UPSC Mains 2015 History Optional Question Papers with Model Answers

All 52 questions of the 2015 Civil Services Main Examination, History Paper I and History Paper II, with marks and a suggested time per part. Solve each part on paper first, then open the model answer, or send it to answer-writing practice for evaluation.

UPSC Mains 2015 History Paper I

Question 1 (50 marks)

Q1 · Historical Sites for the Map Question · 50 marks≈ 36 min
How to Prepare the Map Question
Identify the following places marked on the map supplied to you (on page 4) and write a short note of about 30 words on each of them in your Question-cum-Answer Booklet. Locational hints for each of the places marked on the map are given below seriatim : (i) A Neolithic site; (ii) A Neolithic site; (iii) A Harappan site; (iv) A Megalithic site; (v) A Harappan site; (vi) A painted-Grey-ware site; (vii) An inscriptional site; (viii) An important ancient city; (ix) An ancient port; (x) A site of ancient cave-paintings; (xi) A Buddhist site; (xii) An educational centre; (xiii) Brahmadeya village; (xiv) An ancient capital; (xv) An ancient capital; (xvi) A temple site; (xvii) An ancient capital; (xviii) An ancient sea-port; (xix) An archaeological temple site; (xx) A Harappan site.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
आपको दिए गए मानचित्र (पृष्ठ 4 पर) पर अंकित निम्नलिखित स्थानों की पहचान कीजिए एवं अपनी प्रश्न-सह-उत्तर पुस्तिका में उनमें से प्रत्येक पर लगभग 30 शब्दों की संक्षिप्त टिप्पणी लिखिये। मानचित्र पर अंकित प्रत्येक स्थान के लिए स्थान-निर्धारण संकेत क्रमानुसार नीचे दिए गए हैं। (i) नवपाषाणयुगीन स्थल; (ii) नवपाषाणयुगीन स्थल; (iii) हड़प्पाकालीन स्थल; (iv) महापाषाणयुगीन स्थल; (v) हड़प्पाकालीन स्थल; (vi) चित्रित-धूसर-मृद्भांड स्थल; (vii) शिलालेख स्थल; (viii) महत्त्वपूर्ण प्राचीन नगर; (ix) प्राचीन बन्दरगाह; (x) प्राचीन गुहाचित्रकला स्थल; (xi) बौद्ध स्थल; (xii) शैक्षिक केन्द्र; (xiii) ब्रह्मदेय ग्राम; (xiv) प्राचीन राजधानी; (xv) प्राचीन राजधानी; (xvi) मन्दिर स्थल; (xvii) प्राचीन राजधानी; (xviii) प्राचीन बन्दरगाह; (xix) पुरातात्त्विक मन्दिर स्थल; (xx) हड़प्पाकालीन स्थल.
Practise this question Historical Sites for the Map Question notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1 (20 places, 2.5 marks each)
Approach: Identify each marked place from its clue and its position on the map, then write about 30 words on it: where it is, its period, and what was found or what happened there.
(i) A Neolithic site: Burzahom, Jammu and Kashmir — Neolithic site near Srinagar (from c. 2700 BCE); pit dwellings, bone tools, polished stone axes and burials of dogs with humans; later megalithic menhirs; excavated by the ASI under T.N. Khazanchi (1960–71).
(ii) A Neolithic site: Mehrgarh, Balochistan, Pakistan — on the Bolan river in the Kachhi plain, excavated by Jean-François Jarrige from 1974; earliest farming of wheat and barley and herding in South Asia, from c. 7000 BCE.
(iii) A Harappan site: Kalibangan, Rajasthan — on the dry Ghaggar in Hanumangarh district, excavated by B.B. Lal and B.K. Thapar; a ploughed field of the Early Harappan phase, fire altars, citadel and lower town.
(iv) A Megalithic site: Adichanallur, Tamil Nadu — Iron Age urn-burial site on the Tamraparni in Thoothukudi district; Alexander Rea's excavations (1899–1905) found iron tools, bronze objects and gold diadems; T. Satyamurthy's ASI excavation (2004–05) found further urns.
(v) A Harappan site: Surkotada, Gujarat — fortified Harappan site in Kachchh excavated by J.P. Joshi (1971–72); a citadel with a residential annexe; bones claimed as those of the horse remain debated.
(vi) A painted-Grey-ware site: Hastinapur, Uttar Pradesh — on the old bed of the Ganga in Meerut district; B.B. Lal's excavation (1950–52) found Painted Grey Ware levels; remembered as the Kuru capital of the Mahabharata.
(vii) An inscriptional site: Girnar (Junagadh), Gujarat — rock bearing Ashoka's fourteen Major Rock Edicts, Rudradaman's Sanskrit inscription (150 CE) on repairing the Sudarshana lake, and Skandagupta's record of later repairs; it stands at the foot of the sacred Girnar hill.
(viii) An important ancient city: Vidisha (Besnagar), Madhya Pradesh — city at the Betwa–Bes confluence; the Heliodorus pillar (c. 110 BCE) of an Indo-Greek envoy honours Vasudeva; a Shunga centre; the Sanchi stupas lie nearby, and a Sanchi gateway inscription records Vidisha's ivory carvers.
(ix) An ancient port: Tamralipti (Tamluk), West Bengal — chief port of ancient Bengal on the Rupnarayan in Purba Medinipur; Faxian sailed from here to Sri Lanka (5th century) and Yijing landed here; rouletted ware found.
(x) A site of ancient cave-paintings: Sittanavasal, Tamil Nadu — Jain rock-cut cave in Pudukkottai district with tempera paintings of a lotus pond and dancers (c. 9th century, Pandya period); nearby Jain stone beds bear Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions.
(xi) A Buddhist site: Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh — great stupa on the Krishna (c. 2nd century BCE–3rd century CE) with carved limestone reliefs of a distinct art school; near Dhanyakataka; Colin Mackenzie first surveyed the stupa in 1797.
(xii) An educational centre: Vikramashila, Bihar — Buddhist mahavihara founded by the Pala king Dharmapala (c. 800 CE) at Antichak, Bhagalpur district; Atisha taught here; destroyed c. 1200; it had six gate-keeper scholars (dvarapandita), and Tibetan monks studied here.
(xiii) Brahmadeya village: Uttaramerur, Tamil Nadu — brahmadeya village in Kanchipuram district; inscriptions of the Chola king Parantaka I (919 and 921 CE) lay down rules for electing sabha committees by lot (kudavolai).
(xiv) An ancient capital: Badami (Vatapi), Karnataka — capital of the early Chalukyas, fortified by Pulakeshin I (c. 543 CE); Vaishnava, Shaiva and Jain cave temples; captured by the Pallava Narasimhavarman I (642).
(xv) An ancient capital: Kampilya, Uttar Pradesh — Kampil in Farrukhabad district, capital of southern Panchala where, in the Mahabharata, Drupada ruled and Draupadi's svayamvara was held; Jains revere it as the birthplace of Vimalanatha, the thirteenth tirthankara, and it remains a Jain pilgrimage centre (identification from the map uncertain; other sites matching the clue: Kannauj, Ahichhatra).
(xvi) A temple site: Bhubaneswar, Odisha — temple city of Kalinga-style rekha deul temples from the 7th to the 13th century, such as Parashurameshvara, Mukteshvara and Lingaraja; the Ekamra Kshetra of the texts, with the Jain caves of Udayagiri-Khandagiri nearby.
(xvii) An ancient capital: Halebidu (Dwarasamudra), Karnataka — Hoysala capital in Hassan district (12th–14th century); the twin-shrined Hoysaleshvara temple with dense soapstone carving of epic scenes; sacked by Malik Kafur (1311); its temples form part of the Hoysala UNESCO World Heritage Site (2023).
(xviii) An ancient sea-port: Muziris (Pattanam), Kerala — Chera port near the Periyar praised in Sangam poems for Yavana ships bringing gold for pepper; the Muziris papyrus records a trade loan; Pattanam excavations found amphorae.
(xix) An archaeological temple site: Da-Parbatia, Assam — temple site near Tezpur in Sonitpur district; its stone doorframe (c. 5th–6th century) with the river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna is the oldest surviving sculpture of Assam.
(xx) A Harappan site: Rakhigarhi, Haryana — largest Harappan site in India, in Hisar district, with Early to Mature Harappan phases; a 2019 skeleton DNA study found no Steppe ancestry; excavated by Amarendra Nath (1997–2000) and Vasant Shinde (2013–16).

