Resistance and Resilience (1000-1700 CE) Class 9: Notes and Questions

What Resistance and Resilience (1000–1700 CE) is about

Weightage: CBSE has not yet published marks for Class 9 Social Science 2026-27: its syllabus says the course structure "will be provided shortly". Class 9 is a school examination (80 marks annual paper + 20 internal assessment), so your school sets the paper.Source: CBSE Social Science syllabus, Class IX 2026-27

Key concepts

Resistance and resilience: meanings and link

NCERT section Resistance and Resilience (1000–1700 CE)

Resilience: the capacity to survive and adapt in hard times, including political instability, and to absorb hardship while preserving inherited socio-cultural and spiritual traditions. Examples given: restoring places of worship, adapting customs, building lasting coexistence across religious and cultural lines.

Resistance: actively opposing or challenging a force, authority or threat to protect political power, territory, interests or cultural and spiritual identity. Forms: warfare, alliances, diplomacy, negotiation and other political action.

Link: a political cause or leader creates the conditions for resistance, but the ability to endure comes from resilience: resilience is the backbone of resistance.

Why invasions came: from the 7th century onward, invasions were driven by territorial expansion and religious motives; the surplus produce of fertile river plains was also a major attraction.

Worked example

Why are resistance and resilience linked? Pick the best reason: (a) every act of resistance is a war (b) the power to endure hardship lets a community keep resisting (c) only kingdoms with huge armies can resist (d) resilient people never fight. Explain. (2 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Resistance can also be diplomacy or alliances, so (a) and (c) are wrong.
2. Resilience is the capacity to endure; it sustains resistance: (b).

Answer: (b). Resistance can take many forms besides war, and resilience, the ability to endure and adapt while keeping traditions, is what lets communities keep resisting over long periods.

Early resistance and the Delhi Sultanate (1000-1500)

NCERT section Safeguarding Sovereignty: Resistance, Alliances, and Confederacies

• From the mid-7th century Arab forces were repulsed by rulers in the Deccan, Malwa, Kashmir and Rajasthan.
• Mahmūd of Ghaznī first invaded in 1001 against Jayapāla of the Hindu Shāhis. In the 11th-12th centuries the Hindu Shāhis, Chandellas, Solankīs and Chauhāns fought the Turkish invaders.
• 1178: Queen Nāikī Devī of the Chaulukyas defeated Muhammad Ghūrī at Kasahrada near Mount Abu.
• 1192: Second Battle of Tarain: Ghūrī defeated Prithvīrāj Chauhān. By the late 12th century the Chauhāns, Gahaḍavālas and Senas came under Turkic control, but Gujarat, Malwa and Bundelkhand (Chandellas) resisted for about a century more; the Turks failed to conquer present-day Odisha and parts of Assam; peninsular India stayed free of Turkic control in the 11th-12th centuries.
• 1206: Delhi Sultanate set up; greater centralisation; the iqta system (territories assigned to commanders instead of salaries) collected land revenue and increased the burden on peasants. The chapter notes that Sultanate campaigns demolished sacred sites, which fuelled resistance.
• Resisting powers: Yādavas (Devagiri), Kākatīyas (Warangal; Queen Rūdramā Devī 1262-1289), Hoysālas (Karnataka), Rajput dynasties; also Mewar, Gwalior, Malwa, Awadh, Ajmer, Jalore, Kalinjar, Kannauj and others. Rajput leaders included Kānhaḍa Deva (Jalore), Rāṇā Hammīra Deva (Ranthambore), Rāṇā Kumbhā (Mewar; forts) and Rāo Surjan Hāḍā (Bundi).

Worked example

What was the iqta system, and how did it affect peasants? (2 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Territories assigned to military commanders in place of salaries.
2. Used to collect land revenue; increased peasants' burden.

Answer: Under the iqta system, the Delhi Sultanate assigned territories to military commanders instead of paying them salaries; the commanders collected land revenue from these areas. It became a revenue mechanism that increased the burden on the peasantry.

