Central Government
-
The Sultan was assisted by a number of departments andofficials in his administration.
The post of Naibwas the most powerfulone.
The Naibpractically enjoyed all the powers of the Sultan andexercised general control over all the departments.
Next to him wasthe Wazirwho was heading the finance department called Diwani Wizarat.
The military department was called Diwani Ariz.
It washeaded by Ariz-i-mumalik. Alauddin introduced the system of branding of the horses andpayment of salary in cash.
Cavalry was given importance under theDelhi Sultanate.
Diwani Rasalatwas the department of religious affairs.
It was headed by chief Sadr.
Grants were made by this departmentfor the construction and maintenance of mosques, tombs andmadrasas.
The head of the judicial department was the chief Qazi.
Other judges or qaziswere appointed in various parts of theSultanate.
Muslim personal law or shariawas followed in civil matters
The department of correspondence was called Diwani Insha.
Allthe correspondence between the ruler and the officials was dealtwith by this department.
Local Administration
The provinces under the Delhi Sultanate were called iqtas.
They were initially under the control of the nobles.
But the governorsof the provinces were called the muqtisor walis.
They were to maintain law and order and collect the land revenue.
The provinceswere divided into shiqsand the next division was pargana.
Theshiqwas under the control of shiqdar.
The parganacomprising anumber of villages was headed by amil.
The village remained thebasic unit of the administration.
The village headman was known asmuqaddamor chaudhri.
The village accountant was called patwari.
Economy
After consolidating their position in India, the Delhi Sultansintroduced reforms in the land revenue administration.
The landswere classified into three categories:
iqtaland – lands assigned to officials as iqtasinstead ofpayment for their services.
khalisaland – land under the direct control of the Sultan andthe revenues collected were spent for the maintenance of royalcourt and royal household.
inamland – land assigned or granted to religious leaders orreligious institutions.
Firoz encouraged the growth of horticulture.
Muhammadbin Tughlaq created a separate agricultural department, DiwaniKohi. During the Sultanate period, the process of urbanization gained momentum.
Delhi remained the largest city in the East.
The growth of trade and commerce was described by contemporary writers.
India exported a large number of commodities to the countries on the Persian Gulf and West Asia and also to South East Asian countries.
Overseas trade was under the control of Multanis and Afghan Muslims.
Inland trade was dominated by the Gujarat Marwarimerchants and Muslim Bohra merchants.
Construction of roads and their maintenance facilitated for smooth transport and communication.
Particularly the royal roads were kept in good shape.
Saraisor rest houses on the highways were maintained for the convenience of the travelers.
Cotton textile and silk industry flourished in this period.
Sericulture was introduced on a large scale which made India less dependent on other countries for the import of raw silk.
Paper industry had grown and there was an extensive use of paper from 14th and 15th centuries.
Other crafts like leather-making, metal-craft and carpet-weaving flourished due to the increasing demand.
The royal karkhanassupplied the goods needed to the Sultan and his household.
They manufactured costly articles made of gold, silver and gold ware.
The nobles also aped the life style of Sultans and indulged in luxurious life.
They were well paid and accumulated enormous wealth.
The system of coinage had also developed during the Delhi Sultanate.
Iltutmish issued several types of silver tankas.
One silver tankawas divided into 48 jitals during the Khalji rule and 50 jitals during the Tughlaq rule.
Gold coins or dinarsbecame popular during the reign of Alauddin Khalji after his South Indian conquests.
Copper coins were less in number and dateless. Muhammad bin Tughlaq had not only experimented token currency but also issued several types of gold and silver coins.
They were minted at eight different places.
At least twenty five varieties of gold coins were issued by him.
Social Life
There was little change in the structure of the Hindu society during this period.
Traditional caste system with the Brahmins on the upper strata of the society was prevalent.
The subservient position of women also continued and the practice of sati was widely prevalent.
The seclusion of women and the wearing of purdah became common among the upper class women.
The Arabs and Turks brought the purdahsystem into India and it became widespread among the Hindu women in the upper classes of north India.
The Turks, Iranians, Afghans and Indian Muslims developed exclusively and there were no intermarriages between these groups.
Hindu converts from lower castes were also not given equal respect.
