Maharashtra HSC History cheat sheet

Harappan chronology: Early Harappan c. 3300–2600 BCE, Mature Harappan c. 2600–1900 BCE, Late Harappan c. 1900–1300 BCE; the mature phase is defined by standardised weights, seals and town planning.

Key Harappan sites and their signatures: Mohenjo-daro (Great Bath, granary), Harappa (granaries, cemetery R-37), Lothal (dockyard, rice), Kalibangan (ploughed field, fire altars), Dholavira (water reservoirs, signboard), Rakhigarhi (largest in India).

Vedic corpus order: Rigveda (earliest, hymns), Samaveda (melodies), Yajurveda (ritual formulas), Atharvaveda (magic and healing); each with Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads appended.

Sixteen Mahajanapadas are named in the Anguttara Nikaya; Magadha's rise is tied to iron, the Ganga trade route and capitals Rajagriha then Pataliputra.

Mauryan administration evidence: Arthashastra of Kautilya, Indica of Megasthenes, Ashokan edicts; Ashoka's dhamma policy follows the Kalinga war (13th Rock Edict).

Ashokan edicts divide into Major Rock Edicts, Minor Rock Edicts, Major Pillar Edicts and Minor Pillar Edicts; the Lion Capital of Sarnath is India's state emblem.

Gupta period is dated by the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta (court poet Harishena); Chandragupta II's Navaratna tradition and the Mehrauli iron pillar belong here.

Historiographical schools: colonial/imperialist (James Mill's periodisation), nationalist, Marxist (D.D. Kosambi, R.S. Sharma), Subaltern (Ranajit Guha) and feminist readings.

Five Delhi Sultanate dynasties in order: Slave (1206–1290), Khalji (1290–1320), Tughlaq (1320–1414), Sayyid (1414–1451), Lodi (1451–1526).

Sources: Minhaj-us-Siraj's Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, Ziauddin Barani's Tarikh-i-Firozshahi and Fatwa-i-Jahandari, Amir Khusrau's writings, Ibn Battuta's Rihla, and inscriptions and coins.

Alauddin Khalji's measures: market control and price regulation, 50% land revenue in the doab, ban on liquor and social gatherings, dagh (branding horses) and huliya (descriptive roll).

Muhammad bin Tughlaq's projects: transfer of capital from Delhi to Daulatabad, token copper currency, taxation of the doab during famine, and planned Khurasan/Sind campaigns.

Firoz Shah Tughlaq: iqta made hereditary, jizya as a separate tax, canals (Yamuna canal), and founding of Hisar, Jaunpur and Firozabad.

Timur's invasion (1398) against the Tughlaqs and Babur's First Battle of Panipat (1526) against Ibrahim Lodi bracket the Sultanate's decline.

Vijayanagara founded 1336 by Harihara and Bukka; Krishnadevaraya (1509–1529) is the high point, described by Portuguese and Persian travellers; the empire falls after Talikota (1565).

Bahmani kingdom (1347, Hasan Gangu) with capital Gulbarga then Bidar; Mahmud Gawan's reforms and the Deccan Sultanates that emerged after 1527.

Babur's three victories: Panipat (1526) using artillery and tulughma tactics, Khanwa (1527) against Rana Sanga, and Ghaghra (1529) against the Afghans.

Akbar's administrative system: mansabdari (zat and sawar ranks), jagir assignments, the Din-i-Ilahi (1582), and the Ibadat Khana debates at Fatehpur Sikri.

Key Mughal battles: Chausa (1539) and Kannauj (1540) lost by Humayun; Second Panipat (1556) won by Akbar's regent Bairam Khan against Hemu.

Aurangzeb's reign: reimposition of jizya (1679), Deccan campaigns, and the long war with the Marathas; the empire fragments after his death in 1707.

Shivaji's career: forts Torna and Raigad, the Afzal Khan encounter (1659), the Agra escape (1666), and coronation at Raigad (1674) with the title Chhatrapati.

Shivaji's administration: Ashta Pradhan council (Peshwa, Amatya, Sachiv, Mantri, Senapati, Sumant, Nyayadhish, Pandit Rao), chauth and sardeshmukhi levies.

Peshwa era: Balaji Vishwanath, Baji Rao I (expansion north), Balaji Baji Rao; the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) against Ahmad Shah Abdali checked Maratha power.

Anglo-Maratha Wars (1775–82, 1803–05, 1817–18) end in treaties and the loss of independence; the Gaekwads, Holkars, Scindias and Bhonsles became subsidiary allies.

Charter Acts: 1773 (regulating act, Governor-General of Bengal), 1813 (end of trade monopoly except tea and China trade), 1833 (end of commercial functions), 1853 (open competition for the ICS).

Revolt of 1857: begun at Meerut on 10 May, leadership of Bahadur Shah II, causes include greased cartridges, Doctrine of Lapse and annexations; Government of India Act 1858 ends Company rule.

Indian National Congress founded 1885 in Bombay; the moderate phase uses petitions and the Drain Theory (Dadabhai Naoroji); the extremist phase begins with the Partition of Bengal (1905) and Swadeshi.

