Introduction

• The post-Gupta period (6th–13th century) is recognized as the early medieval period in Indian history, marking a transition to medieval times.

• Efforts to define this period began in the late 1950s, led by D. D. Kosambi, R. S. Sharma, Lallanji Gopal, and B. N. S. Yadava.

• Their works focused on the interrelationship between economy, society, and polity, enabling deeper conceptual explanations of historical transitions.

• This led to the emergence of the school of Indian feudalism, which distinguished the early historical period from the early medieval and equated the latter with feudalism.

• This historiography enriched the understanding of society and economy by identifying large, durable, trans-regional institutional structures.

• By the late 1970s and early 1980s, dissatisfaction with the feudal framework produced alternative models of state and society.

• Burton Stein proposed the peasant state and segmentary state model, while Hermann Kulke and B. D. Chattopadhyaya introduced the integrative model.

• Opposition to Indian feudalism appeared early; D. C. Sircar (1966) questioned Sharma’s Indian Feudalism, leading to a long debate involving both factual and ideological issues.

• This debate, continuing into the 1970s, created a stereotype of the period, while later historians shifted focus to ongoing processes rather than rigid models.

• Alternative histories addressed similar issues but with new questions and perspectives applied to sources.

• Three contending explanatory models emerged for understanding early medieval India:

  • Indian feudal model: emphasized self-sufficient rural economies, a bipolar world of lords and peasants, proliferation of castes, and decentralized feudal states.

  • Peasant state and society model: envisioned a Brahmana–peasant alliance, segmentary state, and pyramidal repetition of autonomous local segments (Nadus).

  • Integrative state model: explained the phased structural evolution of imperial kingdoms and regional/supra-regional states and societies.

• Currently, the Indian feudal model and the integrative model remain dominant, while the peasant state modeldeclined due to lack of strong proponents.

• These historiographical models challenged the conventional view of medieval regional kingdoms as centrally governed unitary states in both North and South India.

• They also rejected the notion of the Dark Ages, highlighting the early medieval centuries as dynamic, generative, and foundational in Indian history.