📝Reshaping India’s Political Map
The period covered is often called the latter part of the 'medieval period' of Indian history, meaning 'between two ages'.
The term 'medieval' was originally applied to European history, from the 5th century CE fall of the Roman Empire to the 14th-16th centuries Renaissance.
Applying the term 'medieval' to India is not ideal due to different histories, and historians disagree on its exact coverage for India.
For this context, 'medieval' simply means the period from the 11th to the 17th centuries in India.
The chapters aim to keep few dates, focusing on important reference points, and encourage revisiting timelines and maps for visualization.
A new era began in early 11th century India with unprecedented foreign invasions from beyond the Hindu Kush mountains, reshaping the political map.
Many invaders were Central Asian, Turkic or Afghan, drawn to India for riches, territorial ambitions, and often to spread their religion by force.
Important events occurred across several centuries, marking significant political and social shifts in India.
The Delhi Sultanate was established in 1206.
The Mewar Kingdom was re-established in 1326.
The Vijayanagara Empire was established in 1336.
The Bahmani Sultanate was established in 1347.
Timur attacked Delhi in 1398.
The Portuguese arrived in India in 1498.
Babur's victory in the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 established the Mughal Empire.
The Battle of Talikota in 1565 resulted in the destruction of Vijayanagara city.
Akbar gained a decisive victory in the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556.
Maharana Pratap was forced to retreat at the Battle of Haldighati in 1576.
The Ahoms defeated the Mughals at the Battle of Saraighat in 1671.
Guru Gobind Singh formed the Khalsa in 1699.
Maratha control of Delhi began in 1754.
The Sikh Empire was established in 1799.
Turkic refers to peoples, languages, and cultures historically associated with a vast region from Central Asia to Turkey and Siberia.
Alternative spellings exist for Persian names due to transcription difficulties, such as 'Khalji'/'Khilji' and 'Mughal'/'Moghul'.
The Delhi Sultanate began after the defeat of King Prithviraj Chauhan in 1192 and saw the rule of five successive foreign Turkic-Afghan dynasties.
A Sultanate is a territory ruled by a 'Sultan,' a title adopted by some Muslim rulers.
The Delhi Sultanate included the Mamluks, Khiljis, Tughlaqs, Sayyids, and Lodis.
Neighboring kingdoms like the Eastern Gangas and Hoysalas resisted the Sultanate's advance and thrived as cultural centers.
The city of Delhi assumed a bigger role in the political landscape of northern India during this period.
The Sultanate period was marked by political instability, territorial expansion efforts, military campaigns, and violent successions.
Military campaigns raided villages, cities, plundered, and destroyed temples and seats of learning.
Almost two out of three sultans seized power by eliminating their predecessor.
A sultan's average reign was hardly more than nine years.
At the turn of the 14th century, Ala-ud-din Khilji conducted military campaigns in north and central India and repelled Mongol invasions.
Ala-ud-din Khilji's slave-general Malik Kafur expanded the Sultanate southward, conquering kingdoms and attacking Hindu centers.
Muhammad bin Tughlaq expanded the Delhi Sultanate's territories, bringing most of the Subcontinent under one ruler, though it was short-lived.
Muhammad bin Tughlaq had ambitious schemes, but they were often poorly executed, like moving the capital.
Moving the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad and back caused great loss of life according to some sources.
The introduction of token currency (cheap copper coins valued as silver/gold) created confusion and counterfeiting, causing economic decline.
Sultans and their court elite lived luxuriously, deriving wealth from plunder, taxes, and slave trade.
Wealth came largely from plunder from military campaigns, taxes on common people and conquered regions, and slave trade.
Plunder affected trade networks and agricultural production.
This period witnessed numerous attacks on sacred images in Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu temples, motivated by plunder and iconoclasm.
Iconoclasm is the rejection or destruction of icons or religious images considered idolatrous.
The term 'image' is used instead of 'idol' or 'icon' because the latter are pejorative in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
India's classical texts used words like mūrti, vigraha, pratimā, rūpa to designate images for worship.
Some sultans imposed the jizya, a tax on non-Muslim subjects for protection and military exemption.
This discriminatory tax was a source of economic burden, public humiliation, and an incentive for conversion to Islam.
At the end of the 14th century, Timur, a brutal Turkic-Mongol conqueror, invaded northwest India and launched a devastating attack on Delhi.
Timur's two-fold objective was to wage 'war with the infidels' and 'to gain something by plundering the wealth of the infidels'.
Large numbers were killed or enslaved, and Delhi was left in ruins after Timur soon withdrew with huge plunder.
