Page 93 - SST Class 07
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keep  it  under  his  control  for  long.  In  theory,   when sunbeams fall on them, the eye dazzled by
             however,  the  Ahoms  ruled  as  vassals  of  the      the flashing back of light.”
             Mughals.                                               The  Ahoms  had  a  tribal  set-up.  The  village

             During the reign of Aurangzeb, when the gover-         community was very powerful. Its allotted land to
             nor  of  Bengal  visited  the  Ahom  capital  of       peasants  based  on  their  needs.  The  peasant
             Garhaon, one of his scribes recorded a detailed        cultivated  food  crops,  particularly  rice,  on  their
             description of the city and the people. Here is an     land. Peasants and other also had to serve in the
             extract from his account:                              army during war. People lived in houses made of
             “'The Raja’s audience hall, stands on 66 pillars,      bamboo which was available locally. Tribal gods
             each of them is 2 meters round. My pen fails to        were  worshipped.  In  the  eighteenth  century,
             describe in detail the other arts and rare inven-      some Ahoms adopted Hinduism as their religion.
             tions  employed  in  decorating  the  woodwork  of     However, worship of tribal gods continued.
             this  palace.  The  sides  of  this  palace  have  been   Rudra Singh was the most powerful Ahom ruler.
             partitioned  into  wooden  lattices  of  various       He  ruled  from  1696  to  1714.  He  and  the  later
             designs  and  adorned  both  inside  and  outside      rulers  compiled  the  nineteenth  century,  Assam
             with  mirrors  of  brass,  polished  so  finely  that   became  a  part  of  British  India.  The  Ahoms  still
                                                                    live as a small tribal group in Assam.

              Terminology

              Nomadic             :  living the life of a nomad; wandering
              Kinship             :  a sharing of characteristics or origins
              Contemporary        :  living or occurring at the same time
              Shifting cultivation  :  an  agricultural  system  in  which  plots  of  land  are  cultivated  temporarily,  then
                                    abandoned  and  allowed  to  revert  to  their  natural  vegetation  while  the  cultivator
                                    moves on to another plot

             Inside Story
             Inside Story
              g  Tribal societies were absolutely different from those which existed in big cities.
              g  Some tribes were nomadic and kept on moving from one place to another.
              g  During the medieval period, some tribes became dominant.

              g  The name Gondwana means ‘country inhabited by Gonds’.
              g  The Ahoms expanded their territories by defeating the local rulers.
              g  Rudra Singh was the most powerful Ahom ruler. He ruled from 1696 to 1714.








             A.  Tick (3) the correct option.
                  1.  The main source of  tribals’ livelihood was:

                      (a)  knitting                     (b)  agriculture               (c)  hunting


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