Early Medieval India (c. 750–1200): Tripartite Struggle, Rajputs, Imperial Cholas, Regional Kingdoms and the Turkish Invasions

Start Here — The 'Dark Middle' That UPSC Loves

🎯 Exam priority: Steady (T2) — and the home of the 'medieval terminologies' that produce six Prelims questions in a decade.Recent asks: Eripatti, Taniyurs and Ghatikas (2016), Araghatta (2016), Banjaras (2016), Fanam (2022), King–dynasty pairs including Nannuka and Nagabhata II (2022), dynasties established in the early eighth century (2023), Rajendra I and Srivijaya (2025), Hoysala temples on the UNESCO list (2024), plus Mains on Chola temple art (2024).

Between the end of Harsha's empire (647) and the Turkish conquest of north India (1192–1206) lies a long age of regional states. Four stories hold it together: (1) the Tripartite Struggle for Kanauj; (2) the rise of the Rajput clans in a feudal order; (3) the maritime Chola empire in the south; (4) the Arab, Ghaznavid and Ghurid invasions that ended the age. Add one economic idea — land-based feudal decentralisation — and you have the whole chapter.

The Tripartite Struggle for Kanauj

After Harsha, Kanauj (the Doab's key city) became the prize. For about two centuries the Gurjara-Pratiharas (west), the Palas (east) and the Rashtrakutas (Deccan) fought over it.

• Outcome. Dharmapala and the Pratihara king Vatsaraja clashed; the Rashtrakuta Dhruva defeated both; later Govinda III and Indra III raided Kanauj. The Pratiharas held Kanauj longest under Bhoja and Mahendrapala, but none established lasting control — all three powers were exhausted, and the Pratihara empire broke up into Rajput states in the 10th century.

• Bhoja versus Bhoja. The 2022 PYQ used the trap: Bhoja the Pratihara (836–885) and Bhoja the Paramara (1010–55) are different kings. Neither was a Rashtrakuta.

• Sources: Arab merchant Sulaiman (851) praises the Pratihara cavalry and the Rashtrakuta 'Balhara'; the Gwalior and Aihole-type prashastis; the Palas' own copper plates (Khalimpur).

Pala art, learning and religion

• Vikramashila (by Dharmapala), Somapura (Paharpur, now in Bangladesh and a UNESCO site), Odantapuri and Jagaddala supplemented Nalanda. Monks like Atisha Dipankara went to Tibet. Mahayana and Vajrayana flourished; their bronzes (Dhiman and Vitapala are named artists) and palm-leaf paintings (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita) shaped Nepal, Tibet and Burma.

• After the Palas, the Senas (Vijayasena, Ballalasena, Lakshmanasena — patron of Jayadeva's Gita Govinda) ruled Bengal until Bakhtiyar Khalji's raid (c. 1204).

The Rajput States — Origins, Clans, Features

Who were the Rajputs?

• The word means rajaputra, 'son of a king'. Between the 6th and 12th centuries clans in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Malwa and Bundelkhand rose to power. Three views: (a) Agnikula myth — Chauhans, Paramaras, Solankis and Pratiharas born from a sacrificial fire at Mount Abu (a legend from the later Prithviraj Raso); (b) foreign origin — descendants of Hunas and Shakas absorbed as kshatriyas; (c) the modern view: assimilated tribal and pastoral chiefs, many from samanta (feudatory) families, who claimed kshatriya status through genealogies and land grants.

Features of Rajput polity and society

• Political: clan-based, decentralised, a weak centre with no standing army; local chiefs held power through land; clan rivalry beat unity (a major reason for defeat by the Turks).

• Economic: land grants spread agrarian settlement; self-sufficient villages; weak monetisation; sea voyages discouraged by the dharmashastra; trade shrank, though not wholly.

• Social: caste rigidity, higher status for women in some respects (swayamvara, education among the elite) but also sati, jauhar and child marriage; a heroic ethic that valued death in battle over retreat.

