History CH-5 (Key) W.B (pp-54) 1. Name the four vedas. Rig, Sama, Yajur, Atharva 2. Which is the oldest veda? Rig veda 3. The Rig veda was composed about 3500years ago. 4. Define hymn. Hymns were songs composed by sages in praise of gods and goddesses. 5. The hymns are called sukta or well said. 6. The hymns were in the praise of gods and goddesses. 7. Agni was the fire God and Indra was the warrior god. 8. What does the Rig veda include? More than a thousand hymns 9. Which plant was used to prepare a special drink? Soma 10. Who composed the hymns of the Rig veda? Sages (rishis) 11. How were the students taught by the teachers /priests? To recite and memorize each syllable, word and sentence, bit by bit with great care 12. The Rig veda is written in Sanskrit 13. Name the languages belonging to the Indo European language family. Sanskrit 14. Name the languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. Tamil, telugu, Karnataka and Malyalam 15. Name the languages belonging to the Austro-Asiatic language family. Languages spoken in Jharkhand and parts of central India 16. Name the languages belonging to the Tibetan Burman language family. North east 17. The Rig veda was recited and heard rather than read because _It was written down several centuries after it was first composed, and printed less than 200 years ago_. WB (pp- 55) 1. What sources are examined by the archaeologists? Material remains and written sources as well 2. Some of the hymns in the Rigveda are in the form of dialogues 3. Beas and Sutlej were worshipped by goddesses. 4. What is a manuscript? A book, document, or piece of music written by hand rather than typed or printed. 5. Where was the dialogues between Vishwamitra and the two rivers composed? Rig veda 6. The rivers Beas and Sutlej have been compared to horses and cows because _historians suggest that the sage lived in a society where horses and cows were valued animals. W.B (pp- 55,56) 1. The Rig veda had prayers for cattle, children (especially sons)and horses. 2. How were the horses used? Horses were yoked to chariots that were used in battles, which were fought to capture cattle. 3. Why were the battles fought during the Rig veda period? Battles were fought for land which was important for pasture and for growing hardy crops that ripened quickly, such as barley
4. How was the wealth obtained from the battles distributed? Some wealth was kept by the leaders, some was given to the priests and the rest was distributed among the people. 5. What was offered to the Gods and goddesses during the yajna? Ghee, grain and in some cases animals. 6. How were the matters regarding war and peace dealt with? There were assemblies where people met and dealt with these war and peace 7. Who were chosen as leaders? Brave and skilful warriors W.B (pp-56,57) 1. The people were described in terms of : a) priests b) rajas c) jana d) vish 2. Brahmins performed the rituals. 3. How were the Rajas of this period different from the rajas of later period? They did not have capital cities, palaces or armies, nor did they collect taxes. 4. Jana and vish described a community. 5. Who were the a) Aryans Who did not perform sacrifices and probably spoke different languages. b) Dasyus _meant slaves (both men and women) often captured in war 6. Dasa came to be known as slaves. 7. Complete the sentence: Slaves were used for doing any job that their owners wanted them to do 8.How were the slaves treated? As the property of the owners 9. Where was the Rig veda composed? North west of the subcontinent 10. What were megaliths and how were they used? : Stone boulders used to mark burial sites are known as megaliths 11. Megaliths are found in Megaliths were prevalent in the Deccan, South India, in the North-east and Kashmir. 12. The practice of erecting megaliths began about 3000 years ago in Deccan, South India, North east and Kashmir. 13. Arrange the following to make a megalith a) Breaking boulders b) Transporting stones c) Finding suitable stone d) Shaping stones e) Digging pits in the earth f) placing stones in position g) burying the dead 14. What were the common features among the burials found at different places? Generally the dead were buried with distinctive pots, which are called Black and Red Ware. Also found are tools and weapons of iron and sometimes skeletons of horses horse equipment and ornaments of stone and gold. 15. Tools, weapons, gold and stone ornaments were placed with the dead as they would be used after death by the person.
