GPSC Prelims Paper 1 Mock Test - 7 - GPSC (Gujarat) MCQ

As each new dynasty came to power, kings wanted to emphasize their moral right to be rulers. They took following steps in this regard - Constructing places of worship provided rulers with the chance to proclaim their close relationship with God, especially important in an age of rapid political change. Temples and mosques were constructed because they were places of worship and were meant to demonstrate the power, wealth and devotion of the patron.

The largest temples were all constructed by kings. These temples served a miniature model of the world ruled by the king and his allies. As they worshipped their deities together in the royal temples, it seemed as if they brought the just rule of the gods on earth. For instance, in Rajarajeshvara temple, an inscription mentions that it was built by King Rajarajadeva for the worship of his god, Rajarajeshvaram. Thus, the king took the god’s name because it was auspicious and he wanted to appear like a god -through the rituals of worship in the temple one god (Rajarajadeva) honoured another (Rajarajeshvaram).

Persian court chronicles described the Sultan as the “Shadow of God”. For instance, an inscription in the Quwwat al-Islam mosque explained that the God chose Alauddin as a king as he had the qualities of Moses and Solomon, the great lawgivers of the past.

Rulers also offered patronage to the learned and pious, and tried to transform their capitals and cities into great cultural centers that brought fame to their rule and their realm.

Kings were expected to care for their subjects, and by making structures for their use and comfort, rulers hoped to win their praise.

Between the eighth and the eighteenth centuries kings and their officers built two kinds of structures:

• The first were forts, palaces, garden residences and tombs – safe, protected and grandiose places of rest in this world and the next;

• The second were structures meant for public activity including temples, mosques, tanks, wells, caravanserais and bazaars.

Trabeate style was used in the construction of temples, mosques, tombs and in buildings attached to large stepped-wells (baolis) between the eighth and thirteenth centuries in India.

Trabeate style of architecture refers to where the roofs, doors and windows are made by placing a horizontal beam across two vertical columns”.

Statement 2 is correct. There are two technological and stylistic developments are noticeable from the twelfth century (since the medieval age) -

• Limestone cement was increasingly used in construction. This was very high-quality cement, which, when mixed with stone chips hardened into concrete. This made construction of large structures easier and faster.

Arcuate style of architecture- In this type of architecture, the weight of the superstructure above the doors and windows was carried by arches.

Statement 1 is correct. In the northern part of the country, the village headman was known as the grama bhojaka. The grama bhojaka was often the largest landowner. Generally, he had slaves and hired workers to cultivate the land. The post was hereditary as usually, men from the same family held the position for generations.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The use of iron began in the subcontinent around 3000 years ago. It was after the Indus Valley Civilization. In the prehistory of the Indian subcontinent, an "Iron Age" is recognized as succeeding the Late Harappan culture.

Stone tools have been used for:

1. Digging the ground to collect edible roots.

2. Stitching clothes made out of animal skin.

3. Some of these stone tools were used to cut meat and bone, scrape bark (from trees) and hides (animal skins), chop fruit and roots.

4. Some may have been attached to handles of bone or wood, to make spears and arrows for hunting.

5. Other tools were used to chop wood, which was used as firewood. Wood was also used to make huts and tools.

List of Neolithic Sites;

1. Koldihwa

2. Mahagara

3. Mehrgarh

4. Paiyampalli

5. Hallui

6. Burzahom

7. Chirand

8. Daojali Hading

Megalithic Sites

1. Adichamallur

2. Brahmagiri

Paleolithic Sites

1. Kurnool caves

2. Hunsgi

Statement 2 is incorrect. The rules made for the Buddhist sangha were written down in a book called the Vinaya Pitaka. According to the rules written in the Vinaya Pitaka, all men, women and children could join the sangha.

However, children had to take the permission of their parents and slaves of their masters. Those who worked for the king had to take his permission and debtors that of creditors. Women had to take their husbands’ permission.