Question 2 (50 marks)

Q2(a) · Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Literary Sources and Foreign Accounts
How far can the ancient Indian Sruti literature be used as historical sources ?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्राचीन भारतीय श्रुति साहित्य का ऐतिहासिक साक्ष्यों के रूप में किस सीमा तक उपयोग किया जा सकता है ?
Practise this question Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(a)
Approach: A 'how far' question: define Sruti, show what the Vedic Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads reveal about society, polity, economy and thought, then set out their limits as evidence.
Sruti, literally what is heard, denotes the texts held to be revealed: the four Veda Samhitas, the Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads, composed orally over roughly 1500-500 BCE. They are religious texts, yet they remain the main source for the Vedic age.
Value for the early Vedic period: the Rigveda's geography places its composers in the land of the Sapta Sindhu. Its hymns reveal a pastoral society that valued cattle, wars over cattle (gavishti), tribal assemblies such as the sabha and samiti, and the rajan as a tribal chief.
Value for the later Vedic period: the Brahmanas show the eastward expansion, as in the Shatapatha Brahmana's story of Videgha Mathava carrying the fire to the Sadanira. Royal rituals such as the rajasuya and ashvamedha, the ratnins and the hardening of varna, first stated in the Purusha Sukta, trace the growth of monarchy and hierarchy.
The Upanishads record a turn from sacrifice to knowledge, with the ideas of atman, brahman, karma and rebirth.
Limits: the texts were composed by priests for ritual, so they say little about the lives of ordinary people, women or non-Aryan groups. Their dates are uncertain and they have layers (the tenth book of the Rigveda is later).
Sruti literature is therefore indispensable for the Vedic age, but as a priestly and normative source it must be read critically and alongside archaeology.
Q2(b) · Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Harappan Art, Architecture, Decline, Survival and Significance
The decline of Harappan civilization was caused by ecological degradation rather than external invasion. Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
हड़प्पा सभ्यता का पतन पारिस्थितिक निम्नीकरण के कारण हुआ न कि बाह्य आक्रमण के कारण। विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(b)
Approach: Discuss both theories: present and refute the invasion thesis, set out the ecological explanations with their proponents and evidence, then show that ecology itself is not the whole story and conclude with a multi-causal, regional view.
From about 1900 BCE the Mature Harappan cities declined: they shrank or were abandoned, and seals, script, standard weights and long-distance trade disappeared. Explanations have moved from external invasion to ecological degradation, and the statement reflects this shift.
The invasion theory: Mortimer Wheeler pointed to groups of skeletons at Mohenjodaro and to the Rigvedic Indra as a destroyer of forts (puramdara), concluding that on circumstantial evidence Indra stands accused.
Its rejection: George Dales, in The Mythical Massacre at Mohenjo-daro (1964), showed that the skeletons came from different levels and periods, not a single massacre. There is no layer of destruction across sites, and the Rigveda is usually dated after the decline, so the chronology does not fit.
Ecological explanations: Robert Raikes and M.R. Sahni argued that tectonic uplift dammed the lower Indus and flooded Mohenjodaro repeatedly; H.T. Lambrick stressed shifts in the river's course. The drying of the Ghaggar-Hakra is shown by Mughal's Cholistan survey.
Gurdip Singh's pollen studies (1971) suggested increasing aridity, and Liviu Giosan and colleagues (2012) linked decline to weakening monsoons around the 4.2 thousand-year event.
Beyond ecology: decline was uneven, as settlements multiplied in Haryana, the doab and Gujarat, which an ecological crisis alone does not explain. Shereen Ratnagar stressed the end of Mesopotamian trade, and the weakening of the elites and networks that held the system together also mattered. Possehl and Kenoyer describe a localisation, not a collapse.
The statement is thus largely correct in rejecting invasion and giving ecology a central place, but most historians now see a multi-causal and regionally varied process in which environmental stress worked through economic and social change.
Q2(c) · Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas · 15 marks≈ 11 min
The Aryan Question and the Rig Vedic Age
"Archaeology knows of no Aryans; only literature knows of Aryans." Examine critically.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"पुरातत्त्व-विज्ञान आर्यों को नहीं जानता है; केवल साहित्य ही आर्यों को जानता है।" समालोचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए।
Practise this question Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(c)
Approach: Explain the meaning of the statement (Aryan is a linguistic label not traceable in pots), test it against the archaeological candidates, and conclude on how far it holds.
The statement, often quoted in debates on the Aryan question, means that 'Aryan' is known only from texts, the Rig Veda and Avesta, and from language. Archaeology finds pots, tools and houses, which carry no linguistic or ethnic label.
Why it holds: the term arya in the Rig Veda denotes a cultural and linguistic group, not a race; Romila Thapar has shown how the nineteenth-century race theory was built on philology. No inscription of the period names the Aryans, and the Vedic people built no cities. Attempts to identify one culture as 'Aryan' have failed, and Wheeler's 'Aryan invasion' of Harappan cities was disproved by George Dales.
Archaeological correlates: archaeology still offers indirect evidence. The Gandhara Grave culture of Swat (c. 1600–800 BCE) shows horse remains and cremation. Painted Grey Ware sites of the Ganga–Yamuna doab (c. 1200–600 BCE) fit the geography and material life of later Vedic texts: iron, rice, horses and small villages. The Bactria–Margiana complex and the Andronovo culture are linked by scholars to the route of Indo-Iranian speakers.
New evidence: ancient DNA studies of 2019 trace steppe ancestry into South Asia in the second millennium BCE, which supports migration, but genes are not languages.
Archaeology cannot identify Aryans directly, yet combined with texts it locates the Vedic people in time and space; the statement is broadly valid.

