This chapter discusses the medieval Indian economic history before the Ghorian conquests of the late twelfth century. Global historical factors which appear to have contributed to the decline in prosperity of both areas include invasion by fresh waves of barbarian central Asian tribes; the closure of the silk-route through the Tarim basin and north-west India to the Arabian Sea, and the rise of Islam. The coastal areas of Gujarat and Coromandel remained within the network of maritime trade, and the conditions which obtained there differed from the increasing isolation and impoverishment of northern India. During this period, landholding became the chief basis of social and political status. There was an increasing fragmentation and hereditarization of local power under what has variously been termed 'the Samanta system' or 'Indian feudalism'. In urban life the fissiparous direction of Indian society was reflected in the proliferation jati (caste) groups and the increasing rigidity of the hold of brahmanical Hinduism and the varndsramadharm.