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Class 12 History Notes Chapter 9 Kings and Chronicles The Mughal Courts

• Chronicles of the Mughal Emperor provides us valuable informations about the institution of Mughal state. These texts clearly depicted the policies of Mughal Empire which they sought to impose on their domain.
• Babur was the founder of Mughal Empire. His grandson, Akbar, was considered as the greatest Mughal Emperor.
• Akbar did not only consolidate his empire but also made it one of the strongest empires of his time.
• Mughal chronicles were written by mostly Mughal courtiers, who mainly focused on the events related to the rulers, their family, the court and wars and the administration.
• Persian was used as the main language.
• Paintings were done on the choronicles to make them attractive.
• Two most important illustrated Mughal official histories were—Akbar Nama and Badshah Nama.
• According to Abu’l Fazl, the Mughal emperor had the responsibility to protect the Jan, Mai, names and din of his subject.
• Shahjahan’s daughter Jahanara took part in many architectural planning of new capital of the empire, Shahjahanbad.
• Imperial Kitabkhana were the main centres for the creation of manuscripts. Painters played an important role in the creation of Mughal manuscripts.
• Paper-makers required to prepare folio of manuscripts, calligrapher copied the text, gilders illuminated the pages, painter illustrated the scene from the text, bookbinders collected the individual folios and set them within ornamental covers.
• Akbar Nama has three volumes. Every volume contained information of ten lunar years. Its first two volumes were written by Lahori, which were later on revised by Wazir Sadullah Khan. The third volume is written by wazir, because at that time Lahori became very old and was unable to write.
• Gulbadan Begum wrote Humayun Nama. It gives us a glimpse into the domestic world of Mughals.
• Jharokha darshan was introduced by Akbar. According to the emperor it began his day at sunrise with a few religious prayer and then used to appear in a small balcony, i.e. the Jharokha in East direction. Below, a crowd wanted to have a look of the emperor.
• Court histories of the Mughals were written in Persian language in the 10th /17th centuries came from different parts of the subcontinents and they are now the Indian languages.
• All Mughal government officials held rank with two designation—zat and sawar. In the 17th century, mansabdar of 1,000 Zat or above was ranked as nobles.

The monarchs of the Mughal Empire considered themselves as legitimate rulers of vast Indian sub-continent. They appointed court historians to write on accounts of their achievements. Modern historians called these texts as chronicles, as they presented a continuous chronological record of events.

The Mughals and Their Empire:

• The name Mughal derives from the term ‘Mongol’. The Mughals were descendants of the Turkish ruler Timur on the paternal side. Zahiruddin Babur was related to Ghenghis Khan from his mother’s side.
• Babur was driven from Farghana by the warring Uzbeks. First he established himself at Kabul and then in 1526 came to Indian sub-continent.
• Babur’s successor, Nasiruddin Humayun (1530-40, 1555-56) expanded the frontiers of the empire, but lost it to the Afghan leader Sher Shah Sur. In 1555, Humayun defeated the Surs, but died a year later.
• Jalaluddin Akbar (1556-1605) was the greatest of all the Mughal emperors. He expanded and consolidated his empire making it the largest, strongest and richest.
• Akbar had three fairly able successors Jahangir (1605-27), Shah Jahan (1628-58) and Aurangzeb (1658-1707). After the death of Auranzeb (1707), the power of Mughal dynasty diminished.

Different Chronicles of Mughals:

• Chronicles commissioned by the Mughal emperors are an important source for studying the empire and its court.
• The authors of Mughal chronicles were invariably courtiers. The famous chronicles are Akbar Nama, Shahjahan Nama and Alamgir Nama.
• Turkish was the mother tongue of Mughals, but it was Akbar who made Persian the leading language of Mughal court.
• Persian became Indianised by absorbing local idioms. Urdu sprang from the interaction of Persian with Hindavi.
• All books in Mughal India were handwritten manuscripts and were kept in Kitabkhana . i.e. scriptorium.
• The creation of a manuscript involved paper makers, scribes or calligraphers, gilders, painters, bookbinders, etc.
• Akbar’s favourite calligraphy style was the nastaliq, a fluid style with long horizontal strokes. Muhammad Husayn of Kashmir was one of the finest calligraphers at Akbar’s court who was honoured with the title ‘Zarrin Kalam’ (Golden pen).

The Paintings of Mughal Period:

• Abu’l Fazl described painting as a ‘magical art’, but the production of painting was largely criticised by the Ulama, as it was prohibited by the Quran as well as by the ‘hadis’.
• Hadis described life event of prophet Muhammad which restricted the deception of living beings as they regarded it as function of God.
• The Safavid kings and the Mughal Emperors patronised the finest artists like Bihzad, Mir Sayyid Ali, Abdus Samad, etc.

Historical Text of Mughals: Akbar Nama and the Badshah.Nama:

• The Akbar Nama written by Abu’l Fazl is divided into three books, of which the third one is Ain-i Akbari which provided a detailed description of Akbar’s regime.
• The Badshah Nama was written by Abul Hamid Lahori about the reign of Shahjahan. Later, it was revised by Sadullah Khan.
• The Asiatic Society of Bengal founded by Sir William Jones in 1784 undertook the editing, printing and translation of many Indian manuscripts, including Akbar Nama and Badshah Nama.

The Ideal Kingdom of Mughal Empire:

• Iranian Sufi thinker Suhrawardi developed the idea that there was a hierarchy in which the Divine Light was transmitted to the king who then became the source of spiritual guidance for his subjects.
• The Mughal artists, from the 17th century onwards began to portray emperor wearing the haloto symbolise the light of God.
• Abu’l Fazl described the ideal of Sulh-i kul (absolute peace) as the cornerstone of enlightened rule.
• In sulh-i kul all religions and schools of thought had freedom of expression but they did not undermine the authority of the state or fight among themselves.
• Akbar abolished the discriminating pilgrimage tax in 1563 and Jizya in 1564.
• Abu’l Fazl defined sovereignty as a social contract i.e., the emperor protected life, property, honour and faith and in return demanded obedience and a share of resources.

Capitals and Courts of the Mughals:

• The capital cities of the Mughals frequently shifted during the 16th and 17th centuries.
• Babur took over the Lodhi capital of Agra.
• In 1570, Akbar decided to build a new capital, Fatehpur Sikri.
• Akbar commissioned the construction of a white marble tomb for Shaikh Salim Chisthi at Sikri. He also constructed Buland Darwaza here after the victory in Gujarat.
• In 1585 the capital was shifted to Lahore to bring the North-West in control and to watch the frontier.
• In 1648, under the rule of Shah Jahan, the capital was transferred to Shahjahanabad with the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid, the Chandni Chowk and spacious homes for the nobility.
• In Mughal Court, status was determined by spatial proximity to the king.
• Once the emperor sat on the throne, no one was permitted to move from his position without permission.
• The forms of salutation to the ruler indicated the person’s status in the hierarchy.
• The emperor began his day at sunrise with personal religious devotions and then appeared on a small balcony, the jharoka for the view (darshan) of his subjects.
• After that the emperor walked to the public hall of audience (Diwan-i-am) to conduct the primary business of his government.
• The Mughal kings celebrated three major festivals in a year i.e. the solar and lunar
• birthdays of the Monarch and Nauroz, the Iranian New Year on the vernal equinox.
• Grand titles were adopted by the Mughal emperors at the time of coronation or after a victory.
• The titles like Asaf Khan, Mirza Raja were given to the nobles.
• Whenever a courtier met with the emperor, he had to offer nazr (a small amount of money) or peshkash (a large amount of money).

The Mughal Household:

• The term ‘harem’ was used to refer to the domestic world of the Mughals.
• The Mughal household consisted of the emperor’s wives and concubines, his near and distant relatives (mother, step-and foster-mothers, sisters, daughters, daughters-in-law, aunts, children, etc) and female servants and slaves.
• Polygamy was practised widely by the ruling class.
• Both the Rajputs and the Mughals took marriage as a way at cementing political relationships and forging alliances.
• After Noor Jahan, Mughal queens and princesses began to control significant financial resources.
• The bazaar of Chandni Chowk was designed by Jahanara.
• Gulbadan Begum, daughter of Babur wrote ‘Humayun Nama’ which was considered as an important source of Mughal Empire.

The Officials in Mughal Administration:

• In Mughal period, the nobility was recruited from diverse ethnic and religious group. In Akbar’s imperial service Turani and Iranian nobles played a dominant role.
• Two ruling groups of Indian origin, the Rajputs and the Indian Muslims (Shaikhzadas) entered the imperial service from 1560 onwards.
• The emperor personally reviewed changes in rank, titles and official postings.
• Akbar designed mansab system which established spiritual relationships with a select band of his nobility by treating them as his disciples.
• Some important officials were Mir Bakshi (paymaster general), Diwan-i ala (Finance minister) and sadr-us-sudur (minister of grants and incharge of appointing local judges or qazis), etc. The keeping of exact and detailed rewards was a major concern of the Mughal administration.
• The Mir Bakshi supervised the corps of court writers who recorded all applications and documents of courts.
• News reports and important official documents travelled across the Mughal Empire by imperial post which included round-the-clock relays of foot-runners (qasid or pathmar) carried papers rolled up in bamboo containers.
• The division of functions established at the centre was replicated in the provinces (subas),
• The local administration was looked after the level of the paragana by three semi-hereditary officers, the qanungo (keeper of revenue records), the chaudhuri (incharge of revenue collection) and the qazi.
• Persian language was made the language of administration throughout, but local languages were used for village accounts.

Jesuit Missionaries in the Mughal Court:

• Mughal Emperors assumed many titles like Shahenshah, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, etc,
• All conquerors who sought to make their way into the Indian sub-continent had to cross the Hindukush mountains. Thus, the Mughal tried to ward off this potential danger, and tried to control Kabul and Qandahar.
• Europe got knowledge of India through the accounts of Jesuit missionaries, travellers, merchants and diplomats.
• Akbar was curious about Christianity and the first Jesuit mission reached the Mughal Court at Fatehpur Sikri in 1580.
• The Jesuit accounts are based on personal observation and shed light on the character and mind of the emperor.

Akbar’s Quest for Religion:

• Akbar’s quest for religions knowledge led to interfaith debates in the Ibadat Khana at Fatehpur Sikri, between learned Muslims, Hindus, Jainas, Parsis and Christians.
• Increasingly, Akbar moved away from the orthodox Islamic ways of understanding religions towards a self-conceived eclectic form of divine worship focused on light and sun.
• Akbar and Abu’l Fazl tried to create a philosophy of light and used it to shape the image of the king and ideology of the state. King was a divinely inspired individual who had supreme sovereignty over his people and complete control over his enemies.
• With these liberal ideas, the Mughal rulers could effectively controlled the heterogeneous population of Indian sub-continent for a century and a half.

Class 12 History Notes Chapter 9 Important terms:

• Chronicles: It is a continuous chronological record of events.
• Manuscript: The handwritten records.
• Divine theory of kingship: The king was believed as the representative of god, acquired his powers from him and therefore had to be obeyed.
• Sulh-i-kul: It is state policy of religious tolerance.
• Jizya: A tax imposed on non-muslims in lieu of military service.
• Mansabdar: All royal officers were known as mansabdars.
• Chahar taslim: A form of salutation to the emperor which is done four times.
• Tajwiz: A petion presented to the emperor by a nobleman recommending an application to the post of a mansabdar.

Time line:

• 1526 – Babur established Mughal dynasty in India.
• 1530 – Humayun succeeds the Mughal throne.
• 1556 – After the second battle of Panipat Akbar succeeds to the throne.
• 1563 – Akbar abolished the pilgrimage tax.
• 1585 – Akbar shifted his capital from Fatehpur Sikri to Lahore.
• 1589 – Babur Nama was translated in Persian and Abu’l Fazl wrote the Akbar Nama.
• 1605-22 – Jahangir wrote Jahangir Nama.
• 1648 – Shahjahanabad became the new capital of the Mughal Empire.
• 1668 – Alamgir Nama was written by Muhammad Kazim. It gives a historical account of the first decade of Aurangzeb’s rule.
• 1707 – Aurangzeb died.
• 1857 – The last ruler of the Mughal dynasty was overthrown by the British.

Class 12 History Quick Revision notes Chapter 8 Peasant Zamindars and State

Key concepts in nutshell

• Peasants and agricultural production – Geographical diversity
• Looking for sources – Historical Epic and Records, Important chronicles – Ain-i-Akbari, Records from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
• Peasants and their lands – cultivation was based on the principle of individual ownership.
• Irrigation and Technology – Expansion of agriculture, monsoon remained the backbone of Indian agriculture, artificial system of irrigation had to be devised, agriculture often harnessed cattle energy.
• An abundance of crops – two major crops – the kharif and the rabi, new crops came from different parts of the world.
• The village community. Caste and the rural milieu – Rajputs are mentioned as peasants.
• Panchayats and headman – The panchayats was usually a heterogeneous body; the headman was chosen through the consensus of the village elders, functions of the panchayat. Village artisans.
• The existence of substantial members of artisans. A little republic – deep inequities based on caste and gender distinctions.
• Women in agrarian society – women’s role in the production process, high mortality rates among women, women petitioned to the panchayat, Hindu and Muslim women inherited zamindaris.
• Forest and tribes -Beyond settled villages, livelihood came from the gathering of forest produce, hunting and shifting agriculture, jungles provided a good defence. Inroads into forests – the state required elephants for the army, hunting expeditions by the Mughals, the spread of commercial agriculture.
• During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries about 85 percent of the population of India lived in its villages. Both peasants and landed elites were involved in agricultural production claimed rights to a share of the produce. This created relationships of cooperation, competition and conflict among them.
• The basic unit of agricultural society was the village, inhabited by peasants who performed the manifold seasonal tasks that made up agricultural production throughout the year tilling the soil, sowing seeds, harvesting the crop when it was ripe.
• The panchayat was headman known as muqaddam or mandal.
• Documents from Western India – Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra – Record petitions sent by women to the village panchayat, seeking redress and justice.
• The Zamindars held extensive personal lands termed milkiyat, meaning property. Milkiyat lands were cultivated for the private use of zamindars, often with the help of hired or servile labour.
• Zamindars also derived their power form the fact that they could often collect revenue on behalf of the state, a service for which they were compensated financially.
• Both cultivated and cultivable lands were measured in each province. The Ain compiled the aggregates of such lands during Akbar’s rule. Efforts to measures lands continued under subsequent emperors. For instance in 1665, Aurangzeb expressly instructed his revenue of officials to prepare annual records of the number of cultivators in each village.
• The testimony of an Italian traveler, Giovanni Careri, who passed through India c, 1690, provides a graphic account about the way silver traveled across the globe to reach India.
• The Ain is made up of five books (daftars) of which the first three books describe the administration.
• The Ain completely department from this tradition as it recorded information about the empire and the people of India, and the people of India, and thus constitutes a benchmark for studying India at the turn of the seventeenth century.