1. Narsi Mehta – 15th century CE. He was a bhakti saint from region belonging to the present-day Gujarat.

2. Basavanna – 12th century CE. He was a bhakti saint from belonging to the present-day Karnataka.

3. Tulsidas – 16th -17th century CE. He was a bhakti saint from belonging to the present-day Uttar Pradesh.

4. Manikkavasagar – 9th Century CE. He was a 9th-century Tamil poet who wrote Tiruvasakam, a book of Shaiva hymns. He was a bhakti saint from belonging to the present-day Tamil Nadu.

Both the statements are correct.

As the rulers of the Mahajanapadas were (a) building huge forts (b) maintaining big armies, they needed more resources. And they needed officials to collect these. So, instead of depending on occasional gifts brought by people, as in the case of the raja of the janapadas, they started collecting regular taxes.

Following taxes were imposed -

• Taxes on crops were the most important. This was because most people were farmers. Usually, the tax was fixed at 1/6th of what was produced. This was known as bhaga or a share.

• There were taxes on crafts persons as well. These could have been in the form of labour. For example, a weaver or a smith may have had to work for a day every month for the king.

• Herders were also expected to pay taxes in the form of animals and animal produce.

• There were also taxes on goods that were bought and sold, through trade.

• The hunters and gatherers also had to provide forest produce to the raja.

• Statement 1 is incorrect: Harappan seals are not the only items where we find Harappan writing. Harappan writing has been found on the variety of objects such as seals, copper tools, rims of jars, copper and terracotta tablets, jewellery, bone rods, even an ancient signboard. Harappan seals usually have a line of writing, probably containing the name and title of the owner. Most inscriptions are short, the longest containing about 26 signs.

• Statement 2 is correct: Although the Harappan script remains undeciphered to date, it was evidently not alphabetical (where each sign stands for a vowel or a consonant) as it has just too many signs – somewhere between 375 and 400. It is apparent that the script was written from right to left as some seals show a wider spacing on the right and cramping on the left, as if the engraver began working from the right and then ran out of space.

Statement 1 is correct. The khanqah was the centre of social life. For instance, Shaikh Nizamuddin’s hospice (c. fourteenth century) on the banks of the river Yamuna in Ghiyaspur, was located on the outskirts of what was then the city of Delhi. It comprised several small rooms and a big hall (jama’at khana) where the inmates and visitors lived and prayed. The inmates included family members of the Shaikh, his attendants and disciples. The Shaikh lived in a small room on the roof of the hall where he met visitors in the morning and evening. A veranda surrounded the courtyard, and a boundary wall ran around the complex.

Statement 2 is correct. A major feature of the Chishti tradition was austerity, including maintaining a distance from worldly power. However, this was by no means a situation of absolute isolation from political power.

Of the groups of sufis who migrated to India in the late twelfth century, the Chishtis were the most influential.

This was because they adapted successfully to the local environment and adopted several features of Indian devotional traditions.

Statement 1 is correct. The Ain was part of a larger project of history writing commissioned by Akbar. This history, known as the Akbar Nama, comprised three books. It was completed in 1598, the forty-second regnal year of the emperor, after having gone through five revisions.

Statement 2 is correct. The Ain-i Akbari was organised as a compendium of imperial regulations and a gazetteer of the empire. It gives detailed accounts of the organisation of the court, administration and army, the sources of revenue and the physical layout of the provinces of Akbar’s empire and the literary, cultural and religious traditions of the people.

Along with a description of the various departments of Akbar’s government and elaborate descriptions of the various provinces (subas) of the empire, the Ain gives us intricate quantitative information of those provinces.

The Neolithic site of Mahagara is located in the Belan Valley, Uttar Pradesh in northeastern India.

Statement 2 is correct. Major findings at Mehrgarh include:

• Remains of square or rectangular houses. Each house had four or more compartments, some of which may have been used for storage.

• Burial Sites - Several burial sites have been found at Mehrgarh. When people die, their relatives and friends generally pay respect to them. People look after them, perhaps in the belief that there is some form of life after death. Burial is one such arrangement. In one instance, the dead person was buried with goats, which were probably meant to serve as food in the next world.

