nobles who kept 500 horses were given 1000,000, huns annually. If short of the stipulated troops, the, tarafdar would have to reimburse the amount to, the central government. Nobles used to get their, salary either in cash or in form of grant of land or, 'jagir'Bahamani ruler depended for military, supporton his amirs. There were two groups in the, ranksof amirs: One was the Deccanis who, wereimmigrant Muslims and had been staying for, along time in the Deccan region. The other, groupwas Afaquis or Pardesis who had recently, comefrom Central Asia, Iran and Iraq and had, settledin the Deccan region recently. Between, boththese groups there was always tension, toappropriate, better, administrative, positions.Because of their feuds, the stability of the, Bahamani Sultanate was affected. For the first time, in India both these kingdoms usedgunpowder in, the warfare. The Bahamanis werealready familiar, with the use of firearms. Theyemployed Turkish, and Portuguese experts totrain the soldiers in the, latest weaponry ofwarfare., One of the most important personalities, inthe, Bahamani, kingdom, was, Mahmud, Gawan.Mahmud Gawan's early life is obscure. He, wasan Iranian by birth and first reached Deccan asa, 46|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), most elegant structures. On theother hand, where, these traditions were not sopronounced, the, buildings constructed for theregional states were, less distinctive. In some casestotally novel, tendencies, independent of both theindigenous and, the imperial Sultanate traditions,are also visible., Bengal, , The establishment of an independent, Muslimpower in Bengal took place within a gap of, fiveyears since the capture of Delhi by the, Turks.But an independent building style, distinct, fromthe one prevalent at Delhi, developed at, thebeginning of the fourteenth century and, lastedfor a period of nearly 250 years. Bengali, stylespread in all parts of the region, but most of, theprominent buildings were located within, theboundary of the Malwa district which had, beenthe strategic centre of the region due to, theconfluence of the two rivers, the Ganga and, theMahananda. Here lie the remains of the, twoprincipal cities-Gaur and Pandua-which, in, turn,enjoyed the status of the capital seat of, theregional ruling style of this region we have, todepend mostly on the buildings extant in, thesetwo, cities, and, a, few, important, exampleselsewhere. The Building art of Bengal is, generallydivided into the following three phases of, whichthe first two are considered preliminary, stagesand the third its ultimate development into, aspecific style., Jaunpur, The Sharqi kindom of Jaunpur was, foundedby Malik Sarwar, a noble of Firuz Shah, Tughlug,in 1394. In the wake of Timur's invasion, andransack of Delhi. Jaunpur took over from, thecapital as a centre for scholars and writers., Thesurviving, buildings, constructed, under, theSharqis are located in the capital city, Jaunpur.The Sharqi architecture of Jaunpur carries, adistinct impact of the Tughlug style., thebattering, effect of its bastings and minarets andthe use of, arch-and-beam combination in theopenings being, the two most prominent features,However, the, most striking feature of theJaunpur style is the, design of the façade of themosques. It is composed, of lofty propylons withsloping sides raised in the, centre of the sanctuaryscreen. The propylons, consist of a huge recessed, arch ramed by tapering square minar, ofexceptional, bulk and solidity, divided intoregisters. The best, examples can be seen in theAtala Majid and the, Jami Masjid. Evidently, the propylon was the, keynote of Jaunpur style andoccurs in no other, manifestation of indo-Islamicarchitecture., , Gujarat, The regional style of architecture that, cameinto being in western India towards, thebeginning, of, the, 14th, century, is, almostexclusively confined to Gujarat., The regional style flourished for a period, ofsome two hundred and fifty years beginningearly, in the 14th century. The founders of theGujarat, style of Indo-Islamic architecture were,in facrt, the, governors of the Khalji Sultans ofDelhi., There were three different phases of, theGujarat style:- The first phase lasting for the, firsthalf of the 14th century marked by, thedemolition of the Hindu temples and, theirreconversion into Muslim buildings. The, secondphase prevailing mostly during the first half, ofthe 15th century and showed signs of, hesitantmaturity of a distinctive style. The third, phasewas the matured phase of Gujarati, architecture., Malwa, In central India, the development of IndoIslamic architecture remained confined withinthe, Malwa regional which became anindependent, kingdom at the turn of the 15thcentury. The regional, manifestations of Indo-Islamic architecture in, Malwa are locatedessentially within the confines of, two cities, Dharand Mandu, though some buildings, may also beseen at Chanderi. The Sultans of Dhar, andMandu have left a rich architectureal legacy,, themain buildings being mosques, tombs, andpalaces. The buildings at Dhar and Manduderive, many features from the Tughluqarchitecture such, as the battered walls, fringedarch and the archbeam combination. But soonwe also notice the, emergence of distinctivefeatures which give the, Malwa style ofarchitecture a character of its own., Perhaps themost important is an innovative, technique bywhich the two separate structural, systems of thearch and the lintel have been, combined in Malwaarchitecture. In no other early, type ofarchitecture has this problem of using arch, andbeam, as, structural, elements, been, moreartistically solved. Another notable feature of, theMalwa buildings is the construction of stately, flights of steps of considerable length leading, totheir entrances. This became necessary duet, tothe use of unusually high plinths on which mostof, the, important, buildings, are, raised., Thisarchitectural impulse died in 1531 with, defeatof the last Malwa ruler, Mahmud II, at the, handsof Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. Malwa, wastemporarily brought under the Mughals, byHumayun in 1535 and was finally conqueredby, Akhar in 1564., , 50|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), Deccan, The, Indo-Islamic, architecture, that, developedin the Deccan from 14th century onwards, underthe Bahmanis acquired a definitely, regionalcharacter quite early in its growth. But, thisarchitecture followed a different pattern, inevolution than other regional styles. As, opposedto the growth of regional styles in northern, India,architecture in the Deccan seems to have, ignoredto a very large extent the pre-Islamic, arttraditions of the region., In practice, the Deccan style of, architectureconsisted basically of the fusion of;, thearchitectural system in vogue at Delhi under, theSultans, particularly the Tughluq form and, anentirely, extraneous, source, that, is,, thearchitecture of Pesia., Bidar, , The Bahmani capital was transferred, toBidar, a fortress town in 1425 ruled by, AhmanShah (1422-36). Soon the new capital saw, aflurry of building activity. Within its walls, sprangup palaces with large audience halls and, hammams, a madrasa, and royal tombs., , Vijaynagar, The Vijaynagar style of architecture, wasscattered throughout south India, but the, finestand most characteristic group of buildings is, tobe seen in the city of Vijaynagar itself. This city,in, fact, had a great advantage as a site for largescale, building activity in that it abounds ingranite and a, dark green chlorite stone, both usedextensively as, building material. The use ofmonolithic multiple, pillars in the temple atVijaynagar testify this this, fact. The expanse ofthe city of Vijaynagar at the, height of its glorymeasured some 26 sq. km., and it, ws enclosedwith a stone wall. Besides palaces and, temples,the city had extensive waterworks and, manysecular buildings such elephant stables and, thelotus Mahal., The use of pillars of architectural as well, asdecorative purpose is on an unprecedented, scale.Numerous compositions are used in raising, thepillars, but the most striking and also the, mostfrequent is one in which the shaft becomes, acentral core with which is attached an, unpraisedanimal of a supernatural kind resembling, a horseor a hippograph. Another distinguishing, featureis the use of huge reverse-curve leaves at, thecornice. This feature has been borrowed into, thestyle from the Deccan and gives the pavilions, adignified appearance. Pillars form an integral, vpart of Vijaynagar style, is elaborated into, thevolute teminating in an inverted lotus band., Theoccurrence of this pendant is an index reliableof, the building in the Vijaynagar group. Theglory of, , the Vijaynagar empire ended in 1565 atthe battle of, Talikota when the combined armyof the Sultans of, the Deccan inflicted a crushingdefeat on the, Vijaynagar ruler Rama Raya., , 4 - RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN, THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH, CENTURIES, Since the dawn of history, India has been, thecradle of religious movements. In the, previouschapters we have religious movements. In, theprevious chapters we have discussed the vedic, and Later Vedic (i.e. Upanishadic) ideas to, theemergence of Bhagavatism and other, Brahmanicsects, such as Shaivism, Saktism etc. In, the earlymedieval period two parralled movements,, in, Hinduism, and, Islam,, respectively, representingthe Bhakti and Sufi movements, emerged in India,which reached their fullest, development in thefifteenth and sixteent centuries., Both thesereligious developments have hardly, anything todo with the coming of Islam or with the, so-called'Muslim rule in India'. The seeds and th, Bhaktimovements are to be found in the, Upanishads,Bhagvad Gita, Bhagavata Purana, etc., Thevarious Sufi saints had come to settle down in, India in the eleventh-twelfth centuries, the earliest, and the most well known being SheikhMuinuddin, Chisti, who made Ajmer his homewhen Prithviraj, Chauhan (III) was still rulingover there. The, greatest merit of both theseparallel religious, movements is that they freed the Indian society, from the dogmatic beliefs,ritualism, caste and, communal gatred and so on.It was in the true spirit, of Indian history andculture that both these, movements prosperedwithout even the least ill-will, an conflict. On thecontrary, both contributed to, each other'sreligious ideas and practices. Both, thesemovements were democratic movements,, whichpreached simple religion in the language of, themasses and neither craved for political, patronagenor, bothered, for, the, political, developmentsaround them., At any rate, one can easily find, manycommon points in the Bhakti and, SufiMovements., In, both,, the, elements, ofintellectuality went hand in hand with that, ofdevotion and in both ritualism andceremonialism, were not as important as thesearch of and love for, one Supreme Reality. Loveand liberalism were the, keynotes of the Sufi andBhakti movements. Mystic, discipline in both was canalised towards the moral, advancement of theindividual and society by, making them riseabove the barriers of colour,, creed, wealth, powerand position., 51|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), (1556-1605), the last of six major silsilas, the, Naqshbandiah was established by Khwaja Baqi, Ballah (1563-1603) and its most famous aint was, Shaikh Ahmed Sirhindi (d.1625) Known as, Mujeddid Alif Sani (The Reformer of the, 10thcentury)., Prince Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of, ShahJahan, become the follower of the Qadiri, orderand visited Mian Mir (1550-1635) at, Lahore,When Mian Mir died, Dara become a disciple, ofhis, successor, named, Mullah, Shah, Badakhshi.Shaikh, Ahmed, Sarihindi,, a, contemporary ofAkbar and Jahangir, was a great, Sufi saint of the Naqshbandi order. He attacked the, MysticPhilosophy of the Unity of Being (wahadatulwujud)and rejected it. In its place he, expoundedthe, philosophy, of, Apparentism, (Wahadat-ulshud).He said that the relationship, between manand God is that of a slave and the, master, andnot that of a lover and the believed, as, the Sufisgenerally believed. In short, Shaikh, Ahmad'sobject was to harmonise the doctrine, ofmysticism with the teachings of orthodox, Islam,and that is why he is known as Mujaddid,, i.e.the renovator of Islam., Medieval Indian traditons remember Prince, Dara Shikoh not so much as a Mughal Prince,but as, a mystic philosoper, In his Persian work,Majmaul, Bahrian, there are interestingdiscussion on the Sufi, and Hindu cosmologies.The great dream of his life, was th brotherhookof all faiths and unity of, mankind. One of hisgreat devottes esa Sarmsad,, who was executedduring the reign of Aurangzeb for, the Livberalityof his religious views., In the 17th Century Sufism shattered, thechains of sectarian beliefs and preached the, unityof mandin. Such Sufi sanits were known as, YariSaheb, who flourished about A.D. 16681725,was free from all sectarianism. He says that, theeyes should be painted with the dust of the, guru'sfeet as with collyrium. His peoms, in which, thename of Allah is mentioned along with the, ofRama and Hari, are full of abstruse, metaphysicalturths, He says, 'This creation is a, painting ofthe Creator on the canvas of void ehth, the brushof love. He who has not experienced this, joythrough, love, will, never, know, it, throughreasoning. Men and women are, as bubbles, inthe ocean of divine live'., Sufi Saints of Sindh: Sindh was also a, greatCentre of neo-sufism and a number of Sufi, saintsflourished there. Any account of the mystics, of Sind must begin with Shah Karim, who, livedabout A.D. 1600. He received his first, religiousinspiration from a Vaishnava saint, nearAhmedabad,, who, initiated, him, into, themysteries of Om. This symbol served as a, beaconlightto him., , The next mystic worthy of mention is, ShahInayat, a universally respected figure. When, theHindus of Sind, under the oppression of, theKalhora kings, were fleeing in number to, savetheir life and faith, it was he who sheltered, manysuch fugitive families in his own hermitage., Hisfaith, that God is not the property of, anyparticular sect finally led to his execution., But it is Shah Latif who holds the, highestplace among the mystics of Sindh. He was, thegreatest poet and singer of the province, and, hissongs are sung by people even now. His shrineat, Bhit was a weekly meeting- place for bothHindus, and<is;o,s pf eotjer sex, for spiritualcommunion., It was not unusual to find in Sindh a, Hinduas the guru of the Muslims, or a Muslim as, thegrur of the Hindus. The songs of the Sufi, mysticpoets Dedil and. Bekas are still widely sung, bySindhi men and women. The real name of, Bedaswas Mohammed Husain, he died at the age, oftwenty-two, but has lift a deep impression onthe, religious life of Sind. The poets Rohal andQutub also, belong to the same fraternity, andgave left behind, them songs, that are as sweetas they are profound., At their shrines bothHindus and Muslim used to, congregate and keepall night vigils, singing, religious songs., Bulle Shah: No account on neoSufismwould be complete without a reference to, BulleShah., Bulle shah was probably born in A.D., 1703,in a Sayyuid family in the city of, Constantinople(Istanbul), and at a very young age, he walked all the way to Punjab hankering for, spiritualtruth, In the Indian mode of religious, practice,he found precisely what he was seeking,, andsettled down to a life of meditation and, worshipat Kasur, He was a fierice critic of the, Quranand all other scriptures, and neither the, Hindunor the Muslim theologians could excel him, indebates. He was buried also at Kasur, and, theplece attractts numerous pilgrims and holy men., Bulle Shah says: 'You will find god neither, in the mosque nor in the Ka'aba, neither in the, Quran and other holy books nor in formal, prayers. Bulla, you will not find salvation either, in Mecca or in the Ganga; 'you will find it only, when you lay down your ego'., 'I found the highest peace and joy when, discovered Allah within my own heart:, throughdeath I have reached the life eternal; I am, everjourneying forward.', 'O Bulla, intoxicate thyself with the wine, ofdivine love, Men will slander you and call youby a, hundred names; when they abuse you withthe, name of kafir, say, "yes, friend, you are right"., , 55|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), It can thus be seen that the Bhakti cult was, awidespread movement that the Bhakti cult wasa, widespread movement that embrached thewhole of, the subcontinent of India for severalcenturies. It, was a movement of the people andaroused intense, interest among them. Perhapsafter the decline of, Buddhism there had neverbeen a more widespread, and popular movementin our country than the, Bhakti movement.Although its basic principles of, love and devotionto a personal God were purely, Hindu and theprinciples of unity of Godhead on, which itsteaching rested were also mainly Hindu., Themovement was profoundly influenced by, Islamicbelief and practices. The Bhakti movement, hadtwo main objects in view. One was to reformthe, Hindu religion so as to enable it to withstandthe, onslaught of Islamic propaganda andproselytism., Its second object was to bring abouta compromise, between Hinduism and Islam andto foster friendly, relations between Hindu andMuslim communities., It succeeded in realising,to a great extent, the first, object of bringing aboutthe simplification of, worship and liberalising thetraditional caste rules., "The high and the lowamong the Hindu public, forgot many of theirprojedices and believed in the, message of thereformers of the Bhakti cult, that all, people wereequal in the eyes of God and that birth, was nobar to religious salvation"., Bhakti Saints and Reformers, The cult of bhakti was followed by a host, ofsaints of northern India. The moving spirit, wereRamananda,, Kabir,, Nanak,, chaitanya, andothers. The leaders of the Bhakti movement, ofthe, early, period, were, mostly, of, southernextractions. The Bhakti movement, associatedwith the southern group was more, scholastic than popular, which was not the case, with thenorthern group. The bhaktas of the latter, groupdid not ponder over the subtle questions of, metaphysics. The were essentially