There are different interpretations in different scriptures (the Epics and the Puranas) about the origin of the name “Bharatvarsha” Bha (Jnana) + rata (accustomed of) + Varsha (the vast land).
So Bharatvarsha means “the land where the study of Jnana or knowledge is carried on” -Smith. According to the “Markandeya Purana,” the earth is divided into seven diwas named Jambu’, ‘Shalmali’, ‘Saka’, ‘Plakkya’, ‘Puskara’, ‘Kush’ and ‘Cronchya’.
Jambudiwa is the main among these. Bharatvarsha is named as ‘Haimabatabarsh’ in the ‘Bayupurana’. In the Srimadbhagabatapurana it is mentioned as ‘Ajnabhabharshe’.
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This relates to God Bishnu, who created man. According to the Matshapurana ‘Bharatvarsha’ is named after the king Bharat and Manu.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
In the Mahabharata the name of the son of Dusmanta and Sakuntala is Bharat and it was believed that Bharatvarsha was named after him. Dr. Romila Thaper also emphasized different religious texts to trace the origin of the name ‘Bharatvarsha’.
Dr. Ramsharan Sharma said in his book ‘Ancient India’ (Page-1) “The name of Bharatvarsha or the land of Bharata was given to the whole country after the name of the ancient tribe called ‘Bharatas'”.
In the later period, Greeks called this land ‘Indus’, Muslims called it ‘Hindusthan’ and the British called it ‘India’. Hindu cosmographers called India as “Jambudiwa” in ancient times.
‘Sindhu’ is a Sanskrit term and the word ‘Hind’ or ‘Hindu’ came from the word ‘Sindhu’. The ancient Persians and Greeks called India as ‘Hind’. The Persians said the word ‘Sindhu’ as ‘Hindu’.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
The westerners pronounced the river ‘Sindhu’. They spoke ‘S’ of ‘Sindhu’ as ‘H’ or ‘1’. From then ‘Sindhu’ transformed into ‘Hindu’ and Indians came to be known as Hindu and the land inhabited by them is called ‘Hindustan’.
According to historian A. C. Banerjee “The Word ‘India’ Is derived from the river ‘Sindhu’, which the Iranians called ‘Hindu’ and Greeks ‘Indus'”. This sub-continent is a well-defined land with geographical borders.
medieval europe class 7 notes
In ancient times the whole mass of land including present Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Bhutan was known as ‘Bharatvarsha’ or ‘Hindustan’. In our Constitution, it is called India, which is Bharata.
What is History?
History is generally considered to be the study of the past. In earlier times, a chronological narration of past events was regarded as the main purpose of history.
Now history is said to be the scientific analysis of human evolution in the context of time and space. “History is an unending dialogue between the present and the past.”
It is the scientific study of our complete past. The word ‘history’ came from the Greek word “Istoria” or the Latin word “Historia”. In the broadest sense, history is the story of people-the study of our complete past.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
Some scholars put emphasis on events, like wars, revolutions, advancements, and governments, while others are interested in common people’s lives.
The American car manufacturer, Henry Ford once remarked “History is bunk”, but most people would disagree.
We come to know about the past from studying history. Man’s evolution through the ages, his walk toward civilization, all can be learned only by studying history.
About three lakh years from today, the discovery of fire by a Peking man is considered to be the first step towards civilization. After this, man has advanced from the stone to the metal age which brought about immense changes in his lifestyle.
Over thousands of years, primitive men learned how to make a fire to keep themselves warm and learned to cook his food, how to make tools, and how to hunt animals. All this can be understood by studying history.
Our world is huge with its different civilizations and lifestyles. This may be observed in every sphere. Man’s food habits, clothing, language, literature, religion, science, etc., are diversified.
This may be learned by studying the history of analyzing man’s progress. We know, changes in the ancient period have brought in the present age. To know how these changes appeared or the evolution of mankind, learning of history is essential.
According to historian Jones, ‘History is a minefield of experience’. We can make our knowledge complete by using these experiences. We know of the mistakes of the past by studying history, and this makes us alert beforehand. That is why the study of history is so important.
History may be regarded as the ‘fountain of knowledge’. It develops our philosophic consciousness and social awareness. Human success and failure both are parts of history.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
The vast period of time from 2.5 million years ago to 500 A. D. saw the appearance of the first human beings and the creation of the first societies and civilizations.
Our earliest ancestors appeared 2.5 million years ago in Africa. So to know about the entire human life, history can be the main source. That is why history is told to be the ‘tower of experience.
To think impartially or to have an inquisitive mind to know about the past, learning of history is essential. No branch of social sciences is complete without the study of history.
All of us are dependent upon history. It may also be told history is the ‘mother of all sciences.’ Thinkers such as Hegel, Miller, and Anatole France believe that history represents knowledge about past events.
According to philosopher Karl Marx, the changes in human society reflect the history of class struggle. To Know about this, only history can help us.
Lastly, it may be said that history makes us aware of the historical past. It builds up love for the country and is important to know about other countries as well.
Karl August Muller has said, ‘Searching for truth is a religion of history’. Thus the main aim of teaching history is to make human civilization meaningful to the students so that they can shape their society in a proper way.
Today our lives are shaped by decisions and actions made decades, centuries, and even thousands of years ago. By knowing the past, we may be able to gain a very balanced view of the present.
Although no books were available in the pre-historic period, our knowledge of history has come from various sources. We know that most of the ancient civilisations were river-valley civilizations.
It was nearly five thousand years ago when the pre-historic age started, there was no written history of man available of that period. However, man’s civilization progressed as he stepped into the age of metal.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
The old stone age, the new stone age or paleolithic, the chalcolithic, and lastly the iron age came one after another. Among the bronze age civilizations 3500-3000 B.C., the important river valley civilizations were the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Chinese, and Harappan civilizations.
By studying history we come to know of the advancements made by Babylonians, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Chinese civilizations, as also Indian. To know this history, our sources are mainly of two types, such as archaeological sources and literary sources.
The ancient sources that have been excavated are called archaeological sources such as coins, inscriptions, sculptures, and paintings.
Inscriptions:
Among all archaeological sources, inscription demands a special mention. Inscriptions again may be classified into cave writings, rock, and pillar edicts, etc. These are not spoilt easily.
But if that happens it cannot be brought back to its original. Thus, inscription as a source of ancient history is very important.
‘Brahmi script’ and ‘Kharosthi script’ of King Asoka, ‘The hieroglyphic inscription’ of Egypt, ‘Bahistan inscription’ of Persia, ‘The pictographic script’ of Assyria, and the ‘Cuneiform script’ of Mesopotamia throw much light about that age, particularly on language, literature, and religion.
Due to the absence of paper in ancient times, scripts were also written on leaves, clay tablets, and in the bark of trees. Later, the ancient people used to write on the leaves of a kind of plant called ‘Papyrus’ from which the word ‘paper’ has came.
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Dr. R. C. Majumdar said, “Inscriptions have proved the highest source of value for the reconstruction of the political history of ancient India.”
Like scripts, and coins to help us to reconstruct ancient history. Coins help us to understand the economy, use of metals, religion, dates, the language of a particular period, etc.
Also, the trade relations among various countries may be understood from coins. The history of the Kushanas has been reconstructed from the copper and gold coins struck by them.
From the coins of Samudragupta, we know that he had a love for music and he knew the playing on the harp.
Weapons and utensils used by ancient people, house construction, and polished ‘objects of daily use are great archaeological evidence. The relic works on temple walls also help us to know about early history.
The human skull, skeleton, oracle bones, monumental evidence of early civilization, art, and craft, etc. also help us to reconstruct ancient history.
Literature also constitutes a very important source of ancient history. The Four Vedas (Rig, Sham, Yajur, and Atharva) and ‘Sutra literature’ are the main literary sources of the Vedic Period.
The Epics, the Upanishads, Buddhist texts like ‘Mahabamsha’ and ‘Dwipabamsha’ I (in Ceylonese language), Jain texts ‘Dwadash Anga’ or ‘Siddhanta’.
Accounts of foreigners such as the ‘Indika’ of Megasthenes “Fo-kio-ki” of Fa-Hien, ‘Si-yu-ki’ by Hien Tsang, ‘Rajatarangini’ of Kalhana, ‘Mricchakatikam’ by Sudraka and our epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata provide sources about ancient Indian history.
The writings of Herodotus, like ‘Persian’s History’ and “Histories”. ‘Germanika’ written by Thucydides and the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odessey’ of Homer give an insight into the politics, social structures, and life of ancient Greece.
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Herodotus is called “the father of History”. Roman historians like Plutarch, Justin, and Pliny have written invaluable material on history in the ancient period. Nonetheless, everything about the ancient period is still not known. This requires more research and introspection.
The evolutionary process in the history of human civilization from time immemorial till the beginning of the twentieth century is very much eventful and elaborative. This transformation took place slowly.
In course of time, different glorious changes came into being. These changes were revolutionary. Historians considered the prevailing time with its economic, social, political, religious, and other systems to be called as an ‘era’ that means a specific period of History.
On the basis of race and religion a renowned historian Dr. Romila Thaper classified the periods of Indian History as ‘Ancient India is Hindu period, Medieval India is Muslim period and Modern India is British period’.
The categorization of the periods of history is generally followed through different ‘terms’ i.e., the Pre-historic Age, the Ancient Age, the Medieval Age, and the Modern Age. Yet there is a debate regarding the categorization or periodization of history.
Although it is not easy to identify the historic eras by any specific event, yet the periodization of history is necessary to understand the time, space, and chronology of history and the advancement of human civilization.
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No one can define an era from a particular date or year because it is just not possible to identify the progress of civilization from that particular date or year. However, experts are of the opinion that a new era originates from the previous age.
Famous historians E. N. Johnson and J. W. Thomson, in their book “An introduction to the History of Europe” have explained history as a tree that takes roots in one era and grows it into the next era.
A great change came in the history of human civilization at the end of the Fifth Century A.D. The ancient Roman empire was divided into two parts, the Western Roman empire with its capital at Rome, and the Eastern Roman empire with Constantinople as its capital.
In 476 A.D., the Germans under the leadership of General Odovȧcar dethroned the last Roman emperor, the twelve years old Romulus Augustulus. The glory of the western Roman empire came to an end during this time.
Historians marked this event as the end of, Ancient period in Europe and the beginning of the Middle Ages.
On 29th May 1453, the Ottoman Turk leader Mohammad II attacked Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. The period of a thousand years, from the fall of Rome in 476 AD to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 A.D. has been defined as the ‘Middle Ages’ in history.
During this time a new social, political, economic, and educational system emerged and transformed into a new era. But we must remember that this ‘Middle Age’ is applicable in Europe only because the characteristics of the ‘Middle Ages’ are more prominent in Europe than elsewhere.
Though in India, the ‘Middle Ages’ started with the downfall of the Gupta Empire, it became more prominent when the Arabs conquered Sindh in 712 AD. With the downfall of the Mughal glory after the death of Aurangzeb (1707 A. D.), the ‘Middle Ages’ came to an end in India.
The old schools of historians were of the opinion that the Middle Ages in India started at the end of the Hindu period (i.e., the Sen era) and the beginning of the Muslim period (i.e., from the rise of the Delhi Sultanate).
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But modern historians believe that the Middle Ages in India started in the fifth century A.D. when the Huns from Central Asia invaded the Gupta Empire in India.
From then certain changes took place in the socioeconomic system of India. Towards the end of the Gupta Age, the system of slavery was on the decline and it marked the rise of the feudal system.
The land belonged to the feudal lords who deprived the farmers like the feudal lords of Western Europe. After the downfall of the Gupta Empire, foreign tribes like the Huns and Gujjars entered India and became a part of Indian Society.
As a result of this, the social structure of ancient India changed drastically. In ancient India, society was formed depending on the “Chaturbarna System” (the four castes) but now a new social system came into being.
In this new society, the descendants of the Huns and Gujjars and the untouchables became a part of the society. However, we must remember that the feudal system in India was not so prominent as it was in Europe.
The Buddhist monasteries and Hindu temples played an important role in keeping the process of education with high esteem.
It should be kept in mind that the Middle Ages was not ushered or did come to an end at the same time in different parts of the world.
For example:
The Middle Ages began in the third century B.C. with the downfall of the Chow dynasty in China, in the seventh century A.D. in Arabia, and in the eighth century A.D. in Korea.
In Japan, the Middle Ages spanned from the twelfth century to the middle of the nineteenth century A.D. and in the South-East Asian countries feudal system existed from the ninth century to the thirteenth century A.D.
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An era means a vast period, so it cannot be defined from a particular time. Historians consider the period of one thousand years, from the fifth century A.D. to the middle of the fifteenth century A.D., to be the Middle Ages of the history of human civilization.
To understand the span of the Middle Ages in the history of human civilization, we should see the chart given above.
In the later part of the Gupta period, there was a remarkable change in the socioeconomic condition of the country.
According to historian Ram Sharan Sharma, the Feudal system was based on the ‘Agrahar’ system i.e., the gift of tax-free land to the Brahmanas. In ancient times royal officers of the high ranks named ‘Samanta’/ ‘Mahasamanta’ became powerful.
During this time slave system was not totally abolished but the farmers used to cultivate land independently and enjoyed a share of the crop. The feudal lords enjoyed the revenue.
In this way, the socio-economic condition named the feudal system (Samanta Pratha) existed in the Gupta period (330 AD-550 AD).
The characteristics of the Middle Ages-
A new era came into view in the cycle of world civilization with the fall of the Roman Empire.
The main characteristics of the Middle Ages are as follows:
Differences of socioeconomic Conditions in India and Europe
In the Middle Ages slave system was abolished in Europe. The Germans settled in the different provinces of Rome. The hard-working German laborers grew bumper crops in farming. Some became landlords.
Ultimately German landlords employed free farmers in the field of agriculture. But German landlords were the owner of the land only and the farmers were their subjects. The farmers were not the personal property of the landlords.
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The farmers used to live independently within the jurisdiction of the landlord and they enjoyed a share of the cultivated crop. With the free mixing of the Romans and Germans, a new socioeconomic system emerged in West Europe.
In India, socio-economic changes took place with the fall of the Gupta Empire. By the end of the Gupta Age, the slave system came to an end. The farmers used to cultivate the agricultural land and enjoyed a share of the cultivated crop.
But the owners of the land were the feudal lords. They used to enjoy the revenue without giving any physical labor and were the absolute ruler or master.
So, the socioeconomic condition in Europe and India was not the same. It was quite different.
Dark Age is an old concept :
Some historians call the period from the fourth to the seventh century A.D. as the ‘Dark Ages’. While others consider the period from 500 A.D. to 1000 A.D. to be the dark ages. It was a period of political and social chaos and instability.
Anarchy also prevails during this time. This was the opinion of some of the historians. But it is debatable and not a full-fledged truth. According to a group of historians, the light of civilization was put off during this time.
Is there any base of this concept that the Middle Ages is a Dark Age?
It is already told that some of historians call the period from the fourth to the seventh century as the “dark age”. During this time the authority of the Roman administrator over the Roman administrative system collapsed.
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Different sects and tribes of Germans attacked the Romans. The instability and the rise and fall of kingdoms created chaos and anarchy. This chaotic condition almost wiped out the Germans heritage of the Roman empire.
There was no peace in the country, so the concept of the dark age came to the mind of historians. Some of them named it as ‘Dark Age’.
Middle Age was not a Dark Age: Why?
However, the first three centuries of the Middle Ages cannot be called the ‘Dark Age’ because-
During this era of so-called darkness, different books on Mathematics, Geometry, Astronomy, Grammar, etc., were translated into Latin. Casiodorus, the monk took initiative. Boethius was another learned personality of the Middle Ages.
He translated the theories of the Greek Philosopher Aristotle, into Latin. Bithius wrote the famous book, “Consolation of Philosophy”. In the sixth century, a learned man Gregory wrote the ‘History of the Franks’.
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Saint Benedict was a Christian monk who influenced the Germans to lead a peaceful and organized life through the concept of religion, education, and service to others.
Thus the Christian ideas helped the people to know what is right and what is wrong. Christianity preached the idea of love for mankind and Christian humanism. As a consequence of it, the renaissance came into being.
The Muslim Age or the Mediaeval Age which term is more reasonable in the context of the post-ancient Indian Age?
According to ancient scholars, Muslim Age came after the Hindu Age. But the modern historian thinks that due to the weakness of the central power and the decline of the Gupta empire and because of the Hun invasion many feudal leaders arose.
Historian A. L. Basham described this society in the 6th century as a “Feudal pattern of society”. As a result, feudalism became a specialty in Mediaeval Age, which abolished the slavery system in Ancient Age.
But the historians like Thompson and Johnson say that the division of ages in history is only for the sake of discussions but in reality, such division is not at all possible. Because the root of one age is embedded into another age.
Indian history was divided into three parts namely Hindu, Muslim, and British civilization by the first British historian and philosopher James Mill (1773-1836 A.D.) in 1817 A.D. It was written in his book “History of British India”.
Sir H. S. Elliot has supported this communal thought. The main object of the British historian was to divide Hindus and Muslims from each other. In that sense, it can be said that the ‘Ancient Age’ is the ‘Hindu Age’.
‘Mediaeval Age’ is ‘Muslim Age’ and ‘Modern Age’ is “British Age” or Christian Age. But this theory is unscientific, and it suffers from narrowness because there were also other communities other than Hindus in Ancient Age.
Similarly, there were people of many non-Muslim communities though the Muslims had political supremacy in the Medieval Age. There were many Hindu kings under the Muslim rulers though the central power was with the Muslims.
This age was the age of coordination between Hindus and Muslims. Because due to the expansion of the Bhakti and Sufi communities in the field of religion, the Hindus and the Muslims came nearer to each other.
Besides this, some Muslim rulers appointed Hindu employees. If the period between 1206 A.D. and 1707 A.D. is called the Muslim Age in the history of India, then the basic existence of many Hindus residing at the time is disregarded altogether.
But it is not possible. During the regime of the Sunni Muslim Aurangzeb, there were many Hindu kings belonging to Sikh, Rajput, and Maratha, who also ruled with their own identity in that period.
Hence history will be distorted if the Mediaeval Age is called the Muslim Age. There was a combined upsurge of cultural consciousness by following the Hindu-Muslim unity though Muslim domination was there in the field of religion, economics, society, politics, language, literature, and art.
Considering these factors, we can identify the post ancient age as the Mediaeval Age instead of calling it Muslim Age.
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Geographical divisions:
The boundaries of ancient Bengal were demarcated by three main rivers the Padma, Meghna and the Bhagirathi. At that time main parts of ancient Bengal were Banga, Varendra, Bangal, Radha, Pundravardhan, Gouda, Samatata and Hariket.
These names had come from the names of clans of ancient Bengal. Pundravardhan consisted of a vast part of Bengal like West Bengal and Bangladesh (Dinajpur, Bagura, Rajshahi and Pabna).
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
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The Gupta rulers treated Pundravardhan as a part of the ruling area or “Bhukti”. “Varendra region” was situated between the Bhagirathi and the Kartoa. Banga was a region in between the Bhagirathi and the Padma looked like a triangular-shaped delta region.
Once on the West side of the Bhagirathi, Radha and Sungha regions separately emerged that changed the boundary of Bengal. In the 11th century, Banga was the land of Dhaka, Faridpur, Bikrampur and Barishal of, Bangladesh.
Bengal was the Southern part of Banga. Radha was divided into North and South. The Southern Radha was called “Bajrabhumi” and the Northern Radha was called “Suvarnabhumi”.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
In the Middle Ages, Bengal was divided into three parts Bengal, known as Varendrabhumi or Varendri or Pundravardhan; West Bengal. known as Raradesha and East Bengal known as Banga. These three parts together were known as Bengal.
After the downfall of the Gupta empire, the kingdom of Gauda gained prominence in eastern India. Before the advent of Harshavardhan, Sasanka established an independent kingdom at Gauda (present-day North Bengal).
He was a powerful king and his capital was Karnasuvarna (presently known as Rangamati or Rakta-Mrittika near Berhampore in Murshidabad district).
Not much is known about the family history of Sasanka. Probably he was a feudal chief under Mahasenagupta-a Gupta king of Magadha. Later in 606 A.D., he conquered North Bengal (then known as Gauda) and established an independent kingdom there.
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He is considered to be the first ‘Sovereign ruler of Bengal’. Sasanka was also the first king of Bengal who extended his empire beyond Bengal. Other than Kamrup, the whole of northeast India was under his rule.
Sasanka adopted the title of ‘Narendraditya’ and was also known as ‘Gaudadheep’-the ruler of Gauda. Sasanka was a worshipper of Shiva. Devagupta, the king of Malwa was his friend.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
After the death of Prabhakarvardhan of Thaneswar, Sasanka and Devagupta led a combined attack against Kanauj. Grahavarman, the king of Kanauj was defeated and killed. His wife Rajyashri was taken to prison.
She was the daughter of Prabhakarvardhan and the sister of Rajyavardhan and Harshavardhan. To avenge Grahavarman’s death, Rajyavardhan attacked, defeated and killed Devagupta.
The original name of Sasanka was Narendraditya. He occupied a higher position among ancient Indian rulers. As the first Bengalee ruler, he founded an empire. He had a remarkable position in Indian politics.
The word ‘Sri Mahasamanta Sasanka’ was mentioned in an inscription found in Ratasgarh, Bihar. From it, one can assume that he started his career as a feudal chief under Gupta king Mahasenagupta of Bengal.
Later by taking advantage of the weakness of Mahasenagupta, he came to power. It was known from the ‘Ganjam inscription’ that from this time, the independent Gouda state was developed.
But it was mentioned in the Buddhist text ‘Aryamanjusri mulakalpa’ that there was no existence of independent Bengal before 525 A.D. He established the independent Gouda state by conquering Ganjum, Kangod, Utkal, Magadha, Venaras, Danbadhuti or Dantan in 606 A.D.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
He developed the administrative system in Bengal in 619 A. D. After developing a friendship with the Malwa king Devagupta, Sasanka fought with the kings of Maukhari of Kanauj and Pushyabhuti of Thaneshwar.
The Maukhari-raj Grahavarma and the king of Thaneshwar Rajyavardhan were killed by Sasanka. So the next king of Thaneshwar and Kanauj, Harshavardhan wanted to give severe punishment to Sasanka.
Harshavardhan made a friendship relation with Bhaskarvarman, the king of Kamrup. He founded the future basis of the Pala empire. But Harshavardhan could do nothing of Sasanka till his death in 637 A.D.
His worthless son Manabadeva ruled for 5 months and 17 days and then anarchy prevailed in Bengal, which was known as “Matsyanyaya”.
Sasanka, the first sovereign ruler of Gauda died in 637 A.D. His inefficient son Manabadeva ruled only for 5 months and 17 days. After that as there was no ruler in Bengal, a political Vacuum prevailed, Bengal saw extreme political indiscipline, uncertainty and anarchy.
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This political disturbance and anarchy is known as Matsyanyaya. Matsyanyaya means like a fish. The summary of the word meant-“As the big fishes are fed by the small fishes similarly the weak were devoured by the powerful people of Bengal-that is known as Matsyanyaya”.
This period of matsyanyaya existed from 637-750 A.D. in Bengal. The powerful people exploited the weak to an extreme level. Kautilya referred to the torture of the powerful upon the weak as Matsyanyaya.
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There was no law and order in this country without a king. The powerful men went on to show their process. The main feature of politics was that might is right. Taking advantage of this anarchy many people began to attack Bengal from outside the province.
These forces were
In this situation, the sufferings of the Bengalee people are known from the writings of the Tibetan historian Taranath. To get rid of this anarchy and to establish political and administrative order, the ‘Prakritipunja’ (elites of Bengal) restored a Kshatriya, named Gopala on the throne of Bengal.
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King Bangapati Gopala sat on the throne and was given all power. This incident had been compared with the ‘Meiji Restoration’ of Japan of 1868 A.D. Anyway, Gopala introduced an age of enlightenment by ending the hundred years of anarchy as the first elected king of Bengal.
Harshavardhan ascended the throne of Thaneshwar in 606 A.D. He was only 16 years of age at that time. The responsibility came upon him after the death of his father Prabhakarbardhan and the accidental death of his eldest brother Rajyabardhan by the conspiracy of Sasanka and Malwaraj Debagupta.
In the meantime, his brother-in-law and king of Kanuaj Grahavarma also died. So with the requests from the members of the royal court, he was enthroned for Kanauj and Thaneshwar taking the title- ‘Yuvraj Shiladitya’ Prof. Smith said in his book, “He was, in short, a great warrior in camp, a statesman at court.
A poet in his palace and a devotee in the temple, a refined diplomat and a respected despot; he was a worthy successor to the glories of the Mauryas and the grandeur of the Guptas.” The term ‘Harsha era’ is calculated from the period of his enthronement.
Just after being the king, he started conquering Punjab, Rajputana, Gujarat and even the regions around the river Narmada one by one. But according to R. K. Mukherjee, there is doubt about whether Kashmir was under his empire or not.
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He extended his empire up to Bangladesh in the east. But he captured Banga only after the death of Sasanka. Bhaskarbarman, the king of Kamrup and Harshavardhan shared Gour within themselves after the death of Sasanka in the year 637 A.D.
Chalukya ruler Pulakeshin II. This was mentioned in the ‘Aihole Prashasti’ of Ravikirti. Harshavardhan, after his conquests, took the titles ‘Sakolottarpathanath’ and ‘Uttarapathnath’. Harshavardhan renovated his military system.
His military division was divided into four classes-infantry, cavalry, chariots and war elephants. But the cavalry regiment was comparatively larger. Infantries were called ‘Bar’ and ‘Bhat’.
The soldiers had to follow a very strict discipline. His military force consisted of 1,00,000 infantry, 40,000 cavalry and 60,000 war elephants. Harshavardhan was equally interested in art and culture.
‘Harshacharita’ and ‘Kadambari’ written by the poet Banabhatta are worth mentioning. The presence of Mauryan poets Bhartrihari, Matanga, Dibakara and Jaisingh also enriched his royal court.
Harshavardhan himself proved his eminence by writing the dramas like ‘Nagananda’, ‘Priyadarshika’ and ‘Ratnabali’. Dr Amalesh Tripathi thought that ‘Harsha seems to have wielded his pen with no less dexterity than the sword.’
A person named Gopala established political peace and harmony in Bengal by abolishing the conflict between political instability and ‘Matsyannya.’ So the upsurge of the Pala kings in the history of Bengal was a unique phenomenon after the death of Sasanka (637 A. D.)
With the request of the ‘Prakritipunja’ of Bengal, Gopala became the king of Bengal. Though he was of Kshatriyan origin, yet he did not belong to any royal family.
The whereabouts of Bappat and Dayitavishnu, the father and grandfather of Gopala respectively were not known much. But Deddadevi, the wife of Gopala was from an aristocratic family.
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After the death of Gopala in the year 770 A.D. his able son Dharamapala became the king of Bengal. He was called ‘Uttarapathaswamin’ in ‘Udaysundari’ lyrics by a Gujarati poet Soddhal recognising his supremacy.
From the ‘inscription of Khalimpur’, many regional kings of north India surrendered to Dharmapala in a conference held in Kanauj after he had conquered the entire north India.
Among these were-
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Devapala, the son of Dharmapala became the king of Bengal in 810 A. D. He also ruled for 40 years like his father (850 A. D.). Like a great warrior, he built up a large empire by applying the ‘Blood and Iron policy’.
It was mentioned in the ‘Badal Prashasti’ and the ‘Haragouri Inscription’ that from the Himalayas in the north to the Vindhyas in the south and from Assam in the east to the coastal region in the west were included under his kingdom.
He defeated Pratihararaj Bhoja I and Rastrakutaraj Amoghvarsha I during the tripartite struggle. Devapala also defeated Dravida king Srimar Sri Ballava of the Pandian state.
According to Dr R. C. Majumdar by following the principle of his father he did not reduce the independence of the states like Pandian and Karnataka on the south of the Vindhyas which he had conquered.
His fame spread outside India like Java Island, Sumatra and Malay. Balaputradeva, the king of the Shailendra dynasty of Sumatra, built a Buddhist monastery in Nalanda comprising five villages, after having permission from Devapala.
The Arabian traveller Suleman praised very high about the army of Devapala. After the death of Devapala in 850, Bigrahapala I (850-854 A. D.). Narayanpala (854-908 A. D.), Rajyapala, and Bigrahapala II became the kings of Bengal respectively.
During Mahipala I’s reign (988-1038) even though Rajendra Chola invaded Bengal, but could not establish any permanent impact (1021-23 A. D.).
Over the above, due to the revolt of Kaivarta in North Bengal under the leadership of Bhim and Divya of Barendrabhumi, the situation turned into a fireball. Mahipala II could do nothing.
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After the death of Mahipala II his brother Rampala (1084-1130 A. D.) became the king of Bengal. ‘Ramcharita’ (A comical writing) written by his court poet Sandhyakar Nandy was nothing but the biography of Rampala.
Rampala could not defeat Anantavarmana Chorganga, the king of Kalinga (founder of Konark Sun temple). But he established a friendly relationship with Kulotungo-1, the king of the Cholas of far-south to dominate Anantavarman.
Mahipala I was defeated to Gangeyadeva Kolchuri in 1026 A. D. But he was called the ‘Second founder’ of the Pala Dynasty because it was revived by Mahipala due to his excellent military talent and expertise.
Mahipala constructed the Hindu temple of Kashi and two monasteries of Sarnath and Nalanda. Apart from this, he dug many ponds and built many cities.
Dr R. C. Majumdar rightly commented in his book History of Bengal, that a real unique rise of Bengal can be felt in every respect as a whole in the empire of Mahipala.
During the regime of Mahipala and just before the regime of his grandson Mahipala II the Pala empire became shattered due to invasions of Kalchuri king Lakxmikarna, Mahashivgupta Jajati the king of Orissa and Chalukyaraj I of Someswar.
Over and above, due to the revolt of Kaibarta in North Bengal under the leadership of Bhim and Divya of Barendrabhumi, the situation turned into a fireball.
According to Pandit Haraprasad Shastri and Dr S. P. Lahiri, The Kaibartas were farmers by profession and also a war-loving community.
Historian Grearson in ‘Bengal Gazetteer’ has said that the cultivators or farmers of Bengal and Mahisyas are Kaibartas. According to Dr Niharranjan Ray, Kaibarta is all of the fishermen’s community.
Mahipala II died while resisting this revolt. As a result, Kaibartas formed a separate independent state in North Bengal.
After the death of Mahipala II his brother Rampala became the king of Bengal. ‘Ramcharita’ (comical writing) written by his court poet Sandhyakar Nandy was nothing but the biography of Rampala.
From this text, it can be known that to resist the Kaibarta Revolt, he intelligently managed to bring some territorial kings into his camp. A list of thirteen kings is there in ‘Ramcharita’.
They are
Each one of them helped Rampala. Besides this, the Rashtrakuta king Tilak Mathan or Mahadeva on his maternal side, also helped Rampala a lot to revive Varendrabhumi. The Barman kings of Kamrup and East Bengal were defeated by him.
The kings of Garwal and Chalukkya also surrendered to him. Rampala did the mass killing of the imprisoned revolting Kaibartas by taking them to the ground for execution openly.
Rampala could not defeat Anantavarman Chorganga, the king of Kalinga. But he established a friendly relationship with Kulotungo, the king of Chola of the far south to dominate Anantavarman.
kings and kingdoms
The name of the newly-built capital of Rampala was Ramavati. Rampala was the last powerful king of Bengal. It is mentioned in Ramcharita that after ruling for 53 years, he committed suicide by jumping into the waters of the Ganges at the age of 80. The glorious chapter was closed permanently with the death of Rampala.
Origin:
Many historians think that the original homeland of Senas was in Karnataka or Mysore or south India. Many army officers of Vikramaditya started living in Bengal during the time of invasion by Vikramaditya (1068 A. D.), the king of Karnataka.
Samantasena, the son of Viswasena was born in Bengal. This Samantasena was the founder of the Sena dynasty. His son Hemantasena founded an independent feudal state in Bardhawan of Bengal.
Vijaysena, the son of Samantasena founded an independent Sena dynasty in Magadha by defeating Madanpala, the last descendant of the Pal dynasty. It is said that Sens were ‘Brahma-Kshatriya’ by caste.
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It was mentioned in ‘Bombay Gazetteer’ of 1885 A.D. that for survival from the hands of Parashuram, the pregnant Kshatriya women disguised themselves as Brahmin women and the offsprings born from their wombs were called ‘Brahma-Kshatriya’.
