MEDIEVAL SOURCES

Developed under two languages - Arab and Persian

Persians are from Iran and have Indo European roots while Arabs are
from Arabian Peninsula and Syrian desert with Semitic origins

ARAB TRADITION
- It reflected Arab character ‘Cherished democratic ideals and treated
history as a biography of nations’
- Arranged chronologically
- Arabs not liked the idea of dedicating their works to rules or rulers
- It writes history of common masses

PERSIAN TRADITION
- Inspired by monarchy and monarchical traditions
- Treated history as biography of kings
- Approach of history was centred to the kings
- Narration - confined to the courts and kings and governing classes
- It excluded laymen

TURKO-AFGHAN RULE IN INDIA 1206-1526

 - Muslim historians adopted Persian model
- It had limited perspective ‘
- Works of Minhaj-us-siraj (1193-1267) historian under slave dynasty
- And Ziauddin Barani (1285-1357) under Muhammad and Firoz
Shah Tughlaq

AL-BIRUNI
- Early 11th century
- His work - ‘Kitab-al-Hind’ (Book of India)
- Father of Comparative Religion
- It explores Indian culture, religion, and sciences,
- Arrived India as part of entourage of Mahmud Ghazni

MINHAJ-US-SIRAJ
- Tabakat-i-Nasiri
- Gave general history of muslim world
- Trace history of Delhi Sultanate up to 1267 CE

AMIR KHUSRAU
- Born in 1253
- Father of Urdu literature
- Writes in Persian, Arabic and Hindavi
- Created khayal and qawwali
- He was called Tut-e-hind’ - Parrot of India
- He was spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya
- He served under Jalaluddin Khilji, Allauddin Khilji, Ghiyas-ud-din
Tughlaq

ZIAUDDIN BARANI
- Tarikh -e-Firoz Shahi
- Continues the work of Minhaj us Siraj from 1267 and wrote till the
times of 1357 Firoz Shah Tughlaq
- Another work - Fatawa-i-Jahandari , contribute to political thinking of
that period
 ● Written as nasihat - advice for muslim kings
● Containing political ideas to be pursued by muslim rulers
1358-59 CE
- He considers historian as trustworthy person thus history needs no
proofs unlike science
- Consider history not as mere narration but to derive lessons from it
to learn
- Value of Barani as a historian is seen by his interest in existing
administration
- Tells details about the market regulations of Allaudin Khilji
- Studies events in their interrelationship by tracing their cause

MUGHAL PERIOD
- Many of mughal emperors were themselves writers and wrote their
autobiographies
- Develop in historiography both in form and technique
- Rulers also encouraged regular court historiographers to write
official histories by adding data

BABURNAMA
- By Babur
- ‘Memoirs of Babur’
- Written in Chagatai Turkish
- He describes landscapes, cultural observations, and reflections on
warfare, governance and personal experiences
- It blends history, poetry and personal narrative

ABUL FAZL (1551-1602)

- Akbar Nama 1600-1605
- One of the navratna of Akbar
- Scrupulous regard of truth
- Obtained material from record office
- Served as model for other historians
- Akbar Nama has 5 parts - 4 are on Akbar’s reign
 - manzil-abadi, (palace establishment) sipah-abadi,(soldiers)- mulk
abadi third deals with administration, fourth contains information on
Hindu philosophy, and fifth contains sayings of Akbar.- Ain -i-Akbari
- Each reign is treated as a unit
- Reference to past and present maintains continuity for the reader
- He wrote about the discovery of America

BADAUNI (1540-1605)
- Contemporary of Abul Fazl
- Wrote Muntakhab-ul-Tawarikh
- Means selection from history
- Attack Akbar’s religious policy
- Dislike Abul Fazl
- He fills the blanks in Abul Fazl’s writing
- Abul Fazl tends to praise everything of Akbar and Badauni tend to
criticise it
This tempo continued in ShahJahan and Jahangir but discontinued in
times of Aurangzeb.
Aurangzeb withdrew this history writing in courts but it continued out of
the courts

Didactic history continued

STATE, POLITY AND GOVERNANCE IN VEDIC AGE

- Political writers of Ancient India unlike modernists never made a
clear distinction between state and government
- Also never wholly identifies king with the state
- King was one the 7 elements of the state
● The other 6 were
● 1) ministers
● 2) arms
● 3) territory
● 4) treasury
● 5) capital
 ● 6) allies
- King was responsible for all what that happened in his reign
- State was asked to correct moral life of people, make world
habitable and comfortable for men
- Ancient thinkers tend to think state as the complex of all social
activity

