Long Questions: What Books and Burials Tell us | NCERT Summary: UPSC PDF Download

Q1: Write a short note on the megaliths.
Ans:

• Silent sentinels or stone boulders are known as megaliths (literally meaning big stones).
• Megaliths were carefully arranged by people and were used to mark burial sites.
• The practice of erecting megaliths began about 3000 years ago, and was prevalent throughout the Deccan, South India, in the north-east and Kashmir.
• While some megaliths can be seen on the surface, other megalithic burials are underground.

Q2: Mention some of the important features of the Rigveda.
Ans:

• The oldest Veda is the Rigveda.
• It was composed about 3500 years ago.
• The Rigveda is in old or Vedic Sanskrit, which is different from the Sanskrit that you learn in school these days.
• The Rigveda includes more than a thousand hymns, called sukta or well-said.
• These hymns are in praise of various gods and goddesses.
• The Rigveda was recited and heard rather than written or read.
• The Rigveda was written down several centuries after it was first composed and printed less than 200 years ago.

Q3: Write a short note on one of the oldest books in the world.
Ans:

• Vedas are known one of the oldest books in the world.
• There are four of them—the Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda.
• The oldest veda is the Rigveda, composed about 3500 years ago.
• The Rigveda includes more than a thousand hymns, called sukta or “well-said’. These hymns are in praise of different gods and goddesses.
• These hymns were composed by sages (i.e., rishis).
• These vedas are written in Vedic Sanskrit. The Vedic or old Sanskrit is different from the Sanskrit that you learn in school these days.

Q4: Give a brief account of major features of a Special Burial found at Inamgaon.
Ans: A Special Burial found at Inamgaon and its Major Features:

• At Inamgaon the scholars have found out a special burial. It is a site on the river Ghod, a tributary of the Bhima. It was occupied between 3600 and 2700 years ago.
• Here, adults were often buried in the ground, laid out straight, with the head towards the north.
• Sometimes, burials were within houses. Vessels that probably contained food and water were placed with the dead.
• One man was found buried in a large four legged clay jar in the courtyard of a five- roomed house (one of the largest houses at the site) in the centre of the settlement. This house also had a granary. The body was placed in a cross-legged position.

Q5: How do we know who was buried?
Ans: We know who was buried in the grave with the help of following clues:

• It is easy to check out the skeleton of a child from its small size. However, there are no major skeletal differences between a girl and a boy.
• We can check out whether a skeleton was that of a man or a woman also. We can decide this thing on the basis of what is found with the skeleton. For example, if a skeleton is found with jewellery, it is sometimes thought to be that of a woman. However, there are problems with this. Generally, men also wore ornaments.
• A better (or more reliable) way of figuring out the sex of a skeleton as to look at the bone structure. The hip or the pelvic area of women is generally larger to enable child bearing.

Q6: Describe different classes or categories of people as referred or described in Rigveda.
Ans: Words of the Rigveda to describe different classes or categories of the people:

• There are several ways of describing people—in the terms of the work they do, the language they speak, the place they belong to, their family, their communities and cultural practices.
• Broadly speaking, we can confess that there are two groups (of people) who are described in terms of their work—the priests, sometimes called brahmins, who performed various rituals for the rajas. These rajas were not like the ones you will be learning about later (in coming chapters). They did not have capital cities or armies, nor did they collect taxes. Generally, sons did not succeed fathers automatically.
• Two words were used (in the Rigveda) to describe people or the community as a whole. One was the word jana, which we still use in Hindi and other languages. The other was Vish. The word Vaishya comes from Vish.