Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 12

The correct answer is D, the tenth mandala. The Purusha Sukta describes the sacrifice of the cosmic being from whose parts the brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra are said to have come, and it is the first statement of the fourfold varna order. The tenth mandala is one of the latest parts of the Rigveda, which is why historians argue that the varna order hardened only towards the end of the early Vedic period.

Option A, the third mandala, is where the Gayatri Mantra appears, addressed to the sun god Savitri. Option B, the seventh mandala, records the Battle of Ten Kings. Option C, the ninth mandala, is devoted entirely to Soma. Because papers ask about all four of these mandalas, the safest way to remember them is as a set: three for Gayatri, seven for Dasarajna, nine for Soma and ten for Purusha Sukta.

The correct answer is A, 1773. The Boston Tea Party took place on 16 December 1773, when American colonists threw British tea into Boston harbour. The protest was against the Tea Act of 1773, which let the East India Company sell tea in the colonies without paying the usual duties and undercut local merchants. Members of the Sons of Liberty, some dressed as Mohawk Indians, boarded three ships at Griffin's Wharf and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water. Britain replied with the Intolerable Acts, and the anger they caused led to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and to the American War of Independence from 1775. B is wrong because 1776 is the year the Declaration of Independence was adopted, on 4 July. C is wrong because 1775 is when fighting began at Lexington and Concord. D is wrong because 1774 is the year of the Intolerable Acts and the First Continental Congress. Exam tip: Boston Tea Party 1773, war begins 1775, independence declared 1776.

The correct answer is B, Parshvanatha. He was the twenty-third Tirthankara, a prince of Varanasi and son of King Ashvasena, whose emblem is the serpent. He is placed about two hundred and fifty years before Mahavira and gave his followers four vows: non-violence, truth, non-stealing and non-possession.

Option A, Rishabhadeva, also called Adinath, was the first Tirthankara, whose emblem is the bull and whose name is found in the Rigveda. Option C, Neminatha, was the twenty-second Tirthankara and is traditionally linked with Krishna. Option D, Mahavira, was the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankara, who added brahmacharya as a fifth vow and whose emblem is the lion. Questions usually ask for the first, the twenty-third or the twenty-fourth, so those three numbers are worth memorising with their emblems.

The correct answer is C, the statement about Madhvacharya. It is the wrong statement, because Madhvacharya worshipped a personal god, Vishnu, with form and qualities, so his path was saguna bhakti, not nirguna. Madhva, a 13th-century teacher from Udupi in Karnataka, taught Dvaita, or dualism: God and the soul are always separate, and the soul is freed only through devotion and God's grace. He set up the Krishna temple at Udupi, still the centre of his tradition. Nirguna bhakti, devotion to a formless god, is linked with saints such as Kabir, Nanak and Dadu. Option A is a correct statement because Vallabhacharya founded the Pushtimarga, the 'path of grace', centred on Krishna worshipped as Shrinathji. Option B is correct because Nimbarka taught Dvaitadvaita, dualism with non-dualism. Option D is correct because Ramananda spread Rama bhakti in north India and took disciples from all castes, Kabir and Raidas among them. Exam tip: Shankara Advaita, Ramanuja Vishishtadvaita, Madhva Dvaita, Nimbarka Dvaitadvaita, Vallabha Shuddhadvaita.

The correct answer is B, Indra. He is the god of rain and of war, called Purandara, the breaker of forts, and the largest number of Rigvedic hymns is addressed to him, which matches a people whose life turned on rainfall and on cattle raids.

Option A, Agni, the god of fire, stands second and is treated as the messenger who carries offerings from men to the gods; the very first hymn of the Rigveda is addressed to him, and candidates often confuse that first place with the largest number. Option C, Varuna, is the guardian of rita, the cosmic and moral order, an important but less frequently invoked god. Option D, Prajapati, is a later Vedic figure: he becomes the supreme creator only in the Brahmanas, by which time Indra and Agni had lost their old importance. The rise of Prajapati is itself a favourite question.

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 D, brahmacharya. Parshvanatha had prescribed four restraints, and Mahavira added celibacy to them, so Jain monastic discipline rests on five great vows: ahimsa, satya, asteya, aparigraha and brahmacharya. The addition is a favourite one-line question because it separates the two Tirthankaras.

Option A, ahimsa, was the first of the four older vows and is the central principle of the faith, extended by Jainism even to plants and tiny creatures. Option B, satya, and option C, aparigraha, were likewise part of the older four, along with asteya, the vow against stealing. The order of the five, and the fact that a Jain layman follows them in a milder form called the anuvratas while a monk follows them absolutely, are the other details papers pick up from this section.

