UPSC Mains 2025 History Optional Question Papers with Model Answers

All 52 questions of the 2025 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 2025 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) Neolithic site; (ii) Mesolithic site; (iii) Paleolithic site; (iv) Neolithic site with stone artefacts; (v) Site of Indus Valley Civilization; (vi) Early Harappan site with a fire-pit; (vii) Late Harappan site; (viii) The Ochre Coloured Pottery (OCP) site; (ix) Mesolithic site; (x) Megalithic site; (xi) Mahajanapada of South India; (xii) Site of Buddha’s Mahaparinirvana; (xiii) Major Rock Edict of Asoka; (xiv) Asokan Minor Rock Edict; (xv) Commercial centre of the Mauryas; (xvi) Saka-Kushan coin hoard; (xvii) An inscription mentioning Ashvamedha Sacrifice; (xviii) Site of Post-Mauryan period burnt brick house; (xix) Terracotta craft centre of Post-Mauryan period; (xx) Important port of the Pallava period.
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 लिखिए। मानचित्र पर अंकित प्रत्येक स्थान के लिए स्थान-निर्धारण संकेत क्रमानुसार नीचे दिए गए हैं : (i) नवपाषाणिक स्थल; (ii) मध्यपाषाणिक स्थल; (iii) पुरापाषाणिक स्थल; (iv) प्रस्तर कलाकृति युक्त नवपाषाणिक स्थल; (v) सिंधु घाटी सभ्यता स्थल; (vi) अग्निकुण्ड युक्त प्रारंभिक हड़प्पीय स्थल; (vii) उत्तर हड़प्पीय स्थल; (viii) गेरुए रंग के मृद्भांड (OCP) स्थल; (ix) मध्यपाषाणिक स्थल; (x) महापाषाणिक स्थल; (xi) दक्षिण भारत का महाजनपद; (xii) बुद्ध का महापरिनिर्वाण स्थल; (xiii) अशोक का प्रमुख शिलालेख; (xiv) अशोक का लघु शिलालेख; (xv) मौर्यों का व्यापारिक केन्द्र; (xvi) शक-कुषाण सिक्कों का ज़खीरा; (xvii) अश्वमेघ यज्ञ वर्णित एक अभिलेख; (xviii) मौर्योत्तर कालीन पकी ईंटों का गृह स्थल; (xix) मौर्योत्तर कालीन टेराकोटा शिल्प केन्द्र; (xx) पल्लवकालीन महत्त्वपूर्ण बंदरगाह.
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) Neolithic site: Kiari, Ladakh (Leh) — High-altitude site on the upper Indus in eastern Ladakh which, with nearby Giak, has yielded handmade pottery, stone tools and animal bones of a Neolithic-type culture, evidence of early settlement in the trans-Himalayan region.
(ii) Mesolithic site: Langhnaj, Gujarat (Mehsana) — Mesolithic site on a sand dune in north Gujarat excavated by H.D. Sankalia; microliths, bones of wild and some domestic animals and over a dozen human burials were found, with pottery in later levels. (identification from the map uncertain; other sites matching the clue: Chandravati, Bagor, Tilwara)
(iii) Paleolithic site: Lakhmapur, Karnataka (Belagavi) — Palaeolithic landscape in the Malaprabha valley of the Kaladgi basin, surveyed and excavated by Michael Petraglia and colleagues; late Acheulian handaxes and early Middle Palaeolithic prepared cores lie along a quartzite ridge with springs, showing raw-material quarrying.
(iv) Neolithic site with stone artefacts: Koldihwa, Uttar Pradesh (Prayagraj) — Belan valley site with Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Iron Age levels; polished celts, querns and cord-impressed pottery with rice husk in the clay, for which G.R. Sharma proposed very early dates.
(v) Site of Indus Valley Civilization: Rojdi, Gujarat (Rajkot) — Sorath Harappan settlement on the Bhadar river (c. 2500 to 1700 BCE) with a stone fortification wall, regional pottery and millet remains, showing the distinctive local Harappan culture of Saurashtra.
(vi) Early Harappan site with a fire-pit: Rakhigarhi, Haryana (Hisar) — Its Early Harappan (Hakra and Sothi) layers have mud-brick houses and fire-pits, and the settlement grew into the largest Harappan city in India; excavated by Amarendra Nath and later Vasant Shinde.
(vii) Late Harappan site: Alamgirpur, Uttar Pradesh (Meerut) — Easternmost Harappan site, on the Hindon, excavated by Y.D. Sharma in 1958-59; Late Harappan pottery, faience, terracotta and a trough bearing a cloth impression; the first Harappan site found in the Ganga-Yamuna doab.
(viii) The Ochre Coloured Pottery (OCP) site: Lal Qila, Uttar Pradesh (Bulandshahr) — Ochre Coloured Pottery site with mud structures, hearths, copper objects and remains of rice and barley, excavated by Aligarh Muslim University; part of the OCP-Copper Hoard complex of the doab.
(ix) Mesolithic site: Thenmala (Chenthuruni), Kerala (Kollam) — Rock shelter in the southern Western Ghats where quartz microliths were found in a dated early Holocene context, one of the few excavated Mesolithic sites of Kerala.
(x) Megalithic site: Junapani, Maharashtra (Nagpur) — Vidarbha megalithic cemetery of stone-circle burials (early Iron Age) excavated by S.B. Deo, yielding black-and-red ware, iron tools, copper objects and horse ornaments; cup-marked stones lie nearby.
(xi) Mahajanapada of South India: Ashmaka (Assaka), capital Potana (Bodhan), Telangana (Nizamabad) and adjoining Maharashtra — The only one of the sixteen mahajanapadas of the Anguttara Nikaya lying south of the Vindhyas, on the Godavari; its capital Potali or Paudanya is often identified with Bodhan.
(xii) Site of Buddha’s Mahaparinirvana: Kushinagar (Kusinara), Uttar Pradesh (Kushinagar) — Malla capital where the Buddha attained mahaparinirvana; the Mahaparinirvana stupa and temple hold a 5th-century reclining Buddha donated by Haribala; the cremation stupa is at Ramabhar.
(xiii) Major Rock Edict of Asoka: Erragudi, Andhra Pradesh (Kurnool) — Near Gooty, boulders bear Ashoka's fourteen Major Rock Edicts together with a Minor Rock Edict, the most complete group of his edicts in South India and evidence of Mauryan control of the Deccan.
(xiv) Asokan Minor Rock Edict: Sasaram, Bihar (Rohtas) — On a hill near the town is Ashoka's Minor Rock Edict I, which mentions 256 nights spent on tour; the town also has Sher Shah Sur's tomb (1545) set in a tank.
(xv) Commercial centre of the Mauryas: Tamralipti (Tamluk), West Bengal (Purba Medinipur) — Major port on the Rupnarayan from Mauryan times, trading with Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia; Faxian sailed from here, and excavations yielded NBPW, rouletted ware, terracotta and coins.
(xvi) Saka-Kushan coin hoard: Ujjain (Ujjayini), Madhya Pradesh (Ujjain) — Ancient Ujjayini on the Shipra, capital of Avanti and later a seat of the Western Kshatrapas (Sakas); a mint town whose coins carry the Ujjain symbol, it has yielded Saka and Kushan-period coins; N.R. Banerjee exposed a massive mud rampart.
(xvii) An inscription mentioning Ashvamedha Sacrifice: Ayodhya (Saketa), Uttar Pradesh (Ayodhya) — Dhanadeva's Ayodhya stone inscription (c. 1st century BCE) describes Pushyamitra Shunga as the performer of two Ashvamedha sacrifices; Saketa was a major early historic city of Kosala.
(xviii) Site of Post-Mauryan period burnt brick house: Sanghol, Punjab (Fatehgarh Sahib) — Site occupied from Harappan to Kushan times with burnt-brick houses of the post-Mauryan town, coin moulds and seals, and a Kushan stupa whose 117 Mathura-style railing pillars carry carved yakshis.
(xix) Terracotta craft centre of Post-Mauryan period: Chandraketugarh, West Bengal (North 24 Parganas) — Port-city on the Vidyadhari (c. 3rd century BCE to 3rd century CE) famed for moulded terracotta plaques of yakshis, couples and animals and for seals in Kharoshthi-Brahmi; often linked to the Gange of the Periplus.
(xx) Important port of the Pallava period: Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram), Tamil Nadu (Chengalpattu) — Pallava port and art centre named after Narasimhavarman I Mamalla; the rathas, the Arjuna's Penance relief and Rajasimha's Shore Temple form a UNESCO site, and ships sailed from here to Southeast Asia.