After Palas, this Brahma-Kshatriya Sena dynasty ruled Bengal for a long time.
Vijaysena, the son of Hamantasena was the actual founder of the Sena dynasty. It is known from the ‘Deopara Prashasti’ and ‘Vikrampur Copperplate’ that he enhanced his pride and prestige by marrying a princess of the Sena family.
He made a friendly tie-up with Anantavarma Chorganga, the king of Kalinga (Orissa) to establish complete dominance over Bengal.
In this process, he defeated King Nannyadeva of Mithila, King Dwarapbardhan of Koushambi, King Virsena of Kotatvi and the Pala king Madanpala of Bengal to maintain his supremacy.
He extended his kingdom from Brahmaputra in the east to Koshi and Gandak rivers in the west and Kalinga in the south. Vijaysena set up two Capitals in Vijaypur in West Bengal and Vikrampur in East Bengal.
” samantas meaning in history”
After the death of Vijaysena, his son Ballalsena became the king. He included Bengal, Barendri, Magadha, Mithila, Bagri or Sunderban, Midnapore area within his territory.
But Ballalsena was more interested in the maintenance of his empire and cultural bondage rather than conquests of other states. Being a scholar in Veda, Smritisashtra and Purana on the rituals of the Hindu religion Ballalsena wrote two texts ‘Dansagar’ and ‘Abdhutsagar’.
Pandit Anandabhatta wrote the biography of Ballalsena named ‘Ballalcharita’ as per the instruction of Buddhimant Khan the ruler of Nabadwip. Ballalsena, of his own, dug the ‘Ballaldighi’ and built ‘Ballalbari’ in Dinajpur.
The city of Gour was built by him, which in turn, became known as ‘Lakxmanabati’ by the name of his son Laxmansena. In the last phase of life, Ballalsena built some pilgrimages by the side of the Ganges for religious rituals.
But historian Dr Niharranjan Ray said that Ballalsena was a very conservative Hindu. The ‘Kaulinsm’ created by him, was the main cause of disparity and untouchability in society. So in the court of history, Ballalsena is accused time and again even today.
Laxmansena, the son of Ballalsena, became king at the age of sixty. He showed much bravery and gallantry in his youth, in the battles with Kamrup, Kalinga and Gour during the regime of his grandfather Vijaysena.
He showed his military excellence even in his old age. At this time, he constructed the pillar of success in Prayag, Puri and Varanasi. He also defeated the king of Kanauj of Garwal.
As a recognition of his military power, he took the title ‘Goureswar’ and ‘Ariraj Mardan Shankar’. In the first part of his life, he was Shaiba but in the later stage he was devoted to the Vaishnab religion and took the title ‘Param Vaishnava’. The name of his royal poet was Jaideva.
The most important event during the regime of Laxmansena was the invasion of Bengal and Bihar by ‘Iktiaruddin Mohammad Bin Bakhtiyar Khilji’, the chief commandant of Qutubuddin Aibek.
It was known from the text ‘Tabkat-i-Nasiri’ written by Minhajuddin Siraj that in the year 1199 A. D., the soldiers of Bakhtiyar Khilji destroyed the monastery of Odantapur mistaken as a fort, and killed many Buddhist monks.
After that Khilji together with 18 subordinates disguised as Arabian horse traders, entered the place of Laxmansena in Nabadwip during lunchtime and attacked suddenly in 1201 A.D. Laxmansena somehow managed to escape and fled away to Srihatta in East Bengal by boat.
After reigning up to 1206, he died here. Though his sons Keshabsena and Viswarupsena were inefficient, yet they reigned up to 1260 A.D. But they could not achieve anything noticeable. After their death, the Sena dynasty declined forever.
The Cholas were a very old race of south India. The Chola empire was first established in the regions comprising Tanjore, Trichinapalli and Padukottai lying in between Pennar and Bhellar rivers on the south of Tungabhadra on the east coast.
This original homeland of Cholas was known as ‘Cholamandalam’. There are mentions of Cholas in Mahabharat, Buddhist text Mahabamsa, Milindponchho, Indica of Megasthenes, periplus of the Erythraen sea, Tamil Sangam Literature, Greek and Roman literature, an account of Hiuen Tsang, Inscriptions of Ashoka etc.
It is mentioned in the text of Ptolemy that the Cholas had two famous ports namely Kaveripattanam and Negapattanam. Karikal, the first historic king of Cholas, established his dominance over the entire Tamil state by defeating Panda, Cher and Ceylon.
After that Cholas became weak due to the rise of Chalukya, Pallavas and Rastrakut and became subordinate to the Pallavas. When Hiuen Tsang visited the Chola empire in the 7th century, he found the region as a desolated forest area.
Taking advantage of the conflicts between Pallava and Pandya, Vijayalaya released himself from the clutch of Pallavas and gained power. He captured Tanjore from the grip of Pandya in 850 A.D. and set up his capital there. He reigned independently up to 871 A.D.
Aditya I, son of Vijayalaya captured Kanku or Salem by defeating Gangos in the west. Aditya, I defeated and killed Aparajitabarman the last king of Pallava, Even though Pallavraj helped Aparajitabarman in the battle of Sripurambiuam against Pandyas.
Thus he expanded his kingdom from Madras to the Kavery River. Aditya, I was a devotee of Shiva.
Parantaka I son of Aditya I captured certain parts of Madurai and Pandya states by defeating the kings of Pandya and Ceylon. He also defeated Banas and Baidambas. He took the title ‘Madurai Konda’.
He extended his kingdom up to Nellore in the north. But his eldest son Rajaditya was killed in the battle of Takkolam (949 A.D.) against Krishna III of Rastrakuta and Tanjore and Kanchi were captured by the Rashtrakuts.
Krishna III also took the title ‘Kanchi Tanjore Konda’. After this, Parantak I died in 953 A.D. with a broken heart. From this time onwards, the Cholas became weak for several years.
He covered the Shiva temple of Chidambaram with a golden sheet. He made considerable contributions in the fields of agriculture, education etc. After Parantak Sundar Chola defeated Vir Pandya and Rajrajeswar Temple of Tanjore drove away the Rastrakutas from Tondamandalam.
After Sunder Chola, Uttam Chola became the king in 973 A.D. and reigned for some time. At last Rajraj Chola, I became the king after Uttam Chola and introduced a golden age.
Rajraj, the son of Sunder Chola, established a very large Chola empire by recovering the lost pride and prestige. The stories of his conquests can be known from the ‘Tanjore inscriptions’. He had a very powerful naval force.
He captured Kerala and Quilon by defeating Ravibarman, the king of Kerala in the battle of Trivandrum. According to Dr Romila Thaper, thus Rajraj built a very strong line of defence on the Malabar Coastal region to combat the Arabs.
He occupied Udgai Fort by capturing the Pandya king Amarbhujanga. He constructed a Shiva temple in Anuradhapura, the capital city of Ceylon by defeating Mahendra V, the king of Ceylon. Gangas of Mysore and Bimaladitya of Vengi were also defeated by Rajraj.
Rajraj got his daughter Kundavak married to Vikramaditya. Besides this, he captured many islands of the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. He conquered Lakshadweep, Maldives or the region called the 12,000 islands of the Ancient Sea and established a vast empire.
He was quite famous not only as a warrior but also as a good ruler. He determined the revenue by establishing self-government and by land measurement. He constructed the ‘Rajrajeswar temple’.
Though he was a devotee of Shiva, he also worshipped Vishnu as well as Buddha. He was called ‘The Great Rajraja’ because of his religious tolerance and broad heart.
According to a historian, ‘The great and solid work of Rajraj was the foundation upon which Rajendra built the work of his son is the most authentic testimony to the work of the father.’ (Struggle for Empire. Page 286).
Rajendra Chola I, the son of Rajraj I was by far the best king of Cholas. He formed a strong naval force which was more powerful than that of his father, and he took military training.
The achievements of Rajendra Chola can be known from the ‘Tirumalai inscription’ and ‘Tanjore inscription’. He advanced towards Bengal by defeating Chalukya, Cher and Pandyas.
It was known from the Tirumalai inscription that he succeeded his expedition to Bengal by defeating the Mahipala I of West Bengal, Gobindachandra of East Bengal and Ramasur of South Bengal.
He took the title ‘Gangoikonda Cholapuram’ just for the memory of his Bengal expedition. He built a new capital named ‘Gongoikondacholapuram’ and dug the ‘Cholaganga Lake’ which was 16 miles long.
Apart from this, he took the title ‘Chola Martandya’ and ‘Uttam Chola’. The Bay of Bengal became the ‘Chola Lake’ only due to the extreme dominance of his Naval force over the sea.
He conquered some portions of the Andaman-Nicobar Islands, Maldives and Brahmadesh. He made Koderam, the capital of Srivijay of the Shailendra dynasty of Malay, Sumatra, a tributary.
state of Cholas. According to Dr Nilkantha Sastri, Rajendra Chola in his old age defeated the Chalukya king Someswar. Within a short time after this, Rajendra Chola died.
Rajadhiraj I, son of Rajendra Chola I, subdued the revolt. of Kerala, Ceylone and Pandya. In 1052 A.D., Rajadhiraj was defeated by the Chalukyaraj Someswar I of Kalyan against the war of Koppam.
Two sons of Rajadhiraj-Rajendra Chola II (1052-1064 A.D.) and Vir Rajendra (1064-1070 A.D.) saved the Chola empire from the attack of Chalukyas. Vir Rajendra defended the attacks of Chalukya of Bengi, Cher and Pandyas.
Vir Rajendra built a winning tower by the side of the Tungabhadra River in memory of his achievements. After the death of Vir Rajendra, his son Adhirajendra Chola was defeated and driven away by the Chalukyaraj Kulotunga I.
Kulotunga I was the grandson of Rajendra Chola I. This Kulotunga became the king of Tanjore by taking the name as Rajendra Chola III in 1070 A.D. and reigned up to 1122 A.D. The Chola empire collapsed during the reign of Rajendra Chola IV.
During this time, the Chola empire totally declined due to the rise of different powers like Hoisal, Pandya, Kaktiya etc. The greatest contribution of Cholas in the history of South India was the establishment of rural-based self-government and the improved system of revenue.
Hence Dr V. A. Smith said. ‘The administration system was well thought and reasonably efficient. Apart from the powerful naval force and strong army, there had been considerable improvement in the fields of literature, art and language.
The struggle began between Palas, Pratiharas and Rastrakutas for control over Kanauj when Harshavardhan died in the year 647 A.D. This is known as the Tripartite struggle.
Many regional kings and independent states arose in this age of political inequality. Among these, the Gurjar-Pratihara race (Pratihar means the guard of the door), of Malwa and Rajputana of western India, the Pala family of Bengal in the east and the Rastrakuta family of Maharastra on the west became very strong.
Particularly the rise of Rajputs was the most significant incident in this age. The 36 communities of the Rajput race became extremely powerful and influential within their respective territories.
Among these communities, Pratiharas of Malwa, Gaharbalar of Kanauj, Chowhans of Delhi and Ajmer, Sholanki of Gujarat, Kalchuri of Chedi, and Chandellas of Bundelkhand were very important.
There was political unrest which continued for nearly 100 years after the death of Harshavardhan. Kanauj was the heartland of India, but due to the absence of any able and competent descendent, nobody could acquire the throne of Kanauj and Thaneswar.
As a result of this darkened political vacuum, the neighbouring states started struggling within themselves to acquire control over Kanauj. At first, Pratiharas and Palas got involved in this struggle.
Later on, Rastrakutas also took part in this struggle. There were some causes behind Pala, Pratihara and Rastrakuta powers for their taking an active part in healing up the political vacuum in north India after the death of Harshavardhan.
Firstly, Pala, Pratiharas and Rastrakutas started fighting with each other to become the supreme authority of the social unity which was built up centrally Kanauj at the time of Harshavardhan.
Secondly, the regional states became involved in the battle for establishing their supremacy and prestige like Harshavardhan over Kanauj during the middle of the eighth century.
Thirdly, the favourable geographic situation of Kanauj made the neighbouring states interested. The intention of establishing control and supremacy over the vast and fertile Gangetic valley was another reason.
Fourthly, Kanauj was a trade centre. The adjoining regions were also very prosperous and flourishing. So the importance of Kanuaj was extreme from the viewpoint of economic, cultural and geographical reasons.
For that reason, the struggle among Palas, Pratiharas and Rastrakutas became so intensified on the Kanauj issue. A historian has said, describing the importance of Kanauj, the heart of India. “As Rome was attractive to the militant tribal races like Babilon, Tiuton etc.
Of western Asia, so also the measuring stick was the prestige and supremacy to establish control and supremacy over Kanauj or ‘Mahodayasri’ to the native states during eighth and ninth centuries.”
In the early stage of the tripartite struggle, the Pratihara king Batsaraja (775-800 A.D.) defeated the Pala king Dhramapala (770-810 A.D.) in the battle of Doab after capturing central Asia and Rajputana.
But at that time, the Rashtrakuta king Dhruba (779-793 A.D.) enthroned his subordinate Indrayudh in Kanauj and returned to south India. In this process, he defeated Batsaraja I and then Dharmapala.
Batsaraja also, after losing everything, returned to his land. From the inscriptions of Khalimpur, Munger and Bhagalpur of Narayanpala, it can be known that Dharmapala regained his lost prime and extended his empire upto Kanauj by taking advantage of the military weakness of Rastrakuta and Pratihara.
At this time Dharmapala enthroned one of his subordinate staff Chakrayudh by dethroning Indrayudh, the king of Kanauj. The second phase of the struggle was almost like the first one.
The Pratihara king Nagabhatta (800-825 A.D.) defeated Chakrayudha in the battle of Kanauj and Dharmapala in the battle of Munger respectively and after that, he shifted his capital from Ujjain to Kanauj.
After being defeated, Dharmapala surrendered to Rastrakuta king Govinda III (793-814 A.D.). `the son of Rastrakuta king Dhruba and accepted his domination. Probably for that reason, Govinda III went to the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna with his spear-armed battalion.
Then he advanced upto the foothills of the Himalayas by defeating the Pratihara king Nagabhatta II, Dharmapala regained his lost prime when Gobinda III went back to the south leaving behind and sacrificing the celebration of his conquest because of the internal conflicts and disputes within his family.
Dr R. C. Majumdar said that though Dharmapala did acquire much power due to his counterparts being powerless, he could not establish his direct domination except in Bengal and Bihar.
| Gurjara-Pratiharas | Rashtrakutas | Palas |
| Batsaraja (786 A.D.) | Dhruba (779-793 A.D.) | Dharmapala (780-815 A.D.) |
| Nagabhatta (815 A.D.) | Govinda (it (794-S13 A.D.) | Devapala (815-855 A.D.) |
| Rambhadra | Amoghbarsha I (814-877 A.D.) | Bigrahapala (855-860 A.D.) |
| Pratham Bhoja (836-885 A.D.) | Krishna II (878-914 A.D.) | Narayanpala (860-915 A.D.) |
| Mahendrapdta (885-910 A.D.) | – | – |
In the third phase of the Tripartite struggle, Devapala (810-850 A.D.), son of Dharmapala first defeated the Pratihar king Rambhadra and Mihirbhoja.
After that Devapala defended the Pratihara king Prathombhoja (836-885 A.D.) when he was advancing towards Kanauj after conquering Bundelkhand, Jodhpur, Kalibangan and Chedi of Tripuri.
As a result, Bhojraja foiled the invasion of Arabians by moving towards the west. Devapala also established his sovereignty by defeating the Rashtrakut king Amoghbarsha I. Towards the last phase, the Pala empire become very weak after the death of Devapala.
The Pratihara king Mihirbhoja conquered Kanauj. The strength and influence of Palas were almost completely demolished when the Pratihara king Mahendrapala (885-910 A.D.) conquered Bengal and Bihar.
On the other side, The Pala king Narayanpala (854-908 A.D.) was completely defeated in the hands of Rastrakutas in the year 860 A.D. The battle between the Rashtrakuta king Krishna II (878-914 A.D.) and Pratihara king Bhojraj was yet to be decided.
After the death of Krishna II, his son Indra III (914-922 A.D.) captured Kanauj after defeating the Pratihara king Mahendrapala or Mahipala (912-944 A.D.) in the year 916.
Being weakened, the Pratiharas gradually were abolished. After that, the Turkish invasion started in India. These Pratiharas were the last Hindu race of ancient India who defended India from the invasion of Muslims for nearly 200 years.
The Tripartite struggle continued for nearly 200 years. In the history of ancient India, there were very few battles which continued for such a long period. The importance of judging the result and outcome of this battle is great.
Because some powers after being united initially, completely collapsed later, no empire or sovereignty of a permanent nature grew in the Aryabarta. On the other hand, powers like Chawhan, Chandella etc came up.
Hence some historians called this tripartite struggle a ‘failure’ which continued from the later part of the eighth century to the early part of the tenth century because nobody benefited from this struggle.
In the country of Palestine, Jesus Christ-the founder of Christianity was born in the town of Bethlehem. To the south of Palestine, there was a country whose land was dry and rugged- almost a desert country.
This country of South-West Asia was Arabia (present Saudi Arab). It is a huge peninsula. In this area, great ancient civilizations like the Sumerians, the Babylonian, and the Phoenicians flourished.
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Vast areas of Arabia are covered with sand. Amidst this desert land, there are some ‘oases’- (fertile land in the desert) surrounded by date-palm trees. In these oases, some farming was done. The coastal region of the Red Sea was fertile.
So people started to settle there permanently and gradually some small towns grew up. Among them, Mecca, Jeddah, and Medina were very prominent.
“A fool may be known by six things, anger without cause, speech without profit; change without progress; inquiry without an object; putting trust in a stranger, and mistaking foes for friends.” -Arabian Proverb.
The inhabitants-like the Phoenicians and the Jews, the people of Arabia were also ‘Semetic’ of mixed race. They were divided into two groups-the Bedouins and the city-dwellers. The Arabs who lived in the desert were called the ‘Bedouins’.
They had different superstitions and they believed in demons and ghosts. Most of the Bedouins were nomads moving from one place to another. They were many more in numbers compared to the city-dwellers.
The economic life of the Bedouins:
The Bedouins were hardy, brave, ferocious, and harsh by nature. Their main livelihood was cattle rearing. They would rear horses and camèls and use them for riding from place to place. Their principal foods were dates and camel’s milk and flesh.
Often they would attack the traders who traveled across the desert and looted their belongings, wealth; food, etc. On the other hand, the city dwellers settled down permanently in one place.
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They were involved in trade and commerce with other countries. As a result, a trading organization and administration developed.
The Arabs were divided into many tribes. Each tribe had a leader who was called a ‘Sheikh’. These tribes often quarreled and fought among themselves. Although they were always fighting and plundering, charity and hospitality were their noble qualities.
But Arab women had no dignity in their society. Polygamy was common among the menfolk. Men and women led indisciplined and wayward lives. The Arabs were ‘pagans’ that means ‘idol worshippers’.
They worshipped many gods and goddesses. Each tribe had their own gods and goddesses. The shrines of these gods and goddesses (almost 350 in number) were present in the Kaaba at Mecca.
So Kaaba was a sacred place for peace and pilgrimage of the Arabs. In this holy place, a holy black stone was worshipped along with the other shrines. Besides, the water of the Jam Jam well is considered holy by the Arabs.
Early life:
In about 570 A.D. Hazarat Mohammad, the founder of the Islamic religion, was born in the Kuraish family that looked after the Kaaba temple. His father Abdullah had died a few months before he was born.
His mother Amena passed away when Mohammad was only 6 years old. After the death of his parents, his grandfather Abdul Muttalib looked after him. After the death of his grandfather, his poor uncle Abu Taleb brought him up.
Mohammad did not get any formal education in his childhood. But he had a very sharp memory.
Spiritual progress :
Mohammad grew up and became a custodian of the trading activities of a wealthy widow named Khadija Bibi. During this time he traveled widely throughout Arabia and became acquainted with the Jewish and Christian religions.
He also got an opportunity to come in contact with people of different races and religions. Impressed by his efficiency and honesty in his work, Khadija Bibi married Mohammad. At that time he was 25 years old.
Later, Mohammad started meditating deeply in a cave of Hera Mountain near Mecca. Here, at the age of 40 years, he received the message of Allah through Angel Gabriel.
The main essence of this message was, “Only Allah must be worshipped and Mohammad was the godsend conveyer of his message.”
Khadija was the first person whom Mohammad told about the divine message and she was the first person to become his disciple. Mohammad started preaching this new religion called Islam and his followers came to be known as Muslims or Musalmans.
‘Islam’ is an Arabic word and it means ‘peace’ and ‘surrender to Allah’. There were many Muslims in Asia and Africa. Later Islam spread to North Africa, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Albania, Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria, Southern parts of Soviet Russia, and China.
Mohammad was against idol worship. This was disliked by the Kuraishs and the other Meccans. They conspired to kill him and hearing it in 622 A.D. Mohammad fled from Mecca to Medina. Medina was then called Yethib.
After the arrival of Mohammad in Yethib, its name was changed to ‘Medinat-El-Nabi’ which means “City of the Prophet”. At that time he was accompanied by his trusted friend and disciple Abu Bakar and a few others.
This journey from Mecca to Medina is called “Hijrat” by the Muslims. The Muslim calendar begins from this year (622 A.D.) and it is called Hejira. Seventeen years later Caliph Omar, introduced the new ‘Muslim Calendar’ which is now called the “Medina Charter”.
The people of Medina gave shelter to Mohammad and embraced his religion. As a result of it a great conflict started between the people of Mecca and Medina.
The people of Medina who gave shelter to Mohammad and helped him to preach Islam were called Ansers (helpers) and the people who left Mecca and went with him to Medina, were called Muhajir (refugees).
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Mohammad established a brotherhood for them. But the conflict between the people of Mecca and Medina continued. Due to this conflict, an open war took place. In the battle of Bader, Mohammad was victorious. But he was defeated in the battle of Ohode.
At last, the treaty of ‘Hodaibia’ was signed ty of Hodal between the two camps, and according to the “Treaty of Hodaibia,” both sides agreed to refrain from warfare activities for the next ten years.
However, the Quraish tribe, at last, violated the conditions of the treaty and again war broke out. In the 8th year of the ‘Hejira’, Mohammad finally defeated them and occupied Mecca in 630 A.D.
There he left Kaaba intact and destroyed all other idols of Mecca. He forgave the inhabitants of Mecca and advised them to accept Islam. He declared Mecca to be the holiest place of pilgrimage for Muslims.
He ordered that all Muslims should pray to face to Kaaba in Mecca. Gradually through the spreading of Islam, Mohammad was able to establish political unity among the different tribes. Medina was his capital city. He passed away due to malaria in 632 A.D.
The religion of the Muslims preached by the prophet Mohammad is known as Islam. The word ‘Islam’ means peace or ‘surrender to Allah’.
According to the Quran, every Muslim must perform the five following duties:
The preachings of Mohammad were very effective on the belligerent Arab tribes. As a result, the spread of Islam was easier among them.
We have studied earlier that along with the spread of Islam, Mohammad was also successful in establishing political unity among the different Arab tribes. Mohammad’s sons died during his lifetime.
So after his death, the post of ‘Caliph’ was created to represent the political and religious leaders of the Muslims.
The main causes of the Arab conquest of Sind under the leadership of Mohammad-Bin-Kasim in 712 A. D. were as-
Sultan Mahmud invaded India 17 times. Jaipal committed suicide by performing “Jauhar Brata” when he was defeated by Mahmud in the 1st invasion in 1000 A.D. Mahmud got many wealth and ornaments, Mahmud defeated Fateh Daud a Shiya Muslim of Karmathian of Multan in 1004 A.D.
He captured Delhi and Nagarkot near Punjab in 1006 A.D. Multan came under the control of Ghazni in 1008 A.D. In 1009 A.D. he captured Narayanpur of Rajasthan and looted the Nagarkot Fort by defeating Fateh Daud and Anandapal in the ‘battle of Oaihind’.
Having been inspired with the information of huge wealth in the Somnath temple of Anhilbara in Gujarat, he attacked and destroyed this temple with 80,000 soldiers in the month of January 1025 A. D.
He again invaded India in 1026 A. D. He was resisted by the Jaths while returning back to Ghazni with huge wealth and ornaments. Probably this was his last invasion. Later he died in 1030 A.D. at the age of 59.
Muizzudduin or Shihabuddin who is known in Indian history as ‘Mohammad of Ghur’ started a campaign towards India in 1175 A.D. He was defeated by Prithviraj Chauhan III, the king of Chauhan dynasty of Ajmer and Delhi in the 1st Battle of Tarain in 1191 A.D
It was said that Jaichand, the king of the Gharwal dynasty, provocative Mohammad Ghori to declare war against Prithviraj Chauhan, because he kidnapped Samjukta, the daughter of Jaichand, and married her.
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It made Jaichand insulted. Mohammad Ghori fought the 2nd Battle of Tarain in 1192 A. D. against Prithviraj just to take revenge of the earlier defeat. Prithviraj was defeated by Md. Ghori.
During the period from 700 A.D. to 1200 A.D. the central administration in Indian politics collapsed and may regional power came up. Similarly, many evolutions were found in the field of social and economic aspects.
The cultural life of the Indian population was also influenced deeply by the economic development of India. “Culture is the harmonious development of all the faculties in man”. -Francis Bacon
The impact of religion was great behind this spontaneous change in the life of the people in the post-Gupta era.
Post-Gupta era Social life:
The main specialty of the such social life of north and south India up to the 12th century has different changes in the ancient social structure.
Historians Dr. R. S. Sharma, Dr. D. D. Koshambi, Dr. D. C. Sarkar, Irfan Habib, Dr. B. N. S. Yadav, etc. thought that such a rise of the feudal system of society occurred much prior to the Gupta age.
But after the death of Harshabardhan (647 A.D.), the subordinate staff became much more powerful due to the weak administration of the central power. During the time of the powerful rulers, these people were allowed to occupy lands or villages in lieu of their salaries and wages.
The army chief staff or the local rulers enjoyed such lands in a similar manner. At one time, the right over the land became hereditary. As a result, the landlords became the rulers of the area instead of the king.
Chandragupta for the sake of administration appointed many feudal lords. The dominance of these feudal lords increased to a great extent at the time of invasions of Hun leader Torman or Mihirkula or Pushyamitra.
Thus, the landlords and feudal lords became unruly and extremely dominant in the feudal system of society during the period from the 7th century to the 12th century. On the other hand, the condition of the slaves, laborers, and farmers.
Became bad to worse day by day. Prof. Romila Thapar said ‘There was no light of hope in the life of the farmers.’ Hence, many of them were compelled to become criminals for livelihood.
The caste system took a very hard shape in the ancient age or the last 500 years of the Hindu age. The society was divided into four classes of people i.e. Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Sudra. This disparity increased gradually.
The Pandits like Raghunandan, Bhababhuti, and Bigyaneswar formulated the norms and principles of the society. Vaishyas and Sudras became the prey of extreme exploitation and social humiliation, though the Brahmin and Kshatriyas enjoyed prestige and status in society.
Sudras and Chandalas were hateful and untouchable. Any interactions with the Sudras was strictly prohibited. There was a system of severe atonement for the Brahmins if by chance, they treaded over the shadow of any Chandala.
Manu said somewhere, ‘Chandalas will stay outside the locality, will dress like a dead body, will use the earthen utensil, will wear the ornaments made of iron, and will tame the ponies.
‘ So the severe caste system became one of the main peculiarities of this society. The Arabian Pandit Alberuni has described about the narrowness and extreme conservatism of the Hindu society in the 11th century in his famous book ‘Kitab-Ul-Hind”.
In spite of the strict caste system, mixing between Brahmin, Kshatriya, and other castes existed. Though it was true that intercaste marriages in this society was looked upon with grace, yet the mixing of blood did happen.
From thus different subcastes originated. Again, sub-caste originated by dint of different vocations and professions. These were Kumbhakar, Swarnakar (Goldsmith), Tantubai (Weaver) Charmakar (Cobler) Karmakar, Shankha Banik, Malakar, Teli, Rajput Kshatriya, Malla Kshatriya, Barga Kshatriya, Poundra Kshatriya, etc.
The royal employees, who belonged to Brahmins, Kshatriya, and Sudra were known as Kayastha. Among these, there were Kulin Kayastha and Karan Kayastha. There were other communities also in the south like Albar, Naynar, Enadi, Ballal, etc.
The influence of the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas was comparatively less in the Brahmin-dominated south Indian society. According to Dr. Ramsharan Sharma, caste identity was done by the degree of wealth and not by birth. As a result, the origin of sub-castes was not as complicated as was found in the north.
The women did not have any social status or independence in that patriarchal pattern of society. They were literally slaves to men. According to Prof. Sukumari Bhattacharya, the Pundits used to take out distorted meanings of the religious texts as measures of exploiting and oppressing women.
It was mentioned in Matsyapuran that disobeying or wayward women should be beaten by bamboo or rope. Even there were plenty of advice of dissolution them. Within this social structure, there was absolutely no scope of women to become self-sufficient.
The systems of early marriage, Polygamy, burning of Sati, or dowry system, etc. were very much there. Widow marriage and women’s education were not looked upon in good sense and spirit. The married women used ‘Shankha’ and ‘Sindur’.
The women of the south were much more respectful. A queen of the Rastrakuta family used to rule. The aristocratic princesses and other ladies of the royal court showed much efficiency in painting, dancing, singing, fine arts, poetic performances, and also administrative activities.
Women’s right to property was also recognized. But in certain cases, some women in the north used to get a better status.
One of the main specialties of the society of ancient India was the system of ‘Devdasi’. The unmarried girls of high families, who were experts in dancing and singing, were dedicated to the temple.
This was known as the ‘Devdasi system’. Plenty of stories are found in the Mahabharata, Puran, and even in the ancient inscription about the devadasi, who were deployed to the services to Gods.
Basically, this system existed in Gujarat, Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, and entire south India. Hiuen Tsang found such Devdasi in the Surya temple of Multan. (629 A.D.). In 867 A.D. Abu-Jaid-al-Hasan, an Arabian Traveller saw Devdasi in the same Indian temples.
Some 500 Devdasis used to dance and sing throughout the day in the Somnath Temple of Gujarat. According to researcher U. N. Ghosal, there were about twenty thousand Devdasis in 4000 temples in Gujarat.
Sri Chaitanya Dev gave ‘Diksha’ to a Devdasi of Jagannath Temple of Puri. An unknown Geographer of the tenth century wrote in his book ‘Hudud-ul-Alam’ that it was seen in a temple that at least thirty Devadasis were dancing around the idol inside a temple.
It was generally customary to keep Devdasi in every temple in the Chola dynasty. The number of these Devdasi increased in the tenth-eleventh century. In big temples, there were even 1700 to 2500 Devdasi.
In the 11th century, Alberuni found in India that Devdasis were being used as prostitutes. The money earned by them through this process were accepted by the temple authorities. Sometimes this money was spent for the maintenance of the Army.
Towards the end, it became normally detrimental to society and temples became unholy.
One of the main specialties of the ancient social structure was slavery. Slaves were found plenty in south Indian societies. Many people became slaves either voluntarily or for extreme poverty.
Any son of a slave woman became a slave by birth. The slaves were engaged in household jobs or temple jobs.
The export trade of India became extremely hampered due to the decline of the Roman empire in the west and the Muslim empire of Iran. Import of gold and silver in India decreased.
Within the 8th to 10th century, the gold deficit in north India increased like anything. In the 10th century, this trade and commerce got a new life. At this time, the import of gold increased in India.
The ports of Saptagram and Tamralipta on the east coast and Cambe, Debal, Thana, Soprab, and Kuilon ports in the west coast became very important.
The business tie-up developed between India and Ceylon, Burma, Africa, Kambuja, Champa, Malay, etc. The overseas such relationship also grew with China, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and Central Asia by land routes.
The merchants of Cholas, Pallavas, and Pandya states used to trade outside via the ports like Mahabalipuram, Kaveripattanam, and Karikal. The articles used for export were mainly sandalwood, spices, camphor, and ivory goods.
For the sake of commercial activities, the chole kings developed guilds or co-operatives called ‘Manigrams’ (big) and ‘Nagaram’ (small).
As a medium of exchange, the use of coins is quite old in this country. There was gold and silver coins in the Gupta age. There was a use of Dinar (gold coin) and Rupak (silver coin) in ancient Bengal.
But during the Pals the gold and silver coins decreased and the use of the Narayani coins, copper coins, and Kari, made of silver increased. During the Sen age, Puran and Kapardak Puran coins were in use.
