What Books and Burials Tell Us - Worksheets

CBSE Worksheet 01
Ch-4 What Books and Burials Tell Us

  1. The dead were buried with distinctive pots called ________.
    1. Black and redware
    2. Copperware
    3. Brown and redware
    4. Ironware
    5. Stone circles or boulders on the surface were used to cover the:
      1. burial places
      2. All of these
      3. portholes
      4. house
    6. Which of the following animals were given high respect?
      1. Cow
      2. Sheep
      3. Bull
      4. Goat
    7. Megaliths were prevalent throughout the ________.
      1. North
      2. South-east
      3. Kashmir
      4. Central
    8.  ________ were performed to please god and goddesses.
      1. Aranyakas
      2. Hymns
      3. Yajnas
      4. None of these
    9. Match the following:
      Column AColumn B
      (i) Vedas(a) Rajasuya
      (ii) Hymns(b) European language
      (iii) English(c) Sanskrit
      (iv) Sacrifices(d) 3000 years old
    10. Fill in the blanks:
      1. The manuscript of Rigveda, or birch bark, was found in Kashmir about ________ years ago.
      2. The people who composed the hymns described themselves as ________.
      3. ________ was occupied between 3600 and 2700 years ago.
      4. People at Inamgaon ate ________.
    11. State true or false:
      1. Vedas is the oldest book.
      2. The Samveda was composed about 3500 years ago.
      3. Battles were fought for land, water and to capture people.
      4. Megaliths were used to mark burial sites.
    12. Give another term for Early Vedic Age.
    13. Name the two groups mentioned in Rigveda, who were described in terms of their work.
    14. Describe in brief about how the Rigveda depicts cattle, horses, chariots and battles.
    15. Were some burial spots meant only for families?
    16. Write a short note on the Rigveda.
    17. What skeletal studies tell us?

    CBSE Worksheet 01
    Ch-4 What Books and Burials Tell Us

    Solution

    1. (a) Black and Red Ware
      Explanation: The dead were buried with distinctive pots, which are called Black and Red Ware.
    2. (a) burial places
      Explanation: Sometimes, archaeologists find a circle of stone boulders or a single large stone standing on the ground. These are the only indications that there are burials beneath.
    3. (a) Cow
      Explanation: In Hinduism, cows are considered sacred and are given high respect.
    4. (c) Kashmir
      Explanation: The practice of erecting megaliths began about 3000 years ago, and was prevalent throughout the Deccan, south India, in the north-east and Kashmir.
    5. (c) Yajnas
      Explanation: Yajnas were performed by offering ghee and grains into the fire in order to please god and goddesses.
    6. (i) - (d), (ii) - (c), (iii) - (b), (iv) - (a).
      1. 150
      2. Aryas
      3. Inamgaon
      4. Peas, rice, wheat, barley, pulses, millets, and sesame.
      1. True
      2. False (The oldest Veda is the Rigveda, composed about 3500 years ago. The Rigveda includes more than a thousand hymns)
      3. True
      4. True
    9. The Early Vedic Age is also called the Rigvedic Age because the Rigveda was composed at this time.
    10. There are two groups who are described in terms of their work — the priests, sometimes called brahmins, who performed various rituals, and the rajas.
    11. Rigveda has prayers for cattle and horses. Horses were yoked to chariots that were used in battles, which were fought to capture cattle. Battles were also fought for cattle, land, people and water. Most men took part in these wars. There was no regular army. There were assemblies where people met and discussed matters of war and peace. They also chose leaders, who were often brave and skilful warriors.
      1. Sometimes, megaliths had more than one skeleton.
      2. It indicated that people belonging to the same family were buried at the same place though at different times.
      3. The bodies of dead were brought into the grave, through the portholes.
      4. Boulders were placed on the surface to serve as signposts to find the burial site when people of the same family had to be buried there.
    13. The oldest Veda is the Rigveda. It was composed of about 3500 years ago. The Rigveda is in old or Vedic Sanskrit, which is different from the Sanskrit that you learn in school these days. The Rigveda includes more than a thousand hymns, called Sukta or well-said. These hymns are in praise of various gods and goddesses. The Rigveda was recited and heard rather than written or read. The Rigveda was written down several centuries after it was first composed and printed less than 200 years ago.
    14. It is easy to make out the skeleton of a child from its small size. However, there are no major differences in the bones of a girl and a boy. Sometimes, people decide on the basis of what is found with the skeleton. For instance, if a skeleton is found with jewellery, it is sometimes thought to be that of a woman. However, there are problems with this. Often, men also wore ornaments. A better way of figuring out the sex of a skeleton is to look at the bone structure. The hip or the pelvic area of women is generally larger to enable childbearing. These distinctions are based on modern skeletal studies. 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. This is a much larger number than the 200 bones that are recognised in mod