The term samanta, meaning a feudatory from the sixth century AD, originally meant a
Answer: C
It originally meant neighbour.
Samanta first meant simply one who lives nearby. From about the sixth century it came to mean a defeated ruler left in possession of his land as a vassal, and so a feudatory - the shift itself marking the growth of the samanta system.
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To evolve a peaceful settlement of the conflict between India and China, which of the following non-aligned Afro-Asian nations participated in a conference held in December 1962?
Answer: D
All of the above took part.
The Colombo Conference of December 1962 brought together six non-aligned states - Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, Ghana, Indonesia and the United Arab Republic - to propose terms for settling the Sino-Indian conflict. India accepted the proposals; China did not accept them in full.
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The text of the document called Mahzar, by which Akbar assumed the role of supreme arbiter in the matters of religion is found in
Answer: C
It is found in Badauni's Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh.
The declaration of 1579 made Akbar the final arbiter between conflicting rulings of the ulama. Badauni, hostile to it, preserves the text; Abul Fazl, writing the official history, passes over the document itself.
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Tulsidas, the author of Ramcharitmanas, was a contemporary of which of the following rulers?
Answer: A
He was a contemporary of Akbar.
Tulsidas lived from about 1532 to 1623 and began the Ramcharitmanas at Ayodhya in 1574, in Awadhi rather than Sanskrit. His life falls almost wholly within Akbar's reign.
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To meet the educational needs of the people, the Madarasa-I Nasiri was built in the region of
Answer: B
It was built under Iltutmish.
The Madrasa-i-Nasiri at Delhi was named after his eldest son Nasiruddin Mahmud. Iltutmish was the first sultan to organise the Delhi Sultanate properly, introducing the silver tanka and the copper jital and creating the Chalisa, the corps of forty nobles.
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The weekly Commonweal was founded by
Answer: A
It was Annie Besant.
She started Commonweal as a weekly in January 1914 and bought the Madras daily New India that year, using both to campaign for Home Rule. She founded the Home Rule League in 1916 and presided over the Congress in 1917.
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Ustad Mansur was a famous painter in the region of
Answer: D
He painted under Jahangir.
Ustad Mansur held the title Nadir-ul-Asr, wonder of the age, and specialised in natural history - the dodo, the Siberian crane, the Bengal florican and the flowers of Kashmir - painted with a precision that matched the emperor's own interest in observation.
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The Vedic deity Indra was the god of
Answer: C
He was the god of rain and thunder.
Indra is the foremost deity of the Rigveda, with about 250 hymns to his name. He wields the vajra, slays Vritra and releases the waters - the myth read both as thunderstorm and as the breaking of dams.
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Tolkappiyam is associated with the
Answer: B
It belongs to the second Sangam period.
Tradition places three Sangams at Madurai, and the Tolkappiyam, the oldest surviving Tamil work, is the only text assigned to the second to have come down to us. It treats grammar, phonology and the poetics of akam and puram.
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Pulakesin II was the most famous ruler of
Answer: A
He was a Chalukya.
Pulakesin II of Badami ruled from 610 to 642, checked Harsha on the Narmada - the one defeat of Harsha's career - and received an embassy from Khusrau II of Persia. He was defeated and killed by the Pallava Narasimhavarman I, who took Badami.
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