Question 2 (50 marks)

Q2(a) · Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cultures: The Beginning of Agriculture
“The Chalcolithic people were experts in microliths and were also skilful workers in stone.” Elucidate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“ताम्रपाषाणिक संस्कृति के लोग लघुपाषाणिक उपकरण में विशेषज्ञ थे और साथ ही प्रस्तर कार्य के कुशल कारीगर भी थे।” स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(a)
Approach: Elucidate both halves of the statement: show the chalcolithic blade-and-microlith industry, then their wider skill in ground stone, beads and querns, explaining why stone stayed central despite copper, with regional examples.
The term chalcolithic, copper and stone, itself states the point: the village cultures of Rajasthan, Malwa and the Deccan (c. 3000-700 BCE) used copper, but copper was scarce and costly, so stone remained the everyday material.
Expertise in microliths: almost every chalcolithic site yields a rich stone blade industry. Long parallel-sided blades were struck from prepared cores of chalcedony, chert, agate and jasper and were then backed and shaped into lunates, triangles, trapezes, points and borers.
These blades were hafted in wood or bone as sickles, knives and arrowheads. Jorwe sites such as Inamgaon, Nevasa and Chandoli, and Malwa sites such as Navdatoli, have yielded them in large numbers, so microlithic technology inherited from the Mesolithic was refined rather than abandoned.
Skill in other stone work: chalcolithic people made ground and polished stone axes, saddle querns and mullers for grinding grain, pounders, hammer stones and perforated ring stones. Bead-makers worked carnelian, agate and other stones, and Kayatha is known for necklaces of tiny steatite micro-beads.
Regional variation: at Ahar, close to the copper of the Aravallis, stone tools are comparatively scarce, which shows that the balance of stone and copper depended on access to ore.
The statement is thus accurate: the chalcolithic economy rested on a highly developed stone technology, with copper used mainly for axes, chisels, bangles and prestige objects.
Q2(b) · Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Harappan Art, Architecture, Decline, Survival and Significance
“The Harappans were not an artistic people.” Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“हड़प्पावासी कलाप्रेमी लोग नहीं थे।” टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question Sources, Prehistory and the Indus Civilization notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(b)
Approach: Comment on the claim: state the basis of the view (absence of monumental art, utilitarian uniformity), then refute it with sculpture, bronze, seals, terracotta, pottery and beads, and conclude on the nature of Harappan art.
Some early observers, struck by the standardised bricks, plain houses and the lack of temples, palaces or large statues, saw the Harappans as practical, utilitarian people with little artistic urge. The surviving objects show that this view is mistaken, though it points to a real feature: Harappan art was small in scale.
Sculpture and bronze: the bronze dancing girl from Mohenjodaro, about 10.5 cm tall, cast by the lost-wax method, captures a confident pose with great economy. The steatite priest-king bust, with its trefoil-patterned robe, and the naturalistic red sandstone torso from Harappa show skill in modelling the human form.
Seals: thousands of steatite seals carry finely carved animals, the unicorn, humped bull, elephant, tiger and rhinoceros, with a sure sense of anatomy and composition in a space of a few centimetres.
Popular art: terracotta female figurines with elaborate headdresses, animals, toy carts and whistles show the art of ordinary households. Black-on-red pottery bears pipal leaves, fish-scales and intersecting circles.
Ornament and craft: long carnelian beads drilled with special stone drills, gold and faience jewellery and shell inlay reflect refined taste and high technique. The planned cities and the Great Bath show an aesthetic of order.
The Harappans were thus an artistic people whose art was miniature, functional and widely shared rather than monumental and royal, a different aesthetic, not an absent one.
Q2(c) · Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Jainism, Buddhism and the Rise of Magadha
“The ideological challenge posed by Jainism and Buddhism was deeply rooted in the socio-economic transformations brought about by the expansion of agrarian settlements in eastern India.” Explain.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“जैन धर्म एवं बौद्ध धर्म द्वारा प्रस्तुत वैचारिक चुनौती की जड़ें पूर्वी भारत में कृषि-आधारित बस्तियों के विस्तार से उत्पन्न सामाजिक-आर्थिक परिवर्तनों में निहित थीं।” व्याख्या कीजिए।
Practise this question Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(c)
Approach: Explain the statement: show the agrarian expansion in eastern India and the social changes it caused, then how Jaina and Buddhist ideas answered them; qualify by noting their intellectual roots.
From the sixth century BCE eastern India, the middle Ganga plain of Magadha, Kosala and the Vajji lands, saw the rise of many heterodox sects. Jainism and Buddhism became the most important. Historians such as R.S. Sharma and D.D. Kosambi link this ideological challenge to the expansion of agrarian settlement.
Agrarian expansion: forests were cleared and plough farming and wet rice spread across fertile alluvium. Iron tools gradually helped. Villages multiplied, and the gahapati, the landholding householder of Pali texts, became prominent.
Social transformation: the surplus fed towns, crafts, trade and coinage, and created new groups. Setthis and gahapatis gained wealth but held low ritual rank in the varna order, and Kshatriyas resented Brahmana claims to supremacy. Monarchies grew more powerful.
How the new faiths answered: the Vedic sacrifice killed large numbers of cattle, which a plough economy needed. The Buddhist and Jaina stress on ahimsa suited farmers. They accepted trade and moneylending, and the merchant Anathapindika gifted the Jetavana monastery. Their rejection of varna by birth appealed to groups denied status, and Uma Chakravarti shows that the Buddha's lay followers were mainly gahapatis, setthis and Kshatriyas.
Pali was used instead of Sanskrit, and the moral emphasis on restraint and right conduct suited a society troubled by new wealth, conflict and inequality.
Qualifications: the material explanation is not complete. The ideas of karma, rebirth and renunciation came from Upanishadic and shramana traditions. Many sects arose at once, including the Ajivikas and the materialist Charvakas, which shows a wide intellectual ferment, not only economic need.
The challenge was rooted in agrarian change, but its form owed much to older ideas.

