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Class 6 History & Civics — The Indus-Sarasvatī civilisation

Say when this civilisation ran and why it carries four different names, place its main cities on the modern map, and follow the two rivers its sites grew along.

Name: ________________________

Before you start

The two river systems, and where the sites cluster along them.

1234
  1. 1. Himalayas
  2. 2. Indus
  3. 3. Sarasvatī
  4. 4. Sea

Both rivers come down out of the mountains along the top and run to the sea along the bottom. The dark dots are settlements. Dots sit on both rivers — which is the chapter's point about the name: the sites are not confined to the Indus. Left to right: the Indus and its tributaries, then the Sarasvatī with the sites crowding along it.

  1. 1.In the Ṛig Veda, how is Sarasvatī spoken of?

    • a) Both as a goddess and as a river flowing from the mountain to the sea
    • b) As a goddess, with no river of that name
    • c) As a city built where two rivers meet
    • d) As a river, with no worship attached to it

  2. 2.The plains of the Punjab and Sindh were favourable to agriculture. What made them so?

    • a) The rainy season was longer there than elsewhere
    • b) The Indus River and its tributaries watered them and made them fertile
    • c) The Himalayas sheltered them from cold winds
    • d) The soil was rich in the stone the crafts needed

  3. 3.The Sarasvatī River is described as seasonal today. What does that mean here?

    • a) It flows in the rainy season and not at other times of year
    • b) It has dried up completely and no longer exists
    • c) It floods once a year and then runs steadily
    • d) It changes its course from one year to the next

  4. 4.Why are the people of this civilisation called Harappans?

    • a) The city of Harappa was the first of this civilisation to be excavated
    • b) Harappa was the largest city the civilisation built
    • c) Harappa is the name the inhabitants used for themselves
    • d) Harappa was the capital the other cities answered to

  5. 5.The civilisation's period runs from about 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Find the point on this line of BCE years that marks when it began.

    Mark the line with an X.

    15002000250030003500

  6. 6.What do later texts say became of the Sarasvatī River?

    • a) That it changed its name
    • b) That it burst its banks and flooded the plains
    • c) That it was joined to the Indus
    • d) That it dried up and eventually disappeared

  7. 7.The Sarasvatī River goes by two names today, one in India and one in Pakistan. What is it called in India?

  8. 8.What does the chapter say about the discovery of sites belonging to this civilisation?

    • a) They stopped once the Sarasvatī sites were mapped
    • b) They are confined to the two countries the Indus runs through
    • c) Such discoveries continue even today
    • d) The last of them was found a century ago

Answer key — Class 6 History & Civics — The Indus-Sarasvatī civilisation

  1. 1. a) Both as a goddess and as a river flowing from the mountain to the sea
  2. 2. b) The Indus River and its tributaries watered them and made them fertile
  3. 3. a) It flows in the rainy season and not at other times of year
  4. 4. a) The city of Harappa was the first of this civilisation to be excavated
  5. 5. 2600
  6. 6. d) That it dried up and eventually disappeared
  7. 7.
    • Ghaggar
    • the Ghaggar
  8. 8. c) Such discoveries continue even today