The Aihole inscription, which records the defeat of Harshavardhana, was composed by the court poet of which ruler?
- A.Narasimhavarman I
- B.Pulakeshin II
- C.Dantidurga
- D.Mahendravarman I
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Pulakeshin II. The Aihole inscription was composed in Sanskrit by Ravikirti, the Jain court poet of the Chalukya king Pulakeshin II of Badami. It praises his victories and states that Harsha, the lord of the north, lost his joy when his elephants fell in battle, which is the only record of Harsha's defeat on the Narmada in about 618 CE.
Option A, Narasimhavarman I, was the Pallava king who later captured Vatapi and killed Pulakeshin II, but the inscription is not his. Option C, Dantidurga, was the Rashtrakuta ruler who ended Chalukya rule about 753 CE, more than a century after the inscription was cut. Option D, Mahendravarman I, was the Pallava father of Narasimhavarman I and the author of the play Mattavilasa Prahasana; Pulakeshin II defeated him, so he would hardly have commissioned a eulogy of his rival.
Read the full article: Harsha and the South Indian Kingdoms: Rulers and PYQs
Practice Questions
View allWhich of the following is NOT correct regarding king Harshavardhana?
- A.Harshavardhana ruled nearly about 1400 years ago
- B.Xuan Zang spent a lot of time at Harsha's court
- C.Harshavardhana's court poet was Harishena
- D.Harshacharita is a biography written on Harshavardhana
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Harishena belonged to an earlier century altogether: he was the court poet of Samudragupta and composed the Prayag Prashasti, the Allahabad Pillar Inscription.
Read the full explanation →King Shashanka, against whom Harshvardhana declared war, was a ruler of the ________ kingdom.
- A.Kanyakubja
- B.Junagarh
- C.Magadha
- D.Gauda
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Shashanka was the king of Gauda, the region of Bengal with its centre at Karnasuvarna. He killed Harsha's elder brother Rajyavardhana, and it was to avenge that killing, and to recover his sister Rajyashri, that Harsha declared war and allied with Bhaskaravarman of Kamarupa.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following books was authored by Harshavardhana?
- A.Harshacharita
- B.Kadambari
- C.Ratnavali
- D.Gitagovinda
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Harshavardhana was a dramatist as well as a king, and three Sanskrit plays are credited to him: Ratnavali, Priyadarshika and Nagananda.
Read the full explanation →'Banabhatta', well known for his literary works, flourished during the reign of _______.
- A.Ashoka
- B.Bindusara
- C.Chandragupta II
- D.Harshavardhana
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Banabhatta was the court poet of Harsha in the seventh century CE. He wrote the Harshacharita, the biography of his patron and the first historical biography in Sanskrit, and the prose romance Kadambari, which was completed by his son Bhushanabhatta.
Read the full explanation →Harshavardhana shifted his capital from Thanesar to which city?
- A.Pataliputra
- B.Kannauj
- C.Ujjain
- D.Prayag
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Harsha inherited Thanesar in modern Haryana from the Pushyabhuti family. When his sister Rajyashri's husband Grahavarman, the Maukhari king of Kannauj, was killed, Harsha united the two realms and moved his seat to Kannauj on the Ganga, which then became the symbol of paramountcy in northern India for the next…
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