NCERT Solutions Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India That Is Bharat
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Page 1
F R E E S T U D Y M AT E R I A L F O R E V E R Y S T U D E N T
CLASS 6 · SOCIAL SCIENCE
NCERT Solutions
Chapter 5: India, That Is Bharat
NCERT Textbook — Exploring Society: India And Beyond
BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM
75 – 84 10 17 English
Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 32 pages
CLASS 6 · SOCIAL SCIENCE
NCERT Solutions
Chapter 5: India, That Is Bharat
NCERT Textbook — Exploring Society: India And Beyond
BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM
75 – 84 10 17 English
Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 32 pages
Page 2
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
CLASS 6 · SOCIAL SCIENCE · EXPLORING SOCIETY: INDIA AND BEYOND
NCERT Solutions — Chapter 5: India, That Is Bharat
Complete NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat from the NCERT
textbook Exploring Society: India and Beyond. Every question of the chapter is answered — The Big Questions,
both THINK ABOUT IT boxes (pages 77 and 80), all three LET'S EXPLORE boxes (pages 78, 81 and 83), the in-
text questions on pages 78 and 80, Before we move on … and all four Questions, activities and projects —
with the physical map of the Subcontinent (Fig. 5.2), the Mahābhārata regions map (Fig. 5.4) and the first page
of the Constitution (Fig. 5.5) read carefully and every name traced back to the source the book actually gives.
TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES
Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Class 6) 75 – 84
SECTIONS QUESTIONS
10 17
MEDIUM
English
The Big Questions — Page 75
Chapter opening
THE BIG QUESTIONS
Q1 How do we define India?
ANSWER
There is no single answer — the chapter shows that India can be defined in three different
ways, and all three are true at the same time.
Page 1 of 32
CLASS 6 · SOCIAL SCIENCE · EXPLORING SOCIETY: INDIA AND BEYOND
NCERT Solutions — Chapter 5: India, That Is Bharat
Complete NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat from the NCERT
textbook Exploring Society: India and Beyond. Every question of the chapter is answered — The Big Questions,
both THINK ABOUT IT boxes (pages 77 and 80), all three LET'S EXPLORE boxes (pages 78, 81 and 83), the in-
text questions on pages 78 and 80, Before we move on … and all four Questions, activities and projects —
with the physical map of the Subcontinent (Fig. 5.2), the Mahābhārata regions map (Fig. 5.4) and the first page
of the Constitution (Fig. 5.5) read carefully and every name traced back to the source the book actually gives.
TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES
Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Class 6) 75 – 84
SECTIONS QUESTIONS
10 17
MEDIUM
English
The Big Questions — Page 75
Chapter opening
THE BIG QUESTIONS
Q1 How do we define India?
ANSWER
There is no single answer — the chapter shows that India can be defined in three different
ways, and all three are true at the same time.
Page 1 of 32
Page 3
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
WAY OF WHAT IT SAYS WHERE THE
DEFINING CHAPTER
INDIA SHOWS IT
1. As a modern India today has defined borders, defined states and a Page 77; Don't
nation known population. Its Constitution begins: “India, that is Miss Out and Fig.
Bharat, shall be a Union of States.” 5.5, pages 81–82
2. As a The land we call the Indian Subcontinent, marked off by Fig. 5.2, page 76;
geographical natural boundaries — the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush in Think About It,
region the north, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian page 77
Ocean around the rest.
3. As an idea Ancient Indians defined it the same way the map does — the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa and
that grew over land “north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains”, the Tamil poem,
time and “from Cape Kumari in the south to the great mountain in page 80
the north”. The name and the boundaries have shifted again
and again.
Why the modern definition is not enough. The chapter's very first paragraph warns us: India
“was very different 500 years ago, 2,000 years ago or even 5,000 years ago”. In Aśhoka's time,
about 250 BCE, the land he called Jambudvīpa included what is today Bangladesh, Pakistan
and parts of Afghanistan. So a definition made of today's borders cannot describe the India of
the past.
The definition that has lasted longest is the geographical one. Here is what the Viṣhṇu
Purāṇa's one-line definition actually describes:
himādri — “the snowy mountains” = the HIMALAYAS
BHĀRATA
NORTH
SOUTH
the country that lies between them
samudra — “the ocean” = Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal
The Viṣhṇu Purāṇa's definition of Bhārata, drawn as a north–south section: mountains above, ocean
below, and the country in between.
Page 2 of 32
WAY OF WHAT IT SAYS WHERE THE
DEFINING CHAPTER
INDIA SHOWS IT
1. As a modern India today has defined borders, defined states and a Page 77; Don't
nation known population. Its Constitution begins: “India, that is Miss Out and Fig.
Bharat, shall be a Union of States.” 5.5, pages 81–82
2. As a The land we call the Indian Subcontinent, marked off by Fig. 5.2, page 76;
geographical natural boundaries — the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush in Think About It,
region the north, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian page 77
Ocean around the rest.
3. As an idea Ancient Indians defined it the same way the map does — the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa and
that grew over land “north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains”, the Tamil poem,
time and “from Cape Kumari in the south to the great mountain in page 80
the north”. The name and the boundaries have shifted again
and again.
Why the modern definition is not enough. The chapter's very first paragraph warns us: India
“was very different 500 years ago, 2,000 years ago or even 5,000 years ago”. In Aśhoka's time,
about 250 BCE, the land he called Jambudvīpa included what is today Bangladesh, Pakistan
and parts of Afghanistan. So a definition made of today's borders cannot describe the India of
the past.
The definition that has lasted longest is the geographical one. Here is what the Viṣhṇu
Purāṇa's one-line definition actually describes:
himādri — “the snowy mountains” = the HIMALAYAS
BHĀRATA
NORTH
SOUTH
the country that lies between them
samudra — “the ocean” = Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal
The Viṣhṇu Purāṇa's definition of Bhārata, drawn as a north–south section: mountains above, ocean
below, and the country in between.
Page 2 of 32
Page 4
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Why all three definitions matter together: the modern definition tells you what
India is now, the geographical one tells you what the land has always been, and the
historical one reminds you that borders are made by people and can change. A
student of history needs all three — otherwise you would read an ancient inscription
about ‘Jambudvīpa’ and wrongly imagine today's map.
Did you know? The chapter's opening quotation by Sri Aurobindo defines India in
exactly this geographical way — “all this great surge of humanity between the
Himalayas and the two seas”. The ‘two seas’ are the Arabian Sea and the Bay of
Bengal.
Q2 What were the ancient names for India?
ANSWER
There were many, and they fall into two families: names Indians gave themselves, and names
foreigners built out of the river Sindhu.
Family 1 — names given by Indians
NAME WHAT IT MEANS HOW MUCH SOURCE
LAND IT COVERS
Sapta Sindhava ‘Land of the seven rivers’, from Only the north- The Ṛig Veda, India's
Sindhu = the Indus, or a river in west region of the most ancient text
general Subcontinent
Bhāratavarṣha ‘The country of the Bharatas’ — The entire The Mahābhārata,
the Bharatas being one of the Subcontinent written from a few
main Vedic groups of people, centuries BCE onward
named first in the Ṛig Veda
Jambudvīpa ‘The island of the fruit of the The entire The Mahābhārata; and
jamun tree’ — the jambul or Subcontinent Aśhoka, c. 250 BCE, in
Malabar plum tree, native to one of his inscriptions
India
Bhārata “The country that lies north of the The entire The Viṣhṇu Purāṇa; still
(Bharat / ocean and south of the snowy Subcontinent in use today
Bharatam) mountains”
Alongside these, the Mahābhārata lists dozens of regional names that still echo in today's map:
Kāshmīra (more or less today's Kashmir), Kurukṣhetra (parts of Haryana), Vanga (parts of
Bengal), Prāgjyotiṣha (roughly Assam), Kaccha (Kutch) and Kerala (more or less today's Kerala).
Page 3 of 32
Why all three definitions matter together: the modern definition tells you what
India is now, the geographical one tells you what the land has always been, and the
historical one reminds you that borders are made by people and can change. A
student of history needs all three — otherwise you would read an ancient inscription
about ‘Jambudvīpa’ and wrongly imagine today's map.
Did you know? The chapter's opening quotation by Sri Aurobindo defines India in
exactly this geographical way — “all this great surge of humanity between the
Himalayas and the two seas”. The ‘two seas’ are the Arabian Sea and the Bay of
Bengal.
Q2 What were the ancient names for India?
ANSWER
There were many, and they fall into two families: names Indians gave themselves, and names
foreigners built out of the river Sindhu.
Family 1 — names given by Indians
NAME WHAT IT MEANS HOW MUCH SOURCE
LAND IT COVERS
Sapta Sindhava ‘Land of the seven rivers’, from Only the north- The Ṛig Veda, India's
Sindhu = the Indus, or a river in west region of the most ancient text
general Subcontinent
Bhāratavarṣha ‘The country of the Bharatas’ — The entire The Mahābhārata,
the Bharatas being one of the Subcontinent written from a few
main Vedic groups of people, centuries BCE onward
named first in the Ṛig Veda
Jambudvīpa ‘The island of the fruit of the The entire The Mahābhārata; and
jamun tree’ — the jambul or Subcontinent Aśhoka, c. 250 BCE, in
Malabar plum tree, native to one of his inscriptions
India
Bhārata “The country that lies north of the The entire The Viṣhṇu Purāṇa; still
(Bharat / ocean and south of the snowy Subcontinent in use today
Bharatam) mountains”
Alongside these, the Mahābhārata lists dozens of regional names that still echo in today's map:
Kāshmīra (more or less today's Kashmir), Kurukṣhetra (parts of Haryana), Vanga (parts of
Bengal), Prāgjyotiṣha (roughly Assam), Kaccha (Kutch) and Kerala (more or less today's Kerala).
Page 3 of 32
Page 5
as e
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Family 2 — names given by foreigners, all from ‘Sindhu’
co m
e m.
m l as
.co g
WHO NAME HOW IT CAME ABOUT
m a
l a se
g
Persians (ancient Hind, Hidu, In the 6th century BCE a Persian emperor gained control of
aIran) Hindu the Indus region. ‘Hindu’ is simply ‘Sindhu’ in Persian — a
purely geographical word, with no religious meaning
co m
Greeks Indoi, Indike
e m .
Borrowed from Persian, dropping the initial ‘h’, because that ag
g l asletter did not exist in Greek
Romans / Latin, and India, Inde
a The Greek forms passed into Latin as India, and from Latin
after them English into modern European languages
co m
m.
and French
m as e
Chinese
.co a g l
Also from ‘Sindhu’, through the steps Sindhu → Hindhu →
em
Yintu, Yindu,
l a s Tianzhu Indu → Yindu. Tianzhu could also be read as ‘heavenly
ag
master’ — a sign of respect for India as the land of the
Buddha
om a s
. c agl
Persian, later Arabic Hindustān First used in a Persian inscription some 1,800 years ago;
sem
later the usual term among invaders of India
a g la
The whole family tree in one picture:
co m
m .
m as e
.co
Indoi / Indike
a g l India
sem
Greek — the ‘h’ dropped Latin
a
agl India (English)
m
Inde (French)
a se
com l
Hind / Hidu / Hindu
g
Sindhu
m.
Hindustān
a
Persian, 6th century BCE
ase
the Indus River first in a Persian inscription about 1,800 years ago
(a place name, not a religion)
agl
Indu Yintu / Yindu
com
an in-between form Chinese
m .
m ase
.co agl
Tianzhu — Chinese
could also be read as ‘heavenly master’ — the land of the Buddha
se m
g l a
a Every foreign name for India grows out of one Indian word — Sindhu, the river. The two chains
c
printed on page 81 of the book are the blue and the green branches.
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a
co m
m .
m as e
.co
a g l Page 4 of 32
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Family 2 — names given by foreigners, all from ‘Sindhu’
co m
e m.
m l as
.co g
WHO NAME HOW IT CAME ABOUT
m a
l a se
g
Persians (ancient Hind, Hidu, In the 6th century BCE a Persian emperor gained control of
aIran) Hindu the Indus region. ‘Hindu’ is simply ‘Sindhu’ in Persian — a
purely geographical word, with no religious meaning
co m
Greeks Indoi, Indike
e m .
