UPSC Mains 2017 History Optional Question Papers with Model Answers

All 52 questions of the 2017 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 2017 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 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 Prehistoric cave-paintings’ site; (ii) A Neolithic-Chalcolithic site; (iii) An Early Harappan site; (iv) A Harappan site; (v) An ancient capital city; (vi) A Painted grey ware site; (vii) A Neolithic site; (viii) A site of Ashokan inscriptions; (ix) An ancient port and trade centre; (x) A Harappan site; (xi) A Chalcolithic site; (xii) An ancient capital city; (xiii) A Rock-cut cave site; (xiv) An early fortified city; (xv) A Rock-cut temple site; (xvi) An ancient temple site; (xvii) An ancient capital city; (xviii) An ancient temple site; (xix) A Palaeolithic site; (xx) An ancient capital city.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
आपको दिए गए मानचित्र 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) एक प्रागैतिहासिक गुहाचित्र स्थल; (ii) एक नवपाषाण-ताम्रपाषाणयुगीन स्थल; (iii) एक आरम्भिक हड़प्पाकालीन स्थल; (iv) एक हड़प्पाकालीन स्थल; (v) एक प्राचीन राजधानी; (vi) एक चित्रित धूसर मृद्भांड स्थल; (vii) एक नवपाषाण स्थल; (viii) अशोक के अभिलेखों का एक स्थल; (ix) एक प्राचीन बन्दरगाह एवं व्यापार केन्द्र; (x) एक हड़प्पाकालीन स्थल; (xi) एक ताम्रपाषाणकालीन स्थल; (xii) एक प्राचीन राजधानी; (xiii) एक शैल-खनित गुहा स्थल; (xiv) एक आरम्भिक क़िलाबन्द नगर; (xv) एक शैल-खनित मन्दिर स्थल; (xvi) एक प्राचीन मन्दिर स्थल; (xvii) एक प्राचीन राजधानी; (xviii) एक प्राचीन मन्दिर स्थल; (xix) एक पुरापाषाण स्थल; (xx) एक प्राचीन राजधानी.
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 Prehistoric cave-paintings’ site: Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh — Vindhyan rock shelters in Raisen district with paintings from the Mesolithic onwards of hunting, dancing and animals; discovered by V.S. Wakankar (1957); a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
(ii) A Neolithic-Chalcolithic site: Hallur, Karnataka — Neolithic-Chalcolithic site on the Tungabhadra in Haveri district, excavated by M.S. Nagaraja Rao (1965); early iron objects (c. 1000 BCE) and reported horse bones; a key site for dating iron in south India.
(iii) An Early Harappan site: Banawali, Haryana — Fatehabad district site with an Early Harappan (Kalibangan I type) phase below a planned Mature Harappan town; excavated by R.S. Bisht (1974–77); finds include a terracotta plough model and a radial street plan.
(iv) A Harappan site: Amri, Sindh, Pakistan — on the Indus in Jamshoro district, excavated by N.G. Majumdar (1929) and J.-M. Casal; its pre-Harappan Amri culture lies below Mature Harappan levels; it gives its name to the Amri-Nal ceramic tradition (identification from the map uncertain; other sites matching the clue: Chanhudaro, Kot Diji).
(v) An ancient capital city: Sirpur, Chhattisgarh — Sripura on the Mahanadi, capital of the Panduvamshis of Dakshina Kosala (7th–8th century); brick Lakshmana temple and Buddhist viharas; Queen Vasata, mother of Mahashivagupta Balarjuna, built the Lakshmana temple.
(vi) A Painted grey ware site: Ahichhatra, Uttar Pradesh — north Panchala capital in Bareilly district; Painted Grey Ware at the base, then Kushan and Gupta levels with terracottas and a brick temple; excavated by the ASI in 1940–44.
(vii) A Neolithic site: Burzahom, Jammu and Kashmir — Neolithic site in the Kashmir valley; people lived in pits, used bone tools and harvesters, buried dogs with their masters; a stone slab shows a hunting scene.
(viii) A site of Ashokan inscriptions: Brahmagiri, Karnataka — in Chitradurga district; an Ashokan minor rock edict, found by B.L. Rice (1891), with nearby copies at Siddapura and Jatinga-Rameshwara; Wheeler excavated its megaliths (1947).
(ix) An ancient port and trade centre: Bharuch (Barygaza), Gujarat — port at the Narmada mouth; the Periplus calls it Barygaza, the chief port of western India in the Roman trade, exporting cloth, spices and gems.
(x) A Harappan site: Padri, Gujarat — Harappan site in Bhavnagar district on the western shore of the Gulf of Khambhat, excavated by Vasant Shinde (1990s); a pre-Harappan Padri ware phase precedes Harappan levels, with evidence of salt making and a painted jar showing a horned figure (identification from the map uncertain; other sites matching the clue: Rangpur, Lothal).
(xi) A Chalcolithic site: Pandu Rajar Dhibi, West Bengal — Chalcolithic site on the Ajay river in Purba Bardhaman district, excavated by P.C. Dasgupta (1960s); black-and-red ware, copper objects and rice farming; it gave the first evidence of a Chalcolithic culture in Bengal.
(xii) An ancient capital city: Rajgir (Rajagriha), Bihar — first capital of Magadha under Bimbisara and Ajatashatru, ringed by a stone Cyclopean wall; the First Buddhist Council met at the Saptaparni cave; Ajatashatru's son Udayin later shifted the capital to Pataliputra.
(xiii) A Rock-cut cave site: Ellora, Maharashtra — 34 rock-cut caves (c. 6th–10th century) of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain faiths; the Kailasa temple (Cave 16) was carved under the Rashtrakuta Krishna I; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983 (identification from the map uncertain; other sites matching the clue: Ajanta, Aurangabad caves).
(xiv) An early fortified city: Sisupalgarh, Odisha — fortified early historic city near Bhubaneswar (c. 3rd century BCE–4th century CE) with a square rampart and gateways, excavated by B.B. Lal (1948); often identified with Kalinganagari.
(xv) A Rock-cut temple site: Masroor, Himachal Pradesh — monolithic rock-cut temples of the Nagara style (c. 8th century) carved from a sandstone ridge in Kangra district, often compared with Ellora; damaged by the 1905 earthquake.
(xvi) An ancient temple site: Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh — on the Betwa in Lalitpur district; the Gupta Dashavatara temple (c. 6th century), an early temple with a shikhara, has panels of Vishnu on Shesha and Gajendramoksha.
(xvii) An ancient capital city: Amaravati (Dhanyakataka), Andhra Pradesh — Dhanyakataka on the Krishna served as a Satavahana capital; its great stupa with limestone reliefs gave the Amaravati school of art; many of its reliefs are now in museums at Chennai and London.
(xviii) An ancient temple site: Pushkar, Rajasthan — sacred lake town in Ajmer district with the Brahma temple; already a pilgrimage centre in the Nashik cave inscription of Ushavadata (1st–2nd century CE); its Kartik fair draws pilgrims and camel traders.
(xix) A Palaeolithic site: Attirampakkam, Tamil Nadu — Lower and Middle Palaeolithic site in Tiruvallur district; Acheulian handaxes dated to about 1.5 million years ago (2011) and Middle Palaeolithic tools of about 385,000 years ago (2018).
(xx) An ancient capital city: Pragjyotishpura (Guwahati), Assam — capital of Kamarupa on the Brahmaputra, ruled by the Varman dynasty; Bhaskaravarman allied with Harsha and hosted Xuanzang (7th century); later Mlechchha and Pala kings ruled the region.

