Answers of DPPH-7 February

Objective Solutions

1. Consider the following statements about the Indus Valley Civilization:

i. The largest number of Harappan sites has been found on the bank of the river Indus.

ii. Sites such as Kalibangan and Lothal had fire altars, where sacrifices may have been performed.

iii. The tools and metals provide the idea of the specialised artisans.

iv. The dock yards have been found at Lothal, Dholavira and Mohenjodaro.

v. Some sites like Mohenjodaro, Harappa, and Lothal had elaborate store houses.

Which of the above statements are correct?

(a) i, ii and v

(b) i, ii, iii and v

(c) ii, iii and v

(d) All are correct

Ans: c

Explanation:

Largest number of Harappan sites are found at old Saraswati river (now dried).

Dockyard is found at Lothal, not Dholvira and Mohenjodaro.

2. Consider the following statements about the Harappan Civilization?

i. Chahnudaro was the biggest industrial site of Harappan Civilization.

ii. The Harappans made seals out of stone. These are generally rectangular and usually have an animal carved on them.

iii. Oxen, Buffaloes and goats were domesticated animals in Indus Valley Civilization.

iv. People of Indus Valley Civilization did not practice agriculture

Which of the above statements are correct?

(a) i, ii and iii

(b) i, ii, iii and v

(c) i, ii and iii

(d) ii and iii

Ans: a

Explanation:

People of Indus Valley Civilisation practiced agriculture.

3. Which animal is most frequently depicted on the Harappan seals?

(a) Horse

(b) Lion

(c) Rhino

(d) Unicorn

Ans: d

4. A recent report by the Archaeological Survey of India claims that:

i. Bhirrana is the oldest Harappan site

iii. Mehrgarh is the oldest Harappan site

iii. Rakhigarhi the biggest Harappan site

iv. Modenjodaro is the biggest Harappan site.

Correct answers are:

(a) i and iii

(b) i and iv

(c) ii and iii

(d) ii and iv

Ans: a

5. Consider the following statements:

i. A stone statue, probably of a priest, are found from Mohenjodaro shows him wearing an embroidered garment.

ii. The Harappan bricks were made in a particular ratio.

iii. For small measurement binary system and for big measurement decimal system were used in harappa.

iv. Recurrent Floods were not the reason of the end of Harappan Civilisation.

Which of the above statements are correct?

(a) i and iii
(b) ii and iv
(c) i, ii and iii
(d) All are correct

Ans: c

Explanation:

In most of thr cases, Harappan bricks were in the ratio of 1:2:4.

Recurrent flood is considered as one of the reasons of the end of Harappan Civilization.

6. Consider the following statements:

A. Chanhudaro was an Harappan site which had no citadel?

B. Chanhudaro was famous for bead making shop.

Which of the following is correct option?

(a) Only A is correct

(b) Only B is correct

(c) Both A and B are correct

(d) None are correct

Ans: c

7. Match the following
(A) Horse bones                                                    (i) Daimabad Alamgirpur
(B) Stone cut water Reservoir                             (ii) Mohanjodaro
(C) Pashupati Mahadev Seal                                (iii) Surkotada
(D) Absence of seal                                              (iv) Dholavira

(A) (B) (C) (D)
(a) (iv) (iii) (i) (ii)
(b) (iv) (iii) (ii) (i)
(c) (i) (ii) (iii) (iv)
(d) (iii) (iv) (ii) (i)

Ans: d

8. Which of the following is wrong?

(a) Microliths were used to make composite tools because they were able to economize raw materials.

(b) Experiments in the realm of domestication of animals and cultivation of plants were made in Mesolithic period

(c) The Harappan bricks were mainly made in an open mould.

(d) Decline of Harappan city was sudden because of Aryan invasion.

Ans: d

Explanation:

Aryan invasion theory is not proven yet. Also in many cases, decline of the Harrapn cities is not sudden.