Borrowed from Persian, dropping the initial ‘h’, because that ag
g l asletter did not exist in Greek
Romans / Latin, and India, Inde
a The Greek forms passed into Latin as India, and from Latin
after them English into modern European languages
co m
m.
and French
m as e
Chinese
.co a g l
Also from ‘Sindhu’, through the steps Sindhu → Hindhu →
em
Yintu, Yindu,
l a s Tianzhu Indu → Yindu. Tianzhu could also be read as ‘heavenly
ag
master’ — a sign of respect for India as the land of the
Buddha
om a s
. c agl
Persian, later Arabic Hindustān First used in a Persian inscription some 1,800 years ago;
sem
later the usual term among invaders of India
a g la
The whole family tree in one picture:
co m
m .
m as e
.co
Indoi / Indike
a g l India
sem
Greek — the ‘h’ dropped Latin
a
agl India (English)
m
Inde (French)
a se
com l
Hind / Hidu / Hindu
g
Sindhu
m.
Hindustān
a
Persian, 6th century BCE
ase
the Indus River first in a Persian inscription about 1,800 years ago
(a place name, not a religion)
agl
Indu Yintu / Yindu
com
an in-between form Chinese
m .
m ase
.co agl
Tianzhu — Chinese
could also be read as ‘heavenly master’ — the land of the Buddha
se m
g l a
a Every foreign name for India grows out of one Indian word — Sindhu, the river. The two chains
c
printed on page 81 of the book are the blue and the green branches.
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a
co m
m .
m as e
.co
a g l Page 4 of 32
Page 6
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Why one river gave a whole country its name: foreigners arriving from the west
met the Indus first. The name of the first great thing they crossed became, in their
languages, the name of everything that lay beyond it. That is why our English name
— India — is a foreign pronunciation of an Indian river, while our Indian name —
Bhārata — comes from a people named in the Ṛig Veda.
THINK ABOUT IT — Page 77
Page 5 of 32
Why one river gave a whole country its name: foreigners arriving from the west
met the Indus first. The name of the first great thing they crossed became, in their
languages, the name of everything that lay beyond it. That is why our English name
— India — is a foreign pronunciation of an Indian river, while our Indian name —
Bhārata — comes from a people named in the Ṛig Veda.
THINK ABOUT IT — Page 77
Page 5 of 32
Page 7
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Reading the physical map of the Indian Subcontinent (Fig. 5.2)
THINK ABOUT IT
Q1 Consider the physical map of the Indian Subcontinent at the start of the chapter.
What are its natural boundaries that you can make out?
70°E 75°E 80°E 85°E 90°E
SS HH
KK UU
us
sud
DD UU nd
AA SS
m
mu
n
ba b
H II NN
35°N 35°N
lu
rI
I
L AA YY
na
le
rev
ne
he
ve
he
H h
h
rJ
J re
Ri
iR
A L
rC
Cr
vi as A
ve
HH II M
viR
ve
ev Ra M
Ri
r Be
Ri
iR
e
Riv River
Sutle
j
River vati
30°N Saras 30°N
River
us
sud
nd
n
rI
I
utra
rev
map
ve
Ri
iR
ah
ev
ve
r
Ri
iR
rB
Rive viR
Rive
Gr
rG
aY re
na an
r Ya
ag
ga
Riv River
er C
anum
mu
25°N Gan 25°N
ham ga
na
ba
l
River Narmada
River Tapti Riv
er
M
20°N ah 20°N
ARABIAN
ARABIAN an BAY
BAY
Riv ad
er G i
SEA
SEA oda
var OF BENGAL
OF BENGAL
i
Riv
er
Kr
ish
15°N na 15°N
Riv
er
Ka
ve
10°N ri 10°N
II N
NDD II A
ANN O
OCCE
EAAN
N
0 200 400 km
N
70°E 75°E 80°E 85°E 90°E
Fig. 5.2, page 76 — a physical map of the Indian Subcontinent, with some of its rivers.
ANSWER
Fig. 5.2 on page 76 shows a land almost completely walled in by nature — mountains on the
land side, sea on the other three sides. That is exactly why it is called a subcontinent: it is a large,
clearly separated part of a bigger continent.
Page 6 of 32
Reading the physical map of the Indian Subcontinent (Fig. 5.2)
THINK ABOUT IT
Q1 Consider the physical map of the Indian Subcontinent at the start of the chapter.
What are its natural boundaries that you can make out?
70°E 75°E 80°E 85°E 90°E
SS HH
KK UU
us
sud
DD UU nd
AA SS
m
mu
n
ba b
H II NN
35°N 35°N
lu
rI
I
L AA YY
na
le
rev
ne
he
ve
he
H h
h
rJ
J re
Ri
iR
A L
rC
Cr
vi as A
ve
HH II M
viR
ve
ev Ra M
Ri
r Be
Ri
iR
e
Riv River
Sutle
j
River vati
30°N Saras 30°N
River
us
sud
nd
n
rI
I
utra
rev
map
ve
Ri
iR
ah
ev
ve
r
Ri
iR
rB
Rive viR
Rive
Gr
rG
aY re
na an
r Ya
ag
ga
Riv River
er C
anum
mu
25°N Gan 25°N
ham ga
na
ba
l
River Narmada
River Tapti Riv
er
M
20°N ah 20°N
ARABIAN
ARABIAN an BAY
BAY
Riv ad
er G i
SEA
SEA oda
var OF BENGAL
OF BENGAL
i
Riv
er
Kr
ish
15°N na 15°N
Riv
er
Ka
ve
10°N ri 10°N
II N
NDD II A
ANN O
OCCE
EAAN
N
0 200 400 km
N
70°E 75°E 80°E 85°E 90°E
Fig. 5.2, page 76 — a physical map of the Indian Subcontinent, with some of its rivers.
ANSWER
Fig. 5.2 on page 76 shows a land almost completely walled in by nature — mountains on the
land side, sea on the other three sides. That is exactly why it is called a subcontinent: it is a large,
clearly separated part of a bigger continent.
Page 6 of 32
Page 8
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
DIRECTION NATURAL HOW YOU CAN MAKE IT OUT ON THE MAP
BOUNDARY
North The Himalayas The long brown-and-white arc labelled H I M A L A Y A S,
curving from Kashmir all the way east to Assam. Beyond it the
map turns purple — that is the high Tibetan Plateau, higher
still.
North-west The Hindu Kush Labelled in white at the top-left corner. Together with the
unnamed ranges south of it, it closes off the land route to
Central Asia and Iran.
North-east Hill ranges east of The brown ridges drawn beyond the Brahmaputra towards
the Brahmaputra Myanmar. The map shows them but does not name them.
West The Arabian Sea Labelled in the blue area to the west of Gujarat and the Konkan
coast.
East The Bay of Bengal Labelled in the blue area east of Odisha and Andhra.
South The Indian Ocean Labelled across the bottom of the map, beyond the tip of the
peninsula, with Sri Lanka just offshore.
HIMALAYAS
the snow-capped wall in the north — labelled on the map
HINDU KUSH Eastern hill ranges
north-west shown, not named
ARABIAN SEA THE INDIAN BAY OF
SUBCONTINENT BENGAL
west
east
mountains on one side,
sea on the other three
INDIAN OCEAN
south, beyond the tip of the peninsula
The Subcontinent's natural boundaries, arranged as a frame. Every one of these is visible on Fig. 5.2,
page 76; only the north-eastern hills are drawn without a name.
Page 7 of 32
DIRECTION NATURAL HOW YOU CAN MAKE IT OUT ON THE MAP
BOUNDARY
North The Himalayas The long brown-and-white arc labelled H I M A L A Y A S,
curving from Kashmir all the way east to Assam. Beyond it the
map turns purple — that is the high Tibetan Plateau, higher
still.
North-west The Hindu Kush Labelled in white at the top-left corner. Together with the
unnamed ranges south of it, it closes off the land route to
Central Asia and Iran.
North-east Hill ranges east of The brown ridges drawn beyond the Brahmaputra towards
the Brahmaputra Myanmar. The map shows them but does not name them.
West The Arabian Sea Labelled in the blue area to the west of Gujarat and the Konkan
coast.
East The Bay of Bengal Labelled in the blue area east of Odisha and Andhra.
South The Indian Ocean Labelled across the bottom of the map, beyond the tip of the
peninsula, with Sri Lanka just offshore.
HIMALAYAS
the snow-capped wall in the north — labelled on the map
HINDU KUSH Eastern hill ranges
north-west shown, not named
ARABIAN SEA THE INDIAN BAY OF
SUBCONTINENT BENGAL
west
east
mountains on one side,
sea on the other three
INDIAN OCEAN
south, beyond the tip of the peninsula
The Subcontinent's natural boundaries, arranged as a frame. Every one of these is visible on Fig. 5.2,
page 76; only the north-eastern hills are drawn without a name.
Page 7 of 32
Page 9
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Why these boundaries mattered so much in history: mountains and seas made
this region hard to enter and easy to recognise, so people living inside it came to feel
it was one land long before it was one country. That is why the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa could
define Bhārata in a single line (page 80), and why a Tamil poet 2,000 years ago
described the same four edges — mountains in the north, Cape Kumari in the south,
oceans east and west. The gaps in the wall — the passes of the north-west — are
exactly where the Persians, and later many others, came in.
Look again: the map also names the rivers that flow out of those boundaries. From
the Himalayas and Hindu Kush come the Indus (with the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas
and Sutlej), the Sarasvati, the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Brahmaputra. From the
peninsula's own hills come the Narmada and Tapti — flowing west into the Arabian
Sea — and the Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri, flowing east into the Bay
of Bengal.
LET'S EXPLORE — Page 78
Page 8 of 32
Why these boundaries mattered so much in history: mountains and seas made
this region hard to enter and easy to recognise, so people living inside it came to feel
it was one land long before it was one country. That is why the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa could
define Bhārata in a single line (page 80), and why a Tamil poet 2,000 years ago
described the same four edges — mountains in the north, Cape Kumari in the south,
oceans east and west. The gaps in the wall — the passes of the north-west — are
exactly where the Persians, and later many others, came in.
Look again: the map also names the rivers that flow out of those boundaries. From
the Himalayas and Hindu Kush come the Indus (with the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas
and Sutlej), the Sarasvati, the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Brahmaputra. From the
peninsula's own hills come the Narmada and Tapti — flowing west into the Arabian
Sea — and the Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri, flowing east into the Bay
of Bengal.
LET'S EXPLORE — Page 78
Page 8 of 32
Page 10
as e
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
How Indians Named India — the regions on the Mahābhārata map (Fig. 5.4)
co m
e m.
m as
LET'S EXPLORE
.co a g l
a s em
gl
Do you recognise the names of any regions given in the map (Fig. 5.4) on page 79?
a
Q1
List the ones that you have heard of.
co m
e m . ag
as
70°E 75°E 80°E 85°E 90°E
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a
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g l al la
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30°N 30°N
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ays
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taM
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as e
0 200 400 km
m
N
.co a g l
a s em 70°E 75°E 80°E 85°E 90°E
agl
.c
Fig. 5.4, page 79 — map of a few regions listed in the Mahābhārata.
s e m
m a
e m . co agl
ANSWER
g l as
a
Fig. 5.4 carries 38 names, and they stretch from Afghanistan to Kanniyakumari — which is the
m
whole point of the map. Here they are, grouped by where they sit, with the ones most students
. co
e m
m l as
.co a g
Page 9 of 32
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
How Indians Named India — the regions on the Mahābhārata map (Fig. 5.4)
co m
e m.
m as
LET'S EXPLORE
.co a g l
a s em
gl
Do you recognise the names of any regions given in the map (Fig. 5.4) on page 79?
a
Q1
List the ones that you have heard of.
co m
e m . ag
as
70°E 75°E 80°E 85°E 90°E
GGaannddhhāā a g
rraa l
ajo
ja
uu
Drruuhhyy
bo bm
D
m
com
Kā
āK
35°N 35°N
a
.
ey
m
ik
ase
a
ra
ard
K
ka
ad
m hli
agl
aM
co
M
Vā
.
īra
ar
Ambaṣṭha
m
Ambaṣṭha
e
īvu
uv
as
ena
Śhivi ane
Sa
aS
Śhivi
g l al la
ras
sarū
a
30°N 30°N
hā
āhcñ
ñc
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Pa
aP
a
ays
tsy
ha
ah a
Vide
s
taM
iṣh
Ma
m a
ṣit
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ot
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ta
atr
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a
na
ana
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gl
ar
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an
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ti Puṇḍra
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a
sraD
an
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m
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ga
agṅ
e
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las
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20°N 20°N
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na
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h
. ag
a
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g l as Aśhmaka
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15°N 15°N
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ase
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10°N 10°N
co m
m .
as e
0 200 400 km
m
N
.co a g l
a s em 70°E 75°E 80°E 85°E 90°E
agl
.c
Fig. 5.4, page 79 — map of a few regions listed in the Mahābhārata.
s e m
m a
e m . co agl
ANSWER
g l as
a
Fig. 5.4 carries 38 names, and they stretch from Afghanistan to Kanniyakumari — which is the
m
whole point of the map. Here they are, grouped by where they sit, with the ones most students
. co
e m
m l as
.co a g
Page 9 of 32
Page 11
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
recognise marked.
