H-6: INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY

• Gatherers are the people who gather 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.
• Hunter-gatherers are the people who get their food by hunting wild animals, catching fish and birds, gathered fruits, roots, nuts, seeds, leaves, stalks, and eggs. Hunter-gatherers moved from place to place.
• They move because:
• if they had stayed in one place for a long time, they would have eaten up all the available plant and animal resources. Therefore, they would have had to go elsewhere in search of food.
• animals move from place to place — either in search of smaller prey or, in the case of deer and wild cattle, in search of grass and leaves. That is why those who hunted them had to follow their movements.
• plants and trees bear fruit in different seasons. So, people may have moved from season to season in search of different kinds of plants.
• people, plants, and animals need water to survive. Water is found in lakes, streams, and rivers. While many rivers and lakes are perennial (with water throughout the year), others are seasonal. People living on their banks would have had to go in search of water during the dry seasons (winter and summer).
• Tributaries (सहायक नदियों) are smaller rivers that flow into a larger river. e.g. Son is the tributary river of Ganga.

• The word India comes from the Indus, Sindhu in Sanskrit. 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).
• Manuscripts (पांडुलिपियों /हस्तलिपि) are books that were written long ago. 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, and some were destroyed, but many have survived, often preserved in temples and monasteries. These books dealt with various subjects: religious beliefs and practices, the lives of kings, medicine, and science.
• This manuscript was written about a thousand years ago. The palm leaves were cut into pages and tied together to make books.
• Inscriptions (शिलालेख) 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. 

• 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.
• Archaeologists (पुरातत्ववेत्ता) are the people who study such objects and many other things that were made and used in the past. They study the remains of buildings made of stone and brick, paintings, and sculptures. 
• 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.

• 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.
• Archaeologists have found some of the things hunter-gatherers made and used. People likely made and used tools of stone, wood, and bone, of which stone tools have survived best.
• Sites are places where the remains of things (tools, pots, buildings, etc.) were found. These were made, used, and left behind by people. These may be found on the surface of the earth, buried under the earth, or sometimes even under water.
• Traces of ash have been found in Kurnool Caves. It suggests that people were familiar with the use of fire. Fire could have been used for many things: as a source of light, to roast meat, and to scare away animals.
• In Burzahom (in present-day Kashmir) people built pit-houses, which were dug into the ground, with steps leading into them. These may have provided shelter in cold weather. Archaeologists have also found cooking hearths both inside and outside the huts, which suggests that, depending on the weather, people could cook food either indoors or outdoors.
• Mehrgarh is located in a fertile plain, near the Bolan Pass, which is one of the most important routes into Iran. Mehrgarh was probably one of the places where people learned to grow barley and wheat, and rear sheep and goats for the first time in this area. It is one of the earliest villages that we know about. At this site, many animal bones were found. Bones of wild animals such as deer and pig, and also bones of sheep and goats were found. Other finds at Mehrgarh include remains of square or rectangular houses. Each house had four or more compartments, some of which may have been used for storage.

• Historians are the scholars who study the past and often use the word source to refer to the information found in manuscripts, inscriptions, and archaeology. 

• Date when refer the day, month, and year. These years are counted from the date generally assigned to the birth of Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity. So, e.g., 2000 means 2000 years after the birth of Christ. All dates before the birth of Christ are counted backward and usually have the letters BC (Before Christ) added on. Sometimes BCE is used which means ‘Before Common Era’. 
• AD stands for two Latin words, ‘Anno Domini’, meaning ‘in the year of the Lord’ (i.e. Christ). So 2022 can also be written as AD 2022. Sometimes CE is used instead of AD, which refers to 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.

Names & Dates:

• The paleolithic word comes from two Greek words, ‘palaeo’, meaning old, and ‘lithos’, meaning stone. The name points to the importance of finding stone tools.
  The Palaeolithic period extends from 2 million years ago to 12,000 years ago. This long period is divided into the Lower, Middle, and Upper Palaeolithic. This long time covers 99% of human history. 
• Mesolithic (middle stone): The period when we find environmental changes, beginning about 12,000 years ago till about 10,000 years ago. Stone tools found during this period are generally tiny and are called microliths. Microliths were probably stuck onto handles of bone or wood to make tools such as saws and sickles. At the same time, older varieties of tools continued to be in use.
• The next stage, from about 10,000 years ago, is known as the Neolithic.

Changing Environment

• Around 12,000 years ago, there were major changes in the climate of the world, with a shift to relatively warm conditions. In many areas, this led to the development of grasslands. This in turn led to an increase in the number of deer, antelope, goats, sheep, and cattle, i.e. animals that survived on grass. 
• Those who hunted these animals now followed them, learning about their food habits and their breeding seasons. This likely helped people to start thinking about herding and rearing these animals themselves. Fishing also became important.
• Farming: This was also a time when several grain-bearing grasses, including wheat, barley, and rice grew naturally in different parts of the subcontinent. Men, women, and children probably collected these grains as food, and learned where they grew, and when they ripened. This may have led them to think about growing plants on their own. In this way people became farmers.
• Herding: People could also attract and then tame animals by leaving food for them near their shelters. The first animal to be tamed was the wild ancestor of the dog. Later, people encouraged animals that were relatively gentle to come near the camps where they lived. These animals such as sheep, goats, cattle, and also pigs lived in herds, and most of them ate grass. Often, people protect these animals from attacks by other wild animals. This is how they became herders.

Domestication (पालतू बनाना)

• It is the name given to the process by which people grow plants and look after animals. Often, plants and animals that are tended by people become different from wild plants and animals. This is because people select plants and animals for domestication. 
• For example, they select those plants and animals that are not prone to disease. They also select plants that yield large-size grains and have strong stalks, capable of bearing the weight of the ripe grain. Seeds from selected plants are preserved and sown to ensure that new plants (and seeds) will have the same qualities. Some of the earliest plants to be domesticated were wheat and barley.
• Amongst animals, those that are relatively gentle are selected for breeding. As a result, gradually, domesticated animals and plants become different from wild animals and plants. For example, the teeth and horns of wild animals are usually much larger than those of domesticated animals. The earliest domesticated animals include sheep and goats.
•  Domestication was a gradual process that took place in many parts of the world. It began about 12,000 years ago. Virtually all the plants and animals produce that we use as food today are a result of domestication.

Important Dates

• the beginning of agriculture (8000 years ago)
• the first cities on the Indus (4700 years ago)
• cities in the Ganga valley, a big kingdom in Magadha (2500 years ago)
• the present (about 2000 AD/CE)
• the Mesolithic period (12,000-10,000 years ago) 
• beginnings of domestication (about 12,000 years ago) 
• beginning of settlement at Mehrgarh (about 8000 years ago) 
• the beginning of the Neolithic (10,000 years ago)
• cotton cultivation at Mehrgarh (about 7000 years ago)
• beginning of cities (about 4700 years ago) 
• beginning of the end of these cities (about 3900 years ago) 
• the emergence of other cities (about 2500 years ago)
• beginning of the composition of the Vedas (about 3500 years ago)
• beginning of the building of megaliths (about 3000 years ago)
• settlement at Inamgaon (between 3600 and 2700 years ago) 
• charaka (about 2000 years ago)  

Something Interesting:

• Bhimbetka (in present-day Madhya Pradesh) is an old site with caves and rock shelters. People chose these natural caves because they provided shelter from the rain, heat,  and wind. These rock shelters are close to the Narmada Valley.

Source: NCERT

Also Read