Unlock Elite Access: Level Up Your Preparation with Exclusive Content

History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Evaluate the socio-economic conditions from the Gupta Period to 1200 C.E. as gleaned from the various types of grants or danashasana.

  • UPSC 2011
  • Early Medieval India, 750-1200

Unlock the full answer · ₹1,499 ↓

The danashasana — copper-plate charters recording gifts of land or revenue — form the single richest documentary window onto Indian society between the Gupta period and 1200 CE, precisely because they were not composed as historical narrative but as working legal instruments: they name donees, demarcate boundaries, list exemptions, and specify obligations, and each of…

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 Chronological and Regional Spread of the Grant Economy
  • Brahmadeya and Agrahara Grants: Agrarian Expansion and Shifting Land-Rights
  • Devadana (Temple) Grants: New Institutional Hierarchies and Tenancy
  • Secular Grants to Officials: A Demonetized Administrative Economy
  • Forced Labour, Taxation, and the Declining Status of the Peasantry
  • Rural Tension and Resistance as Evidence of Strain
  • …and 3 more sections, with a conclusion
History Optional PYQ Master Pack

History Optional PYQ Master Pack

Unlock this answer and 1,350+ more

  • 1,350+ solved UPSC History Optional PYQs from 1985 to 2025, Paper-1 and Paper-2
  • Topic-wise across Ancient, Medieval, Modern, Post-Independence and World History
  • Model answers with a clear structure and historian citations
  • Map section solutions included, at no extra cost
  • Read online on lotusarise.com, plus PDF download

₹1,499₹2,50040% off

Get History Optional PYQ Master Pack @ ₹1,499 →

One-time payment · No subscription · Instant access · UPI, cards, RuPay

See every Early Medieval India, 750-1200 question (66 solved) →Already enrolled? Log in