Question 3 (50 marks)

Q3(a) · Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Jainism, Buddhism and the Rise of Magadha
How far is it correct to say that changes in the post-Vedic economy gave birth to new religious movements in India ?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
यह कहना कहाँ तक सही है कि वैदिकोत्तर काल की अर्थव्यवस्था में हुए परिवर्तनों ने भारत में नए धार्मिक आन्दोलनों को जन्म दिया था ?
Practise this question Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(a)
Approach: Answer 'how far': show the economic changes of the post-Vedic period and how they shaped the new religions, then the religious and intellectual causes the economic view misses, and give a measured verdict.
The sixth century BCE saw an unusual burst of religious movements in the middle Ganga plain. Pali texts speak of sixty-two schools, and Jainism, Buddhism and the Ajivikas were the most important. Historians such as R.S. Sharma and D.D. Kosambi link them closely to the changes in the post-Vedic economy.
Agrarian change: the spread of plough agriculture and wet rice, helped by iron tools, made cattle essential. The large-scale killing of cattle in Vedic sacrifices was a burden on farmers. The new faiths' stress on ahimsa protected the agrarian economy.
Urban and commercial growth: towns, trade, coinage and guilds created merchants (setthis) with wealth but low varna status. Brahmanical lawbooks disapproved of usury and sea travel, while Buddhism accepted them. Anathapindika and other merchants were major donors.
Political change: new monarchies wanted ideologies of order free from Brahmana control, and kings like Bimbisara and Pasenadi patronised the Buddha. Kshatriyas, to whom both founders belonged, resented Brahmana claims.
Social strain: new wealth also brought inequality, private property, conflict and the growth of slavery and debt. The Buddhist emphasis on suffering, craving and restraint spoke to these anxieties.
Limits of the economic view: the ideas themselves were older. Karma, rebirth, renunciation and meditation were developed in the Upanishads and among earlier ascetics, and Jainism claims an older line through Parshvanatha. The personal search for salvation and the reaction against ritual complexity also had religious and intellectual roots.
Verdict: economic change explains why the new faiths appeared in the middle Ganga plain and why they found patrons and followers. It does not fully explain their doctrines, so the statement is correct only to a large extent.
Q3(b) · The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Mauryan Art, External Contacts and Literature
Delineate the nature and impact of India's contact with Western Asia and the Mediterranean world during the Mauryan period.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मौर्य काल में पश्चिमी एशिया एवं भूमध्यसागरीय संसार के साथ भारत के सम्पर्क की प्रकृति एवं प्रभाव की रूपरेखा प्रस्तुत कीजिए।
Practise this question The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(b)
Approach: Delineate the nature of the contacts (diplomatic, political, commercial, cultural) with evidence, then their impact on Mauryan India and on the West, and note their limits.
The Mauryan period saw India's closest contacts yet with the Hellenistic world created by Alexander: the Seleucid kingdom of West Asia, Ptolemaic Egypt and the Greek states of the Mediterranean.
Diplomatic and political: Chandragupta's treaty with Seleucus Nicator (c. 303 BCE) gave the Mauryas Arachosia, Gedrosia and the Paropamisadae in exchange for 500 elephants, and a marriage alliance is mentioned. Megasthenes was sent to Pataliputra and Deimachus to Bindusara, and Pliny says Ptolemy II sent Dionysius. Athenaeus records Bindusara asking Antiochus for sweet wine, dried figs and a sophist.
Rock Edict XIII names Antiochus II, Ptolemy II, Antigonus Gonatas, Magas of Cyrene and Alexander of Epirus or Corinth as reached by his Dhamma.
Commercial: trade by land through the north-west and by sea from the western coast carried Indian goods, and elephants became a feature of Hellenistic armies.
Cultural: Ashoka's Kandahar edicts in Greek and Aramaic show Greek-speaking subjects. The polish and bell-shaped capitals of the pillars and motifs such as the palmette show Persian and Hellenistic influence, though John Irwin stressed their Indian roots.
Impact: Megasthenes' Indika became the West's main source on India. India gained new art motifs and ideas of royal display, and possibly the use of rock inscriptions on the Achaemenid model.
The contacts were real but mostly diplomatic and elite, and their deep cultural effects came later, under the Indo-Greeks.
Q3(c) · The Deccan, the Sangam Age and the Guptas · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Sangam Age: Polity, Economy, Literature and Culture
"Not only does ancient Tamil literature furnish an accurate picture of widely disparate classes; it also describes the social condition of Tamil country as it was." Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"प्राचीन तमिल साहित्य व्यापक विषमताओं वाले वर्गों का न केवल तथ्यात्मक विवरण प्रस्तुत करता है; वह तमिल देश में व्याप्त सामाजिक अवस्था का प्राय: यथार्थपूर्ण वर्णन भी करता है।" विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question The Deccan, the Sangam Age and the Guptas notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(c)
Approach: The quotation claims that the poems describe very different classes accurately and show society "as it was". Discuss both claims with evidence, then test "accurate" against the corpus's conventions and gaps.
The statement reflects the view of early scholars such as V. Kanakasabhai, whose The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago (1904) treated the Sangam poems as a realistic record of ancient Tamil life.
Disparate classes: the poems range widely: crowned kings and velir chiefs, warriors and hero stones, brahmanas receiving gifts, the merchants of Puhar in the Pattinappalai, salt traders, fisherfolk, hunters, herders, ploughmen, hungry bards and low-status drummers.
Social condition: they record real practices, such as cattle raids, gifts to poets, wet-rice farming, music and dance, Murugan worship, widowhood rites and trade with the Yavanas. Hero stones, Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, Roman coins and excavations at Arikamedu, Pattanam and Keezhadi confirm much of this.
Why "accurate" needs qualification: the tinai conventions place people and moods in idealised landscapes; poets wrote for patrons, so labouring groups rarely speak for themselves; and the corpus spans centuries and was anthologised later. Scholars also read it differently: George Hart found indigenous ideas of sacred power, while Rajan Gurukkal and M.G.S. Narayanan saw a chiefdom society.
Ancient Tamil literature therefore gives a uniquely broad and largely credible picture of its society, but a poetic and patron-centred one, most reliable when checked against archaeology.