eclectic,, broadminedeand latitudinarian in their views and, outlook. Caste was not a factor in the new, Bhaktimovement. Many of the Bhakti poets rose, formlower castes. Their message was both for the, richand the poor, the high caste and the low,, theeducated and the illiterate., Ramanuja, (twelfth, century):, The, earliestexponent of the Bhakti movement was the, greatVaishnava teacher Ramanuja who flourished, inthe early years of the twelfth century in theSouth., His ideas laid the foundation of a vigorouspopular, movement for the uplift of the people.The next, leader of the Bhakti movement wasNimarbaka, a, contemporary of Ramanuja. Hebelieved in the, philosophy of Vishistadvaita andlaid emphasis on, surrender to God., , Ramananda (fifteenth century):Ramananda,, who flourished in the first half ofthe fifteenth, century, was the first great Bhaktisaint of North, India. He opened the door ofbhakti ot all without, any distinction of birth,caste, creed or sex. He was a, worshipper of Ramaand believed in two great, principles, namely, (a)perfectlove for God and (b), human brotherhood.Ramananda adopted Hindi as, the medium ofhis discourses and his message, directly reachedthe common people. In his, teachings the casterigours were greatly softened, and even Shudraswere considered equal in the eyes, of GodRamananda did away with the insular, socialbehaviours of the Hindus by throwing, hisspiritual door wide open for members of, allcastes. Religion now become a question of, faith,emotion an devotion. As a result of his, teaching,a member of the despised classes could, reach hisGod without an intermediary., His unique contribution to Indian, spirituallife was the spirit of synthesis obseved in, histeaching. He accepted all that was true and, ofpermanent value in our spiritual heritagethephilosophy, of, meditation, (yoga, and, knowledgefrom the North and the absolute, surrender(prapatti) of the Bhakti cult from the, South – andrejected all that was untrue, ephemeral,, or rigidlysectarian. There is a popular verse to this, effect: 'Bhakti arose forst in the Dravida, land;Ramananada brought it to the North; and, Kabirspread it to the seven continents and, ninedivisions of the world.', Ramananda borrowed ideas from various, religious schools, vitalized them with the loveand, devotion of his heart, and founded a newpath of, spiritual realization. we do not comeacross many of, his saying, but the radiantpersonality of his, disciples- the men he createdconstitutedhis living, message. His one song isincorporated in the Granth, Sahib., Though Ramananda used the popular, nameof Rama, his God was the one God of love and, mercy, without any imperfection-not the, eternalBrahman of the Vedanta, but the beloved,, thefriend, and the lord of one's heart., WhenRamananda perceived that there is only one, Godwho is the origin of all, all the distinctions of, casteand creed vanished for him, and he, sawhumanity as one large family, and all men, asbrothers. One man is higher than another,, notthrough his birth, but only through his love, andsympathy. So he started preaching to all, withoutany reserve, and his fundamental teaching, wasthe gospel of love and devotion. He also gave, upthe use of Sanskrit and started preaching in, thelanguage of the people, thus laying, thefoundation of modern vernacular literatures., 58|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), It is said that his first twelve followers, were:Ravidasa, the, cobbler,, Kabir, the, weaver,Bhanna the jat peasant, Sena the barber,, Pipathe, Rajput,, bhvananda,, Sudhanda,Surasurananda,, Parmananda,, Mahananda, andSri Ananda. But some of them were, notpersonally initiated by him; they were drawn, tohis ideas long after his demise., Ravidasa (Raidas): (Fifteenth Century), Hewas one of the most famous disciples, ofRamananada. He was a cobbler by birth, but, hisreligious life was as exalted and pure as it, wasdeep. There are over thirty hymns of, Ravidasacollected in the Granth Sahib of the Sikha., Kabiralso has expressed more than once his, deepreverence for him. Ravidasa was the, worshipperof the one infinite God, who is above, and beyondall religious sects and without, beginning or end.He preached that the Lord resides, eithin therearts of his devotees, and cannot be, accessedthrough the performance of amy rites, andceremonies. Only one who has felt the pangs, ofdivine love will find Him, and the, highestexpression of religion in life is the service of, man,, Kabir (1440-1510): Kabir, the most, radicaldisciple of Ramananda, gave a positive shape, tothe social philosophy of his illustrious teacher,In, his trenchant arguments against the barrierof, castes. Ramananda prepared the way forKabir. The, later made a sincere attempt at areligious and, national synthesis out of conflictingcreeds. Kabir, was neither a theologian nor aphilosopher. he, appears before us as teacher. Hehad the courage ot, condemn what he consideredto be sham and, counterfeit in both Hinduism andIslam., The central theme of Kabir's teaching, isbhakti, "kabir, refused, to, acknowledge, castedistinction or to recognise the authority of, thesix school of Hindu philosophy, or the, fourdivisions of life prescribed by the Brahmans., Heheld that religion without bhakti was no, religionat all. and that asceticism, fasting and, almsgivinghad no value if unaccompanied by, bhajan(devotional worship)". By means of, ramaini,sakhas, and, sakhis, he, imparted, religiousinstruction to Hindus and Muslims alike,, He hadno perference for either religion. He, thoughtaloud and never made it his object merely, otplease his hearers. He thoroughly scrutinised, thebases of ritualism. he incessantly fought, toremove the fitualistic wuperstitions like, visitingplaces of pilgrimage., Kabir was a great satirist and ridiculed, allthe institutions of his time. He opposed, thePopular belief in the institution of sati. He, wasequally against the veiling of women., Kabirrefused to recognise the superiority of, , Brahminsas a class. He refused to believe that birth, in aparticular caste was due to the deeds in, aprevious life. He advocated perfect equality, ofShudras, and, Brahmins., Both, Shudras, andBrahmins were born in the same way, he said., Kabir provides us with a code of ethics., Hecondemned pride and selfishness and, advocatedthe cultivation of the quality of humility., Kabirwas a spokesmen for the poor and, downtroddensection of society. He condemned the, sense ofhumility and simplicity of the poor as well, asthe vanity and pride of the rich; By, suchcondemnations;, Kabir, preached, the, commonbrotherhood of man and sought to remove, thedistinction between Hindus and the Musilms., Though he led a religious life, Kabir, married,and it is said that the name of his wife was, Loi.His son Kamal was both a thinker and a, devotee.when, after his father's name, he answered,, "My father had striven throughout his life aganist, allforms of sectarianisn; how can I, his son,, destroyhis ideal and thereby commit his, spiritualmurder?" This remark estranged many of, Kabir'sdisciples from Kamal., After, Kabir's, death,, his, Muslim, disciplesorganized themselves in Maghar, where, theyfounded a monastery; hindu disciples, wereorganized into an order by Surat Gopala,, withtheir centre in Varanasi., The chief scripture of this sect is the, wellknownBijak a compilation of Kabir's couplets.In, course of time, this centre leaned more andmore, towards Vedantic doctrines., Kabir believed in a simple and natural, life,He himself wove cloth and sold it in the, marketlike any ordinary weaver. He did not, interpretreligious life as a life of idleness; he held, that allshould toil and earn and help each other,, butnone should hoard money. There is no fear, ofcorruption form wealth, if it is dept constantlyin, circulation in the service of humanity., Kabir tried to express simple thoughts of, asimple hearts in the common language of the, people. He said, 'O Kabir, Sahskrit is the waterin a, well. the language of the people is theflowing, stream'. His simple words had infinitepower., Malukdasa (1574-1682): One of the, manyfollowers of Kabir, he was born towards the, endof the sixteenth century in the District, ofAllahabad. He was kind and compassionate,and,, though religious man, he lived the life of ahouse, holder. The monasteries of his sect arefound all, over North India and even beyond,from Bihar to, Kabul. he too preached againstthe worship of, images and other external formsof religion, and his, followers rely entirely on thegrace of God for their, salvation. He was againstmortification of the flesh,, 59|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), and taught that thetrue path of spirituality lay in, the simple devotionof the heart., Dadu (1544-1603) : The most famous of, thefollowers of Kabir's ideals was Dadu, he, wasborn of Brahmana parents in Ahmedabad inA.D., 1544 and died in 1603 in the village ofNarana of, Narayana in Rajasthan, where hisfollowers (Dadupanthis) have now their chiefcentre. The great, dream of his life was to uniteall the divergent faiths, in one bond of love andcomradeship, and he, founded, theBrahmasampradaya, or, Parabrahmasampradayato give effect to this great, ideal. Hissayings possess great depth and liberality, andshow clear traces of the influence of Kabir., Dadu believed not in the authority, ofscriptures, but in the value of self-realization., Toattain this realization, we must divest, ourselvesof all sense of the ego and surrender our, livesentirely to God. All men and women are, asbrothers and sister in the presence of God., Heresides within the hearts of men, and it is, therethat we must meditate on Him. Union with, Godis possible only through love and devotion,, andit is deepened not by prayers, but by joining, ourservice to His service of the universe. We, areunited with God when, shedding all sins, andimpurities, we sincerely surrender ourselves, tothe divine will., Dadu taught : 'Be humble and free, fromegotism; be compassionate and devoted, inservice; be a hero, fearless and energetic; free, yourmind from sectarianism, and from all, themeaningless forgiving by nature and firm in, yourfaith. The path of realization becomes easier,, ifyou can find a true teacher.', He himself was very simple by nature, andfirm in your faith, and his prayers were full, ofdepth and sweetness. he was a householder,, andhe believed that, the natural life of a, householderwas best suited for spiritual, realization., At the request of Dadu, his disciples made, acollection of the devotional writings of all, thedifferent sects, calculated to help men in, theirstriving towards god, such an anthology of, thereligious literature of different sects was, perhapsthe first of its kind in the world, for the, GranthSahib was first compiled in A.D. 1604, while, thisanthology was completed some years befor, A.D.1600. This collection includes many sayings, ofMuslim saints like Kazi Kadam, Shaikh Farid,Kazi, Mohommed, Shaikh Bahawad, andBakhna., Among, the, many, disciples, of, Dadu,Sundaradasa (A.D. 1597-1689), Rajjab,, andother, were, distinguished, personalities., Dadupersuaded his disciples to render into, simpleHindu, from, Sanskrit the, abstruse, philosophicaltruths. He also made it a practice, , among themthe writer in Hindi, prose and verse,, Daduadmitted both Hindus and Muslims to, hisdiscipleship, and there have been many gurusin, his sect who came form the Muslim families.Even, today, in Rajjab's branch of Dadu's sect, andy one, who attains to the height of spiritualrealization is, accepted as the head of the order,whether he be a, Hindu or a Muslim. The songsand prayers of Rajjab, are universal in appeal andsuperb for their spirit of, devotion., Rajjab says: ' There are as many sects as, thereare men; thus has come into being the, diversity of spiritual endeavour. The sacred stream, of theGanga rises from the blessed feet of, Narayana,but the feet of the Lord are in the hearts, of thedevotees. Thus, from the heart of every, devoteeflows a Ganga of thoughts. If I can unite all, thestreams of thoughts in this world, such, aconfluence would indeed be the holiest of, places.'He Further said: ' This universe is the veda,, thecreation is the Qur'an.', Guru, Nanak, (1469-1538):, The, Bhaktimovement in northern India, which had, beengathering strength ever since the time, ofRamanda, got another ardent bhakta in, GuruNanak. He was preceded by an evolution of, ideasand he followed the path blaxed by his, illustriouspredecessors. He founded a new religion, whichhas survived as a permanent element in, theIndian society., Guru Nanak, sharing to the full the, eclecticspirit of his time, sought for a creed capable, ofexpressing Hindus and Muslim devotion alike.He, use both Hindu and Muslim nomenclaturesfor God,, rama, Govinda, Hari, Murari, bad andRahim. He, wanted to domlish the wall that stoodin the way of, the two communities and unitethem., The social teaching of Guru Nanak, werebasically a reaffirmation of the ethical, ideascommon to the medieval monotheistic, religiousdoctrine of human equality. He held that it, wassheer folly to think in terms of caste, A man, wasto be honoured for his devotion to God and, notfor his social position. he says. "God knows, man'svirtues and inquires not his caste; in the, nextworld there is no caste." Guru Nanak started, freecommunity kitchens called Guru ka longer., Hisfollowers. Guru Nanak did not believe in, thedoctrine, of, chhut, (theological, contamination)which, had, compartmentalised, society., He conceived of God as nirakara, (formless).He discarded the worship of images, andrepudiated idolatry. Being a man of deep, andstrong conviction. he defined explicitly the, ethics,norms and usages of public life, he resented, the survival of superstition which seemed to be, amark, of, cultural, backwardness., He, 60|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), educatedpeople to distinguish superstitions form, religiousvalues. The superstitions and formalism of, bothHindustan and Islam were condemned., Unlike Kabir, Nanak was a welleducatedma. He had studied Persian and Hindi,, besideshis mother-tongue Punjabi. he travelled all, overIndia and also to some countries of Central, Asiaincluding Arabia, and come in contant with, menof diverse professions, pursuits and creeds., Hewrote inspiring poems and songs which, werecollected in a book form subsequently, publishedas the Adi Grantha. He was recognised as, aGuru, and died at Krtarpur in 1528., Nanak, was, a, revolutionary, religiousreformer, he proclaimed that there is, nodistinction between man and man, all were, bornequal in the eyes of God. He felt that the, realcause of the misery of the people was, theirdisunity born of diversity of belief. He, considerededucation essential for the attainment of, true andcomplete life, True education helps the soul, tounfold itself like a lotus of countless petals., The universalism of his message, andreasonableness of his precepts brought about, amoral renaissance in India. He preached to thehigh, and the high and the low without anydistinction of, caste, creed or colour., Guru Nanak was a monist and, hismonotheism, unlike that of some other, bhaktas.was undiluted. He did not believe in, theincarnation of God. he regarded himself as, theprophet of God who had come for the, divineCourt. He taught that there is one God in, theworld and the no other and that Nanak,, thecaliph (son) of God, speaks truth. Nanak, looksupon God as one Lord and the commander, ofall. The universe is His domain and from, Hisbrilliance everything is brilliant. All is, illuminedby the light of His apperance., Nanak says that devotion cannot, existwithout virtue. Truth is no doubt great, butgreater is truthful living. The qualities which, oneshould, cultivate, assiduously, are, humility,charity,, forgiveness, and, sweet, words.Remembrance of god is the primary duty of, aseeder of truth remember the name of God, andgive up everything else, Simran is the practice, ofdevotion to God. He (God) is high and worthyof, worship. God is not outside but within, everyindividual. He that pervades the universe, alsodwells in the body. Speak the truth, then, youwould realise God within you. Nanak believed in, God as the omnipotent reality, but maintainedthat, the separate individuality of the human soulcould, attain union with him through love anddevotion., Nanak's mission was to reform the, Hindusreligion on the basis of unity of the Godhead, , andto bring about friendly realation between, theHindus and Muslims., Chaitanya (1486-1533): Perhaps the, greatestsaint if not the greatest leader, of the, Bhaktimovement was Chaitanya There had, beenVaishnavism in Bengal long before his birth., Butthe activities of Chaitanya who is the founder, ofmodern Vaishanvism in Bengal gave a, greatinpetus to Vaishhavism and made it popular, allover Bengal and Orissa. Chaitanya's originalname, was Vishwambhar and he was born atNavadwip in, February 1486. The boy was giventhe name of, Nimai. His father Jagannath Mishrawas a religious, and scholarly man and his motherShachi too was, deeply religious and pious.Vishwambhar was sent, to a private school tolearn and afterwards, entrusted to a well-knownPandit, Ganga Das, for, higher studies. He wasan exceptionally brilliant, student and is said tohave mastered the Sanskrit, language andliterature, grammar and logic, at the, early ageof fifteen, Shortly after he completed, hiseducation, he was give the title of Vidyasagar(the, ocean ; of learning). While he was a student,his, father died. He was married to a girl namedLakshmi, but she died of shake-bite. He marriedagain and, this lady survived her husband'ssanyas and death., He was not yet 22 when hereceived diksha, (initation) from a saintly man,named Ishwar Prui,, Whom he met at Gayaduring a pilgrimage. The, motive whichinfluenced him to adopt asceticism, was probablydiverse and complex; at best, it is left, obscure.Chaitanya settled permanently at puri, where hedied., After sanyas he felt himself free from, allworldly bounds and his heightened emotionsand, ecstasies become marked. He said, "I shallwander, form house to house giving the holyname of God to, all. The Chandals, lowest caste,women and children, all will stand with wonderand love to hear his, name. Even boys and girlswill sing his praise.", Chaitanya