1. The devotional movement manifested itself as a great social transformation.
2. The apogee of its movement was the coming up of temples that became prominent in the Tamil landscape.
3. Temples, in later Chola times, became great social institutions.
4. Politically, the Bhakti movement prompted the rulers to establish the settlements for the invited Brahmin groups from the north of the Indian sub-continent.
5. Royal members, local administrative bodies and individuals initiated the calendrical celebrations and festivals to be conducted in the temples for which they started making endowments to meet their expenditure.
6. It directly speeded up the emergence of state in Tamil country and indirectly integrated the different social groups into the religious fold through the instrumentality of temple institutions.
7. Over the centuries the Bhakti movement spread all over India, and resulted in a transformation of Hinduism.

1. Land grants recorded mainly on copperplates provide detailed information on land revenues and taxation.
2. Revenue came almost exclusively from rural sources, mercantile and urban institutions being largel unplanned.
3. Two categories of taxes were levied on the village.
4. The land revenue paid by the cultivator to the state varied from 1/6th to 1/10th of the produce, and was collected by the village and paid to the state collector.
5. In the second category were local taxes, also collected in the village but utilized for services in the village itself.
6. The tax money was spent for repairing irrigation works, illuminating the temple, etc.
7. When the state land tax was inadequate, the revenue was supplemented by additional taxes on draught cattle, toddy-drawers, marriage- parties, potters, goldsmiths, washer men, textile-manufacturers, weavers, brokers, letter-carriers, and the makers of ghee.

1. The Bhakti movement which originated in South India found its greatest expression in the songs composed by the Azhwars and Nayanrnars.
2. The poems of the VaishnaviteAzhwars were later compiled as the Nalayira Divya Prabhandam.
3. The Saiva literature was canonized as the Panniru Tirumurai.
4. The Thevaram, composed by Appar (Thirunavukkarasar), Sambandar (Thirugnanasambandar) and Sundarar; and Thiruvavasagarn by Manickavasagar are prominent texts which are read as sacred literature to this day.
5. Periyapuranam written by Sekizhar, in a later period also provides much historical information.
6. The Mathavilasa Prahasanam written by Mahendravarman I in Sanskrit, is an important source for the Pallava period.

i) Bandagan is the plural of banda, literally military slaves. They were graded according to the years of service, proximity and trust worthiness.
ii) This trust led to their appointment as governors and military commanders.
iii) The Ghurid bandagan in North India were the slaves of Muiz-ud- Din Ghuri.
iv) Since these slaves were without a social identity of their own they were given new names by their masters, which included the nisba, which indicated their social, or regional identity.
v) Slaves carried the nisba of their master: hence Mu'izz al- Din's slave carried the nisba Mu'izzi and later Sultan Shams-ud-Din Iltutmish's slave were called the Shamsi bandagan.

i) Mahmud ruled for thirty-two years.
ii) During this period, he conducted as many as seventeen military campaigns into India.
iii) He targeted Hindu temples that were depositories of vast treasures.
iv) Though the motive was to loot, there was also a military advantage in demolishing temples and smashing idols.
v) The Ghaznavid soldiers viewed it also as a demonstration of the invincible power of their god.
vi) The religious passions of Mahmud's army expressed itself in slaughter of 'infidels' and plunder and destruction oftheir places of worship.

The founder of Pala dynasty Gopala was elected to rule by the chieftains and rulers of little kingdoms.
1. Dharmapala, Devapala and Mahipala I ruled ably and kept their domain under effective control.
2. Weak successors contributed to the decline of the dynasty.
3. Mahayana Buddhism flourished during the Pala reign.
4.The patronage of Palas to Vikramashila and Nalanda universities paved the way for the progress of Buddhist, Jain and Sanskrit literature

1. Harsha ruled for 41 years. His feudatories included those of Jalandhar (in the Punjab), Kashmir, Nepal and Valabhi.
2. Sasanka of Bengal remained hostile to him.
3. Though it is claimed that Harsha's Empire comprised Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Kanauj, Malwa, Odisha, the Punjab, Kashmir, Nepal and Sindh, his real sway did not extend beyond a compact territory between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.
4. The kingdom of Harsha disintegrated rapidly into small states after his death.

1. The social formation of feudalism was the characteristic of the medieval society in India.
2. Feudal features listed by historian R.S. Sharma are: royal grants of land; transfer of fiscal and judicial rights to the beneficiaries;
3. The grant of their rights over peasants, artisans and merchants; an increased incidence of forced labour; appropriation of surplus by the state;
4. A decline in trade and coinage; payment of officials through land revenue assignments; and the growth of the obligations of the samantas (subordinate or feudatory rulers).

1. Trade items ranged from products for daily use to valuable and luxury goods. They included pepper, sandalwood, elephants, horses, gold, copper, iron and mica.
2. Guild is a society or other organisation of people with common interests or an association of merchants.
3. There are several references in several sources to artisans, traders and occupational groups in the guilds.
4. Guilds continued as the major institution in the manufacture of goods and in commercial enterprise.
5. The Narada and Brihaspati Smritis describe the organisation and activities of guilds.
6. They mention that the guild had a chief and two, three or five executive officers.
7. Guild laws were apparently laid down in written documents. The Brihaspati Smriti refers to guilds rendering justice to their members and suggests that these decisions should, by and large, be approved by the king.

