Solution: (c)
Panini is known for his Sanskrit grammar, particularly for his formulation of the 3,959 rules of Sanskrit morphology, syntax and semantics in the grammar known as Ashtadhyayi (“eight chapters”), the foundational text of the grammatical branch of the Vedanga, the auxiliary scholarly disciplines of Vedic religion.
Buddha gave his first religious message at
(a) Rajagriha
(b) Pataliputra
(c) Gaya
(d) Sarnath
Solution: (d)
Sarnath is the deer park where Gautama Buddha first taught the Dharma, and where the Buddhist Sangha came into existence through the enlightenment of Kondanna. It is located to the north-east of Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh.
The Gupta era was started by whom?
(a) Ghatotkacha
(b) Srigupta
(c) Chandragupta – 1
(d) Samudragupta
Solution: (b)
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from approximately 320 to 550 CE and covered much of the Indian Subcontinent. It was founded by Maharaja Sri Gupta. The first evidence of Sri Gupta comes from the writings of I-tsing around 690 CE who describes that the Poona copper inscription of Prabhavati Gupta, a daughter of Chandra Gupta, describes “Maharaja Sri-Gupta” as the founder of the Gupta dynasty.
Which museum houses the largest collection of Kushan sculptures?
(a) Mathura Museum
(b) Bombay Museum
(c) Madras Museum
(d) Delhi Museum
Solution: (a)
The Mathura Museum is famous for ancient sculptures of the Mathura school dating from 3rd century BC to 12th century AD which attained the pinnacle of glory during the reign of Great Kushan and Gupta Emperors. Mathura school represents cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 1000 years in Central Asia, between the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, and the Islamic conquests of the 7th century CE.
The Virupaksha Temple was built by the
(a) Chalukyas
(b) Pallavas
(c) Vakatakas
(d) Satavahanas
Solution: (a)
The Virupaksha Temple is located in Hampi near Bangalore, in the state of Karnataka in southern India. Virupaksha is a form of Shiva and has other temples dedicated to him. The temple’s history is uninterrupted from about the 7th century when it was built by the Chalukyas. Evidence indicates there were additions made to the temple in the late Chalukyan and Hoysala periods, though most of the temple buildings are attributed to the Vijayanagar period.
The gold coins were introduced first in India by
(a) The Kushanas
(b) The Greeks
(c) The Sakas
(d) The Parthians
Solution: (b)
The Indo-Greek kings were the first to issue gold coins in India and their coins were special in the sense that each king had his own distinctive coins by which he could be definitely identified. The names of at least thirty Bactrian kings are known with the help of numerous coins, and they help in the reconstruction of the history of the kings. The coins carry legends in Greek and also in Kharosthi and Brahmi.
The art style which combines Indian and Greek features is called
(a) Sikhara
(b) Verna
(c) Nagara
(d) Gandhara
Solution: (d)
Gandhara art is the style of Buddhist visual art that developed in what is now northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan between the 1st century B.C and the 7th century A.D. The style, of Greco-Roman origin, seems to have flourished largely during the Kushan dynasty and was contemporaneous with an important but dissimilar school of Kushan art at Mathura.
Chinese pilgrim who visited India during Harsha Vardhan’s period was-
(a) Fa-hien
(b) I’tsing
(c) Nishka
(d) Hiuen Tsang
Solution: (d)
Hiuen Tsang was a Chinese pilgrim who came to India in the first half of the seventh century A.D. during the time of Harshavardhan in order to visit the places of pilgrimage associated with Buddha. His object was to secure authentic Buddhist scriptures and visit places of Buddhist interest. On returning to China, he put down all his impressions in a book called Si- yu-ki or ‘The Records of the Western World’ which proved to be an invaluable source of information to historians about Harsha and the political, social, economic and religious conditions in India during his reign.
Greek-Roman Art has found a place in
(a) Ellora
(b) Gandhara
(c) Kalinga
(d) Buddhist Art
Solution: (d)
Greco-Buddhist art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 1000 years in Central Asia, between the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, and the Islamic conquests of the 7th century CE. Under the Indo-Greeks and then the Kushans, the interaction of Greek and Buddhist culture flourished in the area of Gandhara, in today’s northern Pakistan, before spreading further into India, influencing the art of Mathura, and then the Hindu art of the Gupta empire, which was to extend to the rest of South-East Asia.
The Harappans were
(a) rural
(b) urban
(c) nomadic
(d) tribal
Solution: (b)
The Harappan cities were planned to serve these functional, social and economic requirements of their inhabitants. The urbanism of the Harappan civilization is associated with its mature phase. Many scholars have called the Harappan urbanization as ‘The Urban Revolution’, which could not have been possible without the strong central authority, specialized economic organization and socio-cultural unity.
