AP Intermediate History (BIEAP) key terms

Bronze Age urban culture of the Indus valley and adjoining regions, roughly 2600–1900 BCE, known for planned cities, standardised weights, and undeciphered seals.

Large rectangular water tank at Mohenjo-daro, lined with bitumen and reached by steps, generally interpreted as a site for ritual purification rather than ordinary bathing.

Harappan port site in Gujarat with a dockyard, warehouse, and bead workshop, showing maritime trade links with the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia.

Oldest of the four Vedas, a collection of hymns in early Sanskrit addressed to deities such as Indra and Agni, and a key source for Vedic society.

Period from about 1500 to 600 BCE when pastoral Indo-Aryan groups settled the Indo-Gangetic plains, composing the Vedas and developing iron use and kingdoms.

Fourfold social classification of Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra found in later Vedic texts, distinct from the many birth-based jatis of actual society.

Sixteen large territorial states of the sixth century BCE Gangetic plain, including Magadha, Kosala, and Vatsa, several of them monarchies and others oligarchic republics.

Kingdom in present-day Bihar that absorbed rival states and became the base of the Nanda, Maurya, and Gupta empires because of iron, fertile land, and river routes.

Religion founded by Siddhartha Gautama in the sixth century BCE, teaching the Four Noble Truths and an eightfold path, and spreading widely under Mauryan and later patronage.

Mauryan emperor (c. 268–232 BCE) who after the Kalinga war promoted dhamma through rock and pillar edicts, sending missions abroad including to Sri Lanka.

First empire to unify most of the subcontinent, c. 321–185 BCE, founded by Chandragupta with Kautilya's advice and administered through provinces and a large bureaucracy.

Sanskrit treatise on statecraft attributed to Kautilya, discussing taxation, espionage, diplomacy, and royal duty, and a major source on Mauryan administration.

Dynasty ruling much of northern India from about 320 to 550 CE, associated with Sanskrit literature, temple architecture, and the mathematician Aryabhata.

Ashokan pillar later inscribed with a eulogy of Samudragupta by court poet Harishena, listing the territories and rulers he defeated or conciliated.

South Indian ruling house dominant in the Kaveri delta from the ninth to thirteenth centuries, famed for naval expeditions, bronze images, and the Brihadeshwara temple.

Chola ruler (985–1014 CE) who expanded into Sri Lanka and the Maldives, reorganised temple administration, and commissioned the Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur.

Eleventh-century Shiva temple at Thanjavur built by Rajaraja Chola I, noted for its towering vimana and a UNESCO World Heritage listing among the Great Living Chola Temples.

Sequence of five Turkic and Afghan dynasties ruling from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, namely the Slave, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid, and Lodi houses.

Khalji sultan (1296–1316) who repelled Mongol invasions, fixed prices of market goods, reorganised the army, and extended control over much of the Deccan.

Tughlaq sultan (1325–1351) known for shifting the capital to Daulatabad and issuing token copper coins, experiments that caused economic disruption and unrest.

Kingdom based at Hampi in Karnataka from 1336 to 1646, a centre of trade, temple building, and Sanskrit and Telugu literature that resisted northern sultanates.

Tughlaq-era contemporary and Vijayanagara ruler (1509–1529) whose court hosted the Ashtadiggajas poets; he wrote Amuktamalyada in Telugu and defeated the Gajapatis.

Telugu epic poem composed by Krishnadevaraya on the life of Andal, notable for its discussion of statecraft and its status in Telugu literary history.

Ruined capital of Vijayanagara beside the Tungabhadra river, containing temples, bazaars, and royal enclosures, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

1757 victory of the English East India Company under Robert Clive over Siraj-ud-Daulah of Bengal, achieved partly through the defection of Mir Jafar.

1764 Company victory over the combined forces of Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-Daulah, and Shah Alam II, leading to the grant of Diwani rights over Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.

1793 land revenue system introduced by Lord Cornwallis in Bengal, fixing revenue with zamindars in perpetuity and turning them into recognised landed proprietors.

Land revenue arrangement in Madras and Bombay presidencies that assessed revenue directly on individual cultivators, or ryots, rather than on intermediary landlords.

Political party founded in 1885 in Bombay, which moved from moderate petitioning to mass agitation for self-rule and led the independence movement.

1920–1922 campaign led by Gandhi urging Indians to boycott British courts, schools, and titles; it was suspended after the Chauri Chaura violence.

1930 march from Sabarmati to Dandi where Gandhi and followers made salt in defiance of the salt law, launching civil disobedience across India.

1942 mass agitation demanding immediate British withdrawal, launched after the Cripps Mission failed, and suppressed with widespread arrests of Congress leaders.

Early historic ruling house of the Deccan, roughly 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE, issuing coins with Prakrit legends and patronising Buddhist monuments.

Buddhist monument near the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh, built under Satavahana patronage and famous for limestone relief panels now dispersed to museums.

Telugu ruling house centred at Warangal from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, known for the Kakatiya Rudreshwara temple and irrigation works such as tanks.

Kakatiya queen who ruled in her own right in the thirteenth century, resisted invasions, and is remembered for administrative skill and patronage of temples.

Thirteenth-century Shiva temple at Palampet in Telangana, built under Kakatiya rule and noted for lightweight porous bricks and carved pillars; a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Upheaval in France from 1789 that overthrew the monarchy, proclaimed liberty and equality, and reshaped European politics through war and reform.

Transition from handicraft to machine production beginning in eighteenth-century Britain, bringing factories, urban growth, and new social classes.

Belief that a people sharing language, territory, or history should form a self-governing nation, a force behind nineteenth-century unifications and anti-colonial movements.

Post-1945 rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union expressed through alliances, arms racing, proxy conflicts, and ideological competition rather than direct war.

Grouping of states formed in 1961 at Belgrade under Nehru, Nasser, and Tito, seeking independence from both Cold War blocs; India was a founding member.

Place of outstanding cultural or natural value inscribed on an international list maintained by UNESCO, obliging states to protect it for humanity.

1951 land-gift campaign led by Vinoba Bhave, walking village to village to persuade landowners to donate land to the landless.

System of elected local self-government at village, block, and district levels, given constitutional footing by the 73rd Amendment in 1992.

Adoption of high-yielding seed varieties, fertilisers, and irrigation from the 1960s, which raised foodgrain output sharply, especially in Punjab and coastal Andhra.

Dairy development programme associated with Operation Flood, linking milk producers through cooperatives and making India a leading milk producer.

Redrawing of state boundaries along language lines after 1956, beginning with Andhra State in 1953 and continued by the States Reorganisation Act.

Creation of Andhra State in 1953 after Potti Sriramulu's fast, followed by merger with Telangana in 1956 and later bifurcation to form Telangana in 2014.

Telugu activist whose death after a hunger strike in 1952 forced the government to concede a separate Andhra state for Telugu speakers.