The work was commissioned by Akbar, and written by Abul Fazl, one of the Nine Jewels (Hindi: Navaratnas) of Akbar's royal court. It is stated that the book took seven years to be completed.

The second round table conference was deemed a failure because of the many disagreements among the participants. While the INC claimed to speak for the whole of the country, other participants and leaders of other parties contested this claim. The second Round Table Conference was held in London from 7 September 1931 to 1 December 1931 with the participation of Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. ... Meanwhile, civil unrest had spread throughout India again, and upon return to India Gandhi was arrested along with other Congress leaders.

Since most of the rebels were sepoys and other leaders who were illiterate so it is difficult to know what the rebels thought but they used different techniques to propagate their ideas.

1. They issued proclamations and ishtahars (notifications) to propagate their ideas.

2. They also resorted to prophecy so that people can get involved in hope of early freedom. E.g. the prophecy that British rule will come to end on 100 years of Battle of Plassy of 1857.

3. The rebels tried to unify Hindus and Muslims and propagated that rebellion is a war in which both Hindus and Muslims had equally to lose or gain.

4. The ishtahar sharked back to the pre-British Hindu - Muslim past and glorified the coexistence of different communities under the Mughal Empire

.5. They also used techniques like secret propagation through under-ground workers. For E.g., Distribution of chapattis and lotus flowers as a symbol of revolt.

Meaning of Alvars and Nayanars : Some of the earliest Bhati movements(C. sixth century) were led by Alvars (literally meaning of this word is those who are emerged in devotion to Vishnu) and Nayanars (literally meaning of this word is those leaders who were devotees of lord Shiva). The Alvars and Nayanars travelled place to place singing hymns in Tamil (in praise of their god).

Attitude of Alvars and Nayanars towards caste system : Some historians suggest that the Alvars and Nayanars initiated a movement of protest against the caste system and the dominance of Brahmanas or at least attempted to reform the system. To some extent this is corroborated by the fact that bhaktas hailed from diverse social backgrounds ranging from Brahmanas to artisans and cultivators and even from castes considered “untouchable”.

Meaning of Virashaiva : The twelfth century witnessed the emergence of a new movement in Karnataka, led by a Brahmana named Basavanna (1106-68) who was initially a Jaina and a minister in the court of a Chalukya king. His followers were known as Virashaivas (heroes of Shiva) or Lingayats (wearers of the linga).

Attitude of Virashaivas towards caste system : The Lingayats challenged the idea of caste and the “pollution” attributed to certain groups by Brahmanas. They also questioned the theory of rebirth. These won them followers amongst those who were marginalised within the Brahmanical social order. The Lingayats also encoviraged certain practices disapproved in the Dhanmashastras, such as post puberty marriage and the remarriage of widows.

Reconstructing religous beliefs and practices of past is not an easy task. Now reconstructions of Harappan religion are made on the assumption that later traditions provide parallels with earlier ones. This is because archaeologists often move from the known to the unknown, that is, from the present to the past. While this is plausible in the case of stone querns and pots, it becomes more speculative when we extend it to “religious” symbols.

However attempts have been made by the scholars to reconstruct the religious beliefs and practices by examining the seals of the harappan civilization. And studying these seals and the motifs printed on it scholars have come out with ideas regarding the religious practices of the Harappan people. For example there are some seal which seem to depict ritual scenes. Others, with plant motifs, are thought to indicate nature worship. Some animals – such as the one-horned animal, often called the “unicorn” – depicted on seals seem to be mythical, composite creatures. In some seals, a figure shown seated cross-legged in a “yogic” posture, sometimes surrounded by animals, has been regarded as a depiction of “proto-Shiva”, that is, an early form of one of the major deities of Hinduism.

Even then there still remain doubts when it comes to religious practices for instance, at the “proto-Shiva” seals. The earliest religious text, the Rigveda (compiled c. 1500-1000 BCE) mentions a god named Rudra, which is a name used for Shiva in later Puranic traditions However, unlike Shiva, Rudra in the Rigveda is neither depicted as Pashupati (lord of animals in general and cattle in particular), nor as a yogi. In other words, this depiction does not match the description of Rudra in the Rigveda. 

Hence even though seals does help in reconstructing religious beliefs and practices of the Harappan civilization but even then it is no more than a speculation.

The royal Centre was located in the south-western part of the settlement.

(i) It included over 60 temples. About thirty building complexes have been identified as palaces.

(ii) The “King’s palace” was the largest of the enclosures but has not yielded definitive evidence of being a royal residence.

(iii) It had two of the most impressive platforms, usually called the “audience hall” and the “mahanavami dibba” which is located on one of the highest points in the city.

