History Optional Subject Discussion and Analysis

neomini

@sheen it is a very open question u can answer it from lot of perspectives such as temple architecture such as vesara dravida idol carving metal or bronze images such as natraja in literature both religious n non religious such as ramayana of kamban n bhakti cult promoting cultural exchanges between north n south india by granting lAnd to brahmanas n organising various yajna mentiond in vedas they also did so by military conquest such as those by rashtrakut rulers n rajendra chola.all famous rulers were patron of literature n poetry such as amoghvarsha.they invested large parts of their incomes on building activities which is evident from structures at dhanyakatak allora kanchi badami tanjavur mammalpuram etc.perhaps their best contribution was that despite indulging in deadly wars they respected monuments of each other a tradition which was given up lately.u can further add some points i m missing as it has been 4months since i left studying history.hope u find it useful.

djs

Hi friends, I am new to this thread, but I followed your discussion in this thread and others and I can say that all of you are seriously and sincerely preparing. I appeared in mains for three times but couldnot clear (earlier sociology played the spoitsport and this year paper 1 of history). Last year I got 260(2012mains) in history.

I am currently based in south delhi but planning to move either to mukherji nagar or rajinder nagar. The idea being to move to a place where there is study environment for IAS. Also if 2-3 students who are seriously and dedicatedly preparing and join their efforts, undertake discussions and answer writing practice can definitely help all in the group.

Although online discussions are fine but if we can meet and discuss, may be fewdays in a week then I think it can be very helpful for all. We can take few topics every week. Everyone can cover them on their own and may be at weekend we can extensively disuss these topics covering various aspects like socio-economic-political-cultural and the possible questions that can be framed. also previous years questions on these topics can be solved. Such a discussion will help clarify concepts since everyone brings his own knowledge and perspective.

I think we are reading a lot but ultimately in exam we have to tackle questions. And for this discussion groups can be very helpful. Because when we discuss thing , what ever we have learnt comes out in an somewhat organised form and it will help in recalling such concepts in exam time. But without group discussion, most of us try to recall whatever we have read in exam time only. In this sense joining a test series can be helpful but to a limited extent, since they will cover specific topics and not all.

I think such an extensive discussion may not be possible online. Hence if we can meet at a common place it will be better. We can follow this approach for GS papers also. Please advise what do you think about this and also where you all are staying.

akrao_iimb

A sincere query to the seasoned History students! As mentioned by @snuffal in the previous posts, is it necessary to put in multiple point of views/evidences in an answer by different historians in an answer or does an answer based on personal synthesis suffice? I am finding it especially cumbersome in Ancient India!
Thanks in Advance!

Hits25

@djs . Even i think the same. even i have appeared 3 times in the mains but could not clear it. Our collective efforts can help us to sail thru. Even am planning to move to mukharjee nagar, but over here also the problem with history is that there is no test series, which is a big hurdle.

fakir

evaluate various views regarding human settlements as gleaned from the vedic sources .
how to approach this question ??

Flywheel

What are differences between Rigvedic civilization and Indus valley civilization?

There are many articles online, but doesn't seem authentic. Is there any good reference for this?