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Class 8 Social Science Chapter 2, Reshaping India's Political Map: 8 practice questions with answers, and notes

CMDLearn · 4 November 2026

In short: Chapter 2 of the NCERT Class 8 Social Science book, Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), is the first history chapter of the book. It follows how India's map changed between the 13th and 17th centuries: the Delhi Sultanate and the kingdoms that held out against it, the Vijayanagara Empire and the Deccan Sultanates, the Mughal Empire, the Rajputs, Ahoms and Sikhs who resisted it, how the Sultanate and the Mughals ran their lands, and how ordinary people earned a living.

Below are short notes and 8 practice questions, each with a worked answer and the textbook page behind it. Many students search for this chapter as "Class 8 history chapter 2". The chapter before it is geography: Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1, Natural Resources and Their Use.

These questions are our own, drafted with AI help. Every number was re-computed by a script and every answer was checked against the chapter, but no practising teacher has reviewed them yet. None of them is a textbook question reworded. If you find a mistake, please tell us.

Notes: what the chapter says

Facts from Chapter 2 of Exploring Society: India and Beyond, Part 1 for Class 8 (Reprint 2026-27, pages 21 to 60), in our words:

• The period and its timeline (pages 22-23): the book uses "medieval" to mean simply the 11th to 17th centuries. Its timeline (Fig. 2.2) marks 1206, the Delhi Sultanate set up; 1336, the Vijayanagara Empire; 1347, the Bahmani Sultanate; 1398, Timur's attack on Delhi; 1526, the First Battle of Panipat; 1556, the Second Battle of Panipat; 1565, Talikota; 1576, Haldighati; 1671, Saraighat; 1699, the Khalsa; 1754, the Marathas take control of Delhi; 1799, the Sikh Empire.
• The Delhi Sultanate (pages 25-28): it was formed after Prithviraj Chauhan was defeated in 1192 and was ruled in turn by five dynasties of Turkic-Afghan origin: the Mamluks (the "Slave dynasty"), Khiljis, Tughlaqs, Sayyids and Lodis. Successions were often violent: close to two in three sultans took the throne by killing or removing the one before, and the average reign was only about nine years. Ala-ud-din Khilji campaigned across north and central India and drove back Mongol invasions; his general Malik Kafur pushed the Sultanate's reach far to the south.
• Muhammad bin Tughlaq (pages 26-27): for the first time since the Mauryas, one ruler held most of the Subcontinent, but not for long. He moved the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad (Devagiri) and back, forcing people to travel more than 1,000 km, and he issued copper "token" coins meant to be worth silver or gold ones; people forged the copper coins and trade suffered.
• Plunder, taxes and Timur (pages 27-28): the sultans' wealth came from plunder, taxes and the slave trade. The chapter records attacks on Buddhist, Jain and Hindu temples and the jizya, a tax some sultans charged non-Muslim subjects. Timur sacked Delhi at the end of the 14th century, and the Lodis, the last Sultanate dynasty, ruled a much smaller territory.
• Resistance to the Sultanate (pages 29-31): Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Gangas (Kalinga) beat back the Sultanate and built the Sun temple at Konark; the Musunuri Nayakas united more than 75 Telugu chieftains and drove Tughlaq's army out of Warangal around 1330-1336; the Hoysalas of present-day Karnataka held out until they were absorbed into Vijayanagara in the mid-14th century; Rana Kumbha of Mewar resisted in the 15th century and built Kumbhalgarh Fort, whose wall is 36 km long.
• Vijayanagara (pages 31-36): founded in the 14th century by the brothers Harihara and Bukka Raya, once governors under Muhammad bin Tughlaq, with its capital at Hampi. The Bahmani Sultanate to its north later split into five Deccan Sultanates: Ahmednagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur and Golconda. The empire peaked under Krishnadevaraya (16th century), a patron of Sanskrit, Telugu and Kannada writers, who wrote the Telugu poem Āmuktamālyada. He died in 1529; in 1565 the Deccan Sultanates beat Ramaraya's army at Talikota and the city was destroyed. Nayakas then ruled the pieces, and the empire ended in the mid-17th century.
• The Mughals (pages 36-44): Babur, a descendant of Timur, defeated Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat in 1526 with cannon and matchlock guns. Humayun lost ground to Sher Shah Suri and won it back; Hemu briefly held Delhi until the Second Battle of Panipat. Akbar became emperor at 13 and ruled from 1556 to 1605. His early conquests were brutal, as at Chittor; later he made marriage alliances, brought Rajputs into his court, ended the jizya, and promoted sulh-i-kul, "peace with all". He had Sanskrit works translated into Persian at Fatehpur Sikri. Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal. Aurangzeb took the throne from his brothers, was crowned in 1658, spent his last 25 years at war in the Deccan, brought back the jizya, and died in 1707; the empire then declined fast.
• Note on the darker chapters (page 45): the book asks readers to know the facts and respect the victims, while remembering that people living today bear no responsibility for what individuals did centuries ago.
• Resistance to the Mughals (pages 45-53): Jat peasants rebelled in the 17th century; Bhils, Gonds, Santhals and Kochs resisted too. Rani Durgavati of Garha, a Gond kingdom, fought Akbar's general in 1564. Rana Sanga lost to Babur at Khanwa; Maharana Pratap fought at Haldighati in 1576 and then waged guerrilla war, helped by the Bhils; Durga Das Rathore defended Marwar. The Ahoms, who came to the Brahmaputra Valley from present-day Myanmar in the 13th century, used the paik system of service for land; at Saraighat in 1671 Lachit Borphukan's 10,000 men beat a Mughal force of 30,000. The Sikh Gurus, from Guru Nanak on, met persecution; Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed in Delhi in 1675, Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa, and Maharaja Ranjit Singh later united the Sikh confederacies into an empire.
• Running the state (pages 53-55): the sultan held full power, helped by ministers; under the iqta system, nobles (iqtadars) collected taxes from assigned lands to pay for the army, and the post did not pass to their sons. Akbar's ministers were the Diwan (finance), the Mir Bakhshi (military), the Khan-i-Saman (public works, trade, industry, farming and the royal household) and the Sadr (justice, religion and education), with ministers in each of the 12 provinces (subahs). Under the mansabdari system, each officer's rank fixed the troops and animals he had to keep; he was paid with land (a jagir). Todar Mal surveyed crop yields, prices and land to set revenue.
• People's lives (pages 55-58): farming was the base of the economy; land revenue was usually one-fifth of the crop, and some sultans took up to one-half. India sold far more abroad than it bought, through ports such as Calicut, Surat, Masulipatnam and Hooghly, and imported silk, horses, metals and luxuries. A hundi, a written order to pay, let merchants move money across borders without carrying coins. Temples ran markets, tanks and lodgings and lent to traders. The Mughals used a silver rupaya and a copper dam. By the late 1600s many peasants kept only a small share of their crop after taxes, and some lost their land and became bonded labourers.

Dates and dynasties

Question 1. (a) Put these events from the chapter's timeline in order, earliest first: the Battle of Talikota; the Delhi Sultanate set up; the formation of the Khalsa; the First Battle of Panipat; the Vijayanagara Empire set up; the Battle of Saraighat. (b) How many years passed between the setting up of the Delhi Sultanate and Babur's win at Panipat? (c) For how many years did Vijayanagara last from its founding to the Battle of Talikota? (d) Which two of the six events fall in the 17th century?

Answer: (a) Delhi Sultanate (1206), Vijayanagara (1336), First Battle of Panipat (1526), Talikota (1565), Saraighat (1671), the Khalsa (1699); (b) 320 years; (c) 229 years; (d) Saraighat and the Khalsa. (a) The dates are on the timeline, Fig. 2.2 (pages 22-23). (b) 1526 − 1206 = 320. (c) 1565 − 1336 = 229; the city was destroyed after Talikota, although Nayakas ruled parts of the empire until the mid-17th century (page 36). (d) The 17th century runs from 1601 to 1700, so 1671 and 1699 are in it.

Question 2. (a) Put the five dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate in the order they ruled: Lodis, Khiljis, Sayyids, Mamluks, Tughlaqs. (b) To which dynasty did Ala-ud-din Khilji belong, and to which did Muhammad bin Tughlaq belong? (c) Which ruler of the last dynasty lost to Babur in 1526? (d) The chapter says close to two out of every three sultans seized power by removing the sultan before them. In a made-up list of 30 rulers with that pattern, about how many would have taken power that way?

Answer: (a) Mamluks, Khiljis, Tughlaqs, Sayyids, Lodis; (b) Khilji; Tughlaq; (c) Ibrahim Lodi; (d) about 20. (a) The five dynasties are listed in order on page 25; the Mamluks are also called the "Slave dynasty". (b) The names give it away (pages 26-27). (c) Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat, which ended the Sultanate (page 36). (d) Two-thirds of 30 is 30 × 2 ÷ 3 = 20. The chapter adds that the average sultan reigned for little more than nine years (page 26).

Rulers, schemes and resistance

Question 3. (a) A ₹5 coin today contains metal worth less than ₹5, yet a shop accepts it as ₹5. What does the chapter call money of this kind, and which sultan tried it, with coins of which metal? (b) Give two reasons why his version went wrong. (c) He also moved his capital. From which city to which, roughly how far did people have to travel, and what is one reason the chapter suggests for the move?

Answer: (a) token currency; Muhammad bin Tughlaq, with copper coins; (b) it confused trade, and people made forged copper coins, which harmed the economy; (c) from Delhi to Daulatabad (then Devagiri), more than 1,000 km; it may have seemed more central, for better control of the empire. (a) and (b) are on page 27, which also notes that most money today is token money, so the idea itself was ahead of its time. (c) Page 27: a few years later the capital moved back to Delhi, and some sources say both moves cost many lives.

Question 4. Match each person or group (a)-(f) to the right fact (i)-(vi).

• People: (a) Narasimhadeva I; (b) the Musunuri Nayakas; (c) Rana Kumbha; (d) Rani Durgavati; (e) Maharana Pratap; (f) Lachit Borphukan.
• Facts: (i) fought at Haldighati in 1576, then kept up a guerrilla war with help from the Bhils; (ii) won the Battle of Saraighat on the Brahmaputra in 1671; (iii) ruled the Eastern Ganga kingdom and built the Sun temple at Konark; (iv) built Kumbhalgarh Fort in the Aravallis; (v) Telugu chieftains who drove Tughlaq's army out of Warangal; (vi) queen of Garha who fought a general sent by Akbar in 1564.

Then: (g) At Saraighat, how many times larger was the Mughal force than the Ahom force?

Answer: (a)-(iii); (b)-(v); (c)-(iv); (d)-(vi); (e)-(i); (f)-(ii); (g) 3 times. Narasimhadeva I is on page 29, the Musunuri Nayakas in the box on the same page, Rana Kumbha and Kumbhalgarh on pages 30-31, Rani Durgavati on page 46, Maharana Pratap on page 47, and Lachit Borphukan on pages 48-49. (g) The Mughal force had 30,000 soldiers and the Ahom force 10,000 (pages 48-49): 30,000 ÷ 10,000 = 3.

Question 5. (a) Who founded the kingdom that grew into the Vijayanagara Empire, and whom had they served before? (b) Name the five Deccan Sultanates that the Bahmani Sultanate split into. (c) Name the poem Krishnadevaraya wrote, and its language. (d) How many years after Krishnadevaraya's death was the Battle of Talikota, and who led the Vijayanagara army there? (e) What happened to the Hoysala kingdom in the mid-14th century?

Answer: (a) the brothers Harihara and Bukka Raya, earlier governors under Muhammad bin Tughlaq; (b) Ahmednagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur and Golconda; (c) Āmuktamālyada, in Telugu; (d) 36 years; Ramaraya, Krishnadevaraya's son-in-law; (e) it was absorbed into the Vijayanagara Empire. (a) Page 31. (b) Page 32: each was ruled by a former governor who declared himself independent. (c) Page 34: the poem retells the life of Āṇḍāl, a Tamil poet-saint. (d) Krishnadevaraya died in 1529 and Talikota was fought in 1565 (page 36): 1565 − 1529 = 36. (e) Page 30: weakened by Sultanate attacks and quarrels inside, the Hoysala kingdom became part of Vijayanagara.

Running an empire, and earning a living

Question 6. (a) Name the minister in Akbar's government who looked after each of these: (i) finances; (ii) the army; (iii) justice, religion and education; (iv) public works, trade, industry and farming, besides the royal household. (b) Under the mansabdari system, what did a mansabdar's rank decide, and how was he usually paid? (c) Under the Sultanate's iqta system, what did an iqtadar do, and could his son take over the post as of right? (d) Name the two kinds of survey Todar Mal used to set land revenue.

Answer: (a) (i) the Diwan; (ii) the Mir Bakhshi; (iii) the Sadr; (iv) the Khan-i-Saman; (b) how many elephants, horses, camels and troops he had to keep for the state; with land, a jagir, so mansabdars were also called jagirdars; (c) he collected the taxes of the lands assigned to him and, after expenses, sent the rest to the sultan's treasury; no, the posts were not hereditary; (d) a survey of crop yields and prices, and a survey of the land across the empire. (a) Page 53, which adds that such ministers were placed in each of the 12 provinces, or subahs. (b) Page 54: this let the emperor gather an army quickly without keeping a large permanent one. (c) Page 53. (d) Page 55.

Question 7. (a) A made-up farmer harvests 750 kg of wheat. How much would go as land revenue at the usual rate the chapter gives, and how much would she keep? (b) How much would go at the highest rate some sultans charged? (c) How much more is that than the usual rate? (d) What was a hundi, and why did it make merchants safer? (e) Which metals were the Mughal rupaya and dam made of?

Answer: (a) 150 kg in revenue, 600 kg kept; (b) 375 kg; (c) 225 kg more; (d) a written order to pay a named person, which could be carried across borders in place of coins, so there was less cash for robbers or raiders to take; (e) the rupaya was silver and the dam copper. (a) The usual rate was one-fifth of the produce (page 56): 750 ÷ 5 = 150 kg, and 750 − 150 = 600 kg. (b) Some sultans raised it to one-half (page 56): 750 ÷ 2 = 375 kg. (c) 375 − 150 = 225 kg. (d) Pages 56-57: the chapter calls it an early form of banking that worked without the rulers taking part. (e) Page 55.

Check your reasoning

Question 8. For each pair, choose: (A) both true, and R explains A; (B) both true, but R does not explain A; (C) A true, R false; (D) A false, R true.

• Pair 1. Assertion: Babur's firepower helped him win at Panipat in 1526. Reason: Cannon and matchlock guns had only recently come into Indian warfare.
• Pair 2. Assertion: Akbar promoted sulh-i-kul, tolerance of all faiths. Reason: Akbar became emperor at the age of 13.
• Pair 3. Assertion: Muhammad bin Tughlaq ruled most of the Subcontinent for a time. Reason: No ruler before him had ever held most of the Subcontinent.
• Pair 4. Assertion: The Hoysala kingdom was never taken over by another power. Reason: The Hoysalas beat back several attacks by the Delhi Sultanate.

Answer: Pair 1 (A); Pair 2 (B); Pair 3 (C); Pair 4 (D). Pair 1: Babur's army depended on field artillery, matchlock guns and gunpowder, all recent arrivals in Indian warfare (page 36), so R explains A. Pair 2: both are true (pages 38-39), but his age when he came to the throne does not explain a policy he took up as his empire grew. Pair 3: A is true, but the chapter says no single ruler had held so much of it since the Mauryan Empire (pages 26-27), so R is false. Pair 4: the Hoysalas did fend off Sultanate attacks, but the kingdom was later absorbed into Vijayanagara (page 30), so A is false and R is true.

Practise more, and check your marks

• The chapter before this one: Class 8 Social Science Chapter 1, Natural Resources and Their Use, practice questions.
• The history chapter on the period before this one, from the Class 9 book: Class 9 State and Society up to 1000 CE, practice questions.
• If your old notes use different Class 8 chapter names: Class 8 old NCERT chapter names and where they are now.
• For a 3-mark history answer, give one point per mark and tie each to the chapter: a name, a date or a place, as the answers above do.
• Using an AI to check your answers: how to use ChatGPT for homework without cheating yourself. The Class 8 Social Science book changed in 2025, and an AI may answer from the older Class 8 history book (Our Pasts III), so check its answer against your textbook page.

Where CMDLearn fits

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Sources

All opened and read on 4 November 2026. Page numbers are the printed page numbers of the textbook (PDF page + 20).

• NCERT, Exploring Society: India and Beyond, Social Science textbook, Part 1 for Class 8 (Reprint 2026-27), Chapter 2 "Reshaping India's Political Map", pages 21-60 (the timeline, pages 22-23; the Delhi Sultanate, pages 25-28; resistance to the Sultanate, pages 29-31; Vijayanagara, pages 31-36; the Mughals, pages 36-45; resistance to the Mughals, pages 45-53; administration, pages 53-55; people's lives, pages 55-58): ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/hees102.pdf
• NCERT, the same book's opening pages (First Edition July 2025, Reprinted March 2026; contents, Chapter 2 at page 21): ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/hees1ps.pdf

The facts are from the textbook pages above. The questions, the made-up farmer and the list of 30 rulers, and the worked answers are our own, and every number was re-computed by script. This guide is general information; follow your teacher and your school's syllabus.

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