Sources and Early Indian History Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Tirukkural is not one of the anthologies of Sangam literature. It belongs to the later Patinenkilkanakku, the eighteen minor didactic works, while the Sangam corpus consists of the eight anthologies (Ettutokai) and the ten long poems (Pattupattu). The answer is option B.

Ettutokai (A) and Pattupattu (C) are the two groups of Sangam anthologies, and Ahananuru (D) is one of the eight anthologies, so all three are Sangam texts.

Answer: A

The correct matching is Al-Biruni with Sachau, Megasthenes with McCrindle, Faxian with Legge and Xuanzang with Beal: a-iv, b-i, c-iii, d-ii, option A. Sachau translated Al-Biruni's 'Kitab-ul-Hind', McCrindle translated Megasthenes' fragments, Legge translated Faxian's record, and Beal translated Xuanzang's 'Si-yu-ki'.

Options B, C and D give the Chinese pilgrims to the wrong translators, for example Faxian to Beal, so they are wrong.

Answer: B

The correct matching is Ashvaghosha with the Buddhacharita, Bhasa with the Balacharita, Vishakhadatta with the Mudrarakshasa and Hemachandra with the Kumarapalacharita: a-iv, b-iii, c-ii, d-i, option B.

Option A pairs them in the printed order, giving Ashvaghosha the Kumarapalacharita, which Hemachandra wrote under the Chaulukya king Kumarapala. Options C and D give the Mudrarakshasa, a play on Chanakya and Chandragupta, to Ashvaghosha or Hemachandra.

Answer: C

The first English translation of the Arthashastra, by R. Shamasastry, was published in 1915, option C. The text itself had been discovered by Shamasastry in 1904 and printed in Sanskrit in 1909.

1909 (B) is the date of the Sanskrit edition, which is the usual distractor. 1905 and 1960 are not the date of the first English translation.

Shamasastry was the librarian of the Oriental Library at Mysore, where the manuscript had been brought to him by a Tanjore pandit.

Answer: A

Mahagara, in the Belan valley of the Vindhyan region (Uttar Pradesh), is the Neolithic site in the list, alongside Koldihwa, where cord-impressed pottery and evidence of early rice were found.

Chirand, in Bihar, lies in the Ganga plain and is known for its Neolithic and Chalcolithic levels with bone tools; Bangarh in Bengal is a later urban site of the historical period; and Khunti is in the Chotanagpur plateau of Jharkhand. None is a Neolithic site of the Vindhyan region.

Answer: D

The three-part plan of citadel, middle town and lower town is the distinctive feature of Dholavira in Kutch, so (iv) only is correct.

Kunal in Haryana, Lothal and Rangpur in Gujarat show the more usual Harappan plan, with a citadel (or raised area) set apart from a lower town; Lothal for instance had a dockyard and a single walled settlement. None of them has the extra middle town, so any option including (i), (ii) or (iii) is wrong. Kunal in Haryana is a pre-Harappan and Harappan site with a different layout, and Rangpur, with its Late Harappan phase, was a smaller settlement without a middle town.

Answer: D

The Saraswati, identified with the Ghaggar-Hakra system, is known in Pakistan by several names: Hakra, Wahinda, Nara and Raini are all listed as its names, so all four are correct.

An option naming only some of them is therefore incomplete: (i) and (iii), (i) and (ii), and (i), (ii) and (iii) each leave out at least one name. The river's dry bed in Cholistan and Sind is called the Hakra, and its lower course the Nara. The Saraswati of the Rig Veda is generally linked to the Ghaggar-Hakra channel, which flows through Rajasthan and into Pakistan.

Answer: C

The Battle of the Ten Kings (Dasarajna) was fought on the bank of the Parushni, the river Ravi, where Sudas of the Bharatas defeated a coalition of ten tribes according to the Rig Veda (Book VII).

The Saraswati, the Sindhu (Indus) and the Beas (Vipasa) are other Rig Vedic rivers but are not the place named for this battle in the hymns. The hymn is Rig Veda VII.18, and Sudas was the king of the Bharata tribe whose priest was Vasishtha.

Answer: C

The story of Videgha Mathava moving east to the Sadanira river, led by the fire he carried and accompanied by his priest Gotama Rahugana, is told in the Satapatha Brahmana.

The Gopatha Brahmana belongs to the Atharvaveda, the Aitareya Brahmana to the Rigveda, and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is part of the Satapatha tradition but is philosophical; the migration legend is in the Brahmana itself.

Answer: C

As keyed, the order is Samyukta Nikaya, Chullavagga, Sutta Nipata, Buddhavamsa, that is (i), (ii), (iii), (iv). The Buddhavamsa, which recounts the previous Buddhas, is a late text of the Khuddaka Nikaya and belongs at the end.

The options placing the Buddhavamsa first or second, (iv) (i) (iii) (ii) and (i) (iv) (iii) (ii), put a late composition early, and the option ending with the Samyukta Nikaya, (ii) (iii) (iv) (i), puts a main Nikaya after the later Khuddaka works. The relative order of the first three rests on the key.