JPSC Prelims Paper 1 Mock Test - 3 - JPSC (Jharkhand) MCQ

Jatakas:

• Statement 3 is incorrect: The Jatakas are the best example of Buddhist non-canonical literature. These are a compilation of stories from the previous births of Buddha.

• Statement 1 is correct: The stories of the Bodhisattva or the (future) would-be Buddha are also discussed in these Jatakas.

• Statement 2 is correct: Although these stories propagate Buddhist religious doctrines, they are available in Sanskrit and Pali. Each story of the birth of the Buddha is equivalent to a Jataka tale. It was believed that Buddha passed through 550 births before he was born as Gautama. These tales combine the popular tales, ancient mythology as well as sociopolitical conditions in North India between 600 BC and 200 BC. The great epic Buddhacharita by Aswaghosha (78 A.D.) is another example of Buddhist literature in Sanskrit.

Statement 1 is incorrect: Official Language Act, 1963. This Act declares Hindi in Devanagari script as the official language of the Union. English has been given the status of “subsidiary official language” of the union, but there is no national language of India. Hindi is not a national language. Neither does the Constitution nor any Act defines the national language.

Statement 2 is correct: Initially 14 languages were selected under Eighth Schedule. They were:

• Assamese

• Hindi

• Malayalam

• Punjabi

• Telugu

• Bengali

• Kannada

• Marathi

• Sanskrit

• Urdu

• Gujarati

• Kashmiri

• Odia

• Tamil

Later Sindhi was added as the 15th language through 21st Amendment Act of 1967. Three more languages were added by 71st Amendment Act, 1992. They are Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali. 92nd Amendment Act, 2003 added four more languages to the Eighth Schedule. They are Bodo, Maithili, Dogri and Santhali. At present there are 22 languages in total listed under the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution.

• Statement 1 is correct: ‘Nimbarka’ was the founder of ‘Dvaitadvaita’ i.e., dualistic monism. He wrote Vedanta-Parijata-Saurabha, a commentary on the Brahma Sutras. He was a Radha-Krishna devotee and settled down in Mathura. He referred to the five methods of salvation-Karma, Vidya (Not an independent factor), Dhyana (meditation), Prapatti (devotion) and Gurupasatti (devotion and self-surrender to guru).

• Statement 2 is correct: The Bhakti saints were divided into two schools depending on the way they imagined God. One school of thought imagined God as formless with no attributes or quality. This school of thought is the Nirguna School. They are more focused on acquiring knowledge. They rejected the scriptures and condemned every form of idol worship. The prominent figures of this school of thought were Kabir, Guru Nanak and Dadu Dayal.

The Hathigumpha Inscription ("Elephant Cave" inscription), from Udayagiri, near Bhubaneswar in Odisha, was inscribed by Kharavela, the then Emperor of Kalinga in India. It is written in Prakrit. It faces straight towards the Rock Edicts of Ashoka at Dhauli, situated at a distance of about six miles.

• Statement 1 is correct: Dholavira is an ancient archaeological site situated in the Kutch district of Gujarat. It is famous for the ruins of the Indus Valley Civilisation that is popularly also known as ‘Harappan Civilisation’. They city is referred to as ‘Kotada Timba’ in the local language. According to the research conducted in this area, archaeologists argue that this was one of the most prominent sites in the Harappan settlements. The earliest settlement on the site.

• Statement 2 is correct: These caves are situated in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state. They are famous for 29 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments, which have highly carved imagery on the walls. The monuments in the caves are dated to be from 2nd BCE to 5th BCE. They were made a UNESCO world heritage site in 1983. Although the state is responsible for their protection, the Archaeological Survey of India have been protecting the site from damage and engaging experts to conserve the art. The Ajanta caves are surrounded by a heavy forest and were not used for a long while. A British officer who was on a hunting party rediscovered them in 1819. The caves are numbered 1 to 28 according to their place in the U-shaped path. The major art figures are related to Buddhism and many tales from the Jatakas have been depicted on the walls. These caves are very close to the Ellora Caves, which contain religious imagery of Hinduism and Jainism. They also have some caves dedicated to the Buddhist sects.

• Statement 3 is incorrect: Vittala Temple is the most iconic place of Hampi. Hampi literally means ‘Champion’ and it symbolises the major settlement in the ruins of the city of Vijayanagara, which was the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. Although it is a small site in Karnataka, it is still an important religious and cultural centre. It derives its name Hampi from the Kannada word “Hampe”, derived from Pampa (the old name of the Tungabhadra river). We have evidences of Ashokan minor rock edicts at Hampi, but it reached its zenith under the patronage of the Vijayanagara Rulers (1343-1565).

Statement 1 is correct: As one moves from west to east in India, the annual rainfall gradually increases. Thus, from west to east the vegetation gets denser. The thickly forested areas of Ganga and Brahmaputra basin, could be cleared only with iron implements, which appeared in much later stage. Therefore, natural resources of less rainy western parts were utilized first.

• Harappan Culture flourished in the Indus Valley

• Vedic Culture in the Western Gangetic basin

• Post Vedic culture in the Middle Gangetic Basin

• Gupta Period - Bengal and Lower Gangetic valley came in limelight

• Early medieval period - Brahmaputra valley came in focus.

Statement 2 is correct: Rivers served as arteries of commerce and communication in Ancient India, hence all major cities like Hastinapur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Pataliputra came along river banks.

• The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE.

• It extended from Pakistan's Balochistan in the west to India's western Uttar Pradesh in the east, from northeastern Afghanistan in the north to India's Gujarat state in the south.

• Daimabad in Maharastra is a site belonging to the late Harappan stage.

• Statement 1 is correct: Muhammad I defeated the Vijayanagar kingdom and consequently Golconda was annexed to Bahamani kingdom.

• Statement 2 is incorrect: Under Bahman Shah and his son Muhammad Shah, the administrative system was well organized. The kingdom was divided into four administrative units called ‘tarafs’ or provinces. These provinces were Daulatabad, Bidar, Berar, and Gulbarga.

• Statement 3 is correct: Every province was under a tarafdar who was also called a subedar. Some land was converted into Khalisa land from the jurisdiction of the tarafdar. Khalisa land was that piece of land which was used to run expenses of the king and the royal household.

• Statement 1 is correct: The most important department of state, next to the wazir was diwan-i-arz or the military department. The head of the department was called the ariz-i-mamalik. In those days, no king could have survived on the throne if he entrusted the chief command of the armed forces to someone else. Ghiyasuddin Balban ordered separation of military department from the finance department (Diwan-i- Wizarat) and named it Diwan-i-Ariz. The military department was headed by Ariz-i- Mumalik.

• Statement 2 is incorrect: It was Allauddin Khilji and not Mohammad Bin Tughlaq who appointed Barids. Allauddin Khilji was convinced that inefficiency of the spy system is one of the reasons for frequent rebellions in the empire. So he reorganised the espionage system to keep himself in touch with all the developments of the empire. He appointed Barids who reported all the news of the army and Munhiyans who were spies.

• Gopal Ganesh Agarkar (1856-1895) was an educationist and social reformer from Maharashtra. A strong advocate of the power of human reason, he criticized the blind dependence on tradition and false glorification of the past. Gopal Ganesh Agarkar was a cofounder of the New English School (1880), the Deccan Education Society (1884) and the Fergusson College (1885). He was also a principal of Fergusson College.

• He was also the first editor of Kesari, the newspaper started by Lokmanya Tilak in 1881.

• Later, he started his own periodical, Sudharak, which spoke against untouchability and the caste system.

• Statement 1 is correct: Prarthana Samaj was a movement for religious and social reform in Bombay based on earlier reform movements.

• Statement 2 is incorrect: Prarthana Samaj was founded by Atmaram Pandurang in 1867 when Kesab Chandra sen visited Maharashtra. It became popular after Mahadev Govind Ranade joined. The main reformers were the intellectuals who advocated reforms of the social system of the Hindus. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was an Indian yogi during the 19th-century and the spiritual guru of Swami Vivekananda.

• Statement 3 is correct: The aim of Prarthana Samaj was to make people believe in one God and worship only one God. It critically examined the relations between contemporary social and cultural systems and religious beliefs and gave priority to social reform as compared with the political changes already initiated by the British government.

• Moderate-Extremist split occurred in the Surat session of Indian National Congress in 1907.

• Komatgatamaru incident happened in 1914.

• Mahatma Gandhi came back to India in January 1915.

• Home Rule leagues were set up in 1916. (Tilak - April 1916 and Annie Besant -September 1916).

• Statement 1 is correct: Moderates demanded and raised the voice for separation of judicial from executive functions.

• Statement 2 is correct: The moderates` demand for Indianization of government services on multiple accounts like:

  • On the economic grounds that British civil servants got very high emoluments while inclusion of Indians would be more economical; on political grounds that, since salaries of British bureaucrats were remitted back home and pensions paid in England (all drawn from Indian revenue), this amounted to economic drain of national resources; and, on moral grounds that Indians were being discriminated against by being kept away from positions of trust and responsibility.

• Statement 3 is incorrect: The moderates call for increase in expenditure on welfare (i.e., health, sanitation), education—especially elementary and technical—irrigation works and improvement of agriculture, agricultural banks for cultivators, etc. and reduction of expenditure on wars.

  • They did not raise the demand for increase in defense expenditure for protection of Indian territories.

• Statement 1 is correct: It was founded by M.G. Ranade and Raghunath Rao in 1887. It focused attention on social issues of importance; it could be called the social reform cell of INC

• Statements 2 and 3 are correct: The conference met annually from its first session in Madras in 1887 at the same and venue as the Indian National Congress (IN(c).

The prominent mountain passes of India are:

1. Nathu La Pass: Located in Sikkim it is a border trade post between India and China.

2. Shipki La Pass:It is in Himachal Pradesh and is also a trade post between India and China. It is located through Sutlej Gorge.

3. Jelep La Pass: This pass links Sikkim to Lhasa in Tibet autonomous region of China. It passes through the Chumbi valley which was in the news due to Dokhlam stand-off.

4. Khardung La: It links Leh to Siachen. It is the highest motorable pass in the country..

5. Bara-Lacha La: This pass links Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh, connecting Manali with Leh.

6. Lipu Lekh: This pass connects Uttarakhand with Tibet autonomous region of China. Mansarovar pilgrims travel through this pass. It is also a border trade post between India and China.

7. Niti Pass: This pass joins Tibet ARC with Uttarakhand.

8. Rohtang Pass:It is located on eastern Pir Panjal Range and connects Kullu valley with Lahaul and Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh.

9. Bomdi-La: The Bomdi-La pass connects Arunachal Pradesh with Lhasa, in Tibet ARC.

10. Dihang pass: Located in Arunachal Pradesh, this pass provides connectivity with Myanmar.

11. Diphu pass: This pass also connects Arunachal Pradesh with Myanmar. It remains open all round the year and is hence important for trade and transportation.

12. oji La: It connects Srinagar with Kargil and Leh. Beacon Force of Border Road Organization is responsible for clearing and maintaining this pass.

13. Senkotta Gap: It is located in the Western Ghats and connects Madurai in Tamil Nadu with Kottayam in Kerala.