NCERT Solutions Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society Up to 1000 Ce

F R E E S T U D Y M AT E R I A L F O R E V E R Y S T U D E N T

CLASS 9 · SOCIAL SCIENCE

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 5: State and Society up
to 1000 CE

NCERT Textbook — Understanding Society: India And Beyond

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

95 – 135 15 46 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 64 pages

Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 9 · SOCIAL SCIENCE · UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY: INDIA AND BEYOND

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 5: State and Society up to
1000 CE
Complete NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE from
Understanding Society: India and Beyond, Grade 9 Part 1. Every question the chapter prints is answered — The
Big Questions, all three LET'S EXPLORE boxes, the LET'S ANALYSE box, both question-bearing LET'S RECALL
boxes, all five THINK ABOUT IT boxes, the in-text questions on page 97, the Before we move on… recap and
all fourteen Questions and activities — with every date, term and map value read off the chapter's own
timeline (Fig. 5.1), maps (Figs. 5.3, 5.4, 5.6, 5.10, 5.12) and charts, and with the evidence — inscription, coin,
text or excavation — set out beside each claim.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Understanding Society: India and Beyond (Class 95 – 135
9)

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

15 46

MEDIUM

English

The Big Questions — Page 95
Chapter opening

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Q1 How did society and state organise themselves prior to 1000 CE?

They organised themselves in layers, and the layers grew larger and more formal over time —
from kinship to territory, and from custom to law.
Society organised itself first. The chapter defines society as a system of social relationships
among people who share a common territory, culture and a sense of belonging, made up of
units such as families and institutions such as marriage. Its key feature is that it is regulated
primarily by customs and practices rather than formal laws. In early India that meant a
nested set of units:

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

kula (family) — the smallest unit

grāma (village) — several families

viśha — a group of grāmas, headed by a viśhapati
jana — above the viśha, with the rājā as chief protector of the people

Cutting across these were gotra (a patrilineal lineage traced to a Vedic ṛiṣhi, which regulated
marriage), the four varṇas, the growing number of jātis, the four āśhramas (brahmacharya,
gṛihastha, vānaprastha, saṁnyāsa) and the four puruṣhārthas (dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣha).
The State organised itself as societies grew larger and more complex. A State, in the chapter's
definition, is an organised political system based on rules and laws, with defined rights and
duties of rulers and subjects, mechanisms of governance and institutions for enforcing law and
order. Its development can be tracked in three stages:

Kin-based polity — the rājā as clan chief who led in warfare and protected members,
advised and checked by the assemblies sabhā, samiti and vidhata.
Territorial polity — janapadas between about 1000 and 600 BCE, then the sixteen
mahājanapadas from about 600 BCE to 300 CE, in two forms: monarchies (rājyas) and
republics (gaṇas or saṁghas).
Empire — Magadha grew into the Mauryan empire; later the Satavāhanas, Guptas, Pallavas,
Chālukyas, Gurjara-Pratihāras, Pālas, Rāṣhṭrakūṭas and imperial Cholas. Here the king ruled
through a mantri-pariṣhad and a graded machinery of provinces, districts, groups of
villages and villages.

Why it happened: the chapter ties the change to material life. Control over land,
agricultural production and trade routes became more important, and that
required more complex administration. Archaeology backs this up — the first
millennium BCE Ganga region shows iron implements, a wider variety of grain and
PGW pottery, and later the glossy NBPW 'deluxe ware'.

The one thing that did not change: at every stage the village stayed the smallest
administrative unit and was largely self-reliant and autonomous in practical
matters — infrastructure, social welfare and education.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 How did states and societies emerge and spread to different parts of the Indian
subcontinent?

They spread by moving down the river valleys — from the northwest to the Ganga plains, and
then across the Deccan and the far south — and the chapter dates each move with
archaeological and literary evidence.

1. Northwest first. The earliest sections of the Ṛigveda were composed in Sapta-Sindhu — the
Indus, its five tributaries and the Sarasvatī. This is the same region in which the Sindhu–
Sarasvatī civilisation had flourished.
2. Then the Ganga plains. While early Vedic culture was most prominent in the Indus and
Sarasvatī valleys, the later Vedic period saw the Ganga plains become the main centre.
Fig. 5.3 shows the archaeological trace: iron finds and megalithic sites spread right across
the subcontinent in the first millennium BCE, with a dense cluster in the Ganga region. By
about 600 BCE the region had substantial growth in agriculture, larger political units and
more complex social institutions.
3. Sixteen mahājanapadas. Fig. 5.4 shows their spread — from Kamboja and Gandhāra in
the northwest, through Kuru, Pañchāla, Śhūrasena, Matsya in the upper Ganga–Yamuna
region, to Kosala, Kāśhī, Vatsa, Malla, Vṛijji, Magadha, Anga in the middle and lower
Ganga, and southwards to Chedi, Avanti and Aśhmaka in the Deccan.
4. The Deccan and the far south. In the Deccan the Mauryan empire was succeeded by the
Satavāhana empire, which lasted nearly 500 years (2nd century BCE to 3rd century CE).
Further south were the Cholas (lower Kaveri valley), Pandyas (Tamraparni and Vaigai
valleys), Keralaputras (the Cheras, in Kerala) and Satiyaputras (northern Tamil Nadu).
5. Regional empires, 3rd–10th centuries CE. Fig. 5.6 maps them together: Śhāhī, Puṣhyabhūti,
Maukharī, Gupta, Gurjara-Pratihāra, Maitraka, Pāla, Sena, Rāṣhṭrakūṭas, Badami Chālukya,
Eastern Chālukya, Pallava, Chola, Chera and Pandya.

How we know the southern polities existed so early: two independent kinds of
source agree. The Cholas, Pandyas, Keralaputras and Satiyaputras are named in
Aśhokan inscriptions, and they are described from the inside in Sangam literature
(300 BCE–300 CE), the earliest Tamil literary tradition.

Page 3 of 64

as e
a g l
Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
How did the ideas of dharma and chakravarti samrāṭ help create unity in social
e
Q3

m
coentity?
values and governance, and promote the idea of the Indian subcontinent as one
g l as
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political

a s
a gl

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Dharma gave the whole subcontinent a shared standard for judging rulers and subjects;
. co ag
m
chakravarti samrāṭ gave rulers everywhere the same map to aspire to. Together they made a

l a se
single moral and geographical horizon that outlasted every individual dynasty.
ag here does not mean religion. It means duty,
1. Dharma unified social values. Dharma
obligation, righteousness and moral conduct — a way of life in which each person performs the

. c om
duties appropriate to their role. Because it was a standard of conduct rather than of birth or
region, it applied equally in Magadha and in Tamilakam. The chapter showseitm
m a s working at both

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ends of the coperiod: a gl
a s em edicts promoted dhamma — moral conduct, respect within the family, ethical
agl behaviour in everyday life, non-violence and compassion.
Aśhoka's

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Nearly 1,200 years later, the 10th-century Uttaramerur inscription requires candidates for
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village assembly elections to have “honest earnings” and be “pure” of mind.
m agl
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The same idea is carried by samatva, the principle of sameness, and by the ideal — repeated in
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the epics — of the good person and ruler as “one who works for the welfare of all beings.”

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2. Chakravarti samrāṭ unified the political imagination. Early Indian monarchs did not think

. co
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only of their own borders. Their geopolitical awareness was expressed through terms such as

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Jambudvīpa, Bhāratavarṣha, aśhvamedha and rājasūya yajña, prithivi and chakravarti
. a g
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kśhetra. The Arthaśhāstra makes the geography explicit:

l a se
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prithivi = “the area lying between the Himavat (Himalayas) and the sea”

a se
. com g l
prithivi = chakravarti kśhetra = “domain of a universal paramount ruler”
m a
ase
agl
And rulers acted on it, in every century and from every direction:

com
Aśhoka (3rd century BCE) says his “energetic exertions” (pakama; Sanskrit parākrama)
brought significant changes in the spiritual life in Jambudvīpa.
.
m a s em as winning the rank
gl — a southern king measuring
Nedunjeral Adan, a Chera king of the early Sangam period, is described

. cofo adhirāja and extending his conquests up to the Himalayas
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himself against the northern limit.
a g
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Rajendra I, the Chola ruler, took the title Gangaikonda in the 11th century CE to

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commemorate his conquest of regions along the Ganga.
m a s e
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co m
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m ase
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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why this matters: the ideal was not always achieved — no ruler in this period held
the whole subcontinent. But the aspiration was shared, and it was shared by kings a
thousand years and two thousand kilometres apart. That is what made the
subcontinent a single political idea long before it was a single political unit.

Q4 How did different social, administrative, and occupational groups take shape over
time and come together culturally?

They took shape mainly around what people did — occupation — and they were held together
by shared institutions: assemblies, guilds, temples, texts and a common ethical vocabulary.
Social groups. The four varṇas appear first in the Puruṣhasūkta, a hymn in Book 10 of the
Ṛigveda, and came to be linked with specific roles. But the chapter is careful: early Vedic texts do
not indicate any fixed social status strictly based on birth. Social identity was shaped by
ethnicity, subgroup, region, village affiliation, gotra, language and — especially — occupation.
Later, jātis formed through intermarriage among varṇas, migrating communities becoming
endogamous, and territorial differences. Varṇas stayed four; jātis multiplied without limit.
Administrative groups. A whole professional class grew up: amātyas and later kumārāmātyas,
the sāndhivigrahika (minister of peace and war, new in the Gupta period), pradeśhikas (district
governors), city governors, and grāmikas (village headmen). Village assemblies elected
variyams for irrigation, gardens, temples, justice and taxes.
Occupational groups. Traders, artisans and merchants organised into guilds (śhreṇīs); the
Jātaka literature refers to eighteen types. In the south, the Tolkappiyam names Arasar (kings),
Vanigar (traders), Velar (farmers) and Antanar (brāhmaṇas), and the Pattinappalai describes
merchants, salt-makers, fishermen, artisans, agriculturists and warriors interacting actively.
How they came together culturally. The evidence is in the inscriptions, and it is evidence of
groups crossing their supposed boundaries:

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

SOURCE DATE WHAT IT SHOWS

Mandsaur Stone 473 CE A guild of silk weavers migrated from Lata (Gujarat) to
Inscription Dashapura (Madhya Pradesh) and was proficient not only in
weaving but in archery, astrology and other occupations

Karitalai copper plates late 5th Records brāhmaṇas as land managers — a role outside the
of Mahārāja Jayanātha century CE textbook varṇa description

Nāśhik cave 2nd A ruler's family deposits money with weavers' guilds, whose
inscription of century CE interest maintains Buddhist monks of any sect and any origin
Uṣhavadāta

Sanchi Great Stupa, — The guild of ivory workers of Vidiśhā carved the stone sculptures
southern gateway — craftspeople of one material working in another, for a religious
monument

Did you know? Rulers themselves came from many different backgrounds — the
chapter lists the Nandas, Mauryas, Śhuṅgas, Satavāhanas, Vākāṭakas, Guptas and
Puṣhyabhūtis. Social mobility reached the throne itself.

LET'S EXPLORE — Pages 96–97
Fig. 5.1, Broad timeline of early India, and the running timeline at the foot of each page

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 As you read the chapter, follow the timeline at the bottom of each page. Notice the
important events, changes, and connections across time. Think about which event
interests you the most and why. By the end of the chapter, share one event you
would like to explore further and document: 1. What happened?

Method. The running timeline at the foot of each page has two bands — Political
Developments above and Cultural and Religious Developments below. Pick one entry, note
which band it sits in, and then answer the three questions in order. A good answer names the
event exactly as the book prints it, with its dates.
Here are the events the chapter's own timeline offers, so you can choose from the book rather
than from memory:

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS
DEVELOPMENTS

321 BCE — Foundation of Mauryan Empire by Chandragupta 2000–500 BCE — Vedic period
Maurya

272–232 BCE — Aśhoka's reign 1500–300 BCE — Upaniṣhads

185 BCE — Foundation of Śhunga empire by Puṣhyamitra 600–300 BCE — Life of Gautama Buddha and
Śhunga Mahāvīra

1st century BCE — Khāravela's reign 272–232 BCE — Philosophy of Dhamma

30–375 CE — Kuṣhāṇas 300 BCE–300 CE — Sangam literature composed

106–130 CE — Gautamīputra Śhātakarṇi's reign 1st century BCE — Udaygiri and Khandagiri
caves, patronage of art

250–510 CE — Vākāṭakas 78 CE — Saka Era begins

275 CE — Pallava dynasty established 300–400 CE — Faxian's visit; Kālidāsa

320–550 CE — Guptas 427 CE — Nalanda university established

350–1140 CE — Kāmarūpa 480 CE — Vallabhī university established

475–776 CE — Maitrakas 500 CE — Āryabhaṭa

510–606 CE — Maukharīs 550 CE — Rāvaṇaphāḍī cave temple

543 CE — Foundation of Chālukyan dynasty by Pulakeśhin I 629–645 CE — Xuanzang's visit

606 CE — Harṣhavardhana annexes Kannauj 630–668 CE — Mahabalipuram rock-cut temples

630–668 CE — Narasimhavarman I's reign 724–760 CE — Martanda Sun Temple, Anantnag,
Kashmir

712 CE — Arab conquest of Sindh 756–773 CE — Kailasa Temple, Ellora

724–760 CE — Lalitāditya Muktapīḍa's reign 783–820 CE — Vikramśhila university

730–1036 CE — Gurjara-Pratihāras; 750–1161 CE — Pālas; 985–1014 CE — Brihadeeshwara Temple,
753–982 CE — Rāṣhṭrakūṭas Thanjavur

985–1014 CE — Rājarāja I's reign

Sample answer: The event I chose is 427 CE — Nalanda university established. What
happened? A great centre of higher learning was founded at Nalanda in the middle Ganga
region. Fig. 5.10 marks it as one of the prominent universities and advanced centres of learning

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

of early India, alongside Takṣhaśhilā, Vallabhī, Vikramśhilā, Odantapurī, Jagaddalā, Sompura,
Mithilā, Vārāṇasī, Ujjayinī, Ahichchhatra, Śhāradā Pīṭha, Puṣhpagiri, Nāgārjunakoṇḍā, Saloṭgī,
Kānchīpuram, Ennayiram, Thrissur and Anurādhāpura. Students came from India and from
other regions, and the subjects taught in this tradition ranged from the Vedas, grammar, logic
and philosophy to mathematics, medicine and astronomy.

