Chapter 1
TRACING CHANGES THROUGH A THOUSAND YEARS

“Hindustan”-

• In 13^th century- Minhaj-i-Siraj, a chronicler who wrote in Persian, he meant the areas of Punjab, Haryana and the lands between the Ganga and Yamuna.
• In 14^th century poet Amir Khusrau used the word “Hind”.
• In 16^th century Babur used Hindustan to describe the geography, the fauna and the culture of the inhabitants of the subcontinent.

Historians and their Sources

• No printing press
• Miniature paintings were sometimes used to illustrate the texts of manuscripts

New Social and Political Groups

New technologies-

1. Persian wheel in irrigation,
2. the spinning wheel in weaving, and
3. firearms in combat

• Important group i.e. Rajputs, a name derived from “Rajaputra”, the son of a ruler.
• Between the 8^th and 14^th centuries the term was applied to a group of warriors  i.e. Kshatriya
• The term included- rulers + chieftains+ soldiers+ commanders who served in the armies
• Qualities- A chivalric code of conduct- extreme valour and a great sense of loyalty
• Other groups- Marathas, Sikhs, Jats, Ahoms and Kayasthas (a caste of scribes and secretaries)
• Complex societies, and were required to pay Taxes
• Ranks were not fixed permanently, and varied according to the power, influence and resources controlled by members of the jati.
• Jatis framed their own rules and regulations to manage the conduct of their members.
• These regulations were enforced by an assembly of elders, described in some areas as the jati Panchayat.
• But jatis were also required to follow the rules of their villages.
• Several villages were governed by a chieftain.

Language and region

• In 1318 the poet Amir Khusrau noted- Different language in every region of this land:
• Sindhi, Lahori, Kashmiri, Dvarsamudri (in southern Karnataka),
• Telangani (in Andhra Pradesh),
• Gujari (in Gujarat),
• Ma‘bari (in Tamil Nadu),
• Gauri, (in Bengal)
• Awadhi (in eastern Uttar Pradesh) and
• Hindawi (in the area around Delhi).

Sanskrit

Did not belong to any region.

It was an old language and “common people do not know it, only the Brahmanas do”.

Region and Empire

Ghiyasuddin Balban (1266-1287)

• Delhi Sultan
• Empire from Bengal (Gauda) in the east to Ghazni (Gajjana) in Afghanistan in the west and included all of south India (Dravida).
• People of different regions – Gauda, Andhra, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat – apparently fled before his armies.
• When the Mughal Empire declined in the 18^th century, it led to the re-emergence of regional states

Old and New Religions

Important changes in Hinduism-

• Worship of new deities, the construction of temples by royalty and the growing importance of Brahmanas, the priests, as dominant groups in society.
• Major developments of this period- emergence of the idea of bhakti
• New religions- Merchants and migrants first brought the teachings of the holy Quran to India in the seventh century.
• Muslims regard the Quran as their holy book and accept the sovereignty of the one God, Allah, whose love, mercy and bounty embrace all those who believe in Him, without regard to social background.
• Many rulers were patrons of Islam and the ulama – learned theologians and jurists.
• In the 13^th century, there were the Shia Muslims who believed that the Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law, Ali, was the legitimate leader of the Muslim community, and the Sunni Muslims who accepted the authority of the early leaders (Khalifas) of the community, and the succeeding Khalifas.

Chapter 2
NEW KINGS AND KINGDOMS

From Uraiyur to Thanjavur

• A minor chiefly family known as the Muttaraiyar (in region Kaveri delta.); subordinate to the Pallava kings of Kanchipuram.
• Vijayalaya, who belonged to the ancient chiefly family of the Cholas from Uraiyur, captured the delta from the Muttaraiyar in the middle of the ninth century.
• He built the town of Thanjavur and a temple for goddess Nishumbhasudini there.
• The successors of Vijayalaya conquered neighbouring regions and the kingdom grew in size and power.
• The Pandyan and Pallava territories to the south and north were made part of this kingdom.
• Rajaraja I, considered the most powerful Chola ruler, became king in 985 and expanded control over most of these areas.
• Rajaraja’s son Rajendra I continued his policies and even raided the Ganga valley, Sri Lanka and countries of Southeast Asia, developing a navy for these expeditions.

Splendid temples and bronze sculpture

• The temples of Thanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram, built by Rajaraja and Rajendra, are architectural and sculptural marvels.
• Chola temples often became the nuclei of settlements which grew around them.
• The produce of this land went to maintain all the specialists who worked at the temple and very often lived near it – priests, garland makers, cooks, sweepers, musicians, dancers, etc.
• Temples were not only places of worship; they were the hub of economic, social and cultural life as well.
• Making of bronze images was the most distinctive.
• Chola bronze images are considered amongst the finest in the world.

Prashastis and land grants

• Prashastis tell us how rulers wanted to depict themselves – as valiant, victorious warriors
• These were composed by learned Brahmanas, who occasionally helped in the administration.
• Kings often rewarded Brahmanas by grants of land.
• These were recorded on copper plates, which were given to those who received the land

• Unusual for the 12^th century was a long Sanskrit poem containing the history of kings who ruled over Kashmir.
• It was composed by an author named Kalhana.
• Unlike the writers of prashastis, he was often critical about rulers and their policies.

Agriculture and Irrigation

Chola Empire

• New developments in agriculture.
• The river Kaveri branches off into several small channels overflow frequently, depositing fertile soil on their banks.
• Cultivation of rice.
• Although agriculture had developed earlier in other parts of Tamil Nadu, it was only from the 5^th or 6^th century that this area was opened up for large-scale cultivation.
• In the delta region embankments had to be built to prevent flooding and canals had to be constructed to carry water to the fields.
• Wells and tanks were constructed to collect rainwater.
• Most of the new rulers, as well as people living in villages, took an active interest in planning for irrigation, organising labour and resources

Types of land in Chola Empire

Chola inscriptions mention several categories of land.

• Vellanvagai

land of non-Brahmana peasant proprietors

• Brahmadeya

land gifted to Brahmanas

• Shalabhoga

land for the maintenance of a school

• Devadana, tirunamattukkani

land gifted to temples

• Pallichchhandam

land donated to Jaina institutions

Chapter 3
THE DELHI SULTANS

• Delhi became an important city only in the 12^th century
• Delhi first became the capital of a kingdom under the Tomara Rajputs, who were defeated in the middle of the twelfth century by the Chauhans (also referred to as Chahamanas) of Ajmer.
• It was under the Tomaras and Chauhans that Delhi became an important commercial centre.
• Jaina merchants constructed several temples.
• Coins minted here, called Dehliwal
• The transformation of Delhi into a capital that controlled vast areas of the subcontinent started with the foundation of the Delhi Sultanate in the beginning of the 13^th century.

Tarikh (singular)/ tawarikh (plural)-

• To provide information
• Written in Persian, the language of administration under the Delhi Sultans.
• The authors of tawarikh were learned men: secretaries, administrators, poets and courtiers, who both recounted events and advised rulers on governance, emphasising the importance of just rule.

The Rulers of Delhi

RAJPUT DYNASTIES

• Tomaras early twelfth century - 1165
• Ananga Pala 1130 -1145
• Chauhans 1165 -1192
• Prithviraj Chauhan 1175 -1192

EARLY TURKISH RULERS 1206-1290

• Qutbuddin Aybak 1206 -1210
• Shamsuddin Iltutmish 1210 -1236
• Raziyya 1236 -1240
• Ghiyasuddin Balban 1266- 1287

KHALJI DYNASTY 1290 - 1320

• Jalaluddin Khalji 1290 - 1296
• Alauddin Khalji 1296 -1316

TUGHLUQ DYNASTY 1320 - 1414

• Ghiyasuddin Tughluq 1320 -1324
• Muhammad Tughluq 1324 -1351
• Firuz Shah Tughluq 1351 -1388

SAYYID DYNASTY 1414 - 1451

• Khizr Khan 1414 -1421

LODI DYNASTY 1451 - 1526

• Bahlul Lodi 1451 -1489

Alauddin Khalji’s campaign into South India

• Quwwat al-Islam mosque and minaret built during the last decade of the twelfth century.
• This was the congregational mosque of the first city built by the Delhi Sultans, described in the chronicles as Dehli-I kuhna (the old city).
• The mosque was enlarged by Iltutmish and Alauddin Khalji.
• The minar was built by three Sultans– Qutbuddin Aybak, Iltutmish and Firuz Shah Tughluq.

