Ancient Indian Empires Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The deity not found on Kanishka I's coins is Mahasen.

Kanishka's coins carry a wide range of deities with Bactrian names: Nana (the goddess Nanaia), Mao (the moon god), Mithro or Miiro (the sun), Athsho (fire), Pharro, and Oesho, usually identified with Shiva, as well as the Buddha.

Mahasena (Mahaseno on the coins) appears with Skanda, Kumara and Vishakha on the coins of Kanishka's successor Huvishka, not on Kanishka's own coinage, so it is the odd one out.

Answer: D

The founder of the Kardamaka branch was Chashtana.

The Western Kshatrapas had two lines. The Kshaharata line of Bhumaka and Nahapana ruled the western Deccan until Gautamiputra Satakarni destroyed it. The Kardamaka line was founded by Chashtana at Ujjain, and its greatest ruler was his grandson Rudradaman I.

So Bhumaka and Nahapana belong to the other branch, and Rudradaman I was a descendant of the founder, not the founder himself.

Answer: C

The region not among Rudradaman's conquests is Vidarbha.

The Junagadh inscription of about 150 CE lists the lands under Rudradaman I, among them Akara and Avanti, Anupa, Anarta, Surashtra, Shvabhra, Maru, Kachchha, Sindhu-Sauvira, Kukura, Aparanta and Nishada.

Vidarbha, in eastern Maharashtra, does not appear in the list, so it is the answer. The other three options are all named in it.

Answer: D

Prabhavati Gupta ruled on behalf of her eldest son Divakarasena.

Prabhavati Gupta, daughter of Chandragupta II, married the Vakataka king Rudrasena II. When he died young, she governed as regent for her minor son, the yuvaraja Divakarasena, as her Poona copper plates record.

Divakarasena seems to have died before he could rule. A younger son, Damodarasena, then came to the throne as Pravarasena II, so Damodarasena and Pravarasena II are the same younger son. Devasena belonged to the Vatsagulma branch of the Vakatakas.

Answer: D

The king named in the Prayaga Prashasti is Vishnugopa.

Harishena's Allahabad pillar inscription lists the southern kings whom Samudragupta captured and released, among them Vishnugopa of Kanchi, a Pallava ruler of the fourth century.

The other Pallava kings lived later. Simhavishnu ruled in the late sixth century, Narasimhavarman I in the seventh, and Parameshvaravarman II in the eighth, so none of them could appear in a fourth-century inscription.

Answer: A

The king described as Bhavanagadauhitra is Rudrasena I.

Vakataka inscriptions call Rudrasena I the daughter's son (dauhitra) of Bhavanaga, the Bharashiva (Naga) king. His father Gautamiputra had married Bhavanaga's daughter, and the alliance strengthened the young Vakataka state.

Pravarasena I was Rudrasena's grandfather and the founder of Vakataka greatness, while Devasena and Harishena were later kings of the Vatsagulma branch. None of them is given that title.

Answer: B

The first Gupta king to use the title Maharajadhiraja was Chandragupta I.

Gupta records call the founder Shri Gupta and his son Ghatotkacha only Maharaja. Chandragupta I (from about 319-320 CE, when the Gupta era begins) is the first to be styled Maharajadhiraja, 'great king of kings', reflecting the expansion of the kingdom, helped by his marriage to the Licchavi princess Kumaradevi.

Samudragupta also bore the title, but he inherited it from his father, so he was not the first.

Answer: D

The inscription is the Bhabru edict.

The Bhabru (Bairat-Calcutta) inscription, found near Bairat in Rajasthan, is addressed by Ashoka to the Buddhist Sangha. In it he declares his faith in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha and names seven Buddhist texts that monks, nuns and lay followers should often hear and reflect on.

Brahmagiri, Maski and Rupnath are minor rock edicts that speak of Ashoka's personal effort in the Dhamma; they do not list Buddhist scriptures. Maski is also notable for naming the king as Ashoka.

Answer: A

The ganarajya not mentioned is the Audumbara.

The Allahabad Pillar prashasti of Samudragupta, composed by Harishena, lists the tribal republics on the western frontier that paid him tribute: the Malavas, Arjunayanas, Yaudheyas, Madrakas, Abhiras, Prarjunas, Sanakanikas, Kakas and Kharaparikas.

The Yaudheyas, Arjunayanas and Prarjunas are all on that list. The Audumbaras, known from their coins in the Pathankot-Kangra region, had faded from the record by the Gupta period and are not named.

Answer: D

The site without major rock edicts is Maski.

Maski, in the Raichur district of Karnataka, has a minor rock edict, famous because it names the king as Ashoka (Devanampiya Asoka), which settled the identity of 'Piyadasi'.

Mansehra (in present-day Pakistan), Jaugada and Dhauli (both in Odisha) carry versions of the fourteen major rock edicts. Dhauli and Jaugada are known for the separate Kalinga edicts that replace two of the usual ones.