Books & Authors Mixed Quiz: Set 2

The correct answer is A, the Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma Pitakas. Pitaka means basket, so the canon is called the three baskets. The Vinaya Pitaka contains the rules of discipline for monks and nuns, the Sutta Pitaka holds the discourses of the Buddha, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka deals with philosophy and the analysis of mind and matter.

Option B replaces the Sutta with the Jataka, which is the common error: the Jataka tales of the Buddha's earlier births are not a fourth basket but form part of the Sutta Pitaka. Option C mixes the Jataka with the Angas, and Option D uses Anga and Upanga, which are divisions of the Jain canon written in Prakrit, not of the Buddhist one. A further fact worth carrying is that the Milindapanho, the dialogue between the monk Nagasena and the Indo-Greek king Menander, is a Pali work outside the canon.

The correct answer is C, 1975–1977. The book takes its title from the Emergency, which ran from 1975 to 1977, and recalls those years through the author's own experience of them. The Emergency was proclaimed on 25 June 1975 under Article 352 on the ground of internal disturbance, on the advice of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and was revoked on 21 March 1977. During it elections were postponed, the press was censored and many opposition leaders were jailed. A is wrong because 1962–1965 covers the war with China and the war with Pakistan, not the Emergency. B is wrong because 1989–1991 is the period of coalition governments and the Mandal agitation. D is wrong because 1969–1971 saw the split in the Congress, bank nationalisation and the Bangladesh war. Exam tip: Emergency declared 25 June 1975, lifted 21 March 1977; the 44th Amendment of 1978 replaced 'internal disturbance' with 'armed rebellion'.

The correct answer is A, Subhas Chandra Bose. The Indian Struggle is his own narrative and analysis of the Indian national movement, written during his years in Europe, and it reflects the impatience with gradual methods that later separated him from the Congress leadership.

Option B, Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote The Discovery of India and Glimpses of World History, both of which are broader works of history. Option C, V. D. Savarkar, wrote The Indian War of Independence 1857, in which he described the revolt of 1857 as a planned national war rather than a mutiny, and Hindutva. Option D, M. N. Roy, wrote India in Transition and founded the Communist Party of India abroad. Note how similar the titles of options A and C sound; the word struggle belongs to Bose and the words war of independence to Savarkar.

The correct answer is C, Ocean Vuong. The Emperor of Gladness, released in May 2025, is a novel by the Vietnamese-American writer and poet Ocean Vuong. Vuong was born near Saigon in 1988 and came to the United States as a child refugee. He first drew notice for the poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds and then for the novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, and he has held a MacArthur Fellowship; migration, memory and working-class life run through all his writing. A is wrong because Colum McCann is an Irish novelist, best known for Let the Great World Spin. B is wrong because Sharon Lee is an American science-fiction writer and not the author of this novel. D is wrong because Charlotte McConaghy is an Australian novelist, known for Migrations. Exam tip: Ocean Vuong - Night Sky with Exit Wounds, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and The Emperor of Gladness in 2025.

The correct answer is B, Thiruvalluvar. The Thirukkural is a work of short couplets arranged under three heads, virtue, wealth and love, and it is written so plainly that it is quoted as a guide to conduct rather than read only as literature. It is among the most translated works of any Indian language.

Option A, Tolkappiyar, wrote the Tolkappiyam, the oldest surviving Tamil grammar, which also records much about the society of the Sangam age. Option C, Ilango Adigal, wrote Silappadikaram, the epic of the anklet, which tells the story of Kovalan and Kannagi. Option D, Sattanar, wrote Manimekalai, the companion epic that carries the story into the next generation with a Buddhist colouring. These four Tamil names are worth learning as a set, because they are asked in exactly this rotating form and fewer candidates prepare them than prepare the Sanskrit list.