The Masjid

• A mosque is called a Masjid in Arabic, literally a place where a Muslim prostrates in reverence to Allah.
• In a “congregational mosque” (masjid-i jami or jama Masjid) Muslims read their prayers (namaz) together.
• Members of the congregation choose the most respected, learned male as their leader (imam) for the rituals of prayer.
• He also delivers the sermon (khutba) during the Friday prayer.
• During prayer, Muslims stand facing Mecca. In India this is to the west.  This is called the Qibla.
• Begumpuri mosque, built in the reign of Muhammad Tughluq, was the main mosque of Jahanpanah, the “Sanctuary of the World”, and new capital in Delhi.
• The Delhi Sultans built several mosques in cities all over the subcontinent.
• Moth ki Masjid built in the reign of Sikandar Lodi by his minister.
• Mosque of Jamali Kamali, built in the late 1520s.

Administration and Consolidation under the Khaljis and Tughlaq

• The consolidation of a kingdom as vast as the Delhi Sultanate needed reliable governors and administrators.
• Rather than appointing aristocrats and landed chieftains as governors, the early Delhi Sultans, especially Iltutmish, favoured their special slaves purchased for military service, called bandagan in Persian.
• They continued to use bandagan and also raised people of humble birth, who were often their clients, to high political positions.
• They were appointed as generals and governors.
• Slaves and clients were loyal to their masters and patrons, but not to their heirs.
• Like the earlier Sultans, the Khalji and Tughluq monarchs appointed military commanders as governors of territories of varying sizes.
• These lands were called iqta and their holder was called iqtadar or muqti.
• The duty of the muqtis was to lead military campaigns and maintain law and order in their iqtas.
• In exchange for their military services, the muqtis collected the revenues of their assignments as salary.
• The harsh conditions of service were rigorously imposed during the reigns of Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq.
• Accountants were appointed by the state to check the amount of revenue collected by the muqtis.
• Care was taken that the muqti collected only the taxes prescribed by the state and that he kept the required number of soldiers.
• As the Delhi Sultans brought the hinterland of the cities under their control, they forced the landed chieftains— the samanta aristocrats— and rich landlords to accept their authority.
• Under Alauddin Khalji the state brought the assessment and collection of land revenue under its own control.
• The rights of the local chieftains to levy taxes were cancelled and they were also forced to pay taxes.

There were three types of taxes –

1. on cultivation called Kharaj and amounting to about 50 per cent of the peasant’s produce,
2. on cattle and
3. on houses

• It is important to remember that large parts of the subcontinent remained outside the control of the Delhi Sultans.
• It was difficult to control distant provinces like Bengal from Delhi and soon after annexing southern India, the entire region became independent.
• Even in the Gangetic plain there were forested areas that Sultanate forces could not penetrate.
• Sometimes rulers like Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq could force their control in these areas but only for a short duration.
• Officials of Sultan Muhammad Tughluq
• Sultan Muhammad Tughluq appointed Aziz Khummar, a wine distiller, Firuz Hajjam, a barber, Mank a Tabbakh, a cook, and two gardeners, Ladha and Pira, to high administrative posts.
• Ziyauddin Barani, a mid- fourteenth- century-chronicler, reported their appointments as a sign of the Sultan’s loss of political judgement and his incapacity to rule.

Chapter 4
 THE MUGHAL EMPIRE

Mughals-

• Later 16^th century
• Expanded their kingdom from Agra and Delhi
• Until in the 17^th century they controlled nearly all of the subcontinent.
• Imposed structures of administration and ideas of governance that outlasted their rule leaving a political legacy that succeeding rulers of the subcontinent could not ignore
• The Mughals were descendants of two great lineages of rulers.
• From their mother’s side they were descendants of Genghis Khan (died 1227), ruler of the Mongol tribes, China and Central Asia.
• From their father’s side they were the successors of Timur (died 1404), the ruler of Iran, Iraq and modern-day Turkey.

Mughal marriages with the Rajputs-

• The mother of Jahangir was a Kachhwaha princess, daughter of the Rajput ruler of Amber (modern-day Jaipur).
• The mother of Shah Jahan was a Rathor princess, daughter of the Rajput ruler of Marwar (Jodhpur).

Mughal Relations with Other Rulers

• Mughal rulers campaigned constantly against rulers who refused to accept their authority.
• But as the Mughals became powerful many other rulers also joined them voluntarily. (Example- Rajputs)
• Many of them married their daughters into Mughal families and received high positions.
• The Sisodiya Rajputs refused to accept Mughal authority for a long time.
• Once defeated, however, they were honourably treated by the Mughals, given their lands (watan) back as assignments (watan jagir).
• The careful balance between defeating but not humiliating their opponents enabled the Mughals to extend their influence over many kings and chieftains.
• But it was difficult to keep this balance all the time.

Mughal Military Campaigns

Babur (1526- 1530)

• 1^st Mughal emperor succeeded to the throne of Ferghana in 1494 when he was only 12 years old.
• He was forced to leave his ancestral throne due to the invasion of another Mongol group, the Uzbegs.
• After years of wandering he seized Kabul in 1504.
• In 1526 he defeated the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi, at Panipat and captured Delhi and Agra
• Afghans were an immediate threat to Mughal authority
• Cannons were an important addition in sixteenth-century warfare.
• Babur used them effectively in the first battle of Panipat
• 1527 – defeated Rana Sanga, Rajput rulers and allies at Khanua.
• 1528 – defeated the Rajputs at Chanderi;
• Established control over Agra and Delhi before his death

HUMAYUN 1530-1540, 1555-1556

• Humayun divided his inheritance according to the will of his father.
• His brothers were each given a province.
• The ambitions of his brother Mirza Kamran weakened Humayun’s cause against Afghan competitors.
• Sher Khan defeated Humayun at Chausa (1539) and Kanauj (1540), forcing him to flee to Iran.
• In Iran Humayun received help from the Safavid Shah.
• He recaptured Delhi in 1555 but died the next year after an accident in this building.

AKBAR 1556-1605

• Akbar was 13 years old when he became emperor.
• His reign can be divided into three periods.

(1) 1556-1570 – Akbar became independent of the regent Bairam Khan and other members of his domestic staff.

• Military campaigns were launched against the Suris and other Afghans, against the neighbouring kingdoms of Malwa and Gondwana, and to suppress the revolt of his half-brother Mirza Hakim and the Uzbegs.
• In 1568 the Sisodiya capital of Chittor was seized and in 1569 Ranthambhor.

(2) 1570-1585 – military campaigns in Gujarat were followed by campaigns in the east in Bihar, Bengal and Orissa.

These campaigns were complicated by the 1579-1580 revolt in support of Mirza Hakim.

(3) 1585-1605 – expansion of Akbar’s empire. Campaigns were launched in the north-west.

• Qandahar was seized from the Safavids, Kashmir was annexed, as also Kabul, after the death of Mirza Hakim.
• Campaigns in the Deccan started and Berar, Khandesh and parts of Ahmednagar were annexed.
• In the last years of his reign Akbar was distracted by the rebellion of Prince Salim, the future Emperor Jahangir.
• In Akbar’s reign jagirs were carefully assessed so that their revenues were roughly equal to the salary of the mansabdar.
• By Aurangzeb’s reign this was no longer the case and the actual revenue collected was often less than the granted sum.
• There was also a huge increase in the number of mansabdars, which meant a long wait before they received a jagir.
• These and other factors created a shortage in the number of jagirs.
• As a result, many jagirdars tried to extract as much revenue as possible while they had a jagir.
• Aurangzeb was unable to control these developments in the last years of his reign and the peasantry therefore suffered tremendously.

Chapter 5
Rulers and Buildings

• Between 8^th- 18^th kings and their officers built two kinds of structures:-
• 1^st were forts, palaces, garden residences and tombs – safe, protected and grandiose places of rest in this world and the next; 2^nd were structures meant for public activity including temples, mosques, tanks, wells, caravanserais and bazaars.
• Kings were expected to care for their subjects, and by making structures for their use and comfort, rulers hoped to win their praise.
• They built temples, mosques and wells. However, domestic architecture – large mansions (havelis) of merchants – has survived only from the eighteenth century.

