PSEB SS History key terms

A Bronze Age city site in the Sahiwal district of Punjab, excavated from 1921, whose brick streets, granaries and seals helped establish the existence of the Indus Valley Civilisation.

The largest known Indus city, located in Sindh on the Indus river, famous for its Great Bath, covered drainage and grid layout; excavated under Marshall's direction in the 1920s.

South Asia's earliest urban culture, roughly 2600–1900 BCE in its mature phase, spread across Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat and adjoining regions and marked by planned cities, seals and standardised weights.

Indian archaeologist who first probed the Harappa mounds in 1921 while working under the Archaeological Survey of India, bringing the site to scholarly attention before wider excavations followed.

A small carved steatite or terracotta stamp, usually square, bearing animal motifs and short undeciphered signs; probably used to mark ownership, trade goods or ritual identity.

An ancient city and university centre in the Potohar region of Punjab, successively linked to Gandhara, Achaemenid, Greek, Mauryan and Kushan rule, and now a UNESCO World Heritage archaeological area.

A historical region around Peshawar and Taxila known for a Buddhist art style blending Indian themes with Hellenistic naturalism, especially the depiction of the Buddha in human form.

A large Buddhist stupa and monastic complex near Taxila, traditionally associated with the Mauryan emperor Ashoka and one of the most important surviving Gandharan monuments in Punjab.

Mauryan emperor (reigned c. 268–232 BCE) who promoted dhamma after the Kalinga war; Buddhist tradition links him to stupas and inscriptions across the subcontinent, including the Taxila region.

Kushan emperor of the second century CE whose vast empire included Punjab; his reign is associated with Gandharan art, trade on the Silk Road and patronage of Buddhist institutions.

The oldest collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns, composed over centuries and closely associated with the Sapta Sindhu region; it is the earliest layer of the Vedic textual tradition.

The era in which the Vedas and related Sanskrit literature were composed, roughly 1500–500 BCE, marked by pastoral and later agrarian society, clan assemblies and the spread of Indo-Aryan speech in Punjab.

Literally 'land of seven rivers', a Vedic name for the region drained by the Indus and its Punjab tributaries, used in the Rigveda and later as a cultural label for the area.

The land of five rivers - Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej - a region of the north-western subcontinent whose name and identity derive from the Persian words for five and water.

Founder of Sikhism (1469–1539), born at Nankana Sahib in Punjab, whose teachings stressed one formless God, honest work, remembrance and equality, recorded in compositions later included in the Guru Granth Sahib.

The Sikh scripture, compiled and later finalised as Guru by Guru Gobind Singh; it contains hymns of the Sikh Gurus and of saints from various backgrounds and is treated as the eternal living Guru.

The script in which Punjabi and the Sikh scriptures are written; tradition credits Guru Angad with its early standardisation, and it remains the official script for Punjabi in Indian Punjab.

The tenth Sikh Guru (1666–1708), founder of the Khalsa in 1699, compiler of the Dasam Granth tradition and the figure who vested Guruship in the Guru Granth Sahib.

The initiated community of Sikhs established by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699, marked by the five Ks and a commitment to discipline, equality and defence of the oppressed.

A town in Punjab's Ropar district founded in the late seventeenth century, associated with Guru Gobind Singh and the founding of the Khalsa; a major pilgrimage site and home to Hola Mohalla.

A town near Narowal where Guru Nanak settled and died; its gurdwara and the cross-border corridor opened in 2019 make it a major Sikh pilgrimage destination.

An eighteenth-century Punjabi Sufi poet from the Kasur region whose kafis use simple Punjabi and mystical imagery to express love for the divine and critique of religious formalism.

An eighteenth-century Punjabi poet best known for his verse romance Heer Ranjha, which transforms a folk tale into a meditation on love, destiny and rural Punjabi society.

An Indo-Aryan language of the north-western subcontinent, written in Gurmukhi in Indian Punjab and in Shahmukhi in Pakistani Punjab, with a rich Sufi and Sikh literary tradition.

A vigorous Punjabi folk dance of the harvest season with dhol accompaniment, now also a global popular music style; traditionally performed by men with women dancing giddha.

A lively Punjabi women's folk dance performed in a circle with clapping and sung couplets called boliyan, commonly at weddings and festivals.

A double-headed barrel drum central to Punjabi folk music, driving bhangra and other dance rhythms with sticks; its sound is a widely recognised marker of Punjabi celebration.

Founder of the Sikh Empire (reigned 1799–1839), who took Lahore in 1799 and built a powerful state with a modernised army and a court famed for its cosmopolitan patronage.

The state ruled from Lahore by Ranjit Singh and his successors in the early nineteenth century, covering Punjab, Kashmir and adjoining territories until its annexation by the British in 1849.

Punjab's historic capital on the Ravi, seat of the Sikh Empire and later a major British provincial city; home to the Lahore Fort, Badshahi Mosque and numerous educational institutions.

The 1809 agreement between Ranjit Singh and the British that fixed the Sutlej as the boundary of his territories, limiting Sikh expansion eastward and shaping later Anglo-Sikh relations.

Two wars (1845–46 and 1848–49) between the Sikh state and the East India Company, ending in British victory and the annexation of Punjab in 1849.

A walled garden in Amritsar where British troops under General Dyer fired on an unarmed gathering on 13 April 1919, killing hundreds and galvanising Indian nationalist opinion.

A Punjab city founded in the late sixteenth century around the Harmandir Sahib, the holiest Sikh shrine; a centre of commerce, pilgrimage and modern Punjabi cultural life.

A 1919 colonial law allowing detention without trial; opposition to it produced nationwide protests, including the Punjab gathering at Jallianwala Bagh that ended in massacre.

A term for the shared cultural ethos of Punjab - hospitality, tolerance, music, language and Sufi and Sikh devotional traditions - often invoked to stress unity across religious divides.