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The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c7: 1. Our Country on the Eve of the Arab Invasion

The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c7

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1. Our Country on the Eve of the Arab Invasion

Political condition

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For centuries after the death of the great Ashoka in 232 B.C. our country did not enjoy complete political unity. The entire land from the Himalayas to Cape Camorin never afterwards came under one central government of any Hindu prince or political leader. During the first half of the seventh century A.D., when the Arabian Prophet, Muhammad, was preaching his new militant religion and his successors were rapidly subjugating the neighbouring countries, Harsha was laying the foundation of a great empire in north-western India. But this empire did not embrace the whole of north India even, to say nothing of the territory south of the Vindhya mountains which baffled Harsha's attempt at conquest and annexation. And when that great monarch closed his eyes in 647 A.D., his empire broke to pieces, followed by a scramble among petty princes for supremacy in the land. Political confusion prevailed in this region (Madhyadesha) for more than 50 years. The situation did not fully stabilise till the rise of Yasovarman in the first half of the eighth century A.D. The remaining parts of the country, too, were parcelled out, as before, among independent monarchs of varying degrees of power and prestige, whose main pursuit was military glory and aggressive warfare.

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There was no central government for the whole of the country that could think and act for the entire sub-continent. All the states enjoyed complete independence and sovereignty. There was no such question as the defence of the frontiers of India by the united might of the Indian people, as the north-western and north-eastern frontiers were the frontiers of petty independent kingdoms.

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Geographically and politically, there were four groups of States in the country, namely, (1) the Himalayan group, (2) the Indo-Gangetic plain, (3) the Dakhin States, and (4) the Southern Peninsular States. There was nothing to prevent a State from expanding beyond its own zone into a neighbouring one. In fact, such expansion by military conquest was common enough during the period under review, for the ancient Kshatriya ideal of *Digvijaya*, that is, the conquest of the entire sub-continent, still swayed the ambition of our rulers. But this ideal was never hereafter fully realized.

The Himalayan States

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*Afghanistan* : In spite of the ups and downs of fortune the region now known as Afghanistan remained a part of our country since the time of Chandragupta Maurya, who had conquered it from Seleukos Nikator in or about 305 B.C. The famous Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsiang found a Kshatriya prince ruling over the Kabul valley. This dynasty reigned till about the end of the ninth century A.D. About that time the Kshatriya ruling family was supplanted by a Brahman dynasty founded by Lalliya. Muslim historians called this Hindu kingdom of Afghanistan by the name of the kingdom of Kabul and Zabul. It was also called the Hindushahi kingdom. We have no means of ascertaining the name of the ruler or the extent of this kingdom in the early years of the eighth century when Sindh was invaded by the Arabs. Certain it is that the inhabitants of that region were Hindus or Buddhists or both and, culturally, politically and economically, part and parcel of the Indian people.

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*Kashmir* : Kashmir had originally formed part of the empires of Ashoka, Kanishka and Mihirgula. It was, however, an independent kingdom at the time of Harsha. In fact, in the seventh century A.D., it rose to be a first-rate power under a local dynasty, called Karkota, founded by Durlabhavardhan. His grandson, Chandrapida, was a contemporary of Raja Dahir of Sindh who fell victim to the Arab aggression in 712 A.D. Chandrapida was succeeded by his younger brother, Muktipida Lalitaditya (725-755 A.D.), who was an ambitious and powerful ruler and defeated Yasovarman of Kanauj. He built the great Sun Temple at Martand (modern Matan), which, though half-burnt and destroyed by the fanatical Sikandar, the Idol Breaker, still stands in its ruined condition like a giant structure and proclaims to the world the piety and love of art of its builder.

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*Nepal* : By reason of its secluded situation, the mountainous kingdom of Nepal has not played an important part in the history of our country. But it was, without doubt, an integral part of ancient India. According to tradition, this isolated valley was included in the empire of Ashoka. The later Lichhavis also seem to have held it. It was certainly a part of the wide dominion of the Indian Napoleon, Samudragupta, who was acknowledged as over-lord by the ruler of Nepal. After the break-up of the Gupta empire in the fifth century A.D., Nepal seems to have become independent. In the seventh century, when Tibet rose to be a powerful kingdom, Nepal came under its vassalage; but its cultural relations with India remained unaffected. Nepal accepted Buddhist religion and exchanged scholars and missionaries with our country.

