(i) Sericulture the silk production by breeding the mulberry silkworm was introduced in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
(ii) By the seventeenth century, Bengal had become one of the largest silk-producing regions in the world.
(iii) In addition, other varieties of silk (like tassar) were also produced.

(i) The first was that cotton grew in almost all parts of India, so that the basic raw material was easily available.
(ii) Second, the technology of producing a permanent colour on cotton using vegetable dyes was known from very early times in India.
(iii) Indigo was the most important dye crop that was grown in India.

(i) Vijayanagar kingdom was established by - Harihara and Bukka (the two brothers).
(ii) This empire was ruled by Sangama dynasty, Saluva dynasty and the Tuluva dynasty.

The first ten years of the 1300 AD(CE) Alauddin Khalji's slave and commander Malik Kafur was sent on military expedition to south India.

(i) The territorial expansion of the Chola empire began under Rajaraja I.
(ii) The Pallava kingdom had already been assimilated into the Chola kingdom
(iii) Pandya kingdom remained independent, but was subservient to the Cholas.
(iv) The empire expanded further under Rajendra I. who had successfully taken his armies as far to the north east as the river Ganga.
(v) He had also sent naval expeditions against the Sailendra kingdom of Sri Vijaya (in Indonesia), Kadaram (Kedah) and Ceylon.
(vi) This earned him the title "Gangaiyum Kadaramum Konda Cholan".
(vii) Ceylon remained a province of Chola for 10 years.
(viii) The marriage alliance with the eastern Chalukyas under Rajendra's grandson Kulottunga helped to extend his expire up to the border of Orissa.
(ix) Trade with south-east Asia and China expanded greatly during the Chola period.
(x) The continued interaction with Tamil merchants resulted in the spread of the Indian culture and art into south-east Asia, as seen in the magnificent temples of Angkorwat in Combodia.

(i) The Mughal empire was founded by Babur in 1526 A.D. (C.E.) after he defeated Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat.
(ii) The first six Mughal Emperors are referred to as the 'Great Mughals'.
(iii) Aurangzeb was the last of the great Mughals.
(iv) Akbar consolidated the Mughal Empire through conquest and through a policy of conciliation with the Religious based kingdoms of Rajasthan.
(v) Though the Mughal empire began to disintegrate after Aurangzeb, it continued to exist nominally till 1857 A.D. (C.E.) when the British finally ended the virtually non-existent empire.
(vi) A new power centre rose in Maharashtra in the seventeenth century, and the Marathas under the leadership of Shivaji seriously undermined the authority of the Mughals in western India.
(vii) At its height, the empire stretched over most of the Indian sub-continent.
(viii) Only the south-western region of Kerala and southern Tamilnadu were not directly under Mughal rule.