NCERT Solutions Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides 11th and 12th Centuries

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 7 · SOCIAL SCIENCE

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 16: Turning Tides: 11th
and 12th Centuries

NCERT Textbook — Exploring Society: India And Beyond (Part I)

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

Part II, 97 – 124 11 29 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 39 pages

Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 7 · SOCIAL SCIENCE · EXPLORING SOCIETY: INDIA AND BEYOND (PART I)

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 16: Turning Tides: 11th and
12th Centuries
Complete NCERT Solutions for Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries —
the fourth chapter of Theme B, Tapestry of the Past, in Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Grade 7, Part 2).
Every question the chapter asks is answered here: the three Big Questions, all five LET’S EXPLORE boxes, the
THINK ABOUT IT box that asks something, the two questions asked inside the running text (pages 105 and
107), the five points of Before we move on …, and all eight end-of-chapter Questions and activities. The
boxes that carry no question — the THINK ABOUT IT ‘word of caution’ on page 99, and the five DON’T MISS
OUT boxes on the title ‘sultan’, on Śhrīvijaya, on the Chaulukyas, on ‘Dhillikā’ and on Nālandā’s library — are
folded into the answers and the revision table below. This chapter deals with invasion, conquest and the
destruction of temples and monasteries; every statement here is what the chapter itself says, with the
evidence it cites, and where historians genuinely disagree that is said plainly.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part I) (Class Part II, 97 – 124
7)

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

11 29

MEDIUM

English

The Big Questions — Page 97
Chapter opening — Theme B, Tapestry of the Past

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Q1 Why are the 11th and 12th centuries seen as a period of transition in Indian history?

Because in these two centuries the political map of north India begins to change hands —
foreign rule starts in parts of it — while everything else in Indian life carries on. A
transition is not a clean break. The chapter’s own summing-up in ‘Taking Stock’ says it exactly:
“Like every transitional period, this one saw both change and continuity.”
What changed.

Invasions went deeper than before. The Arabs of the previous chapter made “repeated
attempts” and their incursions “had little overall impact on India”. Now “invasions by Turkic
powers penetrated much deeper into north India, despite stubborn resistance from native
kingdoms.”

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Raiding turned into ruling. Mahmūd of Ghazni conducted 17 campaigns and went home
each time with booty; he “did not attempt to establish a permanent base in India beyond
Punjab”. Muhammad Ghūrī, a century and a half later, was different — “unlike Mahmūd, who
merely plundered and withdrew, he sought territorial conquest”. He left behind his general
Qutb-ud-din Aibak, who later founded the Delhi Sultanate.
A new creed entered the religious landscape. The chapter calls this “the spread of Islam as
a new creed in India’s religious landscape”.
Centres of learning were destroyed. Bakhtiyār Khiljī destroyed Nālandā and
Vikramaśhilā. “There is a consensus among historians of Buddhism that this destruction of
its large centres of learning precipitated the decline of Buddhism in India, although a few
other factors may have also played a role.”
One administrative change. Muhammad Ghūrī’s system was “more centralised” and
“granted temporary land assignments to officers in return for revenue collection and military
service”.

What did not change.

Most of India was never touched. “Large parts of northern India and all of south India
remained outside the hold of the Turkic invaders.”
Trade kept growing. “Despite the political disturbances we have seen, India’s trade with
China and Southeast Asia kept growing during this period,” and “the merchant guilds
survived and adapted”.
Building and writing never stopped. Khajuraho, Belur, Halebidu, Warangal, Thanjavur,
Gangaikoṇḍacholapuram, Puri — all belong to these very centuries; so do the Līlāvatī, the
Mānasollāsa, the Gītagovindam and Basavaṇṇa’s vachanas.

Why historians call it a ‘turning’ rather than an ‘ending’: the invasions altered
“the power equations in a profound way”, but they did not replace Indian society.
The chapter’s last line about the period puts the balance where it belongs —
“resilience in the face of conflict and the enduring power of knowledge, learning and
creativity.”

Q2 Which new powers emerged during this period? What were the essential features of
their economic, military and administrative systems?

Two foreign powers and about seven Indian ones. The foreign powers are the Ghaznavids
(capital Ghazna, today’s Ghazni) and, after them, the Ghūrids from Ghūr — earlier vassals of the
Ghaznavids who “seized the opportunity to take control of Ghazni and build up their power”.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

NEW INDIAN WHERE, AND CAPITAL WHAT THE CHAPTER SAYS MAKES IT NEW
POWER

Senas Bengal — Nādīya Emerged “after the decline of the Pālas”; unlike the
Pālas they “promoted Hindu thought and literature”,
hosting Jayadeva of the Gītagovindam

Eastern Gangas Kalinga (Odisha) “By the end of the 12th century… one of the most
stable powers of eastern India”, its kingdom running
‘from the Gangā to the Godāvarī’

Kākatīyas Telangana and Andhra Rose in the 12th century as the Western Chālukyas
Pradesh — Orugallu faded
(Warangal)

Hoysalas Karnataka — Velāpura Under Viṣhṇuvardhana they “broke away from
(Belur) and Dvārasamudra Chālukya overlordship, challenged the Cholas”
(Halebidu)

Paramāras Malwa — Dhārā (Dhar) “Originally vassals of the Pratihāras and the
Rāṣhṭrakūṭas”, independent from the second half of
the 10th century

Chāhamānas Rajasthan — Ajayameru A Rajput dynasty whose 12th-century conquests of
(Chauhāns) (Ajmer) Delhi, Haryana, parts of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh
“established their empire”

Chaulukyas Gujarat and Rajasthan — Distinct from the Deccan Chālukyas; they defeated
(Solankis) Aṇahilavāḍa (Patan) Muhammad Ghūrī in 1178

Military. The chapter is blunt about the cost of so much warfare: “every powerful king needed
to keep a sizable army. This involved considerable resources to employ the soldiers, supply
them with weapons, maintain horses and elephants (and, in parts of north India, camels for
transport of provisions).” On the invaders’ side, what proved decisive for Mahmūd was “his large
army’s rapid marches and daring cavalry attacks, with archers on horseback”. The Cholas add a
fourth arm — a navy strong enough to cross the Bay of Bengal.
Administrative. “Powerful kingdoms therefore needed an efficient administration to collect
tributes from vassals and taxes from the traders.” The chapter says there is no major change
from the system described in the previous chapter — except Muhammad Ghūrī’s, “which was
more centralised and granted temporary land assignments to officers in return for revenue
collection and military service”. The best Indian example given is the Kākatīyas: “a strong local
administration based on village self-governance… an efficient revenue system and an irrigation
infrastructure that supported agricultural prosperity.”
Economic. Three legs:

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Agriculture — “the mainstay of the economy… which remains true even today.” Rice
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and barley in the Ganga plains and Bengal, saffron from Kashmir, spices from Kerala, ginger
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gand canals for
.cas royal duty. Kākatīya irrigation works; Chola “tanks, wells
from Bengal, wheat from northwest India, cotton from western India and the Deccan.

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irrigation,
to some extent, mitigate the vagaries of seasonal rains”.

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Trade, inland and overseas. Growing trade with China and Southeast Asia, “supported by a
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few powerful guilds”; the west coast “had many seaports as well as shipyards manufacturing

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seafaring ships”, and foreign coins and pottery have been found there.
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FIELD ACCOMPLISHMENT WHO, AND WHERE

Architecture Bṛihadīśhvara (Rājarājeśhvaram) temple, “a masterpiece of Rājarāja Chola,
architecture and engineering” Thanjavur

The temple at Gangaikoṇḍacholapuram, commemorating Rājendra Chola I
victory over north Indian rulers

Kandāriyā Mahādeva and Lakṣhmaṇa temples, “architectural Chandellas, Khajuraho
marvels among dozens of temples”

Temples with “intricately carved stone pillars, sculptures and Hoysalas — Belur,
panels”; three are UNESCO world heritage monuments Halebidu,
Somanathapura

Warangal fort with stone toraṇas; the Thousand Pillar temple Kākatīyas — Orugallu,
Hanamkonda

The Jagannātha temple at Puri, and (mid-13th century) the Eastern Gangas
Sun temple at Konark

Bhojeshwar temple, “an architectural marvel even though it King Bhoja, Bhojpur
was never completed”

Angkor Wat — “the largest religious monument in the world” Khmer king
Sūryavarman II,
Cambodia

Science and Līlāvatī, Bījagaṇita, Siddhāntaśhiromaṇi — “It would take Bhāskarāchārya (b.
mathematics Europe a few centuries to rediscover some of Bhāskarāchārya’s 1114)
pioneering techniques”

