Mauryas to Guptas: Sangam age and early medieval kingdoms: previous-year questions
46 real UPSC Prelims questions (2011–2026) with the official answer and a clear explanation. 21 of them came in the last five papers.
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Which one of the following statements about Sangam literature in ancient South India is correct ?
Answer (b) & explanation
Sangam poets knew the varna system (b). Option (b) is right: Sangam poems use terms for the varnas, such as arasar (rulers), anthanar (Brahmins) and vaishiyar (traders), though Tamil society was mostly arranged by tinai (landscape) and kudi (clan). Option (a) is wrong: the poems are full of material life: trade, Yavana ships, ports like Muziris and Puhar, food and crafts. Option (c) is wrong: the Puram poems praise the warrior ethic, and hero-stones (nadukal) honour dead warriors. Option (d) is wrong: the poems treat magic, omens and spirits as real, not irrational.
Notice the two themes: Akam (inner, love) and Puram (outer, war and kings). The Tolkappiyam is the oldest Tamil grammar.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Which one of the following ancient towns is well-known for its elaborate system of water harvesting and management by building a series of dams and channelizing water into connected reservoirs?
Answer (a) & explanation
Dholavira is famous for its water management (a). Dholavira, on Khadir island in the Rann of Kachchh, Gujarat, stood between two seasonal streams, the Mansar and Manhar. Its people built dams across them and cut huge stone reservoirs along the city walls to store monsoon water in a dry land. Kalibangan (b) in Rajasthan is known for a ploughed field and fire altars. Rakhigarhi (c) in Haryana is among the largest Harappan sites. Ropar (d) in Punjab is known for a burial of a dog with a man.
Notice that Dholavira became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021. It also has a signboard of ten large Harappan letters. Lothal in Gujarat had a dockyard.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
From the decline of Guptas until the rise of Harshavardhana in the early seventh century, which of the following kingdoms were holding power in Northern India?
- 1. The Guptas of Magadha
- 2. The Paramaras of Malwa
- 3. The Pushyabhutis of Thanesar
- 4. The Maukharis of Kanauj
- 5. The Yadavas of Devagiri
- 6. The Maitrakas of Valabhi
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Answer (b) & explanation
The Later Guptas, Pushyabhutis, Maukharis and Maitrakas held power (b). In the 6th century, after the imperial Guptas declined, north India split among regional powers. Item 1 is right: the Later Guptas ruled Magadha. Item 3 is right: the Pushyabhutis of Thanesar were Harsha's family. Item 4 is right: the Maukharis ruled from Kanauj. Item 6 is right: the Maitrakas ruled Valabhi in Gujarat, a famous centre of learning. Item 2 is wrong: the Paramaras of Malwa rose in the 10th century. Item 5 is wrong: the Yadavas of Devagiri rose in the 12th century.
Notice that Harsha's sister Rajyashri married the Maukhari king Grahavarman, which is how Harsha came to rule Kanauj. Notice Shashanka of Gauda, Harsha's enemy.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following pairs :
| Historical place | Well-known for
| 1. Burzahom | Rock-cut shrines
| 2. Chandra-ketugarh | Terracotta art
| 3. Ganeshwar | Copper artefacts
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
Answer (d) & explanation
Pairs 2 and 3 are correct (d). Pair 1 is wrong: Burzahom in Kashmir is a Neolithic site known for pit dwellings and the burial of dogs with their masters, not rock-cut shrines. Pair 2 is right: Chandraketugarh in West Bengal, near Kolkata, is famous for fine terracotta plaques and figures from the Maurya to Gupta periods. Pair 3 is right: Ganeshwar in Sikar, Rajasthan, had a copper culture near the Khetri mines that supplied copper tools to the Harappans.
Notice other Neolithic sites: Gufkral in Kashmir, Chirand in Bihar and Mehrgarh in Pakistan. Notice too Daimabad in Maharashtra, famous for its bronze chariot.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to the history of ancient India, which of the following statements is/are correct?
- 1. Mitakshara was the civil law for upper castes and Dayabhaga was the civil law for lower castes.
- 2. In the Mitakshara system, the sons can claim right to the property during the lifetime of the father, whereas in the Dayabhaga system, it is only after the death of the father that the sons can claim right to the property.
- 3. The Mitakshara system deals with the matters related to the property held by male members only of a family, whereas the Dayabhaga system deals with the matters related to the property held by both male and female members of a family.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Answer (b) & explanation
Only statement 2 is correct (b). Statement 1 is wrong: the two schools of Hindu law differ by region, not caste. Dayabhaga, by Jimutavahana, applied in Bengal and Assam; Mitakshara, by Vijnaneshwara, applied in the rest of India. Statement 2 is right: under Mitakshara, a son gets a share in ancestral property by birth, so he can claim it in the father's lifetime; under Dayabhaga, sons inherit only on the father's death. Statement 3 is wrong: both schools also cover women's property, called stridhana.
Notice that Vijnaneshwara wrote the Mitakshara as a commentary on the Yajnavalkya Smriti at the court of the Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI. The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 gave daughters equal coparcenary rights.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to the period of Gupta dynasty in ancient India, the towns Ghantasala, Kadura and Chaul were well known as
Answer (a) & explanation
They were ports handling foreign trade (a). Ghantasala and Kadura (Koduru) lay on the Andhra coast near the Krishna delta, and Chaul on the Konkan coast near Mumbai. In the Gupta period and earlier, these ports traded with South-east Asia, the Roman world and the Arabs, exporting textiles, spices and gems. Option (b) is wrong: they were not royal capitals. Option (c) is wrong: they were not known for stone art. Option (d) is a trap: Ghantasala had a Buddhist stupa, but here it is grouped as a port.
Notice other ports of the time: Tamralipti in Bengal and Bharukachchha (Broach). Notice too the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, which lists ports of the early centuries AD.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to the history of India, consider the following pairs :
| Famous Place | Present State
| 1. Bhilsa | Madhya Pradesh
| 2. Dwarasamudra | Maharashtra
| 3. Girinagar | Gujarat
| 4. Sthanesvara | Uttar Pradesh
Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched ?
Answer (a) & explanation
Pairs 1 and 3 are correct (a). Pair 1 is right: Bhilsa is the old name of Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, near Sanchi, where the Heliodorus pillar stands. Pair 2 is wrong: Dwarasamudra (Halebidu) was the Hoysala capital in Karnataka, not Maharashtra. Pair 3 is right: Girinagar is Girnar near Junagadh, Gujarat, the site of Ashoka's edicts and Rudradaman's inscription. Pair 4 is wrong: Sthanesvara (Thanesar), the first capital of Harsha's Pushyabhuti family, is in Haryana, not Uttar Pradesh.
Notice that Sudarshana lake at Girnar was built under the Mauryas and repaired by Rudradaman and later by Skandagupta. Harsha later moved his capital to Kannauj.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Consider the following events in the history of India:
- 1. Rise of Pratiharas under King Bhoja
- 2. Establishment of Pallava power under Mahendravarman — I
- 3. Establishment of Chola power by Parantaka — I
- 4. Pala dynasty founded by Gopala
What is the correct chronological order of the above events, starting from the earliest time ?
Answer (c) & explanation
The order is 2-4-1-3 (c). Mahendravarman I of the Pallavas ruled from about 600 to 630 CE. He built rock-cut temples and wrote the play Mattavilasa Prahasana. Gopala was chosen king in Bengal around 750 CE, founding the Pala dynasty, a rare case of an elected king. Mihira Bhoja brought the Pratiharas to their height from about 836 CE. Parantaka I ruled from 907 CE and spread Chola power, though Vijayalaya founded the line around 850.
These three dynasties, the Palas, Pratiharas and Rashtrakutas, fought the tripartite struggle for Kannauj. Notice the Pala legacy: Dharmapala founded Vikramashila university, and Nalanda flourished under them.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Which of the following phrases defines the nature of the ‘Hundi’ generally referred to in the sources of the post-Harsha period ?
Answer (c) & explanation
A hundi was a bill of exchange (c). A hundi was a written order by which a merchant could pay money at a distant place through a banker there. A trader in one town paid money to a shroff (sarraf), who gave him a hundi that could be cashed in another town. This meant traders did not have to carry cash over unsafe roads. It was in use from the early medieval period and through Mughal times, run by networks of shroffs and Marwari bankers. It was not a royal advisory (a), an account diary (b), or a feudal order (d).
Notice the modern echo: the hawala system works in a similar way, but illegally. Hundis were a key part of India's pre-colonial banking system.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to the history of India, the terms “kulyavapa” and “dronavapa” denote
Answer (a) & explanation
They denote measurements of land (a). Gupta-period land grants from Bengal, such as those at Paharpur and Damodarpur, measure land in kulyavapa and dronavapa. The names come from the amount of seed needed to sow the plot: a kulya or a drona measure. A kulyavapa was larger, about eight dronavapas. These grants show that land was being bought and sold, and given to Brahmins and Buddhist monasteries. They were not coins (b), urban land classes (c) or rituals (d).
