The Book

• The predominant mindset about the medieval in India owes its origins mostly to colonial historiographers. This book goes beyond that to examine in considerable detail the changes in the systems of state and society during the medieval period. 
• The author analyses not just the political structures of the era but also various other aspects—be it kingship, administration of the state, the place of various castes in society, the functioning of the judiciary, the economy—and the ideas that they were built around.
• The volume has looked at political philosophers of the time like Farabi, Ghazzali, Barani and others and their concept of a state and contrasted it with the more ‘modern’ idea of a medieval state (colonial historiographers and others).
• It examines the state of flux in the country with the rise and fall of kings and empires, changes in the nature of trade, and emergence of new classes, castes and centres of power.
• It also analyses these changes in the south of India and looks at the trajectory that the region followed.