Question 3 (50 marks)

Q3(a) · Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Mahajanapadas: Republics, Monarchies and the Second Urbanisation
“The origin of the territorial republics has been traced to the reaction against the pattern of life that evolved in the later Vedic period.” Analyse.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“प्रादेशिक गणराज्यों की उत्पत्ति उत्तर वैदिक काल में विकसित जीवन पद्धति के विरुद्ध प्रतिक्रिया में देखी गई है।” विश्लेषण कीजिए।
Practise this question Megaliths, the Vedic Age and the Mahajanapadas notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(a)
Approach: Analyse the claim: explain what the territorial republics were, show the later Vedic features they reacted against, then add the other factors in their origin and give a verdict.
The gana-sanghas of the sixth century BCE, such as the Vajjis with the Lichchhavis, the Shakyas, Mallas and Koliyas, were ruled by assemblies of Kshatriya clan heads rather than a hereditary king. Most lay in the Himalayan foothills and on the margins of the Ganga plain, away from the Brahmanical heartland of the doab.
Reaction against later Vedic life: later Vedic society had raised the raja above his kin through costly sacrifices, given Brahmanas ritual dominance, and hardened varna. The ganas resisted these trends. They kept the older tribal assembly in the santhagara (assembly hall) of the Lichchhavis, gave little role to Brahmana priests and performed few great Vedic sacrifices.
They were open to heterodox teachers: the Buddha was a Shakya and Mahavira a Lichchhavi kinsman. Pali texts, such as the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, record the Buddha praising the Vajjis for meeting often and respecting their elders.
Other factors: the ganas also grew out of the older tribal tradition of the sabha and samiti, not only a reaction. Their location in forest and hill zones made monarchy harder to impose. They were oligarchies, not democracies as K.P. Jayaswal claimed, and they excluded dasa-karmakaras and non-Kshatriyas from power.
The statement is valid in part: the republics combined survival of tribal tradition with a conscious distance from later Vedic kingship and ritual.
Q3(b) · The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Mauryan Polity, Administration and Economy
How far did the Mauryans facilitate the diffusion of the material culture of the Gangetic plains? Explain.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मौर्यों ने भौतिक संस्कृति का प्रसार गंगा के मैदानों में कहाँ तक सुगम कर दिया? व्याख्या कीजिए।
Practise this question The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(b)
Approach: Explain what Gangetic material culture was, then show how Mauryan rule carried each element (iron, NBPW, coins, writing, towns, agrarian settlement) into new regions, and qualify by noting pre-Mauryan spread and regional variation.
By the fourth century BCE the middle Ganga plain had a distinctive material culture: iron tools, plough agriculture with rice, Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW), punch-marked coins, burnt-brick and fortified towns, and writing. R.S. Sharma, in Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India (1983), argued that Mauryan rule spread these to the peripheries.
Agrarian settlement: the Arthashastra advises settling new villages (janapadanivesha) with Shudra cultivators on crown land and promoting irrigation. The Sudarshana lake at Girnar, built under Chandragupta, shows state works in Gujarat.
Iron, pottery and coins: NBPW and punch-marked coins appear in Mauryan levels at sites in Odisha, Bengal, central India and the Deccan. State control of mines in the Arthashastra suggests iron working spread too.
Writing: Ashokan edicts in Brahmi, Kharoshthi, Aramaic and Greek, from Kandahar to Brahmagiri and Maski in Karnataka, carried literacy to new regions.
Towns and routes: provincial centres at Taxila, Ujjain, Tosali and Suvarnagiri, and the royal road to the north-west described by Megasthenes, linked regions. Sisupalgarh in Odisha shows early urban growth.
Qualifications: some elements had spread before the Mauryas through trade and the Mahajanapadas. Diffusion was uneven, strongest along routes and in core areas, as Romila Thapar's model of core and periphery suggests.
The Mauryans greatly accelerated the diffusion of Gangetic material culture, preparing the ground for the post-Mauryan states.
Q3(c) · The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Indo-Greeks, Sakas, Kushanas and Western Kshatrapas
Examine the nature and impact of India’s contacts with Central Asia during the 1st to 3rd century CE. How did these interactions influence India’s political, cultural and economic spheres?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्रथम से तृतीय शताब्दी ईसवी के दौरान भारत के मध्य एशिया से संपर्कों की प्रकृति एवं प्रभाव का परीक्षण कीजिए। इन संपर्कों ने भारत के राजनीतिक, सांस्कृतिक एवं आर्थिक क्षेत्रों को किस प्रकार से प्रभावित किया?
Practise this question The Mauryas and the Post-Mauryan World notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(c)
Approach: Two parts: the nature of the contacts with Central Asia in the 1st–3rd century CE (mainly through the Kushanas and the Silk Road), and their impact on India's political, cultural and economic life.
In the first to third centuries CE, north India was drawn into a single political and commercial zone with Central Asia under the Kushanas, a branch of the Yuezhi who moved from China's frontier to Bactria. Their empire, at its height under Kanishka, stretched from the Oxus to the middle Ganga plain.
Nature of the contacts: they were political, through Kushana rule over Bactria, Gandhara and Mathura, and commercial, through control of the Silk Road linking China, Central Asia, Iran and the Roman world.
Political impact: the Kushanas brought new royal titles, maharaja rajatiraja and devaputra, son of god. Satraps governed provinces, and the Rabatak inscription (found 1993) in the Bactrian language gives Kanishka's genealogy.
The north-west became a meeting point of empires.
Cultural impact: Mahayana Buddhism developed under Kanishka, who is linked with the fourth council in Kashmir. Monks carried Buddhism to Central Asia and China, and Lokakshema began translating Mahayana texts into Chinese in the second century.
Gandhara art blended Hellenistic, Iranian and Indian forms. New dress, the tunic, trousers and boots, came from Central Asia.
Economic impact: silk, horses and gold came from or through Central Asia, and Indian textiles, spices and gems went out. The Kushanas issued abundant gold coins, starting with Vima Kadphises. Towns such as Taxila, Begram, Peshawar and Mathura grew, and the Begram hoard mixes Indian ivories, Chinese lacquer and Roman glass.
These contacts made India part of an Asian world system, and its cultural influence spread outward as much as foreign influence came in.