PART OF THE NAMES PRINTED ON ONES YOU HAVE ALMOST CERTAINLY
SUBCONTINENT FIG. 5.4 HEARD OF
North-west Gandhāra, Druhyu, Gandhāra — from Gandhara sculpture, and from
(today Afghanistan, Kamboja, Kaikeya, Madra, Gāndhārī in the Mahābhārata
Pakistan, Punjab) Vāhlika, Ambaṣṭha, Sauvīra, Madra — Madri, Nakula and Sahadeva's mother
Śhivi Kaikeya — Kaikeyī in the Rāmāyaṇa
The northern plains Matsya, Śhūrasena, Kosala (Ayodhya), Kāśhi (Varanasi), Magadha (south
(today Rajasthan, UP, Pañchāla, Chedi, Kosala, Bihar), Videha (Mithila — Sītā is Vaidehī), Pañchāla
Bihar) Kāśhi, Videha, Magadha, (Draupadī is Pāñchālī), Śhūrasena (the Mathura
Anga country), Anga (Karṇa's kingdom)
The east Prāgjyotiṣha, Puṇḍra, Vanga — the book itself says ‘parts of Bengal’
(today Bengal, Assam, Vanga, Suhma, Kalinga Prāgjyotiṣha — ‘roughly today's Assam’
Odisha) Kalinga — from Aśhoka's war, which you meet later
in the book
The west and centre Ānarta, Surāṣhṭra, Avanti, Surāṣhṭra — today's Saurashtra in Gujarat
(today Gujarat, MP, Māhiṣhmatī, Darśana, Avanti — the Ujjain country
Chhattisgarh) Kāruṣha, Dakṣhina Kosala Māhiṣhmatī — the city on the Narmada
The Deccan Vidarbha, Janasthāna, Vidarbha — eastern Maharashtra; Damayantī and
(today Maharashtra, Aśhmaka Rukmiṇī came from there
Telangana) Janasthāna — the forest on the Godavari in the
Rāmāyaṇa
The far south Kiṣhkindhyā, Draviḍa, Kerala — ‘more or less today's Kerala’, says the book
(today Karnataka, Kerala, Chola, Pāṇḍya Kiṣhkindhyā — Sugrīva's kingdom in the Rāmāyaṇa
Kerala, Tamil Nadu) Chola and Pāṇḍya — the great Tamil dynasties
How to answer this in your notebook. Do not just copy the list. Write it as three columns —
Name on the map / Where have I heard it? / Which part of India today? — and fill only the ones you
honestly recognise. A short honest list is a better answer than a long copied one.
Sample answer: “I recognised eight names. Kosala and Videha from the Rāmāyaṇa;
Pañchāla, Anga and Gandhāra from the Mahābhārata; Magadha and Kalinga
because I have heard of Aśhoka; and Kerala, because that is still the name of a state.
Most of the others were new to me.”
Page 10 of 32
recognise marked.
PART OF THE NAMES PRINTED ON ONES YOU HAVE ALMOST CERTAINLY
SUBCONTINENT FIG. 5.4 HEARD OF
North-west Gandhāra, Druhyu, Gandhāra — from Gandhara sculpture, and from
(today Afghanistan, Kamboja, Kaikeya, Madra, Gāndhārī in the Mahābhārata
Pakistan, Punjab) Vāhlika, Ambaṣṭha, Sauvīra, Madra — Madri, Nakula and Sahadeva's mother
Śhivi Kaikeya — Kaikeyī in the Rāmāyaṇa
The northern plains Matsya, Śhūrasena, Kosala (Ayodhya), Kāśhi (Varanasi), Magadha (south
(today Rajasthan, UP, Pañchāla, Chedi, Kosala, Bihar), Videha (Mithila — Sītā is Vaidehī), Pañchāla
Bihar) Kāśhi, Videha, Magadha, (Draupadī is Pāñchālī), Śhūrasena (the Mathura
Anga country), Anga (Karṇa's kingdom)
The east Prāgjyotiṣha, Puṇḍra, Vanga — the book itself says ‘parts of Bengal’
(today Bengal, Assam, Vanga, Suhma, Kalinga Prāgjyotiṣha — ‘roughly today's Assam’
Odisha) Kalinga — from Aśhoka's war, which you meet later
in the book
The west and centre Ānarta, Surāṣhṭra, Avanti, Surāṣhṭra — today's Saurashtra in Gujarat
(today Gujarat, MP, Māhiṣhmatī, Darśana, Avanti — the Ujjain country
Chhattisgarh) Kāruṣha, Dakṣhina Kosala Māhiṣhmatī — the city on the Narmada
The Deccan Vidarbha, Janasthāna, Vidarbha — eastern Maharashtra; Damayantī and
(today Maharashtra, Aśhmaka Rukmiṇī came from there
Telangana) Janasthāna — the forest on the Godavari in the
Rāmāyaṇa
The far south Kiṣhkindhyā, Draviḍa, Kerala — ‘more or less today's Kerala’, says the book
(today Karnataka, Kerala, Chola, Pāṇḍya Kiṣhkindhyā — Sugrīva's kingdom in the Rāmāyaṇa
Kerala, Tamil Nadu) Chola and Pāṇḍya — the great Tamil dynasties
How to answer this in your notebook. Do not just copy the list. Write it as three columns —
Name on the map / Where have I heard it? / Which part of India today? — and fill only the ones you
honestly recognise. A short honest list is a better answer than a long copied one.
Sample answer: “I recognised eight names. Kosala and Videha from the Rāmāyaṇa;
Pañchāla, Anga and Gandhāra from the Mahābhārata; Magadha and Kalinga
because I have heard of Aśhoka; and Kerala, because that is still the name of a state.
Most of the others were new to me.”
Page 10 of 32
Page 12
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Why the book says you need not remember them: the caption is clear — “You do
not need to remember those regions, but notice how they cover the entire
geography of the Subcontinent.” The map is not a list to memorise; it is a piece of
evidence. The names spread from the Hindu Kush to the sea in every direction,
which shows that whoever composed the Mahābhārata already thought of this
whole land as one connected space. That is the argument the map makes.
Check it yourself: the chapter's text on page 78 names Kāshmīra, Kurukṣhetra
and Kaccha as well — but look carefully and you will find that these three are not
printed on Fig. 5.4. The map shows a selection, not the full list. Noticing what a
source leaves out is a real historian's habit.
In-text Questions — Page 78
How Indians Named India — a name for the whole Subcontinent
Q1 But when do we come across a name for the entire Indian Subcontinent?
ANSWER
The chapter answers honestly: we cannot fix an exact date, “because ancient Indian texts are
difficult to date”. What we can do is put the evidence in order, from the least datable to the most
datable.
STEP SOURCE NAME USED HOW FIRMLY CAN IT BE DATED?
1 The Ṛig Veda ‘Sapta Sindhava’ Several thousand years old — but it names only
the north-west region, not the whole
Subcontinent
2 The ‘Bhāratavarṣha’ and Scholars generally agree the poem was written
Mahābhārata ‘Jambudvīpa’ from a few centuries BCE onward — so the
name is old, but the date is a range, not a year
3 An inscription of ‘Jambudvīpa’ About 250 BCE — a firm date, because an inscription
Aśhoka is carved at a known time. This is our first solid proof
4 The Viṣhṇu ‘Bhārata’ “A few centuries later”, when ‘Bhārata’ had
Purāṇa become the name generally used for the whole
Subcontinent
Page 11 of 32
Why the book says you need not remember them: the caption is clear — “You do
not need to remember those regions, but notice how they cover the entire
geography of the Subcontinent.” The map is not a list to memorise; it is a piece of
evidence. The names spread from the Hindu Kush to the sea in every direction,
which shows that whoever composed the Mahābhārata already thought of this
whole land as one connected space. That is the argument the map makes.
Check it yourself: the chapter's text on page 78 names Kāshmīra, Kurukṣhetra
and Kaccha as well — but look carefully and you will find that these three are not
printed on Fig. 5.4. The map shows a selection, not the full list. Noticing what a
source leaves out is a real historian's habit.
In-text Questions — Page 78
How Indians Named India — a name for the whole Subcontinent
Q1 But when do we come across a name for the entire Indian Subcontinent?
ANSWER
The chapter answers honestly: we cannot fix an exact date, “because ancient Indian texts are
difficult to date”. What we can do is put the evidence in order, from the least datable to the most
datable.
STEP SOURCE NAME USED HOW FIRMLY CAN IT BE DATED?
1 The Ṛig Veda ‘Sapta Sindhava’ Several thousand years old — but it names only
the north-west region, not the whole
Subcontinent
2 The ‘Bhāratavarṣha’ and Scholars generally agree the poem was written
Mahābhārata ‘Jambudvīpa’ from a few centuries BCE onward — so the
name is old, but the date is a range, not a year
3 An inscription of ‘Jambudvīpa’ About 250 BCE — a firm date, because an inscription
Aśhoka is carved at a known time. This is our first solid proof
4 The Viṣhṇu ‘Bhārata’ “A few centuries later”, when ‘Bhārata’ had
Purāṇa become the name generally used for the whole
Subcontinent
Page 11 of 32
Page 13
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
So the short answer: the first names for the entire Subcontinent are Bhāratavarṣha and
Jambudvīpa in the Mahābhārata, from a few centuries BCE onward; and the earliest firmly
dated use is Aśhoka's inscription of about 250 BCE, where ‘Jambudvīpa’ covers the whole of
India — including what is today Bangladesh, Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan.
Why a text is harder to date than an inscription: a poem like the Mahābhārata
was composed, recited, added to and copied over many centuries, so it has no single
birthday. An inscription is cut into stone once, by a ruler whose reign we can date,
and it has not changed since. That is why one line of Aśhoka's stone is worth more,
for dating, than many pages of a text — a point the previous chapter on Sources of
History also made.
THINK ABOUT IT — Page 80
How Indians Named India — the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa's definition of Bhārata
THINK ABOUT IT
Q1 Have you identified the ‘snowy mountains’?
ANSWER
Yes — the ‘snowy mountains’ are the Himalayas.
Sanskrit verse: uttaram yat samudrasya himādreśchaiva dakṣiṇam …
hima = snow + adri = mountain → himādri = the snow mountain
hima + ālaya (= home, abode) → Himālaya = “the home of snow”
How you can check it on the map. Turn back to Fig. 5.2 on page 76. The long white-and-brown
arc across the top is labelled H I M A L A Y A S, and it is snow-capped along its whole length —
the only mountain wall in the Subcontinent that is permanently under snow. To its west the map
labels the Hindu Kush, which is the western continuation of the same great mountain belt.
Page 12 of 32
So the short answer: the first names for the entire Subcontinent are Bhāratavarṣha and
Jambudvīpa in the Mahābhārata, from a few centuries BCE onward; and the earliest firmly
dated use is Aśhoka's inscription of about 250 BCE, where ‘Jambudvīpa’ covers the whole of
India — including what is today Bangladesh, Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan.
Why a text is harder to date than an inscription: a poem like the Mahābhārata
was composed, recited, added to and copied over many centuries, so it has no single
birthday. An inscription is cut into stone once, by a ruler whose reign we can date,
and it has not changed since. That is why one line of Aśhoka's stone is worth more,
for dating, than many pages of a text — a point the previous chapter on Sources of
History also made.
THINK ABOUT IT — Page 80
How Indians Named India — the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa's definition of Bhārata
THINK ABOUT IT
Q1 Have you identified the ‘snowy mountains’?
ANSWER
Yes — the ‘snowy mountains’ are the Himalayas.
Sanskrit verse: uttaram yat samudrasya himādreśchaiva dakṣiṇam …
hima = snow + adri = mountain → himādri = the snow mountain
hima + ālaya (= home, abode) → Himālaya = “the home of snow”
How you can check it on the map. Turn back to Fig. 5.2 on page 76. The long white-and-brown
arc across the top is labelled H I M A L A Y A S, and it is snow-capped along its whole length —
the only mountain wall in the Subcontinent that is permanently under snow. To its west the map
labels the Hindu Kush, which is the western continuation of the same great mountain belt.
