Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 18

The correct answer is D, Lothal. Excavations at Lothal found graves in which a man and a woman were buried together in one pit, a custom archaeologists call couple or double burial. Lothal lies in the Bhal region of Gujarat on the Bhogava, a tributary of the Sabarmati, and was excavated by S. R. Rao from 1955. It is best known for its dockyard, the earliest known tidal dock in the world, and also gave up a bead factory, a warehouse and a fire altar. Option A is wrong because Mohenjodaro in Sindh is remembered for the Great Bath, the Great Granary and the bronze Dancing Girl. Option B is wrong because Harappa, on the Ravi, gave the cemetery R-37 and rows of workmen's quarters, not couple graves. Option C is wrong because Chanhudaro, south of Mohenjodaro, was a craft town famous for bead making and is the site with no citadel. Exam tip: Lothal means dockyard and couple burial, Kalibangan means the ploughed field.

The correct answer is B, Third. The Third Anglo-Maratha War, fought in 1817-18 under Lord Hastings, ended Maratha power. Peshwa Baji Rao II was beaten at Khadki, Koregaon and Ashti, the office of Peshwa was abolished, and his lands around Poona were taken over and joined to the Bombay Presidency. Baji Rao II was pensioned off to Bithur near Kanpur, and a small kingdom was carved out at Satara for a descendant of Shivaji. With this the East India Company became the paramount power in India. Option A is wrong because there was no fourth Anglo-Maratha war; the Marathas fought three. Option C is wrong because the Second War of 1803-05 followed the Treaty of Bassein and cost the Marathas Orissa, Delhi and Agra, but the Peshwa stayed on his seat. Option D is wrong because the First War of 1775-82 ended in the Treaty of Salbai, which restored the position as it was before the war. Exam tip: Salbai 1782, Bassein 1802, Peshwaship abolished 1818.

The correct answer is D, Sarnath. After attaining enlightenment, the Buddha walked to Sarnath near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and gave his first sermon there to the five ascetics who had once been his companions. That sermon is the Dhammachakkappavattana Sutta, the turning of the wheel of law, and the event is remembered as Dharmachakra Pravartana. In it he laid out the middle path, the four noble truths and the eightfold path, and the sangha was born with those first five disciples. The deer park at Sarnath, Rishipatana or Isipatana, later held Ashoka’s pillar whose lion capital is our national emblem. Option A is wrong because Kapilvastu is where the prince grew up and left home. Option B is wrong because Lumbini in Nepal is his birthplace. Option C is wrong because Bodh Gaya on the Niranjana is where he gained enlightenment under the peepal tree. Exam tip: born Lumbini, enlightened Bodh Gaya, first sermon Sarnath, died Kushinagar.

The correct answer is C, Kesari. Bal Gangadhar Tilak started Kesari in 1881 and used it to carry the message of swaraj to Marathi readers.

Tilak brought out two papers from Pune in the same year, Kesari in Marathi and Maratha in English. His writings in Kesari on the Bengal partition and on the Muzaffarpur bomb case led to a charge of sedition, and in 1908 he was sentenced to six years of transportation to Mandalay in Burma. It was Tilak who declared that swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it, and he began the public Ganapati and Shivaji festivals to reach ordinary people.

Option A is wrong because Yugantar was started in Bengali by Barindra Kumar Ghosh and Bhupendranath Datta. Option B is wrong because the Bengalee was edited by Surendranath Banerjee. Option D is wrong because Amrita Bazar Patrika was founded by Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh.

Exam tip: Tilak - Kesari in Marathi and Maratha in English; Gandhi - Young India and Navajivan.

The correct answer is D, A, B and C. All three reasons together made Magadha the strongest mahajanapada in about two hundred years. Rivers such as the Ganga and the Son gave water for the fields, made the plain fertile and served as cheap routes for moving men and goods. The forests in parts of Magadha supplied timber for houses and carts and, more important, elephants that were caught and trained for the army. And the iron ore mines of the region gave the metal for strong tools that cleared land and for weapons that no rival could match. Two ambitious rulers, Bimbisara and Ajatasattu, used these gifts well, and the capital was shifted from Rajagriha to Pataliputra, standing on the bank of the Ganga. A, B and C are wrong because each of them leaves out one of the three reasons named in NCERT's chapter on kingdoms and republics. Exam tip: Magadha's strength came from rivers, forests with elephants and iron ore; capital Rajagriha, later Pataliputra.

