The zamindars adopted various means and measures to establish their control over their zamindaris. These are as under:

(i) They adopted the strategy of fictitious sale of land. When a part of their estate was auctioned, their men bought the property by giving higher bids than others. Later on they refused to pay up the purchase money. So there was again auction. The same process of purchase was repeated. At last the state felt exhausted. It sold the estate at a low price again to the zamindar.

(ii) They created hurdles in the possession of the land if anyone from outside the zamindari bought an estate at an auction.

(iii) They transferred some of the estates in the name of women as the property of women could not be taken over.

(iv) The Lathyals of the former zamindars sometimes attacked the new buyers.

(i)    A number of dogmatism became a part of Hinduism. People became very superstitious. They started to belive in idol worship, sacrifices, magic, etc. So the main objective of Bhakti movement was to remove all these evil practices.

(ii)    Caste system became very rigid in Hinduism. People of lower castes were hated by the upper caste. Lower castes started to adopt Islam and Hinduism came in danger. Preachers of Bhakti movement wanted to save Hinduism from this sort of danger.

(iii)    Muslims also forced Hindus to convert to Islam. It led to increase in mutual conflicts among them. So Bhakti movement was originated to remove mutual differences. There was another major objective of Bhakti movement and that was to encourage religious harmony in the country.

A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. ... One or more languages spoken as first languages in the territory of a country may be referred to informally or designated in legislation as national languages of the country. National language is a driving force behind unity of the nation's people, and makes them distinct from other nations – provided you give your language respect. Giving respect to your national language means that it should be one's primary language, as well as the preferred source of communication at every level. Language can have scores of characteristics but the following are the most important ones: language is arbitrary, productive, creative, systematic, vocalic, social, non-instinctive and conventional. These characteristics of language set human language apart from animal communication.

the constitution of india ensure that india remains as secular state as follows
1)no discrimination of religions class caste ***
2)the gov cannot give any special rights to any religion
3)also there is right to freedom to follow any religion

(a) Certain basic values were accepted by all national leaders as a result of the Nehru Report and the Fundamental Rights Resolution passed by the Karachi session of the Indian National Congress.

(b) These included Universal Adult Franchise, Right to freedom and equality and protection of minority rights.

(c) As a result of the 1937 elections, the Congress and other political parties were able to form governments in the provinces. This experience with legislative and political institutions helped in developing an agreement over institutional design.

(d) The Indian Constitution thus adopted many institutional details and procedures from colonial laws like the Government of India Act of 1935.

Many colonial laws were also the sources of the Indian Constitution. Government of India Act, 1935 was a major one. This wray, the Indian Constitution adopted many institutional details and procedures from the colonial laws. The French Revolution also inspired the makers of the Constitution.

(a) Certain basic values were accepted by all national leaders as a result of the Nehru Report and the Fundamental Rights Resolution passed by the Karachi session of the Indian National Congress.

(b) These included Universal Adult Franchise, Right to freedom and equality and protection of minority rights.

(c) As a result of the 1937 elections, the Congress and other political parties were able to form governments in the provinces. This experience with legislative and political institutions helped in developing an agreement over institutional design.

(d) The Indian Constitution thus adopted many institutional details and procedures from colonial laws like the Government of India Act of 1935.

(e) The founding fathers were also inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution, the working of parliamentary democracy in Britain and the Bill of Rights in the USA. The 1917 Russian Revolution inspired our leaders to establish a government based on social and economic equality.

(f) While addressing the meeting of the Constituent Assembly on 13 December, 1946, Jawaharalal Nehru spoke about the ideals of the new Indian Constitution. He discussed everything in a broad historical perspective. He referred to the historic efforts made in the past to achieve the goals of justice, liberty, equality, fraternity and fundamental rights.

The Fifth Report was submitted to the British Parliament in 1813. It was called the Fifth Report as it was the fifth in a series of reports about the working of East India Company. The core issue of the Fifth Report was the administration and activities of the East India Company. This report had 1002 pages. About 800 pages were in the form of appendices which included petitions of zamindars and ryots, reports of Collectors, statistical tables on revenue returns and the official notes on the revenue and judicial administration of Bengal and Madras.