Page 12 of 32
Page 14
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
The same mountains, three more times in this chapter:
The Tamil poem on page 80 calls them “the great mountain in the north”.
Sri Aurobindo's quotation at the start of the chapter says “between the
Himalayas and the two seas”.
Fig. 5.2 labels them in capitals right across the top of the map.
Three different sources — a Sanskrit purāṇa, a Tamil poem and a modern map — all
pick the same northern wall.
Q2 Do you think this brief description of Bhārata is correct?
ANSWER
Yes — it is remarkably correct for a description written so long ago, but it is a shorthand,
not a complete definition. A good answer says both halves.
Where it is right
It picks the two boundaries that really matter: the mountain wall in the north and the sea
everywhere else. Both are visible on Fig. 5.2 exactly as described.
It defines the land by nature, not by any king or kingdom — so the definition does not go
out of date every time a ruler changes. That is why it still works today.
Other parts of India arrived at the same definition independently. The Tamil poem, from
about 2,000 years ago and from the far south, uses the same four edges: Cape Kumari in the
south, the great mountain in the north, the oceans on the east and on the west.
Where it is incomplete
WHAT THE VERSE WHAT FIG. 5.2 SHOWS
LEAVES OUT
It says “the ocean”, as if There are three named waters — the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and
there were one the Indian Ocean
It gives no east or west The Tamil poem does supply them — “the oceans on the east and on the
limit at all west”
It does not mention the The Hindu Kush and the passes through it are the one land gateway —
north-west the very route the Persians used in the 6th century BCE
It describes a landmass, Modern political borders cut across it: today the same land holds India,
not a country Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and more
Page 13 of 32
The same mountains, three more times in this chapter:
The Tamil poem on page 80 calls them “the great mountain in the north”.
Sri Aurobindo's quotation at the start of the chapter says “between the
Himalayas and the two seas”.
Fig. 5.2 labels them in capitals right across the top of the map.
Three different sources — a Sanskrit purāṇa, a Tamil poem and a modern map — all
pick the same northern wall.
Q2 Do you think this brief description of Bhārata is correct?
ANSWER
Yes — it is remarkably correct for a description written so long ago, but it is a shorthand,
not a complete definition. A good answer says both halves.
Where it is right
It picks the two boundaries that really matter: the mountain wall in the north and the sea
everywhere else. Both are visible on Fig. 5.2 exactly as described.
It defines the land by nature, not by any king or kingdom — so the definition does not go
out of date every time a ruler changes. That is why it still works today.
Other parts of India arrived at the same definition independently. The Tamil poem, from
about 2,000 years ago and from the far south, uses the same four edges: Cape Kumari in the
south, the great mountain in the north, the oceans on the east and on the west.
Where it is incomplete
WHAT THE VERSE WHAT FIG. 5.2 SHOWS
LEAVES OUT
It says “the ocean”, as if There are three named waters — the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and
there were one the Indian Ocean
It gives no east or west The Tamil poem does supply them — “the oceans on the east and on the
limit at all west”
It does not mention the The Hindu Kush and the passes through it are the one land gateway —
north-west the very route the Persians used in the 6th century BCE
It describes a landmass, Modern political borders cut across it: today the same land holds India,
not a country Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and more
Page 13 of 32
Page 15
as e
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
co m
m.
Why the verse is still worth admiring: whoever composed it had no aeroplane, no
m l a se
satellite and no printed map — yet fixed the shape of the Subcontinent in eleven
o
c
Sanskrit .words. It could only have been written by people who a g travelled, traded
m
had
a e to one another right across this land. As the chapter puts it after the
stalked
l
g example, “It looks like ancient Indians knew their geography well!”
and
aTamil
o m
e
. c
m of India using only natural features, then ag
s
Try this: write your own one-line definition
a
agl
compare it with the verse. Most students end up writing something very close to it
— which is the best proof that the ancient definition was a good one.
co m
em.
com g l as
m .
In-text Questions — Page 80 a
l a se Named India — the ancient Tamil poem
ag
How Indians
m a s
difficult to identify ‘Cape Kumari’..co agl
Q1 You can now recognise ‘the great mountain in the north’, and it should not be
a s em
ANSWER agl
Both are easy once you have Fig. 5.2 in front of you.
co m
m .
m as e
. coPOEM
PHRASE IN THE WHAT IT IS WHERE IT IS
a g l
m
ase
TAMIL
agl “the great The Himalayas The snow-capped arc labelled across the top of Fig. 5.2
mountain in the — the same ‘snowy mountains’ (himādri) of the Viṣhṇu
se m
north”
c o m Purāṇa verse
g l a
m . a
ase
agl
“[Cape] Kumari in Kanniyakumari (Cape The southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula, in
the south” Comorin) today's Tamil Nadu — the point at the very bottom of
Fig. 5.2, just north of Sri Lanka
. c om
em they meet the Indian
“the oceans on the The Bay of Bengal and Both labelled on Fig. 5.2, on either side of the
a s
com
east and on the peninsula. At Kanniyakumari
agl
the Arabian Sea
m .
west” Ocean
ase
agl Why the book asks this. Put the two descriptions side by side:
c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a
co m
m .
m as e
.co
a g l Page 14 of 32
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
co m
m.
Why the verse is still worth admiring: whoever composed it had no aeroplane, no
m l a se
satellite and no printed map — yet fixed the shape of the Subcontinent in eleven
o
c
Sanskrit .words. It could only have been written by people who a g travelled, traded
m
had
a e to one another right across this land. As the chapter puts it after the
stalked
l
g example, “It looks like ancient Indians knew their geography well!”
and
aTamil
o m
e
. c
m of India using only natural features, then ag
s
Try this: write your own one-line definition
a
agl
compare it with the verse. Most students end up writing something very close to it
— which is the best proof that the ancient definition was a good one.
co m
em.
com g l as
m .
In-text Questions — Page 80 a
l a se Named India — the ancient Tamil poem
ag
How Indians
m a s
difficult to identify ‘Cape Kumari’..co agl
Q1 You can now recognise ‘the great mountain in the north’, and it should not be
a s em
ANSWER agl
Both are easy once you have Fig. 5.2 in front of you.
co m
m .
m as e
. coPOEM
PHRASE IN THE WHAT IT IS WHERE IT IS
a g l
m
ase
TAMIL
agl “the great The Himalayas The snow-capped arc labelled across the top of Fig. 5.2
mountain in the — the same ‘snowy mountains’ (himādri) of the Viṣhṇu
se m
north”
c o m Purāṇa verse
g l a
m . a
ase
agl
“[Cape] Kumari in Kanniyakumari (Cape The southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula, in
the south” Comorin) today's Tamil Nadu — the point at the very bottom of
Fig. 5.2, just north of Sri Lanka
. c om
em they meet the Indian
“the oceans on the The Bay of Bengal and Both labelled on Fig. 5.2, on either side of the
a s
com
east and on the peninsula. At Kanniyakumari
agl
the Arabian Sea
m .
west” Ocean
ase
agl Why the book asks this. Put the two descriptions side by side:
c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a
co m
m .
m as e
.co
a g l Page 14 of 32
Page 16
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
VIṢHṆU PURĀṆA (SANSKRIT) TAMIL POEM (ABOUT 2,000 YEARS AGO)
North “south of the snowy mountains” “the great mountain in the north”
South “north of the ocean” “from [Cape] Kumari in the south”
East and west not stated “from the oceans on the east and on the west”
What this proves: a poet in the far south, writing in Tamil, and a text composed in
Sanskrit describe the same country with the same boundaries. Neither is copying
the other. That is real evidence that people in different parts of this land, speaking
different languages, already shared one picture of where their country began and
ended. It is also the sentence the chapter draws its conclusion from: “It looks like
ancient Indians knew their geography well!”
Did you know? The praise is of a king whose fame is said to reach from Kumari to
the Himalayas — that is, from one edge of the known land to the other. Poets used
this ‘sea-to-mountain’ formula as the highest possible compliment, which only works
if listeners already knew the shape of the whole country.
LET'S EXPLORE — Page 81
Page 15 of 32
VIṢHṆU PURĀṆA (SANSKRIT) TAMIL POEM (ABOUT 2,000 YEARS AGO)
North “south of the snowy mountains” “the great mountain in the north”
South “north of the ocean” “from [Cape] Kumari in the south”
East and west not stated “from the oceans on the east and on the west”
What this proves: a poet in the far south, writing in Tamil, and a text composed in
Sanskrit describe the same country with the same boundaries. Neither is copying
the other. That is real evidence that people in different parts of this land, speaking
different languages, already shared one picture of where their country began and
ended. It is also the sentence the chapter draws its conclusion from: “It looks like
ancient Indians knew their geography well!”
Did you know? The praise is of a king whose fame is said to reach from Kumari to
the Himalayas — that is, from one edge of the known land to the other. Poets used
this ‘sea-to-mountain’ formula as the highest possible compliment, which only works
if listeners already knew the shape of the whole country.
LET'S EXPLORE — Page 81
Page 15 of 32
Page 17
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Don't Miss Out — ‘India, that is Bharat’ in the Constitution (Fig. 5.5)
LET'S EXPLORE
Q1 In this reproduction of the first page of the original Constitution of India in Fig. 5.5
(page 82), can you make out the phrase ‘India, that is Bharat’?
What the reproduction shows. A photograph of the first page of the original,
hand-written Constitution of India, on cream parchment. A wide painted border
of gold-brown lotus medallions with green centres runs round all four sides. At
the top centre, inside a gilt rectangle, is a painted copy of an Indus Valley seal
— a humped bull standing in profile, facing left, with a line of undeciphered
Indus signs above it. Under the picture, in flowing English calligraphy, stands
the heading Part I and below it The Union and its Territory. The numbered
clauses of Article 1 follow in the same hand, the first of them a single line that
names the country twice. Small notes in the left margin label each clause —
“Name and territory of the Union”, “Admission or establishment of new States”,
“Formation of new States and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of
existing States”.
Fig. 5.5, page 82 — described here; see the textbook for the reproduction itself (source:
reprint of the original Constitution of India, Ministry of Culture, Government of India,
2000).
ANSWER
Yes. Look at the very first numbered line of the handwritten text, just below the two headings.
WHERE TO LOOK ON FIG. 5.5 WHAT IS WRITTEN THERE
Top of the page, inside the decorated border A drawing of a seal from the Indus civilisation, showing a bull
First heading Part I
Second heading The Union and its Territory
First numbered clause — Article 1(1) “1. (1) India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”
In the left-hand margin, beside that clause The small note “Name and territory of the Union”
Reading the phrase carefully. It is doing two jobs in six words:
It gives the country two official names — India and Bharat — and says they mean exactly
the same thing. Neither replaces the other.
Page 16 of 32
Don't Miss Out — ‘India, that is Bharat’ in the Constitution (Fig. 5.5)
LET'S EXPLORE
Q1 In this reproduction of the first page of the original Constitution of India in Fig. 5.5
(page 82), can you make out the phrase ‘India, that is Bharat’?
What the reproduction shows. A photograph of the first page of the original,
hand-written Constitution of India, on cream parchment. A wide painted border
of gold-brown lotus medallions with green centres runs round all four sides. At
the top centre, inside a gilt rectangle, is a painted copy of an Indus Valley seal
— a humped bull standing in profile, facing left, with a line of undeciphered
Indus signs above it. Under the picture, in flowing English calligraphy, stands
the heading Part I and below it The Union and its Territory. The numbered
clauses of Article 1 follow in the same hand, the first of them a single line that
names the country twice. Small notes in the left margin label each clause —
“Name and territory of the Union”, “Admission or establishment of new States”,
“Formation of new States and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of
existing States”.
Fig. 5.5, page 82 — described here; see the textbook for the reproduction itself (source:
reprint of the original Constitution of India, Ministry of Culture, Government of India,
2000).
ANSWER
Yes. Look at the very first numbered line of the handwritten text, just below the two headings.
WHERE TO LOOK ON FIG. 5.5 WHAT IS WRITTEN THERE
Top of the page, inside the decorated border A drawing of a seal from the Indus civilisation, showing a bull
First heading Part I
Second heading The Union and its Territory
First numbered clause — Article 1(1) “1. (1) India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”
In the left-hand margin, beside that clause The small note “Name and territory of the Union”
Reading the phrase carefully. It is doing two jobs in six words:
It gives the country two official names — India and Bharat — and says they mean exactly
the same thing. Neither replaces the other.
