Medieval India — Five Sultanate Dynasties and Six Great Mughals

Five Hundred Years, and the Trap Is Always the Same

Medieval India runs from 1206 to 1707 and produces more general studies questions than any other history block — partly because it is dense with dates, and partly because the names repeat. There are two Tughlaqs worth knowing, three Lodis, and a Suri who interrupts the Mughals for fifteen years in the middle.

Exams almost never ask you to narrate this period. They ask you to attach one achievement to one name: who introduced the silver coin, who moved the capital, who abolished a tax and who brought it back. Get the attachment wrong and the option looks perfectly reasonable, which is exactly why paper-setters use it.

So study this chapter as a ledger, not a story. Dynasty in order, ruler in order, one signature act each. Chronology first, detail second — because if you know that Alauddin Khalji comes before Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq, half the wrong options eliminate themselves before you read them properly.

1. Which ruler of the Delhi Sultanate introduced the silver tanka and the copper jital?

2. Which Sultan shifted his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad (Devagiri) and later shifted it back?

3. Market price control, the branding of horses (dagh) and the descriptive roll of soldiers (chehra) were introduced by:

4. In the First Battle of Panipat (1526), Babur defeated which ruler?

5. Who introduced the silver coin called the 'rupiya' and rebuilt the Grand Trunk Road?

6. Din-i-Ilahi, proclaimed in 1582, was associated with which Mughal emperor?

7. Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador sent by King James I of England, visited the court of which Mughal emperor?

8. Which of the following was NOT one of the five dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate?