NCERT Book Class 7 Social Science (History) Chapter 7 The Making of Regional Cultures

7 the MAKING OF
REGIONAL CULTURES

O ne of the commonest ways of describing people
is in terms of the language they speak. When we
refer to a person as a Tamil or an Oriya, this usually
means that he or she speaks Tamil or Oriya and lives
in Tamil Nadu or Orissa. We also tend to associate
each region with distinctive kinds of food, clothes,
poetry, dance, music and painting. Sometimes we take
these identities for granted and assume that they have
existed from time immemorial. However, the frontiers
separating regions have evolved over time (and in
fact are still changing). Also, what we understand
as regional cultures today are often the product of
complex processes of intermixing of local traditions
?
with ideas from other parts of the subcontinent. As Find out how
many states have
we will see, some traditions appear specific to some
been created in
regions, others seem to be similar across regions, and
the last 10 years.
yet others derive from older practices in a particular Is each of these
area, but take a new form in other regions. states a region?

The Cheras and the Development
of Malayalam
Let us begin by looking at an example of the
connection between language and region. The Chera
kingdom of Mahodayapuram was established in
the ninth century in the south-western part of the
peninsula, part of the present-day Kerala. It is likely
that Malayalam was spoken in this area. The rulers
introduced the Malayalam language and script in their
inscriptions. In fact, this is one of the earliest examples
of the use of a regional language in official records in
the subcontinent.

the making of
79 regional cultures

Unit 5 to 7.indd 79 8/25/2022 1:56:28 PM