uid: f7cd9e34b6ff37edd7ed3105f39bb76c

History Imp Facts - Ancient India

2020-08-27 12:57:18

Agnikula	Certain Rajput clans who claim to have emerged from Yajna Havana-Kunda.
Agrahara	Donation of land or taxes from a village by the king to learned brahmans / Tax-free villages granted to the learned Brahmanas in ancient India were known as Agrahara
Ajivika	A heterodox sect closer to Jainism which flourished at the time of the Buddha
Akot	A town, about 42 km from Akola, from where a stone idol of Lord Adinath, the first Jain Teerthankara, was found in 1993
Amarasimha	was one of the nine gems in the court of Vikramaditya. His work Amarkosha occupies a dominant position in Sanskrit lexicography.
Amatya	Official designation for a high official used right from the Mauryan Period.
Amoghavarsha-I	The long ruling Rashtrakuta king (A.D. 814-78). He represented the height of development of his dynasty.
Aranyakas	Vedic texts, traditionally composed by hermits.
Artha	Prosperity and well-being, one of the four aims of life of a Hindu.
Arthashastra	A treatise on polity by Kautilya, belonging to the Mauryan period.
Asanga	A Buddhist philosopher. He was the originator of Buddhist Yogachara idealism.
Ashramas	The four stages of life; also a place where hermits live
Ashvaghosha	The spiritual adviser of Kanishka (the Kushan emperor) who took a leading part in the Fourth Buddhist Council at Srinagar which was presided by Vasumitra. He was a renowned Mahayana Sanskrit scholar and author of Sariputra-prakarana and Buddha Charitam. He was the greatest literary figure at Kanishka’s court
Atisa Dipankara	The most famous teacher of Vikramasila university founded in A.D. 810 by king Dharmapala of Pala dynasty.
Ayukta	Designation of an officer frequently used in the Mauryan period.
Battle of San Thomas	This battle during the Carnatic Wars (1746-61) definitely proved for the first time the superiority of European arms and discipline over the traditional Indian methods of warfare.
Battle of Waihand	was fought between Mahmud Ghaznavi and jaipala
Bhagavata	A sect devoted to Lord Vishnu.
Bhaskaravarman	The king of Kamarupa (Upper Assam). He was a contemporary of king Sasanka of Gauda and was his arch-enemy. Bhaskaravarman was the eastern ally of king Harsha.
Bhukti	An administrative unit of a kingdom in the Gupta period.
Bilhana	A Sanskrit historian and poet born in Kashmir. He left Kashmir about A.D. 1065 and became the court poet at Kalyana where he wrote an epic, Vikramadeva-charita to celebrate the reign of Vikramaditya-VI, the Chalukya king of Kalyana
Boghaz Koi inscriptions	are important in Indian history because inscriptions of the fourteenth century B.C. discovered here mention the names of Vedic gods and goddesses.here mentioned god and godesses are move towards east.
Brahmacharin	Celibate studentship, the first of the four stages (Ashramas) of life.
Brahmagupta	(598-660) of Ujjain, was a great mathematician of his time.
Brahmanas	Vedic texts dealing with rituals and sacrifice.
Brahui	A language of Baluchistan. Linguistically, it is Dravidian.
Birsa Munda Revolt	occurred in Bihar.
Catching the butterflies and setting them free	The prominent feature of the foreign policy of Samudragupta.
Chaitya	A sacred enclosure. The term is also used for a Buddhist place of worship.
Charvaka	Charvaka is known as the greatest of the materialistic philosophers of ancient India./A religious sect following a materialist philosophy.
Chauth	A tax levied by Marathas—a contribution exacted by a military leader, which was justified by the exigencies of the situation
Dadu	The saint from Gujarat who preached non-sectarianism in medieval times. He founded the “Brahma-Sampardaaya” (the sect of Brahma)
Darius	The Iranian ruler who penetrated into north-west India in 516 B.C. and annexed Punjab, west of Indus, and Sindh
Devadana	Donated revenue assigned to a temple.
Devapala	(A.D. 830-850) was successor to Dharmapala, the famous Pala ruler. He established the third important Pala university of Somapura. He shifted his capital to Monghyr from where he maintained diplomatic relations with the Sailendra kings of Sumatra.
Dhammapada	The first major work to say that salvation by means of devotion is open to humans regardless of birth, gender or station in life
Dharma	Piety, Morality – a way of life.
Dharmachakra	In the Gandhara art, it is the preaching mudra associated with the Buddha’s First Sermon at Sarnath
Dharmasastras	Texts on laws relating to society and religious observances of the Hindus.
Digambara	A Jain sect whose followers do not believe in keeping even a small piece of cloth on themselves.
Doab	The area between two rivers.
Dvija	The twice-born; referring to the first birth which is the physical birth and the second the initiation into educational status.
First to issue gold coins in India	Mauryas.
Garbhagriha	The sanctum of the Hindu temple.
Gautamiputra Satakarni	The great king of Satavahana dynasty.
Gayatri mantra	is contained in Rig Veda.
Gopuram	It has been the main feature of the South Indian temple architecture.
Grama	A village.
Hasan Gangoo	entitled Zafar Khan was founder of the Bahmani kingdom in Deccan.
Hinayana	One of the two major Buddhist sects.
Ibadat Khana	A building at Fatehpur Sikri where Akbar held discussions on religious matters.
Ibn-Batuta	A great scholar and traveller from South Africa who came to India in A.D. 1333 during the reign of Mohammad Tughlak and wrote about him.
Iqta	It was the land-grant system adopted by Ala-ud-din Khilji to grant his officers as reward for services rendered. Qutabuddin Aibak was assigned the first iqta in India by Mohd of Ghor.
Jati	Family or a group of people defined by their profession.
Jimutavahana	A famous jurist of medieval India (fifteenth century). His work Dayabhaga is a commentary on the shastras, specially on Manu.
Kalachuri era	counted from A.D. 248, it was mostly current in Central India. Their capital was Tripuri near Jabalpur. Kalachuris were the feudatories of the Pratiharas but soon acquired independence.