Economic prosperity was proved by the use of the gold coin ‘Kashu’ in the Chola age.
Money lending businesses developed with the growth of trade and commerce side by side. According to Prof. Romila Thapar, the money lending business developed from trade and commerce and guild.
Brahmins were charged interest @ 2% and Sudras were charged @ 5%. Though the Rastrakutas and Chowhans initially fixed the rate of interest at 25% and 30% respectively but later the rate of interest was reduced to 15%.
The temples of south India also participated in trade, commerce, and money lending business. Thus the economic condition was passing through ups and downs from the 7th to the 12th century.
Due to the cultural upsurge in ancient Bengal, there had been a remarkable change in Pala and Sena ages. The impact of this cultural improvement was noticed in Indian history in the 7th century.
The culture of Bengal reached extreme excellence from-7th the to the 12th century. Through the path of economic advancement and social evolution, the culture of Bengal reached the top of prosperity.
A new wave came in the different cultural activities like language, religion, literature, science, sculpture, architecture, painting, art, and education.
The Pala kings were the devotees of Buddha and the Sena kings were the devotees of Brahmanya. There had been a change in Buddhism in the 8th and 9th centuries.
At this time, due to the infiltration of ‘Mantra’ and ‘Tantra’ in the religion, different religious theories like Bajrajan, Sahajjan, Tantrajan, Kalchakrajan, etc. came up.
Again, due to the mixing of Buddhism and Brahmannya, ‘Abadhutmarga’ and ‘Baulmarga’ also developed. So the influence of Buddhist Baul or Sahaja increased.
A widespread worshipping of the Buddhist God Tara and Hindu Gods like Shiva, Kali, Durga, Saraswati, etc. was introduced. Along with the Buddhist monasteries, the number of Hindu temples started increasing.
Education: The famous university during the Pala age was Nalanda University. This was recognized as one of the main Buddhist education centers in Asia. The entire maintenance of this university was undertaken by the Pala kings.
Due to the extreme patronage of the Pala kings, Odantapuri, Vikramshila, Somepuri, Devikot, Jagaddal, etc. became the best education centers. Atish Dipankar Srigyan was a student of Odantapuri University when its principal was Shilrakshit.
Dharmapala built one university in Bhagalpur in Bihar. Its name was Vikramshila University. There were 107 monasteries and 6 colleges under this university. The main chancellor was Sri Abhayakar Gupta.
Subjects like Buddhist philosophy, logic, grammar, medical science, and astrology were taught in this university. Among the eminent teachers, Dipankar Srigyana, Ratnakar Shanti, Sridhar, Buddhagyan-pada, Kalyan Rakshit, etc. were important.
For about 400 years, this university continued proudly. Somepuri University was also quite famous. Dharmapala established 50 religious institutions also. Hiuen Tsang and Khemendra the poet of Kashmir thought that Bengalees were very interested in education.
The three main languages of literature were Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Sourasena Apabhrangsha. Magdhi Apabhrangsha, the language of the common people played an important role in the development of the Bengali language.
The best poet in the Apabhrangsha language was Sayambhu. Bouddha Siddhacharyas in the Pala age wrote the Charyapadas in the 11th-12th centuries. The paragraphs of Chaupau lyrics were written by Luipad, Bhusukapad, Shantipad, Shabarpad, Arahapad, Khnyapad, etc.
In 1916 A. D. Mahamahopadha Haraprasad Shastri published the Charyapad in Bengali. The name of that book was “Hajar Bachharer Purana Bangla Bhasay Bouddha Gan-O-Doha.
” One quotation of ‘charyachrjabinishchay’ under this was “Kahap givi meli achhahu kees. Berila pora chow dish. Apna manshey harina bairi”….. That is whom to accept and whom to reject? There is an uproar around the enemy of a deer is his own flesh.”
This age is called the ‘golden age of Bengali literature’. It was known from the Haricharita, written by Pandit Chaturbhuj, that the Brahmins of Barendrabhumi were quite efficient and expert in Puran and grammar.
The books written by the pandits in the age were Herashastra by Bhabadev Bhatta, Ramcharita by Sandhyakar Nandy (Satire), Dayabhag by Jimutbahan (Hindu law), Kadambari Kathasagar by Avinanda, ‘Nayakandali’ by Sridhar Bhatta, ‘Mudrarakhas’ by Vishakdutta (800 A.D.)
‘Ravanbadh’ by Bhatti (7th Century) Nabasahasanka Charita by Padmagupta in the 11th Century (Biography of Malab king) Naikarshacharit by Sriharsha in the 12th Century.
Besides this, there were poems by Bhartrihari, Uttarammcharit, and Malati-Madav by Bhahabbuti, Karpur Manjari by Rajsekhar in the 10th Century, and also ‘Bal Ramayana’ by him. Being moved by the scholarly quality of Dhoi, Laxmansena presented him with the title ‘Kabiraj Chakravarty’.
The eminent scholars during the Pala age were Maitreya Rakshit, Jinendrabuddhi, Sarvananda, etc. Incidentally, it may be said that the names of Pragnyabarman, the writer of the Tantrik text, and Atish Dipankar, the writer of the Bajrajjan text worth mentioning.
Atish Dipankar wrote 200 Buddhist texts by staying in Tibet for thirteen years. Among the novelists in the Sena age, Halayudha for his novel ‘Mimansha Sarvashya’ and ‘Brahman Sarvashya’ was worth mentioning.
Other writings were ‘Bratasagar’ ‘Pratishthasagar’ ‘Acharyasagar’, ‘Dansagar’, and ‘Abdhutsagar’ by Ballalsena. ‘Harilata’ and ‘Pintridayita’ by Aniruddha Bhatta, ‘Pavandut’ by Dhoi, ‘Chandrachur Charit’ by Umapati Dhar and ‘Geetgovinda’ by Jaydeva.
The last line of Geetgovinda was the line written by Srikrishna. It was ‘Smaragarala khandanang momo shirasi mandanong dehi padapallava mudarang’. The Geetagobinda, ‘Tikasarbasya’ of Sarbananda, Aryasaptashati, of Gobordhanacharya, ‘Sanskrita Kosh’ of Sridhar Das, Sadukti Karmamrita, etc. were really famous and classical.
The texts relating to medical science were ‘Madhavnidan’ by Madhabkar, ‘Siddhayoga’ by Brinda, ‘Ayurbed Dipika’ by Chakrapani Dutta, and Bhanumati, Shabdachandrika, ‘Chikitasasamgraha’ by the author, “Sharirvidya” and “Chikitsashastra” Grantha by Surpala and Bangasena, ‘Shabdapradip’ and ‘Brikhyayurbed’ and Louha Paddhati are the classical creations in Medical science.
Banbhatta, Vaskaracharya (Born in 1118) Aryabhatta II, Kalyan Barman, Sridhar, Mahavira, Balbhadra, etc. became very famous by writing books are mathematics and astrology.
Somepuri of Bengal, a sculpture of Paharpur, Odantapur, Vikramshila. etc. were brilliant examples of art and sculpture. Different art lovers of Tibet and Suvarnabhumi of south-east Asia imitated the methods of sculpture of different Vihar and temples.
There was mention of constructing temples by the method of ‘Sarbatabhadra’ a theory in Vastushipla. Dr. Niharranjan Ray said “The Temple of Paharpur is the greatest art of Bengal.
Its existence is seen as the most in all ‘Sarbatabhadra’ sculptures. It is noticeable in the field of sculpture. The terracotta art of the Pala age proves its originality. There were two famous sculptors- Dhiman and his son Bitapala.
It is mentioned in a contemporary script about the art of Somepuri Mahavihar “It is only the place to visit in the eyes of the world.” The idols made of Ashtadhatu and Blackstone were examples of the creativity of the highest order.
Many idols or models made of Blackstone carry evidence of excellent sculpture in the Pala age. Many models of women and Gods in a variety of postures are inscribed beautifully in terracotta art. There were many great artists in the Sena age.
Among those, Shulapani of Barendrabhumi demands special reference. Other talented artists were Karnabhadra, Vishnubhadra, Tathagatasagar, Sutradhar, etc. ‘Ballalbari’ was a glaring example of the architect.
The degree of efficacy and expertise of painting can be known from viewing many pictures of ‘Ashta Sahasrika Pragyaparamita’ written in the time of Rampala. These paintings were made on the basis of Bajrajan and Tantrajan during the Pala age.
A very fine black or red line was painted around the picture. Dr. S. K. Saraswati has done a lot of research work on the paintings of Palas. Many documents and records are conserved in the archives of Cambridge Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal and in the Bovellien library of Oxford.
The Pala rulers were Buddhists and the Senas were Brahmins. Society developed based on Brahmana ideals. In Bengal, the society was divided into different castes like Brahmanas, Kayasthas, Vaidyas, and Sudras.
During this period some new castes like Kayastha, Vaidya, and Kaibartas originated. Ballalasena introduced the ‘kulin’ caste system among the Brahmans, Vaidyas and Kayasthas. (Kulin system was based on the status and glory of the high-caste families).
The society was based on a caste system as well as the ‘Kulin family’ system. As a result, there were too many divisions in society. The social life was full of rituals and celebrations.
Buddhists, Shaivas (worshippers of Shiva), and Vaishnavas (worshippers of Vishnu) co-existed happily. Various rituals like marriage and other religious festivals were celebrated with great merriment and pomp.
Women had no special status in society, but they had the right to get an education. Sometimes widows were forced to accept sati and they had to burn themselves on their dead husband’s pyres.
Polygamy (having several wives) was prevalent among the males of high-caste society. Widow re-marriage was condemned in the high caste. However, it was prevalent in the lower castes.
The men wore a dhoti and the women wore saris. Other than that men and women also used shawls. They also wore various types of ornaments made of gold, silver, diamonds, and pearls.
Men used wooden sandals. Women adorned themselves with bindis, and kajal, put flowers in their hair, smeared sandalwood powder on their bodies, and put ‘alta’ (red dye) on their feet to beautify themselves.
The people of Bengal were fond of food. The Bengali food consisted of rice, fish, meat, vegetables, fruits, milk, and ghee. Drinking wine was prevalent but the habit of drinking was looked down upon.
Among the people hunting, wrestling, chess-playing, the game of dice, and gambling were their recreation. Ordinary people traveled by boats and bullock carts. The rich would use horses and elephants to go from place to place.
Bengal flourished under the Palas and Senas. Agriculture was the main occupation of the Bengalees. Industry and commerce also prospered during this period. Bengal showed remarkable advancement, especially in the field of textile, sculpture, and jewelry.
In Europe and other parts of Asian countries, there was a great demand for cotton clothes of Bengal. Various commodities were exported by ships. Tamralipta and Saptagram were famous as important ports.
The Palà and Sena kings were great patrons of learning and encouraged the spread of education. With their support, there was unprecedented progress in the field of education and literature.
Sanskrit and Prakrit were the mediums of learning. The Bengali language developed from Prakrit. Hymns in Bengali composed by a sect of Buddhists,. were the oldest known specimens of Bengali literature.
Under the patronage of the universities of Nalanda and Sarnath, and the initiative of the Pala kings, new universities were set up at Odantapuri, Vikramshila, and Sompuri. The universities of Vikramshila and Sompuri were established by Dharmapala.
The University of Vikramshila was the most famous one besides Nalanda University. The Buddhist scholar Atish Dipankar was the principal of this University. During the reign of Nayapala, his fame spread far and wide. He was a follower of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism.
He was invited by the king of Tibet for the spread and reformation of Buddhism in Tibet. Atish Dipankar went to Tibet and spent the rest of his life there. Under the Pala and Sena kings, Sanskrit literature made remarkable progress in Bengal.
The ‘Ramcharita’ was an important historical poetic composition written by Sandhyakar Nandy who was a poet in the court of Rampala. This composition has a double meaning. It gives an account of Sita’s rescue by Ramachandra.
And it also depicts how Rampala regained North Bengal-the land of his forefathers, after defeating Kaivartya king Bhima. Aniruddha Bhatta the spiritual teacher of Ballalasena wrote two books namely ‘Harilata’ and ‘Pitredayita’ discussing different festivals and rituals of the Hindu religion.
Other than these, ‘Danasagara’ and ‘Adbhutasagara’ written in Sanskrit by Ballalasena, are two important creations of this period. Ballalasena himself was an exceptional scholar of Hindu scriptures.
His son, Lakshmanasena too was a poet and a learned man. He completed the ‘Adbhutasagara’ that his father could not complete. The five jewels of Lakshmanasenas court were Saran, Dhoyi, Umapatidhar, Gobardhan, and Jayadeva who helped to enrich the literature of the period.
The poet Dhoyi had written a book of poems called ‘Pavanduta’ similar to Kalidasa’s ‘Meghduta’. Jayadeva was an eminent poet of Lakshmanasena’s court. He was born in a village named Kenduli located on the banks of the Ajay river. He was a Vaishnav.
Jaydeva composed the famous ‘Gitagovinda’ describing the activities of Lord Krishna and Radha. The beautiful lyrical form of this legend has been depicted in the ‘Gitagovinda’ which was a famous poet and is immortal.
In fact, there is a myth that one day Lord Krishna appeared as Jayadeva and completed the couplets of the Gitagovinda. The renowned scholar of law, Jimutbahana wrote his famous book of the law “Dayabhaga”.
During the rule of the Pala kings. Halayudh, the Chief Justice in Lakshmanasena’s court was a renowned scholar. He authored a book named ‘Brahmansarvaswa’ explaining the sacred vedic hymns.
Ayurveda (traditional Hindu science of medicine as taught in Atharvaveda) was highly developed in the Pala and Sena Ages. During this time, Chakrapani Dutta the famous Ayurveda specialist was born.
He wrote the book ‘Chikitsa Sangraha’ which contains the interpretation of the methods of treatment by Charaka and Sushruta, the founders of Ayurvedic treatment. Chakrapani Dutta also wrote the ‘Dravyaguna Sangraha’, a book about Ayurvedic treatment.
The art and architecture of this period were proof of the excellent skills of the artisans of this age. The construction of monasteries and temples, stone and metallic idols of Hindu deities and Lord Buddha, and the ‘terracotta’ art bear the evidence of their highly developed workmanship.
The ruins of the monasteries and viharas at Odantapuri, Vikramshila, and Sompuri revealed the highly advanced architecture of the Pala and Sena Ages. The statues engraved on the walls of the vihara at Sompuri in particular were novel.
Dhimana and his son Vitapala were two famous sculptors and artists of this age. Someshwara achieved great skill in engraving alphabets on stone. Shulapani was a renowned artist of the Sena period.
He was also a scholar of Hindu laws. The ‘Sarvatabhadra school of art’ was highly developed in this period.
This university was established near the maha vihara at Nalanda, by Gopala the founder of the Pala dynasty in Bengal. Probably his son Dharmapalȧ completed the construction of this university. The students could study here without paying any fées.
Buddhist scriptures, philosophy, etc., were taught here. When Dipankar Shrignan was a student of this university, Silarakshita was it’s principal.
This world-famous university near present-day Bhagalpur was built by Dharmapala. This university could accommodate 150 teachers and 3000 students who came from all over the country and abroad.
Here more than a hundred teachers taught Buddhist scriptures, logic, philosophy, grammar, astronomy, medicine, etc. The University of Vikramshila was as famous as Nalanda University. It was the holy place of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism.
Many students of this university went to Tibet for the spread of Buddhism. Among the principals of the University of Vikramshila, Abayakar Gupta, Ratnakar Shanti, Dipankar Shrignana, Buddhajnanpada, Shridhar, and Kalyan Rakshit were famous scholars.
At the end of the 12th century A.D., the soldiers of a Turkish general named Iktiyaruddin Mohammad Bin Bakhtiyar Khilji, who was a general of Mohammad Ghori plundered this university and reduced it to ruins in 1203-05-A.D.
During the period of Kumaragupta I (415-455 A.D.), the son of Chandragupta II, the Nalanda University was built in the Nalanda District of Bihar. The meaning of the word ‘Nalanda’ is knowledge or thirst for knowledge.
In that sense, Nalanda University was the best education center. This free and residential university was run by government sponsorships. The system of admission test was there. This test was very tough.
But once admitted, no student could go back to home for a period of a minimum of 7 to 8 years. The students were awarded degrees and diplomas after the successful completion of the course.
The Buddist pandits used to call this institution as “The Oxford of the Mahayana Buddhism”.
The students from south India and other parts of India used to come here to study in this University. Even students from central Asia, China, Tibet or south-east Asia used to come here. Harshabardhan used to bear all costs from his royal treasury.
At this time while learning for some time, Hiuen Tsang noticed that there were at least 10,000 students in this University. There were 1510 teachers and scholars to teach the students.
The Bengali Pandit Shilabhadra was the Principal of this University. Pragyamitra was an eminent teacher.
15 subjects were taught in this University, each student had to learn all the subjects at a time. The subjects were Buddhist philosophy, Veda, Grammar, Logic, Astrology, Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, History, Ayurveda; Pali, Sanskrit, etc.
There were big libraries and archives for the benefit of the students. The library was divided into three parts-Ratnaranjak, Ratnadadhi, and Ratnasagar. The student-teacher relationship was excellent.
Sometimes, discussions went on up to midnight regarding the subjects. Apart from the schedule of study, seminars were held on any topic or subject. Students has separate bedrooms. A separate study room and drawing room were there.
There was a very strict discipline which both students and teacher had to follow. According to Hiuen Tsang, Nalanda University was the best educational institution in Asia.
Unfortunately, Baktyar Khalji, during his invasion in Bengal and Bihar, destroyed this university mistaking it as a fort, and burnt the library. This university is only the remnants of old memory, prestige, and the ruins of wonder.
Rajput Age:
The word ‘Rajput’ is distorted from of ‘RAJPUTRA’. According to poet Banabhatta, the high families of Kshatriyas are called Rajput.
The period from 647-1192 A.D. i.e. from the death of Harsha to the Muslim invasion, is called the Rajput age. Historians are of different opinions in respect to the rise of Rajput.
Different opinion:
Ancient opinion-According to the proverbs, Rajputs belong to the dynasty of Chandra and ‘Surya’. It can be known from the book “Prithwiraj Raso” written by Brahmin poet Chand Bardoi that Vashistha Muni performed the yagnas in Mount Abu for want of warriors.
As a result, the Rajput heroes like Pratihar, Paramar, Chowhan, Chalukya, Kalchuri, Sholanki, etc. born from the fire of that yagnas. This theory is called “Agnikul Theory”.
Dr. Gourishankar Hirachand Ojha has accepted this theory in his book ‘History of Rajputana’ though modern historians reclined to accept this theory.
Modern opinion:
The historians like Dr. Bhandarkar, William Crook, and Col. Todd thought that the Rajput race was originated from a foreign race. Col. Todd told in his book “Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan” that the Sakas, Huns, Kushan, and Gurjara people started marrying Indian girls while residing there.
In course of time, the descendants of these foreigners became very strong and courageous, These offsprings were known as Rajputs: For this reason, Dr. V. A. Smith also called the Rajputs as “Mixed race”.
Hence Smith commented, “The term Rajputas, as applied to a social group, has no concern with race, meaning descent or relationship by blood.”
Atish Dipankar Srigyana was born in Bikrampur in East Bengal in 980 A.D. He studied in Odantapur University built by Dharmapala with free ship.
Later he became a devotee of the Buddhist religion under the guidance of Bouddha Pandit Shil Rakhsit who was also the principal of that University. Shil Rakhsit himself gave him the title “Dipankar Srigyana”. His original name was ‘Chandragarbha’.
After being christened, his name became Atish Dipankar. Again he was known as Atish or Gyani to the people of Tibet. From that time, he became famous as Atish Dipankar Srigyana instead of Chandragarbha.
Atish Dipankar became the principal of Vikramshila University at the age of 19. Atish came to Tibet with the request of Tibetian king Ye-Shesh-Hode after staying for a long period as principal in this University near Bhagalpur in Magadha.
He died in Tibet in’ 1050 A.D. after propagating Buddhism for 13 years here. He was buried here with respect and homage. Atish Dipankar wrote 200 texts in all on the basis of Buddhism in 13 years.
The famous text is Bajrajan Sadhan. But the majority of the texts were written on the basis of Mahajan Buddhism.
‘Vikramshila University :
The Pala king Dharmapala built the Vikramshila University near Bhagalpur. This University was next to Nalanda University. The name Vikramashila originated from the title of Dharmapala. This was one of the main centers for studying Buddhism.
Atish Dipankar Srigyana was the principal of this University. There were almost 3000 students in his time. This was a residential institution and the education, accommodation, etc. were absolutely free of charge.
The subjects taught in this University were Buddhist Philosophy, Hindu Philosophy, Logic, Nyaya, Grammar, Astrology, Medical science, Tantra, etc. The teachers were like Sridhar, Kalyan Rakshit, Abhayakar Gupta, Buddhagyanapad, Ratnakar Shastri, Dipankar Srigyana, etc.
There were 114 teachers in this institution. This University was surrounded by a high wall. 107 monasteries and six education centers were under it.
Dr. Ramesh Chandra Majumdar said, “The name ‘Mahavihar’ was perfect and appropriate.” This University, being the wonderland of history was destroyed by Bakhtiar Khilji in the 12th century.
Borobudur:
The word Borobudur means ‘several Buddha’. The ‘Borobudur’ Buddhist Stupa is situated in Java island of south-east Asia. Shailendra kings of Java Constructed this ‘Stupa’. This was built in between 750-850 A.D.
This is situated at the top of a large mountain. This was built by curving the mountain in imitation of Pallava art. The design was exactly in the pattern of the step Pyramid in Egypt or Mexico. There were altogether 1000 pinnacles in this stupa.
The pinnacle in the middle was comparatively larger. The temple consisted of 9 steps on the mountain. A large bell-shaped stupa was atop the Hill. Amongst these steps, the lower step was 120 meters in length and 120 meters in width.
There were 436 models of Buddha engraved on the walls. The stories of the Mahabharata, Purana, etc. were also engraved. The total area of this stupa was 400 sq. ft. The stupa was built as per the Indian form of art based on Buddhist culture.
This is ever-beautiful because of its most refined artwork and ornamentation like Pallava art. Dr. Ramesh Chandra Majumdar has rightly said “Borobudur is referred to as the 8th wonder of the world.”
An advanced History of India. Unfortunately, this was destroyed by the Turky Muslims in 1474 A.D. After a long time since it was greatly damaged UNESCO has recently started renovating this temple.
The relationship between south-east Asia and the culture of Ancient India is very old. Due to encouragement from the Indian merchants, travelers, pandits, and kings, the Indian culture expanded up to the different islands of southeast Asia.
So, the countries like China, Burma, Sumatra, Java, Siam, Bali, Borneo, Kambuja, Ceylon, etc. of south-east Asia are collectively known as the “Greater India”. The Indian Religion, literature, science, philosophy, art, and sculpture, flourished in the culture of south-east Asia.
From the texts of Jatakas, Periplus of the Erythraean sea, Kathasaritsagar, Kathamala, Brihatkatha, Katha Kosh, Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, etc. we can know many things about the cultural relationship of south Asia with India.
The expansion of Indian culture occurred in Burma during the regime of Asoka. Sanskrit and Pali languages were the languages of Burmese literature. People like Brahmin, Bouddha, Shaiva, and Vaishnavas used to live here.
There were Hindu colonies in Pegu and Arakan. Many Buddhist monasteries and pagodas were constructed here. This state became independent in the 16th century. The important king by Indian names were Harivikram, Suryavikram, Aniruddha, Tribhubanaditya, etc.
The relationship between India and Siam developed in the 3rd century. Initially, this state was a feudal state under the “Funan” empire. This state became independent in the 16th century. An Indian named Indraditya ruled here for a long time.
Many people of this place were believers in. Hinayana Buddhism. The present name of Siam is Thailand. The tradition of Indian culture is found here. This is well known as a Hindu colony.
The Champa island of southeast Asia is situated in northeast of Kambuja. It is mentioned in history that an Indian name of ‘Srimar’ established the Champa estate in the 2nd century. This state was in existence for thirteen hundred years i.e. 2nd to 15th century.
Sanskrit was the official language of this state. In spite of the domination of the Brahminical religion, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and Buddha were equally respected in this state. The pattern of daily life, dresses, and social and religious customs were developed with the imitation of the Indians.
Some historians think that the name of Champa estate had been originated from the name of Champa city of Bihar. The important kings of Champa were-Haribarman, Rudrabarman, Srijayindrabarman, Jaiparameshwardeva, etc.
According to the historian Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, “There were many flourishing cities in Champa and the whole country was adorned with beautiful temples, both Hindu and Buddhist.” These kings were all interested in Indian culture.
The Kambuja (Presently known as Kampuchea) was situated on the south of Indo-China. It is known from the Chinese source that an Indian Brahmin named ‘Kaundinya’ established this island in the 2nd century.
Thousands of Brahmins, coming from India, used to do yagnas and other rituals, throughout the day. Chinese people called it “Fu-nan.” The Cambodian kings expanded their kingdom up to Vietnam, Laos, Thailand (Siam), Malay, and Burma starting in the 7th century.
The Kambodian kings like Jaibarman I, VII, Jashobarman, and Suryabarman II were quite scholarly in Hinduism. With their efforts, the Indian culture developed a lot.
King Suryabarman II built the Vishnu temple of Ankorvat (1113-45 A.D.) in Angkor Thom, the capital of Kambuja. But his nephew Dharanindrabarman (1152-81 A.D.) completed the said temple.
This temple was built in the form of Pallava art. The shape of the temple was stepped like just like the step pyramids of Egypt and Mexico. It was surrounded by a 650ft wide moat. On the western side, there was a 36ft wide stone footpath.
The height of the porch was 800 ft from east to west and 675 ft from north to south. The apex of the temple was 213 ft. There were the images like Nataraj Shiv, (Kiratbeshi) Mahadeva, Arjuna, Jama, Chitragupta, Pragyaparamita, and other images also although there was the main Vishnu image inside the temple.
There are excellent sculptures on the walls of eight high pinnacles, a staircase, and the walls. Ramesh Chandra Majumdar said. “Ankorvat in every sense is a wonder of the world.”
Ankortham the capital of Kambuja state was 2 miles long and 2 miles wide surrounded by a moat 330 ft wide. There were 5 main gates to enter the city. The main road of the city was 100 ft wide.
A Shiva temple was situated at the center of Bayon, one of the best cities in the world. Jaibarman VII built this biggest Shiva temple. There are 40 pinnacles in this pyramid-shaped three-storied temple.
4 models of Shiva are curved in each pinnacle. The pinnacle in the middle is almost 45 mt high. It is completely covered by gold.
The Indian state had been developed from the 2nd century in the Malay peninsula. Within the eighth century, a large Shailendra empire was developed with the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Borneo islands. According to the Arabian writers, the average, daily income of this empire was 200 mounds of gold.
Though the relationship with the Chola kings was a bit bitter, they maintained a good relationship with the Palas and as a gesture, Shailendra king Balaputradev constructed a Buddhist monastery in Nalanda and donated five villages for its maintenance.
As per the instructions of their Kulaguru Kumara Ghosha. The kings of this place constructed a temple of Goddess Tara in Java island. Kumara Ghosha made the Shailendra kings the devotees of Buddha.
Srivijay dynasty ruled Sumatra island from the 3rd to 8th century. After that, it went under the control of the Shailendra kings in the 8th century. According to Itsing, thousands of Buddhist monks used to live here. Fa-Hien visited Java in 414 A.D.
At that time the Hindu religion was very flourishing. Bali is situated on the eastern side of Java. People of this place used to worship Hindu Gods and Goddesses. The society was classified into four groups.
Borneo island is the longest among the east Indian islands. During the 1st to 15th century, the Hindu religion and culture flourished a lot in this place. King Mulabarman of this place used to respect the Brahmins. He thought that cow conservation was a holy job.
When Mahendra and Sanghyamitra came to the royal court of the Ceylonese king Tissoa during the period of Asoka, they made him a follower of Buddha. The influence of Indian culture in the field of religion, language, and literature.
Art and culture of this place though there was the dominance of Chola and Chalukya. Thus a keen relationship was developed with the different islands of south-east Asia.
Historian Ramesh Chandra Majumdar said, “The Indians put more value on the cultural conquest and no price was reckoned too high so long as this great mission was fulfilled.”
Qutubuddin Aibek (1206-1210):
When childless Mohammad Ghori died, his main slave and efficient commandant Qutubuddin Aibek (1206-1210 A.D.) became the independent ruler of Delhi in 1206 A.D. He took the title ‘Malik’ and ‘Shipahasalar’.
He became free from slavery when Ghiyasuddin Ghori, the descendent of Mohammad Ghori, gave him the title ‘Sultan’ in 1208 A.D.. Then he became the symbol of Sovereign power.
He established the capital of the Sultanate Empire in Delhi after conquering Delhi, Kanauj, Gwalior, and, Ranthambore. After the coronation in Lahore in 1206 A.D. he became the sole Master of Hindusthan.
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Taj Uddin Ilduz and Nasiruddin Qubacha, the two commandants of Mohammad Ghori were the main enemies of Qutubuddin. So to set up a relationship with them, he himself married the daughter of Ilduz and married his sister with Qubacha.
Class 7 History Wbbse
On the other hand, with the instructions of Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Khilji attacked Bengal and Bihar and destroyed the monasteries of Vikramshila, Odantapur, and Nalanda. Bhaktiar Khilji set up the new Turki Capital in Devikote by defeating Lakhsmansen of Bengal.
Under the instruction of Qutubuddin, Alimardan Khilji became the ruler of Bengal after the death of Baktiar Khilji. The Turky and non-Turky employees of Delhi submitted themselves to Qutubuddin.
In the language of Dr. Iswariprasad, ‘He ranks among the great pioneers of Muslim conquest in India.’
Character and Achievements:
Historians like Smith, Elphinstone, etc. described the royal family of Qutubuddin Aibek as the ‘Slave family’. Because Kazi Fakruddin Kufi brought him from the slave market of Nishapur and later sold him to Mohammad Ghori.
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As Qutubuddin was a slave in his early life, hence the family set up by him was known as the Slave family. The meaning of the word Aibek was a slave. But in Turkey language, it means he who looks like a moon.
Anyway, though he was a slave in his early life, he had many qualities. It was known from the ‘Tariq-i-Mubarak’, he started constructing Qutubminar in remembrance of the Sufi Saint Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki.
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Dr K. A. Nizami was praised for his bravery and military talent, and said, “Aibek was a military leader par-excellence.” He was broad, noble, and generous. Sometimes he donated a lac of rupees. So people called him ‘Lakhboksh’.
Historian A. B. M. Habidullah said by evaluating him. ‘He combined the intrepidity of the Turk with the refined taste and generosity of the Persian”.
After reigning for only 4 years, he fell down from the horseback while playing Polo and died in 1210 A.D. His son Aram Shah became the next Sultan after him but due to his incapability and worthlessness, Iltutmish, the son-in-law of Qutubuddin became the Sultan in 1211 A.D.
Iltutmish, with the requests of his Amirs and Omrahs of Delhi, became the king by killing Aram Shah, the worthless stepson of Qutubuddin. Iltutmish was a slave in his first life. ‘Encyclopaedia of Islam’ had described him.
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‘Iletmis’ due to his attractive figure. The word Iltutmis has been derived from Artemis. He identified himself as a Turkish Muslim, a descendant of Ilbari Turkey just to erase the agony of being a slave.
Iltutmish, the son-in-law of Qutubuddin, was the ruler of Badaun near Delhi in the 1st stage of his life. Later, by the dint of fortune, he became the Sultanate of Delhi (1211 A.D.)
The problems of Iltutmish:
Many problems were there from the time of Qutubuddin. The problems further increased during the 11-month-old ruling of Aram Shah. Basically, he became the king in a chaotic problem-striking atmosphere.
At the time of becoming king, the main problems were-
Solution Iltutmish took some very stem measures to stabilize the political crisis. First of all, he subdued the villain’s Amirs and Omraḥs of Ajodhya, Varanashi, Badaun, Shivalik, Delhi, etc., and established his dominance in 1212-1215 A.D.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
He also established his dominance by subduing the revolts by Tajuddin in 1216 A.D. and Nasiruddin Kubacher in 1217 A.D. in the Mansera battle. Such dominance was over Sind, Punjab, and even Ghazni.
He made his son Nasiruddin Mahmud, the ruler of Bengal by subduing the revolt of Bengal in 1225-1227 A.D. But due to his untimely death (1229 A.D.) Iltutmish was compelled to kill Iqtiaruddin Mohammad-Bin-Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1230-31 A.D.
