Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 13

The correct answer is C, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who argued in his book The Arctic Home in the Vedas that the Vedic hymns preserve memories of long days and long nights, which he took as evidence of an Arctic origin.

Option A, Max Muller, the German scholar who edited the Rigveda and coined much of the vocabulary of Vedic studies, placed the original home in Central Asia. Option B, Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj, held that the Aryans came from Tibet. Option D, A. C. Das, argued in Rigvedic India that they were native to the Sapta Sindhava, the land of the seven rivers itself. Questions on this chapter almost always take the form of matching a scholar with a region, so learn the four pairs together: Tilak and the Arctic, Max Muller and Central Asia, Dayanand Saraswati and Tibet, A. C. Das and Sapta Sindhava.

The correct answer is A, England and France. The Hundred Years' War was fought between England and France from 1337 to 1453, so it actually ran for 116 years with long truces in between. It began when Edward III of England pressed his claim to the French throne, and behind that lay English lands in France and control of the wool trade of Flanders. England won the famous early battles of Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt, helped by the longbow, but France recovered after Joan of Arc raised the siege of Orleans in 1429, and by 1453 the English held only Calais. B is wrong because England and Italy fought no such war. C is wrong because England and Germany faced each other in the twentieth-century world wars, not in the fourteenth century. D is wrong because the German-French clash was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, far later and far shorter. Exam tip: Hundred Years' War 1337 to 1453, England against France, turned by Joan of Arc in 1429.

The correct answer is C, Ardhamagadhi Prakrit. Mahavira preached in the spoken tongue of Magadha, and the twelve Angas that preserve his teaching are in Ardhamagadhi. They were finally written down at the second Jain council held at Vallabhi in Gujarat under Devardhi Kshamashramana.

Option A, Pali, is the language of the Buddhist Tripitaka, not of the Jain canon, and is the commonest trap in this question. Option B, Sanskrit, was used for later Jain commentaries and for works such as the Kalpasutra of Bhadrabahu, but not for the original Angas. Option D, Apabhramsha, is a later stage of the Prakrits used in medieval Jain poetry of western India. Remember the pair as Buddhism with Pali and Jainism with Ardhamagadhi, both chosen in opposition to ritual Sanskrit.

The correct answer is A, Bimbisara. Bimbisara founded the Haryanka dynasty of Magadha and began Magadha's rise as the strongest of the sixteen Mahajanapadas. His capital was Rajagriha, today's Rajgir in Nalanda district, and he was a contemporary and admirer of Gautama Buddha. He grew his power through marriages: with the Kosala princess who brought Kashi as dowry, with Chellana of the Licchavis of Vaishali, and with Khema of Madra. He also conquered Anga, the region around present-day Bhagalpur, which gave Magadha control of trade on the Ganga. Option B is wrong because Brihadratha founded the older dynasty of Magadha, the one to which Jarasandha belonged. Option C is wrong because Ajatashatru was Bimbisara's son and successor, not the founder. Option D is wrong because only one ruler, Bimbisara, founded the dynasty. Exam tip: the Haryanka line runs Bimbisara, Ajatashatru, Udayin, and Udayin shifted the capital to Pataliputra.

The correct answer is B, krishna ayas, meaning the dark metal; shyama ayas is used in the same sense. Iron appears only in the later Vedic period, and the axes and ploughshares made from it allowed the forests of the Ganga-Yamuna doab to be cleared, which is why this single word carries so much historical weight.

Option A, ayas, is the general Rigvedic word for metal, usually taken to mean copper or bronze, not iron. Option C, nishka, was a gold ornament worn round the neck and later used as a unit of value, but it was not a coin and has nothing to do with iron. Option D, vrihi, is the word for rice, another later Vedic arrival. Examiners set these four words against each other precisely because they all come from the same chapter, so pair each with its meaning before the exam.

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 A, Mahakassapa. He presided over the First Buddhist Council, held at Rajgriha soon after the Mahaparinirvana in the reign of Ajatashatru, whose purpose was to settle the teaching before it could be distorted.

Option B, Ananda, was the Buddha personal attendant and did attend the council, where he recited the sermons that became the Sutta Pitaka, but he did not preside. Option C, Upali, recited the rules of the order that became the Vinaya Pitaka, and is remembered as the barber who joined the Sangha. Option D, Moggaliputta Tissa, presided over the Third Council at Pataliputra in the reign of Ashoka and is credited with the text called the Kathavatthu. The distinction between presiding over a council and reciting a part of the canon in it is exactly what this question tests, so keep the four names and their roles separate while revising the councils.

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 C, the ashvamedha, the horse sacrifice. A horse was set free to wander for a year, guarded by the king's soldiers; every territory it crossed unchallenged was counted as accepting his overlordship, and the animal was then sacrificed with great ceremony.

Option A, the rajasuya, was the consecration sacrifice performed when a king took power, said to confer supreme authority on him. Option B, the vajapeya, was a chariot race that the king was expected to win, performed to raise his standing among his kinsmen. Option D, the agnistoma, was a soma sacrifice, not one of the specifically royal rites. These three royal sacrifices mark the change from the Rigvedic rajan, a tribal leader with no regular revenue, to the later Vedic king with claims over land, and papers regularly ask you to match each sacrifice with its purpose.