(iv) One of the most beautiful building in the royal centre was the Lotus Mahal and the most spectacular was known as the Hazara Rama temple as this was probably meant to be used only by the king and his family.

 (i) The British were unwilling to tolerate the power of Taluqdars. Immediately after the annexation, the taluqdars were disarmed and their forts destroyed.

 (ii) The British land revenue policy further undermined the position and authority of the taluqdars.

 (iii) The Summary Settlements proceeded to remove the taluqdars wherever possible.

 (iv) It was based on the assumption that the taluqdars were interlopers with permanent stakes in land.

 (v) The ties of loyalty and patronage that had bound the peasants to the taluqdars were disrupted.

British land revenue officials thought that if they could remove taluqdars then they could give land to their actual owners. It will reduce the level of exploitation of peasants and it will increase the revenue returns for the state. But actually this did not happen. There was a definite increase of revenue return for the state but the burden of demand on peasants remained the same. Officials soon came to know that most of the areas of Awadh were actually heavily overassessed. At some places the increase of revenue demanded was from 30% to 70%. That’s why neither taluqdars and nor peasants were happy. The result of dispossession of taluqdars was the breakdown of whole of the social order. The ties of loyalty and patronage were disrupted which had bounded the peasants to the taluqdars.

Analyse, with illustrations, why Bhaktland Sufi thinkers adopted a variety of languages in which to express their opinions.

The Bhakti and Sufi thinkers used the languages of the common people to expressh their opinions. They often spoke in local languages. So they were well-understood by the common people. Had they used a few distinct languages, they would not have reached to all the people. They would have gone extinct. Hence their use of the local languages proved very significant.

(i) Sanskrit was used by traditional Bhakti saints to sing hymns at different occasions, places of worship and ceremonies.

(ii) The Alvars and Nayanars of Tamil Nadu travelled from place to place singing hymns in Tamil in praise of their Gods. These developed as centres of pilgrimage. Singing compositions of these poet-saints became part of temple rituals in these shrines, as did worship of the saint images.

(iii) Kabir’s poems have survived in several languages and dialects, and some are composed in the special language of nirguna poets, the sant bhasha. Others, known as ulatbansi (upside-down sayings), are written in a form in which everyday meanings are inverted.

(iv)    Baba Guru Nanak, Baba Farid, Ravidas (Raidas), composed their hymns in various languages such as Punjabi and Hindi etc.

(v)    Amir Khusrau wrote and sang in Hindavi or Persian, Punjabi, Urdu and some other form oflanguages.

(vi)    It was not just in sama that the Chishtis adopted local languages. In Delhi, those associated with the Chishti Silsila conversed in Hindavi, the language of the people. Other sufis such as Baba Farid composed verses in the local languages, which were incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib.

(vii)    Other writers, thinkers, saints etc. composed long poems or masnavis to express ideas of divine love using human love as an allegory. For example, the prem-akhyan (love story) Padmavat composed by Malik Muhammad Jayasi revolved around the romance of Padmini and Ratansen, the king of Chittor. Their trials were symbolic of the soul’s journey to the divine. Such poetic compositions were often recited in hospices, usually during sama.

(viii) The poets of Bigapur and Karnatana wrote short poems in Dakhani, a variant of Urdu.

The growth of Magadha culminated in the emergence of the Mauryan Empire. Chandragupta Maurya, who founded the empire (c. 321 BCE), extended control as far northwest as Afghanistan and Baluchistan, and his grandson Asoka, arguably the most famous ruler of early India, conquered Kalinga (present-day Orissa). 
Such a huge empire needed a strong administration, hence here are the main features of how the empire was administered.

1. Division of empire into five major political centres- This centres were located at very strategic location for example both Taxila and Ujjayini were situated on important long-distance trade routes, while Suvarnagiri (literally, the golden mountain) was possibly important for tapping the gold mines of Karnataka.

2. Standing army- Such a diverse and vast region needed a strong army to control and protec it. Hence as Megasthenes has shown that the Mauryan had a very strong army. And he mentions six different committee with six subcommittees for coordinating military activity. Of these, one looked after the navy, the second managed transport and provisions, the third was responsible for foot-soldiers, the fourth for horses, the fifth for chariots and the sixth for elephants.

3. Appointing royal princes as the governor of the major political centres, because being a royal princes they could be trusted.

4. During Asoka, he tried to hold his empire together by propagating dhamma, the principles of which were simple and virtually universally applicable. This, according to him, would ensure the well-being of people in this world and the next.

5. Strong means of communication along land and rivers were developed aso as to administer the vast empire.

Among the five points we see that it was his attempts to hold the empire using dhamma as means to be most prominent theme in the inscription which were inscribed on natural stones, pollished pillars.

