Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 24

The correct answer is C, Ratnavali. Harshavardhana was a dramatist as well as a king, and three Sanskrit plays are credited to him: Ratnavali, Priyadarshika and Nagananda. Ratnavali is a court comedy about the love of King Udayana for Ratnavali, and it is the work most often named in question papers.

Option A, the Harshacharita, is about Harsha but was not written by him; it is the biography composed by his court poet Banabhatta. Option B, Kadambari, is also by Banabhatta, a Sanskrit prose romance left unfinished at his death and completed by his son. Option D, the Gitagovinda, is much later: it was written by Jayadeva in the twelfth century at the court of the Sena king Lakshmanasena of Bengal, and it celebrates Radha and Krishna. Only Ratnavali is the king's own composition.

The correct answer is C, Both A and B. India's village iron smelters were ruined by two pressures at once. Cheap iron and steel made in British factories was brought into India in large quantities from the middle of the nineteenth century, and local smiths could not match its price, so demand for their metal fell away. At the same time the colonial forest laws of the later nineteenth century turned large tracts into reserved forest and shut smelting communities out. They could no longer cut wood to make the charcoal their furnaces ran on, and without charcoal the furnaces went cold. Some paid heavy fees to enter, and many families gave up the craft and turned to farming or labour. A alone and B alone are incomplete, because each names only one of the two causes. D is wrong because both statements are correct. Exam tip: cheap British imports plus forest laws that cut off charcoal ended village iron smelting.

The correct answer is D, Qutub-ud-Din-Aibak. The Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra stands at Ajmer in Rajasthan and was raised on the site of an earlier Sanskrit college by Qutbuddin Aibak, the founder of the Slave dynasty and the first Sultan of Delhi. The same ruler built the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in Delhi and began the Qutb Minar, so Aibak is the name to attach to the earliest Sultanate mosques. Option A is wrong because Balban, who ruled from 1266 to 1287, is known for court ceremony and administrative reform rather than for this mosque. Option B is wrong because Ibrahim Lodi ruled more than three centuries later, from 1517 to 1526, and lost the First Battle of Panipat to Babur. Option C is wrong because Iltutmish completed the Qutb Minar and built the Hauz-i-Shamsi, but the Ajmer mosque was Aibak's work.

The correct answer is D, Dharampala. Dharmapala, the second and greatest ruler of the Pala dynasty of Bengal and Bihar, founded the Vikramshila monastery and university in the late eighth century in what is now Bhagalpur district of Bihar, and he also restored and supported the older university at Nalanda. Vikramshila became the leading centre of tantric Buddhism, and its scholar Atisa Dipankara carried Buddhism to Tibet. The Palas were the last great royal patrons of Buddhism in eastern India, and both universities were destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khalji around 1200. A is wrong because Gopala founded the Pala dynasty and the Odantapuri monastery, not Vikramshila. B is wrong because Vasudeva was a Kushan ruler of the north-west, far from Bengal and much earlier. C is wrong because Shri Gupta founded the Gupta line and lived centuries before the Palas. Exam tip: Nalanda founded by Kumaragupta I and revived by Dharmapala; Odantapuri by Gopala; Vikramshila by Dharmapala.

The correct answer is D, 1798. The Nizam of Hyderabad was the first Indian ruler to accept the Subsidiary Alliance, signing the treaty with Lord Wellesley in 1798, the year Wellesley took charge as Governor-General. Under the system the ruler kept a British force inside his territory and paid for it, dismissed his French officers, handed over his foreign relations to the Company and accepted a British Resident at his court. If he failed to pay, part of his land was taken instead, which is how the Company gained territory without open war. The Nizam was followed by Mysore in 1799, the Nawab of Awadh in 1801 and the Peshwa Baji Rao II in 1802. A, B and C are wrong because 1797 and 1796 come before Wellesley arrived in India, and 1799 is the year of the fourth Anglo-Mysore War and the death of Tipu Sultan, not of the first subsidiary treaty. Exam tip: Wellesley 1798, Hyderabad first, Awadh 1801, Peshwa 1802.

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 B, 1855. The Santhal rebellion, known as the Hul, broke out on 30 June 1855 in the Rajmahal hills of the Santhal Parganas, in what is now Jharkhand. It was led by the brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, along with Chand and Bhairav, who gathered thousands of Santhals against the moneylenders, traders, zamindars and Company officials who had taken over their land and pushed them into bonded labour. The rising was put down with heavy force by 1856, but it forced the British to carve out a separate Santhal Parganas district with special rules barring outsiders from buying tribal land. Option A is wrong because no Santhal rising took place in 1876. Option C is wrong because 1896 is close to but not the year of the Munda ulgulan of Birsa Munda, which began in 1899. Option D is wrong because by 1860 the rebellion had already been crushed. Exam tip: Santhal Hul 1855 under Sidhu and Kanhu; Munda Ulgulan 1899 to 1900 under Birsa Munda.

