Vital Villages Thriving Towns - Solutions

 CBSE Class –VI Social Science 

NCERT Solutions
History Chapter 9
Vital Villages Thriving Towns

Question 1. Fill in the blanks:
Answer. (a) Vellalar was a word used for large landowners in Tamil.
(b) The gramabhojaka often got his land cultivated by the slaves and hired workers.
(c) Ploughmen were known as uzhavar in Tamil.
(d) Most grihapatis were smaller landowners.

Question 2. Describe the functions of the gramabhojaka. Why do you think he was powerful?
Answer.  The functions of the gramabhojaka are:

  1. In the northern part of the country, the village headman was known as the grama bhojaka. Usually, men from the same family held the position for generations. In other words, the post was hereditary.
  2. The grama bhojaka was often the largest landowner. Generally, he had slaves and hired workers to cultivate the land. 
  3. He was powerful, the king often used him to collect taxes from the village.
  4. He also functioned as a judge, and sometimes as a policeman.

Question 3. List the craft persons who would have been present in both villages and cities.
Answer. The craft persons who would have been present in both villages and cities were:

  1. Blacksmiths.
  2. Carpenters.
  3. Weavers.
  4. Potters 
  5. Ironsmith

Question 4. Choose the correct answer.

  1. Ring wells were used for:
    1. bathing
    2. washing clothes 
    3. irrigation
    4. drainage
  2. Punch marked coin was made of:
    1. silver
    2. gold
    3. tin
    4. ivory
  3. Mathura was important:
    1. village
    2. port
    3. religious centre
    4. forested area
  4. Shrenis were associations of:
    1. rulers
    2. craft persons
    3. farmers
    4. herders.

Answer.

  1. 4. drainage
  2. 1. silver
  3. 3. religious center
  4. 2. craft persons

Question 5. Which of the iron tools shown on page 87 would have been important for agriculture? What would the other tools have been used for?
Answer. The iron tools shown on page 87 are sickle, tongs, and axe. Axes and sickles were useful for clearing the forest and increasing the area of cultivation. The other tools like, tongs, nails and hammers were used for carpentry and also by ironsmiths.

Question 6. Compare the drainage system in your locality with that of the cities mentioned in the lesson. What similarities and difference do you notice?
Answer. In the present times, the drainage system in the cities is highly developed. There is an underground drainage system with covered drains. The bathrooms, toilets, and kitchens have an underground system and are connected to the main drains outside.
The ancient cities had ring well system. In many cities, archaeologists have found rows of pots or ceramic rings arranged one on top of other. They may have been used as toilets in some cases and as drains and garbage dumps. These ring wells have been found in individual houses.
Similarities and differences: The drainage system in our localities is well-planned. The same system was adopted in the times mentioned in the lesson. Both the systems are found to be similar in many ways. The only difference that we find in the modem and the past systems is that the past system was made of mud, bricks, and thatch. They could not survive for long. They were not well-maintained, but today we have a well-maintained and developed drainage system. It is made of solid materials.

Question 7. If you have seen craft persons at work, described in a short paragraph what they do. (Hint: how do these get the raw materials, what kind of equipment do they use, how do they work, what happens to the finished product).
Answer. I have seen craftspersons like weavers, blacksmiths, goldsmiths in villages and cities. Weavers are mostly seen in villages. I saw them running their spinning wheel or handmill.

  1. Firstly, they buy raw material from different parts of the city or the village.
  2. Secondly, he use simple tools like looms, spindles, and needles.
  3. Lastly, the finished product is sent either to the cities for selling or the merchants come to the houses of the craftsperson to buy goods.

Question 8. List the functions performed by men and women who live in your city or village. In what ways are those similar to those performed by people who lived in Mathura? In what ways are these different?
Answer. Similarities:  Mathura has been an important settlement for more than 2500 years ago. It was important as it was located on important trade routes. The people in Mathura worked as goldsmiths, blacksmiths, weavers, basket makers, garland makers, perfumers. In Present times, people in cities are goldsmiths and others are present in the villages.
Difference: In present times we can find people work in offices, bank, school, colleges, etc, but they were not present in those days. The progress of science and technology has made useful achievements in every field of our life. But in earlier times, there were no such advancements and people had to do more hard work and suffered a lot.