NCERT Solutions Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots

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 7: India's Cultural Roots

NCERT Textbook — Exploring Society: India And Beyond

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

105 – 123 14 32 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 44 pages

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 6 · SOCIAL SCIENCE · EXPLORING SOCIETY: INDIA AND BEYOND

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 7: India's Cultural Roots
Complete NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots from the NCERT
textbook Exploring Society: India and Beyond. Every question of the chapter is answered — The Big Questions,
all three LET'S EXPLORE boxes, all three THINK ABOUT IT boxes, the in-text questions on pages 106, 120 and
121, Before we move on …, all seven Questions, activities and projects, the seven True or false statements
and the Class activity — with the timeline on page 108, the Buddha panel on page 114, the Mahāvīra
painting on page 115, the Bharhut monkey-king panel on page 117, the Jain temple panel on page 118 and
the Ellora photograph on page 119 all read carefully off the printed page.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Class 6) 105 – 123

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

14 32

MEDIUM

English

The Big Questions — Page 105
Chapter opening

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Q1 What are the Vedas? What is their message?

The Vedas are India's most ancient texts — and among the most ancient in the world. The
word comes from the Sanskrit vid, meaning 'knowledge' (the same root gives us vidyā). There
are four of them.

THE FOUR VEDAS WHAT THE NAME ITSELF MEANS

Ṛig Veda From ṛich, a verse of praise — the oldest of the four, and the one the chapter quotes twice

Yajur Veda From yajus, a ritual formula

Sāma Veda From sāman, a melody — the Veda that is sung

Atharva Veda Named after the rishi Atharvan

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

They consist of thousands of hymns — prayers in the form of poems and songs — composed
by rishis (male seers or sages) and rishikas (female ones) in an early form of Sanskrit, in the
Sapta Sindhava region. They were recited orally, not written. Experts have proposed dates for
the Ṛig Veda ranging from the 5th to the 2nd millennium BCE, so for anything between 100
and 200 generations these texts were carried in human memory, passed on “with hardly any
alterations”.
The message — four ideas that hold it together.

THE IDEA WHAT THE CHAPTER SAYS

1. The one The hymns address many deities — Indra, Agni, Varuṇa, Mitra, Sarasvatī, Uṣhas — yet the
behind the early rishis and rishikas “saw those gods and goddesses as one, not separate beings”: ekam sat
many viprā bahudhā vadanti, “The Existent is one, but sages give it many names”

2. Ṛitam — Together with the seers, the deities sustained ṛitam, that is, truth and order in human life and in
truth and the cosmos. The same word covers both — order in the world and honesty in a person
order

3. Truth as the “Some values were especially important, beginning with ‘Truth’, which was often another name
highest value for God”

4. Unity The last mantras of the Ṛig Veda call for it directly: “Come together, speak together; common
among people be your mind, may your thoughts agree … United be your purpose, united your heart … may
your thoughts be united, so all may agree!”

Why the two ends of the Ṛig Veda matter so much: a book of prayers to many
deities could have ended by saying “our god is the true one”. Instead it ends by
asking human beings to agree with one another, and elsewhere it says the supreme
reality is one whatever name you give it. Those two statements together are the
reason this chapter can describe Indian culture as a tree with many branches and
one trunk.

Did you know? Because the Vedas were memorised rather than written, elaborate
techniques of recitation were developed to protect every syllable and accent from
change. In 2008 UNESCO recognised Vedic chanting as “a masterpiece of the oral
and intangible heritage of humanity” — an award given not for a book, but for a
way of remembering.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 What new schools of thought emerged in India in the 1st millennium BCE? What are
their core principles?

Four are named in this chapter. Two grew out of the Vedas; two did not accept the authority of
the Vedas and built their own systems.

SCHOOL WHERE IT CAME CORE PRINCIPLES KEY TEXTS
OF FROM NAMED IN THE
THOUGHT CHAPTER

Vedanta Grew out of the Vedas, Everything — human life, nature, the The Upaniṣhads —
through the Upaniṣhads universe — is one divine essence, Chhāndogya, Kaṭha,
brahman (or just tat, 'that'). The ātman or Bṛihadāraṇyaka are the
Self in every being is ultimately one with three the chapter tells
brahman, so everything is connected and stories from
interdependent. Rebirth and karma are
taken as given

Yoga Grew out of the Vedas, Developed methods intended to achieve Not named in this
“early in the 1st the realisation of brahman in one's own chapter
millennium BCE” consciousness — practice rather than
argument

Buddhism Did not accept the Avidyā (ignorance) and attachment are The Jātaka tales —
authority of the Vedas. the source of human suffering, and there is stories of the Buddha's
Founded by Siddhārtha a method to remove both. Ahimsa — 'non- former births
Gautama, born at hurting'. A sincere inner discipline:
Lumbini (today in Nepal) “Conquering oneself is greater than
conquering a thousand men on the
battlefield.” The Sangha, a community of
monks and later nuns

Jainism Did not accept the Ahimsa — no living creature “should be Not named; the chapter
authority of the Vedas; slain, nor treated with violence, nor gives a Jain story, of
“its roots are said to be abused, nor tormented, nor driven away”. Rohineya
much more ancient”. Anekāntavāda — truth has many aspects,
Preached by no single statement can capture it.
Vardhamāna, who Aparigraha — non-possession. All
became Mahāvīra creatures, from humans to invisible
organisms, are interdependent

Chārvāka A separate school “at the Only this material world exists; therefore None survive
(also time” there can be no life after death. It did not
Lokāyata) gain much popularity and disappeared with
time

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The chapter's own timeline, on page 108, places all of this on one line:
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thought are drawn as broken lines because their dates are approximate.

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What is common to all of them, and what is not. The chapter is careful about this: “Although
the Vedic, Buddhist and Jain schools had important differences, they also shared some common

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concepts, such as dharma, karma, rebirth, the search for an end to suffering and

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ignorance, and many important values.” Where they part company is on the authority of the
Vedas — accepted by the Vedic schools, not accepted by Buddhism andeJainism
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exactly

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ending) and the Eightfold Path that leads to Nirvāṇa. Jain tradition counts 24

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Tīrthaṅkaras, 'ford-makers', of whom Mahāvīra was the twenty-fourth. These terms
are not used in this chapter, but they are the words each tradition itself uses, and
they are worth knowing correctly.
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CONTRIBUTION THE CHAPTER'S EVIDENCE

Deities that became According to tradition, Jagannath, worshipped at Puri in Odisha, was originally a
national tribal deity. So were various forms of the mother-goddess worshipped across India

A living, oral way of India's rich oral traditions — teachings and practices carried by everyday practice,
passing on culture without written texts. Folk traditions are transmitted by common people, tribal traditions
by tribes

Their own versions of Some tribes adopted Hindu deities long ago and possess their own versions of the
the great epics Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa — documented from the northeastern States all
the way to Tamil Nadu

Reverence for nature Mountains, rivers, trees, plants, animals and even some stones are held sacred, “because
there is consciousness behind all of them”. For the Toda of the Nilgiris, over thirty
peaks are the residences of a god or goddess, so sacred that the Todas will not point at
them with a finger

A concept of a supreme Donyipolo, the combined form of the Sun and the Moon, worshipped by several
being tribes of Arunachal Pradesh; Khandoba in parts of central India; Singbonga,
worshipped by the Munda and Santhal, “a supreme deity who created this whole
world”

Concepts, legends, “Deities, concepts, legends and rituals have been freely exchanged in both directions”
rituals and art — and “tribal belief systems and art have interacted for millenniums with Hinduism”

The Indian sociologist André Béteille states the two-way traffic exactly:

“The thousands of castes and tribes on the Indian subcontinent have influenced each other

in their religious beliefs and practices since the beginning of history and before. That the

tribal religions have been influenced by Hinduism is widely accepted, but it is equally true

that Hinduism, not only in its formative phase but throughout its evolution, has been

influenced by tribal religions.”

Why the second half of that sentence is the important half: people find the first
half easy to accept — a big tradition influencing a small one. The chapter insists on
the direction people usually forget. Jagannath at Puri is not a footnote; he is one of
the most visited deities in India, and tradition says he came from a tribal community.
Contribution, here, means something that went into the trunk, not something that
hung off a branch.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Careful with words: in the 19th century anthropologists studying tribes often
described them as ‘primitive’ or ‘inferior’ to civilised people. The chapter records that
“with deeper studies of tribal communities and their rich and complex cultures, such
biased judgments have been mostly abandoned.” Never use those two words for
a community in an answer.

In-text Questions — Page 106
The Vedas and Vedic Culture — a. What are the Vedas?

Q1 a. What are the Vedas?

Take the question as the book takes it here — not “what do they teach?” but “what kind of texts
are these?”

