i) It is said that Pandyas were Jains initially and later adopted Saivism.
ii) Inscriptions and the sculptures in the temples attest to this belief. The early rockcut cave temples were the outcrop of transitional stage in religion and architecture.
iii) Medieval Pandyas and later Pandyas repaired many temples and endowed them with gold and land.
iv) The vimanam over the sanctum of Srirangam and Chidambaram temples were covered with golden leaves.
v) Sadaiyavarman Sundarapandyan was anointed in Srirangam temple, and to commemorate it, he donated an idol of Vishnu to the temple.
vi) The inner walls of this temple and three other gopurams were plated with gold.

1. Traders founded guilds and called themselves as sudesi, nanadesi, ainurruvar and others.
2. Their main guild functioned at Aihole. Foreign merchants were known as Nanadesi.
3. It had a separate flag with the figure of bull at the centre, and they enjoyed the right of issuing vira-sasanas.
4. The jurisdiction of this guild stretched over entire south-east Asia.
5. The chief of this guild is registered in the inscriptions as pattanswamy, pattnakilar, and dandanayaka. Its members were known as ayyavole-parameswariyar.

The grandson of Narasimhavarman, (who arose) from the kings of this race, just as the moon and the sun from the eastern mountain;
1. who was the crest-jewel on the head of those princes,
2. who had never bowed their heads (before);
3. who proved a lion to the elephant-herd of hostile kings;
4. who appeared to be blessed Narasirnha himself,
5. who had come down (to earth) in the shape of a prince;
6. who repeatedly defeated the Cholas, Keralas, Kalabhras, and Pandyas;
7. who, like Sahasrabahu (i.e., the thousand-armed Kartavirya), enjoyed the action for a thousand arms in hundreds of fights; who wrote the (three) syllables of (the word) vijaya (i.e., victory), as on a plate, on Pulikesin's back, which was caused to be visible (i.e., whom he caused to turn his back) in the battles of Pariyala, Manimangala, Suramara, etc., and who destroyed (the city of) Vatapi, just as the pitcher-born (Agastya) (the demon) Vatapi.

i) An important aspect of Islam in India was its early acceptance of a long-term coexistence with Hinduism, despite all the violence that occurred in military campaigns, conquests and depredations.
ii) The conqueror Muizzuddin of Ghor had, on some of his gold coins, stamped the image of the goddess Lakshmi.
iii) Muhammad Tughlaq in 1325 issued a farman enjoining that protection be extended by all officers to Jain priests; he himself played holi and consorted with yogis.
iv) The historian Barani noted with some bitterness how 'the kings of Islam' showed respect to 'Hindus, Mongols, Polytheists and infidels, by making them sit on masnad (cushions) and
v) By honouring them in other ways, and how the Hindus upon paying taxes (jiziya-o- kharaj) were allowed to have their temples and celebrations, employ Muslim servants, and flaunt their titles(rai, rana, thakur, sah, mahta, pandit, etc), right in the capital seats of Muslim rulers.

Rajput Kingdoms
i) By the beginning of the tenth century two powerful Rajput Kingdoms Gurjar Prathihara and Rashtrakutas had lost their power.
ii) Tomaras (Delhi), Chauhans (Rajasthan), Solankis (Gujarat), Paramaras (Malwa), Gahadavalas (Kanauj) and Chandelas (Bundelkhand) had become important ruling dynasties of Northern India.
iii) Vighraharaja and Prithviraj, two prominent Chauhan rulers, Bhoja of Paramara dynasty, Ghadavala king Jayachandra, Yasovarrnan, Kirti Varman of Chandelas were all strong in their own regions.
iv) The Rajputs had a long tradition of martial spirit, courage and bravery.
v) There was little difference between the weapons used by the Turks and the Rajputs.

i) Ziauddin Barani: Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi(1357) History of Delhi Sultanate up to Firuz Tughlaq
ii) Amir Khusrau: Mifta Ul Futuh (Victories of Jalal-ud-din Khalji); Khazain Ul Futuh (Victories of Allauddin Khalji - Texts in Persian)
iii) ughlaq Nama (History of Tughlaq dynasty in Persian)
iv) Shams-i-Siraj Afif: Tarikh i Firuz Shahi (after Barani's account of Delhi Sultanate in Persian)
v) Ghulam Yahya Bin Ahmad: Tarikh-i- Mubarak Shahi (Written in Persian during the reign of Sayyid ruler Mubarak Shah)
vi) Ferishta: History of the Muslim Rule in India (Persian).