An 'infidel' literally means someone who does not share the faith of a given religion.
In the aftermath of Timur's invasion, the Lodis emerged and established the last dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, whose territory had shrunk considerably.
Throughout its rule, the Delhi Sultanate faced significant resistance from various Indian kingdoms.
The Eastern Ganga kingdom of Kalinga, including parts of Odisha, Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh, successfully resisted the Sultanate's advance.
Narasimhadeva I, a mid-13th century ruler, brought military strength and cultural brilliance to the kingdom, repelling Sultanate incursions.
Narasimhadeva I built the famed Sūrya temple at Konark, partly to commemorate his victories.
Telugu chieftains, the Musunuri Nayakas, formed a confederacy of over 75 chieftains and expelled Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s army from Warangal around 1330-1336.
The Hoysalas ruled parts of southern India and fended off several Delhi Sultanate attacks, remaining independent for a time.
Weakened by attacks and internal conflicts, the Hoysala kingdom declined and was absorbed into the Vijayanagara Empire in the mid-14th century.
Kannada folklore narrates the story of Sala fighting a lion to save his guru, giving the dynasty its name ‘Hoy (strike)! Sala’.
The Delhi Sultanate also faced rebellions from emerging independent regional Sultanates, leading to complex alliances and frequent wars.
The Bahmani Sultanate rose in the mid-14th century and controlled much of the Deccan for a while.
Powerful Sultanates also emerged in Gujarat and Bengal.
Parts of Rajasthan, particularly the Mewar kingdom under Rana Kumbha in the 15th century, offered stiff resistance to the Delhi Sultanate.
Rana is a title often used for Rajput kings.
Rana Kumbha built Kumbhalgarh Fort in the 15th century, famous for its massive 36-kilometre-long wall.
As the Delhi Sultanate weakened, a new center of power emerged in the south with the establishment of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th century.
Two brothers, Harihara and Bukka, rejected Delhi’s authority and established an independent kingdom that grew into the Vijayanagara Empire.
Folklore states that Harihara and Bukka established their capital at Hampi after witnessing a hare chase hounds, symbolizing unexpected strength.
The Vijayanagara Empire faced rivalry from the Bahmani Sultanate, which later fragmented into the Deccan Sultanates.
The Bahmani Sultanate fragmented into five independent states: Bijapur, Golconda, Berar, Ahmednagar, and Bidar.
Vijayanagara rulers battled with Bijapur, Golconda, and the Gajapati rulers of Odisha.
The term 'pati,' meaning 'lord' or 'master,' was commonly used in titles like Narapati (Vijayanagara), Ashwapati (Bahmani), and Chhatrapati (Maratha).
In the 16th century, the Vijayanagara Empire reached its peak under Krishnadevaraya, achieving military dominance and cultural renaissance.
Krishnadevaraya patronised poets and scholars in Sanskrit, Telugu, and Kannada.
He composed an epic poem in Telugu, Āmuktamālyada, which included a Rājanīti (royal policy) section on good governance.
Krishnadevaraya provided grants to many temples, including Tirupati and the Vitthala temple in his capital.
Portuguese travellers were well treated for trade, as the king desired horses and wanted to prevent sales to enemy kingdoms.
Portuguese traveller Domingo Paes described Vijayanagara as a city 'as large as Rome', beautiful, with groves, water conduits, and countless people.
After Krishnadevaraya's death in 1529, the empire faced its downfall with the Battle of Talikota and subsequent fragmentation.
In 1565, Deccan Sultanates formed a coalition, defeating Vijayanagara forces at the Battle of Talikota.
The city of Vijayanagara was sacked over several months, with widespread destruction of buildings and massacre of civilians.
The empire fragmented into smaller regions ruled by Nayakas and came to an end in the mid-17th century.
While the Delhi Sultanate weakened, Babur, a Turkic-Mongol ruler, turned his sights to India and laid the foundation of the Mughal Empire.
Babur, a descendant of Timur, was thrown out of Samarkand and defeated Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat in 1526.
The First Battle of Panipat heavily relied on newly introduced gunpowder, field artillery, and matchlock guns.
Babur's victory ended the Delhi Sultanate and established the Mughal Empire by assuming control of the Delhi throne.
Babur's autobiography, Baburnama, reveals him as cultured and intellectually curious, with an appreciation for architecture, poetry, and flora.
Babur was also a brutal and ruthless conqueror, slaughtering entire populations and erecting 'towers of skulls'.
Babur found India a 'country of few charms' but acknowledged its masses of gold, silver, fine rainy season air, and countless artisans.
