HISTORY NCERT VI CLASS (KEY POINTS)

-Some of the areas where women and men first began to grow crops such as wheat and
barley about 8000 years ago are located in the sulaiman and kirthar hills to the
Northwest.
- The places where rice was first grown are north of the vindhyas
- The areas where agriculture developed were in Garo hills.
- South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka) is often called
a sub continent because although it is smaller than a continent, it is very large and is
separated from the rest of Asia by hills, seas and mountains.
- The word India comes from the river Indus, called Sindhu in sanskrit.
- The name Bharata was used for a group of people who lived in the north west and who
are mentioned in the Rigveda.
- Inscriptions are writings on relatively hard surfaces such as stone or metal.
- A.D - Latin words Anno Domini which means in the year of the lord.
- Sometimes CE is used instead of A.D.
- CE - Common era
- Scholars understand the inscriptions containing both scripts and languages through a
process known asdecipherment.
- Rosetta is a town on the north coast of Egypt and here an inscriped stone was found
contained inscriptions in three different languages and scripts. Scholars who could read
out the names of kings and queens were enclosed in a little frame called a cartouche.
- Some important Archeological sites:
PALAEOLITHIC SITES
Kurnool caves, Hunsgi, Bhimbetka.
NEOLITHIC SITES
paiyampalli, hallur, daojali Hading, Mahagara, koldihwa, Chirand, Mehrgarh
MEGALITHIC SITES
Adinchanallur, Brahmagiri
- Natural caves and rock shelters are found in the vindhyas and the deccan plateau.
- Places where stone was found and where people made tools are known as factory sites.
- Stone tools were probably made using two different techniques.
a. stone on stone
b. pressure flaking
- The palaeolithic period extends from 2 million years ago to about 12000 years ago.
This time is divided into lower, middle and upper palaeolithic.
- 12000 years ago till about 10000 years ago is called the mesolithic. Stone tools found
during this period are generally tiny and are called microliths.
- The next stage from about 10000 years ago is known as the neolithic age.
- Ostriches were found in India during the palaeolithic period.

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- Around 12000 years ago there were major changes in the climate of the world which is
a shift to relatively warm conditions. This led to the development of Grasslands.
- Domestication began about 12,000 years ago.
- Domestication is the process in which people grow plants and look after animals.
- Mehrgarh is located in a fertile plain, near the bolan pass which is one of the most
important routes into Iran.
- Mehrgarh was probably one of the places where women and men learnt to grow barley
and wheat.
- Burial sites have been found at Mehrgarh where the dead person was buried with
goats, which were probably meant to serve as food in the next world.
- Daojali haldi is a site on the hills near Brahmaputra valley. Here mortars and pestles
have been found.
- Jadeite, a stone that may have been brought from China.
- Catal Huyuk, famous neolithic site in Turkey.
- The city of Harappa was developed about 4700 years ago.
- The Harappan cities were divided into two or more parts.
- Great Bath in Mohenjadaro is a special tank lined with bricks coated with paster and
made water tight with a layer of natural tar.
- The cities of lothal and Kalibangan had fire altars.
- Terracotta toys have been found.
- Stone weights were made of chert.
- Copper and Bronze were used to make tools, weapons, ornaments and vessels.
- The Harappan seals are made of stone and generally rectangular and usually have an
animal carved on them.
- Cotton was probably grown at Mehrgarh from about 7000 years ago.
- Spindle whorls made of Terracotta and faience were found.
- faience is an artificial material.
- The Harappans probably got copper from Oman.
- Harappan city Dholavira, located on Khadir Beyt in the Rann of kutch was divided into
3 parts and each part was surrounded with massive stone walls, with entrance through
gateways.
- The city of Lothal stood beside a tributary of the sabarmathi, in gujarat, close to the
Gulf of khambat.
- The city of Lothal was an important centre for making objects out of stone, shell and
metal.

-There are four vedas– 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.
-Three gods are especially important: Agni, the god of fire; Indra, a warrior god; and
Soma, a plant from which a special drink was prepared.