Objectives of the Report : Many groups of people in Britain were not happy with the working of East India Company in India. They opposed the monopoly enjoyed by East India Company over trade with India and China. Many British traders wanted a share in Company’s trade in India. They emphasised that the Indian market should be opened for British manufactures. Many political groups even argued that the conquest of Bengal benefitted only the East India Company and not the British nation as a whole. They highlighted the misrule and maladministration by East India Company. As a result, the British Parliament passed several acts in the late 18th century to regulate and control the rule of East India Company in India.

It even asked the Company to submit regular reports on its administrative activities in India. The Fifth Report was such a report. It was produced by select committee. It was concerned with the nature of Company’s rule in India. It contained an invaluable evidence against the rule of East India Company in India. It brings out the pitiable condition in rural Bengal in the late 18th century.

The lower town was larger than the citade. While public buildings like the Great Bath was built in the citadel, the lower town ususally had only residential buildings. 

The sangha originated in the group of disciples who renounced the worldly life to wander with the Buddha and listen to his teachings. After the Buddha's death his disciples continued to live together as a community, wandering from place to place, living off the receipt of alms.

In the few Harappan sites that continued to be occupied after 1900 BCE, there appears to have been a transformation of material culture, marked by the disappearance of the distinctive artefacts of the civilisation weights, seals, special beads. Writing, long distance trade, and craft specialisation also disappear. In general, far fewer materials were used to make far fewer things. House construction techniques were no longer produced. Overall, artefacts and settlements indicate a rural way of life in what are called “Late Harappan” or “Successor Cultures”.

The town planning of the Harappan civilization upholds the fact that the civic establishments of the city were highly developed. They followed a system of centralized administration.

Settlements of Harappans with Town planning

● Harappa or Mohenjodaro in Pakistan

● Kalibangan, Lothal or Sarkotada in India 

The Fifth Report was submitted to the British Parliament in 1813. It was called the Fifth Report as it was the fifth in a series of reports about the working of East India Company. The core issue of the Fifth Report was the administration and activities of the East India Company. This report had 1002 pages. About 800 pages were in the form of appendices which included petitions of zamindars and ryots, reports of Collectors, statistical tables on revenue returns and the official notes on the revenue and judicial administration of Bengal and Madras.

The Harappa site was first briefly excavated by Sir Alexander Cunningham in 1872-73, two decades after brick robbers carried off the visible remains of the city. He found an Indus seal of unknown origin.
The first extensive excavations at Harappa were started by Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni in 1920. His work and contemporaneous excavations at Mohenjo-daro first brought to the world's attention the existence of the forgotten Indus Valley civilization as the earliest urban culture in the Indian subcontinent.
His work was followed later in the decade by that of Madho Sarup Vats, also of the Archaeological Survery of India. M.S. Vats first excavated the "Granary," and published the results of his and Sahni's excavations in 1940. Excavations by other archaeologists continued in the 1930's, and in 1946 Sir Mortimer Wheeler excavated the so-called fortification walls and found the first pre-Indus Valley civilization (Kot Dijian) deposits.

After independence, Harappa was excavated by Mohammed Rafique Mughal of the Archaeological Survey of Pakistan in 1966. In 1986, the first systematic, multi-disciplinary excavations of an Indus Valley city were begun by the Harappa Archaeological Project (HARP), under the direction of George F. Dales and J. Mark Kenoyer. These excavations, now also co-directed by Richard H. Meadow, have continued almost every year since then.

