Important Questions for CBSE Class 7 Social Science Our Past 2 Chapter 2 - New Kings and Kingdoms

A. Very Short Answer Questions - 1 Marks

1. Fill in the Blanks:

i. Kitab al-Hind was written by ____.

Ans: Kitab al-Hind was written by Al-Biruni.

ii. Prithviraj III was the ruler of ____.

Ans: Prithviraj III was the ruler of Delhi. 

iii. Somnath temple was destroyed by _____.

Ans: Somnath temple was destroyed by Sultan Mahmud.

iv. ‘Ur’ is the testament of ____.

Ans: ‘Ur’ is the testament of peasants. 

2. State true and false: 

i. Traders used to pay revenue.

Ans: True

ii. Rent was the resources obtained from the producers.

Ans: True

iii. Learned Brahmans used to write the Prashastis.

Ans: True

iv. Kalhana was a great poet from Kashmir.

Ans: True 

3. Match the following:

Ans: 

4. Choose the Correct Option:

i. ____ were the two major cities under the control of Chahamanas.

(a) Delhi

(b) Ajmer

(c) Rajasthan

(d) (a) and (b)

(e) (c) and (a)

Ans: (d) a and b

ii. Prithviraj-III was the famous ruler of___

(a) Delhi

(b) Madhya Pradesh

(c) Rajasthan

(d) Mysore

Ans: (a) Delhi

5. Define the Following

i. Nagarams

Ans: Association of traders that used to be involved in administrative works at times were referred to as nagarams. 

ii. Brahmadeya

Ans: Brahmanas of the society were often given land grants termed as brahmadeya. 

B. Short Answer Questions - 2 Marks

6. Which parties participated in the ‘tripartite struggle’? 

Ans: The Gurjar-Pratiharas, the Rashtrakutas, and the Palas were the three parties that participated in the ‘tripartite struggle’, a conflict that arose to take control over the city of Kanauj.

7. Who were called ‘nadu’?

Ans: The peasants had settlements of their own which were termed as ‘ur’. With the development and spread of irrigation agriculture, those ‘Urs’ became prosperous. Groups of such villages or ‘urs’ formed larger units that came to be known as ‘nadu’. 

8. What was a ‘sabha’?

Ans: The land grants or ‘brahmadeya’ received by Brahmanas were often looked after by an assembly or a prominent class of Brahmana landholders called ‘sabha’.

9. Who was Samantas?

Ans: By the seventh century, there was the emergence of a community of big landlords or warrior chiefs in various regions of the Indian subcontinent. The kings ruling at that time used to address them as their subordinates known as ‘Samantas’. 

10. Who was Maha-samantas?

Ans: When subordinates of the kings known as Samantas gained power and wealth, they used to declare themselves and came to be known as Maha-samantas. 

C. Short Answer Questions - 3 Marks

11. How did the new rulers emerge?

Ans: The emergence of new rulers can be described as follows -

• By the seventh century, there was the emergence of a community of big landlords or warrior chiefs known as ‘samantas’ in various regions of the Indian subcontinent.

• With time they came to be acknowledged as the subordinates of the ruling kings or overlords. Their tasks include presenting gifts and military support to the kings.

• Over time, as the samantas gained more power and wealth, they acquired more strength and declared themselves as ‘maha-samantas’, ‘maha-mandaleshvaras’, etc.

• In many instances, they gained so much power that they overpowered their landlords or the existing kings and established themselves as the new rulers. For example, the Rashtrakutas of Deccan were initially the ‘samantas’ of the Chalukya kings. But later, they overthrew the Chalukyas and established themselves as new rulers.

12. How did the Dantidurga become a Kshatriya?       

Ans: Dantidurga’s journey to becoming a Kshatriya is as follows—

• The Rashtrakutas of Deccan was initially the subordinates or ‘samantas’ of the ruling Chalukyas of Karnataka. 

• However, the Rashtrakutas went on gaining more and more power over time.

• Hence when Dantidurga became the Rashtrakuta chief, he became powerful enough and overthrew his Chalukya overlord.

• Then, he performed a ritual known as ‘hiranya-garbha’. This ritual was supposed to give ‘rebirth’ to the sacrificer (Dantidurga), even if he was not a Kshatriya by birth.

Thus, by the successful completion of the ‘hiranya-garbha’ ritual, Dantidurga became a Kshatriya. 

13. What was the process of controlling the financial condition in the states?

Ans: The financial conditions in the states were controlled by the following process -

• People from influential families or the king’s close friends and relatives were appointed for revenue collection from the states.

• They used to collect revenue from peasants, artisans, traders, cattle keepers, and other producers.

• These revenues were then used to meet all the finances of the states like maintenance of the king’s establishment, construction of structures like temples and forts, and fighting wars. 

• Apart from the revenues, good financial conditions of the state were also maintained by the wealth that is obtained by plundering and looting other kingdoms during wars and by accessing land and trade routes.  