The correct answer is A, 1780-1784. The Second Anglo-Mysore War ran from 1780 to 1784. It began when the English took Mahe, a French port inside Haidar Ali's territory, and he answered by attacking the Carnatic. In 1780 he crushed Colonel Baillie's force at Pollilur, one of the worst English defeats in India, and Warren Hastings had to send Sir Eyre Coote south, who beat Haidar Ali at Porto Novo in 1781. Haidar Ali died of cancer in December 1782 and his son Tipu Sultan carried the war on. It closed with the Treaty of Mangalore in March 1784, under which both sides returned their conquests; it is remembered as the last treaty whose terms an Indian ruler set for the English. B is wrong because no Anglo-Mysore war was fought in 1769-1775. C is wrong because 1785-1789 was a break between wars. D is wrong because the first war was fought in 1767-1769 and ended with the Treaty of Madras. Exam tip: First 1767-69 Madras, Second 1780-84 Mangalore, Third 1790-92 Seringapatam, Fourth 1799.

The correct answer is C, Subhash Chandra Bose. Both slogans belong to Netaji and to the Azad Hind Fauj, the Indian National Army he led from 1943. He gave the call of Dilli Chalo to set the march on Delhi as the army's goal, and asked for blood in return for freedom in his famous appeal to Indians in South East Asia. He also gave the greeting Jai Hind, set up the Provisional Government of Free India at Singapore in October 1943, and formed the Rani of Jhansi Regiment of women soldiers. Option A is wrong because Gandhi's slogans were Quit India and Do or Die, given in 1942. Option B is wrong because Nehru is remembered for his Tryst with Destiny speech, not these slogans. Option D is wrong because Patel, the Iron Man of India, is linked to the Bardoli movement and the merger of the princely states. Exam tip: Dilli Chalo, Jai Hind and Give me blood all point to Subhash Chandra Bose.

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 D. The Battle of Plassey was fought on 23 June 1757 on the bank of the Bhagirathi near Palashi in Bengal, and Robert Clive's small Company force defeated Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah there. The victory owed less to fighting than to treachery: the Nawab's commander Mir Jafar kept his troops out of the battle after a secret bargain, and the bankers of Murshidabad backed the plot. Mir Jafar was made Nawab, and the Company won a hold over the trade and revenue of Bengal, which is why 1757 is treated as the start of British political power in India. Option A is wrong because the Nizam of Hyderabad was not a party to Plassey. Option B is wrong because Madras was already a Company settlement and Plassey was fought in Bengal. Option C is wrong because there was no Battle of Berar, and Oudh came under Company influence later. Exam tip: Plassey 1757 against Siraj-ud-daulah, Buxar 1764 against Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-daula and Shah Alam II.

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 D, Harshavardhana. Banabhatta was the court poet of Harsha in the seventh century CE. He wrote the Harshacharita, the biography of his patron and the first historical biography in Sanskrit, and the prose romance Kadambari, which was completed by his son Bhushanabhatta.

Option A, Ashoka, ruled in the third century BCE, nine hundred years earlier, and left edicts in Prakrit rather than a body of Sanskrit court poetry. Option B, Bindusara, was Ashoka's father and an even earlier Mauryan king. Option C, Chandragupta II of the Guptas, ruled around 375 to 415 CE; the writers associated with his court in tradition are the nine gems, including Kalidasa, while the inscriptional poet of his father Samudragupta was Harishena. Banabhatta belongs to none of these courts, only to Harsha's.

The correct answer is D, Ashwini Kumar Dutta. He founded the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti at Barisal in 1905, during the movement against the partition of Bengal. The samiti built a network of village volunteers who pushed swadeshi goods, enforced the boycott of foreign cloth, settled local disputes through their own arbitration courts and organised relief work, which made it the strongest of the Swadeshi era volunteer bodies. A teacher by calling, Dutta had earlier set up Brajamohan College in Barisal, and the government banned the samiti and deported him in 1908. Option A is wrong because Chandrasekhar Azad led the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association and died at Alfred Park, Allahabad, in 1931. Option B is wrong because Bhagat Singh worked through the Naujawan Bharat Sabha and the HSRA. Option C is wrong because Rajguru was an HSRA member hanged with Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev in 1931. Exam tip: Swadeshi volunteer bodies - Swadesh Bandhab Samiti of Barisal and Anushilan Samiti of Bengal.