Veda ← Sanskrit vid = 'knowledge' → vidyā, learning

Number: four — Ṛig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sāma Veda, Atharva Veda

Contents: thousands of hymns — prayers in the form of poems and songs

Composed by: rishis (male seers or sages) and rishikas (female ones)

Language: an early form of Sanskrit

Place: the Sapta Sindhava region (Chapter 5)

Date of the Ṛig Veda, the oldest: proposed between the 5th and the 2nd millennium BCE

Form: recited orally — not written

The one fact people get wrong. The Vedas were not a book that somebody wrote down. They
were committed to memory through rigorous training and passed on orally, generation
after generation. Between the 5th and the 2nd millennium BCE is a very wide window, but even
the shortest estimate gives “anything between 100 and 200 generations” of pure memory —
“with hardly any alterations”.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the book stops to say this: we normally treat 'ancient text' and 'ancient
manuscript' as the same thing. Here they are not. The Vedas are the most ancient
texts of India and among the most ancient in the world, and yet for most of their life
they existed in no physical form at all — only in trained human memory. That is why
the True or false statement “The Vedic hymns were written on palm-leaf
manuscripts” is false.

Did you know? The reason the transmission stayed so accurate is that reciters
learned each hymn several times over in different scrambled orders as well as the
plain one, so that any slip showed up at once. UNESCO recognised this in 2008,
calling Vedic chanting “a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of
humanity”.

LET'S EXPLORE — Page 109
b. Vedic society — how the janas were governed

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Do you know the term for a society where people select their leaders? How do you
think people can benefit from such a situation? What could happen if they live
under leaders that they did not choose? (Hint: Think back to what you're learning in
the theme ‘Governance and Democracy’!) Write your thoughts in a paragraph of
100–150 words.

The term is democracy — from the Greek dēmos (people) and kratos (rule): rule by the people.
In India we choose our leaders by election, and that makes India a democratic republic.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

IF PEOPLE CHOOSE THEIR LEADERS IF PEOPLE DO NOT CHOOSE
THEIR LEADERS

Accountability. A leader who wants to be re-elected has to answer for A leader who cannot be removed does not
what he or she did with the last five years have to answer to anybody

Peaceful change. A government can be replaced by counting votes The only ways left to change a ruler are
instead of by fighting revolt or waiting for the ruler to die

Everyone's problems reach the table. Because every vote counts the Decisions tend to favour whoever is close
same, a leader cannot ignore the poorest village in the constituency to the ruler

Freedom to disagree. Criticism is normal and legal, so mistakes get Criticism becomes risky, so mistakes are
pointed out early hidden and grow

People feel responsible. If you chose the leader, the result is partly yours People feel the government is something
— that makes citizens participate that happens to them

The link back to this chapter. The Vedas give us only a few clues about how the janas ran their
affairs — the words rājā (a king or ruler), and sabhā and samiti, “both of which refer to a
collective gathering or assembly”. A society that has words for assemblies has some habit of
deciding things together. But the chapter is honest: “Not much is known of how these janas
governed their society.” We should not claim that Vedic society was a democracy — only that the
vocabulary of collective discussion is very old in India.

Sample answer (about 130 words):
“A society in which people select their own leaders is called a democracy. India is the
world's largest democracy, and we choose our leaders through elections. People
benefit in several ways. Leaders must explain their decisions, because they have to
face the voters again. A government that is not working can be changed peacefully,
by voting rather than by fighting. Since every vote is equal, the concerns of ordinary
people — roads, schools, water, jobs — cannot be ignored. And people are free to
disagree, so mistakes are pointed out and corrected.
If people live under leaders they did not choose, there is no way to remove a leader
who is unjust. Decisions may serve only a small group, criticism may become
dangerous, and ordinary people lose the feeling that the country belongs to them.”

Why the box puts this question inside a chapter on the Vedas: the theme
running through your Social Science book is that ideas have histories. Words like
sabhā and samiti are more than three thousand years old, and the Rajya Sabha and
Lok Sabha in Delhi still carry the word sabhā in their names. The practice of sitting
together to decide is one of the oldest continuous habits in this Subcontinent.

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THINK ABOUT IT — Page 110
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This is your own answer to give — but a good one has three parts: name the story and where

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Śhvetaketu A boy comes home proud after twelve years of study; Humility, and that real
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A boy sent to Yama in anger waits, refuses to be put off, Persistence and the courage to
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the death of the body?

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Gārgī A rishika questions the greatest scholar of the court, is Courage, and that a woman's

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Notice what the book says just before them: “Many stories from the Upaniṣhads tell us the

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importance of asking questions, whether these questions come from men, women or
children.” All three heroes are outsiders to power — two children and a woman.

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Sample answer 1: “I have read the Panchatantra story of the four

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keeping friendships you may one day need.”
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Sample answer 2: “My grandmother told me the Jātaka story of the monkey-king
that is also in this chapter. The monkey-king made a bridge of his own body so that
his troop could escape the soldiers, and died of his injuries. It taught me that a
leader's first duty is to the people he leads, not to himself. The king who watched
it changed the way he thought about his own subjects — which is the point of the
story.”

Why stories were the teaching method: the ideas in this chapter — brahman,
ātman, karma, ahimsa — are abstract, and a definition of an abstract idea is easy to
memorise and easy to forget. A story about a proud boy, an angry father or a
wounded monkey stays. That is exactly why the Upaniṣhads, the Jātaka tales and the
Jain story of Rohineya all teach through narrative rather than through argument.

LET'S EXPLORE — Page 115
Buddhism — the stone panel of the Buddha teaching (page 114)

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Discuss the way the Buddha is depicted in the above panel.

Look at the panel on page 114 carefully before answering — the sculptor used a whole set of
visual signals, and every one of them is saying something.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WHAT YOU CAN SEE WHAT IT IS TELLING YOU

He stands at the centre and is the In ancient art, size means importance. The eye is pulled to him before
tallest figure you notice anybody else

A plain circular halo behind his A nimbus — the standard sign of a radiant, enlightened being.
head Nobody else in the panel has one

His right hand is raised, palm A gesture of teaching and of reassurance. He is not blessing,
turned out, fingers together commanding or fighting — he is explaining

A long monastic robe covering A monk's robe, not royal dress. Although he was born a prince, he is
both shoulders, falling in deep shown as one who gave that up
folds

No crown, no ornaments, no Compare the listeners, several of whom wear elaborate headdresses and
weapon jewellery. His authority comes from what he knows, not from what he
owns

Hair gathered into a topknot above The uṣhṇīṣha, a conventional mark of a great being in Indian sculpture
the head

A calm face, eyes lowered, no The look of one who is “at peace” — the very quality that made the
expression of anger or excitement young Siddhārtha notice the ascetic from his chariot

Listeners crowd around him on They are turned towards him and towards each other; several appear to be
both sides, hands raised or folded princes or gods. He is not alone on a throne — he is in the middle of a
group

A tree above, a railing and a pillar The setting of a garden or a monastery enclosure — the ordinary places
behind where the Buddha actually taught

What the panel is, physically. It is a stone relief, some 1,800 years old, that is, from roughly
the 2nd–3rd century CE — six or seven centuries after the Buddha lived. The greenish schist
and the very realistic, deeply carved drapery are features art historians associate with the
Gandhāra school of sculpture of the northwest.

The most interesting thing about it is what is missing. The Buddha taught that
ignorance and attachment cause suffering, and that “conquering oneself is greater
than conquering a thousand men on the battlefield”. The sculptor has made exactly
that visible: the central figure is the one with no crown, no jewels and no weapon,
and the crowned figures are the ones listening. The composition itself is an
argument.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How to discuss this in class: ask three questions in order. (1) Who is most important,
and how did you know without being told? (2) What is he doing with his hands? (3) What
is he not wearing that a prince would wear? Reading an image by asking what is
present and what is deliberately absent is a skill you will use again in every chapter
that shows art.

Q2 Can you name some states of India or some other countries where Buddhism is a
major religion even today? Try to plot these on a world map.

Buddhism began in India and travelled outwards — “his influence on India, and indeed the
whole of Asia, was enormous … it is still perceptible today”. Here is where to look.

IN INDIA WHY

Sikkim Buddhism is followed by a large part of the
population; monasteries such as Rumtek and
Pemayangtse

Arunachal Pradesh The western districts, with the great monastery at
Tawang

Ladakh (Union Territory) Hemis, Thiksey, Lamayuru and many other
monasteries

Himachal Pradesh Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur; Dharamshala is the seat of
the Tibetan community in India

Maharashtra Has the largest number of Buddhists of any Indian
State, following the mass conversion led by Dr B.R.
Ambedkar in 1956

West Bengal (Darjeeling and Kalimpong), Mizoram and Substantial Buddhist populations
Tripura (Chakma communities), Karnataka (the Tibetan
settlements at Bylakuppe)

REGION COUNTRIES WHERE BUDDHISM IS A MAJOR RELIGION

South Asia Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal

Southeast Asia Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore

East and Central Asia China, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, the Tibet region

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How to plot them properly. On an outline world map, mark Lumbini (Nepal) and Bodh Gaya
(Bihar) first, in one colour — that is where the story starts. Then shade the countries above in a
second colour, and finally draw two arrows: one running south-east from India to Sri Lanka and
mainland Southeast Asia, and one running north through Central Asia and then east into
China, Korea and Japan. Add a short key at the bottom.