Page 16 of 32
Page 18
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
It joins the two families of names from this very chapter: Bharat, the name Indians gave
themselves (from Bhāratavarṣha, ‘the country of the Bharatas’), and India, the name that
travelled from Sindhu → Persian Hindu → Greek Indoi → Latin India.
The Hindi version says the same thing the other way round. The Don't Miss Out box on page
81 points this out: the Constitution was first written in English as ‘India, that is Bharat’, and the
Hindi version reads ‘Bhārat arthāth India’.
Did you know? The original Constitution was not printed — it was written by hand
in flowing italic script, and every page was decorated by artists of Santiniketan; you
can see one artist's signature in the bottom-left corner of the border in Fig. 5.5. The
Constitution came into force in 1950, as the margin note on page 81 tells you, and
you will study it in Grade 7.
Why the very first sentence had to settle the name: a constitution must first say
what it is the constitution of. In 1949–50 both names were in everyday use — one in
Indian languages, one in the languages of the wider world — and both had long
histories, as this chapter shows. Rather than choose, the makers of the Constitution
wrote both into the first line. That is why the title of this chapter is exactly those
words.
LET'S EXPLORE — Page 83
Page 17 of 32
It joins the two families of names from this very chapter: Bharat, the name Indians gave
themselves (from Bhāratavarṣha, ‘the country of the Bharatas’), and India, the name that
travelled from Sindhu → Persian Hindu → Greek Indoi → Latin India.
The Hindi version says the same thing the other way round. The Don't Miss Out box on page
81 points this out: the Constitution was first written in English as ‘India, that is Bharat’, and the
Hindi version reads ‘Bhārat arthāth India’.
Did you know? The original Constitution was not printed — it was written by hand
in flowing italic script, and every page was decorated by artists of Santiniketan; you
can see one artist's signature in the bottom-left corner of the border in Fig. 5.5. The
Constitution came into force in 1950, as the margin note on page 81 tells you, and
you will study it in Grade 7.
Why the very first sentence had to settle the name: a constitution must first say
what it is the constitution of. In 1949–50 both names were in everyday use — one in
Indian languages, one in the languages of the wider world — and both had long
histories, as this chapter shows. Rather than choose, the makers of the Constitution
wrote both into the first line. That is why the title of this chapter is exactly those
words.
LET'S EXPLORE — Page 83
Page 17 of 32
Page 19
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
How Foreigners Named India — the table of the many names of India
LET'S EXPLORE
Q1 Can you complete this table of the many names of India?
LANGUAGE NAME FOR INDIA
PERSIAN ___
GREEK ___
LATIN India
CHINESE ___
ARABIC & PERSIAN ___
ENGLISH India
FRENCH Inde
ANSWER
Here is the completed table. Every entry comes from the chapter itself — none of it has to be
guessed.
LANGUAGE NAME FOR WHERE THE CHAPTER SAYS SO
INDIA
Persian Hind, Hidu, Page 81 — the Persians' adaptations of ‘Sindhu’, in their earliest
Hindu records and stone inscriptions, from the 6th century BCE
Greek Indoi, Indike Page 81 — based on Persian sources, with the initial ‘h’ dropped
Latin India Already filled in the book — the Greek forms passed into Latin
Chinese Yintu, Yindu (also Pages 81 and 83 — Sindhu → Hindhu → Indu → Yindu; ‘Tianzhu’
Tianzhu) could also be read as ‘heavenly master’
Arabic & Hindustān Page 83 — first used in a Persian inscription some 1,800 years
Persian ago, later the term used by most invaders of India
English India Already filled in the book — taken from Latin
French Inde Already filled in the book — the same Latin word, shortened in
French
Page 18 of 32
How Foreigners Named India — the table of the many names of India
LET'S EXPLORE
Q1 Can you complete this table of the many names of India?
LANGUAGE NAME FOR INDIA
PERSIAN ___
GREEK ___
LATIN India
CHINESE ___
ARABIC & PERSIAN ___
ENGLISH India
FRENCH Inde
ANSWER
Here is the completed table. Every entry comes from the chapter itself — none of it has to be
guessed.
LANGUAGE NAME FOR WHERE THE CHAPTER SAYS SO
INDIA
Persian Hind, Hidu, Page 81 — the Persians' adaptations of ‘Sindhu’, in their earliest
Hindu records and stone inscriptions, from the 6th century BCE
Greek Indoi, Indike Page 81 — based on Persian sources, with the initial ‘h’ dropped
Latin India Already filled in the book — the Greek forms passed into Latin
Chinese Yintu, Yindu (also Pages 81 and 83 — Sindhu → Hindhu → Indu → Yindu; ‘Tianzhu’
Tianzhu) could also be read as ‘heavenly master’
Arabic & Hindustān Page 83 — first used in a Persian inscription some 1,800 years
Persian ago, later the term used by most invaders of India
English India Already filled in the book — taken from Latin
French Inde Already filled in the book — the same Latin word, shortened in
French
Page 18 of 32
Page 20
as e
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Notice the pattern down the column. Six of the seven names are the same word, worn down
co m
differently by six different languages:
e m.
m l as
m .co a g
l a se
Sindhu → Hindu (Persian) → Indoi / Indike (Greek) → India (Latin) → India (English),
g
aInde (French)
com ag
Sindhu → Hindhu → Indu → Yindu (Chinese)
.
m Arabic)
Sindhu → Hind → Hindustān (Persian,ethen
a s
agl
Why the ‘h’ keeps appearing and disappearing: Sanskrit s regularly became h in
co m
old Persian — so Sindhu naturally became Hindu. Greek then had the opposite
em.
m l as
.co g
problem: it had no letter for that ‘h’ sound at the start of the word, so the Greeks
em a
s
simply dropped it and wrote Indoi. One sound change in Iran and one missing letter
a
gl in Greece are the reason our country is called India in English today.
a
m a s
.co
Try this: add two more rows of your own. Hindi → भारत / िहंदुस् तान; Tamil → பாரதம்
em agl
a s
(Bhāratam). Now compare the two halves of your table: the Indian languages nearly
all use a form of Bhārata, a gl the foreign languages nearly all use a form of
while
Sindhu. That single contrast is the whole chapter in one page.
co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
em we move on ... — Page 84
aschapter in three points
Before
a g l
The
BEFORE WE MOVE ON ...
se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
agl
Q1 India is an ancient land, which has had many names in the course of its history.
ANSWER
co m
m .
e
The land is far older than any of its names, and older still than the modern nation. The chapter
m l as
.co g
counts at least ten names for it, spread over thousands of years.
m a
l a se
ag
.c
s e m
m a
e m . co agl
g l as
a
co m
m .
m ase
.co
a g l Page 19 of 32
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Notice the pattern down the column. Six of the seven names are the same word, worn down
co m
differently by six different languages:
e m.
m l as
m .co a g
l a se
Sindhu → Hindu (Persian) → Indoi / Indike (Greek) → India (Latin) → India (English),
g
aInde (French)
com ag
Sindhu → Hindhu → Indu → Yindu (Chinese)
.
m Arabic)
Sindhu → Hind → Hindustān (Persian,ethen
a s
agl
Why the ‘h’ keeps appearing and disappearing: Sanskrit s regularly became h in
co m
old Persian — so Sindhu naturally became Hindu. Greek then had the opposite
em.
m l as
.co g
problem: it had no letter for that ‘h’ sound at the start of the word, so the Greeks
em a
s
simply dropped it and wrote Indoi. One sound change in Iran and one missing letter
a
gl in Greece are the reason our country is called India in English today.
a
m a s
.co
Try this: add two more rows of your own. Hindi → भारत / िहंदुस् तान; Tamil → பாரதம்
em agl
a s
(Bhāratam). Now compare the two halves of your table: the Indian languages nearly
all use a form of Bhārata, a gl the foreign languages nearly all use a form of
while
Sindhu. That single contrast is the whole chapter in one page.
co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
em we move on ... — Page 84
aschapter in three points
Before
a g l
The
BEFORE WE MOVE ON ...
se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
agl
Q1 India is an ancient land, which has had many names in the course of its history.
ANSWER
co m
m .
e
The land is far older than any of its names, and older still than the modern nation. The chapter
m l as
.co g
counts at least ten names for it, spread over thousands of years.
m a
l a se
ag
.c
s e m
m a
e m . co agl
g l as
a
co m
m .
m ase
.co
a g l Page 19 of 32
Page 21
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
ROUGHLY WHEN NAME WHO USED IT
Several thousand years ago Sapta Sindhava The Ṛig Veda — but only for the north-
west region
From a few centuries BCE Bhāratavarṣha, The Mahābhārata — for the whole
onward Jambudvīpa Subcontinent
6th century BCE Hind, Hidu, Hindu The Persians
After the Persians Indoi, Indike The ancient Greeks
About 250 BCE Jambudvīpa Aśhoka, in an inscription
Around 2,000 years ago Yintu, Yindu, Tianzhu The ancient Chinese
About 1,800 years ago Hindustān A Persian inscription; later, most invaders
of India
A few centuries after the Bhārata The Viṣhṇu Purāṇa — and every Indian
Mahābhārata language since
1950 onward India, that is Bharat The Constitution of India
Why so many names, and why they matter: a name is a source of history. Each of
these names records a real meeting — a Vedic people naming their rivers, a Persian
army at the Indus, a Chinese pilgrim looking for the Buddha's homeland, an
emperor carving an order into rock. Learn where a name came from, and you have
learnt who came, when, and from which direction.
Q2 The names given by the ancient inhabitants of India include ‘Jambudvīpa’ and
‘Bhārata’. The latter became widespread in time and is the name of India in most
Indian languages.
ANSWER
These are the two great home-grown names — and they were built from very different
materials.
Page 20 of 32
ROUGHLY WHEN NAME WHO USED IT
Several thousand years ago Sapta Sindhava The Ṛig Veda — but only for the north-
west region
From a few centuries BCE Bhāratavarṣha, The Mahābhārata — for the whole
onward Jambudvīpa Subcontinent
6th century BCE Hind, Hidu, Hindu The Persians
After the Persians Indoi, Indike The ancient Greeks
About 250 BCE Jambudvīpa Aśhoka, in an inscription
Around 2,000 years ago Yintu, Yindu, Tianzhu The ancient Chinese
About 1,800 years ago Hindustān A Persian inscription; later, most invaders
of India
A few centuries after the Bhārata The Viṣhṇu Purāṇa — and every Indian
Mahābhārata language since
1950 onward India, that is Bharat The Constitution of India
Why so many names, and why they matter: a name is a source of history. Each of
these names records a real meeting — a Vedic people naming their rivers, a Persian
army at the Indus, a Chinese pilgrim looking for the Buddha's homeland, an
emperor carving an order into rock. Learn where a name came from, and you have
learnt who came, when, and from which direction.
Q2 The names given by the ancient inhabitants of India include ‘Jambudvīpa’ and
‘Bhārata’. The latter became widespread in time and is the name of India in most
Indian languages.
ANSWER
These are the two great home-grown names — and they were built from very different
materials.
Page 20 of 32
Page 22
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
JAMBUDVĪPA BHĀRATA
Meaning ‘The island of the fruit of the jamun tree’ ‘The country of the Bharatas’ (Bhāratavarṣha), from a
— a tree native to India, also called main Vedic group of people; later, several kings were
jambul or Malabar plum named Bharata
Named after A plant — something growing in the A people — those living in the land
land
First found The Mahābhārata; then Aśhoka's The Ṛig Veda for ‘Bharata’; the Mahābhārata for
in inscription of about 250 BCE ‘Bhāratavarṣha’; the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa for ‘Bhārata’
What Slowly went out of everyday use Spread everywhere and is still our name — Bharat
happened to in north India, Bharatam in south India, and one of
it the two official names in the Constitution
Why ‘Bhārata’ won: a name taken from the people who live in a land can be
adopted by everyone who lives there, whatever language they speak — and that is
exactly what happened. By the time of the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa it had a clear geographical
definition attached to it (“north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains”), so
it was no longer only the name of one group's country but the name of the whole
land. A name with a definition attached is far more useful than one without.
Did you know? The jamun after which Jambudvīpa is named is the same purple fruit
sold in Indian markets every summer. An ancient name for the whole Subcontinent
came from a common village tree — not from a king, a god or a conqueror.