Q2 2. When did it happen?

Method. Give the date exactly as the timeline prints it, and then place it inside the chapter's
larger periods so the date means something. Fig. 5.1 gives you those larger periods:

2000 BCE — Neolithic-Chalcolithic; kin-based polities of the Ṛigveda (Sapta-Sindhu

region)

1000 BCE — Megalithic (Iron); PGW

800 BCE — PGW (Iron), Iron-NBPW; janapadas and mahājanapadas begin

300 BCE — emergence of empires (roughly pan-Indian in dimension); early polities of
southern India

300 CE · 500 CE

700 CE — regional empires; imperial polities of southern India

1000 CE — end of the chapter's span

Sample answer: Nalanda university was established in 427 CE. That places it inside the Gupta
period (320–550 CE) on the political band, and in the same stretch of the cultural band as
Faxian's visit and Kālidāsa (300–400 CE) and Āryabhaṭa (500 CE). On Fig. 5.1 it falls between the
300 CE and 500 CE markers — well after the age of the pan-Indian empires began, and before
the regional empires of 700 CE onwards. Vallabhī followed in 480 CE and Vikramśhila much later,
in 783–820 CE.

Q3 3. Why do you think it matters?

Method. An event 'matters' historically for one of three reasons: it started something, it
changed something, or it survived and shaped later times. Say which of the three your event is,
and give the chapter's own evidence.

Page 8 of 64

as e
a g l
Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Sample answer: The establishment of Nalanda in 427 CE matters because it shows that
co m
se
knowledge in early India was institutional, not merely personal. Education had begun in the
m.
o m l a
gthis had grown into
.c Vallabhī (480 CE) and Vikramśhila (783–820 CE) show that
gurukula — a single teacher's home, with the student living as a member of the teacher's

m a
se
family. Nalanda,

g
large,l a
permanent campuses attracting students from India and other regions. Fig. 5.11 shows
a
what such a campus looked like at Takṣhaśhilā: a large site with well-organised urban systems,

m
including various types of housing, drainage and waste management.

. co ag
m
It also matters because of what it tells us about continuity. The chapter's closing point is that

l a se
despite the rise and fall of kingdoms, many knowledge traditions and practices persisted.
ag but outlived them; Vikramśhila was founded under the
Nalanda was founded under the Guptas
Pālas three and a half centuries later. Political power changed hands repeatedly in those years

co m
m.
— Guptas, Maitrakas, Maukharīs, Harṣhavardhana, Gurjara-Pratihāras, Pālas — but the tradition
of learning did not stop.
m as e
.co a g l
a s em it yourself: to see how strong that continuity was, follow one line on the
Check

agl running timeline. Kāmarūpa (350–1140 CE) appears at the foot of page after page
— nearly 800 years, spanning the Guptas, Harṣhavardhana, the tripartite struggle
m a s
.co agl
and the imperial Cholas.

se m
g l a
a
In-text Questions — Page 97
co m
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e
Understanding Early Indian State and Society

m l as
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m Before examining these systems, however, let us first explore a fundamental a g
s e
la
Q1

ag question—what is society?

se m
com g l a
.

m a
ase
A society is a system of social relationships among individuals who share a common territory,

a gl
culture, and a shared sense of belonging.
The chapter breaks that definition into three parts:

co m
Structural units — families or households.
m .
m
Institutions — marriage, for example.
o l a se
agsocial life.
.cCustoms — which provide the framework for individual and
emThe single most important feature, the chapter says, is that society is primarily regulated by
a s
agl customs and practices rather than formal laws.
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s e m
m a
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co m
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m ase
.co


a g l Page 9 of 64

Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the definition begins with sharing: whenever large groups of people live
together, certain rules and shared norms evolve over time to maintain order and
harmony. Those rules bind different social groups into a unified whole — a 'system'
that helps organise and govern people effectively. Society is not just a crowd in one
place; it is a crowd held together by things its members hold in common.

Q2 And what is a State?

A State is an organised political system based on rules and laws.
The chapter lists what it includes:

well-defined rights and duties of rulers and subjects;
mechanisms of governance;
institutions for enforcing law and order.

From a historical point of view, such political systems developed gradually as societies became
larger and more complex. That is why historians study early sources — to understand how
forms of governance and political authority evolved over time.

SOCIETY STATE

Held together Shared territory, culture and a Rules and laws
by sense of belonging

Regulated Customs and practices Formal law, with institutions to enforce it
mainly by

Built from Families, institutions such as Defined rights and duties, governance
marriage, customs mechanisms, enforcement institutions

Appears Wherever large groups live Gradually, as societies become larger and more
together complex

Tip: keep the pair straight with one line — society is what people share; the State is
what people are governed by. The chapter's whole argument is that in early India the
second grew out of the first.

LET'S RECALL — Page 100

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Political Institutions in the Vedic Period

LET'S RECALL

Q1 In previous grades, you have read that the name ‘Bharata’ first appears in the
Ṛigveda. It is used in reference to the ‘Bharata jana’, or the people who were ruled
by the family of the Bharatas. What does this tell us about how early communities
identified themselves and their rulers?

It tells us that early communities identified themselves by people, not by place — and that a
ruler was named as the head of a family within that people, not as the owner of a territory.
Notice the exact form of the phrase: it is ‘Bharata jana’ — the Bharata people. A jana is a clan, a
group bound by kinship ties. The Ṛigveda alone mentions about thirty janas, five of which —
the Yadu, Turvaśha, Puru, Anu and Druhyu — were collectively called the pañchajana, the 'five
peoples'. Not one of these names is a place name.
Three things follow:

Identity was kin-based. You belonged because of who your people were, not because of
where you lived.
The ruler belonged to the people, not the people to the ruler. The rājā of this period
functioned primarily as a clan chief who led the group in warfare and ensured the
protection of its members. He is described through the jana, not the jana through him.
Authority was shared. The Ṛigveda and Atharvaveda refer to three assemblies — sabhā,
samiti and vidhata — each of which played a significant role in early Vedic polity.

Why this is worth noticing: because it marks what changed later. When the political
organisation evolved into janapadas — literally 'where a people (jana) first set its
feet' — identity shifted from kinship to territory. The very word records the change:
the jana is still in it, but now it has a pada, a footing on land. That transition
happened between about 1000 BCE and 600 BCE.

Did you know? The word travelled further still. The pan-Indian geographical term
Bhāratavarṣha is one of the expressions the chapter lists for the geopolitical
awareness of early Indian monarchs, alongside Jambudvīpa and chakravarti kśhetra.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 101

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Assemblies during Vedic Period

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 In modern democracies, heads of government exercise power but are bound by
constitutions and parliaments, which function as representative bodies that check
the powers of elected leaders. Do the roles of the rājā and the assemblies in Vedic
times suggest a similar principle?

Yes — the principle is similar, but the mechanism is not. The similarity is real and worth
taking seriously; the difference is just as important, and a good answer states both.
What is genuinely similar. The rājā did not stand alone. The Ṛigveda and Atharvaveda name
three assemblies, and each had a distinct role:

ASSEMBLY WHO WAS IN IT WHAT IT DID

Sabhā Composed of select elites; a smaller body Primarily a judicial function

Samiti A larger assembly; represented the Focused on policy decisions and
broader population political affairs

Vidhata A popular gathering attended by A forum for discussions on warfare and
members of the community (janas) other political matters

So the rājā's power was exercised alongside bodies that discussed policy, judged disputes and
included people beyond the chief's own family — which is the same underlying principle as a
legislature and a judiciary today: power that must be exercised in the presence of others.
The chapter adds a second piece of evidence that the rājā was not absolute — while kingship
was generally hereditary, there are references to kings being elected or even expelled.
What is different, and must be said. A modern parliament rests on a written constitution, on
elections by universal adult franchise, and on legally enforceable limits. The Vedic assemblies
rested on custom. The sabhā was made of select elites, not of elected representatives. Nothing
in the chapter says the assemblies could legally overrule the rājā.

The historian's caution: the chapter itself frames this as something to think about,
not a settled fact — and that is deliberate. Our evidence is a handful of references in
hymns composed for ritual use, not minutes of meetings. We can say the assemblies
existed and had roles; we cannot say exactly how binding their decisions were.
Claiming more than the source allows is the commonest mistake in answering this
question.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 Can we say that systems of governance in Indian history—since their early
institutionalised forms—were guided by the idea of ensuring people’s participation
in the political process?

Yes — the chapter's evidence for participation is unusually strong, because it runs from
one end of the period to the other. Lay the evidence out as a chain and the continuity is hard
to miss.

1. Vedic period. The vidhata was a popular gathering attended by members of the community
(janas), and the samiti represented the broader population. Women also attended social
gatherings including the sabhā.
2. Empire. The king governed through a mantri-pariṣhad, and an Aśhokan inscription
records the council taking decisions during the emperor's absence — independently, in the
public interest.
3. District level. District officers often made decisions after consulting important residents
— bankers, caravan leaders, artisans and scribes. The Damodarpur copper plates of
Kumaragupta I show this in a fixed form: the district office had five members — the head
district officer, the chief banker, the chief caravan trader, the chief artisan and the chief of
revenue collection. Three of those five are representatives of trades, not royal officials.
4. Village level. Village assemblies were responsible for revenue collection, land management,
irrigation, road construction and record maintenance, and functioned as independent, self-
reliant institutions not dependent on the government for patronage. Their committees
(variyams) handled irrigation, gardens, temples, justice and taxes.
5. An actual election. The Uttaramerur inscription of Parantaka I (10th century CE) describes
the Kudavolai or 'ballot pot' system: names of eligible candidates written on palm leaves,
placed in a large pot, and drawn one by one by a young child at a public gathering — the
draw held in full view of the community, often at a temple, to ensure fairness.

Why the Uttaramerur evidence is so valuable: it is an inscription, not a treatise.
Texts on statecraft tell us what scholars thought a ruler should do; an inscription cut
into temple stone records what a community actually did, and did publicly enough to
want it recorded. It even sets a qualification for candidates — “honest earnings” and
a mind that is “pure”.

Be precise, though: participation in these systems was not the same as modern
democracy. The Kudavolai chose members from among eligible candidates, and the
sabhā was composed of select elites. The fair claim the evidence supports is that
consultation and local self-government were long-standing features of Indian
governance — not that early India had universal adult franchise.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
LET'S ANALYSE — Pages 102–103
m as e
.co
Fig. 5.3, First millennium BCE (iron finds)
a g l
se m
l a
LET'S ANALYSE

ag
If you visualise the maps of the Indian subcontinent of the second and first

com
Q1

. ag
millennium BCE, you will find more settlements concentrated in the Ganga region
m from this region during the first
in the latter map. Archaeologicalefindings
s
a
gl evidence of the use of iron implements, a wider
a
millennium BCE provide increasing
variety of grain, and the characteristic PGW pottery. Further, in the second half of
the first millennium BCE, particularly in the middle Ganga region (from present-day
co m
se
Prayagraj to eastern Bihar), there is evidence of a refined ‘deluxe ware’ called
m.
o m g l a
.c the emergence of a richer, more advanced materialaculture.
NBPW, known for its smooth, glossy black surface. Archaeologically, this phase

e m
marks Literary sources
s from this period also contain numerous references to expanding agricultural
a
agl activities, increased grain output, greater crop variety—particularly paddy—and
the use of iron implements. Can you identify the crucial factors behind this change?
m a s
m .co agl
l a se
a g
The crucial factor is iron — and what iron did to agriculture in the particular soil and climate of
the Ganga plains. Everything else in the box follows from that.

co m
Read the box as a chain of cause and effect:
m .
m as e
. c o a g l
s e m implements → forests cleared, heavier soil worked
iron
a
agl → expanding agricultural activities, especially paddy in the wet Ganga plains

se m
com a
→ increased grain output and a wider variety of grain
. a g l
m
ase
→ a surplus — more food than the farming families themselves consume

agl
→ people who need not farm: potters, traders, officials, soldiers, priests

m
→ PGW, and then the fine glossy NBPW 'deluxe ware' — pottery made for people who

. co
can pay for luxury
em
m l as
m .co
→ larger, denser settlements in the Ganga region
a g
l a se
g
→ larger political units — janapadas, then the sixteen mahājanapadas
a c
m .
s e
om gla
The factors, named:
. c a
a s emthe finds and separates two kinds of site — early finds of
Iron technology. Fig. 5.3 maps
l Jakhera, Dadupur, Lahuradeva, Malhar, Raja-Nal-Ka-Tila, Ahar,
iron (Gandhara Caves,gPirak,
a
Nagda, Naikund, Watgal, Hire Benakal, Hallur, Mangadu) and megalithic sites (Burzahom,

co m
m .
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.co


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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Deodhoora, Nartiang, Nangbah, Birbir, Chaibasa, Mahurjhari, Maski, Kadambapur,
Nagarjunakonda, Brahmagiri, Marayur, Pudukkottai, Adichanallur). Iron is not a Ganga
monopoly — it is found from Kashmir to Tamil Nadu — but it is in the Ganga plains that it
combines with the next factor.
The fertility and water of the Ganga plains. The wide, well-watered alluvial plain suited
paddy, which the box singles out, and paddy gives a high yield per unit of land.
A food surplus, and the specialisation it allows. NBPW is the archaeological signature of
this: a 'deluxe ware' exists only where some people can afford things beyond necessity.
Larger, more settled communities. The chapter says the region saw substantial growth in
agriculture, the formation of larger political units, and more complex social institutions by
about 600 BCE.