Question 4 (50 marks)

Q4(a) · The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Post-Mauryan Economy, Trade and Coinage
Trace the role of guilds and trade organisations in the development of early Indian economy.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्राचीन भारतीय अर्थव्यवस्था के विकास में श्रेणियों (गिल्ड्स) एवं व्यापारिक संगठनों की भूमिका की रूपरेखा प्रस्तुत कीजिए।
Practise this question The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(a)
Approach: Trace the role of guilds from their emergence to the Gupta period: functions in production, trade, banking, law and patronage, with textual and inscriptional evidence.
A guild (shreni) was an association of artisans or merchants of the same trade, usually in one town, under a headman (jetthaka or shreshthi). Related bodies included the puga and the nigama, a merchant or town association.
Emergence: for c. 600–300 BCE, Jatakas speak of guilds of carpenters, smiths and potters living in separate streets, and the setthi as a rich merchant. The Arthashastra recognises shrenis, allows their own laws and even refers to shreni troops.
Production and trade: guilds organised production, fixed standards and controlled entry, and caravans under sarthavahas linked them with markets.
Banking: in the post-Mauryan period they acted as bankers. Ushavadata's Nasik inscription records money deposited with weavers' guilds at Govardhana at fixed rates of interest. A Mathura inscription of Huvishka's time records an endowment with a guild of flour-makers.
Law and status: the Manusmriti and later Narada and Brihaspati lawbooks ask kings to respect guild customs.
Patronage: guilds gave gifts at Sanchi, where the ivory carvers of Vidisha carved a gateway, and at Karle and other caves.
Gupta period: the Basarh (Vaishali) seals of a combined guild of bankers, traders and artisans, and the Damodarpur copper plates, show such representatives on district councils. The Mandasor inscription (436 CE) records silk weavers from Lata building a sun temple.
Guilds were the backbone of early Indian commerce, though they declined with trade after the sixth century.
Q4(b) · Regional States and Early Indian Cultural History · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Themes in Early Indian Cultural History: Languages, Art, Philosophy and Science
Kailasa temple built at Ellora marks the culmination of rock-cut architecture in India. Elucidate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
एलोरा में निर्मित कैलाश मन्दिर भारत में शैलाकृत (रौक-कट) वास्तुकला की पराकाष्ठा का प्रतीक है। प्रकाश डालिए।
Practise this question Regional States and Early Indian Cultural History notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(b)
Approach: Show the stages of rock-cut architecture that led up to Kailasa, describe what makes Kailasa unique (scale, technique, design, sculpture), and explain why it is seen as the culmination.
The Kailasa temple (Cave 16) at Ellora in Maharashtra was excavated under the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I (c. 756–773). It is the largest monolithic rock-cut temple in the world.
Background: Indian rock-cut architecture began with the Mauryan Barabar caves (third century BCE), grew through the Buddhist chaityas and viharas of Bhaja, Karle and Ajanta, and took Brahmanical form at Udayagiri, Badami and Elephanta. The Pallava rathas of Mamallapuram showed that a whole temple could be cut from rock, though they were small.
Technique and scale: Kailasa was carved from the top downwards out of a basalt cliff, the builders cutting trenches on three sides and then shaping a free-standing temple, so that nothing was added and everything was removed. Its tower rises about 30 metres.
Design: it reproduces a complete structural temple complex in the Dravida style, following the Virupaksha at Pattadakal: a gateway, a Nandi shrine, the main vimana on a high plinth carved with elephants, two tall pillars (dhvajastambhas) and surrounding cloisters with subsidiary shrines.
Sculpture: panels such as Ravana shaking Mount Kailasa and friezes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata join architecture and sculpture. A Rashtrakuta copper plate of 812 CE praises its marvel, saying even the gods wondered whether it was self-made.
It is the culmination because it carried rock-cutting to its limit of scale and ambition; after it, temple building turned to structural stone.
Q4(c) · Early Medieval India, 750–1200 · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Chola Administration, Village Economy and Society
How could the local self-government under the Cholas adjust with their centralised administrative structure ?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
चोल शासकों के अधीन स्थानीय स्वशासन उनकी केंद्रीकृत प्रशासनिक संरचना के साथ कैसे सामंजस्य बैठा सकी थी ?
Practise this question Early Medieval India, 750–1200 notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(c)
Approach: Explain how local self-government and central authority fitted together: describe the central structure and the local bodies, then show the mechanisms that linked them, and use the historiographical debate to judge whether the state was centralised at all.
The Chola state (c. 850–1279) presents an apparent paradox: inscriptions show a powerful king with officials and a land survey, yet records also show village and nadu assemblies managing their own affairs. K.A. Nilakanta Sastri (The Colas) explained this as a centralised monarchy that left wide room for local self-government.
The central structure: the king ruled through officials such as the adhikari and the revenue department (puravuvari-tinaikkalam). The empire was divided into mandalams, valanadus and nadus; Rajaraja I measured land and fixed revenue.
The local bodies: the ur in ordinary villages, the sabha in brahmadeyas, the nagaram in market towns and the nadu assembly (nattar) above them managed land, tanks, temples, endowments and disputes, often through committees chosen by lot, as at Uttaramerur (919, 921).
How they adjusted: first, a division of labour: the centre took revenue, war and high justice, while the assemblies handled the daily tasks of a dispersed agrarian society. Second, the assemblies were themselves agents of the state: they assessed and collected revenue for the king. Third, royal officers attended their meetings, audited accounts and approved endowments. Fourth, the brahmana-Vellala landholders who dominated the assemblies were the social base of the monarchy.
The debate: Burton Stein (1980) saw a segmentary state, with real power in the peasant nadus and only ritual sovereignty beyond the core, while Noboru Karashima and Y. Subbarayalu showed growing royal control under Rajaraja I and Rajendra I.
Adjustment was possible because the Chola state was neither fully bureaucratic nor merely ritual: local bodies were autonomous in daily affairs but worked within, and for, an expanding monarchy whose grip was strongest in the Kaveri delta.