Check it yourself: the two arrows are the whole point of the exercise. Buddhism
spread along the routes that traders and monks were already using — the sea route
around the Bay of Bengal and the land route that later became known as the Silk
Road. A religion travels the roads that goods travel.

Why some places are missing from your list: Buddhism has a very large presence
in countries such as China where it is one belief system among several, so it is not
always counted as 'the' religion of the country. When you draw the map, it is more
honest to write “large Buddhist population” for those, and “majority Buddhist” for Sri
Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan and Mongolia.

LET'S EXPLORE — Page 118
Jainism — the panel from a Jain temple in New Delhi

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Observe the above panel (from a Jain temple in New Delhi). What is striking about
it? What messages does it carry?

What is striking is what the animals are doing — or rather, what they are not doing. Look
at the carving on page 118 in detail:

On the left, a lion, with its full mane, has lowered its head into a large lotus-shaped water
basin.
On the right, a cow has lowered its head into the very same basin, so close that the two
heads almost touch.
A lion cub stands quietly under the lion; a calf is feeding at the cow's side.
Behind them are trees, rocky hills and birds in the sky — an ordinary forest, not a temple
courtyard.
Not one animal is crouching, fleeing, or watching the other. There is no fear anywhere in
the picture.

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A lion and a cow are, in nature, hunter and prey. A calf standing that close to a lion should not
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MESSAGE HOW THE CARVING SAYS IT

1. Ahimsa reaches every Not only human beings. Mahāvīra's words, quoted on page 116: “All breathing, existing,

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living creature living, sentient creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor

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fearlessness message is as much about the fear as about the violence

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interdependent all creatures, from humans to invisible organisms, as they support each other and cannot

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live without one another”

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The lion has not been caged or defeated; it has simply stopped. That is the Jain sense of
jina, 'conqueror' — the conquest is of one's own ignorance and attachments, not of an

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5. It applies to us A temple panel is placed where worshippers will see it every day. The lion is not being
asked to become a cow — it is being asked not to hurt

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a some version of it. So the panel is not simply a pretty animal scene — it is a
summary of the whole teaching in one picture.
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asup in the very next box on the page. If ahimsa also
g l
Try this: the same idea turns
a in thought, then ask yourself who the lion and the cow are
means refusing violence

m
in your own classroom — the person you are certain you cannot get along with. The
. co
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panel says that pair can share a bowl of water.

m as e
.co a g l
se m
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a THINK ABOUT IT — Page 118
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Jainism — what ahimsa really covers

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 In both Buddhism and Jainism, ahimsa means much more than refraining from
physical violence against a person or an animal. It also means refraining from
violence in thought, such as having ill feelings towards anyone. If we observe
ourselves carefully, we may notice such negative thoughts and learn to turn them
into positive ones. Sometimes such negative thoughts are even directed at
ourselves!

Start with the word itself. The chapter has already told you, on page 113, that ahimsa is
“generally translated as ‘non-violence’, but originally means ‘non-hurting’ or ‘non-injuring’”.
That difference is the whole box. ‘Violence’ makes you think of a blow. ‘Hurting’ includes
everything that leaves a mark on somebody — and a thought can do that.

LEVEL WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WHO NOTICES

Violence in Hitting, pushing, hurting an animal, damaging what Everyone
action belongs to someone

Violence in Mocking, name-calling, spreading a rumour, cruel The person it lands on
speech jokes, leaving someone out on purpose

Violence in Ill feelings, contempt, hoping someone fails, holding Only you — which is exactly why the
thought a grudge, deciding in advance that a whole group of box asks you to “observe ourselves
people is bad carefully”

Violence “I am useless”, “I always spoil everything”, refusing Often nobody at all
towards to forgive yourself for a mistake
oneself

Why thought is treated as the root and not as a minor extra. Nobody hits a person they
think well of. Ill feeling comes first; words follow; action follows words. If ahimsa is only a rule
about hands, it has to be applied at the last possible moment, when the anger is already at full
strength. Applied to thought, it works while the thing is still small.
How the box says to practise it — three steps, in order:

1. Observe. Not fight, not deny — notice. “If we observe ourselves carefully, we may notice
such negative thoughts.” Most of the time they run past unexamined.
2. Turn them. The box does not say suppress; it says “learn to turn them into positive ones”.
Instead of “he always shows off”, try “he answers quickly — I could learn that”. The energy is
the same; the direction changes.

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3. Include yourself. “Sometimes such negative thoughts are even directed at ourselves!” The
exclamation mark is the book's, and it is doing real work: it is easy to be gentle with everyone
except the one person you cannot get away from.

The Buddhist half of the same point: “Conquering oneself is greater than
conquering a thousand men on the battlefield a thousand times.” That saying is on
page 113, and this box is its practical meaning. The battlefield the Buddha is talking
about is not outside you.

Try this for one week: keep a two-column page. Left column — a negative thought
you caught yourself having. Right column — the same situation written without the
ill feeling. Do not write anyone's name. At the end of the week count how many
entries are about other people and how many are about yourself. Most students are
startled by the answer.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 119
Why the chapter says ‘schools of thought’ and not ‘religions’

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 In English, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism are often labelled ‘religions’.
You may notice that we have avoided this term, preferring ‘schools of thought’ and
(later in this chapter) ‘belief systems’. This is because there are many aspects to
those schools and systems, which we will explore gradually — a philosophical
aspect, a spiritual aspect, a religious aspect, an ethical aspect, a social aspect, to
name a few. Many scholars agree that the word ‘religion’ is too limiting in the
context of the Indian civilisation.

The book is making a point about vocabulary, not about faith. Its claim is simple: the English
word ‘religion’ is too small a box for what these traditions actually contain.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

ASPECT WHAT IT COVERS AN EXAMPLE FROM THIS CHAPTER

Philosophical Reasoned enquiry into what Gārgī questioning Yājñavalkya on the nature of the world
exists and how we know it and of brahman; anekāntavāda, that truth has many aspects

Spiritual Inner experience and the Yoga, which “developed methods intended to achieve the
practices that lead to it realisation of brahman in one's consciousness”

Religious Deities, prayer, ritual, worship Yajña; the daily offerings to Agni; the deities of the Vedic
hymns

Ethical How one ought to behave Ahimsa, aparigraha, right action and right thinking in the
story of Rohineya

Social How communities are The Sangha of bhikṣhus and bhikṣhuṇīs; monasteries; rock-
organised cut caves with the monks' names still on them

Two things the chapter shows that a narrow word for ‘religion’ cannot hold.

1. A school of thought with no god at all still belongs in the story. The Chārvāka or
Lokāyata school held that only the material world exists and there is no life after death. It is
discussed in the same paragraph as the others, because in India these were all considered
positions a thinking person could take.
2. People chose. “There was a wide diversity of intellectual or spiritual belief systems; people
were free to choose what suited them.” The chapter treats belonging as something one
arrives at, not only something one is born into.

Why a word choice is worth a whole box: a word carries a shape, and the shape
decides what you look for. If you go into these traditions expecting only a ‘religion’,
you will look for a god, a book and a place of worship — and you will walk straight
past Yoga's methods, Vedanta's arguments and the Chārvākas' objections. Choosing
the wider phrase, ‘schools of thought’, keeps all five aspects in view at once. This is
the same lesson Chapter 6 taught with ‘Indus Valley civilisation’: check what a
familiar name is quietly assuming.

Careful: the box does not say these traditions are not religions, and it does not rank
one above another. It says the English word covers only part of what they are. Notice
too that it lists Sikhism, which this chapter does not otherwise discuss — the point is
meant to apply to Indian traditions generally.

In-text Questions — Page 120

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Folk and Tribal Roots — What is a tribe?

Q1 What is a tribe?