There is an enormous amount still to be learned about the site, most of which remains unexcavated. The earliest deposits on the site go back to 3300 B.C. and the area seems to have been continuosly inhabited ever since. Archaeologists think that ancient Harappa was the urban center dominating the upper Indus region, much like Mohenjo-daro dominated the lower Indus Valley and Ganweriwala might have been the urban center for what is now Rajasthan

The Indus civilisation is also known as the Harappan Civilisation, after its type site, Harappa, the first of its sites to be excavated early in the 20th century in what was then the Punjab province of British India and now is Pakistan. The discovery of Harappa and soon afterwards Mohenjo-daro was the culmination of work beginning in 1861 with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India during the British Raj. There were however earlier and later cultures often called Early Harappan and Late Harappan in the same area; for this reason, the Harappan civilisation is sometimes called the Mature Harappan to distinguish it from these other cultures.

• The entire world is animated – even stones, rocks and water have life.
• They believe in non-injury to living beings, especially to humans, animals, plants and insects.
• The cycle of birth and rebirth is shaped through karma.
• Asceticism and penance are required to free oneself from the cycle of karma.
• For Jainism monastic existence is a necessary condition of salvation.
• Jaina monks and nuns take five vows : to abstain from killing, stealing and lying; to observe celibacy, and to abstain from possessing property.

The teachings of Buddha are as follows:

• The world is transient (anicca) and constantly changing. It is also soulless as there is nothing permanent or eternal in it.
• Within this transient world, sorrow (dukkha) is intrinsic to human existence.
• By following the path of moderation between severe penance and self-indulgence, human beings can use above these worldly pleasures.
• He advised kings and gahapatis to be humane and ethical. Buddha regarded the social world as the creation of humans rather than of divine origin.
• He emphasised individual agency and righteous action as the means to escape from the cycle of rebirth and attain self-realisation and nibbana (literally means the extinguishing of ego and desire).
  This ends the cycle of suffering for those who renounced the world.
• The words to his followers were “Be lamps into yourselves as all of you must work out your own liberation.”

Differences between Buddhism and Jainism

Similarities between Buddhism and Jainism

wandering storytellers carrying scrolls (charanachitras) of cloth or paper with pictures on them and pointing to the pictures as they tell the story

There are two types of sources of Mauryan History. One is Literary and the other is Archaeological. The literary sources include Kautilya’s Arthasastra, Visakha Datta’s Mudra Rakshasa , Megasthenese’s Indica, Buddhist literature and Puranas. The archaeological sources include Ashokan Edicts and inscriptions and material remains such as silver and copper punch-marked coins.

1. Literary Sources

a) Kuatilya’s Arthasastra

It is a book written by Kautilya (other name of Chanakya) on polity and governance. It reveals the economic and political conditions of the Mauryan period. Kautilya was the Prime Minister of Chandragupta Maurya, founder of Mauryan dynasty.

b) Mudra Rakshasa

The book was written by Visakha Datta in Gupta period. The book gives an account of how Chandragupta Maurya defeated Nandas with help from Chanakya besides throwing light on socio-economic conditions.

c) Indica

Indica was authored by Megasthenese who was the ambassador of Selecus Nikator in Cahndraqgupta Maurya’s court. It depicts administration in Mauryan Empire, 7-caste system and absence of slavery in India. Although it is lost in its original form, it has survived in the form of quotations in the text of classical Greek writers such as Plutarch, Strabo and Arrian.

) Buddhist Literature

Buddhist texts such as Jatakas reveal socio-economic conditions of Mauryan period while Buddhist chronicles Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa throws light on the role of Ashoka in spreading Buddhism to Sri Lanka. Divyavadam, the Tibetan Buddhist text informs us about Ashoka’s efforts in spreading Buddhism.

e) Puranas

Puranas reveals us the lists of Mauryan kings and the chronology.

Archaeological Sources

Ashokan Edicts

Ashokan Edicts in the form of Rock Edicts, Pillar Edicts and Cave Inscriptions are found at different places in Indian Sub-continent. These edicts were deciphered by James Princep in 1837 AD.  The majority of the edicts are mainly Ashoka’s proclamations to the public while few of them describes Ashoka’s acceptance of Buddhism.

Material Remains

Material remains such as NBPW (Northern Black Polished Ware), silver and copper punch-marked coins throws light on Maurya period