W.B (pp 57,58) 1. What was the skeleton buried with at Brahmagiri? 33 gold beads, 2 stone beads, 4 copper bangles and 1 conch shell 2. Many objects are found in one grave than in another because there were some difference in status amongst the people who were buried 3. Megaliths contain more than one skeleton because these indicate that people, perhaps belonging to the same family were buried in the same place though not at the same time 4. A) Stone circles or boulders on the surface were used to serve as the signposts to find the burial site B) Port holes were used for the bodies of those who died later were brought into the graves 5. Inamgaon is a site on river Ghod. 6. River Ghod is a tributary of Bhima river. 7. How were the adults buried here? Adults were generally buried in the ground, laid out straight, with the head northwards 8. The burials were sometimes inside the houses_. 9. Food and water were placed with the dead. 10. Charaka Samhita was the book on medicine written by Charaka. 11. Charaka states that a human body has 360 bones. This is much larger than the 200 bones that are recognized in the modern anatomy 12. What are the findings of archaeologists from Inamgaon? Seeds of wheat, barley, rice, pilses, millets, peas and seasame 13. Complete the sentence: People at Inamgaon ate seeds of wheat, barley, rice, millets, pulses, peas, seasame and meat. 14. List the occupations followed by the people in Inamgaon.(REFER NCERT PAGE- 50) 15. When do we find the evidence of writing in China? Animal bones 16. Define oracle bones. The writings on animal bones are called oracle bones as these were used to predict the future 17. Who are the fortunetellers? Who predicts the future 18. How was the fortune predicted? The bones of animals on which writings were written were put into the fire,then cracked because of heat.then fortunetellers studied these cracks and tried to predict the future Long Answers (W.B pp- 61) 1. What is so special about the burial found at Inamgaon? (Refer NCERT Page-49) 2. What do skeletal studies tell us about the dead? There were social differences as per the status amongst the people who were buried 3. Throw light on the occupations followed by the early vedic people. a) Early Vedic society is considered essentially to be pastoral. Animals like horses, goats, sheep and cattle are mentioned but the large no of reference to cow makes it clear that it was the most important animal b) many word with derivation of gau(cow) have been found for ex janasya gopa( tribal chief), godhuli(dusk), gavishti and goshu( words for war),gotra (kinship unit). This indicate that cow was perhaps the most important animal of that era. c) Agriculture is considered secondary to pastoralism. Evidence sited for this reasoning are: There are few references to agriculture in books, mention of only one cereal yava(barley), lack of iron technology, low rainfall.
d) On the other hand there is an argument that textual reference might not accurately describe the popularity of the occupation. Also there are some references to seed processing, food produced from cereals and agriculture fields which show that agriculture may not be a minor activity e) Other occupations mentioned are warriors, priests, cattle rearers, hunters barbers,carpenters, chariot maker f) Slavery is mentioned in Rig vedas. This could have been either for war prisoners or non aryan tribes g) There is evidence of trade existing in rig vedic era apart from inconclusive references to wealthy people and to river transport Short Answers (W.B pp- 61) 1. Write about Gods of early humans. Agni, the god of fire, Indra the warrior god and Soma, a plant from which a special drink was prepared 2. In what ways are the books we read today different from the Rig Veda? The most important points of difference between the Rigveda and the modem books is that today books are written and read. The Vedas, instead, were memorised by students, and later passed on to the later generations by speaking, listening and then memorising. 3. In what ways do you think that the life of a raja was different from that of a dasa? In the society, raja was one of the highest civil positions. Rajas were the kings of the community, whereas the dasas /'dasis were the lowest position in society. The dasas /'dasis were slaves who were used for work. They were treated as the property of their owners. They were captured in war. 4. What kind of evidence from burials do archaeologists use to find out whether there were social differences amongst those who were buried? The objects found in graves are usually different. Some skeletons were buried with a great number of pots, while some with just a few of them. Archaeologists have thus concluded that people were buried with objects depending upon their status. (W.B pp- 59,60) 1. Multiple choice questions: a) Indra was the God of warrior b) The hymns were composed by the sages c) It is a part of Indo European language family Sanskrit d) Manuscript of Rig Veda found in Kashmir was written on birch bark e) The opponents of Aryans were called Duasys 2. Fill in the blanks: a) The people who composed the hymns called themselves priests b) The _Rig veda is in old vedic Sanskrit. c) Those who performed rituals were called the Brahmins d) The Rig veda was composed in the Vedic Sanskrit e) Stone boulders was used to mark burial sites. 3. True/False: a) The priests taught students through reading, writing and memorizing the text. T b) Battles were fought for land, water and capture people. T c) Dasyus who performed sacrifices and rituals. F d) The raja performed the rituals. T e) The practise of erecting megaliths began around 1000 years ago. F f) The dead were buried according to their social status. T
4. Match the following: a) Jana iii i) Warrior God b) Indra i ii) Had port holes for entrance c) Cist ii iii) People 5. Match the following: a) Sukta ii i) Sacrifice b) Chariots v ii) Well- said c) Yajnas i iii) Stone boulder d) Dasa iv iv) Slave e) Megalith iii v) Used in battles W.B (pp60) Very short Answers: 1. What was the importance of horses during the Rig vedic period? Horses were yoked to chariots that were used in battles, which were fought to capture the cattles 2. How is the sex of the skeleton figured out by the archaeologists? If a skeleton is found with jewellery, it is sometimes thought to be that of a woman.however there are problems with this too. Men also wore ornaments. Picture based Question: a) Identify this picture. b) For what purpose was it used? c) Do we make such structures even today? d) How is it different from what we have today? e)mention some of the basic features of this picture Answer: Refer NCERT PAGE- 48