Indian History Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The first metal used in India was most probably Copper.

The Chalcolithic (copper-stone) cultures, and the Harappan civilisation after them, made tools, vessels and weapons of copper and its alloy bronze. Copper occurs in nature in a usable form and melts at a far lower temperature than iron, so it was worked first everywhere.

Iron came into use in India only around the end of the second millennium BCE. Gold and silver were known early but were used in small quantities for ornaments, not as the first working metal.

Answer: B

The first Political Agent was appointed in the reign of Maharaja Bir chandra Manikya.

Bir Chandra Manikya ruled Tripura from 1862 to 1896. In 1871 the British Government posted a Political Agent at Agartala to oversee the princely state's affairs, the first such appointment in Tripura.

Ishan Chandra Manikya was Bir Chandra's predecessor and died in 1862, before the post existed, and Radhakishore Manikya succeeded only in 1896, after a Political Agent had already been in place for twenty-five years. So 'None of them' is wrong too.

Answer: C

The correct order is (iii)-(iv)-(i)-(ii): Amar Manikya, Govinda Manikya, Krishna Manikya, Krishnakishore Manikya.

1. Amar Manikya: late 16th century, remembered for the Amar Sagar tank and the town of Amarpur.
2. Govinda Manikya: second half of the 17th century, the king of Tagore's play Bisarjan.
3. Krishna Manikya: second half of the 18th century, who moved the capital to Old Agartala.
4. Krishnakishore Manikya: first half of the 19th century, who moved it to the present Agartala.

The other orders place Krishnakishore before Krishna Manikya or start with Krishnakishore, both of which reverse the 18th and 19th centuries.

Answer: D

The key's answer is Maharaja Birchandra Manikya.

Tagore's long association with the Manikya house began with Bir Chandra Manikya. In 1882 the Maharaja, moved by the young poet's Bhagna Hriday, sent his minister to Calcutta to convey his admiration, and Tagore's first letter to a Tripura ruler was addressed to him.

The friendship continued with his successors: Radhakishore Manikya, Birendra Kishore Manikya and Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya all corresponded with Tagore, and he visited Tripura several times. Those later rulers came after the first contact, and Krishna Kishore Manikya ruled before Tagore was born.

Answer: C

The key's answer is Maharaja Radhakishore Manikya (reigned 1896 to 1909).

Accounts of the press in Tripura place the start of the official Tripura State Gazette, the state's own organ for proclamations and administrative notices, in the reign of Radha Kishore Manikya, around the time of his accession and coronation at the end of the 1890s. It was a short-lived paper. These accounts are secondary, and no primary first issue was found, so the date itself is not firm; the reign is the part the key rests on.

The other rulers fit less well. Bir Chandra Manikya (1862 to 1896) is remembered for schools, handwritten newsletters and pamphlets, which came before the formal Gazette. Birendra Kishore Manikya (1909 to 1923) and Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya (1923 to 1947) ruled after it had started.

Answer: D

The distinguished member of the Chamber of Princes was Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya (Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya).

The Chamber of Princes, set up in 1921, was the consultative body through which India's princely rulers dealt with the Crown. Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya ruled Tripura from 1923 to 1947 and was active in it, and he represented the princes at the Round Table Conference in London.

Bir Chandra and Radhakishore Manikya ruled before the Chamber existed. Birendra Kishore Manikya died in 1923, only two years after it was founded, so the prominent role belongs to his successor.

Answer: D

The colossal image of Avalokitesvara was found at Pilak.

Pilak, in South Tripura near Jolaibari, is an archaeological site of terracotta plaques and stone sculptures from roughly the 8th to 12th centuries, both Buddhist and Brahmanical. Its finds include a large image of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara.

Unakoti is known for its Shaiva rock-cut reliefs, Boxanagar for the remains of a Buddhist stupa and monastery, and Amarpur for its association with Amar Manikya. None of them is the find-spot of this image.

Answer: B

Pushpabanta Palace was built in the reign of Maharaja Birendra Kishore Manikya.

Birendra Kishore Manikya, who ruled from 1909 to 1923, had the palace built in Agartala in 1917. It later served as the Raj Bhavan of Tripura.

Bir Chandra and Radhakishore Manikya ruled earlier; the Ujjayanta Palace, Agartala's best known palace, was completed in Radhakishore's time. Bikram (Bir Bikram) Manikya was Birendra Kishore's successor, so the palace predates his reign.

Answer: A

The first municipal corporation in India was set up in Madras.

The Madras Municipal Corporation was created in 1688 under a charter of the East India Company, making it the oldest municipal body in India.

Bombay and Calcutta received municipal corporations later, in the eighteenth century, so they are the usual traps. Kerala is a state, not a city, and could not have had the first municipal corporation.

Answer: C

The king who did not rule Tripura is Kailash Manikya.

The Rajmala, the chronicle of the Tripura kings, names Puru Sen and Bikarna among the early rulers of its numbered list of kings, and Krishna Manikya (reigned 1760 to 1783) is a well documented later Manikya ruler. No king called Kailash Manikya appears in the Rajmala or in the standard list of the Manikya dynasty, so this is the name that does not belong.

Do not confuse the name with Kailashahar, a town in North Tripura, which is a place name and not the name of a king. The other three names are all in the chronicle's lists, so none of them can be the answer to a question asking for the king who did not rule.