Social condition of the people during the medieval period - class-IX

Most of people lived in villages. A village was also called mauja. The chief of the village was the Patil. He used to try to bring maximum land under cultivation. When there was any dispute in the village, the Patil resolved it and made peace.

The Deshpande was the chief of all Kulkarnies in the Pargana. The Deshpande did all at the Pargana level, the work that Kulkarni did at the village level.

A great famine occured in Maharashtra in 1630 CE. People were greatly distressed due to this famine. People were ready to sell themselves for a piece of Bhakri, but there was nobody to buy them.

In initial days the group of villages were known as Pargana. The headquarter of Pargana was called Kasba. And the village smaller than a Kasba was called Mauja.

There was usually a market adjacent to a Kasba which is known as peth. The Shete and Mahajan were the watandars of the peth. The setting up of a peth was the job of the Shete and the Mahajan. For that, they received some land from the government and some rights from the villagers. The Mahajan maintained the acconts of the Peth.

The Deshmukh was the chief of Patils in a Pargana. The Deshmukh did at the Pargana level what the Patil did at the village level.

The chief of village was the Patil. He used to try to bring maximum land under cultivation. When there was any dispute in the village, the Patil resolved it and made peace. A Kulkarni helped the Patil in his work. The Kulkarni kept the record of the revenue that was collected.

Many villages together made a Pargana, But the numer of villages was not the same in all Pargana. The Pune Pargana was a big Pargana, It consisted of 290 villages. There was 64 villages in the Chakan Pargana. The Shirwal Pargana was small, it had only 40 villages.

Women's
life in those days was full of hardship. Their world was confined to
the house of first their father , and then their husband. Their
education was neglected. Only a few exceptional women had achieved any
progress in literacy, administration and battle skills. Customs like
child marriage, unequal marriages, widowhood, keshwapan, sati,
polygamy had imposed harsh restriction on the way women lived.

Sher Shah started the Suri dynasty in 1540 by defeating Humayun. He was one of the greatest administrators of medieval India. During his rule, he introduced Dam- small copper coin,  Mohur, the gold coin and Rupiya the silver coin. His silver rupee coins weighed 180 grains, of which 175 grains were pure silver. Sher Shah’s name and title and place of mint were invariably inscribed on the coins in Arabic characters. 

In Akbar's reign, the principal outlets for foreign sea trade were ports of Cambay and Surat. The chief exports of Mughal empire during Akbar's reign were textiles,  pepper, indigo, opium and other drugs and other miscellaneous goods, while imports from abroad included horses, raw silk, metals, ivory, coral, amber drugs and Chinese goods.

In large parts of the subcontinent, society was already divided according to the rules of varna. These rules, as prescribed by the Brahmanas, were accepted by the rulers of large kingdoms. The difference between the high and low, and between the rich and poor, increased. Under the Delhi Sultans and the Mughals, this hierarchy between social classes grew further. Here, in the question, the keyword is "further". Division on the basis of caste was present even before the rule of the Delhi Sultans and Mughals.
Hence, division of society on the basis of caste cannot be the main reason for the division to grow further. The divisions grew due to new administrative measures and the introduction of rank system.

A
majority of people lived in villages. The villages were mostly self -
sufficient. Only salt had to be imported from other places. The needs of
farmers were limited. They grew jowar , bajra , wheat , ragi , maize ,
rice and other grains in their fields.

Tobacco was introduced into India by Portuguese traders during AD 1600.

India had inland and maritime trade relations with foreign
countries. The two major inland trade routes were from
Lahore to Kabul, and from Multan to
Kandahar. The direct trade between India and Europe began with the
arrival of Vasco da Gama at Calicut in 1498.

India had inland and maritime trade relations with foreign
countries. The Arabs were the middlemen in the
import of horse from Central Asia. In South India the horse
traders were known as Kuthirachettis.

Women's
life in Medieval India was full of hardships.Their world was confined
to the house of first father, and then their husband. Their education
was neglected. Only a few exceptional women had achieved any progress in
literacy , administration and battle skills. They include Veermata
Jijabai , Maharani Yesubai , Maharani Tarabai, Umabai Dabhade ,
Gopikabai , Punyashlok and Ahilyabai.