Engineering Skills and Construction

• Between 7^th and 10^th centuries architects started adding more rooms, doors and windows to buildings.
• Roofs, doors and windows were still made by placing a horizontal beam across two vertical columns, a style of architecture called “trabeate” or “corbelled”.
• Between the eighth and thirteenth centuries the trabeate style was used in the construction of temples, mosques, tombs and in buildings attached to large stepped-wells (baolis).

Two technological and stylistic developments are noticeable from 12^th century

(1) The weight of the superstructure above the doors and windows was sometimes carried by arches.

• This architectural form was called “arcuate”.

(2) Limestone cement was increasingly used in construction.

• This was very high-quality cement, which, when mixed with stone chips hardened into concrete.
• This made construction of large structures easier and faster.

Why were Temples Destroyed?

• Because kings built temples to demonstrate their devotion to God and their power and wealth, it is not surprising that when they attacked one another’s kingdoms they often targeted these buildings.
• In the early 9^th century when the Pandyan king Shrimara Shrivallabha invaded Sri Lanka and defeated the king, Sena I (831-851), the Buddhist monk and chronicler Dhammakitti noted he removed all the valuables
• The blow to the pride of the Sinhalese ruler had to be avenged and the next Sinhalese ruler, Sena II, ordered his general to invade Madurai, the capital of the Pandyas.

A painting from the Akbar Nama (dated 1590-1595), showing the construction of the water-gate at the Agra Fort.

• Building Temples, Mosques and Tanks Temples and mosques were beautifully constructed because they were places of worship.
• They were also meant to demonstrate the power, wealth and devotion of the patron.

Rajarajeshvara temple-

• Built by King Rajarajadeva for the worship of his god, Rajarajeshvaram.
• The king took the god’s name because it was auspicious and he wanted to appear like a god.
• Through the rituals of worship in the temple one god (Rajarajadeva) honoured another (Rajarajeshvaram).
• The lesser deities in the temple were gods and goddesses of the allies and subordinates of the ruler.
• As they worshipped their deities together in the royal temples, it seemed as if they brought the just rule of the gods on earth.
• Muslim Sultans and Padshahs did not claim to be incarnations of god but Persian court chronicles described the Sultan as the “Shadow of God”.
• An inscription in the Quwwat al-Islam mosque explained that God chose Alauddin as a king because he had the qualities of Moses and Solomon, the great lawgivers of the past.
• God Himself created the world out of chaos and introduced order and symmetry.

• Constructing places of worship provided rulers with the chance to proclaim their close relationship with God, especially important in an age of rapid political change.
• Rulers also offered patronage to the learned and pious, and tried to transform their capitals and cities into great cultural centres that brought fame to their rule and their realm.
• Sultan Iltutmish won universal respect for constructing a large reservoir just outside Dehli-i-Kuhna.
• It was called the Hauz-i-Sultani or the “King’s Reservoir”.
• Rulers often constructed tanks and reservoirs – big and small – for use by ordinary people.
• Sometimes these tanks and reservoirs were part of a temple, mosque (small tank in the Jami Masjid) or a Gurdwara (a place of worship and congregation for Sikhs).
• In early 11^th century, when the Chola king Rajendra I built a Shiva temple in his capital he filled it with prized statues seized from defeated rulers.
• An incomplete list included: a Sun-pedestal from the Chalukyas, a Ganesha statue and several statues of Durga; a Nandi statue from the eastern Chalukyas; an image of Bhairava (a form of Shiva) and Bhairavi from the Kalingas of Orissa; and a Kali statue from the Palas of Bengal.
• Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni was a contemporary of Rajendra I.
• During his campaigns in the subcontinent he also attacked the temples of defeated kings and looted their wealth and idols.
• By destroying temples – especially the one at Somnath – Sultan Mahmud tried to win credit as a great hero of Islam.
• In the political culture of the Middle Ages most rulers displayed their political might and military success by attacking and looting the places of worship of defeated rulers.

Gardens, Tombs and Forts

• Under the Mughals, architecture became more complex.
• Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, and especially Shah Jahan were personally interested in literature, art and architecture.
• The gardens were called chahar bagh, four gardens, because of their symmetrical division into quarters.
• Beginning with Akbar, some of the most beautiful chahar baghs were constructed by Jahangir and Shah Jahan in Kashmir, Agra and Delhi
• Akbar’s architects turned to the tombs of his Central Asian ancestor, Timur.
• The central towering dome and the tall gateway (pishtaq) became important aspects of Mughal architecture, first visible in Humayun’s tomb.
• The tomb was placed in the centre of a huge formal chahar bagh and built in the tradition known as “eight paradises” or hasht bihisht – a central hall surrounded by eight rooms.
• The building was constructed with red sandstone, edged with white marble.
• It was during Shah Jahan’s reign that the different elements of Mughal architecture were fused together in a grand harmonious synthesis.
• His reign witnessed a huge amount of construction activity especially in Agra and Delhi.
• The ceremonial halls of public and private audience (diwan-i khas o am) were carefully planned.
• Placed within a large courtyard, these courts were also described as chihil sutun or forty-pillared halls.
• Shah Jahan’s audience halls were specially constructed to resemble a mosque.
• The pedestal on which his throne was placed was frequently described as the qibla, the direction faced by Muslims at prayer, since everybody faced that direction when court was in session.
• The idea of the king as a representative of God on earth was suggested by these architectural features.
• The connection between royal justice and the imperial court was emphasised by Shah Jahan in his newly constructed court in the Red Fort at Delhi.
• Behind the emperor’s throne were a series of pietra dura inlays that depicted the legendary Greek god Orpheus playing the lute.
• The construction of Shah Jahan’s audience hall aimed to communicate that the king’s justice would treat the high and the low as equals creating a world where all could live together in harmony.
• In the early years of his reign, Shah Jahan’s capital was at Agra, a city where the nobility had constructed their homes on the banks of the river Yamuna.
• These were set in the midst of formal gardens constructed in the chahar bagh format.
• The chahar bagh garden describe as the “riverfront garden”.
• In this the dwelling was not located in the middle of the chahar bagh but at its edge, close to the bank of the river.
• Shah Jahan adapted the river-front garden in the layout of the Taj Mahal, the grandest architectural accomplishment of his reign.
• Here the white marble mausoleum was placed on a terrace by the edge of the river and the garden was to its south.
• Only specially favoured nobles – like his eldest son Dara Shukoh – were given access to the river.
• Tomb of Humayun, constructed between 1562 and 1571.
• The throne balcony in the diwan-i am in Delhi, completed in 1648.
• The Taj Mahal at Agra completed in 1643.

Region and Empire

• The traditions of one region were adopted by another.
• In Vijayanagara, for example, the elephant stables of the rulers were strongly influenced by the style of architecture found in the adjoining Sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda
• In Vrindavan, near Mathura, temples were constructed in architectural styles that were very similar to the Mughal palaces in Fatehpur Sikri.
• The creation of large empires that brought different regions under their rule helped in this cross-fertilisation of artistic forms and architectural styles.
• In Bengal, for example, the local rulers had developed a roof that was designed to resemble a thatched hut.
• The Mughals liked this “Bangla dome” so much that they used it in their architecture.
• The impact of other regions was also evident.
• In Akbar’s capital at Fatehpur Sikri many of the buildings show the influence of the architectural styles of Gujarat and Malwa.
• Even though the authority of the Mughal rulers waned in 18^th century, the architectural styles developed under their patronage were constantly used and adapted by other rulers whenever they tried to establish their own kingdoms.

Mughal chahar baghs

1. The chahar bagh in Humayun’s tomb, Delhi, 1562-1571.
2. Terraced chahar bagh at Shalimar gardens, Kashmir, 1620 and 1634.
3. The chahar bagh adapted as a river-front garden at Lal Mahal Bari, 1637.

Temple of Govind Deva in Vrindavan, 1590-

• The temple was constructed out of red sandstone.
• The two (out of four) intersecting arches that made the high ceiling roof
• This style of architecture is from north-east Iran (Khurasan) and was used in Fatehpur Sikri.
• Decorated pillars and struts holding the extension of the roof in Jodh Bai palace in Fatehpur Sikri.
• These follow architectural traditions of the Gujarat region.