Rajputs and the Mughals: Mewar's resistance

NCERT section Rajput–Mughal Dynamics: Politics and Complexities of Rule (1500–1700 CE)

• 1526: Bābur defeated Ibrāhim Lodī at the First Battle of Panipat, ending the Sultanate.
• 1527: Rāṇā Sāngā (Sangrām Singh I) of Mewar led a Rajput confederacy against Bābur at Khanua; Bābur won.
• Relations varied: Mewar resisted; the Kachhwāhas of Amber negotiated cooperation. The Mughals needed Rajput military strength, loyalty and administrative skill, and integrated some Rajputs through mansabs (ranks in Akbar's mansabdari system, joining military and civil administration).
• Chittor, 1567-68: Akbar besieged it; under Rāṇā Udai Singh the Rajputs resisted over five months; Udai Singh retreated to the Aravallis with many subjects.
• Haldighati, 1576: Mahārāṇā Pratāp fought the Mughals, then shifted to guerrilla warfare using the Aravalli terrain: raids and ambushes; he reclaimed most ancestral lands in the 1580s.
• Dewair, 1582 (near Udaipur): collapse of key Mughal outposts; Pratāp regained control of Mewar.
• Amar Singh resisted Jahāngīr's advances (1605, 1608, 1609). Finally the Mughals, valuing Mewar's position on trade routes to Surat, made a treaty that exempted Mewar's ruler from personal attendance at the Mughal court, recognising its autonomy.
• The Bhils gave tactical and logistical support (terrain, guerrilla skills, archery); Mewar's coat of arms shows a Rajput and a Bhil warrior with Eklingji at the centre.
• Poet Dursā Arhā praised Pratāp for keeping his horses unbranded, his head unbowed and staying away from the Nauroz festival and Jharokha Darshan.

Worked example

Why did some Rajput rulers negotiate alliances with the Mughals while Mewar resisted? (3 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Mughals needed Rajput military might, loyalty and administrative skill; offered mansabs.
2. Some (Kachhwāhas of Amber) chose cooperation for strategic gains.
3. Mewar chose resistance, using terrain and alliances (Bhils), and eventually won recognition of autonomy.

Answer: Relations were shaped by strategy. The Mughals needed Rajput military strength, loyalty and administrative ability and offered mansabs and other understandings, so rulers such as the Kachhwāhas of Amber found cooperation useful. Mewar instead chose sustained resistance, from Chittor and Haldighati to Dewair, using the Aravalli terrain and Bhil support, until the Mughals accepted its autonomy by treaty.

Ahoms and Vijayanagara

NCERT section The Ahom Kingdom: Centuries of Endurance

Ahoms of Assam kept independence for almost six centuries (1228-1826).

• Strategy: use local terrain (forests, rivers, monsoon) rather than open battle.
• 1615 clash near Samdhara: Mughals retreated; lost land recovered by 1616.
• 1662: Mīr Jumlā captured the capital Garhgaon and imposed a treaty on Jayadhvaj Singha, who renounced it within a year.
• 1671: at the Battle of Saraighat the Ahom general Lachit Borphukan beat a Mughal river fleet, and the Brahmaputra became the effective frontier.
• Strengths: alliances, guerrilla tactics, geography, the Paik system, and a navy of light, fast bāchārī boats.

Vijayanagara Empire (1336, near Hampi; 'City of Victory'):

• Arose to check Sultanate expansion after Malik Kāfūr's raids (Warangal, Belur, Madurai) and the rise of the Madurai Sultanate.
• Founded by Harihara and Bukkā; river and rocky terrain gave natural defence; expanded south of the Krishna and Tungabhadra; patronised Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Sanskrit literature.
• Kumāra Kampana (son of Bukkā) ended the Madurai Sultanate and reinstated images at Kanchipuram and Srirangam.
• Peak under Kṛiṣhṇadevarāya (died 1529); defeated at Talikota (1565) by Deccan sultanates; then Nāyaka kingdoms.
• Muthu Vīrappa Nāyak III of Madurai, per local tradition, mocked a Mughal 'royal slipper' sent as a symbol of supremacy.