There is no single definition — the chapter says so in its first line: “There are many
definitions for this social entity.” What it then gives is the definition anthropologists usually
use today. A tribe is a group of families or clans that has five features together:

# FEATURE WHAT IT MEANS

1 A tradition of common descent The members regard themselves as descended from common
ancestors

2 A shared culture Their own festivals, dress, art, songs, customs and beliefs

3 A shared language Often a language spoken by that community alone

4 A close-knit community under a People know one another; a chief, not a distant government,
chief settles matters

5 No private property Land and resources are held in common rather than owned by
individuals

Ancient India had no word for it. This is the most interesting sentence in the box: “tribes were
just different janas that lived in a specific environment, such as forests or mountains.” The same
word, jana, that the Ṛig Veda uses for the Bharatas and the Kurus. There was no separate
category for these communities and therefore no line drawn between 'us' and 'them'. The
Constitution of India uses ‘tribes’ and ‘tribal communities’ in English, and janjāti in Hindi —
and jan is that same old word.

Official figures, 2011:

705 tribes, spread over most States

population about 104 million

— more than the populations of Australia and the United Kingdom together

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co m
m.
Why the definition needs handling with care: the fifth feature — no private

m l a se
property — fits many communities historically but not all of them today, and the box
o g
.c by admitting there are many definitions. Tribal communities
a
m
itself opens in India

l a sefrom very small groups in the Andaman Islands to the Gonds, Bhils and
g
range
aSanthals, each numbering in millions. A definition is a starting point for study, not a
test that a real community must pass.
co m
e m . ag
g l as
a
The correction the chapter insists on: “In the 19th century, anthropologists
studying tribes often described them as ‘primitive’ or ‘inferior’ to civilised people.
With deeper studies of tribal communities and their rich and complex cultures,
co m
such biased judgments have been mostly abandoned.” Those two words are not
e m.
m l as
.co g
descriptions — they were judgments, and they were wrong.
m a
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a g
In-text Questions — Page 121
m a s
Folk and Tribal Roots — the exchange between traditions
m .co agl
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Q1
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How have such interactions taken place for so long and so naturally?

co m
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The chapter answers its own question in the next sentence: “It is, in the end, because folk,

a s em and Hindu belief systems have many similar concepts.” Where two traditions already
tribal

a gl think alike, borrowing does not feel like borrowing.
se m
THE SHARED HOW IT APPEARS IN ALL THREE
com g l a
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CONCEPT

Nature is sacred
a gl
Mountains, rivers, trees, plants, animals “and some stones too” are regarded as sacred —
because there is consciousness behind all of them. That reason is the same in folk, tribal and

com
Hindu belief

.
m a s em elements”. For the Toda of
the Nilgiris, over thirty peaks are the residences of a godl or goddess — so sacred that the Todas
co
Many deities Tribes “generally worship many deities associated with those natural

e m . ag
l as
will not point at them with a finger

a g
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And, above them, “Despite this multiplicity of deities, as with Hinduism, many tribal groups have a concept of a
one supreme being
m
higher divinity”: Donyipolo (Sun and Moon combined) in Arunachal Pradesh, Khandoba in
a s e
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parts of central India, Singbonga among the Munda and Santhal, “who created this whole

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world”

a g l
What actually crossed over, in both directions:

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Tribal → wider tradition: Jagannath of Puri, by tradition originally a tribal deity; various
forms of the mother-goddess worshipped across India.
Wider tradition → tribal: some tribes “adopted Hindu deities long ago, and possess their
own versions of the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa” — documented from India's
northeastern States all the way to Tamil Nadu.
Both ways, continuously: “Deities, concepts, legends and rituals have been freely
exchanged in both directions.”

And why it happened naturally — that is, without anybody organising it: there was no authority
declaring which deity belonged to whom, no requirement to give up one thing before accepting
another, and no boundary drawn in the first place, since ancient India had no separate word for
'tribe' at all. People simply lived alongside one another and the traffic followed.

The result, in the chapter's own word: enrichment. “Clearly, the result of this long
interaction has been mutual enrichment.” Both sides ended with more than they
started with. That is why folk and tribal beliefs and practices “also count among
India's cultural roots” — a root, not a borrowing.

Did you know? The page also carries two pictures worth pausing on — a striking
tribal painting in white on a deep red ground, its border built entirely from rows of
tiny geometric figures, and a photograph of a Toda man of the Nilgiris in an
embroidered cloak. Chapter 8 takes up tribal art in detail.

Before we move on … — Page 122
The chapter in four points

BEFORE WE MOVE ON …

Q1 The Vedas, India's earliest texts, gave rise to several schools of thought. Vedanta
and Yoga are among the best known.

Follow the line from a text to a school of thought — the chapter draws it in three steps.

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The Vedas — four collections of hymns, memorised and recited

↓

The Upaniṣhads — texts that built upon Vedic concepts and added new ones: rebirth,

karma

↓

Schools of thought — Vedanta (everything is one divine essence, brahman) and Yoga

(methods to realise brahman in one's consciousness)

VEDANTA YOGA

Its central claim Everything — human life, nature and the universe — is To achieve the realisation of
or aim one divine essence, brahman, sometimes just tat, 'that' brahman in one's own
consciousness

Its characteristic aham brahmāsmi — “I am brahman”; tat tvam asi — Not a sentence but a method
sentence “You are That” — Yoga is something you do

What follows The ātman in every being is one with brahman, so Understanding is not enough; it
from it everything is connected and interdependent — hence has to be realised in one's own
sarve bhavantu sukhinah, “May all creatures be happy” experience

“Together, these schools of thought became the foundations for what we call ‘Hinduism’ today”
— so Hinduism, in this chapter's account, is not one founder's teaching but the meeting of
several older streams.

Tip: keep brahman (the one divine essence), Brahmā (a deity) and brahmin (a social
group) apart. The book warns you about the first two on page 109; students lose
marks on this every year.

Q2 Buddhism and Jainism departed from the authority of the Vedas and laid emphasis
on some specific values and practices.

“Departed from the authority of the Vedas” is the exact point of difference. Both accepted
dharma, karma and rebirth — but neither accepted that a teaching is true because the Vedas
say so. Each built its own system on what its founder had realised.

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BUDDHISM JAINISM

Founder as the Prince Siddhārtha Gautama, born at Lumbini Prince Vardhamāna, born near Vaiśhālī
chapter names (today in Nepal), about two-and-a-half in modern-day Bihar, in the early 6th
him millenniums ago; Chapter 4 took 560 BCE as an century BCE; Jainism's roots “are said
approximate year to be much more ancient”

The turning At 29, saw an old man, a sick man, a dead body — At 30, decided to leave home and go in
point and an ascetic who appeared happy and at search of spiritual knowledge
peace. Left palace, wife and son

What he Meditated many days under a pipal tree at Bodh Practised ascetic discipline and after 12
attained, and Gaya; realised that avidyā and attachment are the years achieved 'infinite knowledge' or
how source of suffering, and conceived a method to supreme wisdom. Became Mahāvīra,
remove them. Became the Buddha, 'the awakened 'great hero'
one'

Values Ahimsa; a sincere inner discipline — “Not by Ahimsa, anekāntavāda (truth has
emphasised water is one made pure … one is pure in whom many aspects), aparigraha (non-
truth and dharma reside” possession); the interdependence of all
creatures

Practice and The Sangha — bhikṣhus and later bhikṣhuṇīs — Ascetic discipline; monks and sometimes
community dedicated to practising and spreading the teachings nuns travelling to spread the teaching

Both sent monks and nuns travelling across the land. Some built monasteries in faraway
places; others lived in caves cut into the rock. Archaeology has found those monasteries — and
sometimes “the names of the monks who lived in the rock-cut caves and slept on the stone
beds!”

The name that tells you what kind of victory each tradition wanted: ‘Buddha’
means the awakened one, and jina — the root of ‘Jain’ — means conqueror, but of
ignorance and attachments, “not … the conquest of territory or enemies”. Two
founders born in royal families, and both took the vocabulary of kingship and turned
it inwards.

Q3 Although these schools had different principles and methods, they also shared
some important concepts; they were all looking for the cause of suffering and the
means of removing ignorance.

This is the trunk of the tree the chapter opened with. Different branches, one trunk.

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SHARED WHAT IT MEANS HERE
CONCEPT

Dharma Right conduct and the order that upholds the world — a word all three traditions use, each in
its own way

Karma Our actions and their results — introduced by the Upaniṣhads and accepted by Buddhism and
Jainism too

Rebirth Taking birth again and again; the Jātaka tales are stories of the Buddha's own former births

An end to suffering The whole point of the search. The Buddha named avidyā and attachment; jina means the
and ignorance conqueror of ignorance and attachments; and Yoga's methods aim at realisation, which is the
opposite of ignorance

Shared values Above all ahimsa, which the chapter calls central to Indian culture and which is “shared to a
large extent” between Jainism, Buddhism and the Vedantic school

And where they genuinely differ — the chapter does not smooth this over:

The authority of the Vedas — accepted by the Vedic schools, not accepted by Buddhism
and Jainism.
What lies behind the world — one divine essence, brahman, for Vedanta; not so for the
Buddhist and Jain analyses; and nothing beyond matter at all for the Chārvākas.
Method — ritual and knowledge, inner discipline and meditation, or ascetic practice.
Different roads.