Chapter 6
 TOWNS, TRADERS AND CRAFTSPERSONS

Centres of trade and artisanal production in central and south India

Temple Towns and Pilgrimage Centres

• Thanjavur is also an example of a temple town.
• Temple towns represent a very important pattern of urbanisation, the process by which cities develop.
• Rulers endowed temples with grants of land and money to carry out elaborate rituals, feed pilgrims and priests and celebrate festivals.

A Network of Small Towns

• From the eighth century onwards several small towns probably emerged from large villages.
• They usually had a mandapika (or mandi of later times) to which nearby villagers brought their produce to sell.
• They also had market streets called hatta (haat of later times) lined with shops.
• Besides, there were streets for different kinds of artisans such as potters, oil pressers, sugar makers, toddy makers, smiths, stonemasons, etc.
• Usually a samanta or, in later times, a zamindar built a fortified palace in or near these towns.
• They levied taxes on traders, artisans and articles of trade and sometimes “donated” the “right” to collect these taxes to local temples, which had been built by themselves or by rich merchants.

KABUL

• Politically and commercially important from the sixteenth century onwards.
• Kabul and Qandahar were linked to the celebrated Silk Route.
• Trade in horses was primarily carried on through this route.
• Camels carried dried fruits, dates, carpets, silks and even fresh fruits from Kabul to the subcontinent and elsewhere.
• Slaves were also brought here for sale.

Administrative Centres

Thanjavur

• Capital of the Cholas
• The perennial river Kaveri flows near this beautiful town.
• The bells of the Rajarajeshvara temple built by King Rajaraja Chola
• The townspeople are all praise for its architect Kunjaramallan Rajaraja Perunthachchan who has proudly carved his name on the temple wall.
• Inside is a massive Shiva linga
• Besides the temple, there are palaces with mandapas or pavilions.
• Kings hold court in these mandapas, issuing orders to their subordinates.
• There are also barracks for the army
• The town is bustling with markets selling grain, spices, cloth and jewellery.
• The Saliya weavers of Thanjavur and the nearby town of Uraiyur are busy producing cloth for flags to be used in the temple festival, fine cottons for the king and nobility and coarse cotton for the masses.
• Some distance away at Svamimalai, the sthapatis or sculptors are making exquisite bronze idols and tall, ornamental bell metal lamps

Bronze, bell metal  & the “lost wax” technique

A bronze statue of Krishna subduing the serpent demon Kaliya

• Bronze is an alloy containing copper and tin.
• Bell metal contains a greater proportion of tin than other kinds of bronze.
• This produces a bell-like sound.
• Chola bronze statues were made using the “lost wax” technique.
• First, an image was made of wax.
• This was covered with clay and allowed to dry.
• Next it was heated, and a tiny hole was made in the clay cover.
• The molten wax was drained out through this hole.
• Then molten metal was poured into the clay mould through the hole.
• Once the metal cooled and solidified, the clay cover was carefully removed, and the image was cleaned and polished.
• Gradually a large number of priests, workers, artisans, traders, etc. settled near the temple to cater to its needs and those of the pilgrims.
• Towns emerged around temples such as those of Bhillasvamin (Bhilsa or Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh), and Somnath in Gujarat.
• Other important temple towns included Kanchipuram and Madurai in Tamil Nadu, and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
• Pilgrimage towns- Vrindavan (Uttar Pradesh) and Tiruvannamalai (Tamil Nadu)
• Ajmer (Rajasthan) was the capital of the Chauhan kings in the twelfth century and later became the suba headquarters under the Mughals.
• Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti, the celebrated Sufi saint who settled there in the twelfth century, attracted devotees from all creeds.

Taxes on markets

• There were taxes in kind on: Sugar and jaggery, dyes, thread, and cotton, On coconuts, salt, areca nuts, butter, sesame oil, On cloth.
• Besides, there were taxes on traders, on those who sold metal goods, on distillers, on oil, on cattle fodder, and on loads of grain.
• Some of these taxes were collected in kind, while others were collected in cash

Traders Big and Small

• There were many kinds of traders.  These included the Banjaras
• Several traders, especially horse traders, formed associations, with headmen who negotiated on their behalf with warriors who bought horses.
• Since traders had to pass through many kingdoms and forests, they usually travelled in caravans and formed guilds to protect their interests.
• There were several such guilds in south India from the eighth century onwards – the most famous being the Manigramam and Nanadesi.
• There were also communities like the Chettiars and the Marwari Oswal who went on to become the principal trading groups of the country.
• Gujarati traders, including the communities of Hindu Baniyas and Muslim Bohras, traded extensively with the ports of the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, East Africa, Southeast Asia and China.
• They sold textiles and spices in these ports and, in exchange, brought gold and ivory from Africa; and spices, tin, Chinese blue pottery and silver from Southeast Asia and China.
• The towns on the west coast were home to Arab, Persian, Chinese, Jewish and Syrian Christian traders.
• Indian spices and cloth sold in the Red Sea ports were purchased by Italian traders and eventually reached European markets, fetching very high profits.
• Spices grown in tropical climates (pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, dried ginger, etc.) became an important part of European cooking, and cotton cloth was very attractive.

Crafts in Towns

• The craftspersons of Bidar were so famed for their inlay work in copper and silver that it came to be called Bidri.
• The Panchalas or Vishwakarma community, consisting of goldsmiths, bronze smiths, blacksmiths, masons and carpenters, were essential to the building of temples.
• They also played an important role in the construction of palaces, big buildings, tanks and reservoirs.
• Similarly, weavers such as the Saliyar or Kaikkolars emerged as prosperous communities, making donations to temples.
• Some aspects of cloth making like cotton cleaning, spinning and dyeing became specialised and independent crafts.

Major Tribes

Tribes of eastern India

Chapter 8
DEVOTIONAL PATHS TO THE DIVINE

The Idea of a Supreme God

• The idea that all living things pass through countless cycles of birth and rebirth performing good deeds and bad came to be widely accepted.
• Similarly, the idea that all human beings are not equal even at birth gained ground during this period.
• The belief that social privileges came from birth in a “noble” family or a “high” caste was the subject of many learned texts.
• Many people were uneasy with such ideas and turned to the teachings of the Buddha or the Jainas according to which it was possible to overcome social differences and break the cycle of rebirth through personal effort.
• Others felt attracted to the idea of a Supreme God who could deliver humans from such bondage if approached with devotion (or bhakti).
• This idea, advocated in the Bhagavadgita, grew in popularity in the early centuries of the Common Era.
• Shiva, Vishnu and Durga as supreme deities
• At the same time, gods and goddesses worshipped in different areas came to be identified with Shiva, Vishnu or Durga.
• In the process, local myths and legends became a part of the Puranic stories, and methods of worship recommended in the Puranas were introduced into the local cults.
• Eventually the Puranas also laid down that it was possible for devotees to receive the grace of God regardless of their caste status.
• The idea of bhakti became so popular that even Buddhists and Jainas adopted these beliefs.

A New Kind of Bhakti in South India– Nayanars & Alvars

• The 7^th-9^th centuries saw the emergence of new religious movements, led by the Nayanars (saints devoted to Shiva) and Alvars (saints devoted to Vishnu) who came from all castes including those considered “untouchable” like the Pulaiyar and the Panars.
• They were sharply critical of the Buddhists and Jainas and preached ardent love of Shiva or Vishnu as the path to salvation.
• They drew upon the ideals of love and heroism as found in the Sangam literature (the earliest example of Tamil literature, composed during the early centuries of the Common Era) and blended them with the values of bhakti.
• The Nayanars and Alvars went from place to place composing exquisite poems in praise of the deities enshrined in the villages they visited, and set them to music.
• Between 10^th and 12^th centuries the Chola and Pandya kings built elaborate temples around many of the shrines visited by the saint-poets, strengthening the links between the bhakti tradition and temple worship.
• This was also the time when their poems were compiled.
• Besides, hagiographies or religious biographies of the Alvars and Nayanars were also composed.

Nayanars and Alvars

• There were 63 Nayanars, who belonged to different caste backgrounds such as potters, “untouchable” workers, peasants, hunters, soldiers, Brahmanas and chiefs.
• The best known among them were Appar, Sambandar, Sundarar and Manikkavasagar.
• There are two sets of compilations of their songs – Tevaram and Tiruvacakam.
• There were 12 Alvars, who came from equally divergent backgrounds, the best known being Periyalvar, his daughter Andal, Tondaradippodi Alvar and Nammalvar.
• Their songs were compiled in the Divya Prabandham.

