Very Short Answer Type Question
1: How did Garha Katanga earn much of its wealth?
Answer: It earned much wealth by trapping and exporting wild elephants to other kingdoms.
2: What are Buranjis?
Answer: Buranjis are a class of historical chronicles written in the Ahom and Assamese languages.
3. How did the castes of entertainers earn their livelihood?
Answer: They earned their livelihood by performing in different towns and villages.
4. Which tribe was very influential in Punjab during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries? [V. Imp.]
Answer: The Khokhar tribe was very influential in Punjab during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
5. Name the tribe which was powerful in the north-west.
Answer: Balochis
6. Name any two tribes which lived in the extreme South
Answer: Vetars and Maravars
7. Who were specialised artisans?
Answer: Smiths, carpenters and masons were specialised artisans
8. Who controlled garh?
Answer: A Gond clan usually controlled the garh
9. What made the Brahmanas more influential in the Gond Society? [V. Imp.]
Answer: The Gond raja began to grant land to the Brahmanas. This made them influential.
10. Who was Aman Das?
Answer: He was the Gond raja of Garha Katanga.
11. Who was Durgaivati?
Answer: She was the daughter of Salbahan, the Chandel Rajput raja of Mahoba. She got married to Dalpat, the son of the Gond raja Aman Das.
12. When did the Mughal forces attack Garha Katanga?
Answer: The Mughal forces attacked Garha Katangst in 1565.
13. What made Garha Katanga a rich state? [V. Imp.]
Answer: Garha Katanga earned huge wealth by trapping and exporting wild elephants to other kingdoms. This made it a rich state.
14. Name the items which the Mughals captured by defeating the Goods.
Answer: Precious coins and elephants.
15. Who introduced new methods of rice cultivation? ‘
Answer: The Ahoms introduced new methods of rice cultivation.
16. When did the Mughals attack the Ahom kingdom?
Answer: The Mughals attacked the Ahom kingdom in 1662.
17. What do present-day historians use to write tribal histories? [V. Imp.]
Answer: They use oral traditions and rich customs of the tribal people to write their (tribals’) histories.
Short Answer Type Questions
1. Mention some special features of tribal societies. [Imp.]
Answer: Some special features of tribal societies are:
- They did not follow the social rules and rituals which the Brahmanas prescribed.
- They were not divided into many unequal classes.
- Members of the society were united by kinship bonds.
2. How did Sultan Alauddin Khalji and the Mughals use the Banjaras?
Answer: Sultan Alauddin Khalji used the Banjaras to transport grain to the city markets. Under the Mughals, the Banjaras carried grain on their bullocks from different areas and sold it in towns. They transported food grain for the Mughal army during military campaigns
3. Write a brief note on the administrative system of the Gond Kingdom. [V. Imp.]
Answer: The Gond Kingdom was divided into garhs. Each garh was controlled by a particular Gond clan. This was further divided into units of 84 villages called chaurasi. The chaurasi was subdivided into barhots which were made up of 12 villages each.
4: State some characteristics of the tribal societies?
Answer: The main characteristics of the tribal societies are as follows:
- Tribal societies are united by kinship bonds.
- There is no hierarchy among men and groups in tribal societies.
- Strong, complex, formal organisation are absent in tribal societies.
- Tribal societies have communitarian basis of land holding.
4: Who were Mongols? What was the basis of military and administrative systems of Mongols?
Answer: Mongols were the best-known pastoral and hunter-gatherer tribe in history. The basis of military and administrative systems of Mongols was the support of different ethnic and religious groups
5: Explain the term ‘khel’ in reference to Ahom society.
Answer: The Ahom society was divided into different clans or khels on the basis of their specifically assigned occupation and their hereditary status. The Khels were assigned to different officials at different orders of gradation. Membership to a particular khel signified that they were the descendants of a common ancestor. A khel often controlled several villages. The smallest unit of khel contains 20 paiks. This smallest unit is controlled by an officer known as Bora.
6: What was the occupation of the Ahoms?
Answer: The early Ahom state had a simple economy. The primary occupation of the Ahoms was agriculture. They introduced new methods of wet rice cultivation. During wars almost most men served in the army. In normal situations, they had to indulge themselves in the construction of embankments, irrigation systems and other public works.
7: What is ‘shifting agriculture’?
Answer: Trees and bushes in a forest area are first cut and burnt. The crop is sown in the ashes. When this land loses its fertility, another plot of land is cleared and planted in the same way. This is called shifting agriculture
8: Who are nomadic pastoralists?
Answer: Nomadic pastoralists are the people who travel long distances with their animals in search of fodder. They live on milk and other pastoral products. They also exchange wool, ghee etc. with settle communities for grain, cloth, utensils and other products.
9: Write a short note on the administrative system of the Gond kingdom.
