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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Discuss Balban’s concept of kingship. How was it modified by Alauddin Khalji?

  • UPSC 2002
  • The Fourteenth Century

Kingship in the early Delhi Sultanate was not a fixed office but a contested claim, repeatedly re-theorised by rulers who lacked the hereditary sanctity of Indic monarchy and the unambiguous religious sanction of the Caliphate. Balban (r. 1266-87) and Alauddin Khalji (r. 1296-1316) both arrived at highly centralised, autocratic notions of the Sultan's authority, but…

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What the full answer covers

  • Balban's Theory of Kingship
  • Alauddin Khalji's Modification
  • Continuities Beneath the Contrast

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