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Title: History of Medieval India

AUTHOR: JL Mehta & Sarita Mehta

PP: 1000

PRICE:₹ 495

Publisher:Lotus Press


The writers J L Mehta and Sarita Mehta cannot be faulted on account of being a ‘right’ historian or a ‘left’ historian and this is just the kind of work needed in these times of labelling to provide perspective to what is perceived as ‘history’ of India. Their work, History of Medieval India, is a sourced account, which makes it one better than text-book history of the CBSE-NCERT variety. We all know about Alberuni’s account, probably the first focussed Indologist. Mehtas tell us of two earlier accounts of India. The Chachnama by Quzi Ismail, Muhammad bin Qasim’s camp follower and the Tarikh-i-Yamini, Muhammad Utubi’s who was attached to Mahmud of Ghazni’s court. Their rulers embarked on military adventures in the subcontinent and they were the chroniclers of the unfolding scenes in an India they had only heard of and did not yet know.

Unlike Hinduism. ‘The people of ancient India took little interest in writing the secular history of their times. Their sages and scholar cared more for religious, spiritual and philosophical studies, and seldom bothered to record the political, social and other material developments of their country in proper sequence.’ So, the History of Medieval India, is basically a culled effort from all these Muslim scholars’ works on India. And very unbiased accounts at that.

It is the story of Islam’s advent across the Hindukush ranges but it is also the story of a Greater India. An expansive region ruled by Hindu kings and ‘Hinduism’. We are told by British and Indian historians about Muhammed bin Qasim as a vicious aggressor, Mahmud of Ghazni the horrible or Aurangzeb the terrible but never in perspective, never giving the larger picture or the backdrop to their various invasions and transgressions.

Mehtas’ book, in the introduction itself, gives the reader the larger picture. I will leave the remaining pages for our readers to read. The best part is the maps J L Mehta has provided of the kingdoms and empires from East Europe to India. We have read that Harshavardhan and the Chalukya empires ended by 7th century AD. We know almost nothing about the Rajput rule from 6th century to 1200 AD. Or of Nagabhatta, who returned Kanauj to its past glory. Of Rajyapal who was defeated by Mahmud of Ghazni. The Arab assault on the west coast—Thane (Tana then), Broach (Barwar) and Debal. The maps position these ancient cities for us.

The book tells us, the lower Indus valley was ruled by Hindu kings, Sindh and Mekran (now Baluchistan) was all a part of the larger ‘Hindu’ empires before Islam. Kabul and Zabul were Hindu kingdoms. Dahir fought to his last breath and so did his queen, Ranibai to defend Sindh and Baluchistan, their kingdom. The authors tell us today’s Afghanistan belonged to the pale of Indo-Aryan civilisation. A capital was named Brahmanabad. That none of these peripheral nations of today’s India were anything other than basically Hindu, like the rest of the people of the subcontinent. The story ends with Bahadur Shah Zafar and the Peshwa Baji Rao II. It is a fitting tale of medieval India, the beginning chronicled by none other than Indologists and diarists who were faithful Islamic scholars, the end chronicled by the fading indigenous rulers in 18th century India. It is an unbiased account and that is rare in history books on India, especially the medieval period. A real history of India based on records, telling us how it all happened, what happened.

The minus point is the design of the book, font size less than ten, a thousand pages crammed into one volume, the quality of paper poor. Easily, it could be a two-volume work, When people buy books, they also look at the facility of reading and that which good to keep on their book shelves.