NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 6 –143The chapter in four points, with the timeline of Fig. 6.28 — Before we move on …

Book page 142 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

The period after the disintegration of the Maurya empire was characterised by the emergence of many big and small kingdoms across the Subcontinent.

Answer

This is the chapter in one line. Fig. 6.2 on page 119 shows exactly what it means — where one empire stood, nine powers now share the map.

Region	Kingdom	Remember it by
North and central India	Śhungas	Founded by Puṣhyamitra Śhunga c. 185 BCE; the aśhvamedha yajña; the Bharhut railings
Kalinga (east coast)	Chedis	Khāravela, the bhikṣhu-rāja; the Hāthīgumphā inscription; Udayagiri–Khandagiri caves
The Deccan	Sātavāhanas	Amrāvatī and Pratiṣhṭhāna; ship coins; Gautamīputra Sātakarṇi; Naneghat and Karla caves
The far south	Cholas, Cheras, Pānḍyas	The three ‘crowned kings' of the Sangam poems: Uraiyūr, Vanji (Karur), Madurai
The northwest	Indo-Greeks, Śhakas, Kuṣhāṇas	Heliodorus pillar; Śhaka Samvat; Kaṇiṣhka and the Silk Route

Why so many kingdoms appeared: most of them were not new peoples. They were tributary kingdoms that had earlier accepted Maurya overlordship. When the centre collapsed, they simply stopped paying tribute and ruled in their own names.

Q2.

The internal conflicts were coupled with foreign invasions, which together led to a period of reorganisation of political powers.

Answer

Two different pressures, working at the same time, kept redrawing the map.

	Internal conflicts	Foreign invasions
Who	Śhungas against their neighbours (possibly the Sātavāhanas); Cholas, Cheras and Pānḍyas against one another; Khāravela against an alliance of southern kings	Indo-Greeks, then Śhakas, then Kuṣhāṇas, all entering through the northwest frontier
Why	Control of territory, especially border areas — holding them kept a kingdom safe from attack	The northwest “became weak, exposing it to invasions from outside the subcontinent” after the Maurya collapse
Methods	Warfare, and the peaceful method of matrimonial alliances	Conquest — followed, in every case, by settlement and assimilation

The result was reorganisation, not ruin. Kingdoms rose, fell and were replaced — the Śhungas lasted about a century; the Sātavāhana empire fragmented in the 3rd century CE through weak central control and gradual economic decline, which “paved the way for regional powers to assert or reassert their dominance”. Every collapse was also a new beginning.

Q3.

This period witnessed a dialogue of various cultures that absorbed each other’s influence to create new styles of art, architecture, coinage, etc., with ultimately a dominance of Indian themes and flourishing Sanskrit literature.

Answer

Note the two careful words in that sentence: ‘dialogue' — not conquest of one culture by another — and ‘ultimately a dominance of Indian themes'.

Field	What the dialogue produced
Art	The Gāndhāra school (Greco-Roman modelling, grey-black schist, flowing robes) and the Mathurā school (red sandstone, fuller Indian figures). Deities begin to be shown looking like human beings — Sūrya, for example
Architecture	Rock-cut caves for Jain and Buddhist monks — Udayagiri–Khandagiri, Karla, Pitalkhora; carved railings at Bharhut; and the growth of religious art that laid “the groundwork for later temple architecture”
Coinage	Greek script with Indian deities on Indo-Greek coins; Buddha and Śhiva on Kaṇiṣhka's gold; ships and royal emblems on Sātavāhana and Chera coins
Literature	Sanskrit becomes a preferred language for philosophy and literature; Patañjali compiles the Yoga Sūtras; the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa are composed; in the south, the Sangam anthologies and Silappadikāram

Why Indian themes came to dominate: the newcomers were few and the local population was vast, its traditions old and confident. Foreign techniques were welcomed — modelling, drapery, portrait coins — but they were used to show Indian subjects: the Buddha, Śhiva, Lakṣhmī, yakṣhas and Nāgas. That is what absorption means.

Q4.

This time was also marked by remarkable developments in trade activities, both internal and external.

Answer

Trade is the thread that runs through every section of the chapter.

Evidence	What it shows
Sātavāhana coins from Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh	Goods and money moving between India's western and eastern coasts — internal trade
Ships on those coins (Fig. 6.8)	Two masts with sails and waves below — advanced shipbuilding and navigation
The Naneghat caves	A toll and tax post on a major trade route, doubling as a rest house for traders — trade was organised and taxed
Exports	Spices, textiles, sandalwood, gold-plated pearls, ivory, timber — reaching the Roman Empire and West Asia
Imports	Glass and perfumed ointments
The Silk Route (Fig. 6.25)	The Kuṣhāṇas held significant sections of it, connecting India with the rest of Asia and the West
Khāravela's pearls; Megasthenes on the Pānḍyas	Written proof of long-distance trade in luxury goods

Why trade grew in an age of conflict: because trade does not need one empire — it needs routes, coins and demand, and all three existed. Kingdoms earned from tolls and taxes, so it was in every ruler's interest to keep the roads and ports working, whoever was fighting whom.

Tip: the chapter's four ‘Before we move on' points make a perfect one-page revision: many kingdoms → internal conflict plus invasion → cultural dialogue → flourishing trade.

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