Class 7 Social Science Chapter 6: The Age of Reorganisation NCERT Solutions

Concept used. The last Maurya emperor was assassinated around 185 BCE by his own commander-in-chief, Pushyamitra Shunga, barely half a century after Ashoka. This broke up the Maurya empire and let many new kingdoms rise across the subcontinent, several of them former Maurya tributaries. Scholars call this period the age of reorganisation because the existing regions were reorganised into new kingdoms.

1. The empire broke apart. Once the Mauryas lost central control, the territories they had held together for over a century did not stay united. Local rulers and new dynasties stepped into the gap left behind.
2. Old tributaries became new kingdoms. Many of the kingdoms that emerged, such as the Shungas in the north and the Satavahanas in the Deccan, had earlier been tributary states under Maurya overlordship. Once the Mauryas weakened, these regions reorganised themselves into independent powers.
3. The northwest opened up to invaders. The weakening of central control also exposed the northwest to outside invasions, which is how the Indo-Greeks, Shakas and later the Kushanas entered and reorganised that part of the map.
4. Constant competition, not one single empire. Unlike the Maurya period, this age had many kingdoms (Shungas, Satavahanas, Chedis, Cheras, Cholas, Pandyas, Indo-Greeks, Shakas, Kushanas) competing with each other for territory at the same time, so the map of India kept changing.

The era is called the "age of reorganisation" because, after the Maurya empire broke up around 185 BCE, its territories were reorganised into many new, competing kingdoms (Shungas, Satavahanas, Chedis, southern kingdoms, and northwestern invader dynasties) rather than staying under one single empire.

Concept used. Sangam literature is the collective name for the works of many poets from the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas period in south India (roughly 2nd/3rd century BCE to 3rd century CE). The word sangam comes from the Sanskrit sangha, meaning "association" or "coming together", referring to an assembly of poets.

1. What it is. Sangam literature is a collection of several anthologies of poems, the oldest surviving literature from south India. Because of its importance, this whole period is called the "Sangam Age".
2. What it covers. Sangam poetry expresses, with great skill and delicacy, both personal emotions such as love, and societal values such as heroism and generosity.
3. Why it matters to historians. Historians consult Sangam literature closely when they investigate the society and culture of the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas, since it is one of the few direct windows into everyday life, values and emotions from that period.
4. A related epic. The Silappadikaram ("Tale of the Anklet"), composed soon after the Sangam collections, continues this tradition through the story of Kannagi and Kovalan, centred on justice and a ruler's dharma.

Sangam literature is the oldest south Indian literature: several anthologies of poems by many poets, named after an "assembly" (sangam) of poets, expressing love, heroism and generosity, and used by historians to study the society of the Chera, Chola and Pandya kingdoms.

Concept used. In the Satavahana tradition, princes were often named after their mothers. The chapter's clearest example is Gautamiputra Satakarni, named after his mother, Gautami Balashri.

1. The ruler. Gautamiputra Satakarni was a Satavahana king whose name literally means "son of Gautami". A Satavahana coin carries a Brahmi inscription reading "King Lord Satakarni, son of Gautami", directly confirming this naming practice.
2. Why his mother's name mattered. Gautami Balashri was a powerful queen in her own right: she donated land to Buddhist monks and had an important inscription carved at Nashik, recording her own influence in the kingdom. Naming her son after her was one way of honouring and displaying that influence.
3. A second example: the Naneghat widow queen. Another Satavahana inscription, at the Naneghat caves near Pune, describes a Satavahana widow queen who performed Vedic rituals, including the ashvamedha yajna, and made large donations (dana) of land, cattle, horses, elephants and silver coins. This shows Satavahana queens were not background figures but people whose status was worth recording and honouring publicly.
4. The likely reason. Naming a king after his mother signals the mother's status, lineage and political importance within the dynasty. It suggests that succession and legitimacy in the Satavahana family could be traced through, and strengthened by, a powerful queen mother, not only through the father's line.

Gautamiputra Satakarni, a Satavahana king, included his mother's name (Gautami) in his title, as recorded on his own coin. This practice honoured powerful queens like his mother, Gautami Balashri, whose donations and inscriptions show real influence in the kingdom.

Concept used. This is an open, personal-choice question, so the answer below picks the Kushanas as the interesting kingdom and explains that choice using only facts from the chapter.

1. Why the Kushanas. The Kushanas are interesting because they were outsiders, originally from central Asia, who entered India (probably in the 2nd century CE) and ended up building an empire that reached from central Asia to large parts of northern India, while also becoming deeply woven into Indian art, religion and trade.
2. Their most powerful ruler. Kanishka, probably the most powerful Kushana ruler, is remembered through a famous "headless" statue (1.85 m high) with a Brahmi inscription calling him "maharaja rajadhiraja devaputra Kanishka": the great king, king of kings, son of God.
3. What his coins reveal. Kanishka's coins are a striking detail: one coin shows him as "King of Kings" with Buddha on the reverse (inscribed BO\(\Delta\Delta\)O in Greek script), while another pairs an emperor figure with Shiva and the bull Nandi. A single ruler choosing to feature both Buddhist and Shaivite imagery shows how much he valued the peaceful coexistence of different schools of thought.
4. Trade and art. The Kushanas controlled key sections of the Silk Route, connecting India to Asia and the West, and their rule produced the Gandhara and Mathura schools of art, which blended Greek and Indian artistic styles into something new.
5. Why this makes them worth choosing. Few dynasties in this chapter combine military power, religious tolerance, international trade and lasting artistic legacy as visibly as the Kushanas do, which is exactly why they stood out while reading the chapter.