Answer: The Gonds comprise the largest tribal group in India. The large Gond kingdom was divided intogarhs. A particular Gond clan controlled each garh. Each garh was further divided into units of 84 villages called chaurasi. The chaurasi was subdivided into barhots which were made up of 12 villages each.
10: Who is considered as one of the builders of the Ahom states and how?
Answer: Suhungmung is considered as one of the real builders of the Ahom state. He undertook the first population census of his kingdom and brought different classes of craftsmen from outside his state and established them in his kingdom.
11: Why did the Ahom clans break up?
Answer: The Ahom kingdom of medieval Assam was based on a type of forced labour system known as the Paik system. The paiks rendered direct service to the king. The paik rendering service was rotated. Each village had to send a number of paiks by rotation. People from heavily populated areas were shifted to less populated places, which led to the break up of the Ahom clans.
12: How did the emergence of large states change the nature of Gond society?
Answer: The nature of the Gond society changed with the emergence of large states.
- It weakened the clan identity. There was a gradual division of Gond society into unequal social classes.
- Brahmanas became a dominant class in the society as they received land grants from the Gond rajas.
- The Gond rajas desired to be recognised as Rajputs. They began forming marital relation with the Rajputs.
13: Write a short note on Pastroralism.
Answer: Pastroralism or Pastoral farming is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry; the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, sheep etc.
14: What are the different kind of nomads?
Answer: There are three types of Nomads.
- Hunter Gatherers: Moving between hunting grounds
- Pastoral Nomads: Moving between pastures
- Peripatetic Nomads: Moving between Customers
15: Write a note on Garha Katanga.
Answer: Garha Katanga was a rich state. It earned much wealth by trapping and exporting wild elephants to other kingdoms. When the Mughals defeated the Gonds, they captured a huge booty of precious coins and elephants. They annexed part of the kingdom and granted the rest to Chandra Shah, an uncle of Bir Narain
16: Give the characteristic features of India in early ages?
Answer: The Indian subcontinent is an area of great ecological and ethnic diversity. Its characteristic features in the early ages were various kinds of political features:-
- The centralized bureaucratic state.
- The kin-based tribe headed by autocratic chief.
- The tribal confederacy.
- The extended empire.
17: What do you mean by transhumance?
Answer: Transhumance is a practise followed by pastoral nomads. It is a kind of mobility zone in high mountains associated with pastoralists. During Summer these communities take their flock of sheep and cattle to higher mountains for gazing. During Winter they come down to lower reaches of mountains where they grow grass.
Long Answer Type Questions
1: Who were Adivasis?
Answer: The societies that didn’t follow the rules laid down by Brahmins were called Tribals or Adivasis. They were the original/indigenous people living in an area. Their life styles were passed on from generation to generation. Many ruiling Indian dynasties draw their origin from these tribal groups. One such example is ‘Rajputs’. Sultans & Mughals also belonged to tribal communities of Central Asia. The tribals were mainly hunter gatherers or agriculturists. They settled in hills/forests and other such difficult to reach places. Some tribals were Banjaras (Nomads) who moved from place to place
2: Who were ‘Gonds’?
Answer: The Gonds refer to the tribal people who lived in the vast forests of Gondwana. They were found in large numbers across the present-day states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. In the fourteenth century Gonds were the ruling class in many parts of central India. During this time several small Gond kingdoms were consolidated by Gond kings to form a Gond dynasty. The Gond kingdom of Garha Katanga that had 70,000 villages is mentioned in Akbar Nama
3: What was the religion of the Ahom state?
Answer: Originally, the Ahoms worshipped their own tribal gods. But gradually they adopted the Vaishnava faith, then prevailing in the Brahmaputra valley. The kings granted land to the temples and Brahmanas. In the reign of Sib Singh (1714-1744), Hinduism became the predominant religion. But the Ahom kings did not completely give up their traditional beliefs after adopting Hinduism and kept a harmonious balance by also preserving their ancestral religion.
4: How did the nomadic pastoralists make a living in Medieval India?
Answer: Nomadic pastoralists moved over long distances with their animals. They lived on milk and other pastoral products. They also exchanged wool, ghee etc. with settled agriculturists for grain, cloth, utensils and other products. They bought and sold these goods as they moved from one place to another, transporting them on their animals. Many pastoral tribes reared and sold animals such as cattle and horses, to the prosperous people. Different castes of petty peddlers also travelled from village to village. They made and sold wares such as ropes, reeds, straw matting and coarse sacks. Sometimes mendicants acted as wandering merchants. There were castes of entertainers who performed in different towns for earning a living.
5: Describe briefly the origin of Rajput.