An encyclopaedic survey of Indian religion, philosophy, al-Bīrūnī
literature, geography and sciences; Patanjali’s Yogasūtras
translated into Arabic

Literature Gītagovindam, the story of Kṛiṣhṇa and Rādhā Jayadeva, at the Sena
court

Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra (architecture, town planning, temple King Bhoja of the
construction, sculpture, mechanical devices), plus treatises on Paramāras
governance, Sanskrit poetics, yoga and medicine

Mānasollāsa, an encyclopaedia “ranging from astronomy and Chālukya ruler
architecture to music, medicine, cooking, and games” Someśhvara III

Vachanas — short Kannada poems; Telugu literature under the Basavaṇṇa and others
Kākatīyas; Kannada under the Hoysalas

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

FIELD ACCOMPLISHMENT WHO, AND WHERE

Thought Viśhiṣhṭādvaita vedānta, and the Lingāyat movement with its Rāmānujāchārya;
Anubhava Maṇḍapa Basaveśhvara

Seafaring A naval expedition across the Bay of Bengal that defeated Rājendra Chola I, 1025
Śhrīvijaya and captured its capital; a diplomatic mission to
China

Tip: if you have to write this answer in an exam, group it the way the table does —
architecture, science, literature, thought, seafaring — and give two named examples
under each. Names and places score; adjectives do not.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 100
The Khyber Pass (Fig. 4.3), painted by a British military officer in about 1847

LET’S EXPLORE

Q1 Observe the sketch of the Khyber Pass (Fig. 4.3). What kind of terrain does it depict?

Bare, steep mountain country cut by one narrow valley floor. Look at what the painting
actually shows:

High rocky ridges on both sides, rising steeply and closing in on each other — the picture is
mostly rock and shadow, not sky.
Almost no vegetation — brown and grey slopes, scree and loose stone, no forest, no fields.
A single narrow, winding track along the valley bottom, pale and dusty like a dry
riverbed. It is the only easy way through.
A small watchtower or fort perched high on a crag on the right, above the track, and tiny
figures of men resting near the bottom — which tells you the scale: the cliffs are enormous,
the people are specks.

This is a defile — a long, narrow passage between mountains. The chapter calls it “one of the
main mountain passes through the Hindu Kush range”.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why this one pass mattered so much: a mountain wall stops armies and caravans
alike. Where a wall has a single gap, everything — invaders, traders, monks, ideas —
must funnel through that gap. That is why the chapter says the Hindu Shāhis’
resistance “made a difference, since they controlled the Khyber Pass”: holding the
gap meant holding the door to India.

Q2 What advantages would it offer to an army trying to reach the Indus plains? But
also, what dangers?

The advantage is that it is the one usable road; the danger is that it is the one usable road.
Both come from the same fact.

FOR AN ADVANTAGES DANGERS
INVADING
ARMY

The route itself A ready-made way through the Hindu Kush — no There is no alternative road. If
need to climb peaks or find a new pass. Beyond it the the pass is held or blocked, the
ground opens straight onto the Indus plains, which is campaign stops before it starts
exactly what Mahmūd wanted: after Ānandapāla’s
defeat “Mahmūd now had easy access to the Indus
plains and beyond”

The shape of Narrow ground protects your flanks — the enemy The same narrowness means
the ground cannot swing round and attack from the sides the army must move in a long
thin column. It cannot form a
battle line, and cavalry —
Mahmūd’s great strength —
cannot charge

The heights Whoever gets a watchtower on a crag first can see the An enemy on the ridges can roll
whole valley rocks and shoot arrows down on
you and you cannot reach him.
Ambush is the classic danger of
a defile

Supplies A short, known route means a predictable march Nothing grows there. Food,
fodder and water must be
carried; a slow column is easy to
cut off from behind

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Check it yourself: the same logic appears later in this very chapter. In Kāmarūpa in
1205, “the local population is said to have destroyed food and fodder, in effect
starving the invading army,” and Bakhtiyār Khiljī “escaped with only a handful of his
men”. Difficult ground plus a determined local population beats a big army.

Q3 Thinking of the caravans of traders that passed through the Khyber Pass for many
centuries, let’s ask the same questions about the advantages as well as dangers.

For traders the balance is the same, but the stakes are goods and lives rather than a
campaign.
Advantages.

It is the shortest link between two rich worlds. The chapter says that “for at least 2,500
years, it was also a major trade route, connecting the Subcontinent to Central Asia and
beyond”. Indian cotton, spices and sugar went out; horses, dried fruit, silver and Central
Asian goods came in.
One known road means known halts. Caravans could count on the same watering points,
camping grounds and toll posts year after year, and could travel together in large numbers
for safety.
Whoever ruled the pass had a reason to protect it. A ruler earns nothing from a road no
one dares use, so rulers policed it and taxed it.
It carried more than goods. It was “the route Buddhist scholars and monks travelled” — so
ideas, texts, art styles and languages moved along it too.

Dangers.

Robbers. A loaded caravan in a narrow gorge, watched from above, is the easiest target
there is.
The mountains themselves. Snow and cold in winter, landslides and flash floods in the
gorge, no fodder for pack animals, and long stretches without water.
War closes the road. The very route that made traders rich was the one armies used. When
the pass changed hands, trade stopped or paid a heavy toll.
Everything is in one place. Losing one caravan could mean losing a merchant’s whole
capital, which is why merchants organised themselves into guilds — the same guilds that,
elsewhere in this chapter, are strong enough to back Rājendra Chola’s naval expedition.

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THINK ABOUT IT — Page 101
Al-Bīrūnī on the Hindu Shāhiya dynasty
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We will meet later in this chapter the Persian scholar al-Bīrūnī, who accompanied
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Shāhiya dynasty is now extinct, and of the whole house there is no longer the
slightest remnant in existence. We must say that, in all their grandeur, they never
slackened in the ardent desire of doing that which is good and right, that they were
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men of noble sentiment and noble bearing.” What conclusions can we draw from
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this remark by someone in Mahmūd’s entourage?
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Their destruction was total.
whole ruling house ended. Al-Bīrūnī reports this as a loss, in a tone close to regret.

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Not everyone in the victor’s camp shared the victor’s outlook. Al-Bīrūnī was a scholar, not

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why it matters for reading history: two lines later in the same chapter, al-Bīrūnī
says that Mahmūd “utterly ruined the prosperity of the country” and that Indian
sciences “have retired far away from those parts of the country conquered by us”.
Notice “by us” — he is counting himself among the conquerors and still saying what
he saw. The same eyewitness gives us both the achievement of the Shāhis and the
cost of the campaigns.

Tip: when a question asks “what conclusions can we draw from this remark”, always
ask three things about the writer — who he was, whose side he was on, and what
he had to gain by writing it. Here the answer to the third question is “nothing”, and
that is what makes the passage valuable.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 103
The rebuilding of the Somanātha temple

LET’S EXPLORE

Q1 In later centuries, the Somanātha temple was rebuilt and destroyed again several
times; the existing temple was built in 1950 and inaugurated the next year by the
then President of India, Rajendra Prasad. Why do you think it was decided to fund
the construction entirely from public donations?

Because a temple rebuilt by the people themselves says something that a temple rebuilt
out of government funds cannot say. Several reasons point the same way.

It answers the destruction in kind. The temple had been destroyed and rebuilt “several
times”. If ordinary people fund the rebuilding, the message is that the shrine survives not
because one ruler ordered it but because a whole community wants it — which is much
harder to destroy.
It makes the temple belong to everybody. Money given by lakhs of small donors, from
every region and background, makes each of them part-owner of the building. The chapter
notes that the great temples of the past had grown rich “from the devotees’ offerings over
centuries” — public donation is the same old relationship, resumed.
India in 1950 had just become a Republic with a written Constitution. Under it the State
does not favour or fund one religion. Building a place of worship from voluntary donations
keeps that principle intact — the President could inaugurate the temple as a national event
without the State having paid for the shrine.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Public money had urgent claims. A country a few years past Partition needed its funds for
refugees, food, irrigation and schools. Voluntary donations let the temple rise without taking
from that.

The underlying idea: who pays for a monument decides what it means. Paid for by
a king, it is the king’s glory. Paid for by the State, it is a government project. Paid for
by the people, it is the people’s own act of memory — and that was the meaning
wanted here.

Try this: find out how your nearest large temple, mosque, church, gurudwara or
public library was funded — a ruler, a trust, a merchant family, or subscriptions from
ordinary people. Then ask what that choice was meant to say. It is the same question
in miniature.

