Our Pasts – Part 1

Our Pasts – Part 1 is the Class 6 History NCERT, tracing India's story from the earliest humans through to the early empires. These Class 6 History NCERT notes for UPSC build the foundational layer of Ancient India that GS1 demands, introducing how historians reconstruct the past and the major social, political and cultural shifts of the period.

The book covers:

• Sources and methods: how historians use dates, places, books and burials to reconstruct the past.
• Early humans and farming: hunter-gatherers, the shift from gathering to growing food, and the first settlements.
• Cities and society: the earliest cities, vital villages and thriving towns.
• Polity and ideas: kingdoms, kings and an early republic; new questions and ideas; Ashoka's renunciation of war.
• Empires, trade and culture: traders, kings and pilgrims; new empires and kingdoms; buildings, paintings and books.

For aspirants, this is core groundwork for GS1 Ancient Indian history and Prelims art-and-culture questions.