Ancient India — PPSC previous year questions

'Mudrarakshasa' is a Sanskrit political drama by Vishakhadatta (c. 4th–5th century CE) narrating how Chanakya won over Rakshasa, minister of the Nandas, to the side of Chandragupta Maurya. Malayaketu is a character in the play, and Kautilya/Chanakya is its hero, not its author.

Ashoka (c. 268–232 BCE), the Mauryan emperor, was the first Indian ruler to have his edicts engraved on rocks and polished sandstone pillars, mostly in Prakrit in the Brahmi script (Kharosthi in the north-west). They were deciphered by James Prinsep in 1837. His grandfather Chandragupta Maurya left no inscriptions of his own.

The Great Bath was found in the citadel of Mohenjo-daro (Sindh, Pakistan). It is a brick-lined tank, about 12 m × 7 m. Bitumen made it watertight. It was likely for ritual bathing. Harappa is known for granaries. Kalibangan for a ploughed field and fire altars. Ropar was the first Harappan site dug in independent India.

Aryabhata (born 476 CE) was the great astronomer and mathematician of the Gupta age. His work Aryabhatiya gives the value of pi as 3.1416, explains eclipses scientifically, and states that the earth rotates on its axis; he also worked on the place-value system and trigonometric sines. India's first satellite (1975) was named after him.

The outstanding feature of the Harappan civilization is its town planning. The streets ran in a grid and cut each other at right angles. Baked bricks were standardised in the ratio 4:2:1. A raised fortified citadel stood beside a lower town. A covered drain ran along every street. Other cultures of the time also knew settled agriculture and roads. No Harappan structure has been conclusively identified as a temple.

Among the options, Dholavira (Kutch, Gujarat) is the largest Harappan site in India. It is noted for its three-tier city plan, elaborate water reservoirs and the signboard of Indus script. Mohenjodaro and Chanhudaro are in Sindh, Pakistan. Lothal (Gujarat) is a small port town known for its dockyard. Later excavations show Rakhigarhi in Haryana is larger still, but it is not offered here.

Mohenjo-daro, on the Indus in Sindh (Pakistan), is the largest excavated settlement of the Indus Valley Civilization, roughly 250 hectares, with the Great Bath, granary and citadel. Note the wording: the largest Indian site is a different question — among Indian sites Dholavira (Gujarat) is the largest excavated one, while Rakhigarhi in Haryana may be larger in total area but has been only partly excavated. Lothal was a port town and Chanhudaro a small craft centre.

The Chalcolithic Age (copper-stone age, roughly 3000-1000 BCE in India) is when people used copper alongside stone tools — 'chalco' means copper and 'lithic' means stone. Indian Chalcolithic cultures include Ahar-Banas (Rajasthan), Kayatha and Malwa (MP) and Jorwe (Maharashtra). Paleolithic = old stone age (hunting-gathering), Mesolithic = middle stone age (microliths), Neolithic = new stone age (beginning of agriculture and polished tools).

Both statements are wrong. The horse was practically unknown to the Indus Valley people (no clear horse remains have been found at Harappan sites), so they could not have valued it for warfare. In the later Vedic period it was the Rajasuya sacrifice that was believed to confer supreme or divine power on the king; the Vajapeya was a chariot-race sacrifice meant to give strength.

Buddhacharita (life of the Buddha) is by Ashvaghosha, Milinda Panho (the questions of King Menander) by the monk Nagasena, and Madhyamika Karika by Nagarjuna, founder of the Madhyamika school. Since Ashvaghosha is already used for A, the 'Sutralankara' here is Asanga's Mahayana-Sutralankara, not the older work of that name often listed under Ashvaghosha. > A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3