Indian History Previous Year Questions (PYQ) with Answers – Page 5

The correct answer is D, Beas and Sutlej. The third book of the Rigveda holds a hymn in which the sage Vishvamitra speaks with two rivers, Vipasha and Shutudri, and asks them to run low so that his party may cross with its wagons. Vipasha is the Beas and Shutudri is the Sutlej, and the hymn treats both as goddesses who answer the sage in their own voice. The Rigveda names many rivers this way; the Nadistuti hymn lists them from east to west, and the Sindhu and the Saraswati are praised most often. Option A is wrong because the Ganga is named only once in the Rigveda and the Yamuna three times, and neither appears in this dialogue. Option B is wrong because Alakananda and Bhagirathi are later names for the headstreams of the Ganga. Option C is wrong because the Ravi, called Parushni, belongs to the hymn on the Battle of the Ten Kings, and the Chenab is Asikni. Exam tip: learn the Vedic names — Vipasha (Beas), Shutudri (Sutlej), Parushni (Ravi), Asikni (Chenab), Vitasta (Jhelum).

The correct answer is A, Rakhigarhi. Rakhigarhi lies in Hisar district of Haryana, on the dry bed of the Ghaggar river. It is the largest Harappan site found in India, spread over several mounds, and excavations there have given up planned streets, brick drains, a granary area, seals and terracotta toys. DNA work on skeletons from its cemetery has made the site famous well beyond archaeology. Option B is wrong because Dholavira is in the Rann of Kachchh in Gujarat, known for its water reservoirs and its signboard. Option C is wrong because Lothal, also in Gujarat, is the dockyard site near the Gulf of Khambhat. Option D is wrong because Kalibangan is in Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan, where ploughed fields and fire altars were found. Exam tip: fix the states in mind — Rakhigarhi (Haryana), Kalibangan (Rajasthan), Dholavira, Lothal and Surkotada (Gujarat), Ropar (Punjab) and Banawali (Haryana).

The correct answer is B, Part-C States. Under the Government of Part C States Act, 1951, Delhi got its own Legislative Assembly and Council of Ministers. The first election was held in 1952, and Chaudhary Brahm Prakash became Delhi's first Chief Minister. The 1950 Constitution had sorted the units of India into Part A, B, C and D, and Part C covered small areas once run by Chief Commissioners, such as Delhi, Ajmer and Coorg. This arrangement ended when the States Reorganisation Act made Delhi a Union Territory from 1 November 1956, and its Assembly was abolished. Option A is wrong because Part B States were former princely states or their unions, headed by a Rajpramukh. Option C is wrong because Part D had only one unit, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Option D is wrong because Part A States were the former British provinces such as Bombay and Madras, headed by Governors. Exam tip: Delhi became a Part C State in 1951, a Union Territory in 1956, and an NCT with an Assembly under the 69th Amendment of 1991.

The correct answer is D, Satara. Satara was the first state annexed under Lord Dalhousie’s Doctrine of Lapse, in 1848. Under this policy, if the ruler of a dependent state died without a natural male heir, the state lapsed to the East India Company, and an adopted son could not inherit the throne. Dalhousie, Governor-General from 1848 to 1856, used it to take Satara (1848), Jaitpur and Sambalpur (1849), Baghat (1850), Udaipur in Chhattisgarh (1852), Jhansi (1853) and Nagpur (1854). The anger it caused among rulers such as Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi fed directly into the revolt of 1857. Option A is wrong because Jaitpur was annexed in 1849, a year after Satara. Option B is wrong because Sambalpur was also taken in 1849. Option C is wrong because Jhansi was annexed in 1853, when the Company refused to recognise the adopted son of Raja Gangadhar Rao. Exam tip: the lapse list runs Satara 1848, Jaitpur and Sambalpur 1849, Jhansi 1853, Nagpur 1854.

The correct answer is B, I-a, II-d, III-b, IV-c. Sairishaka is the old name of Sirsa, a town mentioned in the Mahabharata. Kanaud, also written Kanod, was the earlier name of Mahendragarh; the town got its present name in the 1860s, when Maharaja Narendra Singh of Patiala renamed its fort after his son Mahendra Singh. Kapisthal, meaning the abode of Kapi, or Hanuman, is the ancient name of Kaithal. Panduprastha, the town of the Pandavas, is the old name of Panipat, which tradition counts among the five villages the Pandavas asked for to avoid war; Sonipat was Swarnaprastha. Option A is wrong because it matches Sairishaka with Kaithal and Panduprastha with Sirsa. Option C is wrong because it gives Sairishaka to Mahendragarh and Kanaud to Sirsa. Option D is wrong because it matches Sairishaka with Panipat and Kapisthal with Sirsa. Exam tip: Sirsa = Sairishaka, Mahendragarh = Kanaud, Kaithal = Kapisthal, Panipat = Panduprastha, Sonipat = Swarnaprastha.

