https://www.youtube.com/c/ClearConceptClassesShujalpur www.clearconceptclasses.com https://www.youtube.com/c/ClearConceptClassesShujalpur Contents 1.The Harappan Culture: Bronze Age Civilization..............................................1 2.The Later Vedic Phase......................................................................................10 3.Territorial States and the First Magadhan Empire..........................................19 4.The Delhi Sultanate.........................................................................................28 5.Architecture.....................................................................................................35 6.Mughal Empire................................................................................................41 7.Social and Cultural Awakening in the first Half of the 19th Century.............52 8.The Revolt of 1857...........................................................................................60 9.Growth of New India-Religious and social reform after 1858.........................69 10.Nationalist Movement......................................................................................84 11.Multiple Choice Questions...............................................................................95 www.clearconceptclasses.com https://www.youtube.com/c/ClearConceptClassesShujalpur 1 The Harappan Culture: Bronze Age Civilization 1 THE HARAPPAN CULTURE: BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATION THE INDUS or the Harappan culture is Harappan culture is noticeable in its mature older than the chalcolithic cultures which and flourishing stage at all these six places. have been treated earlier, but it is far more It is also found in its mature phase in the developed than these cultures. It arose in the coastal cities of Sutkagendor and Surkotada, north-western part of the Indian each one of which is marked by a citadel. The subcontinent. It is called Harappan because later Harappan phase is found in Rangpur and this civilization was discovered first in 1921 Rojdi in the Kathiawar peninsula in Gujarat. at the modern site of Harappa situated in the In addition to these, Dholavira lying in the province of West Punjab in Pakistan. It Kutch area of Gujarat shows Harappan extended from Jammu in the north to the fortification and all the three phases of the Naramada estuary in the south, and from the Harappan culture. These phases also appear Makran coast of Balcuchistan in the west to in Rakhigarhi which is situated on the Meerut in the north-east. The area formed a Ghaggar in Haryana and is much bigger than triangle and accounted for about 1,299,600 Dholavira. square kilometers. Town Planning and Structures Nearly 1500 Harappan sites are known The Harappan culture was so far in the subcontinent. Of these, the two distinguished by its system of town planning. most important cities were Harappa in Punjab Harappa and Mohenjo-daro each had its own and Mohenjodaro (literally the mound of the citadel in each city lay a lower town dead) in Sindh, both forming parts of containing brick houses, which were Pakistan. Situated at a distance of 483 inhabited by the common people. The kilometres they were linked together by the remarkable thing about the arrangement of Indus. A third city lay at Chanhu daro about the houses in the cities is that they followed 130 km south of Mohenjodaro in Sindh, and the grid system. According to it, roads cut a fourth at Lothal in Gujarat at the head of across one another alomost at right angles, the Gulf of Cambay. A fifth city lay at and the city was divided into so many blocks. Kalibangan, which means black bangles, in This is true of almost all Indus settlements. northern Rajasthan. A sixth called Banawali The most important public place of is situated in Hissar district in Haryana. It Mohenjo-daro seems to be the Great Bath, saw two cultural phases, pre-Harappan and comprising the tank which is situated in the Harappan, similar to that of Kalibangan. The citadel mound. It is an example of beautiful www.clearconceptclasses.com https://www.youtube.com/c/ClearConceptClassesShujalpur 2 Gist of NCERT (History) brickwork. It measures 11.88 × 7.01 metres were covered with bricks and sometimes and 2.43 metres deep. Flights of steps at ei- with stone slabs. The street drains were ther end lead to the surface. There are side equipped with manholes. Perhaps no other rooms for changing clothes. The floor of the Bronze Age civilization gave so much Batch was made of burnt bricks. It is sug- attention to health and cleanliness as the gested that the Great Bath served ritual bath- Harappan did. ing, which has been so vital to any religious Agriculture ceremony in India. The Indus people produced wheat, In Mohenjodaro the largest