Indians are known to house strong beliefs culture and religion throughout its history. Indians are strong believers of Hinduism and Buddhism intellectual resurgence. Hinduism is a religion that encompasses ancient traditions providing information in the observation of religious living. Buddhism on the other hand covers India’s many traditional cultures, principle and practices. This may also be classified as one of the many religions of the Indian people.
During the Delhi Sultanate (1206 – 1527), late medieval historical period different groups of people ruled India particularly from Delhi. The first of the dynasties ruling India started in the year 1206 through to 1290 (Mamluk dynasty). From then the Indians were absorbed by up-coming empires like the Mughal Empire creating a Muslim empire in India. Volatility was created as other ideas and religious conviction were incorporated in the Indian society.
This country which had previously developed indigenous beliefs and religion was going to incorporate other people’s ideologies especially from Persia and central Asia. These significant events are seen to have brought with them new ideas having a great impact on the original culture and showing that India has the ability to absorb other ideas. Therefore this paper is going to highlight on this issue which will mainly be based around the Delhi Sultanate. The paper will then conclude by giving an insight on India’s ability of bringing on board other people’s ideas.
A conqueror from Afghanistan (Mahmud) invaded North India at around 1000 AD. After his death in the year 1030 AD, he had put up a strong establishment of Islam in India. The richly cultured and religious Indians were now being ruled by Islamic kings. Another conqueror entered India in 1181. The invader Muhammad was killed in 1206, his position was taken over by the assistant who founded the Slave Dynasty. The Slave Dynasty was what facilitated the creation of Delhi Sultanate.
The original Indian cultures at that of period of time were subjected to a number of changes. This was through the blending of Indian and Islamic cultures during this period of time (Manjari 152). A lot of Indian people started accepting Islam which in turn created a new modification of religion (a religion that took up a lot of Indian ideologies and beliefs). The social grouping passed through some changes with the Indians following their original systems.
For the Muslims on the other hand the situations become a little tricky since their culture is not acquainted with the caste system. Nevertheless invasion into India led to the introduction of a lot of Indian ideas including the caste system. In Islam culture the caste structure began with ethnical partition. At the top of this division was “Ashraf” that comprised of Afghans, the Persians and the Turks. The caste that followed was that involving upper class Indians who had been converted into Islam.
The castes that followed were occupational and sub castes. At first the foreigners tried to protect their identification as unique, but later they were soaked up in the local culture as they started intermarrying, eating the same food, dressing like Indians and even absorbing their kind of religion. This was also a contributing factor to Indians softening up on the absorbing of other cultures and ideas.
Rituals concerning worship in Islam and Hinduism still continued to be indistinct and did not link together with union. Consequently schooling especially at lower level remained divided for all the communities. The main reason for the separation of education at primary level was because it was either carried out at a mosque for Islam’s or a temple for Hindus which focused on religion. In higher learning the main subjects covered were linguistics and religious studies. The system of education got support from the Sultanate making India’s institutions grow education wise. The only weakness was that sponsorship of education was limited to religious education.
Societies at the time were extremely polarized. They had huge differences in lifestyle as the invaders lived in luxury while the locals barely survived. Slavery was also realized but not on a large scale as most the slaves were released after a short period of time. Although slavery was a harmful aspect the released slaves injected the society with new ideas that they got during slavery. This was escalated by the fact that the released slaves ascended to power and prominence thus making it possible to effect the Ideas that they got from other people (in slavery).
Women in this society were given respect although restrictions were increasingly being imposed upon them. Women were made completely reliant on their male counterparts and male relatives. Women were secluded and made to stay in their dwelling places, they were also subjected to wearing of veils usually for covering ones face dominant in the Muslim culture (this is evident to this day). To justify this development there was a general doubt as of foreigners wandering all over India.
In that society women were allowed to pursue education although this was mainly done by high class women in the society who did extremely well in sciences and arts. Women who were peasants enjoyed a lack of restrictions although this was because of economic reasons. Some inhuman practices like the “Sati” which involves a woman putting herself ablaze on the husband’s interment pyre were on the increase during this time common in particular classes. Although a pass from the Sultanate in Delhi had to be acquired for this practice could be done.