In-text Question — Page 105
Bhāskarāchārya — a problem from the Līlāvatī

Q1 Here is an example from Līlāvatī — see if you can find the solution! Of a herd of
elephants, half and one-third of the half went into a cave, one-sixth and one-
seventh of one-sixth were drinking water from a river. One-eighth and one-ninth of
one-eighth were sporting in a pond full of lotuses. And the king of the elephants
was leading three female elephants. Tell me, how many elephants were there in the
herd?

The herd had 1008 elephants.
Step 1 — write each group as a fraction of the herd. Let the herd be x elephants.

In the cave: half and one-third of the half

= x/2 + (1/3 of x/2) = x/2 + x/6

At the river: one-sixth and one-seventh of one-sixth

= x/6 + (1/7 of x/6) = x/6 + x/42

In the pond: one-eighth and one-ninth of one-eighth

= x/8 + (1/9 of x/8) = x/8 + x/72

With the king elephant: 1 king + 3 females = 4

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Step 2 — add the fractions. The LCM of 2, 6, 6, 42, 8 and 72 is 504.

1/2 = 252/504 1/6 = 84/504 1/6 = 84/504

1/42 = 12/504 1/8 = 63/504 1/72 = 7/504

Total = (252 + 84 + 84 + 12 + 63 + 7)/504 = 502/504

Step 3 — the 4 elephants left over are the rest of the herd.

x − 502x/504 = 4

2x/504 = 4

x = 4 × 504 ÷ 2 = 4 × 252

x = 1008

Step 4 — check it, group by group.

GROUP WORKING ELEPHANTS

In the cave 1008/2 = 504, and 504/3 = 168 504 + 168 = 672

At the river 1008/6 = 168, and 168/7 = 24 168 + 24 = 192

In the pond 1008/8 = 126, and 126/9 = 14 126 + 14 = 140

The king and his three 1+3 4

Total 672 + 192 + 140 + 4 1008 ✓

Why 1008 and not some awkward number: every division in the puzzle must come
out whole — you cannot have two-thirds of an elephant. So the herd must be
divisible by 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 and 9 together, that is by 504. Bhāskarāchārya chose 1008 = 2
× 504, and 1008 is also an auspicious number in Indian tradition. That is the craft of
the Līlāvatī: the arithmetic is set up so that the answer falls out clean.

Did you know? The chapter says Bhāskarāchārya “had a gift for poetry and used this
talent to make his writings enjoyable to scholars and students alike”. This is why —
the sum is a story about elephants, not a page of fractions. Fig. 4.7 shows another
Līlāvatī problem, drawn in a 17th-century manuscript with a peacock on a pillar and a
snake below.

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In-text Question — Page 107
‘Further South’ — recalling the Chālukyas from the previous chapter

Q1 From the previous chapter, do you remember the Western Chālukyas (with their
capital at Kalyāṇī or Kalyāṇa) and the Eastern Chālukyas (Fig. 4.10)?

Yes — they are the two branches of the Chālukya family, and in this chapter both of them
come to an end.

WESTERN CHĀLUKYAS EASTERN CHĀLUKYAS

Capital Kalyāṇī or Kalyāṇa Vengi

Where (Fig. The Deccan, north of the Kākatīyas; “its rule extending The coastal Andhra country,
4.10) at some point to the Narmada River in the north” between the Godāvarī and the
Krishna

What Worn down by “fierce wars” with the Cholas over “Gradually absorbed into the Chola
happens to Vengi, they “faded away”; the Kākatīyas and Hoysalas sphere of influence through
them here grew stronger and eventually replaced them marriage alliances”

Two more things to keep straight.

Their ruler Someśhvara III wrote the Mānasollāsa in the 12th century — an encyclopaedia of
astronomy, architecture, music, medicine, cooking and games, and a guide to a king’s duties
towards his subjects.
The Chaulukyas (or Solankis) of Gujarat, met later in the chapter, are a different dynasty
despite the similar name. The chapter warns about this in its DON’T MISS OUT box on page
115.

Why Vengi caused so much fighting: the Eastern Chālukyas held the fertile delta
country of coastal Andhra. Once marriage alliances pulled them towards the Cholas,
whoever controlled Vengi controlled both rich farmland and the road along the east
coast — so the Cholas and the Western Chālukyas fought over it until, as the chapter
says, the Western Chālukyas had nothing left to fight with.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 112

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An ancient painting of Rājendra Chola with his guru (Fig. 4.14, Bṛihadīśhvara temple)
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LET’S EXPLORE

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s m painting Fig. 4.14, can you make out who is the king and who is the guru?
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Yes — the crowned figure on the right is the

a g la a different set of signs, and you can read them off the
guru. The painter has given each of them
wall painting one by one.

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WHAT YOU LEFT FIGURE — THE GURU RIGHT FIGURE — THE KING

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CAN SEE

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Head Hair piled up in a coiled knot of matted A tall, elaborate crown of stacked bands and

a g locks (jaṭā), the mark of an ascetic a fan-like top — a makuṭa, worn only by
royalty and by gods

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Face Older, with a beard, cheeks lined; the eyes Young and beardless, eyes wide open and
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meditation

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Ornaments Very few — a plain string at the neck Heavy hanging earrings, several necklaces,

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bands across the chest

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Placement Placed in front, lower down and closer to Stands a little behind and to the side, turned

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the viewer — the position of honour the guru

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Why a painter needed these signs: a wall painting has no caption. Indian painters
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therefore used a fixed visual language — matted hair, beard and bare body mean a
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renouncer; crown, earrings and jewels mean a ruler. Anyone entering the temple

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could identify the two figures at a glance, which is exactly what you have just done.

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Where it is: the painting is on a wall of the Bṛihadīśhvara temple at Thanjavur —

m a s em has flaked and
the temple built by Rājendra’s father, Rājarāja. Much of the surface
. o over a thousand years, so read the outlines rather
cstained a gl than the colours.
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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 What does the king’s posture and general attitude express?

Humility, and the willing submission of power to knowledge. This is a king who has
conquered northern Sri Lanka, taken tribute from the Gangā plains and sent a fleet across the
Bay of Bengal — and in this picture he is the one standing quietly, a step behind, listening.

He gives the guru the front place. In a royal portrait the king is normally the largest,
foremost figure. Here the ascetic is set in front, and the king has stepped back. That reversal
is deliberate.
He is turned towards the guru, not towards us. His body and gaze are angled inwards; his
attention is on his teacher, not on his own audience.
His face is calm and open. No frown, no commanding gesture, no weapon — only the
crown and jewels remind us who he is.
He stands; the guru is seated. Standing in a teacher’s presence is a mark of respect that
any student in India will still recognise.

What the painting is saying: that a king’s greatness is measured partly by whom he
bows to. Chola kings were “predominantly Shaivites”, and this fresco places the
spiritual guide above the political ruler — the same king who is a conqueror outside
the temple is a disciple inside it.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 117

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Minhaj al-Siraj Jūzjānī’s account of Bakhtiyār Khiljī’s campaign, in the Tabakāt-i-Nāsirī

LET’S EXPLORE

Q1 Writing some 60 years after Bakhtiyār Khiljī’s campaign through Bihar, the historian
Minhaj al-Siraj Jūzjānī, recorded in his Tabakāt-i-Nāsirī how Bakhtiyar’s forces
captured a ‘fortress’ and “acquired great booty.” He adds, “The greater number of
the inhabitants of that place were Brāhmans, and all those Brāhmans had their
heads shaven; and they were all slain. There were a great number of books there. …
It was found that the whole of that fortress and city was a college, and in [their]
tongue, they call a college bihār.” Remembering the meaning of vihāra and noting
that Nālandā was known in ancient inscriptions as ‘Nālandā Mahāvihāra’, can you
find two more clues in the above passage to identify the ‘fortress’ near the Nālandā
university? (Hint: Who do you think these ‘Brāhmans’ actually were?)

The ‘fortress’ was not a fort at all — it was a Buddhist monastery-university, almost
certainly a mahāvihāra of the Nālandā region. The word bihār in the last line is Jūzjānī’s
rendering of vihāra, a Buddhist monastery, and Nālandā’s own name in ancient inscriptions was
Nālandā Mahāvihāra. Beyond that word, the passage gives two further clues.

