UPSC Mains 2018 History Optional Question Papers with Model Answers

All 52 questions of the 2018 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 2018 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) Megalithic burial site; (ii) Chalcolithic site; (iii) Cave paintings; (iv) Paleolithic site; (v) Political and Cultural centre; (vi) Terracotta centre; (vii) Harappan site; (viii) Vaishnava cultural site; (ix) Painted Grey Ware site; (x) Chalcolithic site; (xi) Early agricultural centre; (xii) Early Harappan site; (xiii) An ancient temple; (xiv) Political and Cultural centre; (xv) An ancient sea port; (xvi) Buddhist centre; (xvii) Inscriptional site; (xviii) An ancient capital; (xix) A Jaina centre; (xx) An ancient capital.
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) महापाषाणीय भूनिवेश स्थल; (ii) ताम्रपाषाणीय स्थल; (iii) गुहाचित्र; (iv) पुरापाषाणकालीन स्थल; (v) राजनीतिक एवं सांस्कृतिक केन्द्र; (vi) पक्व मृत्तिका केन्द्र; (vii) हड़प्पाकालीन स्थल; (viii) वैष्णव सांस्कृतिक स्थल; (ix) चित्रित धूसर मृद्भांड स्थल; (x) ताम्रपाषाणीय स्थल; (xi) आरम्भिक कृषि केन्द्र; (xii) आरम्भिक हड़प्पाकालीन स्थल; (xiii) एक प्राचीन मन्दिर; (xiv) राजनीतिक एवं सांस्कृतिक केन्द्र; (xv) एक प्राचीन समुद्री बन्दरगाह; (xvi) बौद्ध केन्द्र; (xvii) अभिलेखन स्थल; (xviii) एक प्राचीन राजधानी; (xix) एक जैन केन्द्र; (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) Megalithic burial site: Adichanallur, Tamil Nadu — Iron Age urn-burial site on the Tamiraparani in Thoothukudi district, excavated by Alexander Rea (1899–1905); the urns held iron tools and weapons, bronze objects, gold diadems and black-and-red pottery.
(ii) Chalcolithic site: Gilund, Rajasthan — Ahar-Banas Chalcolithic site in Rajsamand district (c. 3000–1700 BCE), excavated by B.B. Lal (1959–60) and later by V. Shinde and G. Possehl; mud-brick structures, black-and-red ware and a bin of clay seal impressions.
(iii) Cave paintings: Ajanta, Maharashtra — about thirty Buddhist rock-cut caves in the Waghora valley (2nd century BCE–5th century CE); their murals of Jataka stories, mostly of the Vakataka age under Harishena, are the finest surviving ancient Indian paintings.
(iv) Paleolithic site: Attirampakkam, Tamil Nadu — Acheulian site on the Kortallaiyar river near Chennai; Shanti Pappu and colleagues dated its handaxes to about 1.5 million years ago, and its Middle Palaeolithic tools to about 385,000 years ago.
(v) Political and Cultural centre: Hampi (Vijayanagara), Karnataka — capital of the Vijayanagara empire (c. 1336–1565) on the Tungabhadra, with the Virupaksha and Vitthala temples, the royal enclosure and Mahanavami platform; sacked after Talikota (1565); a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
(vi) Terracotta centre: Chandraketugarh, West Bengal — early historic urban site in North 24 Parganas (c. 3rd century BCE onwards), famed for finely moulded terracotta plaques of yakshis and ornate female figures.
(vii) Harappan site: Kuntasi, Gujarat — Harappan site near the head of the Gulf of Kutch (Morbi district), excavated by M.K. Dhavalikar in the late 1980s; a fortified manufacturing and trading post with bead-making and copper working, linked to coastal exchange.
(viii) Vaishnava cultural site: Besnagar (Vidisha), Madhya Pradesh — ancient Vidisha at the Betwa–Bes confluence; the Garuda pillar raised by Heliodorus, Indo-Greek envoy of Antialcidas (late 2nd century BCE), honours Vasudeva, and nearby Udayagiri has the Gupta Varaha panel. (identification from the map uncertain; other sites matching the clue: Eran)
(ix) Painted Grey Ware site: Thapli, Uttarakhand — village on the Alaknanda near Srinagar in Garhwal; excavations by H.N.B. Garhwal University found Painted Grey Ware, showing that this Ganga-plain culture of the early first millennium BCE reached the Himalayan valleys.
(x) Chalcolithic site: Inamgaon, Maharashtra — Chalcolithic village on the Ghod river, Pune district (c. 1600–700 BCE), excavated by Sankalia and Dhavalikar; Malwa and Jorwe phases, embankment, granaries and urn burials.
(xi) Early agricultural centre: Koldihwa, Uttar Pradesh — Neolithic site in the Belan valley (Prayagraj district) excavated by G.R. Sharma; rice husk in cord-impressed pottery was claimed as evidence of very early rice cultivation, with circular huts and polished stone celts.
(xii) Early Harappan site: Kot Diji, Sindh (Pakistan) — type site of the Early Harappan Kot Dijian culture near Khairpur, east of the Indus, excavated by F.A. Khan (1955–57); a fortified settlement with wheel-made pottery later overlain by Mature Harappan levels.
(xiii) An ancient temple: Martand, Jammu and Kashmir — Sun temple on a plateau near Anantnag built by the Karkota king Lalitaditya Muktapida (8th century), with a colonnaded courtyard, trefoil arches and Gandharan-influenced stonework; it was ruined in the time of Sultan Sikandar (late 14th–early 15th century). (identification from the map uncertain; other sites matching the clue: Shankaracharya temple (Srinagar), Avantipur)
(xiv) Political and Cultural centre: Hastinapur, Uttar Pradesh — on an old bed of the Ganga in Meerut district; B.B. Lal (1950–52) found Painted Grey Ware levels (c. 1100–800 BCE) ended by a flood; traditionally the Kuru capital, later a Jaina pilgrimage centre.
(xv) An ancient sea port: Muziris (Pattanam), Kerala — Chera port near Kodungallur on the Periyar; the Periplus and the Muziris papyrus record its Roman pepper trade, and Pattanam has yielded amphorae, terra sigillata and beads.
(xvi) Buddhist centre: Sannati, Karnataka — on the Bhima (Kalaburagi district); Ashokan edicts and the nearby Kanaganahalli stupa, whose relief names and shows Ashoka, mark a major Satavahana-period Buddhist centre of the early centuries BCE and CE.
(xvii) Inscriptional site: Shahbazgarhi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) — near Mardan in ancient Gandhara; Ashoka's fourteen Major Rock Edicts in the Kharoshthi script, written right to left, including Edict XIII on the Kalinga war; Mansehra has a parallel set.
(xviii) An ancient capital: Sirpur (Shripura), Chhattisgarh — capital of the Panduvamshis of Dakshina Kosala on the Mahanadi; its brick Lakshmana temple (7th century) was built by queen Vasata, and excavations revealed many Buddhist viharas and a market.
(xix) A Jaina centre: Udayagiri and Khandagiri, Odisha — twin hills near Bhubaneswar with Jaina rock-cut caves (c. 1st century BCE) cut as dwellings for monks; the Hathigumpha inscription of the Chedi king Kharavela records his reign year by year.
(xx) An ancient capital: Vaishali, Bihar — capital of the Licchavis and seat of the Vajji confederacy, an early republic (6th–5th century BCE); the Second Buddhist Council met here, Mahavira was born nearby at Kundagrama, and Kolhua has an Ashokan lion pillar.

