Indian History Mixed Quiz: Set 36

The correct answer is B, Rigveda. The Purusha Sukta is the ninetieth hymn of the tenth mandala of the Rigveda. It describes the sacrifice of a cosmic being, Purusha, out of whose body the world is made, and it is the earliest text to name the four varnas: the Brahmana from his mouth, the Rajanya or Kshatriya from his arms, the Vaishya from his thighs and the Shudra from his feet. Paper setters use it for both facts at once, the order of the varnas and the tenth mandala, which is counted with the first among the latest parts of the Rigveda. A is wrong because the Atharvaveda holds charms, spells and cures for everyday ills. C is wrong because the Samaveda sets Rigvedic verses to melody and is treated as the root of Indian music. D is wrong because the Yajurveda gives the formulas a priest recites while carrying out a sacrifice. Exam tip: the Purusha Sukta is Rigveda 10.90 and carries the first mention of the four varnas.

The correct answer is A, 1905. Lord Curzon announced the partition of Bengal on 19 July 1905 and it came into effect on 16 October 1905, splitting the province into a Muslim-majority eastern half and the rest of Bengal. The reason given in public was that Bengal had grown too large to administer, but the real aim was to weaken the nationalist movement there by dividing Hindus and Muslims. The protest against it began the Swadeshi and boycott movement, in which foreign cloth was burnt and Indian goods, schools and banks were promoted, and Rabindranath Tagore's song Amar Sonar Bangla belongs to those days. The anger was so wide that the partition was finally cancelled in 1911, when the capital was also moved from Calcutta to Delhi. B is wrong because 1901 is the year Queen Victoria died. C is wrong because 1907 is the year of the Surat split in the Congress. D is wrong because 1911 is the year the partition was revoked, not made. Exam tip: announced in 1905 by Curzon, revoked in 1911 under Hardinge.

The correct answer is A, Gupta. The iron pillar that now stands in the Qutb complex at Mehrauli in Delhi carries a Sanskrit inscription in Brahmi script praising a king called Chandra, taken to be Chandragupta II of the Gupta dynasty, and it was raised in the fourth or early fifth century as a standard of Vishnu. The pillar is about seven metres tall, weighs more than six tonnes and has hardly rusted in sixteen centuries, because its wrought iron carries a high share of phosphorus that forms a protective film; it is the standing proof of how far Gupta metallurgy had come. It was brought to its present site later and left in place when the Qutb buildings rose around it. B is wrong because the Pallavas are remembered for the rock-cut temples of Mahabalipuram. C is wrong because the Mauryas raised the polished stone pillars of Ashoka. D is wrong because the Pushyabhuti dynasty of Harshavardhana ruled from Thanesar much later. Exam tip: iron pillar, Chandragupta II, Mehrauli and Gupta metallurgy belong together.

The correct answer is B, Arikamedu. Arikamedu, on the Ariyankuppam river near Puducherry on the Coromandel coast, began as a small fishing settlement and grew into a busy port that traded with the Romans and the Greco Roman world in the first centuries of the common era. Excavations there have brought out Roman amphorae that carried wine and olive oil, red glazed Arretine ware, glass and stone beads, lamps and Roman coins, along with the local rouletted pottery, which is why the site is identified with the Poduke named in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. A is wrong because Badami in Karnataka was the inland capital of the Chalukyas, known for its rock cut cave temples. C is wrong because Lothal in Gujarat is a Harappan site with a dockyard, far older and on the western coast. D is wrong because tulapurushadana was a ritual of weighing oneself against gold and giving it away, not a place at all. Exam tip: Arikamedu near Puducherry is the Poduke of Roman trade; Lothal is the Harappan dock in Gujarat.

The correct answer is C, Karnataka. Vatapi is today's Badami in the Bagalkot district of Karnataka, and it was the capital of the Chalukyas of Badami, founded by Pulakeshin the First in the sixth century. Their greatest ruler, Pulakeshin the Second, is known from the Aihole inscription of his court poet Ravikirti, which records that he checked Harshavardhana on the Narmada; he was later defeated by the Pallava king Narasimhavarman the First, who sacked Vatapi in 642 and took the title Vatapikonda. The rock-cut caves of Badami and the temples at Aihole and Pattadakal are their work. Option A is wrong because Kerala was the land of the Cheras. Option B is wrong because the later Chalukyas of Anhilwad, the Solankis, ruled Gujarat much afterwards. Option D is wrong because Tamil Nadu was Pallava and Chola country. Exam tip: Badami Chalukyas, capital Vatapi, Pulakeshin the Second against Harsha and the Pallavas.