1. The period between the Guptas and the Vardhanas saw many independent principalities. North India lacked a strong central power.
2. The Huns, Maithrakas of Valabhi, Maukharis of Kanauj, Yasodharman of Mandasor, Pushyabhutis of Thaneswar and Later Guptas of Magadha were subregional kingdoms.
3. Harsha subdued the minor powers and became the king ofThanesar and Kanauj. His authority and control prevailed over Bengal, Kamarupa, Valabhi, Sind, Nepal and Kashmir.
4. Harsha maintained cordial relations with China and the Chinese pilgrim Hieun Tsang recorded the socio-religious conditions of the people of that period.
5. Harsha patronised Buddhism and convened Buddhist assemblies at Kanauj and Prayag.

The prime minister was of the most important position in the council of ministers.
1. Avanti - Minister for Foreign Relations and War
2. Sirnhananda - Commander-in-Chief
3. Kuntala - Chief Cavalry Officer
4. Skandagupta- Chief Commandant of Elephant Force
5. Dirghadhvajas - Royal Messengers
6. Banu - Keeper of Records
7. Mahaprathihara - Chief of the Palace Guard
8. Sarvagata - Secret Service Department

According to Bana, Harsha, in an effort to build an empire, sent an ultimatum to the following kings to either surrender or be prepared for a battle:
1. Sasanka, the Gauda ruler of Bengal.
2. The Maitrakas of Valabhi and Gurjara of Broach region.
3. The Chalukya king, Pulikesin II, in the Deccan
3. Rulers of Sindh, Nepal, Kashmir, Magadha, Odra (northern Odisha) and Kongoda (another geographical unit in ancient Odisha).

1. The rock-cut caves continue the old forms to a great extent but possess striking novelty by bringing about extensive changes in the ornamentation of the facade and in the designs of the pillars in the interior.
2. The most notable groups of the rock-cut caves are found at Ajanta and Ellora (Maharashtra) and Bagh (Madhya Pradesh). The Udayagiri caves (Orissa) are also of this type.
3. The structural temples have the following attributes: (1) flat-roofed square temples; (2) flat-roofed square temple with a vimana (second storey); (3) square temple with a curvilinear tower (shikara) above; (4) rectangular temple; and (5) circular temple.

1. The importance of irrigation to agriculture was recognised in India from the earliest times the Narada Smriti, two kinds of dykes.
2. The bardhya, which protected the field from floods, and the khara, which served the purpose of irrigation.
3. To prevent inundation, jalanirgamah (drains) were constructed, which is mentioned by Amarasimha.
4. Canals were constructed not only from rivers but also from tanks and lakes.
5. The most famous lake was the Sudarsana lake at the foot of Girnar Hills in Gujarat.

• The well-developed infrastructure and organization of trade enabled the rich merchants to amass large fortunes.
• Such merchant princes or capitalists were found in all parts of lndia - the banias and Parsi merchants of Surat, the nagarseths of Ahmedabad, the Jagat Seths of Bengal, and the merchant communities of the Coromandel.
• Contemporary European observers noted that these merchants appropriated all the profits from trade to themselves, while the earnings and condition of the weavers and peasants were pitifully poor.
• This rendered them especially vulnerable to natural calamities like famines. In the
Madras region, for instance, famine occurred at least ten times between 1678 and 1750.
• Sometimes there was widespread famine which lasted for several years on end. This drove the rural poor to sell themselves into slavery.
• Dutch records from the Coromandel regularly mention male and female slaves among the cargo sent to Batavia.

• The Dutch and the English were able to acquire territorial rights on the east coast during these years.
• They realized that they needed a base on the Coromandel coast to access the piece goods needed for trading with the spice-producing islands of Indonesia.
• The Dutch had successfully negotiated to acquire Pulicat (Palaverkadu) from the Nayak of Senji and constructed a fort there.
• The English got a piece of land further south from the local chief, Damarla Venkatadri Nayak on which they built Fort St.George in 1639.
• Thus an English settlement came up which eventually grew into Chennai (Madras), the capital of the Madras Presidency.

First Mysore War (1767-69)
• In the third Carnatic War Colonel Forde while conducting the forces from Bengal captured Masulipatnamm in 1759.
• This led to a treaty with Salabad Jung, who ceded the Northern Sarkars to the British (districts of Ganjam, Vizagapatnam, Godavari, Krishna and Guntur).
• English acquisition of the Northern Sarkars was legalized by a Mughal emperor in 1765 by the treaty of Allahabad. In 1766, trouble arose when the English occupied those districts.
• Yet a treaty was signed with Nizam Ali who acquiesced in the session. In return the English promised to help out in case of any danger from the enemies.
• This promise meant English help to the Nizam against Haider Ali. Here lay the genesis of the later Subsidiary System.
• Despite the treaty, Nizam came to an understanding with Haider in 1767 and the British therefore declared a war against Haider.
• This is called First Anglo- Mysore War or First Mysore War.