STATE FORMATION IN ANCIENT INDIA

Early Experiments
- Aryan invasion - agricultural and urban communities existed in India
- Powerful monarchies and battles
- Paucity of written sources

Tribal Polity in Rig Veda

- Aryans when entered India - semi-nomadic tribes
- Primarily pastoral people
- Iron was not known thuSA2s no effective cultivation
- Unable to form stable kingdoms
- Territorial state is everywhere the result of settled life
- Settled life did not came during RigVeda thus only tribal
principalities were there
- Social structure of Rig Veda was based on Kinship
- Gotra - people who tend to live under same cowshed
- Vis (group of villages) -jana (many group of villages)-
janapada-mahajanapada- state
- Jana - manifestation of patriarchal kinship, chief was called Janapati
- Vispati
- Basic elements of state were not there - no fixed territory as people
were more attached to their different kin groups than to any territory
- No regular source of income as tributes which victorious king
received obligatory and not regular
- And no standing army as soldiers were mobilised by tribesmen
whenever the need arose
- But process that gave rise to the state was begun
Tribal assemblies
- Vidatha - Tribal assembly with diverse functions
- Women participated
- Earliest folk assembly attended by both men and women
- Keystone of vidatha system was cooperation as it caters need of
primitive society, that hardly know domination of male over female
- Sabha and Samiti - they were called twin daughters of Prajapati
(creator)
- Sabha - aristocratic gathering associated with the king
● Political council
● In early vedic times, women attended Sabha but discontinued
in later times
● This primitive assembly later assume a patriarchal and
aristocratic character in LVP
● Exclusive body for elites
● Conduct itself by debate and discussion
● Decisions of sabha were binding on all
● King used to attend its meeting
● Sabhapati
- Samiti - like a lower house
● Consist of all common people
● Broad based folk assembly
● Presided by king
● It used to elect kings
● Matters of state, military and executive affairs were discussed
- Existence of these institutions shows that people in vedic period
took politics seriously and society in ancient India had a sense of
public life and animated political activity
- But as states grew larger and larger, samiti may had troubles in
meeting often and exercise regular control, samiti thus disappears
gradually and king wrested all powers
- Sabha developed as the privy council of the king

LATER VEDIC POLITY

 - Assumed a territorial character
- Settled life resulted agriculture and facilitated regular payment of
tributes
- pro -state character
- Aitareya Brahamana - tells the need of a king where it refers to a
war between devas and danavas in which gods were repeatedly
defeated and on inspection they got to know because of absence of
leadership of a king while their counterparts had one then Indra was
finally elected then gods won the war
- Necessity of war led to origin of king
- King is lesser of the two evils, Kingship was never held to be a good
thing so it was considered as regrettable but very necessary
institution
- Autocratic ruler was not supported
- Political theorist in ancient India has said prajahita - welfare of the
people as the first principle of rajniti \
- Thus in LVP State assumed territorial character, fixed territory,
definite source of income, settled agricultural life, army to defend
and bureaucracy though in nebulous form

MAURYAN POLITY
- Mauryas - 4th cent BCE - 2nd cent BCE
- Founded by ChandraGupta Maurya Empire in 322 BCE
- And lasted till 185 BCE
- Prior to it was - Nanda Empire and last ruler of Dhana Nanda was
assassinated by CGM
- Kautilya was insulted by Dhana Nanda so he took revenge
- India saw a political and cultural unification in the age of Mauryas

● Distinguished features of Mauryan age

- 4 essential features of state were in a completely evolved form
1) Territory
2) Population
3) Unity
4) Organisation
 - In Mauryan polity, king was all powerful
- Highly organised bureaucratic administration capable of of
maintaining stability of empire

