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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Do the evidences of land ownership at our disposal support the theory of the prevalence of feudalism in early medieval India?

  • UPSC 2015
  • Early Medieval India, 750-1200

The debate over Indian feudalism ultimately rests on a narrower, testable question: what do the surviving land-grant inscriptions actually record about who held rights over land — the king's claim to eminent domain, the donee's acquired rights, or the cultivator's customary occupancy? The epigraphic record turns out to be layered rather than singular, recording several…

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 King's Theoretical Eminent Domain
  • Types of Grant-Settlements and What Their Titles Reveal
  • The Donee's Rights: From Usufruct to Proprietorship
  • The Cultivator's Customary Rights
  • Does This Evidence Actually Support "Feudalism"? Historians Divide

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