Early Medieval Regional Kingdoms Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The Vishnudharmottara Purana has a separate section on painting, the Chitrasutra, in its third khanda, which sets out the rules of drawing, proportion, colour and expression. The Panchasiddhantika is Varahamihira's astronomical work, the Panchatantra is a collection of fables, and the Natyashastra deals with drama, dance and music, so none of them has such a section. The answer is Vishnudharmottara Purana.

Answer: D

The official key gives Perumakkal. The Perumakkal were the senior officials of the Chola administration. The term Varippottagam, the record keeper of tax, is also known from inscriptions as an office of the revenue department, so option C is a close rival, but the key names the Perumakkal. Aulnayak and Sherundaram are not the revenue officer. The answer is Perumakkal, following the key.

Answer: C

The Nalanda copper plate records that Devapala of the Pala dynasty granted five villages to the monastery built at Nalanda by the Sailendra king Balaputradeva of Suvarnadvipa, in response to a request. Kumaragupta I is traditionally credited with founding the Nalanda establishment, but he lived centuries before the Sailendra monastery. Harsha is remembered for his patronage of Nalanda in Hsuan-tsang's account, and Bhaskaravarman was the Kamarupa king allied with Harsha. Neither belongs to the grant to the Sailendra vihara. The answer is Devapala.

Answer: D

Arab writers of the ninth century, such as Sulaiman, described the Rashtrakuta ruler, whom they called Balhara, as one of the four great kings of the world. The Rashtrakutas ruled from Manyakheta and held much of the Deccan, which is why the Arab travellers, who landed on the west coast, wrote about them. The Chalukyas of Vatapi and of Kalyani were other Deccan dynasties, and the Mauryas of Konkan were a minor line, but the description is tied to the Rashtrakutas in the Arab accounts. The answer is Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta.

Answer: C

The pair that is not correct is Mahendravarman with Kavirajamarga, which is option C. Kavirajamarga is an early Kannada work on poetics linked to the Rashtrakuta court of Amoghavarsha, and Mahendravarman I, the Pallava king, is known instead for the Sanskrit farce Mattavilasa Prahasana. Rajasekhara did write Viddhasalabhanjika, Sri Harsha wrote Naishadhiya Charita and Sudraka is credited with Mrichchhakatika, so those three pairs are correct and option C is the odd one.

Answer: A

Both statements are true, and the reason explains the assertion. Early medieval regional kingdoms such as the Palas produced court poets who wrote royal biographies. Sandhyakaranandin's Ramacharita is a typical example: it is written in a double-meaning (slesa) style that tells the story of Rama and of the Pala king Ramapala together. That literary form shows how regional politics and court biography went together, so (R) is the correct explanation of (A), which is option A. Options B to D deny either the truth of the reason or its link to the assertion.

Answer: C

The earliest Lingodbhavamurti of Siva is at Gudimallam.

The Gudimallam linga in Andhra Pradesh, dated about the first or second century BCE, is a linga carved with a figure of Siva standing on a dwarf, and it is accepted as the earliest of its kind.

Kanchi and Bhojpur have later linga sculptures, and Khoh belongs to the Gupta age. The Lingodbhava form shows Siva emerging from the endless pillar of fire with Brahma and Vishnu in search of its ends, and the Gudimallam linga, which carries a figure of Siva on its shaft, is taken as the earliest.

Answer: C

The Vijayalaya Cholishwara temple at Narttamalai has wall-paintings.

The cave and the temple at Narttamalai in Tamil Nadu preserve paintings in the mandapa from the Pallava and Chola periods.

The Kailashnath temple at Kanchipuram, the Virupaksha temple at Pattadakal and the Koranganatha temple at Srinivasanallur are known for sculpture and architecture and are not the temple chosen by the key. Wall painting in South Indian temples is rare, which makes the surviving paintings of Narttamalai and a few other places important for art history.

Answer: C

The chronological order of the Pala kings is Gopala, Devapala, Narayanapala, Rajyapala.

Gopala founded the dynasty in the middle of the eighth century. His successors were Dharmapala, then Devapala, and later Narayanapala and Rajyapala.

The other options put Rajyapala or Narayanapala before Devapala or Gopala, which reverses the line of succession. The Pala kings in order of reign were Gopala, Dharmapala, Devapala, Vigrahapala, Narayanapala, Rajyapala and so on, and the options here use four of them.

Answer: D

The match is a-1, b-3, c-4, d-2.

Bhanumati is a commentary on a medical work by Chakrapanidatta (1), Shalihotra is credited to Bhoja in the key (3), Vrikshayurveda is attributed to Sureshvara (4) and the Chikitsasarasamgraha is by Vangasena (2).

Code (D) gives these. The other codes assign the works to the wrong authors.