Q3 Foreign visitors to, or invaders of, India mostly adopted names derived from the
Sindhu or Indus River; this resulted in names like ‘Hindu’, ‘Indoi’, and eventually
‘India’.
ANSWER
Every foreign name in this chapter comes from one Indian word — Sindhu, the river. Follow the
three chains and you can watch it change shape:
Chain 1 (page 81): Sindhu → Hindhu → Indoi / Indike → India (Latin) → India (English),
Inde (French)
Chain 2 (page 81): Sindhu → Hindhu → Indu → Yindu / Yintu (Chinese)
Chain 3 (page 83): Sindhu → Hind → Hindustān (Persian, later Arabic and most invaders)
Page 21 of 32
JAMBUDVĪPA BHĀRATA
Meaning ‘The island of the fruit of the jamun tree’ ‘The country of the Bharatas’ (Bhāratavarṣha), from a
— a tree native to India, also called main Vedic group of people; later, several kings were
jambul or Malabar plum named Bharata
Named after A plant — something growing in the A people — those living in the land
land
First found The Mahābhārata; then Aśhoka's The Ṛig Veda for ‘Bharata’; the Mahābhārata for
in inscription of about 250 BCE ‘Bhāratavarṣha’; the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa for ‘Bhārata’
What Slowly went out of everyday use Spread everywhere and is still our name — Bharat
happened to in north India, Bharatam in south India, and one of
it the two official names in the Constitution
Why ‘Bhārata’ won: a name taken from the people who live in a land can be
adopted by everyone who lives there, whatever language they speak — and that is
exactly what happened. By the time of the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa it had a clear geographical
definition attached to it (“north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains”), so
it was no longer only the name of one group's country but the name of the whole
land. A name with a definition attached is far more useful than one without.
Did you know? The jamun after which Jambudvīpa is named is the same purple fruit
sold in Indian markets every summer. An ancient name for the whole Subcontinent
came from a common village tree — not from a king, a god or a conqueror.
Q3 Foreign visitors to, or invaders of, India mostly adopted names derived from the
Sindhu or Indus River; this resulted in names like ‘Hindu’, ‘Indoi’, and eventually
‘India’.
ANSWER
Every foreign name in this chapter comes from one Indian word — Sindhu, the river. Follow the
three chains and you can watch it change shape:
Chain 1 (page 81): Sindhu → Hindhu → Indoi / Indike → India (Latin) → India (English),
Inde (French)
Chain 2 (page 81): Sindhu → Hindhu → Indu → Yindu / Yintu (Chinese)
Chain 3 (page 83): Sindhu → Hind → Hindustān (Persian, later Arabic and most invaders)
Page 21 of 32
Page 23
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Two things worth being careful about:
‘Hindu’ in ancient Persian was a place-name, not a religion. The chapter says this in so
many words: “in ancient Persian, ‘Hindu’ is a purely geographical term; it does not refer here
to the Hindu religion.” It meant simply ‘the land beyond the Sindhu, and its people’.
‘Hindustān’ is not as old as it sounds. It first appears in a Persian inscription about 1,800
years ago — long after Sapta Sindhava, Bhāratavarṣha and Jambudvīpa were already in use.
Why a river, and not a mountain or a city: the Subcontinent's northern wall has
only a few usable passes, and every one of them brings a traveller down to the
plains of the Indus. The first great thing anyone arriving from the west had to cross
was that river — so its name became their name for everything on the far side.
Meanwhile people already living here had no need to name themselves after a
border, and named the land after their own people instead.
Tip for the exam: if you are asked “which river gave India its English name?”, the
answer is the Indus (Sindhu) — and you should be able to write the chain Sindhu →
Hindu → Indoi → India from memory.
Questions, activities and projects — Page 84
End-of-chapter exercise
Q1 Discuss what could be the meaning of the quotation at the start of the chapter.
ANSWER
The quotation, by Sri Aurobindo, is on page 75:
“In India at a very early time the spiritual and cultural unity was made complete and
became the very stuff of the life of all this great surge of humanity between the Himalayas
and the two seas.”
Take it apart phrase by phrase.
Page 22 of 32
Two things worth being careful about:
‘Hindu’ in ancient Persian was a place-name, not a religion. The chapter says this in so
many words: “in ancient Persian, ‘Hindu’ is a purely geographical term; it does not refer here
to the Hindu religion.” It meant simply ‘the land beyond the Sindhu, and its people’.
‘Hindustān’ is not as old as it sounds. It first appears in a Persian inscription about 1,800
years ago — long after Sapta Sindhava, Bhāratavarṣha and Jambudvīpa were already in use.
Why a river, and not a mountain or a city: the Subcontinent's northern wall has
only a few usable passes, and every one of them brings a traveller down to the
plains of the Indus. The first great thing anyone arriving from the west had to cross
was that river — so its name became their name for everything on the far side.
Meanwhile people already living here had no need to name themselves after a
border, and named the land after their own people instead.
Tip for the exam: if you are asked “which river gave India its English name?”, the
answer is the Indus (Sindhu) — and you should be able to write the chain Sindhu →
Hindu → Indoi → India from memory.
Questions, activities and projects — Page 84
End-of-chapter exercise
Q1 Discuss what could be the meaning of the quotation at the start of the chapter.
ANSWER
The quotation, by Sri Aurobindo, is on page 75:
“In India at a very early time the spiritual and cultural unity was made complete and
became the very stuff of the life of all this great surge of humanity between the Himalayas
and the two seas.”
Take it apart phrase by phrase.
Page 22 of 32
Page 24
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
PHRASE WHAT IT MEANS WHAT IN THE CHAPTER
SUPPORTS IT
“at a very early Not recently — thousands of years ago The Ṛig Veda; the Mahābhārata,
time” written from a few centuries BCE
onward
“spiritual and Not one government, but shared The Mahābhārata knows regions from
cultural unity” ideas, texts, beliefs and ways of living Gandhāra to Kerala; a Tamil poem and
a Sanskrit purāṇa define the same
country
“was made It was not partial or patchy; it reached Fig. 5.4 — the Mahābhārata's regions
complete” across the whole land “cover the entire geography of the
Subcontinent”
“the very stuff of It was not decoration; it was what The names survive in living use today
the life” everyday life was made of — Bharat, Bharatam, and ‘India, that is
Bharat’ in the Constitution
“between the A geographical definition of India: Exactly the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa's definition
Himalayas and the mountain wall in the north, the (page 80) and exactly what Fig. 5.2
the two seas” Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal on shows
either side
Putting it together in one sentence: Sri Aurobindo is saying that long before India was one
country, it was already one culture — and that this shared culture stretched right across the land
bounded by the Himalayas and the two seas.
How to run the discussion in class: split the quotation into the five phrases above
and give one to each group. Each group must find one piece of evidence from this
chapter for its phrase and read it out. You will find that the whole chapter — the Ṛig
Veda's rivers, the Mahābhārata's regions, the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa's verse, the Tamil poem,
and the Constitution's first line — is really an argument for this one sentence.
One point worth debating honestly: ‘unity’ does not mean ‘sameness’. This land
has always held many languages, foods, dresses, gods and customs — Fig. 5.4 alone
names 38 different regions. Sri Aurobindo's claim is that underneath that variety
runs something shared. A good discussion should ask what that shared thing is, and
where you can still see it today.
Page 23 of 32
PHRASE WHAT IT MEANS WHAT IN THE CHAPTER
SUPPORTS IT
“at a very early Not recently — thousands of years ago The Ṛig Veda; the Mahābhārata,
time” written from a few centuries BCE
onward
“spiritual and Not one government, but shared The Mahābhārata knows regions from
cultural unity” ideas, texts, beliefs and ways of living Gandhāra to Kerala; a Tamil poem and
a Sanskrit purāṇa define the same
country
“was made It was not partial or patchy; it reached Fig. 5.4 — the Mahābhārata's regions
complete” across the whole land “cover the entire geography of the
Subcontinent”
“the very stuff of It was not decoration; it was what The names survive in living use today
the life” everyday life was made of — Bharat, Bharatam, and ‘India, that is
Bharat’ in the Constitution
“between the A geographical definition of India: Exactly the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa's definition
Himalayas and the mountain wall in the north, the (page 80) and exactly what Fig. 5.2
the two seas” Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal on shows
either side
Putting it together in one sentence: Sri Aurobindo is saying that long before India was one
country, it was already one culture — and that this shared culture stretched right across the land
bounded by the Himalayas and the two seas.
How to run the discussion in class: split the quotation into the five phrases above
and give one to each group. Each group must find one piece of evidence from this
chapter for its phrase and read it out. You will find that the whole chapter — the Ṛig
Veda's rivers, the Mahābhārata's regions, the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa's verse, the Tamil poem,
and the Constitution's first line — is really an argument for this one sentence.
One point worth debating honestly: ‘unity’ does not mean ‘sameness’. This land
has always held many languages, foods, dresses, gods and customs — Fig. 5.4 alone
names 38 different regions. Sri Aurobindo's claim is that underneath that variety
runs something shared. A good discussion should ask what that shared thing is, and
where you can still see it today.
Page 23 of 32
Page 25
as e
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
co m
m.
True or false? (i) The Ṛig Veda describes the entire geography of India. (ii) The
se
Q2
o m l a
Viṣhṇu Purāṇa describes the entire Subcontinent. (iii) In Aśhoka's time,
g Bangladesh and
m .c
‘Jambudvīpa’ a
included what is today India, parts of Afghanistan,
l a se
Pakistan. (iv) The Mahābhārata lists many regions, including Kashmir, Kutch, and
a g Kerala. (v) The term ‘Hindustān’ first appeared in a Greek inscription more than
2,000 years ago. (vi) In ancient Persian, the word ‘Hindu’ refers to the Hindu religion.
co m
. ag
(vii) ‘Bhārata’ is a name given to India by foreign travellers.
e m
g l as
ANSWER
a
Three are true and four are false. The reason matters more than the answer, so each one is
co m
m.
corrected below.
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a
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m ase
.co
a g l Page 24 of 32
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
co m
m.
True or false? (i) The Ṛig Veda describes the entire geography of India. (ii) The
se
Q2
o m l a
Viṣhṇu Purāṇa describes the entire Subcontinent. (iii) In Aśhoka's time,
g Bangladesh and
m .c
‘Jambudvīpa’ a
included what is today India, parts of Afghanistan,
l a se
Pakistan. (iv) The Mahābhārata lists many regions, including Kashmir, Kutch, and
a g Kerala. (v) The term ‘Hindustān’ first appeared in a Greek inscription more than
2,000 years ago. (vi) In ancient Persian, the word ‘Hindu’ refers to the Hindu religion.
co m
. ag
(vii) ‘Bhārata’ is a name given to India by foreign travellers.
e m
g l as
ANSWER
a
Three are true and four are false. The reason matters more than the answer, so each one is
co m
m.
corrected below.
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a
m a s
m .co agl
l a se
a g
co m
m .
m as e
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a
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m . a
ase
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m as e
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a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a
co m
m .
m ase
.co
a g l Page 24 of 32
Page 26
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
# STATEMENT ANSWER WHY — AND THE CORRECTION
(i) The Ṛig Veda describes the FALSE The Ṛig Veda names only the north-west region
entire geography of India. — ‘Sapta Sindhava’, the land of the seven rivers
(page 77). The whole Subcontinent is first named
in the Mahābhārata.
(ii) The Viṣhṇu Purāṇa describes TRUE “The country that lies north of the ocean and
the entire Subcontinent. south of the snowy mountains is called Bhārata”
(page 80) — that description covers the whole
Subcontinent.
(iii) In Aśhoka's time, TRUE Word for word what page 79 says about Aśhoka's
‘Jambudvīpa’ included what inscription, dated to about 250 BCE.
is today India, parts of
Afghanistan, Bangladesh
and Pakistan.
(iv) The Mahābhārata lists many TRUE Page 78 lists Kāshmīra (more or less today's
regions, including Kashmir, Kashmir), Kaccha (today's Kutch) and Kerala
Kutch, and Kerala. (more or less today's Kerala), along with
Kurukṣhetra, Vanga and Prāgjyotiṣha.
(v) The term ‘Hindustān’ first FALSE Two mistakes in one line. It was a Persian
appeared in a Greek inscription, not Greek, and it was about 1,800
inscription more than 2,000 years ago, not more than 2,000 (page 83).
years ago.
(vi) In ancient Persian, the word FALSE The book is explicit: in ancient Persian ‘Hindu’ is a
‘Hindu’ refers to the Hindu purely geographical term; it does not refer to
religion. the Hindu religion (page 81). It simply meant ‘of
the Sindhu region’.
