Edicts and Inscriptions - Free MCQ Practice Test with solutions, UPSC History

The correct answer is Option B - Rock Edict XIII

Rock Edict XIII is a first-person royal inscription of Emperor Ashoka that provides a direct narrative of the Kalinga War, conventionally dated to c. 261 BCE.

The edict gives figures for the human cost of the campaign, referring to roughly 100,000 killed and about 150,000 taken captive or deported, and records the widespread suffering that followed.

The inscription expresses Ashoka's deep remorse and describes his subsequent shift in policy toward propagation of Dhamma - a programme of moral instruction, welfare measures and non-violent influence rather than further territorial conquest.

The text of Rock Edict XIII occurs at several rock-edict locations, notably Kalsi, Girnar, Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra, and is the principal primary source for the historical account of the Kalinga campaign.

The correct answer is Option D - 1, 2 and 3

Statement 1 is incorrect: most surviving land-grant records from the period are preserved on copper plates issued to the donees; while some grants were inscribed on stone, stone inscriptions were not the predominant medium for recording land grants.

Statement 2 is incorrect: epigraphic evidence shows that women sometimes had independent access to land and resources; for example, Prabhavatigupta is recorded in inscriptions as exercising control over land and making grants, so it is not true that there is no evidence of women's independent access to land.

Statement 3 is incorrect: an Agrahara was a revenue-exempt land grant made to Brahmanas; it was not the term used for land granted to a Samanta (a feudal chief), who received other types of grants.

Since each of the three statements is factually incorrect, the option that states all three are incorrect is the correct choice.

The correct answer is Option D - Kanishka

The Rabatak inscription is a Bactrian-language record written in a script derived from the Greek script, discovered in 1993 at Rabatak in northern Afghanistan, and conventionally dated to the early 2nd century CE.

The text explicitly names Kanishka I, gives his genealogy and imperial titles, and records dedications and images of deities including Nana, thereby directly associating the ruler with his dynasty and religious patronage.

The inscription's importance lies in its demonstration of official use of Bactrian, its value for dating and reconstructing the chronology of Kanishka I, and its attestation of Kushan political and cultural presence extending into parts of northern India.

For these reasons the Rabatak inscription is cited as primary epigraphic evidence linking Kanishka with his subjects and domains.

The correct answer is Option C - 2 and 3 only

Statement 1 is correct: the Ashokan inscriptions form one of the earliest decipherable corpora of written records in India after the Harappan civilization; they date to the 3rd century BCE and are mainly in Prakrit written in the Brahmi script on rocks and pillars.

Statement 2 is incorrect: the Maski inscription (in Karnataka) is a rock edict that explicitly names Asoka together with the title Devanampriya, thereby identifying the royal titulary; it does not read or identify him as the phrase given in the statement, nor is its primary identification dependent on a stupa inscription.

Statement 3 is incorrect: across most of the subcontinent Ashokan edicts are in Prakrit (in the Brahmi script); in the north-west some inscriptions use the Kharosthi script, and a few bilingual or parallel versions occur in Greek and Aramaic (for example at Kandahar); Sanskrit was not the primary language of the Ashokan edicts.

Because Statements 2 and 3 are incorrect while Statement 1 is correct, the option indicating that 2 and 3 only are not correct is the right choice.

The correct answer is Option A - Only two pairs

Pair 1 is correct. The Sarnath capital features four Asiatic lions standing back to back on an abacus that shows reliefs of an elephant, a horse, a bull and a lion; it was originally surmounted by the Dharmachakra (the Ashoka Chakra) with 24 spokes.

Pair 2 is correct. The pillar at Lauriya-Nandangarh has a single lion capital mounted on a circular abacus, and the pillar bears clear Ashokan edicts; the polished finish is characteristic of Mauryan polish.

Pair 3 is incorrect. The Rampurva capital in Champaran is the well-known Rampurva bull capital depicting a zebu bull (not a horse) on an abacus above an inverted lotus; therefore the pairing with a horse is wrong.

Hence, only two pairs are correctly matched.

The correct answer is Option C - 2 and 3 only

Statement 1 is incorrect: the well-known inscription at Uttiramerur is on the walls of the Vaikunda Perumal Temple, but it is generally attributed to the earlier Chola period (commonly linked to the reign of Parantaka I) rather than to Raja Raja I.

Statement 2 is correct: the inscription provides detailed rules for the functioning of the local sabha (village assembly), describing its composition, the committees that managed different local affairs, the duties of office-holders and procedures for selection and accountability.

The inscription specifies institutional arrangements such as division into 30 wards, selection of representatives from these wards, eligibility conditions (for example, ownership of property and residence), age limits (between 35 and 70 are cited in the text), and that members should be conversant with Vedic rites in the context of the assembly's Brahmanical make-up. It also records selection by a draw of lots from the pool of eligible candidates.

Statement 3 is correct: the inscription lists disqualifications that exclude a person and certain family relations from holding office - for example, failure to render accounts when previously holding a post, involvement in specified offences or misconduct, loss of property or other conditions that render a person ineligible. These provisions show both the attempt to ensure accountability and the social limits on membership.

Therefore, after verifying each statement against the inscriptional evidence, only statements 2 and 3 are correct, while statement 1 is not.

The correct answer is Option A - 1, 2 and 3

All three items are correctly identified as epigraphical records associated with Harsha; they consist of copper-plate inscriptions and a copper seal that historians use as primary archaeological evidence for his rule dated to 606-647 CE.

The three specific records are the Madhuban copper-plate inscription, the Sonipat copper seal inscription, and the Banskhera copper-plate inscription; each preserves details such as royal titles, donations/grants, administrative information and official seals.

These epigraphical sources supplement contemporary literary accounts-notably Bana's Harshacharita and Hiuen Tsang's Si-Yu-Ki-by providing independent chronological and administrative data that help reconstruct the political and administrative history of Harsha's reign.

Because they are contemporaneous records produced under or for the ruling authority, these copper-plate and seal inscriptions are treated as reliable primary evidence for studying the chronology, titulature and administrative practices of Harsha.