The chapter's own image: many roots, one trunk, many branches

Vedanta Yoga Buddhism Jainism Folk and tribal
brahman, ātman methods of realisation ahimsa, the Sangha anekāntavāda, aparigraha practice, art, deities

THE COMMON TRUNK
dharma · karma · rebirth · shared values
the search for an end to suffering and ignorance

The Vedas Oral traditions Folk and tribal Sindhu-Sarasvatī
and the Upaniṣhads carried by practice beliefs and practices civilisation (Ch. 6)

ROOTS — “Like any ancient tree, it has many roots and many branches.”

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The chapter's opening and closing image, drawn out. Read it from the bottom up: roots feed one
co m
e m.
trunk, and out of the trunk grow branches that stay different from one another while sharing

m l as
.co
everything below.

a g
a s em
gl if a question asks you to “compare” these schools, always give both halves —
aTip:
first what is shared (dharma, karma, rebirth, the end of suffering, ahimsa), then

. com
where they part (the authority of the Vedas). An answer that gives only the
ag
a s emtold half the truth.
differences, or only the similarities, has

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Tribal belief systems and art have interacted for millenniums with Hinduism. There
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Q4

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was free borrowing and giving from every side. Tribal belief systems generally

m .c the land and its features as sacred; they often have,agat the same time, a
se higher concept of divinity.
regard

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Three claims are packed into this bullet. Take them one at a time. agl
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THE CLAIM a g
THE EVIDENCE IN THE CHAPTER

1. Interaction for
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Jagannath of Puri was, by tradition, originally a tribal deity, as were various forms of
millenniums, in both
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the mother-goddess; on the other side, some tribes adopted Hindu deities long ago and

m l a
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directions have their own versions of the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa. André Béteille: the

em
influence has run both ways “since the beginning of history

a s
agl 2. The land and its Mountains, rivers, trees, plants, animals “and some stones too” are held sacred

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features are sacred because there is consciousness behind all of them. The Toda of the Nilgiris hold over

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thirty peaks to be the residences of a god or goddess — so sacred that they will not

.c a g
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even point at them

l a sine Arunachal Pradesh, the combined form of the Sun and the Moon, “who
agrose to the higher status of a supreme god”; Khandoba in parts of central India;
3. And at the same Donyipolo
time, a higher later

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divinity Singbonga among the Munda and Santhal, “a supreme deity who created this whole

. co
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world”

m as e
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emyou on in the very next exercise: “Tribal belief systems are limited to belief in spirits and minor
Why the third claim is in the summary at all. Because it corrects the mistake the chapter tests

a s
agl deities” — false. Many tribal belief systems hold both a multiplicity of local deities and a
.c
supreme being, in the same way that Hinduism does.
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What ‘free borrowing and giving from every side’ actually rules out: it rules out
the picture of a big tradition absorbing small ones. Béteille's sentence is deliberately
balanced — the influence of Hinduism on tribal religions “is widely accepted, but it is
equally true” that Hinduism has been influenced by tribal religions, “not only in its
formative phase but throughout its evolution”. Nobody here is only a receiver.

Looking ahead: “We will further develop this point in the next chapter.” Chapter 8
continues with India's cultural roots, and the banyan tree photograph closing this
chapter is described as an illustration for the themes of Chapters 7 and 8 together.

Questions, activities and projects — Page 123
End-of-chapter exercise

Q1 If you were Nachiketa, what questions would you like to ask Yama? Write them
down in 100-150 words.

Recall the story first (page 111–112). A father, giving away his possessions in a ritual, is asked
once too often by his son Nachiketa which god he will be given to, and snaps: “I give you to
Yama.” The boy takes it seriously, goes to Yama's world, waits a long time, and meets the god of
death. He asks one question and refuses to be put off: “What happens after the death of the
body?” Yama tries to avoid answering; the boy persists; and Yama, pleased, explains that the
ātman, the Self, is hidden within all creatures — “It is neither born, nor does it die; it is
immortal.”
What makes a good question in this exercise: Nachiketa's questions are not curious, they are
necessary. He asks the one thing nobody living can answer, and he asks it of the only being who
can. Write questions with that seriousness — and write them as questions, not as speeches.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

KIND OF EXAMPLES YOU COULD USE
QUESTION

About what survives If the ātman is neither born nor dies, what is it that does end when a person dies? Does the
ātman remember the life it has left?

About karma and Do our actions follow us? Who decides what the next birth will be — you, or the person
rebirth themselves?

About how to live If death comes to everyone, what is worth spending a life on? What do people most regret
when they reach you?

About fear Why are people so afraid of you? Is there anything about death they have understood
wrongly?

About your own Is it hard to be the god everyone dreads? Do you ever wish you could refuse to take
work someone?

Sample answer (about 140 words):
“If I were Nachiketa, I would keep my questions few and ask them plainly.
First: you have told me the ātman is neither born nor does it die. Then what exactly
is it that ends when a body is burnt? Is the person I love still a person somewhere, or
only an essence?
Second: does the ātman carry any memory across a birth? If it does not, in what
sense is it still me?
Third: do our actions really follow us, and who keeps that account — you, or the
person themselves?
Fourth: since you meet everyone at the end, tell me what people most often regret. I
would rather know that now than find out later.
And last, one question for you alone: is it a heavy thing to be the god that everybody
fears?”

Why the story ends the way it does: Nachiketa gets his answer because he would
not stop asking — “Yama tried to avoid answering, but the boy persisted. Pleased,
Yama explained …” This is the same lesson as the Śhvetaketu and Gārgī stories: the
Upaniṣhads treat a good question as more valuable than a ready-made answer.

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Q2 Explain a few central ideas of Buddhism. Briefly comment upon them.

Five central ideas, as this chapter presents them — with a comment on each, since the question
asks for one.

CENTRAL IDEA WHAT IT SAYS COMMENT

1. Suffering has a Under the pipal tree at Bodh Gaya the Notice the structure: a diagnosis, then a
cause, and the cause Buddha “realised that avidyā (ignorance) treatment. He does not say suffering is a
can be removed and attachment are the source of human punishment or a mystery — he treats it as
suffering, and conceived a method to something with a cause that can be worked
remove these two causes” on

2. Ahimsa Usually translated 'non-violence', but Stated as 'non-hurting' it becomes a positive
originally 'non-hurting' or 'non-injuring'; daily practice rather than a list of forbidden
and it extends to violence in thought, such as acts
ill feeling towards anyone

3. Sincere inner “Not by water is one made pure, though A striking thing for a teacher to say in a land
discipline matters many people may bathe here [in sacred of sacred rivers. He does not forbid the bath;
more than outward rivers]. But one is pure in whom truth and he says the bath is not what does the work
ritual dharma reside”

4. Conquering “Conquering oneself is greater than Said in an age of kings and conquests, and
oneself conquering a thousand men on the battlefield said by a man who had been born a prince
a thousand times” and walked away from it

5. The Sangha A community of bhikṣhus (monks) and later Ideas last when someone is organised to
bhikṣhuṇīs (nuns) who dedicated themselves carry them. It is the Sangha that took
to practising and spreading the teachings Buddhism across India and Asia, and the
chapter notes that its influence “is still
perceptible today”

Along with these, Buddhism shares with the Vedic and Jain schools the concepts of dharma,
karma and rebirth — the Jātaka tales, stories of the Buddha's former births, are built on
rebirth and “express in simple terms the Buddhist values”, as the monkey-king story does.

Beyond the book: Buddhist tradition itself sums up the first idea above as the Four
Noble Truths — there is suffering; suffering has a cause; the cause can be brought
to an end; and there is a path to that ending. That path is the Eightfold Path, and its
goal is Nirvāṇa, the ending of suffering. This chapter does not use these terms, but
they are the tradition's own, and using them correctly is better than paraphrasing
them loosely.

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How to write this answer in an exam: name the idea, give the Buddha's own words
where the chapter supplies them, then add one line of comment. Quotations are
what separate a good answer from a vague one, and this chapter gives you two of
them on a single page.

Q3 Discuss in class the quotation of the Buddha which begins with “Not by water is one
made pure, though many people may bathe here [in sacred rivers]” to make sure
that its meaning has been understood by all.

The full saying is on page 113:

“Not by water is one made pure, though many people may bathe here [in sacred rivers].

But one is pure in whom truth and dharma reside.

Conquering oneself is greater than conquering a thousand men on the battlefield a thousand

times.”

Line by line.

