Cities In Medieval India

Cities in Medieval India focuses on the significance of urbanization in medieval India, by highlighting aspects of the rural-urban continuum and divide, power assertion,spatialization, social segmentation, labour process, as well as aspects of culture and human activity. By relating urbanization to issues such as economic transformation, commercial dynamism, agricultural production, ecology and environment, and the exercise of power and authority, the essays in this volume discuss many facets of the medieval cities.

This much anticipated volume looks at the historical evolution of towns and cities in medieval India from the early thirteenth to the late eighteenth century. The selection is based on the availability of documents. These include the narratives of European travellers in English, French, Italian, Dutch, and German with the exception of Ibn Battuta in mid-fourteenth century and also Middle Bengali literature in case of towns in Bengal. While the coastal towns and cities have been looked at, the interior ones are also described on the basis of the writings of later historians and archaeologists. Care has been taken to explain the rise, growth and the decline of some towns and cities in which the changing courses of rivers had played a crucial role. Attempts have been made to search other factors responsible for such eventualities. The delineation of physical features within the city has been given due emphasis including the different quarters of the city and the manners and customs of the local population with reference to craft production and commercial links. The morphological differences between the cities of eastern and those of the western or northern India have also been described. This is clear from the observations of port towns described here. All these would show that India was one of the most urbanized area in the medieval period before advent of the British.

This much anticipated volume looks at the historical evolution of towns and cities in medieval India from the early thirteenth to the late eighteenth century. The selection is based on the availability of documents. These include the narratives of European travellers in English, French, Italian, Dutch, and German with the exception of Ibn Battuta in mid-fourteenth century and also Middle Bengali literature in case of towns in Bengal. While the coastal towns and cities have been looked at, the interior ones are also described on the basis of the writings of later historians and archaeologists. Care has been taken to explain the rise, growth and the decline of some towns and cities in which the changing courses of rivers had played a crucial role. Attempts have been made to search other factors responsible for such eventualities. The delineation of physical features within the city has been given due emphasis including the different quarters of the city and the manners and customs of the local population with reference to craft production and commercial links. The morphological differences between the cities of eastern and those of the western or northern India have also been described. This is clear from the observations of port towns described here. All these would show that India was one of the most urbanized area in the medieval period before advent of the British.

Publisher Description

The Need For A Socio-Economic History Of A Port-Town Is Long Over Due. This Socio Economic History Of A Particular Port Viz Surat Has Been Studied By Dr. Mitra From Different Angles.

A study of a pre-modern Indian city (Old Delhi) as a sovereign city.

The medieval period of Indian history is difficult to define clearly. It may be perceived as the long phase of India's transition from the ancient to the immediately pre-colonial times. The latter period would naturally be imagined commencing from Vasco da Gama's voyage round the Cape of Good Hope in 1498, or, alternatively, the establishment of the Mughal empire (1526). More definitely though, the renewed Islamic advance into north India, roughly from 1000 A.D. onwards leading to the rise of the Delhi Sultanate (1206), can be held to mark, in political and cultural terms, the beginning of the medieval period. For the purpose of the Historical Dictionary of Medieval India, the period from 1000 A.D. to 1526 A.D. will be considered India's medieval times. The turbulent history of this period is told through the book's chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on key people, historical geography, arts, institutions, events, and other important terms.