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For his arrogant nature, though he became the king of Bengal, and made his subordinate Malik Allauddin Jani, the ruler of Bengal. During the period from 1226 to 1232 A.D.
He recovered the places like Gwalior, Ranthambore, Kalinjar, Jallore, Lahore, Ajmer, etc. He conquered Vilsa, Ujjaini, and Mahdore in 1234 A.D. It is said that Iltutmish destroyed the Mahakal Temple built by Vikramaditya.
In 1221 AD the naughtorious Mongol leader Chengiz Khan attacked Khiba or Khoarizam of Central Asia, the capital of Jalaluddin Mangabarani. Mangabarani fled away and prayed for shelter to Iltutmish.
But he was refused by Iltutmish due to fear of Chengiz’s attack to India. Mangabarani left India. Chengiz also followed him up to Sindhu and looted Sindhu and Punjab.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
Mangabarni settled somewhere in the North-Western region by marrying a girl of the Kokkar community of that region. According to historian K. A. Nizami, Iltutmish had been able to strengthen the Sultani rule in Delhi and made it independent.
The way Iltutmish had developed the Sultanate empire of Delhi into a large one is a rare event in history. So the Caliph of Baghdad Al-Mustansir Billah gaye Iltutmish the title ‘Sultan-i-Azam’ or the best sultan.
Iltutmish mentioned himself as the ‘Commander of Caliph’ in his silver coin. The weight of this coin was 175 gm, Besides this, he renamed Delhi as ‘Hazrat-i-Delhi’ for increasing its international prestige and importance.
Historian Sir Wolseley Haig said, “Iltutmish was the greatest of the slave kings.”
Iltutmish constructed the Bandegi-Chihalagani to establish his empire on a solid base of extreme sovereign power and good administration. He also developed the Turki empire in India. He first introduced Arabian coins.
He also introduced the copper coin ‘Jital’ and the silver coin ‘Tanka’. Numismatists Edward Thomas and Nelson Wright think that Iltutmish was the person who first introduced the well-organized coinage system in the Sultanate age.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
He was the first to introduce the ‘Iqta’ Jagir system. He developed a royal administration and became free from Ghur and Ghazni. He built many places, mosques, and towers in Delhi. He finished the incomplete job of Qutubminar (1231-1232 A.D.)
Hence according to Dr K. A. Nizami, ‘It was he (Iltutmish) who gave the country a capital, an independent state, a monarchial form of government and governing class.’ Iltutmish was righteous, honest, and interested in art and education.
The scholars like Minhaz-Uddin-Siraj, Nijam-ul-Mulk, Junaaidi, and Fakar-ul-Mulk-Isani were members of his royal court. So, the historian Dr Iswari Prasad thought, ‘Iltutmish was undoubtedly the real founder of the slave community.’
Iltutmish chose his only intelligent and educated daughter as the able successor of Delhi’s throne as he observed his sons to be worthless.
But the conservative Turk Muslims refused to accept Raziya as the empress of Delhi and were left insulted to be under the rule of a woman, they made her son Rakunuddin Firoz as the Sultan of Delhi after the death of Iltutmish (1236 A.D.).
But members of the royal court ultimately were compelled to request Raziya to be the Sultan of Delhi because due to the incapability of Rakunuddin, revolts started in and around Delhi.
Sultana Raziya became Sultan in 1236 A.D. and reigned for only four years (1240 A.D.) with pride and prestige. From the text ‘Futuhaus-Salatin’ written by pandit Isami, many things can be known about the tenure of Raziya.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
Raziya was the only lady in the medieval age who became Sultan through election by the people. She was intelligent kind and a warrior. So she was very efficient in horse riding and sword fighting. Being dressed as a man, she used to conduct royal proceedings.
Just after being the empress, she emphasized the introduction of concentrated central rule by snatching powers from the hands of the aristocrats. She abolished the ‘Circle of forty’ which was constituted by the Turk aristocrats.
She employed many non-Turk Muslims in high posts. A Habsi leader named Jalaluddin Yakut Khan helped Raziya to constitute a non-Turk team. She got help from Kabir Khan and Malik ljuddin to kill the revolting leader Nizam-ul-Mulk-Junaidi.
Ilbari Turky leader Ghiyasuddin Balban (real name Ulugh Khan) was purchased by Khoaza Jalaluddin in a slave market of Basra in Persia. After that Jalaluddin sold him to Iltutmish.
Then he became Amir-i-Shikar and became a member of the forty ‘Challisher chakra’. Due to the conspiracy of this elderly leader, daughter Raziya and two sons Mahamud Shah and Bahram Shah of Iltutmish were dethroned and declined.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
Balban gave marriage of his daughter to Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah and achieved the post of Nayeb-i-Mamlikat in 1254 A.D. But due to extreme greed for power and the throne, he murdered his son-in-law Nasiruddin in 1265 A.D.
With poison at the age of 36. According to the historian Isami, Balban acquired the throne of Delhi in this manner. He was 60 at that time.
The old Balban ruled from 1266-1287 A.D:
As an autocratic sultan. At this time, he proved himself stronger than the Turkey aristocrats. He campaigned himself as the representative of God or ‘Nayeb-i-Khudai to Louis fourteenth. He took the title ‘Jilillah’ like the Sasanian.
The dynasty of Persia introduced the custom of “Paobos” (to kiss the feet of the Sultan) and “Sizda” (to stand on a bent knee). Laughing, humor, entertainment, and drinking were prohibited in the royal court.
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He used to attend the royal court in gorgeous dresses and in a heavy and serious atmosphere. He took some stern measures against some members of the Royal Court to subdue them.
He caned Malik Bakbak openly, the ruler of Badaun for killing a slave and for this similar offense, he caned 500 times the ruler of Ayodhya and fined him Rs. 20,000. Maintaining strict discipline in every sphere was the main specialty of his political ideology.
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Historian Dr. Ashirvad Lal Srivastava rightly commented in his book ‘The Delhi Sultanate’ (P-117)-“By such crooked and barbarous measures he destroyed ‘the forty’ and cowed down those of its members that escaped death and dismissal.”
Problems:
Balban faced problems like-
He solved these problems by
He subdued Tugril Khan, the rival leader of Bengal, and hanged the defeated soldiers to death. Balban died in 1287 A.D.
Jalaluddin Khalji (1290-96 A. D.):
He (at the age of 70) was the founder of the Khalji dynasty. He killed the last Mameluk Turkis sultan of the slave dynasty of Delhi Kaikobad and his infant son Kymursh to establish the Khalji dynasty. This event was known as the “Khalji revolt”.
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Alauddin Khalji (1296-1316 A. D.):
Alauddin was a believer of endless autocracy. So he used to say, just like Louis XIV ‘I am the state’ but he did not consider himself as a slave of the Caliphs.
Rather he took the title ‘Yamin-ul-Khilafat’ which meant helping the Caliphs. According to Dr. A. L. Srivastava, ‘He tried to make his state secular’. He was Alexander II.
His commander Nasrat Khan and Ulugh Khan defeated king Karnadeva of Gujarat and capsized his wife Kamaladevi and daughter Debaladevi after conquering Gujarat in 1297 A. D. He also conquered Ranthambhor (1299-1301 A. D.) by killing Rana Hamirdeva.
The soldiers of Alauddin killed about 30,000 Rajputs while conquering Chitore in 1303 A. D. It is known from the ‘Padyabat’ written by Malik Mohammad Jaysi (16th Century) that Alauddin invaded Chitore to win over Padmini, the wife of Ratan Singh.
But Padmini along with many Rajput women sacrificed their lives in fire by performing Jauhar Brata’. Alauddin was the first Muslim sultan who invaded South India by crossing the Vindhya mountain.
His faithful army chief Malik Kafur lead the South India campaign. He captured Devgiri by defeating Ramachandra Deva of the Yadav dynasty on the southwest of the Vindhyas. Later, Ramachandra helped Alauddin a lot for the South India invasion.
He compelled king Prataprudra, king of Warangal or Telengana dynasty in 1306-07 A.D. to surrender before him and got many treasures, 100 elephants, 700 horses, and a very precious diamond.
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Alauddin defeated Vir Ballal III of the Hoysel dynasty of Dwarsamudra in 1310 A.D. and made that state as a tributary. He advanced up to Rameshwar Bridge in the South by defeating Vir Pandya and Sundar Pandya of the Pandya dynasty in 1311 A.D.
Administrative reforms:
Alauddin was a believer of extreme autocracy. His chief minister was Khoaja Khatir. To eradicate the conspiracies and to strengthen the administration, he took up certain measures such as,
The main pillar of Alauddin’s administrative structure was his military power. ‘Ariz-i-Mumaliq’ the defense minister, used to recruit soldiers. The cavalry division Bakshi-Fouz used to get 234 tankas per horse and 78 tankas for each additional horse.
Wages were paid in money or cash instead of land. To stop the corruption in the army, he introduced ‘dag’ for identifying horses and ‘Julia’ for the identification of soldiers. According to Ferista, his cavalry strength was 4,75,000.
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He first introduced permanent and reserved forces in Delhi. Historian A. L. Srivastava said, “To him, belongs the credit of being the first Sultan of Delhi to lay the foundation of a permanent standing army.”
Economic reforms :
He appointed ‘Diwan-i-Asraf’ or accountant in the revenue department. ‘Diwan-i-Mustafi’ or the auditor was just under him. After that, there were posts like Karkun, Mutasharif, Muhashil, and Gomasta.
Alauddin abolished the earlier ‘Iqta system’ and acquired all the cultivable lands under government control or ‘Khalisa’. As a result, the local zamindars like Khut, Mukaddam, and Chowdhury lost their financial affluence and comfort.
He surveyed the entire land area and collected taxes. The taxes were as domestication tax, housing tax, Jijia tax, Carvi tax (10% in the case of Hindu merchants and 5% in the case of Muslim merchants), and also 50% ‘Khirraj’ or land revenue.
According to the historians like Habib and Afsar begum, there were political and economic motives behind these tax structures. Alauddin employed ‘Sahana-i-Mandi’ and ‘Diwan-i-Riasat’ to control the market.
The prices of essential commodities were fixed and spies were deployed to check the weighing of measures of the merchants. The price list as was follows Wheat = 7 jital, Rice = 5 jital, Job = 4 jital etc.
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1 jital = rupee. According to Barani, due to such control, the prices of different articles remained unchanged. Similarly, Ferista, said that there was no way of increasing prices even at the time of famine or epidemic.
Lanepoole said, “Alauddin saved the poor by depriving the riches.” According to Dr. K. S. Lal, “The revenue regulations of Alauddin were meant to crush high landlords, they were in no way less prejudicial to the interests of the peasantry”. (History of Khilijis, by K. S. Lal)
Other achievements:
Though ‘Kazi-ul-Mumalik’ or the chief justice conducted the judicial system yet emperor himself settled many cases through appeal tribunals.
He introduced the postal system such as ‘Dava’ and ‘Aulakh’ (Horse riders) for the sake of exchanges of governmental information and news.
Though Alauddin was of brutal nature, yet he respected the scholars like Pundit Amir Khasru (“Medieval Rabindranath Tagore”), Hussain Nizami, Sufi Saint Nizamuddin Aulia, and Mohammad Samsuddin.
Mohammad Bin-Tughluq (1325-1351 A.D.):
Mohammad Bin-Tughluq was a talented Sultan in the medieval age. He was the only scholarly pandit and reasonable Sultan in the Sultanate age. The Tughluq dynasty was founded by Ghiyasuddin Tughluq or Gazi Malik in 1320 A.D.
And was killed by an accident in 1325 A.D. His son Juna Khan or Mohammad Bin-Tughlaq ascended the throne and introduced the following projects.
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1. Increase of Tax in Doab (1326 A.D.):
There had been good cultivation in the fertile land of the Ganga-Jamuna-Doab region. So Sultan increased land revenue tax from 50% to a certain portion. According to Barani, the rate of such increase was 5 to 10 times high.
According to Ferista, this increase in rate was 3-4 times, ‘Amir-i-Kohi’ the employees of the revenue department used to take help of oppression and coercion to collect such taxes. This even continued in the year of drought also.
Measures were taken for punishment of the revolting tenants. As a result, many farmers and peasants fled away somewhere else. Many of them became dacoits and created unruly, situations.
For this reason, extremely chaotic conditions arose in political and cultivation fields. Sultan realized the actual condition of the farmers very late.
Then he tried to improve their condition by providing agricultural loans (Takkavi), equipment, seeds, and irrigation systems but in spite of these, he could not overcome the crisis. Barani the resident of Doab and historian Lanepoole described the miserable condition of Doab.
2. Transfer of Capital (1326-27 A. D.):
Sultan built a 700-mile-long road transferring capital from Delhi to Devgiri (Maharastra). According to Barani, Bin-Tughluq named Devgiri ‘Daulatabad’.
The main reasons behind this project were
The plans were reasonable. But many old men and women including children died on the way to Devgiri as they were ordered by the Sultan to leave Delhi. The climate of Devgiri was very much unfavorable to the people of Delhi.
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As a result, Sultan somehow managed to stay there for three years and then becoming unbearable, he returned back to Delhi. Both common people and the employees became extremely unsatisfied with the Sultan.
Historians said that it would not be that harmful if only the Government department were shifted, Historian Lanepoole said “Daulatabad remained as a moment of misdirected energy”.
3. Introduction of copper currency (1330 A.D.):
There was a good scientific reason behind the introduction of copper notes by Bin-Tughluq in 1329-1330 A. D. copper was available at that time. In his time, there were the usages of the gold coin ‘Dinar’, silver coin ‘Tanka’, and copper coin ‘Jital’. I dinar = 10 Tanka.
The strong reason behind introducing copper currency was
The supply of silver in India decreased at that time. But copper was easily available in good quantity. Taking this into consideration, Sultan introduced the copper currency. These currencies were known as ‘Dokani’.
Class Vii History Book Wbbse
It looked beautiful also. Numismatist E. Thomas so called Sultan “The prince of moneyers”. The Government seals were forgotten to be inscribed on the notes. And due to this little mistake take currencies were made everywhere.
It became a cottage industry in almost every house for making fake notes. The shopkeepers, merchants, and foreign traders refused to accept the fake notes. Then the Sultan settled their accounts with gold and silver coins.
After carrying in four years with extreme difficulty, Sultan gave up the project of copper currency. As a result, a tremendous economic crisis occurred. But as per Iban Batuta, the royal treasury was not empty at that time.
4. Plan to conquer Karajal and Khorasan:
During the regime of Mohammad Bin-Tughluq, many amirs from Western Asia and Central Asia took shelter in Delhi as those places were very much politically disturbed.
So according to Barani, Mohammad Bin-Tugluq collected 3,70,000 soldiers and maintained them for nearly one year to mature the plan of conquering Khorasan. In the year 1337-38 A.D., he invaded the Karajal state of Qumaum in the Himalayas after capturing the Nagarkot fort of Kangra valley in Punjab.
According to Iban Batuta, the main object of the Karajal invasion was to demarcate the boundary of India and China. So, about 10,000 soldiers under the leadership of Khasru Malik advanced towards Karajal in the rainy season.
Though the battle was won, but due to extreme rain, coldwave, and foolishness of the soldiers only 10 soldiers out of 10,000 had been able to return to Delhi. The rest of the soldiers died due to the adverse climate.
Firoz Tughluq did not have military genii like Mohammad Bin-Tughluq and Alauddin. But he introduced many philanthropic activities. The chief minister Malik Maqbul had a vital role in all welfare measures of Firoz.
His main public welfare works were-Firstly, Hé reduced the rate of land revenue, abolished the 24 illegal taxes of Mohammad Bin-Tughluq, and enacted only 4 taxes laid by the Koran. These were
Besides the irrigation tax or ‘sub’ was exacted through the production of both parts of the total crops. He abolished the change or interstate tariff. As a result, the price of necessary articles were reduced.
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This information is found in the book of Afif, ‘Tariq-i-Firozshahi’. Secondly, Firoz ordered digging of five big canals for the development of irrigation
Thirdly, he laid the foundation of many new villages and cities. He initiated new cities like Firozabad, Fatehabad, Firozpur, Jaunpur, etc.
According to Afif, Firoz was also credited for the renovation of the memorials of Iltutmish, Alauddin, Nizamuddin Auliah, Jama Masjid of Delhi, Qutub Minar, etc.
Fourthly, Firoz set up an’ employment exchange’ for the placement of the unemployed. He used to donate a huge sum annually for the marriage of poor Muslim girls, and for giving official help to the old, the widow, and the orphans by creating ‘Diwan-i-Khairat’. He founded a charitable hospital named ‘Dar-ul-safa’.
Nasiruddin Mahmud (1394-1412 A.D.) and Invasion of Timur Lane:
Timur invaded India in 1398 A.D. during the regime of Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah, the last Sultan of the Tughluq dynasty of Delhi.
He killed a small number of people on the request of some Muslim personalities in Delhi, though he looted huge amounts of wealth by invading Dipalpur first, and then Bhatna. Timur retaliated on 18th December 1398 A. D.
when he was attacked by the soldiers of Nasiruddin Shah from the back. Nasiruddin could offer a very feeble attack and then fled away to Gujarat. Angry Timur mercilessly killed the public of Delhi for 15 days.
According to Badaun, due to this mass killing not a single bird flew in the sky of Delhi for long 3 months. The Sayyid dynasty (1415-1451): After the death of Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah in 1412 A. D.
Amirs of Delhi appointed Daulat Khan Lodi (1412-1414 A. D.), an Afghan leader, to the throne of Delhi. He was dethroned by Timur’s representative and the ruler of Multan, Khizir Khan (1414-1421 A. D.).
He thought of himself as an heir of Hazrat Mohammad’s daughter. Khizir Khan was the founder of the Sayyid dynasty. The three rulers of the dynasty succeeded him. Khizir Khan’s son Mobarak Shah took the title ‘Shah’ (1421-1434 A. D.)
And Mohammad Shah (1434-1443 A. D.) a nephew of Mubarak occupied the throne but had no efficiency. The last ruler of the dynasty was Alauddin Alam Shah (1443-1451 A. D.).
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Due to his weakness Bahlul Lodi, an Afghan ruler of Punjab drove him out and captured the throne of Delhi. All the last successors of this dynasty were worthless.
The Lodi dynasty (1451-1526):
Bahlul Lodi (1451-1489 A. D.) was the founder of the Lodi dynasty in Delhi. He was the first Afghan (Pathan) ruler of India. During his long reign of 38 years, he conquered Jaunpur, Ranthambhor, Gwalior, etc.
His son Sikander Lodi (1489-1517 A. D.) conquered Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, and Bihar. He was a patron of culture and founder of good administration, but fanatic and theocratic by nature.
His son was Ibrahim Lodi (1517- 1526 A. D.) who was the last greatest ruler of the Lodi dynasty. He was a contemporary to Guru Nanak.
Due to the treachery of Daulat Khan Lodi, the ruler of Punjab, and Alam Khan Lodi, the unçle of Ibrahim Lodi; Babur the ruler of Kabul invaded Delhi and in the first battle of Panipat (21st April 1526) defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi.
Thus Babur destroyed the Lodi dynasty and founded Mughal Empire in India.
Al-Beruni:
According to Hitti, Aburaihan Mohammad Aiban Ahmed Al-Beruni was born in 973 A. D. in a noble Irani family of Khiba (Khoarism) state in Central Asia. His span of life was considered from 973-1048 A. D.
Though Dr. A. L. Srivastava considered it as 970-1038 A. D. He was a good scholar in languages like Arbj, Farsi, Hebrew, Greek, etc. As a royal poet of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, he wrote two books on science namely ‘Al Tanjim’ and ‘Al Nazam’.
In this time he translated the books like ‘Alma Gest’ and ‘Euclyd’ of Tollemi. During the invasion of Sultan Mahmud in India, he came to this country and studied the Indian religious texts and Sanskrit language for long eight years.
During this time he studied Ramayana, Mahabharata, Gita, Bhagavata, Yagyabalka and Manusmriti, Sankhyakarika (Iswarkrishna), Yogsutra and Nyayasutra (Patanjali), Mimangsasutra (Jaimini), etc.
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Apart from this, he translated many Sanskrit texts into Arbi-Farsi. Those are ‘Brihat Sanghita’ and ‘Laghuyatak’ by Barahamihir, ‘Brahmasputa Siddhanta’ and ‘Khandakhadyak’ by Brahmagupta, ‘Yogasutra’ by Patanjali, etc.
But he wrote the famous book ‘Tahakak-e-Hind’ in 1030 A.D. related to his visit to India. This book was known as ‘Kitab-ul-Hind’ in the Arbi language.
The meaning of Tahkak-e-Hind was-Analytical description of the thoughts of Hindus in the context of judgment as to what was to accept and what was not. The subject matter of this book was divided into eight topics in 76 chapters.
These eight topics were:
Iban Batuta
Iban Batuta was a habitat of Janjibar under Morocco of North Africa. He came to India in 1333 A. D. during, the regime of Sultan Mohammad Bin-Tughluq. He traveled to many places of India for 9 years out of which for five years (1333-1338 A. D.)
He was engaged as ‘Kazi’ in the royal court of Bin Tughluq. He was an exceptional scholar in many subjects. He wrote ‘Kitab-ur-Rahela’ the famous book regarding travel in India.
Almost all historians accepted the information and data mentioned in that book regarding the social, economic, and political history of the fourteenth century.
The union between Hindus and Muslims had been mentioned in the book Rahela written by Iban Batuta. Though he said that Hindus were forcibly converted into Muslims and made them slaves forcefully.
Even their social status and prestige were lower as Gimmies. Iban Batuta in his book ‘Rahela’ has described the festival of Mohammad Bin-Tughluq. He said “……After that, the dancers appeared.
In the first group, there were the daughters of those anti-Muslim Hindu kings, who were defeated and imprisoned in that year. After performing, Sultan distributed those girls among the Amirs. After that more girl performed dances etc.
And they too were distributed by the Sultan among his brothers, relatives, and the sons of the Amirs.” Iban Batuta himself received ten such young girls as presentation.
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Thus he gave a very clear picture o how the lives of Hindu women were in danger and unsecured. Iban Batuta praised very high about the scholarship of Mohammad Bin-Tughluq but he added, that Sultan became so very cruel and ferocious when impatient.
Iqta System:
Iltutmish introduced the ‘Iqta system’ for collecting revenues from the peasants and also for the conduct of the regional royal administration.
According to Historian Irfan Habib, “It is called ‘Iqta system’ because of the fact that surplus of the cultivation of a farmer is considered as tax and that is distributed among the regional rulers.”
For the sake of administration, the Sultanate empire were divided into some military regions. This was known as ‘Iqta’. The military administrator was called ‘Mufti’ or Iqtadar.
The specialty of this system was to collect tax from the adjoining area, to maintain law and order, to maintain the sovereignty of the Sultan by subduing the revolts by the Chowdhuries. To collect Tax and its distribution and appointment of employees.
Dr. A. L. Srivastava in his book ‘History of India’ said, the Iqtadars, in the majority of the cases, were corrupt. because through forgery, they took out the excess revenues without depositing it to the royal treasury.
Balban appointed a special group of employees ‘Khouja’ to stop this malpractice. Alauddin completely changed and modified the Iqta system. He converted the private lands in and around Delhi into Government lands.
As a result, he abolished the Iqta system within Delhi and introduced the same in distant regions. He gave Iqta only to his chief of army staff, the rest got wages.
He determined the revenue changeable to Iqta and with this, he punished the corrupt Iqtadars. Ghiyasuddin made this Iqta system a bit reluctant. Firoz Tughluq made this system hereditary.
Circle of Forty:
Iltutmish introduced the ‘Circle of forty’ or ‘Bandegi-i-Chihalagani’. Basically, the circle of forty was constituted of 40 experienced Turks. The main reason of constituting the cycle was to take different advice for running a better administration.
Iltutmish used to rule with the advice of this cycle. Each of them had a tremendous influence over the royal court. After the death of Iltutmish, these leaders became very influential and selfish. Many of them were guided by the conservative Ulemas.
So the members of this cycle could not accept Raziya as a ruler from the time of her being Sultana. Raziya demolished this circle of forty when she found that a conspiracy was coming up against her.
The Ghiyasuddin Balban was an elderly member of this cycle of forty. The power-loving Balban killed all the members of this cycle of forty. The power-loving Balban killed all the members of this cycle when he became Sultan at the age of 60 and made himself enemy-free.
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He did this because he realized the wilfulness and arrogance of the circle members during his membership in the said cycle.
New-Mussalman or Neo Muslims:
Jalaluddin Firoz Khalji (1290-’96 A.D.) resisted Mongol leader Abdullah when he attacked Punjab. He also made them go away from India. At that time, Ulugu the son of Halagu prayed for shelter to Jalaluddin along with some thousands of soldiers.
Jalaluddin first converted the sheltered Mongals into Islam then settled them at the outskirt of Delhi. These converted Mongols were known as “New Mussalman”. Many Muslims were identified as New Mussalmans.
The New Mussalmans of Delhi got dejected with Alauddin and revolted. They killed his nephew. Without the slightest delay, Alauddin sent his commander-in-chief Nasrat Khan in 1299 A. D.
To subdue the revolt of the Mongols (New Mussalman) and the imprisoned New Mussalmans were beheaded under the order of the Sultan.
It is said that about 30,000 New- Mussalmans were beheaded within a couple of hours and a gate was built with their heads in Bundelkhand of Delhi. He wanted to make people feel how dangerous would be to revolt against the Sultan.
Mahmud Gawan
Mahmud Gawan was the most efficient army chief and prime minister of Sultan Mohammad Shah III of Bahamani state in South India. The Muslims from foreign took charge of the Bahamani state due to the inefficiency of the Sultan.
During his ministership, the Bahamani state gained the maximum development. It is known from the book ‘Burhan-i-Masir’ that Mahmud Gawan captured Kondabir, Goa, and Rajmantrin after defeating the king of Vijayanagar.
Besides this, he received much wealth, elephants, horse servants, diamonds, and beautiful ladies from the Vijayanagar king. He also captured Khalna in Sangameswar and Orissa.
During Gawan, the policy of public welfare was adopted. He was able to stop taking bribes and other corruption by the government employees. He could not give up the religious conservatism though he was simple and of honest character.
But Gawan himself was very keen in mathematics and medicine, science. He built an education center in Vidar. There is a University named Gawan University. The other Amirs and Maliks could not tolerate the excessive popularity of Mahmud Gawan.
The cunning Amirs made a conspiracy against him and brought a charge of Anarchy against him. The Sultan, depending fully on this information, killed Gawan in an intoxicated condition on 5th April 1481 A. D. Bahmani’s empire declined speedily due to death.
The Sultanate empire declined due to the defeat of Ibrahim Lodi by Babur in the battle of Panipat in 1526 A. D. The Sultanate Empire declined after its existence for about 320 years.
This decline was not due to any sudden singular factor. There were many reasons behind it, such as
1. Irregularities in succession and employment of slaves:
As there was no clear-cut law regarding succession and inheritance, the descendants started fighting among themselves for capturing the throne with the death of each Sultan.
Emphasis was given on capability and personal expertise in the event of appointing servants. But this system was null and void in the regime of Firoz Tughluq. The majority of his 1,80,000 staff were useless and unnecessary.
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There had been no gain other than the deterioration of law and order throughout the country as well as the wastage, of money.
2. Bad effect of the Jagir system:
Some Sultans used to donate lands to regional rulers and highly placed officers in lieu of their salary. Alauddin abolished this system and converted all the surrounding private land into ‘Khalisha’ or Government land.
This system was reinstituted at the time of Firoz Tughluq and as a result, corruption percolated in every corner of the society.
3. Defective revenue structure:
Sultanate rulers increased the land revenue for the sake of their army. The peasants were extremely oppressed by the tax burden. The employees of the revenue department started looting the farmers in the name of tax collection.
4. Military weakness:
The Muslim commanders showed some efficiency and bravery at the early stage but later they became extremely weak. The tropical climate of India was responsible for making the soldiers, idle and weak.
The military power of the Sultanate empire became weak due to a lack of proper training, discipline, and organizing capacity.
5. Responsibilities of the aristocrats:
The aristocratic class of people were also responsible for the decline of the Sultanate empire. They used to waste their time in entertainment rather than carrying out their duties and responsibilities properly.
They were also involved in clashes with each other for the sake of their self-interests. Their jealousies and suspicions to each other also helped this decline.
6. Weakness of the Sultans:
Qutubuddin Aibek, Iltutmish, Alauddin Khalji, etc. built a strong foundation of administration. But due to the weakness of the subsequent rulers, that foundation became loose and weak.
The worthless Sultans were involved more in wine and women rather than administration and ruling.
7. Conservative religious policy:
The majority of the Sultans of Delhi ruled with the help of Ulemas by following the Shariati regulations. As a result, the Sultanate’s rule was much more dominated by the religious base.
Hindus became dissatisfied and angry with the Sultanate empire because Firoz Tughluq and Sikandar Lodi imposed the ‘Jiziya tax’ on the Hindus and also due to incidents like the destruction of temples.
8. The Military rule:
The success and expansion of the Sultanate empire happened with the help of its military. Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban and Alauddin Khalji ruled depending absolutely on their military forces.
They did not care even to give any importance to the demands and desires of the common people. As the Sultan did not have any sympathy towards the public, they also, in turn, did not show any sympathy towards the Sultan in his bad patch.
9. The vastness of the empire:
The Sultanate empire was developed in a vast area of North and South India. Due to an underdeveloped communication system, it was difficult to keep in contact with the remote areas.
As a result, the rulers of the distant regions became independent and unruly. Thus the central power collapsed.
10. The responsibility of Mohammad Bin-Tughluq:
Sir Stanley Lane-Poole and Iswariprasad said that Bin-Tughluq was squarely responsible for the decline of the Sultanate empire. Due to a lack of common sense, lack of practical sense, lack of patience, cruel nature, and whimsical policies and activities, the fall of the empire was speedy and inevitable.
Lanepoole described him as an ‘Insane and bloodthirsty’ Sultan. It was known from a report that a dead body was a must in front of the main gate when it was opened in the morning.
For these reasons, it was told that he was mainly responsible for the fall of the Sultanate empire.
11. Responsibility of Firoz Tughluq:
Historian Wolseley Haig said that Firoz Tughluq initiated the decline of the Sultanate empire by adopting the policy of decentralization.
Istiark Hussain Qureshi said that Firoz Tughluq took the initiative of building a ‘theocratic state’ by deviating from the secular policies of Alauddin Khalji and Bin-Tughluq.
As a result, people became unrest. Due to his weak military organization, reinstitution of the jagir system, the appointment of servants in excess of the necessity (About 50,000 servants), the drinking habit of the Sultan, the Sultanate empire declined.
12. Invasion of Taimurlane:
Taimurlane attacked and looted Delhi in the month of December 1398 A.D. during the regime of Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah, the last Sultan of Tughluq dynasty.
He left Delhi after lootings and killings for 15 days, on 1st January 1399 A.D. Due. to his invasion, the roads of Delhi became blocked with dead bodies.
13. Invasion of Babar:
The invasion of Babar brought the ultimate end. The Sultanate empire declined forever when Ibrahim Lodi was defeated by Babur in 1526 A. D. in the battle of Panipat. After that, the foundation of the Mughal empire was laid.
Iktiaruddin Mohammad Bin Bakhtiyar Khilji, the subordinate of Qutubuddin, first set up the Muslim ruling in Bengal (1206 A.D.)
Later, during the regime of Mohammad Bin-Tughluq, Samsuddin Illyas Shah became the king of Laxmanabati and declared himself as the independent Sultan of Bengal in 1342 A.D.
His son Sikandar Shah (1358-1389 A. D.) and grandson Ghiyasuddin Ajam Shah (1389-1410 A.D.) ruled Bengal after the death of Samsuddin Illyas Shah.
After that, the Brahmin zamindar of Bhaturia and Dinajpur, Ganesh captured the throne of Bengal by taking advantage of the weak descendants. He took the title ‘Danujamardandev’ and ruled from 1414 to 1418 A.D.
After the death of king Ganesh, his son Jadu christened himself into Islam and became known as Jalaluddin Mohammad Shah. He shifted his capital from Pandua to Gour and ruled from 1418 to 1431 A.D.
After him, his son Samsuddin Ahmed became the king (1431-1442 A.D.) After that, Nasiruddin Mahmud (1442-1459 A.D.) re-instituted the Ilyas Shahi dynasty. According to Ferista, he initiated a glorious age.
