NCERT 6 HISTORY CHAPTER 11

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11. BUILDINGS, PAINTINGS AND BOOKS


  • Metallurgy - Harappans had the knowledge of copper metallurgy, they manufactured bronze, their successors belonged to iron age
  • Iron pillar - at Mehrauli, Delhi, made of iron, 7.2 m high, weight - 3 tonnes 
  • made about 1500 years ago, known from the inscription on ruler Chandra, belonged to Gupta dynasty
  • not rusted in all these years
    BUILDINGS IN BRICK AND STONE
  • Stupa - a mound of several kinds (round, tall, big and small), small box at centre / heart contains bodily remains or things used by Buddha and his followers
  • a path pradakshina patha was laid around the stupa
  • Amaravati - magnificient stupa, railings and gateways decorated with sculptures
  • earliest Hindu temples built, important part of the temple was garbhagriha (image of chief deity placed)  
  • Bhitargaon - early temple, Uttar Pradesh, 1500 years ago, a tower built on top of garbhagriha (Shikhara)
  • Most temples had a space, a hall where people could assemble (mandapa)
  • finest stone temples built at Mahabalipuram ( carved out of a huge, single piece of stone [monoliths]) and Aihole (the Durga temple built 1400 years ago)
    HOW WERE STUPAS AND TEMPLES BUILT?
  • first - good quality stone had to be found, quarried and transported
  • then had to be shaped and carved into pillars and panels
  • kings and queens spent money from treasury, devotees also brought gifts
    PAINTING
  • Ajanta - several caves hollowed out of the hills
  • these paintings were done in the light of torches
  • made of plants and minerals
  • vivid even after 1500 years
  • the artists remain unknown
    THE WORLD OF BOOKS
  • Epics - grand, long compositions, written during this period
  • Silappadikaram - 1800 years ago by Ilango, story of merchant named Kovalan and his wife Kannagi
  • Manimekalai - 1400 years ago by Sattanar, describes the story of the daughter of Kovalan and Madhavi
  • Kalidasa - poet, wrote a best-known poem, the Meghaduta
    RECORDING AND PRESERVING OLD STORIES
  • Puranas - (mean old), contains stories about god and goddesses, such as Shiva, Vishnu, Durga or Parvati
  • written in simple Sanskrit verse, recited in temples
  • Two Sanskrit epics - the Mahabharata, a war between the Kauravas and Pandavas, written down about 1500 years ago
  • Vyasa compiled the Puranas and the Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita included in Mahabharata
  • Ramayana - about Rama, a prince of Kosala, his wife Sita abducted by Ravana, he fought a battle to get her wife back 
  • now in written form, Valmiki recognised author of Sanskrit Ramayana
  • The Jatakas and the Panchatantra - stories by ordinary people
    WRITING BOOKS ON SCIENCE
  • Aryabhata - a mathematician and astronomer, wrote a book (Aryabhatiyam in Sanskrit)
  • he found day and night caused by earth's rotation, developed scientific explanation for eclipses, calculated the circumference of a circle
  • Other mathematicians and astronomers - Varahamihira, Brahmagupta and Bhaskaracharya
  • Zero - mathematicians invented a special symbol for zero, this counting adapted by the Arabs, then to Europe and continues to be in use
  • Ayurveda - well-known system of health science, famous practitioners were Charaka (1st - 2nd centuries CE) (Charaka Samhita, book on medicine) and Susruta (4th century CE) (Susruta Samhita, speak about surgical procedures)

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