The Kushanas are the chosen kingdom: an outsider dynasty whose ruler Kanishka combined vast territory, religiously plural coinage (Buddha alongside Shiva-Nandi), control of the Silk Route, and the Gandhara and Mathura schools of art, making them one of the most interesting kingdoms in this chapter. (Comparing notes in class would reveal which kingdom classmates picked most often.)

Concept used. This chapter shows several real examples of royal emblems, titles and values (the Chola tiger flag, the Chera bow-and-arrow flag, the Pandya twin-fish flag, and titles such as Kanishka's "maharaja rajadhiraja devaputra"). A good imagined kingdom borrows this same structure: a clear emblem, a meaningful title, and values grounded in something the ruler genuinely cares about.

1. Choosing an emblem. Following the pattern of the Chera bow-and-arrow and Pandya twin-fish flags, an emblem should be simple, recognisable on a coin or flag, and tied to a value. Example: a banyan tree, chosen because a banyan shelters many under one canopy while its many roots stay independently strong, symbolising a kingdom that protects diverse communities without erasing their identities.
2. Choosing a title. Rather than copying a grand title like Kanishka's "king of kings," a title can state a value directly: "Rakshaka" ("protector"), showing that the ruler's first duty, like Kautilya's welfare-first ideal referenced elsewhere in this book, is protecting subjects rather than only expanding territory.
3. Core values. Three values, matching the emblem: shelter for all communities and faiths (as Ashoka and the Kushanas both showed through religious tolerance); fair treatment recorded in public inscriptions, the way Pandya kings publicly asserted concern for their subjects' welfare; and encouragement of trade and craftsmanship, as the Satavahanas and Cheras did.
4. Rules and regulations. Concrete rules following from these values: land disputes settled by publicly recorded judgments (inspired by inscriptions like the Hathigumpha record); tax-free land grants for scholars and monks of every faith (as the Satavahanas did for Vedic, Jaina and Buddhist practitioners); and protected trade routes with fixed, published tolls, similar to the Naneghat toll caves.
5. A unique feature. One unique feature: an annual public reading of the kingdom's key decisions in the local language, in the same spirit as Ashoka's edicts written in Prakrit and Brahmi so that ordinary people, not only officials, could understand them.

An imagined kingdom under the banyan-tree emblem and the title "Rakshaka" (protector), valuing shelter for many communities, publicly recorded fair judgments, tax relief for scholars of every faith, and an annual public reading of key decisions, modelled on real practices described in this chapter (Chera/Pandya emblems, Kushana religious plurality, Ashoka's public edicts).

Concept used. This chapter mentions several rock-cut and built structures across different regions, sponsored by different post-Maurya kingdoms. Marking them on one outline map shows how widely distributed this architectural activity was, and which kingdom sponsored each one.

1. Bharhut Stupa, Madhya Pradesh (Shunga). Probably built under Ashoka but expanded by the Shungas with carved railings and reliefs of the Buddha's life, among the earliest examples of Buddhist art.
2. Naneghat caves, near Pune, Maharashtra (Satavahana). Used for toll and tax collection and as a resting place for traders, also carrying an important Satavahana inscription.
3. Karla caves, near Lonavala, Maharashtra (Satavahana). Built for Buddhist monks, with carved pillars and a stone stupa replica cut out of the hillside.
4. Udayagiri-Khandagiri caves, near Bhubaneswar, Odisha (Chedi). Likely built for Jain monks under King Kharavela; home to the Hathigumpha inscription recording his year-by-year achievements.
5. Heliodorus pillar, near Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh (Indo-Greek). Erected by an Indo-Greek ambassador whose inscription praises Vasudeva and lists self-restraint, charity and consciousness as the path to heaven.
6. Kallanai (Grand Anicut), Tamil Nadu (Chola). A water diversion system built under the Chola king Karikala, still in use today to irrigate the Kaveri delta.
7. Marking the outline. On a subcontinent outline, these would appear spread from central India (Bharhut, Heliodorus pillar) through the west (Naneghat, Karla) and east (Udayagiri- Khandagiri) to the far south (Kallanai), showing that architectural activity in this age was never limited to one kingdom or one region.

Key structures to mark: Bharhut Stupa and the Heliodorus pillar in Madhya Pradesh, the Naneghat and Karla caves near Pune in Maharashtra, the Udayagiri-Khandagiri caves near Bhubaneswar in Odisha, and the Kallanai (Grand Anicut) in Tamil Nadu, showing architectural activity spread across the Shunga, Satavahana, Chedi, Indo-Greek and Chola kingdoms.