56 Total Pages : 4 ENTRANCE EXAMINATION, 2018 M.Phil. /Ph.D. HISTORICAL STUDIES | Field of Study Code—Ancient : ANCP (139)/ Medieval : MEDP (138)/Modern : MODP (137) ] Time Allowed : 3 hours Maximum Marks : 100 Note : Questions from all Sections must be attempted. Section—I (A & B) is compulsory (carries 40 marks). Answer two questions from Section—II (carries 60 marks) from the period of specialization (Ancient/Medieval/ Modern). Candidates must indicate their preferred choice of admission, e.g., Ancient, Medieval or Modern India on their answer-book’s cover-sheet in bold letters. SECTION—I (A) 1, Read the passage below carefully and answer the questions that follow in your own words in not more than 100 words each. All questions are compulsory. Do not copy from the passage : 20 ‘The history of space in the process of becoming private, of the phases of retirement and intimacy, is one of feelings, thoughts and mental images cultivated in secret but fixed in private writing, Compared with the sources of earlier centuries, those of the late medieval period are relatively abundant. Beginning in the thirteenth century, the volume of documents increases markedly, and a fair proportion of private documents have survived. Hence we can feel more confident of entering the private lives of certain individuals whose interest in writing or being painted ensured that some evidence of their identity, manner, and/or voice would be recorded and whose record survived the hazards of the archives. As private writing, or writing about private life, became more common place, profound changes in the attitudes of individuals toward their families and social groups must have occurred. People felt a need to transmit, or at least describe, reactions to events about which earlier generations had been silent. Although we become aware of modifications induced by the habit of writing, the increasing availability of the ‘mirror’ that writing provides, we must not conclude that self-consciousness did not exist or that people previously took no pleasure in private life and had no interest in defending it. The ability to write was fairly widespread in the late Middle Ages. The skill was more ‘commonly found in large cities than in rural towns, and laymen shared it with clerics. 156 [P.7.0.Writing remained, however, the privilege of a minority of the ene cee < ‘The written sources tell us about the intimate lives of a relatively STEN people, offering only occasional glimpses of the rest. Evidence BONS Te sculpture and archaeology, however, can help correct and extend ov understanding, A danger lurks in the temptation to view the final centuries of the Middle Ages 0 © precursor of ‘modernity’ simply because the people of that age were more GELNLONE about each other’s secrets than were their ancestors, The trap of modernity Ts 1 assume that nothing is ever new, that men expressing themselves in private SP the same language across the centuries, The abundance of sources for the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries requires us to overcome two difficulties : we must not assume a sharp break with earlier times, and we must not treat the period as though it were the beginning of the Modern Age. Every document used (most of the sources are cither Italian or German), every expression uncovered, must be carefully weighed in the light of other, contemporary documents and expressions. Beyond the pleasure of attending to the voice, we must strive to identify the speaker and situate him in his milieu. Social life comprises a series of communities : family, traditional community, professional groups and subjects of a sovereign. The individual is more than a member of so many different groups. Self-consciousness is born when the individual can see himself in perspective, set himself apart from his fellow man; it can lead to a radical questioning of the social order. Those who risked abandoning their position in society, who took to the roads and forests, lost their social status. The restless wanderers, shady characters and madmen who fill the pages of romantic adventures so widely read in the waning Middle Ages were not alone in the forest of disorder, where charcoal burners, outcasts, and hermits avidly seeking another world also roamed. But self-consciousness, at least as it was expressed in writing, did not often cross the dividing line between the gregarious and the unorganized. Wedded to familiar habits of mind and obligations of society, the late medieval citizen was still quite conscious of the ideology of the common good, according to which the well-being of alll represented an advance over the convenience of a few. Questions : (a) Why is the study of privacy feasible to a greater extent in the late medieval period? (b) How did writing transform society, and what are the implications of this for the historian? (c) What are the problems in interpretation of late medieval written sources, according to the author? (d) What are the considerations to be kept in mind by the historian while identifying self-consciousness/ subjectivity in the sources? (e) 186 Critically analyze the limitations in the sources that are utilized by the author.Answer any one of the following questions 4. B-Medieval or C-Modern). 10. 11. 136 SECTION—I (B) 20 ‘The focus on gender in historical studies has resulted in significant shifts in methodology and analysis. Discuss with specific examples located in historical contexts, “Facts are a necessity, not a virtue.” Comment. “The conception of what constitutes history changes with time, with the class in power.” Elucidate. SECTION—II A: Ancient Section How did technological changes result in social transformations? Answer with specific reference to the early historic period. Why is the ‘Five Hundred Svamis of Ayyavole’ considered as an umbrella organization of merchant groups in South India? Do inscriptions suggest that villages were neither isolated nor undifferentiated in the early medieval period? Give reasons for your answer. Examine the social dimensions of Buddhist art and architecture. How does field archaeology help us in understanding landscape and settlement patterns in early India? Discuss with examples, B : Medieval Section What is the relationship between numismatics and monetary history of medieval India? Who were the landed intermediaries in the rural society of Mughal India? How did the State try to control them? Examine the significance of the nayankaram system in Medieval South India. 3 [P.T.0.