Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 22

The correct answer is B, Raigad. Raigad is the hill fort in Maharashtra that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj made his capital, and it has nothing to do with the Buddha. The Ashta Mahasthana are the eight places tied to the main events of the Buddha's life: Lumbini where he was born, Bodh Gaya where he gained enlightenment, Sarnath where he gave his first sermon, Kushinagar where he died, and Sravasti, Rajgir, Sankasya and Vaishali, each linked to a miracle or an important episode of his teaching years. A is wrong because Sarnath, near Varanasi, is where the wheel of law was first turned. C is wrong because Lumbini in Nepal is the birthplace. D is wrong because Bodh Gaya in Bihar is where he sat under the Bodhi tree. Exam tip: remember the core four first, Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar, then add the other four.

The correct answer is D, Dharmapala. Dharmapala, the second and greatest ruler of the Pala dynasty of Bengal and Bihar, founded Vikramshila Vishwavidyalaya in the late eighth century at a site in present-day Bhagalpur district of Bihar. He also founded the monastery at Odantapuri, and under the Palas these became the great Buddhist seats of learning after Nalanda. Vikramshila specialised in Tantric Buddhism, and its best-known head was Atisha Dipankara Srijnana, who carried Buddhism to Tibet. The university was destroyed around 1193 during Bakhtiyar Khalji's raids. Dharmapala also fought the tripartite struggle for Kannauj and placed Chakrayudha on its throne. Option C is wrong because Mahipala I only revived Pala power and repaired monasteries. Option A is wrong because Ramapala was a much later Pala king, the subject of Sandhyakar Nandi's Ramacharitam. Option B is wrong because Govindapala was the last ruler of the line. Exam tip: Nalanda goes to Kumaragupta I, Odantapuri and Vikramshila to Dharmapala.

The correct answer is A, Pataliputra. Pataliputra, today's Patna, stood where the Son joins the Ganga, and it was the capital of the Mauryan empire founded by Chandragupta Maurya in about 322 BCE with the help of Chanakya. Megasthenes, the envoy sent by Seleucus to Chandragupta's court, described it in his account Indica as a long city guarded by a wooden palisade with sixty-four gates and five hundred and seventy towers. Ashoka held the third Buddhist council there in about 250 BCE. Option B is wrong because Vaishali was the capital of the Lichchhavi republic and the seat of the second Buddhist council. Option C is wrong because Indraprastha is the ancient name of the Delhi region in the Mahabharata, not a Mauryan capital. Option D is wrong because Kushinagar is the place where the Buddha attained mahaparinirvana. Exam tip: Pataliputra served as capital of the Haryankas, the Nandas, the Mauryas and later the Guptas.

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 B, the Dashavatara temple at Deogarh in Uttar Pradesh. Built in the early sixth century, it is one of the first stone temples to carry a shikhara over the sanctum, the feature that defines the Nagara style, and its panels of Vishnu reclining on Shesha and of Nara-Narayana are standard illustrations of Gupta sculpture. Other Gupta temples often paired with it are the brick temple at Bhitargaon and temple number 17 at Sanchi.

Option A, the Kailasa temple at Ellora, was cut from the rock in the eighth century under the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I. Option C, the Brihadeeswara temple at Thanjavur, is a Dravida style temple of the Chola king Rajaraja I, completed in 1010 CE. Option D, the Sun temple at Konark, was built by the Eastern Ganga king Narasimhadeva I in the thirteenth century.

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 C, because Harshavardhana's court poet was Banabhatta, not Harishena. Harishena belonged to an earlier century altogether: he was the court poet of Samudragupta and composed the Prayag Prashasti, the Allahabad Pillar Inscription. The statement is therefore the one that is not correct, which is what the question asks for.

Option A is correct, because Harsha ruled from 606 CE to about 647 CE, which is roughly fourteen hundred years before our own time. Option B is correct, because the Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang, written in older books as Hiuen Tsang, travelled in India between 629 and 645 CE and spent several years at Harsha's court, leaving his account in the Si-yu-ki. Option D is correct, because the Harshacharita is the biography of Harsha written by Banabhatta and is regarded as the first historical biography in Sanskrit.

The correct answer is A, Third battle of Panipat. Ahmad Shah Abdali, also called Ahmad Shah Durrani, defeated the Marathas in the Third Battle of Panipat on 14 January 1761. The Maratha army was led by Sadashivrao Bhau with the young Vishwasrao, while Abdali was joined by Najib-ud-Daula of the Rohillas and Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh. The Marathas lost a whole generation of commanders, and the defeat ended their march towards supremacy in north India, clearing the field for the British. Option B is wrong because the Battle of Khanwa in 1527 was fought between Babur and Rana Sanga of Mewar. Option C is wrong because the Battle of Buxar in 1764 saw the English under Hector Munro beat the combined forces of Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-Daula and Shah Alam II. Option D is wrong because the First Battle of Tarain in 1191 was won by Prithviraj Chauhan against Muhammad Ghori. Exam tip: Panipat 1526 Babur beat Ibrahim Lodi, 1556 Akbar beat Hemu, 1761 Abdali beat the Marathas.