Question 2 (50 marks)

Q2(a) · Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Archaeological Sources: Excavation, Epigraphy, Numismatics and Monuments
Art and culture are reflected to a far greater extent than political history in the epigraphic sources. Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पुरालेखीय स्रोतों में राजनीतिक इतिहास की अपेक्षा कला और संस्कृति कहीं अधिक सीमा तक प्रतिबिम्बित हैं। टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(a)
Approach: Weigh the statement: show the rich cultural content of inscriptions (donations, temples, literature, music, guilds), then show that many inscriptions are primarily political, and reach a balanced verdict.
Epigraphy, the study of inscriptions on rock, pillar, copper plate and temple wall, is the most contemporary source for early India. Whether it reflects culture more than political history depends on which class of inscriptions we read.
Art and culture: the hundreds of donative records at Sanchi and Bharhut name monks, nuns, guilds and women who paid for railings and gateways, revealing the social base of Buddhist art. The Mandasor inscription of the silk weavers' guild records the building and repair of a Sun temple in polished Sanskrit verse by Vatsabhatti.
Inscriptions are also literature: Rudradaman's Junagadh record (c. 150 CE) is an early specimen of ornate Sanskrit prose, and Harishena's Allahabad prashasti is kavya in its own right. The Kudumiyamalai inscription in Pudukkottai preserves a text on music.
Political history: yet the core of many inscriptions is political. Ashoka's edicts reveal his dhamma policy and the Kalinga war; the Allahabad pillar lists Samudragupta's conquests; the Aihole inscription records Pulakeshin II's victory over Harsha; the Rabatak inscription gives the Kushana genealogy. Copper-plate land grants show officials, revenue and administration.
The statement therefore holds for the vast body of donative and temple inscriptions, but not for the royal records that remain the backbone of dynastic chronology; art, culture and polity are intertwined in the epigraphic record.
Q2(b) · The Deccan, the Sangam Age and the Guptas · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Gupta Economy, Coinage, Land Grants and Decline of Towns
The second urbanization gave rise to the organized corporate activities that reached their zenith during the Gupta period. Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
द्वितीय नगरीकरण ने संगठित निगम क्रियाकलापों को उत्पन्न किया, जो गुप्त काल के दौरान अपनी पराकाष्ठा पर पहुँच गए। विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question The Deccan, the Sangam Age and the Guptas notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(b)
Approach: Trace the corporate bodies stage by stage from the second urbanisation to the Gupta age, with sources, and judge whether the Gupta period was really their zenith.
The second urbanisation of the Ganga valley (from c. sixth century BCE) brought coinage, crafts and long-distance trade, and with them corporate bodies: the shreni (craft guild), the puga and nigama (associations of traders or townsmen) and the sartha (caravan).
Early stage: the Jatakas speak of eighteen guilds with heads (jetthaka) and hereditary crafts in particular streets. The Arthashastra mentions guild militias (shreni-bala), and negama coins from Taxila show town corporations.
Post-Mauryan growth: guilds acted as banks. The Nashik inscription of Ushavadata records money deposited with weavers' guilds at Govardhana, whose interest fed monks, and the Manusmriti asks kings to respect guild customs.
Gupta zenith: over two hundred seals from Basarh (Vaishali) belong to the joint corporation of bankers, caravan traders and artisans (shreshthi-sarthavaha-kulika-nigama). The Mandasor inscription (436–37 CE) records a silk-weavers' guild from Lata building a sun temple at Dashapura, and the Indore plate of Skandagupta (465 CE) an endowment with an oil-men's guild for a temple lamp. Guild heads sat on the district adhikarana (Damodarpur plates), and the Narada and Brihaspati Smritis give detailed rules on guild membership, contracts and disputes.
Qualification: the zenith was also a turning point. R.S. Sharma notes that from the late Gupta period coinage thinned and towns decayed, so northern guilds turned into localised, caste-like jatis. In the south, however, merchant bodies such as the Ainnurruvar flourished later.
Corporate activity born of the second urbanisation thus gained its widest legal recognition and civic role under the Guptas, and its later decline in the north marks the onset of the early medieval agrarian economy.
Q2(c) · Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cultures: The Beginning of Agriculture
The emergence of Non-Harappan Chalcolithic cultures in Central India and the Deccan mark a change not only in the subsistence pattern of people but an overall transition from pre to proto historic period. Critically analyze.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मध्य भारत और दक्कन में ग़ैर-हड़प्पाकालीन ताम्रपाषाण संस्कृतियों का उदय न केवल लोगों की जीवन-निर्वाह की पद्धति में परिवर्तन का द्योतक है, वरन् प्राक् से आद्य ऐतिहासिक काल के समग्र संक्रमण का भी द्योतक है। समालोचनापूर्वक विश्लेषण कीजिए।
Practise this question Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(c)
Approach: Critically analyse both claims: show the change in subsistence brought by the non-Harappan chalcolithic cultures, then assess whether they mark a transition from prehistory to protohistory, noting continuities and reversals.
Outside the Harappan zone, a chain of copper-using village cultures arose in south-east Rajasthan (Ahar-Banas), Malwa (Kayatha, Navdatoli) and the Deccan (Jorwe, Inamgaon, Daimabad) between about 3000 and 700 BCE. They are often classed as protohistoric, a stage between prehistory and the age of written records.
Change in subsistence: they brought settled farming to central India and the Deccan, growing wheat, barley, rice, millets and pulses and herding cattle, sheep and goat. Inamgaon had an irrigation channel and embankment against floods and granaries, while Navdatoli and Daimabad were large villages with planned houses.
Wider transition: the change was more than economic. Copper metallurgy, wheel-made painted pottery, craft specialisation in beads, and long-distance exchange appear. Social ranking emerges, as in the large central house at Inamgaon read as a chief's dwelling.
Critical points: they had no writing, so the label protohistoric is a matter of definition. Stone, especially the microlithic blade, remained central, hunting continued, and copper was scarce. The process was not linear: in the Late Jorwe phase, linked by M.K. Dhavalikar to increasing aridity, Inamgaon shrank into poorer settlements and many sites were abandoned before the iron age.
The non-Harappan chalcolithic cultures thus marked a real shift to village farming and a step towards protohistory, but the transition was regional, partial and reversible rather than a single forward leap.

