Indian History

Our library has two recent surveys on Indian history:  Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, A History of India (Routledge, 2010) and Burjor Avari, India:  The Ancient Past - A history of the Indian subcontinent from c. 7000 BC to AD 1200 Routledge, 2007).   You may also freely download and  access the entire 22 volume set in 4 series of the New Cambridge History of India from the Internet Archive.  Another work that may be dowloaded from the ebrary is the impressive and informative philological-historical work of Sheldon Pollock, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India (2009) Berkeley:  University of California Press

Primary Documents in South Asian History

Fordham Internet Sourcebook:  India History Internet Sourcebook

Periodization of Indian and South Asian History 300-1750 AD

1. Gupta Empire Controls Most of Northern South Asia (ca. 321 to ca. 500 CE)

The Gupta period is characterized by the rise of the family dynasties and consolidation of power over northern India by the rise and consolidation of power in Northern India by Samudragupta.  Samudragupta undertook campaigns of conquest and civil wars and established a family dynasty that dominated northern and central India.  Under his son Chandragupta II (375-413/415 CE) the Gupta Empire achieves its zenith of power and cultural achievement.  The Gupta Empire's power was extended from the mouth of the Ganges across India to the mouth of the Indus River and down to lower central India in the area of the Vakatakas.  During this period we find an emphasis on Sanskrit literature and a revival of Hinduism and the promotion of the caste system as a political choice of the elites to dominate land ownership.  During the reign of Chandgraputa's son Kumaragupta (415-455 CE) a period of consolidation occurs but it also appears to have been a period of religious toleration (Kulke and Rothermund, 2010, p. 60).  The preference for Hindusim among elites within the Gupta system appeared to have deemphasized Buddhism which retained support from other social groups.  Buddhism's popularity and appeal toward Central and Eastern Asia and China in this period was countered by the development of Hinduism within India and the courts.

1. Powerful Regional States after the Fall of the Gupta Empire (ca. 500-1000 CE)

This a period notable for regional dynasties and states.  Regionalism is characterized by distinctive forms of state formation and culture in which the South becomes an autonomous region.  South India retained autonomy during the Gupta period and was a center of long distance trade  The early history of the South is framed around the three tribal principalities known as the Cholas, Pandyas and Cheras. After the fall of the Gupta Empire, we find regional powers, including King Harsha of Kanauj (r. 606-647 CE).  Harsha's choice to locate the center of his dynasty to the Ganga-Yamuna Doab reflected a move to consolidate power in the Ganges River area.  The rise of regional centers of power thereafter was divided between the Rajputs who succeeded to power in the North, and the Chalukyas who controlled the Deccan plains and Central India and the Pallava Dynasty in the South.  In the 9th Century the Chola dynasty revived itself as a rival to power in the South.  The Cholas had widespread commercial contact with Southeast Asian communities and we find the importance of merchants as intermediaries of this trade.  These merchants were also linked to the rise of important artisanal guilds in Southern India.

Interactive Map to Cultural and Political Sites in India http://www.learn.columbia.edu/courses/indianart//flash/sea_map.htm

Ghaznavid Invasions and Rise of the Delhi Sultanate and Tughlug Empires and Dynasties (1200-1500 CE)

Islam in India, Empires, Regions, Resistance 1200-1500 CE

The systematic introduction of Islam into India began in 1206 with the Islamic conquest of Northern India by the Ghurid ruler Qutb-ud-din Aibak.  Qutb-ud-din was a Turkish warrior slave of the sultan of Afghanistan. Qutb-ud-din's conquest ushered in an era of military feudalism for much of India and the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate.  This style of a military state and administration would dominate a number of empires of the Islamic world and its periphery from this period through the 16th century.  It included the Mamluk dynasty and empire that dominated Syria and Egypt, as well as various attempts at military feudalism in the Khmer region of Cambodia, and the Mongol Empire that would dominate the great Central Eurasian plateaus from the late 13th to 14th centuries.

