CBSE Class 6 Social Science Advanced What, Where, How and When Notes Set 01

What, Where, How and When

What Is History All About?

History is the orderly study of what happened in the past, taken in the order of time. It tells us how our ancestors lived and how people made progress over thousands of years. History is one part of Social Science.

The Greek writer Herodotus is known as the Father of History. He gave us the word 'history', which for him meant 'inquiry' or 'investigation' of the past. The thinker Leo Tolstoy said that history is about the life of the people and of humanity.

History is not only about kings and queens. It covers the culture and civilization of people of every age. Those who write about the past are called historians. Archaeology is the branch of knowledge that studies the physical remains of the past and collects evidence from them.

Time Frame

What is meant by BC and AD?

The story of human beings is very long, so we need a way to measure it. Historians use the birth of Jesus Christ as the fixed point for counting years. Years that fall before it are written with BC (Before Christ). Years after it are written with AD, which comes from the Latin Anno Domini, 'in the year of the Lord'.

Examples: an event that took place 100 years before Christ's birth is dated 100 BC, and one that took place 100 years after it is dated 100 AD. Alexander invaded India in 326 BC, which means 326 years before Christ. The Gupta rulers ruled during roughly 320 AD to 540 AD.

The word circa in front of a date shows that the date is only approximate, not exact.

Do you know? Two more abbreviations are in use: BCE (Before Common Era) in place of BC, and CE (Common Era) in place of AD.

How is the history of the past relevant to understanding the present?

1. The present is the result of the past. To understand a country we must look at its roots.
2. Many beliefs and customs of today began long ago, and we have received many good things from earlier times.
3. Many peoples, such as the pre-Aryans, Indo-Aryans, Greeks, Scythians, Hunas and Turks, came and mixed with one another, and this made the Indian people of today.
4. Ancient history teaches tolerance: Hindus, Buddhists and Jains once lived together in harmony.
5. Ancient people felt the land was one and called all of it Bharata, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin and from the Brahmaputra valley in the east to the land beyond the Indus. This is a lesson in unity.
6. The caste system repeatedly damaged social unity, so the past warns us to be careful about it.

Names of Our Country

Our country has been called by many names, but Bharat and India are the best known. The name Bharata occurs in the Rigveda, the oldest work in Sanskrit, which is about 3500 years old. At first it meant the people of the north-west, but later it was applied to the whole country.

The name India comes from the river Indus, called Sindhu in Sanskrit. About 2500 years ago the Iranians and the Greeks entered from the north-west and knew the river as Hindos or Indos. The land lying to the east of the Indus came to be called India. Both names are still used in our books and history.

The Geographical Framework

The geography of a land shapes the way its people live, dress and eat. People in very cold places such as Siberia wear woollen clothes, while people of hot lands such as Arabia wear loose clothes. In the same way the physical features of India have influenced its history.

India has six physical divisions: the Great Himalayas, the Great Northern Plains, the Deccan Plateau, the Eastern and Western Coastal Regions, the Deserts and the Islands.

1. The Himalayas formed a wall on the north, so very few invaders came from that direction.
2. In the north-west there are low mountain passes such as the Khyber, Bolan and Gomal, and through them invaders entered India again and again.
3. The wide, fertile Northern Plains supported large empires such as those of the Mauryas, Guptas and Mughals.
4. Pataliputra was the capital of both the Mauryas and the Guptas even though the two empires were separated by several centuries. The reason is that Bihar (with Jharkhand) is rich in iron ore, which gave plenty of weapons to the rulers there.
5. The Deccan Plateau was an excellent military base. Northern empires found it hard to conquer and hold, which is why the Marathas, though small in strength, could challenge the mighty Mughals.
6. The long coastlines on the east and west let Indians, mostly the southern kingdoms, trade with South-East Asia, Africa and Europe.

Sources of History

History is built from the remains of the past that people search for and find. Many experts work together. Archaeologists dig up old sites. Scientists test the objects found there, using a method called carbon dating. Sociologists link objects of similar time and place to see how they are connected and to picture how things happened. Finally the historian writes the story in an orderly way so that all can read it.

Historical sources are of two kinds: archaeological sources and literary sources.

Literary sources

Religious literature. Ancient religious books such as the Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana and Mahabharata are examples. Before paper was used, many books were handwritten as manuscripts, mostly in Sanskrit.

Secular (historical) literature. These writings deal with worldly matters.

1. The Arthashastra by Kautilya describes Mauryan administration and society.
2. The Mudrarakshasa by Vishakhadatta tells about the Nandas and Mauryas, mainly how the Mauryas overthrew the Nandas.
3. The Harshacharita by Bana gives reliable details about King Harsha, his conquests and his rule. Dr. V. A. Smith compared it to Abul Fazl's Akbarnama.
4. The Rajatarangini by Kalhana follows the history of Kashmir from early times up to the 12th century AD.
5. The plays of Kalidasa (Shakuntala, Meghaduta and Malvikagnimitra) show the social life of his time and also give facts about the early Sungas.