The correct answer is C, Ahmad Shah Abdali. On 14 January 1761 the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali, also called Ahmad Shah Durrani, crushed the Maratha army at Panipat in present-day Haryana. The Marathas were led by Sadashivrao Bhau, and Vishwasrao, the young son of Peshwa Balaji Bajirao, was killed in the fighting. Abdali was backed by the Rohilla chief Najib-ud-daula and by Shuja-ud-daula, the Nawab of Awadh. The defeat checked Maratha expansion in north India for about a decade and made it easier for the British to rise to power. Option A is wrong because Hemu lost the Second Battle of Panipat to Akbar's forces in 1556. Option B is wrong because Muhammad Ghori fought the battles of Tarain in 1191 and 1192, not at Panipat. Option D is wrong because Babur won the First Battle of Panipat against Ibrahim Lodi in 1526 and founded the Mughal empire. Exam tip: Panipat I 1526 Babur vs Ibrahim Lodi; Panipat II 1556 Akbar vs Hemu; Panipat III 1761 Abdali vs Marathas.

The correct answer is B, Tax. In the Later Vedic age, bali had become a regular tax collected by the king. In the Rig Vedic period, bali was a voluntary offering that the people or defeated tribes gave to the chief, often in the form of cattle or grain. As kingdoms grew larger after about 1000 BCE and settled farming spread in the Ganga plains, this gift turned into a compulsory payment. The texts of this period name royal officers linked to it, such as the bhagadugha, who collected the king's share, and the sangrihitri, the treasurer. With this income the king could maintain a court and a standing force. Option A is wrong because a sacrifice was called a yajna, and bali in this context was a payment to the ruler. Option C is wrong because bali never meant a person; it refers to what was paid. Option D is wrong because 'income' is too general, while bali was specifically the share paid to the king. Exam tip: Rig Vedic bali was a voluntary gift; Later Vedic bali became a compulsory tax, and the bhagadugha collected it.

The correct answer is C, (a), (b) and (c). Statements (a), (b) and (c) describe the Subsidiary Alliance correctly, while (d) does not. Lord Wellesley, Governor-General from 1798 to 1805, turned the Subsidiary Alliance into the main tool of British expansion. An Indian ruler who signed it had to keep a British force in his state and pay for it, either in cash or by giving up territory. He also had to accept a British Resident at his court, and he could not deal with other powers or employ other Europeans without British consent. The Nizam of Hyderabad was the first to sign, in 1798, and Awadh had to give up about half its territory in 1801 to meet the cost. Statement (d) is wrong because the British promised protection from outside enemies as well as internal revolts. So option A misses (a) and (c), option B misses (c), and option D wrongly includes (d). Exam tip: Subsidiary Alliance means Wellesley, 1798, Hyderabad first; Doctrine of Lapse means Dalhousie.

The correct answer is B, Rabindranath Tagore. On 13 April 1919, General Dyer’s troops fired on an unarmed crowd at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, killing hundreds. At the end of May 1919 Tagore wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, giving up the knighthood he had received in 1915, saying that such badges of honour had become a mark of shame. The poet had won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for Gitanjali, so his protest carried great weight across the world. Option A is wrong because M. A. Jinnah resigned from the Imperial Legislative Council in March 1919 in protest against the Rowlatt Act; he returned no knighthood. Option C is wrong because Maharaja Rameshwar Singh of Darbhanga was a loyal supporter of the government and gave up no title. Option D is wrong because Sir C. Sankaran Nair protested by resigning from the Viceroy’s Executive Council, not by returning his knighthood. Exam tip: Tagore gave up his knighthood in 1919; Gandhi returned the Kaiser-i-Hind medal in 1920.

The correct answer is B, 2 and 3 only. Goa was taken from Bijapur and the Madras site came from a Vijayanagara Nayak, but the Dutch did not get their east coast land from the Gajapatis. Albuquerque captured Goa in 1510 from the Adil Shahi Sultanate of Bijapur, and it became the centre of Portuguese power in the East. In 1639 Francis Day obtained the site of Madras from Damarla Venkatadri Nayaka, a local chief under the Vijayanagara ruler, and Fort St. George was built there. Statement 1 is wrong because the Dutch set up their east coast factories, such as Masulipatnam (1605) and Pulicat (1610), with grants from the Golconda Sultanate and from Vijayanagara and its Nayaks, long after Gajapati power in Odisha had ended. So A, C and D, which include statement 1, are wrong. Exam tip: Goa 1510 from Bijapur, Madras 1639 from a Vijayanagara Nayak, the Dutch at Masulipatnam and Pulicat.