THE LINE WHAT IT MEANS

“Not by water is one made Washing cleans the body. It cannot reach whatever it is in a person that needed
pure” cleaning

“though many people may He is not attacking an unusual practice — he is pointing at what everybody
bathe here” around him was doing, and asking what it actually achieves

“one is pure in whom truth and The test is inside: honesty, and right conduct. And reside is a strong word
dharma reside” — not visits, not is displayed, but lives there

“Conquering oneself is greater The same idea aimed at pride instead of ritual. The hardest opponent is
…” not the one across the battlefield

What the saying does not mean. Two misreadings are worth heading off in the discussion.

It does not say bathing in a river is wrong or foolish. It says purity of character does not
come from it.
It does not say outward practice is worthless. It says an outward act with nothing behind it is
incomplete — “one is pure in whom truth and dharma reside” is an addition, not a
cancellation.

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co m
m.
How to run the discussion (about 20 minutes):

m
1. Read the whole quotation aloud twice, slowly.
o l a se
m .cput the first sentence into your own words in one line.agCollect four or five
2. In pairs,

l a se on the board and compare them.
a3.g Ask: can you think of anything today that people do because it looks right rather than
versions

because it is right? — wearing the correct uniform on a school-cleanliness day and
co m
.
littering the next; posting about a cause without doing anything for it; apologising
m ag
without meaning it.
l a se
4. Ask the harder question: is a g Buddha saying rituals are useless? Let the class argue
the
it out. Push them towards the careful answer above.

co m
m.
5. Close with the second sentence. Ask each student to write down, privately and

m
unseen, one thing in themselves they would like to conquer.
as e
.co a g l
a s emthe two sentences are printed together: the first says the change has to be
a gl Why
internal; the second says the internal change is the harder of the two. Read alone,

ompoint. a s
agl
the first can sound like an easy criticism of other people. Read with the second, it
turns back on the speaker — which is.cthe
a s em
agl

co m
.
Q4 Explain a few central ideas of Jainism. Briefly comment upon them.

se m
o m g l a
m .c a
se chapter names three Jain teachings and adds a fourth idea that runs under all of them.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CENTRAL WHAT IT SAYS COMMENT
IDEA

1. Ahimsa Mahāvīra's own words: “All breathing, existing, Read the five verbs. They move from
living, sentient creatures should not be slain, killing down to driven away — a creature
nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor that has merely been chased off has still
tormented, nor driven away.” Like Buddhism, been harmed. That is why Jain ahimsa is
Jainism extends it to violence in thought famous for its thoroughness

2. Anekāntavāda 'Not just one' aspect or perspective — “the truth A remarkable idea for a tradition to hold
has many aspects and cannot be fully described about its own statements. It builds humility
by any single statement” into the theory of truth itself, and it makes
listening to a person who disagrees with
you a duty rather than a courtesy

3. Aparigraha 'Non-possession' — detachment from material Notice it is a limit, not a total ban. The
possessions, “limiting oneself to what is truly measure is need, not display — a test
necessary in life” anybody can apply to their own cupboard,
in any century

4. Jainism “insists on the interconnectedness and This is why ahimsa is not sentimental in
Interdependence interdependence of all creatures, from humans Jainism but structural: if everything
of all life to invisible organisms, as they support each depends on everything else, harm is never
other and cannot live without one another” local. The chapter adds that scientists
studying nature “have again and again
confirmed this deep truth”

And the meaning of the name. ‘Jain’ or jaina comes from jina, meaning ‘conqueror’ — “not …
the conquest of territory or enemies, but … the conquest of ignorance and attachments, so as
to reach enlightenment.” Mahāvīra itself means ‘great hero’. Both words are borrowed from the
world of warriors and turned inwards.
These ideas “shared to a large extent with Buddhism and the Vedantic school of thought, are
central to Indian culture” — the chapter's own claim, and the reason it discusses Jainism at
length in a chapter about roots.

Beyond the book: Jain tradition counts 24 Tīrthaṅkaras — literally 'ford-makers',
those who make a crossing over the stream of worldly existence. Mahāvīra was the
twenty-fourth, which is why the chapter says Jainism's “roots are said to be much
more ancient” than the 6th century BCE. He is remembered as the last great teacher
of an older tradition, not as the inventor of a new one.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The idea most worth carrying out of this chapter: anekāntavāda. It is the rarest
of the three, and the most useful in an argument. It does not say every opinion is
equally right; it says no single statement captures the whole of a truth — so the
sensible response to someone who disagrees is to find out which aspect they are
looking at.

Q5 Consider and discuss in class André Béteille's thought (see page 122).

The quotation, in full:

“The thousands of castes and tribes on the Indian subcontinent have influenced each other

in their religious beliefs and practices since the beginning of history and before. That the

tribal religions have been influenced by Hinduism is widely accepted, but it is equally true
that Hinduism, not only in its formative phase but throughout its evolution, has been

influenced by tribal religions.”

Unpack the four moves he makes.

THE PHRASE WHAT HE IS CLAIMING

“influenced each other” Not one influencing the other. He puts the traffic in both directions in the
very first sentence

“since the beginning of history and The exchange is older than any record of it. There is no early period in
before” which the traditions were separate and pure

“is widely accepted, but it is equally He is politely pointing out that people accept only half of the fact —
true” the half in which the bigger tradition does the influencing

“not only in its formative phase but The strongest claim of the four. The borrowing is not something that
throughout its evolution” happened once, long ago; it has been going on continuously

The evidence from this chapter, put on both sides:

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

TRIBAL → WIDER TRADITION WIDER TRADITION → TRIBAL

Jagannath, worshipped at Puri, was by tradition Some tribes adopted Hindu deities long ago
originally a tribal deity

Various forms of the mother-goddess Tribes possess their own versions of the Mahābhārata and the
worshipped across India Rāmāyaṇa, from the northeastern States to Tamil Nadu

The sacredness of mountains, rivers, trees and Concepts, legends and rituals “freely exchanged in both directions”
stones, shared by all three systems

How to run the discussion: divide the class in two. Group A collects everything in
the chapter showing influence from tribal traditions; Group B collects everything
showing influence towards them. Give ten minutes. Then ask each group the same
question: could you have filled your list without the other group's list existing? The
answer is no, and that is Béteille's point — the two lists are the same history seen
from two ends. Finish with the chapter's own word for the result: mutual
enrichment.

Why a sociologist is quoted in a history chapter: a sociologist studies societies as
they are now. Béteille's sentence is not about a distant past — “throughout its
evolution” includes the present. It is a claim you can test in your own town, at the
next local festival, by asking where a deity or a custom came from. Very often
nobody can tell you, and that is the most honest evidence of all.

Q6 Make a list of popular gods and goddesses in your region and the festivals they are
associated with.

This is your own regional list — so the method matters more than the answer. Do not copy a
general list off the internet; the point is to record your region.
How to build it properly.

1. Ask three generations. A grandparent will name deities and small local festivals that no
book lists.
2. Walk your neighbourhood. Note every shrine and temple you pass, including small
roadside ones. Write down the deity's name exactly as local people say it.
3. Fill four columns — deity, festival, month or season, and what people actually do (the
procession, the food, the songs, the fair).

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

4. Add one line on origin where you can find it. Some local deities are village or clan deities;
some are forms of a larger deity; some, as the chapter says of Jagannath, are said to have
tribal origins.

DEITY FESTIVAL WHEN WHAT IS DONE

Jagannath (Odisha) Ratha Yātrā Āṣhāḍha (June–July) Three enormous chariots
pulled through Puri by
thousands of people

Durgā (West Bengal, Durgā Pūjā / Āśhvin (September– Pandals, clay images, music,
Assam, Odisha and Navarātri October) immersion on the last day
elsewhere)

Gaṇeśha (Maharashtra, Gaṇeśh Chaturthī Bhādrapada (August– Clay images at home and in
Goa, Karnataka) September) the locality, then visarjan

Khandoba Champā Ṣhaṣhṭhī, Mārgaśhīrṣha Named in this chapter as an
(Maharashtra, the Jejuri fair (November–December) example of a supreme deity in
Karnataka) parts of central India

Murugan (Tamil Nadu) Thaipusam, Thai and Panguni Hill temples, kāvaḍi
Panguni Uthiram (January–February, processions
March–April)

Donyipolo (Arunachal Solung, Mopin and Varies by community The Sun-and-Moon deity
Pradesh) other tribal named on page 121 of this
festivals chapter

Singbonga (Jharkhand, Sarhul, Karam Spring and monsoon The supreme deity of the
Odisha, West Bengal) Munda and Santhal, named
on page 122

Sample answer: “In our part of Maharashtra the most popular deities are Gaṇeśha,
Vithobā of Pandharpur and Khandobā of Jejuri. Gaṇeśh Chaturthī in Bhādrapada is
the biggest festival of our year: every lane sets up a pandal and the images are taken
for immersion after ten days. In Āṣhāḍha, warkaris walk to Pandharpur singing
abhangs for Vithobā. For Khandobā, families from our village go to the Jejuri fair in
Mārgaśhīrṣha and throw turmeric powder, which is why the whole hill turns yellow.
My grandmother says our own family deity is a goddess of a hill near our village
whose name is not found in any book.”

