Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Alauddin' s belief that “the Hindus will never become
submissive and obedient till they are reduced to poverty .”
During the tenure of the Delhi sultanates and there-
after, many Arab Muslims married Indian women. The
ruling class accumulated harems of inordinate size. Fur-
thermore, they promoted the practice of purdah . In many
countryside villages in northern India, even Hindu
women adopted this practice of veiling and remaining
secluded from nonfamily males and strangers in general.
Other changes occurred as well. The Delhi court fa-
vored the sophistications and fineries of Persian culture.
Persian was the official language, influencing Sanskrit
and maintaining its presence even in some parts of the
south into the nineteenth century .
in India in the sixth and seventh century AD. The
king directs the battle from atop his elephant. His
moves are restricted to protect him because if he is
killed, the army is vanquished. Generals, cavalry ,
and runners conduct the battle. Infantrymen
(pawns), primitively armed, slow , and untrained,
are valued only for their numbers. Flanks are
guarded by elephants, who take front-line positions
in the last stages of the battle.
The game diffused via Persia to Europe. Chess
is thought to be derived from shah, the Persian
word for king. Shah mat approximates “checkmate,”
meaning “the king is dead.”
Elephant warfare remained in place for 2,000 years,
reaching its pinnacle under the Mughuls in the sixteenth
century . By that time, firearms and artillery , brought from
Europe by the T Turks, had been introduced into India.
The combination of raining arrows from mobile horse-
archers, bullets from musket-men sharpshooters, and ex-
plosive barrages from ranks of artillery brought the era of
elephant warfare to a close.
Persianization
For an 800-year period, Persian culture dominated
elite culture in north and northwestern India as well
as in other Muslim-controlled areas. The Persian
connection was an ancient one. However, the process
of Persianization was initiated with the T Turkish
invasions of the eleventh century and furthered by
subsequent immigration of large numbers of Persian
soldiers, administrators, scholars, and others into
India. Urdu, cultivated with Islamic orientations and
written in a Persianized, Arabic script, evolved as the
national language of Indian Muslims.
Even the Mughals, the last Indian court of
empire, retained Persian dress, literary , artistic, and
architectural styles, and the Persian language.
Without the later introduction of English by the
British, Persian could well have remained the lan-
guage of political and cultural elites in South Asia.
THE DELHI SUL TANATES
The Arab conquerors inaugurated Delhi as their capital
in 1229 and for nearly 90 years struggled to maintain
control of northern India. The second sultan, Raziyyat,
lasted only for three years. A chronicler of the time de-
scribed her as being a wise ruler and competent military
leader. “But of what use were these qualities to her as fate
had denied her the favour of being born as a man?”
Raziyyat was ultimately deposed and executed.
After defeating the Mongols in 1279, the notoriously
cruel Balban had thousands of Mongol prisoners tram-
pled to death by elephants as entertainment for the Delhi
court. Afterward, the victims' heads were piled as a pyra-
mid outside the city gate. Balban had copied the standard
Mongol style of revenge.
In 1309, Balban' s son, Alauddin, invaded southern
India. The loot, supposedly including the famous
Koh-i-noor diamond, was hauled back by 1,000 camels.
Another profitable campaign required 612 elephants to
carry plundered treasure.
During Alauddin' s rule, society became even more par-
titioned along religious lines. Cities and commerce were
predominantly Muslim. Entire castes of artisans converted
to Islam to escape their low-caste status. By and large, farm-
ers were Hindus, represented by their village headmen.
They could not accumulate property as a consequence of
T Two significant events took place in the sixteenth cen-
tury . First, the Portuguese appeared in the south, where
they destroyed Hindu temples at Goa and Madras (Chen-
nai). Goa fell to Portuguese control in 1510. Second, the
Mughals rose to power and ushered in India' s modern era.
India' s medieval period ended with the arrival of the
Mughals, who introduced the modern territorial state.
Until this time, India was more a collection of structures
than of territories (Figure 6-10). Cities, towns, villages,
and temples; rulers, soldiers, and priests; merchants and
farmers; all were ensconced in not always well-coordinated
networks. There was a large degree of local autonomy . All
this was to change in the era of Mughal authority and
British hegemony .
Search WWH ::




Custom Search