pyq/2021/history-optional-i/4

(a) "The political and economic needs of rulers, combined with economic and social status needs of the merchant class, together provided the receptive cultural milieu in which Buddhism flourished." Comment. (20 marks)

(b) Large number of land grants in hitherto non-arable tracts invariably meant expansion of agriculture in early medieval India. How did the management of hydraulic resources (different types of irrigation works) facilitate expansion of agriculture in this period? (15 marks)

(c) Discuss the relationship between emergence of literature in vernacular languages and formation of regional identities in early medieval India. (15 marks)