A bronze image of Manikkavasagar

Philosophy and Bhakti

• Shankara, one of the most influential philosophers of India, was born in Kerala in the eighth century.
• He was an advocate of Advaita or the doctrine of the oneness of the individual soul and the Supreme God which is the Ultimate Reality.
• He taught that Brahman, the only or Ultimate Reality, was formless and without any attributes.
• He considered the world around us to be an illusion or maya, and preached renunciation of the world and adoption of the path of knowledge to understand the true nature of Brahman and attain salvation.
• Ramanuja, born in Tamil Nadu in the eleventh century, was deeply influenced by the Alvars.
• According to him the best means of attaining salvation was through intense devotion to Vishnu.
• Vishnu in His grace helps the devotee to attain the bliss of union with Him.
• He propounded the doctrine of Vishishtadvaita or qualified oneness in that the soul even when united with the Supreme God remained distinct.
• Ramanuja’s doctrine greatly inspired the new strand of bhakti which developed in north India

Basavanna’s Virashaivism

• This movement began in Karnataka in the mid-twelfth century.
• The Virashaivas argued strongly for the equality of all human beings and against Brahmanical ideas about caste and the treatment of women.
• They were also against all forms of ritual and idol worship.

The saints of Maharashtra

• From 13^th- 17^th centuries Maharashtra saw a great number of saint-poets, whose songs in simple Marathi continue to inspire people.
• The most important among them were Janeshwar, Namdev, Eknath and Tukaram as well as women like Sakkubai and the family of Chokhamela, who belonged to the “untouchable” Mahar caste.
• This regional tradition of bhakti focused on the Vitthala (a form of Vishnu) temple in Pandharpur, as well as on the notion of a personal god residing in the hearts of all people.
• These saint-poets rejected all forms of ritualism, outward display of piety and social differences based on birth.
• In fact they even rejected the idea of renunciation and preferred to live with their families, earning their livelihood like any other person, while humbly serving fellow human beings in need.
• A new humanist idea emerged as they insisted that bhakti lay in sharing others’ pain.
• As the famous Gujarati saint Narsi Mehta said, “They are Vaishnavas who understand the pain of others.”

Nathpanthis, Siddhas and Yogis

• A number of religious groups that emerged during this period criticised the ritual and other aspects of conventional religion and the social order, using simple, logical arguments.
• Among them were the Nathpanthis, Siddhacharas and Yogis.
• They advocated renunciation of the world.
• To them the path to salvation lay in meditation on the formless Ultimate Reality and the realisation of oneness with it.
• To achieve this they advocated intense training of the mind and body through practices like yogasanas, breathing exercises and meditation.
• These groups became particularly popular among “low” castes.
• Their criticism of conventional religion created the ground for devotional religion to become a popular force in northern India.

Islam and Sufism

• The sants had much in common with the Sufis, so much so that it is believed that they adopted many ideas of each other.
• Sufis were Muslim mystics.
• They rejected outward religiosity and emphasised love and devotion to God and compassion towards all fellow human beings.
• Islam propagated strict monotheism or submission to one God.
• It also rejected idol worship and considerably simplified rituals of worship into collective prayers.
• At the same time Muslim scholars developed a holy law called Shariat.
• The Sufis often rejected the elaborate rituals and codes of behaviour demanded by Muslim religious scholars.
• They sought union with God much as a lover seeks his beloved with a disregard for the world
• Like the saint-poets, the Sufis too composed poems expressing their feelings, and a rich literature in prose, including anecdotes and fables, developed around them.
• Among the great Sufis of Central Asia were Ghazzali, Rumi and Sadi.
• Like the Nathpanthis, Siddhas and Yogis, the Sufis too believed that the heart can be trained to look at the world in a different way.
• They developed elaborate methods of training using zikr (chanting of a name or sacred formula), contemplation, sama (singing), raqs (dancing), discussion of parables, breath control, etc.  under the guidance of a master or pir.
• Thus emerged the silsilas, a genealogy of Sufi teachers, each following a slightly different method (tariqa) of instruction and ritual practice
• A large number of Sufis from Central Asia settled in Hindustan from the eleventh century onwards.
• This process was strengthened with the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, when several major Sufi centres developed all over the subcontinent.
• The Chishti silsila was among the most influential orders.
• It had a long line of teachers like Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti of Ajmer, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki of Delhi, Baba Farid of Punjab, Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi and Bandanawaz Gisudaraz of Gulbarga
• The Sufi masters held their assemblies in their khanqahs or hospices
• Devotees of all descriptions including members of the royalty and nobility, and ordinary people flocked to these khanqahs.
• They discussed spiritual matters, sought the blessings of the saints in solving their worldly problems, or simply attended the music and dance sessions.
• Often people attributed Sufi masters with miraculous powers that could relieve others of their illnesses and troubles.
• The tomb or dargah of a Sufi saint became a place of pilgrimage to which thousands of people of all faiths thronged.
• Jalaluddin Rumi was a great thirteenth-century Sufi poet from Iran who wrote in Persian.
• Chaitanyadeva, a sixteenth-century bhakti saint from Bengal, preached selfless devotion to Krishna-Radha.

New Religious Developments in North India

• 13^th century saw a new wave of the bhakti movement in north India
• Kabir and Baba Guru Nanak rejected all orthodox religions
• While Tulsidas and Surdas accepted existing beliefs and practices but wanted to make these accessible to all.

About Tulsidas-

• Tulsidas conceived of God in the form of Rama.
• Tulsidas’s composition, the Ramcharitmanas, written in Awadhi (a language used in eastern Uttar Pradesh), is important both as an expression of his devotion and as a literary work.
• Surdas was an ardent devotee of Krishna.
• His compositions, compiled in the Sursagara, Surasaravali and Sahitya Lahari, express his devotion.
• Also contemporary was Shankaradeva of Assam (late fifteenth century) who emphasised devotion to Vishnu, and composed poems and plays in Assamese.
• He began the practice of setting up namghars or houses of recitation and prayer, a practice that continues to date.
• This tradition also included saints like Dadu Dayal, Ravidas and Mirabai.

About Mirabai-

• Mirabai was a Rajput princess married into the royal family of Mewar in the sixteenth century.
• Mirabai became a disciple of Ravidas, a saint from a caste considered “untouchable”.
• She was devoted to Krishna and composed innumerable bhajans expressing her intense devotion.
• Her songs also openly challenged the norms of the “upper” castes and became popular with the masses in Rajasthan and Gujarat.
• A unique feature of most of the saints is that their works were composed in regional languages and could be sung.
• They became immensely popular and were handed down orally from generation to generation.
• Usually the poorest, most deprived communities and women transmitted these songs, often adding their own experiences.
• Thus the songs as we have them today are as much a creation of the saints as of generations of people who sang them.
• They have become a part of our living popular culture

Kabir

• Kabir, who probably lived in the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries, was one of the most influential saints.
• He was brought up in a family of Muslim julahas or weavers settled in or near the city of Benares (Varanasi).
• His ideas from a vast collection of verses called sakhis and pads said to have been composed by him and sung by wandering bhajan singers.
• Some of these were later collected and preserved in the Guru Granth Sahib, Panch Vani and Bijak.
• Kabir’s teachings were based on a complete, indeed vehement, rejection of the major religious traditions.
• His teachings openly ridiculed all forms of external worship of both Brahmanical Hinduism and Islam, the pre-eminence of the priestly classes and the caste system.
• The language of his poetry was a form of spoken Hindi widely understood by ordinary people.
• He also sometimes used cryptic language, which is difficult to follow.
• Kabir believed in a formless Supreme God and preached that the only path to salvation was through bhakti or devotion.
• Kabir drew his followers from among both Hindus and Muslims.

