The chief had died last night. The whole community had gathered near his house to pay their last homage. May be they were wearing white coloured clothes. In the fields outside, people had collected things needed for the burial. The fire was lighted and some people were cooking food. May be rice was being cooked along with vegetables in the mud pot or they may be cooking that food which was relished by the chief. The people may be chanting the holy prayers, otherwise there was silence all round.

(i) About 2000 years ago, there was a famous physician named Charaka who wrote a book on medicine known as the Charaka Samhita.
(ii) There he stated that the human body has 360 bones, which is a much larger number than 200 bones that are recognised by modem anatomy.
(iii) Charaka arrived at this figure by counting the teeth, joints and cartilage.

Archaeologists think that objects found with a skeleton probably belonged to the dead person.
(i) Sometimes, more objects are found in one grave than in another. For example, in Brahmagiri, one skeleton was buried with 33 gold beads, 2 stone beads, 4 copper bangles and one conch shell. Other skeletons had only a few pots.
(ii) These findings suggest that there was some difference in status amongst the people who were buried. Some were rich, others poor, some chiefs, while others were followers.

All the burials have some common features
(i) Generally, the dead were buried with distinctive pots, which are called Black and Red Ware
(ii) Also found are tools and weapons of iron, and sometimes, skeletons of horses, horse equipment and ornaments of stone and gold

Three Gods are especially important: Agni, the God of fire; Indra, the warrior God; and Soma, a plant from which a special drink was prepared.

The people who composed the hymns described themselves as Aryas and called their opponents Dasas or Dasyus. These were the people who did not perform sacrifices and probably spoke different languages.

Aryan's literal meaning is noble and exalted. The Aryans came from outside and settled in India. They lived in villages and family was the basic unit of the Aryan society.

Battles were fought to capture land, property and cattle, which was important for pasture. Some battles were fought on the issue of water and to make people slaves.

Yes, I know that we have a set of the Vedas. There are four Vedas-Rigveda; Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda. The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism.

Battles were fought because:
(i) Land was important for pasture and for growing hardy crops that ripened quickly, such as barley. This is why battles were fought for the land.
(ii) Some battles were also fought for water and to capture people.
(iii) Battles were fought to capture cattle also.

The people of Inamgaon disposed of their dead as:
(i) In Inamgaon, adults were generally buried in the ground, laid out straight, with the head towards the North.
(ii) Some burials were within the houses, and vessels that probably contained food and water were placed with the dead.
(iii) In the courtyard of a five roomed house which was in the centre of the settlement, one man was found buried in a large, four legged clay jar
(iv)The body was placed in a cross-legged position.

In Rig-Vedic society, raja enjoyed highest position with the priests. They fought war to capture man and cattle, land and water. The dasa or dasi were in the lowest position in the society.They could not perform sacrifices and spoke different languages. They were captured in wars. They were treated as the property of their owner and had to do any kind of work their owner wanted.

The important differences between the Rigveda and the modern books are:
(i) The books we use today an: written and printed. Bur the Rigv~a was memorised and recited by the students and passed on to later generations. The Rigveda was printed less than 200 years ago.
(ii) The Rigveda was composed in old or Vedic Sanskrit. This is different from the Sanskrit language which is learned by students today.

The raja of Rigveda did not live in palaces. They did not have capital cities, armies ere like the Chinese kings of the same time.

Sometimes people decide on the basis of what is found with the skeleton. For instance, if a skeleton is found with jewellery, it is sometimes thought to be that of a woman. However, there are problems with this, often men also wore ornaments like women. A better way of deciding the sex of a skeleton is to look at the bone structure. The hip or the pelvic area of women is generally larger to enable child bearing. This modern skeletal studies help us to determine correctly the sex of a skeleton.