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1206 – 1707 · Indian History timeline

Medieval India

  • 7events
  • 1206 – 1707
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  1. 1206

    The Delhi Sultanate is established

    Qutb-ud-din Aibak founds a Turkish sultanate at Delhi — three centuries of Indo-Islamic administration, architecture and revenue practice.

    WhoQutb-ud-din Aibak · Iltutmish · Alauddin Khalji

    ImpactA new state form: iqta revenue assignments and a standing cavalry

    Causes

    • Ghurid victory at the second battle of Tarain, 1192
    • Rajput political fragmentation in the north
    • Superior cavalry tactics and the composite bow

    Consequences

    • Persian as the language of administration for six hundred years
    • Alauddin Khalji’s price controls and market regulation
    • The Indo-Islamic architectural vocabulary — arch, dome, minaret

    PeopleQutb-ud-din Aibak (Founder, 1206); Iltutmish (Consolidator, r. 1211–36); Razia Sultana (Sole woman sultan of Delhi)

    For the examFive dynasties in order — Slave, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid, Lodi — and the reform each is remembered for: Alauddin Khalji’s market control and dagh-o-chehra horse branding, Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s token currency and the Daulatabad transfer, Firoz Shah Tughlaq’s canals and the jizya on Brahmins. Iltutmish’s tanka and jital are the standard coinage question.

    Prelims pointerIltutmish, not Aibak, introduced the silver tanka and the copper jital and got the Caliph’s investiture that made the sultanate legitimate.

    ConnectedVijayanagara Empire founded (effect); First Battle of Panipat — the Mughal Empire begins (effect)

  2. 1336

    Vijayanagara Empire founded

    Harihara and Bukka establish a southern empire that dominates the peninsula for two centuries.

    WhoHarihara I · Bukka Raya · Krishnadevaraya

    ImpactA southern counterweight to the Deccan sultanates

    Causes

    • Collapse of the Hoysala and Kakatiya states under Delhi’s raids
    • A defensible capital site at Hampi

    Consequences

    • Temple architecture and Telugu literature under Krishnadevaraya
    • Defeat at Talikota, 1565, and the sack of Hampi

    PeopleKrishnadevaraya (r. 1509–29; Amuktamalyada)

    For the examFour dynasties — Sangama, Saluva, Tuluva, Aravidu — and the amara-nayaka system, which the paper likes to compare with the iqta. Foreign accounts are heavily tested: Nicolo Conti, Abdur Razzaq, Domingo Paes and Fernao Nuniz. Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which pairs it with the culture questions.

    Prelims pointerKrishnadevaraya wrote the Amuktamalyada in Telugu, and the empire fell at Talikota in 1565 to a coalition of Deccan sultanates — not to the Mughals.

    ConnectedThe Delhi Sultanate is established (cause)

  3. 1498

    Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut

    The first sea route from Europe to India opens — and with it three centuries of European commercial and then political competition.

    WhoVasco da Gama · Zamorin of Calicut

    ImpactDirect European access to the spice trade, bypassing Arab intermediaries

    Causes

    • Portuguese search for a route around Ottoman-controlled land trade
    • Rounding of the Cape of Good Hope, 1488

    Consequences

    • Portuguese fortified trade posts at Goa, Diu and Daman
    • A century later, the Dutch, English and French follow the same route

    PeopleVasco da Gama (Portuguese navigator); The Zamorin (Ruler of Calicut)

    For the examThe order of European arrival — Portuguese, Dutch, English, Danish, French — and the first factory of each: the Portuguese at Cochin in 1500, the English at Surat in 1613, the Dutch at Masulipatnam, the French at Surat in 1668. Francisco de Almeida’s Blue Water Policy and Albuquerque’s capture of Goa in 1510 are the standard follow-ups.

    Prelims pointerThe Portuguese were the first European power to arrive and the last to leave — Goa, Daman and Diu were annexed only in 1961.

    ConnectedBattle of Plassey (effect)

  4. 1526

    First Battle of Panipat — the Mughal Empire begins

    Babur’s field artillery and mobile cavalry destroy a far larger Lodi army, and a dynasty that will rule for three centuries takes Delhi.