Why the two kinds of evidence together are so convincing: archaeology and
literature are independent of each other. The excavated iron tools, grain remains and
pottery were buried and forgotten; the literary references were composed, recited
and copied. Neither could have been shaped to agree with the other — and yet both
describe the same thing: more iron, more grain, more kinds of grain. When two
independent sources point the same way, a historian can state the conclusion with
confidence.

Where the Magadha story starts: this is the material background to the next
section. Among the sixteen mahājanapadas, Magadha — in present-day Bihar, right
in the middle Ganga region the box describes — became the most powerful,
because of its strategic location, fertile plains and strong rulers. Its expansion
eventually led to the rise of the Mauryan Empire.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 108
Duties and Ideals of the King

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 Texts such as the Mahābhārata and the Arthaśhāstra describe the king’s duties as
protecting people and ensuring justice. Why do you think it was important for
rulers to protect people and ensure justice?

Because in an agrarian state, protection and justice were not favours the king granted — they
were the reason the state existed at all, and the condition of its own survival.
Four reasons, each supported by the chapter:

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

1. No safety, no agriculture; no agriculture, no revenue. The king was primarily responsible
for protecting his subjects from external threats and internal disorder. A cultivator will not
clear forest, sow and wait months for a harvest if the crop can be seized. The chapter says
facilitation of agriculture continued to be a major preoccupation of the state because it was
one of the major sources of revenue — the basic land tax being generally one-sixth of the
produce.
2. No safety on the roads, no trade. The state ensured the safety of trade routes and took
measures to prevent the adulteration of goods and to protect consumers from unfair
practices. Trade produced customs revenue and the goods the state itself needed.
3. Justice was the king's own duty, not an office he could delegate away. He was expected
to administer justice in cases such as abduction, robbery, theft and adultery. The Yajurveda's
coronation oath advises the king to judge the strong and the weak impartially and fairly
— which matters most for the weak, since the strong can protect themselves.
4. Legitimacy. The Śhānti Parva of the Mahābhārata gives rulers guidance on ethical conduct,
justice, and the responsibilities of a king towards his subjects. Where kingship is judged
against a standard, failing the standard has consequences: the chapter records that there
are references to kings being elected or even expelled.

Why the texts put the burden on the king personally: the Arthaśhāstra states,
“Only if a king is himself energetically active, do his officers follow him
energetically.” In a state with no telegraph, no printing and no audit office, the
standard of the whole administration was set by the example at the top. The king's
own conduct was an instrument of government.

Q2 What do these descriptions tell us about ideas of governance and the relationship
between rulers and subjects during that period?

They tell us that governance was understood as a relationship of duty, not of ownership. The
king was answerable to a standard outside himself, and the standard was dharma.
Three things the descriptions reveal:

Power came with obligations attached. Every source the chapter cites states duties, never
unlimited rights — the Yajurveda oath (judge impartially, protect the country from
calamities, do good to the people), the Śhānti Parva (ethical conduct, justice, responsibility
towards subjects), and the Arthaśhāstra (personal energy in office). Later texts continue it:
Kāmandaka's Nītisāra and Bāṇabhaṭṭa's Kādambarī — widely celebrated as one of the
world's first novels — contain reflections and advice on kingship and governance.
Authority was shared and layered. The Arthaśhāstra says “one wheel does not move the
carriage”. The king governed through a mantri-pariṣhad, and the state itself was conceived
as an organic whole of seven constituents (Saptāṁga), of which the king is only the first. The

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

state functions effectively only if all seven remain properly integrated.
Succession was not wholly fixed. Kingship was generally hereditary, but there are
references to kings being elected or even expelled — which, as the chapter says, suggests
that royal authority was not always absolute.

The ethical foundation: the chapter's later section makes it explicit — the idea of
justice is closely linked to dharma, which means duty, obligation, righteousness and
moral conduct. The epics present goodness as non-discriminatory and hold up the
ideal of a good person and ruler as “one who works for the welfare of all beings”.
A ruler who protected and judged fairly was not being generous; he was performing
his own dharma.

Handle these sources carefully. The Mahābhārata and the Arthaśhāstra describe
an ideal. They tell us what learned advisers thought a king ought to be, which is
genuine historical evidence about the values of the time — but not proof that every
king lived up to it. To find out what rulers actually did, historians turn to inscriptions
and archaeology. That limitation is the subject of Question 11 in the end-of-chapter
set.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 111
Fig. 5.5, Junagadh Rock Inscription, Gujarat

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 Why do you think different rulers chose to record their inscriptions on the same
stone instead of a new one? Discuss your answers with your classmates.

Because the rock itself had already become a place of authority. Adding your record to it
borrowed the weight of every record already there — and, at Junagadh, connected your name to
a public work the region depended on.
First, the facts of this particular rock. The Junagadh Rock Inscription near Girnar in Gujarat is
unique because it bears inscriptions of three rulers from three different periods:

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

RULER DYNASTY DATE WHAT THE INSCRIPTION RECORDS

Aśhoka Maurya 3rd century Major Rock Edicts in Prakrit, spreading the message of
BCE Dhamma and moral governance

Rudradaman Western c. 150 CE A long Sanskrit inscription describing his military
I Satrap achievements and the repair of the Sudarshana Lake

Skandagupta Gupta 5th century The restoration of the lake after severe damage
CE

One site therefore preserves the records of the Maurya, Western Satrap and Gupta dynasties,
spanning about 700 years.
Now the reasons:

Continuity and legitimacy. Writing beside Aśhoka's edict placed a later ruler in the same
line of authority. It says, in stone: I govern what he governed.
The place was already known. An inscription only works if people find it. A rock that had
drawn attention for centuries was the best-read noticeboard in the region.
The subject was tied to the spot. Two of the three records are about the same lake.
Sudarshana Lake was dammed by Puṣhyagupta, a governor appointed by Chandragupta
Maurya; Rudradaman repaired it; Skandagupta restored it after severe damage. Each ruler
was recording his own contribution to the very structure the earlier records concerned — so
the rock became the running register of that public work.
Durability. A single great rock that had already survived several centuries was proven to last.

Why historians are glad they did it: the site gives us three dynasties, two
languages and about seven centuries of administration, public works and political
history in one place — and it lets us compare directly. Aśhoka's Prakrit edicts are
about moral governance; Rudradaman's Sanskrit inscription is about military
achievement and public works. That contrast, visible on one rock face, tells us how
the language and the purpose of royal inscriptions changed between the 3rd
century BCE and the 2nd century CE.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 112

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How Were Empires Administered?
co m
e m.
m as
THINK ABOUT IT

.co a g l
a s emwould dividing a kingdom into provinces, districts, and villages have helped
gl
How
a
Q1
rulers manage their empires?

co m
m . ag
l a se
ag responsible for it — and by letting most decisions be
It let a ruler govern an area far larger than any one person could travel or supervise, by giving
every square kilometre a named officer
taken close to where the problem was.

co m
m.
The structure, in the chapter's own vocabulary. Between about 300 CE and 800 CE the

m as e
south: .co l
kingdom (rājya) was divided for administrative convenience, and the terms differ north and

a g
a s em
aglLEVEL NORTHERN TERM SOUTHERN TERM

m a s
.co agl
Kingdom rājya

a s em
gl
Province bhukti manḍala / manḍalam

Division
a viṣhaya or bhoga koṭṭam or valanāḍu

co m
District adhiṣhṭhāna or paṭṭana nāḍu
m .
m l a se
m .co
Group of villages (modern tahsīl) vithi
ag
paṭṭalā and kūṛram

a s eLowest
agl unit the village (Chola: Ur)

se m
com l a
How the division helped:
. a g
e m
as
Revenue could actually be collected. Tax had to be assessed field by field. Only a local
officer knows which land is lcultivated,
a g which is fallow, which is high and dry.
Justice and order reached the ground. District governors (pradeśhikas) were responsible

m
for judicial and administrative functions; cities had their own governors in charge of revenue

. co
m
collection and the maintenance of law and order.

o m l a se
Decisions were informed. District officers often made decisions after consulting
.cimportant residents — bankers, caravan leaders, artisansagand scribes. The Damodarpur
m copper plates of Kumaragupta I record a district office of five: the head district officer, the
l a se
ag
.c
chief banker, the chief caravan trader, the chief artisan and the chief of revenue collection.
The centre was freed for what only it could do. Defence, alliances and major public works
s e m
. com
stayed with the king and the mantri-pariṣhad; the routine was handled below.
a gla
a s em Village assemblies handled revenue collection, land
agl road construction and record maintenance, through committees
Villages could run themselves.
management, irrigation,
(variyams) — and were not dependent on the government for patronage.

com
m .
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.co


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Why decentralisation, and not more central control? Because information moved
at the speed of a horse. A message from a distant province to the capital and back
could take weeks. An empire that required the capital's approval for every decision
would simply stop working. The chapter therefore describes the period 300–800 CE
as characterised by the decentralisation of power — and the Pallavas and
Chālukyas as combining a centralised monarchy with decentralised local
governance.

Q2 What similarities can you identify between these administrative divisions and the
system of governance in India today?

The shape is remarkably similar — a graded pyramid from the centre down to the village, with
an elected village body at the bottom. What differs is the source of authority at each level.

EARLY INDIA INDIA TODAY WHAT MATCHES
(300–800 CE)

rājya — the kingdom The State (in the federal The largest unit, with the head of government
sense) / the country and a council

bhukti / manḍalam — Division or State A large sub-unit under a governor appointed
province from above

viṣhaya, bhoga / Division An intermediate tier for supervision
koṭṭam, valanāḍu

adhiṣhṭhāna, paṭṭana / District, under a District Closest match of all: judicial and
nāḍu — district Collector or Magistrate administrative functions in one office, exactly
like the pradeśhika

vithi / paṭṭalā, kūṛram Tahsīl or block — the chapter A cluster of villages administered together
— group of villages itself makes this comparison

village with its Gram panchayat with its An elected local body running irrigation,
assembly and standing committees roads, records and local disputes
variyams

Other continuities the chapter supports:

Ministers with portfolios. The Gupta administration had a mantri as head of civil
administration, a commander-in-chief, a general, a chief of the palace guards, and a new
sāndhivigrahika — a 'minister of peace and war'. A modern cabinet is organised the same
way, by subject.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Elections at the village level. The Kudavolai of the Uttaramerur inscription selected village
assembly members in public, at a temple, in full view of the community — with an eligibility
requirement of honest earnings and purity of mind.
Committees for specific work. Variyams for irrigation, gardens, temple management,
justice and tax collection are the ancestor of a panchayat's subject committees.

State the difference honestly. The similarity is one of structure, not of principle.
Today authority flows upward from citizens through elections under a written
Constitution, and every officer is bound by law. Then, supreme authority rested with
the king, provincial and district officers were appointed by him, and the binding
standard was dharma and custom rather than enforceable constitutional law.
Village self-government is the point where the two systems come genuinely close —
which is why the Uttaramerur inscription is so often quoted.

LET'S EXPLORE — Pages 118–119
Varṇa and Jāti — the verse Ṛigveda 9.112.3

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Read the verse given above and discuss it in groups. As you do so, think like
historians—look for clues in the source and use them to understand what life may
have been like. While discussing, keep these questions in mind: What does the
source tell us? (evidence)

The source, as the chapter prints it (Ṛigveda 9.112.3):

Kārurahaṁ tato bhiṣhagupalaprakṣhiṇī nanā ǀ

Nānādhiyo vasūyavo’nu gā iva tasthimendrāyendo pari srava ǀǀ

“I am a poet;

my father is a physician,

my mother is a grinder of corn;

having various occupation, desiring riches we remain (in the world) like cattle (in the

stalls).”

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What the source tells us — the evidence, stated plainly and without going beyond the
words:

The speaker is a poet (kāru). A composer of hymns is speaking in his own voice.
His father is a physician (bhiṣhaj) — a different occupation from the son's.
His mother is a grinder of corn (upalaprakṣhiṇī) — a third occupation, and a woman's work
named in a hymn.
All three live in one family, at the same time.
They are described as “desiring riches” — an ordinary, material motive, openly stated in a
sacred text.
The verse uses a simile — the family remains in the world “like cattle (in the stalls)”.

