NCERT Solutions Class 12 History Chapter 4 Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings

Concept used. This question asks you to compare three streams of thought from around the sixth century BCE. The Upanishadic thinkers asked about the meaning of life, rebirth and the ultimate reality (the self, or atman). The fatalists (Ajivikas) held that everything was predetermined, while the materialists (Lokayatas) denied any soul or life after death.

Yes, the ideas were clearly different. The reasons:

1. The Upanishadic thinkers were seekers. They were curious about life, the possibility of life after death, and rebirth: was rebirth the result of past actions? They tried to understand the nature of the ultimate reality, holding that there was an eternal self (atman) within each person, smaller than a grain yet greater than the worlds.
2. The fatalists denied human effort. Makkhali Gosala of the Ajivika tradition taught that pleasure and pain are fixed and cannot be altered by penance or wisdom. Just as a thrown ball of string unwinds to its full length, the fool and the wise alike simply run their course. So no striving can change one's fate.
3. The materialists denied the soul itself. Ajita Kesakambalin of the Lokayata tradition taught that a human being is made of the four elements (earth, water, fire, air). At death each element returns to its source, and nothing survives. He dismissed alms, sacrifice and offerings as "the talk of fools".

So the Upanishadic thinkers believed in an enduring self and in rebirth shaped by action, while the fatalists made action useless and the materialists denied any afterlife at all. The three positions point in three different directions.

Yes. The Upanishadic thinkers believed in an eternal self (atman) and rebirth driven by past action; the fatalist Ajivikas said everything is predetermined and effort is futile; the materialist Lokayatas denied any soul or life after death. All three views differ sharply.

Concept used. Jainism is the tradition taught by Mahavira (Vardhamana) in the sixth century BCE, the last of 24 tirthankaras (those who guide men and women across the river of existence). Its core beliefs are about life in everything, non-injury, karma, and renunciation.

The central teachings of Jainism are:

1. The whole world is animated (alive). Even stones, rocks and water are believed to have life. So Jainism extends respect to every form of existence.
2. Non-injury, or ahimsa. Non-injury to living beings, especially humans, animals, plants and insects, is central. The principle of ahimsa has left a deep mark on Indian thinking as a whole.
3. Karma shapes the cycle of birth and rebirth. The cycle of birth and rebirth is shaped through karma. Past actions decide future births.
4. Asceticism and penance free the soul. To escape the cycle of karma, one must practise asceticism and penance. This can be achieved only by renouncing the world, so monastic existence is a necessary condition of salvation.
5. The five vows. Jaina monks and nuns took five vows: to abstain from killing, from stealing and from lying; to observe celibacy; and to abstain from possessing property.

The basic philosophy of the Jainas existed in north India even before Mahavira's birth; he gave it its lasting form.

Jainism teaches that the entire world is alive; that non-injury (ahimsa) to all living beings is supreme; that karma shapes the cycle of birth and rebirth; that asceticism, penance and renunciation free the soul; and that monks and nuns must keep the five vows (no killing, stealing or lying, celibacy, and no possessions).

Concept used. Preservation of a monument means keeping it safe and in its original place (in situ). In the nineteenth century the stupa at Sanchi lay within the princely state of Bhopal, whose rulers were two women: Shahjehan Begum and her successor Sultan Jehan Begum. They played a decisive part in saving it.

The role of the begums of Bhopal:

1. They refused to let the gateways be taken away. European interest in Sanchi was intense. The French sought Shahjehan Begum's permission to carry off the best-preserved eastern gateway to a museum in France, and some Englishmen wanted the same. Both the French and the English were finally satisfied with carefully prepared plaster-cast copies, so the original gateway remained at the site.
2. They funded the preservation of the site. Shahjehan Begum and Sultan Jehan Begum provided the money for preserving the ancient site, so it survived where many monuments were looted.
3. Sultan Jehan Begum funded the scholarship on Sanchi. She funded the museum built at Sanchi, the guesthouse where the archaeologist John Marshall lived and wrote, and the publication of his important volumes on Sanchi. In gratitude, Marshall dedicated those volumes to her.

Because of these wise decisions, and good luck in escaping the eyes of railway contractors, builders and collectors, the stupa complex survived. Today it stands as one of the most important Buddhist centres and a model of successful preservation.

The begums of Bhopal, Shahjehan Begum and Sultan Jehan Begum, preserved Sanchi by refusing to let its gateways be removed (offering plaster casts instead), by funding the site's preservation, and by paying for the Sanchi museum, John Marshall's guesthouse and his published volumes. Their decisions kept the stupa standing in its original place.

Concept used. This is a source-based question: you answer strictly from the words of the inscription, and only add background where the question invites your opinion (part b). Take each sub-part in turn.

1. (a) How she dated it. Dhanavati dated her inscription by the regnal year of a ruler: "the year 33 of the maharaja Huvishka", a Kushana king. She also gave the season and day, the first month of the hot season, the eighth day. So she used the king's reign, not a fixed era, to fix the date.
2. (b) Why she installed the image. She set up an image of the Bodhisatta most likely as an act of religious merit and devotion, to honour the Buddha and earn merit for herself and her family. Such donations of images were a common way for devotees to show faith and gain spiritual reward.
3. (c) The relatives she mentioned. She named her aunt (the bhikkhuni Buddhamita, whose sister's daughter she was) and her father and mother, who set up the image together with her.
4. (d) The Buddhist text she knew. The text was the Tipitaka, the "three baskets" of Buddhist teaching. Both Dhanavati's teacher and her aunt are described as knowing the Tipitaka.
5. (e) From whom she learnt it. She was the female pupil of the bhikkhu Bala, "who knows the Tipitaka". So she learnt the text from the monk Bala.

(a) By the regnal year of the Kushana king Huvishka (year 33), with the season and day. (b) As an act of devotion and to earn religious merit. (c) Her aunt, the bhikkhuni Buddhamita, and her father and mother. (d) The Tipitaka. (e) From her teacher, the bhikkhu Bala.

Concept used. The sangha was the Buddha's organisation of monks (bhikkhus), into which women (bhikkhunis) were later admitted. To answer "why they joined", reason from the appeal of Buddhist teaching and the social conditions of the time.

People joined the sangha for several connected reasons:

1. Conduct mattered more than birth. Buddhism gave importance to conduct and values rather than claims of superiority based on birth. Once inside the sangha, all members were treated as equal, having shed their earlier social identities. Kings, wealthy gahapatis, workers, slaves and craftspeople all stood on the same footing, which drew people from many social groups.
2. Compassion and fellow feeling. The emphasis on metta (fellow feeling) and karuna (compassion), especially for those younger and weaker, attracted both men and women.
3. A response to rapid social change. Buddhism appealed to many people who were dissatisfied with existing religious practices and confused by the rapid social changes of the time. The sangha offered them a settled, meaningful way of life.
4. A path open to women. Women were admitted to the sangha through the mediation of Ananda, the Buddha's dear disciple, who persuaded him to allow it. The Buddha's foster mother, Mahapajapati Gotami, became the first bhikkhuni. Many women who entered became teachers of dhamma and respected theris who had attained liberation, a status hard to gain elsewhere.

Men and women joined the sangha because Buddhism valued conduct over birth and treated all members as equal, because its message of compassion (metta and karuna) appealed widely, because it answered people unsettled by rapid social change, and because, once admitted, women could become respected teachers and theris.

Concept used. Art historians read the Sanchi carvings by comparing them with textual evidence, the Buddhist Jatakas, hagiographies (life-stories) of the Buddha, and other literature. The essay should show both how much this literature explains and where it falls short.

1. Literature decodes the narrative panels. Many Sanchi sculptures tell stories that look puzzling until matched to a text. One panel seems at first to show only a rural scene of thatched huts and trees. Art historians who knew the Vessantara Jataka, the story of a generous prince who gave away everything and went to live in the forest with his family, recognised it as that very story. Without the Jataka, the carving's meaning would be lost.

2. Hagiographies explain the symbols of worship. Early sculptors often did not show the Buddha in human form; they showed his presence through symbols. To read these you must know the life-story: the empty seat stands for the Buddha's meditation and enlightenment, the stupa for his mahaparinibbana (final passing), and the wheel for his first sermon at Sarnath. Only familiarity with the hagiographies turns a tree, a seat or a wheel into an event in the Buddha's life.

3. Literature also reveals the limits. Knowledge of Buddhist texts does not explain everything at Sanchi. Some carvings, such as the beautiful woman swinging from a gateway holding a tree, are not directly inspired by Buddhist ideas. Scholars only understood her after turning to other literary traditions, which identified her as a shalabhanjika, a woman whose touch made trees flower, an auspicious, pre-Buddhist figure. Animals like elephants (signifying strength and wisdom) and motifs like lotuses also came from popular, non-Buddhist beliefs.

Conclusion: a large but not complete help. Buddhist literature is essential for the narrative panels and the symbols of worship, but Sanchi also absorbed popular and non-Buddhist traditions that need other texts, or no text at all, to explain. So the help is great but partial.

Buddhist literature helps greatly: the Jatakas identify narrative panels like the Vessantara Jataka, and the hagiographies decode the symbols (empty seat, stupa, wheel). But it does not explain everything: motifs like the shalabhanjika and many animals come from popular, non-Buddhist traditions. So literature is essential but not sufficient.

