With the attack of Gauri followed by Ghaznavi, India gradually came under the rule of Muslims (read as Afghans, Turks, Mongols, etc). Over this period Muslim dynasties ruled India and our History mostly talk about the rulers belonging to these dynasties.
But these rulers had to face difficulties with small Hindu states from time to time and these states and rulers were also the reasons behind the fall of a particular dynasty, like Rana Sanga helped Babar to defeat Lodhi.
What were the major states who gave tough time to these Muslim rulers?
Why a minority could rule a majority for such a long time when there were some powerful Hindu states in majority Hindu India?
Why a minority could rule a majority for such a long time when there were some powerful Hindu states in majority Hindu India?
I think that India was never a united Nation in terms of one ruler (before muslims). That is why it was so easy for foreigners to invade as they just had to invade some key states. If Rajas of diff states provided resistance, that maybe to save their rule of their area.
well india had been part of many empires even before muslims. and even the muslims didn't exactly just waltz in, it wasn't easy. the ones that finally managed to establish themselves only did so with the support of local vassals and administrators. the mughals for instance had to make extensive peace with the rajputs, and retained much of the existing social classes, giving them additional titles like rai, bahadur etc.
Exactly and my question is when these rulers and states were that powerful that the central governments (Muslim dynasties) had to keep good terms with them, why they could not raise against the outsiders. was 'Divide and Rule' formula always existed for which British rule is infamous :)
Some writers also blame that during the Muslim rule Hindu population were massacred in millions during the 800 years and some rulers had made it open policy to kill many thousand Hindus in a year and destroy their temples. Didn't this behavior motivated the Hindu states to raise collectively against the minority rulers?
Hoysalas: By 1336, the Ala-ud-din Khilji had conquered the Pandyas of Madurai, the Kakatiyas of warangal and Kampili. The Hoysalas were the only remaining Hindu empire who resisted the invading armies.
Vijayanagara Empire:1336-1646AD The empire reached its peak during the rule of Krishnadevaraya .The empire annexed areas formerly under the Sultanates in the northern Deccan and the territories in the eastern Deccan, including Kalinga while simultaneously maintaining control over all its subordinates in the south
Kingdom of Mysore initially served as a vassal state of the vijayanagara empire.The kingdom reached the height of its military power and dominion in the latter half of the 18th century under the de facto ruler Haider Ali and his son Tipu Sultan who were the only rulers of the knigdom who were muslim.
chola Empire: 300BC-1279AD
Kakatiya Dynasty:1083-1323 ruled current day Andra Pradesh.
Ahom Kingdom:Kingdom of Assam 1228-1826 was a medieval kingdom in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam that maintained its sovereignty for nearly 600 years and successfully resisted Mughal expansion in NE India.
Maratha Empire:1674-1818At its peak, the empire covered much of South Asia, encompassing a territory of over 2.8 million km² (approx. one-third the size of the continental U.S.)
Zamorin of Calicut: Ruled between 12-18th Century. Vasco da gama landed here and opened up the sea route to europe.
Garhwal Kingdom:888-1949 AD consisted of the present day Tehri Garhwal district and most of the Uttarkashi district. Rani Karnavati successfully defend the kingdom against invaders and repelled an attack of Mughal army led by Najabat Khan in 1640, and in time received the nickname of 'Nakti Rani' as she used to chop off the noses of any invader to the kingdom, as the Mughal invaders of the period realised.