(vii) ‘Bhārata’ is a name given to FALSE The exact opposite. ‘Bhārata’ is a name Indians
India by foreign travellers. gave themselves — from ‘Bharata’ in the Ṛig
Veda, through ‘Bhāratavarṣha’ in the
Mahābhārata, to ‘Bhārata’ in the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa.
The names foreigners gave were built from
Sindhu.
Score: TRUE → (ii), (iii), (iv) • FALSE → (i), (v), (vi), (vii)
Page 25 of 32
# STATEMENT ANSWER WHY — AND THE CORRECTION
(i) The Ṛig Veda describes the FALSE The Ṛig Veda names only the north-west region
entire geography of India. — ‘Sapta Sindhava’, the land of the seven rivers
(page 77). The whole Subcontinent is first named
in the Mahābhārata.
(ii) The Viṣhṇu Purāṇa describes TRUE “The country that lies north of the ocean and
the entire Subcontinent. south of the snowy mountains is called Bhārata”
(page 80) — that description covers the whole
Subcontinent.
(iii) In Aśhoka's time, TRUE Word for word what page 79 says about Aśhoka's
‘Jambudvīpa’ included what inscription, dated to about 250 BCE.
is today India, parts of
Afghanistan, Bangladesh
and Pakistan.
(iv) The Mahābhārata lists many TRUE Page 78 lists Kāshmīra (more or less today's
regions, including Kashmir, Kashmir), Kaccha (today's Kutch) and Kerala
Kutch, and Kerala. (more or less today's Kerala), along with
Kurukṣhetra, Vanga and Prāgjyotiṣha.
(v) The term ‘Hindustān’ first FALSE Two mistakes in one line. It was a Persian
appeared in a Greek inscription, not Greek, and it was about 1,800
inscription more than 2,000 years ago, not more than 2,000 (page 83).
years ago.
(vi) In ancient Persian, the word FALSE The book is explicit: in ancient Persian ‘Hindu’ is a
‘Hindu’ refers to the Hindu purely geographical term; it does not refer to
religion. the Hindu religion (page 81). It simply meant ‘of
the Sindhu region’.
(vii) ‘Bhārata’ is a name given to FALSE The exact opposite. ‘Bhārata’ is a name Indians
India by foreign travellers. gave themselves — from ‘Bharata’ in the Ṛig
Veda, through ‘Bhāratavarṣha’ in the
Mahābhārata, to ‘Bhārata’ in the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa.
The names foreigners gave were built from
Sindhu.
Score: TRUE → (ii), (iii), (iv) • FALSE → (i), (v), (vi), (vii)
Page 25 of 32
Page 27
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Tip: four of the seven statements test the same single idea — who gave which
name. Keep two lists in your head: Indian names = Sapta Sindhava, Bhāratavarṣha,
Jambudvīpa, Bhārata; foreign names = Hindu, Indoi, India, Yindu, Hindustān. Almost
every trick question in this chapter is a name moved from one list to the other.
Q3 If you were born some 2,000 years ago and had the chance to name our country,
what name or names might you have chosen, and why? Use your imagination!
ANSWER
This one is meant to be your own, so no answer is ‘the’ answer. But an imaginative answer still
has to work like a real ancient name — and the chapter shows you exactly how real ancient
names were made.
Step 1 — pick your rule. Every name in this chapter follows one of four rules:
RULE EXAMPLE FROM THE A NAME YOU COULD INVENT
CHAPTER
Name it after a river Sapta Sindhava, and every foreign Gangāvarṣha — ‘the country of the Ganga’,
name from Sindhu the river most people actually lived beside
Name it after the Bhāratavarṣha — ‘the country of the Bahubhāṣhīvarṣha — ‘the country of many
people who live there Bharatas’ languages’
Name it after a plant Jambudvīpa — the jamun tree Mayūradvīpa — ‘the land of the peacock’,
or animal or Vaṭadvīpa, ‘the land of the banyan’
Name it after its The Viṣhṇu Purāṇa's verse; the Tamil Himasāgara — ‘snow-and-sea land’, the
boundaries poem's “Kumari to the great mountains in the north and the sea all
mountain” around
Step 2 — give a reason. The marks in this question are in the why, not the name. A reason is
good if it names something that is (a) true of the whole land, not just your corner of it, and (b)
likely to still be true in a thousand years.
Page 26 of 32
Tip: four of the seven statements test the same single idea — who gave which
name. Keep two lists in your head: Indian names = Sapta Sindhava, Bhāratavarṣha,
Jambudvīpa, Bhārata; foreign names = Hindu, Indoi, India, Yindu, Hindustān. Almost
every trick question in this chapter is a name moved from one list to the other.
Q3 If you were born some 2,000 years ago and had the chance to name our country,
what name or names might you have chosen, and why? Use your imagination!
ANSWER
This one is meant to be your own, so no answer is ‘the’ answer. But an imaginative answer still
has to work like a real ancient name — and the chapter shows you exactly how real ancient
names were made.
Step 1 — pick your rule. Every name in this chapter follows one of four rules:
RULE EXAMPLE FROM THE A NAME YOU COULD INVENT
CHAPTER
Name it after a river Sapta Sindhava, and every foreign Gangāvarṣha — ‘the country of the Ganga’,
name from Sindhu the river most people actually lived beside
Name it after the Bhāratavarṣha — ‘the country of the Bahubhāṣhīvarṣha — ‘the country of many
people who live there Bharatas’ languages’
Name it after a plant Jambudvīpa — the jamun tree Mayūradvīpa — ‘the land of the peacock’,
or animal or Vaṭadvīpa, ‘the land of the banyan’
Name it after its The Viṣhṇu Purāṇa's verse; the Tamil Himasāgara — ‘snow-and-sea land’, the
boundaries poem's “Kumari to the great mountains in the north and the sea all
mountain” around
Step 2 — give a reason. The marks in this question are in the why, not the name. A reason is
good if it names something that is (a) true of the whole land, not just your corner of it, and (b)
likely to still be true in a thousand years.
Page 26 of 32
Page 28
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Sample answer: “If I had lived 2,000 years ago I would have called this land
Himasāgara — ‘the land between the snow and the sea’. I would choose it because
it is the one thing every part of the country shares: whichever direction you walk,
you end at either the snowy mountains or the sea. It also does not belong to any
one king, tribe or language, so people in Gandhāra and people in Kerala could both
use it. My second choice would be Nadīvarṣha, ‘the land of rivers’, because the
Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra, Narmada, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri all begin and
end inside it — and rivers are what people build their lives around.”
Why this is a serious question and not just a game: naming is an act of definition.
Choose a river and you make the country about water; choose a people and you
make it about them; choose the boundaries and you make it about the land itself.
Ancient Indians tried all three — and the one that survived, Bhārata, was the one
that could belong to everybody.
Q4 Why did people travel to India from various parts of the world in ancient times?
What could be their motivations in undertaking such long journeys? (Hint: There
could be at least four or five motivations)
ANSWER
The hint asks for four or five. Here are six, each with evidence — the first three come straight
out of this chapter.
Page 27 of 32
Sample answer: “If I had lived 2,000 years ago I would have called this land
Himasāgara — ‘the land between the snow and the sea’. I would choose it because
it is the one thing every part of the country shares: whichever direction you walk,
you end at either the snowy mountains or the sea. It also does not belong to any
one king, tribe or language, so people in Gandhāra and people in Kerala could both
use it. My second choice would be Nadīvarṣha, ‘the land of rivers’, because the
Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra, Narmada, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri all begin and
end inside it — and rivers are what people build their lives around.”
Why this is a serious question and not just a game: naming is an act of definition.
Choose a river and you make the country about water; choose a people and you
make it about them; choose the boundaries and you make it about the land itself.
Ancient Indians tried all three — and the one that survived, Bhārata, was the one
that could belong to everybody.
Q4 Why did people travel to India from various parts of the world in ancient times?
What could be their motivations in undertaking such long journeys? (Hint: There
could be at least four or five motivations)
ANSWER
The hint asks for four or five. Here are six, each with evidence — the first three come straight
out of this chapter.
Page 27 of 32
Page 29
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
MOTIVATION WHO CAME, AND WHY EVIDENCE
1. Conquest and Rulers wanted land, tribute and control In the 6th century BCE a Persian emperor
power of rich river valleys launched a military campaign and gained
control of the Indus region (page 81). Later
invaders used the name Hindustān for the
whole Subcontinent (page 83)
2. Religion and India was the land of the Buddha, and Xuanzang travelled from China in the 7th
pilgrimage pilgrims came to see the places where century CE, visited many parts of India and
he had lived and taught stayed 17 years (page 83)
3. Learning and Scholars came to study with Indian Xuanzang met scholars, collected
books teachers and to collect texts to carry Buddhist texts and, back in China,
home translated the manuscripts from Sanskrit
into Chinese. “Several other Chinese
scholars visited India over the centuries”
(page 83)
4. Trade and India's spices, cotton textiles, gems, The land itself — the two seas and the great
wealth ivory and steel were wanted everywhere; rivers on Fig. 5.2 — is what made those
traders came by land through the north- routes possible. This is why the Persians and
western passes and by sea to the the Greeks knew of India at all, and why
western and eastern coasts they needed a name for it
5. Diplomacy Kings sent ambassadors to Indian Foreign accounts — travelogues and
and service courts, and some foreigners stayed on chronicles — are one of the kinds of sources
as officials, soldiers or physicians listed in the previous chapter of this book
6. Curiosity Some simply wanted to see a land they The Chinese called India Tianzhu, a word
had heard extraordinary things about, that could be read as ‘heavenly master’ —
and to write about it “this reflects the respect the ancient Chinese
had for India as the land of the Buddha”
(page 83)
Remember how hard these journeys were. There were no engines. A traveller from China had
to cross deserts and the mountain passes of the north-west, or sail for months with the
monsoon winds. Xuanzang's round trip took 17 years. Nobody undertakes that for a small
reason — which is itself the best evidence of how strongly these six motives pulled.
Why this question sits at the end of this particular chapter: every one of these
travellers left India a name. The Persian soldier left ‘Hind’; the Greek geographer left
‘Indoi’; the Chinese pilgrim left ‘Yindu’ and ‘Tianzhu’; the later invader left ‘Hindustān’.
The names on page 83 are, quite literally, a list of the reasons people came.
Page 28 of 32
MOTIVATION WHO CAME, AND WHY EVIDENCE
1. Conquest and Rulers wanted land, tribute and control In the 6th century BCE a Persian emperor
power of rich river valleys launched a military campaign and gained
control of the Indus region (page 81). Later
invaders used the name Hindustān for the
whole Subcontinent (page 83)
2. Religion and India was the land of the Buddha, and Xuanzang travelled from China in the 7th
pilgrimage pilgrims came to see the places where century CE, visited many parts of India and
he had lived and taught stayed 17 years (page 83)
3. Learning and Scholars came to study with Indian Xuanzang met scholars, collected
books teachers and to collect texts to carry Buddhist texts and, back in China,
home translated the manuscripts from Sanskrit
into Chinese. “Several other Chinese
scholars visited India over the centuries”
(page 83)
4. Trade and India's spices, cotton textiles, gems, The land itself — the two seas and the great
wealth ivory and steel were wanted everywhere; rivers on Fig. 5.2 — is what made those
traders came by land through the north- routes possible. This is why the Persians and
western passes and by sea to the the Greeks knew of India at all, and why
western and eastern coasts they needed a name for it
5. Diplomacy Kings sent ambassadors to Indian Foreign accounts — travelogues and
and service courts, and some foreigners stayed on chronicles — are one of the kinds of sources
as officials, soldiers or physicians listed in the previous chapter of this book
6. Curiosity Some simply wanted to see a land they The Chinese called India Tianzhu, a word
had heard extraordinary things about, that could be read as ‘heavenly master’ —
and to write about it “this reflects the respect the ancient Chinese
had for India as the land of the Buddha”
(page 83)
Remember how hard these journeys were. There were no engines. A traveller from China had
to cross deserts and the mountain passes of the north-west, or sail for months with the
monsoon winds. Xuanzang's round trip took 17 years. Nobody undertakes that for a small
reason — which is itself the best evidence of how strongly these six motives pulled.
Why this question sits at the end of this particular chapter: every one of these
travellers left India a name. The Persian soldier left ‘Hind’; the Greek geographer left
‘Indoi’; the Chinese pilgrim left ‘Yindu’ and ‘Tianzhu’; the later invader left ‘Hindustān’.