Perhaps India's wealth and resources led him to stay and build his empire rather than return to Central Asia.
After Babur's death in 1530, his son Humayun struggled, leading to Sher Shah Suri's brief establishment of the Sur Empire.
Sher Shah Suri, a powerful Afghan leader, established the Sur Empire over large parts of north India and introduced many lasting reforms.
The Sur Empire was short-lived, as Humayun soon reconquered the lost ground.
Himu, a skilled military commander, captured Delhi and ruled briefly as Hemchandra Vikramaditya.
Himu was injured and beheaded in the Second Battle of Panipat when confronted by Babur's grandson, Akbar, who reclaimed Delhi.
Declared emperor at 13, Akbar's reign (1556-1605) was a blend of brutality and tolerance, shaped by ambition and strategy.
In early conquests, Akbar showed no mercy at Chittor fort, which he besieged for over five months.
Rajput soldiers inflicted heavy losses on the Mughal army, but the fort was finally breached.
Hundreds of Rajput women committed jauhar to avoid capture and enslavement by invading armies.
Jauhar was considered a heroic act of final resistance and a means of preserving one’s honor.
When Akbar broke into Chittorgarh Fort, hundreds of Rajput women, led by queens, committed jauhar.
Akbar ordered the massacre of some 30,000 civilians, and surviving women and children were enslaved.
Akbar's message stated he established Islam, erased infidelity, and destroyed temples in conquered places.
As his empire grew, Akbar increasingly used political strategies to stabilize it, alongside conquest.
Akbar believed 'a monarch should be ever intent on conquest, otherwise his enemies rise in arms against him.'
He entered into marriage alliances with princesses of neighboring kingdoms.
Akbar welcomed Rajput and regional leaders into his court, gaining their support.
Akbar abolished the jizya tax, a bold reform.
Akbar promoted the doctrine of sulh-i-kul, which means 'peace with all' or tolerance of all faiths.
He engaged in interfaith dialogues and appointed Hindu officials in high positions.
His court historian Abul Fazl recorded Akbar stating that he found it inappropriate to force others into his faith.
Akbar's long reign lasted almost 50 years, from 1556 to his death in 1605.
While the middle period was peaceful, the final 15 years involved fresh military campaigns in Kashmir, Sindh, the Deccan, and Afghanistan.
The period covered is often called the latter part of the 'medieval period' of Indian history, meaning 'between two ages'.
The term 'medieval' was originally applied to European history, from the 5th century CE fall of the Roman Empire to the 14th-16th centuries Renaissance.
Applying the term 'medieval' to India is not ideal due to different histories, and historians disagree on its exact coverage for India.
For this context, 'medieval' simply means the period from the 11th to the 17th centuries in India.
The chapters aim to keep few dates, focusing on important reference points, and encourage revisiting timelines and maps for visualization.
A new era began in early 11th century India with unprecedented foreign invasions from beyond the Hindu Kush mountains, reshaping the political map.
Many invaders were Central Asian, Turkic or Afghan, drawn to India for riches, territorial ambitions, and often to spread their religion by force.
Important events occurred across several centuries, marking significant political and social shifts in India.
The Delhi Sultanate was established in 1206.
The Mewar Kingdom was re-established in 1326.
The Vijayanagara Empire was established in 1336.
The Bahmani Sultanate was established in 1347.
Timur attacked Delhi in 1398.
The Portuguese arrived in India in 1498.
Babur's victory in the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 established the Mughal Empire.
The Battle of Talikota in 1565 resulted in the destruction of Vijayanagara city.
Akbar gained a decisive victory in the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556.
Maharana Pratap was forced to retreat at the Battle of Haldighati in 1576.
The Ahoms defeated the Mughals at the Battle of Saraighat in 1671.
Guru Gobind Singh formed the Khalsa in 1699.
Maratha control of Delhi began in 1754.
The Sikh Empire was established in 1799.
Turkic refers to peoples, languages, and cultures historically associated with a vast region from Central Asia to Turkey and Siberia.
Alternative spellings exist for Persian names due to transcription difficulties, such as 'Khalji'/'Khilji' and 'Mughal'/'Moghul'.
The Delhi Sultanate began after the defeat of King Prithviraj Chauhan in 1192 and saw the rule of five successive foreign Turkic-Afghan dynasties.
A Sultanate is a territory ruled by a 'Sultan,' a title adopted by some Muslim rulers.
The Delhi Sultanate included the Mamluks, Khiljis, Tughlaqs, Sayyids, and Lodis.