• Cultural: a temple boom — Khajuraho (Chandelas), Mount Abu's Dilwara (Solankis), Konark (Eastern Gangas); the literary works Prithviraj Raso and Kalhana's Rajatarangini (1148–49), the first real chronicle in Sanskrit; Kishangarh's 'Bani Thani' style came much later.

Kashmir and the north-west

• The Karkotas (7th–9th c.) peaked under Lalitaditya Muktapida, who built the Martand Sun temple (Anantnag), with Gandharan, Gupta and Kashmiri elements. The Utpalas and Lohara dynasty followed. Hindu Shahis ruled Punjab and Kabul until Mahmud's victory at Waihind (1008).

Arab, Ghaznavid and Ghurid Invasions

• Arabs (712). Muhammad bin Qasim defeated Raja Dahir of Sindh; the Chachnama records it. Arab rule stayed confined to Sindh and Multan, and the Pratiharas and Rashtrakutas checked further expansion; but the Arabs transmitted Indian mathematics and medicine to the Islamic world.

• Mahmud of Ghazni (1000–1027). Seventeen raids to fund his Central Asian empire: against the Hindu Shahis (Waihind, 1008), Nagarkot (1009), Mathura and Kanauj (1018, Rajyapala fled), Kalinjar (the Chandela Vidyadhara) and Somnath (1025–26, where Bhima I of Gujarat could not withstand him). He annexed the Punjab, Multan and Sindh, which provided a base for later conquests. His court scholar Alberuni wrote the Tahqiq-i-Hind (Kitab-ul-Hind), an outside view of Indian society and sciences; Firdausi's Shahnama and Utbi's chronicle belong to the same circle.

• Muhammad of Ghor (1175–1206). Took Multan (1175); was defeated by the Solanki Mularaja II at Anhilwara (1178); lost the First Battle of Tarain (1191) to Prithviraj III; won the Second Battle of Tarain (1192); and defeated Jaichandra at Chandawar (1194). Bakhtiyar Khalji raided Bihar (the sack of Odantapuri and Vikramashila, c. 1200) and Bengal (c. 1204). His general Qutb-ud-din Aibak founded the Delhi Sultanate in 1206.

• Why the Rajputs lost. Disunity among clans, a feudal, non-professional army, outdated tactics against the Turks' mounted archers and iron stirrups, no sea or frontier intelligence, and a weak centre. Mahmud's raids were for plunder; Ghori's aim was to rule.

The Imperial Cholas — The Great Maritime Empire

Administration

• The king was advised by a council of ministers; officers were classed as perundanam (high) and sirudanam (low). The land revenue department was the puravuvarithinaikkalam; land was carefully surveyed (Rajaraja I's survey) and taxed at about one-third of the produce. Taxes included kadamai and kudimai.

• Territorial units: Mandalam (province) → Valanadu → Nadu → Kurram (group of villages) → Ur (village). Princes of the royal family or trusted officials governed mandalams.

• Village self-government is the Cholas' signature feature, documented in the Uttaramerur inscriptions (919 and 921 CE, Parantaka I): the ur (assembly of non-brahmana landholders), the sabha / mahasabha (brahmadeya villages), the nagaram (merchants). Committees (variyams — annual, tank, field, garden, gold) were filled by lottery (kudavolai: palm-leaf tickets in a pot). Qualifications: ownership of about a quarter veli of tax-paying land, a house on one's own land, knowledge of the Vedas / shastras, age between 30 and 70; those who had failed to submit accounts or committed major offences were disqualified.

Economy and society

• State investment in irrigation (tanks, canals, Rajendra's Cholagangam); temples as landholders, banks, employers, schools and patrons of music and dance (devadasis). Foreign trade with China (embassies in 1015 and 1033) and South-East Asia through guilds like Manigramam and Ayyavole-500 and the port of Nagapattinam; the Chola navy made the Bay of Bengal a 'Chola lake'.

• Society was highly stratified, with brahmanas dominant and groupings called valangai and idangai becoming rigid.

