Early Medieval Regional Kingdoms Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The Aihole inscription was composed by Ravikirti.

The Aihole inscription of 634-35 CE, in the Meguti temple, is a Sanskrit prashasti of Pulakeshin II by the Jain poet Ravikirti. It records Pulakeshin's victory over Harshavardhana and claims Ravikirti's fame equalled that of Kalidasa and Bharavi.

Bharavi is mentioned in the inscription but wrote the Kiratarjuniya, not the prashasti. Harishena composed Samudragupta's Allahabad inscription.

Answer: B

The founder of the Pashupata sect is Lakulisha.

Lakulisha, often dated to the second century CE and shown in sculpture holding a club (lakula), is regarded as the founder or systematiser of the Pashupata sect, the oldest named Shaiva sect. The Mathura pillar inscription of Chandragupta II refers to teachers in his line.

Shankaracharya taught Advaita, Madhavacharya Dvaita and Vallabhacharya Shuddhadvaita; none founded a Shaiva sect.

Answer: A

The dynasties are the Pratihara, Rashtrakuta and Pala.

From the late eighth century, the Gurjara-Pratiharas of western India, the Palas of Bengal and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan fought for control of Kannauj and the Ganga valley for about two centuries. This is known as the tripartite struggle.

The Pushyabhutis (Harsha's dynasty) had ended before the struggle began, and the Badami Chalukyas had been replaced by the Rashtrakutas.

Answer: C

The five monolithic shrines were made under Narasimhavarman I.

The group known as the Pancha Rathas at Mahabalipuram, each cut from a single outcrop of granite, is attributed to the reign of Narasimhavarman I Mamalla (about 630-668 CE), after whom the port town was called Mamallapuram.

Mahendravarman I, his father, began the Pallava rock-cut tradition with excavated cave temples such as those at Mandagapattu, not free-standing monolithic rathas. Simhavishnu was an earlier king of the line, and Nandivarman II ruled in the eighth century, after the rathas were made.

Answer: B

The Christian merchants came from the Persian Gulf region.

The Tharisapalli copper plates of 849 CE, issued in the fifth year of the Chera king Sthanu Ravi, record privileges granted to the Tarisa church at Quilon, founded by Maruvan Sapir Iso, a Christian merchant from the Persian world. The plates place the church under the protection of the merchant guilds Anjuvannam and Manigramam and carry witness signatures in Arabic, Middle Persian and Hebrew script.

Venice and the Black Sea had no part in this record, and the Coromandel coast is part of India itself, so it cannot be the home of foreign Christian merchants.

Answer: A

The Damaras were feudal lords in early medieval Kashmir.

Kalhana's Rajatarangini describes the damaras as landed magnates of the Kashmir countryside who grew powerful from the ninth century onward. They kept armed followers and fortified houses, often defied the king, and their struggles with the crown fill much of the later books of the chronicle.

They were not mints, traders or beggars. The Rajatarangini is clear that their power came from land and local armed strength.

Answer: B

The capital was moved to Manyakheta by Amoghavarsha I.

Amoghavarsha I (about 814-878 CE) built Manyakheta (Malkhed, in Kalaburagi district of Karnataka) as the Rashtrakuta capital, and it remained the capital until the dynasty fell in the tenth century. He is also remembered as a patron of Jainism and as the author of the Kannada work on poetics, the Kavirajamarga, attributed to him.

Dantidurga founded the Rashtrakuta power in the mid-eighth century, Krishna I is remembered for the Kailasa temple at Ellora, and Govinda II was his short-reigning successor. All three ruled before Manyakheta became the capital.

Answer: B

The temple that is not counted as Chola architecture is the Kailasanatha Temple, Tirupattur.

The other three are textbook Chola monuments. The Brahmapurishvara temple at Pullamangai is a fine early Chola temple of the time of Parantaka I. The Nageshvaraswami temple at Kumbakonam is another early Chola temple, known for its sculpture. The Airavateshvara temple at Darasuram was built by Rajaraja II in the twelfth century.

Since those three are standard examples of Chola temple building, the remaining option, the Kailasanatha temple at Tirupattur, is the answer by elimination.

Answer: D

The style that flourished under the Paramaras is Bhumija.

The Bhumija style is a variety of the northern Nagara temple, whose tower is made of rows of miniature spires (kutas) running up each face. It developed in Malwa under the Paramaras of Dhara; the Udayeshvara (Nilakantheshvara) temple at Udayapur, built under Udayaditya in the eleventh century, is its best-known example.

Dravida is the southern style of the Cholas and Pallavas, Vesara is the mixed style of the Deccan Chalukyas, and Hemadpanti is the dry-masonry style linked with the Yadavas of Devagiri in Maharashtra.

Answer: A

The answer is Earth and granite.

The Kakatiya capital Warangal had concentric fortifications. The outer ring was a massive earthen rampart with a moat, and the inner fort was enclosed by a wall of large dressed granite blocks with gateways, which is still visible today. Accounts of Alauddin Khalji's siege of 1309-10 also describe the outer mud wall and the inner stone wall.

The other pairs do not match the evidence. There was no brick or timber circuit, and basalt is the rock of the Deccan Traps further west, not the granite country of Telangana.