Question 2 (50 marks)

Q2(a) · Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Literary Sources and Foreign Accounts
How did the early Indian historical tradition, as reflected in Itihasa-Purana, emerge? What are the distinctive features of this genre?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
आरम्भिक भारतीय ऐतिहासिक परम्परा, जैसी कि वह इतिहास-पुराण से प्रतिबिम्बित है, किस प्रकार प्रकट हुई थी? इस शैली के विशिष्ट अभिलक्षण क्या हैं?
Practise this question Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(a)
Approach: Two parts: first trace how the Itihasa-Purana tradition emerged (bardic genealogies, Vedic references, Brahmanical compilation), then list its distinctive features, ending with how historians assess it.
Colonial scholars often claimed that early India had no historical writing, and Al-Biruni himself remarked that Hindus paid little attention to the historical order of events. The Itihasa-Purana tradition shows instead a distinctive Indian form of historical consciousness.
Emergence: the term appears in later Vedic texts; the Atharvaveda mentions itihasa and purana, and the Chandogya Upanishad calls itihasa-purana the fifth Veda. Its roots lay in the oral recitations of bards, the sutas and magadhas, who preserved the genealogies and deeds of chiefs.
The bardic material was later taken over and recast by Brahmanas. The epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, grew over centuries (roughly 400 BCE to 400 CE), and the Puranas were compiled mainly in the early centuries CE.
Distinctive features: first, the Puranas follow the five themes (pancha-lakshana) of creation, re-creation, genealogy of gods and sages, the ages of Manu, and the history of royal dynasties. Second, the dynastic lists of the Kali age, covering the Nandas, Mauryas, Shungas, Satavahanas and early Guptas, are written in the future tense as prophecy.
Third, time is cyclical, measured in yugas and manvantaras, and the past is presented as a moral lesson. Fourth, the tradition is genealogical: Solar and Lunar lineages (Suryavamsha, Chandravamsha) connect later kings to ancient heroes and so give them legitimacy.
Assessment: F.E. Pargiter treated the Puranic king-lists as usable historical tradition, and Romila Thapar describes this as embedded history, in which historical memory lies within myth and genealogy, later externalised in charitas, vamshavalis and Kalhana's Rajatarangini. Critics warn of late compilation, interpolation and inflated chronology.
Itihasa-Purana is thus not history in the modern sense, but a genre that preserved and shaped the memory of the past.
Q2(b) · Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Harappan Art, Architecture, Decline, Survival and Significance
"Archaeological evidence does not give direct access to the possible social and political dimensions of the decline of the Harappan civilization. What it does indicate very clearly is that the Harappan culture underwent a gradual process of de-urbanization." Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"पुरातत्वीय साक्ष्य हड़प्पा सभ्यता के पतन के सम्भावित सामाजिक और राजनीतिक आयामों का प्रत्यक्ष पता तो नहीं देते हैं। वे यह तो बहुत स्पष्ट रूप से इंगित करते हैं कि हड़प्पा संस्कृति वि-नगरीकरण के क्रमिक प्रक्रम में से गुज़री थी।" टीका कीजिए।
Practise this question Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(b)
Approach: Comment on both sentences: accept that archaeology cannot directly reveal the social and political causes, explain why, then show the clear material evidence of gradual de-urbanisation and the shift to regional Late Harappan cultures.
The statement reflects the present consensus among archaeologists such as Possehl and Kenoyer: the Harappan cities did not fall in a single catastrophe but went through a long process of de-urbanisation, whose human causes remain hard to read.
Why social and political dimensions are elusive: the script is undeciphered, so we have no records of rulers, conflicts or beliefs. Even the nature of Harappan polity is debated, from Shereen Ratnagar's state to a heterarchy of elites. Whether decline involved the breakdown of elite authority, social conflict or loss of ideological unity can only be inferred.
What archaeology shows clearly: from about 1900 BCE, large cities such as Mohenjodaro shrank, and its late levels show poorer construction and crowding. The hallmarks of integration disappeared: standard weights, seals, the script and long-distance trade with Mesopotamia faded.
Gradual and regional: M.R. Mughal's Cholistan survey shows site numbers along the Hakra falling sharply, while sites multiplied in Haryana, the Ganga-Yamuna doab and Gujarat. Regional cultures took over, such as Cemetery H in Punjab, Jhukar in Sindh and Late Sorath sites like Rangpur in Gujarat, which Kenoyer calls the Localisation era.
Farming, crafts and village life continued, so the change was a transformation rather than an extinction.
The statement is therefore apt: archaeology documents the process of de-urbanisation with clarity, while its social and political causes remain matters of reasoned inference.
Q2(c) · Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Mahajanapadas: Republics, Monarchies and the Second Urbanisation
Give an account of gana-sanghas (non-monarchical state systems). Why did they decline?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
गण-संघों (गैर-राजतंत्रीय राज्य प्रणालियां) का विवरण प्रस्तुत कीजिए। उनका पतन किस कारण हुआ था?
Practise this question Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(c)
Approach: Give an account of the gana-sanghas (their location, organisation and functioning, with sources), then explain the causes of their decline.
The gana-sanghas were non-monarchical states of the sixth to fourth centuries BCE. They included the Vajji confederacy (with the Lichchhavis of Vaishali), the Shakyas of Kapilavastu, the Mallas of Kushinagara and Pava, the Koliyas and the Moriyas. Panini mentions sanghas, including warrior groups (ayudhajivi sanghas).
Organisation: power lay with an assembly of heads of Kshatriya families, called rajas. A Jataka puts the Lichchhavi rajas at 7,707, which shows many shared in power. The assembly met in the santhagara under an elected chief, and Buddhist monastic rules of voting may reflect their procedure.
Social character: they were oligarchies, not democracies as K.P. Jayaswal claimed. Land and power were held by the Kshatriya clans, while dasa-karmakaras worked the land. The Buddha praised the Vajjis for frequent assemblies and respect for elders (Mahaparinibbana Sutta).
Decline: Magadhan expansion was the main cause. Ajatashatru's minister Vassakara sowed discord among the Vajjis, and Jain texts say Ajatashatru used new war engines, the mahashilakantaka and rathamusala. Kosala destroyed the Shakyas.
Internal faction made them easy to divide, and the Arthashastra later advised kings how to break up sanghas. Monarchies had standing armies and larger revenues.
Some ganas survived in the north-west, such as the Yaudheyas and Malavas, until Samudragupta subdued them.

