Found 73 Articles for Mediveal Indian History

Introduction Since 2900 BCE the Indian civilization has seen thousands of groups and clans in society. Starting with the Indus Valley Civilization to the 21st-century composite Indian society. All these different forms of societal structures have left their imprints on Indian history and culture. The Gonds are one of them. Tribal history in India in India is still vague, but a few tribes like Gonds, Bhils, Santhals, et al have some form of literature to support their history. So here we will study the history of the Gonds and how their society has evolved over the years. Changes in the ... Read More

Introduction Chronicles of the Delhi Sultanate mention the just and honest rule by kings in order to get support from others to run the empire. The system was called the circle of justice, in which the king needed to maintain ideal relations with all sections of the society for building a balance and prosperous rule. In this system, every point of the circle (i.e., all sections of the society) is equal and essential. God stands above everyone and casts his shadow on earth through the sultan. At the same time, chronicles of that time also emphasized the existence of gender ... Read More

Introduction During the medieval period, various kingdoms flourished and one such kingdom was the Ahom kingdom. The ahom was a tribal community that migrated from present-day Myanmar to the north-eastern part near Bhrmaputra valley in the thirteenth century through its south-eastern frontier. Initially, these Ahoms settled with local people by the sixteenth century, they defeated Sadiya kingdom and established the Ahom kingdom. Gradually, by defeating the Dimasa empire of south Assam and the Bhuyar kingdom of west Assam they consolidated their position in that region. They ruled for approximately six hundred years and were finally defeated by the Britishers in ... Read More

Introduction Towns were the core of any kingdom in medieval India. The emergence of big towns and cities started in the eighth century. It was the time of many big emirates like Cholas, Chalukyas and Pallavas. Each kingdom had many towns and they were classified according to their purpose. Some were Administrative towns, it was the residing place of kings and nobles and all the administrative activities were controlled from there. Other categories were a commercial town, Port town, Temple town etc. Towns were generally fortified and had a market in them. The rulers provided special protection to towns as ... Read More

Introduction The disintegration of the Delhi Sultanate under weak Lodi rulers and segmentation among the Rajputs offered a golden opportunity to the Central Asian rulers. They had been waiting to invade India to expand their power. One such Central Asian invader was Babur, who, after losing control of his paternal principality, Farghana, sought to conquer territories of the Indian subcontinent. Babur was the founder of the Mughal empire in India. He was believed to be the descendant of Amir Timur and Genghis Khan. At a very young age, Babur succeeded his father and became the ruler of Farghana(Modern day Uzbekistan). ... Read More

Introduction During the Mughal period, the Mughals institutionalized a new concept of Watan Jagirs, in which the word Jagir refers to the land grant and Watan refers to the territories of local rulers of that particular area. In a way after several battles with the Mughals, these local kingdoms accepted the suzerainty of the Mughal rulers. This strategy of Watan Jagir was started during the reign of Akbar, who realized that in order to expand and consolidate his empire, it is important to have the support of the Rajputs. Therefore, he tried to gain the loyalty of the Rajputs by ... Read More

Introduction The most formidable kingdom that emerged during the Mughal empire was the Maratha confederacy. The Marthas remained in power from 1674 to 1818. The Marthas dominated the Deccan region of India. They posed a serious threat to Mughals as well as the British empire during the eighteenth century. These Marathas were very well versed in the guerilla technique of warfare. This Martha confederacy was broken into different states under different chieftains such as Gaikwad, Sindhias, Holkar, and Bhonsle. One of the powerful clans of Martha was the Bhonsle and two important warriors of this clan were Shahji and his ... Read More

Introduction The decline of the Mughal Empire led to the emergence of numerous independent and semi-independent regional powers to assert their authority over the Mughal empire. The Jats were agriculturist settlers, living around Delhi, Agra, and Mathura who were offended due to the oppressive policies of Aurangzeb and started rebelling against the empire. These revolts started in 1669 under the leadership of Gokul, one of the zamindars of Tilpat (which corresponds to modern-day Faridabad in Haryana). After initial difficulties, they succeeded in setting up a new Jat state of Bharatpur under the leadership of Churaman and Badan Singh. This Jat ... Read More

Introduction Since ancient times India has been a metallurgical giant. During the age of the Indus Valley Civilization(IVC) while the majority of the world was busy hunting and gathering food we had made significant progress in making bronze objects. The availability of abundant metallic resources was of great help to the Indian metallurgical industry. Today also India is one of the largest producers of products made from iron, steel, copper and other metals. The “lost wax” technique is a craft of making metallic objects with the help of wax, bronze(or any other metal), fire and a mould. This technique originated ... Read More

Introduction In the early medieval age, new kingdoms were formed. With the new kingdom, many big and small towns were established. Most of the towns were near the sea or river, so the traders could easily come and sell their products. Initially, the kings imposed taxes on the land and took a fixed proportion of the cultivation from the peasants. The practice of taking cultivation among the peasants was mostly seen in rural areas and the countryside. With the establishment of new towns and prosperous cities, the rulers found new taxation sources. They started taxing the traders and shopkeepers. The ... Read More