Question 4 (50 marks)

Q4(a) · Early Medieval India, 750–1200 · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Society: Brahmanas, the New Social Order and Women
“The dynamics of social mobility in early medieval India were shaped by a complex interplay of caste hierarchies, religious legitimation, economic transformation and political patronage.” Critically assess how these factors collectively reconfigured the structure of early medieval Indian society.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“पूर्व मध्यकालीन भारत में सामाजिक गतिशीलता की प्रक्रिया जातिगत पदानुक्रम, धार्मिक वैधता, आर्थिक परिवर्तन और राजनीतिक संरक्षण में जटिल अंतःक्रिया से प्रभावित थी।” आलोचनात्मक मूल्यांकन कीजिए कि इन कारकों ने सामूहिक रूप से पूर्व मध्यकालीन भारतीय सामाजिक संरचना को कैसे पुनर्गठित किया।
Practise this question Early Medieval India, 750–1200 notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(a)
Approach: Critically assess each of the four factors named (caste hierarchy, religious legitimation, economic change, political patronage) with examples of groups that rose or fell, and show how together they reshaped society, noting the limits of mobility.
Early medieval society appears rigid in the Dharmashastras, but inscriptions show considerable social mobility, both of groups that rose and of groups pushed down.
Economic transformation: land grants and agrarian expansion turned tribes into peasants and created new landholders; brahmanas became landed magnates; the scribes who wrote grants and revenue records formed the Kayastha caste; and the revival of trade after c. 1000 strengthened merchant guilds such as the Ainnurruvar.
Political patronage: warrior lineages that won land and forts rose to Rajput status, as B.D. Chattopadhyaya showed; kings rewarded officers and samantas with land and titles, and patronised temples that employed many groups.
Religious legitimation: brahmanas wrote genealogies linking new rulers to the solar and lunar lines and performed rites such as the hiranyagarbha; tribal deities entered the Puranic pantheon, as with Jagannatha at Puri studied by Hermann Kulke. Bhakti and Virashaivism offered dignity to lower groups.
Caste hierarchy: mobility worked within the hierarchy, not against it. New groups entered as jatis; the Brahma Vaivarta Purana lists many mixed castes; untouchability hardened, as al-Biruni's account of the antyajas shows; and Vaishyas and Shudras converged as cultivators.
Together these factors reconfigured society into more numerous, regionally rooted jatis under brahmana and Rajput dominance. R.S. Sharma saw this as feudal subordination, Chattopadhyaya as negotiated integration; the evidence suggests both, since upward mobility for some coexisted with harsher exclusion for others.
Q4(b) · Regional States and Early Indian Cultural History · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Kadambas, Pallavas and Chalukyas of Badami
Discuss the circumstances which led to the conflict between the Pallavas and the Chalukyas and mention how this rivalry shaped the power dynamics in South India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
उन परिस्थितियों की विवेचना कीजिए जिनके कारण पल्लवों और चालुक्यों के मध्य संघर्ष हुए और बताइए कि इस प्रतिद्वन्द्विता ने दक्षिण भारत की सत्ता संरचना को कैसे प्रभावित किया।
Practise this question Regional States and Early Indian Cultural History notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(b)
Approach: Two parts: the circumstances (geography, resources, ambition, alliances) that produced the conflict, and its effects on the balance of power in the south. Keep the narrative brief and use it as evidence.
From the late sixth century two expanding powers faced each other: the Chalukyas of Badami (Vatapi) in the western Deccan and the Pallavas of Kanchi in the Tamil plain. Their wars lasted, with pauses, for about 150 years.
Circumstances: (i) the fertile Krishna-Tungabhadra doab (the Raichur region) and Vengi, the Krishna-Godavari delta, lay between them, rich in revenue and ports; (ii) control of the eastern coast meant trade with south-east Asia; (iii) both dynasties were new and sought prestige through the digvijaya ideal of conquest. Pulakeshin II's conquest of Vengi (c. 624) and his advance to Kanchi, recorded in the Aihole inscription (634 CE), opened the rivalry.
Course in brief: Narasimhavarman I took Vatapi (c. 642) and was styled Vatapikonda; Vikramaditya I recovered it and raided Kanchi; Vikramaditya II occupied Kanchi in the 740s.
Effects on power: neither side could hold the other's heartland, so the conflict exhausted both. The Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi emerged as a separate power. In 753 the Chalukyas fell to their feudatory Rashtrakuta Dantidurga, who carried on the war against Kanchi, while the Pandyas rose in the far south. The weakened Pallavas later gave way to the Cholas.
The conflict thus set the pattern of south Indian politics for centuries: a Deccan power against a Tamil power, fighting over the doab and Vengi.
Q4(c) · Early Medieval India, 750–1200 · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Literature, Science and Art, 750–1200 (Kalhana, Alberuni, Temple Styles)
Critically evaluate the major stages in the development of art and literature in early medieval India and explain how these stages reflected the broader changes in society and patterns of patronage during the period.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पूर्व मध्यकालीन भारत में कला और साहित्य के विकास के प्रमुख चरणों का आलोचनात्मक मूल्यांकन कीजिए तथा स्पष्ट कीजिए कि किस प्रकार ये चरण उस काल के समाज एवं संरक्षण स्वरूप में व्यापक परिवर्तनों को प्रतिबिंबित करते हैं।
Practise this question Early Medieval India, 750–1200 notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(c)
Approach: Divide the period into broad stages (c. 750–950, c. 950–1100, c. 1100–1200), give the main developments in art and literature in each with examples, and link each to changes in society and patronage (royal courts, samantas, temples, merchants, bhakti), ending with a critical judgement.
Art and literature in early medieval India moved, broadly, from the courts of a few large regional empires to many regional courts, temples and devotional communities. Three stages can be traced.
Stage one, 750–950: the imperial powers of the tripartite struggle were the main patrons. The Rashtrakutas cut the Kailasa temple at Ellora; the Palas supported Nalanda and Vikramashila. In literature Sanskrit dominated, as with Rajashekhara at the Pratihara court, while the Kannada Kavirajamarga (c. 850) and the Tamil bhakti hymns, compiled in the 10th century, marked new voices.
Stage two, 950–1100: regional dynasties, many of them former samantas, displayed sovereignty through monumental temples: Khajuraho under the Chandellas, the Lingaraja at Bhubaneswar, the Sun temple at Modhera (1026) and the Brihadishvara at Tanjavur (1010). Historical poems (charitas) like Bilhana's Vikramankadevacharita praised patrons, and Kannada poets such as Pampa and Ranna wrote at regional courts.
Stage three, 1100–1200: ornament grew denser in the Hoysala and Kalyani Chalukya temples, Jain merchants and ministers built the marble temples at Mount Abu, and literature turned more regional and devotional: Kalhana's Rajatarangini (1148–49), Jayadeva's Gitagovinda, Kamban's Tamil Ramayana and the Kannada vachanas of the Virashaivas.
Links to society: land grants and agrarian expansion created regional elites who sought legitimacy through temples and praise-poetry; temples became economic centres with dancers and artisans; merchants re-entered patronage after the revival of trade; and bhakti carried literature into the vernaculars. Devangana Desai linked the erotic sculpture of Khajuraho to courtly culture and Tantric ideas.
Despite regional differences, the overall shift from imperial to regional, and from Sanskrit-courtly to vernacular-devotional, closely reflects the decentralised social and political order of the period.