Naoroji argued that a great deal of wealth was drained to England in the form of Home Charges. The following constituted the Home Charges:
1. Incentive to the shareholders of the Company
2. Savings and the salaries of European officials, European traders and Planters remitted to England.
3. Pensions to those who retired from civil and military services.
4. The salaries of the staff and the Secretary to Home Government, India Office at London
5. Expenses on wars fought in India and interests for the loans obtained from the banks for the conduct of wars and for the building of railroads.

1. The administrative head of East India Company was Governor (of Fort William or of Fort St. George) until 1772
2. Warren Hastings who was Governor of Fort William was made Governor-General of Bengal according to the Regulating Act of 1773.
3. The Charter Act 1833 designated this post as Governor-General of India and William Bentinck was appointed the first Governor-General of united British India
4. The Governor-General was selected by the Court of Directors of the East India Company, to whom he was responsible.
5. After the great rebellion of 1857, when the government of India was transferred from the East India Company to the Crown, the title "Viceroy and Governor- General" was first used in the queen's proclamation of 1858.
6. Canning was the first Viceroy and Governor-General of India accountable to the British Parliament.

1. Akbar's court poet Faizi translated Bhaskaracharya's famous work on mathematics, Lilavati.
2. Despite the presence of Europeans, there was no influence of them on the Indian society during the Mughal period.
3. The method of water-lift based on pin-drum gearing known as Persian wheel had been introduced during Babur's time.
4. A complicated system of water lift by a series of gear-wheels had been installed in Fatehpur Sikri.
5. Akbar was also credited with popularizing the device of cooling water using saltpetre.
6. He is also the first known person in the world to have devised the 'ship's camel', a barge on which the ship is built to make it easier for the ship to be carried to the sea.
7. Some mechanical devices like the screw for tightening, manually driven belt-drill for cutting diamonds were in use.
8. Agricultural tools continued to be the same, made entirely of wood. In metallurgy, the inability to produce cast iron remained an obvious drawback.
9. As Irfan Habib observed, 'India's backwardness in technology was obvious when the matchlock remained the most common weapon in Indian armies. In Europe the flintlock had long come into use.
10. Indians continued to use the expensive bronze cannon, long after these had become obsolete in Europe. This was because of India's inability to make cast iron even in the seventeenth century. '

Sher Shah's Reforms
1. When Sher Shah was pursuing Humayun, he had left Khizr Khan as the Governor of Bengal.
2. Khizr Khan married the daughter of the former ruler of Bengal, Sultan Mahmud, and started behaving like a king.
3. On his return Sher Shah ordered him to be put in chains.
4. As one familiar with the problem of provincial insubordination, he thought that the real solution to the problem would be to set up a strong administrative system.
5. So he made his government highly centralised. 
6. The local administrative structure of the Delhi Sultanate was followed with certain changes.
7. The village headmen who were made responsible for the goods stolen within the area under their control became vigilant.
8. The welfare of the peasants was a prime concern.
9. When the peasant is ruined, Sher Shah believed, the king is ruined.
10. Sher Shah took great care that the movements of the army did not damage crops.
11. He followed a flexible revenue system.
12. Land was surveyed and revenue settled according to the fertility of the soil.
13. In some areas, the jagirdari and zamindari systems were allowed to continue.

• Phule held radical views on social, religious, political and economic issues.
• He considered the caste system as an antithesis of the principle of human equality.
• He sought to raise. the morale of the non-Brahmins and united them to revolt against the centuries old inequality and social degradation.
• Towards this end Phule founded the Satya Shodak Samaj (Society for Seeking Truth) in 1875.
• His most important book is Gulamgiri (Slavery).

Shivaji and Jaisingh
In 1664, Shivaji attacked Surat, the major Mughal port in Arabian Sea and his soldiers plundered the City.
Aurangzeb despatched an army under the command of the Rajput general Raja Jai Singh to defeat Shivaji and annex Bijapur.
At that time, Prince Muazzam, later Bahadur Shah I, was the Governor of the Deccan. Jai Singh made elaborate plans to encircle Shivaji on all sides.
Even Raigarh was under threat. Purandar was besieged in June 1665. The heroic resistance of Shivaji became futile.
Therefore he decided to come to negotiate with Jai Singh. According to the treaty of Purandar signed on 11 June 1665 Shivaji yielded the fortresses that he had captured and agreed to serve as a mansabdar and assist the Mughals inafengotaion.

