This article will make more sense, after you’ve read the first article on  [GS1] Culture Answerkey-Analysis of Mains-2013 Exam. Click ME.

Given the way Culture portion was asked in that exam, Tamilnadu state education board books are more useful than the (new) NCERTs, because

  1. Two questions in GS(M)-2013 (Sangam and Chola) could be directly solved through Class 11 TN State edu. book
  2. TN board books= GK-descriptive coverage similar to Old NCERT, but with more eye candy fonts and photos.
  3. In (new) NCERTs, the Ancient-Medieval history is covered mostly in a random case study and sporadic topics here and there. The linearity is absent (King A after King B…). And hardly anything about the East India company’s governor generals (Dalhousie etc). Even the 1857-revolt and freedom struggle is superficially covered.

These TN textbooks are available free of cost on the official site of Tamilnadu state edu board. But problem: too scattered Because maths-science-history-civics: all subjects are given in single PDF files term wise. and their very large in size.

So, I’ve consolidated them, and reduced the image qualities for faster download.

Download Link: http://tnschools.gov.in/textbooks

What to read / What to skip?

Class 12 (world history after Imperialism) Good read. But if you already have gone through old NCERT or Jain and Mathur, then not much useful.
Class 12 (Freedom struggle) Good read. But if you already have gone through Spectrum’s “A brief history of Modern India” (Rajiv Ahir), then not much useful.
class 11 (Ancient + Medieval India) Most useful among the given textbooks. Because contains culture, art, Architecture, religion stuff in details- the way we need: 100-200 words worth content.
Class 10 (World History + Freedom struggle) same conditions as class 12
Class 9 Hardly useful because it contains world history before the imperialism. At most last chapter on “Industrial revolution” useful.
Class 8
  1. Initial part not so useful because Mughal, Maratha from administrative point of view. Not much culture stuff given.
  2. Later part useful i.e. Rule of east India company, various governor generals, subsidiary alliance etc. (BUT again, if you’re going to read class12, then you may ignore this as well.)
Class7 Watered down version of class11, for primary school kids. Although some good GK stuff here and here, if you’ve time and mood otherwise ignore.
class6 Same as above.

So, decide your downloads accordingly.
by the way, here is the brief index:

CLASS 6 CLASS 7
  1. Prehistoric Period
  2. Indus Valley Civilization
  3. The Vedic Period
  4. Jainism and Buddhism
  5. Rise of Kingdoms
  6. Kushana Empire
  1. Kingdoms in Rajasthan, Deccan and South India, Vijaynagar, Bahmani
  2. Arab and Turkish invasions
  3. Delhi sultanate
  4. Bhakti, Sufi
CLASS 8 CLASS 9
  1. The Great Mughals
  2. Rise of Marathas
  3. Advent of Europeans
  4. Anglo-French Struggle (Carnatic wars)
  5. Rule of East India Company: Cornwallis, Hastings, Bentinck and Dalhousie.
  6. Revolt of 1857
  1. Ancient Civilizations
  2. Intellectual Awakening in 6th Century B.C.
  3. Medieval Age
  4. Modern Age
  5. Industrial Revolution
CLASS 10 CLASS 11
  1. World history: imperialism, two world wars, UNO
  2. Freedom struggle in India
 Ancient and Medieval Indian history- upto the coming of Europeans.

Class 12

  1. Indian History: From East India company to freedom struggle to India After independence
  2. World History: Imperialism, American Revolution, French Revolution, Nazism, Fascism Two world wars, UNO, Cold war.

For more downloads of NCERT, NIOS, IGNOU and Old papers visit Mrunal.org/Download