Which one among the following motifs does not appear on Harappan seals?
- A.Humped Bull
- B.Elephant
- C.Lion
- D.Crocodile
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Lion. The lion is not found among the animals carved on Harappan seals, although the tiger appears on several of them.
Harappan seals are small square pieces, usually of steatite, carved with an animal and a short line of the still undeciphered Harappan script. The most common animal is the so-called unicorn, a bull-like beast shown in profile. Others include the humped bull (zebu), elephant, tiger, rhinoceros, water buffalo, gharial or crocodile, goat and antelope. The famous 'Pashupati' seal from Mohenjodaro shows a seated figure surrounded by an elephant, a tiger, a rhinoceros and a buffalo, with deer below. The absence of the lion is a well-known point in exams.
A is wrong because the humped bull is one of the finest and best known Harappan seal motifs. B is wrong because the elephant appears on many seals, including the Pashupati seal. D is wrong because the gharial, a kind of crocodile, is shown on seals and tablets.
Exam tip: unicorn is the commonest seal animal; the lion and the horse are not shown.
Practice Questions
View allArrange the following foreign travellers to India in chronological order, beginning with the earliest : 1. Peter Mundy 2. Antonio Monserrate 3. Afanasii Nikitich Nikitin 4. Ibn Battuta Select the answer using the code given below:
- A.2-1-4-3
- B.2-3-4-1
- C.4-3-2-1
- D.3-4-1-2
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Ibn Battuta came in the 14th century, Nikitin in the 15th, Monserrate in the 16th and Peter Mundy in the 17th.
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- A.Samuel Crompton
- B.Edmund Cartwright
- C.John Kay
- D.Richard Arkwright
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John Kay, an English inventor, patented the flying shuttle in 1733, one of the first machines of the Industrial Revolution.
Read the full explanation →In the Harappan Civilization, traces of canals have been found at
- A.Banawali
- B.Lothal
- C.Shortughai
- D.Dholavira
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Shortughai, a Harappan trading settlement in north-eastern Afghanistan, is the site where traces of irrigation canals have been found. Most Harappan farmers relied on river floods and wells, and no canals have been found in the Indus heartland.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following was the first non-official member to be elected as Speaker of the Central Legislative Assembly on 24-8-1925?
- A.Vithalbhai J Patel
- B.Muhammad Yakub
- C.G. V. Mavalankar
- D.Sardar Hukum Singh
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On 24 August 1925 Vithalbhai Patel became the first elected Indian (non-official) President, or Speaker, of the Central Legislative Assembly.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following groups belongs to the same school of thought?
- A.J. J. Rousseau, M. Robespierre, N. Bonaparte, O. Cromwell
- B.T. Jefferson, J. Madison, G. Washington, Abraham Lincoln
- C.F. Engels, K. Marx, M. Bakunin, J. S. Mill
- D.Georgi Plekhanov, Vera Zasulich, Alexandra Kollontai, V. I. Lenin
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All four were Russian Marxists, so they belong to one school of thought. Plekhanov is called the father of Russian Marxism; in 1883 he founded the Emancipation of Labour group in Geneva with Vera Zasulich, who had begun as a populist revolutionary.
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