Enhance the sentence given below by adding details Tribal chiefs gave grants to Brahmanas.
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:There were several developments in different parts of the
subcontinent during the long span of 1,500 years following
the end of the Harappan civilisation. This was also the
period during which the Rigveda was composed by people
living along the Indus and its tributaries. Agricultural
settlements emerged in many parts of the
subcontinent, including north India, the
Deccan Plateau, and parts of Karnataka.
Besides, there is evidence of pastoral
populations in the Deccan and further
south. New modes of disposal of the dead,
including the making of elaborate stone
structures known as megaliths, emerged in
central and south India from the first
millennium BCE. In many cases, the dead
were buried with a rich range of iron tools
and weapons.
From c. sixth century BCE, there is
evidence that there were other trends as well. Perhaps
the most visible was the emergence of early states, empires
and kingdoms. Underlying these political processes were
other changes, evident in the ways in which agricultural
production was organised. Simultaneously, new towns
appeared almost throughout the subcontinent.
Historians attempt to understand these developments
by drawing on a range of sources – inscriptions, texts,
coins and visual material. As we will see, this is a complex
process. You will also notice that these sources do not
tell the entire story.
Kings, Farmers and Towns
Early States and Economies
(c. 600 BCE-600 CE)
Epigraphy is the study of
inscriptions.
1. Prinsep and Piyadassi
Some of the most momentous developments in Indian
epigraphy took place in the 1830s. This was when
James Prinsep, an officer in the mint of the East
India Company, deciphered Brahmi and Kharosthi,
two scripts used in the earliest inscriptions and
coins. He found that most of these mentioned a king
referred to as Piyadassi – meaning “pleasant to
behold”; there were a few inscriptions which also
THEME
TWO
Fig. 2.1
An inscription, Sanchi
(Madhya Pradesh),
c. second century BCE
2021–22
29
referred to the king as Asoka, one of the most famous
rulers known from Buddhist texts.
This gave a new direction to investigations into
early Indian political history as European and
Indian scholars used inscriptions and texts
composed in a variety of languages to
powerful mahajanapada. Modern historians explain
this development in a va