Important Questions for CBSE Class 7 Social Science Our Past 2 Chapter 7 - The Making Of Regional Cultures

Very Short Answer Questions:                                                                    1 Mark

1. Fill in the blanks:

1. _____were the major patrons of Kathak.

Ans: Mughal emperors and their nobles were the major patrons of Kathak.

2. Manipravalam is a ____.

Ans: Manipravalam is a language.

3. Temples in Bengal were usually made on _____ platform. 

Ans: Temples in Bengal were usually made on square platforms. 

4. Temples-making started in the late ${15^{{\text{th}}}}$century in ______.

Ans: Temples-making started in the late \[{15^{th}}\]century in Bengal.

2. State true and false: 

1. Anantavarman ruled in the ${12^{{\text{th}}}}$ century.

Ans: True

2. Anantavarman was from the Ganga dynasty.

Ans: True

3. Kathak is derived from the term katha. 

Ans: True

4. Kathak was found in the courts of Rajasthan and Lucknow.

Ans: True

3. Match the following:
   
   

Ans:

4. Choose the correct option:

1. Main food items of Bengalis were____ 

1. Rice and fish

2. Rice and dal

3. Sabji and chaval

4. None of the above

Ans: a) Rice and fish

2. Brihaddharma Purana is a ______ century Sanskrit text. 

1. ${13^{{\text{th}}}}$

2. ${14^{{\text{th}}}}$

3. ${15^{{\text{th}}}}$ 

4. ${16^{{\text{th}}}}$

Ans: (a) ${13^{{\text{th}}}}$

5. Define the following:

1. Pirs

Ans: Pir is a person who is defined as a spiritual guide. They were considered to possess supernatural powers.

2. Nath 

Ans: People who were involved in yoga and other ascetic things were referred to as Naths.

Short Answer Questions:                                                                             2 Marks

6. Why were the Bengali Brahmanas eating fish?

Ans: Fish was the main diet of the locals in Bengal. Though Brahmanas were prohibited to consume fish or any other non-vegetarian item, Bengali Brahmanas were relaxed from this prohibition due to the popularity of fish in the state. Due to this relaxation as declared in a Sanskrit text named ‘Brihaddharma Purana’, Bengali Brahmanas were eating fish.

7. What is the chief food of Bengalis? 

Ans: The chief food items of Bengalis are rice and fish.

8. What do you mean by Brihaddharma Purana? 

Ans: Brihaddharma Purana can be described as follows—

• Brihaddharma Purana is a textual document of thirteenth-century Bengal.

• It was composed in the Sanskrit language.

• It is the text which permitted Bengali Brahmanas to consume fish.

9. Write down the second category of Bengali literature that was not written down.

Ans: The second literature of the Bengalis was circulated orally. Therefore, it was not written down.

10. Define Naths. 

Ans: People who were involved in yoga and other ascetic things were referred to as Naths.

Short Answer Questions:                                                                        3 Marks       

11. What was the role of Cheras in developing Malayalam?

Ans: The Chera dynasty of Mahodayapuram had their kingdom established in the southwestern part of the Indian peninsula. The Cheras played the following role in developing Malayalam—

• As per historians, Malayalam was majorly spoken in this area. 

• The rulers of the Chera dynasty also introduced the usage of the Malayalam language and scripts in their inscriptions.

12. How did the regional culture flourish?

Ans: India has been a country of diverse languages, religions, dance and art forms, music, etc. In other words, the country is rich in culture and traditions. Over time, people of different religions and cultures have been living together. We can derive from it that the regional culture may have evolved from the intermixing of different cultures of the Indian subcontinent.

13. List the classical dances.

Ans: The list of classical dances is as follows

• Bharatanatyam- Tamil Nadu 

• Kathak- North India 

• Kathakali- Kerala

• Kuchipudi- Andhra Pradesh

• Odissi- Orissa

• Manipuri- Manipur

14. Give a brief of Bengali literature.

Ans: The Bengali literature can be divided into two major parts—

• The first part deals with translations of Sanskrit epics, auspicious poems, The Mangalkavyas, bhakti literature, etc. into Bengali

• The second part deals with Nath literature like folk tales, songs of Gopichandra, ballads, stories about devotion to Dharma Thakur, etc.

15. Define Pirs.

Ans: Pirs can be described as followed—

• Pir is a person who can be defined as a spiritual guide. 

• They were considered to possess supernatural powers. 

