Sponsor Area

Kings, Farmers And Towns

Question
CBSEENHS12028114

”The Mahabharata is a good source to study the Kinfolk’s values of ancient times.” Justify this statement with suitable arguments.

Solution

Mahabharata is a good source to study the kinfolk's values in the ancient times:

(i) Often people belonging to the same family share food and other resources, and live, work and perform rituals together.

(ii) While familial ties are often regarded as “natural” and based on blood, they are defined in many different ways.

(iii) Some societies regard cousins as being blood relations, whereas others do not.

(iv) Under patriliny, sons could claim the resources (including the throne in the case of kings) of their fathers when the latter died.

(v) This system, called exogamy was practiced which meant that the lives of young girls and women belonging to families that claimed high status were often carefully regulated to ensure that they were married at the “right” time and to the “right” person. This gave rise to the belief that kanyadana or the gift of a daughter in marriage was an important religious duty of the father.

Sponsor Area

Some More Questions From Kings, Farmers And Towns Chapter

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.

What is meant by Janapada?

What were the Mahajanapadas? Name a few important Mahajanapadas.