He sent his son Mahendra and daughter Sanghamitra to Sri Lanka to propagate Buddhism. Asoka also 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.

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.

 (i) Early archaeologists thought that certain objects which seemed unusual or unfamiliar may have had a religious significance. These included terracotta figurines of women, heavily jewelled some with elaborate head-dresses, regarded as mother goddesses.

(ii) Rare stone statutory of men in an almost standardised posture, seated with one hand on the knee such as ‘priest king’ was also similarly classified.

(iii) Same structures have been assigned of ritual significance which include great bath and fire altars found at Kalibangan and Lothal.

(iv) Attempts have also been made to reconstruct religious beliefs and practices by examining seals, some of 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 HinduisnvBesides, conical stone objects have been ‘ classified as lingas.

The rayas and the nayakas:

1. Nayakas were military chiefs who usually controlled forts and had armed supporters. They moved from one area to another, and in many cases were accompanied by peasants looking for fertile land on which to settle. They usually spoke Telugu or Kannada. Many nayakas submitted to the authority of the kings of Vijayanagara but they often rebelled and had to be subdued by military action.
2. The amara-nayaka system was a major political innovation of the Vijayanagara Empire. They were military commanders who were given territories to govern by the raya. They collected taxes and other dues from peasants, craftspersons and traders in the area.
3. These contingents provided the Vijayanagara kings with an effective fighting force with which they brought the entire southern peninsula under their control.

The Revolt of 1857 was of a formidable nature but it failed due to various reasons:

1. Lack of good and effective leadership : The great leaders like Bahadur Shah, Nana Sahib, Tantia Tope, Rani Lakshmi Bai, Kunwar Singh, etc. who brave fought to overthrow the British empire. But these leaders were not as trained and good commanders who suppressed the revolt like Lawrence, Campbell, Havelock, Outram, etc. The activities of Indian leaders were confined to a narrow area and extended over a short brief period.

2. The mutiny was not centralised : The mutiny was not centralised and occurred only in some places. R. C. Mazumdar says, “It was never in all India character but was localised, restricted and poorly orgainsed.” The mutiny had not spread in South India. Punjab, Rohilkhand, Awadh, Bihar and Western Bengal were the areas where the mutiny had spread. Some of the feudal princes like the Rajas of Patiala, Jind, Gwalior, Hyderabad helped its suppression.

3. Lack of Resources : The resources of the British Empire were far superior to those of the rebels. Even though the British was engaged in so many wars before the revolt. The Chinese and the Crimean wars had been concluded by 1856 and the British troops around 1,12,000 were poured into India from many parts of the world.

Apart from this the British had also recruited 3,10,000 additional Indian soldiers in India. The rebels did not possess the modern weapons like the British troops. They fought with swords and spears. The electric telegraph kept the commander in chief informed about the movements of the Indian rebels and their strategy. The British which had colonies throughout the world derived its resources to suppress the revolt with men and money powers, whereas the rebels lacked man power and money which was a major set back for the revolt.

4. The Revolt was poorly organised : The leaders of the revolt like Nana Sahib, Tantia Tope, Rani Lakshmi Bai, Kunwar Singh, etc. were not lacking in bravery, but were deficient in experience, organising ability and concerted operation. Surprise attacks and the guerilla tactics of Tantia Tope and other leaders could not win them their lost independence. When the revolt was suppressed the Government of India and the provincial governments appointed various commissions and boards to find out the scheme of plan of the rebels, but they could not find out any preplan of the revolutionaries before the occurrence and after it.

5. The rebels had no common ideals : The rebels had only anti-foreign sentiments except that they did not have any common ideals. When the rebels marched into Delhi, they captured it and they proclaimed Bahadur Shah the Emperor at Delhi. At the same time Nana Sahib was proclaimed as the Peshwa of Kanpur | and Gwalior. Hindu-Muslim differences lay dormant against the common enemy, but were not dead. The peasants and the lower caste people did not show any sympathy for the rebels. In the Bombay and Madras Presidencies the lower class people who were recruited into the British troops remained loyal to the British. The Hindus wanted to set up a Maratha rule while the Muslims wanted to revive the Mughal kingdom. The selfishness of the revolt sapped the strength of the revolt.

Ashoka the Great (Devanagari: अशोक; IAST transliteration: Aśoka, 304 BCE – 232 BCE), known also as Piyadasi (Pali. Sanskrit:Priyadarśin – meaning 'good looking'), and Devanaŋpiya (Pali. Sanskrit:Devānāmpriya meaning 'beloved of the Gods'), was the emperor of the Mauryan Empire from 273 BCE to 232 BCE. His given name was Asoka but he assumed the title Devanampiya Piyadasi which means "Beloved-of-the-Gods”.