Worked example

Explain three reasons for the Ahoms' long resistance against the Mughals. (3 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Knowledge of local terrain, rivers and monsoon; guerrilla tactics.
2. Paik system of military-administrative organisation.
3. Navy of bāchārī boats; victory at Saraighat (1671).

Answer: 1. Ahom commanders knew Assam's forests, rivers and monsoon cycles and used guerrilla tactics instead of open battle. 2. The Paik system organised people for military and administrative service. 3. Their navy of light, fast bāchārī boats beat Mughal fleets, most decisively when Lachit Borphukan won at Saraighat in 1671, securing the Brahmaputra boundary.

Marathas, Sikhs and Jats

NCERT section Marathas: The Quest for Swarājya

Marathas:

• Independent state in 1674 (coronation of Chhatrapati Śhivājī); idea of swarājya (self-rule).
• Knowledge of the Deccan's hills and valleys; forts (Raigad, Sinhagad) as nuclei for guerrilla warfare, safe retreats, fallback capitals, administrative and judicial centres, with water sources and armouries for long sieges.
• Prolonged war exhausted the Mughals; Aurangzeb spent over two decades in the Deccan. Alliances built a network of tributary relations.
• Gingee (Senji) Fort (Tamil Nadu): changed hands among many powers; declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2025.

Sikhs:

• Founded by Guru Nānak (late 15th century): one God, social equality, rejection of rituals.
• The chapter describes Mughal persecution: Guru Arjan Dev executed on Jahāngīr's orders; Guru Hargobind detained in Gwalior Fort; Guru Tegh Bahādur executed on Aurangzeb's orders (1675).
• Guru Hargobind set up the Akāl Takht (temporal authority); mīrī-pīrī: worldly (mīrī) and spiritual (pīrī) authority; Harmandir Sahib represents pīrī.
• 1699: Guru Gobind Singh established the Khalsa with a martial code; later the misals (armed groups) became confederacies; many peasants became soldiers.

Jats (Ganga-Yamuna Doab farmers): heavy taxes and Aurangzeb's religious policies caused resentment; revolt under Gokul Jat (1669); again in 1686 under zamindars of Sinsani and Sogar; Mughals gained the upper hand by 1691 but resistance continued. Traveller Niccolao Manucci described it.

Worked example

How did forts help the Marathas resist the Mughals? (3 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Hills and valleys: forts as bases for guerrilla attacks and safe retreats.
2. Different roles: outposts, frontier fallback capitals.
3. Water sources, armouries, food: withstand long sieges; also administration and justice.

Answer: In the hilly Deccan, forts like Raigad and Sinhagad served as bases for swift guerrilla attacks from many directions and as safe retreats. Some were advanced outposts and some frontier forts were fallback capitals, so one defeat was never total. With water, armouries and stores they withstood long sieges, and they also served as centres of administration and justice.

Bhakti, Sufism and Sulh-i-kul

NCERT section Bhakti Tradition: Affirmation of the Spirit of Resilience

Bhakti = personal devotion to the divine through hymns in local languages; it stressed inclusivity, equality, simplicity and everyday life.

• From the 7th century in peninsular India (Nayanar and Alvar saints such as Karaikal Ammaiyar and Andal); from the 14th century a strong wave in the north; Rāmānanda bridged south and north.
• Two streams: Nirguṇa (formless divine) and Saguṇa (divine with attributes).
• How Bhakti built resilience: when temples faced restrictions or destruction, devotees used non-material worship such as nām kīrtan; satsang and community singing (sankīrtan) made it hard to suppress and bridged social divides; Chaitanya Mahāprabhu led public sankīrtan in Bengal against a Qazi's restrictions; Sankardev's Kīrtana Ghosha; orders like the Dādu Panth and Niranjani Sampradāya in Rajasthan, some with warrior ascetics protecting routes.
• Epics in regional languages: Tulsidas's Rāmcharitmānas in Awadhi; Atukuri Molla's Telugu Rāmāyaṇa.
• Women saints: Akkā Mahādevi, Lāl Ded (ascetics), Bahinābāi (devotion with family duties), Mīrābāī, Muktābāī, Janābāī.
• Devotees from diverse backgrounds: Raskhān, Rahīm, Bibi Lachimar.

