In which language was Gatha Saptasati, by the king Hala, written?
- A.Sanskrit
- B.Pali
- C.Prakrit
- D.Hindi
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Prakrit. The Gathasaptasati, also written as Gatha Saptasati, is an anthology of seven hundred short verses compiled by the Satavahana king Hala. It is written in Maharashtri Prakrit, the spoken language the Satavahanas favoured for their inscriptions and literature, and its verses describe village love and daily life in the Deccan rather than royal deeds. The work matters in an examination because it shows that the Satavahanas, unlike the later Guptas, promoted Prakrit as the language of the court.
Option A, Sanskrit, became the normal language of royal inscriptions later, with the Junagadh record of Rudradaman I as the first long example. Option B, Pali, is the language of the Buddhist Tripitaka and of the Milindapanho, not of Hala's anthology. Option D, Hindi, developed more than a thousand years after Hala and cannot belong to a first or second century text.
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
Show answer
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 →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
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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.
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
Show answer
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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