5.2 Medieval India — Delhi Sultanate, Mughals, Bhakti & the Marathas
Key Takeaways
- The Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526) had five dynasties in order: Mamluk (Slave), Khilji, Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodi.
- Babur founded the Mughal empire by defeating Ibrahim Lodi at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526; Akbar introduced the mansabdari system and Todar Mal's land-revenue settlement.
- The Bhakti movement produced Basavanna and the Vachanakaras in Karnataka, the Dasa Sahitya of Purandaradasa and Kanakadasa, and Madhvacharya's Dvaita philosophy at Udupi.
- Shivaji was crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad in 1674 and built a state on the Ashtapradhan council and a system of chauth and sardeshmukhi levies.
- The Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 broke Maratha power in the north and cleared the way for British expansion.
Medieval India
Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526)
Five successive dynasties ruled from Delhi:
| Dynasty | Founder | Notable Ruler |
|---|---|---|
| Mamluk (Slave) | Qutb-ud-din Aibak | Iltutmish, Razia Sultana (first woman ruler of Delhi) |
| Khilji | Jalal-ud-din Khilji | Alauddin Khilji (repelled Mongol invasions, market reforms) |
| Tughlaq | Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq | Muhammad bin Tughlaq (capital shift to Daulatabad) |
| Sayyid | Khizr Khan | — |
| Lodi | Bahlul Lodi | Ibrahim Lodi (defeated at Panipat 1526) |
Mughal Empire (1526-1857)
Founded by Babur after the First Battle of Panipat (1526) against Ibrahim Lodi.
- Akbar (1556-1605) — greatest Mughal; abolished jizya, founded Din-i-Ilahi, administrative reforms (mansabdari), religious tolerance, married Jodhabai (Rajput alliance policy)
- Shah Jahan — built Taj Mahal (1632-1653, for Mumtaz Mahal), Red Fort, Jama Masjid; peak of Mughal architecture
- Aurangzeb (1658-1707) — longest-reigning Mughal; expanded empire to its greatest extent but faced Deccan wars, Maratha resistance (Shivaji), Rajput revolts, and Sikh conflicts; his death in 1707 marked imperial decline
Vijayanagara & Bahmani in the South
- Vijayanagara Empire (1336-1646) — founded by Harihara I and Bukka Raya of the Sangama dynasty; capital at Hampi; zenith under Krishnadevaraya (Tuluva dynasty); defeated by Deccan Sultanates at the Battle of Talikota (1565)
- Bahmani Sultanate (1347-1527) — founded by Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah; capital at Gulbarga, later Bidar; split into five Deccan Sultanates (Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Berar, Bidar, Golconda)
Delhi Sultanate — Rulers and Their One Defining Act
| Ruler | Defining act |
|---|---|
| Qutb-ud-din Aibak | Founded the Mamluk (Slave) dynasty; began the Qutb Minar |
| Iltutmish | Introduced the silver tanka and copper jital; created the Iqta system |
| Razia Sultana | The only woman to rule Delhi |
| Balban | Asserted royal authority through sijda and paibos; the "blood and iron" policy |
| Alauddin Khilji | Market (price) control regulations; repelled Mongol invasions; Malik Kafur's Deccan campaigns |
| Muhammad bin Tughlaq | Shifted the capital to Daulatabad (Devagiri); issued token currency — both failed |
| Firuz Shah Tughlaq | Built canals; imposed jizya; wrote Futuhat-i-Firuzshahi |
| Ibrahim Lodi | Defeated and killed at the First Battle of Panipat, 1526 |
The Sultanate's revenue vocabulary matters because much of it survives in land administration: iqta (revenue assignment), kharaj (land tax), khalisa (crown land) and jagir (assigned estate).