Question 5 (50 marks)

Q5(a) · The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Regional Cultures, Literature, Provincial Architecture and Vijayanagara Arts
“Religious themes inspired a large section of literature in provincial languages in late medieval India.” Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“उत्तर मध्यकालीन भारत में धार्मिक विषयों ने प्रांतीय भाषाओं के साहित्य के एक बड़े अनुभाग को प्रेरित किया।” टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(a)
Approach: Comment by giving examples of religious themes in several provincial literatures, explaining why religion dominated, and then noting the secular strands, ending with a balanced view.
Between the 14th and 16th centuries the regional languages of India produced their first large literatures, and much of it was religious in theme.
Bhakti poetry: Kabir, Surdas, Mirabai and Tulsidas in Hindi; Vidyapati, Chandidas and the Chaitanya poets in Maithili and Bengali; Shankaradeva in Assamese; Namdev and Eknath in Marathi; Narsinh Mehta in Gujarati; Annamacharya and Purandaradasa in Telugu and Kannada.
Epic retellings: Krittivasa's Bengali Ramayana, Sarala Das's Odia Mahabharata and Pothana's Telugu Bhagavatamu brought sacred narratives to ordinary people.
Sufi works: The Hindavi premakhyans, such as Qutban's Mrigavati (1503) and Jayasi's Padmavat (1540), used love stories to express mystical ideas.
Secular strands: Court poetry, heroic ballads and histories also appeared, such as Vidyapati's Kirtilata in praise of a patron and Telugu prabandhas such as Allasani Peddana's Manucharitramu.
The statement is valid: religion, above all bhakti, inspired most provincial literature, though court patronage also nurtured a secular tradition.
Q5(b) · The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Alauddin Khalji's Agrarian and Market Measures
“Alauddin Khilji’s economic measures aimed at centralising political authority in the Delhi Sultanate.” Elucidate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“अलाउद्दीन खिलजी के आर्थिक उपायों का लक्ष्य दिल्ली सल्तनत में राजनीतिक सत्ता का केंद्रीकरण था।” स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question The Delhi Sultanate, 13th–14th Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(b)
Approach: Elucidate how Alauddin's revenue, market and army measures served to centralise power: show the link of each to the Crown's control over intermediaries, nobles and the army, and add a brief qualification.
Alauddin Khalji (1296–1316) faced noble revolts early in his reign and repeated Mongol invasions. Barani's Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi shows that his economic measures put wealth and force in the hands of the Crown alone.
Agrarian measures: revenue at half the produce, assessed by measurement (masahat) in the Doab, took away the privileges of the khuts and muqaddams, and revenue-free grants were resumed into the khalisa. The state reached the peasant directly and the rural aristocracy lost the means to rebel.
Nobles: confiscation of grants, a ban on feasts and unapproved marriages, spies and audited iqta accounts weakened the nobility.
Markets and army: fixed prices in Delhi let a large standing army live on a low cash salary paid by the Crown and checked by dagh and huliya, so troopers were loyal to the Sultan, not to iqta-holders.
The measures were also driven by Mongol defence and were confined to the Delhi region, but their effect was a marked centralisation of authority.
Q5(c) · Mughal Economy, Society and Culture · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Population, Agriculture and Craft Production
Critically assess the role of imperial Karkhanas in Mughal India. How did they reflect the ideological and functional imperatives of the Mughal State?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मुगल भारत में शाही कारखानों की भूमिका का आलोचनात्मक मूल्यांकन कीजिए। वे मुगल राज्य की वैचारिक और कार्यात्मक अनिवार्यताओं को किस प्रकार प्रतिबिंबित करते हैं?
Practise this question Mughal Economy, Society and Culture notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(c)
Approach: Explain what the imperial karkhanas were and what they made, assess their economic role critically, and show how they served both practical needs and the ideology of imperial magnificence.
The karkhanas were imperial workshops and stores attached to the household, run by the mir saman (khan-i-saman) with accounts kept by the diwan-i-buyutat. The Ain-i-Akbari describes their departments, and François Bernier saw them at work in the Delhi fort.
Functional role: they made and stored what the court and army needed: textiles and robes, carpets, tents, jewellery, arms and armour, books and paintings. They supplied the khilat (robes of honour) and gifts that the emperor gave to nobles and envoys.
Ideological role: fine goods displayed the emperor's magnificence, set standards of courtly taste and bound nobles through gifts. Painting and book workshops produced the histories that presented Mughal rule as just and divinely favoured.
Critical view: the karkhanas did not lead to factory industry. Bernier noted that artisans were poorly paid and worked under compulsion, and production served consumption, not the market, as Irfan Habib stresses.
They were thus instruments of state power and display rather than engines of economic growth.
Q5(d) · The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Bhakti and Sufi Movements, 15th–16th Centuries
“The principles of Sikhism represented a harmonious blend of Islamic and Indic religious beliefs and practices.” Comment.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“सिख धर्म के सिद्धांत इस्लामी और भारतीय (इंडिक) धार्मिक विश्वासों एवं प्रथाओं के सामंजस्यपूर्ण मिश्रण का प्रतिनिधित्व करते हैं।” टिप्पणी कीजिए।
Practise this question The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(d)
Approach: Comment by showing the Islamic-like and the Indic elements in Nanak's teaching, then the scholarly objection that Sikhism is not a blend but a distinct faith, and conclude.
Guru Nanak (1469–1539) grew up in a Punjab where Islam and Hindu traditions met, and his teaching, preserved in the Adi Granth (1604), has often been described as a synthesis of the two.
Elements shared with Islam: Belief in one formless God, rejection of idol worship, the equality of believers, congregational worship and the common kitchen (langar), which recalls the Sufi khanqah.
Indic elements: The ideas of karma, rebirth and liberation (mukti), the guru as guide, meditation on the divine name (nam simran) and the language of nirguna bhakti are Indian.
A distinct faith: W.H. McLeod placed Nanak in the North Indian Sant tradition rather than seeing him as a conscious synthesiser, and Sikh scholars stress his original revelation. Nanak criticised the rituals of both pandit and qazi, and the janam-sakhis attribute to him the saying that there is no Hindu and no Musalman.
The statement is partly true: Sikhism shares much with both traditions but is better seen as an independent faith rooted in the Sant tradition.
Q5(e) · Mughal Economy, Society and Culture · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Provincial Art, Classical Music, Science and Technology
Gunpowder changed the character of warfare in India during the Mughal era. Elucidate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मुगल युग के दौरान बारूद ने भारत में युद्ध के चरित्र को बदल दिया। स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question Mughal Economy, Society and Culture notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(e)
Approach: Show how gunpowder weapons changed battle tactics, siege warfare and the balance between state and local power under the Mughals, and note the historiographical limits on calling them a 'gunpowder empire'.
Gunpowder was known in India before the Mughals, but Babur's victories made firearms central to warfare. Iqtidar Alam Khan's Gunpowder and Firearms: Warfare in Medieval India traces the change.
Battle tactics: at Panipat (1526) Babur's gunners Ustad Ali Quli and Mustafa placed cannon and matchlockmen behind carts tied together, the 'Rumi' method, while cavalry outflanked Ibrahim Lodi's army. The same tactics won Khanwa (1527).
Siege warfare: Akbar took Chittor (1568) and Ranthambhor (1569) with heavy guns, mines and covered approaches, so hill forts lost their old security.
Spread of firearms: by the 17th century, matchlocks were common among zamindars and peasants, which, as Iqtidar Alam Khan argues, strengthened local resistance to the state.
Yet cavalry remained the core of Mughal armies, so the term 'gunpowder empire' used by Marshall Hodgson needs qualification: gunpowder changed warfare without replacing older methods.