Peasants and Agricultural Production

1. The basic unit of agricultural society was the village, inhabited by peasants who performed the manifold seasonal tasks.
2. Several kinds of areas such as large tracts of dry land or hilly regions were not cultivable. Moreover, forest areas made up a substantial proportion of territory.
3. Sources: The major source for the agrarian history of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries are chronicles and documents from the Mughal court. Ain-i Akbari of Akbar’s court meticulously recorded the arrangements made by the state.
4. Some other sources are detailed revenue records from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
5. Besides, the extensive records of the East India Company provide us with useful descriptions of agrarian relations in eastern India.
6. All these sources record instances of conflicts between peasants, zamindars and the state. In the process they give us an insight into peasants’ perception of and their expectations of fairness from the state.
7. Peasants and their land: The terms most frequently used to denote a peasant were raiyat (plural, riaya) or muzarian, kisan or asami.
8. There is reference of two kinds of peasants in the seventeenth century – khud-kashta ( they were residents of the village in which they held their lands) and pahi-kashta (they were non-resident cultivators who cultivated lands elsewhere on a contractual basis).
9. An average peasant of north India did not possess more than a pair of bullocks and two ploughs, most of them possessed even less.
10.  In Gujarat peasants possessing about six acres of land were considered to be affluent; in Bengal, on the other hand, five acres was the upper limit of an average peasant farm.
11. Cultivation was based on the principle of individual ownership. Peasantsbought and sold their  lands like other property owners.
12. The abundance of land, available labour and the mobility of peasants were three factors that accounted for the constant expansion of agriculture.
13. Irrigation: Monsoons remained the backbone of Indian agriculture, as they are even today. But there were crops which required additional water. Artificial systems of irrigation had to be devised for this. Irrigation projects received state support as well.
14. Though agriculture was labour intensive, peasants did use technologies that often harnessed cattle energy.
15. Agriculture was organised around two major seasonal cycles, the kharif (autumn) and the rabi (spring).
16. During the seventeenth century several new crops from different parts of the world reached the Indian subcontinent. For example, Maize (makka), was introduced into India via Africa and Spain which gradually became one of the major crops of western India. Vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes and chillies were introduced from the New World at this time, as were fruits like the pineapple and the papaya.

The Village Community

1. Apart from individual ownership, lands belonged to a collective village community as far as many aspects of their social existence were concerned. There were three constituents of this community – the cultivators, the panchayat, and the village headman (muqaddam or mandal).
2. Distinctions: Deep inequities on the basis of caste and other castelike distinctions meant that the cultivators were a highly heterogeneous group. Like- despite the abundance of cultivable land, certain caste groups were assigned menial tasks. One who tilled the land was known as menials or agricultural labourers (majur). In Muslim communities menials like the halalkhoran (scavengers) were housed outside the boundaries of the village.
3. There was a direct correlation between caste, poverty and social status at the lower strata of society.
4. In a manual from seventeenth century Marwar, Rajputs are mentioned as peasants, sharing the same space with Jats, who were accorded a lower status in the caste hierarchy.
5. Castes such as the Ahirs, Gujars and Malis rose in the hierarchy because of the profitability of cattle rearing and horticulture.
6. Headman: The village panchayat was an assembly of elders headed by a headman known as muqaddam or mandal.
7. The headmen held office as long as they enjoyed the confidence of the village elders, failing which they could be dismissed by them.
8. The panchayat derived its funds from contributions made by individuals to a common financial pool.
9. One important function of the panchayat was to ensure that caste boundaries among the various communities inhabiting the village were upheld.
10. Panchayats also had the authority to levy fines and inflict more serious forms of punishment like expulsion from the community.
11. In addition to the village panchayat each caste or jati in the village had its own jati panchayat.
12. Village artisans: The distinction between artisans and peasants in village society was a fluid one, as many groups performed the tasks of both.
13. Cultivators and their families would also participate in craft production – such as dyeing, textile printing, baking and firing of pottery, making and repairing agricultural implements.
14. Village artisans – potters, blacksmiths, carpenters, barbers, even goldsmiths – provided specialised services in return for which they were compensated by villagers by a variety of means,mostly by giving them a share of the harvest, or an allotment of land, etc.
15. Some British officials in the nineteenth century saw the village as a “little republic” made up of fraternal partners sharing resources and labour in a collective. But this was not a sign of rural egalitarianism because there existed deep inequities based on caste and gender distinctions.

Women in Agrarian Society

1. Women and men had to work shoulder to shoulder in the fields, so a gendered segregation between the home (for women) and the world (for men) was not possible in this context. But biases related to women’s biological functions did continue.
2. Artisanal tasks such as spinning yarn, sifting and kneading clay for pottery, and embroidery were among the many aspects of production dependent on female labour.
3. Women were considered an important resource in agrarian society also because they were child bearers in a society dependent on labour.
4. Marriages in many rural communities required the payment of bride-price rather than dowry to the bride’s family.
5. According to established social norms, the household was headed by a male. Thus women were kept under strict control by the male members of the family and the community.
6. Amongst the landed gentry, women had the right to inherit property. Women zamindars were known in eighteenth-century Bengal.

Forests and Tribes

1. Apart from the intensively cultivated lands, India had huge swathes of forests – dense forest (jangal) or scrubland (kharbandi) – existed all over eastern India, central India, northern India (including the Terai on the Indo-Nepal border), Jharkhand, and in peninsular India down the Western Ghats and the Deccan plateau.
2. Forest dwellers were termed jangli as their livelihood came from the gathering of forest produce, hunting and shifting agriculture. These activities were largely season specific.
3. Regular hunting expeditions enabled the emperors to travel across the extensive territories of his empire and personally attend to the grievances of its inhabitants.
4. The spread of commercial agriculture was an important external factor that impinged on the lives of the forest-dwellers.
5. Elephants were also captured and sold.
6. Social factors too wrought changes in the lives of forest dwellers. Like the “big men” of the village community, tribes also had their chieftains.
7. New cultural influences also began to penetrate into forested zones.

The Zamindars

1. The zamindars were a class of people in the countryside that lived off agriculture but did not participate directly in the processes of agricultural production.
2. They were landed proprietors who also enjoyed certain social and economic privileges by virtue of their superior status in rural society.
3. The zamindars held extensive personal lands termed milkiyat, meaning property.
4. Zamindars also derived their power from the fact that they could often collect revenue on behalf of the state.
5. Most zamindars had fortresses (qilachas) as well as an armed contingent comprising units of cavalry, artillery and infantry.
6. Zamindars spearheaded the colonisation of agricultural land, and helped in settling cultivators by providing them with the means of cultivation, including cash loans.
7. Although there can be little doubt that zamindars were an exploitative class, their relationship with the peasantry had an element of reciprocity, paternalism and patronage.

Land Revenue System

1. Revenue from the land was the economic mainstay of the Mughal Empire.
2. This apparatus included the office (daftar) of the diwan who was responsible for supervising the fiscal system of the empire.
3. The land revenue arrangements consisted of two stages – first, assessment and then actual collection.
4. The jama was the amount assessed, as opposed to hasil, the amount collected.
5. In the list of duties of the amil-guzar or revenue collector, Akbar decreed that while he should strive to make cultivators pay in cash, the option of payment in kind was also to be kept open.
6. Both cultivated and cultivable lands were measured in each province. The Ain compiled the aggregates of such lands during Akbar’s rule.

Classification of Lands Under Akbar
The following a listing of criteria of classification excerpted from the Ain:
The Emperor Akbar in his profound sagacity classified the lands and fixed a different revenue to be paid by each. Polaj is land which is annually cultivated for each crop in succession and is never allowed to lie fallow. Parauti is land left out of cultivation for a time that it may recover its strength. Chachar is land that has lain fallow for three or four years. Banjar is land uncultivated for five years and more. Of the first two kinds of land, there are three classes, good, midding, and bad. They add together the produce of each sort, and the third of this represents the medium produce, one-third part of which is exacted as the royal dues.
The Flow of Silver

1. The Mughal Empire consolidated powers and resources from the empires of Ming (China), Safavid (Iran) and Ottoman (Turkey) during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
2. Voyages of discovery and the opening up of the New World resulted in a massive expansion of Asia’s (particularly India’s) trade with Europe.
3. An expanding trade brought in huge amounts of silver bullion into Asia to pay for goods procured from India, and a large part of that bullion gravitated towards India.
4. SO, the period between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries was also marked by a remarkable stability in the availability of metal currency, particularly the silver rupya in India.
5. The testimony of an Italian traveller, Giovanni Careri, who passed through India c. 1690, provides a graphic account about the way silver travelled across the globe to reach India.

The Ain-i Akbari of Abu’l Fazl Allami

1. Ain-i Akbari is a compilation of imperial regulations and a gazetteer of the empire.
2. It is a part of the Akbar Nama and was completed in 1598, after having gone through five revisions.
3. The Ain gives detailed accounts of the organisation of the court, administration and army, the sources of revenue and the physical layout of the provinces of Akbar’s empire and the literary, cultural and religious traditions of the people.
4. The Ain is made up of five books (daftars), of which the first three books describe the administration.
5. The first book, called manzil-abadi, concerns the imperial household and its maintenance. The second book, sipah-abadi, covers the military and civil administration and the establishment of servants. This book includes notices and short biographical sketches of imperial officials (mansabdars), learned men, poets and artists.
6. The third book, mulk-abadi, is the one which deals with the fiscal side of the empire and provides information on revenue rates, followed by the “Account of the Twelve Provinces”.
7. The Ain remains an extraordinary document of its times. By providing fascinating glimpses into the structure and organisation of the Mughal Empire and by giving us quantitative information about its products and people.

Timeline:

Time LineLand Marks in the History of the Mughal Empire
1526	Babur defeats Ibrahim Lodi, the Delhi sultan at Panipat, becomes the first Mughal emperor
1530-40	First phase of Humayun’s reign
1540-55	Humayun defeated by Sher Shah, in exile at the safavi court
1555-56	Humayun regains lost territories
1556-1605	Reign of Akbar
1605-27	Reign of Jahangir
1628-58	Reign of Shan Jahan
1658-1707	Reign of Aurangzeb
1739	Nadir Shah invades India and sacks Delhi
1761	Ahmad shah Abdali defeats the marathas in the third battle of Panipat
1765	The diwani of Bengal transferred to the East India company
1857	Last Mughal ruler, Bahadur Shah II, Deposed by the British and exiled to Rangoon (Present day Yangon, Myanmar)

Class 12 History Quick Revision notes Chapter 7 An imperial capital Vijayanagara

Key concepts in nutshells

• The Rayas, Nayakas and Sultans – Harihara and Bukka asserted their independence of the Delhi sultanate and established the kingdom of Vijaynagar on AD 1336.
• Kings and trading class – The warfare depended mainly upon powerful cavalry. The Portuguese settled on the west coast of India in attempted to establish their trading and military stations.
• The climax and decline of Vijay Nagar empire – Krishadeva Raya was an able administrator, He built dams for irrigation. He builds magnificent places and temples. Its ruler Rama Raya was miserably defeated on the battlefield of (Rakshasi – Tangadi) Talikota in A.D.1565. The victorious armies plundered and destroyed the city of Vijaynagar.
• Vijaynagar Hampi Architecture – The Vijaynagar architecture (Hampi Architecture) of the period (1336-1365) was unique building style evolved by the imperial Vijaynagar empire.
• Hampi Bazar – Portuguese travellers Paes and Nuntiz visited Hampi in the mid 1500 century. They give an account of Hampi Bazar thus “in this street lived many merchants and there you will find all sorts of rubies, diamonds pearls and cloths that you may wish to buy.
• Building and places – we know today about the Vijaynagar palaces and buildings are derived from the archeological excavations at Hampi as no royal palace structures have survived.
• Kings royal enclosure – Another important building at Hampi is the kings royal enclosure. Paes tells against the gate there were two circles in which there were the dancing women richly arrayed with many jewels of gold and diamonds and many pearls.
• Mahanavami dibba – The Mahanavami dibba is located on one of the highest points in the city. It is a very large platform rising from a base of about 11000 feet to height of a 40 feet. It seems that is supported a wooden structure.
• Forts of Vijay nagar – in the constant struggle for power, fort and fortified settlements were a potent symbol of authority. The rulers of Vijaynagar empire created the cities with the main object of protection against invasions. The city itself was a fortress and designed as such in every manner.
• Vijayanagara or “city of victory” was the name of the both a city and an empire. The empire was founded in the fourteenth century.
• In 1565 the city was sacked and subsequently deserted.
• One of the most prominent water work to be seen among the ruins in the Hiriya canal.
• In terms of temple architecture, by this period certain new features were in evidence.
• Best exemplified by the raya gopurams or royal gate ways that often dwarfed the towers on the central shrines, and signaled the presence of the temple from a great distance.
• The halls in the temple were used for a variety of purposes.
• Buildings that survive tell us about the way spaces were organized and used, how they were built, with what materials and techniques.

History of Vijayanagara 
Vijayanagara or “city of victory” was the name of both a city and an empire. The empire was founded in the fourteenth century. In 1565 the city was sacked and subsequently deserted. Although it fell into ruin in the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries it remained in the memories of people living in the Krishna-Tungabhadra doab, as Hampi, a name derived from that of the local mother goddess, Pampadevi.

1.  The Discovery of Hampi: The ruins at Hampi were brought to light in 1800 by an engineer and antiquarian named Colonel Colin Mackenzie. An employee of the English East India Company, he prepared the first survey map of the site. Much of the initial information he received was based on the memories of priests of the Virupaksha temple and the shrine of Pampadevi.
2. Rayas, Nayakas and Sultans: According to tradition and epigraphic evidence two brothers, Harihara and Bukka, founded the Vijayanagara Empire in 1336. This empire included within its fluctuating frontiers peoples who spoke different languages and followed different religious traditions. The Vijayanagara kings competed with contemporary rulers – including the Sultans of the Deccan and the Gajapati rulers of Orissa – for control of the fertile river valleys. The rulers of Vijayanagara, who called themselves rayas.
3. The warfare depended mainly upon powerful cavalry. The Portuguese settled on the west coast of India in attempted to establish their trading and military stations.
4. Trade in Vijaynagar: Vijayanagara was also noted for its markets dealing in spices, textiles and precious stones. Trade was often regarded as a status symbol for such cities, which boasted of a wealthy population that demanded high-value exotic goods, especially precious stones and jewellery.
5. The climax and decline of Vijaynagar empire: 
   1. The first dynasty, known as the Sangama dynasty, exercised control till 1485. They were supplanted by the Saluvas, who were replaced by the Tuluvas in 1503.
   2. Krishnadeva Raya belonged to the Tuluva dynasty. His rule was characterised by expansion and consolidation.
   3. Krishnadeva Raya is credited with building some fine temples and adding impressive gopurams to many important south Indian temples.
   4. Strain began to show within the imperial structure following Krishnadeva Raya’s death in 1529. His successors were troubled by rebellious nayakas or military chiefs.
   5. During this period, as indeed earlier, the military ambitions of the Deccan Sultanates resulted in shifting alignments. Eventually this led to an alliance of the Sultanates against Vijayanagara.
   6. Although the armies of the Sultans were responsible for the destruction of the city of Vijayanagara, relations between the Sultans and the rayas were not always or inevitably hostile.
   7. In fact the Vijayanagara kings were keen to ensure the stability of the Sultanates and vice versa.
6. The rayas and the nayakas:
   1. Nayakas were military chiefs who usually controlled forts and had armed supporters. They moved from one area to another, and in many cases were accompanied by peasants looking for fertile land on which to settle. They usually spoke Telugu or Kannada. Many nayakas submitted to the authority of the kings of Vijayanagara but they often rebelled and had to be subdued by military action.
   2. The amara-nayaka system was a major political innovation of the Vijayanagara Empire. They were military commanders who were given territories to govern by the raya. They collected taxes and other dues from peasants, craftspersons and traders in the area.
   3. These contingents provided the Vijayanagara kings with an effective fighting force with which they brought the entire southern peninsula under their control.

