Paper 5:

1. Chola dynasty of the medieval south; polity, economics, society; to be read from
Upinder Singh, R.C. Majumdar, Burton Stein, and R. Thapar.
2. Palas and Senas; polity, economics, society; to be read from Upinder Singh and
Niharranjan Ray.
3. Religion and culture: Tantrism, the Bhakti movement; philosophy, culture, powerrelations; an overview to be had from Upinder Singh and Andrew Nicholson; consult also
R. Thapar, R. S. Sharma.
4. Aftermath of the fall of the Gupta dynasty: power-vacuum, segmentary state, the
feudalism debate; to be read from Aidan Southall, Burton Stein, R. S. Sharma, and the
assorted criticisms and comments, etc.
Paper 6:
1. The Delhi Sultanate: this covers everything that was taught in class, including dynastic
history, economic history, political structures, the Mongol invasions, & c. & c.; to be read
from K. A. Nizami, Satish Chandra, Peter Jackson, et al.
2. Decline and fall of the Delhi Sultanate and the successor states; reasons, economic and
political conditions, emerging regional conflagrations; to be read from Satish Chandra,
Peter Jackson, et al.
3. Islamic historiography: types of history writing in Islam, the two broad frames:
Arabian and Persian, rhetorical traditions, the question of veracity, Orientalist
understandings, schematisation of the Indian past, and thus on; refer to Peter Jackson and
K. A. Nizami.
4. The Sufis: origins, traditions, ideas of Islamic kingship, the question of khalifa,
geographical and territorial specifications, the main orders or silsilas, their relations with
the Sultan, & c.; to be read from John Spencer Trimingham; see also Annemarie
Schimmel.
And that is that. Cheers, my dear lass; and all my luck is yours.