The correct answer is C, Bahadur Shah. The Sultan of Gujarat let the Portuguese take Diu in return for their help against the Mughal emperor Humayun. By the Treaty of Bassein (1534) Bahadur Shah handed Bassein to the Portuguese, and in 1535, with Humayun invading Gujarat, he allowed them to build a fort at Diu. Relations soon turned sour, and Bahadur Shah was killed in 1537 on a Portuguese ship off Diu. The Portuguese then held Diu, along with Daman and Goa, until India took them back in December 1961 through Operation Vijay. Option A is wrong because Ahmad Shah I founded Ahmedabad in the fifteenth century, long before the Portuguese arrived. Option B is wrong because Mahmud Begarha fought the Portuguese, joining the Egyptian fleet at Chaul (1508) and losing the Battle of Diu (1509). Option D is wrong because Muhammad Shah is not linked with the grant of Diu. Exam tip: Bahadur Shah, the Humayun threat, Diu fort to the Portuguese in 1535.

The correct answer is C, the Saraswati. The Rigveda praises it as the naditama, the best or holiest of rivers, and treats it as a goddess as well as a stream. It is believed to have dried up later, which is why it does not carry the same importance in the texts of the following centuries.

Option B, the Sindhu, is a strong distractor because it is the river mentioned most often in the Rigveda, but frequency and sanctity are two different questions and papers deliberately place the two together. Option A, the Ganga, is mentioned only once, in the tenth mandala, and option D, the Yamuna, three times; their rarity is itself the evidence that the early Vedic people lived in the north-west and moved east only later. Remember the pair: Sindhu most mentioned, Saraswati most praised.

The correct answer is A, Nahar Singh. Raja Nahar Singh was the last ruler of Ballabhgarh, a small Jat state in what is now Faridabad district of Haryana, just south of Delhi. During the revolt of 1857 he sided with the rebels and with the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. After the British recaptured Delhi, he was arrested and tried, and he was hanged at Chandni Chowk in Delhi on 9 January 1858; his state was then annexed. Faridabad still remembers him, as its cricket stadium and the Delhi Metro station at Ballabhgarh carry his name. Option B is wrong because Balram Singh, also called Balu, was the 18th-century founder of the Ballabhgarh state, long before 1857. Option C is wrong because Ajit Singh was not the ruler of Ballabhgarh at the time of the revolt. Option D is wrong because Gopal Singh was not its last ruler either; the throne in 1857 was held by Nahar Singh. Exam tip: Haryana's 1857 leaders include Rao Tula Ram of Rewari, Raja Nahar Singh of Ballabhgarh and Nawab Abdur Rahman Khan of Jhajjar.

The correct answer is C, the third council at Pataliputra. Held in the reign of Ashoka under the presidency of Moggaliputta Tissa, it purged the order of dissenters, added the Abhidhamma Pitaka, the philosophical third basket, to the canon, and decided to send missionaries to Sri Lanka and other lands.

Option A, the first council at Rajgriha, only settled the Vinaya and the Sutta Pitakas, recited by Upali and Ananda respectively. Option B, the second council at Vaishali, was called over relaxations in monastic rules and ended in the first great schism of the order. Option D, the fourth council in Kashmir under Kanishka, produced commentaries in Sanskrit rather than a new Pitaka. So the three Pitakas belong to the first and third councils, and the two divisions of the order to the second and fourth.

The correct answer is B, Bombay. The Indian National Congress held its first session in Bombay from 28 to 31 December 1885, at the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College. Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee presided, 72 delegates from across India attended, and the retired British official A.O. Hume played the key role in organising it. The session had first been planned for Poona but was shifted to Bombay because of a cholera outbreak there. Paper setters also ask about the next few sessions, so link each place with its president. A is wrong because Lahore hosted the famous 1929 session under Jawaharlal Nehru, which adopted the Purna Swaraj resolution. C is wrong because Calcutta hosted the second session in 1886, presided over by Dadabhai Naoroji. D is wrong because Allahabad hosted the fourth session in 1888 under George Yule, the first British president of the Congress. Exam tip: 1885 Bombay, W.C. Bonnerjee, 72 delegates; 1886 Calcutta, Dadabhai Naoroji; 1929 Lahore, Purna Swaraj.

The correct answer is C, the Atharvaveda, which calls the sabha and the samiti the two daughters of Prajapati. The phrase is quoted so often in examinations because it fixes both the names of the assemblies and the text they are described in.

Option A, the Rigveda, does mention the sabha, the samiti and the older vidatha, but not this description. Option B, the Samaveda, is a book of melodies and has nothing to say about political institutions. Option D, the Satapatha Brahmana, is the largest Brahmana, attached to the Yajurveda, and deals mainly with ritual and with legends such as the story of the flood; it belongs to the later Vedic period when the assemblies were already losing their power. Keep the distinction clear: the sabha was the smaller council of elders and the samiti the larger assembly of the whole people.

