Delhi: 12th to 15th Century

This is Chapter 3 of Our Pasts – II. gess102 ended with Prithviraja III losing to Muhammad Ghori in 1192; this chapter picks up the story in Delhi. It is a short chapter in the rationalised (2022) book — nine pages — so this page has eight concept sections, not more. It covers: how Delhi became a capital; the five dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate; what Persian histories (tawarikh) tell us and whose views they carry; Raziyya; the Sultans’ reliance on slaves and clients; the iqta system and taxes; the limits of Sultanate control; and the fifteenth century up to Sher Shah. The next chapter, gess104 (the Mughals), continues from Akbar.

• Links: gess101 (sources and archives, the Persian word ‘Hindustan’, Balban’s Sanskrit inscription, Muhammad Tughluq’s provinces); gess102 (the Chahamanas and Prithviraja III); iest203 (Class 9: resistance to the Delhi Sultanate — Ranthambore, Chittor, Devagiri — and Alauddin’s revenue at up to 50%).
• Senior pages: lehs201 (Ibn Battuta’s Rihla in depth), kefa108 (Sultanate architecture — the Qutb Minar, Alai Darwaza, Tughluq tombs), kehs103 (the Mongols and Genghis Khan), lehs202 (Sufi shaikhs of Delhi), lehs203 (Vijayanagara, which rose as the Sultanate lost the south). This page links them and does not re-teach them.
• UPSC: Prelims has asked about the iqta (1998, 2000), the Mongols and Iltutmish (2001, 2021, 2022), the order of the ‘slave’ Sultans (1983) and succession (1982). GS1 asked whether Persian literary sources reflect the spirit of the age (2020).

• Delhi’s rise: capital first under the Tomara Rajputs (Ananga Pala, 1130–1145), then the Chauhans of Ajmer (1165–1192); Jaina merchants, temples, coins called dehliwal; the Sultanate from the early 13th century built many cities — Dehli-i Kuhna, Siri, Jahanpanah.
• Five dynasties, 1206–1526: Early Turkish (Aybak, Iltutmish, Raziyya, Balban), Khalji (Alauddin 1296–1316), Tughluq (Muhammad 1324–1351, Firuz 1351–1388), Sayyid (Khizr Khan), Lodi (Bahlul).
• Sources: tarikh/tawarikh in Persian; authors lived in cities, wrote for rewards, upheld birthright and gender distinctions; Fakhr-i Mudabbir’s ‘circle of justice’; Minhaj-us-Siraj on Raziyya; Barani on Muhammad Tughluq.
• Raziyya (1236–1240), Iltutmish’s daughter, abler than her brothers but removed; compare Rudramadevi (Kakatiya, 1262–1289) and Didda (Kashmir, 980–1003).
• Administration: bandagan (military slaves) and clients; iqta held by a muqti/iqtadar — not inheritable, transferred, audited; Alauddin: state assesses revenue, kharaj ≈ 50%, cattle and house taxes; side box: khums, zakat, jizya.
• Limits and change: forest strongholds (Ibn Battuta, from Morocco); Bengal and the south slip away; Mongols (Transoxiana 1219) → big standing army; 15th-century regional states; Sher Shah (1540–1545) → model for Akbar.

In gess102 there was no kingdom with Delhi as its capital — because Delhi became an important city only in the twelfth century. It first became the capital of a kingdom under the Tomara Rajputs, who were defeated in the middle of the twelfth century by the Chauhans (also called Chahamanas) of Ajmer. Under the Tomaras and Chauhans Delhi became an important commercial centre: many rich Jaina merchants lived there and built several temples, and coins minted there, called dehliwal, circulated widely. Delhi’s change into a capital that controlled vast areas of the subcontinent began with the founding of the Delhi Sultanate at the start of the thirteenth century. The Sultans built many cities in the area we now call Delhi.

NCERT’s Table 1 lists the rulers of Delhi and asks you to identify the five dynasties that together made up the Delhi Sultanate: the Early Turkish rulers (1206–1290), the Khalji dynasty (1290–1320), the Tughluq dynasty (1320–1414), the Sayyid dynasty (1414–1451) and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). Before them came two Rajput dynasties, the Tomaras and the Chauhans. The table names only selected rulers in each dynasty.