The correct answer is A, Khilji. The Khalji or Khilji dynasty held the throne of Delhi only from 1290, when Jalaluddin Khalji seized power, to 1320, when Khusrau Khan was overthrown by Ghazi Malik. That is about thirty years, the shortest run of the five dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate, even though it produced its most powerful ruler in Alauddin Khalji. Option B is wrong because the Tughlaq dynasty ruled from 1320 to 1414, roughly ninety-four years, which is the longest of the five. Option C is wrong because the Sayyid dynasty, founded by Khizr Khan in 1414, lasted until 1451, about thirty-seven years, which is longer than the Khalji span. Option D is wrong because the Lodi dynasty ruled from 1451 to 1526, about seventy-five years, ending with Ibrahim Lodi's defeat at Panipat. For comparison, the Slave dynasty itself lasted about eighty-four years, from 1206 to 1290.

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 A, Humayun Shah. Mahmud Gawan, a Persian trader and scholar who came to the Bahmani court in 1453, was given the title Malik ut Tujjar, meaning Chief of the Merchants, by Sultan Humayun Shah, who ruled from 1458 to 1461. Gawan later became the wazir and ran the kingdom for nearly twenty years, dividing it into eight provinces to curb the power of the governors, reforming the revenue survey and building the famous madrasa at Bidar. The nobles who lost by his reforms forged a letter against him and he was executed in 1481. B is wrong because Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah founded the kingdom in 1347, long before Gawan arrived. C is wrong because Muhammad Shah III was the ruler under whom Gawan served as wazir, not the one who gave him this title. D is wrong because Feroz Shah Bahmani ruled earlier, from 1397 to 1422. Exam tip: Gawan, Malik ut Tujjar, Bidar madrasa, executed 1481.

The correct answer is A, Akbar. Akbar introduced the mansabdari system in the closing years of the sixteenth century to grade every officer of the empire. Mansab means rank, and each mansabdar held two numbers: zat, which fixed his personal status and pay, and sawar, the number of armed horsemen he had to keep ready. Ranks ran from ten to five thousand, with higher ones kept for princes of the royal house. Akbar also brought in the dagh system of branding state horses and the chehra, a written description of each soldier, to stop officers from showing borrowed men at muster. Option D is wrong because Jahangir only added the du-aspa sih-aspa device, which raised a noble's cavalry without raising his zat. Option B is wrong because Shah Jahan merely introduced the month-scale, or mahana, to adjust pay. Option C is wrong because Aurangzeb continued the system as he found it. Exam tip: Akbar gave the mansabdari ranks and Todar Mal's dahsala revenue settlement.

The correct answer is D, Shah Jahan. The Moti Masjid, or Pearl Mosque, inside the Agra Fort was built by Shah Jahan in white marble between 1648 and 1654, and it takes its name from the pearl-like glow of the stone. Shah Jahan rebuilt much of the red sandstone Agra Fort in marble, adding the Diwan-i-Khas, the Khas Mahal and the Sheesh Mahal; his reign from 1628 to 1658 is called the golden age of Mughal architecture and gave us the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid of Delhi. Option A is wrong because Aurangzeb built the small Moti Masjid inside the Red Fort at Delhi and the Bibi ka Maqbara at Aurangabad. Option B is wrong because Akbar raised the original Agra Fort in red sandstone and built Fatehpur Sikri. Option C is wrong because Humayun built Dinpanah at Delhi, and his own tomb was raised after his death. Exam tip: Moti Masjid at Agra Fort is Shah Jahan's, the one in Delhi's Red Fort is Aurangzeb's.

The correct answer is D, 1878. The Vernacular Press Act was passed in 1878, when Lord Lytton was Viceroy of India.

The Act was aimed at Indian-language newspapers, which had grown sharply critical of British rule after the famine of 1876-78. It allowed a magistrate to demand a bond from a printer or publisher, and to seize the press if seditious matter appeared. Because English papers were left untouched, it was nicknamed the 'Gagging Act'. Surendranath Banerjea and others protested strongly, and the Amrita Bazar Patrika switched overnight from Bengali to English to escape it. Lord Ripon repealed the Act in 1882.

A is wrong: 1876 is the year of the Royal Titles Act, which made Queen Victoria Empress of India. B is wrong: no press law was passed in 1874. C is wrong: 1872 saw the first non-synchronous all-India census, not a press law.

Exam tip: Vernacular Press Act - passed by Lytton in 1878, repealed by Ripon in 1882.

