Class 6 History Chapter 4 Practice Question Answers - What Books and Burials Tell us

Q1: Who was the God of fire in the Rig Vedic time?
Ans: God Agni.

Q2: Name the place where writings on oracle bones were found.
Ans: China.

Q3: Scholars are of the view that Aryans were a tribe of _________who had to migrate to different parts of the world.
Ans: Pastoral people.

Q4: What is Cist?
Ans: Cist was a small stone built coffin to cremate the bodies of deads.

Q5: Name the place where the Rigveda was composed.
Ans: North-west of the subcontinent.

Q6: Name the intoxicating drinks of Aryans.
Ans: Sura, was consumed on common festive occasion.

Q7: Aryans lived in tribal groups headed by a ______.
Ans: Rajan.

Q8: Describe the Dravidian language family.
Ans: Dravidian language family: This language family comprises of languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. These languages are spoken in the southern part of India.

Q9: Why were battles fought in the Rig Vedic period?
Ans: Battles were fought in the Rigvedic period for various reasons such as:

• Battles were fought to capture cattle.
• They also fought for land, which was important for pasture and for growing hardy crops that ripened quickly, such as barley.
• Some battles were fought for water and to capture people.

Q10: What do you mean by Indo-European languages?
Ans: Indo-European languages are a family of languages comprising of Indian language such as Sanskrit, Assamese, Gujarati, Kashmiri and Sindhi, and many European languages such as Gothic, Greek, Italian, Latin, old English, French, German and Spanish. These languages are known so because they are from the same family of languages and have words in common.

Q11: Write about Megalithic culture.
Ans: The practice of erecting Megaliths started about 3,000 years ago. In this culture, burial sites are marked by extremely large stones called megaliths. The megalithic graves contained several iron implements and weapons. A variety of pots have also been found in some graves.

Q12: Write about Dasas.
Ans: Dasas were the people who did not perform sacrifices and probably spoke different language that Aryans could not understand. They were regarded as the opponents of the Aryans.

Q13: How can we say that the people of Inamgaon were farmers?
Ans: Seeds of wheat, barley, rice, pulses, millets, peas and sesame have been found from the site which shows that these cereals were grown by them.

Q14: Write few lines about Charaka.
Ans: Charak was the physician of Kanishka. He is also considered as the first physician to put forward the concepts of digestion, immunity and metabolism. He wrote a medical treaty popularly known as 'Charak Samhita'.

Q15: How cow held an important place in the life of the Aryans?
Ans: The Aryans lived in very well planned villages. They lived in huts. these huts were surrounded by fences. Fields lay close to the huts. The cow held an important place in the life of the Aryans. Each household had a number of cows.

Q16: How did the people of Inamgaon dispose of their dead?
Ans: Inamgaon is a site on the river Ghod, a tributary of the Bhima.
There are three ways of disposing deads found in Inamgaon, which are:

• The adults were generally buried in the ground, with the head towards the north.
• Sometimes dead were buried inside the houses. Vessels that probably contained food and water were placed with the dead.
• Evidence of a man buried in a large, four legged clay jar in the courtyard of a five roomed house has also been found which shows that people at Inamgaon were buried in clay jars also.

Q17: How much does the RigVeda tell about the human society in ancient India?
Ans:

• The Rigveda tells us about various bifurcations in the Indian society. It talks about a group of people known as the Brahmins who performed rituals and rites related to gods.
• Also, it talks about Rajas who did not have armies and were unable to collect taxes.Two words were used to describe people as a whole namely, Jana and Vish.The word Vaishya emerged from the word Vish.
• People who composed hymns called themselves Aryas and Dasyus and were described as people who did not perform any rights or rituals. Later, the term dasa came to mean slave.

Q18: How can we say that the people of Inamgaon were hunters and gatherers?
Ans: The varieties of evidence that have been discovered by the archaeologists suggest that people at Inamgaon were hunters, gatherers and farmers.
The evidence were:

• Bones of a number of animals and many bearing cut marks show that they may have been used as food were also found. This shows that the people of Inamgaon practiced hunting.
• There is evidence that fruits such as ber, amla, jamun, dates and a variety of berries were collected, which shows that they gathered food.

Q19: What does the Rigveda tell about battles?
Ans:

• According to the Rigveda, battles were fought to capture cattle. They were also fought for land which was important for grazing land, and for growing stable crops. Some battles were fought for water, and to capture people.
• The wealth obtained by the war was kept by the leaders, some was given to the priests and the rest was distributed amongst the people.
• Some wealth was used for the performance of Yajnas or sacrifices in which offerings were made into the fire.
• Most men took part in these wars. There was no regular army, but there were assemblies where people met and discussed matters of war and peace.
• The armies were basically militias. They also chose leaders, who were often brave and skilful warriors known as Sainani. Sainani’s duty was to gather the army and lead the war.

Q20: What are the features of the megaliths?
Ans: Megaliths are commemorated grave areas marked with stone boulders surroundings.

• During the archaeological excavations, megaliths were found in a circle of stone boulders or a single large stone standing on the ground.
• These are the indications that there are burials beneath. Generally the dead were buried with distinctive pots, which were called Black and Red Ware.
• Some tools and weapons of iron and skeletons of horses, horse equipments and ornaments of stone and gold were buried along with the dead.
• Sometimes, Megaliths contained more than one skeleton. It reflects that people belonging to the same family were buried in the same place in different time.