Tip for thinking like a historian: at the evidence stage, write down only what the
words actually say. Resist the urge to explain. The moment you say “this proves
occupations were free”, you have moved to interpretation — which is the next
question.

Q2 What can we understand from it? (interpretation)

We can understand that in the society this verse comes from, occupation was not automatically
inherited from the father, and that different kinds of work could sit together inside a single
household without embarrassment.
Three inferences the evidence supports:

1. Occupations were flexible and mobile. The chapter draws exactly this conclusion: at this
stage occupations remained flexible and mobile, and the idea of strict hereditary
occupations had not yet become firmly established. If sons had automatically followed
fathers, a poet with a physician father could not exist.
2. Women's work was visible and named. The mother's occupation is stated as plainly as the
father's. This fits the chapter's account of a period in which women participated in scholarly
learning, performed rituals, attended the sabhā, and had hymns of the Ṛigveda attributed to
them — Apālā, Viśhvavārā, Ghoṣhā and Lopāmudrā.
3. Ordinary material life was not thought unfit for a hymn. The family “desiring riches”
appears inside a Vedic hymn. Wealth (artha) was a legitimate goal — later formalised as one
of the four puruṣhārthas, desirable provided it is guided by dharma.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How this fits the chapter's larger argument: the four varṇas appear in the
Puruṣhasūkta, a hymn in Book 10 of the same Ṛigveda, and were associated with
specific roles. But the chapter insists the division was functional, based on a system
of values — knowledge highest, then political power, then wealth — and not on
birth. The Buddhist Sutta Nipāta states it outright: “No brāhmaņa is such by birth.
No outcaste is such by birth but only by his deeds. A brāhmaņa is such by his
deeds.” Over time, the chapter adds, this flexibility in social roles gradually got
reduced.

Q3 What might it not tell us? (limits of the source)

It is one verse about one family. Knowing its limits is as much a part of the historian's craft as
reading it.

It is a single case. Three occupations in one family show that such a family could exist. They
do not tell us whether it was common or unusual — a poet may have mentioned it precisely
because it was striking.
It gives no date and no place. The chapter notes that the date of composition of the
Ṛigveda remains debated among historians, with estimates ranging from the fifth
millennium BCE to the second millennium BCE. So we cannot pin this family to a century.
It says nothing about status, ranking or reward. We learn what the three people did, not
how they were regarded, what they earned or whether they could marry outside their group.
It is a hymn, not a record. Its purpose is ritual and poetic. The simile of cattle in stalls is an
image; we should not read it as a description of living conditions.
It reaches us through a long oral tradition. Vedic literature existed in oral form for several
centuries before it was written down.
It is silent about most people. It tells us nothing about farmers, herders, weavers or
traders — the great majority — nor about people outside this one household.

Try this: for any source, ask the historian's four questions — Who made it? For whom?
Why? What did they leave out? A hymn composed for recitation in a yajña answers a
very different set of purposes from a copper-plate land grant or a merchant's
donative inscription, and each will be silent about different things.

Page 23 of 64

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
1. What occupations are mentioned in the family described in the verse? What does
e
Q4

m l as
.co
this indicate about the nature of occupations in Vedic society?

a g
se m
g l a
a

Three occupations are mentioned, one for each member of the family:

. com OF WORK ag
em
PERSON OCCUPATION KIND

g l as
The speaker (the son) Poet
a Composing — the work of learning and words

om
His father Physician Healing — a skilled, specialised profession

. c
m
Grinder of corn
a s em
Household and food-processing work

gl
His mother

. co a
m indicates about the nature of occupations in Vedic society:
Whatethis
s
a
agl Occupations were diverse within a single family — the verse is quoted by the chapter
precisely as “a verse of the Ṛigveda in which the seer refers to occupational diversity
m a s
.co agl
within a single family”.

a s em
agl
They were flexible and mobile. A son could take up work quite different from his father's.
They were not yet strictly hereditary — the chapter says the idea of strict hereditary
occupations had not yet become firmly established.

c o m
.
Work of very different kinds — intellectual, professional and manual — could coexist in one
household without any suggestion in the verse that one disgraced them
s e others.

. com a gla
m the chapter chose this verse: it is evidence from inside the tradition. A critic of
eWhy
g l as the varṇa order describing occupational flexibility could be dismissed as hostile.
a
Here the flexibility is described, matter-of-factly and in the first person, in the
se m
com g l a
.
Ṛigveda itself.
m a
ase
agl
2. How does the above verse challenge the idea that social status and occupation
m
Q5
were fixed by birth?
. co
e m
com g l as
. a
sem

a
agl
It challenges that idea directly, because if occupation were fixed by birth, this family could not
exist. The son of a physician would be a physician. He is a poet.
.c
s e m
m a
co agl
The argument, step by step:

m .
as e
a g l

com
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

If occupation were determined by birth,

then a father's occupation would pass to his son.

Here, the father is a physician and the son is a poet.

Therefore, occupation was not determined by birth in the society this verse describes.

What strengthens the challenge:

The chapter states that early Vedic texts do not indicate any fixed social status strictly
based on birth. Social identity was shaped by several complex and overlapping factors —
ethnicity, subgroups, geographic region, village affiliation, gotra, language, and especially
occupation.
The varṇa division was a functional one, resting on a system of values in which knowledge
was given the highest status, followed by political power and wealth — a ranking of functions,
not of ancestries.
An independent source says the same thing in plain words. The Buddhist Sutta Nipāta: “No
brāhmaņa is such by birth. No outcaste is such by birth but only by his deeds. A
brāhmaņa is such by his deeds.”
Later evidence shows mobility continuing. Rulers came from diverse social backgrounds —
the Nandas, Mauryas, Śhuṅgas, Satavāhanas, Vākāṭakas, Guptas and Puṣhyabhūtis. The
Mandsaur Stone Inscription (473 CE) records a guild of silk weavers, migrants from Lata to
Dashapura, proficient also in archery and astrology. The Karitalai copper plates of
Mahārāja Jayanātha (late 5th century CE) record brāhmaṇas working as land managers.
In the south, the Tolkappiyam's four-fold classification seems to be premised on
occupation, and was marked by fluidity; the Pattinappalai describes a society organised
more by occupation and economic function than by rigid varṇa.

Be exact about what is being challenged. The verse does not show that varṇa did
not exist — the Puruṣhasūkta is in the same Ṛigveda. It shows that in this period
varṇa was not yet a birth-determined, hereditary lock on what a person could
do. The chapter's own conclusion is a change over time: “Over time, however, this
flexibility in social roles gradually got reduced.” The historian's finding is about a
process, not a permanent state.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q6 3. What different occupations do you find in contemporary society?

Method. The point of this question is comparison, not list-making. Group today's occupations
by the same kinds of work the verse names — words and learning, healing, food and manual
work — and then say what has changed. A good answer ends with the comparison, not with the
list.
Sample answer: Today the range of occupations is far wider than the three in the verse, but
many of them are recognisably descended from them.

KIND OF WORK IN THE VERSE IN MY TOWN TODAY

Words and learning Poet Teacher, journalist, writer, translator,
software developer, lawyer

Healing Physician Doctor, nurse, ASHA worker, lab technician,
pharmacist, physiotherapist

Food and manual work Grinder of corn Farmer, flour-mill operator, cook, baker,
food-processing worker, delivery rider

Trade and craft (in the Traders, artisans, weavers, Shopkeeper, tailor, electrician, carpenter,
chapter, but not the verse) salt-makers, fishermen mechanic, bank clerk, transporter

Governance Rājā, amātya, pradeśhika, Civil servant, police officer, panchayat
grāmika secretary, municipal engineer

Three comparisons worth making:

Occupations have multiplied. Many of today's jobs did not exist a generation ago. The
chapter's own explanation of jātis works here: as new social groups and occupations
developed, the number of jātis continued to grow — new work has always generated new
groups.
Choice is now protected by law. The Ṛigvedic family shows occupation was not fixed by
birth in practice. Today it is a legal right — my occupation is not decided by my parents'
occupation.
One family, many occupations, is still normal. In most households today the parents, the
children and the grandparents do quite different work — exactly the pattern the seer
described three thousand years or more ago.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q7 After the discussion, compare your group’s responses with those of another group
and note the similarities and differences in interpretation. Did all groups interpret
the source in the same way? What does this tell us about how historians use
evidence to understand the past?

Method. This is a reflection on method, so answer it about method. Report honestly what your
two groups agreed and disagreed about, then draw the general lesson. What a good answer
needs: (i) at least one real point of agreement, (ii) at least one real difference, (iii) an explanation
of why the difference arose, and (iv) the conclusion about how history is written.
Sample answer: Our group and the group beside us agreed on everything the verse actually
says — that a poet, a physician and a corn-grinder belonged to one family, and that they were
“desiring riches”. That is the evidence, and evidence is not a matter of opinion.
We differed on what it means. Our group argued that the verse proves occupations were freely
chosen in Vedic society. The other group said it proves only that this one family had three
occupations, and that a single verse cannot describe a whole society. On reflection we thought
their reading was the more careful one: our claim went further than one verse can carry. A third
difference was about the mother — we had barely mentioned her, while the other group made
her the most interesting figure in the verse, because a woman's work is named in a sacred
hymn.
What this tells us about how historians use evidence:

Evidence and interpretation are different steps. The words of a source are fixed; what
they mean has to be argued for. Groups agreed on the first and differed on the second.
Interpretations must be argued, not asserted. The stronger reading is the one that fits
the evidence without going beyond it — which is why the more cautious group was more
convincing.
What you ask determines what you see. The group that was looking for women in the past
found the mother; we, looking for occupations, almost missed her.
One source is rarely enough. This is why the chapter puts the Sutta Nipāta beside the
Ṛigveda, and the Mandsaur and Karitalai inscriptions beside both. Independent sources
pointing the same way turn a possible reading into a reliable conclusion.
Honest disagreement is normal in history. The chapter itself models this: the date of the
Ṛigveda remains debated among historians, with estimates ranging from the fifth to the
second millennium BCE, and the chapter reports the disagreement instead of hiding it.

LET'S EXPLORE — Page 126

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The Quest for Knowledge — the gurukula

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Compare your school life with the life of a student in a gurukula in early India.
Think about aspects such as daily routine, subjects studied, relationship with
teachers, discipline, and living arrangements. What advantages and challenges do
you think each system of education might have for students?

Method. Build the comparison on the five aspects the box names, and take the gurukula
column only from what the chapter says — not from films or stories. Then judge each system
separately for advantages and challenges. A good answer avoids declaring one system simply
'better'; it says what each is good at.
What the chapter says about the gurukula: education was an integral part of life and served
a holistic purpose. The inner values it cultivated were truth, patience, regularity, humility,
control of the senses, purity of self (sattvaśhuddhi), cognition of the underlying unity of life,
nature and environment, and reverence for all beings. Pupils were trained to live in accordance
with dharma. Subjects were the Vedas, grammar, logic, philosophy, ethics, mathematics,
science, medicine and astronomy, together with music, dance, painting, physical education and
martial arts such as archery, and alongside these, yoga, meditation and service to the guru. The
teacher–student relationship (guru-śhiṣhya paramparā) was regarded as sacred; the teacher
(guru or āchārya) was seen as a guide leading students from the darkness of ignorance to the
light of knowledge; the teacher's home was the centre of the gurukula, and the student was
treated as a member of the teacher's family. Students living in the gurukula followed a
disciplined life marked by self-control, obedience and devotion.

Page 28 of 64

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Did you know? The gurukula was not the only form. Fig. 5.10 maps prominent
universities and advanced centres of learning — Takṣhaśhilā, Śhāradā Pīṭha,
Ahichchhatra, Mithilā, Nālandā, Odantapurī, Vikramśhilā, Jagaddalā, Sompura,
Vārāṇasī, Ujjayinī, Vallabhī, Puṣhpagiri, Nāgārjunakoṇḍā, Saloṭgī, Kānchīpuram,
Ennayiram, Thrissur and Anurādhāpura — and Fig. 5.11 shows Takṣhaśhilā as a
large campus with well-organised urban systems including various types of housing,
drainage and waste management. That is much closer to a modern school or
university than to a single teacher's home.

LET'S RECALL — Page 129
Irrigation

LET'S RECALL

Q1 The Cholas were builders of irrigation systems that included canals, lakes, and
tanks with connecting channels. Do you remember reading in your previous grades
about the Grand Anicut (Kallanai) built by Karikala Chola?

Yes — the Grand Anicut, also called the Kallanai, built by Karikala Chola, and the chapter's
point about it is its extraordinary working life: it remains in use even today.
What the chapter says about it:

The Cholas built irrigation systems of canals, lakes and tanks with connecting channels —
a network, not a single structure.
Such structures helped store and distribute water, supported agriculture, and encouraged
the growth of settlements.
The Grand Anicut continued to be used and repaired by later rulers and administrations
over many centuries.

