NCERT Solutions for Class 12 History Themes in Indian History I Chapter 1: Bricks, Beads and Bones: The Harappan Civilisation

Chapter at a glance

Exercises – Answer in 100–150 words

Answer

Food items (found as charred grains, seeds and bones)

1. Plant foods: wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea, sesame; millets (from Gujarat); rice was rare.
2. Animal foods: meat of cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo and pig; wild animals such as boar, deer and gharial; fish and fowl.

Groups who provided them

The city people did not grow their own food; they obtained it from the rural farming and pastoral groups.

Cereals, pulses, sesame, meat, fish and fowl, provided by farmers, herders, fisher folk and hunters.

Answer

Methods

1. Burials: the dead were laid in pits; some graves were brick-lined, and some had pottery, ornaments, jewellery (even beads near a male’s skull) or copper mirrors.
2. Artefacts: archaeologists classify them as utilitarian (querns, pottery, needles, flesh-rubbers) and luxuries (rare, costly or non-local materials, or hard technologies, e.g. faience pots, gold).

Differences noticed

• Utilitarian objects are found everywhere; luxury objects (faience miniature pots, gold jewellery) are concentrated in large cities such as Mohenjodaro and Harappa and are rare in small settlements such as Kalibangan.
• Gold is found mostly in hoards.
• Some burials were lined with bricks, but on the whole graves do not show large differences, since precious things were generally not buried with the dead.

By studying burials and the distribution of utilitarian and luxury artefacts; luxuries are concentrated in the large cities.

Answer

Yes. The drainage system strongly indicates planning:

1. Streets with drains were laid out first, and houses were built along them, with one wall along a street so that waste water could flow into the street drain.
2. Roads and streets followed an approximate grid pattern, crossing at right angles.
3. Every house was connected to the street drains; house drains first emptied into a sump or cesspit.
4. The main channels were of bricks set in mortar, covered with loose bricks (or limestone) for cleaning, with sumps at intervals.
5. Drainage existed in smaller settlements also (for example Lothal had drains of burnt brick) and not only in big cities.
6. Mackay called it “the most complete ancient system as yet discovered”.

Such a system could be built only with a central plan and organised labour.

Yes; the street-first, grid-based, covered and connected drains show that the cities were planned before they were built.

Answer

Materials

Process: carnelian bead

1. The yellowish raw material was fired at various stages to obtain the beautiful red colour.
2. The nodules were chipped into rough shapes.
3. They were then finely flaked into the final form.
4. Grinding, polishing and drilling completed the bead (specialised drills have been found at Chanhudaro, Lothal and Dholavira).

(Steatite beads, by contrast, were moulded from a paste of steatite powder, since steatite is very soft.)

Beads were made of stones, metals, shell, faience and terracotta; carnelian was fired, chipped, flaked, ground, polished and drilled.

Answer

1. What we see: a skeleton lying in a rectangular grave pit.
2. Position of the body: it lies extended on its back (full length), with the head at one end, the arms along the sides and the legs straight.
3. Objects near it: several pottery vessels (jars and dish-on-stand) are placed near the head end, which suggests a belief that they would be used in the afterlife.
4. Artefacts on the body: none are clearly visible on the skeleton, so there is no ornament or jewellery on it.
5. Sex: the pottery and the absence of ornaments do not indicate whether the skeleton is male or female; this cannot be decided from the objects, because both men and women were buried with jewellery and pots.

The body lies extended on its back with pots near the head and no ornaments; these do not show the sex.

Exercises – Short essay (about 500 words)

Answer

Mohenjodaro is the best-known Harappan site (about 125 hectares) and a planned urban centre.

1. Two sections: a smaller, higher Citadel on mud-brick platforms, walled off; and a larger, lower Lower Town, also walled, with buildings on platforms. The foundations needed about four million person-days of labour.
2. Planned layout: building was restricted to the platforms, so the settlement was planned first and then built. Bricks were of a standard ratio (length : breadth : height = 4 : 2 : 1).
3. Grid-pattern streets intersecting at right angles, with covered drains and sumps; every house had a drain connection.
4. Domestic architecture: houses centred on a courtyard, rooms on all sides, no windows at ground level and entrances without a direct view (privacy); each house had a brick-paved bathroom, many had staircases and a well (about 700 wells in the city).
5. Public buildings on the Citadel: the warehouse and the Great Bath, a large rectangular tank with steps on the north and south, made watertight with bricks on edge and a gypsum mortar, with a corridor and rooms around it and a drain; it was probably used for a ritual bath.
6. Better preserved than Harappa, which was damaged by brick robbers.

