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Synopsis The present volume, The Sultanate Period: Political and Socio-Cultural Cross-currents, is the third one in the series Cross-currents of Indian History and Culture. It covers the period A.D 1206 to A.D. 1576 and is devoted to the study of Political development of the period both at the Central as well as provincial levels. Parts I of the volume is divided into three sections: (1) Interpreting Medieval India; (2) Centripetal Developments: and (3) Centrifugal developments. The first section comments upon medieval Indian historiography and discusses the various approaches to study and interpret medieval India. The Second section is concerned wit the rise of Islam, early Muslim invasions on India and the collapse of the Hindu power resulting in the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate which continues for about 300 years and witnesses the rise and fall of 5 dynasties and 32 kings. The third section, concerned with the provincial politics of the period, analyzes the break-yp of the Deli Empire paving the way for the emergence of 2 important kingdom and the Hindu Vijayanagara Kingdom. Part II of the present volume concentrates on the cultural developments of the period in four sections focused on Political and Social Organization, Art and Literature, religion and Philosophy an India’s Interaction with the Outside World. The most important event of the period was the advent of Islam in India which brought with itself a new religion, a new life-style and a new social system. The Hindus and the Muslims though antagonistic to each other developed a synthesis which was gradually reflected in social customs, artistic productions and literary compositions. Section Two highlights the major trends in medieval architecture, sculpture, paining and literature in provincial languages like Hindi, Marathi, Oriya, Bangla, Tamil and Telugu. Section Three deals with a significant development of the period, i.e., the rise of Bhakti and Sufi Movements, which gave the message of universal love and compassion. Section Four deals India’s interaction with the outside world in far-off regions like Siam, Java, Burma, Sumatra, Champa and Bali.