The Panchatantra, a collection of animal fables composed to instruct princes, is ascribed to whom?
- A.Somadeva
- B.Dandin
- C.Vishnu Sharma
- D.Kshemendra
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Vishnu Sharma. The Panchatantra, meaning the five treatises, uses talking animals to teach practical wisdom and statecraft, and the frame story explains that it was composed to educate princes who had no taste for formal learning. It travelled westward in translation and is among the most widely circulated books of Indian origin.
Option A, Somadeva, compiled the Kathasaritsagara, a much larger ocean of stories drawn from an older collection. Option B, Dandin, wrote Dashakumaracharita, the adventures of ten princes, and the manual of poetics called Kavyadarsha, so his subject is courtly narrative rather than fable. Option D, Kshemendra, was a Kashmiri writer known for satirical and didactic works. The test here is the phrase animal fables for the instruction of princes, which belongs to Vishnu Sharma and to the Panchatantra.
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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