KSEAB II PUC History key terms

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

Large rectangular watertight tank at Mohenjo-daro, built with bitumen-lined brick, generally interpreted as a site of ritual purification rather than ordinary bathing.

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

Body of Sanskrit texts comprising the four Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads, which are the main sources for early Indo-Aryan religion, society and polity.

Fourfold social classification of Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra described in later Vedic texts, originally occupational and ritual in meaning, later hardening into birth-based hierarchy.

Scheme of four life stages - brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa - that structured ideal upper-caste male life in classical Hindu thought.

First pan-Indian empire, founded by Chandragupta Maurya around 321 BCE, extended by Bindusara and Ashoka, and administered through a centralised bureaucracy described in the Arthashastra.

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

Inscriptions on rock and pillars in Prakrit, Greek and Aramaic proclaiming dhamma, moral governance and religious tolerance; they are key sources for Mauryan administration and Buddhism.

Buddhist sculptural style of the northwest, blending Hellenistic naturalism with Indian themes, marked by wavy hair, drapery and realistic anatomical modelling of the Buddha.

Kushana ruler of the early second century CE whose empire linked Central Asia and north India; associated with patronage of Buddhism and the Fourth Buddhist Council.

Karnataka dynasty ruling from Vatapi (Badami) in the sixth to eighth centuries, patrons of cave temples at Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal and rivals of the Pallavas.

Chalukya king who defeated Harshavardhana on the Narmada and checked Pallava expansion, commemorated in the Aihole inscription of his court poet Ravikirti.

Karnataka dynasty of the eighth to tenth centuries that ruled the Deccan from Manyakheta and commissioned the rock-cut Kailasa temple at Ellora.

Succession of Turkic and Afghan dynasties - Slave, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodi - ruling from Delhi between 1206 and 1526.

Revenue assignment granting an official the right to collect taxes from a territory in return for military service; it became the basic unit of Sultanate provincial administration.

Khalji sultan who controlled prices and markets, reorganised the army on cash salaries, and repelled Mongol invasions of the early fourteenth century.

South Indian empire founded in 1336 at Hampi, associated with the Sangama, Saluva, Tuluva and Aravidu houses, famous for temple architecture, irrigation works and overseas trade.

Tuluva ruler of Vijayanagara (1509–1529) who expanded the empire, patronised Telugu and Sanskrit literature, and is the author of the Amuktamalyada.

Deccan sultanate founded in 1347 with capital at Gulbarga and later Bidar, which repeatedly fought Vijayanagara and eventually fragmented into five successor states.

Mughal ranking system assigning every officer a zat and sawar rank, defining his salary, status and obligation to supply cavalry to the imperial army.

Mughal emperor (1556–1605) who consolidated imperial administration, abolished the jizya, promoted sulh-i kul, and founded the syncretic Din-i Ilahi.

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

1764 defeat of the combined forces of Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-Daulah and Shah Alam II by the Company, leading to the grant of Diwani rights over Bengal in 1765.

Policy applied by Lord Dalhousie under which states without a natural male heir were annexed by the Company, used to absorb Satara, Jhansi and Nagpur.

1793 land revenue arrangement by Lord Cornwallis in Bengal fixing revenue with zamindars in perpetuity, who became recognised proprietors responsible for collection.

Land revenue system introduced by Thomas Munro and Alexander Read in Madras and Bombay, settling revenue directly with individual cultivators rather than intermediaries.

Reform society founded in Calcutta in 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, opposing idolatry, caste rigidity and sati, and promoting monotheism and rational enquiry.

Practice of a widow being burnt on her husband's funeral pyre, prohibited by Regulation XVII of 1829 under Governor-General William Bentinck after a campaign led by Ram Mohan Roy.

Society founded in 1875 by Swami Dayananda Saraswati, calling for a return to Vedic religion, rejecting image worship and child marriage, and supporting the shuddhi movement.

Widespread uprising of sepoys and civilians against Company rule, triggered by the greased cartridge issue at Meerut, which led to direct Crown rule in 1858.

Political organisation founded in Bombay in 1885 with W. C. Bonnerjee as first president, which became the principal vehicle of the nationalist movement.

Boycott of British goods and promotion of indigenous industry and education launched after the 1905 partition of Bengal, marking the rise of mass nationalism.

Demand for complete independence adopted by the Lahore session of the Congress in December 1929 and declared on 26 January 1930.

Civil disobedience campaign begun by Gandhi at Dandi in March 1930 by making salt in defiance of the salt law, drawing mass participation and international attention.

British statute introducing provincial autonomy, a federal structure and separate electorates, and providing the framework later adapted in the Indian Constitution.

Early Karnataka dynasty, with Mayurasharma as its founder, that ruled from Banavasi and issued land grants recorded on copper plates, patronising Jainism and early Kannada culture.

Karnataka dynasty ruling from Dwarasamudra (Halebidu) in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, known for star-shaped temple plans and soapstone sculpture at Belur and Halebidu.

Movement culminating in the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, which merged Kannada-speaking areas into a single state with Mysore as capital, renamed Karnataka in 1973.

Upheaval of 1789–1799 that overthrew the Bourbon monarchy, abolished feudal privilege and proclaimed liberty, equality and fraternity, reshaping European politics.

1919 settlement ending the First World War, imposing territorial losses, disarmament and reparations on Germany, whose terms are often linked to later instability.