14. Discuss ‘Prashastis’.

Ans: ‘Prashastis’ can be defined as follows -

• ‘Prashastis’ were written documents about kings penned down by educated Brahmanas. 

• They contain detailed information regarding how a king functioned and controlled his empire.

• As per historians, whatever is written in ‘Prashastis’ is not always true.

• They contain things written from the perception of the kings. In other words, ‘Prashastis’ only let us know how the king wished to portray himself; for instance, as courageous and victorious. 

15. Why was the Kalhana famous?

Ans: Kalhana was a Sanskrit writer of the twentieth century. He became famous mainly due to composing a long Sanskrit poem that narrates the detailed history of the rulers of Kashmir. 

To compose the poem, he dug out information from real sources including inscriptions, accounts of eyewitnesses, historical documents, etc. His composition received a lot of attention and is considered significant because unlike Prashastis he did not depict emperors the way wanted to be; instead, in the poem, he put forward his perception and critically analyzed the rulers, and their policies.

D. Long Answer Questions - 5 Marks

16. Why did the conquerors destroy the temples in the first place?

Ans: Temples were built by the rulers in their empires to showcase the power and wealth they possessed. When the empire was attacked by conquerors, they used to destroy the temples in the first place because of the following reasons -

• The rulers used to construct the temples by investing a lot of valuable resources like gold. Hence, temples served as a significant source for conquerors for looting highly prized resources.

• For instance, a ruler of Ghazni, Afghanistan named Sultan Mahmud attacked the Somnath temple of Gujarat and plundered a lot of its valuable wealth. 

• Temples signified the strength and power a ruler possessed. So, its destruction by conquerors used to mean the ruler lost his power. 

• Moreover, as temples symbolized power, many conquerors used to destroy those in the first place to exhibit their win and access over a kingdom. 

17. During the Chola kingdom, what was the role of temples?

Ans: During the reign of the Chola kingdom, temples were not just meant for praying and worshipping gods. They also became active centers of social, cultural, and economic activities. Their role during that period has been described in the following points -

• The temples often became central points or nuclei surrounding which settlements used to grow.

• They were also the centers of craft manufacture. Crafts produced here used to be exported in other regions and in this way the temple areas became major centers of trades as well.

• Moreover, the temples had agriculturally productive lands around them. The produce of these lands was looked after and taken care of by temple workers like priests, cooks, garland makers, musicians, and so on.

To serve these purposes, many temples were built by rulers of the Chola empire. Significant examples include the Thanjavur temple constructed by Rajaraja and the Gangaikondacholapuram temple built by the ruler named Rajendra. 

18. How were the committee members of the Sabha elected?

Ans: A sabha was comprised of many committees. Each of these committees had a certain number of members who were used to be selected by a selection process. This process can be described as follows -

• Firstly, the names of all the eligible candidates were penned down on tickets of palm leaf.

• Then these tickets were transferred to an earthenware pot.

• A young boy was called and his task was to pick up the tickets one by one. The names which he used to pick up were selected as members of a committee.

In this way, members of all the committees used to get selected. 

19. Discuss the life of Mahmud of Ghazni.

Ans: The life of Ghazni's Sultan Mahmud is as follows -

• As a Ruler: Sultan Mahmud was a well-known and ambitious ruler of Ghazni, Afghanistan. His reign continued from $ 997 $ to  $ 1030 $. 

• As a Conqueror: He aimed to extend his dominance over parts of Central Asia, Iran, and the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent. To fulfill his objective, he attacked the Indian subcontinent almost every year. He used to target resourceful temples and used to loot a lot of valuable possessions. One such significant temple raided by him was the Somnath temple located in the state of Gujarat.

• Curiosity about Conquered People: Sultan Mahmud had an interest in knowing about the life and culture of the people of areas he conquered. For this purpose, he recruited an Arab scholar named Al-Biruni and asked him to write about the Indian subcontinent. Al-Biruni’s composition Kitab-ul-Hind is still a major source for historians to dig out valuable information.

20. How did Cholas come to power?

Ans: To understand Cholas’ rise to power, we have to go a little back through the pages of history:

• Initially, the Kaveri delta region of South India was under the power of a minor chiefly family, Muttaraiyar. They were the ‘samantas ’of the kings of the Pallava dynasty.

• However, in the middle of the ninth century, their power over the Kaveri delta got diminished when Vijayalaya belonging to another chiefly family named Cholas conquered the region and overpowered them.

• Soon Vijayalaya started showcasing the power of Cholas by constructing a town named Thanjavur and a temple for goddess Nishumbhasudini in that town.

• After Vijayalaya’s reign, when his successors came into power, they extended the territory of the Cholas into regions like the Pandyan and the Pallava.

• Rajaraja I was considered the most powerful of Chola kings. His reign not only witnessed territorial expansion but also saw a reorganization of the kingdom’s administration system. 

• His son Rajendra I was no less. He continued the policies his father introduced and conquered many other regions including Ganga valley, Sri Lanka, and some Southeast Asian countries.