The correct answer is D, Guru Gobind Singh. Guru Gobind Singh, born at Patna in 1666, was the tenth and last human Guru of the Sikhs. In 1699 at Anandpur Sahib he founded the Khalsa, gave the Sikhs the five symbols known as the five Ks and added the names Singh and Kaur. Before his death at Nanded in 1708 he ended the line of living Gurus by declaring the Guru Granth Sahib the eternal Guru. A is wrong because Guru Nanak, born in 1469, was the first Guru and the founder of Sikhism. B is wrong because Guru Arjan Dev was the fifth Guru; he compiled the Adi Granth and built the Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar. C is wrong because Guru Ram Das was the fourth Guru and founded the city of Amritsar. Exam tip: first Nanak, fourth Ram Das, fifth Arjan Dev, ninth Tegh Bahadur, tenth Gobind Singh.

The correct answer is A, Cyril Radcliffe. The British lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe chaired both the Punjab and the Bengal Boundary Commissions in 1947. Each commission had four judges, two named by the Congress and two by the Muslim League, and when they could not agree the final decision fell to Radcliffe. He had never been to India before and was given only about five weeks for the job. His award was made public on 17 August 1947, two days after independence, and the line he drew is still called the Radcliffe Line on India's borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. Option B is wrong because Moon was a British civil servant in Punjab who later wrote about Partition; he did not head the commissions. Option C is wrong because A. V. Alexander came to India in 1946 as a member of the Cabinet Mission. Option D is wrong because one person, Radcliffe, headed both commissions. Exam tip: Cabinet Mission 1946 was Pethick-Lawrence, Cripps and Alexander; the 1947 border was Radcliffe's.

The correct answer is B, Portuguese. The Battle of Swally was fought in November 1612 off Suvali, a village near Surat on the Gujarat coast. A small English squadron under Captain Thomas Best defeated a larger Portuguese fleet, and the victory ended the belief that the Portuguese could not be beaten at sea in Indian waters. Jahangir's officers watched the fight from the shore, and soon after the English were allowed to open a factory at Surat, their first real foothold on the western coast, confirmed by an imperial farman. Sir Thomas Roe's embassy of 1615 built on this opening. A is wrong because the Danes came later, setting up at Tranquebar in 1620, and took no part in this battle. C is wrong because the Dutch fought the English elsewhere, most bitterly over the spice trade at Amboyna in 1623. D is wrong because the French East India Company was founded only in 1664. Exam tip: Swally 1612, Thomas Best beat the Portuguese, and the Surat factory followed.

The correct answer is D, 1765. Robert Clive signed the two Treaties of Allahabad in August 1765, the year after the English won the Battle of Buxar. By the first, Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh got his territory back except Kara and Allahabad, paid fifty lakh rupees as war costs and became a dependent ally who would help pay for English troops in his state. By the second, the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II was given Kara and Allahabad and an annual pension of twenty-six lakh rupees, and in return he granted the Company the Diwani, the right to collect revenue in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. That grant began the dual government in Bengal, where the Company held the purse and the Nawab held the duties of administration. A is wrong because 1764 is the year of the Battle of Buxar. B and C are wrong because no such treaty was signed in 1767 or 1766. Exam tip: Plassey 1757, Buxar 1764, Treaties of Allahabad and Diwani rights 1765.

The correct answer is A, Maulvi Liaquat Ali. Maulvi Liaquat Ali of Mahgaon village led the revolt of 1857 at Allahabad, now Prayagraj. He was declared governor of the city by the rebels, set up his headquarters at Khusro Bagh and held the town for about a fortnight in June 1857 before Colonel Neill retook it with troops moving up from Calcutta. He escaped, stayed underground for fourteen years and was caught at Bombay in 1871, then transported for life to the Andaman Islands. C is wrong because Khan Bahadur Khan, a grandson of Hafiz Rahmat Khan, led the revolt at Bareilly. B is wrong because Tatya Tope fought at Kanpur beside Nana Saheb and later at Gwalior with the Rani. D is wrong because Rani Lakshmibai led the fighting at Jhansi and died near Gwalior in June 1858. Exam tip: Allahabad Maulvi Liaquat Ali, Kanpur Nana Saheb, Lucknow Begum Hazrat Mahal, Bareilly Khan Bahadur Khan, Jhansi Rani Lakshmibai, Faizabad Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah.

The correct answer is B, Lala Lajpat Rai. The All India Trade Union Congress was formed in Bombay in October 1920 and Lala Lajpat Rai was elected its first President, with Dewan Chaman Lall as the first General Secretary. The body was set up partly so that India could send worker delegates to the International Labour Organisation, which had come up in 1919, and it became the first central trade union organisation in the country. Lajpat Rai, one of the Lal Bal Pal trio, linked the cause of labour with the national movement and died in 1928 after a lathi charge during the protest against the Simon Commission. A is wrong because C Rajagopalachari presided over the AITUC much later, not at its founding. C is wrong because Chandra Shekhar Azad was a revolutionary, not a trade union leader. D is wrong because Motilal Nehru led the Swaraj Party. Exam tip: AITUC 1920, Lala Lajpat Rai President, Dewan Chaman Lall Secretary.