NCERT Solutions for Class 7th Social Science Chapter 8 Fig. 8.2 and the chapter-opening pictures of Fig. 8.1 — LET'S EXPLORE
Book page 168 Updated on2026-09-19
Q1.
Do any of the pictures look familiar to you? Can you name similar places found in your neighbourhood?
What the pictures show — Fig. 8.1 (chapter opening, page 167) and Fig. 8.2 (page 168):
Fig. 8.1, six photographs: (1) a group of stone temples with slate roofs standing in a deodar forest; (2) rows of lit diyas floating on a river at night, with the lights of the bank reflected in the water; (3) a white Buddhist stūpa with a golden spire on a bare, rocky mountain; (4) a small pillared shrine standing in the middle of a temple tank; (5) tall upright standing stones in an open grassy field; (6) a close-up of tree roots covered with threads, bead strings, lemons, flowers and other offerings.
Fig. 8.2, five photographs: (1) a crowded dargah, with men and women seated on the floor under a red canopy; (2) the interior of a synagogue, with polished brass railings, a menorah and an orange cloth spread on the floor; (3) the gateway of a Parsi fire temple, with an inscription over the door and a carved winged guardian figure beside it; (4) a large red sandstone mosque with two minarets and white marble domes; (5) another synagogue interior with chandeliers, brass pillars and a red curtain over the ark.
Fig. 8.1 (page 167) and Fig. 8.2 (page 168) — photographs, described here; see the textbook for the pictures themselves.
Answer
Start by naming what the pictures actually show, then match each type to your own surroundings.
In the pictures
What kind of sacred place it is
Look for this near you
Fig. 8.1 — stone temples among tall deodar trees
A temple complex in a forest
Your village or town temple, especially one in a grove or on a hill
Fig. 8.1 — rows of lit diyas floating on a river at dusk
A river ghat used for worship
The ghat, tank or riverbank where your town holds aarti or immersion
Fig. 8.1 — a white stūpa on a bare mountain
A Buddhist stūpa
A stūpa, vihāra or monastery, if there is one in your district
Fig. 8.1 — a shrine standing in the middle of a temple tank
A sacred water body
The temple tank, kunḍ, stepwell or pond people keep clean for rituals
Fig. 8.1 — upright stones in an open field
Sacred stones / a tribal or folk shrine
Village boundary stones, a devgudi, a gramadevatā platform
Fig. 8.1 — tree roots covered with threads, lemons and kumkum
A sacred tree
The peepul, banyan or neem near your school that people circle and tie threads on
Fig. 8.2 — a crowded dargah, a mosque, a synagogue interior, a fire temple
Shrines of Islam, Judaism and Zoroastrianism
A dargah, mosque, church, gurdwara, agiary or synagogue in your city
Sample answer: “Yes — the picture of the tree hung with threads and lemons is very familiar. There is an old peepul tree at the corner of our street; people tie red threads around it, put kumkum on the trunk and no one cuts its branches. The picture of the river with lamps is like the Ganga ghat we visit at Kartik Purnima. Near my home there is also a small hill temple that we climb on foot during the festival, a dargah where people of every community tie threads at the window, and a church at the end of the market road.”
Why the book asks this first: to show that ‘sacred geography' is not something distant and ancient. It is the ordinary map of your own neighbourhood — a tree, a tank, a hill, a shrine — read with different eyes.