The Bhagavad Gita forms a part of which larger work?
- A.The Ramayana
- B.The Mahabharata
- C.The Rigveda
- D.The Manusmriti
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, the Mahabharata. The Bhagavad Gita is a section of the Bhishma Parva of the epic, in which Krishna counsels Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. It is printed and studied separately because of its philosophical weight, but it is not an independent book, and the epic as a whole is ascribed to Vyasa.
Option A, the Ramayana, is the other great epic, ascribed to Valmiki, and contains no part of the Gita. Option C, the Rigveda, is the oldest of the four Vedas, a collection of hymns to the gods and older by many centuries than the epics. Option D, the Manusmriti, is a law book of the smriti tradition dealing with duties and social order. Examiners like this question because candidates who know the Gita well often forget where it sits, so remember the chain: Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva, Bhagavad Gita.
Read the full article: Classical Indian Literature: Books, Authors and Patrons
Practice Questions
View allThe Arthashastra, the ancient treatise on statecraft and administration, was written by whom?
- A.Vishakhadatta
- B.Kautilya
- C.Banabhatta
- D.Megasthenes
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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.
Read the full explanation →Which 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.
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