Studying the Medieval Period Chapter Notes | History Class 7 ICSE PDF Download

Introduction

Archaeological Excavations of Medieval Monuments

• The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is considering opening excavation sites to visitors.
• Sites include Purana Qila, Qutub Complex, Feroz Shah Kotla, Tughlaqabad, and Lal Kot.
• This aims to provide an educational experience, protect the sites, and increase interest in historical monuments.
• Excavations at places like Purana Qila, Salimgarh Fort, Lal Kot, Tughlaqabad Fort, Adilabad Fort, and Siri Fort wall have uncovered unique artefacts.
• Artefacts from Purana Qila are displayed at the site museum.

Cartography

• Knowing a region’s geography helps us understand its history better by showing locations and features via maps.
• Cartography is the skill of drawing or making maps, and a cartographer is a person who creates maps.
• In ancient India, cartography was not well-known.
• The need for accurate maps grew due to expanding trade and empires.
• Arabs and Europeans developed cartography during long travels across land and sea.
• Contact with them brought cartography to India.
• Historians study maps, texts, and documents, keeping in mind the historical context of their creation.
• Place names and river locations may have changed over time, requiring research by historians.
  Example: The kingdom of Kalinga, covering parts of modern-day Odisha, no longer exists.

Historians and their Sources

• Historians rely on various sources to learn about the past.
• During the medieval period, paper became common and cheaper, increasing the number of texts and records.
• These records, including royal orders, treaties, land revenue records, land grants, petitions, holy texts, and king’s chronicles, are kept in archives and libraries.
• No printing press existed in medieval India, so scribes hand-copied manuscripts.
• Scribes were people hired to keep and copy records.
• Copying often led to changes, similar to guessing unclear words when copying a friend’s notes.
• Over centuries, these changes caused differences between copies of the same manuscript.
• When originals are missing, historians compare multiple copies to guess the author’s original words.
• Historical records were written in languages like Sanskrit, Persian, Urdu, and regional languages.
• Languages evolved, with changes in grammar, vocabulary, and word meanings over time.
  Example: Modern Persian differs from medieval Persian.
• The term ‘Hindustan’ meant the land beyond the Hindukush mountains, derived from the river Sindhu (Indus).
• In the 13th century, Minhaj-i-Siraj used ‘Hindustan’ in a political sense for areas under the Delhi Sultanate, covering Punjab, Haryana, and lands between the Ganga and Yamuna.
• It did not include south India in the later medieval period.
• In the 16th century, Babur used ‘Hindustan’ to describe the geography, flora, fauna, and culture of the subcontinent.
• The term’s meaning and the region’s borders changed over time compared to modern India.

Sources for Studying Medieval Indian History

• Historical sources are divided into archaeological and literary sources.
• More material records exist from the medieval period than the ancient period.

Archaeological Sources

• Include temples, palaces, mosques, forts, tombs, homes of ordinary people, coins, paintings, tools, weapons, inscriptions, and other artefacts.
• These provide insights into the political, economic, and social history of the time.
• Many rulers, especially in south India, supported temple building during this period.
• Sultanate and Mughal rulers built numerous mosques and mausoleums.
• Monuments reveal the engineering, architectural skills, and artistry of the era, as well as details about the rulers.
• Inscriptions and edicts note royal orders, proclamations, gifts to temples and priests, kings’ achievements, and family trees.
• Inscriptions are found on copper plates, temple walls, and monuments.
• Chola kings left many inscriptions.
• Coins, made of various metals, were issued by nearly all rulers.
• Coins often carried the ruler’s name or title and the date of issue.
• Some coins featured the dynastic emblem.
• Many medieval coins have been found in India.
• During Alauddin Khalji’s reign, the book Dravya Pariksha recorded details of minted coins and their economic importance.
• Monuments by Hindu rulers were decorated with sculptures and paintings.
• Sculptures, made of bronze, stone, or wood, depicted gods, goddesses, kings, or queens.
• Islamic architecture avoided living forms, using geometric designs instead.
• Medieval paintings, in both Islamic and non-Islamic styles, showed themes like mythology and palace scenes.
• Many styles of miniature paintings developed during this period.
• Art provides insights into religion, culture, and artistic skills of the people.