Question 3 (50 marks)

Q3(a) · Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas · 15 marks≈ 11 min
The Aryan Question and the Rig Vedic Age
Critically examine various views regarding the Vedic-Harappan relationship in light of the latest discoveries.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
नवीनतम खोजों के प्रकाश में वैदिक-हड़प्पाकालीन सम्बन्धों पर विभिन्न मतों का समालोचनापूर्वक परीक्षण कीजिए।
Practise this question Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(a)
Approach: Set out the main views on the relationship (succession and conflict, identity or continuity, independent cultures) and test each against recent discoveries such as Rakhigarhi, Sinauli and ancient DNA.
The Vedic-Harappan relationship asks whether the Vedic people destroyed, succeeded, overlapped with or were the same as the Harappans.
Invasion view: Mortimer Wheeler read Indra as puramdara, fort-breaker, and blamed the Aryans for the end of the cities. George Dales (1964) showed that the Mohenjo-daro skeletons do not come from a single massacre.
Identity view: some scholars, such as S.R. Rao and the supporters of an 'Indus-Sarasvati' civilisation, treat the Harappans as Vedic people. They cite fire altars at Kalibangan and the Ghaggar-Hakra as the Sarasvati.
Against this, the Rig Veda is pastoral and does not describe cities, planned drains or seals. The horse and spoked chariot are central to it but rare or doubtful at Harappan sites.
Migration and succession view: R.S. Sharma and most scholars see Indo-Aryan speakers arriving in stages after the urban phase and mixing with late Harappan groups.
Latest evidence: the Rakhigarhi genome (2019) lacked steppe ancestry, and the Narasimhan study (2019) dated steppe ancestry in South Asia to the second millennium BCE. Both support a post-Harappan arrival. The Sinauli carts of 2018 (c. 2000–1800 BCE) have solid wheels, and whether they are 'chariots' is debated.
Evidence now favours succession with interaction: Vedic culture took shape after Harappan decline and absorbed local elements.
Q3(b) · The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Ashoka: Dhamma and the Edicts
“The concept of Ashoka’s Dhamma as found through his inscriptions had its roots in Vedic-Upanishadic literature.” Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“अशोक के धम्म की संकल्पना, जैसी कि उसके अभिलेखों के माध्यम से पता चलती है, की जड़ें वैदिक-उपनिषदी साहित्य में थीं।” चर्चा कीजिए।
Practise this question The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(b)
Approach: Discuss the roots of Ashoka's Dhamma in Vedic-Upanishadic texts with parallels, then its Buddhist and practical sources and the points where it departs from Vedic religion, and conclude.
Ashoka's Dhamma, set out in his edicts, was a general ethic of conduct rather than a creed. Its roots are debated: Buddhist, Brahmanical or a royal synthesis.
Vedic-Upanishadic roots: the word dhamma (dharma) descends from the Vedic idea of rita and duty. Obedience to mother and father and respect for teachers recall the Taittiriya Upanishad's teaching to treat mother, father and teacher as gods. The Chandogya Upanishad already lists ahimsa, truthfulness and charity among virtues. The edicts ask gifts and respect for Brahmanas as well as shramanas, and Ashoka's title devanampiya, beloved of the gods, uses Vedic religious language.
Other roots: the stress on non-violence, compassion to all living beings and the Bhabru edict's list of Buddhist texts reflect his Buddhist faith. The tour of dhamma-yatras recalls the Buddha's wanderings.
Rajadharma, the king's duty to protect and care for his people, appears in the Arthashastra too.
Departures from Vedic religion: the Dhamma rejects animal sacrifice (Rock Edict I) and dismisses mangala rites as of little value (Rock Edict IX). It says nothing of varna duties, sacrifices or Vedic gods, and it is addressed to all subjects equally.
The Dhamma drew on a common ethical stock shared by the Upanishads, Buddhism and Jainism, so it had Vedic-Upanishadic roots, but its anti-ritual and universal form was new.
Q3(c) · The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Post-Mauryan Religion, Mahayana, Art and Science
The period of Indian History from 3rd century B.C.E. to 5th century C.E. was the period of innovation and interaction. How will you react?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
तीसरी सदी ई.पू. से पाँचवीं सदी ई. तक का भारतीय इतिहास का काल-खण्ड नवप्रवर्तन और अन्योन्यक्रिया का काल था। इस पर आप क्या प्रतिक्रिया देंगे?
Practise this question The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(c)
Approach: React to the statement by testing it: show innovation (in religion, polity, economy, art, science, literature) and interaction (with Greeks, Iranians, Central Asians, Romans, Southeast Asia) across the period, then qualify and conclude.
The period from the Mauryas to the early Guptas (3rd century BCE–5th century CE) joined the first Indian empire, an age of foreign dynasties and trade, and the Gupta revival. I largely agree with the statement.
Interaction: Mauryan contacts with the Seleucids and Ptolemies were followed by Indo-Greek, Saka, Parthian and Kushana rule in the north-west. Trade with Rome through Bharuch, Muziris and Arikamedu followed, along with the Silk Road and contacts with Southeast Asia. Heliodorus, a Greek, worshipped Vasudeva, and Menander debated with Nagasena in the Milindapanha.
Innovation in religion: Mahayana and the Bodhisattva ideal, image worship and Bhakti in the Bhagavata and Shaiva cults emerged, and Puranic Hinduism began.
Innovation in polity: Ashoka's Dhamma as an imperial ideology, divine kingship and portrait coinage, the satrap system and the land grant appeared.
Innovation in the economy: gold coinage under the Kushanas and Guptas, guild banking and an expanded monetised trade marked the age.
Innovation in art: stone sculpture and architecture, the Buddha image in Gandhara and Mathura, rock-cut chaityas at Karle and the Amaravati reliefs, and the Gupta temple at Deogarh.
Science and literature: Charaka and Sushruta in medicine, Greek influence in astronomy (Yavanajataka) and later Aryabhata. Sangam poetry, Ashvaghosha's Buddhacharita, Kalidasa's works and Sanskrit kavya also flourished.
Qualification: much innovation was indigenous, drawing on earlier traditions, and interaction was uneven, strongest in the north-west and on the coasts. R.S. Sharma also notes signs of crisis and urban decay from the late third century.
The period deserves the description: interaction stimulated innovation, and India assimilated outsiders while shaping its classical civilisation.

