History

Tracing Changes Through A Thousand Years

Question:

How do the historians divide the past into periods? Do they face any problems in doing so?

Answer:

Time is not just passing of hours, days or years for historians. Instead it is the reflection of social, economic, cultural and religious changes that occur through the ages. Division of past into large segments—periods—make it easy to study time for historians. British historians, in the middle of the nineteenth century, divided time into three periods—Hindu, Muslim and British. This division was made on the basis of the fact that no significant change other than the religion of the rulers could occur during these periods. But as a matter of fact this division ignored the rich diversity of the subcontinent. Few historians take this periodisation even today while most of them take the economic and social factors into account in order to characterize the major elements of different moments of the past. The history of the past thousand years has seen considerable changes. As a result the sixteenth century was not the same as the eighteenth century or the eighth or eleventh centuries. Hence it is very difficult for the historians to describe the entire period as one historical unit.

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Tracing Changes Through A Thousand Years

Q 1.

Why did Brahmanas dominate in the society during this period? [Imp.]

Q 2.

What was the basis of such division?

Q 3.

What sources do the historians use for the study of a particular period of history?[V. Imp.]

Q 4.

Who used the term Hindustan for the first time and when?

Q 5.

Who were scribes?

Q 6.

What does time mean for historians? How does it help them?  [V. Imp.]

Q 7.

Who is a cartographer'?

Q 8.

What difference do you trace out in the region of Hindustan of thirteenth century and the modem India?

Q 9.

What do you mean by Jati Panchayat?

Q 10.

Who used the term Hindustan for the first time and when?

Q 11.

Who were the patrons?

Q 12.

Who was the Chief of the village?

Q 13.

What was the major development of this age?

Q 14.

What were the new groups of people to be prominent in this age?  [V. Imp.]

Q 15.

Who was considered a foreigner in the past?

Q 16.

Who was al-Idrisi?

Q 17.

State whether true or false:

  • We do not find inscriptions for the period after 700.
  • The Maraihas asserted their political importance during this period.
  • Forest-dwellers were sometimes pushed out of their lands with the spread of agricultural settlements.
  • Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban controlled Assam, Manipur and Kashmir.

Q 18.

What do you mean by pan-regional rule? What was its impact? [V. Imp.]

Q 19.

Fill in the blanks:
(a) Archives are places where………….. are kept.
(b) …………….was a fourteenth-century chronicler.
(c) ……., ……., ………, ……… and ………… were some of the crops introduced into  the subcontinent during this period.

Q 20.

What changes took place during 700 and 1750? [V. Imp.]

Q 21.

What are the difficulties historians face in using manuscripts?

Q 22.

How did the scribes copy down the manuscripts?

Q 23.

What do you mean by archives?

Q 24.

Trace out the major changes in the society during 700 and 1750? What was its main reason? [V. Imp.]

Q 25.

What difference do you notice in the map drawn by al-Idrisi?

Q 26.

What was the change in the religion of the time? Trace out major developments?  [V. Imp.]

Q 27.

How were the affairs ofjaiis regulated?

Q 28.

What factors contributed to the variety of developments?

Q 29.

How do the historians divide the past into periods? Do they face any problems in doing so?

Q 30.

List some of the technological changes associated with this period.

Q 31.

What were some of the major religious developments during this period?

Q 32.

In what ways has the meaning of the term ‘Hindustan' charged over the centuries?

Q 33.

How history was divided by historians during the middle of the nineteenth century?

Q 34.

What does the term pan-regional empire mean?

Q 35.

Find out where records are kept in your village or city. Who writes these records? Is there an archive? Who manages it? What kinds of documents are stored there? Who are the people who use it?

Q 36.

What was the stretch of Delhi Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban's Empire?

Q 37.

What was the process of copying manuscript? What were its drawbacks? [Imp.]

Q 38.

Compare either Map 1 or Map 2 with the present-day map of the subcontinent listing as many similarities and differences as you can find.