Test: Ancient History - Bank Exams MCQ

• S.R. Rao was an Indian archaeologist who claimed to have deciphered the Harappan script in the 1980s.
• According to Rao, he was able to decode the script by comparing the inscriptions to the Brahmi script, an ancient Indian script used for writing Sanskrit.
• Rao's decipherment claimed that the Harappan script was a form of proto-Dravidian language, which he believed was the language spoken by the Harappan people.
• He argued that the script was a combination of ideographic and phonetic symbols, similar to other ancient scripts such as Egyptian hieroglyphs.
• However, Rao's decipherment has not been accepted by the majority of historians and linguists.
• The Harappan script remains undeciphered, and there is no consensus on the language or languages spoken by the Harappan people.
• Some scholars have suggested that the script may be a form of proto-Indo-European, while others have proposed other possibilities.
• One reason for the lack of acceptance of Rao's decipherment is the lack of evidence to support his claims.
• Rao's work has not been peer-reviewed or published in any reputable academic journals, and his methodology has been criticized for its lack of rigour.
• Furthermore, other scholars who have attempted to decipher the script have not been able to replicate Rao's results.
• In conclusion, while S.R. Rao claimed to have deciphered the Harappan script, his decipherment has not been accepted by the majority of historians and linguists.
• The Harappan script remains an enigma, and its meaning and significance continue to be the subject of ongoing research and debate.

 Hence we can conclude that the correct answer is ​S R Rao has claimed to have deciphered the Harappan script which is accepted by majority of the historians.

Administration during the Mauryan Empire - 

• Mauryan Empire was a monarchial system.
• A council of ministers called Mantriparishad assisted the king in administrative matters. It consisted of Purohita, Mahamantri, Senapati and Yuvaraja.
• There were civil servants called Amatyas to look after the day-to-day administration.
• ​Asoka appointed Dhamma Mahamatras to supervise the spread of Dhamma. 
• Samharta, the chief of the Revenue Department, was in charge of the collection of all revenues of the empire. 
• ​The Mauryan army was well organized and it was under the control of Senapati.
• Department of Commerce and Industry controlled the retail and wholesale prices of goods and tried to ensure their steady supply through its officers called Adyakshas.
• It also controlled weights and measures, levied custom duties, and regulated foreign trade.
• The chief justice of the Supreme Court at the capital was called Dharmathikarin.

• Nevasa is a city in Nevasa tehsil of Ahmednagar district in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
• The remains of a multilevel settlement dating from the Palaeolithic period to the Middle Ages have been discovered at Navasa.
• Excavations were conducted by H. D. Sankalia in the 1950s and by G. Karve-Corvinus in 1967.
• Nevasa's Aeneolithic layer reveals a settled agricultural culture characterized in the second millennium B.C. by implements (elongated plates) similar to those of the Harappa civilization.

• The Rig-Veda is the oldest of the four collections of hymns and other sacred texts known as the Vedas.
• It contains most of the information about the religious and social life of the early Vedic period.
• These works are considered the "sacred knowledge" of the Aryans.
• The Rig-Veda also contains ideas that served as the basis for India's system of castes(Varna).
• According to Brahminic ideology, Varṇa means hierarchizing society into classes.

• The Indus Valley Civilization was spread from present-day North-East Afghanistan to Pakistan and North-West India.
• The civilization flourished in the river basins of the Ghaggar-Hakra river and the Indus.
• Indus valley civilization is one of the four oldest civilizations in the world.
• It is also known as Harappan Civilization and is well-known for its organized planning based on the grid system.

• Kalinga's King Kharvela was associated with Mahameghavahana dynasty.
• The Mahameghavahana dynasty was an ancient ruling dynasty of Kalinga after the decline of the Maurya Empire.
• King Kharavela was the third ruler of the dynasty and also been famous for his Hathigumpha inscription of Udayagiri, near Bhubaneswar in Odisha.
• He reigns between 193 BCE to 170 BCE.

According to Rigveda,the famous battle of ten kings ( or Dasrajan Yudha) was between Sudas, a Bharata king of the Tritsu family and the confederacy of ten well-known tribes- Puru, Yadu, Turvasa, Anu, Druhyu, Alina, Paktha ,Bhalanas,Shiva and Vishanin.In the bloody and decisive battle on the banks of River Parushni the Bharatas emerged victorious.

The ruler of Nanda Dynasty, Dhanananda was the contemporary of Alexander.

The two major rock edicts of Ashoka viz. Mansehra and Sahbazgarhi are in Kharosthi script. These both the rock edicts are in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

The famous Satvahana ruler Gautamiputra Satkarni defeated the Saka King Nahapana and restored the prestige of his dynasty by reconquering a large part of the former dominions of the Satavahanas.