Hinglish

Other Developments

Class 7 Social Science · Chapter 15: Empires and Kingdoms: 6th to 10th Centuries · NCERT Exploring Society: India and Beyond section 15.5

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Kings ruled their core lands directly and other regions through sāmantas, subordinate rulers who led armies but whose loyalty was fragile. Lands were divided into provinces, districts and largely self-governing villages; Chola inscriptions at Uttaramerur describe selecting a village assembly. Land grants grew, bringing new land under the plough; the Pallavas built many tanks still in use. Trade flourished, with ports linking the west coast to Iran, Iraq and East Africa and the east coast to Southeast Asia and China. Merchant guilds were powerful. Society grew more complex as jātis multiplied, though some groups faced discrimination; Bāṇa shows women working in farming, crafts and courts, and queens like Tribhuvana Mahādevī of Odisha ruled.

Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions shared ideas like dharma and karma and mostly lived side by side. Jainism thrived in western India and Karnataka, where the giant Bāhubalī stands at Shravanabelagola. From the 6th century, the Bhakti movement spread from the South through Tamil poems of the 12 Ālvārs (devotees of Viṣhṇu, including Āṇḍāḷ) and 63 Nāyanārs (devotees of Śhiva), open to all regardless of birth or gender. Science shone too: Brahmagupta (born 598) gave rules for zero and negative numbers; Bhāskara I advanced trigonometry; Virahānka described the number sequence later named after Fibonacci; and Mahāvīra wrote a mathematics book separate from astronomy.

Explore: which area of life?

  1. Sort each item.

Remember

  • Kings ruled through sāmantas; land grants, irrigation, trade and guilds grew.
  • The Bhakti movement began with the Ālvārs and Nāyanārs; Brahmagupta and others advanced mathematics.

Quick check

Brahmagupta is remembered for rules of arithmetic with …

  1. zero and negative numbers
  2. only fractions of ten
  3. Roman numerals
  4. measuring rainfall
Answer

zero and negative numbers. His work was later translated into Persian and Latin.

Think about it

Why was the Bhakti movement so popular among ordinary people?

One answer

It offered a direct, personal bond with the divine through songs in people's own languages, open to everyone regardless of jāti or gender, without costly rituals.

Practice

Practise with fresh questions at three levels (easy, medium, hard), some answered hands-on, with hints and worked answers. Get 4 of your last 5 right to finish the topic.