The Allahabad Pillar Inscription, also known as the Prayag Prashasti, was composed by which court poet?

The correct answer is D, Gupta Dynasty. Gupta imperial rule is conventionally dated from about 320 CE, the epoch of the Gupta era that begins with the accession of Chandragupta I, and it faded out by about 550 CE after the Huna invasions. Those two dates are the ones textbooks attach to the dynasty, which is why the question frames the period as 320 to 550 AD.

Option A, the Mauryan dynasty, is far older and ruled from about 322 BCE to 185 BCE. Option B, the Hoysala dynasty, was a later Karnataka power of the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, famous for the temples at Belur and Halebidu. Option C, the Magadha dynasty, is not a dynasty at all but a region and kingdom in south Bihar; its ruling houses were the Haryankas, Shishunagas, Nandas and Mauryas, each of which held power centuries before 320 CE.

The correct answer is D, Dinaras. Gupta gold coins were called dinaras, a name borrowed from the Roman denarius that had already reached India through trade and through Kushana coinage. The Guptas struck more gold coins than any other ancient Indian dynasty, and their types, such as the Archer, the Ashvamedha and the Lyrist, are a major source for the dynasty's history.

Option A, rupaka, was the Gupta silver coin, introduced by Chandragupta II after he defeated the Shaka Kshatrapas and took over their silver currency zone in western India. Option B, tanka, was the silver coin of the Delhi Sultanate, standardised by Iltutmish in the thirteenth century. Option C, drama or dramma, was a silver coin used by several post-Gupta and early medieval dynasties of western and central India, and was never the Gupta gold denomination.

The correct answer is B, Chandragupta I. The first two members of the family, Sri Gupta and Ghatotkacha, used only the modest title Maharaja, which historians read as a sign that they were subordinate rulers. Chandragupta I was the first to assume the imperial title Maharajadhiraja, king of great kings, and the Gupta era of 319 to 320 CE is counted from his accession. His marriage to the Lichchhavi princess Kumaradevi is celebrated on the king and queen type gold coins.

Option A, Ramagupta, is a shadowy figure known mainly from the play Devichandraguptam and a few inscriptions, and he never raised the family's status. Option C, Samudragupta, was Chandragupta I's son and inherited the imperial title rather than introducing it. Option D, Skandagupta, ruled almost a century and a half later and is remembered for checking the Hunas.

The correct answer is C, Chandragupta II. He ended the long rule of the Shaka Kshatrapas over Gujarat, Kathiawar and Malwa, took the title Shakari meaning enemy of the Shakas, and is also known by the title Vikramaditya. The conquest gave the Guptas the western sea ports and the revenue of the trade passing through them, and it is the reason he began issuing silver rupakas modelled on Shaka coins for that region.

Option A, Samudragupta, campaigned in the Ganga plain and the Deccan but left the western Kshatrapas alone; the Prayag Prashasti names the Shakas only among rulers offering submission. Option B, Kumaragupta I, is remembered for founding Nalanda and for the first signs of Huna pressure. Option D, Skandagupta, fought the Hunas and repaired the Sudarshana lake, not the Shakas.

The correct answer is B, Fa-Hien. Fa-Hien came to India in search of Buddhist texts and travelled through the Gupta dominions during the reign of Chandragupta II. His account describes a peaceful realm with light punishments, notes that people could travel without passes, records charitable hospitals at Pataliputra, and also reports that Chandalas lived outside towns and had to strike wood to warn others of their approach.

Option A, Hiuen Tsang, came two centuries later in the seventh century, during the reign of Harshavardhana, and studied at Nalanda. Option C, I-tsing, also belongs to the seventh century and wrote about monastic practice in India and the islands of South East Asia. Option D, Megasthenes, was not Chinese at all: he was the Greek ambassador of Seleucus Nicator at the Mauryan court of Chandragupta Maurya and wrote the Indica.