Ancient Indian Empires Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Pradeshta was related to the Justice Department.

In Kautilya's Arthashastra, the Pradeshtri (Pradeshta) presided over the Kantakashodhana courts, which dealt with criminal matters and offences against the state, so the office belonged to the administration of justice. Civil cases were heard in the Dharmasthiya courts.

Revenue was the business of the Samaharta, and the army had its own officials, such as the Senapati.

Answer: D

The false statement is that the inscription was composed by Bhavabhuti.

The Mandasor (Dashpur) inscription of the silk weavers, dated to the time of Kumaragupta I and the local ruler Bandhuvarman, was composed by the poet Vatsabhatti. It records how a guild of silk weavers who had migrated from Lata built a Sun temple at Dashpur and later repaired it.

Bhavabhuti was an eighth-century dramatist, the author of Uttararamacharita, who lived centuries after this fifth-century inscription. The other three statements are the points the paper treats as true about the inscription.

Answer: B

The author of the Sondani inscription is Vasul Kavi (Vasula).

The Sondani (Mandsaur) pillar inscriptions of Yashodharman, which record his victory over the Huna ruler Mihirakula in the sixth century, were composed by the poet Vasula, son of Kakka, and engraved by Govinda.

Kakka is the poet's father, not the author. Ravikirti composed the Aihole inscription of Pulakeshin II, and Kavi Madan is not linked with this record.

Answer: A

The key gives the Dashpur inscription.

Dashpur is the ancient name of Mandsaur. Its 5th-century stone inscription records a guild of silk weavers who came from Lata in Gujarat and built and later restored a Sun temple, and it is well known in Indian epigraphy. Madhya Pradesh study material presents it as an early advertisement of a trade guild's work.

I could not find a scholarly or official source that uses the phrase 'first advertisement of the world' for it, so that label rests on the key. The Sohgara, Supia and Eran inscriptions are known for other subjects, and none is described as an advertisement.

Answer: B

After defeating the Shakas, Chandragupta II introduced Silver coins.

Chandragupta II (Vikramaditya) defeated the Western Kshatrapas, the Shaka rulers of Gujarat and Malwa, around the beginning of the fifth century. Their territory had long used silver coins, so he issued silver coins modelled on the Shaka type for the newly won region. These are the first Gupta silver coins.

The Guptas were already famous for their gold coins (dinaras), issued from Samudragupta's time onward, so gold was not a new introduction after the conquest. Copper coins were few, and bronze was not a Gupta coinage metal.

Answer: A

The Persian governor was Tusapa (Tushaspa).

Rudradaman's Junagadh inscription of about 150 CE records that the Sudarshana lake in Saurashtra was built under Chandragupta Maurya by his governor Pushyagupta, and that under Ashoka the Yavana-raja Tushaspa furnished it with conduits. His name is Iranian, so textbooks describe him as a Persian appointed to govern the western province.

Justine and Plutarch are Greek and Roman writers of a later age, and Sunasepah (Shunahshepa) is a figure from a Vedic legend in the Aitareya Brahmana. None was Ashoka's governor.

Answer: C

Statements 1 and 2 are correct, so the answer is Only 1 and 2.

The Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves near Bhubaneswar in Odisha are cut into two hills, a classic example of the rock-cut cave tradition (1). The Hathigumpha inscription in the Udayagiri caves records the reign of Kharavela, the Chedi king of Kalinga in the first century BCE, and other inscriptions there name members of his line (2).

Statement 3 is wrong. Kharavela was a Jain, and the caves were excavated as residences for Jain monks, not Buddhist ones. That rules out every option that includes statement 3.

Answer: D

The play is Mudrarakshasa.

Vishakhadatta's Mudrarakshasa is a political drama about how Chanakya (Kautilya) outwits Rakshasa, the minister of the fallen Nandas, and secures the throne for Chandragupta Maurya.

The other plays deal with different periods. Devichandraguptam, also by Vishakhadatta, concerns the Gupta king Chandragupta II and his brother Ramagupta. Kalidasa's Malavikagnimitram is about the Shunga prince Agnimitra, and Shudraka's Mrichchhakatika is a social drama about the merchant Charudatta and the courtesan Vasantasena.

Answer: B

The traveller is Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang).

Hiuen Tsang visited India during Harshavardhana's reign, in the 630s and 640s, and recorded that Harsha's campaign against the Chalukya kingdom in the Deccan failed: Pulakeshin II held the line of the Narmada. Pulakeshin's own Aihole inscription, composed by Ravikirti, makes the same claim.

The others could not have reported it. Fa-Hien came in the early fifth century, under Chandragupta II. Yijing reached India in the 670s, after Harsha's death, and Al-Biruni wrote in the eleventh century, in the time of Mahmud of Ghazni.

Answer: C

The first Buddhist Council was held in the reign of Ajatashatru.

It met at Rajagriha (Rajgir) soon after the Buddha's death, under the patronage of the Magadhan king Ajatashatru, with Mahakassapa presiding. It compiled the Buddha's teachings into the Sutta and Vinaya Pitakas.

Bimbisara was Ajatashatru's father and had died before the Buddha. Udayabhadra (Udayin) was Ajatashatru's son and successor, and Aniruddha was a later king of the same Haryanka line. The second council was held at Vaishali under Kalashoka, the third at Pataliputra under Ashoka.