Sammed Shikharji, the holiest Jain pilgrimage centre, is situated on which hill?

The correct answer is B, Sarnath. After attaining enlightenment the Buddha walked to the deer park at Sarnath, near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, and preached to his first five disciples; the event is called the Dhammachakkappavattana, the turning of the wheel of law. Sarnath also holds the Dhamek Stupa and the Chaukhandi Stupa, and the Lion Capital of Ashoka that became the State Emblem of India was found there. Option A, Bodh Gaya in Bihar, is where he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree and where the Mahabodhi Temple stands. Option C, Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, is where he died, an event called the mahaparinirvana. Option D, Vaishali in Bihar, is where he preached his last sermon and where the second Buddhist council met, but not the first sermon.

The correct answer is B, Ashoka. The core of the Great Stupa at Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh, also called Stupa Number One, was raised in the reign of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the third century before the common era; the Shungas later enlarged the dome and added the railing, and the four carved gateways or toranas were added in the Satavahana period. Option A, Chandragupta Maurya, was Ashoka's grandfather and no building at Sanchi is attributed to him. Option C, Kanishka, was the Kushana ruler under whom the Gandhara and Mathura schools flourished and the fourth Buddhist council was held, far from Sanchi. Option D, Harshavardhana, ruled in the seventh century of the common era, nearly a thousand years later. Remember that Sanchi shows the Buddha only through symbols, never as a human figure.

The correct answer is A, grey schist. The Gandhara school worked in the north-west, around Taxila and Peshawar, and used the bluish-grey schist of that region; its figures show Greco-Roman influence in the wavy hair, the heavy folds of the drapery and the muscular, realistic modelling. Option B, red sandstone, was the material of the Mathura school, which quarried the spotted red stone of Sikri near Mathura and produced robust indigenous figures of the Buddha, Jain tirthankaras and Hindu gods. Option C, white marble, is a later material associated with Jain temples such as Dilwara, while the Amaravati school of the Krishna valley used white limestone. Option D, black basalt, belongs mainly to the Pala sculpture of Bengal and Bihar. Gandhara and Mathura both flourished under the Kushanas and are credited with the first images of the Buddha in human form.

The correct answer is B, Maharashtra. The twenty-nine Ajanta caves are cut into a horseshoe-shaped cliff above the Waghora stream in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra and are a World Heritage Site. The earlier caves are Hinayana chaityas and viharas of the Satavahana age, and the later Mahayana caves of the Vakataka age carry the paintings of Padmapani and Vajrapani and scenes from the Jataka stories. Option A, Madhya Pradesh, has Sanchi, Bharhut and the painted Bagh caves, which are often confused with Ajanta. Option C, Karnataka, has the Jain centre of Shravanabelagola and the Badami caves. Option D, Odisha, has the Jain caves of Udayagiri and Khandagiri and the Buddhist Diamond Triangle of Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitgiri. Ellora, with its Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves, is in Maharashtra as well.

The correct answer is A, Chavundaraya. The Gommateshwara image of the Jain saint Bahubali at Shravanabelagola in Karnataka, about fifty-seven feet high and cut from a single block of granite on the Vindhyagiri hill, was raised by Chavundaraya, a minister and general of the Western Ganga kingdom. The Mahamastakabhisheka, the ceremonial anointing of the statue, is held there once in twelve years. Option B, Vimal Shah, built the Vimal Vasahi temple of Adinath at Dilwara on Mount Abu. Option C, Tejpal, along with his brother Vastupala, built the Luna Vasahi temple of Neminath at the same place. Option D, Kharavela, was the Chedi king of Kalinga who cut the Jain caves of Udayagiri in Odisha and left the Hathigumpha inscription. All four are Jain patrons, which is why the options are set together.