After Mahmud Rukanuddin Barbak Shah (1474-1481 A.D.) and Jalaluddin Fathshah (1481-1487 A.D.) of the same dynasty ruled. But Jalaluddin Fath tried to diminish the power of the Habsi slaves from Abesinea within the palace.
As a consequence, the Habsi leader Saifuddin Firoz (1487 A.D.) killed Jalaluddin and set up the Habsi dynasty in Bengal. After that Mujaffar, the Habsi Sultan ruled Bengal from 1487 A.D. to 1493 A.D.
This period of 6 years was called the Dark Age of the history of Bengal. At last, his minister Alauddin Hussian Shah killed the barbarous Mujaffar and set up the Hussain dynasty in. Bengal in 1493 A.D.
Hussain Shah (1493-1519 A.D.) shifted his capital from Pandua to Ekdala. He conquered the states like Kamtapur, Tripura, Orissa, etc. Taking advantage of the incapabilities of Nasrat Shah (1519-1532 A.D.)
And Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah (1533-1538 A.D.) the Afgan hero Sher Shah captured Gour in 1538 A.D. and the Hussain Shahi dynasty came to an end with this, the Afghan power arose in Bengal.
The flow of cultural evolution in Bengal during the Illyas Shahi and Hussain Shahi regimes: During the Illyas Shahi regime, trade, and commerce, agriculture, art, etc. started developing in Bengal.
Iban Batuta described Bengal in this stage as a ‘State of prosperity’. The boundary of Bengal extended up to Chilka Lake in Orissa, Kathmandu of Nepal, and Kamrup in the East.
According to Dr. Syed Nurul Hussain, Illyas Shah started a golden age in the history of Bengal. Due to patronage from the sultans, the cultural bend in Bengal reached its highest peak and political peace and economic development were also established.
He was respectful to Pirs. Darbesh and Hindus. In his time, Pandua became the main center of art and sculpture. Besides this, in the fields of local art, sculpture, and literature a new era had been evolved.
So the historian Dr. J. N. Sarkar told “A new chapter was opened in the history of Bengal with the accession of Illyas Shah to the throne of Lakhanabati.”
The famous Adina Mosque of Pandua was built in 1368 A.D. in Maldah during the time of Sikandar. Shah. It took 20 long years to build this mosque in imitation of the mosque in Damascus. Adina Mosque was 397 ft. long and 159 ft. wide.
There were 400 pillars. many arches and tombs in that mosque. He built many mansions like ‘Akhi Siraj Uddin’ the Kotowali Darwaja, Mollasimla of Hooghly, ‘Eklakhi Mosque’, and others. Many scholars and pandits were there in his time.
During the regime of Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah, he exchanged letters with the famous poet Hafez of Parasya. Ghiyasuddin built two Madrasas in Mecca and Madina. He spent 12,000 Egyptian gold coins to construct the Madrasa of Mecca.
He also built a restaurant and the Arafah canal. The poet of Mithila (“Maithili Cuckoo”) Vidyapati was his contemporary. The Chinese emperor Yunglo sent his ambassador Ma-Huan to the royal court of Ghiyasuddin.
He also sent Maharatna Dharmaraj a Buddhist monk, to China (1410- 1411 A.D.). Thus the cultural exchanges started between India and China. Barbak Shah was a literature-loving Sultan.
So he took the titles like “Al-Fajil” and “Al- Kamil”. As per his instruction, the pandit of his royal court Brihaspati Misra wrote some notes in Sanskrit on Pada Chandrika and some literature of Kalidasa.
For this, he got the title “Pandit Sarvabhauma.” Barbak Shah gave Maladhar Basu the title “Gunraj Khan”. for writing Sri Krishnavijaya and to his son “Satyaraj Khan”.
As per the instruction of Barbak Khan the poet Krittibas Ojha translated ‘Sri Ram Panchali’ or Ramayana in Bengali. The French scholar of Barbak Khan’s royal court, Ibrahim Kayum Faruki wrote the “Safar Nama”.
Chandidas was the writer of famous Padabali literature in his time. His secularism was a famous event. Among the members of his royal court, Kedar Ray, Mukunda, Gandharva Ray, Ananta Sena, and Kaladhar are worth mentioning.
Sultan gave the title “Subharaj Khan” to Kaladhar. Vijay Gupta wrote the poetic novel Manasha Mangal during the time of Jalaluddin Fath.
Dr. R. C. Majumdar told, “Among the sultans of Bengal Rukanuddin Barbak Shah could claim his utmost supremacy from different angles.”
Culture during Hussain Shahi’s age:
The interests of Alauddin Hussain Shah and Nasrat Shah towards literature and culture had widened a new horizon of advancement. A new chapter was opened in the field of Hindu, and Muslim unity and cultural upsurge.
During the time of Hussain Shah, ‘Nabyanyaya, Sangha’ was established in Nabadwip. Nabadwip became the main center for the study of Sanskrit, Philosophy Nayashastra, Smritishastra, etc.
Due to the appearance of Sri Chaitanya, the Nabavaishnaba religious emotion stirred the fields of religion, society, literature, art, etc.
Centering around Sri Chaitanya deva, many texts like “Chaitanya Bhagabat” by Brindaban Das, Chaitanya Charitamrita by Krishnadas Kaviraj, etc. were written.
Due to the patronages of Hussain Shah, Rup Goswami wrote two texts namely “Lalit Madhav” and “Bidagdhya Madhav” In this time “Srimadbhagabat Gita” was translated in Bengali.
The scholars like Raghunandana, Raghunath, and Basudeva Sarbodhouma appeared in this age. Besides this, Pandit Joshoraj Khan, Srikar Nandy, Sridhar, Kabindra Parameswar, Bipradas Pipilai, etc. took an active role in the cultural upsurge.
Kabindra Parameswar translated Mahabharata in short form in Bengali named “Pandava Vijay Katha” under the instruction of Paragal Khan the ruler of Chattagram.
Srikar Nandy translated the Ashyamedha chapter of Mahabharata in Bengali under the instruction of Chhuti Khan, the son of Paragal Khan. There had been also much improvement of art and sculpture in this time.
The best examples of art and sculpture were “The Dakhil Darwaja”, “Eklakhi tomb”, “Tantipara Mosque”, “The Chota sona Mosque” of Gour made of brick and stone, and “Bara Sona Mosque”, “Kadamrasul palace” of Nasrat Shah (An ornamented black stone situated on a platform with the footprints of Hazrat Mohammad) and other sculptures of Gour and Pandua.
A special study of calligraphy was also there in this age. Impartiality and broadness in the field of religion were especially noted. Prof. M. R. Tarafdar described the broadness of the Hussain Shahis even if they were originally born in foreign countries, was a rare event.
Hindus like Gopinath Basu, Gour Mullik, Rup and Sanatan Goswami, etc. were members of the royal court. At this time, different idols like Satyapir, Manikpir, Gazibaba, Dakshin Ray, Dharma Thakur, Olabibi, Banabibi, Shitala Devi, etc.
Were worshipped equally by Hindus as well as Muslims. Thus the era of Illyas Shahi and Hussain Shahi started a new voyage in the cultural history of Bengal.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, this new trend of cultural as well as overall upsurge brought a brilliant intellect in the life fo Bengalees.
When Mohammad Bin-Tughluq called Katlu Khan, the ruler of the Deccan back to Delhi, at the inspiration of some nobles and sent Ismail Khan there, the Southern people revolted against him.
Ultimately, Hassan Khan took the charge or rule with the help of a Brahmin astrologer. Out of gratitude to that Gangu Brahmin, Hassan book the title of Gangu Bahman. He took the title of Abul Muzaffar Alauddin Bahman Shah and set up the independent Bahamani kingdom (1347 A.D.).
He regarded himself as the successor of the brave Bahman king of Persia and his empire was known as the Bahmani state. For proper administration, Abul Bahman Shah divided his kingdom into four provinces-Daulatabad, Gulbarga, Bidar, and Berar.
He conquered Goa, Davel, Telangana, etc., and extended the Bahmani empire from Penganga in the North to the Krishna in the South and Vengir in Hyderabad in the East, and Daulatabad in the West.
18 rulers sat on the throne of the Bahmani kingdom. After the death of Alauddin Bahman Shah in 1358 A.D., his son Mohammad shah I (1358-1377 A.D.) was involved in a war with Warrangal and Vijayanagar during most of his rule.
After his death, Mujahid Shah (1377- 1397 A. D.). spent more time in art and literature than in warfare. The greatest of the Bahmani kings was Firoz Shah (1397-1422 A.D.). He fought against Vijayanagar thrice and was defeated only in the last one.
He won in the other two. He was not only a fighter but a patron of culture too. He had ordered the building of many mosques and palaces. After that Ahmad shah (1422- 1436 A.D.) transferred his capital from Gulbarga to Bidar.
Then Alauddin Ahmad Shah (1436- 1458 A.D.) Humayun Shah (1458-1461 A.D.) and Nizam Shah (1461-1463 A.D.) ruled one after another. Due to the worthlessness of Mohammad Shah III (1463-1482) his able chief minister.
Mahmud Gawan took the charge of the Bahmani state as the leader of the foreign, nobles. According to Ferishta, Mahmud Gawan wrote the book-Diwane, Amar.
He had qualities like military tactics, administrative efficiency, moral ethics, and respect for art and culture. The jealous southern nobles brought the false charge of sedition and Mohammad Shah III killed him by poison and alcohol.
The Russian traveler Authonosius Nikitin was moved by the role of Gawan during his visit to the Bahmani state during the rule of Mohammad III, Taylor argued that at the death of Gawan, the unity and solidarity of the Bahmani state was destroyed.
After the death of Gawan Mohammad III realized his mistakes and died within one year out of sorrow (1482 A.D.). After his death, the political disorder was started everywhere. The provincial governors became independent one by one.
During this period of decline, king Mohammad took the charge of the state. During the rule of Mohammad Shah (1482-1518 A.D.) the Bahmani kingdom was divided into four parts. The last emperor Sultan Kalim-Ullah.
started to rule in Bidar when Amir Barid, the son of minister Kasim Barid started to rebel, the Sultan fled away to Gujarat out of fear. The Bahmani kingdom lost its existence with his death in 1527 A.D.
Five independent Muslim states emerged on the devastation of the Bahmani state. Local states evolved much before the death of the last Sultan. In 1484 A.D. Imal Shal founded the Imad Shah dynasty in Berar.
In 1490 A.D., Adil Shah founded the Adil Shahi dynasty in Bijapur. In 1490 A.D. Ahmad Nizam Shah established the Nizam Shahi dynasty in 1527 A.D. Arim Ali Barid set up the Barid Shahi dynasty in Bidar.
Taking advantage of the political misrule and rebellious during the reign of Mohammad Bin Tughluq Harihar and Bukka, the two sons of the five of certain sangoma of the Yadav groups founded the independent Vijayanagar kingdom at the south of river Tungabhadra.
R. Sewell has said in his “A Forgotten Empire” that when Juna Khan, son of Ghiyasuddin Tughluq of Delhi destroyed the state of Warangal in the south in 1324 A.D. the five sons of Sangama fled away and set up the Vijayanagar state.
Another group of historians said that the Hoysal king Big Ballala III built many forts on the south banks of the river Tungabhadra to protect it himself from Muslim invasion and appointed Harihar, son of Cangama to that place later on, taking advantage of political misrule, Harihar and Bukka set up an independent Vijayanagar state.
From this period, the independent Vijayanagar staté enlisted for 300 years. Four dynasties ruled in Vijayanagar. Those were
1. The Sangama dynasty (1336-1485 A.D.) Saluva dynasty (1486-1505 A.D.) Tuluva dynasty (1505-1565 A.D.) and Arbidu dynasty (1570- 1678 A.D.); The Vijayanagar state declined in 1678 A.D.
The Sangama rulers ruled for 150 years. The Vijayanagar state was extended up to Trichinapalli during Harihar and Bukka. At the reign of Bukka, the struggle with the Bahmani kingdom began. He sent ambassadors to China.
Two of his ministers, pandit Madhab Bidyaratna and his brother the commentator of the Vedas Sayanacharya were scholars in various fields. Bukka’s son Harihar II (1379-1404 A.D.) conquered Kanchi, Mysore, Chingelput, Trichinapalli, etc.
And look at the titles of ‘Maharajadhiraj’ and ‘Rajparameswar’. His son Devaray I (1404- 1422) was defeated by the Bahmani Sultan Firoz Shah and gave his daughter in marriage with the later.
To challenge this insult he defeated the Bahmani Sultan in a battle of 1419 A.D. The greatest king of the Sangama dynasty was his son Devaray II (1422-1446 A.D.) He conquered Orissa, and Andhra and extended his empire up to Ceylon.
He appointed many Muslim archers in his army. Still, he was defeated in the battle with the Bahmanis and had to sign an insulting treaty.
The Persian scholar Abdur Razzak and the Italian traveler Niccolo Konti had written about the cultural development, Hindu-Muslim unity, and economic prosperity of his period.
The last ruler of the Sangama dynasty, Mallikarjun sat on the throne in 1446 A.D. He saved the Vijayanagar empire from the invasions of king Kapilendra of Orissa and the Bahmani Sultans, but political anarchy was created during his inefficient son Birupaksha.
At this opportunity, Narsimha Saluva, the ruler of Chandragari had overthrown him and took the charge of the Vijayanagar empire. Narasimha Saluva, the ruler of the Saluvas saved the Vijayanagar state from sure destruction.
He consolidated his empire by establishing peace and discipline. His inefficient son Immadi Narasimha could not rule properly and his commander-in-chief Naras Nayak became the actual ruler of Vijayanagar.
In spite of this opportunity, he did not become the ruler of the state. After his death, his son Bir Narasimha took the throne fo Vijayanagar in ‘1505 A.D. The Saluva rulers ruled in Vijayanagar from 1486 A.D. to 1505 A.D. for only 19 years.
The son of Naras Nayak, Bir Narasimha was the founder of the Tuluva dynasty (1505 A.D.). This dynasty ruled in Vijayanagar for about 65 years (1505-1570 A.D.). The greatest of the Tuluva rulers was Krishnadeva Ray (1509-30 A.D.)
Who was the younger brother of Bir Narasimha? The Portuguese traveler Paes wrote about his rule of twenty-one years that “He is the most learned and perfect king that could possibly be… a great ruler and a man of much justice… gallant and perfect”.
Krishnadeva Ray first forced to nobles to obey him. Then he defeated the Bahmani Sultan Mahmud Shah in the battle of Kovelakonda in 1512 A.D. and occupied the “Raichur- Doab”. He also occupied the two forts of Sivasamudram and Srirangapattanam.
In 1513 A.D. he defeated Gajapatiraj and Prataprudra of Orissa and occupied Udaigiri and Kourdabidu by a treaty of 1518 A.D., he married the daughter of Gajapati. He defeated.
Kuli Kutab, the ruler of Golconda and defended the invasion of Ismail Adit Khan, the Sultan of Bijapur successfully in 1520 A.D. He destroyed the fort of Gulbarga of Bijapur at this time.
His empire included Konkan in the West, Vishakhapatnam in the East, Kanyakumari in the South, and many other islands of the Indian Ocean. In West India, the Portuguese ruler of Goa, Albukark built up the fort of Bhatkal by his order.
Raja Krishnadeva Ray was not only a soldier, he was also a patron of art and literature. He had 8 eminent scholars in his court who were known as the Astadiggajas.
The Portuguese traveler Domingos Paes praised him and wrote that Krishnadeva was a great ruler and impartial judge, but sometimes he got very angry and affectionate to his subjects.
K.K. Dutta has written about him “The reign of Krishnadeva Ray not only marked the climax in the territorial expansion of the Vijayanagar empire but was also remarkable for the encouragement and development of art and letters.
An Advanced History of India p. 370. After the death of Krishnadeva Ray in 1530 A.D. his younger brother Achyuta Ray sat on the throne of Vijayanagar (1530 A.D.-1542 A.D.) Ultimately, his nephew Sadasiv Ray (1542- 1570 A.D.) sat on the throne.
But due to his inefficiency, the minister Ram Ray became the proper ruler. He was a great diplomat like Bismarck. He took advantage of the internal quarrels of the five Muslim states of the Bahmani kingdom (1564 A.D.)
And sometimes took this side or that. Realizing this mistake, the Muslim, states fought unified against Vijayanagar in the battle of Talikota in 1565 A.D. Ram Ray was killed and defeated in this battle.
The Muslim rulers went on looting and killing for 5. months. The battle of Talikota destroyed the much-desired wish to establish a Hindu state in the South.
Dr. R.C. Majumdar had described ‘the battle of Talikota (1565) as a specially significant one’. Though Ram Ray was killed, Sadashiv Ray continued to rule after the battle.
Tirumal, the brother of Ram Ray defeated Sadasiv and set up the Aravidu rule in Pengonda. He was confined to survive between (1570-1586 A.D.) the last powerful ruler of this dynasty was Benkat II (1586-1644 A.D.).
He did the only important work of transferring his capital to Chandragiri. The last ruler of this dynasty Ranga III had to face internal trouble and due to the advancing policy of Bijapur and Golkunda, states like Madura, Tanjore, Bednaur, and Srirangapattam became independent and the Vijayanagar empire lost its last existence.
The founder of the Mughal empire in India was Jahiruddin Mohammad Babur. He defeated the last Sultan of the Sultani empire in India, Ibrahim Lodi. Babur’s father Omar Sheikh Mirza was from the family of a famous Chaghtai Turk.
Taimur Lane and his mother was the daughter of Unish Khan who was from the family of the famous Mongol leader Chengiz Khan.
Historian Sir Stanley Lanepoole said, “The bad blood of Chengiz and Taimur, the two curses of Asia, was mixed with the blood of Babur.” Hence Babur was so strong and brave.
The word ‘Babur’ means tiger or lion. His name is self-explanatory through his activities.
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Babur was born on 24th February 1483 A.D. in the Farghana state of Central Asia. His full name was Jahiruddin Mohammad Babur. He became the ruler at the age of 12 only, after the death of his father Omar Sheikh Mirza.
He tried five times from 1496-1512 A.D. to conquer Samarkhand but failed. Babur came to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan when he was defeated by Farghana leader Shahebani Khan in the battle of Archian in 1503 A.D.
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Shahebani made his brother Jahangir Mirza, the king of Farghana. In Kabul Babur became strong by conquering Kabul and Kandahar and took the title ‘Padshah’ in 1507 A.D.
In the meantime, he captured Samarkand and Taskhand of Central Asia with the help of Persian king Shah Ismail after the death of Shahebani Khan. But Babur. being Sunni Muslim, the conflict with Shah Ismail started became the later one was a Shia Muslim.
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Taking this advantage, the Uzbeki leaders under the leadership of Ubaid Ullah Khan, defeated Babur miserably in the ‘Battle of Gajdawan’ (1512 A.D.). Babur then came back to Kabul and decided to advance towards India.
The political instability, weakness of the Lodi Sultans, huge wealth and treasures and the success of Taimur Lane inspired him to invade India.
At first, he cleared his way by conquering Bajaur on the North-West boundary, Bhera and Punjab by conducting successive invasions during the period from 1519-1524 A.D. He then conquered Lahore and Deepalpur in 1524 A.D.
Daulat Khan Lodi and Akram Khan Lodi the main two rivals of Ibrahim Lodi requested Babur to attack Delhi. After that, he prepared to invade Hindusthan in 1525 A.D.
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Sultan Ibrahim Lodi resisted Babur with 1,20,000 soldiers when Babur attacked Delhi in 1526 A.D. with 12,000 soldiers and some guns and cannons. As a result, a fearsome war was fought in the field of Panipath.
This is known as the 1st battle of Panipat (1526 A.D.) Sultan Ibrahim Lodi was killed in Panipath. Babur captured Delhi and Agra easily. But the existence of Rajputs and Afghan were still intact.
Historian Rushbrooke William thinks, “Panipath set his foot of the path of empire-building and in this path, the first great obstacle was the opposition of the Afghan tribes.”
He got the title ‘Kalandar because he distributed the looted treasures among his soldiers, religious prophet and relatives. After that, he advanced towards Doab from Delhi. Babur sent his son Humayun to Kanauj to reduce the dominance of Lohani Afghan.
He himself advanced along with his Amirs towards Kalan, Biana and Cholapur to subdue the dominance of the Afghan leaders. But he was not completely successful.
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Historian Satish Chandra thinks that the battle of Panipat can not be called as ultimate from a political viewpoint. Because with this battle, Babur did not become absolutely enemy-free.
Rana Sanga or Sangram Singh, the winner of 18 battles, built a massive alliance to resist Babur for his building up the Mughal empire upon the ruins of the Sultanate empire.
The Rajput kings of Ajmer, Gwalior, Marwar, Ambar, Chanderi etc and Mahmud Lodi the brother of Ibrahim Lodi joined hands with Sangram Singh. On 17th March 1527 A.D.
Babur and Sangram Singh fought with each other continuously for ten hours in the field of Khanua. This is known as the battle of Khanua. In this war, Rana Sangram Singh was defeated and heavily injured.
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Within a short time, the associates of Rana Sangram Singh murdered him with poison. Dr Rushbrooke William said, “The ratio of defeating rate between Rajput and Mughal was 7: 1”. But according to Dr A. L. Srivastava, the actual rate was 2: 1.
So Dr K. K. Dutta said, “The battle of Khanua is certainly on of the decisive battle of Indian history. In a sense, its results were more significant than those of the first battle of Panipat-” (An advanced History of India Page 429).
After the death of Sangram Singh Medini Ray of Malwa determined to stop the advancement of Babur, by unifying the Rajputs. Chanderi fort of Gwalior was the main gateway to Rajputana.
Babur defeated Medini Ray of Malwa and captured the Chanderi fort. After conquering Chanderi in 1528 A.D. he entrusted the ruling of Chanderi to the ex-ruler Ahmed Shah.
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After conquering Chanderi, he marched towards Eastern India by conquering Allahabad, Gazipur and Varanasi. He was informed that Nasrat Shah of Bengal was giving shelter to the Afghans to accumulate power.
Babur diplomatically detached Nasrat Shah from the Afghans.” After that Babur defeated the Afghans by the side of the Gogra river on 6th May 1529 A.D. Sher Khan of Bihar and Mohammad Lodi of Jaunpur tried to unify all the leaders of Afghan against Babur.
As a result, Babur became enemy-free. The foundation of the Mughal empire became strong from Kabul to Gogra and from the Himalayas to Gwalior. Only after one year after this battle, Babur died at the age of 47 on 26th December 1530 A.D.
Babur gave Delhi the honour of being the capital city of the Mughal empire. He developed a common Indian mentality by the unification of Hindu and Muslim though he was a Sunni Muslim.
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According to Dr R. S. Tripathi, ‘The seed of state policy of Akbar was sowed by his grandfather’. Dr R. S. Sharma said, “Babur introduced a royal dynasty and a state policy”.
But Rushbrook William thinks that Babur had left a spineless and structureless royal dynasty for his son. He did not have any administrative qualities.
According to Dr R. S., Tripathi Babur became famous as a commander and as a literator. He wrote his autobiography in the Persian language. Those are ‘Tuzuk-i-Baburi’ and ‘Baburnama’.
He also wrote poems in Persian and Turkey languages and introduced ‘Khat-i-Babur’ as a new form of the Turkey alphabet. According to the historian Mrs Annet Beveridge, “The autobiography of Babur is like those invaluable texts which are eternal and it is equally ranked with the books like confessions by saint Augustine and Russo and the memories of Gibon and Newton.
The empire that was established by Babur in India was not free from the enemy. Because he could not eradicate the Afghan power permanently though he defeated them for several times. So, the Afghan power became powerful after the death of Babur.
The first three emperors of the Mughal dynasty, namely, Babur, Humayun and Akbar had to fight against Afghans. Akbar was able to diminish the Afghan power completely which had increased to a great extent in the first 20 years of the Mughal empire.
Emperor Babur defeated the Afghan power through the battle of first Panipath (1526 A.D.) and Gogra (1529 A.D.) but did not abolish the Afghans. Many Afghans helped Ibrahim Lodi in the first battle of Panipat.
But due to the defeat of Ibrahim, the Afghan power became weak. They became mentally upset. They continued some stray attacks on Babur though they were completely scattered.
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Historian Rushbrook William said, “Panipath set his foot on the path of empire building and in this path, the first great obstacle was the opposition of the Afghan tribes.”
So, after conquering India, Babur instructed his subordinate Amirs to subdue the Afghans and establish peace in their respective areas. This policy clicked. Many Afghan leaders surrendered to Babur.
Then he deployed his son Humayun to control the Lohani Afghans on the East of Kanauj. Babur himself subdued the Afghans of Kalan, Biana and Cholapur with the help of his Amirs. Temporarily the Afghans became weak.
After the defeat of the Rajputs in the battle of Khanua, they became powerless. Because Afghans would have gained strength if the Mughals were defeated in the hands of the Rajput.
Apart from this, Babur foiled the attempt of Mahmud Lodi the brother of Ibrahim Lodi, in the battle of Gogra on the 6th May 1529 A.D. when Lodi tried to unify the Afghans of Bengal and Bihar against Babur.
In this time, Sher Khan of Bihar and Nasrat Khan of Bengal were against Babur. Though Humayun resisted the Afghans in the battle of Gogra, yet he was not free from this attack.
After the death of Babur his four sons, Humayun, Kamran, Askari and Hindal and a few relatives started disputing among themselves over the claim of the throne. Maham Sultana; the mother of Humayun permitted him to acquire the throne.
The word Humayun means ‘fortunate’. But he had many sleepless nights due to disturbances created by the Afghans and due to some internal troubles.
Due to such disorders in the Mughal Court, Bahadur Shah of Gujarat and Sher Khan of Bihar, two Afghan leaders advanced against Humayun to take revenge of the earlier defeats. All the rivals of Humayun helped the Afghans.
But due to his idiocy and in spite of the favourable situation, Humayun could not defeat Bahadur Shah and Sher Shah. But he had been able to keep king Prataprudra detached from the Afghans by capturing the Kalinjor fort.
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Humayun only defeated Mahmud Lodi and his associates in the ‘Battle of Dadra’ in 1532 A.D. He could not subdue Sher Khan in spite of seizing the Chunar fort.
Sher Khan invaded Delhi and Agra and gave lot of trouble to Humayun when he was in Bengal. As a result, Humayun had to fight against Sher Khan in Chausa in 1539 A.D. and in spite of his large contingent of the army he lost that battle.
Afghan leader Sher Khan established his dominance over Kanauj, Jounpur, Bengal and Bihar. He took the title ‘Sher Shah’ to increase his own prestige and read ‘Khutba’ in his name.
The very next year, in 1540 A.D. Humayun again went to war against Sher Khan in the battle of Kanauj or Bilgram. But this time he lost the battle miserably and fled away with his wife to Persia.
As a result, Sher Shah re-established the Afghan empire in Delhi very easily. Before that he subdued the majority of his enemies in the Battle of Surajgarh in 1534 A.D.
But after reigning only for five years (1540-1545 A.D.) he was burnt to death in a fire that occurred in Kalinjor fort. After his death, his son Islam Shah became the king (1545-1554 A.D.)
Then the nephew of Sher Shah, Mohammad Adil Shah became the king after killing Firoz Shah, the son of Islam Shah. His Hindu commander-in-chief Hemchandra or Himu became all in all because Adil Shah – was inefficient and incapable.
By this time, Humayun returned to his home state. After his death, his son Akbar was brought up by Bairam Khan, a friend of his father. In 1556 A.D. Akbar. defeated.
Himu, the commander of Adil Shah and destroyed the hope of the Afghans to settle their rule forever. Akbar put an end of the Mughal-Afghan conflict which was continuing for the last 3 decades and set up a strong foundation of the Mughal empire.
Historian Dr Kali Kinkar Dutta has rightly said in his book ‘An Advanced history of India’ “The second battle of Panipat marked the real beginning of the Mughal empire in India and set it on the path of expansion.”
The fates of many rulers of India were determined in the field of Panipath. From that viewpoint, Panipath is an important centre in Indian history. The 1st and 2nd battles of Panipat had a great impact on the rise of the Mughal empire.
The scene of the political history of India changed in the 1st battle (1526 A.D.) of Panipath during the time of Babur and the 2nd battle of Panipat (1556 A.D.) during the time of Akbar. These two battles were of much importance by overall judgement.
The 1st battle of Panipat was fought between Mughal leader Babur and the last Sultan of Delhi Ibrahim Lodi in 21st April 1526 A.D. In this battle, Babur had 12,000 soldiers and Ibrahim Lodi had 1,20,000 soldiers.
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But the historian Rushbrooke William said that whatever might be the number of soldiers, Babur ultimately deployed 8,000 soldiers and Lodi deployed 40,000 soldiers in that battle.
Babur learnt the war tactics from the Uzbek and Turk leaders which was known as ‘Tulghuma’ tactics. Babur applied three tactics in the battle of Panipat.
These were
Applying such tactics, his artillery and cavalry division ended the war within half a day and defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodj. Just before the 1st battle of Panipat, Babur defeated Daulat Khan Lodi of Punjab.
Thus after the grand success in Panipath, his empire extended from Kabul to Delhi.
The importance of the second battle of Panipat were
The Afghan hero Sher Shah (Farid Khan) was not only a good warrior but also was a great ruler. There was no other ruler found in mediaeval history other than Sher Shah who built such a modern and self-sufficient administrative system within a short span of time.
Being the son of an ordinary Jagirdar of Sasaram in Bihar, Sher Shah became famous for implementing a very good administrative policy. He became famous in history as a well-wisher of his people.
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Sher Shah, as a ruler, showed nobleness, impartiality, judgement and welfare of the people in his five years reign (1540-1545 A.D.). It has become a rare example in history.
Historian William Erskine said, “He (Sher Shah) had more the spirit of a legislator and a guardian of his people than any prince before Akbar.” Sher Shah’s administration did not express any originality.
Because he followed the systems introduced by Alauddin Khalji. According to R. S. Tripathi and Dr Percival Spear, Sher Shah’s administration was partly a reform, and partly an innovation.
The entire system was based on an impartial rule formed on the unity of Hindus and Muslims and public welfare. Sher Shah was a powerful emperor, but he was not a despot. He used to rule with the help of his ministers.
These central ministers were Diwan-i-Wazirat (Chief Minister), Diwan-i-Araz (Revenue Minister), Diwan-i-Risalat (Counsellor), ‘And diwan-i-Insha (Army Minister). These four departments were helped by Diwan-i-Kazi (Chief Judge) and Diwan-i-Barid (Espionage).
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For better management of his administration, he decentralised his empire into 47 Shik or Sarkar. He employed one ‘Sikdar-i-Sikdaran’ (the man responsible for military and law and order) and one ‘Munsif-i-Munsifan’ (the man responsible for civil proceedings) in each region or Sarkar.
He divided each Sarkar into several Parganas. The responsible officers of these Parganas were Sikdar, Munsef, Amir, Kanungo, Karkoon, Khajanchi, Choudhury, Patwari etc. Each Pargana was further divided into villages.
The administration of the village was entrusted to the Panchayat. “The whole of his brief administration was based on the principle of Union.”
At first, the revenue minister of Sher Shah surveyed the entire land area and based on fertility divided all the cultivable lands into three parts-
He fixed revenue at the rate ranging from rd to the 4th part depending upon the degree of fertility. The revenue (taxes) were paid either by money or by crops. The taxes were collected directly from the farmers.
Apart from land revenue, Mahasilana (money on account of tax for the tax collector), ‘Jaribana’ (tax money for the surveyors) and ceases tax (2 rupees per bigha were collected for giving subsidy during the feminine and epidemic).
The system of tax relief was there for in the case of natural calamity. The employee, who coerced the people for collecting taxes, was immediately discharged.
Sher Shah first recognised the right of people on land and registered the deed of land for each and every person. This title deed was known as ‘Patta’. Another deed was a government deed, known as ‘Kubliyat’ (Agreement deed).
In this deed, land tenants made an oath to pay taxes. Historian W. H. Moreland commented that the administrative system of Sher Shah was a modern system based upon the scientific base.
For the sake of commercial improvement, Sher Shah introduced the silver coin ‘Rupee’ and the copper coin ‘Dam’. He introduced gold coins also. He introduced new coins discarding the old alloy coins.
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He withdrew all the internal duties for the development of inland trade and commerce, though the duties were levied for export and import trade.
There were 1,50,000 cavalry, 25,000 infantry and 5000 elephant cavalry in the central force of Sher Shah. Besides this, there was also an artillery division in his army.
