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
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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