Class 12 History Chapter 4 Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings NCERT Solutions in English

Q. Were the ideas of the Upanishadic thinkers different from those of the fatalists and materialists? Give reasons for your answer.

Answer:
Upanishadic thinkers. From about the sixth century BCE, the Upanishads show growing curiosity about the meaning of life, the possibility of an afterlife, and whether rebirth followed from past actions; thinkers were also concerned with understanding the nature of ultimate reality, and some outside the Vedic tradition even questioned whether a single ultimate reality existed at all.
The fatalists (Ajivikas). Makkhali Gosala held that pleasure and pain were fixed and could not be altered through virtue or penance, “just as a ball of string will when thrown unwind to its full length, so fool and wise alike will take their course”.
The materialists (Lokayatas). Ajita Kesakambalin held that there was no alms, sacrifice, this world or the next; a human being is only the four elements, which return to earth, water, fire and air at death, so “fools and wise alike are cut off and perish. They do not survive after death.”
Conclusion. Yes, the ideas were clearly different: Upanishadic thinkers pursued open philosophical inquiry into self and rebirth, the Ajivikas taught a fixed, unalterable fate, and the Lokayatas denied an afterlife altogether, while the Upanishadic thinkers stayed within the Vedic tradition and reinterpreted the sacrifice (Source 2 calls the blowing wind “surely a sacrifice”).

Q. Summarise the central teachings of Jainism.

Answer:
An animated world. Jainism holds that the entire world is animated: even stones, rocks and water have life, so non-injury to living beings, especially humans, animals, plants and insects, is central to Jaina philosophy.
Ahimsa. The principle of ahimsa, emphasised within Jainism, has left its mark on Indian thinking as a whole.
Karma and renunciation. The cycle of birth and rebirth is shaped by karma; only asceticism and penance, achieved by renouncing the world, can free a person from it, which is why monastic existence is a necessary condition of salvation.
The five vows. Jaina monks and nuns took five vows: to abstain from killing, stealing and lying; to observe celibacy; and to abstain from possessing property.
Lineage and spread. Jaina tradition holds that Mahavira was preceded by 23 other tirthankaras; the religion spread across India, producing literature in Prakrit, Sanskrit and Tamil, preserved for centuries in temple libraries.

Q. Discuss the role of the begums of Bhopal in preserving the stupa at Sanchi.

Answer:
Shahjehan Begum’s own account. Shahjehan Begum, Nawab of Bhopal (ruled 1868-1901), recorded her own visit to Sanchi Kanakhera in her work Taj-ul Iqbal Tarikh Bhopal, describing the stone sculptures, statues of the Buddha, the ancient gateway, and Major Alexander Cunningham’s careful work of drawing, deciphering inscriptions and boring shafts down the domes.
Funding preservation. Both Shahjehan Begum and her successor, Sultan Jehan Begum, provided money for the preservation of the ancient site.
Funding the museum, guesthouse and publications. Sultan Jehan Begum funded the museum built at Sanchi and the guesthouse where John Marshall lived and wrote his volumes on Sanchi; she also funded the publication of those volumes, which Marshall dedicated to her.
Conclusion. The survival of the stupa complex owed much to these wise decisions by the begums of Bhopal, combined with good luck in escaping the attention of railway contractors, builders and museum collectors elsewhere in Europe.

Q. Read this short inscription and answer: “In the year 33 of the maharaja Huvishka (a Kushana ruler), in the first month of the hot season on the eighth day, a Bodhisatta was set up at Madhuvanaka by the bhikkhuni Dhanavati, the sister’s daughter of the bhikkhuni Buddhamita, who knows the Tipitaka, the female pupil of the bhikkhu Bala, who knows the Tipitaka, together with her father and mother.” (a) How did Dhanavati date her inscription? (b) Why do you think she installed an image of the Bodhisatta? (c) Who were the relatives she mentioned? (d) What Buddhist text did she know? (e) From whom did she learn this text?

Answer:
(a) She dated her inscription by the reigning king’s regnal year (the 33rd year of Huvishka), the season (the hot season), and the month and day (the eighth day of its first month), rather than by any independent era.
(b) She most likely installed the image of the Bodhisatta to earn religious merit, to express her own and her family’s devotion, and to record herself publicly as someone who knew the Tipitaka.
(c) She names her aunt (her mother’s sister), the bhikkhuni Buddhamita, and records that her own father and mother joined her in setting up the image.
(d) She knew the Tipitaka, as the inscription states directly.
(e) She learned it from her teacher, the bhikkhu Bala, who himself knew the Tipitaka.