Question 4 (50 marks)

Q4(a) · Early Medieval India, 750–1200 · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Literature, Science and Art, 750–1200 (Kalhana, Alberuni, Temple Styles)
Trace the origin and development of temple architecture in India with reference to regional styles and variations.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में मन्दिर स्थापत्यकला के उद्भव और विकास की रूपरेखा को, उनकी प्रादेशिक शैलियों एवं विभिन्नताओं का उल्लेख करते हुए प्रस्तुत कीजिए।
Practise this question Early Medieval India, 750–1200 notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(a)
Approach: Trace the origin of the structural temple in the Gupta period, its development through the early Chalukyas, Pallavas and Rashtrakutas, and the regional styles of 750–1200 (Nagara sub-schools, Dravida, Vesara and others) with examples, ending with what the variations reveal.
Origin: before temples, worship took place at shrines of perishable material and in rock-cut caves. The structural stone temple appeared in the Gupta period: Temple 17 at Sanchi (5th century) has a flat roof and a square sanctum; the Dashavatara temple at Deogarh (6th century) and the brick temple at Bhitargaon show the beginnings of a tower (shikhara).
Experiment, 6th–8th centuries: the early Chalukyas at Aihole, Badami and Pattadakal built temples in both northern and southern forms; at Pattadakal the Papanatha follows the Nagara and the Virupaksha (c. 745) the Dravida style. The Pallavas moved from rock-cut mandapas and the rathas of Mamallapuram to the structural Shore temple and the Kailasanatha at Kanchipuram. The Rashtrakutas carved the monolithic Kailasa temple at Ellora under Krishna I.
Nagara sub-schools, 750–1200: in Odisha, the deul and jagamohana of the Lingaraja at Bhubaneswar; in central India, the Chandella temples of Khajuraho with clustered towers and dense sculpture, such as the Kandariya Mahadeva; in Gujarat and Rajasthan, the Solanki style of the Sun temple at Modhera (1026) and the marble Jain temples at Mount Abu.
Dravida: the Chola temples, the Brihadishvara at Tanjavur (1010) and Gangaikondacholapuram, raised the vimana to monumental height, while later gopuras became dominant.
Vesara and other regional forms: the Kalyani Chalukyas and Hoysalas combined both styles in stellate, richly carved temples at Lakkundi, Belur and Halebidu, and Kashmir developed a distinct style with pyramidal roofs and trefoil arches (Martand, Avantipur).
Variations: a shared plan of sanctum, mandapa and tower reflects common Shilpa texts, while the variety reflects regional kingdoms, local materials and guilds of builders.
Temple architecture thus developed from modest Gupta shrines into a pan-Indian art with strong regional idioms, mirroring the political regionalisation of the age.
Q4(b) · Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Jainism, Buddhism and the Rise of Magadha
Buddhism and Jainism were social movements under the umbrella of religion. Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
बौद्धधर्म एवं जैनधर्म, धर्म के छत्र के अधीन सामाजिक आन्दोलन थे। टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(b)
Approach: Comment by showing the religious core of both faiths, then the social content that made them movements of protest and change, and judge how far the description holds.
Jainism and Buddhism arose in the sixth or fifth century BCE as religions of liberation. They also challenged the social order of the later Vedic age, so many historians describe them as social movements in religious form.
Religious umbrella: both taught karma, rebirth and liberation, and both founded monastic orders. Mahavira's five vows and the Buddha's Eightfold Path were paths to salvation.
Against varna: both rejected the claim that birth decides worth. The Buddha said that a person is a Brahmana by deeds, not birth, and both admitted members of all varnas.
Against costly ritual: they rejected animal sacrifice and Brahmana monopoly over religion, and their ahimsa suited a farming economy that needed cattle.
For new groups: they gave status to merchants and gahapatis, accepted trade and moneylending, and used Pali and Prakrit, the people's languages.
For women: both admitted nuns, and the Therigatha preserves poems by early Buddhist nuns.
Limits: they did not seek to abolish caste in society, and lay followers kept their caste. The Buddha admitted women only reluctantly, with eight special rules, and Jainism's Digambara sect denied that women could attain liberation. Debtors and slaves were barred from the sangha.
They were reformist movements whose social impact was real but limited.
Q4(c) · The Deccan, the Sangam Age and the Guptas · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Sangam Age: Polity, Economy, Literature and Culture
The accurate picture of the complex socio-cultural milieu of Peninsular India is presented in the early Sangam literature. Delineate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्रायद्वीपीय भारत के जटिल सामाजिक-सांस्कृतिक वातावरण का यथार्थ चित्र प्रारंभिक संगम साहित्य में प्रस्तुत किया गया है। रूपरेखा प्रस्तुत कीजिए।
Practise this question The Deccan, the Sangam Age and the Guptas notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(c)
Approach: Outline the milieu the early poems present, bringing out its complexity (many groups, economies and beliefs), and add a brief note on how accurate the picture is.
Early Sangam anthologies such as the Purananuru, Akananuru and Kuruntokai (c. third century BCE to third century CE) portray a society moving from chiefdoms and pastoral-hunting groups towards agrarian kingdoms.
Ecological diversity: the five tinai link people to environment: hunters (kuravar) in the hills, herders (ayar) in the pasture, ploughmen (uzhavar) in the plains, fishermen (paratavar) on the coast and raiders (maravar) in the arid tract, exchanging goods.
Political ranks: the three vendar (Chera, Chola, Pandya) stood above velir chiefs and village headmen (kilar). Booty from raids was redistributed to warriors and bards, a redistributive economy stressed by Rajan Gurukkal.
Social groups: bards (panar), drummers (paraiyar) and pulaiyar had ritual and service roles, brahmanas received gifts, and merchants and artisans lived in towns. The four varnas are mentioned but did not yet structure society.
Beliefs: worship of Murugan and Korravai, hero stones, and the idea of sacred power (ananku) discussed by George Hart, beside Vedic sacrifice, Jaina and Buddhist teachers and Yavana traders.
Accuracy: the poems were composed for patrons within strict conventions, so they idealise heroism and stylise landscapes. Yet hero stones, Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, Roman finds and Keezhadi confirm the main features.
The early corpus thus gives a largely reliable, if conventional, picture of a plural and changing society on the eve of state formation.

