Indian History Quiz: Marathas and Sikhs

The correct answer is D, the Treaty of Mandeshwar. The Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817 to 1818 was settled by a set of separate treaties with the Maratha houses, and the one with the Holkar chief of Indore was signed at Mandsaur, or Mandeshwar, in January 1818. It placed Holkar territory under the Company and ended Holkar independence. Option A is wrong because the Treaty of Purandar of 1665 was signed by Shivaji with Mirza Raja Jai Singh, long before the Company mattered in the Deccan. Option B is wrong because the Treaty of Gwalior of 1817 was signed with Daulat Rao Scindia, not with Holkar, and students often swap the two houses. Option C is wrong because the Treaty of Surat of 1775 was made with Raghunath Rao and actually began the First Anglo-Maratha War.

The correct answer is C, Tanaji Malusare. Tanaji led the night assault that recovered the fort of Kondana from the Mughal garrison in 1670 and was killed in the fighting. Shivaji is said to have mourned that the lion was gone though the fort was won, and the fort was renamed Sinhagad, the fort of the lion. Option A is wrong because Chimaji Appa was a brother of Peshwa Baji Rao I and is remembered for taking Vasai from the Portuguese in 1739, seventy years later. Option B is wrong because Baji Prabhu Deshpande died holding the pass of Pavan Khind in 1660 so that Shivaji could reach Vishalgad safely, a different episode that papers deliberately place among the options. Option D is wrong because Baji Pasalkar was an early companion from the Pune region and is not connected with Kondana.

The correct answer is D, Amatya. The Amatya, also called the Majumdar, kept the accounts of the kingdom and checked the income and expenditure of every district, which makes him the finance member of the eight. Option A is wrong because the Peshwa was the chief minister who looked after general administration and stood in for the ruler; under the later rulers the office swallowed the state, but it was never the finance department. Option B is wrong because the Sachiv, also called Surnavis or Shuru Nawis, handled royal correspondence and checked the wording of letters and grants. Option C is wrong because the Sumant, also called Dabir, was the minister for foreign affairs and dealt with envoys of other states. A useful way to hold this is to fix three pairs: Amatya with money, Sachiv with letters and Sumant with foreign states.

The correct answer is C, 1761. The Third Battle of Panipat was fought on 14 January 1761 between the Maratha army led by Sadashivrao Bhau, with Vishwasrao the Peshwa's son, and Ahmad Shah Abdali, also called Durrani, supported by the Rohillas and the Nawab of Awadh. The Marathas were defeated with very heavy losses, and Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao died within months. Option A is wrong because 1781 falls in the First Anglo-Maratha War, which ended in the Treaty of Salbai in 1782. Option B is wrong because by 1851 the Maratha confederacy had already been dissolved after 1818 and Punjab too had been annexed. Option D is wrong because 1831 belongs to the period of Company dominance and no Panipat battle was fought then. The three battles of Panipat are 1526, 1556 and 1761.

The correct answer is B, charities and religious affairs. The Panditrao was the ecclesiastical head in the Ashta Pradhan, fixing the dates of religious ceremonies, supervising grants to temples and learned men, and punishing offences against religious custom. Option A is wrong because foreign affairs belonged to the Sumant, also called the Dabir, who received and sent envoys. Option C is wrong because accounts and finance belonged to the Amatya or Majumdar, who audited district income and expenditure. Option D is wrong because justice was the work of the Nyayadhish, who decided civil and criminal cases on the basis of custom and the old law books. Note also that the Panditrao and the Nyayadhish were the two ministers who were not given a military command, unlike the other six members of the council.

The correct answer is C, 1699. On Baisakhi in 1699 at Anandpur Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh initiated the first five volunteers, the Panj Pyare, with the ceremony of the double-edged sword and created the Khalsa, giving its members the five articles of faith and the names Singh and Kaur. Option A is wrong because 1604 is the year Guru Arjan Dev completed the Adi Granth and installed it at the Harmandir Sahib. Option B is wrong because 1675 is the year Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed at Delhi under Aurangzeb, the event that preceded Guru Gobind Singh's accession. Option D is wrong because 1708 is the year Guru Gobind Singh died at Nanded, after declaring the Guru Granth Sahib the eternal Guru. Holding these four years in order is the quickest way to clear a whole family of questions.

