Traders, Kings and Pilgrims Class 6 NCERT Solutions

These Traders, Kings and Pilgrims Class 6 NCERT solutions cover all eight legacy exercise questions on the Silk Routes, trade, Satavahanas, Ashvaghosha, bodhisattvas, Chinese Buddhist pilgrims and bhakti. The answers are written for understanding and exam revision rather than rote copying.

2026–27 learning note: this exercise belongs to the older NCERT Our Pasts–I sequence. The current Class VI Social Science textbook is Exploring Society: India and Beyond, which organises these themes differently. This legacy exercise remains useful for historical reasoning and revision.

Exercise focus	Key idea
Silk Routes	Trade networks generated revenue, tribute and political influence.
Historical evidence	Texts, coins, pottery, inscriptions and archaeology help reconstruct trade.
Bhakti	Personal devotion to a chosen deity became an important religious path.
Pilgrims	Chinese Buddhist travellers visited sacred places, monasteries and centres of learning.

Watch & Learn: One English + One Hindi Solution Video

English: Traders, Kings and Pilgrims – NCERT Solutions

This public Magnet Brains lesson is dedicated to the NCERT exercise for Class 6 History Chapter 9.

If the player does not load, open the English solutions lesson on YouTube.

हिंदी: Traders, Kings and Pilgrims – प्रश्न उत्तर

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NCERT Exercise Answers

Q1. Match the following

Term	Correct match
Muvendar	Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas
Lords of the Dakshinapatha	Satavahana rulers
Ashvaghosha	Buddhacharita
Bodhisattvas	Mahayana Buddhism
Xuanzang (Xuan Zang)	Chinese Buddhist pilgrim

Q2. Why did kings want to control the Silk Routes?

Solution: Rulers wanted to control important stretches of the Silk Routes because long-distance trade could bring taxes, tolls, tribute and gifts. Control of routes and trading centres also increased political influence and helped rulers benefit from the movement of valuable goods such as silk, horses, spices and precious materials.

Remember: the Silk Routes formed a large network; no single ruler controlled the entire system.

Q3. What evidence do historians use to study trade and trade routes?

Solution: Historians combine several kinds of evidence:

• Literary sources describing merchants, ports, goods and journeys;
• coins, including foreign coins found far from where they were minted;
• pottery, beads, amphorae and other traded objects found by archaeologists;
• inscriptions mentioning merchants, donations, rulers or routes;
• archaeological remains of ports, settlements, workshops and roads.

No single object proves an entire trade network by itself; historians compare evidence from different places and sources.

Q4. What were the main features of bhakti?

Solution: Bhakti emphasised personal devotion to a chosen deity. Important features included:

• devotion, prayer and worship directed toward a chosen god or goddess;
• greater emphasis on personal religious commitment than on elaborate sacrifice alone;
• the idea that devotion could be open to people across differences of wealth, gender and social status;
• worship of deities such as Vishnu, Shiva and forms of the Goddess;
• the growth of devotional images, stories and practices through which worshippers related to the deity.

The textbook presents bhakti as an accessible path of devotion. Historians also remember that social inequalities continued to exist even when religious ideals stressed wider spiritual access.

Q5. Why did Chinese Buddhist pilgrims come to India?

Solution: Chinese Buddhist pilgrims came to the Indian subcontinent to visit places connected with the Buddha’s life, see important monasteries and sacred sites, meet teachers, study Buddhist ideas and obtain manuscripts that could be taken back for study and translation.

Pilgrims travelled in different centuries and did not all follow exactly the same itinerary. Xuanzang, for example, studied at Nalanda, while other pilgrims are known for different routes and observations.

Q6. Why were ordinary people attracted to bhakti?

Solution: Bhakti could appeal to ordinary people because it stressed personal devotion rather than requiring only elaborate rituals. The ideal was that devotion could be practised by people across differences of wealth, gender and social status. Prayer, stories, songs and images also gave worshippers direct and memorable ways to express faith.

Q7. List five things you buy from the market and identify where they come from

Sample answer: Students should adapt this table to their own locality.

Item	Likely source
Fresh vegetables	May come from nearby farms or wholesale markets.
Bread or bakery products	Often made locally in the town or city.
Rice	May be brought from another agricultural region.
Notebook	Usually manufactured in another town or industrial centre.
Mobile-phone accessory	Often produced elsewhere and brought by distributors and traders.

The purpose of the activity is to notice that modern markets, like ancient trade networks, connect producers and consumers across different places.

Q8. Describe one major pilgrimage performed in India today

Sample answer – Bodh Gaya: Bodh Gaya in Bihar is one of the world’s most important Buddhist pilgrimage centres because it is associated with the Buddha’s enlightenment. Men, women and children from India and many other countries visit the Mahabodhi Temple complex. Pilgrims usually travel by road, rail or air via nearby transport hubs. At Bodh Gaya they may meditate, pray, visit the Bodhi Tree and monasteries, and learn about Buddhist traditions. Some visitors carry prayer beads, books or simple personal items and may bring back photographs, books or small souvenirs. The length of the pilgrimage depends on the traveller’s route and purpose.

Students may instead describe a pilgrimage familiar to their own family or community, using the same questions about travellers, route, duration and practices.

Quick Revision Checklist

• Remember the Q1 matches: Muvendar, Dakshinapatha, Ashvaghosha, bodhisattvas and Xuanzang.
• Explain why rulers benefited from controlling trade routes.
• Use more than one type of evidence when discussing ancient trade.
• Keep bhakti focused on personal devotion and accessibility.
• For Questions 7–8, personalise the examples instead of memorising one fixed paragraph.

Quick Self-Test

1. Who were the Muvendar?
2. Why did rulers value Silk Route control?
3. Name three kinds of evidence for ancient trade.
4. Who was Xuanzang?
5. What is bhakti?

Answers: (1) The Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas. (2) Taxes, tolls, tribute, gifts and political influence. (3) Any three: texts, coins, pottery, inscriptions or archaeological remains. (4) A Chinese Buddhist pilgrim and scholar. (5) Personal devotion to a chosen deity.

Traders, Kings and Pilgrims FAQs

Was the Silk Route one single road?

No. The Silk Routes were a network of land and sea routes connecting many regions of Asia and the Mediterranean world.

Did every Chinese pilgrim study at Nalanda?

No. Their journeys differed. Xuanzang is especially associated with study at Nalanda; other pilgrims followed different routes and recorded different experiences.

Is this exact chapter in the current Class 6 NCERT book?

The exact title belongs to the older Our Pasts–I sequence. The current Class VI Social Science textbook follows the integrated Exploring Society: India and Beyond structure.

Related Class 6 History Resources

• Traders, Kings and Pilgrims – Class 6 Notes
• Vital Villages, Thriving Towns – NCERT Solutions
• New Empires and Kingdoms – Class 6 Notes
• Class 6 Notes Hub
• Official NCERT textbook portal

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