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In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, N India experienced a
golden age under the Gupta dynasty, when Indian art and
literature reached a high level. Gupta splendor rose again
under the emperor Harsha of Kanauj (606-647), and N India
enjoyed a renaissance of art, letters, and theology. It was
at this time that the noted Chinese pilgrim Hsüan-tsang
visited India. While the Guptas ruled the north in this, the
classical period of Indian history, the Pallava kings of
Kanchi held sway in the south, and the Chalukyas controlled
the Deccan.
During the medieval period (8th-13th centuries) several
independent kingdoms, notably the Palas of Bihar and Bengal,
the Sen, the Ahoms of Assam, a later Chola empire at Tanjore,
and a second Chalukya dynasty in the Deccan, waxed powerful.
In NW India, beyond the reach of the medieval dynasties, the
Rajputs had grown strong and were able to resist the rising
forces of Islam. Islam was first brought to Sind, W India,
in the 8th century by seafaring Arab traders; by the 10th
cent. Muslim armies from the north were raiding India. From
999 to 1026, Mahmud of Ghazna several times breached Rajput
defenses and plundered India.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, Ghaznavid power waned, to be
replaced 1150 by that of the Turkic principality of Ghor .
In 1192 the legions of Ghor defeated the forces of Prithivi
Raj, and the Delhi Sultanate , the first Muslim kingdom in
India, was established. The sultanate eventually reduced to
vassalage almost every independent kingdom on the
subcontinent, except that of Kashmir and the remote kingdoms
of the south. The task of ruling such a vast territory
proved impossible; difficulties in the south with the state
of Vijayanagar , the great Hindu kingdom, and the capture
(1398) of the city of Delhi by Timur finally brought the
sultanate to an end.
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The Muslim
kingdoms that succeeded it were defeated by a Turkic invader
from Afghanistan, Babur , a remote descendant of Timur, who,
after the battle of Panipat in 1526, founded the Mughal
empire. The empire was consolidated by Akbar and reached its
greatest territorial extent, the control of almost all of
India, under Aurangzeb (ruled 1659-1707). Under the Delhi
Sultanate and the Mughal empire a large Muslim following
grew and a new culture evolved in India; Islam, however,
never supplanted Hinduism as the faith of the majority.
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India
Travel Guide
Rajasthan
Travel Guide
Kerala Travel Guide
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of
India
by
Cecilia dos Guimaraes
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