Religion, literature and art (cross-link to Part C)

• Mostly Shaiva patrons, though Vaishnavism was supported; Ramanuja left the Chola country for Hoysala territory. Literature: Kamban's Ramavataram, Sekkizhar's Periya Puranam, Tiruttakkadevar's Jain epic Jivaka Chintamani, Buddhamitra's Virasoliyam. Arts: the Dravida temple at its peak — Brihadeeswara (Thanjavur, 1010), Gangaikondacholapuram, Darasuram (Airavateshvara) — grouped as the UNESCO 'Great Living Chola Temples'; Chola bronzes, notably the Nataraja, in lost-wax casting.

• Mains 2024 asked: 'Though the great Cholas are no more yet their name is still remembered with great pride because of their highest achievements in the domain of art and architecture. Comment.'

Why it is in the news

On 27 July 2025, at the Aadi Thiruvathirai festival at Gangaikondacholapuram, the Prime Minister released a commemorative coin for Rajendra Chola I and marked a thousand years of his naval expedition to South-East Asia; the Chola sengol was also installed in the new Parliament in 2023.

The Deccan, Odisha and the Far South

• Chalukyas of Kalyani (973–1189): Tailapa II overthrew the Rashtrakutas; Vikramaditya VI (1076–1126) is celebrated in Bilhana's Vikramankadevacharita; Vijnaneshvara wrote the Mitakshara on Yajnavalkya's law (the 2021 PYQ contrasted it with Bengal's Dayabhaga of Jimutavahana).

• Hoysalas (11th–14th c.): Vishnuvardhana (1108–52) turned to Vaishnavism under Ramanuja; the temples at Belur (Chennakeshava, 1117), Halebidu (Hoysaleshvara) and Somanathapura (Keshava) use soapstone, a star-shaped (stellate) plan and a raised platform (jagati). The 'Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas' was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023 (the 2024 PYQ).

• Kakatiyas (12th–14th c.): Ganapatideva and the queen Rudrama Devi; Warangal; the Ramappa (Rudreshvara) temple, a UNESCO site (2021); fell to the Delhi Sultanate's armies in 1323.

• Yadavas of Devagiri: Bhillama, Singhana, Ramachandra (defeated by Alauddin Khalji in 1296); Hemadri's Chaturvarga Chintamani; the Marathi saint Jnaneshwar.

• Eastern Gangas (Kalinga): Anantavarman Chodaganga (1077–1150) built the Jagannath temple, Puri; Narasimhadeva I built the Konark Sun Temple (c. 13th c.). The Lingaraja temple at Bhubaneswar is of the Somavamsi period.

• Pandyas of the second empire (Maravarman Sundara Pandya) ended the Chola line; Marco Polo visited their coast.

The 2023 PYQ asked how many of Hoysala, Gahadavala, Kakatiya and Yadava dynasties established kingdoms in the early eighth century: none — they belong to later centuries.

Economy, Society, Learning and Terms

• Feudalism. The essential elements UPSC accepts (2018-style statements): administrative structure based on control and possession of land, and a lord–vassal relationship; not a strong central authority with weak local ones. Land grants, officers paid in land, hereditary posts and ladders of samantas mark the period.

• Trade. Long-distance trade dwindled in the north but regional markets (haat, mandapika) and traders called Banjaras (grain and salt carriers — the 2016 PYQ) persisted; in the south merchant guilds traded across the sea. Arab traders dominated the west coast.

• Learning. Mahaviharas (Nalanda, Vikramashila, Odantapuri), ghatikas and mathas; Brahmagupta and Bhaskara II (Lilavati, 1150); Bhoja's Samarangana Sutradhara on architecture; Rajashekhara (Kavyamimamsa); Jayadeva's Gita Govinda; Kalhana's Rajatarangini; Kannada's 'three gems' Pampa, Ponna and Ranna.

Glossary for Prelims

Chronology Cheat-Sheet and Alberuni's India

Sequence questions (like the 2020 one on Mahendravarman, Gopala, Bhoja and Parantaka) reward a clean timeline.

What Alberuni noticed

• He learned Sanskrit and read Indian works on astronomy, medicine and philosophy; he translated the Yoga Sutras and parts of the Sankhya into Arabic and explained India's sciences to the Muslim world.