Histories were called tarikh (singular) and tawarikh (plural) in Persian, the language of administration under the Delhi Sultans. Their authors were learned men — secretaries, administrators, poets and courtiers — who both recorded events and advised rulers on governance, stressing the importance of just rule. NCERT asks you to keep three things in mind: the authors lived in cities (mainly Delhi), hardly ever in villages; they often wrote for Sultans in the hope of rich rewards; and they advised rulers to preserve an ‘ideal’ social order based on birthright and gender distinctions — ideas that were not shared by everybody.

In 1236 Iltutmish’s daughter Raziyya became Sultan. The chronicler of the age, Minhaj-us-Siraj, recognised that she was more able and qualified than all her brothers, but he was not comfortable with a queen as ruler. Nor were the nobles happy with her attempts to rule independently. She was removed from the throne in 1240.

Governing a kingdom as vast as the Sultanate needed reliable governors and administrators. Rather than appointing aristocrats and landed chieftains, the early Sultans, especially Iltutmish, preferred their special slaves purchased for military service, called bandagan in Persian. They were carefully trained to hold some of the most important offices; being totally dependent on their master, they could be trusted. The Khaljis and Tughluqs continued to use bandagan and also raised people of humble birth, often their clients, to high posts as generals and governors. But this brought political instability: slaves and clients were loyal to their masters and patrons, not to their heirs; each new Sultan had his own servants, so an accession often saw conflict between the old and the new nobility. The patronage of humble people also shocked many elites, and the authors of tawarikh criticised the Sultans for appointing the ‘low and base-born’.

Like the earlier Sultans, the Khalji and Tughluq rulers appointed military commanders as governors of territories of varying sizes. These lands were called iqta, and their holder was called iqtadar or muqti. The muqti’s duty was to lead military campaigns and maintain law and order in his iqta. In exchange, he collected the revenues of his assignment as salary, and paid his soldiers from them. Control over muqtis worked best when the office was not inheritable and iqtas were held for a short period before the holder was shifted. These harsh conditions were rigorously imposed under Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq. The state appointed accountants to check how much revenue a muqti collected, and made sure that he collected only the taxes prescribed by the state and kept the required number of soldiers.

As the Sultans brought the hinterland of their cities under control, they forced the landed chieftains — the samanta aristocrats — and rich landlords to accept their authority. Under Alauddin Khalji the state took the assessment and collection of land revenue into its own hands. The chieftains’ rights to levy taxes were cancelled, and they too were forced to pay taxes. The Sultan’s administrators measured the land and kept careful accounts. Some of the old chieftains and landlords served the Sultanate as revenue collectors and assessors. There were three types of taxes: on cultivation, called kharaj, about 50 per cent of the peasant’s produce; on cattle; and on houses.

Large parts of the subcontinent stayed outside the Sultans’ control. It was hard to rule distant provinces like Bengal from Delhi, and soon after southern India was annexed the whole region became independent. Even in the Gangetic plain there were forested areas that Sultanate forces could not penetrate, where local chieftains set up their own rule. Rulers like Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq sometimes forced control over these areas, but only for a short time. From outside came the Mongols: under Genghis Khan they invaded Transoxiana in 1219, and the Sultanate faced their onslaught soon after. Mongol attacks increased under Alauddin Khalji and in the early years of Muhammad Tughluq, forcing both to keep a large standing army in Delhi — a huge administrative challenge.

After the Tughluqs, the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties ruled from Delhi and Agra until 1526. By then Jaunpur, Bengal, Malwa, Gujarat, Rajasthan and the whole of south India had independent rulers with flourishing states and prosperous capitals. This period also saw the rise of new ruling groups, the Afghans and the Rajputs. Some of the new states were small but powerful and very well administered. Sher Shah Sur (1540–1545) began as the manager of a small territory for his uncle in Bihar, and in time challenged and defeated the Mughal emperor Humayun (1530–1540, 1555–1556). He captured Delhi and founded his own dynasty. Although the Sur dynasty ruled for only fifteen years (1540–1555), it introduced an administration that borrowed from Alauddin Khalji and made it more efficient; this became the model that Akbar (1556–1605) followed when he consolidated the Mughal Empire.

The chapter’s question boxes, in page order, and ‘Imagine’.

