During ancient India in the Tamil region, ordinary ploughmen were known as ________.

The correct answer is C, Burzahom. Pit houses dug into the ground with steps leading down into them were found at Burzahom, a neolithic site near Srinagar in Kashmir.

The pits were deep, with the earth taken out of them heaped around the mouth and a roof of wood and thatch above, which kept the house warm through the long Kashmir winter. Hearths were found both inside the pits and outside them. Burzahom is also known for the burial of dogs along with their masters, for its many bone and stone tools, and for a stone slab showing a hunting scene. Its name means the place of birch, after the birch trees of the valley.

A is wrong: Utnur in Telangana is a neolithic site known for the ash mounds of its cattle pens. B is wrong: Paiyampalli is a neolithic site in Tamil Nadu. D is wrong: Hallur in Karnataka is known as an early site for the use of iron in South India.

Exam tip: Burzahom in Kashmir is the site of pit dwellings and dog burials, while Hallur in Karnataka marks early iron.

The correct answer is B, shalabhoga. Chola inscriptions use the word shalabhoga for land set apart to maintain a school.

The Cholas, who ruled from Thanjavur between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries, left hundreds of inscriptions on temple walls recording grants of land, and each kind of grant carried its own name. Besides shalabhoga there was brahmadeya, land given to Brahmanas; devadana and tirunamattukkani, land given to temples; pallichchhandam, land given to Jaina institutions; and vellanvagai, the land of ordinary non-Brahmana peasant proprietors. These records are the main source for Chola village administration, with its assemblies such as the ur, the sabha and the nagaram.

A is wrong: tirunamattukkani was land gifted to a temple. C is wrong: pallichchhandam was land donated to Jaina institutions, a palli being a Jaina shrine. D is wrong: vellanvagai was land held by non-Brahmana peasant proprietors.

Exam tip: shalabhoga for a school, brahmadeya for Brahmanas, devadana and tirunamattukkani for temples, pallichchhandam for Jaina institutions.

The correct answer is D, Kolkata. The Supreme Court set up in 1774 sat at Fort William in Calcutta, the city now called Kolkata.

It was created by the Regulating Act of 1773, the first British law to take direct notice of the Company's rule in India. That Act made the Governor of Bengal the Governor General, gave him a council of four members, and established a Supreme Court of judicature at Fort William with one chief justice and three other judges. Sir Elijah Impey was its first chief justice. The court could hear civil, criminal, admiralty and ecclesiastical cases, and its long quarrel with the Governor General's council led to the Act of Settlement of 1781.

A is wrong: Delhi was then under the Mughals and became the British capital only in 1911. B is wrong: Shimla served later as a summer capital and was never the seat of this court. C is wrong: Mumbai, then Bombay, got a supreme court of its own only in 1823.

Exam tip: the Regulating Act of 1773 created the Governor General of Bengal and the Supreme Court at Fort William, Calcutta, which opened in 1774.

The correct answer is D, Salt tax. The Dandi March of 1930 was a protest against the British monopoly on salt and the tax on it, under which no Indian was allowed to make or sell salt freely.

Gandhi set out from the Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad on 12 March 1930 with 78 companions and walked about 385 km to the coastal village of Dandi in Gujarat, reaching it on 5 April. On the morning of 6 April he picked up a lump of natural salt from the sea shore and broke the salt law, which began the Civil Disobedience Movement. Salt was chosen because the tax fell on rich and poor alike, so the protest could unite the whole country.

A is wrong: indigo cultivation was the grievance behind the Champaran Satyagraha of 1917. B is wrong: textile trade rules were never the target of this march. C is wrong: land revenue was the issue in the Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928, led by Vallabhbhai Patel.

Exam tip: Dandi March — began 12 March 1930, about 385 km on foot, salt law broken on 6 April 1930.

The correct answer is C, Ibrahim Lodi. Khatoli, fought in 1517 near Bundi in present-day Rajasthan, was the first clash between Rana Sanga of Mewar and Ibrahim Lodi, who had just succeeded to the throne of Delhi, and the Rajputs won. Rana Sanga, or Rana Sangram Singh, ruled Mewar from 1509 to 1528 and made it the strongest Rajput power of its time, defeating the Lodis again at Dholpur in 1518 and the Malwa forces at Gagron in 1519. His career ended at Khanwa in 1527, where Babur's guns defeated him. A is wrong because Sikandar Lodi died in 1517 before the battle and had made peace with the Rajputs. B is wrong because Babur reached India only in 1526. D is wrong because Mahmud Lodi, Ibrahim's brother, fought later at Ghaghra in 1529. Exam tip: Rana Sanga's run goes Khatoli 1517, Dholpur 1518, Gagron 1519 and Khanwa 1527.