loved God as noman before or after him, ever loved. he preachedthe religion of intense faith, in one Supreme Beingwhom he called Drishna or, Hari. He was freefrom ritualism, and his wordhip, consisted in loveand devotion, song and dance, so, intense andfull of emotion that devotees felt God's, Presencein a state of ecstasy., He was a great exponent of Krishnite formof, Vaishnavism. He adored Krishna and Radhaand, attempted to spiritualies their lives inVrindaban, he, preached to all irrespective ofcaste and creed. His, influence was so profoundand lasting that he is, considered by his followersas an incarnation of, Krishna of Vishnu., Chaitanya accepted that Krishna along is, themost perfect God. Vaishnavism, as preached, byChaitanya,, created, an, unprecedented, sensationand enthusiasm in Gengal and its, 61|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), wasconverted to his faith, and the poets wali, Allah,Abru, and Nazi also has a deep reverence, forhis spiritual life and teachings., , THE BHAKTI MOVEMENT IN MAHARASHTRA, (MAHARASHTRA DHARMA), The liberal religion preached by the, saintpoets of Maharashtra is popularly known, asMaharashtra Dharma, which was a stream ofthe, medieval Bhakti movement, but socially itwas more, profound, unitary and far more liberalin the field of, social reforms. The Bhakti cult inMaharashtra, centred around the shrine of Vithoba or Vitthal the, presiding diety ofPandharpur, who was regarded as, amainfeatation of Krishna. This movement is, alsoknown as the Pnadharpur movement led to, thedevelompent of Marathi literature, modification, of caste exclusiveness, sanctification of family, life,elevation of the status of women, spread of, thespirit, of, humaneness, and, toleration,subordination of ritual to love and faith,, andlimitation of the excesses of polytheism., The Bhakti movement in Maharashtra, isbroadly divided into two sects. The first schoolof, mystics is known as Varakaris, of the milddevatees, of God Veththala of prndharpur, andthe second as, Dharakaris, or the heroic followers of the cult of, Ramadasa, the devotee of GodRama. The former are, more rational, practical.and concrete in their, thoughts. The differencebetween the two schools is,, however, onlyapparent and not real, realization of, God as thehighest end of human life being common, to both.The three great teachers of the Vithoba cult, werejnaneswar Jnandeva or, Namdeva and, Tukaram., The dates of birth and of other, importantevents in the lives of all Maharashtra, saintsexpects, Ramadasa, are, only, approximatelyknown. It is, however, historical fact, thatNivrttinatha and jnaneswar are the founders, ofthe mystical school in Maharasthra, which, laterdeveloped an assumed different forms at, thehands of Namadeva Ekanatha, and Tukarama., Bhakti Saints of Maharashtra, Jnaneswar of Jnanadeva: One of the, earliestBhakti, Saints, of, Maharashtra, Jnaneswarflourished in the 13th century. He wrote, theMarathi commentary on the Gita known, asJnaneswari,, which, deserves, to, be, reckonedamong the world's best mystical, compositions.his other works are Amratanubhava, andchangadeva Prasasti., Namadeva: Namadeva was born in a, tailor'sfamily. we are told that as a child he was, verywild and in his youth he took to, vagabond, life,but certain sudden incidents moved him to, thepath of spirituality, transformin him to a, greatsaint and a gifted poet. His Marathi poems, , havegenuine marks of simplicity, devotion, andmelody, he was suddenly coverted to, thespiritual life, when he heard the piteous cries, andcurses of the helpless wife of one of his victims., He passed the major part of his life, atPandharpur, and was mainly responsible, forbuilding up the glorious tradition of the schoolof, thought known as Varakarisampradaya. Hewas, initiated into mystic life by Visoba Khechara,who, convinced Namadeva of the all-pervadingnature of, God. He travelled with his youngercotemporary,, Jnaneswar. Some of his lyricalverses are included in, the Granth Sahib. Thedominant note of his thoughts, is earnest andwhole-hearted devotion to God., Purification ofthe heart is possible only through, suffering, andGod can be realized through pure, love. He wrotea number of abhangas to show, people the pathto God through repetition of His, name., Ekanatha:, He, was, born, at, Paithan(Aurangabad). His life was an object-lesson, inthe reconciliation of practical and spiritual life,He, observed no distinction of caste and creed,and once, gave to the pariahs the food preparedas an offering, to his forefathers. His sympathiesknew no limits; he, poured the holy waters ofthe Godavari (brought, from a long distance atthe risk of life for the, worship of the Lord) intothe throat of an ass that, was dying of thirst. Hepublished for the first time a, reliable edition ofthe Jnaneswari. He was a, voluminous writer, andhis commentary on four, verses of the Bhagavatais famous. It was his custom, to sing Kertana(devotional composition) every day,, and heobserved it ti the last day of his life, His, mysticexperiences are expressed most explicitly tin, thisabhangas. He popularized the Vedanta, philosophy and the mystic teachings of, earliersaints. He passed away in A.D. 1598., Tukaram : Tukaram was born in the, familyof a farmer. He had some cattle and, landedproperty, but lost them all in great, famine,together with his parents, one of his two, wives,and a son. He become a bankrupt and, gotdisgusted with his life. His other wife was, ashrew, who abused his companion-devotees.Trouble both at home and outside,, Tukaramatook to the study of the works of, Jnaneswar,Namadeva, and Ekanatha, and began, tomeditate on God in solitary places on the hills, ofBhamhanatha and Bhandara., He wrote several abhangas, which, embodyhis teachings and are widely recited in, Maharashtra. He was contemporary of Shivajiand, refused to accept the offer of rich presentsmade by, him., Ramdasa: He was born in 1608., Hewandered throughout India for twelve years, andfinally settled at Chaphal on the banks of the, 64|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), placing the province under the one individual. nHe,, therefore, divided it into a number ofdivisions,, under respective Jagirdars., No, definite, information,, however,, isavailable of Sher Shah's deliberate organizationof, the Provincial administration, though in a, vastempire,, Sher, Shah, with, his, flair, foradministration could not have overlooked, theimportant, of, a, well, organized, provincialadministration as a link between the, central andthe local government., Administration At District Level And Below, A province comprised a number of, Sarkars,which were further sub divided into, Parganas.Here, Sher Shah seems to have retained, theexisting size of the Shiqas and the Parganas., Theword Shiq came to be used under the, Tughlaqsand denoted a sub-division of privince., There were two chief officers of the, Sarkarsas Chief Shiqdar or Shiqdar-i-Shiqdaran, andChief Munsif r Munsif-i-Munsiftan., The, Chief, Shiqdar, enjoyed, tremendousprestige and power and the Faujdar of, Akbar'sreign was modelled on him. His chief duty, wasto maintain law and order in the district and, hewas given a respectable force to command., Whilehe had no direct responsibility to collect the, landrevenue,he was obliged to render assistance, insecuring the collection by using coercion,, ifnecessary. Besides, he also supervised the workof, the various Shiqdars in the Parganas., The Munsif-Munsifan's primary function, wasto supervise the assessment and collection, ofrevenue. He also supervised the work of, thesubordinate Munsifs. To prevent corruption, andnepotism, they were transferred every year, ortwo., Apart from these two officers, the, chroniclesdo not mention any other officers., Anadministrative, hierachy, of, the, clerks, andaccountants, however, must have existed, torender help., Each Sarkar comprised of a number, ofParganas. The Shiqdar or Amil was incharge ofthe, Pargana. But his chief function was to collectthe, land-revenue. Besides, there was a Munsifor Amin,, who supervised the measurement ofthe land and, settled disputes regarding the sizeof the holdings., The interests of cultivators, theircustoms and, practices, were protected by asemi-official, Qanungo, the Pargana recordkeeper, whose office, was usually hereditary. TheShiqdar was assited by, two clerks known asKarkuns who kept the records, in Hindi andPersion. The treasure and cash were, kept byKhazanadar or Fotadar., In, each, village,, there, was, the, hereditaryoffice of the Muqaddam, Mukhiya or the, , head man, who acted as the chief link between, thegovernment and the village. He was, responsiblefor the collection of the land-revenue, from thevillages and was also allowed a precentage, ofthe collection. He was helped by a Patwari,, anofficial,, who, was, not, appointed, by, thegovernment but was maintained by the, villagers.He was also the village record-keeper., Military Organisation, Sher Shah initiated the practice f paying, thesoldiers fixed salaries from the treasury. In a, bidto bring the soldiers in direct touch with, himself,Sher Shah as their commander-in-chief and, thepay master general, recruited soldiers himself, andfixed, their, salaries, after, personally, inspectingthem., Sher Shah strictly enforced the Khilji, policyof branding of horses (Dagh) and, preparingdescriptive rolls (Huliya) of the soldiers., He thusattempted to eliminate corruption by, preventingthe practice of proxy at the time of, militaryreview., The, central, army, consisted, of, 1,50,000cavalry, 50,000 infantry and an elephant, forceof 5,000. Sher shah's military set-up did not, havea regular artillery. The army was posted, incantonments spread all over the country, ofwhich, Rohtas and Delhi were the mostimportant., There is no contemporary mention of, thedetails of the army divisions though one, division(Fauj), was placed under Faujdar. Besides,, these,additional troops were supplied by the, provincialgovernors in times of emergencies., Judicial System, From, the, comparative, silence, of, thecontemporary chronicles it may be inferred that, Sher Shah did not introduce any innovations, injudicial department. Neverthless, his severe, butjust rule resulted in treating all, including his, kithand kin, as equals before law., He held that, "justice is the most excellent, ofreligious rites and it is approved both by the, kings of the infides and the faithful" andconsisted in, giving fair and honest deal to allmen. He made no, difference between the highand the low or rich and, the poor and impartedjustice to all with equal, vigour. Sher Shah himselfacted as the highest court, and personally decidedthe cases of nobles and high, officials., The civil cases of the Muslims were, decided,as in the past, by the Kazi, Another officer,, MirAdl, is mentioned but his functions are, notspecified. The Criminal law was uniform, andrigorously imposed. Robbers, thieves as also, theoppressors, of, the, cultivators, were, 68|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), severelypunished. Flogging, amputation of limbs, andexecutions were freely imparted., Police System, As for the police, there was no, separatedepartment. Sher Shah largely acted on, theaxiom, of, local, responsibility, for, maintainingpeace., The, Shiqdars, and, the, Shiqdar-iShiqdaranwere responsible for the maintenance of, law andorder in Parganas and Sarkars. Just as the, villageheadmen were obliged to look after their, areas.The largest responsibility rested with, theMuqaddams, and, Chowdharies,, who, wereseverely punished, in case they failed to, detectthe crimes., Sher Shah thus attempted to involve, thepeople at large in the maintenance of law, andorder in their regions., Land Revenue System, Sher Shah's most striking contribution, wasmade in the field of revenue., The, Turko-Afghan, Sultans,, with, theexception of Tughlaqs, had formulated, nodeliberate, principles, of, land, revenue., Generallyunconcerned with the production, yield,standardisation of crops and welfare, schemesfor the peasants, the Sultans has confined, theirattention to a strict collection of the, landrevenue., The incidence of the land-revenue, variedfrom Sultan to Sultan with the maximum, ceilingat fifty per cent under Ala-ud-di Khilji., Whilethe lack of a scientific method of assessment, handicapped, the, peasants, vis-a-vis, the, collectors,the system of granting Jagirs and, assisgnments of revenue, further failed to promote, any directrelations between the state and the, peasant. Theabsence of any royal inclination, towards therevenue affairs, only encouraged the, hereditaryclass of revenue collectors, namely,, theMuqaddams and Chowdharies, who were in, solepossession of the revenue secrets, to misuse, theirpower and practice corruption and atrocities, onthe peasants., Sher Shah, therefore, inherited the, intricateproblems of conciliating and structing, thepeasantry relations with the state and fixing, arational demand based on a correct assessmentof, the produce. Sher Shah, however, as the, onlysovereign who is known to have gained, apractical experience in managing a small bodyof, peasants before rising to the throne came withhis, scheme of revenue settlement ready made, andsuccessfully tested by experiment. It was but, anextension of the system introductioned by himat, Sasaram., , As a monarch, he unilatereally decided, thatthe best system of assessment must be based, onactual measurement. According, the empire, wassurveyed. In order to ensure the accuracy, ofmeasurement and honestry of collection he, fixedthe wages of the measurers and the collectors., The uniform system of measurement in, spiteof strong opposition from some quarters,, wasenforced all over the empire, with the, exceptionof Multan where political turmoil, couldendanger the security of the State. But there, too,a record was kept of the settlement, madebetween the government and the cultivator,, andthe latter was given a title deed (Patta) in, whichconditions, of, the, settlement, were, specificallystated., According to the schedule of Sher, Shah'sassessment, rates, the, revenue, on, perishablearticles was fixed in cash rates, but for all, theprincipal staple crops, the land was, classifiedinto three classes-good, middling and bad., Afterthe average produce of the three was added,, onethirdof the total was taken as the, averageproduce of each bigha for revenue, purposes. Ofthis, one-third was demanded as the, share ofthe government. It could be paid in cash or, inkind though the former mode was preferred. In, case of cash payments, the state demand wasfixed, according to the prices prevalent in thenear, markets and a schedule of crop of crop rateswas, preserved indicating the method and therates of, assessment., The state gave a patta to each, cultivator,which specified the state demand. He was, alsoobliged to sign a qabuliat (deed of, agreement)promising to honour the revenue due, from him.Both the documents contained, information onthe size of the plot., Sher Shah's revenue settlement has, beenunanimously, acclaimed., And, it, has, beencontended hat it provided the basis for, TodarMal's bandobust in Akbar's reign, as also for, theRyotwari, system, in, British, India.Notwithstanding its obvious strengths it, wouldbe unrealistic to describe his revenue, settlementas a master-piece; for the system was not, withoutdefects., Sher Shah was the first ruler who, consideredthe welfare of the people as essential for, the interests of the state. He was benign in times, ofdrought and famine. The state, under, suchcircumstances, would lend money and, materialto, the, cultivators., Besides,, his, standinginstruction to the army not to damage any, cropsand in any damage, to adequately compensate., , 69|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), Currency Reforms, He removed the currency which had, debasedunder the later Turko-Afghan regimes, andinstead issued well executed coins of gold,, Silverand Copper of a uniform standard. His, silverrupee which weighed 180 grams and, contained175 grains of silver was retained, throughout theMughal period as also by the British, East IndiaCompany, till 1885. Besides the coins of, smallerfractions of a rupee, the copper coins too, hadfractions of half quarter, eighth and sixteenth., Promotion Of Trade And Commerce, Sher, Shah, gave, every, possible, encouragementto the trade and commerce and took, anumber of measures for this purpose. He didaway, with all the internal custom duties withthe, exception of the two. These two duties, werecharged at the time of entry of the goods in, thekingdom and at the time of the actual sale., Foreigngoods were permitted to enter Bengal, dutyfree. Sher Shah paid special attention tot he, safetyand convenience of the merchants and, hadissued specific instructions to his officers in, thisregards., Promotion Of Education, Sher Shah not only took necessary, measuresto ameliorate the condition of the people, but alsopaid attention to the promotion of, education. Hegave liberal grants to both the Hindu, andMuslim, educational, institutions., The, Hinduswere, free, to, regulate, their, educationalinstitutions and Sher Shah did not, interfere intheir working. Similarly, the Muslim, educationalinstitution were mainly attached with, mosquesand imparted elementary education to, thechildren. The taught Persian and Arabic., SherShah, also, established, Madrasas, for, highereducation. To help the poor and brilliant, studentshe awarded liberal scholarships. Sher Shah, alsomade liberal provisions for the support of, blind,the old, the weak, widows etc., Religious Policy, Generally Sher Shah tried to keep religion, anspolitics separate and did not follow, anysystematic policy of prosecution as was done, bythe rulers of Delhi before him. On the whole, hispolicy towards the Hindus was very, tollerant.Sher Shah persued a liberal policy towards, theHindus without offending his Muslim subjects., Sher Shah believed that Islam should be, givenits due position of supremacy but this should, notbe done at the cost of regarding Hinduism., Inthose days, this attitude and policy was, moreuseful and appropriate, according to which, he(Sher Shah) could openly favour the, Hinduswithout displeasing the Muslim as well., , Public Works, The building of a fresh net work of the, roadsans