KAMANDAKA’S NITISARA
- Nitisara - elements of polity
- Continuity and change from kautllya’s arthashastra
- Kautilya arthashastra - is called its mother text
- Kamandaka is said to be a discipline of Kautilya
- However it has been said he lived in Gupta period
- Has 1192 verses - shlokas
- 34 prakarans - sections
- 20 chapters or sargas
- For gupta polity
- Talks of dharma, artha, kama - on lines of Kautilya
- He accepts Varna dharma and ashrama system as socio-political
order
- Talks seven limbs of state
- Upayas- use of war as last resort
- 7 Upayas - 1) Sama - conciliation
2) Dana - gifts
3) Bheda - rupture
4) Danda - force
5) Maya - diplay of deceitful tactics
6) Upeksha - kamandaka strategy of neglect - diplomatic
intelligence - indifference
7) Indrajala - conjuring tricks
- Whereas kautilya identifies only 4 upayas - Sama, danda, bheda.
Dana
- He talks about issue of disasters (vysanas) that afflict constituent
elements of state
- Duties of diplomats and intelligence gatherings
- Prabhav-shakti- economic and military power
- Utsha shakti - leadership
- Mantra shakti - diplomacy
- Nitisara differs from Arthasastra in that the Nitisara focuses on
valour and the military qualities of the ruler, whereas the latter was
dependent on deliverance of kingly duties
- He talks of 5 common duties - 1) non violence
2) purfication
t3) truthfulness
4) excellence of speech
5) mercy and forgiveness
- State has highest among all the institutions its not just political
institution it is a moral authority
- Another important difference is that there is no normative setting in
Nitisara as in Kautilya’s Arthashastra about the political unification
of the Indian subcontinent, which hinges on Kautilya specifying the
geographic region, or the chakravartikshetra,as in Book IX, namely,
9.1.17–18: ‘17 Place means the earth; 18 means that the region of
the sovereign ruler extends northwards between the Himavat and
the seas, one thousand yojanas in extent across.’
- Kautilya is more of a political thinker than a Hindu thinker and is,
thus, totally secular. This is somewhat diluted in Kamandaka
Nitisara. In the latter, the reliance on fate (12.12.20) shows the drift
away from the secular work of Kautilya towards the more orthodox.
This may have been in keeping with the context of the Gupta period
where ‘Brahmana supremacy [had] increased’.
- Sarga XIX, Prakarana 28, Sainyabalabala (Points of strengths and
weakness of the army), at 19.28.2, also betrays Brahmanical
influences in some verses, which is rarely seen in Kautilya’s
Arthashastra. Kamandaka writes: ‘He should (at first) worship the
family (or state) deities, honour the Brahmanas (for their blessing),
watch the auspicious planets and constellation of stars, and march
with his six-fold army arrayed in formation (vyuha) toward his
enemy.’ Compare this with what Kautilya writes in Book IX (The
Activity of the King about to March), 9.4.26: ‘The object slips away
from the foolish person, who continuously consults the stars; for an
 object is the (auspicious) constellation for (achieving) an object;
what will the star do?’
- Unlike the fiery Kautilya who often rejects and challenges the old
schools or teachers of the arthashastra by saying ‘No’ and then
proceeds to give his ‘own voice’, no such practice is noticed in
Kamandaka’s work.
- Examples from the epics: There are more examples from the epics
in the Nitisara than in Kautilya’s Arthashastra.
- Influence of Sanskrit poets and playwrights on Nitisara: The Gupta
period saw the flourishing of poets, such as Kalidas and Bhasha,
and playwrights, such as Vishakadatta. Their literary influence can
be noticed in the versified text of Nitisara in its English translation,
as it seems to be much more ornate than the down-to-earth sutras
of Kautilya’s Arthashastra.

VARNASHRAMA DHARMA
- It means dharma is not same for all
- Sadharna dharma - common to all despite the varna to which they
may belong
- VD is system of social obligation
- Four fold division is visible in early Iranian and european society as
well
Western view of origin of caste
- Dasyus - original inhabitants of India and were ancestors of sudras
- They were subjected by the vedic gods
- Aryans conquered India they enslaved dasyus who were dark in
colour
- But this view is not viable as then there would have been 2 divisions
and not 4
- Difference was not of color but if cult
- Dasyus were considered as last in varna because of their natural
antipathy towards vedic religion which led to voluntary exclusion
Brahmanic view
- Divine sanction
- Purusha Sukta - primaeval giant
 - Krishna emphasis on division on guna- quality and karma - action
- Upanishadas -individual being is a body encased in a soul and one
should strive of progress of sel. Varna is detrimental for body only
- Chandogya upanishad -varna is determined from karma in past birth
- prarabdha karma
Purusha Sukta theory
- 4 Varna from same men shows interdependence instead of division
- Mouth - direction and control - brahma
- Arms - grasp and strength
- Vaisya and shudra - thigh and feet- bear the weight of entire frame -
economic props of the society
- It shows integration of society
RS SHarma
- Mode of production - surplus leading to class formation

JATI
- Smaller group existing in society
- Manu speaks of 50 jatis
● Ambastha, dravida yavana etc
- But there was confusion between varna and jati
- Manu says jati forms because intervarna marriages
- Many castes formed when by degradation of original varnas due to
non-observance of sacred rites
- Varna is action and caste symbols birth
- Varna - ethical and intellectual capabilty, jati are birth rights
- Varna is flexible jati is rigid