Sufism: mystical dimension of Islam that came with the Turks; orders (silsilahs): Chishti, Suhrawardi (Sultanate), Qadiriyya, Naqshbandiya (Mughal); khanqahs; used Hindavi and Bengali; some adopted yogic practices.

Sulh-i-kul ('peace with all'): adopted as state policy in Akbar's later reign; it seems meant to win support of non-Muslim powers.

Worked example

'A tradition becomes more resilient when people can carry it with them.' Explain with examples from Bhakti. (3 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Bhakti did not depend on buildings: nām kīrtan, recitation of the divine Name.
2. Community singing (satsang, sankīrtan) in homes and streets.
3. Texts in local languages (Rāmcharitmānas) spread to households.

Answer: Bhakti could be practised anywhere: devotees recited the divine Name (nām kīrtan) and sang together in satsang and sankīrtan, so even when temples were restricted or destroyed, worship continued. Works in local languages, such as Tulsidas's Rāmcharitmānas in Awadhi, carried the tradition into ordinary homes. Because people carried it in memory, song and language, it was hard to suppress.

Temples: resilience of sacred sites

NCERT section Temples: The Resilience of Sacred Sites

Temples were central to social, economic and political life:

• Economic hubs: managed land grants, employed architects, sculptors, priests, musicians and staff; received donations (the Brihadeeswara temple, Thanjavur); funded irrigation; gave credit to cultivators, village assemblies and merchants; gave rise to temple towns (Thanjavur, Kanchipuram, Puri).
• Culture and education: preserved arts such as Bharatanatyam; quasi-judicial roles (local taxes, penalties).
• Legitimacy: the deity was often seen as the true ruler: the Gajapatis called themselves the Rauta (deputy) of Jagannath; the Kachhwāhas governed on behalf of Govindadevajī; Kota's rulers represented Rāma.

From the 11th century the book records many instances of temple destruction (Ghaznavid and Ghurid invasions onwards), sometimes with mosques built on the sites. Yet rulers, guilds and communities maintained and restored temples:

• Kumāra Kampana restored a royal temple at Kannanur;
• Toḍar Mal and Rājā Mān Singh rebuilt Kashi Vishwanath (later demolished under Aurangzeb; the present temple built by Ahilyābāī Holkar in 1780);
• Mān Singh patronised the Govind Devji Temple at Vrindavan; Vīr Singh Bundela built the Keshav Dev Temple at Mathura.

Havelī temples (from the 16th century): placed in narrow lanes, looking like houses, often without tall shikharas, to avoid destruction (e.g. Jagat Shiromani Temple, Amer, built by Queen Kanakwati). Jagat Singh built the Jagdish temple in Udaipur, which scholars see as a response to Shah Jahan's Jama Masjid.

Worked example

What architectural changes occurred in temple building from the 16th century, and what do they show? (3 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Less visible locations in narrow lanes; entrances away from main streets.
2. Looked like ordinary houses; fewer detailed exteriors; tall shikharas avoided: 'havelī temples'.
3. Shows adaptation to protect sacred sites: resilience.

Answer: Many temples were built in less visible places along narrow lanes, with entrances not facing main streets; they looked like ordinary houses, with plainer exteriors and often no tall shikhara: historians call them 'havelī temples' (e.g. Jagat Shiromani Temple, Amer). Communities adapted architecture to avoid destruction while keeping worship alive, a clear sign of resilience.

Economy: agriculture, trade, hunḍī and merchants

NCERT section Indian Economy: Agriculture, Trading Networks, and Merchant Communities

Agriculture and revenue: land revenue was the main state income; under Alauddin Khiljī and Muhammad bin Tughlaq land tax rose to as much as 50% of produce, plus other taxes. Irrigation by rope pulleys, Persian wheel and others; Vijayanagara invested especially in small-scale irrigation.

