Ancient Indian Empires Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The city that was never a capital of the eastern Vakatakas is Elichpur.

The main (eastern, or Nandivardhana) branch of the Vakatakas is associated with Nandivardhana near Nagpur and later with Pravarapura, the city founded by Pravarasena II, and some accounts also name Padmapura as an early seat. These are the places their copper plates and standard histories connect with the dynasty.

Elichpur (Achalapur) in Amravati district became important much later, as a centre under the Bahmanis and the capital of the Imad Shahi sultanate of Berar. The other, western, Vakataka branch ruled from Vatsagulma (Washim).

Answer: D

The caves were excavated for the Ajivikas.

The Barabar and nearby Nagarjuni hills in Bihar contain the earliest rock-cut caves in India. Inscriptions record that Ashoka gave caves in the Barabar hills, and his grandson Dasharatha caves in the Nagarjuni group, to the Ajivikas, the ascetic sect founded by Makkhali Gosala.

Jains and Buddhists had their own patrons and cave sites, and the Bhagavatas were a Vaishnava sect; the inscriptions name the Ajivikas as the recipients.

Answer: B

The royal physician was Jivaka.

Jivaka Komarabhacca, trained at Taxila, was physician to King Bimbisara of Magadha and to the Buddha and the Sangha. The Pali texts tell many stories of his cures, and he later served Ajatashatru too.

Chellana was one of Bimbisara's queens, a Lichchhavi princess and mother of Ajatashatru; Khema was another queen who became a leading Buddhist nun; and Chetaka was the Lichchhavi chief, Chellana's father. None of them was a physician.

Answer: C

The inscribed image was found at Kanaganahalli.

At Kanaganahalli in Kalaburagi (Gulbarga) district of Karnataka, the excavated Buddhist stupa yielded a relief panel showing a king with his queens, labelled 'Rayo Asoko' in Brahmi. It is the only known inscribed portrait of Ashoka.

Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda and Jaggayyapeta (misprinted 'Jggayyapeta') are Buddhist stupa sites in Andhra Pradesh, but none has produced a labelled image of Ashoka.

Answer: B

The first inscriptional reference is in the Hathigumpha Inscription of King Kharavela.

The Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela of Kalinga, at Udayagiri near Bhubaneswar (about the first century BCE), records his campaign against kings of 'Bharadhavasa' (Bharatavarsha). It is the earliest known inscription to use the name.

Ashoka's Girnar edict speaks of his dominions and neighbours but not of Bharatavarsha. The Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman (about 150 CE) and Samudragupta's Prayag Prashasti (fourth century) are later, and neither uses the term first.

Answer: A

The inscription is the Rabatak inscription.

Found in 1993 at Rabatak in Baghlan province, Afghanistan, this inscription of Kanishka in Bactrian (Greek script) lists his predecessors: his great-grandfather Kujula Kadphises, grandfather Vima Taktu and father Vima Kadphises. It settled the order of the early Kushana kings and also shows Kanishka's rule over Indian cities.

Kandahar is known for Ashoka's Greek and Aramaic edicts, Taxila for its many inscriptions of different periods, and Bamiyan for its giant Buddhas; none clarified the Kushana genealogy.

Answer: C

A Bodhisattva is the stage when a person becomes next to Buddha and generates awakening and compassion.

A Bodhisattva is a being on the path to Buddhahood who has generated bodhicitta, the mind set on awakening, and out of compassion postpones final nirvana to help all beings. In Mahayana Buddhism the Bodhisattva ideal is the highest aim, and figures such as Avalokiteshvara and Maitreya are revered.

Leaving home as a wanderer describes renunciation, which anyone may undertake. Social reform and heading a monastery are not what makes a Bodhisattva.

Answer: B

The site that is not a Buddhist stupa site is Bhitargaon.

Bhitargaon in Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh is known for its brick temple of the Gupta period, one of the oldest surviving brick temples in India, with terracotta panels of Hindu themes. It is not a stupa.

Pavni (spelt 'Pavani') in Bhandara district of Maharashtra, Bhattiprolu in Andhra Pradesh, and Vaishali in Bihar, where a stupa held a share of the Buddha's relics, are all Buddhist stupa sites.

Answer: A

The city is Mathura.

Mathura stood where the Uttarapatha, the northern route from the Ganga valley to the north-west, met the Dakshinapatha running south through Ujjain to the Deccan, and routes west to the ports of Gujarat. This made it a great commercial and cultural centre, and later a capital of the Kushanas.

Prayag was a pilgrimage centre on the Ganga route, Dwarka a western port, and Hampi a much later capital in the south; none sat at this junction.

Answer: A

The statue was found at Brahmapuri.

Excavations at Brahmapuri, the ancient settlement at Kolhapur, revealed a hoard of bronzes including a small bronze statue of Poseidon of Mediterranean workmanship, evidence of trade with the Roman world in the Satavahana period. Poseidon is the Greek name of the sea god (the Romans called him Neptune), but the statuette is usually described as Roman in origin.

Bhokardan, Junnar and Adam are other early historic sites of Maharashtra known for trade goods and Satavahana remains, but the Poseidon bronze comes from Brahmapuri.