Q. Why do you think women and men joined the sangha?

Answer:
Social equality. Within the sangha, all members were regarded as equal, having shed their earlier social identities; kings and wealthy gahapatis lived alongside workers, slaves and craftspeople.
Conduct over birth. Buddhism placed importance on conduct and values rather than claims of superiority based on birth, and emphasised metta (fellow feeling) and karuna (compassion), especially for those who were younger and weaker, drawing both elite and humble followers.
Relief from social change. Buddhism grew rapidly, appealing to people dissatisfied with existing religious practices and confused by rapid social change, such as Punna, a dasi (slave woman) who became a respected theri.
Opportunity for women. Through Ananda’s mediation, women were also admitted to the sangha; the Buddha’s foster mother, Mahapajapati Gotami, became the first ordained bhikkhuni, opening the path for other women to become theris.

Q. To what extent does knowledge of Buddhist literature help in understanding the sculpture at Sanchi?

Answer:
Reading carvings like a scroll. Sanchi’s sculpture works like a charanachitra, the cloth or paper scroll a wandering storyteller carries. A scene that at first sight seems rural, with thatched huts and trees, has been identified by art historians as the Vessantara Jataka, a story of a generous prince who gave away everything and lived in the forest with his family: reading it needed textual knowledge, not just the image.
Reading symbols. Many early sculptors avoided showing the Buddha in human form, instead using symbols: an empty seat for his meditation, a stupa for the mahaparinibbana, and a wheel for his first sermon at Sarnath. Without familiarity with hagiographies of the Buddha, these symbols cannot be read at all; a tree at the site of enlightenment does not stand for “a tree” but for a specific episode in his life.
The limits of literary knowledge. Not every carving reflects Buddhist doctrine directly. The shalabhanjika, a woman whose touch was popularly believed to make trees flower and fruit, and the recurring serpent motif, are pre-Buddhist, popular symbols absorbed into stupa decoration; Buddhist literature alone cannot fully explain them.
The risk of reading without literature. James Fergusson, one of the earliest modern art historians, studied the serpent motif at Sanchi without access to Buddhist literature, most of which was then untranslated, and wrongly concluded that Sanchi was a centre of tree and serpent worship.
Even text does not always resolve a reading. The rock-cut panel at Mahabalipuram is read by some art historians as the descent of the river Ganga and by others as Arjuna’s penance, even though both readings rest on matching text to image.
Conclusion. Knowledge of Buddhist literature is extremely helpful, particularly for recognising symbols and narrative scenes, but it is not sufficient on its own: careful comparison of text, image and popular tradition together is needed, and even then some images remain genuinely disputed.

Q. Figs. 4.32 and 4.33 are two scenes from Sanchi. Describe what you see in each of them, focusing on the architecture, plants and animals, and the activities. Identify which one shows a rural scene and which an urban scene, giving reasons for your answer.

Answer:
Fig. 4.32: a rural scene. Architecture: small, simple huts with rounded, thatch-like roofs, with seated figures inside their doorways. Plants and animals: trees and dense bunches of leafy plants fill the panel; there are many animals, cattle or buffaloes, deer-like animals and an elephant, some shown near water at the bottom. Activities: people stand among the animals and trees, some carrying things on their shoulders or heads, going about ordinary work.
Fig. 4.33: an urban scene. Architecture: a large, two-storeyed building with tall, carved pillars topped by animal figures, a railing-like balcony between the storeys, and arched (horseshoe-shaped) windows above the lower rooms. Plants and animals: almost no natural vegetation, only decorative carving; the animals appear as sculpted ornaments on the pillar tops, not as living herds. Activities: well-dressed, ornamented men and women sit in the rooms of the building, some attended by others, as in a palace or a rich townsman’s house.
Reasons. Fig. 4.32 shows huts, trees, herds of animals and people at ordinary work, which belong to village or forest life. Fig. 4.33 shows a multi-storeyed, pillared building with balconies and arched windows, and richly dressed people at leisure, which belong to a town or city.
Conclusion. So Fig. 4.32 is the rural scene and Fig. 4.33 is the urban scene. Carving both kinds of life on the same monument fits what the donative inscriptions show: people from many backgrounds, from towns and from villages, paid for building and decorating the stupa.

