NCERT Solutions for Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 8 How the Land Becomes Sacred

About this chapter

Sacredness, in this chapter, means something of deep religious or spiritual significance — holy, divine, worthy of respect and reverence. That ‘something' need not be a building. It can be a special location or shrine, a journey of a special kind (a pilgrimage), the route the journey takes, or even the very land covered . So sacredness is tied not only to religion and spirituality but also to geography and to living traditions. Every school of thought and religion in India has its own sacred places. Religions that came from outside — Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism — have shrines like the Dargah Sharif of Ajmer and the Velankanni Church, visited by followers of other faiths too. Buddhism has sites the Buddha visited or where his relics are kept (the Great Stūpa at Sanchi, the

• Chapter opening
• Fig. 8.2 and the chapter-opening pictures of Fig. 8.1
• Becoming Aware of Sacred Geography
• Prayagraj, the Kumbh Mela and the confluence of three rivers
• Figs. 8.7 and 8.8
• Fig. 8.12, a seal from Mohenjo-daro
• From pilgrimage to trade
• Restoring and conserving the sacred
• The chapter's four closing statements, explained
• –184End-of-chapter exercise