Exercise - Question:

Que: Who was considered a “foreigner” in the past?

Ans: A “foreigner” was any stranger who appeared say in a given village, someone who was not a part of that society or culture.

Que: State whether true or false

(a) We do not find inscriptions for the period after 700.

(b) The Marathas asserted their political importance during this period.

(c) Forest-dwellers were sometimes pushed out of their lands with the spread of agricultural settlements.

(d) Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban controlled Assam, Manipur and Kashmir.

Ans: 

(a) False 

(b) True

(c) True

(d) False

Que: Fill in the blanks

(a) Archives are places where ——————— are kept.

(b) ——————was a fourteenth-century chronicler.

(c) ——, ———, ———, ——— and ——— were some of the new crops introduced into the subcontinent during this period.

Ans: 

(a) documents and old official records and transactions 

(b) Ziyauddin Baruni 

(c) Potatoes, corn, chillies, tea, coffee. 

Que: List some of the technological changes associated with this period. 

Ans: There are following technological changes which introduced during this period: 

(i) The persian wheel in irrigation. 

(ii) The spinning wheel in weaving. 

(iii) The using of firearms in Combact. 

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

Ans: The major religious developments during this period are seen in the Hinduism. 

(i) These included the worship of new deities,

(ii) The construction of temples by royalty.

(iii) The growing importance of Brahmanas, the priests, as dominant groups in society.

(iv) One of the major developments was the emergence of the idea of bhakti — of a loving, personal deity that devotees could reach without the aid of priests or elaborate rituals.

Que: In what ways has the meaning of the term “Hindustan” changed over the centuries?

Ans:

(i) The term “Hindustan" was used in the thirteenth century by Minhaj-i Siraj, a chronicler who wrote in Persian, he meant the areas of Punjab, Haryana and the lands between the Ganga and Yamuna.

(ii) He used the term in a political sense for lands that were a part of the dominions of the
Delhi Sultan.

(iii) By contrast, in the early sixteenth century Babur used Hindustan to describe the geography, the fauna and the culture of the inhabitants of the subcontinent.

(iv) This was somewhat similar to the way the fourteenth-century poet Amir Khusrau used the word “Hind”.

Que: How were the affairs of jatis regulated?

Ans: 

The ways in which the affairs of jaitis were regulated were as follows:             

(i) Jaitis framed their own rules and regulated to manage the conduct of their members.       

(ii) Jati Panchayat or the assembly of elders enforced these regulation.           

(iii) Jatis also followed the rules of their villages.          

Que: What does the term pan-regional empire mean?

Ans:

(i) During the medieval period there was enormous diversity among distinctive region of the subcontinet.  

(ii) Each region had its own geographical dimension, own language and cultural characterstics.                                                                 

(iii) These regions were associated with specific ruling dynasties.                   

(iv) There was a considerable conflict between these states.                       

(v) Therefore the empires that ruled or controlled such diverse regions, are called the pan-regional empires. For example, dynasties like the Cholas, Khaljis, Tuglaq and Mughals were able to build the pan-regional empire.

Que: What are the difficulties historians face in using manuscripts?

Ans:

(i) Manuscript are badly written which is hardly ununderstable.                   

(ii) Sometimes, due to lack of under standblity of handwritting, historisan are forced to guess what is written.                                                       

(iii) As scribes copied manuscripts, they also introdused small changes which grew over centuries.                                                                 

(iv) Historisan have to demand upon the copied version as the original manuscripts are rarely found.    

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

Ans:

(i) Historisan divide the past into periods on the basis of economic and social factors to characteric the major elements of different moments of the past.       

(ii) Historisan face many problems while dividing the past into periods as there was a good amount of technolgical development in the "medival" period, which can be called as 'modern' in the contemporary context. But still the period is called "medival". On the other hand, modern past is followed past is followed by the "medival" past.  

Que: 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.

Ans:  Map 1 and Map 2 given in the NCERT Textbook represent two different times. Map 1 was made in 1154 CE by al-Idrisi, an Arab geographer. This section is a detail of the Indian subcontinent from his larger map of the world. Map 2 was made by a French cartographer in 1720. Both maps are quite different from each other, even though they represent the same area. In Map 1 we find south India at the place where we would expect to find north India and Sri Lanka is the island at the top. The place names are in Arabic. Some familiar places like Kanauj in Uttar Pradesh have been spelt as Qanauj. In comparison to this Map 2 was made nearly 600 later after Map 1. By that time information about the subcontinent had changed a lot. This map appears to be more familiar to us. The coastal areas, particularly, are more detailed.

Que: 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?

Ans:

1. Records are kept in our city at the archives. These records are written by the officials of the Revenue Department.
2. The in charge of the Archives/ Deputy Director of Archives manages these records.
3. Rare manuscripts, government records, and other valuable books, etc. are stored there.
4. Scholars, researchers, and government officials use them.