Baba Guru Nanak (1469-1539)

• Born at Talwandi (Nankana Sahib in Pakistan), he travelled widely before establishing a centre at Kartarpur (Dera Baba Nanak on the river Ravi).
• A regular worship that consisted of the singing of his own hymns was established there for his followers.
• Irrespective of their former creed, caste or gender, his followers ate together in the common kitchen (langar).
• The sacred space thus created by Guru Nanak was known as dharmsal.  It is now known as Gurudwara
• Before his death in 1539, Guru Nanak appointed one of his followers as his successor.
• His name was Lehna but he came to be known as Guru Angad, signifying that he was a part of Guru Nanak himself.
• Guru Angad compiled the compositions of Guru Nanak, to which he added his own in a new script known as Gurmukhi.
• The three successors of Guru Angad also wrote under the name of “Nanak” and all of their compositions were compiled by Guru Arjan in 1604.
• To this compilation were added the writings of other figures like Shaikh Farid, Sant Kabir, Bhagat Namdev and Guru Tegh Bahadur.
• In 1706 this compilation was authenticated by his son and successor, Guru Gobind Singh.
• It is now known as Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of the Sikhs.
• The number of Guru Nanak’s followers increased through the sixteenth century under his successors.
• They belonged to a number of castes but traders, agriculturists, artisans and craftsmen predominated.
• This may have something to do with Guru Nanak’s insistence that his followers must be householders and should adopt productive and useful occupations.
• They were also expected to contribute to the general funds of the community of followers
• By the beginning of 17^th century the town of Ramdaspur (Amritsar) had developed around the central Gurdwara called Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple).
• It was virtually self-governing and modern historians refer to the early seventeenth century Sikh community as ‘a state within the state’.
• The Mughal emperor Jahangir looked upon them as a potential threat and he ordered the execution of Guru Arjan in 1606.
• The Sikh movement began to get politicized in the seventeenth century, a development which culminated in the institution of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699.
• The community of the Sikhs, called the Khalsa Panth, became a political entity.
• The changing historical situation during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries influenced the development of the Sikh movement.
• The ideas of Guru Nanak had a huge impact on this development from the very beginning.
• He emphasized the importance of the worship of one God.
• He insisted that caste, creed or gender was irrelevant for attaining liberation.
• His idea of liberation was not that of a state of inert bliss but rather the pursuit of active life with a strong sense of social commitment.
• He himself used the terms nam, dan and isnan for the essence of his teaching, which actually meant right worship, welfare of others and purity of conduct.
• His teachings are now remembered as nam-japna, kirt-karna and vand-chhakna, which also underline the importance of right belief and worship, honest living, and helping others.
• Thus, Guru Nanak’s idea of equality had social and political implications.
• This might partly explain the difference between the history of the followers of Guru Nanak and the history of the followers of the other religious figures of the medieval centuries, like Kabir, Ravidas and Dadu whose ideas were very similar to those of Guru Nanak.

Martin Luther and the Reformation

• The sixteenth century was a time of religious ferment in Europe as well.
• One of the most important leaders of the changes that took place within Christianity was Martin Luther (1483-1546).
• Luther felt that several practices in the Roman Catholic Church went against the teachings of the Bible.
• He encouraged the use of the language of ordinary people rather than Latin, and translated the Bible into German.
• Luther was strongly opposed to the practice of “indulgences” or making donations to the Church so as to gain forgiveness from sins.
• His writings were widely disseminated with the growing use of the printing press.
• Many Protestant Christian sects trace their origins to the teachings of Luther.

Chapter 9
THE MAKING OF REGIONAL CULTURES

The Cheras and the Development of Malayalam-

• The Chera kingdom of Mahodayapuram was established in the ninth century in the south-western part of the peninsula, part of present-day Kerala.
• It is likely that Malayalam was spoken in this area.
• The rulers introduced the Malayalam language and script in their inscriptions.
• In fact, this is one of the earliest examples of the use of a regional language in official records in the subcontinent.
• At the same time, the Cheras also drew upon Sanskritic traditions.
• The temple theatre of Kerala, which is traced to this period, borrowed stories from the Sanskrit epics.
• The first literary works in Malayalam, dated to about the twelfth century, are directly indebted to Sanskrit.
• Interestingly enough, a fourteenth-century text, the Lilatilakam, dealing with grammar and poetics, was composed in Manipravalam– literally, “diamonds and corals” referring to the two languages, Sanskrit and the regional language

Rulers and Religious Traditions:
The Jagannatha cult

• In other regions, regional cultures grew around religious traditions.
• The best example of this process is the cult of Jagannatha (literally, lord of the world, a name for Vishnu) at Puri, Orissa.
• To date, the local tribal people make the wooden image of the deity, which suggests that the deity was originally a local god, who was later identified with Vishnu
• In 12^th century, one of the most important rulers of the Ganga dynasty, Anantavarman, decided to erect a temple for Purushottama Jagannatha at Puri.
• Subsequently, in 1230, king Anangabhima III dedicated his kingdom to the deity and proclaimed himself as the “deputy” of the god.
• As the temple gained in importance as a centre of pilgrimage, its authority in social and political matters also increased.
• All those who conquered Orissa, such as the Mughals, the Marathas and the English East India Company, attempted to gain control over the temple.
• They felt that this would make their rule acceptable to the local people.

The Rajputs and Traditions of Heroism

• In 19^th century, the region that constitutes most of present-day Rajasthan, was called Rajputana by the British.
• While this may suggest that this was an area that was inhabited only or mainly by Rajputs, this is only partly true.
• There were (and are) several groups who identify themselves as Rajputs in many areas of northern and central India.
• Rajputs live in Rajasthan.
• However, the Rajputs are often recognised as contributing to the distinctive culture of Rajasthan.
• These cultural traditions were closely linked with the ideals and aspirations of rulers.
• From about the eighth century, most of the present-day state of Rajasthan was ruled by various Rajput families.
• Prithviraj was one such ruler.
• These rulers cherished the ideal of the hero who fought valiantly, often choosing death on the battlefield rather than face defeat.
• Stories about Rajput heroes were recorded in poems and songs, which were recited by specially trained minstrels.
• These preserved the memories of heroes and were expected to inspire others to follow their example.
• Ordinary people were also attracted by these stories – which often depicted dramatic situations, and a range of strong emotions – loyalty, friendship, love, valour, anger, etc.
• Sometimes, women figure as the “cause” for conflicts, as men fought with one another to either “win” or “protect” women.
• Women are also depicted as following their heroic husbands in both life and death – there are stories about the practice of sati or the immolation of widows on the funeral pyre of their husbands.
• So those who followed the heroic ideal often had to pay for it with their lives.

Krishna, Radha and her companion, Pahari miniature, Kangra

Pirs and Temples

• Pir- A Persian word meaning a spiritual guide.
• From the sixteenth century, people began to migrate in large numbers from the less fertile western Bengal to the forested and marshy areas of south-eastern Bengal.
• As they moved eastwards, they cleared forests and brought the land under rice cultivation.
• Gradually, local communities of fisher- folk and shifting cultivators, often tribals, merged with the new communities of peasants.
• This coincided with the establishment of Mughal control over Bengal with their capital in the heart of the eastern delta at Dhaka.
• Officials and functionaries received land and often set up mosques that served as centres for religious transformation in these areas.
• The early settlers sought some order and assurance in the unstable conditions of the new settlements.
• These were provided by community leaders, who also functioned as teachers and adjudicators and were sometimes ascribed with supernatural powers.
• People referred to them with affection and respect as pirs.
• This term included saints or Sufis and other religious personalities, daring colonisers and deified soldiers, various Hindu and Buddhist deities and even animistic spirits.
• The cult of pirs became very popular and their shrines can be found everywhere in Bengal.
• Bengal also witnessed a temple-building spree from the late fifteenth century, which culminated in the nineteenth century. 
• Earlier temples and other religious structures were often built by individuals or groups who were becoming powerful – to both demonstrate their power and proclaim their piety.
• Many of the modest brick and terracotta temples in Bengal were built with the support of several “low” social groups, such as the Kolu (oil pressers) and the Kansari (bell metal workers).
• The coming of the European trading companies created new economic opportunities; many families belonging to these social groups availed of these.
• As their social and economic position improved, they proclaimed their status through the construction of temples.
• When local deities, once worshipped in thatched huts in villages, gained the recognition of the Brahmanas, their images began to be housed in temples.
• The temples began to copy the double-roofed (dochala) or four-roofed (chauchala) structure of the thatched huts
• This led to the evolution of the typical Bengali style in temple architecture.
• In the comparatively more complex four-roofed structure, four triangular roofs placed on the four walls move up to converge on a curved line or a point.
• Temples were usually built on a square platform.
• The interior was relatively plain, but the outer walls of many temples were decorated with paintings, ornamental tiles or terracotta tablets.
• In some temples, particularly in Vishnupur in the Bankura district of West Bengal, such decorations reached a high degree of excellence

Chapter 10
18^th CENTURY POLITICAL FORMATIONS

State formations in the 18^th century.