CLUE IN THE WHAT IT REALLY TELLS US
PASSAGE

Clue 1 — “all those Brahmins did not shave their heads; Buddhist monks did, as part of their ordination.
Brāhmans had their Jūzjānī, a foreigner unfamiliar with Indian religions, simply used the only word he
heads shaven” knew for Indian religious men. The shaven heads identify the inhabitants as monks,
and the place as a monastery

Clue 2 — “There were A fortress holds soldiers, weapons and grain, not a great number of books. A building
a great number of full of manuscripts is a library, and a library that size belongs to a teaching institution
books there” — which the passage itself then confirms: “the whole of that fortress and city was a
college”

A third clue, if you want one: the phrase “the whole of that fortress and city” — the walled
complex was not one building but a campus large enough to be called a city. That fits Nālandā,
whose library alone was “spread over three multi-storey buildings” and “contained lakhs of
manuscripts”.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the mistake happened, and why it matters: Jūzjānī wrote about 60 years
after the event, in Persian, about a country and religions he did not know. He saw
high walls and called it a fortress; he saw religious men and called them Brahmins.
Reading a source like this means separating what the writer saw from what he
assumed. What he saw — shaven heads, books, a walled college called bihār — is
exactly what identifies the place. What he assumed — that it was a fort held by
Brahmins — is what misleads.

Did you know? The chapter adds that the province of Bihar takes its name from this
very word, vihāra — the land was so full of monasteries that it was named after
them.

LET’S EXPLORE — Page 121
Basavaṇṇa’s Anubhava Maṇḍapa at Kalyāṇī

LET’S EXPLORE

Q1 In Kalyāṇī, Basavaṇṇa established an Anubhava Maṇḍapa (literally, ‘pavilion of
experience’), where men and women from every social, economic, religious or
linguistic background, including saints and philosophers, could assemble to discuss
all aspects of life, including moral values and religion. Why, in your opinion, did
Basava want people from all backgrounds to come together and exchange ideas?

Because his whole teaching was that a person’s worth lies inside them, and an assembly
open to everyone was that teaching put into practice. The chapter says he founded the
Lingāyat movement, “which rejected caste distinctions and ritualism and, instead, taught
personal devotion and dedicated work”, and that “looking at the inner value of a person rather
than his or her social rank, Basavaṇṇa promoted the equal spiritual potential of all men and
women”.
Four reasons follow from that.

A belief has to be lived, not just announced. Saying that rank does not matter changes
nothing if the people who say it still meet only their own kind. Seating a washerman and a
scholar in the same hall proves the point in a way no sermon can.
Truth is tested by being questioned. The pavilion is called ‘of experience’ — anubhava.
Ideas were brought there to be examined by people with different lives behind them, not
simply handed down by authority.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The people left out of learning had the most to add. Formal learning was closed to many,
especially women and those low in the social order. Their daily experience of work and
hardship was a kind of knowledge the learned did not have — and the vachanas, short
poems in plain Kannada rather than Sanskrit, were written so that they could join in.
He wanted a community, not a following. A movement that rejects ritual and priesthood
needs somewhere its members can settle questions together. The Anubhava Maṇḍapa was
that place.

The connection to the rest of the chapter: Basavaṇṇa was a royal minister at
Kalyāṇī who “left his position to become a social and religious reformer”. He gave up
rank himself before asking others to ignore it — which is why the chapter groups
him with Rāmānujāchārya as thinkers who “helped make spirituality more personal
and accessible, breaking down some of the existing social barriers”.

Q2 If something like an Anubhava Maṇḍapa existed today, what important topics do
you think people ought to discuss there?

This asks for your own view, so answer it in your own words — but build it properly.
Method. Choose topics that meet three tests: (1) they affect everybody, not one group; (2) they
cannot be settled by an expert alone, because they involve values and choices; (3) they are
better for hearing many kinds of people. Then, for each topic, say who should be in the room
and what the discussion should try to decide.
What a good answer needs. Three or four topics, each with one line on why it belongs in a
pavilion of experience rather than in a classroom or an office; at least one topic drawn from your
own locality; and a closing line linking back to Basavaṇṇa’s principle that every person’s
experience counts.

Page 18 of 39

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co m
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Sample answer: If an Anubhava Maṇḍapa met in my town, I would want four things

m l a se
discussed. First, water — who gets it, who has to carry it, and what happens when
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the borewell
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aschool; this can only be understood if girls, boys, mothers and teachers all speak in
the same room. Third, our waste and our lake or river — the sweepers, the
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fisherfolk and the shopkeepers each see a different part of the problem, and no
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municipal plan works unless all three are heard. Fourth, how we speak to people
aglanguages, especially online; this is a question of
of other castes, religions and
values, so it needs experience, not expertise. Basavaṇṇa held that a person’s worth

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is inner, not social. A pavilion today would honour that by making sure the people

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usually spoken about are the ones doing the speaking.
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civil society today?

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Four lessons, each of which the Anubhava Maṇḍapa demonstrates rather than merely
recommends.
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LESSON WHAT BASAVAṆṆA DID WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TODAY

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a person rather than his or her social before deciding whether their opinion

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2. Make the meeting Men and women “from every social, A discussion is only as fair as its guest list.
genuinely open economic, religious or linguistic If the same few always speak, the
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force or rank religion” before answering it

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Why these lessons still hold: the Anubhava Maṇḍapa worked on a simple
assumption — that nobody has the whole picture, so a decision improves when
more kinds of experience go into it. That is also the assumption behind a village
sabhā, a school parliament and a public consultation. Basavaṇṇa did not invent
equality by decree; he built a room where it could be practised, and the practice
changed people’s minds.

Before we move on … — Page 123
The chapter in five points

BEFORE WE MOVE ON …

Q1 The 11th and 12th centuries marked a turning point in Indian history (hence the
chapter’s title).

This is the sentence the whole chapter is built to prove, and the title is the clue: a tide turns — it
does not stop.
What turned. Before these two centuries, foreign incursions had been repelled or absorbed;
the Arabs’ raids, as the last chapter said, “had little overall impact on India”. After these two
centuries, a foreign dynasty is ruling from Delhi. Between the two lies the change: “invasions by
Turkic powers penetrated much deeper into north India, despite stubborn resistance from
native kingdoms.”
Three markers of the turn.

1008 — Ānandapāla’s defeat opens “easy access to the Indus plains and beyond”.
1192 — the Second Battle of Tarain, after which Muhammad Ghūrī takes Delhi.
1206 — Muhammad Ghūrī and Bakhtiyār Khiljī both die, and “their territory in north India
remained under the control of Muhammad’s generals”. The Delhi Sultanate follows, in Grade
8.

Why ‘turning point’ and not ‘disaster’ or ‘conquest’: because the chapter
measures both sides of the balance. The invasions “altered the power equations in a
profound way”, yet trade grew, temples rose, books were written, and most of India
was never under Turkic rule. A turning point is where a story changes direction —
not where it ends.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 In the 11th century, Mahmūd of Ghazni, after defeating the Hindu Shāhis,
conducting many raids into north India, extracting much plunder, destroying
temples and taking away prisoners. He however did not seek to establish his rule in
India.

Mahmūd’s pattern was raid and return — never settle. The chapter gives the sequence and
the evidence for it.

STAGE WHAT HAPPENED

Clearing the The Ghaznavids overran the Hindu Shāhis, defeating Jayapāla and then, in 1008, Ānandapāla —
door even though Ānandapāla had “the support of several rulers from north India”. The battle was
fought in northern Punjab

The raids “In all, Mahmūd conducted 17 campaigns in India; after each one, he would return to Ghazni with
huge amounts of booty.” Mathura (1018), then Kannauj, then Somnath (1026)

The human “Not only destruction and plunder, but also the slaughter of tens of thousands of Indian civilians
cost and the capture of numerous prisoners, including children, who were taken to be sold on slave
markets of Central Asia”

The limit “Mahmūd did not attempt to establish a permanent base in India beyond Punjab.” He died at
Ghazni in 1030, aged 58

Resistance was real, even when it failed. He “met with strong resistance (from the Chandellas
of central India, among others) and was close to defeat on a few occasions”; at Somnath there
was “strong resistance from the locals and severe losses to his army”. And after his death his
nephew Sālār Masūd was stopped at Bahraich by the local ruler Suheldev, and fell in the battle
— though here the chapter is careful about its sources, saying this rests on “oral history and… a
17th-century Muslim chronicle”.

Note on the sentence itself: the book’s bullet has a small slip — “after defeating the
Hindu Shāhis, conducting many raids…” never reaches its main verb. Read it as:
Mahmūd defeated the Hindu Shāhis, conducted many raids, extracted plunder, destroyed
temples and took away prisoners.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 In the 12th century, Muhammad Ghurī and his generals conquered Delhi and large
parts of the Gangetic plains, all the way to Bengal, causing much destruction.
Important centres of learning, in particular, were left in ruins.