Concept used. This is a source-based (figure) question: describe only what each carving shows, under three heads, architecture, plants and animals, and activities, then judge which is rural and which is urban from that evidence.

Fig. 4.32, the first scene:

1. Architecture. Simple thatched huts with sloping roofs, the modest dwellings of a village. There are no large or storeyed buildings.
2. Plants and animals. Trees and forest fill the scene, and several animals, such as horses, cattle and other beasts, move among them.
3. Activities. People are shown in everyday outdoor tasks set among the huts, trees and animals, the quiet life of the countryside.

Fig. 4.33, the second scene:

1. Architecture. A multi-storeyed building with rows of pillars, balconies with railings, and arched gateways or windows, the kind of grand structure found in a town.
2. Plants and animals. Natural elements are few; the carving is dominated by built structures rather than trees and beasts.
3. Activities. Crowds of people are shown in and around the building, busy and closely packed, suggesting a settled, populous place.

Which is rural and which is urban. Fig. 4.32 is the rural scene: thatched huts, dense trees and many animals all point to a village or forest setting. Fig. 4.33 is the urban scene: the storeyed building with pillars and balconies and the dense crowd of people point to a town.

Fig. 4.32 shows thatched huts, trees and animals, a rural scene. Fig. 4.33 shows a tall, pillared, multi-storeyed building with balconies and a crowd of people, an urban scene. The type of architecture (huts versus storeyed buildings) is the deciding reason.

Concept used. Vaishnavism (worship of Vishnu as the chief deity) and Shaivism (worship of Shiva as the chief god) grew from about the second century BCE within what we now call Hinduism, centred on bhakti, love and devotion to a chosen god. This rise shaped both new sculpture and new temple architecture.

1. New subjects in sculpture. As these cults grew, deities were carved in stone. In Vaishnavism, cults formed around the ten avatars (incarnations) of Vishnu, the forms he was believed to take to save the world from evil, and different avatars were popular in different regions. Examples in the chapter include the Varaha (boar) avatar of Vishnu rescuing the earth goddess, and Vishnu reclining on the serpent Sheshnag.

2. Symbols and attributes. Shiva was symbolised by the linga, though he was sometimes shown in human form too. Such sculptures carried a complex set of ideas through symbols, head-dresses, ornaments and ayudhas (weapons or auspicious objects held in the deity's hands), and through the way the figure was seated. To read them, historians use the Puranas, compiled by Brahmanas, which preserved the stories of the gods and goddesses.

3. The first temples. Around the same time that stupas such as Sanchi were taking their final form, the first temples to house images of gods were being built (by about the third century CE). The early temple was a small square room, the garbhagriha, with one doorway for the worshipper to enter and offer worship to the image.

4. The temple grows more elaborate. Gradually a tall structure, the shikhara, was raised over the central shrine, and temple walls were covered with sculpture. Later temples became far grander, with assembly halls, huge walls and gateways, and arrangements for water.

5. Rock-cut temples. A striking development was hollowing temples out of rock as artificial caves. This old tradition (some earliest caves were cut in the third century BCE for Ajivika renouncers on Asoka's orders) culminated in the eighth century in the Kailashnatha temple at Ellora, an entire temple carved from a single rock, prompting its chief sculptor to exclaim, "Oh how did I make it!"

With Vaishnavism and Shaivism came new sculpture (Vishnu's ten avatars such as Varaha, and Shiva shown as the linga or in human form, read through the Puranas) and a new architecture: the early garbhagriha temple, later crowned by a shikhara and richly carved, and even temples cut whole from rock, like the Kailashnatha temple at Ellora.

Concept used. A stupa (Sanskrit for "heap") is a mound built over relics of the Buddha. The question has two halves: why stupas were built (their purpose) and how they were built (the funding, structure and form).

Why stupas were built:

1. To enshrine relics. Certain places were sacred because relics of the Buddha, his bodily remains or objects he had used, were buried there. The mounds raised over them were stupas.
2. To venerate the Buddha himself. Because they held sacred relics, the whole stupa came to be worshipped as an emblem of both the Buddha and Buddhism.
3. On the Buddha's own instruction. The Mahaparinibbana Sutta records that, as he lay dying, the Buddha said a thupa (stupa) should be erected at crossroads for the Tathagata. Later, the Ashokavadana says Asoka distributed the Buddha's relics to every important town and ordered stupas built over them. By the second century BCE stupas stood at Bharhut, Sanchi and Sarnath.