• He described the caste system and the sharp divide between Hindu and Muslim society, noted the exclusiveness of Indians and their pride in their knowledge, and the rigid pollution rules; he also recorded the caste groups below the shudras (antyajas) such as weavers and fishermen.

• He measured the Earth's circumference and the latitude of Ghazni, and left an account of India's geography and calendars — a rare scientist's description of the country.

How UPSC Has Asked It — And What Could Come Next

• Seen: terms and institutions (2016, 2022), king-to-dynasty pairs (2022), dynasty formation dates (2023), maritime Cholas (2025), UNESCO listings of medieval temples (2024), Mitakshara versus Dayabhaga (2021).

• Likely next: Chola institutions (Uttaramerur, kudavolai, valangai–idangai, kasu), Chola kings and their titles (Mummudi Chola, Gangaikonda, Maduraikonda), the Srivijaya expedition and Nagapattinam, Rajaraja's temple and the UNESCO group; Chandela, Chauhan, Paramara, Solanki rulers matched with monuments (Khajuraho, Dilwara, Modhera, Bhojpur); the Gwalior prashasti; Alberuni's observations; battles (Waihind, Somnath, Tarain I and II, Chandawar) and their order.

• Traps: Bhoja of the Pratiharas versus Bhoja of the Paramaras; Jayashakti is a Chandela; Takkolam was won by the Rashtrakutas over the Cholas; Kailasa at Ellora is Rashtrakuta and Kailasanatha at Kanchi Pallava; Tarain 1191 was won by Prithviraj; Qutb-ud-din Aibak founded the Sultanate, not Ghori.

Further Reading

• Standard NCERT-level texts and reference books on ancient, medieval and cultural Indian history (any UPSC reading list).

Test Yourself: Practice Questions & PYQs

Early medieval questions are about terms, pairs and sequences — so match before you recall.

Practice Questions

Q1. The Tripartite Struggle for control of Kanauj involved the Pratiharas, the Palas and the:

• (a) Rashtrakutas

• (b) Chalukyas of Badami

• (c) Cholas

• (d) Hoysalas

Q2. Vikramashila mahavihara was founded by:

• (a) Ramapala

• (b) Dharmapala

• (c) Gopala

• (d) Mahipala I

Q3. Which Rashtrakuta king wrote or sponsored the Kannada work 'Kavirajamarga'?

• (a) Govinda III

• (b) Krishna III

• (c) Amoghavarsha I

• (d) Krishna I

Q4. The Uttaramerur inscriptions of the Chola period describe:

• (a) The Chola tax on trade

• (b) Village self-government and the kudavolai method

• (c) Land grants to Jains only

• (d) Naval expeditions to Srivijaya

Q5. Rajendra Chola I is associated with which of the following?

• (a) Gangaikondacholapuram and the naval expedition to Srivijaya

• (b) Brihadeeswara temple at Thanjavur

• (c) The Chennakeshava temple at Belur

• (d) The Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram

Q6. Alberuni's 'Tahqiq-i-Hind' was written in the court of:

• (a) Iltutmish

• (b) Muhammad of Ghor

• (c) Alauddin Khalji

• (d) Mahmud of Ghazni

Q7. Which battle (1192) laid the base of Turkish rule in north India?

• (a) Second Battle of Tarain

• (b) Chandawar

• (c) First Battle of Tarain

• (d) Waihind

Q8. The Khajuraho temples were built by the:

• (a) Chandelas

• (b) Gahadavalas

• (c) Paramaras

• (d) Solankis

Q9. 'Rajatarangini', a chronicle of Kashmir's kings, was written by:

• (a) Jayadeva

• (b) Bilhana

• (c) Kalhana

• (d) Chand Bardai

Q10. The Konark Sun Temple was built by the:

• (a) Eastern Gangas

• (b) Hoysalas

• (c) Solankis

• (d) Cholas

UPSC Previous Year Questions (PYQs)

Real UPSC Prelims questions on early medieval India (2016–2025), answers matched to UPSC's official key. Explanations in our own words.