Notice other Gupta land terms: nivartana in central and western India, and padavarta. The Gupta land grants are used by historians to argue that Indian feudalism grew in this period, with agraharas and rights over villagers passing to grantees.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Who among the following rulers advised his subjects through this inscription ?
“Whosoever praises his religious sect or blames other sects out of excessive devotion to his own sect, with the view of glorifying his own sect, he rather injures his own sect very severely.”
Answer (a) & explanation
Ashoka issued this advice (a). The lines come from Ashoka's Major Rock Edict XII, which is about respect between religious sects. It asks people to control their speech (vachaguti), not to praise their own sect or criticise others without reason, and to listen to the teachings of other sects. Ashoka said that whoever glorifies his own sect by running down others actually harms it. This tolerance was a key part of his dhamma. Samudragupta (b) is known from the Allahabad Pillar praise by Harisena. Harshavardhana (c) held assemblies at Kannauj and Prayag. Krishnadeva Raya (d) wrote Amuktamalyada.
Notice that Ashoka's edicts were mostly in Prakrit and Brahmi, with Kharosthi, Greek and Aramaic in the north-west.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Which one of the following is not a Harappan site?
Answer (c) & explanation
Sohgaura is not a Harappan site (c). Sohgaura, in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh, is known for a Mauryan-period copper plate in Brahmi script. It records the setting up of storehouses for famine relief, one of the earliest such records. Chanhudaro (a) in Sindh was a bead-making centre and the only Harappan city without a citadel. Kot Diji (b), also in Sindh, shows a pre-Harappan phase with fortifications. Desalpur (d) in Kachchh, Gujarat, is a fortified Harappan site.
Notice the newest Harappan sites: Rakhigarhi (Haryana), one of the largest, where ancient DNA was studied, and Dholavira, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021. Lothal's National Maritime Heritage Complex is being built.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to forced labour (Vishti) in India during the Gupta period, which one of the following statements is correct?
Answer (a) & explanation
Option (a) is correct. Vishti was forced, unpaid labour that the king, or the holder of a land grant, could demand from villagers. It was treated as a tax paid in labour instead of money or crops, and therefore as a source of income for the state. Option (b) is wrong because Gupta-period inscriptions from central India and the Valabhi grants in Kathiawar mention vishti. Option (c) is wrong because there is no record of weekly wages; by definition it was unpaid. Option (d) is wrong because no source says the eldest son was sent.
Notice the related trend of land grants (agrahara) to Brahmins and temples, which often passed on the right to vishti. Historians link this to the rise of Indian feudalism, an idea argued by R.S. Sharma.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to the difference between the culture of Rigvedic Aryans and Indus Valley people, which of the following statements is/are correct ?
- 1. Rigvedic Aryans used the coat of mail and helmet in warfare whereas the people of Indus Valley Civilization did not leave any evidence of using them.
- 2. Rigvedic Aryans knew gold, silver and copper whereas Indus Valley people knew only copper and iron.
- 3. Rigvedic Aryans had domesticated the horse whereas there is no evidence of Indus Valley people having been aware of this animal.
Select the correct answer using the code given below :
Answer (c) & explanation
Statements 1 and 3 are correct (c). The Rigveda mentions armour (varman) and helmets (shipra), while no such gear has been found at Harappan sites (1). The horse is central to Rigvedic life, pulling chariots and appearing in the ashvamedha, but solid evidence of horses at Harappan sites is weak, apart from disputed finds at Surkotada (3). Statement 2 is wrong because the Harappans used gold, silver, copper, tin and bronze, but not iron. Iron came into use only around 1000 BCE, in the later Vedic period and the Painted Grey Ware culture.
The Rigvedic people knew copper and bronze (ayas). Notice the contrast between the two cultures: the Harappans were urban, while the Rigvedic people were pastoral and rural, counting wealth in cattle.
"Copper and iron" is the slip. The Harappan age is a Bronze Age.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Who of the following had first deciphered the edicts of Emperor Ashoka?
Answer (b) & explanation
James Prinsep first deciphered Ashoka's edicts (b). An official of the Calcutta mint and secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, he cracked the Brahmi script in 1837 and read the title "Devanampiya Piyadasi". Georg Bühler (a) later studied Indian scripts and edicts in detail, Max Müller (c) was an Indologist of the Vedas, and William Jones (d) founded the Asiatic Society in 1784.