• People acknowledged as Pirs to show respect and affection.

• Examples of pirs include religious personalities like saints and sufis, colonisers, deified soldiers, animistic spirits, etc.

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Long Answer Questions:                                                                    5 Marks

16. What is the importance of fish in Bengal?

Ans: Importance of fish in Bengal is given as follows—

• The state of Bengal lies in a riverine plain. Due to this, the Bengalis are provided with plenty of fish and rice. Thus, these two items fall under the category of traditional Bengali food and even the poor Bengalis consume these. 

• Bengali Brahmanas also eat fish and rice in their daily consumption, despite fish and other non-vegetarian food being generally prohibited for Brahmanas. The ‘Brihaddharma Purana’, a Sanskrit text of the thirteenth century, allowed them to eat fish because of the importance fish has to the people of Bengal. 

• Moreover, fishing is the main occupation of Bengalis.

• Last but not the least, terracotta tablets on the walls of Bengal’s temples represent scenes of decorating fish and taking them to markets.

17. Explain the Rajput tradition.

Ans: Historians often credit the Rajputs of Rajasthan for contributing to the distinguished culture of the state. Their culture can be described as follows—

• The cultural traditions of Rajput rulers are linked with their ideas, thoughts, and aspirations.

• One of their main focuses was promoting the idea of heroism.

• They appreciated the idea of heroes fighting bravely.

• Their tradition is death in place of forgiveness even after losing in a battlefield.

One such Rajput ruler known for his bravery and heroism is Prithviraj.

18. Give an explanation of the Kathak. 

Ans: Kathak is explained as follows—

• The term: Kathak is a word derived from the term ‘katha’. This word is used in many literatures including those of Sanskrit and Hindi. 

• Origin of Kathak: Originally, kathaks were a community of storytellers residing in the temples of North India and they were phenomenal in their songs and gestures. Hence, it is from them that Kathak originated as a dance form.

• Increasing popularity of Kathak: In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Kathak evolved as dance and it spread during the time of the Bhakti movement. The acts of ‘rasa lila’ made an amalgamation of folk-dance forms and gestures made by the kathak community. Then, Kathak as a dance form received huge patronage from Mughals and from Rajasthan.

• Spread of Kathak: It was the third quarter of the nineteenth century when Kathak fully evolved as a dance form and spread to the states of Lucknow, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar.

• Features of Kathak as a form of dance: Decorative outfits, rapid footwork, enactment of tales became salient features of Kathak.

• The status of Kathak today: During British rule, this dance form lost its essence as Britishers did not favoured it. Post-independence, it emerged as one of the six main dance forms practiced in India.

19. How did the Bengalis develop a regional language?

Ans: Bengali, a language which is considered to be derived from Sanskrit, developed as a separate regional language in the following manner—

• The business ties developed between the state of Bengal and Magadha during the fourth-third centuries BCE. The commercial activity which was taking place between these two regions resulted in the influence of Sanskrit. 

• As the Gupta rulers established themselves in Bengal and settlements of Brahmanas grew in the area, the cultural and linguistic influence of the Gangetic plains became stronger. 

• Time went by and in the seventh century, a Chinese traveller named Xuan Zang had observed that in the entire Bengal region, people speak languages derived from the Sanskrit language.

• From eighth to sixteenth, when Palas, Sultans and Mughal emperor Akbar dominated Bengal, Bengali fully evolved as a regional language. In fact, it was by the fifteenth century when dialects of the Bengali language were united by a familiar literary language spoken in West Bengal.

Thus, it can be concluded that the regional language Bengali grew out of Sanskrit. But of course, it passed through numerous stages of evolution. In the process, the Bengali language also made words of Persian, European and tribal languages a part of it.

20. During the Mughal empire, how did the miniature painting develop?

Ans: Miniatures are tiny-sized paintings often done with colour water on paper or clothes. At first, these miniatures were painted on the palm leaves. This art form flourished to a great extent during the Mughal rule in the following way—

• The prominent Mughal rulers such as Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan supported and patronised the highly skilled painters. 

• Hence, these painters started representing the manuscripts with poetry and historical accounts by their miniature paintings. 

• These paintings were being made to portray battle frilled, court scenes, and other aspects of social and political life. 

• These paintings became more prevalent and famous during the Mughal rule were frequently presented as gifts to the emperors and only the emperors and their close nobles were allowed to see these miniatures.