Vijayanagara – The Capital and its Environs
Vijayanagara, was characterised by a distinctive physical layout and building style:

1. Water Resources: Vijayanagara had the natural basin formed by the river Tungabhadra which flows in a north-easterly direction. A number of streams flow down to the river from the granite hills. Embankments were built along these streams to create reservoirs of varying sizes. For the most arid zones of the peninsula, elaborate arrangements had to be made to store rainwater. The most important such tank was built in the early years of the fifteenth century and is now called Kamalapuram tank. One of the most prominent waterworks to be seen among the ruins is the Hiriya canal.
2. Fortifications and roads: Abdur Razzaq, an ambassador sent by the ruler of Persia to Calicut (present-day Kozhikode) in the fifteenth century, was greatly impressed by the fortifications, and mentioned seven lines of forts which encircled not only the city but also its agricultural hinterland and forests. What was most significant about this fortification is that it enclosed agricultural tracts. The archaeologists have also found evidence of an agricultural tract between the sacred centre and the urban core. This tract was serviced by an elaborate canal system drawing water from the Tungabhadra. A second line of fortification went round the inner core of the urban complex, and a third line surrounded the royal centre, within which each set of major buildings was surrounded by its own high walls. Roads generally wound around through the valleys, avoiding rocky terrain. Some of the most important roads extended from temple gateways, and were lined by bazaars.
3. The urban core: Archaeologists have found evidence of the houses of ordinary people along the road. Fine Chinese porcelain were also found from Muslim residential quarter. Tombs and mosques were located there but had their architecture like that of the mandapas found in the temples of Hampi. Field surveys indicate that the entire area was dotted with numerous shrines and small temples which proves a variety of cults existed and were supported by different communities.

The Royal Centre
The royal centre was located in the south-western part of the settlement. About thirty building complexes have been identified as palaces. One difference between these structures and temples is that the latter were constructed entirely of masonry, while the superstructure of the secular buildings was made of perishable materials.

1. The mahanavami dibba: The “king’s palace” has two of the most impressive platforms, usually called the “audience hall” and the “mahanavami dibba”. The entire complex is surrounded by high double walls with a street running between them. The audience hall is a high platform with slots for wooden pillars at close and regular intervals. Located on one of the highest points in the city, the “mahanavami dibba” is a massive platform rising from a base of about 11,000 sq. ft to a height of 40 ft. There is evidence that it supported a wooden structure. The base of the platform is covered with relief carvings. Rituals associated with the structure probably coincided with Mahanavami (literally, the great ninth day) of the Hindu festival during the autumn months of September and October. The Vijayanagara kings displayed their prestige, power and suzerainty on this occasion.
2. Other buildings in the royal centre: One of the most beautiful buildings in the royal centre is the Lotus Mahal, so named by British travellers in the nineteenth century. While most temples were located in the sacred centre, there were several in the royal centre as well. One of the most spectacular of these is one known as the Hazara Rama temple.

The Sacred Centre

1. The sacred centre was situated on the rocky northern end on the bank of the river Tungabhadra. According to local tradition, these hills sheltered the monkey kingdom of Vali and Sugriva mentioned in the Ramayana.
2. Temple building in the region had a long history, going back to dynasties such as the Pallavas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas and Cholas.
3. Rulers very often encouraged temple building as a means of associating themselves with the divine – often, the deity was explicitly or implicitly identified with the king. Temples also functioned as centres of learning.
4. The rulers and others often granted land and other resources for the maintenance of temples. temples developed as significant religious, social, cultural and economic centres.
5. It is likely that the very choice of the site of Vijayanagara was inspired by the existence of the shrines of Virupaksha and Pampadevi. In fact the Vijayanagara kings claimed to rule on behalf of the god Virupaksha.
6. In terms of temple architecture, by this period certain new features (like Gopurams and mandapas) were in evidence.
7. The raya gopurams or royal gateways that often dwarfed the towers on the central shrines, and signalled the presence of the temple from a great distance.
8. Other distinctive features include mandapas or pavilions and long, pillared corridors that often ran around the shrines within the temple complex.
9. The Virupaksha temple was built over centuries. While inscriptions suggest that the earliest shrine dated to the ninth-tenth centuries, it was substantially enlarged with the establishment of the Vijayanagara Empire.
10. Just as the nayakas continued with and elaborated on traditions of fortification, so they did with traditions of temple building. In fact, some of the most spectacular gopurams were also built by the local nayakas.

Conclusion:
Buildings that survive tell us about the way spaces were organised and used, how they were built, with what materials and techniques. Although wooden structures are lost, and only stone structures survive, the descriptions left by travellers allow us to reconstruct some aspects of the vibrant life of the times. They convey ideas which the builders or their patrons wished to project.

Time Line 1Major Political Development
C. 1200 1- 1300	Establishment of the Delhi Sultanate (1206)
c. 1300 – 1400	Establishment of the Vijayanagara Empire (1336?): establishment of the Bahman kingdom (1347): sultanates in jaunpur, Kashmir and madura
c. 1400 – 1500	Establishment of the Gajapati kingdom of Orissa (1435); establishment of the sultanates of ahmadnagar, Bijapur and berar (1409)
c. 1500 – 1600	Conquest of Goa by the Portuguese (1510); collapse of the Bahmani kingdom, emergence of the sultanate Golconda (1518); Establishment of the Mughal empire byBabur (1526)
Time Line 2Land marks in the Discovery and Conservation of Vijayanagara
1800	Colin Mackenzie visits Vijayanagara
1856	Alexander Green law takes the first detailed photographs of archaeological remains at Hampi
1876	J.F Fleet begins documenting the inscriptions on the temple walls at the site
1902	Conservation beings under John Marshall
1986	Hampi Declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO

Class 12 History Quick Revision notes Chapter 6 Bhakti Sufi Traditions

Key concepts in nutshell

• From eighth to eighteenth century striking features was a visibility of wide range of gods and goddesses in sculpture and texts.
• There was integration of cults – composition, compilation and  presentation of puranic texts in simple Sanskrit verses.
• Explicitly meant to be accessible to women and shurdas who were generally excluded from vedic learning.
• Tantric forms of worship – more prevalent among women. Often associated with the goddess were forms of worship that were classifies as Tantric. Tantric practices were widespread in several parts of the subcontinent they were open to women and men, and practitioners often ignored differences of caste and class within the ritual context.
• Bhakti traditions classified into saguna (with athesist) and nirguna (without from attracts worship of abstract form).
• The Alvars and Narayanars of Tamil Nadu – The worshippers of Vishnu and Nayanars – devotees of Shiva – common features – traveled singing hymns in Tamil.
• Alvars and Nayanars initiated movement against caste system & dominance of Brahamans. Nalayira Divyaprabandanam – important composition of Alvars equal to four Vedas.
• Status of women – composition of Andal (a women Alvar) popular, songs of Karaikkal Ammaiyar – were widely sung.
• State patronage in south for Vedic gods rather than Jainism & Buddhisn, cholas patronized brahamnical tradition, making land grant as to lord shiva at Gangaikonda Cholapuram bronze sculpture of shiva.
• Singing of hymns under royal patronage were encountered – Chola ruler Parantaka I consecrated metal image of Appan, Sambandan and sundarar in Shiva emples.
• Karnataka saw a new movement under basavanna a brahamana in court of Chalukyan ruler – his followers Virashaivas (heroes of Shiva) or Lingayat wearers of Linga) – important community to this day – who worship shiva in form of a linga. Of the group of Sufis who migrated to India in the late twelfth century, the Chishtis were the most influential.
• By the sixteenth century the shrine had become very popular, in fact it was the spirited singing of pilgrims bound for Ajmer that inspired Akbar to visit the tomb.
• He went there fourteen times, sometimes two or three times a year to seek blessings for new conquests, fulfillment of vows and the birth of sons. He also had a mosque constructed with the composer of the dargah.
• Lingayats challenged ida of caste and questions the theory of rebirth.They encountered remarriage of widows. North India saw the emergence of Rajput states which patronized Brahmans – performed secular and ritual function. The Naths, Jogis, siddhas also.
• Through guided by ulema, rulers followed a flexible policy granting religious tax exemptions to non Muslims sometimes.
• Those who accepted Islam in India accepted in principal the five pillars of faith but these were overlooked with diversion in practice derived from local customs and affiliations (sunni, shia) some like in Malabar court adopted local language Sufism – Sufis were critical of dogmatic definitions & scholastic method of interpreting – Quran.
• They emphasized interpretation of Quran on basis of personal experiences. Chishtis – were a part of Sufis – hospices of khangah were small room & hall for students to live and pray.
• Life in chisti khangah was like the life of a monastery & catered to all travellers rich or poor. Shaikh Nizamuddin chishti had many followers.
• The practice of visits to dargahs gained prominence by 14th century – shrines became very popular.
• Also music, dance and mystical chants were performed to evoke divine ecstasy. The Bhakti movement saw the emergence of poet saint like kabir where poems written in form in which every meaning are inverted.
• The message of Baba Guru Nanak is spelt out in his hymns and teachings. These suggest that he advocated a form of nirguna Bhakti.
• Guru Nanak’s Hymns in the Adi Granth Sahib called “Gurubani”, are composed in various languages. Mirabai (c. fifteenth – sixteenth centuries) is perhaps the best known woman poet within the Bhakti traditions.
• She defied her husband and did not submit to the traditional role of wife and mother, in stead recognizing Krishna, the avatar of Vishnu as per lover.
• Historaians draw on a variety of sources to reconstruct histories of religious traditions.
• Virtually all these religious traditions continue to flourish to date.

A Mosaic of Religious Beliefs and Practices

1. The Bhakti Movement, Islam and Sufi Movement played an important role in the history of medieval India during eighth to eighteenth century.
2. Historians suggest that there were at least two processes –  one was a process of disseminating Brahmanical ideas. This is evident through the composition, compilation and preservation of Puranic texts in simple Sanskrit verse, explicitly meant to be accessible to women and Shudras, who were generally excluded from Vedic learning.
3. The second process was that of the Brahmanas accepting and reworking the beliefs and practices of these and other social categories. In fact, many beliefs and practices were re-shaped through a continuous dialogue between “great” Sanskritic Puranic traditions and “little” traditions throughout the land.
4. Instances of integration are evident amongst goddess cults. For example, worship of the goddess, often simply in the form of a stone smeared with ochre, was evidently widespread.
5. Often associated with the goddess were forms of worship that were classified as Tantric.
6. Tantric practices were widespread in several parts of the subcontinent – they were open to women and men, and practitioners often ignored differences of caste and class within the ritual context. Many of these ideas influenced Shaivism as well as Buddhism, especially in the eastern, northern and southern parts of the subcontinent.
7. The divergence is perhaps most stark if we compare Vedic and Puranic traditions.
8. The principal deities of the Vedic pantheon, Agni, Indra and Soma, become marginal figures. Rather there were glimpse of Vishnu, Shiva and the goddess in Vedic mantras and had little in common with the elaborate Puranic mythologies.
9. In spite of these obvious discrepancies, the Vedas continued to be revered as authoritative.
10. there were sometimes conflicts as well – those who valued the Vedic tradition often condemned practices that went beyond the closely regulated contact with the divine through the performance of sacrifices or precisely chanted mantras.
11. Those engaged in Tantric practices frequently ignored the authority of the Vedas.
12. Devotees often tended to project their chosen deity, either Vishnu or Shiva, as supreme. Relations with other traditions, such as Buddhism or Jainism, were also often fraught with tension if not open conflict.
13. The singing and chanting of devotional compositions was often a part of such modes of worship. This was particularly true of the Vaishnava and Shaiva sects.

The Bhakti Traditions

1. The early bhakti tradition evolved and was characterised by remarkable diversity. It accommodated and acknowledged women and the “lower castes”, who were considered ineligible within orthodox Brahmanical framework, while Brahmanas remained important intermediaries between gods and devotees in several forms of bhakti.
2. Historians of religion often classify bhakti traditions into two broad categories: saguna (with attributes) and nirguna (without attributes).
3. Alvars: Some of the earliest bhakti movements (sixth century) were led by the Alvars (literally, those who are “immersed” in devotion to Vishnu) and Nayanars (literally, leaders who were devotees of Shiva). They travelled from place to place singing hymns in Tamil in praise of their gods.
4. The Alvars and Nayanars initiated a movement of protest against the caste system and the dominance of Brahmanas or attempted to reform the system.
5. Their compositions were as important as the Vedas. One of the major anthologies of compositions by the Alvars, the Nalayira Divyaprabandham, was frequently described as the Tamil Veda, thus claiming that the text was as significant as the four Vedas in Sanskrit that were cherished by the Brahmanas.
6. Women’s participation could be widely seen through the presence of women devotees like –  Andal, a woman Alvar who saw herself as the beloved of Vishnu; her verses express her love for the deity; and Karaikkal Ammaiyar was a devotee of Shiva who adopted the path of extreme asceticism in order to attain her goal. Their very existence and their compositions posed a challenge to patriarchal norms.
7. From the second half of the first millennium there is evidence for states, including those of the Pallavas and Pandyas (c. sixth to ninth centuries CE). Buddhism and Jainism had been prevalent in this region and received occasional royal patronage.
8. One of the major themes in Tamil bhakti hymns is the poets’ opposition to Buddhism and Jainism. The reason behind this hostility was the competition between members of other religious traditions for royal patronage
9. Rulers tried to win their support of Nayanars and Alvars.
10. The Chola kings often attempted to claim divine support and proclaim their own power and status by building splendid temples that were adorned with stone and metal sculpture to recreate the visions of these popular saints who sang in the language of the people.
11. These kings also introduced the singing of Tamil Shaiva hymns in the temples under royal patronage.

