India is a land of enormous diversity. Cross-cultural influences are everywhere in evidence in the food people eat the clothes they wear and in the places they worship. This was especially the case in the India that existed from 1200 to 1750 before the European intervention. The book takes the reader on a journey across the political economic religious and cultural landscapes of medieval India from the Ghurid conquests and the Dehli Sultanate to the great court of the Mughals. This was a time of conquest and consolidation when Muslims and Hindus came together to create a unique culture which still resonates in today's India. As the first survey of its kind in over a decade the book is a tour de force. It is beautifully illustrated and fluently composed with a cast of characters which will educate students and general readers alike.

1. Introduction: situating India; 2. The expansion of Turkish power 1180–1350; 3. Southern India in the age of Vijayanagara 1350–1550; 4. North India between empires: history society and culture 1350–1550; 5. Sixteenth-century north India: empire reformulated; 6. Expanding political and economic spheres 1550–1650; 7. Elite cultures in seventeenth-century South Asia; 8. Challenging central authority 1650–1750; 9. Changing socio-economic formations 1650–1750; Epilogue; Biographical notes; Bibliography.