NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 7 End-of-chapter exercise — True or false
Book page 123 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
The Vedic hymns were written on palm-leaf manuscripts.
Answer
FALSE.
The chapter is explicit: the hymns “were recited orally, not written”. They were “committed to memory through rigorous training and passed on orally with hardly any alterations” — for anything between 100 and 200 generations.
Why the statement is tempting: palm-leaf manuscripts are a real and important part of Indian book history — but they came far later. For most of the Vedas' life there was no manuscript at all, and this is the single fact the chapter most wants you to hold on to. It is also the reason UNESCO in 2008 honoured Vedic chanting — a practice, not a text — as “a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity”.
Q2.
The Vedas are India's oldest texts.
Answer
TRUE.
“They are the most ancient texts of India, and indeed among the most ancient in the world.” Experts have proposed dates for the Ṛig Veda — the oldest of the four — ranging from the 5th to the 2nd millennium BCE.
Careful: ‘oldest texts’ is not the same as ‘oldest writing’. The Harappan seals of Chapter 6 carry signs that are older than any surviving Vedic manuscript — but that script is undeciphered, so we have no text from it. The Vedas are the oldest texts we can actually read.
Q3.
The Vedic statement ekam sat viprā bahudhā vadanti reflects a belief in the unity of cosmic powers.
Answer
TRUE.
The hymn is translated in the chapter as: “The Existent [that is, the supreme reality] is one, but sages give it many names.” It is quoted immediately after the sentence that explains it: “The early rishis and rishikas saw those gods and goddesses as one, not separate beings.”
What this means in practice: the Vedic hymns are addressed to Indra, Agni, Varuṇa, Mitra, Sarasvatī, Uṣhas and many more — and yet the tradition itself says these are many names for one reality. Many deities on the surface, one Existent behind them. That is exactly what “unity of cosmic powers” means.
Q4.
Buddhism is older than the Vedas.
Answer
FALSE. The Vedas are very much older.
Ṛig Veda — proposed dates: 5th to 2nd millennium BCE
Siddhārtha Gautama's birth — “about two-and-a-half millenniums ago”; Chapter 4 took 560 BCE as an approximate year
→ the Vedas are older by at least a thousand years, and possibly by three thousand
The chapter also makes the relationship clear in words: Buddhism was one of the schools of thought that “did not accept the authority of the Vedas” — which means the Vedas were already there, and already authoritative, when Buddhism appeared.
Q5.
Jainism emerged as a branch of Buddhism.
Answer
FALSE.
Jainism is “another important school of thought that became widespread at the same time, although its roots are said to be much more ancient”. The two are contemporaries, not parent and branch.
Buddhism
Jainism
Teacher
Siddhārtha Gautama, born at Lumbini
Vardhamāna, born near Vaiśhālī
Period
About two-and-a-half millenniums ago
Early 6th century BCE
Attainment
Enlightenment under a pipal tree at Bodh Gaya; became the Buddha
'Infinite knowledge' after 12 years of ascetic discipline; became Mahāvīra
Distinctive teachings
Avidyā and attachment as the source of suffering; the Sangha
Anekāntavāda and aparigraha, alongside ahimsa
Why they get confused: they arose at the same time, in the same part of India, both were founded by princes who left royal families, both rejected the authority of the Vedas, and both teach ahimsa. Similar is not the same as descended from.
Q6.
Both Buddhism and Jainism advocated for peaceful coexistence and the avoidance of harm to all living beings.
Answer
TRUE.
Both are built on ahimsa, and in both it goes further than not striking a blow.
Buddhism
Jainism
The Buddha taught “the idea of ahimsa, which is generally translated as ‘non-violence’, but originally means ‘non-hurting’ or ‘non-injuring’”
Mahāvīra: “All breathing, existing, living, sentient creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away”
“Conquering oneself is greater than conquering a thousand men on the battlefield a thousand times”
Insists on “the interconnectedness and interdependence of all creatures, from humans to invisible organisms”
And in both, as the THINK ABOUT IT box on page 118 says, ahimsa “means much more than refraining from physical violence … It also means refraining from violence in thought.”
Q7.
Tribal belief systems are limited to belief in spirits and minor deities.
Answer
FALSE.
“Despite this multiplicity of deities, as with Hinduism, many tribal groups have a concept of a higher divinity or supreme being.” The chapter gives three examples, on pages 121 and 122.
Supreme being
Worshipped by
What the chapter says
Donyipolo
Several tribes of Arunachal Pradesh
A combined form of the Sun and the Moon, “who later rose to the higher status of a supreme god”
Khandoba
Parts of central India
“This is also the case of the god Khandoba”
Singbonga
The Munda and Santhal, among others, in eastern India
“A supreme deity who created this whole world”
“There are many more such examples,” the chapter adds. Tribal belief systems also include rich bodies of art, festivals, sacred landscapes and their own versions of the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa. ‘Limited to spirits and minor deities’ is precisely the sort of biased 19th-century judgment that the chapter records as having been mostly abandoned.
Why this statement is the most important 'false' in the list: the other six test facts. This one tests an attitude. Getting it wrong would mean repeating exactly the mistake the chapter spends a page correcting.