The correct answer is C, First Anglo-Maratha War. The Treaty of Salbai, signed in May 1782, closed that war between the English East India Company and the Marathas. The war had begun in 1775 when the Company backed Raghunath Rao for the Peshwa's seat through the Treaty of Surat. After the British defeat at Wadgaon in 1779 the fighting dragged on until Mahadji Scindia mediated the peace at Salbai. The treaty gave Salsette to the British, recognised Madhav Rao Narayan as Peshwa, and bought about twenty years of peace between the two powers. A is wrong because the Third Battle of Panipat, 1761, was fought between the Marathas and Ahmad Shah Abdali and ended in a single day, not with a treaty. B is wrong because the Battle of Buxar, 1764, was followed by the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765. D is wrong because the Second Anglo-Maratha War ended with the treaties of Deogaon and Surji-Arjangaon in 1803. Exam tip: remember the Maratha treaty chain Surat 1775, Purandar 1776, Wadgaon 1779, Salbai 1782.

The correct answer is A, Basavanna. 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. His followers worship Shiva in the form of a linga, usually worn in a small case on the body, and they questioned caste, rituals and the theory of rebirth, and supported the remarriage of widows. Basavanna and fellow saints such as Allama Prabhu and Akka Mahadevi taught through vachanas, short sayings in simple Kannada, and met in the Anubhava Mantapa to discuss spiritual questions. The other three names all belong to the Tamil country. B is wrong, because Appar was a Tamil Nayanar saint devoted to Shiva, not a leader in Karnataka. C is wrong, because Sambandar was also a Tamil Nayanar, whose hymns are collected in the Tevaram. D is wrong, because Sundarar was another Tamil Nayanar saint. Exam tip: Virashaiva, Basavanna, Kannada vachanas; Nayanars Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar, Tamil Tevaram.

The correct answer is A, Amuktamalyada. Krishnadevaraya wrote this Telugu poem, and a part of it sets out his ideas on how a king should rule. Krishnadevaraya of the Tuluva dynasty ruled Vijayanagara from 1509 to 1529 and was himself a poet, which earned him the title Andhra Bhoja. Amuktamalyada tells the story of Andal, the Tamil woman saint, and her marriage to Lord Vishnu, but history books quote it for its advice on statecraft: a king should rule with an eye to dharma, improve the harbours of his country, encourage trade and look after his subjects. His court had eight Telugu poets known as the Ashtadiggajas. B is wrong, because Jambavati Kalyanam is a Sanskrit drama by him, not a Telugu work on statecraft. C is wrong, because Rayavachakamu is a later Telugu prose account of his reign, written by others. D is wrong, because Satyavadu Parinaya is a Sanskrit work credited to him, not a Telugu text on polity. Exam tip: Krishnadevaraya in Telugu, Amuktamalyada; in Sanskrit, Jambavati Kalyanam.

The correct answer is B, 1934. Gandhi formally withdrew the Civil Disobedience Movement in April 1934, after it had lost momentum under heavy repression. The movement had begun on 12 March 1930 with the Dandi March and the breaking of the salt law on 6 April 1930. It was suspended after the Gandhi–Irwin Pact of 5 March 1931, when Gandhi agreed to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London. The conference failed, Gandhi was arrested on his return, and the movement was restarted in January 1932, but by 1934 most leaders were in jail and it was called off. So the movement has three dates to keep apart: 1930 launch, 1931 pause, 1934 end. A, 1917, is the year of the Champaran Satyagraha, Gandhi's first movement in India. C, 1923, is when the Swaraj Party was formed by C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru. D, 1943, is the year Subhas Chandra Bose set up the Azad Hind Government in Singapore. Exam tip: Civil Disobedience 1930 to 1934, with the 1931 pact in between.

The correct answer is D, Kashmir. Lalitaditya Muktapida was the most powerful king of the Karkota dynasty of Kashmir in the eighth century, ruling roughly from 724 to 760 CE. He is remembered for building the Martand Sun Temple near Anantnag, whose ruins still stand, and for founding the town of Parihaspora as his capital. Almost everything we know about him comes from Kalhana's Rajatarangini, the twelfth-century Sanskrit chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, which credits him with campaigns against Yashovarman of Kannauj and with wide conquests. The words Karkota, Martand and Rajatarangini all point to Kashmir, so any one of them settles the question. A, Gujarat, was ruled at that time by the Maitrakas of Valabhi and later the Chaulukyas. B, Sikkim, had no such king; its Namgyal kingdom began only in 1642. C, Kerala, was under the Cheras and never had a Karkota ruler. Exam tip: Lalitaditya, Karkota, Martand temple, Rajatarangini all mean Kashmir.