This is the second invasion — and the one that stayed. The difference is stated in one line of
the chapter: “Unlike Mahmūd, who merely plundered and withdrew, he sought territorial
conquest.”
The sequence.

The Ghūrids, once vassals of the Ghaznavids, took Ghazni for themselves. Muhammad Ghūrī
“soon brought parts of Punjab and Sindh under his rule”.
1178 — his push into Gujarat failed; he was defeated at the foot of Mount Abu by the
Chaulukyas.
1191 — Pṛithvīrāja III defeated him at Tarain (today’s Taraori in Haryana).
1192 — “within a year, Muhammad returned with a larger army”. In the Second Battle of
Tarain, “which witnessed fierce fighting”, he defeated Pṛithvīrāja and executed him, and went
on to capture Delhi.
He returned to Ghazni but “left behind trusted military commanders to consolidate his gains
— most notably his general Qutb-ud-din Aibak, who later founded the Delhi Sultanate”.
Aibak “encountered much resistance”, but expanded the territory; his commander Bakhtiyār
Khiljī conquered Bihar and Bengal, catching the Sena ruler unaware at Nādīya around
1203–04.

The centres of learning. On his way to Bengal, Bakhtiyār Khiljī “destroyed large Buddhist
monasteries and universities such as Nālandā and Vikramaśhilā, collecting huge booty and
slaughtering large numbers of monks”. The chapter records the historians’ verdict: “There is a
consensus among historians of Buddhism that this destruction of its large centres of learning
precipitated the decline of Buddhism in India, although a few other factors may have also
played a role.”

Why the conquest did not go further: Bakhtiyār’s attempt on Tibet ended in
Kāmarūpa in 1205, where the local ruler’s forces “inflicted severe losses on his army”
and the local population “destroyed food and fodder, in effect starving the invading
army”. He “escaped with only a handful of his men”. In 1206 Muhammad Ghūrī was
killed and Bakhtiyār Khiljī was assassinated, “apparently by his own men”.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q4 Still, large parts of northern India and all of south India remained outside the hold
of the Turkic invaders. Powerful kingdoms often waged war against each other,
though alliances were not uncommon.

This is the corrective the chapter insists on: the invasions are the loudest part of the story,
not the largest part.
Who stayed free. The whole of the south — Cholas, Pāṇḍyas, Kākatīyas, Hoysalas, Western
Chālukyas — was never touched by the Ghaznavids or the Ghūrids. So were the Eastern
Gangas in Kalinga and Kāmarūpa in the northeast, which actually defeated Bakhtiyār Khiljī.
Wars between neighbours. These were constant, and the chapter does not soften them: the
Cholas and the Western Chālukyas fought “fierce wars” over Vengi; the Eastern Gangas “clashed”
with the Cholas; Pṛithvīrāja III “waged many battles with neighbouring kings, such as those of
Gujarat and Malwa”; the Cholas’ “frequent and extensive conflicts… drained their treasury and
contributed to the decline of the empire”.
But alliances too, and of three different kinds.

Marriage alliances. The Eastern Gangas “had matrimonial alliances with the Cholas”; the
Eastern Chālukyas were drawn into the Chola orbit the same way; the Sri Lankan king
Vijayabāhu I married a princess from Kalinga.
Coalitions against an invader. Ānandapāla fought Mahmūd with “the support of several
rulers from north India”, and King Bhoja of the Paramāras “was among the Indian rulers
who sent their forces to assist the Hindu Shāhi rulers against Mahmūd of Ghazni”. As ‘Taking
Stock’ puts it, “on a few occasions, native rulers even came together to form a coalition
against a foreign invader.”
Alliances of trade. Rājendra’s naval expedition was “conducted with the support of many
Indian merchant guilds”.

Why both things are true at once: these were independent kingdoms, not
provinces of one state. Independent neighbours compete — over land, ports and
trade routes — and they also cooperate when a bigger threat appears. Reading only
the wars gives you a picture of chaos; reading only the alliances gives you a picture
that never existed. The chapter asks you to hold both.

Q5 Internal and external trade, art and literature, and monumental architecture
continued to thrive, and elements of Indian culture travelled abroad, especially to
Southeast Asia and China.

The continuity column of the chapter, in four parts.

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co m
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WHAT THE CHAPTER’S EVIDENCE

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CONTINUED
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Trade
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growing.” Coins and pottery from those regions have been found at many west-coast sites,
which had “many seaports as well as shipyards manufacturing seafaring ships”. The
merchant guilds “survived and adapted”

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The economy Agriculture stayed “the mainstay of the economy — which remains true even today”: rice

l a
ag of seasonal rains”
underneath and barley, saffron, spices, ginger, wheat, cotton — and rulers maintained irrigation works
to “mitigate the vagaries

Art and literature Bhoja’s treatises; Someśhvara III’s Mānasollāsa; Jayadeva’s Gītagovindam;
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Bhāskarāchārya’s mathematics; Telugu, Kannada and Sanskrit all flourishing — “not only

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in Sanskrit but also in regional languages”

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Monumental Khajuraho’s Kandāriyā Mahādeva and Lakṣhmaṇa temples; the Hoysala temples;

a Warangal fort; the Chola temples at Thanjavur and Gangaikoṇḍacholapuram; the
Jagannātha temple at Puri

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And travelling abroad. “External trade was also a vehicle for the spread of Indian culture in

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Southeast Asia and China.” The clearest single proof is Angkor Wat in Cambodia — built in the
a
12th century by the Khmer king Sūryavarman II, the largest religious monument in the world,
dedicated to Viṣhṇu, inscribed in Old Khmer and Sanskrit, carved with scenes from the

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Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata, its five śhikharas standing for Mount Meru — and later, after a

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change of political power, turned into a Buddhist temple.
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m you know? Indian influence travelled in both directions, and peacefully. A a g
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agl Śhrīvijaya ruler donated to Nālandā and asked the Pāla king for land to build
another monastery there — “the request was granted, as a copper-plate found at
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Nālandā recorded.” The empire Rājendra attacked in 1025 was also an empire that
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funded Indian universities.

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Questions and activities — Pages 123–124
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End-of-chapter exercise

Q1 Why is the period under consideration in this chapter regarded as a major
transition in Indian history? Give two examples each of change and continuity from
this period.

Because for the first time a foreign power came not only to raid India but to rule part of it
— and yet the rest of Indian life carried on largely as before. The chapter’s own words: “Like
every transitional period, this one saw both change and continuity.”
Two examples of change.

1. Raiding became ruling. Mahmūd of Ghazni made 17 campaigns and went home each time;
he “did not attempt to establish a permanent base in India beyond Punjab”. Muhammad
Ghūrī, after the Second Battle of Tarain in 1192, captured Delhi and “sought territorial
conquest”, leaving Qutb-ud-din Aibak behind to hold it — “the start of foreign rule in parts of
north India”.
2. Great centres of learning were destroyed. Bakhtiyār Khiljī destroyed Nālandā and
Vikramaśhilā. Historians of Buddhism agree that this “precipitated the decline of Buddhism
in India”. This change was permanent: those universities never reopened.

Two examples of continuity.

1. Trade never stopped. “India’s trade with China and Southeast Asia kept growing during this
period,” and the merchant guilds “survived and adapted”. Agriculture remained the mainstay
of the economy throughout.
2. Building and learning went on. The Hoysala temples at Belur and Halebidu, Khajuraho’s
Kandāriyā Mahādeva temple, the Warangal fort, the Puri Jagannātha temple — and
Bhāskarāchārya’s Līlāvatī (1150) and Someśhvara III’s Mānasollāsa — all belong to these same
two centuries.

Two more of each, if you need them: change — Islam entering India’s religious
landscape as a new creed; Muhammad Ghūrī’s more centralised administration with
temporary land assignments. Continuity — Indian culture still travelling abroad
(Angkor Wat, the mission to China); new thinkers still appearing (Rāmānujāchārya,
Basaveśhvara).

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 Observe Fig. 3.27 in the previous chapter and draw a similar ‘star of dynasties’
gathering all or most of the dynasties that appear in this chapter.

