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ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2014-2015)

M.H.I.-6
Evolution of Social Structures
in India Through the Ages
Disclaimer/Special Note: These are just the sample of the Answers/Solutions to some of the Questions given in the
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Solutions. Please consult your own Teacher/Tutor before you prepare a Particular Answer & for uptodate and exact
information, data and solution. Student should must read and refer the official study material provided by the university.
SECTION - A
Q. 1. Discuss the sources for writing ancient Indian history. What is the role of interpretation in writing about
the ancient past?
Ans. Over time, people living in India have used many different writing systems. These systems were generally
developed record down different types of information as the need arose.
Indian culture began around the Indus River in the southern region of India. While determining the history of a
culture that precedes writing is difficult, it can be done with the help of a variety of sources and materials. These materials
often need to be interpreted, but they provide an opportunity for historians and individuals to understand the world of
ancient India. Some (used to) say that the history of India and the Indian Subcontinent didnt begin until the Muslims
invaded in the 12th century A.D. While thorough history-writing may stem from such a late date, there are earlier historical writers with 1st-hand knowledge. Unfortunately, they dont extend back in time as far as we might like or as far as in
other ancient cultures.
When writing about a group of people who died thousands of years ago, as in ancient history, there are always gaps
and guesses. History tends to be written by the victors and about the powerful. When history is not even written, as was
the case in early ancient India, there are still ways to extract information -- mostly archaeological, but also obscure
literary texts, inscriptions in forgotten languages, and stray foreign notices, but it doesnt lend itself to straightline
political history, the history of heroes and empires.
Although thousands of seals and inscribed artifacts have been recovered, the Indus script remains undeciphered.
Unlike Egypt or Mesopotamia, this remains a civilization inaccessible to historians.... In the Indus case, while the descendents of urban dwellers and technological practices did not entirely disappear, the cities their ancestors had inhabited did.
Indus script and the information it recorded also were no longer remembered.
When Darius and Alexander (327 B.C.) invaded India, they provided dates around which the history of India is
constructed. India did not have its own western-style historian before these incursions, and so reasonably reliable chronology of India dates from Alexanders invasion in the late 4th century B.C.
India originally referred to the area of the Indus River valley, which was a province of the Persian Empire. Thats how
Herodotus refers to it. Later, the term India included the area bounded on the north by the Himalayas and Karakoram
mountain ranges, the penetrable Hindu Kush in the northwest, and on the northeast, the hills of Assam and Cachar. The
Hindu Kush soon became the border between the Mauryan empire and that of the Seleucid successor of Alexander the
Great. Seleucid-controlled Bactria sat immediately to the north of the Hindu Kush. Then Bactria separated from the
Seleucids, and independently invaded India.
The Indus River provided a natural, but controversial border between India and Persia. It is said that Alexander
conquered India, but Edward James Rapson of The Cambridge History of India Volume I: Ancient India says its only true

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if you mean the original sense of India the country of the Indus Valley since Alexander didnt go beyond the Beas
(Hyphasis).
Alexanders admiral Nearchus wrote about the Macedonian fleets travel from the Indus River to the Persian Gulf.
Arrian (c. A.D. 87 - after 145) later used Nearchus works in his own writings on India. This has preserved some of
Nearchus now lost material. Arrian says Alexander founded a city where the Hydaspes battle was fought, which was
named Nikaia, as the Greek word for victory. Arrian says he also founded the more famous city of Boukephala, to honor
his horse, also by the Hydaspes. The location of these cities is not clear and there is no corroborative numismatic evidence.
Arrians report says that Alexander was told by inhabitants of Gedrosia (Baluchistan) about others who had used that
same travel route. The legendary Semiramis, they said, had fled through that route from India with only 20 members of
her army and Cambyses son Cyrus returned with only 7 [Rapson].
Megasthenes, who stayed in India from 317 to 312 B.C. and served as ambassador of Seleucus at the court of
Chandragupta Maurya (referred to in the Greek as Sandrokottos), is another Greek source on India. He is quoted in Arrian
and Strabo, where the Indians denied having engaged in foreign warfare with any but Hercules, Dionysus and the
Macedonians (Alexander).
