Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

The Modhera Sun temple is in Gujarat (3), the Konark Sun temple in Orissa (1), the Martand Sun temple in Kashmir (4) and the Chitragupta temple at Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh (2). The codes for a, b, c, d are 3, 1, 4, 2, option A.

Options B, C and D exchange at least two of the states, for example putting Konark in Kashmir or Martand in Orissa, and so they are wrong.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

The Jaitvan Dan scene (the gift of the Jetavana garden) is a relief at Bharhut (3), the Yakshi of polished stone is from Didarganj (2), the Lion Capital is from Sarnath (4), and Gajendra Moksha is a sculpture on the Dashavatara temple at Deogarh (1). The code is 3 2 4 1. The other codes mismatch at least two monuments, such as giving the Lion Capital to Bharhut or the Yakshi to Deogarh.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

Brahmagupta severely criticised Aryabhatta in his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, mainly for the theory of the earth's rotation and for his eclipse explanations. He also corrected the accounts of the Vedic astronomers.

Bhaskaracharya came after Brahmagupta, Varahamihira was a predecessor who had himself criticised Aryabhata, and Paul of Alexandria is the Greek writer of the Paulisa Siddhanta. The key names Aryabhatta.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The Madhyamika sutra was not written by Asvagosha. It is a work of Nagarjuna, the founder of the Madhyamika school of Mahayana philosophy.

Asvagosha, the court poet of Kanishka, wrote the Buddha-charita, the Saundarananda and the Sariputra-Prakarana, a drama. The three are his works, so the odd one out is option D. Nagarjuna lived some time after Asvagosha and is known for the doctrine of shunyata, which the Madhyamika sutra, or Madhyamika karika, sets out.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

In the Mauryan administration, as described in the Arthashastra, the Pautavadhyaksha was the officer in charge of weights and measures. The Panyadhyaksha supervised trade and commerce, the Rajjuka was the officer concerned with land measurement and the settlement of boundaries, and the Rupadarsaka examined and certified the coins, so they are not the keepers of weights and measures. The Arthashastra gives the officer the work of making sure that standard weights and measures were used in the market.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

The Nataraja bronze images were cast in the period of the Cholas. The Chola artists made the fine bronzes by the lost-wax method, and the dancing Shiva is the most famous work of this school, of the tenth to twelfth centuries.

The Chandellas, the Pallavas and the Rashtrakutas are known for temples and sculpture in stone, and not for the great series of bronzes. The best known of these is the Shiva Nataraja, a symbol of the cosmic dance, which is found in the temples and museums of the Tamil country.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

All four pillars were surmounted by a lion capital, so the last option is correct as per the key. The Mauryan pillars at Lauriya Nandangarh, Kolhua (Bakhira), Sanchi and Sarnath each carried a lion or lions on top. Hence choosing only some of them leaves out pillars that carried a lion capital, and the option that includes all four is the one that is complete.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The statement inapplicable to the commercial importance of Multan is that the rise of Lahore in the second half of the sixteenth century contributed to it. The rise of a neighbouring city is a competing centre that draws trade away rather than adding to Multan's importance. The other statements are the usual points made for Multan: the Suhrawardi establishment there, the trade route between Delhi and the Islamic world and the export of slaves.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

Rajaraja the Great built the Brihadisvara temple at Tanjavur (iii), Rajendra I the Shiva temple at Gangaikondacholapuram (iv), Anantavarman the Jagannatha temple at Puri (ii) and Trailokyamahadevi the Mallikarjuna temple at Pattadakal (i). The code is (iii) (iv) (ii) (i), option C. Option A starts with Gangaikondacholapuram for Rajaraja and so reverses father and son, and the others also assign the Puri or Pattadakal temples to the wrong builders.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The rock-cut Kailasa temple at Ellora was built by Krishna I.

The Rashtrakuta king Krishna I, who ruled in the middle of the eighth century, began the monolithic temple cut from the cliff at Ellora, and later kings added to it. Mahendravarman I is a Pallava king known for cave temples at places such as Mamallapuram and Mandagapattu. Pulakesin II was a Chalukya king of Badami, and Vikramaditya VI was a later Chalukya king of Kalyani, so neither is linked to Ellora's Kailasa.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

The stupa built over the relics of the Buddha's chief disciples Sariputra and Maudgalyayana is at Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh: relic caskets found in Stupa 3 there carry the names of the two disciples in their inscriptions. Bharhut is known for its railing sculptures and Jataka panels, Sarnath for the first sermon and the Dhamek stupa, and Kushinagar for the Buddha's death (parinirvana). None of them is the place of these two disciples' relics.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The monsoon winds are credited to Hippalus.