The correct answer is A, Maharana Pratap. The Battle of Haldighati was fought on 18 June 1576 near Gogunda in Rajasthan, between Maharana Pratap of Mewar and the Mughal army sent by Akbar. Pratap rode his horse Chetak and fought alongside his Rajput soldiers and the Bhil archers of the hills; the Mughal force was led by Raja Man Singh of Amber with Asaf Khan. The Mughals held the field, but Pratap escaped and carried on a long guerrilla war, winning back much of Mewar at Dewair in 1582. Option B is wrong because Amar Singh was Pratap's son and became Rana after him. Option C is wrong because Udai Singh II, Pratap's father, founded Udaipur and died in 1572. Option D is wrong because Man Singh commanded the Mughal side, not Mewar. Exam tip: Haldighati 1576 - Maharana Pratap against Akbar's general Man Singh; Pratap's horse was Chetak.

The correct answer is A, the Ajivikas. The dedicatory inscriptions in the Barabar hills record the gift of the caves by Ashoka, and of the nearby Nagarjuni caves by his grandson Dasharatha, to the Ajivikas, an ascetic sect founded by Makkhali Gosala that taught a strict doctrine of destiny. The caves are famous for their mirror-like polished interiors, the same finish seen on the Mauryan pillars.

Option B is wrong because Jaina rock-cut caves of the period are found instead in the Udayagiri and Khandagiri hills of Odisha, excavated under Kharavela. Option C is wrong because the earliest Buddhist rock-cut chaityas and viharas, such as those at Bhaja, Karle and Kanheri, belong to the later centuries of the Western Deccan. Option D is wrong because Shaiva rock-cut temples, such as the Kailasa at Ellora, are many centuries later.

The correct answer is A, Chahamana. The Bijolia rock inscription, at Bijolia in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, is dated to 1170 CE, in the reign of Someshvara, and it sets out the family line of the Chahamanas, the Chauhans of Shakambhari. Written in Sanskrit, it was engraved near a Parshvanatha temple by the Jain merchant Lolaka, and it names the rulers from Samantaraja down to Someshvara, the father of Prithviraj Chauhan. Historians value it because it calls the Chahamanas Brahmins of the Vatsa gotra and gives the old names of places such as Ajayameru for Ajmer. Option B is wrong because the Chandelas of Bundelkhand, builders of Khajuraho, are known from the Khajuraho and Mau inscriptions. Option C is wrong because the Paramaras of Malwa appear in the Udaipur Prashasti. Option D is wrong because the Gahadavalas of Kannauj are known from the Chandrawati and other copper plates. Exam tip: Bijolia - Chahamanas; Khajuraho - Chandelas; Udaipur Prashasti - Paramaras.

The correct answer is D, Mathura. The main Kushana capital was Purushapura, the modern Peshawar, which Kanishka I developed as his seat of power. As the empire spread into the Ganga-Yamuna plain, Mathura on the Yamuna became its second capital and the southern headquarters of the family. Mathura also grew into a great centre of sculpture, and a shrine of Kushana royal portrait statues, including a famous headless figure of Kanishka, was found at Mat near the city.

Option A, Pataliputra, was the Magadhan capital of the Nandas, the Mauryas and later the Guptas, not of the Kushanas. Option B, Delhi, did not exist as a capital in this period and rose only from the twelfth century under the Delhi Sultanate. Option C, Lahore, lay within Kushana territory but was never a Kushana capital and became important much later.

The correct answer is A, mansabdari system. Mansab means a position or rank, and Akbar used it to place every officer of the empire on a graded ladder. A mansabdar's rank had two numbers: zat, which fixed his personal standing and pay, and sawar, which fixed how many horsemen he had to keep ready for service. Most mansabdars were paid not in cash but by the revenue of an assigned piece of land, and they were moved from one place to another so that no family could settle into a region. B is wrong because the iqta was the revenue assignment of the Delhi Sultanate, held by muqtis, and it did not grade officers in this way. C is wrong because zabt, or the dahsala system worked out under Todar Mal, was a way of assessing land revenue from measured land and average produce, not of ranking nobles. D is wrong because the jagir was only the land whose revenue paid a mansabdar's salary. Exam tip: mansab equals zat plus sawar; zabt or dahsala is revenue assessment.