. The Virashaiva Tradition in Karnataka

1. In twelfth century, there emerged a new movement in Karnataka, led by a Brahmana named Basavanna (1106-68) who was initially a Jaina and a minister in the court of a Chalukya king. His followers were known as Virashaivas (heroes of Shiva) or Lingayats (wearers of the linga).
2. They worship Shiva in his manifestation as a linga, and men usually wear a small linga in a silver case on a loop strung over the left shoulder.
3. Lingayats believe that on death the devotee will be united with Shiva and will not return to this world. Therefore they do not practise funerary rites such as cremation, prescribed in the Dharmashastras. Instead, they ceremonially bury their dead. They also questioned the theory of rebirth.
4. The Lingayats challenged the idea of caste and the “pollution” attributed to certain groups by Brahmanas. The Lingayats also encouraged certain practices disapproved in the Dharmashastras.
5. These won them followers amongst those who were marginalised within the Brahmanical social order.

Religious Ferment in North India

1. In north India this was the period when several Rajput states emerged. Brahmanas occupied positions of importance, performing a range of secular and ritual functions. There seems to have been little or no attempt to challenge their position directly.
2. At the same time other religious leaders, who did not function within the orthodox Brahmanical framework, were gaining ground. These included the Naths, Jogis and Siddhas.
3. Many of these new religious leaders questioned the authority of the Vedas, and expressed themselves in languages spoken by ordinary people. Although they were poluar but were not in a position to win the support of the ruling elites.
4.  The coming of the Turks which culminated in the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate in thirteenth century added a new element which undermined power of many of the Rajput states and the Brahmanas who were associated with these kingdoms.

New Strands in the Fabric Islamic Traditions

1. From the seventh century, with the advent of Islam, the north-western regions became part of what is often termed the Islamic world.
2. Arab merchants frequented ports along the western coast in the first millennium CE. Central Asian peoples settled in the north-western parts of the subcontinent during the same period.
3. In 711, an Arab general named Muhammad Qasim conquered Sind, which became part of the Caliph’s domain.
4. In the thirteenth century) the Turks and Afghans established the Delhi Sultanate which was followed by the formation of Sultanates in the Deccan and other parts of the subcontinent.
5. Islam continued to be an acknowledged religion of rulers in several areas even with the establishment of the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth century as well as in many of the regional states that emerged in the eighteenth century.
6. Muslim rulers were to be guided by the ulama, who were expected to ensure that they ruled according to the shari‘a.
7. Rulers often adopted a fairly flexible policy towards their subjects. Several rulers gave land endowments and granted tax exemptions to Hindu, Jaina, Zoroastrian, Christian and Jewish religious institutions and also expressed respect and devotion towards non-Muslim religious leaders. These grants were made by several Mughal rulers, including Akbar and Aurangzeb.
8. Popular Practice: Islam permeated far and wide, through the subcontinent, amongst different social strata.
   1. All those who adopted Islam accepted, in principle, the five “pillars” of the faith: that there is one God, Allah, and Prophet Muhammad is his messenger (shahada); offering prayers five times a day (namaz/salat ); giving alms (zakat); fasting during the month of Ramzan (sawm); and performing the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj).
   2. The universal features were often overlaid with diversities derived from sectarian affiliations (Sunni, Shi‘a), and the influence of local customary practices of converts.
   3. Arab Muslim traders who settled in Kerala adopted the local language, Malayalam.
   4. The complex blend of a universal faith with local traditions is best exemplified in the architecture of mosques.
9. Names for communities:
   1. The terms ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ did not gain currency for a very long time. Historians point out that the term musalman or Muslim was virtually never used.
   2. people were occasionally identified in terms of the region from which they came.
   3. the Turkish rulers were designated as Turushka, Tajika were people from Tajikistan and Parashika were people from Persia.
   4. Sometimes, terms used for other peoples were applied to the new migrants. Like, the Turks and Afghans were referred to as Shakas and Yavanas (a term used for Greeks).
   5. A more general term for these migrant communities was mlechchha, indicating that they did not observe the norms of caste society and spoke languages that were not derived from Sanskrit.
   6. Such terms had derogatory connotation but it never denoted a distinct religious community of Muslims in opposition to Hindus.
   7. The term “Hindu” was used in a variety of ways, not necessarily restricted to a religious connotation.

The Growth of Sufism
Who were sufis?

1. In the early centuries of Islam a group of religious-minded people called sufis turned to asceticism and mysticism in protest against the growing materialism of the Caliphate as a religious and political institution.
2. They were critical of the dogmatic definitions and scholastic methods of interpreting the Qur’an and sunna (traditions of the Prophet) adopted by theologians.
3. Instead, they laid emphasis on seeking salvation through intense devotion and love for God by following His commands, and by following the example of the Prophet Muhammad whom they regarded as a perfect human being.
4. The sufis thus sought an interpretation of the Qur’an on the basis of their personal experience.

Khanqahs and silsilas:

1. By the eleventh century Sufism evolved into a well-developed movement with a body of literature on Quranic studies and sufi practices. Institutionally, the sufis began to organise communities around the hospice or khanqah (Persian) controlled by a teaching master known as shaikh (in Arabic), pir or murshid (in Persian). He enrolled disciples (murids) and appointed a successor (khalifa). He established rules for spiritual conduct and interaction between inmates as well as between laypersons and the master.
2. The word silsila literally means a chain, signifying a continuous link between master and disciple, stretching as an unbroken spiritual genealogy to the Prophet Muhammad. Sufi silsilas began to crystallise in different parts of the Islamic world around the twelfth century.
3. When the shaikh died, his tomb-shrine (dargah, a Persian term meaning court) became the centre of devotion for his followers. This encouraged the practice of pilgrimage or ziyarat to his grave. This was because people believed that in death saints were united with God, and were thus closer to Him than when living. Thus evolved the cult of the shaikh revered as wali.

Who were radical or be-shari‘a sufis?
Some mystics took to radical interpretation of sufi ideals. Many scorned the khanqah and took to mendicancy and observed celibacy. They ignored rituals and observed extreme forms of asceticism. They were known by different names – Qalandars, Madaris, Malangs, Haidaris, etc. Because of their deliberate defiance of the shari‘a they were often referred to as be-shari‘a, in contrast to the ba-shari‘a sufis who complied with it.
The Chishtis in the Subcontinent

1. Of the groups of sufis who migrated to India in the late twelfth century, the Chishtis were the most influential.
2. Chishti khanqah: The khanqah was the centre of social life. A well-known example is the Shaikh Nizamuddin’s hospice (of fourteenth century) on the banks of the river Yamuna in Ghiyaspur, on the outskirts of what was then the city of Delhi.
3. The inmates included family members of the Shaikh, his attendants and disciples. The Shaikh lived in a small room on the roof of the hall where he met visitors in the morning and evening.
4. On one occasion, fearing a Mongol invasion, people from the neighbouring areas flocked into the khanqah to seek refuge.
5. There was an open kitchen (langar), run on futuh (unasked-for charity).
6. Visitors: From morning till late night people from all walks of life visited there. Hindu jogis (yogi) and qalandars – came seeking discipleship, amulets for healing, and the intercession of the Shaikh in various matters. Other visitors included poets such as Amir Hasan Sijzi and Amir Khusrau and the court historian Ziyauddin Barani, all of whom wrote about the Shaikh.

Major Teachers of the Chishti Silsila
SUFI TEACHERS	YEAR OF DEATH	LOCATION OF DARGAH
Shaikh Muinuddin Sijzi	1235	Ajmer (Rajasthan)
Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar kaki	1235	Delhi
Shaikh Fariduddin Ganj – j Shakar	1265	Ajodhan (Pakistan)
Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya	1325	Delhi
Shaikh Nariruddin Chiragh – i Delhi	1356	Delhi

Chishti devotionalism: ziyarat and qawwali

1. Pilgrimage, called ziyarat, to tombs of sufi saints is prevalent all over the Muslim world. This practice is an occasion for seeking the sufi’s spiritual grace (barakat).
2. People expressed their devotion at the dargahs of the five great Chishti saints for more than seven centuries.
3. The most revered shrine of these is that of Khwaja Muinuddin,  of fourteenth century, popularly known as “Gharib Nawaz” (comforter of the poor).
4. It was evidently popular because of the austerity and piety of its Shaikh, the greatness of his spiritual successors, and the patronage of royal visitors.
5. By the sixteenth century the shrine had become very popular; in fact it was the spirited singing of pilgrims bound for Ajmer that inspired Akbar to visit the tomb. He went there fourteen time.
6. Also part of ziyarat is the use of music and dance including mystical chants performed by specially trained musicians or qawwals to evoke divine ecstasy.
7. The sufis remember God either by reciting the zikr (the Divine Names) or evoking His Presence through ‘sama‘ (literally, “audition”) or performance of mystical music. Sama‘ was integral to the Chishtis, and exemplified interaction with indigenous devotional traditions.

Languages and communication:

1. The Chishtis adopted local languages. In Delhi, those associated with the Chishti silsila conversed in Hindavi, the language of the people.
2. Other sufis such as Baba Farid composed verses in the local language, which were incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib.
3. Some composed long poems or masnavis to express ideas of divine love using human love as an allegory. For example, the prem-akhyan (love story) Padmavat composed by Malik Muhammad Jayasi revolved around the romance of Padmini and Ratansen, the king of Chittor. Their trials were symbolic of the soul’s journey to the divine. Such poetic compositions were often recited in hospices, usually during sama.
4. A different genre of sufi poetry was composed in and around the town of Bijapur, Karnataka. These were short poems in Dakhani (a variant of Urdu) attributed to Chishti sufis who lived in this region during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
5. These poems were probably sung by women while performing household chores like grinding grain and spinning. Other compositions were in the form of lurinama or lullabies and shadinama or wedding songs. It is through this medium that Islam gradually gained a place in the villages of the Deccan.

Sufis and the state

1. A major feature of the Chishti tradition was austerity, including maintaining a distance from worldly power. However, this was by no means a situation of absolute isolation from political power.
2. The sufis accepted unsolicited grants and donations from the political elites. The Sultans in turn set up charitable trusts (auqaf ) as endowments for hospices and granted tax-free land (inam).
3. The Chishtis accepted donations in cash and kind.
4. Kings did not simply need to demonstrate their association with sufis; they also required legitimation from them.
5. There were instances of conflict between the Sultans and the sufis. To assert their authority, both expected that certain rituals be performed.

New Devotional Paths Dialogue and Dissent in Northern India
Many poet-saints engaged in explicit and implicit dialogue with these new social situations, ideas and institutions.
Kabir: 

1. Kabir (fourteenth-fifteenth centuries) is one of the most outstanding examples of a poet-saint in this context.
2. Kabirdas (Kabir itself is an Arabic word meaning “great”), was raised by a poor Muslim family belonging to the community of weavers or julahas, who were relatively recent converts to Islam.
3. Verses ascribed to Kabir have been compiled in three distinct but overlapping traditions.
4. The Kabir Bijak is preserved by the Kabirpanth (the path or sect of Kabir) in Varanasi and elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh; the Kabir Granthavali is associated with the Dadupanth in Rajasthan, and many of his compositions are found in the Adi Granth Sahib. 
5. Kabir’s poems have survived in several languages and dialects; and some are composed in the special language of nirguna poets, the sant bhasha. Others, known as ulatbansi (upside-down sayings), are written in a form in which everyday meanings are inverted.
6. The range of traditions Kabir drew on to describe the Ultimate Reality include Allah, Khuda, Hazrat and Pir. He also used terms drawn from Vedantic traditions, alakh (the unseen), nirakar (formless), Brahman, Atman, etc.
7. Diverse and sometimes conflicting ideas are expressed in these poems. Some poems draw on Islamic ideas and use monotheism and iconoclasm to attack Hindu polytheism and idol worship; others use the sufi concept of zikr and ishq (love) to express the Hindu practice of nam-simaran (remembrance of God’s name).
8. His valuable legacy, which is relevant for later generations, was claimed by several groups which is most evident in later debates about whether he was a Hindu or a Muslim by birth.

Baba Guru Nanak

1. Baba Guru Nanak (1469-1539) was born in a Hindu merchant family in a village called Nankana Sahib near the river Ravi in the predominantly Muslim Punjab.
2. He also travelled widely and spent most of his time among sufis and bhaktas.
3. The message of Baba Guru Nanak is spelt out in his hymns and teachings. These suggest that he advocated a form of nirguna bhakti.
4. He rejected sacrifices, ritual baths, image worship, austerities and the scriptures of both Hindus and Muslims.
5. For Baba Guru Nanak, the Absolute or “rab” had no gender or form.
6. He proposed a simple way to connect to the Divine by remembering and repeating the Divine Name, through hymns called “shabad ” in Punjab.
7. His attendant was Mardana who played the rabab when Nanak used to sing the ragas.
8. Baba Guru Nanak organised his followers into a community.
9. He set up rules for congregational worship (sangat) involving collective recitation.
10. He appointed one of his disciples, Angad, to succeed him as the preceptor (guru), and this practice was followed for nearly 200 years.
11. The fifth preceptor, Guru Arjan, compiled Baba Guru Nanak’s hymns along with those of his four successors and other religious poets like Baba Farid, Ravidas (also known as Raidas) and Kabir in the Adi Granth Sahib.  These hymns, called “gurbani”.
12. In the late seventeenth century the tenth preceptor, Guru Gobind Singh, included the compositions of the ninth guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, and this scripture was called the Guru Granth Sahib.
13. Guru Gobind Singh also laid the foundation of the Khalsa Panth.

Mirabai

1. Mirabai (fifteenth-sixteenth centuries) is the best-known woman poet within the bhakti tradition.
2. He bhajans were transmitted orally for centuries.
3. She was a Rajput princess from Merta in Marwar who was married against her wishes to a prince of the Sisodia clan of Mewar, Rajasthan. She defied her husband and did not submit to the traditional role of wife and mother, instead recognising Krishna, the avatar of Vishnu, as her lover.
4. Her in-laws tried to poison her, but she escaped from the palace to live as a wandering singer composing songs that are characterised by intense expressions of emotion.
5. her preceptor was Raidas, a leather worker, which indicates her defiance of the norms of caste society.
6. After rejecting all her comforts, she donned the white robes of a widow or the saffron robe of the renouncer.

Conclusion

1. The devotional worship of god with ultimate objective of attaining moksha (salvation) is called Bhakti. The word ‘Bhakti’ was derived from the root word ‘Bhaj’ meaning to adore. The impact of bhakti movement on the Indian society was significant and far-reaching.
2. Virtually all these religious traditions continue to flourish to date. This continuity has certain advantages for historians as it allows them to compare contemporary practices with those described in textual traditions or shown in old paintings and to trace changes.

