History Of Medieval India

History of medieval India refers to the longest period in Indian history that falls between the time of the “ancient period” and the “modern period”. It usually covers the history from the breaking of the Gupta empire that took place in the 6th century and the beginning of the Mughal empire in the year 1526. But some historians believe that the start and the end of the medieval period are much after the time period mentioned above.

Different definitions given by the different historians consider the various time periods of the starting of medieval history. For instance, one definition of the history of the medieval history of India considered the period of the 6th century as the starting while others considered the early half of the 7th century or the starting of the 8th century till the 16th century. The medieval history of India is broadly divided into two segments, namely, early medieval history and late medieval history. However, most historians believe that with the starting of the Mughal empire in India during 1526, the medieval era came to an end. Thus the history of the Mughal era that stretches from the 16th to 18th centuries is considered the beginning of modern history, but few historians consider it as the history of the “late medieval period”. 

There has been a lot of difference in opinions about the actual period of medieval history in India as many of the modern writers push forward the time period of medieval history either to about 1000 EC or to the beginning of the 12th century. In a similar way, the modern writers push back the period of the 18th century that actually marks the time period from the beginning of the Mughal empire to the arrival of the Britishers in India. Thus according to modern history books on “early medieval India”, it began during the 8th century and lasted till the 11th century.

History has been one of the most important topics for the preparation of competitive examinations conducted by the government of India, especially for the IAS examination. For the civil service examination in India, Indian history as a subject is the most elaborated that covers the topics classified under the following categories:-

1. Early Indian History

2. Medieval Indian History

3. Modern Indian History

The medieval history in the UPSC syllabus mostly deals with the Indian heritage and culture that marks from the Gupta empire. Thus this entire topic deals with the “history of medieval India '' a complete study material.

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Early Medieval India

The early medieval period is actually taken to be the slow collapse of the Gupta dynasty from 480 to 550, which brings an end to the “classical or early history” with the closing of ancient India. But both of these terms considering the ancient period vary widely with the dates, especially when the history is associated with the history of art or religion. For instance, in Romila Thapar’s book, the preceding period of the ancient Classic Indian history is precisely stretching from the 6th century BC to the 6th century AD. 

If the northern part of India is taken under consideration, there hasn’t been any larger state until the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate or the uprising of the Mughal empire. But there have been several larger areas where several Indian dynasties were ruling, including several small dynasties that owned smaller segments that often considered paying tribute to the larger states in some form or the other. Jone Keay who is a British historian has listed down the dynasties that were present at one point of time within the subcontinent counted between 20 to 40 that did not include the local emperors. 

Some of the dynasties from early medieval India are listed below:-

1. Pratihara Dynasty: The Pratihara Dynasty is considered one of the biggest dynasties that matched up to the Gupta empire to a large extent and ruled many states of India from the starting of the 6th century till the 11th century. They were the most powerful dynasty that is known in the classic history of India, who stopped the Muslims or the Mughal emperors from invading the land for almost 400 years. According to Arab history, they were successful in destroying the Muslim armies during their own ruling. They were the first to establish the Rajput empire, whose capital was declared as Kannuaj. They were referred to as the imperial Pratiharas and were thus easily differentiated from the other kingdoms and the emperors. 

2. Chalukya Dynasty: The Chalukya dynasty is considered the classical dynasty of India that has ruled the southern parts and the central parts of India from the 6th century till the 12th century. During this entire period, they ruled as three individual dynasties that were related to each other. The people of the dynasty spoke Kannada, and its capital was Badami. The rulers of the Chalukya dynasty marked an important milestone in the early medieval history of southern India and was also seen as the beginning of the golden age of Karnataka. It is because as the Chalukyas came into the ruling, the political environment changed from being small kingdoms to now large empires with each ascendant of Badami Chalukya.  

3. Rashtrakuta Dynasty: The Rashtrakuta dynasty is a royal dynasty that has ruled most of the parts of the Indian subcontinent from the 6th century till the 11th century. The first Rakstrakuta inscription was seen on the Indian copper plates that elaborate the Rashtrakuta dynasty’s ruling from an ancient place called Manipura that was situated either in western or central India. Also, the other individual clans of the Rashtrakuta dynasty in the same period were also inscribed on the copper plates. They are mentioned as the kings of Achalpur and the emperors of Kannauj. But there have been many confusions around the origin of their dynasties, such as the language they use to speak or their native homeland.