The correct answer is C, Alauddin Khalji. Alauddin Khalji, who ruled from 1296 to 1316, wanted a standing army paid directly by the state and under his own eye. He therefore had every cavalry horse branded with the state mark, a practice called dagh, and had a written description of each soldier kept, called chehra, so that nobles could not substitute inferior horses or show absent men at the muster. He was also the first Sultan to pay his troops entirely in cash rather than through land assignments. Option A is wrong because Balban created the diwan-i-arz, the army department, but not these two checks. Option B is wrong because Iltutmish organised the iqta system and issued the tanka and jital. Option D is wrong because Firoz Shah Tughlaq moved the other way, making iqtas hereditary and paying nobles in land, which weakened military discipline.

The correct answer is A, Satyendra Prasad Sinha. Satyendra Prasad Sinha, later Lord Sinha of Raipur, was the first Indian appointed to the Viceroy's Executive Council, taking the post of Law Member under Lord Minto in 1909. He went on to become the first Indian raised to the British peerage and to sit in the House of Lords, served as Under-Secretary of State for India, and was the first Indian to govern a province as Governor of Bihar and Orissa. He also presided over the Bombay session of the Indian National Congress in 1915. His appointment came with the Indian Councils Act, 1909, the Morley-Minto Reforms, which enlarged the councils and brought in separate electorates. Option D is wrong because Syed Ali Imam followed Sinha as Law Member in 1910. Option B is wrong because Tej Bahadur Sapru became Law Member only in 1920. Option C is wrong because P. S. Sivaswami Iyer served on the Madras Executive Council. Exam tip: 1909 Morley-Minto brought the first Indian into the Viceroy's Executive Council.

The correct answer is D, Warren Hastings. Raja Nand Kumar, a Brahmin revenue officer of Bengal, accused Warren Hastings of taking bribes. Soon afterwards Nand Kumar himself was charged with forgery, tried by the Supreme Court at Calcutta under Chief Justice Elijah Impey and hanged in 1775. Indian opinion held that the case was arranged to silence an accuser, and the episode is remembered as the judicial murder of Nand Kumar. It became one of the charges in the impeachment proceedings brought against Hastings, the first Governor General of Bengal, in the British Parliament, where he was finally acquitted. Option A is wrong because Wellesley came much later and is known for the subsidiary alliance system. Option B is wrong because Dalhousie belongs to the 1850s and the doctrine of lapse. Option C is wrong because Cornwallis followed Hastings and is known for the Permanent Settlement of 1793. Exam tip: Nand Kumar, the Rohilla war and the Chait Singh affair are all charges against Warren Hastings.

The correct answer is C, Kerala. The Moplahs, or Mappilas, were Muslim cultivators of the Malabar region of northern Kerala, and their long struggle against the jenmi landlords grew into the Malabar or Moplah rebellion of 1921. The tenants had no security of tenure and paid heavy rents and renewal fees, so when the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation campaigns of 1920-21 reached Malabar the anger turned into an armed revolt in the Ernad and Valluvanad taluks. British troops crushed the rising, and dozens of prisoners died of suffocation in a closed goods wagon in the Wagon Tragedy of November 1921. A is wrong because Tamil Nadu saw no Moplah movement. B is wrong because Bengal's tenant struggles were the Pabna agitation and, later, the Tebhaga movement. D is wrong because the peasant risings of Uttar Pradesh were the Awadh Kisan Sabha movement and the Eka movement. Exam tip: Moplah rebellion - Malabar in Kerala, 1921, linked to the Khilafat movement and the Wagon Tragedy.

The correct answer is A, 1761. The Third Battle of Panipat was fought on 14 January 1761 between the Marathas, led by Sadashivrao Bhau with Vishwasrao, and the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali, who was helped by Najib-ud-Daulah of Rohilkhand and Shuja-ud-Daulah of Awadh. The Marathas were defeated with very heavy losses, and the battle ended their hope of controlling Delhi and northern India for the next decade. It also left no strong Indian power in the north, which helped the East India Company grow. Panipat, in present-day Haryana, saw three decisive battles. B, C and D are wrong because 1762, 1763 and 1760 are not the year of this battle, though the Maratha army did march north through 1760. Exam tip: Panipat 1526 Babur and Ibrahim Lodi, 1556 Akbar and Hemu, 1761 Marathas and Abdali.

The correct answer is B, Pulakeshin II. The Aihole inscription was composed in Sanskrit by Ravikirti, the Jain court poet of the Chalukya king Pulakeshin II of Badami. It praises his victories and states that Harsha, the lord of the north, lost his joy when his elephants fell in battle, which is the only record of Harsha's defeat on the Narmada in about 618 CE.

Option A, Narasimhavarman I, was the Pallava king who later captured Vatapi and killed Pulakeshin II, but the inscription is not his. Option C, Dantidurga, was the Rashtrakuta ruler who ended Chalukya rule about 753 CE, more than a century after the inscription was cut. Option D, Mahendravarman I, was the Pallava father of Narasimhavarman I and the author of the play Mattavilasa Prahasana; Pulakeshin II defeated him, so he would hardly have commissioned a eulogy of his rival.