Class 12 History Notes Chapter 5 Through the Eyes of Travellers Perceptions of Society

• Many foreign travellers visited India during medieval period. They came to India for several motives.
• Most of the travellers who came to India wrote their accounts.
• The accounts of these travellers dealt with various aspects. Some travellers accounts deal with the affairs of the court whereas few accounts are focussed on religious issues.
• Some travellers create about the contemporary style of architecture and monuments, whereas other depicts the social and economic life.
• The travellers who visited India presented the true picture of Indian civilisation in their accounts.
• Al-Biruni, a great scholar of central Asia, came to India in the 11th century. He arrived India during the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni.
• Al-Biruni was bom on 4 Sept. 973 at Khwarizm in Uzbekistan.
• Al-Biruni was well-versed in many languages. Languages such as Arabic, Persian, Hebrew and Sanskrit were known to him.
• Al-Biruni’s most outstanding work ‘Kitab-ul-Hind’ was written in Ghazni and was concerned India. It was also known as Tarikh-ul-Hind and Tahqiq-ma-lil-Hind.
• Al-Biruni has thrown a light on caste system prevailing in the Hindu society.
• According to Al-Biruni’s description India’s economic condition was very good.
• Al-Biruni’s real name was Abu-Abdullah Muhammad. He was fond of travelling and wanted to increase his knowledge by establishing his contact with the people of different countries.
• He travelled thirty years of his life.
• The great traveller of Morocco died in 1377, but the account written by him ‘Rihla’ is of immense wealth.
• After returning to Morocco in 1354 he (Ibn Battuta) was ceremoniously welcomed by ‘Sultan’, Abu Iram.
• Sultan Abu Iram appointed Ibijuzayy to help Battuta to compile his account ‘Rihla’.
• Rihla was written in Arabic. In it describe whatever he saw in India.
• Undoubtedly Tlihla’ is considered as an invaluable source of Indian History in the 14th century.
• Francois Bernier was a French traveller who came to India in 17th century.
• Francois Bernier was a great French doctor, philosopher and an historian who remained in India from 1656 to 1688 and wrote his famous book entitled. “Travels in the Mughal court”.
• Francois has given great detail about Indian Kharkhenas. Town, land ownership system and social evil, i.e. sati system.
• Abdur Razzaq the great Iranian scholar came to India in 15th century. He was born in 1413 and was appointed the Qazi of Samarqand under Shah Rokh Khan.
• Abdur Razzaq stayed in the court of Vijayanagara empireDeva Raya II from 1442-1443 and gave a vind description about the Vijayanagara kingdom.
• Duarte Barbosa was a Portugese official in south India, who travelled Vijayanagara Empire during the reign of Krishna Deva Raya in 1518.
• Among the other important travellers who came to India in medieval period were Antonio Monserrate, Peter Mundy, Jean Baptisite Tavernier, Franciso Pelesart and Nikolo Muncci.

Our knowledge of the past can be enriched through the’descriptions of social life provided by travellers who visited the sub-continent. Generally, they recorded everyday activities and practices of common men along with the descriptions of the kings. Al-Biruni, Ibn Battuta and Francois Bernier were three famous travelers who visited the sub-continent from 11th century to 17th century.

Al-Biruni and the Kitab-ul-Hind:

• Al-Biruni was born in 973 at Khwarizm in present day Uzbekistan.
• He was well-versed in different languages like Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew and Sanskrit.
• In 1017 with the invasion of Khwarizm, he arrived in Ghazni as a hostage. But gradually developed a liking for the city and interest for India.
• When the Punjab became a part of the Ghaznavid empire, he travelled widely in the Punjab and other parts of Northern India.
• He spent years in the company of Brahmana priests and scholars by learning Sanskrit and studying religions and philosophical texts.
• Al-Biruni wrote ‘Kitab-ul-Hind’ in Arabic, in a simple and lucid manner.
• It is a voluminous text including 80 chapters covering subjects like religion, philosophy, festivals, astronomy, alchemy, manners and customs, social life, weights and measures, iconography, laws and metrology.
• Al-Biruni was familiar with translations and adaptations of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit texts into Arabic. However, he was also critical about the ways in which these texts were written, and clearly wanted to improve on them.

Al-Biruni’s View About Indian Society:

• According to Al-Biruni, Sanskrit was so different from Arabic and Persian that ideas and concepts could not be translated easily from one language to another.
• Al-Biruni tried to explain the caste system by comparing it with other societies. He tried to suggest that social divisions were not unique to India.
• Al-Biruni depended on the Vedas, the Puranas, the Bhagavad Gita, the works of Patanjali, the Manusmriti, etc.
• Sanskrit texts laid down the rules of caste system from the point of view of Brahmanas, but in real life the system was not quite so rigid.

Ibn Battuta and his Book Rihla:

• Ibn Battuta wrote the book ‘Rihla’ in Arabic. This book provides extremely rich and interesting detail about the social and cultural life in the sub-continent in the 14th century.
• Ibn Battuta went to far-off places, exploring new worlds and peoples.
• Before coming to India, he travelled extensively to Syria, Iraq, Persia, Yemen, Oman, Mecca and a few trading ports on the coast of East Africa.
• When he came to Delhi, Muhammad-bin- Tughlaq was the Sultan of Delhi. The Sultan was impressed by his scholarship and appointed him the ‘qazi’ or judge of Delhi.
• He visited Bengal, Assam, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and China.
• He meticulously recorded his observations about new cultures, peoples, beliefs, values, etc.
• Travelling was not secure at that time. During his travel, Ibn Battuta was attacked by bands of robbers several times and was severely wounded.
• Ibn Battuta spent several years travelling through North Africa, West Asia, parts of Central Asia, the Indian sub-continent and China and recorded extensively his experiences.

Battuta’s Description of Indian Society:

• In the 14th century, Indian sub-continent had its contact from China in the East to North West Africa and Europe in the West. Ibn Battuta travelled through these lands and arrived at Delhi in the 14th century after visiting sacred shrines, meeting with rulers, learned men and people who spoke Arabic, Persian, Turkish and other languages. He shared ideas, information and anecdotes.
• While describing Indian society, Ibn Battuta explained the unfamiliar things like coconut and paan in a unique way.
• Ibn Battuta found the cities of India densely populated and prosperous. According to him, Delhi was the largest city in India. He also had the same view for Daulatabad (in Maharashtra).
• The bazaars (markets) were the places of economic transactions and also the hub of social and cultural activities. There were masjids and temples to offer prayers and also some bazaars marked with spaces for public performances by dancers, musicians and singers.
• Ibn Battuta found Indian agriculture very productive because of the fertility of the soil where farmers tend to cultivate two crops a year.
• Indian manufacturing flourished due to inter-Asian network of trade and commerce. These were in great demand in both West Asia and South-East Asia where artisans and merchants were fetching huge profits.
• Indian textiles, specially cotton cloth, fine muslins, silks, brocade and satin were also in great demand.
• Ibn Battuta was amazed by the efficiency of the postal system which was of two kinds, the horse-post called ‘uluq’ and the foot-post called ‘dawa’.

Francois Bernier: A French Traveller

• A number of Portuguese, Dutch, English and French travellers came to India in the 16th and 17th century. Of them, Jesuit Roberto Nobili, Duarte Barbosa, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier and Manucci wrote different aspects of Indian society.
• French doctor, political philosopher and historian Francois Bernier spent twelve years (1656 to 1668) in India and was closely associated with the Mughal court.
• Bernier travelled to several parts of India and wrote detailed accounts by comparing the situation in India with Europe.
• His works were published in France in 1670-71, and translated into English, Dutch, German and Italian. His writings became extremely popular.

Bernier and His View About Contemporary Society:

• As compared to Ibn Battuta, Bernier believed in a different intellectual tradition where he was more critical. He compared and contrasted what he saw in India with the situation in Europe in general and France in particular.
• Bernier’s book ‘Travels in the Mughal Empire’ is marked by detailed observations, critical insights and reflection. He constantly compared Mughal India with contemporary Europe, generally emphasising the superiority of the latter.
• According to him, the Mughal emperor owned all the lands and distributed it among his nobles and it led to disastrous consequences for economy and society. This perception was supported by most of the travellers of that period.
• As having no legal right over land, landholders could not pass on their land to their childern. Thus, they avoid any kind of long-term investment in the sustenance and expansion of production.
• This crown ownership system of land ruined the agriculture as well as the living standard of all sections of society, except the ruling aristocracy w’hich oppressed the peasant class.
• He explained that because of crown ownership of land, Indian society has no social group or class between the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich. He further said, “There is no middle state in India”.
• Bernier described Mughal king as the king of “beggars and barbarians”. But Abul Fazl gave a different account by describing revenue as a claim made by the ruler on his subjects for the protection he provides, rather than as rent on land that he owned.
• Bernier’s descriptions influenced Western theorists from the 18th century onwards. For instance, French philosopher Montesquieu used this account to develop the idea of oriental despotism and in the 19th century, Karl Marx used this account to develop the Asiatic mode of production.
• He also explained that India had a more complex social reality where artisans had no incentive to improve the quality of their products as profits were appropriated by the state. But at the same time, he added that the country used to exchange its manufacturing goods with the precious metals
• gold and silver, from outside the sub-continent. Whereas he also noticed existence of a prosperous merchant community as well.
• There were all kinds of towns i.e. manufacturing towns, trading towns, port-towns, sacred centres, pilgrimage towns, etc.
• The different urban groups included mahajans, sheth, nagarsheth, hakim or vaid, pundit or mulla, wakii, painters, architects, musicians, calligraphers, etc.

Views of Travellers about Women:

• Slaves were openly sold in markets with horses, camels and other commodities.
• I bn Battuta mentioned that there was considerable differentiation among slaves.
• Slaves were generally used for domestic labour and female slaves were used for the service of Sultan and to keep a watch on the nobles.
• Bernier wrote about the practice of’Sati’. He noted that while some women seemed to embrace death cheerfully, others were forced to die.
• Women’s labour was crucial in both agricultural and non-agricultural production.
• Women from merchant families participated in commercial activities.
• Travellers’ accounts provide us important information of that period but many aspects of social life were unnoticed by them.

Class 12 History Notes Chapter 5 Important Terms:

• Hindu: The term “Hindu’ was derived from an old Persian word which was used in 6th century BCE. It referred to the region towards the east of the river Sindhu, i.e. Indus.
• Antyaja: Those people who were included in the major four castes prevalent in the Indian society.
• Tarababad: It means the music market in Daultabad.
• Ulaq: Hose postal system.
• Daw: Foot postal system.
• Camp Towns: Those towns which owed their existence and survival to the imperial camp.

Time Line:

• 973 – Al-Biruni was bom in Uzbekistan
• 1031 – Kitub-ul-Hind in Arabic by Al-Biruni was published
• 1048 – Death fo Al-Biruni
• 1304 – Ibn Battuta bom at Tangier
• 1333 –  Ibn Battuta’s reached Sindh
• 1354 – Ibn Battuta’s return to Morocco
• 1377 – Rihla was published
• 1620 – Francisco-Pelsart a Dutch traveller reached India
• 1628 – Petermundy of England visited India
• 1656-68 – Francois Bernier visited India

Chapter 4 Thinkers Belief and Buildings Culture Development Notes

Key concepts in nutshell

• Buildings of Sanchi Kannakkheda are the most wonderful ancient buildings in the state of Bhopal.
• Buddhist, Jaina and Brahamanical text, monument and inscription are the some of the important historical sources of the age of C 600 BCE-600CE, which help in reconstructing Indian history.
• Many was provided by rulers of Bhopal, Shahjahan Begum and her successor Sultan Jahan Begum to preserved the ancient sites.
• The Rigveda is a collection of hymns, praise of many deities like Agni, Indra, Soma etc.
• The basic philosophy of Jainism already existed in north India even before the birth of vardhamana Mahavira.
• Tha Bhuddha was the most influential teachers of his times.
• Two traditions were including in modern Hinduism – Vaishnavism and Shaivism.

A detailed study:

1. A Glimpse of Sanchi
   • Nineteenth-century Europeans were very interested in the stupa at Sanchi.
   • The rulers of Bhopal, Shahjehan Begum and her successor Sultan Jehan Begum, provided money for the preservation of the ancient site.
   • One of the most important Buddhist centres, the discovery of Sanchi has vastly transformed our understanding of early Buddhism. Today it stands testimony to the successful restoration and preservation of a key archaeological site by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
2. Buddhist tradition: Sacrifices and Debates
   • The mid-first millennium BCE is often regarded as a turning point in world history as it saw the emergence of thinkers. They tried to understand the mysteries of existence and the relationship between human beings and the cosmic order.
   • This was also the time when new kingdoms and cities were developing and social and economic life was changing in a variety of ways in the Ganga valley.
   • The early Vedic traditions, religious belief and practice were known from the Rigveda, compiled between c.1500 and 1000 BCE.
   • Rigveda consisted of hymns, which were chanted when sacrifices were performed, where people prayed for cattle, sons, good health, long life, etc.
   • At first, sacrifices were performed collectively. Later (c. 1000 BCE-500 BCE onwards) some were performed by the heads of households for the wellbeing of the domestic unit.
   • More elaborate sacrifices, such as the rajasuya and ashvamedha, were performed by chiefs and kings who depended on Brahmana priests to conduct the ritual.
   • Many ideas found in the Upanishads (c. sixth century BCE onwards) show that people were curious about the meaning of life, the possibility of life after death and rebirth.
   • Thinkers were concerned with understanding and expressing the nature of the ultimate reality.
   • On the other hand, people outside the Vedic tradition began speculating on the significance of the sacrificial tradition and questioned the existence of ultimate reality..
   • Buddhist texts mention as many as 64 sects or schools of thought.
   • Debates took place in the kutagarashala – literally, a hut with a pointed roof – or in groves where travelling mendicants halted.
   • Mahavira and Buddha, questioned the authority of the Vedas.
   • They also emphasised individual agency – suggesting that men and women could strive to attain liberation from the trials and tribulations of worldly existence.
   • This was a sharp contrast to the Brahmanical position, where an individual’s existence was thought to be determined by his or her birth in a specific caste or gender.
3. The Message of Mahavira
   • The philosophy of the Jainas already existed before the birth of Mahavira in the sixth century BCE.
   • Vardhamana who came to be known as Mahavira, was preceded by 23 other teachers or tirthankaras, according to Jaina tradition.
   • Tirthankaras are the teachers who guide men and women across the river of existence.
   • The most important idea in Jainism is that the entire world is animated: even stones, rocks and water have life.
   • The principle of ahimsa, emphasised within Jainism, has left its mark on Indian thinking as a whole.
   • According to Jaina teachings, the cycle of birth and rebirth is shaped through karma.
   • Asceticism and penance are required to free oneself from the cycle of karma. This can be achieved only by renouncing the world.
   • Jaina monks and nuns took five vows: to abstain from killing, stealing and lying; to observe celibacy; and to abstain from possessing property.
   • Gradually, Jainism spread to many parts of India. Jaina scholars produced a wealth of literature in a variety of languages – Prakrit, Sanskrit and Tamil.
4. The Buddha – His Enlightenment & Teachings
   • The teachings and message of Buddha spread across the subcontinent and beyond – through Central Asia to China, Korea and Japan, and through Sri Lanka, across the seas to Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia.
   • According to Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha, as the Buddha was named at birth, was the son of a chief of the Sakya clan. He had a sheltered upbringing within the palace but he was deeply anguished when he saw an old man, a sick man and a corpse.
   • He also saw a homeless mendicant, who, it seemed to him, had come to terms with old age, disease and death, and found peace.Siddhartha decided that he too would adopt the same path. He then left the palace and set out in search of his own truth.
   • He meditated for several days and finally attained enlightenment. After this he came to be known as the Buddha or the Enlightened One.
   • For the rest of his life, he taught dhamma or the path of righteous living.
   • His teachings: The Buddha’s teachings have been reconstructed from stories, found mainly in the Sutta Pitaka.
   • Some stories describe his miraculous powers, others suggest that the Buddha tried to convince people through reason and persuasion rather than through displays of supernatural power..
   • According to Buddhist philosophy, the world is transient (anicca) and constantly changing; it is also soulless (anatta) as there is nothing permanent or eternal in it. Within this transient world, sorrow (dukkha) is intrinsic to human existence.
   • It is by following the path of moderation between severe penance and self-indulgence that human beings can rise above these worldly troubles.
   • The Buddha regarded the social world as the creation of humans rather than of divine origin. So he advised kings and gahapatis to be humane and ethical.
   • The Buddha emphasised individual agency and righteous action as the means to escape from the cycle of rebirth and attain self-realisation and nirvana, literally the extinguishing of the ego and desire – and thus end the cycle of suffering for those who renounced the world.
   • Buddha’s last words to his followers were: “Be lamps unto yourselves as all of you must work out your own liberation.”
   • His Followers: As the  number of disciples of the Buddha increased and he founded a sangha, an organisation of monks who too became teachers of dhamma
   • These monks lived on alms, and so they were known as bhikkhus.
   • Initially, only men were allowed into the sangha, but later women also came to be admitted. The Buddha’s foster mother, Mahapajapati Gotami was the first woman to be ordained as a bhikkhuni.
   • The Buddha’s followers came from many social groups. They included kings, wealthy men and gahapatis, and also humbler folk: workers, slaves and craftspeople.
   • Once within the sangha, all were regarded as equal, having shed their earlier social identities on becoming bhikkhus and bhikkhunis.
   • Buddhism grew rapidly as it appealed to many people dissatisfied with existing religious practices and confused by the rapid social changes taking place around them.
   • The importance attached to conduct and values rather than claims of superiority based on birth drew men and women to Buddhist teachings.

