Daily Static Quiz Prelims Practice 2027
Option (b) is correct — the Lothal dockyard is a large east-west oriented rectangular basin (roughly 218 × 37 metres), lined with burnt bricks and fitted with a spillway on its eastern end to prevent overflow and maintain water level, connected to a river channel enabling boats to dock. Option (a) misdescribes both the orientation and mechanism. Option (c) is wrong — the dockyard sits in the lower town, not the citadel mound; ritual bathing is associated with the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro instead. Option (d) is wrong — an unlined, rainfall-fed basin would just be a natural depression, not the engineered structure that makes Lothal significant.
- The city was divided into two parts — a western elevated citadel and an eastern lower town — separated by a gap that may have served as a flood channel.
- The Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro was constructed using burnt bricks sealed with gypsum mortar and lined with bitumen to make it watertight.
- Mohenjo-daro shows evidence of multi-storeyed structures, with staircases in several houses indicating upper floors.
- The street drainage system at Mohenjo-daro was open and unlined, relying on natural ground slope for wastewater disposal.
Statements 1, 2 and 3 are correct. Mohenjo-daro's twin-mound layout — an elevated western citadel and larger eastern lower town — with the intervening gap possibly acting as a flood buffer, is its signature urban feature. The Great Bath used burnt bricks in gypsum mortar with a bitumen lining for watertightness. Staircases found in numerous houses strongly suggest upper storeys, indicating mature vertical residential architecture. Statement 4 is incorrect — the drainage system was actually covered and brick-lined, with inspection holes at intervals, one of IVC urban planning's most advanced features, not open and unlined.
Option (b) is correct — IVC weights, predominantly cuboid chert pieces, used a binary progression (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64) for smaller weights and shifted to a decimal pattern (160, 320, 640...) for larger units, a hybrid system supporting both retail and large-volume trade with precision. Option (a) is wrong — a purely decimal system erases the binary structure of the lower denominations. Option (c) is wrong — standardised weights appear across virtually all major IVC sites (Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Chanhu-daro, Kalibangan), not only ports. Option (d) is wrong — the remarkable uniformity of weight standards across sites is precisely the strongest evidence for centralised administrative oversight, the opposite of what's claimed.
Reason (R): The IVC appears to have practised a form of religion centred on ritual purity and fertility cults, evidenced by the Great Bath, proto-Shiva seals, and terracotta figurines, rather than constructing large dedicated temple structures.
Both A and R are correct, but R does not explain A. Unlike Mesopotamian ziggurats or Egyptian temples, the IVC has yielded no unambiguous large-scale religious structure — a genuine, debated puzzle. The Great Bath, the Pashupati (proto-Shiva) seal, and terracotta figurines are valid scholarly clues to what IVC religion may have looked like, but they explain the nature of belief, not why no monumental temple was built — that absence could equally reflect a different conception of sacred space, a perishable building tradition, or an undiscovered structure. R is an independent correct statement, not a causal explanation for A.
Option (d) is correct — Surkotada (Gujarat) has yielded what some scholars identify as horse bones dated to roughly 2000 BCE, cited in debates over the horse's introduction to the subcontinent, and is the standard association for this site. Option (a) is wrong — the ploughed field and fire altars belong to Kalibangan, not Chanhudaro, which is instead known for bead-making and bronze-casting workshops. Option (b) is wrong — Dholavira's Indus-script signboard is genuine, but the specific claims about it being made of wood and placed precisely at a "citadel entrance" are overstated beyond confirmed archaeological understanding. Option (c) is wrong — the bead-making factory and ink-pot belong to Chanhudaro, not Banawali, which is instead known for its lentil-shaped city plan and both pre-Harappan and mature Harappan phases.