Method. Fig. 3.27 puts ‘Chief Dynasties’ in the centre and sends out arms, each pointing roughly
in the geographical direction of the dynasties named on it. Do the same here: write Chief
Dynasties, 11th–12th centuries in the middle, then draw six or seven arms and place each
dynasty on the arm that points towards its homeland (use Fig. 4.4 and Fig. 4.10 to get the
directions right). Keep the invaders on the north-west arm — that is where they came from.
What a good star must contain: every dynasty the chapter actually discusses, each on the
correct arm, with its capital in brackets so the star doubles as a revision sheet.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

ARM (DIRECTION) DYNASTIES TO WRITE ON CAPITAL
IT

North-west Hindu Shāhis Afghanistan to Punjab

Ghaznavids Ghazna

Ghūrids Ghūr, then Ghazni

West Chaulukyas (Solankis) Aṇahilavāḍa

Chāhamānas (Chauhāns) Ajayameru

Centre Paramāras Dhārā

Chandellas Mahotsavanagara (Khajuraho region)

East Senas Nādīya

Eastern Gangas Kalinga

Kāmarūpa Prāgjyotiṣhapura

Deccan Western Chālukyas Kalyāṇī

Eastern Chālukyas Vengi

Kākatīyas Orugallu

Hoysalas Velāpura, Dvārasamudra

Far south Cholas Tanjāvūr, Gangaikoṇḍacholapuram,
Kānchī

Pāṇḍyas Madurai

Overseas (add a dotted Śhrīvijaya; the Khmers of Sumatra/Malaysia; Angkor
arm) Cambodia

Tip: add two faded names on the edge of the star — the Pālas and the Gurjara-
Pratihāras. Both are still in this chapter, but only as powers in decline: the Senas
replace the Pālas in Bengal, and Mahmūd surprises “one of the last Pratihāra rulers”
at Kannauj. Showing them fading is more accurate than leaving them out.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 Taking a map of the Subcontinent, draw a geographical tour that covers all or most
dynasties in this chapter (you may draw inspiration from some of the ‘travels’ the
chapter’s narration follows).

Method. The chapter itself is written as a journey — it starts at the Khyber Pass, comes down
the Ganga, turns east to Bengal, follows the coast south to Kalinga, crosses the Deccan, reaches
Tamil Nadu, then goes “Back to the North”. Trace that same route on an outline map of the
Subcontinent, marking each capital with a dot and joining them with a numbered line. Use Fig.
4.4 and Fig. 4.10 to place the dots correctly.
What a good tour needs: a numbered route, every stop labelled with place — dynasty — one
thing that happened there, and a small key. Do not draw modern state boundaries; use rivers and
coastlines as your landmarks, as the book’s maps do.

Sample answer — a fifteen-stop tour:

1. Khyber Pass — the door into the Subcontinent, held by the Hindu Shāhis.
2. Ghazna — capital of the Ghaznavids; Mahmūd’s 17 campaigns begin here.
3. Northern Punjab — Ānandapāla defeated, 1008.
4. Mathura (1018), then Kannauj — temples destroyed, the last Pratihāra ruler
surprised.
5. Somnath, Saurashtra (1026) — the Śhiva temple destroyed and looted.
6. Aṇahilavāḍa — the Chaulukyas; Muhammad Ghūrī defeated near Mount Abu,
1178.
7. Ajayameru (Ajmer) — the Chāhamānas; Pṛithvīrāja III.
8. Tarain and Dhillikā (Delhi) — 1191 and 1192.
9. Nālandā and Vikramaśhilā, Bihar — destroyed by Bakhtiyār Khiljī.
10. Nādīya, Bengal — the Senas, and Jayadeva’s Gītagovindam.
11. Prāgjyotiṣhapura, Kāmarūpa — Bakhtiyār Khiljī defeated, 1205.
12. Puri, Kalinga — the Eastern Gangas and the Jagannātha temple.
13. Orugallu (Warangal) — the Kākatīyas and their toraṇas; then Kalyāṇī, the
Western Chālukyas, and Vengi, the Eastern Chālukyas.
14. Belur and Halebidu — the Hoysalas; and Madurai, the Pāṇḍyas.
15. Thanjavur and Gangaikoṇḍacholapuram — the Cholas; from the port of
Nāgapaṭṭinam draw a dotted sea line across the Bay of Bengal to Śhrīvijaya.

Finish by returning inland to Dhārā (Paramāras) and Khajuraho (Chandellas), so
that central India is not left out.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Why a tour teaches better than a list: once the dynasties are dots joined by a line,

m l a se
you can see why certain places kept being fought over — Kannauj and Delhi sit on
o
m .c the north-west into the Ganga plain, and Vengi sitsagbetween the
the road from

l a se and the Deccan. Geography explains a great deal of this chapter’s history.
ag
Cholas

o m
e
. c
mSoutheast Asia, can you calculate the ag
s
With the help of a map of India and
la I’s fleet of ships had to navigate to reach their
Q4

a g
approximate distance that Rājendra
objective?

co m
em.

m l as
.co a g
About 3,000 kilometres one way — roughly 6,000 km there and back. The chapter gives no

s em
figure, so you have to work it out from a map. Here is how.
a
l 1 — fix the starting point. The Cholas’ great port on the Coromandel coast was
gStep
a Nāgapaṭṭinam, “then an important port of the Cholas”. That is where a fleet bound for
m a s
o agl
Southeast Asia would sail from.
. c
s e
Step 2 — fix the objective. The target was m the Śhrīvijaya capital, and the quarrel was over “one
a g la the Strait of Malacca (a narrow strip of sea between
of the sea routes [that] passed through
Malaysia and the Indonesian island of Sumatra), which the Śhrīvijaya king controlled”. So the

m
fleet had to cross the Bay of Bengal to Sumatra and then run down the Strait.

. co
e
Step 3 — measure in two legs, using the scale bar. Lay a thread along the sea route on the
m
m l as
.co g
map, then straighten it against the scale bar.

em a
a s
a gl Leg 1: Nāgapaṭṭinam → northern tip of Sumatra ≈ 1,800 km
Leg 2: northern Sumatra → down the Strait of Malacca to southern Sumatra ≈ 1,400 km
se m
m
cokm g l a
. a
em
Total one way ≈ 1,800 + 1,400 = 3,200
a s
agl
Round trip ≈ 2 × 3,200 = about 6,400 km

c o m
.
Step 4 — sanity-check it another way. Nāgapaṭṭinam is near 11°N, 80°E; northern Sumatra is
near 6°N, 95°E. One degree of latitude is about 111 km, and near the m
s e equator one degree of

. c
longitude la + (5 × 111)²] ≈ 1,700–1,800
om is nearly as much. So the crossing is roughly √[(15 ×ag108)²
a s emkm — which matches leg 1.
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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What the number tells you: an 11th-century fleet crossed about 1,800 km of open
sea with no land in sight, then fought a war at the far end, then sailed home — and
did it well enough that the expedition “seems to have achieved its objectives”. That is
why the chapter calls the Cholas masters of the seas. It also explains why they
needed the shipyards and seaports the chapter mentions, and why merchant guilds
backed the voyage: this was as much a trade operation as a military one.

Tip: give your answer as a range (“about 3,000 km”), not an exact figure. Measuring a
curved sea route off a small map is always approximate, and the honest answer says
so.

Q5 Match these two pairs: (a) Eastern Gangas (b) Chandellas (c) Paramāras (d) Hoysalas
(e) Cholas — (i) Belur (ii) Bṛihadīśhvara temple (iii) Konark Sun temple (iv) Kandāriyā
Mahādeva temple (v) Bhojeshwar temple

The matched pairs.

DYNASTY MONUMENT WHY — FROM THE CHAPTER

(a) Eastern (iii) Konark Sun “This dynasty initiated the construction of the Jagannātha
Gangas temple temple at Puri, and, in the mid-13th century, of the grand Sun
temple at Konark”

(b) (iv) Kandāriyā The Kandariya Mahādeva and Lakṣhmaṇa temples were
Chandellas Mahādeva temple “architectural marvels among dozens of temples constructed at
Khajuraho by the Chandellas during these two centuries”

(c) (v) Bhojeshwar King Bhoja of the Paramāras “also built the impressive
Paramāras temple Bhojeshwar Temple, which remains an architectural marvel even
though it was never completed”

(d) Hoysalas (i) Belur Velāpura — “today’s Belur” — was a Hoysala capital, and “the
temples at Belur and Halebidu are particularly famous”

(e) Cholas (ii) Bṛihadīśhvara Rājarāja Chola “built the Bṛihadīśhvara (also known as
temple Rājarājeśhvaram, after Rājarāja) temple at Thanjavur, a
masterpiece of architecture and engineering”

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Tip for matching questions: start with the pairs that carry a name inside them.
Bhojeshwar must go with Bhoja, that is the Paramāras; Rājarāja built the
Bṛihadīśhvara, so that is the Cholas. Cross those off, and only three remain — of
which Belur is a place you already met as a Hoysala capital. The last two then fall into
place on their own.

