With reference to the history of India, the terms "kulyavapa" and "dronavapa" denote
- A.measurement of land
- B.coins of different monetary value
- C.classification of urban land
- D.religious rituals
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, measurement of land. Kulyavapa and dronavapa were units of land measurement found in early Indian land-grant inscriptions.
These terms appear mainly in copper-plate inscriptions of the Gupta and post-Gupta period from Bengal, such as the Damodarpur plates, which record the sale and grant of land. A kulyavapa was the area that could be sown with one kulya (a basket measure) of seed, and a dronavapa the area that could be sown with one drona of seed; a dronavapa was a fraction of a kulyavapa. Measuring land by the quantity of seed it needed was a practical method in an agrarian society, and these grants tell historians about land sale, prices and the spread of agriculture.
B is wrong: Gupta coins were called dinara (gold) and rupaka (silver), not kulyavapa.
C is wrong: the terms describe sown land in villages, not urban land.
D is wrong: they have nothing to do with religious rituals, even though many such grants were made to Brahmanas and temples.
Exam tip: kulyavapa and dronavapa = land measured by seed sown, from Gupta-era Bengal copper plates.
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