Bihar Intermediate History (BSEB) key terms

One of the largest cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation, located in present-day Punjab, Pakistan, known for its grid streets, brick houses, granaries and drainage system.

A Bronze Age urban civilisation (roughly 2600–1900 BCE) spread across north-west India and Pakistan, famous for planned cities, seals, script and standardised weights.

A large rectangular water tank at Mohenjo-daro built of baked bricks with steps and a waterproof bitumen layer, probably used for ritual bathing.

A Harappan port site in Gujarat with a dockyard, warehouse and bead-making workshops, showing the civilisation's maritime trade links.

The corpus of Sanskrit texts - Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads - composed over centuries, forming the main source for early Vedic society and religion.

The oldest Veda, a collection of about 1,028 hymns to gods such as Indra and Agni, giving evidence about early Vedic pastoral life and tribal organisation.

The fourfold social classification of Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra described in Vedic and later texts, originally linked to occupation and ritual status.

A local endogamous birth-group based on occupation, kinship and custom; in practice many jatis existed alongside and often cut across the four varna categories.

The sixteen major territorial states of the sixth century BCE in northern India, such as Magadha, Kosala and Vatsa, marked by fortified capitals and standing armies.

A kingdom in the Bihar region that became the most powerful mahajanapada, later the base of the Mauryan and Gupta empires, favoured by iron, fertile land and river routes.

A fifth-century BCE ruler of Magadha who expanded the kingdom through marriage alliances and conquest, and was a contemporary and patron of the Buddha.

Mauryan emperor (c. 268–232 BCE) who after the Kalinga war promoted dhamma through edicts on pillars and rocks, patronised Buddhism and sent missions abroad.

The first large empire of the subcontinent, founded by Chandragupta Maurya around 321 BCE, with a centralised administration described in Kautilya's Arthashastra and Megasthenes' account.

A Sanskrit treatise on statecraft attributed to Kautilya, discussing taxation, espionage, diplomacy, army organisation and the duties of an ideal king.

Ashoka's public code of moral conduct - respect for elders, tolerance between sects, non-injury to living beings - propagated through his inscriptions rather than as a single religion.

Ashoka's conquest of Kalinga (modern Odisha) in about 261 BCE; the reported bloodshed led him to embrace dhamma and renounce aggressive conquest.

A body of early Tamil poems of the first centuries CE, divided into akam (love) and puram (war, kingship) themes, valuable for south Indian social and political history.

A south Indian ruling house that peaked under Rajaraja I and Rajendra I, known for temple architecture, local self-government and naval expeditions to Southeast Asia.

The great Shiva temple at Thanjavur built by Rajaraja I around 1010 CE, an example of Dravidian architecture with a tall vimana and rich sculpture and inscriptions.

A north Indian empire of the fourth to sixth centuries CE, often described as a period of cultural achievement in Sanskrit literature, temple building, mathematics and astronomy.

A Gupta ruler whose conquests and diplomatic relations are recorded in the Allahabad pillar inscription composed by Harishena, showing a policy of war and conciliation.

A major Buddhist monastic university in Bihar active from about the fifth century CE, attracting students from across Asia and supported by Gupta and later rulers.

A Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who travelled in India in the seventh century CE and left a detailed account of places, monasteries, education and administration under Harsha.

A seventh-century ruler of Kannauj and Thanesar who united much of northern India and was praised in the writings of Hiuen Tsang and the poet Banabhatta.

The rule of five successive dynasties - Slave, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodi - from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, marked by new administrative and revenue institutions.

A revenue arrangement in which officials (muqtis or iqtadars) were assigned land revenues in return for maintaining troops and keeping order, without owning the land.

A Khalji sultan (1296–1316) known for market regulations, price controls, heavy taxation in the doab, a strong spy system and successful defence against Mongol invasions.

A dynasty founded by Babur after the First Battle of Panipat in 1526, which ruled much of India until 1857 and produced major achievements in revenue, art and architecture.

Mughal emperor (1556–1605) who expanded the empire, built a revenue system with Todar Mal, promoted sulh-i kul tolerance and encouraged the Din-i Ilahi movement.

A Mughal ranking system in which officials held a zat and sawar rank, receiving salaries from the treasury and supplying cavalry according to their number.

A land-revenue arrangement under which zamindars collected revenue from cultivators for the state, later reshaped by the Permanent Settlement of 1793 in Bengal and Bihar.

The 1793 revenue settlement by Cornwallis that fixed zamindars' payments to the Company in perpetuity, making them proprietors of land and cultivators their tenants.

A revenue system introduced in Madras and Bombay presidencies under which the state settled revenue directly with individual cultivators (ryots) rather than with zamindars.

A widespread uprising against British rule beginning with mutinous sepoys at Meerut and spreading across northern and central India; it led to Crown rule in 1858.

An elderly Rajput zamindar of Jagdishpur in Bihar who led armed resistance against the British during 1857–58 and became a symbol of local defiance.

Direct governance of India by the British monarch from 1858 after the Company's powers were transferred, with a Secretary of State and a Viceroy in India.

A political organisation founded in 1885 that became the main vehicle of the nationalist movement, adopting swaraj, non-cooperation and civil disobedience as goals and methods.

Gandhi's 1917 campaign in Bihar against indigo planters' tinkathia system, an early successful use of satyagraha that linked nationalism with peasant grievances.

A mass campaign launched by Gandhi in 1920–22 urging boycott of British schools, courts and goods; it was suspended after violence at Chauri Chaura.

The 1942 demand for immediate British withdrawal, launched from Bombay with the slogan 'Do or Die'; it was suppressed by mass arrests but weakened colonial authority.