The Muslim nobles occupied high offices and very rarely the Hindu nobles were given high position in the government.
The Hindus were considered zimmis or protected people for which they were forced to pay a tax called jiziya.
In the beginning jiziyawas collected as part of land tax.
Firoz Tughlaq separated it from the land revenue and collected jiziya as a separate tax.
Sometimes Brahmins were exempted from paying jiziya.
Art and Architecture
The art and architecture of the Delhi Sultanate period was distinct from the Indian style.
The Turks introduced arches, domes, lofty towers or minaretsand decorations using the Arabic script.
They used the skill of the Indian stone cutters.
They also added colour to their buildings by using marbles, red and yellow sand stones.
In the beginning, they converted temples and other structures demolished into mosques.
For example, the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque near Qutub Minarin Delhi was built by using the materials obtained from destroying many Hindu and Jain temples.
But later, they began to construct new structures.
The most magnificent building of the 13th century was the Qutub Minar which was founded by Aibek and completed by Iltutmish.
This seventy one metre tower was dedicated to the Sufisaint Qutbuddin Bakthiyar Kaki.
The balconies of this tower were projected from the main building and it was the proof of the architectural skills of that period.
Later, Alauddin Khalji added an entrance to the Qutub Minarcalled Alai Darwaza.
-
The dome of this arch was built on scientific lines.
The buildings of the Tughlaq period were constructed by combining arch and dome.
They also used the cheaper and easily available grey colour stones.
The palace complex called Tughlaqabad with its beautiful lake was built during the period of Ghyasuddin Tughlaq.
Muhammad bin Tughlaq built the tomb of Ghyasuddin on a high platform.
The Kotla fort at Delhi was the creation of Firoz Tughlaq.
The Lodi garden in Delhi was the example for the architecture of the Lodis.
Music
New musical instruments such as sarangiand rababwere introduced during this period.
Amir Khusrau introduced many new ragassuch as ghoraand sanam.
He evolved a new style of light music known as qwalis by blending the Hindu and Iranian systems.
The invention of sitarwas also attributed to him.
The Indian classical work Ragadarpanwas translated into Persian during the reign of Firoz Tughlaq.
Pir Bhodan, a Sufisaint was one of the great musicians of this period.
Raja Man Singh of Gwalior was a great lover of music.
He encouraged the composition of a great musical work called Man Kautuhal.
Literature
The Delhi Sultans patronized learning and literature.
Many of them had great love for Arabic and Persian literature.
Learned men came from Persia and Persian language got encouragement from the rulers.
Besides theology and poetry, the writing of history was also encouraged. Some of the Sultans had their own court historians
The most famous historians of this period were Hasan Nizami, Minhaj-us-Siraj, Ziauddin Barani, and Shams-Siraj Afif.
Barani‟s Tarikhi-Firoz Shahicontains the history of Tughlaq dynasty.
Minhaj-us-Siraj wrote Tabaqat-iNasari, a general history of Muslim dynasties up to 1260.
Amir Khusrau (1252-1325)
was the famous Persian writer of this period.
He wrote a number of poems.
He experimented with several poetical forms and created a new style of Persian poetry called Sabaqi-Hindor the Indian style.
He also wrote some Hindi verses.
Amir Khusrau‟s Khazain-ul-Futuhspeaks about Alauddin‟s conquests.
His famous work Tughlaq Namadeals with the rise of Ghyiasuddin Tughlaq.
Sanskrit and Persian functioned as link languages in the Delhi Sultanate.
Zia Nakshabi was the first to translate Sanskrit stories into Persian.
The book Tutu Nama or Book of the Parrot became popular and translated into Turkish and later into many European languages.
The famous Rajataranginiwritten by Kalhana belonged to the period of Zain-ul-Abidin, the ruler of Kashmir.
Many Sanskrit works on medicine and music were translated into Persian.
In Arabic, Alberuni‟s Kitab-ul-Hind is the most famous work.
Regional languages also developed during this period.
Chand Baradi was the famous Hindi poet of this period.
Bengali literature had also developed and Nusrat Shah patronized the translation of Mahabaratha into Bengali.
Comments
Post a Comment