The correct answer is D, A, B and C. When the British left in 1947, India had, besides the provinces under direct British rule, about 565 princely states whose rulers had accepted British paramountcy. That paramountcy lapsed with independence and every ruler had to accede either to India or to Pakistan; Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and V. P. Menon, working through the States Department, persuaded almost all of them to sign an Instrument of Accession. Statements A and B therefore both describe princely states. Statement C is also true, since several, among them Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura, were kept as separate administrative units and became full states only later. Statement D is false, because Goa, Daman and Diu were Portuguese and Pondicherry was French, European possessions and never princely states. Option A is wrong because it leaves out statement C. Options B and C are wrong because each includes the false statement D. Exam tip: about 565 princely states, Patel and V. P. Menon, the Instrument of Accession, and Goa and Pondicherry as European colonies.

The correct answer is B, Muhammad Bin Tughlaq. Ibn Batuta, the Moroccan traveller, reached Delhi in the fourteenth century during the reign of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq, who appointed him the qazi of Delhi and later sent him as an envoy to China. His travel account, the Rehla, written in Arabic, describes the Sultan, the court and the roads, markets and postal system of the time, and it is a key source for the Tughlaq period. A is wrong because Alauddin Khalji died in 1316, before this visit. C is wrong because Ibrahim Lodi ruled two centuries later, from 1517 to 1526. D is wrong because Firuz Shah Tughlaq came to the throne in 1351, after Ibn Batuta had already left the Sultan court. Exam tip: tie the traveller to the ruler - Ibn Batuta with Muhammad Bin Tughlaq, and his book is the Rehla.

The correct answer is D, Neolithic. Piklihal and Utnur are South Indian Neolithic settlements, famous for the ash mounds their cattle-keeping people left behind. Piklihal lies in Karnataka and Utnur in Telangana, and both were excavated in the 1950s. Their people tamed cattle, used polished stone axes and handmade grey pottery and lived in circular huts, which places them in the Deccan Neolithic phase of roughly 2500 to 1000 BCE. The ash mounds are the burnt remains of heaped cow dung from cattle pens, a feature almost unique to this region. A is wrong because monolithic simply means made of a single large stone and is not an archaeological period. B is wrong because megalithic sites are later burial sites marked by large stones, mostly belonging to the Iron Age. C is wrong because Palaeolithic sites are far older hunting camps with rough unpolished tools and no sign of herding. Exam tip: remember Piklihal, Utnur, Maski, Brahmagiri and Sanganakallu together as the Deccan Neolithic ash-mound sites.

The correct answer is B, Qila-i-Kuhna Masjid. This mosque stands inside the Purana Qila in Delhi and was built by Sher Shah Suri around 1541, during the Sur interregnum that interrupted Mughal rule, so it belongs to a period before Shah Jahan was born. Its five arched bays in red sandstone with marble inlay are counted among the finest pre-Mughal mosques of Delhi. Shah Jahan, who ruled from 1628 to 1658, is the great builder of the dynasty: he raised Shahjahanabad with its Red Fort, the Taj Mahal at Agra and the Peacock Throne. Option A is wrong because the Moti Masjid, the pearl mosque in white marble, was built in the Agra Fort in his reign. Option C is wrong because the Jama Masjid of Delhi, the largest mosque in India, was completed under him in 1656. Option D is wrong because the Rang Mahal is one of the painted palaces of his Red Fort. Exam tip: Purana Qila and its Qila-i-Kuhna Masjid belong to Sher Shah Suri, not the Mughals.

The correct answer is A, 1 and 2 only. The Act of 1813 broke the Company's trade monopoly and asserted the Crown's sovereignty, but left the revenues where they were, so the first two statements stand and the third does not. The Act came at the height of the free trade campaign in Britain: it threw the India trade open to all British merchants, keeping the monopoly only in tea and in the China trade, which was ended by the Charter Act of 1833. It also declared in plain words that the Crown held sovereignty over the Indian territories the Company governed, and it set aside one lakh rupees a year for education and allowed missionaries into India. Statement 3 is wrong because the Company continued to control and spend Indian revenues; Parliament supervised through the Board of Control rather than taking the purse. B and D are wrong because each includes statement 3. C is wrong for the same reason and also drops statement 2. Exam tip: 1813 opened trade except tea and China; 1833 ended the monopoly altogether.

The correct answer is A, the Treaty of Allahabad. Signed in 1765 after the Battle of Buxar, it was concluded by Robert Clive with the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II and with Shuja-ud-Daulah of Awadh. Shah Alam II granted the Company the Diwani, the right to collect and administer the revenue of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, in return for an annual payment, and this grant is treated as the legal beginning of British rule in India.

Option B is wrong because the Treaty of Bassein of 1802 brought the Peshwa Baji Rao II under the Subsidiary Alliance. Option C is wrong because the Treaty of Sugauli of 1816 ended the Anglo-Nepalese War and gave the British Kumaon, Garhwal and part of the Terai. Option D is wrong because the Treaty of Madras of 1769 ended the First Anglo-Mysore War with Haidar Ali on terms of mutual restoration.

The correct answer is D, Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah led Ghana and was one of the five founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. He took Ghana to independence in 1957, the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to break free of colonial rule, and served first as its Prime Minister and then as its President. The Non-Aligned Movement was built by five leaders, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Sukarno of Indonesia and Nkrumah of Ghana, who refused to join either the American or the Soviet bloc during the Cold War. Their effort led to the first NAM summit at Belgrade in 1961. A is wrong because Nigeria became independent in 1960 and its early leader was Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. B is wrong because Kenya was led to freedom by Jomo Kenyatta. C is wrong because the first Prime Minister of Uganda was Milton Obote. Exam tip: remember the five founders of NAM and the Belgrade summit of 1961.

The correct answer is B, 34th Native Infantry. Mangal Pandey was a sepoy of this regiment stationed at Barrackpore near Calcutta. In March 1857 he attacked his officers rather than use the new greased cartridges; he was court martialled and hanged on 8 April 1857, and his regiment was disbanded.

Option A is wrong because the 19th Native Infantry at Berhampore had earlier refused the cartridges and was disbanded, but Mangal Pandey did not belong to it. Option C is wrong because the 3rd Light Cavalry was the Meerut regiment whose men began the revolt on 10 May 1857. Option D is wrong because the Awadh irregular units joined the rising later in the year. Examiners often pair these regiments with the wrong station, so remember Mangal Pandey with the 34th Native Infantry and Barrackpore together.

The correct answer is D, Rajendra Chola I. He took the title Gangaikonda Chola, the one who won the Ganga, after his army marched north about 1022 CE, defeated the Pala ruler Mahipala and carried Ganga water back to the Tamil country. That water was poured into a great tank at his new capital, Gangaikonda Cholapuram, which he raised in place of Thanjavur and where he built a large Shiva temple in his father's style. He also sent a fleet against Srivijaya in South East Asia, a rare overseas campaign for an Indian ruler. A is wrong because Vijayalaya founded the dynasty by seizing Thanjavur in the ninth century. B is wrong because Gandaraditya is remembered for a Tamil devotional hymn, not for a northern march. C is wrong because Parantaka I fought the Rashtrakutas and was beaten at Takkolam. Exam tip: Rajendra I means Gangaikonda Chola, Gangaikonda Cholapuram and the naval raid on Srivijaya.

The correct answer is B, Swami Dayanand Saraswati. He founded the Arya Samaj at Bombay in 1875, held the Vedas to be the source of all true knowledge, rejected idol worship, priestly authority and hereditary caste, and set out his views in Satyarth Prakash. The Samaj also began the shuddhi movement for the return of converts. Option A is wrong because Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897, a different body with a different emphasis on service. Option C is wrong because Swami Shraddhanand was a later leader of the Arya Samaj who established the Gurukul at Kangri in 1902; he carried the movement forward but did not found it. Option D is wrong because Ramakrishna Paramahansa was a Bengali saint who taught the unity of religions and founded no organisation himself.

The correct answer is A, 1896 INC session. Vande Mataram was first sung on a political occasion at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1896, and it was Rabindranath Tagore who set the tune and sang it there. The song had been written earlier by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in Sanskritised Bengali and placed in his novel Anandamath, published in 1882. After the partition of Bengal in 1905 it became the cry of the Swadeshi movement, and the Constituent Assembly later gave it the status of the national song, to be honoured equally with the national anthem. B is wrong because the 1903 session came seven years after that first singing. C is wrong because the Calcutta session of 1911 is remembered for the first singing of Jana Gana Mana. D is wrong because the 1900 session has no such first to its name. Exam tip: Vande Mataram was written in 1882 in Anandamath and first sung in 1896; Jana Gana Mana was first sung in 1911.

The correct answer is D, Khilafat Movement. The Ali brothers, Maulana Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, led the Khilafat Movement that began in 1919. Its demand was that the British restore the position of the Ottoman Sultan, the Caliph, whose empire had been broken up after the First World War by the Treaty of Sevres. Gandhi saw in it a chance for Hindu-Muslim unity and joined hands with the Khilafat leaders, so the Khilafat agitation and the Non-Cooperation Movement were run together from 1920. The movement lost its ground when Mustafa Kemal Pasha himself abolished the Caliphate in 1924. A is wrong because the Quit India Movement of 1942 was launched by Gandhi and the Congress. B is wrong because Delhi Chalo was the war cry of Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army. C is wrong because the boycott call came with the Swadeshi Movement of 1905 against the partition of Bengal. Exam tip: Khilafat 1919, joined with Non-Cooperation in 1920, over by 1924.

The correct answer is B, Separate Electorate. The Nehru Report of August 1928 was the draft constitution prepared by a committee of the All Parties Conference under Motilal Nehru, with Tej Bahadur Sapru, Subhas Chandra Bose and others, as Indians’ answer to Lord Birkenhead’s taunt that they could not agree on a constitution of their own. The report firmly rejected separate electorates, the device introduced by the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909, and asked instead for joint electorates with seats reserved for minorities where they were in a minority. Option A is wrong because dominion status was its central demand, which is exactly why the younger leaders who wanted complete independence objected. Option C is wrong because the report did favour a unitary and democratic centre with responsible government. Option D is wrong because adult suffrage, along with a list of fundamental rights, was one of its clear recommendations. Jinnah replied to it with his Fourteen Points in 1929. Exam tip: Nehru Report 1928 — dominion status, joint electorates, adult suffrage, fundamental rights.

The correct answer is C, 1 and 4. The Royal Indian Navy mutiny began on 18 February 1946, when the ratings of HMIS Talwar in Bombay went on a hunger strike against bad food and racial insults. So items 2 and 3 were very much part of it, and the revolt soon spread to dozens of ships and shore establishments, with crowds and mill workers of Bombay coming out in support before Sardar Patel and Jinnah persuaded the ratings to surrender. Item 1 had no part in it: the Indian National Army was Subhas Chandra Bose’s force raised abroad, and although the INA trials of 1945 stirred the same anger, the army itself was already disbanded. Item 4 is also outside it, because the Viceroy in 1946 was Lord Wavell; Lord Irwin had left India in 1931, remembered for the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. Options A, B and D are wrong because each of them counts HMIS Talwar or the hunger strike, or leaves out the INA. Exam tip: RIN mutiny, 18 February 1946, HMIS Talwar, Bombay, under Viceroy Wavell.

The correct answer is C, Gopala. Gopala founded the Pala dynasty in Bengal in the middle of the eighth century, and the Khalimpur copper plate records that he was raised to the throne by the chiefs to end a long spell of disorder known as matsyanyaya, the rule of the fish. The Palas were patrons of Buddhism, and the universities of Vikramshila and Somapura Mahavihara grew under them. A is wrong because Dharmapala was the son of Gopala, who widened the empire and took part in the tripartite struggle for Kannauj. B is wrong because Mahipala I ruled much later and only revived Pala power for a time. D is wrong because Ramapala was one of the last strong Pala kings and is praised in the Ramacharitam of Sandhyakar Nandi. Exam tip: the order of the line is Gopala, then Dharmapala, then Devapala.