During the 8th – 14th centuries, in the Sanskrit texts and inscriptions, which of the following terms were used to denote Muslims? 1. Turushka 2. Tajika 3. Parashika 4. Kardamaka Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a)1, 2 and 3
- (b)1, 2 and 4
- (c)2 and 3 only
- (d)1, 3 and 4
Correct — A, 1, 2 and 3. The NCERT history text sets it out plainly: Sanskrit texts and inscriptions dating between the eighth and fourteenth centuries point out that the term musalman or Muslim was virtually never used, and that instead people were occasionally identified in terms of the region from which they came — so the Turkish rulers were designated as Turushka, Tajika were people from Tajikistan and Parashika were people from Persia. The same passage adds that Turks and Afghans were sometimes given older labels such as Shaka and Yavana, and that mlechchha served as the general term for migrant communities. Kardamaka is not part of that vocabulary at all; the name belongs to a much earlier world, that of the Saka satraps of western India in the early centuries of the common era.
- (b)1, 2 and 4 — Keeps Turushka and Tajika, then swaps out Parashika for Kardamaka. Parashika is the straightforward one of the three — it is simply the Sanskrit form for people from Persia — so dropping it is the costliest possible exchange.
- (c)2 and 3 only — Drops Turushka, which is the best attested of the three and the one used for the Turkish rulers themselves. Any answer that leaves it out cannot be right.
- (d)1, 3 and 4 — Drops Tajika and admits Kardamaka. Tajika names people from Tajikistan and belongs squarely to the list; Kardamaka does not appear in it.
The vocabulary is itself the historical point. Between the eighth and fourteenth centuries, Sanskrit writers and the composers of inscriptions described the newcomers by where they had come from rather than by what they believed. Turushka points at the Turks, Tajika at Central Asia, Parashika at Persia. Older ethnic labels were recycled for them — Shaka and Yavana, words that had once described earlier arrivals from the north-west — and mlechchha, a general word for outsiders, covered the rest. Religion as a category of identification, in the way a later age would use it, is largely absent from this record.
The item can be answered from either end. Positively, three of the four terms are recognisable as regional names: Turushka from Turk, Tajika from Tajik, Parashika from Persia. Negatively, Kardamaka has no such geography attached to it and sits centuries earlier, among the Saka satraps of the western Deccan and Gujarat. Notice too what the passage implies about how identity worked — the absence of the word Muslim from these texts is a warning against reading the religious categories of later centuries back into the early medieval sources.
- Between the eighth and fourteenth centuries, Sanskrit texts and inscriptions virtually never used the word musalman or Muslim.
- Turushka designated the Turkish rulers.
- Tajika meant people from Tajikistan, and Parashika people from Persia.
- Turks and Afghans were also called Shakas and Yavanas, older terms once used for earlier arrivals.
- Mlechchha was the general term applied to migrant communities.
Three of the four names carry a geography. The fourth carries a dynasty, and from the wrong period.
- Assuming a Sanskrit-sounding name in a list must belong to the period being asked about.
- Reading these words as religious labels; they are labels of origin.
- Confusing Tajika with Turushka, which point at different regions.
As a select-the-terms list like this one, or as a single-term question asking what Turushka or mlechchha denoted.
In medieval India, the designations 'Mahattara' and 'Pattakila' were used for
- (a) military officers
- (b) village headmen
- (c) specialists in Vedic rituals
- (d) chiefs of craft guilds
Answer(b) village headmen
The same habit of mind on a different set of words. Medieval Indian records are full of technical terms whose meaning has to be learnt from the sources themselves, and Mahattara and Pattakila for the village headman sit beside Turushka and Parashika for the newcomer.
CDS_GK_2022_I_Q672022Which of the following terms were used in the Indo-Persian sources of the Mughal period to denote a peasant? 1. Raiyat 2. Asami 3. Muzarian 4. Majur Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1, 2 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 3 and 4 only
Answer(c) 1, 2 and 3 only
The same question shape from the same year's first session, moved forward a few centuries and into Persian. Three of four terms belong and one is planted — there the odd term is majur, the labourer, and here it is Kardamaka.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In early medieval Sanskrit texts, the term 'Parashika' denoted people from which one of the following regions?
- (a)Persia
- (b)Tibet
- (c)Bengal
- (d)Sri Lanka
Answer(a) Persia — one of the regional labels used in place of the word Muslim between the eighth and fourteenth centuries.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following was the general Sanskrit term applied to migrant communities in early medieval India?
- (a)Mlechchha
- (b)Mahattara
- (c)Pattakila
- (d)Raiyat
Answer(a) Mlechchha — a broad word for outsiders, used alongside the more specific Turushka, Tajika and Parashika.