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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Discuss the salient features of Indian society on the eve of the campaigns of Mahmud of Ghazni, with particular reference to the observations made by Al-Biruni.

  • UPSC 1989
  • Cultural Traditions in India, 750-1200

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Between 1000 and 1027 CE, Mahmud of Ghazni led some seventeen raids into the subcontinent, exploiting a society that was politically fragmented among regional kingdoms (Pratiharas, Chandelas, Paramaras, Hindushahis) and internally rigid along caste lines. The Persian polymath Al-Biruni, who accompanied or followed in the wake of these campaigns and stayed on to study Indian…

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What the full answer covers

  • The Caste Order as Al-Biruni Recorded It
  • A Closed, Localized, and Insular Society
  • Gender and Domestic Practice
  • Manners, Custom, and Everyday Life
  • Science, Learning, and Intellectual Life
  • Assessing the Value of Al-Biruni's Testimony
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