Q. 4. What do you understand by the term early medieval period in Indian history? Please elaborate.
Ans. The early medieval period was marked by another wave of invasions, but this time from within the Islamic
world. New rulers, of varying ethnic backgrounds, established short-lived regional dynasties, in contrast to the preceding
period, in which Arab leadership predominated and the Islamic world was united under the centralized authority of the
caliph. This was a time of political change, shifting religious trends, and a great flowering of the arts. The history of
Indian medieval period was started after the end of ancient age in 550 AD and it continued till 17th century when the
Mughal Empire had broken. During this long time period different dynasties rose in power and took a commanding role
in the Indian medieval history. The land of India was separated as various small kingdoms from north to south and east to
west and those kingdoms were ruled by different independent kings. Throughout the medieval history a number of
dominant dynasties, namely, the Cholas (3rd century to 13th century) of southern India, the Mughuls (1526 AD to 1707
AD) of northern India, the Rajput of western India (the state of Rajasthan), the Pala dynasty of eastern India, the Chalukays,
the Pallavas, the Delhi Sultan had control their own area. Some time they made a number of bloody battles for different
reasons.
The period from the 8th to 12th century in political life in India is particularly dominated by the presence of large
number of states. The bigger ones tried to establish their supremacy in northern India and the Deccan. The main contenders in this struggle for supremacy were the Pratiharas, the Palas and the Rashtrakutas. In the south the most powerful
kingdom to emerge during this period was that of the Cholas. The Cholas brought about the political unification of large
parts of the country but the general political picture was that of fragmentation particularly in northern India. It was in this
period that Indias contact with the new religion of Islam began. The contacts began late in the 7th century through the
Arab traders.
Later in the early 8th century the Arabs conquered Sind. In the 10th century the Turks emerged as a powerful force in
Central and West Asia and carved out kingdoms for themselves. They conquered Persia but their lives were richly influenced by Persian culture and tradition. The Turks first invaded India during the late 10th and early 11th century and
Punjab came under Turkish rule. Another series of Turkish invasions in the late 12th and early 13th century led to the
establishment of the Sultanate of Delhi. Within a few centauries after the rise of Islam in Arabia it became the second most
popular religion in India with followers in every part of the country.
The establishment of the Sultanate marked the beginning of a new phase in the history of medieval India. Politically
it led to the unification of northern India and parts of the Deccan for almost a century. Its rulers almost from the time of the
establishment of the Sultanate succeeded in separating it from the country from which they had originally come. The
sultanate disintegrated towards the end of the 14th century leading to the emergence of a number of kingdoms in different
parts of the country.
Q. 5. Comment on the nature of guilds which arose during the early Buddhist period and continued through
the Mauryan period.
Ans. Trade reached its peak during the Gupta period. The annexation of the territory of the Satraps brought areas of
exceptional wealth and fertility into the ordit of the empire. The state gathered abundant revenues in the form of custom
duties at the numerous ports on the western coast like Broach Sopara, Cambay and a multitude center where most of the
trade routes converged. The city of Jjjain is even now regarded as one of the seven sacred Hindu cities, slightly lower than

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that of Benaras in sanctity. The favoured position of the city made a succession of rulers embellish the city with various
religious establishments.
Guilds continued to be the nodal points of commercial activity. They were almost autonomous in their internal
organization. The government respected their laws. The laws governing the guilds were made by a corporation of guilds
in which each guild had a member. The corporation elected a body of advisers who functioned as its functionaries. Some
industrial guilds like that of the silk weavers had their own separate corporations. It is also interesting to observe that the
Buddhist Sangha was rich enough to participate in commercial activities. At places the Sangha acted as the banker and
lent money on interest. This was in addition to their returns from land. They too took one sixth of the produce just as the
State.
Ancient Indian guilds are a unique and multi-faceted form of organisation, which combined the functions of a
democratic government, a trade union, a court of justice and a technological institution. The trained workers of the guilds
provided a congenial atmosphere for work. They procured raw materials for manufacturing, controlled quality of manufactured goods and their price, and located markets for their sale. Though seen through the Eurocentric blinkers they have
been misunderstood. It was believed that the Indian Guild system also followed the European feudal or the manorial
system of the high Middle Ages, due mainly to sudden increase in trade. These European guilds identified as Merchant
Guilds and Craft Guilds lasted in some places until the nineteenth and the twentieth century, though probably their golden
age was in the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries. The Craft Guilds being the direct producers were more important
than the Merchant Guilds. But the Indian guilds were far more important and complex institutions than the European
examples.
