Test: Change In Social Structure Of Ancient India - 1 - UPSC MCQ

Growth of crafts and commerce

The use of iron tools

Wide ciruclation of currency

Formation of territorial states

The Rig Vedic period

The later Vedic period

The sixth century B.C.

500 B.C.-500 A.D.

The Bhagvad Gita enjoined the people to abide by their ownjati dharma.

The priests and the Kshatriyas were the rulers.

The lower classes worked hard hoping that they would go up in the caste hierarchy in their next birth.

It was not difficult for the castes to deviate from their rights and duties.

5th century B.C.

Ist century B.C.

Ist century A.D.

4th centry A.D.

Since cultivation was looked down upon by the Brahmanas they developed the concept of ritual pollution so that they could employ the lower castes for cultivation.

The process mentioned above reduced the status of Sudras and other out-castes.

Untouchability was extended even to heretical sects though they belonged to higher castes.

Down-grading of castes did not apply to the Vaishyas.

The Greeks settled in large number of Kaveripattinam.

The presence of foreigners of political and economic importance posed a threat to the caste system.

The Sangam poems often referred to the Yavanas who were treated as out-castes.

Some of the Yavanas were assigned the status of Kshatriyas.

Since the Brahmanas became more aloof, the caste system became more rigids.

Brahmana’s passion for exclusiveness nurtured their obsession with pollution by Chandalas or outcastes.

Since unlike the Vaishyas, the Brahmanas possessed land, the prestige of Buddhism declined.

Vaishyas nurtured bitter feelings against the Brahmanas and tried to organise Shudras against them.

Conquest of the indigenous inhabitants by the Aryans.

High social position of the Brahmana priests.

Colour distinction between the Aryans and the indigenous inhabitants.

Unequal distribution of the spoils of war.

Beginning of serfdom

Increased authority of the Brahmanas

Growth of trade and commerce

Decline in the status of women

In the Vedic period

Around 600 B.C.

In the Maurya period

With the beginning of agriculture and trade

Dissemination of the knowledge of art of writing and use of Prakrit and Sanskrit. 

Beginning of the village panchayat system.

Spread of agricultural calendar.

Diffusion of the knowledge of Ayurveda medicine.

The emergence of a class of landlords living on the produce of the peasants.

Dissemination of the knowledge of art of writing and the use of Prakrit and Sanskrit.

The spread of agricultural calender.

Increase in over all production.

The political role of the Vaishyas was on the decline and they virtually lost their rights to possess weapon.

Their social group bore the bulk of the tax burden.

New social groups were formed by the inter- marriages between the Vaishya and Shudra craftsmen.

Rich Vaishyas, known as Settis, were powerful merchants, money-lenders and landowers.

An issueless wife could marry the brother or a close relative of her deceased husband.

Marriages between blood relatives were forbidden.

The most serious crime of all was held to be the marriage between a Shudra male and a Brahmana female.

All of the above.

In the Rig Vedic period

In the post Vedic period

In the age of Dharma Shastras

In the post-Gupta age

As a result of the division of labour and its specialisation there was a particularly marked growth in the number of castes in the towns.

The varna principle was not rigidly observed now.

Jati existed as a social institution separate from thevarna.

The persons of a particular varna could change their professions.

The various jatis performing various functions made most of the villages self-sufficient.

The karma principle enjoined that each one should be true to his owndharma.

The jati system enable people to maintain intimate social contacts.

Jati was something like social insurance and provided social support to a member in distress.

The jati system proliferated when the occupations multiplied and the contact between dif-ferent regions became negligible.

Although one jati persued one occupation, people pursuing the same occupation regard themselves as a different jati because of distances.

The jati system was sanctioned by Brahmanas andKshatriyas.

On occasions some of the jatis emulated the practices of a superior jati and thus received recognition from the priestly order.

The scriptures from the 6th century A.D. onwards permitted deviation from the jati dharma.

One is born in a jati and till the time of death his whole life is governed by thedharma of his jati .

Jati dharma regulated every facet of one’s life including the deity to be worshipped, the rituals to be performed, the length of dhoti of the king and ornaments to be worn and so on.

One is born in a particular jati because of his actions in his previous birth.

Bhagavad Gita

Manu Smriti

Early Pali literature

Kautilya’s Arthasastra

The new social groups emerged as a result of social development, particularly division of labour.

Children of mixed marriages were assigned a category different from their parents and belonged to a specific jati .

The untouchables were at the bottom of the social ladder and outside the varna system.

The emergence ofjati completely overshadowed the Vedic varna system and jati became the real status symbol.

The untoucnables did not enjoy any political rights.

Members of higher castes had nothing to do with them.

They were supposed to stay in the Shudra localities.

Untouchables were sometimes singled kout by specific marks indicating their low status.

Manu

Medhatithi

Jimutavahana

Vijnananesvara

According to Medhatithi the Shudras were not slaves by nature.

According to Medhatithi the Shudras had a right to follow all the four ashramas like the members of the twice-born castes.

According to Medhatithi the Shudras has right to perform marriage rites prescribed by the Smritis.

All of the above.