Daily Static Quiz Prelims Practice 2027
- Kushana coins depicted a wide range of deities drawn from Greek, Iranian and Indian pantheons, reflecting the empire's religious syncretism.
- Vima Kadphises is credited with introducing gold coinage in India on a significant scale for the first time.
Both statements are correct. Kushana gold and copper coins depicted an unusually eclectic pantheon — Greek (Helios, Selene), Iranian (Mithra, Nana) and Indian (Shiva, Buddha) deities — reflecting the empire's position astride multiple cultural zones. Vima Kadphises, predecessor of Kanishka, is credited with introducing large-scale gold coinage in India, a practice continued and expanded under Kanishka.
- Ashwamedha type — Depicts the sacrificial horse standing before a Yupa (sacrificial post)
- Lyrist type — Depicts Samudragupta seated and playing the veena
- Battle-axe type — Depicts the king holding a battle-axe
- Archer type — Depicts the king holding a bow and arrow
All four pairs are correctly matched. Samudragupta's coinage is celebrated for its thematic variety: the Ashwamedha type commemorates his horse-sacrifice asserting imperial sovereignty; the Lyrist type is a rare depiction of a monarch as a patron of music (veena); and the Battle-axe and Archer types emphasise his military prowess. This diversity separates Gupta coinage from the more uniform issues of earlier dynasties.
Option (b) is correct — the Satavahanas stand out in ancient Indian numismatics for their extensive use of lead, alongside potin and copper, a metal rarely used for coinage elsewhere on the subcontinent. Option (a) is wrong: lead and copper predominated, not gold; and inscriptions were in Prakrit, not Sanskrit. Option (c) is wrong: Satavahana coin legends are in Brahmi script and Prakrit — their ship-type coins carry Brahmi legends depicting two-masted vessels symbolising maritime trade. Option (d) is wholly false: numerous coins have been excavated from sites in present-day Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
Reason (R): Coins often carry the names, titles and regnal years of rulers, along with religious symbols and legends that help historians date events and trace territorial extent.
Both A and R are correct, and R directly explains A. Numismatics is used alongside epigraphy and literature to reconstruct political chronology, territorial boundaries and economic conditions — especially where other evidence is sparse (the Indo-Greeks, for instance, are known almost entirely through coins). It is precisely because coins carry rulers' names, titles, dates and symbols that historians can establish sequences of rulers, map the geographical spread of finds, and infer religious and cultural trends, directly justifying why coins are treated as a primary historical source.
Option (b) is correct — large hoards of Roman gold and silver coins at Arikamedu and other South Indian sites, corroborated by the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, point to flourishing Indo-Roman trade: India exported spices, textiles, gemstones and pepper in exchange for Roman bullion. Option (a) is wrong — there is no evidence of direct Roman political or administrative control over any part of the Deccan; the coins reflect commercial contact, not conquest. Option (c) is a fabricated overstatement — Roman coins supplemented trade transactions but never replaced indigenous Satavahana currency. Option (d) is wrong — these coins were minted in Rome and arrived through trade; there is no evidence of local Roman-style minting in India.
