Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 25

The correct answer is B, Kannauj. Harsha inherited Thanesar in modern Haryana from the Pushyabhuti family. When his sister Rajyashri's husband Grahavarman, the Maukhari king of Kannauj, was killed, Harsha united the two realms and moved his seat to Kannauj on the Ganga, which then became the symbol of paramountcy in northern India for the next two centuries.

Option A, Pataliputra, had been the capital of the Mauryas and the Guptas but had lost its importance by Harsha's time. Option C, Ujjain, was the great city of Avanti and a Gupta provincial seat, but never Harsha's capital. Option D, Prayag, at the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna, is the place where Harsha held his quinquennial assembly and gave away his treasury, but it was a religious centre for him, not the seat of his government.

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 D, Kharaj tax. Kharaj was the land tax on agricultural produce and the single largest source of revenue for the Delhi Sultanate. Alauddin Khalji raised the demand to half the produce in the doab and had land measured for assessment. Along with kharaj the state took zakat from Muslims, jizya from non-Muslims and khams, its share of war booty. Option A is wrong because the Ryotwari settlement was a British land revenue system introduced by Thomas Munro and Alexander Read in the Madras and Bombay presidencies, centuries later. Option B is wrong because income tax in India dates from 1860, when James Wilson introduced it under the colonial government. Option C is wrong because the Mahalwari system was another British settlement, associated with Holt Mackenzie and later William Bentinck in the North-Western Provinces, in which the village or mahal was the revenue unit.

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 C, Narasimhavarman I. He is also called Mamalla, the great wrestler, and the port city of Mamallapuram or Mahabalipuram takes its name from that title. The five monolithic rathas there, each cut out of a single rock and named after the Pandavas and Draupadi, belong to his reign in the middle of the seventh century.

Option A, Simhavishnu, was the early Pallava who ended the Kalabhra hold over the Tamil country but left no monument of this kind. Option B, Mahendravarman I, began the rock-cut cave phase of Pallava architecture, such as the mandapas at Mandagapattu, but not the free-standing rathas. Option D, Aparajita, was the last Pallava king, defeated by the Chola Aditya I in the ninth century, by which time Pallava building had long passed its great period. The later structural Shore Temple was built by Narasimhavarman II Rajasimha.

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 B, Muhammad bin Tughlaq. Muhammad bin Tughlaq, who ruled from 1325 to 1351, issued bronze and copper coins that were to pass at the value of silver. The idea itself was sound, but the mint was not a state monopoly and the coins carried no mark that was hard to copy, so forgers struck them in large numbers, taxes were paid in false coin and silver disappeared from circulation. The Sultan had to withdraw the issue and redeem the tokens. Option A is wrong because Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, who founded the dynasty in 1320, is remembered for irrigation works and a moderate revenue policy. Option C is wrong because Firoz Shah Tughlaq built canals and cities and wrote the Futuhat-i-Firozshahi. Option D is wrong because Alauddin Khalji's famous economic measure was market price control, not a token coinage.

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 A, Narasimhavarman II Rajasimha. He ruled in the early eighth century and marks the structural phase of Pallava architecture, when temples were built up of dressed stone instead of being cut from living rock. Both the Shore Temple by the sea at Mahabalipuram and the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram are his.

Option B, Pulakeshin II, was the Chalukya king of Badami, remembered for defeating Harsha, and his dynasty built at Aihole, Badami and Pattadakal instead. Option C, Krishna I, was the Rashtrakuta king who had the Kailasa temple at Ellora carved out of a single hill in the eighth century, a work often confused with the Kanchipuram temple of similar name. Option D, Rajaraja I, was the Chola who built the Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur around 1010 CE, three centuries later.

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 A, Tughlaq dynasty. The Khalji dynasty ended in 1320 when Khusrau Khan, who had seized the throne after Mubarak Shah Khalji, was defeated by Ghazi Malik, the governor of Dipalpur. Ghazi Malik took the title Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq and founded the Tughlaq dynasty, which ruled until 1414 and was the longest-lived of the five. Option B is wrong because no Rajput dynasty ruled Delhi after 1192; the Chahamana or Chauhan rule under Prithviraj III ended before the Sultanate began. Option C is wrong because the Sayyid dynasty came later, founded by Khizr Khan in 1414 after Timur's invasion had broken Tughlaq power. Option D is wrong because the Lodi dynasty, founded by Bahlul Khan Lodi in 1451, was the last of the five and followed the Sayyids, not the Khaljis.

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, Hiuen Tsang. He reached India in 630 CE, stayed for about fifteen years, and studied Yogachara philosophy at the Nalanda mahavihara under its head, the aged monk Shilabhadra. His travel account, the Si-yu-ki, is the fullest description of Harsha's empire that survives.