serais all over the empire galvanished, tradeand tradesmen into action. Of his four, greatroads: (I) One ran from sonargaon in, Bengalthrough Agra, Delhi and Lahore to the Indus, ;(ii) from Agra to Mandu; (iii) from Lahore, toMultan. Primarily planned for military, purposes,they proved equally effective for the, growth oftrade ans commerce. Along both sides of, theseroads, Sher Shah ordered the planting of, fruittrees and the sinking of fresh wells., Another important feature of the, publicworks comprised the building of the, Serais,which higherto were neither so well planned, norwell spread. The Serais were fully furnished,, withwell equipped kitchens and cooks for both, theHindus and the Muslims. Sher Shah also, repairedabout 1,700 Caravan Serais for the, efficiency of the royal posts. Soon, the Serais, functioned aspost offices and marketing centres, and Sher Shahposted news-readers in the various, Serais to keepabreast of the local gossip., CAUSES OF THE DOWNFALL OF SUR EMPIRE, The Sur empire founded by Sher Shah, felldue to many causes. First, his successors were, thoroughly incompetent and unfit to carry onhis, work of reconstruction. Islam Shah wasresponsible, for the destruction of many of thosenobles who had, a lot under Sher Shah.Muhammad Adil was worse, than hispredecessor. He added to the, discontentmentprevailing among the Afghan chiefs., The rise ofHemu made them jealous., Secondly, in the time of Muhammad, Adil,there were five Afghan rulers struggling, forpower. There was no national solidarity, amongthe Afghans. They were quarreling, amongthemselves. This spelled their ruin., Thirdly, Sher Shah worked with the ideal, ofbringing about regeneration among the, Afghansand did all that he could to bring them on, acommon platform. There was no such, feelingamong the Afghans chiefs or his successors., Theyall struggled for personal gain., Fourthly,, the, character, of, the, Afghandeteriorated. They lost all sense of selfrespect.They did not honour their sword. They did, notattach importance to the sanctity of their, word.Such a character can not create or, maintainempire., Fifthly, the successors of Sher Shah, ignoredthe lot of the peasantry. Nothing was done, toprotect them. The nobles became tyrants, andcrushed the people., Sixthly, the example of Sher Shah, wasforgotten. The forts which he built in, variousparts of the country for purposes of, 70|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), spreadto other districts. Aurangzeb, furious,, wasdetermined to ruthlessly suppress the, rebellion.Gokul and his limbs were publicly, displayed. The Jats, however, remained defiant and, in 1686 A.D.once again rose in revolt, under, Rajaram. He too,was slain but his nephew,, Churaman, continued the Jat resistance till, Aurangzeb's death., Revolt of the Satnamis, They, were, a, peasant, religious, brotherboodwho resided in Narnol. Its other, members belonged to the low professions. Firmly, unitedand militant, they never hesitated to use, arms toaid the harassed members. Thus when a, Satnamicultivator was killed by a Muslim soldier,, thewhole tribe arose to seek to seek revenge, andbroke into rebellion. When, of the Mughal, efforts,they could not be quelled, the Mughals, resortedto ruthless warfare. Over a thousand, Satnamiswere slain before peace was secured in, theregion. The Jats and the Satnamis revolts, onlyconvinced Aurangzeb of the disloyalty of, theHindus, to, the, Mughals, state, who, thereforeneeded to be ruthlessly suppressed., Moreover, italso convinced him that only the, emergence ofan Islamic state would reduce the, Hindus to theirproper place in State., The Revolt of the Sikhs, The Sikh organisation was founded by, GuruNanak, a devout social reformer, as a, peacefuluniversal brotherhood which was free, from theshackles of caste and community. Under, the nextthree Gurus too, the community, remainedpeaceful and enjoyed amicable relation, withAkbar who granted Guru Ram Das a piece, ofland which became renowned as Amritsar., Thefifth Guru, Arjan Singh, proved a more, dynamicand zealous organiser. He wielded, thecommunity into one compact whole. He also, thefirst Guru who actively participated in, politics.Consequently, the Mughal-Sikh conflict can, betraced to Jahangir's reign. He ordered, ArjanSingh's execution. This was done on, purelygrounds for sheltering the fugitive Khusrav, andin no way was it accompanied by the, religiouspersecution of the Sikhs. Nevertheless, the, actdeeply embittered the Sikhs against the, Mughals.Under their next leader, Har Gobind,, thecharacter of the Sikh movement, for the, firsttime, became more militant, while its, democraticsocial set up attracted the Jat peasantry, in largenumbers. Henceforth, any harshness, towardsthe peasantry was regarded as an, oppression bythe Mughal state towards the Sikhs., The militarycharacter was further developed under, GuruTeg Bahadur who in order to strengthen the, , Sikhinterests encouraged the creation of a state, withinthe state., In the earlier years of Aurangzeb's, reign,there was no conflict between Teg Bahadur, andAurangzeb., However, once, the, Guru, publiclycondemned, Aurangzeb's, anti-Hindu, measuresas is clearly evident from the support that, herendered to the Hindu population of, Kashmir,Aurangzeb became suspicious of the, Guru'smotives., Their, relation, rapidly, deteriorated, andultimately resulted in the gruesome murder, ofTeg Bahadur in 1675 A.D. According to, thelegendary sources, when his head was struck, off,a paper was found containing the words Sir, diasar na dia (he gave his head but not his, secret).While Guru Teg Bahadur's persecution was, notaccompanied by the annihilation of the, sons;(Ram Rai continued to live at the Mughal, courtand, his, sons, were, granted, mansabs).Nevertheless, his execution did horrify, thecountry. The last Guru, Gobind Singh,, wasdetermined, to, militarily, strengthen, hiscommunity. To unite them, he formed, thebrotherhood of Khalsa which free of caste, andcreed, advocated equality of mankind. To, thisend, he initiated the practice of drinking, water,conservated by a sword or dagger, (Amritchakna). To distinguish the member from, othercommunities, they were asked to wear, fivethings-Kanghi, (comb),, Kachha, (underwear),Kara (iron bangle), Kesh and Kirpan, (sword).Henceforth, the Guru lived like a regal, monarch,holding court, building forts with the help, of hisfollowers who were as zealously dedicated, tothe cause of Skihism as the soldiers of Islam., Theirexpansionist activities inevitably led ta a, clashof arms with the Mughals. The Sikhs, weredefeated, his two sons were executed while, theGuru, ultimately, escaped, and, settled, atAnandpur. Aurangzeb, himself, fastapproaching, his end, felt remorsed. With nocause for further, altercation, he promised theGuru an honourable, reception. While the Guru,en route, received news, of the Emperor's demise., Guru Govind Singh himself was murderedby, an Afghan in 1708 A.D. The news of his murder, once again created an explosiveatmosphere in, Punjab, a land which was hithertoclam. It also, accentuated the anit-Muslimsentiments in the, country and affected thepeasants loyalty towards, the Mughal empire.Guru Gobind's aspirations of, founding a Sikhstate were completed by Banda,, who the Guruhad nominated as his military, successor., , 74|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), practice and in the midst ofdeliberations on very, sober and toughtprovocating aspects of divinity,, displayed spiritof intolerance towards each other., The rivalgroup of theologians drew their swords to, settlethe religious issues at stake. Akbar was, shockedto witness the irresponsible behaviour of, thoseself conceited greedy and intolerant, Mullahs.Indisgust he threw open the gates of the, IbadatKaham to the priest and scholars of, otherreligious, faith, including, Hinduism,, Jainism,Zorastrianism and Christianity., As a result of the religious discourses held, atthe Ibadat Khance. Akbar belief in the, orthodoxSunni Islam was shaken. In 1579 a, proclamationcalled the Mahzar, was issued. It, recognized, Akbar in his capacity as the just monarch andamir, ul momnin to be the Imam-i-Adil viz.Thesupreme, interpreter or arbitrator of the Islamiclaw in all, controversial issues pertaining toecclesiastical or, civil matters., After the issue of Mahzar, religious, discoursecontinued to be held at the Ibadat, Khana.Akbarmixed freely with Muslim dovines, Sufi, saintsHindu, mystics, and sanyasis and Jain, scholars.As a result of this Akbar came to the, conclusionthat if some tree knowledge was, thuseverywhere to be found, why should truth, beconfined to one religious or creed like, IslamAkbar gradually turned away from Islam, andset up a new religion which was compoundedby, many existing religions - Hinduism,Christianity,, Zorastrianism etc. Howevermodern historians are, not inclined to accept thisview. The word used by, Ahul Fazl for the socalled new path was Tauhid-iIlahi whichliterally means Divine Monotheism. The, worddin or Faith was not applied to it till 8 years, later.The Tauhid-i-Ilahi was really on order of, thesufistic type. Those who were willing to join, andthose, whom, the, emperor, approved, wereallowed to become members. Sunday was, fixedas the day for initialism., Din Ilahi was not a new religion Akbar's, realobjects was to unite the people of his empire, intoan integrate national community by providinga, common religious cum spiritual platform or the, meeting ground.Din Ilahi was asocioreligious, association of like-mindedintellectuals and saints., Akbar becomes thespiritual guide of the nation.The, members of theDin Ilahi abstained form meat as far, as possible and do not dine with or use the utensils, of thebutchers, fishermen, did not marry old, womenor minor girls. The members were to greet, eachother with the words Allah-u- Akbar or God, isgreat. The number of persons who actuallyjoined, the order was small, many of themconsisting of, personal favourites of Akbar. Thusthe order was, not expected to play an importantpolitical role. The, , Din Ilahi virtually dies withhim. Principles of, Tawahid-i-Ilahi or Din-i-Ilahiaimed at achieving a, synthesis of all religions, Akbar's Din-i-llahi's major, principles include:, (i) God is great (Allah-o-Akbar), (ii) Initiations would be performed onSunday., (iii) The novice would place his head at, theemperor's feat. The emperor would raisehim up, and give him the formula(Shast)., (iv) The initiates would abstain from meatas far as, possible and give a sumptuous feast and alms on, their birthday., (v) There would be no sacred scriptures,place of, worship or rituals (exceptinitiation)., (vi) Every adherent should take oath ofdoing well, to everybody., (vii) Followers should show respect to allreligions., Akbar's efforts at social reform are, alsonoteworthy. He raised the age of marriage., Heeven tried to makl education broad-based, andsecular. Jahangir and Shah Jahan pursued, thesame toleran policy though at times there, wereaberrations. Aurangzeb was a staunch, Sunnibut he was intolerant of other faith. He, reversedthe policy of Akbar, and this partly led to, thedecline of Mughal power after his death., RELIGIOUS THOUGHT ABUL FAZL, Orthodox Religious Thought, Akbar's religious experiments had no, impacton the Muslim masses among who he made, noattempt to propagate the Tauhit-i-Ilahi. AMulslim, revivalist movement began in the closingyears of, his reign under the leadership of theNaqshbani, Sufis. They supported jahangir'saccession to the, throne, The Sunni orthodoxysponsored by them, was patronised by Shahjaha. it was also an, important factor inAurangzeb's victory over Dara, who weakenedhimself politically by his efforts to, revive Akbar'seclecticism. Aurangzeb's accession, heralded thefinal triumph of Sunni orthodoxy., Among the Shias there was a general, beliefthat the Hidden Imam, al-Mahdi, would, reappear, restore the purity of Islam, and, reestablidh, justic,, peace, and prosperity., Thisexpectation of the establishment of the, kingdomof God on earth was shared by the Sunnis, despitetheir differences with the Shias about, thesuccession to the Imamate (Caliphate)., From time to time bold impostors arose, andlaid claim to Mahdiship. This is known as, themahdavi, movement., One, such, pretender,Ruknuddin of Delhi, was put to death by, FiruzShah Tughluq. Nearly a century later, SayyidMuhammad of Jaunpur claimed to be the, Mahdi,incurred the displeasure of Sultan, MahmudShah I of Gujarat, and was banished to, 79|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), ECONOMY, Khudkashta : Those peasants living in, theirown villages, owning their own lands, andimplements., Two, obligations, to, the, statepaymentof revenue regularly and cultivation, ofhis land. Some of them rented out their, sparelands and implements to the other, twocategories. They were called mirasdars in, Maharashtra and gharuhala or gaveti inRajasthan., Their economic and social superiorityover the, other two categories of peasants.Economic, superiority since they paid only thecustomary, revenue to the state and not any othertax as was, paid by the other two categories.Social superiority, due to their land ownershiprights, and being the, core of the villagecommunity., Pahis : Those who were basically, outsidersbut cultivated the rented lands in a village, eitherwhile staying in the neighbouring village or, bystaying in the same village. Their division, intotwo groups: non-residential pahis and, residentialpahis. The former came from the, neighbouringvillages and cultivated the rented, lands withoutconstructing residences in that, village. The lattercame from the far-off vllages and, cultivated therented lands by constructing the, residences inthe village. The residential pahis could, transformthemselves into khudkashta, if they had, theirown implements, possession of implements, beingmore important than that of lands, which, were, in abundance. They were known as uparis, inMaharashtra., Muzariyams : Those who belonged to, thesame village, but who did not have either, landsor implements and hence wee heavily, dependenton the khudkashta for their supply., Theirdivision two groups; tenants-at-will and, thosewho had hereditary tenant rights. They, formedthe poorest section of the peasantry and can, becompared with the share croppers of the, laterperiod., CONDITION OF ZAMINDARS, Autonomous Zamindars : They were, thehereditary, rulers, of, their, respective, territories.Economically and militarily they formed, aformidable class. They could be divided intothree, groups on the basis of the overlordship ofthe, Mughals over them- those who joinedMughal, imperial over them- those who joinedMughal, imperial service and were granted mansabs and, jagirs; those who did not joinMughal service and, hence were not givenmansabs and jagirs, but had, the obligations ofrendering military service to the, Mughals whencalled upon to do so; and those who, neverrendered military service but paid tributes, , andpersonal homage to the Mughals. The, Mughalsnormally did not interfere in the internal, affairsof these autonomous zamindars., Intermediary Zamindars : Those who, hadownership rights over his personal lands but, hadonly zamindari rights, i.e., hereditary right, tocollect revenue from the peasants for the, state,over a wider area. For this service to the, state,they were entitled for a portion of the, surplusproduce. They formed the back-bone of, Mughalrevenue administration., Primary Zamindars : Those who, hadownership rights over his personal lands, andzamindari rights over his zamindari, butdid, notperform, the, hereditary, function, of, collectingrevenue for the state. He got only his, malikanaor customary share of the surplus, produce, butnot the nankar or additional share of, the surplusproduce, which he could have got if he, hadperformed his hereditary function., Thus, the rights of the zamindars coexistedwith those of the state and the actual, producer.The economic condition of the zamindars, as aclass was much better than that of the, peasantry.Bigger zamindars led as ostentatious a, life as thenobles, but the smaller zamindars lived, more orless like the peasantry., STATE OF AGRICULTURE, Main Crops : Foreign travellers' accounts, aswell as the Ain-i-Akbari show that cereals,millets,, oil-seeds, sugarcane, cotton, hemp,indigo, poppies, and betel were grownextensively. Ajmer sugarcane, was perhaps thebest in quality in the 16th century., Europeandemand resulted in a tremendous, increase inindigo production in India, centered in, Sarkhij(Gujarat) and Bayana (near Agra)., Tobacco,which was brought to the Mughal court, fromBijapur during Akbar's reign and the, smokingof which was prohibited by Jahangir,, became, avery, valuable, crop, and, was, extensivelycultivated. Chilli as well as potato, wereintroduced in India by the Portuguese,, whileBabur brought many Central Asian fruits, withhim., Irrigation : During Akbar's reign,, FirozShah's Yamuna canal was repaired for the, firsttime. Under Shah Jahan it was reopened fromits, mouth at Khizrabad to serve Delhi and cameto be, known as the Nahr-i-Bihisht (Channel ofHeaven). It, was also used for irrigation., Slow Growth : Agriculture was carried onin, the same way as in the ancient times, therebeing, little change in the methods of cultivationand, agricultural implements. Despite theexpansion in, the area under cultivation, thegrowth in, agricultural production was quiteslow, i.e., it was, 81|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), not able to keep in pace withthe growth in the, needs of the people as wellthe state., Causes : This slow growth or near, stagnationin, agricultural, production, (in, comparison, withthe, rapidly, increasing, requirements of the time)was due to certain, factors- lack of new methodsof cultivation to, counter the trend of decliningproductivity of the, soil; increased amount of landrevenue; the, attempts of the zamindars and theupper caste and, rich peasants to prevent thelower castes and the, rural poor from settling newvillages and thus, acquiring proprietary rights inland; the jajmani, system, a reciprocal system thatexisted in rural, India, encouraged productionmainly meant for local, consumption and not forthe market., GROWTH IN TRADE, Urbanisation : The Mughals, forming, themain