NCERT Solutions for Class 12 History Themes In Indian History Ii Chapter 6 Bhakti-Sufi Traditions

Explain with examples what historians mean by the integration of cults.

To what extent do you think the architecture of mosques in the subcontinent reflects a combination of universal ideals and local traditions?

What were the similarities and differences between the be-sharia and 6a-sharia sufi traditions?

Discuss the ways in which the Alvars, Nayanars and Virashaivas expressed critiques of the caste system.

Describe the major teachings of either Kabir or Baba Guru Nanak, and the ways in which these have been transmitted.

Discuss the major beliefs and practices that characterised Sufism.

Examine how and why rulers tried to establish connections with the traditions of the Nayanars and the Sufis.

Analyse, with illustrations, why Bhaktland Sufi thinkers adopted a variety of languages in which to express their opinions.

Read any five of the sources included in this chapter and discuss the social and religious ideas that are expressed in them.

On an outline map of India, plot three major sufi shrines, and three places associated with temples (one each of a form of Vishnu, Shiva and the goddess).

Choose any two of the religious teachers/thinkers/saints mentioned in this chapter, and find out more about their lives and teachings. Prepare a report
about the area and the times in which they lived their major ideas, how we know about them, and why you think they are important.

Find out more about practices of pilgrimage associated with the shrines mentioned in this chapter. Are these pilgrimages still undertaken? When are these shrines visited? Who visits these shrines? Why do they do so? What are the activities associated with these pilgrimages?

Mention the two earliest Bhakti Movements of Tamil Nadu, giving the main difference between them.

Mention two features of the protest movement started by Nayanars and Alvars.

Who led a new religious movement in Karnataka? What were his followers known as?

Give the meaning of Zimina. Who were Zimmis?

Why was Khwaja Muinuddin’s Dargah very popular? Give two reasons.

Why do thousands of devotees visit dargahs of Muslim saints?

Write the names of four Peeths established by Adi Sankaracharya.

Write a short note on Madhavacharya.

Explain the meaning of the concept ‘Khanqah’.

Explain the meaning of the term ‘Nathpanthi’.

What compositions are included in the new textual sources from 8^th to 18^th century? Explain any two features.

What was the most striking feature of sculpture as well as of texts of phase of 8th to 18th century?

Which religious processes were at work, according to historians, in the phase of 8th to 18th century?

According to sociologists, most of the religious beliefs and practices of subcontinent were shaped by which thing ? Give its example also.

What was the practice of Tantric worship? Explain any two features.

Why there was sometimes situation of conflict among Vedic traditions and Tantric practices?

How Hindu-Islamic culture originated at the time of Delhi Sultanate?

Explain the meaning of Silsila in Sufism.

Write two rituals of initiation into ‘Silsila’.

In which two categories, historians of religion often classify Bhakti traditions? Describe them briefly.

How centres of pilgrimage develop from the travels of Alvars and Nayanars?

Why did the Nayanar saints express their opposition towards Jainism and Buddhism?

The Chola rulers supported Brahmanical and Bhakti traditions. Give examples in support of this.

Tell any two reasons for the popularity of sufi (chisti) saints.

What were three distinct traditions in the compositions of Kabir?

What are Kabir’s Ulatbansi compositions?

Name two compositions of Kabir which convey a sense of Kabir’s mystical experiences.

What is written about religion of Kabir in Vaishnava traditions? Who was his Guru?

Name any four saints or religious poets whose hymns are compiled in ‘Adi Granth Sahib.’

Who laid down the foundation of Khalsa Panth? What are the five emblems of this Panth?

Who was Mirabai? Discuss any of her two works.

“It is a challenge for historians to reconstruct the history of religious traditions such as those of Bhakti and Sufi.” - Give arguments to support of this statement.

Explain the term ‘Khanqahs’ under sufism.

Why do you think that the traditions of Baba Guru Nanak remain significant even in the 21st century?

Comment upon the chief principles of sufism.

Narrate the main teachings of sufism.

Who were Lingayats? Explain their contribution in the social and religious fields with special reference to caste system.

What were the teachings of Adi Sankara?

What were the reasons of emergence of Bhakti movement?

Discuss the contribution of Amir Khusrau in the fields of music and literature.

Jyhat were the main principles of Bhakti Movement?

Describe the three chief causes behind the origin and growth of the ‘Bhakti Movement’ or estimate the contribution of the three saints of Bhakti Movement.

What were the similarities between Sufism and Bhakti Movement?

Or

Explain the concept of Sufism and its main features.