• Archaeologists have found evidence of many kinds of animal bones from the earliest levels. These included bones of wild animals such as the deer and pig. In later levels, they found more bones of sheep and goat, and in still later levels, cattle bones are most common, suggesting that this was the animal that was generally kept by the people.

• Mehrgarh was probably one of the places where women and men learnt to grow barley and wheat, and rear sheep and goats for the first time in this area. It is one of the earliest villages that we know about.

Statement 2 is correct. Rise of urbanization and economy facilitated in up keeping of large standing army and revenue source.

Statement 3 is correct. Advance technology like stone throwing war machine and mace attached chariot facilitated mass destruction. Also access to iron ore helped in advanced weapons. This helped in increasing power of Magadhan army.

Statement 4 is correct. Political marriages strengthened position of Magadhan rulers. Like Bimbisara married daughter of King of Kosala, Lichchhavi princess from Vaishali and daughter of ruler of Madra janapada.

Statement 1 is correct. Puhar was a port city located on the Eastern coast of India.

Puhar was a significant port city since the ancient times as many sea routes began from here. It was one of the many urban centres that emerged in several parts of the subcontinent from c. sixth century BCE were capitals of mahajanapadas. Virtually all of such major towns were located along routes of communication. Some such as Pataliputra were on riverine routes. Others, such as Ujjayini, were along land routes, and yet others, such as Puhar, were near the coast, from where sea routes began. Many cities like Mathura were bustling centres of commercial, cultural and political activity.

Statement 2 is correct. During ancient times, a wide range of goods were carried from one place to another – salt, grain, cloth, metal ores and finished products, stone, timber, medicinal plants, to name a few. Spices, especially pepper, were in high demand in the Roman Empire, as were textiles and medicinal plants, and these were all transported across the Arabian Sea to the Mediterranean.

Lingayats continue to be an important community in the region to date. They worship Shiva in his manifestation as a linga, and men usually wear a small linga in a silver case on a loop strung over the left shoulder. Those who are revered include the jangama or wandering monks.

Option a is correct. Lingayats believe that on death the devotee will be united with Shiva and will not return to this world. Therefore, they do not practise funerary rites such as cremation, prescribed in the Dharmashastras. Instead, they ceremonially bury their dead.

Option b is correct. The Lingayats challenged the idea of caste and the “pollution” attributed to certain groups by Brahmanas.

Option c is incorrect. They questioned the theory of rebirth. It won them followers amongst those who were marginalised within the Brahmanical social order.

Option d is correct. The Lingayats also encouraged certain practices disapproved in the Dharmashastras, such as post-puberty marriage and the remarriage of widows. Our understanding of the Virashaiva tradition is derived from vachanas (literally, sayings) composed in Kannada by women and men who joined the movement.

Pair 2 is incorrectly matched. Mohenjodaro was located close to River Indus.

Pair 3 is correctly matched. Lothal was located on River Sabarmati.

Mesopotamian texts use –

• Magan for Oman

• Meluhha for Harappan Region

• Dilmun for island of Bahrain

Statement 2 is correct. Copper was procured by the Harappan Civilization from Oman, on the south- eastern tip of Arabian Peninsula.

Shortughai was a harappan site near Afghanistan, near the best source of Lapis Lazuli, a blue stone that was apparently very highly valued.

Statement 3 is correct. Harappans communicated with Oman, Bahrain or Mesopotamia by sea. Mesopotamian texts refer to Meluhha as a land of seafarers. Besides, depictions of ships and boats are found on seals.

Many women who entered the Buddhist sangha became teachers of dhamma and went on to become theris, or respected women who had attained liberation.

The Therigatha is a unique Buddhist text, part of the Sutta Pitaka. It is a collection of verses composed by bhikkhunis. It provides an insight into women’s social and spiritual experiences.

Statement 2 is correct. Matanga Jataka, a Pali text, portrays a story where the Bodhisatta (the Buddha in a previous birth) is identified as a chandala, named Matanga.