4. Pallava Dynasty: Under the ruling of Mahendravarman I from 571 to 630 CE, followed by Narasimhavarman I from 630 to 668 CE, the Pallava Dynasty acquired major powers. The Pallava dynasty was an Indian dynasty that gained prominence from 275 CE till 897 CE ruling the southern part of India. They grew as a dynasty following the eclipse of the Satavahana dynasty, where the Pallavas served as Vassal or liege subjects. With dominating the entire part of the Telugu region, they also dominated the northern part of the Tamil region till the end of the 9th Century, which counted for almost 600 years. Throughout their ruling, they were in constant conflicts with the Chalukyas of Badami in the northern parts of the Tamil region and both Cholas and Pandyas in the southern parts of the Tamil region.

5. Pala Dynasty: During the postclassical period in the Indian subcontinent, the Pala dynasty became the imperial power from 750-1162 CE. The Pala dynasty originated from the regions of West Bengal. The name of the dynasty became famous after their two prominent rulers’ whole name ended with Plala, which means “Protector” in Sanskrit. They were the followers of the Tantric and Mahayana schools of Buddhism. The Palas were initially famous as diplomats and military conquerors. The Pala dynasty was first established with the election of Gopala as the first king of Gauda in 750 CE. They had their major hold in Bengal and Bihar and included major cities of that period like Gauda, Vikrampura, Pataliputra, Somaputra, Tamralipta, Ramvati, Jaggadala, Monghyr etc. 

6. Chola Dynasty: Chola dynasty is known to be one of the longest-running dynasties in world history, where the Chola dynasty was the Tamil maritime empire of the southern part of India. The earliest database that is revived was the inscriptions that are referring back to the 3rd century BCE that was left by one of the prominent emperors of the Mayura empire named Ashoka. Chola was among the three crowned kings of Tamilakam after Chera and Pandya; the dynasty kept continuing their ruling till the 13th century. Though it is one of the ancient Indian dynasties, the prominence of this empire started only in the medieval era of the 9th century. 

7. Harsha Dynasty: For a very brief period, the emperor of the Vardhana dynasty was ruled by emperor Harsha from 606 to 647 EC. He was the descendent of Prabhakara Vardhana, who was known to defeat the invaders of Alcon Huna. His elder brother Rajyavardhan was the king of Thanesar, which is known as Haryana in the present day. During the peak of their ruling, they covered the large area of north, northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent and south till Narmada river.  

8. Eastern Ganga Dynasty: Eastern Ganga Dynasty is also famous for the names Rudhi Gangas and Prachya Gangas was a large royal dynasty of the early medieval era that gained its empires from the early 5th century till the 15th century. The dynasty consists of major portions of Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. The first ruling center of the Eastern Ganga dynasty rulers in Dharapuram. Later they moved their capital to Kaliganagara and then finally to Kataka which is known as Cuttack in modern India. They were the ones who built the Jagannath Puri temple that is considered as one of the heritage sites of India, and Konark Sun Temple at Konark, Orissa, which is listed as the world heritage site under UNESCO.

The Late Medieval Era In India

The late medieval era in India is marked by the uprising of the Muslim Sultanate and the decline of Buddhist influence from most of the parts of the Indian subcontinent. There was an increase in Mugal architecture followed by the creation of the Bengal Sultanate as the major trading state. The major empires of the late medieval period in India are:

1. Delhi Sultanate: It was a dynasty of the combination of five short-lived empires from the year 1206 to 1526. They were majorly based in Delhi. All of these empires then fell under the Mugal ruling and together with the formation of one large Delhi Sultanate dynasty.

2. Chero Dynasty: this was a dynasty that was based in eastern parts of India and ruled the areas of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand between the time period 1206 to 1526. 

3. Bengal Sultanate: the rulers of the Bengal Sultanate ruled major parts of Burma along with West Bengal from 1352 to 1576.

4. Reddy Kingdom: The ruler named Prolaya Vema Reddy founded the Reddy dynasty which is also famously known as the Kondaveedu Reddy Kingdom. The coastal parts of Andhra Pradesh in modern India were ruled by the Reddy rulers from 1325-1448. They were known to revolt against the Turkish army of the Delhi Sultanate. 

5. Seuna (Yadava) Dynasty: it is one of the oldest Maratha-Kannada dynasties that remained functional from the year 1190-1395. During their peak of ruling, they had established their kingdoms stretching from Tungabhadra to the Narmada river and had their capital at Devnagri. Their kingdoms were witnessed in the modern Indian states like Maharashtra, parts of Madhya Pradesh, and northern parts of Karnataka.  

6. Rajput States: The Rajputs were the rulers of Hindu beliefs who still rule the major part of Rajasthan of modern India. While at their peak of ruling they ruled major parts of Uttar Pradesh, Gujrat, Uttranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Western Uttar Pradesh as well as Central Uttar Pradesh. Many of such individual Rajput kingdoms functioned under Mugal ruling, followed by British raj as the princely states until the Independence of India.