Why continuous repair is the historically important part: a dam is not built once.
It silts, it cracks, it is damaged by floods. That later rulers — of different dynasties,
over many centuries — kept repairing this one proves two things: that the
agriculture of the Kaveri delta depended on it, and that successive states accepted
maintaining public works as a duty of government, whatever the dynasty. The
chapter says exactly this: facilitation of agriculture continued to be a major
preoccupation of the state, because it was one of the major sources of revenue.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The same story, in the north, in stone. The Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman
I records that Puṣhyagupta, a governor appointed by Chandragupta Maurya, built
a dam on Sudarshana Lake near Girnar in Saurāṣhṭra (the Kathiawad region of
Gujarat) — and the same rock records Rudradaman's repair of it (c. 150 CE) and
Skandagupta's restoration of it after severe damage (5th century CE). Maurya,
Western Satrap and Gupta, over roughly 700 years, all maintaining one lake.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 129
Irrigation

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 Why do you think irrigational structures like dams and canals were considered so
important that their construction was recorded in inscriptions?

Because a dam was the most useful thing a ruler could give — it turned uncertain rainfall into a
dependable harvest — and because recording it in stone was how a ruler claimed the credit
permanently.
1. Irrigation was the foundation of the whole economy. The chapter states that agriculture
was closely dependent on irrigation, that considerable importance was placed on the
construction and maintenance of reservoirs, canals and dams, and that facilitation of agriculture
remained a major preoccupation of the state because it was one of the major sources of
revenue. With the basic land tax at generally one-sixth of the produce, more water meant more
produce, which meant more revenue. A dam paid for itself.
2. It affected everybody, and lasted. Irrigation structures helped store and distribute water,
supported agriculture and encouraged the growth of settlements. Unlike a battle, whose
result fades in a generation, a working tank feeds the same fields for centuries.
3. Recording it served the ruler. An inscription is a public, permanent statement. Rudradaman
I's long Sanskrit inscription on the Junagadh rock describes his military achievements and the
repair of the Sudarshana Lake side by side — welfare works were treated as being just as
much a proof of a great ruler as victories. That fits the chapter's account of kingship: the king's
first duty was protecting his subjects and doing good to the people.
4. Recording it also served the administration. A dated record of who built or repaired a
structure, and under whose orders, is an administrative document — evidence for later officials
of what exists, who is responsible, and when it was last repaired. This is why the Junagadh rock
ended up with three records of the same lake by three dynasties across about 700 years:
Puṣhyagupta's original dam under Chandragupta Maurya, Rudradaman I's repair (c. 150 CE) and
Skandagupta's restoration (5th century CE).

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why this is lucky for historians: these inscriptions are our best evidence for the
active role of the state in developing irrigation infrastructure. They give a name,
an office, a structure and a period — Puṣhyagupta, governor, appointed by
Chandragupta Maurya, dam, Sudarshana Lake. That is far harder information to
obtain from a literary text, which usually praises rulers in general terms without
naming an engineer or a lake.

Check it yourself: compare the two examples the chapter gives — Sudarshana Lake
in Gujarat and the Grand Anicut on the Kaveri. Different dynasties, opposite ends of
the subcontinent, roughly a thousand kilometres apart, and the same principle:
build the water work, then keep repairing it, whichever dynasty is in power.

Before we move on… — Page 133
The chapter's recap points, set out with the evidence behind each

BEFORE WE MOVE ON …

Q1 Indian civilisation demonstrates a remarkable continuity in its cultural, social, and
political traditions.

Explain this with evidence, not assertion. The chapter's claim of continuity rests on specific
things that persisted across many dynasties and many centuries.

Page 32 of 64

Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT EARLIEST EVIDENCE IN THE STILL THERE LATER
CONTINUED CHAPTER

The ideal of pan- Aśhoka on changes in the spiritual The Chera Nedunjeral Adan claiming
Indian sovereignty life of Jambudvīpa (3rd century conquests to the Himalayas; the Chola
BCE); the Arthaśhāstra's prithivi = Rajendra I taking the title Gangaikonda
chakravarti kśhetra in the 11th century CE

Dharma as the Aśhoka's edicts on moral conduct, The Uttaramerur inscription (10th
standard for public non-violence and compassion (272– century CE) requiring “honest earnings”
life 232 BCE) and a “pure” mind in candidates

Village self- The grāmika and village units of the Chola Urs with assemblies and variyams
government Satavāhana period — independent, self-reliant, not
dependent on the government for
patronage

The structure of Kauṭilya's Saptāṁga and the mantri- The Guptas retained much of the
administration pariṣhad earlier form; the mantri remained head
of civil administration, with the new
sāndhivigrahika added

Knowledge The gurukula and the guru-śhiṣhya Nālandā 427 CE, Vallabhī 480 CE,
traditions paramparā Vikramśhila 783–820 CE — founded
under different dynasties, centuries apart

Public works Puṣhyagupta's dam on Sudarshana Repaired by Rudradaman I (c. 150 CE),
Lake under Chandragupta Maurya restored by Skandagupta (5th century
CE); the Grand Anicut is in use today

Religious practice Vedic deities each associated with Sun worship during Chhath and on
rooted in nature an element of nature — sun, rain, Makar Sankranti, celebrated across
fire, earth, dawn India today

Why 'continuity' does not mean 'no change': the chapter's phrasing is careful —
social and political ideas evolved over time while maintaining a remarkable
continuity. Varṇa hardened; jātis multiplied; new offices such as the sāndhivigrahika
appeared; Bhakti developed as a new form of worship. What persisted was the
underlying framework — dharma, the pan-Indian ideal, the self-governing village,
the tradition of learning — inside which those changes happened.

Page 33 of 64

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

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The structures of social, cultural, and political life in India evolved from Vedic period
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mahājanapadas (about 600 BCE–300 CE), in two forms, rājyas and gaṇas/saṁghas → empire
(Mauryas, Guptas, Cholas).
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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 The rise of powerful states such as Magadha and empires like the Mauryas and
Guptas led to the emergence of structured systems of administration, taxation,
military organisation, and governance.

Take the four in turn, with the chapter's evidence for each.
Administration. Kingdoms and empires were divided into provinces, subdivided into divisions
and districts. In the Satavāhana empire there were āḥāras with their amātyas; below them
villages under a grāmika. District governors (pradeśhikas) handled judicial and administrative
functions; cities had their own governors for revenue collection and law and order. The Guptas
kept much of this and added the sāndhivigrahika, the minister of peace and war, and
kumārāmātyas as local and provincial administrators. The Damodarpur copper plates of
Kumaragupta I name the five members of a district office: head district officer, chief banker,
chief caravan trader, chief artisan, chief of revenue collection.
Taxation. The Mauryan state developed an elaborate system to regulate and supervise
economic activity. The basic tax on land was a fixed proportion of the produce, generally one-
sixth. For revenue assessment land was classified into categories — Kauṭilya describes
cultivated land, wasteland or fallow land, high and dry land, sown fields and groves. Salt
production was strictly regulated by the state.
Military organisation. The commander-in-chief of the army sat in the mantri-pariṣhad; daṇḍa
— the forces of defence and law and order — is one of the seven limbs of the Saptāṁga, and
durga, the fortified towns and cities, is another. Under the Guptas the commander-in-chief, the
general and the chief of the palace guards were all important officers.
Governance. The king did not rule alone — the Arthaśhāstra's “one wheel does not move the
carriage”. The mantri-pariṣhad of elder statesmen advised him, and an Aśhokan inscription
records it taking decisions independently, in the public interest, during the emperor's absence.

Why Magadha in particular: the chapter names three reasons — its strategic
location, its fertile plains and its strong rulers. These let it expand over
neighbouring regions, and that expansion eventually led to the rise of the Mauryan
Empire. The fertile plains point connects directly back to the LET'S ANALYSE box:
Magadha sat in the middle Ganga region, exactly where iron, paddy and NBPW mark
the richest material culture of the age.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q4 Early political organisation evolved from clans (janas) led by a rājā to larger
kingdoms and republics (gaṇas or saṁghas) and later to powerful empires such as
the Mauryas, Guptas, and Cholas. The economy was largely based on agriculture,
supported by irrigation works, while trade networks, ports, and guilds played a
vital role in the growth of commerce and crafts. Despite political changes,
knowledge traditions, trade networks, cultural, and devotional practices such as
Bhakti continued to flourish across regions.

This recap has three claims. Take them one at a time.
1. Political evolution. Jana under a rājā who was a clan chief → janapada (about 1000–600 BCE),
the shift from kinship to territory → sixteen mahājanapadas (about 600 BCE–300 CE) in two
forms, monarchies (rājyas) and republics (gaṇas or saṁghas) → empires: Mauryas (from 321
BCE), Guptas (320–550 CE) and the imperial Cholas (9th–11th century CE), with the
Satavāhanas, Pallavas, Chālukyas, Gurjara-Pratihāras, Pālas and Rāṣhṭrakūṭas in between.
2. The economy.

Agriculture was the backbone, sustaining both rural livelihoods and state revenue. Crops
included several varieties of rice, pulses, wheat, linseed, mustard, saffron, sugarcane,
vegetables and fruits; the Deccan's black soil suited cotton; the Chera region was rich in
jackfruit, pepper and turmeric, with ragi and sugarcane widely grown. The Milindapañho
describes eight stages of agricultural operations, from preparing and weeding the fields to
harvesting and winnowing.
Irrigation: reservoirs, canals and dams — Sudarshana Lake, and the Chola canals, lakes and
tanks including the Grand Anicut, still in use.
Trade: by about the 6th century BCE two great land routes, Dakṣhiṇāpatha and
Uttarāpatha, were in use (Fig. 5.12), later maintained and expanded by successive dynasties.
Ports: Muziris, Kāveripaṭṭinam, Arikameḍu and Masulipaṭnam; trade with Rome
expanded significantly by the early centuries of the Common Era, by sea and overland
through Central Asia.
Guilds (śhreṇīs): expanded after the rise of the mahājanapadas; the Jātaka literature names
eighteen types; they regulated quality, fixed prices, ran guild courts, and functioned as
banks, financiers and trustees. Silver punch-marked coins came into circulation in the same
period.

3. Continuity despite political change. The point is the mismatch between how fast dynasties
changed and how slowly these things did.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT SURVIVED EVIDENCE IN THE CHAPTER
THE DYNASTIES

Knowledge traditions Nālandā 427 CE (Gupta), Vallabhī 480 CE (Maitraka period), Vikramśhila 783–
820 CE (Pāla period) — three dynasties, one tradition

Trade networks Dakṣhiṇāpatha and Uttarāpatha, in use from about the 6th century BCE and
later maintained and expanded by successive dynasties

Devotional practice Bhakti has early references in the Mahābhārata and becomes an organised
tradition through the twelve Āḻvārs and sixty-three Nāyanmārs from the
6th century

Village institutions Assemblies and variyams running irrigation, roads, records and justice,
independent of royal patronage

Why Bhakti spread so widely: the chapter gives the reason — it offered a direct
connection with the gods without the need for elaborate rituals prescribed in
the Vedas, and it was accessible to all, regardless of class or gender. A practice
that needs no specialist and excludes no one travels easily and survives political
upheaval.

Questions and activities — Pages 134–135
End-of-chapter exercise

Q1 How did political organisation change from the Vedic period to the age of large
empires such as the Mauryas and the Guptas? Explain the administrative system of
the early Indian states.

The change, in one line: from a clan chief advised by assemblies of his own people to a king
ruling a graded machinery of provinces, districts and villages — that is, from kinship to territory,
and from custom to office.

Page 37 of 64

Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

From clan to empire
each stage larger, and governed through more offices than the last

kinship territory + office

jana janapada mahājanapada empire
clan; rājā as territorial unit; sixteen; rājyas and Mauryas, Guptas,
chief protector c. 1000–600 BCE gaṇas/saṁghas Cholas
sabhā · samiti · vidhata c. 600 BCE–300 CE

The four stages of political organisation the chapter describes, with the dates it prints for each
transition.

Stage 1 — the Vedic period. Society was organised into janas, clans bound by kinship; the
Ṛigveda mentions about thirty, five of them the pañchajana. The rājā functioned primarily as a
clan chief who led in warfare and protected members. Three assemblies — sabhā (small,
judicial, select elites), samiti (larger, policy and political affairs, representing the broader
population) and vidhata (a popular gathering on warfare and political matters) — each played a
significant role.
Stage 2 — janapadas. Between about 1000 and 600 BCE, political organisation became
territorial. Janapada literally means where a people (jana) first set its feet. Control over land,
agricultural production and trade routes became increasingly important, which led to more
complex administrative systems.
Stage 3 — mahājanapadas. From about 600 BCE to 300 CE; sources usually speak of sixteen.
Two forms coexisted: rājyas (monarchies) and gaṇas or saṁghas (republics). Magadha
became the most powerful, through strategic location, fertile plains and strong rulers.
Stage 4 — empire. Magadha's expansion led to the Mauryan Empire; later the Satavāhanas,
Guptas, Pallavas, Chālukyas, Gurjara-Pratihāras, Pālas, Rāṣhṭrakūṭas and imperial Cholas.
The administrative system of the early Indian states:

The king held supreme authority, but the state was conceived as an organic whole of seven
constituents — the Saptāṁga: swāmi (king), amātya (councillors, ministers and high
officials), janapada (territory with its people), durga (fortified towns and cities), koṣha
(treasury), daṇḍa (forces of defence and law and order), mitra (allies).
The council of ministers (mantri-pariṣhad) — a small body of elder statesmen, generally
including the treasurer, the chief tax collector, the chief legal advisor and the commander-in-
chief. An Aśhokan inscription records it deciding independently in the emperor's absence.
Provinces, divisions, districts, groups of villages, villages — bhukti / manḍalam; viṣhaya
or bhoga / koṭṭam or valanāḍu; adhiṣhṭhāna or paṭṭana / nāḍu; vithi / paṭṭalā and kūṛram;
and the village.
Officers: pradeśhikas (district governors, judicial and administrative), city governors
(revenue, law and order), grāmikas (village headmen), and under the Guptas the mantri as
head of civil administration, the commander-in-chief, the general, the chief of the palace

Page 38 of 64

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

guards, the sāndhivigrahika and the kumārāmātyas.
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large territories.