• In the Vijayanagara kingdom, the king was advised by a council of ministers which consisted of the great nobles of the kingdom. The kingdom was divided into rajyas or mandalam (provinces) below which were nadu (district), sthala (sub-district) and grama (village). Hence option (a) is the correct answer.
• The Chola traditions of village self-government were considerably weakened under Vijayanagara rule.
• The growth of hereditary nayakships tended to curb their freedom and initiative. The governors of the provinces were royal princes at first. Later, persons belonging to vassal ruling families and nobles were also appointed as governors.

In the Tamil region, large landowners were known as vellalar, ordinary ploughmen were known as uzhavar, and landless labourers, including slaves, were known as kadaisiyar and adimai.
Hence, option (a) is correct.
 

• Chaityas were the places of worship and congregation while viharas were the places of residents of Buddhist monks. Hence both statements 1 and 2 are not correct.
• In western India, many Buddhist caves dating back to the second century BCE onwards have been excavated. The front of the chaitya hall is dominated by the motif of a semi-circular chaitya arch with an open front that has a wooden facade and, in some cases, there is no dominating chaitya arch window such as found at Kondivite. In all the chaitya caves a stupa at the back is common. Hence statement 3 is correct.

Both the statements given above are correct.

• In the first century BC Kharavela of Kalinga records a large number of events in his life year by year in the Hathigumpha inscription.
• Jainism spread to Kalinga in Orissa in the fourth century BC, and in the first century BC it enjoyed the patronage of the Kalinga king Kharavela who had defeated the princes of Andhra and Magadha.

• Sufis were a group of religious persons who turned to asceticism and mysticism in the early centuries of Islam to protest the Caliphate's growing materialism as a religious and political entity.
• They were critical of the Caliph’s use of assertive terminology and instructive ways of understanding the Qur'an and sunna (the Prophet's traditions). Hence statement 1 is not correct.
• Sufis began to form communities around a hospice, or khanqah (Persian), which was overseen by a teaching master known as a shaikh (Arabic), pir, or murshid (in Persian). They enrolled murids (disciples) and nominated successors (khalifa). Within the khanqah, they also created norms for spiritual conduct and interaction between inmates as well as laymen and the masters. Hence statement 2 is correct.
• Some mystics started movements based on Sufi ideas that became radicalized. Many people rejected the khanqah and chose mendicancy and celibacy instead. They shunned rites and practiced extreme asceticism. Qalandars, Madaris, Malangs, Haidaris, are some of such sufis. They were sometimes known as be-shari'a Sufis because of their purposeful disobedience of the shari'a, as opposed to the ba-shari'a Sufis who followed it.  Hence statement 3 is not correct.

• Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, Afghanistan He ruled from 997 to 1030, and extended control over parts of Central Asia, Iran and the north-western part of the subcontinent.
• He raided the subcontinent almost every year – his targets were wealthy temples, including that of Somnath, Gujarat.
• Sultan Mahmud was also interested in finding out more about the people he conquered, and entrusted a scholar named Al-Biruni to write an account of the subcontinent.
• Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni was a contemporary of Rajendra I. During his campaigns in the subcontinent he attacked the temples of defeated kings and looted their wealth and idols.
• The best-known Chahamana ruler was Prithviraja III (1168-1192), who defeated an Afghan ruler named Sultan Muhammad Ghori in 1191, but lost to him the very next year, in 1192. Hence, statement 3 is incorrect.

