Pre-Modern Period
The Pre-Modern Period (c.1500–1757 CE)
Marble elephants at Jagdish Temple in Udaipur, Rajasthan (1651 CE). Photo: Christopher Walker ©
Alongside the development of Hindu traditions, most widespread in the South, was the rise of Islam in the North as a religious and political force in India. The new religion of Islam reached Indian shores around the 8th century, via traders plying the Arabian Sea and the Muslim armies which conquered the northwest provinces.
Muslim political power began with the Turkish Sultanate around 1200 CE and culminated in the Mughul Empire (from 1526). Akbar (1542–1605) was a liberal emperor and allowed Hindus to practice freely. However, his great grandson, Aurangzeb (1618–1707), destroyed many temples and restricted Hindu practice.
During this period we have further developments in devotional religion (bhakti). The Sant tradition in the North, mainly in Maharashtra and the Panjab, expressed devotion in poetry to both a god without qualities (nirguna) and to a god with qualities (saguna) such as parental love of his devotees.
The Sant tradition combines elements of bhakti, meditation or yoga, and Islamic mysticism. Even today the poetry of the princess Mirabai, and other saints such as Tukaram, Surdas and Dadu are popular.