6th History NCERT 3

Chapter: 9 Vital villages, thriving towns
Megalithihc burial sites had large collections of iron tools and weapons
Villages:
-Tamil region: large landowners - Vellalars;
Ordinary ploughmen- uzhavar;
landless labourers including slaves - Kadaisiyar n adimai
Northern region Villages:
-Grama Bhojaka-Village headman (hereditary post)
• largest landowner often
• hired slaves to work on his land
• King used him to collect taxes from village
• functioned as a judge n policeman sometimes
Grihgapatis: other independent famers, smaller landowners
Dasas/karmakaras: Men n women who didnt own land and worked in fields to earn a living
Jatakas: Stories composed by ordinary people; written down n preserved by buddhist monks

Sangam Literature:
Called sangam bcz was composed n compiled by assemblies of poets held in city of madurai
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Many cities that developed from about 2500yrs ago were capitals of Mahajanapadas.
-Ring wells found in many such cities
punch marked coins used during this period
Mathura:
imp city as it was located at the cross roads of 2 major routes of travel
-from NW to east and from North to South
-Became a capital for kushanas around 2000yrs ago
-Religious centre with monastries, Jaina shrines and krishna worship.

Northern Black Polished Ware:
Extremely fine pottery; found in Northern part of subcontinent; Black in color with fine sheen
Shrenis:
Associations formed by merchants n craft persons
Shrenis of craft persons:
-provided training, procured raw material n distributed finished product
Shrenis of merchants:
-organised trade
Shrenis served as banks also
Arikamedu:
A coastal settlement between 2200 n 1900 yrs ago
Pottery, Arretine ware, roman lamps, glassware n gems

Chapter: 10 Traders, Kings and pilgrims
South India: known for pepper n spices
-roman coins found in south India
-pepper was known as black gold in Rome
Muvendar: Mentioned in sangam poems
-tamil word meaning   used for heads of 3 ruling families i.e.
-Cholas
-Cheras
-Pandyas
-Became powerful in south india around 2300 yrs ago
-Each chief had an inland and coastal centre of power
-2 important out of 6 were:
-Kaveripattinam: port of Cholas
-Madurai: Capital of Pandyas
-chiefs didnt collect taxes instead demanded regular gifts from ppl
-Went on military expeditions n collected tributes n distributed them amongst their followers including their own family members n poet soldiers etc.
Satvahanas:
200 yrs later they became powerful in western india
-gautamiputra Shri Satakarni
Satavahan rulers werre known as Lords of Dakshinapatha
Silk Route:
: Techniques of making silk was first invented in China 7000yrs ago
:ppl from china went to distant lands on foot, on camels n horseback and the route they followed came to be known as Silk Route
-Chinese rulers sent gifts of silk to Iran n West Asia and from there the knowledge of silk spread further west.
-Rulers tried to control the route for tributes n gifts from traders and they protected them instead from robbers
-Kushanas controlled silk route
 ruled over central asia n NW India
 Peshawar n Mathura their major centres of Power
Taxila also came under their kingdom
-Kushanas issued gold coins and were amongst the earliest rulers in the subcontinent to do so

Spread of Buddhism:
Kanishka - an imp Kushana ruler
 -organised a buddhist council
 -Ashvaghosha -Poet who composed biography of Buddha i.e. budhhacharita lived in his ocurt.
 -Ashvaghosha n other poets now began writing in Sanskrit
- Mahayana Buddhism developed now
  :features
  -Earlier in sculptures buddha was shown thru signs like by peepal tree  but now his statues were made in mathura n taxila.
 -Bodhisattvas - those who attained enlightenment cud live in complete isolation but now they lived in the wrld teaching other ppl
 - worship of boddhisattvas spread to central asia ,china n later to korea n japan
 - Buddhism also spread to western n southern India
Buddhism also spread SE to Srilanka, Myanmar, Thailand n Indonesia. Theravada Buddhism was more popular here.
Caves were hollowed in the hills for the monks to live in.
Caves were located near passes thru Western Ghats where traders coming from the ports n going to the cities of the Deccan halted
Pilgrims:
Chinese buddhist pilgrim - Fa-Xian
1600 yrs ago
Xuan Zang 1400yrs ago
I-Qing - 50yrs after Xuan – Zang
-Spent time at Nalanda studying Buddhism
Beginning of Bhakti:
-Worship of certain deities gained in importance
-Deities worshipped thru bhakti
-Anyone rich or poor cud follow path of Bhakti
-Idea of bhakti is presetn in Bhagwad geeta
-Bhakti followers emphasised devotion n individual worship of a god or goddess rather then performance of rituals
-devotee who worships with a pure heart, deity will appear in the form in which he or she desires .so deity cud be thought of anything like tree, lion or human figure etc
-image worship



