CIVIL SERVICES (PRELIMS) SPECIAL

Quick Revision Notes

on Indian History
Indian history forms an
important part of the General
Awareness paper of Civil Services (Prelims) Examination.
Based on analysis of types of
questions asked in previous
years, we have compiled this
feature to help you to be better
prepared for the examination, as
also to make your preparation
easier. This will be a regular feature in the magazine and in
coming months we will also
provide you with similar notes
on Indian Constitution and
other topics.
Pre-historic and Vedic
Civilisation
1. Ancient geographers
referred to Himalayas, as
also their less elevated offshootthe Patkai, Lushai
and Chittagong hills in the
east and the Sulaiman and
Kirthar ranges in the west
as Himavat.
2. Jambu-dvipa was
considered to be the innermost of seven concentric
island-continents into which
the earth, as per Hindu cosmographers, was supposed
to have been divided. The
Indian sub-continent is said
to part of Jambu-dvipa.
3. Sapta sindhavah is
the name of the country of
the Aryans in the Vedas.
4. In the ancient literature, there are references of
India being divided into five
divisions. In the centre of the
Indo-Gangetic plains was
the Madhya-desh, stretching
from river Saraswati, which
flowed past Thanesar and
Pehowa
(present-day

Haryana) to Allahabad and

Varanasi. The western part
of this area was known as
Brahamrishi-desh, and the
entire region was roughly
equivalent to Aryavrata as
described in the grammar of
Patanjali. To the north of
Madhya-desh lay Uttarapatha and to its west Aparanta (Western India), to its
south Dakshinapath or Deccan and to its east Purvadesh. The term Dakshinapath
was in some ancient works
restricted to the upper Deccan, north of river Krishna
and far south was termed as
Tamilakam or the Tamil
country.
5. The Negritos were the
first human inhabitants of
India. Originally, they came
from Africa through Arabia,
Iran and Baluchistan. They
have practically disappeared
from the soil of India, except
in Andaman Islands.
6. The Munda languages
belong to the Austro-Asiatic
family and are to be found at
present in the eastern half of
Central India, southern border of the Himalayas and
Kashmir and the territory
east of Nepal.
7. Prakit was the single
language of Indian sub-continent in third century B.C.
Sanskrit came into being a
few centuries later.
8. The term Paleolithic
is derived from two Greek
words meaning Old Stone.
This name is applied to the
earliest people as the only
evidence of their existence is
furnished by a number of

rude stone implements.

9. Paleolithic men in
India are also known as
Quartzite men from the fact
that majority of chipped
stones found in different
parts of India are made of
hard rock called quartzite.
10. Paleolithic paintings
have been found in caverns
at Singanpur near Raigarh in
Madhya Pradesh, as also in
Kaimur ranges and some
places in Mirzapur district.
11. With the advent of
age of metals, in Northern
India, copper replaced stone
as ordinary material for tools
and weapons. And, it took
several centuries for iron to
replace copper. In Southern
India, however, the Iron Age
immediately succeeded the
Stone Age.
12. The Indus civilization existed in the same period as those of Egypt, Assyria
and Babylonia.
13. Mohenjodaro was
discovered by R.D. Banerjee
in 1922 and Harappa by R.B.
Dayaram Sahni. Later on,
the work was taken over by
Sir John Marshall, DirectorGeneral of Archeology.
14. The fertile surrounding region of Mohenjodaro is
called Nakhlistan or the
Garden of Sind.
15. It is presumed that
Iron was not known to the
Indus Valley civilisation as
not a single scrap of iron has
been found in the excavations at various sites.
16. Developed city-life,
use of potters wheel, kilnburnt bricks, and vessels