At the time of recruitment, the soldiers had to undergo tests of capability and loyalty. Salaries were paid in cash instead of Jaigir. The system of transfer was also there. He introduced ‘Dag’ and ‘Hulia’ in his cavalry like Alauddin.
The powerful police force was also introduced to maintain law and order. There were employees named ‘Mahatasib’ who looked after the character and value sense of the public. The commander in chief was a Brahmin like Brahmajit Gaur.
The judicial system of Sher Shah was very strict and impartial. Kazi-ul-Kazatan (the main Kazi) is used to make a judgement according to Muslim law. Sikdar used to settle criminal cases.
The main responsible officer of this department was Mir-i-Adal. There, was Munsef to settle the cases relating to revenue. The judgements were impartial and strict. The accused persons were given a death sentence or caning according to the degree of crime.
Incidentally, it may be mentioned that Sher Shah himself was present to hear the appeals and settled the cases which were important. Many roads were built by Sher Shah. Among these the main roads from Agra to Jodhpur, Agra to Burhanpur, and Lahore to Multan were important.
The long road from Sonar Gaon (or Dhaka) to Thatta of Sind was known as ‘Sarak-i-Azam’ (or Grand Trunk Road) which is 1400 miles long. Historian Abbas Khan Sherwani said that he made 1700 saris beside the road.
There was a system of ‘Daroga-i-Dakchouki’. Through this, he introduced the system of postal communication on horseback. Apart from this, many spies helped Sher Shah in many ways. Sher Shah used to donate Rs. 18,25,000 each year.
The art lover Sher Shah built Rohtasgarh Fort, Purana Killa, Kila-i-Kuhna Mosque and his own tomb in Sasaram even before his death. He made the union of Indo-Persian art culture.
Akbar as a founder of the Empire:
Due to the invasion of Sher Shah, the defeated Humayun fled away to Sind and took shelter of Ranaprasad, the Hindu king of Amarkota. In this place, Hamida Banu, wife of Humayun gave birth to Akbar on 16th October 1542 A.D.
During this period, Akbar was passing through very bad days of misfortunes. Then, in 1551 A.D. Akbar became the ruler of Gazni with the help of his father Humayun. At that time, he was married to Rukia Begum.
After that, he became the ruler of Punjab too. Akbar came back to Delhi after the death of Humayun on 27th January 1556 A.D. and being coronated by Bairam Khan, he acquired the throne of Delhi only at the age of 13 years and 4 months.
Historian Dr R. P. Tripathi thinks that Akbar was the first minor emperor whose emperorship was never challenged.
Conquest of state:
Akbar established an all-India base of the Mughal empire by winning a vast area of Northern and Southern India. The ‘Blood and Iron Policy’ in the field of winning the states brought him unhindered success in his life.
He first conquered the different states of Northern India and then advanced towards South India. Akbar, with the help of Bairam Khan, the guardian of his childhood, defeated the Hindu commander of Adil Shah, Himu in the 2nd battle of Panipat (1556 A.D.) and captured Delhi and Agra.
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By taking the help of the guardianship of Bairam Khan, he conquered Ajmer, Jaunpur and Gwalior within 4 years (1556-1560 A.D.). Thus Akbar expanded his empire from Kabul to Jounpur and from Punjab to Ajmer and Gwalior.
In 1560 A.D. an Afghan leader murdered Bairam Khan when he was sent by Akbar to Mecca for Haj. Akbar married the widow of Bairam Khan, Selma Begum.
After the death of Bairam Khan, Maham Anaga, the foster mother of Akbar, and her son Adam Khan took over complete control of the harem. Dr V. A. Smith described the period from 1560-64 A.D. as a period of petticoat government.
From 1564 A.D. onwards, Akbar became the real ruler. Akbar sent his commander Adam Khan and Pir Mohammad (1560 A.D.) to subdue Baj Bahadur, the Afghan king of Malwa. Though defeated initially, Baj Bahadur regained Malwa again.
At last, Akbar sent his ‘commander Abdullah Khan Uzbek who defeated Baj Bahadur miserably in 1561 A.D. Actually Malwa became under the jurisdiction of Delhi in 1562 A.D.
Gandowana was a small state of Madhya Pradesh. Its capital was situated in Garh Katanga of Jabbalpur. Damo, Sagar, Mandala and Narmada valleys of Madhya Pradesh were under the Gandowana state. It was a prosperous state.
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Queen Durgabati made his son Vir Narayan, the king after the death of the Rajput king Dalpat Shah. Being insulted, queen Durgabati committed suicide when the commander Asaf Khan, without the permission of Akbar, suddenly attacked Gandowana and killed Vir Narayan.
As a result, Akbar made Chandradhar Shah, the descendent of Dalpat Shah, the king of Gandowana and kept him under his control absolutely (1564 A.D.)
Without going into confrontation, wise Akbar set up a friendship with the Rajputs by marrying the Daughter of Bihari Mal, the king of Ambar (1562 A.D.) and later the princess of Bikaner (1570 A.D.).
Akbar also married his son Selim with the daughter of Bhagabandas of Bikaner (1584 A.D.). Bundi, Jodhpur and Jaipur also built up friendships with Akbar. But the Rana of Mewar, Uday Singh refused to establish any friendship with Akbar.
So Akbar along with his commander Asaf Khan fought continuously for four months and ultimately succeeded to capture the Chitore fort (Oct 1567 to February) 1568 A.D. In this time, the Rajput commander Jaimal died with the gunshot (Sangram) of Akbar.
Then, the other Rajput youths continued the battle under the leadership of Fatha desperately. But Akbar. entered the fort of Chitore and killed 30,000 dwellers of the fort brutally.
Many Rajput women performed Jahar Brata by sacrificing their lives in the fire. Uday Singh took shelter in Araballi hills. Akbar entrusted to Asaf Khan the administration of Mewar.
” After the fall of Chitore, Surjan Rai, the king of Ranthambore, realising that fighting with Akbar would be in vain, surrendered to Akbar in 1569 A.D. In 1569 A.D. the ruler of Kalinjor also surrendered to Akbar.
Thus, the prestige of Akbar increased by capturing Kalinjor and Ranthambore. In 1570 A.D. Hara Rai, the ruler of Jaisalmer married her daughter with Akbar and established a good relationship with each other.
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Mewar became under the control of the Mughals when his commandant Mansingh defeated Rana Pratap Singh of Mewar in the battle of Haldighat in 1576 A.D.
Due to the worthlessness of Muzaffar Shah III, the Sultan of Gujarat, the selfish aristocratic class involved themselves in internal conflict. Right from the time of Humayun, the aristocratic class of Gujarat were showing their allegiance to the Mughals.
But during the time of Akbar, they refused to show such allegiance. Many aristocrats tried to make a conspiracy against him. The Mughal Wazir Itimad Khan wanted direct interference of Akbar when he failed to control the political unrest.
Akbar realised that Gujarat was a prosperous city. Through the ports of this area, different trade links were there with Western Asia and Europe.
So, without wasting time, he invaded Gujarat by travelling 450 miles in eleven days and captured Ahmedabad first and then Cambe valley. The Portuguese and other foreign merchants surrendered to Akbar.
In 1573 A.D. he completed the Gujarat expedition by conquering Surat. Dr V. A. Smith and Dr Omprakash think that due to the conquest of Gujarat, many seaports of the West came under the control of the Mughals. Akbar, before returning from Gujarat, made Mirza Aziz Koka the ruler of Gujarat.
The Afghan leader of Bengal Daud Khan Karrani, son of Suleman Karrani refused to surrender to the Mughals. As a result, Akbar sent his commandant Munim Khan in 1574 A.D. against Daud. But Daud Khan defended him in Patna.
Akbar again sent Munim Khan and Todarmal in 1575 A.D. They defeated Daud in the battle of Turkai or Turka in 1576 A.D. Daud Khan, with the permission of Munim Khan, returned to Bengal.
In the meantime, Munim Khan died of Malaria and Daud Khan again revolted. This time Akbar sent Muzaffar Khan Tubbati and Khan-i-Jahan to join Todarmal.
As a result, a large contingent of the Mughal army defeated Daud Khan in the battle of Rajmahal in 1576 A.D. and his converted commandant ‘Kalapahar’ was seriously injured. Todarmal then killed Daud.
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Though Bengal and Bihar came under the emperorship of Mughals in 1576 A.D. yet many Hindu and Muslim Zamindars of Bengal like Chand Ray, Kedar Ray, Pratapaditya, Isha Khan; Musha Khan etc. revolted.
They are known as Barabhuiya of Bengal. Mansingh, the commandant of Akbar defeated them and established peace in Bengal. The conservative Ulemas of Kabul made a conspiracy against Akbar for making his cousin brother Mirza Mohammad Hakim the ruler of India.
Knowing this, Akbar subdued the Kabul revolt with the help of Rajput soldiers. After the death of Mohammad Hakim in 1585 A.D. Akbar sent his minister Birbal to Kabul. But he was killed by the Pathans.
At last, Akbar solved the problems of Kabul in 1586 A.D. and brought it under his emperorship. Akbar defeated Yusuf Shah in 1586 A.D. the ruler of Kashmir and conquered the Kashmir valley.
His commandant Abdur-Rahim Khan-i-Khanan defeated Mirza Fanibaig the ruler of Sind and captured Sind in 1592 A.D. The Mughal dominance was firmly established in the North-Western region of India with the conquest of Kandahar in 1596 A.D.
There was no religious interest behind the conquest of South India by Akbar. Only due to imperialism, he ventured to conquer South India.
The battalion of Akbar gained the Berar area by exécuting a treaty with Chandbibi, the local guardian of the minor Sultan of Ahmednagar in 1595 A.D. Akbar captured Ahmednagar after the death of Chand bibi in 1600 A.D.
In 1599 A.D. Akbar conquest the capital of Khandesh and the Asirgarh fort in 1601 A.D. The battle of Asirgarh (1601 A.D.) was the last battle of Akbar. He gained the Golconda fort by conquering Bijapur (1580 A.D.) and expelled the Portuguese of Goa.
Thus, Bijapur, Ahmednagar, Khandesh and Berar came under the Suba of Akbar. Dr. K. K. Dutta said, “Akbar’s Deccan policy was purely imperialistic in origin and outlook.”
Akbar established and extended his empire from Kabul in the North-Western region and Kandahar to Godabari in the South, from Brahmaputra in the East to the coastal area of Gujarat in the West. Historian Percival Spear said that he had absolute control over this vast empire.
Being a practical and wise ruler, Akbar realised within a short time that it would much more beneficial for him to establish friendly relations with the Rajputs instead of fighting with them.
He also realised that the security of the Mughal empire would definitely increase if a good friendship can be established with the brave Rajputs who were freedom-loving.
So Akbar wanted to register his supremacy and sovereignty indirectly either by a friendly relationship with the Rajputs or by a marital relationship. A historian has commented rightly on the policy of Akbar-“Rajputs should first be subdued and then conciliated.”
Farsighted Akbar adopted a broad-based policy towards all Hindus and Rajputs and gave up the policies like oppression, disparity etc. There are some deep-rooted reasons behind these policies.
Firstly, the Hindus and Rajputs were the majority in India and without their help and cooperation, the administration would be difficult and the Mughal empire would not exist.
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Secondly, the Mughals were immigrants in India. So their main enemy and rival was the Afghans of India. Though the Afghans became weak after the death of Sher Shah, yet, they were quite prominent in Bengal, Bihar and Malwa.
For this reason, the help of Rajput was absolutely necessary to subdue the Afghans. Thirdly, Akbar had doubt in his mind about the loyalty of the Mughal aristocrats.
Because, Bairam Khan, Shah Abdul Khan Mali, Adam Khan, Abdullah, Khan Uzbek, and the relative Mirza revolted against Akbar though initially, they were loyal to Akbar. For this reason, also, he relied upon the power of Rajputs.
Historian Iswariprasad has beautifully explained, “There could be no Indian empire without the Rajputs, no political or social synthesis (composition) without their intelligent and active co-operation.”
Different steps are taken for establishing a friendship with the Rajputs:
Akbar, for achieving his goal, took some positive steps to establish friendship with the Hindus, especially with the Rajputs. During the 350 years of Sultani rule in Delhi, different policies of disparity were taken against the Rajputs and the Hindus.
No Rajput personnel was engaged in any royal post. But Akbar, abolishing such a policy gave equal rights to the Hindus and Rajputs with the Muslim personnel.
It was an important event undoubtedly for this attitude of tolerance and coherence towards ‘the Rajputs. Akbar built up the security of his empire by establishing marital relationships. Akbar himself in 1562 A.D.
Married the eldest daughter of Bihari Mal, the king of Ambar (Jaipur) Jodhabai, whose son Selim married Manbai the daughter of Bhagawan Das, son of Bihari Mal in 1585 A.D.
Akbar recruited many Hindus and Rajputs, in his army, almost more than half. He used to appoint only Rajputs in high government posts. King Bhagawan Das and King Mansingh were appointed as chiefs of army staff.
Among other Rajputs and Hindus Todarmal and Birbal achieved high government posts. Akbar gave full religious independence to the Rajputs and Hindus. He gave open permission to Hindus to construct new temples, renovation of old temples, and to perform other religious rituals independently.
He did not destroy any idols or temples during his political expedition. Akbar used to attend physically Hindu ceremonies like Holi, Dewali, Dashera etc.
He had to be aggressive to Mewar, Ranthambore, and Kalinjor states though the majority of Rajput power like Jodhpur. Jaipur, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Bundi etc. surrendered to him.
But after the battles were over, he gave special relief and advantage to those Rajput leaders who surrendered and showed loyalty to him. Though he was a Sunni Muslim at his early life, yet his religious broadness and religious tolerance brought a new dimension in the Mughal empire.
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A sympathetic, noble, liberal-minded and righteous ruler like him is very rare. He made the ‘Sulh-i-Kul’ policy popular to abolish the disparity from the country of Dar-ul-Islam and ‘Dar-ul-Harb’. After the propagation of Din-i- Elahi, in 1582 A.D.
vegetarian diet, or monotheism, charities became part and parcel of his religious life. The orthodox religious rituals and the dominance of the priests were replaced by Akbar’s rational and logical religious activities.
As a main maker of the Mughal administration, Akbar was the introducer of a broad-based, religiously impartial and welfare administration.
According to historian Jadunath Sarkar, Akbar had been able to combine Indian philosophy with Arabian and Persian philosophy. Dr Iswariprasad said that Akbar combined both the inland and the foreign rules with his own.
Accepting this statement, Razvi said, “The administration of Akbar was a mere imitation of Sher Shah’s”. But his administration appeared to be the best in the mediaeval age though it lacked innovative powers to some extent.
Central administration: Akbar was not wayward though he was an autocrat. He did not oppress the people. He always adopted the policy of people’s welfare. And for that reason, he used to take advice from his different central ministers for the sake of smooth ruling.
These ministers were
There were also other officers to assist the central administration. Those are–Ariz-i-Mubarak, Mirbahari, Mir Araz, Mir Manzil, Mir Tozak, Mustafi, Daroga-i-Gusalkhana etc. Thus Akbar organised his central administration.
Regional administration:
According to Abul Fazal, Akbar divided his empire into 15 Subhas or states. Some also said that number of such Subhas was 12. Subhas were divided into some districts and districts were further divided into panchayats.
The important Subhas, that Akbar developed were Bengal, Bihar, Allahabad, Ayodhya, Agra, Lahore, Delhi, Malwa, Multan, Kabul, Kandahar, Gujarat, Ajmer etc. The ruler of the subha was called Subadar, Najim or Sipahsalar.
Subedar means Governor. There were officers like Diwan, Kazi, Bakhsi, Sadar and Wakinabish to help the Governor. Just like Sher Shah, he employed two classes of staff in every district. They were Fouzdar (Police) and Amal Guzar (Minister for land revenue).
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There were employees named Fouzdar and Diwan in the district. There were employees like Patwari, Kanungo, Mukaddam, Matwal etc. in the village. Akbar used to communicate directly with the regional administration.
Judiciary:
Akbar used to be present personally in conducting the judiciary proceedings. ‘Kazi-ul-Kazat’ (the Chief Justice) gave his final judgement. Generally, the judgements were impartial and without any prejudice.
Besides the chief justice, there were also ‘Mir Adal’ and ‘Sadar-us-Sudur’ to assist him. Panchayets also performed judiciary proceedings in the villages. The proceedings were done in accordance with the Hindu and Muslim customs respectively.
Mansabdari system:
Akbar introduced the Mansabdari system in 1577 A.D. He introduced this system as a base of the military and civil judiciary systems. ‘So each Mansabdar used to keep soldiers and horses.
The word ‘Manṣab’ means the rank of the post. Mansabdari system was divided into 33 classes according to rank. The lowest masabu was 10 and the highest was 10,000 which increased to 12,000 in the period of Akbar.
Each Mansabdar had to maintain a fixed number of cavalry. For the reimbursement of these expenses, they were paid salaries in cash. In some cases, salaries were paid in the form of allotting land instead of cash.
Thus the Mansabdari system was replaced by the Jaigir system. The salaries and promotion retrenchments of the Mansabdars were dependent upon the emperor.
The meaning of the word ‘Noorjahan’ means the light of the world. The actual name of Noorjahan was ‘Meherunnisa’. Noorjahan was born in a desert near Kabul in 1578 A.D. Mirza Ghyas Beig, an aristocrat of Tehran was the father of Noorjahan.
But Ghyas Baig started a long march towards India with his children departing his motherland. He left behind his daughter near a tree because Noorjahan was born in his bad days.
Shaik Mahmud, a religious man took Mirza Ghyas into the royal court of Akbar and provided him with a service. In the meantime prince Selim fell in love with young and beautiful Noorjahan and wanted to marry her.
But Akbar was against this proposal and gave the marriage of Noorjahan with the Afghan Fauzdar of Burdwan Alikuli Baig. After that Jahangir (Selim) became the emperor of Delhi and imprisoned Noorjahan in his harem for four years after killing Alikuli Baig in 1607 A.D.
He married Noorjahan in 1611 A.D. and gave her the honour of the prime queen ‘Mahishi’. He gave her the title ‘Noormahal’ or the light of the world. Later on she became famous as ‘Noorjahan’.)
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During the period from 1611 A.D. to 1627 A.D. the entire activity of Jahangir was conducted and supervised by Noorjahan. During this time, she promoted her father Mirza Ghyas Beig and her two brothers Asaf Khan and Itmad Khan to very high posts.
The vacuum which was caused by the weak administration of Jahangir was filled up by the skill and efficiency of Noorjahan. She became Padsha Begum by her own diligence.
She proved her excellence in the fields of literature, art, politics, weaving, conducting wars on elephant back, hunting of tigers with her husband, archery etc.
Though she was very simple, kind and amiable in nature, yet she could understand the complicacies of politics very easily. According to Dr Iswariprasad, the impact of Noorjahan on Jahangir was uncanny and evil.
Dr Tripathi said that the influence of Noorjahan upon Jahangir was moral, emotional, psychological and probably Buddhist. Noorjahan took over the entire responsibility and charge when Jahangir became sick.
West Bengal Board Class 7 History
So it is called that she was not an evil power but a fortunate power. Towards the last phase, she constituted ‘Noorjahan ‘Chakra’ when she felt that the same conspiracies were being framed against her.
The constitution of this chakra was effective in her domestic cycle also. At last, her brother Asaf Khan and his son-in-law Khurram (Shah Jahan) dethroned Noorjahan and made Khurram the emperor of Delhi.
After departing from politics, Noorjahan lived for 18 years more. At this time, Shahjahan granted a yearly aid of Rs. 2 lacs to his stepmother Noorjahan. She died in 1645 A.D. and was buried beside the tomb of her husband Jahangir in Lahore.
During the reign of Jahangir, Islam Khan of Sipahasalar of Bengal first killed the Afghan leader Alikuli Baig and handed over his wife Meherunnisa to Jahangir. Then he took the initiative to subdue the 12 zamindars of Bengal.
There were both Hindu as well as Muslim zamindars among those 12. The meaning of the word Bhunya is a feudal king. Though it is called Baro Bhunya, yet there were many more zamindars in that group.
But main Bhunyas were
The majority of the Bhunyas were in the habit to oppress the people. Poet Rabindranath Tagore in his book ‘Bouthakuranir Hat’ had described the cruel and selfish nature of Pratapaditya.
The Bhunyas struggled for their existence against the Mughals and foreign powers. Pratapaditya fought and died in the battle of Khagraghat against the Mughals. We can know many things about the Bhunyas from the book ‘Baharisthan’.
After the death of Jahangir, the fourth Mughal emperor, (28th October 1627 A.D.) his son Shah Jahan became the emperor. During his 30 years of rule, political peace, economic prosperity, literature, art and sculpture reached the apex.
This period is called the golden age in the history of the Mughals. Shah Jahan fulfilled with beauty the empire, which was founded by Babur and Akbar. Though Shah Jahan became the creator of the golden age simply by following the paths of his ancestors.
Akbar established political unity and his domination all over India. As a result, Shah Jahan did not face any difficulty in other political issues. He only could not recover the Kandahar state which was lost by the Mughals at one time.
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Even then the political unity helped Shah Jahan to cultural advancement. Shah Jahan built Tajmahal by the side of the Yamuna river in loving memory of his beloved wife Mumtaj and he took advice from architects of different countries of the world.
Historians have described the regime of Aurangzeb as a period of extreme expansion as well as a period of decline. Aurangzeb built up a very big empire by conquering a vast area. But at the same time, the number of revolts that happened was maximum in his time.
Aurangzeb was appointed Subedar in South India during the regime of Shah Jahan. He used to keep a sharp lookout towards South India after being the king in 1658 A.D. He spent the last 25 years (1682-1707 A.D.) out of his 50 years of rule in South India.
He stayed in South India for such a long time because of two reasons-
(1) To subdue Bijapur and Golconda the two shia states and
(2) To destroy the powerful Marathas.
Aurangzeb sent three expeditions in 1665, 1680 and 1682 A.D. headed by Jaisingh, Dilir Khan and Shahjada Azam. But all of them failed.
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At last, Aurangzeb invaded Bijapur state and in that occasion, Sikandar, the young ruler of the Shahi dynasty saluted him and surrendered. He promised to pay a subsidy of rupees one lac per year.
The tradition of the Shahi dynasty for 200 years which was founded by Yusuf Adil Shahi abolished completely on 12th September 1686 A.D. with the fall of Bijapur.
Abul Hasan the last sultan of the Qutabshahi dynasty of Golconda entrusted his empire to two Hindu ministers Akkana and Madana. He used to live in utmost comfort.
Marathas were in favour of Abul Hasan so Aurangzeb at first captured Hyderabad by his commander Shah Alam. At this time, the Mughals captured the Golconda fort by giving bribes to Mir Mohammad Ibrahim, the commander of Golconda.
Zabti system:
Akbar’s revenue minister Todarmal was also the revenue minister of Sher Shah. Todarmal used to determine the revenue by surveying the land in 1582 A.D. It was known as the ‘Zabti system’ in the Mughal period.
He introduced ‘Elahigaj’ for surveying land. Todarmal introduced three kinds of revenue systems. There were-Zabti or’Dahshala, Ghallabakhsi and Nasaq. Jabti system was in vogue in the entire North India.
According to this system, the land was divided into four groups.
(1) Polaz (Land for cultivation throughout the year).
(2) Parauti (The land which was kept uncultivated to make it fertile).
(3) Chachur (The land which remains idle for 3/4 years).
(4) Banzara (The land which remains idle for more than 5 years).
Ghallabakhsi system was in vogue in Kabul, Kandahar, Kashmir and Sindhu Pradesh in North- Western border of India. The Nasdaq system was in vogue in Gujarat and Bengal. Under this system, the land revenue were collected without surveying the lands.
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Under all the system of land revenues, 1/3rd of the produced crops were collected as land revenue. These taxes were paid either in cash or by crops.
Apart from land revenue, there were ‘toll tax’, ‘water tax’, ‘building tax’, ‘trade duties’, ‘Nazarana’ and ‘Zarimana’ and in this process. The taxes were collected in the Treasury.
The main staff of the revenue department was Diwan (Revenue minister), Amin (Collecter), Bitikchi (Revenue accountant), Patwari (Local staff) Mukaddam Sadar (Principal officer for charity and religion) etc.
Origin:
The impact of the Bhakti movement brought a revolution in life as a whole in the history of the mediaeval age. The revolution brought by the Bhakti cult in religious life during the Sultani age was a unique event.
people raised their voices against the superstition and conservatism of Hinduism after being influenced by the democratic policies of Islam. In this age, the Bhakti cult was a new theory against eternal conservatism.
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The main say of this theory was that Bhakti itself was the only main gateway of permanent relief. The supernatural union of Atma and Paramatma was the main object of Bhakti and work only brings relief of Atma.
Read and Learn More WBBSE Notes For Class 7 History
It is not achieved through yagnas and other religious rituals. The Bhakti movement became popular in India between the 7th to 12th centuries. Historian Gearson said that the ideals of the Bhakti cult had percolated into the Hindu religion from Christianity.
Prof. Yusuf Hasan thought that the Bhakti cult originated from the examples of Bhakti towards Allaah in the Islamic religion. Some said that Veda was the source of the Bhakti cult.
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Many people thought that different religious texts of Hindus are the main source of the Bhakti movement as this Bhakticult were mentioned in religious texts like Vishnupuran, Geeta, Bhagabat, Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Main Tenets:
The specialities of the Bhakti cult were
Shankaracharya and Ramanuja:
Shankaracharya by his ‘Adaytiyabad’ and Ramanuja by his ‘Bishistadaytiyabad’ tried to re-establish Hinduism in South India. Jagat Guru Shankaracharya built Joshi Math, Gobardhan Math, Sringeri Math and Sarada Math in different places of India just to save Hinduism from the clutch of Buddhism.
Ramanuja was born in 1166 A.D. in Madras. There are many followers of him in South India. The followers of ‘Shaiva Nainar’ and ‘Vaishnava Albars’ inspired people to worship Shiva and Vishnu respectively although Ramanuja was considered as the main person behind the Bhakti movement in South India.
Ramananda was the main disciple of Ramanuja. He was born in a Kanyakubja Brahmin family in Allahabad towards the end of the 14th century. His idols were Sri Ramchandra and Sitadevi. He was the founder of the “Ramat Vaishnab” community.
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He said that it was possible to get permanent relief if one worships Rama and Sita. Ramananda took the first initiative to propagate the Bhakti cult from North to South India. He propagated his theory in Hindi.
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He made many people as his disciples irrespective of any gender and creed. The main disciples among the 12 ones were Kabir (Muslim weaver) Ravidas (Cobbler), Sadhan (Slaughter), Sona (Barbar) etc.
Ramananda used to say “Jatipati Puchhai Na Koi/Hari Ko Bhajo So Hari Ka Hoi.”
Namdeva was at first the follower of Vishnu. According to him, only worshipping God in a clean mind brings the ultimate. He did not find any difference between Hindus and Muslims.
Bailavacharya was born in a Brahmin family near Varanasi. His parental house was in the South. He came to the royal court of king Krishnadev Ray of Vijayanagar after meditating for Krishna in Mathura and Brindaban for some time.
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In this time, he was propagating Vaishnavism in the South. He said that serving to Krishna and serving to animals are the causes of the union of Atma and Paramatma. In this process, souls became free.
Some said that Bhakta Dadu was born in a wealthy Muslim family in Jounpur in Uttar Pradesh and some said that he was born in Ahmedabad of Gujarat. He became a disciple to Sheikh Budhan, a Sufi Saint.
He realised the cream of religion after travelling through the entire India. He considered Hindu-Muslim, highs and lows as the same and equal. He used to say “I am neither a Hindu nor a Muslim. I am just a saint of Almighty God.”
“ch 7 history class 11 notes “
According to John for 40 days between Akbar and Dadu in ‘a solitary field near Fatehpur Sikri on the subject of human life.
Kabir was the main disciple of Ramananda. Kabir was born in 1398 A.D. Some historians claimed that Kabir was contemporary to Sultan Sikandar Lodi. He was an illegal son of a Brahmin widow lady.
A Muslim weaver named Niru brought him up when he was abandoned by his mother beside a pond. Hence, right from childhood, a sense of coexistence between Hindus and Muslims developed in his mind.
He said, that Hindu and Muslim are two pots made out of the same soil. Ram, Rahim, Hari, Allaah, Sai, and Iswar are all the different forms of one and only Parameswar.
Siddhi can not be achieved by simply worshipping the Gods or Namaj or by pilgrimage. His ideas and advice had been mentioned in ‘Doha’ written by him in Hindi. The followers of Kabir are known as ‘Kabirpanthi’.
Historian Tarachand commented, “Kabir’s main object was to propagate the ideology of love irrespective of any religion or caste.”
Nanak, the first Guru of Shikism (1469-1538 A.D.) was born in Talbandi village (Now Nankhana) of Lahore in the year 1469 A.D. in a Kshatriya family. He travelled to Srilanka, Mecca, Bagdad etc.
To know the real truth in life and the world by leaving apart his family, though he married in his first life. Finally, he realised that ‘Mokhhaypalav’ is not possible by worshipping idols, pilgrimages or religious rituals.
He said to devote to God in the form of truth. But before doing that one should do ‘Nam’ (Pray to God) ‘Dan’ (Serve to animals) and ‘Sthan’ (To purify one’s own body. This religious ideology put forward a bold step in social equilibrium.
This ideology was against caste disparity and untouchability. He said that social and religious life gets new momentum if everyone respects the religion of the other.
His followers are known as Sikhs and his advice had been compiled in ‘Granthasaheb’ or the Original Text in Punjabi gurumukhi language.
Srichaitanya was born in 1486 A.D. in a Brahmin family of Nabadwip. It was ‘Dolpurnima’ night. His childhood name was Biswambhar and his parents used to call him ‘Nemai’ affectionately.
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The neighbours used to call him ‘Gouranga’ because of his fair complexion. His mother was Sachidevi and his father was Jagannath Mishra. He lost his father at the age of eleven.
He was appointed as a teacher in ‘Tol’ after completing his studies at the age of twenty. In this time, he became famous by defeating pandit Keshab Kashmiri by. logic. He took Sikhs in Krishna Mantra from Iswar Puri when he was twenty-two.
At the age of twenty fourth became a saint by departing his wife Vishnupriya and adopting the name, Srikrishna Chaitanya. During the last 24 years of his life, he spent in ‘Dharmaprachar’.
He used to say ‘Trinadapi Sunichena Tarorpie Sahishnuna. Amanina manadena Kirtaniya sada Hari.” According to him, all creatures in this world are the creations of Srikrishna.
One should be as soft and as tolerant like a grass for rendering kind, Love, Bhakti and sacrifice to living beings. Yaban Haridas, Nityananda, Sribas, Rup, Sanatan and Jeeb Goswami, Prataprudradev, again-Madhai etc. were the main followers of Neo Vaishnavism founded by Sri Chaitanya.
“chapter 7 history class 11 notes “
Dr Sukumar Sen told that he had brought a new rise in literature, religion and philosophy in Bengalee life. Bimanbehari Majumder said that Srichaitanya died in Puri immaturely on 9th July 1533 A.D. at the age of only 48 years.
Mirabai was born in Kurki Village in Jodhpur approximately in the year 1504 A: D. and died sometime between 1563-73 A.D. Historian Col. Todd said that Mirabai was the wife a Rana Kumbha, who was contemporary to Akbar.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
Some said that King Bhojraj, the son of Sangram Singha was her husband. Many historians commented that she was contemporary to Akbar, Bhaktamal and Rup Goswami.
Though Mirabai was a housewife, yet she came to Mathura and Brindaban by leaving behind the royal palace. She became very much involved with the love of Giridharilal Srikrishna and devoted herself completely.
She said that it was possible to reach God by love, bhakti and respect. The Bhajan’s of Mira written in Brajabuli Language are invaluable treasures in Bengali literature.
During the same time, Shankardeva, a Bhakticult leader from the Brahmaputra valley of Assam is worth remembering. He was a very sincere propagator of Bhakicult.
Bhakticult registered a far-reaching effect on society, religious life, politics and culture of India.
Firstly, due to the influence of the Bhakti cult, the culture of literature started in many regional languages apart from ‘Douha’ of Kabir, ‘Granthasaheb’ of Nanak, ‘Chaitanya Charitamrita’ of Krishnadas Kabiraj and ‘Chaitanya Bhagabat’ of Brindaban Das.
