Tracing Changes through Thousands of Years

Period between 700 and 1750 witnessed major developments in religious traditions.

• During this period, some important changes occurred in Hinduism. Worship of new deities and construction of temples by Kings began. The importance of Brahmanas and priests increased. They became dominant groups in the society.
• Another major development was emergence of the idea of Bhakti in which devotees did not require the aid of priests or elaborate rituals to reach their personal deity.
• During this period, new religions also appeared in the subcontinent. Teachings of the Holy Quran were brought to India in the 7th century by merchants and migrants.

The name Rajput is derived from "Rajaputra", the son of a ruler. Between the eighth and fourteenth centuries, a body of warriors who were Kshatriya by caste was termed as Rajputs. The Rajputs were not just rulers and chieftains, but also soldiers and commanders who served in the armies of different monarchs all over the subcontinent. This group of people became important in this period. Poets and bards of these Rajput rulers ascribed some great qualities, such as great valour and immense sense of loyalty, to these rulers.

In modern times, the term foreigner is used for someone who is not an Indian. But in the medieval period, a "foreigner" was any stranger who was not a part of a particular society or culture. Therefore, a forest-dweller might have been regarded as a "foreigner", by a city-dweller. But two peasants living in the same village were not foreigners to each other, even though they may have had different religious or caste backgrounds.

As society became more differentiated, people were grouped into jatis or sub-castes. They were ranked on the basis of their backgrounds and occupations. The status of same jati could vary from area to area. Jatis framed their own rules and regulations to administer the behaviour of their members. An assembly of elders, described in some areas as the jati panchayat, enforced these regulations. Besides they had to follow rules of their village. Several villages were governed by a chieftain.

Brahmanas became important during this period due to the following reasons:

• They had knowledge of Sanskrit texts, which made them respectable in the society.
• They had support of their patrons, who were new rulers and searching for prestige.

During this period many changes were witnessed in religion.Peoples belief in the divine was sometimes personal and at other times collective. Other changes occurred in what we call 'Hinduism' today,as Brahmans earned a lot of respect in society. There was an emergence of the idea of �Bhakti� � of a loving, personal deity that devotees could reach without the aid of priests or elaborate rituals.

In the thirteenth century if a scholar wanted to copy a book, but he did not have enough paper, he washed the writing of a manuscript, he did not want and dried the paper and used it again. In the fourteenth century, there was a shortage of paper and the condition was that, if you bought some food from the market you might be lucky if the shopkeeper wrapped it for you in some paper

There was no printing press in those days so the writers copied manuscripts by hands. As a result of coping there occurred small but significant differences in the manuscripts. Small changes were introduced- a word here, a sentence there. Reading these manuscripts over the centuries proved to be difficult and the historians had to face difficulties.

In this period, various languages were used, in every region. Sindhi, Lahori, Kashmiri, Dvarsamudri, Telangani, Gujari, Awadhi and Hindawi.

The Shia Muslims went by the Prophet's son-in-law Ali, and Sunni Muslims accepted the authority of the early leaders or the "Khalifas".

The term Hindustan which we use as India � a modern nation state was first used by Minhaj-i-Siraj , a chronicler who wrote in Persian. The areas that he used this term for were Punjab, Haryana, and the lands between Ganga and Yamuna. He used the term in political terms for the land that came under the Delhi Sultanate.

Sources are important to trace the ancient records. Different types of sources are coins, inscriptions, architecture and textual records. References to historical events and traditions are scattered in many ancient Indian texts. Historians use these sources to learn about the past depending upon the period of their study and the nature of their investigation.

During this period, paper became cheaper and widely available. This resulted in a dramatic increase in the variety of textual records between 700 to 1750 CE. People started using paper to write holy texts, chronicles of rulers, letters and teachings of saints, petitions and judicial records and for registers of accounts and taxes.

In the modern sense the term Hindustan is used to refer to the whole independent India with its different states. That is to identify with the whole nation and its states. But during the 13th century Minhaj-I-Siraj, Persian Chronicler, used it indicate the areas of Punjab, Haryana and the lands between Ganga and Yamuna. He used it in political sense to locate the areas, which were under the control of the Delhi Sultan. But during the 16th century Babur used it to mean the whole subcontinent.

Vegetables such as corn, chilies, potatoes, and beverages such as tea and coffee and new technologies like Persian wheel for irrigation and spinning wheel in textile industry and firearms to be used in battle came to the subcontinent from other continents

The British Historians perodized Indian history as Hindu India, Muslim India and British India. This periodization focused only on the religions of the ruler and rejected the rich diversity of the Indian subcontinent. It did not serve the very purpose of the periodization. That is to say, to capture the characteristics of each periods in the history. Apart from this, to study history from religious perspective is not a rational and scientific way. That is why Indian historians have shifted the periodization to non-religious periodization- Ancient, Medieval and Modern periods.

Historians use coins, inscriptions, and manuscripts for reconstructing the history of ancient period. Very few original manuscripts are available and manuscripts which are available are the reproduction of scribes and some times information provided in these sources are not reliable. As scribe fails to understand the information given in the Historical text which led to the misinterpretation of facts. And moreover there is a lack of continuity as text do not follow time line.In Medieval period use of paper to issue Royal orders began instead of inscriptions. As paper has less durability than inscription caused the discontinuity in the availability of historical source.