Sources and Early Indian History Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Both A and R are true, but R does not explain A.

Domestication happened slowly over thousands of years and independently in several regions, for example West Asia, China, South Asia and the Americas, so A is true. Sheep and goats were among the earliest animals to be domesticated, together with the dog, so R is also true.

R only names some early domesticated animals. It does not say why domestication was gradual or why it happened in many places, so it is not the explanation of A.

Answer: D

The animal not reared by the Harappans is the horse.

Bones found at Harappan sites show that people kept cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats. The horse is not seen on Harappan seals, and there is no clear evidence that it was domesticated by the Harappans; it became important in the subcontinent later.

Sheep, goats and buffalo were all part of Harappan herds, so they are the wrong answers here.

Answer: B

All four conditions were named by the Buddha, so the answer is A, B, C and D are correct.

The Buddhist texts record the Buddha telling the Vajjis of the gana or sangha of Vaishali that they would continue to prosper as long as they held full and frequent public assemblies (A), met and acted together (B), followed established rules (C), respected, supported and listened to their elders, did not hold Vajji women by force or capture them (D), maintained their chaityas, and respected and protected wise saints.

The point of the story is that the strength of the Vajji republic lay in collective decision-making and respect for its own rules. Every option that leaves out B or D drops one of the conditions the Buddha listed.

Answer: C

The correct matching is A-ii, B-i, C-iv, D-iii.

These are four of the mahajanapadas of the sixth century BCE with their capitals. Magadha had its capital at Rajgriha (Rajgir) before it moved to Pataliputra. The Vajji confederacy, a gana or sangha, was centred on Vaishali. Avanti had its capital at Ujjain, and Gandhara in the north-west at Taxila.

Each of the other options gives at least Magadha or Vajji the wrong city: Vaishali is the Vajji capital, not Magadha's, and Ujjain belongs to Avanti, not Magadha or Gandhara.

Answer: D

The wrong statement is Each of the three chiefs had three centres of power.

The Sangam poems mention the muvendar, a Tamil word meaning three chiefs, used for the heads of the three ruling families: the Cholas, the Cheras and the Pandyas. Each of these chiefs had two centres of power, one inland and one on the coast, not three.

The other three statements are correct as given: the Sangam poems do mention the muvendar, the word does mean three chiefs, and the three families are correctly named.

Answer: A

The Rampurva Bull was found in Bihar.

The bull capital comes from an Ashokan pillar at Rampurva in the West Champaran district of Bihar. It is a finely polished stone sculpture of the Mauryan period, illustrated in the NCERT history textbook, and it now stands in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have other Mauryan remains, such as the Sanchi and Sarnath pillars, but not the Rampurva bull.

Answer: D

The valid claims are (b), (c) and (d).

The NCERT history textbook describes tribes such as the Gonds and Ahoms. Some tribes rejected both the caste system and orthodox Hinduism; some, like the Gonds and Ahoms, set up large states with well-organised administration; and that political power brought them into conflict with larger kingdoms, such as the Mughals.

Claim (a) is wrong. Caste-based and tribal societies were not sealed off from each other: they interacted, traded and changed each other over time, and many tribes were drawn into caste society. Every option including (a) is therefore wrong.

Answer: D

The Manimekalai was composed by Sattanar.

Sattanar (Seethalai Saathanar) wrote the Manimekalai about 1,400 years ago. It tells the story of Manimekalai, the daughter of Kovalan and Madhavi, who becomes a Buddhist nun.

Ilango composed the companion epic, the Silappadikaram, about Kovalan and Kannagi. Madhavi is a character in both epics, not an author. Kalidasa wrote in Sanskrit, works such as the Abhijnana Shakuntalam and Meghaduta.

Answer: D

Both (A) and (B) are true but (B) is not the reason for (A).

The NCERT history text says that about 12,000 years ago the world's climate became relatively warmer, and grasslands developed in many areas. This in turn led to an increase in the number of deer, antelope, goat, sheep and cattle, animals that live on grass, and people began to think about herding and rearing them.

So the increase in grazing animals was a result of the spread of grasslands, not the reason for it. That rules out option C, which makes B the cause of A, and options A and B, which call one statement false.

Answer: A

Only statement A is true, so the answer is A only.

A site is a place where the remains of things, such as tools, pots, buildings, bones or other objects, were made, used and left behind. That is A.

Statements B, C and D use 'only' or 'never' and are false. The NCERT history text says that sites may be found on the surface of the earth, buried under the earth, or sometimes even under the sea or a river. So sites are not found only on the surface, nor only underground, and they can be found under water. Every option containing B, C or D is therefore wrong.