Time Line 1Major Religious Developments
c. 1500 – 1000 BCE	Early Vedic tradition
c. 1000 – 500 CBE	Later Vedic traditions
c. sixth century BCE	Early Upanishads; Jainism, Buddhism
c. third century BCE	First stupas
c. Second century	Development of Mahayana Buddhism, Vaishnavism, Shaivism and goddess cults
c. third century CE	Earliest temples

1. Stupas
   • In Buddhist ideas and practices, people tended to regard certain places as sacred. These included sites with special trees or unique rocks, or sites of awe-inspiring natural beauty. These sites, with small shrines attached to them, were sometimes described as chaityas.
   • Buddhist literature mentions several chaityas. It also describes places associated with the Buddha’s life – where he was born (Lumbini), where he attained enlightenment (Bodh Gaya), where he gave his first sermon (Sarnath) and where he attained nirvana (Kusinagara). Each of these places came to be regarded as sacred.
   • About 200 years after the time of the Buddha, Asoka erected a pillar at Lumbini to mark the fact that he had visited the place.
   • Besides, there were some places where relics of the Buddha such as his bodily remains or objects used by him were buried there. These were mounds known as stupas.
   • According to a Buddhist text known as the Ashokavadana, Asoka distributed portions of the Buddha’s relics to every important town and ordered the construction of stupas over them.
   • By the second century BCE a number of stupas, including those at Bharhut, Sanchi and Sarnath had been built.
   • Inscriptions found on the railings and pillars of stupas record donations made for building and decorating them. Bhikkhus and bhikkhunis also contributed towards building these monuments.
   • The stupa (a Sanskrit word meaning a heap) originated as a simple semi-circular mound of earth, later called anda. Gradually, it evolved into a more complex structure, balancing round and square shapes. Above the anda was the harmika, a balcony-like structure that represented the abode of the gods.
   • Arising from the harmika was a mast called the yashti, often surmounted by a chhatri or umbrella. Around the mound was a railing, separating the sacred space from the secular world.
   • The early stupas at Sanchi and Bharhut were plain except for the stone railings. Later, the mound of the stupas came to be elaborately carved with niches and sculptures as at Amaravati, and Shahji-ki-Dheri in Peshawar (Pakistan).
   • Each stupa has a history of its own. Sculptures of stupas were removed from stupas and transported all the way to Europe.
2. Sculpture
   • The Buddhist sculptures were beautiful and valuable. The sculpture in Sanchi seems to depict a scene from the story of Vessantara Jataka.
   • Symbols: Many early sculptors did not show the Buddha in human form – instead, they showed his presence through symbols. The empty seat was meant to indicate the meditation of the Buddha, and the stupa was meant to represent the mahaparinirvana. Another frequently used symbol was the wheel. This stood for the first sermon of the Buddha, delivered at Sarnath.
   • Popular traditions:  A sculpture of a beautiful women swinging from the edge of the gateway, holding onto a tree was the representation of shalabhanjika.
   • According to popular belief, shalabhanjika was a woman whose touch caused trees to flower and bear fruit. It is likely that this was regarded as an auspicious symbol and integrated into the decoration of the stupa.
   • The shalabhanjika motif on most of the Buddhist sculptures suggests that many people who turned to Buddhism enriched it with their own pre-Buddhist and even non-Buddhist beliefs, practices and ideas.
   • There are other motifs as well. Some of the finest depictions of animals are found there. These animals include elephants, horses, monkeys and cattle. While the Jatakas contain several animal stories that are depicted at Sanchi, it is likely that many of these animals were carved to create lively scenes to draw viewers.
   • Animals were often used as symbols of human attributes. Elephants, for example, were depicted to signify strength and wisdom.
   • Another motif is that of a woman surrounded by lotuses and elephants, which seem to be sprinkling water on her as if performing an abhisheka or consecration.
   • The serpent motif is also found on several pillars. One of the earliest modern art historians, James Fergusson, considered Sanchi to be a centre of tree and serpent worship.
3. New Religious Traditions
   • Early Buddhist teachings had given great importance to self-effort in achieving nirvana. Buddha was regarded as a human being who attained enlightenment and nirvana. Gradually the idea of a saviour emerged.
   • Simultaneously, the concept of the Bodhisatta also developed. Bodhisattas were perceived as deeply compassionate beings who accumulated merit through their efforts but used this not to attain nirvana and thereby abandon the world, but to help others. The worship of images of the Buddha and Bodhisattas became an important part of this tradition.
   • This new way of thinking was called Mahayana – literally, the “great vehicle”. Those who adopted these beliefs described the older tradition as Hinayana or the “lesser vehicle”.
   • The notion of a saviour was not unique to Buddhism, it was also a part of Hinduism. Sects of Vaishnavism and Shaivism emerged in Hinduism, in which there was growing emphasis on the worship of a chosen deity.
   • Vaishnavism – is a form of Hinduism within which Vishnu was worshipped as the principal deity and Shaivism is a tradition within which Shiva was regarded as the chief god. In such worship the bond between the devotee and the god was visualised as one of love and devotion, or bhakti.
   • In Vaishnavism, cults developed around the various avatars or incarnations of the deity. Ten avatars were recognised within the tradition. Different avatars were popular in different parts of the country.
   • Some of the avatars were represented in sculptures. For example, Shiva was symbolised by the linga.
   • All such representations depicted a complex set of ideas about the deities and their attributes through symbols.
   • Much of what is contained in the Puranas evolved through interaction amongst people who travelled from place to place sharing ideas and beliefs.
   • Early Temples: The early temple was a small square room, called the garbhagriha, with a single doorway for the worshipper to enter and offer worship to the image.
   • Gradually, a tall structure, known as the shikhara, was built over the central shrine. Temple walls were often decorated with sculpture.
   • Later temples became far more elaborate – with assembly halls, huge walls and gateways, and arrangements for supplying water.
   • One of the unique features of early temples was that some of these were hollowed out of huge rocks, as artificial caves. The tradition of building artificial caves was an old one. Some of the earliest of these were constructed in the third century BCE on the orders of Asoka for renouncers who belonged to the Ajivika sect.
   • This tradition evolved through various stages and culminated much later – in the eighth century – in the carving out of an entire temple, that of Kailashnatha (a name of Shiva).
4. Reading the unfamiliar
   • The European scholars were horrified by what seemed to them grotesque figures, with multiple arms and heads or with combinations of human and animal forms (of gods and goddess).
   • They compared and often found early Indian sculpture inferior to the works of Greek artists, they were very excited when they discovered images of the Buddha and Bodhisattas that were evidently based on Greek models. These were, more often than not, found in the northwest, in cities such as Taxila and Peshawar, where Indo-Greek rulers had established kingdoms in the second century BCE. As these images were closest to the Greek statues these scholars were familiar with, they were considered to be the best examples of early Indian art.

Time Line 2Landmarks in the Discovery and Preservation of Early Monuments and Sculpture
Nineteenth Century
1814	Founding of the Indian Museum, Calcutta
1834	Publication of Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus by Ram Raja: Cunningham explores the stupa at sarnath
1835-1842	James Fergusson surveys major archaeological sites
1851	Establishment of Government Museum, Madras
1854	Alexander Caunningham publishes Bhilsa Topes, one of the earliest works on Sanchi
1878	Rajendra Lala Mitra Publishes Bhuddas Gaya:  The Haritage of sakya Muni
1880	H.H Cole appointed curator of Ancient Monuments
1888	Passing of the Treasure Trove Act, Giving the governments the right to acquire all objects of archaeological interest
Twentieth century
1914	John Marshall and Alfred Foucher Publish the Monuments of Sanchi
1923	John Marshall publishes the conservation Manual
1955	Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru lays the foundation stone of the National Museum, New Delhi
1989	Sanchi declared a World heritage site

Class 12 History Notes Chapter 3 Kinship, Caste and Class Early Societies

• A number of important changes occurred in the economic and political life of India during the period from 600 BCE to 600 CE.
• The changes occurred during this period had left a deep mark on the contemporary society.
• A new change began to occur with the expansion of agriculture.
• Emergence of different crafts and distinct social groups also witnessed during this period.
• Social disparities began to increase as a result of unequal distribution of wealth.
• Historian made use of textual tradition for many reasons.
• According to the text written in ancient the most popular and famous is Mahabharata, which was composed between 500 BCE and 500 CE.
• Historians believed that it was written by Ved Vyasa, but most of the Historians think that it is the creation of many authors.
• In the beginning, Mahabharata was known by the name of Jail and held only 8800 verses. Later on the number of verses increased to one lakh.
• An important work began in 1919 under the leadership of V.S. Sukthankar, a famous Sanskrit scholar who took up cudgels to prepare a critical edition of Mahabharata.
• Many types of social institutions existed in this period these were as follows;
  • Monogamous family
  • Polyandrous family
  • Polygons family
  • Consanguineous family
  • Patrilineal family
  • Matrilineal family
  • Neolocal family
  • Rural family
  • Urban family
  • Joint family
  • Nuclear family
• Kinship is a system of relation between such relatives which determine our relationship on the basis of lineage. These relations were based on lineage or vansha are developed by a family.
• Patriliny means that the descent which is traced from father to son, then grandson and great grandson.
• Patriliny was prevalent even before the Mahabharata, yet Mahabharata strengthen it.

Historians often use textual traditions to understand the socio-economic changes of the society. In this case, it is very necessary to keep in mind who composed what and for whom. The language and the ways in which the text is circulated are also important.

Kinship, Marriage Rules and Different Practices:

• Families usually form parts of larger network of people defined as relative or ‘Kinfolks’ while familial ties are often regarded as ‘natural’ and based on blood they are defined in many different ways.
• It is more difficult to reconstruct the familial relationships of ordinary people than elite families.
• Mahabharata reinforced the ideal of patriliny as valuable. Under patriliny, sons could claim the throne or other resources of their fathers when the latter died.
• The idea of patriliny is also accepted in the Rigveda.
• Daughters had no claims to the resources of the household. Also marrying them into families outside the kin was desirable. Kanyadan or the gift of a daughter in marriage was an important religious duty of the father.
• From 500 BCE, codes of social behaviour were compiled in Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras written in Sanskrit. The most important Dharmashastra was Manusmriti compiled between 200 BCE and 200 CE.
• Codes of social behaviour were given by the Brahmanas. There were eight forms of marriage, of which the first four were considered as good, while the remaining were condemned.
• People were classified according to their gotras. Two important rules about gotras were:
• Women were expected to give up their father’s golra and adopt their husband’s gotra.
• Members of the same gotra could not many
• In case of Satavahana rulers, it was evident that many of the wives of Satavahana rulers retained the names of their father’s gotra as against Brahmanical rule.
• Endogamy or marriage within the kingroup was prevalent among several communities in South India.

Social Differences:

• The Dharmashastras and Dharmasutras contained rules about the ideal ‘occupations’ of the four categories or varnas.
• Brahmanas were supposed to study and teach the Vedas, perform sacrifices and get sacrifices performed; Kshatriyas were to engage in warfare, protect people and administer justice; Vaishyas were engaged in agriculture, pastoralism and trade; and Shudras were assigned to serve the three ‘higher’ varnas.
• According to the Shastras, only Kshatriyas could be the kings. But in reality political power was effectively open to anyone w’ho could muster (assemble) support and resources and rarely depended on birth.
• Gotami-puta Siri-Satakani was a Brahmana who destroyed the pride of Kshatriyas. He ordered that there was no inter-marriage amongst members of the four varnas.
• Jatis which shared a common occupation or profession were sometimes organised into shrenis or guilds. There were other categories like Nishada (people living in forest) beyond the four varnas in society. Ekalavya is supposed to have belonged to this class.
• Sometimes those who spoke non-Sanskrit languages were labelled as Mlechchhas and looked down upon.
• Brahmanical scriptures developed a sharper social divide by classifying certain social categories as ‘untouchable’.
• Those who performed ‘polluting’ activities like, handling corpses and dead animals were designated as ‘Chandalas’.
• The Manusmriti laid down the duties of Chandalas, these were—they had to live outside the village, use discarded utensils and wear clothes of the dead and ornaments of iron.
• Historians got hints of different social realities about the Chandalas from the non-Brahmanical texts.

Social Status and Right to Property:

• According to the Manusmriti, the paternal estate was to be divided equally amongst sons after the death of the parents, with a special share for the eldest.
• Women had no claim in her paternal estate, but were allowed to retain the gifts they received on the occasion of their marriage as stridhana.
• According to Brahmanical text, apart from gender, criterion for regulating access to wealth was varna. The only ‘occupation’ prescribed for Shudras was servitude (slavery), while a variety of occupations were listed for men of first three varnas.
• The Buddhists recognised the differences in society, but did not regard these as natural or inflexible. They rejected the idea of claims to status on the basis of birth.
• There were other possibilities as well; situations where men who were generous were respected, while those who were miserly were criticised.
• The Buddhists developed an alternative understanding of social inequalities and the institutions required to regulate social conflict.
• The institution of kingship was based on human choice, with taxes as a form of payment for services rendered by the king.

