History of Medieval India

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History of Medieval India by Dr. J. L. Mehta and Dr. Sarita Mehta is the second volume of their publication, the first volume of which, covering the period of ancient Indian history, was brought out by the Lotus Press, Publishers & Distributors, five years ago. The authors take the eleventh century to be the beginning of the early medieval period in the country which lands us into the so-called Rajput period of ancient Indian civilization. By this time, the age of imperial Kanauj was over and the country was parcelled out into numerous regional kingdoms leading to the establishment of an independent Turkish rule in their midst. It included in its fold large tracts of northern and central India but the major part of the country continued to be ruled over by the sovereign Hindu monarchs and feudal chiefs as before. Alauddin Khilji transformed the Sultanate of Delhi into a mighty Muslim empire by overrunning the southern peninsula which was further extended and consolidated by Muhammad bin Tughluq. The Sultanate disintegrated rapidly thereafter and the centre-stage of Indian politics was occupied for more than a century by two mutually hostile but sovereign states of Vijayanagar and the Bahmani kingdom in south India; the first was founded by the Hindu nationalists and the other by the foreign Muslim elite of the erstwhile Sultanate of Delhi.

Babar laid the foundation of the Mughal rule after defeating Sikander Lodhi, the last sultan of Delhi, in the first historic battle of Panipat in 1526; he was the first Muslim ruler of India to assume the title of padshah or emperor. His worthy grandson Akbar granted religious freedom to his Hindu subjects and assumed the role of a true national ruler of all the Indians. The rule of the imperial Mughals, with a brief Afghan interregnum, lasted from 1526 to 1707. Aurangzeb (1658-1707) wrecked the ship of 'the national Mughal state' against the bed-rock of religious fanaticism led by the Jats, Sikhs and the Marathas.

This book gives a comprehensive, analytical and critical account of the political and military history of medieval India. This age of Indian history was marked by the onslaught of Turkish invasions and the establishment of Muslim rule in northern India, first at Lahore and then at Delhi. The Sultanate of Delhi lasted from 1206 to 1526 when it was overrun and replaced by a fresh wave of the Muslim adventurers, called Mughals, under the leadership of Babar. The sultans of Delhi set up an Islamic state' in India and deprived their indigenous Hindu subjects of political freedom and civil liberties by dubbing them as 'infidels'. Of the all-told thirty- two sultans of Lahore and Delhi, thirteen died a natural death, two by accidents and four were killed on the battlefields, while one of the sultans was deposed and died a private citizen and as many as twelve of them were assassinated or died in confinement.

Dr. J. L. Mehta established his reputation as sober and serious historian by his history of the Punjab University, Chandigarh (1947-67), which was published by his Alma Mater in 1968. A prolific writer, with proficiency in Hindi, Punjabi and Sanskrit, including his four serial publications, under the caption, Advanced Study in the History of Medieval and Modern India, brought out by the Sterling Publishers (New Delhi).

Dr. Sarita Mehta pursued teaching at the Dev Samaj College of Education, Chandigarh, before shifting to U.S.A., in pursuit of her academic mission to promote the 'Cultural Heritage of India' through the medium of Hindi language and literature in 1998. Her keen interest in the various socio-religious. She herself as a regular student in the Unification Theological Seminary, New York, from where she obtained the Master's Degree in Religious Education in June 2003.

The Fading Glory of Ancient Kanauj

The thirteenth century marks the beginning of the Turkish rule in India. It ended the Rajput period of ancient Indian history and set in the medieval age. It is generally held that the imperial line of ancient Indian rulers had come to an end towards the middle of the seventh century. Harsha Vardhana, the last great imperial ruler of northern and central India, with his capital at Kanauj in the Ganga valley, died in 647 A.D., while his imperial rival in the south, Pulakesin II of the Chalukya dynasty of Maharashtra, had breathed his last five years earlier. With their deaths started the scramble for power among their erstwhile feudatories and provincial governors, and political disintegration of the country was the natural consequence. Just like Delhi of today, Kanauj was then renowned as the imperial capital of India, and all the claimants to the imperial power tried their best to take control of it. Yasovarman (c. 700-770), a military stalwart of the Ganga valley, who established himself at Kanauj, did make an abortive attempt to bring about the political unification of northern India but lost his life at the hands of his adversaries. It was followed by a triangular contest for the conquest of Kanauj and the establishment of supremacy in the country between the Gurjara-Pratiharas of Malwa, the Palas of Bengal and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan. In consequence, Nagabhatta (725-40 A.D.) of the Gurjara-Pratihara clan of the Rajputs occupied Kanauj and revived its imperial glory for a short while. The last ruler of this dynasty, named Rajyapal, suffered a defeat at the hands of Mahmud of Ghazni and acknowledged his suzerainty in 1018-19, but was put to death by the Rajput rulers of Gwalior and Kalinjar soon thereafter for having made his cowardly submission to the Muslim invader.