Thaplyal writes that Buddhism and Jainism, which emerged in the 6th century BC, were more egalitarian than Brahmanism that preceded them and provided a better environment for the growth of guilds. Material wealth and animals were
sacrificed in the Brahmanical yajnas. The Buddhists and Jains did not perform such yajnas. Thus, material wealth and
animals were saved and made available for trade and commerce. Since the Buddhists and Jains disregarded the social
taboos of purity/pollution in mixing and taking food with people of lower varnas, they felt less constrained in conducting
long distance trade. The Gautama Dharmasutra (c. 5th century BC) states that cultivators, traders, herdsmen, moneylenders, and artisans have authority to lay down rules for their respective classes and the king was to consult their
representatives while dealing with matters relating to them. The Jataka tales refer to eighteen guilds, to their heads, to
localization of industry and to the hereditary nature of professions. The Jataka stories frequently refer to a son following
the craft of his father. Often, kula and putta occur as suffixes to craft-names, the former indicating that the whole family
adopted a particular craft and the latter that the son followed the craft of his father. This ensured regular trained manpower
and created more specialization. Here it is pointed out that the hereditary nature of profession in Indian guilds makes them
different from the European guilds of the Middle Ages whose membership was invariably based on the choice of an
individual. It may, however, be pointed out that adopting a family profession was more common with members of craftsmens
guilds than with members of traders guilds.
The Mauryan period is highlighted by the extensive treatment given to Guilds by Kautilya who considers the possibility of guilds as agencies capable of becoming centres of power. Thaplyal points out that the Mauryan Empire (c. 320 to
c. 200 BC) witnessed better maintained highways and increased mobility of men and merchandise. The state participated
in agricultural and industrial production. The government kept a record of trades and crafts and related transactions and
conventions of the guilds, indicating state intervention in guild-affairs. The state allotted guilds separate areas in a town
for running their trade and crafts. The members of the tribal republics that lost political power due to their incorporation
in the extensive Mauryan Empire took to crafts and trades and formed economic organizations.
Thaplyal considers the period c. 200 BC to c. AD 300 as the last phase of guilds in ancient India. The decline of the
Mauryan Empire (c. 200 BC) led to political disintegration and laxity in state control over guilds, allowing them better
chances to grow. The epigraphs from Sanchi, Bharhut, Bodhgaya, Mathura and the sites of western Deccan refer to
donations made by different craftsmen and traders. Guilds of flour-makers, weavers, oil-millers, potters, manufacturers of
hydraulic engines, corn-dealers, bamboo-workers, etc. find mention in the epigraphs.
SECTION- B
Q. 8. Discuss the development of the bhakti tradition as described in the Sangam texts.
Ans. Sangam literature comprises some of the oldest extant Tamil literature, and deals with love, war, governance,
trade and bereavement. Unfortunately much of the Tamil literature belonging to the Sangam period has been lost. The
literature currently available from this period is perhaps just a fraction of the wealth of material produced during this
golden age of Tamil civilization. The available literature from this period has been broadly divided in antiquity into three

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categories based roughly on chronology. These are: the Major Eighteen Anthology Series comprising the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Idylls and the Five Great Epics. Tolkaappiyam, a commentary on grammar, phonetics, rhetoric andpoetics
is dated from this period. The early Sangam literature, starting from the period of 2nd century BCE, contain anthologies
of various poets dealing with many aspects of life, including love, war, social values and religion. This was followed by
the early epics and moral literature, authored by Hindu, Jain and Buddhist authors, lasting up to the 5th century CE. From
the 6th to 12th century CE, the Tamil devotional poems written by Nayanmars (sages of Shaivism) and (Alvars, sages of
Vaishnavism) heralded the great Bhakti movement which later engulfed the entire Indian subcontinent. It is during this
era that some of the grandest of Tamil literary classics like Kambaramayanam and Periya Puranam were authored and
many poets were patronized by the imperial Chola and Pandya empires. The later medieval period saw many assorted
minor literary works and also contributions by a few Muslim and European authors. By having the most ancient nonSanskritized Indian literature, Tamil literature is unique and thus has become the subject of study by scholars who wish to
delineate the non-Aryan and pre-Aryan strands in Indian culture.
