Early Medieval Regional Kingdoms Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The Periyapuranam is a source for early medieval Tamil Desha.

Composed in Tamil by Sekkilar in the twelfth century, at the Chola court of Kulottunga II, it tells the lives of the sixty-three Nayanars, the Shaiva saints of the Tamil country. Its stories of devotees from many castes and occupations make it valuable for social as well as religious history.

Telangana and Andhra Desha were Telugu-speaking regions, and Tulunadu is the Tulu-speaking coastal region of Karnataka; none of them is the setting of this Tamil hagiography.

Answer: B

The text is the Navasahasankacharita.

Written by Padmagupta (Parimala) at the court of the Paramara king Sindhuraja of Malwa, around 1000 CE, it is a poetic account of that king, whose title was Navasahasanka, and it gives the legendary origin of the Paramara line.

The other texts concern other dynasties. Mudrarakshasa is about Chandragupta Maurya, the Harshacharita is Bana's life of Harsha, and the Gaudavaho is Vakpati's Prakrit poem on Yashovarman of Kannauj.

Answer: B

The Vikramankadevacharita was written by Bilhana.

Bilhana, a Kashmiri poet who settled at the Western Chalukya court of Kalyani, wrote this Sanskrit biography of his patron Vikramaditya VI, whose title was Vikramanka, in the late eleventh century.

Kalhana, also from Kashmir, wrote the Rajatarangini. Vikramankadeva is the king himself, the subject rather than the author. Gunavarma was a Kannada Jain poet.

Answer: C

The title was taken by Krishna III.

Krishna III (about 939-967 CE) invaded the Chola kingdom and defeated the Chola army at Takkolam in 949. His inscriptions in the Tamil country call him the conqueror of Kanchi and Tanjavur (Kachchiyum Tanjaiyum konda).

Krishna I is remembered for the Kailasa temple at Ellora, Krishna II fought the Eastern Chalukyas and Cholas without such success, and Govinda III's campaigns ranged north to Kannauj and south to Kanchi, but the Kanchi-and-Tanjavur title belongs to Krishna III.

Answer: C

The mixed style is the Vesara style.

Indian texts on architecture classify temples as Nagara (the northern style with a curvilinear shikhara), Dravida (the southern style with a stepped, pyramidal vimana) and Vesara, which combines features of both. The later Chalukya and Hoysala temples of the Deccan are usually given as examples.

Nagara and Dravida are the two parent styles, not the mixture. Kalinga is the Odishan form of the Nagara style, as at Bhubaneswar and Konark.

Answer: A

Xuanzang visited Kanchi in the reign of Narsimhavarman I.

The Chinese pilgrim reached Kanchipuram, capital of the Pallavas, around 640 CE. The ruler then was Narasimhavarman I (about 630-668), the king who defeated Pulakeshin II of Badami and took the title Vatapikonda, and who built much at Mamallapuram.

Mahendravarman II and Parameshvaravarman I reigned after him, and the Nandivarmans belong to the eighth and ninth centuries.

Answer: C

The key gives a-1, b-3, c-2, d-4.

These are merchant bodies (nagarams) of the Chola-period Tamil country, named for the goods or trade of their members. The Saliya nagaram was the organisation of the Saliyar weavers, so it matches the textile traders (1). The Vaniya nagaram was that of the Vaniyar, the oil-pressers and oil traders (4).

By the key, the Sankarappadi nagaram was the body of oil and ghee suppliers (3), and the Paraga nagaram that of maritime traders (2). Every other option sends the Saliya or Vaniya nagaram to the wrong trade.

Answer: A

The author was Mahendravarman-I.

The Pallava king Mahendravarman I (about 600-630 CE) wrote the Mattavilasa Prahasana, a one-act Sanskrit farce that mocks a drunken Kapalika, a Buddhist monk and a Pashupata, offering a lively picture of religious life in Kanchi.

Bhoja of the Paramaras and Amoghavarsha of the Rashtrakutas were also royal authors, of other works, and Pulakeshin II of Badami was Mahendravarman's great rival, not a playwright.

Answer: A

The incorrect pair is the third, so the answer is Only (3).

In Chola-period Tamil inscriptions, the ulkudi were resident (permanent) tenant cultivators of a village, not traders and moneylenders.

The other pairs are correct: the Vellalar or Vellar were the dominant agrarian (farming) groups, the kaniyudaiyar were holders of kani, hereditary rights in land, and the nattar were members of the nadu, the assembly of the locality. Every option that marks (1), (2) or (4) as incorrect is wrong.

Answer: D

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

In the Chola-period village system, the ur was the assembly of an ordinary village of cultivating landholders (4); the sabha was the assembly of a brahmadeya, a village granted to Brahmanas (1); and the nagaram was the organisation of a market town dominated by traders (2).

A taniyur (Tanayur), literally 'separate village', was a large settlement, often a brahmadeya, given a status distinct from the surrounding nadu (3). The other options mix up the ur and the sabha or misplace the taniyur.