NCERT Solutions for Class 6th Social Science Chapter 7 India S Cultural Roots
Updated on 2026-09-19
About this chapter
Indian culture is drawn as a tree — many roots, one trunk, many branches. The chapter opens with that image and closes with a photograph of a banyan . The roots go back thousands of years, some of them as far as the Indus-Sarasvatī civilisation of Chapter 6. From the roots grows a common trunk of shared ideas, and out of the trunk grow branches — art, literature, science, medicine, governance, martial arts, and many schools of thought , that is, groups of thinkers or spiritual seekers who share similar ideas about human life and the world. The Vedas are India's oldest texts, and they were memorised, not written. The word comes from Sanskrit vid , 'knowledge'. There are four — the Ṛig, Yajur, Sāma and Atharva Veda — made of thousands of hymns , prayers in the form of poems and songs, compos
- Chapter opening
- The Vedas and Vedic Culture
- b. Vedic society
- c. Vedic schools of thought
- Buddhism
- Jainism
- Folk and Tribal Roots
- The chapter in four points
- End-of-chapter exercise
Quick revision
| Term | What it means | Where it appears in the chapter | Worth remembering |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veda | India's most ancient texts; from Sanskrit vid, 'knowledge' (hence vidyā) | Page 106 | Four: Ṛig, Yajur, Sāma, Atharva — recited orally, not written |
| Rishi / rishika | Male and female seers or sages who composed the Vedic hymns | Page 107 | The Vedas were composed by women as well as men |
| Ṛitam | Truth and order in human life and in the cosmos, sustained by the deities together with the seers | Page 107 | The Vedic idea that truth and order are the same thing |
| Ekam sat viprā bahudhā vadanti | “The Existent [the supreme reality] is one, but sages give it many names” | Page 107 | Many deities, one reality — the heart of the Vedic worldview |
| Jana | A clan — a larger group of people; the Ṛig Veda lists over 30 of them | Page 108 | Bharatas, Purus, Kurus, Yadus, Turvaśhas |
| Sabhā and samiti | Words in the Vedas for a collective gathering or assembly | Page 109 | Almost our only clue to how the janas governed themselves |
| Yajña | Vedic ritual (often read as 'yagya'), directed to deities for individual or collective wellbeing | Page 109 | Daily rituals were offerings to Agni; they grew more complex over time |
| Upaniṣhads | A group of texts that built upon Vedic concepts and introduced new ones | Page 109 | Introduced rebirth and karma |
| Brahman | The one divine essence of everything — human life, nature and the universe; sometimes just tat, 'that' | Page 109 | Not the god Brahmā. aham brahmāsmi, tat tvam asi |
| Ātman | The Self — the divine essence residing in every being, ultimately one with brahman | Page 110 | Why everything is connected and interdependent |
| Vedanta / Yoga | Two of the schools of thought that grew out of the Vedas | Pages 109–110 | Together with others they became the foundations of Hinduism |
| Avidyā and attachment | Ignorance, and the bond of sentiment or habit with someone or something | Page 113 | The Buddha's discovery: these two are the source of suffering |
| Ahimsa | Usually translated 'non-violence', but originally 'non-hurting' or 'non-injuring' | Pages 113, 118 | Central to Buddhism and Jainism; includes violence in thought |
| Sangha | The community of bhikṣhus (monks) and later bhikṣhuṇīs (nuns) founded by the Buddha | Page 114 | Formed to practise and spread his teachings |
| Jina | 'Conqueror' — of ignorance and attachments, not of territory or enemies; the root of 'Jain' | Page 115, Don't Miss Out | Mahāvīra means 'great hero' |
| Anekāntavāda | 'Not just one' aspect — truth has many aspects and cannot be fully described by any single statement | Page 116 | A Jain teaching that trains you to listen to other views |
| Aparigraha | 'Non-possession' — detachment from material possessions, limiting oneself to what is truly necessary | Page 116 | The third of the three Jain teachings named in the chapter |
| Chārvāka / Lokāyata | A school holding that only this material world exists, so there can be no life after death | Page 119 | Proof of India's diversity of belief systems; it disappeared with time |
| Tribe | A group of families or clans sharing common descent, a culture and a language, living as a close-knit community under a chief and holding no private property | Page 120 | 705 tribes, about 104 million people in 2011 |
| Oral tradition | Teachings or practices transmitted through everyday practice, without written texts | Page 120 | The Vedas themselves were an oral tradition |
Exercises
- Chapter opening — The Big Questions Page 105
- The Vedas and Vedic Culture — In-text Questions Page 106
- b. Vedic society — LET'S EXPLORE Page 109
- c. Vedic schools of thought — THINK ABOUT IT Page 110
- Buddhism — LET'S EXPLORE Page 115
- Jainism — LET'S EXPLORE Page 118
- Jainism — THINK ABOUT IT Page 118
- Why the chapter says ‘schools of thought’ and not ‘religions’ — THINK ABOUT IT Page 119
- Folk and Tribal Roots — In-text Questions Page 120
- Folk and Tribal Roots — In-text Questions Page 121
- The chapter in four points — Before we move on … Page 122
- End-of-chapter exercise — Questions, activities and projects Page 123
- End-of-chapter exercise — True or false Page 123
- End-of-chapter exercise — Class activity Page 123