Unravelling Indian Culture: Medieval India by Madhukar K Bhagat

Unravelling Indian Culture: The Essence of Bharat takes the reader on a memorable journey through the rich and colourful tapestry of India’s glorious cultural traditions and achievements.

The carefully compiled and curated text spread over three volumes, is illumined by more than 1500 photographs.

Such a wide array of photographs imparts a clear and unfiltered view of the myriad elements of Indian culture. They are thus integral to the very concept of this series, which is to offer the common reader, a lucid understanding of the range, depth and the intricacies of our rich cultural ethos. The photographs also take these three volumes into the category of an illustrated work on Indian culture.

This book (volume 2) covers the cultural elements of medieval India and comprises six chapters. Chapter 8, which is the first chapter of volume 2, traces the course of Indian culture beginning from the 13th century and during the next 500 years. Chapter 9 on the ’Bhakti movement and Sufism’ discusses the growth of the culture of bhakti over centuries.

Chapter 10 which covers the subject of ’medieval architecture’ is akin to a book in itself. With nearly 250 photographs, it covers a subject that is perhaps amongst the most visible and visually appealing elements of our cultural history. The chapter examines the dominant styles of architecture viz. that of the Imperial style of Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal style, the Deccani style and the Provincial styles of Mandu, Gujarat, Bengal, Jaunpur and Kashmir, amongst other styles.

Chapter 11 brings out the story of change in the Indian paintings from the murals of caves and temples to the miniatures of the Pala and Mughal periods. Chapter 12 is an account of medieval literature and its growth.

The emergence of Hindustani classical music and the growth of traditions of Carnatic music are brought out in Chapter 13 of this book.