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The
Middle Kingdoms of India
After the collapse of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century, India was again
ruled by numerous regional kingdoms. King Harsha of Kannauj succeeded in
reuniting northern India during his reign in the 7th century, after the collapse
of the Gupta dynasty. His kingdom collapsed after his death. From the 7th to the
9th century, three dynasties contested for control of northern India: the Pratiharas of Malwa and later Kannauj; the Palas of Bengal, and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan.
The Chalukya Empire ruled parts of
southern and central India from 550 to 750 from Badami, Karnataka and again from 970 to 1190 from Kalyani, Karnataka. The Pallavas of Kanchi were their
contemporaries further to the south. With the decline of the Chalukya empire,
their feudatories, Hoysalas of Halebidu, Kakatiya of Warangal, Seuna
Yadavas of Devagiri and a southern branch of the Kalachuri divided the vast Chalukya empire amongst
themselves around the middle of 12th century.
Later during the middle period,
the Chola kingdom
emerged in northern Tamil
Nadu, and the Chera
kingdom in Kerala. By 1343 A.D., all
these kingdoms had ceased to exist giving rise to the Vijayanagar
empire. Southern Indian kingdoms of the time expanded their influence as far
as Indonesia, controlling vast
overseas empires in Southeast Asia. The ports of southern India were involved in
the Indian Ocean trade,
chiefly involving spices, with the Roman Empire to the west and Southeast Asia to the
east
The Islamic Sultanates
The
Qutab Minar, built
during the Delhi Sultanate
After the Arab-Turkic invasion of India's
ancient northern neighbour Persia, expanding
forces in that area were keen to invade India, which was the richest classical
civilization, with the only known diamond mines in the world. After resistance
for a few centuries by various north Indian kingdoms, short lived Islamic
empires invaded and spread across the northern subcontinent over a period of a
few centuries
In the 12th and 13th centuries, Arabs, Turks and Afghans invaded parts of northern
India and established the Delhi Sultanate( 1206 to 1526
) at the beginning of the 13th
century, from former Rajput holdings. The subsequent Slave dynasty of Delhi managed to conquer large
areas of northern
India, approximate to the ancient extent of the Guptas, while the Khilji Empire was also
able to conquer most of central India, but were ultimately unsuccessful
in conquering most of the subcontinent.
The Sultanate ushered in a period of
Indian cultural renaissance. The resulting "Indo-Muslim" fusion left lasting
monuments in architecture, music, literature, and religion. It is surmised that
the language of Urdu (literally meaning
"horde" or "camp" in various Turkic dialects) was born during the Delhi
Sultanate period as a result of the mingling of Sanskritic prakrits and the
Persian, Turkish and Arabic favored by the Muslim rulers. The Delhi Sultanate is
the only Sultanate to stake a claim to possessing one of the few female rulers
in India, Razia Sultan
(1236-1240).
The Sultans of Delhi enjoyed cordial, if superficial, relations with other
Muslim rulers in the Near East but owed them no allegiance. The Sultans based
their laws on the Qur'an and the sharia and permitted non-Muslim subjects to
practice their religion only if they paid jizya or head tax. The Sultans ruled from urban
centers--while military camps and trading posts provided the nuclei for towns
that sprang up in the countryside. Perhaps the greatest contribution of the
Sultanate was its temporary success in insulating the subcontinent from the
potential devastation of the Mongol invasion from Central Asia in the thirteenth century
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