GOTRA AND PRAVARA

- In LVP
- Cattle herding
- Need to procure subsistence led to formation of clans
- Gotra first appeared in Atharva veda
- Patrilinieal exogamous
- Members trace their descent from common ancestor
- Earlier was a brahmanical institution later extended to others also
 - Gotra system used to incorporate new brahmanas
Pravara
- In gotra there are various pravaras - sub lineage
- Kashyapa gotra - trayshray parvara
- Pravara - remote founder of families

UNTOUCHABILITY
- Panchamas - fifth class
- In lvp
Haimendorf suggests - untouchables have no connection with the soil,
they are generalluy craftsmen - leatherworker sweepers etc
- Concept of purity and impurity

FAMILY
- Joint family
- Patriarchal
- Three generations
- Sraadha - rite commemorating the ancestors bound groups together
- Relatives of deceased - sapinda - join this
- Gives social security
- Smallest unit of social system
- Father - head - grahpati or dampati
- Kautilya -sees killing of son as most heinous crime

ASRAMA SYSTEM
- Stage in a journey of life onto prepare oneself for further journey
- Brahmachari
● After upanayana ceremony - sacred thread ceremony
● Dwij
● 2 types - Upakurvana - who marries after study
● Naishthika - celibate throughout life and pursue knowledge
● Then he become snataka
- Grihstha
- Vanaprastha
● He meditates and serve for others
 ● Freed his soul from material beings
- Sanyas a
● All his earthly ties break -\
- To choose vocation of life as per intellectual capacity and mental
inclination
- AL Basham suggests that it came as counterblas of Budddhism and
Jainism who were encouraging young men to take up ascetism and
bypass family altogether

SLAVERY
- Megasthenes was wrong about slavery because in India slavery
was milder than west and slaves were less in number
- Slavery occur in Dharmashastra
- It was recognised institute in India
- Denoted by Dasa
- Mahabharta -who lost in war would be victor’s slave
- Manu and Narada - slave can be acquired by
● By birth in master’s house
● By gift
● By inheritance
● Maintenance during famine
● By capture in war
● Voluntary surrender
- Katyayana says brahmana can never be slave
- Mrichchhakatika - slave
- Slave cannot be a judicial witness

POSITION OF WOMEN IN INDIA

- AS Altekar - one of the best ways to understand any civilization is to
study about position and status of women in it
- Position of women and status did not remain constant in it
- Manu declares that ‘by a girl, by a young women or even a aged
one nothing a women shall done independently even in her own
house
 - girl women in tutelage of father, as an adult under husband and
then son

