Ancient Indian History MCQs

Notes:
Ashoka was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty, who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from c. 268 to 232 BCE. Pallavas ruled from 275CE to 897 CE. They are not contemporaries.

Notes:
Arabs were the first to use the word HINDU. Megasthenes’ ‘Indica’ said the name for India and Indians around the 4th Century B.C.E. This word was misunderstood by Arabs. They used the word Hindu.

Notes:
The Sun Temple at Konark, on the eastern shores of the Indian subcontinent, is one of the outstanding examples of temple architecture. Built in 13th century by King Narasimhadeva, it was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1984. Narsimhadeva was a powerful monarch and warrior of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty of medieval Odisha who reigned from 1238 to 1264.

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.

Notes:
Rummindei Pillar Inscription says that The Beloved of the Gods, the king Piyadassi, when he had been consecrated twenty years, came in person find referenced the place where Buddha Sakyamuni was born. He caused a stone enclosure to be made and a stone pillar to be erected. As the Lord was born here in the village of Lumbini, he has exempted it from tax, and fixed its contribution [i.e. Of grain] at one-eigth.

Notes:
There are six Angas or explanatory limbs, to the Vedas: the Siksha and Vyakarana of Panini, the Chhandas of Pingalacharya, the Nirukta of Yaska, the Jyotisha of Garga, and the Kalpas (Srauta, Grihya, Dharma and Sulba) belonging to the authorship of various Rishis. Siksha is a knowledge of phonetics. Siksha deals with pronunciation and accent. The text of the Vedas is arranged in various forms or Pathas. The Pada-patha gives each word its separate form. The Krama-patha connects the word in pairs. Vyakarana is Sanskrit grammar. Panini’s books are most famous. Without knowledge of Vyakarana, you cannot understand the Vedas. Chhandas is metre dealing with prosody. Nirukta is philology or etymology. Jyotisha is astronomy and astrology. It deals with the movements of the heavenly bodies, planets, etc., and their influence in human affairs. Kalpa is the method of ritual. The Srauta Sutras which explain the ritual of sacrifices belong to Kalpa. The sulba Sutras, which treat of the measurements which are necessary for laying out the sacrificial areas, also belong to Kalpa. The Grihya Sutras which concern domestic life, and the Dharma Sutras which deal with ethics, customs and laws, also belong to Kalpa

Notes:
Paithan, formerly Pratiṣṭhana, is a town with municipal council in Aurangabad district, Maharashtra, India. Paithan is located 56 kilometres south of present-day Aurangabad on the Godavari River. It was the capital of the Satavahana dynasty, which ruled from the second century BCE to the second century CE.

Notes:
Variety of metals such as copper, gold, silver was extensively used by the Harappan metal workers. Minor metals like tin, arsenic, lead, antimony etc. were used for alloying but there was no mention of iron.

Notes:
The correct chronological order is Shankaracharya (9th Century CE) – Ramanuja (1017- 1137 CE) – Chaitanya (1436-1533 CE).

Notes:
The glazed steatite pottery found from Harappan sites is considered the earliest example of glazed pottery in the world. It is thinner than most other pottery and also lacks conventional surface treatment of red slip and buff surface. Instead, a thin layer of silica was fused to the body during the firing process in the kiln, which gave the pottery a smooth, glassy and shiny surface. Their technique of firing pottery reached high levels of sophistication.