NCERT Solutions for Class 8th Social Science Chapter 4 From traders to rulers — LET’S EXPLORE
Book page 92 Updated on2026-09-19
Q1.
Before you read further, have a good look at the painting on the first page of this chapter. It was specially ordered for the London headquarters of the East India Company and is over three metres long. Observe every aspect of it — the people in it, the objects, the symbols and the attitudes. Form groups of four or five students and let each group present its conclusions as regards the messages the painting conveys. (You will find our answers a few pages down, when we return to the painting, but avoid looking at them right now!)
Shape and frame. A large oval painting in a heavy carved and gilded frame.
Upper left. A fair-skinned woman in white and rose-coloured robes sits high on a rocky bank against a blue, cloudy sky. A large lion’s head rests below her. Behind her, winged children hold up a shield and a banner bearing a red cross; a spear leans against the rock.
Lower left. An old man with a long white beard and a wreath in his hair reclines at the water’s edge, one arm resting on a tipped urn from which water pours out; he holds a short dark rod.
Centre. A dark-skinned woman, bare above the waist and wearing gold armlets, a necklace and a jewelled ear ornament, leans forward and holds out a large round dish heaped with pearls, with a long string of pearls hanging from it. Behind her, in the middle distance, a sailing ship with flags rides on the sea.
Right of centre. A figure in a long yellow and blue robe, hair tied in a knot, kneels with the back bent low and lifts up a large decorated jar.
Right. A pale-skinned young man in a red cloak and a plumed helmet stands upright, holding out a staff with two snakes twined round it. Behind him rise tall palm-like trees, and an animal with a covered load on its back.
Far right. Two dark-skinned men stoop under large pale bales, carrying them forward; a small child stands among the figures nearby.
The arrangement. The pale-skinned figures are placed high on the left and stand or sit upright; the dark-skinned figures are lower down on the right, bending, kneeling or carrying.
Fig. 4.1, page 83 — the painting on this chapter’s opening page (Spiridione Roma, 1778, over three metres long). Only what can be seen in it is described here; see the textbook for the painting.
Answer
Method first. With a painting like this, ask four questions in order: who commissioned it and for what room? — who is placed higher and who lower? — who is giving and who is receiving? — what is left out? The answers are the message.
Who ordered it. This is Spiridione Roma’s ‘The East offering its riches to Britannia’, painted in 1778, over three metres long, made specially for the East India Company’s London headquarters. So it is not a neutral picture of trade — it is a company’s advertisement for itself, hung where its own directors would see it.
What you see
Where it sits in the picture
The message
Britannia, a fair-skinned woman with a lion beside her, cherubs with a shield and the Union flag behind
Highest of all, seated on a rock, receiving
Britain rules; the lion is power; she does not stand up or reach out — the wealth comes to her
India, a dark-skinned woman holding out a casket of pearls and jewels
Lower, leaning forward, offering
India is shown as a willing giver, and as a woman kneeling before a seated one
China, in a long robe, bent over a large porcelain jar
Lower still, bowed
The Company traded with China too; the East as a whole is arranged below Britain
Two dark figures carrying bales of cotton
At the right edge, backs bent under the load
The labour that produced the wealth is present, but nameless and at the margin
God Mercury with his winged staff
Standing at the right, gesturing
Commerce and travel — the transaction is presented as trade, blessed by a god
Ships of the Company
In the middle distance, behind the figures
The naval power that actually made all this possible, placed quietly in the background
‘Old Father Thames’, a bearded old man with water pouring from an urn
Lowest left, at the water’s edge
London is the destination: everything in the picture is flowing towards this river
Animals from India (a camel, an elephant)
Behind Mercury
The East as an exotic storehouse of natural riches
What the painting hides: the whole picture rests on one word in its title — offering. Nobody in it is being taxed, taken to court, or starved. There are no soldiers, no revenue collectors, no famine. Yet within a dozen years of this painting, the same Company had collected revenue through the Bengal famine of 1770–1772 in which roughly 10 million people died. Reading the picture against the chapter is the point of the exercise.
Try this in your group: divide the four questions above between the members, then present in this order — the commission, the hierarchy, the direction of the giving, the silence. Finish with one sentence answering: if an Indian weaver of 1778 had painted this scene, what would be different?