part of the ruling class and being, outsiders,found it convenient to settle down in, towns andcities, rather than in villages where they, wouldbe treated as aliens. Unlike the British of the, laterperiod, they made India their home and, spentall their income in India itself particularly in, thetowns and cities, by encouraging handicrafts,, artand architecture, literature, and the like., Traders and Merchants : Economically, andprofessionally, this was a highly stratified, class.Economically, they could be divided into, bigbusiness magnates owning hundreds of, ships,rich merchants and traders of towns, and, pettyshopkeepers., Professional, specialisation, wasprevalent in the form of wholesale traders,, retailtraders, banjaras or those specialised in, thecarrying trade, shroffs or those specialised, inbanking, etc. The shroffs developed theinstitution, of hundis or bills of exchange. Big andrich, merchants lived in an ostentatious manner and, aped the manners of the nobles. But, smallmerchants lived a simple life., Though, European, novelties, were, verypopular with the Mughal aristocracy, the, samecannot, be, said, about, their, mechanicalinventions. But what is interesting is the, requestmade by Bhimji Parikh, a broker of the, EnglishEast India Company, for a printing press, possiblyto print his bills. Though a printer, wasaccordingly sent in 1671, the experiment was, nota success and no further information on, Parikh'spioneering efforts at printing in India, areavailable., Others : The class of officials ranged, frombig mansabdars to ordinary soldiers and, clerks.Other urban groups or classes included those, ofthe, artisans,, handicraftsmen,, teachers, anddoctors., , Causes for Growth of Trade, • Political and economic unification of, thecountry under Mughal rule and, theestablishment of law and order, overextensive area., • Improvement, of, transport, andcommunications by the Mughals., • Encouragement given by the Mughals tothe, monetisation of the economy or thegrowth, of money economy., • Arrival of the European traders from, thebeginning of the 17th century, onwardsand the growth of European trade., Items of Trade and Commerce, Exports : Textiles, especially various kinds, ofcotton fabrics, indigo, raw silk, salt petre,, pepper,opium and various kinds of drugs, andmiscellaneous goods., Imports : Bullion, horses, metals,, perfumes,drugs, China goods especially porcelain, and silk,African slaves and European wines., COINS OF SURS AND MUGHALS, Sur Coinage : Sher Shah was ruler of, greatconstructive and administrative ability, and, thereform of the coinage, though completed, byAkbar, was in a great measure due to his, genius.His innovations lay chiefly in two directions, :first, the introduction of a new standard of, 178grains for silver, and one of about 330 grains, forcopper, with its half, quarter, eighth, andsixteenth parts. These two new coins, weresubsequently known as the rupee and the, dam.The second innovation saw a large increase, inthe number of the mints: at least twenty, threemint names appear on the Sur coins., Genuinegold coins of the Sur kings are exceedingly, rare.The rupees are fin broad pieces; the, obversefollows the style of Humayun's silver; the, reversebears the Sultan's name in Hindi, often, veryfaulty. In the margin are inscribed the, specialtitles of the Sultan, and sometimes the mint., Ona large number of both silver and copper coinsno, mint name occurs., Mughal Coinage, The importance attached to the currency, bythe Mughal emperors is revealed in the, accountsgiven by Akbar's minister, Abul Fazl, in the, Aini-Akbari, and by Jahangir in his memoirs,, theTuzuk-i-Jahangiri, and by the number, ofreferences to the subject by historians, throughoutthe whole period. From these and from, a studyof the coins themselves scholars have, collected amass of materials, from which it is now, possibleto give a fairly comprehensive account of, theMughal coinage., 82|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), Abul Fazl and Jahangir mention a, largenumber of gold and silver coins, varying, from2,000 tolahs to a few grains in weight., Giganticpieces are also mentioned by Manucci,, Hawkinsand others; and Manucci says that Shah, Jahan'gave them as presents to the ladies'. They, werealso at times presented to ambassadors,, andappear to have been merely used as a, convenientform in which to store treasure., Types of Coins : The standard gold coin, ofthe Mughals was the muhar, of about 170 to, 175grains, the equivalent of nine rupees in Abul, Fazl's time. Half and quarter muhars are knownto, have been issued by several emperors, and avery, few smaller pieces, also., The, rupee,, adopted, from, Sher, Shah'scurrency, is the most famous of all Mughal, coins.The name occurs only once, on a rupee of, Agraminted in Akbar's forty-seventh regnal, year.Halves, quarters, eighths and sixteenths, werealso struck. In Surat the half rupee appears, tohave been in special demand., In addition to the regular gold and, silvercurrency, special small pieces were, occasionallystruck for largess; the commonest of, these is thenisar, struck in silver by Jahangir, Shah, Jahan and Aurangzeb. Jahangir also issued, similarpieces, which he called nur afshan and, khairqabul., The Mughal copper coinage is based on, SherShah's dam which with its half, quarter, andeighth, continued to be struck until the fifth, yearof Aurangzeb. The name dam occurs only, onceon a half dam of Akbar. The usual term, employedis fulus (copper money) or sikkah fulus, (stampedcopper money). The name nisfi (half, dam),damra (quarter dam), damri (one eighth of, adam) also appear on Akbar's copper., Main features : Perhaps the most, distinctivefeature of the Mughal coinage is the, diversity ofmints. Akbar's known mints number, seventy six.Copper was struck in fifty nine of these,, thelargest number recorded for any emperor,, whilesilver is known from thirty nine., Aurangzeb'sconquests in the Deccan raised the, silver mintsto seventy, whereas copper mints sank, to twentyfour., Such was the coinage of the Great, Mughals.Considering it as the output of a single, dynasty,which maintained the high standard and, purityof its gold and silver for three hundred, years,considering also its variety, the number of, itsmints, the artistic merit of some of its series,, theinfluence it exerted on contemporary, andsubsequent coinages, and the importance of, itsstandard coin-the rupee- in the commerce, , oftoday, the Mughal currency surely deserves, torank as one of the great coinages of the world., MUGHAL ART, The Mughal emperors were great, buildersand they constructed many noble edifices, andmonuments., The, Indo-Muslim, style, ofarchitecture gained remarkable progress., Babarhimself was a patron of art, even though he, hada poor opinion of Indian artists and, craftsmen.Agra was rebuilt and beautified and, gardenswere laid out. Humayun had little time to, engagehimself in artistic activities; but a mosque of, hisis still seen in Punjab decorated in Persian, style.In, the, reign, of, Akbar,, Mughal, architecturereached a high level of perfection.The, emperortook keen interest in buildings. In the, words ofAbul Fazl, "He planned splendid edifices, anddressed the works of his mind and heart, ingarments of stone and clay". He favoured boththe, Hindu and Persian styles of architecture.Atthe same, time; he borrowed artistic ideas from avariety of, sources and applied them in theconstruction of his, edifices and monuments. Itmay also be noted that,, unlike Shah Jahan whohad an attraction for white, marble for theconstruction of his buildings, Akbar, preferredred sandstone., The tomb of Humayun at Delhi is one of, theearliest of Akbar's buildings. It was designed, afterTimur's tomb at Samarkhand and represented, astriking, departure, from, the, traditional, Indianstyle. It was surrounded by a large, geometricalgarden and enclosed by a high wall.The, Red Fortat Agra which contained as many as, 500buildings, of, red, sandstone, was, anotheroutstanding achievement of Akbar in the, fieldof architecture. The Jahangiri Mahal and, AkbariMahal located within the Agra Fort, weredesigned and built by Indian craftsmen, whowere experts in the construction of, Hindutemples and Buddhist Viharas., The greatest achievement of Akbar as, abuilder was the city of Fatehpur Sikri. Sr. Smithhas, observed that "nothing like Fatehpur Sikriever was, created or can be created again".Hecalls it a, "romance in stone", while Fergussonfinds in it "the, reflex of the mind of a greatman".The city of, Fatehpur Sikri is a cluster ofreligious edifices and, residential, mansions, builtmainly, of, red, sandstone.The Jam-i-Masjid builtafter the model of, the mosque at Mecca isconsidered to be the glory of, Fatehpur Sikri andis one of the largest mosques in, India.The BulandDarwaza which is 176 ft. high is a, landmark ofthe city. It is the highest gateway in, India andone of the biggest of its kind in the world., Thetomb of the Sufi saint Shaik Salim, Chishtispecially built of white marble is another, starattraction at Fatehpur Sikri.It contains, 83|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), carvingsnoted for "the richness and delicacy, ofdetails".The house of Birbal, a doublestoreyedbuilding which has been lavishly, decorated,combines within itself the best features, of theHindu and Muslim style of architecture., TheDiwan-i-Khas, which, accommodated, Akbar'shousehold has an architectural beauty of its, own.Its, ornamental work, is, exceedingly, delicate.TheDiwan-i-Am is also a richly carved, edifice.Akbarused to sit in its balcony whenever he, held hisDurbar.In addition to the buildings, mentionedabove, there are other important, buildings alsoat Fatehpur Sikri, viz., the, Panch, Mahal, thehouse of Mariam, Turkey Sultan's, building, HathiPole (the Elephant Gate), Hiran, Minar, etc., Jahangir who was more interested in fine, artsand gardening did not take much interest, inbuildings.Still his, reign, is, noted, for, tworemarkable edifices, viz., Akbar's tomb, atSikandra and the tomb of Itimad-ud-daulah,, thefather of Nurjahan, at Agra.The former, buildingshows a combination of Hindu and, Muslimstyles while the latter is the first full edifice, builtentirely of white marble in the Mughal period., The reign of Shah Jahan was the Golden, Ageof Mughal architecture. It may be noted at, theoutset that his architecture is different from, thatof Akbar in some of its features. He, preferredwhite marble to red sandstone which, wasfavoured by Akbar.Percy Brown even calls, ShahJahan's reign "a reign of marble". His, buildingshave some of the finest inlay work in the, world.The carvings are richer and more, delicate.Though both Hindu and Muslim styles, continuedto influence the artist there is much less, evidenceof mixture of the two styles in the, architecturalworks of Shah Jahan than in those of, Akbar orJahangir. One of the earliest architectural, worksof Shah Jahan was the Red Fort which he, builtin the new city of Shajahanabad near, Delhi.Itwas modeled after the Agra Fort and, contained50 palaces, the most notable among them, beingthe Moti Mahal, Sheesh Mahal and Rang, Mahal.The Juma Masjid at Delhi and the Moti, Masjidat Agra are massive structure noted for, thearchitectural grandeur. The former was built, byShah Jahan for the ceremonial attendance, ofhimself and the members of his court., The Moti Masjid was built by the emperor, inhonour of his daughter Jahanara and is one ofthe, most beautiful mosques in the world.ShahJahan, also built at Lahore certain buildings likethe tombs, of Jahangir, Nur Jahan, and AliMardan Khan and, they are also typical examplesof Mughal, architecture., The most outstanding of Shah Jahan's, edificesis the world famous Taj Mahal built by him, , atAgra as a mausoleum for his wife, MumtazMahal.Built of pure white marble it has, wonpraise from all quarters.It has been, variouslydescribed by art critics as a "dream in, marbledesigned by Titans and finished by, jewelers", "awhite gleaming tear drop on the brow, of time"and "India's noblest tribute to the grace of, Indianwomanhood". The Taj is supposed to have, beenbuilt at enormous cost spread over a period, of22 years. A unique feature of the building is, thatits colour changes in the course of the day, andin moonlight. An admirer of the Taj even said, ofit that "it is Mumtaz Mahal herself, radiant inher, youthful beauty, who lingers on the banksof the, Jamuna in the early morn, in the glowingmid-day, sun or in the silver moonlight".The Tajhas survived, to this day as the king of allbuildings in India and, the most splendidmonument of conjugal love and, fidelity in theworld., With the accession of Aurangzeb the, Mughalstyle of architecture declined. The emperor,, beingeconomy-minded, built only very little. The, bestof his buildings was the Badshahi mosque, atLahore which was completed in 1764. Thoughnot, of much architectural value, it is noted forits great, size and sound construction. Aurengzebalso built a, mosque with lofty minarets on thesite of the, Viswanatha temple at Benares andanother one at, Mathura at the site of the KesavaDeva temple.His, own tomb which he built atAurangabad is also a, notable specimen ofMughal architecture., Painting had made tremendous progress, inIndia prior to the coming of the Turks in Indiaand, as Hinduism and Buddhism spread overapart of, Asia, it penetrated in other countriesthrough them, and influenced the art of paintingthere., But during the period of the Delhi, Sultanateit practically vanished in larger parts of, Indiabecause the Turk and Afghan rulers, prohibitedit in deference to the direction of Koran., But, theMughal emperors revived this art and once, againit reached the stage of perfection., The Mughal school of painting represents, oneof the most significant phases of Indian art., Infact, the school developed as a result of, happyblending of Persian and Indian painting both, ofwhich, had, made, remarkable, progressindependently of each other., Babur and Humayun came in contact, withPersian art and tried to introduce it, inIndia.Babur and Humayun did not accept, theprohibition of Islam concerning the art, ofpainting. When Humayun got shelter in Persia,he, came in contact with two disciples of thefamous, Persian painter Bihzed namely AbdulSamad and, Mir Sayyid. He invited them to cometo him. Both of, them joined him when hereached Kabul and came, to India along withhim. Humayun and Akbar took, 84|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), lessons inpainting from Abdul Samed. But, it was, just thebeginning., When Akbar became the emperor,, heencouraged painters at his court and helped in, the growth of this art. He established, separatedepartment of painting under Abdul, Samad andordered to prepare painting not only on, thebooks which was the usual practice so far, butalso to prepare frescoes on palace-wall, inFatehpur Sikri. He invited renowned painter, fromChina and Persia, employed the best talents, ofthe country at his court, assigned them, workaccording to their individual taste and, aptitudeand provided them all facilities to make use, oftheir capabilities. These facilities provided, byAkbar helped hundred of artists to grow, andmature their art, resulted in the reparation, ofthousands for painting and in the formation, ofthat school of painting which we now call, theMughal school of painting. There were, atleastone hundred good painters at his court, amongwhom, seventeen, were, prominently, recognisedby the emperor. Many of them were, Persian but,a number of them were Hindus. Abdul, Samad,Farrukh, Beg,, Jamshed,, Daswant,, Basawan,Sanwalds, Tarachand, Jagannath, Lal, Mukand,Harivansh etc. were among the most, prominentpainters at his court. Thus, the credit of, origin ofthe mughal school of painting goes to, Akbar. Healso the way of its growth., Jahangir was not only interested in, paintingbut was also its keen judge. Mughal, painting marked the zenith of its rise during the, perod ofhis rule. Jahangir established a gallery of, paintingin hos own garden. Surely, there must have, beenother galleries as well in other palaces., The cause of the progress of painting, duringthe reign of Jahangir was not only this that, hewas interested in it and patronized artists at, hiscourt because he himself possessed knowledgeof, that art. he wrote in his biography, Tuzuk-iJahangire : As regards myself, my liking forpainting, and my practice in judging it havearrived at such a, point that when any work isbrought before me,, either of deceased artist orof those of the present, day, without the namesbeing told to me, I can say at, spur there be apicture containng many portraits, and each facebe the work of a different master, I, can discoverwhich face is the work of each of them., If anypeson has put in the eye and eyebrow of a, face,I can perceive whose work is the original, faceand who has painted the eye and eyebrows., We may regard this statement of Jahangir, asan exaggeration, yet we have to accept that, theemperor was not only interested in painting, butalso a good judge of the art. Jahangir, attractedmany artists at his court. He also got, , completedthe works taken up by the artists during, the lifetimeof his father., He rewarded the artists well. Abul, Hasanwas given the title of Nadir-u-Zaman while, Mansur was titled Nadir-u-Asar. Besides, fromhis, prominent court artists were Aga Raza,Muhammad, Nadir, Muhammad Murad, BishanDas, Manohar,, Madhav, Tulsi and Govardhan., Shah, Jahan, was, more, interested, inarchitecture, than, painting., Yet,, he, providedpatronage to painting. The art of, colourcombinationand portrait suffered but the art, ofdesigning and pencil drawing developed, duringthe period of his rule. But, the number of, paintersreduced at his court and therefore the, artcertainly declined during his rule. Among, therenowned painters at his court were Fakir, Ullah,Mir Hasim, Anup, Chittra, etc., Aurangzeb, withdrew, the, royal, patronagewhich was given to the artists. He turned, themout of his court and even destroyed, certainpaintings because the practice of this of this, artwas prohibited by Islam. The art of painting,, thussuffered at the court of this mughal. But, itbrought out some advantages indirectly., Thepainters dismissed from the emperor's, courtfound shelter in the courts of