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made of copper and bronze

are some common and distinctive features of all the
civilizations of the pre-historic period.
17. The use of mud mortar was common during
Indus Valley civilisation.
Gypsum and mud were
used for plaster. In case of
drains, gypsum and lime
mortar was used.
18. The most important
feature of houses of Mohenjodaro is the presence in
them of one or more bathrooms, the floors of which
were fully laid and connected by means of drainage
channels with the main
street.
19. More than 500 seals
have been discovered at various places inhabited by people of Indus Valley civilizations. These were made of
terra-cota.
20. The seals and painted pottery of the Indus Valley show the figures of Pipal
and Acacia trees. They were
regarded as celestial plants
and were supposed to be
inhabited by divine spirits.
21. The people of Indus
Valley also practiced the
worship of Lings and Yoni
symbols. The likelihood that
both Shiva and Ling worship
have been inherited by Hindus
from the Indus Valley is reinforced by the prevalence of
the bull (the vehicle of Shiva)
or bull-like animals amongst
the seal-symbols.
22. The pottery of Indus
Valley was generally wheelmade and was painted red

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and black.
23. The Dravadians are
thought to have come to
India from eastern Mediterranean. At one time the
Dravadian culture was
spread throughout India.
24. Puja ceremonies
along with flowers, leaves,
fruits and water were performed by Dravadians.
Aryans were accustomed to
Homa rites or sacrificial fire.
Infact, the word puja has
been derived from a Dravadian root called Puru, which
means to smear.
25. The Dravadian language is still spoken by the
Brahui people of Baluchistan.
26. As per the theory
propagated by late Bal
Gangadhar Tilak the original
home of Aryans was the Arctic region. However, the
most widely accepted view
is that the Aryans originated
from Central Asia. The view
which is accepted in West is
that original home of Aryans
was in South-East Europe.
27. In the early vedic
period river Ravi was
known as Parushni, river
Jhelum as Vitasta, Chenab
as Asikni, Beas as Vipas and
Sutlej as Sutudri.
28. The word Veda
comes from the root vid, to
know. It means knowledge
in general. It is specially
applied to branch of literature which has been handed
down by verbal transmission and is declared to be
sacred knowledge or Sruti.
29. Hindus consider the
Vedas to be revealed books
and give them the titles of
Apaurusheya (not made by
man) and nitya (Eternal).
30. According to Kautilya, The three Vedas,
Sama, Rig and Yajus constitute the triple Vedas. These
together with Atharvaveda

and the Itihasa Veda are

known as the Vedas. The
ordinary definition of the
Veda does not include
Itihasa.
31. The Veda consists of
four different classes of literary compositions: (a) the
Mantra constitutes the oldest division of Vedic literature and is distributed in
four Samhitas or collections
known as the Rik, Sama,
Yajus and the Atharva; (b)
Brahmanas are the second
class of Vedic works. They
are mainly prose texts containing observations on sacrifice; (c) Aranyakas or forest
texts are books of instruction
to be given in the forest or
writings meant for wooddwelling hermits; (d) Lastly
there are the Upnishads
which are either imbedded
in the Aranyakas or form
their supplements. The
above named literary works
are classed as Sruti, or revelation, and constitute the
Vedic literature proper.
32. The Brahamanas are
the first specimens of praise
in the world. They mark the
transition from the Vedic to
later Brahmanical social
order.
33. The Vedangas are
class of compositions that
are regarded less authoritative than Sruti and are styled
Smriti. The Vedangas are six
in number: Siksha (phonetics), Kalpa (ritual), Vyakaran
(grammar), Nirukt (etymology), Chhand (metrics) and
Jyotish (astronomy).
34. In Vyakarana,
Nirukt and Chhand we have
the great work of Panini,
Yask and Pingal.
35. The Nyaya Darsana
was written by Gautam.
According to it, Tarka or logic is the basis of all studies.
Knowledge can be acquired
by four methods: Pratyaksha