Answer: There are several theories given about the origin of Rajputs. Some claimed their genealogy to Solar and Lunar families of Kshatriyas mentioned in the Mahabharata. Chandra Bardai in his ‘Prithviraj Raso’ mentioned that, the Chalukyas (Solankis), the Parmaras (Pawars), the Chahmanas (Chauhans)and the Pratiharas (Parihars) evolved from the yajna organized by Vasistha at Mount Abu. Some historians said that a number of classes from Scythians and Huns assimilated in the Indian Society. Some chief clans of South India like Kalachuris, Chandelas & Gaharwaras were related with Gond, Rathore & Bundella respectively.
6. How did the tribal people earn their livelihood? [V. Imp.]
Answer: The main occupation of the tribal people was agriculture. But there were also hunter-gatherers or herders. Most often they combined these activities to make full use of the natural resources of the area in which they lived. Some tribes were nomadic moving from one place to another. A tribal group controlled land and pastures jointly, and divided these amongst household as per its own rules
7. Write a short note on Banjaras.
Answer: The Banjaras were important trader nomads. They usually moved in caravan known as tanda. A tanda contained as many as 6 or 7 hundred persons. They carried their wives and children along with them. They owned their oxen. They bought grain where it was cheaply available and carried it to places where it was dearer. From there, they again reloaded their oxen with anything that could be profitably sold in other places. The Banjaras did not travel more than 6 or 7 miles a day. They preferred cool weather. After unloading their oxen, they freed them to graze
8. Write in brief about Rani DurgawatL
Answer: Rani Durgawati was married to Dalpat, the son of the Gond raja of Garha Katanga, Aman Das. Dalpat, however, died early. After his death, Rani Durgawati, being very capable, began to rule on behalf of her five-year-old son, Bir Narain. She extended her kingdom veiy soon. In 1565, when the Mughal forces under Asaf Khan attacked Garha Katanga, she put up a strong resistance. Finally, she was defeated. But she did not surrender, Instead she preferred to die.
9. Who were the Ahoms? How did they build a large state? [Imp.]
Answer: The Ahoms were the tribal people who migrated to the Brahmputra valley from present-day Myanmar in the 13th century. They created a new state by suppressing the older political system of the bhuiyans i.e. landlords. During the 16th century, they annexed the kingdoms of the Chhutiyas in 1523 and of Koch- Hajo in 1581. They also subjugated many other tribes. In this way, the Ahoms built a large state and for this they used firearms as early as 1530s.
10. Give a brief account of the tribal people found in different parts of the subcontinent [V. Imp.]
Answer: Tribal people were found in almost every region of the sub-continent. In Punjab, the Khokhar tribe was influential during the 13th and 14th centuries. Later, the Gakkhars became more important. In Multan and Sind, the Langahs and Arghuns dominated extensive regions. The Balochis were another large and powerful tribe in the north-west. In the western Himalayas, the Gaddi Shepherds lived. The Nagas, Ahoms and many others lived in the distant north-eastern part of the subcontinent. In many areas of present-day Bihar and Jharkhand, Chero Chiefdoms had emerged by the 12th century.
However, they were subdued by the Mughals. The Mundas and Santals were other important tribes that lived in these states and also in Orissa and Bengal. The Kolis, Berads and numerous others lived in the Maharashtra highlands, Karnataka and Gujarat. Further there were large tribal populations of Koragas, Vetars, Maravars and many others in South. The Bhils were spread across western and central India. By the late 16th century many of them had become settled agriculturists and some even zamindars. Many Bhil clans, nevertheless, remained hunter-gatherers. The Gonds were found in large numbers across the present-day states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
11. What do you know about the Ahom Society? [Imp.]
Answer: Ahom society was divided into clans or Khels. There were very few castes of artisans, so artisans in the Ahom areas came from the nearby kingdoms. Kheloften controlled several villages. The peasant was given land by his village community. Even the king could not take it away without the community’s consent. The Ahoms worshipped their own tribal gods. But during the first half of the 17 century Brahmanas achieved great influence which gave rise to Hinduism. In the reign of Sib Singh Hinduism became a predominant religion. However, the Ahom kings remained stick to their traditional beliefs to some extent even after adopting Hinduism. Ahom society was very sophisticated. Poets and scholars were given land grants. Theatre was encouraged
12. How did the nomadic pastoralists earn their living? [V. Imp.]
Answer: Nomadic pastoralists kept on moving from place to place with their animals. They lived on milk and other pastoral products. They also exchanged items like wool, ghee, etc. with settled agriculturists for grain, cloth, utensils and other products. They bought and sold these goods as they moved from one place to another, transporting them on their animals. The Banjaras were trader-nomads who bought grain where it was cheaply available and carried it to places where it was dearer. From there, they again reloaded their oxen with anything that could be profitably sold in other places.
Thus, they played an important role in connecting India to the outside world. Many pastoral tribes reared and sold animals, such as cattle and horses, to the wealthy people. Different castes of petty pedlars travelled from village to village. They made and sold wares like ropes, reeds, etc. Sometimes mendicants acted as wandering merchants. There were also castes of entertainers who earned their living by performing in different towns and villages.