The names on page 83 are, quite literally, a list of the reasons people came.
Page 28 of 32
Page 30
as e
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
co m
m.
Project idea: make a class wall-map. Mark Iran, Greece and China on one side and
m l a se
India on the other, draw the routes, and write on each arrow the traveller's reason
o
m .c they left behind. You will end up with the chapter'sagtable of names —
and the name
l a se as a map of journeys.
ag
drawn
co m
e m . ag
g l as
Chapter at a glance a
India is a modern nation, but this land is far older than the nation. Today India has
co m
se
defined borders, defined states and a known population. Five hundred, two thousand or
m.
o m l a
gnames and shifting
world.c
five thousand years ago it looked very different. The region as a whole — the part of the
m a
se
we call the Indian Subcontinent — has had many different
g l aboundaries, and we learn about them from ancient texts, from the accounts of travellers
a and pilgrims, and from inscriptions.
m
The Subcontinent has clear natural boundaries (Fig. 5.2, page 76). In the north stand the
a s
.co
Himalayas; in the north-west, the Hindu Kush. The Arabian Sea lies to the west, the Bay of
em agl
a s
glIndus with the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, the
Bengal to the east and the Indian Ocean to the south. Between them lie the great river
a
systems the map names — the
dried-up Sarasvati, the Ganga, Yamuna, Chambal and Brahmaputra, the westward-
flowing Narmada and Tapti, and the eastward-flowing Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and
com
m .
e
Kaveri.
m l as
.co g
Indians named this land themselves. The Ṛig Veda, India's most ancient text, calls the
a
emIndus River or a river in general. The Mahābhārata lists regions all over the Subcontinent
s
north-west region ‘Sapta Sindhava’ — the ‘land of the seven rivers’ — from ‘Sindhu’, the
l a
ag (Kāshmīra, Kurukṣhetra, Vanga, Prāgjyotiṣha, Kaccha, Kerala …) and gives the whole of it
se m
com l a
two names: ‘Bhāratavarṣha’, ‘the country of the Bharatas’, and ‘Jambudvīpa’, ‘the island of
. a g
m
the fruit of the jamun tree’.
ase
agl
‘Bhārata’ won out, and it is still our name today. Emperor Aśhoka (about 250 BCE) used
‘Jambudvīpa’ in an inscription for the whole of India — which then included today's
Bangladesh, Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan. A few centuries later the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa
. c om
defined Bhārata as “the country that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy
s e
mountains”. An ancient Tamil poem describes the same land “from m[Cape] Kumari in the
. csouth a la as Bharat in the north and
om … to the great mountain in the north”. The name survives
g
as em Bharatam in the south — and the Constitution opens with ‘India, that is Bharat’.
agl Foreigners named it after the Indus. The Persians, who took control of the Indus region
c
in the 6th century BCE, wrote ‘Hind’, ‘Hidu’ or ‘Hindu’ — their version of ‘Sindhu’, and a
m .
m a s e
co agl
purely geographical word, not a religious one. The Greeks, borrowing from Persian,
m .
se
dropped the ‘h’ their language did not have and said ‘Indoi’ / ‘Indike’, which became Latin
l a
ag as ‘heavenly master’ — a mark of their respect for the land of the
and English India and French Inde. The Chinese said ‘Yintu’ / ‘Yindu’, and also ‘Tianzhu’, a
word that could be read
Buddha.
co m
m .
m ase
.co
a g l Page 29 of 32
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
co m
m.
Project idea: make a class wall-map. Mark Iran, Greece and China on one side and
m l a se
India on the other, draw the routes, and write on each arrow the traveller's reason
o
m .c they left behind. You will end up with the chapter'sagtable of names —
and the name
l a se as a map of journeys.
ag
drawn
co m
e m . ag
g l as
Chapter at a glance a
India is a modern nation, but this land is far older than the nation. Today India has
co m
se
defined borders, defined states and a known population. Five hundred, two thousand or
m.
o m l a
gnames and shifting
world.c
five thousand years ago it looked very different. The region as a whole — the part of the
m a
se
we call the Indian Subcontinent — has had many different
g l aboundaries, and we learn about them from ancient texts, from the accounts of travellers
a and pilgrims, and from inscriptions.
m
The Subcontinent has clear natural boundaries (Fig. 5.2, page 76). In the north stand the
a s
.co
Himalayas; in the north-west, the Hindu Kush. The Arabian Sea lies to the west, the Bay of
em agl
a s
glIndus with the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, the
Bengal to the east and the Indian Ocean to the south. Between them lie the great river
a
systems the map names — the
dried-up Sarasvati, the Ganga, Yamuna, Chambal and Brahmaputra, the westward-
flowing Narmada and Tapti, and the eastward-flowing Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and
com
m .
e
Kaveri.
m l as
.co g
Indians named this land themselves. The Ṛig Veda, India's most ancient text, calls the
a
emIndus River or a river in general. The Mahābhārata lists regions all over the Subcontinent
s
north-west region ‘Sapta Sindhava’ — the ‘land of the seven rivers’ — from ‘Sindhu’, the
l a
ag (Kāshmīra, Kurukṣhetra, Vanga, Prāgjyotiṣha, Kaccha, Kerala …) and gives the whole of it
se m
com l a
two names: ‘Bhāratavarṣha’, ‘the country of the Bharatas’, and ‘Jambudvīpa’, ‘the island of
. a g
m
the fruit of the jamun tree’.
ase
agl
‘Bhārata’ won out, and it is still our name today. Emperor Aśhoka (about 250 BCE) used
‘Jambudvīpa’ in an inscription for the whole of India — which then included today's
Bangladesh, Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan. A few centuries later the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa
. c om
defined Bhārata as “the country that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy
s e
mountains”. An ancient Tamil poem describes the same land “from m[Cape] Kumari in the
. csouth a la as Bharat in the north and
om … to the great mountain in the north”. The name survives
g
as em Bharatam in the south — and the Constitution opens with ‘India, that is Bharat’.
agl Foreigners named it after the Indus. The Persians, who took control of the Indus region
c
in the 6th century BCE, wrote ‘Hind’, ‘Hidu’ or ‘Hindu’ — their version of ‘Sindhu’, and a
m .
m a s e
co agl
purely geographical word, not a religious one. The Greeks, borrowing from Persian,
m .
se
dropped the ‘h’ their language did not have and said ‘Indoi’ / ‘Indike’, which became Latin
l a
ag as ‘heavenly master’ — a mark of their respect for the land of the
and English India and French Inde. The Chinese said ‘Yintu’ / ‘Yindu’, and also ‘Tianzhu’, a
word that could be read
Buddha.
co m
m .
m ase
.co
a g l Page 29 of 32
Page 31
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
‘Hindustān’ is younger than you might think. It was first used in a Persian inscription
about 1,800 years ago, and later became the term most invaders of India used for the
Subcontinent. So the chapter ends with two families of names: the ones Indians gave
themselves (Jambudvīpa, Bhārata) and the ones outsiders built from the river Sindhu
(Hindu, Indoi, India, Hindustān).
Page 30 of 32
‘Hindustān’ is younger than you might think. It was first used in a Persian inscription
about 1,800 years ago, and later became the term most invaders of India used for the
Subcontinent. So the chapter ends with two families of names: the ones Indians gave
themselves (Jambudvīpa, Bhārata) and the ones outsiders built from the river Sindhu
(Hindu, Indoi, India, Hindustān).
Page 30 of 32
Page 32
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
Quick revision
NAME OR WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT WHO USED IT
TERM APPEARS IN
THE CHAPTER
Indian The region of the world that today holds Page 77; The name we use today
Subcontinent India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, physical map
Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives; it Fig. 5.2, page 76
has had many names and shifting
boundaries
Sindhu The Indus River — or, at times, a river in Page 77 Ṛig Veda and later Indian
general texts
Sapta Sindhava ‘Land of the seven rivers’ — the name Page 77, with The Ṛig Veda, India's most
for the north-west region of the Fig. 5.3 ancient text
Subcontinent only, not the whole of it
Bhāratavarṣha ‘The country of the Bharatas’ — a name Page 78 The Mahābhārata
that clearly extends to the entire
Subcontinent
Bharata The name of one of the main Vedic Page 78 First in the Ṛig Veda, then in
groups of people; later, of several kings later literature
Jambudvīpa ‘The island of the fruit of the jamun tree’ Pages 78–79 The Mahābhārata; and
(also called jambul or Malabar plum), a Aśhoka, c. 250 BCE, in an
tree native to India inscription
Bhārata / Bharat “The country that lies north of the ocean Page 80, Used all over India even
/ Bharatam and south of the snowy mountains” quoting the today — Bharat in the north,
Viṣhṇu Purāṇa Bharatam in the south
Constitution A document that spells out the basic Margin note, The Indian Constitution
principles and laws of a nation page 81 came into force in 1950 and
opens with ‘India, that is
Bharat’ (Fig. 5.5)
Hind / Hidu / Adaptations of ‘Sindhu’ in the Persian Page 81 The Persians, from the 6th
Hindu language; in ancient Persian a purely century BCE
geographical term, not a religious one
Indoi / Indike ‘Hindu’ with the initial ‘h’ dropped, Page 81 The ancient Greeks, working
because Greek had no such letter from Persian sources
Yintu / Yindu / Chinese words for India, also from Pages 81 and 83 The ancient Chinese, who
Tianzhu ‘Sindhu’; ‘Tianzhu’ could also be read as respected India as the land
‘heavenly master’ of the Buddha
Page 31 of 32
Quick revision
NAME OR WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT WHO USED IT
TERM APPEARS IN
THE CHAPTER
Indian The region of the world that today holds Page 77; The name we use today
Subcontinent India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, physical map
Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives; it Fig. 5.2, page 76
has had many names and shifting
boundaries
Sindhu The Indus River — or, at times, a river in Page 77 Ṛig Veda and later Indian
general texts
Sapta Sindhava ‘Land of the seven rivers’ — the name Page 77, with The Ṛig Veda, India's most
for the north-west region of the Fig. 5.3 ancient text
Subcontinent only, not the whole of it
Bhāratavarṣha ‘The country of the Bharatas’ — a name Page 78 The Mahābhārata
that clearly extends to the entire
Subcontinent
Bharata The name of one of the main Vedic Page 78 First in the Ṛig Veda, then in
groups of people; later, of several kings later literature
Jambudvīpa ‘The island of the fruit of the jamun tree’ Pages 78–79 The Mahābhārata; and
(also called jambul or Malabar plum), a Aśhoka, c. 250 BCE, in an
tree native to India inscription
Bhārata / Bharat “The country that lies north of the ocean Page 80, Used all over India even
/ Bharatam and south of the snowy mountains” quoting the today — Bharat in the north,
Viṣhṇu Purāṇa Bharatam in the south
Constitution A document that spells out the basic Margin note, The Indian Constitution
principles and laws of a nation page 81 came into force in 1950 and
opens with ‘India, that is
Bharat’ (Fig. 5.5)
Hind / Hidu / Adaptations of ‘Sindhu’ in the Persian Page 81 The Persians, from the 6th
Hindu language; in ancient Persian a purely century BCE
geographical term, not a religious one
Indoi / Indike ‘Hindu’ with the initial ‘h’ dropped, Page 81 The ancient Greeks, working
because Greek had no such letter from Persian sources
Yintu / Yindu / Chinese words for India, also from Pages 81 and 83 The ancient Chinese, who
Tianzhu ‘Sindhu’; ‘Tianzhu’ could also be read as respected India as the land
‘heavenly master’ of the Buddha
Page 31 of 32
Page 33
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 5 India, That Is Bharat AglaSem · NCERT Solutions
NAME OR WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT WHO USED IT
TERM APPEARS IN
THE CHAPTER
Hindustān A more recent term for the Indian Page 83 Persian; later the term used
Subcontinent, first used in a Persian by most invaders of India
inscription some 1,800 years ago
Page 32 of 32
NAME OR WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT WHO USED IT
TERM APPEARS IN
THE CHAPTER
Hindustān A more recent term for the Indian Page 83 Persian; later the term used
Subcontinent, first used in a Persian by most invaders of India
inscription some 1,800 years ago
Page 32 of 32
Document Details
| Board / Org | NCERT |
| Exam | Class 6 |
| Type | Solution |
| Pages | 33 |
| Language | english |
| Updated | 19 Sep 2026 |