• Satavahanas became prominent in the Indian political scene sometime in the middle of the first century BC. Gautamiputra Satakarni (first century AD) is considered to be the greatest of the Satavahana rulers.
• He is credited with the extension of Satavahana dominions by defeating Nahapana, the Shaka ruler of
• Western India. Simuka was the founder of the Satavahana Dynasty. Hence, statement 3 is not correct
• His kingdom is said to have extended from river Krishna in the south to river the Godavari in the north. The Satavahanas had their capital at Pratishthana (modern Paithan) near Aurangabad in Maharashtra. The Satavahana kingdom was wiped out in the first quarter of the third century AD and the Satavahanas kings were succeeded by the Kings of the lkshvaku dynasty.
• Satavahana Society:
  • The Satavahanas originally seems to have been a Deccan tribe. They however were so brahmanized that they claimed to be Brahmanas. Their most famous king, Gautamiputra Satakarni, described himself as a brahmana and claimed to have established the fourfold varna system which had fallen into disorder. He boasted that he had put an end to the intermixture between the people of different social orders. He considered it their primary duty to uphold the varna system i.e. the fourfold division of social structure. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.
  • Indigenous tribal people were increasingly acculturated by the Buddhist monks who were induced by land grants to settle in western Deccan. It is suggested that traders too supported the Buddhist monks, for the earliest caves seem to have been located on the trade routes.
  • Satavahanas kings were the first in Indian history to make tax-free land grants to Buddhists and Brahmanas to gain religious merit. This practice became more prominent in succeeding periods. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

• Delhi first became the capital of a kingdom under the Tomara Rajputs, who were defeated in the middle of the twelfth century by the Chauhans (also referred to as Chahamanas) of Ajmer.
• It was under the Tomaras and Chauhans that Delhi became an important commercial centre.
• Coins minted here, called dehliwal, had a wide circulation.
• The transformation of Delhi into a capital that controlled vast areas of the subcontinent started with the foundation of the Delhi Sultanate in the beginning of the thirteenth century.

Hence, option (b) is correct.
 

• The political developments after Harshavardhan, can be best understood if we divide the period from AD 750 to AD 1200 into two parts (a) AD 750–AD 1000; (b) AD 1000–AD 1200. The first phase was marked by the growth of three important political powers in India. These were Gurjara Pratiharas in north India, Palas in eastern India, and Rashtrakutas in South India. In the second phase, we notice the break-up of these powers. It resulted in the rise of many smaller kingdoms all over the country. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• These powers were constantly fighting with each other to set up their control of Kannauj of the Gangetic region in northern India. The struggle for control over Kannauj among these three dynasties is known as the tripartite struggle in Indian history. Hence statement 2 is not correct.
  • Control of Kanauj also implied control of the upper Gangetic valley and its rich resources in trade and agriculture.
• The Pratiharas who first had their capital at Bhinmal gained prominence under Nagabhatta I who offered stout resistance to the Arab rulers of Sind who were trying to encroach on Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, etc.
• However, the real founder of the Pratihara empire and the greatest ruler of the dynasty was Bhoja. He rebuilt the empire, and by about 836 he had recovered Kanauj which remained the capital of the Pratiharaempire for almost a century
• In the south, Dantidurga was the founder of the dynasty called, the Rashtrakuta dynasty (8th AD).
• The capital of the Rashtrakutas was Manyakheta or Malkhed near Sholapur. It was under the king Dhruva that the Rashtrakutas turned towards north India in a bid to control Kannauj, then the imperial city.
  • Soon, the Rashtrakuta king Dhruva from south India jumped into the fight. And thus began what is known as ‘Tripartite Struggle’ i.e struggle among three powers.
• The Pala empire was founded by Gopala, probably in AD 750 when he was elected king by the notable men of the area to end the anarchy prevailing there. Gopala was succeeded in AD 770by his son, Dharmapala, who ruled till AD 810. His reign was marked by a tripartite struggle between the Palas, the Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas for the control of Kanauj and north India.

All the above statements are correct.

• Khalji and Tughluq monarchs appointed military commanders as governors of territories of varying sizes.
• These lands were called iqta and their holder was called iqtadar or muqti.
• The duty of the muqtis was to lead military campaigns and maintain law and order in their iqtas.
• In exchange for their military services, the muqtis collected the revenues of their assignments as salary.
• They also paid their soldiers from these revenues.
• Control over muqtis was most effective if their office was not inheritable and if they were assigned iqtas for a short period of time before being shifted.
• These harsh conditions of service were rigorously imposed during the reigns of Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq.