Classical Indian Literature: Books, Authors and Patrons

The correct answer is B, Kautilya, who is also called Chanakya and Vishnugupta and is associated with the Mauryan court of Chandragupta Maurya. The Arthashastra sets out the duties of a king, the working of ministers and spies, taxation, law, trade, agriculture and warfare, and it is one of the main sources for Mauryan administration.

Option A, Vishakhadatta, wrote the play Mudrarakshasa, whose central character is Chanakya himself, which is exactly why the name is placed here as a distractor. Option C, Banabhatta, belongs to a much later age as the court poet of Harshavardhana and wrote the Harshacharita and Kadambari. Option D, Megasthenes, was the Greek ambassador sent by Seleucus Nicator to the Mauryan court, and his account is called Indica, not Arthashastra. Keep the pair firm: Arthashastra by Kautilya, Indica by Megasthenes.

The correct answer is C, Mrichchhakatika. That play, whose title means the little clay cart, was written by Shudraka, and it is unusual among Sanskrit dramas because its hero is an impoverished merchant and its plot turns on ordinary city life rather than on gods and kings.

Options A, B and D all belong to Kalidasa. Meghaduta, the cloud messenger, is a lyric poem in which an exiled spirit sends a message to his wife through a passing cloud. Raghuvamsha is a long narrative poem on the dynasty of Raghu, and Kumarasambhava narrates the birth of Kartikeya. The rest of Kalidasa's list, which examiners draw on for this kind of question, is made up of the plays Abhijnanashakuntalam, Vikramorvashiyam and Malavikagnimitram and the seasonal poem Ritusamhara. Learn the seven titles as one block and any odd name out becomes obvious.

The correct answer is A, Banabhatta, the court poet of Harshavardhana. The Harshacharita is a biography of his patron and one of the earliest historical biographies written in Sanskrit, while Kadambari is a romance in ornate prose and is often described as one of the first novels in any Indian language.

Option B, Bilhana, wrote Vikramankadevacharita in praise of the Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI, so he too was a court biographer but of a different dynasty. Option C, Dandin, wrote Dashakumaracharita, the tale of ten princes, and the work on poetics called Kavyadarsha. Option D, Bhasa, is an earlier dramatist remembered for Swapnavasavadatta. A useful extra fact for this question is that Harshavardhana was himself an author and wrote the plays Ratnavali, Nagananda and Priyadarshika, so the king and his poet are both examinable.

The correct answer is C, Kalhana. He wrote the Rajatarangini, whose name means the river of kings, in Kashmir in the twelfth century. Because he arranged rulers in order of time and used inscriptions, coins and earlier records, the work is treated as the earliest piece of history writing in India in the modern sense.

Option A, Somadeva, also of Kashmir, compiled the Kathasaritsagara, the ocean of streams of story, which is a vast collection of tales rather than a chronicle. Option B, Jayadeva, wrote the Gita Govinda at the court of Lakshmana Sena of Bengal, a lyrical work on Krishna and Radha. Option D, Kshemendra, was another Kashmiri writer of the same broad period, which is why his name is offered here. The examinable phrase is chronicle of Kashmir, and it belongs to Kalhana alone.

The correct answer is B, Panini. The Ashtadhyayi, meaning the work in eight chapters, fixed the rules of Sanskrit in a set of short formulas and is admired as the earliest scientific grammar of any language, since it describes the whole language through a compact system of rules.

Option A, Patanjali, wrote the Mahabhashya, the great commentary on Panini's grammar, so he depends on Panini rather than the other way round; a Patanjali is also credited with the Yoga Sutras. Option C, Amarasimha, compiled the Amarakosha, a thesaurus of Sanskrit words, and he is usually counted among the learned men of the Gupta court. Option D, Bharata Muni, wrote the Natyashastra, the treatise on drama, dance and music. Fix the chain in order: Panini writes the grammar, Patanjali comments on it.

The correct answer is C, Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana, who is called the Adi Kavi or first poet because tradition holds that the first verse of classical Sanskrit poetry came from him. The Ramayana is accordingly called the Adi Kavya, the first poem.

Option A, Vyasa, is credited with the Mahabharata, the longer of the two epics, and with arranging the Vedas, but the title of first poet is not his. Option B, Kalidasa, is the greatest poet and dramatist of the classical age and is often called the Shakespeare of India, a different honour altogether. Option D, Ashvaghosha, wrote the Buddhacharita, a life of the Buddha in verse, and is associated with the court of Kanishka. Keep the three titles apart: Adi Kavi for Valmiki, the epic of Vyasa for the Mahabharata, and the classical master for Kalidasa.

The correct answer is D, Vishakhadatta. Mudrarakshasa, meaning the signet ring of Rakshasa, is a political drama in which Chanakya outwits the minister Rakshasa and secures the throne for Chandragupta Maurya. It is one of the few Sanskrit plays with no love story at its centre, and the same author also wrote Devichandraguptam.

Option A, Shudraka, wrote Mrichchhakatika, the little clay cart, which is about a merchant and a courtesan in a city setting. Option B, Bhavabhuti, wrote Uttararamacharita and Malatimadhava and belongs to a later generation of dramatists. Option C, Bhasa, is the earliest of the group and is remembered for Swapnavasavadatta. All four names appear together in options, so attach one title to each in the same order: Mudrarakshasa to Vishakhadatta, Mrichchhakatika to Shudraka, Uttararamacharita to Bhavabhuti and Swapnavasavadatta to Bhasa.

The correct answer is A, the Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma Pitakas. Pitaka means basket, so the canon is called the three baskets. The Vinaya Pitaka contains the rules of discipline for monks and nuns, the Sutta Pitaka holds the discourses of the Buddha, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka deals with philosophy and the analysis of mind and matter.

Option B replaces the Sutta with the Jataka, which is the common error: the Jataka tales of the Buddha's earlier births are not a fourth basket but form part of the Sutta Pitaka. Option C mixes the Jataka with the Angas, and Option D uses Anga and Upanga, which are divisions of the Jain canon written in Prakrit, not of the Buddhist one. A further fact worth carrying is that the Milindapanho, the dialogue between the monk Nagasena and the Indo-Greek king Menander, is a Pali work outside the canon.

The correct answer is B, Thiruvalluvar. The Thirukkural is a work of short couplets arranged under three heads, virtue, wealth and love, and it is written so plainly that it is quoted as a guide to conduct rather than read only as literature. It is among the most translated works of any Indian language.

Option A, Tolkappiyar, wrote the Tolkappiyam, the oldest surviving Tamil grammar, which also records much about the society of the Sangam age. Option C, Ilango Adigal, wrote Silappadikaram, the epic of the anklet, which tells the story of Kovalan and Kannagi. Option D, Sattanar, wrote Manimekalai, the companion epic that carries the story into the next generation with a Buddhist colouring. These four Tamil names are worth learning as a set, because they are asked in exactly this rotating form and fewer candidates prepare them than prepare the Sanskrit list.

The correct answer is C, Vishnu Sharma. The Panchatantra, meaning the five treatises, uses talking animals to teach practical wisdom and statecraft, and the frame story explains that it was composed to educate princes who had no taste for formal learning. It travelled westward in translation and is among the most widely circulated books of Indian origin.

Option A, Somadeva, compiled the Kathasaritsagara, a much larger ocean of stories drawn from an older collection. Option B, Dandin, wrote Dashakumaracharita, the adventures of ten princes, and the manual of poetics called Kavyadarsha, so his subject is courtly narrative rather than fable. Option D, Kshemendra, was a Kashmiri writer known for satirical and didactic works. The test here is the phrase animal fables for the instruction of princes, which belongs to Vishnu Sharma and to the Panchatantra.

The correct answer is A, Kanishka, the Kushana ruler. Ashvaghosha wrote the Buddhacharita, a life of the Buddha in Sanskrit verse, and also Saundarananda, and tradition places him at Kanishka's court along with the physician Charaka and the Buddhist scholar Vasumitra.

Option B, Chandragupta II Vikramaditya of the Gupta dynasty, is the king traditionally linked with Kalidasa and with the group of learned men described as the nine gems. Option C, Harshavardhana, was the patron of Banabhatta and an author himself. Option D, Ashoka, belongs to a much earlier age, the Mauryan period, and is known for his edicts rather than for patronage of Sanskrit poets. Patron questions are answered fastest by holding four pairs: Kanishka with Ashvaghosha, Chandragupta II with Kalidasa, Harsha with Bana and Lakshmana Sena with Jayadeva.

The correct answer is B, the Mahabharata. The Bhagavad Gita is a section of the Bhishma Parva of the epic, in which Krishna counsels Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. It is printed and studied separately because of its philosophical weight, but it is not an independent book, and the epic as a whole is ascribed to Vyasa.

Option A, the Ramayana, is the other great epic, ascribed to Valmiki, and contains no part of the Gita. Option C, the Rigveda, is the oldest of the four Vedas, a collection of hymns to the gods and older by many centuries than the epics. Option D, the Manusmriti, is a law book of the smriti tradition dealing with duties and social order. Examiners like this question because candidates who know the Gita well often forget where it sits, so remember the chain: Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva, Bhagavad Gita.