Tracing Changes Through A Thousand Years

• Cartographer


  A person who makes maps
• Map 1


  • A section of the world map drawn by the geographer al-Idrisi in the twelfth century showing the Indian subcontinent from land to sea
• Map 2


  • The subcontinent, from the early-eighteenth-century Atlas Nouveau of Guillaume de l'Isle
• Map 1 was made in 1154 CE by the Arab geographer Al-Idrisi. Map 2 was made in the 1720s by a French cartographer
• The two maps are quite different even though they are of the same area
• In al-Idrisi's map, south India is where we would expect to find north India and Sri Lanka is the island at the top. Place-names are marked in Arabic
• Map 2 seems more familiar to us and the coastal areas in particular are surprisingly detailed. This map was used by European sailors and merchants on their voyages
• Equally important is the fact that the science of cartography differed in the two periods
• When historians read documents, maps and texts from the past, they have to be sensitive to the different historical backgrounds – the contexts – in which information about the past was produced
• Hindustan


  In the thirteenth century, the areas of Punjab, Haryana and the lands between the Ganga and Yamuna that were part of the dominions of the Delhi Sultan. By the early sixteenth century, Babur used it to describe the geography, the fauna and the culture of the inhabitants of the subcontinent
• The term "Hindustan" did not carry the political and national meanings which we associate with it today
• In the medieval period, a "foreigner" was any stranger who appeared say in a given village, someone who was not a part of that society or culture
• Historians use different types of sources to learn about the past depending upon the period of their study and the nature of their investigation
• The number and variety of textual records increased dramatically during the period from 700 to 1750, slowly displacing other types of available information
• Paper gradually became cheaper and more widely available during this period, and people used it to write holy texts, chronicles of rulers, letters and teachings of saints, petitions and judicial records, and for registers of accounts and taxes
• As scribes copied manuscripts, they also introduced small changes – a word here, a sentence there. These small differences grew over centuries of copying until manuscripts of the same text became substantially different from one another
• The fourteenth-century chronicler Ziyauddin Barani wrote his chronicle first in 1356 and another version two years later, and the two differ from each other
• New technologies like the Persian wheel in irrigation, the spinning wheel in weaving, and firearms in combat made their appearance during this period
• New foods and beverages like potatoes, corn, chillies, tea and coffee arrived in the subcontinent during this period
• This was a period of great mobility, with groups of people travelling long distances in search of opportunity
• Rajputs


  A group of warriors who claimed Kshatriya caste status and became politically important between the eighth and fourteenth centuries
• Other groups like the Marathas, Sikhs, Jats, Ahoms and Kayasthas also used the opportunities of the age to become politically important
• There was a gradual clearing of forests and the extension of agriculture during this period, forcing many forest-dwellers to migrate
• As society became more differentiated, people were grouped into jatis or sub-castes and ranked on the basis of their backgrounds and their occupations
• Jatis framed their own rules and regulations to manage the conduct of their members, enforced by an assembly of elders described as the jati panchayat
• Several villages were governed by a chieftain, and together they were only one small unit of a state
• Large states like those of the Cholas, Tughluqs or Mughals encompassed many regions
• Jatis were required to follow the rules of their villages, and several villages were governed by a chieftain
• Together, the villages were only one small unit of a state
• Habitat


  The environment of a region and the social and economic lifestyle of its residents
• A Sanskrit prashasti praising the Delhi Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban explained that he was the ruler of a vast empire that stretched from Bengal to Afghanistan and included all of south India
• Historians regard these as exaggerated claims of conquests
• Languages mentioned by Amir Khusrau

  • Sindhi
  • Lahori
  • Kashmiri
  • Dvarsamudri
  • Telangani
  • Gujari
  • Ma'bari
  • Gauri
  • Awadhi
  • Hindawi
• Sanskrit did not belong to any region, it was an old language and "common people do not know it, only the Brahmanas do"
• By 700 many regions already possessed distinct geographical dimensions and their own language and cultural characteristics
• There was considerable conflict between these states
• Occasionally dynasties like the Cholas, Khaljis, Tughluqs and Mughals were able to build an empire that was pan-regional – spanning diverse regions
• Not all these empires were equally stable or successful
• When the Mughal Empire declined in the eighteenth century, it led to the re-emergence of regional states
• Years of imperial, pan-regional rule had altered the character of the regions