different, Hinduand Muslim provincial rulers. It resulted in, thegrowth of different regional schools of art, andbrought this art closer to the people., Among the Later Mughal emperors, a, fewtried to encourage painting but they, lackedsufficient resources. Thus, the mughal school, ofpainting received a serious setback after the, ruleof, Shah, Jahan, and, continued, to, deteriorateafterwards. During the later part of, theeighteenth centruy it was influenced by, theEuropean painting which harmed it further, andit lost its originality., COURT CULTURE-MUSIC, DANCE, The Mughals appreciated music.Babur is, saidto have composed songs.Akbar was a lover, ofmusic., His, court, was, adorned, by, famousmusicians like Tansen of Gwalior and, BazBahadur of Malwa. Shah Jahan was fond ofvocal, and instrumental music. The two greatHindu, musicians of his time were Jagannath andJanardhan, Bhatta. But Aurangzeb who was apuritan dismissed, singing from his court.However, ironically, the, largest number of bookson classical music was, written in his reign., Development Of Music During The, MughalPeriod, All the Mughal rulers with the exception, ofAurangzeb, loved, and, encouraged, music.Numerous musicians, Hindu and Muslim,, 85|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), Some of the Vaishnava and Tantric, teachersrecognized, to some extent, the religious, andsocial rights of women as also of the Sudras., somenon-Brahmin, followers, of, Chaitanya, becomespiritual perceptors (gurus) not only of the, threelower castes but also of Brahmins., InMaharashtra Tukaram, a Sudra, and in, theBrahmins. villey Sankardev and Madhavdev,who, were Kayasthas, had Brahmin disciples., But the Brahmin authors of the, nibandhastried to maintain the integrity of the, ancientsocio- religious system (Varnasrama, dharma) byregulatin the life and conduct of all, classes ofHindus in the minutest details in, conformity with traditional caste rules. Some, writters of the Smritinibandhas had royal patrns, and their injuctioncarred political sanction. One of, them, KeshavaPandit, was judge under the Maratha, KingSambhaji., But, there, were, eminent, authors, likeRaghunandan and Ramnath of Bengal., Pitambarof Kamrup and Kamalakar Bhatta, ofMaharashtra whose authority was accepted bythe, Hindu society even though it was acceptedby the, Hindu society even though it was notbacked by, royal, patronage., their, influenceeffectively, counteracted the liberal trends. Theraised their, voice against the usurping of theprivileges of the, Brahmins by the lower castes., POSITION OF WOMEN, Purdah System: With the advent of, Islam,new forces appeared on the Indian horizon., strictveiling of women was the common, practiceamong the Muslim in their native land., Naturallyin a foreign country like India, greater, stress waslaid upon it. The Hindus adopted purdah, as aprotective measure. The tendency to imitate, theruling class was another factor which, operatedin favour of introducing purdah among, theHindu families. Seclusion thus became a sign, ofrespect and was strictly observed among thehighclass families of both communities. Barbosahas, referred to the strict observation of purdahby the, women of Bengal. Barring some notableMuslim, families, the south Indians did not adoptpurdah. In, the Vijayanagar Empire, purdah wasconfined only, to the members of the royalhousehold. No such, coercive purdah system wasobserved among the, Hindu middle class wasobserved among the Hindu, middle class andcertainly not among the Hindu, masses., Child Marriages: The custom, in those, days,did not allow girls to remain in their, parents'home for more than six to eight years after, birth.The rigidity of the custom together with, thecelebration of the marriage at a very early, ageleft no room whatsoever for either the bride, , orbridegroom to have time to think of a partner, oftheir own choice. Dowry was demanded whilein, some castes and localities the bride-price wasalso, known to be prevalent., Monogamy: Monogamy seems to have, beenthe rule among the lower stretum of society in, both communities during the medieval period.In, spite of the decision of ulema in the IbadatKhana in, Akbar's times, that a man might marryany number, of wives by mutah but only four bynikah, Akbar had, issued definite orders that aman of ordinary means, should not possess morethan one wife unless the, first proved to be barren.Polygamy was the, privilege of the rich., Position, of, Widows:, Divorce, andremarriage,, common, among, Muslims,, wereprohibited, for, Hindu, women., Widowremarriage,except amongst the lower, castepeople, had completely disappeared in, Hindusociety during the medieval age. The custom, ofsati was prevalent. Even betrothed girls had, tocommit sati was prevalent. Even betrothed, girlhad to commit sati on the funeral pyres of, theirwould-be-husbands. Those widows who, wouldnot burn themselves with their husbands, weretreated harshly by society., Custom of Sati: Some of the Delhi, Sultansdid try to discourage the custom of sati, whichprevailed among a large section of the, Hindupopulation, particularly the upper classes, andthe Rajputs. Though sati was only voluntary, inthe south and not enjoined upon widows, it, isdifficult to account for its wide popularity in, theVijayanagar Empire, whose rules do not seemto, have, put, up, any, restriction, on, its, observance.Muhammad Tughluq was, in all, probability, thefirst medieval ruler who place, restrictions on itsobservance. Thourgh Akbar did, not forbid thesati altogether, he had issued difinite, orders tothe kotwals that they should not allow a, womanto be burnt against her inclination., Aurangzebwas the only Mughal who issued definite, orders(1664) for bidding sati in his realm, altogether., Economic Position: Economically, a, Muslimwoman was entitled to a share in the, inheritance with absolute right to dispose it off., Unlike herHindu sister, she retained the right even, aftermarriage., Mehr,, or, entente, nuptial, settlement,was another safeguard for Muslim, womenwhereas a Hindu woman had no right to, theproperty of her husband's parents. A, Hinduwoman was only entitled to maintenance and, residence expenses besides movable property, likeornaments, jewellery, etc. Thus, form the, legalpoint of view, women were reduced to a, positionof dependency in every sphere of life,, Thewomen in the south under the Cholas (8th, 89|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), DECLINE AND DISINTEGRATIONOF MUGHAL, EMPIRE, Historians have held divergent views, aboutthe main causes for the downfall of the, Mughalempire. J.N. Sarkar blames the rottenness at, the core of Indian society to be the main cause ofthe, disintegration., English, Historian, Irwin, wasconvinced that military inefficiency was the, rootcause while another Historian Sydney, Owenbelieved that the fall of the Mughal empire, wasdue to the degeneracy of its sovereign., SatishChandra opines that the roots of, thedisintegration of the Mughal empire may, befound in the Medieval Indian economy. 7Themain, causes for the downfall of the Mughalempire are the, following., 1.The Mughal system of government beingdespotic, much depended on the personality of the emperor., Under a strong monarchall went well with the, administration butafter Aurangzeb all the Mughal, rulers wereweaklings and therefore unable to meet, thechallenges from within and without. Thusthese, imbecile emperors were unable tomaintain the, integrity of the empire., 2. In the later stages of the Mughal rule, thenobles, discarded hard life of militaryadventure and took to, luxuries living. Thenew nobility were at best, courtiers andrivaled one another in the subtle art, offlattery and finesse. Instead of 'Knights, ofromance'. The nobles had no spirit to fightand die, for the empire because the laterMughal emperors, ceased to be impartialjudges.The decay in the ranks, of the upperclasses deprived the state of the, servicesof energetic military leaders and, capableadministrators., 3. Towards the end of Aurangzeb's reign, theinfluential nobles of the court were dividedinto, several factions such as Persian,Turani and Indian, Muslims, whoorganized, themselves, into, pressuregroups. The Turani and the Persian, groupwere together known as 'the Foreignparty', were pitched against the IndianMuslim supported, by Hindus which wastermed as 'the Hindustani, party'. Eachgroup tried to win the emperor to its, viewpointsand poison his ears against theother, faction. These groups kept thecountry in a state of, perpetual politicalunrest, did not forge a united, front evenin the face of foreign danger, and, foughtbattles, upsetting the peace of the, countryand throwing administration to dogs., 4. The Mughal military system was defective.The, army was organized on the feudalbasis where the, common soldier owedallegiance to the mansabdar, rather thanthe emperor. During the last, Mughalperiod, when the emperors grew weak,this, defect assumed alarming proportions.Another, defect of the Mughal army ofeighteenth century was, their composition.The soldiers were usually drawn, , fromCentral Asia who came to India to, makefortunes,not, to, loose, them., These, soldierschanged sides without scruples and, wereconstantly plotting either to betray orsupplant, their employers. Irwine points aseries of fault such, as indiscipline, wantof cohesion, luxurious habits,, inactivity,bad, commissariat, and, cumbrousequipment among the degenerate, Mughalsexcept the personal courage they had. In, fighting capacity the Mughal army wasnothing, more than an armed rabble.Bernier compares them, to a herd ofanimals that fled at the first shock., TheMughal artillery proved ineffective againstthe, guerilla tactics of the Marathas., 5. The Mughal government was essentiallya police, government and failed to effect afusion between the, Hindus and Muslimsand create a composite nation., TheMughal, government, confined, its, attentionmainly to the maintenance of internal, andexternal affair and collection of revenue.The, effort made by Akbar to weld thepeople into a, nation was undone by thebigotry of Aurangzeb and, weaksuccessors., 6. The absence of the law of primogenitureamong, the Mughals usually meant a warof succession, which provided the countrywith the ablest son of, the dying emperoras the ruler. Under the later, Mughals asinister factor entered in the law, ofsuccession which was 'the survival of, theweakest'., The, princes, of, the, royal, dynastyreceded to the background while, strugglewas fought by leaders of rival factionsusing, royal princes as nominalleaders.Powerful and, influential noblesacted as 'king makers', making, andunmaking, emperors, to, suit, their, personalinterests. This system weakened the, bodypolitic and crippled it financially andmilitarily., 7. Under the later Mughals the financialcondition, worsened much more quicklyon one hand the, outlying provincesasserted their independence one, by oneand ceased the payment of revenue to, thecentre, while the numerous war ofsuccessions, and political convulsionscoupled with the lavish, living of theemperors emptied the royal treasury, onthe other hand. The crisis of the Jagirdarisystem, heightened in this period.Aurangzeb's long wars in, the Deccanbesides emptying the royal treasury, almostruined the trade and Industry of thecountry., These conditions accentuated inthe eighteenth, century., 8. The most powerful external factor thatbrought, about the downfall of the MughalEmpire was the, rising power of theMarathas under the Peshwas., The, Peshwas, inaugurated, the, policy, of, GreaterMaharashtra and popularized the idealof, 'Hindu-pad padshahi'. 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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), India,they played a major role in bringing aboutthe, decline of the Mughal Empire.., 9. The invasions of Nadir shah gave deathblowsto, the shattered Mughal Empire.He deprived the, Mughals of their wealthand exposed to the world, the militaryweakness of the empire and its utter, degeneration.The unsocial elements whichwere so, far afraid of the prestige of theempire rose in, rebellion and circumscribedthe very authority of, the empire., 10. The coming of the Europeans furtheradded, pace to the disintegration of theMughal Empire., They outfitted Indianprinces in every sphere, whether it waswar, diplomacy or trade and, commerce.The Mughals did not keep up pace, withthe race of civilization and blew away bya, dynamic and progressive west., 11. Although the expansion of the MughalEmpire, reached its zenith during the reignof Aurangzeb, the, disintegration, of, theempire, also, began, simultaneously due tohis policies. Firstly;, Aurangzeb sought torestore the Islamic character of, the state., His policy of religious bigotism provedcounter, productive and provokedAurangzeb general, discontent in thecountry. It resulted into the, rebellions ofMarathas, the Sikhs, the Bundelas and, theJats., The, imperialistic, designs, and, narrowreligious policy of Aurangzeb turned, theRajputs,, reliable, supporters, of, the, imperialdynasty, into enemies. The destruction, ofHindu temples and the reimposition of, 'Jizyah' led to the uprising of Santamisand others., Secondly, the policy ofAurangzeb inspired the, Sikhs (in Punjab)and Marathas (in Maharashtra) to, roseagainst the imperial empire, Maratharesistance, to Mughai rule assumedAurangzeb national, character and the whole people participated in the, strugglefor the defence of their religion, andliberties. They demoralized the MughalArmies, through guerrilla mode of warfareand broke their, spirit of superiority., Thirdly, the aggressive policy ofAurangzeb, towards the Shia Sultanatesof Bijapur and, Golkunda marked thebeginning of acute difficulties., Theconquest of these kingdoms removed, thestrongest local check on Maratha activitiesand, left them free to organize resistanceto the Mughal, imperialism. Lastly, theDeccan policy of continuous, warfare inthe Deccan which continued for, twentyseven years, drained the resources of, theempire.These undue wars put upAurangzeb, great financial drain on thetreasury. The cream of, brave andcourageous Mughal soldiers perished, inthe long drawn wars. The Deccan ulcerproved, fatal to the Mughal empire andpaved the way for, hasty disintegration ofthe Mughal empire., , THE RISE OF REGIONALPOLITIES AND STATES, The states that arose in India during, thephase, of, Mughal, decline, and, the, followingcentury (roughly 1700 to 1850) varied, greatly interms of resources, longevity, and, essentialcharacter. Some of them- such as, Hyderabad inthe south, was located in an area that, hadharboured regional state in the immediate preMughal period and thus had an older local, orregional tradition of state formation. Others, werestates that had a more original character, andderived from very specific processes that, hadtaken place in the course of the late, sixteenthand seventeenth centuries. In particular,, manyof the post- Mughal states were based on, ethnicor sectarian groupings- the Marathas, the, Jats,and the Sikhs. In due course, the enrichment, ofthe regions emboldened local land and, powerholdersto, take, up, arms, against, externalauthority. However, mutual rivalry and, conflictsprevented these rebels from consolidating, theirinterests into an effective challenge to, theempire. They relied on support from, kinsfolk,peasants, and smaller zamindars of their, owncastes. Each local group wanted to maximize, itsshare of the prosperity at the expense of, theothers., The, necessity of emphasizing, imperialsymbols was inherent in the kind of, powerpolitics that emerged. Each of the contenders, inthe regions, in proportion to his strength,, lookedfor and seized opportunities to establish, hisdominance, over, the, others, in, the, neighbourhood.They all needed a kind of, legitimacy, which wasso conveniently available in, the long-acceptedauthority of the Mughal emperor., They had nofear in collectively accepting the, symbolichegemony of the Mughal centre, which, hadcome to co-exist with their ambitions., The, gradual, weakening, of, the, centralauthority set in motion new types of, provincialkingdoms. Nobles with ability and, strengthsought to build a regional base for, themselves.The wazir Chin Qilich Khan himself,, showedthe path. Having failed to reform, theadministration, he relinquished his office in, 1723and in October 1724 marched south to, establishthe state of Hyderabad in the Deccan., TheMughal court's chief concern at this stage wasto, ensure the flow of the necessary revenue from the, provinces and the maintenance of at leastthe, semblance of imperial unity. Seizing uponthe, disintegration of the empire, the Marathasnow, began their northward expansion andoverran, Malwa, Gujarat, and Bundelkhand.Then, in 1738-39,, Nadir Shah, who hadestablished himself as the ruler, of Iran, invadedIndia., , 93|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), In 1756-1757, the successor of Ali, VardiKhan, Siraj- ud - Daulah had to fight the, EnglishEast India Company over the trading rights., Hisdefeat in the battle of Plassey in June 1757, pavedthe way for subjugation of Bengal as well, asIndia., THE NAWABS OF AWADH, With the weakening central control, theMughal, suba, of, Awadh, also, saw, emergingambitions of a provincial governorSaadat KhanBurhan ul Mulk. Saadat Khan, disciplined thelocal zamindars and gave shape to a, well paid,well armed and well trained army. Before, hisdeath in 1739, Saadat Khan made the, provincialhead a hereditary position. His, successors SafdarJung and Asaf ud Daulah not only, played verydecisive role in the politics of northern, India butalso gave a long term administrative, stability tothe nawabi of Awadh. Under the Nawabs, firstlyFaizabad and then Lucknow became the, culturalrival of Delhi in the spheres of arts,, literatureand crafts. Regional architecture reflected, itselfin the form of Imambarah and other, buildings.The evolution of dance form Kathak was, theoutcome of cultural synthesis., THE SIKHS OF PUNJAB, The Mughal force supressed the Sikhs, underBanda Bahadur. But this did not put an end, toSikh resistance to Mughal authority. In the, 1720sand 1730s, Amritsar emerged as a centre of, Sikhactivity, mainly because of its preeminence as, apilgrimage, centre., Kapur, Singh,, the, mostimportant of the Sikh