Topic– Salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
1) The dark ages in ancient India, spanning from the fall of Mauryan empire to the rise of the Gupta empire, was a period of significant socio-cultural transformation. Discuss.(250 words)
NCERT, Themes in Indian History- part I.
Directive word
Discuss- Discuss- This is an all-encompassing directive which mandates us to write in detail about the key demand of the question. We also have to discuss about the related and important aspects of the question in order to bring out a complete picture of the issue in hand.
Key demand of the question.
The question wants us to write in detail about how the dark ages as mentioned in the question was a period of significant socio-cultural transformation and not really a dark age.
Structure of the answer
Introduction- Write a few lines about the polity of the ancient dark ages of India i.e the period spanning from the fall of Mauryan empire to the rise of the Gupta empire. Mention the political instability for most of the times, small divided territories except the Kanishka empire etc.
Body-
Discuss in points the salient aspects of socio-cultural transformation witnessed t=during those dark ages. E.g
Revival of Hinduism in the form of rise of cults around Shiva, Krishna and Vishnu-Vasudeva; organization of empires in a new way-large scale incorporation of local rulers, a trend that influenced India’s future polity; Indo-Kushan art, Sarnath school art; compilation of dharmashastras; internal contacts and cultural exchange- central Asia, Greeks, Southeast Asia etc.
Conclusion- Conclusion- sum up your discussion in a few lines and form a fair and a balanced conclusion on the above issue. E.g the period called as dark ages was actually a precursor of the classical age etc.