Q. Discuss the development in sculpture and architecture associated with the rise of Vaishnavism and Shaivism.

Answer:
The idea of a saviour. The idea of a saviour was not unique to Buddhism: Vaishnavism (Vishnu as the principal deity) and Shaivism (Shiva as the chief god) grew alongside it, both increasingly centred on bhakti, the bond of love and devotion between devotee and god.
Avatars and the linga. Vaishnavism developed cults around ten avatars, forms the deity was believed to have assumed to save the world from disorder; recognising local deities as one of these avatars was a way of creating a more unified religious tradition. Shiva was mostly symbolised by the linga, though occasionally represented in human form.
Reading the sculpture. Understanding such sculpture requires knowing the stories behind head-dresses, ornaments and ayudhas (weapons or auspicious objects held in the hands); these stories survive mainly in the Puranas, compiled by Brahmanas by about the middle of the first millennium CE in simple Sanskrit verse, meant to be read aloud to everyone, including women and Shudras who had no access to Vedic learning. Vasudeva-Krishna, for instance, began as an important deity of the Mathura region before his worship spread more widely.
Temple-building. Around the time stupas were reaching their mature form, the first temples to house images of gods and goddesses were also being built: the earliest was a small square garbhagriha with a single doorway; gradually a tall shikhara was raised over the shrine, and temple walls were decorated with sculpture. Later temples grew far more elaborate, with assembly halls, walls, gateways and water arrangements.
Cave temples. A parallel tradition hollowed temples directly out of rock as artificial caves, a tradition going back to caves built on Asoka’s orders in the third century BCE for Ajivika renouncers, and culminating in the eighth century in the carving of the entire Kailashnatha temple at Ellora out of a single piece of rock, with a copperplate inscription recording the chief sculptor’s own amazement: “Oh how did I make it!”

Q. Discuss how and why stupas were built.

Answer:
Why: relics made a place sacred. Some places became sacred because relics of the Buddha, his bodily remains or objects he had used, were buried there, in mounds known as stupas; the tradition of erecting mounds may have been pre-Buddhist but came to be closely associated with Buddhism, so the entire stupa was venerated as an emblem of both the Buddha and Buddhism.
Textual sanction. According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, as the Buddha lay dying, he told Ananda that stupas should be erected at the four crossroads; according to the Ashokavadana, Asoka later distributed the Buddha’s relics to every important town and ordered stupas built over them. By the second century BCE, stupas stood at Bharhut, Sanchi and Sarnath.
How: financing through donation. Inscriptions on the railings and pillars of stupas record donations made for building and decorating them: kings such as the Satavahanas, guilds such as the ivory workers who financed part of a gateway at Sanchi, and hundreds of ordinary women and men who recorded their names, home town, occupation and relatives; bhikkhus and bhikkhunis also contributed.
Structure. The stupa, a Sanskrit word meaning a heap, began as a simple semi-circular mound, the anda; above it rose the harmika, a balcony-like structure representing the abode of the gods, and from the harmika rose the yashti, often topped by a chhatri, or umbrella; a railing separated the sacred mound from the secular world.
Worship. Worshippers entered through the eastern gateway and walked around the mound clockwise, keeping it on their right, imitating the sun’s course through the sky; later mounds, as at Amaravati and Shah-ji-ki-Dheri, became elaborately carved, unlike the plainer early stupas at Sanchi and Bharhut.

Q. On an outline world map, mark the areas to which Buddhism spread. Trace the land and sea routes from the subcontinent to these areas.

Answer: Mark these on your own outline map of the world. The table gives every area and the route that reached it; the steps say how to draw it.

How to mark it: (1) Shade north India, where the Buddha taught, and write “Buddhism began here”. (2) Shade and name the eight areas in the table. (3) Draw the land route as a solid arrow from north India through the north-west of the subcontinent into Central Asia, then east to China and on to Korea, with a short sea crossing (dashed) from Korea to Japan. (4) Draw the sea routes as dashed arrows: one south to Sri Lanka, one across the Bay of Bengal to Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia. (5) Add a key: solid arrow = land route, dashed arrow = sea route.
The chapter describes exactly these two directions of spread in Section 4.

Q. Of the religious traditions discussed in this chapter, is there any that is practised in your neighbourhood? What are the religious texts used today, and how are they preserved and transmitted? Are images used in worship? If so, are these similar to or different from those described in this chapter? Describe the buildings used for religious activities today, comparing them with early stupas and temples.