The Non-cooperation movement was launched on 5th September, 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi with the aim of self-governance and obtaining full independence as the Indian National Congress (INC) withdraw its support for British reforms following the Rowlatt Act of 21 March 1919, and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 14 April 1919.

Buddhism rapidly spread throughout the world due to the following reasons:

• The disciples of Buddha founded an organization of monks called sangha who became teachers of dhamma. These monks lived simply, possessed only the essential requisites for survival. They spread the teachings of Buddha and Buddhism.

• Women also became part of a sangha and persuaded other women to follow Buddhism.

• Buddha attracted followers from various social groups such as kings, wealthy men and common folks including workers, slaves and craftspeople.

• Buddhism regarded everyone as equal. The social identities were not considered important.

• Buddhism appealed to those that were dissatisfied with the existing religious practices and rapidly changing social identities.

• Conduct and values were of greater importance than claims of superiority based on birth.

All these factors led to the growth of Buddhism.

The teachings of Buddha have been reconstructed in Sutta Pitaka. According to Buddhist Philosophy:

• The world is transient (anicca) and constantly changing.

• The world is soulless (anatta). There is nothing permanent and eternal in it.

• Sorrow (dukh) is intrinsic to human existence.

• Only when the person follows the path of moderation between severe penance and self-indulgence, he could rise above worldly troubles.

• Existence or non-existence of God is irrelevant to Buddhism. The world is the creation of humans.

• Humanity and ethical values are considered above everything.

• Buddha emphasized individuality and righteous action as the means to escape from the cycle of rebirth and attain self-realization and Nibbana, i.e, the extinguishing of ego and desire. This would thus end the cycle of suffering.

The relationship between the Sufis and the State from the eighth to the eighteenth century is explained as follows:

In order to seek God, the Sufis, a group of religious-minded people, turned to asceticism and mysticism in the early centuries of Islam.
The Sufi saints accepted donations and grants from the political elites but never accumulated it. They spent it on major requirements of daily life.
They used to live a simple and disciplined life.
The Sufi saints were enlisted by the Sultans in order to garner support from the general population.
Despite the cooperation and mutual obligation between the State and the saints, there are various examples of conflict between the two.
Both the Sufis and the State wanted to assert their authority over the people and thus, emphasized the prostration and kissing of the feet.

Andal - Woman Alwar - She composed many poems.
Karaikkal Ammaiyar - devotee of Shiva. She adopted the path of extreme asceticim to gain her goal.

(i) The Mughal rulers believed in Divine theory of Kingship. They tried to convey this theory and vision through the writing of dynastic history. For this purpose they appoint court- historians to write accounts. These accounts recorded the events of the emperor’s time. In addition, their writers collected vast amounts of information from the regions of the subcontinent to help the rulers govern their domain.
(ii)    Modem historians’ writings in English have termed this genre of texts chronicles, as they present a continuous chronological record of events.
(iii)    Chronicles are an indispensable sources for any scholar wishing to write a history of the Mughals. At one level they were a repository of factual information about the institutions of the Mughal state, painstakingly collected and classified by individuals closely connected with the court.
At the same time these texts were intended as conveyors of meanings that the Mughal rulers sought to impose on their domain. They therefore give us a glimpse into how imperial ideologies were created and disseminated.
(iv)    Chronicles commissioned by the Mughal emperors are an important source for studying the empire and its court. They were written in order to project a vision of an enlightened kingdom to all those who came under its umbrella. At the same time they were meant to convey to those who resisted the rule of the Mughals that all resistance was destined to fail. Also, the rulers wanted to ensure that there was an account of their rule for posterity.

It is not always easy to understand the sculptures in the Sanchi Stupa using Buddhist literature, however we should understand that the literature has helped us a lot in deciphering what sculptures meant.However there are reasons why we are not able to understand the sculpture properly is that 
1. many artist did not make buddha in human form but made symbols that symbolised an act of buddha, for example empty seat meant meditationof buddha, stupa was suppose to mean parinibbana. Thus if we do not understand the symbolic meaning we are not able to understand the sculptures at Sanchi.
2. many sculptures depicted at sanchi were not related to buddhism but rather it was from the popular traditions, for example the sculpture of Shalabhanjika, or of woman being consecrated by elephants, many believed it to be Maya, mother of buddha other looked as Gajalakshmi. It looks like people took both the meanings.
Thus, unless and untill we know about the popular traditions and one who made it, just using buddhist scriptures it is hard to understand the sculptures at sanchi.                            

Alvars are devoted to Lord Vishnu, Nayanars are devoted to Lord Shiva
Orginally there were 12 Alvars and 63 Nayanars
The book of Alvars is known as: Divya prabandham
The book of Nayanars is: Tevaram