Status of women
- RS Sharma believes that Perpetual war and pastoralism brought
patriarchal element to forefront and relegated women to a lower
status
- Altekar believed that position of women became better in civilization
unlike earlier in barbaric societies where was muscle was
indispensable element in success
- In Rig Vedic societies hunting and food gathering were left behind
and women held a position of honour as her participation was
necessary in production process
- Sexually egalitarian society where relations were based on
reciprocity
- Took equal parts in sacrificial rites
- It was wife’s duty to sing mantras at ceremony and unmarried
cannot perform rituals
- They participated in tribal assembly - Vidatha
- Satapatha Brahmana shows women were initiated to Vedic studies
after Upanayana ceremony
- Gradually she lost this important position as priests were
increasingly employed to offer oblations in certain ceremonies
- Around 500 BCE upanayana was discouraged for girls and
marriage was considered a substitute for it
- Altekar believed that participation of women in productive activities
like agriculture manufacture of cloth, bows and arrows was a root of
freedom and better status of women in vedic age but later there
position of women began to deteriorate when cheap and forced
labour of enslaved population or sudras became available to aryans
- Women were restricted to only production activities
- Marriage age was lower from 16/17 to 8/9
- Sati
- More of deterioration of women started from 300 BCE
- They were said to be fickle minded, who could be won easily who is
handsome, can sing and can dance well
- In mahabharata, Yudhisthir prayed to Bhishma to enlighten him
about the nature of women- he says women is root of all evil and
she is narrow minded, women is not of a strong mind and to resist
temptation thus she always need a protection of men
- Dharmashastras says… you cannot do friendship with women as
they have heart of hyenas
- But there are contradictions in Mahabharata as well - Bhishma also
says that women should be treated with love, where women are not
adored and all acts become fruitless. Which family’s women in grief
and tears that family become extinct
- Manu says if men want joy honour female householder
- Manu categorically laying limits on what to be given to them to keep
happy clothes, food, ornaments etc which shows women herself
can’t have them
- Manu gave a lot of importance to dauhitra - daughter’s son - if you
do not have your own son
- Women categories- married and unmarried and men - dwija and
adwija
- Women were seen as symbol of purity, righteousness and
spirituality
- In RV there are hymns composed by women
- Women mentioned are lopamudra, angirasi
- In RV, Urvashi - projected as Sahdharmadharini- participate with
husband in religious characteristics
- Brihadaranyaka upanishad - tells ritual to attain learned daughter
- Agency of devout women- more pativrata/ devout you are more
agency you get - deep rooted patriarchal mindset
- Draupadi - considered as shared property among brothers
- AV - hymn to goddess earth- it personifies earth as women and cow,
metaphors of linking to reproductivity and as there is need to control
land so as women by older men
- Angels said that women and children were the first form of property
on which men can control
 - History is androcentric - male’s history
- Jane austen - pride and prejudice
- Tanika sarkar - Amar Jiban
- Gerda Lerner - ‘Creation of Patriarchy’ while there is a sex body,
women menstruates and give birth as they have womb, it's just a
biological functioning but because of menstrual cycles they are
considered as polluting that is a cultural context, she will only
nurture the child is what culture is
- There is nothing natural about marginalising women.
Marriage
- Isogamy - marriage between equal - savarna - same varna
- Hypergamy - anuloma - Groom upper caste and bride - lower caste
- Hypogamy - pratiloma - groom - lower caste and bride - upper caste
- 8 forms of marriage is recognised by Smriti
1) Brahma - marriage of a duly dowered girl to a man of same
class by ceremony
2) Daiva - daughter is gifted to sacrificial priest as his fee
3) Arsa- where groom pays a token bride price of cow and bull
4) Prajapatya - no dowry no brideprice
5) Asura- marriage by purchase
6) Gandharva - voluntary union of maiden and her lover
7) Raksasa - marriage by capturing or kidnapping
8) Paishacha - man by stealth seduces a girl who is sleeping,
intoxicated or mentally deranged
- First 4 are approved by different authorities
- Last 4 can dissolved as father’s choice is not asked
- Age of marriage - Manu recommends that a man of 30 years should
marry a girl of 12 and man of 24 should marry a girl of 8
- Ideal marriage - one in which bride was one-third of groom
- Kamasutra suggests marriage of a girl younger to the boy at least
by 3 years
- It was declared that a father who did not his daughter in marriage
before her first menstrual period incurred the guilt of abortion- which
was a very grave sin
- Yajnavalkya - favoured marriage after puberty
 - Mahabharata favours marriage of well developed girls- Draupadi,
Kunti, Sita
Education
- Gargi Vacaknavi - highest spiritual knowledge - philosophical
discussion with Yajnavalkya
- 2 classes of women teacher
● Brahmavadini - lifelong students of sacred texts
● Sadyodvaha - prosecute their study till marriage
- Women who took teaching as career - upadhyayas/ upadhyayis
- Draupadi - pandit - learned
- There were poetess also - Hala- gathasaptasati - mentions 7 poem
- Therigatha - buddhist
- Buddhist and jains mention - Brahmavadin class
- But none of the sect hardly did anything for education for women
- After 300 BCE- this situation changes and right to study was denied
- Discontinuance of upanayana for girls and lowering marriageable
age for girls prevented them from acquiring vedic knowledge
- Education now given to fulfil duties in household for their husbands
- Higher education was not permissible for girls, so they were given
training in fine arts, like music, dancing and painting
- Vatsayana prescribes music and dance to be cultivated by cultured
families
- Many queens were accomplished dancers and singers
- Some women also went for military and administrative training.
Kautilya speaks of a female bodyguard
- Megasthenes says that an amazonian bodyguard attended
Chandragupta Maurya
- Queen were also placed in charge of administration of province in
absence of the King
- Around the beginning of Christian Era the doors of Vedic knowledge
were closed to women
RIGHT TO PROPERTY
- Although women status was declining and was treated as chattel
but a corresponding increase in her proprietary rights became more
extensive
 - Couples were considered as joint owners of household
- Some lawgivers allowed the wife to move to the court of law to
restore her property
- But Hindu jurists never made a sincere effort to secure women an
absolute equality with their husbands in ownership of property of
family
- Yajnavalkaya allotted one-third share of wife in family’s property
- But in reality none property was owned by women ‘
- As Landed property was held in common by village community or by
joint families
- Lawgivers recognised claims of wife to be Sridhana (women’s
special property)
● It consist of bride price
● Gifts given by parents, relatives and non relatives
● Gifts given by husband
- Katyayana grants women to power of sale and mortgage of
immovable property
- Later Stridhana was divided into 2
● Sandhyika
- Women had absolute rights over it and it cannot be
alienated
- Included gifts
● Asandhyika
- Other
Law relating to inheritance of Sridhana varied from region to region
- If women died childless and her marriage was not according to
approved forms then her property would not get to her children