1. Archaeologists trace socio-economic differences in Harappan society by adopting the following methods and techniques:

1. Burials. a. Difference in burial pits.
                b. Presence of artefacts in the burial.
 
Archaeologist have found out that in Burials
  a. There is difference in burial pits, some are just hollowed out space whereas others are lined with bricks.
   b. Although Harappans rarely buried precious material along with their death one, however some graves did contain pottery, ornaments, jewellery which were made of semi precious stones.

   

2. Availability of Luxury goods.

Archaeologists assume objects to be luxuries if they are rare or made from costly, non-local materials or with complicated technologies.

Archaeologist have noticed that,

a. Larger settlements like Harappa and Mohenjodaro has large concerntration of Luxury goods whereas smaller settlements like kalibangan etc did not.

The main features of the Mahajanapadas are as follow:
1. Mahajanapadas were forms of early states and were mostly ruled by kings. However there were oligarchy also known as Gana and Sanghas, where group of people shared power and were collectively known as Rajas.

2. Mahajanapadas had its own capital and it was fortified. It was where the king lived.

3. Mahajanapadas developed gradually a standing armies and bureaucracy.

4. There was the system of taxation, taxes were collected fromt the masses.

5. There developed a notion where king was supposed to come from Kshatriya, with its roles and duties.

Piecing together parts of Harappa history C 

i. Cunningham’s confusion- Harappan artifacts were found fairly often during the nineteenth century and some of these reached Cunningham, he did not realise how old these were but unsuccessfully tried to place it within the time-frame of c. sixth century BCE-fourth century CE. 

ii. John Marshall`s Ignorance- Marshall tended to excavate along regular horizontal units, measured uniformly throughout the mound, ignoring the stratigraphy of the site. This meant that all the artefacts recovered from the same unit were grouped together, even if they were found at different stratigraphic layers. As a result, valuable information about Harappan civilisation was irretrievably lost. 

 iii. R.E.M. Wheeler`s problems- R.E.M. Wheeler took over as Director-General of the ASI in 1944, rectified many problems. Wheeler recognized that it was necessary to follow the stratigraphy of the mound rather than dig mechanically along uniform horizontal lines. 

 iv. Daya Ram SahniSeals- were discovered at Harappa by archaeologists such as Daya Ram Sahni in the early decades of the twentieth century, in layers that were definitely much older than Early Historic levels. It was then that their significance began to be realized. 

v. Rakhal Das Banerji- in 1924,John Marshall, Director-General of the ASI, announced the discovery of a new civilization in the Indus valley to the world. 

vi. S.N. Roy- As S.N. Roy noted in The Story of Indian Archaeology, “Marshall left India three thousand years older than he had found her.”This was because similar, till-then-unidentified seals were found at excavations at Mesopotamian sites. It was then that the world knew not only of a new civilization interesting results in the future. 

The Mahabharata was composed over a period of about 1000 years between 500 BCE and 400 CE. The original story of the Mahabharata was composed by charioteer bards popularly called as Sutas. The various stages were: Brahmanas began to unite its story from the 500 BCE.

The major teachings of Guru Nanak are as follows:
1. He rejected the religious texts of both Hindus and Muslims.
2. He preached God is Nirakar viz. without any shape.
3. He criticised the religious practices like ceremonial bath, sacrifices , idol worship, and emphasised simplicity.
4. He called upon his followers to connect to divine by remembering and repeating the divine name.
Guru Nanak expressed himself in Punjabi, the language of the local people in a lyrical form called Shabad. Shabad can be recited in various ragas.

Evidences to explain the collapse of the Harappa civilization
(i) After 1900 BCE there were disappearance of the distinctive
(ii) Writing, long distance trade and craft specialization also disappeared.
(iii) House construction techniques deteriorated.
(iv) Large public structure were no longer produced.
(v) Artefacts and settlements indicated a rural life called as Late Harappan and Successive Culture.
(vi) Disappearance of the seals, the script, distinctive beads and pottery.
(vii) There was the shift from a standardized weight system to the use of the local weights.
(viii) There were decline and abandonment of cities.
(ix) Abandonment of Cholistan.
(x) Shift/ expansion of population into new settlements into Gujarat, Haryana , western UP.
 

1. A Planned Urban Centre: Harappa was a planned urban centre. It was divided into two sections. One section of this city was small. It was built on a higher place. The second section was large but it was at a lower place. The archaeologists has named the first section as Citadel and the second section as the Lower Town. The citadel owed its height to the fact that buildings were constructed on mud brick platforms. It had walls on all its sides. These walls separated it from the Lower Town.

