Early Medieval Regional Kingdoms Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The answer is All the above.

Kalhana's Rajatarangini (1148-49 CE) is a verse chronicle of the kings of Kashmir from legendary times to his own day. It covers a line of kings whose names end in -aditya, beginning with Pratapaditya, in its early books; the Karkota dynasty founded by Durlabhavardhana, under which Lalitaditya Muktapida ruled; the Utpala dynasty; and the Lohara dynasty, which was ruling when Kalhana wrote.

Since all three names appear in the chronicle, no single option is complete on its own.

Answer: C

The earliest reference is in the Therisappalli Copper Plates.

The Tharisappalli (Syrian Christian) copper plates of 849 CE, issued by Ayyanadikal Thiruvadikal of Venad in the reign of the Chera ruler Sthanu Ravi, grant privileges to the Tharisa church at Kollam. They name several groups of workers placed under the church, including the Izhavar, which makes them the earliest dated reference to the community.

The Muccunti, Nedumpuram Tali and Tiruvannur inscriptions are later records that do not carry this first mention.

Answer: A

Only statement 1 is correct, so the answer is 1 only.

After the Chera kingdom of Mahodayapuram broke up, Kerala was divided among swaroopams, ruling houses whose succession in most cases passed through the female line under marumakkathayam, from a ruler to his sister's son. So statement 1 is correct.

Kochi (the Perumpadappu swaroopam) was not the most influential of them. In the medieval period the dominant power was the Zamorin of Kozhikode (the Nediyiruppu swaroopam), whose wealth from the spice trade let him reduce Kochi to a vassal for long periods. So statement 2 is wrong.

Answer: A

The scholar is Dr. A.S. Altekar.

In his study The Rashtrakutas and Their Times (1934), A.S. Altekar argued that the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta were of Kannada origin, pointing to their many Kannada inscriptions and their patronage of Kannada literature, such as the Kavirajamarga of Amoghavarsha's court.

Other scholars proposed different origins, for instance from the Marathi-speaking region or from northern clans, so the Kannada-origin thesis is identified with Altekar.

Answer: A

Saraswati Kanthabharana was written by King Bhoja.

Bhoja, the eleventh-century Paramara king of Malwa who ruled from Dhar, was a celebrated patron of learning and a prolific author. Saraswati Kanthabharana (Necklace of the Goddess of Learning) is his treatise on poetics and grammar; he also wrote the Samarangana Sutradhara on architecture. The Bhojshala at Dhar is associated with him.

Vishakhadatta wrote the play Mudrarakshasa, Rajashekhara the Kavyamimamsa and Karpuramanjari, and Shriharsha the epic Naishadhiyacharita.

Answer: A

Dantidurga performed the Hiranyagarbha mahadana at Ujjain.

Dantidurga founded the Rashtrakuta empire in the eighth century, overthrowing the Chalukyas of Badami. Rashtrakuta records, notably the Sanjan copper plates of his successor Amoghavarsha I, state that after his victories he performed the Hiranyagarbha ('golden womb') ceremony at Ujjayini, a great gift-giving rite in which the king symbolically emerged from a golden vessel and was reborn with higher status.

Tula-purusha (weighing the king against gold), Ratnadhenu and Saptasagara are other mahadanas listed in the texts, but they are not the one the records attach to Dantidurga at Ujjain.

Answer: B

Padmagupta was the court poet of Sindhuraja and Vakpati Munja.

Padmagupta, also called Parimala, served the Paramara king Vakpati Munja and then his brother and successor Sindhuraja. His Sanskrit poem Navasahasankacharita celebrates Sindhuraja, who bore the title Navasahasanka.

'Sindhuraja' alone leaves out Munja, and Upendra was the founder of the dynasty, long before Padmagupta's time.

Answer: D

The poet of King Bhoj who accepted Jainism was Dhanpal (Dhanapala).

Dhanapala was a court poet of the Paramara kings Munja and Bhoja of Dhara in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. Born a Brahmin, he became a Jain under the influence of his brother Shobhana, and wrote the Sanskrit prose romance Tilakamanjari and the Prakrit lexicon Paiyalacchi Namamala.

Granthapal, Rajpal and Mahipal are not the Jain poet of Bhoja's court.

Answer: B

According to the Chachnama, the capital was Arod (Aror, or Alor).

The Chachnama, a thirteenth-century Persian history of Sindh and its conquest by Muhammad bin Qasim in 712, describes the kingdom of Sindh under the Rai dynasty and then Chach and his son Dahir, with its capital at Aror (Alor), near present-day Rohri.

Deval (Debal) was the port that Muhammad bin Qasim captured first, not the capital. Lodawa and Barmer are in present-day Rajasthan and were not capitals of Sindh.

Answer: B

The Kailash temple is in the caves of Ellora.

The Kailasa temple (Cave 16) at Ellora was carved from top to bottom out of a single rock in the eighth century under the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I. It is the largest monolithic rock-cut temple in the world.

Ajanta is famous for Buddhist paintings, Elephanta for the Trimurti sculpture of Shiva, and Kanheri for Buddhist caves, none of which contains the Kailasa temple.