How stupas were built:

1. Through donations. Inscriptions on railings and pillars record gifts for building and decorating stupas. Kings such as the Satavahanas gave donations; so did guilds, the ivory workers financed part of a gateway at Sanchi; and hundreds of ordinary women and men, as well as bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, contributed, often recording their names, homes and occupations.
2. The structure. The stupa began as a simple semi-circular mound of earth, the anda. Above it sat the harmika, a balcony-like structure representing the abode of the gods. From the harmika rose a mast, the yashti, often topped by a chhatri (umbrella). A railing surrounded the mound, separating the sacred space from the secular world.
3. Gateways and circumambulation. The early stupas at Sanchi and Bharhut had plain stone railings but richly carved gateways at the four cardinal points. Worshippers entered by the eastern gateway and walked clockwise around the mound, keeping it on the right, imitating the sun's course. Later mounds, as at Amaravati, were elaborately carved with niches and sculptures.

Stupas were built to enshrine the Buddha's relics and to venerate him, following his own dying instruction and Asoka's distribution of relics. They were built through donations from kings, guilds and ordinary devotees, as a mound (anda) topped by a harmika, yashti and chhatri, ringed by a railing with carved gateways at the four directions for clockwise worship.

Concept used. This is a map-work task. You mark the regions that received Buddhism from the Indian subcontinent, and draw the land and sea routes along which it travelled. Below is the guide; on your own outline world map, shade each region and draw arrows for the routes.

1. Areas to mark (shade or label).
   • Sri Lanka (where texts like the Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa were written).
   • Central Asia and Afghanistan, on the overland route west and north.
   • China, from where pilgrims such as Fa Xian and Xuan Zang travelled to India in search of texts.
   • Korea and Japan in East Asia.
   • Myanmar, Thailand and the lands of Southeast Asia (including the islands), reached by sea.
2. Land routes (draw arrows). From the subcontinent overland through the northwest into Central Asia and Afghanistan, and onward along the Silk Route to China, and from China to Korea and Japan.
3. Sea routes (draw arrows). From the eastern and southern coasts of the subcontinent across the sea to Sri Lanka and to Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand and the island regions).

Mark Sri Lanka, Central Asia and Afghanistan, China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, the islands). Draw land routes overland through the northwest into Central Asia and on to China, Korea and Japan, and sea routes from the eastern and southern coasts to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

Concept used. This is a project (field observation). There is no single correct answer; you are marked on how well you observe a living tradition and compare it with the past. The guide below shows what to look for and how to organise the report.

1. Find a living tradition from the chapter. Look in your neighbourhood for Buddhism, Jainism, Vaishnavism or Shaivism (forms of Hinduism), any of which is discussed in the chapter. A temple, a Jaina sthanak or a Buddhist vihara nearby will do.
2. The texts and how they survive. Note the religious texts used today (for example the Puranas, the Tipitaka, Jaina Agamas, or the Bhagavad Gita). Record how they are preserved and transmitted now: printed books, recitation, audio, apps and the internet, then compare with the chapter's oral teaching and hand-copied manuscripts.
3. Images in worship. Note whether images are used. Compare them with the chapter: the Buddha shown through symbols (empty seat, stupa, wheel) or in human form, Vishnu's avatars, Shiva's linga. Say whether today's images are similar or different.
4. The buildings. Describe the building used for worship today, its shape, shrine, hall and tower, and compare it with early stupas (mound, harmika, railing, gateways) and early temples (garbhagriha and shikhara).

Pick a tradition from the chapter that is practised near you, then report on its present-day texts (and how they are preserved and transmitted), its use of images, and its buildings, comparing each with the chapter's oral and manuscript texts, its symbols and images, and its early stupas and temples.

Concept used. This is a project (viewer experiment). You test how different people "read" religious art when its captions are removed, the same problem art historians face. There is no fixed answer; you are marked on how carefully you gather and compare the responses.

1. Collect five captioned-then-uncaptioned images. Choose sculpture or painting from different periods and regions on the traditions in the chapter: a Buddhist symbol panel, a Jaina tirthankara, a Vishnu avatar, a Shiva linga or image, and a temple or stupa carving. Note the real caption for yourself, then cover it.
2. Show each image to two people and record their words. For every picture, ask two people to describe what they see, and write down their descriptions exactly.
3. Compare the descriptions. See where the two viewers agree and differ, and where they miss the meaning that the hidden caption gives. This shows how much an image "speaks" on its own.
4. Write the report. Add a short introduction, a table of the five images with the two descriptions each, and a conclusion on how far people could read the art without captions.

Collect five varied religious images from the chapter's traditions, hide their captions, ask two people to describe each, and compare their responses in a short report, concluding how far the art could be understood without its caption.