‘Let’s recall’ (1–4), ‘Let’s understand’ (5–7), ‘Let’s discuss’ (8–10) and ‘Let’s do’ (11), pages 37–38. Questions 3 and 6 rest on passages removed in the 2022 rationalisation; their outlines say so.

Numbers

One-liners

• Delhi was first a capital under the Tomaras; the Chauhans of Ajmer followed.
• Jaina merchants built temples in Delhi; its coins were called dehliwal.
• Five dynasties: Early Turkish, Khalji, Tughluq, Sayyid, Lodi.
• Tawarikh were histories in Persian, written by city-dwelling learned men.
• Fakhr-i Mudabbir described the circle of justice.
• Minhaj-us-Siraj thought Raziyya able but disliked a queen ruling.
• Raziyya called herself Iltutmish’s daughter; Rudramadevi presented herself as a man.
• Bandagan were slaves purchased for military service; Iltutmish favoured them.
• Slaves and clients were loyal to masters, not heirs — accessions brought conflict.
• Barani criticised Muhammad Tughluq for appointing humble men.
• An iqta was held by a muqti, who drew its revenue as salary and paid soldiers.
• Alauddin Khalji brought land revenue under the state; kharaj was about half the produce.
• Forests and distant provinces stayed outside Delhi’s firm control.
• Mongol attacks forced Alauddin and Muhammad Tughluq to keep a large army.
• Sher Shah’s administration borrowed from Alauddin and became Akbar’s model.

Traps to avoid

• First capital at Delhi: the Tomaras — not the Chauhans, not Aybak.
• Persian, not Arabic, was the language of administration.
• Tarikh = singular, tawarikh = plural.
• Circle of justice: Fakhr-i Mudabbir, not Barani or Minhaj.
• Raziyya was Iltutmish’s daughter, ruled 1236–1240.
• Iqta = the territory; muqti/iqtadar = the holder; not inheritable.
• Kharaj = tax on cultivation (about 50%), not a religious tax.
• Zakat 2.5% (one-fortieth); khums one-fifth.
• Transoxiana is in Central Asia, not ‘north-east Iran’ as NCERT says.
• Warangal is now in Telangana, not Andhra Pradesh as NCERT says.
• Prithviraj’s dates: 1175 (this table), 1168 (gess102), c. 1178 (standard).
• Sher Shah borrowed from Alauddin Khalji; Akbar borrowed from Sher Shah.

Prelims — what UPSC asks

• Iqta (section 6): UPSC 1998 (A/R: early Turkish administration essentially military because the land was parcelled out as iqtas — both true, R explains A) and 2000 (match iqta–Delhi Sultans, jagir–Mughals, amaram–Vijayanagara, mokasa–Marathas). Learn the holder, the salary logic and the controls.
• Mongols (section 8): Genghis Khan in Iltutmish’s reign (2001; 2021 statement on the Indus); the 2022 three-statement question (first invasion not under Jalaluddin; a Mongol siege of Delhi under Alauddin; Muhammad Tughluq). The chapter gives the frame (1219; attacks peak under Alauddin and early Muhammad Tughluq); the details are Beyond NCERT.
• Dynasties and succession (sections 2, 5): order of the early Sultans (1983: Aybak, Iltutmish, Nasiruddin Mahmud, Balban); succession ‘generally hereditary’ (1982, key disputed — no fixed law, conflict at accessions).
• Expect matching on terms: bandagan, muqti, kharaj, khums, zakat, jizya, tawarikh; and the NCERT slips (Transoxiana, Warangal, Prithviraj’s dates) as statement traps.

Mains — where it appears and how to answer

• Persian sources (GS1 2020: ‘Persian literary sources of medieval India reflect the spirit of the age’): use NCERT’s three cautions about the tawarikh (urban authors, written for rewards, upholding birthright and gender), Fakhr-i Mudabbir’s circle of justice, Minhaj on Raziyya and Barani on Muhammad Tughluq — then the Hardy / Habib readings of Barani and gess101’s points on manuscripts.
• State and society: for answers on Sultanate administration or women in medieval politics, use the iqta controls, Alauddin’s revenue, the slave-noble cycle and the three women rulers. On jizya, temples and religious policy, set the attributed readings side by side (U.N. Day, Firuz Shah, Afif, Barani, Nizami, Eaton, Kumar) and avoid any present-day framing. Architecture belongs to kefa108.

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