1.
The people who composed the hymns described themselves as Aryas and called their opponents Dasas or Dasyus.
2.
The languages spoken in Jharkhand and parts of central India belong to the Austro-Asiatic family.
3.
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 child bearing.
4.
Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam belong to the Dravidian family.
5.
These were people who did not perform sacrifices, and probably spoke different languages. Later, the term dasa (and the feminine dasi) came to mean slave. Slaves were women and men who were often captured in war. They were treated as the property of their owners, who could make them do whatever work they wanted.
6.
1. Archaeologists have found seeds of wheat, barley, rice, pulses, millets, peas and sesame.
2. Bones of a number of animals, many bearing cut marks that show they may have been used as food, have also been found. These include cattle, buffalo, goat, sheep, dog, horse, ass, pig, sambhar, spotted deer, blackbuck, antelope, hare, and mongoose, besides birds, crocodile, turtle, crab and fish.
3. There is evidence that fruits such as ber, amla, jamun, dates and a variety of berries were collected.
7.
We have 4 Vedas – the Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda.
8.
They are called a family because they originally had words in common.
For example, the words ‘matr’ (Sanskrit), ‘ma’ (Hindi) and ‘mother’ (English) have the same base word.
9.
In this book, Charak states that the human body has 360 bones. This is a much larger number than the 200 bones that are recognized in modern anatomy. Charaka arrived at this figure by counting the teeth, joints and cartilage.
10.
The stone boulders are known as megaliths (literally big stones). These were carefully arranged by people, and were used to mark burial sites.
11.
Option A
12.
These hymns are in praise of various gods and goddesses. 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.
13.
Some of the wealth that was obtained was kept by the leaders, some was given to the priests and the rest was distributed amongst the people. Some
wealth was used for the performance of yajnas or sacrifices in which offerings were made into the fire. These were meant for gods and goddesses. Offerings could include ghee, grain, and in some cases, animals.
14.
One man was found buried in a large, four legged clay jar in the courtyard of a five-roomed house (one of the largest houses at the site), in the centre of the settlement. This house also had a granary. The body was placed in a cross-legged position.
15.
The Rigveda includes more than a thousand hymns, called sukta or “well-said”.
16.
Some Indian languages such as Assamese, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri
and Sindhi belong to the Indo-European family of Languages.
17.
Mostly men took part in these wars. There was no regular army, but there were assemblies where people met and discussed matters of war and peace. They also chose leaders, who were often brave and skillful warriors.
18.
Tibeto-Burman family.
19.
Option B
20.
The priests, sometimes called brahmins, are known to perform various rituals on holy occasions.