Answer: How to do it: choose one tradition from the chapter (Buddhism, Jainism, Vaishnavism or Shaivism) found near you and visit a place of worship. Record: (1) the texts used (for example the Tipitaka, Jaina sutras, the Puranas or the Bhagavad Gita) and how they are kept and passed on today (printed books, recitation, teaching, recordings) compared with manuscripts preserved in monasteries and temple libraries; (2) whether images are worshipped, and compare them with the symbols (empty seat, wheel, stupa) and images of the Buddha, Bodhisattas, tirthankaras, Vishnu’s avatars and the Shiva linga in the chapter; (3) the building: compare it with the stupa (anda, harmika, yashti, railing, gateways) and with the early temple (a garbhagriha with one doorway, later a shikhara, assembly halls and gateways). Present your findings with sketches or photographs.

Q. Collect at least five pictures of sculpture or painting, belonging to different periods and regions, on the religious traditions described in this chapter. Remove their captions, and show each one to two people, and ask them to describe what they see. Compare their descriptions and prepare a report on your findings.

Answer: How to do it: choose five pictures from different periods and regions (for example a Sanchi gateway panel, a Mathura image of the Buddha, a Gandhara Bodhisatta, an Ajanta painting and the Varaha sculpture from Aihole). Show them without captions and write down each person’s description. In your report compare the descriptions: note what people recognised easily, what they misread or could not explain, and how their own background shaped what they saw. Link your findings to Section 11 of the chapter: symbols and stories are understood only by those familiar with the traditions behind them, and people tend to judge the unfamiliar by what is familiar to them.

Q. Compare what Shahjehan Begum described with what you see in Fig. 4.3. What similarities and differences do you notice?

Answer: Similarities. Shahjehan Begum speaks of the “domes” into which Cunningham bored shafts, an “ancient gateway” and stone sculpture; Fig. 4.3 shows the same things: the great hemispherical dome of the stupa, a carved stone gateway beside it and a stone railing round the mound, on top of a hill.
Differences. She describes ruins that European visitors were still examining, drawing and digging into, and she mentions statues of the Buddha, which the photograph does not show clearly. The photograph shows a cleared and restored complex: a neat staircase, a railing and the harmika and umbrella on top of the dome, the result of the preservation work of the begums and the Archaeological Survey of India.

Q. List the objectives of the sacrifice.

Answer: From the Rigveda verses (Source 1) and Section 2.1, sacrifices were performed: to carry the offerings through Agni to the other gods; to obtain abundant food and “mighty wealth”; to get nourishment, “the wonderful cow” and cattle; to have a son and offspring to continue the family line; and for good health and a long life. Household sacrifices were performed for the well-being of the domestic unit, while chiefs and kings performed elaborate sacrifices such as the rajasuya and ashvamedha, with Brahmana priests conducting the ritual.

Q. Do you think it is appropriate to describe these men as fatalists or materialists?

Answer: Largely yes, on the evidence of the excerpt. Makkhali Gosala says that pleasure and pain are “measured out” and cannot be changed by virtue or penance, and that fool and wise alike unwind “like a ball of string”; that is the belief that everything is predetermined, which is what a fatalist holds. Ajita Kesakambalin denies alms, sacrifice and any world beyond, and says a human being is only the four elements which return to earth, water, fire and air at death; that is a materialist view. But the labels must be used with care: the texts of the Ajivikas and Lokayatas have not survived, so we know these teachers only through the Sutta Pitaka, the work of a rival tradition, which may have simplified or exaggerated their ideas.

Q. What are the problems in reconstructing histories of ideas and beliefs when texts are not available or have not survived?

Answer: (1) We must depend on what rival traditions wrote about them, as with the Ajivikas and Lokayatas known only from Buddhist texts, and rivals may be biased or selective. (2) Only fragments survive, so we cannot know the full range of their ideas or how the ideas changed over time. (3) The names given to them (fatalists, materialists) are often others’ labels, not their own. (4) Beliefs that were never written down, daily rituals and oral traditions, leave few traces. (5) Images and monuments without texts are easily misread: James Fergusson, without translated Buddhist literature, wrongly took Sanchi to be a centre of tree and serpent worship.