Works such as Panini's Ashtadhyayi and Patanjali's Mahabhashya have also given historians useful information.

Accounts of foreign travellers. Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Tibetans, Muslims and others came to India and left political and social records. Herodotus, in his Histories, wrote about the war between Persia and Greece and the link of north-west India with Persia in the fifth century BC. Megasthenes wrote Indica, which tells us much about Mauryan administration and society and about the land and products of India.

The Chinese pilgrims Fa-Hien (AD 399-414), Hiuen Tsang (AD 629-645) and I-tsing (AD 673-695) came in search of knowledge and Buddhist books. Fa-Hien described Pataliputra and Gupta rule, and Hiuen Tsang described the political, religious and social conditions of India around the middle of the 7th century AD. Their accounts help to rebuild Indian history from about AD 400 to 700.

Why did travellers go to distant lands? Some went to find work, others to escape earthquakes and floods. Merchants went with caravans to sell costly goods, religious teachers went to spread their faith, conquerors went to win new lands and some went simply for adventure.

Do you know? Cities in the Indian subcontinent began to grow by about 2500 BC. At about that time settlements were coming up in the Nile Valley of Egypt, while cities in Sumer (present Iraq) were already flourishing. The Sumerians invented the wheel and the first script.

Archaeological sources

1. Inscriptions. Writings cut into stone, copper plates and similar materials tell us about events, administration, the qualities of rulers, dates, art and relations among kings. Examples are the rock edicts of Ashoka, the Sanchi inscriptions, the Allahabad Pillar Inscription and the Iron Pillar Inscription at Mehrauli, Delhi.

2. Coins. Old coins of gold, silver, copper and other metals help to fix the dates of dynasties and to study the Indo-Bactrian and Indo-Greek periods. Samudragupta's coins show that he worshipped Vishnu, and those that show him playing the veena prove that he was a fine musician. Coins also tell us about the economy and the size of a kingdom.

3. Monuments. Ruins of buildings, temples, palaces, stupas, caves and old towns tell us about our heritage. Digging at Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Sanghol showed that a great civilization lived in the Indus Valley about 5000 years ago. Taxila gave details of the Kushans, and Pataliputra of the Mauryas. The stupas of Sanchi and Bharhut, built under Ashoka, and the Gupta-period temples at Bhitargaon and Deogarh are also important. The ruins of Nalanda and Vikramshila tell us how education was organised.

Carbon dating. Bones, wood and other once-living things found in excavations can be dated by this method. Living things take in carbon-12 and carbon-14. After death the carbon-14 slowly decays, so the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 changes. The more the ratio has changed (the smaller the carbon-14 part), the older the object.

4. Artefacts. Sculptures and paintings show the cultural life of people. The sculptures found at Taxila from the time of Kanishka show the beauty of Gandhara art and Greek influence on Indian sculpture. Images and paintings of Shiva, Vishnu, the Buddha and Mahavira show that rulers of that age respected many faiths. Paintings at Ajanta, Ellora and other places show customs, dress, food and entertainment of the people. Caves from the early Stone Age (Palaeolithic caves) have been found in Andhra Pradesh, with bones of animals of that age.

Do you know? In 1822 the French scholar Jean-Francois Champollion read Egyptian hieroglyphs with the help of the Rosetta Stone. The same message was carved on it in three scripts: Egyptian hieroglyphics, a simpler Egyptian script and Greek. Since Greek could be read, scholars could decode the hieroglyphics.

Importance of Historical Sources: One Past or Many?

Sources help us picture our ancient culture and the people who lived here at different times. They show that ordinary people such as herders, farmers, merchants and craftsmen led lives unlike those of rulers. Kings lived in grand palaces and had records kept of their wars, courts and pleasures. Farmers had difficulty meeting their needs and left no records. Because the two lives were so different, some historians say we have not one past but many pasts.

Key Words

Let's Recall

About history. History is the orderly record of past events, and we must know the past to understand the present. There are two periods: pre-history, when people had no knowledge of reading and writing, and history, the period for which written records exist.

Influence of geography. People first settled in the fertile Indo-Gangetic plains. Mountain passes were pathways along which ideas, customs and cultures travelled. Traders and religious leaders used these routes; some traders returned home while a few settled in India.

Study of history. History is studied in chronological order. Years before Christ's birth are BC and years after it are AD. Events are arranged in time order on a timeline.

Sources. Literary sources: religious literature (Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata) and secular literature (accounts of foreign travellers, biographies and so on). Archaeological sources: coins, monuments, inscriptions and artefacts.