Question 3 (50 marks)

Q3(a) · The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Mauryan Polity, Administration and Economy
Do you agree with the popular view that Mauryas established a unitary and highly centralized if not monolithic state system?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या आप इस लोक-प्रचलित मत से सहमत हैं कि मौर्यों ने यदि एकाश्मक राज्य तंत्र नहीं, तो भी एकात्मक और अत्यधिक केन्द्रित राज्य प्रणाली की स्थापना की थी?
Practise this question The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(a)
Approach: State the popular view and its sources, then test it with evidence for central control and against it (regional variation, provincial autonomy, communication limits), and give a balanced verdict.
The popular view, built on a combined reading of the Arthashastra, Megasthenes' Indika and Ashoka's edicts, holds that the Mauryas created a unitary, highly centralised and even monolithic state. Some writers, borrowing Karl Wittfogel's idea of 'Oriental despotism', called it despotic.
Evidence for centralisation: the Arthashastra describes eighteen tirthas, some thirty adhyakshas and a pervasive spy system. Megasthenes describes a city board of thirty members in six committees at Pataliputra, officers who measured land and supervised irrigation, and a large standing army.
Ashoka's edicts show the king issuing direct orders across the empire, sending mahamattas, rajukas and dhamma-mahamattas, and demanding reports at any hour (Rock Edict VI). Princes as viceroys at Taxila, Ujjain, Tosali and Suvarnagiri ruled in the king's name.
Evidence against: the Arthashastra is normative and partly post-Mauryan, so it cannot prove practice. Distance, slow communications and the diversity of peoples made uniform control impossible, as Gerard Fussman argued.
The princes and provincial mahamattas had wide powers. Taxila revolted twice, under Bindusara and Ashoka, according to the Divyavadana, and the forest peoples (atavikas) and frontier peoples were treated as separate.
Romila Thapar's revision: in The Mauryas Revisited (1987) she divided the empire into the metropolitan centre (Magadha), core areas such as Gandhara, Ujjain and Kalinga with direct control over resources, and peripheral areas held loosely through routes and tribute.
Ashoka's edicts themselves vary by region in language and script (Greek and Aramaic at Kandahar, Kharoshthi in the north-west, Brahmi elsewhere), which reflects accommodation, not uniformity.
I do not fully agree with the popular view. The Mauryan state was highly centralised in its core, but it was neither unitary nor monolithic across the empire as a whole.
Q3(b) · Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Jainism, Buddhism and the Rise of Magadha
The concept of Shramanic religions, with particular reference to Buddhism, had their roots in Upanisadic ideas. Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
श्रमणिक धर्मों की संकल्पना के मूल, बौद्ध-धर्म के विशेष संदर्भ में, उपनिषदीय विचारों में थे। विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(b)
Approach: Explain the shramanic religions, show the Upanishadic roots of Buddhist ideas, then the points where Buddhism broke with the Upanishads, and reach a judgement.
The shramanas were wandering ascetics of the sixth and fifth centuries BCE who left home in search of liberation. They included the Buddha, Mahavira, the Ajivika Makkhali Gosala and the materialist Ajita Kesakambali, and they stood apart from the Vedic Brahmanas.
Upanishadic roots: the Upanishads had already moved from sacrifice to inner knowledge. The doctrines of karma and samsara appear in the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya. The Upanishadic renouncer, meditation in the forest and the goal of release from rebirth provided a shared vocabulary that Buddhism used.
Breaks: the claim is only partly true. The Buddha rejected the Vedas and the authority of Brahmanas, and against the Upanishadic atman he taught anatta, no permanent self. Liberation (nirvana) was the end of craving, not union with brahman. He rejected caste by birth and founded a sangha open to all.
Independent roots: many scholars argue that renunciation, rebirth and ahimsa may come from a separate ascetic culture of the eastern Ganga plain. That culture may have influenced the Upanishads themselves. Jainism traces its line to Parshvanatha, the twenty-third tirthankara.
Buddhism shared roots with Upanishadic thought, but its core ideas also answered and rejected it.
Q3(c) · Early Medieval India, 750–1200 · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Chola Administration, Village Economy and Society
"Doubtless it was not a free state; it was any rate a state" (K A N Sastri). Reflect upon the nature of local self government institutions in the Chola country.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"निसंदेह यह एक स्वतंत्र राज्य नहीं था; येन-केन प्रकारेण यह एक राज्य था" (के ए एन शास्त्री) चोला देश में स्थानीय स्वशासन संस्थाओं की प्रकृति पर विचार व्यक्त कीजिए।
Practise this question Early Medieval India, 750–1200 notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(c)
Approach: Use Nilakanta Sastri's remark (local bodies were autonomous yet worked within a real state) as the frame: describe the ur, sabha, nagaram and nadu and their functions, then show the limits of their autonomy and the later debate on the Chola state.
K.A. Nilakanta Sastri (The Colas, 1935–37) admired the vigorous local self-government of the Chola country but insisted that it worked within a strong monarchy: the villages were not free republics, yet the whole formed a real state.
Kinds of assemblies: the ur was the assembly of landholders in ordinary (non-brahmana) villages; the sabha or mahasabha governed brahmadeya villages of brahmana landholders; the nagaram represented merchants in market towns; the nadu assembly (nattar) linked groups of villages.
Functions: they managed common lands, tanks and irrigation, temples and charitable endowments, collected and remitted land revenue, recorded land sales and gifts, and settled local disputes. The Uttaramerur inscriptions of Parantaka I (919 and 921) show the sabha working through committees (variyams) for annual business, tanks and gardens, chosen by lot (kudavolai) from qualified landholders.
Why it was not a free state: the rules at Uttaramerur were framed by royal order in the presence of a royal officer; the king's officials audited accounts, endowments were made under royal sanction, and revenue assessed in Rajaraja I's survey flowed to the centre. Membership was restricted to propertied, learned and mostly brahmana men, so this was oligarchic, not democratic.
Sastri's formula remains a useful middle path: Chola local institutions enjoyed wide autonomy in daily affairs, but under the umbrella of a monarchy that supervised and drew resources from them.

