NCERT Solutions for Class 6th Social Science Chapter 6 From Village to City — LET'S EXPLORE

Book page 89 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.
Some of the important cities of this civilisation are marked in the map (Fig. 6.3). As a class activity, can you try to match these cities with the modern states or regions in the table on the next page?
ShortugaiMusa KhelMandaRupnagarDabarkotHarappaKalibanganBanawaliBhirranaRakhigarhiFarmanaKaranpuraGanweriwalaLakhanjo-daroMohenjo-daroChanhudaroBalakotSutkagen-dorDholaviraKhirsaraNagwadaBagasraNageshwarLothalRiver IndusRiver JhelumRiver ChenabRiver RaviRiver BeasRiver SutlejRiver BanasRiver YamunaRiver GangaRIVER SARASVATĪHINDU KUSHSULAIMAN RANGEHIMALAYASARAVALLI RANGE60°E60°E63°E63°E66°E66°E69°E69°E72°E72°E75°E75°E78°E78°E81°E81°E21°N24°N27°N30°N33°N36°N02004006008001000km (approx.)Major city named on the mapOther settlement
Fig. 6.3 (pages 88–89) — some of the main settlements of the Indus-Sarasvatī civilisation, redrawn with the book’s rivers, ranges, settlements and 3° graticule. The book’s own caption reads: “Notice the natural boundaries formed by the mountain ranges (in brown colour).” Note that on the printed map only the Hindu Kush, the Sulaiman Range and the Himalayas are brown; the Aravalli Range is printed in the same yellow-green as the country around it, with its name in green, so the caption’s “brown” does not cover every range it labels.
Harappan cityModern state / region
DholaviraPunjab
HarappaGujarat
KalibanganSindh
Mohenjo-daroHaryana
RakhigarhiRajasthan
The matching table printed on page 90 — the two columns are not in matching order; pairing them up is the exercise.
Answer

The table on page 90 is deliberately jumbled — not one pair as printed is correct. Trace each red dot on Fig. 6.3 and the true matches come out like this.

Harappan cityModern state / regionCountry todayHow you find it on Fig. 6.3
DholaviraGujaratIndiaLow down on the map, in the Rann of Kutch, near Khirsara, Bagasra and Nagwada
HarappaPunjabPakistanUpper middle, on the River Ravi, below the Chenab and Jhelum
KalibanganRajasthanIndiaOn the dotted line of the River Sarasvatī, between Harappa and Rakhigarhi
Mohenjo-daroSindhPakistanOn the lower Indus, just below Lakhanjo-daro and above Chanhudaro
RakhigarhiHaryanaIndiaTo the right, near Banawali, Bhirrana and Farmana, in the dense cluster of sites
Printed (wrong) → Correct
Dholavira – Punjab → Dholavira – Gujarat
Harappa – Gujarat → Harappa – Punjab (Pakistan)
Kalibangan – Sindh → Kalibangan – Rajasthan
Mohenjo-daro – Haryana → Mohenjo-daro – Sindh (Pakistan)
Rakhigarhi – Rajasthan → Rakhigarhi – Haryana

What else Fig. 6.3 is telling you. Read the map for more than the five names:

  • Natural boundaries in brown — the Hindu Kush and the Sulaiman Range to the west and north-west, the Himalayas along the top, the Aravalli Range cutting across the middle. The civilisation sits inside this frame.
  • Two river systems, not one — the Indus with the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej; and the Sarasvatī, drawn running through Kalibangan and Ganweriwala down towards the Rann.
  • Hundreds of small pink dots — the ordinary settlements. They cluster most thickly along the Sarasvatī, which is exactly the point the text on page 91 makes.
  • The full spread — Shortugai in the far north (today in Afghanistan), Manda and Rupnagar in the north-east, Sutkagen-dor far to the west on the Makran coast, and Lothal, Nageshwar and Balakot on the sea.
How to run it as a class activity: copy the two columns on to the board in the jumbled order the book prints, then send one student at a time to the map to find the city before drawing the arrow. Matching from memory teaches nothing; matching from the map teaches map-reading.
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