Sources and Early Indian History Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The Foguoji was written by Fa-hsien.

Foguoji, 'A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms', is the account of the Chinese monk Faxian (Fa-hsien), who travelled to India by land in about 399-414 CE, during the reign of Chandragupta II, in search of Vinaya texts. It describes the Buddhist sites of the Gangetic plain and the general peace and prosperity of the Gupta realm.

Hiuen Tsang's work is the Si-Yu-Ki (seventh century, Harsha's time), I-tsing wrote a record of Buddhist practice in India and the Malay archipelago, and Taranath was a Tibetan monk who wrote a history of Buddhism in India in 1608.

Answer: C

The Tibetan theory was supported by Swami Dayanand.

Swami Dayanand Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj, held in the Satyarth Prakash that the Aryans were the first people created, in Trivishtapa, which he identified with Tibet, and that they came down from there to settle Aryavarta, a land then empty. On this view they were not foreign invaders of an inhabited India.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak argued for an Arctic home in The Arctic Home in the Vedas (1903). Swami Vivekananda rejected the theory of an Aryan invasion but did not propose a Tibetan home, and Ganganath Jha was a Sanskrit scholar who is not associated with the Tibetan theory.

Answer: D

Megalithic stone circles are excavated by the quadrant method.

A stone circle or burial mound is roughly circular, so the excavator divides it into four quarters along two baulks crossing at the centre. Opposite quadrants are dug first, which leaves standing sections across the whole monument and records the burial pit, the fill and the stone ring in relation to each other.

A vertical excavation (a deep trench or sounding) shows the sequence of layers at one spot but not the plan of a circle. A trial trench only tests whether deposits exist. Horizontal (open-area) excavation suits a habitation site where the layout of houses is wanted, not a single circular burial.

Answer: A

The site that is not Chalcolithic is Bhokardan.

Bhokardan, in Jalna district on the Kelna river, is an early historic town of the Satavahana period, identified with ancient Bhogavardhana and known for its beads, ivory work and pottery of the centuries around the beginning of the Common Era.

The other three are Chalcolithic sites of Maharashtra. Jorwe, in Ahmednagar district, gives its name to the Jorwe culture; Inamgaon, near Pune, is the best excavated Jorwe settlement; and Savalde, in the Tapi valley, gives its name to the earlier Savalda culture.

Answer: D

The term used for a time of day is Godhuli.

Godhuli, literally cow dust, is the hour of dusk when the cattle return home raising dust. In a pastoral society such as that of the Rigveda, time was reckoned by the movement of the herds.

The other terms come from the same cattle vocabulary but do not mark time. Gavishti (search for cows) and gaveshana (searching) are used for raids and war, and gotra, originally a cow pen, came to mean a lineage or clan.

Answer: B

The capital of Chedi was Sotthivatinagara.

Chedi, one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas, lay in Bundelkhand, and Buddhist texts call its capital Sotthivatinagara, the Shuktimati of Sanskrit sources.

The other cities belong to other states. Champa was the capital of Anga, Mithila the capital of Videha in the Vajji confederacy, and Pava was a seat of the Mallas, where the Jain tradition places Mahavira's death.

Answer: C

The dynasty not mentioned is the Vakatakas.

The Arya Manjushrimulakalpa is a Mahayana text whose prophetic chapter, studied by K. P. Jayaswal as an 'Imperial History of India', surveys the kings of north India from the Mauryas onward in thinly veiled names and initials.

Its account covers the Guptas, the Maitraka kings of Valabhi, and the Pushyabhuti line of Harsha, along with the Maukharis and the kings of Gauda. The Vakatakas, a Deccan dynasty, are not part of its narrative, which is why they are the answer.

Answer: D

Amarakosha defines itihasa as Puravrutta.

Amarasimha's lexicon gives itihasah puravrittam: itihasa is puravritta, an account of what happened in the past. The word stresses past events actually having occurred, which is how the Indian tradition separated itihasa from other narrative.

The other words are related but are not the definition. Akhyana is a tale or narrative, Purana is the genre of ancient lore with its five subjects, and itivritta means a plot or course of events, used of the story in a drama.

Answer: A

The Nigali Sagar pillar mentions the stupa of Kanakamuni Buddha.

The inscription, in Nepal's Tarai, records that Ashoka in his fourteenth regnal year enlarged the stupa of Buddha Konakamana (Kanakamuni) to double its size, and in his twentieth year came in person to worship. Kanakamuni is one of the Buddhas believed to have preceded Gautama.

Shakyamuni is Gautama himself, whose birthplace is marked by the nearby Lumbini (Rummindei) pillar. Vipassi is a much earlier past Buddha and Amitabha a Mahayana Buddha of later worship; neither appears in the inscription.

Answer: D

The second Buddhist council was held in the reign of Kalashoka.

About a hundred years after the Buddha's death, the council met at Vaishali under the Shishunaga king Kalashoka (Kakavarnin) to settle disputes over ten points of monastic discipline raised by the Vajjian monks. The split that followed produced the Sthaviravadins and the Mahasanghikas.

The first council was held at Rajagriha under Ajatashatru, and the third at Pataliputra under Ashoka. Dhanananda was the last Nanda king, and Vitashoka was Ashoka's brother, not a king who convened a council.