Mohenjodaro’s features are the Citadel and Lower Town, grid streets with covered drains, courtyard houses with bathrooms and wells, the warehouse and the Great Bath.

Answer

Raw materials: clay; stone (carnelian, steatite, quartz, jasper, chert); shell; timber; metals (copper, bronze, tin, gold); lapis lazuli.

How they were obtained

Other strategies: barter exchange in jars (the Harappan black-coated jar found in Oman), and transport by bullock carts, river routes (Indus) and sea routes. Seals, weights, dice and beads found far away, and Mesopotamian texts about Meluhha, show these contacts.

Materials were obtained by setting up settlements near sources, by expeditions, and by trade with Oman and Mesopotamia.

Answer

Archaeologists use material remains (pottery, tools, ornaments, houses, seals), because the Harappan script is undeciphered.

1. Finding and excavating: surface exploration and digging, following the stratigraphy: lower layers are older, upper ones more recent (Wheeler’s method).
2. Classifying finds: by material (stone, clay, metal) and by function (tool, ornament, ritual object).
3. Interpreting function: by comparison with present-day things (querns, pots, beads), and by the context of the find (house, drain, grave, kiln); indirect evidence is used, such as sculptures for clothing.
4. Studying food: archaeo-botanists study charred grains; archaeo-zoologists study animal bones.
5. Identifying craft centres: raw materials, tools, unfinished objects, rejects and waste.
6. Reconstructing religion and society: from seals, burials, structures such as the Great Bath; this is the hardest, because it is speculative.
7. Modern techniques: archaeogenetics (DNA from Rakhigarhi), 3D reconstruction.

Problems: organic material decays, and finds are accidental; hence reconstructions can be revised, as with the “massacre at Mohenjodaro”.

By excavating by layers, classifying and interpreting finds through context and analogy, and using scientific techniques, while accepting that interpretations may change.

Answer

There is no clear evidence of a ruler: the “palace” at Mohenjodaro had no spectacular finds, and the “priest-king” statue is only a label. Scholars differ: no rulers, several rulers (one for each city), or a single state.

The functions that a ruler or ruling group probably performed:

1. Planning and building: planning cities, platforms, walls, drains and the Great Bath.
2. Mobilising labour for bricks, walls and platforms.
3. Ensuring standardisation: uniform bricks, weights, seals and pottery from Jammu to Gujarat.
4. Organising trade and craft: setting up settlements near raw materials, sending expeditions, regulating exchange by weights, seals and sealings.
5. Collecting and storing grain (the warehouse) and controlling the distribution of goods.
6. Performing rituals (possibly the Great Bath).
7. Maintaining peace and law and organising long-distance contacts.

Rulers probably planned the cities, mobilised labour, standardised artefacts, organised trade and craft, and performed rituals.

Exercises – Map work and Projects

Answer

Map 1 is the textbook outline map of Harappan sites. Mark it as given in the table:

Mark agriculture sites with a circle, craft sites with X and raw material sites with R, as listed.

Answer

This is a project; here is a model format to follow.

Report on a visit to a museum

1. Name, place and date of visit.
2. Table of ten items:

3. Conclusion: what you learnt about the past from these objects, and how museums help to preserve history.

A project; write a report in the model format on ten museum items.

Answer

This is a project; here is a model comparison.

Discussion: many everyday tools have continued for 4,500 years, which shows the Harappans’ practical skill; the main differences are materials and technology.

A project; compare ten present-day objects with Harappan ones, noting similar uses and different technology.

Topic checklist

• ☒ Food and agriculture (Q1)
• ☒ Social differences (Q2)
• ☒ Town planning and drainage (Q3, Q6)
• ☒ Crafts, beads and raw materials (Q4, Q7, Q10)
• ☒ Burials (Q5)
• ☒ Archaeological methods (Q8)
• ☒ Rulers and authority (Q9)
• ☒ Projects (Q11, Q12)

Total questions answered: 12 of 12