What do you know about the Ahom Society?
Ahom society was divided into clans or Khels. There were very few castes of artisans, so artisans in the Ahom areas came from the nearby kingdoms. Kheloften controlled several villages. The peasant was given land by his village community. Even the king could not take it away without the community's consent. The Ahoms worshipped their own tribal gods. But during the first half of the 17 century Brahmanas achieved great influence which gave rise to Hinduism. In the reign of Sib Singh Hinduism became a predominant religion. However, the Ahom kings remained stick to their traditional beliefs to some extent even after adopting Hinduism. Ahom society was very sophisticated. Poets and scholars were given land grants. Theatre was encouraged.
Which tribe was very influential in Punjab during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries?
What kinds of exchanges took place between nomadic pastoralists and settled agriculturists?
Fill in the blanks:
(a) The new castes emerging within vamas were called……………………
(b) ……… were historical works written by the Ahoms.
(c) The…….. mentions that Garha Katanga had 70,000 villages.
(d) As tribal stales became bigger and stronger they gave land grants to………….. ..
Match the following:
garh – khel
tanda – chaurasi
labourer – caravan
clan – Garha Katanga
Sib Singh – Ahom State
Durgawati – paik
Find out about present-day government policies towards tribal populations and organise a discussion about these.
State whether true or false:
(a) Tribal societies had rich oral traditions.
(b) There were no tribal communities in the north-western part of the subcontinent.
(c) The Chaurasi in Gond states contained several cities.
(d) The Bhils lived in the north-eastern part of the sub-continent.
Give a brief account of the tribal people found in different parts of the subcontinent [V. Imp.]
In what ways was the history of the Gonds different from that of the Ahoms? Were there any similarities?
Plot the location of the tribes mentioned in this chapter on a map. For any two, discuss whether their mode of livelihood was suited to the geography and the environment of the area where they lived.