Match List – I with List – II and select the correct answer using the codes given below the lists :
List – I: A. Indus Valley Civilization, B. Later Vedic Society, C. Rigvedic Society, D. Medieval Per

Question

Match List – I with List – II and select the correct answer using the codes given below the lists :
List – I: A. Indus Valley Civilization, B. Later Vedic Society, C. Rigvedic Society, D. Medieval Period
List – II: 1. Pastoral, 2. Land Lordism, 3. Agrarian, 4. Urban

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, A-4, B-3, C-1, D-2. Each society is paired with its dominant economic character. (A) The Indus Valley Civilization (c. 2600-1900 BCE) was India's first URBAN economy — planned brick cities such as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa with grid streets, granaries, drains and standardised weights → 4-Urban. (B) Later Vedic Society (c. 1000-600 BCE) shifted east into the Ganga plains, adopted iron tools and the plough, and became settled and AGRARIAN → 3-Agrarian. (C) Rigvedic Society (c. 1500-1000 BCE) was chiefly PASTORAL — cattle were the main wealth (the word for war, gavishti, literally means 'search for cattle') → 1-Pastoral. (D) The Medieval Period was marked by LAND LORDISM — feudal land-grants (agrahara, iqta, jagir, zamindari) that created an intermediary landholding class → 2-Land Lordism. Only code (d) matches all four.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Gets only A-4 (IVC-Urban) right. It wrongly labels Later Vedic society as Land Lordism (B-2), the pastoral Rigvedic society as Agrarian (C-3), and the feudal Medieval period as Pastoral (D-1) — the last three are all mismatched.  (b) Every pairing is wrong: it calls the urban Indus Valley 'Land Lordism' (A-2), the agrarian Later Vedic society 'Pastoral' (B-1), the pastoral Rigvedic society 'Urban' (C-4) and the feudal Medieval period 'Agrarian' (D-3).  (c) Fixes C-1 (Rigvedic-Pastoral) and D-2 (Medieval-Land Lordism), but swaps the first two: it wrongly makes the urban Indus Valley 'Agrarian' (A-3) and the agrarian Later Vedic society 'Urban' (B-4). The IVC, not the Later Vedic age, was the urban one.

Concept: Indian economic history before modern times is often summarised as a sequence of dominant modes: the Harappans built an URBAN civilization; the Rigvedic Aryans who followed were mainly PASTORAL cattle-keepers; the Later Vedic people, using iron and the plough in the Ganga valley, became settled AGRARIANS; and by the Medieval period a system of LAND LORDISM (feudal land-grants and intermediaries between the state and the tiller) dominated.

State PCS 2020 Q21 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2020 Q21 — History PYQ with Answer