Prinsep did not know who Piyadasi was; the name Ashoka itself was confirmed only by the Maski edict, found in 1915. Notice how deciphering one script opened up the Mauryan age and the later study of Kharosthi too.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
In the context of the history of India, consider the following pairs :
| Term | Description
| 1. Eripatti | Land, revenue from which was set apart for the maintenance of the village tank
| 2. Taniyurs | Villages donated to a single Brahmin or a group of Brahmins
| 3. Ghatikas | Colleges generally attached to the temples
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
Answer (d) & explanation
Pairs 1 and 3 are correctly matched (d). In Chola and other south Indian inscriptions, eripatti ("tank land") was land whose income was set aside to maintain the village tank (1). Irrigation tanks were cared for by an eri-variyam (tank committee) of the village assembly. Ghatikas were centres of learning, usually attached to temples (3). The Kanchi ghatika is famous; the Kadamba founder Mayurasharma went there to study. Pair 2 is wrong because taniyurs were large villages made into separate revenue units. A village gifted to Brahmins was a brahmadeya, and one gifted to temples was a devadana.
Notice the Chola village assemblies: the ur (general villages) and the sabha (Brahmin villages). The Uttaramerur inscriptions describe how the sabha's members were chosen by lot.
Many taniyurs were brahmadeyas, so pair 2 looks close. The key wants brahmadeya for a gift to Brahmins.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
With reference to Indian history, which of the following is/are the essential element/elements of the feudal system?
- 1. A very strong centralized political authority and a very weak provincial or local political authority
- 2. Emergence of administrative structure based on control and possession of land
- 3. Creation of lord-vassal relationship between the feudal lord and his overlord
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Answer (b) & explanation
Statements 2 and 3 are correct (b). In the debate on early medieval "Indian feudalism", led by historians such as R. S. Sharma, land grants created a ladder of power resting on the control and possession of land (2). Local chiefs called samantas owed service and tribute to their overlord in a lord–vassal relationship (3). Statement 1 is the opposite of feudalism, which means a weak central authority and strong local lords.
Historians like Harbans Mukhia questioned whether European feudalism fits India. Notice how land grants also spread agriculture and Brahmanical culture into new areas.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
In medieval India, the designations ‘Mahattara’ and ‘Pattakila’ were used for
Answer (b) & explanation
Mahattara (village elders or headmen) and pattakila (the village headman) appear in early medieval land-grant inscriptions as village leaders (b). When land was granted, these local figures were told to respect the rights of the donee. The modern word patel comes from pattakila. They were not military officers (a), Vedic ritual specialists (c) or guild chiefs (d).
Land grants grew common from the Gupta period and are a major source on rural society. Notice how a single word can survive for a thousand years: patel is still a village office and a surname in western India.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
Which of the following characterizes/characterize the people of Indus Civilization?
- 1. They possessed great palaces and temples.
- 2. They worshipped both male and female deities.
- 3. They employed horse-drawn chariots in warfare.
Select the correct statement/statements using the codes given below.
Answer (b) & explanation
Statement 2 only is correct (b). Harappans worshipped both female and male deities: many terracotta Mother Goddess figurines and the 'Pashupati' or proto-Shiva seal showing a horned figure among animals (2). Statement 1 is wrong: no grand palaces or temples have been found; the Great Bath and granaries are the main public buildings. Statement 3 is wrong: horse-drawn chariots belong to the later Vedic Aryans; the horse is barely attested in Harappan sites, and the Sinauli chariots (UP) are later and not Harappan. So (a), (c) and (d) fail.
Notice the other features: fire altars at Kalibangan and Lothal, worship of trees (pipal) and animals (the bull, the unicorn). The Harappan script remains undeciphered. Trap: horses are a classic marker separating Harappan from Vedic culture.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.
The Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang (Hiuen Tsang) who visited India recorded the general conditions and culture of India at that time. In this context, which of the following statements is/are correct?
- 1. The roads and river-routes were completely immune from robbery.
- 2. As regards punishment for offences, ordeals by fire, water and poison were the instruments for determining the innocence or guilt of a person.
- 3. The tradesmen had to pay duties at ferries and barrier stations.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below.
Answer (b) & explanation
Statements 2 and 3 are correct (b). Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsang) visited India in Harsha's time (about 630–645 CE). He records trials by ordeal, by fire, water, poison and weighing, to decide guilt or innocence (2), and duties at ferries and barrier stations paid by traders (3). Statement 1 is wrong: he was himself robbed more than once on his travels, so roads were not immune from robbery. So (a), (c) and (d) fail.
Notice his other records: he studied at Nalanda, attended Harsha's assemblies at Kannauj and Prayag, and wrote the 'Si-Yu-Ki' (Records of the Western World). Earlier, Fa-Hien visited under Chandragupta II, and later I-Tsing. Trap: 'completely immune' is an absolute claim his own story disproves.
Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.