Ancient Indian History MCQs

Notes:
Mehrgarh, located near the Bolan Pass in Balochistan, Pakistan provides the earliest evidence of settled farming in South Asia. Mehrgarh was continuously inhabited from 7000 BCE to 2500 BCE, showcasing the change from nomadic pastoralism to sedentary agriculture based on crops like wheat and barley, supplemented by herding sheep and goats.

Notes:
Tools used in various ages were:
Early Palaeolithic: Hand axes and cleavers
Middle Palaeolithic: Scraper and flakes
Upper Palaeolithic: Blades and burins
Mesolithic: Microliths

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Gautama Buddha is also known as Sakyamuni or Tathagata. He was born as Siddhartha in 563 BCE at Lumbini (near Kapilavastu, Nepal) to the King Suddhodana (chief of republican Sakya clan).

Notes:
The 10 realms of being as stated in Buddhism are Buddha, Bodhisattva, Pratyeka Buddha, Sravaka, Heavenly beings, Human beings, Asura, Beasts, Preta, Depraved men. These ten realms occur at the same time which means that each one realm has the remaining nine realms inclusive.

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The law of dependent organization or patichcha-samuppada as mentioned in Buddhism explains the reason of all dukkha, as well as the key to its liberation. There are 12 components arranged in a wheel and one leading to next.

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Asvaghosha is the author of the Buddhacharitra. He had compiled the Buddhacharitra in the Sanskrit language. He was contemporary to Kanishka. He was also a dramatist, musician, debater, and scholar.

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Charvaka was the main expounder of materialistic philosophy. Charvakas rejected Vedas and any rituals. They were opposed to the idea of God or any other supernatural power. Most of its literature is lost now.

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Bindusara was the son of Chandra Gupta Maurya, and the second to sit on the throne of the Mauryan Dynasty from 298 BCE to 273 BCE. Greeks writers address him as Amitrochates which also meant the destroyer of foes.

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Rupadarshaka was the inspector of coins in the Mauryan administration. In the Mauryan administration a considerable part of the revenue was spent for the maintenance of the army, war horses, war elephants, and war chariots.

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Kanishka had two capitals, Purushapura and Mathura. In the capital city of Purushpura, he built a giant stupa to house the Buddha’s relics. The building was magnificent as described by the Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hien who visited the area later in the early fifth century CE.