building is barley, rai, peas, etc. They produced two a granary, which is 45.71 metres long and types of wheat and barley. A good quantity 15.23 metres wide. But in the citadel of of barley has been discovered at Banawali. Harappa we find as many as six granaries. In addition to this they produced sesamum We come across a series of brick platforms and mustard. As 1800 B.C., the people of which formed the basis for two rows of six Lothal used rice whose remains have been granaries. Each granary measured 15.23 × 6.03 found. Foodgrains were stored in huge metres and lay within a few metres of the granaries in both Mohenjo-daro and Harappa river bank. The combined floor space of the and possibly in Kalibangan. Probably, cereals twelve units would be about 838 square were received as taxes from peasants and metres. Approximately it had the same area stored in granaries for the payment of wages as the Great Granary at Mohenjo-daro. as well as for use during emergencies. This Harappa also shows two-roomed barracks, can be said on the analogy of Mesopotamian which possibly accommodated laboures. cities where wages were paid in barley. The At Kalibangan also we notice in the indus people were the earliest people to southen part brick platforms, which may have produce cotton. Because cotton was first been used for granaries. Thus, it would peoduced in this are Greeks called it sindon, appear that granaries constituted an which is derived from Sindh. important part of the Harappan cities. Domestication of Animals The use of burnt bricks in the Hrappan cities is remarkable, because in the Although the Harappans practised contemporary buildings of Egypt mainly agriculture, animals were kept on a large dried bricks were used. We find the use of scale. Ox, buffaloes, goats, sheep and pigs baked bricks in contemporary Mesopotamia, were domesticated. The humped bulls were but they were used to a much larger extent favoured by the Harappans. From the very in the Harappan cities. The drainage system beginning dogs were regarded as pets. Cats of Mohenjo-daro was very impressive. In were also domesticated, and signs of the feet almost all cities every big or small house had of both dogs and cats have been noticed. its own courtyard and bathroom. In They also kept asses and camels, which were Kalibangan many houses had their wells. obviously used as beasts of burden. Evidence Water flowed from the house to the streets of the horse comes from a superficial level of which had drains. Sometimes these drains Mohenjo-daro and from a doubtful terracotta figuring from Lothal. The remains of the horse www.clearconceptclasses.com https://www.youtube.com/c/ClearConceptClassesShujalpur The Harappan Culture: Bronze Age Civilization 3 are reported from Sutkotada, situated in west from south India. The Harappans were also Gujarat, and belong to around B.C. but it is experts in bead-making. The potter’s wheel doubtful. In any case the Harappan culture was in full use, and the Harappans produced was not horse-centred. Neither the bones of their own characteristic pottery, which was horse nor its representations appear in early made glossly and shinning. and mature Harappan culture. Elephants were Trade well known to the Harappans, who were also Trade was important in the life os the acquainted with the rhinoceros. Indus people. The Harappans carried on con- Technology and Carafts siderable trade in stone, metal, shell, etc, The Harappan culture belongs to the within the Indus culture zone. However, their Bronze Age. The people of Harappa used cities did not possess the necessary raw ma- many tools and implements of stone, but they terial for the commodities they produced. were well acquainted with the manufacture They did not use metal money. Most prob- and use of bronze. Ordinarily bronze was ably they carried on all exchanges through made by the smiths by mixing tin with copper barter. In return for finished goods and pos- mines of Rajasthan, although it could also be sibly foodgrains, they procured metals from brought from Baluchistan. Tin was possibly the neighbouring area sby boats and bullock- brought with difficulty from Afghanistan. carts. They practised navigation of the coast The bronze tools and weapons recovered of the Arabian Sea. They knew the use of from the Harappan sites; contain a smaller wheel, and carts with solid wheels were in percentage of tin. However, the kit of bronze use in Harappa. The Harappa had commecial goods left by the Harappans is cosiderable, links with one area of Rajasthan, and also which suggests that the bronzesmiths with Afghanistan and Iran. They had set up constituted an important group of artisans a trading colony in northern Afghanistan which evidently facilitated trade with Cen- in the Harappan society. They produced not