History 6th NCERT chapter 8 - 10 key points

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Day # 3 (March 26, 2017)            

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Topics of the Day - NCERT History 6th class chapter 8 - 10 key points

Mauryas:

 The Mauryans were a dynasty with three important rulers - Chandragupta Maurya, his son Bindusara, and Bindusara son Ashoka.

 Chandragupta Maurya was supported by a wise man named Kautilya or Chanakya.

 Chanakya mentioned his ideas in a book called Arthashastra.

 Megasthenes was an ambassador who was sent to the court of chandragupta by the Greek ruler of west Asia named Seleucus Nicator.

 Pataliputra, Taxila and Ujjain were the main cities in the mauryan Empire.

 Pataliputra was the capital city of Mauryan Empire.

 Taxila was a gateway to the Northwest.

 Ujjain lay on the route from north to south India,

 Royal Princes were sent to the provinces as Governor.

Ashoka:

 The most famous ruler of Mauryan dynasty was Ashoka.

 Ashoka fought kalinga war to conquer Kalinga.

 He is the only king in the history of the world who gave up conquest after winning.

 He decided to observe Dhamma.

 He appointed officials, Known as the Dhamma Mahamatta who went from place to place teaching people about dhamma.

 He also spread other messengers to spread ideas about dhamma to other lands, such as Syria, Egypt, Greece and SriLanka.

 Most of Ashoka's inscriptions were in prakrit and were written in the Brahmi script.

 In the Tamil region, large land owners were known as Vellalar, ordinary ploughmen were known as uzhavar, and landless labourers, including slaves, were known as Kadaisiyar and adimai.

 In the northern part of the country, the village headman was known as the grama bhojaka.

 Grama bhojaka was often the largest landowner.

 Grihapatis were other independent farmers who own small land.

 Dasa Karmakara were men and women who did not own a land.

 Some of the earliest works in tamil, known as Sangam literature, were composed around 2300 years ago. These texts were called Sangam because they were supposed to have been composed and compiled in the assemblies (sangams) of poets that were held

in the city of Madurai.

 Jatakas were stories that were probably composed by ordinary people, and then written down and preserved by Buddhist monks.

 Mathura has been important settlement for more than 2500 years.

 Mathura was also a center where some extremely fine sculpture was produced.

 Mathura became the second capital of the Kushanas.

 Mathura was also a religious centre - there were buddhist monastries,Jaina shrines and it was an impotant centre for the worship of Krishna.

 Northern black polished ware was found in the northern part of the sub continent, usually black in colour and has a fine sheen.

 Many crafts persons and merchants formed associations known as shrenis.

 The shrenis of crafts provided training, procured raw material and distributed finished product.

 The shrenis of merchants organised the trade.

 Shrenis also served as banks.

 Rules for spinning and weaving were mentioned in the chapter 8 of Arthashastra.

 Arikamedu(in pondicherry) was a coastal settlement where ships unloaded goods from distant lands.

 Massive brick structure, Pottery from the mediterranean region such as amphorae(tall double handled jars that contained liquids such as wine or oil) and stamped red glazed pottery, known as Arretine Ware, which was named after a city in Italy, Roman lamps, glassware, gems were found at Arikamedu.

 South India was famous for gold, Pepper, spices and precious stones.

 Pepper was very much valued in the Roman empire and it was called as Black gold.

 Sangam poems mention the muvendar, a tamil word which means three chiefs, used for the heads of three ruling families, the cholas, cheras, and pandyas.

 Each of the three chiefs had two centres of power - one inland and one on the coast.

 Puhar or Kaveripattinam, the port of the cholas, and Madurai, the capital of pandyas were considered very important.

 The most important ruler of the satavahana was Gautamiputra shri Satakarni.

 He and other satavahana rulers were known as lords of the Dakshinapatha, literally the route leading to south.

 Techniques of making silk was first invented in China.

 Some people of China who went to distant places on foot, horseback and camels, carried silk with them. The path they followed came to be known as Silk route.

 Kushanas rulers were the best known rulers who controlled the silk route.

 Peshawar and Mathura were Kushanas power of centres.

 The Kushanas were amongst the earliest rulers of the subcontinent to issue gold coins.

 Kanishka was the most famoue Kushana ruler.

 Ashvagosha who composed a biography of the Buddha, Buddhacharitha, was lived in Kanishka court.

 Mahayana buddhism came into prominence during Kanishka rule.

 Many statues of the Buddha were were made in Mathura.

 FaXian, Xuan Zang and I-Quing were famous pilgrims who visited places associated with the life of Buddha.

 Nalanda was the famous Buddhist monastery where Xuan Zang and other pilgrims spent time studying.

 Harisena composed a poem in sanskrit about samudragupta which was inscribed on the Ashokan pillar at Allahabad.

 Prashasti were poems composed in praise of rulers.

 We came to know more about Gupta rulers through their inscriptions and coins.

 Banabhatta, court poet of Harshavardhan wrote Harshavardhana biography called harshacharita in sanskrit.

 Xuan Zang spent a lot of time in the court of Harshavardhana.

 Harshavardhan conquered both Magadha and Bengal.

 Pulakeshin II, a ruler of Chalukya dynasty stopped Harshavardhana when he tried to cross Narmada to march into Deccan.

 Kanchipuram was the capital of Pallavas Kingdom.

 Aihole, the capital of Chalukyas was an important trading centre.

 Ravikirti was the court poet of Pulakeshin II.

 Samantas were the military leaders who provided troops to King whenever he needed. King in return gives land for them.

 The ur was a village assembly found in areas where the land owners were not brahmins.

 The Iron pillar at Mehrauli,Delhi is made of iron, 7.2 m high and weighs over 3 tonnes.There is an inscription on the pillar mentioned the name of a ruler Chandra.

 A small box known as relic casket containing the bodily remains of the Buddha or his followers or things they used was placed at the centre or heart of the Stupa.

 A path known as Pradakshina patha was laid around the stupa.This was surrounded with railings.

 A famous tamil epic, the silappadikaram, was composed by a poet Ilango, was the story of a merchant named kovalan who fell in love with the courtesan Madhavi.

 Manimekalai was a tamil epic composed by Sattanar about the story of the daughter of Kovalan and Madhavi.

 Meghadhuta was a famous poem of Kalidasa.

 Aryabhatta, a mathematician and astronomer wrote a book in sanskrit known as Aryabhatiyam.

 Aryabhatta stated thatday and night were caused by the rotation of the earth on its axis. He developed a scientific explanation for eclipses.He also found a way to calculate the circumference of a circle.

 Paper was invented in china by a man named Cai Lun.