Tracing changes through a thousand years - class-VIII

In the early of sixteenth century Babur used Hindustan to describe the geography, the fauna, and the culture of the inhabitants of the subcontinents.

Religions have provided several themes which had enabled the variant art forms in India to flourish. Nothing has inspired artists more than the mythological tales of Mahabharata and Ramayana. The legacy of Rajput and Madhubani paintings is the perfect example of how Lord Krishna and his stories inspired the artists.

• It is interesting to know that the first discovery of rock paintings was made in India by Archibald Carlyle 12 years before the discovery of Altamira in Spain
• Cockburn, Anderson, Mitra and Ghosh were the early archaeologists who discovered a large number of sites in the Indian subcontinent.
• Remnants of rock paintings have been found on the walls of caves situated in several districts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar.
• Some paintings have been reported from the Kumaon hills in Uttarakhand also.

The term 'Hindustan' was used for the first time by Minhaj-i Siraj, a thirteenth-century Persian chronicler. He, with this term, meant the areas of Punjab, Haryana and the lands between the Ganga and Yamuna.

Map 2 was made in the 1720s by a French cartographer. Map 1 and 2 are quite different though the area is same. In these maps south India is where we would expect to find north India and Sri lanka is the Island at the top. Map 2 was made almost 600 years after Map 1.

Map 1 is the section of world map drawn by the geographer Al-Idrist in the twelfth century showing the Indian continent. Map 1 and 2 are quite different though the area is same. In these maps south India is where we would expect to find north India and Sri lanka is the Island at the top.

Both statements are true,Statement II provides explanation to Statement I.

Around the 1st century BC, the Shadanga or Six Limbs of Indian Painting were evolved. Vatsyayana (3rd century AD) enumerates these in his Kamasutra
They are:
Rupabheda: The knowledge of appearance
Pramanam: Correct perception, measure and structure
Bhava: Action of feelings om forms
Lavanya Yojanam: Infusion of grace, artistic representation
Sadrisyam: Similitude
VArnikaBhanga: Artistic manner of using the brush and colors
The subsequent development of painting by the Buddhists indicates that these 'Six Limbs' were put into practice by Indian artists and are the basic principles on which their art was founded.

Between 700 and 1750,  there was a gradual clearing of forests and the extension of agriculture, a change faster and more complete in some areas than in others. Changes in their habitat forced many forest-dwellers to migrate. They became part of large complex societies, and were required to pay taxes and offer goods and services to local lords.

Historians rely upon coins, inscriptions, architecture and textual records for information. The number and variety of textual records increased dramatically during 700 to 1750 CE. The vast majority of inscriptions are found in South India, written on plates of copper, the stone walls of temples, or stone monuments.

Today foreigner means a person who is not an Indian. In medieval period a foreigner was considered as someone who does not belong to that society or culture, a city-dweller or a forest-dweller.

When the Mughal empire declined in the eighteenth century, it led to the emergence of regional states. But years of imperial, pan-regional rule had altered the character of regions.The regions were left with the legacies of the big and small states that had ruled over them.

The place where historical documents are preserved is called 'Archives'. The main office of the National Archives of India is at New Delhi. It is the largest among the Archives in Asia.

Manuscripts and documents were made to provide a lot of detailed information to people. They were placed in libraries and archives. Manuscripts were collected by wealthy people, rulers, monasteries and temples.

Historic period begins with the advent of writing. The period before the advent of writing is known as prehistory. In India, writing was introduced during the Harappan period, however the script is yet to be deciphered. Therefore, the period is termed as proto-historic period.

Society became differentiated and 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 resource controlled by members of the jati. The status of the same jati could vary from area to area.

Answer- (B) - Abu Nasr Utbi

'Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi' was a book written by Ziauddin Barani during the Sultanate period in India. So it was written in medieval India, not modern India.

Manuscripts are handwritten records of the past and are in the form of books. Palm leaves were used as writing materials in the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia dating back to the 5th century BCE. Some of the most common genres were bibles, religious commentaries, philosophy, law and government texts.

Brahmanas had a lot of respect in society. Their dominant position was consolidated by the support of their patrons-new rulers searching for prestige.Patron is an influential  wealthy individual who supports another person, an artiste, a craftsperson, a learned man, or a noble.

The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism is known as that animal's habitat. It also includes the social environment and Economic lifestyle of the people as Habitat encompasses a person's usual or preferred surroundings.