The correct answer is C, Tennis. 'Ace Against Odds' is the autobiography of Sania Mirza, India's most successful woman tennis player, published in 2016 and written with her father Imran Mirza and Shivani Gupta. The title plays on 'ace', a serve the opponent cannot touch. Sania became the first Indian woman to win a WTA singles title, at Hyderabad in 2005, and went on to win six Grand Slam doubles titles, three in women's doubles with Martina Hingis and three in mixed doubles, and to become world number one in doubles in 2015. She received the Arjuna Award in 2004, the Khel Ratna in 2015 and the Padma Bhushan in 2016. A is wrong because the best-known shooting autobiography is Abhinav Bindra's 'A Shot at History'. B is wrong because badminton star Saina Nehwal's book is 'Playing to Win'. D is wrong because cricket autobiographies include Sachin Tendulkar's 'Playing It My Way'. Exam tip: Ace Against Odds = Sania Mirza (tennis); A Shot at History = Abhinav Bindra (shooting); Playing It My Way = Sachin Tendulkar (cricket).

The correct answer is B, on the voyage from London to South Africa in 1909. Gandhi wrote the book in Gujarati on board the ship while returning from a deputation to London, casting it as a dialogue between an editor and a reader in which he explains what true self-rule means and criticises modern industrial civilisation.

Option A, Yerwada jail in 1932, is the place and year of the Poona Pact rather than of this book. Option C, the Sabarmati Ashram in 1919, is associated with the Rowlatt satyagraha and with his journals, not with Hind Swaraj, which was already ten years old by then. Option D, Champaran in 1917, was his first satyagraha in India, over indigo cultivation. The chain to remember is short: 1909, on the ship, written in Gujarati, in the form of a dialogue.

The correct answer is B, Arundhati Roy. 'Mother Mary Comes to Me' is Arundhati Roy's memoir, published in September 2025, and it is built around her difficult, loving bond with her mother Mary Roy. Mary Roy was a teacher who founded a school in Kerala and won the 1986 Supreme Court case that gave Syrian Christian women an equal share in family property. Arundhati Roy herself won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel, 'The God of Small Things', and later wrote 'The Ministry of Utmost Happiness' along with many essays. A is wrong because Jhumpa Lahiri is known for 'Interpreter of Maladies', which won the Pulitzer Prize, and 'The Namesake'. C is wrong because Vikram Seth wrote 'A Suitable Boy' and 'The Golden Gate'. D is wrong because Chetan Bhagat writes popular novels such as 'Five Point Someone' and 'Half Girlfriend'. Exam tip: Arundhati Roy — 'The God of Small Things', Booker Prize 1997.

The correct answer is C, Vishnu Sharma. The Panchatantra, meaning the five treatises, uses talking animals to teach practical wisdom and statecraft, and the frame story explains that it was composed to educate princes who had no taste for formal learning. It travelled westward in translation and is among the most widely circulated books of Indian origin.

Option A, Somadeva, compiled the Kathasaritsagara, a much larger ocean of stories drawn from an older collection. Option B, Dandin, wrote Dashakumaracharita, the adventures of ten princes, and the manual of poetics called Kavyadarsha, so his subject is courtly narrative rather than fable. Option D, Kshemendra, was a Kashmiri writer known for satirical and didactic works. The test here is the phrase animal fables for the instruction of princes, which belongs to Vishnu Sharma and to the Panchatantra.

The correct answer is B, Kautilya, who is also called Chanakya and Vishnugupta and is associated with the Mauryan court of Chandragupta Maurya. The Arthashastra sets out the duties of a king, the working of ministers and spies, taxation, law, trade, agriculture and warfare, and it is one of the main sources for Mauryan administration.

Option A, Vishakhadatta, wrote the play Mudrarakshasa, whose central character is Chanakya himself, which is exactly why the name is placed here as a distractor. Option C, Banabhatta, belongs to a much later age as the court poet of Harshavardhana and wrote the Harshacharita and Kadambari. Option D, Megasthenes, was the Greek ambassador sent by Seleucus Nicator to the Mauryan court, and his account is called Indica, not Arthashastra. Keep the pair firm: Arthashastra by Kautilya, Indica by Megasthenes.

