There are two important past tenses. They are past simple tense and past continuous tense.

Past simple tense looks like this:

I came to India two days ago. When did you arrive?

I arrived a month ago.

Let’s look at some more examples. Follow the link and listen to (and read) the conversations. They have examples of past simple tense. Open a word document and write past simple tenses into it like this

Conversation One: Hitch-hiking around Australia.

Did you study there?
Yes, I did.
I studied media there for two years.
etc.

Past continuous tense looks like this:

What were you doing last night?
I was watching TV.

Follow the link to see more examples. Listen to the conversations and write down the sentences in past continuous tense like this:

Conversation One: Hitching around Australia.

I was living mostly in Melbourne.

Conversation Two: The Swami

But this morning you were chanting?

Which mantra were you chanting?

This morning what I was chanting was from the Atharvaveda.

etc.