Question 4 (50 marks)

Q4(a) · The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Post-Mauryan Economy, Trade and Coinage
What was the impact of trans-regional and trans-continental trade in the post Mauryan period on social and cultural life of India?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
उत्तर मौर्य काल में प्रदेश-पारीय और महाद्वीप-पारीय व्यापार का भारत के सामाजिक और सांस्कृतिक जीवन पर क्या प्रभाव पड़ा था?
Practise this question The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(a)
Approach: Show the scale of trade first, then its social impact (new groups, guilds, foreigners, mobility, urban life) and cultural impact (religion, art, language, science, literature), with evidence, and close with a balanced view.
After the Mauryas, India's trade expanded across the continent and overseas: by land along the Uttarapatha and Dakshinapatha and the Silk Road to China and Central Asia, and by sea to the Roman world and Southeast Asia. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Pliny and Roman coin hoards in the south document it.
Social impact: merchants (setthis, sarthavahas) and artisans grew rich and prominent, and donor inscriptions name them alongside kings. Guilds (shrenis) gained legal recognition, and the lawbooks allow them their own customs. Towns such as Taxila, Mathura, Ujjain, Bharuch, Arikamedu and Muziris grew.
Foreigners, Greeks, Sakas and Kushanas, were absorbed. The Manusmriti calls them fallen Kshatriyas (vratya), and Indian names were adopted. Brahmanical texts, fearing the mixing of varnas, condemned sea travel and spoke of a Kali age.
Religious impact: Buddhism and Jainism, favoured by merchants, flourished along routes. Mahayana and the Bodhisattva ideal spread to Central Asia and China. The Bhagavata cult received foreign devotees such as Heliodorus.
Art: trade wealth funded the Sanchi gateways, Karle and Amaravati. Gandhara art absorbed Greco-Roman forms, and Mathura and Amaravati developed rich narrative styles.
Science and language: Greek ideas entered Indian astronomy; the Greek Yavanajataka was rendered into Sanskrit in the second century CE. Bilingual coins, Kharoshthi and Prakrit spread, and Sanskrit became a language of royal inscriptions.
Limits: benefits went mainly to urban elites and port regions. R.S. Sharma traces the decline of many towns after the third century CE, which shows how dependent this prosperity was on trade.
Trade thus made the post-Mauryan period one of social fluidity and cultural cosmopolitanism.
Q4(b) · Regional States and Early Indian Cultural History · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Growth of Vaishnavism and Saivism and the Tamil Bhakti Movement
"Utpannā dravide bhaktih, Karnāte vriddhimāgatā |
Sthitā kinchit mahārāshtre gurjare jīrnatām gatā ||" — Padmapurāna
Account for the emergence of bhakti in Dravida desa.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"उत्पन्ना द्रविडे भक्तिः कर्णाटे वृद्धिमागता।
स्थिता किंचित् महाराष्ट्रे गुर्जरे जीर्णतां गता॥" — पद्मपुराण
'द्राविड़ देश' में भक्ति के आविर्भाव का विवरण दीजिए।
Practise this question Regional States and Early Indian Cultural History notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(b)
Approach: Explain the verse briefly, then account for why bhakti arose first in the Tamil land: the earlier devotional tradition, the social and economic setting, the religious competition and royal patronage.
The verse, from the Bhagavata Mahatmya in the Padma Purana, has Bhakti say that she was born in Dravida, grew in Karnataka, lived a little in Maharashtra and grew old in Gujarat. It reflects the accepted view that devotional religion first took popular form in the Tamil country.
Older roots: Sangam poetry already knew Murugan and Mayon and the Paripadal hymns, and the akam conventions of love gave the saints a language of longing for god.
Social and economic setting: the spread of wet-rice farming in the river valleys, brahmana settlements (brahmadeyas) and temples created an agrarian society in which the temple became the centre of village life. Puranic ideas brought by brahmanas met local cults and were fused.
Religious competition: under the Kalabhras (c. third to sixth century) Jainism and Buddhism had gained ground with merchants and courts. The saints' attacks on them show bhakti as a response, which M.G.S. Narayanan and Kesavan Veluthat read as the ideology of the new agrarian order.
Royal patronage: the Pallavas and Pandyas, who ended Kalabhra rule, backed the saints and built temples; Mahendravarman I's turn from Jainism to Shaivism is the best-known case.
Bhakti emerged in Dravida desa because literary tradition, agrarian expansion, religious rivalry and royal support came together there first. From there it spread north through Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Q4(c) · The Deccan, the Sangam Age and the Guptas · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Education, Literature, Science and Art in the Gupta Age
Discuss the experimentations with art and architecture during the Gupta-Vakataka period.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
गुप्त-वाकाटका काल के दौरान में कला और वास्तुकला संबंधी प्रयोगों पर चर्चा कीजिए।
Practise this question The Deccan, the Sangam Age and the Guptas notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(c)
Approach: Present the new forms tried in this period, medium by medium (structural temples, rock-cut caves and painting, sculpture and metal), with examples, and show how they shaped later styles.
The Gupta-Vakataka period (c. fourth to sixth century CE) was an age of experiment in which the main forms of later Indian art took shape. Linked by Prabhavatigupta's marriage, the two courts shared artistic ideas.
Structural temples: builders moved from caves to free-standing shrines. The flat-roofed temple 17 at Sanchi and Tigawa have a square sanctum and porch. Nachna's Parvati temple added an ambulatory, the brick temple at Bhitargaon rose to a tall superstructure, and the Dashavatara temple at Deogarh has a raised platform, carved doorway and early shikhara, pointing to the Nagara style.
Caves and painting: the Udayagiri caves near Vidisha, of Chandragupta II's reign, carry the great Varaha panel. Under the Vakataka Harishena, the later caves at Ajanta (such as 1, 2, 16, 17 and 19) added carved facades, shrine Buddhas and the finest murals of early India.
Sculpture and metal: Mathura and Sarnath created the classical Buddha with calm face and transparent drapery, Brahmanical iconography matured (Vishnu on Ananta at Deogarh), and the Sultanganj copper Buddha and Mehrauli iron pillar show advanced metalwork.
These experiments set the canons later codified in silpa texts and led on to Chalukya and Pallava temples and to Ellora and Elephanta, which is why the period is called the classical age of Indian art.

