Sources of Study

renaissance | enlightenment – reawakening – reformation

//

Sources of Study

This contains notes on Medieval India.

Medieval India – Introduction

Death of Harsha in 647 AD marked the transition from the ancient to the Medieval Period.

Sources of Study

Literary works like Prithviraja-Vijaya-Kavya and Hammira-Mahakavya provide stirring narratives of this period
The historical accounts like Rajmala, the official chronicle of the ruling family of Tipperah
The Rajtarangini of Kalhana
Jain writings of 13th & 14th centuries.

Note: Points 2, 3 and 4 provide glimpses of political and cultural events.

The Tibetan monk, Dharmasvamin, has left a poignant testimony of the condition of Buddhist shrines after the Turkish invasion of Bihar.
For the Sulatanate and Mughal periods, there is abundance of official records, gazateers, royal autobiographies, biographies augmented by archaelogical, epigraphic and numismatic evidence and also the volumes of European factory records.
The Maratha administration records, in particular those of Peshwa Daftar are a mine of information on the era.
The Taksim and Arhsattha documents in Rajasthani
Primary source of information on Delhi Sultanate:-

S.No.	Author		Books
1	Abul Fazl		Akbar Nama
2	Nizamuddin Ahmad		Tabaqat-i-Akbari
3	Badauni		Muntakhab-al-twarikh
4	Abdul Hamid Lahori		Badhahnama
5		Khafi Khan	Muntakhab-ul-labab
6		Ali Mohd. Khan (diwan of Gujarat)	Mirat-i-Ahmadi (1748)Sufi

Sufi literature constitutes valuable source of information. Several biographies(Tazkirahs) and compilations of their sayings(Malfuzat) are available, most important Malfuzat being Fawadul Fawad.
Colonial Trends:- In mid-19th century, the Asiatic Society of Bengal sponsored the publication of medieval chronicles under the “Bibliotheca Indica” series.

Other books:-

S.No.	Author	Books
1	Eliot & Dowson(1867-77)	History of India as told by its own Historians.(8 volumes)
2	Lane-Poole (1903)	Medieval India under Muhammadan Rule
3	Vincent Smith (1919	Oxford History of India
4	W H Moreland	· The Agriculture of United Provinces(1904) · The Revenue Administration of the United Provinces (1911) · India at the death of Akbar · India from Akbar to Auragzeb

Modern Historiography begibs with Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and the Aligarh School in the second half of 19th century

Books:-

S.No.	Author	Books
1	K M Ashraf	Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan
2	I H Qureshi	The Administration of Sultanate of Delhi (1942)
3	Faruki	Aurangzeb and His Times (1935)
4	ABM Habibullah	Foundation of Muslim Rule in India (1945)
5	Sir Jadunath Sarkar (Father of Modern Historical Research)	· History of Aurangzeb · The Fall of Mughal Empire (4 volumes)
6	Irfan Habib	Agrarian System of Mughal India (1963)
7	Athar Ali	Mughal Ruling Elite(1970)

Discussion