Mughal Administration — The Terms Examiners Ask For
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Mansabdari | Akbar's ranking system for nobles, graded by zat (personal rank) and sawar (cavalry obligation) |
| Jagirdari | Assignment of revenue from land in lieu of salary |
| Zabti / Dahsala | Todar Mal's land-revenue settlement — measurement, ten-year average yield and prices, revenue fixed in cash |
| Dam and Bigha | Unit of account and of area used in that settlement |
| Subah / Sarkar / Pargana | Province, district and sub-district; headed by subedar, faujdar and amil |
| Diwan / Mir Bakshi / Sadr-us-Sudur | Finance, military pay and religious-charitable heads |
| Din-i-Ilahi | Akbar's syncretic order (1582); he had earlier abolished jizya and the pilgrimage tax |
Mughal architecture in sequence: Humayun's Tomb (the first great Mughal garden tomb), Fatehpur Sikri with the Buland Darwaza (Akbar), the Taj Mahal, Red Fort and Jama Masjid (Shah Jahan), and the Bibi ka Maqbara and Moti Masjid (Aurangzeb's austere phase).
The Bhakti and Sufi Movements
The Bhakti movement stressed personal devotion, the vernacular, and the rejection of ritual and caste hierarchy. Sufism, its Islamic counterpart, stressed the mystic's direct experience of God.
| Region | Figures |
|---|---|
| Karnataka — Veerashaiva / Lingayat | Basavanna (c. 1131–1167) and the Vachanakaras — Akka Mahadevi, Allama Prabhu, Devara Dasimayya — writing Vachanas in spoken Kannada from the Anubhava Mantapa at Kalyana |
| Karnataka — Dasa Sahitya (Haridasa) | Purandaradasa, called the father of Carnatic music, and Kanakadasa, a Kuruba poet-saint; devotional keertanas in Kannada |
| Karnataka — philosophy | Madhvacharya (13th c.), founder of Dvaita (dualism) at Udupi; Ramanuja, the Vishishtadvaita teacher, took refuge at Melkote in Karnataka; Shankaracharya established the Sringeri matha |
| North India | Kabir, Guru Nanak, Ravidas, Tulsidas, Surdas, Mirabai |
| Maharashtra | Jnaneshwar, Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram |
| Sufi orders | Chishti (Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer, Nizamuddin Auliya), Suhrawardi, Qadiri; in Karnataka, Bandanawaz Gesudaraz at Kalaburagi |
Karnataka's distinctive contribution to medieval Indian thought is threefold: Vachana literature as the first sustained body of anti-caste protest writing in an Indian language, Dasa Sahitya as the devotional root of Carnatic music, and Dvaita as one of the three principal Vedanta schools. Expect at least one question from this cluster.
The Marathas and the Sikhs
- Shivaji (1630–1680), son of Shahaji Bhonsle, built a state from the Western Ghats forts, was crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad in 1674, and governed through the Ashtapradhan council of eight ministers. His revenue levies were chauth (one-fourth) and sardeshmukhi (one-tenth).
- After Shivaji, effective power passed to the Peshwas of Pune; Maratha expansion reached its widest under Baji Rao I and Balaji Baji Rao.
- The Third Battle of Panipat (1761) — Ahmad Shah Abdali against the Marathas — shattered Maratha primacy in the north and removed the one Indian power capable of blocking British expansion.
- The Sikhs: ten Gurus from Guru Nanak (1469–1539) to Guru Gobind Singh, who founded the Khalsa in 1699; the Guru Granth Sahib became the eternal Guru. Maharaja Ranjit Singh built the Sikh kingdom of Punjab in the early nineteenth century.
Exam Angle
Medieval questions cluster around four things: the order of dynasties, one defining act per ruler, administrative vocabulary, and monument-to-builder pairs. Learn the Sultanate dynasties as a five-word chain, keep a ruler-to-act table like the one above, and give the Karnataka Bhakti strand disproportionate attention — Basavanna, the Vachanakaras, the Haridasas and Madhvacharya are examined far more often in a Karnataka paper than any northern saint.
Which sequence correctly orders the dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate?
The Anubhava Mantapa at Kalyana is associated with which movement and figure?
Todar Mal is associated with which Mughal reform?