1. Nitisara, written by Kamandaka, is a text like Arthasastra.
2. It emphasises the importance of the royal treasury and mentions various sources of revenue.
3. The many ambitious military campaigns of kings like Samudragupta must have been financed through revenue surpluses.
4. Gupta inscriptions reveal some details about the revenue department. The akshapataladhikrita was the keeper of royal records.

1. This period, invasion of Ayodhya (Saketa) and further east into the Magadha territory.
2. However, since the Greeks seem to have been beset by internal dissensions, they did not retain any of this territory.
3. They ceded land to Pushyamitra, the Sunga emperor who had usurped the throne after the last Mauryan ruler.
4. Numismatic evidence also proves Demetrius's association with India.
5. He issued bi-lingual square coins with Greek on the obverse and Kharoshti (the local language of north-western Pakistan) on the reverse.

1. Tamil texts including the Sangam and post-Sangam literature
2. The Arthasastra, the treatise on economy and statecraft authored by Kautilya
3. The Puranas which mention the genealogy of the Andhras/Satavahanas
4. Buddhist Chronicles such as Mahavamsa.
5. Gatha Saptasati, a Prakrit text composed by the Satavahana king Hala

There are linguistic similarities between Rig Veda and Avesta. The term Aryas was also used by the ancient Persians. Accordingto Indologist Thomas Burrow,only phonetic change had occurred overtime. The Bogaz Koi (in North-East Syria) Inscription dating back to 1380 BCE records a treaty between a Hittite and a Mitanni King. It mentions the names of a few Rig Vedic gods such as Indara, Uruvna (Varuna), Mitira and Nasatiya (Ashvins). Since it supports the information gathered from other contemporary sources about Chandragupta. It is important to note from both these sources that the fame of Chandragupta had survived long after lie was gone and became imbibed in popular lore and memory.

Kodumanal, 40 km from Erode, is located on the northern bank of Noyyal river, a tributary of the Cauvery. A series of excavations were carried out during the 1980s and 1990s. The most recent was in 2012. In habitation trenches and megalithic burials of Kodumanal, the goods unearthed included pots, weapons, tools, ornaments, and beads, particularly carnelian, akin to those found at Mohenjodaro. Since carnelian was not known to this region in ancient times, it may have been brought to Kodumanal from outside.

Black and red ware, along with partial human remains and iron objects, were unearthed recently at Vadamalkunda in Krishnagiri, Tamilnadu. A few stone slabs were also found at the site. A centuries old menhir at Singaripalayam excavated near Kundadam in Tiruppur district points to the existence of an ancient settlement along the banks of River Uppar.

Merchant Groups
• Just as the various kinds of markets functioned at different scales, merchants were also not a homogeneous group.
• There were traders and retailers who serviced markets in smaller centres.
• If mercantile activity can be deemed to be a pyramid, this class of merchants would be at the base of the pyramid.
• At its top were the great merchants, who were the prime movers in overseas trade with great reserves of capital, who controlled the producers in the hinterland of the ports.
• They generally employed the services of a network of brokers and sub-brokers to acquire goods from the interior regions or hinterland of the port towns.
• These agents could be said to form the middle tier of the merchant pyramid

• The Nayak kingdoms became virtually autonomous, though they made a ritualistic acknowledgment ofthe authority of the Vijayanagar emperor.
• In addition to the larger Nayak kingdoms, several local chiefs also controlled some parts of the region.
• The most notable of them was probably the Setupati of Ramanathapuram, who was also keen to assert his independence.
• Between 1590 and 1649 the region witnessed several military conflicts arising out of these unsettled political conditions. Madurai and Thanjavur fought several times to establish their superiority.
• There were also rebellions against the Vijayanagar emperor. Besides these ongoing conflicts, Golkonda invaded the Coromandel in 1646 and annexed the area between Pulicat and San Thome, which also changed the political scenario in the region.

1. In 1815, the Governor of Madras received a communication from the Governor of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) asking for coolies to work on the coffee plantations.
2. The Madras Governor forwarded this letter to the collector of Thanjavur, who after enquiry reported back saying that the people were very much attached to the soil and hence unless some incentive was provided it was not easy to make them move out of their native soil.
3. But the outbreak of two famines (1833 and 1843) forced the people, without any prompting from the government, to leave for Ceylon to work as coolies in coffee and tea plantations under indentured labour system.
4. During 1843-1868, nearly 1.5 million people (1,444,407) had gone from Madras to Ceylon as indentured labourers.