Notice what the list is really showing: five dynasties, five different regions —
Odisha, Bundelkhand, Malwa, Karnataka and the Kāveri delta — and every one of
them building on a grand scale in the very centuries when north-west India was
being raided. That is the chapter’s argument about continuity, compressed into one
exercise.

Q6 Working in groups, compare the dynasties in this chapter and in the preceding one;
create a table to list the dynasties present in both, those that disappear from the
preceding period, and those that appear in this chapter’s period.

Method. Split the group in two: one half lists every dynasty discussed in Chapter 3 (6th–10th
centuries), the other half every dynasty discussed in Chapter 4. Then put the two lists side by
side and sort each name into one of three columns. Use the chapter maps (Fig. 3.27, Fig. 4.4,
Fig. 4.10) so nobody is missed. Count a dynasty as “present in both” only if the book actually
discusses it in both chapters, not merely mentions the name.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

PRESENT IN BOTH CHAPTERS GONE BY THIS NEW IN THIS
CHAPTER CHAPTER

Chālukyas — Western (Kalyāṇī) and Eastern Puṣhyabhūtis (Vardhanas) of Hindu Shāhis
(Vengi) Kannauj

Cholas Kārkoṭas of Kashmir Ghaznavids

Pāṇḍyas Rāṣhṭrakūṭas Ghūrids

Kāmarūpa (the Varmans in Chapter 3) Pallavas of Kānchī Senas

Pālas — but only in decline; the Senas take over Cheras Eastern Gangas
Bengal

Gurjara-Pratihāras — only as “one of the last Kākatīyas
Pratihāra rulers” at Kannauj

Hoysalas

Paramāras

Chāhamānas (Chauhāns)

Chaulukyas (Solankis) of
Gujarat

Chandellas

Three patterns your group should write under the table.

The three great powers of the Tripartite Struggle are all gone or going. Rāṣhṭrakūṭas
vanish, Pālas fade before the Senas, Pratihāras survive only as “the last”. The contest for
Kannauj exhausted all three.
New dynasties are mostly former vassals. The Paramāras were “originally vassals of the
Pratihāras and the Rāṣhṭrakūṭas”; the Ghūrids “were earlier vassals of the Ghaznavids”; the
Hoysalas “broke away from Chālukya overlordship”. When an overlord weakens, his
subordinates become kings.
The far south is the most stable region. Cholas and Pāṇḍyas run right through both
chapters — and by the 13th century even the Cholas are “absorbed by the Pāṇḍyas”.

Fair warning while you sort: Chapter 3’s THINK ABOUT IT box already names the
Paramāras, Chāhamānas and Gangas as dynasties “we will meet… in the next
chapter”. They are named there but not discussed there — so they belong in the
‘new in this chapter’ column.

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q7 Using the chapter and any additional reading, prepare a short note explaining (1)
why centres of learning like Nālandā were important; (2) how their destruction may
have affected education and culture in India.

Note: Nālandā and what its loss cost
1. Why such centres mattered.

They were universities, not just monasteries. Jūzjānī’s own account, quoted in the chapter,
says of the place his army took: “It was found that the whole of that fortress and city was a
college.” Nālandā’s ancient name was Nālandā Mahāvihāra — a great vihāra that was also a
seat of study.
They held the books. Nālandā’s library was “spread over three multi-storey buildings” and
“contained lakhs of manuscripts”. Before printing, a manuscript library was the memory of a
civilisation; a text existing in a handful of copies could be lost forever.
They were international. The Chinese pilgrims Yijing and Xuanzang “spent some time
there, studying manuscripts and selecting many to take back to China”. Tibetan scholars
were “both teaching and studying there”. A Śhrīvijaya ruler from Southeast Asia funded a
monastery there, with the Pāla king’s permission recorded on a copper-plate.
They trained the teachers. Scholars who studied there went out to teach elsewhere, so one
centre supplied learning to a whole region for generations.

2. How their destruction affected education and culture.

Buddhism lost its institutional base. “There is a consensus among historians of Buddhism
that this destruction of its large centres of learning precipitated the decline of Buddhism in
India, although a few other factors may have also played a role.” Note the honesty of that
sentence — the destruction is agreed to be the trigger, but the chapter does not claim it was
the only cause.
Texts were lost, and knowledge migrated. “After Bakhtiyār Khiljī’s attack, the library is said
to have burned for months. Tibetan scholars… fled back to Tibet with as many manuscripts
as they could carry.” Much of what survived of this learning survived outside India — in Tibet
and China.
Learning moved away from the war zone. Al-Bīrūnī had already noticed this happening in
the west a century and a half earlier: “Indian sciences have retired far away from those parts
of the country conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand cannot yet reach; to
Kashmir, Varanasi, and other places.”
The chain of teaching was broken. The saddest detail in the chapter is also the most exact:
when the Tibetan monk Dharmasvāmin visited some three decades later, he found the site
half ruined, and “a 90-year-old teacher, Rāhula Śhrībhadra, was still instructing a class of
about 70 students — perhaps Nalanda’s last class …”

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3. What did not die. The chapter is careful here, and so should your note be. Scholarship
co m
se
continued elsewhere in India through these very centuries — Bhāskarāchārya in the Deccan,
m.
o m l a
g“While the production
across India”,.cTelugu at the Kākatīya court, Kannada at the Hoysala court.
Bhoja’s capital as “a renowned centre of learning that attracted scholars, poets, and artists from

m a
l a se
a g
and transmission of scientific knowledge did decline in north India a little later, they continued
to flourish in other regions.”

co m
m .
The general lesson: buildings can be rebuilt and treasure can be replaced, but a ag
l a se
library and a living teaching tradition cannot — they take centuries to grow and one
agdestruction of a university counts as a different kind
season to burn. That is why the
of loss from the sacking of a city.

co m
em.
m l as
.co a g
a s em
Why do you think Mahmūd of Ghazni carry out repeated raids from Afghanistan

gl into India, while Muhammad Ghūrī sought territorial expansion into India and long-
Q8

a term control? Write a short note on how their motives shaped the outcomes of their

m a s
.co agl
campaigns.

se m
g l a
a

Because the two men wanted different things, and each got what he came for. Mahmūd
wanted wealth and prestige he could carry back to Ghazni; Muhammad Ghūrī wanted land he
co m
could hold.
m .
o m l a se
.cthan settling it: “As Mahmūd did not attempt to establish aagpermanent base in India
Mahmūd’s motives — and here historians genuinely differ. The chapter sets out the debate

m
se Punjab, historians have debated his motives for conducting such destructive
rather

g l a
a
beyond
campaigns.”

se m
omCASE FOR RELIGIOUS MOTIVES AS WELL
cTHE g l a
THE CASE FOR PLUNDER AS THE
m . a
ase
agl
CHIEF MOTIVE

Historians “have often suggested that plunder “It is also true that Mahmūd was keen to spread his version of

co m
was the chief reason for his destruction of Islam to non-Muslim parts of the world, as we find from
temples in India” contemporary evidence”
m .
as e
com wealth, accumulated from the
.immense
“It is true that the larger temples often held
a g l
His court historian al-Utbi: he destroyed “their temples, their

a s em devotees’ offerings over centuries, and would sacred buildings, built mosques instead, making the light of Islam

agl visible”
therefore be prime targets for plunder”
.c
s e m
om
to Ghazni with huge amounts of booty” — .c to Ghazni to lie “before the door of the mosque of Ghazni, on whichag
After each of 17 campaigns “he would return
la
Al-Bīrūnī on Somnath: the image was broken and part of it carried

a s em people rub their feet”. His biographers say he was keen to kill or
agl
the wealth, not the land, is what he took
home enslave ‘infidels’ — “but also to kill believers from rival sects of
Islam”

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The chapter’s own position is that both are true — “it is true that… But it is also true that…” —
and that the second point rests on contemporary evidence, from writers in Mahmūd’s own camp.
The last detail is the one that keeps the picture from being simple: he attacked rival Muslim
sects too, and he began his Indian career by “defeating a rival Muslim kingdom”.
Muhammad Ghūrī’s motive. The chapter states it flatly: “Unlike Mahmūd, who merely
plundered and withdrew, he sought territorial conquest.” Everything he did follows from that —
he took Delhi rather than looting it and leaving; he “left behind trusted military commanders to
consolidate his gains”; and his administration was “more centralised”, granting “temporary land
assignments to officers in return for revenue collection and military service”. That last point is
the giveaway: you only build a revenue system for land you intend to keep.
How the motives shaped the outcomes.

