Ancient Indian History MCQs

Notes:
The Shvetambara sect of Jainism acknowledged the possibility of women attaining Jina-hood. The 19th Tirthankara is a female named Malli, who is the only female Tirthankara belonging to Shwetambara sect.

Notes:
Gautam Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath. At the age of 80, he finally attained at Kusinara (lying in Mallas). It is believed that his last words were, “All composite things decay, strive diligently”.

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Udayana was the king of Vatsa mahajanapada. He was also the hero of three Sanskrit dramas which were known as Svapnavasavadatta wriiten by Bhasa, Priyadarshika, and Ratnavali written by Harsha.

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The Ashavaka or Assaka Mahajanapada was located between the rivers Godavari and Manjira. It was situated in central India but extended towards south India making it the only mahajanapada situated to the south of Vindhya Ranges.

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Chandragupta defeated Seleucus Nicator around 301 BCE. Seleucus was compelled to surrender Arachosia (Qandahar area of south-east Afghanistan), Gedrosia (south Baluchistan), and Parapomisadai (the area between Afghanistan and the Indian sub-continent, such as Kabul, Herat, Gandhara) to him in return for 500 elephants.

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Ashoka was appointed the viceroy of both Taxila and Ujjain during the reign of Mauryan King Bindusara. Both the cities handled commercial activities. Asoka had himself formally crowned in 268 BC.

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Ashokan Pillar Edicts have been found at 7 different places. Two Pillar Edicts, one from Topra and the other one from Meerut were shifted to Delhi by Feroz Shah Tughlaq of the Tughlaq dynasty.

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According to Chanakya also known as Kautilya, the king was referred to as the Dharmapravakta in Mauryan administration. He was the promulgator of social orders as he issued Rajasasana which are royal rescripts and maintained porana pakiti, i.e., ancient rules and customs.

Notes:
The Magadha province of the Mauryan empire had its capital at Pataliputra. However the Mauryan Empire was further divided into four other provinces, with capitals at Taxila (north-western India), Suvarnagiri (southern India), Tosali (eastern India), and Ujjain (western India).

Notes:
In the Mauryan administration, the war office was made up of six boards, the fifth board named as the board of war chariots was headed by the rathadhyaksha who looked after the chariots. He was also responsible for giving wages to employees preparing chariots.