The correct answer is D, Gupta Dynasty. Gupta imperial rule is conventionally dated from about 320 CE, the epoch of the Gupta era that begins with the accession of Chandragupta I, and it faded out by about 550 CE after the Huna invasions. Those two dates are the ones textbooks attach to the dynasty, which is why the question frames the period as 320 to 550 AD.

Option A, the Mauryan dynasty, is far older and ruled from about 322 BCE to 185 BCE. Option B, the Hoysala dynasty, was a later Karnataka power of the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, famous for the temples at Belur and Halebidu. Option C, the Magadha dynasty, is not a dynasty at all but a region and kingdom in south Bihar; its ruling houses were the Haryankas, Shishunagas, Nandas and Mauryas, each of which held power centuries before 320 CE.

The correct answer is C, Lal Bahadur Shastri. Lal Bahadur Shastri was Prime Minister from 1964 to 1966 and led the country through the war with Pakistan in 1965. He gave the slogan Jai Jawan Jai Kisan, which linked the soldier at the border with the farmer in the field, and his years saw the beginning of the Green Revolution and the setting up of the Food Corporation of India. The war ended with the Tashkent Agreement, signed with Ayub Khan on 10 January 1966; Shastri died in Tashkent the same night. He was given the Bharat Ratna after his death, and 2 October is remembered as his birthday as well as Gandhi Jayanti. Option A is wrong because Morarji Desai became Prime Minister in 1977. Option B is wrong because Indira Gandhi took office in 1966 and led India in the 1971 war. Option D is wrong because Jawaharlal Nehru died in May 1964, before this war. Exam tip: 1962 China under Nehru, 1965 Pakistan under Shastri, 1971 Bangladesh war under Indira Gandhi.

The correct answer is C, Ghiyas ud din Balban. Balban, who ruled from 1266 to 1287, brought the Persian court customs of sijda, bowing low before the Sultan, and paibos, kissing his feet, into the Delhi court. They went with his idea of kingship, in which the Sultan was Zill-i-Ilahi, the shadow of God on earth, a person set far above his nobles. He also celebrated the Persian festival of Nauroz, broke the power of the group of forty nobles known as the Chalisa, and used a policy of blood and iron against rebels. Option A is wrong because Muhammad bin Tughlaq is remembered for token currency and the shift of the capital to Daulatabad. Option B is wrong because Nasir-ud-din Mahmud was the mild ruler under whom Balban held real power as naib. Option D is wrong because Qutb-ud-din Aibak founded the Slave dynasty and was called Lakh Baksh. Exam tip: Balban - sijda, paibos, Nauroz and Zill-i-Ilahi.

The correct answer is D, The Charter Act of 1833. This Act turned the Governor-General of Bengal into the Governor-General of India, with full civil and military powers over all British territory in India. Lord William Bentinck became the first Governor-General of India under it. The Act was the high point of centralisation: it took away the law-making powers of the Bombay and Madras governments, ended the East India Company's commercial activities so that it became a purely administrative body, and added a Law Member, Macaulay, to the Governor-General's Council. Option A is wrong because the Regulating Act of 1773 created the post of Governor-General of Bengal, first held by Warren Hastings. Option B is wrong because Pitt's India Act of 1784 set up the Board of Control and the system of dual control. Option C is wrong because the Charter Act of 1793 mainly renewed the Company's charter for twenty years. Exam tip: 1773 Governor-General of Bengal (Hastings), 1833 Governor-General of India (Bentinck), 1858 Viceroy (Canning).

The correct answer is A, Berar. The Imad Shahi dynasty founded the Sultanate of Berar in 1490.

As the Bahmani kingdom of the Deccan broke up in the late fifteenth century, five successor sultanates appeared. Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk, the Bahmani governor of Berar, declared independence in 1490 and started the Imad Shahi line with Gawilgarh and Ellichpur as its centres. Berar was the smallest and weakest of the five and was annexed by Ahmednagar in 1574, and later passed to the Mughals under Akbar.