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*Assam* : Assam, on the north-eastern extremity, was another mountainous region that constituted a kingdom and came into frequent clash with Bangal. Harsha’s contemporary on the throne of Assam (Kamarupa) was Bhaskaravarman. He was an ambitious prince. He seems to have accepted the position of a vassal to the great Harsha, who made use of him in his conflict with the king of West Bangal. After Harsha’s death Assam became an independent kingdom. But, on account of its remoteness, it played little part in the history of our country during the period.

The Indo-Gangetic Plain

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*Kanauj* : After reigning for more than forty years over the Madhyadesha or Central Hindustan, the great Harsha died in 647 A.D., leaving his extensive empire, which embraced the East Panjab in the north-west and Kamarupa in the east, the Himalayas in the north and the Narbada in the south, to his weak successors who struggled to maintain it intact, but failed to do so for any length of time. Their efforts were frustrated, as Kanauj, having for long been the imperial city, was a cynosure of all eyes and every powerful and ambitious north-Indian prince made it the object of his highest ambition to conquer and rule over it. Adityasena of Malwa and Magadh emerged triumphant in this contest in about 672 A.D., when he performed the ‘horse sacrifice’ (*Ashwamedha*). But his ascendancy was short-lived. Early in the eighth century we find Yasovarman, who traced his descent from the moon, on the throne of Kanauj. He was an enterprising and successful ruler. He restored Kanauj to its former position of glory. The kingdom of Kanauj under him once again extended from Bangal in the east to Thaneshwar and the East Panjab in the north-west, and from the Himalayas in the north to the Narbada in the south. Yasovarman maintained diplomatic relations with some of the Asian countries, notably China. He was a contemporary of King Dahir of Sindh. He died fighting against Lalitaditya of Kashmir.

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*Sindh* : Sindh, situated to the south-west of the Hindushahi kingdom of Kabul and the West Panjab, had long been an independent kingdom. It was ruled by a Sudra dynasty which held sway for about 140 years. When Hiuen Tsiang visited India he found a Sudra ruler in Sindh. The province was over-run by Prabhakarvardhan and was reduced to vassalage by his son, Harsha. It became independent after Harsha’s death. After the death of the last Sudra king, Sahsi, his throne was seized by his Brahman minister, Chach, who laid the foundation of a new dynasty. Chach was succeeded by his brother, Chandra, on whose death the former’s son, Dahir, became king. The new ruling family had hardly held the province for a few decades when it had to face the Arab invasion under Muhammad bin Qasim. There was no sympathy between the ruler and his subjects who were mostly Buddhists and were much oppressed by the Brahman rule.

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*Bangal* : During the early centuries of the Christian era Bangal was divided into two parts, each independent of the other. The western and north-western parts were known as Gaud and, so also, their people, while the eastern and central parts were called Vanga. Both these provinces were parts of the empires of the Mauryas and the Guptas. But, after the fall of the imperial Guptas, Bangal seems to have become independent. Sasanka was Harsha’s contemporary on the throne of Gaud. He seems to have only vaguely recognised the supremacy of Kanauj. After the death of Sasanka, Gaud was occupied by Bhaskarvarman, king of Assam, who was an ally of Harsha. During the early years of the eighth century A.D., Bangal was over-run by Yasovarman, king of Kanauj, and, for a number of years, there was much confusion in the province. Peace and prosperity returned, however, with the accession to the throne of the two Bangals, that is, Gaud and Vanga, of Gopala, the founder of the Pala dynasty, sometime in the first half of the eighth century A.D.

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*Malwa* : Malwa, with its capital at Ujjain, was another important kingdom during the eighth century. It was ruled by a Pratihara Rajput dynasty. The Pratiharas were a clan of the Gurjaras who established themselves in Marwar (Jodhpur), Avanti (Ujjain) and Broach. The Pratiharas of Ujjain came into conflict with the Arab invaders of Sindh who had attempted to extend their conquest into the heart of the country. The Arab leader, Junaid, swept over the western part of the Pratihara dominion about 725-35 A.D. But Nagabhatta I (725-740 A.D.) soon succeeded in turning the tables against the Arabs and recovering his lost territory. Under his successors Ujjain rose to be a mighty power in northern India.

The Dakhin

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*The Vakatakas* : In the fourth century there were two powerful kingdoms in southern India, one in the Upper Dakhin and the other further south with its capital at Kanchi or modern Conjeeveram. The former was ruled by the Vakataka dynasty and the latter by the Pallava dynasty. Chandragupta Vikramaditya of the Gupta dynasty established matrimonial relations with the Vakatakas, giving his daughter, Prabhavati, in marriage to the Vakataka king, Rudrasena II. The descendants of Rudrasena continued to rule in the Dakhin for several generations.