Question 5 (50 marks)

Q5(a) · Early Medieval India, 750–1200 · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Literature, Science and Art, 750–1200 (Kalhana, Alberuni, Temple Styles)
Give a brief account of the early medieval temple architecture of Kashmir.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
कश्मीर की प्रारंभिक मध्यकालीन मन्दिर स्थापत्यकला का संक्षिप्त विवरण दीजिए।
Practise this question Early Medieval India, 750–1200 notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(a)
Approach: Give a brief account of the main Kashmir temples with dates and patrons and their distinctive architectural features, noting outside influences.
Kashmir developed a distinctive regional temple style between the 8th and 12th centuries under the Karkota and Utpala dynasties, recorded in Kalhana's Rajatarangini.
Main temples: the Sun temple at Martand, built by Lalitaditya Muktapida (8th century), the finest example; the Avantisvamin (Vishnu) and Avantishvara (Shiva) temples at Avantipur built by Avantivarman (855–883); the temples of Shankaravarman at Pattan; and the small, well-preserved Shiva temple at Pandrethan.
Features: built of grey limestone, they have a pyramidal roof in two tiers, derived from wooden architecture suited to snow; triangular pediments enclosing trefoil arches; fluted columns; and a large courtyard surrounded by a colonnade of cells (peristyle), with the shrine in the centre, often set in a tank.
Influences: the fluted pillars and pediments recall Gandharan and Greco-Roman traditions, mixed with Indian iconography. The style shows Kashmir's position at a cultural crossroads.
Q5(b) · Regional States and Early Indian Cultural History · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Kadambas, Pallavas and Chalukyas of Badami
Why is Mamallapuram famous ?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मामल्लपुरम् क्यों प्रसिद्ध है ?
Practise this question Regional States and Early Indian Cultural History notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(b)
Approach: A short note: identify the place, then give the reasons for its fame (Pallava port, monuments, art history, heritage status) in a compact list.
Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram), on the coast south of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, was the port of the Pallavas of Kanchi and takes its name from Narasimhavarman I (c. 630–668), called Mamalla, "the great wrestler".
Rock-cut art: it has the finest Pallava cave halls, such as the Mahishamardini and Varaha mandapas, and the huge open-air relief known as Arjuna's Penance or the Descent of the Ganga, carved on two boulders with gods, animals and sages around a natural cleft.
Monoliths: the five rathas, each cut from a single rock, are stone models of early temple forms, and the Dharmaraja ratha anticipates the Dravida vimana.
Structural temple: the Shore Temple, built under Rajasimha (c. 700), is one of the earliest structural stone temples of south India.
It is famous, therefore, as a showcase of the evolution of Dravida art from cave to structure, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.
Q5(c) · The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries · 10 marks≈ 7 min
The Bahmanis and the Vijayanagara Empire
Mention the salient features of the polity of Vijayanagara Empire under Krishnadevaraya.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
कृष्णदेवराय के अधीन विजयनगर साम्राज्य की राज्य-व्यवस्था के प्रमुख अभिलक्षणों का उल्लेख कीजिए।
Practise this question The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(c)
Approach: List and explain the main features of the polity — kingship, central and provincial administration, the nayaka system, army and revenue — with evidence from the Amuktamalyada and the travellers.
Under Krishnadeva Raya (1509–29) Vijayanagara reached its height, and its polity is known from inscriptions, his own Amuktamalyada and the accounts of Paes and Nuniz.
Kingship: The king was supreme and ruled in the name of the god Virupaksha; the Amuktamalyada advises him to protect his subjects, build tanks and develop ports to attract trade.
Administration: He was assisted by ministers, among whom Saluva Timma was the chief. The empire was divided into provinces (rajyas or mandalas), often under princes or trusted nobles.
Nayankara system: Military chiefs (amara-nayakas) held territories (amaram) in return for maintaining troops and paying tribute; Nuniz says the king gave the lands to captains who kept fixed numbers of horse and foot. Important forts were placed under Brahmana commanders.
Army and revenue: A large army with imported horses was financed by land revenue, customs and temple-centred agrarian growth.
The polity combined strong personal kingship with considerable delegation to the nayakas.
Q5(d) · The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Foundation of the Sultanate: Aibak, Iltutmish and Balban
What measures did Balban adopt to combat the Mongol menace ?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मंगोल ख़तरे का सामना करने के लिए बलबन ने क्या कदम उठाए थे ?
Practise this question The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(d)
Approach: List and explain Balban's measures against the Mongols, both defensive and political, and end with an assessment of their success.
By the mid-thirteenth century the Mongols held Ghazni and much of the Punjab beyond the Beas, and had sacked Lahore (1241). Balban (1266–1287) made defence of the north-west his first concern.
Consolidation: as Barani reports, he refused distant conquests such as Malwa and Gujarat so as not to leave Delhi exposed.
Forts: he garrisoned forts at Bhatinda, Sunam, Samana and Dipalpur and rebuilt Lahore; his cousin Sher Khan Sunqar held the frontier until his death.
Frontier commands: Prince Muhammad held Multan and Bughra Khan held Samana and Sunam, each with a strong army.
Army: he reorganised the diwan-i-arz under Imadul Mulk and kept a large force ready near Delhi; barids gave early warning.
Diplomacy: as naib he had received an embassy from the Ilkhan Hulagu (1260), which helped limit major invasions.
Assessment: no large Mongol army reached Delhi in his reign, but Prince Muhammad was killed fighting them in 1285. Alauddin Khalji later built on this defensive frontier.
Q5(e) · The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries · 10 marks≈ 7 min
The Lodis, Babur and Humayun
How does Tuzuk-i-Babri testify that Babar had been a cultured man ?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
तुज़ुक-ए-बाबरी से कैसे प्रमाणित होता है कि बाबर एक सुसंस्कृत व्यक्ति था ?
Practise this question The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(e)
Approach: Introduce the memoir, then show from its content and style the different sides of Babur's culture: literary, scientific, aesthetic and personal, and conclude.
The Tuzuk-i-Baburi or Baburnama, Babur's memoir written in Chaghatai Turkish, was translated into Persian under Akbar by Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan (1589) and into English by Annette Beveridge. It reveals a man of wide culture.
Literary skill: Its prose is simple, vivid and frank. Babur was also a poet who left a diwan of Turki verse, and he devised a script called the Khatt-i-Baburi.
Observation: He describes the flora, fauna, climate, rivers, peoples and revenue of Hindustan with the curiosity of a naturalist.
Taste: He judges the poets, musicians and painters of the Timurid world, praising Bihzad, and loved gardens, laying out the charbagh at Agra.
Candour: He records his own failures, drinking and remorse, and criticises Hindustan for its lack of good horses, fruit and baths.
The memoir shows that Babur was a soldier of genius and also a refined Timurid prince of letters.