The Mahabharata:

The Great Indian Epic

• VS Sukthankar, a noted Indian Sanskritist, with his team initiated the task of preparing a critical edition of the Mahabharata. It involved collecting Sanskrit manuscripts of the texts written in a variety of scripts, from different parts of the country.
• First historians accepted the texts written in Sanskrit as the main source, but later they also relied on works in Pali, Prakrit and Tamil to reconstruct social histories.

The Singificance of Mahabharata:

• Historians examine whether texts were written in Prakrit, Pali or Sanskrit languages. They try to find out about the authors whose perspectives and ideas shaped the text.
• The Sanskrit used in the Mahabharata is far simpler than that of the Vedas.
• Historians classify the contents of the text under two broad heads, , narrative containing stories and didactic containing prescription and social norms.
• Mahabharata has been written in many phases. It is not the work of a single author. However, it is traditionally attributed to a sage named Vyasa.
• Mahabharata contains vivid descriptions of battles, forests, palaces and settlements.
• One of the most challenging episodes in the Mahabharata is Draupadi’s marriage with five Pandavas.
• It suggests polyandry ( the practice of a woman having several husbands) among ruling elites.
• Some historians think that polyandry is undesirable from the Brahmanical point of view, but it was prevalent in the Himalayan region due to a shortage of women during war times.

Different Versions of Mahabharata:

• The versions of the Mahabharata were written in a variety of languages.
• Several stories from specific regions were added in the epic. The story of the epic was often retold in different ways.
• Writers like Mahashweta Devi interprets the stories of the Mahabharata differently.

Class 12 History Notes Chapter 3 Important terms:

• Kinship: The person belonging the same family.
• Polity: The form or process or system of government.
• Kinfolk: Persons of blood relation.
• Patriliny: System of tracing descent from father to son, grandson and so on.
• Matriliny: System of tracing descent from mother side.
• Adi Parvan: Adi Parvan is the first section of the Sanskrit version of the Mahabharata.
• Indra: A god of warfare, rains and valour, one of the principal deities in the Rigveda.
• Dharmasutras: These are the texts composed in Sanskrit by Brahmanas.
• Mlechchhas: Shakas were regarded as Mlechchhas. They were the Central Asian people who had migrated and settled in the northwestern part of the Subcontinent.
• Majjhima Nikaya: It is a Buddhist text. It forms a part of a dialogue between a king named Avantiputta and a disciple of Buddha, named Kachchana.
• Gotras: People of the same kind and same vama.
• Shrenis: Unions of craftsmen and traders in Ancient India. It was also called guilds.
• Chandals: Untouchables of the ancient India who did menial works.
• Mahasammata: It means the great elect. A person chosen by the whole people.
• Nishad: A hunting community.
• Epic: A long poem about the deeds of great men and women or about a nation’s past history.
• Dwij: During Later Vedic period, people who adopted sacred thread system was caUedDwij.
• Endogamy: It refers to the system of marriage within the unit such as caste.
• Polygamy: Practice of having more than one wife.
• Polyandry: Practice of having more than one husband.
• Vamasha: Sanskrit word meaning lineage of a person.

Time Line:

• 500  BCE Ashfadhyayi of Panini, a work of Sanskrit grammar.
• 500-100  BCE Early Buddhist texts including the Tripitaka (in Pali)
• 500  BCE-400 CE Ramayana and Mahabharata (in Sanskrit)
• 200  CE onwards Compilation of the Puranas (in Sanskrit)
• 300  CE Natyashastra of Bharata, a work on dramaturgy (in Sanskrit)
• 400-500  CE Sanskrit plays a valuable role in the compilation of Kalidasa’s works on astronomy and mathematics by Aryabhata and Varahamihira (in Sanskrit).

Class 12 History Notes Chapter 2 Kings, Farmers and Towns Early States and Economies

• After the decline of Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), many significant changes took place in the Indian subcontinent.
• Vedas (Rigveda, Samveda, Yajurveda and Atharveda) and other religious and literary works are an invaluable source to know the history of that period.
• In first century BCE, many changes took place regarding the last rites of the dead in the central and south India. In this period dead bodies were buried in graves and these graves were surrounded by big stone called as the megaliths.
• In the 6th century BCE sixteen big kingdoms known as Mahajanapadas came into existence.
• Among these sixteen Mahajanapadas were-Magadha, Koshala, Vatsa and Avant whichwere the most powerful. .
• In the 5th century BCE, the powerful Mahajanapadas turned into powerful empires.
• Magadha was very powerful Mahajanapada. There were several causes responsible for it.
• Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of Mauryan Empire. He founded Mauryan Empire by defeating the last ruler of Nanda Dynasty, Mahajanapadas.
• Megasthenes’s Indica and Kautilya’s Arthashastra provided valuable information about the Mauryan Empire.
• After the death of Chandragupta Maurya’s his son, Bindusara became the next ruler who ruled from 298 to 272 BCE.
• After Bindusara, Ashoka occupied the throne in 272 and ruled till 231 BCE.
• After the Kalinga War, Ashoka gave up policy of war and expansion.
• Inscriptions of Ashoka are the most relevant sources to know about Mauryan period. These inscriptions are written in the Brahmi (Prakrit) script.
• After the downfall of the Gupta Dynasty many new dynasties came up and ruled in many parts of India. Some of the dynasties were the Satvahanas, the Shakas, the Pandyas, the Cholas, Cheras and Kushanas.
• With the emergence of the Gupta, a new age started in the ancient Indian History.
• The founder of the Gupta Dynasty was Srigupta. He founded this dynasty in 275 CE and ruled till 300. After his death his son Ghatotkacha ruled from 300 CE to 320 CE.
• Ghatotkacha’s successor Chandragupta I sat on the throne in 320 and assumed the title of Maharajadhiraja. He ruled till 335 CE.
• Sumudragupta is one of the greatest rulers of India and was the son of Chandragupta. He ruled from 335 to 375 CE. After his death Chandragupta-II ruled till 415.
• The Gupta ruler established a glorious empire with their untiring efforts. Their rule is called the Golden Age in Indian History. This vast Empire began to disintegrate at the end of the 5th century CE.

Development after the Harappan Civilization:

• After the decline of the Harappan Civilization, several developments, including the composition of Rigveda took place in Indian sub-continent. Evidences of emergence of agricultural settlements, pastoral communities and new modes of disposal of dead were found.
• The most important development was from 6th century BCE on wards when various empires and kingdoms emerged. In 1830, James Prinsep deciphered Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts used in earliest inscriptions and coins.
• Most of the inscriptions referred a king as Piyadassi, meant ‘pleasant to behold’ and a few inscriptions mentioned the king as Asoka, one of the most famous rulers known from Buddhist texts. It gave a new direction to investigate into early Indian political history, economic and social developments.

The Mahajanapadas:

• The earliest states emerged in the 6th century BCE which were mentioned in the early Buddhist and Jaina texts. The earliest 16 states were known as mahajanapadas. In which Vajji, Magadha, Koshala, Kuru, Panchala, Gandliara and Avanti were most important. The mahajanapadas had a capital city, which was often fortified.
• Brahmanas began composing Dharmasutras from the 6th century BCE onwards. Magadha became the most powerful Mahajanapada. Bimbisara, Ajatashatru and Mahapadma Nanda were the most ambitious kings of Magadha. Magadha had its capital in Rajagaha (Rajgir) which was fortified and later the capital shifted to Pataliputra (Patna).

Mauryan Empire:

• Development of Magadha resulted in the emergence of the Mauryan empire founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 321 BCE. Besides sculptures, historians have used a variety of sources like written texts of Megasthenes, Kautilya (Arthashastra), Buddhist) Jaina and Puranic literature, inscriptions of Asoka to reconstruct the history of Mauryan empire.
• Pataliputra, Taxila, Ujjayini, Tosali, Suvarnagiri were the five major political centres of Mauryan empire.
• The vast empire was not controlled by a uniform administrative system. Asoka tried to hold his vast empire together by propagating dharma. He appointed special officers, known as the Dhamma Mahamatta, to spread the message of Dhamma.

Asokan Inscription:

• In deciphering Brahmi, the European scholars and Indian scholars compared Devanagari and Bengali scripts with Brahmi script. After painstaking work, James Prinsep was able to decipher Asokan Brahmi in 1838.
• Kharosthi was deciphered by studying coins which had both Greek and Kharosthi scripts. Asoka was mentioned in the inscriptions as ‘Devanampiya’ meant ‘beloved of the God’ and ‘Piyadassi’ meant ‘pleasant to behold’.
• From the Asokan inscription, we know the anguish of the ruler and the change in his attitude towards warfare. These inscriptions have been found in Odisha.

The Limitations of Inscriptions:

• There are technical limitations, like faintly engraved, damaged or missing letters in inscriptional evidence. Sometimes what we consider politically and economically significant was not recorded in the inscriptions.
• The content of inscriptions invariably projects the perspective of the person who commissioned these.
• The inscriptions are unable to reflect about the life of different social groups including the marginalised groups. Thus, new strategies of analysis should be adopted.

Emergence of Concept Kingship:

• Different rulers in the various parts of India established their empire. This gave rise to new kingdoms, new communities and towns.

Emergence of New Kingdoms:

• New kingdoms emerged in the Deccan and further South, including the Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas. Satavahanas and Shakas derived revenues from long-distance trade. Kushanas ruled over a vast kingdom and considered themselves as God, adopting the title Devaputra (Son of God).
• Histories of the Gupta rulers were reconstructed from literature, coins and inscriptions, including Prashastis. The Prayaga Prashasti (also called Allahabad pillar inscription) by Harisena is the most important source to know about the Gupta rulers.

Emergence of New Communities:

• Historians examined stories of Jatakas and Panchatantra to know about the view of common people regarding the rulers. Strategies for increasing agricultural production were developed, including use of iron-tipped plough and the use of irrigation through wells and tanks.
• Advancement of agriculture led to emergence of different communities of people, viz, large landholders, small peasants and landless agricultural labourers. From early Tamil literature and Pali texts, categories of people like Gahapati (master of a household), Vellar (large land owners), Uzhavar (plough men) and Adimai (slaves) are known.
• Inscription gave details about the land grants to Brahmanas and Peasants. Prabhavati Gupta, daughter of Chandragupta II had access to land, which she later granted, but common women had no access to lands. Some historians think that land grant is a strategy to extend agriculture to new areas; others thought it as the indication of weakening of political power.

Emergence of Towns and Trade:

• Several urban centres emerged in the sub-continent from the 6th century’ BCE. People living in these areas traded artefacts like fine pottery known as Northern black polished ware, ornaments, tools, weapons, vessels, figurines made of gold, silver, copper, bronze, ivory, glass, shell and teracotta.
• Guilds or Shrenis procured raw materials, regulated production and marketed the finished product. The trade extended beyond the sub-continent, Central Asia, East and North Africa, South-East Asia and China.
• Successful merchants, designated as Masattuvan in Tamil, Set this and Satavahanas in Prakrit  became very’ rich. Exchanges were facilitated by the introduction of silver, copper and gold coins.
• The first coins to bear the names and images of rulers were issued by the Indo-Greeks, who established control over the North-Western part of the sub-continent in 2nd century BCE.
• The first gold coins were issued in 1st century’ CE by the Some of the most spectacular gold coins were issued by the Gupta rulers. From the 6th century CE on wards, the use of gold coins w^ras reduced.

Class 12 History Notes Chapter 2 Important Terms:

• Janapada: The land where the people belonging to a clan or tribe had settled.
• Dhammo Mahanatta: Officer appointed by Ashoka to spread the message of his Dharma.
• Matriliny: This term is used when descent is traced through mother.
• Tamilakam: The name of the ancient Tamil country which included the parts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
• Megaliths: Stone structures which were built by some communities of South India over the grave of the dead.
• Vellators: The big zamindars.
• Agrahara: The land which Brahmanas got as land grants.

Time Line:

• 600-500: BCE Emergence of Mahajanapadas
• 544-492:  BCE Reign of Bimbisara
• 492-460:  BCE Tenure of Ajatsatru
• 269-231:  BCE Reign of Ashoka
• 201:  BCE Kalinga war was fought
• 335-375:  BCE Reign of Sumudragupta
• 375-415:  CE Reign of Chandragupta-II
• 1784:  Asiatic Society (Bengal) was founded
• 1810:  Colin Mackenzie collects over 8,000 inscriptions in Sanskrit and Dravidian languages.
• 1838:  Brahmi script James Prinsept deciphered.
• 1877:  Alexander Cunningham published a set of Asokan inscriptions.
• 1886:  First issue of Epigraphia Camatica, journal of South Indian inscriptions.
• 1888: First issue of Epigraphia Indica.
• 1965-66:  D.C. Sircar published Indian Epigraphy and Indian Epigraphical Glossary.

Class 12 History Notes Chapter 1 Bricks, Beads and Bones The Harappan Civilisation

• Harappan Civilisation is also known as Indus Valley Civilisation. It is the oldest Civilisation of India.
• There is no consensus about the chronology of the Harappan Civilisation.
• Various scholars have given different dates about this period.
• According to Sir John Marshall, “this civilisation flourished between 3250 and 2750 BCE”.
• It was Daya Ram Sahni, who first discovered the sites of Harappan in 1921.
• The main centres of this civilisation are in Pakistan. The same famous sites of this civilisation (now in Pakistan) are Mohenjodaro and Chanhudaro.
• The main centre where this Civilisation flourished in India are Kalibangan, Sangol, Pengplor, Lothal, Dholavira and Banawali.
• The urban planning of this civilisation was very magnificent. The houses were built in a systematic manner. Roads were wide and cut each other at right angle.
• The people of Indus Valley Civilisation had also made best planning for the drainage of rainwater and dirty water.
• The caste system was not present in the society. All the people lived together with mutual love and understanding.% The women held a high position or rank in the society.
• They were fond of fashion. The economic life the people was very prosperous.
• The main occupations of the people were the agriculture and domestication of animals.
• Trade was well developed. Both maternal and external trade was carried out.
• The people worshipped many gods and goddesses. They worshipped mother goddesses, Lord Shiva, animal, birds, trees and the Sun.
• They knew arts and crafts. They knew the art of making beautiful sculptures, toys, pottery, ornaments, etc. They were skilled in the production of seals.
• The languages used by them on the seals is still to be deciphered. If one is able to decipher their script inscribed on the seals, it will throw a flood of the light on the various aspects of the Harappan Civilisation.
• The main sources of our information of Harappan Civilisation is archaeological materials. The excavation carried out at Indus sites tries to reconstruct the history of this civilisation.
• During the excavation of Indus sites, many tools, pottery, seals, household objects, etc. have excavated.
• All these excavated materials are deeply examined by the archaeologists.
• Many historians like Cunningham, R.E.M. Wheeler, John Marshall and G.F.
• Dates have played a valuable role in reconstructing the history of the ancient past including the Indus Valley Civilisation sites.
• Many Indian archaeologists like Daya Ram Sahni, S.R. Rao, R.S. Bisht and B.K. Thapar have played a great role in excavations of the Indus sites.
• Indus Valley Civilisation is also known as Bronze Age Civilisation, because people used bronze extensively for making their pottery, figure lines and ornaments.
• Almost 1900 BCE, these were explicit signs about the decline of this civilisation.
• By this time the two most important cities of Indus Valley-Mohenjodaro and Harappa had been completely declined.
• Around 1200 BCE, this civilisation had completely vanished. Epidemic, Aryan Invasion, change in the course of the river Indus, excessive floods, earthquake, etc. may be the main reasons for the decline of this civilisation.

rcheological Evidences of The Harappan Civilisation:

• The Harappan Civilisation is also known as Indus Valley Civilisation. This civilisation is dated between BCE 2600 and 1990 BCE. It is the oldest civilisation of India. We know about the civilisation from archaeological evidences like houses, pots, ornaments, tools and seals used by the people of that period.
• There were also earlier and later cultures, known as Early Harappan and Late Harappan Civilisation.
• Cunningham was the first Director General of Archaeological Survey of India who began archaeological excavations in the Harappan sites.
• Cunningham was unable to find the significance of Harappan Civilisation and thought that Indian history began with the first cities in the Ganga valley.
• Daya Ram Sahni, Rakhal Das Baneiji, John Marshall were some of the important archaeologists associated with the discovery of Harappan Civilisation. The frontiers of the Harappan civilisation have no connection with present day national boundaries. The major sites are now in Pakistani territory.
• In India, a number of Harappan settlements were found in Punjab and Haryana. The main centres where this civilisation flourished in India are Kalibangan, Lothal, Dholavira, Rakhi Garhi and Banawali.
• Archaeologist tried to classify artefacts in terms of material and in terms of function by comparing these with present-day things. The problems of archaeological interpretation are most evident in attempts to reconstruct religious practices of the Harappan.
• Unusual objects like terracotta figurines of women, stone statuary of men, motif of unicorn and figure in yogic posture on seals and structures like the great bath and fire altars may have had a religious significance. Several reconstructions regarding the Harappan civilisation remain speculative at present and there is a vast scope for future work.