9. In which Age, human passed from the stage of food gathering to the food producing:

(a) Palaeolithic Age

(b) Chalcolithic Age

(c) Mesolithic Age

(d) Neolithic Age

Ans: d

10. Match List-I with List-II and select the correct answer from the code given below:

List-I                       List-II

A. Paleolithic        i. Ground stone tools

B. Mesolithic        ii. Flaked stone tools

C. Upper Paleolithic  iii. Microlithic tools

D. Neolithic           iv. Rock painting

A B C D

(a)  i  iv  ii  iii

(b)  ii  iii  iv  i

(c)  iv  iii  i  ii

(d)  ii  iii  i  iv

Ans: b

Mains Solutions

Q.1 Write a brief notes  on “The burial customs in the Indus Valley Civilization.” [200 words]

Ans:

Harappan cemeteries have been located at sites such as Harappa, Kalibangan, Lothal, Rakhigarhi, Surkotada, Ropar etc.

The most common method of burial was to place the body of the deceased in an extended position, with the head towards the north, in a simple pit or brick chamber.

Grave goods include food, pottery, tools, and ornaments but they were never too many or lavish. Clearly, the Harappans preferred to use wealth in life rather than bury it with their dead.

Normally, no coffin, structurally or orherwise was used but at Harappa, archaeologists found a woman’s body in a wooden coffin lined with reed mats.

At Kalibangan, symbolic burials with grave goods but no skeletons were found.

Fractional burials (where the body was exposed to the elements and the bones then gathered and buried) were found at Mohenjodaro and Harappa.

Mohenjodaro and Harappa also gave evidence of urn burials which point towards the existence of practice of cremation.

Multiple burials of men and women were discovered at Lothal. A unique funerary rite involving the simultaneous burial of two persons in the same grave-pit was observed at Lothal.

At Ropar cemetery, the body was laid in the grave with head to the north-west normally but in one case, the orientation was north-south.

Interestingly Harappan burials show little evidence of social hierarchies, unlike Mesopotamian or Egyptian where some interments may indicate considerable wealth.

Q.2 What were the main features of the religion of the Indus Valley Civilization? [200 words]

Ans:

Features of the religion of the Indus Valley people

1)The worship of female goddesses associated with fertility has long been held as one of the major features of Harappan religion. For instance, a seal showing a nude women, head downwards, with her legs apart and a plant issuing from her vagina is often intrepreted as a prototype of Shakambari, the Earth Mother.

2)The worship of mother goddess- A slim female figure with a distinctive fan-shaped headdress, wearing a short skirt and heavily ornamented with necklaces, armlets, bangles, anklets, and errings.

3)Harappans also worshipped a male god represented on a steatite seal discovered at Mohenjodaro, usually referred to as the Pashupati seal.

a) A male figure with a buffalo horn head-dress seated on a dais with his legs bent double under him, heels together, toes pointed down.

b) He is flanked by four animals- an elephant , rhinoceros, water buffalo, and a tiger. Beneath the dais are two antelopes or ibexes.

c)There exists a striking resemblance between this deity and the Shiva of later Hindu mythology.

4) Worship of male and female creative energy in the form of stone icons of lingas and yonis.

5) The Harappan seals, sealings, amulets, and copper tablets depict a number of trees, plants, and animals, some of which may have had cultic significance.

a) The Pipal tree appears often and may have been venerated.

b) Some of the animals depicted on the seals and sealings like the humped and humpless bull, snake, elephant, rhinoceros, antelope, gharial, and tiger- may have had cultic significance.

c)The composite animals (tiger-human, bull-elephant, ram-bull-elephant, etc ) and the ”unicorn” depicted on seals and sealings may also have had some sort of religious or mythological significance.

6) The Great bath was probably the scene of an elite ritual activity involving ceremonial bathing.

7) The most striking evidence suggesting ritualistic practices comes from the ‘fire altars’ found on the citadel mound at Kalibangan.

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