Q. Which of the arguments advanced by the queen do you find most convincing?

Answer: A model answer: the most convincing argument is that even “the whole world and all its treasures” would not satisfy the king or save him, because at death he must “leave all things behind” and only dhamma will save him. It rests on something no one can deny, the certainty of death, and shows that wealth and a kingdom are worth nothing at that moment. Her comparisons also persuade: she dislikes the world as a bird dislikes its cage, and those who renounce pleasures move freely “like the wind” and “like birds in their flight”.

Q. Is ahimsa relevant in the twenty-first century?

Answer: Yes. Ahimsa, non-injury to living beings (humans, animals, plants and insects), is still relevant: in a world of wars, terrorism and everyday violence it offers a way of settling disputes without harming others; its respect for all life supports the protection of animals, forests and the environment, which are under great pressure today; and it encourages tolerance and compassion in a society with many faiths. The chapter itself notes that ahimsa “has left its mark on Indian thinking as a whole”.

Q. Can you identify the script?

Answer: The page from the fourteenth-century Jaina manuscript is written in the Devanagari script (the form used in Jaina manuscripts, often called Jaina Nagari), in gold letters on a red and blue decorated ground.

Q. If you did not know about the life of the Buddha, would you be able to tell what the sculpture depicts?

Answer: Probably not. Without the story, the Amaravati sculpture would look like a crowded scene of a horse surrounded by attendants and figures, perhaps a royal procession. Only a viewer who knows the hagiography, that Siddhartha left his palace in search of the truth after seeing an old man, a sick man, a corpse and a homeless mendicant, can recognise it as the departure of the Buddha from his palace. This is why historians have to know the texts and traditions behind such sculpture.

Q. Suggest what the instructions regarding parents, teacher and wife may have been.

Answer: Following the pattern of the advice on servants (“in five ways should…”), they may have been: parents: support them in old age, do the duties owed to them, keep up the family’s good traditions, and be worthy of what they leave; teacher: show respect by rising to greet him, attend on him and serve him, and learn eagerly and carefully; wife: treat her with respect and courtesy, be faithful to her, give her authority in the household and provide for her needs. Like the advice on servants, each would stress mutual duties and humane, ethical behaviour.

Q. Compare the Buddha’s advice to Sigala with Asoka’s advice to his subjects (Chapter 2). Do you notice any similarities and differences?

Answer: Similarities. Both ask people to treat servants and slaves humanely, and both ask for respect and generosity towards Brahmanas and samanas (those who had renounced the world). Both are about ethical conduct in daily life rather than ritual.
Differences. The Buddha’s advice is given by a teacher to one wealthy householder and is detailed and practical (food, wages, care in sickness, leave). Asoka’s dhamma was a king’s message to all his subjects, inscribed on rocks and pillars and spread by officials (the dhamma mahamattas); it also asked for respect for elders and for other people’s religions and traditions.

Q. Which of the teachings of the Buddha are evident in this composition?

Answer: (1) Rejection of empty ritual: washing in water does not free anyone from evil, or “all the frogs and turtles” would go to heaven. (2) Right action: “Don’t do that thing, the fear of which leads you to the water”, evil is avoided by not doing evil. (3) Persuasion through reason rather than authority, the Buddha’s own method. (4) Conduct over birth: a dasi (slave woman) corrects a Brahmana. (5) Compassion (karuna): she asks him to save his skin from the cold.

Q. Can you explain why these rules were framed?

Answer: The rules kept the monks’ life simple and disciplined. The felt rule (keep it at least six years) stopped monks from collecting possessions. The food rule (only two or three bowlfuls, shared with other bhikkhus) prevented greed and made sure the laity, who fed the monks, were not overburdened. The bedding rule taught care of the sangha’s common property and courtesy (taking leave before going). Confession of a breach kept discipline inside the order, so that the sangha kept its good name with the people whose alms supported it.

Q. Why do you think a dasi like Punna wanted to join the sangha?

Answer: In the world Punna had to go into cold water every morning out of fear of punishment and the angry words of high-class women. In the sangha all members were regarded as equal, having shed their earlier social identities, so she could escape the low status of a slave. Buddhism valued conduct over birth and stressed metta and karuna for the weaker. Women who joined could become teachers of dhamma and theris, respected women who had attained liberation, and could compose verses like hers in the Therigatha.

Q. Look at Fig. 4.15 and see whether you can identify some of these practices.

Answer: Fig. 4.15 (Worshipping the stupa) shows people gathered around a stupa: some stand with hands joined in salutation, others bring offerings, and figures above appear to carry garlands. These match the practices named in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta: placing garlands or perfume at the stupa, making a salutation there, and becoming calm of heart in its presence.