Question 6 (50 marks)

Q6(a) · Early Medieval India, 750–1200 · 15 marks≈ 11 min
The Indian Feudalism Debate
Do the evidences of land ownership at our disposal support the theory of the prevalence of feudalism in early medieval India ?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या हमें उपलब्ध भू-स्वामित्व के साक्ष्य प्रारंभिक मध्यकालीन भारत में सामन्तवाद के प्रचलन की थियोरी का समर्थन करते हैं ?
Practise this question Early Medieval India, 750–1200 notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(a)
Approach: Examine what land grants and other records reveal about who owned land and what rights were transferred, then test this against the feudalism thesis, giving the views of Sharma, Sircar and Mukhia before a qualified answer.
The feudalism thesis of R.S. Sharma rests largely on land grants: copper-plate charters by which kings gave villages to brahmanas, temples and officials. Whether they show feudal landholding depends on what rights they actually conveyed.
Evidence supporting the thesis: grants were often perpetual and transferred the king's dues (bhaga, bhoga, kara, hiranya), exemption from entry of royal troops (achata-bhata-pravesya) and the right to try offences; villagers were told to obey the donee and render dues and services to him. Later grants included the right to evict tenants and to forced labour, and donees sometimes re-granted land, suggesting subinfeudation. Sharma and B.N.S. Yadava read this as the rise of a landed intermediary class over a dependent peasantry.
Evidence against it: D.C. Sircar argued that most grants transferred only the right to collect revenue, not ownership of the soil. The smriti commentaries of Medhatithi (9th century) and Vijnaneshvara's Mitakshara (11th century) discuss private ownership and sale of land by individuals, and inscriptions record land sales by villagers, implying peasant rights. Harbans Mukhia argued that peasants kept control of production, so there was no serfdom or manorial demesne, only extraction of surplus.
The land evidence therefore supports a partial answer: it shows layered rights in land and the rise of intermediaries, which fits a broad feudal model, but not the serfdom and lord's ownership of European feudalism.
Q6(b) · The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Alauddin Khalji's Agrarian and Market Measures
Discuss in brief the land-revenue system and judicial administration of the Delhi Sultanate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
दिल्ली सल्तनत की भू-राजस्व प्रणाली तथा न्यायिक-प्रशासन की संक्षिप्त विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(b)
Approach: Two parts, treated in brief: first the land-revenue system (taxes, khalisa and iqta, assessment and changes under different Sultans), then the judicial administration (the Sultan, qazis, other officials, law applied), ending with a short assessment.
Land revenue: the main tax was kharaj on cultivators, beside jizya, zakat and khams (a share of war booty). Land was divided into khalisa, whose revenue went to the treasury, and iqtas assigned to muqtis who collected revenue and maintained troops.
Changes: in the thirteenth century the state took the customary demand through village headmen. Alauddin Khalji fixed revenue at half the produce in the Doab by measurement (masahat) and ended the khuts' privileges. Ghiyasuddin Tughluq lowered the burden and limited increases on an iqta to a tenth or eleventh a year. Muhammad bin Tughluq raised the Doab demand; Firuz fixed the revenue (jama) after a survey, abolished extra cesses and added an irrigation tax.
Judiciary: the Sultan was the highest court, hearing complaints in the mazalim court. The qazi-ul-quzat, often also sadr-us-sudur, headed the judiciary; town qazis tried cases by the sharia, advised by muftis. The amir-i-dad dealt with cases involving officials, the kotwal kept order and the muhtasib supervised morals and markets.
Law: Muslims were judged by the sharia, while Hindus settled most matters through their customs and caste and village panchayats; Sultans also issued state laws (zawabit).
The system was centralised in theory but uneven in practice, reaching towns more than villages.
Q6(c) · Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Bhakti and Sufi Movements under the Sultanate
"Sufis and medieval mystic saints failed to modify either the religious ideas and practices or the outward structure of Islamic/Hindu societies to any appreciable extent." Comment for/against.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"सूफी एवं मध्यकालीन रहस्यवादी सन्त इस्लामिक/हिन्दू समाजों के धार्मिक विचारों और आचार (प्रथाओं) को अथवा समाजों की बाह्य संरचना को किसी पर्याप्त मात्रा तक रूपांतरित करने में असफल रहे।" पक्ष/विपक्ष में टीका कीजिए।
Practise this question Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(c)
Approach: The question asks you to argue for and against a sceptical view. Present the evidence that the saints changed little in doctrine and social structure, then the evidence of real change, and give a balanced conclusion.
The statement takes a sceptical view of the Sufi and Bhakti saints of the 13th–16th centuries, who are often credited with reforming religion and society and creating a composite culture. Testing it requires separating the saints' ideas from their actual effects.
For the statement: The Sufis remained within the sharia; even the Chishtis did not challenge the authority of the ulama or Islamic law, and the orthodox Suhrawardis and later the Naqshbandis worked to strengthen it. The structure of Muslim society, with its divide between ashraf and ajlaf, continued.
Among Hindus, caste, temple worship and Brahmanical ritual survived intact. The followers of radical saints such as Kabir and Ravidas formed new sects (Kabirpanth, Raidasi), which themselves acquired gurus, rituals and caste-like rules. Irfan Habib notes that 'popular monotheism' attracted artisans and peasants but never overturned the caste order.
Against the statement: The saints changed religious practice in important ways. Devotion in the vernacular, the guru, the name of God and congregational singing (kirtan, sama) replaced Sanskrit ritual for many; temple-centred and priest-led worship lost its monopoly. Kabir's and Nanak's ideas led to the Sikh panth, a new religious community.
Social change: Low-caste saints such as Namdev, Kabir and Ravidas won respect and followings across castes; Sufi langars and dargahs brought Hindus and Muslims together; and a shared vocabulary of devotion grew in Hindavi, Punjabi and Marathi. Tara Chand and later scholars see here the roots of cultural synthesis.
The statement is therefore partly true: the saints did not transform the outward structure of either society or dissolve caste and orthodoxy, but they changed religious sensibility, created new communities and literatures and softened relations between faiths.