or intuition, Anumana or
inference, Upma or comparison and sadba or verbal testimony.
36. The basis of the
political and social organisation of the Rig Vedic people
was patriarchal family. The
successive higher units were
styled gram, vis and jan.
37. The Purus and the
Tritsus were two of the most
famous Rig-Vedic clans. The
names of their prominent
rulers are recorded in RikSamhita.
38. In the Rig-Vedic
period the foot soldiers were
called Patti and warriors
who fought from chariots
were called Rathins.
39. The foundation of
the political and social structure in the Rig-Vedic age was
the family.
40. Visvavara, Ghosha
and Apala were some leading women seers of RigVedic times.
41. Agriculture was the
principal occupation of the
villagers in Rig-Vedic times.
42. The standard unit of
value in Vedic period was a
cow, but necklets of gold
(nishka) also served as a
means of exchange.
43. Rik Samgita is a collection of lyrics from early
vedic age which consists of
hymns in praise of different
gods. These are grouped into
books termed as ashtakas or
mandalas.
44. Rig Vedic people did
not possess the art of writing
and early literature of
Aryans was known to be
transmitted orally.
45. The early Vedic religion has been designated by
the name of henotheism or
kathenotheism (a belief in
single gods, each standing
out as the highest).
46. Father Dyaus, the
shinning god of heaven, and

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mother Prithvi, the earth

goddess, are among the oldest of the vedic deities.
47. The worship of
Varuna, the encompassing
sky, in the early Vedic age is
one of the first roots of the
later doctrine of Bhakti.
48. An important characteristic of Vedic mythology
is the pre-dominance of the
male element. Thus, Vedic
civilisation presents a contrast to the prehistoric culture of Indus Valley, where
the mother goddess is coequal with her male partner.
49. Sacrifices occupied a
prominent place in Vedic rituals. These included offerings of milk, grain, ghee and
juice of the Soma plant.
50. Before the close of
the later Vedic period, the
Aryans had thoroughly subdued the fertile plains of
Yamuna, upper Ganga and
the Gandak. The centre of the
Aryan world was the areas
stretching from Saraswati to
the Gangetic plains and
occupied by Kurus, the Panchals and some adjoining
tribes. It was from this
region that Brahmanical
civilisation spread to the outer provinces, to the land of
the Kosalas and the Kasis
drained by the Sarayu and
the Varnavati, to the swamps
of east of Gandak colonised
by the Videhas, and to the
valley of Wardha occupied by
the Vidarbhas.
51. The Aryan culture
was taken to South India by
Agastya.
52. Most important tribe
of Rigvedic period was the
Bharatas, after whom India
has been named in the Constitution. The two most
important rulers of Bharatas
were Divodas and Sudas.
Sudas is famous for his victory in the Battle of Ten Kings.
53. The most distin-

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guished among the tribes of
later Vedic period were the
Kurus and Panchals, with
their capitals at Asandivat
and Kampila, respectively.
54. Balhika-Pratipiya,
Parikshit and Janamejaya
were powerful Kuru kings
who figure prominently in
early epic legends.
55. The reign of Panchals was home to several
theologians and philosophers like king PravahanaJaivali and sages like Aruni
and Svetaketu.
56. The fame of the land
of the Panchals as centre of
Brahmanical learning was
eclipsed by the Videhas,
whose king Janak won the
title of Samrat. The Videhan
monarchy fell shortly before
the rise of Buddhism. Its
overthrow was followed by
the rise of the Vajjian Confederacy.
57. The kings of several
regions gave themselves various titles. While the kings of
middle country were called
raja, the eastern kings were
titled Samrat, the southern
Bhoj, those in the west
Svarat, and the rulers of the
northern realms were called
Virat.
58. The taxes collected
from people in the later
Vedic age were referred to as
bali and sulka.
59. During late Vedic
period, Vratyas and the
Nishads were two important
bodies of men outside the
regular castes. The Vratyas
were Aryans outside the
pale of Brahminism. They
appear to have had some
special connection with the
people of Magadha and the
cult of Shiv. The Nishads
were non-Aryan people who
lived in their own villages
and had their own rulers.
They were probably identical with modern Bhils.