Q. What are the similarities and differences between the plan of the Great Stupa, Sanchi (Fig. 4.10a) and the photograph (Fig. 4.3)?

Answer: Similarities. Both show the same building: a round mound surrounded by a railing, with a gateway, and a square structure (the harmika) on top of the mound.
Differences. The plan is a horizontal view: it shows the exact circular outline, all four gateways at the cardinal points, the paths and the staircase, and it can be drawn to scale. The photograph shows the stupa as a visitor sees it from one side: the height of the dome, the umbrella on top, the texture of the stone, the hill and the trees around it, but only one gateway and one part of the railing.

Q. What are the features of the building that are clearest in the plan? What are the features that are best seen in the elevation?

Answer: Plan (Fig. 4.10a): the circular shape of the mound, the ring of the railing and the circumambulatory path, the four gateways placed at the four cardinal points, and the square harmika at the centre.
Elevation (Fig. 4.10b): the height and hemispherical profile of the anda, the harmika and the yashti with its chhatri rising above it, the raised terrace with its railing, and the height of the gateways.

Q. Read Section 1 again. Give your reasons why Sanchi survived.

Answer: (1) The rulers of Bhopal, Shahjehan Begum and Sultan Jehan Begum, gave money to preserve the site; Sultan Jehan also funded the museum, the guesthouse where John Marshall worked and the publication of his volumes. (2) The French and the English, who wanted the eastern gateway, were satisfied with plaster-cast copies, so the original stayed. (3) By good luck it escaped railway contractors, builders and those carrying finds away to Europe. (4) When “discovered” in 1818 it was in good condition, with three gateways standing. (5) H.H. Cole’s plea for in situ preservation was adopted in the case of Sanchi, and the Archaeological Survey of India later restored and preserved it.

Q. Do you think the sculptors at Sanchi wanted to depict a scroll being unfurled?

Answer: Yes, it seems likely. The horizontal beams of the gateway end in tight spirals, exactly like the rolled-up ends of a scroll, and the carved panels between them run like pictures on a scroll that is being opened. This matches the storytellers’ scrolls (charanachitras) described in Section 9.1, which were unrolled while a story was told.

Q. Bone, terracotta and metal can also be used for sculpture. Find out more about these.

Answer: Terracotta (fired clay) was used for small figurines, toys and plaques, cheap enough for ordinary households. Metal, especially bronze, was cast into images (for example by the lost-wax method), which could be carried in processions. Bone and ivory were carved into small figures, combs and panels; the chapter shows that ivory workers were skilled enough, and rich enough as a guild, to finance part of one of the gateways at Sanchi. Stone survives best, so these softer or reusable materials are under-represented in what historians see today.

Q. What does the proportion of the figures suggest?

Answer: Varaha, the boar avatar of Vishnu, is carved much larger than every other figure, while the earth goddess he rescues sits small on his shoulder and the other figures are tiny at his feet. The proportion shows his power and importance as the saviour who rescues the earth; the size of a figure shows its rank, not its real size.

Q. Identify the ways in which the artists have depicted movement. Find out more about the story depicted in this sculpture.

Answer: The goddess rides a lion that leaps forward; her many arms hold raised weapons, one drawing a bow; her army surges forward in the same direction while the enemy’s side leans back and retreats; bodies are shown bent and twisted in action. The panel shows Durga fighting the buffalo-demon Mahishasura (the Mahishasuramardini story, found in the Puranas), in which the goddess destroys the demon who threatened the gods and the world.

Q. Identify the remains of the shikhara and the entrance to the garbhagriha.

Answer: The temple stands on a raised platform with steps at the front. The steps lead up to a doorway in the square central shrine: that doorway is the entrance to the garbhagriha. Above the shrine rises a broken, stepped tower of stone: these are the remains of the shikhara.

Q. Describe any religious activity you have seen. Is it permanently recorded in any form?

Answer: A model answer: in my neighbourhood a festival procession is held every year: people carry an image of the deity through the streets, sing devotional songs, offer flowers and share food. It is not recorded permanently in stone or painting; people remember it and pass it on, and today there may be some photographs or videos, but the songs, the order of the ritual and its meaning live mainly in memory and practice. As the chapter says, many religious activities were never recorded in a permanent, visible form.