What Where How and When - Revision Notes
CBSE Class 06 Social Science
Revision Notes
Chapter – 1 History
What, Where, How and When
History: History is a chronological account of events as they took place in the past.
Why should we study History:
(i) We should study history as it tells us about our past.
(ii) It gives us understanding about our ancient culture and lifestyle.
(iii) It helps us to solve the problems of the present day world.
Time frames of History:
(i) Historians use chronological sequence for a better understanding. Birth of Jesus Christ has been taken as year zero.
(ii) Any event before Christ is called Before Christ (BC) and any event after the birth of Jesus is called Anno Domini (AD).
(iii) Timeline of history is divided into three stages – prehistory, pro-history and history.
Where did people live:
(i) People lived near river valleys. This was because rivers provided water for all purposes.
(ii) It is found that people lived close to the banks of Narmada river several thousand years ago.
(iii) Traces of life were found near Sulaiman and Kirthar hills in North West.
(iv) Traces of life even existed along Ganga. Mahajanpadas like Magadha, Kashi, Vajji, etc. flourished 2500 years ago.
(v) The Himalayan mountain has acted as natural barrier between India and Central Asia since ages.
Sources of food:
(i) People collected roots,fruits and other forest produce for their food and also hunted animals.
(ii) The two crops ,wheat and barley were grown about 8000 years ago near the north west region where Sulaiman and Kirthar hills are located.
(iii) The region of Garo hills to the North- East and the Vindhyas in Central India were developed in rice production.
Development of Cities:
(i) The river Indus and its tributaries are responsible for the flourishing of the earliest cities.
(ii) In the later period the cities developed over the banks of river Ganga and its tributaries like Son,Chambal,Yamuna rivers.
(iii) The city developed to the south of the river Ganga,over the bank of its tributary,was considered as the most powerful Mahajanapada named Magadha and its ruler were very powerful and set up large kingdom.
Why did people travel:
(i) People travelled from one place to another in search of their livelihood,to escape from natural calamities and also to conquer other's lands.
(ii) Religious teachers moved from one place to another to deliver their religious understanding to the people.
(iii) Travelling emerged as a strong aspect of sharing ideas between two or more people,having diversities.
How was the name India derived:
(i) Our country is called India and Bharat.
(ii) Bharat was used by the people of North India in the Sanskrit composition Rigveda.
(iii) The word Indus traces its roots from the river Indus which is called Sindhu in Sanskrit.
(iv) The land to the east of the Indus river was called India.
How do we know about the past:
(i) Archaeologist and historians study several sources to tell us about the past. There are two sources - archaeological and literary.
(ii) Archaeology: The study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of physical remains.
(iii) Archaeologists use sources like monuments, artefacts, inscription and coins.
(iv) Literary: Handwritten or any other written record of the past is known as a literary source.
(v) Literary sources include two types of literature - religious literature and secular literature.
(vi) Manuscripts: Books that were written long ago called Manuscripts were usually written on palm leaf.These books dealt with religious beliefs and practices,the lives of kings,medicine and science.The Prakrit was the language which was commonly used by ordinary people at that time.
(vii) Inscriptions: Inscriptions were written on hard surface such as stone or metal, objects which were made on hard enduring substances.
Who studied sources of History:
(i) There were two groups of people who studied history. One was called archaeologist and the other group was called historians.
(ii) Archaeologists studied remains of buildings made of stones, bricks, paintings and sculptures.
(iii) The other group called historians were the people who studied the past and used information found in inscriptions, seals and scripts.