Page 33 of 44

as e
Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
What the exercise is really teaching: that last sentence is the most valuable line in

m l a se
the sample. The chapter's whole argument is that India's cultural roots include
o
traditions.ccarried by ordinary people without written texts. A deity
a gwhose name is in
m
se is not a gap in your project — it is exactly the thing the chapter is about.
no abook
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As a class activity, list two or threem
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tribal groups from your region or State.
a belief systems.
Q7

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A documentation project, so plan it like one: find out, record accurately, present clearly,
m a
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credit your sources.
a gl
Step e 1m
l a s — Identify. Find the Scheduled Tribes listed for your State (a State government or tribal

agwelfare department website, a district gazetteer, or your school library will have this). Pick two
or three that live closest to you.

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Step 2 — Record, under fixed headings, so that the groups can be compared:

se m
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HEADING WHAT TO WRITE DOWN

Where they live
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Districts, and the kind of country — forest, hills, plateau, coast

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Language
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The community's own language and the family it belongs to
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dance forms and when they are performed

Belief system Deities and sacred natural places; any supreme being; festivals and the season each
se m
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falls in; who conducts the rituals
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Exchange with other
ase
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Deities or stories shared with neighbours — the chapter's own theme, and the most
traditions
ainteresting
Step 3 — Some well-documented examples to start from:
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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

TRIBAL MAINLY IN ART BELIEF
GROUP

Warli Maharashtra White geometric painting on Paintings are made for weddings
mud walls — circles, and harvests; the mother-goddess
triangles, rows of dancing Palaghata is central
figures

Gond Madhya Pradesh, Gond painting, built from Big Deo and other deities; sacred
Chhattisgarh, fine dots and lines; wood and groves and trees
Maharashtra, metal work
Telangana

Santhal Jharkhand, West Wall painting, the flute and Singbonga, the supreme deity
Bengal, Odisha, Bihar the tamak and tumdak named in this chapter; sacred
drums, group dances groves called jaher; the spring
festival Sarhul

Bhil Rajasthan, Gujarat, Pithora wall paintings; Bhil Deities of hills and fields; the
Madhya Pradesh painting built from coloured Baneshwar fair
dots

Toda The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu Distinctive red-and-black Over thirty peaks of the Nilgiris
embroidery on white cloaks; are residences of a god or goddess
barrel-vaulted huts — page 121 of this chapter

Apatani, Adi, Arunachal Pradesh Cane and bamboo work, Donyipolo, the Sun-and-Moon
Nyishi and weaving, festival dances deity — page 121
others

Three rules for documenting a living community — please follow them:
1. Use the name the community uses for itself, and spell it as they spell it.
2. Never write ‘primitive’, ‘backward’ or ‘simple’. The chapter is explicit that such
judgments were biased and have been abandoned. Describe what you found; do not
rank it.
3. Say where each fact came from — a book, a website, or a person you spoke to. If
somebody from the community told you, thank them by name in your project, with
their permission.

Why this is worth doing well: tribal art and belief have been part of India's cultural
roots for millenniums, and much of it has never been written down. A careful school
project, done honestly, is a small piece of real documentation. A careless one repeats
the very stereotypes the chapter spends a page correcting.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

True or false — Page 123
End-of-chapter exercise

Q1 The Vedic hymns were written on palm-leaf manuscripts.

FALSE.
The chapter is explicit: the hymns “were recited orally, not written”. They were “committed to
memory through rigorous training and passed on orally with hardly any alterations” — for
anything between 100 and 200 generations.

Why the statement is tempting: palm-leaf manuscripts are a real and important
part of Indian book history — but they came far later. For most of the Vedas' life
there was no manuscript at all, and this is the single fact the chapter most wants you
to hold on to. It is also the reason UNESCO in 2008 honoured Vedic chanting — a
practice, not a text — as “a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of
humanity”.

Q2 The Vedas are India's oldest texts.

TRUE.
“They are the most ancient texts of India, and indeed among the most ancient in the world.”
Experts have proposed dates for the Ṛig Veda — the oldest of the four — ranging from the 5th
to the 2nd millennium BCE.

Careful: ‘oldest texts’ is not the same as ‘oldest writing’. The Harappan seals of
Chapter 6 carry signs that are older than any surviving Vedic manuscript — but that
script is undeciphered, so we have no text from it. The Vedas are the oldest texts we
can actually read.

Q3 The Vedic statement ekam sat viprā bahudhā vadanti reflects a belief in the unity of
cosmic powers.

TRUE.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The hymn is translated in the chapter as: “The Existent [that is, the supreme reality] is one,
but sages give it many names.” It is quoted immediately after the sentence that explains it:
“The early rishis and rishikas saw those gods and goddesses as one, not separate beings.”

What this means in practice: the Vedic hymns are addressed to Indra, Agni,
Varuṇa, Mitra, Sarasvatī, Uṣhas and many more — and yet the tradition itself says
these are many names for one reality. Many deities on the surface, one Existent
behind them. That is exactly what “unity of cosmic powers” means.

Q4 Buddhism is older than the Vedas.

FALSE. The Vedas are very much older.

Ṛig Veda — proposed dates: 5th to 2nd millennium BCE

Siddhārtha Gautama's birth — “about two-and-a-half millenniums ago”; Chapter 4 took

560 BCE as an approximate year

→ the Vedas are older by at least a thousand years, and possibly by three thousand

The chapter also makes the relationship clear in words: Buddhism was one of the schools of
thought that “did not accept the authority of the Vedas” — which means the Vedas were
already there, and already authoritative, when Buddhism appeared.

Q5 Jainism emerged as a branch of Buddhism.

FALSE.
Jainism is “another important school of thought that became widespread at the same time,
although its roots are said to be much more ancient”. The two are contemporaries, not parent
and branch.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

BUDDHISM JAINISM

Teacher Siddhārtha Gautama, born at Lumbini Vardhamāna, born near Vaiśhālī

Period About two-and-a-half millenniums ago Early 6th century BCE

Attainment Enlightenment under a pipal tree at Bodh 'Infinite knowledge' after 12 years of ascetic
Gaya; became the Buddha discipline; became Mahāvīra

Distinctive Avidyā and attachment as the source of Anekāntavāda and aparigraha, alongside
teachings suffering; the Sangha ahimsa

Why they get confused: they arose at the same time, in the same part of India,
both were founded by princes who left royal families, both rejected the authority of
the Vedas, and both teach ahimsa. Similar is not the same as descended from.

Q6 Both Buddhism and Jainism advocated for peaceful coexistence and the avoidance
of harm to all living beings.

TRUE.
Both are built on ahimsa, and in both it goes further than not striking a blow.

BUDDHISM JAINISM

The Buddha taught “the idea of ahimsa, which is Mahāvīra: “All breathing, existing, living, sentient
generally translated as ‘non-violence’, but originally creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor
means ‘non-hurting’ or ‘non-injuring’” abused, nor tormented, nor driven away”

“Conquering oneself is greater than conquering a Insists on “the interconnectedness and interdependence of
thousand men on the battlefield a thousand times” all creatures, from humans to invisible organisms”

And in both, as the THINK ABOUT IT box on page 118 says, ahimsa “means much more than
refraining from physical violence … It also means refraining from violence in thought.”

Q7 Tribal belief systems are limited to belief in spirits and minor deities.

FALSE.

Page 38 of 44

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots
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“Despite this multiplicity of deities, as with Hinduism, many tribal groups have a concept
co m
of a higher divinity or supreme being.” The chapter gives three examples, on pages 121 and
e m.
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122.

