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Kings, Farmers And Towns
“The Gupta kings enjoyed large number of powers”. Discuss.
The Gupta kings enjoyed a large number of powers. Those powers covered political, administrative, military and judicial fields.
(i) Very often they were their own commanders-in-chief.
(ii) Samudragupta, Chandragupta-II and Skanda Gupta personally led their armies in the wars.
(iii) The Gupta kings appointed all the governors and important military and civil officers.
(iv) The governors and their officers had to work under the control and guidance of the king.
(v) All land in the country was the property of the king who could give away the same to any body be pleased.
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How do historians reconstruct the lives of ordinary people?
Compare and contrast the list of things given to the Pandyan chief (Source 3) with those produced in the village of Danguna (Source 8). Do you notice any similarities or differences?
List some of the problems faced by epigraphists.
Discuss the main features of Mauryan administration. Which of these elements are evident in the Asokan inscriptions that you have studied?
This is a statement made by one of the best-known epigraphists of the twentieth century, D.C. Sircar: “There is no aspect of life, culture and activities of the Indians that is not reflected in inscriptions”. Discuss.
Discuss the notions of kingship that developed in the post-Mauryan period.
To what extent were agricultural practices transformed in the period under consideration?
Compare Maps 1 and 2, and list the Mahajanapadas that may have been included in the Mauryan Empire. Are any Asokan inscriptions found in these areas?
Collect newspapers for one month. Cut and paste all the statements made by government officials about public works. Note what the reports say about the resources required for such projects, how the resources are mobilised and the objective of the project. Who issues these statements, and how and why are they communicated? Compare and contrast these with the evidence from inscriptions discussed in this chapter. What are the similarities and differences that you notice.
Collect five different kinds of currency notes and coins in circulation today. For each one of these, describe what you see on the observe and the reverse (the front and the back). Prepare a report on the common features as well as the differences in terms of pictures, scripts and languages, size, shape and any other element that you find significant. Compare these with the coins shown in this chapter, discussing the materials used, the techniques of minting, the visual symbols and their significance and the possible functions that coins may have had.
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