Class VI

HISTORY Chapter 1 (Study Material)

What, Where, How, When

What can we know about past

• What people ate?

• Clothes they wore
• Houses in which they lived.

We can also find out about

• Hunters, herders, farmers, Ruler, merchants, craft persons, artists, musicians and scientists

Where did people live?

1. Banks of Narmada River: People have lived here for several thousand years.

• They knew about the vast wealth of plants in the surrounding forests, and collected roots, fruits and
other forest produce for their food.
• They also hunted animals.

2. Sulaiman and Kirthar hills in the northwest: these are the areas where people first grew crops- wheat
and barley about 8000yrs ago.

• They also began rearing animal sheep, goat and cattle and Lived in villages.

1. Area between Ganga and its tributary Son in ancient time was called Magadha. Its rulers were very
powerful, and set up a large kingdom. Kingdoms were set up in other parts of the country as well.
2. Throughout, people 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 times, but
never impossible.
3. Sometimes men marched in armies conquering other land.
4. Merchant traveled with caravans and ships for trade.
5. Finally, some people perhaps travelled driven by a spirit of adventure, wanting to discover new and
exciting places.
6. These movements of people enriched our cultural traditions. People have shared new ways of
carving stone, composing music, and even cooking food over several hundreds of years.

Names of the land

1. The word India comes from the Indus, called Sindhu in Sanskrit.
2. The Iranians and the Greeks who came through the northwest about 2500 years ago and were
familiar with the Indus, called it the Hindos or the Indos, and the land to the east of the river was
called India.
 3. The name Bharata was used for group of people who came through northwest as mentioned in
Rigveda(earliest composition, lang-Sanskrit, 3500 years ago).Later it was used for country.

Finding about the past

1. Manuscripts-(manu- “hand” scripts-”writings” comes from latin). These were hand written scripts
usually written on palm leaf.
2. Over the years, many manuscripts were eaten away by insects, some were destroyed, but many have
survived in temples and monasteries.
3. We can also study inscriptions. These are writings on relatively hard surfaces such as stone or metal.
4. Sometimes, kings got their orders inscribed so that people could see, read and obey them. There are
other kinds of inscriptions as well.
5. There were many other things that were made and used in the past. Those who study these things are
called Archaeologists.
6. They study remains, bricks, stones, tools, weapons, pot, pans, ornaments and coins. They also look
for bones of animals, birds and fish. To find out what people ate in past.
7. Plant remains survive far more rarely. Seeds of grains or pieces of woods have been burnt they
survive in charred form.

One past or many?

1. As the book’s title suggests there are many pasts (“Pasts” – Plural).
2. The past of every person is different from other.
3. For example, the lives of herders or farmers were different from those of kings and queens, the lives
of merchants were different from those of crafts persons, and so on.
4. Even today people follow different practices and customs in different parts of the country.
5. By contrast, most people living in cities depend on others for supplies of food. Differences such as
these existed in the past as well.
6. There is another kind of difference.
7. Kings kept records of their doings but the common folks didn’t.
8. Archaeology helps us to find out about their lives, there is much that remains unknown.
 HISTORY Chapter 1 (Assignment)

What, Where, How, When

Q1. Fill in the blanks:

(i) The places where crops were first grown. __________________

(ii) The area along the south of the Ganga. ________________

(iii) The earliest composition in Sanskrit. ___________________

(iv) People who study things that were made and used in the past. _________________

(v) Manuscripts were usually written on. ___________________

Q2. Answer the following questions:

(i) How has the movement of people in ancient times enriched our cultural traditions?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

(ii) From where has the word ‘India’ been derived?

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

(iii) What are the sources to study history?

___________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

(iv) How can you say that historians and archaeologists are like detectives?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________
 GEOGRAPHY Chapter 2 (Study material)
GLOBE: LATITUDES AND LONGITUDES
New Terms:
1. Globe is a true model (miniature form) of the earth.
2. An imaginary line running on the globe which divides it into two equal parts is known as the Equator.
3. Axis is the imaginary line on which the earth rotates.

Latitudes
Latitude is an angle, which ranges from 0° at the Equator to 90° (North or South) at the poles.
IMPORTANT PARALLELS OF LATITUDES
Besides the equator (0°), the North Pole (90°N) and the South Pole (90° S), there are four important
parallels of latitudes– (i) Tropic of Cancer (23° N) in the Northern Hemisphere. (ii) Tropic of Capricorn
(23° S) in the Southern Hemisphere. (iii) Arctic Circle at 66° north of the equator. (iv) Antarctic Circle at
66° south of the equator.
HEAT ZONES OF THE EARTH
• The mid-day sun is exactly overhead at least once a year on all latitudes in between the Tropic of
Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. This area, therefore, receives the maximum heat and is called the
Torrid Zone.
• The mid-day sun never shines overhead on any latitude beyond the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of
Capricorn. The angle of the sun’s rays goes on decreasing towards the poles. As such, the areas bounded
by the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Tropic of Capricorn
and the Antarctic Circle in the Southern Hemisphere, have moderate temperatures. These are, therefore,
called Temperate Zones.
• Areas lying between the Arctic Circle and the North Pole in the Northern Hemisphere and the Antarctic
Circle and the South Pole in the Southern Hemisphere, are very cold. It is because here the sun does not
rise much above the horizon. Therefore, its rays are always slanting and provide less heat. These are,
therefore, called Frigid Zones (very cold).
Longitudes
Longitudes is the angular distance of a place east or west of the Greenwich meridian or west of the standard
meridian of a celestial object, usually expressed in degrees and minutes.
Unlike parallels of latitude, all meridians are of equal length. Thus, it was difficult to number the meridians.
Hence, all countries decided that the count should begin from the meridian which passed through
Greenwich, where the British Royal Observatory is located. This meridian is called the Prime Meridian.
Its value is 0° longitude and from it we count 180° eastward as well as 180° westward. The Prime Meridian
and 180° meridian divide the earth into two equal halves, the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western
Hemisphere.

WHY DO WE HAVE STANDARD TIME?

The local time of places which are on different meridians are bound to differ. For example, it will be
difficult to prepare a time-table for trains which cross several longitudes. In India, for instance, there will
be a difference of about 1 hour and 45 minutes in the local times of Dwarka in Gujarat and Dibrugarh in
Assam. It is, therefore, necessary to adopt the local time of some central meridian of a country as the
standard time for the country. In India, the longitude of 82° E (82° 30'E) is treated as the standard meridian.
The local time at this meridian is taken as the standard time for the whole country. It is known as the Indian
Standard Time (IST).
 GEOGRAPHY Chapter 2 (Assignment)
GLOBE: LATITUDES AND LONGITUDES

Q1. Fill in the blanks :-

a) Lines of latitudes are also called ____________________.
b) The _______________ zone is neither too hot nor too cold.
c) ______________ is a model of the earth.
d) The longitude of ____________ is treated as the Standard Meridian of India.
e) The imaginary line on which the earth rotates is called _______________.
Q2. Name the important Latitudes of the Earth.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________
Q3. Differentiate between Latitudes and Longitudes.
______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

Q3. Explain the heat zones of the earth with the help of a diagram.