Question 5 (50 marks)

Q5(a) · The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Ghurian Invasions and the Factors Behind Their Success
"The battles of Tarain and Chandawar laid the foundations of Turkish rule in India". Elaborate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"टारेन और चंदावर की लड़ाइयों ने भारत में तुर्की शासन की नींव रखी थी"। विस्तारपूर्वक स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(a)
Approach: Elaborate how the two battles opened north India to the Turks: give the date, sides and outcome of Tarain (1191, 1192) and Chandawar (1194), then show what each made possible.
Muizzuddin Muhammad of Ghur had taken Multan (1175) and Lahore (1186), but the Ganga plain was held by the Chahamanas of Ajmer-Delhi and the Gahadavalas of Kannauj. Two battles removed both.
Tarain: near Thanesar, Prithviraja III routed the Ghurids in 1191. In 1192 Muizzuddin returned and, as Minhaj-us-Siraj describes, divided his cavalry into units that harassed the Rajput army with mounted archers until it broke; Prithviraja was captured and killed. Ajmer became tributary, Delhi was taken (1193) and Qutbuddin Aibak was placed in charge of the Indian conquests.
Chandawar (1194): near Etawah, Jayachandra Gahadavala was defeated and killed, opening Kannauj and Varanasi to the Turks and the road to Bihar and Bengal, which Bakhtiyar Khalji raided soon after.
Together the battles gave the Turks Delhi as a base, the revenue of the Doab and a body of officers with iqtas in India, from which the Delhi Sultanate emerged in 1206. Yet they were foundations, not completion: Rajput chiefs resisted for decades, and Iltutmish still had to consolidate the state.
Q5(b) · Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Women, Religious Classes, Caste and Slavery
Discuss evidence on slavery provided by Ibn Batuta with special reference to female slaves.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
महिला दासों के विशेष उल्लेख के साथ, इब्न बतूता द्वारा दास-प्रथा पर दिए गए साक्ष्य की विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(b)
Approach: Introduce Ibn Battuta and his Rihla, then present what he says about the supply, price, uses and treatment of slaves, with female slaves at the centre, and end with the value and limits of his evidence.
The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta lived in India from 1333 to 1342, served Muhammad bin Tughluq as qazi of Delhi and wrote the Rihla, in which slaves appear constantly.
Supply and price: Wars and raids produced a steady flow of captives, so slaves were cheap. In Bengal, he says, a beautiful slave girl could be bought for one gold dinar, and he himself bought one there.
Female slaves: They worked as domestic servants, concubines and, if trained, as singers and dancers. Captured girls, including daughters of defeated chiefs, were distributed by the Sultan to nobles at festivals, and slave girls formed part of Muhammad bin Tughluq's gifts to the Chinese emperor.
Corroboration: Barani's list of Alauddin's market prices, with separate rates for a working slave girl and a concubine, confirms that female slaves were a normal market commodity.
Battuta's evidence is first-hand but reflects the elite household he lived in and is silent on the slaves' own lives. It shows that female slaves were valued for labour, pleasure and prestige.
Q5(c) · Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Agriculture, Urban Economy, Crafts and Trade
Discuss the advancement made in Textile Technology under the Delhi Sultans.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
दिल्ली सुल्तानों के अधीन वस्त्र प्रौद्योगिकी में हुई उन्नति की विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(c)
Approach: Discuss the new tools and processes in spinning, carding and weaving, the organisation of production in karkhanas, and the evidence of quality, with a note on the debate.
Cotton textiles were India's leading manufacture, and Irfan Habib has argued that the Sultanate period saw important changes in textile technology brought from the Islamic world.
Spinning wheel: The charkha replaced the hand spindle and raised the output of yarn several times. Habib finds an early clear reference in Isami's Futuh-us-Salatin (1350). Spinning became a common household task of women.
Carding bow: The bow used by the dhuniya to clean and fluff cotton spread at the same time and speeded preparation.
Weaving and finishing: Better looms, wider use of dyes such as indigo, and block printing improved cloth. Royal karkhanas employed weavers and embroiderers of silk and gold thread; al-Umari's Masalik-ul-Absar speaks of thousands employed by Muhammad bin Tughluq.
Quality: Amir Khusrau praised the fine cloth of Devagiri, and Ibn Battuta admired the textiles of Bengal.
Some scholars caution that dating these tools is uncertain, but the evidence points to a real rise in textile production.
Q5(d) · Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Akbar's Rajput Policy, Sulh-i-kul and Court Patronage
"Akbar wished to assert his strong belief in God, but his concept of the way God is to be worshipped was independent of either orthodox Islam or Hinduism". Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"अकबर ईश्वर में अपने दृढ़ विश्वास को बलपूर्वक कहना चाहता था, परंतु ईश्वर की पूजा किस ढंग से की जाय इस संबंध में उसकी संकल्पना कट्टर इस्लाम या कट्टर हिन्दुत्व से स्वतंत्र थी।" टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(d)
Approach: Explain the statement with the evidence of Akbar's religious evolution after 1575, show how his worship drew on several traditions yet followed none, and note Badauni's contrary reading.
The statement sums up the modern reading of Akbar's faith: he remained a firm believer in one God, but sought him outside the rules of any single creed.
Belief in God: Abul Fazl describes Akbar's night-long prayers and a mystical experience during a hunt in 1578. The fellowship he formed around 1582, which Abul Fazl calls Tauhid-i-Ilahi (divine monotheism), was centred on one God.
Independent worship: after the Ibadat Khana debates he honoured the sun and fire, partly under Zoroastrian influence. He adopted the solar Ilahi calendar, gave up meat on many days under Jain influence, and accepted prostration (sijda) before himself as a mark of discipleship, not worship.
Neither orthodoxy: the mahzar of 1579 set his judgement above the ulama, yet he never adopted Hindu ritual or caste rules.
Badauni saw this as apostasy, but Abul Fazl presented it as the vision of a perfect man above sects. The best reading is a personal, eclectic monotheism that also served the political ideal of sulh-i-kul.
Q5(e) · Mughal Economy, Society and Culture · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Persian Histories, Hindi and Religious Literature
Discuss the literature written in Hindi in Mughal India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मुग़ल भारत में, हिन्दी में लिखे गए साहित्य का विवेचन कीजिए।
Practise this question Mughal Economy, Society and Culture notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(e)
Approach: Give a compact survey of the main streams of Hindi literature in Mughal India (Bhakti, Sufi romance, courtly riti poetry, Muslim poets of Hindi) with their chief works.
Hindi literature flourished in Mughal India mainly in two dialects: Brajbhasha, the language of Krishna devotion and court poetry, and Awadhi, the language of Sufi romances and Tulsidas.
Bhakti poetry: Surdas's Sursagar described Krishna's childhood and love in Braj; Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas, begun in 1574, made the Ramayana a household text in Awadhi; and Mirabai's songs voiced personal devotion.
Sufi romance: Malik Muhammad Jayasi's Padmavat (1540) used the story of Padmini as an allegory of the soul's love for God.
Court poetry: Abd al-Rahim Khan-i-Khanan wrote moral dohas, Keshavdas's Rasikapriya (Orchha) and Bihari's Satsai (Amber) shaped the riti tradition of rhetoric and love poetry, and Bhushan praised Shivaji in heroic verse.
Muslim poets of Hindi: Raskhan's Krishna poems show how widely the language was shared.
Hindi literature thus grew from both devotional movements and court patronage, and it became a shared culture of Hindus and Muslims.