Question 7 (50 marks)

Q7(a) · The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Regional Cultures, Literature, Provincial Architecture and Vijayanagara Arts
Make an estimate of Rana Kumbha as a patron of literature and art.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
साहित्य एवं कला के संरक्षक के रूप में राणा कुम्भा का आकलन कीजिए।
Practise this question The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(a)
Approach: Make an estimate: introduce Kumbha, then assess his patronage of literature (his own works and his court), architecture and the arts with evidence from inscriptions, and give an overall judgement.
Rana Kumbha (1433–68) of Mewar was the most powerful Rajput ruler of his age, who fought the Sultans of Malwa and Gujarat. He was also an outstanding patron of learning and the arts, as the Kumbhalgarh and Chittor inscriptions (prashastis) record.
Literature: Kumbha was himself a scholar. The great treatise on music, the Sangitaraja, is attributed to him, and he wrote a commentary on Jayadeva's Gita Govinda, the Rasikapriya. Sanskrit poets such as Kanha Vyasa, author of the Ekalinga Mahatmya, worked at his court, and the long prashastis themselves are works of Sanskrit poetry.
Architecture: Tradition credits him with many of the 84 forts of Mewar. His greatest work, Kumbhalgarh, was built on a hilltop with walls that run for many kilometres; its architect was Mandana. At Chittor he raised the Vijay Stambh, a nine-storeyed tower covered with sculptures of Hindu deities, to commemorate his victory over Mahmud Khalji of Malwa. He also rebuilt the Kumbhashyam temple.
Architectural theory: Mandana wrote texts on building and sculpture, such as the Prasadamandana and Rajavallabha, showing that Kumbha's patronage extended to technical learning.
Religious tolerance: The great Jain temple at Ranakpur (begun 1439) was built in his reign by the Jain merchant Dharna Shah, showing patronage of other faiths.
Limits: Much of our information comes from court inscriptions written to glorify him, and the authorship of some works attributed to him may belong partly to his court scholars.
Even so, Kumbha stands out as a warrior-king who made Mewar a centre of Sanskrit learning, music and monumental architecture.
Q7(b) · The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Regional Cultures, Literature, Provincial Architecture and Vijayanagara Arts
Why should the sixteenth century be regarded as the period of Indian Renaissance ?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सोलहवीं शताब्दी को भारतीय पुनर्जागरण का काल क्यों मानना चाहिए ?
Practise this question The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(b)
Approach: Explain what 'Renaissance' means, set out the evidence of cultural flowering in 16th-century India that supports the label, then the reasons the European analogy is imperfect, and conclude.
The Renaissance in Europe (14th–16th centuries) meant a rebirth of learning, humanism, vernacular literature and art. Some historians have applied the term to 16th-century India because of a comparable cultural flowering.
Literature and religion: The great bhakti poets Surdas, Tulsidas, Mirabai, Chaitanya and Shankaradeva, and Guru Nanak, made the regional languages vehicles of high literature and a humane, personal religion that questioned ritual and caste.
Courts and patronage: Krishnadeva Raya's Vijayanagara saw a golden age of Telugu literature; Akbar's court produced Persian translations of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, the new Mughal painting and Abul Fazl's histories.
Ideas and statecraft: Akbar's debates in the Ibadat Khana and his policy of sulh-i-kul, and Sher Shah's and Todar Mal's revenue reforms, show rational, innovative thinking.
Art and architecture: Humayun's tomb, Fatehpur Sikri and the Vijayanagara temples mark a peak of building.
Limits: India had no rediscovery of a lost classical past, no printing press, no scientific revolution and no secular humanism of the European kind, and the term is Eurocentric.
The 16th century can be called an Indian Renaissance only loosely, as an age of exceptional creativity rather than a true parallel to Europe.
Q7(c) · Early Medieval India, 750–1200 · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Religion: Bhakti, the Arrival of Islam and Sufism
"Tantrism, if not in practice, at least on conceptual level challenged patriarchy." Examine Tantrism specially keeping in mind the above context.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"तंत्रवाद ने व्यावहारिक रूप में न सही, कम-से-कम संकल्पनात्मक स्तर पर तो अवश्य ही पितृतंत्र को चुनौती दी थी।" उपर्युक्त सन्दर्भ को विशेष रूप से ध्यान में रखते हुए तंत्रवाद का परीक्षण कीजिए।
Practise this question Early Medieval India, 750–1200 notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(c)
Approach: Explain the main features of Tantrism, then examine the claim: show how Tantric ideas valued the feminine and women's participation at the conceptual level, and how practice and social reality remained patriarchal.
Tantrism, which spread widely from about the 6th century and flourished in early medieval India, appeared in Shaiva, Shakta, Buddhist (Vajrayana) and Jain forms. It stressed ritual and yogic techniques, mantra, mandala and initiation by a guru, aiming at liberation and powers within this life and body.
Conceptual challenge to patriarchy: Tantra placed the goddess, Shakti, at the centre of the cosmos as the active energy without which Shiva is inert; women were seen as embodiments of Shakti. Many Tantric texts allowed women and lower castes to be initiated. Yogini temples such as those at Hirapur (Odisha) and Bheraghat (Jabalpur) and the Shakti pithas show the prominence of female divinity. N.N. Bhattacharyya (History of the Tantric Religion, 1982) traced Tantra to agrarian, mother-goddess cults, and Miranda Shaw (Passionate Enlightenment, 1994) argued that women were active partners in Buddhist Tantra.
Limits in practice: most texts were written by and for male adepts; in many rites the female partner served the male practitioner's quest; the reverence for women in ritual did not translate into rights in property, marriage or inheritance; and the same centuries saw early marriage and the spread of sati. Elite and brahmanical society absorbed Tantric goddesses while keeping social patriarchy intact.
The statement is therefore largely valid: Tantrism challenged patriarchy in its theology and ritual space, but not in the social order.