2. The Citadel: The citadel had many buildings which were used for special public purposes. The most important were the following two structures: (i) The Warehouse, (ii) The Great Bath. With its special structure many scholars believe that Great bath to be for some ritual baths.

3. The Lower Town: The Lower Town was also a walled town. Most of the buildings were built on platforms. These platforms served as foundations. It has been estimated that if one worker moved about a cubic metre of earth daily, it would have needed four million person days. In other words, we can say that it required mobilisation of labour on a very large scale.

All the buildings in the city were built on the platforms. Thus the settlement was first planned and then implemented as per the building plan. This planning is also evident from the bricks which were both baked and sun-dried. These bricks were of standardised ratio. Their length and width was four times and twice the height respectively. Such bricks were used in all the settlements of the Harappan Civilisation.

4. Well Planned Drainage System: The drainage system of the Harappan cities were also carefully planned. All the roads and streets were laid out on a grid pattern. They intersected at right angles. It seems that streets having drains were laid out first. Thereafter houses were built along them. Every house had at least one wall along a street so that the domestic waste water could flow into the drain of the street.

5. Residence of Domestic Architecture: The Lower Town of Mohenjodaro had an expansion of residentail buildings. All these buildings had a courtyard. The rooms were on all the sides of the courtyard. In the hot and dry weather, this courtyard was perhaps the centre of activities like cooking and weaving. While constructing residential buildings, the people had full concern for their privacy. These buildings did not have any windows in the walls along the ground level. Besides this, the main entrance does not give a direct view of the interior of the courtyard.

Every house had its own bathroom. It was floored with bricks. Its gutter was connected to the street drain through the wall. Some houses also had stair-case to reach a second storey or the roof. Many houses had wells and these wells were in a room which was easily approachable. Any body could reach it even from outside. 

•  Kings in early  states  were not  invariably Kshatriyas.

• Several important ruling  lineages  had different origins.

• For example, according  to later  Buddhist  texts, social background of the Mauryas  was Kshatriya, but Brahmanical texts  described  them  as being  of "low" origin.  They established a mighty empire.

• Shakas were regarded as mlechchhas (barbarians or outsiders) by the Brahmanas. However, Rudradaman, the  best-known Shaka ruler, was a powerful ruler.

• Powerful  mlechchhas who were familiar with Sanskritic traditions could become  rulers.

• Ruler of the Satavahana  dynasty, Gotami-puta Siri­ Satakani  claimed  to be both  a Brahmana  and a Kshatriya.

1. The early bhakti tradition evolved and was characterised by remarkable diversity. It accommodated and acknowledged women and the “lower castes”, who were considered ineligible within orthodox Brahmanical framework, while Brahmanas remained important intermediaries between gods and devotees in several forms of bhakti.
2. Historians of religion often classify bhakti traditions into two broad categories: saguna (with attributes) and nirguna (without attributes).
3. Alvars: Some of the earliest bhakti movements (sixth century) were led by the Alvars (literally, those who are “immersed” in devotion to Vishnu) and Nayanars (literally, leaders who were devotees of Shiva). They travelled from place to place singing hymns in Tamil in praise of their gods.
4. The Alvars and Nayanars initiated a movement of protest against the caste system and the dominance of Brahmanas or attempted to reform the system.
5. Their compositions were as important as the Vedas. One of the major anthologies of compositions by the Alvars, the Nalayira Divyaprabandham, was frequently described as the Tamil Veda, thus claiming that the text was as significant as the four Vedas in Sanskrit that were cherished by the Brahmanas.

The Ain-i-Akbari  or the "Administration of Akbar", is a 16th-century detailed document recording the administration of the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar, written by his court historian, Abu'l Fazl in the Persian language.

(a) Mahatma Gandhi felt that Hindustani was a language that the common people could easily understand

(b) Hindustani which was a blend of Hindi and Urdu was popular among a large section of the people. Moveover it was a composite language enriched by the interaction of diverse cultures.

(c) Over the years words and terms from many different sources had been incorporated into this language making it easily understood by people from various regions.

(d) According to Mahatma Gandhi Hindustani would be the ideal language of communication between dieverse communities. It would help to unify Hindus and Muslims and the people from the north and south.

Religious beliefs of Indus valley people are always hard to determine because of the minimum number of archaeological evidence.

For example, earlier discoveries emphasized that Indus valley civilization worshiped a mother goddess symbolizing fertility. But later discoveries that displayed swastika. Many discoveries from the Indus valley is emphasizing that the Indus people must have worshiped many gods and they have many religions in them.

The contradiction between discoveries made the religious beliefs of Indus valley people so hard to determine and reconstruct the religious practices of Harappa.