The provisions of the Subsidiary Treaty are:
1. All Indian ruler entering into Subsidiary Alliance with the British had to dissolve his own armed forces and accept British forces and a British Resident in his territory.
2. He had to pay for the British army's maintenance. If he failed, a portion of his territory would be taken away and ceded to the British.
3. The protected prince was to sever all connections with European powers other than the British, especially the French.
4. No European should be employed without the permission of the British.
5. No negotiation with any Indian power should be held without the Company's permission and
6. No other Indian power to interfere in its internal affairs.
7. Thus the states brought under the system became dependent on the Company in political and military matters, sacrificing their own sovereignty and status.

Rajput Policy
1. Akbar took earnest efforts to win the goodwill of the Hindus. He abolished the jizya (poll tax) on non-Muslims and the tax on Hindu pilgrims.
2. The practice of sati by Hindu widows was also abolished. The practice of making slaves of war prisoners was also discontinued.
3. His conciliatory Rajput policy included matrimonial alliances with Rajput princely families, and according Rajput nobles high positions in the Mughal court.
4. A tolerant religious policy ensured the cultural and emotional integration of the people.
5. Even before Akbar, many Muslim kings had married Rajput princesses.
6. But Akbar with his broadminded nature was instrumental in these matrimonial alliances becoming a synthesising force between two different cultures as he maintained close relations with the families.

(a) Jagirdari
1. It is a land tenure system developed during the Delhi Sultanate.
2. Under the system the collection of the revenue of an estate and the power of governing it were bestowed upon an official of the state.
(b) Zamindari
1. The term refers to another land tenure system.
2. The word zamindar means landowner in Persian.
3. In Mughal times the zamindars were drawn from the class of nobles.
4. Akbar granted land to the nobles as well as to the descendents of old ruling families and allowed them to enjoy it hereditarily.
5. Zamindars collected revenue from the tenants and cultivators and remitted a fixed amount to the state.

1. Mirabai was born in Kudh of Merta district of Rajasthan. She was the great granddaughter of Rana Jodhaji, founder of Jodhpur.
2. She was married to Bhoj Raj, son of Ran a Sanga of Mewar.
3. She became a devotee of Lord Krishna, left the palace and began singing her songs (bhajans)and preaching the path of love on God.
4. Mirabai preached the worship of God in the name of Krishna and stressed that no one should be deprived of His divine grace on the ground of birth, poverty, age and sex.
5. Her devotional songs and lyrics constitute a rich cultural heritage. Her bhajans are sung with fervour to this day.
6. Her teachings carried the message of divine worship to almost every Hindu household.

1. The new political and social situation created conditions for the growth of nonconformist movements with anti-caste, anti-vedic and anti-puranic traditions.
2. The resultant changes in the cultural sphere were: development of regional languages, the evolution of Hindustani (Hindi), and of Indo-Muslim music and architecture.
3. The new political and social situation created conditions for the growth of nonconformist movements with anti-caste, anti-vedic and anti-puranic traditions.
4. The resultant changes in the cultural sphere were: development of regional languages, the evolution of Hindustani (Hindi), and of Indo-Muslim music and architecture.

1.The administrative reforms introduced by Gawan improved the efficiency of the government, but curtailed the powers of the provincial chiefs, who were mostly Deccanis.
2. So the already existing rivalry among the two groups of nobles, Deccani Muslims and Pardesi (foreigner) Muslims, further intensified and conflicts broke out.
3 Gawan became a victim of this tussle for power, although he remained fair and neutral in this conflict.
4. Jealous of his success they forged a letter to implicate Gawan in a conspiracy against the Sultan. Sultan, who himself was not happy with Gawan's dominance, ordered his execution.
5. Gawan's execution augured ill for the Sultanate. Several of the foreign nobles who were considered the strongest pillars of the state began to leave for their provlnces,Ieading to the disintegration of the Sultanate.
6. After the Sultan's death five of his descendants succeeded him on the throne but they were kings only in name.
7. During this period the Sultanate gradually broke up into four independent kingdoms: Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Berar and Golkonda. Bidar where the Bahmani Sultan ruled as a puppet became the fifth one.

1. The Raja Krishna Dev of the Kakatiya dynasty with Warangal as capital constructed the Golkonda Fort on a granite hill.
2. During 1495-1496 the fort was handed over to Sultan Kali Kutub Khan as a Jagir (land grant).
3. He reconstructed and rechristened the mud fort into a granite fort and called the place Muhammed Nagar.
4. Later, the Golkonda fort came into the possession of the Bahmani dynasty.
5. Still later, the Qutub Shahi dynasty took over and made Golkonda its capital.
6. Golkonda fort owes much of its present grandeur to Mohammad Quli Qutub Shah, the fifth sultan of Qutb Shahi dynasty.
7. The subsequent generations saw Golkonda being fortified further with several additions and the formation of a beautiful city within.
8. By the 17th century, Golkonda was famous as a diamond market.
9. It gave the world some of the best-known diamonds, including the 'Kohinoor'.
10. The Golkonda Fort is located about 11 kms from Hyderabad on a hill 120 meters hight.
11. The Golkonda Fort is popular for its acoustic architecture.
12. The highest point of the fort is Bala Hissar.
13. There is said to be a secret underground tunnel which leads from the Durbar Hall to one of the palaces at the foot of the hills.