Question 6 (50 marks)

Q6(a) · Early Medieval India, 750–1200 · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Society: Brahmanas, the New Social Order and Women
Critically analyze the changing nature of caste and gender relations during the early medieval period.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
आरम्भिक मध्य कालीन अवधि के दौरान जाति की और स्त्री-पुरुष संबंधों की बदलती हुई प्रकृति का समालोचनात्मक विश्लेषण कीजिए।
Practise this question Early Medieval India, 750–1200 notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(a)
Approach: Analyse the changes in caste (proliferation, new castes, untouchability, Vaishya-Shudra convergence) and in gender relations (marriage, sati, property, women of power), and critically weigh normative texts against inscriptions and the competing interpretations.
The early medieval centuries saw deep changes in caste and gender, though the evidence, much of it from brahmanical texts, needs careful reading.
Caste: jatis multiplied as tribes were absorbed and occupational groups and guilds hardened into castes; the Brahma Vaivarta Purana lists many mixed castes. New groups emerged, the Kayasthas as scribes of land-grant administration and the Rajputs as warrior lineages. Al-Biruni (c. 1030) noted the antyajas outside the varnas and the Chandalas and Domas below them, showing hardening untouchability. Vaishyas and Shudras drew closer as Shudras became cultivators.
Gender: commentators favoured pre-puberty marriage for girls; sati spread, especially among Rajput and ruling families, as memorial stones show; widow remarriage was discouraged. Yet women's property rights grew in some texts: Vijnaneshvara's Mitakshara widened stridhana, and Jimutavahana's Dayabhaga gave a sonless widow her husband's estate. Royal women such as Queen Didda of Kashmir ruled, and Chola queens endowed temples; devadasis served temples.
Interpretations: R.S. Sharma and B.N.S. Yadava link these changes to feudalisation and the Kali Age crisis; B.D. Chattopadhyaya sees caste growth as part of integrating new groups. Uma Chakravarti's work shows how brahmanical patriarchy controlled women's sexuality to preserve caste purity.
Caste and gender thus both became more hierarchical in norms, though inscriptions reveal regional variation and spaces of agency for elite women and devotional saints such as Akka Mahadevi.
Q6(b) · Mughal Economy, Society and Culture · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Population, Agriculture and Craft Production
"An important feature of agriculture in Mughal India has been the large number of crops raised by the peasants". Illustrate by giving examples.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"मुग़ल भारत में कृषि का एक महत्वपूर्ण अभिलक्षण किसानों द्वारा बड़ी संख्या में फसलें उगाना था"। उदाहरण देते हुए, स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question Mughal Economy, Society and Culture notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(b)
Approach: Illustrate the variety of crops with the evidence of the Ain-i-Akbari and travellers: food grains, cash crops, new crops from the Americas, fruits and double-cropping, and explain why peasants grew so many.
The revenue rate schedules (dasturs) in the Ain-i-Akbari list cash rates for dozens of crops in each season, which shows the range of Mughal agriculture. Irfan Habib's The Agrarian System of Mughal India uses them to reconstruct the crop pattern.
Food crops: in the rabi season peasants grew wheat, barley, gram and lentils; in the kharif, rice of many varieties, jowar, bajra, moong, urd and moth. Bengal and Kashmir were known for fine rice, and the Punjab and the Doab for wheat.
Cash crops (jins-i-kamil): cotton, sugarcane, oilseeds such as mustard and sesame, indigo (the best from Bayana near Agra and from Sarkhej in Gujarat), opium in Malwa and Bihar, and mulberry for silkworms in Bengal. The zabt rates were higher for these crops, so they paid the peasant better.
New crops: tobacco, introduced by the Portuguese, spread rapidly after about 1600, despite Jahangir's attempt to ban smoking. Maize and chillies also arrived from the Americas, though the date of maize is debated.
Double cropping and fruit: travellers noted two harvests a year in many areas. Babur and Jahangir introduced or improved fruits such as melons and grapes, and grafting spread in imperial gardens.
This variety came from diverse soils, monsoon and well irrigation, and the cash demand of the state, which pushed peasants towards market crops.
Q6(c) · The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Muhammad bin Tughluq: Projects, Agrarian Measures and Bureaucracy
"The policy of creating heterogeneous nobility by Muhammad Tughluq started the process of disintegration of Delhi Sultanate". Explain.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"मुहम्मद तुगलक द्वारा विषमांग अमीरवर्ग के निर्माण की नीति ने दिल्ली सल्तनत के विखण्डन का प्रक्रम प्रारम्भ कर दिया था"। व्याख्या कीजिए।
Practise this question The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(c)
Approach: Explain the policy (who the new nobles were and why Muhammad bin Tughluq chose them), then show how it led to revolts and the break-up of the Sultanate, and finally weigh other causes and Barani's bias before a verdict.
Muhammad bin Tughluq (1325–1351) ruled the largest territory of any Delhi Sultan, from the Punjab to Madurai. To govern it he broke with the tradition that office belonged to the well-born. Barani, our main source, blamed this policy for the disasters of the reign.
The policy: the Sultan welcomed foreigners, the aizza, from Khurasan and Iraq with high posts and gifts; Ibn Battuta was made qazi of Delhi. He promoted Indian Muslims and men of humble origin, whom Barani names with disgust, such as Aziz Khammar (a vintner) and Firuz Hajjam (a barber); Ibn Battuta notes Hindus in office, such as Ratan in Sindh.
Aims: nobles dependent on the Sultan alone, able men for a vast empire, and a check on the entrenched old families.
How it fed disintegration: the new nobles had no common tradition or loyalty to the dynasty, and many enriched themselves through revenue farming. The old nobility and the ulama were alienated. Over twenty revolts followed, including Bahauddin Gurshasp (1326–27), Fakhruddin in Bengal (1338) and Jalaluddin Ahsan Shah in Madurai (1335). The amiran-i-sada of the Deccan and Gujarat rose in the 1340s, producing the Bahmani kingdom (1347).
Other causes: the size of the empire, the failed projects and the famine drained resources, and the Sultan's harsh punishments drove officials to revolt out of fear.
Barani's bias: writing as a high-born noble who saw low-born officials as a moral evil, Barani exaggerates the role of the new men.
The statement is partly valid: the heterogeneous nobility made provincial revolts possible, but it was one cause beside over-extension, failed projects and the Sultan's own severity.

