Sources and Early Indian History Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The longest period is the Palaeolithic.

The Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) runs from about 2 million years ago to about 12,000 years ago, covering more than 99% of human history. During it people lived as hunter-gatherers using stone tools.

The Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) lasted roughly from 12,000 to 10,000 years ago, and the Neolithic began about 10,000 years ago with farming. The Megalithic refers to burial practices with large stones from about 3,000 years ago, so it spans a short period.

Answer: D

The answer is both A and B are true.

Mehrgarh lies on the fertile Kachi plain near the Bolan Pass in Balochistan, Pakistan, an important route into Iran (A). It is one of the earliest known villages in the subcontinent, where archaeologists found evidence that people grew barley and wheat and reared sheep and goats, so both farming and herding are attested (B).

Since both statements are correct, the options calling either one false are wrong.

Answer: C

The keyed State is Gujarat.

Gujarat has a very large number of Harappan sites, including Lothal, Dholavira, Surkotada and Rangpur, and in the standard school-level account it is cited as the Indian State with the largest number of them.

Haryana (Rakhigarhi, Banawali) and Punjab (Ropar) also have many sites, and later surveys have recorded large numbers in Haryana, but the key follows the common textbook statement. Jammu and Kashmir has very few, such as Manda.

Answer: C

The Rig Veda was composed in Sanskrit.

The Rig Veda, the oldest of the four Vedas (about 1500 BCE), is in an early form of Sanskrit known as Vedic Sanskrit. Its hymns were composed and passed down orally for centuries before being written.

Brahmi is a script, not a language, and it appears much later, in the inscriptions of Ashoka. Pali and the Prakrits are later Indo-Aryan languages: Pali is the language of the Buddhist canon, and Prakrit was used by Jainism and in Ashokan inscriptions.

Answer: C

The correct matching is a-ii, b-i, c-v, d-iii, e-iv.

This follows the map in NCERT's Class 6 history, Our Pasts I: hunter-gatherers lived along the Narmada; the Vajji (Vrijji) was an early gana or sangha, a republic; the Garo hills are among the places where early agriculture developed; cities grew in the Ganga valley about 2500 years ago; and the first cities, the Harappan cities, grew along the Indus and its tributaries about 4700 years ago. Each of the other options misplaces at least two pairs.

Answer: D

A primary source for early humans is the rock paintings of Madhya Pradesh.

Primary sources are materials from the time being studied. Rock shelters such as Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh carry paintings made by early humans, showing wild animals and hunting scenes. NCERT uses them as evidence of how these people lived.

The other options belong to far later periods. The Girnar rock inscription carries Ashoka's edicts and later Rudradaman's inscription, both historical-period records. The Padshahnama paintings illustrate the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan's court history, and Kangra-style painting flourished in the eighteenth century.

Answer: B

We know it because large quantities of ostrich egg shells were found at Patne in Maharasthra.

NCERT's Class 6 history describes Patne in Maharashtra, where archaeologists found ostrich egg shells, some of them engraved with designs, and also ostrich-shell beads. They show that ostriches lived in India during the late Palaeolithic period, about 25,000 years ago.

The other options are impossible. There was no writing in the Palaeolithic period, so there are no written descriptions, no oral memories could have been preserved from that time, and foreign travellers came only many thousands of years later.

Answer: B

The correct explanation is A, B, D.

NCERT's Class 6 history lists the reasons historians suggest for the end of the Harappan cities: the rivers dried up (D), there was deforestation (B), possibly because fuel was needed for baking bricks and smelting copper, and the rulers seem to have lost control (A). It also mentions floods in some areas.

Statement C is the error: floods affected some areas, not the entire area of the civilisation. Since C is wrong, every option including it is wrong.

Answer: C

Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

Bhimbetka, in Madhya Pradesh, is famous for its natural rock shelters and caves, used by people from the Palaeolithic period onwards and decorated with prehistoric paintings. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site lies in the Vindhyan hills of Raisen district, not far north of the Narmada valley. So both statements are true.

But being near the Narmada valley is not why Bhimbetka is famous. Its fame rests on the shelters themselves and their paintings, so (R) does not explain (A).

Answer: B

Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

Both statements come from what we know about inscriptions, writing carved on hard surfaces such as stone or metal. Some inscriptions are royal orders, put up where people could see, read and obey them; Ashoka's edicts are the best-known example. Other inscriptions record what kings and queens did, such as victories or gifts, like the Allahabad pillar inscription praising Samudragupta.

The Reason simply describes a second kind of inscription. It does not explain why kings had their orders inscribed, so (R) is true but does not explain (A).