Medieval India: a Textbook of History for Middle Schools

Abstract

The word medieval means ‘the middle age’. It is used in history, therefore, to refer to that period which lies between the ancient and the modern periods, and is quite literally the middle period. How do we know when the ancient period ends and the medieval period begins ? We have taken the eighth century a.d. as the beginning and the eighteenth century a.d. as the end of the medieval period. Why ? Because as you will see when you read this book, there were many changes taking place in Indian society in about the eighth century a.d. and during this time these changes influenced many aspects of Indian society. They influenced the political and economic aspect, social laws, religion, language, art—in short, almost everything. So we recognize that a new stage in Indian history had come about. We may say that this change took place around the eighth century.