The key transformation that had occurred now was that in the past all people in India were of one culture (the leaders and their subjects) but now they were from diversified and different kinds of cultures. Nevertheless the cultures in this scenario were able to cohabit and after a while embraced and incorporated ideas from all available cultures which produced a combined culture in India. It has been noted that this has been a constant characteristic of the Indian past, each time ideas and beliefs are presented there would be a switch over from the old ideas to the new ones and a fusion of the ideas would be seen to reign.
A good example is whereas the ancient rulers of India were hereditary (hereditary kings) the kings introduced by the sultanate did not become hereditary. At the Mughal’s period, the Indian society had integrated a number of ideas.
First the Mughals had non-hereditary type of succession which comprised of succession of any member in the family. The development continued the whole life scenarios to the extent of bringing art and architecture on board to use the foreign designs and techniques. The Indian’s society capability to use up new cultures became a constructive aspect on the society helping the Indian people in developing an assorted culture for its people which is still evident to this day.
The Delhi Sultanate period was a time of immense transformation in regard to religious beliefs and ideologies. The two religions (Muslim and Hinduism) were really being manifested to the people present at that time in the country. While Islam was making considerable growth into India Hinduism on the other hand was passing through a reshaping phase by the Bhakti group as compared to Islam which was also going through a re-thinking by the Sufi movement.
Hinduism at this time was divided into two, it had members worshiping lord Vishnu (Vaishnavas) and others worshiping Lord Shiv (Shivas). Active members of each particular sect moved all over the country telling as many people as they could about the respective teachings. At the same time Islam also had two sects (Sunni and Shia). In Hinduism a movement (Bhakti movement) was formed to restructure Hinduism making it a common man’s religion.
The saints in this movement moved all over India preaching Bhakti ideas to the communities in the local language to increase weight. They were against worshiping of idols, the caste system; they raised gender equality and encouraged ancient religion. In the Indian Islamic community there was reformation taking place by Sufi’s who believed the sultanate was misinterpreting their holly book (the Quran). This movement later came up with other religious ideas coming up with Sikhism which is a key religion in the current India.
In India Persian’s rose to power automatically resulting into the incorporation of their language into the Indian society. It was made an official language with the appearance of Persian literary works. At first this works were only known to Persians but later Indians learned this language and therefore the incorporation of the Indian themes in the language commenced. A good example is that of Amir Khusrav an Indian writer who wrote Persian literature in the Indian scenario. His works were great to the extent of inspiring other Indians to write in Persian. There was also works in local languages but the foreign languages flourished making the common person want to learn them.
During this era foreign methods of art and architecture emerged and were absorbed in the Indian society. The reason for this was the common features of these styles. An example is that temples and mosques had big courtyards. Another thing is that many temples were turned into mosques creating a rare kind of blend. Architectural ideas which seemed to be new in the Indian society were the introduction of the pointed arch on buildings and the dome (both Islamic decorations). These are also evident in the Indian society up to date.
The Delhi Sultanate era was evidently a time of vast experimentation with different cultures which were later absorbed and incorporated in the society by keen Indians who really wanted to learn from the many ideas coming into the India (Shiva 80). They managed to keep their native ideas but also took up the many ideas that were brought in the country. The combined ideas formed a complete logic.
Therefore as shown in this paper the Delhi Sultanate era was an era of immense alteration on the original Indian culture and ideas. Major changes took place, where there was one culture now there were many cohabiting cultures which successfully coexisted in peace, in the process coming up with a new composite culture. The consistence of this has been witnessed over a long time with Indians being able to synthesize new and old ideas. This is evidence enough that Indians are able to absorb new people and ideas.
Works cited
Manjari, Uil. Foreign Influence on Indian Culture. Mumbai: East African Publishers, 1987. Print.
Shiva, Kumar. The Delhi Sultanate Society. Delhi: Kathak and sons publishers 2002. Print.