Question 7 (50 marks)

Q7(a) · The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries · 15 marks≈ 11 min
The Bahmanis and the Vijayanagara Empire
Do you agree that convergence of political vacuum and impact of Islamicate culture and polity in peninsular India has much to do with the growth of Vijayanagara kingdom?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या आप सहमत हैं कि प्रायद्वीपीय भारत में राजनीतिक शून्य और इस्लामियत संस्कृति और राज्य-व्यवस्था का प्रभाव विजयनगर राज्य की संवृद्धि का एक बड़ा कारण था?
Practise this question The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(a)
Approach: Examine both factors named in the question — the political vacuum and Islamicate influence — with evidence, add the other explanations, and state how far you agree.
Vijayanagara was founded in 1336 by Harihara and Bukka of the Sangama family on the Tungabhadra. Its rapid growth into the largest state of the peninsula has been explained in several ways.
Political vacuum: The Khalji and Tughluq campaigns destroyed or weakened the Yadavas, Kakatiyas, Hoysalas and Pandyas, and Tughluq authority in the south collapsed in the 1330s with revolts and the rise of the Madurai Sultanate and the Bahmanis (1347). The Sangamas, perhaps once in Tughluq service, filled this gap.
Islamicate influence: Phillip Wagoner ('Sultan among Hindu Kings', 1996) showed that the Vijayanagara rulers took the title Hindu-raya-suratrana, wore Islamicate tunics and caps at court, and built arched and domed structures such as the Lotus Mahal. They raised a large cavalry, imported horses and, under Devaraya II, recruited Muslim archers. This military and courtly model helped them compete with the Bahmanis.
Other factors: The traditional account credits the inspiration of the sage Vidyaranya and the defence of dharma, a view Sewell and Nilakanta Sastri echoed; the fertile Tungabhadra valley, tank irrigation, the nayaka system and control of western ports also mattered.
I largely agree: the vacuum provided the opportunity and Islamicate methods the means, though local resources and Hindu legitimacy shaped the state's character.
Q7(b) · Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Sultanate Architecture, Painting and Composite Culture
Describe the new architectural features added by successive Sultans in the construction of Tombs in India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में, मकबरों के निर्माण में आनुक्रमिक सुल्तानों द्वारा जोड़े गए वास्तुकलात्मक अभिलक्षणों का वर्णन कीजिए।
Practise this question Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(b)
Approach: Describe the tombs in chronological order, dynasty by dynasty, naming the new feature each introduced, and close with the overall line of development.
The monumental tomb (maqbara), unknown in pre-Turkish India, became a main building type of the Delhi Sultanate, and each dynasty added new features.
Early Turkish (Mamluk): The Sultan Ghari (1231), built by Iltutmish for his son Nasiruddin Mahmud, is the first monumental Islamic tomb in India, with an octagonal underground chamber inside a fortified enclosure. Iltutmish's own tomb (c. 1235) in the Qutb complex is a square chamber with rich carving and squinches for a dome. Balban's tomb (c. 1287) shows the first true arch built with voussoirs in India.
Khalji: Alauddin's tomb and madrasa in the Qutb complex, now ruined, continued the use of true arches and domes, which the Alai Darwaza (1311) had perfected.
Tughluq: Ghiyasuddin Tughluq's tomb (1325) at Tughlaqabad has sloping (battered) walls of red sandstone, a white marble dome and stood in an artificial lake within a fortified enclosure. In Multan, the tomb of Shah Rukn-i-Alam (c. 1320s) is a great brick octagon. The tomb of Khan-i-Jahan Tilangani (1368–69) in Delhi introduced the octagonal tomb with a surrounding verandah. Firuz Shah's tomb at Hauz Khas (c. 1388) is plain and square.
Sayyid and Lodi: Two types developed: octagonal tombs with verandahs, chhatris and sloping buttresses, such as those of Mubarak Shah and Muhammad Shah Sayyid (1444) and Sikandar Lodi (1517–18), and square tombs such as the Bara Gumbad (1490). Sikandar Lodi's tomb is often cited as the first in India with a double dome, which raised the outer dome without making the interior too tall.
The tomb thus evolved from a fortified crypt to a domed, octagonal, double-domed garden structure, the direct ancestor of Humayun's tomb and the Taj Mahal.
Q7(c) · Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Bhakti and Sufi Movements under the Sultanate
What was the role of Sufi Folk literature in the diffusion of Islam in India in general and in Deccan in particular.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सामान्य रूप से भारत में और विशेषकर दक्कन में, इस्लाम के फैलाव में, सूफी लोक साहित्य की क्या भूमिका थी?
Practise this question Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(c)
Approach: Explain what Sufi folk literature was, give examples from North India and then the Deccan (drawing on Richard Eaton), and assess how far it spread Islam, noting that conversion was gradual and not the Sufis' main aim.
Besides learned Persian works, Sufis composed songs and poems in local languages for ordinary people. This Sufi folk literature carried Islamic ideas into villages and homes where Persian was unknown.
North India: Verses in early Punjabi attributed to Baba Farid were later included in the Adi Granth; Amir Khusrau's Hindavi songs were sung at sama; and Maulana Daud's Chandayan (1379) began the Hindavi premakhyan, a love story with a Sufi meaning, followed by Qutban's Mrigavati (1503).
Deccan: Richard Eaton (Sufis of Bijapur, 1300–1700, 1978) showed how Sufis of Bijapur such as Miranji Shams-ul-Ushshaq and Burhanuddin Janam wrote in Dakhni the chakki-nama (songs for grinding grain), charkha-nama (spinning songs) and lori-nama (lullabies). Women sang them at household work, so that Sufi ideas, the names of God and the Prophet and the role of the pir entered daily life.
Diffusion: Eaton argues that Islam spread through such slow cultural absorption, not by force or mass conversion, and that a family might accept the pir's blessing long before formal conversion.
Limits: Most Deccani folk texts date from the 16th–17th centuries; K.A. Nizami and others stress that the early Sufis did not aim at conversion, and many devotees of shrines remained Hindu.
Sufi folk literature thus helped Islam take root gradually and in Indian forms, especially in the Deccan, as a shared devotional culture rather than a planned mission.

