Daily Static Quiz Prelims Practice 2027
Option (b) is correct — the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro is one of the earliest public water tanks in the ancient world, widely believed to have served a ritual or ceremonial purification purpose, given its careful waterproofing with bitumen and its central citadel location. Option (a) is wrong — the IVC peaked around 2600–1900 BCE while the Early Vedic period is placed around 1500–1000 BCE, making them non-contemporary in mainstream historiography. Option (c) is wrong — the IVC was a Bronze Age civilisation; iron is entirely absent from its sites and is associated with the later Painted Grey Ware culture (c. 1200–600 BCE). Option (d) is wrong — the Indus script remains undeciphered to this day.
- Chandragupta Maurya overthrew the Nanda dynasty with the strategic guidance of Kautilya and established the Mauryan Empire around 321 BCE.
- The Arthashastra, attributed to Kautilya, deals exclusively with military strategy and warfare.
- Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador at the court of Chandragupta Maurya, authored the Indica — an account of Indian society and administration.
- The Mauryan Empire under Ashoka reached its greatest territorial extent, including the whole of the Indian subcontinent.
Statements 1 and 3 are correct — Chandragupta, guided by Kautilya, overthrew Dhana Nanda around 321 BCE founding the Mauryan Empire; and Megasthenes, the Seleucid Greek ambassador at Pataliputra, authored the Indica. Statement 2 is incorrect — the Arthashastra is a comprehensive treatise covering statecraft, economic policy, law, diplomacy, espionage, and administration, not exclusively military strategy. Statement 4 is incorrect — even under Ashoka the deep south (parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala) remained outside Mauryan control.
Option (d) is incorrectly matched — Aranyakas literally means "forest texts"; they were composed and studied in forests (aranya) by hermits, dealing with philosophical and symbolic interpretations of rituals as a bridge between the Brahmanas and the Upanishads; they have nothing to do with urban governance or law codes. Options (a), (b), and (c) are correctly matched — the Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas with 1028 hymns addressed to deities; the Upanishads (Vedanta) deal with the nature of Brahman and Atman; and the Brahmanas are prose texts guiding priests on the proper performance of Vedic rituals and sacrifices.
- Ashoka's Dhamma was essentially a code of social and moral conduct, not a sectarian promotion of Buddhism.
- Ashoka used the concept of Dhamma Mahamattas — special officers — to spread his Dhamma across the empire.
- Ashoka's Rock Edict XIII describes his remorse after the Kalinga War and his subsequent embrace of Buddhism and non-violence.
All three statements are correct. Ashoka's Dhamma was a universal ethical code emphasising ahimsa, religious tolerance, and social responsibility — historians like Romila Thapar stress it was a policy of statecraft, not mere Buddhist proselytisation, making the statement 1 distinction critical for UPSC. Ashoka created Dhamma Mahamattas, a special cadre of officers tasked with propagating Dhamma and monitoring welfare activities across the empire. Major Rock Edict XIII is the most personal of his inscriptions, describing the devastation of the Kalinga War (c. 261 BCE), his deep remorse over the suffering caused, and his turn towards non-violence — making it a key primary source on the Kalinga War.
Option (d) is correct — the Fourth Buddhist Council (c. 1st–2nd century CE) was convened under Kanishka at Kundalvana, Kashmir, presided over by Vasumitra, resulting in the compilation of scriptures and the formal crystallisation of the Mahayana school, creating a lasting schism with the Hinayana (Theravada) tradition. Option (a) is wrong — the First Council was held at Rajagriha (Rajgir), not Vaishali; the Second Council was at Vaishali — a classic location-mixing trap. Option (b) is wrong — the Four Noble Truths are specifically Buddhist; Jainism's philosophical core rests on the Tri-Ratna (right faith, right knowledge, right conduct). Option (c) reverses the positions — Mahayana elevated the Buddha to a divine, transcendent being, while Theravada regards him as a historical human teacher.