The correct answer is C, Guru Arjan Dev. The fifth Guru gathered the hymns of his predecessors along with verses of saints such as Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas and Sheikh Farid, and completed the Adi Granth in 1604, installing it in the Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar with Baba Buddha as the first granthi. Option A is wrong because Guru Nanak composed a large part of the hymns but did not compile the volume; the collection was made four Gurus later. Option B is wrong because Guru Angad is remembered for giving the Gurmukhi script its standard form and for continuing the langar, not for compiling scripture. Option D is wrong because Guru Hargobind, the son of Guru Arjan Dev, is remembered for the two swords of miri and piri and for building the Akal Takht in front of the Harmandir Sahib.

The correct answer is B, the Treaty of Amritsar of 1809. By it Ranjit Singh and the East India Company agreed that the river Sutlej would divide their spheres, so the cis-Sutlej Sikh chiefs passed under Company protection and Ranjit Singh turned his energy westwards towards Multan, Kashmir and Peshawar. Option A is wrong because the Treaty of Lahore of 1846 came at the end of the First Anglo-Sikh War, seven years after Ranjit Singh's death, and cost the Sikh state the Jalandhar Doab and a heavy indemnity. Option C is wrong because the Treaty of Bassein of 1802 was signed by the Maratha Peshwa Baji Rao II, who accepted a subsidiary alliance. Option D is wrong because the Treaty of Salbai of 1782 ended the First Anglo-Maratha War and has nothing to do with Punjab.

The correct answer is C, one-fourth. Chauth, from the word for four, was one-fourth of the revenue of a territory outside the Maratha kingdom, paid so that Maratha armies would not raid it and would in principle defend it. Option A is wrong because one-tenth was sardeshmukhi, an extra levy claimed on the ground that Shivaji was the hereditary sardeshmukh of Maharashtra, and the two are the classic pair that papers swap. Option B is wrong because one-sixth is the traditional royal share of produce named in ancient law books, not a Maratha levy. Option D is wrong because one-third corresponds to no Maratha demand; Maratha revenue on their own land was assessed separately under the system associated with Annaji Datto. Remember chauth as one-fourth and sardeshmukhi as one-tenth, together three-tenths and a little more.

The correct answer is B, Balaji Vishwanath. Appointed Peshwa by Shahu in 1713, he secured from the Mughal court the right to collect chauth and sardeshmukhi in the Deccan, and the office became hereditary in his family, so that later Peshwas ruled from Poona while the Chhatrapati at Satara became a figurehead. Option A is wrong because Baji Rao I, the great expander of Maratha power into Malwa and Gujarat, was his son and the second of the line. Option C is wrong because Madhav Rao I, who restored Maratha strength after Panipat, came much later and died in 1772. Option D is wrong because Nana Fadnavis was never a Peshwa at all; he was the minister who managed the Poona court during the minority of Madhav Rao II and was the leading statesman of the confederacy.

The correct answer is C, Lord Dalhousie. The Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1848 to 1849 ended with the defeat of the Sikh army at Gujrat, and Dalhousie annexed Punjab in 1849, placing it under a board of administration and sending the boy Maharaja Duleep Singh into exile. Option A is wrong because Lord Wellesley, Governor-General from 1798 to 1805, is remembered for the subsidiary alliance system and the Treaty of Bassein, not for Punjab. Option B is wrong because Lord Hastings conducted the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817 to 1818 and abolished the office of Peshwa, while Punjab under Ranjit Singh stayed independent in his time. Option D is wrong because Lord Canning was Governor-General at the revolt of 1857 and became the first Viceroy in 1858, nearly a decade after the annexation.