    WhoBabur · Ibrahim Lodi

    ImpactMughal rule, gunpowder warfare and a new imperial administration

    Causes

    • Lodi factionalism and an invitation from Daulat Khan Lodi
    • Babur’s loss of Samarkand and need for a new base
    • Ottoman-style field artillery unavailable to the Lodis

    Consequences

    • Foundation of the Mughal Empire at Delhi and Agra
    • Gunpowder becomes decisive in Indian warfare
    • The Baburnama — a first-person imperial memoir

    PeopleBabur (First Mughal emperor); Ibrahim Lodi (Last Lodi sultan)

    For the examThe three battles of Panipat are the classic sequence question: 1526 Babur against Ibrahim Lodi, 1556 Akbar’s regent Bairam Khan against Hemu, 1761 Ahmad Shah Abdali against the Marathas. Babur’s own tactics — tulughma and araba — and the Baburnama in Chagatai Turkish are the reliable details.

    Prelims pointerIbrahim Lodi is the only Delhi sultan to die on a battlefield, and the Baburnama was written in Chagatai Turkish, not Persian.

    ConnectedThe Delhi Sultanate is established (cause); Akbar accedes to the throne (effect)

  5. 1556

    Akbar accedes to the throne

    Fifty years of expansion plus a deliberate policy of alliance and religious accommodation turn a conquest state into an Indian empire.

    WhoAkbar · Bairam Khan · Todar Mal

    ImpactMansabdari ranks, the zabt revenue system, sulh-i-kul

    Causes

    • Humayun’s death and a contested succession
    • Second Battle of Panipat against Hemu, 1556

    Consequences

    • Rajput integration into the imperial nobility
    • A revenue settlement that outlasted the empire itself
    • Din-i-Ilahi and the Ibadat Khana debates

    PeopleAkbar (r. 1556–1605); Todar Mal (Revenue minister); Abul Fazl (Akbarnama, Ain-i-Akbari)

    For the examMansabdari is the heavily-worked area: zat for personal rank and sawar for cavalry obligation, and the later do-aspa sih-aspa. Revenue is the other — the zabti or dahsala system based on ten years of prices, against ghalla-bakshi and nasaq. Sulh-i-kul, the Ibadat Khana and the 1579 mahzar are the religious-policy set.

    Prelims pointerZat fixed a mansabdar’s personal rank and pay; sawar fixed how many horsemen he had to maintain — the two ranks were separate and often unequal.

    ConnectedFirst Battle of Panipat — the Mughal Empire begins (cause); Aurangzeb dies; Mughal decline sets in (effect)

  6. 1674

    Shivaji is crowned at Raigad

    A hill-fort insurgency becomes a sovereign Maratha state with its own revenue system, navy and administrative Sanskrit vocabulary.

    WhoShivaji · Jijabai · Ashtapradhan council

    ImpactThe Maratha state — the Mughals’ most durable Indian rival

    Causes

    • Bijapuri and Mughal pressure on Deccan chieftains
    • Control of the Sahyadri fort network and guerrilla mobility

    Consequences

    • Maratha expansion that reached Delhi within eighty years
    • Chauth and sardeshmukhi as a revenue model

    PeopleShivaji (First Chhatrapati); Jijabai (His mother and regent)

    For the examThe Ashtapradhan portfolios are matched to duties — Peshwa, Amatya, Sachiv, Mantri, Senapati, Sumant, Nyayadhish, Panditrao. Chauth at a quarter of revenue and sardeshmukhi at a tenth is the other reliable pair, along with the Treaty of Purandar in 1665 with Jai Singh I.

    Prelims pointerChauth was one-fourth of the revenue and sardeshmukhi an additional one-tenth claimed as hereditary head-of-district dues — two separate levies, not one.

    ConnectedAurangzeb dies; Mughal decline sets in (effect)

  7. 1707

    Aurangzeb dies; Mughal decline sets in

    Twenty-seven years of Deccan war leave the empire fiscally exhausted and its provinces effectively independent.

    WhoAurangzeb · Bahadur Shah I

    ImpactRegional successor states: Hyderabad, Awadh, Bengal

    Causes

    • The cost of the Deccan campaigns
    • Jagir shortage and a bloated nobility

    Consequences

    • A power vacuum the Company later filled province by province
    • Maratha and Sikh expansion into the north

    PeopleAurangzeb (r. 1658–1707)

    For the examThe jagirdari crisis — be-jagiri, too many nobles chasing too few assignments — is the standard structural explanation, set against Satish Chandra’s and Athar Ali’s readings. The successor states are classified for Mains as independent (Hyderabad, Bengal, Awadh), rebel (Marathas, Sikhs, Jats) and independent-of-origin.

    Prelims pointerAurangzeb reimposed the jizya in 1679, a hundred years after Akbar abolished it — the reimposition, not the abolition, is the 1679 date.

    ConnectedShivaji is crowned at Raigad (cause); Battle of Plassey (effect)

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