Long Questions: What, Where, How and When? | NCERT Summary: UPSC PDF Download

Q1: What are the things that are found in an excavation and how did archaeologists decipher it to understand the past?
Ans: Historians and archaeologists are the historians and archaeologists who write and decipher history. Archaeologists are those who investigate artefacts or other types of findings that have been discovered at an excavation site. Historians and archaeologists both investigate these discoveries, and their judgments take the form of history. There are a variety of methods for determining the past. They read manuscripts, inscriptions, epics, and stories, among other things. These texts cover a wide range of ancient behaviours, including religious practises and beliefs, monarchs and kingdoms, science, and medicine. Sanskrit was the most used script in ancient India, followed by Prakrit and Tamil.

Q2: Why did people move from one place to another in the past? Explain.
Ans: People used to go from one location to another. They travelled across hills, high mountains, rivers, deserts, and seas, including the Himalayas. Their journeys were a little scary at times because of the rocky and treacherous paths, but they were never impossible. Men and women moved from place to place in quest of work and to avoid natural disasters such as floods and droughts. Armies of men marched to conquer the territories of others. Merchants used caravans or ships to travel for business. They transported important items from one location to another. Religious teachers preached their Dharma from one village to the next and from one town to the next. Some folks merely travelled for the thrill of it.

Q3: Who were hunter gatherers? How did they live their lives?
Ans: People who hunted and gathered food were known as hunter gatherers. They were expert hunter-gatherers. They had a broad understanding of many forms of cuisine. Trees and woodlands, roots, and animal hunts were all sources of sustenance for them. They used to dwell near a river since it was abundant in water, animals, and a diverse range of trees. It made it simple for them to get their food.

Q4: How Manuscripts and Inscriptions help to determine the past?
Ans: Manuscripts are deciphered using the word ‘Manu,' which means ‘handmade script.' The word ‘Manu' comes from the Latin language. These scripts were typically inscribed on palm leaves or a properly prepared bark of a birch tree. The Himalayas still have these kind of trees. These works covered a wide range of ancient behaviours, including religious customs and beliefs, monarchs and kingdoms, science, and medicine.
Hard surfaces, such as stones and metals, were used to engrave inscriptions. This is how kings used to write their orders so that they could be read and followed. These inscriptions were also employed to record monarchs' battle accounts and personal biographies.

Q5: How did our country get its names?
Ans: Names of our country:

• Two of the words we generally use for our country are India and Bharat. The word India comes from the Indus called Sindhu in Sanskrit.
• The Iranians and the Greeks who came through the northwest about 2500 years ago, were familiar with the Indus, called it the Hindos or the Indos. The land to the east of the river (i.e., the Indus) was called India.
• The name Bharat was used by a group of people who lived in the northwest, and who are mentioned in the Rigveda, the earliest composition in Sanskrit (dated to about 3500 years ago). Later, it was used for the country.

Q6: What do you mean by pasts?
Ans: Pasts is the plural form of the word past. This term is used to call attention to the fact that history can have many different versions of itself. The pasts of different persons and features can be very diverse. Farmers and herders lived in a separate world than the monarchs and queens. Merchants, for example, had a distinct way of life than craftspeople, and so on. Aside from that, there are a slew of other distinctions. Many conflicts were fought between various kingdoms, and the victor usually kept track of their wins. Ordinary people, on the other hand, such as hunters, gatherers, fishermen, and farmers, did not preserve records of their work and lifestyle. This explains why it referenced pasts rather than past.

Q7: “The people of India shared their ideas since the earliest days”. Explain in brief.
Ans:

• The people of India travelled from one part of the subcontinent to another. The hills and high mountains including the Himalayas, deserts, rivers and seas made journeys dangerous at time, but never impossible.
• The people of the Indian subcontinent moved in search of livelihood, as also to escape from natural calamities (such as flood, drought, earthquake, epidemic).
• Sometimes men marched in armies, conquering others’ land.
• Merchants travelled with caravans or ships carrying valuable goods from place to place.
• Religious teachers walked from village to village, town to town, stopping to offer instruction and advice on the way.
• Finally, some people perhaps travelled, driven by a spirit of adventure.
• All these led to the sharing of ideas among the Indians.