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Studies on urbanization and urban centers during the medieval period have largely remained a neglected and relatively less explored field. Medieval cities are generally seen as ‘parasitic’ depending largely on countryside, extracting large surplus to its own advantage while hardly giving back anything in return. Yet vibrant commercial activities provided a town a district character. There are many approaches to study the  medieval Indian, town R.Redfield and M.B. singer maintain, that generally speaking Indian cities emerged out of political, administrative, and cultural concerns and their commercial and industrial functions were insignificant. Hamida khatoon naqvi has highlighted the importance of political, stability in the growth of medieval Indian towns. She argues that, the highly centralized Indian states with base at Lahore, Delhi or Agra worked to foster viability and endurance in urban concentrations. The rise and full of medieval Indian towns corresponded largely to the vigour or weakness of the central political power. K.n. choudhury has focused upon the ‘complementarity of economic modality and political attributed’. He defines commercial towns of mughal period as a case of ‘flag following the trade’.for him’political skills were essential to preserve their economic interests’. Satish Chandra, however, argues that the political integration resulting in unprecedented growth of towns is actually over emphasized. he questions, if that was so then why After the tugluq period following the disintegration of the political power, did not result in the decline of town ? satish Chandra, instead, links the growth of towns to agricultural expansion. He argues, taking the case of firuz shah tughlug’s reign when the sultanate shrank to half its size, that the period is marked by emergence of many new towns. As a result of Muhammad tughlugs network of canals and impacts of new technology and expansion of horticulture all this led to the growth of agrarian sector. He has emphasised that we cannot simply dismiss the Afghans as ‘merely warriors’. Instead, unlike the Turks Afghans settled in the countryside suggested that they must have had something more to do with agriculture. He applies the same argument to the 18^th century as well. He argues that evidence pertaining to the decline of cities during the 18^th century comes largely from literacy traditions. There is no doubt that Delhi faced a decline but only as a chief administrative centre. In 1772 Delhi is mentioned by shah nawuz khan as a flourishing city filled with all sorts of crafts. Dorgah quli khan in his muraqqa-i delhi speaks about the grandeur of markets of shahjahanabad city.chetan singh has also emphasized the growth of urban centers, particularly manufacturing centres in well developed agricultural zones away from the main trade routes. Irfan habib however, relates ‘urban decline ’to‘agrarian crises.mughal cities declined in the 18^th century because the existence of towns and cities depended on agricultural surplus. K.n. chaudhury also accepts that the economic existence depended on the ability of the countryside to produce a surplus and the way in which the later was distributed. Henri pirenne has linked growth of medieval towns to long distance trade. In the Indian context R.S, Sharma in his well researched monograph Indian feudalism also argues that the growth and decline of long distance trade resulted in the growth and decline of the towns during early medieval period, although other historians have expressed doubts about the thesis of urban decline. I.P.Gupta while denying any significant role of administrative and military factors in the growth of urbanization and urban growth argues that ‘administrative and military influence in all the major cities and towns remained subdued to economic activities’. His estimates reveal that roughly 80-90 percent of the activities in the large urban centres in Gujarat were ‘economic’. There is no instance where a ‘fort’ assumed the status of an ‘urban’ out of the 33 forts reported in Gujarat in the 17^th century only 9 were located at the big and small towns. Even ‘religion and education centers were predominantly manufacturing centers. His study shows that Gujarat towns were largely performing the role of either manufacturing center, or collection centers and distribution centers, or else were port towns. Ahmadabad, surat, broach cam bay pertained such multipurpose activities. Chetan singh has also emphasized the economic base of the urban centers. Though some town derived their strength as important administrative centers their importance as thriving manufacturing center as well as market and transit points cannot be ignored. He argues that though Lahore was an important administrative town, it derived its strength’ as a center of considerable manufacturing and commercial activity’. It was situated on the major land route providing connectivity across India to Middle East and Iran. Its economy was entirely dependent upon the mughal ruling class or upon imperial patronage. He highlight the decentralizing tendency of the urban centers in the Punjab region that ‘no single town was economically important enough to control the urban artisanal production of the region such growth according to him was instrumental in the incorporation of hitherto peripheral areas into the urban network.

The beginning of our period saw unprecedented growth of towns. The process continued, even got accelerated up to the close of our period. Medieval towns were centres of manufacture and commercial activities. There appears to existed hierarchy among the towns. There were qasbas and balda/shahr,baras and bandars. Certain cities were ‘primate’ cities largely depending upon state patronage for their power and position. Nonetheless they were vibrant centres of commercial and manufacturing activities. This hierarchy was also markedly presented within the town itself. There were palaces, havelis, on the one side, while at the lowest level people lived in hutments. Medieval towns were marked by ‘urban characteristics that S.C.Misra calls ‘peasant urbanizes’. Between town and country there existed a ‘symbiotic’ relationship.