UPSC Mains HISTORY-PAPER-I 2012

Evaluate the significance of seals and sealings in the reconstruction of socio-economic and religious life of the Harappan people.

Justify Pliny's statement that Rome was being drained out of its gold by India during the first century of the Christian era.

Discuss the extent, settlement pattern and subsistence economy of the megalithic cultures.

Assess the educational system in early India and identify important educational institutions of the period.

Examine the role of adhyaksa in the Mauryan administration.

Analyse the vibrant cultural activities in peninsular India during 550-750 CE. Compare and contrast it with the situation in contemporary North India.

Evaluate Rajtarangini as a source of history.

Medieval Indian towns were merely an extension of villages. Comment.

Assess the contribution of the Acharyas in the development of the ideological basis of bhakti.

Discuss the Caurapancashika and Jain styles of paintings. Can the Caurapancashika style truly be called the precursor of pothi format ?

Give social background to the rise of the Maratha movement during the seventeenth century.

What kind of changes were visualised by historians on Indian feudalism ? Examine critically.

Analyse the racial composition and the role of nobility under the successors of Iltutmish. How did it affect the contemporary politics ?

Evaluate the role of nadu and nagaram in the growth of urbanisation under the Cholas.

How did the Mongol invasions affect the Delhi Sultanate and the north-western frontier policy of the Delhi Sultans ?

State the structure of medieval village society in Northern India. What were the passive forms of resistance of the peasants in the medieval period ?

How was the Afghan nobility responsible for the decline of the Afghan empires ? Discuss.