Kaliyuga	The fourth and final age of the aeon.
Kalpa	A day- of Brahma equivalent to 4,320 million earth years.
Karma	Action or deed, and also the theory of conditioning one’s future births by the deeds of the present or the previous lives.
Karshapana	The most commonly used coin in the Chola kingdom.
Kayastha	A jati associated with revenue records, first found in the Mauryan period and frequently mentioned in the medieval period
Kharoshthi	A script in which Ashokan inscription of Shahbazgari and Manashera are written.
Khiraj	The land tax imposed by Mohd-bin-Qasim after the Arabs’ occupation of Sind.
Kottom	An administrative unit.
Kula	The clan or extended family.
Kumaramatya	An official designation of a high official.
Magazines started by National leaders	Young India (M.K. Gandhi); Kesari (B.G. Tilak); New India (Annie Besant); Bengali (S.N. Bannerji).
Mahakshatrapa	‘Great governor’, a title taken by rulers, mainly by Saka kings.
Maharajadhiraja	‘Great king of kings’, an imperial title.
Mandalam	An administrative unit, frequently used in south India.
Maski Rock edict	This minor Rock-edict is the only edict in which Ashoka refers to himself as the king of Magadha.
Matha	A centre of education attached to a temple or religious establishment.
Matsyanyaya	A political theory where, in a state of anarchy, the strong devour the weak.
Maya	Illusion.
Moksha	Release from the cycle of rebirth.
Moplah Rebellion	broke out in Malabar (Kerala) in August 1921.
Nadu	An administrative unit, frequently used in south India.
Nagara	Style of temple architecture developed in central and northern India.
Nastaliq	A Persian script used in medieval India.
Nauroj festival in India	Balban introduced the famous Persian festival of Nauroj in India.
Nicolo Conti	The Italian foreign traveller who visited Vijayanagar about A.D. 1420 during the reign of Deva Raya-II.
Nirvana	Release from the cycle of rebirth.
Nishaka	The term used for a coin.
Palas	who controlled most of Bengal and Bihar, was the third power involved in the three-sided conflict between Rashtrakutas and Pratiharas over the control of Kanauj. Pala dynasty was established by Gopala in the eighth century A.D. He attained renown from the fact that he was not hereditary king but was elected.
Pali	A Sanskrit-based language in which the Buddhist scriptures were recorded in Ceylon.
Pana	A term used for coin.
Paragana	During the rule of the so-called Slave dynasty in India, the empire was divided into provincial units called Paraganas placed under the charge of a military officer.
Pasupata	A Saivite sect.
Prakrit	This language received royal patronage during the reign of Satavahanas.
Puranas	The Hindu text containing the history of various dynasties. Purohita Chief priest.
Rajsekhar	The Sanskrit poet who lived in the court of Mahendrapala-I.
Rajuka	An official designation used in the Mauryan period.
Rashtra	Country
Ratika	or rati is a weight between 1.5 to 3 Gunjas; between 5 to 8 grains of rice. It was the basic weight (measure) in ancient India.
Ratnakara	denoted the Arabiasn Sea in ancient Indian historical geography.
Rishabha	is supposed to be the mythical founder of Jainism.
Sabha	An assembly of a few select ones/elders first found in the RigVeda.
Samiti	A larger assembly.
Samkhya	One of the six major schools of philosophy in ancient India.
Sangam	The earliest phase of Tamil literature.
Sardeshmukhi	An additional levy of 10%, which Shivaji demanded on the basis of his claim as the hereditary Sardeshmukh (chief headman) of Maharashtra.
Satamana	A silver coin which weighed about 180 grains.
Sati	A virtuous woman; one who has immolated herself on the funeral pyre of her husband.
Senapati	Commander of the army.
Shahrukh	It was silver coin of the Mughals.
Sharada script	The Kashmiri language was originally written in Sharada script.
Shikhara	Tower surmounting a temple.
Shreni	Guild, organisation of craftsmen and merchants.
Stupa	Domical structure containing relics of the Buddha.
Subuktigin	The first Turkish invader of India.
Svetambara	One of the two major Jaina sects, which follows the code of wearing white clothes.
Tanka	A silver coin of the Sultanate period of India.
Tantne	A religious cult.
Tehqiq-i-Hind	Alberuni’s work on India. It contains observations on Indian civilization which are remarkably incisive and acute.
Theravada	A Buddhist sect.
Turushkadanda	A tax collected by the Gahadavalas during the early medieval India.
Upanishads	The philosophical texts included in Vedic literature.
Vagbhata	is regarded as unrivalled in his knowledge of the basic principles of Ayurveda.
Varna	Four-fold division of Hindu society.
Vatapi (or Badami)	now in the Bijapur district of Karnataka, where Pulakesin I, founder of the Chalukya dynasty in the middle of the sixth century, established himself as lord of Vatapi or Badami (capital of Chalukyas). It is well-known for Chalukyan sculpture found in the cave temples here.
Vedanta	One of the six major philosophical schools in ancient India.
Vidushaka	the constant companion and confidant of the hero in Sanskrit dramas, was nearly always a Brahmin.
Vihara	Buddhist monastery.
Vikramasila University	A great Tantrik University founded by the Pala king Dharmapala in A.D. 810. It was a hotbed of moral corruption, sorcery and idolatry. In A.D. 1198, the soldiers if Ikhtiar Khilji raised the structure to the ground and killed every monk in the University.
Yakshagana	The south Indian dance tradition that appeared for the first time in the Vijayanagar period.
Yavana	Term used in Indian sources for the people of western Asia, Greeks and Romans.
Yoga	One of the six major schools of philosophy in ancient India.
Yuga	Any of the four ages of the life of the world.
Zabti System	was introduced by Akbar for land revenue administration. In Zabti system, land was measured and assessment of land revenue was based upon it.

