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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Critically assess the period of the Cholas in the history of South India.

  • UPSC 1991
  • Early Medieval India, 750-1200

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The four centuries of Chola rule, from Vijayalaya's capture of Thanjavur around 850 CE to Rajendra III's submission to the Pandyas in 1279, mark the high point of South Indian statecraft, temple art and maritime reach. Yet a genuinely critical assessment cannot stop at cataloguing conquests and monuments; the same militarist, redistributive apparatus that carried…

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of the History Optional PYQ Master Pack.

What the full answer covers

  • The Formative Phase: From Vijayalaya to the Threshold of Empire (c. 850–985)
  • The Zenith: Rajaraja I and Rajendra I (985–1044)
  • Institutions That Sustained the Military Success
  • The Hidden Costs of the Militarist Model
  • Decline and Disintegration (c. 1070 onward)
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