Secondly, the disparity between men and women and between high and low decreases to a great extent. The Asuryampashya ladies of the mediaeval age got the taste of religious and social independence.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
Thirdly, the religious complications and outwardly showmanship diminish to a great extent. As a result, religions are open for everybody. Worship of idols and dominance of the priests were reduced considerably,
Fourthly, due to the influence of the Bhakti cult leaders, Hinduism became much broader and more friendly. The incidents of the low-caste Hindu people being converted to other religions were reduced.
Fifthly, the influence of the Bhakti cult was far-reaching for the improvement of Hindu- Muslim relationships.
According to Dr Nemaisadhan Bose, it had influenced political leaders to a great extent. The rulers took the ideology of the welfare of the people by accepting humanitarian welfare. Akbar himself was a glaring example.
Sixthly, according to Dr Ramesh Ch. Majumder, without the Bhakti movement the darkness of the Bengalee life would not have been abolished. Prof. Amaiesh Tripathi too, thought that the Bhakti movement was a fruitful event in the history and tradition of the Bengalee race.
Origin:
As the Bhakti movement was against the religious conservatism and superstitions of Hinduism so also the Sufi movement was against the Muslim religion. The rise of Sufism was initiated from the 10th century.
But it was fully bloomed in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. But the conservative Ulemas did not like the Sufis because they were broad and wide. Sufis did believe that all religions are “the manifestation of the desire to know the truth”.
Sufism is the refined form of Islam. Sufis came to the picture in the world of Muslims after the death of Mohammad. The main source of Sufism was ‘Alhadiz’ the text of compiled advice of Hazrat Mohammad and holy the Koran.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
It is a mixed theory. Some historians said the Shiya Muslims of Persia became influenced by Buddhism while they were travelling through different parts of Asia.
So from the synthesis of Buddhism, Hindu Vedanta and other religions, Sufism evolved. The philosophy of nonviolence, dedication to God, sacrifice, yogas, and fasting of Sufies gave rise to this ideology, Abul Fazal said it was Koran, and not Buddhism, Hindu and Vedanta, was the main source of Sufism.
Prof. Yusuf Hasan similarly connected that rather Bhakticult evolved from the ideology of Islam. For this reason, Sufism is called ‘a mystic sect of Islam’.
The word Sufi has been derived from the word ‘Sufi’ or ‘Safa’. The word Sufi means who wears heavy woollen clothes. And the word Safa means to lead a holy life. So the Sufi Saints and Pirs advised people to lead a simple and sacred life.
Main Tenets:
The teaching of Sufism is ‘God is one and everything is his parts’.
The basic tenets of Sufism are
Duties:
The Muslim Sufi saints are called ‘Pir’ or ‘Darbesh’. Sufis thought that without any Guru devotion to God was impossible. For this, some instructions are to be observed
The sufi saints used to advise to observe these instructions for building up a healthy society.
Leaders:
The Sufi saints Rabia and Mansur-Bin-Hazzaz of Basra port propagated Sufism in the 7th century with the object of the union of man and God.
The subsequent propagators were Al-Gazali, Khoaja Jalall, Mainuddin Chisti, Nizamuddin Aulia, Shihabuddin Surabardi, Hamiduddin Nagori, Nasiruddin Chirag, Baktiar Kaki, Hazrat Kazi, Hazrat Fariduddin, Nuruddin, Syed Ali Hamjani etc.
Division:
Two Sufi communities on the basis of original Sufism became popular-
Towards the end of the 15th century, many other factions developed like Kaderi, Kalandari, Sattari and Nakshbandi. The broad-minded Sufi Saints were known as Be-Sahara and comparatively more conservative Suffis were known as Ba-sphere.
The Sufis were divided into 15 Groups (Shilsila) for the publicity of Sufism. For this reason, khanka or dargahs were built in different places.
The propagators of the Chisti community were much more broad-minded. Christie’s were quite popular in Punjab, ‘Rajputana, Sind, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal etc. Mainuddin. built his darga in Ajmer. He founded Chistiorder in 1192 A.D.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
He propagated Sufism by making Ajmer as the centre. He used to advise his followers ‘Be broad like a river, be affectionate like the sun and adopt the hospitality like the earth’.
Qutubuddin Baktiar Kaki, his main disciple, got respect from Illtutmis. Nizamuddin Aulia started propagating Sufism coming from Afghanistan to Delhi. He built a Darga in Delhi in 1236 A.D. with the cooperation of Alauddin Khalji.
Khoawaja Shahjalal, Nasiruddin Chirag was his main followers. ‘The Parrot of Hindustan Amir Khasru described Nasiruddin as Chirag-i-Delhi or the light of Delhi.
The propagators of the Chisti ideology believed that money was the main constraint of religious thought. They thought that policies also was harmful for religious life. Sirajuddin expressed these views in Bengali in his book ‘Akhisiraj’.
These saints did not think that money and politics were harmful for religion. Hence they had direct interaction with politics. This ideology was propagated in Punjab, Multan and Bengal.
The propagation of the Suhrawardi order started after 1204 A.D. Shihabuddin was the founder of this ideology. His main disciple was Hamid Uddin Nagori. But the popularity of this ideology was comparatively less.
The Sufi communities like Kaderi, Sattari and Nakshwandi order rose in the 15th century. They all followed the regulations of Shariyati. But the Kalandari order did not recognise the Shariyat.
The broad-minded social justice and equilibrium inspired the lower castes of Hindus.
Impacts:
The influence of Sufis were there in the fields of society, religion, politics, culture etc. Historian Taher Ali said that the welfare activities of the Sufis influenced society.
By analysing the influences of Sufi it is found-
According to Dr Iswariprasad, “Sufism is very much like Vedantic philosophy which teaches that the individual souls are only manifestations of the supreme soul in which they are finally immersed.”
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
There was a massive change in the society, economy and culture of India as a result of 300 years of Sultanate rule. This change showed a peculiar assimilation of Hindu and Islamic customs and rituals, food and entertainment, art and culture.
The unity of Hindu and Muslim cultures can be understood by a discussion of the society of the Sultanate period. The majority of the aristocrats of the Sultanate were the Amirs and the Omrahs.
Besides, a few high officials were also considered as aristocrats. There were Arabs, Persians Turks, Habshees, Afghans and Egyptians among the aristocrats. Both Hindus and Muslims were present among the merchants.
They comprised the middle class through the word middle class was not common then. Doctors, clerks, and shopkeepers also belonged to this class. The peasants, slaves and workers formed the lowest rungs of society.
Slavery was an essential feature of the middle age. Because slaves had prominence in that period. The Ulemas were dominant in society. They were the interpreters of the ‘Shariyat’.
Dr Qureshi says that the theocratic model of the state during the Sultanate was possible because of the dominance of the Ulemas. It is known from Amir Khasrau’s book ‘Khajain-ul- Futuah that the peasants and the workers were the deprived groups.
There was a synthesis of Hindu and Muslim cultures. A very good example of it is the marriage of a Hindu princess Devaladevi with the Muslim prince, Khijir Khan, son of Alauddin Khalji.
The picture of Hindu conservation which is found from the 11th-century account of Al- Beruni became much more rigid during the Sultanate period. The Muslim society was influenced by the early marriage, dowry system and seclusion of Hindu women.
The Parda of the Muslims was similar to the seclusion of the Hindus. The Hindu women could never see the sun, while the Muslim women had to hide their faces with a back piece of cloth. This was a regular feature of social discrimination.
There was a diversity in dresses. The Muslims used to wear long coats (Alkhallha) and Borkhas (covered dresses). The Hindus also started wearing similar dresses. The choga and the chapka became common in festivals.
Many social customs were interested in this society. A Portuguese writer referred to this mixed culture to show the economic and social progress of the period in a book named Summa Oriental.
K. M. Ashraf stated in ‘Life and condition of the people of Hindusthan’ that the changes which were introduced in the Hindusthani lifestyle in the Sultanate period became much more evident during the Mughal Age.
The main languages of the literature of the Sultanate period were Persian, Urdu and Sanskrit. The main literary works were the works of Amir Khasrau, Bidagdha Madhab and Lalit Madhab of Rup Goswami, Sanskrit texts of Jaisingh Puri, many works based on Karmamimamsa of Parthasarathi Mishra and Pradyumnasamudaya.
Amir Khasrau was famous among the Persian literate, he was known The ‘Parrot of Hindusthani’. The Upanishads or the Ramayana, the Mahabharata were translated into Persian in this Age.
The Urdu language was created by an intermixture of Persian and Hindi and many texts were written in Urdu. Besides; the famous pandit in Smriti was Vachaspati Mishra. Many of the Smritis were translated in this period.
This helped the growth of an Indo- Islamic culture. Music also became popular as entertainment. Ragas like Meghamallar, Bhairavi, and Iman Kalyan were very popular in this age. The people had a particular attraction for classical music.
There was a synthesis of Hinduism and Islam in the society and culture. Chowgan or polo was the main game of entertainment. The Muslims learnt this game from the Hindus besides there were other forms of entertainment like horse racing, hunting, gambling etc.
There was a growth of regional literature in the Sultanate period. Books like Manasamangal and Srikrishnabijaya were written during the Iliyas Shahi and Hussain Shahi rule in Bengal.
Similarly, works like Amaktanalyada, different books written by Poddan the court poet of Raja Krishnadeva Ray of Vijayanagar had enough literary excellence. Besides, the works of Vidyapati and Chandidasa were creations of this period.
The Indo-Islamic influence was found in art architecture and sculpture. The best specimens of architecture were found in the Qutubminar of Qutubuddin, Quasat-ul-Masjid, Alai Darwaja and Jamayatkhana Masjid of Alauddin the tombs of Firoz Tughluq and Adilshah Chandminar of Ahmadnagar Jame Masjid of Daulatabad etc.
In the provinces, the wonderful productions were the Adina Mosque of Sikandar Shah, the Borasona and Chota sona Mosques of Hussain Shah, the Eklakhi Mosque of Nusrat Shah, Atala Masjid, Kadamrasul, the tomb of Hussain Shah etc.
Many temples were beheaded and turned into tombs at this period. In astrology, the famous Arabic astrologer Abu Masar learnt Indian astrology.
Alberuni also learnt the Upanishads and many Hindu texts, The Hindus learnt to produce calendars from Muslim astronomers. There was an improvement in the various fields of silence.
According to the Hindu nationalist historian R. C. Majumder-The Hindu and Muslim societies had a history of struggle in this country, though the main reasons were political and economic. Religious reasons were not very important.
When Muslim rule was established in Hindu dominated country, naturally there was a cultural interaction by the assistance of the Hindus and mutual coexistence, Bipan Chandra, Romila Thapar and other historians have given special emphasis on this Hindu-Muslim cultural assimilation of the Sultanate period in their famous book ‘Communalism and the writing of the History of India’.
After the invasion of Bengal by Baktiar Khalji, Bengal became Muslim-dominated (1204 A.D.). Sultans had dominance over Bengal after the establishment of the Sultanate empire in Delhi (1206 A.D.)
But during the regime of Sultan Mohammad Bin-Tughluq, Bengal became free from the hands of Delhi. Samsuddin Illyas Shah set up an independent Muslim ruling in Lakshanawati or Gour in 1342 A.D. As a result, Bengal became free.
Thus an overall change in the public life of Bengal was noticed during the regime of the Illyas Shahi dynasty and later during the Hussain Shahi dynasty (1493-1535 A.D.).
Especially there had been a great change in the social and cultural life of Bengal. So the Sultanate age was particularly significant in the awakening of the Bengali race.
Illyas and Hussian Shahi rulers ruled altogether for 200 years. These rulers appointed many Hindu employees. Thus the harmony of Hindus and Muslims increased. The non-Muslim people were called ‘Jimmi’ or sheltered in the Muslim state.
Though the Muslims had the intention to convert the country in a Muslim one (‘Dar-ul-Harb’ to ‘Dar-ul-Islam’) yet the Bengal was an exception.
There was no such anti-Muslim feelings among the Hindus because Muslims did not take any policy for attacking the Hindus or destroying the temples in Bengal.
Dr Jadunath Sarkar considered that a new era had been started in Bengal from the rule of Illyas Shahi. Al-Beruni, during his visit to India, noticed the existence of a caste system, racial disparity and untouchability.
The society was dominated by the high society because of the reason Ballalsen had introduced the ‘Kulinism’. The Hindu society was divided into four classes- Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra.
There was no dearth of effort on the part of the conservative Hindus to maintain the caste system strictly. But as Srichaitannya appeared during the regime of Hussain Shah, the differences between the high and the low, Hindu and Muslim, touchable and Intouchables.
Became abolished absolutely. The wall of the difference washed away with the flood of Bhakti. This unique moment of Hindu-Muslim union or harmony never came before. According to Dr Sukumar Sen, Chaitanya awakened the Bengali race.
There developed many sub-castes during the end of the Sena dynasty. These were Kayastha, Kulin Kayastha, Teli, Malakar, Kangsabanik, Subarnabanik etc.
The Bhakti movement during the Sultanate age revolted against social narrowness, exploitation etc. and tried to establish social equality and justice.
There were systems of child marriage, burning of Sati and ignorance towards the female child in the Hindu society. These ideas and viewpoints gradually started changing and this change was a great gain for Bengali life.
But some historians thought that these customs and systems were changed just to save society from the influence of Muslims.
Pandit Madhabacharya of Vijayanagar explained these social restrictions and systems first in his book ‘Kal Nirnay’ written by him which was based upon Parashar-smriti (1335-60 A.D.)
Then pandit Visweswar wrote Madan Parijat, Kuluk wrote a note ‘Manusamhita’ and Rajhunath Shiramoni explained the reasons of different rituals in Hindu society during the Sultanate dynasty.
Muslim Ulemas also pressurised the ruler class to control the Hindus. Kazi. Mughisuddin said “The Only duty of the Hindus was to pay tax. They were destined to extreme grief and sorrow as directed by God.”
But due to the rise of Sufism and due to the appearances of Sufi saints Nizamuddin Aulia, Muinuddin Christ etc. the scope fo Hindu-Muslim harmony became wider.
The flow of cultural evolution in Bengal during Illyas Shahi and Hussian Shahi regimes. During the Illyas Shahi regime, trade and commerce, agriculture, art etc. started developing in Bengal.
İban Batuta described Bengal in this stage as a ‘State of prosperity’. The boundary of Bengal extended up to Chilka lake of in Orissa, Kathmandu of Nepal and Kamrup in the East.
According to Dr Syed Nurul Hassan, Illyas Shah started a golden age in the history of Bengal. Due to patronage from the sultans the cultural bend in Bengal reached its highest peak and political peace and economic development were also established.
He was respectful to Pirs or Darbesh and Hindus. In his time, Pandua became the main centre of art and sculpture. Besides this in the fields of local art, sculpture and literature a new era had evolved.
So the historian Dr J. N. Sarkar told “A new chapter was opened in the history of Bengal with the accession of Illyas Shah to the throne of Lakshanabati.”
The famous Adina Mosque of Pandua was built in 1368 A.D. in Maldah during the time of Sikandar Shah. It took 20 long years to build this mosque in imitation of the mosque in Damascus. Adina Mosque was 397 ft long and 159 ft wide.
There were 400 pillars. Many arches and tombs were in that mosque. He built many mansions like ‘Akhi Siraj Uddin’ the Kotowali Darwaja, Mollasimla of Hoogly, ‘Eklakhi Mosque’ and others. Many scholars and pandits were there in his time.
During the regime of Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah, he exchanged letters with the famous poet Hafez of Persia. Ghiyasuddin built two Madrasas in Mecca and Madina. He spent 12,000 Egyptian gold coins to construct the Madrasa of Mecca.
He also built a restaurant and the Arafah canal. The poet of Mithila (“Maithili Cakucoo”) Vidyapati was his contemporary. The Chinese emperor Yurglo sent his ambassador Ma Huan to the royal court of Ghiyasuddin.
He also sent Maharatna Dharmaraj a Buddhist monk, to China (1410-1411 A.D.). Thus the cultural exchanges started between India and China. Barbak Shah was a literature-loving Sultan.
So he took the titles like “Al-Fajil” and “Al-Kamil”. As per his instruction, the pundit of his royal court Brihaspati Misra wrote some notes in Sanskrit on Pada Chandrika and some literature of Kalidasa. For this, he got the title “Pandit Sarvabhauma”.
Barbak Shah gave Maladhar Basu the title ‘Gunraj Khan’ for writing Sri Krishnavijaya and to his son “Satyaraj Khan” As per the instruction of Barbak Khan the poet Krittibas Ojha translated Sri Ram Panchali or Ramayana in Bengali.
The French scholar of Barbak Khan’s royal court, Ibrahim Kayum Fharuki wrote the “Safar Nama” Chandidas was the writer of famous Padabali literature in his time. His secularism was a famous event.
Among the members of his royal court, Kedar Ray, Mukunda, Gandharva Ray, Ananta Sen, and Káladhar are worth mentioning Sultan gave the title “Subharaj Khan” to Kaladhar. Vijay Gupta wrote the poetic novel Manasha Mangal during the time of Jalaluddin Fath.
Dr R. C. Majumder told, “Among the sultans of Bengal Rukanuddin Barbak Shah could claim his utmost supremacy from different angles.”
The interests of Alauddin Hussain Shah and Nasrat Shah towards literature and culture had widened a new horizon of advancement. A new chapter was operated in the field of Hindu-Muslim unity and cultural upsurge.
During the time of Hussain Shah, Nabyanaya Sangha was established in Nabadwip. Nabadwip became the main centre for the study of Sanskrit, Philosophy. Nyayashastra, Smritishastra etc.
Due to the appearance of Sri Chaitanya, the Nabavaishnaba religious emotion stirred the fields of religion, society, literature, art etc. Centring around Sri Chaitarsyadea, many texts like “Chaitanya Bhagabat” by Brindaban Das, Chaitanya Charitamrita by Krishnadas Kaviraj etc.
were written. Due to the patronages of Hussain Shah. Rupa Goswami wrote two texts namely “Lalit Madhav” and “Bidagdhya Madhav”. In this time “Srimad Bhagavad Geeta” was translated in Bengali.
The scholars like Raghunandana, Raghunath, and Basudeva Sarbobhouma appeared in this age. Besides this, Pandit Joshoraj Khan, Srikar Nandy, Sridhar, Kabindra Parameswar, Bipradas Pipilai etc. took an acute role in the cultural upsurge.
Kabindra Parameswar translated Mahabharata in short form in Bengali named “Pandava Vijay Katha” under the instruction of Paragal Khan, the ruler of Chattagram.
Srikar Nandy translated the Ashwamedh chapter of Mahabharat in Bengali under the instruction of Chhuti Khan, the son of Paragal Khan. There had been also much improvement of art and sculpture in this time.
The best examples of art and sculpture were “Dakhil Darwaja”, “Eklakhi tomb”, “Tantipara Mosque”, “The chota sona Mosque of Gour made of brick and stone, and “Bara sona Mosque” “Kadam rasul palace” of Nasrat Shah (An ornamented black stone situated on a platform with the footprints of Hazrat Mohammad) and other sculptures like Adina Mosque of Gour and Pandua.
A special study of Calligraphy was also there in this age. Impartiality and broadness in the field of religion was especially noted. Prof M. R. Tarafdar described the broadness of the Hussain Shahis even of if they were originally born in foreign countries was a rare event.
The Hindus like. Gopinath Basu, Gour Mullik, Rupa and Sanatan Goswami etc. were members of the royal court. In this time, different idols like Satyapir, Manikpir, Gazibaba, Dakshin Ray, Dharma Thakur, Olabibi, Bonbibi, Shitala Devi etc.
Were worshipped equally by Hindus as well as Muslims. Thus the era of Illyas Shahi and Hussain Shahi started a new voyage in the cultural history of Bengal.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, this new trend of cultural as well as overall upsurge brought a brilliant intellect in the life of Bengalees.
Every Mughal emperor, from Babur to Bahadur Shah II tried to improve cultural advancement apart from the political, economic and administrative attachments.
The imperial unity, political stability and economic affluence helped the Mughal emperors to improve art and sculpture, architecture, paintings, music, literature etc.
Babur during his 4 years ruling, constructed Lodi Fort in Agra, Kabulibagh Mosque in Panipath, and Jama-i-Mosque in Rohilkhand. Besides this, he also constructed many miners, and institutional palaces in Agra, Fatehpur, Cholapure, Kiule and Gwalior.
Shershah also during his 5 years of rule built Purana Killa in Delhi, the Tomb of Sasaram and many palaces. He combined the art of Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Buddhist and Persian. During the regime of Humayun some tombs and mosques were built.
The brilliant creations like Ibadatkhana in Fatehpur Sikri, Tomb of Humayun, Deiwan-i-Am, and Diwan-i-Khas. Jama-i-Mosque, Buland Darwaja, Jodhabai Palace, Panch Mahal and Akbar Tomb were built during the time of Akbar.
Jahangir also constructed the beautiful tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulla, the father of his wife Noorjahan. Besides this, he also completed the Tomb of Akbar.
Historians called Shah Jahan as the ‘Engineering King’ and ‘Prince builder’ due to his sculptural exposure. He built Diwan-i-Am, Diwan-i-Khas, Shismahal, Khasmahal, Moti Mosque; Jama Mosque, Red Fort, Tajmahal and Peacock Throne.
Aurangzeb was against this French scholar Ferguson, while appreciating the Mughal sculpture said that the tombs of Fatehpur Sikri carry the artistic thought of Akbar. Dr V. A. Smith commented that Fatehpur Sikri is a poetry of stone.
Scholar Havell said that the Indian artists and sculptors maintained their dominance though there was an influence of Persian art. But the Western influence is found in the construction of Tajmahal.
This has been referred in the book ‘An Advanced History of India’.
The combination of different arts of Greek, Bahlik, Chinese and Mongolians are found in the art and paintings, during the Mughal period and this flourished Mughal art and painting. Babur was a lover of art.
Khoaja Abbas Dasyanath and Mir Syed Ali the two painters were in the court of Humayun. Akbar encouraged 100 painters and there were 17 painters in his royal court.
Out of them, the famous artists were Tarachand, Jagannath, Syed Ali, Jasawanta, Daswan, Abdul Samad etc. The main subjects of these artists were the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Arabian novels.
The famous artists during the time of Jahangir were Bishen Das Tulsi, Manohar, Keshab, Gobardhan Mohammad Nadir, Abul Hassan etc. The paintings were done in Indian style.
The famous artist during the time of Shah Jahan was Nadir Samarkandi. Aurangzeb was apathetic towards paintings. ‘Hilly Art’ of Kangra influenced the Mughal sculpture a lot.
Both Babur and Humayun were music loving. The main musicians among the 36 artists in the royal court of Akbar, were Tansen, Baiju Bawara, Ramdas, Surdas etc.
Different Ragas like Meghmallar, Todi, and Sarang and other instruments like Kara-Nakara, Tabla etc. were invented in this time. Emperor Jahangir was engrossed in music and dances for all day long.
He wrote many songs. Shah Jahan himself was a good singer and songwriter. The musical functions were held in the palace every evening. Janardan Bhatta and Jagannath of Bikaner, historian Mohammad Saliha and his brother were good singers.
Aurangzeb did not have any sense of music. The famous books written on music were ‘Sangeetbaj’, ‘Geetprakash’, ‘Sangeet Kaumudi’ ‘Sangeet Sarani’ etc.
Though Persian was the official language in the Mughal age, yet the use of other languages like Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, Sanskrit and many other regional languages were there.
There were basically three types of literature in the Mughal age-History literature, translated literature and poetry. These were written primarily in Persian, Hindi and Bengali.
Much information, about the Mughal empire, can be known from the books like Babur Nama by Babur, Humayun Nama by the daughter of Humayan Gulbadan Begum, Tuzuk-i- Jahangiri by Jahangir. Akbar Nama by the historian Abul Fazal.
Tarik-i-Shershahi by Abbas Serwani, Mantakhab-ul-Tawarik by Badauni, Tariq-i-Alafi by Mulla Daud, Tabaqt-i-Akbari by Nizamuddin Ahmed Bakhsi, ‘Shah Jahan Nama’ by Enaet Ali Khan, Padshahnama by Abdul Hamid Lahori, Tariq-i-Ferista by Ferista, Alamgir Nama by Mirza Mohammad Kazim, Nakhs-i- Dilkhusa by Bhimsen, Futuḥat-i-Alamgiri by Iswar Das, Nasir-i-Alamgiri by Mohammad Saqi etc.
Badauni took four years to translate the Ramayana in Persian language and wrote a book Rajamnama by translating different chapters of Mahabharata in Persian. Faizi translated one ancient Mathematics book in Persian named ‘Lilabati’.
Due to the encouragement of Dara, the son of Shah Jahan, Atharvaveda, the Geeta and the Upanishad were translated in Persian. Specially Hazi Ibrahim Sarhind made a sensation by translating Atharva Veda in the Persian language.
Due to the encouragement of Aurangzeb, the book Fathoa-i-Alamgiri a compilation fo Muslim law was published. Besides this, the poets like Urfi Shivaji, Hossain Naziri, and Gazali Mashadi in the court of Akbar and the poets like Abu Talib Kalim, Nakib Khan, Niamat Ullah and Mirza Ghias Baig in the court of Jahangir and Shah Jahan became very famous.
The poems of Birbal, Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, Douha by Abdur Rahim Khan Khanan, Bhajans of Mirabhai, and Douha of Surdas are great treasures in Hindi literature.
In Bengali literature the ‘Chaitannya Charitamrita’ by Krishnadas Kabiraj, and ‘Chaitannya Bhagabat’ by Brindaben Das. ‘Chaitanya Mangal’ by Jayananda and Trilochan Das, Mahabharat by Kashiram Das, ‘Kabikankan Chandi’ by Mukundaram Chakravarty, ‘Bhaktiratnakar’ by Harihar Chakravarty were famous.
In the literature of regional languages, the languages like Arabic, Urdu, Oriya, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telegu, Ahamia, Canara, Gurumukhi etc.
Were important Mirza Zan-i-Zanan, Mir Aki, Mohammad Kuli in Urdu, Guru Arjun and Guru Gobind Singh in Gurumukhi, Vijay Sen and Sridhar in Gujrati Dinakar Das, Upendra Bhanja, Abimanyu Samanta in Oriya.
Shankar Deva and Madhav Deva in Ahamia, Saktagiti by Ramprasad in Bengali, and Anayadamangal, Vidyasundar etc. by Bharat Chandra were very famous.
A very clear picture of the social structure during the Mughal age can be obtained from the reports of various travellers and merchants from Europe, who visited India during the period of. Mughals. Mughal society was a feudal society.
There were three main classes of people in that society. Badshah and Amir, Umrahos; artisans and merchants, labourers and peasants. There was a tremendous social and economic disparity.
The topmost person of the society was the Emperor or the Samrat. The British traveller Ralph Fitch was moved with the beauties and treasures of Fatehpur Sikri and Agra during the period of Akbar.
The travellers like William Hawkins (British), Fransisco Pelsirt (Portuguese) and Sir Thomas Roe (British) gave vivid descriptions of the grandeur of the royal court and the luxuries of the emperor when they visited India during the period of Jahangir.
The French travellers Tavernier and Barnier and the Italian traveller Manuchi visited India during the regime of Shah Jahan. It is known from their reports that how luxuriously the emperor and amirs used to live.
A large portion of the population in the Mughal dynasty were labourers, farmers, artisans and common people. The foreign travellers reported that common people used to live very simply. Their dresses and houses were very shabby and untidy.
According to Goutam Bhadra, a major section of people died in famine, starvation and many diseases. Bernier and Manucci observed that people used to live very miserably and poorly.
The position of the farmers were different in the agro-based socio-economic structure. It may be classified into few groups according to the land right of the farmers-‘Khud Kashat’ or Khudkasta type of farmers.
They used to enjoy the right of land in there. respective villages. ‘Pahi Kashat’ farmers used to cultivate somewhere distant from their residences, or somebody else land. They did not have any farming implements of their own.
‘Majarian’ farmers were actually sharing farmers. They used to share the crop with the zamindars or Kudkasta farmers by tilling their lands. At last, there were landless farmers. They used to help other cultivations as land slaves.
They got a share of the crop in lieu of wages. The poor farmers sometimes received crop loans or Takkavi from the Government. Historian Goutam Bhadra has given a clear and vivid picture of the situation of the farmers in that age in his book “Agro-nomic policy and peasant movements in the Mughal age.”
There were artisans, small traders and shopkeepers, merchants, pundits, vaidyas, sheth and retail traders called Bohra and Gypsies called ‘Banzara’.
It is mentioned in the “Cambridge Economic History of India” that many Indian merchants were capable of challenging European merchants. The private money lenders were busy in the money lending business charging high rates of interest.
St. Xavier has narrated in 1609 A.D. how the farmers were exploited by the zamindars, jagirdars and the ruler class. Peter Mundi wrote that the farmers who defaulted in paying taxes, were killed and his wife and children were sold in the market.
This was a very common scene in the villages. Manucci said that sometimes those defaulting farmers were tied up around a tree and was whipped with a rope. There was hardly any difference in lifestyle between the emperor and the nobles.
Luxuries, immoral activities, gambling, alcohol etc. were the specialities of the lifestyle of the nobles. Historian Dr Satish Chandra said the simple and saint-like lifestyle of Aurangzeb did not have any impact on the nobles.
Historian M. Atar Ali said in his book ‘The Mughal Nobilities that the nobles crossed the limits of social and moral downfall during the last phase of the regime of Aurangzeb.
Fransoa Bernier said that according to Mughal law, the properties of a noble are taken up by the Government if that person dies. Hence the nobles used to exhaust all their properties and wealth during their lifetime in entertainment and luxuries.
In the Mughal period, there was a caste system in Hindu society. People belonging to higher castes were engaged in education, service and business. People of the lower case were engaged in cultivation, daily labourer and handicrafts.
Chandals were untouchables and were under five Barna. Besides the Hindus, there were also Buddhists, Jain, and Persi in the Mughal period.
The Muslims like Irani, Turani etc.
Were immigrants in the Muslim community (Turk, Uzbeck and Mongols) and the Hindusthani, Muslims were all Indians. Their status was less though they were large in numbers. Apart from this, there was Shia, Sunni, Sufi, Khoja, Bohra, Sheikh, Saiyad etc.
According to religious classifications. The relationship between Hindus and Muslims grew due to different festivals like Holi, Dewali, Nauroz or Vasanta Utsav, Durgapuja, Ramjan, Idd, Muharram etc.
This happened due to the influences of many Bhakticult and Sufism leaders. Apart from this, the interaction between Hindus and Muslims were there through different education centres like Tol, Madrasa, Pathsala etc.
The situation of the women was not very happy in the men dominated society though there were some famous ladies like Noorjahan, Mamtaz, Jahanara, Jodhabai, Chand Sultana, Durgawati, Jijabai, Tarabai, Meerabai.
Centralised administration and integrity of the Mughal royal power :
According to historian Jadunath Sarkar, Akbar had been able to combine Indian philosophy with Arabian and Persian philosophy.
Central administration:
The ministers of the Mughals were-
There were also other officers to assist the central administration. Thus Akbar organised his central administration.
According to Abul Fazal Akbar divided his empire into 15 sub as or states like Bengal, Bihar, Allahabad, Ayodhya, Agra, Lahore, Delhi, Malwa, Multan, Kabul, Kandahar, Gujarat, Ajmer etc. The ruler of the Suba was called Subadar, Nijam or Sipahasalar. Subedar means Governor.
If cultural advancement is a precondition of the golden age, then Shah Jahan may be called the founder of that golden age. He set up an ideal model in the preservation of culture, renovation and expansion by utilising his own innovative power and natural poetic sentiment.
After four months the death of Jahangir, (28th October 1627 A.D.) his son Shah Jahan (February 1628 A.D.) became the emperor. During his 30 years of rule, political peace, economic prosperity, literature and art and sculpture reached the apex.
This period is called the golden age in the history of the Mughals. Shah Jahan fulfilled with beauty the empire, which was founded by Babur and Akbar. Though Shah Jahan became the creator of the golden age simply by following the paths of his ancestors.
Akbar established political unity and domination all over India. As result, Shah Jahan did not face any difficulty in other political issues.
He only could not recover the Kandahar state which was lost by the Mughals at one time. Even then, the political unity helped Shah Jahan to cultural advancement.
Shah Jahan inherited plenty of wealth and prosperity from his ancestors. He received double the revenues in comparison with Akabr. According to Dr Jagadish Narayan Sarkar, the main cause of the economic prosperity of Shah Jahan was due to the importance of Surat port.
