NCERT 7 HISTORY CHAPTER 7

-

 7.TRIBES, NOMADS AND SETTLED COMMUNITIES


  • Important social, political and economic developments had taken place over the centuries
  • but social change was not same everywhere because different kind of societies evolved differently
  • In most places, society was divided based on varnas prescribed by Brahmanas
    BEYOND BIG CITIES: TRIBAL SOCIETIES
  • Tribes - They did not follow the social rules and rituals prescribed by Brahmanas nor they divided into numerous unequal classes
  • Many tribes do agriculture, others were hunter-gatherers or herders
  • Some were nomadic and moved from one place to another
    WHO WERE TRIBAL PEOPLE?
  • Tribal people did not keep written records, but they preserved rich customs and oral traditions
  • Tribals were found in almost every region, some powerful tribes controlled large territories
  • In Punjab, the Khokhar tribe was very influential, later the Gakkhars became more important (their chief, Kamal Khan Gakkhar, was made a noble by Emperor Akbar)
  • In Multan and Sind, the Langahs and Arghuns dominated
  • The Balochis were large and powerful in North-West
  • In the Western Himalaya lived the shepherd tribe of Gaddis
  • North-Eastern was entirely dominated by tribes - the Nagas, Ahoms and many others
  • In present-day Bihar and Jharkhand, Chero chiefdoms had emerged by the 12th century (Raja Man Singh, Akbar's famous general attacked and defeated the Cheros and also Aurangzeb subjugated them)
  • The Mundas and Santals were other important tribes lived in this region and also in Orissa and Bengal
  • The Maharashtra highlands and Karnataka were home to Kolis and Berads; Kolis also lived in Gujarat
  • South - large tribal populations of Koragas, Vetars, Maravans and many others
  • Western and Central India - large tribe of Bhils (later become settled agriculturists)
  • The Gonds - found across the present-day states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh
     HOW NOMADS AND MOBILE PEOPLE LIVED
  • Nomadic pastoralists moved with animals, lived on milk and other pastoral products
  • The most important trader nomads - the Banjaras,(their caravan - tanda), they transported food grain for the Mughal army during military campaigns
  • They reared and sold animals, made and sold wares
     CHANGING SOCIETY : NEW CASTES AND HIERARCHIES 
  • As the economy and the needs of the society grew, smaller castes or jatis emerged within varnas
  • New Rajput clans became powerful, they belonged to Hunas, Chandelas, Chalukyas and others
  • Many tribes of Punjab, Sind and the North-West Frontier had adopted Islam quite early 
  • The social order, prescribed by orthodox Hinduism, was not widely accepted in these areas
     A CLOSER LOOK:

     THE GHONDS
  • They lived in Gondwana, practised shifting cultivation
  • Akbar Nama, a history of Akbar's reign, mentions the Gond kingdom of Garha Katanga that had 70,000 villages
  • Kingdom divided into garhs, further divided into units of 84 villages, called chaurasi, subdivided into barhots (made up of 12 villages each)
  • Aman Das, the Gond raja of Garha Katanga, assumed the title of Sangram Shah
  • His son Dalpat married princess Durgawati, she showed strong resistance against Mughal forces
  • Gargha Katanga earned much wealth by trapping and exporting wild elephants and later granted to Chandra Shah 
  • Despite the fall of Garha Katanga, they became much weaker and struggled against the stronger Bundelas and Marathas
     THE AHOMS
  • migrated to Brahmaputra valley from present-day Myanmar in 13th century
  • they suppressed the political system of the bhuiyans (landlords)
  • 16th century - they annexed the kingdoms of the Chhutiyas (1523) and of Koch-Hajo (1581)
  • The Ahoms faced many invasions including the Mughals
  • Ahoms depended upon forced labour (paiks)
  • Almost all adult males served in the army, they were engaged in building dams, irrigation systems and other public works, they introduced rice cultivation methods
  • Ahoms divided into clans / khels
  • Ahoms worshipped their own tribal gods
  • Hinduism became the predominant religion under Sib Singh
  • Important Sanskrit works were translated into the local language
  • Buranjis - historical works were written first in Ahom, then in Assamese

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NCERT 7 HISTORY CHAPTER 2

-
Image
  2. NEW KINGS AND KINGDOMS     THE EMERGENCE OF NEW DYNASTIES New dynasties emerged after 7th century Samantas - big landlords or warrior chiefs, subordinates to the kings, later declared themselves as maha-samanta, maha-mandaleshvara Rashtrakutas - sub ordinate to Chalukyas In mid eighth century, Dantidurga , a Rashtrakuta chief performed a ritual called hiranya-garbha (lead to the rebirth of the sacrificer as kshatriya) From Brahmanas to  Kings - the Kadamba Mayusrasharman and the Gurjara-Pratihara Harichandra     ADMINISTRATION IN THE KINGDOMS Titles - Maharaja- adhiraja (great king, overlord of kings), tribhuvana-chakravartin (lord of the three worlds) taxes collected to finance the king's establishment, construction of temples and forts, used to fight wars close relatives of the king held important positions, positions were often hereditary Inscription of the Cholas - Tamil Nadu, more than 400 terms for different kinds of taxes such as vetti ( in...
Read more

NCERT 9 GEOGRAPHY CHAPTER 6

-
6. POPULATION Population - the pivotal element in social studies  Resources, calamities and disasters are all meaningful only in relation to human beings Census of India - official enumeration of population done periodically (for every 10 years) first census held in 1872 , the first complete census held in 1881       POPULATION SIZE AND DISTRIBUTION India's population - 1210.6 million (as on march 2011) accounts for 17.5 % distributed over area of 3.28 million sq. km( 2.4 % of the world) Uttar Pradesh - the most populous state ( 199 million ) - 16% of country's population  Sikkim has a population of 0.6 million and Lakshadweep has only 64,429 people Rajasthan - the biggest state in terms of area, accounts only 5.5 % Half of India's population in 5 states - Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh Population density - Number of persons per unit area India - 382 persons per sq.km(densities vary from 1,102 per sq.km in Bihar...
Read more

NCERT 7 HISTORY CHAPTER 1

-
  1. TRACING CHANGES THROUGH A THOUSAND YEARS Cartography - the study and practice of making maps science of cartography differed in these two periods, produced with different historical backgrounds and contexts Map 1 -  made in 1154 CE by Arab geographer Al-Idrisi , showing Indian subcontinent from land to sea South India where we would find North India and Sri Lanka at top (upside down map)  marked in Arabic, important places like kanauj in U.P were also marked  Map 2 - 600 years after Map 1, made in 1720s by French cartographer  used by European sailors, had detailed account on coastal areas       NEW AND OLD TERMINOLOGIES  Historical records changed over time - not only grammar and vocabulary; the meanings of words also changed  Term 'Hindustan' used in 13th century by Minhaj-i-siraj , chronicler in Persian (meant the areas of punjab, Haryana and the lands between the Ganga and the Yamuna) Babar used same term 'Hindustan...
Read more