The correct answer is C, his daughter Indira. Nehru wrote the letters from prison, telling her the story of the world from ancient times onwards, and they were later collected as Glimpses of World History. The shorter and earlier set written to her as a child was published as Letters from a Father to His Daughter.

Option A, Mahatma Gandhi, exchanged a great deal of correspondence with Nehru, but that correspondence is published separately and is not this book. Option B, Motilal Nehru, was his father and a leader of the Swaraj Party, and letters run the other way in that relationship. Option D, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, wrote his own book, India Wins Freedom. In the exam, connect the word letters with Indira and the word discovery with Ahmednagar Fort, and the Nehru questions are settled.

The correct answer is B, Mahatma Gandhi. He wrote the book in Gujarati under the title Satya Na Prayogo, publishing it in parts in his journal, and Mahadev Desai translated it into English. It covers his childhood, his years in England and South Africa and the beginning of his work in India.

Option A, Jawaharlal Nehru, also wrote an autobiography, which appeared under the title Toward Freedom, so he is the closest distractor here. Option C, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, wrote India Wins Freedom, an account of the years leading to Independence rather than a full life story. Option D, Rajendra Prasad, wrote an Atmakatha and the book India Divided. Note also that Gandhi's Hind Swaraj is often placed in such options, but it is a political tract of 1909 and not an autobiography.

The correct answer is A, Kanishka, the Kushana ruler. Ashvaghosha wrote the Buddhacharita, a life of the Buddha in Sanskrit verse, and also Saundarananda, and tradition places him at Kanishka's court along with the physician Charaka and the Buddhist scholar Vasumitra.

Option B, Chandragupta II Vikramaditya of the Gupta dynasty, is the king traditionally linked with Kalidasa and with the group of learned men described as the nine gems. Option C, Harshavardhana, was the patron of Banabhatta and an author himself. Option D, Ashoka, belongs to a much earlier age, the Mauryan period, and is known for his edicts rather than for patronage of Sanskrit poets. Patron questions are answered fastest by holding four pairs: Kanishka with Ashvaghosha, Chandragupta II with Kalidasa, Harsha with Bana and Lakshmana Sena with Jayadeva.

The correct answer is C, Tim Wigmore. Test Cricket: A History, published in 2025, was written by the English cricket writer and journalist Tim Wigmore. The book follows the game's longest format from the first Test between England and Australia at Melbourne in March 1877 down to the present day, covering how Test cricket spread across countries, how it changed from era to era, and the pressure it now faces from the shorter formats. Wigmore also co-wrote Cricket 2.0, a study of Twenty20 cricket that was named Wisden Book of the Year. A is wrong because Michael Atherton, the former England captain, writes widely on cricket but not this book. B is wrong because Gideon Haigh is an Australian cricket historian with many other titles to his name. D is wrong because Ramachandra Guha wrote A Corner of a Foreign Field and other works on Indian cricket and history. Exam tip: Tim Wigmore - Test Cricket: A History in 2025 and Cricket 2.0 on Twenty20 cricket.

The correct answer is A, Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He ran Kesari in Marathi and Maratha in English, and it was through the writing in Kesari that he reached ordinary readers in Maharashtra, a reach that also brought him prosecutions for sedition.

Option B, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, is associated with the journal Sudharak of the reformist school and with the Servants of India Society. Option C, Aurobindo Ghosh, wrote for Bande Mataram and later brought out Karmayogin. Option D, Annie Besant, published New India and Commonweal and led the Home Rule movement. Since one question of this kind appears in most papers, keep a short list of pairs ready: Kesari with Tilak, Al-Hilal with Azad, Bande Mataram with Aurobindo, Mooknayak with Ambedkar and Harijan with Gandhi.