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OFFICER LEVEL RESPONSIBILITY

Members of the mantri- Central Treasurer; chief tax collector; chief legal advisor;
pariṣhad commander-in-chief of the army — advising and
supporting the king

Mantri (Gupta period) Central Head of the civil administration, as in Kauṭilya's
Arthaśhāstra

Sāndhivigrahika Central The new Gupta 'minister of peace and war'

Commander-in-chief, general, Central Military and security
chief of the palace guards

Amātyas / kumārāmātyas Provincial Ministers of administrative divisions (āḥāras under the
and local Satavāhanas); later, administrators at local or provincial
level

Pradeśhikas District Judicial and administrative functions; consulted
bankers, caravan leaders, artisans and scribes

City governors City Revenue collection and maintenance of law and order

Grāmika Village Village headman

Methods used to govern large territories.

1. Layered division. The rājya was divided into provinces (bhuktis / manḍalams), then divisions
(viṣhaya or bhoga / koṭṭams or valanāḍu), then districts (adhiṣhṭhāna or paṭṭana / nāḍu),
then groups of villages (vithis / paṭṭalā and kūṛram), then villages.
2. Decentralisation. The period about 300–800 CE was characterised by the decentralisation of
power. The Pallavas and Chālukyas combined a centralised monarchy with decentralised
local governance.
3. Councils rather than single officers. The Damodarpur copper plates of Kumaragupta I
show a district office of five — head district officer, chief banker, chief caravan trader, chief
artisan, chief of revenue collection.
4. Village self-government. Assemblies and their variyams handled irrigation, gardens,
temples, justice and taxes; the Chola village assemblies also handled revenue collection, land
management, road construction and record maintenance.
5. Land grants. Tax-free grants tied local elites to the state and developed new areas —
Brahmadeya villages under the Pallavas, agrahārams under the Chālukyas, some of which
(Aihole, Badami) became prominent centres of learning.
6. Inscriptions. Rules, grants and public works were cut into stone and copper — permanent,
public and verifiable, as at Junagadh and Uttaramerur.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why this combination worked: the Arthaśhāstra explains it in five words — “one
wheel does not move the carriage”. A single ruler cannot govern a subcontinent.
Effective governance required cooperation and a well-organised administrative
machinery, so the system was built to let decisions be taken at the level where the
information was.

Q3 After studying this chapter, what do you think were the most important features of
the state and society in India before 1000 CE?

Method. This asks for your judgement, so give a clear position and then defend it with the
chapter's evidence. What a good answer needs: a short list of features (four to six, not fifteen),
each with the evidence that supports it, and a closing sentence saying which you think matters
most and why.
Sample answer: Six features stand out to me.

1. Power was layered, never held by one person alone. Kauṭilya's Saptāṁga makes the king
only one of seven constituents of the state; the mantri-pariṣhad advised him and, an
Aśhokan inscription records, could decide in his absence; the Arthaśhāstra says “one wheel
does not move the carriage”.
2. The village governed itself. Village assemblies and their variyams ran irrigation, gardens,
temples, justice, taxes, land management, roads and records, and were not dependent on
the government for patronage. The Uttaramerur inscription even records how members
were chosen — the Kudavolai ballot-pot draw, held publicly, at a temple.
3. Ethics was built into governance. Dharma — duty, obligation, righteousness, moral
conduct — was the standard for rulers and subjects alike. Aśhoka's edicts promote dhamma;
the Uttaramerur inscription demands “honest earnings” of candidates; Kāmandaka's Nītisāra
and Bāṇabhaṭṭa's Kādambarī advise on kingship.
4. Society was ordered but genuinely mobile. Varṇa was a functional division, not a birth
lock: Ṛigveda 9.112.3 shows a poet, a physician and a corn-grinder in one family; the Sutta
Nipāta says a brāhmaņa is such by his deeds; rulers came from the Nandas, Mauryas,
Śhuṅgas, Satavāhanas, Vākāṭakas, Guptas and Puṣhyabhūtis; the Mandsaur inscription
records weavers who were also archers and astrologers.
5. A pan-Indian political horizon. Jambudvīpa, Bhāratavarṣha, prithivi, chakravarti kśhetra —
and rulers acting on it, from Aśhoka to the Chera Nedunjeral Adan to Rajendra I.
6. An economy of surplus, routes and institutions. Land tax generally one-sixth; state
investment in irrigation; the Dakṣhiṇāpatha and Uttarāpatha; ports at Muziris,
Kāveripaṭṭinam, Arikameḍu and Masulipaṭnam; guilds acting as banks, with the Nāśhik
inscription as proof.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Which matters most? To me, village self-government. It is the feature that continued
unbroken through every dynastic change in the chapter, and it is the one for which we have the
hardest evidence — an inscription describing an actual election procedure, not a treatise
describing an ideal.

Q4 What do early texts such as the Ṛigveda, Arthaśhāstra, and the Mahābhārata reveal
about political and social life?

Each text is strong on something different — and that is why historians read all three.

TEXT POLITICAL LIFE SOCIAL LIFE

Ṛigveda Society organised into janas (about thirty The Puruṣhasūkta (Book 10) gives
The earliest veda; named; the pañchajana: Yadu, Turvaśha, the earliest reference to the four
1,028 hymns Puru, Anu, Druhyu); the rājā as clan chief social categories; 9.112.3 shows a
(sūktas) leading in war and protecting members; poet, a physician and a corn-grinder
the assemblies sabhā, samiti and vidhata; in one family; hymns attributed to
the name Bharata used of the Bharata women sages Apālā, Viśhvavārā,
jana Ghoṣhā, Lopāmudrā; goddesses
Uṣha and Aditi; ṛita as cosmic order

Arthaśhāstra The Saptāṁga — seven constituents of the Categories of village land —
One of the earliest state; “one wheel does not move the cultivated, wasteland or fallow, high
and most carriage”; “Only if a king is himself and dry, sown fields, groves; trade as
systematic energetically active, do his officers follow a major economic activity, with
treatises on him energetically”; the definition of Magadha trading textiles, gems,
statecraft prithivi as “the area lying between the coral, pearls, metals and minerals;
Himavat and the sea”, equated with state regulation of salt, of the safety
chakravarti kśhetra; the training of a king of trade routes, and against
in governance and public administration adulteration

Mahābhārata The Śhānti Parva guides rulers on ethical Characters from all varṇas who
conduct, justice and the responsibilities of uphold samatva, the principle of
a king towards his subjects; the ideal ruler sameness; the epics critique
as “one who works for the welfare of all discrimination and present goodness
beings” as non-discriminatory; Bhishma's
definition of dharma — “that which
upholds beings”; early references to
Bhakti

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the three together are stronger than any one: they were composed for
entirely different purposes — the Ṛigveda for ritual recitation, the Arthaśhāstra as a
manual for administrators, the Mahābhārata as epic narrative. When texts with such
different aims describe the same institutions and hold up the same ideals, the
historian can be reasonably confident those institutions and ideals were real and
widely shared.

Remember the limits. The Ṛigveda's date of composition remains debated —
estimates run from the fifth millennium to the second millennium BCE — and it
existed orally for centuries before being written down. And all three are the work of
scholars and advisers, so they describe ideals as much as practice. That is precisely
why the chapter sets inscriptions beside them.

Q5 What can we learn from early Indian society about varṇa and the role of women?

On varṇa. We learn that it began as a functional order and only later hardened.

The earliest reference to the four social categories is in the Puruṣhasūkta, a hymn in Book
10 of the Ṛigveda.
Roles were attached to each: brāhmaṇas — study and teach the Vedas and other sacred
texts, perform and officiate yajñas, give and receive dāna; Rajanya (kṣhatriyas) — warfare,
protecting people, administering justice, plus study, sponsoring yajñas, donations and
upholding social order; vaiśhyas — agriculture, pastoralism and trade, plus scriptural study,
sacrificial rituals and charity; śhūdras — assisting the other varṇas, though in practice they
were also engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry, trade, and arts and crafts.
The order rested on a system of values: knowledge highest, then political power, then
wealth. The division was therefore functional.
Early Vedic texts do not indicate any fixed social status strictly based on birth. Identity
was shaped by ethnicity, subgroup, region, village affiliation, gotra, language and especially
occupation. Ṛigveda 9.112.3 and the Sutta Nipāta both make the point.
Jāti emerged later from intermarriage among the varṇas, migrating communities becoming
endogamous, and territorial differences. Varṇas stayed four; jātis grew without limit.
Mobility is documented: rulers from the Nandas to the Puṣhyabhūtis; the Mandsaur weavers;
the Karitalai brāhmaṇa land managers; the occupation-based and fluid classification of the
Tolkappiyam.

On the role of women. We learn that their position was high in the Vedic period, fluctuated
later, and was never absent from public life — and the chapter says all three things.

Page 43 of 64

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

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PERIOD WHAT WOMEN DID EVIDENCE

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How they limited the rājā's power. Not by law — by obliging him to act in the presence of

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The samiti made policy a matter of open discussion. It was a larger assembly focused on
policy decisions and political affairs and it represented the broader population — so
decisions had to be argued for before people beyond the ruler's own household.
The vidhata brought the community itself in. It was a popular gathering attended by
members of the janas and functioned as a forum for discussions on warfare and other
political matters. War is the decision a chief would most want to take alone; here it was
discussed.
The rājā's own position was conditional. He functioned primarily as a clan chief who led in
warfare and protected members. And though kingship was generally hereditary, there are
references to kings being elected or even expelled — so authority rested partly on the
acceptance of the jana.

Modern institutions performing similar functions:

VEDIC BODY ITS FUNCTION MODERN COUNTERPART

Sabhā Judicial; a small body of select The courts — the judiciary, which decides
members disputes independently of the head of
government

Samiti Policy decisions and political Parliament and the State Legislative
affairs; represented the broader Assemblies — representative bodies that
population debate and decide policy

Vidhata A popular gathering of the The gram sabha — the assembly of all adult
community; a forum for villagers — and public consultation generally
discussion

Election and The community's acceptance as a Elections, and the requirement that a
expulsion of condition of rule government retain the confidence of the
kings legislature

Be careful with the comparison — the chapter frames it as a question, not a
conclusion. Modern institutions rest on a written Constitution, on universal adult
franchise and on legally enforceable powers; the Vedic assemblies rested on
custom, and the sabhā was composed of elites rather than of elected
representatives. The honest claim is that the same principle — that a ruler should not
act alone — is very old in India, while the machinery that enforces it is modern.

Later evidence for the same principle: the mantri-pariṣhad taking decisions in
Aśhoka's absence; district officers consulting bankers, caravan leaders, artisans and
scribes; the five-member Gupta district office of the Damodarpur copper plates;
and the elected variyams of the Chola villages.

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Q7 What do the terms varṇa and jāti refer to in early Indian society? How were they
different, and what factors may have contributed to the formation of various jātis?

Varṇa refers to the fourfold structure — brāhmaṇas, kṣhatriyas, vaiśhyas and śhūdras — first
referred to in the Puruṣhasūkta, a hymn in Book 10 of the Ṛigveda, and associated over time
with specific roles and tasks. Jāti refers to a distinct social structure that emerged gradually and
later, made of a very large and growing number of groups.
How they differed:

VARṆA JĀTI

Number Fixed at four No restriction — the number continued to
grow

Basis Function: a system of values placing Descent, marriage practice, region and
knowledge highest, then political power, then occupation as these worked out on the
wealth ground

Source Textual — the Puruṣhasūkta and later texts Social process — it emerged, rather than
being laid down

Growth Static in number Grew as new social groups and occupations
developed

Factors that contributed to the formation of jātis — the chapter names three:

1. Intermarriage among the varṇas. Children of such marriages formed groups that fitted
neatly into none of the four.
2. Migrating communities becoming endogamous. Endogamy is the practice of marrying
within one's own social group, community, clan or tribe. A community that moved into a new
region and then married only within itself became, over generations, a distinct group.
3. Territorial differences. The same occupation in two regions could develop into two
separate groups with different customs and names.

To these the chapter adds a fourth, in describing the growth: as new social groups and
occupations developed, the number of jātis continued to grow.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The point that ties the two together: varṇa began as a functional classification,
and early Vedic texts do not indicate fixed status strictly by birth — Ṛigveda 9.112.3
and the Sutta Nipāta both show this. “Over time, however, this flexibility in social
roles gradually got reduced.” Jāti, formed largely through endogamy — that is,
through rules about marriage — is the structure through which that reduction of
flexibility took hold, because a group you can only marry within is a group you are
born into and stay in.

Q8 Why do you think education in early India emphasised both knowledge and moral
values? How might this have benefited society?