1. Sur Das lived at the court of Akbar and was popularly known as the blind bard of Agra.
2. Sur Das is believed to have been a disciple of Vallabacharya who was a Vaishnava preacher in the Sultanate period.
3. Vallabhacharya was the founder of Pushtimarga (way of grace). Sur Daspreached religion of love and devotion to a personal God.
4. He wrote inspiring and moving poems, Hindi poems about Lord Krishna. Krishna's bal lila constitutes the first great theme of Sur Das poetry.
5. According to him, love is a sublimated theme representing the irresistible attraction of the gopis of Brindavan towards Krishna.
6. The intensity of passion displayed by the gopis is an expression of the natural attraction of the human spirit towards the divine soul. His popular works are Sur Sagar, Sur Saravali and Sahitya Lehari.
7. His monumental work Sur Sagar or Sur's Ocean is a story of Lord Krishna from the birth to the departure for Mathura.

1. Namadeva, a son of a tailor and an inhabitant of the village of Naras- Vamani in Satara district of Maharashtra, under the influence of Saint Janadeva, was converted to the path of bhakti.
2. A staunch devotee of Vitthala of Pandarpur, Namdeva spent much of his time in worship along with his followers, chanting mostly in his own verses.
3. He wrote many abhangs (songs composed and sung by saints in Maharashtra in praise of God's glory) in Marathi and Hindi.
4. He travelled as far as Punjab where his teachings became so popular that they were later absorbed in the Guru Granth.
5. Love god with an your heart to lead a pious life surrendering everything to him with steadfast devotion is the essence of his message.

1. From the beginning, both the Bahmani and Vijayangar kingdoms were in constant conflict. The contest for territory, tribute, and the control of horse trade were the major subjects of conflict.
2. Each of them wanted to annex and dominate the fertile area between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra (the Raichur doab). Though neither of them succeeded fully, much bloodshed took place for some transitory success.
3. Some historians argue that religious rivalry between the Hindu Vijayanagar and the Muslim Sultanate was the basic cause of this continuous fight.
4. Actually the Vijayanagar kings fought also with many Hindu, non-Muslim rulers, like those of Warangal, Kondavidu, Orissa, etc., in which Muslim rulers took part as allies sometimes and as enemies on other times.
5. The control of horse trade that passed through Goa and other ports was another reason for the fighting. Horses were necessary for the armies of both sides. In spite of continuous fighting, the Krishna river was more or less the dividing line between the two powers.
6. In coastal Andhra, the power struggle was between the Gajapati kingdom of Orissa and Vijayanagar. Vijayanagar couldnot make much headway until the time of Devaraya II (1422-46), who defeated the Orissan army in some battles.
7. But these conquests were only to extract tribute, and no territory was added. Devaraya II was the greatest ruler of the Sangama dynasty. He strengthened his cavalry by recruiting trained Muslim cavalry for his army and giving archery training to his soldiers.
8. Abdur Razaak, the Persian ambassador who visited the Zamorin of Kochi and the Vijayanagar court during this time states that Devaraya II controlled a vast area. He received tribute from the king of Sri Lanka too.

1. The Golkonda Fort also houses the tombs of the Qutub Shahis.
2. There are two individual pavilions on the outer side of Golkonda which serve as major architectural attractions .
3.The Fort comprises four other small forts within itself. It has cannons, draw bridges, royal chambers, halls, temples, mosques, stables, etc.
4. The Fateh Darwaza or the Victory Gate is the entrance to the fort. Aurangzeb laid siege to this Golkonda fort in 1687 for about eight months but in vain.
5. It was due to the treachery of an Afghan gate keeper, the fort finally fell.

1. Gawan fought successful wars against the rulers of Konkan, Orissa and Vijayanagar. He was known for his administrative reforms.
2. He used Persian chemists to teach the preparation and the use of gunpowder. In his war against the Vijayanagar Kings in Belgaum, he used gunpowder.
3. In order to tighten the administration and to curb the power of provincial governors, who functioned virtually as kings, Gawan divided the existing four provinces of the Bahrnani Sultanate into eight.
4. This not only limited the area under the rule of each governor but also made the provincial administration more manageable.
5. He placed some districts in the provinces directly under central administration.
6. Gawan sought to curtail the military powers ofthe governors by allowing them to occupy only one fort in their territory.