The Delhi sultanate, although at first disruptive for the Indian elites, largely leaves its vast non-Muslim subject population to its own laws and customs.
By repeatedly repulsing Mongol raiders in the thirteenth century, the sultanate saves India from the devastation visited on West and Central Asia, setting the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, learned men, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from that region into the subcontinent, thereby creating a syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in the north.
The sultanate's raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India paves the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire.
Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the sultanate, the empire comes to control much of peninsular India, and will influence South Indian society for long afterwards
