NCERT 7 HISTORY CHAPTER 9

 9.THE MAKING OF REGIONAL CULTURES

• We tend to associate each region with distinctive kinds of food, clothes, poetry, language, dance, music and painting
• Regional cultures are often the product of complex processes of intermixing of local traditions with ideas from other parts of the subcontinent

   THE CHERAS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MALAYALAM

• Example : for use of regional language in official record 
• [ Mahodayapuram (Kerala) - The Chera kingdom, established in 9th century and the rulers introduced the Malayalam language and script in their inscriptions]
• The Cheras also drew upon Sanskritic traditions
• First Malayalam literary works dated to about 12th century
• Lilatilakam - a 14th century text, composed in Manipravalam referring to two languages

  RULERS AND RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS: 

THE JAGANNATHA CULT

• The local tribal people make the wooden image of the deity was later identified with Vishnu
• In 12th century - Anantavarman decided to erect temple at Puri
• In 1230, king Anangabhima II dedicated his kingdom to deity

THE RAJPUTS AND TRADITIONS OF HEROISM

• In 19th century, the British called Rajasthan as Rajputana (area mainly inhabited by Rajputs from 8th century)
• Prithviraj - was a Rajput warrior king
• Rajputs cherished the ideal of the hero who fought valiantly, often choosing death on the battlefield rather than face defeat
• Women are also depicted as following their heroic husbands in both life and death - there are stories about the practice of sati and immolation of widows 

 BEYOND REGIONAL FRONTIERS: THE STORY OF KATHAK

• Kathak, now associated with several parts of North India (recognised as one of six "classical" forms of dance)
• The Kathaks - originally a caste of story-tellers in temples of North India, who embellished their performances with gestures and songs
• rasa lila (enacted folk plays) - which combined folk dance with the basic gestures of the kathak story-tellers
• it developed in the courts of Rajasthan (Jaipur) and in Lucknow
• Under Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, it grew into a major art form
• By end of 19th centrury, entrenched as a dance form in the adjoining areas of present-day Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh

PAINTING FOR PATRONS: THE TRADITION OF MINIATURES

• Miniatures are small-sized paintings, generally done in water colour on cloth or paper (earlier on palm leaves or wood)
• Most beautiful of these found in Western India, were used to illustrate Jaina texts
• The Mughal emperors patronised highly skilled painters, they portrayed court scenes, scenes of battle or hunting, and other aspects of social life
• Then Mughal artistic tastes influenced the regional courts of the Deccan and the Rajput court of Rajasthan
• In late 17th century, the Himalayan foothills around the modern-day state of Himachal Pradesh developed a bold and intense style of miniature painting called Basohli (popular text painted was Bhanudatta's Rasamanjari)
• By the mid-18th century, Kangra artists developed a style which breathed a new spirit into miniature painting
• soft colours including cool blues and greens, and a lyrical treatment of themes distinguished Kangra painting

  A CLOSER LOOK: BENGAL

  THE GROWTH OF A REGIONAL LANGUAGE

• Bengali now recognised as a language derived from Sanskrit (early Sanskrit texts suggest that people of Bengal did not speak Sanskritic languages)
• 4-3 BCE : the linguistic and cultural influence from mid-Ganga valley became stronger
• 7th century - Xuan Zang observed that languages related to Sanskrit were in use all over Bengal
• In 1586 during Akbar's rule, Persian was the language of Administration, Bengali developed as a regional language
• Although Bengali is derived from Sanskrit, it passed through several stages of evolution, derived words from a variety of sources including tribal languages, Persian and European languages
• Early Bengali literature divided into two categories
• one indebted to Sanskrit [dated 15 and mid-18 century] - which involves translations of the Sanskrit epics, the Mangalakavyas and bhakti literature such as the biographies of Chaitanyadeva (the leader of the Vaishnava bhakti movement)
• second one includes Nath literature such as the songs of Maynamati and Gopichandra, stories concerning with the worship of Dharma Thakur, and fairy tales, folk tales and ballads

    PIRS AND TEMPLES

• Pirs - this term included saints or Sufis and other religious personalities, daring colonisers and deified soldiers, various Hindu and Buddhist deities and animistic spirits
• Bengal also witnessed a temple-building spree from late 15th century, which culminated in the 19th century
• These were built with the support of several "low" social groups, such as Kolu (oil pressers)and the Kansari (bell metal workers)
• Temples began to copy the double-roofed (dochala) or four roofed (chauchala) structure of the thatched huts
• This led to the evolution of the typical Bengali style in temple architecture
• Example for this high degree of excellence - In Vishnupur in the Bankura district of West Bengal

    FISH AS FOOD

• Traditional food habits are generally based on local available items of food
• Bengal - a riverine plain which produces plenty of food, fishing has always been an important occupation
• Bengali literature contains several references to fish
• Brihaddharma Purana - 13th century Sanskrit text from Bengal, permitted the local Brahmanas to eat certain varieties of fish