By 1765, British, had successfully grabbed major chunks of territory in eastern India.

The Crisis of the Empire and the Later Mughals

• Mughal Empire reached the height of its success and started facing a variety of crises towards the closing years of the seventeenth century.
• These were caused by a number of factors.
• Emperor Aurangzeb had depleted the military and financial resources of his empire by fighting a long war in the Deccan.
• Under his successors, the efficiency of the imperial administration broke down. It became increasingly difficult for the later Mughal emperors to keep a check on their powerful mansabdars.
• Nobles appointed as governors (subadars) often controlled the offices of revenue and military administration (diwani and faujdari) as well.
• This gave them extraordinary political, economic and military powers over vast regions of the Mughal Empire.
• As the governors consolidated their control over the provinces, the periodic remission of revenue to the capital declined.
• Peasant and zamindari rebellions in many parts of northern and western India added to these problems.
• These revolts were sometimes caused by the pressures of mounting taxes.
• At other times they were attempts by powerful chieftains to consolidate their own positions.
• Mughal authority had been challenged by rebellious groups in the past as well.
• But these groups were now able to seize the economic resources of the region to consolidate their positions.
• The Mughal emperors after Aurangzeb were unable to arrest the gradual shifting of political and economic authority into the hands of provincial governors, local chieftains and other groups
• In the midst of this economic and political crisis, the ruler of Iran, Nadir Shah, sacked and plundered the city of Delhi in 1739 and took away immense amounts of wealth.
• This invasion was followed by a series of plundering raids by the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali, who invaded north India five times between 1748 and 1761.
• Already under severe pressure from all sides, the empire was further weakened by competition amongst different groups of nobles.
• They were divided into two major groups or factions, the Iranis and Turanis (nobles of Turkish descent).
• For a long time, the later Mughal emperors were puppets in the hands of either one or the other of these two powerful groups.
• The worst possible humiliation came when two Mughal emperors, Farrukh Siyar (1713-1719) and Alamgir II (1754-1759) were assassinated, and two others Ahmad Shah (1748-1754) and Shah Alam II (1759-1816) were blinded by their nobles.

Emergence of New States

• With the decline in the authority of the Mughal emperors, the governors of large provinces, subadars, and the great zamindars consolidated their authority in different parts of the subcontinent.
• Through the eighteenth century, the Mughal Empire gradually fragmented into a number of independent, regional states.
• Broadly speaking the states of the eighteenth century can be divided into three overlapping groups:
• States that were old Mughal provinces like Awadh, Bengal and Hyderabad.
• Although extremely powerful and quite independent, the rulers of these states did not break their formal ties with the Mughal emperor.
• States that had enjoyed considerable independence under the Mughals as watan jagirs. These included several Rajput principalities.
• The last group included states under the control of Marathas, Sikhs and others like the Jats.
• These were of differing sizes and had seized their independence from the Mughals after a long-drawn armed struggle.

The Old Mughal Provinces

• Amongst the states that were carved out of the old Mughal provinces in the eighteenth century, three stand out very prominently.
• These were Awadh, Bengal and Hyderabad.
• All three states were founded by members of the high Mughal nobility who had been governors of large provinces – Sa‘adat Khan (Awadh), Murshid Quli Khan (Bengal) and Asaf Jah (Hyderabad).
• All three had occupied high mansabdari positions and enjoyed the trust and confidence of the emperors.
• Both Asaf Jah and Murshid Quli Khan held a zat rank of 7,000 each, while Sa’adat Khan’s zat was 6,000.

Hyderabad

• Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, the founder of Hyderabad state, was one of the most powerful members at the court of the Mughal Emperor Farrukh Siyar.
• He was entrusted first with the governorship of Awadh, and later given charge of the Deccan.
• As the Mughal governor of the Deccan provinces, Asaf Jah already had full control over its political and financial administration.
• Taking advantage of the turmoil in the Deccan and the competition amongst the court nobility, he gathered power in his hands and became the actual ruler of that region.
• Asaf Jah brought skilled soldiers and administrators from northern India who welcomed the new opportunities in the south.
• He appointed mansabdars and granted jagirs.
• Although he was still a servant of the Mughal emperor, he ruled quite independently without seeking any direction from Delhi or facing any interference.
• The Mughal emperor merely confirmed the decisions already taken by the Nizam.
• The state of Hyderabad was constantly engaged in a struggle against the Marathas to the west and with independent Telugu warrior chiefs (nayakas) of the plateau.
• The ambitions of the Nizam to control the rich textile-producing areas of the Coromandel coast in the east were checked by the British who were becoming increasingly powerful in that region

Awadh

Burhan-ul-Mulk Sa‘adat Khan was appointed subadar of Awadh in 1722 and founded a state which was one of the most important to emerge out of the break-up of the Mughal Empire.

• Awadh was a prosperous region, controlling the rich alluvial Ganga plain and the main trade route between north India and Bengal.
• Burhan-ul-Mulk also held the combined offices of subadari, diwani and faujdari.
• In other words, he was responsible for managing the political, financial and military affairs of the province of Awadh
• Burhan-ul-Mulk tried to decrease Mughal influence in the Awadh region by reducing the number of office holders (jagirdars) appointed by the Mughals.
• He also reduced the size of jagirs, and appointed his own loyal servants to vacant positions.
• The accounts of jagirdars were checked to prevent cheating and the revenues of all districts were reassessed by officials appointed by the Nawab’s court.
• He seized a number of Rajput zamindaris and the agriculturally fertile lands of the Afghans of Rohilkhand.
• The state depended on local bankers and mahajans for loans.
• It sold the right to collect tax to the highest bidders.
• These “revenue farmers” (ijaradars) agreed to pay the state a fixed sum of money.
• Local bankers guaranteed the payment of this contracted amount to the state.
• In turn, the revenue-farmers were given considerable freedom in the assessment and collection of taxes.
• These developments allowed new social groups, like moneylenders and bankers, to influence the management of the state’s revenue system, something which had not occurred in the past.

Bengal

• Bengal gradually broke away from Mughal control under Murshid Quli Khan who was appointed as the naib, deputy to the governor of the province.
• Although never a formal subadar, Murshid Quli Khan very quickly seized all the power that went with that office.
• Like the rulers of Hyderabad and Awadh he also commanded the revenue administration of the state.
• In an effort to reduce Mughal influence in Bengal he transferred all Mughal jagirdars to Orissa and ordered a major reassessment of the revenues of Bengal.
• Revenue was collected in cash with great strictness from all zamindars. As a result, many zamindars had to borrow money from bankers and moneylenders.
• Those unable to pay were forced to sell their lands to larger zamindars.
• The formation of a regional state in eighteenth century Bengal therefore led to considerable change amongst the zamindars.
• The close connection between the state and bankers – noticeable in Hyderabad and Awadh as well – was evident in Bengal under the rule of Alivardi Khan (r. 1740- 1756).
• During his reign the banking house of Jagat Seth became extremely prosperous.

Common features amongst these states-

• First, though many of the larger states were established by erstwhile Mughal nobles they were highly suspicious of some of the administrative systems that they had inherited, in particular the jagirdari system.
• Second, their method of tax collection differed. Rather than relying upon the officers of the state, all three regimes contracted with revenue-farmers for the collection of revenue.
• The practice of ijaradari, thoroughly disapproved of by the Mughals, spread all over India in the eighteenth century. Their impact on the countryside differed considerably.
• The third common feature in all these regional states was their emerging relationship with rich bankers and merchants. These people lent money to revenue farmers, received land as security and collected taxes from these lands through their own agents. Throughout India the richest merchants and bankers were gaining a stake in the new political order.

