evaluate the contribution of trade towards the religious diversity in mediaeval India
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Answer:
The Medieval Period of Indian History comprises a long period, spanning from
6th century i.e after the fall of the Gupta Empire to the 18th century, i.e the
beginning of colonial domination.Modern historians, for the convenience of
studying the state and society of medieval India, usually divide the period into
Early Medieval Period and Late Medieval Period. According to them the Early
Medieval period refer to the phase of Indian history that stretches from the fall
of the Gupta Empire to the beginning of the Sultanate period in the 13th
century. The period that comprises mainly that of the reigns of the Sultanate
and the Mughal period is generally considered as the late medieval period, of
course with regional variations.
The nature of state in the early medieval period is marked by the presence of
a large number of regional and local powers, in the absence of a paramount
power in the country. However, this period witnessed the presence of formidable
political entities, often characterized by certain historians as ‘regional imperial
kingdoms’.But in the late medieval period, especially in the Sultanate and
Mughal reigns, high level of centralization of power is identifies, that too in the
major parts of the Indian sub continent.
Nationalist historiography tried to view the entire medieval period as one and
also tried to establish the existence of centralized empire, as a continuation of
the ancient empires, thereby negating the elements of changes that took place
in the nature of state during the period.They followed the ‘tripartite’ division of
the colonial historians, with certain qualitative shifts.The Marxist historiography
in general stressed on the traits of decentralized fragmented policy during the
period under discussion, which itself pointed to certain structural changes in
the political life of the country.The salient feature of the Marxist approach is to
identify the institution of ‘land-grants’ as the principal agents of change
bringing in parcellised sovereignty.In this perspective the early medieval period
is equated with feudal polity.This explains the multiplicity of political powers in
India, especially during the early medieval period.
The feudal model was largely constructed on the basis of Puranic and
Epigraphic data pertaining mostly to North India and so it is criticized by
another model.The’Segmentary State’ drawing information from a large body of
South Indian Inscriptions.Although, feudal and segmentary models are
mutually critical of each other, there is a commonality in their approaches.Both
models emphasis’ on the fragmented political authority and therefore argued for
political crisis and ritual sovereignty.