Ashokan Empire
Sannidhata - treasurer

Samharata - collector of revenue, helped by Bhagadhuk

Amatya - civil servants/ admin personnel

Rajuka - punishing or rewarding people

Adhyaksha - 27 are mentioned in Arthashastra, heads of dept

Akshapataladhyaksha - accountant general/currency

Sitadhyaksha - agriculture

Akaradhyaksha - mining

Navadhyaksha - Ports

Panyadhyaksha - Commerce

Samshadyaksha - Markets

Sulkadhyaksha - customs and tolls

Pradeshika - overall incharge of a district

Rajuka - surveyor/ assessor of land

Yukta - subordinates, secretaries, accountants

Gopa - Accountant to a group of village

Sthanika - worked directly under Pradesika

Grambhojaka/Gramini/Gramika - head of village assisted by Gram Viddhas

Pramukha - president of a guild/sreni

Jetthaka - was elected member of guild or alderman

Gupta
Uparika - Provincial governor
Kumaramatya/Ayukta

body to top ranking officials attached to the king and the crown prince
Gopasramin - accountant
Sandhivigrahika - min of war and peace
Mahabaladikrta - General of army
Mahadandanayaka - Min of Justice
Mahapratihara - Palace guard head
Pustapala/Karnika - record keeper
Gramika - manager of village affairs
Mahattama, Mahattaka, Mahattara - village heads

Agrahikas - looked after lands given in charity during Harsha
Samantas, Uparakshita - feudal chief
Amatya - highest official in Satvahana province
Gaulmika - Head of military regiment
Velaikkarars - bodyguards of kings

Alunganattar - was executive committee of the Ur
Variams - male members of this society
Kudumbus - wards within a village

Bali - voluntary gift to King during Mauryas
Bhaga - Kings share to produce was 1/6th
Bhoga - tax in kind, gifts, woods etc
Hiranya - tax in Gold
Halivakara - tax on a plough
Kara - irregular tax ex on fruit trees etc
Shulka - custom or toll tax
Udinaga - social security tax
Klipta - tax on sale and purchase of land
Udranga - tax on permanent land tenant
Uparikara - tax on temporary tenant
Nishka, Satmana, Krishnala - medium of exchange during vedic period
Pana - puch marked silver coin Maurya
Rupaka - silver Gupta coin
Kalanju - currency in Chola Kingdom

Nata -
Jivitas - land donation
Aathithya - land given to state officers as charity
Aayudhiyas - land given to villages who supplied troops
Sarthavaha - head of guild
Vessa - Shreni