Indian History GK Questions with Answers – Page 85

Aurangzeb sent him to Bengal as diwan, the officer in charge of revenue, and he later became its governor. After Aurangzeb died in 1707, he gradually stopped taking orders from Delhi, though he kept sending tribute.

Seleucus, a general of Alexander who came to rule the eastern part of his empire, sent Megasthenes as his ambassador to Chandragupta Maurya's court at Pataliputra.

Jyotirao (Jyotiba) Phule founded the Satya-Shodhak Samaj, the 'Society of Seekers of Truth', on 24 September 1873 in Pune. The Samaj fought caste discrimination and worked for the education and rights of Shudras, Dalits and women, without the help of priests.

He was Bimbisara's son and took the throne of Magadha after him in the Haryanka dynasty. Bimbisara, a contemporary of the Buddha, built Magadha's power through marriage alliances and the conquest of Anga, with Rajagriha as his capital.

Most of Ashoka's edicts were written in Prakrit, the language people spoke, in the Brahmi script, so that ordinary subjects could understand his message of Dhamma.

Lord Dalhousie annexed Awadh in February 1856, in the last weeks of his term as Governor-General from 1848 to 1856.

As acting Governor-General, Sir Charles Metcalfe repealed the licensing regulations of 1823 through the Press Act of 1835, so he is called the 'Liberator of the Indian Press'.

As Governor-General from 1786 to 1793 he turned the Company's corrupt trading staff into a paid, rule-bound civil service. He raised salaries, banned private trade and presents, and set up a graded service promoted by seniority, which is why he is called the father of the civil services in India.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy set up the Atmiya Sabha, the 'Society of Friends', in Calcutta in 1814. It was a small circle for discussion that preached one formless God and attacked idol worship, caste rigidity, sati and child marriage.

Mohenjodaro lies on the right bank of the Indus in Larkana district of Sindh, now in Pakistan. It was excavated in 1922 by R. D. Banerji, and its name means 'mound of the dead'.

The Treaty of Salbai, signed in May 1782, closed that war between the English East India Company and the Marathas.

Basavanna led the Virashaiva or Lingayat movement in Karnataka in the twelfth century. He served as a minister at the court of King Bijjala at Kalyana.

Signed in May 1782 between the East India Company and the Marathas, it ended the First Anglo-Maratha War that had begun in 1775.

The Lahore session of the Indian National Congress, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, adopted the Purna Swaraj or complete independence resolution.

The Prayaga Prashasti, better known as the Allahabad Pillar Inscription, is a long Sanskrit poem in his praise. It was composed by Harishena, his court poet and minister, and engraved on an old Ashokan pillar now kept in the Allahabad (Prayagraj) Fort.

At Colachel in August 1741, Marthanda Varma of Travancore defeated the Dutch East India Company. It was one of the rare times an Indian ruler decisively beat a European power in open battle, and it ended Dutch hopes of expanding on the Malabar coast.

Krishnadevaraya wrote this Telugu poem, and a part of it sets out his ideas on how a king should rule.

At its Lahore session in December 1929, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian National Congress passed the Purna Swaraj resolution declaring complete independence, not dominion status, as its goal.

The Indo-Greek kings who ruled the north-west of India from about the second century BCE were the first in Indian history to issue coins that carried the name and portrait of the ruler, with Greek legends on one side and Prakrit in the Kharoshthi script on the other.

Warren Hastings was the first Governor-General of Bengal under the Regulating Act of 1773 and held office from 1773 to 1785.