This book ably meets the recent demand for a critical and comprehensive study of social, economic and cultural history of medieval India. The latest trend in Indian historiography is to de-emphasize political history and to bring into relief, the life of the common man in its social and economic milieu. South Indian history has got an equal treatment with North Indian history in this treatise. Various aspects of history such as social structure, agrarian system, trade and commerce, currency system, religious movements and the like find a place in this book. The book presents a definite standpoint since throughout the work runs a central theme—the Hindu-Muslim co-existence in medieval India and the mingling of their cultures—which has been brought into focus in the last and crowning chapter of the study. The book holds before us a comprehensive picture of the multi-dimensional life of man in medieval India. Briefly, it tells us how the common man in medieval India lived, thought and worked in social, economic and religious spheres. The book will be highly useful to the students, teachers and researchers of Indian History. The common readers interested in knowing the history of India will find it equally interesting and informative.

Table of Contents:
Chapter-I: Medieval Islamic Thinkers on State and Society; Chapter-II: Medieval Hindu Thinkers on State and Society; Chapter- III: Social Structure; Chapter-IV: Slavery; Chapter-V: Position of Woman; Chapter-VI: Education; Chapter-VII: Sufism; Chapter-VIII: Bhakti Cult; Chapter-IX: Law and Legal Institutions; Chapter-X: Industries; Chapter-XI: Trade and Commerce under the Delhi Sultans; Chapter-XII: Trade and Commerce under the Mughals; Chapter-XIII: Trade and Commerce under Vijaya¬nagara and its Offshoots; Chapter-XIV: Trade and Commerce in Medieval Maharashtra; Chapter- XV: Money and Banking; Chapter-XVI: The Mingling of Hindu-Muslim Cultures; Bibliography; Index