Neighboring kingdoms like the Eastern Gangas and Hoysalas resisted the Sultanate's advance and thrived as cultural centers.
The city of Delhi assumed a bigger role in the political landscape of northern India during this period.
The Sultanate period was marked by political instability, territorial expansion efforts, military campaigns, and violent successions.
Military campaigns raided villages, cities, plundered, and destroyed temples and seats of learning.
Almost two out of three sultans seized power by eliminating their predecessor.
A sultan's average reign was hardly more than nine years.
At the turn of the 14th century, Ala-ud-din Khilji conducted military campaigns in north and central India and repelled Mongol invasions.
Ala-ud-din Khilji's slave-general Malik Kafur expanded the Sultanate southward, conquering kingdoms and attacking Hindu centers.
Muhammad bin Tughlaq expanded the Delhi Sultanate's territories, bringing most of the Subcontinent under one ruler, though it was short-lived.
Muhammad bin Tughlaq had ambitious schemes, but they were often poorly executed, like moving the capital.
Moving the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad and back caused great loss of life according to some sources.
The introduction of token currency (cheap copper coins valued as silver/gold) created confusion and counterfeiting, causing economic decline.
Sultans and their court elite lived luxuriously, deriving wealth from plunder, taxes, and slave trade.
Wealth came largely from plunder from military campaigns, taxes on common people and conquered regions, and slave trade.
Plunder affected trade networks and agricultural production.
This period witnessed numerous attacks on sacred images in Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu temples, motivated by plunder and iconoclasm.
Iconoclasm is the rejection or destruction of icons or religious images considered idolatrous.
The term 'image' is used instead of 'idol' or 'icon' because the latter are pejorative in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
India's classical texts used words like mūrti, vigraha, pratimā, rūpa to designate images for worship.
Some sultans imposed the jizya, a tax on non-Muslim subjects for protection and military exemption.
This discriminatory tax was a source of economic burden, public humiliation, and an incentive for conversion to Islam.
At the end of the 14th century, Timur, a brutal Turkic-Mongol conqueror, invaded northwest India and launched a devastating attack on Delhi.
Timur's two-fold objective was to wage 'war with the infidels' and 'to gain something by plundering the wealth of the infidels'.
Large numbers were killed or enslaved, and Delhi was left in ruins after Timur soon withdrew with huge plunder.
An 'infidel' literally means someone who does not share the faith of a given religion.
In the aftermath of Timur's invasion, the Lodis emerged and established the last dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, whose territory had shrunk considerably.
Throughout its rule, the Delhi Sultanate faced significant resistance from various Indian kingdoms.
The Eastern Ganga kingdom of Kalinga, including parts of Odisha, Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh, successfully resisted the Sultanate's advance.
Narasimhadeva I, a mid-13th century ruler, brought military strength and cultural brilliance to the kingdom, repelling Sultanate incursions.
Narasimhadeva I built the famed Sūrya temple at Konark, partly to commemorate his victories.
Telugu chieftains, the Musunuri Nayakas, formed a confederacy of over 75 chieftains and expelled Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s army from Warangal around 1330-1336.
The Hoysalas ruled parts of southern India and fended off several Delhi Sultanate attacks, remaining independent for a time.
Weakened by attacks and internal conflicts, the Hoysala kingdom declined and was absorbed into the Vijayanagara Empire in the mid-14th century.
Kannada folklore narrates the story of Sala fighting a lion to save his guru, giving the dynasty its name ‘Hoy (strike)! Sala’.
The Delhi Sultanate also faced rebellions from emerging independent regional Sultanates, leading to complex alliances and frequent wars.
The Bahmani Sultanate rose in the mid-14th century and controlled much of the Deccan for a while.
Powerful Sultanates also emerged in Gujarat and Bengal.
Parts of Rajasthan, particularly the Mewar kingdom under Rana Kumbha in the 15th century, offered stiff resistance to the Delhi Sultanate.
Rana is a title often used for Rajput kings.
Rana Kumbha built Kumbhalgarh Fort in the 15th century, famous for its massive 36-kilometre-long wall.
As the Delhi Sultanate weakened, a new center of power emerged in the south with the establishment of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th century.
Two brothers, Harihara and Bukka, rejected Delhi’s authority and established an independent kingdom that grew into the Vijayanagara Empire.
Folklore states that Harihara and Bukka established their capital at Hampi after witnessing a hare chase hounds, symbolizing unexpected strength.
The Vijayanagara Empire faced rivalry from the Bahmani Sultanate, which later fragmented into the Deccan Sultanates.