The customs duty of Surat port was 3 1/2%. The total revenue earned in export-import trade. was Rs. 228 crores in a year? Historian Irfan Habib said, “The regime of Shah Jahan was the age of extreme peace and prosperity in the field of agriculture.”
There was a lot of earnings from agriculture. There were 2,24,000,000 lbs. left in the royal treasury after meeting up all the expenses for his funerals. This prosperity helped him to advance the cultural trend.
Shah Jahan himself was a good scholar in Arabic, Hindi and Farsi. He made Farsi, the language of the court and hence, this language was more cultured.
The royal poet of Shah Jahan Abu Talib Kalim was also a good scholar in Farsi and Hindi Languages, Historian Mohammad Shaliha was a scholar in poetic literature, and Dara, the son of Shah Jahan was proficient in Sanskrit and Arabic languages.
Under his patronage, Upanishads, Atharva Veda, Geeta etc. were translated in Farsi. The literature like Nakib Khan, Niamat Ullah, Mirja Gyas Beig etc. during the time of Jahangir also influenced Shah Jahan.
Pundits like Jagannath and Janardan Bhutto of Bikaner were also present in the royal court of Shah Jahan. Pundit Jagannath wrote ‘Gangadhara’ and ‘Gangalahari’. Apart from this, poet Banarasi Das wrote ‘Probadh Chandradaya.’
The famous writings during the time of Shah Jahan were ‘Padshahnama’ by the historian Abdul Hamid Lahori, Shah Jahannama by Enaet Ali Khan, Muntakhab-ul-Luber by Kafi Khan etc.
Abdul Hakim Shialkoti and Maulana Muhib were poets as well as historians. For the extension of education, many schools and a big Madrasa called ‘Dar-ul-Baka’ were established.
Historians called Shah Jahan as Prince builder. The famous architectural creations during his time were ‘The Moti Mosque’, ‘Jama-Mosque’, ‘Khas Mahal’, ‘Sish Mahal’, and ‘And Naulakha Mosque’ of Lahore.
‘Dewan-i-Am’, ‘Dewan-i-Khas’, ‘Redfort’, ‘Taj Mahal’ and Tomb of Jahangir made by Dara (Lahore), Delhi Fort, the ornamented palace of Shah Jahan etc. The art critic Dr Sarasi Kumar Saraswati said that though the architectures of Shah Jahan were bright and gorgeous, yet it showed an indication of erosion.
He dug a canal from the river Yamuna to Agra. This is known as ‘Nahar-i-Behest’ or the ‘Canal of Heaven’. Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal by the side of the Yamuna river in loving memory of his beloved wife Mumtaj and he took advice from the architects of different countries of India.
After the death of Mumtaj in 1531 A.D., 20,000 labourers built the Taj Mahal on the tomb of Mumtaj for 22 years (1633-1655 A.D.) It was made of the marble stones of Jaipur. So, historians called the Taj Mahal a ‘Dream of Marble stones’.
Ustad Isha and Baldeo Das were the main architects of the Taj Mahal. Venetian traveller Tavernier said that the total expenditure of building the Taj Mahal was Rs. 3 crores. The total area in which this was built was 9-5 acres (27 Bighas).
The minute and fine artwork are still wonders. It is really a creation of eternity. Shah Jahan made the Peacock throne with precious jewels and diamonds. The Persian artist Bebadal Khan took seven years to make it.
The throne was placed on four golden pillars. The total cost was Rs. 1 crore. After about 100 years of the death of Shah Jahan (1739 A.D.) Nadir Shah, the ruler of Persia took away this Peacock throne and the world-famous Kohinoor diamond piece at the time of his invasion to Delhi.
At present, it is in the possession of the British. In the opinion fo Taverniar, there is no such beautiful and precious throne anywhere in the world.
During the period of Jahangir, the artists like Abul Hasan, Mohammad Nadir, Monohar, Tulshi, Bishan Das, Keshab, Gobardhan etc. attained tremendous proficiency in making models, trees, flowers, birds etc.
In fact, Shah Jahan improved the quality fo paintings and other arts on this basis. The famous artist in his time was Nadir Samarkandi. Musical functions were held in every evening in the royal court.
Many singers and dancers used to attend those functions. Mohammad Shalih was an experienced artist in Hindi songs. Famous artists like Sursena, Sukhasena, Sundar Das, Jagannath, Janardan Bhatta etc. were also present.
There were also books like ‘Geeta Prakash’, ‘Sangeet Koumudi’, ‘Sangit Baj’, and ‘And Sangeet Sarani’ written on music. Shah Jahan himself was a good singer and lyric writer.
From this viewpoint, the regime of Shah Jahan may be called the golden age. But it is not above criticism.
From the Sanskrit word ‘Nagar’, the Persian word ‘Shaher’ has come. In the Sultanate and the Mughal period, there were many ‘Shaher’ or cities in India, such as Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Golconda, Bijapur, Surat, Ahmedabad, etc.
Fatehpur Sikri was the capital city of Akbar. Most. of these cities emerged in between the 13th to 19th century AD.
Importance of Delhi:
The city of Delhi is more important from a political, economic, and cultural point of view. It is situated in the junction of the edge of the Arabella range and the plains of the river Yamuna. In the Mahabharata, we find the name of a city ‘Indraprastha’.
Its present name is Delhi. The city of Delhi was founded first by a Rajput clan in the 7th century. In the 12th century, the city of Delhi was rebuilt by Qutubuddin Aibek, the commander-in-chief of Sultan Mohammad Ghori of Ghazni.
Ghori captured Delhi after defeating Prithviraj Chauhan in the second battle of Tarain in 1192 AD. Qutubuddin Aibek decorated Delhi and therefore the city came to be called “Qutub Delhi”.
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His son-in-law Iltutmish was the real founder of the city of Delhi. In the time of Ghiyasuddin Balban ‘Ghiyaspur city’ and his grandson Kaikobad Quilaghari palace was founded near the bank of river Yamuna.
The founder of the Khalji dynasty Jalaluddin Khalji a new city known as “Shaher-i-Nau” for the nobles like ‘Amirs’ and ‘Sardars’. The next sultan Alauddin Khalji founded a fort city named “Siri” to protect the citizen of Delhi.
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Ghiyasuddin Tughlug founded the “Tughlakabad” city. But the city ‘Qutub Delhi’ or ‘Purana Delhi’ never lost its fame and glory. Many scholars, travelers, and traders from foreign countries visited here and enlightened the city of Delhi.
Contemporary historians Ishami, Uthbi, Minhaj-us-Siraj, and Jiauddin Barani are highly admired. the historic city of Delhi.
Ishami said that Sultan Iltutmish well decorated his capital Delhi, for which aristocrats, artisans, artists and travelers, Jewell traders, physicians, sages, and saints from Arab, Central Asia, China or Byzantine came to permanently settle in the new city Delhi.
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Turk Sultan Firoj Shah Tughluq made the new city ‘Firojabad’ (1354) which is also called “Firoj Shah Kotla” (Kotla means Fort). Among the Mughals Humayun built the city ‘Dinpanah’ and ‘Shergah’ (1533) and Shahjahan founded the city ‘Shahjahanabad’ (1639).
Shershah Suri built ‘Purana Quila’ (1540). All these together increased the importance of Delhi. After the destruction of the city of Baghdad, an important center for Muslim culture and civilization Delhi had come to an important shelter for Sufi Saints.
The Sufi Saint Nizamuddin Aulia permanently settled in Delhi and was popularly called “Chirag-i-Delhi” or “light of Delhi” and the city of Delhi was “Hazrat-i-Delhi”.
To get job man of various professions were gathered in Delhi irrespective of ‘caste and religion. So the town planning of Delhi was not followed properly. The ‘Kasba’ or ‘Suburbs’ sprang up around the cities of Delhi.
The inborn problem of Delhi was it scarcity of water, for which the Sultans dug some ‘Hauz’ or ‘tanks or ‘Talao’ for the supply of water. Iltutmish built a eight-corner water reservoir known as “Hauz- i-Shamsi” or “Haaur-i-Sultani”.
Similarly, Alauddin Khilji built a four-cornered reservoir named “Hauz-i-Alai” or “Hauz-i-Khas”.. The Sultans of Delhi ruled in India for more than 300 years. During that time the rulers of Delhi changed their capital for 11 times.
Sultan Sikandar Lodi shifted his capital from Delhi to Agra. But the city of Delhi did not lose its importance to the people of Hindustan.
The Mughal emperors like the Sultans of Delhi changed their capital several times. Akbar founded his new capital at Fatehpur Sikri in the native village ‘Sikri’ of Sheikh Selim Chisti.
In 1585 he left this city for the scarcity of water and went to Lahore and finally in 1596 AD, he came back to Agra. After the breaking of the shores of the river Yamuna city life of Agra was hampered.
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As a result, Shahjahan built a new city.’ Shahajahanabad’ in 1639 and the Shahjahan came to Agra in 1648 AD. At that time importance of Delhi was not lost. He built the Red Fort in Delhi, for which he spent Rs. 91 lacks at that time.
He dug the canal outside the fort. This canal was called the “Nehr-i-Beheset” or “Canal of heaven”. Near the Red Fort ‘Chandni Chowk Market’ was built. Various types of people were there in Shahajahanabad city.
The big and beautiful houses of the city were called “havelis” and the ordinary houses were called “Kothari” or “Makan” and the small rooms were called “Kothi”.
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The highways of Shahajahanabad were known as “Bazar” as there were many shops by the side of the way. The sultans of Delhi introduced three types of currencies like ‘Mohar’ made of gold, ‘Tanka’ made of silver, and ‘Jital’ made by copper.
During the Mughals, the gold coin ‘Mohar’ was called ‘Asrafi’ but the well-known silver coin was called ‘Rupaya’. The copper currency of the Mughals was ‘Dam’. In South India gold coin ‘Hon’ made of gold was popular.
The British merchants made their trade centers in Surat, Masulipattam, and other parts of India. British King James-I sent his ambassador Sir Thomas Roe to the court of Mughal emperor Jahangir in 1615 AD.
After getting permission from the emperor he established trade centres in Agra, Burhanpur, and Patna. For indulging in the slave trade another Mughal emperor Shah Jahan drove the Portuguese out from Hooghly.
The Dutches were forced to go to Bangladesh and the French were made pressured to restrict their political activities in India.
Ultimately the British and French merchants carried out their trade and other activities in India with the help of local middlemen who were popularly called ‘Dalal’. These Dalals directly collect the raw materials from local farmers or artisans.
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From this diagram, we can easily understand the trading of European merchants.
The export and import systems of India developed the cultural and commercial relations between the world. The European traders developed with export-import trade through Surat, Masulipattam, Hooghly, and Pulikot.
Surat was the international seaport of the Mughals. The Mughal emperors, aristocrats, and nobles involved themselves in trade, but the luxurious items produced from their ‘Karkhanas’ were not sold outside.
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The luxurious items were for their own use only. All the industrial towns in medieval India were trade centers. Quilon and Calicut of Malabar coast, Cambay and Surat of Gujarat, Saptagram and Gauda of Bengal, Multan and Lahore of North-West India, Delhi, Benaras and Lucknow of North India, etc.
Each and every city were however industrial and commercial center. From Lahore and Multan, the trade relation was developed with Central Asia and West Asia. In every city of India, traders had a deep influence.
The traders were divided into four types during the Mughal period-
The traders had different names according to regions
Moreover, the Banjaras (mobile traders in rice, wheat, sugar, etc). Dasanami and Feriwalas were also known as traders.
Trade in Mughal India can be divided into 3 parts:
The local trade of the villages and markets was developed on the basis of the popular or local necessity. The main centers of local trade were Agra, Lahore, Multan, and Gujarat.
The wide roads from Sonargaon to Lahore, Agra to Burhanpur, and Agra- Delhi to Surat in Gujrat through Rajputana had great commercial importance. The kotwals and the faujdars used to give a watch on the roads.
Lahore and Multan on the river Indus were big ports. The other famous ports were Saptagram, Patna, Allahabad, and Varanasi on the Ganges and Agra on the river Yamuna.
The big boats or ships used to travel from one part to other with merchandise weighing 3/4 hundred tons. In the case of coastal trade, the loaded ships used to travel from the port of Saptagram in Bengal to Andhra.
Tamilnadu and Kerala with rice, sugar, cloth, cotton, tobacco, etc. Spices like Ichilly, pepper, etc. used to come from South India to Bengal. In Bengal rice was sold at one rupee per maund.
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The description of the ‘Saptadinga Madhukar’ of Dhanapati Saudagar traveling of Ceylon, as found in the ‘Chandi Mangal’ of Kobikankan Mukundaram Chakraborty was not only an imagination.
It was a direct description or proof of coastal and seaborne trade. Dr. Tapan kr. Roychowdhury said, “the nobles’ lavish lifestyle implied a very large demand for domestic manufactures”- The Cambridge Economic History of India (v-1).
In the case of external trade, India had a land trade with Kabul, Kandahar, Persia, Turkey, etc. In seaborne external trade ports like Surat, Broach, Cambay in Gujarat, Goa, Calicut, Cochin, Daval, Bessain in the west coast, Madras, Negapattam, Musalipattam, Satgaon, Sonargaon, Chittagong in the east coast were main centers of trade.
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Silk from China, Chinaware, lac made goods, camphor and many other cosmetics used to come from China to India, Spices, and cardamom came from Burma, horses and Kasturi used to come from central Asia and Arabia, carpets and velvets used to come from Persia.
Industries: Along with the growth of trade, there was a development of art and artistic production in Mughal India. The cotton clothes of Bengal; particularly muslin from Dacca and calico clothes and woolen clothes from Kashmir became famous.
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Bernier said that the luxury items for the ‘Mughal harems’ were produced a lot and the imperial makhanas fulfilled the needs of the royal court. Along with the cotton silk trade was also developed in Bengal.
There was satisfactory growth in the leather craft and metal industries. Dr. Irfan Habib has discussed the improved technology of bronze-made cannons and missile weapons, and ships, in his book ‘Technology in medieval India’.
Jagadish Narayan Sarkar called it the primary stage of “heavy industries”.
Causes for the growth of Mughal trade:
In the Mughal age, many travelers and merchants came from France, Spain, Portugal, England, Holland, Italy, and many other countries. Among them were Bernier, Tavernier, Manuchi, and Munric,
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Ralph Fitch, Edward Terry, Pachars Hawkins, Thomas Roe, Cartwright, and Batan are important. It is very important to write the social, economic, and political history of the Mughal empire. India has had trade relations with European countries in very ancient times.
This trade continued through the middle ages. India had many things that the Europeans praised highly but the most important thing was spice. Europe could hardly do anything without Indian spices.
In 1498 Vasco-da-Gama discovered the sea route to reach India. We have already seen that Alfonso d’ Albuquerque was sent to India by the king of Portugal.
Albuquerque captured Goa in 1510 and this was a signal for Portuguese domination in the eastern trade. This domination was achieved not only by the strength of arms.
Diu, Surat, Daman, Bombay, Calicut, Cochin, Masulipattam, and Colombo came under their sway. Several famous Portuguese missionaries like Francis Xavier and Stevens tried to impose their religion on India.
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In 1602 the Dutch East India Company was established. They soon drove out the Portuguese from Surat, Calicut, Cochin, Balasore, Chinsura, Cossimbazar, and Masulipattam. They established trading posts in Cambay, Nagapatam, and Patna.
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In 1608 captain Hawkins and Thomas Roe in 1615, the ambassador of James I obtained certain trading rights from the Mughal emperor Jahangir. In 1640 the English had a port in Madras where they built a fort.
In 1651 they obtained permission to trade in Bengal and soon there were trading posts at Cossimbazar, Patna, and Hooghly. In 1690 the English had a lease of Sutanate, Gobindapur, and Calcutta.
The initiative was taken by Job Charnock. In 1668 the English East India Company had earned trading rights in Bombay. The French sent to India a ship or two in the sixteenth century.
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French attempts at setting up trade in India hardly succeeded then. They formed their East India Company in 1664. Since then the French company made progress having built.
Trading posts also at Pondicherry, Chandennagar, Mahe, Dacca, Cossimbazar, and Balasore. Dupleix even dreamt of a French empire in India.
Dupleix’s dream did not, however, come true and the failure of the French left the British the only European power to hold away throughout India.
Under the able leadership of Shivaji, the first founder of the Maratha race, the independent Maratha state came up. From that viewpoint, the second part of the seventeenth century was an important chapter in the rise of an independent Maratha state.
At that time, the areas of Bombay, Berer, Konkan, and Khandesh were called the Maratha region. The largest part of the Maratha region is Maharastra. It is extended from the Arabian sea on the West to Hyderabad in the East.
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Childhood of Shivaji:
Alauddin Khalji abolished the existence of an independent Maratha state by defeating Ramchandradeva, the king of the Yadav dynasty. After 50 years or so, Bahmani state came up in that place.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
After the fall of Bahmanis, the Marathas took services under the sultans of Bijapur and Ahmednagar. Shahji, Bhonsle, father of Shivaji, became the Jagirdar under the Sultan of Ahmednagar. Shivaji was born in the cave of Shivan (1627 A.D. or 1630 A.D.).
But Shivaji was very unfortunate as his father left him behind and went away somewhere else. Shivaji was brought up by his mother Jizabai and maternal grandfather Kondadeva, who was also a wise Brahmin.
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During this time, Shivaji learned war tactics from Kondadeva. He also got inspired by listening to the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata from his mother Jizabai.
Unification of Marathas:
He was brought up in a safe shelter of a rugged hilly place which was surrounded by the Vindhyas and Satpura mountains on the North, the Western ghats, and the Narmada river on the West.
Marathas used to live in the infertile dense forest areas of Nasik, Kankon, Pune, Satara, etc. Naturally, they were very hardworking and painstaking. Ambar, the ruler of Ahmednagar first taught the Maratha peasants the tactics of guerilla warfare.
So Shivaji faced no’ difficulty in adopting the guerilla training of the Marathas. Historian Jadunath Sarkar thinks that Shivaji did not face any difficulty to unite, the simple and poor farmers.
It was not a problem for him to covest the hard-working and struggling farmers into fighting soldiers. So he organized. the Mawali youths of hilly area and set up a strong military régiment first.
Pride of the past:
Besides this, the influences of Bhaktibadi leaders Tukaram, Eknath, Ramdas, etc. inspired Shivaji to build up the united Maratha state.
The books like ‘Dashbodh’ written by his guru Ramdas, Abhanga by Tukaram, ‘Pothi’ by poet Sridhar, and the ‘Pobara’ or the ballads written by the local poets made him conscious about the pride of the past.
Protest against Mughal:
It is written in the book Cambridge Economic History of India that due to the battle between Adilshahi of South India and the Nizam Shahi sultans with the Mughals, which continued for a long time, hampered cultivation and agriculture a lot.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
During these hard days of the farmers, Shivaji lent his helping hands to them and encouraged them to be united and loot. Some modern historians say that Shivaji dreamt to establish an independent Maratha state as against the blind religious policy of Aurangzeb.
But it is very difficult to say which cause, religious or economic, was active behind the rise of the Maratha dynasty. Prof. Satish Chandra said that the different hill tribes like Kol Bhil, Ramosi, etc.
Joined with Shivaji just to boost up their status. Shivaji basically took the initiative, being inspired by the ideas of his guru Ramdas, to build up a powerful and united Hindu dynasty in the entire India.
The Marathon historian Dr. G. S. Sardesai said that he had the idea of establishing a powerful and strong Hindu dynasty in India and not any regional state.
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Unpleasantness Of Shivaji With Bijapur
So at the age of 18, he conquered the forts of Torna and Raigarh, (1645 A.D.-1647 A.D.). He recovered the Jagir of Pune after the death of his maternal grandfather Kondadeva in 1647 A.D.
He established his domination in the Konkan region by capturing Jaoli fort after killing Chandra Rao More in 1656 A.D. After that, he conquered Chakan, Raigarh, Singhagarh, Purandar, Baramati, and Indrapur one after another.
Torna was under Bijapur and Raigarh fort was 5 miles away from it. But the angry sultan of Bijapur imprisoned his father Shahji when this fort was captured by Shivaji.
After that, the relationship with Bijapur improved when he promised not to attack Bijapur in the future. But within a very short period, Shivaji violated all his promises and as a result, the sultan of Bijapur sent his commandant Afzal Khan along with 10,000 soldiers and some cannons against Shivaji (1659 A.D.).
But with the help of guerilla warfare, Shivaji cornered Afzal Khan. Then Afzal invited Shivaji in the Pratapgarh fort for a compromise. But Krishnaji Bhaskar came to know about his bad intention and warned Shivaji.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
Shivaji came to the fort prepared by wearing an iron shield and a special knife known as ‘Bichhua’. Afzal Khan, with prevention of embracing him, attacked Shivaji with Baghnokh or a weapon equipped with tiger nails.
As Shivaji was alert about this type of attack, he immediately drew out the knife ‘Bichhua’ and killed Afzal with the help of the same.
After that Shivaji and his bodyguard Jeeb Mahala took away plenty of artillery, elephant, horses, and 10,00,000 of rupees along with them, on their way back, they conquered the forts of Panhala and Kolhapur.
After that, the conflict between Mughal and Maratha started (1660-1680 A.D.). Aurangzeb after being the emperor, sent Shayesta Khan the Subedar of South India and also his maternal uncle, to subdue Shivaji in 1660 A.D.
Shayesta Khan drove away many Marathas and established tents in different areas. As a retaliation Shivaji all of suddenly attacked the tent of Shayesta Khan in Pune on 15th April 1663 A.D. and killed his son Abul Fath.
Shayesta Khan lost one of his fingers. Mughal soldiers scattered around. Taking this opportunity Shivaji looted Surat port in 1664 A.D. and acquired wealth and treasures worth one crore of rupees.
Treaty of Purandar:
Aurangzeb being frustrated, transferred Shayesta Khan to Bengal as subedar and engaged prince Muajjam as subedar in South India. Then he sent commandants Dilir Khan and Jaisingh to subdue Shivaji.
Faza! Khan, son of Afzal Khan, and the European merchants were included in the Mughals. Then Mughal army besieged Shivaji in the Purandar fort and started firing shells from the cannons.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
As a result,, the walls of the fort cracked and Shivaji came out of the fort and surrendered. Then he signed a treaty of Purandar with Jaisingh on 26th June, 1665 A.D.
Condition of Purandar Treaty:
The conditions of this treaty was (1665 A.D.)
But after this treaty, Aurangzeb invited Shivaji to Delhi. When he came to Delhi. Aurangzeb captured and imprisoned Shivaji and his son Shambhuji in the Agra fort (1666 A.D.).
But Shivaji and Shambhuji, disguised in a dress of saints managed to escape from Agra fort in 1668 A.D. From 1670 A.D. onwards, Shivaji started looting. He recovered many forts that he lost earlier.
He also recovered Purandar, Singhagarh, Kalyan, etc. He captured some parts of Jinji, Vellore, and Karnataka. He was coronated in the capital Raigarh in 1674 A.D.
At that time he got the title ‘Chhatrapati’ and ‘Gobrahman’ ‘Prajapalak. He died at the age of 53 only on 16th April 1680 A.D.
Administrative achievements:
Shivaji ruled only for 6 years. Within this short period, he developed an improved administrative infrastructure (1674-1680 A.D.). Though he was all in all, yet he used to take advice from eight ministers (Astapradhan) for building up a welfare state.
For the sake of good administration, he divided Swarajya into three parts. These were Bargi (Government soldiers) and Shiladar (rented soldiers) in his army. Also, there were infantries, elephants, camels, artillery, and naval squad.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
Revenue were collected from 30% to 40%. But it was inadequate. So he collected taxes from Chouth, (4th share) and from Sardeshmukhi ( share) from the neighboring states.
So Shivaji was not only a great warrior but also was a good administrator. According to Sir Jadunath Sarkar, “Shivaji was not only the founder of the Maratha race, but also was a great national leader.”
Grant Duff also recognized him as a great national leader.
Aurangzeb killed Arjun, the 5th Sikh Guru Tegbahadur in 1675 A.D. As a result, the Sikhs became angry with this incident. So Gobinda Singh the 10th Sikh Guru developed the Khalsa regiment and fought a lifelong battle with Aurangzeb.
Historians have described the regime of Aurangzeb as a period of extreme expansion as well as a period of decline. Aurangzeb built up a very big empire by conquering a vast area. But at the same time, the number of revolts that happened maximum in his time.
Revolt in North-Eastern Border:
With his instruction, Daud Khan conquered Palamau (1661 A.D.) and as a result, the states of the North-East region started revolting. The Kotch and the Ahome races of the border states attacked and to defend there, Aurangzeb sent his commander Mirjumla (1661 A.D.).
He subdued the Ahome king Jayaddhaj and collected huge compensation from him. In the meantime, Mirjumla died and Sayesta Khan became the Subedar of Bengal.
He captured Chittagong from the Aracans, Sandip from the Portuguese, and Orissa from the Pathans and set up the business atmosphere in Balasore.
Revolt in North-Western Border:
Aurangzeb snatched away the self-government of the Afghan tribals in the North-Western border of India. They in turn attacked the Mughal Empire.
Especially due to attacks by the ferocious Afghan tribals like Yusufzai (1667 A.D.), Afridi (1672 A.D.), and Khattak (1674 A.D.) the peace in the North-Western border area was very much disturbed.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
Historian Jadunath Sarkar thinks, that due to these revolts by the tribals, the Mughal Empire faced political and economic crises to a great extent.
Besides this, the integrity of his empire was hampered to a great extent due to the revolts by the Jath, Satnami, Sikh, Bundela, Rajput, Maratha, etc during his regime.
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Dr. Jadunath Sarkar thinks that blind religious policies are responsible for such revolutions. On the other hand, Dr. Goutam Bhadra, Dr. Irfan Habib, Dr. Satish Chandra, etc. think these revolutions took place due to socioeconomic factors.
Aurangzeb killed Arjun, the 5th Sikh Guru, and beheaded the ninth Sikh Guru Tegbahadur in 1675 A.D. As a result, the Sikhs became angry with this incident. So Gobinda Singh the 10th Sikh Guru developed the Khalsa regiment and fought a lifelong battle with Aurangzeb. After the death of Guru Gobinda. Banda and his followers continued the Sikh revolution. Aurangzeb could not manage all the revolutions that started against him during his long 50 years of rule. As a result, the path of the decline of the Mughal dynasty became widened. Taking the advantage of his weakness, the Marathas of the South and the Shia community revolted against Aurangzeb.
‘Mansabdari system’ is a Persian system. Emperor Akbar first introduced this system in 1577 A.D. The meaning of the word ‘Mansab’ is Government given Rank.
It has two parts- ‘Jath’ and ‘Sawar’. There is no doubt that the Mansabdari system has initiated a new chapter in the military as well as civil administration. The Military Personnel connected with the Mansab system are called Mansabdar.
They were given the responsibility to collect the army for their training. Some Mansabdars were given cash salaries and the same were given Jagir or land. The mughal army was based on the Mansabdari system.
Class 7 History Wbbse
Akbar used to decide which Mansabdar will keep how many soldiers or horses. Depending upon the Mansabdar’s keeping how many soldiers and horses, the Mansabdari system was divided into 33 grades.
The lowest grade was 10 and the highest grade was 10,000 (Dash Hazari). Between this, there were 20, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 5000, and 7000 grades of Mansabs, etc.
The highest Mansab 10,000 was increased to 12,000. The emperor usually donated high Mansab to his relatives and loyal people. Bhagawan Das got a 5000 mansab, 7000 mansab of king Mansingh was increased to 10,000. Aurangzeb increased it to 40,000 to 50,000.
In the Mughal period, taxation made the peasants, workers artisans, and merchants very poor. Most of the rulers were over expensive in nature. They lost Kandahar in this period which place was economically very important.
Class 7 History Wbbse
Surat lost its past importance from the line of Shah Jahan. Historian Jagadish Narayan Sarkar believed that decreasing trade of Surat made the Mughal economy weaker. The regional rulers of many areas stopped tax paying in the last phase.
Shah Jahan made many architecture, buildings, and monuments which finished the Mughal treasury. He could not increase the income of the empire. In his time there was two peasant rebellion and famines.
“who were sufis class 7 “
Dr. Goutam Bhadra believed that the Mughal empire started to decline from Shah Jahan’s time. The Jagirdari crisis created a new situation. The Jagirdari system was developed with the Mansabdari system.
The causes of the Jagirdari crisis were as-
During this crisis revenue collection became difficult and the peasants were severely exploited. Many Mansabdars were given Jagirs. Two types of Jagir were there ‘Tankha Jagir’ and ‘Watan Jagir’. These Jagirdars exploited peasants.
The basic principle of history is the dynamism with the changes of time; everything is changing today. It is very interesting to note that the fundamental structures in many cases remain unchanged.
For example, the Persian word “Sarkar” used by Pathan’s ruler Sher Shah first means province and its ruler. He divided his whole empire into 47 ‘Sarkars’. So in the medieval period the ‘Sarkar’ was used to understand both rule and ruler.
For the welfare of the subjects Sher Shah used the term “Sarkar”, which is now called “Government” in the English language, and the word “Govern” means act of administering.
Read and Learn More WBBSE Notes For Class 7 History
Every country has a government of its own people. The country India, where we live in also has a government. The government of India is now formed not by force, but by election.
Class 7 History Wbbse
India is a “Democratic” country because common people by casting their votes form the government. The Latin word “Democracy” has come from “Demos” (people) and “Cratos” (rule).
So the government of the people, by the people, and for the people is called democracy or in Bengali “Ganatantra” (Gana means public and “tantra” means system) denotes a kind of public system.
Our democracy is mainly based on democracy or a system of administration where the elected members of government are to be responsible to the countrymen.
Democracy is the opposite term of monarchy and “Monarchy” is a system of government run by a king, queen, sultan or emperor. England and Japan have monarchies but at the same time, they have democratic governments as well.
“the making of regional cultures class 7 “
India does not have a monarchy. In our democracy, the President is the constitutional head and the Prime Minister is the real head of India.
Constitution is a law book of every independent sovereign country. So India’s rules of administration are called “Constitution”. All most all the countries in the world have their own written constitution.
The largest written constitution of the world is the Indian constitution. There are few countries in the world who do not have written constitutions and therefore those countries follow their conventions of hundreds of years.
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956) was the chairman of the “Drafting Committee of the Constitution” (1949) under whose guidance the Indian constitution was written. Before writing the constitution a “Constituent Assembly” was formed.
Its first president was Dr. Rajendra Prasad. The constitution was completed on 26th November 1949 and it came into force on 26th January 1950. This day was celebrated as the first “Republic Day” of India.
Class 7 History Wbbse
The Constitution of India has recognized single citizenship for the citizens. They can cast their vote to elect a government. The state government is formed for five years with the elected members by the people of the concerned state of India.
The central government is formed for five years with the elected members by the people of the whole of India.
According to the constitution, India is a “Federal Government” because the central and state governments have a co-relation. This system of administration recognizes three power lists like ‘Central list’, ‘State list’, and ‘Concurrent list’.
In many cases, the central and states help to each other. For this reason, India is called “a federal country”, but political scientist K. C. Wheare said, “India is not federal, but a quasi-federal state”.
Class 7 History Wbbse
As in many matters central dominates over the state, it is not a fully federal state.
Functions of Government:
The functions of the Government of India are as
Thus the policy of power separation adopted first by French philosopher Montesquieu has been initiated in Indian administration.
The rules for the local Self-Government of West Bengal is an important part of the constitution. In the local Self-Government, people can directly participate in the administration and enjoy autonomous powers.
“making of regional cultures class 7 notes “
In West Bengal “Local Self-Government” are of two types. Such as
The main activities of the Corporation and Municipality are as
‘Mayor’ the head of the Corporation and ‘Chairman’, the head of Municipal rule conducts the duties and responsibilities of their respective administrative areas.
The village panchayat system is the lowest rank of the Indian administration. The elected members of villagers form the Panchayat Pradhan. Like Municipality, the Panchayat Pradhan of every village carries the overall developmental activities out of the village.
Wbbse Class 7th History Notes
Like the Panchayat system, the “Block” is a kind of local Self-Government unit. A Block is generally formed with many villages. Each and every block has a “Panchayat Samity”. A district is formed with many blocks, for which a “Zilla Parishad” is constituted.
In the local Self-Government system, the “Panchayat Samity” and Zilla Parishad are the most entrusted units of administration. All these local Self-Government bodies are generally formed with elected members for every five years.
Thus the grass-root level of the Indian administration has been recognized for strengthening democracy.