1/30/22, 7:58 PM India - Wikipedia
The Indian early medieval age, from 600 to 1200 CE, is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural
diversity.[107] When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Indo-Gangetic Plain from 606 to
647 CE, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya ruler of the
Deccan.[108] When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king
of Bengal.[108] When the Chalukyas attempted to expand southwards, they were defeated by
the Pallavas from farther south, who in turn were opposed by the Pandyas and the Cholas from still
farther south.[108] No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands
much beyond their core region.[107] During this time, pastoral peoples, whose land had been cleared to
make way for the growing agricultural economy, were accommodated within caste society, as were
new non-traditional ruling classes.[109] The caste system consequently began to show regional
differences.[109]
In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language.[110] They
were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development of
all modern languages of the subcontinent.[110] Indian royalty, big and small, and the temples they
patronised drew citizens in great numbers to the capital cities, which became economic hubs as
well.[111] Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another
urbanisation.[111] By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in South-East Asia, as South Indian
culture and political systems were exported to lands that became part of modern-
day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Java.[112] Indian
merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this transmission; South-East Asians
took the initiative as well, with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating Buddhist and
Hindu texts into their languages.[112]
After the 10th century, Muslim Central Asian nomadic
clans, using swift-horse cavalry and raising vast armies
united by ethnicity and religion, repeatedly overran South
Asia's north-western plains, leading eventually to the
establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in
1206.[113] The sultanate was to control much of North
India and to make many forays into South India.
Although at first disruptive for the Indian elites, the
sultanate largely left its vast non-Muslim subject
population to its own laws and customs.[114][115] By
repeatedly repulsing Mongol raiders in the 13th century,
the sultanate saved India from the devastation visited on India in 1398 CE, The Qutub Minar,
West and Central Asia, setting the scene for centuries during the Delhi 73 m (240 ft) tall,
of migration of fleeing soldiers, learned men, mystics, Sultanate (labelled completed by
traders, artists, and artisans from that region into the "Afghan empire") the Sultan of
subcontinent, thereby creating a syncretic Indo-Islamic Delhi, Iltutmish
culture in the north.[116][117] The sultanate's raiding and
weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India paved
the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire.[118] Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and
building upon the military technology of the sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular
India,[119] and was to influence South Indian society for long afterwards.[118]
Early modern India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India 1/3
1/30/22, 7:58 PM India - Wikipedia
In the early 16th century, northern India, then under
mainly Muslim rulers,[120] fell again to the superior
mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central
Asian warriors.[121] The resulting Mughal Empire did not
stamp out the local societies it came to rule. Instead, it
balanced and pacified them through new administrative
practices[122][123] and diverse and inclusive ruling
elites,[124] leading to more systematic, centralised, and
uniform rule.[125] Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic
identity, especially under Akbar, the Mughals united their
far-flung realms through loyalty, expressed through a
India in 1525 at the India in 1605 during Persianised culture, to an emperor who had near-divine
onset of Mughal rule the rule of Akbar status.[124] The Mughal state's economic policies, deriving
most revenues from agriculture[126] and mandating that
taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver
currency, [127] caused peasants and artisans to enter larger
markets. [125] The relative peace maintained by the empire
during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's
economic expansion,[125] resulting in greater patronage
of painting, literary forms, textiles,
and architecture. [128] Newly coherent social groups in
northern and western India, such as the Marathas,
the Rajputs, and the Sikhs, gained military and governing
A distant view of the Taj Mahal from the Agra ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through
Fort collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition
and military experience.[129] Expanding commerce during
Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and
political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India.[129] As the empire disintegrated, many
among these elites were able to seek and control their own affairs.[130]
By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political dominance being
increasingly blurred, a number of European trading companies, including the English East India
Company, had established coastal outposts.[131][132] The East India Company's control of the seas,
greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology led it to increasingly assert its
military strength and caused it to become attractive to a portion of the Indian elite; these factors were
crucial in allowing the company to gain control over the Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the other
European companies.[133][131][134][135] Its further access to the riches of Bengal and the subsequent
increased strength and size of its army enabled it to annexe or subdue most of India by the
1820s.[136] India was then no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but was instead
supplying the British Empire with raw materials. Many historians consider this to be the onset of
India's colonial period.[131] By this time, with its economic power severely curtailed by the British
parliament and having effectively been made an arm of British administration, the company began
more consciously to enter non-economic arenas like education, social reform, and culture.[137]
Modern India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India 2/3
1/30/22, 7:58 PM India - Wikipedia
India under British East India Company rule
India in 1795 India in 1848
A two mohur Company gold coin, issued in 1835,
the obverse inscribed "William IV, King"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India 3/3
