RBSE SS History key terms

The study of how history is written: which sources historians choose, the methods they apply, and how interpretations change over time. It examines bias, evidence and the assumptions behind historical accounts.

The study of inscriptions engraved on stone, metal or other durable materials. Edicts, land grants and temple records deciphered by epigraphists supply dated, contemporary evidence for political and social history.

The study of coins as historical evidence. Coin legends, metals, weights and mint marks reveal rulers' names, dynastic chronology, trade contacts and economic conditions, especially where written records are scarce.

Evidence produced at or near the time of the event it describes, such as inscriptions, coins, court chronicles or eyewitness letters. It is distinguished from later interpretations that rely on such material.

Small square steatite objects bearing animal motifs and short undeciphered script, used in the Indus cities probably for trade and administration. They are key evidence for craft specialisation and long-distance commerce.

A large brick-lined water tank at Mohenjo-daro with steps and a bitumen waterproof lining. It suggests ritual bathing or public ceremony and illustrates planned urban architecture and drainage.

The Bronze Age urban culture of the Indus valley and neighbouring regions, roughly 2600-1900 BCE in its mature phase, known for planned cities, standardised weights, seals and craft production.

The oldest collection of Vedic hymns, composed in Sanskrit and transmitted orally. It is the principal source for early Vedic religion, society and the geography of the Sapta Sindhu region.

The fourfold Vedic social classification of brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra. Originally an ideal order elaborated in texts, it became a more rigid hereditary hierarchy in later practice.

A local endogamous occupational or kinship group. Jati identities often differed from the fourfold varna model and shaped marriage, labour and social status in Indian society across regions.

Assemblies mentioned in Vedic texts, generally understood as councils of elders or clan gatherings with deliberative and possibly judicial roles. Their exact functions remain debated by historians.

Inscriptions of Emperor Ashoka carved on rocks and pillars across the subcontinent, mostly in Prakrit and Brahmi, proclaiming dhamma, moral conduct and administrative measures. They are prime Mauryan evidence.

The centralised imperial system of the Mauryas, with a capital at Pataliputra, provincial governors, a standing army and officials described in Arthashastra and Megasthenes' account. Revenue and espionage were key concerns.

A Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, economy and military policy attributed to Kautilya. It discusses taxation, diplomacy, intelligence and royal duties, and is a major source for Mauryan and later state structures.

Early Indian coins of silver and copper bearing symbols punched onto the metal, generally dated from the mid-first millennium BCE. They indicate trade, urbanisation and the emergence of states in the Gangetic plains.

A territorial unit or realm of the Vedic and early historic period, later associated with the sixteen mahajanapadas of the Gangetic region. These states competed for land and trade routes before imperial unification.

The Buddha's core teaching that existence involves suffering, that suffering has a cause in craving, that it can cease, and that a path leads to that cessation. They frame the Buddhist diagnosis of human experience.

In Buddhism, the extinguishing of craving and release from the cycle of rebirth and suffering. In Jain usage, the term refers to liberation of the soul from karmic matter.

Non-violence or abstention from harming living beings, central to Jain ethics and prominent in Buddhist and later Hindu thought. It influenced Ashoka's dhamma policy and modern political movements.

Devotional attachment to a personal deity, expressed through song, poetry and ritual. Bhakti movements from the south spread across India, often using regional languages and challenging priestly mediation.

Mystical traditions within Islam emphasising inward devotion, love of God and the guidance of a pir or shaikh. Sufi khanqahs and shrines became important cultural and social institutions in medieval India.

A revenue assignment granted by a Delhi Sultanate ruler to an official, usually a military commander, in return for service. The iqtadar collected revenue but did not own the land.

The succession of Turkic and Afghan dynasties ruling from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, including the Slave, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodi lines. It established new administrative and revenue institutions.

The Mughal system ranking officials by numerical mansab, which determined status, salary and the number of troops they were expected to maintain. It integrated nobles into a graded imperial service.

A landholder or local revenue intermediary who collected taxes from cultivators and remitted them to the state. Under Mughal and colonial rule zamindars held varied rights and powers over rural society.

The memoirs of Babur, founder of the Mughal empire, written in Chagatai Turkish. They describe his campaigns, Central Asian politics and observations on India, and are an important primary source.

A south Indian empire centred on Hampi from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, famed for temple architecture, trade and resistance to Deccan sultanates. Its ruins and inscriptions are major historical sources.

The 1793 Bengal land revenue arrangement under Cornwallis that fixed zamindars' payments in perpetuity and made them proprietors, provided they paid on time. It reshaped rural property and revenue.

A British annexation policy applied by Dalhousie whereby states without a recognised natural heir were absorbed. It provoked resentment among princely families and contributed to the 1857 revolt.

A widespread uprising against Company rule beginning with mutinies in Meerut and Delhi, drawing on soldiers, peasants and rulers. It led to the transfer of power to the British Crown in 1858.

Founded in 1885, this organisation became the principal vehicle of the Indian national movement, shifting from petitions to mass agitation under Gandhi and others, and later forming India's first government.

Gandhi's 1920-22 campaign urging Indians to withdraw cooperation from British institutions through boycotts of schools, courts and foreign cloth. It was suspended after violence at Chauri Chaura.

The 1930-34 campaign launched with the Dandi Salt March, involving deliberate breach of unjust laws. It broadened nationalist participation and led to the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and Round Table talks.

A people's association in a princely state, such as those in Rajasthan, demanding civil rights, representative institutions and responsible government. Such movements linked regional grievances to the wider national struggle.

The post-1947 process merging numerous princely states of Rajputana into a single state, completed in stages and finalised in 1956 with the present boundaries. It involved negotiation over rulers' privileges.

The upheaval in France from 1789 that overthrew the monarchy, abolished feudal privileges and proclaimed liberty and equality. Its ideas of citizenship and nationalism influenced political movements worldwide.

The transition from handicraft to machine-based production beginning in eighteenth-century Britain, with factories, steam power and urban growth. It transformed economies, class structures and imperial rivalries.

An ideology holding that a people sharing language, culture or history should form a self-governing political community. In nineteenth-century Europe it built nation-states; in colonies it drove anti-imperial struggle.

The prolonged geopolitical rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies after 1945, marked by nuclear deterrence, proxy conflicts and ideological competition without direct superpower war.

A grouping of states, shaped from the 1955 Bandung conference and formalised in 1961, that sought independence from Cold War blocs. India under Nehru was a leading architect.

The period after 1947 marked by integration of princely states, framing of the Constitution, land reform, planned development and democratic consolidation, alongside challenges of partition, poverty and linguistic reorganisation.