Literary Sources

• Paper’s availability led to many written accounts in the medieval period.
• Include chronicles by court historians, biographies, autobiographies, travelogues, royal orders (farmans), and court records.
• Early works include:
  • Tahqiq-i-Hind by Al Beruni in Arabic, detailing Indian people, religious customs, and practices.
  • Rajatarangini by Kalhana in Sanskrit, a history of Kashmir’s kings.
  • Prithviraj Raso by Chand Bardai, a heroic poem about Prithviraj Chauhan.
  • Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi by Ziauddin Barani, covering Delhi sultans up to Firoz Shah Tughluq.
  • Futuhat-i-Firuz Shahi by Firoz Shah Tughluq and Baburnama by Babur, accounts of their times.
  • Humayun Nama by Gulbadan Begum (Humayun’s sister) and Akbarnama by Abul Fazl, key works of the Sultanate and Mughal periods.
• Foreign travellers visited India and wrote about their journeys.
• Travellers include Al Beruni (Central Asia), Ibn Battuta (Morocco, visited during Tughluq rule), Marco Polo, Nicolo Conti, and Niccolao Manucci (Italy), Domingo Paes (Portugal), and Bernier and Tavernier (France, during Mughal period).

Major Political Developments in India

• After Harshavardhana’s death, regional kingdoms emerged across the Indian subcontinent.
• These kingdoms fought each other for control of larger, richer territories.
• Each had unique languages and cultural traits, preventing unity against external threats.
• Invasions led to new empires in India.
• In the 13th century, Turks and Afghans ruled from Delhi, known as the Delhi Sultanate.
• In the 16th century, Babur founded the Mughal dynasty, replacing the Delhi Sultanate.
• Mughals, from Central Asia, built a vast empire in India.
• Under these Turkish dynasties, a unique culture blending Hindu and Islamic traditions grew.
• By the 18th century, Mughal power weakened, and their empire split into regional kingdoms.
• Late 15th century saw European companies arrive for trade.
• Portuguese came first, followed by French, Dutch, and others.
• By the 17th century, French and English were main rivals for power in India.
• By the mid-18th century, the English won and ruled India until the 20th century.

Major Economic Developments

• Medieval India saw many people arrive due to political instability, wealth, and trade opportunities.
• Newcomers brought new technologies and ideas.
• Examples include the Persian wheel (ghatajantra) for irrigation, the spinning wheel (charkah), and the cotton bow for weaving.
• New food crops and beverages like potatoes, chillies, corn, tea, and coffee entered the subcontinent.
• This period brought social, economic, political, and cultural changes.

New Social and Political Groups

• New regional kingdoms led to the rise of new social groups.
• Politically powerful groups included Rajputs, Sikhs, Marathas, Jats, and Ahoms.
• Agriculture expanded with the rise of regional kingdoms.
• This caused economic and social differences among peasants.
• Some peasants gained more land, some raised cattle, and others combined artisanal work with farming.
• New groups emerged, like Kayasthas and baidyas, outside the original varna system.
• Their professions shaped their caste.
• Kayasthas were scribes and secretaries, gaining power during this period.

Major Religious Developments

• Early medieval period saw the spread of Hinduism.
• Kings gifted lands to temples, and Brahmins legitimized their rule in return.
• Brahmins followed traditional rituals and caste rules.
• The Bhakti movement also boosted Hinduism’s spread.
• Islam became significant in India, brought first by Arab traders.
• Turks, Afghans, and Mughals increased Islam’s popularity.
• Interaction between the Muslim world, Hinduism, and Buddhism led to Sufism.

Bhakti

• Buddhism and Jainism became ritualistic and failed to meet people’s needs.
• The Bhakti movement emerged as an alternative.
• Bhakti means personal devotion to god, with no need for priests, prayers, or chants.
• Bhakti saints spread ideas with support from emerging rulers.
• Rulers allied with the movement to legitimize their rule.
• It began in north India and spread to the south with help from Pallavas and Pandyas.

Islam

• Islam is monotheistic, believing in one god, Allah, with the Quran as the holy book.
• Many rulers supported Islam, and some adopted it with the arrival of Muslim invaders.
• After Prophet Muhammad’s death, Islam split into Shias and Sunnis.
• Ulamas, religious scholars, theologians, and jurists, were supported by Muslim rulers.
• Four schools of Islamic law (Shariat) existed: Hanafi, Shaafi, Maliki, and Hanbali.
• The Hanafi School, the most liberal, was brought to India by the Turks.

Sufism

• Sufism emerged around the 8th century in the Muslim world.
• It borrowed ideas from Hinduism and Buddhism.
• Sufism, a monotheistic faith, taught equality and brotherhood.
• Sufi saints brought it to India during Turkish invasions.
• It was Islamic in nature, like Bhaktism was Hindu.
• Both opposed orthodox religious elements and preached equality and brotherhood.
• They gained popularity by teaching in local and regional languages.