# Cholas to the Sultanate
**चोल से सल्तनत तक**

- Canonical page: https://indianepics.online/chapter/medieval/
- Track: evidence
- Span: 750 CE to 1500 CE
- Boundary shown: tughlaq-1330 (approximate unless marked traced)

From the eighth century no single power held the whole north. The Gurjara-Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas fought over Kannauj, while in the south the Cholas built a state that conquered northern Sri Lanka and sent a naval expedition against Srivijaya in Southeast Asia. Armies from Ghazni raided the plains in the early eleventh century, and after Tarain in 1192 Ghurid commanders took Delhi, where a sultanate founded in 1206 passed through five dynasties.

Under the Khaljis and Muhammad bin Tughluq the Sultanate reached further south than any earlier state based in the north, then within a generation lost the far south to the Madurai sultans and Vijayanagara, and the Deccan to the Bahmanis. Timur's sack of Delhi in 1398 left it a regional kingdom, held by the Sayyids and then the Lodis until Babur took it in 1526.

The outline is the Delhi Sultanate around 1330, at its greatest reach. It is one of the least certain shapes on this site: in Ma'bar the Sultan's writ lasted barely a dozen years, in the Deccan under thirty, and Bengal was independent by 1338.

## Events (11)

- 950 CE – 1050 CE (± 10 years) — [The temples of Khajuraho](https://indianepics.online/event/khajuraho.md): Between about 950 and 1050 the Chandela kings build dozens of Hindu and Jain temples at Khajuraho; some twenty survive.
- 1003 CE – 1010 CE (± 1 years) — [Rajaraja's temple at Thanjavur](https://indianepics.online/event/rajaraja-thanjavur-1010.md): Rajaraja I consecrates the Brihadisvara at Thanjavur in 1010, a granite temple whose walls record the lands and gifts of a growing Chola state.
- 1022 CE – 1035 CE (± 2 years) — [Rajendra's Gangaikonda Cholapuram](https://indianepics.online/event/rajendra-gangaikonda.md): After his army reaches the Ganga, Rajendra I builds a capital named for the feat; in 1025 his fleet raids Srivijaya across the Bay of Bengal.
- 1026 CE — [Mahmud of Ghazni at Somnath](https://indianepics.online/event/somnath-1026.md): In January 1026 Mahmud of Ghazni sacks the Somanatha temple on the Saurashtra coast, the most remembered of his raids into India.
- 1191 CE – 1192 CE — [The battles of Tarain](https://indianepics.online/event/tarain-1192.md): Prithviraj Chauhan beats Muhammad of Ghur at Tarain in 1191 and loses to him on the same field in 1192, opening the Ganga plain to the Ghurids.
- 1199 CE – 1220 CE (± 5 years) — [The Qutb Minar and the Delhi Sultanate](https://indianepics.online/event/qutb-minar.md): Around 1199 Aibak begins a victory tower beside Delhi's first great mosque; Iltutmish completes it as Delhi becomes the seat of a sultanate.
- 1303 CE — [Alauddin Khalji takes Chittor](https://indianepics.online/event/alauddin-chittor-1303.md): Seven months after leaving Delhi, Alauddin Khalji takes the Guhila fortress of Chittor on 26 August 1303, extending the Sultanate into Mewar.
- 1327 CE – 1335 CE (± 1 years) — [The move to Daulatabad](https://indianepics.online/event/daulatabad-1327.md): In 1327 Muhammad bin Tughluq makes Devagiri, renamed Daulatabad, a second capital and sends Delhi's elite south; by about 1335 the court is back.
- 1336 CE – 1346 CE — [Vijayanagara is founded](https://indianepics.online/event/vijayanagara-1336.md): Tradition dates to 1336 the kingdom the brothers Harihara and Bukka founded on the Tungabhadra; it would dominate the south for two centuries.
- 1347 CE — [The Bahmani sultanate](https://indianepics.online/event/bahmani-1347.md): On 3 August 1347 rebel Deccan amirs proclaim Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah sultan; ruling from Gulbarga, he ends Delhi's hold on the Deccan.
- 1398 CE – 1399 CE — [Timur sacks Delhi](https://indianepics.online/event/timur-delhi-1398.md): Timur routs the Tughluq army outside Delhi on 17 December 1398 and sacks Siri, Jahanpanah and Old Delhi; the Sultanate never regains its reach.