As you have seen meanings of words change over time. Term “Hindustan”, is known as “India,” the modern nation-state today. The term was first used in the 13th century by Minhaj-i-Siraj, a chronicler who wrote in Persian and contains the areas of Punjab, Haryana and the lands between the Ganga and Yamuna. The term was used in a political sense for lands that were a part of the dominions of the Delhi Sultan. Areas included in this term shifted with the extent of the Sultanate, but it never included South India. In early 16th century, Babur used Hindustan to describe the geography, the fauna and the culture of the inhabitants of the subcontinent, same as how 14th-century poet Amir Khusrau used the word “Hind”. Even if the idea of a geographical and cultural entity like “India” did exist, the term “Hindustan” did not carry the political and national meanings associated with it today.
A simple term like “foreigner” is used today to mean someone who is not an Indian. In the medieval period, a “foreigner” was any stranger who appeared in a given village, someone who was not a part of that society or culture. (In Hindi the term pardesi might be used to describe such a person and in Persian, ajnabi.) A city-dweller might regard a forest-dweller as a “foreigner”, but two peasants living in the same village are not foreigners to each other, even if they have different religious or caste backgrounds.
Historians use different types of sources to learn about the past based on their period of study and nature of the investigation. Coins, inscriptions, architecture and textual records will provide information. The number and variety of textual records increased dramatically during this period, slowly displacing other types of available information. Paper gradually became cheaper and more widely available. It is used to write holy texts, chronicles of rulers, letters and teachings of saints, petitions and judicial records, and for registers of accounts and taxes. Manuscripts collected by wealthy people, rulers, monasteries and temples and placed in libraries and archives provide a lot of detailed information to historians but are also difficult to use. No printing press so scribes had to copy the manuscripts by hand and they made slight changes while doing so. These changes over the centuries grew thus making manuscripts of the same text different from each other. Hence, to find the manuscript by the original author became difficult and have to depend on copies by scribes. So, to comprehend the full information we have to read varied manuscripts of the same text to know what was originally written.
Authors also revised their chronicles at various times. 14th-century chronicler Ziyauddin Barani wrote his chronicle first in 1356 and another version two years later. But historians did not know about the existence of the first version until the 1960s as it remained lost in large library collections.
The study of the 1000 years spanning 700 and 1750 is a challenge. The scales and variety of developments that occurred over the period are huge. At different moments in this period, new technologies made their appearances – like the Persian wheel in irrigation, the spinning wheel in weaving, and firearms in combat. New foods and beverages arrived in the subcontinent – potatoes, corn, chillies, tea and coffee. All these new technologies and crops – came along with people, who brought other ideas with them as well, thus resulting in a period of economic, political, social and cultural changes.
It was also a period of great mobility, as groups of people travelled long distances in search of opportunity. Subcontinent held immense wealth and the possibilities for people to carve a fortune. Rajputs name derived from “Rajaputra, the son of a ruler became quite popular during this period. Between 8th and 14th centuries the term was used generally to refer to a group of warriors claiming Kshatriya Status
Between the 8th and 14th centuries, the term was given for a group of warriors, claiming Kshatriya caste status, including not just rulers and chieftains but also soldiers and commanders who served in the armies of different monarchs all over the subcontinent. Extreme valour and a great sense of loyalty are the qualities attributed to Rajputs by poets and bards. Marathas, Sikhs, Jats, Ahoms and Kayasthas (a caste of scribes and secretaries) also used opportunities of the age to become politically important.
Many forest-dwellers migrated during this period due to change in habitat. There was a gradual clearing of forests and the extension of agriculture, faster and more complete in some areas than in others. Those who remained started to till their lands and became peasants, who were later influenced by regional markets, chieftains, priests, monasteries and temples. This led them to be part of large, complex societies paying taxes and offering goods and services to local lords. This resulted in major economic and social differences amongst peasants. Some had more productive land while others kept cattle, and some combined artisanal work with agricultural activity during the lean season. With the change in society, people grouped into jatis or sub-castes and were ranked on the basis of their backgrounds and their occupations. These ranks, however, were not permanent and changed with power, influence and resources controlled by the jati. Status of the same jati also varied from area to area. Rules and Regulations to manage the conduct of members were framed by Jatis and enforced by an assembly of elders, which also came to be known as jati panchayat in some areas. However, jatis also had to follow the rules of the villages. Several villages were governed by a chieftain
