TRACING CHANGES THROUGH A THOUSAND YEARS

TRACING CHANGES THROUGH A THOUSAND YEARS

this chapter we will learn we will learn The vast transformations in Indian political, social, cultural, economical, and dynasty formations From 8th to the 18th century.

Chapter Summary and key themes

Historical sources, new and old terminologies, Political ,economical , social changes, New social and political groups, region and empire, old and new religion, critical thinking about history.

• Historical records exist in a variety of languages which have changed considerably over the years. Medieval Persian, for example, is different from modern Persian. The difference is not just with regard to grammar and vocabulary: the meanings of words also change over time

• The Term "Hidusthan" (India), the term was used in the thirteenth century by Minhaj-i-Siraj, a chronicler who wrote in Persian; he meant the areas of Punjab, Haryana and the lands between the Ganga and Yamuna

• The early sixteenth century, Babur used Hindustan to describe the geography, the fauna and the culture of the inhabitants of the subcontinent.

• At fourteenth century, poet Amir Khusrau used the word "Hind". all of these 3 mean of hind and hidusthan is for Geographical and cultural entity . but didnt carry the national and political meaning.

• Today have to be careful about the terms Hitorian used because they meant different things in the past.

Resources of History

• In this book we will learn about 700 to 1750 years between histories.

• Historians use different types of sources to learn the past depending upon the period of their study and the nature of their investigation.They still rely on coins, inscriptions, architecture and textual records for information.

• in 700 to 1750: this period paper gradually became cheaper and more widely available. People used it to write holy texts. chronicles of rulers, letters and teachings of saints, petitions and judicial records, and for registers of accounts and taxes.

• Manuscripts were collected by wealthy people, rulers, monasteries and temples. They were placed in libraries and archives.

• As scribes copied manuscripts by hand like we copy homewrk/ projects from frnds Home work we made little changes, they also introduced small changes a word here, a sentence there. These small differences grew over centuries of copying until manuscripts of the same text became substantially different from one another. So its hard to find the original manuscript of Original author. so we have to guess what original auther had writen.

• The fourteenth-century chronicler Ziyauddin Barani wrote his chronicle first in 1356 and another version two years later. The two differ from each other but historians at 1960s get to know about the existence of the first version. It remained lost in large library collections.

  Social and Political Groups

• Historians faced many problems in reading the history between 700 to 1750s. due to the various developments that occurred over the periods. New technologies also appeared. Like Persian wheel in irrigation, the spinning wheel in weaving, and firearms in combat. New foods and beverages arrived in the subcontinent: potatoes, corn, chillies, tea, and coffee.

  As a result, Its a period of economic, political, social and cultural changes

• This was also a period of great mobility. Groups of people travelled long distances in search of opportunity. This is time for growth and wealth for the subcontinent. One group of people who became important in this period were the Rajputs, a name derived from "Rajaputra", the son of a ruler. Between the eighth and fourteenth centuries tits for group of warriors who claimed Kshatriya caste status.

• Other groups of people such as the Marathas, Sikhs, Jats, Ahoms and Kayasthas (a caste of scribes and secretaries) also used the opportunities of the age to become politically important.

• In this period gradual clearing of forests and the extension of agriculture. Changes in their habitat forced many forest-dwellers to migrate. Few tilling the land and became peasants. new peasant groups were gradually influenced by regional markets, chieftains, priests, monasteries, and temples. They became part of large, complex societies, and were required to pay taxes and offer goods and services to local lords.

• As a result, significant economic and social differences emerged amongst peasants. Some possessed more productive land, others also kept cattle, and some combined artisanal work with agricultural activity during the lean season. As society became more differentiated, people were grouped into jatis or sub-castes and ranked on the basis of their backgrounds and their occupations. Ranks were not fixed permanently and varied according to the power, influence and resources controlled by members of the jati. The status of the same jati could vary from area to area.

• Jatis lived by their own rules and regulations . this rule was enforced by elder or jati panchayat. But jatis have too follow the villages rule which is governed by a chieftain. Together they were only one small unit of a state.

  Religion and Empire:

• A Sanskrit prashasti the Delhi Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban (1266-1287) explained that he was a vast empire ruler that expand his empire from Bengal (Gauda) in the east to Ghazni (Gajjana) in Afghanistan in the west and included all of south India (Dravida).

• People of different regions – Gauda, Andhra, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat – apparently fled before his armies

• In 1318, the poet Amir Khusrau,explain that Sanskrit which did not belong to any region. It was an old language and “common people do not know it, only the Brahmanas do”.

• Mughal Empire declined in the eighteenth century, it led to the re-emergence of regional states.

  Relogions and Traditions :

• from ancient to present people believe in the devine ,sometimes personal sometimes collectively belief in supernatural power that closely connect with social and economical organisation of local communities.

• One - major developments of this period was the emergence of the idea of bhakti –here one can love their personal deity without the help of priests or elaborate rituals.

• in this period also the holy Quran was brought to India by Merchants and migrants in the 17th century. Muslims believe in "the sovereignty of the one God, Allah, whose love, mercy, and bounty embrace all".

• Many rulers of Islam and the ulama – learned theologians and jurists.

• There were the Shia Muslims who believed that the Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law, Ali, was the legitimate leader of the Muslim community, and the Sunni Muslims who accepted the authority of the early leaders (Khalifas) of the community and the succeeding Khalifas.

Critical Thinking about History.

• Historians do not see time just as a passing of hours, days or years – as a clock or a calendar. Time also reflects changes in social and economic organisation, in the persistence and transformation of ideas and beliefs.

• In the 19th century , British historians divided the history of India into three periods: "Hindu," "Muslim,” and “British”. Based on "the Religion of rulers was the only important historical change and significant developments—in economy, society, or culture.".

• historian read by periodic changes and all the events including hunter-gatherers, early farmers, people living in towns and villages, and early empires and kingdoms process.

• the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries were quite different from the eighth or the eleventh.its included medieval history which carries “Modernity”with it a sense of material progress and intellectual advancement.

• In these thousand years, the societies of the subcontinent were transformed often, and economies in several regions reached a level of prosperity which attracted the interest of European trading companies.