Question 6 (50 marks)

Q6(a) · Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Akbar: Conquests and Consolidation
Discuss the structural features of Todar Mal’s revenue system and evaluate its effectiveness in standardized land revenue assessment in India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
टोडरमल की राजस्व प्रणाली की संरचनात्मक विशेषताओं की विवेचना कीजिए और मूल्यांकन कीजिए कि भारत में किस हद तक यह प्रणाली भू-राजस्व निर्धारण में मानकीकरण लाने में सफल रही।
Practise this question Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(a)
Approach: Describe the main features of the zabt or dahsala system built by Todar Mal, then judge how far it standardised assessment, with its regional and practical limits.
Raja Todar Mal, Akbar's revenue minister, built on Sher Shah's crop rates (rai) and the experiments of the 1560s and 1570s to produce the Ain-i-Dahsala of 1580, described in Abul Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari.
Structural features: land was measured with the standard Ilahi gaz and a bamboo tanab joined by iron rings, which did not shrink or stretch like rope. Land was classed by continuity of cultivation into polaj, parauti, chachar and banjar. The average produce and prices of the ten years 1570–1579 were used to fix cash rates per bigha for each crop in each assessment circle (dastur). The state claimed about one-third of the average produce, payable in cash, and the amalguzar, bitikchi, qanungo and patwari kept the records, with patta and qabuliyat recording the terms.
Effectiveness: in the core provinces from Lahore and Multan to Allahabad the demand became predictable, crop-wise and known in advance. It produced the jama figures on which jagirs were assigned and, as Irfan Habib notes, encouraged high-value crops.
Limits: Bengal, Kashmir, Thatta and much of Gujarat kept crop-sharing (ghallabakhshi), appraisal (kankut) or group assessment (nasaq). Fixed rates were rigid when prices fell, honest measurement depended on officials, and the zamindar remained between the state and the peasant.
Todar Mal thus standardised assessment in the heartland, not across the empire, but his methods of measurement and record shaped revenue practice into British times.
Q6(b) · Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Persian and Regional Literature
Barani’s “Fatwa-i-Jahandari” was not a proper account of the Delhi Sultanate, rather a lament. Elucidate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
बरनी की “फतवा-ए-जहाँदारी” दिल्ली सल्तनत का सही विवरण नहीं, अपितु एक विलाप (आक्षेप) था। स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question Society, Culture and Economy under the Sultanate notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(b)
Approach: Explain what kind of text the Fatawa-i-Jahandari is, show why it reads as a lament, then show its value as political theory, and conclude.
Barani wrote the Fatawa-i-Jahandari in the late 1350s, after losing favour at court on Muhammad bin Tughluq's death. It is not a chronicle but a mirror for princes, a set of counsels on kingship, translated by Mohammad Habib and Afsar Umar Salim Khan in The Political Theory of the Delhi Sultanate (1961).
Not an account: It contains no connected narrative of reigns; it states how a Muslim king ought to rule and cites rulers only as examples, many of them idealised Ghaznavid and Persian kings.
A lament: Written by an old, impoverished and bitter man, it mourns a world in which, in his view, the low-born held office, Hindus prospered, philosophers misled kings and the ulama were worldly. Barani even admits that kingship rests on the practices of Persian emperors, which conflict with the Prophet's way, and regrets this.
Value as political theory: It argues that the Sultan must issue zawabit (state regulations) beside the sharia, that justice and the protection of religion are the king's duties, and that only the well-born should serve. Mohammad Habib stressed that these were Barani's personal views, not the actual practice of the Sultans.
The statement is largely true: the Fatawa is a lament and a programme rather than history, yet it is invaluable for understanding the outlook of the Sultanate's orthodox, aristocratic elite.
Q6(c) · Mughal Economy, Society and Culture · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Persian Histories, Hindi and Religious Literature
Discuss the development of Hindi literature under Mughal patronage. How did the Bhakti and Sufi Movements influence it?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मुगल संरक्षण में हिंदी साहित्य के विकास पर चर्चा कीजिए। भक्ति और सूफ़ी आंदोलनों ने इसे किस प्रकार से प्रभावित किया?
Practise this question Mughal Economy, Society and Culture notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(c)
Approach: Survey Hindi (Braj and Awadhi) literature in the Mughal period, separating what the Mughal court and nobles patronised from what grew outside courts, and show how Bhakti and Sufi movements shaped its themes and forms.
The 16th and 17th centuries were a golden age of Hindi literature in its two main literary dialects, Brajbhasha and Awadhi. Allison Busch's Poetry of Kings has shown how deeply Mughal and Rajput courts patronised it.
Mughal patronage: Akbar's court honoured Hindi poets, and nobles such as Abd al-Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, himself a master of the doha, and Raja Birbal composed and supported Hindi verse. Tansen's dhrupad compositions were in Braj. Under Jahangir and Shah Jahan, court poets such as Sundar and Chintamani wrote in Braj, and the Persian Tuhfat-ul-Hind of Mirza Khan, written under Aurangzeb, explained Braj grammar and poetics for Mughal readers.
Rajput and regional courts linked with the Mughals were even more important: Keshavdas wrote the Rasikapriya at Orchha, and Bihari wrote his Satsai for Jai Singh of Amber, giving shape to the courtly (riti) tradition.
Bhakti influence: much of the greatest poetry came from devotion outside the court. Surdas's Sursagar sang of Krishna's childhood in Braj, Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas (begun 1574) retold the Ramayana in Awadhi, and Mirabai's songs spread devotion to Krishna. Raskhan, a Muslim, also wrote Krishna poetry.
Sufi influence: Sufi poets wrote romances (premakhyan) in Awadhi, using love stories as allegories of the soul's search for God. Malik Muhammad Jayasi's Padmavat (1540) is the best known, following Qutban's Mrigavati and Manjhan's Madhumalati.
Mughal patronage thus gave Hindi a courtly polish and prestige, while Bhakti and Sufi movements supplied its deepest themes of love and devotion and carried it to the people.