Option A, Fa-Hien, came two centuries earlier, during the reign of Chandragupta II of the Guptas, and Nalanda had not yet grown into the university he is sometimes credited with visiting. Option C, I-tsing, arrived later in the seventh century, after Harsha's death, and wrote about monastic discipline and the sea route through Sumatra. Option D, Wang-hiuen-tse, was not a pilgrim but a Chinese envoy; he came after Harsha died, was attacked by the usurper Arunashva, and returned with Tibetan and Nepalese troops to defeat him.

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 B, Ibn Battuta. Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan traveller from Tangier who reached Delhi in the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, was taken into royal service as qazi or judge of the capital and was later sent as an envoy to China. His account, the Rihla, written in Arabic, is a first-hand source for Sultanate towns, markets, the postal system and the coconut and betel of the coast. Option A is wrong because Marco Polo, the Venetian, touched the south Indian coast around the end of the thirteenth century and never served at Delhi. Option C is wrong because Nicolo Conti, also Venetian, visited the Vijayanagara empire in the fifteenth century. Option D is wrong because Abdur Razzaq was the envoy of the Timurid ruler Shah Rukh to Vijayanagara in the reign of Devaraya II.

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 B, Madurai. The Pandyas ruled the extreme south of the peninsula from Madurai on the Vaigai, with the pearl-fishing port of Korkai on the coast. Their line was revived in the sixth century by Kadungon, who helped end the Kalabhra interregnum, and Madurai remained their seat through the Pallava and Chola centuries.

Option A, Kanchipuram, was the Pallava capital in the northern Tamil country, famous for the Kailasanatha temple. Option C, Vatapi, modern Badami in Karnataka, was the capital of the Chalukyas, who fought both the Pallavas and Harsha. Option D, Thanjavur, became important only later, as the capital of the imperial Cholas from the time of Vijayalaya in the ninth century, and is remembered for the Brihadeshwara temple of Rajaraja I. Only Madurai is the Pandya answer.

The correct answer is D, Bahlul Khan Lodhi. Bahlul Khan Lodi, an Afghan noble and governor of Sirhind, took the throne of Delhi in 1451 after the last Sayyid ruler Alauddin Alam Shah withdrew to Badaun. His line was the first Afghan dynasty to rule Delhi and the last of the five Sultanate dynasties. Option A is wrong because Daulat Khan Lodi was the governor of Punjab who invited Babur to invade India; he did not found the dynasty. Option B is wrong because Sikandar Lodi was Bahlul's son and successor, the ruler who founded the city of Agra in 1504 and made it his capital. Option C is wrong because Ibrahim Lodi was the last ruler of the dynasty, defeated by Rana Sanga at Khatoli in 1517 and killed by Babur at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526.

The correct answer is B, Nayanars. The Nayanars were the Shaiva saints of the Tamil bhakti movement, traditionally counted as sixty-three, and they included Appar, Sambandar, Sundarar and Manikkavachakar. Their hymns were collected as the Tevaram, and their devotion drew ordinary people away from Jainism and Buddhism towards temple worship.

Option A, the Alvars, were the Vaishnava counterparts, twelve in number, whose hymns to Vishnu form the Nalayira Divya Prabandham; Andal is the one woman among them. Option C, the Siddhars, were a separate Tamil tradition of mystics and healers, not a group of temple hymnists of this kind. Option D, the Acharyas, such as Nathamuni and Ramanuja, came later and were teachers who systematised Vaishnava philosophy rather than the singing saints themselves. The Shiva-Vishnu pairing of Nayanars and Alvars is the fact papers test.

The correct answer is C, Firoz Shah Tughlaq. The Futuhat-i-Firozshahi is an autobiographical record in which Firoz Shah Tughlaq, who ruled from 1351 to 1388, set down his own works and orders, including his canals, his charitable department the Diwan-i-Khairat, his hospital and his religious policy. It is one of the rare Sultanate sources written by a ruler rather than about him. Option A is wrong because Ziauddin Barani wrote the Tarikh-i-Firozshahi and the Fatwa-i-Jahandari, works about the Sultans rather than by one. Option B is wrong because Amir Khusrau, the poet called Tuti-i-Hind, wrote the Khazain-ul-Futuh, the Tughlaqnama and other verse. Option D is wrong because Minhaj-us-Siraj wrote the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, the main chronicle for the Slave dynasty down to Nasiruddin Mahmud's reign, and dedicated it to that Sultan. A useful way to hold these four apart in the exam hall is to remember that only one of the options is a ruler, and the Futuhat carries that ruler's own name in its title.