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)
The 11th – 12th centuries C.E. saw eventful progression in the cultural history of India. Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत के सांस्कृतिक इतिहास में 11वीं – 12वीं सदी ई. में घटनापूर्ण प्रगति देखी गई थी। विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Early Medieval India, 750–1200 notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(a)
Approach: Discuss the main cultural achievements of the 11th and 12th centuries in architecture, literature, religion and philosophy, and science, and briefly explain why the period was so creative.
Despite political fragmentation and the Ghaznavid raids, the 11th and 12th centuries were among the most creative in Indian cultural history.
Architecture: the Brihadishvara at Tanjavur (1010), the Kandariya Mahadeva at Khajuraho, the Lingaraja at Bhubaneswar, the Sun temple at Modhera (1026), the Vimala Vasahi at Mount Abu and the Hoysala temple at Belur (1117) mark the peak of the regional styles; Chola bronzes reached perfection.
Literature: Kalhana's Rajatarangini, Bilhana's Vikramankadevacharita, Somadeva's Kathasaritsagara, Jayadeva's Gitagovinda, Hemachandra's works in Gujarat, and Kamban's Tamil Ramayana.
Religion and philosophy: Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita gave bhakti a philosophical basis, and Basavanna's Virashaiva movement challenged caste in Karnataka.
Science and learning: Bhaskara II's Lilavati and Siddhanta Shiromani (1150); Bhoja's treatises; and al-Biruni's study of India (c. 1030).
Rich regional courts competing for prestige, temple economies and the revival of trade after c. 1000 explain this flowering, though the Turkish conquests at the end of the period disrupted it in the north.
Q5(b) · The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries · 10 marks≈ 7 min
The Bahmanis and the Vijayanagara Empire
Evaluate the accounts of foreign travellers about the Vijayanagar Empire.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
विजयनगर साम्राज्य के संबंध में विदेशी यात्रियों के वृत्तान्तों का मूल्यांकन कीजिए।
Practise this question The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(b)
Approach: Evaluate rather than list: name the main travellers briefly, then weigh the strengths and weaknesses of their testimony, and conclude on how historians should use it.
Vijayanagara is unusually well described by foreigners: Nicolo de Conti (c. 1420), Abdur Razzaq (c. 1443), Duarte Barbosa (c. 1516), Domingo Paes (c. 1520–22) and Fernao Nuniz (c. 1535).
Strengths: They were eyewitnesses who noticed what local texts take for granted: the size and fortifications of the city, the markets and prices, the horse trade, the Mahanavami festival, the palace women and sati. Nuniz's account of the nayakas and their obligations is basic to the study of the state, and archaeology at Hampi has confirmed many details.
Weaknesses: They did not know the local languages, depended on interpreters and saw mainly the capital and court. Merchants such as Paes and Nuniz had commercial interests, Abdur Razzaq wrote for a Timurid patron, and all tended to exaggerate wealth and numbers and to misread unfamiliar customs.
Their accounts are therefore invaluable when checked against inscriptions, literature such as the Amuktamalyada and archaeology.
Q5(c) · The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Foundation of the Sultanate: Aibak, Iltutmish and Balban
Critically examine the ‘blood and iron’ policy of Balban.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
बलबन की ‘रक्त और लौह’ नीति का समालोचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए।
Practise this question The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(c)
Approach: Explain what the 'blood and iron' policy was (a modern label for Balban's harsh methods), give its measures and results, then examine its costs and limits.
'Blood and iron' is a phrase modern historians borrowed from Bismarck for the harsh methods by which Balban (1266–1287) restored royal power after thirty years of weak sultans. Barani is the main source.
Measures: he crushed the Mewatis, cleared the forests around Delhi and built forts with Afghan garrisons; he put down rebels in the Doab and Katehar with massacres; and he marched to Bengal to execute the rebel Tughril Beg and his followers (c. 1280). He punished powerful members of the Forty and set spies (barids) over officials, backed by the theory of zill-i-ilahi and the rituals of sijda and paibos.
Results: order returned to the core region, roads became safe, royal prestige was restored and the Mongols were held back.
Limits: the policy rested on fear and one man's personality, and Balban excluded the low-born and non-Turks from office. Within three years of his death the dynasty fell to the Khaljis. It was effective, but it did not create lasting institutions.
Q5(d) · Early Medieval India, 750–1200 · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Literature, Science and Art, 750–1200 (Kalhana, Alberuni, Temple Styles)
Do you consider the Rajatarangini of Kalhana to be a reliable source of the political history of Kashmir? Why?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या आप कल्हण की राजतरंगिणी को कश्मीर के राजनीतिक इतिहास का एक विश्वसनीय स्रोत मानते हैं? क्यों?
Practise this question Early Medieval India, 750–1200 notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(d)
Approach: Give a reasoned yes-with-qualifications: show the strengths of the Rajatarangini (sources, critical spirit, contemporary detail) and its weaknesses (legendary early books, faulty chronology, moral and fatalist framing), separating its parts by reliability.
Kalhana's Rajatarangini (1148–49), in eight books, is the main source for the political history of Kashmir, but its reliability varies from part to part.
Strengths: Kalhana names his sources, earlier chronicles, the Nilamata Purana, inscriptions, coins and monuments, and asks the historian to be impartial like a judge. From the Karkota dynasty (Book IV) onwards his account becomes increasingly dependable, and for the 11th–12th centuries (Books VII–VIII) it is a detailed, near-contemporary record, often confirmed by coins and inscriptions. He is frank about royal misdeeds, as with Harsha of Kashmir.
Weaknesses: Books I–III mix legend with history, and their chronology is faulty, with improbable reign lengths, such as about three hundred years for Ranaditya; conquests such as Lalitaditya's are exaggerated; and events are explained through fate and karma.
It is therefore a reliable source for the later centuries and a critical starting point for the earlier ones, to be checked against other evidence.
Q5(e) · Mughal Economy, Society and Culture · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Peasants, Women and the Rise of the Sikh Khalsa
The religion of the Sikhs was the main force of their unity. Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सिखों का धर्म उनकी एकता की मुख्य शक्ति था। टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Mughal Economy, Society and Culture notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(e)
Approach: Show how Sikh religious institutions and beliefs created unity, then add the social, economic and political forces that also bound the community, and give a balanced comment.
Religion was certainly the foundation of Sikh unity, but it worked together with social and political forces.
Religious bonds: belief in one God and the authority of the Guru gave a single focus of loyalty. The sangat (congregation) and the langar, where all ate together regardless of caste, created equality and fellowship. The Adi Granth (1604), the Harmandir at Amritsar and the Gurmukhi script gave the community a scripture, a centre and a shared language of worship. The Khalsa of 1699, with its initiation and five symbols, made the identity visible.
Other forces: many followers were Jat peasants bound by kinship and a martial tradition, as W.H. McLeod stressed. Mughal hostility, from Guru Arjan's execution in 1606 to Guru Tegh Bahadur's in 1675, united the community against a common enemy, and agrarian grievances drew peasants to Banda Bahadur after 1708.
Religion was thus the main but not the only force: faith gave the Sikhs their identity, while social structure and political conflict turned it into collective action.