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SUPREME WORSHIPPED BY WHAT THE CHAPTER SAYS

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Donyipolo Several tribes of Arunachal

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Parts of central India
l “This is also the case of the god Khandoba”

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Singbonga The Munda and Santhal, among “A supreme deity who created this whole world”

se
others, in eastern India

o m l a
m .cmany more such examples,” the chapter adds. Tribal beliefagsystems also include rich
se of art, festivals, sacred landscapes and their own versions of the Mahābhārata and the
“There are
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agRāmāyaṇa. ‘Limited to spirits and minor deities’ is precisely the sort of biased 19th-century
bodies

m
judgment that the chapter records as having been mostly abandoned.
a s
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Why this statement is the most important 'false' in the list: the other six test
a g
facts. This one tests an attitude. Getting it wrong would mean repeating exactly the
mistake the chapter spends a page correcting.

co m
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m as e
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asemactivity — Page 123
Class
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End-of-chapter exercise

se m
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CLASS ACTIVITY

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s god of death, surrounded by several Nachiketas
Stage a small play with a
Q1
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a about life.
asking him questions

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How to put it together.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

ELEMENT SUGGESTION

Cast One Yama; five to eight Nachiketas; one narrator; optionally the father, for a short opening scene

Set A single chair on one side for Yama and an empty floor for the boys and girls. Nothing else is needed

Costume A dark shawl for Yama; plain clothes for everyone else. Do not make Yama frightening — in the
story he is stern at first and then pleased

Length Eight to ten minutes. One question per Nachiketa, one answer per question

Rule of the Yama may refuse the first two or three questions, exactly as he does in the Upaniṣhad. Only when
play the children keep asking does he begin to answer. The refusal is the point

Sample opening (adapt it freely):
Narrator: A man was giving away everything he owned. His son Nachiketa asked,
again and again, to whom his father would give him.
Father (angry): I give you to Yama!
Narrator: And so the children went to the house of Death, and waited three days.
Yama: You have waited long, and no one has offered you water. Ask me anything.
First Nachiketa: Then tell us — what happens after the death of the body?
Yama: Ask something else. Ask for wealth, for long life, for horses and elephants.
Second Nachiketa: Horses die. Elephants die. We will keep the question.
Third Nachiketa: What happens after the death of the body?
Yama (after a pause, pleased): Then listen. The Self is hidden within all creatures. It
is neither born, nor does it die. It is immortal.
Fourth Nachiketa: If it is not born, what is it that we call ‘I’?
Fifth Nachiketa: And what is worth doing, with the years we do have?
Yama: That question, child, is the whole of the answer to the first.

Questions the other Nachiketas can ask — give each actor one, and let them choose it
themselves so they mean it: Does anything of our actions follow us? Why are people so afraid of
you? What do people most regret when they reach you? Is anyone ever glad to see you? What should
we not waste our time on?

What makes this play work rather than fall flat: resist the temptation to make
Yama a villain in a scary mask. In the Upaniṣhad he is a teacher who first tests the
boy and then respects him. The dramatic energy comes entirely from persistence —
children who will not be bought off with an easier subject. Rehearse that
stubbornness and the play will hold the audience.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Follow-up for the class: after the performance, ask the audience to write down the
one question from the play they would most like answered. Collect them
anonymously and read them out. You will have made your own small Upaniṣhad — a
set of questions asked by children, which is exactly what the original is.

Chapter at a glance
Indian culture is drawn as a tree — many roots, one trunk, many branches. The chapter
opens with that image and closes with a photograph of a banyan. The roots go back
thousands of years, some of them as far as the Indus-Sarasvatī civilisation of Chapter 6.
From the roots grows a common trunk of shared ideas, and out of the trunk grow branches
— art, literature, science, medicine, governance, martial arts, and many schools of
thought, that is, groups of thinkers or spiritual seekers who share similar ideas about
human life and the world.
The Vedas are India's oldest texts, and they were memorised, not written. The word
comes from Sanskrit vid, 'knowledge'. There are four — the Ṛig, Yajur, Sāma and Atharva
Veda — made of thousands of hymns, prayers in the form of poems and songs, composed
by rishis (male seers) and rishikas (female seers) in an early form of Sanskrit, in the Sapta
Sindhava region. Experts date the Ṛig Veda anywhere between the 5th and the 2nd
millennium BCE, so for 100 to 200 generations these texts were carried in memory alone. In
2008 UNESCO recognised Vedic chanting as “a masterpiece of the oral and intangible
heritage of humanity”.
The Vedic message begins with unity. Hymns are addressed to many deities — Indra,
Agni, Varuṇa, Mitra, Sarasvatī, Uṣhas — who, together with the seers, sustain ṛitam, truth
and order in human life and in the cosmos. Yet the early rishis and rishikas saw those
deities as one, not as separate beings: ekam sat viprā bahudhā vadanti — “The Existent is
one, but sages give it many names.” Truth was often another name for God, and the last
mantras of the Ṛig Veda call for people to come together, speak together and be united in
mind and heart.
The Upaniṣhads added rebirth, karma, brahman and ātman. Vedic society was
organised in janas or clans — the Ṛig Veda alone lists over thirty — with words like rājā,
sabhā and samiti as our only clues to how they governed themselves. Vedic culture
developed yajña rituals, which grew steadily more complex. The Upaniṣhads built on Vedic
ideas and introduced new ones: rebirth and karma. In the school later called Vedanta,
everything is one divine essence, brahman — aham brahmāsmi, tat tvam asi — and the
ātman or Self within every being is ultimately one with it. From this follows sarve bhavantu
sukhinah, “May all creatures be happy”. Yoga, another school, developed methods to realise
brahman in one's consciousness. Together these schools became the foundations of what is
called Hinduism today.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Buddhism and Jainism did not accept the authority of the Vedas. Prince Siddhārtha
Gautama, born at Lumbini (today in Nepal) about two-and-a-half millenniums ago, saw at
the age of 29 an old man, a sick man, a dead body and a peaceful ascetic; he left his palace,
and after meditating under a pipal tree at Bodh Gaya realised that avidyā (ignorance) and
attachment are the source of human suffering. He became the Buddha, the 'awakened
one', taught ahimsa — literally 'non-hurting' — and a sincere inner discipline, and founded
the Sangha of bhikṣhus and later bhikṣhuṇīs. Prince Vardhamāna, born near Vaiśhālī in the
early 6th century BCE, left home at 30 and after 12 years of ascetic discipline attained
'infinite knowledge', becoming Mahāvīra. Jain teachings rest on ahimsa, anekāntavāda
(truth has many aspects) and aparigraha (non-possession).
Different schools, one trunk — and complete freedom to choose. A third school, the
Chārvāka or Lokāyata, held that only this material world exists and that there can be no
life after death; it never became popular and disappeared, but the book mentions it to show
how wide the diversity of belief systems was — “people were free to choose what suited
them”. Despite important differences, the Vedic, Buddhist and Jain schools shared
dharma, karma, rebirth, the search for an end to suffering and ignorance, and many
values. That shared ground is the trunk of the tree.
Folk and tribal traditions are cultural roots too — and the borrowing went both ways.
India's oral traditions pass on teachings and practices through everyday practice rather
than written texts. A tribe, as anthropologists define it today, is a group of families or clans
sharing common descent, a culture and a language, living as a close-knit community under
a chief and holding no private property; ancient India had no word for it — tribes were
simply janas living in forests or mountains. In 2011 India had 705 tribes and about 104
million tribal people. Jagannath of Puri was, by tradition, originally a tribal deity; many
tribes long ago adopted Hindu deities and have their own Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa.
Mountains, rivers, trees and even some stones are sacred in folk, tribal and Hindu belief
alike, and many tribes also hold a concept of a supreme being — Donyipolo, Khandoba,
Singbonga. As the sociologist André Béteille put it, the influence has run in both directions
“since the beginning of history and before”.

Page 42 of 44

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

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TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT WORTH REMEMBERING
APPEARS IN
THE CHAPTER

Veda India's most ancient texts; from Sanskrit Page 106 Four: Ṛig, Yajur, Sāma,
vid, 'knowledge' (hence vidyā) Atharva — recited orally,
not written

Rishi / rishika Male and female seers or sages who Page 107 The Vedas were composed
composed the Vedic hymns by women as well as men

Ṛitam Truth and order in human life and in the Page 107 The Vedic idea that truth
cosmos, sustained by the deities together and order are the same
with the seers thing

Ekam sat viprā “The Existent [the supreme reality] is Page 107 Many deities, one reality —
bahudhā vadanti one, but sages give it many names” the heart of the Vedic
worldview

Jana A clan — a larger group of people; the Page 108 Bharatas, Purus, Kurus,
Ṛig Veda lists over 30 of them Yadus, Turvaśhas

Sabhā and samiti Words in the Vedas for a collective Page 109 Almost our only clue to how
gathering or assembly the janas governed
themselves

Yajña Vedic ritual (often read as 'yagya'), Page 109 Daily rituals were offerings
directed to deities for individual or to Agni; they grew more
collective wellbeing complex over time

Upaniṣhads A group of texts that built upon Vedic Page 109 Introduced rebirth and
concepts and introduced new ones karma

Brahman The one divine essence of everything — Page 109 Not the god Brahmā. aham
human life, nature and the universe; brahmāsmi, tat tvam asi
sometimes just tat, 'that'

Ātman The Self — the divine essence residing in Page 110 Why everything is
every being, ultimately one with brahman connected and
interdependent

Vedanta / Yoga Two of the schools of thought that grew Pages 109–110 Together with others they
out of the Vedas became the foundations of
Hinduism

Avidyā and Ignorance, and the bond of sentiment or Page 113 The Buddha's discovery:
attachment habit with someone or something these two are the source of

Page 43 of 44

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 7 India's Cultural Roots
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