CAPF-AC (Assistant Commandant) Exam Study Material : History - Society, Culture & Religion (1200 – 1526)
CAPF-AC (Assistant Commandant) Exam Study Material : History - Society, Culture & Religion (1200 – 1526)
History : Society, Culture & Religion (1200 – 1526)
Society
During the second millennium, social environments were being slowly but steadily
transformed, offering new kinds of social experience and new surroundings for
the socialization of each generation.
Farming communities extended their control over land and labour and people
slowly obtained new social identities. Dominant agrarian castes came into
existence in different regions; Jats, Rajputs, Kunbis, Vellalas, Velamas, Reddys,
Kapus, Nayars, and many others.
Popular bhakti movements made sovereign gods ever more vital in everyday social life, even for the poorest people who did all the hardest manual labour but who were prohibited from ever setting foot in the temple and whose exclusion marked them as the people of the lowest social rank.
Among the various signs of change in society in the period, one was the application of the blanket varna category -sudra to disparate social groups, and the gradual withering away of any sharp distinction between the vaishyas and the sudras.
New entrants into caste society had, however, varied status and even the same tribe could break up into several varnas and castes. The Abhiras, for example, came to be grouped into brahmins, kshatriyas, vaishyas, mahasudras and so on.
केन्द्रीय सशस्त्र पुलिस बल (सहायक कमांडेंट) के लिये स्टडी किट
Study Kit for Central Armed Police Forces(AC)
Position of Women
Purdah System
With the advent of Islam, new forces appeared on the Indian horizon. Strict veiling of women was the common practice among the Muslims in their native land. Naturally in a foreign country like India, greater stress was laid upon it. The Hindus adopted purdah as a protective measure. The tendency to imitate the ruling class was another factor which operated in favour of introducing purdah among the Hindu families.
Monogamy
Monogamy seems to have been the rule among the lower stratum of society in both communities during the medieval period. In spite of the decision of the ulema in the Ibadat Khana in Akbar’s times that a man might marry any number of wives by mutah, but only four by nikah, Akbar had issued definite orders that a man of ordinary means should not possess more than one wife unless the first proved to be barren. Polygamy was the privilege of the rich.