Question 6 (50 marks)

Q6(a) · The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Foundation of the Sultanate: Aibak, Iltutmish and Balban
To what extent was the Caliphate the source and sanction to the legal authority of the Sultans of Delhi?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
खिलाफत किस सीमा तक दिल्ली के सुल्तानों के विधिक प्राधिकार का स्रोत और संस्वीकृति थी?
Practise this question The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(a)
Approach: "To what extent" asks for a measured verdict: explain the theory that the Caliph was the source of authority, show how Sultans used investiture, then show the Sultans who ignored or replaced it, and conclude that the sanction was moral rather than real.
In Sunni political theory the Caliph headed the Muslim community and a sultan ruled lawfully as his deputy. In practice the Abbasid caliph at Baghdad (till 1258), and later the shadow caliphs at Cairo, had no power in India.
Use of the Caliphate: Iltutmish's investiture by al-Mustansir (1229) placed him above rivals such as Yildiz and Qubacha. Balban's coins kept the name of the caliph al-Mustasim even after Baghdad fell. Muhammad bin Tughluq, facing revolts and hostile ulama, obtained investiture from the Abbasid caliph in Cairo (c. 1340s), and Firuz Tughluq called himself the caliph's deputy.
Departures: Balban's idea of kingship as niyabat-i-khudai placed the king directly under God. Alauddin Khalji did not seek investiture and, in Barani's account, told Qazi Mughis that he acted for the good of the state. His son Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah took the title of caliph himself.
Real basis: authority rested on the army and the nobles; Barani's Fatawa-i-Jahandari admits that rulers made state laws (zawabit) beyond the sharia. I.H. Qureshi notes that investiture gave moral legitimacy, not a legal check.
The Caliphate was thus a source of legitimacy invoked in crises, not the real source of the Sultans' legal authority.
Q6(b) · Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Bhakti and Sufi Movements under the Sultanate
“Bhakti and Sufi movements served the same social purpose.” Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“भक्ति और सूफ़ी आन्दोलनों ने एक ही सामाजिक प्रयोजन की पूर्ति की थी।” विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(b)
Approach: A 'discuss' question on a comparison: show the common social purposes, then the real differences in origin, organisation and social aims, and conclude on how far the statement holds.
The Bhakti and Sufi movements flourished side by side in the 13th–16th centuries. Both were mystical and devotional, which led Tara Chand (Influence of Islam on Indian Culture, 1936) and others to treat them as parallel or even connected movements.
Common purposes: Both placed love of God above ritual and formal learning, criticised the pride of priests and ulama, and taught humility and service. Both reached ordinary people through the vernacular and through music (sama and kirtan), offered the poor and low-born dignity, and created shared spaces of worship that eased tension between communities.
Differences: Sufism worked within Islam and the sharia, through organised silsilas, khanqahs and the pir–murid bond, and some orders, such as the Suhrawardis, were close to the state. Bhakti grew from Indian roots in the Alvars, Nayanars and Nath traditions, was divided into saguna and nirguna streams, and had no single organisation.
Social aims: Nirguna saints such as Kabir and Ravidas openly attacked caste, while most saguna saints and Sufis accepted the social order and sought inner reform.
The statement holds for their broad humanising role, since both softened religious boundaries and gave voice to the humble, but their origins, organisation and degree of social protest were different.
Q6(c) · Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Agriculture, Urban Economy, Crafts and Trade
Delineate non-agricultural production and urban economy in the 13th and 14th centuries C.E.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
13वीं – 14वीं सदी ई. में ग़ैर-कृषि उत्पादन और नगरीय अर्थव्यवस्था की रूपरेखा प्रस्तुत कीजिए।
Practise this question Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(c)
Approach: Delineate two linked themes: the range and organisation of non-agricultural production, and the urban economy (towns, markets, merchants, money), with the historiography and a conclusion.
The 13th and 14th centuries saw marked growth of crafts and towns in North India. Mohammad Habib called this an 'urban revolution', and Irfan Habib linked it to the cash revenue of the iqta system and new technology.
Crafts: Textiles led: the spinning wheel and carding bow raised cotton output, while silk weaving and embroidery grew. Other crafts included paper-making, metalwork and arms, leather goods, sugar, indigo, building (with lime mortar and the arch) and carpet-weaving.
Karkhanas: The state ran workshops to supply the court and army; Afif says Firuz Shah had 36 karkhanas, and al-Umari reports that Muhammad bin Tughluq employed thousands of weavers and embroiderers. Most production, however, remained in the hands of artisans working at home.
Towns: Delhi, which Ibn Battuta thought the largest city of the Muslim East, Lahore, Multan, Badaun, Kara, Jaunpur, Cambay and Lakhnauti were centres of administration, crafts and trade. Iqta headquarters became market towns.
Markets and merchants: Barani describes Alauddin Khalji's controlled markets: the grain market (mandi), the Sarai Adl for cloth, and separate markets for horses, cattle and slaves, supervised by the shahna-i-mandi. Multani and Hindu merchants (sahs) and brokers (dallals) carried trade.
Money: Iltutmish established the silver tanka and copper jital, and a monetised economy grew; Muhammad bin Tughluq's token currency (1329–30) shows its importance.
B.D. Chattopadhyaya warns that urban growth had begun earlier, and Irfan Habib notes that towns depended on the agrarian surplus.
Non-agricultural production and the urban economy thus expanded, though they rested on the extraction of rural revenue.