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 -Sanskrit is part of a family of languages known as Indo-European.
-Some Indian languages such as Assamese, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri and Sindhi, and
many European languages such as English, French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish
belong to this family. They arecalled a family because they originally had words in
common.
-Languages used in the north-east belong to the Tibeto-Burman family; Tamil, Telugu,
Kannada and Malayalam belong to the Dravidian family; and the languages spoken in
Jharkhand and parts of central India belong to the Austro-Asiatic family.
-There are many prayers in the Rigveda for cattle, children (especially sons), and horses.
-The practice of erecting megaliths began about 3000 years ago, and was prevalent
throughout the Deccan, south India, in the north-east and Kashmir.
-About 2000 years ago, there was a famous physician named Charaka who wrote a book
on medicine known as the Charaka Samhita. There he states that the human body has
360 bones.

-The priests divided people into four groups, called varnas.

A.The first varna was that of the brahmin. Brahmins were expected to study (and teach)
the Vedas, perform sacrifices and receive gifts.
B. In the second place were the rulers, also known as kshatriyas. They were expected to
fight battles and protect people.
C.Third were the vish or the vaishyas. They were expected to be farmers, herders, and
traders. Both the kshatriyas and the vaishyas could perform sacrifices.
D.Last were the shudras, who had to serve the other three groups and could not perform
any rituals. Often, women were also grouped with the shudras. Both women
and shudras were not allowed to study the Vedas.
- The word janapada literally means the land where jana set its foot, and settled down.
-About 2500 years ago, some janapadas became more important than others, and were
known as mahajanapadas.
-Most mahajanapadas had a capital city, many of these were fortified. This means that
huge walls of wood, brick or stone were built around them.
-As the rulers of the mahajanapadas were (a) building huge forts (b) maintaining big
armies, they needed more resources. And they needed officials to collect these. So,
instead of depending on occasional gifts brought by people, as in the case of the raja of
the janapadas, they started collecting regular taxes.
•Taxes on crops were the most important. This was because most people were farmers.
Usually, the tax was fixed at 1/6th of what was produced. This was known as bhaga or a
share.

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• There were taxes on crafts persons as well. These could have been in the form of
labour. For example, a weaver or a smith may have had to work for a day every month
for the king.
• Herders were also expected to pay taxes in the form of animals and animal produce.
• There were also taxes on goods that were bought and sold, through trade.
• And hunters and gatherers also had to provide forest produce to the raja.
-Magadha became the most important mahajanapada in about two hundred years.
-Many rivers such as the Ganga and Son flowed through Magadha. This was important for
(a) transport, (b) water supplies (c) making the land fertile.
-Parts of Magadha were forested.
-Elephants, which lived in the forest, could be captured and trained for the army.
-Forests also provided wood for building houses, carts and chariots. Besides, there were
iron ore mines in the region that could be tapped to make strong tools and weapons.
-Magadha had two very powerful rulers, Bimbisara and Ajatasattu, who used all possible
means to conquer other janapadas.
-Mahapadma Nanda was another important ruler. He extended his control up to the north-
west part of the subcontinent.
-Rajagriha (present-day Rajgir) in Bihar was the capital of Magadha for several years.
-Later the capital was shifted to Pataliputra (present-day Patna).
-While Magadha became a powerful kingdom, Vajji, with its capital at Vaishali (Bihar), was
under a different form of government, known as gana or sangha.
-In a gana or a sangha there were not one, but many rulers. Sometimes, even when
thousands of men ruled together, each one was known as a raja. These rajas performed
rituals together. They also met in assemblies, and decided what had to be done and how,
through discussion and debate.

Gautama Buddha:

 Also Known as Siddhartha.

 He was a kshatriya and belongs to sakya gana.
 He attained enlightenment under peepal tree at BodhGaya in Bihar.
 He gave his first sermon at Sarnath.
 He taught life is full of sufferings because of desires which he called tanha.
 He taught in the language of common people, prakrit.
 He passed away in kusinara.

Upanishads:

 Upanishad literally means "approaching and sit near".

