Ashvaghosha, a poet who composed a biography of the Buddha, the Buddhacharita, lived in the court of which ruler?
- A.Ashoka
- B.Bindusara
- C.Kanishka
- D.Gautamiputra Shri Satakarni
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Kanishka. Ashvaghosha was a Buddhist monk and Sanskrit poet at the court of the Kushana ruler Kanishka I. He wrote the Buddhacharita, a life of the Buddha in Sanskrit verse, and the Saundarananda, and he acted as deputy to Vasumitra at the Fourth Buddhist Council held in Kashmir. Kanishka's court also held the physician Charaka and the philosopher Nagarjuna, and the group is a favourite one-line question.
Option A, Ashoka, ruled in the third century BCE, about three hundred years earlier, and is linked with Moggaliputta Tissa and the Third Buddhist Council. Option B, Bindusara, was Ashoka's father and received the Greek ambassador Deimachus, not Ashvaghosha. Option D, Gautamiputra Satakarni, was the Satavahana king praised in the Nasik prashasti and had no connection with the Buddhacharita.
Read the full article: Post-Mauryan Period: Kushanas, Satavahanas and PYQs
Practice Questions
View allWhich among the following was the second capital of the Kushanas in ancient India?
- A.Patliputra
- B.Delhi
- C.Lahore
- D.Mathura
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The main Kushana capital was Purushapura, the modern Peshawar, which Kanishka I developed as his seat of power. As the empire spread into the Ganga-Yamuna plain, Mathura on the Yamuna became its second capital and the southern headquarters of the family.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following was NOT a ruler of the Kushana dynasty?
- A.Nahapana
- B.Vasishka
- C.Vasudeva
- D.Huvishka
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Nahapana belonged to the Kshaharata family of the Shakas, the Western Kshatrapas who ruled in western India, and not to the Kushanas at all.
Read the full explanation →In which language was Gatha Saptasati, by the king Hala, written?
- A.Sanskrit
- B.Pali
- C.Prakrit
- D.Hindi
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The Gathasaptasati, also written as Gatha Saptasati, is an anthology of seven hundred short verses compiled by the Satavahana king Hala.
Read the full explanation →The sculpture which is known as the Submission of Nalgiri has been found at:
- A.Bharhut
- B.Amrawati
- C.Mathura
- D.Sanchi
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The panel showing the submission of the mad elephant Nalagiri, sent by Devadatta to kill the Buddha and calmed by him in the street of Rajagriha, is among the best known carvings of the Amaravati stupa on the lower Krishna in Andhra Pradesh.
Read the full explanation →The Sunga dynasty was founded after the killing of which of the following Mauryan rulers?
- A.Dasharatha
- B.Samprati
- C.Brihadratha
- D.Devabhuti
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Brihadratha was the last ruler of the Mauryan dynasty. About 185 BCE his own commander-in-chief Pushyamitra Sunga killed him, according to tradition at a review of the army, and took the throne at Pataliputra.
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