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CHAPTER 1, , WHA, T , WHERE, HO, W AND WHEN?, WHAT, HOW, Rasheeda’s question, Rasheeda sat reading the newspaper. Suddenly, her eyes, fell on a small headline: “One Hundred Years Ago.” How,, she wondered, could anyone know what had happened, so many years ago?, , Finding out what happened, Yesterday: you could listen to the radio, watch, television, read a newspaper., Last year: ask somebody who remembers., But what about long, long ago? Let us see how it, can be done., , What can w, w about the past?, wee kno, know, There are several things we can find out — what, people ate, the kinds of clothes they wore, the, houses in which they lived. We can find out about, the lives of hunters, herders, farmers, rulers,, merchants, priests, crafts persons, artists,, musicians, and scientists. We can also find out, about the games children played, the stories they, heard, the plays they saw, the songs they sang., , Wher, e?, Wheree did people liv, live?, Find the river Narmada on Map 1 (page 2). People, have lived along the banks of this river for several, hundred thousand years. Some of the earliest, people who lived here were skilled gatherers, —, that is, people who gathered their food. They knew, about the vast wealth of plants in the surrounding, forests, and collected roots, fruits and other forest, produce for their food. They also hunted animals., , 1n, WHAT , WHERE, HOW, AND WHEN ?

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Now find the Sulaiman and Kirthar hills to the, northwest. Some of the areas where women and, men first began to grow crops such as wheat and, barley about 8000 years ago are located here., People also began rearing animals like sheep, goat,, and cattle, and lived in villages. Locate the Garo, hills to the north-east and the Vindhyas in central, India. These were some of the other areas where, , MAP : 1, Physical Map of the Subcontinent, , n2, OUR PASTS–I

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agriculture developed. The places where rice was, first grown are to the north of the Vindhyas., T race the river Indus and its tributaries, (tributaries are smaller rivers that flow into a, larger river). About 4700 years ago, some of the, earliest cities flourished on the banks of these, rivers. Later, about 2500 years ago, cities, developed on the banks of the Ganga and its, tributaries, and along the sea coasts., Locate the Ganga and its tributary called the, Son. In ancient times the area along these rivers, to the south of the Ganga was known as Magadha, now lying in the state of Bihar. Its rulers were very, powerful, and set up a large kingdom. Kingdoms, were set up in other parts of the country as well., Throughout, people travelled from one part of, the subcontinent to another. The hills and high, mountains including the Himalayas, deserts, rivers, and seas made journeys dangerous at times, but, never impossible. So, men and women moved in, search of livelihood, as also to escape from natural, disasters like floods or droughts. Sometimes men, marched in armies, conquering others’ lands., Besides, merchants travelled with caravans or, ships, carrying valuable goods from place to place., And religious teachers walked from village to, village, town to town, stopping to offer instruction, and advice on the way. Finally, some people, perhaps travelled driven by a spirit of adventure,, wanting to discover new and exciting places. All, these led to the sharing of ideas between people., Why do people travel nowadays?, Look at Map 1 once more. Hills, mountains and, seas form the natural frontiers of the subcontinent., While it was difficult to cross these frontiers, those, who wanted could and did scale the mountains, and cross the seas. People from across the frontiers, also came into the subcontinent and settled here., , Facing Page: This is a, map of South Asia, (including the present, countries of India,, Pakistan, Bangladesh,, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri, Lanka) and the, neighbouring countries, of Afghanistan, Iran,, China and Myanmar., South Asia is often, called a subcontinent, because although it is, smaller than a continent,, it is very large, and is, separated from the rest, of Asia by seas, hills and, mountains., , 3n, WHAT , WHERE, HOW, AND WHEN ?

