Ancient Indian Empires Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Vaishali is the territory not ruled by Chandragupta I. The Puranas describe the early Gupta kingdom as extending along the Ganga to Prayaga (Allahabad), with Saketa (Ayodhya) and Magadha. Vaishali was the home of the Lichchhavis, Chandragupta I's allies through his marriage to the Lichchhavi princess Kumaradevi, whose name appears on his coins; it is not in the Puranic list of Gupta territories at that stage.

Answer: B

St. Thomas is said to have come to India during the reign of the Indo-Parthian king Gondophernes in the first century CE. The apocryphal Acts of Thomas connects the apostle with the court of king Gundaphorus, and coins and the Takht-i-Bahi inscription confirm that a Gondophernes ruled in the north-west at that time. Kadphises was a Kushana ruler, and Akbar and Jahangir were Mughal emperors more than fourteen centuries later.

Answer: C

The chronological order is Sanchi, Amravati, Nagarjunakonda, Nalanda. The Great Stupa at Sanchi goes back to Ashoka in the third century BCE. Amaravati's stupa was begun around the second century BCE and enlarged under the Satavahanas. The monuments of Nagarjunakonda were built under the Ikshvakus in the third century CE, and Nalanda grew into a great monastic university under the Guptas from the fifth century CE. Every other code puts Nagarjunakonda or Nalanda too early.

Answer: D

Nayakas were not functionaries of the Mauryan administration. Ashoka's Rock Edict III names the Yuktas, Rajukas and Pradesikas, who were to go on tours of inspection every five years: the Rajukas were rural officials concerned with land and justice, the Pradesikas were heads of districts, and the Yuktas were subordinate officials handling revenue and records. The term nayaka belongs to later administration, notably the military chiefs of the Vijayanagara empire.

Answer: C

The imperial ruler of India in the middle of the fourth century AD was Samudragupta.

He ruled from about 335 to 375 AD, so the middle of the century falls squarely in his reign. His court poet Harisena composed the Allahabad Pillar inscription, which lists his conquests in the Ganga plain, his campaigns in the south and the frontier kingdoms that paid him tribute.

Chandragupta I, his father, ruled earlier (about 319 to 335 AD), and Chandragupta II, his son, ruled later (about 375 to 415 AD), so neither was the emperor at mid-century. 'None' is wrong because one of the three named rulers fits.

Answer: B

The Hunas were accompanied into India by the Gurjaras.

The Gurjaras are traditionally linked with the Huna invasions of the late fifth and sixth centuries. They settled in Rajasthan and Gujarat, which later took the name Gujarat from them, and in time they rose as the Gurjara-Pratiharas.

The Kushanas and the Sakas were earlier Central Asian peoples who had entered India in the first centuries BC and AD, long before the Hunas, so they did not come along with them. The Pallavas were a southern dynasty, not a Central Asian tribe at all.

Answer: C

The Huna power in Malwa was overthrown by Yashodharman.

Yashodharman, a ruler of Malwa with his seat at Mandasor, is known from his Mandasor pillar inscriptions, which record that he defeated Mihirakula and ended Huna domination of the region about 528 AD.

Skandagupta fought the Hunas earlier, in the 450s and 460s, on the frontier, not as the one who ended their rule in Malwa. Shakari Vikramaditya is a legendary figure and not a historical Huna-slayer, and Pushyabhuti was the founder of the family from which Harsha came, a later dynasty.

Answer: A

Mihirakula was driven out of the Ganga valley by Narasimha Gupta.

Narasimhagupta Baladitya of the later Gupta line is credited with defeating Mihirakula and forcing him out of the Ganga valley. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang tells of Baladitya, king of Magadha, who captured the Huna ruler and then spared him.

Buddhagupta reigned before Mihirakula's time, and Skandagupta reigned earlier still, about a half century before Mihirakula came to power, so neither could have driven him out. Hence 'None of the above' is also wrong.

Answer: A

The statement that is not correct is that the death of Skanda Gupta coincided with the death of the Gupta empire.

Gupta rule did not end with Skandagupta (died about 467 AD). The line continued for roughly another century through Purugupta, Narasimhagupta, Budhagupta and later kings, though with shrinking territory.

The other three describe the gradual decline that actually took place: the empire continued but central control weakened, governors became independent, and the later emperors held only titular control in the western parts. So (B), (C) and (D) are acceptable statements, and only (A) overstates the case.

Answer: A

Both the Assertion and the Reason are true, and the Reason explains the Assertion, so the answer is the first code.

Bimbisara of the Haryanka dynasty of Magadha (about 544 to 492 BC) is regarded as the earliest Indian king to stress the need for efficient administration. Buddhist and Jain sources describe him as choosing his officials with care, and he was said never to disregard their counsel.

The hand-picked ministers who were heard with respect are the means by which he built an efficient administration, so (R) accounts for (A). The other codes wrongly call one statement false or deny the link.