60. Shortly before the

rise of Buddhism there were
sixteen great nations that
occupied the territory from
Kabul valley to the banks of
Godavari. These were: Anga
(East Bihar), Magadha
(South
Bihar),
Kasi
(Benaras), Kosala (Oudh),
Vriji (North Bihar), Malla
(Gorakhpur district), Chedi
(between Yamuna and Narmada), Vatsa (Allahabad
region), Kuru (Thanesar,
Delhi and Meerut districts),
Panchal (Bareilly, Buduan
and Farrukhabad districts),
Matsya (Jaipur), Surasena
(Mathura), Asmak (on the
Godavari), Avanti (in Malwa), Gandhara (Peshawar
and Rawalpindi districts)
and Kamboj (South-west
Kashmir and parts of
Kafiristan).
61. The Vriji people
were regarded by the Brahaman
law-givers
as
Vratyas or degraded Kshatriyas. The Vrijis had no
monarch, but a popular
assembly of elders who carried on the business of the
State. This type of polity was
known as Gana or republic.
The Mallas also had a similar constitution.
62. The four kingdoms
of later Vedic age who grew
most powerful were: Avanti,
Vatsa, Kosala and Magadha.
63. The kingdom of
Avanti had its capital at
Ujjain in modern Malwa.
64. One prominent ruler
of Vatsa territory was
Udayana, a scion of the
Bharat race.
65. Kosala had its capital at Ayodhya and was
ruled by a dynasty that
claimed descent from illustrious Ishvaku, famed in
Vedic and epic traditions.
66. The Kosalas extended their boundaries in several directions, including

Nepalese Tarai, but their

ambitious designs were frustrated by Magadha power.
67. Gargi and Maitreyi
were two prominent intellectual women of late Vedic
period.
68. Magadha and Anga
were two kingdoms which
the Aryans could not Brahmanise thoroughly and
came to possess a mixed
population. Kikatas were
prominent non-Aryans who
lived in Magadha. They
were known for their wealth.
There was a dislike for Magadha in the Rigveda and the
same dislike was continued
even during the period of
later Vedic civilisation.
69. In the sixth and fifth
century B.C. the throne of
Magadha was occupied by a
line of kings styled Saisunagas in the Purans, an appellation derived from Sisunaga,
the first king of the line in
the Puranic list.
70. The Buddhist writers, however, put Sisunaga
much lower in the list of
Magadha kings and split the
line into two distinct groups.
To the earlier of the two
groups they give the name
Haryanka, whose most
remarkable king was Srenika or Bimbisara.
71. The Ashtadhyayi of
Panini is a book on Sanskrit
grammar.
72. Khari, Patra, Vista,
Satamana, Adhaka, Achita,
Purusha and Dishta were
different kinds of weights
and measures used in later
Vedic age.
73. Taxila or Takshashila was a great centre
of learning in late Vedic period. It was famous for the
teaching of medicine, law
and military science.
74. India and Persia
have very ancient relations.
There are many common

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gods in the Rig Veda and the

Zinda Avesta. The Iranian
gods Mithra, Yima and Veretraghna have their counterpart in the Indian Mitra,
Yama and Indra Vritrahan.
75. The Boghaz-Koi
inscriptions of about 1400
B.C. refer to certain contracts
made between the King of
the Hittites (in Persia) and
the King of Mitani. In those
inscriptions same gods are
mentioned as the protectors
of these contracts.
76. The continuance of
strong influence of Persia
upon India in the Vedic age
is indicated by prevalence of
the Kharoshti script, a variety of Aramaic, in the
provinces near the Frontier,
by the long continued use of
the Persian title Satrap, by
the form of the Ashoka
inscriptions and by the
architecture.
77. Sanskrit is a branch
of a linguistic tree known as
Indo-European. The trunk of
the tree was a common
tongue probably spoken in
the region north-west of the
Black Sea about 2500 B.C.
78. The Upanishads
probe into the nature of
universe and the human
soul, and the relation of
each to the other. They
make no absolute statements of right and wrong,
of creation, the gods or
man; instead, they speculate, seeking always to find
truth, as opposed to stating
it, and offering a wide
range of possibilities.
79. A rudimentary
administrative system was
prevalent during the Vedic
period. The tribal kingdom
(rashtra) contained tribes
(jana), tribal units (vish) and
villages (grama). The nucleus was the family (kula),
with the eldest male member
as its head (kulapa)