When, Where and How

A. 1. Historia  2. circa  3. inscriptions  4. Edicts  5. Xuanzang(Hiuen Tsang), Faxian(Fa-Hien)

6. Himalayan Ranges
B. 1. c. writing  2. b. numismatics  3. b. Kashmir  4. a. manuscripts
5. b. Chandragupta Maurya
C. 1.

Common Era Circa

The period after which Jesus Christ was It means 'approximately' and is used in places
believed to have been born where exact dates of events are not known
2.

Prehistory
●● Study of period of time before writing was
invented
●● Sources are ancient carvings, paintings,
artifacts, tools and so on.
●● It is mainly researched by archeologists.
3.
History
●● Study of the past based on written records
of the past
●● Sources are records written by ancient kings,
their poets, foreign travelers and so on.
●● It is mainly studied by historians.

Secular Literature Religious Literature

Secular literature includes all written texts that
are non-religious in nature. Autobiographies,
biographies, court chronicles and accounts of
foreign travellers are all examples of secular
literature.
4.
Religious literature includes all texts that deal
with religion. These religious texts tell us about
the social, political, economic and religious
lives of the people of ancient India

Manuscripts Inscriptions
Hand-written documents written on palm Writings carved out on hard surfaces like stone,
leaves or birch barks copper plates and rocks
Has a short lifetime if not preserved properly It is highly durable since it is carved on hard
surfaces
D.

E. 1. The word history is derived from the Greek word ‘historia’, meaning ‘a narrative of past events’.
History is the written account of past events.
2. Archaeology is the scientific study of the past based on its physical remains. The place from where
these remains are excavated is an archaeological site. An archaeologist excavates such sites and
analyses the objects found there, in order to reconstruct history.

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 3. Literary sources are of two main types—religious and secular.
4. For thousands of years humans have transferred orally, knowledge, ideas, art and music from one
generation to the next, through stories, songs, chants and dance. This form of human communication
is known as oral tradition. Oral traditions are a rich source of information about history.

F. 1. There are many reasons why we should study history.

• History shows us how things have changed over time. By relating the past to the present, history
helps us understand the present. • History helps us understand how societies and communities
evolved and changed and how the society we live in came to be. It thus gives us a sense of identity.
It tells us who we are, and where we came from. • The past holds many lessons for us to learn
from. Great achievements of the past inspire us. The lives of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin
Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, for instance, teach us the values of equality, honesty and self-
respect. • But human actions also led to horrific events like the World Wars and the Holocaust, in
which millions of people died. We need to know about those too, in order to avoid similar situations
in the future. • History also teaches us about people from other cultures. This gives us a better
understanding of the world we live in.
2. Archaeological sources are the physical remains of the past that are studied to reconstruct the past.
Archaeological objects could include tools, weapons, pottery, jewellery, clothes, seals, paintings,
sculptures, coins, monuments, fossils and even remains of entire cities.
• Coins and seals are valuable sources of information about different aspects of life in the past.
From the images and writings on coins, we get to know about rulers, the years of their reign and the
extent of their kingdoms. From the metals used for making the coins we come to know about the
economic lives of the people of that age. • Fossils are also important archaeological sources. They
are remnants of humans, animals or plants that have become embedded in rocks and ice over many
centuries. They help us understand how living beings evolved (changed over time). • Monuments
are human-made structures of historical importance. They are usually built in memory of a person or
an event. Forts, palaces, temples and tombs are examples of monuments. By studying the materials
they were built of, the period when they were built, and the reasons why they were built, much can
be known about the period. • In many ancient cultures, the dead were buried with objects that
people believed might be needed even in the afterlife. Such places are known as burial sites. The
objects unearthed from burial sites are a rich source of information about the beliefs of that period.
(any two)
3. The geography of the Indian subcontinent has significantly influenced the course of its
history. • The Himalayan ranges in the north acted as a natural barrier, and prevented many
invaders from attacking India from the north. • However, the passes in the Himalayan ranges that
were used by traders from central Asia, also allowed different powers, like the Greeks, Huns, Turks
and the Mughals, to invade India at different times. • Because of its long coastline, people in India
always enjoyed trade relations with many countries that lay across the seas. Later, the same seas
made it possible for foreign powers like the British to come here, and establish empires.

The Earliest Societies

A. 1. d. Africa  2. a. Palaeolithic Age  3. b. woven cloth  4. b. Madhya Pradesh

B. 1. Old Stone  2. nomad  3. Palaeolithic / Old Stone  4. Microliths  5. Krishna

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