leaders of the, time,operated from its vicinity. He gradually set, aboutconsolidating a revenue-cum military, system.Some, Sikh, groups, also, started, consolidatingthemselves as political force. These, activitiesdiscouraged the attempts by the, Mughalgovernors of Lahore Suba to set up, anindependent power base for themselves in, theregion. First Abdus Samad Khan and then hisson, Zakariya Khan attempted to controlsovereign, power. After the latter's demise in1745, the balance, shifted still further in favourof the Sikh warriorleaders, such as Jassa SinghAhluwalia. He later on, founded the, kingdom, ofKapurthala., The, mushrooming of pockets underthe authority of Sikh, leaders was thus a featureof the two decades, preceding Ahmed ShahAbdali's invasion of the, Punjab. This process wasevident in the eastern, Punjab and Bari Doab.Though the principal, opposition faced by Abdaliin his campaigns of the, 1750s and 1760s in thePunjab came from the Sikhs,, Marathas alsoplayed a role of significance on this, occasion.Eventually, by the mid- 1760s, Sikh, authorityover Lahore was established, and the, Afghanswere not able to consolidate their early, , gains.Under Ahmad Shah's successor, Timur, Shah(ruled 1772-93), some of the territories and, townsthat had been taken by the Sikhs (such as, Multan)were recovered, and the descendants of, AhmadShah continued to harbour ambitions in, thisdirection until the end of the century. But by, the1770s, they were dealing with a confederationof, about 60 Sikh chieftains, some of these wereto, emerge as princely states under the Britishsuchas, Nabha and Patiala., The Sikh chiefdoms continued many of, theadministrative, practices, initiated, by, theMughals. The main subordinates of the, chiefswere, given, jagir, assignments., The, Persianizedculture of the Mughal bureaucracy, continued tohold sway. It was one such chief, Ranjit, Singh,grandson of Charhat Singh Sukerchakia,, whoeventually welded these principalities for a, brieftime into a larger entity. Ranjit Singh's, effectiverule lasted four decades, from 1799 to, 1839. Thepower of the English East India Company, wasgrowing in all parts of the country during, thisperiod. Within ten years of his death, the, Britishhad annexed Punjab. His rise to power was, basedon superior military force, partly serviced, byEuropean, mercenaries, and, by, the, strategiclocation of the territories that he had, inheritedfrom, his, father., Ranjit, Singh's, kingdomrepresented the culmination of nearly a, centuryof Sikh rebellions against Mughal rule. It, wasbased on the intelligent application of, principlesof statecraft. He used as his capital the, greattrading city of Lahore, which he captured, in1799. Having gained control of the trade, routes,he imposed monopolies on the trade in, salt,grain, and textiles from Kashmir to enhance, hisrevenues. Using these earnings, he built up, anarmy of 40,000 cavalry and infantry. By the, year1809 he was undisputed master of the most, ofPunjab., JAIPUR AND OTHERRAJPUTANA STATES, Jaipur (earlier Amber) in eastern, Rajasthan,was a Rajput principality controlled by, theKachwaha clan. In the early eighteenth century,, the ruler Jai Singh Sawai took steps to increasehis, power manyfold. This was done by: (i)arranging to, have his jagir assignment in thevicinity of his home, territories and (ii) by takingon rights on land, revenue through farming (forcollection of land tax, rights on a parcel of landthat are rented by the state, to an individual),which was gradually made, permanent. By thetime of his death in 1743, Jai, Singh (after whomJaipur came to be named) had, emerged as thesingle most important ruler in the, region. Mostof the larger Rajput states were, constantlyinvolved in petty quarrels and civil wars., AjitSingh of Marwar was killed by his own son., 96|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), Arrival of Thomas Roe : Sir Thomas, cameto India as ambassador of James 1 to, Jahangir'scourt in 1615 and stayed there till the end, of 1618, during which period he obtained the, emperor'spermission to trade and erect factories, indifferent parts of the empire. He left India, forEngland in February, 1619., Establishment of Factories, West Coast : The English established, factoriesat Agra, Ahmadabad, Baroda and Broach, by1619, all of which were placed under the, controlof the President and council of the Surat, factory.The company acquired Bombay from, Charles IIon lease at an annual rental of ten pounds, in1668. Gerald Aungier was its first governor, from1669 to 1677. Surat was replaced by Bombay, asthe headquarters of the Company on the, westcoast in 1687., South-eastern, Coast, :, Factories, wasestablished, at, Masulipatam, (1611), andArmagaon near Pulicat (1626). In 1639, FrancisDay Armagaon near Pulicat (1626). In, 1639Francis Day obtained the site of Madras, fromthe Raja of Chandragiri with permission to, builda fortified factory, which was named Fort, St.George. Madras soon replaced Masulipatam asthe, headquarter of the English on thecoromandal coast,, and in 1658 all the Englishsettlement in eastern, India (Bengal, Bihar andOrissa) and the, Coronmandal were placedunder the control of the, president and councilof Fort St. George., Eastern India : Factories were set up, atHariharpur and Balasore in Orissa (1633), atHugli, in 1651, followed by those at Patna,, Dacca,Kasimbazar in Bengal and Bihar. In 1690, afactory was established at Sutanuti by, JobCharnock and the zamindari of the three, villagesof Sutanuti, Kalikata and Govindpur, wasacquired by the British (1698). These villages, latergrew into the city of Calcutta. The factory, atSutanuti was fortified in 1696 (the British, usedthe rebellion of Shobha Singh, a zamindar, ofBurdwan as an excuse to do this) and this, newfortified settlement was named 'Fort William', in1700. A council with a president for FortWillaim, was created (Sir Charles Eyre was thefirst, president) and all settlements in Bengal,Bihar and, Orissa were placed under it (1700)., Anglo-Mughal Relations, The relations between the Mughals and, theEnglish were marked by the desire to, dominateeach other. Initially, Hugli was sacked and, warwas, declared, on, the, Mughal, emperor,Aurangzeb, in 1686 by the English. The, Mughalsretaliated by the capture of all, Englishsettlements in Bengal (1687). The British, , beganhostile activities under Sir John Child on the, westcoast, seizing Mughal ships and harasing, hajpilgrims., The, Mughals, retaliated, by, capturingEnglish factories all over the empire, (1688-1689)., The British finally surrendered but werepardoned, by the emperor (1690) and weregranted a farman., The farman of 1691 granted by, Aurangzebexempted the Company from payment, ofcustoms duties in Bengal in return for an, annualpayment and a second one granted by, FarukhSiyar in 1717 confirmed the privileges of, 1691and extended them to Gujarat and the Deccan., Problems of The Company at Home, The Company had to face several, problemsat home. A rival company by a group, ofmerchants under Sir William Courten wasformed, in 1635 and was granted a licence totrade in the, East by Charles 1. There was rivalrybetween the, two companies for a while whichwas ended with, their amalgamation in 1649. TheEast India, Company was transformed into ajoint-stock, company by a charter of Cromwellin 1657., In 1694 the British Parliament passed, aresolution giving equal rights to all Englishmento, trade in the East. A new rival company,known as, the 'English Company of MerchantsTrading to the, East Indies' (1698) was formed,which sent Sir, William Norris as ambassador toAurangzeb to, secure trading privileges for itself.But Sir William, failed in his mission. There wasruinous competition, between the two for a whilebut they finally agreed, to come together in 1702.Their final amalgamation, came in 1708 by theaward of the Earl of Goldolphin, under the titleof 'the United Company of Merchants, ofEngland Trading to the East Indies'. This, newcompany continued its existence till 1858., FRENCH, The French East India Company was, formedby Colbert under state patronage in 1664., The first French factory was established at Surat, byFrancois Caron in 1668. Later Maracara set upa, factory at Masulipatam in 1669., A small village was acquired from, theMuslim governor of Valikondapuram by, FrancoisMartin and Bellanger de Lespinay in 1673., Thevillage developed into Pondicherry and its, firstgovernor, was, Francois, Martin., AlsoChandernagore in Bengal was acquired from, theMughal governor in 1690., The French in India declined between, 1706and 1720 which led to the reconstitution of, theCompany in 1720. The French power in, Indiawas, revived, under, Lenoir, and, Dumas(governors) between 1720 and 1742., Theyoccupied Mahe in the Malabar, Yanam, 101|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), inCoromandal (both in 1725) and Karikal in, TamilNadu (1739). The arrival of Dupleix as, Frenchgovernor in India in 1742 saw the beginning, ofAnglo French conflict (Carnatick wars), resultingin their final defeat in India., DANISH, The Danes formed an East India, Companyand arrived in India in 1616. They, established settlements at Tranquebar (in Tamil, Nadu) in1620 and at Serampore (Bengal) in, 1676.Serampore was their headquarters in, India.However, they failed to strengthen, themselvesin India and were forced to sell all, theirsettlements in India to the British in 1845., NATURE AND CHARACTER OF EUROPEAN, COMMERCE, Role of European Companies Portuguese, The Portuguese seizure of power in, theIndian Ocean at the beginning of the 16thcentury, proceeded with amazing rapidity, andfor more than, a century they remained lords ofthe waters and, sent many precious shiploads toLisbon. The armed, control of the sea trade wasquite easy for the, Portuguese, for they found aflourishing and, unprotected free trade systemwhen they entered, this ocean. Except for anoccasional pirate, bearing, rather primitive arms,there was nobody in these, waters who had madeit his business to sue force for, the control of trade., This prevailing free trade system of the, IndiaOcean, with all its flexibility, was, neverthelessvery vulnerable. For this trade was not, restrictedexclusively to luxury goods, like spices,, precioustextiles, gold and ivory. Though they, played amajor role in this trade, there was, alsoconsiderable division of labour in the course, ofwhich some ports had become entirelydependent, of long-distance grain shipments. Asno duties and, other protection costs distorted theprice level in, this free trade system, everythingwas much, cheaper here than in theMediterranean where the, Egyptians and theVenetians operated a tight, monopolgy., What the Portuguese did was to protect, theMediterranean practice in the, Indian, Ocean.They were keen observers and quickly, seizedupon the strategic points from which they, couldcontrol the vast network of Asian, maritimetrade. Their fortified outposts served as, customsstations where Asian merchants had to, acquirecartazes (letters of protection) which saved, themfrom being attacked and ransacked by, thePortuguese on the High seas., The Portuguese king soon made the, spicetrade,, particularly, pepper, trade,, a, , royalmonopolgy. Their spice imports rose from, lessthan a quarter of a million pounds in 1501, tomore than 2.3 million pounds per year by, 1505,when Venetian merchants found that they, couldbuy barely one million pounds of spice, inAlexandria, though their annual purchase, 1495had been 3.5 million pounds. Arab and, Veentianmerchants remained in the spice, tradethroughout the centruy of Portuguese power, inAsia, but the balance of trade had, shifteddramatically, and the Portuguese persisted, inshort-circuiting Arab middlemen carriers as, theEuropean demand for spices continued, toincrease., The Portuguese king never wanted, toundersell the Venetians, a sthey had, initiallysuspected. He adjusted his sole price to, theVenetian once, while simultaneously forcing, hisIndian suppliers to part with their pepper at, acheap rate. For the royal monopolist it was anideal, system; buy the pepper at a cheap fixedrate in India, and sell at a high fixed price inEurope. Once this, system was established, it wasvery well suited for, sub-contracting thus savingthe king trouble and, giving him an assuredincome., A comparison of the Portuguese budget, inthe years 1506 and 1518 shows a striking, changein the structure of state finance due to, peppermonopolgy. The income from pepper, monopolgyrose from 1,35,000 cruzados (one, cruzado beingequal to 3.6 grams of gold) in 1506 to, 3,00,000cruzados in 1518. Though there was an, increasein other sources of income during the, period, thepepper monopolgy certainly dewarfed, all othersources. The enormous profit derived from, thismonopolgy made their annual investment, of50,000 cruzados in it appear rather, moderate.Thus, the Portuguese got good value for, moneyin this respective., Another source of income which became, asimportant to the Portuguese king as the, peppermonopolgy was the sale of the offices of, captainsand customs collectors in the Indian, Oceanstrongholds. The Portuguese collected, customsat Ormuz on the Persian Gulf and other, placearound the Indian Ocean. The offices of, thosewho collected these customs were auctioned, bythe king at short intervals, usually three years.So, this was another royal money estate whichyielded, income without any risk. In this way theking, became a rent receiver rather than a, royalentrepreneur., Dutch, The Dutch invaded the Indian Ocean, withdramatic speed at the beginning of the, 17thcentury, just as the Portuguese had done, ahundred, years, earlier., Several, 102|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), favourablepreconditions accounted for this Dutch, success,such as a good educational system,, advancementin science and technology, their ability, to, acquirenautical, information, from, the, Portuguese, existence of a huge merchant marine, and easyaccess to sufficient wood for shipbuilding., Unlike the situation in Portugal, the, Dutchstate had no hand in business, and the, monopolywhich was granted to the Dutch East, IndianCompany (VOC) referred to spices, only.Furthermore, monopoly control stopped, oncethe shipments reached Amsterdam, where, thegoods were freely auctioned to the, highestbidder. These auctions provided a good idea, ofwhat the market would take, and they alsohelped, to introduce new commodities, such astextiles,, which were not covered by anymonopoly., Throughout the 17th century the, DutchCompany operated on a much larger scale, thanits English counterpart. Nevertheless, the, Dutch were deeply concerned about British, competitionand tried their best to outdo them., While fightingagainst the domination of the seas by, theSpanish and the Portuguese, the Dutch laidstress, on the principle of freedom of the seas.But as early, as the second decade of the 17thcentury they, refused all other powers, includingthe British, an, access to the Indonesian SpiceIslands, because only, in this way, they argued,could they be compensated, for the protectionthey furnished., While the Dutch zealously guarded, theirterritorial control in Indonesia at a very, earlystage, they showed no such ambitions in, India.This was perhaps due to the fact that, theyprocured textiles to an increasing extent in, India,and these were not covered by a monopoly., Thetextile trade which became more important, tothe Dutch required methods of control other, thanthe physical occupation of area of production.It, was more important in this case tie downproducers, and middlemen by means of creditand advance and, to organise the acquisition ofthe right type of, textiles which were popularwith customers abroad., As a consequence of their adaptation to, thetextile trade, the Dutch factories experienced, agreat deal of structural change. Initially,, suchfactories were expected only to store goods, forthe annual shipment; in due course,, however,they became centres whose influence, extendedfar into the interior of the country as they, placedorders, distributed patterns, granted, andsupervised credit, etc. The Dutch, who had, manyfactories on India's east coast, were, alsorepresented at the court of the Sultan, ofGolconda whose realm was an important sourceof, textiles for them., Thus,, the, Dutch, used, India,, particularlysouth India, as a major source for the, , purchaseof cotton cloth as well as of slaves for their, spiceisland, plantations., Dutch, investments, inCoromandal cloth, which would then be soldfor, spices in Indonesia, proved a most profitableway of, diminishing the 'specie drain' (drain ofgold and, silver bullion) from home. Thistechnique of, 'triangular trade' was quicklylearned and followed, by the English, who wereequally anxious to reduce, the eastern flow ofbullion., The Dutch invasion of the Indian, Oceanbrought about a revolution in international, tradewhich, the, Portuguese, had, never, accomplished.The flow of commodities in the, Mediterraneanwas completely reversed. The trade, of the Levant(eastern) Mediterranean region),, following is itsrevival in the late 16th century;, experienced asudden decline. West European ship, nowsupplied the ports of the Levant with the, goodswhich had been sent from there to the West, onlya few years earlier. Venice suffered the, samedecline, and was soon no more than a, regionalport of Italy., Asian maritime trade was not as, immediatelyaffected by this trade revolution as, theMediterranean trade was. There were, greatIndian ship owners who dispatched so, manyships every year to the ports of Arabia of, thePersian gulf that they easily outnumbered all, theEuropean ships in the Indian Ocean at that, time.The Dutch participated in this Indian, Oceantrade as well. Just as they were Europe's, biggestshipping agents, they now offered their, servicesto Asian merchants to an ever-increasing, extent.If these merchants did not have ships of, theirown they were glad to entrust their goods, toEuropean whose ships were armed and couldthus, defend themselves against piracy., English, The English East India Company, foundedin, London, two, years, before, the, Dutch, Company,operated on much the same terms, including saleby auction. And in the East, from their, premierbase at Surat, the English soon gained, controlover