Question 7 (50 marks)

Q7(a) · The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Portuguese Colonial Enterprise
Portuguese maritime power disrupted the character of trade in the Indian Ocean in the 16th century. Review.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पुर्तगाली समुद्री शक्ति ने 16वीं सदी में हिंद महासागर में व्यापार के स्वरूप को बाधित किया। समीक्षा कीजिए।
Practise this question The Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(a)
Approach: Review the claim: describe the pre-1498 character of Indian Ocean trade, show how the Portuguese disrupted it, then show the limits of their impact using the historiography, and conclude.
Before Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498, Indian Ocean trade was open and largely peaceful: Gujarati, Arab, Persian, Chettiar and Malay merchants traded freely, and port rulers such as the Zamorin of Calicut levied moderate duties without claiming control of the sea.
Disruption: The Portuguese claimed sovereignty over the sea. Under Almeida (1505–09) and Albuquerque (1509–15) they defeated the Gujarat–Mamluk fleet at Diu (1509), seized Goa (1510), Malacca (1511) and Hormuz (1515), and built fortified posts. They tried to monopolise the pepper and spice trade to Europe and forced Asian ships to buy a pass, the cartaz, and pay duties at their ports. Violence, piracy and convoys became part of trade; Ashin Das Gupta and M.N. Pearson describe this as the coming of armed trade.
Limits: The Portuguese never controlled most of Asian trade. Pearson argues that their power was confined to the sea and some ports, and that land-based empires such as the Mughals were little affected. Gujarati and other merchants continued to trade, often with cartazes, and the Red Sea spice route to the Mediterranean revived by the mid-16th century. J.C. van Leur had argued earlier that European impact on Asian trade was slight before the 17th century.
The statement is valid in that the Portuguese introduced force and licensing into a once open sea, but the structure of Asian trade survived and adapted.
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
Akbar’s Rajput policy was shaped by considerations of factional politics in the Mughal court. Discuss.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
अकबर की राजपूत नीति मुगल दरबार के गुटीय राजनीतिक विचारों द्वारा निर्मित थी। विवेचना कीजिए।
Practise this question Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(b)
Approach: Present Iqtidar Alam Khan's thesis that Akbar drew in the Rajputs to balance rival noble factions, test it with the events of 1560–81, and then add the strategic and ideological motives.
The view that court factions shaped Akbar's Rajput policy was argued most clearly by Iqtidar Alam Khan in his work on the nobility under Akbar. He held that Akbar, facing an overbearing Central Asian nobility, built up Rajputs and Indian Shaikhzadas as a counterweight.
Evidence for: in the early 1560s Akbar was dominated first by Bairam Khan (removed in 1560) and then by the Atka clan and Maham Anaga's circle. The Uzbek nobles revolted in 1564–67 and the Mirzas soon after, so Turani loyalty could not be taken for granted. The Amber alliance of 1562 with Raja Bharmal came in exactly these years.
During the great revolt of 1580–81 in Bihar and Bengal, led mostly by Turani and Qaqshal nobles, Rajput commanders and Raja Todar Mal stayed loyal, which seemed to justify the policy.
Other considerations: Rajasthan lay across the routes to Gujarat and Malwa, so strategic need was strong. Rajput clans offered fighting men, and chiefs sought imperial protection against rivals. Force also mattered: Chittor was stormed in 1568 and Mewar resisted for decades.
Ideology: marriage without forced conversion, abolition of the pilgrim tax (1563) and jizya (1564), and later sulh-i-kul turned an alliance into a principle of partnership.
Factional politics explains the timing and urgency of the policy, but its durability came from strategic gain and an inclusive ideology of rule.
Q7(c) · Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century · 20 marks≈ 14 min
The Empire and the Zamindars; Nature of the Mughal State
Evaluate the impact of Mughal revenue administration on the agrarian structure of North India. To what extent did it bring continuity and change in the rural socio-economic fabric?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
उत्तर भारत की कृषि संरचना पर मुगलकालीन राजस्व प्रशासन के प्रभावों का मूल्यांकन कीजिए। इसने ग्रामीण सामाजिक-आर्थिक ताने-बाने को किस हद तक निरंतरित एवं परिवर्तित किया?
Practise this question Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(c)
Approach: Evaluate how the Mughal revenue system (high cash demand, zamindari rights, jagir transfers, encouragement of cultivation) affected the agrarian structure of North India, then separate what changed from what continued in rural society.
The Mughal revenue system, given its classic form in Akbar's zabt, claimed a large share of the peasant's produce, normally one-third and often half, mostly in cash. Irfan Habib's The Agrarian System of Mughal India (1963) remains the basic study of its effects.
Monetisation and markets: cash demand forced peasants to sell grain, so rural markets (qasbas, ganjs and mandis), grain dealers and moneylenders spread. The zabt rates favoured cash crops such as cotton, sugarcane, indigo and later tobacco, which tied villages to wider commerce.
Rural hierarchy: the state recognised and regulated the zamindars, giving them a fixed share (malikana, about a tenth in northern India) and drawing them into revenue collection. S. Nurul Hasan saw this as the integration of local power into the empire. Below them, the village headman (muqaddam), resident peasants (khud-kasht) and outsider cultivators (pahi-kasht) formed a stratified peasantry, with landless labourers at the bottom.
Pressure and protection: the state gave taqavi loans and remissions and encouraged the extension of cultivation. But Habib argues that frequent jagir transfers led assignees to squeeze peasants, causing flight and, in the late 17th century, revolts led by zamindars.
Continuity: the self-governing village, caste divisions of labour, the jajmani exchange of services and hereditary local power (khuts and muqaddams of the Sultanate) survived. The Mughals regulated rural society more than they transformed it.
Change: standard measurement and records, wider monetisation, the market-oriented crop pattern and a more formal zamindari right were new. Muzaffar Alam's studies of Awadh and Punjab show that these changes also strengthened local gentry who would later shape the regional states.
The impact was therefore deep but uneven: the Mughal system commercialised and stratified the countryside while leaving its basic social framework intact.