Because education was aimed at producing a whole person, not a qualified one. The chapter
says it plainly: education was an integral part of life, serving a holistic purpose, and it was a
complete preparation for life, not just a path to a career.
Why moral values were emphasised:

The inner values were part of the syllabus. The chapter lists them: truth, patience,
regularity, humility, control of the senses, purity of self (sattvaśhuddhi), cognition of the
underlying unity of life, nature and environment, and reverence for all beings.
The guiding principle was dharma. Pupils were trained to live in accordance with dharma
— the guiding principle for the individual, the family and society — and dharma required
everyone, including students, to fulfil their duties towards parents, teachers and the gods.
Character was treated as foundational. “Good character and moral conduct were seen as
the foundation of society.”
The teaching relationship made it possible. The guru-śhiṣhya paramparā was regarded
as sacred; the guru was seen as a guide leading students from the darkness of ignorance to
the light of knowledge; the student lived in the teacher's home as a member of the family.
Values were learnt by living them, not by being told them.
Practical training sat alongside. Students studied the Vedas, grammar, logic, philosophy,
ethics, mathematics, science, medicine and astronomy, and were trained in music, dance,
painting, physical education and martial arts such as archery, while also practising yoga,
meditation and service to the guru.

How this benefited society:

1. It produced administrators who could be trusted. The chapter's own examples show why
that mattered: the Uttaramerur inscription requires candidates for village assemblies to have
“honest earnings” and be “pure” of mind. In a system with no modern audit, honesty was
the audit.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

2. It supported self-governing villages. Village assemblies handled money, land, water and
disputes without depending on the government for patronage. That only works if the people
running them are held to a shared standard.
3. It carried ethics into statecraft. The connection between politics and ethics runs from the
Mauryas to the Cholas — Aśhoka's dhamma, Kāmandaka's Nītisāra, Bāṇabhaṭṭa's Kādambarī.
4. It made knowledge durable. Because learning was tied to values and to a living teacher–
student tradition, it survived political upheaval. Despite the rise and fall of kingdoms, many
of these knowledge traditions and practices persisted.
5. It joined mind, body and conduct. A student trained in mathematics and medicine as well
as music, archery and meditation could serve society in more than one way.

Did you know? This ideal was not confined to small gurukulas. Fig. 5.10 maps
prominent universities and advanced centres of learning across the subcontinent,
and Fig. 5.11 shows Takṣhaśhilā as a large campus with well-organised urban
systems including housing, drainage and waste management — institutions that
attracted students from India and from other regions.

Q9 Look at the major trade routes of early India (Fig 5.12). How do you think these
routes helped people in the exchange of goods, skills, beliefs, and cultural practices.

First, read the map. Fig. 5.12 marks three kinds of route and two kinds of settlement:

LEGEND WHAT IT SHOWS

Dakṣiṇāpatha The southern route, running inland from the western coast through
(yellow) Bhārukachchha and Sopārā by way of Ujjayinī and Māhiṣhmatī towards
Kauśhāmbī and the Ganga plains

Uttarāpatha The northern route, running from Puṣhkalāvatī and Takṣhaśhilā in the northwest
(purple) along the Ganga through Mathurā, Śhrāvastī, Vaiśhālī, Pāṭaliputra and Champā to
Tāmralipti on the Bay of Bengal

Other routes (red) Branch and peninsular routes, reaching the Deccan and the far south down to
Madurai, Korkāī and Muziris

Important ports and Muziris, Kāveripaṭṭinam, Arikameḍu, Masulipaṭnam, Tāmralipti, Bhārukachchha,
cities (filled) Sopārā, Dwārkā, Korkāī, Puhār, Takṣhaśhilā, Ujjayinī, Mathurā, Pāṭaliputra,
Rājagṛiha, Vaiśhālī, Kāśhī and others

Early historical cities Bhīṭā, Prahalādpura, Jhūsī, Śhringaverapura, Sohgaurā, Kuśhīnārā, Piprāhwā,
(open) Vidiśhā, Sāmbhar, Baṭeśhwara, Sonkha, Noha, Atranjīkheḍā, Jakheḍā,
Ahichchhatra, Rūpaḍ

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c om
How the routes helped:
.
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1. Goods. The routes served as important trans-regional networks linking different

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the subcontinent,
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and they connected inland regions with coastal ports,

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overland

agcoral,
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2. Skills. Craftspeople moved with their crafts. The Mandsaur Stone Inscription (473 CE)

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Pradesh — a whole body of skill relocating along a route, and carrying archery and astrology

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3. Beliefs. The routes moved people and ideas as well as goods. The chapter's evidence is that

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the money for religious buildings came from the trading world: the Nāśhik cave inscription
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m
records

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monasteries and caves, and the Sanchi Great Stupa's southern gateway records the guild
a g of ivory workers of Vidiśhā carving its sculptures. Vidiśhā is itself on Fig. 5.12.
s
4. Cultural practices. The Silappadikāram mentions two routes in the Tamil region that also

om a
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(Kaveripattinam), the other Kanchipuramm to Kanyakumari. Sangam poems record Vedic
a in the far south — northern practices known in
agl
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5. Beyond the subcontinent. Ports such as Muziris, Kāveripaṭṭinam, Arikameḍu and
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Why states cared about the routes: the chapter says the emergence of well-
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Advantages of a large empire:
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A large revenue base. More land under the same administration meant more of the one-
sixth land tax, plus trade and customs revenue — enough to pay for an army, officials and
public works.
Control of long trade routes. An empire that held both ends of the Uttarāpatha or the
Dakṣhiṇāpatha could guarantee safety along it, which the chapter says the state did — and
safe routes attract more trade.
Large public works became possible. Only a large state could build and maintain
something like the dam on Sudarshana Lake, or the Chola network of canals, lakes and
tanks.
Peace over a wide area. Fewer borders inside the empire meant fewer wars, and settled
conditions for agriculture, learning and craft.
Sharing of ideas and skills. Administrative practice, coinage, languages and religious
traditions spread within a single political space — which is why the Guptas could simply
retain much of the earlier form of administration.

Challenges, given the speed of information:

Distance meant delay. A message to a far province and back took weeks. Any system
requiring the capital's approval for ordinary decisions would break down.
Supervision was hard. Officers far from the centre could be inefficient or dishonest with
little chance of being caught — which is exactly why the texts insist on the king's personal
energy and on training in governance.
Distant provinces could break away. A governor with an army and a treasury and no quick
oversight is a standing risk.
Regional diversity. Different languages, customs and existing power structures had to be
accommodated, not overridden.
Rivalry for key regions. The tripartite struggle for Kannauj between the Gurjara-
Pratihāras, Pālas and Rāṣhṭrakūṭas shows how much effort a single strategic capital could
absorb.

How early Indian states actually solved this:

1. Decentralisation. The period about 300–800 CE was characterised by the decentralisation of
power, precisely for administrative convenience. Decisions were taken where the information
was.
2. A graded hierarchy of provinces, divisions, districts, groups of villages and villages, each
with its own officer.
3. Councils rather than lone officers — the mantri-pariṣhad at the centre, the five-member
district office of the Damodarpur copper plates below.
4. Consultation of local notables — bankers, caravan leaders, artisans and scribes, people
who actually knew local conditions.
5. Self-reliant villages handling their own infrastructure, social welfare and education through
assemblies and variyams.
6. Inscriptions. Cutting rules, grants and public works into stone and copper created a
permanent, public record that did not depend on a messenger arriving.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The underlying principle: “one wheel does not move the carriage.” The
Arthaśhāstra's answer to the problem of size is not a stronger king but a better
machinery — cooperation and a well-organised administrative system. That is why
the chapter treats decentralisation as a solution rather than a weakness.

Q11 Many ideas about governance come from texts composed by scholars and advisors
of the king. What might be some limitations of relying only on such sources?

Six limitations — and each one is a reason the chapter puts inscriptions and archaeology
beside the texts.

1. They describe the ideal, not the practice. The Śhānti Parva and the Arthaśhāstra tell us
what a king ought to do. They cannot tell us whether any particular king did it. The chapter's
own wording is careful: these texts “provide important insights into ideas of kingship and
governance”.
2. They speak from one position only. They were composed by scholars and advisers of the
king — the court's view. We hear almost nothing in the same voice from cultivators, artisans,
labourers or women.
3. They may be prescriptive rather than descriptive. A manual of statecraft is written to
instruct. Its rules may never have been fully applied anywhere.
4. Dating and transmission are uncertain. The date of composition of the Ṛigveda remains
debated among historians, with estimates ranging from the fifth millennium to the second
millennium BCE, and Vedic literature existed in oral form for several centuries before being
written down. A text may also have been added to over time.
5. They are silent about ordinary economic and material life. They rarely tell us what people
ate, what tools they used or how big a village was — the very things excavation reveals.
6. They can flatter. Works composed under patronage tend to present rulers favourably.

What historians use to correct these limitations — all of it in this chapter:

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

OTHER WHAT IT ADDS THAT A TREATISE CANNOT
SOURCE

Inscriptions Dated, public, official records of what was actually done. The Junagadh rock gives
three dynasties over about 700 years; the Uttaramerur inscription describes an
actual election procedure; the Damodarpur copper plates name the five members
of a district office; the Mandsaur and Karitalai records show real occupational
mobility

Archaeology Material conditions independent of any writer's intention — the iron finds and
megalithic sites of Fig. 5.3, PGW and NBPW pottery, the excavated campus of
Takṣhaśhilā

Literature from Different viewpoints on the same society — the Buddhist Sutta Nipāta and
other traditions Milindapañho, the Jātaka literature, and Tamil Sangam texts such as the
Tolkappiyam and Pattinappalai

Accounts of An outsider's description — the timeline records Faxian's visit (300–400 CE) and
visitors Xuanzang's visit (629–645 CE)

The method in one sentence: a claim is safest when two independent kinds of
source support it. That is why the LET'S ANALYSE box carries weight — excavated
iron tools and grain remains on one side, literary references to expanding
agriculture on the other, neither able to influence the other, both saying the same
thing.

Q12 Read the source and answer the questions: The Nāśhik cave inscription (2nd
century CE) of Uṣhavadāta records: “Uṣhavadāta, son of Dinika, son-in-law of king
Nahapāna … has bestowed this cave on the Saṁgha generally; he has also given a
perpetual endowment, three thousand—3000 kāhāpaṇas, which, for the members
of the Saṁgha of any sect, and any origin dwelling in this cave, will serve as cloth
money and money for outside life (kuśhaṇa); and those kāhāpaṇas have been
invested in guild dwelling at Govadhana—2000 in a weavers’ guild, interest one
pratika (monthly) for the hundred, (and) 1000 in another weaver’s guild, interest
three quarters of a paḍika (monthly) for the hundred.” a. What does this source tell
us about the economic role of guilds? b. Why were guilds trusted with money
deposits? c. Identify the donor and the donees from the given source.

a. What the source tells us about the economic role of guilds.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

It shows that guilds were not merely associations of craftspersons and traders but functioned as
banking and credit institutions. Read the money in the source carefully — it is a proper financial
arrangement:

Total endowment = 3000 kāhāpaṇas, described as perpetual

2000 deposited in one weavers' guild → interest one pratika monthly per hundred

1000 deposited in another weavers' guild → interest three quarters of a paḍika monthly per

hundred

2000 + 1000 = 3000 kāhāpaṇas — the whole endowment is accounted for

Every feature of a bank deposit is present:

The capital is not spent. It is invested; only the income is used.
A fixed rate of interest is specified for each deposit, per hundred, per month.
The deposit is split between two institutions at two different rates — the donor is not
putting everything in one place.
The income has a stated purpose: cloth money and money for outside life (kuśhaṇa) for the
members of the Saṁgha dwelling in the cave.
The arrangement is meant to be permanent — a “perpetual endowment”, so the guilds
are expected to outlast the donor.

This fits what the chapter says of guilds generally: they regulated the quality of goods, often
fixed prices to protect both artisans and consumers, supervised their members' conduct
through guild courts, and functioned as banks, financiers and trustees. The Jātaka literature
refers to eighteen types of guilds, which shows how well established they were.
b. Why guilds were trusted with money deposits.

1. They were permanent institutions. A guild outlives its individual members, so it could take
on a perpetual endowment. An individual moneylender could not.
2. They had a real, income-earning business. A weavers' guild had looms, raw material,
skilled workers and a market. It could pay interest out of genuine earnings, not out of the
capital.
3. They enforced discipline internally. Guild courts supervised the conduct of members and
enforced professional standards — so a guild's word was backed by its own machinery.
4. Their reputation was their livelihood. A guild that defaulted on a public, inscribed
endowment would lose the standing on which its trade depended.
5. The arrangement was recorded publicly. Cutting the terms into a cave wall made the
obligation visible to everyone and permanent — the strongest guarantee available at the
time.
6. Guilds had social standing. The chapter's other examples show it: the guild of ivory workers
of Vidiśhā carved the sculptures on the southern gateway of the Great Stupa at Sanchi, and
the silk weavers of the Mandsaur inscription were a prosperous, accomplished body.

