Medieval Indian History

What the official syllabus says

UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, General Studies Paper I:

History of India and Indian National Movement.

This page covers the early medieval and medieval periods, from about the 8th to the mid-18th century.

Topics in detail

Early medieval India (c. 750 to 1200)

• The tripartite struggle for Kannauj among the Palas, Gurjara-Pratiharas and Rashtrakutas
• Rajput kingdoms and their polity
• The Cholas: Rajaraja I and Rajendra I, naval expeditions, village assemblies (the Uttaramerur inscriptions), temple building
• Arab conquest of Sindh (712 CE), raids of Mahmud of Ghazni, Muhammad Ghori and the battles of Tarain (1191 and 1192)
• Feudal tendencies, land grants and the growth of regional cultures

The Delhi Sultanate (1206 to 1526)

• Mamluk (Slave) dynasty: Qutbuddin Aibak, Iltutmish (iqta system, the Chahalgani), Razia, Balban (theory of kingship)
• Khaljis: Alauddin Khalji's market control, revenue reforms and military campaigns in the Deccan
• Tughlaqs: Muhammad bin Tughlaq (token currency, shifting the capital to Daulatabad), Firoz Shah Tughlaq (canals, public works)
• Timur's invasion (1398), Sayyids and Lodis
• Sultanate administration, iqta and revenue system, army and coinage

Regional kingdoms

• Vijayanagara empire (founded 1336 by Harihara and Bukka): Krishnadevaraya, the nayankara system, Hampi, the battle of Talikota (1565)
• Bahmani kingdom (1347) and the five Deccan sultanates; Mahmud Gawan
• Bengal, Gujarat, Malwa, Jaunpur and Kashmir (Zain-ul-Abidin); Rajput states such as Mewar
• The Ahoms of Assam

Bhakti and Sufi movements

• Alvars and Nayanars of south India; Shankaracharya, Ramanuja and Madhva
• Basavanna and the Virashaiva (Lingayat) movement
• Nirguna saints such as Kabir and Guru Nanak; saguna saints such as Tulsidas, Surdas and Mirabai
• Chaitanya in Bengal, Sankardev in Assam; Namdev, Jnaneshwar and Tukaram in Maharashtra
• Sufi silsilas: Chishti (Moinuddin Chishti, Nizamuddin Auliya), Suhrawardi, Naqshbandi; khanqahs and sama

The Mughal empire

• Babur and the first battle of Panipat (1526); Humayun
• Sher Shah Suri: administration, the silver rupiya, road-building and sarais
• Akbar: the second battle of Panipat (1556), mansabdari system, Todar Mal's revenue settlement (zabt), Rajput policy, Ibadat Khana and Sulh-i-kul
• Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb: policies, expansion into the Deccan, architecture
• Mughal administration, economy, trade, and the causes of decline after 1707

Marathas, Sikhs and the successor states

• Shivaji: administration, the Ashtapradhan, chauth and sardeshmukhi
• The Peshwas, Maratha confederacy and the third battle of Panipat (1761)
• The Sikh Gurus, Guru Gobind Singh and the Khalsa (1699), Banda Bahadur, Maharaja Ranjit Singh
• Eighteenth-century regional states: Hyderabad, Awadh, Bengal, Mysore under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan

Society, economy and culture

• Agrarian relations, zamindars, revenue systems and peasant life
• Crafts, trade, towns and ports; arrival of the Portuguese (Vasco da Gama at Calicut, 1498)
• Persian and regional-language literature; Amir Khusrau; translation projects
• Indo-Islamic architecture, miniature painting and music (see the art and culture page)
• Technology: the Persian wheel, paper, gunpowder and field artillery

Travellers' accounts and administrative terms

• Al-Biruni's Kitab-ul-Hind (11th century); Ibn Battuta at the court of Muhammad bin Tughlaq
• Abdur Razzaq and Domingo Paes on Vijayanagara; Francois Bernier on the Mughal empire
• Terms to know: iqta, khalisa, jagir, mansab with zat and sawar ranks, zabt, dahsala, amaram, chauth and sardeshmukhi

Overlaps

Architecture, painting and religious movements of this period also appear on Indian Art and Culture and in Mains General Studies I.