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 C, his first sermon. Because early sculptors at Sanchi and Bharhut did not show the Buddha in human form, they used signs, and the wheel stands for the first sermon at Sarnath, which is itself called the turning of the wheel of law.

Option A, his birth, is represented by the lotus and the elephant or bull in these reliefs. Option B, his renunciation, is shown by a riderless horse, recalling Kanthaka carrying him away from Kapilavastu. Option D, his death, is represented by the stupa, the burial mound raised over relics, which is why stupas multiply after the Mahaparinirvana. The footprints and the empty throne stand for his presence in general. This set of symbols is asked in art and culture sections as often as in history.

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, the Mundaka Upanishad, which belongs to the Atharvaveda. The words, meaning truth alone triumphs, were adopted as the national motto and are inscribed below the state emblem of India in Devanagari script.

Option B, the Chandogya Upanishad, is attached to the Samaveda and is known for the teaching of Uddalaka Aruni to his son Shvetaketu, summed up in the phrase tat tvam asi. Option C, the Aitareya Brahmana, belongs to the Rigveda and deals with the ritual of the soma sacrifice and the consecration of kings. Option D, the Satapatha Brahmana, is the largest Brahmana and is attached to the Yajurveda. General knowledge papers ask this question in both the history and the polity sections, since the motto sits under the Lion Capital of Ashoka that serves as the state emblem.

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, Bhadrabahu and Sthulabhadra. During a long famine in Magadha, Bhadrabahu led a body of monks south to Shravanabelagola in Karnataka while Sthulabhadra stayed in the north and convened a council at Pataliputra. The returning monks refused the relaxed practice they found, and the order divided into the naked Digambaras and the white-robed Shvetambaras.

Option B names Makkhali Gosala, founder of the Ajivika sect, and Jamali, Mahavira own son-in-law and first dissenter, neither of whom caused this split. Option C names Devardhi Kshamashramana, who presided over the later Vallabhi council, and Hemachandra, a Chalukya-age Jain scholar. Option D names the president and the deputy of the Fourth Buddhist Council, who belong to Buddhism entirely. Tradition also places Chandragupta Maurya with Bhadrabahu at Shravanabelagola.

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 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 B, Khan Bahadur Khan. When the sepoys at Bareilly rose on 31 May 1857, Khan Bahadur Khan, a grandson of the Rohilla chief Hafiz Rahmat Khan, took charge of the town and of much of Rohilkhand. He had served as a judge under the Company and was living on a British pension, yet he set up his own government, raised an army of several thousand men and ruled in the name of the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, who recognised him as governor. The British recaptured Bareilly in May 1858; Khan Bahadur Khan fled to Nepal, was handed over and was hanged at Bareilly in 1860. Option A is wrong because Nana Saheb, the adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao II, led the revolt at Kanpur. Option C is wrong because Begum Hazrat Mahal led the rising at Lucknow in the name of her son Birjis Qadr. Option D is wrong because Kunwar Singh led the revolt at Jagdishpur near Arrah in Bihar. Exam tip: Kanpur–Nana Saheb, Lucknow–Hazrat Mahal, Bareilly–Khan Bahadur Khan, Jhansi–Lakshmibai, Arrah–Kunwar Singh.

The correct answer is B, Dhammapada. The Dhammapada gathers the Buddha's teaching into 423 short verses arranged in 26 chapters, and because it holds the heart of the doctrine in verses anyone can remember, it is often called the Gita of Buddhism. It is written in Pali and belongs to the Khuddaka Nikaya, one of the five nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka. Its chapters deal with the mind, anger, craving, the wise and the fool, and the path to nirvana. A is wrong because Mahayana Sutra is not one book but a whole class of later Sanskrit texts. C is wrong because the Vamsatthappakasini is a Sri Lankan commentary on the Mahavamsa chronicle, a work of history rather than teaching. D is wrong because the Saddharmapundarika, the Lotus Sutra, is a major Mahayana work on the one vehicle and is much later than the Pali canon. Exam tip: Tripitaka = Vinaya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka and Abhidhamma Pitaka; the Dhammapada sits inside the Sutta Pitaka.

The correct answer is B, Buddha, Dhamma (dharma), Sangha. Triratna means the three jewels in which a Buddhist takes refuge. Buddha is the enlightened teacher, Dhamma is his teaching of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, and Sangha is the order of monks and nuns that carries the teaching forward. A follower formally enters the faith by reciting these three refuges, which is why the Triratna is treated as the doorway of Buddhism. A is wrong because Tripitaka is the three-basket Pali canon of Buddhism, made up of the Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma Pitakas, not the three jewels. C is wrong because truth, non-violence and compassion are values respected in Indian thought but they are not the Triratna. D is wrong because the threefold Buddhist training is Sheel, Samadhi and Prajna, and this option replaces Prajna with Sangha. Exam tip: Buddhism's Triratna is Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha; Jainism's Triratna is right faith, right knowledge and right conduct.