The Delhi Sultanate was not the first introduction of Islam into India.  Parts of the far northwestern parts of India's coastal border with Iran, the Sind, had been variously captured or under Islamic control or influence by around 712 C.E.  There is a strong regional component to Islam's success and the political domain of the Delhi Sultanate in the North. During the first dynasty, Iltutmish (r. 1210-1236)  managed to hold out against the Mongol Invasion which left garrisons of troops on India's northern border in the Panjab.  From around 1236-1239, Iltutmish's daughter, Raziyyat was a successful ruler for three years until she was deposed and killed in a palace coup.  (Kulke and Rothermund, 2010, p. 118).  See the contemporary chronicle, Tabaqat-i-Nasari, 

The Delhi Sultanate is conventionally divided by periods of its family and military dynasties.  Treating history as a discussion of dynasties distorts social and power relations outside of palace dynamics.  By no means is all history a narrative of dynasties and royalty, but the political division of dynasties is still a convenient periodization in use:

1206-1290 Founding of the Delhi Sultanate and Aibak dynasty and Iltutmish

1290-1320 Khalji Dynasty

1320-1388 Tughluq Dynasty

1398 Timurid invasion and sack of Delhi by Timur 

1398 to 1451 regional dynasties and resurgence of Hindu regional power and resistance.  

1451-1526 Lodi Dynasty reestablishes the Delhi Sultanate

Soon after the initial conquests of Northern India, Qutb-ud-din authorized the construction of a major mosque complex in Delhi, the capital of his new state.  There he ordered the construction of the complex known as the Qutb Minar mosque complex.  The Qutb Minar was distinguished by its towering decorative minaret, influenced by the Ghaznavid minarets found in Afghanistan.

On the Vijayanagara Empire: Resistance to the Delhi Sultanate and the formation of a Hindu empire in the South.
The Sultanate's central and southern Indian provinces were weaker and strongly resisted by a counter reaction among Hindus and other groups.  This included the success of the Vijayanagara Empire that emerged in Southern India 1346 and lasted until the military defeat at Talikota in 1565.  The Vijayanagara continued in local power until about 1646. 

Go to the Vijayanagara Research Project for material on archaeology and architectural history of temple and palace architecturehttp://www.archaeos.org/html/vbkgd.htm

1. Mughal Empire (1500-1750) 

Among the earliest of Buddhist monastic complexes are found at the 2nd c. BC Ajanta Caves in India. After the development of spread of Buddhism, and the larger branch of Mahayana Buddhism into China and other parts of Asia, we find texts of traveling Chinese Buddhist monks on pilgrimage to India. Faxian (alternately transliterated as Fa-Hien or Fa-Hsien) ca. 337-422 CE, was a Chinese Buddhist monk, who, between 399 and 414 travelled to India to bring back Buddhist scriptures.   The full text is Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline.  A description of the Buddhist shrine complex of Bodh Gaya is found in this ecerpt from "A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms,"  There is a Google Map linked itinerary with annotations of Faxian's travels.

The spread of Buddhism along trade routes into China is materially manifest in the Mogao Cave complexes (or caves of the thousand Buddhas) that were constructed between the 4th and 15th centuries. Another important site is the Longmen Caves complex that was begun in 492 AD.  The Global Heritage Network provides links to a number of important sites of Buddhist complexes of these early centuries.  For a collection of traveling Buddhist monks of a later period see the article by Tansen Sen, "The Travel Records of Chinese Pilgrims, Faxian, Xuanzang, and Yijing," here.

The Silk Road Society has useful links for resources. Another good resource is the University of Miami Silk Road Project.

Indic Culture in Southeast Asia to 1100 CE

In considering Islam's expansion into Southeast Asia, it is important to acknowledge the significant contact and influence of non-Muslim or pre-Islamic India with Southeast Asian culture and societies.  For example by the 5^th century C.E., Hindu Brahmins had probably followed merchants to Southeast Asia and began settling in Southeast Asia. Even earlier,  Buddhist missionaries and Jain missionaries also diffused and spread throughout Southeast Asia from the time of the Buddhist emperor Ashoka, after the 3rd century B.C.E.

Indianization refers to the diffusion of Indian, or Indic, cultural and social influence on Southeast Asia. It includes the spread of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religious values and institutions, as well as Indian language, philosophy and social and political culture. Representative forms of cultural borrowing included the forms of temple and palace architecture for the agrarian based states.  The Angkor Wat complex of the Khmer empire is one example. 