Seals, Script, Weights of Harappan Civilisation:

• Seals and sealings were used to facilitate long distance communication. If the bag of goods reached with its sealing intact, it meant that it had not been tampered with. Seals also conveyed the identity of the sender.
• The Harappan script remains undeciphered to date. The script was not alphabetical and had many signs between 375 and 400.
• Exchange were regulated by a precise system of weights, usually made of a stone called chert with no marking. The lower denominations of weights were binary⁷ and the higher denominations followed the decimal system.

Food Habits of Harappan People:

• The people of Harappan Civilisation ate a wide range of plant and animal products including fish and meat, wheat, maize, millet, pulses, rice and another eatables. For this, cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo and pig were domesticated by the Harappans.

Agricultural Techniques Using by Harappan People:

• Archaeological evidences suggested that oxen were used for ploughing and two different crops were grown together. As most of the Harappan sites are located in Semi-arid lands, it is evident that water from canals and wells was used for irrigation.

Social and Economic Differences among Harappan People:

• Archaeologists use certain strategies to find out social and economic differences among people. These include studying burials and artefacts which can be divided into utilitarian and luxuries.
• Valuable materials are generally concentrated in large settlements, but rarely found in smaller settlements.

Craft Production of Harappan People:

• Harappans knew the art of making beautiful sculptures, toys, pottery, ornaments, etc. Chanhudaro was a tiny settlement exclusively devoted to craft production, including bead-making, shell-cutting, metal-working, seal-making and weight-making.
• Grinding, polishing and drilling were done for making beads. Nageshwar and Balakot were specialised centres for making shell objects as both these settlements are near the coast. Apart from smaller settlements, larger cities like Mohenjodaro and Harappa were also the specialised centres for craft production.

Acquiring Materials for Craft:

• The Harappans procured materials for craft production in various ways. Sometimes they established settlements where raw materials were available. Another strategy for procuring raw materials may have been to send expeditions to areas where these were available e.g. Khetri region for copper (Rajasthan) and South India for gold.
• The Harappan made contact with distant lands like Oman for procuring copper. The Harappan seals, weights, dice and beads were found in other countries, Oman, Bahrain and Mesopotamia.

Economic Life and Trade during Harappan Civilisation:

• Economic life of the people was very prosperous The main occupations of the people were agriculture and domestication of animals.
• Trade was well developed. Both internal and external trade were carried out. Pictures of ships, boats have also been found on seals which throw light on Harappan contacts with far off places

Religious Belief of Harappan People:

• People of this civilisation worshipped many Gods and Goddesses. They worshipped Lord Shiva, mother Goddesses, animals, birds, trees and the sun.

Caste System in Harappan Civilisation:

• The caste system was not present in the society. All people live together with mutual love and understanding. Women held a high position or rank in the society.

A Planned Town of Harappan Civilisation Mohenjodaro:

• Mohenjodaro was the most well-known urban site of the Harappan Civilisation. Although Harappa was the first site to be discovered, it was badly destroyed by brick robbers.
• The settlement in Harappan civilisation was divided into two sections, one smaller in terms of land but higher in terms of power known as the Citadel, the other much larger in terms of area but lower in terms of power was known as Lower Town.
• All the Harappan cities had carefully planned drainage system. The residential buildings at Mohenjodaro were centred on a courtyard, had its own bathrooms, the drains of which were connected to the street drains.
• In Mohenjodaro, many houses had well and their estimated number was about 700. Structures like warehouse and the Great Bath’ were used for public purposes.

The End of Harappan Civilisation:

• By 1800 BCE, most of the mature Harappan sites were abandoned. Around 1200 BCE, this civilisation had completely vanished. After 1900 BCE, a rural way of life what was known as ‘Late Harappan’ or ‘successor cultures’ emerged.
• The reasons for the end of the civilisation range from climatic change, deforestation, excessive floods, the shifting and drying up of rivers and to overuse of the landscape. All these factors may have weakened the civilisation, but its ultimate extinction is more likely to have been completed by deliberate and large-scale destruction or by an invasion.

Class 12 History Notes Chapter 1 Important Terms:

• Seal: It generally contained animal motifs and signs from a script.
• Hoards: Generally metal objects and jewellery kept by people inside containers.
• Stratigraphy: The study of historical layers.
• Motif: Name of animal, used by the Harappans on seals to mark some sort of trademark.
• Proto-Shiva: A seal that shows a figure seated in a yogic posture surrounded by animals has been designated as Proto-Shiva, an early form of one of the deities of Hinduism.
• Lingas: The polished stones were often worshipped as symbols of the God Shiva.
• Shamans: These were the groups of men and women who claimed to have magical and healing powers and ability to communicate with the other world.
• Art: It referred to painting, sculpture, pottery and seal making.
• Culture: Term used for a group of objects, distinct in style, found specifically within a geographical area and period of time.
• Pictographs: Picture-like signs to represent letters or words.
• The Great Bath: Best known building in Mohenjodaro for bath.
• Granaries: Buildings where grains were stored.

Time Line:

• 1862  Alexander Cunningham appointed as the first Director General of Archaeological Survey of India.
• 1921  D.R. Sahni discovered Harappa.
• 1992  R.D. Banneijee discovered Mohenjodaro
• 1924  Sir John Marshall announced the discovery of Indus Valley Civilisation.
• 1953  Kalibangan was excavated by A. Ghosh.
• 1955  S.R. Rao discovered Lothal.
• 1968  Sanghal was discovered by S.S. Talwar and R.S. Bisht.

Aggregate Demand and Its Related Concepts – Notes for Class 12 Macro Economics

Aggregate Demand

Aggregate demand is the total amount of final goods and services which all the sectors are planning to buy in an economy at a given level of income over a given period of time. For example consumer goods, services, and capital goods.

Components Of Aggregate Demand

There are four components in Aggregate Demand

1. Private Consumption Expenditure (C)
2. Investment Expenditure(I)
3. Government Expenditure(G)
4. Net Exports (X-M)

Aggregate Demand = C+I+G+(X-M)

1. Private consumption expenditure (C) or Household consumption expenditure
   It refers to the expenditure on the final consumer’s goods and services by the households to satisfy their wants.
2. Investment expenditure (I)
   It refers to the expenditure incurred on capital goods by private firms to increase their production capacity. These capital goods are in the form of machinery, building, land, etc.
3. Government expenditure (G) refers to the expenditure incurred by the government on the purchase of goods and services to meet the needs of the people in the economy.
4. Net Exports (X-M) It refers to the difference between exports and imports i.e., X-M
   Where X stands for Exports and M stands for Imports.

Aggregate Demand In Two-Sector Model

In a two-sector model, it is assumed that Aggregate demand is a function of Consumption and Investment also.

Aggregate Demand In Two-Sector Model = C+ I

Where

C= consumption expenditure

I = Investment

Aggregate Demand Schedule And Graph

Aggregate Demand Schedule

National income (Y)	Consumption (C)	Autonomous Investment (I)	AD = C + I
0	20	20	40
10	25	20	45
20	30	20	50
30	35	20	55
40	40	20	60
50	45	20	65

Important Concepts About Aggregate Demand

1. Aggregate demand is a function of Consumption and investment only.
2. The investment expenditure is assumed to be autonomous which means it will remain constant at all the levels of income.
3. The investment curve will be a straight line, parallel to the X-axis as it is not affected by the change in income level.
4. Consumption will be positive even at zero level of income as the minimum level of consumption is done for survival. This consumption is known as ‘Autonomous consumption’.
5. The slope of the consumption curve is positive which shows that when income increases consumption also increases.
6. The starting point of the AD curve is above zero as there is always a minimum level of consumption and investment in the economy.

Meaning Of Aggregate Supply

Aggregate Supply is the value of all final goods and services that all the producers are planning to supply over a period of time.

Aggregate Supply =Y

HOW?: Output produced in an economy is always equal to the income generated. Aggregate Supply is equal to all final goods and services produced in the economy which is equal to the national income.

Aggregate Supply = OUTPUT =Y

Y = Aggregate Supply

Components Of Aggregate Supply

NATIONAL INCOME (Y) = CONSUMPTION (C) + SAVINGS (S)

Y = C + S

Consumption and savings are the two components of Aggregate Supply.

Aggregate Supply Schedule And Graph

Aggregate Supply = C + S

(i)Consumption(C)             

(ii) Saving(S)                                                               

AS = C + S

National Income (Y)	Consumption(C)	Saving (S)	AS = C + S
0	20	-20	0
10	25	-15	10
20	30	-10	20
30	35	-5	30
40	40	0	40
50	45	5	50
60	50	10	60

Important Concept About Aggregate Supply

The slope of the AS curve is positive as the level of income increases aggregate supply also increases.

Consumption Function Or Propensity To Consume

Consumption function or propensity to consume is the functional relationship between consumption and income.

C= f (Y)

Consumption Schedule And Types Of Propensity To Consume

Income(Y)	Consumption(C)	APC (C/Y)	ΔC	ΔY	MPC ( ΔC/ΔY)
0	100	–	–	–	–
100	170	1.7	70	100	0.7
200	240	1.2	70	100	0.7
300	310	1.33	70	100	0.7
400	380	0.95	70	100	0.7
500	450	0.9	70	100	0.7

Important Points About Consumption

1. The slope of the consumption curve is positive as consumption increases when leveling of income increases.
2. The starting point of the consumption curve is above zero as the is always some minimum level of consumption which is termed as “Autonomous consumption”.
3. The point where C=Y is termed as break-even point as at this point Consumption is equal to income.
4. Before the break-even point in the economy because consumption is more than income after the break-even point savings will start as now the increase in consumption is less than the increase in income.

Types Of Propensity

1. Average Propensity to Consume (APC)
2. Marginal Propensity to) Consume (MPC)

Average Propensity To Consume(Apc)

APC is the ratio of total consumption to total income.

Average Propensity To Consume = C/Y

Important Concepts About Apc

1. APC can never be zero as consumption can never be zero.
2. At the break-even point, APC is equal to 1.
3. Before the break-even point, APC is less than 1.
4. After the break-even point, APC is more than 1.
5. APC falls with an increase in income.

Marginal Propensity To Consume

MPC is the ratio of change in consumption to change in income.

MPC =  ΔC / ΔY

Important Concepts About Mpc

1. The value of MPC can never be greater than 1.
2. The value of MPC is 1 when the entire additional income is spent on consumption
3. The value of MPC is 0 when the entire additional income is saved.
4. The value of MPC lies between 0 to 1.

Consumption Equation

C = c‾ + bY

Where

C= Level of consumption

C¯= Autonomous consumption

b = MPC

Y = Level of income

4^th  PPT

Savings Function Or Propensity To Save

Savings function or propensity to save is the functional relationship between savings and income.

S= f (Y)

Savings Schedule And Types Of Propensity To Save

Income(Y)	Consumption(C)	Saving (S)	APS (S/Y	ΔS	ΔY	MPS (ΔS/ΔY )
0	100	-100	–	–	–	–
100	160	-60	-0.6	40	100	0.4
200	220	-20	-0.1	40	100	0.4
300	280	20	0.067	40	100	0.4
400	340	60	0.15	40	100	0.4
500	400	100	0.2	40	100	0.4
600	460	140	0.233	40	100	0.4

Important Points About Savings

1. Savings Curve starts from origin.
2. The slope of the savings curve is positive
3. At the break-even point, savings are equals to 0.
4. At the break-even point savings become positive.

Types Of Propensity To Save

1. Average Propensity to Save (APS)
2. Marginal Propensity to Save (MPS)

Average Propensity To Save(Aps)

APS is the ratio of total savings to total income.

APS = S/Y

Important Concepts About APS

1. APS is zero at the break-even point.
2. APS can never be equals to 1 or more than 1.
3. APS can be negative or less than when.

Marginal Propensity To Save

MPS is the ratio of change in savings to change in savings.

MPS = ΔS / ΔY

Important Concepts About MPS

1. The value of MPS varies between 0 and 1.

2. If the entire increased income is saved the value of MPS will be 1.
3. If the entire increased income is consumed the value of MPS will be 0.

Savings Equation

S = – ¯c+ (1- b)Y

Where

C= Level of consumption

– ¯c= Negative savings at zero level of income

1-b = MPS

Y = Level of income

Relationship Between APC And APS

APC + APS = 1

Relationship Between MPC And MPS

MPC + MPS = 1

Full Employment And Involuntary Unemployment

FULL EMPLOYMENT: It is a situation when people who are willing and able to work are getting work.

Under full employment, there can be two types of unemployment

• Frictional Unemployment: Frictional unemployment can be defined as a type of unemployment that occurs when a person is in the process of moving from one job to another.
• Structural Unemployment: Structural unemployment occurs because of a mismatch between the skills workers have, and the jobs that are actually available in the market. Structural unemployment usually happens because of technological change.

Involuntary Unemployment

Involuntary unemployment refers to a situation when people are ready to work at the prevailing wage rate in the market but do not find a job.