My all time favourite dynasty before Muslim rule is Chola Dynasty, the ruled for 1000 years, two kings stand out, one is RajRajI and his son Rajendra Chola, they constructed Meenakshi temple in south:k:
Chola Dynasty was based in Madurai:) and declined before Muslims reached South, Malik Kafur invaded southern Kingdom for the first time, he was commander of Allauddin Khilji's empire:), His indemnity collection from Devgiri/Daulatabad is considered to be very huge. Rajput Rajas were in alliance even during the time of Khilji dynasty:)
Now this reminds me of our collage friend Fallahuddin, he looked similar to the picture of Allauddin in our books, We used to call him Fallahuddin Khilji but after success of Lucky Ali, the singer, his name was turned into Falli Ali:D
Chola Dynasty was based in Madurai:) and declined before Muslims reached South, Malik Kafur invaded southern Kingdom for the first time, he was commander of Allauddin Khilji's empire:), His indemnity collection from Devgiri/Daulatabad is considered to be very huge. Rajput Rajas were in alliance even during the time of Khilji dynasty:)
Now this reminds me of our collage friend Fallahuddin, he looked similar to the picture of Allauddin in our books, We used to call him Fallahuddin Khilji but after success of Lucky Ali, the singer, his name was turned into Falli Ali:D
This reminds me our fat friend to whom I used to say 'Babloo, motapa do types ka hota hai, ek health ka sign hota hai doosra beemari ka and I'm sorry you are not healthy'. We started calling him Dolly Bindra, but later I knew that he resembled Wajid Ali Shah :D
I love the Chola empire . Great contributions to literature and south Indian architecture. They excelled in foreign trade and maritime activity, extending their influence overseas to China and Southeast Asia. They mainly traded with the Tang dynasty of China, the SriVijaya empire of Malay and Abbasid of Baghdad.
It was the golden era for Tamil literature. Chola inscriptions cite many works, the majority of which have been lost. A number of religious books on Hinduism(Shaivite and Vaishnavite) , Buddhist and Jainism were written . The poet Kamban is famous for his work Ramavataram. Another notable work is the jain book Jivaka-Chintamani.
There was also a lot of secular and political literature written .Yapperungalam and Yapperungalakkarigai were two works on prosody by the Jain ascetic Amirtasagara. Buddamitra wrote Virasoliyam, another work on Tamil grammar. Virasoliyam attempts to find synthesis between Sanskrit and Tamil grammar. Other grammatical works of this period are Nannul by Pavanandi, Vaccanandi Malai by Neminatha.
Jayamkondar wrote Kalingattupparani, a semi-historical account on the two invasion of Kalinga by Kulothunga Chila. Jayamkondar was a poet-laureate in the Chola court and his work is a fine example of the balance between fact and fiction the poets had to tread.
Chola Dynasty was based in Madurai:) and declined before Muslims reached South, Malik Kafur invaded southern Kingdom for the first time, he was commander of Allauddin Khilji's empire:), His indemnity collection from Devgiri/Daulatabad is considered to be very huge. Rajput Rajas were in alliance even during the time of Khilji dynasty:)
Now this reminds me of our collage friend Fallahuddin, he looked similar to the picture of Allauddin in our books, We used to call him Fallahuddin Khilji but after success of Lucky Ali, the singer, his name was turned into Falli Ali:D
there use to be one more chola dynasty before this modern one during sangam period.......
this people stretched to sri lanka,maldivies,bali that's why you see lot of hindu influence in this countries
even thailand follows ramayan even though they are a buddhist countries...............
coming to temples not just madurai,sri rangam biggest/tallest gopuram (dunno whats it's called in hindi) for a hindu temple,even early structure of tirupati had chola influence later it was remodel by krishnadevaraya
another one is nataraja temple in chimdabaram birthplace of bharathanatyam, tiruvannamalai(annamalai lord shiva ) another big one next only to madurai and sri rangam..........
most of the time cholas were passionate shivates during later period they started building vishnu temples...........
personally visited madurai,sri rangam,tiruvannamalai this places were simply awesome,tamil people had real talented engineers in those days . dunno how they lifted those huge stones during BC without lifts.
heard most of the temple took hundred years to complete.......
small note on madurai all the four gopurams facing north/south/east/west have same length/width in measurements not even one inch lesser all four sides are exactly equal,also inside the temple there is a craving done on one big stone