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 These are the texts about the conversations between teachers and students.
 Most of the upanishad thinkers were men.
 Garbi was a famous woman upanishad thinker.
 Satyakama Jabala was a slave accepted by a brahmin teacher gautama. Jabala
was named after his mother Jabali. Jabala became a great thinker.
 Panini was famous as he prepared grammar for sanskrit.

Mahavira:

 Vardhamana Mahavira was a kshatriya prince.

 He belongs to Vajji Sangha.
 He also taught his teachings in Prakrit.
 Followers of Mahavira became known as Jains.
 The word Jaina derived from the term Jina which means Conqueror.

Sangha:

 Those who left their homes to gain true knowledge were lived in associations
known as Sangha.
 Vinaya Pittaka prescribes the rules made for Buddhist sanghas.
 Both Men and Women can join sangha.
 Men were called Bhikkus while women were called bhikkunis.

Monastries or viharas:

 Bhikkus and bhikkunis used to stay in viharas which were made of wood or bricks
and caves dug in the hills.

Ashramas:

 Brahmins developed 4 ashramas system which represents the stage of life.They

were brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanaprastha and Sannyasa

Zooraster:

 He was an Iranian Prophet.

 His teachings were recorded in a book called Avestha.
 The basic teachings of Zooraster contained in the maxim"Good thoughts, Good
words and Good deeds".

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 Zoorastrianism was a major religion in Iran.
 Many Zoorastrians migrated from Iran and settled in the coastal towns of Gujarat
and Maharashtra.
 They were the ancestors of today's Parsis.

Mauryas:

 The Mauryans were a dynasty with three important rulers - Chandragupta

Maurya, his son Bindusara, and Bindusara son Ashoka.
 Chandragupta Maurya was supported by a wise man named Kautilya or
Chanakya.
 Chanakya mentioned his ideas in a book called Arthashastra.
 Megasthenes was an ambassador who was sent to the court of chandragupta by
the Greek ruler of west Asia named Seleucus Nicator.
 Pataliputra, Taxila and Ujjain were the main cities in the mauryan Empire.
 Pataliputra wa the capital city of Mauryan Empire.
 Taxila was a gateway to the North west.
 Ujjain lay on the route from north to south India,
 Royal Princes were sent to the provinces as Governor.

Ashoka:

 The most famous ruler of Mauryan dynasty was Ashoka.

 Ashoka fought kalinga war to conquer Kalinga.
 He is the only king in the history of the world who gave up conquest after
winning.
 He decided to observe Dhamma.
 He appointed officials, Known as the Dhamma Mahamatta who went from place
to place teaching people about dhamma.
 He also spread other messengers to spread ideas about dhamma to other lands,
such as Syria, Egypt, Greece and SriLanka.
 Most of Ashoka's inscriptions were in prakrit and were written in the Brahmi
script.

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 In the Tamil region, large land owners were known as Vellalar, ordinary
ploughmen were known as uzhavar, and landless labourers, including slaves, were
known as Kadaisiyar and adimai.
 In the northern part of the country, the village headman was known as the grama
bhojaka.
 Grama bhojaka was often the largest landowner.
 Grihapatis were other independent farmers who own small land.
 Dasa Karmakara were men and women who did not own a land.
 Some of the earliest works in tamil, known as Sangam literature, were composed
around 2300 years ago. These texts were called Sangam because they were supposed to
have been composed and compiled in the assemblies (sangams) of poets that were held
in the city of Madurai.
 Jatakas were stories that were probably composed by ordinary people, and then
written down and preserved by Buddhist monks.
 Mathura has been important settlement for more than 2500 years.
 Mathura was also a center where some extremely fine sculpture was produced.
 Mathura became the second capital of the Kushanas.
 Mathura was also a religious centre - there were buddhist monastries,Jaina
shrines and it was an impotant centre for the worship of Krishna.
 Northern black polished ware was found in the northern part of the sub
continent, usually black in colour and has a fine sheen.
 Many crafts persons and merchants formed associations known as shrenis.
 The shrenis of crafts provided training, procured raw material and distributed
finished product.
 The shrenis of merchants organised the trade.
 Shrenis also served as banks.
 Rules for spinning and weaving were mentioned in the chapter 8 of Arthashastra.
 Arikamedu(in pondicherry) was a coastal settlement where ships unloaded goods
from distant lands.
 Massive brick structure, Pottery from the mediterranean region such as
amphorae(tall double handled jars that contained liquids such as wine or oil) and
stamped red glazed pottery, known as Arretine Ware, which was named after a city in
Italy, Roman lamps, glassware, gems were found at Arikamedu.