Hunḍī: a bill of exchange, somewhat like a cheque, used for big transactions and safe long-distance remittance without carrying cash; run by money-changers (sarrāfs) and agents (gumasthas).

Trade: inland routes linked to Central Asia (caravans); banjārās connected villages and towns; from the 13th century seaborne trade grew to the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea; India became a major centre of Indian Ocean trade with the eastern Mediterranean and China as axes. The Sultans and Mughals had a limited role in maritime trade, so coasts remained with regional powers and local communities. Kṛiṣhṇadevarāya's Amukthamālyadā urges good port management and fair treatment of foreign traders.

16th century onward: Europeans (Portuguese, then Dutch, English, Danes, French) entered an established system; Gujarati merchants benefited; merchant groups in Malabar, Coromandel and Bengal adapted. Merchants worked as traders, shippers, bankers, brokers, dubhaśhīs (interpreters), diplomats; even vellalār agriculturists and peasant groups joined trade and learnt Portuguese, French, English and Persian.

Conclusion of the chapter: this economic strength gave people resources to resist politically and culturally.

Worked example

Why was the hunḍī safer and more convenient than carrying money over long distances? (2 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. No need to carry large amounts of cash, so less risk of theft.
2. Trusted network of sarrāfs and gumasthas paid out at the destination.

Answer: With a hunḍī a trader did not need to carry heaps of coins on dangerous roads, so the risk of robbery fell. A trusted network of money-changers (sarrāfs) and their agents (gumasthas) honoured the bill at the other end, making large and distant transactions easy.

Resistance and Resilience (1000–1700 CE) in real life

Each concept, met in an everyday situation. Read the situation, answer the question in your own words, then compare with the model answer. The one-line hook is what to remember.

Topics in this chapter

• Resilience through Bhakti, Sufism, Temples and the Economy
• Resistance by Kingdoms and Communities, 1000 to 1700 CE

Resistance and Resilience (1000–1700 CE): key facts

Definitions

• •Resistance = active opposition (war, alliances, diplomacy, negotiation)
• •Resilience = enduring and adapting while preserving traditions
• •Resilience is the backbone of resistance

Key dates

1001	Ghaznī vs Jayapāla
1178	Kasahrada (Nāikī Devī)
1192	Tarain II
1206	Sultanate
1336	Vijayanagara
1526	Panipat I
1527	Khanua
1565	Talikota
1567-68	Chittor
1576	Haldighati
1582	Dewair
1671	Saraighat
1674	Śhivājī crowned
1675	Guru Tegh Bahādur
1699	Khalsa

Who resisted where

Rajputs	Mewar
Ahoms	Assam, 1228-1826
Vijayanagara	south
Marathas	Deccan
Sikhs	Punjab
Jats	Doab

Tools: terrain, guerrilla war, forts, alliances, diplomacy.

Ahom strengths

Terrain + guerrilla tactics + Paik system + bāchārī navy + alliances

Lachit Borphukan, Saraighat 1671.

Sikh institutions

Akāl Takht	Guru Hargobind
mīrī (worldly) + pīrī	spiritual
Khalsa 1699	Guru Gobind Singh
	misals

Bhakti as resilience

Local languages + nām kīrtan + satsang/sankīrtan + regional epics + saints of all backgrounds

Nirguṇa vs Saguṇa.

Economic resilience

• •Land revenue
• •irrigation (Persian wheel)
• •hunḍī (sarrāfs, gumasthas)
• •caravans, banjārās
• •Indian Ocean trade
• •merchant groups

Tax up to 50% under Alauddin Khiljī and Muhammad bin Tughlaq.

How the school exam asks Resistance and Resilience (1000–1700 CE)

The question patterns to expect, and the method that works for each.

Tricks to remember Resistance and Resilience (1000–1700 CE)

Short memory aids. Say each one aloud once, then use it on a question the same day.

• Mewar battle order

  'Chittor Hurt, Dewair Won': Chittor 1567-68, Haldighati 1576, Dewair 1582.