The Watan Jagirs of the Rajputs

• Many Rajput kings, particularly those belonging to Amber and Jodhpur, had served under the Mughals with distinction.
• In exchange, they were permitted to enjoy considerable autonomy in their watan jagirs.
• In 18^th century, these rulers now attempted to extend their control over adjacent regions. Ajit Singh, the ruler of Jodhpur, was also involved in the factional politics at the Mughal court.
• These influential Rajput families claimed the subadari of the rich provinces of Gujarat and Malwa.
• Raja Ajit Singh of Jodhpur held the governorship of Gujarat and Sawai Raja Jai Singh of Amber was governor of Malwa.
• These offices were renewed by Emperor Jahandar Shah in 1713.
• They also tried to extend their territories by seizing portions of imperial territories neighbouring their watans.
• Nagaur was conquered and annexed to the house of Jodhpur, while Amber seized large portions of Bundi. Sawai Raja Jai Singh founded his new capital at Jaipur and was given the subadari of Agra in 1722.
• Maratha campaigns into Rajasthan from the 1740s put severe pressure on these principalities and checked their further expansion.

Seizing Independence

The Sikhs

• The organisation of the Sikhs into a political community during the seventeenth century helped in regional state-building in the Punjab.
• Several battles were fought by Guru Gobind Singh against the Rajput and Mughal rulers, both before and after the institution of the Khalsa in 1699.
• After his death in 1708, the Khalsa rose in revolt against the Mughal authority under Banda Bahadur’s leadership, declared their sovereign rule by striking coins in the name of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, and established their own administration between the Sutlej and the Jamuna.
• Banda Bahadur was captured in 1715 and executed in 1716.
• Under a number of able leaders in the eighteenth century, the Sikhs organized themselves into a number of bands called jathas, and later on misls.
• Their combined forces were known as the grand army (dal khalsa).
• The entire body used to meet at Amritsar at the time of Baisakhi and Diwali to take collective decisions known as “resolutions of the Guru (gurmatas)”.
• A system called rakhi was introduced, offering protection to cultivators on the payment of a tax of 20 per cent of the produce.
• Guru Gobind Singh had inspired the Khalsa with the belief that their destiny was to rule (raj karega khalsa).
• Their well-knit organization enabled them to put up a successful resistance to the Mughal governors first and then to Ahmad Shah Abdali who had seized the rich province of the Punjab and the Sarkar of Sirhind from the Mughals.
• The Khalsa declared their sovereign rule by striking their own coin again in 1765.
• Significantly, this coin bore the same inscription as the one on the orders issued by the Khalsa in the time of Banda Bahadur.
• The entire body used to meet at Amritsar at the time of Baisakhi and Diwali to take collective decisions known as “resolutions of the Guru (gurmatas)”.
• A system called rakhi was introduced, offering protection to cultivators on the payment of a tax of 20 per cent of the produce.
• Guru Gobind Singh had inspired the Khalsa with the belief that their destiny was to rule (raj karega khalsa).
• Their well-knit organization enabled them to put up a successful resistance to the Mughal governors first and then to Ahmad Shah Abdali who had seized the rich province of the Punjab and the Sarkar of Sirhind from the Mughals.
• The Khalsa declared their sovereign rule by striking their own coin again in 1765.
• Significantly, this coin bore the same inscription as the one on the orders issued by the Khalsa in the time of Banda Bahadur.
• The Sikh territories in the late eighteenth century extended from the Indus to the Jamuna but they were divided under different rulers.
• One of them, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, reunited these groups and established his capital at Lahore in 1799

The Marathas

• The Maratha kingdom was another powerful regional kingdom to arise out of a sustained opposition to Mughal rule.
• Shivaji (1627-1680) carved out a stable kingdom with the support of powerful warrior families (deshmukhs).
• Groups of highly mobile, peasant pastoralists (kunbis) provided the backbone of the Maratha army.
• Shivaji used these forces to challenge the Mughals in the peninsula.
• After Shivaji’s death, effective power in the Maratha state was wielded by a family of Chitpavan Brahmanas who served Shivaji’s successors as Peshwa (or principal minister). Poona became the capital of the Maratha kingdom.
• Under the Peshwas, the Marathas developed a very successful military organisation.
• Their success lay in bypassing the fortified areas of the Mughals, by raiding cities and by engaging Mughal armies in areas where their supply lines and reinforcements could be easily disturbed.
• Between 1720 and 1761, the Maratha empire expanded.
• It gradually chipped away at the authority of the Mughal Empire.
• Malwa and Gujarat were seized from the Mughals by the 1720s.
• By the 1730s, the Maratha king was recognised as the overlord of the entire Deccan peninsula.
• He possessed the right to levy chauth and sardeshmukhi in the entire region
• Chauth- 25 per cent of the land revenue claimed by zamindars. In the Deccan this was collected by the Marathas.
• Sardeshmukhi- 9-10 per cent of the land revenue paid to the head revenue collector in the Deccan.
• After raiding Delhi in 1737 the frontiers of Maratha domination expanded rapidly: into Rajasthan and the Punjab in the north; into Bengal and Orissa in the east; and into Karnataka and the Tamil and Telugu countries in the south
• These were not formally included in the Maratha empire, but were made to pay tribute as a way of accepting Maratha sovereignty.
• Expansion brought enormous resources, but it came at a price.
• These military campaigns also made other rulers hostile towards the Marathas.
• As a result, they were not inclined to support the Marathas during the third battle of Panipat in 1761.
• Alongside endless military campaigns, the Marathas developed an effective administrative system as well.
• Once conquest had been completed and Maratha rule was secure, revenue demands were gradually introduced taking local conditions into account.
• Agriculture was encouraged and trade revived. This allowed Maratha chiefs (sardars) like Sindhia of Gwalior, Gaekwad of Baroda and Bhonsle of Nagpur the resources to raise powerful armies.
• Maratha campaigns into Malwa in the 1720s did not challenge the growth and prosperity of the cities in the region.
• Ujjain expanded under Sindhia’s patronage and Indore under Holkar’s.
• By all accounts these cities were large and prosperous and functioned as important commercial and cultural centres.
• New trade routes emerged within the areas controlled by the Marathas.
• The silk produced in the Chanderi region now found a new outlet in Poona, the Maratha capital.
• Burhanpur which had earlier participated in the trade between Agra and Surat now expanded its hinterland to include Poona and Nagpur in the south and Lucknow and Allahabad in the east.

The Jats

• Jats consolidated their power during the late 17^th & 18^th centuries
• Under their leader, Churaman, they acquired control over territories situated to the west of the city of Delhi, and by the 1680s they had begun dominating the region between the two imperial cities of Delhi and Agra.
• For a while they became the virtual custodians of the city of Agra.
• The Jats were prosperous agriculturists, and towns like Panipat and Ballabhgarh became important trading centres in the areas dominated by them.
• Under Suraj Mal the kingdom of Bharatpur emerged as a strong state.
• When Nadir Shah sacked Delhi in 1739, many of the city’s notables took refuge there.
• His son Jawahir Shah
• While the Bharatpur fort was built in a fairly traditional style, at Dig the Jats built an elaborate garden palace combining styles seen at Amber and Agra.
• Its buildings were modelled on architectural forms first associated with royalty under Shah Jahan

Important Terminologies-

Archive-

• A place where documents and manuscripts are stored.

Patron-

• An influential, wealthy individual who supports another person – an artiste, a craftsperson, a learned man, or a noble

Hinterland-

• The lands adjacent to a city or port that supply it with goods and services

Garrison town-

• A fortified settlement, with soldiers.

A client is someone who is under the protection of another, a dependent or hanger-on.

A royal architect-

• The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s chronicler declared that the ruler was the “architect of the workshop of empire and religion”.

Pietra dura-

• Coloured, hard stones placed in depressions carved into marble or sandstone creating beautiful, ornate patterns.

Emporium

• A place where goods from diverse production centres are bought and sold

Hundi

• It is a note recording a deposit made by a person. The amount deposited can be claimed in another place by presenting the record of the deposit.

Clan-

• A clan is a group of families or households claiming descent from a common ancestor. Tribal organisation is often based on kinship or clan loyalties.

Shifting Cultivation-

• Trees and bushes in a forest area are first cut and burnt. The crop is sown in the ashes. When this land loses its fertility, another plot of land is cleared and planted in the same way.

Hagiography-

• Writing of saints’ lives.

Hospice-

• House of rest for travellers, especially one kept by a religious order

Animism-

• Attribution of living soul to plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena