Q1.
Read the excerpt from Faxian given above and identify the key features of the society he describes. Write down your observations and compare your notes with your friends — you might be surprised to see how differently others interpret the same text!
Answer
Go line by line through the excerpt and turn each sentence into a feature. Six come out clearly.
| Feature of Gupta society | Faxian’s own words |
|---|---|
| A large and contented population | “The people are numerous and happy” |
| Light-handed government | “they have no need to register households or attend to officials” — no compulsory registration, little interference in daily life |
| A simple land-revenue system | “Those who farm royal land pay a portion of their grain” — a share of the produce, paid only by those farming royal land |
| Paid, organised state servants | “The king’s guards and attendants have salaries” — officials were paid, not left to squeeze the people |
| Rich, well-run cities and a strong merchant class | “The cities are the greatest in the Middle Kingdom … the inhabitants are rich, prosperous”; “many wealthy Vaishya elders and foreign merchants, with beautiful homes”; “The lanes are kept in good order” |
| Organised public charity and free healthcare | “Heads of Vaishya families establish houses for charity and medicines … the poor, orphans and the sick are cared for … doctors provide treatment, and the needy receive food and medicines” |
Now the part the excerpt leaves out. The chapter warns on the very next page that such accounts “reflect only the writer’s perspective and focus at one point in time and for a limited portion of the society they describe”. Elsewhere in the same travelogue Faxian describes the harsh treatment of the chanḍālas, who were regarded as outcastes and made to live outside the city limits. So the excerpt is true — but partial.
Why two readers get two answers: a reader who notices ‘no need to register households’ sees a free society; a reader who notices ‘those who farm royal land pay a portion of their grain’ sees a state that lived off peasants; a reader who notices ‘wealthy Vaishya elders and foreign merchants’ sees an unequal society where charity, not rights, protected the poor. All three are honest readings of the same paragraph. That is why historians look at more sources to corroborate before drawing conclusions.
Also ask: Faxian was a Buddhist pilgrim from China, travelling to sacred sites and collecting manuscripts. He saw mainly cities, monasteries and the people who hosted travellers. A farmer in a distant village, or a chanḍāla outside the wall, would have written a very different account.