Enquiries in Medieval India: Religion, Society, Culture and Polity:: Religion, Society, Culture and Polity

Enquiries in Medieval India: Religion, Society, Culture, and Polity illustrates the nature and span of medieval India, which was always subject to external influences. These influences, upon assimilation, made India internally plural and got reflected in a continuing conversation between its different socio-religious traditions, cultures, strands of thought, and polities. With deliberations on the periodization of medieval India to exploring contacts between India and Central Asia during the period, this work investigates a range of historical problems. It examines the role of political ideas, institutions, religious vocabulary, cultural virtues, and communal relationships that helped in consolidating and conducting the affairs of the state in a pluralistic society. The intricate links of urbanization with the perception of territoriality of the medieval state are brought into focus in an essay and, in another, there are investigations into the place of Sufism in the politics of the Deccan. Keeping aside the framework of preoccupations with different dynasties and their fortunes and intervening into unexplored fields, this book explores how the institutional bases in every field of state and society formed the bedrock for the entire medieval period and beyond.