Customs
like Child marriage , Unequal marriage , Widowhood , Keshwapan , Sati ,
Polygamy had imposed harsh restriction on the way women lived.The
ritual of dying at the funeral pyre of the husband is called Sati.Child
marriage was a norm in medieval India.Girls were married off at the age
of 8 - 10.Widows in medieval India not treated as human beings and were
subjected to a lots of restrictions. The girls of medieval India and
especially Hindu society were not given formal education.

Balban was the ninth sultan of the Mamluk dynasty of Delhi. He laid great emphasis on improving agriculture and crop productivity. In this process to increase the cultivation, Balban allocated doab region to farmers for farming.

The charkha is a small, portable, hand-cranked wheel, ideal for spinning cotton and other fine fibres. There is evidence that spinning wheels had already come into use in both China and the Islamic world during the eleventh century. From China,the technology spread to different parts of Asia including India.

The Portuguese were the first European community to discover a direct sea route to India. On 20th May 1498, a Portuguese sailor named Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut, an important seaport of South-West India. He was cordially received by King Zamorin, the local ruler, and was offered certain privileges. Vasco da Gama stayed in India for a period of three months. On his return, he carried with him a rich cargo and sold it in the European market at an enormous price.

Vallabhacharya was born in Varanasi. He propounded the path of nirgun bhakti which came to be known as Pushti Marg. He gave the philosophy of Shuddhadvaita which forms the basis of Pushtimarg.

Alauddin Khalji was the first ruler who introduced Market control policy. Under these, he fixed prices of foodgrains, clothes and other essential commodities. He was strict about prices and weight. Those who did not follow the orders were severely punished. He also introduced a subsidised rationing system especially in times of scarcity.

Akbar was the third ruler of the Mughal empire. He ruled from 1556 to 1605. In 1577 the emperor undertook the reform of the coins and currency. He issued a square shaped rupee coins, called Jalali. Jital was the lowest copper coin and Ilahi were gold coins which were commonly used during Mughal rule.

The rulers of the medieval period provided many facilities for farmers to increase crop production and improvise agriculture. Therefore Firoz Shah Tughlaq who ruled over the Sultanate of Delhi from 1351 to 1388, presented money in advance to the farmers for digging wells to facilitate irrigation and increase the crop productivity.

The book 'Kitab-ul-Rihla' was written by Ibn Battuta. It is a form of travel literature based upon his experiences. He travelled for nearly 30 years and covered most of the Islamic world during 1304-1369 C.E and ater dictated his account in this book.

Giovanni Careri was a seventeenth-century Italian adventurer and traveler. He was the first Europeans to tour the world on ships involved in the trade; he travels mainly for pleasure rather than profit. According to him, India was the central point where the exchange of the gold and silver took place.

The practice of land grants, which led to the decentralization of political power and the rise of a landed aristocracy, is widely considered the primary driver of the transition from ancient to medieval Indian society.

Ain-i Akbari (in short the Ain,) authored by Akbar’s court historian Abul Fazl. It  tells that the Mughal provinces of Agra produced 39 varieties of crops and Delhi produced 43 over the two seasons. Bengal produced 50 varieties of rice alone.

Futuha-I-Salatin is a poetic history of the Muslim conquest of India beginning from Sultan Mahmud down to the end of the rule of Sultan Muhammad bin tughlaq of Delhi. In this book, Isami has described that the Charkha was used during the Islamic rule for spinning cotton and other fine, short-staple fibers

Ibn-i-Batuta wrote the famous book Kitab-ur-Rehla. In that, he had mentioned that there were three harvests in a year and Paddy, wheat, barley, sugarcane, cotton, oilseeds and indigo were the major crops of medieval India. Also, the rulers of the medieval period provided all facilities to increase crop production and improvise agriculture.

Early medieval Indian society underwent significant changes, including the assimilation of foreign groups, increased caste rigidity, and new social determinants based on occupation and geography.

Land revenue was the major source of the income in the Medieval age. Several measures were taken to increase the land revenue. It was generally the 1/5 of the total production but later on, raised to 1/2 of the produce.

Paper spread to India in the 7th century. However, the use of paper was not widespread. Paper manufacture was introduced to India in the 13th century by Muslim merchants, from then it replaced traditional writing materials like metal plates, cloth etc , and began to be used widely in various areas.

India had inland and maritime trade relations with foreign countries. The two major inland trade routes were from Lahore to Kabul, and from Multan to Kandahar. The Arabs were the middlemen in the import of horse from Central Asia. With the arrival of the Portuguese, the Arabs lost their influence over this trade and the Portuguese gained the upper hand.