Question 8 (50 marks)

Q8(a) · Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Akbar's Rajput Policy, Sulh-i-kul and Court Patronage
"In medieval Indian history Akbar was unique for his religio-political ideas and policies." Analyse this statement.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"मध्यकालीन भारतीय इतिहास में, अकबर अपने धार्मिक-राजनीतिक विचारों व नीतियों के कारण अद्वितीय था।" इस कथन का विश्लेषण कीजिए।
Practise this question Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(a)
Approach: Set out what was new in Akbar's ideas and policies (sulh-i-kul, divine-light kingship, mahzar, abolition of jizya, Rajput partnership), then test 'uniqueness' against precedents and contemporaries, ending with a balanced judgement.
Akbar (1556–1605) is often treated as unique among medieval Indian rulers because he made religious tolerance a principle of state. The claim must be tested against the traditions he drew on.
What was new: Abul Fazl's Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari present kingship as a divine light (farr-i-izadi) passed directly to the ruler, not through the ulama. The mahzar of 1579 allowed Akbar to choose between conflicting opinions of jurists, and the ideal of sulh-i-kul (peace with all) obliged the ruler to treat all subjects alike.
These ideas were turned into policy: abolition of the pilgrim tax (1563) and jizya (1564), the Ibadat Khana debates (1575–c.1582), translations of the Mahabharata and other texts into Persian, and the Rajput partnership through ranks and marriage.
Precedents: Alauddin Khalji, as Barani reports, said he framed policy by the needs of the state rather than the opinions of the ulama. Zain-ul-Abidin of Kashmir had abolished jizya and patronised Sanskrit, and Muhammad bin Tughlaq conversed with Jain scholars. The Timurid-Mongol tradition kept customary law (yasa) beside the sharia, and Chishti Sufis, Kabir and Nanak had already preached unity beyond sect.
Contemporaries and successors: Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Dara Shukoh largely continued the tradition, which shows it had become a Mughal norm rather than one man's eccentricity.
Historiography: Iqtidar Alam Khan stresses political motives, such as balancing factions, while S.A.A. Rizvi traces the intellectual roots in Sufism. Vincent Smith judged the Din-i-Ilahi a sign of folly, but most modern historians, including M. Athar Ali, read sulh-i-kul as a coherent theory of rule.
Akbar was not unique in any single idea, since most had precedents. He was unique in making them into a consistent ideology and system of government for a vast empire.
Q8(b) · Mughal Economy, Society and Culture · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Population, Agriculture and Craft Production
Will it not be correct to say that the rural economy in Mughal India was relatively self-sufficient ?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या यह कहना समीचीन नहीं होगा कि मुगलकालीन भारत में ग्रामीण अर्थव्यवस्था अपेक्षाकृत आत्म-निर्भर थी ?
Practise this question Mughal Economy, Society and Culture notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(b)
Approach: Explain the image of the self-sufficient village and the evidence for it, then show the ways the Mughal rural economy was tied to markets, money and wider trade, and conclude on 'relative' self-sufficiency.
The idea of the self-sufficient Indian village goes back to British officials such as Charles Metcalfe, who called villages little republics, and to Marx's notion of the unchanging Asiatic village. The Mughal evidence supports this only in part.
Elements of self-sufficiency: most villages grew their own food and produced simple cloth, tools and pots. Village artisans and servants, such as the carpenter, blacksmith, potter and washerman, were paid with fixed shares of the harvest under the jajmani system, and the village community managed its own affairs through the headman and panchayat.
Links with the market: the state demanded land revenue largely in cash, so peasants had to sell a large part of their produce, as Irfan Habib stresses. Moneylenders and grain dealers operated in every pargana, and market towns (qasbas and ganjs) drew grain into trade.
Cash crops and long-distance trade: cotton, indigo, sugar and opium were grown for distant markets. Banjaras carried grain in huge caravans, Bengal's rice and sugar went by sea to the coasts, and rural weavers worked for export merchants through advances.
Inequality: richer peasants and zamindars were deeply involved in the market, while the poorest lived closer to subsistence.
The rural economy was therefore relatively self-sufficient in daily needs, but the revenue system and commerce tied it firmly to towns and markets.
Q8(c) · The Eighteenth Century · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Maratha Ascendancy under the Peshwas
Compare the Peshwas' bureaucratic management with that of the Imperial Mughal administration.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पेशवाओं के अधिकारीतंत्रीय प्रबंधन की साम्राज्यिक मुगल प्रशासन के अधिकारीतंत्रीय प्रबंधन से तुलना कीजिए।
Practise this question The Eighteenth Century notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(c)
Approach: Outline the Mughal and the Peshwa administrative systems side by side (centre, district, revenue, officials, checks), bring out similarities and differences, and conclude on what the Peshwas borrowed and adapted.
The Mughal empire ran a centralised imperial bureaucracy; the Peshwas, ruling from Pune in the eighteenth century, ran a smaller bureaucracy that borrowed Mughal methods but rested more on hereditary local power.
Mughal system: officials held graded mansabs (zat and sawar) and were paid by transferable jagirs or cash; the diwan and bakhshi at the centre were matched in each suba by a diwan independent of the subadar; revenue was assessed by the zabt system.
Peshwa system: the Huzur Daftar at Pune audited accounts; mamlatdars and kamavisdars settled revenue, police and justice in districts after paying a security deposit; hereditary darakhdars reported independently on them. Revenue was fixed each year in the jamabandi with the village patil, on the kamal standard; deshmukhs and deshpandes held hereditary vatan rights. Brahmins, many of them Chitpavans, dominated the bureaucracy.
Similarities: both measured and assessed land, kept detailed accounts, and used parallel officials to check governors; Stewart Gordon shows that the Peshwas adapted Mughal assessment and accounting.
Differences: Mughal officers were transferable servants of an emperor, whereas Peshwa power rested on hereditary chiefs (saranjam) and vatan holders, and the great chiefs ran their own administrations.
S.N. Sen judged the Peshwa administration efficient in its prime, but it was a regional adaptation of Mughal practice with weaker central control.

UPSC Mains 2015 History Paper II