Medieval India: Sultanate, Mughals and Regional Powers
Medieval India in this paper covers the Delhi Sultanate, Vijayanagara and Bahmani kingdoms, the Mughal empire, Bhakti–Sufi movements and regional states. The exam tests dynastic order, administrative vocabulary, revenue systems, architecture and the social content of religious movements.
Sultanate and regional kingdoms
- Five Sultanate dynasties: Slave, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid, Lodi.
- Iqta was a revenue assignment in lieu of salary; it was not hereditary at first under Iltutmish but became so later.
- Alauddin Khalji controlled Delhi markets, fixed prices, paid soldiers in cash and used dagh (horse branding) and chehra (descriptions).
- Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s token currency and Daulatabad transfer are cited as experiments that failed.
- Vijayanagara’s nayaka/amara-nayaka system and Hampi’s architecture; Krishnadevaraya wrote Amuktamalyada.
Mughal institutions
Mansabdari graded officers by zat (personal rank) and sawar (cavalry); jagir was a revenue assignment, not the same as mansab. Akbar’s zabti/dahsala revenue system is associated with Todar Mal. Sulh-i kul was a policy of imperial tolerance, while Din-i Ilahi (1582) was not a new religion.
Worked example
Question: “Why did Alauddin Khalji need an extensive spy network?” Reasoning: fixed prices and rationing in Delhi could only work if merchants, hoarders and officials were monitored; spies reported black marketing and evasion. The controls were urban and collapsed after his reign, showing they depended on coercion rather than a general agrarian reform.
Traps
Do not equate mansab with jagir; do not call the iqta hereditary from the beginning; do not treat Din-i Ilahi as a mass religion; and keep Sultanate and Mughal chronologies separate.