Cities in Medieval India focuses on the significance of urbanization in medieval India, by highlighting aspects of the rural-urban continuum and divide, power assertion, spatialization, social segmentation, labour process, as well as aspects of culture and human activity. By relating urbanization to issues such as economic transformation, commercial dynamism, agricultural production, ecology and environment, and the exercise of power and authority, the essays in this volume discuss many facets of the medieval cities.
Using a wide variety of primary sources and regional literary traditions this volume juxtaposes the ethos of traditional Indian cities, with the new urbanization brought into India, particularly in the coastal regions by the Europeans, from the sixteenth century onwards without neglecting imperial and metropolitan cities, secondary cities, small towns and qasbas.
The essays compiled here will be of interest to scholars of medieval Indian history as well as the general reader looking for a nuanced understanding of urbanization during the medieval phase.