There are three prevailing theories about the Indianization of Southeast Asia in historiography.  The first theory known as the Kshatriya thesis, proposed by Indian nationalist historians from the 1920s was that an aggressive Indian conquest of Southeast Asia took place in early middle age period.  (Kulke and Rothermund, 2010, 106) A second theory, known as the Vaishya thesis, argued that it was merchants who spread Indian culture, Hindu beliefs and practices.  However, the limited use of Sanskrit and other terms of Indian trade in the port cities suggest that Indian merchant influence was not as pervasive as thought.  A third, the Brahmin theory, suggests that a spread of Brahmin priests,  other Buddhist and Jain missionary monks played a major role in transmitting Indian cultural values and structure.  An intriguing 4th c. C.E. Chinese source describes the rise to power of a Brahmin priest known as Kaundinya, in the Vietnamese southern kingdom of Funan in the Mekong Delta.   (P. Pelloit, 'Le Funan," Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient, vol. 3, 1903).  

Visualization of the Angkor Wat temple early 12th century  complex in Cambodia. http://vizerra.com/en/locations/angkor-wat

Angkor Wat was a administrative and temple complex located in Cambodia that wasbuilt during the Khmer Empire  in the early 12th century.   Original elements of the complex suggest it was built in the form of Hindu temple, but later elements of Buddhist temple architecture were incorporated.

A useful discussion of Indianization is found in Herman Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, A History of India. (Routledge, 2010).  A useful way to envision and understand the process is the study of temple and palace architecture in Southeast Asia that incorporated a syncretic fusion of Buddhist and Hindu forms, ideology and ritual and administrative practices.  

Map of Indianization or Spread of Indic culture into Southeast Asia http://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/fullscreen.html?object=067

Indianization in Architecture and History Narratives:  Sources and Images

Daigoro Chihara, Hindu-Buddhist Architecture in Southeast Asia (E.J. Brill, 1996) 

I.W. Mabbett, "The 'Indianization' of Southeast Asia: Reflections on the Historical Sources," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol. 8, No. 2 (Sep., 1977), pp. 143-161.

Rüdiger Gaudes, "Kauṇḍinya, Preah Thaong, and the "Nāgī Somā": Some Aspects of a Cambodian Legend," 

Asian Folklore Studies Vol. 52, No. 2 (1993), pp. 333-358. 

Kenneth R. Hall, "The "Indianization" of Funan: An Economic History of Southeast Asia's First State," 

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Mar., 1982), pp. 81-106 

Islam in India, Empires, Regions, Resistance 1200-1500 CE

The systematic introduction of Islam into India began in 1206 with the Islamic conquest of Northern India by the Ghurid ruler Qutb-ud-din Aibak.  Qutb-ud-din was a Turkish warrior slave of the sultan of Afghanistan. Qutb-ud-din's conquest ushered in an era of military feudalism for much of India and the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate.  This style of a military state and administration would dominate a number of empires of the Islamic world and its periphery from this period through the 16th century.  It included the Mamluk dynasty and empire that dominated Syria and Egypt, as well as various attempts at military feudalism in the Khmer region of Cambodia, and the Mongol Empire that would dominate the great Central Eurasian plateaus from the late 13th to 14th centuries.

The Delhi Sultanate was not the first introduction of Islam into India.  Parts of the far northwestern parts of India's coastal border with Iran, the Sind, had been variously captured or under Islamic control or influence by around 712 C.E.  There is a strong regional component to Islam's success and the political domain of the Delhi Sultanate in the North. During the first dynasty, Iltutmish (r. 1210-1236)  managed to hold out against the Mongol Invasion which left garrisons of troops on India's northern border in the Panjab.  From around 1236-1239, Iltutmish's daughter, Raziyyat was a successful ruler for three years until she was deposed and killed in a palace coup.  (Kulke and Rothermund, 2010, p. 118).  See the contemporary chronicle, Tabaqat-i-Nasari, 

The Delhi Sultanate is conventionally divided by periods of its family and military dynasties.  Treating history as a discussion of dynasties distorts social and power relations outside of palace dynamics.  By no means is all history a narrative of dynasties and royalty, but the political division of dynasties is still a convenient periodization in use:

1206-1290 Founding of the Delhi Sultanate and Aibak dynasty and Iltutmish

1290-1320 Khalji Dynasty

1320-1388 Tughluq Dynasty

1398 Timurid invasion and sack of Delhi by Timur 

1398 to 1451 regional dynasties and resurgence of Hindu regional power and resistance.  

1451-1526 Lodi Dynasty reestablishes the Delhi Sultanate

Soon after the initial conquests of Northern India, Qutb-ud-din authorized the construction of a major mosque complex in Delhi, the capital of his new state.  There he ordered the construction of the complex known as the Qutb Minar mosque complex.  The Qutb Minar was distinguished by its towering decorative minaret, influenced by the Ghaznavid minarets found in Afghanistan.