Q11. (UPSC Prelims 2016) In the context of the history of India, consider the following pairs: Term : Description 1. Eripatti : Land, revenue from which was set apart for the maintenance of the village tank 2. Taniyurs : Villages donated to a single Brahmin or a group of Brahmins 3. Ghatikas : Colleges generally attached to the temples Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?

• (a) 3 only

• (b) 2 and 3

• (c) 1 and 3

• (d) 1 and 2

Q12. (UPSC Prelims 2016) With reference to the economic history of medieval India, the term 'Araghatta' refers to

• (a) land grants made to military officers

• (b) waterwheel used in the irrigation of land

• (c) wasteland converted to cultivated land

• (d) bonded labour

Q13. (UPSC Prelims 2016) Banjaras during the medieval period of Indian history were generally

• (a) warriors

• (b) traders

• (c) weavers

• (d) agriculturists

Q14. (UPSC Prelims 2022) In medieval India, the term "Fanam" referred to:

• (a) Weapons

• (b) Ornaments

• (c) Clothing

• (d) Coins

Q15. (UPSC Prelims 2022) Consider the following pairs: King : Dynasty 1. Nannuka : Chandela 2. Jayashakti : Paramara 3. Nagabhata II : Gurjara-Pratihara 4. Bhoja : Rashtrakuta How many pairs given above are correctly matched?

• (a) Only one pair

• (b) All four pairs

• (c) Only two pairs

• (d) Only three pairs

Q16. (UPSC Prelims 2023) Consider the following dynasties: 1. Hoysala 2. Gahadavala 3. Kakatiya 4. Yadava How many of the above dynasties established their kingdoms in early eighth century AD?

• (a) Only one

• (b) Only two

• (c) Only three

• (d) None

Q17. (UPSC Prelims 2025) Who among the following led a successful military campaign against the kingdom of Srivijaya, the powerful maritime State, which ruled the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java and the neighbouring islands?

• (a) Rajendra I (Chola)

• (b) Prataparudra (Kakatiya)

• (c) Amoghavarsha (Rashtrakuta)

• (d) Vishnuvardhana (Hoysala)

Q18. (UPSC Prelims 2024) Consider the following properties included in the World Heritage List released by UNESCO: 1. Shantiniketan 2. Rani-ki-Vav 3. Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas 4. Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodhgaya How many of the above properties were included in 2023?

• (a) Only three

• (b) All four

• (c) Only two

• (d) Only one

Q19. (UPSC Prelims 2021) With reference to the history of ancient India, which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. Mitakshara was the civil law for upper castes and Dayabhaga was the civil law for lower castes. 2. In the Mitakshara system, the sons can claim right to the property during the lifetime of the father, whereas in the Dayabhaga system, it is only after the death of the father that the sons can claim right to the property. 3. The Mitakshara system deals with the matters related to the property held by male members only of a family, whereas the Dayabhaga system deals with the matters related to the property held by both male and female members of a family. Select the correct answer using the code given below.

• (a) 1 and 3

• (b) 2 only

• (c) 3 only

• (d) 1 and 2

Mains Practice Questions

Use these to frame full-length answers. You don't have to answer one exactly — they show the angles UPSC tests, so let them guide which points you cover.

• Examine the Tripartite Struggle and explain why none of the three powers could dominate north India.

• Why were the Rajput states unable to withstand the Turkish invasions?

• Describe the Chola administration, with special reference to local self-government.

• Compare the invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni and Muhammad of Ghor and their effects.

• Discuss the nature of Indian feudalism in the early medieval period.

Mains PYQs — Last 10 Years (UPSC GS-I)

The exact questions UPSC has actually asked on this topic over the last decade. Practise writing full-length answers to these.

• Though the great Cholas are no more yet their name is still remembered with great pride because of their highest achievements in the domain of art and architecture. Comment. (UPSC GS-I, 2024)

• Discuss the main contributions of Gupta period and Chola period to Indian heritage and culture. (UPSC GS-I, 2022)