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 South India was famous for gold, Pepper, spices and precious stones.
 Pepper was very much valued in the Roman empire and it was called as Black
gold.
 Sangam poems mention the muvendar, a tamil word which means three chiefs,
used for the heads of three ruling families, the cholas, cheras, and pandyas.
 Each of the three chiefs had two centres of power - one inland and one on the
coast.
 Puhar or Kaveripattinam, the port of the cholas, and Madurai, the capital of
pandyas were considered very important.
 The most important ruler of the satavahana was Gautamiputra shri Satakarni.
 He and other satavahana rulers were known as lords of the Dakshinapatha,
literally the route leading to south.
 Techniques of making silk was first invented in China.
 Some people of China who went to distant places on foot, horseback and camels,
carried silk with them. The path they followed came to be known as Silk route.
 Kushanas rulers were the best known rulers who controlled the silk route.
 Peshawar and Mathura were Kushanas power of centres.
 The Kushanas were amongst the earliest rulers of the subcontinent to issue gold
coins.
 Kanishka was the most famoue Kushana ruler.
 Ashvagosha who composed a biography of the Buddha, Buddhacharitha, was
lived in Kanishka court.
 Mahayana buddhism came into prominence during Kanishka rule.
 Many statues of the Buddha were were made in Mathura.
 FaXian, Xuan Zang and I-Quing were famous pilgrims who visited places
associated with the life of Buddha.
 Nalanda was the famous Buddhist monastery where Xuan Zang and other
pilgrims spent time studying.

 Harisena composed a poem in sanskrit about samudragupta which was inscribed

on the Ashokan pillar at Allahabad.
 Prashasti were poems composed in praise of rulers.
 We came to know more about Gupta rulers through their inscriptions and coins.

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 Banabhatta, court poet of Harshavardhan wrote Harshavardhana biography
called harshacharita in sanskrit.
 Xuan Zang spent a lot of time in the court of Harshavardhana.
 Harshavardhan conquered both Magadha and Bengal.
 Pulakeshin II, a ruler of Chalukya dynasty stopped Harshavardhana when he
tried to cross Narmada to march into Deccan.
 Kanchipuram was the capital of Pallavas Kingdom.
 Aihole, the capital of Chalukyas was an important trading centre.
 Ravikirti was the court poet of Pulakeshin II.
 Samantas were the military leaders who provided troops to King whenever he
needed. King in return gives land for them.
 The ur was a village assembly found in areas where the land owners were not
brahmins.

 The Iron pillar at Mehrauli,Delhi is made of iron, 7.2 m high and weighs over 3
tonnes.There is an inscription on the pillar mentioned the name of a ruler Chandra.
 A small box known as relic casket containing the bodily remains of the Buddha or
his followers or things they used was placed at the centre or heart of the Stupa.
 A path known as Pradakshina patha was laid around the stupa.This was
surrounded with railings.
 A famous tamil epic, the silappadikaram, was composed by a poet Ilango, was the
story of a merchant named kovalan who fell in love with the courtesan Madhavi.
 Manimekalai was a tamil epic composed by Sattanar about the story of the
daughter of Kovalan and Madhavi.
 Meghadhuta was a famous poem of Kalidasa.
 Aryabhatta, a mathematician and astronomer wrote a book in sanskrit known as
Aryabhatiyam.
 Aryabhatta stated thatday and night were caused by the rotation of the earth on
its axis. He developed a scientific explanation for eclipses.He also found a way to
calculate the circumference of a circle.
 Paper was invented in china by a man named Cai Lun.

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