Ancient Indian History MCQs

Notes:
Manu, Yajnavalkya, Narada, and Brihaspati were law givers of ancient India. Manu is traditionally regarded as the author of the Manusmriti, a foundational text on Hindu law. Yajnavalkya is known for the Yajnavalkya Smriti, which also addresses legal and social issues. Narada is a sage often associated with legal and ethical discussions in texts like the Narada Smriti. Brihaspati, while primarily known as a deity of wisdom, is also linked to legal principles in ancient texts. These figures played crucial roles in shaping the legal framework of ancient Indian society.

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It was in the Satavahana domains that the first cave temples were constructed in the chaitya and vihara architectural styles, which paved theway for later architectural forms.

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Makkhali Gosala is said to be the founder of Ajivika School of philosophy. He was contemporary of Siddhartha Gautama and of Mahavira. The rock cut Barabar and Nagarjuna caves were built during the Mauryan period for the Ajivika sect.

Notes:
Kathopnishad was translated by Max Müller in 1879. It was rendered in verse by Edwin Arnold as “The Secret of Death”. The central story is immortality and covers the story of encounter of Nachiketa, son of sage Vajasravasa, with Yama, God of death.

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Aryabahata was the first Indian astronomer to state that the Earth is spherical and rotates on its axis. He went on to explain that the apparent daily east- west motion of the sun, moon, planets, and stars is due to the rotation of the Earth from west to east. He introduced two systems for reckoning time: (1) the audayika system, from sunrise to next sunrise, and (2) the ardharaatrika system, that is, midnight to midnight (sidereal time). The time for one sidereal rotation of the Earth is given as 23h 56m 4.1s (modern value: 23h 56m 4.091s). Responsible for the Indian mathematical renaissance, Aryabhata set the pattern and tone of modern mathematical investigations.

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Chandragupta Maurya welcomed Magasthenes. A clear picture of his Maurya administration is derived from two most important sources of history, namely, Kautilya’s Arthasastra and the Indika of Megasthenes.

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Nalanda was an ancient Mahavihara. It was a large and revered Buddhist monastery. It flourished under the patronage of the Gupta Empire in the 5th and 6th centuries. At its peak the school attracted scholars and students from near and far, with some travelling from Tibet, China, Korea, and Central Asia.
Hiuen Tsang travelled around India between the years of 630 and 643 CE and visited Nalanda first in 637 and then again in 642, spending a total of around two years at the monastery.

Notes:
The basic iconography, however, remained Indian. The materials used for Gandhara sculpture were green phyllite and gray-blue mica schist, which, in general, belong to an earlier phase and Gandhara art is often referred to as the Graeco-or-Roman–Buddhist school.

Notes:
Tekkalakote is also spelled as Tekkalakota is a panchayat town in Siruguppa Taluk, Bellary district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is a pre historic site and has evidence of Elaborate gold ear ornaments.

Notes:
Unlike contemporaneous Mesopotamian and Egyptian cities, the major urban centers of the Indus Valley Civilization typically did not have designated burial grounds for the dead located within city walls or residential areas. Instead, archaeologists have discovered Harappan cemeteries mostly around the perimeter of settlements away from active inhabited zones, suggesting organized zoning policies existed for funerary spaces across Harappan town planning conventions over two millennia.