What is a shikhara?
Shikhara is a superstructure above the main shine in which main deity is put down in the temples. The construction of shikhara was the most unexciting and long lasting task in the temple construction.
What role did the Yamuna play in the layout of the new Mughal city at Shahjahanabad?
An inscription in Shah Jahan’s diwan-i khas in Delhi stated: “If there is Paradise on Earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.” How was this image created?
How is the “trabeate” principle of architecture different from the “arcuate”?
The rich and powerful construct large houses today. In what ways were the constructions of kings and their courtiers different in the past?
What are the elements of a Mughal chahar bagh garden?
What is pietra-dura?
How did a temple communicate the importance of a king?
Look at Figure 4. How could that building be constructed faster today?
How did the Mughal court suggest that everyone – the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak – received justice equally from the emperor?
Who was considered a “foreigner” in the past?
Match the following:
Gurjara-Pratiharas Western Deccan
Rashtrakutas Bengal
Palas Gujarat and Rajasthan
Cholas Tamil Nadu
Which ruler first established his or her capital at Delhi?
Match the following:
mansab Marwar
Mongol governor
Sisodiya Rajput Uzbeg
Rathor Rajput Mewar
Nur Jahan rank
subadar Jahangir
Fill in the blanks:
(a) The Rajarajeshvara temple was built in ———.
(b) Ajmer is associated with the Sufi saint ————.
(c) Hampi was the capital of the ———— Empire.
(d) The Dutch established a settlement at ———— in Andhra Pradesh.
Match the following:
garh khel
tanda chaurasi
labourer caravan
clan Garha Katanga
Sib Singh Ahom state
Durgawati paik
The Buddha namghar
Shankaradeva worship of Vishnu
Nizamuddin Auliya questioned social differences
Nayanars Sufi saint
Alvars worship of Shiva
Anantavarman Kerala
Jagannatha Bengal
Mahodayapuram Orissa
Lilatilakam Kangra
Mangalakavya Puri
Miniature Kerala
Match the following:
subadar a revenue farmer
faujdar a high noble
ijaradar provincial governor
misl Maratha peasant warriors
chauth a Mughal military commander
kunbis a band of Sikh warriors
umara tax levied by the Marathas
State whether true or false:
(a) We do not find inscriptions for the period after 700.
(b) The Marathas asserted their political importance during this period.
(c) Forest-dwellers were sometimes pushed out of their lands with the spread of agricultural settlements.
(d) Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban controlled Assam, Manipur and Kashmir.
How do historians divide the past into periods? Do they face any problems in doing so?
What does the term pan-regional empire mean?
Fill in the blanks:
(a) Archives are places where ——————— are kept.
(b) —————— was a fourteenth-century chronicler.
(c) ——, ———, ———, ——— and ——— were some of the new crops introduced into the subcontinent during this period.
What are the difficulties historians face in using manuscripts?
What were the major beliefs and practices of the Sufis?
How was water supplied to the city of Thanjavur?
What is meant by the “internal” and “external” frontiers of the Sultanate?
What were the qualifications necessary to become a member of a committee of the sabha in the Chola empire?
Do you think the authors of tawarikh would provide information about the lives of ordinary men and women?
Why did the Mughals emphasise their Timurid and not their Mongol descent?