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These movements of people enriched our cultural, traditions. People have shared new ways of carving, stone, composing music, and even cooking food, over several hundreds of years., , Names of the land, Two of the words we often use for our country are, India and Bharat. The word India comes from the, Indus, called Sindhu in Sanskrit. Find Iran and, Greece in your atlas. The Iranians and the Greeks, who came through the northwest about 2500 years, ago and were familiar with the Indus, called it the, Hindos or the Indos, and the land to the east of, the river was called India. The name Bharata was, used for a group of people who lived in the northwest, and who are mentioned in the Rigveda, the, earliest composition in Sanskrit (dated to about, 3500 years ago). Later it was used for the country., , Finding out about the past, A page from a palm leaf, manuscript., This manuscript was, written about a thousand, years ago. The palm, leaves were cut into, pages and tied together, to make books. To see a, birch bark manuscript,, turn to page 45., , n4, OUR PASTS–I, , There are several ways of finding out about the, past. One is to search for and read books that, were written long ago. These are called, manuscripts, because they were written by hand, (this comes from the Latin word ‘manu’, meaning, hand). These were usually written on palm leaf,, or on the specially prepared bark of a tree known, as the birch, which grows in the Himalayas., Over the years, many manuscripts were eaten, away by insects, some were destroyed, but many

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have survived, often preserved in temples and, monasteries. These books dealt with all kinds of, subjects: religious beliefs and practices, the lives, of kings, medicine and science. Besides, there, were epics, poems, plays. Many of these were, written in Sanskrit, others were in Prakrit, (languages used by ordinary people) and Tamil., We can also study inscriptions. These are, writings on relatively hard surfaces such as stone, or metal. Sometimes, kings got their orders, inscribed so that people could see, read and obey, them. There are other kinds of inscriptions as, well, where men and women (including kings and, queens) recorded what they did. For example,, kings often kept records of victories in battle., Can you think of, the advantages of, writing on a hard, surface? And what, could have been, the difficulties?, There, were, many, other, things that were, made and used in, the past. Those, who study these, objects are called, archaeologists., They study the, remains of buildings made of stone and brick,, paintings and sculpture. They also explore and, excavate (dig under the surface of the earth) to, find tools, weapons, pots, pans, ornaments and, coins. Some of these objects may be made of stone,, others of bone, baked clay or metal. Objects that, are made of hard, imperishable substances usually, survive for a long time., , An old inscription., This inscription dates, to about 2250 years, ago, and was found in, Kandahar, present-day, Afghanistan. It was, inscribed on the orders, of a ruler named, Ashoka. You will read, about him in Chapter, 8. When we write, anything, we use a, script. Scripts consist, of letters or signs., When we read what is, written, or speak, we, use a language. This, inscription was, inscribed in two, different scripts and, languages, Greek (top), and Aramaic (below),, which were used in this, area., , 5n, WHAT , WHERE HOW, AND WHEN ?

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Left : A pot from an old, city., Pots like these were, used about 4700 years, ago., Right : An old silver coin., Coins such as this one, were in use from about, 2500 years ago., In what ways is the coin, different from the ones, we use today?, , Archaeologists also look for bones — of animals,, birds, and fish — to find out what people ate in the, past. Plant remains survive far more rarely — if, seeds of grain or pieces of wood have been burnt,, they survive in a charred form. Do you think cloth, is found frequently by archaeologists?, Historians, that is, scholars who study the past,, often use the word source to refer to the information, found from manuscripts, inscriptions and, archaeology. Once sources are found, learning, about the past becomes an adventure, as we, reconstruct it bit by bit. So historians and, archaeologists are like detectives, who use all these, sources like clues to find out about our pasts., , One past or man, y?, many?, , n6, OUR PASTS–I, , Did you notice the title of this book, Our Pasts?, We have used the word ‘pasts’ in plural to draw, attention to the fact that the past was different for, different groups of people. For example, the lives, of herders or farmers were different from those of, kings and queens, the lives of merchants were, different from those of crafts persons, and so on., Also, as is true even today, people followed, different practices and customs in different parts