The correct answer is C, 1 and 3 only. The Act split subjects between the Centre and the provinces, but the reserved and transferred split applied only to provincial subjects. The Government of India Act, 1919 put the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms into law. Through the Devolution Rules it separated central and provincial subjects, and for the first time it separated provincial budgets from the central budget, giving provinces their own sources of revenue and the right to pass their own budgets. In the provinces it brought in dyarchy: transferred subjects such as education and local self-government went to ministers answerable to the legislature, while reserved subjects such as police and land revenue stayed with the Governor and his executive council. Statement 2 is wrong because the central subjects were never divided this way; dyarchy at the Centre was proposed only by the 1935 Act and was never brought into force. That rules out options A, B and D, which all contain statement 2. Exam tip: 1919 Act, dyarchy in the provinces; 1935 Act, dyarchy proposed at the Centre.

The correct answer is B, the Rijupalika. After twelve years of severe austerity Mahavira attained kaivalya at the age of forty-two under a sal tree at Jrimbhikagrama, on the bank of the river Rijupalika, and from that moment was known as Jina and Kevalin.

Option A, the Niranjana, the modern Falgu, is the river at Bodh Gaya where the Buddha attained enlightenment under a peepal tree, and it is the standard trap in this question. Option C, the Parushni, the modern Ravi, belongs to the Vedic age as the river of the Battle of Ten Kings. Option D, the Gandak, flows past Vaishali but is not connected with the event. The safest way to hold this pair is a two-line table: Buddha, peepal, Niranjana; Mahavira, sal, Rijupalika.

The correct answer is B, Rajagopalachari. C. Rajagopalachari, known as C.R. or Rajaji, drew up the formula in 1944 to end the Congress–League deadlock over Pakistan. Under the plan, the Muslim League would back the demand for independence and join the Congress in a provisional government. After the war, a commission would mark out the Muslim-majority districts of the north-west and east, and a plebiscite of all adults there would decide on separation. Gandhi used it as the basis of his talks with Jinnah in Bombay in September 1944, but Jinnah rejected it because he wanted the whole of Punjab and Bengal and a vote of Muslims alone. Option A is wrong because Jawaharlal Nehru did not draft this plan. Option C is wrong because Chittaranjan Das founded the Swaraj Party in 1923 and died in 1925, long before 1944. Option D is wrong because V. P. Menon drafted the June 1947 partition plan and later helped integrate the princely states. Exam tip: C.R. Formula 1944, Gandhi–Jinnah talks September 1944, Wavell Plan 1945.

The correct answer is B, barley, called yava in the texts. The early Vedic people were mainly pastoral and grew little, and the one grain their hymns name repeatedly is barley, used both as food and in offerings.

Option A, rice, called vrihi, and option C, wheat, called godhuma, belong to the later Vedic period, when the people had moved east into the fertile Ganga-Yamuna doab and taken to settled farming with iron tools. Option D, cotton, was grown in the Harappan period, and the Greeks later remarked on Indian cotton, but it is not the crop associated with Vedic agriculture. The examiner's point here is the contrast between the two halves of the age: cattle and barley in the early period, iron and rice in the later one, with wealth measured in cattle at first and in land afterwards.

The correct answer is A, the peepal. The Buddha attained enlightenment seated under a peepal tree at Bodh Gaya, and the tree is therefore called the Bodhi tree; in early Buddhist art, where the Buddha was never shown in human form, the tree itself stands for the enlightenment.

Option B, the sal, appears twice in these stories but never here: the Buddha was born in a grove of sal trees at Lumbini and died between two sal trees at Kushinagar, and Mahavira attained kaivalya under a sal tree. Option C, the banyan, is linked in tradition with the weeks the Buddha spent near Bodh Gaya after enlightenment, not with the event itself. Option D, the ashoka tree, belongs to the Jain and Buddhist birth legends rather than to the enlightenment. Match one tree to one event and the whole set becomes easy.

The correct answer is A, Soma. The whole of the ninth mandala consists of hymns to Soma, at once a plant, the drink pressed from it and the god of that drink, which shows how central the soma offering was to Vedic sacrifice.

Option B, Rudra, is a minor and feared god in the Rigveda who grows in importance in the later Vedic period and is joined with Shiva. Option C, Vishnu, appears in the Rigveda as a god of three strides but is likewise a minor figure who rises later. Option D, Ushas, the goddess of dawn, receives some of the finest poetry in the Rigveda but not a mandala of her own. Fix the mandala numbers in a single line, because papers ask them in rotation: the third holds the Gayatri Mantra, the seventh the Battle of Ten Kings, the ninth Soma and the tenth the Purusha Sukta.

The correct answer is A, anekantavada. It is the Jain teaching that every object has countless aspects and that no single judgement can capture the whole truth. Its method of statement is syadvada, the sevenfold formula in which each assertion is prefixed by the word syat, meaning in some respect, and the parable of the blind men and the elephant is its usual illustration.

Option B, shunyavada, the doctrine of emptiness, belongs to the Madhyamika school of Mahayana Buddhism founded by Nagarjuna. Option C, vijnanavada, the view that only consciousness is real, is the Yogachara school of Buddhism associated with Vasubandhu and Asanga. Option D, kshanikavada, the theory of momentariness, is again Buddhist and follows from anicca, the impermanence of all things. In exams one term belongs to one faith, so never mix a vada across the two religions.