Question 7 (50 marks)

Q7(a) · The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Muhammad bin Tughluq: Projects, Agrarian Measures and Bureaucracy
Do you agree that the schemes of Muhammad bin Tughluq were correctly conceived, badly executed and disastrously abandoned? Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या आप इस बात से सहमत हैं कि मुहम्मद बिन तुग़लक़ की योजनाएँ भलीभाँति संकल्पनित, निकृष्टतः कार्यान्वित और विनाशपूर्णतः परित्यक्त थीं? चर्चा कीजिए।
Practise this question The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(a)
Approach: Test the three-part verdict scheme by scheme: for the transfer of capital, token currency, Doab taxation, Khurasan and Qarachil expeditions and the agricultural department, ask whether the idea was sound, how it was carried out and how it was given up; then give a balanced judgement.
The verdict that Muhammad bin Tughluq's schemes were well conceived, badly executed and disastrously abandoned is a common textbook judgement, close to the revisionist view of Agha Mahdi Husain and Ishwari Prasad, who rejected the older 'mad king' image.
Transfer of the capital (1327): a second capital at Daulatabad suited an empire reaching Madurai, but forcing Delhi's Muslim elite to move caused great hardship, and the return wasted the effort.
Token currency (1329–30): a response to a silver shortage, but forgery could not be stopped, and redeeming the tokens in good coin was a heavy loss.
Doab taxation: raising revenue in a fertile region coincided with famine, and harsh collection drove peasants to flight; takavi relief came late.
Military plans: the Khurasan army was disbanded when Central Asian politics changed, and the Qarachil expedition was destroyed in the hills. Here the conception itself is doubtful.
Diwan-i-Amir-i-Kohi: state-directed cultivation was imaginative, but poor land and corrupt officials wasted the money, and it was dropped.
The statement fits the currency, capital and agricultural department, but not the military schemes. Modern historians add silver scarcity, famine and imperial over-extension to Barani's blame of the Sultan's temperament.
Q7(b) · Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Akbar's Rajput Policy, Sulh-i-kul and Court Patronage
Do you think that Akbar’s Rajput policy was a conscious attempt to incorporate the Indian ruling elite with the Mughal Imperial System?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या आपके विचार में अकबर की राजपूत नीति विशिष्ट भारतीय शासकों को मुगल साम्राज्य व्यवस्था में समाविष्ट करने का एक सोचा-विचारा प्रयास था?
Practise this question Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(b)
Approach: Argue that the policy became a deliberate scheme of incorporation (ranks, watan jagirs, marriages, offices, religious concessions), but show that it began pragmatically and used force where chiefs resisted.
Akbar's Rajput policy is often presented as the first planned attempt to make India's hereditary ruling class partners in an imperial system. The evidence suggests it became conscious incorporation over time, though it began as a practical response to circumstances.
Pragmatic beginnings: the Amber alliance of 1562 arose from Raja Bharmal's own need for protection against the Mughal governor of Mewat, and Akbar's early campaigns against Merta, Chittor (1568) and Ranthambhor (1569) relied on force.
A deliberate system: from the 1570s the terms became standard. Chiefs who submitted kept their lands as hereditary watan jagirs, received mansabs (Man Singh rose to 7,000, among the highest ranks given to a noble) and held governorships and commands far from home. Marriages linked them to the dynasty without demanding conversion.
Akbar also removed the pilgrim tax (1563) and jizya (1564), and the ideal of sulh-i-kul gave the partnership an ideological basis. As Satish Chandra argues, the Rajputs were treated as a pillar of the state rather than as defeated enemies.
Limits: Mewar resisted until 1615, Marwar's Chandrasen held out, and Rajputs remained a minority among the high nobility. Akbar's aim was also political balance against Turani nobles, as Iqtidar Alam Khan stresses.
It was, therefore, a conscious policy of incorporation that grew out of pragmatic beginnings and rested on both generosity and the threat of force.
Q7(c) · The Eighteenth Century · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Politics, Culture and Economy on the Eve of British Conquest
“The political disintegration was responsible for the socio-economic decline in India during the 18th century.” Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“18वीं शताब्दी के दौरान भारत में सामाजिक-आर्थिक अवनति के लिए राजनीतिक विघटन जिम्मेदार था।” टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question The Eighteenth Century notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(c)
Approach: Identify the statement with the dark age school, give the evidence that political breakdown caused distress, then question both 'disintegration' and 'decline' with revisionist evidence, and conclude.
The statement reflects the older view of Jadunath Sarkar and colonial writers that the collapse of Mughal authority after 1707 plunged India into anarchy and socio-economic decline, from which British rule rescued it.
Evidence for the statement: succession wars and factions weakened the centre; Nadir Shah (1739) and Abdali (1748–67) plundered Delhi and Punjab; Maratha raids devastated western Bengal (1742–51); Delhi and Agra declined, mourned in the shahr-ashob poetry of Mir and Sauda. Irfan Habib linked imperial collapse to an agrarian crisis, and revenue farming (ijara) let farmers squeeze peasants. Surat's decline (Ashin Das Gupta) followed the loss of Mughal protection for its hinterland trade.
Evidence against: the Mughal centre declined, but power was decentralised rather than dissolved. Muzaffar Alam showed agrarian and commercial growth in Awadh and Punjab; C.A. Bayly found new towns, merchant families and service gentry; Frank Perlin traced monetisation in Maharashtra. Bengal's textile exports rose, banking houses such as the Jagat Seths flourished, and regional capitals such as Lucknow, Hyderabad and Pune grew. Society saw no general collapse: Urdu poetry, Pahari painting and regional literatures flowered under new patrons.
A different cause of decline: where decline was sharpest, as in Bengal after 1757, it owed as much to Company plunder, private trade and the drain as to Indian political breakdown.
Balance: war, plunder and peasant distress were real, and technology stagnated, as the Aligarh historians insist; but the pattern was regional and uneven.
The statement is overstated: political decentralisation caused distress in some regions, especially the north-west and Delhi, but it did not produce a general socio-economic decline across eighteenth-century India.