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*The Pallavas* : The Pallava kingdom of Kanchi lay to the south of the Vakataka dominions. Its ruler, Vishnugopa, was captured and then released by Samudragupta about the middle of the fourth century A.D. The dynasty produced a series of able rulers, one of whom, named, Simhavishnu, was said to have annexed the Chola country and defeated all his southern neighbours, including the king of Ceylon, in the second half of the sixth century A.D. A little later great rivalry ensued between the Pallavas and the Chalukyas of Vatapi. Eventually, Vikramaditya II of Vatapi over-ran the Pallava dominion and occupied Kanchi in the first half of the eighth century, when the Arabs were consolidating their hold in Sindh. The decadent Pallava kingdom, however, lingered on till its final extinction towards the end of the ninth century A.D.

The Far South

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From very ancient times there were three kingdoms in the Far South, namely, the Pandya, the Chola and the Chera or Kerala. The Pandya kingdom comprised the territory representing the modern Madura and Tennavelly districts and parts of Trichinapoly and the Travancore State. The Chola kingdom included most of the present Mysore State, the district of Madras and several other districts lying east of that town. The Chera or Kerala principality embraced most of the States of Cochin and Travancore and the Malabar districts. These kingdoms were overpowered by the Pallavas, who established their political supremacy over almost the entire Southern Peninsula.

Administrative system

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*Kingship* : The only form of government known to our ancestors of the seventh and the eighth centuries A.D. was monarchy. Ancient republics of the early Buddhist times had completely disappeared. Kingship was generally hereditary. Usually the king nominated his successor, who was in most cases his eldest son. Election was however, not altogether unknown. Gopala, the founder of the famous Pala dynasty of Bangal, was elected by the notable political elements of that province in the first half of the eighth century A.D., and the Pallava King, Nandi Varman Pallavamalla of Kanchi in southern India, was similarly elected at about the same time. At a time of crisis the choice of a monarch was entrusted to a select body of nobles or Brahmans or both. Many such cases of selection by notables are on record, the most important among them being that of the great Harshavardhan of Thaneshwar and Kanauj who was chosen by a council of nobles to fill the vacant throne of his late brother, Rajyavardhan. Females were not debarred from succession to the royal throne, and there had been women rulers, specially in Kashmir, Orissa and some parts of southern India.

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*Powers of the king* : The monarchs of this period were absolute or despotic rulers. It was widely believed that the king was God's representative on earth and was, therefore, superior in power and intelligence to other people. There were, however, some critics of the divine right theory. The king's powers were restricted only by well-established laws and traditions and by the fear of a rebellion on the part of the people. He was the chief executive, commander of the army and the fountainhead of justice. Inspite of the combination of these wide powers and functions, he was not a tyrant, as he was governed by the traditional *raj-dharma* which was to be the father of the people, and to always act for their welfare, physical, moral and material.

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*Ministers and their functions* : Every king had his ministers who were his nominees and servants. Their number was not fixed, and, in fact, could not be constant in all cases. Manu prescribes seven to eight ministers, a number which might have been generally followed. There were two types of ministers, namely, confidential advisers (*Mantrins*), and ministers properly so-called (*Sachivas*). To the latter category belonged (*a*) ministers of war and peace (*Sandhivigrahikas*), (*b*) ministers in charge of records (*Akshapataladhikrita*), (*c*) ministers in charge of military duties (*Mahabaladhikrita* and *Mahadandanayaka*), (*d*) finance ministers (*Amatya*), and (*e*) foreign ministers (*Sumant*). Besides, there was a *raj-guru* or *raj-purohit* whose rank was equal to a minister's and who held the portfolio of religion. There was no bar to militarymen holding a civil portfolio. Certain ministerships had become hereditary. All strings of policy being concentrated in the king's hands, the importance of a minister depended upon his ability, strength of character and loyalty and the degree of his sovereign's confidence in him. In matters which did not involve change of policy and in day-to-day administration, ministers must have enjoyed full powers over their respective departments.