  Use it when: Mewar timeline.

• Resisting powers

  'Real Ahoms Value Many Sacred Jewels': Rajputs, Ahoms, Vijayanagara, Marathas, Sikhs, Jats.

  Use it when: Listing resistance powers.

• Mīrī-pīrī

  Mīrī = Material/worldly (Akāl Takht); Pīrī = Prayer/spiritual (Harmandir Sahib).

  Use it when: Sikh authority.

• Saraighat

  Saraighat = 'S' for Ships: Lachit's naval victory, 1671.

  Use it when: Ahom battle.

• Hunḍī roles

  Sarrāf = Sender's banker; Gumastha = Go-between agent.

  Use it when: Financial terms.

Resistance and Resilience (1000–1700 CE): exam-level solved questions

Ordered from exam level to HOTS. Cover the solution, write your own, then compare step by step.

Case-study practice (Section E style)

Read the situation, then answer every part. In a school exam set on the board pattern this is a 4-mark question split into 1 + 1 + 2 marks.

Where the marks are

How a typical answer is split into step marks. Show every step: a right final answer alone rarely earns full marks.

Where students lose marks in Resistance and Resilience (1000–1700 CE)

The slips examiners see most often, and what to write instead.

• ✗Mistake: Treating the period as only invasions and defeats

  The chapter's framing is missed.

  Wrong working

  From 1000 to 1700 India was simply conquered by invaders.

  Right working

  The chapter calls it a period of conflict and cooperation, with sustained resistance and cultural and economic resilience.

  ✓Do this: Mention both resistance and resilience.

  Usually costs: 1-2 marks in a long answer.

• ✗Mistake: Wrong winner or date for key battles

  Many battles and dates.

  Wrong working

  Nāikī Devī was defeated by Ghūrī in 1192.

  Right working

  Nāikī Devī defeated Muhammad Ghūrī at Kasahrada in 1178; Ghūrī defeated Prithvīrāj Chauhān at Tarain in 1192.

  ✓Do this: Make a battle-winner-year table.

  Usually costs: 1 mark each.

• ✗Mistake: Mixing up Akāl Takht and Harmandir Sahib

  Both are in Amritsar.

  Wrong working

  The Harmandir Sahib represents temporal power.

  Right working

  The Akāl Takht represents temporal (mīrī) authority; the Harmandir Sahib represents spiritual (pīrī) authority.

  ✓Do this: Takht = throne = worldly.

  Usually costs: 1 mark.

• ✗Mistake: Saying Vijayanagara was founded to fight the Mughals

  Mughals dominate later history.

  Wrong working

  Vijayanagara was founded in 1336 to resist the Mughals.

  Right working

  It was founded in 1336 to check the Delhi Sultanate's expansion in the south; the Mughals came later (1526).

  ✓Do this: Check the century.

  Usually costs: 1 mark.

• ✗Mistake: One-line answers on temples

  Only the religious role is given.

  Wrong working

  Temples were places of worship.

  Right working

  Temples were also economic hubs, employers, creditors, centres of arts and education, sources of royal legitimacy, and their restoration showed resilience.

  ✓Do this: Give at least three roles.

  Usually costs: 2 marks in a 5-mark answer.

NCERT exercise guide: Resistance and Resilience (1000–1700 CE)

What each exercise in the NCERT chapter tests, how to approach it, and a question of the same kind solved step by step. Questions here are written in our own words.

Practice questions on Resistance and Resilience (1000–1700 CE)

Write each answer on paper first. Open the hint only if you are stuck, and the answer only when you have finished.

1. Q1 · 1 mark · MCQExam level

   The Vijayanagara army was defeated at Talikota in:
   (a) 1336 (b) 1529 (c) 1565 (d) 1674

   Hint

   By an alliance of Deccan sultanates.

   Answer

   (c) 1565

2. Q2 · 1 mark · Very short answerExam level

   What is a mansab?

   Hint

   Akbar's system.