Question 8 (50 marks)

Q8(a) · Mughal Economy, Society and Culture · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Mughal Architecture and Painting
“Mughal paintings reflect social harmony in contemporary society.” Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“मुगलकालीन चित्र, समकालीन समाज में सामाजिक सामंजस्य को प्रतिबिम्बित करते हैं।” विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Mughal Economy, Society and Culture notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(a)
Approach: Present the evidence for social harmony in Mughal painting (shared workshops, Hindu themes, saints and holy men of all faiths, festivals), then qualify it: court-centred, idealised, ideological, and limited in time.
Mughal painting was produced in a court that proclaimed sulh-i-kul, peace with all, and much of it does reflect cooperation and mutual respect between communities.
Shared workshops: Abul Fazl's list of Akbar's leading painters includes Hindu masters such as Daswanth, Basawan, Kesu, Lal, Mukund and Madhu alongside Muslim artists like Abd al-Samad and Farrukh Beg. They worked together on the same pages: inscriptions on Akbar-period pages often name one artist for the design and another for the colouring, frequently a Hindu and a Muslim together.
Shared themes: the studio illustrated the Hindu epics in the Razmnama and the Persian Ramayana. Paintings show Jahangir visiting the Hindu ascetic Jadrup, Dara Shukoh with Sufis and yogis, and festivals such as Holi and Diwali at court. Jesuits appear in court scenes.
Qualifications: the paintings show the world of the court and nobility, rarely peasants or conflict. Harmony was an ideal promoted by the emperor, so the images were partly propaganda for the dynasty. Under Aurangzeb, imperial patronage declined.
Mughal paintings thus reflect a real culture of exchange among the elite, but they depict an idealised harmony rather than the whole of contemporary society.
Q8(b) · Mughal Economy, Society and Culture · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Peasants, Women and the Rise of the Sikh Khalsa
Assess the condition of peasantry during 13th to 17th centuries C.E.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
13वीं से 17वीं शताब्दियों ई. के दौरान कृषक वर्ग की दशा का आकलन कीजिए।
Practise this question Mughal Economy, Society and Culture notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(b)
Approach: Compare the peasant's condition under the Sultanate and the Mughals: revenue demand and methods, stratification, state relief, famines and flight, with the evidence of Barani, the Ain and travellers, and the historians' debate on prosperity or misery.
From the 13th to the 17th century the Indian peasant supported both the Sultanate and the Mughal states through the land tax. His condition depended on the size of the demand, the efficiency of collection and the seasons.
The Sultanate: Alauddin Khalji fixed the demand at half the produce, based on measurement, and curbed the privileges of rural chiefs (khuts and muqaddams); Barani says they were reduced to poverty. Muhammad bin Tughlaq's raised demand in the Doab, followed by famine, drove peasants to flight. Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq and Firuz Shah Tughlaq moderated the demand, and Firuz built canals.
The Mughals: Akbar's zabt fixed the demand at about one-third in cash, with remissions for crop failure and taqavi loans. The Ain-i-Akbari shows an expanding agriculture with many cash crops.
Stratification: the peasantry was divided into resident cultivators (khud-kasht), outsiders (pahi-kasht), poorer sharecroppers and landless labourers. Better-off peasants prospered, the poor lived near subsistence.
Misery and debate: Pelsaert and Bernier describe oppressed and ill-clothed peasants, and the Deccan and Gujarat famine of 1630–32 caused mass deaths. Irfan Habib argues that the demand took nearly all the surplus, while Shireen Moosvi and others find signs of agricultural growth.
The peasant's condition was thus hard throughout, improving with stable administration and worsening with heavy demand, war and famine.
Q8(c) · The Eighteenth Century · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Maratha Ascendancy under the Peshwas
How will you view the Maratha policy of expansion? Delineate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मराठों की विस्तारवादी नीति को आप किस रूप में देखते हैं? रूपरेखा प्रस्तुत कीजिए।
Practise this question The Eighteenth Century notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(c)
Approach: Describe the phases, directions and methods of Maratha expansion, then evaluate its gains and costs (alienation of neighbours, overextension, Panipat) with historians' views, and give a verdict.
Between 1719 and 1760 the Marathas grew from a Deccan power into the largest state in India. Their expansion was dynamic but more extractive than integrative.
Phases: Balaji Vishwanath secured the sanads of 1719 for the Deccan. Baji Rao I turned north (tradition credits him with urging a strike at the trunk of the Mughal tree); he took Malwa and Gujarat, aided Chhatrasal in Bundelkhand (1729) and raided Delhi (1737), while Chimaji Appa took Bassein (1739). Under Balaji Baji Rao the Bhonsles raided Bengal and gained Orissa's revenue (1751), the Marathas intervened in Rajput successions, and Raghunath Rao reached Attock (1758).
Methods: expansion worked through chauth and sardeshmukhi rather than annexation, through alliances and the winning over of rivals' men (André Wink's fitna), and through a Mughal framework, culminating in the 1752 treaty to protect the emperor. Conquered areas were assigned to chiefs, building the confederacy.
Gains: the Marathas became the arbiters of north Indian politics, and Stewart Gordon shows that in Malwa and Khandesh they settled revenue and administration, so they were state builders and not mere raiders, as Grant Duff had claimed.
Costs: heavy tribute and repeated raids alienated Rajputs, Jats, Sikhs and Bengal; the north was never consolidated; and the advance into Punjab provoked Ahmad Shah Abdali. At Panipat (1761) the Marathas fought without allies.
Ideology: the slogan of Hindu Pad Padshahi is a later gloss; Maratha policy was pragmatic and revenue-driven, and Muslim and Hindu rulers alike were taxed.
The policy of expansion was a remarkable success in extent and speed, but its predatory methods and lack of consolidation left the Marathas isolated and divided before the Afghans and the English.

UPSC Mains 2017 History Paper II