(History) Chapter 1: What, Where, How, and When?

KNOWING THE PAST

Study of History means knowing the past

There is a curiosity to know about the people who lived in our past- what they ate, the clothes they wore and the houses in which they lived.

Different groups of people lived differently- the way of their living was totally different as it can be seen through the lives of hunters, herders, farmers, rulers, merchants, priests, craft persons, artists, musicians, and scientists. Beside these we get to know in detail from the games, stories, plays and songs children played and enjoyed.

Altogether make the exact social structure of the past which changes through time to time .And  later on study as a history.

ORIGIN OF BHARAT AND INDIA

We use two names for our country- Indian and Bharat.

INDIA

• The Iranians and Greeks came through northwest about 2500 years ago
• They were familiar with the river Indus  and its adjacent place and called it the Hindos or the Indos.
• The land to the east of Indus was called India.
• Thus India comes from Indus, called Sindhu in Sanskrit.

BHARAT

• Mentioned in the Rigveda, about 3500 years ago.
• A group of people who lived in the Northwest.
• Later used for the country.

WHAT DO DATES MEAN?

AD : Anno Domini

• The present date generally assigned to the birth of JESUS CHRIST, the founder of CHRISTIANITY.

• The dates after the birth of Lord  CHRIST
• Basically represent as AD, stands for two Latin words – Anno and Domini
• AD means 'in the year of Lord'(i.e. Christ)
• Means years started with the birth of Lord Christ
• When we say year 2000, it states that the time span of two thousand years after the birth of Lord.

BC: BEFORE CHRIST                                    

• All the dates before the birth of Christ are counted backwards and usually have the letters BC, means Before Christ.
• If we are talking about 200 BC, then we have to add 200 years with the current year i.e.2022.
• It means we are talking about the story of (200+2022) 2222 years ago.
• Sometimes CE is used instead of AD and BCE and BP instead of BC.
• CE stands for Common Era.
• BCE stands for Before Common Era.
• BP stands for Before Present.
• Most of the countries of the world now using Christian Era and calendar used widely is The Gregorian Calendar.
• We began using this form dating from about two hundred years ago in India.