The correct answer is A, Alauddin Khalji – Jalaluddin Khalji. Jalaluddin Khalji founded the Khalji dynasty in 1290, and in 1296 his nephew and son-in-law Alauddin had him killed at Kara and took the throne. Alauddin then ruled till 1316, fixed market prices, kept a large standing army and sent Malik Kafur into the Deccan. In the pair, the first name is the ruler and the second is the person who ruled just before him, so you only need to check who came first. B is wrong because Balban came after Iltutmish: Iltutmish ruled from 1211 to 1236 and Balban from 1266 to 1287. C is wrong because Firuz Shah Tughluq succeeded Muhammad Tughluq in 1351, so he is the successor, not the predecessor. D is wrong for the same reason in reverse: Ghiyasuddin Tughluq founded the dynasty in 1320 and Muhammad Tughluq followed him in 1324. Exam tip: Jalaluddin to Alauddin 1296, Ghiyasuddin to Muhammad 1324, Muhammad to Firuz 1351.

The correct answer is D, Rajput dynasties, Khalji dynasty, Tughluq dynasty. This is the only option in which every dynasty comes after the one before it. The full order of the rulers of Delhi, as the NCERT table gives it, is: Rajput dynasties, the Tomaras and the Chauhans, in the early twelfth century; Early Turkish Rulers from 1206 to 1290, starting with Qutbuddin Aibak; the Khalji dynasty from 1290 to 1320; the Tughluq dynasty from 1320 to 1414; the Sayyid dynasty from 1414 to 1451; and the Lodi dynasty from 1451 to 1526, ending with Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat. A is wrong because the Sayyids ruled before the Lodis, not after. B is wrong because the Khaljis came before the Tughluqs. C is wrong because the Rajput rulers of Delhi came before the Turkish rulers, not after. Exam tip: remember the chain Rajput, Turk (Slave), Khalji, Tughluq, Sayyid, Lodi with the years 1206, 1290, 1320, 1414, 1451, 1526.

The correct answer is B, Harsha. Ratnavali is one of three Sanskrit plays attributed to Emperor Harshavardhana of Kannauj, who ruled from 606 to 647 CE; the other two are Priyadarshika and Nagananda. Ratnavali tells how Princess Ratnavali of Simhala, living in disguise as Sagarika, wins the love of King Udayana of Vatsa. Harsha was a great patron of learning as well as a writer: Banabhatta lived at his court and wrote Harshacharita and Kadambari, the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang visited him, and he held assemblies at Kannauj and Prayag. A is wrong because Kalidasa, of the Gupta age, wrote Abhijnanashakuntalam, Meghaduta and Raghuvamsha. C is wrong because Bhavabhuti, in the court of Yashovarman, wrote Uttararamacharita and Malatimadhava. D is wrong because Vishakhadatta wrote Mudrarakshasa about Chanakya and Chandragupta Maurya. Exam tip: Harsha's three plays are Ratnavali, Priyadarshika and Nagananda; his biographer was Banabhatta.

The correct answer is D, Jyotirao Govindrao Phule. Jyotiba Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj at Pune on 24 September 1873 to fight caste discrimination and the hold of priests over society. The same year he published Gulamgiri (Slavery), attacking Brahmanical domination, and earlier, in 1848, he and his wife Savitribai had opened one of the first schools for girls in Pune. The Samaj promoted education for Shudras, Dalits and women, marriages without priests, and equality; Phule was given the title Mahatma in 1888, and Dr Ambedkar counted him among his three gurus. A is wrong because Savitribai Phule, though a pioneer of women's education and a member of the Samaj, was not its founder. B is wrong because E. V. Ramasamy Periyar led the Self-Respect Movement in Tamil Nadu from 1925. C is wrong because Ayyankali was a Dalit reformer of Kerala who set up the Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangham in 1907. Exam tip: Satyashodhak Samaj, Pune, 1873, Jyotiba Phule, book Gulamgiri.

The correct answer is C, Kashmir. Rajatarangini, meaning the river of kings, is a Sanskrit verse chronicle of the rulers of Kashmir written by Kalhana around 1148–1150 CE. It runs to about 8,000 verses arranged in eight books called tarangas, or waves, and traces Kashmir's kings from legendary times down to Kalhana's own day in the reign of Jayasimha. Because Kalhana used inscriptions, coins, older records and his own judgement, it is often called the first real work of history written in India. Later authors Jonaraja, Srivara and Prajyabhatta continued the story into the Mughal period. A is wrong because Bengal's rulers are recorded in works like Ramacharita of Sandhyakara Nandi, not in Rajatarangini. B is wrong because Bihar was the seat of Magadha and the Palas, who are not the book's subject. D is wrong because the Delhi Sultans are covered by Persian chronicles such as Tabaqat-i-Nasiri. Exam tip: Kalhana, Rajatarangini, Kashmir, 12th century, eight tarangas.