the Arabian Sea and Persian, Gulf,destroying Portuguese power by seizing, Ormuzin 1622. Thereafter, Persian silk competed, withGujarati calico as England's favourite textiles, from the East (calico was still used mostly, forhousehold linens, table clothes and towels, inBritain and western Europe, becoming popularfor, apparel only after 1660)., English annual imports of Indian, calico'pieces' (12 to 15 yards in length) jumped, from14,000 in 1619 to over 2,00,000 in 1625;, thedemand for Persian silk grew less swiftly., Indigoand saltpetre were the other major imports, fromIndia, and the fact that both products, 103|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), wereproduced, in, the, eastern, Gangetic, plain,especially in Bihar, stimulated British efforts, toestablish factories on the east coast as well asthe, west coast of the Indian subcontinent., The English merchants, anxious to reduce, theeastern flow of their bullion, soon learned, thatby investing their gold in south Indian, weavers,whose products could easily be sold in, Indonesiafor spices, they were able to buy four, times thevalue of pepper and cloves for the same, amountof gold. Small wonder that their interest, inestablishing a factory along the Coromandalcoast, quickly intensified. From these ports insouth, eastern India, they soon sought moreimmediate, access to the mainstream of produceflowing down, from the Gangetic plain to the Bayof Bengal., The factories of the English Company,, likethose of the Dutch ones, experienced a, similarkind of structural change after their, adaptationto the textile trade. But, since the English, had noaccess to the spice Islands particularly after, theirmassacre by the Dutch at Amboyna in 1623,, theyconcentrated on India and on the textile, tradeto an ever-increasing extent. Nonetheless, in, the17th century the English were still lagging, behindthe Dutch even in this field., European piracy increased in the, IndianOcean as individual entrepreneurs were, quick to learn their nautical and commercial, lessons.However, not all of the European, 'interlopers'were pirates. Some of them simply, earned a livingin the 'country trade, as the intraAsian tradewas called. The British private traders, were veryactive in this field, and though the East, IndiaCompany officially decried the activities of, theseinterlopers (who crossed the Asian seas, withoutany respect for monopoly rights granted by, royalcharter), there emerged a kind of, symbiosisbetween them and the Company. The, Companyitself concentrated on intercontinental, trade, andthe 'country traders' made their deals, with theservants of the company and made use of, theinfrastructure, and, the, protection, networkprovided by the company without, contributingto its maintenance. This gave them, acomparative advantage in the intra-Asian, tradeand the Company did well in specialising in, theintercontinental connection and leaving, the'country trade' to others., French, , Another major European power, which, wasdestined to play an important part in the, historyof India in the 18th century, was still, ratherinsignificant in the Indian context of the late, 17thcentury. Colbert organised the French, Companyon federal lines. But this was counterproductive,because the Company was organised by, , thegovernment, and, there, were, no, privatecapitalists. Colbert had to persuade the, bigdignitaries to subscribe funds for this, purpose,and whoever contributed did so only in, order toplease the king., The commercial success of the company, wasmore limited than the imperial vision of some, ofits great officials, like governor Dupleix,, AdmiralLa Bourdonnais and General de Bussy. But, afterits reorganisation in 1685, the company, startedmanaging its trade with bureaucratic, precision.In peace time it could even make some, profit,although it was debarred from the, lucrativetextile, trade, because, of, French, mercantilistpolicy., However,, the, frequent, interruption ofthis trade due to European wars, drove theCompany to the verge of Bankruptcy. It, was onlyafter the merger of the French West Indies, Company with the French East India Companyin, 1719 that France caught up with the newpattern of, international trade, which linkedIndian Ocean trade, with trans-Atlantic trade., IMPACT OF EUROPEANSON INDIA'S FOREIGN, TRADE, With, the, arrival, of, the, Europeans,particularly the Dutch and the English,, therewas a tremendous increase in the demand, forIndian textiles for both the Asian markets, andlater the European market. The Asian, marketsfor Indian textiles were developed over a, longperiod. There markets were extensive, andwidespread and there was great diversity in, theirdemand. This intra-Asian trade in Indian, textilesseems to have operated in two ways., Firstly,there was a bilateral trade between the, Coromandal and various parts of South East Asia, such as Malacca, Java and the Spice Islands.In this, trade, the Coromandal textiles acted as alink in a, multilateral trade, embracing theCoromandal,, South-East Asia, West Asia, andthe Mediterranean., In this trade, Coromandaltextiles were exchanged, for South-East Asianspices which were in turn, meant for the WestAsian and Mediterranean, markets. TheEuropean market for Indian textiles, actuallydeveloped around the middle of the, 17thcentury, and thereafter it grew by leaps, andbounds., The, intra-Asian, trade, witnessed, severecompetition among the various groups, ofmerchants, such as the Portuguese, the Dutch,the, English, the Danes, and the Indiansconsisting of, both the Moors and the Chettis,whereas the, European market for Indian textileswas dominated, entirely by the Europeancompanies, particularly, the English and theDutch, with the Indian, merchants actingessentially as middleman., 104|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), European participation in the foreign, tradeof India showed a marked increase in the, secondhalf of the 17th century. This increase can, beseen clearly in the sharp rise in their, investments,a large part of which was in textiles, meant forthe Asian markets as well as the, Europeanmarket. Though initially European, investmentin Indian textiles considerably exceeded, thoseordered for the European market, by the end, ofthe 17th century the situation was reversed, withtwo-thirds of it going for the European, marketand only one third for the European market, andonly one-third for the Asian market. Among, thevarious European companies competing, forIndian textiles, the main rivalry was between the, Dutch and the English, with the former initially, having an edge but the latter gradually, gainingsupremacy by the turn of the 17th century, andthe beginning of the 18th century., With regard to the textile varieties that, wereexported from the coromandal to South, EastAsia and other Asian markets, and later, toEurope, the European records give us a very, longlist. The various types, in order of, importance,were long-cloth, salempors, moris, (chintz),guinea-cloth, bethiles, allegias, sarassas,, tapis,and the like. All these varieties were, beingexported even during earlier periods to, severalAsian markets such as the Moluccan, SpiceIslands,Java,, Sumatra,, Borneo,, the, alayPeninsula,, siam,, Tenasserim,, Pegu,, Arakan,Persia, Arabia, and the Red Sea ports. But, thespecialty of the period under study was, theincreased, European, orders, which,, thoughmatching, the, already, existing, varieties,demanded measurements large than those, in theAsian markets. Consequently the Indian, weavershad to change their methods and their, looms toaccommodate this European demand., Many ofthem did so quite profitably, but it, necessitated long-term contracts and rendered spot, ordersimprobable., The Indian economy, more specifically, itstextile trade and industry, during the second, halfof the 17th century, was a seller' (i.e., producers')market., For,, when, the, three, Europeancompanies- English, Dutch and French, (whichhad entered the fray in the 1670s), werecompeting in the open market, making, largeorders from India, and these were, supplementedby European private trade and Indian, trade, theweavers had greater flexibility and large, freedomof operation. The interchangeability of, goodsordered by these various buyers, who, wereaiming at broadly the same export market,, madeit possible for weaver produced was bought, upby one or the other eager customers. If,, forinstance, any cloth produced by the weaver, , wasrejected by the companies, then the weaver, couldsell it to English private traders. This, situationexisted in many parts of the country where, thethree companies as well as the other buyers, werein free competition., CHANGES IN THEORGANISATION OF TRADE, One, important, feature, of, the, tradeorganisation of India in the 17th and early, 18thcenturies is that indigenous merchants, weregenerally mentioned in their individual, capacityrather than as part of a mercantile, organisation,an indication that the great merchant, guilds ofthe medieval period were fast declining., Besides,, the, dividing, line, betweenindependent merchants and merchants, actingon behalf of the European companies was a, verythin one. In several cases, in fact, a, merchantfunctioned in both capacities. But the, companyrecord specifically mention several, indigenousmerchants as their rivals and, competitors., Many, of, the, native, merchants,, however,found that it was more profitable and less, riskyto act on behalf of the companies rather than, make voyages on their own. In the, organisationalset-up of the companies, their, function wasfourfold; purchasing cloth for the, company andacting as a link between it and the, weavers;supervising weavers and minimising, thecompany's risk by taking on bad debts;, ensuringquality and timely delivery; and saving, thecompany the necessity of laying out vast sumsof, money by making the initial advancesthemselves., With regard to the mercantile groups, andtheir activities, the Hindus as a whole, continuedto dominate the commecial world of, thecoronmandal-overseas, and, coastal, trading,wholesaling and retailing, brokerage,, bankingand shroffing. Among Hindu merchants,, themost important were Telugu merchantile, castes,viz, the komatis and balijas (belonging to, theright hand faction- valankai), and beru, chettis(left hand faction- idankai). Prominent, Hinduindividual merchants were asi Viranna, (casaVerona),, Malaya, and, his, brother, Chinanna,Narasimha Rama Chetti, Ben Rama, Chetti,Kesara Chetti, Seshadri; Varadappa and, KoneriChetti., Muslim, merchants, of, the, Coromandal,indiscriminately referred to by the, European asMoors, shared the domination of the, overseasand coastal trade of the Coromandal with, theHindu merchants. The so-called Moors, consistedof the Golconda Muslim merchants and, theChulia merchants of south Coromandal, both, ofwhom had diverse ethnic origins. Other, majormerchant groups in the coromandal, 105|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), wereGujaratis and Armenians, who seem to, havemade Coromandal their home. Among, theMuslim, merchants,, the, most, importantpersonalities were Mir Jmla, Khwaja, Nizam, MirKamal-ud-din, Mirza Muhammad,, khwajaHassan Ali, Mir Qasar and Khwaja Araby., Anumber, of, them, had, close, political, connections,and enjoyed a good bargaining position, in theirrelations with the companies., Indian, merchant, relationship, withEuropeans tended to become institutionalised, bythe beginning of the period under study, first, inthe form of chief merchants and later in the, socalledjoint-stock companies of association of, theindigenous merchants, both of which had, originsin the medieval Indian commercial, practicesthough influenced and inspired by the, Europeancommercial innovations. Both the, institutionswere an outcome of the European need, to putthe whole ordering and delivery process on, afirm and sturdy footing, and their desire to, ensurebetter maintenance of standards and, greatercontrol over the suppliers., In all the European settlements in India,, thereevolved an office of chief merchant, held by, oneof two of the most prominent merchants of, thesettlement. This tendency to deal with one or, twostrong and powerful individuals, was, strongerwith one or two strong and powerful, individuals,instead of a large number of diverse, merchants,was stronger with the English than with, theDutch, while the french fell some where, inbetween in this respect., With regard to the merchant associations,, allthe available evidence suggests that they, firstcame into existence in the 1660s in the, Dutchsettlements in India with the initiative, andFrench companies companies followed suit,, andencouraged the Indian merchants to form, suchassociations in their settlements. These, merchantassociation, however, began to decline, rapidlyas the 18th century advanced., By the Very nature of things a certain, groupof people, known as dalals (brokers), becomeindispensable to the trade organisation of, Indiaduring this period, though broderage as, anestablished commercial practice and brokers asa, distinct, commercial, group, existed, in, Indiathroughout the medieval period. The, brokersacted, as, a, link, between, the, producers,wholesaler, retailers, and consumers., Besides theprimary job of procuring goods at, cheaper ratesfor their clients, they performed a, variety offunctions. There was a hierarchical, divisionamong the brokers, each one of them was, animportant link in the over all set-up, ofcommercial, organisation., As, mentioned, earlier,most of the indigenous merchants of, , Indiaduring this period belonged, variouscategories of broders., , to, , the, , BRITISH- FRENCHMONOPOLISTIC AMBITIONS, In the beginning of the eighteenth, century,the English and the French were competing, witheach other to establish their supremacy in, India.Both of them used the political turmoil, prevalentin India as a result of the decline of the, MughalEmpire in their favour and indulged in, internalpolitics. The Anglo-French rivalry in India, wasmanifest in the Carnatic region and in Bengal., The Carnatic Wars, The downfall of the Mughal Empire led, tothe independence of Deccan under Nizam-ulMulk. The Carnatic region also formed part ofthe, Nizam's, dominion., The, ruler, of, the, Carnaticaccepted the suzerainty of the Nizam. In, 1740,the Austrian War of Succession broke out, inEurope. In that war England and France werein, the opposite camps. They came into conflictin India, also. The French governor ofPondicherry, Dupleix, opened attack on theEnglish in 1746 and thus, began the First CarnaticWar (1746-1748). The, English sought help fromthe Nawab of Carnatic,, Anwar Uddin. But theFrench concluded a treaty, with his rival ChandaSahib. The English army, crushed a defeat on theFrench in the Battle of, Adyar, near Madras. Inthe meantime, the Treaty of, Aix-la-Chappellewas concluded in 1748 to end the, AustrianSuccession War. Thus the First Carnatic, Warcame to an end. But the English and, Frenchcontinued to take opposite sides in the, internalpolitics of India. This had resulted in the, SecondCarnatic, War, (1749-1754)., Dupleix, supportedthe cause of Muzafar Jang, who wanted, tobecome the Nizam of Hyderabad and, ChandaSahib, an aspirant for the throne of Arcot., Thetroops of these three defeated Anwar, Uddin,who was with the British in the First, CarnaticWar, and killed him in the Battle of Ambur, in1749. After this victory, Muzafar Jung becamethe, Nizam and Chanda Sahib the Nawab ofArcot., Muhammad Ali, son of Anwar Uddinescaped to, Tiruchirappalli. The English senttroops in support, of him. In the meantime, theBritish commander, Robert Clive captured Arcot.He also inflicted a, severe defeat on the French atKaveripakkam., Chanda Sahib was captured andbeheaded in, Tanjore. Meanwhile Dupleix wasreplaced by, Godeheu as the French governor.The war came to, an end by the Treaty ofPondicherry in 1754., The outbreak of the Seven Years War, (1756-1763) in Europe led to the Third Carnatic, War (1758 1763). Count de Lally was the, commanderof the French troops. The British, General Sir EyreCoote defeated him at Wandiwash, 106|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point

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HISTORY (MEDIEVAL), in 1760. Inthe next year, Pondicherry was captured, anddestroyed by the British troops. The Seven, YearsWar came to an end by the Treaty of Paris, in1763. The Third Carnatic War also ended., TheFrench agreed to confine its activities, inPondicherry, Karaikkal, Mahe and Yenam., Thusthe Anglo-French rivalry came to a close with, British success and French failure.The causes for, the French failure can besummed up as follows:, 1. Commercial and naval superiority of theEnglish., 2. Lack of support from the Frenchgovernment., 3. French had support only in the Deccan but the, English had a strong base inBengal., 4. English had three important ports -Calcutta,, Bombay and Madras but Frenchhad only, Pondicherry., 5., Difference, of, opinion, between, the, FrenchGenerals., 6. England's victory in the European warsdecided, the destiny of the French in India., Establishment of British Power in Bengal, Bengal remained one of the fertile, andwealthy, regions, of, India., The, Englishascendancy in Bengal proved to be the basis, forthe expansion of English rule in India., Theconflict between the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-udDaula and the English led to the Battle of, Plasseyheld on 23 June 1757. Robert Clive,, theCommander, of, the, British, troops, emergedvictorious by defeating the Nawab's army., Theeasy English victory was due to the treachery, ofMir Jabar, the Commander of Nawab's, army.However, the victory of the British in the, Battleof Plassey marked the foundation of the, Britishrule in India., In 1764, the English once again defeated, thecombined forces of the Nawab of Oudh,, theMughal Emperor and the Nawab of Bengal inthe, Battle of Buxar. The English militarysuperiority was, decisively established. In 1765,Robert Clive was, appointed as the Governor ofBengal. In the same, year, the Treaty of Allahabadwas concluded by, which the Mughal Emperorgranted the Diwani, rights to the English EastIndia Company. Thus the, British power in Indiawas thoroughly established., , 107|P a g e, , CREATIVE CIRCLE Konung Mamang Wangkhei Road Near Traffic Point