   Answer

   A rank or office in Akbar's mansabdari system, combining military organisation and civil administration.

3. Q3 · 1 mark · Very short answerExam level

   Who composed the Rāmcharitmānas, and in which language?

   Hint

   A northern Bhakti saint.

   Answer

   Tulsidas, in Awadhi.

4. Q4 · 1 mark · Assertion-reasonHarder exam level

   Assertion (A): Peninsular India stayed free of Turkic control in the 11th-12th centuries.
   Reason (R): Northern and western India bore the brunt of Turkish invasions then.
   Choose (a)-(d).

   Hint

   Both true; does R explain A?

   Answer

   (b) Both are true, but R does not explain why the peninsula stayed free; it only describes where the invasions fell.

5. Q5 · 2 marks · Short answerExam level

   How did the Bhils support Mahārāṇā Pratāp, and how was this remembered? (2 marks)

   Hint

   Coat of arms.

   Answer

   Bhils gave tactical and logistical support: knowledge of the Aravalli terrain, guerrilla expertise, archery and guidance. The alliance is commemorated in Mewar's coat of arms, which shows a Rajput and a Bhil warrior with Eklingji at the centre.

6. Q6 · 2 marks · Short answerHarder exam level

   What were the causes of Jat resistance against the Mughals? (2 marks)

   Hint

   Taxes and policy.

   Answer

   Heavy taxes and exploitation of the Jat farming community, combined with Aurangzeb's religious policies, caused resentment that led to revolts under Gokul Jat (1669) and later in 1686.

7. Q7 · 3 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency

   Suppose you are a Maratha administrator. Explain how a network of forts made your state hard to conquer. (3 marks)

   Hint

   Guerrilla bases, fallback capitals, sieges.

   Answer

   Our forts on hills and in valleys let us strike suddenly from many directions and retreat safely. Frontier forts could serve as fallback capitals, so losing one fort never meant losing the state. With water sources, armouries and stores, each could hold out through long sieges, and each also ran administration and justice for its area.

8. Q8 · 2 marks · Short answerHarder exam level

   Why did the Mughals and Sultans play only a limited role in maritime trade, and who controlled coastal commerce? (2 marks)

   Hint

   Their concerns at the coast.

   Answer

   Their concerns at the coast were mainly political, military and customs collection, so coastal commerce remained largely with regional powers and local merchant communities.

9. Q9 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder exam level

   How did women contribute to the Bhakti tradition? Give three examples. (3 marks)

   Hint

   Different paths.

   Answer

   Akkā Mahādevi and Lāl Ded renounced comforts and lived as ascetics; Bahinābāi devoted herself to Vithoba while fulfilling family duties; Atukuri Molla, a potter's daughter, wrote the Telugu Rāmāyaṇa and recited it at Kṛiṣhṇadevarāya's court. They composed in their own languages, strengthening shared identities.

10. Q10 · 5 marks · Long answerHarder exam level

    Explain the main events of Mewar's resistance from 1567 to the treaty with the Mughals. (5 marks)

    Hint

    Chittor, Haldighati, guerrilla war, Dewair, Amar Singh, treaty.

    Answer

    In 1567-68 Akbar besieged Chittor; Rāṇā Udai Singh's Rajputs resisted for over five months before the fort fell, and Udai Singh retreated with his people to the Aravallis. In 1576 Mahārāṇā Pratāp fought the Mughals at Haldighati and then turned to guerrilla warfare in the Aravallis, with Bhil support. At Dewair (1582) key Mughal outposts collapsed and he regained most of Mewar. His son Amar Singh repelled Jahāngīr's advances in 1605, 1608 and 1609. Finally the Mughals, valuing peace and Mewar's routes to Surat, made a treaty exempting its ruler from personal attendance at court, recognising its autonomy.

11. Q11 · 2 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency

    Lāl Ded says it is easy to learn scriptures but hard to live them. Give an everyday example of the difference between knowing a rule and following it. (2 marks)

    Hint

    Think of school or road rules.