Hippalus was a Greek navigator who is said to have found that the seasonal winds allowed a ship to sail straight across the Arabian Sea from the Red Sea to the Indian coast, instead of hugging the shore. This cut the voyage and boosted Indo-Roman trade. The anonymous author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes the route and names Hippalus, but is not himself the discoverer. Augustus was the Roman emperor in whose reign trade grew, and Ptolemy was a geographer of the second century CE.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

All three took part, so the answer is All the above.

The Sudarsana lake near Girnar was first built by Pushyagupta, a Vaisya who was Chandragupta Maurya's governor in Saurashtra, and Asoka's governor Tushaspa added canals. The Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman records its repair, and the Junagadh inscription of Skandagupta records a later reconstruction under Chakrapalita, son of Parnadatta, the governor of Saurashtra. Since Pushyagupta (A), Parnadatta (B) and Chakrapalita (C) are each linked to the lake, picking one is incomplete.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The chairman of the Education Commission of 1964 was D. S. Kothari.

The Education Commission of 1964 to 1966 was chaired by Daulat Singh Kothari, the chairman of the University Grants Commission, and its report is known as the Kothari Commission report. It recommended a common school system and a ten-plus-two pattern.

Acharya Narendra Dev, M. Bhaktavatsalam and Rajni Kothari are public figures of the period, but none of them chaired this commission. Rajni Kothari the political scientist shares only the surname.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

'Jati Mimamsa' (an inquiry into caste) was written by Sri Narayana Guru. In it he argued that there is only one human caste and one God, in keeping with his famous teaching of 'one caste, one religion, one God for mankind'.

B. R. Ambedkar wrote Annihilation of Caste, Jyotiba Phule wrote Gulamgiri, and Periyar's writings are collected under other names. So the other three are wrong.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The Dabistan-i-Mazahib deals with both Judaism and Christianity, so the answer is Both (A) and (B).

The Dabistan-i-Mazahib, a Persian work of the seventeenth century, describes the beliefs of many religions, among them Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Sikhism, Judaism and Christianity. It is a valued source of the religious life of the Shah Jahan period.

Each of the first two options is true, but only partly, and the last option is wrong because the work does cover them.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The statement inapplicable to Multan's commercial importance is that its importance was enhanced by the large establishment of the Suhrawardi silsilah.

Multan rose as a trade centre because the great route between Delhi and the Islamic world passed through it, because it had a brisk export of slaves, and because of the later growth of Lahore, as the statements say. The silsilah had its seat there, but a religious order does not make a city a commercial centre.

Options B, C and D are the reasons that the key accepts as applicable, so they cannot be the answer to the question that asks for the one that is inapplicable.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The correct code is iii, ii, iv, i.

Varahamihira wrote the Brihat Samhita (iii), a work on astrology and general knowledge. The Mitakshara is the commentary on the Yajnavalkya Smriti by Vijnaneshvara (ii). Rajashekhara wrote the Kavyamimansa (iv), on poetics. Magha wrote the Shishupalavadha (i).

Code A gives Varahamihira the Shishupalavadha. Code B pairs Varahamihira with the Vijneshvara entry. Code D gives Varahamihira the Kavyamimansa. Each fails on the first pair.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The key marks the Sthanika as a revenue officer.

In the Arthashastra, the Sthanika and the Gopa are among the officers who work under the Samaharta, the chief collector, in the countryside and in the cities, and part of their work is to assess and collect the revenue of their area. The key takes this as the description.

The other options give a village officer, an officer of a quarter of the janapada, and an officer over five villages. Sources differ over the exact area of a Sthanika, and some books say it was a quarter of the janapada, but the key keeps to the revenue description.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

The key gives arthritis as the most common disease of the Harappans.

Our knowledge of Harappan illness comes mainly from skeletons, and only a disease that leaves a mark on bone can be read from them. Arthritis, the wearing and inflammation of joints, is of this kind, so it is the one that the key names as the commonest.

Malaria and jaundice affect the blood and the liver and leave no sign on ancient bones, and diabetes is likewise a metabolic disease that cannot be seen in the skeleton. So these three are not options that the skeletal evidence could support.