evaluate the significance of the textual …

The sources used by historians in the period 700 to 1750 (the Medieval Period) were quite different from the ones used in the period of Gupta dynasty and Hashavardhana. There is definitely some continuity in the sources used by the historians of both the distinct periods. For example, for obtaining information they still relied on 

But there is also significant discontinuity in the sources used by the historians of both the distinct periods. Some of the changes in the sources are as follows:

Dramatic increase in the number and variety of textual records. These slowly displaced other types of available information.

Paper became cheaper and more widely available as opposed to the earlier periods when people used to write on barks of birch trees, hides, walls of caves, etc. due to non-availability of paper.