    Answer

    Everyone knows not to litter or to wait at a red light, but actually doing so every time, even when no one is watching, is harder. Knowing a rule is learning; following it consistently is living it.

12. Q12 · 1 mark · Very short answerExam level

    Name the Sufi orders prominent under the Sultanate and under the Mughals.

    Hint

    Two and two.

    Answer

    Sultanate: Chishti and Suhrawardi; Mughal period: Qadiriyya and Naqshbandiya.

Test your recall

Answer in your head or on paper first, then open the card. Pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than re-reading.

1. 1.Who defeated Muhammad Ghūrī at Kasahrada in 1178?Show answer

   Queen Nāikī Devī of the Chaulukya kingdom.

2. 2.When was the Delhi Sultanate established?Show answer

   1206.

3. 3.Who led the Rajput confederacy at Khanua in 1527?Show answer

   Rāṇā Sāngā (Sangrām Singh I) of Mewar.

4. 4.Which battle in 1582 helped Mahārāṇā Pratāp regain Mewar?Show answer

   The Battle of Dewair.

5. 5.Who won the Battle of Saraighat (1671)?Show answer

   The Ahom commander Lachit Borphukan.

6. 6.Who founded Vijayanagara and when?Show answer

   Harihara and Bukkā, in 1336.

7. 7.Who ended the Madurai Sultanate?Show answer

   Kumāra Kampana, son of Bukkā.

8. 8.What does swarājya mean?Show answer

   Self-rule: an independent, self-governing territory free from external control.

9. 9.Who established the Khalsa and when?Show answer

   Guru Gobind Singh, in 1699.

10. 10.What was Sulh-i-kul?Show answer

    Akbar's later state policy of 'peace with all' or universal toleration.

11. 11.What was a hunḍī?Show answer

    A bill of exchange for large transactions and safe long-distance remittance, run by sarrāfs and gumasthas.

12. 12.What are 'havelī temples'?Show answer

    Temples built from the 16th century to look like ordinary houses in less visible locations, to avoid destruction.

Quick revision checklist

The night before the exam: can you do each of these without looking?

• ☐Resistance: active opposition by war, alliances, diplomacy; resilience: endure, adapt, preserve; resilience is resistance's backbone.
• ☐Invasions drawn by territorial and religious motives and by rich agrarian surplus.
• ☐1001 Mahmūd vs Jayapāla; 1178 Nāikī Devī beat Ghūrī; 1192 Tarain II.
• ☐1206 Delhi Sultanate; iqta increased peasants' burden; Yādavas, Kākatīyas (Rūdramā Devī), Hoysālas, Rajputs resisted.
• ☐1526 Panipat; 1527 Khanua (Rāṇā Sāngā); mansabs drew some Rajputs in.
• ☐Mewar: Chittor 1567-68 (Udai Singh), Haldighati 1576 and guerrilla war (Pratāp), Dewair 1582; treaty recognised autonomy; Bhil alliance.
• ☐Ahoms 1228-1826: terrain, Paik system, bāchārī boats; Saraighat 1671 (Lachit Borphukan).
• ☐Vijayanagara 1336 (Harihara, Bukkā); Kumāra Kampana ended Madurai Sultanate; Talikota 1565; Nāyakas.
• ☐Marathas: swarājya, 1674 coronation, forts (Raigad, Sinhagad), Gingee UNESCO 2025.
• ☐Sikhs: Guru Nānak; martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev and Guru Tegh Bahādur (1675); Akāl Takht, mīrī-pīrī; Khalsa 1699; misals.
• ☐Jats: Gokul Jat 1669; 1686 revolt; resistance continued.
• ☐Bhakti: local languages, nām kīrtan, sankīrtan, Rāmcharitmānas, women saints; Sufism; Sulh-i-kul.
• ☐Temples: economic, cultural, legitimacy roles; restorations; havelī temples.
• ☐Economy: tax up to 50%; Persian wheel; hunḍī; caravans, banjārās; Indian Ocean trade; Gujarati and other merchants.

Resistance and Resilience (1000–1700 CE): frequently asked questions