Ancient River Valley Civilisation: The Indus Valley

ICSE Class 6 History & Civics · Solutions for Class 6 ICSE Frank Modern Certificate History & Civics · 14 solved questions

Exercise
Marks
11 Mark · Multiple Choice Questions

The Mesopotamian Civilisation flourished along the:

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rivers Tigris and Euphrates.

21 Mark · Multiple Choice Questions

The Indus Valley Civilisation is best known for its:

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spectacular city planning.

31 Mark · Multiple Choice Questions

The excavations by this archaeologist in 1921 led to the discovery of large city of Mohenjodaro:

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RD Banerjee

41 Mark · Multiple Choice Questions

This Indus Valley city had a substantial dockyard:

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Lothal

51 Mark · Multiple Choice Questions

A three-faced figure, seated in a yogic posture, surrounded by various animals, engraved on Indus Valley seals, is believed by some historians to be:

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an earlier form of Pashupati.

61 Mark · Multiple Choice Questions

Choose one option to match the items given in Column I with those in Column II.

Column IColumn II
i. Alexander Cunninghama. Pictographic
ii. RD Banerjeeb. Played a role in discovery of Mohenjodaro
iii. Mohenjodaroc. Director General of Archaeological Survey of British India
iv. Great Bathd. Sind
v. Harappan scripte. Located at Mohenjodaro
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i-c, ii-b, iii-d, iv-e, v-a

71 Mark · Multiple Choice Questions

Choose the correct option to complete the given table.

Features of Harappan CivilisationDescription
town planningwell-planned
scriptpictographic
long distance trade?
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Mesopotamia

1Answer in brief

What were the ornaments used by the Harappan people?

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Both Harappan men and women wore ornaments. Men wore fillets, necklaces, finger rings, and amulets, while women wore earrings, bangles, bracelets, necklaces, girdles, anklets, and head-dresses. The rich wore ornaments made of gold, silver and ivory, while the poor wore jewellery made of shell, bone and copper.

2Answer in brief

State two features of the religion of the Harappan people.

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Two features of the religion of the Harappan people are:

  1. Numerous clay figures of a female deity have been found. This was probably the Mother Goddess. A three-faced figure, seated in a yogic posture, surrounded by various animals, is engraved on some seals. Some historians believe it to be an earlier form of Pashupati (Lord Shiva). Hence, it is evident that the Harappan people believed in Mother Goddess and Pashupati.
  2. The people of Harappa believed in life after death. This is evident from the fact that excavated graves contain pottery, jewellery and other articles, which they thought would be needed in the afterlife.
3Answer in brief

What do you know about the Harappan script?

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It is believed that their writing was pictographic. The script seems to have 250 to 400 pictographs. Writing was from right to left. The Harappan writing can be seen in inscriptions found on seals.

4Answer in brief

State three causes for the decline of the Harappan Civilisation.

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Three causes for the decline of the Harappan Civilisation are:

  1. Ecological changes led to the decline of agriculture. Shifts in the monsoon pattern and changes in temperature made the area more arid. This forced the people to move to other areas.
  2. Natural calamities, such as floods or earthquakes, may have destroyed the cities.
  3. Changes in the course of the river Indus may have left the land dry and infertile, and not fit for agriculture.
1Reflective Learning

Swasti sees the Harappan script written on a seal. She wonders why historians have not been able to decipher such simple pictures. She concludes that the Harappan script must be very advanced and complex.

(a) What assumption is Swasti making about the Harappan script?

(b) Explain why this assumption might be incorrect.

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(a) Swasti is assuming that the Harappan script is advanced and complex because historians have not been able to understand or decipher the simple pictures on the seals.

(b) This assumption might be incorrect because historians have not been able to decipher the Harappan script mainly because the script is very short and pictographic, usually with only a few symbols, and there is no bilingual inscription to help understand its meaning. So, the difficulty in reading the script is not necessarily because it is complex, but because there is not enough information to decode it.

2Reflective Learning

Which of the following statements might best explain why changes in the course of the river Indus led to the decline of the Indus Valley Civilisation?

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The land was left dry and infertile, and not fit for agriculture.

1Picture Study

This is a picture of a fragment of an artefact found at one of the Harappan sites.

This is a picture of a fragment of an artefact found at one of the Harappan sites. What kind of material is the artefact made of? What kind of an artefact does this fragment belong to? What can you tell about the craft skills of the Indus people by looking at the fragment? Frank Modern Certificate History and Civics Solutions ICSE Class 6.

(a) What kind of material is the artefact made of?

(b) What kind of an artefact does this fragment belong to?

(c) What can you tell about the craft skills of the Indus people by looking at the fragment?

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(a) The artefact appears to be made of terracota (reddish-brown baked clay).

(b) The fragment likely belongs to a Painted and Glazed pot of Harappan times.

(c) This artefact shows that the Harappan people were expert potters. They could create symmetrical and durable pots in various shapes and sizes using the potter's wheel. The pots were generally glazed and painted.

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