Ancient Indian Empires Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Pravarasena I of the Vakataka dynasty took the title Dharmamaharaja, and the later Vakataka records say he performed several Vedic sacrifices, including Ashvamedha rites and the Vajapeya. The question's wording about numerous Vedic sacrifices fits him. Pushyamitra Shunga did perform Ashvamedha sacrifices, and Samudragupta performed one and issued coins commemorating it, but the title Dharmamaharaja is not what these two are known by. Sarvatata is not associated with that title either. The answer is Pravarasena I.

Answer: B

The third Sangam of Tamil poets is placed in the tradition at Madurai, the Pandya capital. The first Sangam is placed at Then-Madurai and the second at Kapatapuram, both said to have been lost to the sea, and the third at the present Madurai. Uraiyur was a Chola capital, Tanjore was the later Chola capital, and Kanchi was the Pallava capital, so none was the seat of the Sangam. The answer is Madura, option B.

Answer: B

Agathocles issued coins with figures of Krishna and Balarama.

The Indo-Greek king Agathocles struck coins with figures identified as Vasudeva-Krishna and Samkarshana-Balarama, which are among the earliest representations of those deities.

Menander, Heliocles and Archebius did not issue coins of this type according to the key. Agathocles ruled in the second century BCE, and his unusual coins with Vishnu-related deities show how the Greek rulers accepted Indian cults.

Answer: C

Mathura had the shrine of Dadhikarna, lord of the Nagas.

An inscription from Mathura speaks of a shrine of the Naga Dadhikarna, and Mathura was a centre of Naga worship.

Padmavati was a Naga capital but is not the site of this shrine, and Kantipuri and Rajagriha are not associated with Dadhikarna.

Answer: C

Pataligrama was fortified initially by Ajatasatru, who built a fort there to guard against the Vajjis (Lichchhavis) of the north. The village later grew into the great city of Pataliputra, which Udayabhadra made his capital.

Bimbisara ruled from Rajagriha and did not fortify the place. Kalasoka and Udayabhadra came after Ajatasatru, and Udayabhadra, who is named in some accounts as the founder of the city, built it on a site already fortified, so the key chooses Ajatasatru.

Answer: B

Dharmaraja was also a title of Asoka. The Mauryan emperor, after his conversion and his policy of Dhamma, is addressed in sources as Dharmaraja, and the title fits his ideal of ruling by righteousness.

Ajatasatru is known as a conqueror, Kanishka as a Kushana ruler and Buddhist patron, and Harshavardhan as a seventh-century ruler. The question asks about a title that Asoka too held, so Asoka is the answer given.

Answer: D

During Alexander's invasion the territory of Pattala (Patala) in the lower Indus was ruled by two hereditary kings who governed with the help of a council of elders, a system which Greek writers compared with that of Sparta.

The Ashtakaraja, Abhisara and Kshudraka were other peoples whom Alexander met. The Kshudrakas were a republican people, and the Abhisara were ruled by a king, so they did not have the dual kingship with a council of elders.

Answer: A

The Pautavadhyaksha was the superintendent of weights and measures in the Mauryan administration, as described in Kautilya's Arthashastra. He saw that standard weights and measures were used in trade and punished those who cheated.

The superintendent of forests was a different officer, the Navadhyaksha was in charge of the navy and ships, and the Panyadhyaksha and the officer for shipping and ports were others. These are the other departments listed in the question.

Answer: B

The Tamil anthology devoted to the praise of the Chera kings is the Padirruppattu (the Ten Tens). It has ten groups of ten poems, each group praising one Chera king, and it belongs to the Sangam literature.

Narrinai, Aingurunuru and Kuruntogai are also Sangam anthologies, but they are collections of love poems (akam poetry) and not songs in praise of the Chera kings. The Sangam collections are divided into the eight anthologies (Ettuthokai) and the ten idylls, and the Padirruppattu is one of the eight.

Answer: B

Gautamiputra Satakarni's defeat of the Kshaharata ruler Nahapana is attested by the hoard of coins found at Jogaltembhi near Nasik, in which Nahapana's coins are restruck by Gautamiputra. This is why the Nasik hoard is cited as proof.

The other names are not the findspots of this hoard: Qunduz is in Afghanistan, Ujjayini is in Malwa, and the name Erakina does not mark a hoard that confirms this event.