Question 8 (50 marks)

Q8(a) · Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century · 20 marks≈ 14 min
The Empire and the Zamindars; Nature of the Mughal State
Discuss the working of Zamindari System under the Mughal rulers. Also describe the role played by the Zamindars in the agrarian economy of Mughal India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मुग़ल शासकों के अधीन जमींदारी व्यवस्था की कार्य-प्रणाली का विवेचन कीजिए। साथ ही मुग़ल भारत की कृषिभूमि संबंधी अर्थ-व्यवस्था में जमींदारों द्वारा निबाही गयी भूमिका का भी वर्णन कीजिए।
Practise this question Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(a)
Approach: Explain who the zamindars were, their rights and duties and how the state worked with them, then describe their role in production, revenue, credit, markets and local power, ending with their ambivalent relation to the empire.
In Mughal usage a zamindar was anyone holding a hereditary claim to a share of the produce of land, above the peasant and below the state. Irfan Habib and S. Nurul Hasan have shown how central they were to the Mughal agrarian order.
Types: Nurul Hasan distinguished autonomous chieftains, who ruled their own territories and paid tribute; intermediary zamindars (chaudhuris, deshmukhs) who collected revenue from other zamindars for the state; and primary zamindars, who held proprietary rights over villages or parts of them.
Rights: zamindari was hereditary and could be sold, mortgaged or divided, as surviving sale deeds show. In northern India the zamindar normally received a share (malikana) of about a tenth of the revenue, and in Bengal revenue-free land (nankar).
Duties and working: zamindars collected revenue in their area, kept order, guarded roads and supplied troops when called. The Ain-i-Akbari records that they commanded over four million retainers, most of them infantry. The state confirmed successions, could dismiss defaulters and used the qanungo's records to watch them.
Role in the agrarian economy: zamindars settled new villages and brought waste land under the plough, dug wells and tanks, advanced seed and loans, and founded markets (ganjs and qasbas) that drew grain into trade. Through them the cash demand reached the peasant.
They were also a burden: they added their own levies, and in Habib's account the zamindars led peasant revolts when the revenue demand pressed too hard, as among the Jats and Marathas.
The zamindars were therefore both partners and rivals of the empire: indispensable to its revenue and order, yet the main local power that could defy it when central authority weakened.
Q8(b) · Mughal Economy, Society and Culture · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Mughal Architecture and Painting
"The art of building was carried to highest degree of perfection under Shahjahan". Illustrate by giving architectural details of two of his most celebrated buildings.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"शाहजहाँ के अधीन भवन निर्माण कला को पराकाष्ठा की उच्चतम अवस्था तक ले जाया गया था"। उसकी सर्वाधिक प्रख्यात इमारतों में से दो के वास्तुकलात्मक ब्यौरे देते हुए यह सुस्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question Mughal Economy, Society and Culture notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(b)
Approach: Briefly justify the claim for Shah Jahan's reign, then give the architectural details of two buildings, the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort of Delhi, and end with a short assessment.
Shah Jahan's reign (1628–58) is called the golden age of Mughal architecture. White marble replaced red sandstone, and perfect symmetry, the bulbous double dome, cusped arches and pietra dura inlay gave his buildings an unmatched refinement.
The Taj Mahal, Agra (from 1632): built for Mumtaz Mahal, the white marble tomb stands on a high plinth at the river end of a charbagh garden, framed by four detached minarets, with a red sandstone mosque and a matching guest hall on either side.
A bulbous double dome crowns a building of perfect symmetry. Inside, the octagonal chamber holds the cenotaphs within a marble jali screen. Flowers inlaid in semi-precious stones and Quranic inscriptions by Amanat Khan decorate the surfaces.
The Red Fort, Delhi (1639–48): the palace-fortress of the new capital Shahjahanabad has massive red sandstone walls. The Diwan-i-Am has a marble throne canopy with inlaid panels, and the Diwan-i-Khas bears the Persian verse that if there is paradise on earth, it is here. A water channel, the Nahr-i-Bihisht, flows through the Rang Mahal and other marble pavilions.
These buildings show the balance, material and decoration that justify the statement, although the vast cost of building added to the burden on the empire.
Q8(c) · The Eighteenth Century · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Afghan Power and the Third Battle of Panipat (1761)
"The Afghan invasions in the Eighteenth Century not only signified the military irrelevance of the Mughal Empire but also hastened its decline". Explain.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
"18 वीं शताब्दी में, अफ़ग़ान आक्रमणों ने मुगल साम्राज्य की सैनिक अप्रासंगिकता को ही केवल उजागर ही नहीं किया, बल्कि इसके पतन को भी द्रुत कर दिया था"। स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question The Eighteenth Century notes
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Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(c)
Approach: Show with dated examples how the invasions exposed Mughal military weakness and accelerated decline (treasury, territory, prestige, factions), then qualify by noting that the decline began earlier and had structural causes.
Nadir Shah's Persian invasion (1739) prepared the ground, but it was Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Afghan ruler who succeeded him in the east, who invaded India repeatedly between 1748 and 1767.
Military irrelevance: after Nadir Shah's victory at Karnal the Mughal army never recovered. Its one success, at Manupur near Sirhind (1748), was not repeated: Lahore and Multan were ceded (1752), Delhi, Mathura and Vrindavan were sacked (1757), and Punjab, Kashmir and Sirhind passed to the Afghans. By the 1752 agreement the emperor relied on the Marathas for protection, and at Panipat (1761) the decisive battle for north India was fought between Marathas and Afghans while the Mughals stood aside.
Hastening the decline: the invasions drained the treasury, cut off the revenue of Punjab and the north-west, and destroyed imperial prestige. Factions invited the invader, as Najib-ud-daula did in 1759, and the ruin of Delhi was mourned by Mir and Sauda.
Qualification: the invaders exploited a decline already under way. Satish Chandra's jagirdari crisis, Irfan Habib's agrarian crisis and the rise of autonomous provinces after 1720 had hollowed out the centre, and Abdali sought plunder and Punjab rather than rule over India.
The statement holds: the Afghan invasions revealed that the Mughals no longer counted militarily and sped their decline, but they were the final blows to an empire already weakened from within.

UPSC Mains 2018 History Paper II