The correct answer is A, Penguin Random House India. Arundhati Roy's memoir 'Mother Mary Comes to Me' was brought out in India in September 2025 by Penguin Random House India, under its literary imprint Hamish Hamilton. The book is a portrait of the author's mother, Mary Roy, the educationist who founded a school in Kerala and won the 1986 Supreme Court case on the inheritance rights of Syrian Christian women. Penguin Random House is the largest trade publisher in the world and its Indian arm publishes much of the country's serious literary writing. B is wrong because HarperCollins India, though a major literary publisher here, did not bring out this title. C is wrong because Hachette India publishes a wide list but not this memoir. D is wrong because Rupa Publications is an older Indian house known for popular and general interest books. Exam tip: link the book to both names — Arundhati Roy as the author and Penguin Random House India as the publisher.

The correct answer is B, the Mahabharata. The Bhagavad Gita is a section of the Bhishma Parva of the epic, in which Krishna counsels Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. It is printed and studied separately because of its philosophical weight, but it is not an independent book, and the epic as a whole is ascribed to Vyasa.

Option A, the Ramayana, is the other great epic, ascribed to Valmiki, and contains no part of the Gita. Option C, the Rigveda, is the oldest of the four Vedas, a collection of hymns to the gods and older by many centuries than the epics. Option D, the Manusmriti, is a law book of the smriti tradition dealing with duties and social order. Examiners like this question because candidates who know the Gita well often forget where it sits, so remember the chain: Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva, Bhagavad Gita.

The correct answer is C, Mrichchhakatika. That play, whose title means the little clay cart, was written by Shudraka, and it is unusual among Sanskrit dramas because its hero is an impoverished merchant and its plot turns on ordinary city life rather than on gods and kings.

Options A, B and D all belong to Kalidasa. Meghaduta, the cloud messenger, is a lyric poem in which an exiled spirit sends a message to his wife through a passing cloud. Raghuvamsha is a long narrative poem on the dynasty of Raghu, and Kumarasambhava narrates the birth of Kartikeya. The rest of Kalidasa's list, which examiners draw on for this kind of question, is made up of the plays Abhijnanashakuntalam, Vikramorvashiyam and Malavikagnimitram and the seasonal poem Ritusamhara. Learn the seven titles as one block and any odd name out becomes obvious.

The correct answer is B, Sarojini Naidu. The Golden Threshold was her first collection of poems, and it was followed by The Bird of Time and The Broken Wing. Because of her poetry she is called the Nightingale of India, and she was also a leader of the national movement and the first woman to be president of the Indian National Congress at its Kanpur session.

Option A, Toru Dutt, was an earlier Indian poet writing in English and French, remembered for Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan. Option C, Kamala Das, belongs to a much later generation of Indian English poetry. Option D, Rabindranath Tagore, wrote Gitanjali, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, and his name is placed in these options precisely because it is the first that comes to mind for Indian poetry.

The correct answer is D, Shudraka. Mrichchhakatika, The Little Clay Cart, is a ten-act Sanskrit play written by Shudraka, a king-poet of the classical age. Unlike most classical plays about kings and gods, it tells the story of an ordinary poor Brahmin merchant, Charudatta, and his love for the courtesan Vasantasena in the city of Ujjain, with the wicked prince Shakara as villain and a political revolt in the background; the title comes from the toy clay cart of Charudatta's son. It is prized for its realistic picture of city life, thieves, gamblers and courts, and Girish Karnad's film Utsav (1984) is based on it. A, Kalidasa, wrote Abhijnanashakuntalam, Malavikagnimitram, Vikramorvashiyam, Meghaduta and Raghuvamsha. B, Bhasa, wrote Svapnavasavadattam and Charudattam, the shorter play on which Shudraka built his story. C, Valmiki, is the author of the Ramayana, an epic and not a play. Exam tip: Mrichchhakatika by Shudraka, Mudrarakshasa by Vishakhadatta, Ratnavali by Harsha, Svapnavasavadattam by Bhasa.