Here is the class notes from Class  NCERT History- Chapter 9: “The Making of Regional Cultures”

The Cheras and the Development of Malayalam

• • • The Chera kingdom of Mahodayapuram was established in the ninth century in the south-western part of the peninsula, part of present-day Kerala.
    • Malayalam was spoken in this area.
    • The rulers introduced the Malayalam language and script in their inscriptions.
    • This is one of the earliest examples of the use of a regional language in official records in the subcontinent.
    • The Cheras also drew upon Sanskritic traditions.
    • The temple theatre of Kerala, which is traced to this period, borrowed stories from the Sanskrit epics.
    • The first literary works in Malayalam, dated to about the twelfth century, are directly indebted to Sanskrit.
    • A fourteenth-century text, the Lilatilakam, dealing with grammar and poetics, was composed in Manipravalam– literally, “diamonds and corals” referring to the two languages, Sanskrit and the regional language.

Rulers and Religious Traditions: The Jagannatha Cult

• • • Jagannatha (Lord Vishnu) was worshipped in Puri, Odisha.
    • The local tribal people make the wooden image of the deity, which suggests that the deity was originally a local god, who was later identified with Vishnu.
    • In the twelfth century, one of rulers of the Ganga dynasty, Anantavarman, decided to erect a temple for Purushottama Jagannatha at Puri.
    • In 1230, king Anangabhima III dedicated his kingdom to the deity and proclaimed himself as the “deputy” of the god.
    • As the temple gained in importance as a centre of pilgrimage, its authority in social and political matters also increased.
    • All those who conquered Orissa, such as the Mughals, the Marathas and the English East India Company, attempted to gain control over the temple.

The Rajputs and Traditions of Heroism

• • • In the nineteenth century, the region that constitutes most of present-day Rajasthan, was called Rajputana by the British
    • the Rajputs are often recognised as contributing to the distinctive culture of Rajasthan.
    • These cultural traditions were closely linked with the ideals and aspirations of rulers. 
    • From about the eighth century, most of the present-day state of Rajasthan was ruled by various Rajput families.
    • These rulers cherished the ideal of the hero who fought valiantly, often choosing death on the battlefield rather than face defeat.
    • Stories about Rajput heroes were recorded in poems and songs, which were recited by specially trained minstrels.
    • Ordinary people were also attracted by these stories – which often depicted dramatic situations, and a range of strong emotions – loyalty, friendship, love, valour, anger, etc.
    • Women are also depicted as following their heroic husbands in both life and death – there are stories about the practice of sati or the immolation of widows on the funeral pyre of their husbands.

Beyond Regional Frontier: The Story of Kathak

• • • The term kathak is derived from katha, a word used in Sanskrit and other languages for story.
    • The kathaks were originally a caste of story-tellers in temples of north India, who embellished their performances with gestures and songs.
    • Kathak began evolving into a distinct mode of dance in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with the spread of the bhakti movement.
    • The legends of Radha-Krishna were enacted in folk plays called rasa lila, which combined folk dance with the basic gestures of the kathak story-tellers.
    • Under the Mughal emperors and their nobles, Kathak was performed in the court, where it acquired its present features and developed into a form of dance with a distinctive style. 
    • Subsequently, it developed in two traditions or gharanas: one in the courts of Rajasthan (Jaipur) and the other in Lucknow.
    • Under the patronage of Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, it grew into a major art form.
    • By the third qurter of the nineteenth century, it spread adjoining areas of present-day Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
    • Emphasis was laid on intricate and rapid footwork, elaborate costumes, as well as on the enactment of stories.

Classical dance

• • • Require a great deal of skill
    • According to rules that are laid down
    • Different  classical dance
      • Kathak
      • Bharatnatyam
      • Kuchipudi
      • Odissi
      • Kathakali
      • Sattriya
      • Manipuri
      • Mohiniyattam

Painting for Patrons: The Tradition of Miniatures

• • • Miniatures are small-sized paintings, generally done in water colour on cloth or paper.
    • The earliest miniatures were on palm leaves or wood. Some of the most beautiful of these, found in western India, were used to illustrate Jaina texts.
    • The Mughal emperors Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan patronised highly skilled painters who primarily illustrated manuscripts containing historical accounts and poetry.
    • These were generally painted in brilliant colours and portrayed court scenes, scenes of battle or hunting, and other aspects of social life.
    • With the decline of the Mughal Empire, many painters moved out to the courts of the emerging regional states.
    • As a result Mughal artistic tastes influenced the regional courts of the Deccan and the Rajput courts of Rajasthan.
    • Another region that attracted miniature paintings was the Himalayan foothills around the modern-day state of Himachal Pradesh.
      • By the late seventeenth century this region had developed a bold and intense style of miniature painting called Basohli.
      • The most popular text to be painted here was Bhanudatta’s Rasamanjari.
    • Nadir Shah’s invasion and the conquest of Delhi in 1739 resulted in the migration of Mughal artists to the hills to escape the uncertainties of the plains.
    • By the mid eighteenth century the Kangra artists developed a style which breathed a new spirit into miniature painting.
      • The source of inspiration was the Vaishnavite traditions.
      • Soft colours including cool blues and greens, and a lyrical treatment of themes distinguished Kangra painting

A Closer Look: Bengal

The Growth of a Regional Language

• • • Bengali is derived from Sanskrit. Also, a wide range of non-Sanskrit words, derived from a variety of sources including tribal languages, Persian, and European languages, have become part of modern Bengali.
    • Early Bengali Literature is divided into two categories
    1. Magalakavyas
       • literally auspicious poems, dealing with local deities
       • bhakti literature such as the biographies of Chaitanyadeva, the leader of the Vaishnava bhakti movement
       • several manuscripts have been found indicating that they were composed between the late fifteenth and mid-eighteenth centuries.
    2. Nath Literature
       • the songs of Maynamati and Gopichandra, stories concerning the worship of Dharma Thakur, and fairy tales, folk tales and ballads.
       • circulated orally and cannot be precisely dated.
       • They were particularly popular in eastern Bengal, where the influence of Brahmanas was relatively weak.
  • • A particular song, which was often enacted, described how Maynamati, a queen, encouraged her son Gopichandra to adopt the path of asceticism in the face of a variety of obstacles.
    • Dharma Thakur is a popular regional deity, often worshipped in the form of a stone or a piece of wood.

Pirs and Temples

• • • Pir: A Persian word meaning a spiritual guide.
    • These were provided by community leaders, who also functioned as teachers and adjudicators and were sometimes ascribed with supernatural powers.
    • Bengal also witnessed a temple-building spree from the late fifteenth century, which culminated in the nineteenth century.
    • The temples and other religious structures were often built by individuals or groups who were becoming powerful – to both demonstrate their power and proclaim their piety.
    • Many of the modest brick and terracotta temples in Bengal were built with the support of several “low” social groups, such as the Kolu (oil pressers) and the Kansari (bell metal workers).
    • As their social and economic position improved, they proclaimed their status through the construction of temples.
    • When local deities, once worshipped in thatched huts in villages, gained the recognition of the Brahmanas, their images began to be housed in temples.
    • The temples began to copy the double-roofed (dochala) or four-roofed (chauchala) structure of the thatched huts.
    • This led to evolution of Bangla done temple architecture.

Fish as Food

• • • Traditional food habits are generally based on locally available items of food.
    • Bengal is a riverine plain which produces plenty of rice and fish.
    • Fishing has always been an important occupation and Bengali literature contains several references to fish.
    • Brahmanas were not allowed to eat non vegetarian food, but the popularity of fish in the local diet made the Brahmanical authorities relax this prohibition for the Bengal Brahmanas.
    • The Brihaddharma Purana, a thirteenth-century Sanskrit text from Bengal, permitted the local Brahmanas to eat certain varieties of fish.