B is wrong: Bidar was ruled by the Barid Shahi dynasty. C is wrong: Ahmednagar was founded by Malik Ahmad of the Nizam Shahi dynasty. D is wrong: Golkonda was the seat of the Qutb Shahi dynasty founded by Quli Qutb Shah.

Exam tip: Five Deccan sultanates - Adil Shahi in Bijapur, Qutb Shahi in Golconda, Nizam Shahi in Ahmednagar, Imad Shahi in Berar, Barid Shahi in Bidar.

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, Basavanna. He was a Jaina in his early life and served as a minister in a Chalukya court in the twelfth century.

Basavanna, also called Basaveshwara, led the Virashaiva or Lingayat movement in Karnataka. His followers worship Shiva in the form of a linga, reject caste distinctions, temple ritual and Brahmanical authority, and do not believe in rebirth. He composed his teachings as vachanas, short prose-poems in Kannada, and the movement ran an assembly called the Anubhava Mantapa where men and women debated freely. Allama Prabhu and Akka Mahadevi were among the other leading figures of the movement.

A is wrong: Karaikkal Ammaiyar was a Tamil Nayanar saint of a much earlier period. C is wrong: Eknath was a Marathi Varkari saint of the sixteenth century. D is wrong: Tallapaka Annamacharya was a Telugu composer of devotional songs at Tirupati.

Exam tip: Basavanna - twelfth century, Karnataka, Lingayat or Virashaiva movement, vachanas in Kannada.

The correct answer is D, Shri Guru Gobind Singh ji. The tenth and last human Guru of the Sikhs founded the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib on Baisakhi day in 1699. He initiated five volunteers, remembered as the Panj Pyare, with amrit stirred by a double-edged sword, then asked them to initiate him in turn. Men of the Khalsa took the name Singh and women the name Kaur, and they were to keep the five Ks: kesh, kangha, kara, kachera and kirpan. Before his death in 1708 Guru Gobind Singh ended the line of living Gurus and gave that authority to the Guru Granth Sahib. Option A is wrong because Guru Nanak, the first Guru, founded the faith itself in the early sixteenth century. Option B is wrong because Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru, built the Akal Takht and armed the community under the idea of miri and piri. Option C is wrong because Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru and the father of Guru Gobind Singh, was executed in 1675. Exam tip: Khalsa, Baisakhi 1699, Anandpur Sahib.

The correct answer is B, 1651 CE. The English East India Company opened its first factory in Bengal at Hugli in 1651, after Mughal permission to trade in the province in return for a yearly payment. A factory in this sense was a walled warehouse with living quarters for the Company's agents, not a place of manufacture. From Hugli the English spread to Kasimbazar, Patna and Dacca, and in 1690 Job Charnock settled at Sutanuti, the village that grew into Calcutta and was guarded by Fort William. Their earlier factories were at Masulipatnam in 1611 and Surat in 1613, both far from Bengal. Option A is wrong because in 1641 the Company was still working out of the Coromandel and Gujarat coasts. Option C is wrong because by 1671 the Hugli factory was twenty years old. Option D is wrong because 1661 is the year Bombay came to the English crown as part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry. Exam tip: Masulipatnam 1611, Surat 1613, Hugli 1651, Calcutta 1690.

The correct answer is D, He was the founder of Brahmo Samaj. This statement is incorrect, because the Brahmo Samaj was founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy at Calcutta in 1828.

Swami Dayanand Saraswati was born in 1824 as Mool Shankar at Tankara in the Morbi region of present-day Gujarat. He founded the Arya Samaj at Bombay in 1875 and gave the call 'Back to the Vedas'. He attacked idol worship, caste rigidity and child marriage, and supported widow remarriage, women's education and the Shuddhi movement.

A states a true fact, so it is not the answer: he wrote 'Satyarth Prakash' in Hindi in 1875, and it remains the main text of the Arya Samaj. B is also true: the Arya Samaj was his creation. C is true as well, because Tankara, his birthplace, lies in Gujarat.

Exam tip: Arya Samaj - Dayanand Saraswati, 1875; Brahmo Samaj - Ram Mohan Roy, 1828.