Sangam literature comprises some of the oldest extant Tamil literature, and deals with love, war, governance, trade
and bereavement. Unfortunately much of the Tamil literature belonging to the Sangam period has been lost. The literature
currently available from this period is perhaps just a fraction of the wealth of material produced during this golden age of
Tamil civilization. The available literature from this period has been broadly divided in antiquity into three categories
based roughly on chronology. These are: the Major Eighteen Anthology Series comprising the Eight Anthologies and the
Ten Idylls and the Five Great Epics. Tolkaappiyam, a commentary on grammar, phonetics, rhetoric and poetics is dated
from this period. Tamil legends hold that these were composed in three successive poetic assemblies (Sangam) that were
held in ancient times on a now vanished continent far to the south of India. A significant amount of literature could have
preceded Tolkappiyam as grammar books are usually written after the existence of literature over long periods. Tamil
tradition holds the earliest Sangam poetry to be over twelve millennia old. Modern linguistic scholarship places the
poems between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD. Sangam age is considered by the Tamil people as the golden
era of Tamil language. This was the period when the Tamil country was ruled by the three crowned kings the Cheras,
Pandyas and the Cholas. The land was at peace with no major external threats. Asokas conquests did not impact on the
Tamil land and the people were able to indulge in literary pursuits. The poets had a much more casual relationship with
their rulers than can be imagined in later times. They could chide them when they are perceived to wander from the
straight and narrow. The greatness of the Sangam age poetry may be ascribed not so much to its antiquity, but due to the
fact that their ancestors were indulging in literary pursuits and logical classification of the habitats and society in a
systematic manner with little to draw from precedents domestically or elsewhere. The fact that these classifications were
documented at a very early date in the grammatical treatise Tolkappiyam, demonstrates the organized manner in which
the Tamil language has evolved. Tolkappiyam is not merely a textbook on Tamil grammar giving the inflection and syntax
of words and sentences but also includes classification of habitats, animals, plants and human beings. The discussion on
human emotions and interactions is particularly significant. Tolkappiyam divided into three chapters: orthography, etymology and subject matter (Porul). While the first two chapters of Tolkappiyam help codify the language, the last part,
Porul refers to the people and their behavior. The grammar helps to convey the literary message on human behavior and
conduct, and uniquely merges the language with its people.
The literature was classified into the broad categories of subjective (akam) and objective (puram) topics to enable
the poetic minds to discuss any topic under the sun, from grammar to love, within the framework of well prescribed,
socially accepted conventions.
Q. 9. Compare and contrast Gandhijis and Dr. Ambedkars views on the caste system.
Ans. ndia is unthinkable without the controversy between Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar on this matter. That
is why the objective of my term-paper is to show the development of their debates and how both of them defined the
problem of Untouchability and its solution. To that end I will present in details two core reasons of their debates. Gandhi
wished to save Hinduism by abolishing untouchability, whereas Ambedkar saw a solution for his people outside the fold
of the dominant religion of the Indian people. Gandhi was a rural romantic, who wished to make the self-governing
village the bedrock of free India; Ambedkar an admirer of city life and modern technology who dismissed the Indian
village as a den of iniquity. CASTE is the nearly eighty-year-old text of a speech that was never delivered.* When I first
read it I felt as though somebody had walked into a dim room and opened the windows. Reading Dr Bhimrao Ramji
Ambedkar bridges the gap between what most Indians are schooled to believe in and the reality we experience every day
of our lives.

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Putting the Ambedkar-Gandhi debate into context for those unfamiliar with its history and its protagonists will require detours into their very different political trajectories. For this was by no means just a theoretical debate between two
men who held different opinions. Each represented very separate interest groups, and their battle unfolded in the heart of
Indias national movement. What they said and did continues to have an immense bearing on contemporary politics. Their
differences were (and remain) irreconcilable. Both are deeply loved and often deified by their followers. It pleases neither
constituency to have the others story told, though the two are inextricably linked. Ambedkar was Gandhis most formidable adversary. He challenged him not just politically or intellectually, but also morally. To have excised Ambedkar from
Gandhis story, which is the story we all grew up on, is a travesty. Equally, to ignore Gandhi while writing about Ambedkar
is to do Ambedkar a disservice, because Gandhi loomed over Ambedkars world in myriad and un-wonderful ways.
Gandhis views in regard to basic aspects of the caste system changed in the last years of his life. In the 1920she had held
that every Hindu must follow the hereditary profession and that prohibition of intermarriage between people of
different varnas was necessary for a rapid evolution of the soul. But later he gradually became a social revolu-tionist,
advocating intermarriage between Brahmins and Untouchables in order to dismantle the caste system root and branch,
and acknowledging that When all become casteless, monopoly of occupations would go. The changes were duein part
to the influence of two opponents of the caste system whose integrity he held in high regard: Ambedkar and Gora.His
view of marriage between people of different religious affiliations underwent a similar change.
Toward the end of his life (1869-1948) Gandhi said that he had, many times, found him-self in the wrong and
therefore changed his mind, and that his writings should be destroyed along with his body when itwas cremated, because
there was a risk that people would conform mistakenly to something he had written.

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