The Bahmani Sultanate fragmented into five independent states: Bijapur, Golconda, Berar, Ahmednagar, and Bidar.
Vijayanagara rulers battled with Bijapur, Golconda, and the Gajapati rulers of Odisha.
The term 'pati,' meaning 'lord' or 'master,' was commonly used in titles like Narapati (Vijayanagara), Ashwapati (Bahmani), and Chhatrapati (Maratha).
In the 16th century, the Vijayanagara Empire reached its peak under Krishnadevaraya, achieving military dominance and cultural renaissance.
Krishnadevaraya patronised poets and scholars in Sanskrit, Telugu, and Kannada.
He composed an epic poem in Telugu, Āmuktamālyada, which included a Rājanīti (royal policy) section on good governance.
Krishnadevaraya provided grants to many temples, including Tirupati and the Vitthala temple in his capital.
Portuguese travellers were well treated for trade, as the king desired horses and wanted to prevent sales to enemy kingdoms.
Portuguese traveller Domingo Paes described Vijayanagara as a city 'as large as Rome', beautiful, with groves, water conduits, and countless people.
After Krishnadevaraya's death in 1529, the empire faced its downfall with the Battle of Talikota and subsequent fragmentation.
In 1565, Deccan Sultanates formed a coalition, defeating Vijayanagara forces at the Battle of Talikota.
The city of Vijayanagara was sacked over several months, with widespread destruction of buildings and massacre of civilians.
The empire fragmented into smaller regions ruled by Nayakas and came to an end in the mid-17th century.
While the Delhi Sultanate weakened, Babur, a Turkic-Mongol ruler, turned his sights to India and laid the foundation of the Mughal Empire.
Babur, a descendant of Timur, was thrown out of Samarkand and defeated Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat in 1526.
The First Battle of Panipat heavily relied on newly introduced gunpowder, field artillery, and matchlock guns.
Babur's victory ended the Delhi Sultanate and established the Mughal Empire by assuming control of the Delhi throne.
Babur's autobiography, Baburnama, reveals him as cultured and intellectually curious, with an appreciation for architecture, poetry, and flora.
Babur was also a brutal and ruthless conqueror, slaughtering entire populations and erecting 'towers of skulls'.
Babur found India a 'country of few charms' but acknowledged its masses of gold, silver, fine rainy season air, and countless artisans.
Perhaps India's wealth and resources led him to stay and build his empire rather than return to Central Asia.
After Babur's death in 1530, his son Humayun struggled, leading to Sher Shah Suri's brief establishment of the Sur Empire.
Sher Shah Suri, a powerful Afghan leader, established the Sur Empire over large parts of north India and introduced many lasting reforms.
The Sur Empire was short-lived, as Humayun soon reconquered the lost ground.
Himu, a skilled military commander, captured Delhi and ruled briefly as Hemchandra Vikramaditya.
Himu was injured and beheaded in the Second Battle of Panipat when confronted by Babur's grandson, Akbar, who reclaimed Delhi.
Declared emperor at 13, Akbar's reign (1556-1605) was a blend of brutality and tolerance, shaped by ambition and strategy.
In early conquests, Akbar showed no mercy at Chittor fort, which he besieged for over five months.
Rajput soldiers inflicted heavy losses on the Mughal army, but the fort was finally breached.
Hundreds of Rajput women committed jauhar to avoid capture and enslavement by invading armies.
Jauhar was considered a heroic act of final resistance and a means of preserving one’s honor.
When Akbar broke into Chittorgarh Fort, hundreds of Rajput women, led by queens, committed jauhar.
Akbar ordered the massacre of some 30,000 civilians, and surviving women and children were enslaved.
Akbar's message stated he established Islam, erased infidelity, and destroyed temples in conquered places.
As his empire grew, Akbar increasingly used political strategies to stabilize it, alongside conquest.
Akbar believed 'a monarch should be ever intent on conquest, otherwise his enemies rise in arms against him.'
He entered into marriage alliances with princesses of neighboring kingdoms.
Akbar welcomed Rajput and regional leaders into his court, gaining their support.
Akbar abolished the jizya tax, a bold reform.
Akbar promoted the doctrine of sulh-i-kul, which means 'peace with all' or tolerance of all faiths.
He engaged in interfaith dialogues and appointed Hindu officials in high positions.
His court historian Abul Fazl recorded Akbar stating that he found it inappropriate to force others into his faith.
Akbar's long reign lasted almost 50 years, from 1556 to his death in 1605.
While the middle period was peaceful, the final 15 years involved fresh military campaigns in Kashmir, Sindh, the Deccan, and Afghanistan.