MAHMŪD OF GHAZNI MUHAMMAD GHŪRĪ

Method Rapid marches and “daring cavalry Return with a larger army after defeat; take the
attacks, with archers on horseback”; capital; leave garrisons and commanders
strike, loot, withdraw

What he Treasure, cattle, and captives sold in the Delhi, the Gangetic plains, and eventually Bihar and
took slave markets of Central Asia Bengal

What he Destruction and no administration — Qutb-ud-din Aibak, “who later founded the Delhi
left “no permanent base in India beyond Sultanate”. After Muhammad’s death in 1206, “their
Punjab”. His empire “soon territory in north India remained under the control of
disintegrated” after him Muhammad’s generals”

Long-run Enormous damage, but Indian rulers A permanent change in who ruled north India — the
effect recovered the ground he crossed beginning of the Sultanate period

The idea to take away: what an invader wants decides what he builds, and what he
builds decides how long his conquest lasts. A raider needs speed and surprise, so he
leaves nothing behind and his gains die with him. A conqueror needs revenue and
officers, so he builds an administration — and administrations outlive the men who
make them.

Chapter at a glance
Two centuries in which the tide turns. The previous chapter ended with Arab incursions
that “had little overall impact on India”. The 11th and 12th centuries “tell a different story:
invasions by Turkic powers penetrated much deeper into north India, despite stubborn

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

resistance from native kingdoms.” The chapter opens with one invasion (Mahmūd of
Ghazni) and closes with another (Muhammad Ghūrī and his generals).
Mahmūd of Ghazni: 17 campaigns, no kingdom. The Ghaznavids overran the Hindu
Shāhis, who had held the Khyber Pass; Mahmūd defeated Jayapāla and, in 1008,
Ānandapāla. He raided Mathura (1018), Kannauj and Somnath (1026), destroying temples
and carrying off treasure, prisoners and children. He “did not attempt to establish a
permanent base in India beyond Punjab”, and died in 1030 at 58.
Meanwhile, Indian kingdoms flourish. The Senas in Bengal host Jayadeva of the
Gītagovindam; the Eastern Gangas begin the Jagannātha temple at Puri; the Kākatīyas at
Orugallu build village self-governance and irrigation; the Hoysalas at Belur and Halebidu
carve their famous temples; the Paramāra king Bhoja (r. 1010–55) builds a vast lake and
writes on architecture, poetics, yoga and medicine.
The Cholas, masters of the seas. Rājarāja I (from 985) took the ‘islands of the sea’ and
northern Sri Lanka and built the Bṛihadīśhvara temple at Thanjavur. His son Rājendra I
(1014–44) won the title ‘Gangaikoṇḍachola’ and in 1025 sent a navy against Śhrīvijaya over
the trade route through the Strait of Malacca — a punitive expedition, not a conquest.
The Ghūrids: raiding gives way to ruling. Muhammad Ghūrī was beaten in 1178 in
Gujarat and by Pṛithvīrāja III at Tarain in 1191, but won the Second Battle of Tarain in
1192 and took Delhi. “Unlike Mahmūd, who merely plundered and withdrew, he sought
territorial conquest.” His general Qutb-ud-din Aibak stayed on; Aibak’s commander
Bakhtiyār Khiljī took Bihar and Bengal and destroyed Nālandā and Vikramaśhilā, but was
defeated in Kāmarūpa in 1205.
Yet the period’s lesson is resilience. Trade with China and Southeast Asia kept growing;
agriculture stayed “the mainstay of the economy”; Bhāskarāchārya composed the Līlāvatī
(1150); Someśhvara III wrote the Mānasollāsa; Rāmānujāchārya and Basaveśhvara
reshaped religious life; and Angkor Wat rose in Cambodia. “Large parts of northern India
and all of south India remained outside the hold of the Turkic invaders.”

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Quick revision

TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT WORTH REMEMBERING
APPEARS IN
THE CHAPTER

Turkic Peoples, languages and Word box, page Both the Ghaznavids and the
cultures historically 98 Ghūrids were Turkic powers based in
associated with a vast region present-day Afghanistan — not Arabs,
stretching across Central who were the invaders of the
Asia, all the way to Turkey previous chapter
and Siberia

Sultan A word of Arabic origin DON’T MISS Mahmūd was the first to assume the
meaning ‘authority’ or OUT, page 101 title in this story; the ‘sultanates’ it
‘power’; in the Muslim gave its name to — above all the
world it came to mean a Delhi Sultanate — come in Grade 8
sovereign ruler or king

Hindu Shāhis The dynasty ruling across ‘The Ghaznavid They held the Khyber Pass, and “with
present-day Afghanistan, Invasions’, the help of several other Indian
northern Pakistan and up to pages 99–101 rulers, they resisted several
Punjab in the 9th–10th attempted invasions”. Jayapāla and
centuries his son Ānandapāla were the last to
fight Mahmūd

Khyber Pass One of the main mountain Page 100 and For at least 2,500 years a major trade
passes through the Hindu Fig. 4.3, Fig. 4.4 route and the road Buddhist scholars
Kush range, linking the and monks travelled — and the road
Subcontinent to Central Asia many invaders took

Booty / plunder Goods, treasure, cattle and Pages 101–103, Mahmūd “would return to Ghazni
captives seized by an army 117 with huge amounts of booty” after
after a victory each of his 17 campaigns; Bakhtiyār
Khiljī “acquired great booty” at the
‘fortress’ near Nālandā

Vihāra / bihār / A Buddhist monastery; a Pages 110, 117 Jūzjānī records that “in [their] tongue,
mahāvihāra mahāvihāra is a great and the LET’S they call a college bihār” — the word
monastery that is also a EXPLORE on behind the name Bihar. Nālandā’s
university page 117 own name in ancient inscriptions was
Nālandā Mahāvihāra

Punitive expedition A military expedition sent to Page 112, on Rājendra’s navy defeated Śhrīvijaya
punish, not to occupy Rājendra I and and captured its capital, but “he did
Śhrīvijaya not try to occupy the defeated
empire”; it was backed by Indian
merchant guilds

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Class 7 Social Science Chapter 16 Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT WORTH REMEMBERING
APPEARS IN
THE CHAPTER

Gangaikoṇḍachola “The Chola who seized (or Page 111 Rājendra I’s title after his northern
brought) Gangā” campaigns — a reference both to
those campaigns and to the
sacredness attached to the Gangā.
His new capital was named
Gangaikoṇḍacholapuram

Land assignment Temporary grants of land to ‘Governance, This is the one real administrative
(Ghūrid system) officers in return for revenue Trade and change of the period: Muhammad
collection and military Cultural Life’, Ghūrī’s system was “more
service page 118 centralised”, and it would be
developed further under the Delhi
Sultanate

Toraṇa A gateway Page 108 and The Kākatīyas built a fort at Orugallu
Fig. 4.11 (today’s Warangal) with impressive
stone toraṇas; their Thousand Pillar
temple stands at Hanamkonda

Vachana A short poem in Kannada Page 120, on Basavaṇṇa’s vachanas “strikingly
Basaveśhvara convey his spiritual and ethical vision
as well as his firm devotion to his
Lord”

Anubhava Literally, ‘pavilion of LET’S EXPLORE, Basavaṇṇa’s assembly at Kalyāṇī,
Maṇḍapa experience’ page 121 open to men and women “from every
social, economic, religious or
linguistic background”, to discuss all
aspects of life

Viśhiṣhṭādvaita The school of Page 120 He challenged the then-dominant
vedānta Rāmānujāchārya, which advaita vedānta of Ādi
“sees the world and Śhankarāchārya, met in the previous
individual souls as real, and chapter
emphasises bhakti and
surrender to the divine as the
path to liberation”

Lingāyat The movement founded by Page 120 He “promoted the equal spiritual
movement Basaveśhvara, which potential of all men and women”,
“rejected caste distinctions looking at a person’s inner value
and ritualism and, instead, rather than social rank
taught personal devotion and
dedicated work”

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co m
m.
TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT WORTH REMEMBERING

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APPEARS IN

.
THE CHAPTER
a g l
a s em
agl
Śhikhara A temple tower DON’T MISS Angkor Wat’s five huge śhikharas
OUT on Angkor symbolise Mount Meru, the
Wat, page 122 mountain at the centre of the cosmos

com
. ag
in Hindu mythology

s m
e Fig. 4.1, page
Bas-relief
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A sculpture carved so that
a The chapter opens with a bas-relief of
aonly
the figures stand out 97; Angkor Wat soldiers and elephants from the
slightly from a flat box, page 122 Lakṣhmaṇa temple, Khajuraho;

co m
Angkor Wat’s bas-reliefs show scenes

m.
background

e
from the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata

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