Chapter: 11 New Empires & Kingdoms
Samudragupta: Gupta dynasty
-We know about him from a long poem in sanskrit by court poet Harishena 170 yrs ago
-The above inscription is of spl kind known as Prashasti (meaning in praise)
-Prashastis became imp during guptas rule
Harishena describes 4 kinds of rulers and tell us about Samudragupta’s policy towards them
1).Rulers of Aryavarta: 9 rulers here were uprooted n their kingdoms were made a part of Samudras empire
2).Rulers of Dakshinapatha: 12 rulers were here; surrendered to him after being defeated n samudra allowed him to rule again
3).Inner circle of neighbouring states, including Assam, Coastal Bengal, Nepal n number of gana sanghas in NW brought tributes to his court , followed his orders n attended his court
4).Rulers of outlying areas: Descendents of kushanas and shakas , ruler of srilanka submitted to him n offered their daughters for marriage.
Samudras mother belonged to Lichchhavi gana n his father chandragupta was first ruler of gupta dynasty to adopt the title of Maharaj-adhiraja
Harshavardhana:
ruled 1400yrs ago
Banabhatta his court poet wrote Harshacharita his biography in sanskrit
-Xuan Zang spent time in his court
Harsha took over kanauj n then bengal, magadha but was stopped in his march towards Deccan by pulakeshin II a ruler of chalukya dynasty
Pallavas n chalukyas ruled during this period in South India
Pallavas:
-Kingdom was spread from capital city of Kanchipuram till kaveri delta
Chalukyas:
-Aihole, the capital of chalukyas, imp trading centre
-Pulakeshin -II , known by prashasti by court poet Ravikirti
His Kingdom centered around Raichur Doab between Krishna n tungbhadra.
-Both dynasties fought with each other n raided capital cities as they were prosperous
Eventually they gave way to Rashtrakutas & cholas

Administration: Chalukyas & Pallavas
-Land revenue remained important
-Village remained the basic unit of administration
New developments:
Measures taken by kings to win support of powerful men,
• -Imp admin posts were made hereditary like harishena was a maha-danda-nayaka or chief judicial officer like his father
• -1 person held many posts
• -Imp men had a say in Local administration which include nagara-shreshti or chief banker or merchant of the city, sathavaha or leader of merchant caravans, prathama-kulika or chief craftsman and the head of kayasthas or scribes
New kind of army:
-Well maintained armies like earlier rulers with chariots, elephants cavalry, foot soldiers
-Military leaders or samantas who provided troops to the king when he needed them
 -They were paid grants of land n not regular salaries
 -they collected revenue from the land and used them to maintain soldiers & horses & for providing equipment for warfare
Assemblies in South Kingdoms:
Inscriptions of Pallavas mention local assembliles namely, sabha -assembly of brahmin land owners; looked after irrigation, roads ,local temples etc
ur -an assembly of land owners who were not brahmins
nagaram- org of merchants
Untouchability prevalent:
The untouchables were expected to live outskirts of the city



Chapter: 12 Buildings, Paintings & Books
Stupas: A Small box (Relic casket) placed at the heart of stupa; may contain bodily remains of buddha or his followers or things they used as well as precious stones n coins
-Pradakshina patha was laid around the stupa
Devotees walked around stupa in clockwise direction
Earliest Hindu temples also built during this time
-Most imp part of the temple was garbhagriha -where image of chief deity was placed
shikhara -a tower was built on the top of garbhagriha to mark it as a sacred place
mandapa - a hall where ppl cud assemble
-Mahabalipuram - eg of monolithic temple
Epics:
Grand long compositions about heroic men and women & include stories about gods
Silappadikaram:
Tamil epic composed by Ilango around 1800yr ago
Manimekalai:
Tamil epic
-by sattanar aroound 1400yrs ago
Kalidasa wrote in sanskrit
Puranas were written during this period only
-Puranas were written in simple Sanskrit
-were meant to be heard by everyone including women & shudras
Mahabharata:
known previously but written about 1500yrs ago
Both Mahabharata and puranas are by Vyasa
Sanskrit ramayana –valmiki
Books on science:
Aryabhata: wrote Aryabhatiyamm in Sanskrit
-Stated that day and night were caused by the rotation of earth on its axis
He developed a scientific explanation for eclipses as well
-also found out the way for calculating the circumference of a circle
Paper:
-Paper invented in china by Cai Lun about 1900yrs ago
-the secret reached Korea about 1400yrs ago and then to Japan.
-From Baghdad where it was known about 1800yrs ago it spread to Europe, Africa and other part s of Asian subcontinent