The Arthashastra, the ancient treatise on statecraft and administration, was written by whom?
- A.Vishakhadatta
- B.Kautilya
- C.Banabhatta
- D.Megasthenes
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Kautilya, who is also called Chanakya and Vishnugupta and is associated with the Mauryan court of Chandragupta Maurya. The Arthashastra sets out the duties of a king, the working of ministers and spies, taxation, law, trade, agriculture and warfare, and it is one of the main sources for Mauryan administration.
Option A, Vishakhadatta, wrote the play Mudrarakshasa, whose central character is Chanakya himself, which is exactly why the name is placed here as a distractor. Option C, Banabhatta, belongs to a much later age as the court poet of Harshavardhana and wrote the Harshacharita and Kadambari. Option D, Megasthenes, was the Greek ambassador sent by Seleucus Nicator to the Mauryan court, and his account is called Indica, not Arthashastra. Keep the pair firm: Arthashastra by Kautilya, Indica by Megasthenes.
Read the full article: Classical Indian Literature: Books, Authors and Patrons
Practice Questions
View allWhich of the following works was NOT written by Kalidasa?
- A.Meghaduta
- B.Raghuvamsha
- C.Mrichchhakatika
- D.Kumarasambhava
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That play, whose title means the little clay cart, was written by Shudraka, and it is unusual among Sanskrit dramas because its hero is an impoverished merchant and its plot turns on ordinary city life rather than on gods and kings.
Read the full explanation →Who was the author of Harshacharita and Kadambari?
- A.Banabhatta
- B.Bilhana
- C.Dandin
- D.Bhasa
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The Harshacharita is a biography of his patron and one of the earliest historical biographies written in Sanskrit, while Kadambari is a romance in ornate prose and is often described as one of the first novels in any Indian language.
Read the full explanation →Rajatarangini, a chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, was composed by whom?
- A.Somadeva
- B.Jayadeva
- C.Kalhana
- D.Kshemendra
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He wrote the Rajatarangini, whose name means the river of kings, in Kashmir in the twelfth century. Because he arranged rulers in order of time and used inscriptions, coins and earlier records, the work is treated as the earliest piece of history writing in India in the modern sense.
Read the full explanation →The Sanskrit grammar Ashtadhyayi was composed by whom?
- A.Patanjali
- B.Panini
- C.Amarasimha
- D.Bharata Muni
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The Ashtadhyayi, meaning the work in eight chapters, fixed the rules of Sanskrit in a set of short formulas and is admired as the earliest scientific grammar of any language, since it describes the whole language through a compact system of rules.
Read the full explanation →Who is known as the Adi Kavi, the first poet, in Sanskrit literature?
- A.Vyasa
- B.Kalidasa
- C.Valmiki
- D.Ashvaghosha
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The Ramayana is accordingly called the Adi Kavya, the first poem.
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