NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Social Science (History) Chapter 1 What, Where, How and When?
1. Match the following:
2. List one major difference between manuscripts and inscriptions.
Answer:
The ones that could be made of stone are:-
- Surface used for writing inscriptions
- Remains of buildings
- Objects like tools, weapons, etc.
- They did not know the art of writing in the beginning.
- Even some of them were not literate even after the knowledge of the script.
- They were not having an interest in such works.
- They did not know the importance of keeping records of the events. The lack of historical sense was mainly responsible for it.
- The kings used to live in palaces or big houses. The farmers used to live in huts or in very small houses.
- The kings were dependent for their food on farmers. Farmers used to produce food for themselves and other people also.
- The kings wore showy and costly clothes and ornaments. Farmers wore simple and very cheap clothes.
- dried leaves,
- on the bark of birch trees and
- sometimes on copper (or metal) plates and stones.
VERY SHORT TYPE QUESTION & ANSWER
01.What do you know about the location of the Sulaiman and Kirthar hills?
Or
Where are the Sulaiman and Kirthar hills located?
Answer: The Sulaiman and Kirthar hills are located In the modem day Pakistan.
2. Name any two animals which the people of the Sulaiman and Kirthar hills reared.
Answer: Sheep and goat.
3. Where are the Garo hills located?
Answer: The Garo hills are in the north-east of India.
4. What are tributaries? [V. Imp.]
Answer: Tributaries are smaller rivers that flow into a bigger river.
5. Name the tributary of the river Ganga.
Answer: Son.
6. Where was Magadha located?
Answer: Magadha was located in the south of the Ganga.
7. Why was Magadha famous? [V. Imp.]
Answer: Magadha was famous because its mlers were very powerful who established a big kingdom.
8. What was the job of religious teachers? [V. Imp.]
Answer: Religious teachers moved from one place to another to offer instruction and advice to the people who met on the way.
9. From where does the word India come?
Answer: The word India comes from the Indus, known as Sindhu in Sanskrit.
10. What is meant by the manuscript?
Answer: Manuscript is a hand-written matter.
11. What was used in ancient times to write manuscripts?
Answer: Palm leaf or the bark of the birch tree was used in ancient times to write manuscripts.
12. What are inscriptions?
Answer: Inscriptions are writings on relatively hard surfaces like stone or metal.
13. Why do archaeologists look for bones of animals, birds, and fish?
Answer: They do so in order to find out what people ate in the past.
14. What are the occupations of the people of the Andaman Islands?
Answer: The people of the Andaman Islands are engaged in fishing, hunting, and collecting forest produce.
Short Answer Type Questions
1. What do you know about the earliest people who lived along the banks of river Narmada for several hundred thousand years?
Answer: Those people were skilled gatherers. They gathered their food. They also collected roots, fruits and other forest produce for their food. They also hunted animals for this purpose.
2. People in the earliest times used to travel from one place to another. But their journeys were full of dangers. What type of dangers did they face?
Answer: It is true that people in the earliest times used to travel from this place to that. But their journeys were dangerous. The hills, and high mountains including the Himalayas, deserts, rivers and seas created dangers for them. But they never got afraid of them. Instead they overcame them and continued to travel.
3. Who are archaeologist? What do they do? [V. Imp.]
Answer: Archaeologists are persons who study the objects of the past. They study the remains of the buildings made of stone and brick, paintings and sculpture. They also explore and dig the earth in order to find out tools, weapons, pots, pans, ornaments and coins.
4. How are city people different from the people living in the Andaman Islands?
Answer: People living in the Andaman Islands manage their own food by fishing, hunting and collecting forest produce. On the other hand city, people depend on others for supplies of food.
5. How can you say that historians and archaeologists are like detectives? [V. Imp.]
Answer: Historians often use the word source to refer to the information found from manuscripts, inscriptions and archaeology. Once sources are found, learning about the past becomes an adventure, as we reconstruct it bit by bit. So, historians and archaeologists are like detectives who use all these sources like clues to discover the past.
Answer Type Questions
1. How was traveling an important part of the life of the people in the past? [V. Imp.]
Answer:
People in the past were very fond of travelling from one place to another. Although the hills and high mountains like the Himalayas, deserts, rivers, and seas posed great problems, people kept on travelling. They moved in search of livelihood. They had also in their mind to escape from natural disasters such as floods and droughts. Sometimes, men marched in armies and conquered others’ lands.
Merchants travelled with caravans or ships. They carried valuable goods from place to place. There were religious teachers who used to walk from village to village, town to town. They offered instruction and advice to the people who met them on the way. There were also people who travelled because they were adventurous by nature. They enjoyed discovering new and exciting places.
2. What are the different ways to find out about the past? Describe briefly. [Imp.]
Answer:
The different ways to find out about the past are the following:
(i) Manuscripts. These were the hand-written matters. They were usually written on palm leaf or the bark of the birch tree. While many of these manuscripts got destroyed, many have survived in temples and monasteries. These books dealt with all kinds of subjects such as religious beliefs and practices, the lives of kings, medicines, and science. These manuscripts also included epics, poems, plays.
(ii) Inscriptions are writings on relatively hard surfaces such as stone or metal. Sometimes, kings got their orders inscribed in order to make common people aware of them. Some inscriptions kept records of victories in battle.
(iii) Archaeological excavations or evidence. Archaeology means the study of cultures of the past and of periods of history by examining the remains of buildings and objects found in the earth. Archaeologists explore and dig earth to find tools, weapons, pots, pans, ornaments, and coins. These things provide us valuable information about the past.