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***Local Government***: For administrative purposes every kingdom was divided into provinces which bore different designations in different parts, such as, *Bhukti* in the north and *Mandala* in the south. They were sometimes known as *Desa* or *Rashtra*. The province was in the charge of a governor called *Uparika*. Every province was divided into *Vishayas* (districts) with a *Vishayapati* (district officer) at its head. Both *Uparikas* (governors) and *Vishayapatis* (district officers) were appointed by the king and were members of either royal or noble families. The district officers were assisted in the work of administration by the guild president, chief scribe (*Kayastha*), and some of the notable men of the district. In certain parts, notably south India, districts were further sub-divided into unions of villages with a headman and an assembly for the administration of the union. The village was everywhere the lowest union of administration. In every village there was a headman and a *Panchayat* consisting of village elders or notables. There were committees for looking after watch and ward, tanks, temples, education, etc. Besides the headman there was a village officer styled *Adhikarin* or *Adhikari*, whose main business was to supervise the work of the *Panchayat*. In towns and cities the management was in the hands of an officer called *Nagarpati*. In some towns there was a popular assembly to assist the *Nagarpati* in the administration.

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***Finance***: Great attention was paid to finance, for it was realised as early as the days of the eminent political thinker and statesman, Kautilya, that this was one of the two most important departments of government, the other being the army. There were three main sources of income, namely, (*a*) land revenue from the crown land, that is, those areas of the country which were directly administered by the government, (*b*) tributes from the vassal chiefs, and (*c*) taxes other than land revenue, such as excise, irrigation duties on goods charged at ferries, roads and frontiers of the kingdom, income from mines, etc. The State's share of the produce of the soil was usually one-sixth and was called *bhag*. We do not know the rates of other taxes. Perhaps there was no income-tax. There were one or two emergency taxes. The items of expenditure were civil administration, army and the king's household. There might have been some kind of budget-making, though it might not be scientific like what we have nowadays. The economic system must have been very sound indeed, for the country was extremely prosperous. People were well off and free from want.

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Buddhism was declining. Most of the kings of this period were the followers of the Hindu religion. These kings, however, were very tolerant towards all faiths. In fact, they patronised Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism at one and the same time. There was no religious antipathy among the people and no religious persecution. The common people as well as the upper classes seem to have been inspired by high spiritual ideals.

Society and culture

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We get a clear picture of the social and cultural condition of the people from many inscriptions and writings of foreign travellers, Chinese and Arab. Caste system was gradually becoming rigid. Nevertheless, foreigners could become Hindus and get absorbed in our society and be given a place in the caste hierarchy. Attempts were made to keep castes to their spheres of duty, but without success. During this period some of the Brahmans took to the profession of arms, while some of the Kshatriyas lived as merchants. Vaisyas and Sudras were powerful rulers. Though people married generally in their own castes, inter-marriages between different castes were not unknown.

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In Central Hindustan a majority of the people were vegetarians. They did not kill any living being and did not drink liquor. Nor did they eat onions or garlic. The people of this region did not consider those belonging to north-western India as quite pure. There was untouchability and *chandalas* were required to make their presence known by striking a piece of wood while entering the market-place or the quarters inhabited by upper class people. There was very little of seclusion of women. Women of the upper classes took a prominent share in administration and in social life. Girls belonging to upper classes were given liberal education. The practice of *swayamvara* or public choice of a husband was not unknown. Upper class people practised polygamy. Women, however, were not allowed to marry a second time. The practice of *sati*, that is, burning of widows on the funeral pyre of their husbands, was becoming fashionable among the ruling families.

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The country, particularly the Madhyadesha, was thickly populated. The people were prosperous and happy. Their material condition was very good. Wealth was, however, confined to a small group of people who were very rich indeed. It was considered obligatory on, and, in fact, a pious duty of, the rich people to establish charitable institutions and to alleviate the poverty and sufferings of the poor. The rich built roads, *dharmashalas* and other buildings of public utility. They laid out gardens and constructed tanks and sunk wells for public use. There were houses of charity which provided free board and lodging to travellers. There were charitable dispensaries. The people, on the whole, were noted for their righteousness and benevolence.

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All over the country there were schools and colleges, and the people, in general, were well educated. The universities of Nalanda in Bihar and Valabhi in western India were the most famous educational institutions in the country. There were other universities, too, particularly at Kashi (Banaras), Uddandapura and Vikramasila in Bihar, and some other holy places in northern and southern India. There was a big Sanskrit college at Dhar in Malwa and another at Ajmer. There were colleges of astronomy and other sciences also. Besides the Vedas and other religious literature and Puranas and Dharmashastra, other subjects, such as science, astronomy and medicine, were taught in most of these colleges and universities.

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It would appear from the above narrative that economically, culturally and spiritually, the condition of the people on the eve of the Arab invasion was, indeed, good. The administration of the various States was, on the whole, efficient and it consulted the welfare of the people. The main drawback, however, was the lack of political unity and a sense of patriotism.

Cites (2)