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of the country. For example, today most people, living in the Andaman Islands get their own food, by fishing, hunting, and collecting forest produce., By contrast, most people living in cities depend, on others for supplies of food. Differences such, as these existed in the past as well., Besides, there is another kind of difference., We know a great deal about kings and the battles, they fought because they kept records of their, victories. Generally, ordinary people such as, hunters, fishing folk, gatherers, farmers or, herders did not keep records of what they did., While archaeology helps us to find out about their, lives, there is much that remains unknown., , What do dates mean?, If somebody asks you the date, you will probably, mention the day, month and year, 2000 and, something. These years are counted from the, date generally assigned to the birth of Jesus, Christ, the founder of Christianity. So, 2000, means 2000 years after the birth of Christ. All, dates before the birth of Christ are counted, backwards and usually have the letters BC (Before, Christ) added on. In this book, we will refer to, dates going back from the present, using 2000 as, our starting point., , 7n, WHAT , WHERE, HOW, AND WHEN ?

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Letters with dates, BC, we have seen stands for ‘Before Christ.’, You will sometimes find AD before dates. This, stands for two Latin words, ‘Anno Domini’, meaning, ‘in the year of the Lord’ (i.e. Christ). So 2012 can, also be written as AD 2012., Sometimes CE is used instead of AD and BCE, instead of BC. The letters CE stand for ‘Common, Era’ and BCE for ‘Before Common Era’. We use, these terms because the Christian Era is now used, in most countries of the world. In India we began, using this form of dating from about two hundred, years ago., And sometimes, the letters BP meaning ‘Before, Present’ are used., Find two dates mentioned on page 3. Which set, of letters would you use for them?, , Elsewhere, We have seen that inscriptions are inscribed on hard surfaces. Many of, these were inscribed several hundreds of years ago. All inscriptions contain, both scripts and languages. Languages which were used, as well as scripts,, have changed over time. So how do scholars understand what was, inscribed? This can be done through a process known as decipherment., , P, , T, , O, , K, , L, , I, , n8, OUR PASTS–I, , L, , O, , P, , A, , M, , I, , D (T), , R, , I, , S, , A

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One of the most famous stories of decipherment comes from Egypt, a, country in north Africa where there were kings and queens about 5000, years ago., Rosetta is a town on the north coast of Egypt, and here an inscribed, stone was found, which contained inscriptions in three different languages, and scripts (Greek, and two forms of Egyptian). Scholars who could read, Greek figured out that the names of kings and queens were enclosed in a, little frame, called a cartouche. They then placed the Greek and the Egyptian, signs side by side, and identified the sounds for which the Egyptian letters, stood. As you can see, a lion stood for L, and a bird for A. Once they knew, what the letters stood for, they could read other inscriptions as well., , Imagine, You have to interview an archaeologist. Prepare a list, of five questions that you would like to ask her/him., , Let’s recall, 1., , 2., , Match the following:, Narmada Valley, , The first big kingdom, , Magadha, , Hunting and gathering, , Garo hills, , Cities about 2500, years ago, , Indus and its tributaries, , Early agriculture, , Ganga Valley, , The first cities, , List one major difference between manuscripts and, inscriptions., , KEYWORDS, travelling, manuscript, inscription, archaeolog y, historian, source, decipherment, , Let’s discuss, 3., , Return to Rasheeda’s question. Can you think of some, answers to it?, , 9n, WHAT , WHERE, HOW, AND WHEN ?

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SOME IMPORTANT, , 4., , Make a list of all the objects that archaeologists may, find. Which of these could be made of stone?, , 5., , Why do you think ordinary men and women did not, generally keep records of what they did?, , 6., , Describe at least two ways in which you think the, lives of kings would have been different from those, of farmers., , DATES, u, , the beginning of, agriculture (8000, years ago), , u, , the first cities on the, Indus (4700 years, ago), , u, , cities in the Ganga, valley, a big kingdom, in Magadha (2500, years ago), , u, , Let’s do, 7., , Find the word crafts persons on page 1. List at least, five different crafts that you know about today. Are, the crafts persons — (a) men (b) women (c) both men, and women?, , 8., , What were the subjects on which books were written, in the past? Which of these would you like to read?, , the present (about, 2000 AD/CE), , n 10, OUR PASTS–I