Explain the significance of Kabir’s poems and the traditions he drew to describe the ultimate reality.

Explain how the biography of the saint poetess Mirabai has been primarily constructed. How did she defy the norms of society?

Explain the popular practices of Islamic traditions.

Give examples of differences and conflicts between religious beliefs and practices during 8th century and 18th century.

Or

Explain the textual traditions regarding religious beliefs.

Explain giving examples the connection between the State and the Bhakti and Sufi traditions.

India became a part of Islamic world? How rulers who had faith in Islam, maintained balance with their subjects? 

A Church in Khambat

This is an excerpt from a farman (imperial order) issued by Akbar in 1598:

Whereas it reached our eminent and holy notice that the Padris (fathers) of the Holy Society of Jesus wish to build a house of prayer (church) in the city of Kambayat (Khambat, in Gujarat); therefore an exalted mandate... is being issued ,... that the dignitaries of the city of Kambayat should in no case stand in their way but should allow them to build a church so that they may engage themselves in their own worship. It is necessary that the order of the Emperor should be obeyed in every way. (CBSE Delhi 2008) Questions:

1.    What did the Padris want to do?

2.    How did Akbar ensure that their desire was fulfilled?

3.    Who guided the Muslim rulers?

4.    How was the situation complicated in the subcontinent and how did the rulers adapt to this situation?

On an outline map of India show the major bhakti saints and the regions associated with them.

'By the eleventh century Sufism evolved into a well-developed movement.' Give any two examples.

Explain the features of Islamic religion which contributed to its spread through the sub-continent. 

Read the ‘value-based’ passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was dethroned and exiled to Calcutta on the plea that the region was being misgoverned. The British government also wrongly assumed that Wajid Ali Shah was an unpopular ruler. On the contrary, he was widely loved, and when he left his beloved Lucknow, there were many who followed him all the way to Kanpur singing songs of lament. The widespread sense of grief and loss at the Nawab’s exile was recorded by many contemporary observers. One of them wrote: “The life was gone out of the body, and the body of this town had been left lifeless … there was no street or market and house which did not wail out the cry of agony in separation of Jan-i-Alam.” One folk song bemoaned that “the honourable English came and took the country’’

(Angrez Bahadur ain, mulk lai linho).

Questions:

(a) Why did people bemoan and show an emotional upheaval at? Explain.

(b) What human values are revealed in the above passage?

Point out one similarity and one dissimilarity between Lingayats and Nayanars.

Read the following lines and answer the question that follows:

‘I will build a funeral pyre of sandalwood and aloe;

Light it by your own hand When I am burned away to cinders:

Smear this ash upon your limbs.

... let flame be lost in flame.’

Following the footsteps of Mirabai, the woman of Indian society became independent in her thoughts. She initiated the advancement of the category of woman. Throw light from the values learnt from her life which is the pathway to the modern society.

Read the following excerpt carefully and answer the questions that follow:

                                        The Pilgrimage of the Mughal Princess Jahanara, 1643

The following is an excerpt from Jahanara’s biography of Shaikh Muinuddin Chisti, titled Munis al Arwah (The Confident of Spirits):

After praising the one God…. this lowly faqira (humble soul) Jahanara… went from the capital Agra in the company of my great father (Emperor Shah Jahan) towards the pure region of incomparable Ajmer… I was committed to this idea, that every day in every station I would perform two cycles of optional prayer…
For several days…. I did not sleep on a leopard skin at night, I did not extent my feet in the direction of the blessed sanctuary of the revered saving master, and I did not turn my back towards him. I passed the days beneath the trees.

On Thursday, the fourth of the blessed month of Ramzan, I attained the happiness of pilgrimage to the illuminated and the perfumed tomb… With an hour of daylight remaining, I went to the holy sanctuary and rubbed my pale face with the dust of that threshold. From the doorway to the blessed tomb I went barefoot, kissing the ground. Having entered the dome, I went around the light-filled tomb of my master seven times ….Finally, with my own hand I put the finest quality of itar on the perfumed tomb of the revered one, and having taken off the rose scarf that I had on my head, I placed it on the top of the blessed tomb.

(16.1) Give the meaning of Ziyarat.

(16.2) How did Jahanara show her devotion to Shaikh Muinuddin Chisti ? Give examples.

(16.3) Why was dargah of Khwaja Muinuddin popular amongst devotees ?

‘Kabir was and is to the present a source of inspiration for those who questioned entrenched social institutions and ideas in their search for divine.’ Explain.