Question 8 (50 marks)

Q8(a) · Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb: Administration and Religious Policy
“Aurangzeb’s religious policy was a reflection of the changed political realities of the Mughal Empire.” Elucidate.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
“औरंगज़ेब की धार्मिक नीति मुगल साम्राज्य की बदली हुई राजनीतिक वास्तविकताओं का प्रतिबिंब थी।” स्पष्ट कीजिए।
Practise this question Akbar and the Mughal State in the 17th Century notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(a)
Approach: Outline Aurangzeb's main religious measures and then show how each related to political pressures (the succession war, revolts, the Rajput and Deccan wars, the jagir shortage), while weighing his personal orthodoxy.
Aurangzeb (1658–1707) is remembered for an orthodox religious policy. Jadunath Sarkar saw in it personal bigotry, while Satish Chandra, M. Athar Ali and Richard Eaton read it largely as a response to the changed politics of the empire.
The measures: he appointed muhtasibs to enforce Islamic morals, ordered the demolition of certain temples (Vishvanath at Varanasi in 1669 and Keshava Rai at Mathura in 1670), reimposed jizya in 1679 and sponsored the legal digest Fatawa-i-Alamgiri.
The political context: in the war of succession (1657–59) he presented Dara Shukoh as a heretic and needed the support of the orthodox ulama and nobles. The Jat, Satnami and Sikh revolts of the 1660s and 1670s, the Rathor war after Jaswant Singh's death (1679) and the long Deccan war made him seek a common ideological bond among his Muslim nobles and soldiers.
Eaton shows that the temples destroyed were usually linked with rebels or hostile chiefs.
Limits of the political reading: Athar Ali's figures show Hindu nobles rising from about 22 to over 31 per cent of the higher mansabdars after 1679, largely through Maratha recruits, and land grants to temples continued. Yet Aurangzeb's personal piety was real, and the policy alienated Rajputs and others whose support the empire needed.
The policy thus reflected political realities, but it was shaped by Aurangzeb's convictions, and it deepened the crisis it was meant to resolve.
Q8(b) · Mughal Economy, Society and Culture · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Provincial Art, Classical Music, Science and Technology
Define the rise of distinct provincial architectural styles under the Mughal Empire in light of structural diversity, cultural interaction and the nature of provincial power dynamics.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मुगल साम्राज्य के अन्तर्गत विशिष्ट प्रांतीय स्थापत्यगत शैलियों के उत्कर्ष को संरचनात्मक विविधता, सांस्कृतिक अंतःक्रिया और प्रांतीय सत्ता संरचनाओं की प्रकृति के प्रकाश में परिभाषित कीजिए।
Practise this question Mughal Economy, Society and Culture notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(b)
Approach: Survey the main provincial styles (Deccan sultanates, Rajput courts, Bengal, Mughal governors' provincial works) under the three heads the question sets: structural diversity, cultural interaction and the power relations that shaped patronage.
Alongside the imperial style, distinct regional styles flourished in the Mughal period. Catherine Asher's Architecture of Mughal India shows how Rajput chiefs, governors and regional rulers used building to express their place within or against the empire.
Structural diversity: the Deccan sultanates built on a grand scale: the Gol Gumbaz at Bijapur, completed c. 1656, has one of the largest domes in the world, while the Ibrahim Rauza is richly carved, and Golconda has the Charminar (1591) and the Qutb Shahi tombs. In Bengal, curved roofs and terracotta brick temples such as the Jor Bangla at Bishnupur (1655) followed local forms.
Cultural interaction: Rajput rulers serving the Mughals blended imperial and local forms. Bir Singh Deo's palaces at Orchha and Datia and the Amber palace mix Mughal arches and gardens with Rajput chhatris and jharokhas, and Man Singh built the Govind Dev temple at Vrindavan (1590) with Mughal vaulting.
Power dynamics: Asher calls such building sub-imperial patronage: nobles displayed loyalty and status by adopting the imperial idiom. Mughal governors built the Shah Jahan mosque at Thatta and the Lalbagh fort at Dhaka. The independent Deccan courts, by contrast, kept their own style as a mark of autonomy until conquest in 1686–87.
Provincial architecture thus reflected both the reach of Mughal taste and the strength of regional traditions and power.
Q8(c) · The Eighteenth Century · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Maratha Ascendancy under the Peshwas
Critically examine the political, military and administrative factors that led to the transformation of the Maratha character in the 18th century. How did these changes influence its rise and eventual decline?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
18वीं शताब्दी में मराठा राज्य के स्वरूप में परिवर्तन लाने वाले राजनीतिक, सैन्य एवं प्रशासनिक कारकों का आलोचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए। इन परिवर्तनों ने इसके उत्थान और अंततः पतन को किस प्रकार प्रभावित किया?
Practise this question The Eighteenth Century notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(c)
Approach: Identify the political, military and administrative changes in the Maratha state after 1707 with examples and historians' views, then show how the same changes first drove its expansion and later its decline.
Shivaji's state was a compact kingdom (swarajya) under a crowned king. By the 1750s it had become a Peshwa-led confederacy claiming revenue across India within a Mughal framework.
Political factors: the civil war between Shahu and Tarabai after 1707 made Shahu dependent on the Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath; the office became hereditary, and the Sangola arrangement (1750) left the Chhatrapati a figurehead at Satara. The Marathas accepted Mughal sanads (1719), became protectors of the emperor (1752), and Mahadji Scindia became the emperor's deputy regent (1784). The aim shifted from independence to a share in the Mughal order.
Military factors: light cavalry raiding, which suited a fragmenting empire, carried Baji Rao I to Delhi (1737). Later they added artillery (Ibrahim Khan Gardi at Panipat) and Mahadji's costly, mercenary-based battalions under de Boigne.
Administrative factors: conquests were assigned as saranjams to Scindia, Holkar, Gaekwad and Bhonsle, who became hereditary chiefs with their own armies. The Peshwas adapted Mughal revenue practice (Stewart Gordon) and worked through shared rights and fitna (André Wink), but relied on bankers' credit and revenue farming.
Influence on the rise: these changes allowed rapid expansion and the collection of chauth over a vast area without the cost of direct rule; by 1760 the Marathas were the leading Indian power.
Influence on the decline: the same structure bred rivalry among chiefs, debt and a weak centre once strong Peshwas were gone. After Narayan Rao's murder (1773) and Nana Phadnavis's death (1800), the Scindia–Holkar conflict led Baji Rao II to the Treaty of Bassein (1802), and the British defeated the chiefs one by one by 1818.
The transformation was both the secret of Maratha success and the root of their fall.

UPSC Mains 2025 History Paper II