History: 2009: CBSE: [Delhi]: Set – III

Amara- nayakas were the military commanders working under the rayas in Vijaya Nagara Empire. They were assigned territories by the rayas and they had to collect taxes and other dues from the peasants of that territory.

Kshatriyas were to engage in warfare, protect people and administer justice, study the Vedas, get sacrifices performed and make gifts.

The first All India Census was attempted in 1872. The data collected through census gave details of the growth of population in the urban cities. It helped the municipal authorities to collect the municipal taxes systematically.

Ryotwari system was introduced in Bombay Deccan. The most striking feature of the system was that it removed the intermediaries between the East India Company and the peasants or Ryot.

Akbar had made the classification of land and fixed the land revenue on the basis of the fertility of the soil. Chachar was the land that could be cultivated once in three or four years. Banjar land could be cultivated once in five or six years.

The early Hindu temples were a small square room called the garbhagriha, with a single doorway for the worshipper to enter and offer worship to the image. Later on, a tall structure, known as the shikhara was built over the central shrine. Temple walls were often decorated with sculpture. Temples were elaborately constructed with assembly halls, huge walls and gateways, and arrangements for supplying water. One of the unique features of early temples was that some of these temples were hollowed out of huge rocks as artificial caves. The tradition of building artificial caves began when Asoka constructed them for the devotees of the Ajivika sect. The Kailashnatha (a name of Shiva) temple is carved out of a single piece of rock. A copper plate inscription, which is found in this temple, records the amazement of the chief sculptor after he completed the temple at Ellora: “Oh how did I make it?”

Al-Biruni wrote Kitab-ul-Hind in Arabic. The language used is simple and lucid. Kitab- ul- Hind is a voluminous text; it is divided into 80 chapters and deals with subjects like religion and philosophy, festivals, astronomy, alchemy, manners and customs, social life, weights and measures, iconography, laws and metrology.
Al- Biruni adopted a distinctive structure in each chapter; he begins the chapter with a question, follows it up with a description based on Sanskritic traditions, and concludes it with comparison with other cultures. Few contemporary scholars have argued that this almost geometric structure, remarkable for its precision and predictability, owed much to his mathematical orientation.

Major Rock edicts are at Girnar, Kalsi, Mansehra, Shahbazgarhi, Sopara, Jaugada, etc.
Pillar Edicts are at Topra, Meerut, Bairat, Sarnath, Rampurwa, Rummindei, Lauria Nandangarh, etc.

The five centres of the Revolt of 1857 were Meerut, Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow and Jhansi.

Panipat, Delhi, Agra, Ajmer and Goa.