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as e
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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

c. The donor and the donees.
co m
em.
c o m WHO g l as
.
AS THE SOURCE IDENTIFIES THEM

m a
l a se
g
Donor Uṣhavadāta “son of Dinika, son-in-law of king Nahapāna” — the Śhaka ruler
a Nahapāna's son-in-law

co m
ag
Donees The Saṁgha The cave is bestowed “on the Saṁgha generally”; the interest is

m .
e
for “the members of the Saṁgha of any sect, and any origin

g l as
dwelling in this cave”

Trustees / Two weavers'
a Guilds “dwelling at Govadhana” — they hold the money and pay
guilds the interest, but they are not the beneficiaries
co m
holders of the

m.
deposit

m as e
.co a g l
Doem
a s not confuse the guilds with the donees. The guilds receive the money, but only

a gl as investors; the benefit goes to the Saṁgha. Keeping the three roles separate —
donor, trustee, beneficiary — is exactly what makes this a banking arrangement
m a s
.co agl
rather than a simple gift.

a s em
agl and any origin”. The endowment was open to monks
Notice the phrase “any sect,
regardless of sect or background. It is a small piece of evidence, in a financial

. c om
document, for how inclusive religious institutions of the period could be — and it
m
comes from a Śhaka ruler's family endowing a Buddhist Saṁghaethrough
s
m a
Hindu-era

. coguilds. a gl
em
craft

a s
agl
se m
Q13
om
Mark and locate on the map of India the following important centres: Pāṭaliputra,
Nāśhik, Ujjayinī, Vikramśhila,.cKānchipuram, g l a
e m Mathurā, Rājgṛiha. a
g l as
ANSWER a
Method. Use an outline political map of India. Mark each centre with a dot, write the name
co m
m .
se
beside it, and add a short label saying why it matters — that turns a locating exercise into a

o m g l a
revision exercise. The chapter's own maps give you the positions: Fig. 5.12 for Pāṭaliputra,

m .c Mathurā, Rājagṛiha and Kānchīpuram; Fig. 5.10 for Vikramśhilā
a
e
Ujjayinī, and Kānchīpuram; and
a s the Nāśhik cave inscription (Fig. 5.13) for Nāśhik.
agl c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

com
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CENTRE PRESENT- WHERE IT IS WHY THE CHAPTER MENTIONS IT
DAY STATE

Pāṭaliputra Bihar On the Ganga in Marked on Fig. 5.12 as an important city on
the middle Ganga the Uttarāpatha; the heartland of Magadha,
plain (modern which grew into the Mauryan Empire
Patna)

Rājagṛiha Bihar South of the An important early historical city of Magadha
Ganga, near on Fig. 5.12
Pāṭaliputra
(modern Rajgir)

Mathurā Uttar Pradesh On the Yamuna, in On the Uttarāpatha (Fig. 5.12) and one of the
the upper Ganga– important hubs of textile production, with
Yamuna region Kāśhī and Kāmarūpa

Ujjayinī Madhya In western A key city on the Dakṣhiṇāpatha (Fig. 5.12)
Pradesh Madhya Pradesh, and an ancient centre of learning (Fig. 5.10)
in the Malwa
region

Nāśhik Maharashtra In the northern The Nāśhik cave inscription (2nd century CE)
Deccan, inland of Nahapāna and Uṣhavadāta — the chapter's
from the western key evidence for guilds as banks (Fig. 5.13)
coast

Vikramśhila Bihar In eastern Bihar, A university, established 783–820 CE on the
near the Ganga, running timeline, marked on Fig. 5.10
east of Pāṭaliputra

Kānchipuram Tamil Nadu In northern Tamil A Pallava centre; a port-linked city on Fig. 5.12;
Nadu, near the an ancient centre of learning on Fig. 5.10; the
Coromandel coast Uttaramerur inscription is in this district.
The Silappadikāram names routes from
Kanchipuram to Poompuhar and to
Kanyakumari

Quick check on your finished map. Reading roughly north-west to south-east, the order
should be: Mathurā (Uttar Pradesh) → Ujjayinī (Madhya Pradesh) → Rājagṛiha and
Pāṭaliputra (Bihar) → Vikramśhila (eastern Bihar). Nāśhik lies well to the south-west of
Ujjayinī, in Maharashtra, and Kānchipuram is the only one of the seven in the far south.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Try this: after marking the seven, draw the Uttarāpatha in one colour and the
Dakṣhiṇāpatha in another, using Fig. 5.12. Four of your seven centres — Mathurā,
Rājagṛiha, Pāṭaliputra and Ujjayinī — sit on or beside these routes, which explains at
a glance why they became important.

Q14 Prepare a short presentation or poster on one of the following— a. Life in the Vedic
society b. Early education system (gurukula) c. Trade and guilds in early India d.
Role of women in early Indian society

Method. A good poster or presentation on a history topic does four things: (1) it makes one
clear claim, not a list of facts; (2) every point carries its evidence — a text, an inscription, a
figure from the chapter; (3) it uses a visual that carries information, not decoration; and (4) it
states honestly where the evidence is thin or where historians disagree. Aim for five or six
panels; use the chapter's figure numbers so anyone can check you.
Outlines you can build on — all facts here are from this chapter:

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

TOPIC PANELS EVIDENCE TO PUT ON THE POSTER

a. Life in the The four Vedas · Ṛigveda: 1,028 hymns; each Veda has four parts (samhitā,
Vedic society Social units · brāhmaṇa, āraṇyaka, upaniṣhad); about thirty janas, the
Assemblies · pañchajana; kula → grāma → viśha → jana; sabhā, samiti,
Occupations · vidhata; Ṛigveda 9.112.3; four āśhramas (Fig. 5.8) and ṣhoḍaśha
Religion saṁskāras; deities of nature, and Chhath and Makar Sankranti
today

b. Early Aim · Subjects · Holistic aim; sattvaśhuddhi and the inner values; Vedas,
education The guru · grammar, logic, philosophy, ethics, mathematics, science,
system Discipline · From medicine, astronomy, plus music, dance, painting, physical
(gurukula) gurukula to education and archery; guru-śhiṣhya paramparā; Fig. 5.9; Fig.
university 5.10 map; Fig. 5.11 Takṣhaśhilā with housing, drainage and
waste management; Nālandā 427 CE, Vallabhī 480 CE,
Vikramśhila 783–820 CE

c. Trade and Routes · Ports · Dakṣhiṇāpatha and Uttarāpatha from about the 6th century
guilds in Goods · Guilds · BCE (Fig. 5.12); ports Muziris, Kāveripaṭṭinam, Arikameḍu,
early India Guilds as banks Masulipaṭnam; Magadha's textiles, gems, coral, pearls, metals,
minerals; state control of salt and of route safety; silver punch-
marked coins; eighteen types of guilds in the Jātakas; guild
courts; the Nāśhik cave inscription (Fig. 5.13) and its 3000
kāhāpaṇas; the Sanchi ivory workers of Vidiśhā

d. Role of Vedic period · In Learning, rituals, chariot races and the sabhā; hymns of Apālā,
women in texts · Royal Viśhvavārā, Ghoṣhā, Lopāmudrā; goddesses Uṣha and Aditi;
early Indian women · The Manu-smṛiti 3.56; Prabhāvatī Gupta as regent issuing land
society south · Change grants in her own name; women donors on votive inscriptions;
over time Sangam work and the poetesses Avvaiyar and
Vennikuyattiyar; Sembiyan Mahādevī; and the chapter's own
statement that the position of women “fluctuated, even
declined”

Sample answer — Topic (c): Trade and Guilds in Early India, six panels.

1. Title panel. “Roads, Ships and Guilds: how early India traded.” One-line claim: Trade in early
India was not just a matter of merchants — it needed a state to keep the routes safe and
institutions to hold the money.
2. The routes. A sketch map from Fig. 5.12 showing the Uttarāpatha (Puṣhkalāvatī and
Takṣhaśhilā → Mathurā → Śhrāvastī → Vaiśhālī → Pāṭaliputra → Champā → Tāmralipti) and
the Dakṣhiṇāpatha (Bhārukachchha and Sopārā → Māhiṣhmatī → Ujjayinī → towards
Kauśhāmbī). Caption: both in use by about the 6th century BCE, later maintained and
expanded by successive dynasties.
3. The ports. Muziris, Kāveripaṭṭinam, Arikameḍu, Masulipaṭnam. Caption: trade with Rome
expanded significantly by the early centuries CE, by sea and overland through Central Asia;
links with Mesopotamia go back to Harappan times.

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Class 9 Social Science Chapter 5 State and Society up to 1000 CE AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

4. The goods. Textiles, gems, coral, pearls, metals and minerals (Arthaśhāstra, on Magadha);
silk, cotton, wool and linen from Mathurā, Kāśhī and Kāmarūpa; salt, strictly regulated by
the state.
5. The guilds. Definition (śhreṇī: an association of people in the same profession, craft or
occupation); eighteen types in the Jātaka literature; they regulated quality, fixed prices, ran
guild courts, and acted as banks, financiers and trustees. Add the Sanchi ivory workers of
Vidiśhā as an example of a guild's public standing.
6. The proof panel. Quote the Nāśhik cave inscription and show the arithmetic: 3000
kāhāpaṇas, split 2000 + 1000 between two weavers' guilds at fixed monthly interest per
hundred, the income maintaining monks of the Saṁgha “of any sect, and any origin”. Closing
line: this is a 2nd-century CE bank statement cut into rock.

Check it yourself: before you present, test every number on your poster against the
chapter — 1,028 hymns, eighteen guilds, 3000 kāhāpaṇas, one-sixth land tax, twelve
Āḻvārs, sixty-three Nāyanmārs, sixteen mahājanapadas. Getting the figures exactly
right is what separates a history poster from a decorative one.

Chapter at a glance
The chapter covers roughly 2000 BCE to 1000 CE and its spine is Fig. 5.1: kin-based polities
of the Ṛigveda in the Sapta-Sindhu region, then janapadas and mahājanapadas from
about 800 BCE, then the emergence of empires of roughly pan-Indian dimension together
with the early polities of southern India from about 300 BCE, and finally regional empires
and the imperial polities of southern India from about 700 CE.
Our knowledge of this period is richer than of the Harappan period for one reason the
chapter states plainly: from at least the second millennium BCE we have literary sources
— the Ṛigveda being the earliest — that supplement archaeology. The Harappan script is
still undeciphered, so for the Sindhu–Sarasvatī civilisation we have objects without words;
from the Vedic period onwards we have both.
Political organisation moved from kinship to territory. The Ṛigveda names about thirty
janas, five of them (Yadu, Turvaśha, Puru, Anu, Druhyu) called the pañchajana. Between
about 1000 BCE and 600 BCE these became janapadas — janapada literally means where a
people (jana) first set its feet. From about 600 BCE to 300 CE came the sixteen
mahājanapadas (Fig. 5.4), of which Magadha grew strongest, and alongside monarchies
(rājyas) there were republics (gaṇas or saṁghas).
Kingship was checked, not absolute. The Ṛigveda and Atharvaveda name three assemblies
— sabhā (small, judicial, select elites), samiti (larger, policy and political affairs,
representing the broader population) and vidhata (a popular gathering of the janas, a
forum on warfare and political matters). The Arthaśhāstra insists that “one wheel does not
move the carriage” and lists the Saptāṁga — the seven limbs of the state. An Aśhokan

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inscription records the mantri-pariṣhad deciding in the emperor's absence, and the
co m
chapter notes references to kings being elected or even expelled.
se m.
o m l a
.cCE and 800 CE the rājya was divided into bhuktis (north) aorg
Empires were run through layers, and the vocabulary differed north and south. Between
about m
se
300
l a
agadhiṣhṭhāna/paṭṭana or nāḍu, then vithis or paṭṭalā/kūṛram, and finally the village. The
manḍalas/manḍalams (south), then viṣhaya/bhoga or koṭṭams/valanāḍu, then

m
Damodarpur copper plates of Kumaragupta I even name the five members of a Gupta

. co ag
m
district office, and the Uttaramerur inscription of Parantaka I describes the Chola

l a se
Kudavolai ballot-pot election of village committees (variyams).
g mobile. Varṇa first appears in the Puruṣhasūkta, Book
Society is described as orderedabut
10 of the Ṛigveda, and was a functional division; Ṛigveda 9.112.3 shows a poet, a physician

c o m
.
and a corn-grinder in one family, and the Sutta Nipāta says “No brāhmaņa is such by

s
birth… A brāhmaņa is such by his deeds.” The number of varṇas was fixed
e m at four; the
numberoof
. c a la Mauryas,
mjātis was not. Rulers came from many backgrounds — gNandas,
s e m Satavāhanas, Vākāṭakas, Guptas, Puṣhyabhūtis — and the Mandsaur inscription
Śhuṅgas,

a gla(473 CE) records silk weavers who were also archers and astrologers.
The economy rested on agriculture, irrigation, routes and guilds. The basic Mauryan land

m a s
.co agl
tax was generally one-sixth of the produce. The Junagadh rock records Puṣhyagupta's dam

se m
on Sudarshana Lake, its repair by Rudradaman I (c. 150 CE) and its restoration by

g l a
Skandagupta (5th century CE) — one rock, three dynasties, about 700 years. By about the
a
6th century BCE the Dakṣhiṇāpatha and Uttarāpatha were in use (Fig. 5.12), silver punch-
marked coins circulated, and the Jātakas name eighteen types of guilds (śhreṇīs) that

. c om
fixed prices, ran guild courts and acted as banks — proved by the Nāśhik cave inscription

s e mfixed monthly
of Uṣhavadāta, which deposits 3000 kāhāpaṇas with weavers' guilds at

. com
interest.
a gla
a sem
agl
se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
agl

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

com
m .
m ase
.co


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