Gandhian mass movements: Non-Cooperation (1920–22, Chauri Chaura withdrawal), Civil Disobedience (1930, Dandi March, Salt Law), Quit India (1942, 'Do or Die').

Revolutionary and socialist strands: Anushilan Samiti, Ghadar Party (1913), Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (1928), Bhagat Singh and the Lahore Conspiracy Case.

Constitutional milestones: Morley-Minto 1909 (separate electorates), Montagu-Chelmsford 1919 (dyarchy), Government of India Act 1935 (provincial autonomy), Indian Independence Act 1947.

Key sessions and demands: Lucknow Pact 1916, Purna Swaraj at Lahore 1929, Karachi 1931 (Fundamental Rights), and the Cripps (1942) and Cabinet Mission (1946) proposals.

Social reform: Brahmo Samaj (1828), Prarthana Samaj, Arya Samaj (1875), Ramakrishna Mission (1897), Satyashodhak Samaj (1873) and campaigns against sati, child marriage and caste.

American Revolution causes: taxation without representation (Stamp Act 1765, Townshend Acts), Boston Tea Party 1773; Declaration of Independence 4 July 1776; Constitution 1787.

French Revolution phases: Estates-General 1789, Bastille 14 July 1789, Declaration of the Rights of Man, Reign of Terror under Robespierre (1793–94), Napoleon's rise from 1799.

Industrial Revolution begins in Britain c. 1760 with textile machinery (spinning jenny, water frame, power loom), Watt's steam engine, and the railway age from 1830.

Russian Revolution 1917: February revolution ends Tsardom; October Bolshevik coup under Lenin with slogans 'Peace, Land, Bread'; Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 1918; USSR formed 1922.

Unification of Italy (Cavour, Garibaldi, Mazzini, Victor Emmanuel II, 1861) and Germany (Bismarck's blood-and-iron policy; German Empire proclaimed 1871).

Causes of World War I: alliance blocs (Triple Alliance vs Triple Entente), Balkan nationalism, Moroccan crises, arms race and the Sarajevo assassination of 28 June 1914.

World War II: Treaty of Versailles grievances, fascism and Nazism, appeasement, invasion of Poland 1939, Pearl Harbor 1941, and the atomic bombings of 1945.

Post-war settlements: League of Nations (1920) fails; the United Nations (1945) with Security Council veto; Cold War blocs, NATO (1949) and Warsaw Pact (1955).

Partition and integration: Radcliffe Line (1947), over 550 princely states, Instrument of Accession, and the police action in Hyderabad (1948) and Junagadh dispute.

Constitution-making: Constituent Assembly (1946), Objectives Resolution, Drafting Committee under B.R. Ambedkar, adopted 26 November 1949, in force 26 January 1950.

Linguistic reorganisation: Potti Sriramulu's fast leads to Andhra (1953); States Reorganisation Act 1956; Bombay State split into Maharashtra and Gujarat in 1960.

Planned economy: Planning Commission (1950), First Five-Year Plan (1951) focused on agriculture, Green Revolution from the mid-1960s, and liberalisation in 1991.

Foreign policy: Non-Aligned Movement (Bandung 1955, Belgrade 1961), Panchsheel (1954), and the Indo-Pak wars of 1947, 1965, 1971 and the Kargil conflict of 1999.

Emergency (1975–77) and its aftermath: 42nd Amendment, Janata government (1977), and the Mandal Commission report implemented in 1990.

Economic reforms of 1991: devaluation, dismantling of licence raj, opening to FDI; later WTO membership (1995) and the nuclear tests of 1974 and 1998.

Contemporary world: decolonisation in Africa and Asia, European Union (Maastricht 1992), globalisation, and the end of the Cold War with the USSR's dissolution in 1991.

Source types: primary (inscriptions, coins, edicts, chronicles, letters, oral testimony) versus secondary (later syntheses); each must be dated, located and tested for bias.

Archaeological sources: excavation reports, stratigraphy, pottery typologies (PGW, NBPW) and scientific dating (radiocarbon, thermoluminescence, dendrochronology).

Epigraphy and numismatics: Ashokan edicts, Hathigumpha inscription, Aihole inscription of Pulakeshin II, and coin legends that fix dynastic chronology.

External accounts: Megasthenes, Fa-Hien, Hiuen Tsang, Al-Biruni, Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, and Portuguese/Dutch/English factory records, each with its own perspective.

Internal criticism asks about authorship, date, purpose and audience; external criticism tests authenticity of the document; corroboration across independent sources is the standard.

Map work: locate Harappan sites, Mahajanapadas, Ashokan edict sites, Sultanate and Mughal capitals, 1857 centres, and Congress session venues, using consistent latitude-longitude references.

Periodisation debates: James Mill's Hindu-Muslim-British division is criticised; alternatives use dynastic, economic or social formations as criteria.

Archival and oral history: National Archives, state archives, private papers, newspapers, memoirs, and oral traditions; digitised collections and gazetteers supplement them.